Chapter 61
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Deltan walked out of the throne room after all of the officials had left, his face still a blank slate. He didn't respond even when Nine tried talking to him.
Nine sighed, furrowing her brows in worry. There was something eating at Deltan deep down, but she didn't know what it was, and she couldn't tell unless he opened his mouth to tell her. She was generally the type who wouldn't take the initiative to ask what was wrong unless there was something deeply wrong, but Deltan was worrying her deeply.
She grabbed Deltan, teleporting the both of them back to her residence.
Deltan snapped out of it slightly, smiling wanly at her. "It's fine, younger brother. I always knew that this day would come."
She sighed briefly. "Eldest brother," she said, realizing that he had misunderstood their father. "You know that you can choose whoever you like, don't you? Imperial Father won't restrict our choices even if the one you want to marry isn't a royal."
Deltan paused for a long time, contemplating before looking frustrated. "I know, it's just…" he trailed off.
Nine waited with a rare patience, waiting for him to put his thoughts into words. Even if she could read his emotions from his magic, she couldn't read his thoughts.
"I don't want to marry anyone."
Nine's brows shot up inwardly. Was this going where she thought it was going?
"It's not like I don't want to love anyone, but I just don't want to have any… intimate relations."
So Deltan was asexual then. That made… sense. Several things became clearer to her all at once. No wonder he had been so distraught over that incident with Rose. It would have been hard and traumatising for anyone but having someone asexual being touched that way without their consent would have been especially traumatising.
"Is this because of Rose?" she asked, having to clarify.
Deltan shook his head. "No, even before that. But I think she made things worse after it."
Nine felt the urge to strangle Rose again, feeling her possessiveness rise up. Unfortunately, she had already been executed by her father. They received a recording about it, which Deltan seemed to take in stride. Nine knew that after watching the video, he had been able to sleep easier.
"Okay, so. You don't want to have sex with anyone, right?" she said bluntly.
Deltan's face tinted red. Somehow, having to hear it come out from his younger brother's mouth seemed to make him feel deeply embarrassed.
"Right."
"So, we just have to find someone else who doesn't want that as well. As for heirs, we just have to find a surrogate or something."
It was at this moment when Emperor Destan walked in. Nine prodded Deltan in the back, pushing him forward.
Deltan uncomfortably explained what was wrong to his Imperial Father, suppressing the urge to hide in a hole somewhere. He was NOT comfortable with this! But he was willing to try and explain if it got him out of this predicament.
Emperor Destan looked deeply at his son and daughter. He never thought that of all his children, it would have been Deltan who inherited this from him. He had never shown any signs that something like this was going through his mind.
Deltan had always been flirting with girls on and off throughout his teens, only stopping when his younger brother had first started sparring with him.
The Emperor his hid embarrassment at the fact that he had never considered something like this. Out of all of his children, Deltan was the one who had shown the least signs of this, but then he should have realized the familiar signs that he got, since he had done the same thing in his youth.
The only difference was that he had acquiesced to the previous Emperor's demands. He knew that the only way he would be able to inherit the throne was if he had heirs. The previous Emperor had been a traditionalist in all senses of the word.
In the end, he had married, but it hadn't been without consequences of its own. He hadn't been able to treat any of his children with any forms of affection until Nine came along. He just couldn't handle the fact that he had to see his own genes mix with others to create a whole different being.
Just the thought of it had disgusted himself, and he was ashamed of that now. He hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until now. He realized that he hadn't treated his children with any affection. By now, they were already grown up. He had completely rejected their existence, like he was living in denial.
Nine tapped on the ground, activating the strongest anti-eavesdropping ward.
"I'm sorry, son," Emperor Destan said, letting out an uncharacteristic sigh. "I thought that you took more after your mother, since you acted the same way."
Deltan looked slightly more at ease now that he got it off his chest. "Does that mean that you're like me, Imperial Father?" he asked hesitantly.
Emperor Destan's brows furrowed. "You should call me father when we're alone," he said, feeling closer to his son now. He felt guilty that he hadn't paid much attention to this son of his.
Deltan felt something warm unfurl in his chest. Dare he hope…? "Yes, father."
"Unfortunately, the officials will make noise if the Eldest Prince doesn't marry anyone."
