Forgotten Juliet

‘Door?’

It looked exactly like the large door that the butterflies had shown Juliet sometime before.

Sigh.

“I pondered for a long time on how to kill you,”

The snake sang it out.

“I thought it would be nice to tear you apart right in front of him, but that seemed a bit bland?”

Crack.

“…!”

Juliet was shocked.

As the snake snapped its fingers, the scenery around them changed instantaneously.

The dark and cold stone chamber underground was gone, and now they were standing in a dense forest surrounding them.

Even their costumes had changed. Juliet found herself dressed in a black formal dress.

“What did you…”

The frightened human woman seemed to have an intuition about what was going to happen next.

“I’ve always wondered, humans endure physical pain quite well, but how far can they withstand psychologically?”

Juliet thought it was absurd.

She was on a rainy forest path.

It couldn’t be real.

But despite the obvious illusion, the cold raindrops hitting her skin felt as real as reality.

Rumble, bang.

-Juliet! Baby!

-What are you doing, Lillian! Run away quickly!

Broken carriage, sound of clashing swords.

Mother’s scream and father’s cry.

Final screams.

With a feeling of helplessness, Juliet was choked up.

This was a memory from the day her parents passed away.

With a tone as if enjoying it immensely, the snake whispered in her ear:

“Don’t worry, this is just the beginning.”

* * *

“Stop it…!”

Not long after, Juliet Monad buried her face in her hands and began to sob in pain.

“Oh dear. Your butterflies were going to show you the past, dismissing their sincerity is a waste.”

The snake tenderly whispered as it touched Juliet’s shoulder. It said:

“Look closely. It’s your past, isn’t it?”

Until a moment ago, the snake was furious from head to tail.

It was angry that the worthless humans kept interfering with its plans, and didn’t move as it wanted.

But now, it was thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Why are you doing this… What have I done wrong…?”

The human woman started sobbing bitterly.

“Tears fall with just a little stimulation, it’s boring how weak you’ve become.”

However, contrary to his words, the snake joyfully observed the girl in agony.

In her previous life, she experienced many horrible events.

Her parents were murdered, she was abandoned by her lover, and lost an unborn child.

Eventually, at the moment she decided to leave her lover, what returned to her was a cup filled with poison.

There was no need to meticulously craft false nightmares to torture Juliet Monad. Merely skimming through her past memories was enough to torment her.

Juliet’s slender shoulders trembled as she sobbed.

“Please… I didn’t want to see this…”

“Shall I show you something else?”

The snake elegantly smiled and menacingly squeezed the butterflies, commanding them.

Then the scene in front of them swirled. Normally showing the most horrific nightmares to humans was the authority of the butterfly spirit.

But the snake won the bet, and now the power of the butterflies was essentially its.

Now they were standing inside a grand banquet hall.

“Yes, right. This is the memory of the day you died.”

As the snake whispered with a seemingly tender smile, Juliet shuddered with a hiccup.

“Huuk…”

The snake grinned brightly with a distorted face.

The soul of a woman named Juliet Monad was quite tempting even by the standards of demons.

As expected from a contractor of an evil spirit possessing the field power, she had a much deeper and broader mental realm than ordinary people.

The snake smiled contentedly. Choosing her as a sacrifice was the right choice.

Meanwhile, the background changed again, and they were now in a large bedroom with red drapes hanging down.

A blood-soaked bed and frantic maids moving about. And a young man standing near the door, seemingly rooted to the spot.

She had a rough idea of which point of memory this was.

The snake casually turned its head to enjoy the foolish human girl’s torment with a leisurely smile.

“Stop it now.”

“Pleading won’t help.”

“It’s boring, so stop it.”

“…?”

The twirling snake suddenly felt a sense of unease.

Just a moment ago, the human woman was pleading with a crying voice, engulfed in pain, which was a little strange.

Her voice now was monotonously dull, far from emotional.

‘Has she gone mad from revisiting the torment?’

