Luckily the royal family had some private carriages, so they didn’t need to pay for it, on the way to get one, Sarina sent a message to her father to inform they will be going to Hawthorn city… an she also told him about what happened in the merchant house earlier.
“Although we might not be staying in Luonto for too much time, it’s better if Orson clears things because I don’t want others to be causing us troubles just because Robert was an asshole”.
Sylas laughed on the other side of the transmission.
“Fine I will tell him… lass, have you already decided on leaving this place?”.
Sarina didn’t bother to hide it anymore, even her daughter started being openly honest, although she was only doing some innocent things as a young girl in love.
“We’ll talk about that later father, who knows maybe once this all finish our galaxy won’t be isolated anymore”.
With that last message she kept her communication talisman in her spatial ring, once they arrived at the designated place, Sarina showed her toke of identification to the guards and a royal coachman was assigned to them.
They got up the carriage, inside there was enough space for at least eight people to travel, but all the girls were basically clung to Aster, Alice on the right side, Sarina on the left and Kana on his lap again.
Not like Aster didn’t enjoy it but, he still needed to start working on modifying the communication talisman he got in the merchant house, so Kana helped him by holding his original talisman on her hands as a visual reference, while Aster started inspecting the other one.
Sarina was smiled seeing her daughter’s happy expression, she instead wanted to talk more about the “family”, she will be joining so while Aster was focused on his work, she spoke with Alice.
“Say Alice, how are the other members of… the family”, she asked in a somewhat weird tone.
Alice was amused by her question, but it wasn’t the place nor the moment to talk about her relationship with her brother, but she could speak about Aria.
“My brother is the one you should ask that… but I can tell you about the one I know the most, her name is Aria and she is an 18 years peak star constellation realm cultivator, she is a pain in the ass to deal with, but she is a good person”.
Although Aster wasn’t participating, he was listening his sister’s conversation with Sarina and he knew the time of truth was coming, but before he could reveal anything he needed to tell Lilia and Aria about all this, not because he needed permission but because he wanted to, the past three years he didn’t bring back any new “additions” to the family, so it was going to be a bit hard to explain he suddenly got the love of a pair of mother and daughter… although Kana wasn’t on the original plan.
With a gesture Aster took out a brush and a bottle of a special ink out of his spatial ring, after inspecting the runes used on the communication talisman, he noticed that they weren’t different from the ones he knew, unlike those that were engraved on the stones near the portal that brought them to Prasil.
Aurelian mentioned that the nether vine bestowed some knowledge about spirit formations to the second king, and since Rya just limited to say that both the nether vine and the cosmos tree were things beyond the heavenly conqueror realm, then the mystery of why not even Lilia could recognize them was solved.
Aster wetted the brush on the ink and with some minor changes it was done, his other talisman was linked to Lilia’s one, so he linked the new one and it worked, as soon as he tried to contact his mother, the connection was stablished and the charming voice of Lilia echoed through the carriage.
“Darliiiiing ♥, I have been waiting for you to contact me… tell mommy how is the exploration going, are you and Alice okay?”.
…
Sarina smiled at Aster, “I guess that’s were the overprotective trait comes”, she thought.
Aster cleared his throat.
“Ahem, we are fine, I have so much to tell you mom… but first are you free to talk right now?”.
Lilia laughed.
“Yes, Aria and me are both waiting in the space ship, so don’t worry, tell me how is the secret realm?”.
p Aster proceeded to tell his mother all the things that have happened so far, the part that it wasn’t a secret realm, the nether vine and the cosmos tree, were what surprised Lilia the most.
“To think that such high ranked treasures would be hidden away in a place which entrance was in a low-level planet… that’s my darling’s luck for you, give mommy half a day and I will be there with Aria, I managed to understand the runes so I can avoid the cultivation limit”.
Aster doubted but it was better to tell Lilia about Sarina right now, of course he was going to talk more with her later.
“Okay, but don’t forget to create a barrier to avoid the dimensional tunnel separating you from Aria, also if you appear in the forest fly all the way to the north you will se the capital city… besides that we will need to talk about something else later”.
…
Lilia listened to her son’s words and she mentally sighed, “I guess that is also a part of your luck, whatever I’m going to see my darling earlier than what I expected”, she thought, before saying.
“It will be okay, with how much those two things have exhausted their energies I should be able to handle them without too much problem, just wait mommy will get them for you ♥”.
With that last sentence, the transmission ended, Aster kept both talismans in his spatial ring and noticed that Sarina was curiously looking at him.
“That was my mother, her name is Lilia”.
Sarina nodded, but she was more interested in the last things Lilia mentioned.
“Aster… if isn’t a secret, how strong is your mother, although the vine and the cosmos tree are now weaker, they are still way above the star vertex realm”.
Aster laughed.
“Don’t worry, she is far stronger than anyone we have met before… thanks to the gate on Zartia, she is more than capable of forcing her way into this place”.
Kana who kept silence to not interrupt Aster’s conversation, was in awe, she admired Aster and now, she just heard about the person that Aster admires.
“Big brother… do you think your mother will like us?”.
Aster noticed the worried tone in Kana’s voice and he smiled.
“Yes, there is no way she won’t like such a good girl like Kana… your mother on the other hand might have some problems hahaha”.
Sarina sighed, “well my previous “mother-in-law”, didn’t like me, so I hope it’s different this time”, she thought… but soon she will find out that things were going to be for sure different.
Their conversation was interrupted when the carriage stopped moving, the coachman told them that they reached hawthorn city, but there were guards protecting the entrance to the city and they didn’t seem too friendly.
This time Sarina did the intimidating act, she let out her pressure to persuade the guards, which combined with the royal emblem engraved at both sides of the carriage, made their process of verification quite smooth.
Unlike Oak Heart city where the plants abounded, Hawthorn city was basically a metal trap, not only the walls but most of the houses were covered in steel.
“I guess it’s not called Hawthorn for nothing”, thought Aster as they left the carriage.
The city lord was notified that they will be coming to see, the guest he has been keeping in his mansion, so as soon as they went down the carriage a group of guards offered to escort them to the mansion of the city lord.
On the way Aster saw that there weren’t too much people walking in the streets, and there were also some debris here and there, after doubting for a moment he asked to one of the guards.
“Did you guys got attacked by Riga too?”.
The guard shook his head.
“No… those are the consequences of the training between the young lady and lord Eric, it once they start something is bound to be destroyed”.
Even Alice couldn’t help but laugh at that, apparently the daughter of the city lord was quite bond to Eric to the point that she trained with him.
The guards guided them to a black mansion which was in the exact middle spot of the city, not even a couple of seconds later, Aster saw Eric running as if he was escaping something, but there was nothing behind him.
“What the hell, I haven’t seen him running from anything so far, maybe that girl is even wilder than him”.
Eric immediately noticed Aster and he ran towards them.
“Brother Aster, thanks to the heavens you and sister are fine”, he then noticed that there were new faces and they had that same “feeling” around them.
“Uwaah brother is quite proactive… in one day he got two while I unluckily have the attention of Sofia, sigh”.