Moizi first mounted Luward on the horse’s back and, noticing Lawrence’s condition, easily hoisted Lawrence onto the horse’s back as well.
“Take care of the young master!”
Moizi turned around as he spoke. Two of the escorts moved as he did, gripping long swords that seemed to flow out of their hands.
However, whether out of anger, shame, or fear of Holo, their hands shook to the bone.
“Y-you’ll be in the way!”
As Lawrence spoke the plain truth, Moizi and the escorts’ bodies visibly shuddered.
That much they already knew. Thanks to Holo, the soldiers the Hugo Mercenary Company had concealed toward the hill were strewn all over the place. If Moizi and the others plunged headlong into the fray, they might well be killed.
“Let’s… run. We have… to run.” Lawrence was not afraid to say it. “We’ve lost!”
They had been completely taken in by the trap. If not for Holo, they would have all been killed or, at best, become captives that could be killed at any time. Moizi’s body shook so hard from the anger he endured, Lawrence thought he could hear it.
But Moizi was also an excellent strategist.
“Mr. Moizi…”
“… Pardon me. Let us hurry. You and the young one are both in danger.”
Lawrence gripped the reins and made his horse gallop.
With his leg bleeding profusely, no doubt it was not just the night making his vision go dark.
As he endured the cold and the blood loss, Lawrence made for the camp.
Even though he had thought the power of merchants was marvelous, they had used money’s might in a deeply ugly manner. That fact wormed its way into Lawrence’s head like a nightmare. If everything could be resolved with money, naturally this possibility was included as well. The pain in his left thigh felt like his naive dream being impaled by reality.
As the horse’s back swayed under the strain, the unconscious Luward threatened to slip down as if he was a corpse. With Lawrence’s own endurance depleted, Moizi helped them several times over. The soldiers that followed behind the horse kept looking behind, never letting their guard down.
Even though the distance was not all that great, he almost thought he would never make it to the camp.
Lawrence thought back to the underground aqueducts of the harbor town of Pazzio. Then, like now, Lawrence’s arm had been stabbed; he ran and fled, staggering all the way. He had not moved a single step forward since that time. Barely holding onto consciousness on horseback, Lawrence could only smile at how pathetic he was.
“The camp’s been sighted! Only a little farther!”
With that, Lawrence realized that he had been in danger of falling off the horse’s back himself.
Moizi rushed over and supported his body, hurriedly reeling in the reins while setting his body upright. Luward, somehow cradled between Moizi’s arms, had grown as cold as a corpse.
“Medicine! Bring medicine and liquor!”
As Moizi shouted with all his strength, those who realized the situation was dire ran off.
And without asking about the fine details, they immediately acted on their orders, looking into the distance the whole while. Without anyone needing to give orders to anyone else, without needing to be told whatsoever, they moved, and others still acted in anticipation of those movements. Lawrence found it a bit interesting that it looked like a well-rehearsed play.
To mercenaries fighting from dawn to dusk, this must have been a daily occurrence; Lawrence saw a certain beauty in how they instantly dealt with a crisis. This was not something mastered in a short time. This was doubtlessly something gained over many months and years of comrades fighting side by side.
This is what the Hugo Mercenary Company had sold for coin.
They could never become good old mercenaries ever again.
“Come back with all the hot water we have! We must treat the young one quickly!”
Suddenly the mercenaries had gathered around Lawrence’s horse, easing Lawrence as well as Luward off its back. From the way they treated Lawrence, he had apparently been promoted from a suspicious merchant to the benefactor who had bravely transported Luward to camp.
As he was laid on top of a blanket spread atop the snow, hands examined his body up and down as if beating him, and suddenly, his cheek was slapped hard. He thought of saying, I’m wide awake, thank you, but his mouth would not move; he could not even move his head on his own anymore.
But when he was slapped again and his head rudely returned to its original position, he caught sight of a mercenary holding the knife that should still have been planted in his own thigh. Apparently that had been to obscure the pain when pulling the knife out.
“Stopped the bleeding! Where’s that poultice?!”
“Strategist! Fight back? March forward?!”
“Weapons! Bring weapons!”
“Run, young man! Open the second sack, it’s right there!”
The tumult sounded so distant to him. Beside his head, many feet violently ran about, kicking snow onto his face, which someone wiped off.
So this is the field of battle, Lawrence thought absentmindedly.
The next moment, someone seated beside him said this.
“God is at your side. Let us pray.”
His hair disheveled, the clergyman looked rather grim. He had just tossed on his robe; his long sword was hanging in plain sight. Even so, he was doubtlessly a fine military chaplain.
“You’re in time…”
Once Lawrence managed to reply, the chaplain seated right beside him broke into a smile, slapping Lawrence’s cheek as he rose.
“Is he conscious?!”
It was Moizi’s voice. The moment after Lawrence had the thought, a rugged hand forced Lawrence’s face in a different direction.
“Mr. Lawrence! It’s me!”
Lawrence, with his thoughts still a jumble, somehow managed to nod.
