Chapter 422: Aria, The Healer

Aria immediately shook her head.

Contrary to her own expectations, and completely contrary to Adrian’s expectations, she just burst into tears. She started bawling her eyes out and her loud, echoing cries were heard all over the main hall of the mansion.

Adrian just looked at her. All of his annoyance instantly flew out the window.

He let out a soft sigh, walked over to her, and kneeled down before he pulled her into a tight hug.

"Papa is not angry," he whispered. "I’m just worried about you."

"I know, and I am sorry, Papa," Aria cried into his shoulder. "You were very busy for three weeks and I could not see you much. I missed you a lot, but the others told me that I shouldn’t disturb you during this time because it is very important for you. They told me that you were doing a very important training with Mama Claire and Mama Serena."

She sniffled and frowned. "I don’t like how that sounds.... bleh."

Adrian rubbed her back gently. "Well, they are not really your moms, so you can just call them by their names. But I am pretty sure that it will make them very happy if you do call them Mama and I’m also sure that you’ll get used to it."

Aria nodded against his chest.

"Okay, so who told you that you mustn’t disturb me?" Adrian asked calmly.

Aria looked up at him with teary eyes. "I am not telling because you will scold them."

Hearing this, Adrian just looked down at her and chuckled.

"So now you are protecting others, huh?"

Aria immediately nodded.

Adrian found that nod incredibly cute and he couldn’t help himself so he kissed her gently on the forehead.

"Papa will always make time for you. You just have to come and tell me when you want to spend time with me, or when you want to play, or anything at all. As long as I am not doing anything too important, I will always make time for you okay? You do not have to hold back."

Aria nodded and hugged him tightly again.

"Papa, will you sleep with me tonight? I miss cuddling you."

Adrian nodded with a warm smile. "Sure. Why don’t we all sleep together? I will set up a bigger bed."

Aria looked up at him. The very first thought in her mind was that she totally did not want to share him. But then, as she imagined the actual scene of a full, happy family sleeping together, she couldn’t help but feel a weird sense of giddiness in her chest.

Having a proper family was something she had never truly experienced in her past life. Yes, she was used to sleeping with Adrian, but having a mother... well, technically two of them right by her side? She really wanted to experience that too.

Aria immediately nodded. "Okay."

"Good," Adrian smiled. "Right, Aria. There was a specific reason I was searching for you. Do you know any healing magic?"

Aria looked up at him, tilting her head. "Papa, but don’t you have Hugo for healing magic?"

"Yeah, but I was just wondering if you can also do healing magic," Adrian explained. "If you can’t, I will have to take Hugo with me for the task we got from the magic tower. But if you can use healing magic, I can leave him here and just take someone else who can fight better, like Vance."

Aria nodded thoughtfully. "Will it be a problem if my healing magic is not strong enough?"

"Well, that will depend entirely on how strong your healing magic actually is."

Aria frowned slightly, thinking to herself.

’I could break down that seventh circle healing spell into multiple smaller parts and just use them individually at my current fourth circle level. I can combine them with each other one by one to get a similar effect. It will use a lot of my mana, but the healing should probably be way better than what Hugo can do. Wait, what do I even mean probably? I am one hundred percent sure it is going to be better. Probably even ten times faster? Yeah probably not, but it should still be almost two to three times when compared to Hugo’s in effectiveness. I’ll only know if I test it though.’

She frowned a little more.

’Wait, if I show him something this strong, would it be a problem?’

She looked up at Adrian. "Papa, which is better? Is it better to have Hugo, or is it better to have me using healing magic while having someone else who can fight?"

"Well, it is definitely better if you can use healing magic so we can bring a fighter who is better." Adrian said.

He knew that Hugo was a great fighter and a much better hard worker who pushed himself to his limits but there were limits to one’s talents and this world was unfair. With a full set of armor, Vance was just much much better. Even if his battle instincts and pain tolerance were lower than Hugo’s, his raw stats that would be boosted due to his blessing would easily allow him to outperform his collegue.

Aria nodded. "Okay. How do I show you?"

"Let’s start with this," Adrian said.

He pulled a small iron dagger from his belt.

He looked at Aria and paused.

’Wait, would it actually be traumatic for her to see me cut myself right in front of her?’

He thought back to all the times he had gotten brutally injured right in front of her in the past.

’Well, maybe I guess it won’t really affect her much.’

He looked at her seriously. "Okay, I will cut my palm and I want you to use your healing magic on me."

Aria nodded calmly. "Okay."

Adrian kept his eyes on her expression as he slowly pressed the blade into his palm and drew blood. Seeing that she had no change in her expression, he relaxed.