Forgotten Juliet

“Stop here.”

At the same time, the Duke, who was in the middle of his journey from the capital to his mansion, suddenly stopped his horse.

the Duke’s black horse neighed in displeasure as its rider tugged on the reins sharply.

“Your Highness, what happened?”

Naturally, everyone who followed him immediately stopped upon hearing the master’s order.

Duke Carlyle was silent for a while and stared into the darkness, as if he was thinking about something or trying to see something there.

The knights looked at each other in confusion, and then stared at their master’s back.

“Don’t you hear this?”

“What are you speaking about?”

“This sound.”

“What… what sound?”

And only then did they really pay attention to it. It was a faint, monotonous sound, like someone was crying.

“I hear it too!”

The first person to hear him after Carlyle was Jude Hayon, the youngest knight.

Jude hastily drew his sword from its scabbard.

This faint sound came from the magic stone embedded in his sword.

“It’s a resonance.”

Hadin nodded his head, confirming his words.

“Is it possible that it is nearby?”

“Most likely, a colossal amount of mana is coming from somewhere in the capital.”

Hadin explained to Jude, as he was also one of the first to catch an echo of this resonance.

He had heard of this being possible, but it was extremely rare. Moreover, in order to cause a resonance, an incredibly powerful magical explosion must occur. Only in this case, nearby mana stones could sound.

Then all the knights began to check their swords.

But, how could such a powerful magical explosion occur at this time of day, in the center of the capital?

“What could have caused it?”

“Maybe the dungeon has opened up.”

“Don’t joke like that, you idiot!” Jude exclaimed in fear.

If the dungeon was opened in the center of the capital, as one of the knights said, then it would be a real disaster.

“Let’s go there.”

Lennox, listening to the piercing screaming stone in his sword, led them out of the capital.

By the time he approached the forest near his destination, his ears were already hurting from the loud crying of the magic stone.

The place that the weeping voice of the stone led him to was an abandoned stone building on the outskirts of the capital. Similar dilapidated ancient temples were scattered throughout the Empire, and no one had visited them for a long time.

Why exactly here?

“Huh?”

It was Jude who first discovered Juliet.

“Hey, there’s someone there!”

Thanks to the rising moon, illuminating the area as brightly as if it were daylight, the ruins of the ancient temple were perfectly visible.

As Jude had said, a woman stood in the middle of the dilapidated stone building, who then sank gently to the floor.

“Damn it…!”

Jude, who was about to dismount and run through the thickets, suddenly stopped.

The stone floor of the ruins was covered in a thick, dark substance. It looked as if someone had deliberately splattered ink all over it.

“…”

Of course, it wasn’t ink.

It was dried blood.

* * *

“Well, this is a mess.”

That was a fairly mild expression.

Although there were four bodies in the corner of the temple, the blood staining the floor didn’t belong to them.

There were the bodies of a middle-aged noble couple who seemed to be married, dressed neatly, and the bodies of what appeared to be their servant and horseman.

Four people in total.

‘Then is this woman their daughter?’

Lennox looked down at the woman lying on the floor with a deep and searching gaze.

She seemed strangely familiar.

Her once beautiful blue dress was now a mess, stained with blood. But it wasn’t her blood.

In the first place, if she had shed this much blood, she wouldn’t be alive, and there were no noticeable major wounds on her body.

“Master, shall we take care of the bodies?”

One of the knights asked Lennox for his opinion.

Before he could answer, a desperate moan escaped the woman’s lips.

“Ugh.”

‘Don’t touch me!’ Juliet wanted to scream.

In fact, since the moment this man appeared, she had been trying to shout.

However, contrary to that, the sound that came out of her mouth was nothing but gasping, as if she could stop breathing at any moment.

Juliet glared at him with bloodshot eyes. The man, who had been silently observing her, seemed to smile slightly at her state.

“Don’t touch the bodies, Hadin.”

“Your Highness?”

“Don’t touch anything and stay ten steps away.”

In the end, the knights gave way back, following his order.

As the distance became such that his voice couldn’t be heard, the man’s gaze turned towards Juliet.

