Spice and Wolf - Volume 19 - Chapter 4

MEMORIES OF SPICE AND WOLF

It was a nice day.

Unlike winter, when it grew colder while the sun was out, the temperature had been properly rising as of late and it was warm. Wearing thick clothes in the sunlight would bring out some sweat, so times like this were spent in the shade. The cold season still made itself known when the evenings grew dark, so it was comfortably chilly. As a fun bonus, there were still ice needles hidden on the ground that were enjoyable to step on.

In such weather, she sat on a straw mat by the bath inside the empty bathhouse while she worked.

Resting atop the straw mat was practically a mountain of wild vegetables that had just been gathered from the mountains, bits of frost still stuck here and there. The rounded buds were the only edible parts, so she tossed those into the basket. The rest would be dried in the sunlight and fed to the horses and sheep. The buds would be boiled with chicken bones and ginger to make a light broth. It was popular with those who could eat nothing but salted meat and fish during the winter and thus fell ill.

When she first tried it, she thought it must be a soup meant for rabbits, but after getting used to it, she quickly grew fond of the crunch from the vegetables and the grease from the chicken bones. It was also good for the cold nights after the sun set, since the ginger warmed her. And when she thought about how perfect it was with an accompaniment of hard liquor, she barely stopped herself from drooling.

As she thought about that, she took a plant from the right, broke off the tip, put it in the basket in front, then threw the rest to the left. This went on for quite some time. There was still a mess of other work waiting for her.

It would not be long before the monotonous work and warm sun brought on a drowsiness.

Several times she dozed off, and her head would suddenly droop. Each time she rubbed her eyes and yawned.

It was almost boring how peaceful the calm, early spring weather felt.

“Lady Holo.”

Someone suddenly called her name, and Holo’s eyes snapped open. She had apparently been dreaming about working. She looked over, and a girl stood beside her. The girl was thin, and her hair was whiter than it was silver, which gave her an evanescence that made it seem she would disappear in the sunlight.

This was the girl recently hired to work at the bathhouse Spice and Wolf, Selim.

They had originally planned to take her in during the summer, but she had arrived not too long ago instead, already beginning to live and work with them.

“Mm-hmm…I cannot believe you saw that.” Holo joked, and Selim blinked with surprise before showing a troubled smile.

“Sir Lawrence said you were surely sleeping and to wake you up…”

“What?”

That fool was what she wanted to say, but it disappeared behind a big yawn.

Her companion never noticed the important things, yet he was only ever sensible about the oddest things.

Holo stretched and sighed in exasperation, causing Selim to jump.

“Hahh…Ahh. Apologies…I shan’t grow sleepy in this season.”

She closed her eyes and shook her ears and tail as though throwing off a coating of water. She managed to suppress a bit of her sleepiness.

After Holo displayed the extent of her lethargy in an exaggerated manner, Selim wore an honest smile.

She was a rather formal girl, so it would be perfect if she relaxed just a little bit.

“And what is it you need?”

“Yes. It’s nearly lunchtime, so I’ve come to get you.”

“Mm. That time already. Tell them I shall be there soon.”

“Very well.”

She bowed her head gracefully, and Holo suddenly noticed how she was still staring at her.

“Lady Holo, has a leaf or the sort hurt you?”

“Hurt me?”

The wild vegetables were soft and not the kind to cause cuts, nor was she using a knife.

“Ah well, I can smell blood…”

Selim spoke timidly as Holo checked herself and, when she lifted her arm, discovered—

—a round, plump leech dangling from her wrist.

“Oh, this.”

She had not noticed at all, thanks to her drowsiness and the chilly morning dew still clinging to the vegetables. It was a gluttonous fellow, and like how Myuri was once she found some delicious food, it would not let go. As she was about to pinch the tenacious leech and rip it off, Selim stopped her.

“Lady Holo, please don’t. Please wait a moment. I’ll bring some fire,” she said, dashing off into the main building. It could easily come off by roasting it with embers.

“…What a fool. The new girl need not go so far.”

She flicked the plump leech, and it dangled about wildly.

Selim was such a thin and polite girl, Holo worried for a moment that she was the type to faint when she saw the leech, but that did not seem to be the case. In the south, she and her friends had survived daily on an eat-or-be-eaten basis. Since she said they barely scraped by playing mercenary, it was probably safe to assume she was stronger than Holo first expected. And she had a good nose.

Like Holo, Selim was an embodiment of a wolf, and her human form was a temporary guise. As they recently hired her to work in the bathhouse, it was good for Holo to have someone who she did not need to hide her ears or tail from.

However, once they brought her in, Holo was very uneasy regarding hiring someone new. Shameful as it was, she had worried that her spot would be jeopardized.

Luckily, it turned out to be a groundless fear. Instead, Selim had the tendency to hold Holo in too high of a regard.

Before long, Selim returned with dead embers from the kitchen, then proceeded to sear the leech. She caught it the moment it let go, throwing the creature into the wilderness.

“You must eat a lot for lunch to make up for what was drained away.”

Selim smiled and gathered up all the stems of the vegetables.

“Well then, I will go ahead and take these to dry.”

“Thank you.”

The new girl was a hard worker. Lawrence and Holo had been worried about what would happen since they lost two of their young helpers at once, but with Selim’s help, there would be no trouble when the guests came.

As she thought about this, Holo stretched expansively one last time and cracked her back.

“Well, ’tis time for lunch.”

Her tail puffed out in the early spring sun and swished about.

“How is Miss Selim?”

That night, as Holo’s companion wrote some things down, he asked this without bothering to look over.

The question came while she was in the middle of grooming the fur on her tail, thinking about how it was the time of year she should soon be shedding her winter coat.

“She is quite different from what I imagined.”

“Hmm?”

He must have just finished a sentence, as he then turned toward her. They had met a little over ten years ago, and though they had changed much over the years, it almost felt like they had not changed at all.

No, he has gained a bit of weight, Holo thought as she looked at the base of her companion’s bent neck.

“Do you mean that in a good way? Or a bad way?”

“A good way, mostly.”

Smearing the expensive floral oil she had her companion buy for her onto her comb, she gracefully put on the fluffy finishing touches to her tail.

“And the rest, what I had imagined in a bad way was wrong in a good way.”

“Wrong in a good…what? What does that mean?”

Her companion made a puzzled face. While he understood a bathhouse that did not hire new people could not carry on with business, he was probably still worried about hiring Selim.

It was not in the way that a shopkeeper would hire a boy and worry about whether or not he would be doing the appropriate work for his level. Rather, it was the awkwardness of boarding a young female under his own roof. However, Selim behaved well and was unobtrusive, and she also had a bit of an unfortunate air about her—the very sort of girl that her companion liked.

And he knew that Holo understood this well. He was also conscious of the fact that should anything happen, it would result in a troublesome uproar, and he had prepared for that.

That being said, Holo did trust her companion. Even if Selim was her companion’s type, she was certain that he would not be unfaithful. In exchange, as he always overthought some things, if he worried too much about Selim, it would only trouble him.

And yet, he must have calmed a bit as he aged, since in the past if such a girl merely showed him the faintest of smiles, he would become infatuated with her. Now, he worked efficiently and professionally with her. At the same time, he was also taking good care of her, since she was far from her friends.

Of course, he would not neglect Holo over such a thing.

In summary, things were going so well now, it was almost a disappointment.

What made it complicated was that things had gone a little differently from how she wanted it to turn out.

“Really, I was expecting a bit more.”

Her companion stared at her, trying to feel out what she really meant. He gulped, knowing that everything looked calm on the surface, but wondering if there was some sort of trouble he had not noticed underneath.

Holo almost wanted to smile watching him. What a good male.

That was because it felt like she had been bound by how hard he worked in every little thing.

“That means…”

She slipped off the bed and stood beside her companion. She shooed him with her hand, and hesitatingly, he scooted to the side, giving her space to sit.

There were many letters spread out over the desk, waiting for the ink to dry.

“You are managing this much better than I expected, and I cannot even foresee the Q in quarrel anywhere.”

Lawrence’s expression was slightly taken aback, and a hint of irritation appeared in relief’s stead.

“What…? That means there’s no problems now, right?”

“Hmm. I thought that I may be able to be unfriendly with you for the first time in a long time.”

She placed her face on his shoulder as her companion developed a clearly vexed, twitching smile.

“Wouldn’t you prefer we didn’t fight?”

“’Tis much more stimulating to add pepper to meat or drink, no? We lived quietly while Myuri was around, but now she is no longer here.”

She rubbed her face on his shoulder and wagged her tail.

“I swear…”

But her companion only sighed and faced the desk again, continuing to write his letters in a bit of a cramped manner.

She was disappointed—had she snuggled up to him like this in the past, that would have been enough to agitate him and it had been quite adorable. The way things were now made it seem like all she thought about was playing.

“Does it seem like we’ll be able to open the bathhouse?”

The very competent Col and their only daughter Myuri, who had followed after him, were gone, and they had supported the bathhouse until recently. Without their two young helpers, they simply did not have enough hands.

She was suspicious that her companion was possibly not writing letters to guests thanking them for their patronage, asking them to come in the next season, but rejections, requesting various parties to postpone their visit because they were short on help.

There was no doubt that their particular bathhouse could not easily hire people because she was not human. It would have been a different story if she could easily hide her ears and tail, but she could not, causing them difficulties.

It would be a lie to say she did not feel indebted.

“Miss Selim will do enough work. She can handle it. It’ll be much easier, since she’s not the mischievous Myuri, who creates double the work after finishing one job.”

“That foolish girl truly is nothing but pranks. I know not who she takes after.”

She sighed, and her companion stared at her with an indescribable expression.

She half glared back at him, and he immediately looked away, like a sheep.

“But for that, it seems the liveliness in this house will die down. Are you all right with that?”

Her companion’s back was to her, and he simply dropped his head lifelessly.

“I’m worried about that, too. We don’t have Col, either, who chatted with all the high-ranking clergymen…When I think about that, I can’t deny that what once attracted the guests to our bathhouse has disappeared.”

“’Tis because you can talk of nothing but trade.”

“I wouldn’t mind if you started singing and dancing, you know.”

Each bathhouse had its own specialty in soothing the tedium for long-stay guests. This bathhouse, Spice and Wolf, had truly been able to tout little Col, who could participate in complex discussions, and Myuri, who was as bright as any dancer.

However, when she imagined herself doing Myuri’s job, not to mention little Col’s, Holo felt exhausted.

“Well, it would just be trouble if you did that on top of your regular work. But I do want to see it.”

She could easily tell he was serious by how bashful his expression was, but this fool truly did not understand anything.

Her human form now was indeed young by human standards. When she thought about Myuri, who was truly young, however, she easily imagined how reckless it would be for herself to dance in her stead.

The image of the patrons looking up at her with confused smiles—This isn’t bad, but something’s off—easily came to mind.

Even though they appeared to be the same age, the aura around her was completely different compared to a girl who was truly young.

“I may as well stick with being particular about food.”

If they stayed on the topic much longer, she felt her dignity as a wisewolf would be on the line, so she immediately changed the subject.

“Food, huh? You do have some opinions about food.”

“Hanna may not be so happy to hear she would get more work.”

Hanna not only ran the kitchen but she was also not human either, her true identity being the avatar of a bird.

“We lost one person stealing snacks, so maybe you can make up for that.”

Talking about it now, Holo was beginning to lose track of whether Myuri, the bathhouse master’s only daughter, had helped with the work or merely played as she liked.

It was fine that she was as energetic as she was, but perhaps they had been a little too lax with her.

“But it really is quiet without Myuri around.”

Her companion paused his writing hand and looked up contemplatively, his gaze distant. Around this time of day, Myuri would be snoring on her bed in her usual room or playing around in Col’s room as he studied by candlelight, accompanied by his angry voice after she bothered him too much with her mischief.

Once it became clear that Myuri had left on the journey as well, Holo’s companion had raised such a fuss; she thought he had finally accepted it, but it seemed he was still a bit reluctant about it.

“I hope they haven’t gotten in trouble where they are…”

“Had a letter not just recently come?”

“That’s true, but…”

She sighed at her unsettled companion and embraced him.

“Have you forgotten who sits by your side?”

Her companion, now so far to the edge of the chair he was about to fall off, planted his foot on the other side and managed to stay up.

Then, he smiled flatly.

“Yeah. You’re always by my side.”

“Mm. ’Twould be best for your health to forget about your daughter after she has gone off to be wed.”

“Sh-she’s not getting married!”

The fool, who stubbornly told himself that Myuri and Col were nothing but very close siblings, retorted on reflex. Of course, she knew he did not truly oppose it. He was simply enjoying the role of the father of an only daughter to his heart’s content.

