“Two days’ worth at best.”
“Immediately provision five days’ worth to bring that to seven days. Don’t sell gold coins. Buy everything with silver.”
With silver trenni linked to the new currency’s sudden price jump, logically its own price would climb along as well. That being the case, the value of gold coins would invariably drop greatly relative to silver coins, making buying anything with gold coins look like a fool’s errand.
Luward could make that calculation in an instant.
He was indeed no mere war enthusiast.
Lawrence even found himself thinking that if Luward ever retired from mercenary work, perhaps they could do business together.
“Tomorrow morning, during the mist of dawn, the Myuri Mercenary Company shall alter the course of its advance.” The corner of Luward’s lip curled up wryly at the last part.
Moizi cracked a smile, replied, “Understood,” and straightened his back.
Lawrence had ensured the safety of the mercenary company that bore the name of a companion from Holo’s homeland. If by some chance Hilde should fail to persuade the others, it was highly likely that his links to Holo and Lawrence would come to light even as displays of modesty turned into bloodbaths. Apparently, sometimes a perfectly healthy pig was slaughtered in sight of enemy troops as a means of intimidation. No doubt using mercenaries would cause men of small influence to shake in their boots.
“Then, you should be next.” Thanks to having cried so much, Holo’s face looked puffy and unhappy.
However, she was properly snuggled against Lawrence’s side as she gnawed on some bread.
Certainly her attitude remained defiant, but her displeased expression looked like it was hiding a blush.
Lawrence suddenly found the face rather adorable.
“Nn, ah, ahh…?”
Holo looked at him with a dubious, questioning look when she caught him seeming to see right through her.
“I wonder what we ought do about the store?” And after a short pause, she continued, “I know not whether that hare can manage to carry this off, but… you have said yourself, nothing good comes from leaving what is precious to you in a perilous place.”
He recalled when they had spoken about how easy it was to fall into tragedy when one had something to protect.
Certainly, if Hilde’s counterattack did falter, setting up a store in this town would be a dangerous gamble. In any case, Holo was well aware that a store was not a cheaply bought thing.
She was truly concerned about him.
“However, you have paid money for it, yes? It is the store of your dreams… and you are rather greedy when it comes to money, after all…”
Her words of concern had an abusive tone.
This side of Holo brought an unintentional strained smile to Lawrence’s face.
However, it was not that he was unhappy.
“As the money goes, I only paid the deposit.”
Sitting on the bed as they were, the usual difference in their height was lessened.
He gave a straight answer to Holo’s probing eyes.
“I’ll have to sell, of course.”
If he sold it and Hilde succeeded in persuading his comrades, surely conditions would be favorable for buying a store or two; if Hilde failed, he could only run with his tail between his legs. And should Hilde’s mouth falter, even if Lawrence and Holo remained in the town, he doubted very much that the town would retain its radiance once plunged into a war. At any rate, battle often gave rise to more battle. If that happened, it would be foolish to keep precious merchandise in a town without walls.
It was said that an ancient, legendary king had waged three hundred battles without having a single scar inflicted upon him. However, Lawrence’s heart was unconvinced that the town of Lesko would walk the same glorious path as that king.
If indeed the lords that had invested in this town’s buildings were not opposed to war, that had to mean that they were fully confident of success. Success brought about the intoxicating feeling that one could do anything one wished.
But, as sometimes one success did indeed lead to another, Lawrence could not just laugh it off as a foolish fantasy.
The important thing was, since failure would cost Lawrence everything, it was not a gamble that he ought to throw in on.
Besides, when Holo decided Lawrence should buy a store in this town, she resolved to not be concerned with whatever happened to the northlands. So, he should resolve to not cry over a store or two.
That’s what Lawrence thought, and that’s what he needed to do.
“Although…”
“Mm?”
As Lawrence spoke, Holo looked straight at him.
“Selling a store before even opening… it’s an odd feeling,” he said.
Lawrence had thought for sure it was the beginning of his adventures as a town merchant. If that had been so, here in the town of Lesko he would have been caught up in the advance of a story that none such as him could do anything to oppose.
All he could have done was hand over merchandise as demanded and then arrange his baggage and take refuge.
But rather than despondent or miserable, he felt closer to disappointed.
“I think ’tis a shame about the store as well. However, you know well enough what happens to those who are prisoners of the past, do you not?”
That was what Holo said in response. It was rare for her to be so self-effacing.
Holo had been buffeted all over the place by her past. So learning from her life’s lessons, Lawrence should immediately wash his hands of setting up a store in such a dangerous place and put his hopes into the next place.
Even he understood that.
Even so, Holo’s words left him a bit dumbfounded but for an entirely different reason.
“That may be so, but…”
“… So what is it, then?”
As Lawrence asked, he put Holo’s head in his hands and slowly stroked it.
Holo seemed annoyed as she tried to brush his hand away, but he ignored her and stroked her again.
Her dexterous tail was making brushing sounds on top of the bed, so she was not genuinely upset.
