Adrian looked at her. He knew a fourth circle mage was incredibly powerful. She was a walking bomb that could take out hundreds of soldiers in mere seconds with a single spell. But in his eyes, she was still just a five year old child. His child.

He had absolutely no intention of dragging his little girl onto a bloody battlefield. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

"We will see," Adrian said, giving her the classic parent deflection.

Right at that moment, a sharp knock came from the door and Adrian looked up.

"Come in."

Damian opened the door and bowed. "Lord Adrian, messengers and nobles from all over the kingdom have arrived."

Adrian raised an eyebrow.

"The youngest princess of the Crestwall Empire is also among them," Damian added. "She is highly devoted to the Goddess of Prosperity. She heard the rumors that you are blessed by the Goddess. She wishes to meet you and see the blessed dungeon personally."

"Alright, fine." Adrian sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "Set up a meeting for tomorrow and let them stay here."

"I apologize, my lord, but they are not staying in Oresfall," Damian said. "We do not have suitable accommodations for royalty. They were very understanding and have traveled to Baron Kaldwin’s territory. They will stay there until you are ready to receive them."

"Okay, send a messenger." Adrian instructed. "Tell them I will meet them in three days."

"Understood, my lord." Damian bowed and left the room.

Later that afternoon, Adrian took Aria out to check on the troops.

The moment they stepped onto the massive training field, the soldiers spotted them. The dirt field had been expanded a lot to fit the growing army.

"The flower of Oresfall is here!" a soldier shouted from the front lines.

"Attention!"

Hundreds of sweaty soldiers instantly stopped their drills. They stood perfectly straight and saluted like they were facing their lord, which was also true.

Adrian laughed and patted Aria’s head. "Look how popular you are already."

Aria just blushed and tried to hide behind his leg instead of speaking.

Adrian walked over to Burke. The bald man was overseeing the physical conditioning drills near the wooden racks.

"Give me a report, Burke," Adrian said. "Approximately how many regular soldiers and knights do we have right now? And tell me if anyone broke past the F rank."

Burke saluted. "We currently have around four thousand regular soldiers, my lord. And we have successfully trained five hundred knights."

Adrian nodded. He was very pleased with the numbers.

"However," Burke frowned heavily. "There are some men who joined on the very first day. They have put in the exact same amount of hard work and training as the others. But they have not been able to reach the knight rank. I do not understand why."

Adrian looked at Claire. She was standing nearby and he silently asked her for an explanation.

"It is common, Lord Adrian," Claire spoke up. "Unlike mages who are simply born with the ability to sense mana and form a circle, knights are born as normal people. Learning to sense mana is only the first step. Their bodies must be capable of handling the physical strain of mana circulation."

She looked at the sweating soldiers in front of her.

"Some people just have garbage habits." Claire said. "Drinking heavy ale and smoking? That ruins their blood and impedes the mana. If it’s too bad, even sensing mana becomes and issue."

"And if they don’t have bad habits?" Adrian asked.

"Then they just drew a bad hand at birth." Claire crossed her arms. "Some people get stuck with weak constitutions. They have to bleed and sweat three times as much just to catch up to the talented guys."

She turned to Burke.

"Tell them to keep training. It is not impossible for them to become knights and the solution is to work harder than everyone else. The biggest hurdle for anyone is getting their hands on a knight training manual, which is provided for free here in return for loyalty. Most knights pledge loyalty to nobles or the royals to get one anyways and Lord Adrian is providing them the manuals for free. They should be grateful and be working hard to show their worth."

"Understood," Burke nodded. "On a better note, Lord Adrian, two of our men have successfully advanced from F rank to E rank."

Adrian grinned. "That is excellent."

Adrian turned to look at Claire. A specific question had been in his mind for weeks and this seemed like the perfect time to ask her about it.

"Wait, you are a C rank knight right now," he said. "How old are you exactly? When did you even start training?"

"I am twenty two, my lord," Claire answered. "I swung a wooden sword around as a kid but my father hid the family training manual from me. So I had to wait until I turned eighteen to enroll in the Academy."

Adrian nodded as he listened.

"It took me around six months to reach F rank and another year to get to the E rank," Claire continued. "So I was nineteen and a half by then and it took me another year and a half to reach D rank by the time I was twenty one."

She patted the hilt of her sword.

"I trained for another year as a D rank until you recruited me. And then, using the top tier manual you provided, it only took me a few months to break through to C rank."

Adrian stared at her, genuinely stunned at how talented she was.

He had always assumed knight progression took decades of extreme hard work. But she had climbed the ranks in just a few short years.

"So you are just twenty two..." Adrian muttered. "You are insanely talented, Claire."

Claire froze as her face turned slightly red.

No one had ever praised her like that, at least not her talent. The Royal Knight Academy was like a brutal jungle where nobles constantly tore each other down to prove their worth. Her own father had ignored her achievements completely. But here, she was recognized and appreciated just for the hard work she put in the past.