Chapter 884: The third day of the evaluation trial (part 1)

Unlike entering the warrior hall, leaving it was much faster, Aster and the girls blinked and they were back at the center of their camp, around the monoliths like before they left.

Since time flowed at half what it would inside the warrior hall when compared to the outside world, for the ones waiting for Aster and those four’s return at the camp, only half an hour had passed.

"Senior brother is back!", those girls gathered earlier to send Aster’s group off, but since the vast majority was at the last part of doing their daily tasks, after that, they left to finish their respective assignments.

So, a girl from the black sword was left to stand in guard for when they returned, this wasn’t just because those cute girls wanted to welcome Aster back, but also in case there was an emergency of any kind, after all no one knows what could happen.

Of course, everything was fine, well there was indeed something that needed to be dealt with, which was Alice’s neediness, but there was no risk involved in letting her wait, so long as she was allowed to remain stuck to Aster like bubblegum, that wild dragon princess was willing to leave the "bigger" rewards for later.

Alice’s attitude might be chaotic and wild, but she is not dumb in the slightest, she just prefers to not put much thought into things but she doesn’t lose in brains when compared to girls that are known for it, like Mylene or Mina for example, her mindset is just different, but you can still see glimpses of wit from her, like right now for example.

’Hehe, the more things get dragged on, the more I can demand as compensation~’, thought the wild dragon princess as she licked her lips, an action that didn’t go unnoticed by Aster, especially because she also tightened the grip of her tail around his body at the same time.

Unfortunately, his hands were tied here, he had things to do earlier so he couldn’t just leave his duties aside to play with Alice, then the warrior hall situation also happened, and both have come back to bite him in the form of a needy wild dragon princess, well, it is also true that Aster loves to spoil her, but that’s beside the point.

That girl who was left to wait for Aster and the girls to return, called Valentina, Mikaela, Angela, Eris Mina, in other words the ones to be put in command in case Aster was not present, they weren’t the only ones that came to meet Aster though.

An extra pair of "mothers" also tagged along, as in Sarina and Felicia, also came, normally their respective daughters and a certain little wyrm would have come to meet Aster as well, but like other girls who had finished their daily tasks, those three were having a nice refreshing bath in preparation for dinner.

As for Sarina and Felicia, they were helping prepare said dinner, so they will take their baths later, Aria was like that too, and she also came to meet them, though it was more of that she came to greet her new "sister" in other words Mira and also Aster, while having to tolerate meeting with Alice’s smug face as she clung to Aster even harder to then bite on his shoulder, just to mess with her.

’Should I turn her into a dragon popsicle...’, thought the ice princess as she saw Alice smirking her way.

"Ahem, so how did things go?", said Valentina, she also was a bit weirded out by the fact that Alice was still clinging to Aster, it had been more than three hours of that after all, not to mention that she could picture the wild princess remaining like that in front of all the other participants that entered the warrior hall.

’Wait a second, don’t tell me that this tease loving dragon...’, before Valentina could finish her inner supposition, Aster went ahead and solved her doubt for her.

"Oh, it was quite "fun", we successfully tricked others into believing we were from a high ranked and strong enough to be at the lower or middle end of the upper tier camp among the participants, that is unfortunately led by a "useless dual cultivator" that is surrounded by outstanding beauties, which makes us a fine target for the "strong", I owe it all to the good acting skills of everyone", jokingly said Aster as he gazed at Mira.

"Grrrr", which made the ligress softly growl at him.

’Luckily, I didn’t go this time...’, thought Valentina, she could "feel" the frustration of the ligress and instantly knew that Aster did an amazing job at playing the role of a silk pants young master and creating a perfect fake front for their camp to not be suspicious of their actual status which was that of a group directly allied with the blue flaming board rather than just being participants like the others.

But there was some "sacrifice" needed in the process, in this case, it was the mental sanity of the ligress, since she was now for sure considered to be one of the lovers of the silk pants young master in question, Mylene and Cassandra simply flowed with the situation and in Alice’s case it was true, so the only one that got a headache was Mira.

