[ WP ] Give me a story where the good guy wins , but the victory is unsatisfying .

I was sitting on my bench at the front of my house with my son. It was late but there were still people from the wedding rehearsal in our front field. I took a drink and passed the bottle to my son. I was so proud of him. He was getting married tomorrow, Going to start a family of his own soon. 
 
 
 `` So dad. Tell me the story again.'' 
 
 
 `` What story?'' I asked. I had told him many from my time as a soldier. When I had fought so hard to throw off the yoke of the Imperials. 
 
 
 `` How you Killed General Winter.'' 
 
 
 `` You've heard that one so many times.'' 
 
 
 `` Yeah, but one more time.'' 
 
 
 `` Well, they were stronger than us, bigger, and had more resources. But we were faster, and we hit harder, we had to fight smarter not harder.'' This was the way I always started the story. It was true, sort of. `` I broke into the camp by dressing as....'' I trailed off after taking a drink. `` No, That is n't true at all.'' 
 
 
 `` Wait what?'' 
 
 
 `` I did n't dress as a guard to get in.'' 
 
 
 `` But you've always told it that way.'' He said looking at me strangely. I felt uncomfortable but I suddenly had the overpowering need to tell the truth to him. 
 
 
 `` We bribed a guard.'' 
 
 
 `` They took a bribe?'' 
 
 
 `` Yeah, The Imperials could pay their way out of a draft at that time, he probably wanted to go home. Anyway we bribed a guard to sneak us in. It was after a bombing so they had a lot of wounded men. I got through without too much difficulty.'' In my mind I thought back to the packages of explosives with bags of crushed marble and screws on the side before shaking my head. 
 
 
 `` Okay, so you sneaked in that's...'' 
 
 
 `` I always told you I dueled him with a sword but that is n't true either. He was writing letters and I killed him with a machete.'' 
 
 
 `` What were the letters?'' 
 
 
 `` I do n't know. I could n't read their language too well, but there were pictures in it. It did n't look official.'' 
 
 
 `` Okay, but did you burn the camp down like in the story?'' 
 
 
 I sighed and thought for a moment. `` No, I got out before anyone noticed. They retreated a few days later.'' 
 
 
 He remained silent and took a drink. 
 
 
 “ okay but the fighting ended after that right? ” 
 
 
 I actually laughed a little at this. “ Well, we stopped fighting them. After that we mostly fought each other. But that was before all the problems with the bank and then there was the famine and…. ” 
 
 
 He had stopped listening. “ It was such a good story dad. ” I heard him mutter. 

