Spice & Wolf Omnibus

by Isuna Hasekura

  And that meant the Debau Company itself might be reborn into something else now that it had fanned the flames of avarice.

  “I beg you. If we do not break the rebels here and now, the Debau Company will decay into a mere invader. If money and military might become one, even the Church will join in. If that occurs, the flames of war shall spread like a wildfire. We do not want the Debau Company to become the gateway to hell. Were the dreams and hopes of this town not attractive to you? That is our owner Debau’s dream. At this rate, Debau’s dream shall collapse!”

  Hilde’s pained shout was swallowed by the red-dabbed night sky.

  The humans of this world were bound by countless threads, reeled together and woven into countless cloths. It was true that Lawrence had regarded the miraculous cloth woven by the Debau Company with pride, as if it was his own banner.

  Worldly domination had passed from ancient beings such as Holo to human beings, and finally, merchants had outwitted the kings and nobles, the conquerors of the human world, to reach the summit themselves.

  For a single moment, he had beheld a daydream more fantastic than any fairy tale.

  That was the scale of what the Debau Company had accomplished.

  “As you can see, I am a hare, yet I sympathize with Debau’s dream. He said he wanted to build a free country on this soil, a place where people are bound to no one, led only by their intellect and effort, and to bring peace to this fractured, quarrelsome land. I believe it is a dream worthy of sacrificing my life. That is why I have raised a hand against a wolf pack.”

  He gazed squarely at Holo as he spoke.

  “For I have my back against the wall.”

  No doubt he had never had any intention of killing Col. Perhaps he could not kill in the first place. If he had fangs and claws, he could have threatened Le Roi, twisting his arms until he surrendered the location of the forbidden book.

  But even so, he had taken Col hostage knowing Holo might kill him for it.

  Something like that?

  Everyone had their own reasons.

  Hilde’s ears suddenly twitched. His face turned in various directions, then silently regarded Holo.

  “In the event this all goes well, I shall of course pay you in thanks. You two have purchased a shop and are settling down in this town. And I am the treasurer of the Debau Company, always supporting Debau from the side.”

  Meaning he would make it worth their while, beyond any monetary profit Lawrence had ever known.

  “The situation is grave. All those involved in the Debau Company have spent most of their lives at the gambling table. They are people who understand that one must strike while the iron is hot. Beginning with our leader Debau himself, our faction has been shut inside the company’s walls. I am the only one who somehow managed to make it out.”

  Hilde hopped down from the lid of the well and, like a hare out of a fairy tale, lifted up folded clothing with his front paws.

  “I do not want to be locked in a shed while I still possess a key. Please think carefully about it. Surely our interests perfectly coincide. I will visit the inn tomorrow evening to hear your decision.”

  And then, Hilde hopped along, pushed his body through the gap between two houses under construction, and vanished. Unusually, it was Holo who stopped Lawrence from trying to pursue, and right after, a red light appeared on the opposite side of the alley.

  “Mm? What, having some fun in an out-of-the-way place?”

  A group of three men bearing spears over their shoulders slowly emerged.

  From their attire, they were town vigilantes.

  “We’ve got enough work dealin’ with the drunks. Go do that at an inn.”

  The man shooed them off like chasing away a dog or cat. Of course, Lawrence did not oppose them, putting his arms around Holo’s shoulders as if supporting her as they headed back through the alley they came. The men watched them for a little while, but they finally disappeared down another alleyway as they continued their rounds.

  As they did so, the surroundings suddenly became dark and silent. Because Lawrence had lamplight in his eyes, he could not see Holo properly, though she was right beside him. His eyes were filled only with the night sky and the flickering light.

  Holo then directed words at him. “What will we do?”

  Until Lawrence’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could not guide him down this street, which was filled with supplies and garbage. He was about to say, Let’s wait a bit longer, when Holo did something unexpected. She clung to Lawrence’s arm more strongly.

  “Those words did not feel like a lie,” she said. He realized she was speaking about the forbidden book. “The merits and risks are clear. That hare called himself Hilde. It’s as he said.”

  The people within the Debau Company yearning for even greater profits for themselves were thinking of beginning a war. The possibility of their mines running dry provided the righteousness for their cause.

  Therefore, Hilde was thinking that the existence of the forbidden book, leading to greater mine production, would cripple their scheme.

  “What do you think…?”

  “I…” Lawrence began to reply but held his words.

  His thoughts arrived at a single piece of reasoning.

  “I think, from our own perspective, we should proceed with Hilde’s plan. We do sympathize with Debau’s dream, and war does not bring profits forever. The profit is for an instant alone. It’s like setting a bushfire for warmth. Certainly it’s warm, but nothing is left afterward.”

  Furthermore, Luward had judged this town unsuited to war. Lawrence agreed.

  That was fine if one was on the offensive, but what would it do if it was being invaded instead? The town had no walls.

  Even so, he imagined that people would remain in the town, or at least, that they had no intention of running.

  “Also, handing over the book carries no danger by itself.”

