It was like a personal journal. The pages were covered in messy handwritten notes detailing various horrific magical rituals and negative side-effects. Most of the lines that had details on blood sacrifices and dark magic had been aggressively scratched out, but the messy scratches did not hide everything. Claire could still make out the words underneath the scribbles.

She skipped a couple of pages. Then she stopped at a single line that was left completely untouched.

Asking for Divine Blessings.

And right under it was another line in super tiny handwriting.

Extremely unlikely but worth a try.

Claire just frowned. She kept reading through the other rituals. They were all completely horrible, borderline suicidal methods for gaining power.

’I do not even know what these guys are researching,’ Claire thought, disturbed by the dark magic. ’But at least she is not picking these options.’

She turned the page and completely froze.

Because another option sat there without a single scratch over it.

Dual Mana Cultivation with the Opposite Sex.

She read the information below it and her eyes widened. Right below the magical theory was another small, frantic handwritten note.

I could ask Lord Adrian to be my partner.

And right below that sat another line in tiny handwriting.

He is really handsome and really nice so I would not mind it.

Claire felt her face burn up instantly.

’Does this girl actually have the courage to ask Lord Adrian for something like that?’ Claire thought, her heart suddenly beating faster. She had seen how Adrian had rejected Felicia months ago and he was extremely smooth with it.

Weirdly enough, seeing those words just made her feel weird. Her stomach actually twisted up into a knot.

So she slammed the little book shut and tossed it right back onto the bench.

She just stared at the sleeping girl, her brain on an overdrive. She didn’t even know what to think, but her brain thought anyways.

Serena’s written words just kept echoing in her head.

He is pretty handsome and really nice.

That stupid phrase just kept jumping around inside her head. Because Serena was not wrong and deep in her mind, Claire agreed with her. She just refused to even think about Adrian in such a way since he was her Lord and she was his Knight.

She knew that those thoughts would cause problems so she completely avoided them. But now? It completely took over her thoughts.

Because Adrian really was one of the best looking guys she had ever met. He had that silver hair and those crazy red eyes. But his face was only half the reason. He was not snobby or fake like the other nobles she had seen while she grew up. He could be incredibly blunt, and sometimes he acted weirdly wild. Especially during their sparring sessions, where he fought like a brutish barbarian relying purely on raw instinct and pain tolerance.

But he definitely had a very distinct charm. A unique presence whenever he got serious.

Adrian just took up all the space in her head all of a sudden.

A smile tugged at her lips. She did not even notice she was doing it.

’He works so damn hard.’ Claire thought. ’And he does so much for his people.’

In her eyes, Adrian was insanely generous. He handed out priceless knight manuals to every single peasant who wanted to join the army without a single ounce of hesitation.

Of course, Claire did not know the truth.

Adrian was only handing out manuals because he desperately needed knights. He wasn’t scared of them rebelling because the Soul Contracts guaranteed their absolute loyalty. And the biggest reason was purely economic.

Knights generated significantly more mana than regular soldiers. More knights meant a higher output of mana from the dungeon’s gacha wheel. That was the only reason he gave them the books. He just wanted the mana, that’s all.

To Adrian, mana was not just a premium currency. It beat gold by a large margin. Because mana let him do stuff that nobody else could even dream of. The prices were insane and even if he had a lot, he knew that he could never stockpile enough of it.

So Adrian was just playing the merchant game. He gave out books to get magic currency in return. But Claire did not know any of that. To her, he was just a generous savior.

She glanced at Serena for a second before she turned to look at the kid running laps around the training field.

It was Aria.

Claire remembered how Aria used to get tired incredibly quickly. The girl couldn’t run very fast or for very long. But now?

Aria was an absolute monster.

She was not faster than the actual knights. Her raw speed was still slower than an F rank knight, but she could easily match the pace of the adult soldiers.

But absolutely no one in the entire ten-thousand-man army could beat Aria when it came to raw stamina.

The adult soldiers could jog for an entire day without wearing armor, and for a few hours, the knights could jog for hours while wearing armor. The F rank knights could sprint at absolute top speed for maybe thirty or forty minutes before their mana reserves completely dried up. After all, sprinting took up much more energy compared to jogging even if they were jogging in heavy armor.

But Aria?

Aria could sprint at full speed for six hours straight and she still wouldn’t even look tired.

’Is this the difference between someone who has massive mana veins and someone who doesn’t?’ Claire thought.

She looked over at the five elite kids; Octavia, Vance, Tessa, Hugo, and Milo.

Adrian gave those five kids special priority. They beat the regular knights in endurance. But even those little monsters could not outlast Aria in a long run. They easily beat her in raw speed, but matching her insane stamina was totally impossible.

’What a terrifying kid.’ Claire smiled. ’And she is cute too. She really takes after him.’

A weird ache hit her chest right then.

’I really wish I had a dad like that.’