Spice and Wolf - Volume 16 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

When he awoke, he was in a room with a fire quietly burning in a fireplace.

For a while, he felt like he had seen a long dream. The instant he tried to move his body, sharp pain ran through his thigh, finally clearing all of the fog from his head.

He had a very faint memory of having reached Svernel before dawn had broken.

Lawrence gently slid his body, shielding his painful leg while hanging both over the side of the bed.

The light that slipped past the gaps in the wooden shutter was very weak; the sky outside was the color of a heavy lead weight.

But the inn itself as well as the outside seemed almost too quiet. Perhaps it was still early morning.

If that was the case, he should still be sleepy, but he felt very little urge to sleep. It was always so when his life was in danger.

But there was one more reason Lawrence could not sleep, one of which he was well aware.

That was the thought Unforgivable!

It was not that the Hugo Mercenary Company had betrayed them. It was the Debau Company that had contrived the betrayal that he could not forgive.

Of course, since Rebonato had ultimately resolved to betray them, Lawrence held a grudge against him as well. Even so, Rebonato had expended many words on Luward in search of forgiveness. Having seen that, Lawrence could somehow put the rest together. Rebonato had to agree with such a large amount of money before his eyes.

In Lesko, the Debau Company made the mercenaries realize that it was starting a new era. That should have shaken them to the core. But what if enough money was piled in front of them that they could live in luxury for the rest of their lives?

To a merchant, stroking human greed for one’s own advantage was perfectly normal.

But at that time, Rebonato had an absolute advantage. He had broken Luward’s leg, stabbed his hand and thigh with a dagger, and had struck him in the head hard enough that he could barely speak. Yet Rebonato had pleaded before him all the same.

Come over to our side. Don’t make me the only traitor.

And as Lawrence thought about that, it made him sick.

That was not what business should be.

He absolutely could not recognize that as business.

“…”

Lawrence rose up, retrieving his coat from the shoulder of the chair at the side of the bed. As he did so, he realized there was a lot of brown-colored hair under the chair. No doubt Holo had been sitting in this chair attending to him.

Dragging his bad leg, he went out of the room and into the hallway. The hallway was filled to the brim with an atmosphere that spoke, It really is still morning. Based on the size of the room, he deduced he was on the third or fourth floor of an inn. If Hilde and Luward were here, they would no doubt be on the second floor, so Lawrence leaned his shoulder against the wall as he went down the stairs step-by-step.

Even if seen in the most favorable light, the present situation was dire. Hilde and the others had deduced the current state of affairs in the Debau Company based on the Hugo Mercenary Company attacking the Myuri Mercenary Company. They thought that after the Debau Company had chased Debau and Hilde out of power, there had been even further internal power disputes.

But in truth, the Hugo Mercenary Company had been bought off, and Lawrence and the others had been deceived. One could say the scheme was perfect; it would have been the end to everything had Holo not been there.

That being the case, having somehow managed to flee into Svernel, the opponent would assail the city with all its might.

All he knew for certain was that there would be no easy counterattack.

With that thought in his head, he descended to the second floor and saw a youngster standing watch in the corridor ahead. Though the youngster yawned as if sleepy, he immediately noticed Lawrence’s presence and knocked on the door in a hurry, poking his face in. The youngster pulled his face out of the doorway and moved aside as Holo came out. She looked surprised to see Lawrence and seemed angry as she rushed over.

“What are you doing?”

“Are you going to tell me to go sleep?”

As Holo moved to lend her shoulder, Lawrence moved forward as if he was going to push her out of the way.

“And just where are you going?”

“That’s obvious. They’re talking in there about what to do now, right?”

He’s injured. He’s a merchant. He could not be the only one left out, particularly at a time like this.

He could not back down with a circumstance like this before his eyes.

He thought to lend whatever little strength he had to Hilde and Luward.

They could not let the present Debau Company stretch any further.

But Holo spoke calmly. “They are doing no such thing.”

What Lawrence instantly felt was anger. Did she think even a child would fall for that?

“’Tis true. Come, you, calm yourself.”

The youngster guarding the door watched Lawrence and Holo’s dispute with a perplexed look. Perhaps because Lawrence was not yet at full strength, the lad’s body looked hazy; Lawrence could be certain only of his face.

And pressed by Holo, Lawrence could put up little resistance as his back was pushed against the wall.

He muttered a curse and tried to right himself, but when Holo’s hand touched his forehead, the coldness surprised him.

“…Come, you. The fever is making you a fool.”

Fever?

As Lawrence thought, That’s crazy, it was true that his body held no strength.

“Your leg was stabbed, and you were beaten enough to make you vomit everything in your stomach. If you weaken your body further, you could even die. Come, now—if you were in my shoes, what would you do?”

There was no way he could win against Holo’s logic.

Lawrence averted his eyes from Holo and tried to step forward once more, but he could not.

“You said it plainly yourself.”

“…What?”

Holo looked straight at Lawrence as she spoke.

“That we have lost.”

“L…”

Before Lawrence could finish speaking, strength drained away from the good leg somehow still supporting him.

But Lawrence was a traveling merchant. He was second to none at being bad at giving up. “I don’t think Mr. Hilde will give up.”

As Lawrence hung his head, there was clear strain on Holo’s face.

Hilde had not given up, either. How could Holo say that they had lost, then?

