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Chapter: 42
Juliet wiped her mouth with a napkin and stood up from her seat.
“Ah… the manager said you don’t need to pay.”
The server glanced at her shyly and spoke kindly.
Juliet returned the smile just as gently.
So… why?
It was already her fourth day in Milos. Thanks to the manager going out of his way to accommodate her, Juliet had been living quite comfortably—eating well, sleeping in a good bed.
Why didn’t I notice sooner?
Everything had gone so smoothly that she had forgotten. Her life had never once been smooth.
Calmly rising from her seat, Juliet thought the entire way back to her room.
The people here were kind.
Not just Mr. Zachary—every staff member she encountered was excessively kind, treating her with meticulous care.
Click.
After returning to her room and locking the door, Juliet sat on the edge of the bed.
Let’s think.
Should she have suspected something back when she caught a glimpse of Count Kasper in the underground area?
Or when Zachary, cloaking himself in kindness, had tried to keep her here with an absurd lie?
Could she trust the people here?
I don’t know.
She had heard the explanation, but in any case, Zachary had been doing steady business with Count Kasper—in other words, with the Marquis Guinness’s household.
The overly kind library staff and Zachary’s goal seemed to be to make her so comfortable she lost all sense of caution, so they could keep her here as long as possible.
But why? I shouldn’t be worth anything.
Juliet was merciless when judging herself.
Is it the ducal house, after all?
If it was a matter of grudges, or of her potential usefulness, that was the only thing she could think of.
She was a poor countess in name only. By any reasonable standard, there was nothing to be gained from her.
“……”
In fact, she had once been the target of an abduction several years ago. It had ended in an attempt, but still.
Compared to Duke Carlisle, she was an exceedingly easy target.
The Carlisle ducal house had business partners even here in the East, and Lenox Carlisle came east two or three times a year for business reasons.
How did they recognize me? I even used an alias.
As expected of the East’s greatest information guild, was it?
But I shouldn’t have any value anymore.
But they didn’t know that… Were they planning to take her hostage and demand ransom from the ducal house?
Her thoughts spiraled endlessly.
With her limited imagination, that was as far as she could go.
It’s pointless, but they probably don’t know that much yet.
Juliet thought calmly.
That proud man would never damage his own pride by paying ransom for a woman who had fled after leaving a stain on it.
If anything, I’d be lucky if he didn’t take it as provocation and kill me as cruelly as possible…
As she reached that thought, Juliet habitually fiddled with the necklace around her neck—and suddenly felt something wrong.
…?
Clink.
Juliet hurriedly unclasped the necklace and examined it closely under the light.
It’s gone.
Her face turned pale.
Nowhere was the name “Lillian Seneca” engraved.
This was the worst possible outcome. A despair far greater than when she had coldly calculated her chances of abduction and ransom washed over her.
This is a fake.
Her hands trembled faintly. It felt as though her heart had dropped straight down.
Juliet wanted to cry.
When did it get switched?
Staring down at the seemingly flawless necklace, Juliet carefully retraced her steps.
She was the only person who knew that the name “Lillian Seneca” was engraved on the inside of the necklace.
There was no way the name that had been there until yesterday could simply vanish—this had to be an exquisitely crafted replica.
A fake so perfect that even Juliet, who wore the necklace at all times except when sleeping, hadn’t noticed right away.
Which meant there was only one conclusion: someone had entered her room last night while she slept and swapped the necklace.
“Then how about staying at our library?”
Mr. Zachary’s casual suggestion from the day before came to mind.
“……”
She felt like crying, lost over how to retrieve the necklace, but Juliet did not cry.
Crying won’t solve anything.
That was why she hadn’t cried in a long time.
After thinking for a moment, Juliet opened her luggage on the bed. She changed into clothes that were easy to move in, then packed only the bare necessities.
If things went south, she planned to abandon the travel bag altogether.
Now that she had lost her mother’s keepsake, there was very little worth taking.
Aside from items she could carry on her person and a dagger or two, nothing else truly mattered.
Quietly leaving her room, Juliet walked briskly through the deserted hallway and stopped in front of Zachary’s office.
She was just about to knock on the door.
Click.
“…!”
Before she could even knock, the door swung open. A tall man stepping out from inside halted abruptly.
“What the hell?”
Juliet looked up at him, still frozen in her knocking posture.
