The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

”And whoever you are, I’m sorry, I don’t remember the names of useless people.”

The old noble’s face went from light red to an even deeper shade.

Adrian casually raised his hand, placed his palm flat against the guy’s shoulder exactly like the man had just done to him, and then gave him a slight push forward.

The old man literally flew backward through the air before violently crashing into the other nobles. Luckily for him, he crashed directly into Sebastian Kaldwin, who was a pretty strong knight, so there wasn’t a massive, embarrassing scene of multiple nobles falling down like bowling pins.

Adrian then turned to look at the rest of the shocked nobles before he pushed Frankenstein to the side. But this time he wasn’t rough about it. He just nudged him, and Frankenstein immediately stepped aside to clear the way.

Adrian looked at the furious nobles.

”Who told you that they belong to you guys?” Adrian asked loudly. ”Who told you that they are the citizens of your territory?”

He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the three thousand terrified peasants standing behind him.

”All of the guys standing behind me right now are officially citizens of Oresfall. Do you have any actual proof to show me that they are your people?”

The nobles immediately froze.

The reason for this sudden hesitation was very simple. Proper documentation, especially for random commoners, just didn’t exist in the Empire. All of the land was officially distributed between the noble lords, and the commoners just rented small patches of it to farm. And this renting agreement was almost entirely done verbally. There was literally zero paperwork done for peasants. Their names weren’t written down in any official registry.

The only real way to know or legally document where a commoner was from was to simply ask them where they were from.

And that is exactly what Adrian did next.

He turned his head to the side, glancing at the massive crowd of men standing behind him.

”Are you guys the citizens of Oresfall or not?!” Adrian shouted at the top of his lungs. ”Yes or no?!”

Three thousand desperate voices screamed back at the exact same time.

”YES!”

Adrian slowly turned back to face the dumbfounded nobles. He casually raised his hands out to his sides.

”Well, you heard them,” Adrian said, his tone almost playful. ”They are all citizens of Oresfall.”

He looked past the angry nobles and saw the rest of the surviving soldiers who hadn’t fled yet standing further back in the camp. A huge number of them were just watching in pure awe as Adrian stood his ground against all the nobles combined while completely shutting them down. None of the nobles had a single counter-argument to say back to him.

He had clearly just won this entire confrontation.

Adrian subtly winked at the watching soldiers standing behind the nobles.

”Oresfall has a lot of space left,” Adrian said loudly, making sure his voice carried to the back of the camp. ”We can comfortably take in a lot more people.”

Marquis Draven finally stepped forward, acting as the voice of reason.

”Okay, let’s stop this public farce right now,” Draven rumbled, glaring at both sides. ”Let’s all just go inside the command tent and talk it out amongst ourselves. There is no need to complicate this any further out here.”

The rest of the nobles, desperately not wanting to be humiliated any further in front of the commoners, all nodded in unison. They fully agreed with Draven’s words.

”Yes, let’s head to the tent,” one of them muttered angrily. ”There is no need to do this out here.”

Adrian just shrugged. ”Okay, let’s go in.”

Once they were all fully inside the large command tent and the canvas flaps were closed, the atmosphere immediately shifted.

Adrian casually leaned against the wooden table, looked around at the furious faces, and crossed his arms.

”So,” Adrian said smoothly. ”What exactly do you guys want to talk about?”

The nobles immediately exploded.

They all began to aggressively shout and talk over each other, screaming about treason, stolen property, and royal decrees.

Adrian just ignored all of that, casually glanced over at Draven, and smirked a little.

Draven caught his eye and just shook his head really slightly in amusement.

Then the two of them just sat there in silence, casually watching as the group of nobles continued to helplessly yell over each other.

Adrian eventually raised his hand and slammed his palm flat against the thick wooden table.

The loud bang instantly made everyone shut up and gather their attention on him.

Adrian looked over the table, slowly glancing at the faces of every single noble in the room.

”Well, there is a very specific reason I did what I just did outside,” Adrian said, his voice deadly calm. ”And I want you all to listen to me very carefully right now. Because I’m not trying to convince you here. I am telling you.”

He looked incredibly serious as he stared them down.

”If you want your people to fight out there and bleed, then I want to see every single one of you in the front lines with them. I do not want to see you sitting safely in the back on your horses.”

The nobles frowned and looked at each other, but Adrian didn’t let them interrupt.

”And if that happens, if you do decide to stay in the back like a coward, then I will not allow you to just sit there and complain about your people not wanting to fight for you. If you are not fighting, you have no right to ask others to fight and die for you.”

He leaned forward slightly.

”And if you do try to force them... Then, from this second onward, no matter who it is, I will end you. And it doesn’t matter if I’m going to anger the Emperor or whatever, because that bitch is already angry at me anyway. I literally do not care anymore.”

(Yes I finally did it...)