The Combat Baker and the Automaton Waitress Volume 7 Read online

  “The press has gathered around, and... um... even worse, politics are involved.”

  One officer looked particularly important. He was the chief of police, the highest-ranking officer, and he was wiping sweat from his face as he answered Sven.

  “The criminal took hostages! And two of them are children! What does politics have to do with that?!”

  The chief of police’s reply came through a forced smile, but Sven mercilessly cut him off.

  According to eyewitness accounts, there was only one criminal. That man had occupied Tockerbrot and taken three employees hostage, two of them children. Those hostages were, of course, the shop’s owner Lud, and Jacob and Milly.

  “You look thirsty. Would you like some water?”

  Cases of water bottles were stacked along the meeting room’s walls. Sven removed a glass bottle from one.

  “Hyah!”

  Then, she swiftly lopped the top of the bottle off with a sharp hand chop.

  “Have a drink.”

  “Agh!”

  The chief of police cried out when he saw her hand chop cut more cleanly than even the fine knife of a skilled craftsman. However, no one laughed at his discomfiture. Because they were all trembling. There was only one explanation for why they cowered before Sven. They were frightened of her, like children scared of an ogre.

  “The bakery you work for... Tockerbrot, was it? We suspect the hostage-taker was connected to the terrorist incident in Berun a few days ago.”

  Two of the six terrorists had been apprehended, two had given themselves up, and one had been seized after a failed suicide bombing. The last of them had eventually escaped to Organbaelz.

  “So what? Isn’t it time to immediately send in a special unit?! If you want, I could head that op for you!”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!”

  The silver-haired girl’s offer astonished the police chief.

  “Although you do seem capable...”

  He was at a loss, but Sven’s confident demeanor suggested she could succeed where he and his subordinates had not.

  “That’s not the point. I mean... if we could solve this with force, we would have done so already.”

  The chief of police put a hand to his forehead as he replied.

  “As I told you before, tons of reporters have gathered. And they’re not just from Wiltia and Pelfe. They’re from Greyten and Filbarneu, too!”

  Both nations had been enemies of Wiltia during the recent Great War.

  “If our opponent was an ordinary criminal, there’d be no problem. Like you said, kids are among the hostages, so this is a situation that requires immediate action. However...”

  “Oh, I get it.”

  Finally, Sven understood what the chief of police was trying to say. The criminal was indeed a bank robber, but his comrades were terrorists with a political agenda, so as part of their group, the authorities would categorize him as a political offender. If the police used force to arrest him, some would interpret that as a crackdown on freedom of thought. Even worse, what if the foreign press took notice?

  “Right now, Wiltia is getting world-wide attention about the international sports competition to be held in a few years. And the royal capital recently had a rebellion. For many reasons, this requires careful consideration.”

  “I understand that.”

  Before Sven became an Autonomous Humanoid Hunter Unit, she belonged to the Wiltian military as an Anthropoid Hunter Unit, a military weapon. She wasn’t human like the police chief, but she felt a certain sympathy for him as someone devoted to the nation.

  “But how are you going to handle the rescue?”

  “Um...”

  The chief of police crossed his arms and pondered Sven’s question. He was in charge here. However, a national problem was beyond his responsibility.

  “We have to wait until we know who will be stuck holding the bag.”

  A fierce game of Old Maid was underway among the upper echelons of the Pelfe police to decide who would be culpable in this matter. Until that was decided, he couldn’t take any action on his own authority.

  “The idiocy of it all!”

  Sven gnashed her teeth at the stupidity of bureaucracy.

  Inside Tockerbrot, the eye of the storm...

  “Heeelp!!!”

  The criminal was crying and shouting and desperately begging for forgiveness.

  “Um, just calm down for a second.”

  “Don’t get any closer! I said no closer! Please! Stay back! If possible, don’t even look at me!!”

  Lud Langart, the owner of the shop, was trying to calm the criminal, who was panicking.

  “W-What are you gonna do with me? Are you gonna kill me? Or eat me?”

  “I’m not going to eat you.”

  The criminal was trembling in terror at Lud’s face.

  “Calm down, Mister. It’s all right. Lud looks scary, but he’d never hurt anyone.”

  The criminal had a gun pressed against Jacob. Nonetheless, the boy attempted to soothe him.

  “R-Really?”

  “Yeah! He looks scary, but he’s a gentle and kind man! So don’t worry!”

  Milly, an apprentice at the bakery, laid down verbal supporting fire.

  “Th-They’re right,” Lud added. “I have no intention of harming you. So please... calm down.”

  As if to reinforce the children’s words, Lud gave a smile—or rather, what he thought was a smile. And the man’s immediate reaction was...

  “Gyaaah! What a gruesome face!! Are you gonna kill me?! Are you?! Are you gonna skin me, butcher my meat, and grind my bones?!”

  Lud had only further terrified him.

  “Lud, that isn’t necessary!”

  “It’s all right, Mister! Calm down! Take a deep breath!”

  Jacob and Milly quieted the criminal, whose legs were shaking and whose nose was running as he sobbed.

