Chapter 365 Troubles Under The Moonlight (Part 1)

Once they entered their room, Aster and Kana went straight to the bathroom, although they protected themselves from most of the sand, it was practically impossible to come out of the desert without any dust on your clothes.

Ixas did a good job melding the two rooms, so that the bath was quite spacious, besides that, he apparently had control over this piece of land and redirected the underground river to fill a relatively large pool enough for three or four people.

Aster saw Kana jumping in the pool splashing water everywhere and he laughed.

"Come big brother, the water in this pool feels really good and fresh~", Kana threw some water at Aster as a mean to invite him into the pool.

Aster smirked and then snapped his fingers, using the large left hand of the golden armor to grab a handful of water before letting it pour down on Kana.

"That's cheating big brother hehehe~", the water fell down on Kana and made her swam all the way to the other side of the pool.

Of course, she wasn't bothered by it, instead it reminded of how he played with her back at the silver star lake.

Aster entered the bath too and Kana swam towards her and sat on his lap, she gave him puppy eyes asking for Aster to spoil her.

"Sarina will be mad at me if I spoil you too much you know", mumbled Aster, but he still stroked her long silky hair.

Kana's eyes glowed for a split of a second as she remembered she had something to discuss with Aster.

"Speaking of mom, earlier when we were travelling on Espi's back I felt someone's gaze on me, but I thought it was just me overthinking, because that gaze was somewhat similar to how mom feels now but with a negative feeling added, it was quite strange".

"I didn't mention it because it was just a flash and it disappeared, also big brother didn't notice it, so I thought it was just my imagination… I'm sorry".

Aster thought about it for a second, he made memory of the whole day since they arrived at the secret realm, and he didn't feel anything similar, maybe those clay humans as Ixas called them, had the ability to trick his spirit sense, but he already discovered the trick.

They were basically part of the nature themselves, and after a quick inspection he discovered that even if maybe they had a "presence", when hid and didn't move at all, they were closer to rocks than to people.

Soul cultivation is connected to both, the brain and the spirit sense, essentially spirit sense requires you to use your spirit energy to resonate with your soul to feel your surroundings, that's why even if your eyes are closed, you can "see", by doing it, your brain has to process a lot information in real time.

The amount of information is so large, that if it isn't regulated, one would overexert and die, and so, the brain choses to ignore some details which are "unimportant", and focus just on some patterns like, spirit energy, attacks, weapons coming to you and the like, in order to reduce the burden.

A part of the growth a non-soul cultivator can have, is what people call battle instincts, with training and a lot of experiencing, one can to some extent modify those limits, to always be aware of your surroundings.

But Aster whose soul was way stronger than it should, simply increased the details his spirit sense registered, and while even non animated objects have souls and the chance to gain consciousness given the proper circumstances, they cannot be felt by anyone, even Aster with his soul constitution can't.

But that played in his behalf this time, earlier he tried using his spirit sense like that, and was able to notice the hidden guards in the city.

'I guess mom was right, the best way to grow is to venture and experience things, now the races similar to that Ixas guy won't be able to hide from me', he thought.

That being said, the situation Kana mentioned was different, he could immediately discard the option of Sarina following them into the secret realm, because while he couldn't use his communication talisman to contact with her, as a star maiden he could tell she wasn't in this planet.

"A soul constitution bearer perhaps…", a large list of possibilities went through Aster's mind, but he decided to put his money in the fact that there were some interesting people entering the secret realm, one of them probably had a soul constitution, which made its presence somewhat similar to Sarina.

That didn't change the fact that its intentions weren't according to Kana though.

Aster saw Kana's apologetic expression and he smiled.

"The whole point of this mission is for you to get experience, it's okay if you are wrong at the beginning as long as you learn from it, you have me to cover you, so don't worry about it".

"Mm, I will tell big brother if I notice anything~", Kana brightly smiled before she leaned backwards against Aster's chest to enjoy her bath.

