Chapter 5
At Adi’s question, the servant thought, “So this moment has come again.” It had been three years since he started working at Palesa. He had met three different escort knights, all different. He wondered how the fourth escort knight would react.
“First, I’ll tell you what you must not do in front of the Duke.”
They all had looked appalled before, vowing never to escort Woodpecker again. It wasn’t just empty words – they truly disliked Woodpecker’s visits. That’s why Woodpecker’s escort was always assigned to newcomers of the Second Knight Division. Of course, Palesa’s Dog wasn’t exactly a newcomer, but it was his first time here.
The servant cleared his throat again and continued.
“The Duke dislikes anyone standing in front of him. He also abhors tardiness, talking back, or not understanding instructions immediately. Especially, staring at the Duke’s face is considered disrespectful.”
At first, these seemed like very reasonable expectations. However, as the servant continued, he started listing what foods were allowed and forbidden during escort duty, hygiene issues, matters concerning women, and a knight’s duties in case of conflicts with other nobles or royalty.
With each new rule, Adi’s expression grew more and more troubled. Still, the servant thought that at least this time there was no cursing or spitting in his face, so he continued, “And…”
“In case of conflict with other knights, you must never lose.”
“…”
“Even if you have to bite like a dog, you must win. The Duke hates losing.”
“Really rolling on the ground like a dog doesn’t seem like something he’d like,” Adi thought.
Whatever the case, Adi was confident in her ability to win. And it seemed the servant in front of her thought the same.
“Given Lord Adrian Grimaldi’s reputation, I suppose we needn’t worry about that… right?”
For such a glorious and notorious reputation, her body seemed too frail. But her chest was quite solid, so perhaps she was all muscle under that delicate exterior. The servant thought it somehow didn’t suit that face to be full of muscle, and continued, “Another point to be cautious about is…”
By this point, Adi had grown tired of listening.
“Just what is the Duke so particular about?”
“I’ve only mentioned the basic points. High-ranking nobles tend to have strong self-control tendencies, but isn’t that why they’re in high positions? You’ll understand as you spend time with him.”
As the servant spoke, Adi thought of her father. Count Grimaldi was also quite strict with self-control. She had thought it was just her, but it seemed other nobles were the same.
Adi wanted to live as freely as possible. Even though she too lived under a kind of controlled situation.
“Sounds tiresome.”
“It’s a worthy duty.”
The servant smiled as he spoke.
“Because he’s the Duke.”
The servant then began to ramble on about how much respect he had for the Duke. Adi couldn’t understand it.
Tuning out the continuing words, Adi looked out the window. Laughter could be heard from outside. Woodpecker wasn’t the only one who had come to Palesa Palace. Those staying as the king’s escorts were wasting time in the inner palace garden. It didn’t make sense to her.
Then the bell tolled, signaling midnight. The servant stood up, saying that he needed to end the day’s tasks as he had to prepare the carriage early tomorrow morning to escort the Duke.
“Then I’ll see you tomorrow, my lord.”
“You may go.”
Adi saw the servant off. The servant thought he had given enough information and walked with light steps to his room prepared by the palace. He had forgotten that he hadn’t mentioned the most important point.
Indeed.
Adrian Grimaldi, who greeted the Duke arriving by carriage with the servant early in the morning at the warp gate, couldn’t hide her expression.
A beautiful boy with flaming red hair stood before her eyes.
Duke Julius Caspras Woodpecker, 26 years old.
Adrian Grimaldi, 25 years old.
Adi looked at the Duke, who was slightly below her line of sight. While Adi’s height was tall for a woman and average for a man, Duke Woodpecker was short and pretty. It seemed that being with this person might prevent her own identity as a woman from being discovered.
“Your eyes are impure.”
Duke Woodpecker said. The servant’s face turned pale. The most important point he should have mentioned first was this.
Never be surprised or look down at Duke Woodpecker.
Because the curse placed on Duke Woodpecker was…
“…It’s an honor to meet you, Duke Woodpecker.”
That he would not grow.
* * *
Did curses really work like this?
Adi wondered.
Adi too had heard countless times about curses. But no one knew what curse afflicted the Grimaldi twins. There was only talk that twins brought curses. The curse existed, but it was unknown if it had activated. Perhaps they were just bound by the name of a curse.
Some claimed that Adrian Grimaldi died because of the curse, but Adrian had always been sickly. So…
‘A real curse, huh.’
