Spice and Wolf - Volume 15 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER FOUR

“Oh, you looked around town? Was there anything interesting?”

Luward was using polite language in front of Holo.

“Yes, several things.”

The silverware was actual silver.

Furthermore, there were small utensils that resembled pitchforks that Lawrence had only heard rumors about.

Apparently, nobles in the south used them to impale meat and vegetables for eating.

“We have merchants in our supply corps, but it feels odd to call them merchants. And Moizi here can do planning but not trading.”

“Coins are too small for my hands.”

Following in Luward’s footsteps, Moizi showed off his rocklike hands, able to grip both sword and pen.

“So for that reason, we’d like to hear your opinion, Mr. Lawrence. For various reasons, we are not blessed with the opportunity to befriend a merchant very often.”

He was a member of a mercenary band. It was said, when such a band passed through, not even a single turnip was left behind.

Having dinner and sharing quiet conversation with someone like Lawrence was a very unusual occurrence, to the point it still seemed to be throwing them off somewhat. Usually, they only spoke to merchants to extort money, to extort merchandise, or to ask questions under pain of decapitation or disembowelment.

Even if that was overstating the case, he did not think they would meet many merchants they could have a frank discussion with. At best, it would just be people with particular idiosyncrasies like those of the Delink Company and Philon Company.

But merchants neither frightened their enemies nor were frightened by them. That had to be rather difficult to deal with.

“I’m unsure I can fulfill such expectations, but…”

With a smiling face, Lawrence paused there, putting down the bread that was in his hand.

“…The thing that most surprised me is how cheap buildings are being sold.”

“Ah, that’s right…I heard from my subordinates that Mr. Lawrence and…Miss Holo had been in front of a building for sale.”

Luward was unsure what honorific to use for Holo, but Holo grinned pleasantly back at him.

“Yes, I’m a little embarrassed at having been seen like that.”

“You shouldn’t be. Many of our members who survive over the years save up and find a town to live in. It’s a dream we can understand.”

Surely that was not simple flattery.

Luward and Moizi exchanged looks and cut the meat up, and in no time at all Holo’s empty plate had been filled to the brim.

“But those prices really are low enough to shock, then?”

Luward was not a man capable only of swinging a sword.

“Yes. Furthermore, this town doesn’t seem to have small annoying guilds.”

“That’s correct. A number of our men seem to be thinking about staying behind here as well. Some are getting on in years and feeling their old wounds.”

Luward spoke as he looked around the inn like a king surveying a town from his castle.

Certainly, the Myuri Mercenary Company had many valiant veterans as befitted its history.

Excepting newly formed groups focusing only on the short-term, transitory issues of battle day after day, leaving midway to live in a town was probably fairly common. Perhaps the company had support from a variety of places thanks to that.

“Most of all, it’s great to not have people asking questions.”

So Luward said.

No guilds meant there was no one to inspect or monitor a person, either.

This town didn’t even have walls.

“That’s certainly the case. And there’s money in it, too, I think.”

Lawrence’s words drew the gazes of everyone at the table.

Money was money no matter how you earned it.

That was not something mercenaries that had shed much blood could easily ignore.

“What do you mean?”

“The price of goods and the price of coin are both determined naturally, as if by the hand of God. Surely it is the same for the coin prices in this town. However, it is not always so.”

With meat still impaled on Luward’s pitchfork-like utensil, he looked at Lawrence, then at Moizi.

No doubt the care they put into the movements of their gazes and their speech were all on account of Holo.

Lawrence trusted in that and focused on his own speech.

“What appears to be decided by naturally comes from numerous people acting in their own interests.”

Luward and the others, accustomed to predicting the movements of people on the battlefield and the movements of rulers atop maps, made various nods.

Lawrence, confirming that was the case, said this: “The coin prices in this town surprised me more than the low prices of buildings. However, even if all of this is by the hand of God, God is not responsible for everything.”

He had meant to close his mouth if anyone raised an objection, but everyone at the table was listening closely to Lawrence’s story.

Like wolves, their ears were open no matter which way their feet pointed.

“In other words, let’s say there’s an unusual deviation in this town’s prices, say in coins, trenni silver pieces in this case. Even if they accumulated in this town by natural circumstance, there would absolutely not be an accumulation of silver coins alone.”

That would be like having the white of an egg in the center.

Luward, who favored the showy, glanced up at the ceiling slightly as he interjected.

“So there has to be someone bringing coins in.”

“That’s right. And when one person moves, it always attracts the attention of other people. After all, I didn’t have any idea about this town’s currency movements whatsoever.”

He leaped one step beyond his logic.

The audience, led step-by-step through Lawrence’s story, looked completely left behind.

“?”

Everyone craned their necks forward to hear how Lawrence’s story continued.

If this were a negotiating table, here was where merchants would decapitate these men of the blade in one fell swoop, making a killing.

“Even in Lenos, there was extremely little information about this town. In other words, it means virtually no one travels from there to here.”

Even if such people remained silent about the price that was the seed of their profit, it was difficult to believe they could all keep silent about their destination. If one told people they had gone somewhere, those they left behind in town took an interest in where they had gone. Unless everyone was in on it, the state of the town was bound to get out. Surely it was more natural to think that the lack of that was due less to everyone being secretive, but rather to a simple lack of migration.

As a matter of fact, Lawrence and Holo had passed very few people on the road to Lesko.

Migrants had surely come out of the western harbor, Kerube, and went farther north, probably arriving by ship at places that could not even be called towns running along the base of the mountains.

As liberal as Lesko was, people were ignorant of it to a curious degree.

“At first, I thought the price slippage was a recent, sudden thing, but when going around the marketplace I had no sense of that whatsoever. In the first place, when asking questions of people who’d come here from various places in the northlands, I felt like they were obtaining trenni silver pieces. A currency you can put faith into is a precious thing after all. And having obtained trenni silver pieces, a strong currency they can have faith in, they apparently return to their homelands. That being the case, the constant outflow of silver coins should give rise to a sudden currency shortage. I’ve seen it with my own eyes in the kingdom of Winfiel. The movements of currency, in other words, the movements of merchants, are very sensitive, like rats fleeing the sinking ship.”

Amid the tumult all around them, the atmosphere at the table altered somewhat.

Glances were being exchanged and Lawrence could hear various sounds. He was not surprised that only Luward kept his eyes squarely on Lawrence the entire time.

“I thought that perhaps the Debau Company was bringing silver coins in itself, but if that were indeed the case, someone would notice. As the Debau Company is maintaining the prices of gold and silver coins by guaranteeing the rate of exchange, the difference in the price of gold and silver coins can’t be explained any other way. So, there’s only one possibility I could think of.”

“Someone’s secretly bringing coins in through the back door?”

Luward was staring squarely at Lawrence.

It might have been a warning shot in one sense. After all, no doubt Luward was sharp enough to anticipate what Lawrence would say next.

Lawrence lightly rubbed his nose, wiped the bread crumbs off his lap, and spoke slowly.