Aster nodded happy with the result as he patted her head, Lilia taught him like this allowing him to commit mistakes to learn from them, while she kept an eye on him 24/7 in case it was needed of course, it might not be the best method for everyone, but it worked pretty well, so that he and Alice didn't grow up to be despotic sheltered brats, like some of the people Lilia saw in her generation.

After playing a bit more in the pool, Aster and Kana finished their bath, and after putting some comfortable sleeping clothes, Aster took out a large mattress from his spatial ring and put it on the base Ixas built with his powers, seeing the comfortable and soft looking mattress, Kana jumped on the bed happy to have Aster all for herself to cuddle.

Aster saw the enthusiastic expression in Kana's face and he chuckled, but as he was about to join her to go to sleep, he heard someone knocking on the door.

He opened the door just to see Camila and Mylene both waiting outside.

"How can I help you ladies?".

After being distracted due to Aster's exposed upper body, because he was only wearing shorts to sleep, Camila cleared her throat before saying.

"There is something wrong with this place and we are having trouble to sleep… can we stay with you two?".

"Something is wrong with the moon of this place, similar to what Ixas mentioned about the sun, but this only affects women", added Mylene.

Ixas engraved a formation on the roof to allow the light of the moon to illuminate the place, as it was used for some spirit herbs they cultivated, and unlike the sunlight it wasn't detrimental, or at least Ixas didn't mention it.

Aster turned to see Kana who was bouncing on the bed and raised an eyebrow, she didn't seem to be bothered by it.

Mylene sighed, she pulled Aster closer to him and whispered to him.

"It only affects grown women… don't make me say it".

Seeing Mylene's slightly flushed face, Aster chuckled but he didn't ask anything else.

"Sure, you two can stay", although Aster didn't know why staying with him would help them, it's not like he had anything to lose, only Kana came with him, so there would be no night activities for a while anyway, he might as well take the chance to get those two to open themselves with him.

"Thanks…" Camila shily thanked Aster and entered the room, she never imagined she would end up staying in the same room with him, but the other option was more uncomfortable than this one.

"We can have a little sleepover with Kana", Mylene was less concerned about sharing the same room with Aster, as she has seen his integrity with women, back then at Riga, she wouldn't have been weirded if he took those princesses as part of the loot, such situations were quite common after any large-scale war, but he didn't even bat an eye and instead got rid of them, despite his "romantic" life style.

That being said of course she had that slightly nervous feeling in her chest, mixed with a strange expectant sensation, as this was the first time she will sleep under the same roof with a man, the same applied to Camila.

The two of them each took out their respective beds, which unlike the ones Aster had in his ring, where single sized.

The ultimate winner was none other than Kana, she jumped from one bed to the other, to chat with both Mylene and Camila.

Kana's adorable behavior and her easy-going personality made the atmosphere in the room more relaxed, they all talked about random things, and Mylene even shared some of her stories from when she was about Kana's age.

"Who would have thought sister Mylene was such a bully back then~", Kana enjoyed the conversation, specially after listening to Mylene's innocent schemes, which were treated as jokes when she used to believe her family was decent.

"Well, if you ask me, I think the winner in that aspect is none other than your dear "big brother", Mylene giggled as she pointed at Aster.

"Mm", even Camilla agreed with Mylene, making Aster shrug.

If they only counted his age as the moment he arrived to this world, then you could say his "childhood" was pretty wild, luckily his body adapted to his previous age quite fast, because looking like a kid for another three or so years, would have been too much of a hassle.

"Okay ladies, time to sleep", seeing Kana yawning from time to time, Aster decided it was time to go to sleep.

Kana snuggled on Aster's chest as he turned the lights off.

"Goodnight you two".

"Goodnight".

After saying that, they all closed their eyes and went to sleep, Camila and Mylene let out a sigh of relief noticing that uncomfortable sensation they had couldn't enter this room.

'When I find the whoever did this, I will rip her head off humph', thought Mylene as she entered the land of dreams.

Aster stayed awake for a couple of minutes more than the girls, and only when he noticed the girls were asleep, he did the same.