“What?”
That fool was what she wanted to say, but it disappeared behind a big yawn.
Her companion never noticed the important things, yet he was only ever sensible about the oddest things.
Holo stretched and sighed in exasperation, causing Selim to jump.
“Hahh…Ahh. Apologies…I shan’t grow sleepy in this season.”
She closed her eyes and shook her ears and tail as though throwing off a coating of water. She managed to suppress a bit of her sleepiness.
After Holo displayed the extent of her lethargy in an exaggerated manner, Selim wore an honest smile.
She was a rather formal girl, so it would be perfect if she relaxed just a little bit.
“And what is it you need?”
“Yes. It’s nearly lunchtime, so I’ve come to get you.”
“Mm. That time already. Tell them I shall be there soon.”
“Very well.”
She bowed her head gracefully, and Holo suddenly noticed how she was still staring at her.
“Lady Holo, has a leaf or the sort hurt you?”
“Hurt me?”
The wild vegetables were soft and not the kind to cause cuts, nor was she using a knife.
“Ah well, I can smell blood…”
Selim spoke timidly as Holo checked herself and, when she lifted her arm, discovered—
—a round, plump leech dangling from her wrist.
“Oh, this.”
She had not noticed at all, thanks to her drowsiness and the chilly morning dew still clinging to the vegetables. It was a gluttonous fellow, and like how Myuri was once she found some delicious food, it would not let go. As she was about to pinch the tenacious leech and rip it off, Selim stopped her.
“Lady Holo, please don’t. Please wait a moment. I’ll bring some fire,” she said, dashing off into the main building. It could easily come off by roasting it with embers.
“…What a fool. The new girl need not go so far.”
She flicked the plump leech, and it dangled about wildly.
Selim was such a thin and polite girl, Holo worried for a moment that she was the type to faint when she saw the leech, but that did not seem to be the case. In the south, she and her friends had survived daily on an eat-or-be-eaten basis. Since she said they barely scraped by playing mercenary, it was probably safe to assume she was stronger than Holo first expected. And she had a good nose.
Like Holo, Selim was an embodiment of a wolf, and her human form was a temporary guise. As they recently hired her to work in the bathhouse, it was good for Holo to have someone who she did not need to hide her ears or tail from.
However, once they brought her in, Holo was very uneasy regarding hiring someone new. Shameful as it was, she had worried that her spot would be jeopardized.
Luckily, it turned out to be a groundless fear. Instead, Selim had the tendency to hold Holo in too high of a regard.
Before long, Selim returned with dead embers from the kitchen, then proceeded to sear the leech. She caught it the moment it let go, throwing the creature into the wilderness.
“You must eat a lot for lunch to make up for what was drained away.”
Selim smiled and gathered up all the stems of the vegetables.
“Well then, I will go ahead and take these to dry.”
“Thank you.”
The new girl was a hard worker. Lawrence and Holo had been worried about what would happen since they lost two of their young helpers at once, but with Selim’s help, there would be no trouble when the guests came.
As she thought about this, Holo stretched expansively one last time and cracked her back.
“Well, ’tis time for lunch.”
Her tail puffed out in the early spring sun and swished about.
“How is Miss Selim?”
That night, as Holo’s companion wrote some things down, he asked this without bothering to look over.
The question came while she was in the middle of grooming the fur on her tail, thinking about how it was the time of year she should soon be shedding her winter coat.
“She is quite different from what I imagined.”
“Hmm?”
He must have just finished a sentence, as he then turned toward her. They had met a little over ten years ago, and though they had changed much over the years, it almost felt like they had not changed at all.
No, he has gained a bit of weight, Holo thought as she looked at the base of her companion’s bent neck.
“Do you mean that in a good way? Or a bad way?”
“A good way, mostly.”
Smearing the expensive floral oil she had her companion buy for her onto her comb, she gracefully put on the fluffy finishing touches to her tail.
“And the rest, what I had imagined in a bad way was wrong in a good way.”
“Wrong in a good…what? What does that mean?”
Her companion made a puzzled face. While he understood a bathhouse that did not hire new people could not carry on with business, he was probably still worried about hiring Selim.
It was not in the way that a shopkeeper would hire a boy and worry about whether or not he would be doing the appropriate work for his level. Rather, it was the awkwardness of boarding a young female under his own roof. However, Selim behaved well and was unobtrusive, and she also had a bit of an unfortunate air about her—the very sort of girl that her companion liked.
And he knew that Holo understood this well. He was also conscious of the fact that should anything happen, it would result in a troublesome uproar, and he had prepared for that.
That being said, Holo did trust her companion. Even if Selim was her companion’s type, she was certain that he would not be unfaithful. In exchange, as he always overthought some things, if he worried too much about Selim, it would only trouble him.
