Forgotten Juliet

Elliot wandered around the dark star palace, eventually discovering a room with lights on at the far end of the corridor.

“Your Highness…!”

Elliot rushed to the door where the light was seeping out.

“…Do I look desperate enough to use you as bait?”

“Oh, so it’s okay for the gracious Duke to use himself as bait?”

“Do you think this is the right time to squabble?”

“Then you shouldn’t have spoken in the first place…”

The sound of chatter flowed along with the light through the opened doorway.

If Elliot had been a little more composed, he would have noticed that the conversation between the drugged man and woman was too combative for their state.

But for the loyal secretary of the Duke, Elliot, nothing was more important than rescuing the Duke from the suspicious maid’s clutches quickly.

In haste, Elliot grabbed the broomstick – lying conspicuously in the corridor, as the nearest weapon and hurled himself into the room.

“Your Highness!”

Bang!

“…?”

The eyes of the two people in the room were drawn to Elliot who had barged in.

Just as Elliot had guessed, there were only Duke Carlyle and a woman in a white mask in the room.

The woman in the white mask, dressed as a maid, was on top of the Duke, who was leaning back on the couch, grasping his collar.

“Ge-get off him at once!”

Startled, Elliot swung the broomstick.

“This is all for your sake…!”

“What are you doing here, Elliot?”

Hmm?

Swinging the stick around, Elliot finally noticed the annoyed expression on Lennox Carlyle.

Unlike someone who had said he would sober up a little while ago, Duke Carlyle looked perfectly fine.

“Oh… weren’t you in danger?”

“Danger?”

The Duke, with a few shirt buttons undone, leaning on the couch, indeed looked in danger.

But it seemed like he wasn’t the one in danger, rather he was endangering others.

“Surely that maid had poisoned the tea… No, fed some suspicious drug to Your Highness…”

Confused by the perfectly fine Duke Carlyle, Elliot rambled on.

Meanwhile, the woman, who wasn’t a maid, but Ronda dressed up, sighed and took off her white mask.

“Elliot, it’s me.”

Swish. Alongside, her neatly tied long hair flowed down smoothly.

She was someone Elliot knew very well.

“…M-Miss Juliet?”

Elliot’s eyes widened.

“Yes.”

With her soft brown hair sprawled, blue eyes blinking, Juliet Monad, dressed in a maid outfit, confirmed.

“What’s going on here?”

Elliot was still confused.

“Anyway, it’s been worth breaking the level.”

Half-lying on the couch, Lennox, who held his chin up obliquely, clicked his tongue, seeming displeased.

For some reason, Elliot shrunk his shoulders under Duke Carlyle’s piercing gaze, who seemed not to look drugged at all.

Rather, it seemed like his earlier drunken act at the outdoor party was a lie, as his face looked perfectly fine.

Unable to grasp the situation, Elliot timidly retorted.

“But, I definitely saw Miss entering the maze garden?”

Juliet, in a flashy outfit today, had caught many eyes. There were more than one or two witnesses who saw Juliet, dressed in a black dress adorned with numerous diamonds, entering the maze garden.

“Did I enter the maze garden?”

Juliet smiled gleefully.

Elliot couldn’t grasp her confusing rhetoric.

Juliet was here now, so what did ‘did I do that?’ mean?

“It went well, huh?”

“Elliot and everyone saw it, so it went according to plan.”

According to plan …?

Ah.

Elliot finally realized.

“But, Miss Juliet.”

The fact that Juliet Monad, who should have gone to the maze garden by now, was here meant …”

“…Then who is that?”

* * *

The answer to Elliot’s question had to be found in the maze garden where the game of tag was in full swing.

‘Tag’ was today’s main event where masked men and women roamed the maze garden for fun.

And Ansel Hauser, currently the aide to ‘Count Jermang’, was hiding breathlessly in the bushes with his subordinates.

“Ugh …!”

And when Juliet Monad, dressed in a sparkling dress, just stepped into the maze garden, Ansel Hauser quickly covered her mouth.

‘Easier than thought?’

Ansel and his men swiftly lifted the captured woman and began dragging her toward the prepared evacuation route.

“Ugh! Ugh!”

The woman in the flashy dress and mask seemed to be hurling curses, but Ansel was in a hurry.