Lawrence proceeded to embrace Holo’s body, as though to ensure she would never get away from him again.
“But sometimes being trapped by the past brings people together.”
Lawrence remembered when Holo snuck onto his horse-drawn wagon’s wagon bed on a moonlit night.
“I wish to return to Yoitsu,” the wolf had said.
But for that one phrase, Lawrence surely would have never come to a place like this.
“Fool. Fate does not repeat itself over and over.” Holo finally brushed Lawrence’s hand away as she spoke.
It was so.
And the reverse was also true.
“I’m sure the hard times will end right about here, in fact.”
As Lawrence spoke, Holo snickered.
Lawrence rested his chin atop Holo’s head, and Holo’s tail swished a single dramatic swish.
The evening that Lawrence easily concluded the sale of the store, Hilde appeared at the inn at night, right on schedule.
This time he was in the form of a hare from the beginning, so there was no clothing hanging over his back.
With meat flying off the shelves during the celebration, hopping around town as a hare carried a higher risk of death than walking in the forest.
“May I ask what your decision is?”
Hilde, who appeared thinner than he had the night before, spoke with a voice that seemed more parched than broken up.
He looked like someone who had desperately and near the point of death exhausted all options inside the company.
Were he to tell a future chronicler of his experiences, this would have been the most powerful section.
To Hilde, sitting atop the chair and seeming very unharelike, Lawrence replied for both of them.
“We will hand over the forbidden book.”
Lawrence’s words shot through Hilde’s small body like an arrow.
“…”
Hilde’s red eyes continued to stare at Lawrence for a while as if he was unable to speak.
Not even his long ears twitched.
It was enough to make Lawrence wonder if he had fainted.
Likely, the situation inside the company had become hopeless. Lawrence knew not what threads of fate bound Hilde and the others together. However, he suspected that the Debau Company was a group of exceptional people, any member of which was as valiant as Eve. Surely it was a frightening war of words mixed with devious intrigues.
If Lawrence and Holo’s decision could rescue them amid all that, Lawrence was glad for that alone, all the more so because it was in their own best interests. When Hilde was finished taking a deep breath that seemed unsuited to his small body, he made what Lawrence thought to be a smile.
“Thank you very much.”
Hilde spoke as if he had found a single ray of light in the depths of hell.
Even so, it did not mean all was resolved that very moment.
After all, preceding the issue of Hilde succeeding in persuading the rebels was the practical matter of getting the forbidden book in hand.
“We have no objection to handing over the book. However, the book merchant on his way to purchase the forbidden book does not follow the same creed that we do.”
Probably, whichever way the northlands went was all the same to Le Roi the book merchant. To him, the forbidden book’s existence and meaning to the northlands were merely a means to the end of securing Lawrence and Holo’s cooperation.
In other words, Le Roi was not one to be moved by tearful pleas.
“I have money.” The hare in charge of the Debau Company’s accounts spoke without the slightest pause.
“How much?”
“I can pay three hundred gold lumione. I left them in a hideaway of mine in town.”
There was no need to check with Holo whether his words were true or false.
For the treasurer of a mining company that led the lords of the region around by the nose, that was surely not a difficult sum to amass. Perhaps the head of Debau had given Hilde the money for special circumstances.
When a deposed royal family was restored to power once more, there were always excellent subordinates who had brought them gold bullion in exile. Those who failed to prepare for when they fell rarely rose again.
“That is probably far more than is needed. But there is one thing that concerns me.”
“What is it?”
Even though he was a hare, his pronunciation was so elegant it almost turned Lawrence’s stomach.
Lawrence thought that the only reason he could deal with Hilde as an equal was because he was in the form of a hare.
He had not seen the face of the man under the hood, but he had no doubt it was a face full of confidence.
“In the event that you fail to persuade the rebels or that the forbidden book becomes fundamentally unnecessary…” As he spoke the latter half, the tone of his voice changed as if to impart deeper meaning to it.
As Hilde looked Lawrence over, Holo looked up at Lawrence much the same way. Should the northlands be laid to waste because of the techniques in the book, Holo would feel partly responsible, Lawrence imagined. Therefore, they had to leave as much room for them to maneuver as possible.
“Yes. If I fail to convince them, I do not mind if you take the forbidden book back by force. Should it no longer be necessary, I will return it in secret.”
“–!” Holo sucked in her breath at Hilde’s words.
Lawrence replied, “Thank you very much.”
Whether the forbidden book rested with the Debau Company or not mattered a great deal to Holo’s sense of guilt.
That pledge was worth a thousand pieces of gold.
“Then, there is the matter of going all the way to Kieschen to procure the book.”
“The book merchant is sly and wary and possesses a strong sense of duty as well. One might say he is the worst kind of man to profit from as a lender,” said Lawrence.
Hilde gave a firm nod.
Those red eyes were not the eyes of a fool who, when falling into a predicament, could only beg others for aid.
