Forgotten Juliet

“Countess Monad!”

The person who jumped out of the carriage was a familiar face.

Juliet, tilting her head in curiosity, widened her eyes in recognition.

“Emma?”

Emma was the granddaughter of Madam Ilena, with whom Juliet was close.

A few months ago, Juliet had visited the South with Emma at the invitation of the lady.

“It’s been a while, Countess! I just happened to pass by and saw Juliet!”

Wearing a bright yellow dress like a canary, Emma spoke with flushed cheeks.

“What brings you to the capital?”

“Charlotte, my elder sister, just had a baby! So, we came to get it blessed.”

Juliet recalled meeting Emma’s sister, Charlotte, in the South.

It felt like a distant memory, even though it wasn’t that long ago.

Charlotte, who was pregnant at the time, seemed to have safely given birth.

“Since the Pope is staying in the capital, we thought we might get her blessings.”

Regardless of their status, everyone in the Empire visits the temple when a child is born. Even those not particularly devout consider it customary to have their babies blessed by a priest before their first birthday.

Except for one famous northern family, the nobles especially wanted to be blessed by high-ranking priests.

‘But it won’t be easy…’

Having just been turned away from the main shrine, Juliet tilted her head.

“But they said we can’t see Her Holiness for another two days?”

As expected, Emma grumbled in dissatisfaction.

“But we’re still lucky! Running into Juliet on the way back from the temple.”

Excited, Emma suggested they share a carriage ride.

“My sister Charlotte and I are staying at our grandmother’s! house”

“…I’m not sure.”

Juliet glanced awkwardly at the Duke’s carriage.

Jude, the knight who had essentially become Juliet’s personal escort, was standing with his arms crossed.

“Please do it.”

Jude, who had come out with her, cheerfully suggested.

“What difference does it make? My lord is busy anyway.”

After sending back the Duke’s carriage, Jude and Juliet transferred to Emma’s carriage.

“It’s fortunate! Charlotte will be so happy to see Juliet!”

Throughout the ride, Emma regaled Juliet with various stories.

“The South was quite bad. Monsters emerged from the sea.”

Emma sighed deeply.

It seemed that monsters had also appeared in the South.

It seemed that Madam Ilena had urgently summoned her granddaughters to the capital due to the chaotic atmosphere in the South, more than for the blessing of her great-grandson.

They say this year’s harvest will be tough.

“Plus, grandma said… Oh, have you met her, Countess Monad?”

“Who?”

“The famous Saintess!”

Dahlia’s name seemed to have spread to the South.

Suddenly, the carriage jolted to a stop before Juliet could respond.

“What happened?”

“The Empress’s maids are passing by, Lady Emma.”

The Empress’s maids?

“…Should we get out and watch?”

Emma, eyes shining, hopped out of the carriage without waiting for Juliet’s answer. Juliet was also somewhat forcibly pulled out.

Juliet saw a long line of people.

Officials were distributing relief goods and medicines.

Behind them, the Empress’s maids were getting out of carriages and moving.

Among them, one woman dressed like a clergy in pure white stood out.

“That’s the Saintess!”

A shout drew the attention of the crowd in that direction.

Seeing the blonde woman, the crowd and even Emma got excited.

“Oh, it must be her!”

Excited Emma whispered to Juliet, tugging her arm.

The people in line started to sneak out of their positions. Elizabeth Tillman, with her golden hair and white dress, looked undeniably sacred.

But perhaps due to the large crowd, a small child on the edge was pushed and fell over.

“Ah! Mommy!”

The child cried.

“Oh dear, are you okay?”

Fortunately, the guards in front of the child helped her up.

“Eleanor!”

The child’s mother rushed over in panic. Thankfully, aside from a scraped knee, the child seemed fine.

‘Huh?’

But for a moment, Juliet was taken aback.

When the child’s mother loudly called out the name ‘Eleanor’, Elizabeth, who had been walking gracefully, suddenly turned to look back.

It wasn’t just concern for the fallen child.

It was as if she was startled by the name itself, standing frozen with a chilling expression.

“Saintess!”

However, it seemed only Juliet noticed Elizabeth’s strange reaction.

“Please look after our child!”

The mother, holding her daughter, pleaded to Elizabeth.

All eyes, full of hope and anticipation, were on Elizabeth.

“…Of course, madam.”

As if she had never been emotionless, Elizabeth, with a gentle and gracious smile, knelt before the injured child.

When Elizabeth reached out her hand, a golden glow flowed out, and the blood from the child’s knee stopped.

“Wow! As expected!”

“The Saintess showed her healing power!”

“It’s divine power!”

Cheers of joy erupted from the crowd.

‘No, that’s…’

Only Juliet bit her lip slightly.

She confirmed the suspicion she had faintly doubted.

What Elizabeth showed wasn’t the healing power used by priests but a simple magical treatment.

While the healing power completely heals as if the wound never existed, magical treatment has a fundamental difference, being only a first aid.

Juliet had seen the top mages do such hemostasis while mingling with them.

“Th-thank you…”

The child, with wide eyes, hugged Elizabeth tightly.

Then, the bandage that was wrapped around Elizabeth’s arm slipped off, revealing a scar that looked burnt.

‘A burn?’

Elizabeth momentarily pulled down her sleeve in what seemed like surprise, but the crowd was completely moved.

