Chapter 24
Chapter 24
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: 2. Juliet's Lover
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“....… Lennox, please."
On the cold stone floor, a woman with long hair draped down was sobbing.
Around her, where she had collapsed onto the ground, butterfly-shaped fragments of blue light were scattered.
Unlike usual, the butterflies could barely flicker, their wings moving only faintly as their sole act.
The woman with light brown hair hanging pitifully pleaded at his feet.
It was a sight that would naturally evoke pity in any onlooker, but the gaze of the man propping his chin crookedly and looking down at her was utterly frigid.
No matter what tactic she knew to employ, she could not rekindle the heart of her lover, which had once cooled completely.
“I was wrong. I won’t beg you anymore.”
Even if it wasn’t love, she wanted to remain by his side.
He had told her from the start not to expect anything, but in the end, she had failed to guard her heart.
Perhaps she had been arrogant deep down.
She had thought herself the only one even slightly special to a man who never allowed anyone to stay by his side for long.
That if she endured and waited patiently, someday he would give her even a fragment of his heart.
She had believed that and persevered.
But her futile hope had shattered in an instant.
“……I’ll never mention that woman again. No, I won’t even let her name pass my lips.”
A kind word or a single smile wasn’t necessary.
The man was indifferently impartial to everyone.
But what she truly couldn’t bear was something else entirely: that the utterly ruthless man was not so with one person alone.
And the one he smiled at tenderly was not her.
The seat by his side, permitted to only one person, could never be hers.
Only then did she realize that everything had been a delusion from the very beginning.
Far too late.
“So please, Lennox, at least our baby…….”
“Juliet Monad.”
As if refusing to hear more, the man cut her off.
Even his shallow patience for the weeping woman extended only that far.
He reached out and lightly lifted her chin.
With tear-filled eyes, she looked up at him desperately.
But meeting her gaze were red eyes devoid of any emotion.
“I clearly warned you not to expect anything.”
She had cast aside her pride for one final plea, yet all that returned was a cold sneer piercing her ears.
“Don’t misunderstand. Since when were we ever ‘ours’?”
*
Gasp.
Juliet awoke from the dream, her eyes snapping open. Tears trailed down from the corners of her eyes.
Rumble, rumble.
The regular shaking vibrations, the unfamiliar ceiling, and the small single bed barely pulled Juliet back to reality.
Even after waking, she spent a long while dazedly catching her breath.
“Don’t misunderstand.”
The cold voice still rang vividly in her ears.
‘No, I…’
Juliet bit her lip firmly.
‘I escaped.’
Yes. This was no longer by that man’s side. So what had just happened was merely a nightmare that hadn’t occurred.
‘It was just a dream.’
One she had never experienced even before her regression, and wouldn’t in this life.
Nightmares like this were familiar.
‘So it’s fine.’
Comforting herself that way, Juliet habitually fiddled with the pearl necklace she always wore.
The cold, smooth surface of the pearls brought her comfort.
It was closer to a rosary—used for reciting prayers—than a necklace, made of small pearls strung long.
Except at the end, instead of a cross, a small silver key dangled like a pendant.
The pearls were small and not particularly valuable, but to Juliet, it was priceless.
It was a relic from her late mother, Countess Monad.
Unthinkingly, Juliet’s fingertips traced one corner of the necklace. She could read the intricately engraved letters without looking.
‘Lilian Seneca.’
Lilian was her mother’s name, the Countess Monad.
As far as Juliet knew, her mother’s pre-marriage name had been ‘Lilian Mayfair.’
‘Then where on earth did Seneca come from?’
Juliet was curious, but she didn’t know much about her mother.
‘Should have asked more.’
All Juliet knew of her mother’s family was that they were from the East, of low and humble status.
That nearly all her family had died, leaving her practically an orphan.
‘Father said he fell at first sight and courted her fervently until she accepted his proposal.’
In truth, Juliet had never once heard stories about her maternal relatives.
‘Think I heard in passing that she was a knight’s daughter…’
Surprisingly, Juliet knew so little about her mother.
That was one reason she had decided to head East.
She had scoured the empire’s noble directory, but oddly, no family named Seneca turned up.
Perhaps they weren’t nobles at all, Juliet had realized then.
In cases where two people of differing status married, it was common for their child’s bloodline to be nitpicked.
So sometimes commoners would buy up a suitable fallen noble’s genealogy and marry.
‘No wonder.’
The empire’s capital was biased toward the west, and the capital high society nobles acted as if leaving the city would spell disaster.
So an Eastern noble would just be accepted at face value.
She had asked her mother’s friends, but they were acquaintances made after she became Countess Monad, so they didn’t know who Lilian had been before marriage.
Even the long-serving household servants apologized, saying they knew nothing of the late countess’s family.
At the very least, no one in the capital knew the name Lilian Seneca.
With that thought, Juliet rose from the bed.
The modest single room, about three pyeong in size, came into view at a glance.
Outside the large window filling one wall, the scenery rushed past swiftly.
Juliet casually wiped her eyes and got out of bed to tidy the sheets.
Knock knock.
“Are you awake, miss?
Good morning!”
Right on cue, at the sound of knocking, she opened the cabin door to find a stewardess standing outside holding a towel.
“Hot water is ready. Shall I prepare breakfast now?”
The girl, who looked a bit younger than Juliet and wore a uniform, asked cheerfully. Juliet nodded.
After requesting breakfast, she pulled out her luggage and changed clothes.
Juliet consciously tried to summon pleasant thoughts.
To escape the lingering unease of the nightmare and last night’s events, she needed to think of something else.
What could it be? Something bright and lively.
Sleeping on a jolting train was a first for her. And traveling like this, too.
Midway through organizing her clothes, Juliet suddenly stared out the train window.
It was extremely rare for a grown unmarried lady to travel without an attending maid.
To avoid suspicion, she had booked a single cabin and passed herself off as a young wife heading to meet her husband.
On the passenger manifest, her name was listed as Lilian Seneca.
Juliet figured using her mother’s maiden name would prevent anyone from tracking her.
On the other hand, it was unpredictable.
If she got lucky, she might even meet someone in the East who knew ‘Lilian Seneca.’
As she roughly brushed down her long hair, Juliet mulled over the forged identity on her papers.
By the backstory, Lilian Seneca’s husband worked at the Eastern gate.
They had been married three years but spent much time apart, so they had no children and it still felt like newlyweds.
True to her conservative upbringing, Mrs. Seneca favored modest, non-revealing dresses in muted colors.
But upon closer inspection, her black dress was quite luxurious, made with high-end lace and frills.
Her family had run a fabric shop for generations, so clothes of fine quality suited her station.
Juliet quite liked the fake identity.
Accordingly, she neatly tied her hair up in a single bun and donned a black veil.
In case anyone might recognize her.
‘Mrs. Seneca is modest, so that explains it.’
As she finished arranging her hair, Juliet’s gaze fell on the small luggage bag.
Oh no.
‘Thought I’d left it behind.’
Juliet bit her lip firmly.