Spice and Wolf - Volume 6 - Chapter Ep

EPILOGUE

Early morning.

Lawrence awoke when the light touched his cheek, the moment the sun showed its face above the horizon.

At least, that’s what it felt like, but when he opened his eyes, he realized that what was actually touching his face was Holo’s breathing as she slept.

The sleeping Holo, curled up in the blanket, would occasionally pop her head out from under it, perhaps coming up for breath.

When Lawrence looked at her, her cheek was a bit damp, proof that she had emerged from the blanket only a moment ago.

It was like uncooked bread dough.

Particularly in the way it would flare up at a moment’s notice.

But was it his imagination that her sleeping face looked even more innocent than it normally did?

She didn’t just look relaxed—her face conveyed a certain self-confidence, as though she wouldn’t possibly be having any bad dreams. Even her singed bangs seemed like a badge of honor, as though she were a brave knight that had fearlessly returned from a blazing castle.

No—that was going a bit too far.

Lawrence grinned at his folly, then yawned. His dry, cold skin complained loudly, and his eyes opened with a sensation like a membrane of ice cracking.

Today would be another clear day.

Eventually Holo’s face twitched, her eyes still closed, and she squirmed around underneath the blanket.

After the ship had been stopped from being washed downriver, there was talk of having an all-night celebration, but the boatmen knew their jobs too well.

Drinking all night long and then piloting boats downriver the next day was too great a danger.

They indulged in just a bit of merrymaking before going to bed, without even time enough for their clothes to dry.

Since there were so many furs that had been brought ashore, even with wet clothes there were no worries of being warm enough to sleep soundly.

A few of the biggest and strongest men had stripped naked and surrounded themselves with furs in order to keep warm most efficiently; their sleeping forms were a sight to behold. Holo’s words (“I don’t quite know what to make of that sight”) were most apt.

Those same men were not yet awake, and Lawrence realized that at the moment, he was the only one up.

No one would wake up because of the cold, and it wasn’t as though they had napped the previous day on the river.

This sensation had lasted but a few days, but it made Lawrence feel very nostalgic.

The days when he’d done business all day long, holding each spare moment precious.

It felt the same as those days.

When the breaking dawn meant a new opportunity for profit, if life was a gamble, then dawn was another card.

Another card. Another. And another.

Even if there was no progress, that was fun, too.

It felt the same as those days.

Had he woken feeling this way before, since the reality of the end of his travels with Holo had begun to sink in? Had he not been afraid of dawn’s break?

Though he knew well that with a journey came parting, that didn’t make it any easier. He doubted even Holo the Wisewolf could restrain that feeling.

So could he, a mere human, hope to?

And then, there came this first pleasant waking in some time. But he knew the reason.

In Lenos, they had declared their intention to end their travels with a smile.

Last night they had decided how they would reach that goal.

They would continue this carefree travel, and then at Yoitsu, it would be “fare thee well.” “What think you?” Holo had said.

For the merchant who dedicated his days to profit and the ferocious wolf, “carefree travel” was an impossibility.

Which made him as excited as a child.

Even though he had no idea if the story was true. And if it was true, the probability that it would lead to a painful outcome for Holo was very high.

And yet Lawrence did not think it was imprudent.

After all—

“Mmchoo—”

Lawrence heard a sneeze from under the blanket.

When conducting negotiations in a cramped inn, one had to be careful that the people sleeping nearby were truly sleeping and not feigning sleep in order to eavesdrop.

Sneezes and coughs and the sounds of swallowing—all were proof that someone was awake.

Lawrence peeled the blanket back to see Holo rubbing her nose.

She soon noticed him and turned her gaze toward him. Her eyes were not drowsy the way they typically were.

“Mmph…’Tis the first pleasant awakening in some time.”

After all—

Lawrence thought Holo felt the same way he did.

“So you’re really going, eh?”

The sun was now fully risen, and the area buzzed with activity as the boatmen readied for departure.

