What do you want to do?
It was rare for Lennox to ask such a question.
Juliet knew from past experience that she had to be careful answering this question. During last summer’s vacation, when she said she wanted to ride a boat…
“In the end, we didn’t get to enjoy the boat.”
Instead of boating, they had to cancel all their plans and return to the manor.
That incident hurt her quite a bit. When she woke up from her distress, he mentioned that he had bought a boat.
– You wanted a boat, didn’t you?
However, there’s a big difference between a small boat floating in a lake and a large galley.
“Juliet.”
Urging her to respond, when the Duke called her, Juliet felt a bit anxious.
What is he up to?
But Juliet wasn’t naive enough to simply trust him and blurt out her wish.
And she didn’t want to mingle with people.
She also didn’t want to stay cooped up in her bedroom at the villa for days on end. She thought it would only be for a few months, but she couldn’t come up with a proper excuse.
It seemed like she’d inevitably end up following Lennox’s lead.
“Ah.”
Juliet, lost in thought, noticed the servants downstairs cutting oil-soaked red paper.
It seemed to be distributed to the guests in the mansion gathered in the greenhouse. It was an old winter custom.
“Could I get some of that paper?”
When she went downstairs and asked, the servants happily gave her some.
It was a game commonly played by children in winter, folding the paper to wish for good luck. In reality, it was meant to guide visitors so they wouldn’t lose their way.
By folding the paper lanterns and lighting them at the window, it was said to repel bad spirits and bring good fortune.
“Here.”
With a curious look, Juliet handed a large sheet of paper to the man standing beside her.
“…What should I do with this?”
“Fold it.”
“I asked what you wanted to do.”
“I want to make this.”
Seeing his expression sour, Juliet quickly added:
“Together.”
“…”
Lennox looked incredulous, but Juliet somehow felt satisfied.
Considering it was a spur-of-the-moment idea, it was a good solution. At least there wouldn’t be any needless waste of money.
It wouldn’t harm anyone, and more importantly, there wouldn’t be any unnecessary hurt feelings.
She didn’t care if Lennox found it ridiculous. If he regretted doing something foolish, he might not bother her again.
However, while Juliet was skillfully making the paper lantern, Lennox just quietly watched her.
Juliet wasn’t particularly crafty, but she made this red paper lantern quite well. She had memories of folding it with her parents every winter. She got scolded every time for playing with fire.
“It’s beautifully made.”
A passing servant complimented her. But the man holding the paper in his hand said nothing.
Juliet then realized that he had kept the paper exactly as she had handed it to him.
“Don’t you know how to fold?”
“I don’t.”
Juliet blinked.
It was the first time she heard him say he didn’t know how to do something.
“Have you never tried it before?”
“Never.”
She was a bit taken aback.
At first, she thought he was joking, but Lennox Carlyle wasn’t the kind to joke about such things.
Come to think of it, she had never seen paper lanterns hung at the windows of the northern manor.
But isn’t it a custom of the North?
It felt odd that the great noble family of the north didn’t know about it.
As Juliet lost for words looked at him, he raised an eyebrow in annoyance.
“Do I really need to know?”
Well, not necessarily.
“But every citizen of the Empire should know.”
Didn’t everyone play with paper folding when they were young?
Didn’t your mother teach you? Juliet almost blurted that out.
Then she remembered.
Considering the harsh culture of the Ducal house, even if the previous Duke and Duchess had been alive, it didn’t seem like they would have spent time folding paper lanterns together.
After all, she doubted if this man even knew how to fold a napkin.
Juliet decided to make amends. The servants of the mansion were sneakily watching them with curious eyes, and she felt uncomfortable.
“Give it to me.”
After getting a few more sheets of paper, she took him to an empty reception room.
She thought he might mock her for doing something childish or want to leave halfway, but he obediently followed her.
It was a bit strange.
During her stay in the North, Juliet learned quite a bit from Lennox: how to use a crossbow, how to ride a horse, and some practical but brutal survival skills.
She even learned a bit about how his knight order operated by observing from a distance. But this was the first time she was teaching him something.
“Just fold it like this. You get it, right?”
Snap!
