Translator: Nox

Chapter 64

“I am already considered deceased,” she stated flatly.

“Yet here you are, inhabiting Adrian’s life.”

“My brother was always sickly. A sudden passing wouldn’t have raised any eyebrows.”

The logic was sound, yet it felt heavy with tragedy.

“Do you truly believe the Count intended for me to take over Grimaldi?” she challenged.

Knowing the Count’s rigid nature, the answer was a resounding no. He had only disguised his daughter as a son out of desperation, not as a permanent solution. She couldn’t keep up this masquerade forever; eventually, the physical realities of her womanhood would betray her, regardless of her stunted development.

“He wouldn’t,” Yuls admitted.

“If he could have sired another heir, he would have bypassed both Adrian and me without a second thought.”

“But the Count is no longer capable of fathering children.”

“Correct. Which leaves only me.”

Yuls paused, his brow furrowing. “I don’t follow.”

“Because I am a woman.”

The fact wasn’t news to him, but hearing her claim it so bluntly changed the atmosphere. She was a woman. Even beneath the armor and the masculine persona, the truth was undeniable. Now that it was out in the open, he felt foolish for not seeing it sooner. Everything about Adi Grimaldi pointed to it.

“I have the capacity to provide him with an heir. A child of my blood would be a true Grimaldi, regardless of who fathered it.”

Yuls pressed a hand over his eyes, his voice strained. “Stop.” He had previously dismissed their kiss as a mere necessity of the curse—a gesture of intimacy he would forget once he was free. But the reality of her gender made his pulse race with an unfamiliar discomfort.

He began to worry about her living arrangements. Was it appropriate for her to remain in the knight’s barracks? He considered moving her to private quarters, but providing such blatant favoritism to Adi would only invite dangerous scrutiny.

While Yuls wrestled with these logistics, Adi continued. “The Count… he’s already made his choice.”

“He plans to hand me over to Lev Zid. Once Adrian is officially declared dead, I will be forced to produce the successors the Count demands.”

Yuls let out a sharp, frustrated breath. The revelation left a bitter, metallic taste in his mouth. He found himself at a loss for words, his anger simmering.

“The audacity of that man.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Ignore me. Go on.”

“That’s the extent of what I’ve gathered,” she admitted. “They never tell me anything directly. I’ve had to piece this much together on my own.”

Yuls saw the raw honesty in her gaze and decided to shift gears. “Let’s set that aside for a moment.”

“We need to discuss the assassin.”

Adi remained silent, waiting.

“Claude was the one who sent him.”

“The Crown Prince?” she asked, her voice rising in surprise.

“The very same.”

“But I thought…”

“That he said he trusted me?” Yuls finished for her.

She nodded slowly.

“He does trust me, in his own twisted way. That doesn’t stop him from sending killers at regular intervals.”

“How can trust coexist with attempted murder?”

“It’s a matter of politics. If I’m the only one he doesn’t target, my cousins and his own siblings will suspect a secret alliance. He sends them to maintain appearances. I never know exactly when they’ll strike, but they always come. However, that isn’t the point I wanted to make.”

Yuls leaned in, his eyes sharpening. Bert had already informed him that Adi was aware of the situation, and it was clear she knew the Duke was onto her as well.

“Count Grimaldi must have given you instructions regarding me. What were they?”

Adi hesitated, her lips parting slightly.

“Did he order you to be my shield or my executioner?”

“He told me to protect you,” she whispered.

“And you simply followed his command?”

“I would have ensured your safety even if he had ordered the opposite.”

Yuls searched her face. “Are you just saying what you think I want to hear?”

“Believe me or don’t. It makes no difference.”

Her gaze was steady and piercing. She didn’t look like she was playing a part, but Yuls wondered if her loyalty was tied to the Count’s existing orders. If the Count had commanded his death, would she truly have stood by his side? He couldn’t be certain.

Yet, he found he wasn’t angry with her. Even the thought of a version of Adrina Grimaldi who might have failed him didn’t sour his mood.

“I’ve been wondering why you were so hesitant to use your wish,” he mused.

He looked at her—not at the knight Adrian, but at Adrina.

“And why you didn’t blink when it came time to kiss me and break the curse.”

The pieces were falling into place.

“You’re looking for a way to vanish from the Count’s reach, aren’t you?”

It was the only logical conclusion.

“Come to Woodpecker with me.”

“Is there a place for me there?” she asked tentatively.

“Well…”

Strictly speaking, Woodpecker was self-sufficient. Usually, it was the world that needed the Duke’s territory, not the other way around. In a practical sense, Adi might be redundant. Her martial skills were impressive, but his lands were already teeming with elite warriors. Furthermore, a Grimaldi in the south would be a political headache.

And yet.

“The territory might not need you, but I do.”

“To lift the curse?”

“Among other things.”

Adi fell into a thoughtful silence. She was caught between two titans: the Crown Prince and the Duke; Claude and Yuls.

