Seeing Aster eating what she offered, Kana had a slight smile in her face as she mentally nodded, as childish as it might sound, she took this a little victory in her book.
“Big sister Andrea once mentioned the way to get a place into someone’s heart is his stomach, maybe I should ask mom to teach me how to cook”.
While Kana was trying to figure out other ways to become closer with Aster, besides things she wasn’t allowed to do for the time being, Lilia and Aria also cut a piece of what they were eating and fed it to Aster.
Aster didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry.
“What are you little children?”, he thought, but still he accepted their offers, soon everyone had a satisfied expression once they finished their meals, even Eris and Mylene couldn’t help but accept this food was quite decent.
Eris took a sip of her tea as she gazed at the owner of the restaurant.
“This cooking is quite something, I didn’t have the chance to go sightseeing back when I was chasing a certain someone, so I don’t know the level of star clusters with heavenly realm cultivators, but this food is not bad at all”.
“Hey that wasn’t necessary”, mumbled Mylene as she ate a small cake.
Camila remained silent, she wasn’t following the conversation at all, which was understandable considering she just got to know about the sea of knowledge realm not too long ago.
So, she just sat there and saw the interactions among Aster and the women that surrounded him, with the exception of Mylene and Eris that kept a slight distance, she noticed the others including Kana were really close to him.
“Leaving aside the fact that they could probably destroy the whole star cluster, they are pretty much like a family… I just don’t know what is exactly the role of that boy in all of this”, she thought remembering Aster carrying Lilia like a princess.
The owner of the restaurant doubted for a moment before saying what was in her mind.
“Little Camila told me you wanted to learn cooking skills from me… I don’t want to sound rude but not everyone will have the opportunity”.
Aster frowned his brows, but then he calmed down, he wasn’t expecting the owner of the restaurant to impart her teachings for free anyway.
“What do you want in exchange for teaching all the girls present here as long as they want it of course?”.
The old woman shook her head knowing her words might have been misinterpreted.
“I didn’t mean it like that, in fact I will be honored if one of these ladies learns something from me, but it took me sometime to master it and you will be leaving soon am I right?”.
“Of course, I will give my all to teach you as much as I can in the time we have, but ultimately the result will depend on them”.
Aster nodded, he turned to see the girls and asked.
“You heard her, if you chose to learn, you will be busy until we leave, so who wants to do it?”.
Kana rose her hand almost immediately.
“I want to learn big brother”.
Sarina looked at her daughter being all enthusiastic about all this and she smiled.
“I also want to give it try”.
Surprisingly Lilia refused.
“I’m not too inclined to this kind of things, I have other ways to keep my darling “happy” anyway ♥”.
“Fragrant senior, you can use the kitchen of the Wolfstein castle for the lessons if you’d like”.
Camila didn’t miss the opportunity to offer a place for Kana and Sarina to learn, it would leave a good impression on Aster and they will have the owner of the best restaurant cooking personally for them in the time being so it was a win-win situation.
“Sure, if you don’t mind the classes will be at 6:00 PM everyday”.
Now that everything was settled Aster paid the bill of their breakfast and they left the restaurant, Camila was about to leave when Lilia patted her shoulder.
“Don’t be shy and come with us, we don’t know if there will be another side effect of that weird constitution, so it would be better for you to stay near me just in case”.
Camila felt as if she was being a third wheel, but she still accepted since she already experienced what meant to not have control over her spirit energy and she was afraid that she could accidentally cause a disaster.
“Thanks, I promise you won’t notice me”.
Aster heard Camila thanking his mother without noticing that slightly cunning smile on Lilia’s face and he sighed.
“Mom… that’s a bit too much”, he thought, how could he not notice Lilia was trying to keep Camila near, because she wanted her to come with them, all the situation with the chest had a big weight on her mind, probably because not even Eris and Mylene knew about the other type of runes.
