The Villainess Is My Cute Daughter

Vaneira opened her mouth to argue but Aria just raised her voice.

"And I realised something else a few months ago." Aria continued. "I realized it after hearing Big Sis Celeste talk about herbs. You drugged Papa, didn’t you? You drugged him every single night because he would always go to sleep really quick after dinner and he never woke up until late in the morning."

Aria pointed right at the man standing behind Vaneira.

"And every single time he slept, you had a guest over." Aria accused. "I remember his face. That is your current husband. You told the court that Papa was cheating on you. But were you not the one cheating on him while he slept?"

Vaneira’s face turned bright red from all the humiliation.

She raised her hand and took a quick step forward to slap Aria right across the face. But Adrian stepped in and caught her wrist mid air. He kept his grip tight and glared at her.

"Don’t you dare lift your hand against my daughter." Adrian warned.

His mind was going crazy at the same time. ’Who even taught her the concept of cheating?’ he thought. ’She is way too young to know about this stuff. I guess I did a terrible job hiding the dark reality from her.’

He had a lot of questions to ask Aria, but he knew this definitely wasn’t the right time for a parenting chat.

"I challenge you to a duel on the name of my family!" Vaneira screamed.

Adrian let go of her and took a step back to stand beside Aria.

"Are you sure about that?" Adrian asked.

He glanced over at his older brother who actually bothered to show up for the birthday.

"I branched off from the main house but I still carry their name." Adrian explained calmly. "So we can’t do a family duel. Why don’t we put our territories on the line instead?"

She was completely blinded by her own rage and she couldn’t even think straight at this point.

"Sure!" Vaneira yelled. "I am going to take away everything you have. And this time you will leave with nothing. Not even your life."

"Yeah, yeah... whatever." Adrian shrugged. "What are the rules?"

"It is the same as a family duel." Vaneira stated. "We both send at most three people from our side. The group that has more people standing at the end takes everything."

Adrian knew exactly how this worked. He remembered the rules of the family duels from his past memories. Both from reading the book and from the original Adrian’s memories too. Both sides picked three fighters. It was basically a knight’s battle but it could escalate to a death match. If one guy on the first team defeated all three enemies, the first team won. It was not a best of three tournament. The group that got all three of their representatives defeated or killed lost the whole thing.

"Okay, fine." Adrian said. "Who do you pick?"

Vaneira looked around at her guests. "Who is willing to participate as my representative?"

Count Frankenstein took a quick step forward. But then he hesitated and took a step back. He had already lost to Adrian once and he looked over at Claire, knowing she was a much higher level knight than Adrian. He figured this was not a place for him to stick his leg into. So he just stayed quiet.

But her current husband stepped right up.

"Darling, I will protect your dignity." Padrig smiled smoothly. "I will make sure this donkey regrets it."

"Okay, two more." Adrian said.

Vaneira looked around the crowd again. The son of a well known knight family walked over.

"I will fight for this." Jordan announced. "And in return, I wish to be your sworn knight."

"We can do that." Vaneira agreed.

She turned around and looked at her own general.

General Vekar let out a heavy sigh in his head. ’I really respect Lord Adrian. But as a general of Lady Vaneira, I don’t think I have a choice here.’

And for the very first time in his life, the general actually hated holding his high military rank. Because he literally could not say no to his boss. So he just took a step forward and gave a stiff nod.

Vaneira had her three people ready.

Adrian looked at the three men.

"What is your name?" Adrian asked the young knight.

"My name is Jordan." the guy replied. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Adrian nodded. He looked at Padrig and then turned to face his own side.

"The ones representing me will be myself." Adrian announced loudly.

He took a step forward and looked at the servants standing near the dance floor.

"Take the cake away." Adrian ordered.

While the servants rushed to move the heavy table, Adrian just stared at Vaneira eye to eye without breaking contact.

"Claire." Adrian called out.

Claire sighed and walked forward. She stood quietly right behind him.

Adrian took off his white outer suit jacket and handed it back to her. Everyone in the crowd totally expected him to tell Vaneira that Claire was fighting first.

But contrary to their expectations, Adrian just handed her the clothes.

"Hold this for me until I am done with the three of them." Adrian said.

Adrian planned on using this exact moment to prove to these stuck up nobles that he wasn’t some weak guy who just got lucky. He didn’t want his strong subordinates to do the fighting today. He wanted to flex his own personal strength instead and show people that they can’t just mess around with him. And beating three strong guys all by himself was the best way to send that message.

Vaneira started laughing mockingly.

"What can a first circle mage like you do?" Vaneira sneered. "What are you going to do, huh? Make a candle that doesn’t melt?"

"Who is your first representative?" Adrian ignored her. "Let’s start the fight."

He walked off the dance floor and moved over to the edge of the training fields.

He looked down at Aria.

"Why don’t you wait for me inside the mansion?" Adrian asked. "I will call you out once I settle all this stuff."

Aria shook her head.

"No."