Deltan's face fell.
"But," the Emperor continued. "Asexuality isn't as uncommon as you might think. It's just that to find a willing partner who wants children as well is probably quite hard."
Deltan nodded, scrolling through the list of people in his life.
"Anyway, you don't necessarily need to find another person to have children with," Emperor Destan said, continuing to drop bombshells. "You just have to find someone to marry and give excuses to the officials."
Nine nodded in approval but corrected their father before he got any strange ideas. "Since Vampires can't have children anyway, you can fake it till we find a permanent solution. It's still possible to have a surrogate if necessary. We just somehow can't have children directly."
"After years of research, I found a way to get pregnant without having any sort of intercourse."
Nine's brain slowly processed before it suddenly clicked, her eyes widening ever so slightly.
"Just like Nine," he said nonchalantly, as if he hadn't completely changed their entire worldview.
Deltan stared at their father, stunned. No wonder Nine looked so much like him. No wonder it was only when Nine had been born that his father had a drastic change in the way he parented, doting and spoiling his younger brother.
He had always been consumed with jealousy at the way his Imperial Father had treated Nine. The way their father's eyes softened when he looked at his younger brother had driven him to jealousy no small amount of times. It was the main reason why had had gone to find trouble with Nine so many times.
Every time after a morning court, the way his father's indifferent eyes as he looked at him caused him to think about the way he looked at Nine instead. Truly, if he had no comparison, then it would have been normal, but the change was so drastic whenever he saw Nine and their Imperial Father interact.
It was only after Nine was born that their Imperial Father got somewhat softer when he looked at them, but it was nothing compared to the way he treated Nine. He had a love hate relationship with Nine at that time, leaning more towards hate.
Maybe it was because of a mother's feelings, in this case, father and mother, but Emperor Destan had carried Nine with him for nine months. This made him develop deeper feelings and formed a connection with the baby with him.
After having Nine, he could no longer treat his other children with such indifference, but the bulk of his feelings laid with Nine. Maybe it was because he spoilt her so severely that she had ended up so timid and cowardly, to the extent where she was too innocent.
Emperor Destan still blamed himself for that. His love had turned into poison, killing his only daughter. The grief he felt was too big. The person within his daughter's body was no longer the one he gave birth to, but he couldn't treat the person with his daughter's face harshly, so he strove to accept her as his daughter. Sometimes, he felt like he could see his original daughter's shadow within Nine. It made him feel that perhaps she would have been like this, if only he hadn't shielded her from everything.
Although late, he wanted to atone, and treat his other children better as well. The most painful thing for a parent was watching their children pass on before them.
He couldn't help but soften. Even though he hated their mothers, they were still his flesh and blood.
Nine couldn't help but stare at her father, fascinated. She had never thought that might be possible. How in the world had he managed do that? She directed shining eyes at her father.
Emperor Destan felt speechless upon seeing his daughter's eyes that seemed to be screaming 'tell me how', which was not in line with the reaction he thought he would get. Somehow, he had imagined more denial and disgust. He had been mentally preparing himself for this confrontation ever since he had conceived Nine, but now all the preparation was useless.
The relieved Emperor handed Nine his notes and diary recounting the entire experience.
Nine quickly flipped through the book, absorbing the knowledge within. "Amazing," she couldn't help but praise. Their father clearly had a talent for research and development, and this had been something that he was invested in.
This spell was something revolutionary. This was something that would allow anyone to have children, regardless of their gender or race. If this spell was made known to the world, then it was likely that they would see a drastic change later on.
"This," Nine said. "This will allow Vampires to have children as well. You see, we just have to tweak this rune, and this," she said, pointing at the runes.
Emperor Destan peered over her shoulder to look at the runes and slowly nodded, running through the information in his head. "Yes, and we can also change this matrix here to allow for - "
Deltan looked at the two dryly, unable to join into the complex discussion, but felt warm inside knowing how much they cared about him. How could he ever have gone through life without knowing about affection like this?
When he looked back at his past self, he felt like he was the worst kind of trash. It could be said that the luckiest thing that had happened in his life was insulting Nine so harshly that day, becoming her sparring partner in the end. Although at that time he felt like he was extremely unlucky, he now wouldn't trade that one changing point for anything in the world.
