Spice & Wolf XVII (DWT)

by Isuna Hasekura

  “Yeah, even if the thieves were gone, that’s still not comforting..”

  All the villagers listening to her story were thinking the same thing. Having been attacked by thieves, a certain defenseless village was bound to be destroyed.. until wolves arrived. It was laughably contrived, but everyone was enjoying it.

  “So? What then..?”

  Another villager joined in the questioning. Villagers were always said to know nothing and see even less, but the truth was that they knew a lot - it was just useless to people living in bigger towns. In fact, they probably knew more about living in the real world than people in towns did, especially about dangerous beasts. They knew, for instance, that wolves didn’t really get along with people. Clearly they were expecting a more dramatic ending.

  “Well, of course the villagers had the same fears you all share. Wolves might be even worse than thieves, because you cannot even talk to them.”

  Holo was intentionally showing her cruelest smile to intimidate her audience. Villagers faced storms and hail the likes of which would make one think God was angry at them. Their lives were rather hard, and prayers meant nothing to such storms. And when it came to swarms of locusts, there wasn’t even any solace in being around others.

  A swarm of eyes and hungry mouths didn’t distinguish between humans and other animals; they just saw “food.” They were driven purely by instinct, and anyone caught in their way would remember it for the rest of their lives. And wolves were feared even more than that. Everyone was listening intently while nervously looking at one another. Holo slowly took a sip of wine before she continued.

  “In the end, one of the wolves came before the villagers. It was an old one, with grey hair.. and the village elder remembered it.”

  “Was it the one he saved?!”

  One of the villagers was so excited he shouted, and only won a smack upside the head from the person next to him. It was such an obvious ending, but it was exactly what everyone wanted to hear. Wolves couldn’t live with humans, and they rarely remembered when humans helped them, let alone repay them for their kindness by saving them. Such impossible-seeming things might actually happen in faraway lands, and the villagers weren’t really after stories but hope.

  “The villagers decided to give the wolves the salted meat they had stored up, and in the end neither they nor the wolves died of hunger, because the wolves couldn’t eat their wheat. They all made it through the winter.”

  “Wow..!”

  Everyone was hanging on Holo’s every word, especially the children. People quickly became wise to the cliches in stories like these, but villagers didn’t get the chance to hear such fictions very often. Holo was on her seventh (or perhaps eighth?) story already, and she’d even snuck in some real ones she’d experienced with Lawrence among the ones he’d never heard of. They did indeed have fine wine here, and as expected when she said she was out of stories, they just refilled her cup. By now, she must be making them up.

  “Is that it? You don’t have any more like that?”

  “Ah, let’s try another kind of story! Maybe something heroic? How about a war story.. those happen all the time..”

  “No, I wanna hear more about the Church! Those stories about going on pilgrimages! Does the Holy Mother really look like that statue in front of Brown Cathedral?”

  Sure enough, they just kept on asking. The elder was no better, and wasn’t really trying to keep them in line. He was too busy recording the stories onto tree bark with sharp stones.

  “Um.. I really do not have any more stories to share..”

  Holo smiled, completely bewildered, but they certainly weren’t going to let her go.

  “Hey! Come on, pour her some more wine!”

  “Yeah! God gave us drinks for a reason! We can’t just pass up a chance meeting with two guys like you.. please share all the stories you know!”

  The wine was just too good. Holo would normally have been getting worried about the state of Lawrence’s wallet, but here she could earn her wine just by talking so there was no need to feel uncomfortable. And indeed, her tongue was always wagging after she drank a little more.

  But there was a limit to how much even she could drink, and how many stories even she knew. That, and she would suffer the next day if she overdid it. She knew that, but she didn’t want to disappoint the villagers regardless. Her face betrayed that she knew it was time to go, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

  Clearly Holo didn’t have any more stories, and the wine probably didn’t even have any taste by now. Lawrence had long since moved away from the crowd, lost in his own thoughts. At this point he would normally shout, “please let’s all come back tomorrow,” but the two of them had to leave before tomorrow.

  It was a bit cold and cruel to leave the villagers like that, but travelers had no choice but to move on. Lawrence wasn’t sure whether Holo wanted to leave just yet. If he pulled her away, it would only come back to haunt him. She wasn’t as weak as she might seem, and her stubbornness rivaled a spoiled princess.

  However, when her eyes finally met his, he could tell that they were saying the closest thing to “please save me” they ever would. She’d realized that she needed his help to get away, and so he stood up with a heavy sigh.

  “I truly am sorry..”

  He made his way through the villagers who were practically flattening her like a cloth, all but destroying the atmosphere, but he had known all along that it was his destiny to play the villain this time. The villagers were still doing their best to urge her into sharing more stories until the village elder finally moved to stop them. He was an inquisitive and determined man, but it seemed like he knew what his role was in the end. The villagers grew sour, but shut their mouths as they watched Lawrence lift Holo up.

