Chapter 107
Love. He mentions it like that occasionally.
It’s impossible to tell whether he’s sincere or joking.
“…”
What’s certain is that Adi had momentarily forgotten. Their relationship, and what the Duke needed. That had been the condition, so why hadn’t they thought of it? What ultimately connected this relationship was the curse.
The witch’s curse.
“And I wasn’t hurt by grandfather not liking me. After all, my mother wasn’t human to begin with. The curse came from her too.”
Yuls’s expression as he said this seemed genuinely unbothered. Whether that was sincere or manufactured was impossible to tell.
“Even for a marginal duchy of little note, you need support and a foundation. My mother couldn’t provide that. If anything, she might only inspire fear in humans. Moreover, witch hunts were at their height up north, and the royal family used that to their advantage.”
And Grimaldi participated as well.
“Because grandfather couldn’t have a witch as a spouse, he put forward someone else.”
“Lady Connolly’s sister, you mean.”
“Yes, that’s how Eliza Connolly came.”
“Your stepmother’s family is Connolly? Not somewhere else?”
At Adi’s question, Yuls looked at them as if surprised they didn’t know, then nodded.
Given the distance between North and South, it was natural they wouldn’t know each other’s culture and circumstances. Since Lady Connolly was based in Palesa rather than Ionad, it made sense not to know about an emerging power. Of course, Grimaldi could hardly be called emerging, being an old noble house, and Count Grimaldi was well-known to all.
Just how isolated did they keep that child, Yuls thought before continuing.
“The current Marquis Connolly is a son-in-law who married into the family. They had no male heirs to adopt into that house.”
Adi nodded. This was common among noble houses. Spencer Grimaldi likely had the same thought. Only he planned to use himself to continue his bloodline, then pass them off as a distant relative before adoption, rather than taking in a son-in-law.
“Thanks to that, the previous Duke of Woodpecker became the only person in Dalkatir to break the monogamy law. Even the king has only one spouse, yet he married a witch and then brought in someone from House Connolly?”
Yuls laughed softly. House Connolly was one of Dalkatir’s oldest families.
“That’s why my mother was hidden. One of Dalkatir’s power players would be better than a witch of a different species.”
They had the eldest daughter bring in a son-in-law to continue the family line and sent the second daughter to Woodpecker. And to the royal family, they sent their sister’s daughter who had married into Bellipera. Though this was the first time House Connolly had been so deeply entangled with the royal family, they had always held a place in Dalkatir’s history. And now this powerful House Connolly faced a crisis. No one could maintain superiority forever. Yuls found this situation quite amusing.
“If your mother hadn’t been hidden,”
Adi spoke then.
“Would there have been no curse?”
“How kind of you.”
Yuls said with a smile. This was typically human thinking. If that hadn’t happened, would this future not have come? Is that why there’s talk of cause and effect?
“Witches and humans think differently. Even if my father had accepted her as his official wife, the witch couldn’t have endured it.”
Yuls raised his head as he spoke. The way he took a deep breath sometimes seemed inhuman. Like watching another species perfectly integrated with nature.
“She always wanted to escape.”
…Was he really a different species?
“She despised that small, artificial environment my father created by forcibly confining her.”
In contrast, Yuls loved that greenhouse. It was the only space where he could breathe properly and live. Without it, Yuls might not have been able to endure at Woodpecker either.
“But she wasn’t always despairing or unhappy. She had days she enjoyed too. At those times, she would tell me various little stories. About the beauty of the forest, wisdom, songs and such.”
“Songs?”
“Yes, strange songs. Seas made of sand, metaphysical lilacs, raindrops that shatter words. Things like that.”
Though they didn’t understand it, Adi agreed it was indeed strange.
“There are things that are strange but beautiful. I too came to love that forest at some point. When you keep looking at something, there are things you can’t help but love, aren’t there?”
“Yes.”
Adi answered. Was that agreement or just a response? He hoped it was agreement. Then perhaps with time spent together, they might come to love him too.
“Right.”
Continuity, huh. If it could be gained through just that…
“What about you?”