And that meant she, too, had to enjoy her role.

“See here. I shan’t be going anywhere. However, if you carelessly let go, I may be blown away by the wind.”

She spoke while scratching her ears on his sharp shoulders.

The tallow candle had almost burned out, so it was good timing.

“Do you not think so?”

By the wavering candlelight, she narrowed her eyes and smiled in satisfaction.

Her companion would always seem frightened at times like these.

She vaguely remembered that he once said he felt like he was about to fall into the depths of oblivion.

Of course, she understood what he was trying to say.

That was because after they had fallen in love, they had arrived here.

“As you say, madam.”

Her companion embraced her in return and stood, picking her up, then carrying her to bed.

Before long, the candle blew out, and the room fell into darkness.

The bathhouse was silent without guests, and she could hear the hoot, hoot of an owl beyond the window.

“Eh-heh.”

She twisted in her companion’s arms.

“Dear, be gentle with me—”

Just as she said that, there was a thud as he made a misstep. His posture collapsed, and they fell to the floor in the darkness.

Her foolish companion always did this at the most important moments.

Holo was greeted by a sudden shock, and as she was about to voice her complaints, something felt off.

“You…fool……hmm?”

She realized she was lying down on a straw mat.

Before her sat a mountain of wild vegetables, waiting to be taken care of, glistening in the spring sun. There was no one else in the baths, and she could only hear the bubbling sound of flowing water.

“…Hmm…?”

It seemed she had completely fallen asleep in the gentle spring sunlight. She was upset she had woken up during a good moment, but the warm sunlight was comfortable, like she had entered the bath while still wearing clothes, and she almost closed her eyes again.

But she could not allow Selim to see her in such a state.

She managed to pull herself up and yawned, reaching out to the pile of vegetables.

“But…’twas quite a vivid dream I had…”

A strange feeling overcame her as she plucked the buds.

“…No, ’twas not a dream. That happened yesterday for…hmm?”

She murmured, suddenly doubting herself.

How many days had she been plucking the buds from vegetables? There were plenty to gather in the mountains, and bored women and children in the village plucked hundreds in order to earn some pocket change. They also were used as feed for the livestock, so while there were no guests around, every household dried and stored as much as they could, day after day. There was no difference between yesterday and today, and the next day she would be repeating the same all over again.

There was still frozen morning dew on the pile of wild vegetables, and they glistened in the sunlight. The temperature was just starting to rise, and the melted drops bubbled like nectar. Plucking the buds off wild vegetables let her know that spring had come to the village.

But how many times had spring come now? Ten? Twelve? Was it this year that Myuri and little Col had left the bathhouse? Or was that in the past?

In the wheat fields she had once slept in, she could roughly count the years as babies became children, children grew into adults, and adults aged into elders. In a year, she could only mark the dates by the changing seasons and the various festivals that came and went. The rest was simply a thread in the boundless tapestry that was the “every day.”

Her memories of regular days were much too vague as to what came before or after what. And that became truer the more distant the memory.

Had it really been the night before that her companion was writing many letters to guests, then carried her to the bed after the candle went out? Had she not been dreaming of a nostalgic memory long past? It was like when she recalled her friends from her home village as she dozed off in the wheat fields.

Suddenly, an unsettling feeling rose in her chest, and she looked up toward the sky. There, the new spring sun silently shone with warmth. But it was too quiet. Was this a dream?

Anxiety bubbled up inside her, to the point she could clearly hear her heartbeat in her chest. If she was dreaming that the bathhouse was this quiet, then she could not imagine how quiet it was outside of her dream.

She was not like her companion and little Col and the rest of the villagers. Their entire lives would be over in the blink of an eye for her. It was not a dream or illusion that she would be the only one left of all her loved ones and that they would one day leave the bathhouse forever. That was a reality lying in wait for her.

“…”

Tears of anxiety and loneliness welled up in her eyes, and just as she was about to call out her companion’s name, regardless of appearances. A flock of birds flew overhead from the direction of the woods, flitting about one another. The wind gusted, shaking the tree branches, and small waves rippled on the bath. There was still a hint of winter on the wind blowing across her cheek. It was all much too vivid to be a dream.

Before she began to cry like a small child, she looked at her left wrist. There, she could see the faint scar where the leech had bit her. When she scratched it, she could feel the pain.

It was not a dream, and she was certain that the night the leech had bitten her, she had nibbled at her companion’s shoulders and neck and everywhere else. As she recalled all those small details, she finally returned to reality. Her nap had caused her imagination to run wild in drowsiness.

“…What a fool…”

With relief came a feeling of embarrassment.

Deep in her heart was a well filled with dark things. The weight of her happiness, which was almost too warm for comfort, kept a tight lid on it. She almost always forgot about it, but when she let her guard down, it would come seeping out. The darkness inside had a name—loneliness.

Her happy, daily routine flowed from yesterday to today without any distinction between them. If she was too happy, time would pass by much too quickly.

That was why her words to her companion the night before had not been a lie. There were several things she was expecting from Selim, the new girl.

The first was to simply do her share of work as a helper, so that this bathhouse her companion had spent his blood, sweat, and tears on could mature. And the second was to be a spark that could incite a quarrel between herself and her companion.

Then, her memory of the fight and the consequent reconciliation would emerge as a clear pattern in the tapestry of her every day, become a concrete event in her memory, and keep the lid closed tight on her well of loneliness. The other hundreds and thousands of days without strife would become the same as her naps in the afternoon and would be pushed far away into the depths of her memory.

Time passed much too quickly. Her only choice was to make a mark on herself with her nails so that she would not forget. Like the scar the leech left on her wrist.

Human and animal activity, however, was nothing but the same actions repeated over and over again. So all she could do was simply soothe her anxiety a bit in a way that she would just forget the following day.

Embracing her companion from behind as he worked, drinking hard liquor until she became stupidly drunk, imparting all her knowledge to her only daughter as a bedtime story so she may capture the male she fancied…

That being said, it was like bottling the summer air to save it for winter.

The repetition of daily life wore many things down. So while the days went by smoothly and efficiently, not everything stayed in her memory.

It was not that she hated plucking buds off wild vegetables. It was honest work atop more honest work that kept the bathhouse running, and the better it ran, the happier her companion became. In the end, she considered herself living in luxury. She was like a dog peering into a stream with a piece of meat in its mouth only to greedily attempt to snatch the morsel in the water’s reflection.

“What a fool I am.”

She murmured to herself and returned to work plucking buds.

Though she was happy, she was sad she could not give names to each and every piece of her happiness.

Holo’s work plucking buds was over before noon, thanks to her diligence.

She had Selim dry the parts that would become fodder while she took the edible buds to the kitchen, returning to the main house after. For now, she wanted to find where her companion was and stick close to him. It was like an insect sipping tree sap. He was a bit of a wooden blockhead, so it made sense.

“If you’re looking for the master, he’s out front.”

Hanna, who was parboiling the buds in the kitchen, informed her of his whereabouts. On her way out, Holo pilfered a few slices of jerky from a shelf, and Hanna scolded her.

“We’ll be eating lunch soon.”

If her companion was out front, that meant he must have been doing some sort of hard labor. Perhaps a traveling merchant delivering goods had come on the now-thawed mountain roads, or maybe it was a boat along the river that had brought cargo.

If he was in the middle of heavy lifting, then she would of course not interfere, but she would be able to accompany him to the baths after he was done.

She thought about this and that as she passed through the corridor and came out the front, where her companion was, with Selim.

“I am sorry…”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s my fault for not telling you.”

As they talked, they were untying the bundles of fodder stacked by the front entrance.

“What are you doing?”

Holo’s call prompted the two to look back at her.

“Oh, hey. Perfect timing. Can you help us?”

“Help?”

Beside him, Selim stopped what she was doing and looked up at her, a guilty expression written on her face. Her slender shoulders drooped so low it was like they nearly disappeared.

“I, um…used the wrong string to tie the fodder together…”

Responding quietly, she continued working. It seemed she was taking apart the bundles she had put together.

“Hmm. Should I undo everything?”

“No, just tie it with new string. And there’s some three-strand twine mixed in there, too, so take those off as well.”

“How bothersome.”

She had meant for it to be the lighthearted response she always gave him, but Selim recoiled and shrunk back.

“Oh, mm, ’twas not meant for you. I, too, make this mistake often,” she added hurriedly. The girl was nervous being in an unfamiliar pack. Even if she poked fun at her companion as she always did, it sounded harsh to the newcomer’s ears. She had to be careful.

She flashed an exceptional smile toward Selim and returned to work.

According to her companion, he had told Selim to use the old string to bundle the withered grasses together, but she had mistaken the new cord for the old. Both the old and new hemp string were in the same place in the shed, so it was undoubtedly complicated.

The task was completed rather quickly with all three of them working together. She told her former traveling-merchant companion that his fussy way of saving material by using the oldest things first made this his fault.

And it was good since Selim had made a modest mistake, as it gave Holo an excuse to ease up on her work. Had she done her work perfectly, it would have been suffocating.

But then again, the next day Selim made another little mistake.

In the spring, the villagers of Nyohhira hold a small, private festival. They worshipped Alzeuri, the patron saint of hot springs or some sort. Selim took the wrong votive candles to use in the festival.

She was supposed to hand over beeswax candles but apparently instead brought a boxful of tallow candles to the meeting hall.

“I’m sorry…”

Selim looked as though she might cry, perhaps in response to her continued mistakes. But it could be quickly resolved by simply switching the candles, and it did not seem like she was slacking in her duties. She worked without complaint and did everything she was told. And so of course, she prepared the correct candles without any scolding and simply carried them to the meeting hall.

By now, Holo had come to know Selim better. She was diligent and hardworking, but there were foolish parts to her. There were times she stumbled or dropped things. The person in question did seem aware of it, so it was admirable how she made sure to overcome her shortcomings. She was very much the kind of girl her companion fancied.

And so, Holo was not that surprised that the girl had mistaken beeswax candles for tallow ones. They were molded in a similar shape, and she may not have ever seen beeswax before in her life.

Because of that, her mistakes only came up once in a while when Holo and her companion talked before going to sleep at night. The problem was that Selim apparently did not see it that way.

Ever since the day she mistook the candles her mood had been awful. She was an honest girl, and she may have been needlessly pressuring herself.

The young wolf was a valuable worker, and it would cause problems for even Holo if she quit. Even without quitting, her mood would most certainly affect the atmosphere in the bathhouse. This was a place that brought people smiles and happiness, and so they could not tolerate anyone stifling that.

But what should they do? Selim did not seem the sort to cheer up with drink. And telling her not to mind appeared to only result in her becoming even more self-conscious.

Though Holo had lived for a long time, this was her first experience with this sort of situation.

Though she contemplated deeply about the best way to cheer someone up, she could not come up with anything, and because she was so busy with her own work, she missed her opportunity to call out to the young girl. But one day, her companion whispered to her.

“Do you think you could help me with Miss Selim?”

“Help?”

“Can you think of an excuse to take her into the mountains?”

Holo looked back at him, puzzled, wondering what he meant.

“Take her out saying you’re going to find new springs or something, and could you bring her to the other side of the mountains while you’re at it?”

She finally got the point.

“Have her visit her family, you mean?”

“Yeah.”

Selim’s older brother and other relatives were building lodgings some two or three mountains away. They were apparently planning to make a fortune by attracting pilgrims, touting their location as a sacred destination where the miracle of a holy woman had transpired. Had the good little boy Col known about this, he would definitely have made an unhappy face, but the one who thought of the scheme was her companion. That was the only plan that they could think of when they were at a loss in Svernel.

The problem was, the one who had played the part of the holy woman was Selim. She was supposed to be buried deep underground, so it would be odd if she were constantly seen around the inn. So accordingly, she was hired to work at the bathhouse Spice and Wolf, which was in need of helpers, but that meant she was forced to live far, far away from her family.

Of course, she could cross the distance in no time if she ran in her wolf form, so it was not an eternal parting.

Which was why Holo thought her companion’s idea would be counterproductive.

“Is the girl not right in the middle of getting used to her new pack? Would having them meet after such a short time not only bring her and her friends’ resolution into question?”

Selim and her older brother were especially serious folk. When Selim first came to the house, her expression was steely, as though in preparation for war. The kin of wolves would never stray from a path once they had decided upon it, no matter what.

And so she explained that to her companion.

“Logically, that makes sense.”

“Dear, I am serious—”

Holo stopped speaking because of the look in her companion’s eyes.

He never gave the impression of having confidence in himself and always seemed to have strange assumptions about things, but he occasionally held such unwavering beliefs that even a wisewolf could not sink her teeth in.

At times like those, though he should have exuded strength, his eyes always seemed somewhat sad.