And yet, he must have calmed a bit as he aged, since in the past if such a girl merely showed him the faintest of smiles, he would become infatuated with her. Now, he worked efficiently and professionally with her. At the same time, he was also taking good care of her, since she was far from her friends.
Of course, he would not neglect Holo over such a thing.
In summary, things were going so well now, it was almost a disappointment.
What made it complicated was that things had gone a little differently from how she wanted it to turn out.
“Really, I was expecting a bit more.”
Her companion stared at her, trying to feel out what she really meant. He gulped, knowing that everything looked calm on the surface, but wondering if there was some sort of trouble he had not noticed underneath.
Holo almost wanted to smile watching him. What a good male.
That was because it felt like she had been bound by how hard he worked in every little thing.
“That means…”
She slipped off the bed and stood beside her companion. She shooed him with her hand, and hesitatingly, he scooted to the side, giving her space to sit.
There were many letters spread out over the desk, waiting for the ink to dry.
“You are managing this much better than I expected, and I cannot even foresee the Q in quarrel anywhere.”
Lawrence’s expression was slightly taken aback, and a hint of irritation appeared in relief’s stead.
“What…? That means there’s no problems now, right?”
“Hmm. I thought that I may be able to be unfriendly with you for the first time in a long time.”
She placed her face on his shoulder as her companion developed a clearly vexed, twitching smile.
“Wouldn’t you prefer we didn’t fight?”
“’Tis much more stimulating to add pepper to meat or drink, no? We lived quietly while Myuri was around, but now she is no longer here.”
She rubbed her face on his shoulder and wagged her tail.
“I swear…”
But her companion only sighed and faced the desk again, continuing to write his letters in a
bit of a cramped manner.
She was disappointed—had she snuggled up to him like this in the past, that would have been enough to agitate him and it had been quite adorable. The way things were now made it seem like all she thought about was playing.
“Does it seem like we’ll be able to open the bathhouse?”
The very competent Col and their only daughter Myuri, who had followed after him, were gone, and they had supported the bathhouse until recently. Without their two young helpers, they simply did not have enough hands.
She was suspicious that her companion was possibly not writing letters to guests thanking them for their patronage, asking them to come in the next season, but rejections, requesting various parties to postpone their visit because they were short on help.
There was no doubt that their particular bathhouse could not easily hire people because she was not human. It would have been a different story if she could easily hide her ears and tail, but she could not, causing them difficulties.
It would be a lie to say she did not feel indebted.
“Miss Selim will do enough work. She can handle it. It’ll be much easier, since she’s not the mischievous Myuri, who creates double the work after finishing one job.”
“That foolish girl truly is nothing but pranks. I know not who she takes after.”
She sighed, and her companion stared at her with an indescribable expression.
She half glared back at him, and he immediately looked away, like a sheep.
“But for that, it seems the liveliness in this house will die down. Are you all right with that?”
Her companion’s back was to her, and he simply dropped his head lifelessly.
“I’m worried about that, too. We don’t have Col, either, who chatted with all the high-ranking clergymen…When I think about that, I can’t deny that what once attracted the guests to our bathhouse has disappeared.”
“’Tis because you can talk of nothing but trade.”
“I wouldn’t mind if you started singing and dancing, you know.”
Each bathhouse had its own specialty in soothing the tedium for long-stay guests. This bathhouse, Spice and Wolf, had truly been able to tout little Col, who could participate in complex discussions, and Myuri, who was as bright as any dancer.
However, when she imagined herself doing Myuri’s job, not to mention little Col’s, Holo felt exhausted.
“Well, it would just be trouble if you did that on top of your regular work. But I do want to see it.”
She could easily tell he was serious by how bashful his expression was, but this fool truly did not understand anything.
Her human form now was indeed young by human standards. When she thought about Myuri, who was truly young, however, she easily imagined how reckless it would be for herself to dance in her stead.
The image of the patrons looking up at her with confused smiles—This isn’t bad, but something’s off—easily came to mind.
Even though they appeared to be the same age, the aura around her was completely different compared to a girl who was truly young.
“I may as well stick with being particular about food.”
If they stayed on the topic much longer, she felt her dignity as a wisewolf would be on the line, so she immediately changed the subject.
“Food, huh? You do have some opinions about food.”
“Hanna may not be so happy to hear she would get more work.”
Hanna not only ran the kitchen but she was also not human either, her true identity being the avatar of a bird.
“We lost one person stealing snacks, so maybe you can make up for that.”
Talking about it now, Holo was beginning to lose track of whether Myuri, the bathhouse master’s only daughter, had helped with the work or merely played as she liked.
It was fine that she was as energetic as she was, but perhaps they had been a little too lax with her.
“But it really is quiet without Myuri around.”
Her companion paused his writing hand and looked up contemplatively, his gaze distant. Around this time of day, Myuri would be snoring on her bed in her usual room or playing around in Col’s room as he studied by candlelight, accompanied by his angry voice after she bothered him too much with her mischief.
