by SOW
“Is that so...”
Lud understood and began to feel as if cold, heavy chains were cutting into his entire body.
“In that case—”
Before Lud could finish, Sven spoke up.
“In that case, please allow me to speak with the people directly!”
The general affairs chief tried to stop her but he could not oppose Sven’s vaguely threatening look as she said, “If you tell us that the workers won’t accept it, the only thing we can do is to speak with them directly, correct?”
With that, the two of them entered the miner’s small break shack, close to the open mine.
“Excuse me, please!” The small shack overflowed with the stench of sweat, earth, and tired men, but Sven’s voice rang out.
“I have come from Tockerbrot. I am the waitress there. My name is Sven.”
In her hands was the case filled with fragrant, fresh bread.
“I have refreshments for you all!”
It was just before lunch, so the laborers gazed hungrily at the case as though it contained treasure. Better yet, the beautiful Sven was carrying the delicious-looking bread and the combination erased any suspicions the men had.
“Ooooh!”
“Hey, little girl, can we have some?”
“Amazing! I heard the rumors, but she’s like a fairy...”
The men were immediately charmed by Sven and reached out for the bread.
“Here you go, please take as much as you want! Grin!”
Enthusiastic cheers erupted in the shack. Until...
“Hey!”
While not very loud, the voice was deep. The atmosphere in the room changed and everyone froze and turned toward an elderly man sitting at a table in the back of the room.
“Nice to meet you, Mister...”
“I’m Laurel. I’m the foreman here.” Laurel returned Sven’s bright smile with a scowling look.
He appeared to be over fifty years old, and the strong muscles and deep scars from wrestling the earth gave him the look of a seasoned soldier.
“Who gave you permission to come here?” Laurel glared at Sven with hard eyes like a water buffalo that would send a lion flying if provoked.
“We received permission from the man at the office.”
Without shrinking back, Sven returned his look.
“That damned geezer does whatever he feels like... Get out of here, we don’t want you here.”
As though he was driving off a stray dog by saying, “If you don’t get outta here, I’m dumping water on you, and then I’m gonna drive you off with the rod,” Laurel waved his hand at Sven.
However, Sven wasn’t like a dog. She was more like a wolf, and she looked him directly in the eyes.
“Please tell me why.”
“It’s bread from a Wiltian soldier. I don’t know what he might have stuffed in there.”
Lud didn’t say anything. He had fought no major battles in Pelfe. But, his comrades had. He didn’t doubt that Laurel had lost precious people at the hands of Wiltian soldiers.
“You’re an awfully narrow-minded mole boss, aren’t you?”
“What?!”
With a careless smile, Sven had insulted not just Laurel, but all the men at the mine. It was as if she had tossed a stick of dynamite into a tanker filled to the brim with oil.
Mining was hard and dangerous work. The miners confronted cave-ins, lack of oxygen, and poisonous gas eruptions. These men felt a strong sense of pride toward their work and their profession. Sven had spit on their pride.
“Who’re you calling a mole...”
She saw a raging fire on the face of Laurel, and all the other miners as well.
“Oh, am I mistaken? Not a mole, but a worm? Perhaps a mole cricket?” Her contemptuous smile poured more fuel on the fire. It flared higher, and began to change into hell fire.
“This bitch! You better be read—”
“Hold your tongue!” Sven’s powerful yell silenced the uproar. Walking quickly, as if the floor was giving way under her feet, Sven approached Laurel. A miner reached out to stop her but at Sven’s glare, he retracted his hand.
“Let’s see if your body is smarter than your brain,” Sven suggested.
She ran her hands across the table near Laurel, brushing off the ash trays, bottles, and glasses, and placed her elbow on the table.
“Shall we settle things like this?”
She had taken up an arm wrestling pose.
The stillness that dominated the shack was so overwhelming that Lud could almost hear the silence running through it.
“... Pft.”
Someone snickered, and as if the signal had been given, there was a loud burst of laughter around the room.
“Bwahahahaha.”
It was understandable. A delicate, lovely girl had challenged a giant like Laurel, who could wrestle three grown men with one hand, to an arm wrestling match.
“If I lose, then you all can do whatever you want to me,” Sven added.
Suddenly, the men’s laughing stopped.
“If I lose, I will let you use me however you want.”
It was true that these men could be vulgar and disorderly, but they were still human. They weren’t beasts that pounced on any woman they saw. However, Sven’s suggestion almost seized their reason.
“Leave.”
Laurel had not lost his head, and he was furious.
“Don’t wreak further havoc here. Leave now. Do you think an arm that looks like the stem of a rose is gonna be any match for me?”
“Should I interpret that as a declaration of surrender, Mister Cowardly Mole?”
Ignoring the ultimatum, Sven’s will to fight remained.
“Don’t come crying to me.” With a sound like a hammer striking, Laurel placed his elbow on the table.
“Let’s make this clear. The loser will obey the orders of the winner, right?”
“Do what you want!”
Laurel wasn’t planning to treat Sven like a toy. He hadn’t fallen that far. But, Sven’s contempt had gone too far. Laurel would give her a painful lesson.
