Chapter 10

After a brief orientation at the employment agency office, Edith followed the crew chief to the Belen city hall, where the auditorium was located.

There were quite a few new janitors hired alongside Edith—likely because they were preparing for a series of events starting with the awards ceremony, which meant a major clean-up was in order. Some of the new hires were already clustered in groups, chatting cheerfully among themselves.

“Did you come through an agency too, Liche?”

One of them approached Edith, a woman whose charming feature was the light freckles scattered across her nose.

“Yes,” Edith replied. “Liche” was the alias she was using for the time being.

“I thought so. These days it’s tough to find a job like this without an introduction from an agency.”

“……”

“I’m Gisela. Nice to meet you.”

Edith gave her an awkward smile—a subtle signal that she wasn’t eager for conversation, but it seemed Gisela still had plenty of questions.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

“Ah… I’m married.”

“Oh my gosh, really?”

“Yes. I even have a child.”

“Wow! You don’t look like it at all. Did you get married very young?”

“…Something like that.”

As they passed through the square with its grand fountain, Edith only responded with brief answers, a nod, or the occasional word, wanting to keep the conversation as short as possible. Before long, the group arrived in front of the city hall.

True to its nickname, the White City Hall, the building stood out with its gleaming white brick walls and a tall clock tower at the center.

With its color and sheer scale, the building looked almost like a grand castle—it felt imposing, even awe-inspiring. They said the facilities hidden behind it were even larger than what the eye could see, and Edith couldn’t even begin to imagine the full extent.

“Wow, after all those expansions year after year, it’s huge now.”

Gisela whispered, echoing Edith’s own thoughts. Just then, the foreman at the front clapped loudly.

“All right, enough chatting. Like I explained earlier, we’ll be starting with the gardens today. Everyone from here to there will take the front garden, and the rest will handle the rear.”

Gisela waved a regretful goodbye.

“Ah, we’re in different teams. See you later, Liche.”

“Yes, take care.”

Edith turned toward the rear gardens with her group as everyone began to move. On her way, she kept her face stern, glancing carefully around.

“It’s even bigger than I thought.”

Just getting from the main gate to the back entrance took a considerable amount of time. Since the auditorium was near the back entrance, she realized that escaping after the operation would take just as long. There were also plenty of guards stationed at each gate—she’d already had her ID checked twice on the way here.

She’d have to keep looking around, but for now, it seemed escaping the same way she came in would be impossible.

Soon the group arrived at the rear gardens. The foreman handed out work tools to everyone. Edith’s job was to sweep the fallen leaves from every corner of the garden with a large broom.

Leaves that were once green, now faded and brittle, tumbled across the ground with each sweep of her broom.

She started at the center and gradually made her way toward the building’s outer edge—intentionally so, since she wanted to peek inside through the windows.

Swish—swish—

The steady rhythm of sweeping came to an abrupt stop when a faint sound of a child’s laughter drifted over.

Edith looked up, her expression dazed. The distinctive giggle of a child was coming from a half-open window. Almost drawn by an invisible string, her golden eyes gazed through the glass. Inside the hallway stood a woman, holding a small boy in her arms.

Two, maybe three years old? He looked to be about the same age as Leon.

“Did you come to see Daddy today?”

“Yes.”

“Where is Daddy?”

“Well, he stepped out for a bit, but he’ll be back soon. Don’t worry, he’ll come.”

The woman’s gentle explanations continued, but Edith could hear no more. Suddenly, she was overwhelmed with longing for Leon.

Daddy.

“Daddy” was the very last word Leon had learned, even though he started speaking early for his age.

Leon was born at the very end of the war, just when Elise died. Not long after, even Erniel passed away—Edith’s hardest days.

That was why Edith could never bring herself to tell Leon about Maximilian. He was a man to be proud of, someone who’d given his life for his country, but even saying his name brought sorrow rising in her throat.

Edith had only recently lost her entire family and simply couldn’t handle it. In fact, it was Leon who’d asked about his father first.

“Where’s Daddy?”

The exact same question as the boy at the window now.

But Edith had never managed to answer Leon the way that mother just had. The child’s jet-black eyes—eyes he’d inherited from Maximilian—simply watched her in silence.

He waited patiently, and then reached out his tiny hand to touch Edith’s cheek.

“Sorry, Mommy. Don’t cry.”

She’d told him afterward it wasn’t his fault, but for a long time Leon kept apologizing. He never asked again.

