Chapter 382: Consider Marriage, Lord Adrian

Be calm enough to avoid war, and prepared enough to finish it.

Probably Sun Tsu

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She also saw the soldiers behind him. The enemies seemed to have given up and were surrendering themselves. She didnt look too much to confirm her theory and she also completely forgot about her broken ribs.

She immediately scrambled off the stone floor, stumbled through the glowing portal, and practically tackled him, hugging him as tight as she possibly could.

Adrian didn’t complain. He just coughed weakly and then whispered hoarsely into her ear.

"I am fine, Claire," Adrian rasped. "I am fine. You don’t have to worry about me. How about you?"

Claire didn’t say a single word. She just buried her face into his shoulder and cried harder.

Feeling a little helpless about the situation, Adrian slowly turned his head to look up at Kaelen and Zara.

The two S-rank knights immediately nodded in understanding. They gently stepped forward and carefully pulled Claire off of him. They picked Adrian and Claire up separately and quickly carried them both back toward the tents of the Oresfall war camp.

Once they were safely inside his private tent, Aria quickly reached into the silver ring and pulled out the massive, multi-layered metallic runic plate.

She set the heavy metal plate down right beside the bed, and Kaelen gently placed Adrian directly on top of the plate with intricate micro carvings.

This was a heavily modified, much more advanced version of the exact same runic array that Caelum had designed for Adrian months ago. With this upgraded version, Adrian didn’t even have to actively meditate to guide the healing process on his own. The massive runic array would passively do everything for him, and it would do it much, much faster. Although at the expense of multiple mana crystals but Adrian was swimming in those.

Adrian stared up at the canvas ceiling of the tent as Kaelen and Aria finally left the room to give him space.

"This should take me around a week to fully fix, instead of six or seven months like last time," Adrian muttered weakly to himself.

He let out a heavy, shaky sigh.

"Well, it’s not like I had any other choice," Adrian rationalized. "I did not expect that my Daddy’s Strength skill wouldn’t enhance the durability of my mana veins too. But I guess this is fine, considering the fact that I explicitly prepared the array for an exact scenario like this anyway."

He slowly closed his bloodshot eyes.

"Though, I kind of expected myself to get beaten up to the point where the mana veins broke again," Adrian whispered. "I definitely did not expect that forcing my own mana output at such an insane pace would actually shatter them to this extent on its own."

As he lay there trapped in the middle of his thoughts, he suddenly heard the tent flap open.

He weakly turned his head to look at who it was.

It was Serena Ashford.

She looked at Adrian lying on the metal plate and smiled softly. She walked over and gently sat on the edge of his cot.

"I heard that you broke your mana veins again," Serena said quietly. "But your situation isn’t as bad as before."

Adrian nodded slowly and let out a tired sigh.

"Well, I should be back to normal in a week or so," Adrian replied softly. "It’s not as serious as before. Well, it kind of is I guess. The actual internal damage to my mana veins is a lot more intense than the last time they broke, but I have countermeasures for it now, so I’ll be fine. As for my body, it’ll probably just take me a day or two to recover enough to walk normally. But I will just sit here and focus entirely on the mana veins recovery for now."

Serena nodded thoughtfully.

"You know, Lord Adrian," Serena began hesitantly. "You might want to actually consider marrying again."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"Aria needs a mother," Serena continued softly. "And this is something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. What finally made me make up my mind to come and talk to you about this today is seeing Aria right now. I saw her crying outside your tent, and she looked incredibly distraught. Do you really think it is a good thing for a child that young to see her only parent in such a bloody, broken condition so often?"

Serena looked down at her hands.

"Yes, her mother isn’t exactly a good person," Serena admitted. "But if you marry a well mannered Lady, then she could be a great mother figure for your daughter when you are inevitably busy with things like this."

Adrian just chuckled weakly, wincing as his ribs protested the movement.

"Well, who do I even marry though?" Adrian asked rhetorically. "On one hand, there is the intense political pressure. If I officially announced that I wanted to marry someone, I’m pretty sure that a lot of nobles would just immediately fall at my feet and practically offer their daughters to me. But I would much rather marry someone that I already know. Someone whose character I can actually judge to be a genuinely good, decent person."

He let out a soft breath.

"And yes, I know there is an argument you can give me that says I can just date them for a while before I make a final decision," Adrian continued. "But here’s the thing. If we meet specifically for the sake of marriage, then a lot of people have the natural tendency to just put on an act and try to perfectly fit the role I want. That is not their genuine self. And then there are a lot of people who basically just want my status or money."

Adrian looked at her seriously.

"I just want someone who will genuinely love me for myself. For who I am, and for my character. And most importantly, I want someone who can legitimately consider Aria their own daughter without being spiteful, discriminating against her, or secretly going behind my back and creating trouble."