Spice & Wolf Omnibus

by Isuna Hasekura

  In Holo’s case he was afraid that could easily turn into anger, but when she finished her sigh, the look on her face was like a mother tired out by her children.

  “Well, I suppose right now investigating what that company is scheming should come first.”

  While she smiled with all her might, she could not hide a strange sense of fatigue.

  Even so, somehow Lawrence matched Holo with a nod.

  Holo got down from the bed and put on her shoes. She put on her girdle and robe and, with an “Mhmm,” stretched up high.

  Lawrence, unable to neatly digest the situation, had watched Holo’s small back from atop the bed, but after she stretched, dangled, and lowered her arms, from behind she indeed looked angry somehow.

  “Hey, get up. Someone is coming to call us right now.”

  But the face Holo turned toward him was not angry.

  Her tail was hidden under her robe so he could not see it.

  He did not really understand it, but even as Holo sighed, she made no move to leave Lawrence’s side.

  Surely, just as Lawrence and Holo had exchanged opinions, Luward and the others had thought between them how to handle this. The one who came calling for Lawrence was not the youngster, but one of the young men who had been sitting at Luward’s table. He appeared a fair bit younger than Luward, putting him at perhaps five or six years younger than Lawrence.

  However, his eyes seemed rather too sharp for service in an artisans’ workshop. Making something new would surely require surviving to an older age until the edge came off that sharpness.

  “If all else fails, I am here.”

  That is what Holo had whispered into his ear when they left their room.

  Even though the Debau Company was hiding the fact that mercenaries were bringing in silver coins in secret, surely Luward did not intend to keep a merchant who had noticed the fact locked up here in the inn.

  However, now that he was actually being led into the room, the atmosphere was extremely lax. Against mercenaries accustomed to ambush and surprise attack, Lawrence might not have put faith in his own instincts alone, but with Holo looking quite relaxed, it probably was not an act.

  “Please have a seat.”

  Normally, inns got seedier the higher the floor one was on.

  In other words, that would make this room, on the second floor of the inn, among its finest, but on top of being packed, the building itself did not seem to be top class, nor was it all that large. Perhaps because more chairs were added for Lawrence and Holo, the interior of the room seemed a bit cramped.

  “It was a bit too noisy downstairs. If one is to drink the water of life, best to do it in peace, yes?”

  As Luward spoke, Moizi, seated beside him, poured alcohol into a wineglass, giving it a flick with his fingernail.

  The special ting it made was similar to the sound gold coins made when coming into contact with one another.

  Eating food with silver utensils and drinking alcohol with glasses completed the pretense of nobility.

  Furthermore, the alcohol poured cup by cup was of a thicker brown than Holo’s tail, giving off a pungent, smoky scent.

  The expression “the water of life” was a second name given in honor to a certain variety of distilled spirits.

  “Let us give thanks to the craftsman’s skill.”

  As if such words were always spoken when having a drink, Luward spoke while raising his wineglass.

  Lawrence and the others assembled repeated the words.

  Seemingly rather sullen at the small quantity, Holo sipped half her drink all at once, drawing shocked looks from all around.

  “If they’re going to make this much, tell them they need to distill it four times instead of three,” she said to Luward as he filled his mouth with alcohol, closing his eyes while drinking it as if drinking fire itself.

  “Refined nobility occasionally drink hard liquor like this, but they water it down, which is nothing less than heresy. After all, distillation requires the labor of so many people.”

  Lawrence was not well versed on the details of making alcohol. He did know from balance sheets that distillation required an expensive distiller, herbs for flavoring, and numerous repeated passes.

  Also, it seemed Luward was not seeking assent or dissent toward his statement. He continued, “And so,” as he took another sip of the water of life. “Mr. Lawrence, I would like to speak to you of the consequences of our discussion.”

  Lawrence did not commit the blunder of turning toward the entrance as if he would flee at any moment.

  Luward narrowed his eyes, seemingly enjoying Lawrence’s discomfort.

  “Those two are candidates to succeed Moizi. Please let them join us for future reference.”

  As Luward looked to the right and left walls and the two young men with their backs against each of them, their straight backs grew even straighter when introduced.

  “I’m just a passing merchant.”

  When Lawrence said that, Luward replied, “It’s the people who say that who are the most fearsome of all.”

  “What the Debau Company is doing, and where it is invading, and so forth, still remains a mystery.”

  He cut right to the point.

  Between statements, Moizi reverentially poured liquor into Luward’s polished blue wine cup.

  “When we came to this town, things surprised us one after another. Everyone thought to themselves, this is odd – but we couldn’t put our fingers on it. Money came easy, we enjoyed a feast every night. Isn’t that fine? What more could we want? Will you die if you don’t go adventuring, O mighty knight Lanz Hoek? And so on.”

  The name on his lips was that of a famous, legendary knight whose chivalrous tales were read during lulls in campaigns to bolster faltering spirits.

  “A large-scale mercenary company can spurn the embrace of merchants. Not so with us. However, if merchants are going to show up at any time and have us move silver in the blink of an eye, they do have to make the stay enjoyable.”

