Forgotten Juliet

“Isn’t that the emblem of the Marquis Latrell?”

“Yes?”

The Marquis, standing right next to the Emperor, looked shocked as if his eyes might pop out.

Three fish and an iris flower.

It was unmistakably the emblem of the Marquis Latrell’s house.

“That, that can’t be…!”

The Marquis was lost in thought.

Why? Why is our family emblem there? Wasn’t this gathering to frame Duke Carlyle?

A lightning-fast thought brushed past the Marquis’s mind at that moment.

‘That kid!’

With a swift jerk of his head, the Marquis glared menacingly at Second Prince Cloff.

Cloff blinked in confusion, not yet grasping the situation, but in the Marquis’s eyes, he was merely detestable.

Marquis Latrell interpreted the situation in his own way.

The only thought that came to the terrified and enraged Marquis’s mind was:

‘Was he planning to bury our house along?’

From the moment he threatened that if he didn’t cooperate in tarnishing Duke Carlyle with fabricated evidence, Cloff had already lost his trust.

However, the Marquis, who was suddenly at the receiving end of intense anger, felt wronged.

‘Damn it, what’s going on?’

Suddenly, the Marquis Latrell?

Moreover, isn’t the Marquis Latrell suspecting him?

Meanwhile, the other nobles started to murmur in confusion.

“Didn’t they just say that the Duke’s house committed the crime?”

“But what’s with that smoke bomb engraved with the Marquis Latrell’s emblem?”

“So, did the Marquis also collaborate with the Carlyle family?”

“What on earth is this, Marquis?”

The Emperor, in disbelief, confronted Marquis Latrell.

“Answer me! Don’t tell me you’re an accomplice of the Duke…”

“No, Your Majesty! Please let me explain…”

Rattle.

As the Marquis Latrell prostrated himself at the Emperor’s feet, a familiar sound of metal balls echoed.

More metallic spheres rolled in, this time in large quantities.

“What on earth…”

People inside the hall stared blankly at the spectacle.

As before, each metal ball had the emblem of a noble house engraved on it.

Picking up the spheres, the nobles murmured amongst themselves.

“…Isn’t this the emblem of Count Bellinger?”

“And that one is Viscount Fond’s emblem.”

They all belonged to factions either favorable to Prince Cloff or were coerced into siding with him.

The named nobles quickly realized what was happening, following the exact same train of thought the Marquis Latrell had earlier.

‘We’ve been deceived!’

The nobles, believing they had been betrayed by Second Prince Cloff, began to shout in unison.

“Our house is innocent!”

“This is a conspiracy!”

“We’ve been wronged, Your Majesty!”

The hall turned chaotic in a matter of moments.

Among the shouting nobles, the flustered Second Prince, and the calm Duke Carlyle, it was clear whom to trust.

“Cloff!”

The Emperor turned to his second son.

“Explain yourself!”

“Ah, father…”

But the most bewildered of all was Cloff.

The plan had been perfect.

Corner Duke Carlyle, have Marquis Latrell intervene, and let the Emperor brand him as a traitor. Everything was going accordingly.

That was until smoke bombs with other family emblems appeared!

Cloff’s mind went blank.

Something was amiss, but he had no idea who was behind it.

The Emperor pressed Second Prince Cloff.

“Where did the smoke bomb you first brought come from?”

From where?

That’s right. Cloff regained some of his confidence.

“…I found it while investigating the North!”

He had prearranged a story with his confidants.

All of this had begun with manipulated evidence, after all.

If he could navigate this situation and regain public opinion, there was still a chance.

“Yes, that’s correct. I have reliable witnesses who found the evidence with me! Count Bellinger and Viscount Fond will testify…”

But as Cloff looked around for his allies to back up his claim, his face paled within seconds.

His confidants, who should’ve supported him, were already on the ground, proclaiming their innocence.

And there lay the smoke bombs with their family emblems right in front of the Emperor.

“What did you say about Count Bellinger?”

“That, well…”

“I’ll explain everything, Your Majesty!”

Suddenly, Marquis Latrell, who had been silent, interrupted.

“In fact, Second Prince Cloff approached me an hour ago. Since I seemed unwilling to cooperate, he threatened me…”

“What are you talking about, uncle!”

Cloff intervened frantically.

“That wasn’t my doing! Why would I conspire against my own uncle?”

“Is that so?”

A low voice cut in.

It was Duke Carlyle, who had remained calm throughout the ordeal.

“Then ‘this’ means you were behind it, right?”

The Duke was holding a metallic sphere engraved with the emblem of the Carlyle family.

His voice was calm, but there was a sharp edge to it.

“No, Duke, that’s a misinterpretation!”

Second Prince Cloff desperately denied it, but the atmosphere in the room was turning against him.

“Well, the relationship between the Second Prince and Duke Carlyle was bad.”

