At this time of year the Count was always absent. It was such a time - the last festival that the people enjoyed before the busiest time of work.
There was also a festival in Grimaldi, but Adi had never been to it. The festival in Grimaldi was headed by the Countess, but since Adrian fell ill, the festivities were carried out haphazardly.
Spencer Grimaldi always went to Jonad at this time. Did you go to Jonad, serve the king and from there move to Palesa? However, several years before she herself arrived in Palesa, the count stopped visiting there. Why?
Then why is he going to come now? Not clear.
Festival... She had never been to one.
- Adi?
There was a knock on the door.
- I'll go out now.
Having said this, Adi put the unopened letter in the box, and burned the letter with praise in the flame of a candle.
* * *—Have you had a good rest during this time?
Adi and Roy nodded at Bert's words. Only two days passed, but they seemed like a dream. Adi’s rest lasted a little longer, but for a wounded man this was quite acceptable. Bert nodded and scribbled something on his notepad.
“Then let’s make a new schedule.” Roy, what time is most convenient for you? Morning? Or day, evening?
- Morning is better for me.
- Fine.
This was to be expected. Most knights prefer to start early in the morning. Getting up, doing a little exercise, and then getting to work is the most convenient thing.
- Adi, will you arrange the night?
It's not a good time. Tough shift. But Adi, who could be considered the youngest in rank here, had no right to complain about such an appointment.
- Yes.
- Just a minute, sir.
At that moment, Roy raised his hand.
- Is there some problem?
“Adi has just recovered from her injury—won’t night duty be too hard for her?”
- That's understandable. Moreover, once a killer has appeared once, there is no guarantee that he will not appear again.
“Then, until everything gets better, I’ll stand night watch in his place.”
-......
Bert made a troubled face.
- Sorry, but sir...
Taking care of a friend is, of course, wonderful, however.
“His Lordship wants Adi.”
- What?
“His Lordship wants Adi at night.”
-......
Why do these words sound so ambiguous, no, so strange, no... so meaningful? Roy slowly turned to Adi. His face read: “Do you know something?” So what was he getting at then? When asked if you knew the Duke? Was this a question of preference?
- Well, then we’ll decide......
Bert looked at Adi.
- Sorry, knight. You'll have to suffer.
To these mournful words of Berta Adi only replied: “...Yes.” What exactly is “forgive”, and why should we endure all this? Bert got up from his seat, said that he was going on guard duty, and left. Roy, who had been out of work all this time, intercepted Adi as he was about to enter the room.
- What's happened.
Adi looked at Roy calmly.
- What?
- What - “what”?
- This is all - what?
- …
- Seriously?
What was going on in Roy's head anyway?
- I-is this true? Are you and His Serene Highness the Duke in some kind of, no, some ambiguous, strange kind of thing?.. Forbidden love, like that, no? Together, really together, no, I suspected before. At night! Together! That's right, at night!
Of course, something happened between Adi and the Duke, but nothing as serious as Roy imagined. At night they were together just for protection, weren't they? But to explain this situation...
Perhaps it wasn't worth it. I mean, it's all about the curse and stuff like that. Of course, people knew about the Duke’s curse and Adi’s curse, but for these curses to be interconnected—no, for one curse to neutralize the other—that’s...
- Sir Adrian Grimaldi.
At that moment, a servant knocked on the open door. Adi and Roy looked at him at the same time.
- Your Grace is looking for you.
Roy's face turned deathly pale. Looking after Adi as he left, Roy asked with his lips:
- “By... by consent?”
- “…...”
Adi didn't know what to answer to this.
* * *The Duke was not in the waiting room, but in the study. Thanks to this, the boundaries of the rooms into which Adi could enter in this residence expanded.
Adi had little understanding of what exactly dukes, counts and other nobles were doing. Spencer Grimaldi hadn't told him about such things. He only conducted sword training so that Adi could replace him.
The Duke noticed Adi's arrival and rose from his seat to meet him. Can this even be called a meeting? Adi took the hand extended to him and now habitually touched the back of the hand with his lips. But nothing has changed.
- What is this?
Yuls removed his hand and said:
“It worked then, so why doesn’t it work now?”
-...
- Maybe I should kiss you?
