Adi looked at the clothes sent by the Duke with obvious confusion. Roy next to her did too, although there was no trace of confusion on his face.
Early in the morning, Joel brought clothes and came with them to the knight's barracks. Bert, who was sleeping, yawned, asked - what kind of clothes are there for him? Joel replied, “It’s no use to you, sir.” This is understandable.
— Uniform of the Knights of the Duke of Woodpecker's House.
- Wow, can you really wear this?
- Yes, I would like you to wear it until the end of the holiday. Since representatives of different noble houses come to Palesa, if everyone wears the same uniform of the Second Order of Knighthood, it will be easy to get confused.
— Last year we just wore the regular uniform of the Knights of Palesa.
A black robe with a scarlet cape is a symbol of the South. The cold red color, exactly like the scarlet crown of the southern woodpecker, often seemed like blood. And indeed, this cape was stained with countless blood. True, Roy did not see a black uniform, but silver metal armor with a scarlet cape.
“Roy seems to like it?”
- I wouldn’t like it! Do the night watchmen also wear the same uniform?
— The emblem is different, but the clothes are the same.
After Bert's words, Roy reached for the metal mark on his chest and began to carefully run his fingers over it. It was in the shape of a bird's wings hugging a heart. This was only given to the Duke's personal guard.
- Roy, is your goal the Night's Watch?
“They distinguished themselves the most in that battle.” The soldiers of the Night's Watch also helped me.
“This is a sad story for the Gallardo family.
“So I have to revive it again.”
Bert patted Roy on the back, who said it as if it was something that was taken for granted.
- Adi, don’t you like it?
- No. I always looked at what Bert wore and thought how cool it looked.
Black clothes. The last time she wore these was when Adrian was lowered into the ground. The northern forests are so dense that you won’t notice a person in such clothing. But knights are not killers. They always show themselves openly.
Maybe in the South, black clothes, on the contrary, catch the eye. It seems like endless plains stretch beyond the oak groves. Adi touched the black cloth, in which the symbol of death was hidden. It felt softer to the touch than expected. Adi said:
- Only my father will be at that meeting.
“Then you feel uneasy about bearing the name Grimaldi and at the same time donning the knightly garb of House Woodpecker?”
“It’s not difficult for me to put on these clothes.” But if there is some meaning hidden in this...
He said exactly that, but didn't anyone present understand? That all this was done for show.
- My father will scold me.
The Duke's intentions remained incomprehensible.
- Scold, you say. What a cute expression.
Bert said.
- If they kick you out, come to the South. The Woodpackers will accept.
“Then I won’t refuse.”
* * *They were given half a day of leave. Roy muttered that the security of the Palace of Pales was strengthened and it was not easy to walk freely around the city, he suggested playing a game of chess in the evening, and as soon as he returned, he immediately put on the knightly uniform of the Woodpeckers.
Roy said that starting tomorrow he would wear this uniform all the time, and began to talk about how great the Woodpecker Knights were when he was little.
All this is the work of the previous generation, which they did not know. What happened more than twenty years ago remains alive for some, as if it happened yesterday, but for others it feels like an immensely distant past.
“Then it seemed like the world was collapsing. Such a terrible South, probably, has not happened since the Dalkatir clan existed. The acrid smell of burning flesh was everywhere, and there was neither the strength nor the means to wash the blood off the streets. There was not enough drinking water - when it rained, we stuck out our tongues and drank just like that.
The bloody storm that swept over the South of the Dalkateers is a story not familiar to Adi. But the bloody storm that swept over the North...
- Looks good.
The Grimaldis were the instigators.
— It will suit you too, probably?
Which means they deserve damnation.
- You're blonde.
The cape, more the color of blood than just scarlet, brought back old memories.
Spencer Grimaldi never returned to the estate covered in blood. Only a slight metallic smell was felt from him. And she realized that it was the smell of blood because of Adrian’s hemoptysis. She was not even ten then.
- In such an outfit you will immediately catch your eye.
- Is it true? In my opinion, on the contrary, it’s easy to get lost.
- He's black. Except at night, it will be conspicuous.
— In the North, the trees are mostly coniferous, so the black color doesn’t stand out at all. Especially in the forest.
