Chapter 67
Chapter 67
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 67
Chapter Title: No More
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“I don’t want to do those things anymore.”
Only then did he realize.
The side he thought he could discard anytime was actually the one he was desperately clutching, unable to ever let go.
It was Juliet who had been tolerating him.
It had been the same with Alze’s lapis lazuli mine.
Lennox Carlyle couldn’t have been unaware that it would upset Juliet.
He simply didn’t know what to do with the woman who had foolishly gotten drenched in the downpour, returned alone, and fallen ill in bed.
What he knew was to offer numbers rather than words to express his imperfect emotions.
No. In truth, it had only been convenient that way. The clever Juliet had known all along but tolerated it anyway.
His affection was base and cunning, never wanting to suffer a loss,
‘Damn.’
He had known a day like this would come someday.
“Just, I think I’m tired now.”
That Juliet would grow weary of his selfish side and leave him.
He had known but deliberately turned a blind eye. Because facing it head-on would mean he couldn’t run away.
He would have had to confront just how much space the woman Juliet Monad occupied within him.
He began to grow afraid.
Even offering marriage wouldn’t work, nor would promising to build a family. Then what on earth did he need to give to bring her back to how things were before...
Lennox Carlyle pondered what he could give her and what he couldn’t.
A child fell into the latter category.
He had to admit it.
“Lennox, we had no future.”
“...”
“Damn.”
It wasn’t that they had no future—it was that he couldn’t give it even if he wanted to. But he couldn’t say it straight out like that.
If that was the case, it might be better to go back and beg, to at least hear an answer to what he should do with her. With that thought, he returned to that beach.
“What if you keep following me? I can’t take care of you.”
But even as she collapsed onto the sand and sobbed aloud, in the end, she cradled the young life in her arms.
“Just until your wings grow in fully.”
When he overheard her tear-choked whisper as she hugged the unidentified baby beast.
He thought it didn’t matter anymore.
The next day.
He made an impulsive decision.
He waited for daybreak and immediately carried out the plan he had thought up.
“You want to buy this?”
“Yeah.”
“The view isn’t that great. The sea should be wide open, but the villas below block it all oppressively...”
The man who claimed to be the owner glared at the small blue-roofed mansion below like it was a thorn in his eye.
But did he know that very reason was why he could sell the house?
Such circumstances didn’t matter to him.
In the cool early morning air, or in the evenings.
Whenever he opened the door, he could see the woman with light brown hair strolling along the beach.
Especially in the early evenings when the sun dipped low, Juliet would walk barefoot on the beach with a shabby-looking baby animal—whether it was a black chick or a demon’s minion, he couldn’t tell.
The way she even hugged and stroked such an unappealing baby beast.
Why me? Why you...
“What the hell is cute about something like that?”
He couldn’t understand it.
“Peep!”
When his thoughts reached that point, he suddenly realized his own situation was no different from that baby beast nestled in her arms.
Cunning and frail.
In a position where he’d do anything to draw even a shred of her attention.
So, had that compassionate woman reached out to him from the start because she saw his inner ugliness and foolishness and pitied him?
He bit his lip hard.
She didn’t want marriage, money, or family.
If that was the case,
Was a child the only option left?
Juliet was the type who couldn’t just walk past anything young and weak.
If it were possible, she might not let it go.
It was absurd, miserable, and pathetic that what he could offer wasn’t fully himself, but something banking on Juliet’s compassion.
But he had already cast aside his pride on the day she fled from him.
So, there had to be some way.
“I want to do things my way now.”
At the very least, there had to be a better choice than this pathetic business of holing up on the cliff and secretly watching her. He wanted to believe that.
If only he could win her back.
He would do whatever it took.
* * *
An old, weary priest entered the pure white Papal Hall, built entirely of marble.
“The most lowly servant of Ifrit, Gilliam, has returned to pay respects to the First Servant.”
He was Cardinal Gilliam, one of the elders of the Papal Court.
He wore clothes little better than rags.
“Ah, finally!”
A young man sprang to his feet to greet Gilliam.
A radiant smile, pristine white vestments, and a crimson sash draped over his shoulders.
It was Lucerne’s young new Pope, Sebastian.
Sebastian’s skin was so taut that his face alone gave no hint of his age.
Sebastian extended the back of his hand, his face beaming with his usual gentle smile.
Kneeling, Cardinal Gilliam silently kissed the Pope’s proffered hand and rose.
“You’ve worked hard on that difficult mission, Cardinal Gilliam.”
Pope Sebastian benevolently praised the seventy-year-old man.
The elderly Gilliam slowly rose to his seat.
“Did you bring a response worthy of the long wait?”
It sounded like praise at first glance, but it was unmistakably a sneer.
In fact, until just a few years ago, Gilliam had been a leading candidate for the next Pope.
Sebastian, by contrast, was a former inquisitor priest dogged by endless suspicious rumors.
When Gilliam and Sebastian clashed at the papal election council, everyone thought Gilliam would become the next Pope.
But the outcome was the exact opposite.
The strikingly young Sebastian became the new Pope, and no sooner had he ascended than he began assigning Gilliam every trivial task imaginable.
“Yes, Your Holiness. Magda of Kanavel village truly crafted a beautiful statue.”
Gilliam’s latest mission had been to personally transport the new statue, “The Grieving Saintess,” which was to be unveiled at this year’s Corpus Christi festival, all the way from a remote mountain village.
It had been a grueling journey for a man in his seventies.
“It seems like the perfect mission for Cardinal Gilliam, Your Holiness! As expected of you, so astute!”
Cardinal Solon, standing beside the Pope, simpered vilely.
Solon was a cardinal of the same rank as Gilliam, but a frivolous sort who had sworn loyalty to Sebastian the moment he became Pope.
“Eek. But a good mission’s fine and all, but maybe take a bath too, eh?”
Cardinal Solon snickered and pinched his nose in mock disgust.
Gilliam merely smiled silently.
“Yes, where is the completed statue? It was so painstakingly finished—I’d like to inspect it first.”
“Exactly. Brought all this way with such difficulty—what if there’s a blemish?”
At the Pope’s words, Cardinal Solon chimed in with fawning agreement, smirking.
The unspoken intent was to deny Gilliam permission to withdraw, rest, and recover from his fatigue.
It was an excessive demand for a man over seventy, but Gilliam did not lose his polite smile.
“Of course. Please join us, Cardinal Solon.”
Though his joints felt ready to crumble from the accumulated exhaustion at any moment, Gilliam led the two to the sealed chamber where the statue was temporarily stored.
Gilliam was confident, for his part.
Magda of Kanavel village was a sculptor of deep faith.
She had poured her entire soul into creating a flawless masterpiece.
Though the task was trivial compared to his previous assignments, Gilliam—who had gone to such lengths to visit that small village in person just to meet her—couldn’t help but feel satisfied.
There, Gilliam had personally experienced the goddess Ifrit’s divine providence.
“This way.”
Flutter.
Gilliam personally drew back the cloth draped over the statue.
Beneath the black fabric, the pure white marble saintess revealed herself.
Forgotten Juliet