"Let me tell you a story about an individual that lost everything for love, even the love he so wanted to protect, but I warn you this story doesn’t have a good ending." Smiled the weird priest.

"Once there was a great genius, he was born to a small landowner family, great hope was placed on his shoulders, hope of restoring the family to its former glory."

"But not everyone in the family thought so for one reason only, because he was not from the main branch of the family. But it didn't discourage the young man that he didn’t get any support from his family. Was it naive ambition or just determination, nobody knew but nothing stopped the young genius."

"He traveled all over the continent and strengthened the relationship with as many people as he could, slowly his family branch got much stronger. With those relationships, his family branch businesses increased their profits so much that even the main branch started to notice them."

"But it wasn't the only reason he traveled the world, the second reason was knowledge he wanted to gather as much knowledge as he could. It didn't matter to him where it came from or from who. From the most mundane stuff to even lost languages that nobody used, he wanted to learn it all."

"Slowly but surely with every business the genius touched started to bloom, even those proud elders of the main branch started to understand the young prodigy's potential and even some of them started to support him from the shadows with the goal to place him as the head of the family."

"Time continued to pass and before someone noticed the young genius already had the majority support from the elder council, it was only a matter of time when he would become the next head of the family, but of course, the fates had different plans." The priest took another swing from his special tea and continued with his story.

"Around the time that the genius was at the age of twenty, he met his fate. It was when he wanted to learn about one particular lost language, and only one person knew it like no other."

"He arrived at a distant village to find a beautiful wooden church standing in front of him, he wasn't sure why would someone bother to build something like this in the middle of nowhere."

"He knocked on the church and the most handsome and smart priest in the whole world opened the door for him." The priest *coughed* a little bit and looked at Elliot that was looking back at him with zero expression on his face, so he continued.

"The genius explained to the priest his desire but the smart priest told him “fuck off” and slammed the door into his face." The lips of the priest made a small smile.

"But the persistent bastard started to live in the village and came every day to the church with gifts, just to try to change my mind but I was firm and each time I drove him away." Elliot's eyebrows raised a little bit as he noticed that the priest dropped all of the facade in his story.

"Ah but one day the horrible thing happened and when I was busy with a ceremony the bastard came once more. But this time the one who opened the door to him was a goddess herself, at least that's what the bastard thought."

Elliot noticed that the priest started to tell the story with more emotions and vigor when it came to himself, only one word came to his mind at this moment "narcissist", even though he didn’t exactly know its full meaning.

"I didn't know it that day but that was the day when my sister met her husband. *Sigh*" He took another swing from his tea and poured some more liquid from his flask into the cup. Elliot wasn't sure if there was any tea left in it or it was just pure booze.

"When I returned it was already too late, the swindler already sweet talked my sister and she agreed to teach him the lost language he wanted."

"Time passed and without much surprise, the bastard completely fell for my sister's charm and even worse she fell for him too." *Thud* A strong sound sounded as the priest slammed the cup to the table.

“But there was a reason for my sister and me to be in the middle of nowhere in a lonely church, her health was never good from the get-go so we chose a quiet place to rest. And slowly was getting worse by the day, it was just time before the unavoidable." The priest's speech became slower and quieter with a tinge of sadness.

"The bastard did his best and used all of the available resources to him to find a cure for his beloved, but just as he found an item by the name of Goddess Tear someone snatched it right in front of him."

"One of his brothers from the main branch, a rival for the head position took it, as he knew that he would do anything for the item he proposed a “compromise” he would give it to him for a price. The price was quite steep, a magical contract that would force him to do three things he asked for."

"Of course, those kinds of contracts have their limitations, as such contracts are written to be great magicians, but they still were a risky business." He remarked sarcastically.

"The bastard was smart so he knew what would happen if he agreed but his heart was stronger than his mind, so he had no choice. This was the first biggest regret in his life."

"He signed the contract and brought the treasure to his beloved. A day hasn't passed and my beloved sister was already on her feet."

"But nothing good comes without the bad, after a month the rival came to give the first command, it was for the bastard to make him the head of the family."

"The bastard could only clench his teeth and do as he was told. In the end, the head position of the family fell upon the rival, but the bastard didn't even care because in a few months he would be a father."

"And that fateful day came, but as if the rival brother knew that it was the most important day for the bastard he summoned him using his second command to participate in the council gathering. Forcing him to miss the biggest struggle of his wife's life and creating the second biggest regret in his life.”

“It was raining that day as if the sky knew what was about to happen, with the sound of thunder a life was born into the world and with a sound of thunder a life was taken away.” The old priest took another swing of the tea and was quiet for a few moments.

“…Only after a few days did the bastard return, but it was already too late. He cried for hours as he hugged her body and he even mourned her to this day. But regret and prayers won’t return the dead, so he made a promise to take revenge on his brother and do everything in his life to destroy him. This was his third biggest regret in his life.”

“The years passed and the child grew, she looked just like her mother. A smile that would give hope even to the prisoners of war. A hair shining with gold, personally sweeter than honey, and a soul purer than any of the known saints.” The priest's voice became warm and gentle as if he was talking about his own child.

“But as I said before this story doesn’t have a good ending…”

“Enough!” A strong booming voice was heard in the church, it was surprising to find out that its source was an old smiling grandpa that stood in the doorway to the church. Even though he was smiling, anger still could be seen on his face.

“Come Elliot, let me show you something.” The old man held the door.

“Won't you drink some tea before going?” The priest said with a smile.

“Later.” Anger was still heard in the old man's voice.

