"Well, duh" Melinda could not help but say "Of course, she was dissatisfied. You were spending more time with another woman"

Gregory looked stunned at the rebuke and gestured as best he could with his head as he said,

"You two are with him, what about that?"

"Polygamy is not for everyone. Also, do you really want to compare yourself to him?"

Melinda asked with a sexy smirk and crossed her legs but the look in her eyes was one that chilled the Payne Patriarch and caused him to decide it was best to be quiet now.

Also, he had to admit it to himself that Hal was the kind of son no father should compare themselves to.

They would just be setting themselves up for disappointment.

And Hal simply tried his best to hide his smile.

He needed to be detached.

Aloof.

But Melinda's words and Gregory's bug-eyed expressions were making it really hard.

'Oh wipe that smug grin off your face' Grimoire scolded.

'What? I'm trying to' Hal retorted.

'So what do you think of the story so far, cause I find it interesting' Grimoire said and Hal could not help but roll his eyes. In his mind of course.

'I feel it's about to take a turn, a turn which would finally make it interesting to me' he told the Artifact.

Gregory cleared his throat once again and resumed his tale,

"So Lillian was dissatisfied with the amount of time I was spending with Svetlana and she confronted me about it. We talked it out and once again I convinced her that I was merely being hospitable.

What I failed to inform her was that I was already beginning to have feelings for Svetlana and our 'talks' were also now involving full-out make out sessions..."

"Um, Greggy? Skip the details" Hal said and Gregory nodded so fast and often, he resembled a woodpecker,

"Right. So, our relationship progressed and before long we went from simply kissing to a secret sexual affair that I kept from Lillian.

I was so trapped in Svetlana's clutches that I began to imagine a life where I opened up to Lillian and finally no longer have to keep what I now felt for Svetlana a secret.

It was then that she told me she was leaving.

Naturally, the news shocked me and threatened to choke me. How could she simply leave? After everything, we had done. In my haste to overturn her decision to leave, I confessed my love to her.

At first, she looked surprised and I feared that our affair might not have meant to her, what it had meant to me, but then she smiled and told me she felt the same way.

That Bitch!"

It was a little sudden to see Gregory break away from the flow of the story and curse Svetlana but Hal said nothing and simply waited for him to continue.

And soon, he did,

"She told me she loved me but she still could not stay. In fact, She said It was because she loved me that she had to leave so as not to put me in danger.

It was then that she told me the story which I had refused to listen to a month ago when she had first arrived. She told me why she was here.

Her father is a Duke, she told me, but as of then, he was ill and very much close to the end. Her brothers converged and began to plan who would become the next Duke.

Of course, being the idiots that they were, her words not mine, they forgot to factor in the fact that there were outsiders who eyed the title and neither of the Brothers had the proper ability or connections to hold such a role, nor was any of them qualified to govern the lives of the billions who lived in the Duchy.

Once one of the families interested in the Title made their claim and backed it up with a display of dominance and strength, her brothers relinquished the Title of Duke and focussed on taking care of their ill father, albeit poorly.

Then the family requested Svetlana's brothers show that they were sincerely relinquishing the Duke title and give Svetlana up for marriage.

A request the brothers accepted in a heartbeat as they had never truly liked this sister of their's who possessed Astral sense and was more interested in being a Rune Master than a Cultivator..."

"Wait, Svetlana has Astral sense?" Hal asked.

"Of course. why do you think I wasn't that surprised that you had it too? Or at least, not more surprised than I was that you could now cultivate" Gregory said.

Hal sighed and nearly hit himself for being an idiot. It was something he had never thought of or considered and he should have since the ability could clearly be hereditary.

If it was merely random, families outside of the city could not possibly build themselves up with it as the foundation. In fact, in some of those families, the moment a child was of age, there were means to activate the ability, should they have it.

After all, even though it was hereditary, there could be those in the family, in whom it would be recessive. Families who place much stock on Astral sense tend to marry other families like themselves, just to tilt the odds in their favor.

"Anyway," Gregory interrupted Hal's thoughts and continued "Having Astral sense was not the only thing her Brothers disliked about Svetlana, it was also how much their Father cared for her.

Once She heard their decision, Svetlana ran and she did so with all her attendants. As the daughter of a Duke, she was practically royalty and her attendants were also her guards and protectors.

They fought to protect her from those who chased to bring her back home and a lot of them died in the process. She told me that as much as it hurt to see them die, she could not stop and eventually she lost her pursuers.

Of course, knowing that it was merely temporary, she knew what the best thing to do was; She needed to leave the Duchy and she did. She did not really tell me how she traveled the distance of the two Duchys which I have seen from exotic maps, is incredibly large.

The point is that she was now at the most remote part of the Silva Duchy but was still convinced she needed to now change locations so that she would not be found.

Her tale was so moving and I could see how resolute she was to leave. Knowing that with her strength, I could not possibly stop her even if I wished to, I did not bother to try.

Instead, I spent our last few days together sleeping with her when I could and telling her all about the Payne Family.

I figured she was leaving anyway, so what was the point of keeping anything about my family secret.

So I took her to the Payne Treasury and showed her all of the Payne Family's most treasured possessions and of all that was in there, only one thing caught her eye; The Golden balls"

Hal blinked and wondered if he heard wrong,

"Excuse me what?"