Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Card World, Southern Region, Southern Capital, Guild Association Mall, Warehouse No. 234, Limitless Celestial Domain, Gainover Manor, Mirror Maze Dimension

"My dear daughter, leaving your mother and you, was the most painful and hardest decision I had made in my entire life. Only I know how I struggled after leaving you guys, I was lost, and in that moment of weakness, your stepmother and the Davis family approached me, taking advantage of my unstable mind and heart they lured me into their elaborate conspiracy. I promise you I never knew that they were actually filthy demon worshippers. I only knew of it when you revealed it, massacring them. All I'm trying to say is that over time, the facts were twisted into the version you heard and were taught about me, poisoning your mind and heart against me. I never meant to hurt you or your mother, I always had your best interest in my heart—"

"Arrrh," Anna suddenly let out an enraged grunt, interrupting Gainover's fanatical rant. For a moment, I almost thought he believed his own lies to be the truth, making me question whether he was trying to deceive Anna or himself.

"Shut your damn whining, you heathen," Anna spat coldly. "And how dare you bad-mouth my family to me, when the only reason you are still breathing is because they chose not to kill you out of consideration for me. If you ask me, they made a mistake letting you live. Since that mistake was made because of me, I believe it is my duty to correct it."

"Sigh." Gainover let out a long breath, shaking his head in disappointment before continuing. "My dear daughter, believe what you wish. After all, I am the one in the wrong for abandoning you. Sometimes, I wonder if I should not have broken it off so early, if I should have at least endured until you were grown. However, you must understand that the royal palace no longer felt like a warm home to me. It felt like a cold prison, not only for me, but for your mother as well because of me—sigh!

"There is no point in dwelling on what could have been. I believe that what I did was the best decision I could have made given the circumstances at the time. The only reason I told you all this is because, in the end, a part of me could not help being a little selfish and greedy. I was overtaken by the thought that perhaps, just perhaps, you might see the truth in my side of the story and find it in your heart to forgive me for abandoning you and leaving you in the care of those lying mons—"

"Don't you dare!" Anna screamed, cutting in before Gainover could insult her family once more.

Seeing such a fierce reaction from her, his eyes glinted with a subtle grin. The harder she resisted now, the more firmly she would believe in his lies once he was finished with her. More importantly, he had found her trigger point. Knowing what enraged her and what calmed her would serve him well in brainwashing her against everything she knew and believed about her mother and her family.

"My dear daughter, no matter how hard I try to remain indifferent, it pains me to see how their lies have poisoned your heart and mind against me—" Gainover continued his act of the misunderstood, tragic father.

Anna was not buying it in the slightest. She shouted over him, cutting him off. "Shut up, you damn heathen. I didn't want to bother arguing with you, but now I believe that would be better than listening to your relentless whining.

"My uncle treated you, his brother-in-law, like his own brother. He confided his worries and fears in you, trusted you, and sought your guidance. Instead of helping him, you guided him into taking the enlightened path. Making him unfit to become the next Southern Heir.

"You claim the royal court hindered my mother's path to becoming Southern Heir. They were merely a tool my family used to dismantle your conspiracy to exploit my mother. It was a ruse, meant to conceal the fact that my grandfather already knew how you had betrayed my uncle's trust and drove him astray, far from salvation. He spared your life only because my mother pleaded for you and willingly withdrew from the succession to become the next Southern Heir. She was a fool back then, convincing herself that you acted as you did because you believed she wanted the position of Southern Heir. When actually, it was all for the sake of your ambition.

"It was not the royal court that rejected your appeal for using a diamond grimoire used by the unparalleled bloodline predecessors to upgrade your grimoire. It was my grandfather, using them as a tool, preserving face for his only daughter. My mother knew this and respected her father's decision, knowing he had every right to be furious with you. That was why she asked you to abandon your attempt to secure one of the diamond grimoires used by the unparalleled bloodline predecessors to make her the next Southern Heir.

"You claim you were stealing one of the diamond grimoires used by the unparalleled bloodline predecessors for my mother's sake, but we all know you did it out of your own selfishness and greed. Otherwise, you would never have attempted such a crime, fully aware of the consequences. That night, for the first time in her life, my mother also saw you for what you truly were. Even so, she still pleaded on your behalf to my grandfather. When that failed, she used me, informing him that she was pregnant with me and that his granddaughter would need a father while growing up.

"You say that after the incident everyone began to look at you differently, when in truth it was you who saw them differently. Once they saw your true face, they could no longer be marks for your con. Knowing your ambitions would never come to fruition in the southern palace, you divorced my mother while she was still pregnant with me.

"You claim the Davis family took advantage of you at your weakest hour, when the truth is that they offered you a diamond grimoire that once belonged to an unparalleled bloodline predecessor who died at the hands of a devil. The price was marrying one of their daughters, becoming a part of their family. A condition you accepted fully aware that they were demon worshippers. As a matter of fact, this mirror maze of yours was built using that predecessor's origin card.

"Do you know how I know all of this is true? Because the people you claim wronged you never once bad-mouthed you to me. They told me the truth as it was and never disrespected me by insulting the scumbag they perceived as my father. Meanwhile, you claim to be telling me the truth, yet you do not even have the decency to refrain from disrespecting me by disrespecting my family. You could have simply told your side of the story, but instead you chose to demean them at every turn you got. The fact that you still hold a grudge against them after so many years tells me enough about you not to trust a single word that comes out of your mouth."

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