CHAPTER SIX

The sack tossed on top of the table stole their attention, for it belonged to Col, who should have been headed far away from there to the town of Kieschen.

The words highwayman, thief, and bandit immediately raced through Lawrence’s head. No matter how mighty Col’s spirit, it would have been useless before ruthless physical force.

But it was still odd. He could not piece things together in his head.

As Lawrence lifted his face, there was a slender man beside the table wearing a hood low over his eyes. Lawrence instantly searched his own memory, but the man’s silhouette did not fit any person Lawrence could recall. Moreover, Lawrence was confused at the lack of a malicious aura. If anything, the man somehow had a refined air about him.

Then, the mysterious person wandered on his way, as silent as a ghost. It did not even occur to Lawrence to give chase as the man slipped away from the table.

He regained his senses when Holo grabbed the sack on top of the table and rose from her seat.

He somehow managed to get one word in.

“…Wait.”

Holo’s eyes, eerily unblinking under her hood, turned toward him.

Stopping me now makes you as much of an enemy as he is, her anger told him.

“He shouldn’t have been alone. Where are the others?” said Holo.

She stared straight at Lawrence.

Her eyes seemed so full of anger there was no room for sympathy in them.

As Lawrence continued to squarely meet her gaze, Holo’s breaths grew progressively heavier. Her blood had rushed to her head; even she could not control herself very well. Her slender shoulders made great movements, as if she was feverish—but somehow she kept herself from exploding altogether.

She looked like a furnace, fed air with a bellows.

Reason finally returned to her eyes.

“Others?”

As he asked once more, Holo put a hand to her eyes, as if dizzy from waking up too quickly, and taking a deep breath, she looked around the area.

“I do not know. Gone most likely. Still.” Holo’s fangs shone under her lips. “It would not matter how many there are.”

Convincing her otherwise was impossible. Having instantly judged it to be so, Lawrence nodded.

He put what they owed the shopkeeper on top of the table, rose, and came alongside Holo as she walked.

“Let’s be certain. Is this really Col’s?”

At Lawrence’s question, Holo rustled the sack.

It was a familiar object, and indeed when Holo disturbed the sack, it smelled faintly of Col.

Holo’s nose would not mistake the scent surely.

Also, when he looked into the cord-drawn sack, he recognized the contents within: a few scraps of wrapped cloth, the deeds that had been used to swindle Col out of everything he owned, and a small amount of coin.

This was clearly no simple robbery, for there was no profit whatsoever in taking these things.

And whoever had taken Col knew about Holo.

“Can you follow them?”

Lawrence’s question actually brought a smile to Holo’s face.

“Had the land no end I’d still not let them escape.”

Holo walked down the busy street, full of confidence, as if making for a landmark. Though it was the dead of night, the town’s bustle remained in force.

However, the atmosphere had changed from good cheer to something sticky and lingering. Those wandering about were slurred in their speech, swaying as they laughed, swilling liquor that was hard to tell from horse piss.

Lawrence recalled the contents of a book written by a clergyman led on a visit to hell by an ancient saint. The people on the road leading to hell had given themselves over to the seven deadly sins as they sung the praises of this world’s false springtime. There were flowers of lava blooming, with prostitutes’ bodies as ripe as the fruit of the pomegranate, not even aware that they had died.

Lesko, the town governed by the Debau Company, had no nosy guilds spreading their regulations about. Anywhere else, the echoes of degenerate laughter and singing in this and that corner of the streets would have been considered criminal.

Now, even the stars and moon of the winter sky, once beautiful enough to make one’s breath catch, were concealed.

No doubt, someone looking down at the town from a distance would see it as though at the bottom of a boiling cauldron of crimson flames. Though the town had seemed full of hope and ambition just a short time ago, to Lawrence’s eyes, the atmosphere had now taken a turn. It was as if the tossing of Col’s sack onto the table had broken the spell.

Lawrence grasped Holo’s hand, walking past the drunks as if threading a needle.

The Debau Company had constructed this town with meticulous preparation, bottomless courage, and peerless sagacity and wit. The splendor of it had filled Lawrence with a feeling of pride as a fellow merchant. But this was plainly a constructed town. Picturing what was happening behind the scenes of such a great monolith, the employment of such vast amounts of financial profit and privilege, frightened him.

Holo gave a snort as she stopped in front of an alley.

They could see nothing, even as they peered in, for the bonfires made the alley’s darkness thicker than usual. It was an ideal place to set a trap.

“All the more convenient for makeshift measures.” As Holo spoke, she pulled out from her breast the pouch of wheat she wore about her neck, turning her head and cracking her neck. Evidently restraint would not be necessary.

Lawrence could only go along with her. He followed after Holo, carrying Col’s bag over his shoulder.

The alley demonstrated the growth of the town very clearly in that moment. Lacking even footpaths, the street had half-constructed houses on both sides, with construction materials piled up, apparently having been used for work until a short time earlier but now left exposed to the elements.

If viewed in the light of day, no doubt Lawrence would have thought this was the foundation of the town’s lively sense of hope.

However, viewing the scene in the dead of night, with snow remaining in various places, he felt like he was being shown the truth behind the curtains of that dazzling world.

As Lawrence held his breath, he went with Holo, who had no trouble walking in darkness. The street emptied into a small square. The square was surrounded by buildings with a well in the center. If the buildings had been sold and occupied, it would surely have been a very relaxing place in broad daylight.

However, right now, the piles of building materials and half-finished houses looked like the aftermath of a war.

And there was something unexpected on the lid of the well: a lone hare.

For a moment, Lawrence thought it must have escaped from a store somewhere, but the hare made no effort to run or hide.

Lawrence finally realized the hare’s eyes were filled with a look of intelligence, fully suited to comprehending human speech.

Holo took a very deep breath, barely managing to keep herself from flying at it in a rage.

“I apologize for saddening the bag’s owner.” So spoke the hare. In accordance with Lawrence’s initial impression, its speech was refined and articulate. “However, I have done him no harm. I would very much like to avoid such a circumstance.”

It would be better to let Holo judge the truth or falsity of that statement. What Lawrence needed to do was to remain as calm as possible and observe the entire situation.

“What is your objective?” Lawrence asked.

This could not be a simple play for money.

The other party was a talking hare, after all, and he knew about Holo.

“My comrades saw you prowling about Lenos. I had them discover what the intentions were of such a strange pair as a merchant and a wolf.”

“And what have you learned?”

At Lawrence’s courteous question, the hare’s ears immediately pricked. “We have need of a forbidden book—a technological manual.”

The wind of surprise only lightly patted his cheek. With the hare having gone out of his way to show Col’s bag to Lawrence and Holo, and their activities in Lenos having been observed, this declaration was entirely understandable.

“…For what purpose?”

“Not for any purpose hostile to the two of you, at the very least.”

Though that was no answer to Lawrence’s question and the words may have been meant to hold Holo at bay.

Holo seemed ready to pounce on the hare at the slightest provocation. Her small hand continued to clench the wheat pouch at her breast.

The hare gazed at Lawrence and Holo and spoke. “The northlands are in unprecedented peril.”

Lawrence took a sharp breath.

If his own judgment was correct, the forbidden book’s existence could be the spark to plunge the northlands into upheaval; he thought it highly unlikely it could save the land from peril.

“If we have the forbidden book, we may be able to avert this peril.”

The hare’s manner of speaking was logical. His pronunciation was correct and seemed appropriate to an individual of distinction.

However, the drawstring of Col’s sack had been sliced open. Lawrence did not think this was a conversation or a negotiation. It was intimidation, as if to say, What you may find atop the next table might well be his head.

“Just who are you?” Lawrence asked.

The words coming out of the hare’s mouth made Lawrence unwittingly lift his chin.

“Hilde Schnau. Treasurer of the Debau Company.”

In any trading company, the treasurer was the owner’s right-hand man. In the Debau Company, surely that meant someone of quite formidable status. A company of such large scale, an organization able to even issue its own currency, could without exaggeration be called a small country in its own right.

In other words, he was the right-hand man of a king.

Or was it all a lie?

As Lawrence shifted his gaze to Holo, Holo stood still right where she was.

It seemed that the hare calling himself Hilde spoke truly.

Lawrence swallowed his saliva a little. He then deliberately took three breaths.

One, two, three.

The contents of his head switched completely over to business.

“And why does Mr. Hilde require the forbidden book?”

“It is natural that you have suspicions. We are not ignorant of your objective, after all.”

If they had cast their net over Lenos, they may well have discovered that much. In particular, the Debau Company had dealings with numerous mercenaries. If mercenaries associated with the company were trailing Lawrence and Holo in the town of Lenos, it was far from unthinkable.

“However, having considered the various possibilities, the tale of the forbidden book is all that we have left to cling to.”

Lawrence did not know if a merchant of Hilde’s caliber, and the treasurer of the Debau Company no less, speaking in such a serious, urgent manner made his words worthier of trust.

But he did not think the hare’s words were a complete lie.

After all, Hilde was not asking Lawrence to lend his abilities as a traveling merchant, let alone asking Holo to lend her fangs. He merely needed a forbidden book.

Furthermore, bringing Col’s bag out before Holo meant he was prepared to stare death in the face.

The life of the Debau Company’s treasurer was too weighty to risk on a roll of the dice.

Perhaps they really had exhausted every other option before coming to this point.

So Lawrence asked one more question.

“May I ask what is going on?”

For a moment, Hilde held his breath, as if not wanting to speak of unpalatable truths, but then spoke. “Currently, the Debau Company is internally split in two parts. And my part is in the worse position.”

“…And?” Lawrence asked back as instantly as he could manage, but he could not hide his shock.

The Debau Company split.

That was not good news.

“I presume you know of our deciding to issue currency?”

“Yes, I thought it a marvelous thing. By that I also mean the profit from minting it, of course.”

“It is indeed as you say.”

Of course, the tumult on the main streets did not reach this place deep in the alleyways, However, when Lawrence lifted his face, he could see the flickering red sparks of the fires against the pitch-black sky.

“However, to put it bluntly, we profited too much.”

Profited too much—said the treasurer of the Debau Company.

Lawrence repeated the words as if they were the only ones he knew.

“Profited too much…?”

“Yes. The moment we decided to issue the currency, the profit was vast. In addition, the money changers have already driven up the price of the new currency.”

So they had already begun speculating in a currency yet to exist.

Most people believed that it would indeed have an unbelievably high purity level and would maintain that level thereafter.

Even if the price went up somewhat, there would surely be many people who would want to take some home; taking advantage of that, there were surely many money changers speculating that the price would rise.

“Originally, the rise in the currency’s price made us very pleased as well. However, it seems that there is little that has a good influence on people when in excess—in particular, nobles dividing the new currency between themselves in advance. This is a windfall surpassing any seen in the history of their houses. When they realized this, what they suggested was exceedingly simple.”

“To issue even more currency?”

The hare nodded and made what seemed like an exasperated sigh.

“Increasing the currency issued increases the issuance fee, which in turn increases the profit.”

“But why does this mean unprecedented peril for the northlands?”

As Lawrence pressed his question, Hilde momentarily averted his eyes.

Was he polishing up a scheme? While Lawrence entertained such doubts, the gaze aimed at the sky grew desolate. He seemed to be cursing as he gazed at the sky, for though he had ears that were like feathers, he could not fly.

Hilde’s gaze returned to Lawrence. If it was an act, Lawrence was well and truly fooled.

“Issuing currency requires raw metal. The current orders from the money changers are for such an amount that our reserves are already stretched to their limit. We cannot issue any more right away. However, as selling when the opportunity exists is a fundamental of trade, you are aware of a simple method of resolving the problem, are you not?”

A disagreeable taste spread throughout Lawrence’s mouth. He saw where this was heading.

“Plunder the raw metal or coins of other currencies to melt down for the new.”

“That is correct. Even in the northlands where trade is meager, there are still places rich in supplies. Those with covetous eyes are now fervently urging that we attack these supply-rich places. In fact, there are a number of rulers and towns that have closed their gates in opposition to our plans. On our side, rulers that covet those very territories are advocating that as well.”

Hilde surely spoke in a scornful tone because he was indeed scornful.

Such overly simplistic urgings did not suit the Debau Company’s image. Surely what got under his skin was the rulers acting as parasites on the Debau Company, scheming as if to leech away the profits for themselves.

However, Lawrence did not think that just because the rulers advocated something in no way meant that the men of the Debau Company had to grudgingly obey. After all, the Debau Company had made it this far by using such men as their marionettes.

There was only one possibility he could think of.

“So there are people within the Debau Company itself that support these barbaric notions?”

“Yes. And to diminish their fervor, we require the forbidden book that contains techniques for excavating mines.”

The feeling that swirled about Lawrence’s head was much like nausea.

The story itself was not complicated. However, that the virtues and drawbacks were so artistically combined he could only think of this as some sort of divine prank.

Hilde spoke quietly, as if watching a festival of demons. “Those urging aggression are thinking rationally, in a sense. They are not simply advocating taking that which they lack. They are hedging against the possibility of our current mines running dry.”

Rationalization was a merchant’s best friend.

“In other words, given the possibility of mines running dry in the near future, they seek to delay the day of reckoning as long as possible, either by mining more slowly or by developing new mines. And even in normal times, developing a mine is a difficult political problem. However, with so much vigor behind the company right now, why not simply obtain lands rich in ore deposits? Is it not logical to obtain them right now while we still can? And does not robbing the treasure chests of the towns and rulers we bring down kill two birds with one stone? Or so they advocate.”

Raging avarice, desire for profits, and the obstacles to eliminate to get them were all lined up in a row. Lawrence did not think anyone could oppose the Debau Company in the present circumstances. Luward had declared they should be able to invade and crush any territory they wanted to.

After all, the Debau Company had money, and in the end, war is a contest of coin.

Furthermore, if the Debau Company won, it would obtain the rich ore deposits in that land, and also, by restricting the use of currency and issuing a great deal of its own, it would reap even greater profits.

The more enemies it attacked and absorbed, the stronger it would become, like a wild snake god out of ancient mythology

Would it perish in the end, just like the snake in that myth?

The snake god’s stomach had a limit, but the number of coins one could issue was effectively unlimited.

“However, if we had the forbidden book, we could at least disrupt the mine-depletion argument. After all, even if we cannot perform new excavations, we would be able to make fresh excavations at mines already closed. With mines that were once closed, surely we could sell money to the majority of rulers without objection. Please think about what that means. No doubt you chased after the book because you did not think the northlands sinking into ruin to be a good thing.”

As mining techniques advanced, many mines once thought depleted had been reopened. That meant reducing, even by a little, the need for new land. Beyond that, if obtaining it was something that could be resolved with money, there was no concern about sparking a war.

To Lawrence and Holo, there was no need to even ask what meaning this held.

“We are able to resolve many things through money; we believe many more should be. We must end the age of swinging swords and shedding blood. Surely the Moon-Hunting Bear showed us centuries ago that the age of size and power is coming to an end!”

Hilde’s body leaned forward as he spoke; when he closed his mouth, he held his breath.

Holo stared at him.

In her place, Lawrence asked the most important question. “Are you the only one advocating for this?”

Was this small hare fighting a battle within the Debau Company all alone? If that was the case, entrusting the forbidden book to him would be like pouring oil onto an open flame. As a logical merchant, Lawrence could only advise against such a risky course of action.

However, Hilde firmly replied, “I am not. Our company owner, Hilbert Von Debau, shares the same thoughts.”

He might have been the Debau Company’s owner, but his position in his own company was imperiled.

Though it sounded absurd, Lawrence was not so surprised. A huge company was impossible to administer single-handedly; authority had to be delegated left and right. One often heard of owners forced out by empowered subordinates. For the same reason, one sometimes heard of even the owner of a large company behaving in a pompous manner having been removed out of necessity.

And that meant the Debau Company itself might be reborn into something else now that it had fanned the flames of avarice.

“I beg you. If we do not break the rebels here and now, the Debau Company will decay into a mere invader. If money and military might become one, even the Church will join in. If that occurs, the flames of war shall spread like a wildfire. We do not want the Debau Company to become the gateway to hell. Were the dreams and hopes of this town not attractive to you? That is our owner Debau’s dream. At this rate, Debau’s dream shall collapse!”

Hilde’s pained shout was swallowed by the red-dabbed night sky.

The humans of this world were bound by countless threads, reeled together and woven into countless cloths. It was true that Lawrence had regarded the miraculous cloth woven by the Debau Company with pride, as if it was his own banner.

Worldly domination had passed from ancient beings such as Holo to human beings, and finally, merchants had outwitted the kings and nobles, the conquerors of the human world, to reach the summit themselves.

For a single moment, he had beheld a daydream more fantastic than any fairy tale.

That was the scale of what the Debau Company had accomplished.

“As you can see, I am a hare, yet I sympathize with Debau’s dream. He said he wanted to build a free country on this soil, a place where people are bound to no one, led only by their intellect and effort, and to bring peace to this fractured, quarrelsome land. I believe it is a dream worthy of sacrificing my life. That is why I have raised a hand against a wolf pack.”

He gazed squarely at Holo as he spoke.

“For I have my back against the wall.”

No doubt he had never had any intention of killing Col. Perhaps he could not kill in the first place. If he had fangs and claws, he could have threatened Le Roi, twisting his arms until he surrendered the location of the forbidden book.

But even so, he had taken Col hostage knowing Holo might kill him for it.

Something like that?

Everyone had their own reasons.

Hilde’s ears suddenly twitched. His face turned in various directions, then silently regarded Holo.

“In the event this all goes well, I shall of course pay you in thanks. You two have purchased a shop and are settling down in this town. And I am the treasurer of the Debau Company, always supporting Debau from the side.”

Meaning he would make it worth their while, beyond any monetary profit Lawrence had ever known.

“The situation is grave. All those involved in the Debau Company have spent most of their lives at the gambling table. They are people who understand that one must strike while the iron is hot. Beginning with our leader Debau himself, our faction has been shut inside the company’s walls. I am the only one who somehow managed to make it out.”

