Spice & Wolf Omnibus

by Isuna Hasekura

  Of course, Lawrence was aware of the power of Holo’s true form, so there was nothing to fear. She could certainly keep them safe and save Arold, too.

  The problem was Eve’s readiness to invite danger. She knew nothing of Holo’s power.

  She trusted Arold enough to bring him along with the fur from Lenos and even pay his travel expenses, but now she was prepared to leave him behind.

  Lawrence wanted to imagine that this was because she now trusted him even more than Arold, but he knew how foolish such a notion was.

  It made far more sense to assume that Eve was simply prepared to abandon everything for her own profit, as though she had sworn to turn everything she touched into gold.

  Unfortunately, as in the old legend, the fool who wished to turn everything into gold was unable to eat, and thus starved to death.

  That was what Lawrence found so shocking about her words. He asked himself whether he could so easily toss her aside were she to choose a path from which he could see no salvation.

  If she could discard Arold, then she could just as easily kill Lawrence on the boat or betray him again later.

  And if he could imagine that she’d be laughing afterward, that would have been one thing. But he didn’t think she would laugh.

  Do I feel sympathy for her? Lawrence asked himself and could not answer.

  Was this just empty speculation? The likelihood was very high.

  But there was little in the world that didn’t amount to speculation. There were even those who doubted the existence of God.

  So what should he do?

  How could he grasp his own profit in one hand while holding on to Eve’s hand with the other? Lawrence agonized over the question as he gave the letter to the messenger in the tavern.

  “… Thanks for all your hard work. The boss’ll tell you the rest once you’re back at the inn,” said the messenger, giving Lawrence a pat on the shoulder before leaving. There hadn’t even been time to wonder what sort of misunderstanding might have taken place.

  The meeting seemed to have ended without much evidence of trouble, and when Lawrence wandered around the spring of gold, he saw many groups of people conversing excitedly. A bonfire had been lit in anticipation of nightfall, and soldiers stood proudly around the meeting table, trying to look as though they were guarding a holy throne.

  Suffice it to say it was a feast of money, power, and honor.

  And yet the participants were a small-minded, miserable lot. Perhaps there was a reason why God was said not to care for merchants.

  The sky was beginning to redden, and the outlines of crows – or possibly gulls – could be seen in the distance.

  Lawrence had thought trading and the earning of money to be a more elegant, noble pursuit.

  He watched the lamplights of the town flicker to life one by one as he swayed in the ferry from the delta to the south side of the river.

  Eve certainly wouldn’t back down now, nor would Kieman have proposed a careless plan. What his side would fear most would be losing the narwhal in exchange for a fake deed. That would be an even more disastrous outcome than his plan being revealed.

  And if Lawrence pulled out, the situation would not be improved. The plan was like kneaded bread that had risen and been put in the oven. All they could do was wait for it to bake.

  Lawrence’s options were either to pray or to run. There was nothing else. If persuading either Eve or Kieman was impossible, then what could he do to ensure a good outcome?

  The ferry reached the docks, and Lawrence blended into the crowd and came ashore. Most of the people were merchants watching the meeting on the delta, and they chattered freely and happily.

  Lawrence found it intensely irritating, but he knew the crowd wasn’t the real problem.

  And yet he felt a nauseous desire to scream and rail, like he had been chasing a cloud he couldn’t possibly grasp.

  A drunken merchant stumbled into him. Lawrence clenched his fists and was about to fly at the man when something else caught his eye.

  “Hey… don’cha go bumpin’ inta me…” slurred the drunken man with suspicious eyes, but he was literally out of Lawrence’s sight.

  Because past him–

  Amid the throng of people disembarking from the steady stream of boats that arrived at the docks was a figure he knew well. She faced him, and from under the scarf that was wrapped around her head, she looked at him with eyes he’d never seen before.

  “Hey, are you listenin’ ta–”

  “Excuse me.” His gaze never wavering from the figure, Lawrence pressed a tarnished silver coin into the drunken man’s hand, then started walking.

  What he didn’t understand was why she would be here on the south side of town now that the meeting was over.

  And something about the way she was just standing there made her seem cornered.

  What had happened? Lawrence wasn’t even sure whether to ask, but she settled the question for him.

  “Things have gone bad.” From beneath the scarf, her husky voice was downright hoarse. “It’s too late for me… but I wanted to at least…”

  “–”

  Eve staggered as though her last strength had given out. Lawrence held her up but then immediately pulled back. This was no joke.

  She was eerily light, and her body was hot.

  Beneath her scarf, her breathing was shallow and an oily sweat had broken out on her forehead. In her right hand she held tight to a single piece of parchment.

  “What happened?”

  Eve was mostly supported by Lawrence now, and she bit her lip and looked at him desperately.

  Whatever had happened, it wasn’t good.

  He looked at her right hand and the parchment it held. It had to be regarding something important.

  “We stick out too much here. We should find an alley somewhere–” Lawrence said to Eve and started to pull her along.

  Just then, the church bell rang high and loud, and the people coming and going around the docks all stopped, and each of them looked at the church bell tower, before joining their hands and offering prayers.

