“Is this from Holo?”
“From the bird. I was to return it without anyone knowing, so I was unable to until now.”
With tension on his face, Hilde took it out of the sack.
It was too short to be a ceremonial dagger and too large to press against a wax seal.
Lawrence did not understand.
Even so, the moment Hilde grasped it, he seemed to understand.
“This is…”
Hilde gripped it with his right hand, on the side of his injured shoulder, as if it was a cane that was not long enough. The quivering was probably from the injury sapping his strength.
But it was apparently very valuable, indeed.
Hilde lowered his head as even his shoulders shook.
“Thank you… thank you for bringing this to me…”
“Thanks to Mr. Luis’s courage, it would seem.”
As Lawrence spoke, Hilde looked at Lawrence, then regarded the object once more. He closed his eyes and touched it to his forehead as if it would save the world.
Saying anything more here would be boorish. Lawrence and Holo exchanged glances, nodded, and moved to politely take their leave.
“Please, wait.”
It was Hilde who stopped them.
“No matter which way things turn, you will probably learn sometime, somewhere. So, if possible, I would like for you to learn of it through me.”
Lawrence had no time to ask, What do you mean?
Unbecoming of Hilde’s age, his eyes teared up as he removed the wrapping around what Debau had sent and entrusted him with.
“…!”
Lawrence looked at it in shock.
A single hammer appeared atop the table.
However, this was no mere hammer. This was a coining hammer carved with a symbol, the very life of coinage.
Surely this was no random coining hammer. Without doubt, it was constructed for the issuing of the Debau Company’s new currency.
In other words, it was the bridge that linked Debau and Hilde’s dream with making it a reality.
As Hilde gazed at it, his eyes were sparkling like a child’s.
As coining hammers degraded from hammering out coins, one could only be used to mint about two thousand coins.
Therefore, as the Debau Company surely had tens of identical hammers, stealing one in no way prevented the current Debau Company from minting the new currency. Depending on when they finished melting down coins and increasing the purity to the level of silver trenni, identical hammers would certainly be used to mint new coins all at once.
But Debau risking his very life to entrust this coining hammer to Hilde made it exceedingly symbolic.
Do not forget our dream.
That was what Debau wanted to convey to Hilde.
“Mr. Hilde.”
Lawrence called out Hilde’s name – Hilde, who was looking at the hammer lying on the table like a child.
“Would you show us the symbol?”
A smile came over Hilde’s face.
Back in Lesko, Lawrence had pondered what the design of the new currency might be. Mercenaries had thought it would not have the face of someone powerful on it. Simply put, if one used someone’s face, they would earn the ire of someone without fail, and such a thing was just too unsuited to a currency meant to unify the northlands with so many powerful interests at stake. Some thought a mining pick would be appropriate, but this was something to be avoided in regions that had been despoiled by mining in the past.
Before knowing about Hilde and Debau, Lawrence had been able to think the design they would circulate was one shrouded in power and authority.
But now he could think no such thing.
After all, here was Hilde right before his eyes, full of life.
With Hilde and Debau like this, Lawrence did not think that when they were designing the new coinage, they were thinking of ruling the world or making the people of the northlands obey them.
No doubt they were glowing like youths, filled with dreams and hope, the certainty that they could change the world engraved upon their chests.
“Of course. That is, after all, what I really wanted to show you.”
Hilde lifted the coining hammer, turning the face for minting coins toward Lawrence and Holo. That moment, Lawrence did not suck in his breath, nor did he show surprise. He certainly could not be dejected by it.
The instant he saw it, his face broke into a smile on its own.
In these cold northern lands, many shrouded by gray, cloudy skies, certainly this was what would grant happiness equally unto all people.
The symbol of the sun.
With the sun in his hand, Hilde would bring order to the northlands.
“Please, always remember the merchants of the northlands wrapped in a ridiculous dream.”
Lawrence understood that no matter what he might say, it would come off as boorish.
Therefore, he remained silent and nodded, bowing his head like a loyal retainer.
“Now, then, I am sorry to have detained you so long. May the grace of the sun be with both of you on your journey.”
Hilde spoke the words without invoking the name of God.
Now Lawrence could put his feelings in order and move forward.
That moment, as Lawrence once again tried to salute and take his leave…
“Master Hilde!”
The door opened and a young man flew in.
Seeing Lawrence and Holo, he hurriedly regained his balance, but even so he was unable to contain his enthusiasm as he rushed to Hilde’s side.
“Master Hilde, m-message from Master Moizi. He says a Debau Company envoy has come into the town.”
“–!”
That moment, Hilde’s expression returned to that of a merchant as he promptly put the coining hammer back within the sack with the gold coins.
But Lawrence and Hilde realized at the same time how unnatural that report was.
“Envoy? An envoy you say?” Hilde murmured as if asking himself, Why… an envoy?
