novelDon't come to the museum on a spring day(2)
| ← Ch.006 | Ch.008 → |
"Oh, I just thought she had a sort of a noble woman-like aura..."
"Pardon? I don't know what you mean by that..."
Without answering, the dark-haired knight began to move again. Sunlight from the square windows between the floors shone white when he walked.
Squinting his eyes at him, Jean shouted again, "Hey, Captain!"
Just like the museum in the afternoon, the botanical garden of Rajabude Museum was quiet and leisurely. Entering the garden, Wendy looked around the rare plants here and there with a curious expression on her face.
There were various items on display, ranging from living plants to chemically treated specimens and the records of extinct plants. It was obvious that all of them were valuable in the museum, she was familiar with most of them. She looked ahead, disappointed a bit.
After she opened and began to run a flower shop in the capital, she made lots of efforts to use the power of her index finger usefully. She randomly read all kinds of books on plants, including the essential guide to plants, and climbed mountains to search for the plants she was interested in.
Then, she found she had weak points in her power.
First, she couldn't use the power of her index finger without seeing the plant in question directly. Second, she could see only part of the plant like flowers, berries, seeds, leaves, etc and grow it, but it was imperfect.
Third, she could grow the plant anywhere she wanted, but she couldn't grow a healthy plant just by putting her index finger in the soil.
Lastly, as she needed a high level of concentration when she used her power, she was very tired after she used it often. In fact, it was not a big problem because she could recover quickly after she slept well.
Anyway, Wendy used her index finger very well and was very satisfied. She began to study plants out of necessity, but she was now a quasi-expert on plants thanks to her intensive learning.
Wendy stared at the round fruits glowing red in the glass wall with focused eyes. At first glance it seemed she had a desire to possess them. It made sense for the young women like her to cast such a gaze at men like the knight she met a moment ago, but only the Bahazman tree seemed to stimulate her desire for possession.
She checked out every aspect of the rare plant and kept its image in her mind. The surface of the round fruit was rough like an iron mace, reminiscent of a small weapon. She even paid close attention to its egg-shaped leaves and light brown bark.
When a chattering couple passed by her and left, it became quiet. In the garden, there were only one knight standing on guard with a bored look, a lady in a yellow dress engrossed in looking at flowers, and a big man wearing a faded coat.
Wendy enjoyed the Bahazman tree in a quiet atmosphere and prepared to leave in satisfaction when she heard a man snarling at the visitors inside the garden.
"Don't move! As soon as you move, I'll kill the lady here!"
The man in the faded coat ruthlessly grabbed the woman in a yellow dress by the nape and pointed a sharp piece of metal at her.
The woman, caught by him, was shivering with fear. Her face turned white. The knight standing near the entrance to the garden raised his hand to his sword, staring at him fiercely.
But the man quickly put the sharp object closer to the woman when he saw the knight.
Very wary of the knight, the man gradually stepped toward the Bahazman tree. Seeing him, Wendy cursed him in her mind. It seemed like the tree he was aiming for.
'Oh my god! What a damn timing? Whether you steal the tree or eat the fruit, you should have done it after I left this place!' She thought to herself.
It was only a matter of time before this incident would be known to the outside.
The knights would soon be here, and Wendy would not be able to leave the place comfortably.
She sighed while looking at the threatening look of the man getting closer to her as she stood in front of the Bahazman tree.
He had to pass by where she stood in order to get the Bahazman tree.
'Do I stand still here as ordered or step aside for him?'
After agonizing briefly, she decided to flop down on the spot.
She might have decided to do so from the moment she looked at the woman's eyes stricken with fear.
As the knight spread out a little, the man pulled the woman more roughly, who was crying more and more. At that moment, there seemed to be nothing that the knight could do.
"What the heck are you doing?"
The man shouted at Wendy with a threatening voice when Wendy suddenly sat down.
"My legs were wobbly..." Wendy said feebly on purpose, shaking her shoulders pitifully.
As his eyebrows wiggled a lot at that moment as if he were embarrassed, Wendy felt she overreacted and looked at him quickly.
But he did not seem to be wary of her. It would be much better for him to be vigilant against the knight with the sword over there, looking for a chance to attack him anytime, instead of a small and weak woman like Wendy.
A little relaxed, she tightened her grip on the floor while she was sitting down. Of course, it was her right index finger that she pressed to the floor.
A little later Wendy stepped back in awkward stance, as if she was scared of the man walking towards her. In no time, she measured the distance between her and the man while looking around and stood up staggeringly, she moved slightly beyond the Bahazman tree.
The man didn't stop her because he seemed to think Wendy was moving to avoid his possible attack. If Wendy had stood there without moving, he would have been bothered by her.
Right there, Wendy had a stern look at the spot where she was sitting a moment ago. Others might have thought she did it to avoid eye contact with the man.
Then, something dark red began to shine faintly on the floor covered with the dark brown carpet. Was it because its dark red was not seen well due to the color of the carpet?
Fortunately, the changes taking place on the carpet didn't catch the man's attention.
It looked like a cluster of moss on an old tree, which could be seen only with careful observation. That dark red light kept growing as big as Wendy wanted.
With a subtle smile that nobody noticed, Wendy stared at the man's feet intensely this time.
One step, two steps, three steps!
While counting his steps in hear, she smiled with satisfaction when the man's steps touched something dark red on the carpet.
'Wow! I never knew I could use that grass here!'
Forgetting any annoyance or nervousness, Wendy felt thrilled while watching the changes in the carpet because one of the plants whose use she had been thinking about all the time finally found a purpose.
At that moment, all her secret actions while roaming in the forest came to her mind.
While studying the use of the plants and struggling to come up with countermeasures in case of an emergency, she went into the Rainy Forest near the village and carried out a series of simulations. And now she could see the results of one of the simulations.
As Wendy intended, the man's expression instantly distorted when he stepped on something dark red on the carpet.
His legs seemed to shake several times. It was the same with the woman he took as hostage. No matter how hard they tried to move their legs, they could not, and stood stiffly there as if frozen. Their feet were really stuck to the dark red floor that Wendy had just made.
While he was getting embarrassed, it was Wendy who made her first move. After confirming that the man's grip on the sharp metal object loosened while straining his legs, Wendy quickly kicked the back of his knees. She could not miss the golden opportunity while waiting for the imperial knight to come over and catch him. At that moment, she only focused on taking down the man right before her eyes.
The man had to leaned forward when he was kicked with his feet stuck to the carpet. Holding the sharp object in his left hand and grabbing the woman's neck with his right hand, he threw his hand towards the floor instinctively to avoid falling. While trying to balance himself, he even held the woman with his other hand.
"Oops!"
Naturally, his left hand got stuck on the dark red floor, along with the sharp object.
It seemed that he touched something nubby and sticky, not the soft carpet.
What a name! The identity of the dark red and sticky thing was the grass named 'sticky, ' more often called the funny name 'sticky grass'.
| ← Ch. 006 | Ch. 008 → |