Chapter 97: Chapter 97 No matter what you call a flower, its color never changes (2)
“I don’t want to bother about it because Sir Schroder told me I didn’t have to.”
“Haah… I heard that the crown prince was very displeased after he met Sir Schroder.”
“As Sir Schroder doesn’t tolerate nonsense, I don’t think he told the crown prince more than what he had to. As you know, good advice is supposed to bother you.”
In the end, citing the banquet hall incident, Lard asked the crown prince to refrain from his plans if he didn’t want to lose his allies. Apparently the prince himself was partly responsible for the incident and could not refute Lard. But as he didn’t take Lards’ advice seriously, the prince again asked to see Wendy.
“Thanks for your good job. Would you like a cup of tea? Many customers will come to the shop in the afternoon, so let’s have a break now,” she said, standing up.
Responding gladly, Pascal lifted the repotted flowers.
“I will move these inside the shop.”
Looking at him, she thought that it was good that she had Pascal as her bodyguard.
Around the same time, a man was busy moving among the canvases and the easels all over a room. He skillfully arranged the painting supplies. He was Dylan Lennox.
After returning home from work all night, he stayed in the studio until now instead of trying to sleep. He knew that he couldn’t sleep even if he tried to hit the sack. He had to move constantly to get rid of his daydreams that overwhelmed him.
Even though he stood in front of the canvas with a brush, he couldn’t draw any pictures. There wasn’t much he could do in the studio. How could he imagine his drawings without her? The drawings without her were just a messy series of lines and colors.
He looked at the paints, brushes, knives and charcoal on the table and arranged them in place one by one. Then, he suddenly stopped because an old brush on a flat box of paulownia caught his eye.
He recalled Olivia’s smiling face when she gave him the gift box.
He carefully grabbed the brush. Although it was old and stained, its surface was smooth and well thumbed, showing much he cherished it.
He thought she was his destiny. He felt, ‘this is mine,’ the moment he held the brush in his hand.
It was the same feeling he felt when he grabbed his sword.
Holding her hand, he thought he could be with her forever. He had never stopped thinking like that for the last two years while he searched for her. He never stopped trying to find her whereabouts. He never stopped missing her.
He even thought that if he met her again, he could go back to the happy days when they were together. As he thought she was his destiny, he could not lose hope.
But was it all an illusion? Although he met her again, he couldn’t change her mind. He was forced to listen to her declaration that their relationship was over. Nevertheless, he could not lose Olivia. He tried desperately to get hold of her, but it was not easy.
When he saw her on the day that the crown prince’s palace collapsed, he was convinced that he had to give up on her. He repeatedly felt like his whole body was breaking like vanishing waves. He felt so all the more when he saw her standing next to Lard.
His eyes were sore. A sense of loss and defeat he had never experienced before made him feel helpless. He didn’t want to admit that there was no more room for him in her heart.
‘Can I give up? Olivia, can I forget her?’
He sat down in a chair with a blank expression. There was always hope even when he felt hopeless. But now he couldn’t see it. He didn’t know what to do.
She had the same old yellow hair and dark green eyes when he met her again, but everything else was changed. Her name, her way of speaking, her facial expressions when she looked at him, and her miraculous power on the day of the explosion were all unfamiliar to him. He felt confused in his mind as if it was filled with unorganized stuff.
Knock knock.
When he pressed his bitter eyelids with the back of his hand, he heard somebody knocking on the door. It was the butler of the Lennox mansion. He informed Dylan that he had a visitor.
An unwelcome guest visited theLennox family’s mansion. Dylan, who was exhausted at the moment, greeted the guest. There was a breathtaking silence between the two facing each other.
“… Francis, why have you come here? I think I’ve made clear to you that I don’t want to see you.” He did not hide his hatred of her.
“…I have come here to double check with you. ” Trying to hide her humiliation, she spoke softly. “No matter how much I thought about it…I don’t think I saw it wrong. I wondered if you might know that, too.”
“…What do you mean? ”
“In the banquet hall of the Imperial Palace the other day….I think I saw someone who looked like Olivia. No, it was definitely her! ” Francis, who was hesitant to mention the name Olivia, said confidently, “Olivia…Didn’t you see her? Is she in the capital? ”
Dylan stared at Francis with a firm expression. There was disgust in his eyes.
“The only reason I’m seeing you face to face like this is because you were once part of the Hazlet family. Don’t you know I’m showing due manners to you? How can you mention Olivia to me? Do you think you are qualified to do so?”
“Don’t say that! I just… ”
“What are you going to do after finding her? Are you going to shift the responsibility for your delayed debut in the social circles to her? Are you going to blame her because the Hazlet family has been humiliated by her?”
Her face turned white when he kept rebuking her. .
“…Do you think Olivia is a victim in your eyes? Am I only a perpetrator in your eyes? … I was also distressed because I couldn’t have you for a long time! Looking at myself getting more and more degraded as I couldn’t win over your heart, I was distressed!”
“Then, don’t show me your ugly behavior anymore. We’re just harming each other. ”
“… If Olivia told you the same thing, can you easily say yes? ”
As he couldn’t answer anything, he just looked at her face with a fatigued expression.
Francis read from his silence he was still in love with Olivia. It would have been better if he had denied what she said. She felt as if the air as sharp as a knife was blowing through her throat.
Transparent teardrops welled in her eyes. She stood up with faltering steps.
“I think I took your time in vain. Let me leave now.”
While walking away hurriedly, her lips trembled as if she was choked up with emotions.
As she got into the wagon and left the Lennox mansion, Francis barely held back tears.
‘I want you. I’ve been wanting you, knowing that my vain love was eating away at my heart.’
In the end, she burst into tears, unable to overcome her sadness. Her whole body ached as if it was dominated by her betrayed feelings. She couldn’t stand it.
A little later, she took a deep breath as if to calm down and knocked down the wall of the wagon. Several times. The carriage stopped and the horseman said, “My lady, you have anything to order?”
“… Please go to the Eldon Intelligence Center.”
At her order, the horseman turned the horse in another direction. The sound of horseshoes rang out loud as if it was hitting her chest.
She decided to be degraded as she loved him. Anyway, nobody could appreciate how sad she was even if she tried to not be.
‘Sure, let me be as degraded as possible if I can’t get rid of my heartbreaking sorrow, if I can’t give up my natural affection for him.’
Holding back tears deep down, she chewed her lips with a determined look.
By the time she calmed down a little, the wagon stopped in front of the Eldon Intelligence Service. After getting out of the wagon, she looked around and went inside the office.
The Eldon Intelligence Center was a powerful organization that tracked all kinds of information in all areas, from the Bennahan Empire to the Carloen Empire across the sea.
With many branches and a large workforce in every nook and corner of the empire, they had been growing solidly for a long time.
Francis asked to meet with Zephyllin Sheiras, the most influential guy at the headquarters of the Eldon Information Center.
Although it was not easy for her to meet him, people at the headquarters were slow because most nobles who used to visit this place kept a low profile in the wake of the failed assassination of the crown prince. Thus, the meeting between the two took place.
“So, why has such a precious lady of the Hazlet family come to see me?”
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