Spice & Wolf VI

by Isuna Hasekura

  “Right–ahoy! Master!” Evidently the boatmen had finished their talking with characteristic speed, and Ragusa now turned and called out to Lawrence with a wave of his hand.

  There was nothing else for Lawrence to do but climb up on the dock.

  Holo was standing next to Col, their hands joined.

  The two looked more like siblings than anything else, so the sight did not disturb Lawrence the way seeing her with Amati had.

  “What is it?”

  “Ah, my apologies. It looks like we’re going to be walking a bit.”

  “Walking?” Lawrence asked as the other man, his business concluded, remounted his horse and spurred it farther upriver.

  “A big ship’s run aground, it seems. Now the whole river’s jammed. Everybody was so greedy about getting their furs through, they didn’t notice until it was too late, and it just started piling up. Apparently there’s a sunken ship on the river’s floor now, and they can’t find the sunken ship’s boatman anywhere, so there may have been some kind of disturbance.”

  “That’s...”

  In times of war or when a mercenary troupe was starving, they would attack merchant vessels in this way.

  Given the endless and gently sloping plains of this region, the river was shallow and gentle enough that it could be rendered impassable with a single strike.

  So a single boat would feign distress and sink, bringing the boats behind it to a standstill, whereupon those boats would be attacked. Naturally doing such things during peacetime would earn one untold amounts of enmity from the landholders who collected taxes from the region.

  However, Lawrence could think of one person who was reckless enough to do it.

  There was nothing left to do but take off hat and cloak and wave them about.

  It was enough to make Lawrence genuinely want to cheer Eve on.

  “So, what’ll it be?” asked Ragusa.

  He was clearly asking whether they could continue to Kerube or not. They had not come half the way to their destination–but that said, it would not be a short walk back to Lenos, either.

  If they had a horse it would be different, but more of the boatmen were willing to carry cargo than passengers.

  “Fortunately, there’s no word of mercenaries in the area, so things should be restored soon. But the other boats loaded with cargo are at a standstill. Aside from the ones who are desperate enough to jump into the water and swim ashore, they’re not going anywhere. If I can unload some of the goods from this boat, I’ll have some excess carrying space, which I want to use to carry people and cargo from the grounded boats to the shore. So–I’m sorry, but I’ll need you to walk.”

  After having taken them on board, it was stunningly disgraceful for a boatman to ask his passengers to go ashore and walk. It hardly mattered whether the circumstances were his fault or not.

  Ragusa was a boatman who lived within that value system, and his face was clouded.

  “I am a merchant, so if you’ll lower your fee, I’ll walk as much as I need to.”

  It wasn’t quite a friendship between men of different occupations, but Ragusa smiled ruefully and shook hands with Lawrence nonetheless.

  The problem was Holo, but before Lawrence could turn to her, Ragusa continued speaking. “Still, I can’t very well force a maiden to walk in this cold without any preparation. I hear there are some rather devout fellows stuck on that river. If a girl you could mistake for a goddess were riding along with me, I’m sure it’d pick up their spirits.”

  Lawrence was a bit relieved.

  His stomach hurt at the mere thought of walking along with a silent, uncooperative Holo, and even if she’d been happy, trudging around in this cold would surely have brought out her displeasure.

  “So,” said Ragusa, “in that case, first I’ll need to unload the cargo.”

  “I’ll help.”

  “Hey now, that makes it sound like I was trying to get you to help me.” Ragusa smiled.

  Lawrence could only be impressed–he could hardly refuse to help now.

  “I said ‘unload,’ but it’s really just the wheat and beans. The chests can stay where they are.”

  “Shall we get started, then?” said Lawrence, glancing back at the cargo on the boat.

  “Aye, lets!” called out Ragusa. “By the by, I couldn’t help overhearing your fun little chat earlier.”

  “Wha–?” His exchange with Holo had been embarrassing enough that Lawrence was suddenly very flustered.

  “Ah, don’t worry! I didn’t hear anything you’d be worried about,” said Ragusa with a sheepish grin. “It was just about the eni coin.”

  “The eni?”

  “Aye. It just so happens that’s what I’m carrying right now.”

  Lawrence had wondered if those chests contained coins, but this was a coincidence indeed.

  Either that, or Ragusa was teasing, having a bit of fun at Lawrence’s expense–but as Lawrence thought it over, that seemed unlikely.

  If the chests had contained gold or silver coin, they would’ve been attended by guards, and a merchant like Lawrence would never have been allowed to ride in the same boat.

  And Ragusa’s boat was loaded with fully ten chests. If fifty-seven chests were headed downriver in total, that meant roughly four other vessels of this size would be needed.

  And because their cargo would have been decided ahead of time, it would be difficult for them to load up on furs for a quick profit. So they would have been tied up at port as usual, which would have made it all the more likely that Lawrence’s eye would fall upon one of them.

  This all stood to reason–and if it was so, then Ragusa might have some new information.

  Lawrence looked at Ragusa with his merchant’s eye, and it seemed that Ragusa was waiting for this.

