The rise of the pervert primordial

Once both of them had gotten comfortable on top of that tree’s branch, Eris closed her eyes and simply enjoyed the breeze without saying anything, in case you wonder why Aster brought her to this secluded tree agglomeration rather than joining Eris for a private chat regarding rune-related themes in her working area, like it happened with Mylene, that’s simple, those two love their respective professions equally but they don’t express it in the same way.

Mylene’s love for alchemy makes it so that even her hobby when she is resting from alchemy, is alchemy, she just goes from serious matters to "fun" projects which not only helps her deal with mental fatigue, but also clear her head and find inspiration when she feels stuck, after all even the simplest processes in alchemy can fulfill incredibly important purposes, this is not an obsession of course, she genuinely feels relaxed when working in simple side projects.

That’s something she did even before meeting Aster and the others, but said side projects weren’t related to something as fun as making beverages, snacks and the like, since even while relaxing she had to be on guard at all times back at her family.

So, the Mylene of nowadays better incarnates the concept from the school of thought from which her alchemy knowledge comes, which to be put in simple words is the principle that even people themselves can be alchemy, just look at how much the "ingredient" in this case Mylene changed from her original state just by "reacting" to have Aster and the others mixed into her life.

Eris on the other hand is less "direct" in that aspect, when she wants to rest and ease her mind, she completely forgets about rune mastering in the strict sense of the word, she goes to the forest of the valley, climbs into a tall tree and simply observes nature, it wasn’t a coincidence that she met Aster that way.

Now, the reason as to why while that sounds way less intense than what Mylene does to relax, but it’s still considered to be on par with that alchemy-loving pink-haired girl, it’s because at its origin, rune mastering was established by cultivators who specialized in observing natural phenomena like trees being the focus of lightning in a storm for example.

The original rune masters sought inspiration from the world rather than simply trying to modify it to their needs, and that is the school of thought from which Eris’s teachings came, her formations harmonize the elements that conform them to produce the desired effect rather than just directly controlling them and their runes reflect that.

It’s worth mentioning that these two while different equally important moments for those two, used to be times which they wanted to spend alone, but now that no longer was the case, for example Mylene always invited the little girl and the little wyrm to try out the new sweets and drinks she made as a result of her hobby and Eris found Camila who is also learning about rune mastering, apt to for the concept of her school of thought so they have had a couple of relaxing sessions of natural phenomena observation together before.

And then there was Aster, with whom these moments of theirs ended up completely straying away from their original purpose, like how Mylene’s one turned into a "slumber party" in her workshop instead, as for Eris, she very unlike the usual quiet and relaxing observation time, turned this into an active conversation time.

"So, how did things turn out with our dear pink-haired "cosmic tree" friend, is she fine now?", asked Eris, just like Mylene gave Eris the funny nickname of "flower princess", when Eris wanted to get back at her she reminded her of how she created a mysterious persona to characterize the "cosmic tree" which is a legend of their native Divine Firmament, to try and trick Aster and the others.

’Despite the clear desire to get back at Mylene, she really cares about her, how cute’, thought Aster to then say.

"Yeah, the origin of the trouble was the possibility that meeting with the people from the Karel family in this place would turn her to the "state" in which she used to be before Kana and that private conversation she had with you".

"So, it was indeed that, I can’t blame her... out of all the Karel’s I had to deal with, she was the only one whose actions had obvious discrepancies once we sat together to speak face to face, so, we can’t expect the others to be in a similar state as Mylene, they most likely are actual pieces of trash", said the heavenly rose princess as she sighed.

"You think there is a chance some among the Karel knew about this whole thing?", asked Aster to which Eris nodded.

"I wouldn’t find it strange if they actively participated in such a "conspiracy" because that’s the way they do things... it’s not like there can’t be more unwillingly involved like Mylene, just like not everyone in my family’s side is the epitome of "justice" others think they are".

Speaking of which, Eris couldn’t help but make a question of her own.

