* * *
It happened last summer when he took a few days off and they went on vacation to his summer residence in the northern territory.
A strange woman came to find him, accompanied by a boy who she claimed was his child.
“My child?”
The unfamiliar woman insisted.
“Yes!”
Under normal circumstances, she would have been stopped by the guards before reaching him.
However, the atmosphere at the palace was somewhat relaxed as they were there for their vacation.
When he asked Juliet what she wanted to do during the vacation, she expressed her desire to take a boat ride on the lake.
Having spent all three days in the bedroom, he nonchalantly agreed without much thought.
While Juliet, who rarely smiled brightly, was excitedly preparing for the outing, he momentarily left his seat unattended.
Coincidentally, an inexperienced rookie guard mistook the unfamiliar woman for Juliet and let her in.
He lay on the bed like a lazy black panther, encountering an uninvited guest.
“It’s the Duke’s son. Look.”
The woman, whose name and face he couldn’t remember, claimed to be a maid of some actress or another.
Confidently, she presented the heavily adorned boy to him as if he were a decoration.
The boy, around ten years old, wore a blouse with a flashy brooch, shorts, and a hat.
For some reason, the boy trembled and couldn’t even meet his gaze.
Lennox expressed his deep contemplation.
“He’s quite big for a seven-year-old child.”
“W-Well, that’s because… he’s the Duke’s son! Eric will become an excellent knight, just like the Duke!”
The momentarily bewildered woman pushed the boy forward again, her demeanor becoming more optimistic.
Then, she proudly removed the boy’s hat.
“If you look at his hair and red eyes, you’ll understand, right? Eric is the Duke’s son.”
Lennox silently gazed at the visibly frightened boy.
It was a well-known fact among the people of the Empire.
The children of the Carlyle duchy all have black hair and ruby-red eyes, eerie like droplets of blood from a white dove.
That was also the reason why the legitimacy of their lineage remained intact, despite the long and bloody struggle for the northern region.
And the boy brought by the faint-faced woman indeed had red eyes and black hair.
“My son.”
Lennox muttered, at the same time rising from his seat.
At this time, his secretary Elliot, who had been absent for some time on another assignment, heard about this episode and hurried to him.
“Your Highness!”
Elliot turned pale at the sight of the woman and the boy.
“I’m sorry. It happened because I was away for a while…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Excuse me?”
Lennox lightly touched the boy’s shoulder and grinned, speaking towards Elliot.
“Rather than that, Elliot, come here and take a look. This child is supposed to be my son.”
“Y-Your Highness.”
“What do you think, does he resemble me in your eyes?”
Lennox Carlyle lowered himself and locked eyes with the boy who was frozen in place.
“Your name is Eric, right?”
His voice was much gentler and softer than expected.
His handsome features had a positive effect on even young children. And when the tension eased, the young child followed his lead and smiled, nodding his head.
In an instant, Lennox’s hand swiftly caught the large brooch hanging from the boy’s blouse.
“Wha…!”
Before the woman could scream in surprise…
Snap.
The brooch broke from his grip.
At the same time, the boy’s original eye color and hair color were revealed.
“Quite a good disguise.”
Lennox murmured as he looked down at the shattered brooch.
It was a cheap magical item that could change eye and hair color.
At that moment, the woman finally came to her senses and rushed towards him, but she was immediately captured by the knights, who arrived just in time.
“Oh, something is wrong here… It’s a misunderstanding!”
“Elliot.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Throw them away.”
Giving orders to his secretary, Lennox turned around and headed for the exit of the main hall.
He heard the woman’s voice, but paid no attention to it.
However, before taking a few more steps, Lennox Carlyle noticed a woman standing dumbfounded at the entrance of the hall.
She leaned against one of the marble pillars at the entrance, gripping it with one hand.
As if, without doing so, she would faint.
‘…Juliet?’
He paused, about to ask her how long she had been there.
Juliet wasn’t looking at him.
Her gaze was directed towards the woman being led away and the crying child.
“I-It’s a mistake, Your Highness! This child is your son!”
The woman shouted until she was being dragged away.
Lennox realized that he had unknowingly clenched his fist.
He was only looking at Juliet, but Juliet was not looking at him. She couldn’t take her eyes off the woman, as if she was possessed by something.