It was by no means rare to send an envoy before a war began to hold one last dialogue before plunging into the flames of war. In other words, by conventional thinking, Millike had accepted his entry and given him a seat at the table. Of course, Millike would not be thinking of closing the town gates, but rather discussing the town welcoming the Debau Company with open arms.
Naturally, however, there were other ways of thinking, too.
So far as the townspeople would be concerned, the arrival of an envoy was clearly the first step toward a declaration of war. Should negotiations fail, they would surely shut the town gates.
Furthermore, the townspeople had already accepted Hilde and the others as chivalrous rogues. Even should the envoy and Millike come to agreement, wholly ignoring the will of the people, with the merchants’ council deciding on its own to leave the gates wide open for the Debau Company, there could even be civil strife. Lawrence wondered if Millike would court such a thing.
In the first place, if all was in perfect agreement, no envoy would have been accepted to begin with.
Or perhaps Millike had some kind of plan?
Plain thinking could only arrive at a single conclusion.
But though exceedingly simple, even Lawrence did not want to believe it.
That was, he had confidence that the will of the people could be assuaged.
However, regardless of what the envoy and Millike wanted from negotiations, Hilde had to bite. The worst thing was for them to discuss things between themselves alone. Even if the Debau Company’s army did not enter the city, no good would come from civil strife arising.
“Er, and Master Hilde…”
“Is there something else?”
As Hilde asked, the young man spoke, his voice filled with all the courage he could muster.
“The envoy wishes to negotiate with Master Hilde.”
This was completely unexpected.
But when Hilde poked his head out of th
e wooden shutters, he instantly pulled back and looked at Lawrence.
“It’s bad if you leave right now. All of Millike’s soldiers are already heading this way.”
They might be questioned, and if they were not careful, they would be suspected of being spies.
Even if that was not so, if they were closely examined on a busy street in broad daylight, Holo’s ears and tail would be exposed for all to see.
“Understood. We will lie low for a while and go when the time is right.”
“Please do so. I do not believe they will be so absurd as to put us in irons. Should such a thing happen, at least you two must escape.”
If they clumsily stayed behind and the worst happened, it would bring anguish to Hilde and Moizi and the others, and the one who would suffer the most would be Holo.
Lawrence hardened his resolve and nodded.
“But-but… no, perhaps…?”
Hilde was desperately questioning himself. Even someone as intelligent as Hilde – no, probably precisely because he was sharper than the likes of Lawrence, he simply could not understand the envoy’s actions.
What did he intend to do by negotiating with Hilde?
It was plain that talks would rupture.
Or was it that they intended to compromise from the start? Then, why would they be paying an exorbitant expense to command such a large army? Or did he truly believe he could persuade Hilde to give up?
“If you go and meet him you will know,” said Lawrence.
Then Holo spoke curtly. “There are many mysteries that cannot be resolved by simply gazing at them. You had the rug pulled from under you once before. Do you intend to repeat the same mistake?”
The words of Holo the Wisewolf firmly grounded the great merchant Hilde’s floating thoughts.
“… Thank you very much.”
“Hmph.”
Holo snorted as Hilde left the room, taking the young man along with him.
Remaining in the room, Holo reached her hand out to the coining hammer, its head sticking out of the hemp sack.
She pressed her thumb against it, looking it over. “That fool,” she muttered. “Males are all fools,” she finished, annoyed and turning over the coining hammer engraved with the symbol of the sun.
They heard a voice from outside the window. “Is Master Hilde Schnau here?!”
When they looked outside, the streets had become packed with people at some point.
Right in the center was Millike, straddling a rather fine horse, with soldiers escorting both.
Waiting a small ways behind was a man dressed in extremely fine garments who had to be the Debau Company’s envoy. Even watching from the inn’s second floor, the hat made of river mouse pelt and the fur-hemmed overcoat resembled a horse draped in gold-and-silver embroidery without the slightest sense of embarrassment.
Even his servant seemed to be clothed quite well; he was pulling a horse with some kind of baggage piled upon it.
While they bore solemn faces while straddling the horses, they did not bear the bitter taste peculiar to those left behind by a situation out of hand. They had a sure-footed confidence as to who was the victor here.
But those gathered all around them were not here simply to see the sights.
There was a butcher, his meat cleaver in his hand, and a baker, holding a stone rolling pin heavier and harder than any wooden one. They were those who had accepted Hilde as a chivalrous rogue who had come to do battle against any foes who would invade the town.
Furthermore, they were here to look over the Debau Company, which having danced ahead so far now had mercenaries with weapons poised with one general after another under their thumb, an old way of thinking it had rejected in the past.
The circumstances were absolutely not one-sided.
And Moizi and the stout men of the Myuri Mercenary Company stood in front of the inn’s door, trading glares with the soldiers that had demanded Hilde’s presence. It was apparent at a glance who was friend and who was foe.
What broke the stalemate was the opening of the inn’s door.