“As an ordinary merchant, I know few details about the world of battle. I don’t know how much information is in circulation around the world and how much is kept secret.”

On the surface, it was a statement with no connection to the conversation until this moment.

What was frightening about the people at the table was how their gestures were completely unchanged from before as they adopted combat stances. As a matter of fact, he felt like a little bird under the glare of a hunting dog, not knowing if it would pounce. He did not think the people making a ruckus all around had noticed.

No doubt he would be completely unable to stand up to this if Holo was not at his side.

Luward watched Lawrence for a while before finally opening his mouth.

“Why do you say that?”

A calm smile remained on his lips as he cut the steak at hand with a knife. It was of rare quality, boiled, fried, and liberally treated with spices. Unlike the black-roasted exterior, the interior of the meat was red and very juicy.

Luward brought it to his mouth, for eating meat dripping with blood was the duty of the strong.

It seemed that when it came to negotiations, Luward had more experience than Lawrence.

“Because for a merchant like me, buying a store is a once-in-a-lifetime affair. I want to be sure of what’s going on in this town and also to predict where it is going.”

Those with no knowledge of the matter would no doubt think they were having two separate conversations.

However, Luward asked nothing in return; nor did anyone else at the table.

As a result of thinking together with Holo before coming to the inn and ruling out one possibility after another, Lawrence had arrived at an exceedingly simple conclusion.

For there to not be a shortage of currency in spite of it being carried out, someone had to be supplying more. Transporting that much coinage was quite an undertaking; otherwise the large number of people heading for the town of Lesko would draw attention from people, like it or not.

That being the case, barring transport by ghosts or money changing conducted by fairies, someone had to be secretly bringing silver coins in.

For anything involving trade, there was always a cause and an effect.

One needed people who would not be asked where they had been and who could move a large quantity of goods without arousing suspicion.

Calmly searching for people who fulfilled those conditions, he found that the answer was largely right before his eyes.

“That is kept secret.”

Luward spoke bluntly after wiping his lip.

Surely the true meaning of those words was that Lawrence’s thinking was correct.

That Holo reached out to her wine-filled tankard for the first time was further proof.

Luward lightly rubbed the edge of his ear.

As he did so, the tension around the table seemed to recede at once.

“That is kept secret. It’s one reason to be moving around with a large amount of cargo, after all.”

Moizi looked at Luward with a fair bit of surprise, but Luward dismissed the gaze of the fatherlike figure with a wave. The hand he waved was directed toward Holo, who was stuffing her cheeks with dove potpie.

“She’s running low on wine, Moizi.”

Moizi hurriedly poured more wine into Holo’s tankard. Of course, she was not low on wine at all.

He had surely noticed Holo had been shifting her gaze across the table the whole time, monitoring them for any change in posture and the like. Even if he had inherited nothing from Myuri but the name, he did foster a certain wolflike cunning and sharpness.

No doubt that made Holo happy, Lawrence thought.

She immediately drank half the tankard at once, seemingly to display her thanks and appreciation for the gesture.

“Furthermore, we’re a large family. Lodging at an inn requires a lot of food. Just sending people out to buy it every day is quite something.”

As Luward spoke what seemed like gossip, he distributed soup rich in vegetables and thickened with bread to his men.

Lawrence immediately understood that Luward was giving him an opportunity to speak.

“It must be even harder procuring supplies like shoes and clothing.”

His reply was answered with, “But if we all go to a store, they think we’re a bunch of bandits.”

A moment later, the flow of money connected inside of Lawrence.

The final thing he wished to know was why the Debau Company had constructed this flow of money.

“If you like, Mr. Lawrence,” Luward said briefly, “I’ll bring some wine up after the meal.”

Meaning, they had reached the limit of what could be discussed here.

Lawrence nodded, replying, “I’d like that very much.”

When Lawrence asked to be excused from the dinner table, Luward had readily assented.

His polishing up a plan with Holo was fine; fleeing a turbulent atmosphere was also fine.

Lawrence did not know if Luward was thinking along those lines, but at any rate he was not coercing Lawrence to stay with him at all.

That being the case, facing a group differing from beasts only out of a lack of fangs and claws was terribly exhausting.

Perhaps also because of all the walking during the day, he bid good night to Holo and collapsed onto the bed.

“Heh-heh. It seems you have been hard at work.”

Holo sat beside Lawrence, lazily kicking off her shoes.

Being seated right beside him, Holo’s tail came right against Lawrence’s face.

Her tail, slightly more disheveled than usual, had a familiar, dusty scent to it.

“So in the end, they are the ones bringing silver coins in?”

“So it seems. The rumors of war might have unwittingly been spread by the mercenaries themselves, too.”

“Mm?”

Holo turned toward Lawrence at the same time he was brushing her tail, which was tickling his nose, away with his hand.

Holo brushed her tail against Lawrence’s face with an amused look. When Lawrence displayed no reaction whatsoever, the self-styled wisewolf ceased her teasing.

“Through the market price and other things, the Debau Company lets it be known to mercenaries that they can make huge profits purely by bringing in a large quantity of silver coins. Since there are no bandits with the nerve to attack hardened mercenaries, they can make an easy profit in confidence. However, since it’s idiotic for the mercenaries to talk about how they’re making money when heading to Lesko, they spread rumors of Lesko invading the northlands instead.”

Holo nodded with an “Indeed” as she lay down on her side, resting her chin on her hands above Lawrence’s hip.

“But for what purpose?”

“Yes. That’s the part I don’t understand well. If they just want to bring silver coins in, they’re better off doing it themselves. Maybe having these rumors spread is itself the objective.”

Based on the premise that merchants never do anything that is meaningless, it followed that if they were doing something, they definitely had a reason for it and also a specific outcome they were aiming for.

“Let’s say the Debau Company is plotting something for the northlands. So, to gather deeply suspicious, excellent knights and mercenaries together, they must first lure them in with easy profits. After that, the masses spread rumors all around about the first group to come, and armed with information that they really are moving north, others assemble on their own. In other words, the Debau Company can lure numerous knights and mercenaries even without paying them.”

The more knights and mercenaries assembled in one place, the more people believed something was going to happen.

When one tells people they have sold something at the marketplace, it becomes a fact known to all.

One cannot sell something no one has ever heard of, but if there are three or four who have heard, that was a different story. That was why when merchants paid money to hire three or four people as decoys, they were able to assemble a large crowd of curious people to sell to.

“But just gathering knights and mercenaries together doesn’t make them useful in a war…”

“You use what you assemble. The reasoning is sound.”

So Holo said, but Lawrence could not accept it. And this certainly was not a special thought limited to Lawrence alone.

“It has to be quite an ordeal to maintain the liveliness of a town of this level. Besides, based on Luward’s suggestions, there’s a reason the Debau Company is lavishly paying knights and mercenaries on its own.”

“Indeed?”

“This town’s great liveliness is a somewhat forced performance.”

