He did not tell her that was excessive. Eve was balancing the scales not for something like trade in the massive city of Rausbourne but smuggling on an unbelievable scale that would affect the entirety of the survival of the Kingdom.
People’s lives were practically worthless in the face of that much gold.
While he wanted to say he was safe, since there was value in using him, Eve was much too treacherous.
“Myuri?”
“Yeah.”
Leaving behind a worried Hyland and her underlings, Col and Myuri walked off alone.
This was an oddly quiet place within the lively Rausbourne, a district that once thrived but had been left behind by the passing of the ages. They heard there once was a dock on this side of the mouth of the river long ago that used to be an active market.
“This is weird. There are crowds not too far away you can barely breathe in. It’s like a different city.”
“This seems to mostly be warehouses for large companies and artisan guilds.”
The buildings were currently in use, but they were old-fashioned for how large they were and had a somber air. They occasionally passed carts filled with cargo, but they seemed spiritless.
Rausbourne was a city built on the mouth of a river, but the port here was apparently buried long ago in an accumulation of dirt and sand, and the ships could no longer come in. The land then also became very narrow, so the functions for docking were moved elsewhere, and this area rapidly lost its life.
Not only that, but since it was once a lively area, all the buildings were splendid, much too expensive for small-time craftsmen and booth keepers to rent, and its downfall was how unrealistic it was to knock it all down and rebuild the area as a cheap residential district.
The area became deserted when the people left, and once it was deserted, people never came back.
And so these buildings were apparently either used as warehouses that took advantage of the buildings’ sizes or second homes for the wealthy who wanted to get away from the deafening hustle and bustle.
That was the district Eve was in, borrowing a public warehouse belonging to the city that was not currently in use, which apparently once specialized in unloading and measuring various kinds of wheat.
“She dresses so flashy, but she’s in a place like this.”
They finally arrived at the building, and just like Myuri said, the building was much too plain.
The entire first floor seemed to be a loading area with a large wooden door that looked like the mouth of a whale. There were stone staircases on either side of the whale’s mouth, going straight up to the second floor.
The building itself was four stories—it was made of stone up to the second floor, and the remaining two were made of darkened wood.
There were no showy decorations anywhere, made with nothing but practicality in mind. And now, especially considering the sadness that it was no longer in use, it was a building that seemed less plain and more gloomy.
“But it is a lot like her.”
“Is it?”
“There’s a copper plate here.”
Snugged into the wall of the first floor of the building was a copper plaque, rusted here and there in green.
“Hmm? Um…Bale Way?”
“It’s the name of the street that passes in front of the building. It is proof this building was a central part of this district, one that handled the city’s lifeline—which is wheat—and managed the street’s maintenance and preservation.”
It was often those who lived along a road who were responsible for maintaining it, and naming it signaled its influence on the land. Even though now it had been left behind, tossed off to the side, it had been a historically important building to the city. How Eve was staying in a place like this instead of renting out a flashy, palatial residence was very much like a merchant who had made it on her own, and for some reason, this filled Col with happiness.
“I think this is where her treachery really shines.”
“I kind of get it. Their watch is looking at us, after all.”
“What?”
When Myuri looked up to the second floor, the door opened, and the guard they’d seen at the Golden Fern appeared.
“The master is waiting for you,” he proclaimed, literally looking down on them from atop the large staircase. Col could sense a confidence that they either knew they were coming here or that they did not mind at all that they had. Or perhaps an act to make their guests think that way.
Eve was a gem whose colors changed depending on perspective.
If he did not think carefully, he might end up getting caught instead.
“Let’s go, Myuri.”
“I need to take out my wheat pouch.”
He was not sure how serious she was, but she pulled out her little pouch, stuffed with wheat that she typically kept around her neck and hidden under her clothes. Myuri, with the blood of Holo the wisewolf, could use the power of the wheat to take on her wolf form. No matter how many bulky guards Eve had, Myuri would surely never lose to them, but it would be a different story if her idiot brother ended up being taken hostage.
Be careful, he told himself.
They made their way up the steps, passed through the open door, and two guards standing behind the door were looking hard at them.
“Pardon us.”
The guards said nothing in particular; one closed the door, and one walked ahead as their guide. They did not even check to see if Col and Myuri were equipped with weapons.
The old wheat warehouse Eve was renting was filled with things, which was not what they had imagined. But it seemed more like it had been that way for a long time and not that these were any of Eve’s belongings. The whole dreariness of the place was at odds with the gaudy outfits of the guards.
Luckily, it was well cleaned and not dusty at all, and the hallway was breezy for how narrow it was. Instead of a dusty musk, they could smell the faint scent of salt from the mouth of the river.
The guard still silently went up the stairs toward the second floor. They could see all the way down to the storage area on the first floor from the stairwell and, at the same time, could see up to the ceiling on the fourth floor.