She easily bent to his will whenever she saw those eyes of his.

Unwittingly, Holo’s ears and tail drooped.

“I was once a traveling merchant. I’ve carried people who lived far away from their family and friends many times. So many people did nothing but complain when they sat in the back of the wagon. ‘I don’t want to see them,’ ‘I can’t meet them now after all this time,’ ‘They’ll pummel me when they see me,’ and on and on.”

He flashed a tired smile and knelt down to her eye level.

It was almost as though he were reasoning with a child.

“But when they finally did meet, they were always happy. That’s not logical.”

Then, he reached out to touch her cheek.

She jumped and recoiled, because it almost felt as though he was going to directly touch the soft parts of her heart.

“You know this.”

He was right.

When she wanted to go home but had forgotten the way there and sat at a loss in a field of wheat, she forcefully snuck into her companion’s wagon. She did not care what came after. She missed her homeland that much.

And then, facing many dangers, her companion took her where she needed to go. At first, she only thought that he was just a hopelessly good-hearted person, but that was not so. He held true to his own beliefs born from his own experiences.

“And it might be a problem that Miss Selim’s brothers are so close.”

“…Hmm?”

“They’re probably thinking along the same lines as you. Once they decide on something, they’ll absolutely carry it out. And then, seeing how near they are, it will only make it harder for them. And because they’re so close, they probably imagine they shouldn’t just hop over to visit one another—that it would be weak and pathetic.”

“Mm-hmm…And so…you mean to say…’tis different?”

She looked back at him, and he smiled bitterly.

“I know Miss Selim is trying her best to be a member of this house. But any newcomer will always feel helpless. But on the other hand, do you remember Selim’s brother’s face when he saw her off? He was practically sick with worry. If you bring her to him, there’s no chance he would be cruel to her. He would encourage and comfort her. It would help her a hundred times more than us saying anything. She has someone like that not too far away, so why doesn’t she go see him?”

His train of thought was like grasping the ends of a tangled mess of thread, then pulling on them only to find that nothing had been tangled all along.

With both a will and a way, one should act.

She could even call this a very merchantlike way of thinking.

Of course, that included her companion’s personal outlook on life and his innate good-heartedness. There were a great many bathhouses that handled their help like tools, and if anything, such treatment was actually expected in the human world to the point where it was often considered that a master who did not punish their workers was already a good one.

But her companion was not that kind of person. Those who rode in the back of his wagon were his friends, and he tried his best to deal with them in a kind manner. It was perhaps similar to a merchant’s attachment to their cargo.

When she herself was a part of his cargo, she was distraught with worry about how he would treat other freight, but now she sat beside him on the driver’s perch.

And so, as his partner on his journey, she could depend on him for and was even proud of how he treated his cargo so well.

Her companion was so attractive in how he would not be tied down by common sense when it came to his friends, and she almost hated him for it.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Her companion finally noticed her state and was staring at her, puzzled.

Unable to hold back the warm feeling in her heart, she grinned proudly and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“You are such a fool, such a foolish man.”

“Huh?”

He sounded suspicious, but he understood that she was in a good mood by how her ears and tail twitched happily.

He returned the favor by embracing her back, and she managed to calm herself for the moment.

“Hmm…Regarding your idea, I do not mind, but there are still humans about in the mountains during this time of year. Would you mind if we left once night fell?”

“Oh, of course not. We have work during the day anyway.”

“You fool. ’Tis not the question.”

Her companion seemed puzzled. It seemed he did not understand what she had meant.

“I am asking if you do not feel lonely sleeping alone at night?”

Their daughter Myuri was not around, either.

Then, after a slight moment of surprise, he gave her a small smile.

“What? When you come home, you know how grateful I’ll be.”

Her companion knew how to treat her well, too.

“Heh-heh. Very well, then.”

In the end, unable to control herself, she clung to him again, and her tail swished about happily.

Though it was not a full moon that night, it was just bright enough.

They ate dinner, and around the time they would typically start going to bed, they instead gathered behind the bathhouse.

There was the wisewolf, who could easily swallow anything human-sized in one gulp, and a cute little wolf who one might typically see roaming around the forest. And the wisewolf’s shivering companion.

“I wish I had your fur.”

Once the sun set, a midwinter chill descended onto the mountains. A puff of white smoke rose from her companion’s mouth when he spoke.

“We shall return before dawn.”

“Make sure the charcoal makers and whatnot don’t get a good look at you.”

“Fool.”

She bumped him with her nose, and he scratched her around her chin. It was a natural exchange for them, but when she noticed that Selim was beside them watching, she suddenly grew embarrassed.

“…Ahem. Well, shall we be off?”

“Yes.”

The young, slender wolf almost looked like she was glowing under the moonlight.

Holo was of course not envious, but she had a fleeting thought that if she could be that size, she and her companion could stay in the same room even in this form.

“Be safe.”

She did not know if her companion was aware of her thoughts, but he spoke all the same.

For all intents and purposes, they were supposedly searching for new springs, but it was really for Selim’s sake.

They turned away without a response and dashed off. Holo made rounds out in the mountains in this form to make sure that there would be no avalanches once the snow started to soften, but she had not done so lately. She loved the feeling of running in the mountains in this large form, and she could not help her gaining speed.

Once they reached the peak of the mountain behind the bathhouse, she looked back, and Selim was already out of breath.

“Sorry. Am I going too fast?”

“N-no…ah, um, yes…”

She perhaps thought it would cause Holo even more trouble if she could not keep up.

“We shall go slowly. ’Tis the first chance in a long time I have had to run, so I could not help but frolic like a pup.”

The truth was, of course, she wished to run at top speed, and she wanted to howl at the moon as loud as she could. But if she did that, however, then it would echo through the entire village of Nyohhira, and there would be an uproar at the clear signal of a wolf. All the villagers would light fires and spend the entire night on watch.

Of course, her companion would know whose fault it was and stand under the torch with a cross expression.

“Well, should you get lost, you shall be able to return by scent, aye?”

Selim’s wolf mouth flawlessly curled into a smile at her banter.

Then they roamed about the mountains at the pace of a leisurely stroll. Though Holo had not particularly claimed that this was her territory, dutiful bears and deer looked up at her, wondering what was the matter.

Under the pretense of looking for springs, they inevitably arrived at locations that smelled as though they had potential for that purpose, but Holo had long since found all the noteworthy spots back when they were first opening the bathhouse. So in a casual manner, the two wolves simply went in circles, with Holo’s feet steadily aiming toward the other side of the mountains, where Selim’s older brother and relatives were constructing lodgings.

But Selim was not a naive or stupid girl. As they were about to cross the second ridge, she spoke, as though having made up her mind.

“Lady Holo.”

“Hmm?”

“Um…I’m…sorry…”

Of course, Holo played dumb.

“Why do you apologize? You have followed me this far, have you not?”

She spoke with a faint smile, so Selim did not say any more.

However, though she agreed with her companion’s logic, she was still apprehensive in a corner of her heart that they were being too meddlesome. There was no doubting that Selim had made up her mind when she came to the bathhouse. If they gave her special consideration simply because she was feeling down after a few mistakes, then it was entirely possible that treating her like a child would hurt her.

But when it came to thoughtfulness, matters only grew more complicated the more one second guessed them, eventually becoming like the snake that ate its own tail. So her companion’s idea that for the time being they should try the first thing that came to mind in hopes of showing their sincerity was refreshing and, most likely, correct.

When Holo herself had gotten stuck on certain points—like how she had once been called the wisewolf, or that she was eternally young, or how she was not human in the first place—it was her companion who had grasped her hand and pulled her along. It went without saying as to how that ended up.

Then, as fate would have it, Selim joined their pack. There would be nothing better than if she enjoyed her time with them.

Neither of them spoke after that, and as they occasionally peeked in hollow grounds and valleys that seemed like they might produce water, they passed over the third ridge. The waxing moon had long since passed over their heads. It was the dead of the night, when even the grass and the trees slumbered.

As Holo wondered if her companion was freezing all alone, she saw a figure move at the edge of her vision, behind a cluster of trees.

“How admirable for you to come greet her.”

She smiled and murmured, and though it was unlikely they heard, more shadows appeared behind the first. The wind blew down the mountain at this hour, so their scent must have reached them on the wind.

“Look.”

Holo tried to encourage Selim, who stood stuck in place beside her, but she did not move. Perhaps it was from fear that her family would blame her for being weak.

But Holo had brought her all this way, and there was no turning back now, not to mention how dejected Selim was at the house.

At the head of the pack was a wolf who had been watching them silently, had the exact same coat color as Selim, and seemed so worried that it was possible he would start howling even now.

She recalled how it was the same expression little Col wore on his face as he loitered around the door whenever Myuri was late coming home from playing in the mountains.

Whether human or wolf, anxious males seemed to all be very similar.

“Do you wish for our kindness to be in vain?”

Holo bumped Selim’s neck with her nose, and she finally took a few steps forward.

When Selim glanced back at her, she bared her fangs in a grin.

“I do not know how many times I clung to that companion of mine in tears at times like this.”

Selim was clearly surprised, but at the same time, it seemed she understood Holo’s feelings.

Her wide-open eyes seemed to grow softer, and she looked at Holo as they glistened.

“Thank you.”

“’Tis what you must say to my foolish companion.”

Without a word in response or a nod of the head, Selim dashed off, as though she had been set free.

Her older brother waited a moment, too, before dashing toward Selim. Though it was likely he would scold or become irritated with her, there was no way that he did not think dearly of his little sister, with whom he faced many hardships. Her companion’s plan had been irritatingly on point.

Holo sighed in relief, but now she did not know what to do. If she hung around, Selim’s friends would defer to her and that seemed like it would be annoying. If she stayed by Selim’s side, she might hesitate and quickly decide it was time to return.

Getting in their way was inappropriate, so in the end, she decided to search for springs, as per their original goal. Besides, she had long wished for a place where she could relax by herself whenever she was so inclined.

She wandered as her nose led her, and on the way back to the second mountain, she found a place where water bubbled up naturally. It was in a secluded ravine, where even a hunter, relentlessly pursuing their prey, would not come.

“Hmm. ’Tis in a nice spot, but a bit small.”

It was shallow, filled with rocks, surrounded by fallen trees and such and was only big enough for a bear to wet its bottom.

The stones cut off the water, struggling to rise. She could certainly fit into the spaces between the rocks if she returned to her human form, but if she were going that far, then the baths at the house were good enough.

“If there is a spring here, then there must be others.”

She wandered across the face of the mountain, but the vein of water must have been very far underground as she could not find any more. As a test, she pulled the fallen trees away with her mouth and rolled the smaller stones away with her claws, and it seemed like more water came up. If she cleared all the stones and such, then it may have yet started to look like a proper bath.

“Lady Holo?”

She had stuck her nose in the water, trying to figure out where the water was coming from when someone called her name.

“What is it? Are you finished already?”

“Yes. And, um…”

Selim’s ears and tail and head were all drooping, and behind her, her older brother and family were waiting.

Holo sighed in relief, and thinking it too much of a hassle to stop now, she spoke as she returned to searching for the source of the water.

“And what do you need from me, standing there so quietly?”

“I am sorry my sister has caused you such trouble.”

Selim’s older brother, as the leader of the pack, took one step forward as he spoke. His manner and speech were stiff and formal.

These people were so clumsy that, though they had powers that surpassed any human, they struggled to earn enough to eat as mercenaries. And once, her older brother had said something toward Holo that was much too straightforward, courting her displeasure. Though she knew she was mostly the reason for this, it was hard for him to shake the bad first impression.

“She is not any trouble at all. Selim is a hard worker.”

“But she is in your care now. For you to indulge her so—”

“Are you saying this is a point of honor for your bloodline?”

There were six in the pack including Selim, but they were all small. Even if they did surround Holo, a fight with them would be over in a flash.

But that is perhaps why they placed so much emphasis on honor.

“…With all due respect.”

Selim’s brother awkwardly hung his head.

Holo sighed—what a job he has done.

“On my companion’s orders, I am simply here to search for new springs. Since we have come so close to her home, we merely took the opportunity to pay a visit along the way.”

“B-but—”

“So we may come to visit occasionally. There is no need for such drastic good-byes. I shan’t mind if you take your time when we come.”

Due to how honest he was, it seemed he could not argue when faced with such pretext.

He looked back and forth between the ground and his sister several times before he finally faced Holo in defeat.

“…As you wish.”

“Good. Then shall we soon call it a day?”

After she finished speaking, Selim came to her side without hesitation. She could tell by the air around her that whatever had been causing her gloom was lifted.

Until recently, these siblings had never been separated, living and growing up as one. Her family may have not been as prepared to send Selim off to work alone at the bathhouse as they thought.

