’Humph, damn Sarina, she really is making the most out of my absence, being a pillow for my darling is my thing!’, exclaimed Lilia from within the mind space as she saw the lovely scene of Aster resting his head on Sarina’s lap while they softly kissed.

’We both know a lascivious dragoness like you wouldn’t create a lovely scene with a kiss, but a lewd one surrounded by debris and destruction instead’, said Rya while adding to herself.

’A date with Aster in a forest... I can’t wait to visit all sorts of places in the outside world with him~’, happily thought the sword girl, though she wasn’t against naughty stuff as much as her elegant and serious normal approach would suggest, the sword empress is more of the romantic type than the playful one, the idea of a lovely intimate moment with Aster made her eyes sparkle.

Speaking of lovely intimate moments, Sarina who was all love and affection suddenly stopped the kiss to then softly smile as she jokingly said.

"Tell Lilia that no matter how sharply she glares at me from the mind space, I won’t stop enjoying every second of my mission~".

"In fact, I plan to compete with her even more after this", she added, just like the desert Aster prepared, Sarina isn’t just all sweetness, there is a fresh and strong tinge to her and as a proof of it, the tender and warm usual expression on Sarina’s pretty face was replaced by an energetic and fierce one, which was followed by a pair of beautiful white feathered wings with magenta borders, sprouting out of her back.

When next to each other, Sarina and Lilia looked like an angel and a devil from earth’s culture, it was amusing that those two seemed to oppose the other even in that aspect, though they had many things in common as well, like for example the fact that their racial traits were wings.

’Heh, those are some big words and I do look up for the challenge, however how are you going to move around with those wings in that place~’, said Lilia, this time her voice did reach Sarina’s ears.

The blond motherly roc girl’s wings, majestically spread as wide as Lilia’s ones, because though Lilia’s realm is way higher than that of Sarina, her roc lineage is not that far from the dragon mother’s one.

Aster went far and beyond to help those two awaken their storm roc lineages and the result created an accelerator for their lineage development, which is why their wings manifested in way less time than what it took Alice or Lilia with their tail and wings respectively, also it is easier for the pair of roc mother and daughter to catch up with the dragon mother and daughter, because advancing is always easier at the earlier stages than at the later ones.

So, both Sarina, Kana and Alice are at the later part of the middle infant stage, lineage maturity wise, while Lilia is at the middle part of the late stage, the difference is not that big considering the one in terms of realm.

The roc mother has almost overtaken Alice actually, because the boosted development period she gained thanks to the awakening gift Aster prepared for her, is still in play.

Also, it’s not like Aster hadn’t think on helping Lilia and Alice accelerate their lineage’s evolution, but unlike the roc mother and daughter pair, whose lineages are rather neutral while still focused in strength and even gentle in Kana’s case, those two’s dragon ones are quite wild as the periods of excitement they used to experience frequently, suggested, so the benefits of the previous might be overshadowed by that side-effect.

Not to mention that even if he wanted to, Aster lacked the needed materials to make an elixir that worked in that aspect for Alice and Lilia, his own dragon lineage unlike theirs always had zero things in common with the Drage one, he doesn’t even have destruction as his attribute after all.

But if that was the only reason, Aster could still work around something, and while both Alice and Lilia had also long ago drifted apart from the Drage origin, their dragon lineages are obviously offense related ones, Aster’s one on the other hand is the result of the paragon body being slowly integrated with it and so its focus is protection instead, don’t misunderstand that thing is not passive or easy going in the slightest, it reacts so violently at the slightest sign of provocation after all, but still, it focuses in defense, endurance and the like.

If he were to use his dragon lineage, it would only add properties similar to that, to theirs and that would only slow down their development, what’s more their currently solid foundation will be affected, and the Wolfstein one which worked to amplify things didn’t help with growth speed but intensity instead, and those two didn’t need more of that.