Hilde hopped down from the lid of the well and, like a hare out of a fairy tale, lifted up folded clothing with his front paws.

“I do not want to be locked in a shed while I still possess a key. Please think carefully about it. Surely our interests perfectly coincide. I will visit the inn tomorrow evening to hear your decision.”

And then, Hilde hopped along, pushed his body through the gap between two houses under construction, and vanished. Unusually, it was Holo who stopped Lawrence from trying to pursue, and right after, a red light appeared on the opposite side of the alley.

“Mm? What, having some fun in an out-of-the-way place?”

A group of three men bearing spears over their shoulders slowly emerged.

From their attire, they were town vigilantes.

“We’ve got enough work dealin’ with the drunks. Go do that at an inn.”

The man shooed them off like chasing away a dog or cat. Of course, Lawrence did not oppose them, putting his arms around Holo’s shoulders as if supporting her as they headed back through the alley they came. The men watched them for a little while, but they finally disappeared down another alleyway as they continued their rounds.

As they did so, the surroundings suddenly became dark and silent. Because Lawrence had lamplight in his eyes, he could not see Holo properly, though she was right beside him. His eyes were filled only with the night sky and the flickering light.

Holo then directed words at him. “What will we do?”

Until Lawrence’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, they could not guide him down this street, which was filled with supplies and garbage. He was about to say, Let’s wait a bit longer, when Holo did something unexpected. She clung to Lawrence’s arm more strongly.

“Those words did not feel like a lie,” she said. He realized she was speaking about the forbidden book. “The merits and risks are clear. That hare called himself Hilde. It’s as he said.”

The people within the Debau Company yearning for even greater profits for themselves were thinking of beginning a war. The possibility of their mines running dry provided the righteousness for their cause.

Therefore, Hilde was thinking that the existence of the forbidden book, leading to greater mine production, would cripple their scheme.

“What do you think…?”

“I…” Lawrence began to reply but held his words.

His thoughts arrived at a single piece of reasoning.

“I think, from our own perspective, we should proceed with Hilde’s plan. We do sympathize with Debau’s dream, and war does not bring profits forever. The profit is for an instant alone. It’s like setting a bushfire for warmth. Certainly it’s warm, but nothing is left afterward.”

Furthermore, Luward had judged this town unsuited to war. Lawrence agreed.

That was fine if one was on the offensive, but what would it do if it was being invaded instead? The town had no walls.

Even so, he imagined that people would remain in the town, or at least, that they had no intention of running.

“Also, handing over the book carries no danger by itself.”

“If that is what you say, ’tis well.” Holo spoke with a mumble.

Lawrence, taken back a little, replied, “Er…Shouldn’t you be the one to make this decision? The northlands ride on this. Do you not agree with Hilde’s plan?”

From the way Holo had spoken, it seemed as though she could not decide which path to take. Or else whatever his answer, she would tilt in the opposite direction.

Even so, Holo did not answer Lawrence’s question.

“…If the northlands aren’t engulfed by war, doesn’t that help you, too? Hilde has his own ambitions here, I’m sure, but I don’t see any benefit in our opposing them at this stage. Certainly developing closed mines is a good move. Beyond being profitable, it does no damage to new lands. Hilde’s words were no lie, right?”

If that was so, he felt that handing the forbidden book to Hilde was the logical decision. At the very least, if they did not hand it over, he could not see how the situation could be reversed.

If failure to reverse the situation and not surrendering the book over achieved the same result, they should opt for the choice that presented the possibility of better results.

No doubt Holo’s head was more than capable of making such a calculation.

So, of the possibilities he could think of, this was it.

“Do you have some reason for not wanting to hand it over?”

At Lawrence’s question, Holo’s body quivered in surprise. There was no way Holo would just pass such an important decision on to Lawrence. Doing so could only mean she had turned desperate, or there was something she did not want to think about.

But if so, what?

“…Can you not trust Hilde? Certainly, he looks like an unreliable hare but…he seems well informed about what is going on. The treasurer of an organization like the Debau Company has to be a rather sharp thinker. I don’t think we need worry on that count.”

That was just what Lawrence thought without elaboration or embellishment.

There was no proof Hilde would be able to convince the opposing party, but he felt now was not the time to say that.

“Or don’t you trust Debau, even so? Certainly it might be difficult to trust someone we’ve never seen…Also, there are still the rumors of unrest that the Debau Company spread that are still in the air.”

This was not a simple argument concerning impressions. Until a very short time ago, Lawrence and Holo had been chasing after those very rumors of unrest.

However, Holo said nothing in either direction.

She continued to stand there, head down, clinging to Lawrence’s arm.

Lawrence desperately held back the sigh he wanted to make.

Was there something more beyond this? Was there something he was not seeing? More than that, why was Holo not talking to him about it?

Little by little, those doubts changed into irritation toward the unspeaking Holo.

Was there indeed a reason beyond those that she did not want to hand over the forbidden book?

If there was, there really could not be many left.

“Or are you concerned for the possibility they might do harm to Col?”

After all, they had Col’s sack then and there, with its meager contents as if to display Col’s helplessness.

But Hilde had said he had no intention of bringing harm to Col.

Holo clearly thought those words were not false; if she had been concerned, she would have put Hilde’s small body between her giant fang-filled jaws then and there.

And Holo had desperately held her reactions in check.

That led to the conclusion that Holo trusted Hilde’s words—essentially, that Hilde truly did not intend to bring harm to Col. This was likely true even if they refused to hand over the forbidden book.

Hilde had a creed.

Lawrence did not think that creed included meaninglessly killing anyone.

“Or is there something I’m just not seeing here?”

Lawrence asked that, unable to restrain himself any longer.

There was no mistaking that going with Hilde’s plan was in Holo’s interests. There was no room for such a misunderstanding on Lawrence’s part. On top of that, it was an opportunity for exceptional profit.

The dawn of success would surely bring an exceptional amount of goodwill in the town. His cheaply setting up a store would take on an even more special meaning. Goodwill from the people who ruled the town was no different from having the goddess of fortune smiling right by your side. With Holo beside him as he traded in the store, he felt like he might even be able to catch Eve’s tail.

Lawrence looked squarely at Holo, as if waiting for an unreasonable child to calm down.

Holo was no child. If she had something to say, without fail, there was reason behind the movements of her lips.

Finally, Holo’s mouth twitched several times, and then finally the words came.

“If we hand this forbidden book over, even more lands may be despoiled in the distant future.”

Lawrence felt like his field of vision had just doubled in breadth.

What surprised him was that he did not expect Holo’s reasoning to be that shallow.

“It’s true…that possibility does exist. But the new technology will enable the revival of some mines already closed. If that happens, the need to clear new land will be noticeably reduced. After all, it will be easier to develop land already cleared for mining. Furthermore, just as Hilde said, there will be many cases where everything can be resolved with money. In the course of my own travels, I’ve heard that there actually are specialists who profit from reviving depleted mines. Therefore…”

Lawrence cut his words off there.

Still Holo did not reply.

“Therefore, I think what must be done right now is to eliminate the reason for the hard-liners within the Debau Company to invade the northlands. Or more precisely, I think we should support the revival of the dream held by the people who built this town. Of course, I understand you have concerns. The forbidden book probably really does contain amazing techniques. And if we hand that to the Debau Company, that technology might stoke the flame of ambition for further development. However…”

Lawrence realized that at some point, he had switched to trying to preach to Holo.

He had paid the deposit for buying a store in this town, so there was that as well. But the foremost reason was because, having seen what the Debau Company had set out to accomplish, he was moved and excited by it.

If merchants governed the world, surely the mountain of foolish and irrational things in that world would be swept away. When one got down to it, merchants made towns grow, and the only way they could do business was by making people happy. Unlike kings and nobles, few merchants were swayed by stupidities like renown or avarice. There was a popular misconception founded in ignorance that the great merchants were despots living in the lap of luxury. Any merchant doing that would soon have his business stolen by another merchant.

More crucially, a king or noble could dominate others without a single coin in his treasury, but no merchant with an empty treasury could dominate anything. Since they had no choice but to work hard, Lawrence felt it was obvious who ought to govern and who ought to be governed.

Besides, in his experience as a traveling merchant, places where trade was vigorous were full of life and happiness. That was why Lawrence wanted to support Debau.

Handing over the forbidden book might well lead to greater exploitation of the land, but Lawrence felt that casting away all hope out of fear of that possibility was a foolish thing.

He had something else he wanted to say to Holo.

“Why do you say that now of all times? You said whatever the Debau Company was doing in the northlands didn’t bother you, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you supported my buying a store here?”

This time, Holo’s body did not even twitch.

“And yet, to not hand over the book…”

“Wrong.”

Holo spoke.

“Wrong. ’Tis not like that at all.” Holo clutched Lawrence’s arm hard enough that it hurt, repeating “wrong, wrong,” over and over.

She looked like a spoiled child unable to get her way. Perhaps that was indeed the truth of it.

As Holo repeated “wrong,” her voice became more and more tearful. Holo slackened her grip on Lawrence’s arm, finally letting both of her arms hang down.

Her shoulders shook like those of a weeping child thrown out of the house on a rainy day.

“How am I wrong? The damage might well be somewhat excessive. It might be a forbidden book, but it’s no book of magic. Certainly it might promote more mine excavation but…even so, I don’t think it’ll be some sudden tragedy leaving the northlands stripped bare.”

Holo looked up at Lawrence from under her hood.

The gloom he saw on her face was the despair of a merchant in a caravan under attack by wolves, desperately wondering what to do.

“…Certainly, it might come to pass decades down the road, but there’s no point thinking about it, is there?”

Holo gave a heavy sigh at those words.

She looked like she wanted to scream; she also looked like she was holding back words that would be a little too frightening. He realized it was probably both when tears began to pour from Holo.

“There is…a point…”

“…Ah?”

Lawrence, thrown off by the thick gloom that had brought Holo even to tears, could not wrap his mind around it.

But even if he later arrived at an understanding on his own of the words Holo had spoken, he did not think that changed what he had to do.

The reason was that this was the way of the world—an eternal fact that lay between Holo and Lawrence.

“There is a point…I live a long time. You will not be by my side forever. Why, why must I watch alone as forests are mowed down because of my decision? Why must I watch mountains stripped bare? Come, now…why do you say I must decide? Do you want this to be my fault? Is it because you will die in no time, and after you die, it matters not either way? You, you…”

Holo clenched her hands into fists and pounded Lawrence’s arms.

He had been struck by Holo’s fists in earnest several times now. It was obvious she was not putting her whole strength into it; if he tried, he could stop her anytime.

But Holo’s state in that moment was a more painful blow than any that had come before it.

Holo’s fists trembled as tears covered her desolate face, as if to expose how even she was powerless before a fate she could not defy.

She pounded Lawrence’s chest over and over as if she was divining the moment when he would never again awaken.

“I can bear it because you are here…But I—I…”

She sniffed up her sobs, looking up at Lawrence with her tear-drenched face, seeming to desperately cling to him as she spoke.

“I am not so strong.”

As if the fists that had powerlessly struck Lawrence’s arms had finally exhausted the last of their strength, she grabbed hold of the sleeve of Lawrence’s clothing. Holo was crying as she grasped Lawrence’s sleeve, as if pleading with him not to abandon her.

When Holo had been drawing a picture of the store of Lawrence’s dreams, she declared, “Is there no place for me in your store, I wonder?” That had not been in the slightest jest.

Holo truly wanted a place of her own; that was why she had resolved to shut her eyes to disagreeable things so that she could obtain such a place.

However, if she resolved to hand over the forbidden book, she would have to bear all of the responsibility for mine development continuing centuries into the future. Lawrence had no doubt Holo would think so, never questioning whether that was a fact or not.

Also, Lawrence would not be there by then. If he was fortunate, he might live for another fifty years or so.

If he came down with a grave illness, he might not last the week.

Human life was very short. A poet might say, If you are afraid of losing something, why not find someone to fall in love with?

Holo had to have been resigned to that from the start; surely she had experienced it a number of times. In all honesty, for Holo to be this much at a loss even so made Lawrence think, as a man, he was proud to have come this far in his life.

His gaze fell to Holo’s hand; he slowly shifted his gaze to Holo once more. Holo continued to stare at Lawrence, sobbing and sniffling all the while, having wholly cast aside her vanity as the self-proclaimed wisewolf.

Lawrence took her hand.

Holo was still crying.

This wisewolf knew from the start what Lawrence would say.

“Then, it’s fine if you don’t decide.”

Lawrence spoke while bringing Holo’s small body into both of his arms.

“You knew from the beginning that we should hand the book over to Hilde, didn’t you?”

Lawrence felt largely the same way that Holo did.

The pros and cons were quite clear, all the more so when the conditions were so clear.

Even so, Lawrence had tried to somehow win one against Holo. He was bad at giving in—a common trait among merchants.

And Holo must have anticipated what Lawrence would say in the end.

That was how she wanted it.

She must have been ashamed at how she was weeping, capable only of waiting for the words she desired.

However, if the most precious person to him in the whole world was waiting for her own words, Lawrence would proudly deliver the words she was waiting for.

“I will follow what is profitable for me and hand the forbidden book to Hilde. You objected. You objected for a variety of reasons. I’ll take responsibility. I’m not sure how I’ll take responsibility yet, but I’ll take it. I will take it. Is there any deceit in my words?”

Holo weakly shook her head side to side.

“Sorry,” she said in apology several times.

“It’s settled, then. I’ll hand the forbidden book to Hilde. Lift up your face and look at me.”

Lawrence grasped Holo’s slender shoulders, pushing her away a short distance to the point it was a little rough.

Holo was still crying.

One would not think she was a wisewolf at all. But really, she wasn’t.

The name wisewolf was Holo’s false form that was worshipped by the villagers of Yoitsu.

“We’ve managed this far. We’ll manage this time, too.”

Even logic like this was something Holo required to endure the loneliness nipping at her heels.

“So, don’t cry anymore.”

Lawrence forcefully wiped Holo’s eyes with the nub of his finger.

As he did so, tears fell again where Lawrence’s finger had pressed. He wiped those away, too.

“If you cry too much, you’ll give me odd ideas again.”

He lightly slapped her cheek and laughed. Holo laughed as if coughing from a joke that was just too awful, then, on cue, cried again just a little.

However, he had said all he had wanted to say.

Holo wiped her face with her own hand, wiping further with her sleeve in rough motions. There was no more for Lawrence to do. Finally, Lawrence offered his hand to Holo.

“Let’s go back to the inn.”

Holo took his hand and nodded firmly.

The next day, Lawrence awoke before Holo.

Even now, Holo’s face looked like she had cried herself to sleep; her breaths seemed labored as she slept. As she usually slept curled up like a beast, the fact that her face was poking out from the futon was yet another reminder that things were not normal.

Lawrence had been by her side ever since the night before.

To Holo, Lawrence would die in but a very short time. Even if she had been overwhelmed by her feelings in that moment, the fact that the words had come out of her own mouth had frightened her.

Lawrence was not the one who would see her off.

He thought that as he remembered seeing Col off from Lenos.

The face Holo made while watching him go was a very tired one. As she desperately tried to do so with a smile, the fact that whomever one saw off did not return exhausted her under the surface.

It would be nice if at least one person you saw off returned.

She looked too exhausted even to entertain such absurd impossibilities.

Even if there were countless great men who could perform miraculous resuscitations, there were none who could defy the passage of time.

Holo was always the one to watch others go. She always had been and always would be.

Lawrence stroked Holo’s cheek and got down from the bed. He opened the wooden shutters a crack; it was once again cold but rather bright. It was lively outside; there was not a shred of any sense of the Debau Company being internally split in two or of a war breaking out in the air at all.

Tragedy always came suddenly; then all was revealed.

All Lawrence could do was to keep his feet moving at all costs, even within the raging storm.

Moving forward was all he could do for Holo.

Losing battles were always depressing stories; by that measure, Holo’s life had been one prolonged losing battle against fate and providence.

Lawrence tidied himself and left the room.

He thought it a little cold, but as if to show he would soon return, he left his coat behind.

“Business with the young master, you say?”

When Lawrence went to Moizi’s room on the third floor, it was apparent Moizi drank in his own room as well. The sleepy-looking Moizi slowly exited the room, along with a fierce whiff of alcohol.

“Yes. I have a bit to discuss.”

“Mm…if he is not in his room…and he’s not. Pardon me for a moment.”

Opening the door, Moizi urged Lawrence inside; in short order, Moizi came back into the room with a water jug in his hand.

And even though he was in front of the desk, he poured the water down atop his own head, shaking his head like a dog.

“Whew! My goodness. I don’t want to get any older if that’s all it takes to get me drunk.”

“It seems to have been quite the celebration.”

“Ha-ha. How embarrassing. I do have the excuse that one knows not when one will perish, so one must drink to the fullest.”

So enjoy every drink as if it is one’s last.

Certainly that was an excuse anywhere on earth for warding off admonitions against heavy drinking.

“Now, then, the young master.”

When he combed his hand back along his head, his silver hair stuck up like needles.

Such vigor at his age—no doubt, when he was younger, he had truly been a wolf or a bear of a mercenary.

“Yes. Do you know where he might be?”

“He’s probably with Rebonato…Ah, that’s the name of the head of the Hugo Mercenary Company. I think he’s probably there, but…the young master and other heads of companies travel in different circles than the membership. I don’t know what liquor he was invited to drink or where he got himself drunk.”

As befitted a frank, forthright mercenary, he left it at that. Besides, it seemed those that managed groups indeed traveled in their own special circles.

“As it seems you are in a hurry, I can get the youngster moving, but…”

Moizi’s words silenced Lawrence for several seconds.

Sensing his hesitation, Moizi slipped out of words suited to a man of battle and into others. “Perhaps I can be of assistance?” This was the old, practical strategist managing a mercenary company. Normally, for Moizi to send for the head of the company, there had to be a rather good reason.

“Of course, it’s no problem at all. I am merely a little concerned that he will feel responsible for being drunk and asleep at a critical time if I speak of this to you first.”

