novelDon't come to Wendy's flower shop (5)
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Chapter 14: Chapter 14 Don't come to Wendy's flower shop (5)
Wendy couldn't say any more. 'No, I can't believe it doesn't taste good, ' she murmured but didn't correct the girl because the girl's frowning expression was true.
"Oh, Won't you eat this fruit anyway? It's very good for you."
After seeing the black soup coated on the Bahazman's fruit, the girl shook her head.
Obviously the girl felt the peculiar look of the fruit, which looked like an iron mace, sucked.
But this time Wendy wouldn't give up. After appeasing and bluffing as best she could,
Wendy fed the child three Bahazman berries.
Wendy closed the lid of the bowl with a thump. She didn't like children by nature, so she had a hunch that she would hate them further.
"Captain, please be honest with me. Why did you ask me to find out the address of this woman named Wendy Waltz?"
Jean Jacques Simuan, the courageous young man of the First Imperial Knights. He asked the captain persistently, blocking him with suspicious eyes. No man of the imperial knights dared to ask him such a question, but the man staring at Jean not shaken at all.
"Jean Jacques Simuan. Have you forgotten who your supervisor is? I see you're more daring these days in your speech, " the captain sharply retorted.
"Oh, boss. Isn't it natural I am curious? You asked me to find the address of a woman who was not a criminal suspect...You didn't even show any interest in Lord Altarin's daughter..."
Despite his boss's rebuke, Jean said what he wanted to say. He was indeed a man of conviction.
Jean Jacuqes's curiosity about his boss's sudden change of attitude was significant. His boss had never given him unnecessary orders, so his order to find Wendy Waltz's address as well his unusual interest in her on the day when the incident happened stimulated Jean Jacques's interest. His boss usually responded with short reply such as "Yes" or "No, " but when he questioned Wendy, he persistently asked her, which Jean Jacques took as unusual. That's why he thought his boss might be romantically interested in Wendy.
At that moment, Jean Jacques's face turned white.
"Whenever you attend a training session, just expect to have me as your sparring partner. Let me check with my own eyes if your skills have improved enough to compete with your daring words. I think if you train against me, you will improve your skills, too."
Jean Jacques's face hardened quickly. He felt like he began to feel pain in his bones. Who said 'if you showed any curiosity about the captain's private matters, you would bring about trouble?'
Jean Jacques responded, "Captain, please forget what I've just babbled about. I don't want you to pay attention to my skills! I know you are not that free these days. I really can't inconvenience you!"
Jean Jacques, who was talking gibberish, went out of his way to cope with the situation, but Lard Schroder, a man of strong will, walked toward him with stride without replying.
"Wow, who is this? Hey, Lard, long time no see!"
At that moment, a man with impressive blue hair approached them with a happy expression on his face. The white robe worn by the man was embroidered with a white unicorn, a symbol of Linus National Medical Center.
"Edmonds, how does it feel to be a father?" Lard asked the blue-haired man with a smile, which was rare.
"Can you believe if I say I'm walking in the air every day? My baby is very meek like Maryan. She doesn't cry much."
Jean Jacque almost laughed at Edmonds's words. Maryan, the princess of the empire, was far from meek. If anybody who knew her heard Edmonds, they would show a ridiculous reaction. Obviously Edmonds, Maryan's husband, was blinded by his love.
Edmonds Baylup, he was the third son of the earl and a longtime friend of Lard.
He was praised as an example of integrity by many corrupt aristocrats. When he decided to pursue a career in the medical field, everybody was astonished.
When Lard recalled the uproar when Edmonds moved from Jeddah Academy's political department to the medical department, he still felt bitter. He was a real maverick in the nobleman's society, which made Princess Maryan develop a crush on him.
"Congratulations, you will be a good father."
Edmonds laughed happily at Lard's compliment without shying away at all.
"Well, what are you up to? There are already many knights at the ward where your wife is in.
I'm sorry that I've inconvenienced the Imperial Knights because of me and Marion. But what can I do? She is so stubborn, as you know. I can't refute her remarks that if she delivered a baby at Linus Medical Center, it would be quite symbolic."
Edmonds, the director of Linus Medical Center, was trying to change the people's perception of the medical center on the occasion of his wife's deliverance of a princess.
Many aristocrats used to regard Linus Medical Center as a medical service for the poor people, so Edmonds tried to change that perception and break down the walls between classes by making it available to the noble class.
"I stopped by to check the guard of the princess. Never mind. We're just doing what we're supposed to do."
Edmonds smiled and nodded in response to Lard's casual reaction.
While the three were chatting and walking along the circular corridor of the medical center, Lard inadvertently turned his eyes toward the lobby on the first floor. Anybody at the medical building surrounded by circular corridors, with the lobby in the center, had a good view of the lobby on the first floor.
Lard found a familiar face among the crowds in the lobby. Although she squeezed her robe tightly for some reason, he could immediately discover who she was. In fact, she was the woman he became interested in for the past several days.
"Edmonds, excuse me for a minute."
After exchanging simple pleasantries with him, Lard hurriedly left the place before Edmonds responded. Jean Jacques grumbled, looking at his back, who disappeared into the floors in the blink of an eye.
"Look at him! My boss is weird these days. He is definitely into somebody."
"What do you mean?"
"...... Oh, no. Just pretend you didn't hear me."
Jean Jacques refrained from talking more, recalling his training session with Lard tomorrow morning. If he shot his mouth off, he would certainly see his boss more at the training center.
In the meantime, Lard Schroder, urgently ran down the stairs not to miss the woman, wondering what the heck he was doing at the moment.
'Why am I rushing after her like this?'
Although he instinctively had some doubt about the woman with respect to the sticky grass found at the museum, he didn't find anything suspicious about her. Of course, his suspicion was not the kind of thing that lumped her together with the male suspect. The sticky grass suddenly appeared as if it had fallen from the sky. His suspicion focused on that mystery.
Sir Jonathan Lenkin, who was in charge of the security of the botanical garden, knew nothing about the grass. If there had been such a grass on the floor of the museum where lots of people came in and out of numerous times, there would have been accidents a long time ago. This meant that the sticky grass emerged at the time of the crime and at the very spot where Wendy Walt stood last.
That fact still stuck in his head.
At first, he tried to come up with a number of theories and assumptions that could reasonably explain the phenomenon of grass suddenly sprouting on the carpet, but he knew that even with all the knowledge he had it was impossible to reasonably explain. The mental ability to reasonably imagine things that did not make sense was not his strength. Nonetheless, a mystery he could not accept kept running through his head unsolved.
He impulsively visited Wendy's flower shop.
For Lard, who always prioritized rational judgment, this was something unprecedented, but he thought his visit was based on rational judgment. In other words, he thought his visit was inevitable because he couldn't be bothered by this kind of suspicion forever.
But when she was embarrassed at his sudden visit, he felt rather strange. The reason he asked her for a cup of tea was to enjoy the fun of watching her violent reaction.
Wendy Waltz didn't really know that her desperate effort to try to hide her disapproval further stimulated Lard's doubts.
Of course, Lard also did not know one thing. He defined his feelings as a rational need for fact-finding, but apart from that, he was interested in her.
He saw Wendy looking around. Although she was covered with a hooded robe, her bright blond, which was seen occasionally as she shook her head, showed clearly that she was Wendy Waltz.
It was as foolish as a yellow forsythia thinking its brightness was hidden in the shade of a cloud.
He smiled before he knew, but there must be some reason for her to try to hide herself.
Lard decided to respect her intention. If she didn't want to reveal herself, he didn't have to pretend to bother her. He began to shadow her carefully.
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