The breeze rustled gently. No matter how close early summer was approaching, there was a chill lurking in the evening wind. Adi, opening her eyes, sniffed and looked at the bedside table. Adrian's portrait lay face down. Apparently because of the wind.
Having put the portrait in place and collected her clothes, Adi went to the bathroom, where she surrendered to the warm water.
The bathroom in the palace is much better than in the mansion. They say this is a device created by a magician; she knew how to use it, but she had no idea how it worked. If I have to leave here - where exactly is unknown - I would like to acquire something similar. Although hiring a magician will probably cost a pretty penny.
Having washed herself, Adi wiped her body dry, put on a shemiz and covered her chest with leather armor. Shaking her wet hair, she pulled on her pants and opened the door to see Roy sitting at the table in the living room. Apparently, he had already prepared everything: there was a chessboard and pieces on the table.
— Left?
- What time is it?
— Four twenty in the afternoon.
Very little has passed since the end of the service.
- Did you wash?
- You washed yourself, I couldn’t. In the barracks at the residence, this is inconvenient.
However, he was too lazy to drag himself to the regular dorm and wash there, so Roy sat with the buttons of his shirt undone, letting it dangle freely. And he nodded to the seat opposite, saying, come on, sit down. A chess freak, by God.
Adi sat down opposite. The water, which had not yet dried, dripped down onto the shemiz. Thanks to the open window in the living room, my hair seemed to dry faster. Roy pulled a cigarette from his jacket hanging next to him and asked, “Do you want one too?”
- Do you smoke? Dear ones, probably.
- We treated you.
- His Grace the Duke?
Adi asked, moving the figure.
- No, I went out for a short time - some girl gave it to me.
Roy replied, lighting his cigarette. Judging by how thick the tobacco smoke was, he never really learned to smoke.
Roy moved the figure and took another drag.
Adi did not like tobacco smoke and therefore could not stand it even close to it, but the Countess, if she came across good tobacco, collected it and smoked it with pleasure from time to time. Looking at Adrian, who coughed after each visit to the Countess and seemed to feel worse and worse, Adi felt a particular dislike for tobacco.
"...No, maybe."
To cut off the thought that was ready to reach further, Adi hastily moved the figure. Knock, knock - with each strike on the wooden board there was a knock. After a few moves, Roy's mouth fell open.
- Hey, your boat!
- This is where you are always weak. Learn to see further.
“I don’t want to hear that from you, you know.”
Roy looked sadly at the taken piece, then quickly grabbed the very rook that was tormenting him and put out his cigarette on the table.
- So, what did you want to ask?
“I know so little that I don’t even know where to start.”
Adi moved the figure again. Roy stared silently at the chessboard. Adi's advice to look further was excellent, but his gaze remained short.
— Questions one at a time, right?
- Do I have information that can be extracted from me?
- Any information is valuable.
- Seriously?
- Seriously.
- And what interests you?
— Lef Zid.
Adi froze. Having read this reaction, Roy asked again: “I heard you were close, but it turns out you weren’t?”
- Lef... mocked.
- Who did you bully? Where is the addition?
- Above Adi.
- Above you?
Roy, who continued to question, remembered how recently the Duke mentioned that Adrian and Adrina both called each other Adi.
- Wait, over your sister? Man - and that's it?
Adi closed his lips. And so it was. Lef Zid hated her.
That she is a walking curse, that she should be ashamed to be the daughter of a count.
Adrian and Lef were foster brothers, but they say that such bonds are stronger than between siblings. How Lef treated him and which of the two - her or Lef - Adrian loved more, she did not know, but at least Lef seemed to consider himself Adrian's brother. And for such a Lef, Adrina was a disgusting creature.
However, he treated her well in public. In front of strangers, Lef Zid was obedient and caring, and only one person knew his true face - the dead Adrian.
Adrina didn’t dare ask. Who is more valuable to him - she or Lef. If someone else's name was heard, she would not be able to bear it. Perhaps Lef felt the same way.
We both loved Adrian and hated each other.
It was controversial.
- Yes. Because he became a man, and so he behaved like that.
After Adrian's death, many hated her, but among them Lef Zid stood apart. However, outwardly he still remained obedient. Except for those moments when they were alone.
- Hey, even if you say that, then how... Are all northerners like this?
It was unpleasant. Because his goals were visible right through. He longed for a blood relationship with Grimaldi. He also wanted the surname Grimaldi. After all, only then, as it seemed to him, could he become a real brother to Adrian.
- No, it’s just Lef like that. Boring because...
Unfortunately, his goals coincided with Spencer's goals. The count wanted as few people as possible to know about this shame, and at the same time wanted outstanding descendants. A full-fledged Grimaldi - not weak like Adrian, and not a female twin like herself.
So Spencer might give it to Adrin Lef. He was the best in the Grimaldi family, and even if of low birth, he was still a nobleman. In addition, he knew about everything that was happening in the Grimaldi family.
Lef, Spencer, and Adrina and Adrian.
Everything is hopelessly intertwined.
Adi removed another piece from the board. Roy collapsed onto the table and groaned, “He ate again.”
“I’m telling you, look further.”
- I have to tell you this, friend. I'm taking the horse.
-...
Tricky asshole. Typical southerner.
- In general, you are not particularly close, right? But what are you interested in?
“You said that Count Grimaldi is not your enemy?”
- Right. I'm a southerner.
- Then who is your enemy?
Roy's gaze, fixed on the chessboard, slowly rose. The expression on his face, usually adorned with a smile, disappeared. A subtle anger appeared. Carefully hidden, almost invisible anger.
— Kenneth Max.
— Commander of the Second Order of Knighthood?
- Yeah.