When she unfolded the intricately folded shape, a hexagonal form appeared.
Juliet deliberately showed him slowly once more. But the man sitting across the table, resting his chin on his hand and looking down, only moved his eyes and responded.
“I don’t get it.”
“Just give me what you folded.”
“I can’t.”
Juliet, with a frown, snatched the finished product from his hand.
“Why?”
“It means something when you make it yourself.”
Lennox glared at Juliet but eventually replied.
“Fine.”
His large hands folding the paper looked quite awkward, but his keen eyes and dexterity seemed unchanged.
To everyone’s surprise, Lennox perfectly crafted the shape Juliet directed, with sharp and clean edges, to a somewhat disappointing extent.
“Now you just have to hang it by the window.”
“It’s trivial.”
Although he said so, Lennox obediently followed Juliet’s instructions.
“Trivial? Hanging it will prevent you from catching a cold all winter,” said Juliet, and she paused awkwardly, “That’s what my mother said…”
Juliet blinked quietly.
“Hang it over there.”
Lennox didn’t understand Juliet’s reaction but said nothing. He hung the paper lantern where she pointed.
“This will prevent drafts during the winter.”
Lennox didn’t believe that a piece of paper could prevent drafts.
He didn’t particularly feel the loss or deprivation of an unknown childhood. It was an emotion he had never felt before. However, seeing the woman smiling quietly at the lantern he had hung, he felt an odd thirst.
* * *
Roy stood in the middle of a clearing in the forest.
In the dense forest, where hardly any light penetrated, Roy quietly looked down at his feet.
Below him lay a giant brown wolf.
“You, you…! You arrogant bastard!”
Graham glared at Roy, but he couldn’t move a finger.
Even the forest’s unruly creatures strictly forbade killing their own kind.
But Roy couldn’t forgive the foolish Graham who nearly ruined his plans. He almost lost Juliet.
“What’s your problem?”
Annoyed, Roy stepped on his chest.
“Ugh!”
“You.”
“You used to call me ‘half-baked’.”
Graham groaned from below, but Roy didn’t blink an eye.
The current leader of their clan was Hevaron. That was the known fact.
However, in reality, the actual control had already passed to Hevaron’s youngest son, Romeo.
Hevaron, dying, merely held the lordship as a symbol, or to conceal his mysterious intentions.
In this situation, Roy’s brothers were the ones discontented.
Roy was the youngest heir, born last in their generation.
Compared to his older siblings, who had already established themselves and even had children, Roy was merely a wild youngster.
Graham, Roy’s elder brother, secretly hoped that Romeo would never find his lifelong companion.
Then, no matter how powerful Romeo was, he’d remain a naive young lord.
“So you went to find a companion which I chose, right?”
“Cough…!”
Tsk. Roy clicked his tongue in displeasure.
Direct descendants of the Lord of Lycanthropes were born with formidable regenerative powers. Regrettably, Graham was a sibling born from the same womb as Roy.
Therefore, killing Graham wan’t easy, unless you beheaded him. But on the flip side, Roy didn’t need to hold back, as long as he didn’t kill him.
“Damn.”
Roy knew why he was so impatient. In fact, he should be facing Juliet right now, not Graham.
He recalled the last time he saw Juliet’s face at the palace banquet a few days ago.
– I’ll be back soon.
She always responded to that. Either she would nod with a smile or bid him a safe journey.
But not this time. Roy desperately tried to read Juliet’s expression, but she just gave a reluctant smile, not as affectionate and familiar as before.
That’s why he was restless. He had tried so hard to be kind to her.
And it felt like all that effort was wasted.
“Ha, ha…!”
Graham laughed with a deflated sound.
“That human girl is the companion you found?”
Roy didn’t answer, just coldly looking down at his brother.
Knowing he couldn’t escape this situation, Graham openly mocked him.
From the moment he found that human girl in the forest, Graham had a hunch.
It wasn’t hard to locate her. Roy had left plenty of his traces around her.
“Fool! That human girl will bring disaster!”
“What?”
“She has the Snowdrop! Such a woman is surely ill-fated…!”
“Snowdrop?”
What’s that?
Roy tilted his head in confusion.