Editing Dantalian no Shoka:Volume2 Chapter2 (section)

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It was an old house made from stone.

It was the villa of an owner who was not well off. Although it was a large piece of land, but it wasn’t an extravagant mansion. It was only an old building.

There wasn’t any signs of servants in the villa.

The originally isolated buildings, seemed even more isolated.

The villa had furniture and daily accessories, it could only satisfy the smallest needs. And there were no drawings or statues, in exchange books filled the whole villa.

From old books to new books, cheap to expensive, important academic books to easily disposable novels—books of every age, all these were squeezed into the bookshelves of this villa, and the books that could not fit were scattered on the ground.

This was the villa of the deceased who was a mad lover of books, Wesley Diswald.

At the back of this villa, was a small garden.

The rays of the setting sun gently illuminated this place. Although the season’s flowers were blooming everywhere else but the entire garden was nearly flooded with weeds.

It hadn’t been weeded in many years, instead of saying that this was a garden, it would be more fitting to call it a wilderness.

At this instant, there was a man walking on the stone path of this garden.

It was a youth wearing casual clothes, he seemed to be the owner of this building.

He was younger than twenty years old, and wore a leather jacket that pilots wore, he had a leather glove on his right hand.

The young man had pleasant features, it could be seen with one glance that he had a good education, but he also seemed to subtly give off a bored attitude.

Although it didn’t give a bad impression, but from his movements it gave people the inviolable feeling of a trained soldier.

He stopped by the side of a small building.

It was a greenhouse covered with glass.

“Dalian?”

The youth called.

The interior of the greenhouse was like a jungle. The tree branches and leaves criss-crossed as they extended everywhere, and a few vines were carelessly curled at the top and then they hung in the air.

Weeds flourished on the hard ground without a care, and the flowers of roses and raspberries were spotted among them.

In the deepest place, there was a small figure.

It was a small girl wearing black clothes.

The youth walked towards her quietly.

“So you were here, Dalian.”

Hearing his voice, the girl turned around.

It was a girl who had pretty features that would make people think of an expensive porcelain doll.

Her rich black hair was tied up with lace accessories, reaching her waist. 

The girl’s black clothes seemed loose and large because of the layers of lace and frills, and surrounding her body was a thick chest plate and metal gauntlets, making people think that this was a formal attire worn by medieval knights in ceremonies, it was a strange garment that couldn’t be called a gown or armour. What was tied in front of her clothed chest was not a ribbon but an old metal box.

That was a large lock connected with a silver chain—

“What is it, Huey?”

The girl named Dalian replied with an icy tone that did not match her image.

There was a watering can made from tin in her hands.

She seemed to be using this watering can to water the plants in the green house. A rare plant grew in front of the black-clothed girl’s eyes, that was a plant that was much taller than her.

“What is this?”

The youth called Huey asked with a surprised expression.

“You don’t know what this is? This is something called a plant.”

“No, at least I know what it is… it’s a cactus.”

Huey sighed lightly. Although it was very different from the types he had seen in the nearby florist and garden, but just looking at the fat thick leaves that were covered with needles, it could be recognised as the cactus plant.

“Yes, it is a rare species from the Dark Continent<sup>Africa</sup>.”

The girl said a little smugly.

Hugh hummed carelessly with little understanding, at the same time raising his head to look at the plant behind her.

Looking closely, he found that this cactus wasn’t of a normal large size.

Although it was covered with numerous leaves and vines, and its size was unable to be determined accurately, but just its main frame was large enough to hide someone behind it. It was at least twice as tall as Huey. And its roots’ seemed extremely developed, there were some signs of swelling nearby.

“There’s this sort of thing in our family’s greenhouse.”

Hugh excitedly confirmed the cactus illuminated by the setting sun’s rays. Then he unconsciously saw the watering can the girl was holding.

“Dalian. Don’t tell me that this cactus was grown by you?”

“What does this “don’t tell me” mean?”

Dalian immediately pouted.

Hugh smiled as if teasing her and said:

“Oh my, I didn’t think that you would like flowers.”

“I’m not interested in flowers.”

Dalian deliberately answered with a cold voice, making Hugh’s expression even more gleeful.

“This isn’t something to be embarrassed about.”

“Why do I have to be embarrassed by this.”

“Indeed, that you who always holes yourself up in that room reading those gloomy books would grow flowers, this makes me feel disbelief. But thinking that you also have such a cute interest makes me feel comforted……Ah!”

Huey who was nodding with a smug expression up till just now gave a low cry, stopping. Because a frowning, angry Dalian had kicked his calf.

“Your cactus mind is annoying. If you have the time to be talking nonsense here, then go do the weeding for me. What a useless man. Even the earthworms are more useful than you.”

“That’s unfair, Dalian.”

Huey moaned as he held his leg that was kicked with teary eyes.

The black clothed girl looked at him coldly:

“This plant was planted by Wesley.”

“Grandfather?”

Huey raised his head in slight surprise.

Now that he thought of it, to grow a cactus of that size, it should probably take a long time, it was hard to imagine Dalian growing it alone. It seems that it really was his deceased grandfather who spent so much time growing it.

“I see, Dalian… you inherited the job of continuing to look after it.”

Hearing Huey’s words, the black clothed girl nodded mildly.

“It’s probably going to bloom tonight… I have waited for this for thirteen years.”

“Thirteen years?”

Huey peeked at Dalian’s expression out of the corner of his eye.

The black clothed girl looked silently at the trunk of the plant. On the trunk of the swollen cactus, was a bud that was starting to bloom. That was a dark brown flower that was the size of a coconut. Although its shape was rarely seen, it was a normal flower bud.

Huey had once heard that some types of cacti would only bloom after decades. According to her, Dalian said that she had waited for thirteen years, it didn’t seem to be something to be surprised about.

“Speaking of which, Huey… an old woman shamelessly came to visit you earlier, right?”

Dalian who had finished watering the plant suddenly spoke with a change in tone.

“Old woman… you mean Camilla?”

Huey frowned as he replied. Camilla Sauer Keynes was Huey’s old friend. She was the daughter of a trader, although she was pretty, but she was an oddball who had returned from the New Continent.

“She brought a present for me. I think she said she went to Lausanne when she accompanied her father to settle some business matters.”

“A present?”

Huey felt that Dalian’s ears hidden under her long hair, had trembled like a puppy’s.

“It’s chocolate, made in Switzerland.”

“Chocolate!”

Dalian’s eyes widened, shining like a child’s. Her pretty lips seemed to tremble because she swallowed her saliva.

“Uh… It looks like that wild yellow brat has her own uses. What are you waiting for, Huey. Prepare the afternoon tea for me!”

“Afternoon tea? The sun is almost setting.”

“Shut up, you idiot. If you don’t want to eat, I don’t mind finishing off all the chocolates.”

“You really are greedy…”

Huey shrugged helplessly as he said with a bitter smile. Then before he began to walk reluctantly to the kitchen, he stopped as if he felt something.

Dalian looked at Huey in surprise.

“What is it, Huey?”

“It’s nothing.”

Huey smiled as if it were nothing and shook his head.

Then, the doorbell to the backdoor of the villa rang.