The other option was Espi, who though more flexible rather than having an offensive focus could work, but Aster has to take a lot of the base ingredients to make that elixir, with Ley and the others it didn’t matter, but he wouldn’t harm the little wyrm, in Aster’s case it would be fine, his lineage is all about extreme resilience and protection, instead of weakening when he extracts some of it which he does on a daily basis even in this place, not only it does recover quite fast without affecting him in the slightest, it also helps him grow more and more.

That was a result of his own desires, the paragon body which originates from Alice’s star by the way and the evolution powers of Aldebaran, Lilia’s major regret was that he lost the major part of his dragon inheritance to help save her life, so his dragon lineage made sure that such a thing will never happen again.

It’s amusing, that a lot of methods to grow stronger Aster uses would be considered either self-harm or straight suicidal to others, he does something even crazier with his soul after all, only his energy realm is spared from this treatment not because he doesn’t want to, but because he hadn’t found a way to bring himself to the extreme in that aspect, the stars of the girls create new main star cores in his dantian’s inner universe, which are used to absorb and refine spirit energy at an insane speed all the time, so he simply can’t reach their limit, which is why he instead focused in absolute purity to advance in that aspect.

’Once the base of their lineages has been completely established, they can use mine as fuel without being affected by its properties in a negative way... alternatively I could harvest some darkness desolation dragon blood since I bet there will be a lot of "volunteers" for that later’, thought Aster to then say.

"Unlike with Alice, the identity of Kana and your lineage is not attention drawing in the four heavenly quadrants, though people will for sure pay attention to it due to its capacities, it’s nothing new, however like mom said, won’t letting these cuties out be troublesome for your daily life in here?", asked Aster as he gently caressed Sarina’s pretty wings, making her proudly smile, which resulted in Lilia frowning from within the mind space.

’Sarina you...’, the dragon mother couldn’t finish her sentence before the blond motherly roc girl interrupted her.

"I have not been just spending my time training my cooking skills you know, besides if there is an advantage to the restrictions of this place preventing Aster from looking through solid things and that I couldn’t spend every single moment with him, is that escaping from you two’s gazes was easy~", said Sarina referring to Lilia and Rya, her majestic wings suddenly "disappeared" from Aster’s sight.

At least until she turned around and unbuttoned the upper back section of her shirt which she had modified herself without anyone noticing in preparation for when she manifested her wings, revealing that they weren’t gone, but simply shrank and compacted until they were barely palm sized and perfectly stuck to Sarina’s skin, the previously majestic wings now looked rather cute, but just like Sarina, the gentle part is only a side of theirs.

"Hsssss!", the blond motherly roc girl extended her right hand and a crackling sound could be heard as a current of electricity continuously flashed around her fingers.

’Her profession type manual is a chef related one and her attack type one is a sword related one so... this is due to her lineage, she actually took a step ahead of Alice and reached the early part of the late infant stage!’, thought Aster to then jokingly say.

"Feather winged girls are giving me quite the surprise today, on the other hand you just threw me a big headache in the form of Alice not being able to hide her tail anymore".

Clearly Sarina found a way to advance in terms of lineage thanks to the restrictions of this place and now that she has surpassed Alice in terms of lineage maturity, there is no way the wild dragon princess will take that laying down.

Also, her case won’t be like Sarina, the blond motherly roc girl’s wings can switch between energy ethereal mode to physical one at will, this capacity to "shrink" and fold themselves against Sarina’s skin is probably the mortal version of that, but Alice’s tail is not stealthy nor modest in the slightest, it’s wild and flashy just like its owner.

Similar to how the little wyrm’s camouflage is on a different level, she doesn’t just blend with the environment but practically disappears and can even move without her camouflage being affected in the slightest, but on the outside this innate capacity of hers would include changing the attribute of her scales as well.

