Kana happily stood from her seat and told her guards that she invited Aster to the Millefiore mansion in the city, normally Marco would have argued with her because she as a young lady shouldn’t invite a stranger to her house, not to mention it was a young man, but taking into account that it was someone recognized by the ancient forest and how he avenged his little brother how could he refuse.
“I don’t have any problem young lady but… your father is already waiting for you there, I’m sorry I wasn’t supposed to tell you but he contacted me a couple of hours ago”.
Although she “escaped” from the mansion in the capital where she was stayng, of course her father noticed it, since Kana is his only daughter how could he not have someone tacking care of her from the shadows.
Kana didn’t seem worried about it.
“Don’t worry uncle Marco, I bet father will be happy to receive blessed ones like big brother Aster and big sister Alice in our house”.
Alice felt a bit weird listening to her calling them brother and sister but it was not something bad, Kana was probably 12-13 years old, “if not for our family peculiar “circumstances”, I too would have behaved like that”, she thought.
the guards dismantled the tents, and everyone advanced towards the city, on the way Aster spoke with Marco to get a little more information about this planet.
“We are not from Luonto, besides the level system Kana told me for the corrupted creatures, what are the realms used for cultivators here?”, he asked.
Marco didn’t pay too much attention to the fact that Aster was asking such a basic question, there were only two continents in Prasil but there are other nearby planets so he just assumed Aster was a native of one of them.
“In Prasil we classify cultivators by how much they have developed their star core, but before there is an unofficial realm called “core formation”, which basically includes all those who haven’t formed a core yet”.
Aster nodded, those were probably the mortal realms he knew, after all you would only get your star nucleus once you reach the earth origin realm.
Marco continued.
“After that we have the neutral core realm, elemental core realm, core array realm, star alignment realm and finally the star vertex realm, our young lady’s father, Archduke Robert is one of the few star vertex realm cultivators in Luonto besides the king of course”.
“On the past our story says that there were cultivators on the human liberation realm and above but they died repelling calamity level corrupted creatures… but it has happened so much time that people nowadays believe it’s just a myth, of course the royal family and those who reach a certain level know the truth”.
Marco doubted for a second before saying.
“For what I could feel before, you are on the star alignment realm and since you seem to be so young, I guess you come from the hegemon family of some other planet, how did you end up in Prasil?”.
Aster didn’t bother to lie too much.
“We were exploring an abandoned ruin and we ended up being transported here, on the way I separated from my sister and other companions and I appeared in the forest, I looked for my sister and that’s when that shape changing creature tried to trick me but I managed to kill it, you can imagine the rest of the story”.
Marco smiled convinced of his story, there are so many things left behind by previous civilizations that are yet to be found, the ancient forest for example it’s so vast and mysterious that no one has ever being able to explore more than the outer areas of it, so other planets probably had similar things.
Before they noticed the gates of a city were in front of them, unlike Ghaleria this Oak heart city had a really tall wall made out of some kind of metal, apparently corrupted creatures used to form a group and assault many places in Luonto before until the royal family used a lot of resources to build a strong protective wall on all the cities that bordered the ancient forest
Marco spoke with the city guards and after showing them a medal with a tree and a sword engraved on it, the heavy metal doors opened and they entered the city, while they walked the rest of the way Aster noticed that this city was more or less on the same level as Ghaleria with the exception that there were more stellar constellation cultivators, although here they were called core array cultivators.
Kana actually spoke with Alice almost all they way, until she saw that Aster was free, she excused herself and approached him before saying.
“What do you think big brother Aster? this Oak Heart city is the native place of my mom, although is under the management of the Millefiore family from which my father comes, the city lord is my maternal grandfather”.
Seeing the happy smiling expression on Kana’s face Aster felt tempted to pat her head, it was like looking to a small cute animal asking for attention.
“It looks like a good place to live, I thought that the people would be nervous and maybe afraid since they live near the forest but, that doesn’t seem to be the case”, he said.
