The Flower That Was Swallowed by the Beast - Chapter 31

Chapter 31

There was a moment of silence.

The Duke Whittle family didn’t immediately understand what Jamie had said.

Reuben, who belatedly realized the meaning of his words, shouted.

“What are you talking about?!”

“I think the Duke knows better than I do what I meant.”

“Oh, Iris must have lied again, dear.”

Denise said and quickly grabbed Reuben by the wrist.

Reuben also came to his senses and coughed dryly.

“Sir Jamie. You seem to have some misunderstanding…Actually, Iris is a mythomaniac.”

Reuben’s attitude had changed.

“That’s right. We were worried about that too…aye. I guess she still hasn’t gotten rid of that habit since she got here. I thought it would have gotten better after she got married.”

Added Britney.

“Still, don’t hate Iris for it. She just does it out of habit, so there’s nothing we can do about it. We tried our best to fix it.”

Britney said with the eyes of a caring older sister who was worried about her younger sister.

Jamie smiled silently.

“If you didn’t know, but Iris actually said she didn’t want to get married yet. And that, Count Green had forced her to…Ah. Excuse me. He’s your master, Sir Jamie.”

Britney covered her mouth with one hand.

“No, go ahead. I didn’t know that either.”

“Well, I guess my sister is very angry with us because she’s getting married even though she doesn’t want to. Maybe that’s why she’s avoiding us, but you know…The flower of Duke Whittle. We raised her too caringly.”

“The problem is that we coddled her too much.”

Denise added.

“I’m sure she’ll love to see our faces. She’ll feel better, Sir Jamie. Go and tell her we’re waiting.”

Reuben said.

Jamie was amazed.

The Duke Whittle family spoke and acted as Iris had said they would.

[Maybe they’ll tell me I’m a mythomaniac. Britney will pretend to be a good sister, and she’ll pretend to be worried about me.]

[So how do I react?]

[Pretend to believe. And then show them to the West building.]

[Will they obediently go to the West building?]

[No. They’ll try to find me.]

It really happened as Iris had predicted.

After showing them to the guest room in the West building, when they were told that they could see Iris tomorrow, Reuben changed his attitude and ran out of the drawing room saying he wanted to meet Iris immediately.

Denise and Britney also followed Reuben out, pretending to stop him.

Jamie didn’t stop them.

[Leave them alone. That’s all Jamie has to do.]

Jamie’s work was done.

From here, it’s Iris’ job.

It was a pity that he couldn’t see the scene in person.

* * *

After asking the maids where Iris’ room was and arriving there, they came upon two men guarding it.

A man with dark gray hair and beard that gave off a wild feeling.

The other an expressionless man with cold eyes and brown hair.

It’s a different atmosphere, but both are handsome.

Britney had seen them escorting Keivrand at a party before. She recalled the wild man’s name was Wallace and the man with cold eyes was Eugene.

As the Whittle family approached, Wallace and Eugene reached for the sword at their waists. The Whittle family became tense at the knights’ threatening attitude.

Duke Whittle knew very well about Eugene and Wallace. Even if they risk their lives, they won’t be able to hurt Eugene or Wallace one bit.

“Is this Iris’ room?”

Reuben asked with a dignified air.

“It’s Countess Green’s room.”

Eugene replied.

“You know who I am, don’t you? I’m here to see my daughter.”

“Countess Green is busy.”

“Busy, busy, busy! You think I haven’t heard that she is busy the last few days? There’s nothing that girl could be doing!”

Reuben’s patience has reached its limit. At the sudden shout, Wallace’s expression crumbled.

“What kind of country etiquette is this to stop a parent from meeting their child? Get out of the way! I have to see my daughter today!”

Reuben took a step forward, but Wallace and Eugene didn’t budge.

Britney quickly grabbed Reuben’s arm.

“Father, calm down.”

“How can I possibly calm down? You all…are you doing something bad to Iris? That’s why Iris said she was busy? Is she pretending to avoid us?”

“Right. Did Count Green hit our Iris by any chance? You left a scar on our Iris’ face, so she’s avoiding us?”

Added Denise.

Unlike Eugene, whose emotions weren’t revealed, Wallace’s expression was becoming increasingly terrifying.

Cold sweats broke out on the backs of the Whittle family.

Click-

Then, the door opened and a woman who looked like a maid came out. The elegant, black-haired maid spoke to Eugene.

“The Countess told me to find out what’s going on out here because it’s so noisy.”

Reuben didn’t miss the moment the door was opened and decided to throw himself inside.

However, he couldn’t surpass Eugene and Wallace’s keen senses. They grabbed his arms on each side and pushed him down the hall, almost as if he was being thrown away.

“Ugh!”

