The Combat Baker and the Automaton Waitress Volume 7 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Cover

  Color Illustrations

  Prologue

  Chapter 1: That Was an Introduction to Everything

  Chapter 2: Raising the Alarm

  Chapter 3: The Pleasure of Justice

  Chapter 4: A Woman’s Pride

  Chapter 5: That Feeling Is Rage

  Chapter 6: The Tables Turn

  Chapter 7: Marguerite

  Epilogue: No Expectation of Recovery

  Postscript: The Saint

  Afterword

  About J-Novel Club

  Copyright

  Prologue

  I don’t think I’ll die a good death. I have killed many people. I have made many people sad. Because that was my job? Because it was my duty?

  I suppose a court would find me innocent, but that doesn’t mean I should be forgiven. Above all, I can’t forgive myself. It was a time of war, and I enjoyed it. I enjoyed killing. I was deluded into thinking of myself as a god for my ability to kill and dispose of others as I chose, and I was drunk on carnage. I wasn’t a beast. But I was a fool drowning in power. No matter how much I regret it now, I cannot turn back time and my sins will not disappear. So I’m pretty sure I won’t die a good death.

  And if someone kills me...... No matter how atrocious my death, it will surely be what I deserve. It will be retributive justice and a fitting death.

  So if there is someone who loves me...... Please do not hold a grudge. Do not hate the one who kills me. Because that person probably...

  Chapter 1: That Was an Introduction to Everything

  ‘You never know what life will bring.’ More than a few people have said this. Since the inception of the race, human beings have surely repeated it countless times. For example, when they experience unexpected good fortune. Or when they learn of a strange twist of fate. Or when they go out for a bit and return to find a burglar holed up in the shop where they work.

  “What’s going on here?”

  Svelgen Avei, also known as Sven, asked in amazement upon returning to Tockerbrot Bakery, a small shop in the mining town of Organbaelz.

  “Come out with your hands up! We’ve got you completely surrounded!”

  Police were crowded around the shop, surrounding it so tightly that no space remained for even an ant to crawl out.

  “I’m outside the bakery now. The last suspect, Miroslav, has been inside for an hour.”

  Newspaper and radio reporters from the central region, and out of place in this rural town, had gathered around the police.

  “What in the world happened?!”

  “It’s a burglar from Ponapalas.”

  “I heard he has a bomb!”

  Local residents had gathered nearby.

  “What is going on...?” Sven muttered again.

  There had been no sign that something unusual would happen today. At dawn, bread was baking at Tockerbrot as usual, and the apprentice Milly arrived and joined in. By early morning, the bread was ready and customers started visiting the shop. Many people wanted bread for breakfast, and the miners stopped by before going to work. Sven had welcomed them with her shining sales smile.

  Before noon, she went to the mine and the local schools to deliver bread. By that time, Marlene, the nun from the church atop the hill, came to help, as did Jacob’s mother, Charlotte. Jacob showed up in the afternoon after school, and as if he were replacing her, Sven then headed out with Charlotte to sell bread in the nearby towns in a truck remodeled as a mobile shop. As usual, it was a busy but fulfilling day at Tockerbrot.

  “S-Sven... What’s all this about?”

  Charlotte had returned from the sales outing and now trembled as she stood beside Sven.

  Because of her painful and complicated history, Charlotte’s face used to look sad. But her life improved and she had become a little happier and was starting to smile again. Furthermore, she was quite pretty. During sales outings, she served the local men with a unique charm, unmatched even by Sven, Marlene and Milly, and those men now formed an unofficial fan club.

  Aside from that...

  “Jacob... Is my son safe?”

  Charlotte knew that Jacob always helped at the shop around this time of day.

  Tockerbrot’s owner needed someone to serve customers at the shop all the time. Jacob was just over ten years old, but he was a good-natured and clever boy, so he was a precious resource for the shop.

  “I’m not sure... I don’t know what’s going on...”

  Rope barriers surrounded the shop so no one could go near.

  “First, we should find out. Hey, you!” Sven addressed a police officer walking by.

  “Huh?! What do you want?! I’m very busy!” The police officer answered arrogantly.

  Sven hadn’t seen him before so he wasn’t a police officer stationed in Organbaelz. Perhaps he had been called in as part of reinforcements.

  “Sorry. I’m a waitress at Tockerbrot. My name is Sven. What happened at the shop?”

  She decided to forgive his first instance of rudeness and asked her question politely.

  “Huh? You’re from that shop? I told you I’m very busy! So be quiet and stay back!”

  However, he replied condescendingly once again.

  Arrogant police officers aren’t rare. There are always those who mistake significant authority for their own power and conflate maintaining the public safety with assuming everyone is a thief.

  However, Sven had no time to deal with such matters right now.

  “Hey, don’t say that! This woman, Charlotte, might have family in there! Can you at least tell us if everyone is safe?”

  Sven forgave the officer his second instance of rudeness.

  “I’ll give you some change.”

  She plucked a copper coin from her pocket.

  “Huh?”

