Forgotten Juliet

He could have warned Juliet sufficiently that a suspicious evil spirit was targeting her. However, he chose not to do so.

“…Are you hurt a lot?”

“This? No.”

Juliet, as if it’s nothing, awkwardly smiled while covering the wound on her wrist.

“It’s nothing. It’ll heal soon.”

“I have some effective herbs. I’ll bring them the next time we meet.”

“Oh…”

Juliet seemed flustered, blinking her eyes and trailing off.

“What’s wrong?”

“Roy, I’ll be leaving the capital for a while.”

“…”

A crack appeared in his barely maintained smile.

“Are you going North?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Um…”

Juliet wore a slightly awkward expression.

“You would have seen too, Roy. I captured the spirit that despised the Duke.”

He knew as well, of course.

The enormous cage placed in the center of the banquet hall, and the snake with a human figure trapped within, exhibited an unignorable presence.

“But capturing the snake doesn’t solve the problem, does it?”

Roy said, slightly raising his voice.

“Did you forget, Juliet? Even if you capture that snake, it won’t lift the curse on the Duke. Then we are back to the starting point. Juliet would get hurt again…”

“I know, it’s the starting point.”

Juliet smiled wryly. It was a somehow unadorned smile.

“But this time, I want to have a conversation. Without running away.”

At that moment, inexplicably, Roy felt a twist in his stomach. Some inexplicable intuition pierced him.

They had lived much longer lives than humans.

Waiting was his forte. But what if the opportunity never came?

If Juliet never left that arrogant Duke’s side in her short life?

Then rather…

“So it will be hard to see each other for a while. I’m sorry.”

“…You don’t have to apologize for every little thing.”

But Roy wore his refined mask as he always had.

“Well then, take care, Roy.”

Juliet smiled, waved, and climbed into the carriage.

“…Take care. Juliet.”

Roy watched the carriage carrying Juliet leave the star palace for a long time.

Once the carriage completely disappeared from his sight, he shifted his steps toward the chaotic banquet hall. Indeed, it was just as Juliet described.

The center of the banquet hall had a giant cage-shaped barrier glowing, and guards were moving around, cleaning up.

Roy deliberately hid his presence and leaned against a pillar.

Then the sleek blond man trapped inside the barrier slowly lifted his head.

A cunning violet gaze aimed precisely at Roy. It was a captivating gaze.

I told you. You would come to find me again.

Even from afar, the snake seemed to perceive his thoughts, smirking only with the shape of his lips.

“Shut up.”

A low growling voice flowed out.

Roy slowly clenched his palm.

He didn’t use any of the medicine. Not a single drop.

So what he was about to do now wasn’t the urging of that snake, but purely Roy’s rational judgment.

Roy deluded himself thus.

A moment later.

A suspicious figure approached near the cage-shaped barrier, but no one suspected until disaster struck.

In the first place, he was a very noble guest to be doubted.

* * *

Juliet was mulling over what had just happened.

‘That look.’

It was a moment, but when Juliet brought the wine glass to her lips, Lennox was clearly shaken.

It was just a joke, but he grabbed her wrist.

Juliet’s complexion darkened.

‘Could it be, he remembers?’

In her previous life, Juliet died drinking the wine he offered.

The glass back then was very similar to the one she held today with chocolates in it.

Juliet thought until recently that in her previous life, she had willingly drank the poisoned wine and died. But as the identity of the snake was revealed, Juliet began to harbor a ‘what if?’ expectation.

The poison in the wine glass was nothing but a trick of that snake.

The Lennox of her previous life didn’t hate her enough to kill her…

But what difference would it make?

Of course, she was the only one who remembered the previous life, so Juliet could not know how Lennox remembered that incident.

‘Maybe I just want to believe that.’

Juliet smiled bitterly.

That’s when it happened.

Bang!

“What’s going on?”

An explosion-like flash brightly colored the dark night sky.

Heeheehee!

Startled horses harshly neighed.

“Miss!”

The carriage jolted heavily but fortunately didn’t overturn.

“Are you alright!”

The Duke’s knight, Jude, swiftly ran to the carriage’s side, but Juliet, who had instinctively sensed something, stuck her head out and shouted sharply.

“Go back to the palace!”