It was not exactly for that reason, but it was because she knew this that they would come again soon. As she and the young white wolf were about to head back to the bathhouse, Holo suddenly stopped.

“Ah, I forgot to mention.”

A shock ran among Selim’s friends.

“You shall not dig up this spring without my knowing. Let me do as I please.”

“…”

“Or is this water you found?”

“N-no.”

“Then I shall be using this for a while.”

This time they actually set off, traversing the dark woods at a brisk pace.

Selim followed silently. Holo still felt a bit of stiffness, or perhaps it was fighting spirit, around the younger wolf, but she was getting used to the bathhouse, and once her family’s lodgings were settled, she might relax more. Selim was well-behaved, but she had a strong heart that was evident in her profile even now.

And Holo was simply excited to make that spring hers. Once it was finished, she could jump in during the daytime in her wolf form without any hesitation even during the busiest seasons.

She would keep it a secret from her companion for a while.

When she imagined that, she was a bit thrilled for some reason.

“Lady Holo.”

Selim spoke again when they finally arrived at the bathhouse.

“Thank you.”

Selim gave her thanks quickly, after returning to her human form. Though she was slender, her body was different from that of Holo’s daughter, and she quickly covered it with clothes she had prepared beforehand.

It did not seem like she considered Holo’s meddling as a bother, so Holo only shrugged.

“I do not mind as I also have found something to look forward to. But you must sleep now or else work tomorrow will be a pain.”

Selim nodded with a serious expression and then finally broke into a smile. They entered the bathhouse, and as they were parting in the hall, she bowed again dutifully. It was a different sort of seriousness than what she sensed from little Col, and to be frank, Holo was not used to it. If her companion were not around, then she probably would not be able to live in the same pack as her.

Though her companion was completely useless on his own, before she had a chance to notice, he had the power to bring all sorts of people together.

He was not the person who stood shining at the front of battle, but he had a good character for rallying the pack. Confident in her ability to judge others, she returned to the bedroom.

She did wonder at least once if he would be awake waiting for her, but there her companion was, sleeping soundly.

She crawled into the bed and just stuck her cold hands and feet on him.

He opened his eyes in surprise, and after he groaned for a moment, he greeted her.

“Urrghhh…Welcome back.”

“I’m home.”

Holo clung to him and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep in an instant.

Possibly due to the village of Nyohhira’s typically festive atmosphere, the Festival of Saint Alzeuri was rather quiet and simple affair. They did not even construct a huge statue and march around with it in a pompous parade. They converted the communal shed into an impromptu church and the villagers gathered there to offer prayers, followed by a feast afterward. The most festival-like part of it all was how every single candle inside the shed was lit.

In the festivals of larger towns, associations competed to see who could donate the largest and greatest quantity of candles in order to display their wealth, but here, the number of candles they lit was a prayer for how hot the bathwaters would be. Of course, vain people could be found anywhere, but if the large candles prepared in service of their vanity were offered to warm the springs that bubbled up in the village, then people welcomed it. There were more than a few merchantlike characters who were fine with virtually anything, as long as others’ money worked in their benefit.

Holo, who was once called a god and oversaw the harvest of wheat in a village, could only shrug her shoulders in response to that truth of the human world. It was Selim’s first time seeing the festival, so she watched with great interest, but Holo paid the ceremony no mind and smacked her lips appreciatively over the food.

The Festival of Saint Alzeuri was a marker that signified the guests for the next season would start arriving. Though it was not nearly as busy as winter, there were still quite a number of summer patrons. A tense excitement ran through the air but also a feeling of tedium at the coming of another noisy, lively season.

“Hello! Is the master in?”

An energetic voice came from the entrance to the house. It had been three days since the start of the festival.

Though he did not quite seem to be a herald, it still likely signaled that someone of high rank was on their way. It was surely a servant sent to give a preliminary announcement.

“Abbot Harivel will be arriving tomorrow morning. Is everything in order?”

“We’ve been waiting for you. Everything is prepared.”

The servant was satisfied with Holo’s companion’s response, then happily took the rare opportunity to soak in the baths without any hesitation before his master came.

Holo was ready for the coming battle, but there was an odd expression on her companion’s face.

“What is it?”

This Harivel came every year. He always behaved well and paid generously during his stay. Myuri was excited every year to see how long that long, white beard of his had grown.

Even her companion was usually happy to see him. Their guest did not generally inspire such facial contortions.

“Hmm? Oh no, it just feels like he’s a bit early this year.”

“Early? Perhaps he simply could not wait.”

This was a hot spring village on the threshold between paradise and the mortal world. Those who came here to escape the fetters of worldly affairs always looked like they were going off to hell when they left.

“That would be nice, but…”

He may have been nervous that it was now finally time to part with his lazy days.

Holo felt proud when she thought that, as she expected, he was no good without this wisewolf by his side.

After visiting her brother and the rest of her family, Selim had been overflowing with determination not to fall into despondency even if she made more mistakes. With their first guest soon to arrive, though, she had become incredibly tense, so Holo spoke a few words to her.

Unlike real war, no one would die if she made an error.

It was partially a joke, but Selim seemed quite relieved.

The following day, a familiar elderly priest arrived at the bathhouse.

“Oh, Sir Lawrence. Thank you for having me again this year.”

The old priest had a strong physique even in his old age, and though he was bald, a white beard overflowed from his chin, which made him look even bigger. He embraced her companion and, seeing Holo, embraced her, too, with the smile of a gentle old man.

Finding her face buried deep in that fuzzy beard, she gained a slightly better understanding of why her companion and little Col always wanted to do the same with her tail.

“Is your daughter out hunting now?”

“Well…”

As he heard the story of Myuri and little Col, Harivel’s face quickly flushed red.

“Oh, that’s exactly it! That’s what it is!”

Then, as though his own excited voice surprised himself, he placed his hand on his chest and whipped back and forth to look between his attendant and Holo’s companion.

“Erm…Father? Why not come inside for now? You must be tired after your journey.”

“Ah yes, you have my thanks. But oh, I had wondered if that was the case when I heard the rumors, but oh my…”

The large, bearded elderly priest walked energetically to the dining hall and sat in a chair, still buzzing with excitement.

Their guest was restless even in his seat, but when he saw Selim bring him a drink, he showed her a smile; he stood out even among their most amiable patrons.

“You’ve hired a new girl, I see. Thank you.”

He stated his gratitude, took several sips, then he sniffed and looked at Holo’s companion.

“The young priest I’ve heard so much about from the Kingdom of Winfiel who’s causing the commotion is Mr. Col, then.”

Though he had given the details of their activities in a letter, it was rather hard to know what little Col was up to when Spice and Wolf was nestled so deep in the mountains. And little Col always governed himself with humility and modesty.

She exchanged glances with her companion. It seemed the journey was not as insignificant as his letter had made it sound.

“He’s translated the scripture into the vernacular, forced an indulgent archbishop to repent, and even had the stubborn folk from the rural areas, who are sometimes under suspicion of heresy, awaken to a new, righteous faith. Oh, I’ll be, when I first met him, he was still only this big!”

His thick hands motioned to a height just above his own head.

Little Col grew up quickly, and when he surpassed Holo in height, she recalled how she was proud of him but also a bit sad.

“Is…Col causing problems for you?”

Her companion’s grave expression did not seem like an act.

Little Col was certainly angry with the Church organization, which had the world under their thumb, and how rotten they had become; he had ventured out from the mountains in order to fix that. And those who came to this bathhouse were high-ranking members of that very Church.

“Oh no, of course not. If there are those who feel like he’s causing problems, it means they must also be ashamed of themselves.”

The old priest spoke decisively. The serviceman who was Holo’s companion was clearly relieved, but there was something within the old priest’s beard that was not so easily satisfied.

“I must say, however.”

As he uneasily rubbed his thick beard, the old priest glanced at his attendant, and he retrieved something odd from his wicker chest. It was a huge bundle of rather dusty parchment.

“It is certain that many people heeded their conscience and followed the teachings of God. Even I, who is still unknown, think so, even though my discipline is not perfect. That being said, that does not mean there are no problems.”

“O-oh.”

There was such a large pile of parchment on the dining table that they could hardly see one another’s faces.

Holo did not know why the old priest had come to the bathhouse so early, but it seems the reason was within the parchment.

“This is Nyohhira, hot spring village. Everything you see and hear here disappears like the mist when you descend from the mountain. You think so, too, Sir Lawrence. And so, I pray a favor from you.”

His long preliminary statement was a request for him to keep a secret.

At any rate, Holo’s companion glanced at the pile of parchment out of the corner of his eye, and he was perplexed.

“…Are they…permits?”

“Indeed. This includes our monastery, our daughter monastery, grandchild monastery, and their daughter monastery.”

Holo once heard that the point of monasteries building other monasteries was similar to a master craftsman ordering all his apprentices to build additional workshops. Both took a percentage of those profits.

Piled on top of the table was a vast treasure firmly in the hands of the old priest.

“These permits are…well, they certainly seem like too much for us if you look closely. God commands us to share what we have. There are also Mr. Col’s activities, and I’ve heard there is now the tendency to re-recognize God’s true teachings, and…”

He faltered, his conscience, vanity, and pride all struggling with one another.

“In other words, you wish to lift a weight from your shoulders?”

“Yes! That’s right! To lift a weight! Why, thank you, Master Lawrence!”

The former merchant that he was changed his manner of speech from a moral matter of right or wrong to one that suggested he simply wished to rid himself of the burden weighing him down.

“However, these were permits supplied by our monastery and our dependent institutions, originally for the salvation of our souls. We cannot just simply give them up, either…But then, I remembered that you were once a famous merchant, Master Lawrence…”

Holo could see that her companion was translating the old priest’s words in his head.

“So you wish for me to give this to someone who needs this the most?”

“Oh, God! Bless this wise bathhouse master!”

It was as though the Father wished to make the first move in selling his treasure before he was deemed greedy but nevertheless wanted the highest price possible for it. This annoyed Holo slightly, but her companion’s expression as he exchanged a firm handshake with the old priest suggested it was not as bad as she thought, so there must have been a way for them to benefit from it somehow. In any case, if they profited from this and she could have more food at dinner, then she had no argument.

She extended her hand and plucked up a piece of parchment and saw grandiloquent designs and rows of picturesque letters.

“Is this similar to what you once had?”

She showed it to Selim, who stood next to her. Selim and her family, in a land far south, obtained a certain permit for a mountain and came all the way to the north.

“It’s similar, but…ours was not as fancy as this.”

The young wolf whispered softly to Holo. That meant there were likely unimaginable things written down on this one piece of paper, and there was a whole mountain of more just like it.

Holo did not know that much about the human world, but the majority of its inhabitants were poor people who lived day to day.

No matter what it was, keeping everything for oneself was not good.

Her thoughts got that far, but then she corrected herself in her heart.

She counted everything else separately from the love her companion gave her. Her daughter, Myuri, should be satisfied with what she could wring out from little Col.

“And of course, I will look into the contents of these permits and see if they may be of any use.”

“Thank you so much.”

The old priest spoke solemnly, as though praying to God, and then suddenly continued.

“So may I go ahead into the baths?”

This was a village in the space between nirvana and the mortal world.

A place to brush off the dust of earthly life.

She should have expected it, but her companion had become totally engrossed in the permits.

When he had time during the day, he would make short trips back to the bedroom and roll open some parchment, and after supper, he would quickly return to the bedroom and do the same. She noticed he had been waking up rather early, too, and of course, he was rolling open parchment.

It did seem like rather profitable work, so she did not have much right to be angry. Moreover, she had no time to sulk.

“Can you read?”

With a straight face, her companion shoved some parchment toward her. It seemed he was rather enjoying himself, so she could not refuse him and the bags under his eyes. More than anything, she wanted him to finish his work and come back under the covers; the night was still cold during this season.

And so she read the contents of the parchment, sorting each permit sheet by region and purpose. There were many place-names she was unfamiliar with, but she found them rather easily, searching for them on the map in the bathhouse. That map was something that Myuri, who yearned to go on a big adventure around the world, had pestered every guest to draw out, wondering where they all had come from. It was something her rather easily bored daughter carried on for a long time, and disregarding its accuracy of the details, it had become a rather rich map once put together.

The permits were interesting in and of themselves.

Though she worked earnestly, there were of course difficulties.

“…Anyway, there are much too many.”

As she recounted the work from the past few days, Holo placed her front paws together firmly on the ground, flattened her shoulders down, and assumed a posture where she bent her back forward. Then, she planted her back paws on the ground, lowered her behind, and stretched.

Finally, she shook out her body and felt like her blood finally started circulating again.

Sitting in a chair and doing nothing but reading brought about a different sort of weariness than working on mending.

