Chapter 636: The complicated structure of the Fey family (part 1)
Amusingly enough, Agnes's wasn't the only who was being glared at by a relative, Iris was also being given an accusative gaze by Layla, since the red head girl omitted Espi's existence when she told Layla about what happened at Esmeralda's realm.
The three maids feigned ignorance and looked away when Layla also stared at them, rendering Layla speechless, ultimately, she could only give in, she knew that Iris was quite a straight forward girl, if she was shown kindness she'll repay it to the best of her capacities.
And Aster helped her save the three maids back then, so of course she kept anything that could bring trouble to him, a secret from others, it's not like she didn't trust Layla, but more of because she wanted to respect Aster's privacy, such was her thinking process.
The previous also drew Valentina's attention towards Layla, while she guided everyone out of her office, she didn't forget to say.
"Normally I wouldn't care about the conflict of a family that nowadays sides with the Black Meteorite Heavenly Quadrant, but are you really going to stay here, Iris is still fine since she joined the sect through normal means instead of being brought over by the guys of the Red Sword faction, so as the one in charge of representing the Battle Peak in this place, I can interfere in her stead".
"But you don't belong to my Myriad Occupation sect, not to mention that the call back order for everyone affiliated to the Redheart family came from the Fire Core Elder of the Supreme Elemental sect, in other words from that older sister of yours, since they are trying their luck at the other location in the wastelands with the Stall guys".
Aster raised an eyebrow, Iris's family turned out to have connections with the Heavenly Quadrant ruled by the Stall family, despite they residing in the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, according to the small talk that Iris has had with the other girls, namely Kana and Nerissa, during the travel.
Also judging by the word "nowadays" in Valentina's sentence, as well as the slight aggressiveness in her eyes when she talked about Layla's sister, apparently things weren't exactly peaceful between Valentina's family branch and them.
However, Valentina wasn't petty, she could have taken it out on Iris, but instead not only she was willing to step up for her, but she never showed any animosity towards Iris, it was praise worthy.
Layla put on a slightly worried expression on her pretty face but then her eyes sparkled as she remembered something.
"Don't worry, both Iris and I, have a valid reason to stay here, unless they can bribe that little friend over there, of course", she happily said as she gazed at Aster.
"Well, if they are willing to transfer me ownership of their main Stellar System, I could listen to their complains", jokingly added Aster from the side.
"Mm?", Valentina who was a bit confused about Aster's words, turned to see him, wanting an explanation, only for her to be in shock as she read the fake contract which Aster handed to her.
As she read the whole thing, Valentina couldn't help but brightly smile and then laugh, clearly amused by Aster's idea.
"That explains why they claimed those two were kidnapped, I can imagine that woman's angered face when she received the news, nice job~", she said.
With a renewed good mood, the group left the city hall in which Valentina currently resided and went straight to the merchant district of the temporary city, the variety brought by the fact that people from two different Heavenly Quadrants, was easy to notice.
For starters, those who were native of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, immediately showed respect to Valentina, clearly aware of her status as a princess of the Fey family.
"Good evening miss Valentina", could be repeatedly heard from quite a few of the stalls, on the way to the main road of the merchant district.
Of course, not everyone was content with Valentina being the one in charge here, since rogue cultivators came to such places to make money in every possible way, normally a lot of gray business take place whenever an event like this occurs in the wastelands, since it is easier to avoid the authorities here.
For example, that's why the evil sect came to support Julian's son back then, otherwise unless he was literally indispensable for the survival of the Demon Tomb sect, they wouldn't have come to help him, no matter what he offered, since they exist in the shadows.
Anyway, rogue cultivators didn't go to such lengths, but selling pills, treasures, slaves and other trinkets of dubious origin to those young masters from high ranked sects, was a golden opportunity for them.
Unfortunately for them, Valentina banned things like the slave market and other types of "services", gaining those guy's animosity, not like she cared, since unless they wanted to die without a tomb, they wouldn't dare to show their discontent with anything else but measly glares here and there.
What's important is that Valentina was well-known even at the outskirts of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, whole strangely enough they didn't recognize Agnes, which was explained by her the next second.
"Unlike sister Valentina, I was still restricted to the Fey family's grounds when I lived in the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, the first time I was allowed some freedom was when cousin brought me to the Myriad Occupation sect", she said, referring to Aster's godmother.
It was funny that her first time outside of the Fey family's watch, was in a whole different Heavenly Quadrant, that also explained why Agnes wasn't really taking care of any specific responsibilities at the sect, she was considered too young and inexperienced for that so she only had to help here and there and was allowed to travel in order to gain experience.
