She stood next to Lawrence, refusing to sit as she looked down at him, which corroborated his conclusion.
“I suppose I’ll have to ask someone to teach me the rules that apply when you’re angry with me.”
“Someone other than me?”
“You when you’re not angry. You’re a different person when you lose your temper.”
“Mm. This is only a temporary form, after all,” said the fierce wisewolf with a kind smile. “So, what of your results?”
They both knew perfectly well that the door was a thin one, so the conversation was low and whispered into the ear. It was not far from pillow talk, and Lawrence could not help but smile at the notion, still not quite free of the wine’s influence.
But the first reason for his smile was this: Even though Holo desperately wanted to know the results of his investigation, she had been considerate enough not to immediately grab him by the lapels and demand answers on the spot when he had come wobbling back.
Lawrence’s smile slowly shifted to a conciliatory one – if she was asking about results, he could only admit those had been meager.
“I heard nothing that will lead us to the truth.”
Holo’s expression shifted.
Lawrence wondered if she didn’t lose her temper because she knew that merchants were creatures who did not simply stay down when knocked over or because she had anticipated this outcome.
“… So?”
At Holo’s question, Lawrence’s mouth gave her its merchant’s answer. “As long as it’s not a private operation, there will definitely be records of purchases and assets. If what we’re looking for is here, there ought to be traces of it.”
Piasky’s writing in the commons was a good sign. Even if it was an item that needed to be hidden, it had to have been noted in writing somewhere. The merchants’ habit of writing everything down was what had led to the reversal of fortunes in Kerube.
“Hmm…” Holo sniffed her assent with a hand on her hip, looking hard at Lawrence. The moment he broke his gaze and looked down, the fur of her tail puffed up. “Did you think your misdirection would work on me?”
Even if he had been sober, Lawrence doubted he could have withstood the low, cold tone of her voice. He slowly raised both hands in surrender, trying to shift the blame of his glib merchant’s answer to the wine.
“I admit it. Until we can prove the bones don’t exist, I could simply pretend to be searching for them.”
And proving a negative was essentially impossible.
With her great beast ears, Holo listened, closing her eyes to hear all the more keenly.
There was something Lawrence had to say to her.
“I’m sorry… for making you endure this.”
In that moment, Holo’s shoulders froze in surprise. She looked like a child who had been caught doing something bad, and at the sight of this, Lawrence was so taken aback he ended up smiling.
“As a mere traveling merchant, all I can do is try to gather information in this roundabout manner. But you could–”
She could surely prove even the existence of the devil.
Wine had a way of loosening one’s inhibitions.
Normally Lawrence would have spoken more prudently, but his feverish head was letting his mouth run free.
Had Holo not covered that mouth with both hands, he most definitely would have continued to speak.
“…”
He had opened a box that should never have been opened, Holo’s expression said as her hands remained over his lips.
But there was not much force behind those hands.
Lawrence was still for a moment, but as Holo still had not said anything, he took her hands and slowly removed them.
“You learned as much from Kerube, didn’t you? If I thought to try to forcibly take something as valuable as a holy relic, that’s how it would turn out. It would be bad for me, but it would be just as bad for you.”
Holo’s hands were small, her fingers slender.
Given the great size of her true wolf form, this had to be a very inconvenient shape for her.
With those huge claws and fangs, she could easily take by force nearly anything she desired.
“You said it yourself back in Kerube. Your claws and fangs could set things right in an instant.”
The high walls of the abbey, its sturdy gates with heavy chains locked with an elaborately constructed lock – all of it would be smashed, their contents laid bare.
The abbey guards would pose no trouble at all. They had the authority to protect the abbey, but that meant nothing to Holo. She could scour the abbey and achieve her goal in the blink of an eye.
But the reason she did not do so was obvious.
“I can…” Holo opened her mouth. “If you wish to go far away, I can take you there on my back. If you desire something, I can hunt it down for you and bring it to you. If enemies attack you, I’ll drive them away, and if there’s something you wish to protect, I can come to your aid. But…”
She continued to hold onto Lawrence’s right hand, but she gently released it, then grasped it again with her own small hands.
“The only time I can do anything for you is when you’re in your human form.”
When Lawrence was in trouble, she could help him, but when she herself was in trouble, it would be faster for her to solve the problem on her own.
At first glance, this would seem to be an advantageous situation for Lawrence, but both Lawrence and Holo knew the truth. The relationship of a hen and her chick only worked if the hen was the hen and the chick the chick.
Now that they had a grasp of the whereabouts of Yoitsu, if Holo seized the wolf bones by her own power, Lawrence would have no further part to play.
Holo could solve everything on her own. Furthermore, doing so would be much more effective. Now that it had come to that, she was surely worrying about whether Lawrence would remain by her side.
Lawrence could not simply laugh it off and tell her she was worrying too much. A good business relationship only functioned when both parties benefited, and through her centuries spent in Pasloe, Holo had already experienced the breakdown that came when a relationship ceased to be mutually beneficial.