“And the only evidence is the sphere brought by the Second Prince.”

“Moreover, can that really be considered evidence now? It’s ruined.”

Cloff was completely despondent. The situation was turning in the direction he least desired.

‘The plan’s been discovered!’

It was clear that Duke Carlyle, with his leisurely attitude, knew about this trap beforehand.

But how? He had prepared thoroughly, who could possibly have interfered?

Retreating hesitantly, Cloff spotted a woman.

It was Juliet Monad.

Sitting against a wall seat with a silver-haired priest, Juliet, with half-braided hair hanging to one side and wearing a soft-textured silver-gray dress, looked dreamily beautiful.

Juliet, who was shaking her ankle, made a gesture as if biting the red apple in her hand with a meaningful smile.

‘An apple?’

Cloff, who was in a dire situation, had a lightning-fast intuition upon seeing the provoking gesture.

It’s her doing!

It was well-known that Juliet Monad practiced dark magic. And she was the lover of Duke Carlyle.

“You, you wicked woman…!”

In an instant, with a curse, Second Prince Cloff drew a sword from the waist of the guard beside him.

The prince, wielding the sword, rushed towards where Juliet was seated, and screams erupted from the crowd.

“Aaaah!”

“Your Majesty! It’s all that woman’s scheme!”

Guards blocked the path of the charging Cloff.

“Prince, put down the sword!”

“Step aside! That woman is a traitor! I am the son of His Majesty, the Prince!”

The guards, dodging the clumsy sword swings of Cloff, looked to the Emperor for permission.

Clang!

“Ah!”

But before the Emperor could give an order, a cup flew from somewhere and struck Cloff’s hand accurately. Dropping his sword, Cloff staggered and was knocked down by someone.

Someone even dared to hit the royalty’s head.

“You, let go! This insolent…!”

“Really, this is ridiculous.”

Floundering with his head on the ground, Cloff snapped to attention hearing a cold voice from above.

“What are you doing now?”

“Hey, Carlyle! Calm down and put the sword away…”

The Emperor intervened, separating Duke Carlyle from his son.

Guards surrounded Cloff, who babbled incoherently.

“But father, she had an apple! The apple…!”

Slap!

Unable to hold back, the Emperor struck his son’s cheek.

“You good-for-nothing! What about the apple?!”

Juliet, watching the scene with satisfaction, shrugged.

Lennox, standing in the center, frowned at her.

She figured he meant she should leave without getting involved. Nodding slightly, Juliet slipped away.

“Did your business go well?”

“It seemed very noisy.”

The Duke’s knights, waiting in the carriage, greeted her.

“So-so.”

When Juliet nonchalantly responded, a knight opened the carriage door.

“But won’t you tell?”

“What?”

“How did you do it?”

The youngest knight, Jude, inquired as he followed her in.

Juliet smiled brightly.

“You know, sir Jude, right? I took out the tampered evidence from the Second Prince’s residence and replicated it.”

The prince’s strategy was to use the tampered evidence to identify and frame the Duke.

So, she just needed to destroy its specificity.

“I made many candidates for him since he seemed eager to catch the culprit.”

Juliet engraved the emblems of every family loyal to the Second Prince on smoke bombs.

It was easier since the prince had chosen a common smoke bomb design.

If he wanted to pinpoint a culprit, then everyone should be one.

The bonus was that they would suspect each other and fight, thinking they were betrayed by the Second Prince.

But Jude still seemed curious.

“How did you enter the Bluette Palace?”

Even though the Duke’s knights knew how the plan progressed, they didn’t know who secretly sneaked into the prince’s residence.

And it was the residence of the Second Prince, rumored to be heavily guarded.

“Did you ask sir Hadin?”

Jude seemed to have a rivalry with some skilled knight of the order.

“No.”

“Then who?”

“Well…”

Juliet, who was smiling, lifted the blanket that was shaking suspiciously from the seat next to her. Onyx, who was quietly hiding under her blanket, raised her head in approval.

“Peep!”

“Good job, Nix.”

Offering the apple she brought, the baby dragon happily crunched it.

While the baby dragon was engrossed with the apple, Juliet gazed at its fluttering wings.

‘Thanks to you, it was easy.’

The baby dragon might not have understood the exact task.

But without Onyx, it would have been hard to execute the plan.

No matter how talented the Duke’s knights were, they couldn’t fly.

Juliet gently stroked the little dragon’s wings.

Nix’s small body was perfect for sneaking into the Second Prince’s palace and stealing evidence.

Onyx was confused the first few times, but when she trained him with an apple the same size as a smoke bomb, he quickly understood and followed Juliet’s intentions.

It was also Onyx’s work, who had sneaked in through the narrow banquet hall window, to make the smoke bombs that had been duplicated in the hall appear at the right time.

“You’re smart, Nix.”

“!”

Onyx purred happily as Juliet picked him up.