  Using only her forefinger and thumb, she bent the coin in front of the policeman’s suspicious gaze.

  “Yikes!”

  The policeman raised his voice in surprise as he watched Sven, who looked like a pretty but weak young girl.

  Sven wasn’t human. The Principality of Wiltia was the world’s most technologically advanced nation, and Sven was an android, a humanoid Hunter Unit. The genius Daian Fortuner, also known as the Sorcerer, had poured all his wisdom into creating the Hunter Units. He was the head of the Royal Weapons Development Bureau, which served as the nation’s brain.

  Sven was strong enough to bend a copper coin with two fingers. With five fingers, she could break a human’s neck.

  “Now will you tell us?”

  Sven asked with a smile, but she also gave off an air of menace. She had forgiven the officer’s rudeness twice, but she wouldn’t a third time. He needed to choose his next words carefully or he might lose his life. This angel’s smile issued a devil’s warning.

  “Um, I don’t really know that much!”

  Sven had successfully delivered her warning to the police officer, but his reply wasn’t what she hoped to hear.

  “Then take me to someone who does!”

  “No, but... um...”

  As if having reached her limit, Sven yelled at the befuddled policeman.

  “Hurry up!! Or would you like to find out how far your neck can bend?!”

  “Y-Yes, right away!!”

  Just as Charlotte worried about her son Jacob, there was someone inside the shop who Sven cared about more than her own life. And that was Lud Langart, Tockerbrot’s owner and her beloved master, to whom she had sworn to dedicate her entire body and heart.

  At a security station in a corner of the Royal Weapons Development Bureau in Berun, the
royal capital...

  “Ugh! I’m exhausted!”

  Sophia von Rundstadt, the captain of the guard, was carelessly lying on the sofa. Her casual posture while on duty was questionable for a major in the military and a lady of House Rundstadt.

  “Finally, I can get some sleep! No, I want to take a shower first.”

  However, none of her subordinates were present to scold her. She wouldn’t usually behave so heedlessly. At least, she would never do it in front of her subordinates. However, she had just completed four continuous days on duty. She had only slept five hours over the past four days.

  Recently, during Genitz’s rebellion, the Royal Weapons Development Bureau was attacked and lost many workers, especially guards. Naturally, the bureau had increased the workforce, but the newcomers were still unfamiliar with their jobs. As captain, Sophia had to stand at their head and lead them.

  “Good job, Sophia.” A man spoke to her in a relaxed voice.

  Daian Fortuner was the director of the Royal Weapons Development Bureau, a genius scientist, a super weirdo, and a man on Sophia’s list of “Creeps Who Are Particularly Annoying When They Talk to Me When I’m Tired.”

  “.....................”

  Sophia ignored him as she buried her face in the sofa. Why was he here? This was a security station. Even the director couldn’t enter without permission. She had many such objections that usually she would yell at him. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to waste her strength on that right now.

  “I heard a state of emergency was declared? Talk about going overboard! I guess it’s understandable, though, since it hasn’t even been six months since Genitz’s dustup.”

  “.....................”

  Sophia had decided to ignore Daian, but he seemed to find this fun and kept talking.

  “What was all the fuss again? Some terrorists crossed the border and entered the royal capital? And one spouted nonsense at the front gate before setting off a suicide bomb?”

  “.....................”

  Somehow, Daian had already obtained information that was only given to the press one hour ago. A radical terrorist group posing as revolutionaries had entered the royal capital, clashed with the police, and managed to avoid capture for several days. Because of that, the royal capital was on high alert.

  The Royal Weapons Development Bureau had fallen under attack not long before, so it feared being targeted again. For that reason, Sophia had assumed command until the state of emergency was removed.

  “The police might have been uncooperative because of gripes against the military. And jurisdictional disputes aren’t pretty!”

  “...........................”

  Even after his death, Genitz still greatly influenced Wiltia. One example was the discord that existed between the military and the police, which felt like an especially big problem to Sophia.

  People outside the military saw Genitz’s rebellion as mere internal fighting within the military. Yet it had endangered the citizens of the royal capital and greatly damaged the police. Furthermore, it was the job of the police to maintain peace in the royal capital, but they had yielded to military force and were temporarily at the military’s disposal. And that hurt their honor.

  “That’s why you didn’t know the number of terrorists, their aims, or the type of weapons they had, right?”

  Without knowing the enemy’s numbers, plans and weaponry, there was no way to prevent them from hiding in the city with the goal of sabotage. As a result, the military in the royal capital had to keep security at the highest level, and the development bureau had to remain on high alert to prevent the worst from happening. After the police received numerous requests and arrested the criminal, they learned that it was one man in possession of a crude bomb, meaning it had been much ado about nothing.

  “They said the bomb used black powder explosives, didn’t they? And it’s pitiful how impure it was. The explosion was weak and only singed his hair and gave him minor burns.”

  Black powder is an incredibly primitive explosive made from charcoal and sulfur. It produced a lot of smoke but had little explosive force, so it was taken out of use in weapons over a century ago. Its main use now was in fireworks.

