I thought I was going to die. On the other hand, the truth almost died.
Not only Juls, but also all the servants and warriors who entered the bedroom, decided that Adi would attack the duke. But Adi's goal was the painting. A painting from which blood flowed.
Murderer.
-...Is he dead?
Jules was the first to speak. On Adi's dress uniform, who was standing right next to him, there were splashes of blood from when he pulled out the dagger. There was no sound from inside. Adi shook her head, as if she didn’t know yet.
The screams of the frightened servants drowned out everything else, nothing could be heard. Despite the blow with a knife, he did not cry out. Perhaps his tongue was cut out. But it couldn't stop breathing. In addition, although there was a sensation from the blow, it seemed to penetrate shallowly. And there was no fall.
Alive
As soon as this thought flashed, a creak was heard - the frame was moving.
Adi immediately plunged her dagger into the frame, securing it so that it would not open. Then she grabbed a sword from her belt and brought it down on the painting from above.
Not a sound came from inside, but there was a feeling of a cutting blow. Pulling out the sword, Adi this time plunged it into the painting and slashed it from top to bottom.
The painting tore into a long strip, and something black appeared inside the crack. It feels like a person has run into the edge of a sword. Feeling of muscle tissue. Having increased my strength, I felt how I caught a bone. Pulling the sword out again, Adi slashed horizontally.
Muscles resisting the onslaught, tightly packed insides, and bone again. But this was quite enough for a mortal wound.
Adi pulled out the dagger that attached the frame to the wall and opened it like a door. A masked man was dying inside.
Adi approached the man without hesitation. His condition was too deplorable to pose a threat. Adi came closer to take the sword from his hands, but suddenly froze. The man, who had not yet exhaled his last breath, grinned and, as if delivering the final blow, stabbed something into Adi.
It didn't look like a sword. Thin as a needle.
- Wow!
Adi pulled back. The needle did not mean a mortal wound, but there was a feeling of an injection. Is it really poison?
“Now it looks like he’s completely dead.”
Behind Adi, Juls said. When Adi nodded, he clicked his tongue and said: “I heard that this passage was closed.” “He stood at the head of the bed and looked at the man, dead in the narrow space between the open frame. This situation seemed familiar to him.
A servant ran up to him, threw a robe over the duke and pulled out the corpse. Others were tidying up the bed. Things went swimmingly. As if out of habit.
- Your Grace, really?
Adi asked.
-Have you always encountered this?
Jules Woodpecker chuckled.
-What do you mean by “those things”?
The back of the framed picture was covered in blood that had sprayed from the man. A cold look fell on Adi.
- Murderer?
Adi didn't answer. Juls closed the frame with a calm expression. It was clear from his face that the smell of blood did not bother him at all.
- They don’t pester me.
That's what Jules said. This means that this case is rare. Who could possibly send an assassin to the Duke? Adi had just begun to follow the emerging suspicion when Juls’ words: “I’m just pretending” stopped his thoughts.
- What are you...
“You won’t see anything like that in my domain.” I will execute everyone.
- ......
“I need to get out from time to time to find out who my enemy is.”
Yuls's gaze turned to Adi. This gaze, located slightly lower than his own, looked up from below, but seemed to look down from above.
- If you hadn't killed him.
Am I wrong? - thought Adi. The Duke must have noticed the presence of the killer. Judging by the hand he held under the pillow, and by the fact that he called the servant at the very moment when she climbed onto the bed to stab the murderer.
At the thought that she might have done too much, Adi replied: “I’m sorry.”
The Duke looked up at her. The nightgown under the robe was soaked in blood. He was too close to the killer. There was also blood on Adi’s dress uniform and face. The servant came up and said that he had brought a clean nightgown. The bed had already been changed.
- Today I will sleep in another bedroom.
Jules took off his robe.
“You also change clothes and wash off the blood.” The servant will escort you.
* * *Back at the dorm, Adi ran into Bert in the lounge. Bert looked at her with a frozen face.
Warm blood takes a long time to dry. The knight's dress uniform is washed in the palace, but it was better to remove the blood stains in advance. While Adi was thinking that she needed to soak the uniform in water when she washed herself, Bert asked:
-Where is his lordship?
