Chapter 4
Several days pa.s.sed after Kuders was locked up in his cell.
And not a day went by when screams were not heard.
However, it was not because Kuders was being tortured.
The reason was…
"Aaarghhh! That Kuders has escaped again!!"
"Search the building! He might have gone to the women slaves again!"
Yes, it was the jail keepers who screamed as they ran around the building.
This was because Kuders had made it a daily habit to break the lock on his cell and escape.
Of course, locks were not made for free. They were intricate mechanisms that came with a somewhat surprising price tag.
Besides, these were meant to keep people locked up, so they were neither simple nor cheap.
At this point, they had spent as much on locks as they had on the purchase of Kuders.
Furthermore, they could not sell Kuders if they could not stop him from escaping, and so he had not been put up for auction on the previous day.
Obviously, this was not good for business.
It was because of this, that the merchant who bought Kuders was considering forcing him onto a fellow merchant.
Kuders himself knew nothing of all of this, and there was a part of him that was enjoying himself in this life that was supposed to be a nightmare.
After all…there were many beautiful slaves here who were meant to entertain.
Kuders smelled them quickly and used every method at his disposal to get pa.s.sed the guards. Then he approached the women with flowers and shouted.
"Kuders Tart, at your service. I"m four hun…forty years of age! And I am single! Is there anyone among you that would be interested in being courted!?"
Well, it went without saying, but no one took him up on his proposal.
However, he did not despair easily.
After that, he escaped his room daily in order to visit these beautiful women.
Such was the reason that after the jailors had run off, the door to Kuders"s cell creaked its lonely, sad tune.
The part with the lock had been carved away. And on the floor, there was a metal pot marigold that was evidence of what had happened.
In fact, he had chosen this flower because it symbolized "loneliness" and Kuders felt that it represented the current state of his own heart…
Still, it was asking a little too much to expect the guards to interpret it as such.
As for the culprit…Kuders was now walking in a beautiful, green garden and he had a bouquet of sunflowers in his hands.
"Oh, Kudy. Are you taking a walk?"
It was the female servants that prepared his meals.
Kuders had become friendly with them after his pa.s.sionate protest over the food on the first day. However, there was no hint of romance in the way they conversed.
"Yes, I am taking sunflowers with me today! "I am only looking at you." That is what they symbolize!!"
The man in gla.s.ses held his sunflowers and beamed.
But while his expression was full of confidence, the servants looked at him in a way that showed they were unimpressed.
"Uhh, they look a little heavy?"
"And you said "only," but you"re going to give it to all of them, aren"t you?"
"Oh, that is awful. I"m so disappointed in your lack of honesty."
They did not even look up as they gathered vegetables from the garden. But their blunt words were like thorns in Kuders"s flesh.
"…d.a.m.n it. I hadn"t thought of that. I"m so stupid."
Kuders was so shocked that he dropped all of his sunflowers.
As he stood there in despair, one of the servants walked up to him and said, "Oh, what a waste…" and she picked them up and put them in a bucket with water from a well.
There was something about the way that she did it that suggested this scene had played out before.
"You…can have them. Ahhhh! I must prepare some different flowers."
Kuders left the sunflowers and then pulled out a small book from his pocket. It was a dictionary for the language of flowers.
This dictionary was actually hand-written by one of the servants when she was younger. He had traded some magical vegetables for it.
Up until now, Kuders had only thought of flowers as things to be raised and used. And so the existence of a "flower language" was a great revelation to him. And so he had become quite obsessed in this poetic world.
"Kudy, must you do this every day? Besides, those girls are all difficult, you know? They are haughty and only interested in money and position."
"Yes, but I cannot help that I like them. If only one of them will return my affection, then I will be happy."
He said with glimmering eyes. It was the kind of expression you might expect on a young boy. Which, of course, meant it was rather comical on him.
And the servants laughed.
"Oh, you really are hopeless. You"ll never be loved by anyone if you say things like that. That"s not how love works."
"Yes-yes. If you look at so many people and say that any of them will do, people will just think you are playing. It"s when you can"t imagine being with anyone else. That is when you know it is love."
"If you are going to try and romance someone, you should wait until you know they are the right person. Or else, they will see through you right away and leave you."
"…Really?"
Kuders listened to their warnings with a tilted head. The servants sighed in exasperation, knowing that their advice was lost on him.
"It"s no mystery. It has always been that way. It is probably because you"ve never experienced real love, Kudy. That"s why you say such things."
It was clear to them all. There was no one that Kuders had actually fallen for. Kuders was just in love with the idea of being in love.
At this rate, he would end up getting attached to some terrible woman and be burned bad.
But Kuders barely noticed their concerned looks as he closed his dictionary.
Apparently, he had decided on his next flower.
"Thank you for your concern. However, there is one who seems different from the rest."
"…Oh? And which one is that?"
She knew that it was rude to pry, but she couldn"t help asking anyway. However, she winced at her own boldness.
In spite of this, Kuders offered the name without a second of hesitation.
"It is Miss Adelia."
"…What."
In an instant, the faces of the servants froze.
After all, that girl was known as the worst villain in the whole country.
She had been engaged to the Crown Prince once. But she was now being held here in this prison as a warning to all.