Wolf & Parchment, Volume 3

by Isuna Hasekura

  “It’s already been three years since the church bell stopped ringing. The priests did stay in town for a while, but the majority of them crossed the sea and went to the mainland. We not only have the church on the cape but also three other large chapels. Every single one has been boarded up. The chapels in association and company buildings, too, have long sat empty.”

  Col had heard stories about what was going on in the kingdom back in Nyohhira. But listening to someone talk about it was completely different from experiencing it firsthand. It was very much like how most did not fully realize how terrible sickness could be when they were still healthy.

  Still, he had some questions.

  “What became of the clergy who remained? I can’t imagine all of them left for the mainland, right?”

  Sligh’s shoulders heaved.

  “There might be spies sent by the pope wandering around. See what happens when you ignore the pope’s orders and pray for the people. I don’t think anyone would be reinstated if it involves something where the pope’s interests might come out on top. The upper echelons of society are holding their collective breaths, but those at the bottom can’t afford to live without priesthood.”

  “What about the people’s donations?”

  Immediately after asking, Col realized he already knew the answer. It wasn’t possible to have an argument alone. Sligh nodded.

  “Townspeople who donate to the clergy are seen as traitors of the kingdom as well as agents of the Church. Individually, there are people who are fine with whoever will help them, whether it’s someone from the Church or not, as long as they can get mediation from God. But loyal citizens have been abstaining.”

  The blessings of faith had disappeared from the town.

  “Sir Col, what you started in Atiph was truly the good news we, the people of this kingdom, have been waiting so long for. This endless standoff between the kingdom and the Church is finally moving on to the next step. Everyone was waiting for something to happen, no matter how the cards fell. Of course…”

  Sligh continued.

  “I want the kingdom to win, since we, too, recoiled from the tyranny of the Church.”

  No matter the outcome, war was always most devastating for the innocent.

  “I would be happy to help if I can be of service. That is exactly why I left my home village.”

  Col was a foreigner in this land. Moreover, he could not really be called a true priest. And yet people believed he was in God’s favor.

  It seemed he was in a very good position.

  “Thank you so very much. I give my thanks to God, who must have sent you here.”

  Then, by Sligh’s signal, they were brought lunch. Myuri appeared from the other room, drawn in by the smell. At first, she seemed rather grumpy, but her mood instantly improved upon seeing the food laid out on the table. Col could only sigh at her selfishness.

  “By the way, I heard from Mr. Yosef that you are brother and sister, traveling together?”

  Myuri, who held bread in her right hand and pork sausage stuck on a knife in her left, glanced at Sligh, then to Col. Then she lost interest and bit into the bread, as though meaning to say it was Col’s job to take care of his question.

  As he thought about how he was going to give her a thorough scolding afterward, he responded.

  “We are not related by blood. Before I left on my travels I worked at an inn, and she is the innkeeper’s daughter. I worked as her caretaker and tutor, but she is just as unruly as you can see…She constantly spoke of her desire to leave the village and snuck into my luggage the moment the opportunity presented itself.”

  Myuri continued to eat her food silently, but she stomped on Col’s foot under the table.

  “However, she has taught me many things since we started traveling together, and for that I am thankful.”

  She froze for a moment and turned his way. Col returned her gaze with a smile, and she quickly looked away with a pout. Still, she kept her foot firmly planted on his.

  “A relationship where you can gain so much from each other is a wonderful thing.”

  Sligh spoke happily and wiped his mouth.

  “By the way, I wanted to talk about what happens next. As the master of this trading house, I have an obligation to mind the peace of the souls of those who work here, but at the same time, I must think about the guests who stay with us.”

  As Col wondered what he was suddenly on about, Sligh continued.

  “If you stay in this room, people will come to see you at all hours, so if you wish to go outside and clear your head, please just say the word. Going out dressed like a priest may get you wrapped up in some trouble, so we will prepare some artisan clothes for you.”

  “Truly, thank you for everything you’ve done.”

  “It is my pleasure. Thanks to you, everyone in the trading house seems at ease. It might even be possible that such high spirits will afford us a competitive edge on rival companies.”

  Col could not tell how serious Sligh was being, but he could tell that their host was keeping his best interests in consideration.

  “As long as you say so.”

  “So what will it be? The moment we finish our meal and I leave this room, company workers will come flooding in again.”

  “Erm…”

  As he hesitated, Myuri, who sat next to him, impatiently tugged on his sleeve.

  She wanted to go out to town.

  “My apologies. I have business to attend to with Mr. Yosef, so do you think we might be able to borrow clothes to venture out in?”

  “Of course. Please wait a moment.”

  Sligh clapped his hands, summoning the servants that were quietly waiting just outside the room.

  They nodded solemnly upon hearing his orders, and then Myuri interjected, stating she wanted to see her own clothes. Sligh seemed rather happy to hear such a selfish request from her.

