PDCOO Chapter 22

"When you sent me away yesterday, you said 'calculated as labor, you've repaid Hans's debt three times over'—that was an exaggeration after all. I understand. The tasks you've assigned were too easy. From now on, please give me anything. I can catch more wolves. I can peel three bags of onions."

"Wait! I said you don't need to repay it!"

"Please don't decline. I'll prove my worth in any way possible. Ah, the pig looks hungry. What should I feed it?"

"Oink! Oiiiiink!"

What a mess.

Karlah pointed out the most urgent issue first.

"Don't hold the pig like you're nursing a newborn! Good grief. What am I supposed to trust you with!"

"Tell me once and I'll learn and do it immediately. Where should I put the pig? I can't use the communal pasture."

"Our house doesn't have anything suitable for a pen... Ah, there's the old vegetable storage. Put it there for now and come out."

"Understood."

Bertram crossed the restaurant carrying the piglet. Anna followed behind him with a beaming smile, looking oddly triumphant.

Unaware that her daughter was thinking See, cute things always win! Karlah turned her sharp, displaced gaze directly onto the village chief's face.

"Chief. What did I ask you to do?"

"...You only asked for a ride. You didn't say make sure he can't come back."

"Keep your nonsense to yourself. If we keep accepting him, he might really put down roots in the village!"

"Anna picking up vagrants who become village workers isn't exactly new. What are you suddenly afraid of?"

The chief scrubbed his face and looked up. Judging from that shameless expression, the chief already expected things would flow that way. Karlah suppressed the urge to give him a piece of her mind.

"The people we met back then were mostly injured, and I endured it thinking of my husband and friends who died in the war. Chief, I want to live surrounded only by things that put my mind at ease now. Peaceful things, familiar people..."

Even as she spoke, Karlah kept glancing behind, not knowing when Bertram might return.

The chief understood her heart. Who among those who'd experienced war wouldn't long for peace?

"Karlah, I can guarantee one thing. That guy isn't bad."

"Did he at least buy you a drink?"

"What do you take me for! Ahem, well. The city was having a festival, so there was a strange competition."

The chief continued his story.

About the crazy festival that released wild boars, where Bertram emerged even collecting the injured.

And then, taking a deep breath, he told her about the human trafficking ring, accompanied by the words "I'm sorry."

Karlah's face turned pale.

The chief apologized haltingly.

"No matter how many times I apologize, it won't mean much, but I'm sorry. I failed to prevent the children from entering a dangerous place."

"What happened, did the guards arrive quickly?"

"No. While the guards were stumbling around, Bertram entered the traffickers' den alone and rescued both of them."

"That's..."

"I can say this for certain: Bertram is a good man."

The chief looked at Karlah. The jaundiced eyes of an old drunkard—yet what resided there was pure emotion.

The wish that good things would happen to good people.

That would surely include Karlah, who still hadn't washed away war's wounds.

"If you want to kick him out, say so anytime. But I wanted to tell you there's no need to be frightened prematurely."

With those words, the chief climbed into the cart. The rattling cart moved away, and soon Anna and Bertram returned.

"Mom, we finished making the pen. It was a piglet from the fattest pig in the city, so it'll definitely grow huge!"

"As if the feed we can provide will be the same as what they fed it in the city. Don't get your hopes up too much."

"...Oh, I guess so."

"So."

Karlah whirled to face Bertram.

"From now on, you'll be responsible for properly feeding that pig. Understood?"

As the conversational arrow suddenly turned toward Bertram, Anna's eyes widened.

"You're making him work for his meals? Can I feed him openly now?"

"When were you ever not open about it? If that pig loses even a little weight, I'm kicking you out immediately."

"Bertram's just a bit hard to communicate with, but he's good at everything else! He'll raise the pig well too! Right?"

Anna made a fuss before Bertram, who nodded silently. Where had that earlier wariness of Karlah's mood gone?

Really... why does she like him so much? Forcibly swallowing her uneasy concerns, Karlah added conditions.

"Bertram, I'm not granting unlimited permission to stay in the village. At most, only until we can butcher that pig. If you cause trouble, you'll naturally be kicked out immediately."