As for the electricity Sarina was producing, her lineage comes from a "Storm Roc" and even among normal mortal animals, there are a few who can produce and release electricity as a defensive mean, so this is not that strange by itself, the strength that the current of electricity which Sarina is using on the other hand, that’s another thing but let’s leave that aside for now.

"There was no electricity when the wings were in their normal size, but when they shrank, their function changed in nature", said Aster as his pupils contracted losing their perfectly round shape as he focused his attention on Sarina’s small wings, which allowed him to see the thin electric currents that made their feathers slightly rustle from time to time.

"And that’s not all I can do while limited to mortal level~", said Sarina, the electricity on her hand disappeared as her wings recovered their normal size, a second and a few flaps later, the blond motherly roc girl was floating a few meters above the ground, she made a turn in the air to then fall right on Aster’s arms in a perfect princess carry.

"I can fly with my normal sized wings, in the sky they won’t be a nuisance due to their size and when on the ground, I can shrink them and use the electricity as an offensive mean, amazing right", she said.

Aster couldn’t help but agree, just the flying ability as a mortal is already quite something, coupled with the capacity to adapt so that the wings don’t become an easy target, clearly shows that her lineage is battle oriented, as one would expect from a descendant of the warrior branch from the non-poisonous Storm Roc lineage.

"And now, let’s continue where we left~", added Sarina as she pushed Aster backwards making him fall to the ground, her wings spread and stopped the fall letting both of them gently reach the ground before Sarina cutely rubbed her face against Aster’s clearly asking for a reward for all the hard work she did to train and keep this a secret to surprise him.

’I’m quite interested in seeing what this advance brought to the cultivator version of her wings, but I guess we can leave that for later’, thought Aster as he stroked Sarina’s pretty blond hair to then kiss her forehead.

"Mm~".

While those two got all lovey-dovey, within the mind space, Lilia had a smile which wasn’t a smile on her pretty face.

’Did you see that, our feathered friend is getting carried away in our absence, so you better hurry up before she catches up to us’, thought the dragon mother.

’Grrrr!’, the answer she got in her mind was an enthusiastic soft growl, before everything returned to normal.

’I already had my guard up against Sarina thinking she might be one of those special dragon-preying cases, but she is more "dangerous" than what I expected, I will make sure to keep an eye on her once I’m on the outside’, thought Rya.

And thus, a new round of competition for the "main wife" position started between those three.

...

After a couple of hours of resting and cuddling with Sarina, the blond motherly roc girl returned to her usual gentle and composed self, finally letting go of Aster, since she knew he had other thing to do and she was in such a good mood that she felt like cooking a lot which was good, as dinner will be up in a few hours, also it’s not like this was the end of her fun, because there will be night activities today.

"I’ll prepare an extra delicious dinner with the help of these two, so I do look up to more rewards~", said Sarina as she pecked Aster, referring to the salt and olive oil gift she received, to then leave the spice garden while happily humming, she was in a really good mood, she was such a good girl willing to share her gift with everyone.

’I don’t think Alice will learn about this today and even if she does, she’ll be too busy to care at least until tomorrow, so we can leave the "talk" for tomorrow too, in that case let’s pay a visit to the other whose situation is troublesome as well first’, thought Aster as he got up.

Despite all the kissing and cuddling, Sarina is not the wild type, at least not normally, so Aster didn’t need to fix himself at all, she even took all the things they used for their little picnic with her to save him of the trouble, as expected of that gentle and considerate motherly roc girl.

The next stop was filled with people on the wild side though, as the loud wood hitting sounds that reached Aster’s ears, suggested.

"Woah, take it easy sis, what if brother Aster sees you getting this violent... aghhh!", that was Erick who was being smacked around by Tiana and her training wood spear.

"Seriously you never learn", said Sophia as she sighed and used a towel to dry her sweat, she had just changed shift with Tiana and the first thing that blockhead boyfriend of hers spoke about in a try to have his sister go easy on him, was Aster.

