Marlene’s face showed disbelief. “This is a surprise. You always seem to stew over problems alone.”
Laughing loudly, Laurel smacked a hand to his forehead.
“Oh... I do?” Lud looked like he was going to object that it wasn’t that surprising, but then Jacob interrupted.
“Well, sometimes you’ll ask things like, ‘Hey, would you hand me that?’ But until now, you’ve never looked so grave and said, ‘To be honest,’ and made a real request.” After speaking, Jacob smiled impishly.
As his best friend suggested, Lud was a very serious person. He thought he had to solve his problems by himself and had a tendency to avoid involving even people he was close to. In fact, he didn’t involve them precisely because he was close to them. That’s why he tried to keep everyone at a distance when a troublesome organization had disrupted his business during a previous incident.
“If you ask, then we have no choice. Right, everyone?”
“Yeah, since he asks...”
Marlene asked, and Laurel answered.
“I guess there’s no choice, so you can rely on us,” Jacob chimed in.
“Oh, um... sorry.”
Something welled up inside Lud when he heard their responses.
“That’s wrong, Lud.” Marlene wasn’t actually a clergywoman, but she spoke to him as if she were the real thing. “In situations like this, you should say thank you.”
“.........!”
At those words, Lud once again looked back on his earlier behavior. Due to his guilt about his past, part of him thought he didn’t deserve to be happy. That’s why he had thought relying on people around him would bother them. So, apologizing became a habit. Today, however, he decided to rely on everyone for his own sake.
“Thank you, everyone.” He responded with a fresh expression of thanks. And then he delivered his request. “I want to throw a birthday party for Sven.”
Yesterday, Daian had told him that he was less Sven’s birth father than he was a midwife who delivered her.
“When was that?” Lud had asked. When had Sven changed from Avei to Sven? And Daian had answered that question.
Learning that the date happened to be the next day, Lud made up his mind. At his words, everyone momentarily showed surprise, and then understanding.
“Yeah. That would be good.”
“Not a bad idea. I’ll help!”
Marlene and Jacob raised their voices in agreement.
“I’ll lend a hand, too!”
“Uh-huh. Let me chip in.”
Laughing, Milly and Hilde also agreed. And then...
“I do not quite follow the situation.”
“In times like this, just agree with everyone, Missy.”
Lillie and Blitzdonner stood by the chapel wall.
“But I did not meet this girl until three days ago.”
“And yet that black-haired girl you fawn over has agreed.”
“Yes, if Hilde is going to help, then I will do anything.”
Neither Lillie nor Blitzdonner had known Lud for very long. But people important to them cared about him.
“Are you the third one?” Due to her comportment, movements and—above all—her distinctive personality, Blitzdonner realized that Lillie was a humanoid Hunter Unit like Sven and Rebecca. “The professor said he gave one to Yamato.”
“Do not misunderstand. I am not the third one, I am the first.”
“Oh, I see.”
Lillie was produced before Sven and Rebecca. To be exact, she had been a test unit made before the officially adopted units such as Sven. While some of her functions surpassed Sven and Rebecca’s, she also had many defects.
“Major.” Lud spoke to Blitzdonner. “I have a favor to ask. Do you mind?”
“Hm?”
Blitzdonner and Lud never met while they were both in the Wiltian military. They had been in the same army, but Blitzdonner was not Lud’s commanding officer. And Lud was now a civilian.
“Ask away. Maybe I can do something to pay for my lodging.”
He didn’t always sound like it, but this man was compassionate, with a strong sense of duty.
“All right. Um... I’d like you to attend the party with Charlotte.”
Blitzdonner had intended to remain unsurprised no matter what Lud asked, but he raised his voice letting out a cry. “What?!”
“Hey! Lud?!” Jacob also gasped in surprise. “Why is that necessary?”
Lud shook his head as if he didn’t know how to explain. “It just... It just is.” Lud couldn’t answer any other way.
“But...” It was a request from Lud, but Jacob couldn’t agree immediately.
