When Lilia finished taking Aster clothes off, she gave him an appraising look from top to bottom and proudly said.
"Fufu, my dear son is so handsome, i'm pretty sure he will grow to become a woman-killer".
Aster's body was slim but toned, due to the large amount of training he's been doing he has grown taller than what a child his age should be, reaching 1.3 meters of height, compared to Isaac's son Valentine, Aster was about 15 centimeters taller despite him being younger.
Seeing Lilia's proud expression Aster felt as if all his hard work paid off, he felt blessed to be able to see his precious mother make all kinds of expressions that no one else has seen before.
Lilia was about to start undressing when Aster suddenly hugged her and with a shy doubting voice said
"M-mom you said you would wash my body as a reward but you always do that anyway so…. can I ask you something else as a part of my reward please?".
Lilia was surprised because in the five years that she has been able to communicate with her son, he has never asked her for anything, not only that but he is usually shy with her so normally it has to be her who initiates any intimate contact between them, with the only exception being that while he sleeps, he usually embraces her as if he was afraid that when he woke up his mother would disappear.
"Of course, my darling can ask anything he wants and if it is within my possibilities mommy will make it happen ?".
Even after Aster heard Lilia's reply he seemed to be having a hard time to tell her what he wanted but finally he mustered his courage and with an innocent and concerned face said.
"I... read a book on the library where it said that when a woman and a man are close with each other they would marry and do everything together, today I saw how that man looked at mother, and I didn't like it s-so".
Aster raised his voice a bit louder as if that gave him the courage he needed to speak.
"C-CAN I BE THE ONE TO MARRY MOTHER, instead of that man, after all I always do everything with you and… and I don't want you to spend more time with him".
Lilia's heart melted, her son was showing jealousy !!!, because he thought she was spending time with Isaac when she was not with him or Alice, while she sometimes disappeared from the room without telling anyone where she was going, it was actually to train in the forest to recover her full strength that was affected due to the complications she had when she was giving birth.
She despised Isaac, so why should she speak with him, but she suddenly had a good idea, her son sometimes seemed to keep his distance from her, which she didn't like so this was a good oportunity to change that.
"Mm, he must have been really worried thinking of me spending time with that piece of trash up to the point that he overcame his usual shyness just to ask me not to do it fufu how cute ?, still this a once in a lifetime chance to make him accept any petitions that I have, hehehe I can't let this chance the heavens have bestowed me go to waste".
Lilia faked to be doubting about what should she do and then with a slight smile but a serious face said.
"Well, it is not impossible for you to be the one to marry mommy, but for that to happen you must agree to some things otherwise mommy will have to spend more time with that man".
"Number one and the most important one: you must treasure mommy over any other girls you might meet later".
"Number two: you will sleep and bath with me every time".
"Number three: if you want to be closer with me, you should pay attention to what I say like a good son".
"If you can accept these rules then you can marry mommy in the future, if you don't then…".
Aster didn't even let Lilia finish her line when he nodded in a hurry.
"I accept them so please don't spend more time with that man".
Lilia was over the moon when she heard that.
"Hehehe, I got my son to fulfill my wishes, if I knew it would be so easy to make him get closer to me, I would have tried something like this before", she thought.
While Lilia was praising herself, Aster was jumping and smiling in his mind.
"It was hard to keep the act but this will smooth the way for the next step in my plan".
What Aster didn't expect to happen was hearing Alice's cute voice saying.
"Can you marry me too pleaseeeee ??".
While Lilia and Aster were in their own world, Alice got tired of waiting in the bathtub so she went to the entrance of the bathroom and heard their conversation starting from the part where Aster explained what he read on the book.
She had a bitter feeling in her heart when she heard Aster words, "I also want him to treasure me and let me bath and sleep with him every time", she thought.
Aster had another plan to make his sister closer to him but since the opportunity presented so naturally then it was two birds one stone, he smiled before saying.
"Yes, I will also marry big sis so the three of us will be a happy family forever".
Lilia was happy seeing her children get along.
"If only, back in the clan those selfish bastards had a little amount of the filial love my darling has, everything would have been different... whatever I now have my own family and things will be different between us", she thought.
And Lilia was right, the only thing she didn't know was that things will be a bit different than what she expected, but that is a story for another day.