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Chapter: 32
The private audience between Duke Carlyle and the Emperor lasted less than half an hour.
Elliot, who had been waiting outside the reception room, bowed his head toward the Duke as he emerged.
He was extremely curious about what kind of conversation had taken place inside.
Ever since returning from Count Monad’s estate the day before, his master had looked as though he were deep in thought all night, then at dawn immediately entered the palace to meet the Emperor.
“My lord.”
Before Elliot could ask anything, he suddenly noticed an unfamiliar ornament on the neatly arranged collar of the Duke’s outer coat.
It was a small pure-silver brooch shaped like a dove with its wings half-spread.
‘Huh? Did His Highness always have something like that?’
Elliot tilted his head.
He wondered if it was a gift from the Emperor, but somehow it also felt like he had seen it somewhere before.
Before Elliot could ask, Duke Carlyle spoke first.
“Elliot.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Take the knights and return to the North. As soon as you arrive, begin preparing for the ceremony.”
“…Pardon?”
A beat later, Elliot understood the meaning of those words. Telling him to return north with the group meant that Duke Carlyle would not be going with them.
…And a ceremony? What ceremony?
“A ceremony, you say…?”
“A wedding.”
“…What?”
Startled, Elliot almost asked whose wedding it was, then ended up asking an even stupider question.
“Y-you mean… you’re planning to get married, Your Highness?”
Rennox calmly answered as he looked at Elliot, who was spouting nonsense despite normally being sharp-witted.
“You can’t have a child without getting married.”
“…What?”
Elliot, who had no idea that Rennox suspected Juliet was pregnant, couldn’t possibly understand that answer.
But even if Elliot had known everything, Rennox wouldn’t have been able to properly explain what he was trying to do.
Because even he himself didn’t know.
When he thought of the woman who had deceived him with her fragile, innocent-looking face and then run away, something hot surged violently inside him. His judgment grew hazy, as though he were burning with a fever.
He still wanted to find the bastard who had touched and kissed Juliet and kill him, and he also wanted revenge on the woman who had wounded him so cruelly before leaving.
But no matter what he did, there was one absolute condition.
In every possible case, he had to bring Juliet completely back to his side.
That was how he ended up thinking of marriage.
True to someone raised in a family with a shallow concept of marriage—if a child is conceived, then you marry eventually—he knew nothing about marriage at all.
But at the very least, he felt that Juliet wouldn’t want to give birth without a proper wedding.
The excuse he came up with to bring back a woman he had never properly treated was something this trivial.
Rennox let out a bitter, self-mocking laugh.
Meanwhile, Elliot regained his composure and decided to ask the most urgent question first.
“Then… you won’t be returning to the North with us, Your Highness?”
“I’ll go to the East and find her.”
“…The East?”
“Yes.”
Mounting a black horse with ease and taking the reins, Duke Carlyle spoke calmly.
“You can’t have a wedding without a bride.”
The next morning, Juliet woke up on the same small bed inside the rattling cabin, just like the day before.
She had clearly passed out without dreaming at all, but her whole body ached, and she blinked groggily.
What did I even do yesterday?
‘Ah, right.’
She had met a wolf named Romeo… no, Roy. That must be why her whole body felt like it had muscle soreness.
As she sighed, glittering butterflies suddenly flitted into her vision.
<Contract. Sleep.>
<Awake. Morning.>
The moment Juliet opened her eyes, the butterflies fluttered eagerly toward her, greeting her cheerfully.
They even quickly set her slippers in place so she could step into them easily, and brought her a clean towel to wash her face.
“……”
Juliet stared suspiciously at the overly attentive butterflies.
What’s with them? They’re not usually this affectionate for no reason.
<Contract. Hungry?>
As expected—
<Juliet. Human. Weak.>
<Human. Meal. Food.>
<Hungry. Collapse. Worry.>
After Juliet changed clothes and finished making the bed, the butterflies—who had patiently waited until then—finally brought up their real point.
<Juliet. Outside. Humans. Many.>
<Yesterday. Bad. Humans. Trash.>
<Caught. We. Eat. Like.>
<Dispose. Reward. Eat. Okay?>
So that was their real question. Were they allowed to eat the bad humans they had caught yesterday?
Juliet stared blankly for a moment, then panicked.
