Chapter 27
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When Adi’s vision cleared, the overhead view was hauntingly familiar. It was a pristine white ceiling, intricately carved, yet it struck her with a sudden sense of displacement.
Her usual quarters were rectangular, but the geometry of this room was perfectly square. Perhaps she had been mistaken about the architecture after all.
Adi pushed herself upright, noticing an unexpected lightness in her limbs. Her attire remained the same as before. Though a film of perspiration made her skin feel tacky, her internal vitality seemed to have surged to an incredible peak.
She took a cautious look around the chamber. The space offered no obvious weaponry, but a quick check confirmed that her captors—or hosts—had overlooked the small blade strapped to her thigh. Clinging to the handle of the dagger, she crept toward the exit and transitioned into the adjoining space.
The bedroom she entered was entirely foreign to her.
Sprawled across the snowy linens of the bed was a shock of crimson hair.
Relief washed over Adi initially; the color was a hallmark of someone she recognized. However, the proportions were wrong. While the shade of the hair was unmistakable, the sheer scale of the person and the length of the locks did not match the Duke she knew.
“Your Excellency?” she whispered.
Silence met her query.
Adi moved closer to the bedside.
The figure resting there, eyes shielded by his lids, was certainly not the Duke.
The instant she unsheathed her weapon, the man’s eyes flew open. Seeing the cold steel hovering near his face, he reacted with blinding speed. He seized Adi’s wrist, yanked her onto the mattress, and used his weight to pin her firmly against the bed.
“What exactly are you trying to achieve?” he demanded.
Adi struggled to see if his features mirrored the Duke’s, but a thick beard masked his face. His voice and frame were unrecognizable, and his power was so absolute that she found herself completely trapped.
Though she possessed the training and stamina of a veteran soldier, she was no match for his raw, masculine strength. He held her hands down with effortless force. Realizing her upper body was neutralized, she attempted to strike with her knee, but he anticipated the move and crushed that attempt as well. The man looked down at her, his expression one of pure bewilderment.
“Adi Grimaldi.”
“…Who are you?” she managed to ask.
“What?”
He sounded genuinely confused. Before he could elaborate, the door swung wide, likely pushed open by a servant who had heard the scuffle.
The attendant froze at the sight of the man. Then, glancing at the figure trapped beneath him, the servant gasped, “Sir Adrian Grimaldi?”
“What is the meaning of…”
The servant stood paralyzed in the doorway, unable to move forward or flee.
“Y-Your Grace? Is that truly you?”
“What on earth are you talking about?”
The man reached up to brush his hair away from his eyes, but the long strands simply tumbled back down, obstructing his view. It was clearly irritating him. As he went to sweep it back a second time, he suddenly went rigid. He stared at his own hands as if seeing them for the first time.
“What has happened?”
Yuls sat in stunned silence, staring at the long hair falling past his face and the altered state of his hands.
Since his childhood, his growth had been magically arrested—not just his height, but his hair and nails as well. Now, his fingernails were elongated, resembling the claws of a predator.
“Look at my hands.”
“Your Excellency!”
Yuls shifted his gaze back to Adi. She was just as shocked as he was. The Duke Woodpecker she knew was supposed to be…
“You,” she breathed.
He had been a thirteen-year-old child.
“What did you do?”
The person looming over her was a fully grown man. He was significantly larger than Adi now.
“Gavin! Billy! Ivan!”
The servant scrambled away, shouting for the rest of the staff. Roy, who had been waiting in the parlor, didn’t wait for his name to be called. He raced toward the bedroom, certain that a knight would be more useful than an attendant in a crisis.
However, when Roy burst into the room, he found himself utterly useless.
He saw Adi sitting on the edge of the bed, while a red-haired stranger stood beside her. The young boy he was sworn to protect, Duke Woodpecker, was nowhere to be found.
The only connection was the man’s eyes; they held a spark of the Duke’s spirit. But the body was wrong. The size was impossible.
“…Your Excellency?”
“A mirror! Bring a mirror immediately!”
A servant hurried over with a large looking glass. As Yuls stood before it, his muslin sleepwear seemed stretched to the breaking point, the fabric straining against his new muscles. Adi watched him, her mind still reeling. “Your Excellency…?” she whispered again.
Yuls studied his reflection before speaking. “Is that why you drew your blade?”
“Did you take me for an intruder?”