"Understood."

"And most importantly! At night you'll sleep in the communal farm lodging. You can keep it clean, right?"

"Of course."

Acceptable conditions. Anna nodded too.

Karlah seemed dissatisfied that Bertram answered so readily and began considering more troublesome conditions. But the people standing in front of the restaurant cut off Karlah's musings.

"Aren't you opening for dinner?"

"Ah, just a moment! I'll be right there! Anna, hurry and open the shop. Bertram, follow me and prep ingredients."

"Understood. I'll wash my hands first."

Bertram ran to the well. Sleeves rolled up over his firmly muscled forearms. The sight could suit a mythological master smith forging the gods' swords—though what he held wasn't a hammer but a bar of soap half the size of his palm.

"...But Anna."

"Huh, yeah?"

"What are you staring at blankly? Didn't you hear what I said?"

"Coming, coming!"

The rabbit-like daughter scurried off.

Karlah watched Bertram with complicated feelings.

His fundamental nature seemed sincere.

That he'd thrown himself to save Anna—that was something to be grateful for.

Karlah took a deep breath and, just for a very brief moment, imagined Bertram as her son-in-law.

...Three seconds into the imagination, Anna was flattened.

"No, absolutely not!"

Bertram, crossing the kitchen threshold, stopped.

"Pardon? What's wrong, should I not enter yet?"

"Wait, I'll be right there!"

Karlah ran into the restaurant kitchen, making a resolution.

Even if the chief acknowledged him as a good person, even if Anna wore that beaming smile every time she saw this man.

She herself would absolutely not be won over carelessly.

The villagers showed different reactions seeing Bertram's return to the restaurant. Some burst into laughter asking if they'd picked up another stray, others remained wary.

To questions about how long they'd keep him, Karlah pointed to the pig pen attached to the house inside the restaurant. She'd send him away by the day that piglet was butchered, at the very latest.

After business hours.

Karlah immediately drove Bertram out to the yard and thrust his bag and a lantern into his hands.

"Do you remember where the communal lodging is? Should I guide you?"

"Unnecessary."

Contrary to Karlah's worry, Bertram accepted the lantern without complaint and set out.

This was possible because he was accustomed to walking night roads.

Country nights differ from days.

Distant flickering lights serve no role as maps. Rather, they distort depth perception and bewitch people like will-o'-the-wisps.

Just as Bertram barely left the restaurant vicinity with cautious steps.

"Boo!"

Anna suddenly popped out, blocking his path.

"Ahaha, I bet I didn't startle you!"

"Correct. What is it?"

"I chased after you to talk. We have unfinished business from that night, remember?"

"You mean about my curse."

Anna nodded, then began walking alongside Bertram. Her tousled golden hair bobbed up and down around the level of his solar plexus. Anna's voice sounded exactly like a bird's nest speaking.

"Who laid the curse on you?"

"The practitioner was a mage under contract, but the decision was my own will. The war had to end as quickly as possible."

"Even so! Laying a curse on a person to win a war? And now you're suffering like this!"

"It was the best I could think of at the time. If I hadn't tried and we'd lost, my post-war life might have been riddled with regret. Wondering 'maybe we would've won if I'd done my utmost.'"

"...And you don't regret that choice?"

"I don't. Besides, I've even encountered a thread of change."

It was obvious who he meant.

Anna's shoulders flinched.

The hair draped over those shoulders trembled too, so Bertram noticed Anna's reaction but didn't particularly mention it.

"I appreciate your help during my stay here. Even better if I can repay debts."

"Debt talk again. What if you never leave our village trying to repay some unknown debt?"

"That would be fine too."

At those lightly tossed words, Anna's shoulders shook again.

And then, somehow looking indignant, she looked up at Bertram and exclaimed:

"Don't say empty words. I'll really fatten you up so plump you can't leave the village."

"At my height, to gain enough weight to become immobile would require truly vast amounts of food. Please don't overdo it. Just saying 'don't leave' would be enough to make me stay."

Bertram spoke the truth.

He intended to remain where he was needed.