Spice & Wolf Omnibus

by Isuna Hasekura

  Certainly, Holo had said so when they had taken a break on the streets.

  At the time, the thought of his own shop had completely slipped out of Lawrence’s head.

  Holo pressed her chin into Lawrence’s head as if amazed at what Lawrence had dropped on the floor.

  “I thought, with this kind of liveliness, the normal you would see nothing but good things. Like, Don’t worry, this time I’ll make a fortune, and so forth.”

  Even while feeling she was overplaying it, he thought back on his actions so far and could summon no strong rebuttal. Besides, the reason he was being so negative, this time only, was without question due to the nature of the Debau Company.

  There was no way Holo would settle down in a town that was part of a mining development company like Debau.

  “I do not mind at all.”

  “Er, but?”

  When Lawrence had said as much, Holo tightened her arms around his neck a little more.

  “If you decided to have a shop in this town, I would be right at your side.”

  More than her insistent tone of voice, it was the content of what she said next that left an aftertaste in Lawrence’s mouth.

  “Even should that company pry Yoitsu out of the ground or pry other places beside, I mind not.

  “And more to the point, should I mind, ’twould be the same no matter where you set up your shop. I would be uneasy about them as well, and should something happen, well, I would leave the shop behind. To never return again, mm, that too would be possible.”

  Holo made a pained smile as she spoke.

  However, such a thing was entirely possible.

  “That soft, flabby sheep said as much, did he not? That ’twould weigh upon me if I knew. However, not seeing something does not mean it ceases to be. Besides, there is one I live with in the present. That is no old story, no legend, nay, not even a very foolish message carved into a claw. One who lives, who speaks, who laughs, who gets angry, who gets depressed, who is a fool, but… one with his eyes squarely upon the morrow, who comes and takes my hand.”

  At that last, Lawrence spontaneously took Holo’s hand.

  The soft rustle of Holo’s tail substituted for the sound of the laugh that stayed within Holo’s throat.

  “In truth, even now, remembering Myuri’s message brings pain to my chest, enough to want to bury myself in a dark hole for the next century. However…”

  Holo put more strength into her arms, as if she would not let go no matter what and as if to keep her tears bottled away.

  “You extended your hand to me and pulled me out of it. Do you understand how happy that made me?”

  She had seemed ready to explode in anger midway, but he’d apparently been right to bring Holo around town.

  But Holo was being so straightforward that it worried Lawrence.

  If he felt tears fall upon his head he was definitely getting up from his chair. With such feelings in him, he squeezed Holo’s delicate hand further.

  “I cannot help but be happy that I am important to you. However, to become your millstone is painful. You have said it, have you not?”

  Holo pinched Lawrence’s cheek with the hand he was not holding. She pressed her nails as if to do mischief.

  “’Tis easier to be enveloped by tragedy when one has something to protect.”

  Lawrence reflexively moved to reply, but he soon understood that Holo had largely said these things on purpose. So instead of answering, Lawrence gently held the hand pinching his cheek with his own.

  “I promised you I would pass on a tale of our journey. I wish not to tell a tragic tale.”

  Holo’s fingers scratched Lawrence’s cheek just a little.

  “I mind not the sight of you traveling, but I like the sight of you seated and writing as well. To see you quietly concentrating upon your writings, yes. Indeed, I would like to see that very much.”

  Speaking teasingly, she smiled as if embarrassed at her own words.

  With one flick of her wrist she could probably scratch his face as much as she pleased. Or instantly rip his windpipe out with her fangs for that matter.

  “That is why, you see.”

  However, Holo released him from her arms as she spoke.

  She pulled her hands right out of Lawrence’s and seemed to take a step back as she rose up.

  The winter air coiled around the place Holo’s body had been until that moment.

  Merely from being together for but a short while, he felt so cold the instant they separated.

  This was a truth with a very deep meaning.

  Lawrence turned around.

  Neither Holo’s fangs nor claws came.

  In their place, and more frightening than either, was a bashful, seemingly blushing smile.

  “How about instead of using an excuse to gather information, you fight like a proper male?”

  Holo put her hands on her hips and grinned, baring her fangs for good measure.

  “Even if that company plays the fool and puts your decrepit shop to waste, we shall enjoy traveling together again, shall we not?”

  The difference between courage and recklessness was paper-thin.

  Surely, no matter how slight the difference, everyone preferred one to the other.

  “Well, that’s certainly true. But,” Lawrence continued, “you’re telling me to make a gamble that could send thousands of silver coins up in smoke? Failure would have real consequences, wouldn’t it?”

  If he still was not reaching Holo’s heart, surely such a statement would create much misunderstanding. However, Holo showed not even slight agitation and made a small laugh, smiling as she spoke thusly.

  “If you failed in that, ’twould have me thousands of silver coins in debt to you. Oh, such sorrow I would know for making you lose everything. I can just picture it now.”

  Even without adding, “How about we try it,” he could picture it easily enough. She would blame herself, hang her head in shame, and do anything for forgiveness, he would think.

