Chapter 3: The Pleasure of Justice

Lud had a dream a few nights after the Citizens Who Love Peace and Freedom started protesting in front of Tockerbrot.

“Hey!”

In the dream, someone spoke to him. It was the voice of a young man. Lud was very familiar with the voice. It was familiar, but it was one he rarely heard.

“What’s your problem?!”

It was his own voice. It was his fourteen-year-old voice from when he served under Genitz as a special ops soldier known as a Werewolf.

“Wouldn’t it be easy to drive them away?!”

Lud could see the owner of the voice, too. And he was smiling joyfully.

“Their ringleader. Or, more specifically, their chief strategist. Find that person and start there to break up the group.”

In a group, the ringleader is usually insignificant. People flaunting themselves as the leaders of disorderly crowds aren’t particularly important. They owe their position to the fact that they are well-liked. In other words, it depends on their charisma. In order to destroy a group, the best target isn’t the ringleader, but the chief strategist at his or her side.

“Such people are highly self-conscious, but they lack the ability to unify others. They’re unconsciously dissatisfied with their position. They think they’re the ones running the show and deserve to be valued more highly.”

Such people are frail. The slightest temptation causes them to collapse and fall.

“Money, possessions, women... Anything will work. Find that person’s weakness and issue a threat. But not too forcefully. Ask for a modest favor, saying, ‘This is all you have to do.’”

It doesn’t have to be anything great.

“You could suggest, ‘I don’t mind if you protest, but just not in the morning,’ or ‘Could you just take a break for one day?’ And then you offer something in return. You’ve got money for that, right? The money Genitz left for you. Yeah... Offer an amount equal to half of that person’s monthly paycheck. That’ll whet the appetite!”

Humans are funny. If they see a large amount of money, they put up their guard. But when they see a small amount, they take it, figuring it’s no problem. Even though the crime committed is the same, if the bribe is small, they think it’s forgivable. But it doesn’t work that way in reality.

“Now this person is all yours. While before, the person’s weakness was merely a slight embarrassment, from that point on, the weakness stems from taking money from the enemy. Now you can use that individual however you like. You can use the weakness to make that person reveal the weaknesses of others.”

Then you do the same to those people. Once their weaknesses are revealed and they have nowhere to run, they’ll try to rope in others as accomplices. In fact, they’ll try to increase the size of the group to minimize their own crimes. But it’s all pointless.

“Then you can take down a real leader for the first time. For you, that should be easy. You won’t even need any tools. Your bare hands will be enough. And there are many ways to make death look natural. Like ryuuku.”

Ryuuku was a bujutsu technique Lud knew. A bare-handed attack could stop an opponent’s heartbeat, even through armor.

“Then you can leak all the weaknesses you’ve collected so the group collapses on its own. Its members actually despise each other. And since they don’t have anyone to mediate, they’ll cast accusations at each other and then it’s happily ever after!”

Since their objective was attacking others, they would themselves be weak when falling under attack. That was why they usually chose targets who wouldn’t fight back.

Humans do the very things they don’t want others to do to them. So in trying to defeat an enemy, you should attack the same way they attack you.

“Easy, no? You’ve done it countless times.”

When Lud had been a Werewolf, he used that method to defeat many organizations defying Wiltia. This method minimized the number of assassination targets and damaged the reputations of resistance groups.

“Don’t be ridiculous! I won’t do that!”

Lud raised his voice for the first time.

“I’m not you anymore! I stopped doing those things!”

Firmly, he tried to refuse the temptation his past self was offering.

“Tsk...”

The fourteen-year-old Lud returned a look that suggested he was looking at someone beyond hope.

“It’s no use, Langart. You’re you. In the end, you’re a wolf. You can’t change that. Sooner or later, this was bound to happen.”

In a flash, the young Lud took on the appearance of Genitz.

“You!”

In Lud’s vision, Genitz was wandering the world after death, trying to drag him to Hell.

“They’re pigs! They hunger to see themselves as justice warriors! What do you suppose gives people the greatest pleasure?”

“..................”

Lud didn’t answer Genitz’s question. He didn’t even want to.

“Ruling others.”

Genitz answered without waiting for a reply.

“Life is beyond your control. You can’t live the way you want. You can’t even die the way you want. And I’m a perfect example!”

Genitz had tried to become king but had died, not even leaving behind a corpse. Now he laughed as if something was funny.

“That’s why people want to control others. They can forget their own powerlessness while toying with the lives and deaths, the happiness and misery of others.”

The next thing Lud knew, Genitz was right in front of him. And a black darkness filled his eyes. This statement wasn’t based on superficial knowledge. It derived from a realization about true human nature based on his own experience.

