It felt like I was showing something I didn’t want to show. In this case, it would be more accurate to say “gotcha.” A strange feeling of sickening anxiety rose from within. Joel's comfort—or his sympathy—was completely unmoving. Did they report to the Duke?
Of course, they reported.
The clock showed that midnight had passed. It was time to get to work. Joel opened the bedroom door and stood in front of it, as if only Adi was allowed inside. Adi crossed the threshold. The Duke sat in the soft light, looking over the documents.
- Your Mightiness.
Jules looked up. Their eyes met.
- They told me that you called.
- Yes.
Immediately he lowered his head again and buried himself in the papers. What, after all, does he look for in them every day?
- It's time to work.
Adi didn't say a word. He just stood at the door. When there was no answer, Jules raised his head again. And then he smiled wryly.
“I assumed that you and the Count didn’t get along, but it seems things are worse than I thought?”
Of course, he heard everything. Perhaps he called her not because it was time to work, but to get her out of that situation.
...Is it really true?
Lately she has received so much kindness that Adi involuntarily laughed at herself - she must be admitting that someone would take care of her.
- How pale.
At these words, Yulsa Adi raised her hand to her face and then hastily lowered it. Jules looked at this strange behavior with bewilderment and suddenly declared:
- Leave your hair.
Adi stared at him with a blank expression, and he added:
- Don’t cut your hair, I say.
-...Do you like long hair?
Adi's gaze slid to Juls's red hair. As he grew up, his hair managed to grow back. Contrary to her expectations that he would cut his hair, Jules still wore it long. True, he tied it up - apparently they got in the way - but the red hair suited the Duke very well.
- No, I never thought about it.
What difference does it make to him whether someone has long or short hair?
But Adrien Grimaldi's long hair seemed to suit him better.
Cutting off such honey strands is a real waste.
- Come here.
Adi went to the bed. Jules extended his hand. Sitting in the middle of the huge bed, he could not reach Adi, no matter how hard he stretched. His fingers moved impatiently. Under a look that said “why are you standing, come”, Adi clenched her fist and unclenched it.
- Adrian.
Adi placed her knee on the edge of the bed. As soon as she rested her palm on the bed, Yuls pulled her towards him. Then he put his hand on her cheek.
First, the fingers touched the temple, then slid to the back of the head. A large hand felt the entire back of my head. And then she lay down on the top of her head and stroked her hair. No one had ever touched her head like this before.
“You have a beautiful skull shape, a short haircut would suit you.”
-......
- Will you cut your hair?
- If you order...
- My order? Or your count's order?
Adi couldn't answer. Whose orders should he listen to here? Looking at Adi, who did not dare to answer, Juls grinned.
Yuls's hand released him. Adi, who stood awkwardly on the edge of the bed, hurriedly stood up. Juls took the documents again with a calm face. There was a dent on the papers where Adi’s knee touched, but he didn’t pay attention to it. Juls said:
— Among the servants and knights that the count brought with him is Lef Zid.
- Yes.
- They say he is your only friend.
-...This is still in childhood. After all, Lef’s mother is the head of the ladies-in-waiting.
- Barony of Zid, right?
- Yes.
“The count seems to value him very much.” Since he keeps it with him as a personal bodyguard.
Count Grimaldi is a man who was once the bodyguard of the Crown Prince himself. He hardly needs separate security. No matter how many years pass, skill of this level does not go away.
“He is the strongest in the Grimaldi domain.”
- That's how it is.
Juls silently looked at Adi, who answered like that, then, as if dissatisfied with something, he narrowed his eyes and suddenly extended his hand.
- Kiss.
“I already did it this morning.”
— The sun has set. Now is a new day.
“How much longer do I have to do this?”
Duke Woodpecker is the one who watches and orders the kiss. Duke Woodpecker is the one who is feuding with Grimaldi. But there are many differences between north and south. How did they become enemies?
And what kind of curse is this for which the Duke forces the child of his enemy to kiss him?
- Adrian.
At Yuls's call, Adi climbed onto the bed with his knees again and took the Duke's outstretched long hand. And at that moment, when he was about to kiss his lips, the Duke pulled him towards him. The power turned out to be much greater than one could have expected. Having laid Adi on his back and being on top, the Duke pressed his lips to his.
