Chapter 386: Muscles!!

The two women nodded in understanding.

Claire turned around and quietly walked back to her tent to get her ribs fixed.

Adrian looked over at Serena, who was still sitting in the tent.

"Why don’t you go and find Aria for me?" Adrian asked softly. "Tell her that I wish to talk to her."

Serena nodded quickly. "I will go find her right now."

As Serena walked outside and the tent flap closed behind her, Adrian finally let out a massive, heavy sigh. He just lay back down flat against the runic plate and stared up at the canvas ceiling.

"Well, I really did not fucking expect this," Adrian muttered to himself. "Holy fucking shit, bro. What the actual fuck? I’m not dreaming, am I?"

He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.

"Well, I don’t really have the time to sit here and be happy right now, though," Adrian whispered. "There are way too many questions that are still unanswered. These fucking Angels, Gods, Demons... there’s too much going on right now for me to even..."

He just stopped right there, unable to finish the thought, and let out a long, exhausted exhale.

He just waited.

A few minutes later, the tent flap opened, and Aria walked in.

"Papa," Aria said cheerfully. "I heard that you wanted to talk to me."

Adrian nodded and smiled. "Come here. Come sit beside me."

He patted the edge of the cot and carefully scooted over to the side to make room for her. Aria quickly walked over and sat down right beside him.

"Well, I just wanted to ask you a question," Adrian started gently. "What do you think of Claire and Serena? Are they nice to you? How do you usually spend your time with them? I want you to tell me a little bit about that."

Aria nodded eagerly. She grinned widely, failing to hide the excitement in her voice.

"Big Sis Claire and Serena are both great! I love them!" Aria declared happily.

She swung her small legs off the side of the cot.

"I talk a lot about magic theory with Big Sis Serena," Aria explained happily. "And Big Sis Claire helped me a lot with my daily exercises! I’m very strong now, Papa!"

Aria proudly raised her small arms up and flexed her tiny biceps for him to see.

Adrian watched her do it and just chuckled. Her little arms weren’t exactly skinny or bony, but they definitely weren’t muscular either. They just looked like the regular, soft arms of a normal six-year-old child. It also didn’t really look like she had been doing intense physical training at all.

Aria looked down at her own tiny biceps and immediately pouted.

"Papa, no matter how much I train with her, I just don’t get big muscles like you," Aria complained adorably. "Even Big Sis Claire has really cool muscles! And I don’t! She’s a girl just like me, so why don’t I get muscles yet?"

"Well, that is because you are just a tiny baby," Adrian teased.

He raised his uninjured hand and gently patted the top of her head.

Aria didn’t say anything to argue. She just puffed her cheeks out in a cute pout before she leaned over and comfortably lay down right beside him, resting her head gently against his shoulder.

Adrian just lay there and looked down at her.

"So, do you really want muscles like me?" Adrian asked softly.

Aria looked up at him, made direct eye contact, and then slowly sat back up. She leaned over and closely inspected his arms.

They were pretty muscular, in fact. His forearms were thick and extremely well-defined from swinging his staff, and his biceps were also incredibly impressive. They weren’t exactly huge or humongously bulky like Marquis Draven’s were, but it was an extremely impressive build.

Aria had seen multiple powerful men throughout her entire life. Knights were not something that she found rare. After all, in her previous life, a lot of them had actively come for her head. And even amongst the absolute best knights she had ever fought, Adrian could easily be said to have a perfectly balanced body.

His muscles were rock hard if he actively flexed them, and they would just go back to looking completely normal whenever he relaxed. While he wasn’t extremely huge like Draven or the so-called ’Hero’ she absolutely hated, Adrian could be considered to have an incredibly athletic and functional body.

It was the specific type of physique that was built entirely for stamina and agility, not just for pure, brute strength.

But of course, Aria knew well enough not to judge a fighter’s true power just based on their physical looks.

She reached out and gently squeezed Adrian’s forearms.

Adrian chuckled. "What, do you want to give me a massage or something?"

As Aria heard that, her eyes immediately twinkled. She nodded her head enthusiastically.

"Yes! I want to give Papa a massage!"

"Okay, fine," Adrian chuckled. "You can give me a massage then. But only on my arms, though. The rest of my body is kinda hurting right now, and I really don’t think a massage is going to help fix my broken mana veins."

Aria nodded seriously.

She started to gently squeeze his forearms and his biceps. She didn’t press too hard, making sure to be as soft and careful as possible.

Feeling her small hands working on his arms, Adrian couldn’t help but smile warmly. It wasn’t exactly a real massage per se, and it obviously wasn’t effective for muscle recovery, but he was incredibly happy nonetheless.

Aria just looked at him as she squeezed and thought to herself.

’I have seen extremely massive guys who didn’t look fast at all reach speeds that were incredibly high,’ Aria analyzed internally. ’And I’ve also seen incredibly skinny people lift such heavy weapons that it seemed completely ridiculous. So just looking at his build, I don’t think I can really predict what his limits are. But I’ve watched him fight today, and he is entirely different from all the other knights. I don’t really know if the specific martial arts way he fights with that staff is technically ’good’ or not by regular standards... but it is clearly very effective.’