“The pleasure is enormous, surpassing any drug. To obtain it, people are capable of anything. It can easily drive even someone like you to destruction.”

Genitz seemed to be telling him that the difficulty Lud was facing and the people calling him evil were only doing so because they wanted to feel better. Stomping on someone while spouting slogans about justice is the greatest pleasure for people who don’t actually know if they’re right and can’t even rule their own minds. They only believe they are representing justice when stomping on those they have deemed evil.

“Is it all right for such people to do whatever they please? Teach them what kind of monster’s tail they’ve stepped on! Teach them with your fangs!”

Plenty of solutions were available as long as Lud didn’t care how his actions appeared. He had the necessary knowledge, skills and experience. But he rejected that option.

“I refuse.”

He had been injured during the hostage incident a few days ago. Even though Marlene had been surprised at Lud’s rapid three-day recovery, an opponent who Lud would have easily slaughtered before had immobilized him for three days.

“I’m not a wolf. I’m a human being. And I’ve finally started to live like one!”

Lud had no intention of giving up on himself now that he was weakening as a soldier and enjoying it.

“You idiot!”

Genitz spat as if Lud was beyond saving.

“If you waste time like this, the past will come for you!”

“Then I’ll face it when it does.”

With determination, Lud answered Genitz’s ultimatum.

“Are you sure?”

At that moment, the figure in front of Lud changed again.

“Can you really do that?”

A girl appeared.

“You’re...”

As soon as Lud saw her face, he felt as if someone had pierced his heart with a knife of ice.

Morning arrived in Organbaelz. It was before dawn, not yet sunrise. Morning at the bakery came early.

“Well, what should I do?”

And Sven’s morning started even earlier. She was a mechanical doll, so she didn’t need to sleep. She performed physical self-maintenance while in a temporarily dormant state, but it was much shorter than human sleep.

Lud would wake up immediately before dawn. But before that, Sven was already busy with her morning tasks, such as cleaning the shop inside and out, and brewing coffee to welcome her master when he awoke. For the last few days, however, an unwelcome task was added to her list of chores.

“This gets worse every day!”

Sven faced a mountain of trash in front of the shop. It came from the protestors who were disrupting shop sales day after day. And it wasn’t just discarded trash from the protestors’ meals. Instead, they had gathered trash from all over town and scattered it around.

“Tsk! What elaborate harassment!”

If Lud saw it, he would be devastated all over again. So her morning task was to clean it away before he woke up. The trash didn’t just consist of waste paper and cardboard. Much of it was food scraps. And there were even animal corpses such as cats and rats.

“Surely they didn’t kill these animals themselves!”

If so, they couldn’t be called believers in peace and freedom! This was first-rate harassment, but if a business serving food neglected such a mess outside its premises, it would be a health violation. Fortunately, Sven’s exceptional processing speed allowed her to efficiently clean it each day, or the protestors would probably report it and the local health department would rescind Tockerbrot’s operating permit.

“Soon they’ll start spreading around vomit and poop!”

Sven sighed, but she rapidly cleaned up the trash. In ten minutes, she had achieved a state of cleanliness that would take even a trained janitor at least an hour.

“Oh my!”

In the military, the mind is trained as well as the body. Increasing stress tolerance is necessary to stay calm and focused under extreme duress. For example, some soldiers had to eat food scattered on the floor in front of others. Bearing such humiliation produced a strong mind unaffected by emotion and capable of remaining composed.

Sven, a former weapon, wasn’t just for show. She could bear this much humiliation, but... At this rate, it’s only going to get worse. She could have easily dealt with the mob of civilians. However, her master didn’t want to remove them by force.

Should I perform a divide-and-conquer tactic and conceal it from Master? It won’t take even a week if I find out the weak point of the chief strategist, and have the group collapse from within.

Then, as Sven was mumbling to herself...

“—!!”

A scream came from inside the shop. There was no need to ask: Lud was the only one inside the shop at this hour.

“Master?!”

Sven’s face paled at the thought of the protestors pulling a sneak attack. Without collecting her cleaning implements, Sven hurried back to the shop.

“Master!”

Tockerbrot wasn’t big. Thanks to reconstruction and repeated extensions, however, it wasn’t too small either. The living area was tiny, but Sven was so anxious that even this short distance was vexing as she headed toward Lud’s bedroom. Usually, she would knock on the door and wait for permission to enter, but since this was an emergency, she skipped that step and threw open the door.

“Mary!!”

“What?”