The large pillars across the open atrium did not seem to be support beams but remnants of a mechanical hoist; the ripped hoist dangled from them like ivy.
When they passed the third floor and arrived at the fourth, there was a desk placed right at the end of the stairs, and sitting at it was that massive attendant, holding a quill. Rows of small, upright letters that did not match his huge stature lined the parchment.
It was in a language Col did not know; he could not read it at all.
“The master is inside,” was all the large man said, and then he returned to his writing.
Myuri seemed to be fed up with how relaxed he seemed, and she sniffed.
“Master.”
The guard knocked on the door beyond, and a small voice said, “Come in.”
The door opened for them, and they were immediately greeted by a caress of cool air.
“Miss Eve?”
The room beyond the door looked like an office, but Eve was nowhere to be found.
“Brother.”
Myuri tugged on his sleeve and Col looked to where she was pointing, and there was another room off to the side, the wall facing the river wide open.
The inside of the room was bathed in a faint blue, a reflection from the ocean, and even though the lively Rausbourne harbor was visible in the distance, it was silent here—it was like a beautiful vista from a dream.
Eve was on the outside of the other room, on a balcony facing the river.
“Have you come to give me an answer to what we talked about at the Golden Fern?”
She sat in a large chair, with alcohol and jerky sitting next to her. The umbrella girl was there, and she smiled at them.
“Isn’t this a lovely view? A long time ago, massive ships pulled right up alongside this very b
uilding. They say that twenty people would operate a hoist to raise the neck, letting all the loaded wheat pass down to the first floor through the drainpipe like a waterfall.” Eve spoke with joy, not bothering to look back at them.
“We’ve discovered your trick, Miss Eve.”
When Col said that, Eve recrossed her legs and lifted her right hand. The umbrella girl bowed, and with elegant movements she passed right by them and left for the hallway.
“You used the archbishop’s and the priests’ parental love against them to come up with a plan for smuggling, didn’t you?”
A single seabird screeched as it flew past. These birds were brutal on ships and in the harbor, but they seemed lonely on this side of the river.
“Parental love, is it?”
“I am not impressed with your deception, nor do I sympathize with it.”
Eve seemed to like that answer, as she straightened out her legs and stood up.
“Who told you that? The cathedral won’t open their doors to anyone…and I doubt there are any priests who will help you because of your connections to Hyland.”
Col could tell that Myuri had changed her footing. Eve’s eyes, dark against the light coming from behind her, were just like those of a beast hunting its prey in the woods.
“I am the Twilight Cardinal.”
Eve’s eyes rounded at his caustic words, and she smiled, tickled.
“You’re right. You have your own influence, your own wisdom. Good, how wonderful.” Eve smiled and inhaled deeply. “And so,” she said, “why have you come here?”
Now, with the light behind her, Eve’s eyes and mouth stood out from her shadow like a beast roaming the dark woods.
With her hostility fully exposed, she even seemed taller.
Eve had gone through so many experiences that Col could scarcely even begin to imagine. He did not think he would win. But at the same time, he was confident justice was on his side.
“I will make an accusation against you on a large scale.”
“Oh?”
“In the name of the Twilight Cardinal, I will publicly accuse you and the merchants of preying on the cathedral.”
“…”
Eve closed her mouth, her lips still bent in a smile.
Col understood that as a request for him to continue, and he took a deep breath.
“I know from my journeys the people do not hate the Church, nor do they think it unnecessary. What do you think would happen if I, in the name of the Twilight Cardinal, accused these greedy merchants, in front of all those people, of trying to get rich off smuggling while defrauding the cathedral? The people would undoubtedly side with the cathedral. And if the Kingdom wants to avoid a sudden confrontation and war with the Church, they will count their lucky stars and side with the Church to penalize the merchants working illegally.”
If that happened, then Eve and the merchants would not get rich from smuggling but instead could very possibly end up hanging on the grounds of joint conspiracy.
Of course, that was not the ending Col wanted, and after he threatened her, he was planning on bringing up the following:
I want you to recommend to the cathedral that they talk with Sharon and the other tax collectors. Additionally, you will have the traders’ association act in a way that will ease tensions with the tax collectors. The dark clouds of war will then drift past, and Sharon and company should be able to come to a settlement with the priests in one form or another.
Of course, to Eve, who wanted war, that would mean bringing in losses, but it was much preferable to having her be sentenced to death after being accused of planning on smuggling.
The buds of Eve’s plans crumbled the moment Col heard Clark’s story.
Col waited for her words of retreat.
“Fine.”
He won.
Just as that feeling spread throughout his chest, and right before he was about to raise his terms of negotiation—
“If you want to accuse us, that’s fine.”
A dizzy feeling, like he was floating, muddled his thoughts.
It was like he thought there was an extra step in front of him, but there was not.
“I don’t mind. Sigh, I was scared thinking about what you might say to me.”