  Holo had only just finished liquor seemingly too strong for her, but of course Moizi did not stop, filling her cup before she asked.

  “Was bringing in silver profitable?”

  Lawrence had thought of returning Luward’s exaggerated words of praise to him, but did not. Mercenaries esteemed honor; to reply to those esteeming honor with humility could only be taken as contempt.

  It was a game that had to be played between the appraiser and the appraised.

  He understood the reasoning well enough; well-spoken mercenaries were invited to dinner with princes and lords.

  To them, flattery and underlying motives went hand in hand.

  “It was profitable. More than the earlier talk.”

  “You mean the feeling there’s not enough silver coins.”

  “Yeah… however, we followed up with several of the lords we’d spoken to after that. It wasn’t that appetizing afterwards. There had been enough obtained for several lords worth, in other words.”

  “I’m quite jealous,” Lawrence said with a smile.

  Luward nodded and, pausing to clear his throat, resumed.

  “I often hear in jest that the Debau Company is making too much profit in silver coins for its own good. They clash often in this land of fragmented authority, and it’s said they treat the lords and princes in the coin-poor south like slaves. That was half-jealousy, but when they paid in full in gold coin, I thought it was true. I thought if they seriously pulled the northlands together, they’d be lords of their own in no time.”

  That was surely one of the reasons mercenaries remained in the town in spite of not knowing if war would break out or not. Even with their living expenses covered, some members of a company would surely think they needed to leave town before their discipline wasted away.

  That they did not do so was because they had an additional separate reason.

  “The Debau Company becoming lords through trade?”

  “That’s what I imagine. I
f becoming lords is too much, then certainly building an alliance of merchants with power and influence equal to a nation.”

  There was an economic alliance that possessed a number of warships that sailed under the flag of the moon and shield. Lawrence had caught a glimpse of it back in the kingdom of Winfiel.

  “That’s why so many of us are here. If we’re part of acquiring a nation, it’s a big, everlasting triumph. Wandering knights would gain a sovereign territory while we mercenaries gain an exclusive employer for military services. Well, even if that’s just talk from the war era ages ago, the chances Debau would hire us for its foreign trade are very high.”

  In particular, Debau handled a great deal of precious metals. If they were to conquer the northlands and develop many new mines, they would have mines to defend and trade routes to secure, making precious commodities out of those accustomed to warfare.

  Lawrence understood that much for himself. It was well within simple guesswork on his part.

  However, Luward certainly would not be sharing drinks with Lawrence like this if that is all it was.

  “And yet, you don’t think the Debau Company will actually start a war.”

  As Lawrence said it, Luward slapped his own cheek. All pretense dropped from Luward’s words as if on cue.

  “Yes. Exactly. We’re not that large a mercenary company. The reason we still fly a flag we inherited from ancient times is because of polished wit, forecasting the near future, and never dropping our guard. But we just don’t know what the Debau Company is thinking or what it’s trying to do. We inform ourselves about how tools like us are to be used. Foolish mercenaries who misread that end up being killed by their employers.”

  This was not using wit to hunt for profit like Lawrence did.

  They risked their very existence on a daily basis.

  Lawrence thought that if they were wolves, he would be an unadulterated lamb.

  “But we don’t know how they would use us. The Debau Company absolutely has not moved. Large forces have not yet been deployed. Just as Mr. Lawrence explained, one reason must be that few nobles have given their assent. It’s just if Debau made a full mobilization, it could easily crush them. So why doesn’t it? They’re making huge profits left and right in this town, so more people flock here with that in mind. Such actions aren’t how the rich people we know behave. They’re not those of a compassionate monastery doing charity, either. In war, the most frightening thing is not meeting a powerful enemy on the battlefield.”

  Luward sipped his liquor as he spoke.

  “What we must fear is not understanding the circumstances we are placed in. It’s the same for you, isn’t it, Mr. Lawrence?”

  He neither looked nor sounded drunk in the slightest.

  The two young people clinging to the wall silently gazed at Lawrence.

  “That is correct. My thoughts are that if I could put this situation aside, I could build a home for myself in this town. But only if I can unravel the mystery, I think.”

  Luward nodded.

  He heard the sound of a pickled fruit being chewed.

  It was Moizi who had opened his mouth.

  “Even we, over the course of our long history, have been shortchanged by merchants countless times. We work for money. Money is controlled by merchants. In most cases, the sums required to hire mercenaries like us moves in easy-to-understand ways. As a rule of thumb, we don’t move unless there’s a reason anyone could grasp. And yet, this time we just can’t see it. We see the flow of money, but we don’t understand where it’s going. Mr. Lawrence, if you can solve this riddle, we will prepare answers to all that you have asked us.”

  One used any tool at one’s disposal.

  They did not ask because of Lawrence’s superior abilities or even that he was Holo’s companion, but because a practical perspective dictated it.

  Simply put, what the Debau Company was up to was an important matter to Lawrence. If by any chance, he could buy that cheaply priced shop and trade there securely, the dream Lawrence had pined for sitting on a wagon’s driver’s seat, gazing at a horse’s rump, could become reality.

