"Whenever we attend royal gatherings, she gets completely alienated. The other children mock her or just ignore her entirely. She wants to make friends, but she is so paralyzed by anxiety and shyness that she cannot even speak. And now? It is too late since the damage is already done."

Adrian set his glass down. The raw pain in the Duke’s voice was just impossible to fake.

"She is extremely depressed." Silas continued as his voice cracked a little. "She locks herself in her room and now, her only obsession is mana breathing. She just meditates, eats, and sleeps. She genuinely thinks she can force her veins to push her to a second circle mage through sheer willpower. I do not want to see her waste her entire life chasing an impossible dream, only to die miserable and alone."

’Oh man...’ Adrian sighed as he looked at the duke. The man looked completely vulnerable right now and Adrian didn’t really know how to respond.

He completely understood the girl’s pain. Because he remembered waking up in this world, checking his status screen, and realizing he had E-rank veins, which didn’t really do much compared to the F rank ones. On top of that, he had the Pacifist’s shackle. If he didn’t have his broken Dungeon blessing and his system, he would be stuck in the exact same miserable, depressive state right now, especially considering how he wanted to make sure Aria lived a nice and happy life.

Adrian didn’t bother offering empty words and instead, he just stayed completely silent and let the duke vent.

Silas leaned back into the leather chair. He raised his free hand to cover his face and let out a long, shaky sigh.

"I have spent the last decade searching for a way to help." Silas murmured. "I hired mages, got scholars to read ancient texts, and in the process... I emptied my treasuries. But I finally... I... I found a way."

The Duke dropped his hand and he stared right at Adrian. His eyes were so dark and desperate that they looked almost like they weren’t a human’s.

"I found an ancient scroll." Silas said as he poured himself another glass and drank the whole thing in a single gulp. "It contains a method to forcefully upgrade mana veins. It will literally allow my daughter to shatter her limits and jump up the magic circle ranks."

Adrian paused with his glass halfway to his mouth.

He slowly lowered it back to the desk. His instincts were absolutely screaming at him all of a sudden.

"Duke Ashford," Adrian said carefully. "A method that alters the fundamental laws of the world and mana does not come for free. What is the catch?"

"It is a blood sacrifice." Silas answered without a single ounce of hesitation. "The ritual requires the life force of thousands of humans to fuel the process."

Adrian stared at the man in front of him in silence. Because this refined, elegant Duke was casually discussing the mass slaughter of thousands of innocent people like it wasn’t a bit issue.

’Will he kill me after this? There’s no way he’s just telling me something like this just like that...’

"Why would you ever consider doing something so horrific?" Adrian asked slowly as he frowned. A part of him was scared, but he couldn’t help but worry.

"Because I am a father." he said softly, before his voice turned cold,

"I would rather kill a million innocent peasants to see my daughter smile, than watch her suffer in misery for decades while a million peasants go on living their happy, meaningless lives."

Adrian clenched his jaw.

It was a totally psychotic, twisted logic. But the terrifying part was, Adrian actually understood the sentiment. If someone told Adrian he had to sacrifice a city to keep Aria safe? He would probably burn the city himself.

But he couldn’t just let the Duke butcher thousands of people, not if there was a chance of changing his mind.

"A blood sacrifice is dark magic," Adrian said, leaning over the desk. "It is chaotic and unpredictable. Why don’t you let me examine the scroll? I might just be another mage in everyone’s eyes, but I am pretty knowledgeable about methods like these. I might be able to spot hidden flaws that you missed."

Silas narrowed his eyes and hesitated for a long moment.

"What is your actual mana circle rank, Baron?" Silas asked slowly.

"I am a third-circle mage." Adrian said confidently. "My raw power might not be impressive, but my theoretical knowledge top notch, so you can trust me. I’m a father too."

Silas finally relented and raised his right hand. There were multiple rings on his fingers and he rubbed his thumb against a dark obsidian gem embedded on one of the rings. A worn out parchment scroll appeared in his hands and he handed it over to Adrian.

Adrian took it, and placed his glass of whiskey near the very edge of his table.

As he unrolled the parchment with one hand, he intentionally jerked his knee upward, slamming it hard against the underside of table. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

The glass tumbled and fell onto the floor, shattering into pieces while the whiskey spilled onto the wooden floor.

Silas flinched, immediately looking down at the mess.

In that exact split second of distraction, Adrian made his move.

’Dungeon Link!’ he screamed in his mind.

He sent the ancient scroll directly into his dungeon and immediately brought it out.

’System! Scan this item and use all the data you have. I want detailed information on this, with all the positives and negatives.’

[Affirmative.]

And not even a second later.

[Analysis Complete.]

By the time Silas looked back up from the shattered glass, the scroll was in Adrian’s hands and he didn’t get suspicious about anything.

Adrian opened the scroll, but he wasn’t looking at it. Instead, he stared at the translucent blue system screen floating right in front of his face.