Chapter 75
“That’s fine,” Wendy said as if it was not a big deal, but Melissa was about to cry, at a loss for words.
“Wendy, let’s move to a different place for a moment. Excuse us for a moment!”
Melissa led Wendy to the Palace of Cecilia next to the garden. The palace was equipped with a women’s lounge, which was opened during the event.
When they walked in through the arched door, they could see the antique elegant interior. Melissa led her to take a seat and disappeared, saying she would bring something to clean her dress with.
“Whew…” Wendy sighed, lifting the damp dress, and looked blankly at the beige-toned wall. “Is it true that she can’t get even one step out of her room?”
“You bet! She can’t!”
“That’s too bad. I would guess Altarin feels so frustrated and resentful…”
At the moment, three gorgeously dressed noblewomen came into the hall with noisy footsteps. The women, who had been chattering for very long, stopped all of a sudden when they found Wendy there and looked at her with a surprised expression.
Obviously they recognized her face because she came to the ceremony as Lard’s partner today.
As she was the hot topic among them today, it was natural that they recognized her immediately. They whispered among themselves for a second and soon approached her.
“Excuse me. I’m Hers Setoran of the Earl Setoran family. Nice to meet you. May I ask which family you are from? ”
A dark-haired woman with a bulging cheekbone spoke to Wendy. Her gaze was far from kind.
This woman must have had Altarin in mind when she spoke to Wendy.
Faced with an unfamiliar situation, Wendy replied, with a low sigh, “You might not know my family, so I don’t have to reply.”
She grumbled deep down, ‘Would you know which family it is if I tell you I’m the head of the Waltz family?’
“You’re rude. I guessed you are from a declining family in the country, but I didn’t know you knew nothing about the basic manners!” A red-blonde woman standing next to her quipped angrily.
Wendy silently looked at the three women alternately, whose faces turned red with anger.
“Now I know why Altarin said that. How ill-mannered you are! ”
When Wendy sat still despite their provocative actions, their expressions turned even more evil. “Hey, please calm down. This is not a matter you should be angry about.”
A skinny woman who had not interrupted until now spoke with a smile, stepping forward. Given the way she raised her chin, her smile was far from benign. “But it really seems that you have not learned how to show manners properly. Why are you sitting over there like this?”
Wendy looked up at her as if she didn’t understand.
That woman continued, with a haughty look, “That seat you’re taking has been occupied already. I was sitting there a while ago, so you need to ask me for permission to sit there. It’s not courteous to take somebody’s seat. It is not right for you to covet something, be it a seat or a man. Can you step aside?”
Wendy had never heard that the women’s lounge had reserved seats. Besides, this woman mentioned a ‘ man.’
She wondered, ‘Is she talking about Lard?’
Hiding her perplexed expression, Wendy quietly hid her index finger behind her back.
Then she pressed it on the chair on her hip. It was an impulsive action.
She always tried her best to refrain from using her index finger for her safety, but this time she didn’t. It was too late. She was imagining something like a ‘fart mushroom’. Pressing and detaching her index finger happened in the blink of an eye.
“Oh, I didn’t know you were resting in this seat. Sorry about that. Please have a seat.”
Wendy, who was happy to give up her seat, left with a light heart, expecting the blooming of a fart mushroom on the seat.
The fart mushroom was nicknamed that because it was a finger-sized brown mushroom that gave out a nasty smell from its spores. It had a special effect on gastrointestinal disease, but because of its bad smell, patients could not easily take it.
Wendy was kind enough to grow the mushroom to the size of a millet, so that it would not be easily visible to these three women. No one would notice it until they sat on it and removed their butts. Wendy felt very refreshed, leaving the place.
“Oops! Wendy! ”
When Wendy was leaving the lounge with quick steps, she saw Melissa walking towards her with an attendant.
“Why are you standing here outside? Am I too late? It looks like the servants here went over that place because there was some problem preparing the dinner. I was about to get something to clean…”
Wendy smiled at Melissa, shaking her head as if she didn’t need it. Melissa stopped talking after seeing her bright smile for the first time and blushed.
“It’s already dried well. Let’s go back to the garden,” said Wendy, walking first.
“Ah, go with me!” Melissa trotted toward her like a duckling.
Meanwhile, the small fart mushroom was spreading a bad odor inside the lounge. The woman, who took Wendy’s seat, kept raising her butt up or down, while shaking her head probably because of the strong scent of the fart mushroom. As the nasty scent of the spores stuck to her butt was becoming more intense on the wind, the other two women did not hide their frowning and rose from their seats awkwardly. The woman, who was attacked by the fart mushroom, was also embarrassed by their reactions and stood up awkwardly. As she was wearing an inflated dress, her protruding butt aroused a lot of imagination among them. The other two women were looking at her strangely.
“Oh, I have to go back to the ceremony place!”
“Oh, we’ve been spending too much time here. Let’s hurry up!”
While walking back to the garden, the two women were imagining something disgusting
“Hey, don’t leave me!”
The spores of the fart mushroom were fluttering through the hems of the woman’s dress, who went out of the lounge belatedly, trying to catch up with the other two.
Imagining the big fuss in the lounge, Wendy reached the entrance to the rose garden.
She stopped for a moment and looked around the garden. Melissa, who was trying to check Wendy’s feelings, basked in the fragrance of roses. The imperial garden, overflowing with a late spring mood, was full of red roses with small bursting buds.
Wendy looked at the noisy garden and then turned her eyes to the rose bush that enclosed the rose garden. When she looked at it closely, she found there were many varieties of roses.
She noticed all-the-year-round roses with deep green leaves. That was a precious rose that she saw in a book many years ago. Her heart was full of excitement.
Thankfully, Melissa smiled and suggested,”Why don’t we take a walk for a minute before going back?”
Wendy thought a brief walk would be fine.
“Sure, let’s do that.” Wendy nodded.
At that moment, there burst out an applause with the shouting “Wow!”
Surprised, Wendy cast a glance inside the garden. Soon afterwards, a powerful violin melody began to flow from the garden.
“It looks like the prince started playing the violin,” Melissa whispered.
As if she knew this often happened, she didn’t show any surprise.
Wendy thought the prince must be eccentric and weird, wondering how he could gather nobles and play the violin in a place like this. She shook her head.
“Isn’t he cool? How can he play that rhythm? His Majesty always looks like a sparkling jewel. Before he was named as the crown prince, I hear he was a little depressed and reticent. I really can’t believe it either.”
Wendy was aware that the crown prince was good at hiding his expressions, but that didn’t mean his current appearance was all false. She couldn’t imagine how he could be called gloomy and reticent. She felt that his image might have been fabricated to give innocent noblewomen fantasies about him.
“I heard the rumors at that time that the Queen didn’t give birth to him… Oops! This is a secret! Anyway, I guess the prince was hurt because of such rumors. I think he would really look cool if he was seen in depression. Of course, I can’t imagine that!” Melissa spoke with a dreamy voice. Wendy did not sympathize at all, but just nodded.
“Wait a minute.”
Walking through the labyrinth-like shrubs in the garden, Wendy took special notice of the rose that she had seen in a book a long time ago. When Wendy was absorbed into the beauty of the rose, Melissa no longer spoke to her.
The prince’s performance, which was heard over the rose bush, was overflowing with excitement as if his playing came to the climax. The participants clapped their hands, responding to the rhythms of the melody. Wendy was happy, too, because of her discovery of the special rare rose. Her expectations were growing again when she felt she could find another rare plant in the imperial garden.