The group soon arrived at their destination, the main road of the merchant district, since the space protected by the arrays of the temporary city was limited, the vast majority of the merchant district was composed of street stalls and only those who had a certain capital to show, could rent a local.
And all the locals available for outsiders, were part of the main road, where stores selling all kinds of stuff could be found, from restaurants to herbs, pills, weapons, auction halls, gambling, etc.
As long as Valentina allowed it, important merchants had already rented a local to set up a store, through some lucky guys who arrived first and contacted them before long distance communications went down.
But before going there, the little girl was immediately attracted to the adjacent street stalls, which had long lines, for a good reason, those belonged to people of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant.
"Big brother, I want to try that~", said Kana as she pointed at a small stall with a small line, it was one of the snacks native of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, which Valentina mentioned, a fruit skewer coated in the hardened honey of a rare spirit beast called Sunflower Bee.
Seeing the little girl's puppy eyes as well as the ticklish sensation coming from his shoulder, caused by the little wyrm licking him as a way to ask him to buy it for her as well, Aster agreed.
"Sure, the stores have no waiting line anyway", said Aster as he walked towards the stall, accompanied by Kana, Sarina, Espi who has hiding below his clothes and Camila who was dragged along by Aster with Kana's help and Sarina's "permission", while the other girls stayed behind.
"I understand little Kana tagging alone since she is sister Sarina's daughter, but why me…", mumbled Camila whose hand was being held by Aster as she walked next to him.
'Sister Sarina huh, perhaps mom was right', amusingly thought Aster, Camila seemed to have gotten closer to Sarina due to the motherly blond woman, welcoming her with open arms and a helping hand, unlike Lilia and Alice who teased her to no end, it was without ill intent of course, but it was a bit too much for the poor treasure girl who had zero experience in these kinds of things.
"Well, I seem to remember that a certain someone wanted to others to know about nature of her relationship with me", said Aster, making Camila's face blush on the spot.
"I-It was supposed to be seen by Eris and the others, not by the whole world… for now", she mumbled, that being said, she didn't let go of Aster's hand, though she did look away as if to "ignore" him, it was cute.
Sarina on the other hand, proudly held onto Aster's right arm while the little girl happily walked in front of him, naturally since he was being surrounded by beauties it was impossible for Aster to not draw other people's attention, it's worth mentioning that they weren't using masks anymore.
Camila was suddenly met with a lot of gazes from every direction, but before she could feel any kind of discomfort, all those guys suddenly felt as if their pupils were slightly grazed by a sharp thin blade, forcing them to look away instinctively.
Only for the vast majority to look in Camila's direction once again but with a completely different focus, as their attention was drawn towards the voice of a black-haired youth standing next to her.
"Did you see that Kana, that's how you cordially greet those who eye you with the intention to determine whether they should mess with you or not, if they are smart then they'll mind their own business as everyone should do if not, well… we'll get a chance for a new lesson", said Aster as he took place at the end of the waiting line.
"Mm, understood big brother", seriously said the little girl, while the little wyrm nodded from within Aster's clothes, those two took these advices to heart.
As for the nearby observers, which consisted mostly in rogue cultivators, besides some random people who were in the vicinity when the temporary city was set up, they didn't eye Sarina and the others again.
In fact, some hushed mumbles could be heard from the different small groups.
"Was that sword intent?".
"Y-Yeah, I felt as if my eyes were cut by something".
"What the hell, my uncle has second level intent and he can't do something like that, could that have been… third level intent?".
"You ignorant, no matter how talented one can be, how can a member of the youngest generation have third level sword intent, not even the monsters from the highest ranked families had achieved that… however that young man is not someone to trifle with, that's for sure".
"Yeah, someone with such a talent at such a young age must have an equally amazing backing, better not cause trouble, who knows who might you offend nowadays".
Aster inwardly nodded, having achieved the effect that he wanted, of course he can't just go around killing anyone who looks at the girls, so he decided to give them a little warning using his half step third level intent.
The first two levels of intent can be attained with either training or fortunate encounters, regardless of background or one's status, among these rogue cultivators whose realms go from the Mortal Transcending realm to the Genesis Manifestation one, most have first level intent.
However, the third level when obtained at a young age is a foolproof certification of talent, of course third level intent is not something that these rogue cultivators had experienced firsthand, so they can't discern if Aster is a fraud, but their survival instinct screamed them to not mess with him and they fortunately decided listening to it.
Since no one tried to look for trouble with them, despite how tempting did Sarina and Camila looked for others, Aster and the girls peacefully waited for their turn and soon the line had shrunken enough for them to see the fruit skewers being prepared on the spot by the owner of the stall, a middle-aged couple.