The man’s blue eyes widened. Red hair, a roguish-looking face, and gaudy piercings.
“You…?”
By coincidence, he was the very man who had given her an unpleasant first encounter on her first day in Milos.
“Ah, miss… no, madam?”
From behind his shoulder, Zachary poked his head out, looking pleased to see Juliet.
But her view was blocked by the menacing red-haired man standing in front of her.
“Hey, are you stupid or something?”
The young man snarled aggressively.
Yet Juliet’s expression was calm to the point of being serene—far from frightened.
The man looked irritated by her complete disregard for him.
“I told you, didn’t I? If you show your face one more time, I’ll seriously kill—”
Thud!
Juliet suddenly put her weight into it and kicked his shin.
“…!!”
“T-Theo, young master!”
The red-haired man’s name was Theodore.
The moment Juliet kicked his shin, Theo felt less pain than disbelief.
Has she completely lost her mind—?
In the brief moment when his knee slowly buckled from the reflex, several thoughts crossed his mind.
She looks like she’d snap in half with a little pressure—and she dares kick me?
Doesn’t she even consider the difference in size?
…This woman might actually be insane.
Theo was lazy, but when it came to swordsmanship, he was often called a genius. A frail woman like her was no match for him.
Reflexively, he reached for the sword at his waist.
Huh…?
At that very moment, something strange happened.
Flutter.
Blue butterflies burst out of nowhere and rushed into his field of vision, and in an instant, his thoughts froze.
“Y-Young master!”
“…!!”
It lasted only a few seconds—the loss of vision and the dizziness.
When Theo came back to himself, his head was tightly locked under a woman’s arm, and a sharp dagger was pressed firmly against his throat.
“Don’t move.”
“……”
Even without her saying it, he knew better than anyone—being a swordsman—that moving even slightly would send blood spraying.
Inappropriately enough, in that moment, Theo thought the whispering voice at his ear was chillingly clear.
“Ghk…!”
“Young Master Theo!”
…Young master?
Holding a dagger to the man’s neck and taking him hostage, Juliet’s gaze turned icy.
“W-Why are you doing this, miss?!”
Zachary pleaded with a deathly pale face, but to Juliet, he looked nothing but contemptible.
“Mr. Zachary.”
“Yes?”
“Bring it.”
“W-What… do you mean?”
“The necklace you people stole from me.”
My mother’s keepsake.
“Miss, there must be some misunderstanding—”
Juliet smiled faintly and turned her gaze to the wall-length bookshelf filling one side of the study.
She had thought it strange.
The “library” was a massive marble building, as large and lavish as any great noble’s mansion.
In contrast, Zachary’s office—the “manager’s” room—was rather small. She remembered feeling uneasy from the moment she first stepped inside.
For such a small, cozy room, there was an unnaturally massive bookshelf completely covering one wall.
In fact, that very oddity had led Juliet to pretend to take walks around the building, carefully observing the exterior windows of this third floor.
“Misunderstanding or not, if you don’t want a scratch on your ‘young master’s’ precious body, tell the people inside there to come out.”
“What?”
Juliet tilted her chin toward the massive bookshelf.
But even in this situation, the flustered Zachary tried to deny it.
“…You misunderstand, miss. First, p-please put down the knife—agh!”
“Ghk.”
Zachary screamed because Juliet pressed the dagger even closer to the ‘young master’s’ neck instead of answering.
“Y-You crazy—”
Theo’s muttered curse was nothing more than a tickle.
“Yeah. Or would you rather stand here and watch us all test how durable your ‘young master’s’ neck is?”
Speaking calmly, Juliet fixed her savage blue eyes on the bookshelf.
A thin line of blood was already seeping from Theo’s lightly cut skin.
“E-Elder!”
Zachary finally shouted.
Juliet narrowed her eyes. Not “miss,” not “young master,” but elder?
Thud—creeeak.
The next moment, the enormous bookshelf split open to either side, like a door.
Just as she had anticipated, Juliet wasn’t surprised.
“That’s enough.”
Step.
However, when she saw the tall old man who emerged at the very front of those who came out, even Juliet couldn’t hide her shock.
“E-Elder……”
“……”
“Testing neck durability? You’ve been awfully insolent with that mouth of yours for a while now.”
The old man’s piercing glare, fixed on her, was like that of a lion.
He was the kindly old man she had briefly passed by on her first day at the library.