They had to be having a meeting in the room. Hilde, speaking but a few words while worn ragged and at the end of his endurance, spurred Lawrence and the others to Svernel with his truly astounding wit. Hilde was prepared to die; he was prepared to be killed.

Certainly, Luward’s being gravely injured, thanks to the Hugo Mercenary Company being bought off and betraying them, was a heavy blow.

But they had the forbidden book, plus the complete three hundred gold coins remaining, plus the Myuri Mercenary Company.

Therefore, this being Svernel, the place where those opposed to the Debau Company were assembling, if they gathered everyone under one banner, surely they could halt the opponent’s advance.

From the start, provided it was possible, Lawrence had wanted to support Hilde and Debau’s dream.

However, now he thought that more than that, the present Debau Company must not grow any more powerful.

“Certainly, that hare will not give up.”

“Then—”

“However, that does not make true that which you wish to say.”

“What should we do, then?”

As Lawrence asked, Holo averted her eyes for once.

Seeming bothered, her eyes narrowed enough that her long eyelashes cast shadows, her gaze still failing to meet his.

As she did so, the door opened a little, and the young man who had been standing in front of it was sucked right in. Someone had no doubt pulled him along.

Seeing that and seeing Holo, Lawrence was able to get the gist of the situation.

And he murmured, “You can’t mean…?

“You’re not saying, run away, just the two of us?”

Holo looked up at Lawrence and nodded bluntly.

“Yes.”

Those cold, beautiful eyes stared at Lawrence.

Lawrence grabbed hold of Holo’s slender shoulders.

“We can’t! We can’t do such a thing!”

There was no way they could flee by themselves and leave Hilde and the Myuri Mercenary Company here in Svernel.

“Then, what would our staying accomplish? Lawrence, what will you do?”

With Lawrence still grasping her shoulders, Holo took his hands, which were twice the size of her own.

Her hands were frighteningly cold, like ice.

Holo’s sad eyes shifted to Lawrence’s breast.

“Lawrence…’tis not my thought alone. The hare and the people of the Myuri Mercenary Company think it as well.”

So that is why Holo had been in the room. She was not convincing them. They were convincing her.

From the other side’s point of view, it made perfect sense. Lawrence being here served no useful purpose, but should Lawrence perish, it would leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.

Lawrence guessed as much, but even so, he swallowed and said this.

“They can’t flee?”

After hesitating briefly, Holo nodded.

“The hare has not given up yet. Those who inherit the name of Myuri must remain at any rate.”

Luward was severely wounded, and even putting that aside, there were many others injured as well. Should they leave the town in such circumstances, hounded until they reached a proper town, next time the result would be a bloodbath.

It was better to fight facing one’s foe than to die from wounds to the back as a person fled.

Such an emotional appeal was not necessarily correct, but no doubt remaining was also a rational decision.

“Are you…all right with this?”

He thought it an unfair way to say it. Even so, as Hilde pursued his own dream, he was acting out of concern for the northlands. The Myuri Mercenary Company, having endured for so many centuries, had finally been able to pass the message it had inherited from Myuri down to Holo. Surely they could not so lightly abandon Hilde’s dream or a mercenary company with such a long, uninterrupted history that might well collapse?

Remaining behind in town, Lawrence could paint no pretty picture of what would happen when they lost, even without being a pessimist.

“’Tis not all right. Of course it is not all right.”

Holo seemed to suffer as she said this. Even though he knew what her answer would be, he still made her say it.

Even though Lawrence wanted to stop, even though he wanted to ask for forgiveness, he went on the attack with his last resort.

“Then, shouldn’t we stay here with them? Why don’t we try our best and see? If they were in our shoes, the Myuri Mercenary Company surely wouldn’t abandon us and run because the circumstances were unfavorable. They did inherit the name of your pack mate from your homeland, after all.”

Holo’s face twisted as if Lawrence’s words weighed heavily upon her chest; the last sentence finally made tears spill from her eyes.

However, what was there was not sadness. It was anger.

“But what can we do by remaining here? Stick around until the bitter end and flee when all is truly lost? I am not infallible. There are things that cannot be salvaged if one is taken by surprise. Once the hare is finally slain, are you confident we could abandon the rest and run then? Surely we could not? I, too, could only push as far as it would go in such an event. But that would be dying in vain. ’Tis not something we ought to do, knowing what the result shall be.”

Though he might have sarcastically called Holo’s torrent of words wise, that was a perfect description for them.

Holo had a point. And a second point, and a third.

What could Lawrence help with if he stayed? What role could a mere injured traveling merchant play when an army commanded by a great trading company invaded?

“Come, you—surely you at least understand that there is no role here for you to play?”

He could not fight with his injured leg. If it became a siege, just lodging would mean he was only eating up precious food reserves. Of course, he would be unable to have a voice if there were negotiations; all he could do was cheer for victory.

It was the same if he stayed or went. However, though he could provide his allies with no proper aid if he remained in town, when they lost, the victors would most certainly judge him a good and proper member of the enemy.

Though sometimes a previous king whose throne had been usurped was merely exiled, a former king plotting to usurp the throne was always fated to be slain.

Hilde had plotted rebellion. To fight in this town meant to be seen as rebel conspirators beyond all doubt.

If this was to be the Debau Company’s first step in subduing the northlands, the slaughter of those opposing it would surely be a mandatory ritual for the sake of the distant future. Those who know they are going to be killed often put up fierce resistance; yet in many instances, such actions sometimes ultimately reduced the total number of people who died in conflict.

