"And then, although I was rescued by you, I incurred a large debt as a result. Because I have no way of actually paying the sum, I have been praying for your safe journey in order to repay my debt to you, being such an ill-fated woman..hmm hmm, I even made a special effort to employ a sad tone of speech. What do you think? I fabricated a nice story, did I not?" Horo continued.
Although Lawrence felt that the story seemed to portray him as the bad guy, he had to admit, it was convincing.
"As soon as he heard me say this, the young fellow immediately bought me the scarf," The fake traveling nun said with a devilish smile.
"That story is convincing enough. So, what about this die? Why did you get something like this?”
Lawrence was unable to make out the color clearly the previous night under the faint moonlight, but looking at it now, he discovered that this cubic metal die that appeared to be the work of an expert blacksmith was a yellow-colored mineral.
Without closer examination, the metallic die greatly resembled a piece of unpolished gold. However, Lawrence had seen this kind of gold-like mineral before.
This was a natural mineral that had not undergone artificial processing.
"Oh that. That is something used by the fortune tellers. It is said to be a die allowing one to see the future. The shape is beautiful, is it not? It is quite impressive that something so beautiful could be made. Surely it can be sold for a good price," replied Horo.
"Foolish mule, you think you'd be able to sell something like this?”
Lawrence purposely scolded Horo using her own characteristic tone. Hearing this, Horo's ears stood up stiffly, like springing out a set of claws.
"This isn't a die, but a mineral known as pyrite. Also, it's not man-made.”
Perhaps because she had not anticipated such a statement from Lawrence, Horo revealed a surprised look. However, Lawrence ignored her reaction and, picking up the crystal of pyrite from the desk, tossed it at her and said: "So, the harvest-controlling sage wolf doesn't seem to be so familiar with rocks. That 'die' already looked like one the moment it was dug out.”
Horo played around with the pyrite in her hands with a smile on her face that seemed to say, "Impossible.” “You should know I'm not lying.”
Horo let out a light groan, and held the pyrite with her fingers.
"There aren't any special uses for this kind of thing, and it's often peddled as a local specialty. Moreover, because it resembles gold in appearance, it's also used to trick people. Did you see any other people buying this?" asked Lawrence.
"A lot of people bought it. The fortune teller who was using this die to tell fortunes was very accurate in his predictions, that even I was very much amazed. He even made the blind claim that anyone who possessed this die could use it to predict his own fate, so a great many people fought over the buying of his die. The fortune teller also used a variety of other reasons to promote their sales.”
"A lot of people wanted to buy something like this?”
"Yea. Even the die that were less beautiful and smoothly-shaped than this one, the fortune teller claimed to have powers such as healing or the ability to drive out evil.”
Lawrence couldn't help feeling impressed with the fortune teller for being able to come up with such a profitable business. During times when festivals or fairs were being held, unusual items would occasionally create new popular trends.
This was exactly what was meant by taking advantage of the bustling atmosphere to make some money, thought Lawrence. It was quite something for the fortune teller to be able to come up with the idea of using pyrite for business.
"That die was actually gained through Amati's bid," Horo continued. However, this time Lawrence was really surprised.
"Through bidding?”
"Everyone reacted with so much enthusiasm back then. It was the first time I had ever seen people competing in an auction, and I was quite startled. Therefore, it should have a good selling price.”
Horo's words reminded Lawrence of Bartose who traveled among the mining region of Hairam.
Did Bartose know about this? If Bartose had a stock of pyrite, or if he had connections through which pyrite could be gained, perhaps this could become a profitable business.
Lawrence had just thought to this point when he heard knocking outside the door. "?”
Lawrence's first thought was that perhaps Amati had already discovered Horo's ears and tail for quite some time, but on the other hand, he also felt that Horo with her sharp instincts would have detected it should this be the case.
Lawrence directed his gaze from the door to Horo, and found that she was slowly raising the bed quilt to cover herself from the head. It appeared that whoever had come was not a dangerous visitor like those encountered at the estuary town of Pattio.
Lawrence approached, and opened the door without hesitation. Standing outside the door was the little boy from Mark's shop.
"Very sorry to bother you so early in the morning. The master asked me to pass a message," said the boy.
The time at that moment couldn't exactly count as "early in the morning," but Lawrence couldn't think of anything that would require specially sending a messenger boy at this hour when the marketplace was just getting ready to open.
The first thing that came to mind was that perhaps Mark had become seriously ill, but then again, if that were the case, the boy probably wouldn't have said that it was the master who wanted to pass a message.
Horo shifted slightly as well, but only stuck her face out a little bit.
Thus, the boy became aware of her presence, and shifted his gaze toward her. Seeing a young woman whose body was covered from the head down with a bed quilt, the boy seemed to make the wrong connection, and instantly turned away his bright-red face. "So, the content of the message is?”
"Ah, ye…yes. The master asked me to inform you immediately, so I ran all the way here. The situation is-”
Having heard a message of such unbelievable content, Lawrence began running through the streets of Kumerson as well.