  And with Holo like that, he would extend his hand to her.

  The sight would move Lawrence’s heart so deeply that the mere memory of it would make his head hurt.

  “Heh-heh. You truly are a fool.”

  Holo was surely a villain to make a happy face at that.

  All the same, what she had said was certainly correct.

  If he succeeded, he would set up his shop; if he failed, Holo would be in his debt.

  Surely such a debt would be difficult to repay in a single lifetime. Holo clearly knew how valuable money was to Lawrence when she referred to “your precious hard-earned money” as she tweaked his nose.

  He thought he would never come up with a shred of such base, impure, shallow thoughts on his own, but Holo was imp enough to make him think them; it could not be helped.

  Also, there were the words Holo often spoke.

  A wisewolf must not have a boring merchant for a partner.

  She had handed him the key to the rusted cover that blocked him from seeing his own self-interest and dashing forward, filled with greed.

  “Yes, you certainly are a fool.”

  Holo made a carefree, maiden-like smile.

  Lawrence pulled in a large breath.

  Perhaps Holo had set her heart upon it the moment she saw Lawrence eyeing that shop. If so, the sight of Lawrence frantically thinking dark thoughts about the Debau Company’s plans must have pained her chest.

  In practice, no one knew whether a venture would succeed or fail.

  Even if the Debau Company truly had no intention of starting a war whatsoever, and even if it had its heart set on developing even more mines, fortunes could worsen and Lawrence might lose his shop as his customers dried up.

  But if things went south, a true traveling companion and comrade would be by his side.

  To his powerful traveling companion, Holo, Lawrence said this: “Let’s think of the name for a shop.”

  When it came to those who could lift othe
rs up, no doubt Holo was one of the foremost in the whole world.

  Holo smiled in good humor. However, she whispered this into his ear.

  “Not the name of a pup?”

  Lawrence nearly fell out of his chair. Holo pointed her finger at Lawrence and laughed without pity or mercy. From pure embarrassment and remembering this and that from what happened in the town of Lenos, Lawrence was 99 percent seriously angry. That night, Holo apologized until the moment she fell asleep, snickering all the way, but Lawrence would hear none of it.

  However, even so, that last 1 percent of Lawrence was not angry.

  That was why, even as he lied down with his back toward Holo, eyes firmly shut, neglecting a name for an approachable shop the whole while.

  It went without saying what he was thinking of.

  Surely he would need to haul in even larger game in the future.

  At some point, as he thought of such things, he drifted off to sleep.

  Chapter 5

  The next day, Lawrence mixed in with the mercenaries washing their faces at the courtyard well as Luward headed out, making a ghastly pale face all the while. It seemed every day he had to show his face at several eateries for business purposes.

  The men said with pride that rather than stand at the front line in the field, their captain was the only one on the front line when in a town.

  Luward seemed to grow taller in response to the unrestrained shouts and waving of hands all around him as the ground seemed to shake from the rising cheers.

  They all stood in their own easy-to-understand place and accomplished their various duties. They may well have been rude and uncouth, but here, there was discipline and trust.

  With such thoughts in mind, Lawrence returned to his room.

  “What was that coarse howling just now?”

  In the room, Holo was sitting cross-legged on the bed, tail in hand.

  She spoke as casually as if she had already been traveling with Lawrence for the past century. Even though she had surely already had breakfast, her mouth held jerky within it once more.

  She was just like a child, but in the face of such splendid gluttony that knew neither shame nor reserve, Lawrence could not help but let the jerky go.

  At any rate, this was no time to argue.

  It was an ironclad rule in trade that, having made a decision, one must move immediately.

  Lawrence took in a deep breath and firmly readjusted his collar.

  “All right, I’m ready.”

  Holo, who seemed at least somewhat satisfied with her own final touches, finished with a long, gentle stroke of her tail’s fur and rose up.

  “Heh-heh.” She chuckled.

  “What is it?”

  “Mm?”

  Having smiled largely without thinking, Holo stroked her own face as if to check, seemingly surprised at herself as she spoke. “I watched you many times in Pasloe.”

  Lawrence was somewhat bewildered by her saying such a thing all of a sudden.

  Holo had been in that village for centuries, and Lawrence had spent much time there as well.

  In light of that, her having seen him many times was natural, but it still felt rather odd to him.

  “Mm, what about it?”

  “Well. Back then, you seemed to have less… hmm… confidence about you.”

  Holo put her right hand on her hip, looking beside herself as she gazed at Lawrence, the splitting image of an older sister. He thought he was being treated like a foolish younger brother, but certainly it was not so wrong to say he was less confident at that time.

  “Now when did you turn into a good male?”

  Having fought so hard to get ahead of Holo, being treated like a fool and an idiot burned him. However, now he understood that there were still many inexperienced parts to him without Holo having to point out each and every one of their number.

  That was why he could accept her teasing words as teasing and her words of praise as praise.

  But as usual he did not know what kind of face to present.

  As Lawrence stood conflicted, Holo smiled even more.