  Ding-dong. The bell continued to toll as Lawrence helped Eve through the crowds. It must have been God’s will.

  Coming out of the crowd, it didn’t take long for them to find an alley to duck into. The precise moment they stopped, the bell’s ringing ended, with naught but its echoes lingering on – as though God’s protection over them had ended right then.

  “Where are you going?”

  It wasn’t impossible. This was a crowded port.

  The meeting had just ended, and people were leaving the delta.

  But it couldn’t be a coincidence, given that right next to Kieman was that little messenger. If he had eyes sharp enough to deliver his master’s messages no matter how wild the crowds, he could certainly spot Eve.

  Before Lawrence’s mind could begin to turn, his vision spun.

  It wouldn’t be possible to escape with Eve.

  “Given the state my friend’s in, I was taking her to the inn.”

  “Is that so?” Kieman smiled, as though they really were just making idle chitchat. But the messenger – along with another man who seemed to be a subordinate – took a quiet step forward. “How truly fortunate for us to encounter you here.”

  Lawrence moved to protect Eve, and the two approaching men shifted.

  Being attacked by bandits was hardly uncommon. And both humans and beasts would change their stances just before attacking.

  So what should I do? Lawrence asked himself.

  It wasn’t in his best interest to let Kieman know he’d allied himself with Eve, and in any case Kieman might not have realized that himself yet. In which case, he could bet on that chance and hand her over.

  That was certainly possible, but could he really do it? Now that she was sweating and weak and seemed desperate to tell him something? Could he abandon her, even as she flinched at Kieman’s words?”

  “No, I–”


  “… You do indeed seem to be carrying a letter. May I assume the sender is Ted Reynolds?”

  Eve shook her head weakly.

  Kieman’s tone had changed from that of a merchant to something like a coy nobleman’s. But Lawrence’s mind was on other matters.

  A letter from Reynolds?

  “Well, we’ll hear all about it. Although we don’t have terribly much time.” As he spoke, Kieman gave a light wave of his hand, and the two men pulled Eve away from Lawrence with ease.

  Lawrence reached out to her without thinking, almost reflexively, but froze when the small messenger pointed a dagger at his side.

  “The wolf tried to set us up. Quite thoroughly, I should add.” Sometimes a smile revealed anger. When a long-distance merchant like Kieman smiled like that, what would the fate be of those hauled off by his henchmen?

  Kieman looked at Eve as she was taken away and spoke as though addressing a worthy adversary. “The possibility had occurred to me, of course, but the method – my goodness.”

  “You’re wrong… I had no intention of selling the narwhal to Reynolds–”

  Kidnappers had strange ways of restraining people. Eve was plainly trying to free herself from their grasp, but a passerby would see only a drunkard who needed help to stand. Her mouth was covered, but her eyes flicked to and fro wildly.

  Eve was dragged off by the two men, and just before they vanished into the crowds, Kieman spoke to Lawrence. “Mr. Lawrence, if you speak of this to anyone else, you’ll regret it.”

  It was a first-rate joke on Kieman’s part, but his next words were terrifyingly cold.

  “I’m quite desperate myself, you see.”

  Then, as though following after Eve, who had melted into the crowds and been washed away, Kieman disappeared into the throng.

  Lawrence realized the messenger was no longer holding a knife to his ribs. He had been left alone.

  For a while he was unable to move, the afterimage of what he had just witnessed burned into his mind.

  From within the horrible writhing organism that was the crowd, a hand had reached out, compelled by a single desperate hope.

  And Lawrence had been unable to reach it.

  A hundred coins could sink beneath the waves in a single moment.

  So in this whirlpool of goods like the narwhal, whose value truly defied imagination, where would one misstep land him? Surely a priest would go pale at the thought of the place.

  And Eve had already made a misstep.

  After crossing so many dangerous bridges, she had finally lost her footing.

  Kieman’s words echoed in his ears. “… If you speak of this to anyone else, you’ll regret it. I’m quite desperate myself you see.”

  Their plan had utterly failed somewhere. Ted Reynolds’s name had come up, and Eve said she had no intention of selling him the narwhal.

  And then there was Lawrence, left behind untouched. Was that because Kieman had determined he had no information of value? Or because he’d decided that Lawrence was simply being used by Eve? Either way, it seemed that Kieman and the rest really did consider Lawrence to be nothing more than a messenger.

  Lawrence sighed, then felt suddenly nauseated. He hurriedly ducked into the alley into which he had tried to bring Eve before emptying the contents of his stomach.

  It wasn’t the feeling of powerlessness that he couldn’t stand – it was this unbelievable sense of self-loathing.

  Lawrence had been relieved.

  He had been so relieved that Kieman hadn’t taken him away.

  He was so sure he could prove his strength to Holo and defeat Kieman, and then after his exchanges with Eve, he had believed there was still a chance to somehow recover the situation.

  And now this.

  If he’d felt powerless, there would at least have been some chance to recover. Merchants were always chasing what they didn’t have, after all.

  Lawrence continued to heave long after there was nothing left to come up. Finally he spat.

