The rise of the pervert primordial

"Gulp", now, when someone tries to make you drink an unknown liquid out of a flask, common sense would dictate you to close your mouth, resist and trash around to get the other party away, especially if the table from which said flask was taken is full of different alchemical ingredients, but not only was there no resistance whatsoever from Aster, but he casually drank almost half the content of the flask in a single go instead of the small sip Mylene was trying to give him.

"You fool, what if it was poison?", said the pink-haired girl as she retrieved her hand while Aster enjoyed the sweet taste of the content of the flask, that’s right, it was a sweetened beverage one of the things Mylene liked to do as a hobby when she wanted to take a break from the serious alchemy stuff.

"Why would my friend try to poison me, did you become "bad" again or something?", said Aster to which Mylene mumbled.

"What if it happened, Kana and those girls trust me too much...".

"I see, so that’s why you aren’t wearing your ring, when you never take it off even when working in a project", said Aster to which the pink-haired girl slightly hid her right hand where she uses the ring Aster has given to all of his close group, the one that contains exclusive elixirs and a special "protection charm" of sorts, before jokingly adding.

"You know, I think you’ll click really well with Mina, you both are really bad... at being "evil" if you ask me".

"I’m being serious here", said Mylene to which Aster answered this time with a serious voice.

"Me too, if you were back to the "state" you were in back at Sarina’s native planet, then why would you be wearing that", he said as he pointed at Mylene’s neck, unlike the princess-like long dresses with pastel-pink main color and excessively cute designs which end up being tacky for others to see, that she used to wear back at her family, the pink-haired girl had a way different wardrobe since she befriended Kana, her favorite were simple turtleneck shirts and deeper colors as the main palette, but that’s not what Aster was referring to, here.

Well, she was indeed wearing a turtleneck black shirt but it was barely visible, because she had a lab coat on top of it, not to mention a ton of alchemy related gadgets on its pockets, but what Aster was talking about was a necklace which was hidden below said turtleneck in order for it to not be noticeable.

"Just like Eris never misses a day to wear her cube necklace, you never miss a day to use the one I gave you, you know my blood was used for its metal so even in this place I can detect its presence though in a weakened way, but still couldn’t take it off for this, so if you ask me, your "evilness" has gotten rusty", he added.

Aster was right, Mylene treasured the necklace which was transformed from the obedience collar that was used on her, as much as Eris treasured the cube necklace which was the only thing she managed to keep from her original possessions before they fell into Aurelian’s heavenly quadrant.

In fact, the pink-haired girl refused to take it off even when it had the obviously not aesthetic shape that it was given due to its original function, so it was reshaped by Aster instead and he also didn’t throw away the bracelet which was the "control" of the necklace but modified it, now it was a double way device to communicate with Mylene basically.

Seeing that Mylene was holding onto the necklace hidden below her clothes, Aster softly smiled as he placed his hand on her head to then gently stroke her pink hair.

"It’s not that I don’t understand where is all this coming from, but you have proven more than enough to be our friend, besides after getting to know me, do you think I would have let you live just because mom and Eris vouched for you if I thought you were really evil", he said.

Though his soft touch and his words didn’t match, it did cause a positive reaction in Mylene.

"You... you knew I wasn’t "myself" before I had that conversation with Eris?", asked the pink-haired girl to which Aster scratched his cheek for a second as he answered.

"Well, it wasn’t clear as it is now, but back then I already had a vague version of this instinct thing which allows me to see through any facades other put, so long as the target is a woman, but it required more than just seeing and meeting once, I had to interact with the other party unlike now, but yeah by the end of our fight I already knew you weren’t being yourself".

In case you wonder why Aster was still going to kill Mylene until Lilia and Eris expressed their opinion about it, that’s because regardless of her situation she did try to kill them, killed a lot of people and indirectly caused harm to Sarina and Kana, not to mention that he would have a possible risk to the safety of his family on board if he didn’t

So, he personally and logically had no reason to spare her and it was safer to just get rid of her for good, in any case Eris had access to the same level of knowledge and was a trustable ally from beginning to end.

