Sven was alone inside Tockerbrot. “Hm?” She tilted her head.
Over the last few days, ever since her true form was revealed, Lud had been acting strangely. He wasn’t avoiding her, but his interactions with her were unusually superficial. If she said hello, he said hello back, which was normal. But, he was trying too hard to respond normally.
Sven thought he might try to pretend he hadn’t learned her true identity, but something else was strange, too. He had left the shop in Sven’s hands and dedicated himself to baking bread in the oven room before leaving again. Tonight, he returned from traveling sales and then went out again after preparing to close the shop.
“What’s going on?”
And that wasn’t the only odd thing going on tonight. All of a sudden, Blitzdonner and Rebecca were nowhere to be found. And Jacob had never even shown his face today. After finishing work, Milly went straight home. And while Marlene usually visited even if she didn’t have a reason to, she hadn’t appeared. Furthermore, Sven couldn’t find Hilde or the unusual girl who was always with her.
“Why do I feel so... alienated?” Sven felt lonely, as if everyone had left her out. No... “This is probably the way things are supposed to be,” she muttered.
After all, she was different. No matter how similar to a human being she appeared, she could never be the same as Lud—not in any real way. In the end, she was no more than a fake.
“Fake and real don’t apply to love.” She remembered Blitzdonner’s words. Ever since he said them, those words had been lodged in her heart.
“But...” As long as she couldn’t prove that her feelings were real, she could only feel proud inside. It was such a disheartening path. “Why do I want to be with Master?” She suddenly asked herself this question.
Why had she come here, seeking something that would never have occurred to her when she was a weapon, even going so far as to abandon her former incarnation?
“Master...”
Sven couldn’t find an answer, so she continued moping.
Meanwhile, at the church atop the hill...
“Thank you for coming, everyone.” Lud spoke in front of the chapel altar, where a priest would usually deliver a sermon. Faces he knew were assembled in front of him.
“Why do you look so serious, Lud?”
Jacob had been Lud’s first friend when he came to Organbaelz.
“He’s going to explain that now.”
Marlene, the church nun with a tumultuous past, had also become Lud’s friend.
“You look dead serious.”
Until about a year ago, Milly had insulted him every time they met, but now she worked as an apprentice at his bakery.
“If it requires physical strength, leave it to me. I’ll gather the young fellas.”
Laurel was the leader of the miners. He had once refused to eat Lud’s bread, saying he had no idea what might be in it.
“If there’s anything I can do, just tell me.”
The young girl Hilde was a former member of the Schutzstaffel who first attacked with the intention of killing Lud.
“..................”
Looking at them, Lud had a strange feeling. None of these friends had thought well of him at first. Some had tried to trick and kill him. But now they sat here listening to him. These were people he had met as Lud the baker in Organbaelz, not as Lud Langart the Silver Wolf and ace pilot of the Principality of Wiltia’s military.
“What’s wrong, Lud?”
“Oh, um, nothing.”
Jacob spoke with concern for Lud, who was so deeply moved that he could barely speak.
“To be honest... I have a favor to ask all of you.”
“—?!”
The faces of nearly everyone showed surprise.
“A favor? Lud, are you going to ask us to do something?”
“Y-Yes.”
✦ ✦ ✦
