Chapter 91
The music was so loud it felt like it reverberated inside one’s skull. The musicians lined up along one wall played beneath a domed structure designed for better acoustics, while people stood along the walls. Those who didn’t enjoy dancing watched from the second-floor balcony.
Those who were no longer young and had no interest in young people’s love games typically used such occasions to share political views. Usually, Spencer Grimaldi would have been up there too, moving about to create allies who shared his views. But today was different.
“They suit each other, don’t they?”
Claude said this hoping to get a reaction from Adi, but Adi merely gave him an expressionless look before bowing slightly and returning their gaze forward.
Adi’s eyes were fixed on Yuls as he danced. Similarly, Yuls, dancing with Lea Lintew, kept glancing their way whenever possible, as if completely disinterested in his current partner. Finding the lack of reaction boring, Claude’s face showed his tedium.
Soon, someone approached Claude calling, “Your Highness.” Claude, as if relieved, exclaimed “It’s been so long!” and threw an arm around the man’s shoulders.
Spencer, watching Claude, wondered how bored he must be to leave with someone whose name and title he didn’t even know. He considered telling him the family name at least, but Claude moved away too quickly.
Spencer looked at Adi standing beside him.
Adi’s gaze was as intense as Julius Woodpecker’s. Perhaps it was because Lea Lintew had claimed the first dance. While Yuls clearly wanted to refuse, Lady Connolly’s request had been forceful. At least give her adopted daughter’s first dance some dignity, she’d said.
When she’d asked if he couldn’t even maintain that much face for relatives, Yuls had been about to agree that of course he would, but Claude had been faster.
‘Of course he will.’
Saying this, Claude had announced he would request the next dance, taking Lea Lintew’s hand and kissing its back.
Lady Connolly had laughed behind her fan when asked if this wasn’t enough to save face. Through the thin fabric, doubt showed through. Her face said she couldn’t understand what scheme was afoot, but no one mentioned it.
And Spencer noticed there was something passing between Duke Woodpecker and his daughter. What exactly wasn’t clear. Seeing this, it seemed the rumors from Palesa weren’t completely false. But they couldn’t be entirely true either.
The grown Duke and Adi, secretly taken to Woodpecker. Even granting a surname and knighthood…
Spencer looked at his child standing beside him.
In his memories, Adrina had always been unremarkable. That was natural, since no one in the mansion had cared for them. He’d only really looked properly on the day Adrian was laid to rest. The long-haired girl had looked identical to the dead child. Would they have looked like that if you took away his smile?
When his wife said Adrian had never lost his smile until death, Spencer Grimaldi had thought it was over, watching the girl with flowing golden hair and thinking it wouldn’t have been bad if she’d been born male. So he’d gambled. He’d called her Adrian.
Whether particularly perceptive or not, the child had quickly understood what he wanted and complied. In fact, that child had proved more valuable than expected. After all, no one believed Adrian had died.
But putting them in a dress now…
“…”
He could see his wife in them. The woman once called the most beautiful in the North. The woman who now carried only the stench of withered grass and nervous exhaustion had once worn such a face with a bright smile.
“The Lintew daughter harbors an impudent dream,” Spencer said.
“Social climbing through marriage. Many dream of it.”
Adi turned to look at him.
“Even if she’s become Connolly’s adopted daughter, she won’t receive inheritance, and they’ve already lost one mine just for that. She needs this marriage to succeed.”
“I never knew you took such interest in others.”
Adi said this before turning back to face forward. Though they knew from experience, dancing involved a lot of physical contact. Not just joined hands, but the warmth of another’s body felt through the hand at the waist creates strange feelings. Lea Lintew must be experiencing the same sensations Adi had felt last night.
Spencer called out “Adi” to his child, who was frowning. This made them furrow not just their eyes but their brow as well.
“Is that how you’ll address me?”
“Would you prefer I call you Adrina?”
“Do as you wish.”
The tone suggested it didn’t matter what they were called. At this point, the name Adrina felt awkward to Spencer. Adrian – that name was more familiar.
“Well then, Adrina.”
They should have remained that way. According to his plan. Of course, Spencer’s plans hadn’t changed yet. As long as they were alive, something could be done. Though their taking refuge with the Duke was somewhat troublesome.
“You ran away quite effectively.”
“Weren’t you planning to kill me?”
“I wasn’t planning to kill you.”
There were other ways.
“I just meant to take you back. If you hadn’t gotten other ideas, there wouldn’t have been any problems.”
“If I’d gone to Grimaldi, I would have died.”
Adi said. Looking at Spencer while saying this, Adi smiled.
“And isn’t that exactly what you did?”
While their appearance was identical to his wife’s, their smile resembled his own. A cunning look. The boy had completely taken after his wife. Now he couldn’t properly remember either of them.
“All your children are dead, after all.”
