That was an adult scolding him.
Regret that felt a lot like embarrassment gnawed at his heart.
Sharon and the others had a compelling reason to fight against the Church. Even the merchants, who were partaking in dubious affairs, had one.
Then, what about Col himself? Did justice really exist on his path of ideals that he sang about? Were his ideals only because he simply knew nothing of the real world?
Just as it felt as though his legs would give way underneath him, Aurelius smiled.
“But luckily, the name of the Twilight Cardinal holds great power right now.”
“What?”
“With your help, I believe that keeping the balance of the scales of the Church and the Kingdom and restoring stability would not be as difficult as it seems.”
“You think so?”
Col unconsciously felt saved by the man’s kind expression.
“Why do you think I came to you, Col?”
Eve gave a troubled smile.
Ever since he was little, she had always been kind to him.
“When I heard that several people trying to disrupt the balance between the Kingdom and the Church appeared, I was surprised to learn it was you…But I get it: If you weren’t aware of what you were doing, then I understand.” Eve’s kind, wry smile was the one he’d seen when he was a child. “Now that I know you’re not scheming, and you’re pulling outrageous acts out of sincerity, I’m relieved, and I also understand. But that sincerity of yours will backfire on you. Well, what am I to do? There’s no universal tool, and that applies to both the Church’s good and bad,” she said, leaning forward over the table. “Col. If the Church attacked now, the Kingdom would be at a disadvantage. But if we can work together, it is entirely possible that we can get the situation under control. We’ll support the foundation of the Kingdom with goods and information, people will come together here because of your presence, and then we can cooperate with our allies on the mainland. Then the Church will likely see that they won’t have a chance at winning the war. Well, due to the difference in supply, it would be impossible for the Kingdom to win just like that, and we don’t want that, either. But when both sides realize that neither has a winning move, the war scare will quickly calm down, and we can complete our goal of preserving order. And of course”—Eve smiled a big, playful smile—“we’ll make plenty of money. We’re merchants, after all.”
“And then everything will come to a nice conclusion.”
“We were astonished, too, when Lady Eve brought this up to us.”
“And it feels good for us knowing that we can outwit the Church. They have let us down quite a lot until now.”
“We have been conducting trade in this country for many years, and it now feels like our market has widened. How could we just throw that away overnight?”
All the merchants on either side of her spoke in turn.
Were they greedy merchants, trying to confuse him with a dubious plot in order to make money?
No.
They were simply thinking of the world in their own way, and they still sought out the road that would bring them the most money. He could not blame them for that.
“How about it, Col? I’d like you to convince Lord Hyland and report to the king yourself. And then we will be able to bring in all our specialty goods to this country straightaway. And while we’re at it, we’ll also be able to cover for you in your weaknesses.”
Arugo, Aurelius, and Matteo all gave confident smiles along with Eve.
They would be able to calm the chaos Col was bringing about.
“Then, here’s proof of our promise.”
Eve then extended her hand. Merchants were creatures of trust, and he had seen how important handshakes were on his travels with Lawrence. Eve and the merchants were serious.
Trust had to be returned with trust. He had come to learn very well how weak he was, and if she and the others were going to help him with that, that would surely be reliable.
He looked at her extended hand, then raised his gaze. Eve was smiling gently at him.
He had no choice but to wipe the sweat off his palm and extend his own hand.
It happened just as he was about to do that.
“Ah!”
There came the sound of porcelain shattering, along with a cry.
He looked to his side, and there was a huge puddle of spilled juice, which was quickly approaching the pure-white robe Myuri wore.
“Ah, oh no, Brother!”
Myuri grew agitated at the sudden event; she wore bright, blindingly white clothes borrowed from Hyland, which were terribly expensive. In a flurry, he reached for his linen on the table to try and wipe it, but grape stains did not easily come out.
“Wh-what should I do, Brother? These aren’t mine…”
Myuri was on the verge of tears, and Col almost wanted to tell her that this was not like her at such an important time as this. He felt bad for asking it of Eve, but he lifted his head to see if they could at least call someone for stain removal, but he noticed Eve’s gaze on Myuri.
He reflexively looked back to Myuri, and she was glaring with such intensity at Eve he thought she might even reveal her fangs, despite how she had just been on the verge of crying only a few seconds ago.
What made him think it was a daydream was that when he looked back and forth between them in surprise, their expressions had returned to normal.
But his eyes had not tricked him.
The two beasts had been exchanging looks.
“Sniff…Brother, we need to wash these clothes quickly…,” the little silver wolf said, deflated.
His brain could barely catch up, and his mouth hardly worked.
“Er, uh…”
He glanced over at Eve again, and she had retracted her hand and was now leaning back in her chair, somewhat in a huff.
“Instead of getting a stain remover here, you should go back to the manor. Call the carriage,” Eve said to the towering man who was both her butler and bodyguard, and with elegant movements that hardly matched his massive stature, he made his way to the door. And as Eve sipped her wine, Arugo and the other merchants turned to look at her, as though confirming her decision.
