’You spoil her too much darling, you didn’t tell her that the liquid in that vial was refined from fifty dosages of the elixir with the effect you mentioned, you bled so much for it’, said Lilia from within the mind space as she saw Aster calmly working with the carving knife.

"It’s fine, it was only a few extra meals in my case, in comparison with what Felicia has been going through, it’s not worth mentioning, besides it’s also true that I didn’t notice it in time, so this was both for her sake and for my own satisfaction", said Aster to which Lilia softly snorted.

’Humph, if she acts like a bad girl, you reward her and now you are even covering for her, isn’t that a bit too much...’, mumbled the dragon mother making Aster chuckle.

"Mom, you know that now that the "channel" is open, I could see the worry in your eyes when she removed her gloves right, though I was the one to push for it, I was surprised to see you treat her like a friend", jokingly said Aster.

’N-Nonsense, I simply thought that it wouldn’t be interesting if a fun person like her were to lose that "spark", that’s all!’, exclaimed Lilia in a hurry.

Within the family, there are very few people with whom Lilia is truly close, that doesn’t mean she dislikes the other girls or doesn’t interact with them, but they don’t have much in common with Lilia since most are younger mind-wise, also Lilia has never been too social to begin with, probably because the environment in which she grew, so for her a "friend" is the same as a sister to whom she would trust her back.

That really select category grew thanks to Rya and Sarina, until Felicia and Tamara in other words Thomas’s wife entered the picture, be it because they are mothers, or simply because they are not part of the young girls that flock around the castle and the valley at all times, she ended up growing closer to them as well.

’Mom acting all shy about something not related to me, how cute, now I want to meet those two godmothers of mine even more’, thought Aster to then say.

"Also, Rya, there is no need to feel guilty, I know you noticed the very moment it started and would have mentioned it if you thought I would be completely unable to on my own".

While Rya’s powers have been regressing alongside her age in the process of healing she has been going through, while inside the mind space the strength she can exert far surpasses even that of Lilia and that is just by herself, if she were to borrow Hyperion’s power which instead of decreasing has been increasing since Aster awakened annihilation as his attribute, who knows what her limit might be.

Therefore, unlike Lilia, Rya of course noticed what was happening to Felicia as she could ignore the restrictions of the place where Aster is, and be completely unnoticed by it.

But she has always acted with the base line of not interfering unless it is absolutely necessary, after all how could Aster grow if he relied on her to solve every noticeable trouble that came his way.

So, unless Aster had no way to deal with something, she wouldn’t directly meddle, as it would end up having negative repercussions in Aster’s "path" which is also why she doesn’t take the initiative to inform him about anything above the mortal realm, even when the restrictions of the heavenly law are basically non-existent like in this place, if he learns about something and then wants to consult with her, then that’s allowed up to a certain limit.

’I remained quiet about it because you were going to notice it before a situation of real danger would happen, but then the final test of the development week was rushed ahead... I did think that Felicia was going to tell you out of her own initiative but things turned out different as well’, mumbled the sword empress.

Today is the sixth day, without the large-scale battle of yesterday, Aster would have noticed the problem with Felicia today, which means that they would still have a day before dealing with the bear had the supervisors not pulled all the stops to mess with them.

"It’s fine, to be honest even if she collapsed during the fight, there wouldn’t have been any real danger since the fight was perfectly under control, but that doesn’t excuse her for being irresponsible, so a soft "slap" on the hand was in place", said Aster to then change the subject.

"In a less sensitive and much more amusing subject, let’s go make our last stop for the day, well, it might take a bit more of effort to find those two though", said Aster as he jumped out of the tree branch where he was sitting.

It was almost 6 pm and so the sun had started to go down, along his way through the camp Aster saw that the girls of the sect were returning to rest and refresh themselves after finishing down their own things or simply playing around, in preparation for dinner.

"Hello senior brother~", said a few girls who were playing in the lake as they saw Aster approach them by walking on the dock that reached quite a few meters into it.

"Hi, are Mira and Guardian down there with you?", asked Aster as he saw the surface of the lake tremble before multiple komodo dragons and anacondas peek their heads out of the water, normally that would be enough to make humans in the vicinity swim as fast as they can to get out of the water, but the girls from the sect not only weren’t freaked out by that, but actually giggled as they saw them "discuss".

