by SOW
The magazine holding the ammo had been removed from the gun.
“It’d be dangerous if a shot was fired, so I returned the bullets.”
“Returned them?”
Hilde didn’t understand what the Wolf Man was saying, and in a state of disbelief, she searched the holster again and found the magazine inside.
“I c-can’t believe you...”
He was fast. But even more, he took instantaneous advantage of lapses in his opponent’s attention and vision. If the Wolf Man wanted, he could have killed her three times by now.
“Ha ha ha... Impressive. You passed the test.”
Hilde was playing it tough, but she couldn’t hide that her fist was shaking.
She played the consummate soldier, but she had never experienced battle.
So this is a real fighter who survived the Great War...
She had felt the same caution when she faced Lud Langart, the Silver Wolf.
“Um, First Lieutenant? I just remembered! We were supposed to leave behind anything that could serve as a weapon before approaching him.”
“It’s too late to tell me that now!!”
Hilde yelled at the masked man who had also returned from the Great War but had no edge at all.
“Anyway, we can win now! I can get revenge against that man! Lud Langart, prepare yourself and wait for me! Wa ha ha ha ha!!”
Convinced of victory, Hilde laughed shrilly.
“Who are you guys?”
The Wolf Man wasn’t sure what was going on.
“Um, please wait a second. Right now, she’s in a transport of joy.”
The corporal said this in a tone that made it impossible to determine his feelings through the mask.
And then...
“Achoo!”
Meanwhile, inside Tockerbrot, back in Organbaelz...
Lud, whom Sven had permitted to leave his bed, sneezed once.
“Master! Have you caught a cold? I knew it! Your health is still... Let’s get you back into bed this instant!”
Sven’s overprotectiveness had escalated even further.
“No, I’m fine...”
Flustered, Lud responded with a troubled expression.
He wasn’t sick. And he knew it. But he had felt something... a strange, indescribable chill.
What was that? I hope nothing bad happens.
He possessed a kind of sixth sense that he had earned during his time on the battlefield. It was a warning of something yet to come, and it was sounding an alarm.
Chapter 2: Fake Blonde
In front of the main gate to the Weapons Development Bureau, located in a corner of Berun, the royal capital of the Principality of Wiltia...
“What’s going on?!”
The bureau’s head guard Major Sophia von Rundstadt raised her voice in fury. She was so angry that one of the security guards, Private First Class Sariya Richter was on the verge of tears.
“S-Sorry!”
“I’m not talking about you! What’s going on here?!”
It was midnight, when all work at the development bureau was drawing to a close. Suddenly, however, a Schutzstaffel force surrounded the bureau.
“It’s not just ten or twenty soldiers! They’ve mobilized at least two companies!”
According to Wiltia’s army regulations, a platoon had fifty soldiers and a company had two hundred. The number of soldiers surrounding the bureau was at least four hundred.
“We have confirmed armed trucks and artillery units. Impossible! We’re in the middle of a downtown location!”
PFC Sariya raised her voice in something like a scream.
“Have you contacted military command?”
“It seems they’ve cut our communications wires...”
“Tch!”
For a moment, Sophia imagined the worst: an insurgency by the Schutzstaffel. The leader of the Schutzstaffel was Genitz, whose desire for fame and success was insatiable. In Sophia’s opinion, he was capable of making the worst decisions.
“But... why here?”
Sophia was confused about the true intentions of the soldiers surrounding the bureau.
“Huh...?”
Meanwhile, a soldier who looked like a commanding officer approached with a few subordinates from the companies in front of the main gate.
“Are you Major Sophia von Rundstadt, head guard of the Royal Weapons Development Bureau?”
The badge on the man’s chest suggested he was a Schutzstaffel captain.
“I am Captain Rudolf Delz. Thank you for your service.”
His tone was polite, but he wore a slight grin.
Tch! How typical of the Schutzstaffel!
Sophia glared at him with contempt.
Thirty percent of soldiers in the regular army had retired due to post-war downsizing. Most of those soldiers were then reinstated as members of the Schutzstaffel. Many members of the Schutzstaffel glorified their backgrounds and held a warped pride in themselves, as if they were the chosen ones.
Or perhaps the Schutzstaffel selected such people on purpose. Those who take excessive pride in belonging to an organization will loyally obey any orders. They’re perfect pet dogs.
“What in the world are you doing?! Since when has the Schutzstaffel become a rebel force sending troops to the development bureau, which belongs to the royalty?”
Sophia intentionally condemned him with words that would hurt his pride.
“There is a problem, Major. You misunderstand.”
However, it didn’t appear to have worked on Delz, since the annoying grin still showed on his face.
“We received information that terrorists who support a rival monarchy are active in the royal capital. We are merely fulfilling our duty to preserve order.”
“Rival monarchy? Terrorists?”
Sophia had heard nothing about this.
“What kind of force is it? What sect and what faction are they from?!”
There were many anti-state groups, each with its own beliefs. The intelligence agency of the regular army had discovered over one hundred so far.