"Well, we didn’t only play around, there was quite the reward at the end, but before we get to that, let’s go note down all the intel we got, before dinner so we can talk about later", said Mylene as she gazed at Eris, Mina and Angela.

"I’ll tag along too", said Mikaela and Agnes.

"I need a swim to calm down before I freeze a certain someone", said the ligress as she left towards the lake, followed by Aria since she shared the sentiment, though in her case it was Alice.

Aster chuckled to his insides, those two were already in "synchrony" and it hasn’t even been a day since they entered a contract.

’I could use a bath too and Alice is not going to calm down until I give her all of my attention even if for a short period of time, so I might as well get it out of the way so that we can eat dinner together later’, he thought.

"As for you two ladies, I’ll "report" to you later but for now I’ll tell you that while there were some people with familiar auras on them, the acquittances you expected weren’t there, so you’ll have to wait a bit more to find out what’s going on, at your respective ends", said Aster to the pair of mothers.

Interestingly enough, both rushed here with the same thought in mind, to learn if their respective "families" were present at the warrior hall, and the way they planned to use that intel was also the same, Sarina and Felicia wanted to destroy the bastards that were chasing down their daughters, respectively.

And amusingly enough that seemed to have gotten those two closer, to the point that Felicia apparently told her story to Sarina, the energy constitution mother didn’t come out "clean" with Erick and Tiana yet, she wasn’t just dragging things out on purpose like before though.

After her conversation with Aster, Felicia no longer feared to tell the truth to those two anymore, but there was a battle tomorrow and she didn’t want Tiana who this time was going to participate in the match to be distracted, she already took the decision to have that talk with them tomorrow after dinner.

Felicia had confirmed that the one that had awakened the heavenly behemoth constitution meaning that they could detect Tiana’s heavenly dawn constitution wasn’t in this place, so even if she met people from her former family, they wouldn’t realize who they are dealing with, also, Felicia was participating in tomorrow’s match as well.

"Sounds good, have fun and remember to separate some time for Tia in the incoming days~", said Felicia with her usual carefree voice.

"See you at dinner, darling~", added Sarina as she followed Felicia, the two mothers happily chatted as they returned to the kitchen area to help the girls of the sect prepare dinner.

And that left us only with Valentina and Cassandra, the green haired mercenary girl was about to leave when Valentina called out to her.

"There is something that might need your assistance... you too Aster, follow me", said the purple lightning princess, with a slightly strange voice.

Based on what Aster knew of Valentina something must have happened while he was gone, it wasn’t something bad perse but it was something that seems to have put the purple lightning princess in a bind.

’I understand that she called me since I’m the main leader of the camp, but miss Cassandra too?’, thought Aster, still he followed the purple lightning princess, because the earlier he solved this, the earlier he would be able to calm down Alice whose pretty fangs were constantly pinching the skin of his shoulder.

What welcomed Aster at the inside of one of the many empty houses that were prepared by the girls of the sect, were to people and a slightly awkward atmosphere, one of them was the middle aged guy from Cassandra’s group, Andre, which explained why she was called, as for the other one, it was that dual blue tone haired disciple of Valentina, in other words Nerissa.

That old man Andre’s emotionless front, as well as his eyes which though were fierce, looked lifeless, nothing surprising considering that he was a man who lost his everything, were nowhere to be seen.

Andre had a warm, kind and hope-filled soft smile, he was sitting across the room in front of Nerissa, looking at her like... a grandpa would after meeting their baby grandchildren for the first time.

"I would have expected those two or Lauren, but to think I would see a day where old Andre caused trouble in my absence", said Cassandra, to which Valentina shook her head.

"Well, I wouldn’t call it "trouble" but it’s certainly a bit of a delicate situation...", said Valentina as she proceeded to tell Aster and Cassandra what happened.

Earlier most girls of the sect gathered to see Aster’s group off, the sword maniac trio arrived a bit too late because well, they were comparing their progress in their manuals so by they time they reached the center of the camp, Aster and the others were already in the warrior hall.