The logical conclusion was that it was better Lawrence did not remain.

Holo looked straight at Lawrence as she spoke.

“Were you not going to open a store? Did you not tell me to think of a name for that store? I have decided. Not just the name of your store, but that we will live pleasantly in your store as well…Will you break that promise?”

He did not think this the underhanded thought of a woman concerned only with herself.

He knew all too well how much it made Holo suffer to walk away from this.

Perhaps the fever was why Holo’s body felt so very cold.

But he thought that perhaps it symbolized something.

“I truly would enjoy it…Living idly with you would be truly a delight…Surely you understand, do you not? After the clamor of town festivals, the fear of being left behind alone when everyone goes back to their normal lives? I want a home. I really do not want to know what is happening to Yoitsu anymore. I know that. I know what is happening to it…I did not want to return to Yoitsu so that I could be alone. That was why I was truly happy you comforted me in Lesko. When I thought, I am not alone, I was truly happy…”

Holo let her words trail off with a sniff of her nose at the end.

The playfulness she had shown when she returned from Kieschen with the forbidden book, flying at Lawrence, was no prank.

Holo really had missed him. She really did need him.

Looking back, they had had arguments and made up after many times over; it was not that she had taken his hand when his life was in danger once or twice, but rather, they had escaped many crises together when Lawrence thought they were done for.

If someone asked Holo what the most important thing in the world was to her, Holo could answer without hesitation. She already had. She had many times over.

Even so, Lawrence could not embrace Holo’s shoulders.

“Th-that doesn’t mean…”

As Lawrence tried to speak, Holo stopped him with a cold voice. “Do not make me say it.”

As the ambiance put a complete stop to Lawrence’s words, Holo lifted her face.

“Come, you—do you not yet understand that one must give up certain things?” Holo’s words hurt Lawrence as much as if she had thrust them right into his wound. “And you have, to gain me. And you will, to gain what comes ahead. You are naive, are you not?”

“…Naive?”

As Lawrence echoed her word, Holo spoke in a pained voice as if she was doing something bad.

“Did you mean to carry on our journey forever? You have sympathy. I, too, understand how you cannot have witnessed that and not become so angry you cannot forgive it. But what is that within you that you cannot compromise, I wonder? Is that what you truly must protect? If that is so, why did you take my hand all of those times? You…”

Holo, both sad and angry, bit down her shaking tongue.

“Am I not your princess?”

Lawrence was dumbfounded. While dumbfounded, he stared back at Holo intently.

So far as he could think, for Holo to call herself a princess was sarcasm toward Lawrence of the highest order.

He could not comprehend his own foolishness. Why had he not realized such a thing? How many times had he ignored Holo saying, “Let’s end this journey,” gripping her hand whether she liked it or not? There were times when Holo had truly pulled away, not wanting to be a millstone around Lawrence’s neck. There were times when Holo said, “Let’s split up before splitting up becomes too hard.” Why had Lawrence flown over, gripping her hand whether she liked it or not, and swatted all Holo’s concerns away?

Holo was afraid. She was afraid of taking Lawrence’s hand. She had lost all she had ever obtained, so learning that the merciless advance of time wiped all away, as if turning it to dust, she knew better than anyone how there existed no fairy tale where one lived happily ever after.

The crux was whether one had the determination to take responsibility or not.

Gaining someone precious and protecting that someone were two completely different things. Lawrence could see that clearly now.

Lawrence looked at Holo.

Even in his dreams, Lawrence never thought he would misunderstand something so thoroughly. Perhaps he had mistaken himself for a hero in a fairy tale. In a heroic legend, one cast away anything and everything without a thought about the future to obtain one’s beloved, the end.

But reality was different. The story continued onward, too.

Gaining one’s beloved came with a responsibility.

And yet he had never realized such a thing. He had been all too childish.

“I wish to live a quiet life with you…,” she said.

Thinking back to when he had decided to set up a small store, running a modest business, he felt a pain in his chest. Even so, he had been spending each day living a very different life without complaint.

He might have been happy. He might have been very happy.

But Lawrence had never stopped scorning the merchant without ambition, the very sight of the man who had given up many things for a quiet life, who was unable to fly off because he embraced that which he protected.

It is said that one grows when one journeys. Lawrence had held the conceit that he had grown sufficiently, that he knew enough about the world. That had been a complete presumption on his part.

To choose Holo, to understand that choice and to make an incalculable compromise, would probably make an adult out of him. Surely that was not a bad thing. If simply imagining life with Holo made it hard to breathe, surely it could not be a bad thing.

Lawrence had taken Holo’s hand. He had taken her hand many times over. Holo had always trusted Lawrence. She had pretended to not see all of her concerns and doubts in order to come with Lawrence.

Through traveling with Holo, Lawrence had truly come to understand what it meant to be with someone else.

Lawrence reached out to Holo. Holo tensely watched his hand. When Lawrence’s hand touched Holo’s cheek, Holo gently closed her eyes.

Lawrence drew Holo to him, putting his other arm around her back.

As a merchant, seeing Hilde’s dream had lit a fire in his heart. His righteous indignation at the Debau Company’s foul plot via the Hugo Mercenary Company had lit a fire in his body.

But no longer could the raging flames consume him and turn him to ash.

This was what having someone precious meant.

