“Huh?”, let alone Mylene and Camila who were new to venturing with Aster, even the latter who has experienced some girls hitting on him in the years prior to the exploration in Zartia, was surprised by the sudden proposition.

‘That’s a new one’, thought Aster, and he wasn’t the only one.

The protectors, which were two middle aged women, that were glaring at Aster as if they were seeing a monster, immediately complained.

“Young miss Natasha, do you want Lady Mirelia to cut my head as an example for not being able to control you…”, the protector of the redhead girl, more than complaining seemed to be begging, for the girl who turned to be called Natasha to behave.

“Lady Charlotte, please reconsider it, with just a couple of words the matriarch will get you a line of suitors all from good backgrounds”, the other protector was less stressed, but there was a hint of concern in her calm voice.

“Humph, if it was for mom, I’ll be single forever, and those sissies back home cowered at the first slight sign of troubles… besides where do you suggest me to find a companion with such a strong yang hehehe~”, Natasha’s eyes were glued to Aster the whole time, she even licked her lips as if she was looking at some kind of delicious dessert.

“I can’t believe it, but she is right, why would I want a plethora of weak silk pants and arrogant fools, I, Charlotte M. Lumirelle, will only settle with a partner that is up to my standards…”.

“It’s good to see you haven’t given up on love, but he is mine!”, Charlotte’s speech was interrupted by Natasha, which made the two of them start arguing.

… “I don’t know what to expect when you are in the picture, is this a common thing?”, asked Mylene after seeing the two girls fighting over who’ll marry Aster.

“No, even for me this is a first”, answered Aster as he shrugged, he didn’t even act nice with those two girls nor he was friendly with them at all, unlike what happened with Sarina, so he had no idea of why they were now talking about marriage out of nowhere.

That being said, it was true they didn’t put any effort in fighting them, and were instead acting while they watched Aster’s fight, that’s why they managed to react on time and take their distance to not get involved in that last attack.

Camila remained silent the whole time, and a couple of minutes later Ixas returned with a somewhat tired expression.

“Whatever you did to the ground it was freaking hard to fill the crater, which doesn’t make sense since this is my own territory… it doesn’t seem like they want to fight with us, so I suggest we go inside and rest till midday”.

“Sounds good to me”, mumbled Aster, he blew away his whole reserves of spirit energy, besides for some reason, he felt like cuddling with Kana right now, so Ixa’s suggestion sounded pretty appealing right now.

The two girls saw that Aster’s group was about to leave and they finally stopped fighting each other, so say.

“Wait, let me go with you… the sun at dawn gets into one’s nerves~”, the redhead Natasha asked with a playful voice.

“Mm, I need a place to hide from the stupid moon that brat corrupted just for fun, can I follow you to that underground village”, said Charlotte with her emotionless bur elegant voice.

Aster raised an eyebrow at them, as he shook his head.

“We may not be enemies, like that woman who was talking nonsense, but we aren’t allies either, so why should I allow you two to enter my group’s place to rest?”.

The two girls stared at each other, before they said.

“I can give you information about that woman if you let me stay at that underground city~”.

“I know some of her hideouts in the planet, I just want a place to rest since the sun is about to appear”.

Both of the girls immediately offered something they knew Aster would be interested in, information to screw the white witch over and over again.

And their supposition turned to be true, Aster gazed at Ixas as he gave him the task to deal with the conditions, because his eyes were literally closing by themselves.𝑜𝚟𝑙𝐞xt.𝔠𝑜𝑀

The two girls saw Aster leaving with Mylene and Camila and they didn’t look convinced, but they didn’t try to follow him against his will, because that would leave a bad impression, instead they turned to see Ixas with pretty intense gazes.

“It would be a shame if something as rare as a Rock Gigas were to disappear from this world, so now tell me what’s the price to stay in your city~”.

“I respect the nature, but don’t get in my way mister Rock Gigas”.

Ixas saw the smiles that weren’t smiles in the face of the two girls and he didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.

‘I’m starting to wonder if entering in an alliance with them was a good ides’, he thought.

…

While Ixas was dealing with a sudden flow of people wanting to visit his village, Aster and the girls returned through the hole on the ladder of the rock formation from where they left earlier.

Luckily Aster unconsciously ordered his own attack to leave this place unscathed, so even if outside he razed everything to the ground, the underground village didn’t even tremble.

Soon they arrived at the place that Ixas build for them, as soon as they entered, Aster took off his shirt and jumped on the bed without saying anything else.

“Mm, big brother~”, in her sleep Kana felt Aster’s proximity and she snuggled on his chest the very moment he laid down on the bed.

