Spice & Wolf IX (DWT)

by Isuna Hasekura

  “If the money and goods are there, you won’t even need others to make the exchange.”

  “True, but we also need to make sure there’s still bread to sell. Of course if we really want it, we could always let the baker return to the bakery.. but then he might resent us. We just happened to hear that the baker bought poison, so we panicked and locked him up. But-”

  “The only way to know if the poison was being baked into the bread, or just used to take care of mice, is when the bread’s been eaten.”

  The sound of Keeman’s handwriting resumed, though he did finally look up at Lawrence.

  “Or when the mice die.”

  Before one fully understood a situation, they needed to lock up the dangerous actors to keep it from getting worse. That’s the kind of subtle logic someone like Keeman, who managed a lot of people, would use. He couldn’t torture Eve, because that might put him in danger. But when things got tough people would always try to remove the root cause of the problem. That was the kind of logic even Holo would use.

  “In any case, the wolf seems to have taken a liking to you. So please be mindful of your own safety. But then.. you already have your own way of protecting yourself, don’t you?”

  If Keeman was being this satirical about Lawrence’s earlier threat, then how would be take it if Lawrence revealed that Holo didn’t really have any incriminating documents? The thought brought a smile to his face and he thanked Keeman.

  “Then please show our guests out.”

  Keeman said this to the man beside him, as if to signal the end of the conversation, then resumed his work. The man nodded politely and escorted Lawrence to the door. If the guests who came in didn’t all leave, it would mean trouble.

  “I’ll remember this.”

  Keeman’s messenger spoke under his breath, practically throwing Lawrence and Cole out of the Church. The door was shut loudly behind them before Lawrence even had time to reply. The guards saw the whole scene, so Lawrence intentionally brushed his clothes off before thanking them.

  “Thanks for your hard work.”

  * * *

  Lawrence and Cole didn’t return to the inn after leaving the church. They instead went to the factory district where smiths made daggers and horseshoes. According to what he’d heard, the district produced forty or fifty daggers a week. Even villages quite far from Gerube had daggers stamped with their emblem.

  They walked in quietly. Lawrence was lost in thought and Cole seemed unwilling to speak. Death was common on long and frugal journeys due to disease, starvation, injury or other accidents. It was also common for students like Cole to go on their own kinds of journeys in their pursuit for the truth. And yet, Cole’s face was stoic. He was surely struggling to accept the path Eve was on.

  “Does it make you angry?”

  Cole hesitated, then shook his head, then finally corrected himself and nodded honestly.

  “It’s only because of Holo, and my selfishness, that you’re stuck in this situation. No one will blame you if you quit.”

  Lawrence went on to explain how dangerous this situation could get, but Cole soon shook his head and raised his face.

  “If closing my eyes would make the bad things in life go away, I would have done so already.”

  His was a third and different perspective compared to Lawrence and Holo’s. Lawrence nodded and walked on with the boy in tow. But Cole was still finding it difficult to face the truth head-on.

  “There’s.. still hope for Ms. Eve, isn’t there?”

  Merchants liked to calculate odds and take risks, but found promises difficult to make. Lawrence chose his reply carefully.

  “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”

  What Eve suggested as her only hope was for Reynolds to gather enough funds to buy the Narwhale, for himself or the northerners. In that way the situation would simplify into a basic goods exchange. And then, like a burglar too frightened to breathe after hearing a noise, Keeman would gradually begin the post-processing work.

  It all seemed rather bleak for Reynolds after one considered his earnings, and even a layperson could estimate them. The likelihood he could succeed was a tenth of one percent.. and perhaps even a tenth of that.

  “But won’t he have enough already? From the scheme with the copper coins, I mean?”

  Cole was the one who discovered Reynold’s manipulation of the crates of copper coins being shipped to him on the Roam river. The number of crates he received differed from the number he shipped out; he was receiving fewer crates then he sent across the sea, despite shipping the same total number of coins.