  “What kind of mug is that?! I’m certain he wants me dead! That’s gotta be it!!”

  “No, Mister. It may be hard to believe, but that’s just how he smiles.”

  “Well, it’s the kind of smile that scares people into never starting wars again!”

  “I know how you feel.”

  This wasn’t at all a typical conversation between a criminal and his hostages. And hearing it depressed Lud.

  Lud Langart had a frightening face. It was so frightful, he had almost lost his shop because his features scared away customers. That’s why he rarely appeared in the storefront. And that’s why this situation had arisen.

  “Argh! I thought only women and children would be in here! I wasn’t expecting an ambush!”

  “This isn’t an ambush!”

  Lud spoke sadly to the criminal, who was crying in remorse.

  The whole wall of Tockerbrot facing the town’s main street served as a large show window. As a result, customers in the street could see the shop’s products and its clientele, thereby encouraging them to come inside. However, if Lud was standing there with his fierce mien, it would keep everyone away. For that reason, he usually stayed in the oven room while others tended the storefront. But the hostage-taker didn’t know that.

  “Hey, Mister? Why don’t you give this up? If you do it right now, wouldn’t it lighten the charges against you?”

  Jacob, one of his hostages, recommended the man turn himself in.

  “He’s right. There isn’t any way for you to escape.”

  Milly seconded the suggestion from her spot in a chair behind him.

  “Y-You all seem so relaxed...”

  The hostage-taker made a face as if the serene children either impressed or shocked him.

  “Not at all!”

  “Well... kind of.”

  The children looked at each other.

  Jacob and Milly were definitely children. However, since they made friends with Lud Langart, they had been through some dangerous times. They had been swept up in the commotion in the royal capital caused by Genitz’s rebellion.
And they had developed the guts not to panic at a single amateur hostage-taker.

  “Yawwwn...”

  The kitten Ellis, curled up in a corner of the shop, yawned unabashedly and went back to sleep. At Tockerbrot, even the cat was relaxed.

  “What’s with this place?!”

  The hostage-taker was confused. After all, he had a gun. It was an old model and shabby, but it still held bullets.

  Since the hostages knew that, the children and the cat weren’t doing anything to upset the criminal. They remained still and spoke softly.

  “For now, you should lower your gun. After all, it’d be dangerous if it went off.”

  “Y-Yeah...”

  To the criminal, it was ironic that Lud, the man with the scary face, was the most flustered among them. However, Lud’s disquiet was like that of a mother trying to calm a child waving a knife.

  “Let’s see... My name is Lud Langart. The boy you’re holding is Jacob. The girl behind you is Milly. And the cat is Ellis.”

  “Okay...”

  “What’s your name?”

  “Milag... Miroslav Milag.”

  “All right.”

  Trying not to agitate the man, Lud asked, “Why are you doing this?”

  “I’m a bank robber.”

  Lud and the others didn’t know that Miroslav had been hired by the terrorists who were now a political issue between Wiltia and Pelfe.

  “The economy’s bad, right? I don’t have any money or a job. I was down and out and they invited me in on a chance to score big.”

  The Great European War had ended three years ago. War is the largest consumer activity, so at the end of the war, every area of industry suffered a large decrease in demand, despite inflated production.

  And when the balance of supply and demand collapses, massive deflation occurs. Then, goods don’t sell unless prices are drastically lowered, but there was a limit to how low costs could go.

  Employers had greatly reduced labor costs—in other words worker paychecks—or simply laid off their employees. In short, there was widespread unemployment, and even those who had jobs received meager pay. It was difficult to live according to the law so it wasn’t strange that people committed crimes.

  “But I didn’t know what kind of job it would be... I had to raise funds for terrorists!”

  “I see...”

  Apparently, Miroslav hadn’t been prepared to become a political criminal.

  “But I did it because they told me I’d just be the driver and would only face minor charges if I was caught.”

  He hadn’t even been prepared to be a robber. He had committed crimes without much forethought in the hopes that it would reap large amounts of money.

  That’s the horrible thing about poverty. Poverty encourages crime for survival, and it greatly disrupts society. When peace and order are upset, economic activity stagnates, generating more poverty. Then more people engage in crime, setting off a chain reaction.

  To stop that cycle, it was necessary to stimulate demand through consumer activity, but nothing had been found to replace the war, thereby causing a recession whose outcome was uncertain.

  “Urgh! How did this happen? How?!”

  Despair and anger overwhelmed Miroslav. He was not a very rational person.

  “Arrrgh!”

  He erupted in rage, picking up a nearby chair and hurling it at the window. There was a loud crash as the chair flew through the glass.

  “It’s all because I’m poor! It’s not my fault! It’s society’s fault!!”

  “Don’t cry.”

  Indeed, some things are beyond one’s control. Nonetheless, Jacob looked amazed as Miroslav released his frustration by breaking the window of someone else’s shop.

  “Another broken window...”

  Lud, the owner of the shop, quietly sighed at the thought of the repair cost. This might be the third or fourth time that Tockerbrot had suffered a broken window.

