Draven took a huge bite of roasted meat.

"But overall?" the Marquis grinned. "The food is easily the best that I have ever tasted in my entire life. And the crowd is massive."

Draven shot Adrian a highly amused smirk.

"You certainly gave the people a spectacular show earlier." Draven chuckled. "I really didn’t expect you to be that reckless and brutal."

Adrian knew exactly what he was talking about.

He took a sip of his wine and spoke, "She just got on my nerves."

"Understandable." Draven nodded in agreement.

The Marquis gestured to a woman standing right behind his shoulder.

"Let me introduce you." Draven said proudly. "This is my wife."

Adrian knew Draven had multiple wives, but the Marquis only brought one with him to this party.

"She is a B rank knight, exactly like me." Draven explained, wrapping his arm around her. "I regret not bringing the rest of my wives, but someone has to stay at the border and keep things stable. We never know when the next monster wave is going to hit."

Adrian knew exactly how strong Draven’s family was. He remembered from the novel that Draven’s first wife was not just a B rank. She was actually an extremely powerful A rank knight. The only way Draven even managed to stay on her level was by combining his B rank kniht stats together with his fourth circle magic.

"An honor to meet you, my lady." Adrian smiled. He gave her a quick, polite bow.

He stood back up and looked closely at the two of them.

"It looks like you guys have been missing a lot of sleep lately." Adrian said with a slight frown. "I can see the bags under your eyes, even though they are barely noticeable."

Draven and his wife exchanged a heavy, tired look. The Marquis let out a long sigh.

"Weirdly enough," Draven muttered, his voice dropping into a serious tone. "The monsters attacking our walls seem to have gained some sort of intelligence. They have started using strategies, and it is costing us a lot of soldiers."

Draven rubbed his jaw.

"A lot of my people are dying." Draven said grimly. "And even more are getting injured. I was actually in a very tough spot when your birthday invitation arrived. I really didn’t think I should be leaving the front lines right now. But since you are a close friend, I decided to come anyway."

"No, do not apologize." Adrian frowned. "This is a serious matter. Do you know the reason behind this sudden change in behavior?"

"No idea." Draven shook his head. "Usually, the monsters just pour out of the dungeon and run straight into our defensive walls. They never had any tactical coordination. They just charged like mindless idiots."

The Marquis crossed his arms.

"It was easy to kill them, even though their raw numbers were always an issue." Draven explained. "But now? It is a total nightmare since they stopped charging blindly. They wait in the forest until they gather a massive horde, and then they dash in together in coordinated waves."

"And once they suffer enough casualties," Draven continued angrily. "They retreat back into the forest. When my soldiers go out to clean up the monster corpses, the horde immediately ambushes them. My men do not have the time to retreat behind the walls before they get slaughtered."

"It is giving us a lot of trouble." Draven said. "But if we just leave the bodies outside, they’ll rot and diseases will spread into the territory. And if the corpses pile up high enough, the next wave of monsters will just use the mountain of bodies as a ramp to climb over our walls."

Adrian frowned as he thought about it.

"That is weird..." Adrian said. "Those monsters are not supposed to have intelligence. Especially the ones that spawn near your borders."

Adrian thought about the magic potions he had right now.

"I already got the purification potion ready for the monster meat." Adrian informed him. ""The meat will be pretty tough to chew. But it is definitely going to be safe and totally edible."

"But even with the food issue solved, this behavior change is a massive problem." Adrian muttered. "Those are very simple tactics, but when they also have overwhelming numbers, simple tactics make a huge difference."

"I feel like there is a unique mutation happening inside your dungeon." Adrian theorized. "A specific boss monster that has the capability to command the lower level beasts. It is either that, or there is a human with a beast taming blessing who’s controlling all these monsters without anyone knowing."

Draven nodded slowly. "That does make logical sense. But it is not really practical for a single human to command that many chaotic beasts at once."

"True." Adrian agreed. "But you never know what is actually possible in this world. Some blessings are ridiculously effective if utilized properly."

"I will visit your territory in two or three weeks." Adrian promised. "I will head over to a teleportation gate and travel north."

But then Adrian paused and remembered his current political standing.

"Actually, I am just a Baron." Adrian sighed. "I do not have the legal clearance to use the imperial teleportation network."

"Do not worry about that." Draven waved a hand. "Just travel to Duke Silas’s territory. He will grant you the permissions needed to access his gate."

Adrian nodded.

As they were talking, Draven suddenly grinned and nudged Adrian’s shoulder.

"Look at that." Draven chuckled.

Adrian tracked where the Marquis was looking and stared at two kids in the middle of the dance floor. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Aria was busy dancing with some young boy. The kid looked to be a few years older than her and Adrian immediately recognized the kid.

It was Cassius’s son.

He went totally rigid. His eyes locked onto the two kids dancing across the floor and he just stared at them without saying a single word.

Draven cracked a massive grin. He leaned over and muttered to his wife.

"See?" Draven laughed. "He is getting jealous already. Give it a few more years, and we will see him treating every single boy who looks at her like an thief trying to steal his daughter."