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Deltan walked out of the throne room after all of the officials had left, his face still a blank slate. He didn't respond even when Nine tried talking to him.
Nine sighed, furrowing her brows in worry. There was something eating at Deltan deep down, but she didn't know what it was, and she couldn't tell unless he opened his mouth to tell her. She was generally the type who wouldn't take the initiative to ask what was wrong unless there was something deeply wrong, but Deltan was worrying her deeply.
She grabbed Deltan, teleporting the both of them back to her residence.
Deltan snapped out of it slightly, smiling wanly at her. "It's fine, younger brother. I always knew that this day would come."
She sighed briefly. "Eldest brother," she said, realizing that he had misunderstood their father. "You know that you can choose whoever you like, don't you? Imperial Father won't restrict our choices even if the one you want to marry isn't a royal."
Deltan paused for a long time, contemplating before looking frustrated. "I know, it's just…" he trailed off.
Nine waited with a rare patience, waiting for him to put his thoughts into words. Even if she could read his emotions from his magic, she couldn't read his thoughts.
"I don't want to marry anyone."
Nine's brows shot up inwardly. Was this going where she thought it was going?
"It's not like I don't want to love anyone, but I just don't want to have any… intimate relations."
So Deltan was asexual then. That made… sense. Several things became clearer to her all at once. No wonder he had been so distraught over that incident with Rose. It would have been hard and traumatising for anyone but having someone asexual being touched that way without their consent would have been especially traumatising.
"Is this because of Rose?" she asked, having to clarify.
Deltan shook his head. "No, even before that. But I think she made things worse after it."
Nine felt the urge to strangle Rose again, feeling her possessiveness rise up. Unfortunately, she had already been executed by her father. They received a recording about it, which Deltan seemed to take in stride. Nine knew that after watching the video, he had been able to sleep easier.
"Okay, so. You don't want to have sex with anyone, right?" she said bluntly.
Deltan's face tinted red. Somehow, having to hear it come out from his younger brother's mouth seemed to make him feel deeply embarrassed.
"Right."
"So, we just have to find someone else who doesn't want that as well. As for heirs, we just have to find a surrogate or something."
It was at this moment when Emperor Destan walked in. Nine prodded Deltan in the back, pushing him forward.
Deltan uncomfortably explained what was wrong to his Imperial Father, suppressing the urge to hide in a hole somewhere. He was NOT comfortable with this! But he was willing to try and explain if it got him out of this predicament.
Emperor Destan looked deeply at his son and daughter. He never thought that of all his children, it would have been Deltan who inherited this from him. He had never shown any signs that something like this was going through his mind.
Deltan had always been flirting with girls on and off throughout his teens, only stopping when his younger brother had first started sparring with him.
The Emperor his hid embarrassment at the fact that he had never considered something like this. Out of all of his children, Deltan was the one who had shown the least signs of this, but then he should have realized the familiar signs that he got, since he had done the same thing in his youth.
The only difference was that he had acquiesced to the previous Emperor's demands. He knew that the only way he would be able to inherit the throne was if he had heirs. The previous Emperor had been a traditionalist in all senses of the word.
In the end, he had married, but it hadn't been without consequences of its own. He hadn't been able to treat any of his children with any forms of affection until Nine came along. He just couldn't handle the fact that he had to see his own genes mix with others to create a whole different being.
Just the thought of it had disgusted himself, and he was ashamed of that now. He hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until now. He realized that he hadn't treated his children with any affection. By now, they were already grown up. He had completely rejected their existence, like he was living in denial.
Nine tapped on the ground, activating the strongest anti-eavesdropping ward.
"I'm sorry, son," Emperor Destan said, letting out an uncharacteristic sigh. "I thought that you took more after your mother, since you acted the same way."
Deltan looked slightly more at ease now that he got it off his chest. "Does that mean that you're like me, Imperial Father?" he asked hesitantly.
Emperor Destan's brows furrowed. "You should call me father when we're alone," he said, feeling closer to his son now. He felt guilty that he hadn't paid much attention to this son of his.
Deltan felt something warm unfurl in his chest. Dare he hope…? "Yes, father."