But that late arrival enabled for a different meeting, Andre who didn’t get to see Nerissa yesterday because she was in the advance party that dealt with James’s former camp and also missed the chance to meet that dual blue tone haired girl when they returned to the camp, because both Iris and her, went straight to meet with Lieze as soon as they arrived.

So, the first time that dual blue tone haired girl and Andre crossed paths, was because she missed the moment when Aster’s group was entering the warrior hall, and amusingly enough Andre also missed it, because he was doing his tasks on his own like usual.

Imagine Nerissa’s surprise when the usually apathic Andre suddenly froze after they passed next to the other, to then turn around and call her... by her mother’s name.

"Okay, so if I understand things correctly, you claim that Nerissa should be your granddaughter?", said Aster to Andre who nodded in response, unable to contain his laugh.

"There is no other possible explanation, she looks like a teenage version of my daughter Nea who disappeared back then, look, this is my greatest "treasure", the sole thing I managed to guard after the radiant home sect was burned down by those guys", answered Andre as he carefully took of a pendant from his clothes.

Inside of it there were two portraits, one depicted a younger looking Andre alongside a woman that looked around 70% similar to Nerissa, but that’s not what he wanted to show to Aster and the others.

There was a second portrait which depicted a single person, a girl around Kana’s age, that was the live image of Nerissa, with the sole difference that her hair was brown, well, that and the age of course, but Valentina was more than convinced by that, because Nerissa looked exactly the same a few years ago when she took her in as her disciple.

"My mother is a mortal who can’t cultivate... she still looks young but, a part of the reason as to why I entered the sect was to look for resources that could extend her life or preferably allow her to become a cultivator, so I find it hard to believe that she comes from a divine firmament", mumbled Nerissa who still had a hard time processing all this.

Aster didn’t know her backstory, but the short version is that she was born in a low ranked stellar system, both of her parents were mortals and her father was... killed by a cultivator whom he "offended".

Valentina happened to have been passing through that planet back then, and she protected the pair of mother and daughter, only after she was invited to stay with them to show gratitude for her help, did the purple lightning princess discover that Nerissa was insanely talented, she took her as her disciple and while her mother was moved to a safe planet owned by Valentina herself, Nerissa went to the sect to cultivate, it’s been almost eight years since that.

"That’s not the only inconsistency, unfortunately, my Nea just like the family of my in-laws, had peerless talent in the metal attribute, as for me, though I lost my family at a young age, we all had earth attribute, however there is no way I would be mistaken, you are my granddaughter", said Andre with a kind smile.

"Wait a second old Andre, didn’t the incident with clear spear sect happen a couple of thousands of years ago, though I don’t know this young friend’s actual age, if her mother is a mortal, she would have died at this point", said Cassandra.

Regardless of mortal realm or divine firmament, those who don’t cultivate can’t live past a certain point, a thousand years is the limit for mortals, this is an iron set "rule" stablished by the heavens, even in the best environments non-cultivators can’t live past that and unlike cultivators who unless there is some trouble, would only become frail a few years before they reach the limit of their lifespan, mortal do age, it’s just slowed down, so a mortal around seven hundred years old would already not be in a condition to do anything that required effort.

"I know but this child said that her mother had no relatives, she doesn’t remember anything of her younger years, so she has to be Nea".

Luckily for them, Aster had the answer to that small detail.

"It’s just a difference in the flow of time, a few decades from where we come equal hundreds or even thousands of years for you", he casually said, that’s normally something that only happens between mortal realms and divine firmaments, but the previous didn’t even cross Cassandra or Andre’s minds.

The reason for it is simple, Aster is a monster that they couldn’t even begin to imagine could appear in a mortal realm, you can’t blame them, Cassandra has met crown princes with their own territory face to face before, and she is a 100% sure that in this place he surpasses them, she can’t say when it comes to divine kings or divine emperors because not just any person can get to meet such figures face to face.

But she calculates him to be equal to what a divine king would be in this place, in the worst case scenario, if he was the only one then she might have still thought him to be an anomaly that could appear in a mortal realm in millions or billions of years, but then, there were many others who were insanely strong too.

