The rest of the day went by quite fast, both Alice and Aria were quite tired due to their first experience cultivating body and soul respectively so they fell asleep quite fast, as for Lilia she happily cuddled with Aster after he gave her the ring he created.
Since there wasn't going to be any night activities Aster spent the whole night in the mind space practicing a new trick, he planned to use on Arthur's birthday ceremony in case the situation required him to do so.
Before he realized it was already morning, the first one to wake up was Alice and since she noticed that her mother was still sleeping, she helped herself to take the first kiss of the day.
"Mmm ?"
Aster opened his eyes feeling the soft pair of lips of his sister pressing against his, he internally smiled.
"Looks like she took my request quite serious huh?", yesterday he told the girls to wake him up with a kiss every morning and this time the winner was Alice since she woke up before Aria or Lilia.
Alice was all smiles right now.
"Good morning ?", she said
Aster returned the kiss before saying.
"Good morning sis, did you set some kind of alarm or something? You are usually the last to wake up hahaha".
Their little conversation woke Lilia up and she saw his daughter already flirting with Aster which made her feel a bit jealous.
"Good morning darling, come give mommy some love ?".
Aster shook his head, "come on is too early to be competing between each other", he thought but he still gave Lilia a morning kiss, the last one to wake up was Aria, it seems like soul cultivation is quite tiring which is understandable considering that mental fatigue is harder to get rid of than the physical one.
Lilia carefully examined both Alice and Aria just to make sure they weren't suffering any side effect or deviation it's better to be safe than sorry after all.
Lilia nodded, she took out a pair of pill bottles from her storage ring and handed one to each of them.
"Alice your body is quite sturdy so I don't see any negative effects, I'm giving you this "flesh nurturing" pill, you only need to take one per month and it will help you to have a smooth progress on body cultivation until you reach the body solidification realm".
"Aria… you don't show any sign of suffering deviation but is normal to be mentally fatigued and suffer from slight headache due to the tension soul cultivation put in your mind on the first stages, this "mind cleansing" pill will immediately cure all that, the effect is quite long lasting so one per month should be enough too".
Both of them took their respective pills and they all stood up from the bed, since Arthur's birthday ceremony started midday, they took a quick bath before Lilia transported them to Ghaleria to take breakfast on the fragrant pavilion.
When the waiter went to get their order, they heard someone knocking on the door of the room.
Aster opened the door and the one outside was Eric Asher who had his usual smiling expression, behind him the old man Egil was standing with a somewhat defeated expression.
"Yo, my friend I saw you entering the restaurant and I came to say hi, I hope you don't mind hahaha", said Eric.
Egil Asher sighed.
"Good morning little friend, please don't take it against my nephew he is a bit pushy when it comes to people, he finds interesting if you have some free time can you listen to what he has to say?".
Aster allowed them to enter the room.
"No problem come on in, we just recently ordered our food so it's going to take some time until the waiter deliver the dishes".
Eric entered without any doubts while Egil followed after.
Aster sat back in the middle of his girls while Eric and Egil took seat in front of them.
He noticed that Egil expression changed to a humble respectful one when he saw his mother so it was obvious that the old man could somehow feel that Lilia was stronger than him.
Eric smiled.
"Uncle Egil, told me it is a sign of goodwill to present first so I'm Eric Asher the youngest son Einar Asher the current patriarch of the Asher family".
Aster actually found Eric fit to be his friend, he was quite straightforward and his personality was likeable so he didn't mind getting along with him, but he still decided to test the waters.
"I didn't present myself before, my name is Aster Drage, the ladies at my side are my mother Lilia, my big sister Alice and one of my future wives Aria".
Eric laughed.
"Hahaha, now that I how a man should be surrounded by beauties, let me offer you a toast to commemorate this moment", said Eric while asking his uncle to take out a bottle of something called "monkey wine".
Egil sighed, "this stupid nephew always looking for an excuse to drink my precious wine… whatever my older brother will have to give more to make up for it", he thought.
Seeing his uncle pouring wine on cups he had on his spatial ring, Eric was happy.
"I will call you brother Aster from now on, this wine is made by a spirit beast called rock monkey, they gather a special kind of fruit and ferment it to make this wine which has cultivation enhancing properties, it is kind of hard to get since the pack leader of the rock monkeys is a beast on the middle stage of the star axys realm so I hope you like it".
Aster drank the wine in one go, it actually had a sweet taste as if it didn't contain ay alcohol and he immediately noticed the spirit energy entering his body at a slightly faster rate than before.
"Good wine", he said.
The girls also drank it while Egil heart was bleeding, while he didn't show it on his face this wine was his personal reserve, the Asher elders formed a team from time to time to raid the nest of the rock monkeys, half of the wine they managed to get was stored on the clan and the other half was divided among the ones that accepted the mission and the patriarch.
Eric nodded.
"That's good to hear, there is also other thing I wanted to tell you, the first time I met you I saw the young miss of the Ghale family with you and I noticed she was already your partner, my older brother is one of the guys that had a crush on her for a long time so I would like to ask you to… please at least spare his life if you fight with him later today, ah just to be clear I only knew you were related to that girl after I met you so that was not the reason to get close to you".
Aria suddenly connected the points.
"Wait you are the young brother of that brick head?", she asked in a surprised tone.
Eric found her reaction quite funny.
"Hahaha, yes Ebbe Asher is my brother".
Aria saw Aster frowned expression and she knew that he didn't show mercy for anyone who tried to force her into marriage before so she explained.
"Don't worry, that guy was the only one who actually kept his distance from me after I rejected him, in fact just like his young brother he is quite straight forward hahaha, I remember him asking my father to accept him as his son in law while presenting some spirit beasts as a present in the front door of the Ghale family grounds".
Eric bowed his head which made Egil surprised
"This brat who doesn't show respect for anything nor anyone is actually bowing his head… maybe the wine was too strong", he thought, until he heard Eric saying.
"My brother is a bit stubborn but he never tried anything malicious to have the attention of this bis sister, so I ask you to not be too severe in case he tries to propose again later".
At first Aster thought the Asher family was trying to wash their hands using Eric as a medium that is why he frowned his face before but considering how Aria explained the situation he was convinced that Eric's brother was not one of the guys in his list so he calmed down.
"I have never wielded my sword against anyone who didn't deserve it and considering how Aria explained that she wasn't pestered by your brother I don't hold any grudge against him so there is no need to worry about that… however why did you ask me to spare his life, your brother is probably older than me so he should be quite strong isn't he?".
Eric let out a sigh of relief, having gotten Aster's confirmation he returned to his usual relaxed self.
"Certainly, my brother is at the middle stage of the star formation realm which is not that bad considering he is seventeen years old but… how can he stand a chance against the "golden reaper".
Aster smiled without any intention to deny his affirmation.
"Oh, I'm quite interested on how did you know that?", he said.
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