  “The only thing that we can be hopeful for is that he earned a little money from his tax evasion scheme. That’s it. It won’t be enough for him to buy the Narwhale.”

  “..”

  Cole stared at the ground as if lost in an sea of thought. Lawrence had the same bad trait; he would ignore everything around him when he got stuck that way. But when he saw someone making the same mistakes he had the urge to correct them, so Lawrence knocked the boy’s head gently.

  “While it’s important for us to think..”

  “Huh?”

  “..we must first protect ourselves. We’re in a situation now where we have to take precautions.”

  He pushed Cole’s back, urging him to move faster. Cole ran once he realized why. He was so innocent that if Lawrence told him everything he would have been too nervous.

  The roads in the smith’s factory area were wide for a worker’s district. They were used to transport heavy equipment, so they were well-built, but only locals would be able to navigate through them quickly. They wound around like a maze, and were littered with obstacles. Cole grabbed the tail of his cloak and ran.

  “Wait, you bastards!”

  It wasn’t rare for a merchant to chase after thieves. But it was rare to see ruffians chasing after a merchant. The smiths looked up from their work in curiosity and, having been seen, the ruffians gave up their pursuit. By the time Lawrence and Cole fled the district, they were nowhere in sight.

  But they may not have given up. With their knowledge of the area they could be using another route to lay a trap. Cole looked up at Lawrence like a loyal dog waiting for a command, but he seemed to already know what was coming.

  “Anytime now..”

  Just after Lawrence spoke, a beggar exited the alley in front of them.

  “Ah!”

  Cole gasped, but they silently plunged into the alley after the beggar. The roads of the district may have been difficult to navigate, but Lawrence and Cole couldn’t even run through this alley. The beggar made it look easy, but it took almost all their energy just to keep up. It seemed to drag on forever, but just as Lawrence was breaking a sweat the beggar finally stopped and looked back at them.

  “Here should be safe enough.”

  Though she was panting, Lawrence could see her face happily beaming out from under the hood of the shabby jacket Cole had lent her. Such games of pursuit made her wolf blood boil.

  “It seems you two have met the fox.”

  “She seemed better off than I expected.”

  “Fair enough, but..”

  Holo stared at Cole, who had taken back his jacket and hidden himself inside it.

  “Did she look like this?”

  Holo smiled, pulling Cole’s cheeks up into a smile as well. A knot left untangled might cause problems and danger later on, and if something happened the rope would be thrown away.

  “Persistent, yet pure and calm.. yes?”

  “..so you don’t hate her as much as you claim.”

  Holo’s smile widened to reveal her fangs and she pointed her chin northward.

  “There has been a riot at the port. They are still fighting.”

  “What happened?”

  Cole beat Lawrence to the question. Lawrence felt bad to admit it, but when others around him were also nervous, it helped him calm down. The situation just kept changing, and no matter how alert or well-prepared
they were they’d miss their chance if they just stood there. They had to take that chance when they saw it. Lawrence nodded to get Holo to continue.

  “That Reynolds who seemed so humble last night - he is quite the actor. Today he seemed full of pride, strong enough to easily pay back those who have made him suffer.”

  “He was negotiating? With the south?”

  “He kept shouting that, as a customer, he had the right to see what he was buying. I harbor no hatred for the people he was shouting at, but their nervousness made me want to laugh.”

  Lawrence and Cole looked at one another. If Reynolds wanted to see the Narwhale, then it was obvious where he’d be going next.

  “As I expected, your ears cannot hear them. They are three blocks away from us.”

  “But then.. he really does have enough money to buy it..”

  Holo tilted her head at Cole, who silently avoided her gaze as she fiddled with his face. At the same time he scrunched up his face, Lawrence noticed something strange.

  “He has enough?”

  Cole was the first to speak. Holo turned her ears toward the dark alley and replied.

