"Sweetie I was just kidding!" the duke hurriedly apologised as he saw the increasingly dark look on his daughter's face.
Truthfully, Rokan was a bit shocked over the unexpected confession but he knew that it was important to support his daughter fully and pretend to not be surprised.
His mind started to race as the image of troublesome boys approaching his daughter with bad intentions was suddenly replaced….
… with the image of troublesome girls approaching his daughter with bad intentions!
Homosexuality was not a taboo topic among the general population and even had a small growth in popularity over the last couple of centuries.
Years of campaigning done by popular same- sex cultivator Dao partners proved to be somewhat effective.
Of course, there were still pockets of discrimination as although technology and times may change… humanity would remain the same.
There was even the invention of new technologies that could create children artificially through DNA fusion which made the lifestyle more accepted by grandparents eager to see some grandkids!
"But why were you so nervous?" the duke asked in a puzzled tone.
Was it possible that his daughter thought of him as a prejudiced man?
Maybe it was Sui Meng's residual memories, but Sophie was quite scared to admit that she liked girls.
Sui Meng had been disowned by her parents when she had come out of the closet and Sophie did not want to experience that same level of betrayal.
"I…I…I guess I didn't know how you would react when I told you," Sophie hesitantly spoke.
The duke stood up and walked towards Sophie and gave her a tight hug. Sophie closed her eyes as she felt her father's warmth and affection.
Rokan laughed and whispered in her ear,
"Honey… your mother isn't even human…"
"I would like to think that I am pretty open minded."
Small tears formed in Sophie's eyes as she gazed at the man who had sheltered her from rain and hardships for all of her life.
If her future partner could be half the person that her father was… then she would have no complaints.
Knock! Knock!
[Dear Customers]
[Your order has arrived!]
A large mechanical robot in the shape of a man with many arms entered the room while carrying over twenty plates full of delicious food.
It walked towards the table stiffly and placed each dish down with practised ease before withdrawing silently from the room.
Sophie sniffed the air as the combination of spices, meats and different aromas made her stomach loudly growl and she sat up straighter in excitement.
The duke looked at his daughter who now only had eyes for the food on the table and could not help but remember a certain gluttonous woman who behaved exactly like Sophie when food arrived.
Sophie chose one of the plates at random and lifted up the cover to see the mystery that lay beneath.
Seafood!
Rows of fried shrimps each with a crispy brown exterior were placed in a circular pattern around the border of the plate while a dark red marinara sauce was inside a dipping bowl.
Hungry…hungry….
Sophie offered a quick thank you to her father for the meal and then dug in with great gusto.
Each shrimp had a crunchy texture and a soft interior that simply melted within her mouth.
I'll just have one…maybe two…okay just three…
Shrimp after shrimp were swallowed until the entire plate had been emptied out in a matter of minutes.
A warm current spread through Sophie's body and she could feel a wave of heat entering her dantian.
"Notice anything special yet?" the duke smiled as he saw his daughter's confusion.
"Dad is this made from spiritual beasts?" Sophie tried to guess.
"Yep…every dish is made from the flesh of creatures in the qi tide stage and it has a similar effect to gene enhancing serums," Rokan boasted proudly.
It was every father's greatest joy to flex their wealth in front of their adoring children!
At the duke's cultivation level, this enhancement was just negligible as he would need to refine and consume the body of beasts in the god stage to grant himself the same effect.
He also did not mention that this method of improving strength was expensive to sustain as only highly trained spiritual chefs could trap qi inside the flesh of these beasts.
Sophie stretched out her arms to relax before eagerly trying out the other dishes to enjoy what others would call a once in a lifetime opportunity.
(Imperial Complex- Side Palace- 9847)
Among the grand palaces that were scattered about the Imperial Complex there was one particular building located at the far end of the concubine wing.
This palace's exterior was just as impressive as those surrounding it, but this was merely a disguise for its true state of affairs.
Inside the building clearly showed the ravages of time as there was a clear lack of maintenance work done or any sort of furniture present.
Princess Cleo walked up a narrow set of stairs and approached the figure standing quietly on the balcony with an air of melancholy surrounding her.
"This lowly one greets the imperial concubine," Cleo stopped a few meters away and knelt respectfully.
"Oh…does this unfilial daughter actually recognise her mother?" came a lazy drawl.
"I was beginning to think that you were just like that bastard father of yours and forgot me here in this boring place to rot."
These words would be immediate grounds of treason and execution for slander against the imperial family if heard by others.
But the bitter sounding woman seemed not to care.
She appeared to be an attractive lady in her late fifties with small traces of aging that did little to diminish her once great beauty.
Her skin was a pale and fair colour with piercing green eyes that were almost identical to her daughter's.
"I heard whispers that you are now courting the offspring of the Peterlor household," Concubine Sisrelis suddenly spoke.
Cleo was startled as she did not expect that the news had spread so quickly among the information channels.
But it was her mother's next statement that caused her mind to go blank.
"Good. Manipulate her well and we can have a god stage cultivator join our faction."
"Mother! That's not what I…" Cleo argued fiercely.
"DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME!" her mother loudly screeched in rage.
Concubine Sisrelis' green eyes seemed to narrow with anger and she promptly dismissed her daughter from the palace with the expression of an unhinged animal.
As the footsteps of her daughter faded into the distance all the emotions of rage and anger on her face seemed to vanish abruptly without a trace.
"Why did you not warn her to stay away from the hybrid girl?" a dark shadow flowed from beneath the concubine's feet and whispered gently.
The middle-aged woman gazed into the distance and the colour of her pupils became cloudy as numerous calculations and deductions raced across her mind.
Not many among the royal family knew that her daughter's mental strength had been entirely inherited from her side.
"Duke Peterlor has long been a thorn in the emperor's eyes and many do not want to wait until he reaches the Ascension realm," she spoke slowly.
"It is merely a matter of time until his family is uprooted, and his lineage is destroyed."
"But just in case he survives…my daughter may prove to be a vital chess piece with an indirect link to the most promising cultivator in the Earth Federation."
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