But he ultimately put up with having a former enemy join them, under the condition that she was completely unable to harm them, with Eris and his attribute’s courtesy, that’s the way Aster used to think back then and it was Mylene who changed that.

Aurelian was Sarina and Kana’s ancestor, the little girl knew this much and yet she grew closer to the one that had caused that old man’s death, as for Mylene, even after learning about the discrepancy in her personality by getting to know Eris better, she never used that as an excuse for her actions, she was more than willing to use her life to atone for what she did and found peace in taking care of others rather than in thinking of ways to harm them, as it brought her joy similar to the one she felt in the short-lived times when she was free to focus in alchemy with her master.

That’s why she was accepted so "easily" by others, she didn’t run away nor looked aside from what she did and instead engraved it in her heart and tried to do as much good as she could, which is why this was unlike her.

"It’s not like things can be classified in white and black anyway, not to mention that the "world" that matters to me is that of my close ones, the well-being of others is not worthless in my eyes, but it’s not my priority either, that makes me realistic on my end but selfish for others and I’m perfectly fine with it".

"But at the same time that’s also why putting up the effort to increase the things one wishes to protect is important, not because of others but because of myself and the one who helped me understand that, was you", said Aster which made a couple of diamond-like tears appear on the corner of Mylene’s pretty pink eyes.

When Aster accepted Mylene as a part of his family, he also accepted the negative actions of her past alongside her, though the only ones that could actually hold a grudge against her because of that from Prasil in other words Sarina’s native planet, are the pair of roc mother and daughter.

The people Mylene killed had no relatives, whether it was done out of unconscious kindness by her, or simply because she didn’t want lose ends to come looking for her when she already had to deal with Eris and Aurelian in the shadows, and she was inactive for a really long time after that, becoming more of a rumor rather than an enemy, also others she killed deserved to die and the last one of her victims was Aurelian, whose only actual descendants would be Sarina and Kana, well, Sophia is a distant relative but she wasn’t really interested in that matter.

So even if she had a "debt" to pay, there wasn’t anyone to collect it, though she wouldn’t ever forget about it.

"I don’t believe that the strong Mylene I know about, would start getting doubts about herself just due to that, are you that worried that finding members of the Karel family could return you to "that" state?", said Aster to which Mylene nodded without saying anything else.

She has been worrying about it since before, but she kept her mind occupied with work until a day ago, then the orcrary’s presence was confirmed and she... wanted to ask her friend to stop her if it came to that, because she was afraid.

Honestly while Mylene won’t allow herself to forget about what she did, it is also true that she wouldn’t have personally mourned the death of anyone besides her alchemy master before, it’s worth mentioning that it’s not like she was a homicidal maniac even back then, the Karel’s fought through schemes and at least Mylene didn’t find efficient to target anyone unrelated to her goals nor going out of her way to mess with others just for the sake of it, her all-time enemy was Eris and she had actually never killed anyone unrelated to their fight before ending in a mortal realm.

But she wasn’t the Mylene of back then anymore, she didn’t mind fighting and killing enemies as that’s what means to live as a cultivator and she perfectly understood that, but she couldn’t endure the idea of harming Kana or the girls of the sect who trusted her, she was afraid of her future actions not of her past unlike what it would have seemed like for those that don’t know her so closely.

Which is also why she wanted to have a little time alone with Aster, the idea was to talk about it after having what could be one of her last happy moments, but things quite didn’t go her way as it is usual when it comes to Aster.

"It is not particularly a secret but I don’t really talk about my attribute a lot, so let me tell you a little fun detail, "Annihilation" is supposed to erase anything it touches, those that use it are not immune to it but have resistance to it onlt, that’s how it is supposed to be, but annihilation related to me is absolutely unable to harm anyone that is considered close enough to me, I can also achieve this with effort but past a certain point it happens even without my intervention", said Aster as a dim golden glow covered his right hand which he then used to wipe Mylene’s tears.

