Hildir’s decision, to found a mint here and pay the town when their coins were issued, was unprecedented. Even if Hildir became Diva’s leader, he couldn’t be the same threat to Sovereign he would have been otherwise. If Diva abused their power, then Sovereign and the northern barons would never trust them again. Hildir had essentially founded a long-term peace between them. Milicky surely realized how much of a concession that was.
“I couldn’t have done it without the rest of you.”
Hildir, Myuri, Lawrence, and Holo were all pivotal players in this, and it wouldn’t have worked out otherwise.
“Lawrence.”
Hildir spoke up after a brief moment of silence.
“Yes?”
Lawrence looked up to see Hildir watching Myuri direct the hard-working mercenaries. He was talking to Lawrence as he surveyed everyone else.
“Won’t you join us?”
Hildir turned to face him, and Lawrence knew what his offer meant. His was the largest of the mining firms, and one that had the clout to create a new system of currency in the whole of the north. Such an invitation from such an impressive merchant was even more rewarding than starting his own shop. However, this time Lawrence’s head turned to face Myuri, with Hildir left looking at him. It was an incredible offer, the kind a traveling peddler couldn’t even dream of.
“And if I accept, I’ll be able to chase my dreams as I will, yes?”
“Of course. I guarantee it.”
Hildir made it clear that he had already decided this, so Lawrence didn’t hesitate to give his response.
“That’s why I can’t do it.”
He smiled and continued.
“The more we talk about it, the more I’ll be tempted by it. So I’m afraid I’ll have to politely decline.”
Hildir didn’t need him to spell it out; he was already staring at Lawrence. He knew he couldn’t win this time, so he just turned back to watch Myuri again.
“I see.”
And yet, Hildir couldn’t resist cracking a joke.
“If I knew this would all happen, I would have become a pretty young girl as well.”
Lawrence couldn’t contain his laughter, and had to clutch his cane so he wouldn’t collapse on the ground.
“If you had, Holo would have eaten you!”
“..I am a rabbit, after all.”
Hildir smiled.
“What a pity.. Hey, where are you going?”
“Back to the inn. It’s not like I can help get this furnace going again, so I’ll just be in the way.”
Hildir’s voice practically dripped with sincerity now.
“Not at all! We were all just as hurt, and you’re the one who put that Yanerkin in his place. Besides, if it hadn’t been for you, then Myuri-”
Lawrence raised his hand with a tired smile, and Hildir paused. Lawrence knew what he was going to say, and he too wanted to stay and watch the gold coins being minted. But he wouldn’t do it this time. The scales of his heart tilted far too easily, so this was one feast he couldn’t attend.
“If I don’t leave now, I never will.”
Hildir wanted to speak up and convince Lawrence to stay, but he had long since understood Lawrence’s relationship with Holo. The danger wasn’t over now for Lawrence, and it was Hildir who had asked Holo to flee with Lawrence. This was Lawrence’s first actual chance to make good on that and flee. Hildir could tell that was what he was talking about, so he begrudgingly let Lawrence leave with a nod.
“I understand. Then I’ll just make sure you’re informed when the coins are minted.”
“Thank you.”
With that, Lawrence finally left the furnace. It was so hot inside that all those busy workers were drenched with sweat. Being caught up in that sweltering atmosphere made Lawrence feel a tinge of pain when the cold night air hit his skin. He could have stayed and reveled in the victory celebration they had earned for winning such a crazy bet, but that wasn’t where he belonged.
He slowly trudged on until he noticed someone walking toward him and the furnace. For just a split second, he wondered who would be coming to the party so late, when he realized it was Holo.. carrying a large bottle of wine.
“Oh, where are you going?”
“I should be the one asking you that!”
She waggled the bottle.
“I was given wine, and wanted to drink it with you, so I came.”
“I felt like I was in the way there, so I decided to go back to the inn.”
He smiled at Holo’s nagging.
“Good thinking.”
She looked like a wife coming down on her drunken husband by banning him from going to the pub. He knew he deserved this kind of treatment for his many mistakes, so he didn’t dare look her in the eyes. Instead, he tried to change the topic.
“You say you were given this wine? By whom?”
“Whom? What was his name again? You know, that stupid guy.”
It seemed that Holo was back to not remembering people’s names.
“Milicky?”
She nodded.
“But why would he send us wine..”
Holo looked entirely unhappy now.
“What do you mean? Are you saying he poisoned it?”
“Well, no..”
Lawrence had until now been unable to understand Milicky’s thought process. He had that strange “half human, half beast” quality that Holo also had. Lawrence didn’t exactly find him suspicious, but he didn’t trust him either. Holo, on the other hand, seemed to have figured him out right from the start. She was staring at Lawrence.