It was the first time Adi saw a curse with her own eyes.
In truth, Adi Grimaldi wasn’t particularly interested in others. Most of her worries were about her own life, leaving no room to care about others’ lives.
That’s why, although she had heard stories about curses in the Kingdom of Dalkatir, she didn’t know exactly what those curses were or who they had happened to.
Even though she had heard various stories on her way to Palesa, she thought they were just words, like the curse placed on herself. But Julius Woodpecker was truly cursed.
While southerners tended to be shorter than northerners, the Duke was of northern blood. Moreover, it wasn’t simply a matter of being short. His skin, fingers, traces of beard – all signs indicated that the Duke was cursed.
Then what was the curse placed on the Grimaldi twins?
“If you’re caught with those eyes, you might lose your head.”
The man spoke to Adi. Adi, who had been staring at the Palesa Palace-crested carriage the Duke had ridden in, looked at the escort knight riding a horse next to him.
The escort knight who came with the Duke introduced himself as Bert. With graying hair and a pleasantly wrinkled face, he looked to be at least in his mid-50s. Judging by his age, he must have been serving Duke Woodpecker since the Duke was young.
“What?”
“The Duke’s curse.”
“Ah, Lord Yuls.”
“…”
“It was from when he was thirteen. That’s when he received the witch’s curse.”
“But the witches of Dalkatir have been gone for a long time, haven’t they?”
At Adi’s words, Bert looked at her quietly. That was true in Dalkatir. The Grimaldi family had eradicated all the so-called witches. And so, it was said that the witches had placed a curse on the Grimaldi family.
“It’s an inherited curse.”
That’s a lie. No matter how ignorant of worldly affairs, even Adi knew that Woodpecker’s curse was not inherited.
“But isn’t he quite tall for a thirteen-year-old? I heard the previous Duke was also tall, so I thought Lord Yuls would be quite tall too.”
Adi shrugged at Bert’s casual laughter. Being tall as a child doesn’t guarantee being tall during the growth spurt. Also, being short as a child doesn’t guarantee being short later. Wasn’t Adi herself on the shorter side? She had grown late.
“So, what’s the Grimaldi curse?”
“Pardon?”
“I heard your family was also cursed by witches.”
“Twins are often born even without a witch’s curse.”
“I heard there was another curse passed down in the Grimaldi family? As payment for killing the witches.”
Adi frowned. If one were to be cursed for killing witches, the entire Kingdom of Dalkatir should be cursed. Specifically mentioning this curse to the Grimaldi family was because the Grimaldi led the killing of witches and innocent women, and the fear of that manifested under the name of a curse.
“It just happened to be twins this time.”
Bert said. Indeed, that’s what people say. In fact, Adi couldn’t be sure if it was truly a ‘curse’. Not after seeing Woodpecker’s real curse.
“I heard each generation lacks something,” Adi said.
“I don’t know about my grandfather. I heard he passed away young. The current Count Grimaldi, he lacks humanity.”
Although Adi thought it might just be her innate personality, there was much talk about Spencer Grimaldi’s cruel nature. People were saying similar things about Adi Grimaldi. It was because of the many incidents she had caused since coming to Palesa. But Adi thought differently.
“And I lack a soul.”
“You seem to have a soul to me?”
“My soul died and was buried in the ground.”
Bert looked a bit surprised at Adi’s smiling face as she said this. He hadn’t expected someone to speak of their soul dying with such a smile.
“If you were your younger sister, you must have been quite pretty.”
It was because Adi seemed unexpectedly cheerful.
“Yes, she was a beautiful person.”
Adi recalled the living Adrian after a long time. The boy who had been about the same height as him – if he had grown more, he might have been taller. Or maybe they would have been similar. Adi couldn’t know any of these suppositions. Because Adrian was no longer alive.
The Adrian in her memory was small. She overlapped the eighteen-year-old Adrian’s image with Woodpecker. Adrian too would have grown into a beautiful young man.
“It should have been you who lived, not me.”
“What kind of talk is that?”
Bert gave a hollow laugh. Whether he thought it was a joke or took it seriously, Adi didn’t care.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“No.”
Adi looked ahead as if no longer interested. The Palesa Palace could be seen not far away. The palace where traces of past glory remained, where Grimaldi had lived for two years but never entered its inner parts.
Adi hoped that Duke Woodpecker would quickly find what she wanted and leave Palesa Palace.
If it weren’t for that letter.
