Chapter 3.2

“Here, I put in a lot.”

“But—”

“No more talk of debts! If you really do feel that burdened about it, then I’ll ask my husband in the afterlife once I’m dead. Until then, don’t worry about it. Alright?”

Without waiting for an answer, Carla turned away abruptly. All the other customers remained hovering around the borders of the chair, as if to say that they would stay here until Bertram left.

Bertram realized his current situation. This was not the time for him to keep talking of his indebtedness.

It was clear that the emotion these customers were showing was the same anxiety as when they faced an enemy soldier.

In the end, he put away the bag of money Carla had forcefully given him.

“Thank you. Then, I hope to have the chance to see you again.”

Carla did not reply.

Anna wanted to say something, anything, but her mom crowded her into the kitchen while smacking her on the back, so she lost the timing to even say goodbye.

Once the customers went back to a noisy meal—

Only then did Carla yell at Anna.

“Are you in your right mind? How could you pick up such a thing?”

“Such a thing? What’s the problem!”

“His stature is bulky, he’s full of scars, my goodness. By the way he hasn’t even returned home yet, he was probably a deserter soldier who committed some kind of crime. He might’ve even killed his commanding officer.”

“But that’s just a speculation. And that promissory note that he said he wrote during the war definitely had dad’s name….”

War. As soon as that word came out, Carla grabbed a wooden bowl and flung it down. Anna recoiled into herself, and Carla yelled shrilly.

“War, war! How much longer do we have to talk about that war when it’s been over forever?”

“M-mom…..”

“All the war did was take everything from me. Even my husband! Who can pay me back for that, huh? Huh? When I pretended to be grateful for receiving this large restaurant after the war ended, it burnt me from the insides I almost died! War, f*ck, war is a b*st*rd. You have to forget about it. Even if the war ended in victory, we wouldn’t have gotten a sack of flour.”

Anna was unable to respond further. Having heard her mother swear for the first time, tears filled her eyes.

Seeing this, Carla forced her popping veins in her neck to calm down.

“……Anna. I’m sorry I yelled. Anyways, don’t let this talk about the war come up again.”

“S-sorry…. I won’t talk about it again…..”

“Good. Giving stick-thin people food is your choice, so I won’t say anything, but don’t try to keep on in the restaurant. Okay?”

“Okay.”

“Mm, and also…..”

Carla thought for a second before she spoke.

“Don’t pick up a guy like him and court him.”

Anna lost the ability to speak.

A pink, fluffy word like ‘courtship’, and a man that fit the description of ‘scrawny, big bear’.

When the two concepts met each other, they exploded into laughter.

“Ahahahahhaha! Court, cooourt?! Hahaha, ahh, that’s funny. Mom. What do you see me as?”

“A girl who picks up and cares for dangerous men.”

“Don’t interpret things so scandalously! First of all, that man is not my type. He’s too big. And when I looked at him, all I thought of was how pitiful he is.”

“Starting from the emotion of pity is the scariest thing. ‘I’ll just feed him once, oh my, he really likes my food, he can’t live without me’ and then soon you’ll be using the same table for breakfast every morning.”

“Don’t worry. It looked like he didn’t like my food anyways.”

“You really don’t listen to your mom! Haa, do as you will. Just don’t come crying spouting gibberish later.”

Carla picked up the wooden bowl and headed for the kitchen. Inside, the sound of ‘Huh? Who chopped onions as high as a mountain here?’ could be heard.

Pretending not to have heard anything, Anna looked at the direction Bertram had gone.

How far he must’ve gone in leaps with his long legs. She already couldn’t see a hair of him out there anymore.

His black hair, which had lengthened all the way to the nape of his neck, like a real wolf. And those turbulent blue eyes.

…..she hadn’t known because all her attention had gone to his hollow cheeks, but it seemed like he’d been quite a handsome man.

Thinking just that far, Anna hastily shook her head.

‘What am I going to do, remembering his face now? To court him, like mom said? Besides, I can’t do that with a man who can’t even say the food he’s been treated with is good.’

Also, what could she do with that huge height, so tall she could barely see his face from her eye-level. A conversation was hard to have with him if he wasn’t sitting down. When he was standing, his voice always tickled the top of Anna’s head.

Anna was on the short side, but most women would be similarly uncomfortable, too.

But when she had thought this much, her imagination bounced off to a silly place once more.

‘……Wait a minute. Just, just curious, but. How do people with a huge height difference kiss? There’s only so much a girl can cover by standing on her tip-toes. Does the guy crouch down? But then that’s so lame!’

Meanwhile, Carla poked her head out the kitchen to ask about the mountain of onions that were piled up in one corner of the kitchen. However, seeing how grave her daughter’s expression was, Carla was unable to initiate the conversation.

‘Maybe I was too harsh. Should I have at least said that we should send him off after dinner?’

Therefore, Carla decided to handle all the onions on her own without saying anything. Not knowing, of course, of what her daughter was agonizing over at that moment until the very end.