When he thought about that in conjunction with how she glared at Myuri, then perhaps they had laid a trap for him and were trying to catch him.
He did not know the truth, but that was the conclusion that Myuri had come to, at the very least, and had intentionally spilled her juice.
“I’ve come to retrieve you.”
The driver appeared in the doorway, his eyes widening when he saw how Myuri looked.
As Col helped up Myuri, who was worried about her clothes, and started getting ready to go as though they were fleeing, Eve spoke.
“Col. Without our help, the Kingdom will be unable to escape from a remarkably disadvantageous situation. And our goal is to preserve order. Don’t you love peace?”
Unsure of how to respond, Col simply nodded vaguely, bowed his head briefly, and they left the room.
As they went down the stairs, other patrons saw how outrageously dirty Myuri’s clothes were and were surprised, and some laughed, but Col was in no state of mind to care. After a distance that felt four times longer than when they’d come, they finally reached the outside of the shop, and they climbed into the carriage. The door shut, the whip cracked, and just as the wheels started to clatter along the flagstone, blood finally started circulating above his shoulders.
When Col exhaled the breath he had been holding in his throat, Myuri, who sat next to him, kicked at his feet.
“Brother, you idiot.”
The girl’s clothes were covered in grape juice stains, but it went without saying who the biggest idiot was.
“I’m sorry…But do you mean that Miss Eve and the others were trying to trick us?”
He did not think that Eve was lying at all. It was also true that at the rate things were progressing, the Kingdom would be at a disadvantage.
He had no idea if there were any burst seams in the story at all.
And then, surprisingly, Myuri shook her head.
“Uh-uh. I don’t know if they were trying to trick you, and I don’t know if that fox was lying at all. Mother might’ve been able to tell, but…I think we’ll have to ask Blondie and do some checks on that. I think it was all true, though.”
“Then…why?”
Myuri pinched her robe, perhaps because it was sticky, and started flapping it like a bored little girl as she spoke.
“The second they recognized they’d tripped you up and unsettled you, they started coaxing you and acting really nice to you. I had to stop it when they started using those stereotypical tricks.”
“Stereo…typical?”
Col was shocked, but Myuri just shrugged.
“Mother always uses tricks like that on Father, so I could tell right away. They deal a punch to put you in a flurry, but then they suddenly act all nice and catch you.”
When she said that, he thought over the conversation he’d just had.
When he found himself reeling from how correct what Eve and the others pointed out was, he was not pressured for failing but instead was honestly relieved when they showed him there was a way to recuperate. He felt as though they were on his side.
“It was so obvious that last handshake was going to just tie you up, Brother. You’re too honest, and you’d do anything you could to keep any promises you make, right?”
He saw it easily. Had he taken Eve’s hand, he surely would have tried to influence Hyland on Eve’s behalf, and if that did not go as intended, then he would have felt a pang of conscience for Eve and the others. The reason why he’d thought he should take her hand in the first place was because he believed she trusted him and that he should live up to her trust.
But if that was just a part of the calculation…
“You realized right away, didn’t you?”
This girl had inherited the blood of Holo the wisewolf and the astute merchant Lawrence. On the one hand, he admired her keen insight, but he also winced at how pitiful he was. And it was also true that he had brought instability between the Kingdom and the Church, and it was certain he had been totally unaware of it.
He wanted to bury his face in his hands, but his hand was suddenly grasped by Myuri’s.
“Do you even have time to be worried about stuff, Brother?”
“I—”
“Were you even listening to what they were saying?”
“What did they say?” he asked in return, and Myuri gave a deep sigh and pouted.
“They said, you are super-popular in the Kingdom, and that if they made progress while ignoring you, they could still probably easily turn it around afterward, so please be their friend.”
“…”
He stared at Myuri in surprise, and she stared back hard at him. Her serious gaze overpowered him, and he had to think on his conversation with Eve and the merchants.
“…”
They had certainly said it would not be hard to calm the teetering scales with his name. If he interpreted that in the most convenient way, as there was no need for flattery on their part after coming all this way, then he felt like Myuri was right.
And if his existence was that inconsequential, then it was certainly odd.
Why had Eve brought this plan to them and not directly to the king?
“If they were going to trick you and use you, then there has to be more to it. They probably have a weakness where they can’t make you too mad. One even bigger than not making Mother angry.”
Even Myuri, who was the most selfish girl in all of Nyohhira, only ever obeyed her mother, Holo.
“They came up with this plan to make bank, but it can’t go any further, so I think they’re trying to make up for it with you. That fox is a famous merchant, right? Then she could’ve just gone straight to the king in the first place. Why’d she come to you?”
His thoughts lined up with hers.
There had to be something there.
“Well, the fox’s only miscalculation is that you have a wolf at your side. And what just happened felt less like a trick and more like a test for me.”