Adi didn't know how to react to this. He just blinked numbly, feeling the soft touch of someone else’s lips. Before my eyes are the long eyelashes of the Duke. Both eyelashes and eyebrows are red.
Jules opened his eyes and stood up. Adi was still lying under him. His lips moved as if they wanted to say something, but not a single word came out. Juls wiped the mark from Adi’s lips with his thumb.
- Usually, when you kiss on the lips, the curse is lifted.
Having said this and stroking his smooth chin, Yuls said quietly: “It’s really useless.”
- Witches, that is.
-......
- Romantic, isn't it? A curse that can be broken with a kiss.
“Your Curse was not lifted, Your Grace.”
- I know.
If any time had passed, he would have at least grown stubble. The nails also remained the same short. At this stage, it was time to doubt whether all this was a lie, but Jules definitely experienced the moment when the Curse disappeared.
What's the problem?
Is it because there is no love? Or that there were no tears?
It is unlikely that it is simply a matter of contact of bodily fluids. Otherwise, the reaction would have come from saliva.
What to do with this Curse? No matter how much you think, there is no answer. No matter how much you struggle with an unsolvable problem, you will only end up wasting your time.
Juls stood up and asked: “How long will you sit like this?” Adi immediately jumped up and climbed down from the bed.
- Well, okay, what were you talking about with Claude?
— I don't know anyone named Claude.
“Gavin says he saw you with Claude?”
- What?
Gavin? When, where?.. The bewilderment quickly dissipated. After all, when Gavin came to the training ground to look for Adi, there was another man with him.
- Oh, the one on the training ground.
- Yes. What were you talking about?
“He said that he was looking for someone, but I replied that I had no acquaintances in the Second Order of Knights and I was unlikely to be able to help.”
“...You don’t know who Claude is?”
- Is this an important person?
That she didn’t know him by sight—he already understood that, but that she wouldn’t even guess by name—he didn’t expect that.
- How important. This is the Crown Prince.
Turning to Adi, who seemed to have stopped all her thoughts, Juls continued:
- The one who bestowed your knighthood.
The one who passed on the title brought by Count Grimaldi to the dead Adrian.
“And the one Claude is looking for is probably you too.”
Crown Prince of Dalkathir. He? Looking at Adi, who was unable to control her expression, Juls narrowed his eyes. Whenever something aroused suspicion or did not suit him, Jules made just such a face.
- Okay, let’s say we’ll deal with Claude. So what were you talking about with the Count?
- Nothing special.
He heard everything anyway, didn’t he? But how exactly I heard it remained a mystery. Frame not opening, something behind the picture? It was a landscape with many dark areas. It is quite possible to make a hole to peep or eavesdrop. Was someone hiding there?
- Adi.
If so, then the Duke asks about Spencer Grimaldi's whispers. He said that there were too many ears around. Completely meaningless and empty words. Even if you tell the truth, Jules won't believe it.
“I won’t blame you for hiding what you know.” But if you stupidly get involved in this situation and because of this, accusations of treason or something else begin to be heard against me, I will not leave it like that.
- What?..
- No, and this applies to you too. If you find yourself involved in something like this and it interferes with the lifting of my Curse, I will not spare you.
Treason? Spencer Grimaldi?
- Remember this, Adrian Grimaldi.
Yuls's gaze fell scorchingly on her. Scarlet eyes, the same color as the hair, seemed like tongues of flame. It was as if they were burning away all the hiding veils and reading what was hidden inside.
-...I swear on my Soul.
Adi said.
“I will make sure that nothing causes disruption to Your Lordship.”
- Swear on the Soul of your Twin.
Adi looked at Yuls silently.
— The soul of Adrina Grimaldi.
— This Soul has already left the world.
- I know.
“Why swear by the soul of a dead man?” - Adi thought so, but at that very moment she realized that the soul he was talking about was her own.
- Yes, I swear on Adrina’s soul.
No matter whose soul she swore, it was still her own.
Adi answered. At these words, Yuls narrowed his eyes and said:
“It would be better if that person remained alive.”
Adi's gaze froze on Yuls's face. For a moment, his expression flashed “oh, I shouldn’t have said that,” but was immediately replaced by a look of “well, what can you do now.”