  “Do not bear doubt that I ridicule you or I am being overbearing. I truly think you have grown,” Holo said with a happy tone.

  Half of Lawrence was similarly happy, but a sudden loneliness befell his chest, for such words from Holo seemed like a sort of farewell.

  “Heh-heh. Make not such a face. ’Tis simply that I am not of an age to take pleasure in my own growth. ’Tis more amusing to watch the unripe wheat come of age.”

  She put the robe around her, hiding her ears with the hood.

  Holo stood before Lawrence.

  “In the end, I set off from Yoitsu to pursue my own enjoyment. Wherever I went, I drank wine, danced the night away, and finally settled down in Pasloe. ’Twas then I realized it. Enjoyment only for the self could not continue long. In that respect, to do something with someone else is more profound.”

  Holo’s eyes drifted toward Lawrence’s handbag.

  As even if he went to buy a shop, he certainly was not going to hand all the money over right away, he would first make a deposit to secure the right to purchase the shop.

  Perhaps Holo took the sight as a sign that the dreams that welled within Lawrence’s breast were finally becoming reality.

  Those who had lived in Holo’s era had become figures of the past, one by one.

  Even if she told him what to do now at this late stage, it would always turn into some challenge with no expectation of victory, as if to completely sever herself from the past.

  If, through Lawrence, she could be connected to something new in the world, Holo would truly be satisfied.

  “’Tis truly well for me to decide the shop’s name?”

  That is why, when the suggestion was made to him, he was not shocked at the utter selfishness broadcast by Holo’s face. Huskins, he who was called the Golden Ram, had made the Winfiel Kingdom into a second homeland for himself and others. Hugues had set up shop as an art merchant in Kerube.

  As Holo smiled, she looked up at him, unsure. It was not the usual, purposeful upturned gaze she used to flirt.

  Lawrence replied immediately, “If you behave yourself.” He patted her on the head.

  For a moment, Holo did not seem to understand what had been said and what had been done to her, but the color of her face began to change as the words slowly sank into her head.

  When Lawrence suddenly stopped at some point, he was fully prepared to be smacked.

  However, Holo smiled so much she was nearly in tears.

  “It’s a promise.”

  They sealed the promise with a handshake like proper merchants.

  And so, still holding each other’s hands, they left the room behind.

  He did not want to simply accept Holo’s words, but as they walked around, he saw the stores and houses of the town in a completely different light from the previous day, now that he had settled on buying a shop.

  He saw each and every one of those walking the road not as a single member of a foreign crowd bustling about, but as a precious individual who had come to this town bearing their own objectives, someone he might well have dealings with.

  His concerns about what the Debau Company was up to still remained, but if Holo said it was fine, it was fine.

  That being the case, a shop obtained with his money on hand, in a place with this many conditions met, was not such a bad gamble at all.

  Of course, if he wanted to cross that bridge, he could stand and watch how things developed, but if a gamble was necessary at the right time to take a large leap forward, this was a fine place for it.

  This time only, as he held Holo’s hand and walked around the lively town, she actually did not look at all the stalls and say how she wanted this and wanted that. Seemingly proud of walking around holding hands with Lawrence, she kept her eyes trained straight ahead, grinning all the way.

  After picking Holo up at Pasloe, they had been through many twists and tu
rns to arrive at a place like this. Those who knew the old Lawrence would have surely called him mad. Certainly he might well be mad, but that did not make him wrong.

  Lawrence looked at Holo beside him, and Holo, noticing his gaze, looked back at him. He smiled at her, and Holo, making a face like one coddling a child, smiled back. That alone was plenty.

  As Lawrence walked around, remembering the layout of the town quite clearly, they arrived at the street the shop up for sale was on, not getting lost once. If he had asked, he would be told no one had yet decided on a name for the street.

  It was in the middle of a lively town, still growing to this day.

  He thought that whatever the Debau Company might have been planning, it could be as banal as a struggle for prestige. It was something most people wanted, second only to money itself.

  Thinking along those lines, drawing nobles to the town might well be for that very purpose.

  By inviting people of status, they would reign as governors of a town of high class.

  Perhaps it was simply the case that Lawrence and Luward had read too deeply out of an overinflated sense of professionalism. Perhaps they had become suspicious of everything around them because they couldn’t understand how, cash rich notwithstanding, money was sprinkled round the town with no apparent hope of return.

  If that was the case, he need simply ride with the speculation and gather up profit wherever he could.

  After all, he had settled on having a shop.

  Therefore, he should think thoroughly positive thoughts, for one could not be a town merchant without being able to run forward, eyes on the prize.

  And, as Holo had said, he would surely become much fonder of the town if he set up a shop here.

  The Debau Company could, for example, make the town as large as it could and build an economic sphere to rival the Ruvik Alliance in the process.

  As Lawrence let himself daydream in a relaxed manner, they arrived in front of the shop from before.

  One thousand two hundred silver coins.

  If he invested that here and now, there would be no more waiting.

  After, he would push forward, eyes on the prize, praying that the Debau Company would not somehow make it all in vain.