’They are not disappearing, I can’t feel anything but the warmness of Aster’s hand...’, thought the pink-haired girl as those little drops of water were cleaned carefully by Aster, a golden thread connected Mylene’s neck to Aster’s wrist for a second before moving to connect the area between their eyebrows, before it "vanished".

"Now that annihilation can only protect you even without me doing anything, things like this are possible, you made it possible, so what if someone decided my friend Mylene had to be the bad one of the story, it’s not going to happen with me around, so don’t worry okay?", said Aster who was taken by surprise at the fact that the pink-haired girl suddenly hugged him, placing her head against his chest.

"Mm~", softly mumbled Mylene as she closed her eyes, now, don’t get things wrong, what has finally "erased" the last worry in Mylene’s heart wasn’t the fact that annihilation was protecting her mind now, it was the "So what if someone decided my friend Mylene had to be the bad one of the story, it’s not going to happen with me around" part that did it.

This precious moment was interrupted by Aster himself, after he enjoyed caressing Mylene’s silky pink hair to the content of his heart for a couple of minutes while she hugged him tightly, as he said.

"On the other hand, you’ll be a really sad villain if your idea was to use something toxic against me, you know that even Vivian can’t kill me with her poison both on the outside and in this place, right?".

"H-Huh, I could make one that would melt flesh and... you would probably only end up having stomachache due to it, aghh, damn that crazily tough dragon lineage of yours!", exclaimed the pink-haired girl as she pushed Aster away to break the hug, not without thinking.

’Just you wait, one day I will make your heart "melt"~’, with a little pout, she brought out a few things from her safe and placed them on the table, all were edibles by the way, ah right in case you might be worried about the safety of having food in the same table where there are alchemy ingredients, everything on the table was non-toxic.

After that they spent the rest of their time together as they were originally going to, trying the results of Mylene’s hobby projects, the beverage from earlier was done with the help of maple sugar which she refined in secret, there were candies and even a spicy sauce to go with potato chips, but the jewel of the crown in Mylene’s works was strawberry wine which she had made from zero with the idea to share exclusively with her friend.

This was basically a "slumber party" but in Mylene’s workshop since there were only snacks and not real food, Aster also found rather cute that just like her hair and eyes, the wine of her selection was pink as well.

"Cheers!", leaving aside the strange sight of drinking strawberry wine from a flask, while eating snacks from other containers used for alchemy, which had never been used before of course because safety first, Mylene returned to her bright self as she talked with Aster about how she processed the syrup into sugar, obtained the yeast used for the wine from an oak’s bark and the like.

"Don’t forget to pay a visit to Eris or she is going to be so annoying when she learns that you came to see me~", said Mylene as she got up to clean the table which signaled the end of their little time together, to which Aster jokingly said.

"And she is not the only one, Kana and Espi are not going to let the fact that you hid actual candies from them rest so easily, Camila loves spicy things as well, not to mention miss Mikaela has an excellent nose for liquor, so she’ll also know you made wine and didn’t share even a sip with her".

"Hey, that’s not fair, are you going to tell on me!", exclaimed the pink-haired girl as Aster disappeared from her workshop while softly laughing to himself.

’That’s what happens when you have a lot of friends that care about you now, they can be a bit of a handful sometimes though’, he thought.

...

There was still time for another stop before lunch, originally Aster planned to stay with Mylene until that, but that strong pink-haired girl not only returned to her usual self by "just" a few words from Aster, but she even cut her own time short on purpose and made sure to indirectly remind him of Eris.

"Well knowing those two, I can more or less guess what’s going to happen", said Aster as he walked towards the western area next to the camp, more accurately towards the obstacle training area where he talked to Eris yesterday when he was looking for Mira and Guardian.

