Translator: Nox

Chapter 30

==================================================

Adi was currently doing her best impression of a corpse in the knight’s wing of the new estate, staring at nothing.

Her muscles felt like rusted iron, prompting her to suggest some light sword drills, but Roy had treated the idea like a symptom of insanity. He’d practically forced her back into the blankets, insisting she act like a proper invalid. When she reached for a book to kill the monotony, he snatched it away, claiming brain work hindered recovery. Even a simple request for a game of chess was met with him confiscating the board; apparently, horizontal silence was the only medicine he trusted.

Realizing she was essentially a prisoner, she announced her intention to at least sit in the garden for some fresh air. Roy had snapped at that too, demanding to know what kind of sick person went out to bake in the sun before ordering her back inside.

When she tried to argue that she was perfectly healthy and the poison was long gone, he simply invented his own medical logic. He claimed no one bounced back from a lethal dose in under seventy-two hours and that her bones probably still throbbed. After physically ushering her into the room and slamming the door, Roy dragged a chair into the hallway. He sat right there to block her exit, casually flipping through the very book he had stolen from her.

The room was a vacuum of entertainment, and she was locked in. She had absolutely nothing to occupy her mind.

Just as the boredom became physically painful, Joel arrived.

Roy vacated his post at the door. He had no reason to block the healer, assuming Joel was there for a standard medical check.

But Joel wasn’t there to change bandages. He brought word that the Duke required her presence immediately. Seizing the lifeline, Adi scrambled into her uniform and hurried toward the drawing room where his lordship waited.

Then, the world tilted.

“You kissed me yesterday.”

“I beg your pardon?”

The statement was so jarring that Adi’s hand flew to her mouth. Had she known this conversation was coming, she would have happily stayed under Roy’s house arrest.

“It wasn’t on the mouth. Just the back of my hand.”

The specific location didn’t make the news any less traumatic. Whether it was his fingers or his face, the fact that she had initiated such contact with the Duke was horrifying. She couldn’t fathom the reason or the circumstances. While she stood there in a daze of confusion, Yuls pushed further.

“You kept saying the name Adi.”

“…”

“You swore to keep me safe.”

“…A hallucination.”

Adi finally found her voice. She had no recollection of the event. The memory of kissing him or dreaming of her brother was a total blank.

“I must have been lost in a dream.”

“It appeared you were trying to protect your sister.”

That much was true.

She had always wanted to shield him.

Adrian’s end shouldn’t have been so miserable. His life had simply leaked out of him day by day, and while the world whispered about a curse and threw venomous accusations at her, Adrina had clung to the hope of his recovery. She had believed that if he just got better, all the cruelty would fade. At least, she had believed that for a while.

“Yes,” she whispered.

She had wanted to step into his skin, to become him.

“He deserved better than that death.”

The rot in Grimaldi was a curse of its own. Even if it hadn’t started as magic, the people there had turned their lives into a festering wound that consumed Adrian, herself, and the entire territory.

“Do you recall our conversation?”

However, the shadow over her life wasn’t the same as the one stalking Yuls. He carried the literal mark of a Witch, yet he seemed to have moved past it. She wondered if a magical hex was somehow simpler to break than the one she lived.

“The method to lift the spell.”

“…Are you talking about your own curse, Your Excellency?”

“I am.”

Adi remained silent, the memory resurfacing. The solution had sounded like a fairy tale, something both she and Yuls had dismissed as nonsense at the time.

“You mentioned it required a kiss from someone who loves you.”

“I did. But that…”

A realization struck her. Was he suggesting that she was the one who had broken the spell? Not some breakthrough in his research, but her?

“It is quite the puzzle,” Yuls mused. “There is no reason for you to harbor such feelings for me, nor I for you. Still, yours are the first lips to ever touch me.”

She was reeling. How could she have possibly broken a Duke’s curse?

Yuls reached out, offering his hand. In her shock, Adi took it. His palm was massive. She had always considered her own hands sturdy and masculine enough to pass for a knight’s, but his made hers look delicate.

“Kiss it again.”

She was paralyzed, unsure how to play this scene. Standing there like a statue while holding his hand, she finally managed to choke out, “Your Excellency.” It was a plea for him to stop.

“Adi. Do it.”