  They were led away by a girl carrying a lantern, and taken to the storehouse next to the village elder’s house that contained the village’s supplies for the entire year. Having such a storehouse wasn’t rare, nor was it rare for it to be among the most prestigious buildings in a village. It looked like the village was really doing their best to accommodate their guests on such short order.

  The mattress was even a linen one filled with hay. Lawrence was torn on whether to ask the girl leading them why they’d only prepared a single bed, but in the end he just smiled and gave her a silver coin of middling worth before thanking her. The girl then left, politely closing the door behind her. He could picture her running home, overjoyed that she was given a whole silver piece for her task.

  “You really don’t know when to quit, do you?”

  He gently set Holo down on the bed. His eyes couldn’t help but trace the path of a moonbeam as it shone on her navel, since he couldn’t see much otherwise. He could swear he felt a fire from where her face ought to be, which made him recoil slightly.

  “Wh-what?”

  Had he gone overboard? Was her throat too sore to even tease him back? Sure enough, she coughed and moaned.

  “..Thirsty..”

  That’s all it was.

  “..Hang on.”

  This was new, she was tugging his pant leg. Usually when she drank this much she was soundly asleep by now, and wouldn’t be up until noon the next day.

  “I did overdo it.. my face is too hot.. there is a clear stream here, no?”

  She was drunk, and had been pushed around by the villagers, so it stood to reason that she’d like to dunk her head in some cool water. He took her arm around his shoulder, and off they went.

  “Whew..”

  The moment they were outside, she sighed as though she could finally breathe again. It was just like her to keep quiet and only complain if someone asked for her opinion. She was all too happy to help, so even if she was too drunk for her own good she would still happily keep helping.

  “Well, I have to admit that everyone was enjoying themselves.”

  Holo couldn’t walk in a straight line, but she wasn’t so drunk that he had to carry her. In fact, he suspected
that she was only acting like she was drunk. It would be too embarrassing to admit that she wanted to try so hard, so acting drunk would be the perfect scapegoat.

  “..Hoo-ah!”

  After walking down the quiet road, they found the stream and Holo washed her face with the clear, freezing water. As his princess did that, and drank some water for good measure, Lawrence held her steady and kept her hair out of the way. After filling her belly, she finally looked up like she’d had enough, so he helped her back to her feet.

  He rubbed her face dry with the towel he’d faithfully brought along, then her hands. Holo remained silent, only taking his hand once she was tended-to. She might be looking at him like she’d been waiting forever for him to finish, but the simple act of holding his hand was enough for him.

  “Hmm..”

  “Hmm?”

  That straight road from the stream back to the storehouse was just wide enough for them to walk side-by-side, and that’s just what they did under the moonlight as Holo slowly revealed her thoughts.

  “I never expected them to be so demanding.. thank goodness I did not share any secrets..”

  She stopped to take a deep breath, then smiled embarrassedly as she continued.

  “Halfway into that session I was getting quite scared.”

  Lawrence was quite surprised to hear Holo admit that she felt any fear.

  “You humans are terrible. Animals will stop when their bellies are full, but human minds will eat everything in sight, even lies.”

  On her face was an expression of loathing, but Lawrence could tell there was some happiness mixed in. She was probably talking about herself as well.

  “Well, so long as you remember that, I can rest easier.”

  “Hmph.”

  She wasn’t really angry to hear to hear him say that, but she still gave his arm a headbutt.

  “I wonder..”

  “Hmm?”

  “What did those people want from me, exactly?”

  Lawrence snuck a peek at her face, wondering if she was seriously asking or not.

  “Well, stories.. what else?”

  “Of course I know that, but..!”

  She was being snippy, just like she always was when she got drunk.

  “That is not what I meant.. were my stories really interesting enough to warrant such attention? I mean, some of them were obviously made up..”

  Lawrence couldn’t help but smile to hear that he was right, and some of the stories were fakes. Still, he saw her point. The villagers had pretty much mobbed her, like they wouldn’t stop until she died. Even individual stories didn’t matter, they just wanted to hear more and more of them. It must have been driving Holo crazy.

  But then, even if Holo was drunk and had no further stories to share, she still remained seated. Was it being too biased to pretend she was overwhelmed by all that craziness? One way or the other, Lawrence already had an answer for her, but wasn’t sure how to say it without sounding too direct and making her even more snippy. In the end, he couldn’t find the right words, so he just dove right in.

  “Simply put-”

  “It is because they are villagers.”

  Like some manipulative sage, Holo completed his sentence and looked up at him, upset. He found her reaction charming, but also knew that there was only one bed. Unless he wanted to sleep on the cold floor, he had to recover quickly.

  “Take this road.”

  He pointed down at the road ahead of them. It evenly drew a line from the stream, passing by several houses including the elder’s home and the storehouse.

  “It’s probably the nicest one in the village.”

  Holo took a look behind them, then looked up at Lawrence, her eyes full of doubt.

  “Were you looking for coins as we walked?”

  She was even more upset now, judging by the frown on her face. Lawrence didn’t expect her to really see his point right away, but now he had to get to the point and quickly.