As soon as she opened the door, she heard Lud’s voice calling the name of a woman Sven didn’t know as he woke with a start.

“HUFF... HUFF... HUFF... Oh... it was just a dream.”

Lud had been having a nightmare. Sweat soaked his body, and he was breathing heavily.

“Um, Master?”

Lud’s condition was upsetting to Sven, but the question of Mary’s identity was even more disturbing.

“Oh... Sven. Sorry. Did I scare you?... Ha ha...”

Lud replied as calmly as possible and let out a dry laugh that didn’t touch his eyes, out of consideration for the shocked Sven.

Sven knew he was pretending. Due to the problems over the last few days, she wondered if he had dreamed about something from his past. That made Sven question who Mary was even more. However, it wasn’t the right moment to ask.

“Wow... I’m sweating like crazy. I should go outside and rinse off at the well.”

Lud got out of bed, moving more slowly than usual, and walked past Sven, heading for the well behind the shop.

“Uh... Master?”

Sven knew part of Lud’s past. She remembered every single word he had said. However, there was no way she could know things he didn’t talk about or didn’t want to talk about. And Lud had never mentioned a woman named Mary.

Sven stood where she was for a moment but then realized she needed to prepare a towel for Lud, as well as a warm drink, since the season was too cold for bathing outside in the morning. Sven’s movements had less spring than usual.

An acquaintance of Master’s from long ago... Someone able to greatly upset him...

She remembered once meeting Sophia, Lud’s former senior officer. At that time, she thought Sophia was Lud’s old girlfriend, but the truth was that Sophia was more like a sister he had known since childhood. This, however, felt different.

“Oh!”

While she was distracted by her pondering, she inadvertently knocked over a sugar pot. Such clumsiness was usually unimaginable for Sven.

“Get out, you war criminal!!”

“The murderer must face judgment for his crimes!”

“Hurrah for peace! We demand freedom!”

Once again, people who supposedly loved peace and freedom were in front of Tockerbrot and raising their voices in good conscience. Lud had survived many catastrophic situations, but this still rattled him. In fact, the weight of his dream at dawn made his heart more fragile than usual.

“...............”

As he silently baked bread to line up in the storefront where there were no customers—or rather, where no customers could even enter—Lud looked sad.

“Master...”

Sven was miserable at her helplessness in the situation confronting Lud. Then she heard a voice outside.

“Are you going to a bakery like this?!”

The protestors that Lud believed were well-meaning were stopping customers still trying to enter the shop despite the turmoil over the last few days.

They surrounded the confused shoppers and repeated, “People who buy bread at a shop like this are racists!”

Most customers, facing such treatment, had no choice but to go home. However, today was a little different than usual.

“Aw, shut up! Get outta my way!!”

A man yelled thunderously.

“What...?”

Lud had been hanging his head, but now he raised it at the familiar voice.

“Hello! I’m comin’ in!”

After a moment, the owner of the voice—and two others came into the shop.

“Laurel...?”

Surprised, Lud appeared from the oven room.

Laurel was the boss of the miners at Baelz Mine in Organbaelz. Because of his dignity and the great trust the other miners placed in him, he was the real authority at the mine.

“I heard what was going on. The grub in the cafeteria has tasted like rot recently... and now I know why!”

Laurel’s age was well over fifty, but his frame was as large as Lud’s, with a thick chest and log-like arms and legs. He had the body of a man who had lived in soil and waged war against the mountain.

“I got ticked and took a petition with the miners’ signatures to the mine office this morning. I demanded they order your bread again in the future!”

“What?!”

Baelz Mine was currently one of Tockerbrot’s important clients. However, deliveries had been suspended since the group outside complained to the mine.

“Don’t worry. I won’t abandon you,” Laurel said after a snort.

“Um...”

One of the other two people with Laurel, spoke to Lud as he stood speechless.

“Lud, I spoke to people at city hall and the community association, and we’re going to fight for you.”

“Marlene...?”

It was Marlene, the nun from the church atop the hill. Because of her status as a woman of God, she was an important member of the community. For the past few days, she had been convincing people to take Lud’s side.

“Everyone is in trouble. Because of those protestors, we can’t eat your bread!”

Lud was stunned. However, he replied with bitter determination.

“No, you mustn’t do that!”

Lud declined their good will.

“You know what kind of people are out there!”

The protestors had little idea of neutrality—almost none, in fact. If someone wasn’t on their side, that person was their enemy. The enemy was evil, but the protestors represented justice. That was their argument.

“I can’t cause the townsfolk any trouble.”

After Lud spoke, a boy responded sharply from his hiding place behind Laurel.

“Knock it off, Lud!”