After she had shifted into her wolf form outside the bathhouse, her mood greatly improved.

“That fool is having far too much fun.”

She sighed, and her breath still puffed white in the cold.

“I am sorry for having you help us.”

Selim, who was bending over, scratching her behind with her nose, immediately adjusted her posture and bowed her head deeply.

“Oh no…I am sorry I have not been much help…”

For once, her words were not a show of simple humility.

“I do not mind. You have enough work during the day. I only ask you help occasionally. Were you to be enthusiastic about this, I would earn more work as well.”

Selim smiled slightly and gazed up at the waning moon.

People did not walk about in the woods without a full moon, but in their wolf forms, Holo and Selim could rely on the scent of the trees and the earth to get far enough.

“But I’m learning a lot. I can truly feel how large the world is.”

“Hmm? I heard you all were once in a town so far south that my companion had never even heard of it.”

She should learn how big the world was with her own feet. When Holo spoke with that in mind, Selim smiled weakly.

“It was the sort of journey where we ate the grass on the side of the road, captured wild rabbits, and merely walked along while staring down at our feet. We couldn’t think of anything but putting our right foot out, then our left foot next. When we arrived at the northlands from the south, the only thing we noticed was that the color of the roads was slightly different.”

She may have been modest in some regards, but when Holo looked back on her own journey, there were similarities.

Though she had lived for so long, she felt as though she had been looking at the same things the entire time.

The growing wheat and the clouds floating across the sky.

That all suddenly changed only after she met her companion.

“I, too, spent all my years looking at a similar sight.”

Selim smiled weakly.

Then together, they ran out into the mountains. They were going to meet Selim’s family, but it was not for her sake. She had grown used to her work, and though she would still get discouraged when she made mistakes, Holo no longer needed to worry about her. And so when they occasionally left the bathhouse at night to go beyond the mountains, it was simply for work.

“The smell of sharpened metal unsettles me.”

There was a cloth sack wrapped around Selim’s neck, and she carried baggage on her back. Inside were iron tools that Selim’s brother and others needed for the construction of their lodgings.

They either must have been laboring quite hard or did not understand how to use them, but they were having a hard time because the ones they had were growing dull quickly, so Holo and the others sharpened the tools for them. Of course, they were not sharpening them at the bathhouse but commissioning a craftsman in the village for the work; in exchange, Selim’s family had been sharing a portion of the game they caught in the mountains.

Until recently, Myuri and little Col hunted for the bathhouse, and their yield comprised the majority of their meat supply. Once those two had gone, they either had to buy meat from a hunter in one of the nearby communities or from town at the bottom of the mountain, but Holo’s stingy companion insisted that they be frugal when it came to meat. In the end, there was a reason why this wisewolf could not do the hunting.

The animals of the forest held Holo in veneration, perhaps because she could not completely hide her wisewolf majesty. They occasionally depended on her to mediate territorial disputes and to care for animals that escaped, injured, from hunters.

It felt wrong to slaughter them. If she did go out to hunt, the deer would all line up, lie on their sides, and, with sad expressions, ask her to eat them.

On the other hand, Myuri and little Col faced the animals as humans with bows and traps. They both understood that it was a battle of wits and power between hunter and the hunted. Of course, when the animals of the forest came for a dip in the baths, they shared a tacit understanding with one another that it was a truce.

And so, their exchange with Selim’s family was a lifesaver.

“Oh, ’tis bear today.”

They always met with Selim’s family by the spring Holo was in the middle of making on the second mountain.

Today, lying there was a magnificently large bear with pitch-black fur.

“We wished to exist peacefully together, but…”

Selim’s brother and the rest of her family were waiting for them in their human forms, and he spoke with a pained expression.

They intruded on the mountain and were trying to attract humans to make money, so it was more or less inevitable that they would clash with the residents of the forest. It was no different for the animals that lived here. Even this large bear, before establishing his territory, most certainly took it by force from someone else.

But even though they were aware of all those details, it still pained them.

Though it annoyed Holo slightly, it also pleased her. That sort of sincerity would certainly serve them well in an inn for pilgrims.

“At the very least, please enjoy his meat and use everything, down to the bone. May we have the tools? We’ll handle the bear, as always.”

“Mm-hmm. Thank you.”

Holo glanced at Selim, and she had her family remove the baggage she carried on her back, then shook her head and body to fix the lie of her fur.

Watching from the corner of her eye as they each took up tools and set about flaying the bear, she put her feet into the ill-shaped spring, still in her wolf form.

The water vein really was quite far underground, because even after a bit of digging, there was still only a little water. Not only that, it was bubbling up onto plain, flat ground, so the piddling amount was spread out wastefully thin, its temperature much too cool.

There was a proper reason as to why Nyohhira thrived in the place that it did now.

It did seem like she would finally get everything out of the way, but in the end, it appeared unlikely the situation would take any favorable turns. With what she had, only the bottom of her stomach would get wet if she tried to lie down.

“It might spring up all at once if I dig somewhere.”

She walked along in the water, then suddenly mud swirled up and became white and cloudy. She dug at it with her claws, searching for the water hole, but she could not find anything.

“Do even your claws come up empty-handed, Lady Holo?”

The one who spoke was Selim, washing her knife and her hands, which were red up to her elbows, in the spring. They could also wash up when they met here.

The bear had been skinned in an instant and was now being divided into parts with a large hatchet.

Regardless of her skinny arms, Selim was apparently quite adept at skinning, likely because of how skillful her hands were.

“If the flow of water has always been weak, then digging it up will create nothing but a lukewarm puddle.”

Now, as Selim stood in the spring in her human form, the water only reached up to her ankles.

It might be faster to simply search for a different spring.

“Lady Holo, it’s all finished.”

She turned around at the voice, saw the bear pelt drying on a tree branch, and realized the meat was already wrapped in large, smooth leaves that grew in swamps. If they took the fur back to the bathhouse, then the townspeople would grow suspicious as to who went hunting and when, so that was the only thing they left Selim’s family to take care of, and they would sell it in town when they went down the mountain. They were very close to what could be called Nyohhira’s business competitors, so they could not maintain their relationship publicly.

“Then put it in the sack. Should I carry it back in my mouth, it may disappear before we arrive.”

“Because it is quite greasy. Understood.”

As they smiled and began to pack it away, Holo spoke to them.

“Ah, be sure to take your own portion. Game is to be enjoyed by all.”

They were silent and ended up giving all the meat to Holo. It irritated her slightly, but their stiff formality was also rather adorable.

Selim had carried the baggage on the way here, and Holo carried it on the way home.

Holo lay on her stomach, and as Selim’s family adjusted the bag filled with meat on her back, she gazed at the pathetic puddle of water. She had looked forward to making a bath in secret, then telling her companion once she was finished, but it seemed she would have to start this project over from the beginning.

It was not that she was unsatisfied with the baths currently available at the house. Neither was she so desperate for one that she could visit freely in her wolf form.

Despite that, she realized how utterly disappointed she was as she stared at the puddle of water on the forest floor. She was also a bit surprised at how disheartened she felt.

“…Holo? Lady Holo?”

“Mm.”

She realized that Selim and the others were all looking at her. They must have called to her countless times.

“Apologies. I was thinking.”

“About the bath? If so, then we can search the mountains for you.”

What a fool I am, she thought to herself.

“There is no need. I simply wish to fool around with my claws and fangs once in a while. Digging holes and such.”

“Is that so?”

“Well then, we shall return home before it gets too late. You have work tomorrow as well, no?”

She stood, and the cloth bag was indeed tied firmly around her neck with rope. She could guess by the weight on her back that there was quite a large amount inside. Hanna would surely be glad, but when she considered how they would have to process the meat by drying and salting it, she thought it a bother.

“Oh, may I ask one thing?”

“What is it?”

“Do you have any requests for the next hunt? This time was unusual in that it was bear, but we were wondering if you tire of the usual deer.”

She was impressed—they were an attentive bunch.

“Let me see.”

What came to mind were smaller animals, like pheasant and squirrel. Smaller game did not have much meat on them, but they were deliciously loaded with flavor.

While she did not mind how hardworking the family was, they were not very adaptable. They did not seem to be adept at making traps for smaller animals, so she refrained from mentioning it.

“No, I am fine with deer. My companion is also quite grateful he does not have to order any deliveries.”

“Very well.”

Selim’s older brother and the rest of her family bowed their heads, like foot soldiers seeing off a king. With a wry smile, Holo looked toward Selim before they ran off.

Holo realized something as they briskly jogged through the nighttime woods, feeling the weight of the bear meat on her back. And that was what Selim’s older brother had said to her.

“We were wondering if you tire of the usual deer.”

It suddenly occurred to her that just maybe she was so disappointed over the worthless puddle of water because she was bored of life in the bathhouse.

As she thought Impossible to herself, her drifting off as she plucked buds from wild vegetables and imagining wild things in her drowsy state sprung fresh from her memory.

Life in the bathhouse was not dissimilar from life in the wheat fields in that she repeated the same things over and over again. What was it that she was hoping to see from Selim in the first place? She was honestly hoping the girl would stir up some trouble.

Anyone could get used to anything. She understood that. She knew that quite well, but that was different from being satisfied with it. Whether or not she could stand it was also another question.

As she told herself she was not that unsatisfied with her current life, something about that was just her own insistence. There was no way today was much more exciting than the day before.

As these thoughts churned in her head, her legs moved forward and carried her all the way to the main house. It was the same as time passing as she idled away.

Selim returned to her human form, and as the young girl undid the bagful of meat hanging from her neck, Holo started to feel restless. If she spent all her days idly like this, she wondered if she would end up like that puddle. She wondered if, even though she would be warm, she would not be a lake and not a river but a place that others could only get their feet wet.

And then, in decades, when everyone was gone, her wet fur would chill her and she would sneeze alone.

She had spent over ten years living in the bathhouse, and she was confident her relationship with her companion had deepened so much that it irritated her. But at the same time, nothing was new anymore. Ever since Myuri was born, every day was like being swept up in a storm, but that only daughter of hers had left the bathhouse with little Col.

She could foresee that their lives from now on would be a repetition of the same things over and over.

Could she recall what she did yesterday, the day before, and the day before that? Would anything happen from here on out that would stay in her memory if she looked back in a hundred years? She grew anxious there was not enough happening if she hoped to bathe in plentiful warm memories.

As she thought about this and that, she tossed the meat hanging from her neck into an underground ice room on the bathhouse grounds. The mounds of snow in the winter could not keep in the summer, but she could enjoy the ice as much as she wanted if they stuffed it in the ice room. It could be called the wisdom of an extraordinary person, but even the squirrels in the woods fervently buried their nuts in the fall.

And she should be doing the same, should she not?

With sleepy, bleary eyes, Selim returned to her room.

Holo saw her off, then returned to her own.

She placed a hand on the door, and faint candlelight was visible through the uneven gaps in the wood. Breathing through her nose, she could smell her companion, the unique scent of tallow burning, parchment, and the smell of ink that reminded her of little Col.

Behind the door, her companion was eagerly sending a pen flying across the page, a blanket draped over his hunched back.

“Oh, welcome back.”

He noticed her and turned around, and though he looked tired, he seemed to be rather enjoying himself.

But that familiar face, too, was a bit different from what it had been when she first met him. It was not just the light of the candle; she could most certainly make out the age on his face. Though life in the bathhouse was an endless repetition of the same things, the flow of time was not.

And baths that once had plenty of water, too, would one day dry out, become a puddle that could only wet one’s feet, and even that would eventually vanish.

Though she understood the end was coming, at the same time, it seemed like her guard had been down.

Had she truly been prepared for this, she should have been able to enjoy everything until the end without any doubts.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

She did not respond to his perplexed words, closed the distance between them with long strides, and embraced him from behind.

He did seem a bit surprised, but he must have thought it was one of her typical whims.

He did not say anything in particular as he reached back with both hands and stroked her head.

“You’re really cold. You going to take a dip in the baths before going to sleep?”

“…Mm. You smell quite sour.”

“Huh?”

Though he probably was not that lazy, her companion hurriedly sniffed his own sleeve. He smelled rather sour from the scent of the ink. Of course, she had purposefully said it in a way so he would misunderstand.

“So, the baths, yes?”

She let him go and took a step back.

Ever since coming to Nyohhira, where they could enter the baths at their leisure, he, too, began to keep himself tidy and clean. When he had lived in the wagon on the road, he had maintained nothing but a rough sense of cleanliness.

Though he was concerned about his body odor even now, he took the time to lean back in his chair, grab the fur blanket on his shoulders, stand, and stretch.

“Ooohhh…Nngh. Hahhh…I used to be able to work all night long once.”