Perhaps it was too harsh a thing to say to Moizi, who seemed to still have liquor left in him.

That concern flew out the window in an instant.

“I’ll send the youngster running. It won’t be long.”

Moizi strode past Lawrence into the corridor.

He yelled “Messenger!” in a great voice that seemingly threatened to bring the whole building down.

Blessed by an omniscient and omnipotent God, lords ruled their lands by divine right, and knights swore fealty to those lords. It was God that determined what the lord, his earthly representative, did and desired for his lands. And so, at times, even forests that had stood unmolested until now and vast steppes across the land suddenly cried out as they became charred, barren wastes.

The fate of this town was in the grasp of the Debau Company, a lord without a face.

A faction holding contrary views, having launched an internal rebellion and succeeded, was an exceedingly serious matter to those mercenaries entrusting their very lives to the company.

“My word.” Luward had wobbled back to the inn, pulled along by the hands of two youngsters, as if a pair of younger brothers were pulling their beloved older brother along. He washed and wiped his face with a hand towel and lifted up his face. “How certain is this information?”

Like the cog of a waterwheel, the direction Luward’s troop would advance shifted depending on the information they obtained. At that moment, they so feared being led astray by a mistaken report.

Lawrence and Holo might skirt by with moderate damage, but for Luward and his men, their fates quite literally depended on it.

“Does the name Hilde Schnau ring a bell?”

As Lawrence spoke, Luward looked at Moizi.

Moizi replied in his place. “The treasurer of the Debau Company. He is said to be the owner’s right-hand man.”

“If Holo’s ears are correct, he is, as he claimed to be, this Hilde Schnau.”

No lies slipped past Holo’s ears; there was no lack of such legends concerning ancient beings such as Holo. Luward stared at the towel he had wiped his face with, giving it a look as sharp as a drawn and bloody blade.

“One of my comrades has heard talk of dealings with the Debau Company going bad, that some kind of internal conflict seemed to be taking place,” said Luward.

One of the youngsters moved to sensibly take the towel away, but Luward wiped his face once more and tilted his head.

“Issuing the new currency is vital business. And no doubt the profit’s enough to make your head spin. So, we joked that they’re done using us so they’re not giving us the time of day anymore, but…”

“It seems the owner and most of his faction have already been confined within the company.”

Lawrence’s words did not change Luward or Moizi’s expressions one bit. No doubt he would have elicited more of a reaction if he had told them the daily price of bread had fallen.

“They got greedy.”

Luward saw right through it in an instant.

“Fools. Wearing a bear’s hide doesn’t make you a bear. They think they can behave like the lords of the south just because they made a lot of money? These are the northlands, forsaken by even the Church. They don’t see they’ve confused the ends and the means. Thinking that all you have to do is attack and the war ends just like that is why the lords here are mocked as bumpkins.”

On the map spread across the wall, there were a number of narrow-looking, slender roads that cut between the mountains. If it were the plains of Ploania to the south, such narrow roads would not even appear on a map.

However, these were the main thoroughfares of the northlands; they were vital but tenuous lifelines that connected the hollows of the mountains to a portion of the deep forests that had been cut open.

Such roads could lead to a unit on the advance passing through very constrained places along the way; for their part, merchants were fearful of their lines of communication with one another being cut off.

“And? Is that all that the treasurer had to say to you, Mr. Lawrence?”

Surely Luward was thinking of other comrades who he should inform of these matters, and also, where the flames of war would spring should they erupt.

As Luward silently stared at the map stretched over the wall, Moizi asked in his place.

“No. He seeks cooperation to regain internal control of the Debau Company.”

Luward turned toward him. “Cooperation.”

In war, who was friend and who was foe was a matter of life and death.

“As a practical matter, this means only handing over an object we obtained in Lenos that will further his plan, but…”

“Mmm.”

The aged, bearded soldier tugged at his chin, while Luward folded his arms and lifted his own chin.

“Mr. Lawrence, you came across some kind of treasure on some adventure?”

“It was somewhat related to a business deal—a forbidden book, which contains techniques for mine excavation.”

The expressions of the two mercenaries did not change from this, either. It seemed their faces betrayed less the more important the information that was before them.

They truly believed that no matter how unnatural it might feel, the moment one lost discipline is the moment one failed.

“Holo and I wanted the forbidden book to occupy the bookshelf of some dilettante in the south for all time, so we cooperated with a book merchant. Right now, that book merchant is headed to the town of Kieschen, far to the south, with an acquaintance of ours.”

“Kieschen. That’s nearly a week’s travel, even with a fast horse.”

Moizi nodded to confirm what Luward seemingly said to himself.

“Last night, the luggage of our acquaintance, one which ought to be with the book merchant far from here, was tossed right before our eyes. It seems they took it so that they could speak to us. The request for cooperation from Mr. Hilde was on top of that.”

“Among our comrades, that method for requesting cooperation is respectfully referred to as ‘extortion,’” said Luward.

“Yes. However, Mr. Hilde seems to have arranged it to demonstrate that he is determined, to the death if need be.”

Knowing Holo’s true form, Luward said with a nod, “I see,” and then raised his face.

“Then, this Hilde is…”

“Not human.”

He could trust Luward. When Lawrence nodded briefly, Luward’s lack of expression did not falter. After a pause, all he muttered was, “I—I see…”

“And so, we have agreed to cooperate with Mr. Hilde.”

As Lawrence declared it was so, Luward’s gaze did not climb or any such thing. Instead, he gazed at a bare spot on top of the table, as if putting a plan in order in his head.

“Or rather, only to hand the forbidden book over. Tonight we will inform him as much.”

“What are his chances of victory?” Luward asked straightforwardly.

It was refreshingly pragmatic.

“He has a chance. That is as far as I will go.”

The larger the affair, the more difficult it was to stop the flames of avarice once they had been set ablaze.

Now that the company had begun issuing its own currency and facing off against the landowners by itself, he did not know how much they could resist, regardless of how influential they were within the company.

After all, this was a matter of profit.

Speaking of dreams would of course be seen as trying to spoil things with small-minded logic.

If one was dealing with men with swords on their hips, they would rebuke with a simple Silence! and have their faithful subordinates slice a person into ribbons as a matter of course.

“In other words, you are telling us to run, Mr. Lawrence?”

As the waterwheel turned the cog, the pestle would soon fall.

Luward had no doubt worked out in his own head that something similar was coming here.

Lawrence nodded.

“I am. If Mr. Hilde fails to persuade them, I think we shall be endangered ourselves. I am nimble, and I have someone who will protect me. However, you…require time when altering the route of your advance.”

The word retreat was the word most associated with dishonor among mercenaries.

“Mmm. Certainly, changing the route of one’s advance takes time. But retreat takes even more time.” Luward grinned and laughed. “We’re a hardheaded, stubborn bunch, after all.”

Lawrence meant to carefully pick his words; Luward seemed especially fond of them.

“Altering the course of your advance, eh…?” Luward repeated to himself with a small smile. “I’ve seen what happens when you try to drench a blaze with cold water. Have you seen a refinery, Mr. Lawrence?”

When asked, Lawrence replied that he had not.

Of course, he had seen a number of factories with furnaces within towns, but what Luward was referring to was a huge furnace made by gouging out the slope of a hill.

“You have five or six people working, using bellows to pump air into a furnace taller than a siege engine. The coal makes a sound like the breath of a demon as it burns. If you toss water onto it, you don’t put the fire out; rather, the flames swell up like an explosion.”

It seemed that with anything, the results could be reversed if the situation was extreme enough.

“I’m sure they’re painfully aware of what they’ll need to do to realize their ambitions. Right now, they’re all hot and excited. I credit the courage of someone who’d dare pour water over them. But the cost of failure is high.”

Luward looked up at the ceiling and said, “Boom,” before continuing. “Understood. Mr. Lawrence, thank you. I won’t make you have to convince me. After all, I was planning to leave the town behind anyway. This just speeds things up a bit. There’s still plenty of booze left in this world that I haven’t gotten to drink, after all. This is no time to dawdle around.”

He sounded like Holo when he said that. Perhaps being born close to Yoitsu was responsible for his love of drink.

Luward firmly gripped Lawrence’s hand. “I’ll leave a few good men behind. When it’s time to run, use them. We’ll be waiting on the road that goes to Yoitsu. From there, we know plenty of paths leading east.”

So even now, he intended to lead them to Yoitsu.

Mercenaries had a strong sense of duty.

“So, we’d better move quickly and quietly. We’ll get our baggage together while they’re too worried about internal problems to look outside. Moizi, what’s our food situation?”

“Two days’ worth at best.”

“Immediately provision five days’ worth to bring that to seven days. Don’t sell gold coins. Buy everything with silver.”

With silver trenni linked to the new currency’s sudden price jump, logically its own price would climb along as well. That being the case, the value of gold coins would invariably drop greatly relative to silver coins, making buying anything with gold coins look like a fool’s errand.

Luward could make that calculation in an instant.

He was indeed no mere war enthusiast.

Lawrence even found himself thinking that if Luward ever retired from mercenary work, perhaps they could do business together.

“Tomorrow morning, during the mist of dawn, the Myuri Mercenary Company shall alter the course of its advance.” The corner of Luward’s lip curled up wryly at the last part.

Moizi cracked a smile, replied, “Understood,” and straightened his back.

Lawrence had ensured the safety of the mercenary company that bore the name of a companion from Holo’s homeland. If by some chance Hilde should fail to persuade the others, it was highly likely that his links to Holo and Lawrence would come to light even as displays of modesty turned into bloodbaths. Apparently, sometimes a perfectly healthy pig was slaughtered in sight of enemy troops as a means of intimidation. No doubt using mercenaries would cause men of small influence to shake in their boots.

“Then, you should be next.” Thanks to having cried so much, Holo’s face looked puffy and unhappy.

However, she was properly snuggled against Lawrence’s side as she gnawed on some bread.

Certainly her attitude remained defiant, but her displeased expression looked like it was hiding a blush.

Lawrence suddenly found the face rather adorable.

“Nn, ah, ahh…?”

Holo looked at him with a dubious, questioning look when she caught him seeming to see right through her.

“I wonder what we ought do about the store?” And after a short pause, she continued, “I know not whether that hare can manage to carry this off, but…you have said yourself, nothing good comes from leaving what is precious to you in a perilous place.”

He recalled when they had spoken about how easy it was to fall into tragedy when one had something to protect.

Certainly, if Hilde’s counterattack did falter, setting up a store in this town would be a dangerous gamble. In any case, Holo was well aware that a store was not a cheaply bought thing.

She was truly concerned about him.

“However, you have paid money for it, yes? It is the store of your dreams…and you are rather greedy when it comes to money, after all…”

Her words of concern had an abusive tone.

This side of Holo brought an unintentional strained smile to Lawrence’s face.

However, it was not that he was unhappy.

“As the money goes, I only paid the deposit.”

Sitting on the bed as they were, the usual difference in their height was lessened.

He gave a straight answer to Holo’s probing eyes.

“I’ll have to sell, of course.”

If he sold it and Hilde succeeded in persuading his comrades, surely conditions would be favorable for buying a store or two; if Hilde failed, he could only run with his tail between his legs. And should Hilde’s mouth falter, even if Lawrence and Holo remained in the town, he doubted very much that the town would retain its radiance once plunged into a war. At any rate, battle often gave rise to more battle. If that happened, it would be foolish to keep precious merchandise in a town without walls.

It was said that an ancient, legendary king had waged three hundred battles without having a single scar inflicted upon him. However, Lawrence’s heart was unconvinced that the town of Lesko would walk the same glorious path as that king.

If indeed the lords that had invested in this town’s buildings were not opposed to war, that had to mean that they were fully confident of success. Success brought about the intoxicating feeling that one could do anything one wished.

But, as sometimes one success did indeed lead to another, Lawrence could not just laugh it off as a foolish fantasy.

The important thing was, since failure would cost Lawrence everything, it was not a gamble that he ought to throw in on.

Besides, when Holo decided Lawrence should buy a store in this town, she resolved to not be concerned with whatever happened to the northlands. So, he should resolve to not cry over a store or two.

That’s what Lawrence thought, and that’s what he needed to do.

“Although…”

“Mm?”

As Lawrence spoke, Holo looked straight at him.

“Selling a store before even opening…it’s an odd feeling,” he said.

Lawrence had thought for sure it was the beginning of his adventures as a town merchant. If that had been so, here in the town of Lesko he would have been caught up in the advance of a story that none such as him could do anything to oppose.

All he could have done was hand over merchandise as demanded and then arrange his baggage and take refuge.

But rather than despondent or miserable, he felt closer to disappointed.

“I think ’tis a shame about the store as well. However, you know well enough what happens to those who are prisoners of the past, do you not?”

That was what Holo said in response. It was rare for her to be so self-effacing.

Holo had been buffeted all over the place by her past. So learning from her life’s lessons, Lawrence should immediately wash his hands of setting up a store in such a dangerous place and put his hopes into the next place.

Even he understood that.

Even so, Holo’s words left him a bit dumbfounded but for an entirely different reason.

“That may be so, but…”

“…So what is it, then?”

As Lawrence asked, he put Holo’s head in his hands and slowly stroked it.

Holo seemed annoyed as she tried to brush his hand away, but he ignored her and stroked her again.

Her dexterous tail was making brushing sounds on top of the bed, so she was not genuinely upset.

Lawrence proceeded to embrace Holo’s body, as though to ensure she would never get away from him again.

“But sometimes being trapped by the past brings people together.”

Lawrence remembered when Holo snuck onto his horse-drawn wagon’s wagon bed on a moonlit night.

“I wish to return to Yoitsu,” the wolf had said.

But for that one phrase, Lawrence surely would have never come to a place like this.

“Fool. Fate does not repeat itself over and over.” Holo finally brushed Lawrence’s hand away as she spoke.

It was so.

And the reverse was also true.

“I’m sure the hard times will end right about here, in fact.”

As Lawrence spoke, Holo snickered.

Lawrence rested his chin atop Holo’s head, and Holo’s tail swished a single dramatic swish.

The evening that Lawrence easily concluded the sale of the store, Hilde appeared at the inn at night, right on schedule.

This time he was in the form of a hare from the beginning, so there was no clothing hanging over his back.

With meat flying off the shelves during the celebration, hopping around town as a hare carried a higher risk of death than walking in the forest.

“May I ask what your decision is?”

Hilde, who appeared thinner than he had the night before, spoke with a voice that seemed more parched than broken up.

He looked like someone who had desperately and near the point of death exhausted all options inside the company.

Were he to tell a future chronicler of his experiences, this would have been the most powerful section.

To Hilde, sitting atop the chair and seeming very unharelike, Lawrence replied for both of them.

“We will hand over the forbidden book.”

Lawrence’s words shot through Hilde’s small body like an arrow.

“…”

Hilde’s red eyes continued to stare at Lawrence for a while as if he was unable to speak.

Not even his long ears twitched.

It was enough to make Lawrence wonder if he had fainted.

Likely, the situation inside the company had become hopeless. Lawrence knew not what threads of fate bound Hilde and the others together. However, he suspected that the Debau Company was a group of exceptional people, any member of which was as valiant as Eve. Surely it was a frightening war of words mixed with devious intrigues.

If Lawrence and Holo’s decision could rescue them amid all that, Lawrence was glad for that alone, all the more so because it was in their own best interests. When Hilde was finished taking a deep breath that seemed unsuited to his small body, he made what Lawrence thought to be a smile.

“Thank you very much.”

Hilde spoke as if he had found a single ray of light in the depths of hell.

Even so, it did not mean all was resolved that very moment.

After all, preceding the issue of Hilde succeeding in persuading the rebels was the practical matter of getting the forbidden book in hand.

“We have no objection to handing over the book. However, the book merchant on his way to purchase the forbidden book does not follow the same creed that we do.”

Probably, whichever way the northlands went was all the same to Le Roi the book merchant. To him, the forbidden book’s existence and meaning to the northlands were merely a means to the end of securing Lawrence and Holo’s cooperation.

In other words, Le Roi was not one to be moved by tearful pleas.

“I have money.” The hare in charge of the Debau Company’s accounts spoke without the slightest pause.

“How much?”

“I can pay three hundred gold lumione. I left them in a hideaway of mine in town.”

There was no need to check with Holo whether his words were true or false.

For the treasurer of a mining company that led the lords of the region around by the nose, that was surely not a difficult sum to amass. Perhaps the head of Debau had given Hilde the money for special circumstances.

When a deposed royal family was restored to power once more, there were always excellent subordinates who had brought them gold bullion in exile. Those who failed to prepare for when they fell rarely rose again.

“That is probably far more than is needed. But there is one thing that concerns me.”

“What is it?”

Even though he was a hare, his pronunciation was so elegant it almost turned Lawrence’s stomach.

Lawrence thought that the only reason he could deal with Hilde as an equal was because he was in the form of a hare.

He had not seen the face of the man under the hood, but he had no doubt it was a face full of confidence.

“In the event that you fail to persuade the rebels or that the forbidden book becomes fundamentally unnecessary…” As he spoke the latter half, the tone of his voice changed as if to impart deeper meaning to it.

As Hilde looked Lawrence over, Holo looked up at Lawrence much the same way. Should the northlands be laid to waste because of the techniques in the book, Holo would feel partly responsible, Lawrence imagined. Therefore, they had to leave as much room for them to maneuver as possible.

“Yes. If I fail to convince them, I do not mind if you take the forbidden book back by force. Should it no longer be necessary, I will return it in secret.”

“—!” Holo sucked in her breath at Hilde’s words.

Lawrence replied, “Thank you very much.”

Whether the forbidden book rested with the Debau Company or not mattered a great deal to Holo’s sense of guilt.

That pledge was worth a thousand pieces of gold.

“Then, there is the matter of going all the way to Kieschen to procure the book.”

“The book merchant is sly and wary and possesses a strong sense of duty as well. One might say he is the worst kind of man to profit from as a lender,” said Lawrence.

Hilde gave a firm nod.

Those red eyes were not the eyes of a fool who, when falling into a predicament, could only beg others for aid.