“There are many things you have missed lately. Everyone has a side they do not show, yes?”
Holo was right, but.. what exactly had Lawrence missed?
“It was during our second chat with Hildir.. oh, that is right.. you were not there..”
Back then Holo had left their room so she could “tidy her tail,” and came back rather annoyed. So something had happened..
“I have been doing my best to be nice.”
“Nice?”
“I have been treating this as.. well, a lesson.”
Holo was murmuring now.
“That stupid guy has been watching over a grave, you see.”
“A.. grave?”
“Well, I do not know exactly what happened, but I have heard that his companion, a human, died some decades ago. Since this was her home he lay her to rest here, hoping that she could find peace here even though he was not able to save her, blah blah blah. Jeez, could he not have thought of something more meaningful than that?”
Holo was speaking in a playful tone, but her face might as well have been made of stone. It was obvious that this was an issue dear to her heart.
“Then, you-”
“Seeing me hold your hand so tightly before his eyes must have been a reminder of his past.”
Surely she meant that Milicky was both happy for Holo and jealous of her at the same time. That would explain why he had acted the way he did.
“Then he sent the rabbit out to ask me to speak with him. So I went.”
Lawrence was going to end up like Milicky’s wife. He would grow old, infirm, and ultimately die. It was unavoidable, and Holo knew that. She had been left behind before, so of course she would be worried. But Lawrence still held her hand, and she was willing to let him. What could she have told Milicky, a man who had been watching over his wife’s grave all of this time? Holo calmly continued.
“I told him, ‘just go find another companion as soon as possible, fool.”’
“..”
Lawrence stopped dead in his tracks as Holo walked on ahead of him. She soon stopped and looked back at him with a grin on her face.
“You truly are adorable.”
She giggled and continued walking, and Lawrence had to admit that he didn’t want her to be sad after he died. He couldn’t help but wish that didn’t mean another would be at her side, but at least he was the one stepping forward to be at her s
ide right now.
“And yet, if we had not met I would still be in that field, and you would still be driving around working for your future family.”
Her impetuous tone was matched by the way she angrily opened the door to their inn. She didn’t hold the door open for him either, of course. He had to lean into his cane and find the doorknob in the dark, them clumsily force the door open and stumble indoors.
“And of course, you would be carrying that wine right now..”
It was silent in the inn; everyone was probably out working on the furnace. Lawrence had to feel his way around while Holo briskly stepped ahead of him.
“..but I wouldn’t be here talking to you.”
Holo stopped. She wasn’t making any noise, but he could tell she was smiling at him. A moment later, her light footsteps continued up the stairs. He did his best to keep up with her, but by the time they were at the fourth floor he was panting for dear life.
“You said you would not be here talking to me, but you are not talking anyhow. Fool!”
Her shout almost made him fall back downstairs, but she grabbed him and pulled him up. He was scared out of his wits, especially since she was laughing.
“Now you know how scary it is.”
“..?”
He just stared blankly at her, or rather at the outline of her face that was all he could see. Her words were just as vague to him as her appearance was right now.
“Alright, we are here.”
Holo flung open the shutters in their room, and everything lit up. Well, not really, but Lawrence was still able to find his way to the bed under the dim moonlight. He was finally able to sit down and catch his breath. When he’d calmed down a bit, he finally noticed that Holo was right in front of him. However, he didn’t get the chance to ask her for a cup of water. He looked up to see a face of genuine anger.
“Hey.”
Her voice was ice cold but her eyes were red hot. He could see the moonlight reflecting on her eyes.
“Did you not tell me you would never put yourself in danger again?”
This again? But he hadn’t put himself in danger! He was ready to run, and was put into risk this time! When she saw the pained look on his face, Holo hummed and drew close to him.
“Alright.. I know that you did not choose it this time.”
He wanted to nod in agreement, but her sharp glare stopped him.
“But you still broke your promise regardless. Now I know how you will respond if this sort of thing happens again, but I cannot promise I will be there every time. You had best remember that, or you will come to harm.”
He couldn’t tell if she just wanted to vent or was sincerely warning him, so he settled on both.
“I mean, how can I trust you after this..?”
He badly wanted to tell her about how he’d rejected Hildir’s offer a few minutes ago.. but it was pointless. Words alone wouldn’t mean anything. This was hardly the first time she’d blamed him for such a thing. He looked up at her like a shamed criminal begging for forgiveness.
“I know, I know.. you are just a selfless fool.. and you are not really wrong in what you do.”
“..?”
Lawrence’s head tilted ever so slightly as he tried to figure out where she was going. She raised her voice every so slightly in response.
“That is why I suspect you will at least honor a contract, even if you cannot honor your promises.”
“Huh?”
His questioning tone earned him a smack in the face, but her hand stopped and rubbed his face before turning his head to face her.
