Irelia answered almost instantly after picturing the whole story in her head with herself in it. Her imagination was always very vivid and deep. But, before any voice left her gaping mouth, she realized something.

  She had heard about a boy who her brother kept bullying in school. He often talked about it while looking proud. Sometimes he was angry the boy wasn’t answering his provocations. She didn’t like it but couldn’t do anything to stop him. He already had her under his thumb…

  She suddenly got the feeling that the man in front of her might have been that boy and her answer could affect her brother. Even if she disliked him a lot, it was still family, family that she wanted to protect.

  Asterios didn’t miss the sudden change and appearance of hesitation in the girl’s expression. As he had assumed, the girl must have known enough to figure out the situation. At least one person in this family was not rotten to the core. He was afraid for a moment that she was just the same as Roz already.

  “So? What would you do? I’d like you to answer honestly.” He pressed her shoulder, keeping up his smile.

  “I… ummm… I would… punish him...” She tried to choose her words carefully.

  “Is that so?” Asterios reached out and patted her head a bit before standing up and turning towards the Marquess. “And what would you do, Marquess Richtenstein?”

  Wilhelm also understood the situation, including the hidden meaning behind his question.

  “I would also… punish that person…”

  Asterios nodded. “Right? Then there should be nothing wrong with me doing the same, no?” He kept staring at the man until he nodded with a wry smile.

  Asterios then returned her focus to Irelia. “Since we are already all here, why won’t you tell me and your papa what you really think of your brother?”

  She glanced at Asterios, then at her father, and finally at her brother held down to the ground by something around his wrists and ankles. If it was right now… then maybe…

  “He… he is the worst… He always says mean things to me but acts like we are very close when everyone is looking… He does many bad things to others, but he forbade me from saying anything after I saw him punch a girl because she didn’t want to go out with him… He sometimes lets his beasts hurt me when we train together, saying that I’m too weak and need real experience—”

  *CRACK*

  Something crunched behind his back and Asterios turned around. The Marquess looked quite tense as he was standing by his armchair with Selene’s knives surrounding his throat. One of his hands rested on the backrest, which now had visible cracks at the spot under his strained palm.

  Asterios chuckled inwardly. His gamble worked better than he had first assumed. He walked towards the center of the room and glanced down at Roz.

  “I shouldn’t pry into your family’s internal affairs too much, Marquess Richtenstein, so I’ll leave the rest to you. Now then, as I was saying… I’ll actually give you three days to fix everything up. I would feel bad if I had to get rid of such an admirable girl. But if you fail to meet the deadline…”

  He stared the man right into the eyes and focused his all on releasing as much of the scorching hot spiritual energy as he physically could. A crimson misty aura enveloped Ast’s body and the air in the room got so heavy it was starting to get hard to breathe.

  Then, an immense bloodlust suddenly appeared by their sides and everyone except Asterios turned their eyes towards the black-haired girl who started emitting ferocious growls while also adding her own pressure to the mix as she stared down the Marquees.

  To top all of that, a wave of powerful spiritual energy exploded on the opposite side of the panthergirl, creating intense turmoil in the chamber and sending many books or documents into the air.

  Everyone turned their gazes again and saw the white-haired lady starting to slowly rise from the ground in the center of this small spiritual gravity storm, creating chaos in the office by lifting up countless objects present in the chamber. Not one but three tails were now visible behind her back and her eyes were glowing in white.

  Selene waved her hand to the side, and a huge part of the wall was blown into pieces with a loud boom. Miria walked through the room and stood by her side. The two stared at Asterios, who stayed in place for the whole ordeal, still glaring at the Marquess who had just returned his eyes to him.

  Asterios didn’t finish his sentence, leaving the ending open to their interpretation. He started nonchalantly walking away to join Selene and Miria.

  When the three of them turned towards the edge of the destroyed wall, which led outside, he stopped and glanced back at Roz.

  “And one more thing. If I ever hear anything connected to you and anyone from the Nobelle family... Especially their eldest daughter… Let’s say you would have been better not being born into this world.”

  He returned his gaze to the front and took a step forward alongside Miria and the floating Selene. Blue spiritual platforms appeared in the air and the two of them started walking down towards the ground, releasing soft, ceramic tink with each step.

  After they disappeared from the Richtenstein’s family sight, all the objects fell to the ground with a thud and the intimidating pressure disappeared. Everyone gasped for air. Roz struggled to lift himself up to his knees and glared at his sister to his left.

  Before he could utter a word, he heard heavy footsteps coming from the right and turned his eyes towards the source. His father stopped above him and looked down. Roz shivered. Never in his life had he seen this expression on his father’s face. And it certainly wasn’t an overjoyed one.

  Chapter 25

  You Are My Everything

  After they reached the ground, Selene withdrew her Awakened state. Asterios glanced back at the hole in the building’s first floor and sighed. He did not plan on making such a spectacular exit, but it would be a lie if he said that Selene hadn’t created a perfect opportunity for them to leave with an everlasting impact. Now, everything was left in the hands of the Marquess.

