Autumn gave a slight sigh and looked down at the toes of his crossed legs.
“Even I, one who makes his home in the ocean, would back away from such a grand journey west to the edge of the sea. Especially if it means happening across the bear. I cannot readily recommend you assist her.”
His words were unexpected, and Col studied his face.
“Why don’t you take care of her, as long as she’s on land?”
He had not imagined that Autumn would say such a thing to them. As Col sat, shocked, the expression behind Autumn’s beard hardened.
“She might be at a dead end, like me.”
His hard expression might have been to cover his embarrassment.
He unified the people of the northern islands in a way that chipped away at him.
He himself was aware that it was not sustainable.
Autumn, too, was not human, and though their species were different, he must have considered her a compatriot.
Or perhaps he appreciated the courage it took for her to stand up to a legend.
“Are we finished here? I am tired from swimming all night.”
Though he seemed the sort to have nothing to do with such a simple word as tired, Col had no choice but to believe him.
He had heard enough of what he wanted to hear anyway.
“Thank you so much.”
He gave his thanks, and after nudging Myuri, they stood. There must also be a mountain of work to do on the ship to get ready for departure. It would be rude to keep the room to themselves.
“I will be in town for a while. Call for me if you need anything.”
They had a strong ally. He thanked Autumn again and left the captain’s room.
Yosef seemed a bit jealous, but of course, he could not talk about what they had discussed.
He thanked him, too, crossed the pier, and left the harbor.
“What are you going to do, Brother?”
It was not so much a question of what he was going to do but what he wanted to do. In the end, they could not confirm some of the more extreme parts of Ilenia’s story.
What was certain was her strength and the fact that there was a limit to how much one could accomplish alone. And it went beyond saying how wonderful it was for someone to lend a hand.
He took a deep breath and returned Myuri’s gaze.
“Right now, I cannot support heading west beyond the sea.”
When he spoke, her face suddenly lit up.
“But…we’re helping Ilenia, right?”
She had stopped calling her a “sheep” and now called her by name.
“At the very least, collecting taxes aligns with my principles.”
Myuri seemed to understand, of course, that was not the only reason.
She happily drew closer to him and intertwined her fingers with his.
“I like that about you.”
When Col only offered a shrug in response to her carefree comment, her grin grew wider.
The world Ilenia spoke of, however, was completely different compared to the one he had envisioned. There might be another reality that he did not want to see waiting for them as they moved forward.
“May God protect us.”
He murmured, and Myuri looked up at him, smiling.
“I’m here with you, so you don’t have to worry.”
“…”
He ended up smiling in return instead of admonishing her.
It was quite impressive how she did not fear God.
Once their conversation with Autumn was over, they went to see Ilenia.
Col had not entirely believed everything she spoke of, such as what she claimed about the kingdom’s intentions.
However, he understood that her plan was not just a simple idea, that there was a meticulousness about it. When he imagined her standing up to something so big, even he shivered a little. And he remembered what Autumn had said:
“She might be at a dead end, like me.”
If he could not offer help to those in trouble, then faith was meaningless.
“She said the sign had a ship on it, right?”
Similar businesses clustered together in any city, so by gathering what they heard from the stalls, they had arrived on the inn street. It was chaotic, lively, and full of energy. People passing one another on the street did not look at each other not because they were rude, but because of the possibility that they did not speak the same language or because their thoughts were consumed by preparations they needed to make for the journey ahead.
Either way, there was a unique air about it.
It was like a gathering place for stray cats.
“Found it!”
Myuri pointed to a rusting copper sign featuring a ship that hung from the eaves of a nearby building. The round sign went well with the design of the ship’s bow poking out from beneath it.
They opened the door, and the cowbell rung lazily. The tavern was flourishing despite how early it was, and almost every seat was taken. At any other tavern in town, they would all turn their heads to look them up and down, but no one paid them any mind.
They slipped through the gaps between the tables, heading farther in, and they spoke to the owner who was flipping through the account book.
“Ilenia Gisele? Oh, Gisele the Black Sheep, huh? She just came back in. Her room’s the one in the back on the third floor.”
The owner did not lift his face from the book. Col was startled for a moment when he heard “Black Sheep,” but that hair of hers certainly did remind him of a black sheep. He thought about simply leaving her a message, but things would go much quicker if they could meet in person. He thanked the owner and they headed upstairs. There were several open doors along the hallway, and he could hear the cheerful sounds of chatting and melodies of instruments.
Ilenia’s room was the last at the end of the corridor, and they knew it was hers right away.
Mountains of scrap cloth and balls of wool peeked out from the boxes and sacks piled up beside her door, and there were even sheep horns decorating the top of the doorframe.
“…”
Myuri, who had been sensitive about eating mutton after meeting Ilenia for the first time, stared up at the horns in awe.