In terms of sheer political weight, Ionad and the Prince offered more. But Claude was a man of shadows and hidden agendas. Even if she sought refuge in the capital, it didn’t seem likely that Duke Woodpecker would pursue a feud over it. Claude had given his blessing for her to go south, but his motives were surely stained with his own ambitions.

“What if I choose Ionad?” she asked.

“Then I suppose I’ll have to follow you there. I told you—I need you.”

He envisioned himself having to play the suitor in the capital, a task he found surprisingly unburdensome.

The festival was drawing to a close, and summer was on the horizon. It was the season for legislative debates among the lords, though Yuls usually avoided such gatherings. He was already slated to visit Ionad in the autumn for tax negotiations, and after that, the winter social season would begin. While most nobles spent the cold months indoors or partying in the capital, Yuls usually stayed away.

“Adrina.”

“Please, call me Adi.”

“Adi,” he corrected.

He detested the bitter winters of the capital, but for her, he would endure them. He would go there, and he would make sure she came back with him.

“The Count has deep roots in Ionad,” Yuls warned.

“He won’t kill you—not while he needs those heirs—but he has the resources to make you disappear or to drag you back in chains.”

He was right. While the Count didn’t control the inner sanctum of Pallesa Palace, his influence in the capital was vast. He had climbed the ranks from page to knight there, eventually helping secure the throne for the current line.

“Grimaldi… I’ve never seen it,” Yuls continued. “But I imagine it like the northern fortresses: towering spires, long shadows, and gray stone that matches your family name.”

He had never cared about her homeland before. To him, it was just a place of curses and the Count’s ancestral seat.

But now, knowing it was where she had grown up, he felt a flicker of curiosity. Had she mentioned magnolias? Or was that his imagination? He suppressed the urge to pry further and focused on the grim reality of her situation.

“You know that when the high-born are imprisoned, they aren’t thrown into the pits. They are locked in the towers.”

Adi’s mind flashed to the small, crumbling spire at the edge of the Grimaldi estate.

“It’s a courtesy,” Yuls said. “To give them the dignity of choosing their own end.”

She remembered that cramped, stone tower overlooking the city walls. Adrian had once told her stories of the prisoners held there. They used to sit in the grass together, staring up at the lonely height.

She wondered if they had both been born the same gender, would one of them have ended up in that tower? And which one would it have been?

“Do you think the Count would grant you even that much dignity, Guard?”

Adi had no answer. Traditionally, a noblewoman might be sent to a spire, but the Count was a man of cold pragmatism. He would likely throw her into the deepest cellar to ensure she fulfilled her purpose.

“What did Claude promise you?” Yuls asked.

Adi remained quiet. The truth was that Claude had offered her nothing but an invitation. He wanted her in Ionad, but the price and the reward remained unsaid.

“I don’t know his terms, but I can guarantee I will treat you better than he ever would.”

She realized that by staying silent, she was driving up her value. Yuls was offering more because she hadn’t yet committed.

“Tell me what you want, Adi.”

“I…”

She faltered. The desires of her own heart were still a tangled mess, and she hadn’t had the time to unravel them. But one conviction stood out above the rest.

“I will not be the tool the Count requires.”

“And what is it he wants most?”

“A legacy.”

She was ready to burn her bridges.

“I intend to see the Grimaldi name extinguished.”

She would strike at the one thing he held sacred.

“It is his greatest fear.”

“It’s a common fear among the nobility,” Yuls noted. “The end of their line.”

He found the obsession with titles and bloodlines trivial, yet it consumed everyone. Even the supernatural weren’t immune; a witch’s obsession with her own name was legendary. It was why Caspras had left her name to him.

“Your Excellency,” Adi said, pulling him back.

He thought of the Witch of the Oak Forest. She had been a striking woman with hair the color of dried blood and eyes like ink. She had never aged, remaining a constant while the previous Duke withered. He remembered her looking toward the trees, wanting to go home. The old Duke had built her a greenhouse, a pathetic attempt to cage a force of nature.

“This is a path I can walk by myself. It doesn’t depend on your kindness or your assistance.”

She met his gaze with newfound steel.

“I haven’t decided whose hand I will take yet.”

Yuls’s eyes narrowed. She was bolder than he had anticipated.

“It isn’t just the end of a name you’re after, is it?”

“What else is there?”

“Escape,” she admitted after a long pause.

“Are you not already free?”

“Adi,” she said softly.

He realized she was referring to the name she shared with her brother.

“Adrian.”

The boy who should have lived.

“I want to leave that place behind and be truly free.”

Yuls felt a discord in her words, a hidden fragment of meaning that didn’t quite fit. Something was shimmering beneath the surface of her request, but he couldn’t grasp it.

“I want to take back my soul.”

He pushed the unease aside. He had his own hurdles to clear.

“I’ll assist you,” he promised.

He had to deal with the ghosts of the past.

“We will reclaim your soul together.”

And he had to overcome the shadow of a dead man.

“In exchange, you will free me from this curse. Is that a fair trade?”