Elliot followed the old man outside the church through the deep snow to the graveyard. There, after passing through many graves they stopped at a nameless grave that was isolated from the rest.

The old man quietly stood in front of the grave as his hand reached to remove a few scattered leaves from its tombstone.

“Here lies my daughter.” The old man said that with deep sadness in his voice, Elliot's heart jumped a little bit and he said to himself, “Oh that's what he meant by that this story doesn’t have a good ending.”

He looked at the frail back of the old man, he felt that he would cry at any moment but the old man stood strong, not shedding a tear or flinching determined as an ancient tree.

“This is what happens when your heart gets full with greed and revenge, you and your family will be lucky to have a nameless grave when they are done with you.”

Elliot stood there for a moment and then asked, “What was her name?”

“Elizabeth, I just called her Elli. I gave you a similar name in her memory if you haven’t noticed.” He gave Elliot a long meaningful look.

“Can you tell what happened?” Elliot asked.

The old man stood there for a while contemplating what excuse to use but in the end, he gave up, as he understood that there was no point in lying anyways.

“How much… How much did the stupid priest tell you?” Asked the old man almost whispering as if fearing the answer that Elliot would bring.

“He told me about how you met your wife, your brother's contract, and stopped just after the birth of your daughter.”

“*Sigh* I see.” The old man took a sigh of relief.

“Well years passed and the small ball of joy that was brought to me grew and grew at the same time I was split between grief and happiness. From one point I was happy that my small girl was growing healthy and without issues, from another, I still couldn’t forget what my own brother did to me.”

“I wanted revenge and I would do everything to take it. I started to use the old influence that I had and slowly I started to gather some power back from the family, but it took years for that to happen.”

“And each year the struggle for power became fiercer and fiercer, I still gave every free minute of my life to be with my daughter. But there were days that even I had to leave her alone or with her uncle.”

“Surprisingly even though I was a huge annoyance to my brother, for some reason he never used the third command on me no matter what as if waiting for the perfect moment to dispose of me. I am sure he wished just to command me to kill myself but it's not possible with these kinds of magical contracts.”

“As the years passed the small girl already became a lady, and the Blueheart family hit a lovely jackpot at the same time. We have discovered mana crystals in one of our mines and instead of reporting the findings to the duke that we were under. The family head chose to smuggle the crystals to the capital and make a contract with the imperial family directly.”

“If it was successful it would have brought us a lot of wealth and there was even a chance for the family to return to its original glory.” The old man’s smile became a little bit crooked with sarcasm as he continued to talk.

“The head of the family wanted me to lead this mission and to bring the crystals to the capital safely. But I was against it not only because I hated my brother but also because I knew that this could endanger our family.”

“But this time the head really wanted everything to go smoothly so he used the last command of the contract to force me to lead in this mission. And said as follows word by word: I command you to lead the smudging part till the capital and when you finish come back home with a huge smile on your face.”

“I was happy that at last I would be released from this terrible curse, so I jumped with glee and went to tell the news to my little sweet girl. Well, she wasn’t little anymore as I said, she grew up and became a beautiful lady, suitors from many families came to her door but nobody was able to capture her heart.”

“As I told her the news at first she was a little bit sad that I would be missing for a few months, but on the other hand she knew how hard I wanted to be unshackled from this contract, as every day it reminded me of how I couldn't see the last moments of the women I loved.”

“Without further ado a few days passed the smuggling expedition commenced and I left seeing my daughter waving me goodbye. On my way to the capital, we passed through many cities where the Blueheart family businesses were present.”

“To make it look like we were just doing a full-scale inspection, and not raise any suspicion from the great duke or anyone else.”

“It took us two months to get to the capital which could have taken us just a week or two if we went in a straight line, or even less time if we used the warp gates.”

“At first the inspection at the capital gates was going smoothly. They checked the goods and let us pass through, but before we could even enter the main streets the imperial guards stopped us, and brought out insane accusations against our family.”

“From stealing and smuggling, to kidnaping and using black magic. The goods including the magical crystals were confiscated and all the party was thrown to jail except me.”

“I had many good friends, they were everywhere and one of them pulled a few strings, and just as he heard about the order for my arrest and pulled me out of the imperial hands.”

“He gave me a warning and told me that something terrible was going to happen in the Blueheart territories and I should return immediately. I did as he said, but it didn’t change anything.”

“I used some hidden funds that I had in the capital and went through the warp gates, it took me less than a few days to get to my destination and I wasn’t prepared for what I saw there.”

“Everything was on fire, bodies everywhere, small skirmishes between knights and Blueheart mercenaries, it was a nightmare.”

“I ran like crazy to my house, I didn’t care about anyone from the family, I just wanted to grab my daughter and escape from this nightmare.” A small tear slipped from the old man’s eye.

“As I was getting closer and closer to my house, I could see more and more of the carnage but I wasn’t ready to see what I saw.”

“My daughter… my beautiful daughter I looked for her everywhere and in the end, I found her ravaged body that was hung on a tree that she always loved.”

“I didn’t notice at that moment but when I got to my home, an ugly smile was plastered on my face, the same smile that my brother told me to have. As I removed my own daughter from the rope all of that time I smiled!” The old man shouted with anger as tears continued to fall down his face.

“I started to laugh and cry as the smile wouldn’t go away. I walked away from the territory even though many knights of the duke saw me, but instead of killing me as they did to the others, they left me be. Was it to send a message or was it because I was laughing as if insane, I don’t know and I don’t care.”

“I escaped to here, it took me a long time before I could come here. All of the way here I was hugging my daughter and not letting her out of my grasp, and the whole time I still was smiling like a madman and that didn’t change till this day…”