“You...”

It was Jacob, Lud’s first friend in Organbaelz. And he was angrily glaring at Lud.

“Don’t you get it? You are one of the townsfolk!”

This boy usually spoke with merry laughter, but now he sounded intensely angry.

“So get your act together and rely on us! Are you gonna let them get away with this nonsense?!”

“Hey, kid... Take it easy.”

“I can’t!”

Laurel tried to calm Jacob, but the boy wouldn’t stop.

“Who are those people anyway?! They don’t know anything about Lud! They call him a fake baker and a murderer, but they don’t know anything!”

It was unusual for Jacob to shout like this. Even if he had been the one insulted, he wouldn’t usually get this excited. Jacob was angrier than he would be if he were the victim because the insults were targeting his friend.

“I’ll come again tomorrow, too! Who cares about those people?! I sure don’t!”

“Jacob...”

Lud wanted to cry. He had established a shop in town, but had been all alone during the first year. Now people extended their hands to him as a fellow member of the community. And that made him immensely happy.

“Master, I’m so glad for you!”

Sven wanted to cry, too.

“Oh... I’m sorry, everyone.”

“No, that’s not the point, Lud!”

Marlene spoke exasperatedly to Lud as he hung his head.

“I started to tell you this before, but apologies aren’t appropriate in this situation. In a case like this...”

The servant of God started to deliver a valuable sermon, but another obstacle arose.

“Is this the murderer’s bakery?”

The people raising this fuss had finally entered the shop.

“Who are you? What are you doing in here?”

“Jacob, stop...”

Jacob was still emotional and glared at the man in front of him.

“So you’re in cahoots with this war criminal, huh? Aren’t you ashamed? You’re Pelfian, aren’t you?”

“I’m both.”

Jacob’s mother was Pelfian, and his father was Wiltian.

“Oh... a mongrel, huh?”

“What?!”

The protestors looked mockingly at the boy.

“Hey, you! That’s no way to talk to a kid!!”

As if he couldn’t bear to listen to them, Laurel leaned on them with his weight as an adult.

“W-What?! Are you from this town?! You’re all nuts if you’re grateful for bread from a killer!”

They flinched, but they continued hurling insults.

“Every day, we’re saying he’s a murderer and a Wiltian goon, but no one will agree with us!”

They had assumed that the townsfolk, seeing their protest, would join them and help them drive Lud from Organbaelz.

“No one in this town agrees with you people!”

Marlene shouted at them coldly.

“You’re nuts for believing everything written in a foreign magazine article full of lies! Sure, Lud’s face is shocking when you see it for the first time, but no one would ever believe he’d do such things!”

Marlene knew what kind of man Lud was. She knew very well that he used to be sad, with his body hunched over because no one would eat his bread.

“Shut your trap! He tried to kill Miroslav—a warrior for freedom!”

“No! Lud only tried to help him!”

Jacob raised his voice in anger once more at the man’s untrue claim.

“How do you know that, you brat?!”

“Because I was one of the hostages! I was a witness!”

Anyone should be able to discern which was the truth—a foreign magazine article based on hearsay or a witness who was actually present. But not the protestors.

“Ha! He is a mongrel! So it’s no surprise he speaks in Wiltia’s favor!”

These people refused to believe anything but what they wanted to believe.

“I think... something’s not right here.”

Marlene’s face registered both anger and suspicion. Although she was now a nun at the church, she had once cooperated with a terrorist group. Before that, she had been a somewhat notorious delinquent in Ponapalas, the old capital.

“If you have complaints against Wiltia, there are other ways to present them! Like going to Ponapalas! Or to Berun, the royal capital! What’s the point of ruining a rural bakery?!”

“Urgh...”

The Citizens Who Love Peace and Freedom grumbled at her quite reasonable question.

“Maybe you’ve got some other objective in mind?”

Marlene had experienced very different hardships than Lud and Sven, and she had instinctively sensed that while the protestors spouted pretty words, they had other motives inside.

“Sh-Shut up, you dogs of the authorities!”

She hit a sensitive spot, because they got violently agitated, raised their voices, and tried to forcefully change the subject.

“S-Stop... No more! Please!”

Lud couldn’t stand watching any longer, and he implored them to stop.

“W-We’re inside the shop! Inside... Please, just go home.”

As much as possible, Lud didn’t want to upset them, but if they became violent inside the shop, it was a different story. Until now, the protestors had been shouting and demonstrating on a public road, so he couldn’t prohibit their actions. Inside the shop was his private territory, so they had an obligation to listen to him.

“Ha! Oh, I get it!”