  He’d been able to save Holo and escape many dangerous situations. If that had merely given him a false sense of superiority that would have been one thing, but now that his thin skin was torn away, it revealed his insides to be even more rotten than before.

  His vision was blurry, and it wasn’t only because of the vomiting.

  Eve’s actions hadn’t made sense.

  Reynolds’s letter had led to the collapse of their plan, but she’d come to the south side to warn him, regardless of the danger it posed to her.

  Which meant Eve hadn’t been thinking of him as a mere pawn. Perhaps when she’d asked him to join her in her betrayal, she had been trying to gain something else, something besides the narwhal.

  And in spite of all that, he’d been relieved that Eve was the only one taken away.

  He was no courageous protagonist. What better proof of that could there possibly be?

  “Shit!” Lawrence cursed and slammed his fist into the wall.

  If this had been only a question of profit or loss, he could have accepted it or given up on it. But that no longer held true when a person was involved. It was true that the wagon-borne life of a traveling merchant had been very lonely, but having to worry only about one’s self was worth something, he understood.

  The truth was, even traveling merchants could settle down in a town they visited if they really wanted to. The reason he hadn’t – the reason he couldn’t – was because he knew he was a coward and too kind for his own good.

  The life of a traveling merchant was one of constant meetings and partings. How could they be satisfied with the goods in front of them when the next town might have better goods?

  It was true that he had such thoughts, but it was also true that he’d put quite a sum of money into the high-priced item known as Holo.

  But that didn’t mean that he cared about nothing as long as Holo was safe.

  The traveling merchant’s curse was a kind of excuse. One couldn’t measure the value of human relationships with money. If everything could be decided with money, then he wouldn’t have found himself so torn between Eve and Kieman, because the amount of money involved with the narwhal made his lifetime earnings look piddling by comparison.

  Thus by thinking of his relationships with others as being more valuable than money, he could keep them at arms’ length, like a precious flower of great price.

  But just as his cart could hold only so much, the same was true of his heart. And he knew how much that was.

  Lawrence straightened, his fist still against the stone wall, and he looked up at the purple sky, wiping his tears away.

  Things were so much simpler when Holo was with him.

  New things were always getting in the cart, pushing even precious things aside. That was a perfectly healthy state of affairs for those curious figures called merchants, but without the ironclad will of a monk, normal people could hardly handle it.

  And yet now that his cart was so full and he constantly had to be careful not to leave anything important behind, his travels were far more enjoyable than when he’d been a single, lonely merchant. He no longer plied the roads alone, with only the rear end of his horse to stare at.

  Lawrence spat the last sour remnants of bile out, then wiped the corners of his mouth.

  A traveling merchant always brought his cargo to the next town, though he might have to crawl through the mud to do it.

  He wouldn’t leave any cargo behind.

  “So, then,” Lawrence murmured, forcing his frozen mind into motion.

  He had to admit that he’d been lucky to see Eve taken before his very eyes. If they were resorting to such violence, then they had to be genuinely cornered and hadn’t been able to come up with a subtler, more complicated plot.

  Even being unused to making long-term plans, maneuvering people behind the scenes, and avoiding those dangers he could anticipate, Lawrence was quite good at buying and selling goods right in front of him.

  There was a chance he
could win.

  “There has to be,” Lawrence murmured to himself.

  Something he could see, something visible only to him as an outside observer watching the flow of goods in the marketplace.

  And he wasn’t alone.

  Lawrence didn’t bother wondering when she had arrived or why she was there. He knew perfectly well that she wouldn’t have been able to just sit in the inn, and when one didn’t know what was happening, the most basic approach was to go someplace with a lot of people and listen very closely – and for that purpose, the port was the best place.

  And his traveling companion had ears of unparalleled sensitivity.

  With her wolf ears capable of hearing a pin drop half a world away, she stood a short distance from him, leaning against the wall, her arms folded in displeasure.

  She had probably seen everything. And even if she hadn’t, it would be easy for her to guess what had happened.

  Lawrence gave a pained smile and shrugged, as though acting like his usual self would be some sort of charm.

  “Should you need wisdom, I’ll lend it,” said Holo, her small chin the only thing visible beneath her hood.

  “That’s fine.”

  “I do wonder just how many times you’ll borrow my wisdom to save another female, though.”

  Lawrence wondered if she was being so straightforward because there wasn’t time for their normal roundabout banter. Or perhaps her patience had simply run out.

  He smiled naturally and replied, “Yet you’re the only one I travel with.”

  Holo did not answer, but with a little hop pushed herself away from the wall, cracking her neck audibly. It was clear that she was tired of these ticklish conversations as well, though if he were to say so she would probably bite his head clean off.

  “I sent Col to follow them.”

  “What did you find out at the port?”

  “I know not. But before you came ashore, I did see a group of people turning angry. I’d set myself up on the third floor of the baker’s shop over there. ’Twas so easy to see, it was to laugh.”

  Which meant that Kieman and Eve weren’t the only group who felt pressed into open action. In a current this strong, Kieman’s smuggling ship could be affected as well.