Chapter 2: Raising the Alarm

“I’m not sure how to put this, but... Lud, you’re amazing!”

Inside Tockerbrot, a few days after the hostage incident, Marlene—the nun from the church atop the hill—was both impressed and appalled. The bakery had finally returned to regular business hours.

“You got shot, didn’t you? So why are you back at work just three days later?”

When Miroslav barricaded himself inside Tockerbrot, Lud had struggled with him and received a gunshot in his side. But now he was hard at work baking bread in the oven room as if nothing had happened.

“Well, I guess I’m training myself.”

Lud answered Marlene with a wry smile.

He made that face for two reasons. One was that Marlene had been stunned at his strong body instead of praising it. Another was that he had lost more of his edge than he realized.

I thought I could stop Miroslav before he fired.

Lud should have been able to stop a confused punk from taking a shot, and it was disturbing that he hadn’t. He had considered the risk of an accidental shot, but he thought he would be able to seize control first—or least dodge the bullet. Lud was the former ace pilot known as the Silver Wolf, and before that he was a special ops soldier called a Werewolf, so he shouldn’t have been injured that way.

If Genitz were still alive, he’d be so shocked his jaw would hit the floor! During his time as a special ops soldier, Genitz had used Lud as his right hand man. If Genitz were here, he would shake his head at Lud in disgust.

However, Lud’s grim smile now wasn’t from sadness over losing his edge. Rather, it was joy. He was losing his skills as a soldier, which was evidence that Lud Langart was becoming a baker. But he found it ironic how this incident confirmed it.

“Forget about me. How’s Milly?”

A criminal with a gun had taken her hostage. Such a frightening incident wouldn’t be easy for a fourteen-year-old girl.

“Oh, she’s fine. She’s eating and sleeping fine, but she’s worried about you.”

It appeared that Lud’s concern was unnecessary. Marlene answered as if she found something funny.

“I heard Jacob is fine, too. Our children are tough!”

Jacob had also been a hostage, and he had missed school to take care of his mother, who was more upset and exhausted than Jacob.

“I’ve caused trouble for those two.”

Lud didn’t care about getting hurt, but it was a different story when it came to others.

“Don’t say that. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

Marlene attempted to cheer him up, but it wasn’t that easy.

“It’s not about who’s to blame and who isn’t. The problem is how an adult like me endangers children when I’m around them.”

Lud was full of remorse that his attention to protecting others had dulled along with his instincts as a soldier.

“Hey now...”

Marlene now wore a different but equally astounded look.

“Isn’t there someone else you should be even more concerned about?”

“Huh?”

“I mean Sven. Ever since that day, she’s seemed down. Surely you’ve noticed.”

When Lud had been carried to the hospital on the night of the hostage incident, Sven watched over him the whole time. Lud had been right that his injury was not life-threatening. However, surgery was necessary to remove the bullet. Afterward, as he slept under anesthesia, Sven sat beside him with a pained expression on her face.

“She blames herself for injuring her ‘precious master.’”

“But she didn’t do anything wrong!!”

Lud raised his voice in surprise.

“But this isn’t about who’s to blame and who isn’t, right?”

“Urgh...”

Lud was speechless hearing Marlene repeat what he had just said.

“You two have surprisingly similar natures.”

Marlene was grinning, and Lud could only reply with a troubled look.

“Yeah, that might be true.”

Sven wasn’t human. She was a humanoid Hunter Unit. An android. Moreover, her creator had given her the artificial intelligence of the Hunter Unit that Lud had once piloted. That A.I. had belonged to mass-produced weapons, but this unit had gained a heart. And meeting Lud had given birth to that heart.

Sven’s heart grew in the soil that was Lud. For that reason, the two often thought and reacted in the same way. There was no way for Marlene to know this, but she sensed it anyway. She was surprisingly insightful.

“What should I tell her?”

If Lud was in Sven’s place, he would feel worse if the person he was concerned about tried to reassure him, or said he hadn’t done anything wrong. Because then he would know he had made that person worry. And Sven might feel the same way.

“Well, in that case...”

Before the servant of God could give him her valuable advice, the door of Tockerbrot blasted open.

“Master!!”

It was Sven—the very person they were discussing.

“Oh! Sven... um...”

