“What the heck is it for?”
“Just like this.. to warm your hands.”
“Warm.. your hands?”
Indeed, it did feel warmer after Hugh handed it back to him.
“It’s one of those vanity baubles; merchants love this one. You heat it by an oven or keep it under the blankets for a while, then you warm your hands with it as you write. But it can get also get quite cold in the winter, especially if you travel with it outdoors.”
That might be a problem on the wagon.. but then it would be a convenient excuse for Holo to keep it in her arms like a hen guarding an egg. Actually, maybe it wouldn’t be a problem after all..
Lawrence forcefully snapped himself out of it, and nervously peeked at Holo out of the corner of his eye. He shouldn’t be thinking such stupid things. He handed the apple back to Hugh.
“Truly, thank you so much for your information.”
Hugh had finally finished transcribing Lawrence’s words. It might have taken until evening, but Lawrence couldn’t feel bad about it - or even worry about profit - when he saw that look of gratitude in his eyes.
“Don’t mention it. We asked you for a favor, after all.”
“Then when we’re done, at least let me offer you a meal?”
Now this was more like a friendly merchant chat. Lawrence smiled and nodded as they shook hands.
“But they’re still busy looking at the paintings..”
Hugh exerted himself to stand, then peered around them. Sure enough, Holo stood there looking at the paintings one by one, only briefly uttering things to Cole. With Hugh watching her in silence like that, even Lawrence could tell what was running through his mind.
“Would you mind if I asked you what your relationship is with those two?”
Fair enough. Holo would surely have overheard, yet she made no move to respond. There wasn’t any need to hide anything, either, so Lawrence replied.
“I picked Holo up in the south, on my business route.”
“I see.”
“Long ago, a friend asked her to care for his village’s wheat crops, but over time her efforts were forgotten and she longed to return home. I was passing through the village, and she hopped into my wagon without me even noticing.”
Hugh’s lips formed a serene smile. Her tricks were probably just the kind of things his kind would do.
“But it had been many centuries since she left her home, so she’d forgotten the way back. We’ve been hunting for clues since, and picked up young Cole along the way. He’s from the north, from Pinot village.”
“Oh? Pinot village?”
Hugh’s eyes, which had been closed, now opened in surprise. He turned his head to look at Cole.
“But that’s so far away.. ah, I get it. I see why Huskins would have told you about Fran Bonilly now.”
Lawrence smiled, but not because it was funny. He just knew that if he didn’t smile when talking about this, Holo would get upset.
“The northern lands are heavily contested.. the names of places there change too often. For all I know, I actually do know Yoitsu, but by another name.”
Lawrence nodded as he listened, until Hugh’s next words took him by surprise.
“You mentioned you wanted a map of the north, so I thought you were involved in the problems there..”
Hugh was just kidding around, but he seemed to regret doing so when he saw Lawrence’s reaction.
“You.. you are?”
“You’re talking about Diva Company? Are the rumors true?”
He could have overheard the situation while collecting paintings. After all, the Roam River passed through here, and also passed by Diva Company.
“Well.. it’s not like there’s any real evidence.. after all, more rumor than sense comes from that region..”
“But what’s your take?”
Hugh looked like someone who’d taken their jokes too far, and wasn’t sure how to recover. When it seemed to dawn on him that he wasn’t getting out of this, he grudgingly replied.
“I’m.. not interested in the slightest. That’s the honest truth.”
Lawrence could swear he was lying.
“..Not interested?”
“Yes. Many of us are closing our eyes and ears, like we did after the Moon-Hunting Bear attacked. We just grabbed what we could and fled. We couldn’t go back, so we had to adapt or vanish like dust. So..”
Even a sheep that only seemed intent on eating the grass in front of it could come to realize the ways of the world when it finally raised its head. Being upset at Hugh would be easy, but what he said was the truth - one couldn’t blame him for being realistic.
Lawrence’s journey of education was continuing. He’d seen villages attacked by mercenaries, and towns torn apart by landlord disputes. Resisting such things was futile; no one could really stop them. At best they could just weather the storm.
“That’s why I never listened for any news about it.. I’m just not as stoic as Huskins. When I hear something like that, I can’t sit still. I’ll end up doing what the three of you are now doing.”
He joked, probably hoping to end the topic. What he said made sense; some people wanted to make sense of what they heard, and by the time they had, they would be involved themselves. Hugh was turning a blind eye so he could live a peaceful life. And none of them had any right to ruin that desire.
“Sorry.. I shouldn’t have asked.”
“Let’s call it even.. I couldn’t help you either. Well, so what now? Are you going to return to your inn?”
Lawrence looked over at Holo, who looked up and smiled. She shook her head and pointed at Cole, who was digging in a pile of objects, looking for something.
“Looks like we’re still not done.”
“Alright, then I’d better get back to work. Well, here’s something to keep you warm while you wait for them.”
Lawrence was stunned that he would leave them on their own. The shop was filled with expensive paintings, and crafted items of true gold and silver. It would take a lot of nerve to just leave strangers unattended. But his reaction was the reflex of a merchant. Hugh smiled.
