Spice & Wolf IX (DWT)

by Isuna Hasekura

  Contents

  Volume 8 Summary

  Bridge

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Epilogue

  Translation Team

  Written by Hasekura Isuna

  Illustrated by Ayakura Jyuu

  Translation & Editing by

  ‘Drunken Wolf Translations’

  Ebook version 2.0 (07/23/13)

  Volume 8 Summary

  Gerube is a city divided in two by a river and delta. The wealthy delta, an important marketplace hub, belongs to northern landowners. However, it was built using money loaned by southern merchants, which has left the landowners paying steep monthly interest to this day.

  The Narwhale is a mythical sea-monster, with a horn that has miraculous healing and life-extending powers. Its discovery and subsequent presence in Gerube could destroy the delicate balance of power in the city.

  Lawrence, Holo and Cole travel to Gerube hunting for information about the bones of another wolf-god. With the help of a letter of introduction from Eve Boland they find clues at D’Jean Company, reputed to be an ally of the famous Diva Company. However, Reynolds, the owner of the company, dismisses the bones as superstitious nonsense.

  Lawrence later bumps into Eve, and learns of the situation in Gerube and the delta. Reynolds has profited handsomely from the northern landowners, and still seems to be searching for the wolf-god’s bones. But after visiting Keeman, the local branch-manager of the Rowen Trading Guild, Lawrence is unsure who he can trust.

  In the meantime a rumor spreads through Gerube that the Narwhale has been caught. When Eve attempts to talk Lawrence into helping her snatch the Narwhale from the northern landowners, he’s left at a loss for what to do. As if that wasn’t enough, he then receives a letter from Keeman..

  Bridge

  Humans are fragile. They have no fangs, claws, or wings with which to flee. They can only protect themselves with their wits. Strategy, skill, and the like.

  All creatures, however, have a common way to protect themselves: in numbers.

  One goat is weak. But a thousand can band together to fend off wolves. In numbers, animals find strength. They are able to survive and reproduce.

  Humans are the same, to a certain extent. They live together and form groups. These groups might be villages, towns or cities. They let humans avoid living in dark places like forests.

  But in reality, different groups have disputes. Groups are formed to protect their own members. Outsiders are often seen as enemies.

  Such groups are like a strong beast, and will not tolerate challenges from weaker ones. A strong beast can hunt whatever it wishes to eat. Even a bird singing it a love song.

  Humans are too fragile. In a world where their gods remain hidden from view, they cannot survive on their own. So to defend themselves, they become a kind of beast living behind stone walls.

  They will become locked into groups where betrayal is not tolerated.

  Such bonds are the only way to survive the harsh realities of the world. It is like being chained by blood.

  Chapter 4

  “Let’s go.”

  Lawrence was blunt.

  “We have to leave as quickly as possible.”

  He had entered the room and walked up to the table. On it were several coins they had used to work out the scheme of the D’Jean Company. He poured them into a bag as if wiping sand off the table.

  Travelers were accustomed to leaving behind unnecessary items. All that they needed was already packed into bags in one corner of the room. If they had to run, they could simply grab those bags. It was a habit born from the fact that it was common to be attacked while asleep.

  “Hey.”

  Lawrence raised his head to face his questioner. He was greeted by the surprised face of Holo, his traveling companion.

  “What is this?”

  In her hands was a letter, undecorated except for one short paragraph and a blood-like stamp in one corner. Lawrence was of course the recipient, and the sender was the Rowen Trading Guild. Many prominent merchants in this guild had backgrounds similar to his, making it the most suitable guild for him to join.

  What that stamp represented was the most effective protection for him in any city; it was a mighty weapon. His guild had sent him the letter, all the way to the north end of Gerube.

  “We now seek brave merchants, afraid neither of witches nor alchemists. They must be invested in the interests of our guild, or at least in thoughts toward our future growth. Signed, Lud Keeman.”

  Holo smoothly read the letter aloud before tilting her head toward Lawrence. Cole, their other companion, then glanced at the letter in her hands.

  It was clear what the letter meant. As Eve had surmised, Keeman was seeking Lawrence’s aid. It was beyond doubt. Keeman was hoping to give Eve the Narwhale in exchange for land ownership rights in the northern end of the city. The Narwhale held that kind of great value.

  But there was a stumbling block - the lack of trust between Keeman and Eve. For them to cooperate would require a middleman.. and such a middleman needed be someone completely in their control.

  In the face of competition over large-scale profits, the value of an individual merchant was comparable to a grain of wheat. Lawrence could practically hear their voices trying to manipulate him. Unlike the calm faces of Holo and Cole, he was intensely anxious.

  “Don’t you see? My guild is calling me.”

  He spoke as he tied up their bags.

  “Your guild?”

  Upon hearing Holo’s reply, he stood up and shook his head.

  “Lud Keeman’s the manager of the Gerube branch of the Rowen Trading Guild. I’m not being directly called by name, but he’s the manager of the guild I belong to. You see? He’s grasping my reins through the guild in order to summon me.”

