Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Chapter 18 Don’t come to Wendy’s flower shop (9)
Wendy was dumbfounded at Yoda’s reckless behavior. At first glance, he was not a match for Lard, the imperial knight, at all, but he was now throwing a gauntlet at Lard! Besides, wasn’t Lard a nobleman? Yoda, a commoner, was not in a position to deal with him thoughtlessly.
She thought she had to stop him before he ran into trouble. She very briefly felt tempted to watch him ruining himself, but she didn’t want anybody to be entangled in an accident involving her. It flashed across her mind that if the situation escalated, she might be again called to the police station in her capacity as a witness.
Unfortunately, the nimbleness of the body without the command of the brain was unmatched. Yoda blindly charged at Lard. Although he threw his fists fiercely, he was no match for the imperial knight. Lard easily avoided his attack merely by twisting his body to the side.
Yoda fell and got stuck in the mud and stood up in anger after struggling for a while. Even before she stepped in to stop him, Yoda again sprang at him.
Bam!
But Lard didn’t go easy on him this time. He swiftly kicked Yoda as he attacked. Yoda crouched down in pain as Lard spoke to him calmly to him, “I won’t forgive any further rudeness. Get lost before I pull my sword. As you showed such an ugly behavior before a lady, you must have felt something deep inside, right?”
But Lard’s admonishment obviously offended his pride. He punched the muddy ground hard with his fists and stared at Lard. Wendy, while staring at Yoda’s ugly figure with a cold expression, felt that Lard’s words implied a warning. If she didn’t cope with the situation right now, it was obvious that Yoda would ruin himself before Lard.
Shaking her head, she looked around to find a weapon to stop him.
‘If I had the Poisonous Teeth with me now, I would have it bite his arm!’
Once bitten, Yoda would stiffen quickly and his body would be paralyzed.
Only a few moments of paralysis would be enough because she could then teach him a good lesson. She seriously regretted the absence of the Poison Teeth at the moment. Yoda was running at Lard like a crazy bull. She never expected Yoda, who had been standing silently with glaring eyes in one corner of the training center, would show such vulgar behavior!
As they said, one should experience a man to make him better! She decided to put into action the advice of Ben Fork’s father in her neighborhood that only a stick could calm down a madman. She found a weapon to replace the Poisonous Teeth.
Fortunately, there were several chunks of wood on the stone stairs nearby. In fact, she had prepared them to fix the fence. Back then, she didn’t know she would use them for this purpose.
Standing on the stone stairs, she picked up a piece of wood with her nimble hands. She was going to hit his head hard. Thinking she didn’t have to worry about his concussion as he was dumb, she grabbed it firmly.
She swung it at his reddish-brown head, who was running at Lard recklessly. But what she overlooked was the fact that the floor was very slippery because of the rainwater, and that she was just a beginner who didn’t know how to master the basics of swordsmanship.
While wielding it in a loose posture, she missed her step on the slippery floor and stumbled.
Lard, who was ready to attack Yoda rushing toward him, quickly snatched her as she fell headlong on the floor. As she was at a distance from Lard, he grabbed the piece of wood that she was holding with one hand and grabbed her body with the other hand.
Although he did the job simultaneously, his action was nimble and excellent.
Thanks to his timely help, she was saved the harsh fate of falling on the muddy ground. Of course, she had to be faced with the fate of being wrapped in his arms in the process, which was inevitable.
“Ugh…”
After her face hit hard against his chest, she made a painful moan. She might have bitten her tongue if she had not shut her mouth. Obviously, he had well-developed muscles on the chest, but he also perhaps felt quite a bit of pain when she hit her face against it. Her face felt painful and burning.
She wrapped her face and raised it gently. She felt a bit relieved to see his face, which seemed alright, because she knew that she would feel very uncomfortable if he frowned at her.
“Are you okay?”
Lard’s gray eyes, examining her condition, subdued like a cloudy sky. Surprisingly, he showed concern about her. She replied in a somewhat embarrassed voice that she was okay.
“Your cheek is swollen.”
He didn’t take his eyes off of her left cheek. She blushed.
The chilly cold rain was not enough to cool her blushing. Surprised by her blushing, she dropped the wood in her hand. As a result, it was now in his hand.
A bit surprised for a moment, Lard looked into her left cheek again and turned to Yoda.
“I’ve had enough of your disturbance. She seems to have been surprised a lot. So, you had better stop and leave.”
He said in a softened voice, but his eyes were sharp.
Looking at the side of his face, she trembled unconsciously.
Feeling Lard’s threatening aura fully, Yoda was shocked beyond description. He suddenly shook his shoulder and looked at her face for a moment before disappearing into the rain.
Wendy was forced to exhale deeply because she was about to cry at the moment.
‘What a dumb bastard!’
“I think you had better stay away from that guy.”
Lard threw the wood piece to the side with his gaze fixed in the direction Yoda disappeared. She noticed a red stain on the wood. Astonished, she looked down at his hand and saw blood gushing from his palm.
Obviously, he had been stabbed by the sharp-ended piece of wood.
“Your hand is …”
Without finishing her words, she looked at his hand as the blood ran down his fingertips.
“Never mind.”
He clutched his injured hand and hid it, but she couldn’t hide her embarrassment.
She agonized for a moment over whether she would go into the house to treat his hand, go back to the medical center with him for treatment, or just pretend not to know because he said she didn’t have to care. Lots of thoughts came to her mind,
“Just go in your house. Let me leave now.”
After all, she was moved by what he said. She felt that if she sent him away like that, she would not rest comfortably today.
As soon as she saw his soaked shoulder when he was about to turn, she didn’t hesitate any more and mentioned his name. She was aware he had been soaked in the rain because he shared his cloak with her.
“Sir Schroder, please wait. Let me treat your injured hand before you leave.”
Lard made a strange expression as if he heard something unexpected. Although his queer expression was fleeting, she did not miss it.
‘Yes, this is something unexpected for you! In fact, I was just confused with all these unexpected things today, and I’m embarrassed, too.’
It was like a piece of a quilt that she never wanted to own, namely, a piece of a quilt that embarrassed the artist because it created an entirely different picture than originally planned.
While opening the door and entering the house, she could not hide an uneasy feeling.
As she decided to let him in, she wanted to show him generosity by forgetting about her feelings, but it wasn’t easy. Wasn’t he a man? Wasn’t she was supposed to show maximum wariness towards him, after all?
“Please have a seat here.”
Seeing the man sitting on the couch she pointed to, she wondered if she was naive enough to let him in. She even wondered if it was possible for the captain of the Imperial Knights to be injured so easily, or if he deliberately injured himself on the cracked piece of wood, but she walked to the first aid box, shaking her head.
He was a swordsman. There was no possibility that a swordsman like him could take care of his hands so recklessly. Besides, it was his right hand that was injured, which was more important to him because he was a right-handed man. She cursed the dirty world that turned her into a woman with suspicious temperament and quickly grabbed the medicine box. She placed the medicine box on the table in front of the sofa and returned to his side after breaking the vegenta stem on the other side of the parlor.
“This will sting.”
Fortunately, there was no piece of wood stuck into the wound. Wendy squeezed the juice of the vegenta on his palm. Since the disinfectant touched the wound, his palm likely stung, but he just watched her treating his hand without blinking an eye.