Roy ended up showering with Bert. Roy, claiming that he was a Southerner and could not stand the cold well, insisted that he must wash first. Bert objected, saying that as you get older, getting wet in the rain becomes harmful to your health and your bones begin to ache, so he needs to wash first. They finally agreed to shower together and both went into the bathroom.
Adi went to her room, took off her wet clothes and put on something warm. Today it suddenly got colder. It seemed that if you just dried your hair, you could do without bathing, but it was unacceptable to appear at a meeting with the king in an unsightly state.
Adi opened the Knight's Notebook as she waited in the reception area for Roy and Bert to come out.
Just before the Duke goes to have an audience with the King, the Crown Prince is due to come out, so it would be nice to meet him. But the question is: during an audience with the king, do the knights stay outside or do they go inside with the duke? Due to lack of experience, this could not be known for sure.
- Oh, how refreshing.
-...
Just then Roy and Bert came out.
- A? Have you changed your clothes yet? You still need to wash yourself.
- Put on something.
“We’re men, what’s the difference?”
- Bert, get dressed too.
Although it was quite common for men to walk around completely naked, she did not at all want to witness such a spectacle.
- You should be less shy. Even for a northerner this is too much.
- Get dressed already...
Adi covered her eyes with her palms. Roy wrapped the towel around his waist, grumbling. Bert went to his room a long time ago, got dressed and went out, grabbing his comb. He seemed about to comb his hair, but began to tidy up his wet beard. Carefully combing it, Bert looked at Roy and said:
“Roy doesn’t seem to be afraid of the cold at all.”
“It must have been a lie that Southerners had to wash first.”
Adi came and stood next to Roy. As soon as she called him by name: “Roy,” he shuddered. She thought that he would not find fault with the one who washed himself first, but judging by the expression on his face, this man was capable of starting an argument even over such a trifle.
- Tomorrow is sparring.
- Yeah, exactly.
- That bastard.
Adi spoke, looking down. Roy's gaze also slowly lowered.
- Break his balls.
-......
Why did these words sound so chilling? As if he himself was under threat, Roy took a step back. Adi's gaze never left Roy's lower body.
- Crush everything that can be crushed.
Bert also froze, and his hand, combing his beard, stopped.
“It will be even better if he loses his male power.”
- Hey, anyway, this is too much...
- It's okay.
-......
- Just do it.
The raised hand grabbed Roy's shoulder tightly. Why, despite the lack of physical strength and weak grip, now it hurt so much, as if the bones were about to crush? Roy, not knowing what to do, just swallowed convulsively.
“If you don’t do it, consider your eggs broken.”
He had just come out after washing in warm water, feeling a pleasant bliss, but suddenly goosebumps ran all over his body, as if from cold rain. He began to rub the back of his head with both hands, trying to warm up against the will of the chill that gripped him, but the horror did not go away. Adi walked past Roy and entered the bathroom.
The door closed silently.
Bert and Roy froze, looking at the bathroom door. Bert broke the silence. Stroking his beard again, he asked:
— Angry?
To which Roy replied:
- Looks like it, right?
“I don’t know what they talked about during the day, but it seems that Lef Zid really angered him?”
What did Lef Zid say to Adi during the day? And then they didn't seem to get along with each other, but the fact that he said that... it was clearly a serious matter.
“So when he’s angry, he does things like this...
Bert shuddered. He had heard rumors that Adi had broken more than one or two eggs, but he did not think that he would persuade others to do this.
“Just because he looks calm doesn’t mean that’s who he is.” He's a dog, a real dog.
“Even dogs don’t commit such cruelty.”
-...
That's true. Everything turned out to be much more creepy than imagined. It seems Bert misjudged Adi. Roy looked at the bathroom door silently, then looked away. With a serious look, he frowned several times, as if in deep thought, and then opened his mouth:
- But it’s still better for other people’s eggs to break than mine, right?
- Of course.
Bert answered without hesitation.
* * *Juls threw back his wet hair. Long hair is inconvenient. Of course, it would be better to cut them off, but since everyone objects, I’ll have to leave them as they are.
Sighing and looking at the ceiling, Juls suddenly remembered Adi’s behavior. He looked at Claude and Count Grimaldi. And his gaze was focused more on the crown prince than on the count.
Judging by Adi's connections, there is no one to help him. So why was he looking there? Did he really think that the crown prince would take his side?
The Crown Prince is not that kind of person. Rather, he will take advantage of the situation if the opportunity presents itself. If we talk sensibly, then the count would have acted much more wisely by calling his son into the domain in order to protect him from being used. However, Adi perceives everything differently.
Is there something going on between them?
And why, exactly, did Adrian look at the crown prince like that?
Did something happen between these three?
Thoughtful and stroking his chin, Yuls suddenly froze. Something rough came under my fingers. Deciding that it was his imagination, he again ran his hand over different places, but now he realized: this was not an illusion. The hair did not yet seem too short, but its noticeable stubble forced Yuls to call the waiting servant.
— Joel.
- Yes, your Excellency.
- Get your razor ready.
Hearing Julius’s words, Joel was confused for a moment, but immediately understood everything and quickly nodded. He has matured. It is unknown what exactly Duke and Adi did, but in any case he matured. Even just a little bit, so that it’s almost unnoticeable.
Joel hurriedly fetched the razor, sat down on the nearest chair, and whipped up the lather with the brush. Just a month ago he had never imagined that he would have to shave the Duke, and now he was overwhelmed with emotion.
- Strange. Sometimes it grows and sometimes it doesn't.
I remembered how my hands, not knowing what to do with myself, trembled slightly, clutching my tie. He must have been breathing heavily because he wasn't used to being touched like that. As soon as Julius remembered how the man’s cheeks turned red, as if they had been stained with flower water, he involuntarily grinned.
“But I thought it was just physical contact.”
They say that if someone starts to seem nice, then it's over - and now that was exactly the situation. It didn't matter whether Adi was a man or a woman, it didn't matter whether she was Grimaldi or not, he didn't care. He didn't expect things to turn out like this. Adrian. Not Adrina, but Adrian? It was somehow strange. And if not, then perhaps the Witch truly sincerely made “love” the intermediary for lifting the curse.
-Have you found any clue?
- Looks like it.
What was on the Witch’s mind anyway?
“It seems my mother was much more of a romantic than I thought.”
The witch placed a curse on her own son. One day she said she did it to protect him, and the next she said she did it out of mortal hatred. He didn't think either side was a lie. She was probably overcome by ambivalent feelings. The witch was always sincere. She hated to death and loved to death.
After all, they, unlike people, live only by love. If the former Duke had not lied, if he had kept his promise, none of this would have happened. All this is just human karmic retribution.
Yuls, half human, also inherited this vengeance.
“The curse itself was still going well, but it seems that the conditions for removing it were not limited to a simple kiss.
It all started right then. At that moment, when he, an adult man, plaintively calling for help and pronouncing her name, suddenly became curious. But it wasn't love. She just interested him a little. When did this happen again? He could no longer remember exactly.
But now he knew for sure.
- Feelings, that is.
Perhaps the key to lifting the curse was not Adrian, but the feelings themselves.
- How useless.
Juls covered his face with his hands and looked at the ceiling. Are such things as feelings or love possible for him? He never thought he was capable of experiencing them. However, the human heart does not always move along the destined path.
Feelings, love, a curse-breaking kiss.
These witches...
- What should we do now?
Jules spoke out loud to himself. It is not difficult to experience feelings. But if it is just a matter of feelings, then does it concern only Adi? Or will he react the same way to someone else?