The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Draven nodded slowly.

”Well, that is technically true.” Draven admitted. ”But it is also not a very good idea to just keep provoking the Emperor like this.”

Adrian smirked.

”Well, you don’t have to worry about that.” he reassured him. ”This is probably going to be the last time he tries this. Because after this war, I don’t think he will ever want to involve himself with me again. I am going to make myself way too much trouble for him to manage. So he is either going to just let me be alone to do my own thing in Oresfall, or he is going to stupidly try and punish me. Which is not going to happen.”

Adrian crossed his arms.

”And the best case scenario is him putting his massive ego aside and trying to mend our relationship.”

Draven nodded as he fully accepted the logic.

”Well.” Draven sighed. ”If you are ready to leave, we have exactly a month’s time to sort out our troops and logistics before we start the war against Avarice.”

”Okay.” Adrian agreed. ”I will head back to my territory right now, and we will talk logistics after that. I will meet you directly at the official camping spot where we need to stage the attack.”

Draven nodded. He turned down a different hallway and the two of them separated.

Adrian turned around and looked at Wang Lei trailing behind him.

”No one here knows about my secret.” Adrian warned him quietly. ”And I want you to treat it exactly like one. Do not ever talk to me about Earth things out loud. Treat me exactly like a native of this world.”

Wang Lei nodded frantically.

”Well, you don’t have to be too tense around me.” Adrian offered, softening his tone. ”Like I said before, I will treat you very well as long as you do not do any dumb shit behind my back. And I will personally make sure you get very, very powerful. Your specific system ability can get way too busted if it is used correctly on the battlefield. We just need to figure out exactly how the skill works and do a little research before we find the most optimal path for you.”

Wang Lei nodded again and his eyes lit up slightly.

”When I transmigrated here...” Wang Lei started eagerly. ”I met...”

Adrian immediately shot his hand out and clamped it right over Wang Lei’s mouth.

”Not here.” Adrian hissed quietly.

He didn’t explain, and just kept walking. A few seconds later, a young maid walked past them in the hallway carrying a stack of fresh clothes. She bowed respectfully to Adrian and kept walking.

Adrian turned to look at Wang Lei and muttered, ”We will talk about this later.”

Almost a minute later, Adrian pushed open the door to the guest bedroom beside his.

Aria, Serena, and Claire were all sitting on the beds and the moment the door opened, they turned to look at him.

Adrian looked at the three of them.

”Pack your bags.” Adrian said. ”We need to head back to Oresfall today. There are a few things we need to prepare for. And since we don’t really have a safe teleportation gate near our territory anymore, we will need to travel through the capital for now.”

Adrian walked out of the teleportation gate and didn’t even bother looking around. He just headed straight for the massive wooden carriage that Duke Silas had prepared for the journey.

The thing was huge. It was easily double the size of a standard noble carriage.

He climbed up the wooden steps and got inside while Aria climbed up right behind him, with Claire and Serena following a second later.

All four of them settled into the spacious cabin. The seats were heavily padded with thick velvet cushions and they honestly felt more like actual living room couches than regular carriage benches.

The driver cracked the reins and the wooden wheels started rolling.

The soldiers did not get to ride though.

They were going to be jogging and marching the entire way back to Oresfall since renting enough carriages to transport an army of 2000 men would cost a ridiculous amount of money. And his troops didn’t really need a ride anyway. They were capable enough to march at a quick pace for days without needing a break.

Though, Adrian did arrange for carriages for the ones who had gotten injured during the fight against the monsters.

He looked out the small glass window at the men lining up near the carriage.

Two thousand soldiers had joined him and not a single man had died, which was basically a miracle. But they definitely paid for it since a lot of them sustained heavy injuries while holding that broken wall. But thanks to their determination and grit, almost four hundred of the regular soldiers managed to push past their limits during the war and awakened as F-Rank knights.

The other sixteen hundred men weren’t as lucky and were still regular humans, but they weren’t inexperienced soldiers anymore. They had stood their ground and fought off a sea of monsters, so they had real combat experience now. That kind of psychological hardening was just invaluable.

Adrian wasn’t going to just let them rot away on standard patrol duty. He had seen their drive to survive and get stronger. He wasn’t going to just throw them back into the generic army training and tell them to keep swinging a sword until they got lucky, mainly because he had very specific plans for an elite veteran unit.

But right now was not the time to deal with military restructuring. He just turned away from the window, leaning his head back against the soft cushion and closing his eyes.

’Dungeon Link.’ Adrian commanded mentally.

’Show me how much total mana I have stockpiled.’ Adrian ordered. ’And give me a update on how many cows I currently have.’

[Affirmative.]

[Total Stored Mana: 34,853,800]

[Total Cattle Population: 21,000]