117 Chapter 117 - Investigation: End (1/2)

They had left with only three people but were going to meet up with the others as a group of four.Ophelia had joined Gren on his trip so that she could see the Goddess and help convince Annie that the Returning Heaven guild was not full of enemies like they had expected.”So, who is this Annie person that you're talking about?Your guild master?”

”No, she's our best scout in the guild and my sister.”Ophelia made an odd reaction when Gren said the word sister.

”Your sister?Not that I'm suddenly believing your story but if you're really the son of the Goddess then wouldn't that mean that she had two children?”Gren wondered why people were always confused about his family's details but after a little bit of thought he realized that it was all his fault for making everything so complicated.

”No.She's my adopted sister.The two of us have no blood relations.As far as I know, I'm the only child of the Goddess.”Gren still wondered about that woman in Doga.It wasn't that far away from Adierton so he could have traveled there but he wanted to hear it from his mother's mouth first.This was especially true now that he had begun to question his own judgement.

”That doesn't seem like something the Goddess would do.She would often teach children magic and help heal them for free but it's said that she would try her best to avoid getting attached to mortals.It's not a mystery why she didn't want to get attached; after the war against the Dark Lord, the heroes that she considered her friends died one by one.”Gren knew little of the heroes but he was interested in learning more about them.”The death of the last of the heroes--the elven hero--must have broken her heart.The Goddess swore not to get involved with the war between humans and elves and, in the end, the elven hero took her own life when her people were conquered.”

”What even caused the war between the humans and elves?”It was something that Gren had been wondering since the request to clear the elven fort.

”It wasn't originally a war between two species.When Seka took over what's now the Adier Duchy, the elves weren't pleased.It was a land that had already seen enough death so they should have left it alone.”Ophelia didn't seem to approve of the Seka Kingdom's actions.”It was the first Adier that took that disagreement and used it to wage a war against the elves.”The Adiers again?It made sense since Gren was currently in a territory named after their family but they really showed up a lot.”The official reason given was that the elves were a threat to their new territory but the first Adier was in love with the elven queen.She was a special breed of elf known as a high elf which could be seen from her golden hair; the same golden hair that's often attributed to the Adiers themselves.”

”So he waged a war just for a woman?I somehow doubt that she would love him after doing that.”What woman would fall for the man that killed her people?

”She didn't ever fall in love with him.When her husband died, she took her own life; just like the elven hero.The elven culture at the time was one that treated marriage as a bond between two lives.”After a small moment of her zoning out, Ophelia shook her head and refocused herself with a couple of slaps to her cheeks.”It was the queen's daughter that gave the Adiers their hair color.She was just a toddler when the war was waged but the sick bastard raised her to become his wife.”

”That's disturbing.I don't know if I'll ever be able to look at someone with golden hair again without thinking about that.”It was going to be tough for Gren to look at Jessica and Jade for a while.”As bad as the guy sounds, I can't help but wonder how he felt when he found out that he caused the woman he loved to die.If I caused the death of someone I loved then I think that I'd end up hating myself for the rest of my life.”

”I've never thought about it.Historical documents rarely ever mention the feelings of those involved and I haven't spoken to any of the historians from the Church.Only his private journals, if they exist, would talk about his own feelings.”If he had private journals then they'd probably be in the hands of the current Duke.”Why would you care about the guy's feelings, anyways?”

”It's just me being curious.The guy set out to do something and managed to fail in such an extreme way.”Gren couldn't sympathize with him completely but he was accustomed to failure in both this life and the last.”There's just a part of me that wonders how someone goes on with their life after that.”

”Knowing the Adiers, he probably didn't care too much about her.”Rodge interrupted their conversation with his own opinion.”You might not know this but almost every generation of that family has somebody that's twisted.There's the previous Duke that abducted the Goddess but just two generations before him was that one Adier that lusted after his own sister.Even if it's legal, there's nobody out there that would try to marry their siblings.”

”Wait, what?How is that legal?”Gren was so shocked by Rodge's statement that he stopped walking.”Don't they know how bad inbreeding is?”

”You really didn't know that?I thought that you knew that there were no marriage laws in this country.”Gren had heard that but he didn't expect that they meant absolutely no laws whatsoever.”The founding king was a strange guy.Had a taste for a bit of everything, really.It's not like he was a bad king but his sexual misdeeds make him a controversial subject and he was quickly replaced by one of his sons.Even his succession was controversial but I'm not really comfortable talking about that.”