Harrowing

"There's something I wanted to ask you." 

Dad who had already directed his attention to me waited for my question. 

"In today's lesson, we went over the geography of the Kingdom, and the North was briefly mentioned as well. I was wondering why the Grey family that previously resided in the North, moved the South?" I asked seriously. 

This was one aspect that has never been brought up in the novel but was something a few people knew about if they read up on Northern history, also I was curious about the reason why this wasn't common knowledge.

Even Nicolas Leox, who is an intelligent and distinguish scholar known for his vast knowledge wasn't sure on the reason. So I wanted to know why this part was hidden.

  I looked up to see dad's reaction to my question but was shocked to see that his face was devoid of any emotion.

I couldn't figure out what he was thinking. I felt extremely uneasy all of a sudden and sensing my unease, his cold face relaxed just a little.

Was this something he didn't want to get into? Or did it bring up any bad memories for him?

If that's the case, then I'd be better off not knowing. I don't want to reopen any old wounds. 

"Um.. if this is something you can't answer, then it's fine. I was only curious." I said with a small voice. 

Donellan felt a pang in his heart when he saw the expression that was plastered on his son's face.

Of course this was something that brought up some old memories, but nothing worth making him feel guilty. Donellan was only someone with a lot of grudges but it wasn't anything he could't tell his son. 

Donellan beckoned for Simuel to come to him which he obeyed.

He picked him up and sat him on his lap with his back facing him. He would rather not have his son see the expression he'd make while telling this story. He didn't want to scare him off. He patted him  on the head. 

"Of course I can answer your question. There's nothing I won't answer as long as you are the one asking." He said sincerely. 

Simuel took his hand and squeezed it in response which warmed Donellan immensely. 

He sighed and began telling the story. 

"As your teacher probably told you, there was a dungeon break near the Northern boarder and the Northern region was swarming with ice monsters almost the size of trees.

We the Grey's alongside another Northern family the Friedrich's didn't always see eye to eye but we set our grudges aside and subjugated them in order to restore balance to the North.

This happened when I was still a child so I don't remember too much of what happened, but I know it was a long battle.

In order to get the Friedrich's to cooperate, my imbecile of an uncle wagered the Grey estate in an attempt to get a competition going with the Friedrich's and see how many monsters we could kill.

The winner get's to stay in the North, while the loser had to leave. The Friedrich's were content with the proposition and the bet was set. My father and grandfather that were alive at the time weren't too happy about this because we were clearly at a disadvantage.

We had less people in our party due to half of them being away on another subjugation at the time.

Because of his arrogance, he thought that even with half of our party gone we the Grey's would be victorious because we were powerful. He clearly overestimated the situation and we lost by one point.

This of course enraged my uncle but because he gave his word, and we are a family that strives to be honourable and righteous, we had no choice but to agree with the outcome.

But because the Friedrich's felt bad, I mean we only lost by a singular point, they thought that having all of us leave would be too much, therefore we got to pick who would leave. And because my grandfather was the most righteous person on earth, he volunteered for us to leave and for my uncle's family to stay."

Donellan paused for a second before resuming. 

"So we had to move. My father wasn't too happy about us having to leave and made that pretty clear for most of my life. That was also sometime after my mother passed as well.

He became a miserable and selfish old man who only cared for the honour of the Grey family." 

He chuckled to himself. "And so we lived here ever since." It looked like he wanted to say more but stopped himself. I turned to face him and could see the coldness in his stormy grey eyes.

There was a mix of emotions but they were all so jumbled up that I couldn't make out a singular one.

I turned my whole body to face my father properly and touched his cheek.

I didn't say anything, but I knew he understood what I was trying to say. I then hugged him tightly.

"Thank you for telling me daddy. I know it must've been hard." He didn't say anything but patted me softly on the back. 

We didn't say anything else to each other and sat there comfortably in silence, enjoying each other's company.