If, as Holo had said, this was fate, it was not so bad.

As Lawrence listened to his own thoughts, his arm that embraced Holo squeezed strongly once more as he called her name.

“Holo.”

As he did so, Holo’s ears twitched and moved, and she raised her face.

This was not happiness. If one had to describe it, this was acknowledging the sin was both of theirs to bear. Coconspirators were bound together much like this. For her part, Holo was a wolf that had spent centuries in a wheat field out of obligation, never being thanked once. Leaving Hilde and the Myuri Mercenary Company and running could not possibly be easy for her.

Lawrence pulled back and took Holo’s hand.

Holo looked at her hand intertwined with Lawrence’s and nodded.

That moment, Lawrence’s journey came to an end.

“Ugh…”

That might not have been the cause, but Lawrence felt dizzy and put his back to the wall once again.

Holo hastily moved to support him. His physical strength had indeed not returned whatsoever.

“I-I’m all right…”

“Fool. Here, grab on.”

Holo lent Lawrence her hand. This was probably how they would live from here on.

How could anyone be dissatisfied with that?

That moment, as Lawrence grabbed onto Holo and stepped forward…

Thud, thud, thud. There was a sound of someone pounding on the door downstairs. This was still early in a peaceful morning. Such a powerful echo seemed an ill omen.

And after one more pound of the door, apparently someone who had drawn the short straw and was standing watch without sleep opened the door. After a brief argument, there was a sound of heavy footsteps.

The door in the hallway ahead opened, and Moizi and a middle-aged man emerged from it.

Lawrence had only seen the man with a hood low over his eyes back in Lesko, but as a traveling merchant, he could remember people by a variety of characteristics. From his silhouette, he knew immediately that this was Hilde. Without his hood in the way, his face was covered in long, blond hair. His eyes looked like that of a recluse.

But those eyes had the air of deep intellect within them; Lawrence could discern the resolute will that lay hidden behind that beard.

Lawrence was grateful Hilde had been in the form of a hare all this time. Faced with a man like this, Lawrence would have found himself too overwhelmed to make even a single judgment.

After lightly greeting Lawrence and Holo with his eyes, Moizi ran down the stairs along with a young man.

Hilde walked over slowly, coming to a corner of the hallway and standing before Lawrence and Holo.

“Have you made your decision?”

It was a curt question.

And before Lawrence could reply, he deduced from looking at the way their hands were joined together.

That moment, the corners of his eyes became like those of a good-natured old man.

He would say not a single cross word before two people who were running.

He put a wrinkled, gnarled, large hand on Holo’s shoulder, then touched both of Lawrence’s arms as if giving a blessing.

“May you both be happy.”

Lawrence felt that Hilde was going to add, “…in spite of all this,” at the end, but perhaps that was just his imagination.

At any rate, he was unable to simply accept the words right before him and, instead of thanks, said this.

“Has something happened?”

He half expected to be brushed off with a It has nothing to do with you, does it? However, Hilde gazed squarely at Lawrence and, after closing his eyes once, replied, “Right now, the inn is surrounded by soldiers.”

“Wh—?!”

“The man who administers the town in the name of the town council has been seen riding a horse. It will not be idle chitchat, I am sure.”

He spoke those words without showing a single shred of tension.

This was absolutely not the defiance of someone who had given up; rather, a feat no doubt made possible through a wealth of experiences.

“But surely they will not surround us at all hours of the day. Please flee when there is an opening. Now, then.”

Hilde strode past Lawrence and Holo as if heading to a minor deal for the company. Even with the inn surrounded by soldiers, he was this magnificent. He was made of different stuff than those who went on adventures.

As Lawrence and Holo watched Hilde go, they heard footsteps from downstairs and a voice. The voice was Moizi’s, saying, “Please wait!”

Were they under attack?

A moment later, before Lawrence could move ahead of Holo to shield her—

“Ho.”

Without heeding those standing about him, a man wearing a cloak that reached all the way down to his ankles began to climb the stairs, noticing Hilde as he went. Based on his appearance, he seemed somewhat younger than Hilde, but he was nonetheless of considerable age. His red hair continued down his sideburns to his chin, forming a neatly trimmed beard. From the air about him, one could tell with a single glance that he was a man of authority.

The cloak that he wore was neither fine nor shabby. He looked like a hardy man, but not one who seemed like a poor prospect to do business with. He was the type who would not buy anything spectacular, but who, once one gained his trust, would deal with them over the long term without grumbling about the fine details.

The man gazed straight at Hilde, speaking without any show of emotion. “I can tell just by looking.”

Having climbed the stairs far enough to come in view of the second floor, he looked toward Lawrence and Holo as well. “You, too.”

For a moment, Lawrence did not understand what he meant, but when he saw Holo’s body stiffen, he muttered, “It can’t be.”

“The sooner we speak the better. I’m borrowing the room there.”

“Mr. Millike!”

Moizi tried to stop him, but the man called Millike brought the veteran mercenary to a halt with a single look.

As he did so, Hilde asked back. “Jean Millike?”

“Indeed. Chairman of the Svernel Merchants’ Council. Also known as…”

Millike grandly topped the stairs, now coming to stand on the same floor as Hilde.

Hilde was not a small man by any means, but Millike was larger. Though not to the same extent as Moizi or Rebonato, he was physically imposing.

“Klaus von Havlish the Third.”

“Wha…?!”