After they were all dragged away by the guards and the screams in the hall subsided.
Only Juliet and he remained in the large hall.
Finally, Juliet lifted her head.
Their eyes met briefly, but he didn’t say anything.
Juliet, too, looked at him silently with an inscrutable pale face.
There was no sign of blame or surprise on Juliet’s pale face that had turned white. She simply stared at him silently with calm and serene blue eyes.
As she always did.
* * *
To Lennox Carlyle, it was simply a hapless incident not even worth mocking.
Children didn’t come so easily in the Carlyle family. Whether it was because of the mixed blood of some distant ancestor who wasn’t even human, he didn’t know.
Another reason was that there weren’t sprawling side branches in all directions despite the lineage being filled with all kinds of desires.
Thanks to that, the concept of illegitimate children was unfamiliar in the Carlyle family.
Moreover, he had never had a long-lasting relationship with any woman. The only exception was one person, Juliet Monad.
But the people who wanted to benefit from it didn’t know about it. There were countless swindlers who came to profit from this, believing that if the child had red eyes and black hair, then he could be passed off as the son of Duke Carlyle.
But at that moment, did he explain such facts to her? Did Juliet, who was still there, follow him and demand an explanation?
Come to think of it, that incident infuriated him. Then he rashly canceled not only a walk on the lake, but also the remaining days of rest, after which they immediately returned home.
But perhaps Lennox hadn’t explained anything to her.
Juliet didn’t ask him about it, and he hated wasting time on such things.
Lennox, instead of thinking about it and clearing things up, just left it at that, deciding it didn’t matter.
‘You just walked past her, didn’t you?’
Without asking for a reason to his words of going back, the woman quietly boarded the carriage.
When all the luggage was packed and it was time to leave, she just quietly climbed into the carriage, not even asking why they were returning.
And all the way until they drove back, Juliet sat next to him and silently looked out the window.
But even then, he didn’t say anything.
Damn it.
Their relationship had been like that from the beginning.
He didn’t explain anything, and Juliet didn’t ask him for any reasons. And for too long, he had thought such a relationship was natural.
A relationship that would eventually end.
A woman who could be left at any moment with a word of insincere parting.
He believed that a brief and light kiss was enough rather than troublesome words.
But maybe that’s why it didn’t work out.
Even if she didn’t ask, should he have held her and asked what she was thinking right now?
Lennox thought of a possibility too late.
Perhaps Juliet, who had come to find him, didn’t witness the moment when the woman’s lies became apparent.
Juliet might have only seen the scene where he ordered them to bring out the crying child and the woman.
She might have only seen the man turning coldly, saying it wasn’t his child.
After the man left without any explanation, Juliet had stayed there alone for a long time.
What could the woman, who hardly spoke, have been thinking while being left alone?
He thought about it while riding the horse that was running madly.
“Please let me go.”
“Haven’t I been good enough all this time?”
The faint smile on her lips and the obvious desire to end their relationship as soon as possible looked like she was hiding something.
He didn’t think at all about what he would do, but one thing was clear.
He had to meet Juliet.
He had to meet her and ask.
He had to ask what she was so afraid of and ran away from.
He had to explain that whatever worst scenario she imagined, it wasn’t the truth.
The black horse of good lineage arrived at the Carlyle Estate, covering a long distance at an astonishing speed.
Fearfully, Lennox dismounted the horse, breathing heavily, letting go of the reins of the panting horse.
As he had instructed, the front yard of the mansion was bustling with carriages and servants carrying luggage, preparing to leave for the north.
“My lord?”
The butler of the mansion recognized him and came running in surprise.
“Where is Juliet?”
“Yes?”
“I asked where Juliet is.”
“Ah… If it’s Miss Juliet, she was in the annex just a moment ago…”
Without waiting, Lennox headed towards the annex in quick strides.
“My lord!”
The knights who followed him a step late had just arrived at the courtyard of the mansion when he had already flung open the door to the annex and was bounding up the stairs leading to the second floor.
Thud.
“Juliet?”
However, when he opened the lit door of her room on the second floor, it was empty.
An empty room.
There was only one blue butterfly fluttering around, scattering a faint blur of light.