  Showing no concern for what might be happening inside the shop, the crowd outside was thrilled and the newspaper reporters clicked their cameras in lieu of shouts for joy.

  “Argh! This isn’t a show for your entertainment!”

  The sight of them must have grated on Miroslav’s nerves, because he pointed his gun outside in a fit of anger.

  “No, Miroslav! Don’t shoot!”

  “—?!”

  However, he stopped when Lud shouted.

  People don’t always stop because they are told to. To be precise, they might not even hear the command. However, no matter how chaotic the circumstances, a person will often react immediately when hearing his or her name. That was why Lud had asked their captor his name earlier.

  “Don’t shoot. If you do, they’ll add attempted murder to your charges. If you want to shoot, shoot at the sky. Then it’s only a threat.”

  A gun is a tool for harming people. Putting a finger on the trigger and aiming at someone is a declaration of intent to kill.

  “Yeah, all right...”

  Miroslav could sense from Lud’s eyes and voice how serious he was, so he obeyed.

  “You’re...”

  The look in Miroslav’s eyes said that he had noticed something.

  “You know how to handle... Or how to use a gun! I knew it... You’re...”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “You’re a bloodthirsty killer!”

  “No, that’s not right!!!”

  Lud had thought Miroslav recognized him as a former soldier, but instead he had insulted Lud again based on his appearance.

  “Don’t kill meeeee!!”

  “I won’t!!”

  Again, Miroslav sobbed and screamed and begged for his life as Lud insisted on his innocence.

  “It’s time for you to surrender, Mister.”

  After listening to the two of them, Jacob heaved another sigh.

  Outside the shop...

  “It looks bad in there.”

  In the upstairs of a house across the street, Sven muttered to herself. The police had temporarily commandeered the house’s second floor, so officers were monitoring the situation inside Tockerbrot through a surveillance telescope.

  “Oh... you can see inside?”

  The house was opposite the shop, but the distance was at least ten meters. And it was already night. The lights were on inside the shop, but it would have been difficult to see with the naked eye.

  “Don’t worry about me. Just do your job!”

  “Y-Yes, Miss!”

  Without turning her head, Sven chided a police officer engaged in surveillance. With her functional specifications, the distance and darkness were no problem. However, what she saw was a big problem.

  It’s unknown how many bullets are in the criminal’s gun. Judging from the way he moves, there could be three or four left.

  He moved like an amateur. Like a street thug or an even lesser punk. It was possible for Lud to defeat him despite the man’s advantage in having a gun. But Lud couldn’t make any careless moves because of Jacob and Milly.

  Still, his chance of winning is over 90 percent. Come on, Master...

  Even with a 99.99 percent chance of success, he would never take the risk if even a slight chance of harming someone else remained. Her master was that kind of man. His compassion for others was a big part of Sven’s deep affection for him. She respected and loved him from the bottom of her heart. But she also wanted him to value himself a little more.

  At this rate, the worst could happen—but in a different way. Of all the possible scenarios Sven could see, danger to Lud’s life was the most likely. He might die protecting someone. And she had to stop that from happening. No matter the cost.

  Again, back inside Tockerbrot...

  A few hours later, the sun had set and it was near bedtime, but the police and the media were still surrounding the bakery.

  “Urgh...”

  “Are you all right?”

  Lud asked this question of Miroslav, whose eyes were bloodsho
t. The criminal’s nerves—and only his—were reaching their limit. The man had already lost the presence of mind to control his hostages. Jacob and Milly lay asleep in a corner of the shop.

  “Shut up! Keep your mouth shut!”

  Now that he was surrounded, there would be no escape. Miroslav was in extreme stress and was clearly beginning to lose his mental equilibrium.

  “You should rest, even for a short time.”

  “Urgh...You just want to escape while I nap! Or turn me over to the police!”

  “I wouldn’t do that.”

  Miroslav had run through the mountains and camped out in the open for days before reaching Tockerbrot in Organbaelz. By the time he got to the shop, he was exhausted.

  “Why don’t you at least eat something? I mean, we have plenty of food to eat. Or rather to sell.”

  “Urgh...”

  Although Miroslav had barricaded himself in the bakery, he had yet to taste the bread. And that wasn’t because he felt bad about eating without paying. He simply didn’t have room in his mind to pay attention to such things. He was so focused on the police outside the window that he couldn’t see the bread lined up just beneath his line of sight.

  “Very well, just a little.”

  “All right, wait a second. How about this one?”

  Lud showed rye bread to Miroslav, who nodded hesitantly.

  “I’ll use a knife to cut it. Is that all right?”

  “Sure...”

  Since he could use the knife for defense, Lud declared his intention beforehand to avoid further stressing Miroslav.

  “Rye bread has a dry texture so spreading something on it makes it taste better. It goes well with juicy marmalade and sour cream. Here.”

  Lud spread cream cheese on a thin slice of rye bread and handed it to Miroslav.

  “It’s delicious!”

  Miroslav exclaimed softly after taking a bite.

  “Would you like something to drink? I can make coffee or tea.”

  “Um... coffee, please.”

  After a while, Lud returned with a pot of coffee and a cup.