Don't Come to Wendy's Flower House

Wendy, feigning smile, wiped her lips with a finger to find a trace of blood. When she found blood at the tip of her finger, her eyes glowed with murder. In no time, she picked up a vase on her right and stared at Francis. Threatened by her unusual actions, Francis flinched and stepped back.

Wendy took out the scarlet peony in the vase and threw the water inside the vase at Francis’ head. Francis blinked through her wet eyelashes. She was shocked as if she couldn’t believe the situation she was in. Drops of water kept running down her slender chin.

“Come to think of it, on the day I saw you and Dylan kissing… I remember slapping him in the face, but not you. I don’t think I didn’t show you how ferocious a girl I was.”

As soon as she said that, Wendy raised her right hand and slapped her wet cheek without hesitation. Unable to overpower her, Francis fell to the floor.

“Only now I think I have given you proper lessons as your sister. I hope you will realize on this occasion that there will always be a fair reward for your dirty tricks. Oh! You don’t have to be so impressed because I have recognized you as my sister. ”

Getting even with Francis’s mean actions at the back garden of the Hazlet family, Wendy sneered at her.

“Do you… Do you think you can survive after hitting me like this?” Francis shouted at the top of her voice. Feeling humiliated, her face contorted.

“I don’t want you to worry about my life, Francis.”

Francis gnashed her teeth at her casual expression. Full of anger, Francis said sarcastically, with her mouth turned up her trembling mouth, “Wendy Waltz? How much did you pay to buy that name? Do you think you can survive if I accuse you of breaking the law?”

“Accusing me? You are talking as if I’ve committed treason. But if you really want to, I don’t want to discourage you. Do whatever you want. Go and tell everybody that Olivia Hazlet of the Hazlet family has disrupted the Empire’s order! Do that thing that will disgrace your Hazlet family! ”

“What, what? Are you threatening me now? ”

“Be it a threat or advice, you had better listen to me well. Just do what you want. Accuse me, so you can test whether it’s possible for your family to survive the repercussions of your actions.”

With her hands on the floor, Francis stared at Wendy intently. Blue veins stood out on the back of her hands she strained.

“Will you go, please? I have to clean up the floor,” said Wendy coldly.

Francis frowned helplessly. Her round cheeks looked pitiful, but Wendy didn’t feel sorry at all.

“Why are you still here? Can’t you find a good agency to file a complaint about me? If you walk three blocks from here, you will see the Investa building. The investigator there will transfer your case to the Imperial Knights. Or you could go straight to the Imperial Palace and ask any knight for help with your case. Oh! It may be the quickest way to tell your mother. Wouldn’t your mother run right here and do something for you, such as slapping me in the face or making a great fuss here?”

Francis breathed roughly at Wendy’s sarcastic remarks. As if she was insulted and mocked, Francis screamed, “Don’t insult my mother! She doesn’t deserve your insult!”

“…Do you think there is a special group of people who deserve to be insulted? When I recall the old days when I was insulted by you and your mother all the time, I can’t understand what you’re talking about. I didn’t deserve to be insulted by anybody at the time. I asked you to hide behind your mother’s back and act like a child. Why do you think my suggestion insults your mother?”

“Wow, it seems you have nothing to fear. Like you said, don’t you know what will happen to you if my mother knows what you did to me today?”

“Well, what’s going to happen? I don’t really want to imagine it… But if Dylan gets to know what happened today, and if he hears that your mother has been here, I can imagine what’s going to happen to you and your mother,” said Wendy with the meanest expression she could ever make. She did not hesitate to mention Dylan for her safety. Seeing Francis’s face turning white, Wendy felt her bluff paid off.

The two stared at each other intently as if to kill each other. At some point, Francis looked dejected and lowered her head first.

“You really make me miserable. You used to all the time… Dylan would hate me a lot if he knew I came here to meet you,” Francis said, raising her body with faltering steps.

“…Stepmother and half sister. An illegitimate girl suffering between them….This is really a perfect environment in which the child gets sympathy… Who wouldn’t sympathize with the girl who is poor and pitiable? It’s going to be a really sad story, right? ” said Francis sarcastically. “Who would pay attention to the girl’s half sister? … Of course, there may be some trying to compare how much better than her half sister she is… Do you know how terrible it is when your life is compared with someone else’s? I didn’t even get any sympathy from anybody because everyone thought my mother and I were villains when they looked at your miserable face. Even maids thought so! …You don’t know how much I suffered from groundless rumors about my failure to make a debut in the social circles timely.”

“Haa… How ridiculous! Are you blaming me for everything you did?” Wendy retorted.

“No! I am just talking about my suffering!” Francis cut her off. She added, “Dylene Lennox! He didn’t think of me like that. He didn’t back then…”

“… ”

“But now…he hates me more than anybody else. That’s why I hate you so much.”

Tears flowed down Francis’s red eyes. She struggled to hold back tears without even daring to wipe them. She swallowed several times. That old hostility toward Wendy deep inside harassed her like an old boil.

“It’s not just you alone who didn’t go through a great girlhood.”

Swallowing the old hatred, Francis stared at Wendy for the last time before leaving.

The sound of the doorbell rang eerily.

As soon as Francis left, Wendy’s legs were wobbly, and she flopped down helplessly. Her proud face became hardened quickly. Although she shouted at Francis fearlessly, she was scared. Soon Pascal came back into the shop. Seeing Wendy sitting on the floor, he hurriedly approached her.

“Are you okay?”

“… I’m fine,” Wendy replied with a subdued voice.

“I heard you having a quarrel, but I couldn’t cut in easily. Please forgive me. ”

It looked like he heard them quarrelling. As if he already heard their conversation outside the door, he spoke without meeting her eyes. She closed and opened her eyes with a heavy heart.

“Never mind. Unfortunately, I showed you an ugly side of me. Please pretend for the time being that you didn’t know what happened between me and her.”

“…Don’t worry about that. Although I don’t know much about it, I know I shouldn’t run my mouth recklessly,” Pascal spoke in earnest tone. Wendy stared at his face blankly then raised her exhausted body.

As it was certain that the more people knew her secrets, the more likely they would leak, she didn’t feel good about it, but Pascal was one of the knights who had pledged to keep silent on her power at the palace. When she watched his character over the past few days, she felt he was reticent. So, she comforted herself by relying on his prudence and reticence. She could do nothing except to trust him. She couldn’t force him to swear again.

“Let me clean this up, so would you pick the flowers from the flower garden? The list of flowers you need are on the table. ”

“Oh, let me clean up. I don’t know the names of the flowers yet… I think you need some rest right now.”

Pascal smiled at her quickly and turned to clean the messy floor. Like him, Wendy gazed at a pool of water on one side of the shop and the peony blossoms here and here. The scattered scarlet petals seemed to reflect her troubled mind. .

“So, you mean I shouldn’t scare her off, right?”

A guy with a sweet voice spoke, scratching the back of his dry hand.

As if he dealt with an uninteresting case, he tapped the tree in the garden naughtily.

“What if she resists?”

“… I don’t want to escalate matters. So, punish her appropriately,” Francis replied a little hesitantly. Her tired red eyes rolled if she were insecure.

“In other words, you want me to punish her in a way that won’t escalate matters, right?… Your request is a bit difficult. Got it. I’ll see you again when I’m done,” the man said, nodding.

As Francis didn’t respond, he left the garden quickly.