  “If that is what you say, ’tis well.” Holo spoke with a mumble.

  Lawrence, taken back a little, replied, “Er… Shouldn’t you be the one to make this decision? The northlands ride on this. Do you not agree with Hilde’s plan?”

  From the way Holo had spoken, it seemed as though she could not decide which path to take. Or else whatever his answer, she would tilt in the opposite direction.

  Even so, Holo did not answer Lawrence’s question.

  “… If the northlands aren’t engulfed by war, doesn’t that help you, too? Hilde has his own ambitions here, I’m sure, but I don’t see any benefit in our opposing them at this stage. Certainly developing closed mines is a good move. Beyond being profitable, it does no damage to new lands. Hilde’s words were no lie, right?”

  If that was so, he felt that handing the forbidden book to Hilde was the logical decision. At the very least, if they did not hand it over, he could not see how the situation could be reversed.

  If failure to reverse the situation and not surrendering the book over achieved the same result, they should opt for the choice that presented the possibility of better results.

  No doubt Holo’s head was more than capable of making such a calculation.

  So, of the possibilities he could think of, this was it.

  “Do you have some reason for not wanting to hand it over?”

  At Lawrence’s question, Holo’s body quivered in surprise. There was no way Holo would just pass such an important decision on to Lawrence. Doing so could only mean she had turned desperate, or there was something she did not want to think about.

  But if so, what?

  “… Can you not trust Hilde? Certainly, he looks like an unreliable hare but… he seems well informed about what is going on. The treasurer of an organization like the Debau Company has to be a rather sharp thinker. I don’t think we need worry on that count.”

  That was just what Lawrence thought without elaboration or embellishment.

  There was no proof Hilde would be able to convince the opposing party, but he
felt now was not the time to say that.

  “Or don’t you trust Debau, even so? Certainly it might be difficult to trust someone we’ve never seen… Also, there are still the rumors of unrest that the Debau Company spread that are still in the air.”

  This was not a simple argument concerning impressions. Until a very short time ago, Lawrence and Holo had been chasing after those very rumors of unrest.

  However, Holo said nothing in either direction.

  She continued to stand there, head down, clinging to Lawrence’s arm.

  Lawrence desperately held back the sigh he wanted to make.

  Was there something more beyond this? Was there something he was not seeing? More than that, why was Holo not talking to him about it?

  Little by little, those doubts changed into irritation toward the unspeaking Holo.

  Was there indeed a reason beyond those that she did not want to hand over the forbidden book?

  If there was, there really could not be many left.

  “Or are you concerned for the possibility they might do harm to Col?”

  After all, they had Col’s sack then and there, with its meager contents as if to display Col’s helplessness.

  But Hilde had said he had no intention of bringing harm to Col.

  Holo clearly thought those words were not false; if she had been concerned, she would have put Hilde’s small body between her giant fang-filled jaws then and there.

  And Holo had desperately held her reactions in check.

  That led to the conclusion that Holo trusted Hilde’s words – essentially, that Hilde truly did not intend to bring harm to Col. This was likely true even if they refused to hand over the forbidden book.

  Hilde had a creed.

  Lawrence did not think that creed included meaninglessly killing anyone.

  “Or is there something I’m just not seeing here?”

  Lawrence asked that, unable to restrain himself any longer.

  There was no mistaking that going with Hilde’s plan was in Holo’s interests. There was no room for such a misunderstanding on Lawrence’s part. On top of that, it was an opportunity for exceptional profit.

  The dawn of success would surely bring an exceptional amount of goodwill in the town. His cheaply setting up a store would take on an even more special meaning. Goodwill from the people who ruled the town was no different from having the goddess of fortune smiling right by your side. With Holo beside him as he traded in the store, he felt like he might even be able to catch Eve’s tail.

  Lawrence looked squarely at Holo, as if waiting for an unreasonable child to calm down.

  Holo was no child. If she had something to say, without fail, there was reason behind the movements of her lips.

  Finally, Holo’s mouth twitched several times, and then finally the words came.

  “If we hand this forbidden book over, even more lands may be despoiled in the distant future.”

  Lawrence felt like his field of vision had just doubled in breadth.

  What surprised him was that he did not expect Holo’s reasoning to be that shallow.

  “It’s true… that possibility does exist. But the new technology will enable the revival of some mines already closed. If that happens, the need to clear new land will be noticeably reduced. After all, it will be easier to develop land already cleared for mining. Furthermore, just as Hilde said, there will be many cases where everything can be resolved with money. In the course of my own travels, I’ve heard that there actually are specialists who profit from reviving depleted mines. Therefore…”

  Lawrence cut his words off there.

  Still Holo did not reply.

  “Therefore, I think what must be done right now is to eliminate the reason for the hard-liners within the Debau Company to invade the northlands. Or more precisely, I think we should support the revival of the dream held by the people who built this town. Of course, I understand you have concerns. The forbidden book probably really does contain amazing techniques. And if we hand that to the Debau Company, that technology might stoke the flame of ambition for further development. However…”

  Lawrence realized that at some point, he had switched to trying to preach to Holo.

