The Spider Queen

(Rokan's Perspective)

Duke Peterlor was currently lounging on a comfortable chair while chugging wine shots after wine shots into his mouth.

He had finished his twelfth bottle of the evening, but no expression of happiness or drunkenness could be seen on his face.

His high cultivation level meant that his cells kept breaking down the alcohol in the drinks before any effect could occur!

Being one of the strongest members of humanity was all well and good… but the cost was too damn high in the mind of the duke.

Never needing to eat nor sleep took some of the simple pleasures out of life.

Another pretty woman approached him to strike up a conversation, but the duke just lazily waved her away.

He may look like a man in his early forties, but he was still considered a child to some of the older cultivators.

High tier cultivators would be able to restore their youthful appearances but Rokan had chosen not to do so.

There was no shortage of beautiful women who wanted to marry into the Peterlor household, but he had turned down all the offers.

His precious daughter was the only person he had in his heart now….it was the last gift he had gotten from the woman he used to love.

Plus, he knew that any child he sired would pose a threat to Sophie's right to inherit his duke status.

The ministers of the court only kept silent due to his strength and the fact that no other relatives with a claim to his inheritance remained.

"Can you please conduct yourself with dignity befitting the upper nobility," a stern voice sounded out from the side.

Rokan looked up to see an elderly man gazing at his figure with a stern expression. The man had a wrinkled hand which tightly gripped the cane that he used to balance upright.

There were permanent frown marks on his face that made him seem particularly unpleasant.

"Ahh if it isn't the Grand Tutor himself. Care for a drink old man?" Rokan ignored the harsh words and passed the man another glass of wine.

If it were not for the fact that this was a royal banquet…he would have knocked the other person directly to the ground.

Deahvi Isa may have the appearance of a grandfather but he was quite the influential figure in the royal court as he led a popular faction that was in the emperor's favor.

Rokan intensely disliked the man as he was one of the chorus of voices that had petitioned the king to get his daughter's status removed from heir apparent when he had returned sixteen years ago.

The grand tutor had recently been quietly gathering support for a controversial bill that advocated to kick the other races out of the Federation and leave it entirely in human control.

It was a shadowy movement as significant backlash would occur among the general population if became known to the public.

"I hope you have considered marrying an appropriate lady from one of the households I suggested and finding yourself a proper heir," the tutor spoke with narrowed eyes.

"You may be powerful but will that strength of yours last forever?"

Rokan had one message for him,

"Fuck off."

He was about to give this man a fierce beating when he noticed a maidservant walking up from the corner of the room with his lovely daughter in tow.

(Sophie's POV)

Sophie noticed her father relaxing on a chair while speaking with an elderly man, but she could tell that there was tension between the two of them. The maid led her to the duke and bowed once before departing.

The conversation between the two men was immediately halted at her appearance and the man opposite her father shot her a strange look before departing with an angry huff.

"Come Sophie…let's go from this wretched place," the duke said with a scowl.

Sophie observed that her dad was in a bad mood, so she just nodded in acknowledgement before following him out of the banquet hall.

Sound Void!

A black pulse was emitted from her father's hand the covered the pair in a thin layer that seemed to distort the air around them.

The duke turned his daughter and spoke solemnly,

"That man leads a dangerous faction of radicals that seem to be getting more and more popular among the upper nobility circles so please be careful in the future."

"They hate hybrids and the other races of the Federation and have recently been pushing for their elimination from society."

"Would that even be possible?" Sophie gasped in shock.

"Actually, I do believe that if humanity decided to wipe out the other three races from the Federation…it would be possible," her father replied after a brief moment of contemplation.

"The biggest problem is that it would be a pyrrhic victory at best. It would leave us vulnerable to other universal civilisations that see humanity as a threat."

The Earth Federation was founded on the backs of the four slave races of the previous Draxi empire. They rose up against the oppression to fight for equal rights.

Each race was selectively bred to fill a specific niche of the old empire.

Humans and Mendolesa were the soldiers of the Draxi army who fought and died for the glory of their masters.

The Servies and Quafes tended to deal with administrative matters as well as household duties and odd jobs.

In the modern era of the Federation, each race was given their own home planet which consisted of mainly those of the same species while the other colonies contained a healthy mix.

The Mendolesa and humanity had the most warriors capable of cultivation and fighting but powerful figureheads were present in all four races.

Sophie had lived on planet Gaia for her entire life, so she had only seen pictures of the other races in textbooks and on the virtual net. Maybe it was the fact that she was a hybrid that there was no feeling of hatred towards the other species of the Federation.

She even thought that some of them looked pretty cute!

The duke had instilled in his daughter from a young age that all races had people who were awful and those that were good….

He then told the young Sophie Peterlor to assume that all strangers were not good.

"Alright well your old man will deal with those stubborn turtles, so you just relax and don't worry about me," Rokan smiled at Sophie who was frowning after the unpleasant encounter.

Sophie gently smiled back at her father and the pair strolled out of the royal palace into the waiting hover car.

She did not miss the look in the grand tutor's eyes when he seemed to peer at her with a disgusted expression before he left, but at her level there was nothing she could do.

Qi body stage cultivators were nothing but ants in the vast cosmos.

"I will become stronger," Sophie muttered to herself while watching the tall buildings flow by.