Millike shifted his unamused eyes to the shocked Hilde. “I received a bizarre report before dawn and thought, just perhaps, but for you to truly not know…”

Millike, or perhaps Havlish, stepped past the flank of the speechless Hilde, standing before Lawrence’s eyes.

And he respectfully lowered his gaze to Holo.

“I have heard you have a more valiant form.”

A moment later, Holo slapped Millike’s cheek. Everyone there was surprised, and Holo was no exception. Holo stared at Millike’s cheek as she gripped her right hand with her left, as if she had slapped him by reflex alone.

For Holo, slapping someone’s cheek was not exactly a rare event.

What surprised Lawrence was that Holo looked like she was frightened.

“…A literally rough welcome. But I did not come for pleasant conversation. I shall borrow the room in here. I take it the fireplace is lit?”

Hilde stroked his hair and tugged at his chin as he seemed to regain his senses. “This way,” he said, walking ahead and leading him inside. Holo’s eyes followed Millike after Hilde, but her feet did not.

Lawrence did not really need to ask.

“He’s not human?” These were the northlands, much of them covered by mountain and forest.

“About half.” Her answer quite naturally surprised even Lawrence.

And as Lawrence watched Millike, Millike suddenly stopped and turned around as if noticing his gaze.

“Come. You both have a responsibility to come.”

For a moment, Holo acted like she was going to ignore him, but her hand grabbed hold of the collar of Lawrence’s shirt. Lawrence grasped her hand back, replying, “We can listen to what he says.” Besides, it was clear that fleeing under these conditions would go poorly. Having come in with hare, wolf, and the mercenaries, he would not get off as someone uninvolved. If they did flee, Hilde and Moizi and the others would be put at a disadvantage, too.

Also, Lawrence still could not move quickly due to his injuries, and Holo could not transform into a wolf in such a cramped place. If they behaved clumsily and aroused suspicion, it was more than possible everyone would end up killed by the not-human Millike.

Lawrence leaned on Holo’s shoulder and slowly moved forward.

Millike shot a glance at Holo and Lawrence as they entered the room.

Inside the most lavish room on the second floor, there were only four people.

Hilde, Millike, Holo, and Lawrence.

Moizi tried to join, but Millike flatly refused.

No doubt normally he would have dug his heels in as a matter of honor, but seeing Holo and Lawrence passing by, he seemed to have made a deduction. Without any strong complaint, he yielded to Millike’s request and withdrew to stand watch.

“Now, then.” Millike was the one who broke the ice. “You’ve caused quite the uproar in this land.”

The phrase was too grandiose to be limited to the pivotal crossroads of the northlands known as Svernel. Lawrence had heard that the lords in the countryside were pompous with little knowledge of the world, but was that really so in Millike’s case?

The phrase in this land probably seemed fitting to Millike himself.

“Under the name of Havlish, my lands have enjoyed two centuries of peace. There have been no great expeditions from the Church. The steep mountains and valleys have protected it from fools hungry for land. Its sole weakness is this place here, Svernel. To think you would bring your enemy to its doorstep…If you wish to make a mess, make it in your own lands. Is that not so, you of the Debau Company?”

His manner of speaking was suited to the public chamber as well.

But Hilde did not falter.

“I make no excuses that the result was to invite my enemy. However, that is why I am here, so that I may make amends.”

“Amends?” Millike parroted the word back, making a heavy sigh. “Surely you say this in jest? How large a force do you think presses upon the town from the trade route to the south? There is a report that a captain of a thousand has been sighted. They come not for some minor skirmish in the mountains. They come to tear down the town itself.”

The Debau Company was serious. “Captain of a thousand” was a title given precisely because he literally commanded a thousand men. Without securing the services of the likes of the Myuri Mercenary Company in the mountains, they came to engage in spectacular fighting such as open battle on the steppes or siege warfare. The Debau Company had paid the Hugo Mercenary Company a fortune just on the chance Hilde might be with them. This time, real nobles were in command, dragged into showing their faces by the prospect of a great battle right out of the chronicles. No doubt they truly meant for this to be their bridgehead to total dominion.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know. I saw a bird flying around yesterday, a bird not seen in these parts. A friend of yours, yes?”

Hilde neither confirmed nor denied it, but that was the same as an admission.

Leaving Hilde like that, Millike shifted his gaze to Holo.

“Does a sublime wolf such as you intend to participate in this foolish disturbance?”

So he could tell Holo was a wolf. “Half,” she had said; that indeed meant Millike was half inhuman.

“I have heard you are the one who saved them. Should you lend any further support—”

“I shall not.”

As Holo spoke, Millike closed his mouth. He raised an eyebrow slightly in satisfaction after.

“As I expected. A very practical judgment.”

Though Lawrence thought it might be sarcasm, it apparently was not.

It seemed to be what Millike truly thought.

Having received Holo’s words, he turned to Hilde once more.

“The powerless always have absurd dreams. Those who have power understand well what power can accomplish. They understand just because you can carry a boulder does not mean you can move a mountain. It is only those who play with pebbles who dream of moving a mountain. As it is my task to oversee trade in this town, I am well aware of what incredible visionaries merchants are. That is why neither Svernel nor my lands have had anything to do with you great and powerful sorts. You sent envoys again and again, yes. Yet you yourself never came once. Had you used your own feet, you would have at least learned your own subordinates planned to betray you.”