“That is a direct command.”

An order left her no room to retreat.

With a heavy heart, she pulled his hand toward her and brushed her lips against the skin. It was unexpectedly smooth. His hand looked like it belonged to someone who had never touched a day of hard labor; it was almost more elegant than her own.

When she pulled back, Yuls wasn’t satisfied. “Again.”

She couldn’t understand what he was playing at.

Left with no choice, she pressed another kiss to his hand.

“Try leaning your face against it as well.”

“…My Lord, you are overstepping. This is harassment.”

Bert’s voice cut through the tension from the sidelines. Adi looked up, her expression practically begging Bert to save her. The man looked away, clearly uncomfortable with being her last hope. Yuls reclaimed his hand and began inspecting his nails. He seemed disappointed that they hadn’t grown even a fraction.

“I suppose it doesn’t happen instantly.”

Adi couldn’t wrap her head around the idea that she was the cure. True love? Between her and Duke Yuls Woodpecker? Even if the curse could see through her disguise to her true gender, they didn’t even like each other. Their dynamic was built on a foundation of deep suspicion.

Once he went home, she would be reassigned. He certainly wouldn’t be bringing a knight like her back to his own lands. Besides, there was a much bigger obstacle.

“Your Excellency, if I may speak freely… what are you planning?”

The shadow of Spencer Grimaldi loomed over them.

The tension between the Woodpecker and Grimaldi houses was thick. Roy had even told her that Kenneth Marks from the 2nd Knights Order had tried to sabotage the Duke’s claim to Gallardo. Both families were essentially his enemies.

Was he really suggesting he could fall for the heir of a rival house? A man, as far as he knew?

While Adi questioned his sanity, the Duke was busy analyzing the mechanics of the miracle.

Was the missing ingredient love?

The raw emotion he’d felt from her the previous day had been so potent it had touched even his cold heart. Adrian Grimaldi clearly loved his sister with a devotion that made Yuls envious. He found himself wanting to be the object of that kind of intensity.

But demanding that she feel that for him was a massive leap.

It was an outrageous thing to ask of anyone.

Still, Yuls wasn’t a man who accepted defeat. He didn’t care if it was impossible or if the world turned upside down; he was going to end this curse by any means necessary.

“Adi.”

“Yes, Your Excellency?”

“I want you to kiss me every morning.”

Silence smothered the room. Adi was speechless, as was Bert.

The servants nearby were paralyzed. Usually, they were the pinnacle of discretion, but this was too much. Their minds had clearly short-circuited, and they were exchanging frantic, wide-eyed looks that screamed for an explanation.

Seeing their genuine terror, Adi realized this wasn’t a coordinated joke. The Duke was acting entirely on his own erratic whims.

“Also, start considering a move to my territory.”

“…Why are you doing this to me?”

The question escaped her before she could filter it. Under normal circumstances, she would never be so blunt with a superior. But the sheer absurdity of the moment broke her composure. Yuls actually laughed.

“Because I believe you are the answer I’ve been searching for.”

Adi’s eyes darted to Bert, searching for an exit.

“You are the lead that arrived exactly one week later,” Yuls explained. The Dalkatir Witch had promised he would find his answer within seven days. It had happened on the very last day—the day Adi kissed him.

Until that moment, Yuls had been in a murderous rage over his lack of progress. He hadn’t slept. He’d been convinced the Witch had tricked him and fled, and he’d already been planning to hunt her down in Ramels.

“The first part is a command. The second is an invitation.”

The Witch hadn’t lied. He had found his cure.

“If the morning kisses fix the problem, you won’t need to relocate.”

The fact that his savior was a man was a complication, but a minor one.

“But if that fails to work…”

Gender was irrelevant when it came to breaking a hex.

“Then you will have to try loving me.”

The room went cold. Adi couldn’t find a single word. Bert stood like a statue, and the servants closed their eyes or shielded their faces as if trying to block out a nightmare.

“Did I mishear him?” she wondered. Surely he had finally cracked.

“If the curse remains,” Yuls continued, his voice steady.

That was the thought echoing in everyone’s head.

“You will be required to love me, Adrian Grimaldi.”

He wasn’t joking.

“And I will make an effort to return the sentiment.”

The Duke had officially lost his mind.