Spice & Wolf Omnibus

by Isuna Hasekura

  “I never had any sane notion you’d be using that stamp to remint gold lumione of all things.”

  For that was indeed what Hilde proposed to do.

  Gold lumione were the gold coins with the highest level of purity, so even if reminted, they still retained marvelous value.

  But the important thing was, the symbol was the same as the one the Debau Company was using to issue its own currency.

  The Debau Company had announced it would issue gold and silver coins, but had not done so with gold coins. Gold coins were far too precious, not something to hand over to the common folk. Besides, each and every coin was a small fortune; even the Debau Company could not withstand issuing gold coins.

  And that was why Svernel could issue these gold coins instead.

  Since it was impossible to issue a large number of gold coins, it would have no great effect on the Debau Company’s coin policies.

  However, as a symbol, gold coins were particularly momentous; enough that it would be worth issuing a small trickle of coins on special occasions hereafter.

  Therefore, Hilde’s proposal was to entrust the town with one of the stamps and to pay it a suitable fee to mint gold coins when an occasion to issue them arose.

  Having gone that far, even after Hilde and Debau returned to power at the Debau Company, no harm was likely to come to Svernel.

  If the Debau Company, having shown Svernel such favor, treated the town coarsely on some occasion, it would lose trust from all corners of the northlands.

  Meaning, Hilde was giving Millike a reason to trust him to ensure the long-term stability of Svernel.

  Millike was not someone who would be ignorant of the value of that.

  “However, it is thanks to you and Miss Holo that I am able to take command like this.”

  Hilde, Luward, Lawrence, Holo.

  Had a single one been lacking, they would not have arrived at this point.

  After a while, Hilde called Lawrence’s name. “Mr. Lawrence.”

  “What is it?”

  As Lawrence lifted his eyes, Hilde was watching the Myuri Mercenary Company at work, with Luward letting commands fly. It seemed like he could watch the scene forever when he spoke.

  “Would you not come to the Debau Company?”

  And as he spoke, Lawrence’s gaze turned to him.

  It was a mining company of rare size, an incredible company even able to mint a new currency for the northlands.

  Setting up a store in Lesko was nowhere on the same scale as being invited in.

  But about the same time as Lawrence turned his gaze to Hilde, he saw Luward and the others.

  It was a fascinating idea. Surely everyone would say such a thing could not possibly be true for a traveling merchant.

  “If I accepted that, every day would be an adventure, wouldn’t it?”

  “Yes. I guarantee it.”

  Lawrence replied without hesitation to Hilde’s firm words. “That’s why I can’t.” He gave Hilde a strained smile. “If I do that, no one will believe another word I say. I must respectfully decline.”

  Even without the little details, it was surely clear what he meant.

  For a while, Hilde seemed radiant as he looked at Lawrence along with Luward and the others.

  “You are probably right.”

  Then, as if making a complaint, Hilde said this.

  “If only I had taken the form of a girl…”

  Lawrence could not help himself but laugh at the terrible joke.

  After laughing for a while, he gripped the stick that supported him, raising himself up.

  “If you took the form of a girl, Holo would probably eat you.”

  “… I am a hare, after all.” Hilde smiled and said, “A pity. Incidentally, where are you going?”

  “Back to my room. With my leg I can’t even step on the bellows; I’ll just be in the way.”

  As Lawrence spoke, Hilde seemed surprised to the bottom of his heart; indeed, there was anger in his words as he spoke.

  “Surely that is not so. Everyone is wounded here. Besides, it is you, Mr. Lawrence, who silenced Yanarkin. If it had not been for you, even Mr. Luward and his men could not have–”

  Lawrence made a strained smile and raised a palm at Hilde’s vehement protest.

  He knew what Hilde was trying to say; he truly wanted Lawrence to be present for the minting of the gold coins.

  But Lawrence could not.

  He had to finally excuse himself from the banquet.

  “If I get in too deep, I’ll never be able to pull back.”

  Hilde seemed to still want to say something in response to Lawrence’s words.

  However, Hilde knew what was between Lawrence and Holo. It was Hilde, after all, who had convinced Holo that their lives were being jeopardized and that they should flee the town.

  Therefore, for Lawrence to flee from this point on should be nothing compared to that.

  Even without Lawrence saying any of that, Hilde understood on his own; though it pained him, he nodded.

  “I understand. I shall call you when we are ready, then.”

  “Please do.”

  With those words, Lawrence clutched his walking stick and departed from the building with the furnace.

  The interior of the building was well lit to the point of being dazzling, and thanks to all the hardy men running about, it was rather hot.

  Perhaps thanks to that, it was painfully cold outside, and he felt like it was so quiet it made his ears ring.

  If he was there, he would have surely relished the zeal of those who had made risky gambles and won.

  Even so, that was no longer any place for him.

  As Lawrence walked, making step after step with his walking stick, there was someone coming toward him from the other direction. As he wondered who would be out walking at this hour, it turned out to be Holo, carrying a casket of wine.

  “Mm? Where are you going, you?”

  “That’s my line.”