Though at his words, Holo twitched her nose and went, “Such a performance is meaningless,” Lawrence gave a strained smile and continued.

“Apparently the Debau Company is supplying money throughout the town through paying compensation for their inn lodging costs, shouldering the burden of paying for their tools, daily necessities, and so forth. At the very least, that’s what Luward seems to think. That being the case, the Debau Company is clearly using its own money to make the town go well. I don’t think the Debau Company, having gone this far for a town it built itself, would wreck it all with just one war.”

The losses and gains did not add up. The Debau Company stationed mercenaries in the town and even used compensating their living expenses to boost local trade. In doing so, people came from all over the northlands to sell their wares. When they came, they surely bought a variety of high-quality, hand-crafted products, enriching the craftsmen.

If you were trying to develop a town, this was a supreme way to go about it.

But what reason did they have to do all of this?

The first time they had heard of the Debau Company was in the middle of chasing down stories of bones of an ancient wolf being like Holo. This being part of a plan to plunge the northlands into war and chaos, they were indignant and found it unforgivable.

Even if that had not been the truth of the matter, first impressions were not so easily wiped away. Perhaps their being unable to think of what the Debau Company was planning was because the facts before their eyes differed from the impression inside their heads.

In truth, they were still twisting around inside Lawrence’s head.

That strain was what brought a little smile out of Holo.

“Did you notice something?”

When Lawrence sat up, forgetting that Holo was resting her head in her hands atop his hip, her head fell from its perch. Holo swatted his rump with a miffed look.

“Not really. I merely think that thinking of war in terms of profit and loss is absurd.”

As she spoke, strength leaked back out of Lawrence’s body.

“Well…that’s true. Rulers start wars for all sorts of banal reasons, like grudges over disputes that have lasted for years and so forth, but…merchants never fight to defend anything except their own profits.”

“Defend?”

Lawrence replied to Holo’s one-word question as he looked at the wall.

“Right. Most of the tragedies of the world come about from trying to defend something. The foremost among these is territory.”

Lawrence shifted his gaze from the wall to Holo over his shoulder.

“I’m sure you’ve experienced it? Something someone won’t yield to another, even land that will never budge an inch, with people trampling on it like the approach of the largest storm. That’s why tragedies take place.”

What made people regard merchants as cowards to be scorned was the belief that when the going got tough, they would grab their wallets and make a run for it. And as a matter of fact, traveling merchants did exactly that.

The more things one had to defend, the less mobile they were, and the easier it was for them to get wrapped up in tragedy during a crisis.

His encountering Holo was a good example.

Perhaps she somehow sensed what Lawrence was thinking. Holo ground her elbows into his hip and made a sigh.

“Well, then, is the Whatever Company in this town truly making a move on the northlands and indeed Yoitsu for trifling profits?”

Though she understood in her head to some degree, actually getting the words out of her mouth seemed exceedingly difficult for her.

Lawrence paused for a little while before making a small nod.

“There’s no hatred, resentment, or religious fervor in this town. I’m a merchant as well, but since laying eyes on this town, everything’s been about trade. If the Debau Company is plotting a war, surely it has no other reason for which to fight.”

Resentment bred resentment. Hatred bred hatred. The response to the imposition of a new religion was fanaticism.

But what if this was a simple matter of profit and calculations based on that?

The humans of Pasloe had opposed Holo for the village’s profit and to sever ties with “the old era.”

That had been reason enough to fight with unyielding rage.

That was why the possibility that the Debau Company truly was fighting for nothing more than its own profit gave Holo such a feeling of disappointment and exhaustion.

“…It feels like a stupid thing to be timid, fearful, and to sharpen one’s fangs over…”

“You probably felt the same way when we entered the town.”

Holo nodded a bit after a pause.

“Well, that’s all fine. No war, no one unhappy, me being able to get my own store…”

Lawrence said it like he was talking in his sleep, and in truth, it was very close to that.

As Holo had said something very similar about the Debau Company herself, Lawrence’s saying something similar brought out a smile.

She stopped resting her head on her hands and perched her chin atop Lawrence’s left shoulder.

“And you would be close to me afterwards?”

There was but a short distance between Lesko and Yoitsu.

Close enough for Holo to run off there whenever she felt homesick.

“Of course.”

At Lawrence’s straight reply, Holo made a happy face and rubbed against his shoulder.

It was quiet, and they’d both had a bit of wine.

If Lawrence was judging according to common sense, he felt he would trust the momentum and play this by the book.

But he had failed in Lenos by doing so. He could not break the mood after working so hard to establish it.

Lawrence moved his body lightly, using his arm to pull Holo’s body up his; rubbed her head; and got up.

“I’d love to sleep like this, but there are still things I’d like to ask Mr. Luward and the others.”

He spoke with clarity, as if brushing off the alcohol and fatigue within him with a different vigor.

But as Holo remained lying on the bed, looking up at Lawrence, dumbfounded, he stopped, a forced smile on his face.

“What is it?”

When Lawrence asked, Holo gently and deliberately brushed Lawrence’s hand off the top of her head and seemed tired as she got up.

“Nothing really.”

He did not think it was really nothing, but having said that, it did not feel like a time or place to inquire further.

Perhaps he had been wrong once again?

Lawrence thought as much, but the now-risen Holo, as if to calm Lawrence down, turned her right palm toward him.

“No, ’tis fine.”

Holo made her brief statement, turned her head away, and gave a long sigh.

Rather than being angry, she seemed exasperated from the bottom of her heart.

In Holo’s case he was afraid that could easily turn into anger, but when she finished her sigh, the look on her face was like a mother tired out by her children.

“Well, I suppose right now investigating what that company is scheming should come first.”

While she smiled with all her might, she could not hide a strange sense of fatigue.

Even so, somehow Lawrence matched Holo with a nod.

Holo got down from the bed and put on her shoes. She put on her girdle and robe and, with an “Mhmm,” stretched up high.

Lawrence, unable to neatly digest the situation, had watched Holo’s small back from atop the bed, but after she stretched, dangled, and lowered her arms, from behind she indeed looked angry somehow.

“Hey, get up. Someone is coming to call us right now.”

But the face Holo turned toward him was not angry.

Her tail was hidden under her robe so he could not see it.

He did not really understand it, but even as Holo sighed, she made no move to leave Lawrence’s side.

Surely, just as Lawrence and Holo had exchanged opinions, Luward and the others had thought between them how to handle this. The one who came calling for Lawrence was not the youngster, but one of the young men who had been sitting at Luward’s table. He appeared a fair bit younger than Luward, putting him at perhaps five or six years younger than Lawrence.

However, his eyes seemed rather too sharp for service in an artisans’ workshop. Making something new would surely require surviving to an older age until the edge came off that sharpness.

“If all else fails, I am here.”

That is what Holo had whispered into his ear when they left their room.

Even though the Debau Company was hiding the fact that mercenaries were bringing in silver coins in secret, surely Luward did not intend to keep a merchant who had noticed the fact locked up here in the inn.