“Really? But it would be better to avoid and go to a safe place.”

“Quickly!”

“Ah… Yes!”

Jude quickly turned the carriage around.

Juliet bit her lips as she looked out of the window.

Ominous smoke continued to rise from the direction of the star palace.

Something was clearly wrong.

* * *

“…The evil spirit has escaped!”

Why are ominous premonitions never wrong?

Juliet, who hurried back to the palace, bit her lip.

Upon returning, the cage-like barrier was horribly shattered, and for some unknown reason, the snake had calmly escaped.

It wasn’t a secret escape.

Everyone present at the scene had witnessed it.

Cutting through the dark night sky, a giant snake left a trail like clouds as it flew beyond the mountain range.

It looked as if a constellation was moving.

There was one more thing that unsettled the people.

“Where is that snake going?”

The snake was dragging its long tail heading North.

“In the world…”

“It was truly a monster.”

People had astonished expressions.

“I knew it was too easy to solve…”

“Whose act is this!?”

Sir Milan, the vice-captain of the Duke’s Knights, appeared and questioned the guards.

“It’s unbelievable! Only a great magician could breach a barrier of this level…!”

“Now what do we do…?”

With a faltering voice, Archbishop Gilliam glanced at Juliet.

But Juliet didn’t have any particular information.

The sacred relic that Archbishop Gilliam had been in awe of, a kind of cage of a saint, was completely torn on one side.

Milan and the temple’s responsible person, Archbishop Gilliam, were loudly confronting each other.

“Archbishop! You said this barrier was secure!”

“Ha, but even the evil power of the demon couldn’t break the sacred barrier, that’s the point!”

Archbishop Gilliam claimed loudly as if wronged.

“It’s clear that there was outside help from someone!”

“The problem isn’t just this.”

“It’s reported that the Second Prince and the soldiers who were imprisoned in the palace prison have escaped.”

‘Magic or relics. If it’s physically broken, that’s the end of it.’

Indeed, earlier Lennox had also blown off the snake’s neck. It was a clear and simple solution.

Sitting on the stone steps, Juliet absentmindedly had such thoughts.

It felt surreal, almost helpless.

Surprisingly, Lennox didn’t get angry or flustered.

Instead, he left to understand the situation and rectify it with the high officials of the imperial palace.

Juliet felt sick.

‘I thought we had just caught it.’

And to lose it in such a ridiculous manner.

“Juliet?”

In the corner of the star palace yard, Juliet, who was hanging her head in gloom, suddenly lifted her head.

“What are you doing here?”

“Roy…”

It was Roy with sweat forming beads on his forehead.

“…The snake has escaped.”

Juliet responded in a deflated tone.

“Oh no, how did that happen?”

“I don’t know. Just… when I came to see…”

Juliet, in a somewhat dazed state, rambled to Roy incoherently.

“Take this, it will ease your anger.”

After listening to her rambles for a while, Roy handed over a small bouquet.

The flower was called a star match flower, which glows brighter as the surroundings get darker.

“It absorbs moonlight and emits light when it gets dark around.”

Roy explained in a soothing voice.

“Wow.”

Juliet forgot the melancholy of a moment ago, and stared at the glowing bouquet in her hand in amazement.

The Star Match flower, also known as the world tree, bloomed from a gigantic tree, much like a magnolia, large and white. The transparent petals were miraculously soft like rubber yet quite tough.

And it had a very strong floral fragrance.

A sweet scent strong enough to cause a headache, often used in women’s perfume.

It was a familiar flower scent.

After a moment of silence, Juliet asked in a casual tone.

“Roy, did this flower also bloom in the forest of southern fairies?”

“Yes.”

During her stay in the south, Juliet had heard quite a lot of intriguing stories about the fairy forest, where ordinary people were forbidden. And Juliet remembered those stories quite accurately.

For instance, the flowers from the fairy forest were self-fertile, hence didn’t bear fruit, and had no fragrance.

“So, is it true that the flowers from the fairy forest have no fragrance?”

Roy smiled softly and confirmed.

“Yes, that’s right. You know well.”

“Roy.”

“Huh?”

Juliet lifted her head quietly.

She wasn’t smiling anymore.

“Earlier, did you go near the barrier where the snake was confined?”