“What are you doing?”
Someone was trying to get his attention. Who was it? He remembered when he saw her face.
“Oh... uh... sorry.”
“You’re sorry? I was talking and you spaced out. Don’t you enjoy talking to me?” The young woman seemed both angry and sad.
“Of course I do! It’s just... I had the strangest dream.”
“Dream? I’m here with you and you were sleeping?”
“No, no!” Lud defended himself.
He didn’t usually space out like this. A visit from her was enough to make any day fun. He was glad—even joyous—that the day had become a happy one for him. But, he didn’t understand why he had such a strange hallucination.
“What was it about?”
“What?”
“Your dream. What was it like?”
“Uh...”
What kind of hallucination had made him ignore her?
“It was a confusing dream. I was somewhere else... not here... and I, um...”
“Yes?”
“I was a baker.”
“What?!”
She made an astonished face, followed by a smile.
“Did you ever want to become a baker?”
“No, never.” Lud answered immediately.
“I’ve never even considered it. Also, um, you and I were married.”
“Huh?!”
He said it casually, but her face tensed and she blushed.
“W-What the heck?”
“You were the waitress and I baked bread. I don’t know why, but I didn’t like to be in front of people... so you... Hm?”
Her face was as red as a ripe apple.
“Does that... mean what I think it does?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if... you know...you feel that way.”
“What way?”
“Argh!”
She hauled off and kicked him in the shin.
“What?! What did I say?!”
“Just shut up!”
It didn’t hurt much, but if he had said something unpleasant, he wanted to apologize. However, she wouldn’t explain. She would not tell him what he had done that angered her so much.
“Seriously! You never know what the Shepherd will say!”
He thought she was furious, but now she was laughing merrily and looked like an angel.
“Hey, take me to the stand today! Then I’ll forgive you.” She requested atonement from him for angering her.
Perhaps it was his imagination that she was in a good mood. In any case, if she asked something, he had to obey.
“Okay, okay. I will.”
So Lud escorted her. They had met just a few months ago. She had suddenly appeared outside the imperial capital in the town meant for waiting.
“This place is fun! It always surprises me!”
She was a resident of the imperial capital. The European imperial capital was known as Millennium—the City of a Thousand Years—and it was the world’s greatest city. At least, that’s what people said. Lud had never entered the imperial capital. He had only seen the walls surrounding it, which were always there, every day, towering overhead.
“The imperial capital must be fun, because it’s got everything.”
According to rumor, the city was like a paradise. Hunger was unknown, illness didn’t exist, and there was release from every type of suffering imaginable.
“Yes, there’s no need to work.”
“I envy that.”
Lud worked as a day laborer and barely scraped by on his wages, so that sounded like a dream. The imperial capital of Millennium supposedly possessed a power similar to magic. The people didn’t need to walk anywhere because they automatically received everything they could desire. They were permitted all manner of luxury and they basked in it.
“The residents don’t even know what it feels like to hunger for anything, because there is a system of peace and contentment above all else.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why do you think humans fight?”
Lud didn’t have an answer to this unexpected philosophical question. Apparently, she didn’t expect an answer. She continued without a pause.
“Desire. Hungry people try to steal food from others. Poor people try to steal whatever they need from others. Deprivation causes the heart to desire. Hope causes conflict. For that reason, more food than could ever be consumed is always available. So no one feels desire.”
If you gave one hundred people enough food to feed one million, no one would ever go hungry. If everyone had plenty, conflicts would never arise.
“That’s incredible. That is absolute peace.”
“Hardly!” Lud was impressed, but she responded scornfully. “The people living in the imperial city don’t know hope. As soon as they wish for something, they have it. Can you really call that living?”
Her face showed fierce resentment, anger and—above all—hate. Lud didn’t know what she had seen beyond that wall. He could not imagine a world where every desire was satisfied.
“Sorry. I just don’t understand. I still feel envious.” Lud couldn’t lie, so he apologized and spoke the truth.
“Yes, and that’s all right.” Apparently, she liked that answer. “You don’t need to understand. It isn’t how human beings should live. Not knowing is human.”
Lud didn’t understand. But although he didn’t know what she meant, he knew her eyes showed affection for him.
“People can only live because they continue to hope.”
✦ ✦ ✦