“Resorting to documents is too roundabout. I desire a quick decision and a quick resolution. Regardless, there is no time. Right now, the factions within the Debau Company are still arguing between each other. However, numerous lords with stakes involved are particularly obstinate, behaving as if this is a dispute over a family fortune.”

“So, you are saying they could take control in the blink of an eye?”

“Yes. No matter how absurd it may be, they are magnificent at getting their way.”

Father killed son, son killed father. Estranged in-laws and bastard sons usurped crowns. No matter how immorally they behaved, lacking fear of any God, they proudly asserted their own righteousness nonetheless.

Seizing control of a company by force was light morning exercise to them.

“I have a bird companion. His wings are the fastest, but…what he can carry is roughly limited to that sack.”

So it seemed that bird had taken Col’s carrying sack. It was not so rare, when eating a meal in the plains, to have one’s food stolen by a bird swooping down. Col’s situation was merely an extension of that.

“So, I would like Miss Holo to go.”

Hilde finally looked at Holo as he spoke.

Holo, her legs dangling over the bed, made what seemed like a small sigh.

“I am a substitute for a bird?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Just because one could take human form did not mean one was huge and wielded enormous might. That was true for Hilde before them; it was also true for the bird exhausting all efforts on Hilde’s behalf.

“I mind not. Besides, ’tis good to run in my true form once in a while,” said Holo as she got up from the bed.

Hilde lowered and raised his head, as if nodding in recognition of a trustworthy comrade’s point of view. “How long would Miss Holo’s feet take to bring her there?”

“Who knows? I know not the distance to the city.”

Hilde’s face scowled slightly. Right now, what was most precious to Hilde was neither money nor weapons. It was time.

Lawrence provided a lifeboat. “How much farther is it from Lenos to Kieschen than from here to Lenos?”

Hilde’s long ears stretched instantly. He raised his head. “By fast horse, messages take twice as long as from here to Lenos.”

“Is the road poor?”

“Somewhat.”

The road being somewhat poor was no doubt of little import to Holo.

As Hilde asked with his eyes, Holo replied in an annoyed tone, “Were I to run without sleep, a day and a half. Three to four days to return.”

Hilde gave a strong nod.

Then, he nodded one more time.

“That might make even my comrade’s wings weep.”

“’Tis of course a mad pace.”

The tip of his nose made the tiniest twitch.

By Holo’s standards, the look in her eyes was one of considerable humility.

In other words, she spoke the literal truth.

“Were my old pack mates to learn of a wolf being a hare’s errand runner, ’twould be quite a laugh. Even so, ’tis the world as it is today. Right now I can offer nothing save rushing into the company, fangs bared. The time when problems could be solved thus has passed. Am I wrong?”

Holo did not think that killing the group opposed to Hilde was a resolution to the problem whatsoever. Everything was interconnected in complex ways—a precarious balance held atop a scale.

To control the world of men, one needed not large claws, but slender fingers.

However, in all likelihood, were it not for the Kingdom of Winfiel, Holo would never have helped Hilde, he thought. The sight of Huskins crossing so many lines to protect his home was burned into Lawrence’s memory, too.

Though he was the being known as the golden ram whose legend continued to be told to this day, the sheep had eaten the flesh of sheep, and finally, he had ended up a cat’s paw of men.

Even so, Huskins had never wavered in his objective.

Holo’s expression was conflicted, no doubt because she was remembering him.

And as she wiped that conflicted face away with a single deep breath, Holo grew in stature once more.

“I know not how much time ’twill take to retrieve the book from the book dealer. What about you?”

Meaning, having decided her own role meant she had determined to carry it out with all her strength, so it was Lawrence’s turn to speak.

“In Lenos, I proposed means that would require immediate decision…”

“Do you think they shall bear fruit?”

Nothing could be said for certain. Even so, Lawrence could say this.

“Some people, if you pack three hundred gold coins in their bag and pat them on the rear, will run as fast as their legs can take them.”

Perhaps entirely able to imagine the sight of Le Roi running full tilt as if his pants were on fire, Holo sniggered audibly. Even Hilde allowed himself the luxury of a modest laugh at the joke.

No matter what the situation, it was important to allow oneself room to laugh.

Lawrence cleared his throat and spoke. “So, it should be five or six days, I imagine.”

If the situation worsened day to day, that number would no doubt feel close to an eternity. But the land that God had created was mercilessly vast.

“I can make no promises,” said Holo.

“I believe they should have arrived in Kieschen by now. I can only hope that they have already obtained the book.”

He was not saying that to put Lawrence the merchant at ease. The same went for Holo.

Even so, unlike earlier, both nodded without a word.

It was said that even when one must work with their father’s enemy, shaking his hand raises the plan’s probability of success.

When cooperating, one must forget all else and truly cooperate.

Hilde spoke with forcefulness one would not expect from a hare. “Then, let us be on our way with haste.”

Holo replied as she yawned, “You’ll be a good boy, won’t you?” She directed the words toward Lawrence.

Since it was not as if Holo was loading a mule down with a heavy pile of baggage, in the end, she merely switched to a pouch filled with gold coins, fastened a bit of food and water to herself, and left the town behind.

He could see a single bird flying in the moonlit sky above them. After circling around Lawrence and Hilde for a while, it flew off to the east.

Hilde did not remain.

If he was absent from the company too long, he might even be assassinated if where he had emerged next was exposed. No doubt the following several days would be the longest Hilde had ever known.

As a merchant, Lawrence felt that aiding Hilde achieve his objective was something to be very happy about. But in the end, Hilde had not directly asked for aid.

It made perfect sense really. Lawrence was a traveling merchant after all, and just the thought of sticking his neck into the Debau Company’s internal strife made him shiver.

And yet Lawrence felt a little lonely at the role of a mere traveling merchant being thrust upon him once more. He returned alone to the inn where his room felt strangely large, and laid in bed, turning over.

Though he would be separated from Holo for less than a week, he still thought, Please come back soon.

And with that, he bounded down from the wagon bed, ordering the mercenaries to assemble.

Moizi followed in Luward’s wake, distributing various minor commands.

The only ones left were Lawrence and Hilde.

But Hilde had revealed a plan that had earned respect from both Luward and Moizi.

For his part, Lawrence was merely playing the fool. One was the right-hand man of the master of a great merchant company. The other was a mere traveling merchant. One might say that even being jealous was absurd.

Lawrence looked down at Hilde, who had fainted; he then averted his eyes.

The great merchant went out with a whimper?

A foolish judgment.

He was a traveling merchant himself.

That sentence had viciously pierced Lawrence’s own heart.

In trade, some loss could not be avoided.

But there were losses that had to be avoided at all costs.

These were not long-term losses nor great losses, but the losses that could not be recovered from.

Surely it was no different for mercenaries.

When one made their living in something as uncertain as war, severe damage was surely not such a rare event. However, losses to the extent that none would succeed to carry their flag had to be avoided at all costs.

Therefore, to avoid annihilation, some undertakings were necessary despite their great risk.

As a result of Hilde’s plan, heading south carried with it the possibility of complete destruction. Therefore, the Myuri Mercenary Company changed course, entering the mountain road that led to Svernel.

If they were unable to put enough distance behind them while they still had cover of darkness, when the Debau Company determined the Myuri Mercenary Company to be an enemy and began pursuit, the mercenaries would be unable to implement strategies for escape. But advancing under darkness along a snow-packed road that was dangerous even in broad daylight only multiplied the dangers. One ran the risk of sliding down a sudden slope if they mistook something that was not a road for the road itself. The mercenaries organized themselves against that by dispatching a number of torch-bearing scouts that advanced forward while keeping track of one another’s location. Under normal circumstances, Lawrence would have surely been in admiration at the skill of it.

However, this was an army on the march with possibility hanging over them that an enormous enemy might assault them from the rear at any moment. Furthermore, Lawrence himself was nothing more than extra baggage. Rather, it was Hilde, who had created this circumstance, who deserved all the credit for the brilliance of his strategy. That was why, even as Hilde slept within the wicker cage, that cage had been moved from Lawrence’s wagon bed to one of the mercenary wagons that carried their equipment and supplies.

Having no feel for the land, Lawrence could not function as a guide, of course; neither could he work in tandem with the mercenaries. Furthermore, Lawrence’s horse-drawn wagon was fundamentally unsuited to traveling along mountain roads, and snow-covered roads all the more so; there was no small chance of the wagon wheels getting stuck.

Though the same went for the wagons belonging to the mercenary company, Lawrence’s baggage was for his own benefit and had little to do with the mercenaries themselves.

Neither Luward nor Moizi had shown any sign of displeasure whatsoever, but the same did not go for their subordinates.

Getting someone to help a person get a stuck wagon wheel out of the snow was no different than finding a needle in a haystack.

Besides, Lawrence had other reasons for his mood not lightening the entire time. Luward and Moizi had clearly anticipated it when they had looked at the spread-out map.

Even as a person thought, If we’re lucky, the season will soon be over, one also thought, Isn’t it time already? Won’t it ever change?, and so on. And thanks to a single sentence thrown their way, the predeparture nighttime meal was long exhausted, with the time now reaching the beloved hour of breakfast.

The slope suddenly increased, the road narrowed, and the horse-drawn wagon was no longer able to progress. At Moizi’s command, the mercenary group’s baggage was brought down from its wagons, and the horse-drawn wagons were overturned on the spot. Experienced hands removed the wheels of the wagons with sleds installed in their stead. Such equipment was natural for those considering marching an army through the winter. However, Lawrence’s horse-drawn weapon was not so well made as to have such tricks in store.

Though it was not a cheap thing, either.

Not having had the courage to sit on the wagon bed on this winter road from the start, Lawrence had been walking ahead of his horse, leading it by the reins the whole time, but thanks to that, now that they were stopped his sweat was rapidly cooling his body.

Even so, the chill he felt that moment was not because of the cold. It was because Moizi came rushing over during a pause between giving orders.

“Mr. Lawrence.”

It was not unusual for a mercenary on the march to bear a grim face.

However, to a merchant’s eyes, accustomed to reading the expressions on people’s faces, Lawrence could clearly see that he had come to say something unpalatable.

“The wagon, you mean?”

So, when Lawrence said it first, Moizi looked at Lawrence with earnest eyes, his expression not softening one fragment as he nodded. “It must be a difficult decision for a merchant.”

Abandon your wagon, in other words.

For the independent selling everything save his life for the sake of money, buying one was the fulfillment of a fond wish. The assets Lawrence had amassed for several years that had ridden with him served as proof that he was a proper traveling merchant.

The odds of losing it during his travels had not been low. There were times when his wagon wheels had been stuck in the mud while traveling alone, and he wondered if it was all over. Even so, right now the wagon wheels were neither stuck in snow nor broken.

But to advance any farther, it had to be abandoned.

“I knew this was coming.”

Lawrence managed to smile, stoutly waving it off.

It was much harder than walking away from the deposit he had paid for the store.

The other party was a mercenary who had surely been at harsher negotiation tables than most merchants. No doubt he easily grasped the gloom behind Lawrence’s expression. Even so, he wasted no meaningless words of sympathy, making an austere nod.

And he raised his hand to call someone, giving orders to switch the baggage onto the horse, and what could not be loaded moved to the company’s sleds.

“Then, let us be off,” said Moizi.

Just like that, it was over.

The switch from wheels to skids ended shortly after. Time was precious, and the road was long.

Without pausing for breath, the mercenaries resumed their advance.

Illuminated by torchlight, the snow-packed road made an eerie white glimmer.

When Lawrence turned around, his wagon stood silent atop the white road.

It was not that anything was getting any worse at this point.

It was just that, to a traveling merchant such as himself, the sense of loss was like leaving part of himself behind.

Perhaps it would have been a bit easier with Holo there, but he did not know when the rendezvous would take place.

If things went poorly, it was possible Lawrence would be discarded on the side of the road, just like his wagon. It was not impossible at all that it might come to battle.

As his wagon vanished into the darkness, it remained in the back of his mind like an ill omen.

Afterward, they advanced across a number of roads, arriving at a small unoccupied traveler’s lodge.

They rested to change shifts, and finally, dawn broke.

It was not the morning sun that Luward had yearned for, but a thinly clouded dawn instead.

They said it would take three to four days to reach Svernel. Though the distance was not so great, moving a large number of people over snowy mountain roads made for slow movement by its nature. However, as the same would be true for any pursuer, when Luward and Moizi had spoken about coming affairs, they had no concerns with the speed of their advance.

More than that, since Hilde’s stratagem had driven Luward and his men into the narrow mountain roads by denying them any other choice, what they needed to think of above all else was what to do once they emerged from the mountain roads.

“The first thing that stands out is that Svernel holds a strategic position in the northlands.”

It was when they were emerging from their first rest break at a small lodge for merchants that warded off the cold, something ever present wherever in snowy regions.

Inside the tent where crucial decisions were to be made concerning their advance, Moizi was the first to speak.

“However, I have my doubts as to whether any proper military strength can be raised there.”

“In other words, even including us won’t change the situation by much.”

The reason Moizi did not reply was not because there was any room for uncertainty in what was said. It was because as Luward’s eyes gazed at the spread-out map, he could confirm it with his own eyes.

“There are the letters Mr. Lawrence received, but…”

With that said, Lawrence looked over the letters spread out to the side of the map. They were written by Hilde’s own hand and bore the stamp of the Debau Company. The text was concise and precise, giving the reader the strong impression that the writer was highly capable.

However, the smudged characters, from not having given the ink time to dry, made it plain to any observer they had been penned in haste. Furthermore, despite the gravity of their contents, the letters had not been sealed with wax.

“How about heading north from Svernel and requesting the cooperation of the former lord?”

“Klaus von Havlish the Third, you say. Certainly he has not cooperated with the Debau Company whatsoever, but I would not call him part of the rebel faction.”

“What’s his disposition?”

As Luward asked, Moizi spent a while in silence, stroking his beard.

“I have heard no rumors of valor concerning him. His territory must be fairly broad. He controls a number of roads that reach the north side of the mountain range. To head farther north from Svernel, using one such road is inevitable. Meaning trade to the north side of the mountain range cannot occur without passing through Havlish’s lands. The same stands if the Debau Company went there in search of new mining sites.”

“So he’s the type who likes to collect tolls and loaf around the castle counting his coins.”

“Most likely. Surely the man surviving to this point is a simple matter of geography. The present lord aside, his ancestors were probably benevolent.”

“We can’t rely on him, then,” Luward said with a groan.

Dawn had broken, but the direction of the wind made for snowy weather.

With clouds in the sky, the day would be short. In that meaning as well, they had no time to think deeply about the matter.

“So, we really don’t have any sane choice other than to enter the town of Svernel. But…” Luward sighed as he spoke. “We can’t escape any farther north. Am I right?”

“Yes. The food stores cannot take it. If we slip past Svernel, there are only run-down villages along the way to the next proper town. Even if they ‘cooperate,’ I am doubtful we can live off it.”

Even if they consumed a village’s food like a plague of locusts, a run-down hamlet’s food stores had limits. And it was the coldest part of winter.

The first customer Lawrence ever gained as a traveling merchant was from such a village, forsaken by other traveling merchants. That was why he was painfully aware of the condition of such a place in the deep of winter.

Even if Luward and his men did go to one, it would without doubt lead to the complete destruction of the village.

“It’s perfect. The hole we’ve been driven into has a dead end.” The wounds seemed very fresh as Luward spelled it out.

However, this was certainly not some special kind of wisdom that came exclusively to those being pursued.

There was one other reason why Hilde’s strategy was so remarkable.

And this was the preeminent reason why Lawrence, a mere traveling merchant, was part of this meeting.

“So, when do you think Miss Holo will rendezvous with us?” Luward spoke while his gaze remained down upon the map.

Holo’s existence was akin to what the joker was to card games. The lone trump card capable of felling even an emperor.

“She expected to return to Lesko today or tomorrow at earliest.”

But it was scarcely possible every last thing had gone according to plan.

“Once she arrives in Lesko, she’ll realize the Debau Company has been taken over. I wonder what she’ll do after that? Look for us, probably.”

Lawrence wanted to praise Hilde for having seemingly taken truly everything into account while making preparations.

“He referred to this possibility when handing me the letter at the inn. It seemed he’d always planned to go to Svernel should anything happen. Mr. Hilde apparently worked it out with his companion who headed to Kieschen with Holo.”

“In other words…”

Luward took in a large breath, his body seemingly growing as large as a bear’s.

Apparently, clearing the air required chilling his insides first.

“…He instigated all this to get his paws on military might.”

Neither Luward nor his men had actually seen Holo in her wolf form. However, the legends that told of Holo that Lawrence had heard here and there hardly did her justice.

“If you’re thrown into battle empty-handed, all you think of is running away. But if you have a weapon in your hands, even a small one, you can show a lot of bravery, even in a reckless situation. That is why you tie a spear to the hands of new recruits for their first battle but…who knew the same could be done to us.”

“I’m sorry, but can we really trust Miss Holo so far?”

Flattery was not the job of a strategist.

At Moizi’s misgivings, Luward raised an eyebrow as his chin twitched. “That’s what has Mr. Lawrence so calm, isn’t it?”

Those were by no means words of praise.

But it was the truth.

“…Yes. If Holo can rendezvous with us, certainly that would mean great military strength. However—”

Holo had no intention of doing battle.

Luward interrupted Lawrence with a wave of his hand. “You can save the rest. What I want now are facts.”

He had been brushed off. It twisted his gut how he could be a traveling merchant and still be treated as less than a person.

“So Svernel really has to be our objective.”

It was a strategic point in the northlands where those opposed to the Debau Company were said to be gathering.

In the first place, in the event of war, Luward and Moizi had planned to make money off those fleeing toward the outskirts of Yoitsu. This was also for the purpose of preventing the wounded and fleeing from heading to Yoitsu and threatening the livelihoods of those who dwelled in the villages there.

By that thinking, for the Myuri Mercenary Company to deliberately head to Svernel, premised on the thought of joining the rebellion there, was a bad joke indeed.