"Why didn’t you ask about the specific subjects of our conversation from back then, despite the danger that the situation from which it probably originated could pose?", she said, having a teammate whose mind was under some kind of control at a given point should have been a major worry for Aster from Eris’s point of view and yet, he never brought the subject up.

"Well, like I said to the majorly affected party earlier, I honestly already knew that she wasn’t being herself long before that conversation happened, so I wasn’t really interested in knowing more about it and you clearly didn’t want to open up about it more than it was necessary for our alliance".

"By the time that changed, both you and Mylene had already become my friends, so I decided to wait until you two were ready to tell me the specifics on your own", said Aster to then jokingly add.

"As to why I’m still not pressing you two about the subject, that’s because I’m not really worried about the Karels, like I always say, most of the people that consider themselves to be cunning are just fools who think they are way smarter than others".

For others, Aster’s explanation could sound rude, for Mylene’s side, he basically told Eris that he didn’t care about her story enough at the beginning to try and learn more about her, but instead of that Eris appreciated that he didn’t try to dig up information from her when their relationship was limited to circumstantial allies, through Mylene, it was not disinterest but respect on Eris’s case.

As for Mylene’s case, back then the heavenly rose princess could tell that Aster had already gone out of his way by dealing with Mylene in a different way than what he had steeled himself to deal with enemies and the more Eris got to know Aster, the more she understood the weight that decision put on him, so she didn’t blame him in that aspect.

’That’s good, that was Mylene’s last worry I would say and she honestly deserved to clear her heart first...’, thought Eris.

Eris always put Mylene first not only because she is her bestie, but also because in the staged set up that their families have been interpreting for who knows how long, the bad ones were the Karels and while as Eris stated others flowed naturally with that, meaning that they most likely weren’t being controlled but that was their nature, Mylene wasn’t like that.

Eris might have been also trapped in that stage but she still acted according to her true self, she couldn’t imagine how horrible must it have been for the pink-haired girl to suddenly realize she was under external influence after being made to play the villain while being unable to notice it for such a long time.

"In any case, knowing you, there must be a decently accurate theory about it in that dangerous dragon brain of yours, given what happened back at Sarina’s planet, I bet", mumbled Eris to which Aster softly laughed in response.

Aster knew why Eris tried to put Mylene first as much as she could, but now that he had helped Eris confirm that her friend would be alright from this moment onwards, he didn’t forget one of the golden rules on how to keep a good atmosphere in the family "Don’t focus on someone else during the private time of a girl", so he skillfully changed the focus of the conversation from Mylene to Eris herself.

"I did notice something important but that can wait until we have other people from your families in front of us for confirmation which is probably what you are waiting for as well, on the other hand what about you, meeting the Lyselle family members doesn’t seem to worry you, in fact it looks like you are looking up to that, are you tired of us already?", jokingly said Aster making Eris giggle.

He meant it as in if she wanted to return to her family so "badly", which is a subject that already has an established and immovable answer by the way, both Eris and Mylene had directly stated that after solving the problems back at their Divine Firmament, they will leave their families to stay with Aster and the others.

And in case you wonder why would Aster doubt why Eris is not worried about meeting members of her family when the Lyselle are the good guys, she said it herself, they aren’t the embodiment of justice that others paint them to be, she just didn’t notice it until after that conversation with Mylene.

"Well, the best part about being part of the "good guys" is that I will be able to immediately tell who is trash without much effort as I am right now, so instead of worrying I’m actually looking up to meet those relatives of mine", said Eris, which made sense.

In Mylene’s family there might be others like her who were forced due to their circumstances to be evil, so when dealing with them there will be a need to have other considerations in place, at least as much as it is possible without risking the family’s safety which is Aster’s bottom line, but with Eris’s family it’s simpler, they are the good guys supposedly, if they show the slightest sign of being trash then they can be directly given what they deserve.

"I’ll also be able to confirm the standing of some among the upper echelon of my family, since we are most likely considered dead already, so the orders they had given for anything related to us will reveal who is on my side and who isn’t", added Eris.

