Chapter 112
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“My Prince.”
Claude shifted his attention to the Count. Normally, the older man maintained the dominant position in their power struggles, but the atmosphere had shifted today.
“I have placed a great deal of confidence in you, Count, but you have overstepped. Your daughter may carry the Grimaldi name, but she is currently a member of the Woodpecker household, is she not?”
A hidden route lost its purpose the moment it was discovered. While Claude placed his faith in Yuls, he had to calculate the risk of treason. Yuls was the most viable threat to the crown. Even if the Duke himself lacked ambition, the nobility could easily manipulate him into a coup. Regardless of intent, exposing that passage was a grave security breach. The fault lay entirely with the Count.
“My loyalty is absolute.”
“I find your occasional bouts of naivety quite striking, Count.”
With those words, Claude turned his eyes toward Adi.
“You, however, I do not trust.”
It was a natural sentiment. Their current proximity was born of necessity, not faith. This predicament was as hazardous for Claude as it was for Yuls. Those Grimaldis were a constant plague.
“Walk with me.”
Spencer followed as Claude began to move. The Prince stopped and looked back, exhaling a weary breath when he realized Adi was rooted to the spot while Spencer Grimaldi tried to stay at his side.
“I was referring to Adrina, not you.”
The father and daughter reacted with identical winces. Claude looked on, baffled by how perfectly synchronized their movements were.
“Wait here, Count. I shall send for you in a moment.”
The Count came to a halt while Adi brushed past. Their eyes met briefly; he wore a pained, twisted expression, which she met with a cold, mocking grin.
The corridors were eerily empty of staff or senior attendants. They were likely utilizing the servant tunnels to stay out of sight. When they reached the Drawing room, a sentry opened the doors. Adi followed the Prince inside to find the room empty of any chamberlains. The heavy door shut with a definitive thud.
“What did the Count have to say?”
Claude didn’t wait a second after the door closed to interrogate her.
“He ordered me to assassinate Macauliffe.”
“He what?”
Claude was stunned. It wasn’t just the command itself that shocked him, but the fact that she had offered the information so freely.
“And your response was…”
“I turned him down.”
“On what grounds?”
“I am unfamiliar with the target. I don’t make a habit of murdering strangers simply because I am told to do so.”
Claude wondered if that was the correct answer. It certainly wasn’t the one he had braced himself for. He couldn’t even define what he had expected from her. Perhaps he hadn’t been looking for a specific reply at all.
Claude sat down, his expression vacant. Had the Count orchestrated this entire meeting just to issue a death warrant for Macauliffe? If so, he could have handled it privately. Was this a calculated move? Did he have a hidden agenda, or had he somehow peered into Claude’s own schemes?
“Macauliffe must remain alive.”
Survival was the only way to maintain the balance of power between the factions.
“I’m talking about Macauliffe.”
By that same logic, Count Grimaldi had to stay alive as well. He was the necessary weight to keep Macauliffe in check. Adi found Claude’s intensity peculiar; he seemed convinced she was truly capable and willing to carry out the execution.
“You speak to me as if I were a hired killer, but I am actually a member of the Escort Knight Division.”
Claude didn’t argue. He just stared at her with a look that suggested he held a secret truth she wasn’t aware of. Whatever his private theory was, he was clearly operating under a false assumption. Deciding the topic was exhausted, he pivoted.
“How long have you been conspiring with the Count?”
“There is no conspiracy. He approached me without warning.”
“Just now?”
“Yes. He came to my quarters. I haven’t laid eyes on him since the night of the ball.”
She had interacted with Lev, of course, but that was a separate matter entirely. Claude remained skeptical.
“You clearly don’t believe a word I say.”
“I don’t trust anyone. Not one soul in this world.”
Adi wondered if that explained the lack of attendants. Claude’s quarters felt fundamentally different from the Duke’s. Initially, she had attributed the feeling to the dim lighting, but now she saw it was the isolation. Yuls was never without his head chamberlain, yet Claude lived in total solitude.
“Tell me, are you familiar with Macauliffe’s appearance?”
“I am. I saw him once. He has a very plain, unremarkable face.”