Ragusa left his own boat in the care of a fellow boatman and strode about cockily, arms folded, watching the proceedings.

The boatmen congratulated each other on their heroic deeds in saving the ship the night before, as was apparently their custom.

But even Ragusa’s heroic manner, as though he were the true hero of the night, fell apart when Lawrence informed him of their intention to end their downriver journey here and return to Lenos.

“I-I know we were delayed a night here, but it’ll be an express trip the rest of the way! We’ll make up the delay in no time!” he said insistently.

But Lawrence only answered with reason. “No, Kerube was a bit too far out of our way to begin with. Having had a night to think it over, we’ve decided to head back.”

“Urgh…right, then. It’s a mark on my reputation as a boatman, but…I suppose there’s nothing for it.”

Ragusa wouldn’t have looked this upset even if he’d lost his coin purse—so Lawrence started to feel bad for lying to him.

The truth was, Lawrence and company were not returning to Lenos at all, but were planning to get to Kerube one step ahead of the rest.

The reason Lawrence went to the trouble of lying to get off the boat was that their method of arriving there was not something he could explain to just anyone.

“I imagine that we can make it back within a day—and of course, my first voyage in quite some time was excellent.”

Ragusa smiled ruefully at the obvious idle chatter in the midst of a business negotiation, then sighed.

His acceptance was very boatman-like.

“Ah, well. For every meeting, there is a parting. I’m a boatman that connects towns. No doubt I’ll have a chance to carry the same travelers again,” said Ragusa, offering his hand.

Lawrence had shaken hands with the man when he’d boarded and now shook hands to leave.

Voyages like this put them quite literally in the same boat.

And the man responsible for Lawrence’s life was nearly a friend.

“Indeed. I am a traveling merchant, after all. I’m sure I’ll come this way again,” Lawrence said, taking the man’s thick hand in his.

“Right then. Tote Col—mind you well the things I’ve taught you.”

“Wha—? Oh! Y-yes sir!” said Col hastily; he had been standing next to Lawrence, nodding off.

Previously Col had been set to work in Ragusa’s boat, standing watch in case another vessel was swept away.

Evidently he’d been angling for some money.

Seeing this, Lawrence couldn’t help but soften his expression. Ragusa had secretly given Col’s wages—and they were generous wages—to Lawrence, with instructions to give them to Col once they’d reached Kerube. Col wouldn’t worry about food for a week.

“Incidentally, Mr. Ragusa.”

“Mm?”

“No stealing a march on me now,” warned Lawrence, and Ragusa laughed hugely.

There was no doubt Ragusa would have tried to tempt the lad into his service by the time they got to Kerube.

Col had his own goals.

But if Ragusa twisted his arm enough, Col might find himself nodding his agreement. It might not have been any of his business, but Lawrence wanted to help the boy accomplish his own goals.

Thus, his words to Ragusa.

The redoubtable boatman heaved an amused sigh. “Fine then. I promise. I’m a boatman—I won’t tell a lie.”

Each traveler had his or her own reasons for their journey.

Ragusa surely understood that better than anyone.

The men held each other’s gazes and chuckled.

Lawrence could understand the feeling of having let the big fish that was Col get away, though it was yet too soon for Lawrence to be considering taking the boy as his own apprentice.

“Still—,” said Ragusa, grabbing Lawrence’s shoulder suddenly and pulling him close. “You won’t go quarreling with your companion over anything quite that foolish again, will you now?”

He meant Holo.

Lawrence glanced over at her, moving only his eyes. She grinned at him from underneath her hood.

As he brought his gaze back around, he glimpsed Col giving him a sympathetic smile, which was even worse.

“I know, I know. I won’t.”

“Mark my words—you can’t buy love with gold. Your merchant’s common sense won’t work there. Don’t forget that!”

It was a teeth-grindingly tiresome thing to hear.

But also true.

“I’ll carve it on my heart,” said Lawrence, and only then did Ragusa release him, as if to say, “Well, that’s all right then.”

