22
"A deal?"
"Yes."
Lennox's lips curved into a rare, refreshing arc. It was a magnificent sight, but Juliet knew better.
That was a sneer.
But Juliet wasn't discouraged.
"I am useful to Your Highness."
Juliet took a step, cautiously approaching him.
Lennox, leaning back on the couch, was at a lower eye level than Juliet.
Because Juliet, standing, was taller, she could look down at Lennox.
"Useful?"
"Yes, as you can see."
With perfect timing, Juliet's butterflies fluttered their wings in the darkness.
Who would have thought that the Count's Key, whose purpose no one knew, was an artifact that the great nobles had competed to possess in her first life?
But Lennox still replied coldly.
"I have no need for a half-baked Spiritualist."
Juliet didn't back down at the cold words. She took another step closer to the couch where Lennox was sitting.
"I will learn not to be half-baked.
If you teach me..."
"Teach?
Lennox sneered openly.
"I have no hobby of teaching women I don't even know."
Instead of answering, Juliet took another step. The distance closed until their knees were almost touching.
"But you haven't even heard my conditions yet."
"I doubt hearing them will change anything."
"What you said yesterday about closing Magical Power. What is that..."
Juliet's left hand rested on the back of the couch where Lennox was sitting.
Juliet asked quietly.
"Will you teach me?"
Five days later.
Juliet was sitting on one side of the Imperial Palace's banquet hall.
"My goodness, Miss Monad!"
What could be faster than rumors in the capital?
Kind socialites sought out the lonely, pitiful Count's daughter and rushed to comfort her.
"I've heard everything."
"You must be so heartbroken."
A flood of cheap sympathy and shallow interest. And inevitably, gossip followed.
[Everyone is very worried about you.
You will attend the banquet on the last day, right?]
Fatima had sent a letter to the mansion a few days ago.
Of course, Juliet's attendance at the banquet on the last day, despite her unwell body, wasn't solely due to Fatima's letter.
Juliet hadn't even managed to exchange a word with Fatima after arriving at the banquet hall. She wondered who the 'everyone' Fatima had mentioned was.
"How cold-hearted. Her parents died, and she still had the mind to come to a banquet."
Because no sooner had people offered perfunctory condolences than they all started gossiping.
Today was the last day of the Blue Deer Banquet.
In the end, Juliet had only attended the first and last days of the seven-day Blue Deer Banquet.
Normally, the biggest concern on the last day would be who would receive the Bluebell Bell Crown, but today was different.
No one cared about the Bluebell.
"Testimony alone is not enough to arrest Baron Gaspal."
But the guards said so.
Baron Gaspal naturally denied the allegations against him. Just like in the past, he testified to his alibi.
In the end, there was no link between Baron Gaspal and the bandits who had murdered the Count and Countess and kidnapped her.
"Ah, I heard it was bandits."
"Yes, the bodies of the Count and Countess were a sight no one could bear to look at."
"And she returned alive alone?"
"It could happen."
They didn't even try to lower their voices.
"Hush, you don't know what you're talking about. What kind of people are bandits?"
"The guards found her in a brothel..."
Officially, Juliet had been found in front of her house. The Duke's knight had dropped her off there.
But the rumors were maliciously exaggerated.
"How else would she have returned alive if not for that?"
"Surely, she wouldn't have gone that far."
"Isn't that right, Miss Glenfield?"
The people who had been chattering away pointed directly at Fatima Glenfield, who had been silent as a clam.
She looked at the large grandfather clock.
The Blue Deer Banquet officially ended when the clock struck twelve.
The clock hands pointed to half-past eleven.
Juliet's only concern right now was whether Duke Carlisle would send someone or not.
It had been five days since Juliet had returned from the Duke's mansion, but she hadn't heard anything from Duke Carlisle.
"If you are willing to join hands with me, please send someone on the last day of the Blue Deer Banquet."
Juliet had definitely said that.
'Maybe it's better if he doesn't come.'
If Lennox Carlisle rejected her request, if he didn't appear here.
'It's okay to worry. Just do as you've been doing.'
Just like how she had desperately tried to avoid him and not get involved in her previous life.
'Let's find a way. And then...'
What should she do then?
She felt lost.
No matter how hard she struggled, if she couldn't escape the miserable life she had in her previous life, what should she do in the future?
Lost in thought, Juliet didn't notice that the surroundings had suddenly become quiet.
Step, step.
She also didn't realize that the footsteps that had leisurely crossed the suddenly silent banquet hall had stopped right in front of her.
And she didn't know that the throbbing headache had instantly disappeared.
"Excuse me, Miss."
Startled by the low voice, Juliet inadvertently raised her head and was shocked.
"... Your Highness?"
The man with red eyes knelt on one knee in front of her, meeting her eye level.
"May I ask for a blessing from the merciful lady?"
Juliet couldn't understand at all. The situation where Carlisle was reciting childish greetings according to the rules of the Blue Deer Banquet.
Words flowed from her lips reflexively.
Fiddling with the flowers on her wrist, Juliet whispered.
"I thought I would be rejected."
"Why?"
"You hate troublesome things."
Lennox's eyes narrowed for a moment. Juliet, who had her head bowed, didn't see it, but Lennox reached out his hand.
"I think the play has been enough. Let's get out of here."
But Juliet looked at his hand and shook her head.
"I can't walk. Because of my ankle."
"How did you get in here?"
"The Chief Steward..."
As Juliet pointed to the Chief Steward standing to one side, Lennox's eyebrows arched crookedly.
Interpreting her words in some way, Lennox muttered something that sounded like a curse.
The next moment, Juliet was being held in his arms and carried leisurely out of the banquet hall.
'I meant he supported me.' It seemed a little late to correct him now.
Juliet could vividly see the shocked expressions of the people over his shoulder. She thought she even saw Fatima's flustered face among them.
Slowly blinking her eyes, Juliet sensed it.
She had said goodbye to her childhood forever.
Forgotten Juliet
