"And this new man that we just have on our side... we got him recently, so I was trying to learn exactly what kind of power he has. Wang Lei has a lot of secrets, and he actually does have the power to help us."
He looked out the window for a second before looking back at her.
"So I was just thinking of ways where I can put him to good use. But still, that is only going to happen if we hit the worst-case scenario. Which might actually happen soon."
He gently squeezed her shoulder.
"But you don’t have to worry about anything because Papa will take care of everything. I will make sure that as long as I am there, and as long as it is possible, I’ll make sure that no one from our territory is going out to die to fight for someone else’s war."
He smiled warmly at her.
"But I’m still sorry for not being here with you. Will you forgive me if I give you a gift?"
Aria immediately turned her head to look at him, her pout instantly vanishing.
"What gift?"
Adrian just smirked playfully.
"Will you forgive me or not? You need to give me a solid answer first."
Aria just squinted her eyes slightly at him, analyzing the deal. After a few seconds of silence, she finally nodded.
"Okay."
Adrian immediately grinned.
"Okay then. Look closely at Serena."
Aria genuinely wondered what he was trying to do, feeling excited. She turned her head to look at Serena and exactly at that moment, Adrian leaned down and loudly kissed her cheek.
"Muuuuah!"
Aria immediately turned back around, looking highly offended by the trick, and she just playfully slapped his arm. But she was already smiling brightly.
"No, Papa! I want food or I’ll be angry at you for the whole day!"
But Adrian knew that she wasn’t really angry at all. She just wanted to spend quality time with him.
He just chuckled and rubbed her head.
"Okay, fine. Once we finally get to the military camp, I’ll make a massive amount of food for you. Actually, not just you. I’ll make a massive amount of food for everyone in the entire army."
He looked down at her.
"And I was just wondering if you wanted to join me and help me cook?"
Aria immediately nodded excitedly.
"Yes! I want to cook! I want to cook with Papa!"
She immediately looped her small hands tightly around his thick arm and she just tugged at him, only to end up just scooting her own body much closer to him instead.
With Aria happily agreeing, Adrian turned his head to look at Serena.
"What about you? Do you want to join us? You can act as my assistant and just help me with the cooking."
Serena immediately froze.
The very first thought in her mind was, ’He actually did hear the whole thing! And now he wants to directly test us to see if we can do a good job! Is this like a hidden test to become his wife?’
But then she logically reasoned with herself.
’But he must already know that noble women don’t really know how to cook. It is strictly the commoners and servants who do that.’
But then she quickly realized and remembered that Adrian was someone who cooked for himself. So his way of thinking was obviously going to be completely different from standard nobles.
And the only thing she felt after that realization was pure despair. Because she literally did not know how to cook.
The only reason she even made those steaks pretty good a few days ago, is because of Adrian’s direct, step by step instructions.
But then her internal despair sort of toned down and went back to normal. Because when she nervously looked up at Adrian’s warm smile, she realized that he was obviously not going to just let her fail.
He was obviously going to tell her what to do.
It didn’t take them too long to finally get to the massive military camp, which was situated just a few kilometers away from Vaneira’s former territory.
Adrian put his head out of the moving carriage window and saw that there was already a massive bunch of people stationed there. There were multiple tents pitched up in neat rows, but he could easily see that the amount of tents didn’t really go too high compared to the number of soldiers. It was almost like only a select few people, mainly officers and nobles, were actually allowed to sleep comfortably inside the tents while the infantry slept out in the open.
Adrian, instead of just blatantly staring at the people outside like a tourist, just pulled his head back into the carriage and quietly waited until his carriage fully reached the camp.
Unlike before when he had to urgently go back to Oresfall from Draven’s territory where he had the carriage move at its top speed, this time he made sure that the carriages were slowly going along with the marching soldiers. It was vastly slower, but it made sure that everyone was moving together at the exact same speed.
Just a few minutes later, almost five to ten minutes, the carriage finally came to a stop and Adrian casually walked out.
Marquis Draven Voss was right there waiting to receive him, and there were also a bunch of other nobles standing him.
And these specific nobles were mostly the ones who Adrian had already met and seen before.
One of them was the arrogant Count Frankenstein, and the second one was obviously Draven. There was also Baron Kaldwin, who was none other than Claire’s father. He also had both of his sons standing right behind him.
And to Adrian’s surprise, Felicia, the girl who was the deceased Viscount Alexander’s daughter, was also standing right there in the group.
Adrian immediately put two and two together in his head and he just came to the conclusion that Baron Kaldwin’s second son seemed to have actually still been dating Felicia despite everything.