Wolf & Parchment, Volume 1

by Isuna Hasekura

  Col thought that yes, it was the pope who was wrong. If they condoned his tyranny, all that they believed was right in the world, and God himself, the root of that righteousness, would be taken from them.

  “Brother.”

  As he mentally conversed with himself, Myuri pulled on his sleeve.

  “You look scary.”

  “…I was thinking. What is it?”

  “The port ends here. Where are we going? That town on the hill?”

  The area around the port was much more developed than the town in the distance and contained numerous large buildings. There were warehouses that were also trading companies or shipping agents. The structures continued behind them, and beyond the paths were clusters of questionable shops where the girl from earlier pulled the young man to. And just as she said, some people were standing on the street corners, no mat beneath them, exchanging money. There were also blacksmiths’ and woodcutters’ workshops, so the port could already be called its own town.

  However, they could see the size of the town from where they stood at the beginning of the paved road leading from the port up the hill. Scaffolding was set up here and there along the wall, so it seemed it was still expanding.

  If the Debau Company had a trading house in Atiph, it would be there.

  “Let’s go into town.”

  “Yay!”

  “Yay?”

  He gave Myuri a questioning look. She turned away, but he knew what she was thinking.

  “We will not be shopping or eating.”

  “Aww…But I saved you from a predator!”

  “Th-that’s…I refused as well myself.”

  He cleared his throat, and Myuri cheekily shrugged.

  “First of all, we do not have infinite funds.”

  “I could earn money by dancing in a bar.”

  He glared at her, and she simply shrugged again, moving one step away from him. It was likely that she actually could earn money that way, and that bothered him.

  “Luxury is the enemy.”

  “I think abstinence is the enemy of a fun life.”

  He glared again, but this time she smiled back.

  The sides of the road from the port to the city walls were already packed with stalls.

  On the path of trials given to the prophets by God, the temptations of the devil lay at every step.

  Oh God, grant me protection.

  He braced himself and swore again his vows of abstinence.

  Atiph was a lively town, but it was a different sort from Nyohhira.

  Loud shouts rose from anyone and everyone—as lively as if they were all running at full speed.

  “Hey, get outta the way!”

  “Who the hell put these crates here?!”

  “Herring! Come get your herring! Fresh, unsalted herring!”

  “You there, Mr. Traveler! How about a short sword to protect yourself? This masterpiece could even slice through a cow!”

  Col had thought he was knowledgeable about the outside world, but it hit him that what he knew was from more than ten years in the past. Such hustle and bustle made him dizzy.

  “Myuri, are you all right?”

  The crowd jostled them about, stifling them with the heat of so many bodies, and the smells of fish and blood from the butchered sheep and pigs on the side of the streets wafted around them, as did the scent of the meat deep-frying in oil while the smoke of charcoal fires filled the air.

  He worriedly called out to her, just when she had finished eating fried eel.

  “Heh?” she responded, jumping out of the way of a cart loaded with cages that were stuffed with chickens, and patted a passing dog on the head as she spun. It seemed it did not take her very long to get used to the excitement of the town.

  “Ooh! I want to eat that next!”

  She pointed at a shop displaying its meat pies.

  “…Fried eel from the mouth of the river, black pudding, tripe, what’s next?”

  “The small fried crabs were really good with salt. The fresh salt-grilled herring was better than I thought it would be. Herring isn’t just something to throw out.”

  He was ashamed of himself for giving in to Myuri’s pleading.

  “Gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins. Do you know how much this cost? All the small change we brought from Nyohhira is gone now…”

  It seemed every shop was short on change this time of year, and whenever he handed over a larger coin to pay, the owner showed a clear frown. Perhaps the tout girl had asked to exchange money not for extra savings, but truly because she was in a bind.

  “We’ll just do our shopping with silver, then. If we buy enough, we won’t need any change.”

  “Myuri!” he scolded, and she stuck her fingers in her ears and averted her gaze.

  “You should’ve gotten a farewell present from Father, so why are you being so stingy? If gluttony is a sin, then what about being such a miser?”

  “Ah—”

  She typically seemed to ignore his lectures, but since she did actually remember them, it would be hard to deal with her. Miserliness was not one of the seven deadly sins of wrath, gluttony, lust, greed, envy, pride, and sloth, but it was still sinful.

  “…I am not being a miser. This is moderation.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  She was not asking because she did not know—she was asking because she knew it would trouble him. If her ears and tail had been out, they would probably have been wiggling happily.

  Though it a shame for someone who wanted to be a priest, Col used his trump card.

  “No means no.”

  Myuri blew a raspberry and turned away in a huff, but perhaps thinking it was time to stop, she did not harass him anymore.

  Col evaluated the opportunity, then spoke.

  “And you really must do something about your appearance.”

  “Huh?” Myuri had gone quiet, gazing around at the shops, wondering what to have him buy her tomorrow, and she sounded surprised. “What? Isn’t it cute?”

