He threw one last glance at the men who refused to volunteer.

"You guys continue training too."

He did not say anything else to them because he was honestly just too disappointed.

Adrian turned back to the two thousand volunteers.

"Pack your gear and get ready to march tomorrow." he said and walked up to his general.

"Claire." Adrian said. "Take them to Duke Silas’s territory tomorrow. I will travel solo and catch up with you guys later. I’ll be fast since I’ll be moving alone and on top of that, I still have a few things to wrap up around here."

"Okay." Claire nodded.

Adrian went straight back into his mansion and headed for the dungeon.

He spent the next two weeks in the dungeon, doing his mana breathing while soaking in the green bath.

But even after all that, his ranks didn’t increase.

"Perseverance..." he muttered as he got out of the bath and put on some clothes.

Adrian stepped out of the dungeon and opened an exit back into his bedroom.

He walked over to his large mattress and sat down on the edge. He let out a soft, tired sigh as he stared at the wooden floor. His brain was already jumping between a few things that he couldn’t stop thinking about for the past few weeks.

The first thing on his mind was the Royal Family’s behaviour towards him.

He had formally sent an invitation to the Emperor for Aria’s massive birthday party. But absolutely no one from the royal family actually bothered to show up.

’Well, obviously the old man is pissed at me.’ Adrian thought, running a hand through his hair. ’He is definitely still mad about the fact that I legally evaded his ridiculous fifty percent penalty tax.’

Adrian just laughed out loud in the room.

He honestly did not care at all. He was not going to hand away the hard earned money to an Emperor who was just going to waste it on whatever random political games he wanted to play. Adrian completely refused to fund that kind of nonsense. So if the royal family wanted to throw a petty tantrum and skip the party, they could go and fuck themselves.

But a second problem actually did rub him the wrong way.

He frowned at the small wooden table at the corner of the room. It was much smaller compared to the heavy oak desk in his main study. He mainly just used this little table for reading books or handling minor paperwork before he went to sleep.

And right now a letter sat at the center of the table.

It had the official wax seal of the royal palace stamped right on it. It had arrived just two days after Aria’s birthday party ended.

Adrian already knew what it said. The contents were incredibly blunt, and it was a strict, formal warning from the royal court commanding Adrian not to touch his ex-wife’s estate.

The Emperor basically told him that even though he technically won the proxy duel against Vaneira, taking over another Marchioness’s entire territory went completely against the fundamental rules of the Empire. He was legally forbidden from seizing her land and expanding his borders into her domain.

Adrian had originally planned to march his troops straight to Vaneira’s borders and take full control of her cities. But because of that stupid royal warning, he had to scrap the invasion entirely. He could not risk a full scale war with the royal army right now.

"Those assholes have quite a few fourth and fifth circle mages so there’s no point in going against them at the moment. I could win, but I’ll lose a lot of men." he muttered and clicked his tongue.

That was the reason why he just used the last month to focus on his own territory and his dungeon projects instead.

Adrian looked up at the ceiling.

’Okay.’ Adrian decided. ’Time to head north.’

He got up from the bed and walked out into the hallway. He headed straight for Aria’s room and pushed the door open.

"Get ready." Adrian told her. "We are heading out."

Aria nodded quickly and jumped off her bed. "I already have my clothes packed, Papa!"

Adrian lifted an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh. Okay, good. Let’s go then."

He did not really need to pack his own luggage. Most of his important items and a full copy of his wardrobe were already safely stored inside one of the dungeon’s rooms. He could pull a clean white suit or fresh rations out of thin air whenever he wanted. So he was not worried about grabbing some clothes at the moment.

He looked around Aria’s room just to double check her packing. He noticed there were zero travel bags on the floor.

"Wait, where are your clothes?" Adrian asked.

Aria just grinned. She held up her hand and proudly showed him the silver spatial ring sitting on her finger.

"Okay, fine." Adrian chuckled. "Let’s go."

The two of them walked out of the mansion.

They did not bother getting a carriage for this trip and even though they had a luxurious one sitting in the stables, Adrian opted for pure speed. He grabbed a nice horse from the stalls and jumped right up into the saddle. Aria climbed up right after him and settled down securely in the front of the saddle.

So Adrian snapped the reins and spurred the horse straight out of Oresfall.

It did not take him weeks to travel this time. Because he was not heading all the way to Duke Silas’s territory on horseback. Riding that far would take way too long, so he rode straight for his ex-wife’s territory instead.

He reached Vaneira’s border in just three days of riding without long breaks. He bypassed the outer towns and rode directly to her main mansion.

Adrian walked right up to her front gates and demanded to use her teleportation gate. He also told the guards he was willing to pay a big fee for the access.

They went in to talk to her and then they took him inside.