He said it like a joke, but it was true.

And then one day, he would not open his eyes again.

What was she to do about that?

She felt herself freezing before nature’s providence, but at the very least, he was here now before her eyes.

There was so much she could do.

First, she would not think too hard or too deeply about it and enjoy her time with him. She had forgotten this general rule when she first began her journey with him, and it had brought on quite a lot of trouble.

“We have received bear meat from Selim’s friends. Why not use that for energy?”

“Oh, bear, huh? I don’t know when it was, but I heard that the best part of a bear is its paw. I wonder if that’s true.”

“The paw? How does one eat that?”

As they chatted about such frivolous things, they made their way toward the baths.

But as they walked together, she had to be careful not to grip his hand too tightly.

Though she was supposed to be happy, she was bitter that this was not enough for her.

And again the next day, she was plucking buds from wild vegetables.

She would be doing this work until the snow disappeared from the mountains.

She always considered this work to be a chore, but now she also thought that she should not be using her time for this.

She needed to stock up on as many memories as she could, so that she would be ready for the cold, harsh days alone that waited for her.

In order to do that, she needed to make events, the ingredients of memory, bubble up like hot springs.

“Are you in a fight with the Sir?”

Hanna asked this casually, looking at the buds in the basket.

“F-for what reason do you ask?”

Holo was so shaken that her wisewolf name could have practically wept.

Hanna shrugged.

“Your plucking is a bit sloppy.”

“…We are not fighting.”

If she had a bigger body, she could easily hide the things in her heart, but so much ended up seeping out from this little frame.

And it was true that they were not fighting, so she found herself annoyed at Hanna’s exasperated expression.

“More importantly, there is a pile of bear meat in the middle of the ice room. Please add plenty of meat to the pot today.”

She mentioned the news as she was about to head off to her next work, then she stopped.

“Do not say anything odd to him. We are not fighting, after all.”

Though that made it seem like they really were fighting, having her companion be attentive to her in that sort of way was a bit different from what she had hoped.

She was not unhappy with their current situation. She just wanted to spend time naturally, having fun.

“Okay, very well. Understood.”

Sometimes, she wondered if it was Hanna that was the one who was twice her age.

No, she told herself that it was simply because her own human form looked like that of a child.

“Oh, would you prefer garlic or ginger in the pot today?”

Holo seriously pondered the question for a moment and answered, “Garlic.”

Next, she made her way to the back of the house.

As she got closer, the peculiar smell of raw meat enveloped her. It was a mysterious thing that it smelled good enough to make her drool when it was being cooked but so horrendous when boiling in a pot.

Behind the building was Selim, stirring the pot, an expression on her face that suggested she had given up on everything.

“Come now, I have come to help. Go breathe some fresh air and take a rest.”

“Lady Hol…Guh, cough, cough—”

Selim spoke through her nose, and her eyes were even watering. She said a bit of thanks, handed the mixing stick to Holo, and unsteadily walked off. Her sense of smell was much better since she was young, so it must have been even more painful for her.

They were separating the plentiful fat from the bear meat with heat for the making of tallow candles.

After she mixed it well, there was still the job of picking out fragments of meat and bone that got into the mixture. If they were lazy about that, then that would cause extra smoke and foul odors once it was used as a candle. Her lungs would be thick with the smell of fat for a while.

It was typically little Col and his dull sense of smell or Myuri, as a punishment after she pulled a prank, who did this work, but now that they were shorthanded, there was no one left to do it except herself and Selim.

She added wood to the fire, mixed the pot, and scooped out some debris that caught her eye.

The first time she did this, she was so impressed to see this was how candles were made that she did not really mind the smell, but now it was just another part of her routine. It was nothing but a bother.

If they had to make candles, they should make the better smelling beeswax ones.

While she daydreamed about the nice scent of honey, she also had to struggle against the reality before her. This was not the only work she had to do.

“Hmm…Once the candles are done, next is checking on the rest of the cheese.”

Spring was also the season of cheese. In preparation for the next season, they had to place an order with a craftsman specifying what kind of cheese they wanted. There were many types: Some kept for a long time and others went bad quickly; there were ones that were easy to make and ones that were more complicated.

They also had to consider the fact that it was not something they would only place on their own dinner table but also serve to patrons.

As their first guest came much earlier than they expected, they had to place their order quickly, otherwise they would have to serve leftover cheese from the winter. The guests would immediately notice any inferior substitutes, and it would spawn rumors.

“And then…ah yes. Once we order the cheese, I must braid thread from the wool we received. Then I must mend all the frayed ones, like that and that and that…Ah! Foolish Myuri lost the weights for the threads, did she not?! Were there replacements in the shed…? Oh yes…I must clean the shed, otherwise bugs will start breeding by summer…’Tis only the bugs that do not listen to me…What should I do about that? Oohh…”

As she swirled the fat around in the pot, so many thoughts swirled around in her head.

She missed living on the road, relaxing and napping in the bed of the wagon.

No, she was only this busy because little Col and Myuri were gone.

On the other hand, she was now painfully aware of the sort of degenerate lifestyle she had been living.

This was what it meant to have no time to worry, but she shuddered when she thought about life continuing in the same manner forever.

She did not hate work itself.

She only wanted to avoid suddenly realizing that she had let all the good times pass.

“I must do something about this…”

That sad, trickling basin she had found in the mountains was stuck in the back of her mind.

She even started thinking about things she had no control over, like wishing they had instead opened a store in a town, where she could stand next to her companion all day as they tended the shop.

Working in a business like that would surely have its own difficult tasks every day. And living in a town meant being around the eyes of humans, so she would have to worry about how they would treat her since she could not hide her ears and tail and did not age.

“Mmm…”

She groaned, and much like how her dissatisfaction was coming to a boil, bubbles floated to the surface from beneath the churning fat.

That being said, she was looking forward to when Selim grew used to this work and eliminated some of the hustle and bustle. Or maybe when Selim’s family was finished building their lodgings, they could hire another one of them once they had settled.

Indeed. She had to be patient for a while. And then she could start thinking about how she could make more memories with her companion.

She insisted this to herself.

“Well, soon we shall strain this and make the candles.”

She tapped the mixing stick on the edge of the pot, called Selim over, and began their work. All jobs would eventually end as long as they worked at it. Another guest arrived in the afternoon, and finally the sun set.

After finishing dinner, she returned to their room in relief, and there, her companion stood frozen before the desk.

“What is the matter?”

She wondered for a moment if Myuri had doodled on the parchment on the desk, but she then remembered that she was off traveling.

As she wondered what it might be, her companion turned around, and his expression was apologetic.

“Before you get mad, let me apologize.”

“…Hmm?”

He continued.

“The new guest also brought in parchment.”

Behind him, the bundles of parchment had doubled. If one person had an idea, then it seemed someone elsewhere had the same.

Though she was impressed that little Col and Myuri’s journey was making such large waves throughout the world, her companion’s face was dismal, so there had to be more to it.

“Is that all?”

When she asked, he released the breath he had been holding in—strangely, almost as if he had been saved—then slowly shook his head.

Perhaps it was difficult for him to broach the subject by himself.

“…Others staying elsewhere came over earlier, wanting to talk about the same thing.”

“…”

Their relaxing, affectionate time together at night. Apparently, she would be unable to request it for a while.

But such a pile of work could also be called a notable incident. If she looked back after a while, it might very well become a memory she could recall clearly. And she was glad it was something she could do together with him. Sitting beside each other, she could keep the lid on that dark well tightly shut.

It was not so bad when she thought of it like that.

“Well, we have no choice. Aye?”

So she spoke brightly, and he seemed disappointed.

“What? Did you wish for me to get angry?”

He was always much too straightforward at times like this.

“There won’t be any time for you to take a nap…”

“You fool.”

She smiled, closed the door, and quickly walked over to the desk.

The amount of parchment piled on the desk was intimidating.

“And we may make quite a lot of quick coin, no?”

“It should be enough for our troubles. Ask me for anything. We can probably get honeyed peaches.”

He spoke of a luxury item that was practically worth its weight in gold.

Her former merchant companion was handing her a blank contract, so this job must truly contain great prospects.

“Mm. I shall think about it.”

“But there aren’t infinite amounts of money.”

He did not forget to warn her.

She shrugged and stepped on his foot lightly.

“Well then, shall we get started?”

“Yeah. We can’t even waste time this late in the day. If we don’t manage this well, even more of the same work might come our way.”

“Shall we allot some to Selim?”

She wondered if they should add another duty on top of what the young wolf already had, but her companion looked a bit troubled.

“I’d want her to help, but…”

He spoke vaguely, and after glancing at the door, he drew close to her ear and whispered.

“She doesn’t really seem like she’s good at reading and writing.”

Unlike her usual jobs during the day, she did seem to be a bit clumsy when it came to this. She had made quite a few reading and spelling mistakes.

“She works hard during the day, so she’s probably tired at night.”

Little Col displayed his odd enthusiasm for studying by chasing away his nighttime sleepiness with sand in his mouth or munching on raw onions. It would be cruel to expect that much from Selim.

But something occurred to Holo.

“But when we go to trade on the other side of the mountain, she is never that sleepy.”

Selim did seem a little tired when they set out on the way home, but she did not appear to be falling asleep.

“It’s probably a matter of her strengths and weaknesses, right? She probably gets sleepy looking at writing. Myuri’s the same.”

When he spoke their daughter’s name, she understood.

“I am as good as anyone when it comes to this.”

“That’s not much to be proud of. Well, you can read, but when it comes to writing…Don’t you think the Wisewolf of Yoitsu should be a bit better at writing?”

He hit her where it hurt, earning him a glare from her.

“I have improved quite a bit. This form of mine is temporary anyway. ’Tis not much I can do if my hands do not work well.”

“Even though you can grab meat so quickly from the pot?”

She bared her fangs, and he looked away, pretending not to notice.

“You fool. Learning letters does not fill the stomach!”

“…Myuri says the same thing, doesn’t she?”

“I beg your pardon?!”

She scolded her mumbling companion, and he shrugged cheekily.

“Look, come on, let’s get working.”

He was never constantly cornered the way he used to be.

And she did not hate this sort of bickering.

“Honestly, you fool.”

As she murmured that, she placed a chair next to his and stuck to his side. Of course, they shared the blanket as it draped over both of their backs. This was not bad at all.

She cemented in her memory that this moment had happened.

As she did so, she took the first piece of parchment into her hand.

There was the thud of wooden utensils being set down, and Holo opened her eyes.

It was after lunch, and the unoccupied Hanna had brought her something.

“Good work today.”

“…Wine, how unusual.”

Holo lifted her head from the table, and her nose twitched at the scent of the warmed wine, steam still rising from it.

Hanna was normally concerned with cost so it was curious for her to offer wine so freely.

Then, just as Holo was about to gratefully reach out to take the cup.

“Hmm, this is…?”

There was a wooden bowl, and it was filled with things she had never seen before.

“It’s a gift from a guest. The Sir told me to serve some for you when he went out.”

It was candied something or other. Sugar could be obtained by boarding a boat in town at the bottom of the mountain and heading downstream, then changing vessels after arriving at the open sea and traveling farther south, eventually reaching a port in a sunny country where the sea was a clear green and it was summer for more than half the year, all to trade with someone who had come by boat from an even more southern point.

If sugar was harvested from the earth like salt, then she would not mind living there and spending all her days licking the ground.

It was that delicious of a sweetener, but she was caught by Hanna’s words.

“…You hid this from me?”

Hanna only shrugged innocently.

“He said you might end up eating it all if I showed it to you once.”

“That fool!”

I am not Myuri, she thought to herself as she grabbed a piece, finding the sweet in her hand quite strange.

Whatever the fruit was, it was cut into round slices and had been seasoned with sugar, but the shape was odd.

She had never seen such a fruit like this before, but when she put it in her mouth, she was shocked.

“’Tis ginger?!”

“It’s still cold when the sun isn’t out, so it will also warm you up.”

“Mm-hmm…Mmm…”

The fur on her ears and tail stood on end at the crunchy texture of the sugar and its sweetness, then the indescribable ginger flavor that came after, the tingling spiciness heavy on her tongue. As her throat grew hot from the ginger, the warmed wine was a perfect accompaniment.

It was scandalous to hide such a wonderful thing from her.

She asked Hanna with her mouth full of the crunchy sugared ginger, “Is this all?”

“He said to make sure to give only a little bit at a time.”

It was exactly how he would have treated their daughter, Myuri. She almost wanted to demand Hanna give her more, immediately, lots more, but then that would only acknowledge his point that she would eat it all once she laid eyes on it. She had to avoid that as the wisewolf.

That being said, it was difficult to resist its charm.

