Edited by: ASaltedFish
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the next few days, Aster was in charge of their body. When they had guiding sessions, they subtly switched their souls because they could no longer control each other's quantum beast, only their own.
Ever since Aster and Ellery's souls got situated in their body, they were like two different people sharing one body. Their spiritual energy was split in half, but it was still a large amount for each person. They could switch their souls whenever they wanted to, but they could not use the other's spiritual energy and quantum beasts.
As for why, they were not sure.
Ellery felt they needed to find the Beast God as soon as possible. This wasn't normal, and they could not share a body forever, especially when they both had equal control of their body.
As the days went on, it felt like they should have been two different people, not stuck in one body like this.
Aster also felt this way, but he was a bit scared. What happens if they find a way to separate him from Ellery's body, but he forgets everything that has happened – like a newborn baby with no memories?
He didn't want to forget the time he had spent with Ellery…
Well, that was something he knew that he had to worry about later. They didn't even know if they could separate their souls. Aster stopped thinking about sad thoughts and finished separating the stabilizers he and Ellery made.
Ellery recently bought another machine that was dedicated to labeling Lune's stabilizers, which made things a lot easier for him. Even if he accidentally put a tube in the wrong box, the helper would be able to identify it and put it in the correct box.
Once they were all organized by section, the person he hired to help him did the rest of the packing. Aster stayed behind to double-check and make sure everything was good to go. Once everything was packed, the helper sent them out.
Aster gave a sigh of relief when the helper left. He didn't hate the helper, but he still wasn't used to being around people who had high levels of energy. He got used to Ellery, but that was because they lived in the same body.
He was tired and needed to go lie down.
Entering his safe room, he curled up in his soft blankets. Just when he was about to close his eyes, he saw he got a message from Edros.
The message said: [Hello Aster or Ellery, I need to ask you something.]
He responded: [It is Aster. What is it?]
[Edros: Sorry to bother you, but my older sister, Emperor Eliane, wants to talk to you and Ellery, but she doesn't know you two are sharing a body. She just wants to know how you two became SS-ranked and your plans for the future in this country. I am sure there are other things she wants to talk about, but this is all she told me. You can say no if you do not want to talk to her. I can let her know for you. Let me know what Ellery thinks as well.]
[Aster: Ellery is thinking about it right now. Whatever he decides, I will also follow along… I will give you a response later.]
[Edros: Thank you, Aster. Tell Ellery I am thanking him as well. Please do not feel pressured to meet my sister.]
[Aster: I understand. Also, thank you for the beautiful green jaspers. They're the perfect size.]
Earlier, Edros sent Aster a few green jaspers because he heard that Aster liked them a lot. The high-quality jasper had deep and rich colors and patterns. Not only that, but they were about the size of his hand. Not too big but not too small.
The two talked a bit more about Aster's favorite crystals and some that he was curious about because he had never seen or heard of them before.
When they finished, Ellery had already made his decision about the meeting with Emperor Eliane. [Aster, could you let Edros know that I would like to meet Emperor Eliane? We can schedule a meeting on one of my days off.]
Ellery didn't even try to schedule around Emperor Eliane's schedule because he already had appointments that were booked for six days a week until the end of the year. It would be best if she could work around his schedule instead. Emperor Eliane also had a lot more flexibility than he did.
Aster relayed what Ellery said to Edros who said it was fine for Emperor Eliane to choose one of his days off. He would get back to them on what day she chose.
"Ellery, why do you want to meet the Emperor?" Aster couldn't help but ask. He wasn't opposed to meeting her though, just curious.
[I have a feeling that she knows more about the Beast God than Edros. There are some things that only the Emperor will know and cannot tell anyone…] Ellery wasn't going to blackmail or pressure Emperor Eliane to give him information, but he wanted to at least try to get more information about the Beast God.
[On that day, I will be in charge of our body. I hope you don't mind.]
"Of course, I don't mind. That's ideal for me." Aster was planning on hiding that day anyway. While meeting someone for work was tolerable, meeting someone outside of work was another thing. He would rather watch Ellery interact with Emperor Eliane and see how she was.
[I know, I just wanted to get your consent. Let me know when Edros gives you the date and time.]
"Of course, also, you have been getting messages from that bastard's friends."
That bastard was obviously Leonard, who tried to throw them under the bus when Ellery had "lost his memories."
[Heh, what are they saying?]
"They are pleading with us to remove him from your blacklist. They are saying things like 'Leonard didn't mean it' and 'he was only doing what his family wanted him to do'. Also, they said that Leonard didn't have a high enough compatibility with Darian, so he needed proper guiding sessions. Currently, he is the only sentinel with a high compatibility rate who we have blacklisted so far.
"Another thing they kept mentioning was that Leonard has a lot of money and will buy us everything we want and even pay double the listed amount for our sessions."
[What a fucking loser. He didn't even apologize, and he has the audacity to get his friends to plead with us. Block them too, and if any of them have applied for sessions or stabilizers, blacklist them. That will teach them to leave us alone.]
Ellery and Aster had already blocked Leonard, his family, Airi, Darian, and Darian's family. They also made sure to have their employees do the same.
Blocking and blacklisting Leonard's friends was nothing special; it was just adding more people to the list.
For some reason, many people have found out that Ellery Aster blocked everyone from the Vales and Velenet families. This didn't make everyone stop associating with them, but they couldn't help but pity and laugh at them behind closed doors. However, some people also decided to block them because they had guiding sessions with Ellery or Aster.
[I hope that bastard rots. He thinks he can get me to forgive him just because he's a little rich? Heh. Does he think I am a gold digger or something?] Ellery then complained about having way more money and he could buy his own things! Plus, if he asked right now, all of the sentinels who booked appointments with him would buy him anything he wanted if he asked.
It was frustrating that Leonard thought he would stoop so low just for pocket change!
Aster listened to Ellery rant for a while before finally saying, "We can just ignore them for now. They are irrelevant and not worth your anger."
[That's right. We have other things to worry about.]
Ellery was still waiting for information about his brother and the Beast God. Those two were at the top of his list of things on his mind.
"I am going to take a nap. Wake me up if I am needed…" Aster softly said with his eyes closed. Soon, his steady breathing could be heard.
He was fast asleep.
Ellery was almost jealous at how fast he could fall asleep but then thought it was normal. Aster was still tired from the day before and had some human interaction. He needed a nap to recharge.
He didn't bother Aster and thought about his past life before his rebirth.
Ellery did his best to filter out Leonard and Darian from his memories and felt like he had been possessed to obsess over them as much as he did. It was the only thing on his mind the whole time.
He didn't hear or see any news about his brother, so he thought that he had died. He also didn't hear anything about the Beast God or any rumors.
The life he had lived chasing after Leonard was meaningless. He did nothing for himself, only to live and serve Leonard. He fought so hard to be by his side, only to get tossed into his grave.
And for what? What was the point? Was he stupid and blind? Was he not stronger than that?
For the next couple of hours, Ellery sulked while thinking about his past life. Even though he knew that it was in the past, it still bothered him... No, he couldn't think too hard about it because he would beat himself up over it.
Whatever had him in that nightmare was no longer there, and he was finally awake.