  “He probably removed the black powder from commercial fireworks and packed it into a steel pipe. Talk about failing!”

  It was a pathetic story that would only bring a wry smile to the face of a weapons developer.

  “...........................”

  As Daian spoke, Sophia fidgeted in silence. Perhaps she was thinking about the military’s feud with the police over the last few days.

  “I understand the military’s reasoning, but if it’s ham-fisted in clamping down on terrorists, they’ll become martyrs.”

  If the military used armed force to subdue someone espousing a certain political philosophy, whatever it may be, many would consider that suppression of thought. Furthermore, if the military wasn’t careful, it might not take the criminal alive. And that would create many more problems.

  Whatever the cause, death led to martyrdom. A second and third troublesome individual might then appear. One death could become a source of trouble lasting hundreds of years. Thus, the police found it necessary to take the terrorist alive without mobilizing the military. Which was understandable.

  Sophia understood, but she was frustrated that it hadn’t worked out a little better.

  “Anyway, those terrorists... Well, we’re calling them terrorists, but they’re actually just small-time crooks robbing banks to survive. And now they’ve finally disappeared from the royal capital.”

  “What?”

  At last, Sophia reacted to Daian’s words. She couldn’t afford to ignore them. If the terrorists had disappeared from the royal capital, it meant they were still alive outside the royal capital.

  “Oh... Taken an interest now, have you?”

  Seeing her reaction, Daian grinned and chuckled. He had come to furtively slip Sophia information she wanted under the cover of small talk.

  “Why you...”

  Sophia glared at him hatefully as she finally raised her face. Her cheeks were blushing faintly from embarrassment at Daian seeing inside her.

  “There were six criminals. Three disappeared before they crossed the border. Two others were captured before reaching Berun. The last was the cause of this disturbance.”

  In other words, three criminals remained in Pelfe.

  “That’s bad. The remaining three might come to retaliate.”

  Sophia pulled herself up and shrugged off her exhaustion with a grave expression. The terrorist’s crime had merely involved brandishing an ineffective weapon, but it might have killed someone. Sophia’s professional duty was to protect the lives and assets of the citizens from all possible threats.

  “And about that... Here’s where it gets even more confidential.”

  Daian was enjoying talking to Sophia now that she was on the hook.

  “The three who disappeared before crossing the border were basically errand runners given membership to swell the group’s ranks. They didn’t have a falling out. It would be more accurate to say they got scared and fled.”

  In many respects, the terrorist world was a hard one, and one hardship was securing funds for their activities. World-wise and deft terrorists might extort money from organizations by promising not to target them, or by harassing their adversaries. But terrorists lacking these negotiating skills might work incessantly as day laborers, live frugally, and then use what little money they had to procure the paltriest of weapons. Since their budgets were so limited, black market arms dealers would take advantage of them, so many could only get shoddy bombs like this one made from fireworks.

  “To quickly obtain funds for their activities, they plan to rob banks. But they don’t have enough people, so they hire local thugs.”

  “So they didn’t just go their separate ways or have a falling out?”

  “It appears they simply got scared and made
off. Two have already turned themselves in. We learned the structure of the criminal group from their statements.”

  “Ugh...”

  As if Daian’s words had cast a fresh bout of exhaustion over her, Sophia covered her eyes and pressed her face into the sofa.

  “So a group of six third-rate terrorists manipulated the royal capital?”

  It wasn’t even funny. It was just a nuisance. But it was not without effect.

  Simply put, terrorism creates nuisances that draw attention to a political cause. Terrorists plant bombs, set fires, steal and kill in order to say, “We do these things because the system is bad.” And if that causes confusion, they make use of that, too. They use it as fodder, saying, “Look! We had to do this! They’re the bad ones!”

  To stop that, even if the opponents were two-bit crooks, the bureaucracy and military would have to take action. And that wasted manpower, funds, time and resources.

  Just thinking about it made Sophia’s head hurt.

  “Um... wait. In other words, there’s still one left?”

  Sophia realized that one pitiful thug—a thug roped into joining the terrorists bearing a supposedly lofty mission—hadn’t crossed the border and was still wandering around out there.

  “Well, it seems they found that last one and it’s causing excitement here and there.”

  Almost all of the information Sophia had concerned the royal capital. Daian, however, possessed special channels and had obtained further information.

  “It seems that one thug showed up in the country town of Organbaelz.”

  “What?!”

  Organbaelz. Hearing the name, Sophia was speechless. That was the town where a man who was like a younger brother to her—a man who had once been her subordinate—owned a bakery.

  “So what’s going on?”

  Back in Organbaelz...

  With repeated threats... Or rather, plying careful but persuasive techniques, Sven was frowning in a meeting room at city hall that had been established as an emergency headquarters.

  “Um, Miss? Let’s see...”

  All the police officers on site were commanders of considerable rank. They were all over forty or fifty years old, and they were usually strict in handling their subordinates. However, they withered before Sven, who looked about seventeen or eighteen years of age.