Ragusa’s face was now bright and cheerful as he refolded his arms, as though his sadness from a moment ago had been a lie.

There with his chest thrust out, he was every inch a boatman.

Lawrence let himself wonder for a moment if in ten or fifteen years he, too, would have this sort of presence.

But piling any more words up now would have made this act of their travels a bit dull.

He took Holo’s hand, at which she nodded, her expression composed.

“Well then, we’ll be off,” said Lawrence.

“Uh, wait—!”

At Col’s call, the pair looked back.

For just a moment, Lawrence considered that if Col were to ask to become his apprentice right there, he would be genuinely conflicted.

Col stammered there for a moment, as though unsure why he had called out. But then he said simply, “Thank you for everything!”

Col, who had called out “Master!” at their first meeting.

His manner just then was as though he was a true apprentice—the truth within the lie.

“Good luck to you,” said Lawrence, and he and Holo began walking.

Several times he was tempted to turn around and look, but in the end, he did not.

The reason why was obvious.

Next to him, Holo seemed like she wanted to turn and look even more.

“So we’ll head down along the river and get to whatever this port town is, and then what?” asked Holo, looking ahead with unnatural determination.

“Mm, once we get to Kerube, we’ll catch Eve.”

They had discussed it the previous night. There was no need to reconfirm the plan, but Holo probably wanted to change the subject from Col.

“So we’ll catch the vixen, and in exchange for her profits, we’ll make her tell us what she knows.”

“She conspired with the Church to smuggle goods, so if it’s about towns along this river, she should have all the inside information.”

“Hmph. So long as we get even with her, any reason will do.”

Lawrence chuckled; that one statement was not necessarily a lie.

He would have to be very careful that they didn’t get into a fight.

“But still, ’tis sometimes nice to take my wolf form and run ’neath the sun’s rays. My legs can easily overtake any ship, no matter how far a lead it might have.”

This was the reason they had gotten off Ragusa’s boat.

It would no longer be fast enough to catch up with Eve.

But since catching a horse would be even more impossible, this was the only other way.

“Then, once we’ve strong-armed whatever that company was called, we’ll come back up the river to the town from yesterday. And after that?”

“The Jean Company, yes. And we’re not going to strong-arm them. We don’t have the resources for that. I just want to put out some feelers. And after that…” Lawrence looked far off into the distance, then back at Holo. “We’ll decide when we get there.”

Holo knitted her brow at this, but this alone could not be helped.

What Holo truly hated was that the conversation would end here.

“Always so stubborn,” said Lawrence with a smile.

“Who’s stubborn?” asked the stubborn Holo.

She was apparently determined to feign ignorance.

Instead of challenging her on it, Lawrence decided to get right to the point. “It looked like you wanted to bring Col along.”

Holo’s lips visibly curled into a sneer. “I was only trying to bring him over so that when I leave, you wouldn’t be too lonely. If you’ve no use for him, there’s no need, is there?” she shot back, her speech rapid-fire.

It had actually been a simple explanation, free of emotion.

But Lawrence said nothing and just looked at Holo.

He knew that she understood well enough herself.

As he expected, eventually she could take it no longer, and she finally spoke.

“You’ve gotten rather tough.”

Her expression was hardly one he would expect a compliment to come from, but he took it as a compliment nonetheless.

Holo seemed to resign herself. “I don’t remember when it was, but once I met a boy and girl about his age on my travels,” she said, exasperated.

“Oh?”

“The pair were like baby chicks and didn’t know right from left. Nothing is more dangerous than such ignorance. I cared for them for a while, traveling with them. It was rather fun, in truth. This makes me think of that.”

No doubt she meant it.

But the truth of something was not everything.

“Also, I simply like the boy,” confessed Holo flatly. “Is that enough for you?”

She looked up at Lawrence through narrowed eyes.

“Would you really turn jealous of a child like that?” her impatient eyes demanded.

“I wish I could say, ‘Right then, let’s bring him along,’ of course—” Lawrence shrugged. “But I can’t.”