The fruits were native of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant but they weren't anything special, what was special was the honey with which they were coated, since a Sunflower Bee was a rare friendly spirit beast.
Or more accurately it was a mutual benefit relationship, most wild spirit herbs and flowers had defensive mechanisms, since everything nurtured with spirit energy had a chance to obtain wisdom, so plants developed predatory instincts with time.
Meaning that weak spirit beasts would most likely be devoured by them, and Sunflower Bees weren't known for their strength, so they instead looked for plants and flowers cultivated by humans, which were of much calmer nature.
Naturally, if the bees only took without giving anything in return they will be hunted down, so their queen instead "exchanged" the nutrients taken by their subordinates, for a certain amount of the final product.
It was a strange phenomenon, to see bees bringing back honey to people, but their queen was rumored to be a Heavenly Realm spirit beast, so it was a believable story.
As to why it was a rare thing if the bees practically gave the honey away for "free" since the nutrients they took from the plants didn't really affect them in the long run, that's because the bees only selected the spirit flowers and plants which met the criteria of their queen, most weren't popular herbs used for alchemy so only some people managed to obtain the honey through this method.
Of course, if there are benefits there are people willing to kill for it, so some followed the bees to steal said honey and while half succeeded, half met horrible deaths swarmed by them.
Being so close, Aster could practically see the pair of little girl and little wyrm drooling over those candies, even he had to admit that the honey had a pleasant smell, and that is a lot to say considering Aster isn't fond of sweet things.
'A natural supplement for one's vitality, in the form of a candy, how interesting', he thought.
Their turn finally came and for the little girl's luck, the last batch of skewers was there all for them.
"We'll take the remaining ones, please", said Aster, they would barely be enough for all the girls.
The owners of the stall saw how adorably enthusiastic Kana looked and since there was no one else waiting in line behind of them, they nodded.
"Sure, they'll be ready in a minute…".
"Wait a moment, we also want some of them", a second voice interrupted the middle-aged lady who was preparing the skewers for Aster and the girls.
The newcomers were a group of twelve people, ten young, five girls and five boys and two middle aged ones, a man and a woman, the one who spoke earlier was one of the young ones, a girl of around Alice's age.
"We want twenty skewers", added another girl, to which the middle-aged lady apologetically answered.
"Sorry the last batch for today was just sold, we are out of honey, but if you want, you can pay half of the price and we'll save twenty for you tomorrow, so you can come for them when you have the chance".
"Pay?... what are you talking about, do you not know to whom does this city belong to?", said one of the other girls of the group as she pointed at the emblem on the shoulder of the girl who spoke earlier, an emblem in the shape of a yellow crystal mountain.
The middle-aged lady found herself in a predicament, as a native of the Sun Sprite Heavenly Quadrant, she of course recognized the emblem of the Mountain Amber clan, one of the main branches of the Fey family, on the other hand she also saw how Aster dealt with those curious observers from earlier, so she was trapped between a sword and a hard place.
One of the young guys of the group, noticed how the middle-aged lady gazed at Aster before doubting, whether to give them what they wanted and he spoke.
"What the hell are you hesitating for, I'm sure that friend over there doesn't mind giving up his turn to miss Fey, right?".
Seeing that Aster was ignoring them, another of the guys took a step ahead to then try and grab Aster's shoulder.
"Hey we are talking to you, hurry up and het lost before…", the poor guy couldn't finish his sentence before his body frost.
"Before what?", Aster turned around and faced the now immobile young man, in case you wonder why he wasn't moving anymore, that's because he was being assaulted by Aster's murderous intent.
"For a lapdog to not even have a soul protection treasure, that doesn't speak too well of the Mountain Amber family", said Aster, he retrieved his murderous intent and that guy fell backwards, his face paled and he broke in sweat.
The previous finally allowed the others to realize that something was wrong, especially the middle-aged ones who were Genesis Manifestation cultivators and the ones guarding these group of young girls and boys.
However, before they could take action, all the nearby area was overwhelmed by a suffocating sensation, this time Aster allowed all of them to feel what that guy experienced a second ago.
For those young the world seemed to have lost its color, their legs wobbled and they fell to their knees, while the middle-aged pair immediately stood in front of them with a panic-stricken expression.
"And this is how you greet those with obviously ill intentions towards you, well, if they are just causing trouble out of foolishness to be exact, otherwise the golden rule stands, kill them without hesitation", casually said Aster.
Those words combined with the horrifying murderous intent which was assaulting all the group as of current, made the guard couple to immediately say.