  “That was amazing, Master! Everything went as you planned! Well, maybe half of it actually… but still! Your cold acting was on point, too!” Miria happily praised Asterios while jumping in front of him.

  He chuckled and showed a wry smile. “Not all of that was acting though,” he said while glancing down at his hand closed into a fist. “Come on. Let’s not spend any more time here than necessary. We can talk about everything at home.”

  Asterios asked Eru to cover his face again as the Pixie was still present in his body, waiting for further commands. The mischievous spirit was now a little bit nervous after seeing everything that had happened and experiencing Ast’s internal energy first-hand, and obeyed at once, choosing not to risk annoying the man with its usual, frisky behavior.

  The trio circled the mansion and returned to its front, where currently a few people were examining the regular tunnel that spanned through the bushy maze. Amongst them, he recognized the gardener they had met on their way here.

  Asterios decided that with his earlier show, this little act was now completely unnecessary. He had initially planned to have it serve as an example of his overbearing confidence, but what happened in the office worked way better than drilling a hole in some plants.

  ~Eru, I know we’ve agreed only on the appearance change, but would you be able to fix this if I made another offering?”~ he asked the Pixie mentally.

  ~Of course! Making some bushes grow is nothing for an Earth Pixie! I’ll throw that one as a freebie for you as thanks for this amusing spectacle, ehehehe…~

  A little bit of nervousness could be discerned in its laughter at the end and Asterios felt slightly bad for intimidating the Pixie by accident, but he chose not to overcomplicate things and accepted Eru’s goodwill, even if it was more of a desperate attempt to save itself from getting on his bad side.

  With that set, the party nonchalantly strolled through the first gate Selene had created in the plants, completely ignoring the gathering around it. As they passed through, the ground and the sliced ends of the small branches sprouted fresh stalks and leaves, covering the missing part in an instant. The tall fence looked now exactly like it had before getting culled by the fox lady.

  This repeated for every single hole and the party soon finished their short journey through the destroyed maze. They quickly left through the main gate, looked around to check for any commotion—which, fortunately, hadn’t occurred—and Asterios ordered the girls to go back to their realm while he walked the remaining distance alone so that fewer people saw them.

  It was slowly getting dark when he finally reached his home and went through the front door. He thanked Eru for its help and sent the Pixie back to its realm. He spotted light in the guest room, so he stopped by it to take a peek.

  His mother and Tina were still sitting there, both looking quite anxious. The former was gazing into her already cold tea while the latter was staring out of the window, consumed by her thoughts.

  Asterios coughed to announce his return and the women's eyes instantly snapped onto him.

  “Asti…” Kindra called out to him in a quiet voice after glancing into Ast’s still crimson eyes.

  “Everything will be resolved in a few days. I’m currently completely drained so I’d appreciate it if we could talk about it in the morning.” He smiled kindly at his mother, and she nodded softly.

  Asterios then started walking away but stopped before disappearing behind the empty door frame, moving his gaze onto Tina. He smiled at her too.

  “Thank you for taking care of my mom. You don’t need to worry about Roz’s words anymore. He won’t be bothering you ever again.”

  Tina’s eyes widened a little as she thought about the possible implications of his statement, but deep down, she felt glad to hear it, especially from the man she liked, and it showed on her face in the form of a slight blush.

  She averted her gaze to the side. “It was given… There’s no need for thanks…”

  “Don’t say that. I’ll be sure to thank you properly later. You should head home now before it gets too late. Your family must have been worried.”

  She quickly returned her eyes to Asterios just to catch his waving hand move out of their sight. The inside of her chest felt warmer. There was something different about him and it wasn’t his differently colored eyes and hair. She felt like he was less indifferent towards her somehow.

  Tina suddenly realized she was staring at the same point in space for many seconds and glanced to the side to see Ast’s mother looking at her with a soft smile. Her cheeks suddenly grew even hotter, and she hastily stood up while dropping her gaze to the ground and patting out her clothes.

  “T-Thank you for your hospitality, Miss Kindra! I’ll be taking my leave now then!” she quickly announced, stuttering a little from the hurry, and beelined straight for the exit after bowing respectfully.

  Kindra giggled softly. “It looks like my little Asti is finally growing into a fine man.”

  Meanwhile, Asterios arrived in his room, and the moment he stepped inside, all of that fiery momentum disappeared, allowing him to leave his awakened state he was in since the moment he had set foot back in his house after returning from the journey. A wave of exhaustion passed through his whole body, and he fell face-first onto his bed while groaning.

  Two dark crimson gates arose from the ground and his companions appeared in Ast’s bedroom. They both sat down on the bed by each of his sides. Miria placed her hand on his back and grazed over it gently.

  “Is everything okay, Master?”

  He sighed. Deeply. “Yeah. All is fine.” A moment of silence followed until Asterios sighed again. “Okay, maybe it’s not.”

  Both girls waited for him to continue.

