TFOA Chapter 18

"If it weren't for Mr. Richter, I couldn't have carried all this. Thank you. Oh, feel free to eat what you're holding! I'm full. Shall we go that way before heading to the square?"

Gilbert said with a laugh.

Benjamin noticed Gilbert's scheme when the food exceeded one handful.

He was trying to get Benjamin to eat festival food by frantically passing food items to him.

After realizing this, Benjamin stopped accepting his requests of "This is heavy, could you hold it?"

But the naturally innocent young village head, knowing that Benjamin already couldn't use one hand, nonchalantly stuffed a few wild strawberries into Benjamin's jacket pocket.

The village people initially flinched in surprise when they saw Benjamin scowling.

However, they soon tilted their heads in puzzlement seeing that despite his expression that looked like he'd risen from hell, he was inexplicably holding loads of food like someone having a fantastic time at the festival.

Then, seeing Gilbert appear behind him with his characteristic gentle greetings, the village people completely relaxed their guard against Benjamin.

"Ah, Mr. Edgar! The pickled cabbage was delicious."

"Of course. Whose crop is it? You there, painter, try some too."

More food was pressed into his hands.

Had everyone's heads gone funny because of the festival? He was a German soldier (former) that they had hated so much. The festival day didn't make that label disappear, so why?

Benjamin was miserable from the unwanted kindnesses.

He didn't want to receive anything, but the things he was forced to accept weighed heavily on his heart.

Finally, unable to resist the village people's insistence, Benjamin put one wild strawberry in his mouth.

It was intensely sour with not a hint of sweetness.

'I'm tired.'

"Huh? He's not here."

Niksi stood in front of the painter's empty house.

The painter who should be sleeping inside at this hour was nowhere to be seen.

She had come to check on her experimental results and maybe light a fire for the painter who lived only in that dark cave-like place.

"Did he go to the festival? No way. Not with that personality."

Could he have run away because of the plant that grew in his yard?

Niksi turned her head. The bean plant casting a large shadow in the yard came into view.

Not quite a baobab tree, but a size comparable to a metasequoia.

The experiment had been successful.

'Hmm. Should I go down to the village for now?'

Niksi turned around without regret.

She had planned to distribute beans to the village people at this festival, but this was too burdensome a size to carry.

Thinking she'd have to hold a bean distribution event here later, Niksi headed toward the village.

To the village people, Benjamin had always been an object of fear or wariness.

A German soldier who suddenly appeared two years ago during the height of the war.

Gilbert had brought him when he was found barely breathing, collapsed in a field.

He was unconscious and covered in blood, but under that dark red blood, he was definitely wearing a German soldier's uniform.

Since he was going to die soon anyway, most people said to just let him die.

Only two people in the village opposed this.

Gilbert, who had brought him, and Raul, the bar owner.

Raul, who had lived near the border before the war and had no aversion to foreigners, was understandable, but Gilbert's opposition to killing him was surprising. He was someone who had lost his entire family to German soldiers.

When the person who should hate German soldiers most opposed it, the village people couldn't say much more.

The village people, wavering between conscience and hatred, left him in an old warehouse removed from the village.

Watery vegetable soup without any substance and bread were their final remnants of humanity.

He was sick for a month.

When scabs formed over his wounds and he could move, the first thing he did when he could finally lift his body after only being able to twitch his fingers was...

Standing in the middle of Auvers' fields like a living ghost, staring blankly all day long.

He did this meaningless behavior for a month.

As a result, the wounded German soldier made his nest in the old warehouse at the edge of Auvers village.

He asked nothing of the village people, inquired about no one's well-being, and offered no words of gratitude.

He just existed like the dead. Like someone who wasn't there.

Thus, to the village people, Benjamin became like a callus on the sole of a foot that you can't see.

After the war ended, he occasionally appeared in the village.

But only for very brief moments, like when buying groceries. If the village people wanted to, they could avoid seeing him.

Therefore, the village was now in a state of emergency due to Benjamin's sudden appearance.

It was like a puma from the back mountain that they had pretended didn't exist finally strolling down at its leisure.

They had witnessed over two years that he caused them no harm, and the war had ended, but that didn't make the feelings vanish.

The village people's reactions to seeing him come down to the village apparently looking for someone were divided into two types.

Those who wanted to treat him kindly since it was a good day and they didn't want to ruin the mood, and those who scowled and remained wary.

However, regardless of how the village people reacted, Benjamin seemed unbothered.

The hostile expressions directed at him were actually rather welcome.

"Take this! I grew it myself."

"......"

Benjamin accepted the daffodil pot the child handed him.

"Ellie...! Don't go near him."

Then the woman behind the child pulled her child back. Gilbert hummed a tune, pretending not to have seen the obvious scene.

Benjamin was quietly looking at the scentless yellow daffodil.

"That. You could plant it in your yard."

"......"

"Uh... um... Oh, right. The yard was in chaos because of the bean plant."

This is so awkward I could die. Gilbert scratched the back of his head.

"Niksi doesn't seem to be in the square. Shall we try somewhere else?"

"...Never mind."

"What? Where are you going, Mr. Richter!"

"I'm going back."

He turned around abruptly.

This kind of kindness made him uncomfortable.

He wasn't someone who should receive such things.

His heart sank heavily as each item was placed in his hands, but when he received the single daffodil, he wanted to run away.

Wasn't it because of these small kindnesses that he had managed to live aimlessly until now?

Two years ago, he had been looking for a place to die.

It didn't matter whether it was Germany or France. He was just wandering, looking for what would be his final place.

When his body could no longer move. When he collapsed with a thud in a quiet forest where he didn't know who lived.

He thought, 'Now I'll finally die,' and closed his eyes.

But when he opened them, it was a shabby cabin.

There he slept deeply.

Sometimes he heard the phantom sounds of murmuring around him.

Every time the skin grazed by shrapnel throbbed, every time he burned with fever from his wounds. Even when he felt a thirst so intense his throat felt like it was burning up.

Every time he thought 'This time I'll really die,' small kindnesses appeared before him: bandages, soup without substance, water.

That's how he had drifted along to this point.

He wasn't someone who should receive such things. Especially not from these village people.

Because... because...

Benjamin looked at Gilbert.

Perhaps feeling his gaze, Gilbert turned his head from his chat with Raul.

"I'm going back."

"What? Already? We came all this way."

Benjamin placed all the miscellaneous items he was holding onto the bar table.

Coming here was wrong from the start.

From when he came down to the village. From when he came to Auvers. From when he was alive.

Just as he turned to go back home...

"Painter?"

A voice sour enough to make him frown rang out. It was Niksi.