Eve twisted around after she spoke, picked up the glass cup on the table on the balcony, and sipped the alcohol inside.
Col was unsure of what that meant and stood planted to the spot.
“Miss…Eve?”
“Yes?”
She asked in response—was someone not going to attack him while he was confounded? He had imagined instead that someone would draw their dagger, threaten him, and drag him into a bloody quarrel. There was no way he could have predicted that she was going to react like this.
“I, uh…”
“You’re going to accuse me, aren’t you? Go ahead.”
He could understand if she told him not to do it. Why was she so relaxed like this? He panicked—he’d overlooked something.
He was trying to render her entire plot moot. Was her calm demeanor a bluff or something else?
Col looked to Myuri, convinced that Eve would not let them leave alive, but she also wore a puzzled look.
“Oh, I get it. You thought that by ruining my plans, I would fly off the handle, sob and gnash my teeth. And then you’d take that opportunity to bring a deal to the table—is that right?”
It was so on the nose, both Col’s body and mind froze.
“There’s no need for me to be angry. I have other ways of getting rich.”
Eve shrugged, plucked from her mouth the string of muscle from the jerky she had been munching on, and flicked it out beyond the balcony.
“And an accusation is perfect. I may as well tell you about all the wily business that Arugo and them have in their history in this town. The more flashily you can denounce them, the better. This’ll be easy for you, no?”
What on earth was Eve talking about? What had he gotten wrong about her?
He was still unable to answer, and she offered him a genuinely kind smile.
“Heh. That bewildered look is just the same as when you were a kid.”
He had only retreated a half step, but it felt like that was enough to send him back to his childhood. The only fight he could put up was a halfhearted verbal response.
“Why? Why are you…?”
Her cool smile also seemed a little sad.
“Are you asking why I seem so calm after being accused? Or why I’m going to betray Arugo and the others?”
Col’s silence served as a yes to both.
“I’m fine with being accused because I have people who’ll help me. And I’m not the one betraying Arugo. It’s their bosses who’ll be dealing with them.”
Her explanation brought only more mysteries.
Eve sighed at Col’s reaction and then spoke as though describing something to an incompetent apprentice.
“What we were planning was a large-scale smuggling operation between the Kingdom and the southern mainland. No way would things be settled just with Rausbourne’s branches. They’ll have to have a talk with the important people from the company in their home countries, of course. But the people sitting in those chairs at the main branch are real merchants. They made sure they were insured against dangerous talk of smuggling.”
He got a terrible feeling when she said “real merchants.”
Those were evil spirits nested in the innermost sanctum.
Eve’s soft hair fluttered in the cool, salty breeze.
“These real merchants asked me to carry out contract B in the case our original smuggling plan failed. And that would be sanctions against Arugo and the rest of them. It would essentially be a cleanup of merchants who’ve been up to no good in a city far away and hard to monitor from the home country. You came across a similar incident recently, didn’t you?”
She was talking about Desarev.
In Desarev, a merchant from the Debau Company had been selling
off treasures from the cathedral without any permission to line his own pockets. Obviously, that was not a policy the upper management of the company, including Hilde, condoned.
However, since it was effectively impossible to keep a minute watch on the things happening in a town far across the sea, these things did happen from time to time.
Consequently, it was much more widespread in large companies that dealt with long-distance trade on a bigger scale.
“There’s not too much you need to do in order to take care of troublesome underlings. And a fight between two big powers, like the Kingdom and the Church, creates the perfect opportunity. It’s like…a mill. The bigger it is, the easier it is to secret many things into the mix and crush them.”
Eve turned her hand, as though she was turning a stone mill. But what she was grinding to powder was not wheat or grapes but inedible and decidedly non-delicious merchants.
Eve looked like a horned devil, one who tortured souls in hell.
“Smuggling is lucrative but dangerous. On the other hand, cleaning up insolent followers won’t make you rich, but it will secure the future for the real merchants. Their former followers, who used to have power in a faraway land, will absolutely pick up weapons and go to defeat their former masters one day, you see.”
Merchants were well versed in the ways of the world and doubted even their own followers.
But even Hyland was wary of Heir Klevend as a presence of discord.
Almost everything in the world came with such malice.
“And so the real merchants are using me as they please; I’m essentially their gofer. But of course, instead of making fake, placating smiles, I can stand in a good position where either contract can go well and bring me great benefits.”
There was no way she was a gofer.
A bitter taste spread through Col’s mouth when Eve smiled, because he’d underestimated how terrifying she was. The stronger the light was, the deeper and darker the shadow.
“Now, I’m sure you racked your brain to come up with the threat to accuse me of smuggling; what did you want to do with me?”
Eve spoke like a canonical jurist, as if she was going to check his answers.
“I can’t imagine you’d ask for money in exchange for not exposing me. You’re fighting for justice and faith…”
Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Page 20
