Chapter 5.3

Dieter’s mother, Collie, tried to understand her son’s nonsensical words.

“So earlier Anna said she ‘made too much’ and went out to share her onion porridge. But when you think about it, telling her that ‘walking at night is dangerous, you’ll take her’ would help you seduce her, so you’re going to head out as late as it is now, my son?”

Dieter’s face burst into flames.

“Mother. I’m not seducing her!”

“You think I wouldn’t know how you like her? Anyways, don’t do anything unnecessary.”

“Why! Of course, I know that this village isn’t very dangerous, but…..”

“No: if you went out there, do you think you would protect Anna, or would Anna protect you?”

Dieter couldn’t counter her.

Even with her small stature, Anna acted as courageously as a vigilante herself.

There was even a time when she had made a wolf she’d met on the hills slip down on the muddy road and shattered its head.

“Dieter, I’m more nervous about sending you out there. There’s even that strange man in the village right now.”

“That person who went to Anna’s restaurant?”

“That’s him. After Carla chased him out, I heard nobody saw him leave the village. The vigilantes have been on edge because of that, in case he comes back to take revenge on the men who messed with him…. Wait, Dieter! Where are you going!”

“Am I supposed to stay at home after hearing that?”

“Was what I said earlier not even words? Were they barks from a dog?”

Ignoring what his mother said, Dieter rushed out.

How could he have forgotten that man’s existence?

‘What do I do, what if Anna gets eaten up by that b*st*rd because she pitied him and went to give him another meal!’

He meant this literally.

To Dieter, Bertram was a man who fit that kind of imagination well.

Expressionless, can’t tell what he’s thinking, and needlessly huge.

Plus that black, furry cloak of his that brought to mind the image of a lord of beasts.

Dieter’s imagination became more and more acute, and just before Bertram in his imagination took a bite out of Anna—

Dieter succeeded in shaking awake two of the neighborhood old men and bringing them out to the road.

The two men with their pitchfork and shovel in their hands complained.

“Do you have so little people to worry about that you worry about Anna, you fool?”

“He’s right. Do you know how much nerves Anna has? You know, one time when a wolf got his stupid head wedged between the fences of the farm, all the shepherds ran away, Anna all by herself picked up a rock from somewhere and cracked that wolf’s head.”

“Uncles! Wolves aren’t the only problem, don’t you see? That man is the problem. Doesn’t he seem like a deserter soldier or a criminal?”

“What deserter soldier is that eye-catching?”

“He, he might have aimed precisely for that stereotype!”

“B*st*rd, look how he brings up big words because he doesn’t want to lose to adults. Are you worried about your childhood friend now?”

“I’ve always been worr—eck!”

Dieter’s voice was cut short.

One of the uncles had hit Dieter on his solar plexus.

“Shh.”

At the end of his finger, a gray wolf was wandering in the village.

Had it straggled behind its pack? It was stick thin, but it was a beast that would bite one or two people to death easily.

“Dieter. Go down to the village and bring someone else, quick.”

“W-wolf? What’s got it down here?”

“But…. Wait. Seeing how it’s heading up the hill, it looks like it has an eye on something other than ourselves. Maybe we should leave it alone.”

Hearing that, the uncle on the other side murmured to himself.

“Midpoint up that hill? That reminds me, I think that fool Dean was prattling away earlier about how he and a couple of the young ones screwed the big guy over today.”

“Eh? What’d they do?”

“Apparently they told him a lie about how the rima fly agaric mushrooms* around the middle of the hill taste great if you eat it boiled. The big guy wouldn’t have taken that at face value, eaten those mushrooms, and collapsed up there, right?”

*T/N: rima fly agaric mushrooms are, to the best of my knowledge, not real mushrooms. However, fly agaric mushrooms are apparently actual mushrooms, just not any rima ones that I know of.

“….I’m going to go mad.”

The two men held their farming tools even tighter.

No matter how suspicious or unwelcome a visitor may be, they didn’t want to see him die because they’d been caught up with a villager’s idea of a joke. That would give them a year’s worth of nightmares.

One of the uncles gave Dieter’s shin an irritated kick.

“Go bring some people, hurry!”

“U-uncle, up there… Doesn’t it seem like something’s moving?”

“….huh?”

The two older men squinted towards the place Dieter was pointing to.

The black leaf-like figure that only seemed to be swaying back and forth at first gradually approached them, and it revealed itself under the moonlight.

It was the visitor.

Underneath hair as black as the darkness; blue eyes flash turbulent.

The wolf, facing its prey at last, now growls…

“Do we have to go help him? In front of that huge build, I can’t tell if it’s a wolf or a dog.”

Even the wolf, who had been imposing at first, showed signs of nervousness as Bertram came close. Against that build, even a wolf might not be safe.

But the wolf, not giving up its starvation and pride—

….that became the wolf’s last moments.

Bertram had kicked the wolf away as it stood in his path.

“Yip!”

The wolf flails through the air as though it is a flag.

Not stopping, Bertram continues running straight.

As the uncles’ dumbfounded gazes followed the wolf’s arc, Dieter doggedly followed Bertram to the end with his eyes, and glimpsed blonde hair similar to the color of corn silk fluttering between his fur cloak. He yelled.

“Annaaa!”

Bertram with Anna on his back receded into the distance in moments. Dieter urgently followed after them as he yelled.

“Come quickly! That, that b*st*rd, he kidnapped Anna!”

“What are you talking about! Hey, hey!”

“You b*st*rd, stooooop!!!”

Though his strides were much slower than Bertram’s, Dieter’s voice resounded throughout the whole village.

People began opening their doors one by one to come out before they backed away at the shadow of the bear-like man traversing through the country road.

Dieter’s heart was about to burst in frustration.

“I said, get him! Anna’s been kidnapped!”

“Kidnapped? To where?”

“To, to….”

He didn’t have anything to say.

After all, Bertram was slowly going towards the inner parts of the village.