The only thing that remained on either Eris or Mylene after falling into Aurelian’s heavenly quadrant was the cube necklace, even the connection to their soul lamps was severed, so they are no doubt considered dead and that makes things easier on their end, for Eris at least.

There is no need to be "good" to someone that is dead, so the ones faking it will be traceable as their orders would reflect that, though to be honest besides her rune mastering teacher and a few select people from her family, she didn’t have high expectations even before that conversation, because the "duty" of the family weighed more than the lives of its members in the mind of the Lyselle.

"Sounds fun, before said encounter I’ll make sure to have a little "gift" for you, though you’ll have to wait a few days for it", said Aster to which Eris softly smiled as she shook her head.

"It’s fine, I honestly had it easy compared to Mylene...", just as the heavenly rose princess was in the middle of rejecting Aster’s offer, she heard him add.

"Are you sure, what was keeping that pink-haired "cosmic tree" from focusing in recovering her secondary path’s realm faster was that worry, now that she has overcome that, you’ll be left in the dust in no time by her if you don’t do your best".

Eris couldn’t help but feel her right eyebrow twitch at that, Mylene is her bestie, yes, does she put her well-being above hers because of her circumstances, yes, can she endure losing to her in any other aspect, hell no, Mylene is her rival after all.

"T-That’s only because there is no knowledge at the heavenly realms and above in the soul path at your mortal realm... you are going to target that James’s camp to get it!", midway through her sentence, Eris realized what was Aster’s plan.

"That old ghost as someone who was born and raised in a mortal realm was able to lead others into screwing up the plans of those guys and still lived to tell the tale in a sense, unfortunately the legacy he left in my care is above the mortal realms so you have no use for it, but we can get its mortal counterpart from other natives of his heavenly quadrant, his insights on the soul path must be among the best in what mortal realms regard", said Aster, which made Eris’s violet eyes glow for a second.

Aster gathered the most renowned body cultivation focused manuals for each realm up to the Gate Transcending realm with the help of Julian’s channels, for Mylene and Mira, those two had already started reading and making changes in their own manuals with the help of that knowledge, the only reason as to why they haven’t advanced is that they had other things which were occupying their minds.

Mylene with the whole thing regarding the Karel family, as for the ligress girl, she had been pondering about making Aria her official contractor for her spirit ice part, doing so will bring important changes to Mira so she postponed advancing until deciding that, in any case she still had some things to revise in terms of the energy path, Mylene was the same so it’s not like they had been wasting time, this applied to Eris as well.

So, the heavenly rose princess really didn’t feel left out or anything like that, because she knew that if Aster had what she needed, he would have offered it to her on the spot, just like how the treasury is open for every girl to take what they need and resources are assigned to the one who can take advantage of them the most, Aster is always fair in that aspect and all the girls respect that about him, star maiden, lover, friend or ally, well, everyone besides Alice who would demand everything of Aster for herself not out of greed, but just because it is related to Aster.

’Even in this place, he had such a thing in consideration... no wait, the way he put it was to make me look up for the gift, this tease-loving dragon!’, thought Eris both happy that her situation never left Aster’s mind and annoyed that he succeeded at teasing her because she now looked up to receiving her "gift" from him.

"Humph, you even asked miss Lilia to give those two the knowledge of her manual on the body path up to the Gate Transcending realm, so it would only be fair if that’s the case", said the heavenly rose princess, trying to sound like a "spoiled" young miss, which very much is not her case, this way she was supposed to deny Aster the fun of teasing her since getting the best of the best would just be the "norm" for someone of that standing, therefore there won’t be anything to look up to, unfortunately not even Lilia has succeeded in escaping from Aster’s teasing.

"As the "flower princess" commands", jokingly said Aster which made Eris’s face redden on the spot, after that little spoiled act she put up, Aster’s words were especially effective against her.

"Agh, what are you making me say, don’t you dare tell anyone about this!", exclaimed the poor heavenly rose princess, to which Aster nodded, which allowed her to let out a sigh of relief.

’I can’t promise the same about mom though’, thought Aster, but he decided to not tell Eris that the "channel" was open so Lilia and Rya were watching this from the front row currently, it would be funnier this way.

