Forgotten Juliet

* * *

Her always neat light brown hair and the hem of her skirt were fluttering wildly.

Seeing the terrified Juliet, he gritted his teeth.

As expected, it couldn’t be.

She couldn’t easily give up on a child she was so attached to. He should have suspected she would run away sometime.

[Juliet…!]

Chasing after her while gritting his teeth, Lennox suddenly noticed something odd.

Neigh!

The horse carrying Juliet was a two-year-old he had gifted her. A strong and gentle breed, carefully selected.

Somehow, the horse’s condition didn’t seem normal.

The horse, with foam at its mouth, was galloping at an unbelievably insane speed.

Juliet wasn’t riding the horse, she was barely hanging on to the saddle.

The powerfully galloping horse seemed to be trying to shake her off its back. Juliet, clutching the reins, was barely hanging on to the horse.

Damn it.

Lennox thought for a moment about the quiver on his back, but he didn’t know how the crazed horse would gallop, so he couldn’t shoot it carelessly.

Having grasped the situation, Lennox cautiously chased after her horse.

The young horse was galloping at a mad speed, but because it was running in zigzags instead of straight, catching up was relatively easy.

[Damn, let go of the reins!]

It was close to a trick, but he was confident he could catch Juliet.

[Let go!]

While hanging on to the crazy horse by a thread, Juliet alternately looked at his hand and the horse’s mane, then tightly closed her eyes and sobbed.

[Please…]

Instead of reaching out towards his outstretched hand, she lowered herself and hugged the galloping horse’s neck.

[No…]

[…]

Seeing fear spreading across the pale and terrified face of Juliet, a coldness swept over his chest.

He felt an indescribable anger and a sense of betrayal.

So she chooses to hang on to a mad horse, risking her life, over taking refuge in his arms. Is this it?

Strength surged into his hand gripping the reins.

A cold rage devoured his sanity.

Unlike Juliet’s wildly galloping horse, his well-trained black warhorse galloped in a straight line. The clever horse knew its master’s intentions.

Though exhausted from chasing at full speed, the black horse skillfully drove the mad horse off the road.

Neigh!

As the young horse carrying Juliet was driven off its path and pushed to the edge, it didn’t know what to do.

And then the black horse forcefully collided with it from behind, making it lose its balance and stumble forward.

The mad horse’s legs buckled, and for a brief moment, the terrified blue eyes of Juliet, who was hanging onto the horse’s back, widened.

Every action in the next moment was etched onto Lennox’s retina like a slow-motion picture.

The moment her body floated in the air, Juliet couldn’t even scream and tightly closed her eyes.

He swiftly leapt, but his fingertips merely brushed against her fluttering hair.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, Juliet, who had curled up her body, flopped helplessly onto the ground.

[Juliet!]

Without even realizing what he was doing, he abruptly stopped his horse and jumped down.

He desperately cradled the fallen Juliet on the ground.

[Your Highness…!]

He could hear the footsteps of others chasing after them from behind, but he didn’t have the time to care about such things.

With trembling hands, he stroked Juliet’s pale cheek.

She wasn’t breathing.

[Juliet…?]

No, no.

This can’t be.

At a glance, Juliet didn’t have any grotesquely bent limbs, nor was there any significant bleeding.

[I’m sorry. Juliet, huh? I, I-]

He was murmuring apologies mindlessly, not even knowing what he was begging for.

[-I apologize, just this once…]

It was more dangerous to move her carelessly in case a bone was broken. He mechanically started to unbutton her clothes.

But even after removing the shirt compressing her chest, why wasn’t she breathing?

[…Cough.]

At that moment, Juliet, who was pale, coughed bitterly.

Breathing returned and her fluttering eyelids miraculously opened.

[Lennox…?]

She’s alive.

He desperately embraced the conscious Juliet.

Her heart was beating, warm blood was flowing, no matter how injured she was, she was still alive.

He deeply thanked a God he didn’t believe in.