Seen as the leader of a chivalrous band of rogues, Hilde rushed out, and a scrum began with the soldiers protecting Millike and the Debau Company’s envoy.
“You demand dialogue with us! What is the meaning of this, bearing arms in the presence of an envoy?”
Hilde was the one who shouted.
The excited populace somehow stopped shifting around.
“Master Hilde Schnau, is it?”
One of the soldiers examined him. Hilde nodded and replied, “Indeed, I am.”
“We have accepted an envoy from the Debau Company. He wishes to establish a place for negotiations with Master Schnau.”
As the soldier conveyed his message, the common folk around them mocked Millike and the soldiers’ weak attitude.
For it was only through setting up walls that a town could protect its autonomy.
There were many who coveted towns. There were lords who viewed the people of the land much the same as common weeds; mountain bandits thinking only of plunder; the Church, which thought nothing of burning disobedient heretics at the stake; avaricious great merchants; and even failing those, no small number of wolves and bears came down from the mountains in search of food. The fear of having one’s knees broken and being chewed all the way down to the bones was certainly not paranoia.
But Millike paid the shouts of the crowd no more heed than the buzzing of flies.
He maintained a completely neutral expression as he gazed at Hilde.
“I, too, desire this.”
“Very well. Now, then, the envoy from the Debau Company is…”
As the soldier attempted to provide an introduction, Hilde checked him with a hand.
“I know this man well.”
Hilde spoke quietly and took a step forward.
Lawrence did not think Moizi and the other mercenaries were walking beside Hilde simply to open a path.
Even watching from the second story, he was able to take in Hilde’s incredible resolve.
“Emanuel Yanarkin…”
The man maintained a cold smile on top of his horse and replied to the seemingly spat-out words.
“It seems that you are well, Master Hilde Schnau.”
Hilde pressed his right shoulder lightly.
Perhaps it was this Yanarkin who had inflicted that very wound.
“If it pleases you, we will go to my mansion for the negotiations.” It was Millike who interjected.
This was natural, coming from the chairman of the merchants’ council, its most powerful member, and the man who approved merchants.
However, the townspeople could not accept this being moved behind closed doors.
That moment, the clamor began to build anew.
“I have nothing to be ashamed of. I do not mind having this debate right here.”
It was Yanarkin who spoke those words.
It was this very man who had the most to hide in a place like this.
Furthermore, as if to display this was no simple whim, he climbed down from his horse.
The crowd’s presence was conveyed by the collective sucking of breath, for the act of coming down from his horse meant they could raise no tumult about it.
“… How about you, Master Schnau?”
Millike, playing the role of the neutral mediator offering a place to negotiate, looked down at Hilde from horseback as he spoke.
It seemed that this development had simply caught Hilde off guard.
Hold negotiations that would determine the fate of the town right in front of the crowd?
It was only natural that business be done behind closed doors; that was even more true of political dealings, with no reason to speak of them in front of others whatsoever.
For compromises, traps that looked like compromises, and sometimes threats and pleadings were all traded back and forth.
It was nothing one wanted most people to see.
Yet even so, Yana
rkin dismounted, standing on the road.
“… I do not mind.”
Hilde, after a silent pause, could only reply thusly.
Since he was a chivalrous rogue, he had to appear forthright and open at all times.
Though Debau and Hilde’s dream was without question something to be proud of, whether the path to achieving it was something that could be fully revealed before others was a different question altogether.
Lawrence was painfully aware of how merchants were broad-minded when it came to good and evil.
But Lawrence did not know whether the general public would understand that.
“Very well. Let it be done here and now, then.”
Millike issued commands from horseback. The soldiers employing spears lowered them, opening a space right in the middle of the street. Upon noticing this, many faces poked out of the building on the other side to watch what was going on.
Even as Lawrence watched the people driven away form a crowd, he felt that the situation was indeed not so bad.
If anything, he thought things had tilted in favor of Hilde.
After all, none doubted the fact that a large army was marching upon the town; nor was it false that Hilde thought the northlands could be unified without force of arms. He had not only mere words, but also practical methodology as well.
That being the case, surely it was Yanarkin who was at a disadvantage negotiating in front of people.
But Yanarkin was not intimidated in the slightest. Millike was not flustered whatsoever.
The only one who was tense was Hilde, who should have had the advantage.
“Are they planning something?”
Lawrence murmured out of the blue.
“I know not. Logically this should favor the hare.”
So Lawrence was right. Even Holo thought as much.
But after staring intently below the window, Holo quietly said this.
“But that gloomy-eyed lord told the hare, ‘You are wise, so there is no place for me on the stage.’ If by that, he meant the comfort margin he is showing here, then…”
Lawrence shifted his gaze from Holo to the street.
It was Yanarkin who broke the ice.
“We have been misunderstood!” The voice and gestures he used were far too grand for a one-on-one conversation. “We are not the ones bringing harm to this land!”
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