“Umph!”
At the signal, Laurel put just enough strength in his arm to knock this young girl down a peg or two. It wasn’t all of his strength. But, it should have been enough.
Yet, Sven’s arm didn’t move.
“What?!”
A look of surprise appeared on Laurel’s face. He knew how much strength he was using. It was enough power to force a well-built adult into submission. But, Sven’s arm didn’t budge, as if there was a pole running from her elbow on the table deep into the earth.
At that moment, fear began to show on Laurel’s face. It wasn’t a fear of losing. It was sheer terror of the young girl in front of him who suddenly looked like a strange creature.
“Hehehehehehe.”
Sven smiled, as if she realized his desperation. That smile was different from the one she showed Lud or her customers. It was a smile filled with contempt—as if she was looking down at a weak, foolish person and laughing at him.
“... Okay, that’s far enough.”
As easily as if she was turning on a water faucet, Sven flicked her wrist and Laurel’s arm was pushed down on to the table, his body rotated and he crashed to the floor. No one said a word. It was an unbelievable and impossible spectacle.
“My, my, what happened? Is the wax down there still wet, or something?”
Standing up, Sven mocked Laurel as he crouched, holding onto his arm.
“Dang, that... stupid...”
“You are the stupid one. Make sure you keep your promise.” She cast a cold gaze at the men nearby.
The men looked frightened and said nothing. They were grown men, trembling at a slender, young girl.
Some might hear this story and laugh at the miners for being cowardly, but anyone who witnessed it would think better of it.
Sven no longer appeared human. She looked like the demon wolf in legends who devoured the entrails of the gods.
“Sven!”
Lud slapped her as she turned around.
“What?”
“If you have to go this far, I don’t want this contract. I don’t want their business.”
Lud wanted people to eat his bread willingly, happily, and he would endure any hardship to this end. But Sven was using brute strength to pin them down, pry open their mouths and force bread down their throats. This was no different from the cruelty of the Wiltian army that the miners detested.
“The only thing you’ve done is damage these men’s pride.”
Saying this, Lud knelt down in front of Laurel and pressed his forehead to the floor.
“I apologize.”
He was prostrating himself, begging the men’s forgiveness. What exactly was he apologizing for? Perhaps for Sven’s actions, or perhaps for the actions of the military. He just had to apologize to them.
“Master, stop, please stop!”
Sven tried to force Lud to stand but he ignored her and continued to press his head to the floor. Laurel and the other miners stared dumbfounded, unable to say a word.
“...............”
Slowly getting up, Lud turned his back and said, “Forgive us for causing trouble. If you’d like, please eat some bread... There’s no... There’s no poison in it.”
Saying this with his back turned, Lud felt like his chest was being torn apart. Lud had made his bread with milk, butter, chocolate chips, almond powder, and walnuts. He had not and would never put in a speck of poison.
“If you can’t trust my words... then throw it away.”
Lud left the small shack.
“Wait, Master!”
Frantic, Sven followed after him. Lud’s expression was dark, and he was enveloped in a sadness so heavy that he thought it might crush and kill him.
Lud got into the truck without saying a word. Usually, Lud would open the passenger door for Sven, but today he climbed in and rested his head on the wheel in defeat. Sven opened the passenger door on her own and sat next to him.
“U-Um... Master...”
Looking at Sven’s distressed face, Lud’s heart felt another blow. He had no harsh words for Sven. He understood that, in her own way, she was thinking about Lud and about the bakery, but he didn’t have the energy to worry about Sven.
Silently, he tried to start the engine and after a low murmuring sound, the engine stalled. The truck had been running so well lately, and for it to stall now felt to Lud like mockery.
Bam!
Lud bashed the wheel. He wasn’t angry at Sven; in fact, he wasn’t really angry at all. He had thought that when he stopped being a soldier, he wouldn’t have to hurt anyone anymore, but he had done something that caused pain and sadness.
Chapter 3: Stone
Sven and Lud returned to the bakery and opened it as the evening approached. Sven cheerfully served customers as usual, and Lud silently baked bread. The two didn’t exchange a word. They didn’t know what to say to one another.
Very early the next morning, Sven was lying on the cot in the attic. She had spent the entire night thinking how to best approach Lud. Among the hundreds of thousands of scenarios she thought up, the greatest chance of success was still only fourteen percent.
“What should I do... I don’t know...”
Ten days had passed since Lud had first said “thank you” to her for bringing customers into the bakery. She had been wrapped in euphoria then, but now she had no idea what to do.
It was time for work. Lud was up and she could hear him working at the kiln downstairs.
“... I’ve got to get going.”
Sven changed into her work clothes. It was an unforgivable crime to run away in the face of an enemy. She couldn’t abandon the field of battle. But, her movements were sluggish, as if her legs were eaten away by rust.
As she opened the attic door and began to lower the ladder, she met Lud’s eyes below.
“Huh?”
“Oh... M-Morning...” Holding a tray of bread, Lud was standing aimlessly.
This was unexpected. Suddenly ambushed, Sven was unable to put up a proper resistance.