  “I shall strive to meet your expectations,” Lawrence replied.

  When gathering one’s wits, hierarchy was a hindrance.

  As if putting that into practice, Luward sat atop the table while Moizi and the two young troops sat on a footlocker.

  “There is one thing about the money flow I don’t understand, however.”

  “Which is?”

  “The town’s taxes.”

  Tax collection was a detested but necessary institution so that towns could preserve order and keep up appearances.

  And yet, the town had neither institutions nor walls. Lawrence could not imagine how the town was maintained whatsoever.

  That is why he could not imagine the words that came in reply.

  “This town doesn’t collect any taxes.”

  “Th…” That’s madness, Lawrence nearly said.

  If people knew how to administer a town without taxes, whole generations of tax collectors would be born without being predestined to be hated by the townsfolk, to their great delight, no doubt.

  “Since there’s no walls, there’s no way to collect tolls. Have you seen the market?”

  Lawrence nodded at Moizi’s words.

  “Because it’s such a simple design, no one can know what someone’s bringing in or what he’s selling it for. And there’s no sales tax collected. At any rate, tax collection is the dominion of the king. If they started doing that, this would become a battlefield overnight.”

  And yet, the town preserved order and cleanliness.

  Perhaps it was maintained by magic or part of some profit that could only be explained by magic.

  “But as for the tax issue, I do have one thought.” Moizi cleared his throat before continuing.

  “Some ten or twenty years ago, before anyone was paying attention, the Debau Company acquired a vast amount of land all around this area.”

  There is no land in this world that does not belong to someone.

  “I heard it was dirt cheap back then, but not now. Debau raked in profits by building and selling or leasing out buildings on the land, keeping possession of the town center, charging interest to eager borrowers. They sold buildings, but since they hadn’t sold the land rights, they continued getting quite a bit from the land rent.”

  “Also, this liveliness! You could say it’s driving up building prices on a daily basis,” Luward added.

  It smacked of selling pieces of one’s own garden, but spin it the right way and it was not a losing strategy at all.

  For collecting tax was a truly troublesome job. One had to assess property and inspect freight, and besides having to investigate far too many things, those being taxed were always hiding something. However, real estate always existed right before one’s eyes. Using payments from sales as a substitute for tax revenue was simple, and collecting regular rent was simpler still.

  However, more importantly, if the funds to maintain the town were wholly dependent on land and buildings, he could understand – to a point – the town’s liveliness sustaining it even without fresh investment.

  People bring more people, and where people gather, land and buildings are sure to be needed.

  At any rate, there were indeed problems with this on the same level as those before.

  That is, what did they intend by gathering knights, mercenaries, and lords together.

  There was one more thing.

  Lawrence and the others could not perceive what the Debau Company’s plan was.

  But Lawrence just couldn’t understand it.

  “So, the building I looked at will soon sell, then?”

  Lawrence’s words seemed to sum up the conversation, so Moizi resumed.

  “It probably won’t sit for long… that building is being sold by the Vhans Company. Vhans is like a branch of the Debau Company. Debau decided to concern itself mainly with operating mine
s, farming out other jobs to various other companies. In other words, buildings being sold by this Vhans Company are…”

  “The lowest quality.”

  When prices for products boomed, it was because numerous people were bidding against each other.

  “I heard that a wealthy lord was cornering the building market, but I think that went up in smoke. Perhaps since this town’s circumstances make freedom and dreams so readily available, there might be several Debau buildings left over for people such as you.”

  The Debau Company itself had apparently been formed by people from all walks of life who had greatly turned their fortunes around. That was why they knew the value of giving new people a chance to succeed.

  Most people would spit at such talk, but having experienced the atmosphere of this town, he could not call it a complete falsehood.

  Not to mention it was Moizi, his face seemingly made of well-whipped leather, who was saying this.

  Besides, Lawrence had learned from Holo when they happened upon the conflict with Amati that one should diversify one’s goods to protect against sudden price spikes.

  If one cannot trade with anyone because the goods are too rare, most people will turn their backs on that person. If one buys from someone in moderation, others will think they, too, can get a good deal, and more people will flock to them. By such thoughts, he could not but feel that thinking I want a shop in this town was putting him right where Debau wanted him. But he did not think that such favorable conditions as having a low-priced shop in an unregulated town existed except in his dreams.

  He could not deny that his heart was pounding when he thought of the price of the shop and the liveliness of the town. Even so, during his travels with Holo until now, he had been saved more than once from having to flee at a moment’s notice.

  Besides, right now he was conscious of something more important than his oft-stated dreams of a shop and big money.

  Lawrence glanced at Holo, who was calmly drinking liquor beside him, and probed something odd in what Moizi had said.

  “Nobles are after this town, too?”

  “Well. It’s all rumor. You’ve heard stories of it, too?”

  Moizi shifted his gaze to Luward, who replied as even he was getting a bit drunk, redness rimming his eyes.