Ch#154
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While it was difficult to pin down the exact shift in the room, Adi sensed that Macauliffe’s perspective had been altered by the recent events. Both men were masters of composure, making their true thoughts nearly impossible to decipher, but the atmosphere had changed.
A long string of dialogue followed, dominated by Macauliffe’s inquisitive nature. He focused heavily on the logistics of managing a great estate, and Yuls provided him with answers that seemed genuine enough on the surface.
Adi remained in the dark regarding Yuls’s ultimate objective. No matter how she looked at it, the motivation behind the scheme stayed hidden. The mere fact that he had invited Macauliffe for a private drink felt entirely out of character.
Eventually, the time for the midday meal arrived. Yuls excused himself, citing official duties, and invited Macauliffe to enjoy the comfort of the greenhouse in his absence.
As Yuls departed, Adi followed close behind. Bert stayed behind in the glass structure, likely to monitor the guest and provide a report later. What unsettled Adi was the way Macauliffe’s eyes lingered on her as she walked away. She fought to keep her expression neutral, maintaining the pleasant smile Yuls had specifically requested.
Upon reaching the office, they found Gavin waiting by the entrance. Yuls asked if the party had returned, and Gavin confirmed it with a nod before letting them inside. Once the door was closed, the chamberlain presented a stack of correspondence. He noted that three individuals were involved. A sharp, knowing grin touched Yuls’s lips.
He remarked that since he had dispatched ten messengers, there was a strong likelihood that three were disloyal.
Yuls began sorting through the letters. Only nine had made it back. It was possible one man wasn’t a traitor but had simply been robbed, yet the tally was higher than he had anticipated. He had only expected a couple of outliers.
Gavin inquired about the next steps. Yuls, not particularly bothered by the count, decided that a celebration was in order to honor Macauliffe. He noted that the Western nobility didn’t seem to hold the man in high regard anyway.
He instructed Gavin to summon the lords from the South. While the North was to be excluded, he wanted a few Western representatives present—specifically those who could make the trip within three days.
The invitations were ready to be sent; the turnout would depend on the recipients’ own resolve. Yuls wasn’t concerned with the numbers from the provinces, however. His real focus was on the arrivals from the capital.
He expressed a distaste for having certain people inside his home, declaring that the event would be held outdoors to keep them at a distance.
Adi wasn’t sure who he was referring to, as he didn’t name them directly. Since the North was barred, she knew Grimaldi wouldn’t be among them.
Gavin offered to find a suitable clearing, but Yuls dismissed the idea. He had already picked the spot.
When Gavin asked where the preparations should begin, Yuls named the Oak Forest.
Adi was baffled. She couldn’t fathom why he would choose a scarred, blackened graveyard of trees for a festive occasion.
Yuls explained his vision: the dead timber was to be draped in fine silks and illuminated with lanterns, creating an atmosphere of mourning. He intended to deliver his judgment beneath those charred branches.
Gavin accepted the command, and Yuls added that Lev should be alerted to prepare as well.
At that moment, none of them could have foreseen the outcome.
Gavin then asked about the Crown Prince’s involvement.
Yuls dismissed the concern, stating that Claude would show up uninvited because the upcoming events were exactly what he had been waiting for.
It was a given that other members of the Royal Family would attend alongside Claude. Their true allegiances remained a mystery for now, and Yuls suspected they were currently scrambling to process the latest developments.
Yuls turned to Gavin for his perspective. The chamberlain suggested that the royal faction would likely arrive without a set plan, choosing instead to observe the situation before committing to a side.
Agreeing with the assessment, Yuls dismissed him. The staff would be working frantically to pull together a banquet on such short notice. Once Gavin left, the office fell silent, leaving only Yuls and Adi. He watched her for a long moment, and she met his gaze steadily. Finally, he spoke her name.
She responded formally, and he offered her praise for her performance.
When she admitted she didn’t understand what she had done right, he pointed out that her smile had been perfect.
Adi remained confused. She couldn’t see why a simple expression carried so much weight.
Yuls then shifted the conversation, asking if she would do him two more favors.
Adi agreed immediately.
Yuls looked troubled as he explained the first request. The timing was ideal, even if the circumstances were less than pleasant. He predicted that Macauliffe would try to contact her, operating under the assumption that she had turned against her Duke.
Adi wondered how the man could have reached such a conclusion based solely on their time in the greenhouse.
