21
Several hours later, Juliet opened her eyes on a plush bed.
Her fever had completely subsided in the meantime. As her physical condition became better than expected, she hoped that all of it might have been a dream.
(Opened. Eyes.)
(Contractor.)
Of course, it was just wishful thinking.
(Human. Man. None.)
(Dislike. Here.)
(Leave. Quickly.)
However, the butterflies that spoke to Juliet were much quieter and more clumsy than yesterday.
They could only stammer and list words like a creature that had just learned to speak.
'That's strange. I'm sure they were so fluent that they were talking to the point of making me dizzy.'
Juliet, who had risen, frowned at the pain.
'It hurts...'
Still, it was better than she thought.
Except for her bitten lips, bloodshot eyes, and wounded hands, which she had struggled with in pain, she was surprisingly fine.
It meant that she was fine considering that her whole body ached like the day after a strenuous workout. Her ankle ached as if she had been injured yesterday, but she could still walk around without limping too much.
Juliet ignored the pain and went out of the bedroom.
"Gasp."
Creak.
As the bedroom door suddenly opened, a young man who was sitting in front of the door with a chair leaning against it seemed surprised and hurriedly got up.
"You're awake?"
The young man had impressive curly orange hair.
Jude Hayon.
Juliet knew this man's name.
Jude, the youngest son of the Hayon family, who was loyal to the royal family, was quite famous in the capital for suddenly pledging allegiance to the Northern Duke.
Jude seemed to know Juliet as well.
"Um, so, Miss Monad. You must be hungry, so first a meal, no, a doctor first..."
"No."
"Oh, you can talk?"
Jude smiled brightly. But Juliet didn't smile and asked directly.
"Where is he?"
"Ah, the Duke is out."
"Not that."
That?
Jude suppressed a laugh for a moment.
And in the next moment, he was glad a hundred times over that he hadn't laughed.
"My parents."
The smile disappeared from Jude's face.
"Show me."
"Miss, it's better not to see them."
"Please. I want to see it with my own eyes."
No one could break Juliet's stubbornness, who repeated the same words like a doll with a pale face.
The Duke's family doctor, the head maid, and even the vice-captain of the royal guard rushed out to dissuade her, but it was useless.
Eventually, Milan, the vice-captain, sighed deeply and ordered.
"Open it."
The door to the cool underground chamber opened.
There lay the bodies that the Duke's people had temporarily recovered the night before.
Juliet slowly approached the coffin.
The only comfort was that Count Mona de and his wife, lying side by side in the coffin, looked as peaceful as if they were asleep.
Milan, who was worried and glancing at her, wondering if she would faint after confirming the bodies, was a little relieved to see Juliet unexpectedly calm.
Juliet asked.
"Can I be alone for a moment?"
"Ah, yes. Call me if you need anything."
Milan left her alone to mourn. The moment he closed the door and turned around, a desperate cry came from inside.
It was past midnight, more than half a day later, that Lennox Carlisle remembered her existence again.
'Come to think of it, there was something like that.'
That was all.
"So, where is she?"
"Yes?"
Lennox intended not to care anymore if the Duke's vassals had sent her home.
"If you're talking about the young lady you brought yesterday, well..."
But the answer that came back was unexpected.
"...Where is she?"
"?"
Lennox was dumbfounded by the answer he heard.
The Duke's residence in the capital was not very fancy. Since he spent most of his time in the Duke's castle in the north, he didn't need that much furniture. So there were many unused spaces in the Duke's residence.
For example, the dark annex with no lights.
Lennox, who entered the annex living room where not a single ray of light entered, felt a little tired.
It was because he found the woman sitting alone, hugging her knees, right in front of the door where the coffin was temporarily placed.
"What are you doing here?"
He made a face.
"Can't you still talk?"
"...No. I'm fine now."
Surprisingly, her voice had returned.
As she touched her neck, Lennox spoke as if he had read Juliet's thoughts.
"You better be careful. If the body's owner doesn't do its job, those things will swallow you up."
"Body's owner?"
"Then who did you think they were borrowing their voices from to talk?"
Juliet suddenly felt a chill.
Come to think of it, the voices chattering in her ear seemed to be similar to her own voice.
"I heard you wanted to see me."
"Ah, yes. I have something to tell you."
Juliet slowly rose from her seat. But instead of getting straight to the point, she stared at Lennox.
It was a strange feeling to see the man she had loved in her past life again. But he didn't even remember her.
'I hate you.'
The moment she faced him, her emotions came back to life like a lie. A complex emotion mixed with resentment and affection.
Juliet knew in her head that Lennox Carlisle at that time and the man in front of her were completely different people, and she sat in front of her parents' coffin all day, thinking about what to do in the future.
'I don't want to go through that again.'
If things went on like this, the same thing would happen again anyway.
The moment Dahlia appeared, she would be abandoned. Just like in her first life.
Juliet had done anything for him, but to him, Juliet was just a tool.
'Then in the end, I'll end up in the same situation again.'
But Juliet needed Lennox now.
"Didn't you say you had something to say?"
"Yes."
Juliet remembered what Lennox had said last night, "Close the Magical Power."
The same thing had happened when Dahlia first met him in her previous life.
It was when Dahlia was still staying at the Duke's castle as a guest. Juliet had overheard the conversation between the maids who were serving Dahlia.
"You idiot. Don't you know what it means to have controlled Magical Power? It means the two of them slept together!"
The first person to awaken Magical Power had an unstable Magical Power flowing through their body.
Magical Power was something that magicians could handle as naturally as breathing.
But it was quite dangerous for beginners who didn't even know what Magical Power was or even feel its existence properly.
In really dull cases, it took five or six years to learn how to control Magical Power.
If you panicked, you could end up dying because you couldn't close the Magical Power. So, continuous skinship with someone who could handle Magical Power skillfully was necessary.
The family's relic with incomprehensible power was necessary for the adversities that would come later, but more important was the person who had disappeared with it.
Dahlia Fran, whose name was like a lovely flower, was Lennox's childhood friend and like a sibling.
But when Lennox's father died and a fight broke out over the position of head of the family, Dahlia's parents, who were servants of the Duke's family, ran away with their daughter.
'Along with the treasure.'
Lennox, who had worked hard on the battlefield, chased after the treasure as soon as he returned and regained the title of Duke.
He was probably still looking for Dahlia. But Juliet knew.
It was seven years later, when Lennox reunited with Dahlia, who he thought was dead, that he would get the treasure back.
'But I shouldn't talk about Dahlia here.'
There was no way to explain how she knew things that even the Duke's closest aides didn't know.
"So?"
"Yes?"
"What do you want to say?"
Lennox Carlisle's eyes sparkled calmly.
"Are you thinking of threatening me with that?"
Threaten?
"I..."
Juliet chose her words carefully.
"I want to make a deal with Your Highness."
Forgotten Juliet