"Young friend, they meant no harm, it's just that the travel was long and they wanted to eat something quick before going to the auction, we can talk about this", said the woman.
"Yes, in any case, killing is forbidden in this city", added the man, to which Aster chuckled before saying.
"I could always drag you out of the city and then kill you", Aster then retrieved his murderous intent, allowing them to breath normally once again.
But just as the guards were taking a sigh of relief, one of the young men took out his sword and swung it towards Aster only to see something that he won't forget in a really long time.
With a "Clang", he found his sword being blocked by a… skewer stick, that's right, his treasured sword, a low Stellar grade spirit treasure was blocked by a cheap wooden stick.
"If killing is not a viable option, then leaving a lasting impression is the next best thing", said Aster to Kana as he moved the stick which was of course coated with both his first and second level sword intent, in other words Ghost Sword and Sharpening.
Forcing the opponent's sword towards the ground, the guards knowing that something bad was about to happen, tried to interfere but they were one step too late.
"Aghhhh!", the next thing they saw, was the hand of the young man, being pierced by a stick skewer.
While the guards approached the young man to help him, the others paled at the first sight of blood, except for the girl who first spoke earlier.
"He is crazy, call the city guards, let's have this bastard executed!", exclaimed one of the girls, who was then coldly glared at by Aster, making her fall on her butt.
The guards didn't know whether to laugh or cry, let alone the ones they were protecting, even they were afraid of the murderous intent they felt earlier and those sheltered young ladies were still provoking its owner.
"Oh, I didn't know that the guards of my city could be commanded by others so easily, to the point that even the lackeys of the Mountain Amber family would have them execute someone", a sarcastic voice interrupted the previous scene, as Valentina approached along with Agnes.
The only one wearing the emblem of the Mountain Amber family was the girl who spoke first, the others were members of subordinated forces, apparently.
Speaking of which, said girl sighed as she greeted Valentina and Agnes.
"Please don't take it to heart, older sisters, it was our fault this time, I'll pay the fine for causing a public disturbance and also a compensation for the owner of the stall for the trouble", she said as she took out a spatial ring and handed it to Valentina.
"You are too young to be involved in the useless infighting of the families, Fawn, don't let that older brother of yours influence you like they did with him, see for yourself and then decide", said Valentina as she accepted the ring.
The girl called Fawn didn't show any reaction, she just turned around to leave with her group, but before that she couldn't help but ask.
"Is this considered helping me or him?".
"You, and it will be the only time I'll do it", said Valentina, when that guy took out a sword to attack Aster, the latter was going to cut his arm off, but Valentina asked him to be a bit lenient.
He did so, because that guy honestly sucked at fighting, he had near to zero experience, to the point that despite being a Star Tribulation realm cultivator, Kana could have overpowered him with ease, so there was no threat, however that didn't mean he would just accept being aimed at with a sword.
As to why Valentina asked him to be a bit lenient this time, that's because she apparently had a decent impression of that girl Fawn, which also reminded Aster of a certain doubt, Valentina and Agnes belong to the previous youngest generation of the Fey family.
They are indeed young but not as Vivian, Alice, Tiana, Aria and the like, more like Alexandra, Eris or Mylene, as they are in their twenties, so Aster wondered if the Fey family had princesses in the current youngest generation.
And his question was apparently just answered, the curious thing is that, those guards weren't anything special, not what he expected, considering that there were half-step Heavenly realm cultivators in the spaceship that tried to block their way.
Not to mention that they were supposedly kept grounded at the main sphere of influence of the Fey family, until they could somewhat protect themselves like Valentina, or someone with real influence in the family vouched for them, like it happened with Agnes.
"Don't look at me like that, I'll explain everything to you at dinner, but before that, let's enjoy those fruit skewers", mumbled Valentina.
Aster nodded, since the situation of the Fey family seemed to be rather complicated, he didn't mind learning more about it, one of his dear godmothers and two of his precious friends were part of it after all.
The owners of the stall took a sigh of relief when they saw that the city lord, was in friendly terms with the young man which they decided to support earlier, at least they weren't going to be exiled from the temporary city, also those sheltered guys wouldn't bother them thanks to Valentina, so everything ended in a good note.
Especially for Kana whose eyes sparkled as soon as she tasted the sweetness of the honey on the fruit skewers, while the little wyrm was pouting since she had to wait until they weren't in public anymore.
"That was enough troubles with an empty stomach, let's have both dinner and entertainment at the same time", said Valentina as she guided Aster and the others towards one of the biggest locals in the merchant district, the auction house.