But Luward was not some mere beaten dog driven into a corner by a hare.

As he gazed at the map, he added, with a lighthearted tone such as one would use to say, Let’s go have a drink…

“I mean, all we have to do is rob enough food and run.”

Lawrence had let it slip from the forefront of mind, but these were mercenaries.

“All right, forward march!” shouted Luward.

They were reliable men, but they lived in a different world.

Right now, there was no wisewolf beside him. He would have liked to hear her make a small chuckle at the foolishness of humans.

Hilde awoke sometime after they took breakfast and set out.

Anyone would have found the head of a marching army and his strategist taking care of a hare to be odd—and people ignorant of Hilde’s true nature all the more so.

In the end, the plate came around to Lawrence once more.

“Fatten him up well,” said the mercenary with a laugh, handing Lawrence the wicker cage that held Hilde.

Not that Luward or Moizi had said it, but rumors steadily broadened to the effect a merchant’s scheme had forced Luward and his men to head to Svernel. So it was easy for them to identify who was responsible.

The mercenaries around Lawrence did not come close, opening the distance both in front and behind him. At this range, should any sign of betrayal present itself, he could be instantly slain in a wall of spears.

It was a bitter pill to swallow.

Even though Hilde had awoken, he did not carelessly raise his voice, carefully assessing the situation instead.

“We can speak a little.”

As Lawrence spoke, he brought a damp cloth near Hilde’s lips. After taking a sniff, Hilde took the moisture into his mouth, clumsily drinking with a radiant twinkle in his eyes.

“…To Svernel?”

It was a curt question.

And with those two words, Lawrence was certain that Hilde’s earlier question had been a complete and utter fabrication.

“Just as you planned.”

The least Lawrence could do was to answer with rancor. His words made Hilde hold his breath for a moment and then slowly exhale. Lawrence brought the cloth close to his lips once more; Hilde drank more steadily than earlier.

“Right now…where are we?”

The murmur of his voice was by no means restraint on his part. From the luster of his coat, he truly did not have the energy for more.

“We entered the mountain passes and left a small mountain lodge this morning. Right now, I see two mountains to the east and one mountain to the north.”

If he had a sense of geography, that would surely suffice. Hilde nodded. “And Miss Holo?”

Then, that question. Everyone was depending on Holo. The tightening in his chest every time it came up might have been him feeling responsible he could not shoulder burdens as heavy as Holo, or perhaps it was simple jealousy.

Probably both, he thought.

“Not yet. However, if she returns to Lesko, you said you’d planned to head to Svernel, yes?”

“…Yes. There are…limited routes between both places. My flying companion will likely find us immediately…”

Humans were limited to land and sea, but the sky was for birds alone. Lawrence did not bother to nod as he pulled out some bread with a rustle, showing it to Hilde. “Food?”

“…I am unsure if I can hold it down.”

“Let’s moisten it, then.”

Lawrence had taken care of numerous weakened animals in his travels as a merchant. He had even pulverized wheat or beans, added hot water, and packed the paste into their mouths, forcibly if necessary.

But since Hilde could understand speech, there was no need to force his mouth open.

“I do think this is quite strange.”

Lawrence seemingly smeared the moistened bread on Hilde’s mouth to put it in, dripping the water in the cloth down to his lips. Hilde’s eyes narrowed. It seemed hard for him, but he finally swallowed it down. After repeating this a few more times, Hilde listlessly shook his head side to side. “…Pathetic.”

“Hm?”

“For me…to end up like this…” Hilde’s feeble-sounding voice brought a strained smile to Lawrence.

It was certainly not a smile of unnecessary sympathy for the wounded.

No, it was a smile directed at himself.

“With a single utterance, you bound Mr. Luward’s thoughts to your own will. You’ve amassed a great fortune and left everyone guessing whether you’ll move left or right. And now you want even more?”

Hilde kept Lawrence in the corner of his eye. There was an unfathomable prudence in his eyes. Even in his weakened state, his eyes betrayed no hint of emotion. Within his heavy ingenuity and intellect lay a deep sense of caution.

“True…if one desires too much, one will fail.”

“Like your enemy.”

At Lawrence’s words, Hilde closed his eyes and made a painful-sounding laugh.

“Pursuit?”

“None at the moment. But if it comes, we should hear of it from the lookouts today or tomorrow.”

It would come. The addition of one small mercenary band to the enemy could be dismissed as trivial. While that might be so, right about now the town had to be in an uproar at Hilde’s disappearance. One could call it human nature to put two and two together.

It was hard to believe a person such as Hilde would be ignored.

“Right now, you should sleep. I may be envious, but you are a splendid merchant. I think, when the time comes, your wisdom will prove very valuable, far more than that of a mere traveling merchant like myself.”

He could only admire Hilde for deploying a strategy Lawrence could not even grasp the whole splendor of. Furthermore, he had Luward, the leader of an army on the march, in his grasp, and Lawrence himself had become akin to a hostage left alive because he was on such good terms with Holo.

Those thoughts brought out the words he used to flail himself.

Even if a merchant was resigned to licking the boots of the other party, if he became servile, he lost. But knowing that did not mean one could do anything about it.

“…I shall do as you advise,” Hilde said after staring at Lawrence for a while. His eyes did not scoff at the servile Lawrence. Hilde had no reason to do so, for he was an excellent merchant.

As Hilde closed his eyes, Lawrence covered his body with a blanket. If he wore a face like this when reuniting with Holo, she would give his backside a good hard kick, he thought.

Something in his head slackened. The situation—with Hilde’s greatness right before his eyes, Luward and his men seeing him as only a traveling merchant, and everyone around him depending solely on Holo—might have put him in a bit of a sulky mood.

It was foolish, he thought. Perhaps having spent so much time with Holo had given him notions about being a wolf himself. Lawrence smiled at his own absurdity as he walked in the center of the silent mercenaries.

He then realized it had been a very long time since he had walked in silence. My journeys were always like this before I met Holo, he thought with fresh wonder. Furthermore, he could barely remember what it felt like back then. Lawrence was amazed with himself at how much he had taken traveling with Holo for granted.

They climbed a plateau, crossed a frozen swamp, and walked on deer and hare tracks as they moved forward. It was already past noon as they made a rapid pace toward the horizon, as if fleeing from the cold.

When he raised his head, thinking this was about when Holo would be asking what they were having for supper, the mercenaries around him raised their heads as well, as if waking up. Perhaps it was the coincidence that made Lawrence expect to see Holo there when the mercenaries all looked back together.

The one running from behind looked like a mercenary through and through. But even when he ran right past Lawrence and headed toward the vanguard, for a while he still had his hopes up that Holo might appear.

When Lawrence finally had to accept she was not coming, he realized that he had fallen for Holo to a truly pathetic degree.

Shortly thereafter, the advance came to a halt and people gathered all around Luward. A report had come that there had indeed been pursuers dispatched from Lesko. There was a faint sense of tension enveloping everything around him.

Then, Luward faced his audience and spoke.

“Just now, I’ve received word pursuers from Lesko are drawing near us.”

There was no murmur among the mercenaries. It was quiet enough to hear a drop of water falling onto the ground as they awaited their leader’s next words.

Luward seemed satisfied with that as he spoke grandly.

“Our opponents are roughly three to four times our numbers.”

Unsurprisingly, he heard a light inhale of breaths.

However, since they judged themselves to be the most valiant mercenaries of all, they did not falter at all. Fiery looks mixed with caution poured onto Luward in silence.

“Also, besides being well funded, they aren’t a bunch of weaklings under the command of the third son of a noble half playing around. Their mountaineering is just as good or better than ours. At the very least, it’s a fine opponent to test our valor against.”

A fine opponent to test one’s valor against. It was like referring to a retreat as advancing in a different direction. Among the mercenaries, small chuckles spread around, along with wondering out loud who the opponent was, with blustering laughter mixed in.

Lawrence had heard that, normally, one belittles their opponent to reduce fear before engaging in battle.

Saying straight up what a dangerous situation might have been to warn them not to let their guard down, but even more than that, to tell them there was nowhere to run.

In these narrow passes, even if they fled into the mountains, this was a barren, snowy place in wintertime. They would freeze or starve to death in no time.

Even a mouse driven into a corner had no choice but to bare its teeth to the cat and fight.

“So, what unit is this anyway?” one of the mercenaries asked, unable to bear the suspense any longer.

Not a single person looked in the direction of that mercenary, their eyes squarely on their leader, Luward, since they were all thinking the same thing.

The mercenary business was a small world.

If one knew who they were facing, they would know his skill level and tactics, too.

Though knowing their opponent did not necessarily improve the situation, there would surely be some measure of relief merely in knowing who they would be fighting.

“You really want to know?”

Luward had such a serious face as he spoke that the mercenaries murmured all around. Even Lawrence held his breath. There were times when knowing was a relief; sometimes, it was better not to know.

Either way, if the pursuers caught up, there would be battle.

But these were vain mercenaries. Another mercenary spoke for the rest of them.

“Who is it?”

As the question was asked, everyone’s murmurs truly stopped that instant.

Luward smiled at the silliness as he looked at his feet. He raised his face.

Everyone held their breath.

Luward said this.

“The Hugo Mercenary Company.”

Lawrence had heard that name in Lesko. He was sure the man commanding that unit was named Rebonato.

The Debau Company was not taking any chances. Whatever the Myuri Mercenary Company’s objective, no matter how small in size, they had sent a force with overwhelming numbers, forged over the course of a hundred battles.

Lawrence clenched his fists.

But the next moment, cheers went up all around.

“Come on! Don’t scare us like that, boss!”

“If you’d scared me any more, I’d have pissed my pants!”

A clamor arose from many lips, with protests mixed with laughs as sword and spear were raised.

Lawrence felt like a fairy was tickling his nose. He had no idea why they were suddenly filled with such joy.

“Ha-ha, don’t be so sore. I didn’t know what to think till the moment I heard who was chasing after us, either. But Rebonato’s done pretty well for himself. He’s apparently taken a lot of the Debau Company’s gold, after all.”

As Luward cheerfully spoke, the mercenaries raised their voices to display their displeasure at the Hugo Mercenary Company and the “fat and stupid” Rebonato who commanded them.

But Lawrence still had no idea what they meant by it.

“Well, let’s play along to give him a good excuse at least.”

Luward had spoken; the rest was left to Moizi.

“So, that’s how it is! Forward march! Walk quickly if you want to sleep under a roof even a day sooner!”

The mercenaries gave Moizi’s spirited command a lackluster, halfhearted response.

They were finally dismissed and returned to their previous formation, but the atmosphere had completely changed from just before.

Could they really be that relieved that it was the Hugo Mercenary Company pursuing them?

Perhaps dialogue was an option to begin with? Certainly, Luward and Rebonato were drinking partners and seemed to get along well. But mercenaries that would not switch sides if they were paid enough gold simply did not exist.

When Lawrence returned to his own horse, Hilde’s face was peeking out slightly from the wicker cage mounted on the horse’s back.

“What is going on?”

The earlier shouts had apparently woken him up.

As the vanguard was setting out without delay, Lawrence went along with the flow and replied, “Pursuit approaches, apparently.”

Those words brought neither surprise nor sadness to Hilde. The eyes wordlessly facing Lawrence betrayed nothing.

“Though they don’t seem to be worried about it at all…”

Lawrence spoke while taking the wicker cage down from the horse’s back, wrapping one arm around it.

Hilde thought about that for a while, seeming to carefully select his words as he replied, “It must be a unit they know well.”

Then, he made a sigh of relief. Hilde seemed to know what this, too, meant.

“What do you mean?”

As Lawrence asked his question, Hilde’s ears rose a little.

“It is quite simple. Mercenaries are not quite the barbarians the world fears them as; they will not simply do anything for money. In particular, they rarely raise their blades against their own kind.”

Lawrence had begun to understand over the last several days that mercenaries were far from mere crazed killers.

However, that did not immediately put him at ease by any means.

“Therefore, the employer’s side…has a fair bit of difficulty handling them.”

The hare within the wicker cage narrowed his eyes as he laughed.

Lawrence had always seen things from the perspective of those attacked by mercenaries.

In Hilde’s case, he was the one hiring them.

“On the battlefield, killing is chiefly the role of knights and thugs hired for short periods. The job of real mercenaries is to capture their opponents alive. That way, they receive ransom for their captives as well. They do not pillage nearby towns or villages any more than necessary. In Lesko…you surely saw how they live. In particular, the good relations the units have with each other.”

Certainly, Luward had spent two whole days drunk, seeming to show his face in every corner. He had used letting others know about the Debau Company’s issuing a new currency as cover for heavy drinking all night long.

As Lawrence nodded, Hilde made a somewhat exasperated sigh.

“There are people in mercenary companies who have a long history together. Their bonds were born in the course of meeting together on the battlefield many times over. They are a group that dances to its own tune.”

“Then…”

“Yes. That is why…one truly hires them not for offensive strength, but as a check upon others.

“Though they are used to pillage towns and villages and lay waste to the countryside, depending on circumstances. Even by mistake, one does not hire mercenaries to pursue other mercenaries, particularly when the two units know each other well. If one did so, it would be…a waste of money.”

As he ducked his head under the blanket in the wicker cage, his red eyes narrowed as he spoke, growing ever more mortified. He probably thought it pathetic that the company built by someone he trusted could engage in such incomprehensible stupidity.

“…All the real authority is probably being held by the lords. My subordinates would never consent to employing money in such a clumsy…” Hilde’s mouth stopped mid-sentence.

Then, he made a somewhat embarrassed laugh.

“I should say, the traitors…would not do such a thing.”

Lawrence did not know how to react to that. All he really understood was that Hilde truly was a great merchant.

So that was why Luward said Rebonato had done well for himself. He had been paid good money to pursue them without any intention of engaging in real battle whatsoever. Perceiving this, Luward would engage them just enough that they could make excuses to their employer. A fine trade, indeed.

“But with this the state of things, we might just manage.” Hilde suddenly spoke.

“Eh?”

“To make that determination, surely…then, even if Miss Holo is absent…or perhaps…”

Within the cage, his head under the blanket, Hilde gazed far into the distance.

He was immersing himself in his thoughts, continually thinking about his next move.

But Lawrence could not follow whatsoever. This was on too grand a scale for him to grasp.

There really was a world known only to those who made great fortunes move.

The time when he wanted to peer into that world, even just a little, had passed.

So he asked, “Would you like to drink some water?”

Hilde finally looked back at Lawrence, stating politely, “I would indeed.”

After the following morning, the Myuri Mercenary Company was overtaken by the Hugo Mercenary Company, the pursuers dispatched by the Debau Company.

An envoy from the company brought a demand to surrender and hand Hilde over. They had understood what had happened with Hilde immediately. That Hilde and the mercenaries vanishing during the same night were tied together was not bad thinking on their part.

But whether the demand was for good reason or not, no one ever heard of mercenaries submitting to a demand for surrender.

No one would ever hire mercenaries that surrendered just because the going got rough. Hence, those who sullied their flag through surrender suddenly lost their way. As a result, they vanished from the battlefield.

So the world was full of undefeated mercenary companies.

“Fire!”

In the end, the Debau Company side probably meant to rout the Myuri Mercenary Company for its connection to Hilde regardless; after a declaration of war, battle commenced.

But this was not a direct clash between the mercenaries, but rather, an exchange of arrow fire.

From time to time, arrows poured down like rain. Various soldiers defended themselves with wooden shields while others loosed arrows when the other side was preparing to fire its next volley.

During those intervals, Lawrence and the others advanced; once they had gone ahead a little ways, the archers advanced as well.

So far, there had been only two wounded, and it seemed they had been hit by stray arrows while collecting arrows that had already fallen.

What was hard to believe was how the scale of arrows being traded back and forth required the combined efforts of several towns’ worth of craftsmen to make. Though they had been properly maintained, the arrow tips had been blunted from having been fired so many times. That was why one of the two wounded was merely bruised. If not hit in a bad place, even a child probably would not die from such arrows.

Even so, with large men yelling battle cries as they let a great many arrows fly, it would look like a fierce battle to any observer.

From time to time, Lawrence could make out a merchant in the enemy ranks sent by the Debau Company to keep an eye on things, but he was the only one who seemed to have sweaty palms as he meekly observed the battle.

“While remaining in their seats, eminent merchants can move great amounts of goods and people from one place to another. But almost none of them actually see people and things in motion. That the cunning can fool them is not because they’re incompetent. It’s because they’re careless.”

“Painful words to hear,” Hilde replied curtly from within the cage Lawrence cradled. The scouts and the baggage mounted on sleds formed the vanguard; Luward and the other leaders followed right behind on horseback.

Moizi had remained in the rear of the unit, raising his great voice as he took temporary command. However, he returned from time to time to moisten his throat with wine. Surely he had enough leeway to have snacks with his wine, too.

“From Rebonato, we have word he’s nicely fooling the overseer, but what do you think?”

“It is surely as he says. This must be that one’s first time laying eyes on a battlefield, after all.”

Hilde seemed acquainted with the merchant sent to oversee matters. It was clear to a ridiculous extent that all was in the palm of his hand.

“So it’s a greenhorn with conventional thinking, huh? He probably takes pride in printing his name in church letters. You okay with this, though?”

Luward was sitting with one leg across his horse’s back, resting his cheek upon his palm. In doing so, he looked the part of a veteran mercenary. That was indeed the case, but Hilde seemed even calmer as he replied, “I think it is quite all right for you to look with your own eyes and judge accordingly.”

Luward silently looked back at Hilde, but Hilde, who could do nothing but stay put within the wicker cage, seemed almost asleep.

“Well, fine,” Luward said with a snort. “As long as Rebonato’s well fed, we’ll make it to Svernel just fine. Not trying to put your old comrades down here.”

“No, surely it was the lords who decided to dispatch troops. I am not praising them out of affinity, but this is not the man they would select were they attacking us in earnest. That is surely why the overseer is so young.”

“Because they know how this’ll turn out even without coming to see?”

“Yes.”

As they were well aware they were both in the palm of the other’s hand, each was rather calm about it.