Of course, all this was just training, though Tiana indeed was getting back at Erick for all the embarrassment he has caused her to suffer, it had a benefit for him as well, the reason as to why he was left out of the abnormally outstanding list is that while he has a strong body even as a mortal, he lacks in terms of pure technique and he really isn’t the type to use his head, so the knowledge of the manual is being beat into him by Tiana and Sophia.

Aster who was welcomed by the sight of his friend being smacked with a wood spear all over the training area, chuckled to then look at the dark gray-haired woman who was watching over those three, that was Felicia who was smiling as she saw Erick and Tiana training.

"Hey, don’t you think things might get a bit out of hand if they continue like this?", asked Aster to the energy constitution mother who stretched her body without standing up to then say.

"It’s fine, Erick can perfectly take a beating or two, this also helps Tia to let out some steam~", as usual she had that carefree expression on her pretty face, at least until she heard Aster adding.

"I wasn’t referring to them though".

"...", Felicia’s smile stiffened, for a moment an awkward silence remained in the air until Aster looked into his pocket to then take out a pinky sized crystal vial with a red liquid inside of it.

"While it is true that I prefer to wait until someone is willing to share what’s worrying them rather than pressing them to, I’d rather risk myself to be hated than let someone close to me suffer in silence".

"This is an especially developed pain suppressor which has the maximum amount of my blood it can be added to a mortal level alchemy product, a single drop is enough to last a whole day and even if you were to lose a limb you won’t feel a thing, that’s why it’s not being used, something like that will only dull survival instincts, unless used after receiving a wound that would induce shock in someone".

"But in your case, it will only be enough to return you to a normal state so it’s fine, that being said, I’m not going to spoil you, it’s also my fault for not noticing it earlier, but going into battle like that was stupid, so there is only enough for nine days in that vial", said Aster as left the vial next to Felicia to then turn around to leave.

"How did you notice it?", asked the energy constitution mother who took off the gloves she has been using since a few days ago, revealing that the tips of her fingers had been dyed of a deep black color.

"Unlike Tia, you have way too much battle experience, it doesn’t make sense that you haven’t shown battle prowess on par with Valentina in this place, especially since your physical strength wouldn’t lose to Alice’s if you were fine, so of course it was weird to see your fingers trembling after killing some wolves when you should have been able to literally rip them to shreds with your hands", said Aster.

"I thought those dangerous eyes of yours would be less strong in this place, but it seems like I underestimated you, so, since when have you known about the other thing?", asked Felicia.

"From the very beginning", said Aster to which Felicia sighed.

"I see, I guess I deserve it for being a "bad girl", thanks for the extra week you bought for me and... I wouldn’t use the word "hate" to refer to how I feel about you now and don’t worry, Tia is not like this", she said.

"I know, if you had remained silent when there was even a slightest chance she would end up in a similar state, I wouldn’t call myself your friend anymore, let’s continue the conversation after you had sorted whatever might be in your mind which weighed enough to keep silent about this, take the medicine and take better care of yourself too", said Aster as he left as silently as he arrived.

Neither one of those three noticed he paid them a short visit, and by the time Tiana finished beating the hell out of Erick, Aster was gone and so were the gloves that used to cover Felicia’s hands as well as the black color which had dyed the tips of her fingers, only her nails which now looked like claws were of a pretty black color.

"It’s boring to just see you three have fun, let me join in as well, how about we all train Erick at the same time, I bet it will shorten the time needed for him to learn how to fight properly in this place~", said the energy constitution mother as she stood up, making Erick who was covered in dirt exclaim.

"Mom, it’s fine if you don’t help me escape from sis, but come on!", Tiana and Sophia on the other hand exchanged gazes and immediately nodded.

"Yes!".

Aster who was watching from afar while sitting on top of tree’s branch softly smiled as he retrieved two pieces of wood from the supply storage as well as a carving knife.

"Now, that’s the Felicia I know", he mumbled.