However, now that he was actually being led into the room, the atmosphere was extremely lax. Against mercenaries accustomed to ambush and surprise attack, Lawrence might not have put faith in his own instincts alone, but with Holo looking quite relaxed, it probably was not an act.

“Please have a seat.”

Normally, inns got seedier the higher the floor one was on.

In other words, that would make this room, on the second floor of the inn, among its finest, but on top of being packed, the building itself did not seem to be top class, nor was it all that large. Perhaps because more chairs were added for Lawrence and Holo, the interior of the room seemed a bit cramped.

“It was a bit too noisy downstairs. If one is to drink the water of life, best to do it in peace, yes?”

As Luward spoke, Moizi, seated beside him, poured alcohol into a wineglass, giving it a flick with his fingernail.

The special ting it made was similar to the sound gold coins made when coming into contact with one another.

Eating food with silver utensils and drinking alcohol with glasses completed the pretense of nobility.

Furthermore, the alcohol poured cup by cup was of a thicker brown than Holo’s tail, giving off a pungent, smoky scent.

The expression “the water of life” was a second name given in honor to a certain variety of distilled spirits.

“Let us give thanks to the craftsman’s skill.”

As if such words were always spoken when having a drink, Luward spoke while raising his wineglass.

Lawrence and the others assembled repeated the words.

Seemingly rather sullen at the small quantity, Holo sipped half her drink all at once, drawing shocked looks from all around.

“If they’re going to make this much, tell them they need to distill it four times instead of three,” she said to Luward as he filled his mouth with alcohol, closing his eyes while drinking it as if drinking fire itself.

“Refined nobility occasionally drink hard liquor like this, but they water it down, which is nothing less than heresy. After all, distillation requires the labor of so many people.”

Lawrence was not well versed on the details of making alcohol. He did know from balance sheets that distillation required an expensive distiller, herbs for flavoring, and numerous repeated passes.

Also, it seemed Luward was not seeking assent or dissent toward his statement. He continued, “And so,” as he took another sip of the water of life. “Mr. Lawrence, I would like to speak to you of the consequences of our discussion.”

Lawrence did not commit the blunder of turning toward the entrance as if he would flee at any moment.

Luward narrowed his eyes, seemingly enjoying Lawrence’s discomfort.

“Those two are candidates to succeed Moizi. Please let them join us for future reference.”

As Luward looked to the right and left walls and the two young men with their backs against each of them, their straight backs grew even straighter when introduced.

“I’m just a passing merchant.”

When Lawrence said that, Luward replied, “It’s the people who say that who are the most fearsome of all.”

“What the Debau Company is doing, and where it is invading, and so forth, still remains a mystery.”

He cut right to the point.

Between statements, Moizi reverentially poured liquor into Luward’s polished blue wine cup.

“When we came to this town, things surprised us one after another. Everyone thought to themselves, this is odd—but we couldn’t put our fingers on it. Money came easy, we enjoyed a feast every night. Isn’t that fine? What more could we want? Will you die if you don’t go adventuring, O mighty knight Lanz Hoek? And so on.”

The name on his lips was that of a famous, legendary knight whose chivalrous tales were read during lulls in campaigns to bolster faltering spirits.

“A large-scale mercenary company can spurn the embrace of merchants. Not so with us. However, if merchants are going to show up at any time and have us move silver in the blink of an eye, they do have to make the stay enjoyable.”

Holo had only just finished liquor seemingly too strong for her, but of course Moizi did not stop, filling her cup before she asked.

“Was bringing in silver profitable?”

Lawrence had thought of returning Luward’s exaggerated words of praise to him, but did not. Mercenaries esteemed honor; to reply to those esteeming honor with humility could only be taken as contempt.

It was a game that had to be played between the appraiser and the appraised.

He understood the reasoning well enough; well-spoken mercenaries were invited to dinner with princes and lords.

To them, flattery and underlying motives went hand in hand.

“It was profitable. More than the earlier talk.”

“You mean the feeling there’s not enough silver coins.”

“Yeah…however, we followed up with several of the lords we’d spoken to after that. It wasn’t that appetizing afterwards. There had been enough obtained for several lords worth, in other words.”

“I’m quite jealous,” Lawrence said with a smile.

Luward nodded and, pausing to clear his throat, resumed.

“I often hear in jest that the Debau Company is making too much profit in silver coins for its own good. They clash often in this land of fragmented authority, and it’s said they treat the lords and princes in the coin-poor south like slaves. That was half-jealousy, but when they paid in full in gold coin, I thought it was true. I thought if they seriously pulled the northlands together, they’d be lords of their own in no time.”

That was surely one of the reasons mercenaries remained in the town in spite of not knowing if war would break out or not. Even with their living expenses covered, some members of a company would surely think they needed to leave town before their discipline wasted away.

That they did not do so was because they had an additional separate reason.

“The Debau Company becoming lords through trade?”

“That’s what I imagine. If becoming lords is too much, then certainly building an alliance of merchants with power and influence equal to a nation.”

There was an economic alliance that possessed a number of warships that sailed under the flag of the moon and shield. Lawrence had caught a glimpse of it back in the kingdom of Winfiel.

“That’s why so many of us are here. If we’re part of acquiring a nation, it’s a big, everlasting triumph. Wandering knights would gain a sovereign territory while we mercenaries gain an exclusive employer for military services. Well, even if that’s just talk from the war era ages ago, the chances Debau would hire us for its foreign trade are very high.”

In particular, Debau handled a great deal of precious metals. If they were to conquer the northlands and develop many new mines, they would have mines to defend and trade routes to secure, making precious commodities out of those accustomed to warfare.

Lawrence understood that much for himself. It was well within simple guesswork on his part.

However, Luward certainly would not be sharing drinks with Lawrence like this if that is all it was.

“And yet, you don’t think the Debau Company will actually start a war.”

As Lawrence said it, Luward slapped his own cheek. All pretense dropped from Luward’s words as if on cue.

“Yes. Exactly. We’re not that large a mercenary company. The reason we still fly a flag we inherited from ancient times is because of polished wit, forecasting the near future, and never dropping our guard. But we just don’t know what the Debau Company is thinking or what it’s trying to do. We inform ourselves about how tools like us are to be used. Foolish mercenaries who misread that end up being killed by their employers.”

This was not using wit to hunt for profit like Lawrence did.

They risked their very existence on a daily basis.

Lawrence thought that if they were wolves, he would be an unadulterated lamb.

“But we don’t know how they would use us. The Debau Company absolutely has not moved. Large forces have not yet been deployed. Just as Mr. Lawrence explained, one reason must be that few nobles have given their assent. It’s just if Debau made a full mobilization, it could easily crush them. So why doesn’t it? They’re making huge profits left and right in this town, so more people flock here with that in mind. Such actions aren’t how the rich people we know behave. They’re not those of a compassionate monastery doing charity, either. In war, the most frightening thing is not meeting a powerful enemy on the battlefield.”

Luward sipped his liquor as he spoke.

