Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: A Dance of Debts
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The emperor couple seemed to have decided to change their course the moment Duke Carlyle appeared.
They began fussing over Juliet as if they were her benevolent foster parents.
“It would be best if you stayed with me in my palace until you recover.”
The empress magnanimously offered her a lavish guest room.
That show of consideration felt rather burdensome. Strictly speaking, she bore some responsibility for the wolf barging into the palace.
Fortunately, the imperial couple’s suspicions hadn’t extended that far yet.
Roy and his entourage had captured Graham and taken their leave. But plenty of people had witnessed Juliet chatting intimately with Roy.
For the time being, Juliet decided to play along obediently with the empress’s instructions. It was wise to make a good impression now, since their relationship could evolve in any direction later.
Juliet sat quietly in the banquet hall, dressed in the gown the empress had chosen for her.
Owing to the earlier disturbance, people eyed her fearfully from afar.
Whenever their gazes met, they would flinch in shock, bow their heads hastily, or muster an awkward, strained smile.
Well, this isn’t so bad.
Juliet shrugged.
“Um, Lady Monad.”
Instead, a different sort of people began taking an interest in her.
“Yes?”
Juliet gave a vague reply to the demure-looking noble lady who had approached, not knowing her name.
When she came back to herself, a cluster of prim young ladies had surrounded her.
“If I may be so bold, what is your relationship with the gentleman who had an audience with His Majesty this morning?”
The young ladies’ eyes sparkled eagerly, though they didn’t seem ill-intentioned.
What was there to hide?
“He’s a friend.”
“Oh, I see!”
“To think you’re friends with a Lycanslope—how impressive!”
Juliet gave the young ladies a measured look.
It was refreshing to encounter a type she hadn’t seen much of in recent years.
She found the noble girls, their eyes aglow with age-appropriate curiosity, rather endearing. So she dutifully answered their barrage of questions.
“Yes, we met while traveling.”
“Oh my.”
It was the reaction she’d expected.
“Um, so then... have you perhaps promised him a future together...?”
“No, nothing of the sort...”
That was when the conversation began drifting in an unwelcome direction.
“Isn’t that the case?”
At the familiar voice, Juliet turned. A handsome man stood there with arms crossed, gazing down at her coolly.
“Your Grace.”
Juliet responded with a polite smile.
“W-We should be going...”
The young ladies who had been chattering animatedly around Juliet fled like grazing animals spotting a beast of prey.
“Do you have business with me?”
“I merely wish to request a dance from the lady.”
Juliet peered up at him steadily.
*Lennox Carlyle, dancing?*
Preposterous. Anyone from the ducal house would be floored to hear it.
Yet as she took him in, she realized his attire was impeccably dressed without a single flaw.
Aside from the bandage wrapped around his left hand. He looked every bit the part of someone attending a ball.
*What on earth is he up to?*
“What if I refuse?”
“If I were in your position, I wouldn’t.”
He stated it matter-of-factly, without a smile.
It wasn’t a threat. Quite the opposite—his tone was courteous—but Juliet felt a sudden unease.
“......Very well.”
It had been an eternity since she’d last danced with him.
She stole a glance at the inscrutable man, wondering if she could feign a misstep and stomp on his instep.
Lennox disliked dancing before an audience, but Juliet had shared a few dances with him.
Truth be told, he excelled at anything that involved the body.
As they made their way to the floor, the music shifted to a languid melody. The surroundings had fallen silent from the very moment he’d approached her.
The onslaught of stares made her skin prickle.
Juliet considered how bizarre this must appear to onlookers.
“Answer me, Juliet.”
But no sooner had the dance begun and she taken the first step—unable to resist her curiosity, her hand in his—than she regretted it.
“Did that wolf pup promise you a seat as queen or something?”
With her hand and waist surrendered to him, there was no escaping the man’s intent stare.
Juliet retorted coolly.
“Even if he did, it’s no concern of Your Grace’s. You have no right to question me.”
“Oh dear.”
Yet Lennox replied without mirth.
“Those aren’t words for your lifesaver.”
“Lifesaver?”
“You owe me a debt.”
Juliet paused in thought before realization dawned.
“Ah.”
He was referring to the incident at the hunting grounds.
True enough, without him, heaven only knew what might have befallen her in that snowbound forest. She’d heard the palace folk hadn’t even begun searching until after Duke Carlyle’s arrival.
Reluctantly, Juliet asked,
“So, what do you want?”
“Extend the contract.”
Juliet thought she’d misheard. In the next instant, she let out a soft scoff.
“You asked me to dance just to discuss that?”
Were she not in his grasp, she’d have stormed off then and there. It wasn’t worth hearing further.
“Hear me out.”
But Lennox drew her waist closer with a firm tug as he whispered,
“Extend the contract you brought me by three months, and afterward, I’ll let you go cleanly.”
“Why should I?”
“......Because then you’ll obtain what you desire.”
Juliet sneered coldly.
“Your Grace has nothing to offer me.”
“I beg to differ. Think it over.”
Juliet couldn’t make sense of it.
What exactly did he intend to give? A tidy parting?
“What if I refuse?”
“You won’t.”
Lennox murmured low.
“Because you wouldn’t want to lose something precious to you.”
Juliet wrenched her hand free and halted in place. Her smooth porcelain brow furrowed.
“Why must you keep resorting to tactics you’ve never used before?”
She wasn’t some child.
Juliet whispered with a sigh.
“You’ve got the order wrong.”
Lennox flashed a grin and parried smoothly.
“You’re the one who keeps reducing me to childishness.”
Juliet wore an incredulous expression, but it was the most candid admission he could voice.
Lennox Carlyle believed he knew the woman Juliet Monad inside out. Precisely when and how she erupted in laughter. Or the sweetly whimpering cadence of her sobs.
Seven years was a long time.
Ample for someone’s presence to fade into normalcy, for interest to wane utterly. To become so routine it bored.
Or so he’d thought.
To the extent that nothing about her piqued his curiosity any longer—yet his complacency had been effortlessly dismantled.
The woman who had so callously deceived and abandoned him seemed an entirely different creature from the Juliet who had lain in his arms unceasingly for those seven years.
When she’d first fled him, his prevailing emotion had been closer to terror than betrayal.
At last, he was forced to concede that he knew next to nothing about Juliet Monad.
Just then, the brief dance melody concluded amid a cascade of applause.
“Your Grace.”
Juliet exhaled shallowly, speaking to him as one might soothe a petulant child.
“Even so, I’ve nothing to offer in return. Nor do I know what it is you seek from me.”
She coaxed him patiently.
“You said it yourself, Your Grace: a contract requires something given and received in exchange, so—”
“There is something.”
Lennox gripped the back of her hand as he declared it firmly.
Juliet cast him a faintly bewildered glance. Moments like this, she often wore an enigmatic expression.
“There is?”
Her precarious blue eyes would fix on him at times.
And he would grow frantic, as if the woman before him might dissolve into thin air at any second.
Unable to endure without clasping her close to affirm her reality.
“You have something to give me.”
Yet reining in his parched longing with effort, Lennox bowed to press his lips to the back of her hand.
The gesture was impeccably courteous.
“Your Grace.”
“Thus, you’d best not keep me waiting overlong.”
But those crimson eyes gazing up at her from the kiss were brazenly domineering.
“You know me, Juliet.”
With flawless poise, he escorted her back to her place while murmuring low.
“I haven’t much patience.”