“It might be a spell.”
When she leaned forward to knock, the doorknob moved.
“…I’m sorry to bother you again.”
Ilenia stared at them from the other side of the door.
“Can I expect good things from you this time?”
She then showed them a joking smile and opened the door for them.
It was not just Myuri who held her breath at the sight of the room. It was so full of things there was almost no place to step, and nearly all of it was wool and wicker chests that were also packed full of wool.
“I’m sorry it’s so messy. Shall we go outside instead?”
“No, this is all right.”
Col stepped inside and felt as if he had entered a house made entirely of sheep’s wool.
“There are so many different kinds.”
Myuri murmured as she looked around the room, slack-jawed, and Ilenia smiled happily.
“There is wool from every kind of sheep that is raised in the kingdom.”
Upon closer inspection, there were different colors and all different lengths, and it did not look as though they all came from the same kind of sheep.
As Col stared about absently, he spotted a pile of soft, pitch-black wool in the corner.
Even an amateur like himself could see it had a beautiful sheen and looked very warm.
“This sort is absolutely wonderful.”
He stroked the loose bits that were sticking out, but Myuri suddenly slapped his hand away.
When he stared at her in surprise, she gave him a look.
Ilenia shrank in the corner of the room, as if trying to disappear, her face completely red.
“Oh, this—”
It was Ilenia’s wool.
“O-oh no, I’m glad you like it�
�”
She showed a tough smile, cleared her throat, and spoke in a suddenly serious tone.
“It’s free anyhow, and I just can’t seem to get rid of it.”
“Well, now.”
As Col responded, Myuri sighed loudly, noting that there were some things even he did not understand.
Nothing would get done like this, Col thought to himself as he regained his composure.
“Er, well, we’ve done some investigating on our own.”
Ilenia stood up straight. He noticed that those beautiful horns had appeared on the sides of her head. When Myuri saw that, her ears and tail appeared. Perhaps it was like when fellow merchants removed their hats when greeting one another or when nobles removed their gloves in the company of another noble.
“We even heard about you listening to the stories of a passing bird.”
He said that much, and she seemed to immediately know how they tried to gather evidence on her story.
“All things considered…”
Her hair puffed in anticipation.
“Yes. We will help you.”
The moment he said those words, tears fell from her eyes.
When Col realized that, he became flustered, adding on to his response. He did not want her to expect too much.
“But there are still many things I am unsure of. So for now, I’ll just be collecting taxes.”
“No…No. That’s more than enough.”
Ilenia wiped her eyes, lifted her head, and smiled bravely.
“Thank you so much. I think…it was God’s will that I met you two.”
She was not human and did not believe in the God humans spoke of. It was likely just a way for her to show her appreciation, but perhaps there were no other words for her to express it. The way she gripped Myuri’s hands in gratitude with both of her own in did not seem forced.
This was probably the first time they faced Ilenia’s story head-on.
“Okay, Brother, now’s the time to be useful!”
Myuri spoke after a weight had clearly been lifted off her chest.
He could never act as shamefully as he did in the northern islands again.
Once he decided to do something, he had to give it his all.
“So when shall we set off to collect?”
Ilenia hurriedly wiped her eyes and spoke in a mercantile manner.
“Anytime.”
The sooner the better.
Col responded.
“Well then, Miss Ilenia the wool broker, I have one request.”
“Ask away.”
She pulled her chin in, and her fluffy black hair waved softly.
Much like how a person’s words and behavior reflected their personality, the clothes a person wore was, in a way, like a language.
Though Col had no command over the language of merchants or artisans, he had confidence in the realm of faith.
They all stood in Ilenia’s room, and both Myuri and Ilenia wore vague smiles.
“Wow…You look like a grumpy person.”
“How strange. And you just looked like an honest but slightly unreliable young master from a trading company.”
It seemed they were perceiving the very image he wanted to give off.
He wore a coarse coat that Ilenia picked out for him. It was of a rough make, the threads not properly woven together, so the fluffed wool was stiff and itchy, and it hurt his skin. It was heavy and not warm at all. A monk living in the wilderness who believes in self-flagellation and desires rigorous trials of the soul would probably wear something like this.
It was meant to be worn directly over the skin, to endure against the discomfort that might drive him mad, but that was too much.
It was perfect simply worn over his clothes as a coat.
“I think it’s your spirit that doesn’t make you look totally miserable. It’s crazy how much you look like a completely stubborn, reckless young man.”
Myuri, who was not even half his age, gave her critical review as if she knew what she was talking about. Her outfit, by the by, was the complete opposite of his—she wore a soft, warm woolen robe that the color of fresh milk. If she wore her hood up and smiled, she looked like a perfectly noble, submissive, and obedient nun.