“What we must fear is not understanding the circumstances we are placed in. It’s the same for you, isn’t it, Mr. Lawrence?”

He neither looked nor sounded drunk in the slightest.

The two young people clinging to the wall silently gazed at Lawrence.

“That is correct. My thoughts are that if I could put this situation aside, I could build a home for myself in this town. But only if I can unravel the mystery, I think.”

Luward nodded.

He heard the sound of a pickled fruit being chewed.

It was Moizi who had opened his mouth.

“Even we, over the course of our long history, have been shortchanged by merchants countless times. We work for money. Money is controlled by merchants. In most cases, the sums required to hire mercenaries like us moves in easy-to-understand ways. As a rule of thumb, we don’t move unless there’s a reason anyone could grasp. And yet, this time we just can’t see it. We see the flow of money, but we don’t understand where it’s going. Mr. Lawrence, if you can solve this riddle, we will prepare answers to all that you have asked us.”

One used any tool at one’s disposal.

They did not ask because of Lawrence’s superior abilities or even that he was Holo’s companion, but because a practical perspective dictated it.

Simply put, what the Debau Company was up to was an important matter to Lawrence. If by any chance, he could buy that cheaply priced shop and trade there securely, the dream Lawrence had pined for sitting on a wagon’s driver’s seat, gazing at a horse’s rump, could become reality.

“I shall strive to meet your expectations,” Lawrence replied.

When gathering one’s wits, hierarchy was a hindrance.

As if putting that into practice, Luward sat atop the table while Moizi and the two young troops sat on a footlocker.

“There is one thing about the money flow I don’t understand, however.”

“Which is?”

“The town’s taxes.”

Tax collection was a detested but necessary institution so that towns could preserve order and keep up appearances.

And yet, the town had neither institutions nor walls. Lawrence could not imagine how the town was maintained whatsoever.

That is why he could not imagine the words that came in reply.

“This town doesn’t collect any taxes.”

“Th…” That’s madness, Lawrence nearly said.

If people knew how to administer a town without taxes, whole generations of tax collectors would be born without being predestined to be hated by the townsfolk, to their great delight, no doubt.

“Since there’s no walls, there’s no way to collect tolls. Have you seen the market?”

Lawrence nodded at Moizi’s words.

“Because it’s such a simple design, no one can know what someone’s bringing in or what he’s selling it for. And there’s no sales tax collected. At any rate, tax collection is the dominion of the king. If they started doing that, this would become a battlefield overnight.”

And yet, the town preserved order and cleanliness.

Perhaps it was maintained by magic or part of some profit that could only be explained by magic.

“But as for the tax issue, I do have one thought.” Moizi cleared his throat before continuing.

“Some ten or twenty years ago, before anyone was paying attention, the Debau Company acquired a vast amount of land all around this area.”

There is no land in this world that does not belong to someone.

“I heard it was dirt cheap back then, but not now. Debau raked in profits by building and selling or leasing out buildings on the land, keeping possession of the town center, charging interest to eager borrowers. They sold buildings, but since they hadn’t sold the land rights, they continued getting quite a bit from the land rent.”

“Also, this liveliness. You could say it’s driving up building prices on a daily basis,” Luward added.

It smacked of selling pieces of one’s own garden, but spin it the right way and it was not a losing strategy at all.

For collecting tax was a truly troublesome job. One had to assess property and inspect freight, and besides having to investigate far too many things, those being taxed were always hiding something. However, real estate always existed right before one’s eyes. Using payments from sales as a substitute for tax revenue was simple, and collecting regular rent was simpler still.

However, more importantly, if the funds to maintain the town were wholly dependent on land and buildings, he could understand—to a point—the town’s liveliness sustaining it even without fresh investment.

People bring more people, and where people gather, land and buildings are sure to be needed.

At any rate, there were indeed problems with this on the same level as those before.

That is, what did they intend by gathering knights, mercenaries, and lords together.

There was one more thing.

Lawrence and the others could not perceive what the Debau Company’s plan was.

But Lawrence just couldn’t understand it.

“So, the building I looked at will soon sell, then?”

Lawrence’s words seemed to sum up the conversation, so Moizi resumed.

“It probably won’t sit for long…that building is being sold by the Vhans Company. Vhans is like a branch of the Debau Company. Debau decided to concern itself mainly with operating mines, farming out other jobs to various other companies. In other words, buildings being sold by this Vhans Company are…”

“The lowest quality.”

When prices for products boomed, it was because numerous people were bidding against each other.

“I heard that a wealthy lord was cornering the building market, but I think that went up in smoke.

“Perhaps since this town’s circumstances make freedom and dreams so readily available, there might be several Debau buildings left over for people such as you.”

The Debau Company itself had apparently been formed by people from all walks of life who had greatly turned their fortunes around. That was why they knew the value of giving new people a chance to succeed.

Most people would spit at such talk, but having experienced the atmosphere of this town, he could not call it a complete falsehood.

Not to mention it was Moizi, his face seemingly made of well-whipped leather, who was saying this.

Besides, Lawrence had learned from Holo when they happened upon the conflict with Amati that one should diversify one’s goods to protect against sudden price spikes.

If one cannot trade with anyone because the goods are too rare, most people will turn their backs on that person. If one buys from someone in moderation, others will think they, too, can get a good deal, and more people will flock to them. By such thoughts, he could not but feel that thinking I want a shop in this town was putting him right where Debau wanted him. But he did not think that such favorable conditions as having a low-priced shop in an unregulated town existed except in his dreams.

He could not deny that his heart was pounding when he thought of the price of the shop and the liveliness of the town. Even so, during his travels with Holo until now, he had been saved more than once from having to flee at a moment’s notice.

Besides, right now he was conscious of something more important than his oft-stated dreams of a shop and big money.

Lawrence glanced at Holo, who was calmly drinking liquor beside him, and probed something odd in what Moizi had said.

“Nobles are after this town, too?”

“Well. It’s all rumor. You’ve heard stories of it, too?”

Moizi shifted his gaze to Luward, who replied as even he was getting a bit drunk, redness rimming his eyes.

“Yeah. At any rate, even after coming through the wars of ancient times, no unified kingdom was ever established here. The lords can’t have much enthusiasm for war all of a sudden. Well, I can understand that it’s natural they’d be more concerned about how to live elegantly like the aristocracy down south than waging war. That’s why…”

Luward sipped his liquor and tilted his cup toward a young subordinate. However, the young man shook the jug. The jug, once full of the water of life, seemed to have been exhausted.

“No more, huh…? Ah yes. That’s why even though we thought it strange the town had no wall, once we realized the real reason for it we had to credit Debau’s nerve.”

By Lawrence’s common sense, no place could call itself a town without a wall. Walls were necessary for self-governance, for one had to protect himself from the predations of the powerful to be able to decide his own future.

Villages were without walls because the villagers were under the dominion of their lord, and even without a wall, they understood where they stood and what the lord expected from them each year.