Lud called out to her, “S-Sven!”
“Y-Yes!”
Sven’s body jumped to attention. Was he going to fire her?
But he responded with a surprising question.
“I-I made something new. Will you try it for me?”
“Y... Yes.”
Lud was forcing the edges of his mouth to twitch and convulse.
Was Lud trying with all of his might to smile?
Lud had also been agonizing over how he could repair their relationship, and had mustered all his courage to speak to Sven.
“I tried baking regular bread dough with cookie dough around it. I thought both textures would be fun and different.”
Lud had come to the conclusion that if he kept the conversation on bread and work, then Sven wouldn’t get offended.
“O-Okay, I see...” She grabbed one of the new creations and took a bite.
The sweet cookie dough on the outside and the soft, fluffiness of the bread dough on the inside had a depth of flavor that Lud had increased by kneading butter into the dough. Sven analyzed each component of the taste, compared it to the ideal chewiness she calculated based on data about human occlusal capacity, and arrived at the conclusion that the bread was delicious.
“... I’m sorry about yesterday.”
“............?!”
“You were doing your best with everything you had, all for the sake of the bakery, and yet I slapped you... I am truly sorry. Will you... forgive me?” Lud asked.
Sven couldn’t believe it.
She was his follower, his servant, and his possession. She was frightened that if she offended Lud somehow, she would become unnecessary. Yet, Lud was scurrying to repair his relationship with her. It was a strange feeling. She was confused, and at the same time, a loud and clattering sensation burst forth from the bottom of her heart.
“......!!”
Without touching the upper section of her tongue in her mouth, an immeasurable amount of information rushed into Sven. The sweet flavor of Lud’s new creation suddenly spread through her mouth, and without thinking, she cried, “This is delicious!”
“Huh?”
“Th-This is very tasty! It’s flaky, and fluffy, and soft, and flaky!”
She had said flaky twice. Sven never misspoke.
“That... and... yesterday I was the one in the wrong... I was overly assertive, and because of that I forced Master to experience something painful. If there is any way I can apologize, then...”
“That’s not true! You did nothing wrong, Sven! It’s because I’m a coward...”
“No you’re wrong, Master is...”
“No, you’re wrong, I’m...”
The two stared at each other.
“It looks like we both screwed up, huh?” A clumsy, wry smile appeared on Lud’s face as he scratched his head.
“Master...”
It was strange. Earlier, Sven’s heart had been frozen and her body felt weak and tired, but after seeing that Lud had forgiven her, strength surged through her. It was so much power that she could easily demolish an entire armored division.
“What have you decided to call this?” Sven asked.
“Well... I haven’t thought about it. Since I made it to apologize to you, how about if you think up a name?”
“Me?!”
It was an honor. Sven couldn’t believe that she was being asked to give a name to something Lud had poured his heart and soul into.
“Umm, well...”
The two different doughs rose at different rates, so there were lattice lines running over the bread’s surface that reminded Sven of a fruit she had seen before.
“How does ‘pineapple bread’ sound?” she asked Lud.
“I get it... It does have that shape, doesn’t it? But, I don’t know, it kind
of looks like an Mrk2.”
The Mrk2 was a type of hand grenade that resembled the fruit of the South Seas.
“You don’t like pineapple bread?”
“Not at all, it’s interesting. Let’s start selling it today!”
“Okay!”
Peak lunch time was over, and Lud’s new bread had been well-received, although it was time-consuming to explain over and over that there wasn’t any pineapple in the pineapple bread.
Chomp, munch-munch-munch, gulp.
Jacob held his free milk tea in one hand and stuffed his mouth with pineapple bread with the other.
“Yeah, this is good.”
“Right?”
Lud was taking a break and the two of them sat in the back of the bakery.
“It’s been three days since you’ve stopped by. Did something happen?”
“It’s been busy at the shop, you know? My parents made me take a break from school to help out.”
Recently there had been a large number of customers in the repair shop and the young boy knew that the business wasn’t in a position to turn down any work.
“It was awful. I can’t believe there are still guys trying to pay with old Pelfe notes. That stuff is more worthless by the hour and they’re trying to use it? My mom had to run to the bank first thing this morning.”
Just before the annexation, Pelfe had been experiencing an economic recession and was barely able to stay afloat by overprinting bills. After annexation, Pelfe notes were exchanged for official Wiltia notes, but the exchange rate quickly spiraled downward, so unless you switched immediately, their value would keep plummeting. A Pelfe note that was enough to pay for lunch one day wouldn’t buy a coffee the next.
“Well, at least now crunch time is over, and you can rest a little—”
Crash!
The deafening sound of glass breaking came from the bakery.
“?!”
Jacob and Lud ran to the storefront, and saw that the front window to the bakery was broken, with shards of glass scattered about the inside of the store.
“What... in the world... shoot...”
The scattered pieces of glass had fallen on top of the bread on display. A rock the size of a balled fist lay on the floor. This wasn’t an accident. Someone had thrown the rock through the bakery’s front window.
“Wait, isn’t that girl Milly, from the church?”
