Believe in You Once

In a daze, someone stamped several marks on the back of Hozzenplozz's right hand.

Alchemists had concocted a dye from several herbs and minerals that was hard to wash off once it stained the skin. At first, it had been used to dye cloth. Rumor had it that someone had their buttocks cut off after their trousers ran in the wash. Later, it was used for body painting in certain special circumstances.

Many of the people managing the refugee camp were students from Weissenburg University. They all wore red hats.

"Can you read?" the student stamping Hozzenplozz asked him.

"A little," Hozzenplozz replied.

The student pointed to the bottom row of letters and numbers on the back of his hand. "This is the number of the tent where you and your aunt will be staying. Go take a bath and collect your things in a moment. Someone will take your aunt and bring her to the tent."

Hozzenplozz agreed without thinking. Then a middle-aged woman wearing a yellow hat came over and asked their names before leading Old Mrs. Kaspar away.

"Come along." The student in the red hat pointed to a large tent in the distance. "Go there to bathe and change your clothes first. After you've collected your things, you can go eat."

At the mention of food, Hozzenplozz obediently did as he was told.

When he reached the large tent, he smelled hot water and what seemed to be some kind of medicinal herb. Wooden planks had been laid across stones to form the floor.

As soon as he entered the tent, someone in a red hat asked, "Do you have anything valuable on you?"

Hozzenplozz shook his head.

The red-hatted person asked again, "You don't mind changing out of all your old clothes, right?"

Hozzenplozz shook his head again.

Then he was ordered to take off all his clothes.

Hozzenplozz hesitated, but four big men wearing underpants pinned him down and stripped him. Then they shaved off every last hair on his body except his eyebrows.

Completely naked, Hozzenplozz was pushed behind the tent's curtain. There were a series of curtained stalls, and several large vats of hot water stood in the central passageway. The medicinal smell came from there.

"Are you going to wash yourself, or do you want me to wash you?"

The voice of another bald, burly man brought him back to his senses.

"I'll do it myself! I'll do it myself!"

Hozzenplozz made his choice.

Then he was given a wooden bucket and a brush. He filled the bucket with the medicinal water, took it into a stall, and scrubbed himself clean.

"This is soap paste." The bald man carried over a wooden bucket. "Wash yourself again with this."

Hozzenplozz scooped up some sticky soap paste that smelled of sulfur and rubbed it over himself. He scrubbed himself again with the brush. Then the bald man brought him a bucket of hot water, with a piece of linen beside it.

After bathing, he dried himself with the linen. Following the big man's instructions, he took the linen towel and went behind another curtain.

There were many shelves here, with clothes on them.

Like everyone else, he was given a pair of underpants, a short-sleeved pullover, a pair of trousers, and a pair of straw sandals. After he got dressed, another stamp was marked on the back of his hand.

When he left the tent through the other side, he was given a large piece of linen, a plastic bag containing a bowl and spoon, and a stamp. The linen was his blanket, and the bowl and spoon were his eating utensils.

A person in a yellow hat saw him standing there dazed and took him to the tent where he would be staying. They told him he could go eat only when the bell rang.

Hozzenplozz sat blankly in the tent. Old Mrs. Kaspar sat across from him, equally dazed, holding her little stone mill in her arms.

"What should I do now?" Only then did Hozzenplozz have time to think about the future. "Should I find another patch of woods and become a bandit?"

But being a bandit was hard work too. He had to stay on edge all day, and sometimes he had to hunt. When he tried to sell the pelts, merchants would assume he had stolen them and wouldn't dare buy them.

The bell interrupted his thoughts. Hozzenplozz took Old Mrs. Kaspar by the hand and carried the bag of eating utensils as they headed to the dining area.

There was no need to ask for directions now. They just followed everyone else.

Each person got two bowls: one for soup and one for a steamed bun made from mixed grains.

As they were about to get soup, a voice cried, "Grandma?"

The sound startled Hozzenplozz.

Frederick was discussing matters at the camp with Old Franz in his tent when someone brought four people over. He recognized two of them from earlier that day; the other two wore yellow hats.

Old Mrs. Kaspar's grandson, Kaspar, had been swept only a short distance downstream before his friend Zoppel, who had climbed a tree, pulled him up into it. But not long afterward, the tree was swept down too. The two of them clung to it and floated downstream for three days and three nights.

Kindhearted people downstream rescued them, but Kaspar fell ill. Zoppel took care of him the whole time. By the time Kaspar recovered and returned to the village, everyone had already fled.

The two of them followed the refugees, asking around as they went. At last, they learned a little about Old Mrs. Kaspar. They took a wrong turn along the way and reached the camp several days early. Now they were working in the kitchen.

"So you're that Hozzenplozz?" Old Franz exclaimed in surprise after hearing the whole story. "The notorious bandit?!"

Hozzenplozz was tightly bound with rope. With a look of utter despair, he nodded.

Frederick watched him quietly for a moment, then asked, "Why did you save Old Mrs. Kaspar?"

"I'll give you one chance to answer. You have to tell the truth. I can tell when someone is lying."

He couldn't actually tell when someone was lying, but it was enough that Hozzenplozz believed he could.

Hozzenplozz hung his head despondently. "I couldn't just run off and watch her get swept away by the flood. I'd have nightmares."

Frederick nodded and said solemnly, "I can see you're a good person at heart."

"If Kaspar and Zoppel are willing to forgive you, I'll pretend I don't know about the things you did in the past. You can live in Wessen Territory, too. But if you break the law or commit a crime, you'll be punished according to the law."

Hozzenplozz jerked his head up and stared in disbelief at the Weissen baron he had met once before. Then he turned to Kaspar, looking at him expectantly.

"I'm willing to forgive him this once," Kaspar said. "He saved Grandma."

Zoppel added, "I'm willing to forgive him this once too."

Frederick nodded, then asked Hozzenplozz, "Can you promise to live honestly from now on and never commit another crime?"

"I promise I can!" Hozzenplozz answered immediately.

"I'll believe you this once. Go eat first," Frederick said.

When Hozzenplozz walked out of the tent, it felt as though his feet were treading on clouds. He drifted along, hardly believing it was real.

The next day, he put on a yellow hat and became a lumberjack.

After work that day, he took a wooden token marking him as someone who had done heavy labor to the place where food was served.

The steaming pea soup in the pot smelled so good. He could have two bowls.

The plain steamed bread in the steamer had no mixed grains in it. It had just been made and was still warm. Set on a steamer liner made of fresh straw, it had a hint of wheat fragrance. He could have two pieces.

For some reason, Hozzenplozz felt that this was the best meal he had ever eaten.

But he still had one small regret: he hadn't chopped the most firewood in his team that day. Otherwise, he could have gotten a small piece of cheese, too.