Myuri hummed, as though proud of properly making a mess of the whole thing, but then frowned when she noticed how dull his responses were.
“Are you still upset? You do like that fox, don’t you?”
Myuri pushed closer, but that, at least, he could deny.
“N-not at all. But…I was just so cleanly won over, I…”
Myuri then sighed deeply and sat back.
“True, but you’re you. You’re not Uncle Luward. What else are you gonna do?”
Luward was the valiant captain of a mercenary company. Col could give it his all and still never be like him.
“Uncle Luward would’ve sniffed out the fox’s motives right away, improvised, changed his behavior, and argued back, sure. Or maybe he would’ve drawn his sword to slice the table in half.”
Myuri pretended to swing a sword with both her hands, looking entirely like a tomboy enamored with hero stories, but Col really could imagine Luward getting in a scuffle.
“But if I try to imagine you doing that, Brother, it doesn’t feel right.”
She suddenly dropped her hands, and her small shoulders shrugged in a grown-up manner.
And then she immediately looked at him with a sincere expression.
“If that’s who you were, I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to believe the promise you made to me.”
“What?”
“The promise that you would be my only friend.”
Col had vowed to Myuri that even if the world shunned her for being nonhuman, he would still be her only friend.
“Uncle Luward might make a promise like that, but…he looks exactly like the kind of person to do that. But you always get so worked up about all the little things and nothing you do is ever clear-cut, and you still honestly made the promise. That totally changes the meaning of it.”
Despite what she said being a little too harsh, Myuri’s expression was gentle and happy.
“What was it you called that? Stubborn? Earnest? You know, the one that makes you sound stupid…”
“…Simple.”
When he said that, Myuri blinked several times and then grinned.
“That one. It really suits you.”
There was both a positive and negative meaning to that word, and she was talking about both.
“And I love you the way you are, Brother.”
Without a hint of embarrassment, she expressed her affection clearly to him.
“I guess I do kind of want you to learn a little from Uncle Luward, but…you’re still you at the end of the day. So even when it seems like foxes like that might corner you in an argument, you don’t have to get upset over every little thing.” Her beautifully shaped red eyes shone dauntlessly. “It’s my job to fight things like that. That means you absolutely need me.”
Myuri was not a weak little girl who always needed Col to protect her.
She was a wolf with the blood of a wisewolf.
“Then, what’s my job?” Col asked, and Myuri planted her face right on his shoulder.
“You’re supposed to hug me.”
“…”
While her ears and tail were not out, her body language was telling him to do it quickly. It was partially a joke, but it was also demonstrating the truth.
Eve had cornered him and was abusing the name of the Twilight Cardinal, who looked like he was not truly thinking about the consequences of his actions and was likely walking around alone. But that meant Myuri noticed it, because being an idiot was not necessarily always a bad thing.
There were things he could do and things people would believe in him for because he was simple.
Eve had also called him sincere.
If God brought everyone into this world with a role in mind, then he had to fully do his part. And if he was to believe that his role was r
eforming the Church, then he certainly did not have any time to be upset.
Eve’s plan might have a huge effect on the future relationship between the Kingdom and the Church, and the relationship between the Kingdom and the Church would affect the order of the world. That order would pass throughout the world, and people like Sharon, who had been caught up in the Church’s evil practices, could also use it. He was the gear that sat in the key point of the mechanism.
But most important of all, the girl named Myuri was looking straight at him as she always had.
How could he walk the path of a man of the cloth without living up to her expectations?
“Very well. Myuri?”
“Yeah?”
She stretched her neck, her face nearing his.
“We will have to investigate Miss Eve’s plan as thoroughly as possible, and since I had no idea of it, I will have to reconsider how this will affect the world.”
“Oh, uh, huh?”
“But where should we start first…? I think we need to talk to Miss Sharon and then send letters to Mister Hilde and Mister Lawrence…”
As Col thought as hard as he could, Myuri stuck her face in front of his and headbutted him.
“?!”
“Brother, you idiot!”
She huffed and looked away.
He was lost for a moment and then finally remembered that she had asked him to hug her. She had seen through Eve’s psychological warfare to save him and she’d cheered him up when he was down, so he had to thank her. He could at least do that now—so he reached out to put his arms around her, and even though Myuri still pouted, she leaned into him with an affected sigh.
But then he suddenly stopped.
“Oh, I would only dirty these clothes, wouldn’t I?”
The whole front of Myuri’s outfit was a beautiful grape purple. Col was also wearing clothes borrowed from Hyland, so he could not let them get dirty. He had unconsciously frozen because of that, but he noticed Myuri’s cheeks were puffed as she glared at him.
“Oh…”
“Whatever!”
She completely blew up.
It was around then that the carriage arrived at Hyland’s manor, and Hyland, eagerly waiting for them, hurriedly rushed over to greet them in a way that did not suit a noble.
Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Page 16