...

The rest of Eris’s time was spent in much more mundane conversation, she told Aster about the formations that she had thought about for the girls of the sect, and how she planned to integrate the animals, before Eris noticed they had to put an end to it because it was lunch time.

’I didn’t even feel the time passing, was I really that immersed in the conversation?’, wondered Eris as she gazed at Aster who smiled at her in response.

’Oh well, I still gained inspiration by observing the world so it wouldn’t be bad to have these small conversations with Aster, while I follow master’s teachings once we are back...’, she thought.

This was an important aspect of her rune mastering school of thought and distractions weren’t allowed during it, but apparently Aster wasn’t counted as a distraction because the thing worked perfectly fine.

"I originally thought only Cami was apt for this ritual, but it seems like it will be useful for you too, so after we leave this place, you’ll join me... every now and then", said the heavenly rose princess putting on a "teacher" front.

"Sure, I enjoyed it as well", casually said Aster destroying said front, which nearly made Eris trip and fall.

"Ahem, it will be a part of your rune mastering lessons", mumbled Eris as they left the tree agglomeration and returned to the camp where everyone was gathering for lunch.

Before Eris could leave Aster’s side and since he had caused much more "trouble" to Mylene considering how Mikaela was staring daggers at the pink-haired girl, Aster decided to even things up.

"Camila, I heard from a little bird that you wanted a "reward" too, so here, today you’ll have the main seat all for yourself", said Aster to the auburn-haired treasure girl who was coming to greet Aster and Eris.

Seeing Aster tapping his legs, Camila’s face turned red as an apple, basically she was going to sit on his lap, which also meant she was going to be spoon-fed by Aster, like he does for Kana and Alice who are the ones that occupy that spot usually.

’I was only going to ask so sit next to him, Eris!’, inwardly screamed the treasure girl as she tried to find a way out of this.

"I-It wouldn’t be fair to little Kana and Alice so...", unfortunately that sunshine of a little girl, unlike with Alice, didn’t see her as a "bully", so she not only agreed to give her spot to Camila but she even removed the only other obstacle for it, because as one would expect Alice was about to refuse giving up her spot.

"Huh, I don’t want to, I was going to use my tail to feed Aster", said the wild dragon princess to which Kana added.

"It’s fine, sister Camila has been playing with me when big brother, mom sister Aria and sister Alice are busy, she has spent the least time with him, so she deserves it, besides sister Alice said that she would be nicer with me and Espi if we kept training with her so she won’t disagree right~", said Kana referring to those times when Camila helped her bath at the other room while there were night activities taking place.

"Ugh, so you got the little roc brat on your side, nicely played Camila...", mumbled Alice as she looked to the side, her mission progressed way faster with the help of Espi because the little wyrm quite literally used her tail as a weapon and Kana’s arrows pressuring her from dangerous angles further helped her, so she agreed to treat them much more like a "sister" would, if they continued to train with her, it happened just today so she couldn’t break her promise right away.

’I thought those two would simply ask to play around or something, who would have thought the "price" would be so high’, thought the wild dragon princess as she sat next to Aria with a mournful expression on her pretty face, the ice princess already had taken one of the two sides and the other was for Sarina, so she was reelevated to a second next seat, which she made look like something horrible, but amusingly enough that was Camila’s usual seat.

The funniest part is that poor Camila ended up looking as if she had planned for this to happen, but she simply ended up getting caught in the crossfire of Aster teasing Eris.

And then under the curious gazes of quite a few girls, the treasure girl sat on Aster’s lap, which she had all for herself and was given a plate by Sarina who originally would have supported the idea of giving the main seat to Camila, because she indeed has taken care of Kana during the time she spent with Aster at night, until not too long ago after Camila was given a reward by Aster for being a good girl, when Alice and Aria were bickering between each other, when Sarina started considering her "dangerous".

So, the blond motherly roc girl now couldn’t help but look at Camila with a bit of suspicion.

’Wuuh, I wasn’t going to ask for this!’, inwardly exclaimed Camila.