There is a saying: ‘Speak of a wolf and he’ll appear.’ Nevertheless, her perfect timing took Lud aback.

“We’ve got a problem!”

She had urgent news. It was a sticky problem, so finding a solution would be difficult.

At Bengabaer Officer’s School, located in a distant corner of a district next to Berun, the royal capital of the Principality of Wiltia...

The school was built long ago so the children of provincial nobles could learn etiquette and acquire a general education before going to the royal capital. But times had changed and it was currently a school for young cadets.

“This is already my seventh school...”

Just today, Hildegard von Hessen—or Hilde for short—had transferred to this officer’s school. She mumbled as she gazed out the window.

“I hope this time I can at least stay a month!”

After Genitz’s rebellion, Hilde had been passed from one school to another, starting with Dangoltinoza Officer’s School. And that wasn’t because she had done anything wrong.

“Tch! Why are there so many weird problems everywhere?!”

She hadn’t done anything herself, but every time she transferred to a new school, internal problems surfaced leading to that school’s closure, temporarily or permanently.

“Really! There are problems all over! Like students organizing on-campus gambling and illegal loans! And teachers acting like pimps and discriminating against female students based on where they were born! And people establishing the political arm of a new cult!”

“Yeah, they should dedicate their time to studying!”

Since long ago, schools have been closed worlds. That seclusion was to preserve a place where the youth could develop neutral and fair-minded thinking without influence from outside ideas. When they emerged, they would be able to judge things calmly and rationally.

Inside their fences, people consciously avoid interference from outside. And that isn’t necessarily a problem. Or, that is how things should be. However, that seclusion also makes it difficult for problems inside those fences to rise to the surface. Meanwhile, the darkness haunting such places only deepens.

In the east, there was a heretical practice called ‘kodoku.’ This was a ritual for creating brutal creatures with high concentrations of poison by sealing several poisonous animals in a pot and making them eat each other. Something similar sometimes occurs in schools.

“So...”

Only now did Hilde look at the friend who had casually joined her as she talked to herself.

“Lillie, you’re too close.”

Hilde chided Lillie, even though she knew Lillie was unlikely to correct herself.

“Huh? How so?”

“Is there any other word for it when your arm is around mine, your head is on my shoulder, and your cheek is pressed against mine?!”

Without Hilde noticing, Lillie had taken her arm and pressed close.

Lillie was a friend Hilde had met at her first school, before all the subsequent transfers. Since then, every time Hilde moved, Lillie followed her to the next school, attended the same class, and even sat next to her.

“Lillie... how do you manage to follow me every single time?”

This time, too, Lillie had shown up at Bengabaer Officer’s School. Hilde was no longer surprised.

“Let’s see... maybe a good phrase to describe it would be the power of love.”

Joyfully, Lillie answered Hilde.

“Oh, okay...”

And Hilde no longer had the strength to argue. She didn’t know it, but the embassy of Yamato, a nation allied with Wiltia, had sent Lillie to covertly inspect educational facilities in the Principality of Wiltia. This was the official and top secret explanation.

The actual reason, however, was to cultivate a personality in Lillie. She wasn’t human. Just like Sven—aka Svelgen Avei—Lillie was a humanoid Hunter Unit.

Meeting Hilde truly had been a coincidence. However, that coincidence had awakened Lillie’s heart. And the trigger had been her love for Hilde.

“Never mind why your seat is next to mine, but why is your room next to mine?!”

For the most part, all the students lived in dormitories, since this was an officer’s school. It was unusual, but each student at the school had an individual room, and Lillie had moved into the one next to Hilde’s.

“Someone else was living there until the day before I moved in.”

“Yeah! We switched rooms!”

“Switched? But... how?!”

“I asked, like, super hard!”

“You just asked?”

Hilde found it hard to believe, but Lillie didn’t appear to be lying.

Lillie had politely and respectfully pleaded with the student living there to exchange rooms. When the girl had rudely refused with a flat-out “No,” Lillie had used her bare hands to bend a metal pipe she just happened to be carrying, before asking again. It had been very close to intimidation and a threat, but it was indubitably a means of persuasion.

“Okay, whatever. But why was there a hole in the wall this morning?”

“Oh, did I wake you up? Sorry.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Lillie’s answer evaded Hilde’s point.