  She seemed slightly hurt.

  “…This is not about whether it’s cute or not.”

  “So? It is cute, right? Good.”

  She giggled happily, and he nearly gave in to her.

  “It may look good on you.” He tried again and managed to continue speaking. “But it stands out too much. If we are to continue traveling, you need to change. I’ll get something else for you.”

  Myuri had a reason and an excuse for everything, but when he spoke with her seriously, she listened carefully.

  She took another look at her outfit and tilted her head.

  “If you insist, I’ll change, but…why? Everyone compliments me!”

  “That’s why.”

  As with the tout girl’s misunderstanding earlier, whenever Col paid for something Myuri bought at a stall, he could feel the gaze of the shopkeeper boring into him. He was walking around with a gaudily dressed girl who was young—perhaps too young—and buying her food. Perhaps it would be a different story if they were garish young nobles, but he had asked Lawrence for traveling clothes that were fitting for a priest. In no way was this respectable.

  Col laid this out for Myuri in detail, and with a tired expression, she seemed to acquiesce.

  “I don’t care how others see me…but I don’t want cause you trouble, Brother.” Myuri sighed, then said, “So how should I dress?”

  “Traveling women generally have two options for dress: a nun or a boy.”

  “Mother dresses like a nun sometimes, doesn’t she? That one that’s long with lots of frills and lots of cloth.”

  “Even when she was traveling long ago, the nun dress suited her.”

  “So that would look good on me, too.”

  Holo, the avatar of a wolf who would live for centuries, had the appearance of a young girl and stayed that way for years. And as Myuri grew, she and her mother had become two peas in a pod.

  “Perhaps. Unlike you, Holo is calm and dignified.”
>
  “Hey!”

  That is exactly what is different between them, he said to himself.

  “I want something that’s easy to move around in. And…I don’t want to compete with Mother.”

  It seemed that girls were vain and prideful.

  “Then we’ll ask someone at the Debau Company to prepare a helper boy’s outfit for you.”

  “What would happen if I were a prettier boy than you?”

  He could only smile dryly, but Myuri got the shape of her face from her mother. Boy’s clothes would surely suit her.

  And it was much more difficult to spot a woman dressed as a man than the other way around.

  “Well then, let’s go,” he said.

  “Okay.”

  The town of Atiph sat on a hill on the south side of the river that flowed from east to west. The town square was at the highest point of the hill, and in typical southern style, all the town’s important buildings, such as the church and town hall, encompassed it. Trade flourished here, so there were probably many southerners in the town’s leadership.

  According to what Col and Myuri heard at the stalls, the Debau Company’s trading house was along the main street that extended from the square—fitting for its size. Perhaps someone who was familiar with the area would take the less populated back roads, but it was their first time here, so they followed the major avenues for the moment and decided to head for the square.

  The money changers might be there, too.

  “Whoa…,” Myuri murmured in awe and peered up at the magnificent church standing before her.

  The stone fortress at the port had also captivated her, but perhaps stone buildings themselves were new to her. The biggest buildings in Nyohhira were only three stories, and they were all made of wood. The church before her eyes was easily five stories tall, and the bell tower extended well above that. It was of a truly imposing scale.

  “Hey, Brother…did they make this by stacking up each rock, one by one?”

  “Yes. It takes considerable effort, but the harder they work, the more the strength of their faith shows. It is also a huge honor to quarry the heavy stone that will be used in the construction of a church. If you examine it closely, you can find the names of the people who donated carved into the stone.”

  “Wow…”

  “Why don’t you take a look? I need to replenish the change that a certain someone used up.”

  Myuri slowly lowered her gaze from the church to him, a wide grin on her face.

  “Make sure you exchange a lot.”

  She was not shy about her wants.

  “Just kidding. I would worry if you got lost, so I’ll go with you.”

  “…”

  Col looked at her as she stood next to him, and she truly seemed to be enjoying herself. He found himself smiling rather than sighing at her carefree attitude. Perhaps one could say he had no choice but to smile.

  Then, they headed to the money changers, who sat on straw mats laid out around the statue of the Holy Mother in the center of the square. Not only travelers, but also a constant stream of townspeople were visiting them, perhaps to exchange money for shopping, and the money changers were frowning as they placed metals and coins on the scales. Among them, the pair found a money changer who had just gotten through his queue, and they called out to him.

  “I’d like to exchange some money.”

  “All right, what do you need?”

  There were no niceties—it was straight to the point. Col hurriedly pulled out his wallet and produced a single white silver piece.

  “I’d like this in bronze dip, please.”

  “The coin of the sun, huh? That will be thirty bronze dip pieces.”

  “What?!”

  Unwittingly, he yelled in surprise. The bronze dip was a piece of thin copper that was in circulation in this area, and one coin could buy about one piece of bread or one cup of ale. On the other hand, the silver coin engraved with the image of a sun was the strongest of its kind in this region, since it was also used for long-distance trade, and it was enough to feed a family of four for a week, with enough left over for a special treat on the Sabbath.

