aster closed his eyes waiting for those two to finish their training, for the past hours he has been suppressing the urge to tell them to stop and that it''s fine for them to rest.

it''s not a secret that he''s got a weakness for the girls after all, but lilia whose love for him could be considered intense to the point of obsession, once told him that spoiling someone is fine, but pushing it to be stronger is better... though her reasoning was not exactly the best.

she basically wanted aster to be strong, so that he could spend eternity with her later on, anyway, the ideology was what mattered, he will help the girls grow stronger, so that they will never be separated by anyone or anything.

aster''s eyes slowly opened, he stood up and then leaned frontwards a bit, just in time to catch, aria whose body was about to fall, at the same time, he felt a strong impact on his back but he didn''t flinch, it was alice who finally broke out of the charm and immediately jumped to hug him.

aster smiled and then pecked both of them.

"good work you two, let''s go take a bath so i can spoil you and then we''ll grab something to eat, okay?".

"mn~", alice and aria only let out a soft sound of confirmation and then using his authority, aster transported them to their bathroom.

he carried the two of them like princesses, one in each of his arms, nothing hard considering his abnormal physical strength, not to mention those two felt as light as feathers.

at this point the others were already having breakfast, so the bathroom was free for them to enjoy, while aster helped the two of them to undress, he said.

"so how was it, did you manage to grasp something?".

both of them were tired in a different way, alice''s face was still reddish due to the illusions she saw when she was charmed by aster, while aria felt her body weak after enduring the pressure.

but even then, they didn''t feel an ounce of pain of any kind, which is when aster''s cheat-like abilities did their part, for alice, after being dragged into an illusion and breaking out of it, the normal was to feel as if her head was going to split, but rigel''s flames had the capacity to ease her soul and mind, but aster only did so once she broke out of the charm, in other words she could enjoy the benefits of exercising her soul without any recoil.

as for aria, things were much simpler, after being put under that much pressure, her bones should have cracked or at least her muscles should have thorned, which is normal as she doesn''t do physical exercise, but aster''s blood is filled with so much vitality, that any wound cured even before she could feel any pain, normally her body absorbs his yang and uses it to balance the excess of yin, but this time everything was used to nurture her physical body.

of course it would be faster if they had a fitting dual cultivation technique, but this method worked for the time being, not to mention they could do it without him.

this was one of the reasons as to why he choose these two to be the first ones to try this kind of training, aria could use illusions and had rigel''s flames, alice was a body cultivator, he only needed to give aria some of his refined blood and then they could follow this routine without him.

sure the effects might be less impacting than this time, but that is the idea, what he did today was give them the first push, they had to keep up at their own rhythm after that, everything reduced to their next words.

alice whose tail wrapped around aster, showed him her right hand, just like lilia when her lineage is stimulated, her nails become black inked and spiked, which honestly fits them really good.

"i can''t believe i literally "teared" the illusion apart~", she said.

aster''s spirit sense inspected alice''s hand and he after putting some focus into her nails, he saw a faint trace of a pitch black mist on them.

"so you condensed all the dragon aura in your nails, not bad", said aster, making alice proudly smile.

truth to be told, aster was really impressed, dragon aura is the thing the manual mentions dragons use to defend against soul attacks, the concept is pretty vague, but it basically requires one to focus "will" into the outer layer of he body, which for dragons are their scales.

that "will" is a result of strong emotions, spirit energy and either yin or tang, depending on the gender of the person, in other words, is the result of energy and body paths working together, since yin and yang derive from the body.

they changed into clean clothes and then while each grabbed one of aster''s arms, they left the mansion, to the east sky city, at the petition of those two, to aster''s surprise, not like he minded, it was their day and they were in charge after all.

once they arrived, aster understood why they wanted to go to the east sky city, instead of the central capital, they were bragging in front of the other girls of the black sword faction, as they had the words "he is ours" written all over their faces.

which of course caused quite an uproar in the other disciples, some of the most brave even challenged alice and aria, but respectfully backed off when they were told, this was a date with aster.

apparently alice didn''t present herself as his sister, but one of his lovers, though they were suspicious since she resembled lilia, who is known to be aster''s mother, they just thought she was an overprotective older sister, which isn''t exactly a lie though.

aster had to admit that he like this atmosphere, the way the members of the black sword faction treated each other, was quite a sight to behold, they were competitive as to not stagnate, but there weren''t any hard feelings between them, even when he has become the dreamed lover of a lot of them, they still respect the girls.

"you were gone for some time, so you probably don''t know it, but these girls do a weekly competition, to decide who''ll challenge us to get the prize~", playfully said alice.

"mm, only the ones that outstand in both beauty and battle prowess get to try their luck", added aria.

aster bitterly smiled, in this world, sometimes when the daughter of someone important, reached adulthood, her parents organize a tournament, with certain requirements, and the winner is given the chance to marry the daughter.

it''s pretty common among those who live under the concept of nobility, instead of sects, for example the ruler families, though there are times when the girl whose marriage is disputed, doesn''t have a say in it, the winner gets to marry her and that''s it.

in fact, lilia told aster that her father once tried to do something like that, unfortunately for him, she jumped on the stage and beat the crap out of all the participants, so there was no winner.

''to think mom prepared this sect for us to live in, even before we were born she was already worrying about our future'', thought aster as they reached the commercial district.

unlike his date with agnes or sarina and kana, alice and aria didn''t want to go to a restaurant, the east sky city was different in a variety of ways.

the members were quite open minded and not so attached to luxury, so while they enjoyed the fancy restaurants that the city had to offer, there was also a vivid street food culture, so many of the stores put some stalls outside for those who enjoyed that style.

for the rest of the day, aster was dragged by alice and aria to try many of the different foods offered by the street stalls, from meat skewers which were among alice''s favorite food, to sweet things like fruit with some toppings, which aria loved to freeze to before eating.

aster was surprised, because even after some hours of them strolling around, they only ran through one of the many streets filled with different stalls.

"we''ll go through the next street on out next date~", said the both of them as they pecked aster''s cheeks, causing a turmoil in the female disciples that were walking nearby.

aster smiled and then they returned to the mansion, where the others were waiting for them.

aster saw kana pouting, apparently the little girl was a bit sour that he left without waking her up unlike normally, so aster lifted her little body by her waist and let her sit on his lap, which immediately earned him a bright smile from her.

aster didn''t even need to ask who was next, judging by camila''s reddened face and the fact that lilia, was giggling at her from time to time, it was her turn, what surprised him is that she was getting a day for her, just like agnes.

''mylene wanted to go with eris, but the new girls need some "encouragement" to take the last step, don''t you agree, darling~'', said lilia directly to aster.

apparently she had something to do with agnes and camila getting aster to spend the day alone with them.

aster inwardly shook his head, he just couldn''t win against this mother of his, but this was also fine, unlike mylene who opened to him more during their time at the secret realm, camila was still a bit stiff around him, though she stayed in the same room to sleep, she seemed to be bothered by something.