"Unfortunately, the officials will make noise if the Eldest Prince doesn't marry anyone."
Deltan's face fell.
"But," the Emperor continued. "Asexuality isn't as uncommon as you might think. It's just that to find a willing partner who wants children as well is probably quite hard."
Deltan nodded, scrolling through the list of people in his life.
"Anyway, you don't necessarily need to find another person to have children with," Emperor Destan said, continuing to drop bombshells. "You just have to find someone to marry and give excuses to the officials."
Nine nodded in approval but corrected their father before he got any strange ideas. "Since Vampires can't have children anyway, you can fake it till we find a permanent solution. It's still possible to have a surrogate if necessary. We just somehow can't have children directly."
"After years of research, I found a way to get pregnant without having any sort of intercourse."
Nine's brain slowly processed before it suddenly clicked, her eyes widening ever so slightly.
"Just like Nine," he said nonchalantly, as if he hadn't completely changed their entire worldview.
Deltan stared at their father, stunned. No wonder Nine looked so much like him. No wonder it was only when Nine had been born that his father had a drastic change in the way he parented, doting and spoiling his younger brother.
He had always been consumed with jealousy at the way his Imperial Father had treated Nine. The way their father's eyes softened when he looked at his younger brother had driven him to jealousy no small amount of times. It was the main reason why had had gone to find trouble with Nine so many times.
Every time after a morning court, the way his father's indifferent eyes as he looked at him caused him to think about the way he looked at Nine instead. Truly, if he had no comparison, then it would have been normal, but the change was so drastic whenever he saw Nine and their Imperial Father interact.
It was only after Nine was born that their Imperial Father got somewhat softer when he looked at them, but it was nothing compared to the way he treated Nine. He had a love hate relationship with Nine at that time, leaning more towards hate.
Maybe it was because of a mother's feelings, in this case, father and mother, but Emperor Destan had carried Nine with him for nine months. This made him develop deeper feelings and formed a connection with the baby with him.
After having Nine, he could no longer treat his other children with such indifference, but the bulk of his feelings laid with Nine. Maybe it was because he spoilt her so severely that she had ended up so timid and cowardly, to the extent where she was too innocent.
Emperor Destan still blamed himself for that. His love had turned into poison, killing his only daughter. The grief he felt was too big. The person within his daughter's body was no longer the one he gave birth to, but he couldn't treat the person with his daughter's face harshly, so he strove to accept her as his daughter. Sometimes, he felt like he could see his original daughter's shadow within Nine. It made him feel that perhaps she would have been like this, if only he hadn't shielded her from everything.
Although late, he wanted to atone, and treat his other children better as well. The most painful thing for a parent was watching their children pass on before them.
He couldn't help but soften. Even though he hated their mothers, they were still his flesh and blood.
Nine couldn't help but stare at her father, fascinated. She had never thought that might be possible. How in the world had he managed do that? She directed shining eyes at her father.
Emperor Destan felt speechless upon seeing his daughter's eyes that seemed to be screaming 'tell me how', which was not in line with the reaction he thought he would get. Somehow, he had imagined more denial and disgust. He had been mentally preparing himself for this confrontation ever since he had conceived Nine, but now all the preparation was useless.
The relieved Emperor handed Nine his notes and diary recounting the entire experience.
Nine quickly flipped through the book, absorbing the knowledge within. "Amazing," she couldn't help but praise. Their father clearly had a talent for research and development, and this had been something that he was invested in.
This spell was something revolutionary. This was something that would allow anyone to have children, regardless of their gender or race. If this spell was made known to the world, then it was likely that they would see a drastic change later on.
"This," Nine said. "This will allow Vampires to have children as well. You see, we just have to tweak this rune, and this," she said, pointing at the runes.
Emperor Destan peered over her shoulder to look at the runes and slowly nodded, running through the information in his head. "Yes, and we can also change this matrix here to allow for - "
Deltan looked at the two dryly, unable to join into the complex discussion, but felt warm inside knowing how much they cared about him. How could he ever have gone through life without knowing about affection like this?
When he looked back at his past self, he felt like he was the worst kind of trash. It could be said that the luckiest thing that had happened in his life was insulting Nine so harshly that day, becoming her sparring partner in the end. Although at that time he felt like he was extremely unlucky, he now wouldn't trade that one changing point for anything in the world.
