After my grandfather saw me, his nervous state suddenly disappeared, as if he had been replaced by a loving and kind old man. Now we felt more like we had turned into people he had invited as friends than a thief or a stranger.

We also had already reached the tent before long while talking about it. And gathering around a fire, as many people had a feast together, we resumed our conversation where it had left off.

As he ate, he started to talk as he slowly left his fork on the table,

"A long time ago, when you were born and we lost your father, we were at a war.

We were people who could handle those we could get into, but it wasn't even a normal war like that. It was quite a big battle and there were not many ways for us to win. We felt desperate and in need the help of urgent. But that desperation didn't even come close to ending us, as Alpha Prime and his brother were fighting on our side. Because of this, we were a little relieved, and we made it easier for us to contact some soldiers and support groups of soldiers. Maybe, it was something of a big advantage, and I wanted to see this as a chance for us to win an opportunity and evaluate it. So I supported them. But by the time the war was over, we had already lost a lot of people." He then paused, as he stopped to sigh once again with remembering more bad memories, "And, of course,.... One of them was your father."

Maybe we haven't seen each other in years. But we both had the same pain.

"I already know all this, grandfather."

It was also possible for me to find out about my father's death sooner or later because of the questions I had been asking my mother for years. After all, although my respect for my mother was endless, but I was also not incapable of feeling the lack of my father's absence.

"I know you do, Lezlie. But, unfortunately, there is a continuation of that story."

"Continuation?"

"The fact that one of the people who died in that war was your father was, of course, one of our sources of suffering. It was an unusually difficult situation to get used to, even for your mother." He turned to me as he lifted his head, "However, due to this incident of your father's, we went on a quest to find his body, and many more soldiers, to get a glimpse of what had happened to them. We knew that it was necessary for us to form search parties and bury him decisively." He went back and forth looking at me and the table, "But... Of course, when we found him, we found something different."

"What exactly?" I was slowly losing myself to my curiosity and clenched my fist.

"When we found your father's body, there was a big paw print on his chest. Of course, this was not something that a normal wild animal or a creature that could be found on that battlefield could do. And there was no such creature in the area where he was present at the battle. Only one group leader had served alongside them. And, of course, his power was also quite dangerous at that time."

*Is it- Is it?*

"Was it Alpha Prime?"

It was actually quite painful for us to present such information about a person who had such a light on the purpose that Ryuu served, above all, to a person who had a very close position to him.

It was actually quite normal for me to have such a reaction, after all, there was a reason why we had come all this way, and put all these efforts after Alpha Prime. Maybe, it was because I didn't want Ryuu to be out of his purpose like this. Or it was because he was somebody who made the same actions as he did.

And maybe neither of us wanted to believe it, but I didn't want to make it clear.

"I didn't want to believe it. No one wanted to. However, he had lost himself during the war. Harbored a frightening power within himself and used it to dominate that battlefield. And in exchange, he also considered his friends to be an enemy and did things that he would not have wanted."

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"How exactly do you know these? How can we know it is the truth?"

"I would also like to believe that this is a fake, but I saw it with my own eyes."

And as well, neither did I too.

"Grandpa, I don't believe Alpha Prime has done anything like this."

For the first few seconds, they all looked at me confused. My grandfather's words, which seemed more willing to prove the truth of what he said than desiring to prove it, were in the way of our thinking, and were making us unable to see that was something that he only wanted to inform about.

But how true was it? How did he know that he did such a thing? How did he know that, that was "Alpha Prime"?

I just didn't want to believe it.

"That's what your mother said too. She didn't believe me. And as I was already trying to say this, before the great war, Yores also sent his soldiers to our villages when he found out that we were fighting back-to-back with Alpha Prime. He slaughtered half my bloodline. So on, Alpha Prime was responsible for this, but he wasn't there when we were attacked."

"So he just left you?"

"I don't know. I only know that we felt great anger over it. The person we had fought so hard against had disappeared in an instant, and so I took an oath. As we decided that we will protect our people, from strangers, to anything different from our way of living, we gathered all the great chiefs, including me, and set up a strong barrier around our village."

He then stood much more properly and continued talking,

"Thus, neither the shadow lineage, the apocalypse lineage, nor the wolf lineage would ever set foot in this land again. They would never bother our village once more."

I understood why Ryuu couldn't enter the village after that.

He was also of the wolf lineage, so that would have been the reason why he couldn't enter through the barrier they had prepared. He also said that although he tried to get in from there, a mysterious force was pulling him back. None of us believed that at first, but now it all made sense.

And this was supposed to be taken as a precaution, but I still had things I wanted to ask my grandfather about as well.

"But why didn't you talk to my mother? Didn't neither of you tell anything about it to each other?"

"Because of the decision I made, she became angry with me. With the fact that I made that decision about his husband, this situation had become the worst it could have been."

"Did she become upset with you?"

"I didn't intend to make her so angry or expect that I would see her angry. But she had made her own decision, and said that she would not return again, but that if I removed the spell, she could step in here one more time. She also said that she would return and that she would report it by herself." With a little pause, he continued, "But none of this can happen anymore."

The tears had already started to accumulate in her eyes when he said these things. His old heart, filled with sadness, was now shaken by every piece of information he had learned, and this sadness seemed to cause him incredible pain.

But seeing him like this was a reason for mourning for all of us either.

The pain we experienced that day. The longing for that day. Mom's warm hand that day. All the words I couldn't say. It all remained just a dream. Maybe I could have told her one more time that I loved her, but it just stayed in my heart.

About whatever or not that I should have told her or not.

"Until I am told that my daughter has lost her soul, on another battlefield. I will never see her again."

He had gone through a lot of events, my grandfather, just like us in these past years going and coming every morning and night.

He had been alone all this time, wondering if there was any pain that her daughter was going through. It was so tangible, and lonely, just to be able to feel the sadness in his quite easily from the point that I sat down. He had not seen my mother or me for almost eighteen years, and even the sight of his face had not reached the presence of people who were comforting him a little.

Of course, it was a disappointing life. And now I was in front of him, in an instant and with such little in my hands. Without knowing anything. Without something, I could tell him. Not knowing what it is to part with his loneliness.

My words were the same, but still, I wanted to tell him as well.

"My mother saved me, my friends, and a whole village. And I believe that she wasn't a person who just lost her life for something that she wouldn't know that had gone wasted.

"Lezlie..."

"At least, even if she disappears from this world, I think we should pick up her requests and move them to a better place before the kindness she left behind disappears. Even though you can't see her, even though we know we can't see her anymore, I want you to know that to me, she was the best example of a mother we could have in this world. She was my mother after all. My mother that I only could love."

It was something that was misleading my eyes.

Minutes ago, when I was dryly looking at my grandfather's sad, grieving face, I didn't realize that my feelings were so at the bottom.

I didn't realize that I was grieving from the bottom of my heart. Being so dull about what I truly felt.

That I greet people, people around me, only with kind greetings and teachings taught by my mother. That we've lost the fun we had together.

I was just realizing that I was slowly losing everything.

My grandfather slowly turned his head to me and continued to talk,

"You look so much like your mother. You sound just like her."

He then added another sentence above his sentence, and asked me a question,

"Tell me now. What is your war with these epics?"