However, this was a cash-rich place administered by a company with intelligent minds at work. It would not be strange for someone, somewhere, to come and assault the town.

That being the case, that they should build a wall to fortify their defenses was clear as day.

“A city wall isn’t really for protecting oneself from enemies alone.”

Luward seemed to tell his subordinate to bring over some more liquor and slid off the table.

“It’s also to stop people inside the town from escaping.”

“Really,” Holo murmured quietly, seemingly in admiration.

Luward made a satisfied-looking nod and continued.

“If war comes, you close the gate and set up an around-the-clock watch. Do this, and no one can enter, and also, no one can leave. The moment you are surrounded by high walls, everyone shares the same fate. No one in the town thinks they can sneak off and survive on their own. Everyone has to work together. Without walls, many of those feeling threatened would pack their bags and flee. You can’t fight a war under those conditions. Who’s going to risk his life to protect the town with so many people fleeing? And then everything collapses. That’s why you always have people like me standing behind the troops with their coats flapping.”

“To stop careless sorts from running off to find something they’d misplaced?” Holo said in an amused tone.

Luward made a face like he had a winning hand at poker and used a fingertip to show Holo had it right.

“That’s why this town doesn’t have a wall. Building a wall would make it easier to unite the town. That’s inconvenient for Debau while it builds up a mountain of gold in its treasury. Easier to defend is bad for them. As it is, taking this town is easy, but defending it is difficult. In other words, attackers would likely opt to be raiders rather than conquerors. After all, the most lucrative part is to be first come, first served to Debau’s treasury. However, you can expect to be pursued while laden with treasure. Considering that risk, getting away really isn’t so easy. If miserly rogues understand they won’t profit from it, they’ll lay off and make their money from someone else. Thus, it’s not the Debau Company that protects the Debau treasury, but those after it themselves.”

He clapped his hands together and opened them.

“Well played, as you can see.”

He could understand the logic.

However, a smile stretched across Lawrence’s face, purely because this was something that existed only as logic.

“There are many courageous souls in our mercenary company, but Debau has just as many. You’d never think this way normally. It’s really using your wits. I raise my cup to them.”

“So, the fact this town is some distance from the mines?”

“Yes. For the same reason. Normally you’d set up your headquarters right next to a mine and set up a defense for it. That creates conflict. That’s because it’s a difficult position to take, but once it falls, it’s an easy position to defend.”

A dreadful smile rose on his face that suited one who lived on the field of battle.

However, Luward maintained that expression as he took in a deep breath and made a sigh, alcohol on his breath.

“That’s the planning and patience Debau has. They’re up to something. They have to be up to something, but…”

Luward struck his cheek with his hand as he spoke.

Moizi softly rose from his seat, many years of service surely letting him see where this was going.

Luward seemingly passed out, stopped just short of toppling right onto the table.

“My, my. If it wasn’t for this lad.”

Moizi had called Luward “lad” for the first time. He spoke with the fondness of a mother hen, as if serving a young master who was still but a greenhorn.

No doubt Luward was not going to listen if told to lay off the liquor. And surely Moizi knew well enough that one could not lead a mercenary company without a healthy amount of stubbornness.

“We’ve largely covered the state of the town. Was there something else you wanted to ask? Or if you noticed anything, feel free to fill me in.”

His smile conveyed that if nothing came to mind, that was all right, too.

Even though Luward was not tall, he certainly was not delicate, yet Moizi hoisted him up like a princess. The young subordinates cleared the way like this was a regular thing.

“No, nothing as of yet…”

“Well, if you noticed something we did not this soon, it would be somewhat of a blow to our pride.”

Moizi spoke eloquently without turning his face.

“Well, then, I suppose that shall be all for today.”

“Yes. Thank you very much.”

As Lawrence spoke words of thanks, Moizi shook his head side to side.

“No. It is I who should thank you.”

Lawrence did not think he had said anything worthy of praise, but Moizi’s words gave a much different impression than that of most mercenaries, with a smile like that of a peasant rising as he spoke.

“We’re small-scale no matter how you slice it. All our collected history wears on the lad’s nerves, day after day. Indeed, I wonder if he is happy being a mercenary captain like this.”

Was it fine to say something like that before an outsider and, all the more, before two young camp aides? The thought crossed Lawrence’s mind, but apparently there was no cause for concern.

If someone was unhappy about very few things, one would hear them more often.

“For a while the lad longed to be a merchant. But he’s the only one to carry on the Myuri name.”

This was another tale that must not be suspended midway.

Lawrence had earned the right to write his own tale.

He would probably never understand the feelings of those who were part of a storybook, for reasons completely outside their control, from the day they were born.

If anyone would understand that, it would be Holo.

When Moizi passed beside them carrying Luward in his arms, Holo gave Luward’s cheek a gentle, motherly stroke.

After all, it was thanks to those like Luward, in an unbroken line, that she had been able to receive Myuri’s message.

“Well, that aside, Lawrence, ’tis you who solved the silver coin mystery. Such wit is precisely the aid we sought. That and the lad could not look you in the eye.”

With a grin, he sent his words, rich in meaning, in Holo’s direction, clearly for the benefit of the youngsters. Holo made a light laugh, but she understood quite well Luward had been carrying on the Myuri name, and the legend associated with the claw, while Moizi stood by his side all this time.

Moizi left the room, seeing that his dead-drunk leader was carried away by people in the next room, as Holo laughed, but with a lonely look in her eye.

“’Tis they who are living in this day and age, it seems.”

As the pages turned, those who had come onstage long before ceased to be seen or heard from.

Lawrence put his hand on top of Holo’s head, saying this: “We’re living with all our might as well.”

Under Lawrence’s hand, Holo turned her face to him, looking up at him, giving a curt reply. “Ah, so we are, now that you mention it.”

Lawrence understood the curtness was because they were in a very public place and took no offense.

Holo suddenly made a happy-looking face and smacked Lawrence’s back.

“You truly are guileless.”

Lawrence made a sigh and, giving a brief greeting to Moizi, returned to his room.

When Holo returned to the room, she poured wine into her cup and drank; Lawrence reasoned either she had not had enough to drink or the water of life was not to her taste.

Lawrence, not minded to give any warnings, shook his head and sat down in a chair.

“The omens are finally becoming suspicious, though…”

She rested her head in her hands over the table and snorted.

The Debau Company had this town under its thumb, but they could not get ahold of its tail. Putting Luward and Moizi’s words together, it did not feel like Lawrence could simply put his head to it and draw up a plan of action.

At any rate, the company was incredibly preserving the town without constructing any walls, even as it padded its treasury with the profits it acquired from the mines.

The halt of town expansion, concentration of houses, arguing with the butcher next door about where he disposes the guts of the pigs he slaughters, turning up one’s nose at the stink of blood and fat from leather tanning—walls caused all of this. Chickens and pigs roaming the narrow streets, garbage piling up on the roads no matter how much one cleans them, rent climbing ever higher; walls caused this, too.

People often laughed as they spoke casually of how nice it would be if the walls were set aside.

