“… Fool!”
Staggering back at the surprisingly forceful impact, he saw Holo glaring at him, still holding on to his clothes as if to prevent his escape.
“Y-your personality? Your personality? At least be a man and tell a lie worth falling for, you dunce!”
Lawrence winced in spite of himself. Holo could see through that much.
“S-sorry. The truth is–”
But that’s as far as he got.
Still grabbing his collar, Holo grinned.
“Hear this, you. There are times when I want you to tell me something even if it’s a lie, and times when if you lie to me it makes me want to give your face a sound beating. Which of these do you think we now face?”
He was so stunned by her malicious smile that he barely managed to say, “The latter,” whereupon Holo gave a long-suffering sigh and shoved him away.
Her ears and tail twitched her displeasure. Her anger was easy to understand.
“Oh, you’re a rare dunce indeed! How many males are there in the world, do you think, who would not have managed to say, ‘I’m in love with you,’ or ‘You’re precious to me,’ or any other line to get a female to fall for him? I can see quite clearly what you are thinking, but I simply cannot believe it – I cannot believe you are such a soft touch!”
Her eyes had gone past amazement and into disdain, but she didn’t seem too irked.
Thinking about it the other way, Holo had wanted him to say it.
“But I suppose ’tis that same quality that lets me travel with you so easily. One can’t have everything one wants.”
Her comments were scattered, but Lawrence had no real rebuttal.
What had Holo really wanted him to feel when he delivered this supposed line?
Had she just been acting spoiled, teasing him? Or perhaps…
As soon as it occurred to Lawrence, Holo reached her hand smoothly over to him and drew him near.
Lawrence was immediately on guard for whatever she was planning, but she soon made her motive clear.
“Still, I did want to hear you say it. So come now, try again.”
All he could think of to say was “Give me a break, please,” but he knew doing so would call down a fiery wrath upon him.
Holo gave a slight cough and looked at him entirely expectant; Lawrence took a deep breath, preparing himself. The way she looked at him couldn’t possibly be an act.
“Why are you so softhearted?” she asked again.
She looked even more serious than before, her sad eyes glistening and her lip trembling slightly.
He could feel the blood rising to his face, but Lawrence steeled himself and spoke anyway.
“Because you’re very special to me.”
She looked happy – so happy that it couldn’t be an act – and bowed her head, resting it against his chest.
The unexpected gesture took Lawrence by surprise. Holo looked up at him, pouting, then took his arms and guided them around her back.
Apparently he was supposed to hold her.
It was so absurd and oddly endearing that he was stunned for a moment. Her tail swished as he embraced her slim body. It made him so happy, he dared to squeeze a bit tighter.
It was not long, but somehow the moment seemed to last.
Holo moved in his arms, which brought Lawrence back to himself – at which point, she laughed.
“Ha-ha-ha, what are we doing?”
“You made me do it!” said Lawrence, releasing her.
“Hee-hee. I suppose it was a good rehearsal for you,” said Holo mischievously.
Lawrence was in no mood to give her a serious reply.
When he slumped, she laughed hugely.
“Still, I must say–” she said, apparently not finished. “Next time, just make me angry, yes? ’Tis nice you were so thoughtful, but sometimes it is quicker to have a nice loud row and solve our problems that way.”
It was a strange thing to say, but Lawrence couldn’t bring himself to disagree.
It was not an idea he would ever have come up with himself, but it seemed fresh and somehow warm to him.
“Right, then. Looking at your face I can imagine how you got the money together – how much?”
“Three lumione and two-sevenths.”
Her ears twitching, Holo again put her forehead against Lawrence’s chest. If she tried to blow her nose against him, he was going to push her away, but as she was just wiping her tears, he let her be.
When she finally looked up, she was back to her old self.
With a proud smile, she began to speak.
“You were right to count on my wit. I have a cunning plan.”
“Wha… what is it?”
Lawrence leaned forward unconsciously out of a mix of curiosity and surprise; Holo made a face and pulled away.
“Don’t look too forward to it, or else I’ll worry about not being able to do it,” prefaced Holo, and then she launched into a very brief description of her scheme.
It was simplicity and straightforwardness itself. It was so simple, in fact, that Lawrence’s eyes bulged.
“What think you? Can it be done?”
“I’m sure everyone’s thought the same thing, but it’s actually impossible. I’m sure there are those who’ve tried it and been caught.”
“Oh, surely, if you have to get a bunch of different people to cooperate. You’d never make it past the first gate.”
Holo had suggested smuggling in gold, using an incredibly simple, straightforward method.
Lawrence would never have imagined Holo the Wisewolf could make such a dangerous, hopeless proposal.
Unsurprisingly, she then made the case for why the plan was, in fact, possible.
“I swear on my own ears and tail, I happen to know exactly who we can count on to turn this plan into reality. From what I saw, she can certainly do it. In truth, I’m reluctant to ask her.
“Even I can jump over the city walls if need be. But with your predicament, we don’t have that luxury.”