"Hisss".

"Shaaa".

Apparently, they were competing to see who could be more helpful in water, the anacondas obviously could hold their breath for longer periods of time and were better swimmers, however the komodo dragons could dive deeper and also thanks to their limbs they were better to hold and transport things than the anacondas who could only rely on their mouths.

"Sister Mira and sister lynx swam with us earlier after we completed our fishing missions but they left already, sorry", said a girl to which Aster chuckled.

"It’s fine, your sister Mira likes to play hide and seek all over the camp, that’s all", he jokingly said to then leave the area of the lake, leaving behind a bunch of girls who couldn’t help but stare at each other for a second.

"To think that sister Mira likes to play something so fun", mumbled one.

"Let’s ask her to play with us tomorrow~", added another one before they started getting out of the water accompanied by the anacondas and komodo dragons since they had to shower before dinner.

And so having purposedly staged things so that the grumpy ligress would be in for a surprise tomorrow, Aster went to the next possible place where she might be "hiding".

’I swear she is going to scratch you one day, darling~’, jokingly said Lilia, fun fact the dragon mother found teasing Mira by treating her like a cat amusing as well, ever since dragon Lilia chased after her back then at the forest of the valley.

"That’s the best part of it, Mira is so cutely stubborn that she won’t do it, because that would be admitting her loss", said Aster as he arrived at the training area which was obviously used by Alice, the little wyrm and Kana throughout the day.

How did Aster know it, that’s easy, it had turned into a disaster zone with broken trees, footprint shaped craters and holes into the ground were arrows had landed, luckily those three had already left and were probably taking a bath as of current.

"She knows I was going to visit Mylene’s workshop, so that only leaves us one possible "hiding" place", said Aster as he looked at the western border of the camp which had the largest space next to it, as the mountain which blocked the camp at the same side was further from it than the entrance to the forest.

The largest number of girls that had yet to return to the camp were in that direction as well, groups of five each holding one of the basic four wood training equipment, as well as five archers and lastly two war chariots for a total of thirty girls and four horses, they were divided in teams, with red and blue bands on their arms.

"Chariot unit, charge back and we’ll call it a day!", Eris’s voice reached Aster’s ears as he approached this "battlefield" training area which was filled with obstacles and traps, the western area was perfect for it, because daily activities didn’t need them to go there, as the forest was to the north and the lake was to the east.

So, it was perfect for Eris and the others from the rune mastering peak to practice battle formations without getting in the way of others, this was the last batch of girls that asked to participate in this little exercise.

"How is the score, Angela?", asked Mikaela who surprisingly was helping here.

"The red team wins in terms of timing and decision making, however the blue team wins in terms of technique and strength, we’ll get the better of both worlds if we mix them half and half", said the receptionist girl as she accommodated her glasses.

"Sorry to interrupt you, have you seen a certain pair of "feline" ladies?", jokingly asked Aster, which made Eris unconsciously giggle and that was enough to give Mira away.

"So, they are in the nearby tree agglomerations, thanks", said Aster making Eris bitterly smile.

’Sorry Mira, on the other hand now I can ask for a reward too... it’s not fair that only Mylene gets one after all’, thought Eris as she looked at the nearby trees with an apologetic expression on her pretty face which was replaced with a happy one less than a second later.

Once Aster deepened into the woods, he started to notice many different slashing marks on the trees, with varied patterns, depths, sizes, you name it, it was clearly done like this on purpose, however what others would have failed to realize is that they didn’t belong all to the same "animal".

"Let’s see, the greener trees are harder to cut but easier to rip, the drier trees are the opposite and yet, the marks on the greener trees are of a cutting nature with a pattern left by sharply curved claws while the ones on the drier trees are of a ripping nature with a pattern left by deeply curved ones, both types of slashing marks were caused by the pretty claws of two hard-working ladies though", said Aster out loud after he reached a clearing in the middle of the tree agglomeration.

