Aster laughed, although Kana was doing her best to hide her expression by only letting half of her face outside of the water, her bittersweet gaze completely gave her away.
He then walked towards the lake and washed his body at the edge, he put on his shorts before entering into the water and swam towards Kana.
Kana silently did the same, then when she was about one meter away from him, she doubted for a moment before saying in a low voice.
“Big brother can you… hug me?”.
Seeing Kana’s teary eyes Aster smiled, given the current water level where they were he could sit and still have everything above his shoulders outside of the water.
Aster patted her head, but surprisingly and for the first time since they met, Kana didn’t let the head pats she loved so much to convince her.
Instead of that she looked at him with needy eyes.
“Damn… she is adorable”, thought Aster, the contrast between her cuteness and the stubborn desire she had of being hugged by him made her look really adorable.
Aster grabbed her by her little waist and lifter her up before he sat down and placed her little body on his lap.
Kana giggled, she rested her back on Aster’s chest while leaning her little head on his shoulder, although she happily hummed, she still glared at him with expectation.
Aster didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry, ultimately, he gave in and started caressing her hair.
Kana felt really comfortable, she didn’t move at all and just let Aster spoil her, her little heart feel at ease when she was around him.
Since that day when they met which wasn’t exactly pacific as Aster threatened Marco and the other guards, while others would have been terrified by being surrounded by Rigel’s flames, she got surprised and then instead thought they looked pretty.
Originally Kana thought that she felt at ease with Aster because he was protected by the guardian vines, or what in Prasil they called “blessing of the forest”, but after getting to know Eris and Mylene she realized that wasn’t the case.
Kana closed her eyes as she was lost in her thoughts.
“Why do I feel so comfortable around big brother?”, she wondered, although she knew she was a bit naïve before, it wasn’t to the point where she would simply go along with anyone nor trust anyone, a perfect example of that, is that she didn’t like to be in the royal capital as she would have to be with Robert’s family.
After realizing there was no such a thing as the “blessing of the forest”, she was then thought it was because Aster was the successor of the golden knight, but that theory was also discarded because Aster himself explained he wasn’t related to that historic figure of Prasil.
Then the nature of their relationship changed again when Aster started “dating” her mother, and it changed one more time when she started developing romantic feelings which she confessed, but what never changed was that she had no doubt that Aster would never harm her.
Something she has never felt for anyone including her mother which she loved the most, that didn’t mean that she thought Sarina or the other girls would raise her hand against her as she was sure that would never be the case.
But the cases were different, Sarina raised her and protected her to the best of her capacities, she was her mother and her best friend, the trust Kana has with her was developed due to their filial love and the time they have spent together, things were similar with the other girls.
And then there was how she felt towards Aster, since the very moment she saw him, she was immediately attracted to him, not romantically or sexually as she didn’t understand about those things back then, she just for some reason wanted to be with him.
So now she had both the romantic feelings she has developed for Aster and that strange sensation of ease, comfortability and safety, whenever she was around him.
Kana slowly turned her body around; she hid her face in Aster’s chest and remained silent for a moment before she spoke in an almost unnoticeable voice.
“Big brother, I know we can’t do the same kind of things you do with mom and the others… for a variety of reasons”, she said as she stole a couple of gazes at the place between her legs.
She doubted for a couple of seconds before she looked upwards, her big eyes directly gazed at Aster as she said.
“Earlier when I saw how you looked at mom when she was sleeping on top of you, I…”.
Aster shook his head as he patted her head making her cutely smile, how could he not notice she also wanted some attention.
“Mmm… as long as I don’t take it too far just a bit should be fine”, thought Aster before saying.
“Let’s make a deal, do you remember what I told you about sword intent?”.
“Mm”, Kana nodded.
Aster then raised one of his fingers as he said.
“If you manage to learn the first level of an intent of any kind in one year, then I will fulfill one wish you have as long as it is within my possibilities”.
Kana’s eyes glowed, ignoring the harsh true that learning any intent in one year is something incredibly hard to do, she immediately accepted as if she was afraid that he would take his words back.
Aster was amused by how fast she became motivated again, he cupped her face and gave her a little peck in her soft cheeks before hugging her tight.
Kana’s little heart was racing like a motor board, she hugged him back and rubbed her face against Aster’s chest while enjoying the comfortable sensation of his embrace.
“From now and onwards if you feel like before ever again, just say the word and I would spoil you, even if right now we haven’t entered into that kind of relationship, you are part of my family and one of my future wives, okay?”.
Kana dumbly giggled, any slight trace of jealousy faded away.
“You better remember that big brother, every time you give love to mom and the other sisters, I will ask you to cuddle with me ♥”.
Aster didn’t know whether he should laugh or cry, the result was better than what he expected, Kana was now more motivated than before and the little knot in her heart was cleared before it could become a problem.
“I guess she’ll have her own “turn” just like the others”, he thought.
After that little episode Kana and Aster played in the lake for the next two hours, her soft giggles and the sound of water splashing everywhere filled the place, at some point Aster used the giant version of the paragon armor which he hasn’t used in a long time, as a jump platform, which made Rya sigh.
“If other people saw you using the paragon body for such mundane things, you’ll be cursed you know”, she mumbled before returning to her meditation.
“Hmm… so noisy”, Sarina’s long eyelashes fluttered as she woke up, her sleepy expression disappeared as she rubbed her eyes with her hands and then stretched her body feeling refreshed.
“Mm?”, her relaxed expression stiffened a bit as she noticed some slight changes in her vision, somehow things seemed brighter than before, but everything returned to normal and she just discarded it thinking it was due to the change of the illumination since she had her eyes closed earlier.
And that wasn’t the only surprise she had after waking up, as Kana saw her mother waking up, she jumped from the platform which Aster created, but instead of aiming at the water she jumped towards Aster which caught her and carried her like a princess towards the edge of the lake.
Sarina looked at the bright smiling expression her daughter had and she giggled, once they reached her, she couldn’t help but tease Kana.
“I wonder what happened while I was asleep, you two seem to be closer”, she said as she gave Aster an accusatory gaze.
Aster chuckled at her, as he sat down with Kana laying on his lap.
“Do you perhaps want more attention too?”, he said with a playful voice as he looked at her still naked body.
Sarina followed Aster’s gaze downwards and then she noticed that due to her pose, all of her privates were fully exposed, her face became red as a tomato, especially because she heard Kana laughing at her.
“You could have at least put my bikini back you know, what if other people were to appear while I was sleeping?”, she said in an aggrieved voice.
Aster laughed, he snapped his fingers and the barrier which was covering this area of the lake appeared, previously he didn’t think it was needed considering only star axys cultivators and above will get this deep into the silver star lake, but after the previous situation with the mercenaries he decided to use an occultation talisman just in case.
They chatted about random things as they ate some of the food both mother and daughter prepared for the picnic, of course Kana couldn’t help but brag about the little deal she made with Aster.
Of course, Sarina was more aware of how hard was the condition set up by Aster but she didn’t say anything, if she has learned something after meeting Aster, that would be that nothing is truly impossible.
Aster enjoyed the rest of the afternoon with them, after finishing their meal he laid down on the grass with Sarina using his right shoulder as a pillow while Kana took the other one, this time it was Kana the one which fell asleep, after playing for hours in the water and adding to that the fact that she ate like a little glutton, it was only normal for that to happen.
Sarina on the other hand looked at the calm face of the young man which had his arm firmly wrapped around her and she smiled feeling thankful for the life she now had, a caring lover and her daughter was happier than ever, everything was perfect.