Saileri
patreon
[TWS] Chapter 55 - You Are My Everything
🕑 Added 2021-02-19 13:06:03 +0000 UTCAfter 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 didn’t create 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! Almost 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 had been acting though,” he said while glancing down at his hand closed into a fist. “Come on. Let’s not spend 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 transpired and experiencing Ast’s internal energy first-hand and obeyed immediately, choosing not to risk annoying the man with its usual, frisky behaviour.
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 met on their way here.
Asterios decided that with his previous show, this little act was now completely unnecessary. He 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…~ Eru answered.
A little bit of nervousness could be discerned in its laughter at the end and Ast felt a little bad for most likely 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 created in the plants, completely ignoring the gathering around it. As they passed through it, the ground and cut ends of the small branches sprouted fresh stalks and leaves, covering the missing part almost in an instant. The tall fence looked now exactly like it did before getting culled by the foxkin.
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, didn’t occur, and Ast 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. There was 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 instantly moved their eyes 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.
He then started walking away but stopped before disappearing behind the empty door frame, moving his gaze onto Tina, still present on the sofa. 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 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 definitely wasn’t his differently coloured 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.
“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 that awakened state he was in since the moment he 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?” she asked in a worried tone.
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 dove into Ast’s mind many times now and they 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 comprehend, be it linked to this weird change he 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 back 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 too this time.
Selene laid herself down on his left and turned her back to Ast. 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 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 fulfil her master’s request. She tried pulling on the covers, but both Ast 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 with her eyes 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 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 dozed off to the pleasant sensation of having her fluffy tail caressed even before the panthergirl finished accomplishing the task given 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 almost 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. Nevertheless, she presented him with a gentle good morning kiss and also returned home.
Asterios hastily took a shower, dressed up, and walked down to the dining room. His mother was already there as he expected. She looked at him and smiled softly. He knew she was happy that he was fine and trusted his words from yesterday, but he spent enough time around the woman to easily notice how nervous she was, even if she tried to hide it. He could tell just by the way Kindra held her teacup with both hands tightly around it.
He came closer and moved one of the chairs closer to the side, sitting down close to his mother. Then, he wrapped his arm around the woman and left a soft peck on her cheek.
“No one died this time, mom.”
Kindra exhaled in relief and glanced at him with an apologetic expression. “Of course you’d figure out what I’m thinking… I’m sorry… I should be glad you are okay, but instead I—”
He placed a finger on her mouth and shushed his mother down. “It’s fine. I know you were worried more about possible consequences from such a thing happening than everything else.”
She nodded faintly. “So…”
“It’s as I said yesterday. I had a serious conversation with a few people and they promised me to resolve everything in three days. It was all a setup. Nothing like that will ever happen again from their side, that you can be sure of. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if some form of compensation arrived, so be sure to accept it.”
“Just what did you do to pressure a Marquess family so much…”
“I just took an example from your work.” Asterios chuckled. “When some employees are acting out of the line, you just let their superior know about it, right?”
She raised her eyebrows at such a comparison. “Is that really all you have done?”
“Well… I might have played an angry customer role for a bit too…”
Kindra sighed and shook her head. She dealt with these situations very often so she could easily imagine how much more chaotic it must have looked with royalty involved instead of just a merchant and some client.
But, she could also see how it could possibly work out. In the end, both the manager of a shop and the head of a noble family had their brand’s image and renown to look after. She had a feeling that this employee Asterios mentioned would suffer much more than just getting fired if word was to spread about their misbehaviour.
She sighed again for the n-th time. “Alright… You never gave me any reason not to trust you and you’ve always been a much more mature boy than all other kids. It feels like you’ve grown up so much recently, though…”
Asterios chuckled and patted his mother’s shoulder. “What can I say? I might have met one or two people who could have affected me at least a bit. Even I know I’ve changed a little since that day…”
“Certainly. And there’s one that you still haven’t introduced to me. Your mom is getting worried that you might be turning into a playboy behind her back.” His mother laughed a little to stop Asterios from thinking about sad events from the past.
He playfully rolled his eyes. “Oh, come on. It’s not like that with her. She is just my companion.”
“You are not denying the other one though. Was my son finally made into a man?” She giggled.
“Like you are the one to talk.” He poked her forehead with his finger, getting a little embarrassed by the topic. Ast didn’t want to lie about him and Miria though.
Kindra massaged her forehead and pouted. “It's still many years too early for you to mock me about that! Even if you have graduated sooner than me!”
He could not hold himself back and laughed openly, taking a deep breath after calming himself down.
“Thanks, mom. These two incredible ladies already cheered me up, but I appreciate your efforts. Always.”
“Oh, stop it! You’ll make me blush!”
Her cheeks did in fact grow a little redder from the received gratitude. Asterios hugged Kindra and she embraced him back, happy that everything seemed to be truly alright after this short period of troubles.
“Okay. I need to thank Tina too. Today should be a break day so I’ll hopefully catch her at home.” Asterios kissed his mother on the cheek again and stood up.
Before leaving the dining room, he stopped for a moment in the doorway and looked at the kitchenware. Kindra obviously noticed that and instantly spoke up.
“I know you still have something to say. Don’t underestimate your mother’s senses.”
He smiled wryly and turned around. “I’m completely confident that everything will be fine from now on, but… I think you still should move out…”
Her eyes widened, but she stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
“I obviously would go with you. Don’t think that I would ever consider sending you away somewhere alone. Perhaps we could go back to your birthplace, Tyrienheim. To your family. I’m pretty sure you did not run away from them.” He chuckled a little. “We could ask for your transfer to the main branch there. I’m sure they would have nothing against it. I know you might have made many friends here, but I still don’t feel right leaving you around these guys, even if they would never—”
While he talked, Kindra stood up and walked up to him. She pressed her finger on his mouth to shush him down this time.
“There’s nothing more important to me than you. My home is where you are. Where you can come back. I have friends back there as I have here, so don’t you worry about it. But… if we were to move there… then you…”
“Yes. I’d want to pay a visit to Teira, be it on our way there or anytime after.”
She nodded and lowered her gaze. “Thought so. I guess it’s finally that time. For you to look for answers by yourself.”
Asterios moved his mother’s hand from his lips to his cheek and squeezed it.
“You will always be my mom, no matter what. Even if I find out that my biological mother miraculously survived, nothing will change. I am who I am thanks to you.”
Little tears started forming in Kindra’s eyes and she hastily hugged Asterios close to hide them from his sight. He gently brushed through her hair as they stood there together. After a moment, his mother took a deep breath and stepped away.
“And to think that I was so afraid of becoming a mother when I was thinking about taking you in. Yet, I can’t imagine myself living any other way now. I feel a little bad for saying this considering how it came to be, but you are the best thing that happened to me in my life. Even if I was only 17 at that time. Anyway! I always knew this day would come. I just wish I could help you more, but I don’t know anything…”
“You’ve done plenty. It’s on me now. It could very well end the day after I start looking into it, only confirming what we were told before. But, we can never know if we don’t try.”
Kindra nodded. “You are right. Now go. And don’t forget to tell your girlfriend you are moving out while you are at it.”
Asterios rolled his eyes again and sighed. “Mom…”
She winked at him with her tongue out and pushed Asterios out of the room until the very front door, stopping only after she pretty much threw him out, waving at Ast with a smile from the doorstep as he walked away.
Comments
MadRat
Thx for the chapter 👍👏👏