— The forests that I know are green and emerald.
- Heard. They say there are huge fig trees there, whole groves of them.
Adi didn’t know exactly what chestnut oak looked like. There was only a vague fantasy that all this was much more alive than the mountains of the North.
- Woodpecker is more beautiful than Palesa.
— Joel.
- Sorry. The door was open.
Adi and Roy looked at him with a 'no big deal' expression. This was not someone’s personal room, but a common living room. Joel looked at Roy's clothes and noticed that they suited him very well.
— I came about the schedule. Tomorrow's lunch. Now everything is approved. His Highness the Crown Prince usually wakes up late, so it will be a late lunch at two o'clock in the afternoon. If you feel tired due to a broken sleep pattern, you can come to me...
He wanted to offer to come and get at least healing magic, but Adi, without waiting for the end of the phrase, said that everything was in order.
“I’ve already slept, and I’ll sleep some more at night.”
- Oh, well... okay...
“This man is also far from ordinary,” thought Joel. However, among knights you rarely meet anyone of sound mind. People who train their body like this, pushing it to the limit. Of course, he meant the knights at Woodpecker’s house, and the ones he saw here were a little different, but still, they couldn’t be called normal.
— Tomorrow at noon, come to the reception room.
Joel said this and hurried out. Surprisingly nice man. He was about the same height as Adrian before his death.
Of course, Adrian, in whose veins the blood of the North flowed, was unlikely to grow up to be as pretty as Joel, but something about this physique, which somehow resembled Adrian, made one feel tender for him, like a younger brother. Apparently, warmth appeared in Adi’s gaze, because Roy asked: “Why are you looking like that?”
- How so?
- Well, somehow directly with tenderness.
- Is it true?
Adi replied with an air of “I didn’t notice,” and Roy, waving his hand, sat down at the table.
- Well, what about a party?
- It's no fun playing with you.
Having answered so, she nevertheless obediently pulled up a chair and sat down at the table. And she began to arrange the figures with him.
- Am I playing for fun? This is also a strategy. You know how important tactics are in battle.
“I won’t speak for others, but I can beat you without difficulty.”
- Well, shall we play?
“Your thoughts are easy to read.” In war you have to fight in a way that the enemy doesn't expect. Am I first?
- Come on, start.
“And it’s even better to fight when the enemy doesn’t want it.”
“That’s why sometimes wars are fought at night.”
- Right. But the most important thing is completely different.
- What?
- First blow.
Adi looked at the Pieces that were moving on the board. Come to think of it, she was always the one who started first. She cleared the way, pretended that she had her sights set on one thing, and she carefully took away exactly what she wanted.
“...Is that how they teach it at Grimaldi?” First strike?
- Not really. I learned this from my own experience.
-......
- Maybe not. We need to take into account the possibility that the ancient sages already knew all this and wrote it down in books, and after reading it, I simply decided that I had realized it myself.
Rather, even this option is more likely, Adi said, and Roy, looking at her, felt some kind of inconsistency.
He himself received a noble education only in early childhood, and then wandered around the houses of various aristocratic relatives, until he was finally accepted as a pupil into his mother’s family - but even there they did not particularly care about his education. They were simply raised until adulthood, that’s all. After this, Roy had to survive on his own.
Therefore, Roy was a little different from other noble offspring who received the proper education and instructions from the family.
But Adrian Grimaldi felt something similar. Moreover, this guy, even if family relationships were bad, still lived in prosperity and contentment.
“Besides, my father rarely visited the property.” He was mainly located in Jonarda. And before that - in the war. So the actual Lord Grimaldi was rather my mother. She controlled almost everything. Until my... younger brother died.
— Losing someone is bitter.
Roy said. Adi knew that similar things had happened in his life too. But people always consider their wound to be the deepest.
- And if this is a beloved, dear child - even more so.
She thought so too.
“It must have been very difficult for her.”
- Yes.
I would love it. So much so that even the one they love would feel uneasy. If everything had happened to her, her mother might have continued to live as if nothing had happened. After all, it cannot be said that the feelings for the children were the same.
I sometimes.
- Probably, it would be so.
I envy you, the dead one.
And from the thought that I dare to envy you, I am consumed by self-hatred and guilt.