Among the four men she had seen, he was the least distinctive. Yet, against all logic, he had seemed to be the one pulling the strings. Usually, those in power felt the need to project it—through grander clothes or elaborate grooming. He, however, seemed to avoid the spotlight entirely.
Was even his plainness a tactic?
“He would vanish into a crowd of servants or clerks if you changed his coat. Dignity is a fragile thing; it vanishes the moment you cover it in common dust.”
“Since the Guard has no reason to meet him, your knowledge of his face confirms he visited Yuls today.”
Claude’s intuition was sharp. Adi had tried to provide the absolute minimum of detail, yet he had connected the dots instantly.
“You should tread carefully.”
“You seem deeply concerned for the Duke’s well-being.”
“He is my kinsman.”
Adi doubted it was that simple.
“If I had to name the one person in this court I could rely on, it would be Yuls.”
If Adi were the Prince, she would have viewed the Duke as her primary rival. Yet Claude didn’t. She couldn’t grasp the nature of their bond. Claude was an enigma, and the Duke was equally opaque.
As Adi fell silent, Claude followed suit.
They sat in a bubble of mutual suspicion. Adi’s mind drifted back to the crisis at Pallesa Palace. She had struggled then to choose between the Duke and the Prince. Observing him now, she realized she and Claude shared a similar temperament. They were too alike to ever truly work in harmony. She wondered if he felt that friction too.
Claude ran a hand through his hair, breaking the quiet.
“Will you remain loyal to Yuls?”
“I have no intention of betraying anyone.”
“A person who claims to betray no one is impossible to trust. Eventually, everyone is forced to pick a side.”
“I possess nothing, including the privilege of choice. I’ve never even been granted the freedom required to commit betrayal.”
“And the Count?”
Adi stiffened. She couldn’t dismiss that point. But the context was different.
“Was that not a betrayal?”
“I was the victim of his betrayal first. Surely you are aware of that.”
Claude went quiet, his lips pressed thin. Factually, she was right. The Count had framed his own flesh and blood, going so far as to prepare a Corpse for the ruse. Even if the plan had been aborted, the intent was there. This conflict hadn’t started at the palace; its roots were much deeper.
“If I were to move against the Count, it wouldn’t be a betrayal…”
The shadow of Grimaldi hung over everything.
“…it would be an act of vengeance.”
Whether that retribution was for herself or for the original Adrian, she wasn’t sure. But since they were essentially one now, it served them both. That was the only way Adi could justify it.
She looked at the man across from her, still unable to gauge his heart.
“What does Count Grimaldi represent to you, Prince?”
Claude’s face turned stony. He was haunted by the regret of bringing the Count back with him—a foolish, sentimental error. He had allowed himself to believe the Count acted out of genuine care for him. It was a delusion born of a lonely childhood.
“In my youth, I viewed him as a better man than my own father.”
That had been his reality. The Count was the only person who had offered him warmth during those early years. He had even spent nights wishing the Count were his real father.
“I believed he truly loved me.”
“Did he not?”
“He was kind to me because of whose son I was.”
Claude looked her in the eye.
“It was never about me as an individual.”
Adi’s expression remained blank, failing to see the distinction.
Claude frowned. How could she be so oblivious? Then again, the Count would never have nurtured her understanding. She had been isolated in Ionad while her siblings were raised elsewhere.
He felt a flicker of pity for her, but then he pushed it away. This was a family matter for the Grimaldis. If anything, he was the one who had suffered most. It would have been better for the world if the Count had stayed home to raise his own children instead of haunting the royal court and making everyone miserable.
“Your Highness?”
They shared the same blood, so their misery was expected, but Claude resented being dragged into their orbit when he had no stake in their family.
“I finally grasp why my father discarded the Count.”
Claude spoke coldly.
“I used to think it was a petty reason to exile someone, but the King simply needed a pretext.”
The crown couldn’t be a puppet for Grimaldi forever.
“And now, I require that same pretext.”
Claude was trapped in the same cycle. He needed a force to suppress Grimaldi that didn’t lead back to the throne. There were very few people capable of acting as that check.
“That is why Macauliffe must live.”
If Macauliffe were removed, the entire structure would collapse into chaos.