  Ragusa suggested with a wink that they first unload the cargo, signaling to Col and Holo (who had been listening to the conversation) to help, then placed his hand on Lawrence’s shoulder and brought his face conspiratorially near. “I’ve a bit of interest in the matter myself. For two years now, that same copper coin has been moved on a fixed day, in a fixed amount–fifty-seven chests, downriver, to the Jean Company, but I’d never given much thought to how many chests it was in total. It was fifty-seven chests, divided up into a certain amount, then carried downriver.”

  Holo was bringing Col a bit of food, water, and wine and giving him her other robe to wear–the expensive one she’d had made with Lawrence’s money.

  Surprised, Col tried to refuse, but in the end, he was forced to put it on.

  Col admittedly looked a bit shabby.

  He seemed to have some trouble walking in the robe; perhaps it was his first time wearing a long-hemmed article.

  “Those fifty-seven chests become sixty when they leave the Jean Company, which means either somebody is secretly carrying more, or the Jean Company is scheming at something.”

  Returning to the boat, Ragusa stepped lightly aboard and hefted a sack of wheat, which Lawrence took and left on the dock.

  Col saw this and quickly hauled out the bean sacks, which he could carry.

  The boy’s willingness to work hard impressed Lawrence, but he wondered if Col was just trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between him and Ragusa.

  “I appreciate the Jean Company always giving me this cargo, and I trust my fellow boatmen doing the same job. But it’s these times. Surely God would forgive us being forced to take on a bad partner, would he not?”

  Lawrence wasn’t Col, but he could certainly still be fooled.

  “Of course, it’s too soon to take that paper and go to the Jean Company, but one of those chests is a fair transport fee. If this turns out to be the Jean Company’s weak point, we’d be in a bind.”

  It was the problem that faced all who accepted a job.

  Lawrence took the last sack of wheat from Ragusa, piled it up on the dock, then answered, “I’ve no intention of trying to expose the truth of the situation. I’m quite satisf
ied if I can safely build this house of cards.”

  “Then I’m sure I can let the ravings of a traveling merchant slide-even if do have a certain partner,” said Ragusa with a smile.

  For Ragusa and his comrades, who would work on the river their entire lives, the happiness of their clients was an issue of desperate importance. And yet being forced to work with a strange partner could get them literally sunk. They would want to know the truth at least, but the world of those who traveled the river was a small one, and they could not afford to whisper to one another. But a traveling merchant from beyond that world–that was different.

  Lawrence wondered if he was over thinking things, but this was at least close to the truth.

  Col took Holo’s things from her and, without being asked, added them to his own, shouldering the combined burden.

  Noticing Lawrence’s gaze, he looked in Lawrence’s direction, but Lawrence only waved lightly and gestured for him to go on ahead.

  “Right, then, do mind my companion–try to keep her from being too awe-inspiring, eh?”

  “Ha-ha-ha. Can’t have her getting any more worshippers, after all. Worry not, it’s not too far on foot. We’ll surely meet up by nightfall.”

  Lawrence nodded, then glanced at Holo, but she was already lying down, curled up in her blanket.

  As he looked at her sleeping form, he very keenly appreciated that there was more than one way to quarrel.

  Chapter 4

  The walk along the riverbank took its toll.

  Having traveled for so long on a wagon, though he wasn’t exhausted, Lawrence found it difficult to keep pace with Col.

  He wondered how his feet were supposed to keep up this speed.

  It made him long for the days when he had been accustomed to traveling on foot and could travel twice as fast as the envious wagon-bound merchants if he was in a hurry.

  “There’s no gain in hurrying so,” Lawrence finally said.

  “Yes, sir,” the boy replied meekly, slowing his pace.

  Ragusa’s suddenly lightened vessel had headed downriver with Holo aboard and was soon out of sight. The boats behind it were all larger, and because they were all being stopped at the checkpoint, the river was very quiet.

  The calm river’s surface was slick looking and shiny, like the slime trail left behind a snail, and it was amusing to watch.

  Lawrence almost wanted to say that it looked as though glass had been laid down on the earth, but that seemed a bit exaggerated.

  Suddenly a fish splashed through the surface, ruining the glassy look.

  “Um, Master–?” The little fish beside Lawrence took the opportunity to make its own splash.

  “What is it?”

  “About the eni...”

  “Ah. You’re wondering if there’s any money to be made?” asked Lawrence sharply, perhaps out of habit from spending time with Holo. Col nodded, face sober.

  The boy thought making money was shameful.

  Lawrence faced ahead, inhaling the cold air through his nose and exhaling from his mouth. “I doubt it.”

  “I...see.”

  Col was wearing Holo’s robe; when he slumped in dejection, it looked like Holo slumping in dejection.

  Lawrence shocked himself by reaching his hand out, but Col seemed only slightly surprised when his head was patted.

  “Though I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be having trouble with money.” Lawrence pulled his hand back from Col’s head, opening and closing his fingers several times.

  He had expected it to feel different from Holo’s, but apart from the lack of ears, it felt much the same.

  Seen from behind, the only difference Col’s figure cut would be the lack of the bulge that Holo’s tail created.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Hmm? Just what I said. Even among wandering scholars, the really clever ones have more money than they can carry and drink wine every day.”

