Sera paid no attention to her Father's internal lamentation and patted the big bean bag chair next to her.

“Well to start, Dad, sit here and make yourself comfortable.” She smiled sweetly.

Phim stared at her for a moment, then proceeded to sit on the bean bag carefully so as not to burst it with his weight. Sera sat facing him, settling herself in an eager position.

“So, what happened back then?” Her eyes sparkled in curiosity.

Phim thought for a moment on how best to speak of back then and recall what he could.

“Hmm, where to start?” Phim crossed his arms thinking. “I'll start from something you should know." He looked at Sera with tenderness. “As I'm sure you're aware, the war that ended 60 years ago had been fought for thousands of years.”

Sera nodded her head.

“In fact, by that time, the soldiers of both sides had long since been tired and exhausted of all the fighting, but none of us were able to stop it.”

“Why?” Sera tilted her head.

“Because by that time many generations had passed on. We no longer knew how the war had even started. As long as we'd known, we'd been stuck in that quagmire, the prejudices against the opposition had long been ingrained into our bones. We lost far too many to that war.” Phim's eyes were filled with exhaustion and nostalgia.

“Dad.” Sera looked at him with concern in her eyes. She couldn't imagine her Father, who was always the most energetic in the family, at one point was so exhausted and helpless.

Phim smiled at her. “Anyway, during that time there were three forces fighting: the Saint's and Allied Nations Army, the Blackened Army and the Anti-War factions. The main bloodshed occurred between the former two. Whereas the latter, wouldn't kill either side, but would instead foil the plans of both armies when they could, in order to decrease the war by as many battles as they could. The soldiers of both sides were actually very grateful to the Anti-War faction’s methods. It was a tacit understanding on both sides that if we ever caught one of the Anti-War faction’s members, there would be an ‘accident’ and they would always get away. And we always ‘forgot’ to report it to our superiors.” Phim chuckled. “However, the reason peace came to be, wasn't because of the Anti-War faction.”

Sera's eyes widened. “It wasn't!?”

Phim gazed into her eyes, his eyes filled with warmth and wonder.

“What stopped the war may have been the Anti-War faction’s actions. But what brought peace were the people, the civilians of both sides. Starting with the doctors.”

Phim leaned back, peered at his daughter's eager eyes and continued. “Given the scale of the war, the casualties of both sides were numerous and there were many that got separated from their armies. They would end up staggering to the nearest villages, towns and cities, Demon or not, looking for help. And the ones who helped heal them were the civilian doctors. At first, they were cautious of each other, but the doctors still treated them, regardless of who they were allied with.”

Sera passed Phim a glass of water she poured from the jug on her desk.

“Thank you.” Phim took a sip. “The doctors of both sides felt that the more they treated, the more they came to realize that whether Demon or not, they weren’t that different from each other and that they had been engulfed by preconceptions for so long, that their thoughts had gotten distorted by what's acknowledged as ‘normality’. As the doctors came to realize this, they communicated with their patients and tried to get to know them more. Soon the doctors and patients of both sides turned from hated enemies to good friends, who could share in woe and laughter. And this change spread from the doctors and patients to their families. Which continued to spread through the people their families knew, and the change expanded further and further. Due to this, less and less people were willing to support the war. Parents, lovers, children. They'd send letters to their loved ones asking them to come home, to not think about fighting a senseless and meaningless battle. To just come home for a nice hot meal.”

The edge of Sera's eyes glistened as she listened. Phim leaned forward and smiled gently as he wiped the tears from her eyes.

“At first, the soldiers on the battlefield didn't take note of the letters and continued to follow orders, however as time went on the letters never ceased. In fact, they increased. As they did so, the soldiers finally started wavering. More and more of them wanted to retreat and resign from the army. Of course, the top brass wouldn't allow that. So, the soldiers decided to leave by themselves, preferring to be deserters. If it was just one thousand or so soldiers, the top brass would take action and put them up for execution as an example to the rest of the soldiers. However, that day, it wasn't a matter of a mere one thousand soldiers deserting. It was two thirds of the entire army, on all battlefields on both sides! The top brass couldn't do anything to that number, they could only continue to wage war with the forces they had left, which were the ones who either had no loved ones or were raised by institutions like the Saint's Church, or the Opal Temple. Myself included.”

“Papa!” Sera jumped forward and hugged her Father as hard as she could. Whilst she knew that her Father's former position in the Saint’s Army was highly ranked, she hadn't realized how hard it was for her Father back then. She felt so distressed.

“Hey now, it's OK. I'm still here, aren't I?” Phim patted her back gently to calm her down, I guess she really did sleep through history class... because they would’ve definitely taught the students this part. Well, the official part of it of course. Even so, she called me Papa! 〒▽〒 It's been too long since my Sweet Pea called me that!

“So, what happened after that?” Sera sniffed.

“After that, the fight continued. We fought for several years until one particularly gruesome battle. Both sides were severely depleted of supplies by the end. Countless casualties. And due to the movements of the army, many soldiers got separated all at once from the army, getting lost and unable to find their way back. Or they simply didn't want to go back. I, myself, was one of the soldiers that got separated from the army.” Phim smiled brightly at Sera; his eyes filled with joy as he said. “And that’s also when I met your Mother.”