Chapter 5.2

Anna pulled her voice back together and spoke firmly.

“Mr. Bertram. The people here use words like ladies and gentlemen to mean ‘the higher-up folks from those other neighborhoods,’ you see? So please do not call me that here. You don’t need to protect me either. It’s been 20 years already since I’ve been going around this block by myself.”

“Then I will have the honor to be the first to escort you.”

“Eek! Nev- never mind!”

Giving a shriek without meaning to, Anna whirled herself around.

Her face was on fire.

‘Honor? Lady? Goodness, did he learn about the world through books or something? How can he say words like that out of his own mouth?’

The men in this town didn’t even know how to say honeyed words like ‘I’ll accompany you home’ at all!

On the other hand, Bertram was skeptical as he fell in right behind Anna, as if he’d never seen such a reaction before.

“I had thought it was a common greeting. Did you find it burdensome?”

“Yes! Yes! Really! Don’t! Where did you learn something so embarrassing like that!”

“I will restrain myself. However, I do indeed wish to escort you back.”

“I said it’s fine! This neighborhood’s safe!”

Anna sped up her footsteps. But no matter how quickly Anna plodded down the darkness, two or so strides from Bertram would shorten the distance between them immediately.

Bertram’s voice came from right behind her head.

“Many beasts such as wolves were inhabiting the surroundings of the village.”

“Wolves rarely come all the way to the village. And if they do come, they’d go towards the community farm where all the livestock are!”

“By those words, you must mean that there are preventive measures set up near the community farm. Does that mean you have vigilantes?”

He was right. There was housing near the farm where workers rotated on night duty, so if wolves came they were to call the vigilantes immediately.

Bertram took Anna’s silence as an affirmation.

“Wolves are clever. The moment they realize that the farm is not a suitable hunting ground, they will come down to the village. And that could happen this very night.”

“…..How smart you are. Oh, were you about to respond with ‘Yes, I am smart’? Please don’t.”

“…..”

“Mr. Bertram, when you talk to other people, you use your wit and your head to your highest capacity instead of your emotions, right? Just like how you used senses other than your sense of smell as much as you could when I was cooking. But you see, when I am talking to you, I can’t help but feel like I’m being treated like a puzzle.”

“A puzzle?”

“Yes. You reach your own conclusion first, and then you piece everyone else’s stories together to fit it. That’s what you did this afternoon, too. ‘I am an indebted person. You two mother-and-daughter, cooperate so I can repay my debts.’ And it’s the same now. ‘You look dangerous. Concede and accept my help.’”

After spilling out words like bullets, Anna momentarily caught her breath.

What had bothered Anna when she’d been talking to Bertram had finally been clarified inside of Anna.

To that human who claimed not to know emotion, conversation was an exhaustive means*. And so if you brought out a subject that was even the smallest bit different from his ‘goal’, you would only feel as if you were now talking to a brick wall.

*T/N: The more accurate translation here would be something like ‘perfect means’ (because he treats it only as a method/a way instead of as actual conversation), but I don’t know if that gets through really well. If you have any other terms/ways to make that context clearer, please feel free to change! D:

But would he really try to reform himself just because he was criticized for it?

If he ignored her after she’d given him this detailed explanation, she would kick him in the shin and never look back.

Anna spun her body around, ready to hear Bertram’s excuse.

That very moment, Bertram spoke.

“Miss Anna, are you okay?”

Soon, Anna also knew what the problem was.

Tears begin streaming down her face. On the other hand, the corners of her lips lift up all the way. And from inside her throat, sounds began flowing out that had nothing to do with Anna’s will.

“Ha, ha…… Ahahahaha!”

“Miss Anna!”

“Wha, what the, what is, hahaha, hah?”

Both tears and laughter did not stop. The raised corners of her lips felt stiff.

Anna belatedly realized what situation she was in.

Wasn’t there an ugly brown mushroom that grew near the village that, if you ate, gave you these symptoms? You’d cry and laugh for a few hours before you fell asleep.

‘What, in the world did he pick up and boil, this human….’

The important thing you had to do was to secure a safe place before you fell asleep.

Shivering uncontrollably, Anna looked up at Bertram. Could this person really be of help? It would be fortunate if he didn’t leave Anna behind him because he was afraid the villagers would find out he messed up.

“Ahahahaheh, my, my house….”

“Miss Anna. I apologize profusely.”

“Apologi-hihihihahaha!”

‘This is not the time for apologies! Don’t tell me he’s going to leave me in this state and go?’

Of course, that was not the case.

Bertram bent his head down into a bow.

“Please excuse me for a moment.”

Bertram took off his cloak and appeared to place it around Anna’s shoulders, before he wrapped it completely around Anna and placed her on his shoulder. The ground receded from her in an instant. It was a height that Anna had never seen in her life.

“S-s-s-“

“It’s scary, so should I let you down? I cannot. We must return to Miss Anna’s residence with haste. But before that, you may be shaken up quite a bit….”

Bertram spoke solemnly.

“You may puke. I am very good at laundry as well.”

They were words that were sh*tilly comforting.