Lawrence, of course, soon understood who Holo was talking about.
Holo was almost certainly right as far as this person’s ability was concerned.
But smuggling gold into Ruvinheigen wasn’t simply a matter of getting it through the checkpoints. Being caught meant death, so everyone involved had to understand the risks and be willing to trust each other with their very lives.
There were many other problems, as well. There was no question that persuading the carrier was a daunting task. No matter how great the potential reward, you were still placing your life in the hands of another.
However, if smuggling gold in were a possibility, Lawrence could not afford to ignore it. It couldn’t be dismissed out of hand.
“So if help can be secured, you think it’s possible?” asked Lawrence.
“I should think so, as long as nothing extraordinary happens.”
“I see…”
Lawrence’s mind was already thinking about what would be necessary to smuggle in gold.
To even propose it, he and Holo would need to offer the carrier enough money to offset the danger and ensure his or her silence. The amount they could make by smuggling in gold bought in some other town with the three lumione they had on hand wouldn’t be enough. They would lose all the potential profit just by compensating their partner. And compensation aside, it was doubtful that the gain made on three lumione could even approach the amount of Lawrence’s debt. They had to pull in more capital. Holo, who said she could get past each checkpoint, realized this and suggested an alternate plan. Even if they proposed this plan to a potential investor, explaining the smuggling part would be a problem. Even more, they had to trust that the person lending them this money and aiding in the smuggling would not betray them. And those weren’t even the biggest problems. The biggest problem of all was that Lawrence had no time.
He was deep in thought when he felt a tug on his hand, bringing him out of his reverie.
He soon realized that nothing
had pulled him – rather Holo had extricated her intertwined fingers from his and had withdrawn her hand.
“Right, I’ll leave you to work out the little details,” she said. “I’m going to sleep.”
She yawned, and then her tail flicked once in a sort of sigh as she walked slowly over to the bed.
“What, now?” Lawrence had planned on borrowing her intelligence again, but she had crawled under the plain blanket on the bed and popped out only her head to regard him.
“I know nothing of the city. I’ve nothing to offer save the fact that it is possible to get gold into the city.”
Lawrence internally conceded the point, at which Holo smiled.
“Or, what, do you want me to stay beside you there?”
Unfazed, Lawrence remembered the “rehearsal.” “I certainly do.”
“It’s cold, so no.”
Holo’s head disappeared beneath the blanket, but her tail – which seemed much warmer than the blanket – waved happily.
Lawrence took a deep breath, smiling at this, the sort of pleasant exchange that never happened when one traveled alone.
If he didn’t figure something out between the sun rising and setting tomorrow, everything pleasant in his life would wind up sacrificed as an offering at the feet of the gods.
However, there was hope. He had no choice but to make that seed of hope bloom into a flower of success.
He sat in the chair Holo had lifted earlier and picked up the leather coin purse from the floor.
The familiar sound of jingling coins echoed in the quiet room.
A wagon clattered noisily along the cobblestone road, and Lawrence looked out the window to see the wagon’s bed piled high with produce – probably a merchant heading to the marketplace first thing in the morning. Other people started to emerge here and there as well.
Just as Lawrence thought that it was about time for the morning sermon bell, the great cathedral bells echoed out through the whitening morning sky. Despite the considerable distance, the weighty sound carried quite well.
Then, before the echo of the great bells had faded, the bells from the many smaller churches that dotted the city answered the call; a little riot of sound to start the morning.
The townspeople were used to this, but for travelers used to dawn breaking with naught but birdsong, it was a bit raucous. And to a wolf whose hearing far surpassed that of any human, the noise was more than a bit raucous. She moaned her displeasure before rolling out of bed.
“…”
“Good morning.”
Holo said nothing, only nodding glumly.
“I’m hungry” were finally the first words from her mouth.
“If we head to the plaza, the stalls should be opening soon.”
“Mm,” said Holo, stretching almost catlike, then combing her silky hair. “So, having thought about it for a night, what do you think?”
“We can do it.”
It was such a short, blunt answer that Holo, who had finished with her hair and was now combing her much more important tail, looked up, surprised.
“That’s an awfully quick answer for you,” she said.
“What do you mean?”
Holo looked away purposely. Lawrence continued, ignoring her.
“Although, in any case, there are two barriers we have to overcome.”
“Two?”
“In addition to whoever’s carrying the gold, we have to find an investor who will help us buy up our supply. The three lumione I have on hand won’t even be enough to compensate the carrier.”
Holo thought for a moment, then looked at Lawrence doubtfully. “There is one more problem, is there not? You only have today. Can you bring the gold into the city so quickly?”
The self-proclaimed wisewolf’s thinking was quick as usual.
But he’d had all night to think, and his mind had reached a place the wisewolf’s had yet to settle.
“Naturally I’ve thought of that. It seemed like the biggest problem to me, as well. Call it strange, call it a miracle, but there is a key to solving all of those problems.”
“Oh ho.”
Lawrence smiled proudly at Holo, who regarded him as a master would a student about to be tested.
