With Alexandra's guidance they soon reached the guest area, there were more than one room, but as Alexandra expected and to Lilia and the others disappointment, they all entered the same room to stay together.
In Alexandra's mind, all these girls that surrounded Aster were either currently his lovers, or candidates to that, so she expected that all of them didn't mind sharing a room with him.
As for Lilia who was pouting as well as Alice, they knew that since Aster left the others stay with them, that meant they won't be getting any love tonight.
Aster could feel the aggrieved gazes of the pair of dragon mother and daughter piercing him and he chuckled.
'I have been fighting the whole day you know, using the giant armor takes me to the limit, Aria also needs a good rest, so be good you two', said Aster through the mind connection.
"Fine, but I better get the first turn later, it's not fair that only the ice princess gets all the fun", mumbled Alice as she entered the room.
Lilia simply smiled at Aster, she can always enter the mind space where she knows Aster will be because it's easier to recover there, of course Aster will also have a few hours of real sleep first, but she can still have a "midnight snack" later.
While his mother happily hummed as she entered the room, Aster bitterly smiled, of course he knew what she was thinking, but it's not like he could do anything about it.
'I'm really thankful for my insane vitality, dragon girls are quite scary sometimes…', he thought.
Speaking of his insane vitality, Aster took out a transparent pill the size of a nail, which contained a drop of some kind of liquid inside and handed it to Alexandra.
"Dilute that into a large bath tub and make your mother bath in it, it will ease the pain away and also help her organs start functioning again, also suspend any of the medicines she has been taking, because her body can't process them properly and they are just adding more nails to her coffin, of course you can choose to not do as I say and your mother will still be cured by me later".
Alexandra clearly wanted to ask what made the pill Aster gave to her different from the temporary relieving medicines her mother has been secretly taking, but after a second of contemplation she decided to believe the black-haired youth in front of her for once.
Not only because she has gotten to realize a bit of Aster's character, but because if he wanted to do something to them, he didn't need to resort to any underhanded methods anyway.
"Mm, I'll make her take the medicinal bath, thanks and… goodnight", after thanking Aster and saying goodnight, Alexandra left there were too many things on her head right now, and she wanted to have a nice conversation with her mother, as she wanted to know more about Tomas.
Aster shook his head and then closed the door behind of him, a small portal appeared and Nim's miniature copy came out of it, when the tree used its copy then its consciousness was in it, it couldn't be in its main body and the copy at the same time, because the miniature wasn't an extension like the crystal trees, but a part of the main body.
Surprisingly the tree directly approached Lilia and greeted her before anything else.
"Nim pays respect to the wife of the alpha", said the tree before returning to its usual self.
"Was my greet appropriate lady Lilia, now that I have greeted the first lady can I go talk with the others?".
"Mm, you may do so", answered Lilia, leaving Alice and the others speechless, while Aster didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.
Apparently, Lilia gave the tree some lessons about human "customs" but of course she added her own touch to them, like making the tree treat her as the first wife, to whom one must always greet first, to then be allowed to interact with the others.
"Hey mom that's not fair!", of course Alice wasn't going to accept it, so she called Nim and started giving it her own explanation, which made Sarina do the same, even the gentle usually laid-back mature girl couldn't take that hit from Lilia and not do anything about it.
Aria limited to giggle, she would have participated too but she was too tired, and she just wanted to sleep.
"Uwahhh, those ears and tail are so pretty~", as for Kana she was marveled at the real appearance of Mira, which included revealing her ligress characteristics, now that they weren't in public.
"O-Of course, I'm the descendant of the two apex existences of two races after all", surprisingly the ligress girl happily accepted Kana's compliment, well it wasn't that surprising, since the little girl is so easy to get along with.
"Can I touch them?", cutely asked Kana, which made Mira doubt, but then looking at those adorable sparkling eyes, she just couldn't find in his heart the strength to refuse, so she just nodded and crouched down so that Kana could touch her ears.
"They are so soft and fluffy! big brother you have to see it~", happily said the little girl, naturally she wanted to share such a comfy sensation with her beloved big brother.
But Aster who saw the dangerous light flashing on Mira's eyes chuckled, she would probably bite him if he tried to do that, one of the reasons as to why Mira hadn't tried to escape, besides the fact that he knows her true name and so he can order her, is that he said he wants her to form a contract with Aria and not him, which is already better than the previous option, which was falling on the hands of the scum descendant of the ones that captured her.
"Kana can you take Esmeralda out for a moment, I want her to have a nice talk from spirit element to spirit element".
"Mm, sure big brother~", said Kana, green wind gathered around her and then Kana's figure grew to be almost 1.7 meters from her previous 1.5 meters of height, her hair also became longer and changed from that blond tone that makes her look like a little angel, to a pretty gem-like green that gives her the aspect of a fairy instead.
In a second, she changed from a little girl to an elegant young miss, naturally it was just an outer change, that happened when Kana "wore" Esmeralda's wind around her, inside she was still that adorable little girl.
But this way, Esmeralda could take over and talk with others directly instead of using wind to make others hear her voice.
