Chapter 562: Chapter 562 - Fathering Daughters Always Takes A *Special* Amount Of Patience

"She left them all together in... a pile?"

Qatrand gil Yecine’s nod to her father-in-law was slight. Her hands rested on the tastefully Crystal dotted stone railing along the edge of a reworked terrace that sat overlooking part of the garden pathways. Changes over the last few years to this home were clearly spurred on by the very idea of the eldest daughter of the Goltbred family, off building a whole impressive place of her own just on the other side of a realmshard teleportation.

Calloused fingers spread out along the estate’s stonework feature, feeling both very relaxed and still quite tense after the events of the day so far. For the most part Qat thought they were aesthetic improvements - at least they felt much more freely Yatrel than before.

’But it’s also hard to see places you had sentimental attachments to change at all. It makes the memories feel wrong.’

"Against their golden gate motif. What was left of it was bent together with many of the guard’s weapons tossed onto it like they didn’t matter."

The brown haired man leaned back in his chair and exhaled through his nose at the statements. He could picture the golden blade she spoke of well enough. He’d stood in front of it dozens of times over the decades, waiting for meetings or just visiting Anper back when they were actually on friendly terms.

"Somehow, I feel sorry."

"She’s very dramatic, you know. I love her for it. And I love her anyway, even when I’m just being patient with her."

"...Somehow, I feel *even more* sorry. Although I know I didn’t exactly... ’raise’ her to be that way. Since she had those memories."

A little chuckle as her pigeon blues tracked something in the distance, knowing that the pair she awaited was incoming. Ondua had been doing a lot of training himself since visiting the Exclave, but his spiritual sense still wasn’t quite as honed as his daughter’s spouse, despite being older. After all, the young woman had around a decade of advice from the strongest spiritualist on the continent - and he had maybe a couple years of it.

...And also a few snide, unsolicited comments about his ability that were coated too well in the ’saccharine’ teasing voice of his then little girl. El had been content to wait for him to catch on back then and ask for more advice. Yet, she knew it was probably a bit hard for someone his age to treat their own offspring as a well of information. No matter how ’precocious’ and book-learned she pretended to be as a little ’prodigy’.

"You know, most of the guards were fine when I first got there. Confused, but alright. Do you think you could have done that - whether you should have or not aside?"

"No."

"I might have been able to get through like she did, but not without hurting some of them more than that."

"Why does it feel like you asked and the answered that way just to upstage me? I’d like to change mine to what you just said."

Laughing once more and fixing her blonde hair back into a ponytail, Qatrand showed off a grin that hadn’t been seen in many years. As a child and growing up, she had always been quite reserved and taciturn - just like any Yecine. But emotion often came out because of Elua, he’d seen. And this one was on the same level as after the two young teens had first been married.

"I’ve been trying my best to tease you like she might have. Sort of. I’m glad you finally noticed one."

"...I noticed, daughter. Don’t worry."

She paused at the ease and love with which he still called her that and then adjusted the ribbon in her hair again... while thinking she perhaps should have shown more interest in reading his spirit in the past, considering it was one of the stronger allied ones around. But unlike with a certain wife, her tendrils of spirit didn’t *naturally* just try to invade most people’s private space.

"I see."

Her nerves were still a little high, knowing everything that waited inside the estate here for her to deal with. Siblings that she needed to talk to just as much as El had needed to talk to Onya. A woman and her three children were also in there, without anything like good excuses about their father to deliver. Not to mention everything that her mint-drop just kicked off by her prior actions.

"Yatrel is going to want to pretend to be upset when she’s told about all this. Maybe I should go in and warn her."

"...You don’t look like you’re going anywhere?"

"Funny, that. I think for once I’d like to see her taken aback at something our eldest daughter has done. The things Elua showed her were always told to me well after she had the chance to compose herself."

His voice carried a bit of a drowsy warmth to it, considering he’d been up since midnight. Some work that others had left piled up at the Ironclad Order suddenly turned urgent, forcing an early day on him. He’d wanted to clear as much of the paperwork and meetings as possible with his eldest planning to come back.

’Should have made that afternoon tea after all...’

Cultivators using the right techniques could theoretically lose a bit of sleep without worry, by suppressing a lot of the body signals that activated the usual instructions of the natural circadian rhythms. But until they became Defiers - and unless they reforged themselves into something extra different - they were *mostly* still constrained by a lot of the core patterns of what made the human form ’human’ in the first place.

"So, is there anything else I should know about what happened today?"

Ciliary muscles contracting, pupils widening and looking quickly away from the brown eyes that met hers, Qat felt a genuine moment of strange ’panic’ in her heart. Like she’d done something that he might not understand - or that he could disapprove of. Rubbing the back of her neck and adjusting her stance to be much more defensive, rather than her slightly relaxed around him...

"Well, nothing I think is very appropriate to speak with you about." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

"Ah... no. No, no. I really don’t need to know about any of that. Though it was pretty much expected. That the two of you would be intimate as soon as you found a quiet place."

A hand that was as much ’culprit’ to *any of that* as her spirit had been... began sliding off her neck and down her torso - just like the strings moving the limb were cut. The blonde cleared her throat twice and took a very deep breath, holding it in while closing her eyes and trying to quiet her spirit.

"I was just asking about matters with the Yecine. You started off telling me about things by saying you wanted advice?"

She wasn’t used to blushing all that much, other than when around her mint-drop. However, she definitely wasn’t used to feeling so ’mortified’ when she assumed wrongly about something. Of course, she rarely was making assumptions about something... like talking out loud about private sexual matters in the first place.

’That... this isn’t going to happen every time I think about these things, is it?’

What made it far worse was that she could feel the ’glee’ in the fragment within her chest. Her wife knew something had just embarrassed her, likely knew enough of the reason why, and was ’exulting’ and *exalted* in it. The swordswoman knew the best way to train her own way out of the current feelings would be to just accept that there was eventually another side of it. Where things would feel much more commonplace.

But for now-

"You’re right, Ondua. You should apologize to me more. The daughter you raised probably should have been punished a bit more when she was younger. No matter how sweet and cute she seemed."

"...Huh? S-sorry, dear?"

"Thank you. Now just... give me a moment. Ah, nevermind. They are running back now."

Holding her hand over her own forehead and squeezing tight, Qat quickly turned her own hair raven black while sighing. It was the closest thing she could think of to express part of her displeasure. Her distaste with being treated... as ’adorable’. And also for putting all those sounds in her head from earlier!

"Ready to go inside now, darling? Or do we need to find somewhere else for a while again..."

Hands suddenly on her shoulders, voice speaking right next to a husband-wife’s ear, Elua er Goltbred leaned over while standing balanced on the railing behind her ’fortress’. Informing her little sister that she was racing her there and taking off before she could react had been a bit of fun, but none so much as two hands suddenly reaching up and gripping the sides of her skull.

"Be good. Your family is right there."

"And I’ve lived most of this life hearing what my mom and dad got up to at night. If anyone should be embarrassed, it is that man, not you."

Pointing her finger over the swordswoman’s shoulder... only tripled the damage done to one poor father.

"Urk. I know I shouldn’t have expected something more. But to be pointed at and called ’that man’ before even a hello... I’m glad you’re back, little one."

Instead of looking his way, smiling, or anything like that... the reincarnator just kept staring at the little hairs that kept wanting to turn back to blonde on her spouse’s head. Though she did ’half-heartedly’ wave his way after he spoke, with a quite lazy hand motion. Ondua’s exhaustion almost caught up to the former Hero all at once, allowing a very bitter thought to sneak its way through.

’...I *think* I’m happy you’re back, at least?’