Bringing his gaze back to Vivian, who was seated opposite him, Aster could see that she still expected him to give her an answer, so he tried searching through his memories, hoping he would find something that would help him answer her question.
But he couldn't, so he sighed softly and was about to give up when, to his surprise, Aster suddenly recalled something very important and his eyes widened in recognition when the image of a little girl appeared in his mind.
'No way.'
'It can't be.'
'She can't possibly be the one, right?'
'Could she?' Aster questioned himself as he doubted whether the image of the girl he had recalled was the same person as Lily.
'Although they shared the same name, could she really be the same girl?' Aster pondered deeply as he recalled his first encounter with the little girl who looked a lot like Lily.
A few months ago before the gunshot incident happened, Aster recalled visiting one of his regular clients.
She had been a lonely, single woman undergoing long-term treatment at the hospital, so he had decided to send flowers and check up on her.
But while waiting to see her, Aster had suddenly noticed a frail young girl sitting alone in the children's ward.
He had heard whispers from other patients about how the little girl had been born with a bug virus which she inherited from her mother.
Due to the virus, she had a very weak immune system right from birth, and this had led to Lily frequently visiting the hospital for treatment.
She lost her mother at birth while her father had been nowhere to be found.
Some said he left to buy some milk and never returned, but in a nutshell, Lily had been alone ever since.
Although she was taken into temporary foster care because the hospital she had been admitted to had reported her case, Lily would often find herself in and out of the hospital due to her weak immunity, so in the end, no one wanted to adopt her permanently.
Luckily for her, the hospital and a few local charity programs had helped to cover her medical bills, but her condition never seemed to improve as the days went by.
Other children with the same condition as her didn't make it either and this made Lily even more lonely in the huge hospital.
So most times, she would just sit by herself in the children's ward, staring out of the hospital window, and watching everyone else live their lives.
Occasionally, she would see children alongside their parents while walking past the hospital and if anyone had watched closely, they would have seen how lonely she was.
Despite all these, the little girl always had a huge and cute smile on her face whenever she talked to anyone at the hospital.
Her ability to start up a conversation with basically everyone was how Aster had met Lily, and after the first day, he began to visit her almost every day for the next eight months.
Whenever he came, he would bring her snacks, tell her stories and even smuggle in some small stuffed toys for her to play with.
Lily had been very grateful to him for everything he did and it had really touched her heart when she discovered that he had also paid to help cover her medical bills.
With the amount he earned every month, money was no longer a problem for him.
Aster had been quite rich, thanks to his job, but instead of going to parties to spend his money lavishly, he had developed a habit of giving a portion of his wealth to any orphanage he could find in his city.
After all, he knew the pain and struggle that came with being an orphan, so he had tried his best to make life easier for others who were once like him.
So, Aster continued to contribute in this meaningful way until he came across Lily and was able to help even more.
As time passed, Lily began to see Aster as her big brother, especially since she found out that he had lost his parents at birth just like her and the two of them bonded and became really close.
During their time together, Lily became extremely fond of his stories and she would always listen attentively whenever he read her a story or taught her how to read.
*Sighs*
Aster sighed softly as he recalled all these.
He realized that the young girl in the hospital had to be Lily, but he hadn't recognized her until now because the little demon girl who called herself his sister was a lot chubbier than the frail girl Aster used to visit back in the hospital.
Also, Lily now had red hair and crimson colored eyes unlike the black hair and dark eyes he was used to seeing on her.
However, now that he thought about it, the current Lily certainly had the same smile and liveliness the little girl in the hospital had.
Without a doubt, Lily had to be the girl he had met at the hospital.
In other words, she had definitely become healthier and was no longer the frail little girl she had been the last time he had seen her.
Meanwhile, Vivian noticed the concentrated look on Aster's face and she said. "With the look on your face, I'm guessing you've remembered now."
"Yes, I have. But how did...." Aster paused mid-sentence as he reconsidered the question he had been about to ask.
Aster had been about to ask how Lily suddenly became healthier and developed animal-like ears and tail but he decided not to because he could somehow guess what might have happened for her to have changed so much and so suddenly.
Since he didn't visit the hospital for about two weeks due to how busy he became, Lily's condition might have become aggravated over those days without him even knowing.
"You healed her, didn't you?" Aster asked and Vivian nodded in response.
"Yes, I did."
'But why?' Aster wondered to himself. 'Why would a demon decide to save a little girl?'
Ever since Vivian left the supernatural realm out of boredom, she had been blending into the human world with Hallie for the past two decades and during that time, Vivian had been able to understand a lot of things about humans.
Aside from the fact that many of them didn't know the supernatural world truly existed, many humans were also ignorant of the fact that they could use magic as well.
But at the same time, Vivan couldn't blame them.
After all, the amount of mana in the human realm was barely noticeable, so it was easy to see why over the years, the concept of mana became nothing but a myth and fiction to the common folks.