“…Of course not!”
The butterflies deliberately fluttered weakly before collapsing dramatically onto the soft bedding, putting on every possible show of pitifulness.
<We. Yesterday. Worked. Hard.>
<Tired. No. Strength.>
<Hungry. Very. Very.>
“Even so, no. Humans aren’t food.”
Her butterflies could literally eat anything, just like how they had broken the lock holding the wolf the day before.
But ability and diet were two separate matters.
They fed on human emotions to gain something like magical energy, but they still needed regular physical food.
The butterflies were strict carnivores. They preferred hunting living creatures or eating raw meat with blood still dripping.
But still—eating humans? That was ridiculous.
“……”
Even though she firmly refused, seeing them act weak in front of her made Juliet soften. She rummaged through her luggage once more.
But her cabin had been ransacked in the chaos the day before, and the jerky she’d packed as emergency food was gone.
Forcing herself to ignore the weakly fluttering butterflies, Juliet flung open the cabin door.
She decided she’d have to go to the dining car and ask if she could get some uncooked meat.
Slide.
“Ah.”
And standing right in front of her cabin door was another beast waiting for her.
“Good morning, Juliet.”
Judging by the way he jumped up from sitting on the floor, he had clearly been waiting outside her door for quite some time.
Ash-gray hair, golden eyes, and a gentle smile—he greeted her shyly.
“Good morning.”
“Roy.”
She was too embarrassed to call him Romeo.
“What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to give you this.”
It was a bouquet of primroses covered in morning dew. Somehow he’d managed to get them inside a train, and they looked remarkably fresh.
“It’s to thank you for yesterday.”
Why is this puppy acting like this? Juliet thought briefly.
She had only saved him because she felt sorry for a large wolf trapped in a cage. A man who was a head taller than her was frankly overwhelming.
‘Besides, what I need right now isn’t fresh flowers—it’s fresh raw meat.’
Juliet thanked him casually and set the bouquet down on the bed inside the cabin.
Roy’s eyes sparkled as if that alone satisfied him.
However, instead of returning to his group, Roy followed Juliet as she moved to another car.
“Are you going to keep following me?”
“Yes.”
Roy answered instantly, then belatedly checked her expression.
“…Is that not okay?”
Do whatever you want. Juliet shrugged and kept walking.
She wasn’t doing anything secretive, so she let Roy trail along behind her.
Juliet crossed the dining car and headed toward the luggage car at the very back of the train.
The conductor and attendants guarding the luggage car greeted her when they saw her.
“Lady Seneca.”
Inside were the remaining members of Baron Hilven’s group, bound hand and foot.
The crew had reassembled the same iron cage that had held Roy the day before and locked Baron Hilven’s men inside it instead.
As the butterflies put it, “the humans who did bad things yesterday” were now experiencing the same situation themselves.
“What brings you here?”
“I’m looking for something. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
At that, the crew assumed she was searching for belongings she had lost during yesterday’s chaos and didn’t find it suspicious.
But Juliet carefully examined the faces of the captured men through the bars.
More precisely, she inspected the back of each of their hands.
‘Nothing.’
None of them had the red tattoo on their hand.
She checked all three luggage cars, then circled the entire train—including Roy’s rescuers—just in case.
Still, there was no one with a tattoo on their hand.
She was certain she’d seen a man with a red spider tattoo on his hand yesterday.
‘Did I imagine it?’
Given the chaos of the situation, it was possible.
Juliet wasn’t sure whether what she felt now was relief or disappointment.
She walked across the train deep in thought, showing nothing outwardly, while Roy quietly followed behind her.
“……”
Roy slightly lowered his head and gazed at Juliet’s back.
She wasn’t wearing a veil now. Because of that, her neatly pinned light-brown hair revealed the pale nape of her neck.
‘How strange.’
Roy smiled softly.
Wolves of the forest clans had extremely sensitive senses of smell.
The reason his people had found him later than Juliet the day before was because the strong butter scent and countless human smells filling the train had dulled their noses.
But unlike other humans, Juliet’s scent wasn’t unpleasant at all.
On the contrary.
How can even her scent be this nice?
Roy’s hand brushed lightly against the hem of Juliet’s skirt as he walked behind her, but lost in thought, she didn’t notice.