  Before Col left, the owner of the bathhouse, Lawrence, told him about the exchange rates for all major coins, and he had said that this would gain him at least forty pieces—or if luck was on his side, then fifty pieces of bronze.

  He thought perhaps they were being taken advantage of because they were travelers, but before he said anything, the money changer spread open the roll of parchment in his hand and recited the contents.

  “An announcement from the city council: In view of the recent shortage of change, the city council has regulated the exchange rate between the silver coin of the sun and bronze dip as one to thirty.”

  He seemed used to the complaints of travelers.

  “We appreciate a healthy economy, but because of that our supply of currency can’t keep up. That’s the case in other towns, too.”

  The money changer rolled up the parchment and placed it under the platform holding the scales.

  “See, there’s a big church in this town. Everyone’s gone and put their change in that donation box of theirs.”

  Without looking, he pointed to the church with his thumb.

  “On top of all that tax, you have to wonder what they’re doing with all the coins sitting in that box…Oh, you’re a traveling priest, huh?”

  The money changer was not as apologetic as his words might suggest, and he grinned.

  “So what will it be?”

  “Ah…yes. Please.”

  “Thanks.”

  Col handed him the silver, and the money changer inspected the front and back, weighed it against raw silver on the scales, and finally handed him a bundle of bronze coins. There were exactly thirty. Perhaps the tout girl really was in trouble, and the stall owners did not want to give him change.

  And Myuri’s shopping for food became much more expensive.

  “Young man, be sure to tell them they at least shouldn’t let all that change sit in the box. The Church nowadays is all about money, money, money. We need the Kingdom of Winfiel to work hard.”

  Col could only smile dryly, and he put the coins away into his coin purse before leaving the money changers behind.

  However, his heart began to race not when the money changer criticized the Church, but when he mentioned the Kingdom of Winfiel. Hearing the dissatisfaction of the townspeople directly felt like an endorsement of his mission.

  How could the Church save the souls of the people after oppressing their livelihoods?

  “Where to next, Brother?”

  He responded with force.

  “To the Debau Company.”

  He needed to meet up with Hyland quickly.

  Stirred by a sense of purpose, he pulled a bewildered Myuri along and marched onto the main street.

  Going south along the large road from the square, there appeared a block of similar-looking buildings. The first floor was always an unloading zone for cargo, and banners hung proudly from the second-and third-floor walls. These buildings belonged to the large commercial firms that held the reins of the town’s economy. Among them, he found the familiar banner of the Debau Company.

  “Oh…I’ve seen that design somewhere.”

  Myuri tilted her head.

  “It was on the silver piece we just exchanged.”

  “Oh.”

  While the Debau Company was still a mercantile organization, it also issued the high-value silver debau on its own terms. The design on the face of the coin was that of a sun, and it was often called the “coin of the sun.”

  “That is a currency they could produce all thanks to your parents’ efforts.”

  That was apparently the final uproar to liven up the journey of the merchant and the wolf avatar. Col truly thought they were amazing people, but this did not seem to click with Myuri herself.

  The Debau Company building was a wide structure facing the street, and the firs
t floor was an unloading zone. Merchants carrying packages that were larger than Col’s body and wagons piled high with cargo were constantly coming and going.

  The beggar-looking man crouching in a corner of the unloading area was likely watching to make sure no one was trying to steal things amid the commotion in exchange for charity. In addition to thieves, there were also stray cats and dogs that roamed around town, hoping to feed on pigs and chickens that ultimately strayed too far from their owners. He felt a slight pang of nostalgia, as it reminded him of when he was a wandering student, getting by with similar work.

  “Hey, hey, you’re in the way just standing there! If you want donations, try somewhere else!”

  A man in the unloading area, steam rising from his bare upper body, shooed them away like he would a dog or cat.

  “Ah, I need to pass on a message to the master of the house.”

  “Hah?”

  “Please tell him my name is Tote Col. My plans to go to Lenos have changed to Atiph.”

  “Hmm?”

  The man gazed at him suspiciously, but he shrugged his rough shoulders and disappeared inside.

  And before long, he returned.

  “Come in, he says. Who are you? A friend of that big shot?”

  So it seemed that Hyland was already here.

  He thanked the man, and they continued farther inside the unloading area.

  Merchandise of all kinds had been stacked high, and after a step up was a reception desk, large enough to sleep on, with a blanket covering it. At the moment, that wide desk was also piled with coins and parchment, and there was a man buried among it all, writing. A large canvas hung on the wall behind him. Painted there was a larger-than-life angel, watching quietly over the merchants as they worked.

  Such an impressive painting also stole Myuri’s attention, but she did not seem moved or intimidated; instead, she tilted her head questioningly.

  “I didn’t know angels counted money, too. But why a sword? Is it a threat to keep them working?”