“Ah, Your Highness.”
Juliet greeted him with a confident smile as if she had just spotted him.
“You’ve arrived.”
Considering she had been avoiding him all day, it was quite a genuine smile.
“…Let’s talk.”
Lennox pulled her towards the outdoor balcony. Juliet followed him without resistance.
Despite the chilly weather, Juliet was dressed in a deep blue dress that exposed her shoulders and back. The vivid blue color, reminiscent of scattered starlight, accentuated her smooth skin.
But even that bothered him.
Lennox thought absentmindedly.
There seemed to have been a matching white fur draped over her shoulders with that dress. Where did she leave it and just come out like that?
Unconsciously, Lennox scanned her neckline with his eyes.
A sparkling necklace adorning Juliet’s neck captured his gaze. It was a lavish necklace, consisting of two long strands of slender diamonds.
It suited her dress and was a necklace he had seen a few times before, but he furrowed his brow.
He had sent her the necklace this morning. Had she not received it?
“I received it.”
“But?”
Instead of answering, Juliet tilted her head slightly, as if she didn’t understand why he was asking.
Lennox Carlyle wasn’t a man who paid attention to his lover’s gifts, nor was he idle enough to do so.
“Why haven’t you worn it?”
These words, even to him, seemed rather absurd after he uttered them.
Lennox had never asked such a question before. He knew that he himself was asking something strange.
Am I acting like a childish kid?
Lennox Carlyle couldn’t help but feel restless.
He had always been the one in control of their relationship. He had never been in a subordinate position in any human relationship.
But suddenly a doubt crept into Lennox’s mind.
Had there ever been a moment in their relationship where he had the upper hand?
The woman who was making him uneasy suddenly smiled brightly.
“I was very happy with the necklace. Thank you for the gift.”
It was as if she was using a tone to soothe a tantrum-throwing child.
“But I was afraid I might lose such an expensive and precious item, so I sent it back to the mansion. The dress and accessories I’ll be wearing to the party tonight were already chosen weeks ago.”
Juliet’s response made sense.
Lennox couldn’t find any flaws in her words. Yet, despite that, Juliet’s calm demeanor somehow unsettled him.
Of all things, he remembered the handkerchief she had given him a few years ago.
It was embroidered with his name and handed to him.
Therefore, this handkerchief was still kept in the back of a drawer in his desk in his office.
Then Juliet said to him,
“It’s okay if you want to throw it away. It doesn’t matter who you give it to.”
But he didn’t.
And, for this reason, he now wanted to ask Juliet, ‘Why do you not value the gift that I gave you?’
But Juliet was the first to open her mouth and speak.
“Your Highness.”
She paused for a moment, as if hesitating, and then continued.
“I want to ask you something…”
“Tell me.”
“Do you remember what you gave me for my birthday last year?”
Last year, during winter?
Lennox couldn’t understand why Juliet hesitated so much to ask such a simple question.
“An azurite mine.”
More precisely, it was a lapis lazuli mine.
“Yes, you remember.”
Juliet smiled softly.
But for some reason, Lennox felt that it wasn’t the answer she had wanted.
“I also have something to give you, Your Highness.”
Hanging from Juliet’s wrist was a small silk pouch, like one used for holding a folding fan. However, it didn’t contain a fan.
“I’m returning this to you.”
“What is this?”
What she handed him was a thin rolled-up scroll.
Unconsciously, as Lennox unfolded the scroll, he was slightly surprised.
It was something he remembered.
It was a contract they had written together seven years ago.
It’s common to write a prenuptial agreement, but Juliet demanded a contract as a condition for becoming his lover.
“It may not mean anything to Your Highness, but it means something to me.”
If she had wanted financial compensation after a breakup, he would have been fine with that too.
However, what Juliet demanded was not that.
It was a strange condition.
[In the event that either party no longer desires to continue the relationship, they will separate through an amicable agreement.]
“If one of us finds another partner or for any other reason wishes to break up, we will part ways through mutual agreement. That’s my condition.”
An amicable agreement.
So, although it was a somewhat cumbersome process, what she asked for was a clean break for both of them.
Slightly perplexed, Lennox signed without much hesitation. It was a condition that wouldn’t harm him.
But he hadn’t considered the possibility that she might be the one to leave him first.
“Juliet Monad.”
“Are you angry?”
Juliet smiled brightly.
She was smiling, but she looked 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.
So why was she the one who seemed more resigned and hurt, ready to leave him behind?
“What’s the reason?”
“Just because. Please let me go.”
“Juliet.”
“Haven’t I been good enough all this time?”
“What?”
“I haven’t done anything that you dislike. Oh… except for occasionally using a butterfly without permission.”
“…”
“But I really tried hard, you know. I didn’t want to cry or bother you. But I’ll be twenty-five in a week too.”
Juliet smiled quietly and tightened her grip around her neck. Lennox was still concerned about her pale and delicate throat.
“So now, I want to live quietly, normally, like everyone else.”
“Normally?”
“Yes.”
That word rubbed him the wrong way. It sounded as if it meant that she was unhappy because she couldn’t be ordinary by his side.
“Then aren’t we normal now?”
Juliet looked up at him for a moment with a strange expression, then burst into laughter.
Why did she laugh?
Seeing his cold expression, Juliet stopped laughing.
“If it bothered you, I’m sorry. But you’re anything but normal.”
There was something a little wistful about Juliet’s profile as she added those words.
“In fact, you’ve never been like that.”
The lights from the ballroom cast a faint shadow over Juliet’s slightly lowered eyelashes, giving them a deceptive shade.
Lennox remembered Juliet just a while ago, standing apart from the other young ladies at the ballroom.
She looked at the girl who was soon to be married.
At that moment, Lennox seemed to understand why Juliet was standing alone in the corner.
She looked with envy at what she couldn’t have. This look was exactly the same as if a child who had lost his mother looked at a child in the arms of a loving parent.
“So this is what you want?”
“Yes.”
To marry, have children, and raise them like everyone else?
Lennox scoffed coldly.
That’s a ridiculous idea.
He irritably loosened his tie and ran his fingers through his hair.
“I can’t listen to this anymore.”
He immediately wrapped his arm around Juliet’s shoulders and walked out of the ballroom.
Juliet, bewildered, followed him with a puzzled expression and stopped in surprise when she saw the carriage of the Duke that was waiting right in front of the ballroom.
“Your Highness!”
“The party is over.”
“Lennox! Wait, I still have something to say…”
Of course, he didn’t listen.
He put Juliet in the carriage, closed the door, and spoke to the knight who was sitting on the coachman’s seat.
“Head North.”
“Lennox!”
Surprised, Juliet shouted from inside the carriage, but he cleanly ignored her and ordered the coachman.
“When we arrive at the mansion, prepare for an immediate return.”
“Excuse me? Today?”
“Yes.”
Lennox glanced back for a moment.
Duke Carlyle’s wolves, clad in black armor, were silently waiting for him.
“As soon as I finish my business, I will follow you, so take care of Juliet and prepare her luggage.”
“Yes, sir.”
When the carriage with Juliet drove off, he approached his knights.
“Your Highness, everything is ready.”
“Where is he now?”
“In a secure residence in the 8th district.”
“Take me to him.”