Holo buried her face into his chest, and as though rubbing her scent onto him, she nuzzled her face back and forth.
“I have been quite spoiled ever since Myuri left.”
“I, uh…”
While that was a truth he would not deny, if he spoke about it out loud, Holo might dig her claws into his back.
In his total discipline, Lawrence struggled to find a response, but Holo chuckled about that, too.
“Eh-heh. My eyes were sharp to have chosen you.”
“…Well, I’d say you did some good shopping, if I do say so myself.”
Holo flapped her ears and tail boisterously when he spoke.
After a bout of chuckling, however, the air surrounding Holo suddenly changed, and she let go of him.
She then spoke quietly.
“But the scales do not even out. I must repay you for everything you have done.”
Holo grinned when she saw how Lawrence could not shake his puzzlement.
He loved her smile, how her fangs stood out, how mischievous and spiteful she looked, yet how she was more caring and earnest than anyone else deep down.
“Let us go on a journey.”
Lawrence was astonished to hear what came from her mouth.
“…Huh? What on earth are…?”
“I say what I mean. We have spent ten years here. ’Tis quite long for the human world. ’Twould be best for us to venture out into the world occasionally. And it might perhaps be for the better in the future if we eased your foolish worries regarding Myuri, no?”
“Well…”
Lawrence faltered over thoughts that would not manifest into words, and Holo shrugged in a familiar way.
“Perhaps you wonder what will become of the bathhouse?”
Of course! Lawrence moved his lips to speak, but no words came out.
Holo should know how much effort was required to operate and maintain the bathhouse. She should have known even better than him how important it was.
There were older masters who closed up shop as they approached their later years and left on pilgrimages.
But it was still much too early for him.
Holo always spoke her mind when she came up with extreme ideas, but this time, it was too much. Lawrence finally furrowed his brow, wondering if this was a thoughtless, drunken remark, but Holo seemed to see right through him and gave him a sharp poke.
“As always, you are blind.”
“That’s not true. I’m just watching you speak and behave wildly, like you always have,” he replied, and Holo puffed up her chest in competition.
Lawrence took the opportunity to argue.
“What about the bathhouse? Do we close? I doubt it’ll operate without us. And if we close once, guests from far away won’t all come back at the same time. It’ll take a year, at least. How will we earn our keep until then? We’ll have to reestablish our suppliers. You really need to—”
“I believe you need to have a little more faith in all the things you have accomplished.”
The sheer depth of Holo’s smile alone caused Lawrence to fall silent.
“You have made this bathhouse into a wonderful thing. All of the guests are delighted to be here. Though little Col and Myuri are gone, the guests’ opinions have not changed. There is a proper flow here now.”
There was nothing Lawrence could say in response to her proud, beaming grin.
Holo almost never complimented people.
She was spiteful and disagreeable, which meant that was even more so for her companion, Lawrence.
“The guests would not be angry if we left for a year or two. Rather, they would be happy to help us for when we return.”
Lawrence did not believe for a moment that it would be that convenient, but he mulled over the kinds of guests they received.
It was a merchant’s habit to be strictly prudent when regarding optimistic predictions.
But to doubt what Holo said meant doubting his confidence that their guests loved the bathhouse. And it should be the truth that the guests truly did love the place.
Though Lawrence understood this in theory, there was a realistic reason why he had a hard time going along with Holo’s sudden idea.
“B-but I mean…do we leave maintenance of the bathhouse to the drunken guests? Miss Selim will have her hands full doing accounting work without me, and Miss Hanna can’t leave the kitchen. No matter how you think about it, it won’t work out.”
In reality, the utopia of Nyohhira was established by plain old hard work. Lawrence looked at Holo questioningly, wondering if he had spoiled her so much she had forgotten that, but she merely glowered at him in return.
“You fool. ’Tis why I risked my life to see if ’twas possible.”
“Huh?”
She saw how dumbfounded he looked and offered her usual annoyed smile.
“After all, you think I used my wit to place a bet with them, do you not?”
Holo was talking about what happened earlier that day. She and the guests had a drinking contest, and since she won, they had to do all her work for her.
“Th-that’s not—”
What you did! But Lawrence, of course, could not finish his sentence. He realized what her intentions were, and his voice raised almost to a shout.
“No way!”
The wisewolf grinned.
“Though I lay here sleeping, and you gaze upon me lovingly as I do so with such a foolish expression, the work in the bathhouse goes better than usual, does it not?”
