Chapter 872: The second day of the evaluation trial (part 25)

’That’s not fair, falling asleep while being caressed by my darling, when I have had to spent many nights without getting any "love" until recently... I’ll overlook it just this time since Feli was endured something like that alone for so many years’, said Lilia who watched the whole thing from within the mind space.

The charming dragon mother has quite the unique "standing" in the group, because Lilia is quite young in relativity to her realm, and also personality wise she isn’t exactly "mature", but at the same time she is also Aster and Alice’s mother and though her relationship with them doesn’t really reflect that fact much in the open, it still contributes to Lilia not really mixing much with the vast majority of the girls of the family who are basically on the young side in all aspects.

It also doesn’t help that Lilia has never been exactly a sociable person, asides from Aster’s godmothers who are pretty much an exception to the rule, there were a few other people who kept a positive or neutral stance towards her, but they ultimately couldn’t get actually close to Lilia.

It was better than the other option though, since the dragon mother either was indifferent to the rest, this included both those that "admired" and "loved" her and those that hated and envied her.

In a sense, Alice is actually "tamer" since the wild dragon princess is more unrestrained so her problem isn’t getting along with others, but whether others can stand Alice getting along with them, considering her wild and zero filter tendencies, the part where she pretty much doesn’t care about anything outside of what she likes remains though.

The point is that Lilia even if minimally, had changed after Alice was born and through the years the weight in her heart that her status as a "mother", had, grew more and more, so she actually found herself enjoying the company of the other mothers of the family, starting with Sarina whom also became pretty much as close to her as her sisters are, since they not only both loved Aster but were also rivals, then Felicia and Tamara entered the scene and while neither were Aster’s lovers, she still became rather close with them despite their not that numerous interactions.

Aster who was legitimately surprised over the previous, couldn’t help but chuckle at Lilia’s words.

"So, she is "Feli" now, and here I thought that out of the mother group, you got along with her the least, given how your other self was so "aggressive" towards her playfulness", jokingly said Aster to which Lilia pouted as she mumbled.

’Well, she would be way cuter if she was as calm as she is now, in a daily basis, speaking of that, don’t you think that’s enough petting for now’, at the end of the day, Lilia couldn’t help but feel jealous at the sight of her darling caressing Felicia’s head, which made the energy constitution mother smile in her dreams.

To which Aster shrugged but didn’t stop caressing Felicia’s silky hair as he answered.

"I might as well have some "fun" too, given that she pulled a fast one on me by falling asleep so peacefully that I would feel bad if I woke her up", he said.

Aster was referring to the fact that he would receive countless stares if he were to come out of the woods, while carrying this sleeping beauty in his arms, no one would think ill of him, but he could already hear those cute girls gossiping about it for the rest of the day, and Alice was coming back in super needy mode later too.

The most amusing part of it is that Felicia obviously did it on purpose, she was getting back at Aster for the whole thing regarding knowing she was an "innocent" young miss instead of the playful mother that kept joking around with him, all along, which made the energy constitution mother feel deeply embarrassed.

’She does indeed look better now that a part of the burden she has been carrying all this time, has been lifted from her shoulders, perhaps her true "beauty" will surface after she comes out clean with those two...’, thought Aster.

Speaking of which, Aster suddenly looked to the right and then said in a relatively loud voice.

"You can come out now, Sophia", with Aster’s greenlight, Erick’s fiancée came out of the a few trees into the distance, she wasn’t spying on Aster, but had arrived a couple of seconds ago.

She just didn’t know how to announce her presence after seeing Felicia happily sleeping on the grass next to Aster, while the latter was caressing her head.

Don’t get it wrong, she didn’t find the situation suspicious in the way people that don’t know Aster would, nor did she find it awkward, because just like Erick, Sophia pretty much would trust Aster with her life.

"Sorry... I didn’t want to interrupt miss Felicia’s "treatment" but that dumb boyfriend of mine had his already distracted mind, more scattered than usual, so I just wanted to come and see how things were doing", said Sophia as she scratched the back of her head.

Unlike Felicia and Tiana, Sophia doesn’t stay at the log cabin opposite to Aster’s one, she lives with Erick in their own log cabin, except for the past night when both the energy constitution mother and daughter stayed with Erick and Sophia, at Felicia’s request.