He pulled his right hand – which Holo had grasped – back toward himself and then put his left arm around her lower back. As he was still sitting, this put his face right up to her chest.
It was far from the case that he was not at all shy about this; it was in fact his shyness that propelled him.
Holo seemed a bit surprised, but evidently understood his intent and relaxed her body. She then placed her other hand on his head.
“I’m sorry. Just be patient a little longer, will you?”
Lawrence was in the wrong. He had to show her as much.
“… Mm.” Holo nodded slightly, the total opposite of her normal demeanor.
Her hand lay on his head as though she were a priest hearing the confession of a believer and forgiving his weakness. But somehow it seemed as though Holo was the one apologizing.
“Don’t apologize. If you do, all my effort will have been for nothing.”
Holo’s modest chest was not exactly something one could bury one’s face in, but perhaps that was for the best, he mused, once he had worked up the nerve to look at her.
Lawrence looked up and smiled, and Holo angrily pinched his cheek.
No doubt she was telling him not to underestimate her, although she certainly knew he had deliberately said that to make her angry.
After continuing to hold on to his cheeks for a while, she finally relaxed both her body and her expression and smiled a tired smile. “If we find they are indeed the bones of my pack mate, my patience may well be at an end.”
“And that is fine. I’ll have an important job once you’ve bared your fangs and run off.”
It was easy for him to imagine Holo’s frozen form as she stared at the bones of her comrade.
“You’re certainly a confident one.”
<
br /> “As you’re so fond of saying, I’m a foolish male.”
Whenever Holo was truly happy, she would tuck her head down and smile almost ticklishly. That was all the motivation Lawrence needed to resolve to determine the truth of the wolf bones.
“Heh. If we speak like this too long, we may be suspected of mischief.”
Lawrence wondered if it would be too crude to ask what sort of mischief she meant. As he was mulling it over, Holo suddenly pulled away from him. But then she only smiled her malicious smile, as though having seen right through him.
There was no point in trying to keep up with her.
He evinced a chagrined smile, and Holo replied with a grin wide enough to bare her fangs. “I’ll bet dinner is still warm.”
Lawrence conceded and stood. “I could use a drink.”
“Aye, and help yourself,” came Holo’s enjoyably teasing reply.
Upon opening the thin wooden door, Lawrence counted himself lucky to see Col still listening earnestly to Huskins’s lecturing.
Chapter Three
A bit of wine still remained in Lawrence’s head, and he rolled it to and fro experimentally to make sure it wouldn’t fall off.
Feeling as though he would be a pathetic merchant indeed to be affected by liquor the next day, Lawrence lightly slapped his cheeks and told himself it was because of his shortage of sleep.
In any case, he had woken up and had not even as much time for early-morning dazedness as it would take for the flickering charcoal fire to brighten.
On top of that, this was neither an inn next to a busy town marketplace nor a mountain hut without a soul around. A certain amount of sound was audible from outside – the voices of humans and dogs and sheep – but they merely emphasized the room’s quietness and made an excellent lullaby.
The crackling firewood and the crumbling ashes were even better.
Lawrence yawned hugely and looked up with bleary eyes and saw that the drying meat there had hardened and darkened, and above a string of onions and garlic, he could see preserving yeast.
One could live without much coin after all. This room was a model for such a life.
Lawrence stirred up the fire in the hearth, yawning again.
“Good morning,” said Col, not yawning even a single time in the process.
The boy’s threadbare clothes and tousled hair were the very image of poverty, and his slender wrists and ankles belied the many dinners he had missed.
But his bright, clever eyes made it clear he was no beggar, but a wandering student. That strong, clear gaze was the single attribute that forever separated him from any pauper.
“It’s cold again today, isn’t it?”
“If it were truly cold, it would be nigh impossible to get out of bed.”
“Then I suppose it’s just cold enough to manage.”
There was a strange sense of camaraderie between those who relied on Holo’s tail for warmth. Since the first thing they did upon rising and gathering around the fire was to brush her fur off of themselves, it was only natural that a certain affinity would bloom.
“Is Holo still sleeping, then?”
“She was curled up into a ball, so I don’t think she’ll wake for a time.”
Lawrence only chuckled at this, then gave Col some bread and jerky and ate some himself.
“Once the morning church bells ring, we’ll go visit the alliance’s inn.”
“Er… shall I wake up Miss Holo, then?” Col looked thoughtfully out the window, no doubt calculating the angle of light with the calendar day to estimate the hour.
“No, no need. If she isn’t already up by then, we’ll leave her be.”
“… Might she not be angry?”
While his words were chosen and pronounced well, proof of his good education, he ate his bread the way a dog or cat would. He stuffed the entire piece in his mouth, not wasting a single crumb, and it was gone.
“She won’t. If she turns truly serious about wanting to discover whether or not the bones are there, she’ll find out right away.”