— Does he seem to be doing okay?
- Pretends. Until I leave he will pretend. And on the day of departure...
How to annoy Kenneth Max. Kenneth has seen so much that there's not much you can do about him. After some thought, Roy said:
- Maybe we should get drunk on some hellishly spicy food and shit on the table in Kenneth Max’s office, and then leave?
“...Just... ...leave.”
- Or maybe, as you did then, crush his testicles?
- I didn't crush it. They say reproductive function was not affected.
- Who's talking?
- Himself. Are you going or not?
- Let me think. Why are you walking so fast? It pisses me off how you move your pawns. So the horse, which he barely took, will be resurrected.
There was nothing to stop the pawn, which had reached almost the end. Looking at Roy, who was clutching his head, Adi moved the figure again. Clack - the sound of wood hitting wood.
“So you, the Duke, the royal family, my father and Kenneth Max are all on the same side?”
- No. The king and Grimaldi quarreled. You weren’t even invited to Palesa for several years, were you?
-......
- Someone else called you. Most likely the Crown Prince. Count Grimaldi treated him well. At one time he even guarded him.
Roy continued talking and suddenly said in surprise:
— By the way, did you receive a knighthood from the crown prince? So you know his face.
- I know the face, but......
- Well, you don’t even need to say that he’s blond... ah, well, all the brothers are blond, in general. The Duke is not blond, but the former Duke's late wife was a redhead. And the relationship between the king and the crown prince is not easy. In an amicable way, another prince should have become crown prince.
- Is that so?
- Do you know nothing at all about the royal family?
—……There was no way to find out.
Roy clicked his tongue. Among the nobles, there were sometimes those who did not know the members of the royal family or the king himself, but there were no such people to not know how the current crown prince took his place. It seems that Count Grimaldi really didn’t teach her anything.
- Listen carefully, Adi. Be careful not to blurt out anything unnecessary. The royal family considers this their shame, and for the slightest mistake they can have their heads removed.
-......
— The current king could not inherit the throne. He was the third prince. When the former king abdicated due to old age and the crown prince took the throne, he soon fell ill and died - before his predecessor. He ruled for less than a year. And the second prince was the former Duke of Woodpecker. Therefore, the current Duke ended up fourth in right of succession to the throne. Apart from the direct descendants of the king, the rest go by seniority.
The Duke is twenty-six years old and fourth in line. The Claude Adi had seen on the training ground didn't look all that grown up. It was difficult to say which of them was younger, but since he is from the direct royal line and does not count, it means that someone else stood above the duke.
— Initially, they wanted to place the son of the crown prince on the throne, but Grimaldi, Max and several other noble families conspired and placed the then third prince, the current king, on the throne. In the process, most of the nobles who sided with the crown prince and his son were destroyed. The timing was not chosen by chance - there were border clashes with another country. While the lords were fighting at the front, the wives who remained at home managed the estates - and a war was launched against them for the lands. The witch hunt served as a pretext.
So that's why the Grimaldi were at the head of the witch hunt. All those lands that were larger than their glory - was it really all captured like that?
“The lords learned about everything belatedly and, upon returning, saw their possessions in ruins.
Among them was the Gallardo family.
“Our home is in the south, so we went to war late.” It was autumn and suffering.
In the north there was almost no farming. It’s not that they didn’t sow at all, but they preferred to buy wheat and other things in the south. That’s why, apparently, the northerners were mobilized earlier.
“Thanks to this, my mother remained alive. Kenneth Max attacked my father when he was still preparing to go to war.
Click - the pieces of wood collided again. The figure was taken.
“I thought it was reinforcements.” It turned out - no.
Roy's fingers clenched with particular force.
“Do you know why Woodpecker’s holdings are so vast?”
Woodpecker was said to own all the land south of Red Oak Grove.
- The then third prince - the current king - the southern lords, defeated to smithereens, decided to oppose Duke Woodpecker, making him king. He was the second prince after all. The lords offered him their possessions and swore an oath of allegiance.
Anyone who had seen a map of Dalkathir knew how vast these lands were.
- But nothing came of it. The Duke was killed.
Almost half of the entire kingdom.
“And yet the south never renounced its oath to Woodpecker.
Gallardo, if they still existed, would have done the same. Roy himself always waited for the right opportunity. He had no intention of swearing allegiance to the current king.
“His name is king—and no one in Jonad dares to object.”
His overlord is the Woodpecker King, lord of the Red Oak Grove.
- But young, without any strength.
Young.
- Damn King.
Duke of Woodpecker.
“The First Prince is older than the current Crown Prince.” According to our tradition, according to which the throne is inherited by a direct line, it was he who should have become the real king, but the king elevated the current Crown Prince to this place. So the nobility rebelled.
- So, it turns out that the king and the Crown Prince had a quarrel?
- If you believe the rumors, then yes. But the fact that the Grimaldi quarreled with the king is certain. As well as the fact that they sided with the Crown Prince.
- It's clear. Checkmate.
-...
Lost again. The total score is 2 wins and 11 losses. To Roy, who mentally vowed to win one day, Adi said: “Thank you.” Roy, not expecting to hear anything like this, stared at Adi in confusion.
- You helped me a lot.
“Then you can post yours too.”
- What information?
— Lef Zid.
-...what exactly about him?
- Weak points, of course. We agreed to spar, right?
— Have you agreed to spar?
- Yeah, he came in recently and said. He glared at me - it was creepy.
Adi grinned, looking at Roy, who clearly did not understand what he had done to deserve such treatment. Well, yes, Lef Zid considers her his property. The familiarity of Southerners must have infuriated him.
- OK.
Adi said.
- I'll tell you everything.
She was dying to see Roy smash Lef.