Realizing that he was lost, Enoch looked around. Though it seemed obvious now, everything looked the same.
It was only natural since he hadn’t been paying attention to anything while walking.
Abandoning visual clues, he began to retrace his steps in memory. First, he had walked straight ahead, turned left at a tree, then turned again at a statue, and then…
“…This is ridiculous.”
He couldn’t remember anything.
What is going on? Enoch looked down at his feet, which had caused all this trouble, with accusatory eyes. The innocent pair of shoes sparkled.
It was just a walking path anyway. After a moment of being soaked in absurdity, he decided to view the situation positively. He had found his way even in a snowstorm before.
But now he couldn’t even get out of a single garden.
Thinking this, he turned around. He didn’t know what would happen in a few minutes.
As he rounded a corner that looked somewhat familiar, Enoch came face to face with a girl who was looking at him with bright green eyes.
[Who are you?]
With her long black hair elegantly braided down to her waist and wearing a light blue dress adorned with aquamarine jewels, the girl seemed quite surprised.
However, the most surprised was Enoch. Blinking with a dazed expression, he thought, Am I seeing things?
It made sense, as he felt like he was watching a character from a painting come to life.
Of course, he knew that the girl from his dreams was a real person.
But the feeling of her being alive somewhere and her being right in front of him was as different as heaven and earth.
While he stood there like a dazed person, the girl scanned him up and down and concluded:
[You’re from the Empire, aren’t you?]
She spoke in Rosenta’s language. Although he had only learned a bit of the foreign language, Enoch knew it since Rosenta was the neighboring country.
But it seemed the girl thought the foreigner in front of her couldn’t understand Rosenta’s language.
After rolling her eyes for a moment, she cleared her throat. Hm.
“Who are you?”
The clear Imperial language was certainly spoken with consideration for him, but Enoch couldn’t respond to her words. At that moment, he was too busy imprinting her voice in his mind. In his fantasies, there had never been any sound.
However, from the speaker’s perspective, it must have been quite frustrating.
The girl, slightly frowning, asked,
“Can’t you hear?”
“……”
“Or can’t you speak?”
Only then did Enoch regain enough composure to accept the question as a question and respond.
“No.”
At that, the girl tilted her head slightly and made a displeased expression. Hm. She frowned as if contemplating something before saying,
“I am Juliet Yellen Rosenta.”
It was a royal name. Enoch realized that the girl before him was the princess the crown prince had mentioned.
In fact, she looked every bit like a princess. Her green eyes were deep and large, and her clothing and accessories were so extravagant that only royalty could possess them.
Despite having once thought he never wanted to meet her, Enoch took in everything about her with wide eyes. Her white, round forehead, her elegantly straight nose, and her slender, graceful neck that seemed carved from ivory.
And then he realized.
The girl was more beautiful than his dreams.
Isn’t reality usually less impressive than fantasy? Enoch thought as he gazed at the overly perfect girl. She had no flaws. She was more graceful, more noble, more beautiful, and more lovable than he had known.
Juliet looked at the foreigner acting like he was in a daze with a strange expression. It was only later that Enoch realized he should have introduced himself, or at least bowed politely.
The girl was probably waiting for him to introduce himself. However, Enoch was naturally somewhat insensitive, and on top of that, he was still dazed by the unbelievable reality.
Eventually, the girl, tired of waiting, spoke up.
“I am the princess of Rosenta, and this is a garden where no one can enter without my permission. I never told you to come in, so who are you, trespassing here like this?”
Her question sounded more haughty than serious. Enoch opened his mouth as if in a trance. My, my name is…
“Yes, your name is.”
For a moment, he wondered if he should reveal his real name, but it was already too late to come up with an alias.
He spoke in a low voice, “I’m Enoch.”
At that, Juliet tilted her head slightly. Enoch?
“I’ve never heard that name before.”
His name was quite common in Nasant, but Enoch didn’t mention that. He had never heard the name Juliet before either.
However, even if her name had been a common variation, he knew that the syllables would be forever etched in his mind.