And his supposition was right, as they walked towards the Ghale family grounds, Lilia made Aster distance a bit from the group before she whispered at her.
“What do you think darling, are you going to take her with us?”.
Aster wrapped his arm around Lilia’s waist before answering.
“I don’t know, in just a few hours of getting to know her, a lot of things happened and I’m not sure it that it’s a good thing or not, the note did mention I need the help of someone from the Wolfstein family but it’s not like I can force her to leave the planet where she has lived her whole life”.
Lilia pressed her body against her son as she giggled.
“I don’t think she will resist if you “insist” in taking her with us though”.
Aster considered it for a moment before shaking his head.
“No, the note mentioned that I only got the contents of the chest because I didn’t kill Camila, so the one that prepared all this probably wants her to take the decision, if it’s really a matter of karma then, it will happen even if I don’t interfere”.
There were a couple of things Aster wanted to confirm, so far Camila has proven to be a decent person, even when Isaac made sure her family branch didn’t get any authority, she still did her best to help them earning their gratitude.
She also became a star tribulation realm and the purity of her spirit energy was quite high, to the point where Aster was sure she could compete with some mortal transcending cultivators, just like Sarina after she recovered.
So, he wasn’t against the idea of bringing her with them, but he also wanted to see if that “karma” mentioned by Gabriel Wolfstein was true or not, if it wasn’t just a lie then something should happen that will make Camila wish to leave the azure sky planet.
Aster came out of his daze when he heard Aria dragging him with her.
“We are here, let’s go see my father ♥”.
All the girls had a tacit rule, just like how they gave Sarina the priority when they were at the banquet in the royal castle, none of them interfered now that Aria took Aster to see her father.
In her hurry to take Aster see her father Aria forgot to knock on the door of Arthur’s studio, so when they opened it, they caught the patriarch of the Ghale family in a weird situation.
Arthur was sitting on his chair like normally, what was different was that there was a woman who seemed to be in her early thirties lovingly sitting on his lap.
Aria froze in the spot, while Aster laughed.
“Well, my father-in-law seems to be enjoying a little break of his usual duties”.
The woman immediately stood up and hid behind Arthur with a red blushed face.
Arthur on the other hand didn’t know what to say, so after a couple of seconds he only let out a small sigh before greeting them.
“It’s good to see you two returned without any problems”.
Aria wanted to dig a hole to hide, she recognized the woman which was flirting with her father a moment ago, it was the maid that took care of her after her mother died, which made it even more awkward for her.
Arthur looked at her daughter and he scratched the back of his head.
“Dear… I was going to tell you about this before you left, but I guess this is also not bad, I’m not getting young and Nadia has been with us since you were a baby, so I hope you don’t take it after her”.
Aster smiled at Arthur and decided to give him a helping hand.
“Aria, why don’t you go speak with that lady, while have a little conversation with your father?”.
“Mm”, Aria nodded and she walked towards the exit, Arthur looked at the woman called Nadia and she followed Aria outside of the studio.
…
Not even a couple of seconds passed after the girls left when Aster thunderously laughed.
“Who would have thought, that my always upright and strict father-in-law, will make a move on as soon as we aren’t around”.
Arthur rubbed his temples feeling a headache coming his way, he took out a pair of cups and a bottle of wine and poured some of it for both of them.
Aster brought a chair and sat in front of Arthur before they both drank from their respective cups.
“It’s not like that kid, Nadia was Aina’s friend, she suffered damages in her dantian when they were adventuring, when I married Aina, she asked Nadia to stay here but she refused to be a freeloader and started working as a maid”.
“You haven’t answered my doubts though”, said Aster with a grin.
Arthur sighed, “Her wound got worse, so she won’t last long… she came to me and confessed her feelings because she didn’t want to have any regrets, when lost everything but Aria, she was there acting as a motherly figure for her, how can I not take a liking for such a good woman”.
Aster’s eyes glowed for a second, “Damages in her dantian huh”, he thought.