“..................” And as if that was also true for Blitzdonner, his face clouded.
“Understood.” There was someone else who granted acceptance. “Former Captain Langart, I accept your proposal.” And that was Rebecca, who stood still and ready at Blitzdonner’s side.
“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?!” Blitzdonner was astounded by Rebecca’s willful behavior.
He didn’t resent it. But he was surprised. Ever since Rebecca had been assistive A.I. in Blitzdonner’s Hunter Unit, she had obeyed his orders, never ignoring his instructions or making her own decisions.
“Um, Rebecca? Who put you in charge?!” Jacob was friendly with Rebecca, but he was startled too.
“.....................”
Rebecca bit her lip hard, with an expression that suggested she was fighting her natural inclinations. Usually, she would never do anything that neither Blitzdonner nor Jacob wanted. But now she had acted in opposition to both. “Jacob... you’re former Captain Langart’s friend, right? Are you going to refuse his request?”
“No-no, but...”
“Major Blitzdonner, the former captain has saved your son, wife and father from danger countless times. Are you going to reject this chance to repay your debt to him?”
“Well, um, if you put it like that...”
Both father and son were unable to argue with Rebecca.
“Right. There won’t be another chance, will there?” She was usually calm, and people sometimes thought she lacked emotion, but now she spoke quietly and sadly.
“............”
“............”
Faced with that, neither Jacob nor Blitzdonner could oppose her. And in this circumstance, silence was the same as agreement.
“Former Captain Langart, I will take responsibility for carrying out your request. Please, do not worry.”
“Okay... th-thank you, um, Rebecca.” Lud expressed gratitude, and Rebecca stared at him in silence for a moment.
“...?”
Then, in a quiet voice inaudible to Jacob and the others behind her, she spoke to Lud, who had tilted his head toward her. “Thank you.”
Something had tortured her these last few days, but now she had finally found a clue to resolving it. Blitzdonner needed to repair his relationship with his son Jacob and wife Charlotte, from whom he had parted before Jacob was born. From Jacob’s point of view, it was unforgivable that the man left Charlotte alone for such a long time, and that bothered him more than the fact that he too was abandoned by his father. Perhaps now, the two might get back together. Whether Rebecca was aware of this or not, she expressed thanks to the man who had given her this chance.
“Well, then... I’m counting on all of you!” Once again, Lud addressed the group.
“Yeah!”
“Understood!”
“Roger!”
“Leave it to us!”
“Oh dear...”
“Hmm...”
They all responded in their own way. Then, the area around Tockerbrot got quite lively indeed.
“What’s going on?” The next day, unexpected words shocked Sven. “Temporary closure?!”
It wasn’t one of Tockerbrot’s regular holidays. They were basically open every day, all year long. On special occasions such as the Holy Festival and Thanksgiving, and around the New Year, they took time off, but otherwise they worked. One exception was the time they got embroiled in the rebellion, Sven had been abducted and whisked away to the royal capital, and there was an adventure surrounding her recapture.
In the absence of such a major event, Lud would never take time off. In fact, he had almost collapsed once from overwork. Nonetheless, he said they would close the shop for the day. And he hadn’t offered any explanation. When Sven asked, he merely said, “I’ve got a small matter to attend to.”
If her master Lud said so, all she could do was obey. He left no room for argument. And if he didn’t explain, she didn’t need an explanation. That’s all there was to it. But...
“What the heck is this about?!”
Instead, he asked her to visit Sophia, who was staying in a hotel in a neighboring town. It was as if he was telling her to get out of the shop and out of Organbaelz altogether!
“Why would he do that?!”
But even as she nursed her injured feelings, Sven headed for Saupunkt as instructed. And then...
“Hm?”
Sven was going to call Sophia from hotel reception, but the desk attendant told her it was all right to just go up to the room. Sven got on the elevator and went to a first-class room on the top floor.
“She sure is living it up on the government’s money,” Sven muttered sarcastically to herself as she rang the room’s bell. But the person who opened the door was Daian instead of Sophia.