The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

”As for you, you literally have a valid reason to ask him to spend time with you. He promised your father that he would help you with your mana. He has a really bad tendency of getting distracted from his responsibilities, so it is your job to keep asking him to help you out. I’m pretty sure he will do it if you remind him but you don’t.”

Aria smiled knowingly.

”The method you guys use needs to be done in total isolation. That basically means you can get to spend time alone with him, which Claire can’t. Do you see where I’m trying to go with this?”

Serena nodded slowly.

But her brain was somewhere else entirely. She just kept repeating the few words that Aria had casually dropped in the middle of her speech.

He thinks of you as really fine woman.

Serena’s brain had automatically edited the sentence in a way where she wouldn’t have to think about Claire. And that was more than enough for Serena. That was all she needed to hear.

Aria had just basically told her yes. The little girl wanted Serena and Claire to be part of her family. And on top of that, Adrian didn’t dislike either of them. Aria hadn’t confirmed if Adrian actually liked them romantically, but just knowing he thought they were fine women was a massive advantage.

Serena could feel her heart beating really hard in her chest.

She couldn’t even tell if she was excited, anxious, or just plain scared.

Adrian stood in the middle of the open ground and pulled out his weapons. The sleek mithril and iron staff rested comfortably in his grip while his four deadly steel chakrams hovered in the air around him.

He looked across clearing at Draven. The massive guy wasn’t wearing a single piece of armor. He was just standing there in his standard clothes with a giant war axe resting on his shoulder.

Adrian looked down at his own clothes. He wasn’t wearing any armor either.

’Yeah, this is a bad idea.’ he thought to himself.

Fighting a B-rank knight who had spent his entire life slaughtering tens of thousands of monsters was already dangerous enough. Doing it without any defensive gear while using weapons designed to slice through flesh and bone was just asking for a missing limb.

Adrian focused on his dungeon link. He sent his metal staff and all four steel chakrams directly back into his dungeon storage.

Then he gave a mental command and the system responded.

[Crafting requested items.]

He had the dungeon quickly spit out exact wooden replicas of his weapons. A dull wooden staff materialized in his hand while four wooden rings floated up around his shoulders.

He looked over at Draven.

”Let’s just use wooden ones since we’re not wearing any armor,” Adrian called out.

Draven nodded in agreement. He handed his heavy metal war axe over to one of his nearby soldiers and looked back at Adrian empty-handed.

”Can’t you just make me one right now?” Draven asked.

”Yeah, of course I can,” Adrian chuckled.

He held his palm out facing upwards. A second later, a wooden war axe that looked almost identical to Draven’s real weapon materialized in his grasp. He tossed it over to the older man.

Draven caught it easily, but he immediately started inspecting it with a confused look on his face.

”Wait, why is this handle so thick?” Draven asked as he gripped the thick wooden handle.

”Well, it’s not made of metal,” Adrian explained. ”If the handle is thin, it’ll be way too fragile and prone to breaking because the head of the axe is still really heavy. The part where the handle connects to the head is a massive weak point for stress. I just thought it would be better to make the shaft thicker so it doesn’t snap the second you hit something hard.”

”Okay, fine,” Draven muttered.

He tossed the wooden axe up into the air a few feet and caught it on the way down.

”This is pretty light,” Draven noted.

Adrian nodded and got into his combat stance. He spun his wooden staff over his head once before locking it behind his back. The wood ran parallel along his arm with one end pointing diagonally toward the ground and the other end sticking up right behind his head.

His four wooden chakrams floated in a slow orbit around his body.

Draven didn’t even bother taking a stance. He just dashed forward.

Adrian immediately scrambled into a harsh side step. He literally couldn’t keep up with the man. Draven was a B-rank knight and a fourth-circle mage. Adrian was just a D-rank knight with a slightly higher magic output thanks to his Draconic Mana Veins even though he was a mere third circle mage.

When it came to pure rank, Draven outclassed him heavily. But when it came to raw spell output and destructive capacity, Adrian knew he was pretty much equal to the marquis, if not slightly stronger.

Adrian calculated all of this in his head as he moved. If he wanted to win, he had to use his magic to his advantage in this fight.

Their fighting styles were completely different. Adrian’s style was highly seamless since he had spent the last few years perfectly merging his telekinesis with his martial arts. Draven fought like a traditional brawler. The warlord used his physical capabilites to crush his enemies and only used his spells as separate, isolated attacks in the middle of a combo.

Draven closed the distance instantly. Even though Adrian tried to dodge to the side, he just wasn’t fast enough.

Draven swung his thick wooden axe in a wide horizontal arc.

But right before the heavy axe could connect with Adrian’s ribs, the four floating chakrams shot forward and smacked Draven right in the face.

It was a good thing they weren’t made of metal. Even the wooden edges managed to leave deep, bleeding cuts across the older man’s face.