And while they had fun during the day, Sophia noticed that the rest Felicia had at night, wasn’t closely as good as when she stayed at the log cabin close to Aster’s one, which is normal, proximity to him gave the ones in said log cabin have some sweet dreams, as minimal as it was, even when her lineage was rampaging, Felicia could rest at night due to that.

So direct contact through the head pats she was receiving, and that relaxed and peaceful smile she had while sleeping, made it obvious that for Sophia that Aster had managed to help Felicia and she didn’t want to interrupt that.

"Don’t worry, I was in a bit of a pinch here, so it’s good that you are here, miss Felicia is better now, you can bring her back to her room and let her rest until lunch and tell that brother of mine to not worry, they’ll be fine", said Aster as he carried Felicia like a princess to then pass her to Sophia.

"Thanks... brother in law", said Sophia, which surprised Aster for a second, she tried to not show it, but while Sophia trusted Aster, she also rarely interacted with him, mostly because she was always out of the sect making sure that Erick didn’t dive straight into trouble at the first chance.

This was the first time she openly "recognized" Aster as Erick’s brother, it meant that her respect for him had increased, but at the same time it wasn’t due to Aster’s actions only, Sophia had quite the instincts and unlike Erick she also used her brains, she was both strong and smart and that’s how she tamed Erick.

"No problem, family is there to help each other, so, look after my brother in the ways I can’t", said Aster, he might not show it but Erick is indeed his friend, regardless of his relationship with Tiana or Felicia, within his range of age Aster only has Erick as a male friend and he considers him as his brother, just like Erick does.

With what Erick and Tiana were about to learn, they might not "need" support from others, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have it, Sophia calling Aster as "brother in law" was also to mark the fact that she was taking a step in her relationship with Erick, because and as much as you can guess, they had yet to do anything past spending time together, Sophia hasn’t even managed to get a kiss from her dumb boyfriend.

That’s also in part why she was really pissed at those women that tried to seduce that muscle brain which she has been spending so much time into turning more into a civilized person.

Aster was there for Erick as a friend and Sophia would be there for him as his lover, both are different kinds of support and both will probably be needed, Tiana was much more reasonable than Erick so she was less troublesome in that aspect, but Erick was simply too honest with his emotions.

That doesn’t mean Aster thought they would resent Felicia, contrary to what the energy constitution mother herself thought, it was more of a case about how they were going to react after knowing that some of the bastards that caused their biological mother’s death and their "real" father’s death in a sense too, were in this place.

"Mm", with a small nod, Sophia left as quietly as she arrived and that left Aster alone in his forge for a moment, in which he remained silent.

’It’s still not an impending situation, but at some point, I will have to talk with those two about my origin, sis for sure won’t care about it, but what about mom...’, he thought to himself, there was only a single secret Aster kept from everyone, besides Rya, the fact that he came from earth.

Aria and the other girls wouldn’t be particularly affected by this, since well, the first identity of Aster they got to know was him as a "man", but to Alice and especially Lilia, he was their brother and son, respectively.

And no, he didn’t remain quiet about it out of cowardice much less out of selfishness, before his relationship with those two changed, he wanted to tell them about this, but both told him to keep his "secret" until he felt it was the right time to tell them, even Rya agreed with their opinion and that’s why until now he hadn’t spoke about that subject with anyone.

But enough of such serious matters, right now Aster wasn’t planning on working in the forge, because the little wyrm wasn’t present, also he was going to use a freshly processed round of iron today, for which he had left the furnaces in his working area, warming up since earlier when they had woken up.

"The dragon princess is going to occupy all the noon, so it’s only fair that my ice princess gets all my attention during morning", jokingly said Aster as he put iron ore as well as some whitish crystals and charcoal into one furnace, and only iron ore in other furnaces and with that he was ready to go and pay a visit to Aria who was waiting at the lake, for her reward.

...

Imagine Aster’s surprise when he arrived at the wood dock and was welcomed with the sight of not only Aria but also a certain ligress who was sitting on the dock, next to Aria while both were cutely swinging their feet into the fresh water.

Seeing Aria’s eyes brighten, Mira turned her head to left and saw Aster who had a "surprised" expression, arriving to their vicinity and directly said.