Chapter 3
Early in the morning, the streets of Kumerson were already filled with vitality.
As he passed through the large street that connected north with south and made his way toward the foreign firm to the east, Lawrence could see that someone was erecting signs that looked like guideposts all over the place.
Lawrence glanced quickly at the signs as he ran with the boy. He discovered that the signs were indeed very much like guideposts, though he couldn't understand at all what was written on them. Written on the signs were words from a language he had never seen before. Some of the signs even had fresh flowers, turnip leaves, and wheatgrass bound to them for decoration.
These signs were probably to be used in the Raddora Festival that would begin on that day. Too bad Lawrence did not have at the moment the leisure and mood to find out the truth.
Perhaps because the boy was always being asked by Mark to run here and there, his pace was very fast, and he showed no signs of running short of breath. Even Lawrence, who had considerable confidence in his physical vigor, could only barely manage to keep up. As Lawrence was just about out of breath, the two finally arrived at the foreign firm.
The sturdy wooden door of the firm, which normally gave off a strongly exclusivistic (note: Yes that is a word and no I didn't just coin it) air and was usually tightly shut was now generously open. Three or so merchants were already drinking at the entrance this early in the morning.
The three were originally facing the firm's interior and chatting happily, but as soon as they discovered that Lawrence had arrived, they waved at him and at the same time called out loudly toward the inside: "Hey, the greatly reputed knight, Hashim has arrived.”
Hearing himself referred to as the knight Hashim, Lawrence became fully convinced that what the boy had told him was neither a lie nor a joke.
This was a tale that circulated within the ardent country surrounded by sea and vineyard – a famous l
ove story from the country of Arius.
And the court knight, Hundel La Hashim was the protagonist of this tale. However, Lawrence was not at all thrilled about being referred to as a knight.
The knight Hashim had fought bravely for his true love, the noblewoman Elisa, and accepted a duel with the king's son, Phillip the Third, with Elisa as the prize. But in the end he had suffered the tragic fate of death.
Lawrence ran up the stone steps, pushed aside the cheering merchants and rushed into the firm.
Every gaze was fixed on Lawrence like spears directed at a criminal condemned to death by dismemberment.
At the innermost end of the firm, in other words, in front of the bar counter at which the owner of the firm was situated… stood the son of the king, Phillip the Third. "I hereby re-declare!”
The sharp and sonorous, youngster-like voice rang out in the hall of the firm.
The voice came from Amati, who was not clothed in the greased leather coat typical to fishmongers but in a robe required by formal occasions, looking very much like the son of an aristocrat.
Amati's gaze was directed straight at Lawrence. All the merchants in the hall held their breath in silence as they watched Amati.
At that moment, Amati held up high a short sword and a sheet of sheepskin paper and declared: "I shall repay the debt which weighs upon those slender shoulders of the traveling nun. When the beautiful goddess regains her liberty, I will swear by St. Lambardos, who watches over the Rowen Trading Guild from above, that I shall willingly devote my sincere love to the traveling nun Horo.”
The sound of laughter mixed with exclamations and cries filled with unbelievably passionate energy resounded within the hall.
Amati completely disregarded the noise. He slowly lowered his hand and, turning the short sword in his right hand 180 degrees, held it by the hilt and passed it toward Lawrence. As he did this, he spoke: "Miss Horo has already informed me of her misfortune, as well as the treatment she has been given. I plan to use my identity and my fortunes as a free man to help her retrieve the feathers of freedom, and propose to her.”
The words Mark had spoken to Lawrence the day before surfaced clearly in his mind.
A fellow of Amati's age, soon as he becomes obsessed with something, he'd do absolutely anything.
Lawrence carried a bitter mood as he looked first toward the hilt that Amati was handing to him, and then to the sheepskin paper.
Because there was still some distance between Lawrence and Amati, Lawrence could not clearly make out the contents written on the paper, but he figured it was probably a formal composition detailing what Amati had just declared. The red mark at the bottom-right corner of the paper was surely not a wax seal, but one of blood.
In areas lacking a notary public, or when desiring a contract more valuable than one certified through a notary public, people would adopt the contract law. This so-called "contract law" meant that the one whose blood seal was on the contract had to hand a short sword to the other party and then swear in God's name.
When unable to abide by the contract, the one who printed the blood seal had to either kill the other party with the short sword, or direct it at his own throat.
The moment Lawrence accepted the short sword from Amati, the contract would be formally established.
Of course, Lawrence did not take action, because he had not expected at all that the situation would evolve to such a height.
"Mr. Lawrence.”
Amati's gaze was piercing, as if the words had come from his eyes.
Lawrence did not feel that he could escape Amati with a third-rate excuse or by simply disregarding him. In his anguish, Lawrence spoke words that would help buy time: "Horo's debt to me is a fact, and it is also true that I have asked her to repay her debt by praying for my safe journey. However, that does not mean that if her debt is cleared, she would no longer wish to be my traveling companion.”
"But of course. However, I am confident that she will give up being your traveling companion for my sake," Amati responded.