Then it was the same as going out to travel together.
He had just seen them work.
Lawrence was at a loss for words, and Holo sighed in exasperation.
“I certainly have done my shopping well. Why do you not think long and hard about what you have gained?”
Holo snuggled him in a different way than before, like a snake entangling its prey.
There were plenty of times lately where Lawrence looked after her.
But Holo was, in the end, Holo.
“We certainly cannot stay away for too long, but they may take our place if we are only gone for half a year. Our reward is free time during the idle season.”
Those guests had come here in defiance of a long journey for the ideal bathhouse.
How could they be so proud of the charm of their establishment if they chose not to believe in that passion?
“You…”
“Hmm?”
She wrapped her arms around Lawrence’s waist, her tail waving back and forth mischievously as she fawned over him.
Lawrence gazed down at her and could do nothing but smile.
“Well, I was just thinking about how I shouldn’t have thought any less of the avatar of the wolf who lives in wheat.”
“Hmm.”
Holo gazed back up at him as though urging him to elaborate.
“You’ve taken good care of me so far. You wouldn’t be if good, healthy stocks didn’t grow, right?”
Holo widened her eyes, then smiled out of the corner of her mouth, baring her teeth.
“You fool.”
He had heard her say those words so many times before.
And he agreed.
No matter how much time they spent together, he would never be able to fully understand how wonderful she was.
“So are you serious?”
Lawrence posed the question, and Holo response came right after.
“Yes. We may as well see our grandchildren’s faces.”
“Wha—!”
Holo grinned when she saw how speechless he was.
She is always like this…The more Lawrence grimaced as he thought, the happier Holo’s tail wagged.
“I am Holo the Wisewolf. You are in the palm of my hand,” she said, despite how she rubbed her face on Lawrence’s chest.
No, that’s exactly why she’s wicked, Lawrence thought as he embraced her slender frame.
Once a wolf such as this stuck to him, he would never be able to let go.
>
“What a frightening thought.”
Lawrence murmured in defeat and split the log in the fire.
It was autumn, the happiest time in the best season of the year.
AFTERWORD
Long time no see. This is Isuna Hasekura. Spice & Wolf has finally reached twenty volumes. Thank you. Now that I think back on it, around the time of Volume 3, I had already written all the stories I thought up and was worried about what might happen in the future. Though I had a stock of stories I wanted to tell just as I was starting up again with the short story collection, as of late, coming up with new ones started to feel like wringing out a dry cloth. It is quite strange when something drips out from it. Perhaps this cloth of mine is very good at pretending to be dry…? I would like to keep on writing so long as this cloth does not tear from the constant wringing, so I hope you will continue to bear with me.
Also, by the time you all are reading this, Keito Koume’s last chapter of Spice & Wolf should be published already. He, too, has illustrated Holo and Lawrence’s tale for over ten years and more than one hundred chapters. Manga versions of light novels are often swayed by circumstances such as anime adaptations, and it is a lot of trouble to keep going when the original series is so long. And yet Keito Koume has maintained such high quality and kept on illustrating to the very end. Thank you for all your hard work! Among the many different manga adaptations of light novels, I think I can be counted as one original author who is very pleased with the results. I also thank the editor Mr. O for introducing us!
I have ended on such an unusually moving note, but the rest of the page is blank…Also, Spice & Wolf and Wolf & Parchment will (should) still continue!
As for me, I’ve gained weight recently. This is the most I’ve weighed in my life, and my stomach feels crushed when I sit. Before the summertime, I had been jogging and watching what I ate, but I grew careless, and soon I was eating nothing but ramen, curry, curry, ramen, and it happened in an instant. I am now back to exercise and plain bread rolls. And just as I say that, I had a cake-like pizza called Chicago pizza just the other day! It was so delicious! What I want to eat most now is anglerfish hot pot. One with plenty of monkfish liver. It should be healthy because it has lots of fish. I’m sure. I think.
On the other hand, I have not been traveling very much lately, so that is how I hope to spend 2018. I counted, and I have yet to visit even half of Japan’s prefectures (not counting the ones I only passed through).
I do want to try the Shikoku pilgrimage, and there seem to be many things I haven’t done yet.
And so, there should still be plenty more interesting stories slumbering in the world of Spice & Wolf!
That is how I would like to end this afterword.
Isuna Hasekura
Spring Log III Page 16