“She cared for the commoner child more than her own body!”

“Truly the Saintess … Oh!”

A man from behind lightly tapped Juliet’s arm.

Jude then grabbed the man who pushed Juliet by the throat.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“I’m, I’m sorry!”

But the situation wasn’t one where Juliet would accept an apology.

Maybe due to the commotion, Elizabeth looked directly at where Juliet was.

Flash.

And at that moment, the hand mirror in Juliet’s hand reflected sunlight.

It was a brief moment, but Juliet saw it clearly.

Where Elizabeth Tillman was, there was a huge snake opening its mouth.

And that wasn’t all.

[Eleanor!]

Juliet clearly heard the hallucination of a man’s voice filled with pain hissing menacingly.

Clang.

At that moment, Juliet swayed and dropped her handbag.

“Oh dear!”

Emma, startled, looked back at Juliet.

“Are you okay, Juliet?”

The hand mirror, as well as everything else in the bag, spilled out.

While there wasn’t much inside the bag, the people nearby picked them up for her.

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Didn’t the mirror break? You look pale.”

The mirror was intact without a scratch, but Juliet felt as though her heart had dropped.

‘What was that just now?’

Could it have been a sudden nightmare?

When she looked up, Elizabeth was already surrounded by the Empress’s attendants, disappearing into a building.

The scenes Juliet had just witnessed, her fragmented memories, and her questions all mixed together.

She felt as though she was standing in the middle of a foggy forest.

Holding a thread as fine as a spider’s web, she couldn’t see what was at the end.

First thing that came to mind was Elizabeth’s burn.

And the unidentified entity that attacked Juliet in the square.

It wasn’t just mimicking the appearance of the missing Dolores.

“…It was that snake.”

“What?”

The snake that tried to harm Juliet disappeared engulfed in flames. It was the snake spirit that Lennox mentioned had escaped from storage.

Perhaps because she had unconsciously guessed, Juliet wasn’t too shocked.

But there were still many unexplained things.

Somehow it seemed that this wasn’t the end.

‘If that woman named Elizabeth is an evil spirit, how can she appear and act like a human?’

The sly black panther, the naive butterflies, all the spirits Juliet saw didn’t have a physical form.

(We cannot interfere.)

That’s why they said they couldn’t influence much.

They could only interfere with human minds and show illusions.

Even Juliet’s butterflies, when they talked too much, were always summoned back to the other dimension.

‘But how?’

Juliet looked down at the hand mirror.

It seemed like a mirror that showed true forms.

Then how could that snake appear and act as a human?

“When they get stronger, what can they do?”

(They can change their form to become someone.)

Separately from her whitened head, Juliet’s mind was fitting the pieces she’d gathered over the past few months.

[The evil snake is the oldest sin.]

The copy the Archbishop gave her definitely said that.

The snake mimics the abilities and appearances of the prey it devours in one bite.

‘Where did I first hear this story?’

It was the story of the Mimicking Snake from a bedtime storybook.

The Mimicking Snake.

A strange snake story with no original form that lived by eating people and mimicking the form of its prey.

“Miss.”

“Yes?”

Juliet turned around blankly.

“You dropped this. It’s yours, right?”

“Ah… Thank you.”

Jude extended his hand, and in it was a Soulstone that shimmered with a purple hue.

She almost lost it.

Juliet was startled and clutched the Soulstone closely.

The Soulstone was a precious relic that allowed even those without divine power to wield it.

And this purple Soulstone was made from the remains of a girl named Genovia, said to be born with remarkable divine power.

And Genovia was…

‘She looks a lot like the current Elizabeth.’

From a distance, Teo and Eshelrid had commented on Elizabeth.

– That woman, she looks exactly like the mad Pope’s younger sister.

– If that child hadn’t died and had grown up, she would’ve looked a lot like her now.

If Genovia had not died young and had grown up, she would’ve looked like the current Elizabeth. Juliet seemed to realize something that she hadn’t paid much attention to before.

It felt like holding an invisible thread in her hand. Transparent and fragile, yet clearly there.

In her previous life, a woman named Dahlia, the current Elizabeth, freely used both divine and magical powers.

But in this life, she only pretended to be a kind-hearted Saintess in public and never showed her divine power.

Why can’t the current Elizabeth use divine power, unlike in her previous life?

‘Ah.’

Juliet had an epiphany.

It wasn’t a complete answer, but a plausible explanation came to her.

In her previous life, Dahlia had a yellow Soulstone.

‘Of course, I never saw that with my own eyes. It might be a manipulated memory.’

Juliet gripped the Soulstone in her hand.

If Dahlia could use divine power freely in her previous life because of the Soulstone, then…

‘It’s not that she doesn’t use it now; she can’t.’

Just a few hours ago, Archbishop Gilliam had informed her of a new fact.

– The Soulstone changes to the color of the wave of power that person possesses.

‘It wasn’t a different Soulstone from the start.’

TheSoulstone was one and the same.

In her previous life, Genovia’s Soulstone ended up in Dahlia’s hands, and its color changed. So that could also explain why the current Elizabeth couldn’t use divine power.

Because in this life, Genovia’s Soulstone was in Juliet’s hands.

“Juliet?”

As Emma climbed into the carriage, she looked curiously at Juliet, who seemed lost in thought.

It was then that Juliet was certain.

Genovia was also one of the snake’s victims.