  “This road was made just wide enough for two people to walk beside one another holding hands.”

  “..Hmm?”

  “All the way from the stream to its other end.”

  At this point, Holo looked more like a child clinging to him, so they weren’t taking up the width of the road, but she seemed to understand.

  “Of course, it’s too narrow for two wagons, unless one felt like riding in the field.”

  He said that because some remote villages had to build roads wide enough to accommodate a lot of traffic; wheat and other crops, or even herds of animals.

  “But all villages have a road like this.. and there’s a good reason.”

  “..?”

  Holo’s anger had dissipated, but she didn’t have to say anything to make it clear that he had better give her a satisfactory answer. However, Lawrence just smiled back.

  “Just keep walking and you’ll see. You’ll have all the answers you want.”

  “Hmm..”

  Holo sighed, but at least now they were walking quietly and without any tension. During winter, there weren’t even bugs or frogs to bother them, so it was dead quiet. All they felt was the warmth of each other’s hand as they trudged on down the road. Lawrence had no idea whether this village had a name, and he doubted this road had one either, since they reached the end in no time flat. As they did, Holo’s grip on his hand tightened.

  “Well, there you are.”

  He finally looked at her, and watched her stare at what lay ahead of them.

  “The road starts at the stream here, but in some villages it would be a well instead. As long as there’s water there. I’m sure you see why it has this odd width now, yes?”

  The clouds have cleared up enough for the moon to shine down, revealing a place that people didn’t want to visit at midnight: the village’s graveyard, where the life of every villager ended.

  “It is just wide enough to carry a coffin.. I see..”

  “Exactly. When a villager is born, they are washed in the stream, and when they die, they end up at the other end of the road. You can see it more clearly in the daylight, just how much of their lives are decided for them. Even in death, they will still be right here at this end of the village. Few of them even get to see the outside world.”

  It didn’t matter whether the world was actually worth seeing or not, and Holo understood that. She gently put a hand on the wooden fence around the graveyard and took a deep breath.

  “Does that clear things up?”

  After nodding she smiled awkwardly.

  “Had I known this at the time, I would have told them even more stories.”

  She really was a gentle soul.

  “But you know..”

  Holo looked up after looking around, tilting her head.

  “That is just the way it is for most people.”

  “Of course. That’s why traveling merchants like me have jobs in the first place.”

  She smiled back at him.

  “True. There is no end to the things we learn.. even I keep learning new things.”

  Her tone was intentionally light, since she had just released his hand and spun around.

  “Alright. With that, the riddle has been solved. Let us go back, I am sober now.”

  “Sure, since we’d better leave early tomorrow.”

  He paused for a moment to take her hand.

  “We can’t let our journey end here, after all.”

  They still had a long way to go, and no one can know whether a journey will end in mirth or painful tears. Anything is possible. But if the road is wide enough to walk beside one another, hand in hand, then they can meet that end together.

  Holo looked up at Lawrence, pouted, then smiled. Her chin then fell back down sharply in a nod, and she agreed.

  “Mhm!”

  - End -

  Editor Extras

  Here’s a bonus for our readers from our editor, just in case you wanted a slightly spicier sfw ending! There’s more news on the final page, too!
/>   He made his way through the villagers who were practically flattening her like a cloth, all but destroying the atmosphere, but he had known all along that it was his destiny to play the villain this time. The villagers were still doing their best to urge her into sharing more stories until the village elder finally moved to stop them. He was an inquisitive and determined man, but it seemed like he knew what his role was in the end. The villagers grew sour, but shut their mouths as they watched Lawrence lift Holo up.

  They were led away by a girl carrying a lantern, and taken to the storehouse next to the village elder’s house that contained the village’s supplies for the entire year. Having such a storehouse wasn’t rare, nor was it rare for it to be among the most prestigious buildings in a village. It looked like the village was really doing their best to accommodate their guests on such short order.

  The mattress was even a linen one filled with hay. Lawrence was torn on whether to ask the girl leading them why they’d only prepared a single bed, but in the end he just smiled and gave her a silver coin of middling worth before thanking her. The girl then left, politely closing the door behind her. He could picture her running home, overjoyed that she was given a whole silver piece for her task.

  “You really don’t know when to quit, do you?”

  He gently set Holo down on the bed. His eyes couldn’t help but trace the path of a moonbeam as it shone on her navel, since he couldn’t see much otherwise. He could swear he felt a fire from where her face ought to be, which made him recoil slightly.

  “Wh-what?”

  Had he gone overboard? Was her throat too sore to even tease him back? Sure enough, she coughed and moaned.

  “..Thirsty..”

  That’s all it was.

  “..Hang on.”

  He wanted to chastise Holo for being such a hopeless glutton. She knew better than to have so much wine, even if it was free and of a high grade. Was she a child? But by the time his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, his train of thought had moved on. He couldn’t spy a water jug in their room. Apparently this place wasn’t used as a guest room often enough for the villagers to think that far ahead.

  “Looks like they forgot to leave us some water. I’ll go get some-”