She had been fighting with that parchment for a while, and her mind felt like it was melting.

To have this sweet and spicy food after all that was almost violent.

Even a wisewolf would roll over in surrender.

But before she did that, she spoke, managing to maintain a semblance of reason.

“C-come now, it may go bad if we do not eat it quickly, aye?”

“Sweets don’t spoil so quickly.”

“Then bugs and mice—”

“These will be fine buried in the ice room.”

There was no one in the bathhouse who could contest Hanna about food.

If she persisted, Holo felt like she would even be able to eat the bowl itself.

“Ooohhh…”

“Why not eat it slowly? You’ll be able to enjoy it longer that way.”

“You fool. I may also enjoy it all at once!”

Hanna sighed in exasperation.

But she was right, and the inside of her mouth was rather hot.

Heartbroken, she pushed the wooden bowl away toward Hanna, in a way that she did not have to look at it.

“Put it away…”

“My, how prudent of you. Very well then, I will go put this away before you change your mind.”

“Ah!”

Then, in a moment of weakness, Holo reached out and took one piece. Hanna smiled, slightly aggravated.

“Let me just say this now, but I am going to hide this in a place you can’t find, so don’t come looking for it.”

Hanna said the same thing Holo did when she scolded Myuri. She wondered if it was because they were two peas in a pod.

“You fool.”

“I am not a fool. I would not be happy to find my pantry in complete disarray because you went looking for it. I will put a tight lid on this, so even that great nose of yours will be no use.”

“Urgghhh…”

In a bathhouse, the greatest monetary costs were related to food, so her companion had given Hanna tremendous authority. It was almost as though it was difficult to tell who was master of the house when they were in the kitchen together.

Not only that, he also asked her to be strict with Holo and Myuri.

The kitchen was filled with things they could immediately gnaw on, but those were more akin to traps meant to distract them.

“I am working so hard, and yet such cruelty…”

Holo spoke reproachfully, but Hanna did not give the bowl back to her.

“Well, I don’t know about that, but I heard that it will be of great help once you finish all that work you are doing. Once that’s squared away, you can ask for sugar or anything else you’d like.”

“Of course I plan to. But I do not know when it will be over.”

It was not an act when she laid face-first on the table.

Guests were starting to arrive and musicians had returned to the bathhouse, so it was quite lively. As long as the guests had songs and dancing, they could spend the entire day in the baths, which meant she and her companion could leave them alone.

Once this was routine, there were some extremely hectic moments but also stretches of time with nothing to do at all.

But now, during her idle hours, she was pouring all her energy into those sheets of parchment. If she did not, then it would never end, and if they received more requests in the future, it was possible the work would not be finished at all until the fall.

Of course, they could refuse to do anything that was too much for them, but the guests were rushing to unburden themselves, all thanks to little Col and Myuri’s adventure, so they could not say they had no responsibility.

And her companion had said with a grave expression that if they accept the work now, it would lead to other things later.

If it was for his sake, then she had no choice but to stay committed.

“But what does that fool plan to do with all that money he will be making?”

Holo murmured to herself, her cheek still pressed to the table, as she watched Hanna put the candy away. Business at the bathhouse was going smoothly. Perhaps he was thinking about another matter. No, it could not be for buying honeyed peaches for her. That sort of foolish mistaken priorities had died down since they opened the bathhouse.

She did not know, but what she did know was that she had to focus on her own portion.

“Well, let us begin!”

She gulped down the rest of the wine Hanna had poured for her and headed toward the bedroom.

Her companion was absent because he had some work to do in the village, but she could tell by the lingering scent that he had been poring over the parchment until the very last moment.

She took the blanket draped over the back of the chair, hugged it, and sniffed it. It was filled with her companion’s scent.

“…Heh.”

In combination with the wine and effects of the ginger, her body was filled with warmth. She looked out beyond the open window, the faint melody of a musician’s instrument and singing drifting in.

It was a quiet, fair afternoon.

She lay down on the bed for a quick nap, and her consciousness drifted away instantly.

And so, about the permits.

There were permits for mining gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, mercury, sulfur, and a myriad of ores that included the above. There were also permits for trading them, as well as others for weighing them. There were permits for grading them. Permits for appointing someone to inspect them. Permits for exempting them from inspection.

Wheat, barley, rye, and oats were divided into different classifications depending on the town, with various taxes relating to each, and unlike other crops, straw that was used as fodder would also be treated separately. If it were to be used for ale, then it would not be recognized as food but as alcohol, and it fell under the classification for permits regarding wines, ciders, and distilled items. Related to that was yet another struggle as to what the definition of alcohol was. There were permits that allowed the holder the right to ignore the definition and privileges to appoint a specific examiner from a specific town in the event of a dispute over it.

There were similar collections of permits like this for meat, fish, furs, metal products, wood products…It was endless.

“…Is the human world just a bottomless swamp?”

Without even the energy to raise her voice to express how she resented this and was unwilling to do any more, Holo muttered to herself.

“You’ve gotten the hang of how the world works. Look, there’s only a little left.”

There was no need for her to think that her companion’s face, lit by the candlelight, was looking any older. Instead, as their work continued, he grew livelier and livelier as he recalled the past.

“Look, it’s a permit for managing furs in Lenos,” and “Huh, I didn’t know there were rights for managing the dockworkers in Kerube,” and “There’s a permit for importing gold in Ruvinheigen. We wouldn’t have had to go through all that trouble back then if only we had this.” As he brought up this and that, his eyes shone.

Other permits indicated ties she had never noticed before between so many different towns, and her companion’s skin was much brighter than after drinking or eating any sort of food.

Even in his sleep, he mumbled about it. “Since this town and this town protect the privileges between them for that product…You could make a lot of money if you buy it in that town…Heh-heh…”

But as she stole glances at him as he did so, with parchment open before her, she was starting to enjoy it.

Whenever he found a place-name where they had once ventured together, far, far away from Nyohhira, he would light up. She did not mind, because she was the same.

Back then, it was not an endless repetition of the same routine. Every day had brought something new. Those dazzling, shining memories were impossibly stuffed into such a short amount of time.

It had all been so hectic that she was the first one to say no, she had had enough. It was her wish that put an end to her companion’s journey. Then, her companion granted her wish, and though he did seem a bit regretful at the time, now he did not seem to feel much anguish over his choice at all.

Essentially, her companion was simply enjoying the nostalgia with a distant gaze.

Even though she knew it was her own selfishness, it was not fun.

She wanted him to recall their old travels with a face that yearned terribly for it.

Then she would have an excuse to be angry at him. Do you never learn your lesson?

Then she could have said this to her companion.

“If you wish to go on a journey again, I—”

It was when she was writing down a place-name on a permit regarding salt tariffs as she listened to her companion grow excited about some complicated permit, which nullified the privilege to pass through the checkpoint on Roef River without paying taxes.

He fell silent, and Holo suddenly realized that her thoughts had escaped through her mouth.

“…”

She looked up, and he was staring at her with a strange expression on his face.

“…’Tis nothing.”

She dropped her gaze back to the salt permit. He did not say anything right away, and after gazing again at the permit he had been so excitedly reading out loud, he spoke quietly.

“I’m not going on a journey.”

She knew that.

That was why she could not let the next part of her sentence be bitter words.

“Hey.”

He continued.

“You’ve been hiding something from me, haven’t you? Ever since Selim came.”

She was shocked. The fur on her ears and tail stood on end.

And yet, her only response was this.

“Whatever do you mean?”

He lightly scratched his nose, and—had he held back a smile?

“I know.”

His hand landed gently on her head.

“Because you’re my wife.”

She shivered uncomfortably, as though a soft woolen thread tickled the inside of her ear.

Her chest clenched painfully, and tears welled up in her eyes.

“…Fool.”

“But you really did seem to be in a good mood, so I honestly wasn’t sure what it could be. You were getting along well with Miss Selim. If I wasn’t careful and bothered you about it, you looked like you would get really angry at me, so I didn’t say anything.”

He was carefully studying her face. She could not look back at his.

“…”

“…”

They both kept quiet, and silence fell over them.

Her companion released the breath he had been holding, then leaned back in his chair.

It creaked as he did.

“It feels like things have gotten stale since Myuri and Col left.”

The bathhouse was silent.

“Are you bored of life here?”

There was a slight smile on his face.

“No, of—”

This is the bathhouse her companion worked so hard to bring together. It was their house and a place to call home. There was no chance he would wish to leave that all behind and go traveling again.

But she could not finish her sentence, and he even asked her if she wanted to go on a journey not too long ago.

She did not know herself very well.

“I do not know…”

She spoke honestly, and her companion seemed amused.

“I’ve come to notice lately how old I’ve gotten, but you’re still young.”

“…Huh?”

Her pitiful voice was starting to become a cry at the back of her throat.

She looked at him, and his smile was growing bigger and bigger. That meant her expression must have really been on the verge of tears.

“That’s what I thought when I was watching Myuri—so that’s what it means to be young. And that it wouldn’t be surprising if a certain someone who is like a mature wolf got bored of life in the bathhouse, too.”

“That’s…”

She barely spoke, then shook her head. Hard.

“I have not grown bored. Not at all.”

The inside of her heart, however, was not serene. There certainly was a tempest of irritation that every day was so similarly fulfilling.

No matter how she thought about that, it was indulgent and selfish and not something her companion could do anything about.

She could not stop or turn back time.

And so she was hesitant as to whether she should be honest. Her companion had a good heart, which made her worry that he might treat her strangely, or that it might make him sad.

As her words became stuck in her throat, he smiled a bit sadly.

“Did the wolves all show off together? What was it like with Miss Selim?”

He was worried about her. He would listen to her. Not only that, he was always within her reach. And he would not be around forever.

If she had to say it someday, then she should say it sooner than later.

She swallowed something that was lodged in her throat, and slowly, she opened her mouth.

“I have not grown bored with life in the bathhouse.”

“Mm-hmm.”

He nodded, then reached out to the desk and cut the wick of the candle with scissors. The fire on the candle would be bigger and burn brighter.

“And?”

“I am used to repeating routine. I…I once watched the wheat grow for hundreds of years, after all.”

An endless cycle of seasons, time that would not come back.

“I am happy now. So happy.”

She gripped her companion’s hand on the desk, and he playfully wrapped his fingers around hers.

“However…Nothing changes from day to day. Tomorrow will be the same as today, and the day after that will be the same as tomorrow, and what happened last month is the same as what happened that month last year, and next month will be the same as that month next year, aye? ’Tis even more obvious now after that fool Myuri and little Col are gone.”

Her companion’s fingers gripped her pointer finger a little too tightly.

His skin was much softer than it had been when he was a traveling merchant.

“If I were to let myself surrender to this happiness, all these precious days will melt away in my memory…Though the wisewolf I may be, I cannot remember everything. I have grown terrified of that. Because…”

Then she suddenly looked at his face.

No matter how hard she studied it, that face was still something she would no longer be able to see one day.

“Because…”

“I can’t stay by your side forever.”

Her companion spoke and kissed her on the forehead.

They both knew that, so they had not dared say a word about it. They tacitly agreed to pretend they did not know. Back during the events in Svernel, thanks to Selim and her brother, they had faced it for the first time in a long time.

He ruffled her hair and continued.

“Even after we’re gone, you should go live in the inn that Selim’s family runs…It’s insurance, at least. Cargo you lose won’t always come back.”

To Holo, her companion was like a young boy, just recently born, and he was smiling calmly.

“I know that. So I’ve thought about a lot of things on my own. I didn’t say anything because you’d get mad if I did, but I’m always thinking about all the things I can leave for you.”

She gulped and looked back at him.

Though she was so happy he worried about her, she was indescribably sad that he was concentrating on the end.

These two feelings clashed with each other in her throat, and it pained her so.

If he had said anything to her about it, she would not have been able to bear the agony and certainly would have grown angry.

Do not think of such things!

“But you’re a lonely person, the kind to fall asleep during the day clinging to a balled-up blanket. You definitely need something to keep yourself from shivering in the cold.”

“Hah?! I—I—I was not…”

Her ears stood straight up in rage, and her cheeks quickly turned red. Though this would never happen if she were in her wolf form, this body was much too small for such big emotions.

“And, well, I had an idea, and am working hard on it, but thanks to Col and Myuri, that plan looks like it’ll be accelerated.”

“…Hmm?”

His hand wrapped around to the back of her head, and he kissed away the tears welling in her eyes.

The feeling of his beard pressing roughly on her skin proved that it was not a dream.

“I see…Then…then why did you decide to undertake this work? It has been bothering me. Do you simply wish to save money? What will you do with all that money?”

“I can’t bring gold into heaven, you know.”

“It can’t be…for me?”

She almost told him there was no need for that, but there was, for some reason, a look of relief on his face.