“Even that stupid church girl knows..”
Holo’s fangs were on full threat display. Lawrence was already jumping back to what happened when they were retrieving the banned book in the snow. Elsa must have said something to Holo, but what would it have to do with the present situation?
He was so anxious that Holo couldn’t resist toying with him some more. She moved her hands to take his head as though she was going to eat him. With Holo, one could never really tell if she would finally do it, but this time she only ended up staring into his eyes.
“..that witnesses must be present for a contract to be formed. She even told me so.”
Obviously the word “contract” meant something very different when it came from the mouth of someone like Elsa, who had grown up with the Church, then when it came from Lawrence’s mouth.
“Wha..?”
Now Holo was really annoyed, but Lawrence was doing it on purpose. He knew what kind of contract she meant. He nodded to make that clear, and even though she eyed him doubtfully her shoulders eventually relaxed. After sighing, she smiled out of embarrassment. Once more she moved her face closer to his, and he marvelled at how silky her skin looked in the moonlight.
Only humans made that kind of contract in God’s presence, he thought, so perhaps wolves preferred to do it in the moon’s presence? He held her waist, and she offered no resistance. Her head tilted forward, spilling her hair onto his shoulder. He felt the time was right, so he closed his eyes. After moving his head forward for what felt like an eternity, he finally felt contact.. with her index finger.
“Oh, right, I almost forgot..”
He opened his eyes to see Holo standing up beside him again.
“Oh come on..”
He tried taking her hand, but she softly evaded him. His instinct to stand and give chase only lasted as long as it took for the pain in his leg to force him back down. He shot her a betrayed stare.
“Oh, do not look at me like that.”
Of course, that was just her way of hiding the fact that she wanted to see that look on his face. “So malicious,” he thought, but as usual he couldn’t bear to complain when he saw the look in her eyes.
It wasn’t surprising that she would be jealous of how effortlessly his heart was caught by dreams of a merchant utopia. She’d made that abundantly clear, but he never really learned his lesson. He knew all he could do was sit on the bed like an angry dog being scolded by its master, and Holo placed her hands on her hips when she saw that.
“Hmph. Indeed, I nearly forgot that when a new contract is made, the old one must be resolved.”
“What old one?”
Holo laughed at his confusion.
“The one where you promised to take me home to Yoitsu!”
“Ah.. right..”
How could he tell her he’d forgotten all about that already? In a twist of fate, they were once again forming a contract under the moonlight. The last time, it was between a lonely Wisewolf wishing to go home and a merchant who wished to earn enough money to find himself a home. It was quite a remarkable coincidence. As he looked at her, her expression softened until she looked up at the moon. She was trying to conceal her embarrassment.
“I still remember, you know.”
“Hmm?”
She turned back to him with a smile.
“How important it was for you to see that your companion made it home.”
He remembered saying that, but their trip had been so strange that he couldn’t remember when. All he knew was that it made him happy that she remembered. It confirmed that she was thinking of him just as much as he was thinking of her. She laughed, and he joined in before sighing.
“Yoitsu.. Yoitsu..”
“That is your home, isn’t it?”
“It is, but..”
“Hmm?”
He turned to face her, and couldn’t resist taking a shot of his own.
“Care for a drink while you figure that one out?”
He lifted the bottle of wine from Milicky and waggled it just like she had earlier. After all, she wanted to drink with him, didn’t she?
“Hmm.. very well. I do not have to trust you to know that you would not dare to do anything to me when I am drunk.”
At this point she could say whatever she wanted; he didn’t feel like arguing anymore. She took the bottle from his hand and picked up a glass that was on the bed. At first he
was confused as to why there was only one glass, but the moment his eyes began searching for another she knocked him on the head.
“You really are stupid.”
Her tail was wagging in utter joy as she continued.
“T’would seem that you are already drunk.”
“Perhaps, but it seems like someone already beat me to it.”
“Fool!”
She popped the cork and filled the glass as Lawrence held it. Just then, under the moonlight, they heard a loud mechanical noise outside. It sounded like the furnace had finally been restored, and everyone was stepping on the tremendous bellows to fan its first flames.
The northern winters were so long, but now they would have a golden sun as their currency. Myuri had once mentioned how much he loved seeing the sun rise after marching all night, and now a new age was being heralded by coins that had that very image imprinted on them.
And yet here was Lawrence, in his room at the inn, giving up on seeing the first coin being minted, with no trace of regret. He held that wine glass until it was poured, then lifted it up to see the moonlight reflecting through it.. but what he was really looking at was Holo’s smile.
“Oh ho..”
It was the smile of his lover, a smile brighter than the sun and worth more than any golden coins.
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Spice & Wolf XVI (DWT) Page 19