Serena stepped closer, her hand tightening on his shoulder.

"They do not know how deeply you love your daughter." she continued. "Or how selfless you can be when it comes to the people close to you. They just look at you and see a powerful, rich noble. They never see your soft side."

"Or your goofy side." She said as she giggled.

"And that is exactly what pulled me toward you." Serena confessed, her alcohol fueled confidence pushing her to say the things that she never thought she’d ever say. "At first, I just saw you as my benefactor. You were just the man who offered to fix my mana veins. But the more time I spent in your mansion, and the more I watched you interact with your people... I just could not help but get pulled in by your charisma."

Adrian did not know how to respond to that.

Back on Earth, flirting dynamics were completely different. His only actual girlfriend had just directly asked him out on a date, and that was exactly how their toxic relationship even started. And the original Adrian from this fantasy world was only used to the incredibly subtle, indirect political flirting of high society nobles.

So what Serena was doing right now was a confusing mix of both. She was being incredibly direct with her compliments, but she was still keeping it slightly indirect by not officially confessing.

He had almost zero in experience handling this kind of heavy talk. But he forced his brain to work and found a response anyway. Though, it wasn’t exactly the perfect one.

"Well, that is just who I am." Adrian said softly. "But I am not really that nice of a person, Serena. If someone tries to harm the people around me... the people I care about... I am the kind of person who would literally burn the whole world down just to keep them safe."

He slowed his dancing steps slightly.

"Though, that is just my own perspective of myself." Adrian admitted, his voice dropping into a soft but deep, almost philosophical tone. "I do not really know if I would actually go that far if the situation ever truly arose. I do not know if I could..."

"Aren’t you scared of a guy like that?" Adrian asked. "Would you really want someone to burn the whole world down just for you? What do you even think about a man willing to go that far?"

He was literally just a second away from spiraling. He just couldn’t help but overthink the moral ethics of his own messed up thoughts.

But Serena dragged him right back to reality.

She looked up with a serious gaze.

"Normally, I would ask why someone would do something that awful." Serena said. "But if you are doing something like that entirely for my sake? Then I feel like that is one of the purest forms of love."

Adrian noticed how she said "for my sake" instead of "someone’s sake" and wondered if it was intentional.

She looked away as sadness completely took over her face.

"If I ever landed in a situation where I had to ruin everything to keep the person I love safe..." Serena whispered. "I would do it. I would do it in a heartbeat if I actually had the power. But I do not have that... I am way too weak to protect anyone."

A sharp pang hit Adrian right in the chest.

He hated his own violent nature because he knew it was morally wrong. But Serena was sad because she felt completely helpless if that sort of situation ever came up.

He looked at her face and he could literally see the sadness taking over. He could see the shift in her expression.

He reacted on pure instinct.

Adrian immediately pulled her closer. He slid his hand off her hip and just wrapped his entire arm around her waist. He dragged her in tight until their bodies pressed together.

Then he ducked his head down right next to her ear.

"I will make you strong." Adrian promised. "I will make you strong enough to actually do that."

Serena just squeezed her eyes shut and buried her face into his shoulder.

"Thank you." Serena breathed out.

But inside her head, a totally different thought echoed.

’I would be fine with staying weak forever as long as you stay right beside me.’

But she kept that to herself this time.

They kept swaying to the music for a few more minutes. And then the concentration of alcohol in her bloodstream went higher, Serena started tripping over and losing her balance every few seconds. Adrian literally had to hold her up just to keep her from falling the floor.

So he finally walked her off the wood and sat her down on a nearby chair.

And the exact second he stepped away from her, the flock of noble girls swarmed him again.

But this time, Adrian was not in a terrible mood. He had eaten good food and he had just shared two incredible dances. So he did not panic or try to escape. He just politely danced with every single girl who asked. He gave every single girl exactly two to three minutes of his time as he danced with them.

It took a whole hour to finally escape those girls.

He picked up a fresh cup of wine from a passing servant and headed straight for Marquis Draven.

"Enjoying the party?" Adrian asked. "What do you think of the preparations?"

Draven slowly looked around at the outdoor set up.

"Well, I feel like you did your best with what you had." Draven said honestly. "But usually, large events and dances are held inside the main mansion. You might want to consider expanding your estate a little bit. Or maybe just rebuilding the mansion entirely. Your main hall is simply not big enough to host this many nobles comfortably. As for the flooring on the main hall, consider using granite or marble. Wood doesn’t compare to those two even if you polish it right and it also gets damaged easily compared to rocks."