“I’ll just bet.”

One reason was because he was about to approach some dangerous business dealings.

Another reason was that it would make hiding Holo’s true identity continuously difficult.

And the last reason—

“What’s the last reason?” it was Holo’s turn to ask.

If he didn’t spit it out, she’d tear his throat out.

“I like traveling with just us two.”

But there was no longer any stubbornness or embarrassment in saying so.

Therefore, it was not something Holo would tease him about.

It was hasty to believe that familiarity bred contempt.

At Lawrence’s words, Holo’s expression suggested that she understood, and her hand squirmed a little ticklishly in his.

“I guessed the reasons were something like those, yes. And also—”

“Also?”

“You said it when we first met him, did you not? That if he wouldn’t seek his own salvation, you wouldn’t venture to help him.”

Which meant that if Col didn’t ask to come along, Lawrence wouldn’t offer.

Lawrence was about to reply, but stopped.

He thought of Col, stumbling over his words as they parted.

Surely he had been about to ask to be taken along.

Col surely had overheard Lawrence and Holo’s conversation about the wolf-god’s bones.

And if so, then he could hardly fail to take interest—having himself come from a village not so very far from Yoitsu.

If Lawrence intended to verify the truth of the stories, Col might well wish to know.

It was entirely plausible.

But when he had become tongue-tied, the reason it had tortured him so was no doubt because logic told him to return to school as quickly as possible.

Lawrence was sure this was true. “Well, even if he’d asked to come along on our travels, I would have refused.”

Holo was about to protest that that wasn’t what he’d promised, but without some selectivity, she would be in trouble.

“Now if he’d said, ‘If you turn me down, I’m prepared to die,’ I might think about it.”

“So you’re saying you don’t want anybody interfering with the two of us for less than that, then?”

A short pause.

“Fine, fine.”

“I’m sorry, did you say something?”

“I did not.”

Though their words seemed meant to drive each other away, the two continued to hold hands as they walked.

Lawrence, of course, understood that Holo had unilaterally decided to get close.

As for what Holo was thinking—it went without saying.

“Well then, do you think we can safely stray from the road now?”

Even if they were to look behind them, Ragusa and Col were out of sight.

The Roam River flowed silently beside them, and no one was around.

If they were to walk at a right angle to the river, they would be in the middle of vast plains. And there, Holo could become a wolf unwatched by human eyes.

Fixing his grip on Holo’s hand, Lawrence started to head into the unpopulated wilderness.

And then—

“What’s wrong?”

Holo had stopped.

He looked back at her, assuming she was playing at something, but she was looking dumbly back down the river.

“Is there something there?”

Lawrence felt a faint premonition.

And it must be said, a certain anticipation.

Near a town was one thing, but farther out than that, and these roads were near deserted come early morning.

Yet Lawrence saw a single figure running toward them up the road.

Still and silent, he stole a glance at Holo’s face as she watched the figure and sighed, amused. “You certainly do like children.”

Holo’s ears twitched.

To Lawrence’s faint surprise, it was close to the same twitch she used when he’d made a verbal slip.

What did he say wrong? Lawrence thought it over and could think of nothing.

Without looking at him, Holo spoke. “And what if I were to answer that I do like children—what would you do then?”

It was a strange question.

“What would I do? I don’t suppose I’d do any—ah…”

He had unconsciously let go of Holo’s hand, but Holo would hardly let him escape.

She snatched his hand up as though she were a cat catching a butterfly and pulled him back in.

Beneath her hood she wore a combative smile.

“I do like children, don’t I? Do I not?”

“Urgh…” Lawrence cursed his careless choice of words.

“Hmm? What’s that?” Holo’s tail flicked rapidly.

Lawrence could think of no objections or retorts.

The only thing to do would be to change the subject by force.

Just then, Holo gave up her attack. “Ah, well, I am the one who came to travel with you, after all. I’ll leave such decisions in your hands,” she said, stepping away from him.