Once it became clear that Myuri had left on the journey as well, Holo’s companion had raised such a fuss; she thought he had finally accepted it, but it seemed he was still a bit reluctant about it.
“I hope they haven’t gotten in trouble where they are…”
“Had a letter not just recently come?”
“That’s true, but…”
She sighed at her unsettled companion and embraced him.
“Have you forgotten who sits by your side?”
Her companion, now so far to the edge of the chair he was about to fall off, planted his foot on the other side and managed to stay up.
Then, he smiled flatly.
“Yeah. You’re always by my side.”
“Mm. ’Twould be best for your health to forget about your daughter after she has gone off to be wed.”
“Sh-she’s not getting married!”
The fool, who stubbornly told himself that Myuri and Col were nothing but very close siblings, retorted on reflex. Of course, she knew he did not truly oppose it. He was simply enjoying the role of the father of an only daughter to his heart’s content.
And that meant she, too, had to enjoy her role.
“See here. I shan’t be going anywhere. However, if you carelessly let go, I may be blown away by the wind.”
She spoke while scratching her ears on his sharp shoulders.
The tallow candle had almost burned out, so it was good timing.
“Do you not think so?”
By the wavering candlelight, she narrowed her eyes and smiled in satisfaction.
Her companion would always seem frightened at times like these.
She vaguely remembered that he once said he felt like he was about to fall into the depths of oblivion.
Of course, she understood what he was trying to say.
That was because after they had fallen in love, they had arrived here.
“As you say, madam.”
Her companion embraced her in return and stood, picking her up, then carrying her to bed.
Before long, the candle blew out, and the room fell into darkness.
The bathhouse was silent without guests, and she could hear the hoot, hoot of an owl beyond the window.
“Eh-heh.”
She twisted in her companion’s arms.
“Dear, be gentle with me—”
Just as she said that, there was a thud as he made a misstep. His posture collapsed, and they fell to the floor in the darkness.
Her foolish companion always did this at the most important moments.
Holo was greeted by a sudden shock, and as she was about to voice her complaints, something felt off.
“You…fool……hmm?”
She realized she was lying down on a straw mat.
Before her sat a mountain of wild vegetables, waiting to be taken care of, glistening in the spring sun. There was no one else in the baths, and she could only hear the bubbling sound of flowing water.
“…Hmm…?”
It seemed she had completely fallen asleep in the gentle spring sunlight. She was upset she had woken up during a good moment, but the warm sunlight was comfortable, like she had entered the bath while still wearing clothes, and she almost closed her eyes again.
But she could not allow Selim to see her in such a state.
She managed to pull herself up and yawned, reaching out to the pile of vegetables.
“But…’twas quite a vivid dream I had…”
A strange feeling overcame her as she plucked the buds.
“…No, ’twas not a dream. That happened yesterday for…hmm?”
She murmured, suddenly doubting herself.
How many days had she been plucking the buds from ve
getables? There were plenty to gather in the mountains, and bored women and children in the village plucked hundreds in order to earn some pocket change. They also were used as feed for the livestock, so while there were no guests around, every household dried and stored as much as they could, day after day. There was no difference between yesterday and today, and the next day she would be repeating the same all over again.
There was still frozen morning dew on the pile of wild vegetables, and they glistened in the sunlight. The temperature was just starting to rise, and the melted drops bubbled like nectar. Plucking the buds off wild vegetables let her know that spring had come to the village.
But how many times had spring come now? Ten? Twelve? Was it this year that Myuri and little Col had left the bathhouse? Or was that in the past?
In the wheat fields she had once slept in, she could roughly count the years as babies became children, children grew into adults, and adults aged into elders. In a year, she could only mark the dates by the changing seasons and the various festivals that came and went. The rest was simply a thread in the boundless tapestry that was the “every day.”
Her memories of regular days were much too vague as to what came before or after what. And that became truer the more distant the memory.
Had it really been the night before that her companion was writing many letters to guests, then carried her to the bed after the candle went out? Had she not been dreaming of a nostalgic memory long past? It was like when she recalled her friends from her home village as she dozed off in the wheat fields.
Suddenly, an unsettling feeling rose in her chest, and she looked up toward the sky. There, the new spring sun silently shone with warmth. But it was too quiet. Was this a dream?
Anxiety bubbled up inside her, to the point she could clearly hear her heartbeat in her chest. If she was dreaming that the bathhouse was this quiet, then she could not imagine how quiet it was outside of her dream.
She was not like her companion and little Col and the rest of the villagers. Their entire lives would be over in the blink of an eye for her. It was not a dream or illusion that she would be the only one left of all her loved ones and that they would one day leave the bathhouse forever. That was a reality lying in wait for her.
“…”
Spring Log II Page 11