“Resorting to documents is too roundabout. I desire a quick decision and a quick resolution. Regardless, there is no time. Right now, the factions within the Debau Company are still arguing between each other. However, numerous lords with stakes involved are particularly obstinate, behaving as if this is a dispute over a family fortune.”
“So, you are saying they could take control in the blink of an eye?”
“Yes. No matter how absurd it may be, they are magnificent at getting their way.”
Father killed son, son killed father. Estranged in-laws and bastard sons usurped crowns. No matter how immorally they behaved, lacking fear of any God, they proudly asserted their own righteousness nonetheless.
Seizing control of a company by force was light morning exercise to them.
“I have a bird companion. His wings are the fastest, but… what he can carry is roughly limited to that sack.”
So it seemed that bird had taken Col’s carrying sack. It was not so rare, when eating a meal in the plains, to have one’s food stolen by a bird swooping down. Col’s situation was merely an extension of that.
“So, I would like Miss Holo to go.”
Hilde finally looked at Holo as he spoke.
Holo, her legs dangling over the bed, made what seemed like a small sigh.
“I am a substitute for a bird?”
“In a manner of speaking.”
Just because one could take human form did not mean one was huge and wielded enormous might. That was true for Hilde before them; it was also true for the bird exhausting all efforts on Hilde’s behalf.
“I mind not. Besides, ’tis good to run in my true form once in a while,” said Holo as she got up from the bed.
Hilde lowered and raised his head, as if nodding in recognition of a trustworthy comrade’s point of view. “How long would Miss Holo’s feet take to bring her there?”
“Who knows? I know not the distance to the city.”
Hilde’s face scowled slightly. Right now, what was most precious to Hilde was neither money nor weapons. It was time.
Lawrence provided a lifeboat. “How much farther is it from Lenos to Kieschen than from here to Lenos?”
Hilde’s long ears stretched instantly. He raised his head. “By fast horse, messages take twice as long as from here to Lenos.”
“Is the road poor?”
“Somewhat.”
The road being somewhat poor was no doubt of little import to Holo.
As Hilde asked with his eyes, Holo replied in an annoyed tone, “Were I to run without sleep, a day and a half. Three to four days to return.”
Hilde gave a strong nod.
Then, he nodded one more time.
“That might make even my comrade’s wings weep.”
“’Tis of course a mad pace.”
The tip of his nose made the tiniest twitch.
By Holo’s standards, the look in her eyes was one of considerable humility.
In other words, she spoke the literal truth.
“Were my old pack mates to learn of a wolf being a hare’s errand runner, ’twould be quite a laugh. Even so, ’tis the world as it is today. Right now I can offer nothing save rushing into the company, fangs bared. The time when problems could be solved thus has passed. Am I wrong?”
Holo did not think that killing the group opposed to Hilde was a resolution to the problem whatsoever. Everything was interconnected in complex ways – a precarious balance held atop a scale.
To control the world of men, one needed not large claws, but slender fingers.
However, in all likelihood, were it not for the Kingdom of Winfiel, Holo would never have helped Hilde, he thought. The sight of Huskins crossing so many lines to protect hi
s home was burned into Lawrence’s memory, too.
Though he was the being known as the golden ram whose legend continued to be told to this day, the sheep had eaten the flesh of sheep, and finally, he had ended up a cat’s paw of men.
Even so, Huskins had never wavered in his objective.
Holo’s expression was conflicted, no doubt because she was remembering him.
And as she wiped that conflicted face away with a single deep breath, Holo grew in stature once more.
“I know not how much time ’twill take to retrieve the book from the book dealer. What about you?”
Meaning, having decided her own role meant she had determined to carry it out with all her strength, so it was Lawrence’s turn to speak.
“In Lenos, I proposed means that would require immediate decision…”
“Do you think they shall bear fruit?”
Nothing could be said for certain. Even so, Lawrence could say this.
“Some people, if you pack three hundred gold coins in their bag and pat them on the rear, will run as fast as their legs can take them.”
Perhaps entirely able to imagine the sight of Le Roi running full tilt as if his pants were on fire, Holo sniggered audibly. Even Hilde allowed himself the luxury of a modest laugh at the joke.
No matter what the situation, it was important to allow oneself room to laugh.
Lawrence cleared his throat and spoke. “So, it should be five or six days, I imagine.”
If the situation worsened day to day, that number would no doubt feel close to an eternity. But the land that God had created was mercilessly vast.
“I can make no promises,” said Holo.
“I believe they should have arrived in Kieschen by now. I can only hope that they have already obtained the book.”
He was not saying that to put Lawrence the merchant at ease. The same went for Holo.
Even so, unlike earlier, both nodded without a word.
It was said that even when one must work with their father’s enemy, shaking his hand raises the plan’s probability of success.
When cooperating, one must forget all else and truly cooperate.
Hilde spoke with forcefulness one would not expect from a hare. “Then, let us be on our way with haste.”
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