Chapter 447: Unraveling Secrets

Adrian exhaled slowly and could help but think, ’And he asks the one thing I didn’t want to talk about...’

"I just... I just didn’t trust myself." he said, as he decided to not tell lies.

Aria looked up at Adrian with a highly complicated expression on her face.

’Papa, what?’ she thought to herself. ’What does that even mean? He doesn’t trust himself?’

The tribal chief tilted his head as he asked the question for her. "What do you mean you don’t trust yourself?"

Adrian let out a soft sigh, staring at his hands.

"I wanted her to do whatever she wanted in life. I know myself well enough that if I found out what her blessings and curses were... well, I do know that she has two blessings from demons. But I just didn’t want to check exactly what they did. Because if I found out what they are, then I would inadvertently push or guide her in that specific direction. I wanted her to do whatever she wanted. I wanted her to experience life the way it is genuinely meant to be. I just wanted her to be happy and free without any external influence."

He sighed once again.

"Well, I did stop her from doing knight training, but I didn’t exactly want her to develop in a bad way since I heard that doing intense workouts as a child will make you short or something."

Hearing this, the Chief stared at him.

"You are... you are an idiot, aren’t you? Ah, this is so frustrating. Here is the thing, listen up. If anyone from this world heard you say that, they would be confused as to why you are even thinking something like that. There are so many kids out there that are desperately trying to become knights, and you are basically not letting your daughter train because of some weird fear that isn’t even true."

"Well, the thing is, I can’t even explain it without sounding crazy," Adrian muttered.

"Well, I know what you mean," the Chief said. "The thing is, that is knowledge from your previous world, right?"

Adrian immediately looked up and tensed up.

Aria frowned sharply. ’Previous world?’

She looked at Adrian. "Papa? What previous world?"

But before Adrian could even say anything, the Chief interrupted.

"Well, here is the truth. Whatever information you got from your internet... that is completely wrong. It doesn’t apply to the laws of this world. Look at your wife, Claire. She has been training to become a knight since she was extremely young. You don’t see any weird deformities, do you? You don’t see her being stunted and short. You don’t see her being overly muscular and bulky. She is beautiful, isn’t she? There is literally no reason for you to forcibly stop your daughter from becoming a knight."

Adrian just nodded numbly. He couldn’t help but clench his fist as he turned to look at Aria in guilt.

The Chief looked down at Aria with a knowing smirk.

"I am genuinely surprised that both of you have kept such massively big secrets from each other, even though you love each other the most. It is kind of funny, isn’t it?"

This time, Aria couldn’t help but open her eyes wide, glaring at the Chief as if giving him a warning to shut up.

But the demon just didn’t care.

"Ah, seriously? Both of you are literally on your second lives and you have zero trust for the ones you love the most."

This time, it was Adrian’s turn to snap his head to look at Aria in pure shock.

"Second life?" Adrian whispered.

Aria looked up at him, her face pale. "He said... both of us."

The two of them just stared at each other in suffocating silence.

The Chief stood up casually. "Well, now I will just leave this place to you two. You can talk it out like a real family."

Adrian just glared at him with murderous intent. "If something goes wrong because of this, I will wipe out your entire demonic race. Whether you are the one who gave me my blessing or not."

Aria’s gaze looked exactly similar to Adrian’s. It was a vicious, unyielding warning.

They just glared at him as he smiled, walked out of the hut, and closed the wooden door behind him.

Only when the room was completely empty did Adrian and Aria look at each other again.

They just sat there on the woven mats in deafening silence for almost ten whole minutes.

Finally, Aria opened her mouth.

"I... I already lived a full life in this exact same body. But in a completely different circumstance," she said slowly and hesitantly, refusing to look at him. "I did something. I messed with some ancient artifact, and I found myself going back in time. Well... just my soul and not my body. I found myself back in my childlike body after that..."

She looked down at her hands, her voice shaking all of a sudden.

"But in my past life... you abandoned me. You remember the royal court, right? The trial?"

She looked up at Adrian, her eyes slightly wet.

"I was fully expecting you to yell at the judge, hurl disgusting insults at Vaneira, and publicly call me a spawn of another man out of distrust and anger. But you didn’t do any of those things. You just calmly accepted me as your daughter. And you gave me a life that I couldn’t even dream of."

She sniffled.

"It’s funny to say that because I really couldn’t even dream of something this good back then. I just wanted to be accepted in my past life. But now I am genuinely loved... It is very new, and I do not want to lose any of that. I still want to be your daughter. But... I need answers now. I need answers, Papa."

Adrian took a deep, shaky breath.

"Well... I am from a different world," he dropped the bomb directly.