  “They fought with words. He was yelling to see the Narwhale, and they were yelling to see his money. Because he seemed serious, our side pushed back just as hard.”

  “Mr. Lawrence..”

  “Hmm.. But, why? What does this mean?”

  Holo’s shoulders were trembling out of laughter. She had decided not to think about it anymore. Her smile was proclaiming that it was the man’s responsibility to save a captured woman.

  “For Reynolds to have that much cash is strange. Even if he found a backer, it would take time to gather it all up, so he must have had some kept hidden away, somehow..”

  But then there was no reason for Reynolds to wait until a riot broke out, and the longer he waited the more likely it was that someone desperate like Keeman would screw things up beyond repair. There was also the other problem Lawrence had discovered while they were searching for the wolf-god’s bones: moving that much cash was like moving a giant – people were sure to notice.

  So how had Reynolds managed to gather that much cash in secret? Lawrence knew how meticulous the merchants in Gerube were. They closely observed the delta and knew what transactions were taking place; who, what, where, and how much. Since goods weren’t invisible, of course Keeman would assume Reynolds didn’t have the cash. Somehow, that was the furthest thing from the truth.

  “I do not know how. But it should be easy enough to find out.”

  Holo stretched and breathed in deeply. She squinted as if remembering something from the past, then looked off into the distance. It was probably where Reynolds was heading.

  “We know their next move. They are going to the church.”

  “But how? How does he have the money? Whose money is it?”

  Keeman and Eve were already at the church. What would happen once Reynolds arrived there with that much money? Money was money no matter where it came from, but where it came from was still of vital importance.

  Keeman and his backers must be terrified right now. They already had to worry about destroying evidence, and now their subordinates were probably fleeing with secret documents like rats from a sinking ship. Who’d be in the worst position when people learned of Eve’s captivity? Keeman, of course, and his boss, Jeeda.

  It would be impossible for Reynolds not to notice the contract between Keeman and Eve. Being a core supporter of the northern landowners, he’d also know about her disappearance. It wouldn’t take much to figure out where she was, and then trap all of them.

  Being on the defensive meant Keeman could only run. He would probably force Eve to run through the streets as well. But Keeman wasn’t the only one with extra eyes on the lookout, so key figures like him and Eve wouldn’t be allowed to escape. Their positions would only be weaker once they were discovered. This was the very definition of “being up against the wall.”

  “But Mr. Lawrence! That means Ms. Eve will be..!”

  Cole grabbed Lawrence’s shoulder as he shouted. Keeman was out of time to figure out how Reynolds got the money, so what would he do? Simple. He’d get all the tight-lipped people around him to tell the same story. There was no reason to assume that Eve would be part of that group.

  “You have three choices.”

  An incarnation of a wolf who had slept in wheat fields and tried to avoid being treated like a god was now staring up at the lantern above them while speaking.

  “One, give up. Two, ask me to handle things. Three-”

  “Go find out for ourselves.”

  He spied the faintest trace of a smile across her face before she continued.

  “And what shall we do once we arrive?”

  “Things will work out in the end. When you’re out of other options, there’s nothing better than good sophistry. There’s no way to confirm if its true or not, so in a pinch the one who makes the incontestable suggestion wins.”

  “If we can convince Keeman, that fox may yet be saved.”

  Cole’s eyes darted between their faces as they talked, forgetting to blink. He knew they were acting this way despite knowing he didn’t want to see it.

  “Are you confident that’s true?”

  Lawrence couldn’t bear to look at Cole while he and Holo spoke. Growing up also meant learning how to deceive others and even oneself.

  “Even if I am not, we must act.”

  “Oh no..”

  “Not every problem has a solution.”

  At those words, tears started welling up in Cole’s eyes.

  “Then, then, Ms. Holo-”

  “If you break into the church, can you be certain that everyone who’s there will be safe?”

  Lawrence intentionally lowered his voice and cut Cole off. Holo scratched her face and tilted her head before replying to him.

