Forgotten Juliet

The Emperor stared at Juliet Monad in fury, while tapping a calculator in his mind.

There was virtually clear evidence, and he saw no way out.

It was almost true.

Yes, the conclusion had been drawn a long time ago.

“…Alright. I will issue a bounty to capture the Second Prince.”

The Emperor gritted his teeth.

“Feeling better now, Countess?”

“No, Your Majesty. I have three demands.”

“…What?!”

“The first is the punishment of the Second Prince, who is behind the rebellion of Marquis Guinness and the incident with beasts.”

Juliet calmly counted on her fingers.

“The second demand is to restore the honor of my late parents.”

The Emperor, who was about to rage again, paused.

“Count and Countess Monad…?”

“7 years ago, my parents were killed by thugs. You remember, right?”

He had no choice but to remember.

The tragedy of the count’s family was a shocking event at the time.

But the Emperor’s capital guards concluded it as a mere robbery.

Juliet Monad, who was eighteen at the time, had accused Baron Gaspar as the suspect, but the Baron provided a well-established alibi, thus clearing his suspicion.

“Baron Gaspar had accomplices. Marquis Guinness here was the one who sanctioned the killings from behind the scenes.”

Juliet calmly pointed at Marquis Guinness, who was biting a gag.

“Do you have any evidence?”

Juliet patiently waited before calmly placing a thick envelope of letters down.

“These are letters confiscated from Marquis Guinness’s southern residence.”

“Hmm…”

It then dawned on the Emperor why Juliet Monad had kept Marquis Guinness detained until now.

The Monad family valued honor above all else.

The Emperor cooled down a bit.

He still disliked Juliet’s audacious attitude but found her second demand somewhat reasonable.

He knew how hard it was for the young Countess who lost her parents at a young age.

No one could interfere with a surviving child seeking revenge for their parents.

“And the third-“

Juliet sent a quick glance to her grandfather sitting across the table before speaking her third demand.

“…?”

Lionel Lebatan was puzzled by Juliet’s gaze, but he nodded slightly when their eyes met.

With a bright smile, Juliet spoke her last condition.

“The third is the amnesty decree. Please restore my grandfather’s honor.”

“The amnesty decree?”

The Emperor racked his brains, but he had no specific memory regarding the external family of Juliet Monad.

“Did the Countess’s grandfather commit a crime?”

“No.”

It was becoming more and more puzzling.

“Who is Countess Monad’s grandfather?”

“Oh.”

Juliet hastily stood up and moved to the side.

“I’m late in introducing. This is my grandfather.”

Juliet smiled brightly and pointed to the red-haired old man sitting across. It was an extraordinary person who was called a captain.

The Emperor, who had been subtly conscious of the old man, showed curiosity.

“You must know, Lionel Lebatan.”

Clang.

The pen of the scribe standing behind the Emperor dropped.

‘Who did she say?’

Lionel Lebatan.

That was the name of a rebel who had been sentenced to death by the impeial family decades ago.

The Emperor’s face turned pale for a moment.

Thump.

“Gu, guards!”

The Emperor kicked the chair and stood up abruptly.

“What are you doing! Arrest him now!”

With that signal, the deck turned into a battleground.

“D-don’t move!”

“Protect His Majesty!”

The Emperor’s imperial guards drew their swords noisily.

“Catch that man!”

“Ha!”

“Ha, Your Majesty…!”

But they couldn’t execute the Emperor’s order.

Swish.

As soon as the Emperor’s soldiers drew their swords, the sailors who were quietly guarding the deck also drew their weapons.

“What is this, Countess Monad!”

The group with swords remained in a standoff.

“Everything is fine, Countess Monad. I acknowledge. The investigation was lacking regarding your parents’ murder. I’ll handle everything as you wish! That… the first demand, the Second Prince, he did wrong so he should be punished. Yes. Catching that evil spirit or whatever, I’ll fully cooperate as you wish!”

The Emperor burst into rage.

“But Lionel Lebatan is not to be touched! He is a proxy criminal!”

Dropping the bomb, Juliet nonchalantly shrugged her shoulders.

“By what right?”

“By what right, you say!”

