Agnes saw that after the regular and inner disciples from previous batches, but which recently joined the Black Sword faction focused their attention on Aster, core disciples who had been part of the faction started showing up one after another.
The previous continued until the amphitheater was pretty crowded, there were still about half empty seats, but all the side where they were sitting was fully occupied, in other words they were surrounded.
Erick noticed that most of the girls were straight looking at Aster and he laughed as he smacked his shoulder.
"Brother, you going to have it rough this time... ouch", but then he stopped laughing, when Sofia punched his left side.
While most of the girls clearly were interested on Aster, there were also some who looked at Erick, most of them were the close combat type or those who practically focused on body cultivation.
"Well, it seems we are on the same ship", said Aster with a smirk, he wasn't particularly interested in those girls, but his dragon lineage did seem to enjoy the attention, they also kept at least a respectable distance so there was no problem, although the latter might be because Agnes was with them.
While some of the girls were gathering the courage to introduce themselves, a figure appeared on the sky above the amphitheater, although she wasn't unleashing her pressure, all the girls looked upwards and their eyes sparkled as if they were entranced her.
There floating on the sky, there was a blond woman with purple eyes, who was about 50% similar to Agnes, but looked a bit older, while Agnes seemed to be in her early twenties like Eris, Mylene and Camila, the woman in the sky looked more like a young wife, in her middle twenties, like Lilia, Sarina or Felicia.
The girls clapped and acclaimed as if they were seeing some kind of idol, but they all stopped once the woman descended from the sky to a podium that was positioned at the center of the amphitheater where a platform raised.
Noticing Aster's gaze on her Agnes turned to see him and pointed at the woman in the center of the amphitheater.
"That's my cousin Valentina, the core elder of the Black Sword faction and also the city lord of the East Sky city~".
Aster nodded, Valentina was a peak Void Manipulation cultivator, on par with a law enforcer and while she seemed to be in the same range of age of his mother, she was probably younger, Agnes was the same, if not she would have definitely recognized Lilia, after sorting out the fact that she now had a son with whom she was close, just like William did.
Valentina raised an eyebrow at the number of disciples present in the amphitheater, while some core disciples normally came to greet her whenever she imparted a lesson, because she normally didn't appear on public, they stopped crowding the amphitheater by her petition.
So, she was sure that they weren't here for her, she soon found to origin of this strange phenomenon, when her eyes fell on the area where the core disciples were mostly concentrated.
Her eyes which stopped for a split of a second on Agnes, before they glowed when she gazed at Aster.
'That gaze feels oddly familiar... are all the Fey family girls so enthusiastic about the aspects of the soul they are able to see?', asked Aster in a voice only the star maidens could hear.
'Not really, there is only one per generation in each branch of the main family that have that ability darling, these two are from the secondary branches of the main family so they are pretty chill about it... your godmother on the other hand, well let's just say she'll either be infatuated with you or indifferent towards you, there is no middle point'.
'It was had for to make her stop clinging to me whenever she saw me~', said Lilia as she giggled remembering some funny stories of her past.
Valentina realized she stared a bit too much and then cleared her throat returning to be the core elder all the disciples of the Black Sword faction respect.
"Ahem, all of you... I more or less have an idea of why you came so I won't ask you to leave this time, but don't cause any troubles to our new faction members okay?".
"Yes~", all the girls smiled and answered Valentina in unison, before they kept quiet on their seats.
"Very well", Valentina nodded, and then started with her explanation.
"This lesson is about the information for new disciples that isn't disclosed to the public, first and formal, the purpose of the sect which is none other than surpass all the peak middle ranked stellar systems, and join the high ranks".
"The opportunity is given once every one thousand years, and it requires a Heavenly Rank to appear among those below five thousand years old, as well as a representative team from the younger generation which defeats all the other contenders, needless to say but as members of the battle peak it is expected from us to occupy at least half of the available spots".
Valentina saw the motivation in the eyes of the new disciples and she inwardly nodded, before continuing.
"Missions, the monthly trials and the tournament among the top disciples in the Heavenly Rankings and all exist for the sake of empowering the sect and thus produce stronger disciples".
Valentina then tapped a specific part of the podium with her finger and the ground of the platform separated as a black stone stale similar to the one used during the admission trials, appeared and floated behind her.
"As for where do we stand in the ranks, Galatia, Tsarai and Zoldia, those are the top three among the peak middle ranked stellar systems, and which one is the strongest is undefined, in other words, the ranks 31, 32 and 33 of the Heavenly Quadrant are currently not properly put in a specific order".
"Leaving outside subjects aside, most of you should probably already noticed it, but all the peaks have three factions a branch of the neutral sect and a valley, each faction has a city for default in our case is this East Sky city, the Red Sword faction have the West Crimson city, the Green Sword faction have the South Forest city, the neutral sect has the Center Capital and last but not least... the Lord of the valley has the right to conquer the north area if he is able to surpass the respective test".
"There are other cities, but unlike the ones managed by the factions where we can decide who enters and who doesn't based on the factions, the others are only limited by the statuses of the disciples and are accessible for anyone regardless of who they are affiliated with".
The planets of each peak were huge, and with the very selective admission trials, there were a lot of areas where no one lived, despite the fact that cities were built from time to time, the north area was different though, it was completely inhabited.
"Sure, let's do it", said Aster, which made the all the girls giggle, before they flew towards the platform at the center of the amphitheater, most of the disciples were surprised to see Kana flying so skillfully despite she being an early-stage star formation realm, which normally would have disqualified her at the admission trials, if it wasn't for her young age and the evaluation of talent she got.
Starting with the introductions, Aster was the first, followed by Lilia, Alice, Aria, Sarina, Kana, Eris, Mylene, Camila, Erick, Tiana and last but not least Felicia, no one bothered to mention their last names.
But it was clear they were divided in two groups, but overall, they realized the one leading everyone was Aster, so when the time for questions came, the first one was.
"Do you have girlfriends?", obviously it was aimed to Aster and Erick and they both nodded.
"Yes", their answers made some of the disciples to feel a bit disappointed, not everyone was willing to share their partner with other women, but the vast majority immediately added.
"And will they be the only ones?".
This time the ones to answer where Alice and Sofia.
"You'll have to beat us to get a chance", the collective reaction was a motivated expression in some of the female disciples, and a curious interest in the eyes of others, by the end of their short presentation, some of the disciples had started to chat and laugh with the girls, especially Kana, she was adorably easy to get along with, and while many didn't mention it because Aster stole the attention, she was actually the youngest ever female disciple.
So, she was now treated by all of them as a little sister, after Aster answered to their questions, their curiosity fairly lessened so now it was easy to approach them, still he simply watched from the side at the girls casually talking with others.
'Well, they do seem to be enjoying themselves', he thought before he saw Agnes and Valentina coming his way.
Valentina extended her arm to offer a handshake.
"Agnes told me about the Lord of the Twin Sword valley, it's a pleasure to have you in our Black Sword faction, I hope you all can fell at home in the city".
Aster accepted the handshake as he answered.
"Thanks, also you can call me Aster, just like Agnes does".
"Sure, then feel free to call me Valentina too~", said Valentina with a bright smile on her face.