“If she wished to steal, she wouldn’t waste her time and would just bite my head off. Besides, us forest-dwellers have no need to lie.”
If he hadn’t said it so half-heartedly, Lawrence would have mistaken his words for flattery. But he nodded earnestly to apologize for his reaction.
“Sorry about that.”
* * *
After their chat, Hugh returned to the back of the shop to work. Lawrence sat and waited for Fran in the front room, reading a book of travel notes to pass the time. The author of that book was evidently a merchant who had traveled the world over. But unlike the information that Hugh was interested in hearing from Lawrence, this book wasn’t really about passing along accurate information. Such a book would be worth more than just about anything, and no one would publish something like that.
No, the book was merely light entertainment. But at least it was entertaining.. Lawrence kept laughing as he read its exaggerated narratives, until something dropped between his eyes and the book, landing on his stomach. He looked up in shock and saw Holo bending over to pick it up, then looked down at his belly to find the golden apple sitting there.
“’Twas not very tasty.”
“I should have known you wouldn’t be able to keep from giving it a taste.”
He picked it up; it was quite warm. As he mused over how similar it was to Holo’s head, she snatched it away from him.
“You humans love gold so. But ’twould be naught but agony if all were to become gold.”
Of course too much of a good thing made it bad. Even too much rain was as problematic as drought. But the merchant in Lawrence knew exactly how to counter her.
“If that were the case, I could just find something that wasn’t gold to sell at a high price.”
But Holo wasn’t satisfied by his quip. She sat down, looking dejected. She wasn’t even tend
ing to her tail. She simply fiddled with the apple.
“Where’s Cole?”
As Holo craned her neck, he noticed that her ears were flat and pointing outward - a sure sign that she wasn’t in a good mood. Even rarer, she had left Cole on his own in the storeroom. There weren’t many reasons for her to be acting this way.
“You couldn’t find one, huh?”
There weren’t any paintings of Yoitsu or the region around it, nor even a view that she remembered. She’d likely thought that with so many paintings she was bound to find at least one. Hence her unsurprising reaction. Disappointment only happened when one had hope, and depression soon followed if those great expectations were dashed. Especially when Cole was probably pointing out all of the places he himself had seen.
“..Mhm”
She nodded, though she nodded more at the apple than at Lawrence.
“So only the best things from the past survived to this day.. all the more reason to treasure them.”
He said that to aggravate her into speaking, and sure enough, her ears perked up and soon flopped back down. She then began talking as though he’d uncorked her mouth.
“Is it.. wrong of me?”
“Wrong?”
She nodded gently to confirm.
“Like that sheep, Hugh, says, most of us covered our ears and closed our eyes..”
Lawrence looked at her as he closed the book. It was a wonderfully bound tome full of interesting stories. Even after centuries, its author’s name would be remembered.
“You mean getting involved in such things?”
She nodded. Beneath her calm exterior was someone who was quite excitable, who couldn’t turn a blind eye to people in trouble. If she saw humans rushing out to cut down and trample a forest, she would jump in to resist them - even if it wasn’t Yoitsu. Perhaps that would make her a legend, but it was only a temporary victory in an ongoing war. If only the war could be won so easily.
“I talk like there is nothing of it, but I know that I am quite special.”
She spoke in a happy tone as if to conceal her embarrassment.
“No matter the problem, I could bare my fangs to solve it. I honestly believed this, and yet..”
Her smile revealed the depth of her disappointment. But she suddenly turned and took Lawrence’s arm, wrapping it around her like a scarf and clutching it tightly.
“..and yet nothing in those paintings is familiar to me. What does that mean?”
The paintings were all either reserved for people or commissioned by the shop, probably to sell to prospective buyers. So the answer to her question was quite obvious - she wasn’t seeing anything familiar because no one had asked for a painting of Yoitsu. Even her own friends, who she probably fancied as being on some everlasting journey of their own.
Such a fancy was plausible, because despite wolves confidently fighting with fang and claw, her friends had fled from the Moon-Hunting Bear, seeing just how small they were in the grand scheme of things. They could always fight back once they found the weapons with which to do so. Only those who had no such way to fight back would flee such a disaster; they hardly had a choice. Perhaps that made them cowards, but it also meant they had survived.
“Closing one’s ears, not wishing to hear the truth? That is such a moronic notion I must scoff at it. Yet.. he is the owner of such a shop? And still has so many friends? Whom he tries so hard to comfort? Compared to that, I-”
Her nails dug into his wrist.
“What am I doing?”
Of course she wasn’t in tears. She wasn’t sad, just frustrated at her own weakness. Time flew by faster than a river, changing the world while all she could do was watch. Even the riverbank she was watching from was being slowly eroded. It was surely a painful wound to bear. Lawrence flexed his arm to pull Holo closer to him.
“No one can definitively say whether you’re right or wrong.”
She smelled faintly of dust, probably dragged back with her from the storeroom.
“You’ve had a mind to give up your life for your ideals before, haven’t you?”
