Chapter 224 I Give you power in the name of the Facemask!

30 minutes later.

With Astria’s incessant invitation, Alex, Alina, Queen Mother, Professor Frances, Nero, Kiera, and the old man were forced to drink tea with her.

Right now, they were at their 7th cup, and from the way that Astria acted now, their tea party won’t end that quickly.

"So, do you like my tea?" Astria said with a cheerful voice as she looked at Alex and Nero’s direction. "Were its taste to your liking?"

"Yes! It tastes good!" Nero exclaimed before Alex could even give his answer. "Nothing tastes better than this!"

"Yeah, it tastes good..." Alex replied as he tried to not glare at Nero. "Its definitely one of a kind."

"Oh is that so? Hehehe, I’m glad you both liked it." Astria said as she let out a contented sigh. She then looked at the other women in the table, as if she also wanted to ask them of their opinion.

"I do not like consuming things related to plants, but even I can say that this tea right here is good." Queen Mother replied, with Professor Frances only giving a nod to express her agreement.

"It’s delicious!" Kiera the little girl replied as she started bouncing up and down of her seat in excitement. "It even tastes better compared to grandpa’s Old Bull Tea!"

"..." The mentioned grandpa never said a word, as he seemed to be concentrated on drinking the tea.

"It’s good." Alina also replied, although from the way that she talked, some signs of tension and wariness could be seen.

"Hm?" At the instant that Alina talked, Astria suddenly tilted her head, as if she discovered something interesting about Alina.

"You have pretty eyes." Astria said as she stared at Alina’ eyes intently. "Were you born with those eyes?

"!!!" Both Alex and Alina stiffened after hearing this, as they realized what Astria was talking about.

"This girl..." Alex thought to himself as he looked at Astria with more caution now. "Is she talking about that?"

But before Alex could speculate more, Alina started to talk to Astria

"Well, you have a pretty nose too." Alina replied as she tried to compose her appearance. "Were you born with that nose too?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

After hearing what Alina said, Astria visibly look confused for a second, before her expression smoothed out.

She then took some more seconds of silence before she gave her reply.

"...I see." This was what Astria said in response to Alina’s question. "So that is how it is huh."

"If you understand it, then you better not talk about it anymore." Alina said as she placed a finger on her lips, mimicking the gesture for ’silence’.

"I’ll take that in mind, big sister." Astria replied as she gave Alina a demure smile.

"Huh?" As he listened to the two women, Alex became confused from the way that the conversation between Alina and Astria had gone to.

"Alina, what did just happen?"

"Oh Alex, don’t worry about this, we just had an agreement." Alina said as she and Astria both gave Alex the same look. "So stop getting worried about it."

"Ah um ok, if you say so." Alex replied haltingly and he and Nero could only scratch the back of their heads in confusion.

"Clap clap!"

Once they finished this short and confusing conversation, Astria suddenly clapped her hands, as she obviously was trying to obtain the attention of everyone in the room.

"Okay, now that we have dealt with that, its time of us to talk about important matters." Astria said as she moved her wheelchair to the left.

"Squeak, squeak." As the wheelchair veered itself to the left, Astria let out a visible sigh of exhaustion as she leaned back on her seat.

"You want to have an alliance with the Symbolists, right?" Astria said as she looked at Alex’s entourage, this time with a different look in her eyes.

If she looked gentle and pure before, right now, Astria’s eyes looked like they were steel tempered from flames.

It was such a large contrast that even Alex was visibly taken aback by that.

"Ah! This is Astria’s Super Serious Mode!" Nero exclaimed as he started to swoon on his seat. "Just seeing that serious eyes of hers is enough to send me to heaven! Oh what a blissful life it is..."

"..."

Everyone in the room ignored Nero’s antics, with Alex trying his best to not look at him right now.

"Since I am here, then you can just tell me about what you plan to offer for our alliance." Astria said as she took a deep breath. "If I deem it enough, then I will convince my father to ally with you."

"...That’s a very tall order for you." Alex said as he looked at Astria’s obviously frail body. "Are you sure that you are enough to judge if our offer is alright?"

"Out of all the Symbolists here, I’m the one that was the most fitted to interview you." Astria replied as she sipped her tea.

"Oh?"

"With my sense of smell, I can detect abstract concepts, like ill intent, love, anger, and even jealousy." Astria said as she tilted her head to the left. "As such, I can use my sense of smell on important discussions like this."

"That’s a very convenient power that you have." Alex replied as he sipped his own tea. "Did that power ever made you uncomfortable?"

"Oh, everyday was always a drag for me." Astria replied as she let out a tired smile. "Everytime I’m around a lot of people, I can sense their feelings, emotions and intent. That... was just too much for me, so I always isolate myself in my father’s house whenever its possible."

