Chapter 17
The free morning felt rare. Adi went to see the administrator in the outer palace to check if any letters had arrived. The administrator said they had already been placed in his quarters – not in the guard quarters at the Duke’s residence, but in her original room in the 2nd Knight Division. After several days, Adi returned to her original room.
As soon as she opened the door, she saw letters piled on the floor. She had expected one or two, but not enough to create a pile. Otherwise, nothing else in the room had changed.
Adi picked up the letters, checked the senders, and approached the bed. After sitting on the bed and looking outside for a moment, she flopped down. She didn’t want to think about anything. Just as she was thinking she’d like to kill time like this and closed her eyes, she got up shortly after.
There were letters from Spencer Grimaldi and from her mother. Her letter was addressed not to Adrina, but to Adrian. As if writing to the living Adrian, it contained affectionate, loving sentences and flowers. After opening it a couple of times, she hadn’t looked at it again. It was the same this time. A useless letter.
Adi put her letter in the desk drawer and opened Spencer Grimaldi’s letter.
Spencer Grimaldi’s letter contained similar sentences. Behind the pretense of concern and well-wishes lay different intentions. Adi lit a candle and held the letter over the flame. While watching the letters blacken indifferently, she read the count’s message and frowned.
‘Woodpecker King, assassin, stop it.’
She didn’t know how the count knew about the assassin going there, or what he meant by telling her to stop it.
But Spencer Grimaldi doesn’t like questions. What she wants is acknowledgment and, occasionally, novel thoughts that might amuse her.
Adi burned the letter completely. The charred paper fell beneath the wide candlestick. After unnecessarily turning the blackened paper into ash, she stood up and went outside.
As soon as she arrived at the residence quarters, she could hear Bert’s snoring. Sometimes he choked so much that Adi worried whether he was breathing properly.
Maybe she should have washed up before returning. The residence quarters were fine except that three people had to share one bathroom. When it was just her and Bert, they never ran into each other, but with a new person, they needed to be careful.
Adi brushed off her leather chest armor and went to her room. Here in the inner palace, laughter and similar sounds seemed particularly frequent.
Looking out the window, she could see nobles sitting on the lawn and children playing. Since there were no royals in Palesa now, they must be from noble families with strong royal blood.
As Adi wondered if children that age normally laughed and played like that, he noticed a boy who sat alone at a table with chairs among them.
The young-faced Duke sat with an indifferent expression beside a woman in her prime. Though the woman was surely younger, the Duke seemed to be dealing with her as if she were older than him. Must be because of the curse.
Whenever Adi saw real curses, questions arose.
If the Duke was cursed not to grow, what was the curse that he and Adrian had received?
Just then, the Duke looked up. Simultaneously, Roy Gaillard, standing behind the Duke, raised his head following the Duke’s gaze.
Their eyes fell on Adi Grimaldi. Instead of avoiding their gaze, Adi looked at them for a moment before closing the curtain. His shadow was visible through the thin curtain. Soon, the shadow disappeared, presumably as he moved away from the window.
* * *
The training grounds for knights were in the northern palace. The outer palace surrounding the inner palace was half like a castle wall – it actually was an old castle wall. The northern palace also housed the 3rd Knight Division, making it the place with the most knights. Adi had been here for several years.
“Got kicked out?”
And here…
“Why are you here?”
Adi had many enemies.
“I came to train.”
“So why are you…”
She couldn’t understand why they made such faces about her being here. When Adi gave them a questioning look, they responded with disgusted expressions, as if she had done something wrong.
“Why so interested? Want to fight?”
“What?”
“Want to go another round without rank badges?”
In truth, they hadn’t really fought without rank badges before. It was just insubordination. But no one would say anything about showing insubordination to someone not from Palesa. Seeing the page unable to respond, Adi smirked.
“Don’t worry. I’m just doing basic training today.”
While guarding, she had no chance to move her body from standing all day. She was more worried about losing basic stamina than sword skills. Since there were physical differences with men, she needed to train more than others, but with just her and Bert guarding, there wasn’t enough time.
Wearing leather armor over her chemise to cover her chest, Adi warmed up and began running around the training ground. Ignoring the following gazes, she ran as someone started jogging beside her.