Aster smiled; he patted her head a couple of times before he couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.

Mylene and Camila exchanged a knowing gaze between each other, they closed the door and then laid down in their beds before turning off the lights.

Unlike yesterday, this time when Aster went to sleep, he did fell asleep, instead of entering the mind space.

But it was probably for the better since he exhausted both his spirit energy and his reserves of annihilation.

Speaking of the mind space, Rya who watched the whole thing from within it, was sitting down on their bed with a frowned expression in her beautiful face.

“Making me worry every time with those dangerous experiments, what a troublesome lover I got to myself… still I have never seen an attack like that, luckily the sword broke and his spirit energy is still far from enough, or he might have gone past the limit”.

“A mortal calling a tribulation just with intent, as if he was commanding the heavenly law, I can’t wait to see what would happen when he takes that las step~”.

After a couple of seconds of contemplation, Rya sighed but the proudful smile that flourished on her face was impossible to hide.

“Whatever, let it come, that’s why I’m here anyway”, she mumbled before she laid down on their bed and fell asleep while hugging Aster’s pillow.

The hours passed uneventful, although the sun raised bringing a high heat wave with it, the underground village Ixas built remained unaffected, in fact Ixas changed it a bit so that inside the “night” was extended so that they could rest without any interruption.

Then after about four or five hours passed, Aster’s eyelids trembled a couple of times before he opened his eyes, he inspected his body and realized the restriction that prevented him from advancing had loosened up, meaning he’ll be breaking through to the middle stage of the Stellar Constellation anytime soon.

Aster looked into his inner universe and saw some stars floating connect to his original star core, but there was also an equal amount being at Orionis’s side.

He also noticed he felt completely fresh right now, his body as full of energy, Aster looked downwards just to see Kana happily sleeping while clinging to him.

“This little girl…”, mumbled Aster, it was almost midday and while he needed the rest, Kana should have woken up earlier for her daily cultivation session.

But after what happened yesterday, he couldn’t find it in himself to scold her.

‘How can someone even think on harming such a good girl like her… **ing idiots’, he thought to himself, as he gently stroked Kana’s long silky blond hair.

Not one but twice, if his supposition was right, that green haired girl came from some place that had connections with the Viridian Griffon Heavenly Quadrant, Aurelian mentioned.

So far, he had the theory that there was an upper realm connected to the Heavenly Quadrants, although he didn’t know why those guys haven’t come down here to be rulers, to access that place, his theory was that one needed to surpass the Heavenly Conqueror realm to be able to see the dimensional tunnel or whatever it was used to get to the other side.

Still this time Kana wasn’t present, and he wanted to keep it that way, although he was the first one to insist that she needed to experience some of the cruelty of the real world, with Robert being a dick in that sense was enough for the time being.

“Yawnn~”, Kana cutely yawned feeling Aster’s hands caressing her hair, she rubbed her sleepy eyes a couple of times before she looked at Aster with a bright smile.

“Good morning big brother~”, Kana pecked Aster’s cheeks a couple of times, before she nested on his chest once again, without any sign of wanting to leave.

“Big brother, I had a bad dream but it stopped after I hugged you once again”, she mumbled while hiding her face in Aster’s chest.

“In my dream, someone that looked like mom wanted to harm me, it was bad… but then big brother, mom and the other sisters appeared in saved me”.

Aster sighed, Kana was able to see and sense things others couldn’t, even if it was a dream, he was sure it had some meaning.

‘Just wait until I put my hands in you, you’ll wish your life would have ended in today’s fight’, swore Aster to himself.

After patting Kana’s head a couple of times, he got up and dressed up, he even helped Kana put her clothes since normally Sarina does it for her.

Mylene and Camila weren’t in the room, meaning they probably woke up earlier and left probably to see the village, or maybe just to eat something.

Aster doubted for a split of a second before he looked at Kana.

“Do you want to know the origin of the old man that left you the manual you are using?”, Natasha and Charlotte seemed to have some information regarding that green haired woman, and while he has decided to learn about it since it was a source of potential problems, he didn’t want to force Kana to learn about it.

As it was his responsibility as the head of the family to protect them to the best of his capacities, and learning about possible enemies was part of that.

Kana thought about it for a second before she nodded in response.

“Yes… last time I got this manual that has helped me get closer to big brother’s cultivation, I want to get stronger too”.

Aster saw the resolution in Kana’s eyes and he inwardly nodded.

‘Idiot family or not, she has Sarina, me and the others, let them come I will make sure to make them regret having born if they set their eyes in my family’.