  “If the church does not collapse after I break through the stained glass, yes. Otherwise..”

  Lawrence remembered the church’s clock-tower. Anything piled up that high, even toy bricks, was asking to fall. At worst many people would be buried under the rubble. But if they broke through the main entrance of the church they would be met with many spreads and swords. Holo wasn’t almighty.

  “We can still simply run away and not end up in trouble. Some humans are evil, yes, but not all of them. Surely not everyone is our enemy?”

  They could certainly take their chances and run. Once Keeman’s dealings became public knowledge, he’d suffer the most no matter how one looked at it. Lawrence would just be a poor merchant who was being used against his will. There should be a few people who would support him.

  “..”

  Cole wasn’t even drying his tears. He just stared at the floor. He’d journeyed to the south on his own to save his village. That didn’t just take a tough mind, but a gentle one as well. Even Eve had noticed his honest qualities and treated him gently because of them.

  “We have many options, but only one desired outcome.”

  “Then shouldn’t we work backwards from that outcome, rather than starting with the options?”

  Travelers sometimes had to leave behind luggage or friends, or even pass by other injured travelers. Lawrence had had people cling desperately to his clothes, or even pull his hair. But what of Eve? As he recalled she simply said matter-of-factly that she was tired and wanted to sleep. She was probably just preparing for the worst.

  There were always many options, but usually there was only one outcome. Complete reversals of fortune were rare, because natural outcomes were hard to fight against.

  “Alright, so if Reynolds really did tamper with the coin shipments..”

  “Hmm?”

  “..based on what Cole discovered he should have saved a bit of money.”

  Once when he was attacked by wolves on a snowy mountain, Lawrence and his party had to leave behind a friend who had broken his leg and flee into a wood cutter’s home. They couldn’t bring themselves to quie
tly listen, so they spent the night chatting merrily as if they were drunk.

  “A tariff would be twenty or thirty percent of the value of a crate, at most. But that’s really steep when it’s a crate full of coins. And inspections and restrictions are even more strict for crates of coins, so pulling it off wouldn’t be easy.”

  Lawrence grabbed Cole’s shoulders and motioned for Holo to start walking. In case they decided to flee, they needed to do so now amidst the chaos in town.

  “Hmm. If the scheme was done in reverse it would work better.”

  “In reverse?”

  As he asked, Holo straddled a wooden stick that was against a wall and replied.

  “Indeed. Fifty-eight crates come in, sixty leave. That is two full crates of coins.. quite a lot.”

  “Oh, right. They could even receive sixty and ship sixty back out.”

  “But that would be pointless.”

  “You think so? He could just fill the crates with fewer coins. Then each time, he’d skim more than two full crates’ worth of coins. But that way Diva Company would suffer a loss.”

  But what was the point of doing that? Lawrence thought it over.

  “Eh?”

  Cole suddenly shouted and looked up at them, but Lawrence was too lost in thought to be surprised.

  “I just said something strange, didn’t I?”

  Holo stared at them as if she didn’t know what they were talking about. Lawrence was searching what he’d just said for any details he might have missed. Reynolds’ coin scheme should only profit him slightly, unless he was causing a big loss for the Diva Company or Winfield Kingdom.

  “The number of coins wouldn’t change.. what would is the number of crates, the tariff, and.. and?”

  The words stuck in Lawrence’s throat. He didn’t know. His mind was stuck in a blur of thoughts, unable to consider even the simplest and most basic of things. Cole was retching as if choking, and by the time Lawrence realized it was the boy being nervous Cole finally spoke out.

  “The payments! If he can’t do the reverse of what they’re doing with the crates of coins, then he just has to reconsider his payments! That wouldn’t be a problem for Diva, because-”

  “If the accounts are settled in the end, it doesn’t matter what happens in between.. is that it? What other orders would Reynolds accept from upstream? He could have a huge amount of cash, and a reason to keep it hidden away. That must be it.”