“Huh? Er… you mean…”
Col was naturally aware of Holo’s true form and power, so he would have long since realized that possibility. He probably refrained from mentioning it out of a sense of tact.
But after being momentarily taken aback by Lawrence’s comment, the expression he showed and words he spoke next were far outside of Lawrence’s expectations.
“She must trust us. We’ll have to do our very best.”
It was now Lawrence’s turn to be taken aback.
“Uh – er?” Col said, Lawrence’s surprise being enough to make him wonder if he had said something strange.
“Nothing,” Lawrence said with a wave of his hand, wiping his own face roughly with his other hand, as though trying to re-form clay.
The boy was far outside the ordinary.
“I was just wondering if I was that clever when I was your age.”
“Er… no, I didn’t mean…”
“Or maybe I’m just a fool?” The thought came to him unbidden, but the plain fact was that naturally gifted people did exist in the world. The important thing was not to be envious of them, but to work harder so as not to lose out to them. “Ah, well, I’ve already shown you how pathetic I can be, so it’s too late to worry about that.”
Lawrence brushed bread crumbs off of himself and stood.
Things were as they were. What he had to work out was not how to change his circumstances, but how to conduct himself within them.
“Mr. Lawrence.”
“Hmm?”
Col stood and took his coat in hand as he gave Lawrence a reproachful look. “I’m not at all confident that I’ll ever be able to be like you, Mr. Lawrence.”
This was probably the highest compliment a man of Lawrence’s age could be paid, but the simple truth was that Lawrence was still too young to accept it.
“That’d be a problem if you were my apprentice.” Lawrence tousled the boy’s hair and continued, “But when traveling, there’s no use in having two of the same kind of person. When you complement one another, though – that’s the best sort of traveling companion to have.”
It was the sort of line that would probably make Holo smile wryly beneath the covers, if she were awake. But Col’s face lit up as though he had received holy scripture, and he nodded energetically.
“I’ll do my best!”
“I’m counting on it,” Lawrence said, and just then the sound of the morning bell came through the window.
The two faced the direction of the sound and, after listening intently, took action.
Lawrence could see why Holo was so fond of Col. Seeing that for himself had a calming effect, he could tell.
Outside it was so bright it hurt the eyes.
“The first thing is to get a look at the list of holy relics. If it’s been accidentally listed there, then we’ll be in luck.”
“So I’ll play a student on pilgrimage, then?”
“And if anyone asks, tell them of your interest in church management. Did you learn anything about that at school?”
Beneath the eaves of the deserted shepherds’ dormitory, Lawrence put the question to Col as the boy wrapped his legs in cloth. The wrappings served to keep his feet warm, despite his still wearing straw sandals.
“We weren’t taught anything about money.”
“I see. Perfect, then.”
Col snuggled his wrappings up and looked surprised for a moment, then smiled. “I haven’t learned a thing, so if you could teach me, sir–”
“An excellent performance.” Lawrence patted Col’s head and started to walk.
The sky was clear and bright, and the ground was coated in such silvery snow that it reflected the sunlight painfully back up.
Merchants who detoured over the snowy mountains in winter to win some advantage over their competition would emerge darkly tanned; Lawrence now understood why.
Col emerged just behind Lawrence and narrowe
d his eyes at the brightness. “I hope we can find what we’re looking for on the lists.”
“That’s your job,” said Lawrence, which stunned Col for a moment.
“Huh?!” he replied with exaggerated surprise.
“Your knowledge of the Church is far greater than mine. The patron saints of the shepherds, the saints that were once pagan gods, the strange superstitions that surround wolves and sheep. Only you can tell them from one another.”
Col’s charming manners were not the only thing about him that Holo liked. She also respected his steadfast will.
“… Understood.” Despite his surprise, Col nodded solemnly.
Lawrence took on the tone of a teacher in response. “I’m counting on you.” Then, thrusting his chest out, he pushed open the door of the Ruvik Alliance’s inn.
“Hmm? Oh, welcome. It was a fine time we had last night.”
Opening the door, there were already several merchants there, idly conversing over their meal. One of them spoke up, jug in hand, as Lawrence opened the door.
He wondered if they had started drinking in the morning, but such activity wasn’t uncommon when one was held up in an inn because of snow.
“Good morning. I just wanted to find Piasky and thank him for last night’s feast.”
“If you’re looking for Lag, he’s in the sanctuary. Part of a regular negotiation. He’s quite a merchant for one so young.”
Given the man’s tone, it was clear that Piasky was no mere messenger. It was possible that once the Ruvik Alliance obtained the abbey’s land, they planned to immigrate and establish a town or marketplace there. It seemed unlikely that someone with the unusual job of aiding settlers would be relegated to a mere courier.
“The sanctuary, you say? Thank you very much.”
“Sure. Let’s drink again sometime. Bring your master along this time, eh?”
The man was referring to the fictional “master” Lawrence had made up in the course of his information gathering.
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