“Even if I left you money, wouldn’t you just turn every coin into booze as you cry all by your lonesome or show no interest in it at all and instead crawl into a field of wheat?”

“Wh—? You—”

“Well, I do want to leave some money for the earthier Myuri, though.”

He looked at her as she sat speechless, then smiled gently.

“That’s why I want to leave you something that you would never let go, even when you’re dozing in the sun or curled up around a blanket on a cold, quiet night. Well…”

For some reason, he stopped there, then scratched his head in embarrassment.

“I wanted to do that. It’s been busy, and I’m not really used to it…”

Not getting his point, she groaned in irritation, and he smiled and apologized repeatedly, then carried on.

“It was a book.”

“…A book?”

He shrugged.

“You said it a long time ago. Tell the beautiful tale of your journey with me.”

She did feel like she had said that once before. That was how legends of times long past were passed down for future generations.

“But there’s only so much word of mouth can do. Just look at this pile of permits. The world is full of things that can’t fit inside one person’s head.”

Though they had visited many places on their journey together, there were so many invisible rules that they could never see. And that was just one small part of it all.

“Everyday life is the same. If you look closely, there are small differences among similar days, and sometimes, those little things can be really enjoyable. Like when that leech stuck to your wrist.”

For some reason, when he pointed that out it embarrassed her, and she placed her hand over the mark to cover it.

“I thought it would be a good idea to write all those things down. Remember, you read a lot of things like that in Elsa’s library, at the church in the village that worshipped the snake god?”

She finally recalled. She had done that. In order to find out where Yoitsu was, in order to find her old friends, she read countless old tales in that musty cellar. They were tales that someone wrote down to tell what had happened in the past.

“I wanted to write with as much detail as I could. Something others might not understand if they read it but that only you would enjoy. And then you can look back later and see that yesterday and today—last year and this year—really were different, right?”

“M-mm…’Tis…true…”

She nodded, and her companion reciprocated the gesture, satisfied.

But the expression that appeared on his face afterward was slightly embarrassed.

“But that said, I’ve been writing a bit when I have the time, but…ah… All I can write about is trade, and since Myuri was born, all I can write about are stories about her.”

And then, she realized.

“Ah, so that is what you have been writing from time to time?! ’Twas not complaints or grudges?!”

She questioned him in surprise, and he smiled wryly.

“It’s been a handful taking care of Myuri…But they weren’t complaints. Even our arguments make me laugh when I read back on them.”

When she finally understood what it was, she felt like she would collapse. Certainly, he occasionally wrote down what had happened that day as if transcribing the events. He had even recorded their quarrels, so she thought he was preparing something for when they fought later. What a milksop of a male she thought he was!

“But we’re not rich enough to prepare all that paper, and there is literally no time to write anything down during the busy seasons.”

It seemed their conversation had come full circle, back to the parchment on the desk.

“So you are saving for that?”

“Yes. It’s usually nobility that hires monks to write down what happened in the past. Even then, only the biggest towns produce annual chronicles for their own prestige. But it was people from the monasteries who brought in this parchment work we’re doing.”

She watched her companion talk happily, and it reminded her of when they rode on the wagon together. That was when he had that stupid look on his face. “Let me tell you how we can make money from this, and this time I’m sure we can earn plenty without getting wrapped up in trouble!”

She was happy that nothing seemed to have changed between now and then, and at the same time, her chest tightened.

“And?”

“First, monasteries deal with the paper. If we gain their gratitude, then we can get it for cheap.”

She nodded in a bit of exasperation at how obvious he was.

“Then, there is a special reason as to why we want to gain the gratitude of the people at the monastery. And that is…”

He turned his gaze to the desk and pulled out a certain piece of paper.

But that was not a permit but a memo Holo had written for herself.

“This. For handwriting.”

“Handwriting…?”

“You still aren’t very good at writing, no matter how much time passes.”

“!”

She sat up straight, as though someone had stepped on her tail, and grabbed his beard.

“Ow, ow, don’t get—don’t get mad!”

“You fool! I may not be very good, but it is not illegible!”

Though her companion was the same, she truly did not understand the merits of the written human language. She was not good at writing and would not deny that. It was simply a fact that she could not write well.

She could only imagine that it was thanks to her human limbs, and it sincerely angered her when he pointed out her inability. There was nothing she could do about it.

“No, wait, wait. At first, I thought it was because you weren’t used to reading and writing. But you’re surprisingly dexterous with other things. So when I saw Miss Selim write, I had a thought.”

“Her?”

She was surprised to suddenly hear Selim’s name.

“Miss Selim’s handwriting is, well…bad.”

“She is also slow at reading, no?”

“Yeah. And then there’s all the mistakes she’s made.”

“…?”

Choosing the wrong twine, mixing up the candle boxes, tripping on herself, falling over, dropping things—how were these all related?

And how was all that related to gaining favor from the monastery?

Were they going to pray to God?

But what?

“You all don’t have very good eyesight.”

“Huh?”

She was caught by surprise.

There was no way that was possible.

“Th-that cannot be so. I see perfectly well. And I am perfectly free in a dark forest.”

“Then write this letter down. Just as you see it, okay?”

He pointed to a single letter. It was one she knew and could write easily. After a quick circle, there was a line that extended out to the right; then at the end of that there was a quick curve down and to the left.

She thought she did it quite well.

“Did you really write it how you see it?”

“Mm.”

His shoulders moved up and down as he breathed.

“The letter you copied was Miss Selim’s writing, and it’s a little bit off.”

“Wha—?”

“You’re not this bad at writing. That’s why I was unsure at first. But Miss Selim really is bad. I think that’s the reason why she trips all the time. She’s gotten better recently, but that’s probably because she remembers where everything is now. Or maybe from the scent.”

Now that he mentioned it, she recalled the dark forest. Of course. She was always relying on her nose and ears to run in her wolf form.

Then, after her surprise died down, a sudden bout of sadness settled over her. That was because it meant she had never truly been able to see her companion’s face all that well.

And on the other hand, there was also the fact that she had never felt like her vision was an inconvenience.

As a feeling of confusion akin to anger demanded to know what that meant, her logic found a path.

Since she had only ever known the world from behind these eyes, she had just assumed that this was normal.

But what was she to do about it?

“And then what? Should I pray to God, like little Col, so that my eyes may get better?”

“No. That’s why we’ll go to a monastery.”

He made a circle with his index finger and thumb, then placed it over his eyes.

“Glasses.”

“Glasses?”

“Didn’t I show you them once somewhere during our journey? If you let a droplet of water trickle onto a leaf, it swells into this indescribable shape, right? They process glass into that shape and polish it nicely. It can make letters bigger and clearer for you. Rich monasteries should have plenty of high-quality glasses.”

She could not picture it very well, but it did not seem like he was lying.

She nodded, relieved knowing something like that existed, and her companion placed the circle he made with his fingers onto her eyes.

“From what I’ve heard, you put it on your face like this. They say the price jumps up because they have to make the glass bigger, and it’s difficult to polish, but you can see all the little details in the world.”

Then, she could put everything she saw and everything she had been unable to see until now into writing.

Like storing snow in the ice room or a squirrel burying a nut.

On the other side of his finger circle, her companion smiled proudly.

For some reason, he seemed closer than usual.

“We probably can’t get it immediately because they go on your face, but we can likely find something that can make the words in your hand bigger. And then a lot of paper. Once we have that and you’ve practiced writing again, you can record anything you want to remember.”

It was not about waiting for a big incident she would never forget, but collecting the little things that happened every day. Of course, she just simply could not remember, and it was not because she hated daily life in the bathhouse. She loved everything that happened throughout the days.

The problem was, all those memories would spread out thin if she let them be, and it would only wet her stomach if she laid down in them, like that tepid puddle.

By putting them in writing, she could keep them warm.

“I’ll work as hard as I can to buy paper and ink, so you just need to write so much that you can’t read it all. You won’t get bored if you write so much that you forget the beginning by the time you reach the end, right?”

She did not know how much of that was a joke and how much was serious.

She did not know how effective it would really be, but it was something that he had thought so hard about for her, and it made her so happy she wanted to cry.

“But…If I spend all my time writing, would I not miss things I want to write down?”

“I’m honestly more worried whether you’ll actually do it every day or not, since you get bored so easily.”

She pouted with her lips and glared at him, but he took it with a calm smile.

“But you’ll have ink and paper. You’ll have glasses. And once you can write, you should be fine, right? If you get anxious, make those tools your weapons. Scrub past the hazy darkness with your pen, and wipe it away with your paper.”

Had he known about the well of darkness inside of her all along?

“An ancient monk once said…”

Her companion had aged a bit since they first met, and he spoke with a more mature expression than it had once been.

“…give a man a fish, and he is fed for the day. But teach him to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

She showed her respect to the reckless man who spewed lectures to the wisewolf, and she grinned, baring her fangs.

“I do want fish. And honeyed peaches, as well.”

“I know. That’s why I’ll be busy every day.”

Then, at that moment, she could not hold herself back any longer as she leaped at him, and the upper right part of her forehead crashed into his cheekbone. There was quite a loud thud, and her companion groaned, but she did not mind.

That was because there was no doubt that it was her heart that was in the most pain.

“You fool.”

Those were the words that emerged from the bottom of her heart.

“You fool…”

She said it again, and her tail swished about.

Her heart was now bursting with happiness and love for her companion, and she almost said that she did not need glasses or anything of the sort, but she had learned. Much like the seasons, moods change. As long as she had the weapons he chose for her, she could beat back the blackness that seeped out once in a while.

“I do wish for glasses. But I do not need anything so big.”

“Mm…Huh? But you should have them anyway, right? And Miss Selim can use them, too.”

A long time ago, she would have bared her fangs and growled if he mentioned another female’s name in a situation like this, but not anymore. She was squarely in his arms, and he looked fixedly at her.

“She should use them. I do not need them.”

He looked a little disappointed, but it was certainly out of kindness. He was taking many things into consideration, like her being able to better see scenery.

But she had been like this for hundreds of years.

Her world was nothing if not the world she saw now.

“Shall I tell you why?”

She looked up, and his face was next to hers.

“For future reference please.”

She grinned.

“If I could see well, I may notice that I am not fond of your face. I would prefer not to be so disappointed after all this time.”

An unpleasant frown appeared on his face.

It was enough just knowing that.

“However, I found you in this world without relying on glasses in the first place.”

His eyes opened wide, and having been outdone, an irritated expression crossed his face.

“That’s true, I’m not sure if I’d like it if you became even more sharp-sighted.”

He was still a cute little boy if he could say things like that out of spite even now.

“Then I’ll get something for Miss Selim to read, and that might be expensive glasses, though, so don’t get mad, okay?”

“It depends.”

“You know…”

His annoyed face was so adorable, she could not help but grin.

“Honestly…It’s for work. If I gave Miss Selim glasses, she might get better at reading and writing, since she does seem eager to learn. She’s patient, so I could ask her to do all the things that Col did, like writing accounts for purchases and expenditures, letters to guests, and even write letters for business in town. That would make things a lot easier for me.”

“Will you not ask me?”

She could read and write all the same.

Well, she knew why he would of course ask Selim to do work and not herself.

But she asked purposefully anyway. She should be familiar with all the things on this desk. There were records of agreements they could not see. If she could see the threads that connected her and her companion when she found herself lost, then there was nothing to worry about.

He looked at her and sighed, tired.

He may have truly been exhausted.

Because—

“There’s no point in me being free if you’re busy.”

Because her companion loved her, and he was always working his hardest.

“Heh.”

She laughed at how spoiled she was, and she laughed at how strangely, terribly relieved she was.

“Heh-heh, ah-ha, ha-ha-ha-ha…! You fool, what a fool you are.”

“Of course I am.”

He laughed, too, and for a while they did nothing but laugh together before finally sighing in unison.

It was a strange interval of neither routine nor boredom.

“Well then, should we finish up the rest of this?”

He spoke purposefully as though he was smoothing things over.

“Mm, let us square it all away.”

It felt like they had had the same conversation a thousand times in the past.

But now, she no longer feared being unable to tell them apart.

“Oh, right.”

“Hmm?”

As she grasped a pen, she spoke.

“Little Col mentioned it a lot. Books and such need titles. Shall we title this one after you?”

He looked at her for a little while before a slight smile appeared on his face.

“What’s the name of this house?”

“Hmm? Indeed, ’twould be the best.”

Memories of her time with her companion. Memories she could never forget. She would fill her book with as many of them as she could.

A tome overflowing with happiness, like the season of life and blossoms and the bubbling waters of their home—a Spring Log.

It would become something that anyone would look at with a dry smile and shrug their shoulders in exasperation.