Lawrence had a nervous sweat on his back—but the figure’s identity went without saying.

Col was heading toward them.

And he had hardly been sent to deliver some forgotten article.

Lawrence cleared his throat, trying to clear his verbal failure from a moment before.

From Holo’s chuckling, there would be no further pursuit.

“Well, if we wind up traveling together, you’re not going to be able to groom yourself as you please,” said Lawrence.

Holo gave a great sigh; it was not a joke, and Lawrence winced.

“Males always think themselves special,” she said.

“…”

“Think of where he’s from. I suppose we’ll just have to see whether or not he finds my form terrifying.”

Lawrence did not reply to those words, as Holo’s face was suddenly timid.

Unlike the Church, which would hunt her down as being demon possessed, a person from the northlands might simply fall prostrate before her.

Having gotten along so well with Col, Holo certainly would have hurt feelings if she received such treatment from the boy.

“Well, we’ll hear his reason and decide from there,” said Lawrence lightly.

Holo nodded, and it was but a moment later that Lawrence was able to finally hear Col’s footsteps as he ran up the road.

Col seemed to be running with all his might, and when he got within earshot of Lawrence and Holo, he abruptly slowed his pace; then, looking as if he might collapse, he stopped entirely.

He did not come any closer.

He was close enough for his voice to carry.

Lawrence said nothing.

Those who wanted something had to knock upon the door.

“Um!” Col managed to shout, his breath ragged.

He’d cleared the first barrier.

“Did I forget something?” Lawrence asked, playing dumb.

Col bit his lower lip.

He was surely anticipating being refused.

Children always assume that adults will fulfill their every request.

He’d cleared the second barrier.

Col shook his head.

“I-I have a favor to ask.”

Beside Lawrence, Holo stirred, perhaps trying to hide her face beneath the hood.

If Holo’s caring for the boy hadn’t been a strategy to get Lawrence to take him as an apprentice, then she probably couldn’t stand to see him walk this tightrope.

But Col cleared the third barrier easily.

It took a lot of courage to ask what one knew would be refused.

“What might that be? If it’s traveling expenses, I can’t help you,” Lawrence said.

Col’s eyes did not waver at the deliberate jab.

Lawrence wanted to just say “sure” for once.

If the rest went like his usual business, he would be able to readily agree.

“N-no, it’s not that. I just—”

“You just?” Lawrence asked, and Col looked at the ground for a moment, then balled up his fists and looked back up.

“You’re going to go see the truth about the wolf of Rupi, aren’t you? Please take me with you! Please!” Col said and took a step forward.

Col was hardly going to steal from them in the night, and his character was perfect for an apprentice.

But that was exactly why Lawrence wanted him to be able to pursue his own goals.

After all, he could not guarantee that his travels with Holo would henceforth bear much fruit.

They were searching for the truth behind a dangerous rumor.

“You may not make any money,” warned Lawrence. “And there may be danger. And the rumor might turn out to be a barefaced lie.”

“I don’t mind if it’s a lie! I can put myself at ease. And I’m fine with danger. If it wasn’t for you, I would have died alongside this river!” said Col, swallowing hard.

No doubt he’d gotten thirsty, dashing up this cold, dry length of road.

Which was why when Col dropped his threadbare burlap sack, Lawrence assumed it was to get a drink of water.

He soon realized that was not it.

“I can return the money I received, I think. And—” He thrust his hand into the bag, then pulled it out.

His small hand held something tightly.

“P-please!”

“You can’t go back to Mr. Ragusa’s boat now.”

At Lawrence’s words, something like a tearful smile appeared on Col’s face.

In Col’s hand was a red copper coin.

Lawrence didn’t have to look closely to know—it was a newly minted eni.

The boy was determined.

Col looked straight at Lawrence.

“…”

Lawrence let go of Holo’s hand and scratched his head.

Col had gotten this far; there was no reason to refuse.

No matter how prepared he might be, just thinking about it, Lawrence could hardly turn him down.