When Hilde awoke that morning, there was a huge hole in the wall. Actually, the whole wall was simply gone.

They were supposed to have individual rooms, but suddenly Hilde was sharing a double with Lillie.

“I chipped away and made a hole in the night.”

“Yeah, that would be the way to do it...”

Hilde had, of course, complained to the dorm administrator, but the housemother denied her complaint on the spot.

“She mumbled something about an ‘international problem.’ Do you know anything about that?”

“No... Not at all!”

Lillie played innocent.

Hilde didn’t know it, but Lillie had used her position as an investigator from the Yamato Embassy to make a “request” of the school president. The president feared the situation with Lillie would develop into an international issue, so he ordered the housemother to go along. As a result, any complaints about Lillie’s actions would fall on deaf ears.

Furthermore, news of any such grievances would reach many people before it got to Suzuka, a military attaché at the Yamato Embassy and, for convenience’s sake, Lillie’s master. Even though Suzuka’s smile was usually calm, such reports would cause her face to twitch with annoyance. But that was another story.

“Um, about your feelings for me... We’re just friends, right?”

Lillie was slightly eccentric as a friend, but Hilde cared about her. Since the incident when Hilde first learned about Lillie’s true nature, there were disturbances at Hilde’s past six schools. Whenever something happened, Lillie always protected her from those who sought to kill Hilde and cover it up. So Hilde trusted and cared about her.

“Of course we’re just friends!”

Lillie answered with a smile.

Her face wasn’t even five centimeters away from Hilde’s.

“I s-see...”

Lillie had spoken a little too enthusiastically but Hilde was on the verge of believing her when Lillie amended her comment.

“At least for now.”

“Uh, what’d you just say?!”

Hilde tried to interrogate her, but Lillie turned her back, pretending not to have heard.

“I know you don’t mean any trouble, but...”

Hilde sighed again at her inability to settle in one school. More than that, however, she felt her chastity was in danger.

“More importantly... Hilde, look at this.”

“Huh?”

Lillie changed the subject and pulled a magazine from her bag.

“This may have something to do with you.”

“What is it?”

Lillie handed Hilde a science magazine. The feature article was “The Possibility of Same-Sex Propagation by Females.”

“Oops! That’s the wrong magazine. Here’s the right one!”

“Why are you reading this?!”

Hilde tensed, but Lillie just replaced the first magazine with another one.

“Hm? Weekly Global News... A magazine from Greyten? Why are you reading this?”

After seeing the Greyten language on the cover, Hilde grew suspicious.

“Well, I’m collecting information. My master... my guardian read this and she thought I might be interested, so she sent it to me.”

Suzuka, the military attaché at the Yamato Embassy, had introduced Lillie to the magazine. One of the embassy’s functions was collecting information and sending it to the home country. Magazines and newspapers were valuable sources of information.

“Urm... I’m not very familiar with Greytenese.”

Greyten was an island nation in the cultural area of the continent of Europea. It was defeated during the recent Great War, resulting in a massive loss of territory. However, it was once known as the Empire of the Never Setting Sun.

“Let’s see... The true nature of Wiltia, which claims to have established a world state? Military power oppressing freedom? Ha ha! These are pretty wild claims!”

During the Great European War, the Greyten Empire, the Republic of Filbarneu, and the August Federation formed a coalition and fought against the allied powers led by Wiltia. But Wiltia overturned early predictions and won the war.

One reason was that Wiltia possessed the new weapon known as the Hunter Units, which revolutionized the battlefield. Also, Noa, a nation on a new continent, had maintained a neutral position to the end of the conflict. In any case, the losing coalition now held a strong grudge against Wiltia and was busily leaping at every opportunity to tarnish Wiltia’s dignity and magnify problems.

“I’ve heard Greyten takes from the national budget for this kind of troublemaking. Instead of wasting time on it, they should address other issues.”

Hilde was amazed at how illogical the world was to compensate for a bruised pride by hating something else.

“So what are these losers grumbling about now?”

They were at an officer’s school, and Hilde was a former member of the Schutzstaffel. She had once belonged to the nation, but she had no obligation to listen to every bit of nonsense that came along.

“There, in the special feature in the middle... Didn’t you have something to do with that place?”

However, Lillie spoke calmly, not with the flirty face she had been wearing.