“We’ll get the Remelio Company to invest.”
Holo tilted her head slightly.
The Remelio Company was in the process of failing, just as Lawrence was. But it was hard to imagine that they were so stone broke that they would need to do the same kind of naive door knocking as Lawrence. They would probably have enough capital to fund one last attempt at a grand comeback, and those last precious funds would support the gold smuggling. Since the Remelio Company itself was on the verge of ruin, they would have every reason to be interested in a reliable plan to move gold.
Such smuggling was extremely susceptible to betrayal. In other words, once the smuggling was proposed to them and they were on board, it would be bad for them if Lawrence preceded them on the road to ruin. There was no need for discretion on the part of those already headed for death. Lawrence would have only to say, “The Remelio Company is planning to smuggle gold,” and their plans for a comeback would be destroyed.
Thus, they would have no choice but to postpone the repayment of Lawrence’s debt, and in order to protect against betrayal, Lawrence had no choice but to make them his accomplice.
This was his conclusion the previous night.
“But, in any case, we still lack time.”
This was the biggest problem that faced them.
“Mm. Shall we then go right after breakfast?”
“Breakfast?”
“One can hardly fight on an empty stomach.”
Now that Holo mentioned it, Lawrence thought back and realized he had not had a bite since lunch the previous day, but either because of the all-nighter he had pulled or because of the intense work that was left to do, he did not have much appetite.
But Holo was entirely cheerful as she hopped off the bed, fastened her robe and skirt snugly around her waist, and put her kerchief on her head.
“Some meat would be nice!”
Even if he had been fit as a fiddle, Lawrence would have found the idea of meat first thing in the morning entirely distasteful.
After taking breakfast at a stall, Lawrence and Holo headed on foot to the Remelio Company. Since they weren’t arriving on a cart and horse, they called this time at the front door entrance.
As one might expect given that the entrance faced the street, it did not seem much different from normal, but once they opened the door, which bore no sign reading either OPEN or CLOSED, the unmistakable odor of financial troubles filled Lawrence’s nose.
It was clearly a different atmosphere from outside, where hope bloomed in the morning air. Here, despair lurked in every nook and cranny, and there was a hungry impatience, a feverish aura scattered throughout the place. The simple presence or absence of money could change the very atmosphere.
“Er, might I ask who is there?”
The middle-aged man who greeted them wore a hard expression; it was early for a sudden visit. Nonetheless, he was relatively calm and his voice polite. He was thin and probably always had been.
“My name is Lawrence. I visited yesterday. There is something I would very much like to speak with Mr. Remelio about…”
“Is that so? This way, please… Oh, I’m terribly sorry, your companion–”
“She’s my apprentice. It’s convenient for her to be dressed as a town girl at the moment, but I look forward to her becoming a fine merchant woman in the near future. I’d like her to sit in on the meeting.”
Lawrence spun the great lie without any hesitation, and the man seemed to accept it. Female merchants were uncommon, and girls aiming to become one were even less so.
“If you’ll follow me, then…”
Lawrence followed the man into the building, Holo trailing after him. The workers on the first-floor office sported blood-shot, dark-circled eyes. Just like Lawrence�
��s previous days, they had been working frantically through the nights on ways to raise money most likely.
“Please wait here.”
They were led to a room on the third floor. This was probably the room normally used for negotiations about jewels, spices, and other high-priced items. Lawrence sat not on a plain cloth chair, but on an overstuffed couch with leather cushions.
“May I convey what your business with us is today, Mr. Lawrence?”
“I’d like to discuss a way to settle my debt with this company, and possibly for this company to settle its own debts as well,” said Lawrence smoothly and evenly, looking straight into the man’s eyes.
The man straightened as if struck by lightning, his eyes widening. He considered Lawrence with obvious doubt in his eyes, probably wondering if this visit to a struggling company was the last-ditch effort of a thief.
“Your doubt is entirely understandable. That is why I’d like to speak with Mr. Remelio as soon as possible.”
The man appeared flustered at having been seen through. “I will take the message to the master,” he said, taking his leave.
Eight or nine times out of ten, Remelio would have taken the bait – nothing Lawrence said was a lie. The only people who called on a company whose bankruptcy was near were those proposing liquidation arrangements. Merchants trying to salvage as much money as possible from a sinking ship would gather like ravenous ghosts. They could not possibly ignore someone coming along with even the flickering possibility of turning their fortunes around.
Holo’s gold-smuggling proposal would potentially yield enough profit to wipe out the Remelio Company’s vast debt, to say nothing of Lawrence’s relatively meager liability.
However, the plan would never succeed unless the Remelio Company was fully involved.
Additionally, if people in the company were caught, they wouldn’t be spared execution. The Remelio Company’s employees and their families would never be able to live in this city again. The danger was very real.
However, sitting and waiting would bring much the same outcome. Given that, the company would certainly take the chance. Then once Lawrence had repaid his debt, they would be able to lend on an absurd scale.
The greater the risk, the larger the potential gain.
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