For reasons all his own, Col had come all the way south to Aquent to study, been kicked out, then wandered the land.

And he’d never wavered, Lawrence knew.

Lawrence looked at Holo.

“Are your tests quite finished?” her eyes demanded.

“Fine, fine!” said Lawrence, as though out of patience, and Col’s face broke into a huge smile, and he clasped his chest and slumped in relief at having made it across the tightrope.

“However—,” Lawrence continued, and the boy winced. “If you’re going to travel with us, there is something you should know.”

He knew he was being a bit overdramatic, but having gotten this far Lawrence, too, wanted the boy to come along.

There was a chance Col had taken the night lookout duty in order to steal a copper coin from Ragusa’s boat, after all.

“Er…what…is it?”

Holo looked around, then untied the sash around her waist with a practiced hand.

Lawrence wondered if the relish with which she did so was his imagination.

Holo could easily grasp another’s thoughts.

She had already long since anticipated what Col’s reaction would be.

Though he didn’t yet understand why, Col saw that Holo seemed to be taking her clothes off, and he stiffened. Lawrence came over, and taking him by the shoulder, he turned him around.

Swissh, swissh came the sound of unwrapping silk. Col looked up at Lawrence, his face red with confusion.

Such a naive lad, thought Lawrence, but when he realized Holo must think much the same thing when looking at Lawrence himself, his thoughts were complicated.

“—nchoo!”

The sneeze was Holo’s.

And as for the outcome of the bet—

Holo was the winner.

How can Col’s reaction be described?

He cried out, to be sure.

And it was a grand cry indeed.

But it was clear that it was not a fearful cry.

His face was near a smile and near tears, as well.

When Holo licked Col’s face with her great tongue, he fell clear on his backside, and Lawrence finally found the words to describe Col’s reaction.

It was like a boy meeting his hero.

That was exactly it.

“You seem dissatisfied.”

When Holo had first shown her wolf form to Lawrence, he’d mistakenly shied away.

So he could hardly complain when she grumbled this at him and nudged his head with her nose.

Once Col had regained his composure, he’d made a hesitant request, which they were now fulfilling.

“That tickles. Are you quite finished?” Holo swished her tail, and out from behind it appeared Col.

Who would have thought that his first reaction upon seeing Holo’s form would be to ask if he could touch her tail?

The request had surprised Holo, too, and she had been so delighted that her tail had wagged enough to make it hard for Col to touch.

“I suppose this was fated somehow,” said Lawrence, folding up Holo’s clothes and packing them away.

“Ah—er, so you’ll take me with you, then…?” Col realized that in all the fuss of seeing Holo’s true nature, he had completely forgotten his original request, and he quickly returned to himself.

“We’d be in trouble if the Church found out about us. We can’t very well let someone who knows go free,” said Lawrence with mischief in his eyes, patting Col’s head. “But stealing copper coins from Ragusa’s boat was going a bit too far.”

The amount wasn’t much, but theft was still theft.

When the chests arrived in Kerube, it would be Ragusa who would take the blame.

“Uh, the—copper coins?” Col’s reaction was a bit strange. “I didn’t actually steal those.”

“Oh?” asked Lawrence. Holo, too, seemed interested and lay on her belly next to the other two, listening.

“Actually I figured out the reason why the copper coin chests don’t add up.”

“Wha—?” Lawrence found himself exclaiming, leaning forward, and with more than a little frustration. “…And then what happened?”

“Er, yes, well, I planned to steal some at first. Once I understood the reason the amounts didn’t add up, it seemed like it would be easy.”

Lawrence remembered Col the previous night, lining up coins under the moonlight.

Had he figured everything out by then?

“That’s why I volunteered for the night watch. I thought even if I told you I wanted to go with you, you might refuse, and…but Mr. Ragusa had been really nice to me, and I couldn’t just steal from him, so…I told him everything. That I wanted to go with you and Holo and also that I wanted to trade the information about the copper coins for my boat fare.”