The protestors stopped for a moment, but now they smiled cruelly as they hit on a new idea.

“Then I’ll buy something. And if I pay, I’m a customer, right?”

One of the protestors pulled a few copper coins from a wallet.

It was enough to buy the cheapest bread at Tockerbrot.

“That’s...”

“What? Don’t you sell to Pelfians? Is that because you’re a proud Wiltian baker?”

They glared at Lud, who was confused.

“No, it’s not like that. W-which bread would you like?”

If the man wanted to make a purchase, Lud couldn’t refuse. Lud was afraid the man would use a few copper coins as an excuse to stay in the shop, but his true intentions were even worse.

“Here.”

Lud handed the man a croissant wrapped in a paper bag.

“Heh! I’m a customer and this is what I bought! So it’s mine, right?”

The protestors wore malicious smiles.

“Who would eat this garbage?!”

The man threw the bread to the floor and stepped on it. His feet smashed the croissant in the paper bag. And when he kept stomping, it lost its original shape altogether.

“Oh no!”

Lud knelt with an expression of dark despair. He had experienced many difficulties. People had told him, “We won’t eat bread baked by a Wiltian soldier,” and “We have no idea what’s inside your bread!”

Laurel, Marlene and Jacob were on his side now, but even they had been suspicious of him at first. But this was different. This was on a whole other level. It was a powerful and fundamental rejection of his very existence.

“Why are you crying? A big lout like you?! Disgusting!”

Lud was in tears, and they were laughing at him.

“You have no right to play the victim!”

Then they fell silent. And they weren’t the only ones. Jacob, Marlene, Laurel and everyone present had frozen.

No matter how intelligent and civilized humans become, they’re still animals with instincts that cannot be lost. And that was how they sensed a sudden change.

“You...”

Sven was emitting a hateful... No, a menacing look that wasn’t quite human. Someone much more powerful than even the strongest among them was standing before them with the clear intent to kill. It was so fierce that they felt, in the marrow of their bones, they were now prey.

“That’s enough, you!”

Sven couldn’t control herself any longer. She was going to kill them. They had tarnished, tread upon and mocked the one she loved and valued above all others. Killing them a hundred times wouldn’t be enough.

“W-What... Y-You...”

The protestors made a false show of power even in the face of her murderous rage.

“Shut up! That’s enough! No more talking!”

Sven grabbed the man’s collar. With just one punch, she could kill.

“H-Hey! Did you see? She laid hands on me! That’s assault! You saw it, right?”

The man shouted as if to say, “I’ve got you now!”

Perhaps that had been what they wanted all along. They had tried various means of provocation, so if someone even slightly touched them, they could claim they had been subjected to violence. And then they could use that to further damage Tockerbrot.

“We’ve got tons of witnesses! This is the end for you!”

They were gloating. But they didn’t understand. This was out of their hands now.

“Do whatever you want,” Sven mumbled coldly. “I’ll just kill all of you.”

“What?!”

She wouldn’t bear it any longer. The protestors had repeatedly insulted Lud. They should be thankful that dying was all that would happen to them. It didn’t matter if there were ten, one hundred, one thousand or ten thousand of them. She would kill them all.

“Now die.”

Sven tightened her fist and was about to launch it when two voices interrupted.

“Stop, Sven! You mustn’t do that!”

“Enough! If this goes any further, I cannot overlook it!”

Sven’s intention to kill eased off. Lud grasped Sven from behind.

“Stop, Sven! Stop, please!”

“............!”

Usually, Sven would be dazed and disoriented when her beloved Lud held her, but even this didn’t stop her fierce blood thirst.

“Please... I don’t like to see you like this. Please...”

“Master...”

As Lud spoke to her, Sven finally relented. But her face was twisted and she bit her lips in frustration.

“It’s all right now.”

Lud raised his voice in relief when Sven finally stopped. However...

“She tried to kill me! She almost killed me!”

The protestors thought this was their chance and grew cocky again.

“They don’t know when to stop...”

Disgusted, Jacob insulted them, but the owner of the other voice interrupted.

“I told you to stop!”

The protestors never listened to anyone, but when this woman spoke, they stopped for the first time.

“You...?”

A woman was standing in the entrance to the shop. She was dignified and beautiful, with an aura that would freeze any who saw her, as if she was an ice sculpture blessed with the breath of life.

Indeed, Lud froze at the sight of her face. He looked as if he had seen something he couldn’t believe. His face was more astonished than if he had seen a ghost.

“Mary...”

Lud mumbled in amazement and the woman, Mary Ville Mehl, responded.

“So you finally recognized me?”