One was the one who flattered; the other was the one who was flattered. A person would think if they had the time for this, they could use it for more constructive thoughts, but instead they were shooting the breeze.

Both legitimately excellent men, their conversation went as smoothly as between two old friends.

“Well, at this rate we’ll end up arriving in Svernel just like the plan you drew up.”

“Yes.”

“You thought we had a shot?”

As the head of a mercenary company could not be seen talking to a hare, Lawrence was carrying the wicker cage as he walked alongside the horse. Those around them thought they saw Lawrence speaking to Luward, but in reality, he had no right to get a single word in. Seen from above as well as from below, he was a porter, nothing more.

“…Yes.”

“Liar. We only had a chance once Rebonato showed up.”

He spoke in a lighthearted tone, but his insight penetrated rather deeply.

Depending on how one used it, even the sharpest tool could be turned into useless junk.

Just as Hilde seemed to, Luward, too, regarded how the tool called the Hugo Mercenary Company was being employed as an instant revelation of the current internal state of the Debau Company.

“Lords and nobles with their eyes wild over profits get all worked up. They figure brute force is gonna solve all their problems. That’s making me treat everything you’ve been doing till now like water under the bridge.”

“Yes. Looking at their numbers and equipment, too, it is immediately clear a ridiculous sum was expended. The lords have probably entered the office itself.”

Lawrence thought Hilde must have meant that figuratively, but Luward laughed hard enough, he turned his face to the sky.

“Just because you get people with swords hanging from their hips to sit down at the table doesn’t mean you can have a debate with them. On that score, the company you and Debau ran was pretty incredible. The head of a small mercenary company like me getting a glimpse of either of you was almost impossible.”

Though he spoke it with invective, Lawrence heard them as nothing but the highest praise. Hilde, of course, was not the sort to be so easily pleased by flattery, but the sigh he made was not so far off from that.

Somehow, it made Lawrence think back to his dealings with Holo.

“It seems we have a grasp on who is truly playing whom. The managers who raised the flag of rebellion against us must want to quickly seize back control from the lords by whatever means necessary.”

“Meaning, if they know you’re in Svernel, the merchants will say, ‘It’s our turn now,’ and start negotiating?”

“And they might well offer various compromises to obtain my cooperation in seizing control from the lords. I believe there is every possibility of that.”

In such a circumstance, it would not be strange for the imprisoned Herbert von Debau to make a return to the stage. For at the very least, Debau could weave his way through the gaps between those in power, mediate, administer, and use them as much as he could.

“Besides, arriving in Svernel safely will make people who do not know the situation see it as us slipping away, like an eel, from a force several times our number. That will serve to raise morale splendidly.”

“I agree. So on top of that, assemble fighting strength, and like you said, brush off the Debau Company’s demands and wring concessions out…huh? They’re relying on momentum, too. There’s no way those lords have any deep plan here. If the fatal flaw’s the merchants realizing they’re being played by the lords, they’ll decide to swallow their shame and go back into their sheaths, is that it?” said Luward.

“Yes. Merchants live and die by their calculations of loss and profit.”

Luward’s laugh made his shoulders quiver. No doubt the fickleness of merchants amazed him.

“So, if all of this actually goes well, there’ll be an appropriate payoff, I take it?”

Mercenaries were every bit as fickle as merchants. They were constantly hunting for compensation for their actions.

But since money was an unavoidable necessity for a unit to continue existing under its own banner, knowing how to gloss things over was even more important than profit and self-interest.

“Of course. A merchant’s gratitude is redeemable in gold, after all.”

Luward, too, seemed caught off guard by the joke. He shook with noiseless laughter for a time, finally raising a very amused laugh.“Ha-ha…I get it. I get all of it. Still, I see…”

This was the first time Luward had prevaricated in his conversations with Hilde.

Hilde seemed to take note of that as well, raising his long ears much like Holo, gazing at Luward with deep interest.

“What is it?”

“Mm? Ahh, well, you see.”

He really was being evasive.

It just did not feel like he was clumsily hiding something or trying to pull the wool over their eyes.

The young mercenary company leader seemed amused as well as bewildered.

And once his bewilderment calmed after a while, he looked at Hilde, as if demonstrating a small measure of resolve.

“At first, I thought it best if the Debau Company went ahead and ripped itself apart.” He came right to the point. “The company looked like a sign our mercenary’s luck would be running out soon.”

Hilde watched Luward’s face for some time. Perhaps it was his nature as a merchant, but Hilde’s eyes were poised and guarded, as if words were a snare lying in wait for him.

Luward watched Hilde’s look, shrugging his shoulders with a light laugh.

“It’s simple. I’ve met someone whose principles were betrayed who’s scheming to turn it all around. The situation’s bad. Furthermore, the enemy’s huge, even overwhelming. Because of that, he has to gather military strength together. He can’t let the slightest opportunity to strike back go to waste. And, cooking up a ruse, he’s finally got his way to strike back. We, the Myuri Mercenary Company, are among the few, precious lights of hope. We’re not doing this for money. Actually it took all I had not to smack around the lot of you back at Lesko. In other words…”

It was likely no coincidence that many famous generals were orators.

Luward’s words were strong and had a power that resonated with those who listened to them.

But this was by no means a simple matter of speaking well. Luward truly believed the words he spoke. Likely, no matter how sternly Moizi had drilled practicality into him, inheriting a banner that had flown for centuries, with so many valiant men having fought under that banner, he could not do his job without being a dreamer himself, too.

For a dream one sincerely believed in would resonate deeply with others.

“In other words, right now, we’re pure mercenaries. Mercenaries through and through. This is a saying from the great Johann Schlauzenvitz: To be a mercenary, one needs power. And how much you can live as a mercenary depends on how many of the powerless need that power and how well you learn how to use it. Thinking only of swinging your sword, breathing like the air is your food, dashing across the battlefield: That’s a mercenary. The perfect tool. And the simpler a tool, the more beautiful it is.”

Perhaps one could call it the beauty of functionality.

The thought might anger Holo, but the way Eve earned and spent from anything and everything in search of a golden throne was beautiful, too.

But Hilde made a cold face at Luward’s bountiful words. “A contract must obtain what both sides desire, nothing more, nothing less. It is the foundation of all business.” He was not swayed.

Hilde was indeed a key figure in the Debau Company. A great merchant who had planned and succeeded in bringing about the issuing of a new currency, showing the town merchants like Lawrence a dream while showing mercenaries like Luward a nightmare.

Lawrence no longer held either envy or jealousy for him. Lawrence merely experienced its purity.

Luward excitedly had his eyes wide, his teeth bared. No doubt he thought with an employer like this, his mercenaries could take on the whole world.

The dream that had seemed to collapse was blossoming once more thanks to Hilde’s intellect and the mercenaries’ might. If things went well like this, the forbidden book that Holo was carrying might not even be necessary.

“Well, let’s do our best to be good paper tigers. We want a fat reward if this works, too.”

Luward’s spiteful tone concealed his embarrassment. Hilde merely closed his eyes as if in gentle amusement.

“Ha-ha. Better show me some nice dreams. Don’t get hit by a stray arrow now.”

“You would do better to take care I do not end up as dinner.”

“You’re not lying.”

The two shared quiet laughter together.

When they broke camp and resumed their march the next day, things unfolded much like the day before.

Though there was a huge clamor, it unfolded as a comedy, in which a single fatality ought not to result.

Even so, how they were pressed by the opponent at times, and nicely widened the distance at others, made it look like a mysteriously back-and-forth battle.

In reality, it was simple: The vanguard on sleds could not slack off when going up an incline, while the reverse was true on a downward slope. Moizi was doing a marvelous and skillful job at the helm.

From time to time, they scattered blood from sausages over the snow and made it look like they were carrying wounded men.

While the men were busy putting on a show for all they were worth, word arrived of a force from the Debau Company advancing on Svernel by a major road, separate from the Hugo Mercenary Company with the Debau Company overseer. Just as the Hugo Mercenary Company had cooperated with him, Luward no doubt wanted to hand that information over so as to owe them nothing going forward.

As Luward and Hilde had said, if one was not actually there himself, there was no way to even guess at what was going on behind the curtain. The company had grown arrogant on its throne, handing out only money and orders, manipulated by cunning people more and more.

Also, during the time he was leaving matters in the rear to Moizi, Luward was dispatching scouts to learn of Svernel’s situation. If Luward and the others, having originally gathered at Lesko to seek employment with the Debau Company, proceeded to Svernel carefree and without a thought, they might well be taken for enemies and attacked.

Even putting that aside, Lawrence remained doubtful Svernel would still be willing to raise its banner against the Debau Company.

After all, the Debau Company’s power and momentum showed no sign of waning as of yet.

“Ah, I think it’ll be all right,” Luward said with a yawn atop his horse. “People who aren’t good at figuring out profits and losses don’t change their thinking that easily.”

“For better or worse.”

At Hilde’s addendum, Luward jutted his lower lip forward and shrugged.

“You’ve a point there. But that means we should count on Svernel.”

“Is that so? Unfortunately, I have never had any actual dealings with them.”

“Even so. After all, they’re normal—they have walls around their town, they collect taxes, they have guilds, they regulate merchants, they carefully set the price of bread, and trading goods back and forth makes their eyes shine. They’re a lot easier to predict than folks from a town with no walls and no taxes that seems to run itself as if by magic.”

Hilde twitched his nose at Luward’s words.

“Certainly, one must not trust people like that.”

Luward slapped his horse’s neck in amusement at the betrayed Hilde’s deadpan joke. “Well, we’ll find out when we get there. We’re close enough we should arrive tomorrow or the morning after at most. We’d better finally think about how we’re gonna escape Rebonato.”

The word escape had a deeply resonating meaning to them. As they were not actually fighting, engineering a situation that allowed them to escape was rather difficult.

Even more so, how to dramatically raise the morale of those shut inside Svernel in the process.

“Depends a bit on how they want to play it.”

As Luward spoke, he looked at the mountains yonder with distant eyes. The other mercenary company no doubt did not want to look like they had let their prey slip away through incompetence. So the Myuri mercenaries needed a fairly decent plan.

However, Hilde did not offer any wisdom from within the wicker cage; his head did not even stir from within the blanket spread all over him. He was asleep, his face buried under the blanket as if fleeing from the cold.

No doubt he thought that just because he was intelligent did not mean he should offer an answer to every dilemma.

If the best answer could be drawn out of those who excelled at this, it was enough.

Unlike with a traveling merchant, division of labor came naturally to a large company. It took great courage to entrust something to someone else. Lawrence thought, I might not be able to entrust decisions even to Holo. Yet that was something they did even when it concerned their very lives.

They were simply in a different category of business.

When Lawrence had left Lesko and come this way, he had the distinct feeling that he was buzzing around just outside the mosquito net, but it no longer bothered him. He was happy just to have a glimpse at their beautifully logical world.

As they traveled, the sun rose higher, and it became midday. Lawrence and the others had dinner, exchanged friendly chats with various people, and leisurely ate their meals as they walked. Those brought with them as “wounded” a few moments earlier did so as well, their faces half covered in pig’s blood.

Amid that relaxed atmosphere, there was a suitable visitor as well.

“What? With swords and spears?” Luward spoke from atop his halted mount. He looked down at his knees to a messenger from the Hugo Mercenary Company.

“Yes. The boss wants to give the overseer bastard chills. So he wants one big battle, he says.”

“Mmm…” Luward closed his eyes, raising his chin and stroking it with his hand, but thanks to youth and physical predisposition, he did not have much of a beard. From that perspective, it had a conspicuous, childlike charm to it. “But if that happens, we’ll each have to hand captives over. What does he say about that?”

“Yes. The boss wants to hand four people over to you, and you to hand…roughly fifteen people over to—”

“What?”

The tenor of Luward’s voice changed. That instant, like how a single wolf’s growl raised the tension of the entire pack, the look in the surrounding mercenaries’ eyes changed.

But that reaction might only be natural. Even Lawrence’s head found such a trade to be reckless. If a unit like the Myuri Mercenary Company handed over fifteen-odd people as captives, their numbers would be greatly depleted; even more than that, they judged themselves the stronger mercenaries, so such a condition was a bitter pill to swallow.

Even when colluding in battle, going along as part of a tacit agreement, there were things one did not do.

“It’s part of the boss’s idea.”

Luward snorted. He raised his sword high and said, “Explain.”

“As you wish. The boss said he wants to negotiate a prisoner exchange and wants to present an ultimatum at that time.”

“Negotiate?” Luward asked back. He glanced at Moizi.

“Yes. We have both suffered losses from attrition. So, there must be room to negotiate. The boss will bring that merchant overseer along to the meeting. We would like Master Luward Myuri and one other person to come to negotiate.”

Lawrence imagined what that would look like.

Right in the middle of a snow-covered road, each mercenary leader paired with a merchant as they faced each other down.

Those negotiating would be on the one hand, a mercenary company that had nearly half its members taken as captives, desperately trying to escape and survive. On the other hand would be a mercenary company with overwhelming military superiority and financial resources backed by the Debau Company.

In other words, surrender now and give up on going to Svernel and they shall be permitted their lives alone.

The negotiations would no doubt be very one-sided.

And when the time came, who would be the specialist who would negotiate?

Having thought that far, Lawrence understood where this was going.

“In other words, your ignorant, pure young merchant will demand ransom for our captured comrades and will push us to surrender after that.”

The messenger, who had maintained a neutral expression the whole time, cracked a smirk for a single moment before regaining his composure.

“You will become very angry at the content of the negotiations. And in the face of overbearing, unreasonable demands, you will have no difficulty taking advantage of the carelessness of a naive youth, taking him hostage. We will be forced to release our captives and allow you to escape. We will report that we sincerely tried, but someone was foolish.”

“You think it’ll go that smoothly? He might be young and naive, but he’s still from the Debau Company.”

The messenger made a blunt sigh at Luward’s question.

“He’s horrible. The boss has put up with him pretty well. Should’ve killed him on the first day.”

Amid all that formality, his real opinion poked its head out.

The male messenger politely amended his words with, “Ahem, or so what everyone says.”

“Got it. We were just thinking of how to get into Svernel ourselves. This is good, I think. It’s what I’d expect of a plan from the famed veteran captain of the Hugo Mercenary Company.”

“The captain will be proud to hear of your words. I believe we must leave it at that.”

“Understood. Then, we need the particulars…or are those details being left to us?”

“The boss said as much.”

Luward made a small laugh. He wanted to say, I expected as much.

“All right, we’ll let you know when and how we’re gonna go at it. Fine with you?”

“As you wish.”

The messenger knelt and bowed his head, darting off and running across the snow immediately after.

His speed truly evoked the expression a hare on the run. In no time at all, he vanished amid the trees along the road.

“So, that’s how it is, Moizi. Pick about fifteen unlucky guys. And use all of our pig’s blood. For the little details…how about we do it like back at Lesso Valley?”

“…I see. Understood. I shall find for a proper place with all haste.”

“Please do.”

With that, various preparations began until finally all was ready.

No troupe of players performing in a plaza ever made use of such extravagant devices.

Lawrence was quite beside himself as he watched them go to work. But the mercenaries making preparations were enjoying themselves like little children.

The two armies faced off atop hills separated by a valley.

The valley seemed to have originally had a river flowing through it, but during winter the water was frozen, and thanks to the snow, the entire area was indistinguishable from solid ground, making it most suitable for a battlefield.

The commanders, Luward and Rebonato, stood atop the hills on both sides of the valley, with the slopes continuing from the hills to the valley lined with troops. Since one could look down at both one’s own force and the enemy force from a high place, the order of battle was obvious at a glance.

However, the anecdotes of a large army being shattered by a small army were legion. Perhaps such anecdotes accounted for why the Myuri Mercenary Company’s morale was so high in spite of their numerical disadvantage.

If someone was observing both armies facing off from the outside, he would surely think as much.

“Everyone’s blades are smeared with grease, right?”

Those were the words that came out from Luward’s mouth. With the blade smeared with grease, a sword was no different than a stick. According to the script, the Myuri Mercenary Company realized it could not shake off the Hugo Mercenary Company if it continued to flee, so it decided to turn and strike back, girding itself for one final battle.

Lawrence was suspicious as to whether they could pull this performance off, but Moizi handled command extremely well. Perhaps the Hugo Mercenary Company also had a keen understanding of how it might best be driven back at such a time.

At any rate, even knowing it was all a show, Lawrence and the others’ flight, carrying them into the valley and up the hill, was quite suspenseful.

“Yes. They seem to be using rather well-worn weapons as well. They’ll say they broke during combat and request compensation, I imagine.”

“Ha, makes me jealous…How about we do that, too?” Luward turned his head back as he asked.

Of course, he was not asking Lawrence, directing his question at Hilde, who Lawrence carried in the wicker cage.

Hilde made only a flick of his ears out of the cage; his face never rose from its side. Though their de facto employer, he was a prudent merchant, careful about what he promised, both in print and by words alone.

Luward simmered as he smiled, but Moizi did not seem to notice.

“Well, the biggest concern is moving exactly according to plan. No oversights, right?”

“Correct. They are reasonable people as well. As they have made their preparations, it should all go well.”

“I see.”

As Luward spoke, he took in a deep breath. The way he raised his brow and then narrowed his eyes was no doubt because he knew just how absurd this so-called battle was.

However, the battle would accomplish the triple feat of having no meaningless fatalities, leaving as few grudges between them and the enemy as possible, and mutually protecting their favorable relationships with their employers. Though it might have been absurd, unimportant it was not.

At any rate, there was nothing for Luward to gain by thinking about it by himself. As mercenaries built up their reputations over long careers, there were many things they needed to understand as implicit—problems that could not be resolved with money alone, nor that could be glossed over with bluster and conciliation.

There lay the crystallization of the will of the many that approved of the mercenary life.

A traveling merchant came to glimpse at the various worlds of various professions. Few among them had problems that could be resolved with money alone.