Adi shuddered. No matter how hard he tried to hide it, the rejection was clear. At this stage, one might well suspect that the reason why the Curse temporarily receded lay in something completely different - but the Duke did not seem to consider such an idea.
- You can go.
- Your Mightiness.
And Adi wanted to tell him exactly this.
— Do you have any other assumptions?
- No one except you.
-......
This can't be true. The Duke initially did not know what exactly would lift his Curse. That’s why I rummaged through the documents, trying to find this thing. In addition, he said that it was probably already among the items that belonged to him......
Of course, if you compare the time when Adi was his Guard and the period of the Duke's growing up, it was worth taking into account, but shouldn't the possibility that this was not so be taken into account?
- I guarantee it's you.
- However......
- What? I look too young and you don't like it? I'm twenty-six, so don't worry. I'm older than you.
But he doesn't look even twenty. Moreover, just recently he looked like a perfect child, and most importantly.
- Your Grace, are you not confused by the issue of gender?
“I lived half my life as a thirteen-year-old.” Do you think that in order to get rid of the Curse, it matters to me whether it is a man or a woman?
He better not care. If he preferred women, she would say that she was a man and therefore not suitable, and if men, she would say that she was a woman and therefore not suitable. But in this situation, neither one nor the other argument was suitable.
-......
- I'm not going to force you.
Jules said. He said - and again, like yesterday, he forced him to press his lips to the back of his hand. I wanted to somehow resist the Duke, who extended his hand like some princess and demanded a kiss as a matter of course - but what’s the point of resisting if you still don’t get through.
“If my Curse could be lifted by this alone, I wouldn’t demand anything special from you.” So...
For a moment, Jules wondered how best to put it.
Promise wealth and fame - so he already has Grimaldi, which he will inherit; offer to come under your wing - this is how Grimaldi again gets in the way. Then maybe offer help to the Grimaldi themselves? The only help Spencer Grimaldi needs is for Jules himself to die, and he couldn't do that.
Maybe it would be better, on the contrary, to kill Spencer Grimaldi?
The best way to solve a problem is to fix it.
...Although their relationship does not seem to be the warmest, still killing my father - wouldn’t that be too much?
“I’ll think about the rest later.”
-...
It would be better if he said something sooner, Adi thought. Because it was scary to imagine what unimaginable plans the Duke might lay out. But the words that Adi could utter were always the same.
- Yes, I understand.
- Starting tomorrow evening, come without unnecessary zeal. No big work is expected.
- Yes, I will come tomorrow evening.
Adi replied. Then Yulus narrowed his eyes and said: “Go.” Adi saluted and left. Now is still Bert's time.
When Adi came out, a servant was waiting outside.
I think it's Gavin.
- His Lordship...
- Inside.
- Did anything happen to him?
- Everything is fine.
Gavin's face showed relief at Adi's answer. Adi felt slightly bewildered. These people are the Duke's servants, so why do they seem to be worried not about the Duke, but about himself? As if there is something hidden that Adi himself does not know about.
Gavin knocked and went inside. Adi headed straight to the knight's dormitory. Luckily, Roy wasn't there.
Returning to his room without interruption, Adi took a letter from the box. Having read the welcoming lines of the letter sent personally by the count, Adi, instead of reading further, immediately lit a candle and brought the paper to it.
And then what the count really wanted to say emerged.
[Roy Gallardo has been accepted into the Duke's guard, I hear. You made a mistake.]
The first is a warning.
[You will soon be assigned a task on the spot. Wait.]
The second is an order.
[Boucher told me that you came on the anniversary of Adrina's death. Don't do that in future.]
Third...
- Adi.
The Duke then asked. Do you feel guilty before your brother?
- Adrian.
There is no guilt. Just a slight feeling of futility.
How did he know that she went to Adrian's grave? It only took half a day, and even then secretly - she went and came back. I just looked at the grave. She didn’t bring him a single flower, didn’t say a single warm word, nothing.
Did anyone see her come? Was she being followed?
She said that she would get her out of there, but in the end, it seems, she only got out herself. No, she didn't break out either.
Adi brought the fire to the letter. Like a spark devouring paper, a tiny spark seemed to ignite somewhere in the depths of my soul. But what kind of feeling it was, she didn’t yet understand.