Reuben’s face turned red.

No matter how protected the Green family is, it was ridiculous to treat the Duke himself in this way.

This is all because of the government’s policy of allowing anyone to raise their status if they’re capable. To prevent such cases of having unqualified sons of nobles.

“You…How dare you…Do you know who I am?!”

Reuben trembled and stared at Eugene and Wallace.

“I’m…I’m…!”

He knew saying that he was a Duke wouldn’t work on them.

So he shouted.

“Iris’ father!”

At that moment, for Eugene, who had no expression on his face, and Wallace, who was frowning, a smile similar to ridicule formed on their faces.

Seeing it gave Britney the creeps.

‘Why are they looking at us like this? Jamie and now them…Don’t tell me? Did Iris really tell the people in this mansion what happened to her?’

She thought that couldn’t be.

Iris, who Britney knew, was a girl who couldn’t raise her head. But even if she could, there was the shame of saying how she was treated like a maid at home. Who in the world would talk about their own dirty business?

‘But…’

The attitude of the Green’s employees was apparently strange.

The Whittle family believed that even if Iris had established a connection with the Green family, they were still connected. They thought that she would never escape, that she would come if she was called just like before, and that she would live like a dog lying on its stomach.

‘Iris…’

Britney clenched her fists and stared at the half-open door.

‘That can’t be. She should always live as the flower of Duke Whittle. Countess Green, that’s ridiculous. I can’t let her have what I don’t have either.’

Honor of the Green family, the guardian of holy relics and protection of the Divine Kingdom.

All the privileges of being in the Green family.

And all of Keivrand’s coveted knights.

Britney didn’t want Iris to have any of it.

At that time, Iris finally showed up.

Iris was dressed like a man. Black pants that accentuate her slim legs, a white shirt beneath a black vest, and dark brown boots that come up to her calves.

It wasn’t supposed to be lady-like, but she looked as elegant and sexy as any lady. Britney swallowed her breath.

‘This is Iris? That’s ridiculous…’

She felt like she didn’t know her.

Iris had a pair of cold eyes, a confident smile, and an arrogant posture with a slightly raised chin. It was the same Iris, who Britney had never seen or could imagine seeing.

Reuben and Denise also blankly looked at Iris’ face at first.

When Reuben belatedly recognized that she was Iris, he shouted loudly.

“Iris! What’s wrong with you?”

In the past, Iris would have bowed her head at the rebuke of Duke Whittle. She would have trembled like a frightened beast.

But now, Iris didn’t even budge an eye at Reuben’s shout, rather, she had a fair smile.

“Oh, my. Why didn’t you tell me you were here?”

The Whittle family was speechless at the sound of her soft voice.

“We visited and told you several times already! You, you’re telling us that…”

“Father.”

Britney grabbed Reuben’s arm to try and calm him down.

There were many eyes watching. They couldn’t be rude to Iris in front of everyone. Only then did Reuben realize what Britney meant and suppressed his temper.

Iris, who was watching the scene, spoke.

“I was busy preparing for the wedding, so I told them not to report anything trivial.”

“Trivial? Trivial? We’ve come all the way here, and this is a trivial thing to you?”

Reuben gritted his teeth and rebuked her in a smaller voice than before.

Britney thought she had to change the mood.

“I’m sorry, Iris.”

At Britney’s apology, Iris tilted her head slightly to the side.

“You don’t want to get married, but it’s…You’re really mad at us, aren’t you? So…because you didn’t want to see us, you had lied and said we did something bad…I’m sorry. I never thought you would hate Count Green this much.”

Britney hoped that Iris would say, ‘that’s not true. I didn’t lie or anything.’

Turning a person into a liar was easier than solving the false charges.

But Iris didn’t explain herself. She just smiled softly at Britney and spoke.

“Come in.”

* * *

Finally, Britney, who entered Iris’ room, quickly looked inside.

Iris’ room was clean but not glamorous.

‘It’s worse than my room.’

That was a relief.

If it was a room more luxurious than her own, she would be fuming inside.

Reuben and Denise trudged on to the sofa as if they were the masters of the room.

Britney, who was looking around the room, quickly sat next to her parents.

Iris sat on the sofa opposite them and crossed her legs.

Denise narrowed her brows in a cheeky manner.

“Iris, you. What kind of attitude is that now? Where’s your manners in front of your elders?”

“Manners? You know I’ve never had a home education, right?”

Iris said, bobbing her foot up and down.

“Ha!”

Speechless, Reuben and Denise spat out.

When a person is too angry, they lose the energy to even be angry, and that was what had happened.

== Translator’s Note ==

1. Please report any typos, grammatical/spelling errors, sentences you find weird, and other etc…in the comment section .