By Lawrence’s thinking, it would have been nice if there were a few more problems that could be resolved with money; Hilde had supported the Debau Company with that very concept in mind. However, sometimes things in this small world were settled by absurd, splendid performances onstage.

The huge man on the opposite hill with his arms folded, looking in their direction, was no doubt Rebonato. Lawrence saw a Moizi-like blaze in how he looked. His long, frizzy red hair went in all directions, and his face was sunburned even in this season. He was so muscular that merely folding his arms seemed to threaten to rip his clothes apart.

Rebonato made a small nod as he looked at Luward. After glancing at Moizi to make sure, Luward nodded back.

Even with this many people in one place, one could not even hear a cough.

As a cold wind blew gently, Rebonato lit the match.

“So now that you see you can’t run you’re minded to fight! We, the Hugo Mercenary Company, will show our respect for the Myuri Mercenary Company’s banner and fight with all our strength!”

Sound traveled poorly on the snow-covered roads. In spite of that, Rebonato’s booming voice made them feel like he had reached out and touched them right on their own hill.

Luward was the one who responded.

He slowly drew the sword hanging from his hip, raising it high above his head as he replied.

“We advance, our destinies granted by God! Those who live by the sword must sometimes turn our backs against God himself and accept the stigma of apostates! However, what they cannot endure is the stigma of foully attacking their enemy’s back! We desire to put our lives on the line for the sake of the much-reputed Hugo Mercenary Company’s honor!”

Lawrence did not know if their lines were scripted, but they nearly made him laugh, all the more so because he knew what was about to happen would be a large-scale farce.

Even from a distance, Rebonato’s look of rage was apparent; worked up even before, he was now all the angrier. Standing next to him, the overseer from the Debau Company seemed quite indignant at Luward’s speech.

As the overseer was the only one in all this playing his role seriously, it was impressive.

Or perhaps, in a certain sense, both Luward and Rebonato were taking this very seriously.

If this was a ritual that was part of their being mercenaries, it might well be so.

Holo would have been quite pleased to see this.

“Very well! No doubt the war god Rajitel will reveal the truth!” As Rebonato spoke those words, he took his ax from his hip and swung it high; the mercenaries deployed along the slope brought their weapons to bear all at once.

The sight of over a hundred men readying swords and spears in unison was not something one saw very often.

As a man who had been stirred by tales of the slaying of dragons, Lawrence’s heart quivered at the sight.

“A worthy foe! Attack!!”

With those words, Luward signaled the start of the battle.

The next moment, the troops ran down the slopes like avalanches.

Perhaps the merchant serving as overseer—the same age as or a little younger than Lawrence—was caught up in the moment, raising his voice in such excitement, one half-expected that if someone handed him a sword, he would run to join the battle himself.

Certainly, in the face of a scene like this, few young men were able to keep their cool.

That was true even for a merchant who mocked the stupidity of war, scorning it as unprofitable.

Lawrence felt as though he understood why many men continued to make their living at war, even though it was dangerous, made them hated by the world, and that he absolutely could not call it profitable. This excitement was difficult to taste any other way.

This was where someone might ask, Which side is stronger? Yet the answer was so simple, even a baby that had not spoken his first words could understand.

If Holo were here, Lawrence had no doubt she would get annoyed and start cheering the friendly forces on. Depending on the situation, she might even take wolf form and leap into the fray herself.

Easily able to imagine the sight, Lawrence made a small chuckle to himself.

That moment—

There was a small rustle of movement within the wicker cage Lawrence carried securely within his arms.

Just after he realized Hilde had raised his head, he heard these words from behind.

“What is so amusing?”

“What do you mean, what? It’s obv—”

Lawrence smiled as he began to answer, turning around, and only then realized what his eyes were seeing.

It was Holo.

“Holo!”

Lawrence immediately raised his voice. Holo closed her eyes, looking annoyed.

And his voice made the others around them realize the presence of an intruder.

A girl like Holo walking all around the place should stand out, but no one had noticed her at all. That’s a wolf for you, he supposed.

“When…did you get back?”

“I returned to the town the day before yesterday, but ’twas delayed a bit there.”

Holo seemed a bit tired compared to when he had last seen her. Her hood and the face beneath it seemed dusty somehow.

When he thought more deeply about it, Holo had just returned from a journey that would have taken some seven days on human feet. No horse would have survived being pushed so recklessly.

But more than all of that, though it had only been a few days, the sight of her made him as happy as if it had been several years.

“I see…I mean, I’m glad you’re sa—”

But as Lawrence tried to speak, Holo interrupted him with a wave. “So? What is the hare doing here?”

Lawrence’s mouth hung open as if to continue his earlier words. He remembered when as an apprentice he had become separated from his master in an unfamiliar city, and when he thought he had finally found his master, it turned out to be someone else.

He faintly recalled that something like this had happened once before. It was when Holo had been captured in Pazzio, when Lawrence had been waiting for Holo in the subterranean passage.

“Things went in a completely different direction than we expected.”

Luward was the one who answered. Though Holo could keep her hood lowered and hide her tail to look like a normal girl, there was no way they could allow Hilde to speak where people could see.

“Do not tell me you fell for honeyed words and promises?”

Luward made a pained laugh at Holo’s sarcastic words. As that had been precisely the case, he made no reply.

“Hmph. Well, we heard most of the story back in town. I can deduce the rest.”

“We?”

When Lawrence asked, Holo made an annoyed-looking wave toward him and pointed above her head.

As Lawrence and Luward looked to the sky, there was a single bird flying above them in a circle.

“I shall ask for the details later. First, what are you doing? Using pig’s blood even; is there some kind of festival afoot?” Perhaps it was to be expected that Holo instantly understood it was a farce.

“Maybe it’s easiest to call it mercenaries putting on an act together?”

Holo made a voiceless laugh at Luward’s words. Mixed with the circumstances, she might have understood a very great deal from what those words indicated. “Putting on an act is very important. Everyone has their role to play, after all.”

“I’m happy that you understand. I feared I might be muddying the name of Myuri with this farce.”

“I might well be angry if ’twere done poorly.”

Luward pursed his lips as he made a funny face.

“But ’tis well done. Myuri was quite fond of playing tricks upon others, after all.”

Luward, who had purposefully put on a look of surprise, was genuinely amazed by Holo’s words.

And as a smiling face seemingly burst forth, he turned toward the banner they flew, looking back at Holo once more.

“Is that so?!”

“It is. However, males of all sorts like this sort of thing, do they not? Provided that they are not sweaty-palmed fools, that is.”

Holo clapped Lawrence on the back as if she might or might not be referring to him.

Though he wanted to say something in return, he made no protest, for it was the truth.

“I suppose that’s true not just of mercenaries, but everyone who lives on the battlefield. Well, it might be hard to watch, but please bear it a bit longer. The curtain will rise very shortly.”

“So it would seem. So that’s why you’re sneaking something off toward the mountain?”

Moizi, who had only just finished giving orders for advancing in formation toward the valley, turned in shock at Holo’s nonchalant words. She really was a wolf, noticing every little thing.

“That is correct.”

“And this is because you want those great sleds and so forth to move forward, is it not?”

The slumping of Luward’s shoulders indicated “it is as you say.”

“Thanks to that, ’twas hard for me to find anywhere to hide, you see.”

“A place to hide?”

“Indeed. Well, then, ’tis not your place to mind the hare forever.”

With that, Holo roughly snatched the wicker cage up out of Lawrence’s hands. Even the ever calm and composed Hilde poked his head out of a fold of his blanket, shaken by such treatment.

“Hm. So this is why I caught the scent of blood. Damned fool.”

Speaking while making a teasing face, Holo swayed the cage from side to side and shook it up and down.

Hilde had no option but to endure it.

Under the blanket, he was not a frog caught in the gaze of a snake, but a hare under the gaze of a wolf.

Holo’s teasing of Hilde having brightened her somber mood, she pushed the cage onto a nearby youngster. “Hold this, will you?”

Already bewildered by a girl suddenly appearing in the center of their unit and being treated with respect by their captain for some unfathomable reason, the youngster, even more bewildered, looked to his captain, hoping to be rescued.

“Take good care of it. It’s an important hare.”

“Aye, I’m counting on it. Come, you, let us be off.” As the hesitant youngster found himself pressed by his captain’s command and Holo’s smiling face, Holo grabbed Lawrence’s hand and walked off. Lawrence was not the only one at a loss.

“Where are you going?”

Luward asked the extremely pertinent question.

Holo, who was already dragging Lawrence along as she strode off, suddenly stopped, turning around. “I hid a certain something in the mountains. I must go retrieve it.”

“If that’s the case, I can send one of my men to…”

Holo momentarily let go of Lawrence’s hand as Luward made his offer, perhaps made out of respect to Holo, and looked squarely at Luward as she replied, “Though I am grateful for your concern, this fool would sulk soon enough.”

Holo poked a finger into Lawrence’s belly.

Certainly Lawrence had said he would take all responsibility for the forbidden book and so forth when asking Holo to help. For the text to bypass Lawrence and go straight to Luward and Hilde would be a rather dull affair.

But just as Lawrence was about to protest that he was not such a child, Holo instantly turned back around and seized Lawrence’s hand. Looking over her shoulder, she said this.

“That being so, wait just a bit. I shall return soon enough.”

Luward gave a vague reply as he watched them go. “Ah, yes…”

Keeping Lawrence’s hand in her grip, Holo advanced farther and farther until they reached a place that no sign of conflict reached. Ahead there remained distinct tracks of sleds and those transporting them.

The smallest set of tracks mingled with the others before splitting off midway and heading toward the mountains.

“So, that’s where you came here from?”

“Aye. When I heard sounds of fighting, I really thought I might have to join the battle as a wolf.”

There had been times when he might well have prayed for salvation from Holo, so he could not just laugh it off. However, since he knew what was behind the curtain of the grand farce, he forced a bitter laugh.

“It was a close call, then. If that’d happened the whole thing would’ve been a waste.”

“If Luis hadn’t told me, it would have been a much closer thing.”

“Luis?” Lawrence echoed back as Holo pulled up the hem of her robe as she climbed the slope of the mountain she had descended from.

“Do not make that face. There. There.”

She pointed to the sky.

“It’s rare for you to remember a name.”

As Lawrence spoke, Holo made a satisfied smile and laughed as if she had found a fun new toy.

“What, are you jealous?”

She was irritatingly accurate.

“Well, judging from your look after you noticed I was there, ’tis surely that as well. What had you so flustered? You were like a dog who had not seen his master in ages.”

Holo smiled teasingly as she climbed the slope farther on her own.

Though mortified, Lawrence could not find any words to reply with. Even so, he made his usual resigned sigh and trod up the slope as they retraced her footsteps.

Goodness, he had been looking forward to their reunion, but it had been a storm of invective.

Unlike the light-footed Holo, Lawrence’s legs became mired where the falling snow had grown thick. When he pulled his legs out of the snow, the malicious Holo hurled even more abuse at him.

Just because they had been apart a while did not mean she would be happy when they had reunited.

When he had been waiting for Holo in the subterranean aqueducts of Pazzio included, did she even realize how much he had worried about her? Certainly, this time there was little direct cause for concern. But by its very nature, one never knew what travel would bring.

In particular, on Lawrence’s side, it had been entirely possible that one mistake would have truly ended in death. Leaving Holo’s concern for Lawrence aside, it would have been nice if Holo had worried about Lawrence just a little more.

Was he wrong to expect such a thing? I’m being quite irrational, he was well aware, yet knowing that did not keep out the spontaneous thought.

He kept pulling his legs out when they became stuck, searched for the next reliable foothold, and used trees to pull himself up the suddenly steepening slope. Since he could not lift his gaze, he had no idea how far Holo had gone. He could not even hear her footsteps anymore.

If it was going to be like this, I should have waited downhill.

But the instant he stopped to catch his breath, making a sigh…

“Hng, wha—!”

Lawrence sustained a heavy impact with sky and earth switching places.

The terror of climbing a slope and going backward down it can only be appreciated by those who have experienced it. The world turned on its head.

However, somehow Lawrence’s body came to a complete stop in deep snow before rolling over.

“…Urgh…”

Rustle, rustle. Along with the dizziness of his head and the oppressive feeling of something mounted atop his chest, he heard the rustling of snow. It seemed snow had fallen right on him from the treetops.

As he thought, Holo’s going to laugh at me again, and tried to get his nicely inverted body up, he found himself barely able to lift hand or foot.

It was around then when he finally realized.

“…Holo?”

She had not come to rescue him. She had not come to laugh at him.

Holo had been on top of Lawrence the whole time, head buried in his chest, unmoving.

Holo had leaped right into him, bowling him over.

“…”

She wordlessly pressed her face against Lawrence, both arms wrapped around Lawrence’s back, squeezing with all her might.

As if she truly was at the limits of her strength, from time to time she took a breather, changed the positions of her hands and her body a little, and embraced him with all her strength once more. As the snow fell down with a rustling sound, Holo admirably swept the snow away with her dexterous tail.

Once Lawrence took the entire situation in, he stopped trying to rise, relaxing into the snow. His head rather deeply in as he had fallen into it with some force, with walls of snow filling his vision before suddenly coming to a halt. Of course, the snow covered both ears, limiting the sounds he could hear to very little. The only sounds he heard were those made by him and Holo.

He was unable to see up to the sky, with evergreens, filled to the brim with snow, acting as a chilly barrier. With that, Lawrence finally understood the true reason why Holo had hidden the forbidden book in the middle of the mountains. She had wanted to bring Lawrence this far out, to a place hidden from not only Luward and Moizi and Hilde, but from the high-flying Luis’s line of sight as well.

As Holo rested atop Lawrence’s chest, he put his arms around her back and lightly stroked her. He felt she had become a little thinner. As he stroked Holo’s back, Holo made a raspy, painful-sounding voice as her small body shuddered. The claws on the hands around his own back dug in enough to hurt.

He had not been the only one happy to be reunited. He had not been the only one who felt the last few days were torture. Lawrence gave a light laugh.

“So you were the one putting on an act,” he said.

Those were the words Luward had used. As Lawrence laughed, Holo’s claws dug into his back more strongly, no doubt partly in a show of protest.

“Ow, ow! Well, I’m sure you’d have been appalled if you knew how I’d been faring.”

As Lawrence spoke, Holo paused for a while, as if doubting his words, before pulling back her claws a little. Lawrence made a relieved smile as he recalled something similar that had happened during the affair in Pazzio’s underground aqueducts. Awfully glad I didn’t say anything, he thought with some relief.

In return, knowing he should make full use of his good fortune, Lawrence said this.

“Welcome back.”

Holo’s face shot up from his chest.

And as she looked at Lawrence, her face lost all composure.

Lawrence was flustered no more. This time, with Holo on the verge of tears, he embraced her body once more, shifting his body around to position his feet to stand. Holo shot him a look of protest, but Lawrence replied with a strained smile, “If we’re too slow someone’s going to come looking for us.”

No doubt Holo’s vanity could not have taken that.

As her lips made a pout, she pressed her face against Lawrence’s breast to wipe away the tears that had seeped out, and after a final embrace, she hopped right up.

“Somehow, I feel like I’ve been ridden like a horse.”

Once he had been pinned to the ground by a giant wolf claw, too.

But this time Holo did not bare her fangs at him, but instead, she moved a little aside and extended a hand to Lawrence to help him get up.

“…Why does the one holding the reins end up on the bottom?”

He took them as words of gratitude, but did not ask back, So, which of us wears a rope around their neck? Instead, once Lawrence had gotten up, he wiped a lingering tear from the corner of Holo’s eye with a finger. Even as Holo turned her face with a sour look, her ears and tail seemed pleased.

Furthermore, now that he had wiped her right eye, her left eye regarded him.

Lawrence sighed and carefully wiped the tears from her left eye.

But Moizi was also an excellent strategist.

“Mr. Moizi…”

“…Pardon me. Let us hurry. You and the young one are both in danger.”

Lawrence gripped the reins and made his horse gallop.

With his leg bleeding profusely, no doubt it was not just the night making his vision go dark.

As he endured the cold and the blood loss, Lawrence made for the camp.

Even though he had thought the power of merchants was marvelous, they had used money’s might in a deeply ugly manner. That fact wormed its way into Lawrence’s head like a nightmare. If everything could be resolved with money, naturally this possibility was included as well. The pain in his left thigh felt like his naive dream being impaled by reality.

As the horse’s back swayed under the strain, the unconscious Luward threatened to slip down as if he was a corpse. With Lawrence’s own endurance depleted, Moizi helped them several times over. The soldiers that followed behind the horse kept looking behind, never letting their guard down.

Even though the distance was not all that great, he almost thought he would never make it to the camp.

Lawrence thought back to the underground aqueducts of the harbor town of Pazzio. Then, like now, Lawrence’s arm had been stabbed; he ran and fled, staggering all the way. He had not moved a single step forward since that time. Barely holding onto consciousness on horseback, Lawrence could only smile at how pathetic he was.

“The camp’s been sighted! Only a little farther!”

With that, Lawrence realized that he had been in danger of falling off the horse’s back himself.

Moizi rushed over and supported his body, hurriedly reeling in the reins while setting his body upright. Luward, somehow cradled between Moizi’s arms, had grown as cold as a corpse.

“Medicine! Bring medicine and liquor!”

As Moizi shouted with all his strength, those who realized the situation was dire ran off.

And without asking about the fine details, they immediately acted on their orders, looking into the distance the whole while. Without anyone needing to give orders to anyone else, without needing to be told whatsoever, they moved, and others still acted in anticipation of those movements. Lawrence found it a bit interesting that it looked like a well-rehearsed play.

To mercenaries fighting from dawn to dusk, this must have been a daily occurrence; Lawrence saw a certain beauty in how they instantly dealt with a crisis. This was not something mastered in a short time. This was doubtlessly something gained over many months and years of comrades fighting side by side.

This is what the Hugo Mercenary Company had sold for coin.

They could never become good old mercenaries ever again.

“Come back with all the hot water we have! We must treat the young one quickly!”