Deltan walked out of the throne room after all of the officials had left, his face still a blank slate. He didn't respond even when Nine tried talking to him.Nine sighed, furrowing her brows in worry. There was something eating at Deltan deep down, but she didn't know what it was, and she couldn't tell unless he opened his mouth to tell her. She was generally the type who wouldn't take the initiative to ask what was wrong unless there was something deeply wrong, but Deltan was worrying her deeply.She grabbed Deltan, teleporting the both of them back to her residence.Deltan snapped out of it slightly, smiling wanly at her. "It's fine, younger brother. I always knew that this day would come."She sighed briefly. "Eldest brother," she said, realizing that he had misunderstood their father. "You know that you can choose whoever you like, don't you? Imperial Father won't restrict our choices even if the one you want to marry isn't a royal."Deltan paused for a long time, contemplating before looking frustrated. "I know, it's just" he trailed off.Nine waited with a rare patience, waiting for him to put his thoughts into words. Even if she could read his emotions from his magic, she couldn't read his thoughts."I don't want to marry anyone."Nine's brows shot up inwardly. Was this going where she thought it was going?"It's not like I don't want to love anyone, but I just don't want to have any intimate relations."So Deltan was asexual then. That made sense. Several things became clearer to her all at once. No wonder he had been so distraught over that incident with Rose. It would have been hard and traumatising for anyone but having someone asexual being touched that way without their consent would have been especially traumatising."Is this because of Rose?" she asked, having to clarify.Deltan shook his head. "No, even before that. But I think she made things worse after it."Nine felt the urge to strangle Rose again, feeling her possessiveness rise up. Unfortunately, she had already been executed by her father. They received a recording about it, which Deltan seemed to take in stride. Nine knew that after watching the video, he had been able to sleep easier."Okay, so. You don't want to have sex with anyone, right?" she said bluntly.Deltan's face tinted red. Somehow, having to hear it come out from his younger brother's mouth seemed to make him feel deeply embarrassed."Right.""So, we just have to find someone else who doesn't want that as well. As for heirs, we just have to find a surrogate or something."It was at this moment when Emperor Destan walked in. Nine prodded Deltan in the back, pushing him forward.Deltan uncomfortably explained what was wrong to his Imperial Father, suppressing the urge to hide in a hole somewhere. He was NOT comfortable with this! But he was willing to try and explain if it got him out of this predicament.Emperor Destan looked deeply at his son and daughter. He never thought that of all his children, it would have been Deltan who inherited this from him. He had never shown any signs that something like this was going through his mind.Deltan had always been flirting with girls on and off throughout his teens, only stopping when his younger brother had first started sparring with him.The Emperor his hid embarrassment at the fact that he had never considered something like this. Out of all of his children, Deltan was the one who had shown the least signs of this, but then he should have realized the familiar signs that he got, since he had done the same thing in his youth.The only difference was that he had acquiesced to the previous Emperor's demands. He knew that the only way he would be able to inherit the throne was if he had heirs. The previous Emperor had been a traditionalist in all senses of the word.In the end, he had married, but it hadn't been without consequences of its own. He hadn't been able to treat any of his children with any forms of affection until Nine came along. He just couldn't handle the fact that he had to see his own genes mix with others to create a whole different being.Just the thought of it had disgusted himself, and he was ashamed of that now. He hadn't realized how bad it had gotten until now. He realized that he hadn't treated his children with any affection. By now, they were already grown up. He had completely rejected their existence, like he was living in denial.Nine tapped on the ground, activating the strongest anti-eavesdropping ward."I'm sorry, son," Emperor Destan said, letting out an uncharacteristic sigh. "I thought that you took more after your mother, since you acted the same way."Deltan looked slightly more at ease now that he got it off his chest. "Does that mean that you're like me, Imperial Father?" he asked hesitantly.Emperor Destan's brows furrowed. "You should call me father when we're alone," he said, feeling closer to his son now. He felt guilty that he hadn't paid much attention to this son of his.Deltan felt something warm unfurl in his chest. Dare he hope? "Yes, father.""Unfortunately, the officials will make noise if the Eldest Prince doesn't marry anyone."Deltan's face fell."But," the Emperor continued. "Asexuality isn't as uncommon as you might think. It's just that to find a willing partner