Aster was telling the truth, along the way he saw children playing in the street without any worries, the streets were clean, there were guards here and there but the common people seemed to be comfortable with them around, some were even drinking or eating with them.
“Isaac should learn a couple of things from this place’s city lord”, he thought.
Kana nodded.
“I also love this city, my mom used to take me here at least once a week when a was younger, unlike the capital city people here are gentle and easy to get along”.
Aster heard the sad nostalgic tone on her voice and he doubted for a moment before asking.
“Your mother, is she…”.
Kana shook her head, noticing her words could be misunderstood.
“Sorry I didn’t want to say weir things, she is still with us, it’s just that she can’t move too much due to her frail health but she lives in the place where we will be staying, to be far from the stressful atmosphere of the capital”.
Aster smiled.
“I hope she gets well, perhaps the relaxed ambient of this city is what she needs”, he said.
While Kana was enjoying talking with Aster they arrived at a big white mansion, she said that there was a big garden in the front but Aster was amazed the garden was huge, there were a lot of trees and other plants, flowers etc. even the borders of the mansion were made out of some kind of green brambles with the only exception of a metal fence protecting the entrance.
Marco used the same medal as before and the fence opened for them to enter, Alice was marveled at the variety of flowers that decorated the place, once they reached the house there was a middle-aged man waiting for them at the door.
Kanas guards kneeled down before saying.
“We greet the Archduke!!!”.
Normally Robert is used to only see her daughter standing while the guards properly greet him according to his status so Aster and Alice stuck out like a sore thumb which made him silently evaluate them.
Aster was also evaluating the man in front of him, he had brown hair, his eye color was blue similar to Kana’s one, he had beard and mustache, he was wearing pretty standard clothes, maybe because this was his house but what caught his attention was the little scars that were on the left side of his face, one on top of his eyebrow and another one over his upper lip, the aura around hum was the one of a upright and brave ruler.
“This guy is… on the star tribulation realm”, thought Aster.
On the way here Aster already told Alice to naturally stand a bit behind him just in case, if things went south for some reason, he could use the paragon body as the first line of defense or use some of the talismans Lilia gave them, although they might not be enough to kill a star tribulation cultivator, defending against one was not a problem.
Kana ignored the gaze contest her father was having with Aster, she grabbed Aster’s hand and dragged him along to meet Robert.
“Dad, he is big brother Aster, we met in the outer area of the forest, he has received the blessing of the forest because he defeated the shape changing disaster!!!”.
Robert’s expression relaxed after he listened to his daughter’s explanation, now he understood why Marco allowed her to invite such an outstanding young man which seemed to be on the star alignment realm.
He extended his hand to offer a hand shake.
“I’m the Archduke Robert Millefiore, it’s always a pleasure to meet such hard to find young blessed one”.
Aster accepted the greet contrary to what he thought Robert didn’t try to use force on the handshake, “perhaps being a blessed one while being young is something that earns the respect of others”, he thought.
Marco was cold sweating while he was still kneeling, he knew the strong character of the Archduke, unlike the king who was in charge of political stuff, Robert was the one who defended the border from any dangers, his personality was forged in the heat of the battle, he only acted like a gentle man with his daughter and his wife… even the king listened to his advises.
“Luckily this young man is a blessed one, or the Archduke wouldn’t have let him even enter the front garden”, that was his conclusion.
Robert patted Aster’s shoulder.
“Come in, since my daughter invited you then what kind of host would I be if I didn’t offer a good banquet as welcome”.
The guards stood up and opened the door of the house so Robert could enter followed by the rest.
Kana grabbed both Alice and Aster hands and dragged them along while saying.
“Let’s meet my mother I bet she will be happy to see I made new friends!!!”.
Robert sighed.
“That lass is quite strong for her age and that boy is… also quite good, perhaps they will be a good influence for Kana, on any case she seems really happy around them so I guess being friends with them it’s not a bad thing”, he thought after seeing his daughter acting as energetic as when his wife could spend all the day with her.