“We are currently investigating.”
“Where and how are they active? How many of them are there? What weapons do they have? What damage has been done?”
If entire companies had been mobilized, the trouble must be substantial. However, there was no sound of gunfire in the royal capital.
“We are currently investigating.”
“The development bureau’s communication lines have been cut. Did you do that?”
“We are currently investigating.”
Delz’s mouth loosened into a grin as he looked down on her.
“Why you...!”
He looked smugly into Sophia’s eyes, whose angry gaze was feared as the Dragon Slayer.
“We rushed here to protect the people of the development bureau. Security enforcement within the royal capital is the Schutzstaffel’s jurisdiction.”
The regular army’s headquarters were inside the royal palace, but the army itself was stationed outside the royal capital. The purpose was to maintain civilian control and prevent the military from taking over, but the arrangement backfired in this instance.
“Oh... Then this is easy to solve. Get lost! Nothing is happening! As long as our guards are here, there’s no need for your help!”
Sophia yelled at Delz, but his grin remained.
“I can’t let you do it your way, Major Rundstadt. A state of emergency is currently in effect for the royal capital. All public authorities are under the Schutzstaffel’s command. Do you know what this means?”
“No way... You...”
“You must leave here right now.”
Removing an active unit in the name of security enforcement was tantamount to calling them traitors.
“Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha... I’ve never been subjected to such humiliation!”
Sophia was laughing dryly. PFC Sariya, standing next to her, was now close to tears.
“Let’s fi
ght then. Bring it on.”
Sophia’s voice was quiet.
“Huh? What are you—”
“I’m saying that if you can do it, then do it, you dogs of the lord lieutenant general!!”
Before Delz could finish his question, Sophia interrupted as though she just didn’t care.
“Fine. I’ll give you a thirty-minute extension. If you reconsider and leave, I will forget what you just said. Good-bye.”
Delz left, keeping his pleased grin until the very end.
“W-What have you done? What are you going to do, Major?”
PFC Sariya was panicking.
Sophia’s emotional words were in defiance of authority.
“They’re treating us like terrorists!”
“But we’re not of course!”
Sophia scolded PFC Sariya.
“Remember, they cut our communication lines. And that’s a risky action. This could turn into a debacle for them if we call up command headquarters!”
The Schutzstaffel’s soldiers were under direct command of the royal family, so technically they only followed orders from the monarch. However, Wiltia had a constitutional government. Royal authority was not absolute.
There must be political reasons... No... there’s something I don’t know. If I could just get hold of information that would foil this reckless action!
The fact that the Schutzstaffel had mobilized two companies was proof that it was trying by any means, even by force, to suppress the development bureau. And from that she could make an inference...
Was there something inside the development bureau that could upset the current order in the principality? Sophia was the head guard, but no one told her what was in the depths of the development bureau. Sophia couldn’t interpret the situation any other way.
“Anyway, summon all the guards! Put up barricades! Gather weapons! They won’t get away with this nonsense! If we can hold out until morning, victory is ours!”
“Y-Yes, Ma’am!”
“I don’t think it’ll be that easy.”
Someone else was suddenly standing next to Sariya, who saluted in response to Sophia’s rapid-fire orders.
“Uwaaah!! Who’re you?! And how long have you been standing here?”
“Calm yourself, Private. That man is just a pervert! And he’s the director of this development bureau.”
Sophia calmed Sariya, who looked like a small, startled animal.
“Sophia? Is it normal to introduce me first as a pervert, and then by my position?”
It was Daian Fortuner, the director of the development bureau.
“What a mess. The lieutenant general is finally resorting to violence. Oh dear...”
Although the situation was tense, Daian appeared as relaxed as ever.
“Do you have something to say?”
Daian was responsible for the development bureau. If he wanted to take sides with the Schutzstaffel, Sophia would be on her own.
“No. I hate Genitz. Besides, I would never argue with a decision my beloved Sophia made.”
“Then give me command of security personnel assigned to the development bureau. I need more soldiers.”
“Sophia, you haven’t been very personable recently.”
Ignoring Daian, who was mumbling sadly, Sophia hurried to reorganize her unit.
There were about four hundred Schutzstaffel soldiers surrounding the bureau. By contrast, development bureau personnel amounted to no more than fifty, including Sophia’s guards and security staff.
“Didn’t someone once say that the attacking side needs over three times the defending side?”
Daian asked as if reading Sophia’s mind.
“That’s just a rule of thumb.”
Since the development bureau handled military secrets, it had strong security mechanisms already in place. However, the security was only to stop someone from infiltrating the organization and sneaking onto its premises. Armed insurgents from Wiltia, invading in full force through the front gate, presented a completely unexpected situation.
“I wonder if we can hold until morning. It’s already late autumn, so the nights are long now.”
Daian’s relaxed voice was annoying Sophia more than usual today.
“You...!”
“So I have a better idea.”