Still with her face buried in her hands, her head bowed, the woman in a black dress slowly lifted her head.

“You…”

When Juliet lifted her head, there wasn’t a trace of tears on her face, only a chilly smile hung there.

‘What’s this?’

The snake instinctively noticed that something was off. Be that as it may. Juliet, who stood up from her seat, calmly dusted off her skirt.

“You seem to think, ‘This can’t be happening?'”

“What?”

Juliet’s red lips drew a captivating curve.

“Did you know? You demons can’t lie, but humans can lie as much as they want.”

“What are you talking about…?”

Juliet shook a small silver key in her hand.

“Ha! What can you do with such a thing?”

Such a petty human.

It was clear that she was mad.

The snake nervously burst into laughter.

“Stupid woman! That key only works on your familiars!”

For a moment, the snake felt foolish being startled by Juliet’s cold smile. It was laughable to the point of tears at the foolishness of this human woman.

What’s the big deal with that artifact? It was just a key to threaten her foolish butterflies.

Indeed, Juliet’s familiars, the butterflies, were quite famous. Being a powerful demon, but foolishly falling for human tricks, trapping itself…

“…?”

The snake suddenly felt like it was missing something.

What did it miss?

“No, you are the fool.”

Against the king of deception and trickery, the human woman didn’t falter a bit.

There was a certain dignity in Juliet’s relaxed demeanor.

“This is my territory, you foolish beast.”

“What…?”

Only now did the snake feel uneasy, looking around.

This place was essentially a forced memory of Juliet Monad, a field of her creation.

Oops.

‘I’ve come too deep.’

It needed to get out of this space quickly.

Only then did the snake realize that it had delved too deep into Juliet Monad’s painful past memories while being engrossed in it.

However, the snake still didn’t think that Juliet Monad could harm it in any way.

A weakened human, with no Lennox Carlyle to protect the relic, she was its prey.

But the relaxed attitude of Juliet Monad was definitely eerie.

In haste, the snake desperately clutched at the butterflies.

However, unlike a while ago, the feeble butterflies fluttered powerlessly and disintegrated like ashes in its grasp.

Poof.

Then, from somewhere, a vibrant swarm of butterflies appeared, covering its vision.

“What is this…?”

“You said it yourself.”

“What?”

“How my foolish butterflies fell for the scheme and what happened to them.”

For a moment, the snake blinked stupidly.

The snake could see the vibrant blue butterflies fluttering around her.

Long ago, those foolish butterflies were deceived by a human named Quirier Monad, and they had trapped themselves inside the gates…

Juliet smiled wryly.

“Yes. If I can release the demon, I can trap it again.”

“…!”

“Why did you only realize it now?”

And the next moment, the snake realized that Juliet Monad was outside the gate.

Yes, before noticing, a massive gate, whose existence wasn’t known, appeared between them.

Screech.

The snake was inside the gate, and she and the butterflies were outside.

Click. As Juliet shook the shining key, a cheerful sound resonated.

“You, this…! Open this…!”

Thud.

The enraged snake’s voice completely disappeared beyond the harshly closed gate.

* * *

Thud.

Once the gate closed, the surrounding turned back into a dark and empty underground chamber.

The butterflies too, seemingly exhausted, vanished before her eyes, and Juliet completely exhausted, collapsed onto the stone floor.

‘It’s over.’

Just like the black panther said, Juliet had neither the ability to kill the demon nor send it back to its original dimension.

But she could trap it.

Just like Quirier Monad had trapped the butterflies hundreds of years ago.

Now, unless someone frees it, the snake will never be able to escape.

“Ugh…”

Her broken ribs ached again.

Without even thinking of lying down, Juliet groaned, curling up.

The forgotten fatigue and pain due to extreme tension came rushing back. Cold sweat poured down like rain.

‘Can I survive?’

Juliet suddenly found the situation ironic.

She had successfully trapped the snake forever, but she was trapped as well.

“…I probably can’t get out.”

Juliet laughed in resignation.