She didn’t respond until some time had passed. She gently nodded.
“Just think: even if you’re stuck in the mud, you’re still the Wisewolf, right?”
She wouldn’t be happy until she knew what became of her friends, but it wouldn’t do for her to just waste away in front of their graves. Regret wasn’t going to cut it. Hoping for time to reverse in order to get a chance to fight, and fighting to avoid repeating one’s mistakes in the future - these were very different things.
She nodded. She wasn’t a child, nor was she stupid. It was just difficult to contain such emotions.
“And it’s not like you’re the only one suffering.”
Her ears leaped up in response.
He smiled; he wasn’t teasing.
“When you feel miserable, so do I.”
As a lonely trader, he’d never had the chance to say something like this to anyone. Obviously, he’d never heard such a line from anyone else either. But in his weaker moments he’d always hoped that one day he’d get the chance to say such a line. After all, if he died alone, he’d never get the chance; and that would never change. The dead just lay in their tombs. It was only while he was alive that he could see her eyes.
“Fool.”
She whispered, as though unsure who to direct her statement at; she could just as easily have been directing it at herself.
“At your service. But now what will you do?”
She seemed aghast at his reminder.. she’d left Cole on his own, after all, despite him knowing she must have her reasons. Knowing the boy, he’d just continue rummaging. Even if she wasn’t upset with him, the longer he was left alone, unable to find whatever it was he was looking for, the more upset he would become.
She finally replied.
“I shall go apologize.”
“You should.”
Being spoken to as though she was a child made her break free of his grasp with a toothy smile.
Time always flowed forward, and one couldn’t be certain their choices would be the correct ones, but at least one could enjoy the present and make every day count.
But those weren’t words Lawrence needed to say to someone who was well aware of that wisdom. All he could do was continue reading his book.
* * *
“Ms. Fran Bonilly has returned.”
Lawrence tapped Holo’s knee lightly and stood up. He turned to see Hugh, who beamed him a suspiciously wide grin. But as Lawrence mulled over the wisdom of smiling like that in front of a wolf, a petite girl suddenly popped out from Hugh’s shadow.
He was at a loss for words; he just didn’t know what to say to the person he beheld. Before him stood a perfectly ordinary girl, bearing neither Holo’s wolf ears nor Huskins’ horns - only distinguished by the odd color of her skin and eyes.
“This is the merchant who seeks me?”
Her voice was melodic, and her diction hinted at a proper education. Of the many kinds of beauty in the world, this was the first time Lawrence had come across hers.
With black hair, black eyes, and tanned skin (common in the beach-filled lands of the south) her beauty seemed to mask her true identity as an enchantress; there was an incredibly mysterious charm about her.
Hers were qualities of the people living in the hellishly hot sandy lands of the south. Her kind was counted as fearless - even in the face of Holo’s true form. Lawrence swallowed before finally introducing himself..
“I am Kraft Lawrence.”
She smiled and nodded.
“And I am Fran Bonilly.”
“Let’s have a seat.”
They all sat down at Hugh’s suggestion, with Holo dragging Cole to join them. He seemed rather taken by the mysterious charms of Fran.
“Then how may I be of service?”
Desert-dwellers had their own language, yet Fran spoke the northern tongue with a practiced style that spoke well of her education. She
didn’t seem especially stubborn; perhaps they had been worried over nothing Lawrence thought.
“We’re actually heading to the north, but only know the name of our ancient destination. Hence we came here seeking you, who are familiar with the northern legends.”
After seriously and carefully listening to Lawrence, she calmly questioned him.
“And what is that destination?”
“Yoitsu.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“That is quite a remotely ancient legend.”
“Then you do know where it is?”
Lawrence was only half-acting, but Fran didn’t react to the half that was truly from his heart. An enchantress would never be swayed that easily.
“Quite.. yet there are few who could draw you a map of the north.”
“Of course we will pay you appropriately.”
His foot was stomped by Holo the moment he finished. But the damage was done. Holo seemed to have understood Fran’s character.
“Appropriately?”
Fran was surprised. Hugh buried his face in his hands from his perch behind her.
“Then you have my thanks. Fifty Lumione should be appropriate.”
Her tone was that of an artist inexperienced in the art of bargaining. Had she already bewitched Lawrence? He was annoyed at himself, but time wasn’t going to turn back and paying fifty Lumione wasn’t appropriate at all. She’d played him like a child.
He was beside himself, baffled by how he could have slipped like that. He just hadn’t expected anything like that from her. And there was nothing he could say. But despite badly wanting to say something, it was Fran’s clear voice that was first heard.
“However, because of that, I’ll draw one for you at no charge.”
“Wha?”
His mask had fallen off completely. He heard Holo sigh in disappointment. Once a wheel fell off the cart, it was difficult to put it back on. And yet, it wasn’t him who Fran was staring at, but Holo.
“You look like a nun.”
“..that’s Holo..”
Not even Holo realized Fran was talking to her. Lawrence stared in shock for a second before he caught himself and replied with obvious surprise.
Spice & Wolf XII (DWT) Page 4