Dimensional Descent

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.

as a toddler, only for them to suddenly

couldn't completely control herself before her father, so she

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

had already stopped, a

them. This could be considered the last time

Aina had regained enough calm to look up. Whatever words he was

him, a pair of bright amber eyes seemed suffused in a

An unfeeling

was all

almost completely covered by the thickness of his crimson beard. He looked down at his daughter silently. Even through

tell just what it was he was thinking in the depths of his

**

light. Another spirit fell, but Leonel himself wasn't nearly as healthy or fresh

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

had started off so easy, especially since

his