Sophia was about to yell, but before she could, the eccentric genius with the nickname Sorcerer put his index finger to his mouth and made a suggestion.
In Organbaelz, Thanksgiving is the last Thursday in October.
Wiltia, and most other nations, celebrated Thanksgiving on the first Thursday, but the people of Organbaelz had decided to change the date to the birthday of a saint in Pelfe that was closer to the anniversary of the opening of Baelz Mine.
Merging many celebrations, it was the most cheerful day of the year.
“What a problem!”
Inside Tockerbrot, Sven was muttering while cleaning.
“Are you talking about Lud?” asked Jacob, who had come to help.
If there was anything troubling this skillful, silver-haired waitress, there was a 99.99 percent chance that it was related to her beloved master Lud.
“Yes!”
She agreed and sighed once more.
The happiness of Thanksgiving dispelled everyday gloominess and there would be a bountiful feast. There would be salted pork spare ribs, smoked beef, baked whole chicken, and lamb sausages. And all-you-can-drink wine and beer would be available. Plus lots of sweets. Tockerbrot, Lud’s bakery, had been asked to bake those sweets.
“Do bakeries have that much to do on Thanksgiving?”
Sven answered Jacob proudly.
“Yes, they do. The sweets for the festival are called Königskuchen. There’s a sweetbread like a brioche, pies like kuchen, fried bread with jam inside like a Berliner, pies like galettes, and so much more!”
The shop had received an order for all the sweets for that day.
“Oh... Yeah, come to think of it, there are different kinds of sweets every year, but usually they are nothing special. They never taste that great.”
Until this year, there had been sugar-covered fried bread, cookies made by regular folk, and cherry pies that were stale because they had been ordered and delivered from another town. There was no denying that they had been boring and mediocre sweets for such a special festival.
“Didn’t we start selling lemon pies last week?”
“They were very popular.”
Since they added refrigerating equipment, Tockerbrot’s sweets menu had grown. The reaction of the townsfolk was enthusiastic, which was why they asked Lud to provide the sweets this year.
“To be honest, I want master to turn down the offer.”
Sven complained with a troubled look on her face.
“We can afford the ingredients, but we won’t make any profit. It’ll just take too much effort, time, and manpower.”
Instead of a profitable work order, it was more like being a festival sponsor. They wanted Lud to provide sweets instead of donating money.
“But he’s willing to do it, right?”
“That’s right. He’s stubborn and won’t budge.”
Lud had been delighted when he heard the news from Marlene. He already had work piling up, but in his spare time he researched sweets for the festival.
“It’s unusual for Master to show such enthusiasm.”
Sven had tried in subtle ways to convince him to refuse, but it hadn’t stopped Lud.
“I guess that’s understandable, considering what happened last year.”
“Last year?”
Sven looked at Jacob, who wore a bitter smile with his arms crossed.
“Um, it was last year when he came to this town. You know, people avoided him for a long time.”
Lud Langart, who was a kind and loyal man, had one drawback. He scared people. Women ran away, children cried, adult men got the shakes, and even thugs were afraid. Once, after encountering Lud, a man had handed over his w
allet, bowed low to the ground, and begged Lud to spare his family.
For a whole year, until Sven had appeared and dramatically reformed management of the business, no one visited the bakery. Lud’s appearance was that fierce.
“That’s why he closed the shop last Thanksgiving, kept the curtains closed, and stayed quiet inside all day.”
He didn’t want to upset innocent people by attending the festival.
“Poor Master!”
Sven couldn’t stop tears from filling her eyes. She covered her mouth and sobbed.
“But this year they asked him, right? Of course that would delight him! He’d try it even at the risk of his life!”
It was no exaggeration to say that Lud’s life depended on his passion for bread. The bread he baked pleased others. With that as encouragement, he made baking his life’s work and had undertaken its challenges.
Honesty and hard work were characteristic of Wiltians, but Lud possessed them more than most.
“Hmmmmm...”
Arms crossed, Sven pondered.
Lud Langart was without a doubt the most important thing in the world to her. She would face any difficult problem or strong opponent for him. However, this was troublesome because Lud often put himself in peril.
“He’s a former soldier, so maybe he pushes himself too hard.”
Jacob said this with a wry smile.
“Oh? You misunderstand, Jacob.”
“Huh? But I thought the military was so strict and dirty and sad that it makes you miss home. And they make you put up with it while saying, ‘It’s for the nation!’”
“It’s not quite like that.”
In the military, the most important thing was to train soldiers efficiently and correctly.
In order to do that, a soldier’s vital organs and mental state needed to be in top condition at all times. The military provided army medics and medical facilities in case of injury and sickness. To maintain the soldiers’ strength, it paid close attention to meal menus and nutritional balance. Moreover, the military had to provide appropriate leave and rotate troops in order to avoid fatigue buildup.
“For soldiers to perform efficiently, rest is necessary. Master was an ace pilot, so even though he was sent to areas with fierce fighting, he was so successful that he received a lot of leave.”