“In the middle?”

Hilde turned pages. Then she saw the name of a familiar shop.

“What? Tockerbrot?!”

Just a few months ago, she had worked there.

“A baker suppressed and attempted to kill a peace fighter calling for freedom? The shop owner is a former soldier involved in an illegal mission? And he’s currently on a covert operation to hide the nation’s war crimes? What the heck?!”

Hilde had acquired cursory familiarity with Greytenese through classroom lectures. She wasn’t fluent, but she could read, write, and engage in simple conversation. Even with her limited skills, she knew these claims were absurd.

‘This is Dolly Anastasia reporting.

The Principality of Wiltia is a militant nation that deployed metal giants to forcefully subdue the opposing coalition of powers in the recent Great European War.

I have long doubted whether freedom and equality can even exist in this country. And this incident has only strengthened such doubts.

It happened in the quiet town of Organbaelz, located in a corner of Pelfe, which Wiltia currently occupies as a colony. And it begins with a man escaping to this peaceful town. That man’s name is Miroslav Milag. He belongs to a freedom movement representing the occupied people of Pelfe. As part of his work, he violated Wiltian law against his will. With the police on his tail, he fled to a bakery.

It would be natural to assume that people living at the bakery would be a calm and peaceful folk. And since this bakery is in Pelfe, Miroslav thought its owners would be Pelfian and would hide him—or at least give him some bread—since it was for their sakes that he fought. So, suffering from hunger, he knocked on the door.

However, his hopes were dashed. The owner of the shop was Lud Langart, a Wiltian and one of Pelfe’s overlords. Instead of giving sustenance to Miroslav, he abused him, calling him a dirty, inferior Pelfian and threatening violence against him.

The police were in hot pursuit, so Miroslav had no choice but to barricade himself in the shop. The authorities had already captured five of his comrades, making Miroslav the last of his group. If he wanted to continue his fight for freedom, he didn’t have the luxury to care about appearances.

Immediately, armed police surrounded the shop. Miroslav continued decrying the inequality and injustice in society. He was a sublime figure, reminiscent of an ancient saint. However, the curtain fell on his struggle most abominably. Exhausted from his lone fight, Miroslav fell asleep. And what happened while he slumbered?

One of his hostages, shop owner Lud Langart, was a former soldier. And he has a suspicious background. Langart participated in an unreported civilian massacre perpetrated by the Wiltian military during the Great European War in May of Year 913 of the European Calendar. It was a savage slaughter against unarmed civilians during wartime. Langart played a major role in the Wiltian assault.

Perhaps Langart’s current occupation as baker was designed by the Wiltian military to hide information it was afraid would expose the incident.

Miroslav knew nothing about this. He was too virtuous to hurt an apparent civilian like Langart—even though the man is actually a loathsome invader. Langart took Miroslav’s gun and tried to kill him. Miroslav, quick to react, avoided death by successfully dodging his would-be killer’s bullet. However, worried about the lives of the children whom Lud had forced to slave away in his shop, Miroslav turned himself in.

Currently, Miroslav is attempting to file a suit in court seeking justice and equality. His trial will question the international community’s willingness to allow Wiltia—as a great nation at the center of the world’s attention—to continue its tyrannical behavior.’

“What the... This is pure nonsense!!”

Hilde’s hands shook as she held the magazine. She gripped it so hard that the pages were crinkled and bent.

“Lud Langart would never behave like that!”

For certain reasons, Hilde had worked at Lud’s bakery during her time in the Schutzstaffel. That’s how she knew that Lud was an exceptionally good person.

Hilde had tried to kill him. Nonetheless, he had given her a job and let her eat the bread he baked. He was that kind of man.

Miroslav on the other hand, was unknown to her. But if he asked Lud for bread, the baker would have shared his bread even if Miroslav was a horrible villain. That’s the kind of man Lud was. Hilde knew that very well.

“What was this reporter thinking?! Is she serious?!”

“Actually, I doubt she is.”

“What?!”

Hilde’s tone was agitated in response to Lillie’s words.

“They only sell that magazine in Greyten. Do you think anyone there would go all the way to Pelfe to find out the truth? They wouldn’t. That’s the way these things are done.”

“Well, it stinks!”

