On the third night, at Tockerbrot in Organbaelz...
“Ugh... I’m tired, but this is a nice tired feeling.”
Blitzdonner, who had been known as the top soldier in Wiltia, finished his work and was enjoying a short break. His task today was far removed from fighting on a burning battlefield. He had been kept busy again today with customer service in the bakery.
“This reminds me of old times.”
“Old times?” Sven responded. In the three days since he arrived, she had grown accustomed to him.
“Yes. Back when my family was even poorer.”
Only Sven and Blitzdonner were in the shop. Lud had gone out as usual after the morning baking. Then he returned before lunch to bake bread, and left again to pick up stock and make deliveries. And Jacob, who was a valuable member of the customer service staff, wasn’t there either. Sven was the only one left to run the shop.
She had been vaguely uneasy around Lud. He hadn’t thrown up a wall between them. Instead, he seemed to be avoiding her.
“Your father is Mr. Joseph Shylock, right?”
Perhaps because of that, Sven felt like talking to this problematic and uninvited guest. It helped relieve her stress.
“That’s right. I guess you’ve met him a few times.”
“Yes. Your father set fire to our shop once.”
“I s-suppose... that caused some difficulty.”
Joseph Shylock was Jacob’s grandfather and Blitzdonner’s father. He was one of the most successful businessmen in Wiltia. Just over six months ago, he accidentally ran into Jacob and tried to take him to Wiltia. He had caused a lot of turmoil, and after a number of incidents, a fire completely destroyed Tockerbrot.
“But he did pay the entire cost of repairs.”
“Oh...” Blitzdonner nodded as if that made sense.
“Along with that, we asked him to pay for an extension, new machinery, and a new oven.”
“I s-see...”
Sven hadn’t let Shylock stop at just restoring the shop, and Blitzdonner was taken aback by the way Sven could turn anything into a profit.
“You’re impressive. The whole world would be surprised to know that you pried money from Greedy Shylock.”
“You’ve got that right!”
Old Shylock was known as a monster in business. In Wiltia and around the world, he was known as Greedy Shylock.
“What estranged you from each other?” Sven asked casually, without thinking.
“Huh?” Blitzdonner scratched his head for a moment as if wondering how to answer the question. “Let’s see... I was young, and I guess the old man couldn’t handle it.”
“Huh?” Sven looked dubious at Blitzdonner’s answer, which wasn’t really an answer.
“I don’t know how else to put it.”
Blitzdonner had run away from home just over ten years ago after a fierce clash with his father.
“My mother died around that time, and the old man was difficult after he got so rich, and then a business competitor pressed false charges against him and got him thrown in jail.”
“Is that when you became a different person?”
Blitzdonner was a false name. But, it was his official name according to Wiltian records, which suggested he had obtained someone else’s citizenship through an extralegal measure.
“It was a confused time, before the war, so there were ways to erase one’s history.”
The Principality of Wiltia had been forced to fight a war on two fronts. There weren’t enough soldiers, so the nation used illegal means to compensate. It even gathered starving orphans and trained them as type-three soldiers.
“Even criminals and convicts could obtain new names and registration once they joined the military.”
Some were sentenced to prison time. Blitzdonner was better than those people, at least.
“Back then, I was still around seventeen, and the old man was forty. I didn’t know it at the time, but when you get to the age your parents once were, you start to see some things.”
In order to grow his business, Shylock had undertaken many dirty jobs of which the public would have disapproved. He knew if he wanted to have power and expand his holdings, he couldn’t just stick to jobs that kept his hands clean. Without power, the public wouldn’t hesitate to crush him. And he knew if that happened, it would also crush the futures of his family and employees.
“He scattered money among politicians and bureaucrats, and he got his enemies to cave in by slapping them with wads of bills. He hired tough guys for strong-arm work and found lawyers who specialized in legal manipulation. He would stint at nothing to accomplish his goals.”
However, it was all so he would bear the responsibility for the dirty work, leave everything to his son, and have himself cast down as a scoundrel.
“He said it was all for me, and I hated that idea. I thought he was blaming me for his actions instead of doing it for me.”
Young Blitzdonner had been unable to forgive that. He couldn’t forgive his father for blaming his only son for his own dirty deeds.
No, that wasn’t all. He was also worried about whether he could take over the business his father had created after so much effort.
“In the end, what I did was out of spite against the old man. It was an escape from reality.”
He had run away and after drifting around, he fought in the war as a soldier, eventually becoming a hero with a new name.
“But now I have a son, so for the first time I finally understand how the old man felt. Now I would take any harm upon myself to make sure my son remains unhurt.”
“Is that why you never showed yourself to Jacob?”
“I guess it is.” Blitzdonner replied to Sven’s question with a bitter look on his face.
Sven didn’t know the details about Blitzdonner. However, since he was working with Daian, she guessed he had been appointed to a risky—even deadly—mission.
“When someone who is notorious gets near you, your life is put in danger. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Hearing his answer, Sven remembered something.
During an incident six months ago, Jacob had been kidnapped because he was the grandson of the extremely rich Shylock. Shylock was involved in a lot of shady business, but Jacob was an honest person. He was only in danger because he was the old man’s grandson.
Blitzdonner was a figure of international intrigue, so there was no telling what would happen to Jacob if people found out he was Blitzdonner’s son.
“If being near Jacob would endanger him, I couldn’t reveal myself. That was the best solution.”
“.........”
“At least, that’s what I thought.”
“What?”
Before Sven could agree, Blitzdonner contradicted his own words.
“I suppose part of me was scared. I wondered if someone like me had a right to his son. I won’t deny that I had such doubts.”
That was why Blitzdonner understood Shylock’s feelings. He had used his son as a reason and an excuse.
“I’m so pitiful. This is the true face of the Crimson Hawk. I’m scared of my own son!” After this comment, Blitzdonner laughed self-deprecatingly.
“That’s not true.” Sven wasn’t just trying to cheer him up. It was her honest opinion. “Nothing is worse than a soldier paralyzed by fear on the battlefield.”
“Aw, give me a break.”
“But it’s an important truth.”
Blitzdonner interrupted, but Sven continued speaking.
“Fearless and reckless acts result in harm—not just to the person committing them, but to everyone.”
Once when she was a weapon racing across the battlefield, she saw many machines that were destroyed because their masters acted without fear or caution.
“Perhaps you and my master survived because you were afraid.”