Chapter 9
"Ah,"
"Ah, Your Highness."
Juliet greeted him with a bright smile, as if she had just noticed him.
"You're here."
It was quite an innocent smile for someone who had kept him waiting all day.
"…Let's talk."
Lennox Carlisle pulled her out onto the outdoor balcony. Juliet followed him willingly, without resistance.
Despite the chilly weather, Juliet was wearing a deep blue dress that fully exposed her shoulders and back. The vivid blue, as if sprinkled with starlight, accentuated her smooth skin.
But even that grated on his nerves.
Lennox thought absentmindedly.
There was definitely a white fur stole that went with that dress, wasn't there? Where did she leave that, and just come out like this?
Lennox's eyes involuntarily scanned the line of her neck.
The glittering necklace adorning Juliet's neck caught his attention. It was a rather luxurious necklace, with thin diamonds layered in two long strands.
It suited her dress, and he had seen it a few times, but he frowned.
He had sent Juliet a necklace this morning.
"I sent you a necklace this morning. Didn't you get it?"
"I did."
"And?"
Juliet tilted her head slightly instead of answering. As if she didn't understand why he was asking such a thing.
Lennox Carlisle was not a man who was delicate or free enough to pay attention to every gift to his lover.
"I'm asking why you're not wearing it."
Even after he said it, the words sounded absurd.
Lennox Carlisle had never asked such a thing. Lennox also knew that he was asking something strange.
Wasn't he acting like a childish kid?
Lennox Carlisle felt somehow anxious.
He had always held the initiative in their relationship. He had never been in an inferior position in any relationship.
But Lennox was now doubtful. Had there ever been initiative in their relationship?
The woman who made him strange suddenly smiled.
"I was very happy with the necklace. Thank you for the gift."
It was as if she was appeasing a sulky child.
"But it's such an expensive and precious item that I was afraid of losing it, so I sent it back to the mansion. Besides, I had already chosen the outfit and jewelry to wear to the party weeks ago."
Juliet's answer made sense.
Lennox Carlisle could not find fault with her words. Nevertheless, Juliet's calm demeanor only irritated him.
For some reason, he recalled the handkerchief Juliet had given him years ago.
The one she had embroidered with his initials and given to him.
"Tell me."
"Do you remember what you gave me for my birthday last year?"
Last winter?
Lennox thought he didn't know why Juliet was hesitating so much to ask that simple question.
"Lapis lazuli from Algiers."
To be exact, it was a lapis lazuli mine.
"…That's right. You remember."
Juliet smiled brightly.
But Lennox somehow felt that it wasn't the answer she wanted.
"I have something to give Your Highness too."
Juliet had a small silk pouch hanging from her wrist, the kind used to hold a fan. But it didn't contain a fan.
"I'll return this to you."
"What is this?"
What she handed him was a thinly rolled scroll.
Lennox, who unfolded the scroll absentmindedly, was a little surprised.
It was something he remembered.
It was the contract they had drawn up seven years ago.
It was common to write a prenuptial agreement, but Juliet had demanded a contract as a condition of becoming his lover.
"It may not mean anything to Your Highness, but it means something to me."
If she wanted financial compensation after they broke up, he thought that would be fine too.
But what Juliet demanded was not that.
It was a strange condition.
[If either party, A or B, no longer wishes to continue the relationship, they shall separate through amicable agreement.]
"If you have another partner or want to break up for any other reason, we'll break up. That's my condition."
'Amicable agreement.'
So, although it was a somewhat cumbersome method, what she was asking for was a clean break for both of them.
Somewhat dumbfounded, Lennox had signed without much thought. It was a condition that he had nothing to lose.
But he had failed to consider the possibility that she would abandon him first.
"Juliet Monad."
"Are you angry?"
Juliet smiled brightly.
She was smiling, but she looked somehow tired.
"I thought Your Highness would have forgotten."
Lennox couldn't understand.
He was the one holding on, and she was the one talking about breaking up.
Yet why was she, who was about to abandon him and leave, wearing a more resigned and hurt expression?
"What's the reason?"
"Just because. Please let me go."
"Juliet."
"Haven't I done pretty well so far?"
"What?"
"I didn't do anything Your Highness dislikes. Ah… I sometimes used the Wolves without permission, but."
"........"
"But I really, really tried. Not to cry or be annoying. But I'll be twenty-five in a week."
Juliet smiled quietly and stroked her neck. Lennox was still bothered by that white, slender neckline.
"So now I want to live quietly and normally, like everyone else."
"Normally?"
"Yes."
The word grated on his ears. Didn't it sound as if she had been unhappy because she couldn't be normal by his side?
"Then aren't you normal now?"
Juliet looked up at him with a blank expression for a moment, then burst into laughter.
Laughing?
Juliet stopped laughing when she saw his cold expression.
"I'm sorry if I offended you. But Your Highness is not normal."
Juliet's profile as she added that was somehow a little pathetic.
"In fact, you never have been."
The light from the banquet hall cast a shadow on Juliet's slightly lowered eyelashes.
Lennox had seen Juliet from afar with the other young ladies in the banquet hall just now.
"Yes?"
To live normally, to marry and raise children like others?
Lennox sneered coldly.
What a joke.
He nervously loosened his tie.
"I can't listen to this anymore."
He immediately wrapped his arm around Juliet's shoulders and led her out of the banquet hall.
Juliet, who was dragged out with a bewildered expression, stopped in surprise only after seeing the Duke's carriage waiting right in front of the banquet hall.
"Your Highness!"
"The party's over."
"Lennox! Wait a minute, there's still something I need to say……."
Of course, he didn't listen.
He put Juliet in the carriage, closed the door, and said to the escort knight sitting in the driver's seat.
"We're going back to the North."
"Lennox!"
Juliet shouted from inside the carriage, startled, but he neatly ignored her and ordered the coachman.
"Tell them to prepare to return as soon as we arrive at the mansion."
"Yes? Today?"
"Yes."
Lennox glanced back.
The Duke's Wolves, clad in black armor, were silently waiting for him.
Forgotten Juliet