The man in charge of managing trade in Svernel was the same as one of the territorial lords Hilde had been asking to join. That fact had seriously surprised Hilde. In towns under the administration of a lord, it was not all that rare for the lord to also be the chairman of the merchants’ council.

Yet Hilde had not known of it.

From Millike’s words, the betrayal had been prepared long before, and the reason Hilde had not noticed was because he had hidden himself away in Lesko, waving the Debau Company’s baton of command all the while.

“When you are trading, you feel you can see until the ends of the world. I think it is a marvelous thing. But that is why you do not notice the pitfall at your feet. I inherited the name Jean Millike some five years ago. Jean Millike had a strong spirit, but his body was frail. He became sick, bedridden, and promptly passed on. I owed him, too, you see; he’d resolved a trade dispute while this town had asked me to manage the circulation of furs and amber. There is no hidden truth; it’s a common enough story. And no one ever told you this common enough thing. You thought Svernel and the lands behind it were ruled by different people. And because you thought so, you came to this town. Is it not so?”

Or perhaps, since he was resolved to sacrifice himself for his dream if need be, it was irrelevant.

But he was not wrong to lay this on Hilde’s doorstep.

Having joined hands with many lords across the northlands, his subordinates had stripped him of authority from below. Even if one might say they are always more open from below, that made a weak counterargument.

“Then why did you give the envoys we sent favorable replies?” Hilde calmly switched to firmer ground for a counterattack.

“It’s very simple. If we’d refused, you’d have gone somewhere else. In this season, any village is low for food. If mercenaries are going to eat villages whole, down to the locusts, and still die on the side of a road somewhere, better to take you in and capture you here in town.”

It was an appropriate judgment by a lord protecting his lands.

Hilde spoke softly.

“You intend to sell us?”

Hilde and Moizi and Holo had no doubt been speaking in this room for some time while Lawrence was still sleeping on the floor above. Their conclusion must have been a very pessimistic one.

Was it because the approaching army was too large? Or was it because the head of the Myuri Mercenary Company was wounded, his troops arriving in town as defeated men?

It was probably neither.

Hilde and the others had probably known the instant they had entered the town in a much simpler fashion, when the top administrators of the town had not come out to welcome them.

“No…”

But so spoke Millike.

Hilde was not soft enough to embrace hope so easily.

“So not us, but rather me.”

“Correct.” Neither the tenor nor the volume of Millike’s voice had changed whatsoever, saying this like it was a truly ordinary thing. “Yes. I will sell you and you alone. I’m sure you are prepared for this much, at least?”

Profit comes with risk. When armies move and enough money is paid to make man betray man, a person’s life did not even register.

To attempt to obtain profit on this scale, one must prepare themselves for a correspondingly great risk.

That is what gambling was.

“I am. However, my desire to continue is greater.”

“Mmm. It is important not to give up. But the problem is doing it on someone else’s territory. If you want to do it, do it in your own place.”

It was such a disappointingly commonsense argument that Hilde was at a loss for words.

Lawrence had thought Hilde a great merchant, but feeling the fires of idealism, leaving himself exposed from below, made him look like a youth.

However, Hilde desperately protested.

“This is not a matter for us alone. Should our plan succeed, the northlands should enjoy long-term stability. A great many lords will be drawn into the same economic sphere through using the same currency. That being the case, it will be simply unprofitable to remain on the outside. In the difficult environment of the northlands, one will perish if unable to purchase food from neighboring lands. A common currency will become a powerful weapon in foreign trade. Our leader has boasted, those lords, hitherto beyond reproach even by God himself, shall be tamed with a golden yoke.”

This was the tale that Lawrence had seen with his own eyes at Lesko and that had made a fire burn in his chest as a merchant. This was the tale Hilde was telling Lord Havlish before his very eyes.

Lawrence knew not whether Hilde had hopes the man would listen to reason or if Hilde simply plotted to convey the degree to which he believed in it himself. All he knew for certain was that Millike seemed largely unamused by such talk.

Certainly, such talk was not very amusing if it was one’s neck being yoked.

But even as Millike stared at the table, he did not reveal even the slightest hint of displeasure.

He looked something like a father listening to his son’s foolish dreams.

“And what proof is there that a world ruled by merchants instead of lords would be run any better?”

Hilde’s words stuck in his throat.

No matter who held the reins, there would always be uncertainty. There were too many examples to count of kings that had been benevolent at the beginning, only to suddenly become a despot later.

Then, one could only address that concern through one’s actions. Surely that was what Hilde was going to say.

But it was Lawrence, unable to endure any longer, who opened his mouth.

“Merchants engage in trade, and the foundation of trade is profit. And in trade, you profit because you made someone happy.”

Lawrence was unable to participate in Hilde’s dream.

Even so, he could not bear to see the dream mocked before his very eyes and remain silent.

“Ho.”

Millike made a curt reply, smiling. It was the smiling face that praised a child: “You’ve really done your best.”

He gave no sign that he was angry at Lawrence for making light of him. That was the nature of dreams, and at any rate, Hilde’s deep nod made plain there was nothing to be frightened of.

“This is where I would put you down as a brat, knowing nothing of the world…but it seems that is not so.”

Millike’s gaze shifted from the bloodstained bandage wrapped around Lawrence’s leg to Holo, sitting beside him.

“There is surely a touch of truth to it. Yet I wonder if it can endure in the face of reality?” said Millike.