  Col found himself irritated by that, but he knew she had endured quite a lot in the northern islands, where the only sounds were that of waves thundering against the ground and the cheerless wind. After a moment of reflection, he decided there was not much he could do about her requests.

  As he watched her enjoy herself so much that her hidden ears and tail threatened to pop out, he wished she would just go out and see the town on her own, but she suddenly looked at him.

  “Is something the matter?”

  Her reddish-amber eyes, staring intently at him, were filled with an intellectual depth she inherited from her mother.

  “You were just thinking about wanting me to go to town alone, weren’t you?”

  Though he had yet to understand God’s true intentions, Myuri saw straight through him.

  “Sure, but I won’t let that happen, now will I?”

  And he, too, knew her very well.

  “Right!”

  She grinned and she gripped his hand, intertwining her fingers with his.

  Though he sometimes felt she was too overpowering, he was always happy with how she looked up to him.

  “Because I don’t know what I’d do if I wanted to buy something and you weren’t there!”

  That was what he had figured. When he smiled and sighed, Myuri giggled.

  No one can tell who a person is on the inside with only a glance. Even within the scripture, when God and spirits disguised themselves as humans, no one noticed. Saints were always ridiculed by others.

  In the end, a person’s identity was determined by the clothes they wore.

  Though that should have been the general theory, something about it did not sit well with Col.

  “It doesn’t matter what you wear, Brother. None of it ever really fits you.”

  She could no longer tease him, and there was a genuinely puzzled expression on her face.

  “…Meanwhile, you look like an outstanding errand boy from a workshop.”

  Myuri wore a tight-sleeved shirt with pants made of rough wool for their sturdiness and a tool belt wound around her waist.
After tying her hair back, Myuri had suddenly transformed into the very image of a long-haired young apprentice.

  Col wore similar clothing, but even the merchant who prepared the clothes for them only managed to give him a vague smile.

  “Why don’t you dress like a merchant? I would be convinced if someone told me you were a young master from town.”

  In the end, that didn’t seem very realistic to Col, who thought that pen and ink suited him best.

  After that exchange, they went out into town. Myuri did not actually go straight for every food stall to ask for morsels. Maybe it was because they had just eaten lunch, but for once, her curiosity won out over her appetite.

  Her eyes sparkled as they passed through the artisans’ district.

  “Brother!! Look! It’s a huge pot! We could eat so much food from that!”

  “That pot is actually a distilling pot, and it’s for alcohol made from wheat…”

  “Hey, Brother, look at that over there; they’re selling some weird-looking spears!”

  “Those aren’t spears. They use them to skewer pigs and sheep before placing them in an oven. The handle is shaped like a hook so you can hold that and spin it around to cook the meat…”

  “Wow, cool! Is this a furs shop? But wouldn’t wearing fur this thin be cold in the winter?”

  “We saw this in Atiph, remember? That’s not for wearing. It’s for writing on, and they pull it like that from all sides as they dry it…”

  “Hey, hey, Brother, look at that!”

  Myuri continued to not pay attention to his explanations as they traveled from one stall to the next. Still, he was impressed that whenever she saw something he had explained once before, she remembered everything he had said. At a glance, she seemed like a carefree girl running about, but she was absorbing everything in the world with an incredible vitality.

  As they wandered from place to place, the road led from the artisans’ district to the residential area, but Myuri suddenly fell silent. She stood still, staring off into space.

  Then, almost entirely unconsciously, she gripped Col’s arm.

  Whenever her scales of curiosity dipped too far in one direction, she grew quiet.

  She was watching women and children sitting under the eaves of the houses in Desarev, spinning thread from wool.

  The majority of the work in the artisans’ district took place in workshops, but here, tools were spread throughout the street. Through open front windows and doors, people could be seen working inside as well. It was hard to tell how far the houses and the workspace stretched. They could see some people placing things on a board wrapped in string to lower them down to street level before hoisting it back up again. Someone even used a large spatula meant for bread ovens to give and receive materials across the space between neighboring houses—something about it all seemed unreal.

  It looked like a play he once saw in a southern country that used the entire town as the stage.

  “Whoa…”

  Myuri murmured unconsciously as she watched.

  There was a large sheet placed in the center of the street, where an entire mountain of wool had been heaped on it. Little girls were burying their faces into the pile, pulling out rubbish. Behind them, some slightly older girls ran over the wool with some sort of rake to tidy the direction of the fur.

  Things that appeared to be drying racks were lined up against the houses, where the girls stretched to hang the wool up. They tied weights to the bundles of wool that were sequentially placed in the higher areas, which must have been a part of the twisting process. Since height was necessary, girls a bit older than Myuri chatted noisily as they worked.

  There was almost no place for Col and Myuri to walk as they passed through the busy area, until they eventually reached one of the waterways that wrapped around the town. Men they had not seen earlier were gathered there, lifting up a mallet using a rope attached to a pulley to hammer wool that was placed in the water. This was the milling part of the journey.