"What, am I not welcomed here?", as always the ligress girl sounded cold but her "harsh" exterior couldn’t trick Aster who chuckled as he shook his head, which originally gave Mira the wrong impression that she was being a "bother", until she heard Aster’s next words.

"I was only planning on spoiling one ice princess, but a second one makes no difference for me".

"Grrr", to which the ligress softly growled at him in response, there was his usual teasing.

"Weren’t you watching over Kana, Espi and that new little sister you adopted recently though?", asked Aster as he walked into the dock and then sat down next to Aria, he was at the ice princess’s right while Mira was sitting at her left.

"I was, but with both Guardian and Esmeralda covering up for me, everything will be fine, Lauren is having fun playing with Kana and Espi too, so I took a small break to come and have a small talk with Aria", said the ligress girl to which Aster nodded.

"So, I take it that you wanted me to be present given that you knew I was coming to spend some time with Aria, right?", he said making Mira slightly show her teeth at Aster as she mumbled.

"You already know what is this about, but you are going to make me say it, right, you tease-loving perverted dragon", said the ligress which made Aster chuckle.

"It’s a really important moment for two people I hold dear to me, so of course I want to hear it directly from the involved parties", he said.

"...", after a moment of silence, Aria exchanged gazes with Mira and then both spoke at the same time.

"We are officially entering a contract", said both "ice princesses" in unison, which nearly made Aster openly laugh out loud like Erick does.

He already expected for this to happen, because while Mira thought he didn’t notice, the ligress has been getting closer with Aria when he "wasn’t" looking, well Mira believed that until the attack of the bear, when Aster’s absurd range of sight was revealed to everyone, from that moment onwards, the ligress realized that Aster was just feigning ignorance to tease her with it later.

Speaking of which, Aster directly continued to mess with the ligress by saying.

"So, was Esmeralda’s situation what finally made you take the last step?", he jokingly asked to the ligress who softly growled in response as she answered.

"You know, if I didn’t know you as much as I do, I would have punched you in the face right now", she said.

What the ligress meant is that, the previous sounded as if Aster was saying that Mira finally decided to enter a contract with Aria, after seeing that there were benefits for spirit elements in this place.

But of course, that’s not what Aster meant, neither was that the reason as to why Mira took that decision, probably different spirit elements have different takes on entering a contract with a cultivator, but at least for Esmeralda and Mira, the previous is a really important matter and they wouldn’t accept just anyone as their contractor.

Heck, the ligress endured countless years of torture because she refused to enter a contract with someone she didn’t consider worthy, and Esmeralda remained trapped in her realm which was visited by a lot of people through the years, but she didn’t choose anyone until Aster and Kana appeared, and by that time her realm was already showing signs of decay, which is why spirit beasts were randomly dragged into it, just like it happened to the little wyrm and those other wyrms that used to inhabit it before they were hunted or captured.

So, they wouldn’t just accept a contractor for something as simple as gaining power, the ligress was still dealing with the aftermath of all the torture she went through until not too long ago, the wound in her heart was healed by Aster, Aria, Kana and the others, but she still got rather aggressive when it came to yang related things with not "positive" effects like it was Aster’s case.

She finally agreeing to have Aria as her contractor meant that she had taken another step in her recovery, not to mention that this also confirmed that she wasn’t planning on leaving the family after she had regained her power, given that she knew that Aria would never willingly leave Aster’s side.

Which might make you wonder, "What was Esmeralda’s situation, referring to, then?", and the answer is simple, it referred to the fact that Aster used such an important reward as a belief implementation, "just" to grant the spirit wind girl with a way to participate in this place’s events.

Not because of the benefits that would bring to the group, but because it was the right thing to do and while a hybrid, Mira is also part spirit element and she has experienced being seen and treated as a "thing" before.

Those guys who captured her coveted her lineage, her beauty and her power, as both a spirit beast and a spirit element, which is not far from what would happen if cultivators at the four heavenly quadrants knew that spirit elements could directly make contracts with them.

"Yes, it was in part thanks to that, I honestly had already decided to have Aria as my contractor but... I just couldn’t bring myself to take the last step after remembering the gazes in the eyes of those pieces of trash or the way they talked about me", said the ligress to then add.