This magazine wasn’t intended to be responsible journalism. Its purpose was disseminating a narrative comfortable to the citizens of the defeated nation, shoring up their self-esteem with the idea that they lost to Wiltia because it was a nation of cowardly and vicious villains. That’s why it sold well. And that’s why publication continued.

“I wonder if they’re all right...”

Hilde remembered the faces of the people she had accompanied to the royal capital a few months ago. Lud, Jacob, Milly... and the silver-haired waitress.

“I hope this doesn’t cause them trouble.”

If possible, she wanted to lend a hand. From the bottom of her heart, Hilde wanted to help them. However, she was a long way from Organbaelz...

Back in Organbaelz, at a repair shop—a former repair shop—in the corner of town...

This was Jacob’s home.

“So what’s the problem?” he asked.

The repair shop used to handle a variety of maintenance, from heavy machinery to old trucks around town.

“That magazine is from Greyten, right? We’re in Pelfe, so it doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

“That’s not true.”

Sven, the silver-haired waitress at Tockerbrot, was standing in front of him. The sales smile she was so proud of, which charmed customers day after day, had now lost its shine.

“Why? It doesn’t matter if people across the ocean talk about us. It’ll only cause trouble if we let it upset us. You know that saying about how the wealthy don’t fight? Well... Lud doesn’t have any money, but still.”

“That last part was unnecessary.”

Financially, Tockerbrot was still struggling to free itself of debt.

“It may be more consequential than you think.”

If a foreign nation was telling lies about them, it was unpleasant. But Jacob was right: they could just ignore it.

However, there are people who raise smoke where there’s no fire. They raise a fuss, saying, “If there’s smoke, there must be fire.”

“It’s not just talk in a foreign country. A Wiltian newspaper with a large circulation in Pelfe printed the article in its international column.”

“And that’s bad... right?”

Finally, Jacob understood the seriousness of the situation.

“The people in Organbaelz will know it’s a lie, but if people in neighboring towns, especially Ponapalas, read it...”

Ponapalas was the former capital of Pelfe. Many people there still objected to the merger with Wiltia.

“Jacob, you shouldn’t come to Tockerbrot for a while. That’s what the master thinks.”

After he heard the news, Lud decided to immediately secure the safety of Marlene, Milly, Jacob, and Charlotte.

“But I couldn’t be so heartless!!”

Jacob had been Lud’s friend since before Sven arrived, when Lud was struggling each day with the difficulty of starting his new life as a baker. Sven was basically telling Jacob to abandon his friend.

“We can’t put you in danger like before. I’m sorry about Charlotte, as well.”

“Ugh...”

Jacob’s mother was haggard and stayed in bed after the recent hostage incident had endangered his life.

“Will the shop be all right?”

“Yes. Master and I can handle it for a few days somehow, but...”

“But?”

Sven’s face clouded further.

“What’s worse is our sales are suffering...”

Sven bit her lip hard. She had once been a Hunter Unit. As Avei, she strode the battlefield. She could deal with any problem involving gunfire. And even if she couldn’t, she could at least survive. However, her experience as Avei was useless against the situation currently assailing Tockerbrot.

“Sven...”

Jacob didn’t know what was on her mind. However, Sven loved his friend Lud more than anyone in the world, so Jacob knew she was suffering.

What is the most vicious kind of attack? Is it a cruel demon wielding an iron hammer? Or a heinous devil swinging a blade?

No. These are surprisingly insignificant. The most terrifying, brutal and vicious attack is an attack in the name of justice. There’s nothing more ruthless than fists thrown by those convinced they are right. They will hit you, kick you, and stomp on you even after you fall. They don’t care that you’re broken. If you are, they’ll just attack you harder to crush you. They’ll mash you to bits, grind down those bits, and spit on them.

People who believe they are right are capable of overpowering violence. Thus, since times of old, the most common cause of war has been justice.

“Filthy killer baker!”

“Come outside, you rotten scoundrel!”

“You’re the hand of the oppressor and the nation’s dog!”

Many people gathered in front of Tockerbrot. They raised their voices and hoisted signs reading “GET OUT” and “WAR DOG.”

“Murderer! Murderer!”

“Aren’t you ashamed to be alive?!”

“Go to jail, criminal!”

