Chapter 7.1

While Anna was wondering about Bertram’s identity, Anna’s mother, Carla, was also sharing similar thoughts to her friend.

“These clothes—what do you think about them? They’re that guy’s clothes.”

Carla extended a shirt to her friend, Collie, who had come to visit. When Collie, the tailor, reached out and felt it, her eyes widened.

“Oh my oh my, what is this?”

“What’s wrong?”

“Just surprised that you’re calling these rags clothes.”

“Oh, stop surprising me.”

“No no, you need to be more surprised.”

Collie smiled sweetly as she spread the shirt out.

The pale ivory shirt was full of rough traces. On first glance, it just seemed like something beggars would wear, but…

“Here, do you see how the date was embroidered in?”

“Embroidered? Did they have money to spare?”

“That’s right. This is definitely a fitted shirt that someone with a hefty bit of money took care to make. It’s become rags because they wore it for so long, but in the first place, if this was made lazily at home then I bet this would only be a scrap of thread by now.”

“Hah, how ridiculous.”

Carla tsked loudly.

The man’s fur cloak didn’t seem ordinary, either. In order to erase traces of Anna’s vomit, she had roughly rubbed and soaped the thing on a rock down at the riverside, but it hadn’t fallen apart at all.

It was also light and dried relatively quickly for something its size. “Three days” was a lie—he might even be able to leave tomorrow with it on his shoulders.

Collie seemed to have noticed Carla’s anxiousness. Rolling up the shirt, she gave it back to her as she spoke.

“Nervous that some weird guy might attach himself to your daughter?”

“Of course. I’ve become used to the residue folks* who can’t go home after the war, but since I don’t even know who this guy is….”

*like the leftover people from the war

“You sure brought him right into your restaurant despite that. What, did your heart soften seeing how he came rushing in with your sick daughter?”

“Am I crazy? No, better have him where I can see him rather than around the village. The moment he causes trouble, I’m chopping him up with a sickle.”

“Hmm, but I do wonder what he is. Judging by his clothes, he might even be a noble.”

“Then I’ll kill him before he makes any trouble.”

Carla’s eyes flashed.

“Those noble b*st*rds, I never want to see one come down to the countryside and leaving innocent girls pregnant ever again.”

“When you bring out the sickle, call for me too. Anna’s my daughter, too.”

“You think my daughter would like your son?”

“Dieter tries so hard to look good in front of Anna, you know! Just you wait, I’ll make Anna my daughter-in-law yet.”

Collie went away cackling, and Carla breathed out a small sigh.

“His mom is so cheeky and bold, so I wonder why that boy Dieter is so weak.”

If Dieter had been even the littlest more decisive, she would’ve married Anna to him in a heartbeat.

Meanwhile, oblivious to how her mom’s insides were turning, Anna was organizing the spices with tears and snot running down her face.

“Cough, cough! Huegh….”

“Miss Anna, please go outside and command me from there. I will organize this.”

“But who knows how many years it’ll take if I ordered you to do it, Mr. Bertram.”

Asking Bertram to chop up onions, garlic, peppers and all those spices wasn’t a bad choice in itself.

The problem was that Bertram did not know how to store these yet.

“Okay, look carefully and learn! Store the minced onions over there. The chopped onions will be kept in water.”

“I have remembered.”

“And for the minced garlic…. Sniff…”

Tears overflowed from her face, to the point that they were about to drop into the containers of spice.

But an incoming threat that comes before that.

A well-spiced hand, approaching to wipe her tears away.

Anna hastily withdrew.

“Ack! Are you trying to kill someone?! If that touches me, I’m literally going to go blind!”

“Oh, I apologize. I will go wash my hands.”

“Even if you wash them, it’s going to remain there for some time. Please don’t touch me for the time being.”

“Until when should I not touch you?”

“At least four hours……. No, don’t touch me at all! What am I saying!”

Anna quickly got rid of her own gibberish.

When she was with this human, she kept talking nonsense.

Since he reacted with indifference to whatever he heard, Anna was sure it was because she didn’t have the chance to really think about what she was saying.

‘Conversations aside, I wonder if he’s ever thought that his own expression is scary.’

Anna was suddenly curious.

“Excuse me, but do you look in the mirror sometimes?”*

*T/N: LOL ANNA this is so rude!! haha

“I look every day in order to shave. If I go around without shaving, I’ve been taken as a mountain beast before, so.”

“Ahahahaha! That’s plausible. Mr. Bertram, it’s always surprising to see how unexpectedly well you are at heeding other people’s words. Even though it feels like I’m talking with a wall during our conversations.”

“I have practiced a lot. A long time ago, it was difficult for me to converse like this as well.”

“A long time ago?”

Bertram checked to see if Carla was around before he spoke.

“……I mean during the war.”

“….Mr. Bertram. What did you used to do? Are you a runaway soldier?”

“No. I have fought in the war for longer than anyone else. Though I am now nothing more than a debtor.”

“What will you do once you’ve repaid your debts?”

“Return home, I suppose.”

“Where do you live?”

“In the capital.”

“Does your family not worry that you aren’t returning home, Mr. Bertram?”

“My closest family members have all died. My living uncle finds me uncomfortable.”

The forcefully continuing conversation snapped to a stop.

When Anna became speechless, Bertram added, “Please do not feel apologetic, as you have not been disrespectful. I do not have emotions.”

“……but I can’t help but feel that I have.”

“This is what is troublesome about not having emotions. It is difficult to predict and avoid negative feelings.”

By ‘troublesome,’ too, he must be using the term as a modifier to explain his current situation rather than as an emotion.