novelDon't come to the hunting contest in the forest (2)
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Chapter 40: Chapter 40 Don't come to the hunting contest in the forest (2)
A little later, they came out of the center and headed for her flower store. As they promised to do whatever she wanted them to do, she was determined to give them some hard assignments.
"Hey, boys, introduce yourself one by one."
They started to introduce themselves one by one.
The boy who confronted Wendy first introduced himself first, "I'm Carnewin."
He rubbed his short-cut hair hard. Unlike his daring and reckless attitude a moment ago, he was downcast and his round eyes sparkled. She thought he was cute.
"I'm Tom." Tom's eyes slanted up. She looked at his head for a moment because of his impressively thick gray hair.
The boy with freckles smiled shyly and said his name, "I'm Jerry."
Although they looked like worthless scamps at first, she found all of them basically good-hearted.
"Sister, you know my name already, right? Benfork."
"Of course, I do."
Benfork laughed frivolously without knowing the situation. Carnewin's eyes glared at him as Benfork was pretending to be close to her. When she sensed their staring match, she looked at Carnewin sharply. He made a dejected expression like a dog in the rain.
"But what kind of assignment are you going to give us today?" asked Benfork.
Smiling brightly at his question, she said, "Spreading fertilizer today. It's a little smelly."
After leading them into the flower garden, she opened the door of the store.
As she could easily solve the problem of spreading fertilizer that she put off until now, she felt as if a huge burden was lifted off her chest. No matter what special abilities she had, she needed to keep the soil fertile in order to keep growing healthy and beautiful flowers in the same place repeatedly. Well-maintained natural fertilizers were very effective for growing flowers every spring, but the smell was hard to bear.
It would be hard for her to stop by the flower garden for the time being, but she had no other choice. She had to endure the smell to grow more beautiful flowers.
After a while, she set out to prepare a meal for the boys. She bought a bunch of bread from the bakery in the front alley and orange juice. The savory smell of the freshly baked Montrapi bread stimulated the appetite. Montrapi was bread made by pounding Montraph barley ears. Montrapi bread was the most common staple of the diet of the Benyahan Empire. It could be savory and sweet but also cheap, so it was traditionally the favorite food for the poor.
Except for the alpine northeast as well as the northwest of the desert climate, the Benyahan empire had a mostly hot, humid continental climate during the summer. There was a vast breadbasket region extending south of the central area where many islands were located.
Most of the common people living in this area farmed Montrapi.
People in Valletta, home to Earl Hazlet's mansion were surrounded by the endless waves of the yellow ears of Montrapi in the fall as many of them farmed Montrapi.
In recent years, the Montrapi yield was not as good as the previous years, but they were the main diet of the common people there.
Wendy hurriedly moved the Montrapi breads into a basket and brought out her favorite fig jam. After buying ice for the boys, she began to set up the table slowly.
Cling.
The doorbell rang.
As there were usually few customers at this time, she turned to the open door. She greeted the customer who entered the shop with a bright smile like a trader but immediately hardened her face at the sight of a familiar face.
"Hi, Miss Wendy. It's nice to see you again. Oh, you hair is back to blonde today."
Jean smiled brightly at her hair.
"...What business has brought you here today?"
"Flower! I stopped by to buy flowers."
"...What kind of flowers are you looking for?"She asked with a suspicious look. It was natural that she was suspicious of his real intentions because he it was unlikely that he came to her shop to buy flowers. After looking at the numerous flowers in the shop, he pointed his fingers at the white lilies.
"Ah! That would be nice. Would you please pack one bundle?"
She reluctantly nodded because she couldn't drive out a customer. Picking up a bunch of lilies and trimming them, she began to wrap them in fine colored paper. There was heard only the sound of her wrapping it as they were silent.
Conscious of her demeanor, he looked around the shop carefully, "It looks like you have been preparing for a meal. Is anybody coming? It looks like it is a big meal."
"Some boys are helping me some garden work. I was going to eat with them."
"Oh, I see..." Jean hesitated for a moment, "Wendy, actually, the real reason I came here was..."
When he said that, she stopped trimming them and looked at him. Although the the colored paper beautifully matched the flowers, Jean's purpose of his visit seemed to have nothing to do with flowers.
"In fact, I dared to come here to apologize to you for what happened. I am sorry I gave Melissa, a marquis's daughter, your address here, and I'm also sorry for having made a fuss at the restaurant and the concert the other day. I thought you might have felt offended."
Obviously, he was bothered until now after she gave him a piece of mind at the restaurant.
"... Well, now that you mention it, let me shake off my bad feelings about you. Let me apologize to you if I made you feel unpleasant."
"Oh, not at all. Unpleasant? Don't say that! How can have that feeling as you are precious to my boss? Hahaha. I really appreciate it as you talk to me so frankly. I think my boss knows how to pick a good woman. You're so cool!"
"..."
"I was really nervous that you would hate all my life. I think it was good that I came here today!"
'Precious woman? What the hell is he talking about now?'
Her face gradually hardened as he kept babbling and speculating about her relationship with Lard.
"I'm afraid you misunderstand me. I've nothing to do with Sir Schroder."
With a frown, she put the wrapped lilies in his arms and cleaned up the mess left behind.
"Ah! I think I made thoughtless remarks again. Please forget about it, Miss Wendy."
He hurriedly apologized and checked her mood. There was some noise when several boys came in from the back of the store. The boys chattered among themselves and opened their mouths wide when they found an imperial knight standing by her.
"Wow! Are you a real imperial knight?" asked Carnewin, making a big fuss.
The other boys' jaws dropped. They hurried up to him and looked at Jean with envy.
"Hi, guys. I hear you guys are helping Miss Wendy with the garden work. Good job!"
He praised them with a serious look. They were excited by the imperial knight's praise.
"I'm Jean Jacques Simuan. I'm with the Imperial Knights."
"Wow, you are a real imperial knight. Really cool!"
Looking at the imperial knight's uniform, he kept repeating Jean was cool.
As he again showed signs of drooling, she quickly squeezed his jaw joint.
"By the way, I smell something. What is it?"
He tilted his head to the side and began to sniff. Obviously, he smelled the scent of fertilizer from them who just finished spreading the fertilizer..
Embarrassed, the boy's faces turned red. When Jerry, who was standing quietly, scratching his nose, opened the door of the flower shop silently, the scent of the fertilizer came out.
The guys didn't leave Jean's side until he had a few more words with them. Then he left the shop after paying for the lilies. The moment he said goodbye to her, they wanted to hold him a little longer.
"Okay, Miss Wendy, let me leave now. See you next time."
As soon as he said goodbye, the guys yelled at him strangely and then held him up.
"Oh! Knight! You can't leave like this. Please eat with us. Please!"
In particular, Benfork stopped him and spoke earnestly. Other boys, too, wanted to talk with him a little longer and quickly arranged a seat for him at the table.
"Oh, really? Are you sure?"
They were cheering at him as he sat down next to them, while trying to read her mood.
Although she glared at these naughty boys, none of them cared.
Resigned to the situation, she prepared additional tableware for him and filled a glass with orange juice and ice, he received it as if he was moved a lot.
"Um, knight! I've got a question. Do you really cut and stab the bad guys with your sword?" asked Carnewin, cramming a big piece of bread into his mouth. Crumbs fell out of his mouth.
"Of course. When I have to draw a sword, I use it without any reservation. But I don't wield a sword recklessly because knights like me, who regard the use of swords as their fate, also know the value of life."
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