"Grrrr!", the answer Aster got were two different types of growling sounds, one expressing annoyance while the other was clearly impressed, due to the accurate differentiation in the claw pattern, normally one wouldn’t notice the difference since those two are strong enough to simply cut their targets to pieces, however at their origin a tiger’s claws are more like meat hooks deeply curved to keep prey in place while a lynx’s ones are much more delicate better for agile cutting.

"Ah, I knew it was futile to avoid you, but Eris could have at least tried to make some time or something...", mumbled Mira as she jumped from the top of a tree to then elegantly land in front of Aster, followed by Guardian.

"Well, this was the last place I came to, so finding you two wasn’t easy, here this should help you relax after a long day of training with your claws", said Aster as he retrieved two objects from the supply storage which were the same thing in which Aster was working earlier after talking with Felicia, one was small and compact around hand sized, the other was larger, forearm sized, both were made out of perfectly worked wood though.

Both Mira and Guardian had their noses cutely wrinkle a couple of times, after Aster brought the two objects in front of them.

’This scent, is it something like "berserk herb"...no, Aster wouldn’t do something like that, besides I like how it smells unlike with berserk herb~’, thought the lynx to then receive her gift, it was a scratching post made out of olive wood.

The "berserk herb" Guardian thought about is catnip by the way, which is not bad by itself, however the rush caused by it can be quite intense and cause overstimulation, that can be followed by aggressiveness, especially since it mimics natural hormones that can spark territorial and defensive actions, now imagine that in a group of lynxes that do not fear fighting against wolves actively.

Guardian made sure to get rid of all the herbs similar to the one that caused a major incident in her race, that she found during the past three hundred years.

’Catnip can be found in forests quite easily, so I thought that if she didn’t have a single piece of it in her private den, then she wasn’t the type to be interested in it, which is why I went with olive wood instead, well, besides the much gentler approach of it, looks like I was right’, thought Aster as he saw the lynx’s eyes sparkle as she softly smelled the scent of the piece of olive wood, he prepared for her.

Not all felines react to catnip, it mostly depends on genetical inheritance and Guardian happened to be among the few in her tribe of origin that didn’t feel interest in catnip, but the same couldn’t be said about olive wood which unlike catnip tends to be more relaxing than stimulating for felines.

As to why the lynx didn’t know about this, that’s because olive trees prefer rocky open and sunny areas rather than forests, and there is a zone that perfectly fits that description, the transition between the forest and the volcanic area where the bear used live, which Guardian didn’t set a foot into, but Aster’s group did when they were looking for iron ore, before the lynx took them to their den where that ore of the highest quality could be found.

"It’s your gift so use it as you please, however I suggest you to use it to shed the outer layer of your claws when needed or smell its scent when you want to relax, when you feel like having a new one just say the word, I’ll make it for you", said Aster to Guardian who nodded in response.

’I see, so this is a "gift", a thoughtful thing presented to someone you appreciate is what little Kana said, it doesn’t have to be an object but an action itself can be it as well, I like how it feels’, thought Guardian.

"Thanks, Aster", said the lynx to Aster as she rubbed her head against Aster’s right side to express her gratitude.

On the grumpy ligress’s side, Aster made her gift in the form of a cute nail file with Mira’s name carved on it, instead of a scratching post, because he didn’t want to tease Mira too much.

"...nks", a soft barely noticeable sound could be heard from the ligress girl’s rosy lips, before she jumped onto a tree’s branch to then rush into the distance, not without taking her gift with her of course.

"Is Mira, okay?", asked the lynx with a confused expression, to which Aster chuckled as he answered.

"Don’t worry, despite how it looks, she is a rather "shy" girl, that’s just her way to express happiness".

"Oh, I guess I still have a lot of things to learn about humans, but if she is fine then it’s okay, thanks for the gift", said Guardian as she gently bit on the piece of olive wood to hold onto it and then leave the forest in the same direction as Mira, but in a calm and composed way, not to mention that the lynx simply walked on the ground instead of moving by jumping from tree to tree like Mira.

’Perhaps our dear Mira is the type to get strongly stimulated by olive wood instead’, jokingly thought Aster as he stretched his body, today’s serious matters were over.

"Time to go get my own rewards", mumbled Aster as he returned to the camp.

...

