Adi Grimaldi did not return after an hour, but appeared shortly before two had elapsed. A strange, pungent smell of grass emanated from him.
Juls motioned to Adi, who had returned. He smelled of tobacco, but his face looked quite normal. The look is not cloudy and does not smell of alcohol. Juls was going to give him some advice before Claude dragged him away, but he seemed to have an unmistakable sense of danger. Having calmed down, Yuls relaxed his gaze and asked:
- What did Claude say?
Adi answered with an expression as if he did not understand why Yuls had such a face.
- Ordered to appear in Jonad.
- For what?
- Because I am a knight of His Highness.
Adi said. Momentarily speechless, Juls breathed out an empty “ha.” Knight Claude, wow.
- Don't be mistaken, Adi. Now you are my knight.
- Yes, I am Your Lordship’s knight. Until you return to Woodpecker.
The tone was as if he were saying: Be that as it may, you received your knighthood from Claude, didn’t you? Even if the intention was different, it sounded that way.
“However, after that I only obeyed orders. Besides, since the knighthood was granted to me by His Highness the Crown Prince, calling me His Highness’s knight would also not be a mistake.
— The Crown Prince, with whom you didn’t even know each other by sight.
Adrian was the one who would lift the curse from him. Such a person must not be allowed to fall into Claude's hands.
But why does Claude want to take Adrian to Ionades? Adrian Grimaldi is not such a valuable figure. Count Grimaldi is still at full strength, and Adrian is still too inexperienced.
It’s too early to start “cultivating” - and Claude himself is far from perfect. He rather needs Count Grimaldi. Then, perhaps, he learned that this particular person was capable of lifting his curse?
—Will you go to Jonad?
“If an order comes, so be it.”
- Clear.
A typical knight to the core. So there must be a way not to send him to Jonad. Maybe move it to Woodpecker? Judging by his relationship with Count Grimaldi, he is unlikely to refuse if offered. But this plan will need to be thought out separately.
- Adi.
- Yes, Your Grace.
- If this was not an order, but you were given the right to choose, would you go to Claude?
-...
Adi was silent. It's impossible to understand what she's thinking.
But if she says that she will go, he will consider her a fool. After all, this is the path not to exaltation, but to the Goddess of Death. And if Adrian makes such a choice...
“Perhaps, when the curse is lifted, it will be smarter to kill than to warm.”
Woodpeckers don't need fools.
- I...
Adi spoke.
“If I had been given the right to choose, I would not have gone to His Highness Claude.”
- And then?
“And I wouldn’t stay at Grimaldi’s either.”
Neither under the royal family, nor under the Grimaldi - what does this mean? Does he really want to come to him? If so, then the choice of Adrian Grimaldi will be a huge help for the Woodpeckers, and more precisely for Jules himself. The mere fact that he would not join Claude was beneficial.
To lift the curse, Yulsu absolutely needed Adi. Not Adrian Grimaldi, who was used and abandoned by the crown prince, but Grimaldi, who chose him from the very beginning.
- If neither to the royal house, nor to Grimaldi.
“Of course, I won’t go to Your Lordship either.”
-......
Jules fell silent. He couldn't figure out what was going on in Adrian Grimaldi's head.
* * *It seemed like an eternity there had been no such bright sun. Dalcatir's spring festival begins with rain. But just before it began there were always such clear days.
The residence where the Duke stayed shared a garden with the houses of other nobles, and if you looked out the window, you could always hear laughter and voices from people gathered in small groups. In this space, where previously only alien sounds had been heard, Adi stood for the first time in a long time, clutching a wooden sword. In front of him was Roy Gagliardo. Roy said:
- I believe that in terms of skill I am approximately equal to Illich.
- I don’t know who Illich is.
- Yes, that guy over there.
Adi turned his head to where the tip of Roy's wooden sword was pointing and frowned when he saw a man sitting on the lawn with a maid. He doubted whether it was him, but he was the only one wearing Palesa's knightly uniform, so there could be no mistake.
- Idle?
“He is a genius whose skill and effortlessness are at their best. If he had tried even a little, he would have become the famous blade of Dalcatir.
That's really enviable. Some people here work at night and train during the day.
- In short, despite all my efforts, my level is like this slacker.
“So wouldn’t it be better to make him work hard and beat Lef?”
“This asshole is far less interested in swords than anything else.”
- What exactly?
- Just live for your own pleasure.
-......
Adi thought that this was truly completely pointless. Have success at arm's length and choose a quiet life.
- What can you do? A knight from commoners. That’s why he sits, with all his skill, assigned to the palace - he can’t escape anywhere. And not even in Jonada, but in Pales.
- Is that so?
- Well, yes. Nobles look at commoners like bugs, right?
- You are a nobleman yourself.
“I lived a much harsher life than you might think.”