"But you guys are different, those little girls don’t care about such things, for them I’m just their big sister Mira and as much as I’m going to regret saying this, you are a good person, not the type to impress others with pretty words and good deeds, you even go as far as to purposedly make others feel "angry" at you, so that they aren’t enthralled by the innate charm of a dragon, and that’s something I have never seen even those guys who consider themselves "good" do", she said, to which Aster softly laughed.

"Being a decent person is not something for which you should expect a "reward", nor something that should be considered especial, I don’t want others growing closer to me, just because I showed basic kindness to them, but because they appreciate me for who I am", he said with a slightly melancholic voice.

Like previously stated, Aster is not the sole decent guy in the whole four heavenly quadrants, but, the reason as to why it might have appeared to be the case, except for a few selected cases like Erick or Cayden for those close to his range of age, or people like Thomas and his best friend, Julian, the old punishment elder Salazar, William or one of Tamara’s brothers, is because the vast majority of male cultivators are indeed not what you would consider "good", from a humane perspective to be accurate.

Because from a cultivator’s perspective, actively looking for lots of partners and using beauty, talent and background as standards is normal, don’t forget that high ranked cultivators grow distant from human perspective, and well, they are the ones who educate the younger generations, so that ideology is passed around that way too, this doesn’t only apply to male cultivators though.

It might not be in the same aspects for female cultivators, since they usually don’t seek to have multiple partners, but the energy/soul beauty standards, talent and background being of utmost importance at the time of choosing who to tag along with, are also a hard solid ideology in their case.

That being said, there is bound to be variety in this vast world, so of course you’ll see much more "humane" values in some families and forces, therefore, guys that actually look past appearance, talent and the like are not an extremely rare occurrence as it might appear to be the case considering that at the end of the day only Aster and Erick remained as the sole male disciples of the sect.

However, there is a "trap" here, and that is the fact that in many cases said attitudes previously mentioned are not inculcated into them, because that’s how things should be as Aster said, but because it serves to a hidden purpose, "impressing" others like Mira said.

Since being a basic decent person is not a common thing, then it becomes more of an "extra" rather than the norm, and that is used by others for their respective not decent in the slightest goals, many among the decent marriage prospects that were constantly presented to Valentina and those in the list that was given to Agnes, belonged to that category.

And that’s where Aster and Erick differed, neither tried to impress anyone with their actions, what they did, they did because that’s how they were and that is indeed a rare quality, not only in the cultivation world, but even in a mortal one.

Aster even went as far as to counter the natural charm that his dragon lineage granted him, with his playful personality, though he indeed enjoyed teasing the girls.

And Mira respected him for that, because it would be so easy to just say "Meh, I was born with this, so it’s not like I’m doing it on purpose" and just let things flow as they would normally do, but he put the effort and more importantly he didn’t allow for it to happen, because he didn’t think it was right, he had the control to not let things go the way they were "naturally" supposed to, but the way he wanted them to, which is also why many girls like Mina or Felicia agreed that if someone had to have all the dangerous talents focused in him, that would be Aster.

The previous was one of the things which was hard for Aster to accept about the cultivation world, as someone who lived and was raised in earth, the sisters at the orphanage where he lived were good people and the same applied to those other kids that grew alongside and after him, that’s why Aster despite feeling "incomplete" and never getting too invested in others, destined a part of his paycheck to the orphanage since he started working.

Though it is also true, that he changed after arriving at this world, not only was he able to dream when he slept but that sensation of "lacking" disappeared and, he also knew that he accepted the bloody and brutal reality of the cultivation world, eerily easily not to mention well, the fact that he loved Lilia and Alice a bit too much.

"Mmm, now that reminds me that Kana gains some resemblance to Esmeralda when she uses her wind, so, will I see my Aria with white-silver hair, or perhaps with tiger ears and a tail, I wonder?", jokingly said Aster, which made the ligress glare at him.

’This pervert, he is absolutely going to try and touch Aria’s ears when she uses resonance... ah!’, the inner thoughts of the ligress girl were interrupted by Aster casually jumping into the lake while holding onto Aria’s hand which ended up dragging Mira too, because Aria held onto her hand as well.

"Splash", which resulted in the three of them splashing water all over the place.