“May we consider that wolf as an ally?!”
From the look in Moizi’s eyes, it did not look like a joke.
Lawrence could certainly understand the feelings that made him want to ask.
“It’s… Holo.”
As Lawrence made his brief reply, Moizi stroked his chin, looking as if he had swallowed a stone.
“Understood.”
Now that the Hugo Mercenary Company had betrayed them, any further mistakes in judgment meant the annihilation of the entire unit.
That was the level of the resolve that filled Moizi’s face.
“Medics stay behind. Everyone else, gather arms!”
As the strategist shouted, most people had already taken up arms.
One hand held sword, spear, or ax, while the other held a torch. A pot filled to the brim with wine was being passed around them. Each of them accepted it, glugged as they drank, and passed it along to the next person.
“The Hugo Mercenary Company betrayed us! Now we go rescue our comrades!”
It was that moment, when everyone was set to raise a shout to greet his words.
“S-strategist!”
One of them pointed ahead along the road. As Moizi turned around, Lawrence heard the faint sound of people stepping back. Or perhaps it was the sound of the others taking up battle stances.
But Lawrence, too, understood what they were seeing. From the side, they could see the entire giant body, its footsteps making unfathomably gentle sounds.
Footsteps that had saved him from danger so many times.
From that alone, something like drowsiness came over him.
“… Miss Holo, is it?”
When Moizi somehow found his voice, Holo’s only reply was to drop something onto the snow. A number of mercenaries cried out as it made a thud.
“Glem. Wh-why did you…?”
Holo answered Moizi’s words.
“Surely you can put him to some use.”
Still lying down, Lawrence made a silent laugh. Surely Hilde was making a satisfied look within his
cage as well.
“Your comrades are on their way. Some are wounded. You would do well to greet them quickly.”
Holo spoke bluntly, then apparently sat on her rear.
Judging from the silence, Moizi and the other mercenaries must have stared at one another, but the next moment, a battle cry erupted as they ran off.
Once he could no longer hear the sounds of their footsteps, Holo rose, squishing the snow as she approached.
“Fool.”
The word came with a lick of his face.
“… We’re… saved…”
“Hmph. In a sense.”
As Holo spoke, she looked in the direction Moizi and the others had run.
“But I may have erred in saving you.” She dropped a short comment as she walked off.
Erred?
As Lawrence strove to understand the meaning of that word in the far corners of his mind, he lost consciousness.
Chapter 10
When he awoke, he was in a room with a fire quietly burning in a fireplace.
For a while, he felt like he had seen a long dream. The instant he tried to move his body, sharp pain ran through his thigh, finally clearing all of the fog from his head.
He had a very faint memory of having reached Svernel before dawn had broken.
Lawrence gently slid his body, shielding his painful leg while hanging both over the side of the bed.
The light that slipped past the gaps in the wooden shutter was very weak; the sky outside was the color of a heavy lead weight.
But the inn itself as well as the outside seemed almost too quiet. Perhaps it was still early morning.
If that was the case, he should still be sleepy, but he felt very little urge to sleep. It was always so when his life was in danger.
But there was one more reason Lawrence could not sleep, one of which he was well aware.
That was the thought Unforgivable!
It was not that the Hugo Mercenary Company had betrayed them. It was the Debau Company that had contrived the betrayal that he could not forgive.
Of course, since Rebonato had ultimately resolved to betray them, Lawrence held a grudge against him as well. Even so, Rebonato had expended many words on Luward in search of forgiveness. Having seen that, Lawrence could somehow put the rest together. Rebonato had to agree with such a large amount of money before his eyes.
In Lesko, the Debau Company made the mercenaries realize that it was starting a new era. That should have shaken them to the core. But what if enough money was piled in front of them that they could live in luxury for the rest of their lives?
To a merchant, stroking human greed for one’s own advantage was perfectly normal.
But at that time, Rebonato had an absolute advantage. He had broken Luward’s leg, stabbed his hand and thigh with a dagger, and had struck him in the head hard enough that he could barely speak. Yet Rebonato had pleaded before him all the same.
Come over to our side. Don’t make me the only traitor.
And as Lawrence thought about that, it made him sick.
That was not what business should be.
He absolutely could not recognize that as business.
“…”
Lawrence rose up, retrieving his coat from the shoulder of the chair at the side of the bed. As he did so, he realized there was a lot of brown-colored hair under the chair. No doubt Holo had been sitting in this chair attending to him.
Dragging his bad leg, he went out of the room and into the hallway. The hallway was filled to the brim with an atmosphere that spoke, It really is still morning. Based on the size of the room, he deduced he was on the third or fourth floor of an inn. If Hilde and Luward were here, they would no doubt be on the second floor, so Lawrence leaned his shoulder against the wall as he went down the stairs step-by-step.
Even if seen in the most favorable light, the present situation was dire. Hilde and the others had deduced the current state of affairs in the Debau Company based on the Hugo Mercenary Company attacking the Myuri Mercenary Company. They thought that after the Debau Company had chased Debau and Hilde out of power, there had been even further internal power disputes.