Adi glanced sideways but continued running around the training ground. Perhaps because she hadn’t done this for a while, she was getting out of breath. The panting beside her grew louder. When she looked again, seeing the desperate way they were running made her feel somewhat sympathetic.
The young page, similar in height to her, reminded her of Adrian somehow. But Adrian hadn’t been this healthy. Forget running, he would be out of breath just going from the mansion entrance to his room.
Finally, after several more laps, Adi stopped, and the page also stopped, gasping for breath. Adi had deliberately stopped in a place away from others, but since the page had followed her here, they must have something to say. Adi stood in front of the page.
“Do you have something to say?”
“Hah… hah… What?”
“You kept following me, so I thought you might have something to say.”
“No!”
Well then. Thinking there was no need to stay here any longer, Adi was about to wipe her sweat with her chemise sleeve and move on when the page grabbed his clothes from behind. Adi looked down at the page quizzically.
“…Do you have backing in Palesa?”
“What are you talking about?”
“How did you get into the 2nd Knight Division?”
So there was something to say after all. Adi, who had been about to ignore and pass by, sighed at the desperation evident in the page’s face and turned around. Their gazes met at similar heights. She carefully observed the page who was still catching his breath. Seeing their tightly clenched fist, she wondered if there was something she didn’t know.
“Is that such a big deal?”
Adi asked. The page was silent for a moment. Adi took out the watch she had kept in her pants. Sge had to move according to schedule and didn’t want to delay any longer waiting for an answer.
“If you have nothing to say—”
“It is.”
The page said.
“Getting into the 2nd Knight Division is a big deal. I want to go there too.”
They were just guard knights, so how could it be such a big deal?
For anything, being first carries the best modifier. The 1st Knight Division would be much better than the 2nd if one wanted to make a name as a knight.
The 2nd Knight Division stands neither at the frontline nor the rear. If anything happens, they would be in charge of guarding fleeing royalty or nobles. While skill is necessary, it doesn’t seem to have any special meaning. Especially…
“Aren’t you of high birth?”
Though Adi was speaking informally because the other was a page, she had heard their status was normally one to be looked up to. With such status, they must be from a marquis or duke’s family. Since they would inherit their family anyway, why be so fixated on this?
If they were aiming for the 1st Knight Division, one could say their goal was to recruit excellent knights there for their family, but Adi couldn’t guess what it meant to want to join the 2nd Knight Division.
“Why do you want to join the 2nd Knight Division instead of the 1st?”
“That’s…”
The page made a troubled face at Adi’s words. Could they also be doing some kind of subtle work following their family’s wishes, like herself?
“…I have my plans. Don’t ask. I won’t tell you.”
Adi had no intention of asking if they wouldn’t tell. Since she had her own circumstances she couldn’t talk about, she considered that they might have similar reasons. However, the page’s attitude seemed unusually polite compared to usual. That part was more suspicious.
“Is your attitude different because I crushed you?”
“No!”
I see. Then why? Adi looked the page up and down questioningly. The page, seeming to feel guilty preemptively, hurriedly stepped back and shouted.
“And it’s not crushed! It’s perfectly fine!”
She hadn’t particularly been looking there…
It seems the rumors had spread quite a bit. Well, there had been many words like “crushed” and “no longer functional” going around. It was quite the scandal. Especially for an heir to a good family.
“I’ll believe you.”
Adi said with complete sincerity. But perhaps due to lack of trust, the page shouted angrily into the air. Adi walked past them. The page grabbed the departing Adi and said,
“And don’t come here again. All you do is pick fights!”
“What are you talking about?”
“The 2nd and 1st Knight Divisions have their own training grounds, so don’t come here.”
Was there such a thing? She hadn’t been told about it. When Adi silently stared, the page made an “oops” face. Given that he hadn’t gotten along well in the 3rd Knight Division, there was no way she’d get along well there.
“Right, as if you… got along well.”
There was an inexplicable sympathy in that tone. Adi shook off their hand and walked away. People parted to make way as she moved, as if facing a dangerous weapon that shouldn’t be touched.
A training ground exclusively for the 2nd Knight Division, huh? Thinking that Roy might tell her if she asked, Adi left the training grounds.