novelDon't come to Wendy's flower shop (2)
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Chapter 11: Chapter 11 Don't come to Wendy's flower shop (2)
As such a contrast was pleasant, though, he grinned at her. However, she frowned at him.
"I don't think you came here for an idle chat with me. What business brought you here?"
As expected, she spoke coldly. Her reaction like was quite predictable, but it was surprising that he was not troubled by her knee-jerk reaction. But he seemed to wonder if it was wrong that he had come for a chat with her.
"What business? Of course, I do."
Lard Schroder quickly turned expressionless and put a small wooden box on the tea table. Given that he alternately looked at her and the wooden box, he seemed to ask her to open it. Feeling a bit uncomfortable, she reached for the box, reluctantly opened the lid, and looked inside.
"This is..."
Looking into the box, she suddenly had a spasm near her eyes and fumbled words.
"This blocked the movement of the criminal in Rajabude Museum. It was so sticky and adhesive that I had a hard time collecting the evidence."
Like he said, the sticky stuff, partly cut from the carpet of the museum, was in the box as it was found. The uneven cross section revealed the strong adhesion of the sticky grass. It was inevitable, but the carpet at the botanical garden of the museum would be replaced anyway.
"Do you know what it is?" he asked.
She shook her head, holding the mug that she had never touched.
"As I told you yesterday, I don't know anything about it. But it's interesting."
Schroder smiled at her reply as if he got what he expected to hear from her. His reaction did not befit anyone who came to investigate the identity of the evidence. Although she said she didn't know, he still seemed to feel satisfied with her reply.
"...This is grass' name is sticky. It used be used as glue material. I think it's correct because the botany professor at Jeddah Academy examined and explained it."
He said in a plain tone just like when somebody said, 'It rained today at dawn. '
But she was upset when she heard it. 'Is this guy playing a joke on me? Or did he notice the source of my power? Why are you testing me like this?' Lots of questions came to her mind.
"...Why did you ask me what you already know?"
"This grass is adhesive enough to block human movement. Isn't it a very unusual plant? I thought you would be interested in this after I found out your job. According to Jonathan Lenkin, you looked into the Bahaman for a while at the museum, right?"
Jonathan Lenkin, the face of the stupid knight at the botanical garden flashed her mind.
Was he going to retaliate over her returning home alone last night? She blamed the man, wondering if it was a knight's duty to tattle on her actions yesterday. Besides, this guy now told her she would be interested in the sticky grass after finding out her job.
She got enraged when she felt the man in front of her did a background check on her.
"What do you mean by interested?" Wendy asked him with a cold voice, as if showing a broken heart. Interested in sticky grass? No way! As if to show her offended feelings, she asked him coldly, "Did you ask me if I was interested in it? Was that the reason you came here?"
"Exactly. Can there be any other reason for me to come here?"
He drank the remaining tea while looking into the glass bottle of lemon tea. Although he had some other questions, he had no reason to bring them up now.
"...Oh I see."
Looking at his attitude that never got ruffled, she cursed him mentally. Above all, she couldn't figure out what he was thinking. She picked up her lemon tea, which got cold, with her trembling hands and drank it to calm down.
"As you are kind enough to be concerned about what a commoner woman like me is interested in, I'm so touched by your considerations... Are you done?"
"Well..."
His gray eyes now glowed with interest in her. He was aware that as she was not happy about his unexpected visit to her shop all along from the moment he entered, she wanted to have him leave as soon as possible. Nonetheless, he didn't feel bad about it. Rather he seemed more interested than displeased with her. Her coldness before his eyes was very unfamiliar to him who had only seen women trying to win his heart by all means. Putting the mug on the table silently, he looked at her eyes.
"Would you pack some Welsh flowers?"
Wendy briefly looked embarrassed at his sudden request, wondering if she was now being dragged into his sneaky trick.
"Are you going to a place to express your condolences?"
"No, today is the day of my father's death. That's another reason I came here."
She rose silently and walked to the shelf where the glass vases were placed. She picked several white Welsh flowers. The flower was mainly used as a funeral flower because its open petals looked like an angel's wing. She carefully wrapped the flowers.
After paying for the flowers, Lard headed to the door with the wooden box of sticky grass as if he was about to leave. Surprisingly, she stopped him and asked, "Lord Schroder."
Looking at his gray eyes, who just turned around, she asked the question she had been anxious to ask.
"How did you know I was here?"
"I am the captain of the Imperial Knight division." He said casually, as if to ask why she was asking such a silly question."If I want to find anybody, I can find them by using all available means.
Of course, I can't deny that the hint you gave me was very helpful. I mean, your name Wendy Waltz."
Of course, there were many ways for him to find Wendy. If he looked for the wagons that came in and out of the museum, based on her name, he could find the wagon that carried Wendy. It would not have been difficult for him to hear about Wendy from Coachman Jake who drove the carriage. But there was something really annoying to her, more than his secret background check on her, which was that he pointed out her name loudly in her presence.
She felt a great deal of displeasure when her name was on a man's lips. She felt that a guy calling her name was very unnatural as if the Poisonous Teeth refused its main diet caterpillar in the morning. She reflected on the man's voice as it was the first time her name was called by a man since she coined it.
"Thanks for the tea. Let me come back to drink this fruit tea you have made..."
Having said that, he left the flower shop. While the bell was ringing on, she wiggled her lips like a red goldfish in a fishbowl.
'What the heck did he say?' She resented he didn't give her time to talk back.
"Oh my god..."
When she returned to the tea table, she cleaned up the mugs and wondered if she was now paying the price of her actions yesterday. He left that stupid knight Jonathan alone in the museum.
"Coming back here again? Why?"
It was the moment when the lingering lemon scent wafting in the shop disappeared with her sigh.
When it got dark, she cleaned up the flower shop and came out to go back home. She locked the door tightly and rocked it back and forth a couple of times to double check if it was locked properly, when somebody asked from behind.
"Hello? Are you Wendy?"
Wendy unconsciously looked back at a woman's voice and stiffened on the spot. An unexpected second visitor was standing there! She now began to doubt if the captain of the Imperial Knights division advertised her address to everybody.
"Oh, you must be Wendy! I'm so glad I've found you here!"
The woman held Wendy's hands tightly as if she found a friend he had not met in a few years.
It was the very young woman in a yellow dress that she saw at the museum. Behind her stood a woman who looked like her maid and two men who looked like her bodyguards.
She was very uncomfortable with her visit because she brought with her other strangers.
She wanted to forget about the incident at the museum once and for all. She didn't want to face anything that weakened her power and her disguised status.
"How did you know I am here?"
"I wanted to thank you, so I plucked up the courage to ask one of the imperial knights. I really wanted to meet you. Hope I didn't bother you too much because I visited you so suddenly today."
The orange glow of the setting sun poured down on her face. She had a bright look now in a contrast with her pale face yesterday.
Although Wendy wanted to remind the woman that she was really bothered a lot because of her sudden visit, she decided not to.
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