“In a coronation trial you didn’t even attend, is it a fair judgement to have received a death sentence?”

“But still, it’s a rightful judgement! Countess Monad, and Duke Carlyle! Don’t you know that those who harbor or assist a rebel criminal are to be summarily dealt with?”

Juliet retorted sharply.

“No.”

“Yes! No… what?”

Juliet lightly touched a scroll lying rolled up on the table.

Then, with a rustle, a large sheet of paper unfolded.

“What is this?”

“This is a judgement document approved by the former Emperor 40 years ago.”

Specifically, it was a copy of the ‘Lionel Lebatan Trial’ judgement document.

Juliet had prepared this beforehand, not knowing when it would come to use.

‘I didn’t know I’d use it at a time like this.’

“And?”

The name written in the defendant section was clearly ‘Lionel Lebatan,’ which the Emperor and others also confirmed.

“And in the conclusion section, it reads, ‘executed immediately upon stepping on any land of the Emperor.'”

“Ha! My point exactly!”

The Emperor once again became triumphant.

“What’s the delay, Duke! Arrest these traitors immediately!”

Not aiding in the arrest, it seemed the Emperor wanted to take Lionel Lebatan to the gallows right away.

“If there’s anyone here siding with this traitor, step forward now! I’ll personally see you to the execution grounds!”

Lionel Lebatan, who was scolded, twitched his eyebrows, and Duke Carlyle stood quietly with his arms folded.

But Juliet gently shook her head.

“Don’t you get it, Your Majesty? It’s written ‘all lands of the Emperor’ here.”

“Ha, Countess! I can read as well.”

“And you are on the sea, Your Majesty.”

“And?”

“According to international law, all seas including harbors are not territories.”

“Ha! What kind of wordplay is this-“

The Emperor seemed to not understand quickly.

“Uh, Countess Monad is correct, Your Majesty.”

Suddenly intervening was the Emperor’s secretary.

“No, why do you say so?”

“Currently, Your Majesty is aboard a ship owned by Lionel Lebatan. Technically, this place doesn’t fall under ‘all lands of the Emperor.’ Therefore, you cannot arrest him, and you don’t have the right to summarily execute.”

The professionally conscious court secretary explained the situation in an easy-to-understand manner.

Thanks to this, everyone present understood why Juliet did what she did.

“That means…”

In front of them was a proxy criminal who had been on the run for decades, yet they couldn’t capture him.

That was the meaning.

After a moment of silence, the Emperor soon found a target to resent.

“Duke Carlyle! You dared to trap me!”

It had been a scheme all along to lure the Emperor onto Lionel Lebatan’s ship.

Of course, nobody except Juliet knew of her intentions, and Lennox had merely obliged to her request.

Instead of defending his innocence, Duke Carlyle shrugged indifferently.

But it wasn’t just the Emperor who was flustered.

‘So that’s why.’

Lionel Lebatan quietly side-eyed Juliet.

-I need my grandfather’s ship.

Juliet had only said that much, she had not explained this plan to Lionel.

‘I thought she simply wanted to use Marquis Guinness.’

Since Juliet had insisted on keeping Marquis Guinness alive, he had suspected that she might use him like this at some point.

He didn’t expect his issue to suddenly arise here, yet the Emperor was still unconvinced and continued to rage.

“For the authority of the imperial family, this cannot be tolerated!”

“The authority of the imperial family?”

“Yes! You should be thankful that we are not arresting that proxy criminal right now!”

Clank. Juliet placed a piece of stone tablet on the table, and the Emperor flinched unknowingly.

“Do you know what this is?”

“Isn’t that the fragment of the tablet excavated from the temple?”

The Emperor had a significant interest in the tablet claimed to have been found in ancient ruins.

Having been beaten to the punch at the temple, he had to take his hands off since he asked the lord of Lycanthropes for the decoding of the tablet.

The Emperor didn’t know what trick Juliet was up to and was noticeably wary, but Juliet, unfazed, cheerfully clapped her hands.

“That’s right. Your Majesty recognized it right away.”

It was the ancient tablet that Roy had been asked to decode from the temple not long ago.

‘Although it’s fake.’