And yet the Debau Company had actually done it.

Lawrence had never seen a town such as this.

“It seems they truly are twisted souls.”

“Yeah. Certainly that, as well.”

“Indeed.”

Holo nodded as she sipped her wine.

“However, so what if they sprinkled some table salt and gained this town? I do not think ’tis a thing one needs to worry over.”

What do you mean? Lawrence thought as he turned to her. Holo was nibbling on jerky like a little child.

“Not having a suitable guide to show me the way was one reason I did not leave Pasloe, but…the foremost reason was ’twas a waste.”

“A waste?”

“Indeed. Or put another way, ’twas too much trouble. The wheat fields were ruffled more than the fur of a mangy dog, but I had indeed grown fond of how the ears of wheat swayed like a sea of gold. Listening to you all speaking, it seems this company’s building of this town involved a great deal of time, wit, and luck, did it not?”

Certainly it did.

When Lawrence nodded, Holo nodded once more.

“Then, ’tis rejecting it not utter foolishness?”

As Luward had pointed out, without walls, if war came many people would flee. But this did not reveal what the Debau Company was planning.

“I see. No good, then. Then…that’s right. How about someone really might attack this place, so they’re gathering mercenaries to deal with the threat?”

“…A good point but…if that was so, it’s strange for no one to notice…In cases like these, the attacking side and the side being attacked are like actors coming onstage. For no one to notice either of them moving is quite odd.”

“Mmm…well, ah. Yes, this could be an exception to the rule.”

“Huh?”

“Yes. The one defending becomes timid, be it man or beast. If that is the case, perhaps there is some fear that only the one concerned can see?”

Lawrence turned his gaze back from Holo’s direction and made a sigh.

Holo, as if confident, ignored Lawrence’s reaction.

Certainly what Holo said could be true. At the very least, the logic was sound.

However, Lawrence did not agree with it. Surely the current situation was no passive event. There had to be something with the Debau Company. If not, one could only call it strange.

Lawrence adjusted his seating in his chair, leaning his back against it and closing his eyes.

“Might I ask you one thing?”

Lawrence opened his eyes in surprise as he heard Holo’s voice so unexpectedly close.

Immediately after, Holo draped herself over his arms from behind as if a blanket.

Her long, flaxen-haired tail spilled over him as it swished, tickling Lawrence around his ears.

“Are you truly thinking this over?”

“D-did you notice something?”

Lawrence tried to turn toward her, but the slight embrace of Holo’s arms prevented him.

Lawrence could not see the expression on Holo’s face. He could not see how her ears or tail were moving, either.

Holo could alter just her tone of voice in any way she wished.

Lawrence was a little nervous.

“’Twas exactly as I said it, with no hidden meaning.”

“…”

Lawrence sunk into silence. Not responding to questions made Holo angry.

But Holo’s question struck him as so odd that he felt angering her a bit was not such a bad thing.

What he was really thinking—that he did not have an answer—was not something he could say to her.

Holo’s arms tightened around his neck a little. “…What say you?”

If she had sounded the slightest bit irritated, he could have calmed down and told her.

But the small hesitation coming from her threw Lawrence off.

However, despite being bewildered, he thought about it slowly and answered.

“I’m thinking.”

“Liar.”

Holo set her chin upon the top of Lawrence’s head.

“Do not lie to me.”

“…Lie? Wait a minute. I don’t even understand what you’re saying to me. Why’d you suddenly say something like that?”

As Lawrence fell into confusion, Holo’s arms tightened around Lawrence’s neck bit by bit. Even though Holo’s arms were slender, he would suffocate with ease if she choked him in earnest.

“You say you are thinking, and that is a lie. At best, you are pretending to think.”

Once again, the one-sided conversation left Lawrence at a loss.

All he could think was that something he had said had rubbed Holo the wrong way.

Holo’s arms squeezed him bit by bit before finally coming to a halt.

Lawrence felt like rather than choking off his neck, she was clinging to him from behind.

“Explain this to me. Certainly I haven’t arrived at an answer, but I’m still putting all of my wits into it. The Debau Company’s clearly up to something strange, and there has to be some kind of reason for it. Even if I’m missing something obvious, it’s certainly not something I’m doing on pur—”

“So why do you think of that company as the villain?”

Lawrence could not see her, but he still moved his eyes her way, his face frozen, his mouth still stuck open.

“Wh-what?”

“I said, why do you think of that company as the villain?”

Her indication struck him with the same force as a trade partner pointing out that his hair was still disheveled after sleeping.

“Er, it’s not that I decided that they’re villains exactly—”

“I see. Think on this, then.” Holo eased the pressure on Lawrence’s neck as she interrupted him. “You are a carefree merchant.”

“Huh?” His reply was tinged with unintentional annoyance.

Unsurprised, Holo made a pained smile, saying, “For example,” as she tapped Lawrence’s shoulder. “You have money. You have time. You wandered into this town. You realized it was absurdly filled with liveliness. War? Ask anyone about that and they’d laugh in your face. You’ve even heard that the wealthy are quietly buying up mansions. You even saw a shop being sold at an incredibly low price. Think about it. ’Tis this not an incredible opportunity for you to make money?”

As Holo finished speaking, Lawrence made a “Mm?” sound and lifted his head up at an angle.

He had felt like he had taken the first step down the wrong set of stairs.

However, he had to give her an answer.

“Buy a…shop.”

“Indeed. After all, putting all the stories together, the price shall surely rise.” Satisfaction in her words, Holo patted Lawrence’s head, as if that was the point of letting it go. “So, then.” Holo moved her petting hand out of the way and placed her delicate chin atop Lawrence’s head in its place. “Why do you not purchase it?”

That instant, Lawrence understood everything Holo was trying to say to him.

“And if you did buy it, would you not think of more optimistic things? Right now ’tis as if—” As Holo’s words halted, her tail made a falling sound, as if a bird stopping midflap. “You are searching for something bad.”

Various ideas emerged from Lawrence’s head as Holo twisted it about.

The reason Lawrence had backed out was because of the certainty within him that the Debau Company was up to something.

Lawrence’s thinking certainly had been slanted in that sense.

But what was the emotion he was searching for justifications for?

Surely it was not far off the mark to say that what the Debau Company was doing was invariably logical, all premised upon their own profits. That being the case, things like Holo had said earlier, explaining the gathering of mercenaries as being for self-protection, did not violate that logic.

So why did he harbor such doubts? Or rather, why did he have them when he could not be sure?

Since he had never been in direct contact with Debau, he could not avoid drawing up hypotheses based on the situations before him. The conclusions Lawrence drew from them were largely his own subjectivity.

Holo made a somewhat amused sigh from atop his head.

“When we went around town to look into your acquiring a shop, I told you, I saw this town truly sparkle.”

Certainly, Holo had said so when they had taken a break on the streets.

At the time, the thought of his own shop had completely slipped out of Lawrence’s head.

Holo pressed her chin into Lawrence’s head as if amazed at what Lawrence had dropped on the floor.

