The Number One Star in the Interstellar Era



AFTER trying to call the two for a couple of times and failed to connect, Astrid decided to just cook lunch. If he continued to fret, he would just stress himself out. Surely, the two would come back here sometime later. The fact that they didn't make a mess out of his apartment was satisfactory enough. Because it meant that the two didn't fight.

That was more than enough.

He took a deep breath once more, fully calming himself down. After he was relieved of his anxieties, he went to his room to change into more comfortable clothing before going to the kitchen and cooking.

He decided to cook for three people. Since the two would probably return in a while. They could have lunch together then. Of course, after he gave them a good bit of tongue-lashing.

Astrid put down the knife he's holding with a bit more force than normal, cutting the cabbage in front of him cleanly in half.

Because those two definitely deserved it.

----------

Wulfric suddenly felt a chill behind his back. It's like what one would feel when they had a bad feeling about something. He had never felt this way before, even during a dangerous mission.

Wait- could this be related to Aster? Did something happen to him?

Before he could fully think about that, he felt a pain under his chin and then he found himself being knocked back. Or more accurately, the Mecha he's piloting was knocked back.

Because the pain setting of his avatar was at the maximum, the pain he felt from that attack was almost at the threshold of what he could handle. But it's still not something that could make him groan. That's why he still managed to spin his Mecha mid-air and gently landed on the ground.

But before he could stay balanced, he saw a Mecha leg about to hit the side of his face. His fast reflexes allowed him to hold the leg before it could hit him. Then he pulled the leg and punched the Mecha in front of him.

The silvery white Mecha swiftly reacted to the attack, smoothly evading the blow with a smooth maneuver, all the while pulling out the Mecha leg Wulfric was holding.

He raised his brow. "You're improving, kid."

Reas heard what the general had said. He responded once he jumped back a good distance away. "Well, I should hope so."

After all the beating he had received so far from the other, if he didn't even show improvement, then he should be ashamed to even call himself a soldier or a Mecha pilot. Especially since the general was fighting him with the intention of teaching. Something that he didn't expect from the other.

Although there's a chance that he was only being this helpful because of Astrid.

No matter the reason, he knew that he shouldn't let this chance to fight the best Mecha pilot in the Empire go to waste. It's not everyday he could fight the other. He should get all the skills he could get from this.

And so, he rushed to attack the general once again. Not even realizing that he no longer felt so opposed to the idea of the other having feelings for his brother.

----------

Finishing with the last dish, Astrid took off the apron he's wearing. Then, he started to arrange all the dishes on the table. After he's done with that, as if on cue, he heard the opening of the door.

He expressionlessly moved in front of the table and waited for the two to walk by, his arms crossed.

"Wow, that smells delicious."—He heard Wulfric say. "Wait- why does it smell good?"

"...We're screwed."—He heard Reas say, as if realizing something.

"Oh, you two definitely are," he said in a timely manner.

The two glanced at where he was standing and froze almost at the same time. If not for the situation, Astrid would find this very comical.

"I'm glad you two seemed to be getting along," he said.

Although he said that in a sarcastic manner, he was kind of relieved that the two looked like they were indeed getting along. Just the fact that they walked to the apartment peacefully was evidence enough of that. A far cry from the fighting he initially imagined.

"Aster! You're back! I was hoping I could cook lunch for you," Wulfric said, looking genuinely disappointed.

"I suggest you never try his cooking," Reas said.

"Hey, I thought the two of us are getting along?"

"First, we're not. Second, the General couldn't even brew a tea. Do you really want Aster to experience food poisoning?"

"You do know you're being rude, right?"

"It's not like the General can do anything about it."

Astrid narrowed his eyes at the two. They were bickering. Not in that 'I hate you, you're my enemy' kind of way, but in a rather friendly way. This was not the scene he's expecting. In fact, if someone told him earlier that his brother and Wulfric would be having a friendly bickering like this, he would tell that person that they must be crazy. 

But it's happening right in front of him now. So, it's either he's having hallucination right now, or it's really happening.

"Okay. I want to be mad because the two of you ignored all my calls and are now acting all friendly like this. But that would seem like I don't like seeing the two of you get along. And although I feel like I'm in a Twilight zone and having some kind of hallucination seeing the two of you right now, I still want to know how this..." He gestured between the two. "Came to be."

"Aster, you called? I'm sorry, I didn't ignore you on purpose," Wulfric quickly said. "I told Reas that I love you. He seemed to be angry about that, so I suggested we do some Mecha fighting so he could release some tension. I beat him a couple of times, and we kind of lose track of time."

As Astrid listened to Wulfric, he only felt like being bombarded by unreal information.