The people’s eyes shone as if they were looking at the devil, the enemy of all creation, or a sailor tossing a stowaway into the sea.

“Hey, you! Are you trying to shop here?!”

“Don’t you know?! The owner is a murderer!”

“Are you on his side?!”

They didn’t just shout. They threatened and picked fights with the uncomfortable customers who tried to enter the shop.

“Get out of town!”

“Murderer! Shame on you for even breathing!”

“You’re a monster who tramples peace and freedom!”

There was no sign that their voices would ever stop...

“Give me a break!”

In the shop’s oven room, Lud was holding his head.

“They’re still here.”

Sven had returned from Jacob’s house and was talking to Lud from the back door.

“Yes. They came yesterday. They showed up early this morning, too. What a mess!”

At a loss for what to do, Lud heaved a sigh. The protestors weren’t residents of Organbaelz. They were from Ponapalas and other towns and called themselves The Citizens Who Love Peace and Freedom.

“They’re so annoying! Should I go kick them around?”

Sven spoke ferociously, and Lud stopped her.

“No! You mustn’t do that!”

It would be easy to drive them away with force. But Lud could handle it without Sven’s help.

“We can’t do anything like that!”

“I suppose if we fight them, they will make a fuss and say, ‘See! We told you!’”

The activists didn’t doubt they were right. They would view a show of force as oppressive and undemocratic, and gather more people and clamor even more.

“That, too. But also...”

Lud wasn’t only worried about that.

“They’re not doing this because of ill will toward us. They’re doing it because they think it’s right. They are acting from a good conscience.”

Wiltia’s annexation of Pelfe was legal according to international law. However, it was done against a background of Wiltia flourishing its military might. Those who had accepted the merger reasoned that there were worse countries than Wiltia, and they had no choice. So it wasn’t completely mistaken to see the annexation as unjust and repressive.

“In fact, a lot of people experience inequality and injustice from Wiltia. Since it absorbed Pelfe as part of Wiltia instead of making it a colony, Wiltia should take responsibility.”

At the end of the year before, on the night of the Holy Festival, a thief had snuck into Tockerbrot. A corrupt company had exploited the thief so she couldn’t even make a living to support her sister. Pelfians had run the company, but the funding had come from Wiltia. If the regulatory agencies in Wiltia had taken the correct action, they could have stopped it.

Many people were suffering just like that thief.

“But is it necessary for you to put up with this, Master?”

Sven understood what Lud was trying to say, but she still had strong doubts.

“Whoever you were in the past, you’re just a civilian now. You shouldn’t have to carry the burden of a national... a racial problem between Wiltia and Pelfe.”

“Yeah...”

“Besides, is there really anything to their objections? Aren’t they just deceiving themselves that their personal frustrations relate to something bigger, like the nation and politics?”

“That’s... No...”

When Sven first came to Tockerbrot, they fought terrorists called the Pelfe Liberation League. She didn’t know their origins or why they chose their methods, but their attempted sabotage would have destroyed Organbaelz, which was a part of Pelfe.

“To begin with, the article is full of lies! It’s a bunch of drivel the author didn’t investigate or even fact-check! This is nothing but harassment!”

Miroslav wasn’t a fighter seeking freedom and peace. He was a man whom poverty had driven him to unlawful deeds. Lud had barely resisted him. Instead, he tried to persuade Miroslav to turn himself in. Miroslav, distraught to the point of trying to kill himself, had fired a bullet. When Lud tried to stop him, the bullet had injured Lud instead. The article was far from the truth.

“But parts of it are true.”

Lud was a former military man and special ops soldier. He had been involved in the annihilation of Lapchuricka and its civilians.

“That’s... But this is...”

The article also said Lud had been part of the Wiltian military’s mission to slaughter civilians and withhold information, and that he had pretended to quit the military and become a baker.

“That’s all hogwash!”

“Hmm...”

The annihilation of Lapchuricka had yet to become public knowledge. The authorized story was that regular combat had extended beyond the front line to Lapchuricka. As a result, the damage had included civilians. The official records had been thoroughly rewritten, so very few knew the truth of the mission. Even soldiers who had served on the mission believed it had been part of regular combat.

“Genitz handled the coverup. He was extremely deft at such things.”