’It’s not that I don’t trust these two, but we only met, so we can leave that conversation for later’, thought Aster, Cassandra was pretty much covered, because Lauren would give her life for her, and Mira had "adopted" that young badger girl, and well, she couldn’t lie in front of Aster anyway.

But Andre needs a bit more of observation, especially because what are the probabilities, for someone to meet the daughter of their lost daughter, if they supposedly come from a firmament and a mortal realm, exactly, they are ridiculously small.

As an example of it, after meeting Vivian, Cassandra directly told Aster that she doesn’t "feel" like the royals from the Rainbow Toxic family, she even shared details about her constitution and they also didn’t match with anything she knows or has even heard about.

That being said, Cassandra directly told them that if anything, she might come from an even higher ranked ascendence, because she had never heard of a "sentient" poison type constitution, but the ones of other attributes which she had heard about, belong all to divine families that rule empires on their own, instead of co-ruling like it’s the case of the Rainbow Toxic divine family, so the mystery of Vivian’s family remains as of current.

Instead, they found a "truth" that no one was looking for, Nerissa’s ascendence, not even that dual blue tone haired girl thought anything of her ascendence, her parents were mortals, though there was a bit of mystery regarding her mother, because she didn’t remember her childhood, the people of her native town all knew her mother... since she was a baby, supposedly, so now it’s obvious that there should be more to it than what meets the eye.

"I don’t think mother was hiding anything, we nearly died at the hands of a mere core condensation realm cultivator, and he was old too, if mother was even at the foundation establishment realm, she would have fought back when father was killed", said Nerissa to then add.

"That being said and while I’m weirded out by this sudden situation, it’s true that I feel some sort of "familiarity" towards you... mister", she didn’t call Andre by his name nor did she call him grandfather or anything, but old Andre was still all smiles.

"I don’t know what happened, but when all this is over I’ll follow you back and meet Nea, I’ll make whatever oath it might be needed to be allowed to enter your divine empire, so there is no need to rush, with knowing that both my daughter and granddaughter are fine is more than enough", he said as he gazed at Aster knowing that he held the maximum authority here.

Speaking of which, Nerissa was also looking at him, she knew that it was risky to let others know that they come from a mortal realm, but this might also be a chance to know why her mother can’t cultivate, she is still young even for a non-cultivator being around sixty years old, but even with her connection to a Fey princess such as Valentina, aside from resources to extend the youth and the vigor of a mortal, there was no clue to how to solver her situation.

Normally mortals that don’t cultivate don’t do so because they can’t, but because their talent is just too low, so one gives them resources, or manuals for them to enter the cultivation world, but even among mortals those with money or influence can enter the cultivation world, they just remain in the mortal realms or the early stages of the Earthly realms until their death, but Nea literally can’t cultivate.

"I’ll leave that decision to Nerissa, if she says that you are trustable, then with a simple oath I don’t mind if you return with us", said Aster after a moment of contemplation, to which the dual blue tone haired girl smiled.

"Thanks...", she mumbled, and that was the end of this subject at least for the time being, and it was also the end of this wholesome atmosphere, because Alice had started to bite "harder" than before.

"Well, there is less than an hour before dinner, so I’ll take my leave", said Aster as he left this house, Valentina and Cassandra as well as Nerissa and Andre stayed behind, probably to discuss how will they manage things from now and onwards and to decide whether they’ll let others know about this, probably only those directly close to Nerissa and Andre will know but enough of that for now.

The moment Aster entered his log cabin, Alice who has been biting on his shoulder suddenly changed to rub her face against his, alternating between that and licking his right cheek.

"What a needy dragon girl, luckily Aria and the others are bathing at the other room", jokingly said Aster which made the wild dragon princess show him, her teeth.

"Don’t talk about others, for now, just look at me~", said Alice as she used her black nails to rip Aster’s shirt apart from its back.

"I have been waiting since yesterday for this~", added the wild dragon princess as she rubbed her frontal body against Aster’s, as she held him with her tail to then rush into the bathroom, from which giggles and sweet sounds could be heard for the next hour.

It would have continued for a longer time if a certain ice princess didn’t enter the log cabin to then say out loud that dinner would be ready in ten minutes.