Aina dove into her father's arms, her tears falling like rain. For some odd reason, though, she was completely silent, her shoulders hardly trembling and her sobs having been completely stifled.
Miel couldn't help but be stunned for a moment. One because Aina had jumped from a still moving ship. Two because his daughter was far taller than he thought she could be—and that was saying something considering his own height. And three because she was actually… crying?
Miel had never seen his daughter cry before. Aina had never personally witnessed her mother's death, Miel hadn't allowed her to. However, Aina had definitely experienced every bit of the curse being etched into her body as a little girl, and she hadn't shed a single tear then—something that definitely couldn't be said for Miel himself.
Even when Miel was forced to separate from Aina, leaving her to Earth's orphanage system, he hadn't seen Aina shed a single tear.
So, what exactly was happening here? Was he seeing things? Was this maybe not his daughter at all? But with his demeanor and presence, who else would ignore it all just to hug him if not for his daughter?
What Miel didn't know was that it wasn't that his daughter had never cried… It was just that she had never cried in his presence. This could be said to be the very first time it had happened and he wasn't exactly sure how to react to it.
If he knew this truth, he could probably guess why. After all, his method of training Aina in her youth had been no different from how he would have treated her had she been his son rather than his daughter.
If he was honest, had Aina come sniveling and crying to him when she was five years old, it would have been more likely for her to receive a reprimanding as opposed to any sort of care and attention. If there was anything of the sort in Aina's life, it had only come from her mother who had long since passed.
But, oddly enough, now that Aina was a grown woman of 21 years of age, Miel didn't have the instinctual reaction he would have normally had. This wasn't because he didn't want to have it, but rather because he was too caught off guard.
If you have never seen your daughter cry before you as a toddler, only for them to suddenly burst like a dam when they should have been an adult… How would you react exactly…?
Maybe that was exactly why Aina wasn't sobbing. For the first time, she couldn't completely control herself before her father, so she had controlled what she could.
After several moments, Aina felt two strong hands grip her slender shoulders. She sniffled slightly, but didn't dare to look up at her father. She knew that all she would see is disappointment in his eyes and she didn't want to see it.
By this point, her tears had already stopped, a decision marking out a place in her heart.
Emotions? She didn't need them. This could be considered the last time she would display them.
Miel opened his mouth to speak, but it was at that moment that Aina had regained enough calm to look up. Whatever words he was going to say vanished within the depths of coldness he saw.
Staring back at him, a pair of bright amber eyes seemed suffused in a layer of frigid ice.
Indifference. Apathy. An unfeeling calculation…
That was all that was left.
Miel's mouth slowly closed, his lips almost completely covered by the thickness of his crimson beard. He looked down at his daughter silently. Even through her black mask, he could almost see the ice carving that must have been her face at this moment.
It was difficult to tell just what it was he was thinking in the depths of his mind.
**
Leonel shook his spear lightly, his gaze reflecting a cold light. Another spirit fell, but Leonel himself wasn't nearly as healthy or fresh as he had been before.
The road ahead seemed endless, but Leonel had already been marked by a number of shallow injuries. Though his revamped chain necklace had been able to repair the rips in his clothing, it didn't nothing about the blood that marred them.
Things had started off so easy, especially since all the experts Leonel faced were spearmen.
But, as time progressed, Leonel's body grew more sluggish and heavy. His mind was just as fast as it had always been, but his reactions were lagging behind further and further as though a burden was being strapped onto his shoulders as more and more weight was added.
To make matters worse, without his Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor, or access to Forces other than the Force that swam through his Force Nodes due to [Dimensional Cleanse], he couldn't even heal himself.
The only good news was that his wounds were mostly superficial as he was able to avoid more fatal wounds. But, the bad news was that many of these superficial wounds were still bleeding, refusing to harden.
Leonel was certain that this was due to the odd blue Force the spirits were using, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Looking ahead, Leonel shook his head. Despite what he had been through, he felt as though he hadn't made any progress at all. The star was so large that he couldn't even tell if he had gotten closer or not. Regardless, the path ahead still seemed to be without end.
'Am I really doing this right? It took brain power to enter this place, but now it's suddenly nothing but fighting and battle? Is that really the end of it? Or is there something more?'
Leonel's frown deepened.
There was a possibility that the test to come to this place was enough to prove his intelligence, and as such, whoever made this space felt that it was no longer necessary to test this aspect. It was because of this logic that Leonel hadn't looked for another way until now.
However… there was also the possibility that Leonel was missing something very important, something that would give him more of a chance than he seemed to have now.