  He had paid the deposit for buying a store in this town, so there was that as well. But the foremost reason was because, having seen what the Debau Company had set out to accomplish, he was moved and excited by it.

  If merchants governed the world, surely the mountain of foolish and irrational things in that world would be swept away. When one got down to it, merchants made towns grow, and the only way they could do business was by making people happy. Unlike kings and nobles, few merchants were swayed by stupidities like renown or avarice. There was a popular misconception founded in ignorance that the great merchants were despots living in the lap of luxury. Any merchant doing that would soon have his business stolen by another merchant.

  More crucially, a king or noble could dominate others without a single coin in his treasury, but no merchant with an empty treasury could dominate anything. Since they had no choice but to work hard, Lawrence felt it was obvious who ought to govern and who ought to be governed.

  Besides, in his experience as a traveling merchant, places where trade was vigorous were full of life and happiness. That was why Lawrence wanted to support Debau.

  Handing over the forbidden book might well lead to greater exploitation of the land, but Lawrence felt that casting away all hope out of fear of that possibility was a foolish thing.

  He had something else he wanted to say to Holo.

  “Why do you say that now of all times? You said whatever the Debau Company was doing in the northlands didn’t bother you, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you supported my buying a store here?”

  This time, Holo’s body did not even twitch.

  “And yet, to not hand over the book…”

  “Wrong.”

  Holo spoke.

  “Wrong. ’Tis not like that at all.” Holo clutched Lawrence’s arm hard enough that it hurt, repeating “wrong, wrong,” over and over.

  She looked like a spoiled child unable to get her way. Perhaps that was indeed the truth of it.

  As Holo repeated “wrong,” her voice became more and more tearful. Holo slackened her grip on Lawrence’s arm, finally letting both of her arms hang down.

  Her shoulders shook like those of a weeping child thrown out of the house on a rainy day.

  “How am I wrong? The damage might well be somewhat excessive. It might be a forbidden book, but it’s no book of magic. Certainly it might promote more mine excavation but… even so, I don’t think it’ll be some sudden tragedy leaving the northlands stripped bare.”

  Holo looked up at Lawrence from under her hood.

  The gloom he saw on her face was the despair of a merchant in a caravan under attack by wolves, desperately wondering what to do.

  “… Certainly, it might come to pass decades down the road, but there’s no point thinking about it, is there?”

  Holo gave a heavy sigh at those words.

  She looked like she wanted to scream; she also looked like she was holding back words that would be a little too frightening. He realized it was probably both when tears began to pour from Holo.

  “There is… a point…”

  “… Ah?”

  Lawrence, thrown off by the thick gloom that had brought Holo even to tears, could not wrap his mind around it.

  But even if he later arrived at an understanding on his own of the words Holo had spoken, he did not think that changed what he had to do.

  The reason was that this was the way of the world – an eternal fact that lay between Holo and Lawrence.

  “There is a point… I live a long time. You will not be by my side forever. Why, why must I watch alone as forests are mowed down because of my decision? Why must I watch mountains stripped bare? Come, now… why do you say I must decide? Do you want this to be my fault? Is it because you will die in no time, and after
you die, it matters not either way? You, you…”

  Holo clenched her hands into fists and pounded Lawrence’s arms.

  He had been struck by Holo’s fists in earnest several times now. It was obvious she was not putting her whole strength into it; if he tried, he could stop her anytime.

  But Holo’s state in that moment was a more painful blow than any that had come before it.

  Holo’s fists trembled as tears covered her desolate face, as if to expose how even she was powerless before a fate she could not defy.

  She pounded Lawrence’s chest over and over as if she was divining the moment when he would never again awaken.

  “I can bear it because you are here… But I – I…”

  She sniffed up her sobs, looking up at Lawrence with her tear-drenched face, seeming to desperately cling to him as she spoke.

  “I am not so strong.”

  As if the fists that had powerlessly struck Lawrence’s arms had finally exhausted the last of their strength, she grabbed hold of the sleeve of Lawrence’s clothing. Holo was crying as she grasped Lawrence’s sleeve, as if pleading with him not to abandon her.

  When Holo had been drawing a picture of the store of Lawrence’s dreams, she declared, “Is there no place for me in your store, I wonder?” That had not been in the slightest jest.

  Holo truly wanted a place of her own; that was why she had resolved to shut her eyes to disagreeable things so that she could obtain such a place.

  However, if she resolved to hand over the forbidden book, she would have to bear all of the responsibility for mine development continuing centuries into the future. Lawrence had no doubt Holo would think so, never questioning whether that was a fact or not.

  Also, Lawrence would not be there by then. If he was fortunate, he might live for another fifty years or so.

  If he came down with a grave illness, he might not last the week.

  Human life was very short. A poet might say, If you are afraid of losing something, why not find someone to fall in love with?