Don't Come to Wendy's Flower House

Only a few short sentences were written on the paper, but Wendy’s hand trembled at the shocking meaning of the sentences. When Wendy, who crumpled the paper, turned her gaze back at the maid, she was also looking at Wendy.

“Who sent it? ”

“I cannot tell you,” the maid said indifferently, without trembling at all.

Wendy stood up carefully.

“…What do you want me to do?”

“Follow me as I guide you,” she said, staring at Wendy’s face.

There was silence for a moment. Wendy felt agonized over whether to overpower the maid and threaten her. She felt she could easily knock her down with her self-defense skills. However, Wendy didn’t have the nerve to act. She didn’t want to imagine what would be the consequences if things went wrong.

“What if I said I won’t go?”

“The owner of the letter will not survive. If you don’t show up on time, he will face the same fate.”

As if the maid predicted the fate of the owner, she handed a handkerchief to Wendy.

When Wendy, who was alert, did not take it, the maid opened it in front of Wendy.

There was slim light brown hair in it. As soon as she saw it, Wendy felt goose bumps on her back.

“Depending on your choice, it may be something other than this hair that will be cut next time.”

Wendy’s eyes turned towards the door. Sir Dowain showed no signs of coming back.

She thought for a moment she wanted to buy time until he came.

“If you don’t follow me right now, the people waiting outside will probably think things have gone wrong. Then they will rush to me immediately… You had better not think of mischievous things. My men are waiting in the middle of the road like stepping stones, so even if you catch one or two, it won’t solve the problem. We can’t help but be prepared for the contingencies if things go wrong, ” said the maid.

Wendy clenched her teeth and crippled the paper in her hand. She had no other choice.

“Good. You go in first.”

The maid turned. While she was going in first, the maid paid attention to her movement, checking whether Wendy was leaving any evidence or trying anything. She led Wendy into a private hallway where workers came and went.

When they got outside, a small wagon was waiting. Wendy boarded the wagon when the maid signalled with her chin. As soon as Wendy got into the wagon, the door closed and its inside quickly went black. The maid was left behind.

Wendy, squatted next to a round oak barrel in the wagon and re-opened the paper in her hand. Relying on the faint light leaking through the wooden planks of the carriage, she read the coarse letters. She burst into feigned laughter while trying to decipher the difficult-to-recognize letters one by one.

< I’m sorry. He said he would kill me if I didn’t write a letter to you. A scary-looking man pointed a sword at me. The atmosphere is very bad. Sis’, don’t go buy blue hydrangeas now. Take care, Benfork.>

“He needs to get tutored on his writing,” she said bitterly.

This stupid boy’s face came to her mind, making her nervous. The carriage began to move, but her eyes were fixed on the paper, especially one very unusual expression.

“Don’t go buy blue hydrangeas now…? ”

She naturally recalled a story Lard had told her and the boy in the past. It was about the first emperor Nicholas’ sky blue armor and the Blue Handkerchief Accord. When Lard said that sky blue was ominous, the boy strongly affirmed and acted as if he would throw away all the sky blue things he had.

The boy was warning Wendy of danger. He was hoping she wouldn’t come there, where she would obviously be faced with something ominous. She also knew how dangerous her current choice was. She shouldn’t have followed the maid or got in the wagon from the beginning, but she couldn’t worry about her own safety alone in the face of the young boy’s danger.

She folded the paper in her hand and pondered over how to save the boy and herself.

She had to stay calm, but anxiety and anger arose in her heart. The person who committed this kind of evil thing was obvious: Duke Engre! To recapture the prey that had fled from his hand, he didn’t hesitate to kidnap Benfork. Was this a means to blackmail and incapacitate Lard Schroder by using her?

If so, she could never follow what he wished to do. She vowed that she would not be a burden to Lard.

She decided to make something like a weapon. It would be a little comfort for her to hold a weapon against the opponent in an uncertain situation where she didn’t know what would happen. She couldn’t afford to just hope for someone’s help or sheer luck.

She tore a bit of her underskirt and put her index finger on it. Then, shortly afterwards, small buds began to sprout on the underskirt. The plant, which grew fully, soon revealed surprisingly a sharp-edged leaf. She carefully removed the leaf. It was a silver grass leaf. The resiliently stiff leaf had a bit of a sharpness that was not found in a common grass. It couldn’t inflict fatal wounds but could scare off the opponent enough. It was moderately hidden by the wrinkles of her dress. Its lower part was dull, so it was not difficult for her to hold it in hand.

“Pass!”

The wagon, which stopped in front of the main gate of the Imperial Palace, began to move again. The soldiers did not go to the trouble of opening the wagon. She surprised by how far Duke Engre’s influence was in the palace.

Now, after getting through the gate, she thought about leaving marks at this point. She ripped off Benfork’s letter little by little and then pressed her index finger on them. As she pushed the torn paper out of the gap between the wagon boards, they fell off the wagon easily. As soon as the pieces of paper touched the ground, something rough bloomed on them: red moss.

It was a small amount, but it spread through the paper and rooted in the ground.

It was a trace that could be discovered with close attention.

The wagon drove for a long time. In the rattling wagon, Wendy’s shoulders and head bumped against the oak barrel several times, but she did not stop tearing the paper into pieces and throwing them outside. She did it every certain distance. She felt nauseated because of the scent of the oak barrel and rum. She barely held back moaning. Meanwhile, she thought of a way to overcome the situation. In the worst case, she decided to rescue Benfolk and run away by using her finger power. A list of plants came to mind.

“Whoa, whoa!”

The wagon stopped finally. Wendy quickly held the silver grass leaf in hand. Soon the door opened and a dazzling light poured in. She turned her head away from the light.

“Ugh!”

Everything happened in an instant. The soldiers roughly grabbed and twisted her hands.

They dragged her as she couldn’t even get used to the light. Because of their strong grip, she dropped the silver grass leaf in her hand. When she was dragged out of the carriage, she was thrown on the ground. The soldiers pulled her hands back and tied them with a rope.

She couldn’t move both hands.

“What the heck are you doing! Oops!”

She was lifted again by somebody’s rough hands. When she knitted her brows and looked at the man, a middle-aged man was standing in front of her.

“I’m glad to see you again. I’m so happy.”

Duke Engre greeted her with a smile. He was holding the silver grass leaf that slipped from her hand. He looked at the leaf as if he found it interesting.

She looked around in a hurry. In the distance, the Raney Forest was visible, and the Buttuwat River was flowing alongside it. What shocked her more than encountering him in an unfamiliar place was the aristocrats, numerous knights, and soldiers in armor lined up behind him. As if they were going to the battlefield, they were fully armed with a strong determination.

“Where’s Benfork?” Wendy said, calming her troubled mind.