Ragusa’s conflicted face came to Lawrence’s mind.

“So where did you get those coins?”

“I got them from Mr. Ragusa. But not out of the chests—he gave them to me out of his own coin purse. For luck, he said. And also—”

“And also so that when you caught up to us, you could pretend you’d stolen them and couldn’t go back,” said Holo, and Col smiled apologetically.

“That’s right.”

Ragusa really had taken a liking to the boy.

And yet he’d spoken out for him, despite his own feelings.

Lawrence almost wanted to tell Col to give up on the path of learning and go become Ragusa’s apprentice instead.

“So that is that. Shall we be off, then? People are coming,” said Holo, raising her head and looking far off into the distance.

It would be bothersome if they were spotted by travelers.

Lawrence and Col hastily got to their feet and resumed their preparations to leave, but just as Col was climbing upon Holo’s back (at her urging), Lawrence said, “I have one thing to ask you.”

Col stopped and looked back at Lawrence; Holo, too, regarded him with her amber eyes. “What is it?” the boy asked.

Lawrence’s face was extremely serious as he spoke. “Just before you and I walked together yesterday, this wolf whispered something to you, didn’t she? What did she say?”

He’d been evaded once before, but Lawrence now asked again.

Col looked as though if he said anything, there would be no more talk of traveling. “Er…”

He looked at Holo uncertainly, as though she’d told him not to say anything.

“If you say, there’s no telling what these fangs may do,” said Holo, baring those same fangs, but her voice made it clear she was smiling.

Col’s wide, intelligent eyes moved, and Lawrence could tell he was trying to divine the truth of Holo’s threat.

He soon seemed to arrive at the answer.

He smiled, nodded. “I’m sorry. I can’t say,” he replied, fully on Holo’s side now.

“Heh-heh-heh. Come now. Hurry and get on.”

Col bowed to Lawrence with an apologetic smile, then climbed on Holo’s back.

Lawrence could only scratch his head with a resigned sigh.

“What is the matter?” Holo’s stern wolf face was still capable of expressing subtle emotion. She had a malicious smile as she spoke through her sharp fangs.

“Not a thing.” Lawrence shrugged, then climbed on.

He had more or less expected that this was how things would be when Col joined them.

But if he was asked whether that was a bad thing, he could only shrug.

“Oh, one more thing,” said Lawrence as he sat astride Holo, behind the nervous Col. “What was the reason the chests didn’t add up?”

“Oh, that’s—”

Just as Col was about to answer, Holo silently got to her feet. “That’s something you should figure out for yourself,” she said shortly.

“…What, you’ve understood it, too?” Lawrence asked in disbelief, at which Holo raised her chin slightly to regard him as her ears flicked.

“And why not? But one thing is certain,” she said, beginning to walk slowly but gradually speeding up as she became used to the sensations of this form.

Soon she was moving quickly enough that the wind was bitingly cold unless her passengers crouched down.

“You’ll take more enjoyment from puzzling over the coins than from talking to me, will you not?” came her resentful sarcasm.

Immediately thereafter she increased her speed dramatically—which was surely done on purpose.

Lawrence grumbled as he tightened his grip on her fur and crouched lower.

Col sat in front of him, so when they crouched, the boy was half underneath him.

Which meant that when Col giggled, Lawrence knew.

The scenery began to blur.

The wind was like ice.

But there in the bitterly cold wind, Lawrence smiled faintly.

His heart was warm.

A journey of three unlikely companions.

Lawrence knew of a single word to describe the situation.

Yet he didn’t let it cross his lips.

He wouldn’t do that.

But when it came time to write of his travels with Holo, perhaps he would lightly write it there in the margins of the thick volume.

Like this:

And so, the trio’s journey began.

Yes—yes, indeed.

It was very much like a rehearsal.

But no.

He wouldn’t write it.

Not in the actual book.

Carefully, so Holo wouldn’t notice, Lawrence smiled.

The journey had begun, full of hope—the journey to end the journey.