While it was true that the bakery was located outside the central part of the town, it was still on the main street. So the lack of customers couldn’t be attributed to its location, either.
More important than anything else, there was no other bakery in town.
Everyone in town either baked their own bread or they were forced to buy the dry and tasteless bread sold on the peddler’s truck, which was closer to crackers than real, fresh, bread.
The lack of business wasn’t caused by its competition.
The main reason the bakery was failing was Lud Langart.
Lud frightened people.
“Gaght!”
Looking at the stricken face of his friend, Jacob furrowed his brow.
Lud knew.
He knew that Jacob would never deliberately hurt someone.
So now, if Jacob was saying this, no matter how hard it was for Lud to hear, there was no doubt that he was telling the truth.
Lud had thought it strange for a long time.
When he greeted someone on the street, he would get no response. Children would run from him, young women would hide themselves in the shadows, and now and again even men would walk the other way at the sight of him.
Lud assumed this treatment was because he was a foreigner.
Jacob was almost half Lud’s age, but Lud thought of him as an equal and as a friend. He knew Jacob would only tell him the truth.
“A-Am I really … that scary?”
The reality was hard to accept.
“I mean, you’re weirdly tall and absurdly buff, your eyes are way too sharp and penetrating, and above all there is that cross scar on your cheek. When you walk into a bakery and see someone like that, it’s scary!”
“Th-That’s …”
Lud was born with his height, he was in the habit of building up his muscles, and being a baker was hard work, so his arms grew even bigger.
“My scar … it would be hard to hide a scar this big …”
“To be honest, I should be used to it by now but if I don’t properly brace myself before coming in, it can sometimes be bad for my heart.”
“I-I’m trying. I try to have on a bright smiling face …”
“Okay, smile.”
Lud gave a big grin.
But instead of a smile, it looked like Lud was distorting and straining the muscles of his face.
“You know … A smile like that says, ‘Shall I teach you a lesson, fool? Watch out!’”
Lud had given the smile his all. Maybe he was truly beyond help.
“Lud, as long as you are the one standing behind the counter, this bakery will have no customers. It’s sad, but that’s the truth.”
“Th-That can’t be …”
Lud held his head in his heads and slumped low.
He resembled a demonic beast trembling in fear at the word of God.
“I’m saying this for your own good. Why don’t you hire a part-time helper? Then, you can stay in the back baking the bread. I think that’s the best idea.”
“But …”
If Lud could save the bakery, he would do anything.
And actually, between baking the bread, cleaning up, and doing all the other chores, it was a lot for one person to handle.
He worked without a break but there was a limit to how much he could do on his own.
“Hmm … in that case, Jacob, could you—?”
“No way! That isn’t happening!” Jacob shook his head.
“Our repair shop is in trouble, too. We’re so understaffed, I would hire our watchdog, Marjes, to help out if I could. Sorry, but it’s impossible.”
The war was over and with it, an end to special procurements for the war effort. The repair shop that Jacob’s family ran had to cut staff, and now the whole family had to fill in.
“Besides, if a man is kneading the dough and baking the bread, and a man is the one stuffing the bread into the customer’s bag—that’s way too many men! It’s nothing but men!”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“Hire a waitress!”
Jacob brought his face close and shoved his pointer finger in Lud’s face.
He looked like a detective that had found the critical clue needed to solve a murder case.
“You understand, Lud? This town is small, and it’s a mining town. There is a mountain of dirty men here. There is a ton of them. But, if you put a beautiful waitress in front of them with your delicious bread in her hands? That’s the way you will draw in customers!”
It was true that Organbaelz was a mining town, and there was little other industry, including restaurants.
The only restaurants served food that tasted so bad, it made you wonder if they were even trying.
“You have to hire a girl, and if possible, make her wear a frilly outfit or something. I’m getting excited just thinking about it!”
Lud started to think that Jacob was getting carried away with his own good idea.
“I’ve thought this for a while but … could you actually be Sparian?”
Sparia was a peninsular nation south of Wiltia.
This country had a long history but its citizens were known to be lively and many of their men were womanizers.
They had a reputation for being overly passionate and theatrical.
Lud didn’t dislike Sparians, but from his experience, he didn’t want to join any military campaigns with them if he didn’t have to.
“What are you saying? You already know that both my parents are Wiltian.”
Jacob had blonde hair and blue eyes, the characteristics of a model Wiltian citizen. Still, Lud couldn’t help wondering if maybe he had a little Sparian blood.
“A waitress, huh …”
“Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not exactly.”
Jacob’s suggestion wasn’t wrong, but …
“I’m … not real good with women.”
Lud was raised in the military since childhood. He spent most of his youth on the battlefield.
The only woman around him was like a substitute older sister.
“Well, you gotta decide, Lud.”
“Hmm …”
He was Lud Langart, a former Hunter Unit pilot for the Principality known as the Silver Wolf, who made enemy soldiers tremble in fear.
But now he was the owner of the Tockerbrot Bakery.
He couldn’t just obey the orders of his superiors.
He had to think for himself, decide for himself, and take responsibility for everything himself.
“… Alright.”
This might be the first or second most important decision of Lud’s life.
And even he didn’t know if he was preparing to fight or just readying himself for defeat.
Several hours later, with help from Jacob, Lud had created a Help Wanted poster and tacked it up in front of the bakery, on the notice board in town, on the wall of Jacob’s family factory, and on the church’s message board.
“Now hiring a waitress! Looking for someone with a fantastic smile! For details, please see Lud Langart, owner of Tockerbrot.”
The people of the town just thought the serious-faced baker was behaving strangely again and laughed it off.
For the first few days, Lud was nervous, thinking that someone would knock on his door at any moment.
However, the people of the village were sure that no young girl would want to work for that bakery.
Even if there was such a girl, her family would stop her.
No one responded to the poster and soon Lud forgot all about it.
And then one day a young girl was seen staring at the poster on the town notice board.
“… Lud Langart!”
The girl whispered the name on the poster, great emotion echoing in her voice and the loveliest of smiles spreading across her face.
“I found you.”
Tearing the poster off the message board, without any hesitation, as if she were charging off to battle, she walked down the main street of Organbaelz.
Tockerbrot seemed under the spell of the god of tranquility and, resting his chin on his hands at the counter, Lud let out a sigh.
He had prepared freshly-baked bread, homemade jam, and delicious coffee and tea.
But no one opened the door to his bakery.
There was a small bell attached to the door so Lud would hear customers enter, even if he was working at his bread kiln.