  It was a bit of an exaggeration, but there were definitely students who earned enough to pay to hear a dozen lectures from a professor clear to the end.

  Col had become involved in bookselling because he didn’t have enough for even a single lesson.

  “Uh, er...I guess there are some like that, yes.”

  “Have you ever wondered how they get their money?”

  “...Surely they steal it from others, I should think.”

  When looking at someone who’s achieved something beyond imagining, it’s easy to assume his dishonesty.

  One simply concludes he’s using some fundamentally different method.

  Col’s estimation this time was a bit low.

  “I expect they’re earning money much the same way you do.” “Huh?” Col looked at Lawrence with an expression of disbelief. It was the same expression Holo used when Lawrence managed a truly excellent verbal comeback.

  And because his opponent wasn’t Holo, he could afford a bit of pride–but when Lawrence realized what he was doing, he chuckled, chagrined, and scratched his cheek. “Mm. And the only difference between you and fellows like that is effort.”

  “...Effort?”

  “Yes. On your journey, did you sleep nights under borrowed roofs or beg your meals one at a time?”

  “Yes.”

  “So it looks like you think you put forth some effort yourself,” said Lawrence with a smile. Col’s face tensed, and he looked down. He was sulking.

  “What you put effort into was asking with all your heart if you could please take shelter from the wind or rain or if you could have some hot porridge to warm your cold body.”

  Col’s eyes flicked right, then left, then he nodded.

  “But that lot, they’re different. They’re always focused on getting the most, the biggest return. The stories I’ve heard are incredible. They put merchants to shame.”

  There was no reaction for a while, but Lawrence wasn’t worried. He knew Col was a smart lad.

  “What...what do they do?”

  Asking for instruction was no easy thing–and it was harder the cleverer one was. The more confidence one has in oneself, the more difficult it becomes to ask for help.

  Of course, there are people who claim asking others is easier and start out that way.

  But those people didn’t have eyes like Col’s.

  Lawrence didn’t answer immediately, instead removing a small cask from the pack Col carried, uncorking it, and taking a drink.

  It was wine, distilled to the point of being only palely tinted.

  He jokingly offered the cask to Col, who shook his head hastily.

  The boy’s eyes were tinged with fear. He had set out on his journey knowing nothing and had surely met with terrible misfortune.

  “For example, say you knock on the door of a house somewhere, and you get a single smoked herring.”

  Col nodded.

  “And say it’s desperately meager, and when you remove the skin, there’s hardly any meat at all, just the stink of smoke and not much else. So what do you do next?”

  “Um...”

  Col had in all likelihood faced this situation before, so it was no mere hypothetical.

  His answer came quickly. “I would...eat half, then save the other half.”

  “And eat it on the next day.”

  “Yes.”

  Lawrence was impressed the boy had made it this far.

  “So once you had a herring, you wouldn’t then go try to get some soup?”

  “...Are you saying I should go around to lots of houses?” Col spoke not admiringly; his eyes seemed a bit dissatisfied.

  For Lawrence, this conversation could hardly fail to be amusing.

  “So there’s a good reason you don’t do that?”

  Col nodded, displeased.

  He wasn’t so stupid as to do something without a reason. “The reason I succeeded once...was because I was lucky.”

  “That’s true. The world isn’t overflowing with good, kind people, after all.”

  "..."

  He h
ad taken the bait this far.

  Holo would have pretended to swallow it, then tied the fishing line to the bottom of the pond. The moment Lawrence pulled up on the rod, he would be dragged under.

  Col would not do such things.

  “In business, the more money you have, the more smoothly things go. It’s because you have more tools. But you go into battle unarmed every time. So you come out of it wounded.”

  Col’s eyes wavered.

  They wavered but soon regained their vitality.

  This was what it meant to be clever.

  “...So you mean I should use the herring?”

  The hook was set now.

  To think that there was such pleasure in the world.

  “That’s right. You take the herring, and with it seek your next donation.”

  “Wha–?” Col’s look of surprise was so profound it seemed it would never fade.

  And why wouldn’t he be surprised?

  How could someone who’s already received one fish use it to ask for another one?

  But it could be done.

  And easily

  “You take the herring. It’s better if you have a friend, and younger than you. You take him along and knock on a door. ‘Excuse me, sir,’ you say ‘You live devoutly by the teachings of God. Look, sir–1 have a single herring. But I cannot possibly eat it. Please look, sir–look at my companion. Today is his birthday. If you could spare us some kindness, and give me alms enough to make this herring into a pie for him to eat. Just enough for that, sir–please.’ ”

  Solicitousness was the specialty of the merchant.

  Lawrence made a good performance of it as Col gulped and watched.

  “Listen to this speech. Who could refuse? The key is asking for just enough money for herring pie. Nobody is going to light their stove for you, but if it’s money, they’ll certainly spare some.”

  “Ah, er, so you mean any amount–”

  “Yes. You take one herring from house to house, and some of those people are going to tell you that one herring isn’t possibly enough, so you’ll get more. Then once you’ve made the rounds through town, whoosh.”

  Col looked so dazed that one could have hung a sign that said dazed on him and collected coins for the performance.