Chapter 148: Before the start of another hunt?
One of the girls training just then suddenly noticed their leader coming toward them when she looked around a little bit while recovering her mana. She could see he was still a little far off, so she quickly informed Ava.
Ava, after being informed of Aiden's arrival, quickly told everyone to gather around her, forming two lines and standing upright, waiting for the arrival of their leader.
Aiden, seeing them behave like this, didn't feel much now as he was slowly getting used to them acting this way. Now both Aiden and Alicia reached them, and once again Aiden heard their loud salute.
"Good morning, Leader!"
He only waved his hand to make them relax as he was not going to remind them every time when they liked it that much, acting as if they were in the military, or this could have become their natural response after accepting him as their new leader.
Aiden moved in front of Ava as he had already confirmed in his mind that she would be the one responsible for them training magic after everything he had witnessed during the time they had spent together.
"Ava tell me, are all of you guys ready to go for another hunt?"
Ava, without thinking much, quickly replied, as they had been waiting for him since 6 a.m. inside the training room. Seeing he was late, they had started training while waiting.
"Yes, Leader. We are always ready to follow you."
Aiden hummed in response, pleased by her words. After getting his sister's approval that she was okay with a harem, he was not going to act as reserved as he used to be, so he asked her.
"Ava, are you the one who got all the others to focus much more on magic than modern weapons?"
Ava gave a resolute nod as she had already anticipated, after watching her leader's fight and Alicia's deadly magic, that sooner or later, these modern weapons wouldn't be of much help to them.
Aiden, seeing her response, gave her a light smile, raised his hand above her head, and started patting her lightly, saying without stopping the pat.
"You did a good job, Ava. I am pleased with you, so from now on, you will be the one officially responsible for taking care of all these soldiers and, hopefully, others who will join in the future."
Ava blushed profusely while listening intently to Aiden's words, as never in her life had anyone patted her head, especially not from the opposite gender. She couldn't deny that she liked this feeling, as she felt a warmth inside when such a handsome and strong man like her Leader praised her with such gentle pats.
And more importantly, she had also achieved her goal of becoming the one who would be directly below only her leader. While she hadn't been called vice leader, she was technically one, so with a blush on her cute face, she replied.
"T-Thank you so much for g-giving me such an important responsibility, l-leader. I would never disappoint you." Even when she felt a little shy and embarrassed, she still tried to keep calm; however, the blush on her face gave her emotions away.
Alicia was glaring daggers at the scene unfolding before her, and while she had given him permission, she hadn't expected her little brother to be so good at this.
'Argh, I know my brother wouldn't just bring any woman just because she's attracted to him, as they need to have mutual feelings, but it's still frustrating to watch him flirt with another.'
She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down, telling herself that whatever was happening was for the betterment of their relationship, but it still didn't stop her from thinking of wanting to cast a few bolts of thunder on Ava.
Aiden, looking at Ava's blushing face, hadn't thought she would become shy so quickly. He had imagined her remaining calm as she usually was, but he wouldn't deny that he liked the blush on her face as it made her look even cuter than before.
"How could such a cute Ava disappoint me? I trust you'll do well."
Ava didn't know what was happening to her today, as she never thought something like this would happen to her—being gently patted on the head while being called cute.
She had never given much thought to a relationship, but the thought entered her mind, as the one showing her care so openly was someone as handsome as Aiden, and more importantly, he was also very strong.
But remembering something, she looked at Alicia beside Aiden, seeing the anger written on her face, along with sparks of lightning around her hand. Her face turned pale as she feared Alicia would cast a spell on her.
'I have to quickly get out of this situation, or I won't survive being the target of this crazy woman.'
"L-Leader, can y-you please l-let me go? I h-have to make p-preparations," Ava said with a beet-red face.
Aiden had noticed her gaze earlier and knew she must be scared of his sister, so he decided to let her go for now, as putting too much pressure on her wouldn't be good since he had to take things slowly and naturally.
"Okay, go for now, but I'm not done with you," he said with a charming smile on his handsome face, which stunned Ava and many of the other women.
Hearing his last words didn't help and made her even more embarrassed. Many thoughts appeared in her mind, but she didn't linger on them and quickly left to take her position once again. But unlike her previous demeanor, she now stood in her place with her head down, trying to hide her embarrassment as it would take some time to calm down fully.
Aiden looked beside him to see how his big sis was reacting to all this and saw she was staring daggers at Ava, standing in the distance, while sparks of lightning could be seen around her hands.
Alicia was fuming as, while she had allowed him to have a harem for both their sakes, seeing him flirt with another woman angered her more. Her urge to cast a lightning spell on Ava didn't go away at all.
Feeling someone's gaze on her, she turned to look, knowing who must be watching her. She could tell by looking at him that he was checking if she was holding up well or not, which warmed her heart a little.
However, remembering how he had naturally flirted with Ava earlier, her mood soured a little.
But knowing she was the one who had agreed to this for their relationship, she couldn't show her dissatisfaction as it would mean putting her personal feelings above their relationship and getting angry at her brother was also hard for her, unlike with others.
She showed an awkward smile and said in a low voice to him.
"Little Aiden, aren't you a bit too good at this? Where did you learn all this from?"
He could tell she was hiding her feelings as the twitching on her face gave everything away, but he was not going to play with fire and would never even dream of making fun of her, so he answered her honestly.
"Big Sis, aren't you the one who taught me all this?"