“I thought, with this kind of liveliness, the normal you would see nothing but good things. Like, Don’t worry, this time I’ll make a fortune, and so forth.”

Even while feeling she was overplaying it, he thought back on his actions so far and could summon no strong rebuttal. Besides, the reason he was being so negative, this time only, was without question due to the nature of the Debau Company.

There was no way Holo would settle down in a town that was part of a mining development company like Debau.

“I do not mind at all.”

“Er, but?”

When Lawrence had said as much, Holo tightened her arms around his neck a little more.

“If you decided to have a shop in this town, I would be right at your side.”

More than her insistent tone of voice, it was the content of what she said next that left an aftertaste in Lawrence’s mouth.

“Even should that company pry Yoitsu out of the ground or pry other places beside, I mind not.

“And more to the point, should I mind, ’twould be the same no matter where you set up your shop. I would be uneasy about them as well, and should something happen, well, I would leave the shop behind. To never return again, mm, that too would be possible.”

Holo made a pained smile as she spoke.

However, such a thing was entirely possible.

“That soft, flabby sheep said as much, did he not? That ’twould weigh upon me if I knew. However, not seeing something does not mean it ceases to be. Besides, there is one I live with in the present. That is no old story, no legend, nay, not even a very foolish message carved into a claw. One who lives, who speaks, who laughs, who gets angry, who gets depressed, who is a fool, but…one with his eyes squarely upon the morrow, who comes and takes my hand.”

At that last, Lawrence spontaneously took Holo’s hand.

The soft rustle of Holo’s tail substituted for the sound of the laugh that stayed within Holo’s throat.

“In truth, even now, remembering Myuri’s message brings pain to my chest, enough to want to bury myself in a dark hole for the next century. However…”

Holo put more strength into her arms, as if she would not let go no matter what and as if to keep her tears bottled away.

“You extended your hand to me and pulled me out of it. Do you understand how happy that made me?”

She had seemed ready to explode in anger midway, but he’d apparently been right to bring Holo around town.

But Holo was being so straightforward that it worried Lawrence.

If he felt tears fall upon his head he was definitely getting up from his chair. With such feelings in him, he squeezed Holo’s delicate hand further.

“I cannot help but be happy that I am important to you. However, to become your millstone is painful. You have said it, have you not?”

Holo pinched Lawrence’s cheek with the hand he was not holding. She pressed her nails as if to do mischief.

“’Tis easier to be enveloped by tragedy when one has something to protect.”

Lawrence reflexively moved to reply, but he soon understood that Holo had largely said these things on purpose. So instead of answering, Lawrence gently held the hand pinching his cheek with his own.

“I promised you I would pass on a tale of our journey. I wish not to tell a tragic tale.”

Holo’s fingers scratched Lawrence’s cheek just a little.

“I mind not the sight of you traveling, but I like the sight of you seated and writing as well. To see you quietly concentrating upon your writings, yes. Indeed, I would like to see that very much.”

Speaking teasingly, she smiled as if embarrassed at her own words.

With one flick of her wrist she could probably scratch his face as much as she pleased. Or instantly rip his windpipe out with her fangs for that matter.

“That is why, you see.”

However, Holo released him from her arms as she spoke.

She pulled her hands right out of Lawrence’s and seemed to take a step back as she rose up.

The winter air coiled around the place Holo’s body had been until that moment.

Merely from being together for but a short while, he felt so cold the instant they separated.

This was a truth with a very deep meaning.

Lawrence turned around.

Neither Holo’s fangs nor claws came.

In their place, and more frightening than either, was a bashful, seemingly blushing smile.

“How about instead of using an excuse to gather information, you fight like a proper male?”

Holo put her hands on her hips and grinned, baring her fangs for good measure.

“Even if that company plays the fool and puts your decrepit shop to waste, we shall enjoy traveling together again, shall we not?”

The difference between courage and recklessness was paper-thin.

Surely, no matter how slight the difference, everyone preferred one to the other.

“Well, that’s certainly true. But,” Lawrence continued, “you’re telling me to make a gamble that could send thousands of silver coins up in smoke? Failure would have real consequences, wouldn’t it?”

If he still was not reaching Holo’s heart, surely such a statement would create much misunderstanding. However, Holo showed not even slight agitation and made a small laugh, smiling as she spoke thusly.

“If you failed in that, ’twould have me thousands of silver coins in debt to you. Oh, such sorrow I would know for making you lose everything. I can just picture it now.”

Even without adding, “How about we try it,” he could picture it easily enough. She would blame herself, hang her head in shame, and do anything for forgiveness, he would think.

And with Holo like that, he would extend his hand to her.

The sight would move Lawrence’s heart so deeply that the mere memory of it would make his head hurt.

“Heh-heh. You truly are a fool.”

Holo was surely a villain to make a happy face at that.

All the same, what she had said was certainly correct.

If he succeeded, he would set up his shop; if he failed, Holo would be in his debt.

Surely such a debt would be difficult to repay in a single lifetime. Holo clearly knew how valuable money was to Lawrence when she referred to “your precious hard-earned money” as she tweaked his nose.

He thought he would never come up with a shred of such base, impure, shallow thoughts on his own, but Holo was imp enough to make him think them; it could not be helped.

Also, there were the words Holo often spoke.

A wisewolf must not have a boring merchant for a partner.

She had handed him the key to the rusted cover that blocked him from seeing his own self-interest and dashing forward, filled with greed.

“Yes, you certainly are a fool.”

Holo made a carefree, maiden-like smile.

Lawrence pulled in a large breath.

Perhaps Holo had set her heart upon it the moment she saw Lawrence eyeing that shop. If so, the sight of Lawrence frantically thinking dark thoughts about the Debau Company’s plans must have pained her chest.

In practice, no one knew whether a venture would succeed or fail.

Even if the Debau Company truly had no intention of starting a war whatsoever, and even if it had its heart set on developing even more mines, fortunes could worsen and Lawrence might lose his shop as his customers dried up.

But if things went south, a true traveling companion and comrade would be by his side.

To his powerful traveling companion, Holo, Lawrence said this: “Let’s think of the name for a shop.”

When it came to those who could lift others up, no doubt Holo was one of the foremost in the whole world.

Holo smiled in good humor. However, she whispered this into his ear.

“Not the name of a pup?”

Lawrence nearly fell out of his chair. Holo pointed her finger at Lawrence and laughed without pity or mercy. From pure embarrassment and remembering this and that from what happened in the town of Lenos, Lawrence was 99 percent seriously angry. That night, Holo apologized until the moment she fell asleep, snickering all the way, but Lawrence would hear none of it.

However, even so, that last 1 percent of Lawrence was not angry.

That was why, even as he lied down with his back toward Holo, eyes firmly shut, neglecting a name for an approachable shop the whole while.

It went without saying what he was thinking of.

Surely he would need to haul in even larger game in the future.

At some point, as he thought of such things, he drifted off to sleep.