[Why am I…]

Juliet still seemed puzzled about the situation.

[Don’t talk, stay still. First, let’s go back and see the doctor-]

[Oh.]

He cautiously tried to lift Juliet in his arms.

But Juliet faintly furrowed her brows.

[…It hurts.]

[It hurts, where?]

Juliet’s forehead was pale and sweaty.

[My stomach has been hurting from earlier…]

[…]

[Your Highness?]

While holding her he hesitated for a moment.

It seemed Juliet hadn’t realized it yet, but he saw it clearly.

[What happened?]

There were signs of fresh blood soaking into the edge of her skirt.

* * *

The people who came rushing took Juliet from him.

[Hurry!]

[Lay her down here, this way!]

[Where’s the doctor?]

[Just arrived!]

The maids frantically laid Juliet on the bed and brought hot water and clean sheets.

Physicians and doctors, some on the side were boiling unknown drugs and sterilizing something.

It was chaos.

[Miss!]

[Pull yourself together!]

Old nurses fearfully scolded Juliet.

[Huh…]

Whether from pain or fear, Juliet whimpered, her pale face slowly blinking.

They sprinkled cold water and fanned her, trying somehow to prevent her from losing consciousness.

Even without medical knowledge, it was obvious to him that something was wrong.

[We need to operate immediately.]

The doctors with serious expressions were talking, but nothing entered his ears, fixed on the door like a nail.

[…]

All he saw was Juliet struggling to stay awake with weak blinks.

[We’ll do our best, but still, the child…]

[Your Highness?]

It was hard to suppress his rage for a moment.

Juliet’s pallid face and the white sheets completely soaked in red.

He didn’t wish for this.

He had only hoped for the entity gnawing slowly at her life to disappear, but not like this.

Had he not rushed so desperately, pushed Juliet to fear so much, or driven her to escape secretly.

Had he not tried to win her favor with stupid words.

No, had he not been blinded by his greed and confined her.

They had only lived together for a few months.

Yet in that short time, she had lifted him high, taught him unfamiliar emotions, and brought him down heartlessly.

And he had ruined Juliet forever.

* * *

Time passed excruciatingly slowly and boringly.

[Juliet.]

[…]

Despite his presence, the woman sitting blankly on the bed staring out the window didn’t even glance at him.

Ignoring him had become routine for several months, Lennox didn’t mind anymore.

He approached Juliet cautiously, not to startle her.

[…]

As the big man approached, Juliet’s porcelain forehead wrinkled slightly.

Two steps and a half.

That was the exact distance she allowed him to be near her.

[I’d rather you kill me.]

At first, she threw a fit and yelled at him whenever she saw him. This was much improvement.

Since that day, he had tried desperately to catch Juliet’s attention.

But no matter how much he begged for forgiveness or offered valuable gifts, Juliet didn’t respond as he hoped.

But what he brought today was not common necklaces or bouquets.

He laid a pathetic rag doll on her lap.

[It’s yours.]

It was one of the items he had angrily taken and locked away in a chest months ago.

The doll from the baby room that Juliet had secretly decorated.

[…]

Juliet’s empty gaze shifted to the rag doll.

She fumbled with the small doll.

[I know you won’t forgive me.]

Not sure if she was listening, but he couldn’t leave Juliet alone despite the continuous ignoring.

[I don’t care. Just having you here is enough.]

He felt at ease checking that Juliet was alive every time her vacant eyes flickered, waking up from sleep several times at night.

If he looked away even for a moment, it seemed like she would disappear.

[So just get angry at me.]

Every night, he held her trembling thin body and begged.

It was okay to be angry, okay to curse, just react like a living person.

Then, Juliet, who had been quietly fumbling with the doll, suddenly smirked at him playfully.

[…You must feel relieved.]

It was the first words she had spoken to him in a long time, having either cried loudly or ignorantly ignored him.

[The trouble’s gone now, hasn’t it?]