  Traveling merchants were feeble. They had no trading rights, nor any true power, so they joined guilds in order to survive. Guilds held trading rights in any city where they had a branch, so merchants could focus on their trading.

  But these privileges came at the cost of freedom. A merchant would have to obey the guilds they belonged to since, from another angle, the trading rights they enjoyed came from the efforts of their guildmates. But there was of course a limit to the freedom one could afford to yield.

  In seeking a boost to his career, Keeman was involving Lawrence in this scheme. He could frame it as being in the best interests of the guild, meaning that Lawrence had no way to refuse.. he would be seen as a betrayer.

  Lawrence was also nervous for another reason – the person he had met with just minutes ago. Keeman was the leader of many individual merchants, but his enemy was a wolf capable of fighting such a giant. That wolf had just asked Lawrence to betray his guild. With the promises of rich reward, of course.

  In fact, simply asking him might have been part of her plan. The city had become a hurricane of money. Little merchants like him could hardly escape from the eye of that storm. To the gears of power, the blood of a human was worthless.

  “We must leave. As soon as possible. Before it becomes impossible to escape.”

  There was still time. Lawrence felt like praying in his heart. He nervously continued.

  “Come now, hurry up-”

  “Hey, calm down, will you?”

  Those cool words splashed onto the fire in his mind, like a bowl of water poured into boiling oil. He instinctively lashed out.

  “Calm down? Me?!”

  Cole, who was sitting next to Holo and holding a bottle of wine, recoiled from his shout. Holo simply straightened the hair on her ears. It was clear who needed to calm do
wn.

  “..”

  Setting down their luggage, he forced himself to breathe in deeply and stare at the ceiling. When he had nearly fallen into bankruptcy he had slapped away Holo’s hand. He cursed himself for not having learned his lesson.

  “Well, those aloof males who react to every twig snapping are fine, but they are not trustworthy. At least you are predictable.”

  Holo wagged her tail while petting Cole.

  “Most creatures have two eyes but can only see one thing at a time. Do you know why males and females bond?”

  Holo grabbed the bottle from Cole and bit off its cork. She then pointed her chin at the boy, as if ordering him to remove the cork from between her teeth. Cole obliged, seemingly already used to this kind of behavior, as she gazed at Lawrence.

  “Do you feel that everyone should follow your ’common sense’?”

  Her words were simple, but Lawrence knew what was hidden in the second half of her sentence. She and Cole stared at him with a fragile look in their eyes, and made him feel like the lowest kind of villain.

  “I often saw such behavior in the village from within the wheat.”

  He took her meaning. A moment later Cole followed suit and turned his face away. She poked his side in response, urging him to speak.

  “..well, um, my father sometimes lost control like that..”

  “Oh? Really?”

  Lawrence knew he couldn’t argue his way out of this.

  “..I’m sorry, but-”

  “Save your apologies. I do not want excuses, I want answers. We are not your children, nor do we have to obey you, now do we?”

  She wasn’t angry. She was just stating the obvious. But if he replied he’d be admitting that he was ordering them. They weren’t that innocent or naďve. In fact they were critical thinkers. To make decisions on his own in front of them was, well, like an act of betrayal.

  “So tell me, what happened?”

  Holo now spoke with a girlish smile. She denounced his behavior, but knew full-well that he must have his reasons. A merchant should never be obstinate, so Lawrence simply shook his head. Not in defiance, of course, but simply to clear his head. He then recalled his conversation with Eve.

  “Eve wanted me to spy for her.”

  “Oh.”

  Holo answered curtly, nursing her bottle, but Lawrence didn’t think anything of it. He continued.

  “And so did Keeman.”

  “So you are trapped between them.”

  He nodded. This had all resulted from the earlier incident in the city.

  “This mess happened because a northern boat found something valuable in the southern sea. The poorer northern district and the wealthy southern district are so pitted against each other that all it takes is a tiny spark to light such a fire. The southerners have challenged the northerners and claimed their prize, so Eve was ordered to take it back. But she was ordered by someone planning to profit who she’s already planning to betray, so she asked for my help..”

  Eve had offered him several hundred gold coins.. something Lawrence couldn’t earn even if he made a thousand trades.

  “What a female.”

  Holo smirked and spoke with distaste. Cole seemed to fear he might say something unwise, so he turned away and kept quiet.

  “But if Eve feels so free to announce her imminent betrayal, it stands that she would betray anyone.”

  In theory, a double negative was a positive - the enemy of one’s enemy was their friend. But double betrayal wasn’t the same. No one could guess if there would be any profit in the end. Only Eve could tell.

  “So you are being suspicious. I see. Indeed, even the people in your guild are trying to take advantage of you for their own ends. I can see why you are nervous.”

  Holo gulped down some more wine and belched. For her to drink so joyously while discussing such a serious topic was enough to spark his anger, but Lawrence only flashed her a bitter smile. Merchants were like knights who had survived a war: they didn’t spare their smiles.

  “What could resolve all of these problems?”