— As I heard, he moved to another bedroom.
- How are you going to do it yourself?
- They said that a servant would come.
- Then let's go together.
- Yes.
Adi answered and nodded briefly. As Adi headed towards the bathroom, Bert called out to him: “Wait.”
— Last time you suggested strengthening security.
-...
- Do you know something?
I wouldn't know. Spencer Grimaldi warned that killers were coming and they had to be stopped. Having said that the killers needed to be stopped, he did not think that he could do it. Because it is unknown when they will come. No, even if they come at night, Bert is on night duty, so he wanted to at least give him a hint. But since everything turned out like this.
— Did I arouse suspicion?
“Usually, in this case, I would trust you.”
Usually. But he is another matter, right? Bert's gaze is piercing. Even more than before. Then, even if he didn’t trust him, he treated him as a person with whom he worked well, but now distrust has blossomed in him.
“But there are also those who first inspire trust and then stab you in the back.
“Then you should strengthen your security in future.”
Adi said this calmly. Believe it or not, what difference does it make? In any case, this was not the person with whom we were going to stay together for a long time. When the matter is finished, they will simply disperse. And Adi himself will stay here until his father calls him.
Be that as it may, the North and South in the end do not even engage in trade with each other. I didn’t want to try for the trust or favor of such a person. And you can’t achieve this by trying.
- I'll go wash myself.
Adi said this and entered the bathroom. Bert didn't stop him.
The bathroom mirror reflected a blood-soaked image. There was more blood splattered than one would have thought. The golden blond hair looked as red as blood. Looking at this, Adi thought that the Duke probably did not even notice that there was blood on his own hair.
He took off his dress uniform, soaked it in water and washed the blood from his hair and face. The back of my head, my wrists—there was blood everywhere, and it seemed like I couldn’t wash myself properly without completely undressing.
But now it was almost three in the morning, and in any case they would be back in five hours. The servant was also waiting, so he would have to be content with washing only the upper part of his body.
Using his dress uniform, he wiped the blood from his leather armor. The shemiz was also full of blood. Having removed it and soaked it in water so that the blood would drain, Adi additionally wiped off the remaining blood from the skin, then wrung out the shemiz, from which the blood had already partially drained, and put it on, and again pulled the leather armor over it.
I would like to come out like this, but in this form it is easy to give away that he is a woman.
There was also no comb to lift up the wet hair. He irritably combed his hair that had fallen down, but it fell again. Adi came out of the bathroom. Bert, who was waiting outside, was startled when he saw him. He looked even more pitiful than a mouse soaked through in a pond.
-...And so you’ll go?
- No.
Adi answered. Under her gaze that said “would you go dressed like this?”, Bert closed his lips.
- I'll go out now.
Having said this, Adi headed to her room. The curtain was open. Quickly closing it, Adi took off her armor and chemiz at once, then took out new clothes from the closet and put them on.
The moisture still remained, and the fabric stuck to the body, but it would dry quickly, and on top of the dress uniform, nothing would be visible. She put on her leather armor again and put on her dress uniform over it.
I wanted to put my hair up, but there was no time. When they dry, curl and become fluffy, it will look like a woman, but, despite the concern, nothing can be done. There is little time.
Having also changed her blood-soaked shoes, Adi suddenly felt a tingling sensation. She forgot that she had pricked herself with a needle. She was insensitive to wounds and pain, always had been - even when she tried to remember it.
Realizing her own stupidity from the returning pain and thinking that, judging by the fact that she could still move, it was definitely not poison, Adi decided that if the pain remained after duty, she would need to go to the first aid station.
When Adi opened the door and went out, Bert, who was sitting, stood up.
- Your hair is wet, sir.
- There is not enough time for drying. I wiped away the moisture, but maybe I should comb my hair some more?
- No, go. They've been waiting for you for a long time.
Having said this, Bert pointed to the servant visible in the slightly open door.
The servant, making sure that everything was ready, opened the door. Bert and Adi's gazes turned to him.
“Everything is ready, I’ll take you to the bedroom.”