"Oh?!" A small wave of cries sounded in the hall once again.
Even though Amati did not appear to be drunk, his appearance at that moment was very much like that of Phillip the Third.
"….Besides, even if she is not one hundred percent devout, Horo is still a traveling nun. To marry-”
"If you think that I do not understand the rules concerning such a situation, then you are worrying too much, because I am aware that Miss Horo does not belong to any convent," Amati retorted.
Lawrence could only keep his lips tightly sealed so as to avoid letting the word "Damn" slip from his mouth. There were two types of traveling nuns. The first category consisted of nuns who belonged to such places as mendicant convents that were not officially recognized by the Church. The second category consisted of self-proclaimed traveling nuns who did not belong to any convent at all.
Most traveling nuns belonged to the latter category of self-proclaimed nuns, and referred to themselves as such simply for the convenience of travel. Of course, since they did not belong to any convent, they were naturally not subject to the marriage restrictions imposed on clergy members.
Amati knew that Horo was a self-proclaimed nun. As such, it would not work to find a convent now and have a lie arranged to deceive him.
Amati continued to speak in a steady flow: "To be honest, it is not my wish to propose the contract to you, Mr. Lawrence, in such a manner. Surely everyone present is thinking of me as Phillip the Third from the tale of the knight Hashim? Nevertheless, according to Kumerson city law, when a woman is in debt, her custodian is the one who holds the right of creditor. Of course-”
Amati paused for a moment here. He then cleared his throat once and continued: "If you Mr. Lawrence, as Horo's custodian, would unconditionally assent to my proposing to her, then there would be no need to bring out such a contract.”
Such rarely seen drama involving two men competing over one woman made the best subject of conversation at banquets.
The merchants whispered and snickered amongst themselves as they continued to watch the situation's development.
Any experienced merchant was certain not to believe that the relationship between Horo and Lawrence was as Amati had described. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that those who actually believed it was for the sake of paying off her debt that the traveling nun was praying for the traveling merchant's safe journey were the ones who had issues. A normal person would naturally think that the nun was staying with the merchant so that she would not be sold to offset her debt. Or, she was staying with him out of her own free will.
Of course, Amati had probably considered such possibilities as well, but most likely he thought it was the former.
To free the poor, ill-fated and beautiful nun from the fetters of debt; certainly it was because of such an honorable and just reason that Amati was able to ignore the gaze of the public and take such a bold action.
Even if Amati did not actually feel this way, the current situation still made Lawrence look like the bad guy. "Mr. Lawrence, you are willing to accept the short sword that seals the contract?" Amati questioned.
The merchants that were looking on opened their mouths and grinned in silence.
The traveling merchant who had brought a beautiful girl with him looked like he was just about to have the girl snatched away from him by the young fishmonger for not having been properly on his guard.
A show as entertaining as this one was definitely not something you would see everyday.
And no matter what excuse Lawrence tried to push away the contract, it would only make him look worse. As such, Lawrence's only choice was to bear himself nobly in order to match Amati.
Besides, Lawrence believed that Horo would definitely not give up traveling with him simply because Amati helped clear her debt, so there was nothing to worry about.
"I am not so careless as to sign the contract without even having read it," said Lawrence. Amati nodd
ed, withdrew the short sword, and handed Lawrence the sheepskin contract.
Under the glances of all in the room, Lawrence gradually made his way toward Amati and accepted the contract to look over.
Surely enough, the content inscribed on the contract did not differ much from what Amati had just said; it was just expressed in much more difficult language.
Within the contract's content, the part that Lawrence was most concerned with was the sum that Amati needed to repay.
Just how much did Horo say she owed?
Judging by the degree of confidence with which Amati had made his declaration, perhaps it was a pretty cheap sum.
Then, Lawrence found the sum written in one of the lines.
For a moment, Lawrence thought he must have been seeing things.
One thousand Trenni silver coins.
Lawrence felt a sure sense of relief spread within his heart.
"You are sure that the content of the contract is without error?" he asked.
Lawrence reread the contract from the beginning, and made sure there were no equivocal points that could serve as traps. Naturally, Lawrence also tried finding points within that were not traps and that could be used to his own advantage.
Yet, the inflexible, abstrusely-worded document was designed specifically to avoid providing Lawrence with such an opportunity and prevent any liability to the proposing party.
Seeing Amati nod in response, Lawrence could only nod as well. "I understand.”
Having said this, Lawrence handed the contract back to Amati, and signaled his intention with his eyes. Amati once again passed the hilt of the short sword toward Lawrence.
Lawrence reached his hand toward the hilt, and at that moment, the contract was formally established.
Every merchant present served as witnesses to the contract. More importantly, the contract of the sword was sworn in the name of the guild's patron saint, St. Lambardos.
The merchants all cheered and brought their mugs together, taking it upon themselves to set down the conclusion to this entertaining show.
Within the din, the two contractors looked at each other silently before leaving the contract and short sword in the care of the weary-looking firm owner.
Spice and Wolf, Vol. 3 Page 10