He was welcomed by the sight of basically everyone already sitting to wait for dinner to be served, on the table of the leading group, only Felicia, Sarina and himself, were missing, even Mira who had escaped a few minutes ago was there, though she didn’t even look his way and instead was chatting with Guardian.

"Dinner is ready", surprisingly the one bringing the plates to the table was none other than Felicia who though wasn’t on duty, helped Sarina prepare dinner while happily chatting with the blond motherly roc girl who was all smiles after her little picnic with Aster.

Like previously stated, the four mothers are in friendly terms, Felicia has not been spending much time with Sarina because of her own personal situation, the blond motherly roc girl didn’t think it was weird, because they still interacted like usual when they crossed each other, and she simply thought Felicia was busy with her manuals.

Also, Sarina was quite busy the first three days or so teaching the girls of the sect how to cook with mortal ingredients so that they could work breakfast, lunch and dinner without her supervision, so she has only been free to look for Felicia for the past two days so far, otherwise she would have also noticed something was going on with her.

"How did your day go ladies, anything interesting you want to share with us?", said Aster as he gazed at Mira who softly snorted in response making Mylene and Eris giggle, the mood brightened as Sarina arrived with the remaining plates needed for the rest and Kana jumped onto Aster’s lap to then say.

"I do big brother, sister Alice was too rough with me and Espi, she nearly broke my bow and cracked one of Espi’s scales!", said the little girl to which the wild dragon princess shrugged as she sat on Aster’s lap as well.

"You and that little snake ripped my clothes a bit, but you didn’t see me tattle telling, right~", said Alice.

"It’s not the same!", exclaimed the little girl.

"Hissss!", which was seconded by the little wyrm who had climbed up through Aster’s leg to sit on Kana’s lap so that she could reach her plate.

"We’ll get our revenge on tomorrow’s training...", cutely mumbled Kana as she took a bite of her dinner, which mad her eyes sparkle.

"Woaah, this is delicious!", dinner consisted in fish fillet which was prepared in a different way than the usual grilling method with just herbs, like Sarina said, she used her gift to make a delicious dinner for everyone.

The menu consisted in fish marinated with juice and slices of wild orange which is not sweet like the modern ones but acid and basically unpalatable to eat raw, but in this case that worked for Sarina because they were used to replace lemon which is impossible to be found in the wild, then she added salt, thyme and a bit of olive oil to then seal all of it in tinfoil and leave it to bake, so it was cooked indirectly by heat rather than by the fire itself, the result was a juicy and delicious dish which all the girls were loving.

"Miss Sarina’s grilled fish is already quite good, but this is so juicy and tender, I love it~", said Vivian as she took a bite of her dinner, she didn’t even need to use a knife, the fish was easily cut with the fork due to the long cooking time, that’s also why Sarina started preparations for dinner early.

"We used the rest of the olive oil samples, but it was worth it", mumbled Mylene, naturally just the small bottle Aster gifted to Sarina wouldn’t be enough to prepare dinner for all the members of the sect, so she went to Mylene’s workshop and got the pink-haired girl to give her everything she had, the other samples weren’t of such a high quality as the one Sarina got, but unlike with Aster, her skills could easily make up for that, in any case the girls of the sect wouldn’t have noticed it, as just the olive oil being way more delicate than the animal one, was enough to make a big difference in the taste, not to mention the salt.

And so, everyone was having an amazing dinner, which was crowned by a small surprise brought by the treasure girl who lost her moment to speak earlier when Kana took a bit of the fish, adding.

"I triggered a unique mission for my profession type manual".

"Hoh, nice one Cami, you did it before me or Mylene", said Eris to which Mylene added.

"Good for you, dedicating all your free time to surprise Aster ended up paying~".

"Wuuuuh~", her pink-haired friend’s words made Camila’s face cutely redden, she didn’t want to compete with Alice and the others, but she didn’t want Eris or Mylene to trigger their unique missions before her, it was a little rivalry between friends, of course since she won, how could Mylene not tease her friend with it, also it’s not like she was lying, that copper haired girl clearly waited until now to mention it, because she achieved it actually earlier than the giant eagle did it, but avoided Aster the whole day, forgetting that he could see it anyway, it was cute.