  “I almost completely lost control over my emotions. I barely withheld from doing something impossible to undo at least a few times. It wasn’t as if something had fully taken over me but more like there was something fanning the flames of my anger the whole time, urging me to not think about consequences and just slaughter those who wronged me and my loved ones. I’ve never felt like that.”

  He stopped for a moment. Miria was going to say something, but Asterios beat her to it.

  “No. That’s wrong. It wasn’t the first time. Something similar happened once in the past when my mother was assaulted by a thug. I felt rage back then too, but it wasn’t as strong as today. Though, I did not manage to tame it down that day and killed the man.”

  “Perhaps it’s connected to that fiery energy you possess, my Lord?” Selene suggested.

  “It’s possible. I felt it back then too. That scorching hot sensation spreading through my body. But it was much more suppressed. By something. Something that was slowly cracking every time strong emotions were involved. And since it did not happen that often after I steeled myself against Roz’s attempts, it held up for a long time. That is until the day when Mii died in my arms. I clearly remember the sensation of something literally shattering around my body.”

  Silence fell again as all three of them thought about it. Miria was much more familiar with these feelings and events as she had dived into Ast’s mind many times now and they had completely shared most of their lives’ history with each other.

  Selene was aware of his past, but she wasn’t as deeply connected to Asterios yet, even if they already had opened their minds to each other since she did not mind it in the slightest.

  “What was that barrier? Why was it there? How did it come to be? Was it something I was naturally born with or was it placed on me artificially?” Asterios pondered out loud.

  “What if…” Miria joined him. “What if it’s something related to your real parents? Maybe it was their doing? Or it was something hereditary… Or like a curse or something…”

  “It’s not impossible. The only way to figure that out would be to start researching my past. All I know right now is that I was the sole survivor of a bandit’s raid and everyone in the village died—including my parents—shortly after I was born. I was saved by Kindra, who was passing by with a caravan towards Rosewind to work in her family’s store here. They own the brand.”

  Asterios sighed heavily. There were just so many mysteries he did not completely understand, be it linked to this weird change he had experienced, or his whole past. He was slowly starting to feel sleepy and neither Miria nor Selene pressed the topic further. There was no rush anywhere. They could focus on that after everything connected to the current issue was taken care of.

  Miria decided to stay by his side for the night and expected Selene to return to their world soon after Asterios turned around and plopped himself on the bed properly, lying on his back while staring into the ceiling, but she insisted on staying this time.

  Selene laid herself down on his left side and turned her back to Asterios. Her bushy tail moved up and she glanced at him over her shoulder.

  “It’s said that you’ll wake up feeling perfectly rested and full of energy after falling asleep with a Spiritual Fox’s tail in your arms. I shall lend you mine for tonight, my Lord,” she said with a smile.

  He stared at the bushy cloud slowly moving in front of his eyes and chuckled softly. “I guess it would be rude for me to decline such an offer.”

  Asterios rolled onto his left side and allowed Selene to wiggle closer to him until her soft tail completely covered the front of his body and his face. He carefully wrapped his arms around it and hugged it gently.

  He knew how pleasant it was in touch from his previous attempt at combing it but embracing this silky-smooth piece of heaven like this was a completely different experience. It was truly calming for the mind.

  Miria brought her own tail to her front and stared at it with a slightly dejected expression. Hers was incomparably thinner and there was no way she could do something like that for him. Asterios sensed her distress and tilted his head to the back.

  “It seems to be a little cold tonight. And my back is completely exposed like this. Do you think you could do something about that?”

  She instantly let go of her tail and looked around to fulfill her master’s request. She tried pulling on the covers, but both Asterios and Selene were lying on top of them, rendering her attempt fruitless. Her eyes fell on the free pillow next to Ast’s head, but it seemed too small to do the job.

  Asterios chuckled again when seeing her frantically scan the room to look for anything that would serve the purpose properly.

  “I’m pretty sure we need something warm.”

  She glanced at him and noticed the smile on Ast’s lips. Her cheeks instantly grew flushed after she realized what he had really meant from the very beginning.

  She giggled awkwardly and moved closer to him, affectionately snuggling herself to Ast’s back. Her arms went around his sides and tightly embraced his chest while she nuzzled her face to the nape of his neck.

  “Perfect. I don’t think there’s anything better than this,” he said to her and moved his head to the front.

  “You are welcome…” she quietly whispered back.

  Miria enjoyed being the one to act as a big spoon this time and very much liked embracing her mate this way while Selene had dozed off to the pleasant sensation of having her fluffy tail caressed even before the panthergirl finished carrying out the task given to her by Asterios. But, neither of them noticed that fact.

  As for Asterios, he stayed awake the longest. His mind was completely calm as he experienced warmth surrounding his whole body. He thought about a few things while in that state and soon joined the peacefully sleeping girls, falling into slumber at last.

  The next morning, all of them woke up feeling better than ever. Selene left not long after they sat up on the bed, allowing Miria to show her affection to Asterios without being affected by her presence. The panthergirl was starting to notice a pattern there.