“…”
Adi remained silent. It was the only logical conclusion. While the breaking of a curse was cause for celebration, the idea of a boy aging a decade in a single night defied all reason.
“My features haven’t changed,” he remarked.
Adi looked at the dense beard covering his jaw and wondered how he could possibly make such a claim.
“The nails and the beard must go first,” the Duke decided.
“Fetch Joel and Bert. And I require a change of clothes. My current wardrobe will be far too small. I’ll need something oversized for now.”
Yuls glanced at Adi, realized her clothes would be useless to him, and turned his attention to Roy. “I apologize, but I must borrow a set of your garments.”
Roy gave a stunned nod and retreated to fetch them.
“Adi, please move to the chair,” Yuls instructed.
She obeyed, though her face remained a mask of confusion.
“We need to discuss these developments.”
Adi couldn’t fathom why he wanted to include her in this conversation.
As she sat in a daze, Bert arrived. “Your Excellency!” he cried out. Even though the person standing there was a towering, hairy giant of a man, Bert didn’t hesitate. He threw his arms around Yuls in a fierce hug.
“I always knew this was the man you would become! You are the image of the late Duke!”
Bert’s voice cracked with emotion. Adi watched the two massive men embrace, feeling entirely out of place. Relief finally arrived in the form of a page carrying a basin of water and grooming tools.
*
The transformation began with his nails being trimmed and filed. Once the beard was shortened with shears, the razor came out.
Adi had never witnessed someone being shaved before. She watched with a strange fascination as the white foam was applied and the blade revealed smooth skin with every stroke. She found herself amazed that the sharp edge didn’t draw blood.
When the last of the hair was gone, the Duke’s face emerged. It still carried a hint of youth; he didn’t quite look twenty-six, appearing more like a young man of eighteen or nineteen.
He looked exactly as Adrina remembered her brother, Adrian—caught in that fleeting moment between boyhood and manhood.
“The growth isn’t complete,” Yuls noted.
“Even so, this is more than enough to turn the tide in our favor,” Bert replied.
The household staff seemed to accept the change without question, perhaps because of his resemblance to his father. But for Adi and Roy, the sight of this new, towering Duke remained deeply unsettling.
“Roy, do you have the clothes?”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
Roy presented a chemise and trousers. When Yuls pulled them on, he grimaced. The pants ended well above his ankles, though the shirt was passable.
“I intended to clear your schedule,” Bert said, “but Marchioness Connolly is being quite persistent about an audience.”
“Tell her dinner is canceled, but I will receive her for tea. Set it for three or four this afternoon.”
“The tailor is scheduled for ten,” Bert continued. “I’ll have thirty outfits made to your new measurements immediately, and I’ll order another fifty from the estate workshops.”
“Tell the estate to only make ten,” Yuls corrected. “I suspect I may grow further.”
“Very well. We will settle on forty sets in total.”
“And find me something wearable right now. These borrowed clothes are incredibly restrictive.”
“At once, Your Excellency.”
Roy remained silent, his expression unreadable. Adi stood beside him, equally quiet.
“Are you in any pain?” Bert asked.
“It’s disorienting. My perspective has shifted several feet in a day. My joints are tight, and there’s a dull ache in my bones.”
“Growing pains,” Bert said knowingly. “Joel will provide something for the discomfort.”
“Understood,” Yuls said.
Despite his complaints of awkwardness, he moved with a natural grace, as if he had always inhabited this larger frame. He didn’t stumble and seemed perfectly comfortable looking down at everyone from his new height.
While conversing with the staff, Yuls noticed the two knights watching him. He leaned in and whispered something to Bert. Bert nodded and stepped toward the pair. “Adi, Roy.”
“Yes, Sir,” they replied in unison.
“I will be handling the escort duties for the rest of the day. You are both dismissed. Roy, you look like you need the rest.”
Roy nodded, still looking slightly dazed.
“We will reorganize the rotation tomorrow morning.”
Bert then turned his focus toward Adi.
“I am truly glad to see you have recovered, Adi.”
Adi was momentarily speechless. She knew her health was important, but she wasn’t used to such genuine concern. Was Bert simply that kind of person?
She had never been on the receiving end of such warmth, and consequently, she had never known how to give it to others. She realized then that such kindness was allowed.
“…Thank you,” she whispered.
She thought of her brother. Adrian, I would have said those same words to you.
