novelCan I come to Debita Street? (1)
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Chapter 20: Chapter 20 Can I come to Debita Street? (1)
Lard's gray eyes and Wendy's grass-green eyes met in the air. She stared sideways unconsciously when he was staring at her eyes. At first glance, there could be found no emotion in his eyes, but they also looked like a dawn's sky looking at a tree that had not yet become a forest. She felt as though she felt cold deep in her heart through the morning air.
"Did you say debt of gratitude? You don't have to say that. I didn't help you to hear you expressing gratitude or apology. Injuring my hands was an unexpected accident like you said, and you don't have to feel responsible for it. But if I misunderstand my actions, I also feel very sorry. I won't force you anymore, but it was my true feelings that I offered to go to the concert with you. Let me leave the invitation card here, so if you change your mind, please come."
After he was done, Lard donned his cloak and left the parlor.
She seemed to have somehow been treated as a snub by him. It was true that she thought selfishly about his goodwill, who stopped her from falling. Was her thinking wrong?
'Who the hell do you think you are?'
He was a stranger to her. To her, he was one of the noblemen that she had to be wary of, no more or less than that. Cheering for a wonderful knight who saved her from danger was something she couldn't do in any circumstance. If he had expected it, he would have been better off saving the women calling "Parseu!" in front of Linus National Medical Center.
But Lard didn't want her to cheer him. As she knew it, her mood subsided at the moment.
She stared at the silver envelope on the table for a while. The silver color again reminded her of the silver popular by the river.
Snip, Snip.
There was an intermittent sound of someone trimming red rose stems with scissors in a quiet indoor garden. Wendy, holding the short gardening shears, seemed to focus on cutting the stems and arranging the serrated leaves. Red roses with captivating buds were cut and piled up on a piece of paper on the table.
"Ahhh!"
Blood fell from her thin fingers and onto the ground. The drops of blood soon mixed with the soil and turned dark red, but the blood coming out of the wound was still red. She dropped the stem to the floor as if to blame the thorn that pierced her hand. It was very painful as if she had a big splinter in her finger.
"Haaah..."
She pulled a white handkerchief out of her pocket and squeezed one of her fingers. She never made this kind of mistake before. Was she distracted? She sighed deeply.
As she got her finger pricked by a rose thorn, it was kind of romantic. But hurting a finger was cumbersome for a woman like her who had to use her hands a lot at the flower shop.
She checked the wound and tied the handkerchief tightly around it. Although she felt uncomfortable using her hand because of the long knot on her hand, she picked up the stem of the rose again that fell on the floor as if she didn't want to care about the wound anymore.
In no time, she started cutting again, but her finger hurt a lot because of the deep prick.
She recalled Lard through the pain. She frowned at the prick by a small rose thorn, but how could he be so insensitive? Pain would be fair to anyone, and he would feel the same pain as everyone else, but it looked like he didn't.
Snip, snip went the scissors.
Although she was cutting, there were no leaves falling. Actually, she was cutting over the trimmed rose stems. Obviously, she was distracted by something else. Her blinking eyes looked hollow as if she slept fitfully last night.
In fact, she was sure her heart had already been taken by that silver envelope. No matter how much she tried not to think about it, it captivated her so completely that she couldn't focus on anything else. Suppressing the urge to dump it into a trash bin, she put it deep in a drawer to forget, but it persistently troubled her mind.
Picking up an armful of beautiful roses that had been piled on the floor, she walked toward the door leading to the store. She made the mistake of dropping a couple of roses, which was unusual. Not caring at all about the fallen roses, she began to wrap them neatly as soon as she entered the flower shop. Soon the customer who ordered the roses was supposed to stop by.
As expected, a woman with grey thin hair came in. She was a tall woman with a sharp protruding chin.
"Welcome, Letta! You have come in person today."
"Oh, Wendy! It's been a while. Are the flowers I ordered ready for pickup?"
This woman called Letta Bulin was the owner of a tea house in Diseido Plazz. Lard recently recommended her to stop by the shop if she wanted to drink genuine fruit tea. Unlike her slightly sharp impression, her shop was very cute, decorated with pretty flowers and props. Young women were mainly its regular customers thanks to its interior.
"Sure. Here they are. As you ordered, I chose only those that haven't put forth buds yet."
"Oh, they're very good! This shop never disappoints me. Let me pay the full balance including my purchase on credit from last time. Please double check."
The woman took the money out of her pocket and handed it to Wendy.
"Yes, perfect, Letta. Thank you for your quick payment."
"Oh, don't say that. I should have paid a little earlier. Isn't it a trader's basic duty to pay back debts as soon as possible? I'm sorry for paying late."
Wendy didn't respond.
"Ooops! Let me head out first as my customers are coming to my store pretty soon. Just stop by one of these days, Wendy. Let me serve you a special tea when you come!"
After seeing her off, Wendy stayed put there for a while because Letta's unintentional words made her heart heavier.
'It's the trader's basic duty to pay back his or her debt as soon as possible...'
Wendy came to recall the fact that she was trying to pretend to forget on purpose: she owed Lard Schroder, the imperial knight, and she didn't yet repay it. Although she repaid his kindness by treating his wounded hand with the juice of the vegenta and serving him a warm black tea, she didn't feel she repaid it completely and genuinely.
Her dim grass-green pupils came back to life at that moment. She quietly stepped toward the table and wrote on a piece of paper. She already realized that hesitating any longer would not be very good for her mental health. She decided to take out the silver envelope hidden in the drawer.
She would repay his kindness in a way that she wanted. However, it would be done as she decided. If he disagreed, he would have to give up his claim.
She sent a letter to him through a village messenger, asking him to stop by her shop. Paying the messenger dearly for his service, she asked him to convey it to the Imperial Knights Guard. Although the messenger could not enter the palace, it would not be difficult to easily meet them in front of the palace. Of course, she was not sure if they could convey the letter to Lard as she wished.
She decided to calmly wait for his visit.
Around that afternoon the imperial knight she was waiting for stopped by her shop. She had just put a bunch of sevendron petals into a large bowl.
Severendron was a thick, round flower. It was very expensive as its white petals had a rich scent and were often made into a brown juice excellent for dyeing and used as a beauty ingredient for aristocratic women.
Nowadays, the number of Sevendron butterflies that helped pollinate the flowers decreased a lot, so the Sevendron flowers almost disappeared. For young daughters of the noble families, the flower became sort of a legend that could be relieved from their mother's memories.
Of course, Wendy had used the power of her index finger to grow them. She intended to use it to color her hair dark yellow so it wouldn't stand out conspicuously.
"Welcome. I think my letter was conveyed to the right person, " she said.
"I was a little surprised that you asked to see me first. What's up?"
As if he was really surprised by her sudden letter, he asked the reason for it as soon as he entered the flower shop. She had never seen him so impatient.
"Don't you know I've got only one reason to ask you to come over here? The Jerus Orchestra you mentioned. I'm thinking of going there with you. Please sit here first."
She asked him to sit down, pushing the vase containing Sevendron petals to the edge of the table. The sweet scent of the petals wafted around the table.
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