“…Are you asking about my childhood?”
“Anything, whatever about you. I just want to know.”
Even with Yuls saying that, Adi still looked uncertain.
“Actually, I want to ask various things, but I think you might find it burdensome. Just tell me whatever you want to say, or experiences you’ve had.”
“I’ve never told anyone about myself before.”
“Really? I’m honored to be the first person to hear your story.”
“…”
“What was it like when you were young? You seemed close with your sibling.”
“We were close. I couldn’t have survived without them.”
Adi spoke while recalling their sibling. Now it’s too hazy to recall properly. Rather, only that child in the single frame they possessed comes to mind. A sibling forever frozen at that age, who might have looked completely different if alive.
“Come to think of it, I must have been alive, I suppose. Since infants can’t do anything on their own. Someone must have cared for me when I was young, allowing me to grow. But I don’t know who that was.”
“Wasn’t there a wet nurse?”
“Not for me.”
The answer came faster than expected.
“No one wanted to take care of me. I was completely excluded there.”
Yuls frowned at how unbothered Adi seemed while saying this. Dimitri, standing behind Yuls, had the same reaction. Adi wanted to ask what was so displeasing that kept Dimitri frowning, but instead continued speaking, shutting off that train of thought.
“So very occasionally.”
Adi paused after saying this. Their face showed uncertainty about whether this should be said. It was just speculation. They had never told anyone.
“I’ve sometimes thought that it might have been my mother who cared for me in those early days when I couldn’t even open my eyes properly.”
Not even to Adrian.
“Being able to care for a baby means being able to nurse, and there were only three children born in the Grimaldi mansion at that time. Me, Adrian, and…”
“Lev.”
That’s why Jid’s wife could become Adrian’s wet nurse, and further, the Countess’s lady-in-waiting. Though she became the Countess’s lady-in-waiting partly because the previous one had died of illness, it was also because she had built a strong bond with her as a wet nurse. Yes, it was a strange bond.
“Is there no possibility the wet nurse cared for you?”
“Well…”
Adi denied it.
“Because she hated me.”
“You think Lev hates you too.”
“That’s not just thinking.”
It wasn’t simply an emotion of dislike. Adi seemed unaware. What relieved Yuls was that Lev also hadn’t realized his own feelings.
And it was incredibly fortunate that he had discovered Adrina Grimaldi before anything happened between them. No, rather than fortune…
“By the time I was old enough to have memories, no one particularly took care of me.”
It was closer to fate.
“When I was young, my room was next to Adrian’s, and after growing up, I used a servant’s room.”
“…A servant’s room?”
The Count’s child using not even a proper room or a lady-in-waiting’s room, but a servant’s room? Beyond anger, it was bewildering that they didn’t even question this.
“They just left it that way?”
“Yes, I couldn’t do anything then.”
“No, not you, but the Count or his wife…”
They wouldn’t have done anything. Yuls’s expression turned serious. They taught nothing. Not politics, not relationships, not even the things one learns when becoming an object of marriage arrangements.
“No.”
All they taught was the sword.
“You must have suffered a lot enduring that place.”
Perhaps it was fortunate they at least taught the sword. Her skill and swordsmanship would greatly help in life. Above all, while it was good for dealing with troublemakers… he worried that it might expose them to too much danger in daily life.
Despite Yuls’s serious expression, Adi seemed unconcerned and suddenly answered, “Yes.”
“I’m glad to have escaped Grimaldi.”
They smiled faintly as they said this.
“I wanted to say something nice, but I can’t find anything good to say. Grimaldi was the worst. I really hate it.”
“You’re right, it was the worst.”
“So I was happy when I could escape.”
Adi wondered why Dimitri nodded at this but didn’t ask. They continued speaking.
“Why didn’t I realize when I was younger? If I had realized it wasn’t right earlier, I could have found some way to leave and live.”
Lilina
With how no one taught her anything and no one to talk to except for Adrian I guess Adi just assumed her living environment was normal 😭 that’s so sad
At least she’s gone from Grimaldi