"That’s really unfortunate." Alex said as Alina and the others felt confused on where Alex’s conversation was heading off right now. "You must have been suffering a lot..."

"..."

"..."

historical

"..."

"From what I can see, it seems like you want to offer me something." Astria said as she had caught up on what Alex was doing. "What is it?"

"I’m talking about this." Alex replied as he activated his FED Manipulaton. "I want to see if you will be affected by this."

"Hong~"

At the instant that Alex activated his FED Manipulation, instead of manipulating the emotions around him, what Alex did was quite different.

By using his FED Manipulation in conjunction with Envy’s [Combination] , Alex created a thin cloth which blocks any kind of emotion from going through it.

This cloth, which Alex calls the emotion shield, can basically make it hard for other people, especially for empaths to sense the emotion of others.

Alex had the idea to create this emotion shield when he met an empath at the Monster World, although he did not really take this idea seriously until now.

"..."

After a few more seconds of fiddling around, Alex finally arrived at the final form of his emotion shield.

What appeared on Alex’s hand was a facemask, which he decided will be the shape of his emotion shield.

He gave this facemask to Astria, who accepted the facemask readily.

"Put that facemask on, and try to see if that works." Alex said as Astria fumbled with the facemask on her hand.

"Hey! What did you just give her?" Nero complained as he saw what Alex did. "Don’t tell me..."

"I just gave her a way to make her more comfortable." Alex replied quickly. "Wait... do you think I plan to do something bad to her? Look at Astria, she’s putting it on now. That just means that her sense of smell trusts me."

"...."

Nero was left with no choice but to stay silent as he and the others watched Astria placing the facemask on her face.

Once she had done so, Alex leaned in with interest as he waited to see what will happen

"So, how does it feel?" Alex asked as he stared at Astria. "Did it do anything?"

"I..." Astria’s voice came out muffled due to the face mask, but even with that, Alex could feel gratitude flowing in her voice. "I cannot smell any emotions now..."

"Good, that’s good." Alex replied as he nodded his head. "So, does it feel comfortable to you?"

"Yes..." Astria replied as she started to hug her body tightly . "My mental burden... has lessened greatly now. Thank you."

"Ok, at least my shield works." Alex said as he downed his latest cup of tea." So, do you want to keep it?"

"Keep it? I can do that?" Astria’s eye widened as she looked at Alex. "Are you willing to give this away?"

"Hehe, consider that as my gift to you." Alex replied as he did his best to ignore Alina’s slightly chilly gaze boring on him. "You have been a good host to us, so I suppose this is my way to show our gratitude to you."

"You are a good person, Mr. Outsider." Astria replied as she adjusted the positioning of her face mask. "It’s rare to find people like you these days."

"I’m a good person? Well if that’s what you think of me, then its up to you to believe it." Alex said she shrugged his shoulders.

"I believe my nose, Mr. Outsider." Astria replied as she shook her head. "Don’t tell me that you don’t think of that?"

"Miss Astria, it seems like our conversation have been veering off course now." Alex said as he felt Alina’s glare turning colder and colder now. "Why don’t we go back to the important talk?"

"Oh right, there is that one too." Astria said as she removed her facemask.

"Ugh...." As she removed the facemask, Astria started to groan in complaint, as her face wrinkled in displeasure. "Smelling more emotions really is too much..."

It took her some seconds to adjust before she continued talking.

"Mr. Outsider, what do you really want from allying with us?" Astria asked Alex as her steely eyes came back. "Do you just desire to survive the calamity, or do you plan on doing something else?"

"Miss Astria, first and foremost, I and my companions are serious about ending the calamities." Alex replied as he let out a deep breath. As for how we plan to do that, we have two steps, which will require your help to do so."

"Oh? Please do tell us wat these steps are."

"First step: Kill all the 144 Waves of Monsters." Alex said as he raised his index finger.

"Second step: Gather a drumful of blood form each wave, and use them to open a portal to the Blue Moon." Alex said, this time raising his middle finger. "Pretty simple, right?"

"Wait, open a portal to the Blue Moon?" Both Astria and Nero exclaimed as they stared at Alex incredulously. "Are you serious about that?"

"Of course I’m serious about it." Alex replied as he tilted his head. "My team and all the Symbolists will just have to work together to kill all the 144 waves, then once that was done, we will use their blood to go to the Blue Moon!"

"!!!"

"That is why I want to ally with the Symbolists." Alex said as he gave the confounded Symbolists a smug smile. "With the help of the Symbolists, we can easily get through the 144 waves. And as a repayment for their help, I will bring any willing Symbolists to the Blue Moon! Now, that’s a good alliance offer, am I right?"

"....’