“I could say the same thing to you,” Hilde said to Millike.

“What do you mean?”

“There is no mistaking that this town has many raising their voices against the Debau Company’s tyranny. To them, I am extremely useful.”

The smaller the town, the more incredible how quickly rumors spread.

A large group arriving just before daybreak, barely escaping with their lives, could not exactly pass unnoticed. Surely, there was at least one dweller of the northlands here that was aware of the Myuri Mercenary Company; when one added Hilde’s presence, even a fool could understand there had been a coup in Lesko.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, went the saying. And a man who was until a few days ago at the center of the enemy was all that more powerful an ally.

“Meaning, you’ll interfere with us councilors keeping the people in line?”

“No, surely that will not be necessary. If I may say so, the truth is on our side, and popular will follows the truth. The current Debau Company must be stopped.”

Hilde and Millike traded glances, neither retreating an inch.

Lawrence thought the silence would continue for eternity, but Millike broke it first.

“I see. If so, that too is fine. Go ahead and try.”

“You are not selling me?”

Hilde’s jab brought a strained smile over Millike.

“That I can do at any time. If you weren’t a hare…well, I’d have to think about it.”

It was clear without him spelling it out that he was talking about Holo.

“Do you acknowledge our freedom, then?”

“Do as you like. Preach your gospel to the masses and guide them, like a missionary of the Church. Raise your banner and invade other lands, just like many lords do.”

Millike rose from his seat.

He did not look fed up with the talk of selling or buying at all.

Lawrence wondered what was inside Millike that let him fend everything off with such certainty.

Whatever it was, even putting aside his height and demeanor, the overbearing weight of it made his words resonate deeply.

“But I wonder if you will go to battle in the end.”

If they fought the large army approaching the town, it was certain the town would lose. That was why Millike had sought to avoid battle, was it not, either by convincing Hilde and the others otherwise or putting him in irons?

Lawrence found it difficult to grasp what Millike was thinking.

Millike added this. “Had you been more foolish, this would be a more complicated matter. If you are so wise, it is not my turn on the stage.”

Lawrence did not think he said “wise” as a compliment.

Even so, he did not think it was complete sarcasm or falsehood, either.

Was there a world of negotiation techniques of which even he was unaware?

As Lawrence watched the exchange intently, Hilde’s words made him hold his breath.

“It is because there are lords like you that the world does not change.”

The phrase made Millike laugh for the first time, looking amused.

“Ha-ha-ha. But…”

As Millike laughed, he noticed some dirt under the fingernail of his thumb, flicking it out with the nail of his little finger.

Even how he mocked others was flawless in its elegance.

“Nothing in the world will change. If it was going to change, those with power would have changed it long ago.”

Millike looked straight at Holo.

Holo fended off his gaze without expression, brushing it aside like an indifferent cat.

Millike made a hearty laugh and looked at Hilde.

Hilde looked at Millike with what seemed like a scowl.

“And how much do you intend to sell this town for?”

It was a blatant provocation, but perhaps Hilde was trying to extract information out of Millike.

An unapproachable opponent could not be swayed with tears or entreaties.

One had to get him angry and draw him into conversation.

“Money? Ha-ha, money is it? If they paid money that would be good, but…”

Millike laughed.

That his way of laughing was eerie was not Lawrence’s impression alone.

Beside him, Holo’s body clearly stiffened.

“This is a town where only furs and amber pass through. The craftsmen have all left. No one stays here; everyone just moves right by. No doubt the fools will carry their weapons and go beyond the town. But beyond here are only deep, treacherous snowy mountains. Many difficulties will assail them. Their footprints shall stretch a ways, but finally, even those shall be buried by snow. All pass through but go only to their end. No one stays. The only thing that piles up, like sediment, is time.”

Millike’s talkative voice was clearly filled with resentment.

Lawrence realized that this lord was like Holo.

But unlike Holo, Millike was wrapped in resentment at the unassailable providence that governed the world.

“So, you are a poet.”

It was Hilde, who unlike Holo and Millike was certain the world could be changed, who made that reply.

“Prattle,” said Klaus von Havlish the Third. In this town, Jean Millike.

Holo and Hilde had known at one glance he was not a man; Holo had said he was half inhuman.

No doubt he, too, built a solid foundation for himself in this land while taking care not to stand out.

Concealing oneself was also a matter of skill.

To conceal himself, Huskins the golden ram had gone as far as to eat the flesh of his fellow sheep.

Thinking of Millike as merely a pessimistic half-human lord would be a dramatic mistake.

“But do not underestimate the power of money.”

The vast profits from issuing new currency caused his dazzled subordinates to betray him and had bought off the Hugo Mercenary Company.

But for whatever reason, Hilde’s words made Millike shoot him a look of what seemed to be sympathy.

“I see. Well, then, if you will excuse me.”

Millike turned about, showing not a single shred of hesitation, and left the room without another sound.

As the door closed shut, Hilde lowered his face and made a heavy sigh.

The town’s leaders were not welcoming Hilde and the others. That was largely a declaration of defeat in itself; furthermore, because Hilde had not been aware of the fundamental fact that Millike and Havlish were the same person, investigating “Millike” and striving to win him over and such was doubtful with so little time.

This made Lawrence think of the choices that remained.

Assassination. Flight. Surrender.

All the options he could think of were extreme and likely none of them would bring any good result.