  As Lawrence spoke, Holo regripped the wine casket and replied, “I was given some wine. I thought I would come have a drink with you.”

  “I imagined I’d just be in the way, so why not go back to the inn.”

  “A fine decision by your standards.”

  As Holo spoke, her face looked like that of an old wife saying to her already drunk husband, And from tomorrow on, you shall go to the tavern no more.

  As a previous offender, Lawrence, scared of the eyes with which Holo was staring at him, strongly and rather transparently changed the subject.

  “… You said someone gave you that wine? Who?”

  “… Goodness… What’s his name, you know, that fool.”

  Holo did not remember his name. Typical.

  “You don’t mean Millike?”

  As Lawrence spoke, Holo said, “Right, right.”

  “But why would Millike have wine sent over?”

  As Lawrence asked, a somewhat mysterious look came over Holo’s face.

  “’Tis no problem, is it? Or do you suspect it is poisoned?”

  “I suspect no such thing, but…”

  Lawrence was not able to grasp how Millike thought at all.

  Furthermore, since he was half-man, half-beast, Lawrence wondered what could have happened between him and Hilde as well as Holo that had gone so well.

  It was not that he suspected anything untoward, but not being able to fathom it tugged at his mind.

  “Walk.” Perhaps Lawrence was projecting his thoughts when Holo urged him onward, glancing sideways up at Lawrence in exasperation.

  “Come, you. There are many stories and many circumstances that you know not.”

  That was exceedingly obvious, but what of it?

  “When Mr. Hilde went off to speak to him the second time… Come to think of it, you weren’t around?” said Lawrence looking back.

  Lawrence had been speaking to Moizi and Luward, but Holo could not sit still and said she was heading off to another room to brus
h her tail.

  Holo made a disagreeable-looking face.

  So something had happened back then.

  “And I was being kind in not saying it,” replied Holo.

  “Kind?”

  “But perhaps it shall serve as a good lesson,” Holo muttered in response to Lawrence’s doubtful question. “In the end, that fool was protecting a grave.”

  “Protecting a… grave?”

  “Aye. I know not the details, but several decades ago the female he was mated to fell ill and died. As she was born in this town, in this town she rests. He did not have the power to save her, but he hoped she could at least rest in peace. So, Lawrence, does this story not remind you of something similar?”

  Holo spoke with a flippant tone, but her face showed no humor at all.

  Having one’s mate die first, and obstinately protecting the resting place of that mate, struck rather too close to home.

  “So, then you…”

  “Aye. Well, I’d firmly grasped your hand right in front of a man like that. Small wonder he gave us those dark looks.”

  Anger, exasperation, perhaps even jealousy.

  Regardless, he could not have been able to keep calm.

  “But, well, that fool sent word he wished to speak with me through that fool of a hare.

  “I did say I was going out.”

  Like Millike’s wife, Lawrence would someday die before Holo did. Be it from old age or disease, perish he would.

  That was an unavoidable fact and one Holo certainly understood.

  She had experienced it several times before; it was something she had worried about before.

  They had arrived this far because then and on other such occasions, Lawrence had taken Holo’s hand no matter what. Holo, finally moved by his affection, had taken Lawrence’s hand in turn.

  He wondered what Holo had said to Millike in light of that.

  What kind of words did she offer to Millike, who was protecting the place where his dead wife laid?

  Without smiling, Holo spoke curtly.

  “I told him… find your next female already, you fool.”

  “…”

  Lawrence stopped still, staring in shock.

  Holo went several steps farther before looking back over her shoulder, a mocking smile coming over her. She giggled. “You really are a charming one.”

  Then, she walked off, making a cackling laugh all the way.

  Certainly, even if his own death made Holo sad, he would want her to laugh once more.

  But nor could he stop himself from hoping that, if possible, there would never be another man at her side, stupid as the thought was.

  Lawrence walked off once more, following Holo.

  “But having said that, I did wander about a wheat field like that, yes? And you, as soon as you start to build a nest, you run off all over the place.”

  Holo’s words came with a good measure of ill temper as they arrived at the inn and she opened the door.

  No doubt she had not held the door open entirely on purpose.

  Holding his walking stick in the crook of his arm, Lawrence awkwardly opened the door and moved his listless body inside.

  “So, because we talked like that, he went out of his way to send wine, which arrived just earlier.”

  Holo walked briskly, even as Lawrence was largely groping as he walked.

  “The two aren’t connected.”

  As he made the obligatory protest, Holo stopped still in the darkness; he felt like she was silently laughing.

  Then, she took light, hop-like steps up the stairs.

  Lawrence clutched his walking stick and climbed the stairs with his meager endurance.

  By the time he arrived at the fourth floor, he was largely out of breath.

  “The two are not connected, you say?”

  “Wah!”

  The sudden voice right before his eyes nearly bowled him over.

  Holo guifawed, laughed, and took Lawrence’s hand.

  But the atmosphere after her laugh was oddly frightening.

  “…?”

  Lawrence felt like Holo was glaring at him in the darkness, but since he could only make out her silhouette, he was not sure.

  It was very similar to the conversation itself.

  “We have arrived.”