The girl asked,
“Do you not have a surname?”
“Let-“
Enoch stopped mid-sentence. Kinas had made him a Grand Duke, but he still felt awkward about his position.
Moreover, if he revealed that he was a Grand Duke here, the girl would surely arm herself with politeness and immediately kick him out.
He knew that, by etiquette, that would be the right thing to do.
But Enoch wanted to observe her a little longer. He needed reassurance. He needed to be certain that this moment was not a hallucination created by his own recklessness but something that truly existed.
He could reveal his status later. As that thought crept into his mind, the girl spoke.
“Right, Enoch Let. How did you end up here?”
It was a natural question for her, having encountered an unexpected intruder.
However, knowing how his words would be received, Enoch found it a difficult question to answer, and he blinked his eyes.
“I got lost.”
And Juliet displayed exactly the reaction he had imagined.
“You got lost? How did that happen?”
Her tone carried pure confusion. Enoch felt his cheeks flush.
He added an explanation in a voice barely above a whisper.
“I was wandering around the garden and got lost.”
“Oh, it seems you took a wrong turn in the corridor assigned to the delegation from the palace.”
He wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption. Enoch nodded.
Juliet looked at him, tilting her head as if something was bothering her. This was something he would learn later, but well-trained servants would not nod their heads. Her gaze, which had mistaken him for a servant, found his behavior strange.
Juliet continued.
“But even so, it’s quite far from here to there. How on earth could you get so lost?”
He couldn’t explain that question. Enoch glanced down at the feet that had caused all these problems. He had just been walking.
The girl sighed softly as she looked at him.
“And if you got lost, you should have quickly found someone to help you out. What are you doing wandering around like this? I’m lucky to have found you; if you had gone the wrong way, you could have lost your head. My brother is not lenient with intruders.”
That wasn’t just a threat.
As he would later learn, the prince of Rosenta was strict with the people his sister met, though he was not strict with her.
So, if he had known the consequences this encounter could bring, he would have likely cut his own throat right then.
But that didn’t happen. It was a missed opportunity from Driene’s perspective.
Seeing him still dazed and somewhat pitiful, the girl said,
“Don’t worry, though. Since I found you, you’ll live.”
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
At that moment, she should not have done that. Even now, years later, Enoch could assert that.
On that day, Juliet should not have extended a helping hand to a stranger.
She should have just pretended not to see and called for her maid and knight to drag him away, regardless of what happened to him.
That would have been a merciful act compared to what he would later do to her. Enoch remembered how he had trampled on everything that was hers.
When she had to leave her homeland, Juliet cried a lot, but in front of him, she bit her lip to hold back her tears, depriving herself of the freedom to express her emotions. She had also lost the warmth and vitality that was unique to her youth.
Those moments of miserable plunder were etched into both of their souls, and now he had a chance to make amends.
Of course, not everything could be restored to its original state. Just like no one could turn back time, their relationship was the same.
However, he could return a few things that she had lost.
That was what he had been wishing for every moment.
But, as for his heart…
There was no reason why he couldn’t give it to her. Enoch truly thought so, but revealing his past was a different matter.
He looked at the man before him, who was still waiting for him to explain, with an uncomfortable gaze. Despite his guilt toward this man, who had revealed even the royal family’s secret hereditary disease to him, Enoch still did not wish to tell Driene about his lineage.
After all, it was a curse that would end with his own death.
That single thought had led him to maintain countless silences over the years. Even if it caused irreversible wounds or made him hit an unbreakable wall, his resolve remained unchanged.
These were things he couldn’t answer when Juliet had asked. So how could he break that silence now?
Noticing that he wouldn’t say anything, Driene frowned.
“Alright, fine. If you don’t want to answer, let’s move on.”
Enoch read the irritation on his face but closed his eyes to it. What he wanted to do while sitting here wasn’t to gauge the man’s feelings; it was a transaction.
He would give his heart and ensure Juliet’s safety.
From the moment he requested Driene’s cooperation, he had been thinking about that.