Roy looked at the man in front of him. Tall and skinny, he didn’t look like a skilled fighter at all. Although, maybe undress him and it will turn out differently. There are those who have solid muscles under their clothes. Here is Adi - in clothes he looks like a man, but undressed is a completely different matter.
“If I had real strength and an influential family, I would bring Illich with me.” As long as the food is tasty, any issue will be resolved.
“Then it would be difficult for him with Grimaldi.” In the north the food is tasteless.
Having finished speaking, Adi sharply swung his sword upward. Roy yells "Ahh!" barely had time to substitute the blade.
- Why are you suddenly?!
- When the enemy has relaxed, you need to strike the first blow. These are the basics.
- But not in the middle of a conversation?
“Will you say that on the battlefield too?”
Adi pressed on without giving a break. He was clearly superior to Roy in technique, but seemed to be inferior in strength - and gradually began to lose in close combat.
“Tsk,” Adi clicked her tongue, and Roy, watching her, smiled. At the very moment when he thought that it would be enough to strike from above and it would all be over, Adi moved her body to the side, grabbed the sword horizontally and inserted the blade into the gap between Roy’s raised hand and his armpit. If it had been a combat sword, the arm would have been cut off below the shoulder.
-...Is this also one of Grimaldi’s techniques?
- Yeah. Lef's favorite method. Works well against opponents taller than you.
“Well, I’m really taller than this asshole.”
- Do you want it again? I'll show you an injection in the throat. He uses it a lot too.
Saying this, Adi told him to take a stance and Roy frowned. He knew very well what a shot in the throat was. Illich fell for it.
- Lef's sword is Grimaldi's sword.
— The Count would teach some vassal like Lef his technique?
— Lef was my training partner.
This was before Adrien started getting sick. Then both were five or six years old, no more. To be honest, that time could not be called clearly imprinted in memory.
Among the scattered fragments of memories are Adrian and Lef with swords larger than their own height, who were usually mercilessly drilled by the Commander of the Grimaldi Knights, and sometimes, during rare visits, by Count Grimaldi himself.
When Adrina cut her hair and became Adrian, Lef also trained her. Probably, it was then that the count began to build his plan. After all, it was Lef who understood and wielded Grimaldi's sword best.
Roy's sword moved again. Adi, as it was, took him to the side and, pushing through the blade, put it to his neck. It looked so simple that it didn’t seem difficult, but if you tried it yourself, nothing really worked out.
“Don’t just look at the present, Roy.”
She wanted to see Grimaldi's sword fail.
- The present is the most important. If you don't take care of the "now", there may not be a future.
- Lef's sword is similar to mine. He is one of those who reads ahead. Study the enemy, determine his inclinations. Therefore, the longer you fight, the less chance you have of winning. He needs to win at the very beginning - while he still doesn’t know anything.
-...It defines, that is.
- You said that Illich is famous? Then there is a high probability that Lef has already analyzed it. If your family has its own sword technique, he probably figured that out too.
- Well, you really don’t know something.
Roy said.
— Our family is managers. They wielded the sword only at a basic level.
— And the managers went to war?
“Then there was no choice.” Besides, not wielding a sword at all is one thing, but wielding it somewhat is another, so they sent me away. So my technique is just the basics. No special tricks.
— Were there a lot of changes?
- The result of dirty fights. Your sword isn’t exactly like Lef’s either, is it?
- I also have the result of dirty fights.
Perhaps, if now I had a chance to cross swords with Lef, Adi would have found several tricks that he would not have expected. But even so, due to his strikingly inferior physical strength, it is impossible to defeat Lef. But with Roy it’s a different matter.
-You have good physical strength.
- And your technique is good.
— The muscles don’t grow, so I had to hone my technique.
- There are such physiques.
Roy said this and sat down, but Adi pointed a wooden sword at him.
- Stop pretending. Get up. There's still plenty to do.
- Creepy bastard. We should have figured out you even when you finished off the killer.
“We should have figured it out earlier.”
At Adi’s words, Roy let out a long “mmm” as he rose to his feet. And Jules was watching them from behind the window. They didn't seem to notice that the noise had attracted attention to them. Illich, about whom they talked so much, also looked at both of them.
- Well, how?
The Duke turned to Bert.
- Not bad. The technique is better than I expected. Except that there are some gaps in strength and basic training.
- Is that why it’s carried around like that?
Jules said. He noticed that he often went somewhere, and, having sent a servant to find out what he was doing, he found out that he was running circles around the training ground.
“Looks like he’s working on his weak points.” In any case, when he inherits the title, he will not need the sword. Grimaldi has changed a lot from before.
At Bert’s words, the Duke said “hmm” and looked outside the window. In the corridor connecting the residence with another building, the figure of Count Grimaldi could be seen in the window opening. The Count also watched them.
“I can’t understand what’s on his mind.”
Jules said. Bert couldn't make out who exactly the Duke was talking about.