Chapter 23 Aria (Edited)
The girl kept quiet for a second while trying to remember if she has herd of someone with that name from any of the big families but she didn’t remember somene called like that so she simply answered.
“Alright Aster you can call me Aria, now let’s eat while it’s hot”.
While they ate, Aster asked Aria about her life, what she liked and what she didn’t like, he also asked her why she worked at this inn because although Aster didn’t ask her directly, he didn’t understand why a woman as beautiful as her would work as a waiter when just by saying a word, she would have a line of suitors ready to woo her.
Aria could read between the lines and felt a bit embarrassed; she couldn’t tell Aster that she met him at the reception while in disguise and that the only reason she was the one who brought the food to his room, was that she couldn’t believe that a small child asked for a service like that and that she would not allow it in her inn.
Aria made up a story in which the owner of the inn paid for her mother’s treatment without asking for anything in return, but she wanted to return the favor by working on the inn until she had enough money to pay her, she didn’t want to lie to Aster but for various reasons she did not want to be associated with the public image of the owner of the inn.
Aster heard her story and felt a little sad for her, after all for him his family was his treasure and he can’t think of how he would feel if Lilia were in a similar situation as Aria’s mother.
The rest of the dinner was much more fun, Aster told her stories from his old world disguised as personal experiences, Aria had fun listening to him and didn’t realize how much time she spent at his room.
When she realized that they had spent more than 3 hours talking and having fun she got up while putting the dirty dishes in a space ring, when she was going to say goodbye to Aster, she heard him say.
“I had a lot of fun Aria; would it be possible for us to have dinner together all the time I am at this inn?”.
Aster saw that she was hesitating and he added.
“Don’t worry naturally I understand that you are working at the inn, in the book it said that the service cost 5 gold coins, let me give you 10 gold coins that way you will not have to worry about attending to anyone else, take it as a gift to congratulate you on the recovery of your mother”.
Aria wanted to refuse, she had actually enjoyed dinner with Aster so she planned to invent some excuse to repeat it and here he was giving a perfect solution to the imaginary problem that she had invented, she could not help but smile and respond with a melodious voice.
“I would love to but you need to ask the owner to let me be the one who dines with you every day”.
Aster was happy that she accepted, gave her the ten gold coins as promised and accompanied her to the door while saying goodbye to her with a smile.
Aria slowly disappeared into the hallway and while no one was looking, she took out a spiritual talisman from her ring and her appearance changed to that of the woman Aster met at the reception.
When Aria returned to her office, she told the person in charge of receiving the orders that when the guest of room 103 requested service, he should notify her immediately since she would personally bring him the food, the poor manager nodded while thinking, what was the status of that guest? so that his niece the young miss of the Ghale family and a genius cultivator in the stellar constellation realm would have to deliver food to him personally.
The rest of the night was quite normal, Aster meditated for a couple of hours and then he just fell asleep, tomorrow he would go hunting and training in the bloody forest but before that he would look for the owner of the inn to speak about Aria’s circumstances.
As morning came Aster got up and after yawning, he went to wash his face and teeth in the bathroom, he changed his clothes and put on his coat, then left the room with his backpack, he calmly went down the stairs and when he arrived at the reception, he saw the same woman from the day before who he assumed was the owner of the inn.
Aria saw Aster approaching her and decided to tease him a bit.
“Good morning young man, did you enjoy last night?”.
Aster felt strange hearing her, somehow her voice and presence felt familiar then he realized something but his expression did not change.
“Well, I have to say that I did not expect that how interesting”, he though as he answered.
“Good morning, I had a great time having dinner with Aria and that is why I came to reserve the room I am in for a whole year and I also want her to have dinner with me every day I request it”.
Aria almost fell off her chair when she heard it, this kid actually planned to occupy the room for a full year, and didn’t forget to ask for her to dine with him every night.
“She decided to confirm with Aster in case her ears were failing”.
“Young man, are you sure of what you say, do you know that to reserve the room for a year, together with Aria’s service you would have to pay about two thousand gold coins?”.
Aster simply took out a spirit stone that he had put in his pocket beforehand and handed it to her while saying in a calm but serious tone.
“With this I should cover the total payment and also, I do not want Aria to attend to anyone else … there will be days that I will not be able to be at the inn, but I better not find out that she had to do some work extra while I’m gone”.
Aria was speechless, if you ever were to find someone who sold spiritual stones instead of exchanging them for materials of earthly origin grade or higher the price would be at least fifteen thousand gold coins for even the worst and smallest spirit stone, and here this boy had taken out a spiritual stone just to make sure she didn’t make a young commoner girl serve anyone and only dine with him.
Aria couldn’t help but smile, “what an incredible child ♥ “, she thought.