  “Well, if Eve will betray the north then it makes no difference to her who she profits from. So my best decision is to stick with Rowen, since that’ll keep them happy and she’ll be indirectly helped as well. Basically, all will be well if she doesn’t take all the profit for herself and betray my guild and I.”

  “Hmm..”

  “On the other hand, if I work for the guild and outdo Eve, then my guild will profit and all will be well.”

  “Which means that we must either optimistically observe or rely on the generosity of a villain.”

  In any case Lawrence couldn’t decide independently. He set his hands down on the table.

  “Those are my best guesses based on what I’ve learned. Of course it must be more complicated than that, given how much I do not and cannot know. My involvement is to be manipulated by those above me.”

  If Lawrence could grasp the truth and determine who was the manipulating from the shadows, he would have a chance to profit himself. But he had fallen into such depths that he was no longer sure he could see the surface clearly.

  “As they say, gentlemen stand not beside falling walls.”

  “Indeed.”

  Lawrence took the letter back as he replied. As a lonely traveler, the stamp on that letter had been of great help to him. It was a magical emblem and a strong weapon and a shield at the same time. He had never suspected its powers. So when that stamp was suddenly used against him, he saw no means of escape.

  “So, you said that fox and your guild are hunting for the same item.. what might that be?”

  “Oh.. ah, it’s what you heard about earlier in the south.”

  “The bones!?”

  She meant the bones of a wolf-god much like herself, which were the reason that Lawrence and his companions had ventured away from their ultimate goal - Holo’s homeland, Yoitsu. She had heard those bones were to be used by the church to convert pagans, while Cole wanted to confirm the existence of his homeland’s god.

  For these reasons, they were chasing that rumor. Her question sounded incredulous, but her eyes were dead serious. As a prize, the Narwhale had the same value as the bones. Those with power were in a frenzy over it for this reason.

  “No, though it’s something similar.. a beast from the northern sea, a magical horned creature. Eating of it’s flesh extends life, and it’s horn heals all disease. It’s called the Narwhale, and it’s been caught by a northern boat.”

  Holo’s ear, which had been listening as if his words were a snack to go along with her wine, suddenly flicked.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “..nothing.”

  Lawrence couldn’t help but chuckle at her obvious lie, to which she raised her head.

  “But, you..”

  “Hmm?”

  “These events all clearly spiral out from this Narwhale, correct?”

  “Yes..”

  “Then you still have other options, do you not?”

  She turned her attention to Cole, who had been silently observing. It seemed she wanted him to come up with a third choice.

  “Um, uh..”

  “Straighten your back!”

  After she knocked on his back, Cole finally answered.

  “Uh.. why not have Miss Holo retrieve this Narwhale?”

  “What!?”

  Lawrence was awestruck.. he hadn’t even considered that.

  “Just for the sake of argument, she should easily be able to do it.”

  Cole saw situations as though he lived on top of a hill looking down on them. Lawrence was deeply thankful for that perspective, and Holo appeared thrilled with his suggestion. It certainly would be trivial for her to steal the Narwhale.

  Even if it was well-guarded, Holo’s fangs could tear through weapons and armor. Before Eve and Keeman finished plotting, she could already steal it. But reality quickly caught up with Lawrence when he considered the consequences. He scrat
ched his head and spoke.

  “But it would quickly become troublesome. It would be easy to take it, but she would be seen, and selling it off would be too diffi-”

  ”Yes, of course, that is obvious.. but..”

  Holo cut him off and spoke with half-closed eyes, her head amusingly tilted to the side.

  “You do understand how simple this is, do you not?”

  “Huh?”

  “You do not? Then I shall enlighten you. You are terrified and only thinking of escape. But I could easily solve this with just my fangs and claws. It is beyond me how you can be so frightened when you have me beside you. But that is my mistake for choosing you as my partner.”

  “..”

  Lawrence had no recourse beyond looking at her. Her words were honestly true. Cheating in order to profit from a situation was a tactic a city merchant would find horrifying. but it came naturally to Holo. Lawrence could feel his face growing red.

  “Ohoho.. you see, young Cole? This is what we call a ’tempest in a ladle’.”

  Cole was staying out of this. Lawrence couldn’t tell if he was being considerate of his feelings, but he secretly wished the boy would just laugh at him.. being on the receiving end of such a look of pity was unbearable. When another bitter smile crossed his face, Cole matched it.

  His frazzled mind was clearing up, and Lawrence was now able to see the forest from the trees. As an apprentice, he had been taught to properly take stock of such situations. The Wisewolf of Yoitsu was with him now, always appearing strong even when drunk.

  “Hey, you.. if you weather this storm, will it not be easier to gather information about the bones?”

  “..that would depend on Eve. She offered to help me gather it from Ted Reynolds in exchange for my help.”

  Holo raised an eyebrow; if it was out of anger or mockery was anyone’s guess.. she simply stared at Lawrence.

  “That fox is calmer than you. Look, our hunt for the bones is a problem on the same scale as this one, is that not so?”

  Lawrence was rendered speechless.

  “You warned me of this when we decided to investigate the bones. But the way you flinch now when faced with a problem on the same scale is just.. well.. at this rate..”