  As they entered the room, it was a little brighter due to the wooden shutters being open.

  Lawrence, relying on the moonlight, made it to the bed and was finally able to sit down.

  As it occurred to him to look up and ask for at least some water, her face was angry enough that he suddenly sat upright.

  “So, you.”

  Her tone of voice was frigid, and her look was truly merciless.

  Because Lawrence’s back was facing the moon, Holo’s eyes received the light, giving off a silvery glint.

  “I thought you were not going to lay a hand on anything dangerous again?”

  So she was going to bring that up again now?

  Besides, how it worked out could not be helped.

  As Lawrence’s eyes pitifully complained thus, Holo snorted a “hmph,” and she pulled back a little.

  “Well, certainly it could not be helped there.”

  That’s right, he moved to say, but Holo’s sharp eyes shut Lawrence up.

  “However, it is a violation of your promise nonetheless. If you get wrapped up in something, it stirs your deep benevolence so that you can’t help but stick your nose into it. Certainly, I had fun helping you there beside the window, but come, you, it shall not always go well like that. If you do not take that to heart, you shall truly suffer for it.”

  He did not know if she meant suffering as a direct result of sticking his nose in or from what Holo would do to him afterward. Probably both.

  “And even if you nod now, I cannot trust that…”

  He wanted to say, But I turned Hilde down, but that would not build her trust.

  One earned trust by making their deeds match their words.

  How many times had he spoken to Holo and not come through?

  As he thought about that, Lawrence looked up at her like a criminal awaiting judgment.

  “But having said that, I am well aware you are honest to the point of foolishness. Therefore, I believe there may be some fault in my methods.”

  “…?”

  As Lawrence’s head spun, trying in vain to make sense of it all, Holo spoke in a grandiose tone.

  “You seem the sort who will uphold a contract, if not a promise.”

  “Huh?”

  As he spoke without thinking, Holo slapped his cheek hard.

  Furthermore, the hand Holo slapped his cheek with pinched it, turning Lawrence to face her.

  “I have no idea what that cheeky little girl was thinking to say such a thing but…”

  Then, she spoke with annoyance through bared fangs.

  Lawrence remembered back to when Holo was digging up the forbidden book back in the snow-covered mountains.

  Apparently, when Holo had gone to Kieschen to obtain the forbidden book, Elsa had said something to her there.

  What in the world was it, and what did it have to do with them here and now?

  Lawrence could not hazard a guess, but there was no mistaking the fact that whatever it was, it had gotten under Holo’s skin.

  Holo took her hand away from Lawrence’s cheek, immediately sandwiching Lawrence’s head between both hands.

  She looked like she was about to swallow this pathetic traveling merchant whole from the head down.

  Perhaps that was not so far off the mark.

  As Holo gazed straight at Lawrence, she said this.

  “She said when ’tis time to take our vows, she would stand witness anytime. The fool.”

  It was clear that what Elsa, a woman of the Church – albeit a young one – meant by vows was not something to cross Lawrence’s lips.

  “So, how about it?” Holo asked sourly.

  As if she needed to ask.


  If that was the contract into which she wanted him to enter, there was no possible reason he could refuse.

  Lawrence, gazing at Holo as if entranced by her, nodded.

  As he did so Holo, who until this point had eyed Lawrence with suspicion, finally let all the tension ease, as if she was tired.

  And after an exhausted sigh, a smile came over her, as if somewhat embarrassed, slowly drawing her face near him.

  The moonlight that bathed her face seemed to shroud it in a white veil.

  Humans made their vows before God; perhaps wolves made theirs before the moon.

  Holo tilted her face ever so slightly, slouching a little.

  Her hair gently fell over Lawrence’s shoulder and rested upon it.

  Lawrence put his trembling hands around Holo’s slender hips, but of course Holo did not object.

  Holo made a giggle and brought her face close.

  Lawrence, anticipating tenderness, matched Holo’s movements and slowly closed his eyes.

  And.

  No matter how long he waited, the expected sensation never came.

  “Mm, I forgot something important.”

  “Ah?”

  As Lawrence opened his eyes, Holo briskly raised herself up and turned the other way.

  “Er, ah…”

  And though Lawrence reached out as Holo pulled away, she slipped from his grasp as if she were an illusion.

  When Lawrence tried to get up from the bed, he bent his body from the fierce pain of his thigh.

  But fearing the matter would be kicked down the road again, he cast his eyes toward Holo once more.

  She giggled. “Can you not make such a face?” Despite her words, her expression made clear to Lawrence that she was thoroughly enjoying watching his pathetic expression.

  He wanted to get upset and call her a terrible person, but as he looked at her eyes, he was unable to say the words.

  Holo was truly angry that Lawrence had been seduced by the fickle dreams of merchant-kind.

  He had promised so many times before, and he still had not learned.

  All Lawrence could do was sit on the bed like a dog that had made a mess.

  Whew. Holo slapped her hip with her hand and sighed through her nose.

  It seemed like they would continue in these roles for good.

  “Well, it is the truth I forgot something important. Before forming a new vow, we must carry out the old.”