As time passed and her grief slowly faded, Edith began mentioning Maximilian now and then. But Leon would always just listen quietly, never interrupting—which told her he wasn’t uninterested. He was simply worried his mother might cry again.

“…You don’t have to worry about that.”

Edith bit her trembling lip.

A tidal wave of longing for Leon crashed over her. It was a different sort of ache from what she felt for Maximilian.

“Hey! No slacking off over there!”

The foreman’s angry shout rang out toward Edith, who stood frozen in place. Because of it, the mother and child at the window both turned their gaze to her. Edith quickly bowed her head. Thick drops of water splattered onto the dry leaves below, leaving dark round marks.

“I’m sorry,”

she murmured, her voice barely audible beneath the resumed sound of sweeping.

***

Before long, evening had come.

“All right, good work today. Please return to the office at the same time tomorrow. No one is allowed in the city hall building by themselves, so you’ll need to come with me.”

With the foreman’s final briefing, the gathered group began to disperse. Gisela gently tapped Edith on the shoulder—a small gesture, but Edith flinched, startled.

Gisela gave her an apologetic smile.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you… Was it a rough day?”

“Oh… No, I was just lost in thought for a moment.”

“That’s a relief. I’m headed this way—what about you, Liche?”

“I’m going this way.”

“All right. See you tomorrow, then.”

With a tired smile that betrayed her exhaustion, Edith and Gisela went their separate ways.

Because the days were so short, the streets were already growing too dark. Gisela hurried, mentally running through the groceries she needed to buy with today’s wages. She’d be home a bit late after stopping at the market, so she decided to take a shortcut through the alley rather than the main road.

That was when she suddenly felt a cold touch—something like a plant brushing her neck. Before she could realize it was a hand, a man’s extremely low voice came from behind.

“Don’t turn around. Just answer my questions.”

Gisela’s mind went blank as she nodded frantically. She hadn’t noticed anyone following her at all; if she tried any kind of resistance against a man like this, she’d probably be found as a cold corpse come morning.

“Are you and the woman you just parted with old acquaintances?”

“W-who…? You mean Liche?”

“Liche? Hm, whatever.”

“N-no. Today was the first time I met her.”

Before the man could ask more, Gisela began spilling everything she knew about Liche—that she married young, had a child, originally lived in the countryside but came to Belen for work. Nothing important, just trivial things.

“I-I’m not really sociable. That’s all I know about her. Really.”

“….”

“P-please, just spare me.”

Shaking with fear, Gisela could barely breathe. Then, from behind her, the man spoke a name she never expected.

“Gisela.”

“H-how…?”

Knowing her name was shocking enough, but the man continued, listing her home address and the names of her family members. He didn’t even threaten her directly, but that alone was enough to make Gisela feel suffocated with terror.

“I-I’ll do whatever you say, just… please, don’t hurt my family…”

The condition was simple: while working, she would keep watch over Liche’s actions and report anything unusual to him.

It was such a simple request that Gisela was nodding her head before he’d even finished speaking. Even if it hadn’t been, she would have agreed—she had no choice.

Meanwhile, unlike Gisela, Edith was walking home in apparent peace. Her true state of mind was far from calm, but at least outwardly, that’s how it seemed.

Thoughts of Leon had left Edith feeling hollow.

‘What am I even doing here?’

She had left the one who needed her most, her own son, all for the sake of some greater cause. Even if all of this finally ended in freedom, if something happened to her and Leon became an orphan—what was the point?

As Edith’s thoughts spiraled, she stumbled badly. She had to brace herself against the wall just to stay upright, and her breathing grew ragged. Her depression, usually kept at bay, began to creep in and take over.

Depression.

Edith’s depression had once been so severe that she’d needed sedatives just to function, and after the war, she couldn’t even sleep without sleeping pills. Over time and through her resistance work, things had gradually improved, but that deep-seated melancholy still surfaced unexpectedly, tormenting her.

‘I have to go back to Leon.’

Her battered mind abandoned reason for the most desperate need of all. Her unfocused golden eyes wandered.

‘My child. My Leon.’

‘I have to go back. Give up everything and live with Leon in some quiet rural village. Just the two of us, safe forever.’

As Edith gave in to that impulse and took a step, a foul cloud of exhaust wafted by—then a massive military truck rumbled past.

Inside the barred, roofless bed weren’t livestock, but people. Dozens of them.

“…!”

Edith froze as she spotted a familiar face in the mix of despair and terror.

“…Loris.”

He was one of the resistance fighters who had been scheduled to join Edith’s group, but after boarding the train, he’d disappeared without a word.