Therefore, since Lawrence was so concerned, he could not help himself but ask, “Do you have a plan?”

Hilde, who surely knew the gist of what he had promised Holo, raised his face and made a listless smile.

No doubt, what he wanted to say was, What are you doing, trying to make me say no?

They knew that Lawrence was not the kind of human who ran away just because the going got tough.

But Hilde said, “I do.”

A great merchant of a great company was far worse at giving up than any traveling merchant.

“I am, despite it all, the former treasurer of the Debau Company. I have a grasp of what the company needs and lacks to continue operating. If we can assemble and organize the humans of this town and get them to close the gates, it should be enough to force the company to the negotiating table.”

However, mercenaries specializing in siege warfare were apparently pressing near Svernel.

Lawrence did not think the walls would hold against such a force.

“They should no longer have the funds to fight a siege.”

The Debau Company, its arms full of mines that gushed profits like spring water, lacked the funds to fight?

Lawrence did not think so.

“Just as we were doing, they are using the profits from issuing new currency to bind together the lords, the mercenaries, and the townspeople. However, there is an overwhelming lack of base metal with which to issue the currency; it shall take some time until they can issue it. They need to melt down lower quality silver coins and reforge them at a higher purity level. Then, what do you think will happen if they must continue to pay lords and mercenaries in new, freshly minted, high-value currency for the sake of war? What will happen if the currency is not distributed to the travelers and peasants of the northlands that want it?”

People giving up on getting their hands on the new currency would no doubt return to their homes with silver trenni and other runners-up in hand. If that happened, the speculation fever would abate, and the lords would be enraged that the value of the payments promised to them in the new currency had plummeted.

Lawrence gazed in astonishment at Hilde’s calm judgment.

“Based on my memory of all the company’s accounts, I have deduced that the betrayal of the Hugo Mercenary Company and the dispatch of the captain of a thousand have now placed them in a very difficult situation, at the very limit of their ability to raise funds.”

The size of those business dealings were far out of the league of any traveling merchant.

Lawrence could not even begin to grasp the vastness of the dealings of something on the Debau Company’s level.

But just as Lawrence remembered every deal he had made on his trade route, Hilde might well remember the vast majority of his own deals.

“That, therefore, is why they are creating the conditions for immediate surrender. And if we surrender without a fight, the Debau Company saves itself a vast amount of war expenditures, and they can behave as if their funds are unlimited in the future as well. This is far too outlandish a scheme for the sake of a single wounded treasure and a small mercenary company, even an elite one. In a manner of speaking, it is the same technique of defeating one’s foe with a paper tower that Debau and I used ourselves.”

No matter what the situation, he forgot no weapon at his disposal, overlooking nothing.

But if it was so, the problem boiled down to a single issue.

“Therefore, it is a matter of whether we can get the town gates closed or not. If we can get them closed, we force them to the table. If we surrender without a fight, we play right into their hands.”

Surely Millike had foreseen that far himself?

It was possible that, precisely to avoid such a situation, a messenger from the Debau Company had simply delivered a letter requesting the gates not be closed under any circumstances.

Then there was the matter of what if Hilde could not implement his plan? And even more so, there was the matter that even if things went according to the degenerate way of thinking Hilde had sarcastically referred to as poetry, liberating this one town from the Debau Company did not amount to any great thing.

But Lawrence did not think that the people at the Debau Company were underestimating Hilde at all. Surely, they realized Hilde would remember all of the accounts and perceive that their funds were in a precarious state.

In other words, this was a gamble testing the intellect and courage of Hilde, Millike, and the Debau Company.

Whose plan was the softest, the weakest? Whose liver was the most delicate, most frail?

Lawrence knew that there was no place for him in such a thunderous dispute.

“From a certain merchant, I have heard the words trade war.” Lawrence spoke to Hilde, seemingly in admiration. “What I do as a traveling merchant is trade. There is no place for me here.”

Holo made a sigh of relief as Hilde gently smiled. It was a smile like one made to praise a child who had realized that a man could not move a mountain.

Soon after, there was a clamor outside as Millike’s voice commanded those around the inn to withdraw.

As their footsteps became distant, heavy footsteps approached from the corridor in long strides.

It was Moizi who entered the room.

“It seems you had a conversation?”

Hilde did not lift his head right away. Perhaps it was simply difficult to put into words to explain.

Of course, it was not something that could be shown with one sentence.

“He said, if you can do it, do it.”

But he gave no indication that anything more had taken place.

Hilde shifted his gaze to Holo. “Are you going to laugh?”

Holo sounded unamused as she replied, “I shall not. I am somewhat envious, however.”

Holo had lost all of her confidence that the world could be changed.

As Holo said that, she put a hand on Lawrence’s forehead. It was as if she was saying, There’s but a single human I can rest my hands upon.

And as she got up, she beckoned for Lawrence to get up as well.

“Mr. Lawrence.”

Hilde spoke toward Lawrence.

Holo did not seem of a mind to linger, but Lawrence, borrowing Holo’s shoulder, turned around.

“What is it?”

“The words you spoke to Master Millike were marvelous. I shall never forget them. Having realized this truth, I am sure your store shall be a most prosperous one.”

“…Thank you very much.”

It was nothing to be delighted at.

But he properly said his thanks.

Then, Lawrence and Holo left the room. It was not a bad way for a traveling merchant’s dream to come to an end.