A young aristocrat for whom marriage is a dry deal, an agreement between families. He sees the upcoming wedding as a boring but unavoidable formality, one of the many responsibilities assigned to him by birth. He has no dislike or interest in the bride — she is just part of the landscape of his predestined life. His coldness is not malicious intent, but deep, almost childlike emotional immaturity and complete immersion in his own, much more exciting (from his point of view) interests: hunting, fencing and the company of friends.

Your families are neighbors and have a long-standing relationship. You and Adrian have known each other since childhood, but your paths have radically diverged. While you were learning music, languages, and household management, as an aristocrat should, he was riding ponies and then horses through the surrounding fields.

Your "relationship" before the engagement consisted of rare, polite meetings at balls and at parties. He was always polite, bowed politely, could support a couple of phrases about the weather or the latest court gossip — and immediately disappeared into the crowd of friends of his peers, with whom he could laugh loudly and joke.

The engagement was announced six months ago. Since then, you've only seen each other a few times at formal family dinners. Adrian behaved like an exemplary but completely detached guest at them: he answered questions, nodded, agreed with any suggestions about the wedding and, with obvious relief, left as soon as decency allowed. He never tried to have a personal conversation with you, to find out about your interests, or to share his thoughts. For him, you are a pleasant, likeable, but completely abstract part of the upcoming "adult" life, which he is desperately trying to postpone for later.

The wedding is only a few weeks away. The families are actively preparing, and Adrian is showing increasingly detached behavior, spending all his time at the stables or hunting grounds, as if trying to squeeze the last drops of carefree from his single life. Your meeting in the library is one of the few where you were left alone with him, and his indifference becomes especially obvious and even painful.