Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: 3. Cradle
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Roadel was a pretty city.
A large circular fountain in the central square bubbled water high, and red brick buildings lined the area around it.
Children and white pigeons mingled and ran about in the square, and the people brimmed with vitality.
Juliet strolled along the fountain and the shopping street, peering into the shops, then stopped absentmindedly in front of one.
"Welcome! What can I get for you?"
The listless shopkeeper asked without even looking at Juliet as he arranged his wares.
Juliet didn't answer and instead gazed at the array of fruits on the stall in front of her.
Thanks to the mild climate, there were more varieties of fruit here than in the capital. They weren't cheap, but Juliet picked up two red apples. She reached for an orange but paused.
'It's here too.'
She spotted a much smaller fruit right next to the orange and marveled.
It was small, so why was the price double?
Juliet hesitated in front of the fruit stall for a long while.
Silver coins jingled in the pocket of the pondering girl.
"This one too, please."
The shopkeeper's sullen face instantly brightened.
The fruit she pointed to was an expensive eyesore that rarely sold.
"Oh, of course! Here you go!"
A short while later, after circling the village shopping street once, Juliet sat at an outdoor table near her lodging and opened the bag.
She first pinched out the one that looked like a small orange. It seemed the people here called it a 'mandarin.'
'It's a tangerine.'
The taste was even the same as the ones she'd eaten in the north.
Juliet hesitated, then bought a newspaper.
She told herself not to look, not to look, but ended up buying one today too.
Juliet took a light breath and unfolded the newspaper. She quickly scanned it.
".…Nothing."
Nothing.
A moment later, Juliet confirmed there was no news of the kind she was looking for and spread out the newspaper she held.
It was a bit odd to seek out bad news on purpose. But she wanted to confirm it this way.
'It might not have appeared yet.'
It was pathetic how she ended up hoping for that.
She knew Dahlia could have already appeared, even if it wasn't in the newspaper.
In her first life, Dahlia had debuted on the first day of the year. The dramatic location and timing had caused a huge stir.
She remembered it clearly.
"Did you hear, Your Highness? They say she's the 'girl of prophecy.'"
It was none other than Juliet who had told Lennox that story, smiling as if it were fascinating.
She couldn't remember what Lennox had replied. It probably wasn't important anyway.
Juliet had just brought any topic to see him even a little more, as she always did.
That was how it had been back then. Just wanting to see his face one more time, somehow.
"Let me see."
Juliet sat at a roadside table and unfolded the map.
Unlike other regions of the empire, the great nobles didn't hold much power in the east. At the center of the east was a forest where various beastkin lived, and...
'Luzern is there.'
Luzern.
Juliet found the spot on the map.
The Holy Papal State of Luzern.
Uniquely, Luzern was a city-state ruled not by a king or nobles, but by the Pontiff.
It was the home of the Pontiff, the head of the temple and king of all religions, along with the Pontifical Court and priests who assisted him.
Luzern itself was merely a small city-state, but their influence extended across the entire continent.
'Probably everywhere except the north?'
The hostile relationship between the Carlyle ducal house and the temple was famous, after all.
One reason Juliet had decided to flee to the east was this. Compared to other regions of the continent, the east was particularly influenced by the temple and the Pontiff.
Most people there believed in the goddess, unlike in the north where Carlyle was.
So Juliet had assumed that once she fled east, Lennox—who had a bad relationship with the temple—wouldn't bother pursuing her whereabouts.
'And yet...'
Juliet's lips tightened.
She hadn't expected Lennox of all people to mobilize a sacred relic from the grand temple. And after scratching at him like that too.
"He's angry, for sure."
Juliet let out a light sigh.
She didn't regret it, but it stung a little.
'If we were parting anyway, I wanted to just smile and leave on good terms.'
She endured worse things just fine usually, so why couldn't she control herself when it came to him?
"Well, he found out anyway..."
Juliet muttered as she peered at the map again.
As long as Lennox Carlyle had the sacred relic, it was only a matter of time before he discovered she was in Roadel.
Even without that, since he'd confirmed her boarding the train, he at least knew she'd gone east.
That was why Juliet had changed plans midway and gotten off in Roadel.
Before heading to her original destination, she needed to neutralize the pursuit here first. Otherwise, Lennox would learn everywhere she went and why.
'I don't want that.'
To evade pursuit, she had to neutralize 'Argos's Eye.'
If Argos's Eye were a magic tool, it would be relatively simple, but it was an object powered by holy power.
Mana and holy power were opposing forces, and to neutralize a sacred relic required an even higher level of holy power.
Anywhere else, she might have thought, 'How?', but Juliet wasn't too worried. She already had a plan.
"Found it."
Juliet beamed at the map.
* * *
From Roadel Station, where Juliet got off, to her destination of Robel Village, it was about a ten-minute ride by stagecoach.
"How far are you going, miss?"
Plenty of lively kids were hawking in front of the station.
"Need a place to stay?"
"Come to our inn!"
She might lose her bag right in front of her eyes before even reaching the stagecoach.
Juliet paused for a moment.
Just then, someone pushed past her side.
"Out of the way."
It was a young man's voice, dripping with irritation. The man casually shoved the clustered kids' heads aside and strode off.
The shoved kids protested fiercely with curses, but the man ignored them completely and kept walking.
Thanks to him, Juliet easily followed the path he'd cleared all the way to the stagecoach platform.
And there he was, the man from before.
Wow.
Juliet stared wide-eyed in amazement.
'Incredible red hair...'
The man was drawing tons of stares. Even passersby stopped in their tracks to sneak glances at his striking appearance.
A traveler, maybe?
Out of mild curiosity, Juliet glanced at him.
"How far are you headed, miss?"
"Uh... to Robel."
The one speaking to the lost-in-thought Juliet was the stagecoach driver.
A short while later, Juliet had paid the fare and was seated in the Robel-bound stagecoach.
And faced a somewhat awkward situation.
The red-haired man from before was plopped down right across from her in the stagecoach.
The only sound was the rattling of the jolting coach. In the awkward silence, Juliet felt a twinge of regret.
'I should have sat next to him...'
When she first boarded, she'd assumed there would be more passengers, but there were only two in the entire stagecoach.
She learned later that Robel was a small village, so maybe one passenger a day to Robel if she was lucky.
The rattling stagecoach was completely different in structure from the ones Juliet was used to.
For multiple passengers, there were just two long benches side by side lengthwise. No backrests, naturally.
The silver lining was that before the coach even departed, the man seemed to be asleep—arms crossed, eyes closed, not moving an inch.
Thanks to that, Juliet could observe the man opposite her freely.
Even typical red hair usually had just a reddish tint, but this man's locks were a deep blood-red.
'Maybe I should dye mine too.'
Magic tools were common in the east, so he might have used one to change his hair color.
"Ahem, what brings you to Robel?"
Just then, the driver up front asked Juliet while steering. Apparently, she wasn't the only one bothered by the silence.
"I'm meeting someone."
Juliet gave a vague answer.
Perhaps bored out of his mind, the driver—who introduced himself as from Robel—launched into unasked-for stories about the village.
"Truth is, there's no safer place than Robel. It's the king's hometown, after all."
"The king?"
Juliet, listening without much interest, found the sudden extreme honorific amusing and asked back.
"You don't know? Lionel Levatan, the Red King."
Forgotten Juliet