"Alex, now that this Symbolist already lost his abilities, shouldn't I be able to read all of his memories already?" Alina asked this question to Alex as she tilted her head. "Why does it seems like you don't want me to do that yet…"

"Oh come on, I want to talk to this guy first." Alex merrily replied as he continued on tapping the Symbolist's cheek. "We will do a full scouring of his memories later. But for now, I really want to see what he thinks about us."

"I still don't get your point, but fine." Alina finally said as she let out a sigh. "Just… don't get to engrossed with tormenting him."

"Hey! I'm not that bad of a person…" Alex replied as he tried glaring at Alina. "I just want to get… important information through a heart-to-heart conversation."

"Heart-to-heart my ass. You're just pissed off by this Symbolist's face." Asteria muttered above Alex as she ruffled Alex's hair. "Don't deny it. You had a look of distaste on your face when you first saw the Symbolist earlier…"

"Yeah, yeah, think whatever you want. I will still talk to him first." Alex said with finality as he used one more tentacle slap on the Symbolist.

"Pa!"

This time around, the Symbolist was awakened by Alex's slap, and it seemed like he was about to shout again.

The only thing that stopped him from shouting was Alex's body looming all over him.

"Now that you have calmed down… I suppose you're free to entertain some of our questions then." Alex said as he gave the Symbolist a smile.

But to Alex's disappointment, instead of acting calmly, the Symbolist started to curse Alex out.

"F**k you! Give my power back!" The Symbolist shouted angrily as he tried to bite Alex. "I don't know how you did it, but you definitely stole my power!"

The Symbolist then started to grin, as if he found salvation as at his current desperate situation.

You... you must be a Devourer disguised as a human! That's how you got my power! Hah! Despicable Devourers! Now that you have done this to me, I'm sure that many will try to kill you already! If you don't want to be hunted, then give my power back!"

"Sorry, but I'm not a Devourer…" Alex replied cheekily as he shook his head. "It seems like you are mistaken about my identity…"

"Don't lie to me, you filthy Devourer!" The Symbolist replied angrily as his body started to shake. "I have heard cases happening like this before! So don't think your lies can fool me! Hurry up and give back my power! Or else you will regret it!"

"This guy is hopeless. I guess talking to him will end here then." Alex said calmly as he knocked the Symbolist out with another slap.

"Pa!"

As the Symbolist's unconscious body slumped on the ground, Alina approached the defenseless Symbolist as she activated her Mind Scour magic.

"…"

Alex watched what was happening with satisfaction, knowing that this time around, the information that they will get will be complete.

***********

With the amount of the memories that she had to read, Alina took 30 minutes before she was able to look at all the memories inside the Symbolist's head.

During that time, Alex and Queen Mother were just idly watching the old man and his granddaughter, who were both asleep right now.

The grandfather and granddaughter duo must have been extremely exhausted by their ordeal, which resulted to them sleeping like this.

"Alex, I got it all now." Alina muttered behind Alex, as Alex could see Alina massaging her temple. "He had a lot of memories, but I was able to store them with my Dark Magic."

"…Thank you as always, Alina."

"I just did my job, that's it."

"…."

As Alex look at Alina's appearance, he started to get worried, as he realized that out of all of them, it was Alina's mind that underwent a lot of stress already.

She had to do multiple Mind Scours in under an hour, and she even had to store the lifetime memories of another person!

Even with the 5 times enhancement in this world, there is no way that Alina can just shake off all the things that her mind did.

The stress from what she did today was just too much, even for someone like Alina.

"…Yosh. Let's do this then." Alex thought to himself as he grabbed Alina's hands.

"?"

Since Alina's stressed right now, it was Alex's responsibility to sooth her pain.

"Take a rest for now, Alina. I know that your mind is definitely strained." Alex sweetly said to Alina as he pulled her to his lap. "You have to relax right now. If you don't I will force you to relax!"

"Ok…" Alina did not let out any complaints to Alex, as she sat down on Alex's lap just like a docile cat.

"Swish, swish, swish…"

Alex then started stroking Alina's head, as he did his best to comfort her.

"Aw, how sweet…" Asteria's sickly sweet voice could be heard by Alex just above him, making his elated mood a little sour. "Can you do that to me too, hooman?"

"I can do that, if and only if you will behave and will sincerely help me out here." Alex replied to Asteria as he stared at her.

"What do you mean sincerely help you? I'm always doing that, right?" Asteria replied to Alex as she tilted her head. "Or are you telling me that all the things that I did for you were not my help?"

That's it.

Even if his mood was tranquil with him stroking Alina's head, Alex could not help but boil with rage as he heard Asteria's reply

"You call those things help? Wow, you really have a thick face!" Alex almost shouted to Asteria as he resisted the urge to grab her.

"Huh? Are you telling me that I slacked off on helping you?" Of course Asteria still had the gall to answer back to Alex. "It seems like you are forgetting already…"

"Forgetting? F**k, I can remember all the things that you did while you stayed with us!" To Alex's surprise, he found himself standing up as he glared at the floating Asteria, who had her arms crossed in front of him.

"You only offer me hints when I ask for it, and sometimes you even forget to give me tips!" This time, Alex was already shouting as his spit started to fly everywhere. "Even if your life was tied to me, you act like you do not care even if I die! You are a very erratic Guide! Sometimes you give me help, sometimes you don't! What the hell is wrong with you?"

"And don't get me started with your attitude!" Alex shouted before the dumb fairy could give her reply. "Every time, every damn time I do something, you always have an opinion on it! It doesn't matter if what I do was great or bad. You... you always comment about it, as if it was your privilege to do so! "

"…"

"And your demand for honey? F**k! EO@)(*@)U)(@*)(@*_#(U@)(!!)(@)(!!! I hope you drown in a honey pool someday!"

At this point, Alex already found himself out of breath, as if he just ran an extremely long marathon.

He bent over and placed his hands on his knees as he stared at Asteria directly, as if he was challenging her to answer.

But instead of seeing a guilty-looking fairy in front of him, what Alex saw was a carefully blank face.

"Got it out of your system now, hooman?" This time around, Asteria's voice lacked the immaturity or sarcasm that was always present with it.

Asteria's current voice was dangerously calm, and her emotions felt muted to Alex.

"Hmph, if you really are curious on why I am treating you like this, then I suppose I can give you an answer right now." Asteria replied with that monotonous voice of hers. "Are you ready to hear it?"

"…"