  Beside the men were barrels stuffed full of wool. Workers sprinkled water, ash, and some sort of medicine into the barrels, mixing everything, then washing it with a pole. Once finished, the wool, now heavy with water, was given to children for them to stomp the moisture out. Afterward, other children laid out the fabric to dry.

  There were even young men, carrying linen sacks bigger than themselves to transport materials between each stage of the process.

  “It’s like an ant colony.”

  Myuri spoke with a sigh in pure admiration. Col thought her observation was spot-on.

  “The very symbol of diligence.”

  “…Don’t start lecturing me.”

  She dramatically held her hands over her ears, as though telling him to leave her alone.

  “I won’t. You worked very hard in the north.”

  Myuri continued to cast a doubtful expression at him, but when she realized that he was being serious, she suddenly burst into a smile and clung to his arm.

  “But everyone really is working with their all. They even seem to be having fun while doing it.”

  Col murmured thoughtfully while taking in the buzzing activity.

  “Isn’t Nyohhira as exciting as this?”

  Then Myuri said something unexpected. It had been a while since they left Nyohhira, so perhaps she was growing homesick.

  “It may be about the same with regards to excitement, but Nyohhira is nothing but feasts.”

  On the other hand, this place was exciting due to the working people. Not only that, but all over the town, whether under the eaves or in the crowded alleyways, people labored to create wool. And every person truly seemed to take joy in their work.

  Col did not hate working, either, but he found it mysterious how the atmosphere surrounding the townspeople made him think it was a bit different.

  As they walked around, watching it all, Myuri suddenly spoke.

  “Oh, right, didn’t you say you had something to do, Brother?”

  “That’s right. We have to go see Mr. Yosef…”

  He said, and looked at Myuri.

  “Hmm? What’s wrong?”

  When she stared back blankly at him, he couldn’t help the smile spreading across his face.

  “I am happy you were thinking about what I had to do and not demanding more leisure time.”

  She blinked, then responded with an odd expression.

  “I mean, if you don’t finish your errand, then you’ll get angry if I ask for food and tell me to wait until you’re done. And I’m gonna be hungry soon.”

  “…”

  Col worried about whether it was safe to consider that proper growth.

  However, it was true that he had matters to attend to, so they changed course for the Desarev harbor. The town itself was lively, but the port was many times busier. He soon learned that there were comparatively fewer people out yesterday because of the passing rain. Col gripped Myuri’s hand as they were jostled around until they finally managed to reach the ship at their destination.

  The crew must have been reloading the ship with cargo or something of the sort because it was incredibly busy, with people constantly coming and going like ants. Col hesitated since asking someone to call Yosef would bring attention to himself, but the man in question just happened to be leaning over the edge of the ship. He had been staring intently down at something on the side of the ship, but when he suddenly lifted his head, he noticed the two of them.

  “Sir Col!”

  Yosef stood straight and called his name. After giving orders to the man next to him, he quickly crossed the ramp to approach them.

  “What is it? Is something wrong at the trading house?”

  Yosef asked with a serious expression, likely because since he had brought them there, any discomfort they encountered was his responsibility. He was a man with a strong sense of duty.

  “Of course not. They are treating us very well.” First order of business for Col was to give the captain peace
of mind before tackling the main issue. “I wanted to ask when we might be setting sail for Rausbourne.”

  If their departure was delayed, then he wanted to arrange for a different ship. He even considered going on land by horse, though he felt that would be rude to Yosef.

  “I see. Well, earliest we can depart is in three days, but if we find any problems, emergency repairs might take somewhere from a week to ten days.”

  Yosef looked back at the ship behind him, speaking apologetically. Myuri, too, looked down toward the bottom of the vessel, where someone was hanging from the edge, apparently inspecting its condition.

  “Other ships might not be leaving for a while, either. The storm left behind strong winds offshore, and I’ve heard the currents are quite strong. I also can’t recommend going by horse. It may look like it’s just a short jaunt over the mountain on the map, but at this time of year, there’s still snow on the ground. Sea routes are much, much quicker.”

  It nettled Col slightly, but there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Desarev is a good town. Take the time to rest as much as you can, and it will help prepare you for the next task.”

  Pressuring Yosef would lead nowhere, and Hyland had not asked them to make haste in her letter.

  “Of course. Perhaps this, too, is the will of God.”

  Yosef smiled, rather relieved. Then he spoke up again.

  “Oh, that’s right. Someone came looking for you earlier, Sir Col.”

  “What?”

  There were several people he had met when he worked at the bathhouse in Nyohhira who were in the kingdom, but he did not think that any of them knew he was in Desarev. When he responded in surprise, Yosef shrugged.

  “They did not mention your name. They only asked if the priest who took part in the events up north was on this ship, so it may have been someone who quickly caught wind of you. Our guests and sailors keep their mouths shut, after all.”

  Sligh had mentioned such a thing, but Col had not imagined that it would actually happen.

  “It didn’t seem like you knew them so I avoided the question, but I’m glad you showed up in those clothes. If people around here find out who you are, there might have been some trouble.”