Genitz, a former lieutenant general of the Wiltian military and supreme commander of the Schutzstaffel, had once been Lud’s “owner.”

In particular, the use of chemical weapons such as poison gas was extremely sensitive, even in wartime, so only a few people knew of its use.

“That casts a lot of doubt on the matter.”

“Yes, it does. But it doesn’t change the fact that I was involved.”

“But... Master, that’s not true!”

Lud’s persistence in blaming himself gave him the air of a humble prisoner. But, the responsibility for army operations lies with the army and the nation. As an example, soldiers don’t go to jail for every murder committed during war. It was irrational to accuse a soldier, who had simply obeyed orders, of murder after he quit the military.

“I know. I know, but...”

“Master...”

Lud was fully aware of such reasoning but still viewed this unjust torment as rightful retribution.

“I understand how you feel.”

In that case, there was nothing more his loyal servant, the silver-haired waitress, could say. She needed to obey his will and stay by his side. But...

“At this rate, the shop will go bankrupt in a month.”

She had to do something to protect the shop regardless of the situation.

“Are we really in such bad shape?!”

Lud thought the people would leave after a month at the longest. He hoped that if Tockerbrot could hang in that long, he would be able to fix the shop, even though it might take time. However, the situation was much worse than he imagined.

“The mine, city hall and the schools. They all want to suspend our contract for a while.”

“Oh no! Why?!”

“It’s all because of those people!”

Outside the shop, the protestors were still yelling in chorus. Yet no residents of Organbaelz were among The Citizens Who Love Peace and Freedom. They were all from out of town. While they held their demonstration to obstruct his business, other protestors descended upon the organizations to whom Tockerbrot sold its products wholesale.

“They threaten them, saying, ‘Do you buy bread from that monster?’ Our customers give in, because they don’t know what the activists will do if they don’t promise to suspend our contracts.”

“No way...”

Some had even discovered the managers’ names, addresses and family members, and then cast hints, saying, “I hope your children don’t have an accident!”

“They all apologized, but they did so at the back door.”

The threats focused on the individuals in charge, not city hall or the mine office. It was difficult to stop such attacks.

“They consider anyone not on their side to be the enemy, and they show no mercy. For people shouting about peace, they’re more exacting than the military.”

The concept of neutrality didn’t exist for them. Anyone who doesn’t stand on their side is an accomplice. Enemies are considered dogs and followers of the men in power. It was extreme, but it bound them together. The best way for a group to bond is to establish a common enemy.

“For now, our customers will settle for a suspension of the contracts. But if this continues any longer, they’ll formally cancel altogether. In that case, securing a future contract will be impossible.”

“Oh no...”

“Suspension of contracts and a decrease in customers... I mean almost zero customers. The losses are enormous, so it goes without saying that we’ll have to discontinue sales trips.”

The protestors outside weren’t residents of Organbaelz. Since Organbaelz didn’t have any hotels, the protestors were commuting from neighboring towns. If Sven and Charlotte went on sales trips to those towns and displayed Tockerbrot’s sign, the bakery’s poisoned reputation would only spread further.

“How can we pay our vendors?”

Lud’s face turned pale. This would affect the bakery’s supply of products such as flour, butter, cheese, salt, yeast, and firewood for the oven. It would also affect operation costs, such as electricity for the refrigerator.

“I can handle those things somehow.”

“You can?!”

Lud was surprised. Tockerbrot was on a shoestring budget without any savings, so no funds were available for covering these losses.

“Oh, did you forget? You’ve got that money.”

“That money...? Surely, you don’t mean—!”

“Yes. The money your friend gave you.”

Last autumn, a company called Doppeladler had transferred a large amount of money into Tockerbrot’s account. Sven had used that money to cover recent losses.

I can’t believe Genitz saved me this way!

Lud hadn’t told Sven that the money had come from his former superior. Genitz had been faithful to a promise he made to Lud nearly ten years earlier, and arranged for the transfer of the money upon his death.

“As per your orders, I tried not to touch it unless it was an emergency, but I judged now was the time.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Lud had hesitated to use the money but kept it. He never thought it would come in handy like this. He had thought the sins of his past would cause him suffering but instead that same past had saved him.

“Is this fate?” Lud mumbled to himself.

In the end, accusations continued to fall on Tockerbrot, but they had yet to find any solution.