But in truth, the Hugo Mercenary Company had been bought off, and Lawrence and the others had been deceived. One could say the scheme was perfect; it would have been the end to everything had Holo not been there.
That being the case, having somehow managed to flee into Svernel, the opponent would assail the city with all its might.
All he knew for certain was that there would be no easy counterattack.
With that thought in his head, he descended to the second floor and saw a youngster standing watch in the corridor ahead. Though the youngster yawned as if sleepy, he immediately noticed Lawrence’s presence and knocked on the door in a hurry, poking his face in. The youngster pulled his face out of the doorway and moved aside as Holo came out. She looked surprised to see Lawrence and seemed angry as she rushed over.
“What are you doing?”
“Are you going to tell me to go sleep?”
As Holo moved to lend her shoulder, Lawrence moved forward as if he was going to push her out of the way.
“And just where are you going?”
“That’s obvious. They’re talking in there about what to do now, right?”
He’s injured. He’s a merchant. He could not be the only one left out, particularly at a time like this.
He could not back down with a circumstance like this before his eyes.
He thought to lend whatever little strength he had to Hilde and Luward.
They could not let the present Debau Company stretch any further.
But Holo spoke calmly. “They are doing no such thing.”
What Lawrence instantly felt was anger. Did she think even a child would fall for that?
“’Tis true. Come, you, calm yourself.”
The youngster guarding the door watched Lawrence and Holo’s dispute with a perplexed look. Perhaps because Lawrence was not yet at full strength, the lads body looked hazy; Lawrence could be certain only of his face.
And pressed by Holo, Lawrence could put up little resistance as his back was pushed against the wall.
He muttered a curse and tried to right himself, but when Holo’s hand touched his forehead, the coldness surprised him.
“… Come, you. The fever is making you a fool.”
Fever?
As Lawrence thought, That’s crazy, it was true that his body held no strength.
“Your leg was stabbed, and you were beaten enough to make you vomit everything in your stomach. If you weaken your body further, you could even die. Come, now – if you were in my shoes, what would you do?”
There was no way he could win against Holo’s logic.
Lawrence averted his eyes from Holo and tried to step forward once more, but he could not.
“You said it plainly yourself.”
“… What?”
Holo looked straight at Lawrence as she spoke.
“That we have lost.”
“I…”
Before Lawrence could finish speaking, strength drained away from the good leg somehow still supporting him.
But Lawrence was a traveling merchant. He was second to none at being bad at giving up. “I don’t think Mr. Hilde will give up.”
As Lawrence hung his head, there was clear strain on Holo’s face.
Hilde had not given up, either. How could Holo say that they had lost, then?
They had to be having a meeting in the room. Hilde, speaking but a few words while worn ragged and at the end of his endurance, spurred Lawrence and the others to Svernel with his truly astounding wit. Hilde was prepared to die; he was prepared to be killed.
Certainly, Luward’s being gravely injured, thanks to the Hugo Mercenary Company being bought off and betraying them, was a heavy blow.
But they had the forbidden book, plus the complete three hundred gold coins remaining, plus the Myuri Mercenary Company.
Therefore, this being Svernel, the place where those opposed to the Debau Company were assembling, if they gathered everyone under one banner, surely they could halt the opponent’s advance.
From the start, provided it was possible, Lawrence had wanted to support Hilde and Debau’s dream.
However, now he thought that more than that, the present Debau Company must not grow any more powerful.
“Certainly, that hare will not give up.”
“Then–”
“However, that does not make true that which you wish to say.”
“What should we do, then?”
As Lawrence asked, Holo averted her eyes for once.
Seeming bothered, her eyes narrowed enough that her long eyelashes cast shadows, her gaze still failing to meet his.
As she did so, the door opened a little, and the young man who had been standing in front of it was sucked right in. Someone had no doubt pulled him along.
Seeing that and seeing Holo, Lawrence was able to get the gist of the situation.
And he murmured, “You can’t mean…?
“You’re not saying, run away, just the two of us?”
Holo looked up at Lawrence and nodded bluntly.
“Yes.”
Those cold, beautiful eyes stared at Lawrence.
Lawrence grabbed hold of Holo’s slender shoulders.
“We can’t! We can’t do such a thing!”
There was no way they could flee by themselves and leave Hilde and the Myuri Mercenary Company here in Svernel.
“Then, what would our staying accomplish? Lawrence, what will you do?”
With Lawrence still grasping her shoulders, Holo took his hands, which were twice the size of her own.
Her hands were frighteningly cold, like ice.
Holo’s sad eyes shifted to Lawrence’s breast.
“Lawrence… ’tis not my thought alone. The hare and the people of the Myuri Mercenary Company think it as well.”
So that is why Holo had been in the room. She was not convincing them. They were convincing her.
From the other side’s point of view, it made perfect sense. Lawrence being here served no useful purpose, but should Lawrence perish, it would leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.
Spice & Wolf Omnibus Page 295