“I’ve heard the minstrels sing of me as the Twilight Cardinal, and I imagine he would wear something like this if such a man really existed.”
It was a familiar field to him, and his imagination looked back on what he knew.
Though he had thought of it as a joke when Sligh first mentioned it to him, judging by how the people in the trading house responded to him, he saw that rumors about him were really standing on their own. And so he would use that impression of himself to the fullest.
“I don’t think we’ll be kicked out with you dressed like that.”
“Whatever the reason, I think it was odd that the father was acting so violent in the first place.”
He spoke vexedly, but Ilenia only smiled. Such a quality made her naturally capable at working as a merchant.
“Well then, shall we go?”
The rumors that would spread if he wore this outfit into town would only cause him problems, so he quickly changed and they set off.
As they spoke along the way, Ilenia mentioned that the tax-collecting permit she possessed had cost fifty gold lumione, the world’s most well-known gold coin. A family could live modestly for a month with one gold lumione. Ilenia the wool broker should have a great amount of money.
On the other hand, that might have been absolutely no money to the cathedral under normal circumstances. However, it was the third year after their revenue stopped coming in, and since they did not know how long this would last, it was not an amount they could pay so easily.
“Large firms that spend all their time with deals costing huge sums of money could use their political power to collect the taxes. But companies here in town are different. They will without a doubt earn the cathedral’s hate. If you consider that, in the small chance that the Church gains the advantage in their fight with the kingdom, it is not worth the risk. That might be the biggest reason why tax collection isn’t going so well.”
“But is it not an inconvenience for—”
He only realized it when he began to speak.
“Right, because I’m an outsider. I only have to worry about until I move to the next base.”
Myuri stepped on his foot.
While he thought it would be rude to ask, there was still something he wondered about.
“But every time you move to a new place, do you have to begin your trade anew?”
He had heard Ilenia was a broker fulfilling the requests of a number of trading firms. If that were the case, then when she changed her residence, she had to build up trust from scratch. He could not imagine how much work that would be.
“On the surface, yes, but the one who introduced me to this work knows what I really am. So that is how I get my business.”
For nonhumans to live in the human world, they either needed to be blessed with resourcefulness or blessed with a partner who understood them. Ilenia, of course, had resourcefulness, but she had the latter first.
“You met a wonderful person.”
When Col said that, Ilenia smiled like a young girl. This smile was probably why Myuri, who would immediately begin to growl before Hyland, did not do the same with Ilenia.
It was just like that of a girl in love.
“Well, I would not be so sure about that.”
“Huh?”
“They’re the sort to risk literally anything for money, and I’m sure it didn’t really matter if I was a sheep or not, because if I were taught how to broker wool, it would just bring in a lot of money.”
There were actually merchants like that.
The foolhardy man who married the avatar of a giant wolf named Holo the Wisewolf was a traveling merchant, too.
“Of course, it’s thanks to them that I’ve managed to somehow survive in the human world. It was
also with their help that I won the bid for this permit. No amount of thanks would ever be enough. But…”
Ilenia hesitated and gave a troubled smile.
“Lately, whenever we meet, all I hear is complaints about how young I look…”
Money could not buy youth.
Her words made her seem as though she was speaking fondly of a lover.
“One of my dreams is to make so much money that that person can be young again.”
He felt a certain earnestness from her profile. One of the reasons Ilenia must have had to escape the human world was because she dwelled on their eventual parting.
But she decided not to wallow in self-pity and instead chose hope.
They looked up at the cathedral when they reached the bottom of the cape—this would be their first test.
“Let’s go.”
At Ilenia’s enthusiastic call, Col took a great step forward.
Once they reached the top of the long stone staircase, Col changed behind one of the buildings at the empty square.
Looking down at the harbor from the top, they could see many small ships floating offshore from the port. Seabirds swarmed around them, so they must have been fishing ships.
“Do the priests here live in the cathedral?”
He was suddenly curious as Ilenia pulled the rolled parchment from her breast pocket.
“I heard they used to live in beautiful mansions in town, but once the conflict between the kingdom and the Church grew worse, they started to hole themselves up in the cathedral.”
“Because…they felt like they were in danger when they moved about town?”
“That might be it, but they might have been more afraid that the city council would take over the cathedral if they were gone.”
When she said that, he recalled how wrathful the priest looked when he kicked Ilenia out.
He understood that it came from a certain kind of fear, like a wounded beast.
“Does the priest manage the light in the lighthouse, too?”
“There used to be a lightkeeper who did, but now I think so. While religious activities are banned, maintaining the light at the lighthouse isn’t. The critics in town say that by keeping the light burning, they’re praying the pope’s army will come save them from the mainland.”
Such rumors were a relief to those who had been directly persecuted.
Wolf & Parchment, Volume 3 Page 12