[A/N: Sorry guys, I feel like I’ve hit a wall. I managed to do only one today but I’ll try writing more. Last day of the week and I’m going to deliver the 6 Chapters no matter what!]

Serena closed the book and a shaky sigh left her lips as she just sat there on the edge of the bed.

Her brain replayed the market trip on an endless, annoying loop, mostly focusing on Claire. Because Claire didn’t just walk next to Adrian. She grabbed his hand and laughed and dragged him around the shops like she owned the place. She had the courage and the skill to actually touch him and keep his eyes glued to her.

Then there was herself. Serena... just pathetic, quiet Serena.

She remembered jogging behind them. Her legs moved and she managed to keep up with their fast pace, but she still felt like a total ghost.

She was right there. But she felt like she didn’t belong.

Adrian and Claire had their own little private bubble going on. So Serena just ran after them like a lost puppy.

She felt completely lost.

Adrian was literally the only person alive who had the power to fix her mana veins problem. More than that, he actually wanted to help her. He didn’t ask for a crazy political favor or treat her like a bargaining chip. He was just kind. He had offered to do it for free.

And Serena knew exactly what that kindness did to her heart.

She liked him. A lot.

And she was aware of it from the start. The moment her dad had told her about him, she felt extremely grateful and when she laid her eyes on him?

A selfless person who was also extremely good looking? Who wouldn’t fall for such a man?

Claire needed to see someone liking him to even figure out that she had a crush. But Serena knew her own feelings from the start.

She watched him run a town and boss around massive armies and it just made her fall harder. He barely even talked to her over the last month. He was too busy doing his job as a lord and a father, but that didn’t stop her stupid brain from swooning over him anyway.

He was extremely funny. He happily did ridiculous, dumb things in public just to make his daughter smile and he literally possessed zero aristocratic filter.

It was a refreshing personality, but it was also incredibly familiar to her. Because her own father, Duke Silas, was extremely similar to Adrian in how he lovingly treated her behind closed doors.

But the only difference here was that Adrian was directing all of that wonderful, warm behavior entirely toward his daughter, and not toward Serena.

She caught herself daydreaming about standing next to him as an equal.

’What if I was his partner?’ she thought.

Those kinds of daydreams used to turn her face bright red and make her hide under her blankets.

But now? Now the exact same thought just made her feel incredibly sad.

Because she felt completely inferior to Claire.

All of the images in her mind where she and Adrian did loving things changed. She didn’t see herself there and instead, it was Claire in her place.

And it was painful.

She had felt this exact same inadequacy multiple times in her life. She did have small crushes on multiple noble guys back in the capital before. But every single time, she just could not bring herself to make a first move or even show a tiny hint of interest in them.

Multiple guys had tried to flirt with her. But her throat would dry up and she would just stare at the floor like an idiot. She was way too shy to even smile back at them, let alone make a first move.

And she hated herself for it. She had no clue how to fix this issue of hers.

Another heavy sigh left her mouth.

She pulled Adrian’s giant book onto her lap and flipped to the last few pages. She had to finish it. He gave her a task and she was going to complete it.

So she just forced herself to read it.

Sleep was totally out of the question anyway. Her anxious thoughts were just way too loud in her head.

She stayed up the entire night and ended up completely reading the whole thing and by that time, the sunlight started coming in through her window.

Serena slowly closed the heavy book. She opened her thin, personal journal again.

She went through all of her messy, scratched out notes. There was literally only three options left on the pages.

It was the option involving asking for blessings from the Angels, the Demons, or the ultimate protective race of this planet: the Dragons.

She knew the actual statistical chances of getting any of those mythical entities to respond to a weak human and grant a successful blessing was extremely low. It was basically a fairy tale myth.

But she was prepared to try them out anyway.

She was ready to go up to Adrian and tell him her final choices.

’If they ignore me, I know what I have to do.’ she thought. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

She would pick the brutal, bone breaking method Adrian warned her about. There was a safe option, sure. But she did not wish to sit in a quiet room and meditate for multiple years just to rank up her mana veins once. She was tired of waiting without getting results.

Serena closed her eyes and felt them burn like crazy. Tears fell from her closed eyes but she wiped them off before opening them.

’My eyes are burning... maybe I shouldn’t have stayed up so long.’ she thought as she sent the books back into her ring, stood up, and walked toward the door to go find Adrian.

But she froze right in front of the door while her hand hovered right over the doorknob.

She dropped her arm and slowly walked back to the before before laying down with a soft sigh.

’I guess he is probably still asleep.’ Serena thought. ’I shouldn’t really disturb him this early in the morning.’

And by the exact time she finished that thought, her eyes just closed shut and didn’t open for the next few hours.