Just like yesterday, once he arrived, he found Eris accompanied by Angela and Mikaela as well as girls from the sect and a few horses participating in formation training exercises, though some komodo dragons, anacondas, cobras and eagles were watching from the side unlike yesterday, which was new.

"So, there is "public" today, nice improvement ladies", said Aster as he greeted those three, which made Eris slightly frown.

’Shouldn’t he be with Mylene, I doubt she would be left for later given how troubled she looked even when she tried to hide it, so why?’, thought the girl from the heavenly rose clan before a "bad" premonition formed in her heart to then become a reality as Aster added.

"Sorry but I was sent to kidnap the "flower princess" by a certain pink-haired villainess".

"Huh, what are you...", the flower princess in question, in other words Eris was interrupted before she could ask what was going, by Angela.

"Mm, miss Mylene informed me of it when she mentioned how to increase efficiency by having members of other races watching over our training sessions, so I adjusted the schedule already", and with that Eris understood what happened.

’That scheming girl!’, she screamed to her insides, Mylene knew that Eris who so obviously wanted to have a little time alone with Aster earlier during the day when she gave Mira away by accident, purposedly didn’t mention it to Aster later at dinner after noticing how her friend seemed troubled despite the fact that she had her private time with their "student" in common, confirmed already.

In other words, Eris was willing to forfeit her time with Aster to extend Mylene’s one since she had something serious to use it for, but what she didn’t expect was for Mylene to not only notice it but take measures against it, regardless of whether her worries were solved or not.

As a proof of it, she even played a little prank on Eris, because this was happening with a "public" which was a witness to all of it, well, there was also the fact that Aster perfectly played his part, because he is a tease-loving dragon youth.

"Resistance is futile princess, though I don’t mind letting all the camp seeing me "pursue" you", said Aster to Eris whose pretty violet eyes expressed defeat.

’Mylene I’ll get back at you for this!’, she thought but ultimately followed Aster under the giggles and curious gazes of the girls doing battle formation training exercises, she was sure this was going to be known by all the camp by dinner, but to her happiness, Aster is fair with everyone and had her covered, because after speaking quite close to Mikaela she couldn’t help but notice a delicious scent which she instantly recognized, the scent of liqueur.

"Ah right, miss Mikaela should go ask Mylene about her new strawberry "dessert", I think you’ll like it more than the strawberries with syrup", said Aster as he left with the flower princess successfully kidnapped.

"You are more fit to be called a villain than her you know?", said Eris to Aster who chuckled in response.

"You seemed ready to fight her to death a second ago but are defending her now, that’s some nice sisterly bond right there", he said, it was cute that they both thought of sending him to the other, for different reasons but the same purpose, make their friend happy.

"Humph, this and that are different, and she says that she doesn’t like to scheme anymore", mumbled the heavenly rose princess to which Aster added.

"Well, if I remember correctly, she only said that she wouldn’t scheme to make people sad anymore and you don’t look sad to me in the slightest, in fact those pretty violet of yours surely brightened when...".

"Gah, that’s enough, don’t you think it was embarrassing enough to be called "flower princess" in front of even the animal members of the group, I can hear Kana calling me "flower older sister" now and the worst part of it is that I won’t be able to tell her not to do so!", exclaimed poor Eris.

That being said, it was clear that she realized things went well with Mylene and her mood brightened because of that, well, it also brightened because she ultimately ended up having her precious private time with her friend and student as well.

Without noticing they walked into the tree agglomerations near the training area which ended up reminding Eris of that time when they met back at Prasil, something that Aster noticed given the nostalgic look on her pretty face, which made him jump to then land on top of a tree’s branch.

"Quite a familiar looking scene don’t you think so?", he jokingly said to which Eris softly laughed as she climbed up the tree, the branch Aster chose was strong enough for the two of them to sit on it without any risks of it breaking.