“You, it was you.”

Kneeling on one knee and touching the ground, he lowered his posture to be at eye level with Juliet.

“Do you know what you’ve done?”

There was a hint of amusement in his tone.

Instead of answering, Juliet glared at him. But even if she could speak, Juliet wouldn’t have been able to answer his question.

She didn’t know exactly what had happened.

When she came to her senses, Juliet found herself alone in this place.

Or maybe not alone. Tiny specks of light, about the size of a fingertip, twinkled and fluttered around her, precisely small butterfly-shaped lights. Almost like living creatures.

(Contractor.)

(Can you hear me?)

These clusters of light, like flickering nail-sized butterflies, seemed to be the source of the voice.

The murmuring voice was more frequent than before she lost consciousness.

Even though she muttered that it was noisy, it was futile.

Her body was burning with fever, and it was difficult to even flick her fingers as if her limbs were broken. Nothing was right, not even her voice.

So she waited for someone to come and help… and unexpectedly, it was this man who appeared.

Lennox Carlyle. The person Juliet had desperately tried to avoid.

In her previous life, the man saved Juliet, and Juliet loved him passionately. And Juliet’s life ended in the hands of that man.

“Tsk.”

The man lightly licked his tongue, displeased by something, and touched Juliet’s forehead.

When his large, cool hand touched her, Juliet almost slapped his hand. But, unfortunately, she didn’t have the strength to even move.

‘Ah.’

It was a strange occurrence.

Just as his hand touched her, the voices that had been chattering in her head disappeared completely.

Instantly, the surroundings became quiet.

That alone relieved her headache significantly. Instead, she could feel that her body was hot. The dizziness was probably due to the fever.

“Ha.”

‘Look at this.’ Lennox’s eyes, observing her, flickered with a hint of curiosity.

“You’ve summoned something pretty absurd.”

What has she summoned?

“But something like that…”

The man’s gaze still lingered on the small clusters of flickering lights fluttering around her.

“You don’t know how to close off magic, and you don’t know how to control them.”

Perhaps it was just her imagination, but the butterfly-shaped clusters of light seemed to flinch for a moment.

“And you’re leaking magic so recklessly.”

He said that with a smirk.

“You’ll die soon.”

…What?

‘You bastard!’

Tears in Juliet’s eyes welled up in an instant.

“Even so, I thought you might help me a little. So listen to me very carefully now.”

Yes, what’s wrong with you?

As if he found her pitiful, Lennox Carlyle adjusted his posture and whispered gently next to Juliet.

“You’ll die if you don’t close off the magic.”

Judging by his tone, it was clear that he knew how to close off the magic but deliberately refused to help her.

No, perhaps he seemed to be waiting for her to do something.

But Juliet’s body was in too much pain, and all she could think about was crying.

“Huk.”

Was there something wrong with her throat?

Even her sobbing voice didn’t come out properly.

Then the man sitting beside her gently stroked her cheek with one hand while holding his chin with the other.

Just like administering medicine.

The pleasant coolness of his hands made her feel better again.

From the outside, it might look like he was really going to help her, but Juliet felt that this was not the case.

Juliet had a hunch.

‘This man will just let me die.’

Because the Lennox Carlyle she knew wasn’t someone who showed unfounded kindness.

Even his indifferent eyes said so. His slightly curious red eyes were remarkably beautiful, but his expression was overwhelmingly listless. It was a gaze that seemed to be looking at a slightly peculiar animal, and that was all.

‘…He was always like this.’

She knew it.

In her past life, he acted cruelly, ruthless as if he had no blood or tears, except towards one person in the world.

Yet, somehow, she couldn’t bear it and felt angry.

‘If it was going to end up like this, why did I desperately try to avoid it?’

Her breath became rapid, she felt numbness in her entire body and her consciousness faded away. Juliet closed her eyes smoothly and soon completely lost consciousness.

But just before she completely lost consciousness, she felt the touch of someone’s hand caressing her cheek. Then she felt like her lips lightly touched something and then it pulled away.

“I will help you only once.”

Juliet thought she heard a whisper mixed with laughter.