Mira could naturally recognize a fellow spirit element, and she was surprised because she could feel more than one concept from the spirit wind in front of her, even if she couldn't use them as she had signed a contract and had to start over with her companion, which is an iron set rule, it's not like she lost her powers, they are there and will evolve and advance along with her companion, that's how it worked.
They walked towards one of the corners of the room to have some privacy, only then Mira looked at Esmeralda before saying.
"You… that form doesn't go along with a spirit wind, what are you?", asked the ligress girl, which made Esmeralda chuckle.
"Unlike most, I didn't focus only on what resembled my original element, but on expanding my existence, humans are made of many different things so I thought why shouldn't I be able to achieve the same thing, and so far, I managed to integrate four concepts into me".
Mira was dumbfounded at Esmeralda's answer, which made Aster softly laugh, he knew very little about the subject but apparently even Esmeralda wasn't regular for spirit element standards.
"If you really achieved such a thing then why…", Mira stopped midway as she stole a gaze at Aster.
If what the spirit wind in front of her said, then she should have been an existence that stood above others not too far from the strongest people she has known, in fact she has never heard of someone that diverted so much from its element, so it didn't make sense that she was now serving a human from a mere mortal plane.
"I know what you are thinking little ligress, but it isn't like that, do you know what he answered when I offered him to become my host after he cleared the tests I prepared faster and better than anyone that I had previously testes, "Form a contract with her", I was at a loss back then, you should know what others are willing to do to get us, I have never heard of someone that refused to form a contract with a spirit element".
Mira had a contemplative expression on her pretty face, she was also surprised back then, after being defeated she was prepared to die because there is no way she was going to accept a man as her host, but then her true name was discovered who knows how, and she found herself in a though situation where she might have had to use her last resort to escape, which will have serious consequences, only to be said "Form a contract with her".
'So, it wasn't a lie or a trick…', thought Mira, she previously believed Aster was just trying to trick her to lower her guard, so that he could safely force her to form a contract with him later on, but apparently that wasn't the case.
Esmeralda could tell that Mira's point of view had changed a bit thanks to her, so she decided to give her a last push.
"Besides being quite of a pervert, he is quite a decent person, especially considering he is a dragonkin, you should have noticed it too, all the girls in this room aren't average, they could all be above others by themselves and yet they willingly gathered around him so naturally that it is honestly scary, we both aren't from mortal planes and our perspectives naturally surpass those of mortal realms, and yet I can't fathom what he will become in the future".
"Leaving that aside this little girl turned out to be the perfect match for me, and I didn't notice it at first, it was him the one who chose her, for me, that's all I can say, ultimately the decision is yours, but don't believe you can trick him, they already know you aren't fully a spirit element nor a spirit beast, so you probably have a way to escape if things don't look good for you", said Esmeralda which made Mira frown.
"So, you already knew it… is that why he didn't try to force a contract", she mumbled, only to see Esmeralda shaking her head.
"Nah, you se those girls that are laying down on the same bed with him, the first thing I learned after joining this group is that, there is nothing he won't do for their sake, and so he always aims for the best of the best when it comes to help them… not too long ago he created a lineage whose prowess will 100% surpass the mortal realms while still being on them, for Kana and her mother, using everything he could dispose of".
"So, he won't hinder Aria's "growth" with a forced contract, I can assure you that, anyway I don't want to tire Kana since she has been eager to see him, so that is all from me, take some time to see it with your own eyes, but don't be so stubborn, in less than half a year he found two spirit elements, who knows what will he obtain later, you might lose a once in a lifetime opportunity".
With those last words, the green wind that was surrounding Kana dispelled and then returned to her body, which had returned to normal, the little girl smiled at Mira before saying.
"Tiger sister, big brother is a good person", after saying that Kana jumped and flew all the way to Aster's bed landing on top of him, to the amuse of the others.
'I'm a ligress not a tiger…', thought Mira, she had many things to process right now, so she just went to her bed which was separated, unlike the others that were placed next to each other and laid down, it's been a really long time since she could have a nice night of sleep without being tortured by that collar.
Let alone that, she hasn't had a bed to sleep on ever since she was captured as well, so without noticing her expression softened as she fell soundly asleep, unknown to her, she already considered this place relatively safe, otherwise she wouldn't have entered the land of dreams so easily.
"She looks cuter without that threatening aura around her, don't you think so, darling~", playfully said Lilia as she tightened her hug on Aster's right arm.
"Humph, she doesn't know what is good for her, where is she going to find a better partner than you", mumbled Alice as she snuggled on Aster's chest right next to Kana, she was still angry that Alexandra and Mira had such bad impressions of her beloved brother.
"Now, she must have been through some bad times, so her reaction is understandable", added Sarina as she softly hugged Aster's neck with her arms, as always, the gentle motherly woman was laying down below Aster, allowing him to user her bosom as a pillow.
"Yeah, you are too wild dragon princess", added Aria who was occupying the left side of Aster's chest, with Kana separating her from Alice.
"I wonder if she can talk with Espi like me~", Kana was happy to have a new playmate.
Aster smiled and then kissed the girls before saying goodnight to the others.
"That's enough for today, you all rest, we'll be busy later", said Aster as he closed his eyes, the girls giggled and they all closed their eyes to sleep.
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