who wants children as well is probably quite hard."Deltan nodded, scrolling through the list of people in his life."Anyway, you don't necessarily need to find another person to have children with," Emperor Destan said, continuing to drop bombshells. "You just have to find someone to marry and give excuses to the officials."Nine nodded in approval but corrected their father before he got any strange ideas. "Since Vampires can't have children anyway, you can fake it till we find a permanent solution. It's still possible to have a surrogate if necessary. We just somehow can't have children directly.""After years of research, I found a way to get pregnant without having any sort of intercourse."Nine's brain slowly processed before it suddenly clicked, her eyes widening ever so slightly."Just like Nine," he said nonchalantly, as if he hadn't completely changed their entire worldview.Deltan stared at their father, stunned. No wonder Nine looked so much like him. No wonder it was only when Nine had been born that his father had a drastic change in the way he parented, doting and spoiling his younger brother.He had always been consumed with jealousy at the way his Imperial Father had treated Nine. The way their father's eyes softened when he looked at his younger brother had driven him to jealousy no small amount of times. It was the main reason why had had gone to find trouble with Nine so many times.Every time after a morning court, the way his father's indifferent eyes as he looked at him caused him to think about the way he looked at Nine instead. Truly, if he had no comparison, then it would have been normal, but the change was so drastic whenever he saw Nine and their Imperial Father interact.It was only after Nine was born that their Imperial Father got somewhat softer when he looked at them, but it was nothing compared to the way he treated Nine. He had a love hate relationship with Nine at that time, leaning more towards hate.Maybe it was because of a mother's feelings, in this case, father and mother, but Emperor Destan had carried Nine with him for nine months. This made him develop deeper feelings and formed a connection with the baby with him.After having Nine, he could no longer treat his other children with such indifference, but the bulk of his feelings laid with Nine. Maybe it was because he spoilt her so severely that she had ended up so timid and cowardly, to the extent where she was too innocent.Emperor Destan still blamed himself for that. His love had turned into poison, killing his only daughter. The grief he felt was too big. The person within his daughter's body was no longer the one he gave birth to, but he couldn't treat the person with his daughter's face harshly, so he strove to accept her as his daughter. Sometimes, he felt like he could see his original daughter's shadow within Nine. It made him feel that perhaps she would have been like this, if only he hadn't shielded her from everything.Although late, he wanted to atone, and treat his other children better as well. The most painful thing for a parent was watching their children pass on before them.He couldn't help but soften. Even though he hated their mothers, they were still his flesh and blood.Nine couldn't help but stare at her father, fascinated. She had never thought that might be possible. How in the world had he managed do that? She directed shining eyes at her father.Emperor Destan felt speechless upon seeing his daughter's eyes that seemed to be screaming 'tell me how', which was not in line with the reaction he thought he would get. Somehow, he had imagined more denial and disgust. He had been mentally preparing himself for this confrontation ever since he had conceived Nine, but now all the preparation was useless.The relieved Emperor handed Nine his notes and diary recounting the entire experience.Nine quickly flipped through the book, absorbing the knowledge within. "Amazing," she couldn't help but praise. Their father clearly had a talent for research and development, and this had been something that he was invested in.This spell was something revolutionary. This was something that would allow anyone to have children, regardless of their gender or race. If this spell was made known to the world, then it was likely that they would see a drastic change later on."This," Nine said. "This will allow Vampires to have children as well. You see, we just have to tweak this rune, and this," she said, pointing at the runes.Emperor Destan peered over her shoulder to look at the runes and slowly nodded, running through the information in his head. "Yes, and we can also change this matrix here to allow for - "Deltan looked at the two dryly, unable to join into the complex discussion, but felt warm inside knowing how much they cared about him. How could he ever have gone through life without knowing about affection like this?When he looked back at his past self, he felt like he was the worst kind of trash. It could be said that the luckiest thing that had happened in his life was insulting Nine so harshly that day, becoming her sparring partner in the end. Although at that time he felt like he was extremely unlucky, he now wouldn't trade that one changing point for anything in the world.
