Forgotten Juliet

* * *

Left alone, Juliet watched the retreating figures of the two men, then began to slowly walk along the beach.

“Peep!”

Following her tirelessly was the creature with a hump on its back.

The festive crowd seemed too engrossed in eating and drinking to notice much else. To avoid the noisy hustle and bustle, Juliet shifted her walk towards the lakeside.

However, she encountered an unexpected problem.

“Ouch.”

The moment she stepped on the hill to cross the forest, her shoe got stuck in the mud.

“Ugh.”

Somehow, she had had a feeling about these shoes.

Looking back at the path she had walked, Juliet considered going back to change her shoes, but the distance and time made her hesitate.

After a moment of contemplation, she decided to take off her shoes and walk barefoot.

Beyond the coastline was a dense forest, full of grass and trees, and crossing it led to a lake known only to her.

Upon reaching the lake, Juliet took off her muddy shoes.

‘What will I do on my way back?’

She thought briefly, but decided not to worry about it.

‘Let it be.’

Juliet threw her shoes far away, then sat at the edge of the lake, cautiously dipping her feet in.

She had been here last year as well.

‘It was raining back then.’

Juliet gazed up absentmindedly. The full moon in the sky looked absolutely tantalizing.

And Lennox never came, in the end…

She knew it all along.

“Would you come with me?”

Around this time last year, Juliet was in Algiero. But back then, she wasn’t there to enjoy the festival.

At the time, Lennox was busy acquiring a newly discovered mine in the Algiero region.

She did accompany him to the east, but Juliet had been killing time amidst strangers all day.

No one in the ducal house was free, to the extent they even forgot Juliet’s birthday, which they had never overlooked before.

She could understand that. But there was one thing she desperately wanted as a birthday gift.

That morning, Juliet had pleaded with Carlyle.

“They say there will be a full moon tonight.”

“So?”

“Would you… come with me?”

There’s a lake there with a breathtaking view. That alone would be a sufficient birthday gift, she had argued, considering she had never demanded anything before.

“Alright.”

So when the casual agreement was made, Juliet was unusually excited that evening.

But midnight passed, and she didn’t see him till dawn.

He never explained why he didn’t show up. Either he was busy, or he forgot. It must have been one of the two.

A trivial story.

“Happy Birthday, Juliet.”

Juliet murmured softly.

Words she wanted to hear, but never did.

“Peep?”

The baby dragon, which had been marveling at the surface of the lake, responded.

Without a word, Juliet reached out and stroked the young dragon’s back. This was how her twenty-fifth birthday passed.

Sighing, Juliet pulled her legs back up onto the deck.

She managed to wash her messy feet. The winter in the east was mild like early spring, but it still got quite cold at night, so she decided to head back.

Then-

Nieegh!

She heard the neigh of a horse in the distance.

Juliet casually looked up. From afar, a horse was kicking up a cloud of dust as it raced toward her, eventually stopping.

“Roy? You’re already here?”

Descending from the horse, the tall man’s silhouette approached her steadily, and Juliet greeted him with a faint smile.

“You came so quickly…”

But as the man’s face fully emerged under the moonlight, Juliet lost her words.

“…Juliet.”

It was the man who was a year late.

* * *

“You’re late, Your Highness.”

Juliet mumbled dazedly to herself.

For a moment, she doubted her own sanity, thinking she might be hallucinating.

But the man walked towards her as if it was all too familiar, and skillfully pulled her close.

It was clear he had ridden his horse hard.

But while catching his breath, he held onto Juliet’s hand firmly, as if fearing she might run away.

Juliet, too, was at a loss for words.

“You.”

The man’s face emerged in the moonlight. Was it because he usually wore such a cold face?

For some reason, Juliet felt like Lennox looked pitiful and flustered.

Even though there was no reason for him to look that way, the serene sound of the insects with the full moon shining over the lakeside was present.

Many words could describe the current scene, yet there stood a man, looking as if he was the most out-of-place being in the world.

Feeling a pressure to say something, Juliet blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.

“Hello, Lennox, have you been well?”

But seeing the man’s expression turn fierce, it seemed like that wasn’t the right thing to say.

So what should she do?

Juliet just thought about how she could appear less pathetic in this situation, a long-held habit of hers.

She couldn’t recall how long it had been since she last saw him. She had imagined running into him a few times, but never like this.

Suddenly, Juliet realized his gaze was fixed on her lower abdomen.

‘…Oops.’

Only then did she feel a sense of impending doom. The words she had said before leaving him came back to her.

“Juliet Monad.”

The man, who seemed like he could kill with just a glance, muttered bitterly.

“Do you like that bastard?”

* * *

“…Hello, Lennox.”

He was not fine.

“Have you been well?”

He hadn’t.

Juliet, with flushed cheeks and sparkling eyes, much like a typical village girl, beamed with a neatly braided hair and a fairy-tale-like attire.

It felt like everything that had upset him over the past few weeks had merely been a simple nightmare.

He couldn’t bear the scene without feeling dizzy.

Algiero, and the azurite mine. The Moon Festival.

Vague words mixed up, and faint memories resurfaced. Not all of them, but a year ago, they were here.

* * *

“I want to see the moon.”

The usually quiet woman rarely voiced her desires out loud. Yet she wanted to moon-gaze.

Despite the mansion they resided in offering ample opportunities for moon-gazing, she seemed unusually intrigued.

“Would you… come with me?”

“Alright.”

He remembered her rare bright smile when he agreed without much thought.

“Thank you.”

Was accompanying her for moon-gazing really something to be grateful for? Was she supposed to be appreciative of every small thing?

Even though he had replied nonchalantly, it was late when he remembered.

Outside the window, instead of moon-gazing, dark clouds loomed, and heavy rain seemed imminent.

‘The moon-gazing is off the table.’

It was only the next day when he realized that ‘moon-gazing’ referred to the Moon Festival celebrated on New Year’s Day in that region. At the same time, he remembered missing her only birthday.

“What is this?”

In haste, he gave Juliet the deed to the azurite mine. It felt as if it would make up for the oversight.

But even when she just had to sign, she left it blank for days.

She hid under her blanket, holed up in her bed.

“I’m not feeling well.”

From beneath the covers, the pale-faced woman replied with a voice filled with sobs.

He heard much later that she had a feverish cold and had been bedridden for five days.

* * *

Why did he remember that now?

“Um…”

The hand he held felt uncomfortable, or perhaps his presence was disconcerting. Juliet awkwardly averted her gaze.

On her way to meet her, he had pondered dozens, if not hundreds of times. As the conclusion between Juliet and him was inevitable, the only thing he had to say was set in stone.

It was simple.

Find Juliet, check on her, and persuade her.

He wouldn’t care who the father of the child in her belly was. He would raise the child as his own and would grant her anything she wanted.

However, as soon as he set his eyes on Juliet, he realized.

“Juliet Monad.”

He realized just how shallow a person named Lennox Carlyle was.

“Do you like that bastard?”

The words that came out were unbelievably childish.