‘If this mission ends well …!’

In fact, Ansel Hauser knew little about the identity of Count Jermang.

-Do exactly as he says!

The Second Prince was very afraid of Count Jermang.

Ansel didn’t know why the Second Prince felt that way, but he knew that Count Jermang was an extraordinary strategist.

Ansel was more cunning than the frightened Second Prince.

In his eyes, the Second Prince was nothing more than a puppet.

The mysterious man known as ‘Count Jermang’ showed astonishing ability to rake in immense gold in just a few days, and even transformed the banquet hall into a star palace, as if he had magically cooked up the Emperor himself.

Originally, if the banquet had taken place in the imperial palace today, it wouldn’t have been easy to use the teleportation circle due to the surveillance of the court magicians.

But this was the star palace of Alkaron.

“Hurry up!”

Ansel Hauser urged his subordinates.

With a new golden goose in Count Jermang, Ansel was inflated with dreams.

If things went well, his sister could become a Duchess.

Maybe Ansel could gain more now than when he was loyal to the Second Prince.

Arriving near the teleportation circle with swift steps, they laid down the kidnapped woman on the circle, then kept an eye on the outdoor banquet hall.

Now they just needed to wait for the signal from Count Jermang at the banquet hall, and once the signal comes, activating the teleportation circle would perfectly conclude today’s plan.

Once the teleportation circle activated, Juliet Monad was supposed to face a terrible fate before everyone, attacked by the monstrous creatures suddenly appearing…

Suddenly, Ansel hesitated.

“Uh!”

As the woman on the ground struggled, her mask that covered her eyes fell off, revealing her face.

“Ro… Ronda?”

Ansel recognized his sister’s face.

What on earth happened?

His head went blank. But undoubtedly, the one wearing Juliet Monad’s dress was his sister, Ronda.

Frantically, Ansel began to remove the gag from Ronda’s mouth.

“Ansel you idiot! Hurry up and untie this! It’s me!”

“What, what are you guys doing! Hurry up!”

That was the moment.

Flash.

Ansel Hauser caught the signal sent from Count Jermang at the banquet hall.

“Kyaaah!”

Knowing very well what would happen to her once the teleportation spell activated, Ronda screamed in terror with a high-pitched shriek.

“Qu, Quick! Quick!”

Flash.

Ronda managed to escape from the binding at the nick of time and got off the teleportation circle.

The moment she got away from the verge of becoming the beasts’ food, Ronda vented her anger on her brother.

“Ansel, you idiot! What are you doing?”

“That’s what I should say!”

Ansel was completely flustered.

“Ronda, why on earth are you wearing Juliet Monad’s dress?”

Ansel, who almost had his sister torn to death by beasts, was pale.

It was a close call. A little later and the teleportation would have activated, and instead of Juliet Monad, Ronda would have been thrown to the starving beasts.

“Your role was to mark Duke Carlyle, wasn’t it? Why are you here wearing that woman’s dress in the first place!”

“Tha, that is…!”

Ronda burst into tears.

“Huh… waaaah!”

“What, what! What did you do right to cry!”

Ronda threw the mask she held in her hand with a face red from crying.

“It was a failed plan from the start! Everything you do is like that, huh!”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Juliet Monad! That woman, she knew everything from the start!”

* * *

“…So you noticed that the maid named Ronda was acting suspiciously, and you purposely switched clothes with her midway, is that what you are saying?”

“Yes.”

“So, did you also know that the maid was drugging the tea?”

“I found out recently.”

The fact that Juliet chose an unusually flashy dress was for that very reason.

Once people have a flashy outfit imprinted on their minds, even if it changed to Ronda midway, they would still think it was Juliet.

While Juliet was convincing Elliot with the explanation, Lennox, who had been silently listening, stood up.

“I need to go.”

“Wh… Where are you saying?”

“It’s time to end this unfunny drama.”

“Wait a moment.”

Juliet grabbed Lennox, who was picking up his coat.

“Why?”

Instead of replying, she yanked at his collar.

“!”

“…Oh my.”

Stunned, Elliot quickly turned his back, but Juliet unhesitatingly grabbed Lennox by the nape of his neck and deeply kissed him.

He almost lost balance, but Lennox, familiar with such situations, pulled her waist close.

However, the sudden kiss was brief.