“You make it sound like I intended it.”
Was this a joke? Adi stared at him steadily before saying, “Spencer.” At this unexpected form of address, Spencer closed his mouth. This would rank among the few times in his life he’d been taken aback. Though he couldn’t have misheard, the shock made him doubt his ears.
“…What did you just say?”
“Shouldn’t you avoid claiming you didn’t intend it?”
Adi’s gaze as they said this was cold. Spencer gave a hollow laugh. He’d heard that extreme absurdity could provoke laughter, but he hadn’t expected to experience it himself. “Did you just call me by my name?” he asked.
“What’s wrong with that?”
Such an brazen face.
“I don’t think I’ve committed any discourtesy. Aren’t we close enough to be on a first-name basis?”
It hadn’t been an hour since they’d said this was their first meeting. More brazen than expected. Spencer thought this trait also resembled himself. If only this child had really been male – thinking this, Spencer replied,
“I don’t think that form of address suits us.”
“Would you prefer I call you ‘Count Grimaldi’ to satisfy your ego?”
Spencer looked at Adi. Had they always been like this? At least not according to what Spencer knew. Had they been hiding their personality all this time? Why? If so, why reveal it now? What had changed?
“Surely you don’t want me to call you father. There are too many eyes watching.”
Though they mentioned the watching eyes, a different intention showed through. They had no intention of calling him father. Spencer smiled and said,
“How amusing.”
“I don’t find it amusing.”
Somehow, they seemed too different compared to their first meeting. The child who had seemed more wild than barbaric had become quite docile after education. Just like Adrian had. Spencer hadn’t thought this was wrong. The more controllable, the better.
Perhaps they had only pretended to be controllable. Looking back, their eyes had been different from Adrian’s from the start. Why had he thought they’d become docile? They hadn’t been like a doll, they’d just been too obedient.
“What did you do with the prepared corpse?”
“Why didn’t I realize?”
Perhaps Spencer himself had been the one who failed to understand.
“You, knowing nothing, couldn’t have suddenly prepared someone who looked like you.”
“You’ve grown quite dull. I thought you’d certainly know.”
Adi said.
“Where I’d gone. So when I heard Lev was looking for me in Palesa, I thought it was a smokescreen. I actually expected you to send assassins to Woodpecker.”
“You’ve grown insolent.”
“I was always insolent.”
“…”
“You didn’t know, did you? You never tried to know.”
Spencer spent more time away from Grimaldi than in it. While he might have grasped the territory’s situation through reports, he knew nothing of what happened in the mansion. That’s why Adi had thought Spencer might be better than the others in the mansion.
It had been a delusion.
“You only pretended to work for the family alone in Ionad while leaving everything to your wife, and you merely pretended to care about the territory belatedly while leaving me with Lev. After sending me to Palesa, you did nothing at all. When did you have time to understand anything about me?”
“You seem to have a lot to say.”
Adi stared at Spencer with a look that questioned whether he could call this ‘saying’ anything.
“Why didn’t you speak like this then?”
“Because I thought you still considered me your child.”
“I still think of you as my child.”
“No. You just thought of me as bloodline. Not as an actual being, but as a convenient doll-like existence.”
“Is that why you’re rebelling like this?”
At those words, Adi smiled. This smile resembled not his own but his wife’s. It felt like a very distant past, whose last viewing he couldn’t even remember, was crashing into the present through Adi.
“Look forward to it, Spencer.”
As Adi said this, Yuls approached from behind. He encircled Adi’s waist and called out, “Adrina.” His gaze, however, was directed at Spencer. Spencer frowned as he watched the hand pointedly wrapped around the waist.
“Would you like to dance?”
Instead of answering, Adi nodded and smiled softly. As the two headed toward the center of the room hand in hand, Spencer exhaled an incredulous “Huh.” Beside him, Lea Lintew approached with a hardened expression.
“Your Grace.”
“Lea.”
“His Highness Claude seems to be elsewhere.”
At Lea’s words, Spencer raised his gaze. He could see Claude conversing with others on the upper balcony. He lowered his gaze and smiled slightly. Lea Lintew also looked up at Claude on the upper floor. Seeing her hesitate, apparently lacking the confidence to go up there, Spencer spoke.
“…It seems it will take some time. You’d better go to Lady Connolly.”
Saying he should leave as well, Spencer moved away from her. In truth, Lea Lintew wasn’t someone worth much attention.
Adrina Grimaldi, and Woodpecker. While Spencer couldn’t understand what Woodpecker was thinking, he seemed extremely wary of Spencer.
Why? For what purpose?
His relationship with Woodpecker wasn’t bad. Though it wasn’t good either. About to move to the balcony where Claude was, Spencer stood before the stairs and smiled, lifting the left corner of his mouth.
Duke Woodpecker.
“But this might not be bad.”