Then came the second request. Yuls stepped toward her, his demeanor shifting into something far more serious. He reached into his coat, sank to one knee, and looked up at her.
He asked her to play the role of his fiancée for the upcoming engagement.
The request left her speechless.
Repeating himself, Yuls stood and took her hand. He slid a ring onto her finger, centered with a vibrant red stone. Though Adi was no expert on jewelry, she recognized the ruby—a traditional choice for such a promise, representing deep devotion and bravery.
He clarified that this was merely a performance for the time being.
While he intended to make it a reality eventually, he needed the deception to hold for now. Normally, these arrangements were handled between noble houses without much input from the individuals involved, but Yuls had no desire to force her hand or keep her prisoner. He knew she had feelings for him, yet he still wanted to follow a semblance of proper etiquette.
He told her he needed to stage a specific narrative. To do that, he had to ensure Count Grimaldi was removed from the board.
Adi looked at him, completely lost. She didn’t understand the purpose of the charade or what he was trying to prove.
She told him plainly that she wasn’t well-versed in the subtleties of high-stakes politics. If she was going to be useful, she needed him to explain his plan in detail.
Yuls asked if Dimitri’s lessons had been insufficient.
Adi countered that Dimitri had taught her to be honest and ask questions when she was confused.
A small laugh escaped Yuls. He appreciated Dimitri’s straightforward philosophy, though he knew many nobles would find such bluntness irritating.
He then revealed that he had ingested poison.
For a heartbeat, Adi thought she had misheard him, assuming he meant he had poisoned someone else. No sane person would drink toxins on purpose. However, the Duke was perfectly sane—he simply possessed a constitution that was immune to such substances.
He explained that Joel had crafted the mixture. Since the wine was naturally bitter, the taste of the toxin was easily masked.
If the mage had been there, he would have protested that making a palatable poison was an art form. Joel had painstakingly blended the venom with honey and aged it with smoked wood, even testing it on himself while using an antidote. He wouldn’t have appreciated his hard work being described as merely “hidden” by the alcohol.
Regardless of the craft involved, Macauliffe had detected the danger. That was why he had warned Yuls against drinking.
Yuls reminded her that she was aware of his immunity. She knew it wouldn’t hurt him, but that didn’t stop the protective ache in her chest. Watching him swallow something lethal was painful, regardless of the logic behind it.
He explained that by giving Macauliffe the same drink, he had planted a seed of doubt. Macauliffe had to wonder if Yuls was being reckless or was simply oblivious.
Because Yuls had finished the glass without hesitation, Macauliffe now believed the Duke was being poisoned by his own inner circle without his knowledge.
And then, Yuls added, there was the matter of her smile.
Adi realized then that her expression had been the final piece of the puzzle. Yuls hadn’t told her the plan earlier because he needed her reaction to be natural. If she had known the stakes, her acting might have been transparent, ruining the illusion of a traitorous subordinate.
She finally understood: Macauliffe now viewed her as a turncoat.
Yuls confirmed this. He speculated that if the Viscount wanted to exploit a weakness in the Duke’s defenses, he would inevitably try to recruit her.
That was the reason he wanted to present her as his future bride.
The plan was to cast Yuls as a tragic figure—a Duke betrayed by the very woman he intended to marry.
As he spoke, Yuls took Adi’s hand and pressed it against his face, closing his eyes to mimic the look of a man who had been deeply wounded.
Adi asked why he was going to such extreme lengths.
He revealed that the Viscount was already aware of her heritage as a child of Grimaldi. Lev had been the one to leak that information. Adi knew the truth about the fire—that Grimaldi wasn’t the direct cause—but the association was still there. Lev was, after all, a man of the North.
When she asked what he hoped to achieve, Yuls gave a cold answer: the total ruin of both Grimaldi and Macauliffe.
Adi remained silent. Both parties were threats to the peace of the Woodpecker lands.
Yuls admitted he wanted to maintain the image of a victim. In his position, acting as the aggressor would appear too ruthless to the public eye.
He wanted to manipulate the situation so that his enemies would tear each other apart without him ever having to strike a blow.
As he stood up, Adi considered the strategy. If Macauliffe and Grimaldi destroyed one another, the territory would be much safer.
She questioned if anyone would actually believe the story.
Yuls conceded that they might not, but he argued that the absolute truth mattered less than having a valid justification for his actions.
He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it gently.
He called her his love and asked if she would help him see this through.
She knew there was only one answer she could give.