Suddenly the mercenaries had gathered around Lawrence’s horse, easing Lawrence as well as Luward off its back. From the way they treated Lawrence, he had apparently been promoted from a suspicious merchant to the benefactor who had bravely transported Luward to camp.

As he was laid on top of a blanket spread atop the snow, hands examined his body up and down as if beating him, and suddenly, his cheek was slapped hard. He thought of saying, I’m wide awake, thank you, but his mouth would not move; he could not even move his head on his own anymore.

But when he was slapped again and his head rudely returned to its original position, he caught sight of a mercenary holding the knife that should still have been planted in his own thigh. Apparently that had been to obscure the pain when pulling the knife out.

“Stopped the bleeding! Where’s that poultice?!”

“Strategist! Fight back? March forward?!”

“Weapons! Bring weapons!”

“Run, young man! Open the second sack, it’s right there!”

The tumult sounded so distant to him. Beside his head, many feet violently ran about, kicking snow onto his face, which someone wiped off.

So this is the field of battle, Lawrence thought absentmindedly.

The next moment, someone seated beside him said this.

“God is at your side. Let us pray.”

His hair disheveled, the clergyman looked rather grim. He had just tossed on his robe; his long sword was hanging in plain sight. Even so, he was doubtlessly a fine military chaplain.

“You’re in time…”

Once Lawrence managed to reply, the chaplain seated right beside him broke into a smile, slapping Lawrence’s cheek as he rose.

“Is he conscious?!”

It was Moizi’s voice. The moment after Lawrence had the thought, a rugged hand forced Lawrence’s face in a different direction.

“Mr. Lawrence! It’s me!”

Lawrence, with his thoughts still a jumble, somehow managed to nod.

“May we consider that wolf as an ally?!”

From the look in Moizi’s eyes, it did not look like a joke.

Lawrence could certainly understand the feelings that made him want to ask.

“It’s…Holo.”

As Lawrence made his brief reply, Moizi stroked his chin, looking as if he had swallowed a stone.

“Understood.”

Now that the Hugo Mercenary Company had betrayed them, any further mistakes in judgment meant the annihilation of the entire unit.

That was the level of the resolve that filled Moizi’s face.

“Medics stay behind. Everyone else, gather arms!”

As the strategist shouted, most people had already taken up arms.

One hand held sword, spear, or ax, while the other held a torch. A pot filled to the brim with wine was being passed around them. Each of them accepted it, glugged as they drank, and passed it along to the next person.

“The Hugo Mercenary Company betrayed us! Now we go rescue our comrades!”

It was that moment, when everyone was set to raise a shout to greet his words.

“S-strategist!”

One of them pointed ahead along the road. As Moizi turned around, Lawrence heard the faint sound of people stepping back. Or perhaps it was the sound of the others taking up battle stances.

But Lawrence, too, understood what they were seeing. From the side, they could see the entire giant body, its footsteps making unfathomably gentle sounds.

Footsteps that had saved him from danger so many times.

From that alone, something like drowsiness came over him.

“…Miss Holo, is it?”

When Moizi somehow found his voice, Holo’s only reply was to drop something onto the snow. A number of mercenaries cried out as it made a thud.

“Glem. Wh-why did you…?”

Holo answered Moizi’s words.

“Surely you can put him to some use.”

Still lying down, Lawrence made a silent laugh. Surely Hilde was making a satisfied look within his cage as well.

“Your comrades are on their way. Some are wounded. You would do well to greet them quickly.”

Holo spoke bluntly, then apparently sat on her rear.

Judging from the silence, Moizi and the other mercenaries must have stared at one another, but the next moment, a battle cry erupted as they ran off.

Once he could no longer hear the sounds of their footsteps, Holo rose, squishing the snow as she approached.

“Fool.”

The word came with a lick of his face.

“…We’re…saved…”

“Hmph. In a sense.”

As Holo spoke, she looked in the direction Moizi and the others had run.

“But I may have erred in saving you.” She dropped a short comment as she walked off.

Erred?

As Lawrence strove to understand the meaning of that word in the far corners of his mind, he lost consciousness.

“Klaus von Havlish the Third.”

“Wha…?!”

Millike shifted his unamused eyes to the shocked Hilde. “I received a bizarre report before dawn and thought, just perhaps, but for you to truly not know…”

Millike, or perhaps Havlish, stepped past the flank of the speechless Hilde, standing before Lawrence’s eyes.

And he respectfully lowered his gaze to Holo.

“I have heard you have a more valiant form.”

A moment later, Holo slapped Millike’s cheek. Everyone there was surprised, and Holo was no exception. Holo stared at Millike’s cheek as she gripped her right hand with her left, as if she had slapped him by reflex alone.

For Holo, slapping someone’s cheek was not exactly a rare event.

What surprised Lawrence was that Holo looked like she was frightened.

“…A literally rough welcome. But I did not come for pleasant conversation. I shall borrow the room in here. I take it the fireplace is lit?”

Hilde stroked his hair and tugged at his chin as he seemed to regain his senses. “This way,” he said, walking ahead and leading him inside. Holo’s eyes followed Millike after Hilde, but her feet did not.

Lawrence did not really need to ask.

“He’s not human?” These were the northlands, much of them covered by mountain and forest.

“About half.” Her answer quite naturally surprised even Lawrence.

And as Lawrence watched Millike, Millike suddenly stopped and turned around as if noticing his gaze.

“Come. You both have a responsibility to come.”

For a moment, Holo acted like she was going to ignore him, but her hand grabbed hold of the collar of Lawrence’s shirt. Lawrence grasped her hand back, replying, “We can listen to what he says.” Besides, it was clear that fleeing under these conditions would go poorly. Having come in with hare, wolf, and the mercenaries, he would not get off as someone uninvolved. If they did flee, Hilde and Moizi and the others would be put at a disadvantage, too.

Also, Lawrence still could not move quickly due to his injuries, and Holo could not transform into a wolf in such a cramped place. If they behaved clumsily and aroused suspicion, it was more than possible everyone would end up killed by the not-human Millike.

Lawrence leaned on Holo’s shoulder and slowly moved forward.

Millike shot a glance at Holo and Lawrence as they entered the room.

Inside the most lavish room on the second floor, there were only four people.

Hilde, Millike, Holo, and Lawrence.

Moizi tried to join, but Millike flatly refused.

No doubt normally he would have dug his heels in as a matter of honor, but seeing Holo and Lawrence passing by, he seemed to have made a deduction. Without any strong complaint, he yielded to Millike’s request and withdrew to stand watch.

“Now, then.” Millike was the one who broke the ice. “You’ve caused quite the uproar in this land.”

The phrase was too grandiose to be limited to the pivotal crossroads of the northlands known as Svernel. Lawrence had heard that the lords in the countryside were pompous with little knowledge of the world, but was that really so in Millike’s case?

The phrase in this land probably seemed fitting to Millike himself.

“Under the name of Havlish, my lands have enjoyed two centuries of peace. There have been no great expeditions from the Church. The steep mountains and valleys have protected it from fools hungry for land. Its sole weakness is this place here, Svernel. To think you would bring your enemy to its doorstep…If you wish to make a mess, make it in your own lands. Is that not so, you of the Debau Company?”

His manner of speaking was suited to the public chamber as well.

But Hilde did not falter.

“I make no excuses that the result was to invite my enemy. However, that is why I am here, so that I may make amends.”

“Amends?” Millike parroted the word back, making a heavy sigh. “Surely you say this in jest? How large a force do you think presses upon the town from the trade route to the south? There is a report that a captain of a thousand has been sighted. They come not for some minor skirmish in the mountains. They come to tear down the town itself.”

The Debau Company was serious. “Captain of a thousand” was a title given precisely because he literally commanded a thousand men. Without securing the services of the likes of the Myuri Mercenary Company in the mountains, they came to engage in spectacular fighting such as open battle on the steppes or siege warfare. The Debau Company had paid the Hugo Mercenary Company a fortune just on the chance Hilde might be with them. This time, real nobles were in command, dragged into showing their faces by the prospect of a great battle right out of the chronicles. No doubt they truly meant for this to be their bridgehead to total dominion.

“Don’t tell me you don’t know. I saw a bird flying around yesterday, a bird not seen in these parts. A friend of yours, yes?”

Hilde neither confirmed nor denied it, but that was the same as an admission.

Leaving Hilde like that, Millike shifted his gaze to Holo.

“Does a sublime wolf such as you intend to participate in this foolish disturbance?”

So he could tell Holo was a wolf. “Half,” she had said; that indeed meant Millike was half inhuman.

“I have heard you are the one who saved them. Should you lend any further support—”

“I shall not.”

As Holo spoke, Millike closed his mouth. He raised an eyebrow slightly in satisfaction after.

“As I expected. A very practical judgment.”

Though Lawrence thought it might be sarcasm, it apparently was not.

It seemed to be what Millike truly thought.

Having received Holo’s words, he turned to Hilde once more.

“The powerless always have absurd dreams. Those who have power understand well what power can accomplish. They understand just because you can carry a boulder does not mean you can move a mountain. It is only those who play with pebbles who dream of moving a mountain. As it is my task to oversee trade in this town, I am well aware of what incredible visionaries merchants are. That is why neither Svernel nor my lands have had anything to do with you great and powerful sorts. You sent envoys again and again, yes. Yet you yourself never came once. Had you used your own feet, you would have at least learned your own subordinates planned to betray you.”

The man in charge of managing trade in Svernel was the same as one of the territorial lords Hilde had been asking to join. That fact had seriously surprised Hilde. In towns under the administration of a lord, it was not all that rare for the lord to also be the chairman of the merchants’ council.

Yet Hilde had not known of it.

From Millike’s words, the betrayal had been prepared long before, and the reason Hilde had not noticed was because he had hidden himself away in Lesko, waving the Debau Company’s baton of command all the while.

“When you are trading, you feel you can see until the ends of the world. I think it is a marvelous thing. But that is why you do not notice the pitfall at your feet. I inherited the name Jean Millike some five years ago. Jean Millike had a strong spirit, but his body was frail. He became sick, bedridden, and promptly passed on. I owed him, too, you see; he’d resolved a trade dispute while this town had asked me to manage the circulation of furs and amber. There is no hidden truth; it’s a common enough story. And no one ever told you this common enough thing. You thought Svernel and the lands behind it were ruled by different people. And because you thought so, you came to this town. Is it not so?”

Or perhaps, since he was resolved to sacrifice himself for his dream if need be, it was irrelevant.

But he was not wrong to lay this on Hilde’s doorstep.

Having joined hands with many lords across the northlands, his subordinates had stripped him of authority from below. Even if one might say they are always more open from below, that made a weak counterargument.

“Then why did you give the envoys we sent favorable replies?” Hilde calmly switched to firmer ground for a counterattack.

“It’s very simple. If we’d refused, you’d have gone somewhere else. In this season, any village is low for food. If mercenaries are going to eat villages whole, down to the locusts, and still die on the side of a road somewhere, better to take you in and capture you here in town.”

It was an appropriate judgment by a lord protecting his lands.

Hilde spoke softly.

“You intend to sell us?”

Hilde and Moizi and Holo had no doubt been speaking in this room for some time while Lawrence was still sleeping on the floor above. Their conclusion must have been a very pessimistic one.

Was it because the approaching army was too large? Or was it because the head of the Myuri Mercenary Company was wounded, his troops arriving in town as defeated men?

It was probably neither.

Hilde and the others had probably known the instant they had entered the town in a much simpler fashion, when the top administrators of the town had not come out to welcome them.

“No…”

But so spoke Millike.

Hilde was not soft enough to embrace hope so easily.

“So not us, but rather me.”

“Correct.” Neither the tenor nor the volume of Millike’s voice had changed whatsoever, saying this like it was a truly ordinary thing. “Yes. I will sell you and you alone. I’m sure you are prepared for this much, at least?”

Profit comes with risk. When armies move and enough money is paid to make man betray man, a person’s life did not even register.

To attempt to obtain profit on this scale, one must prepare themselves for a correspondingly great risk.

That is what gambling was.

“I am. However, my desire to continue is greater.”

“Mmm. It is important not to give up. But the problem is doing it on someone else’s territory. If you want to do it, do it in your own place.”

It was such a disappointingly commonsense argument that Hilde was at a loss for words.

Lawrence had thought Hilde a great merchant, but feeling the fires of idealism, leaving himself exposed from below, made him look like a youth.

However, Hilde desperately protested.

“This is not a matter for us alone. Should our plan succeed, the northlands should enjoy long-term stability. A great many lords will be drawn into the same economic sphere through using the same currency. That being the case, it will be simply unprofitable to remain on the outside. In the difficult environment of the northlands, one will perish if unable to purchase food from neighboring lands. A common currency will become a powerful weapon in foreign trade. Our leader has boasted, those lords, hitherto beyond reproach even by God himself, shall be tamed with a golden yoke.”

This was the tale that Lawrence had seen with his own eyes at Lesko and that had made a fire burn in his chest as a merchant. This was the tale Hilde was telling Lord Havlish before his very eyes.

Lawrence knew not whether Hilde had hopes the man would listen to reason or if Hilde simply plotted to convey the degree to which he believed in it himself. All he knew for certain was that Millike seemed largely unamused by such talk.

Certainly, such talk was not very amusing if it was one’s neck being yoked.

But even as Millike stared at the table, he did not reveal even the slightest hint of displeasure.

He looked something like a father listening to his son’s foolish dreams.

“And what proof is there that a world ruled by merchants instead of lords would be run any better?”

Hilde’s words stuck in his throat.

No matter who held the reins, there would always be uncertainty. There were too many examples to count of kings that had been benevolent at the beginning, only to suddenly become a despot later.

Then, one could only address that concern through one’s actions. Surely that was what Hilde was going to say.

But it was Lawrence, unable to endure any longer, who opened his mouth.

“Merchants engage in trade, and the foundation of trade is profit. And in trade, you profit because you made someone happy.”

Lawrence was unable to participate in Hilde’s dream.

Even so, he could not bear to see the dream mocked before his very eyes and remain silent.

“Ho.”

Millike made a curt reply, smiling. It was the smiling face that praised a child: “You’ve really done your best.”

He gave no sign that he was angry at Lawrence for making light of him. That was the nature of dreams, and at any rate, Hilde’s deep nod made plain there was nothing to be frightened of.

“This is where I would put you down as a brat, knowing nothing of the world…but it seems that is not so.”

Millike’s gaze shifted from the bloodstained bandage wrapped around Lawrence’s leg to Holo, sitting beside him.

“There is surely a touch of truth to it. Yet I wonder if it can endure in the face of reality?” said Millike.

“I could say the same thing to you,” Hilde said to Millike.

“What do you mean?”

“There is no mistaking that this town has many raising their voices against the Debau Company’s tyranny. To them, I am extremely useful.”

The smaller the town, the more incredible how quickly rumors spread.

A large group arriving just before daybreak, barely escaping with their lives, could not exactly pass unnoticed. Surely, there was at least one dweller of the northlands here that was aware of the Myuri Mercenary Company; when one added Hilde’s presence, even a fool could understand there had been a coup in Lesko.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, went the saying. And a man who was until a few days ago at the center of the enemy was all that more powerful an ally.

“Meaning, you’ll interfere with us councilors keeping the people in line?”

“No, surely that will not be necessary. If I may say so, the truth is on our side, and popular will follows the truth. The current Debau Company must be stopped.”

Hilde and Millike traded glances, neither retreating an inch.

Lawrence thought the silence would continue for eternity, but Millike broke it first.

“I see. If so, that too is fine. Go ahead and try.”

“You are not selling me?”

Hilde’s jab brought a strained smile over Millike.

“That I can do at any time. If you weren’t a hare…well, I’d have to think about it.”

It was clear without him spelling it out that he was talking about Holo.

“Do you acknowledge our freedom, then?”

“Do as you like. Preach your gospel to the masses and guide them, like a missionary of the Church. Raise your banner and invade other lands, just like many lords do.”

Millike rose from his seat.

He did not look fed up with the talk of selling or buying at all.

Lawrence wondered what was inside Millike that let him fend everything off with such certainty.

Whatever it was, even putting aside his height and demeanor, the overbearing weight of it made his words resonate deeply.

“But I wonder if you will go to battle in the end.”

If they fought the large army approaching the town, it was certain the town would lose. That was why Millike had sought to avoid battle, was it not, either by convincing Hilde and the others otherwise or putting him in irons?

Lawrence found it difficult to grasp what Millike was thinking.

Millike added this. “Had you been more foolish, this would be a more complicated matter. If you are so wise, it is not my turn on the stage.”

Lawrence did not think he said “wise” as a compliment.

Even so, he did not think it was complete sarcasm or falsehood, either.

Was there a world of negotiation techniques of which even he was unaware?

As Lawrence watched the exchange intently, Hilde’s words made him hold his breath.

“It is because there are lords like you that the world does not change.”

The phrase made Millike laugh for the first time, looking amused.

“Ha-ha-ha. But…”

As Millike laughed, he noticed some dirt under the fingernail of his thumb, flicking it out with the nail of his little finger.

Even how he mocked others was flawless in its elegance.

“Nothing in the world will change. If it was going to change, those with power would have changed it long ago.”

Millike looked straight at Holo.

Holo fended off his gaze without expression, brushing it aside like an indifferent cat.

Millike made a hearty laugh and looked at Hilde.

Hilde looked at Millike with what seemed like a scowl.

“And how much do you intend to sell this town for?”

It was a blatant provocation, but perhaps Hilde was trying to extract information out of Millike.

An unapproachable opponent could not be swayed with tears or entreaties.

One had to get him angry and draw him into conversation.

“Money? Ha-ha, money is it? If they paid money that would be good, but…”

Millike laughed.

That his way of laughing was eerie was not Lawrence’s impression alone.

Beside him, Holo’s body clearly stiffened.

“This is a town where only furs and amber pass through. The craftsmen have all left. No one stays here; everyone just moves right by. No doubt the fools will carry their weapons and go beyond the town. But beyond here are only deep, treacherous snowy mountains. Many difficulties will assail them. Their footprints shall stretch a ways, but finally, even those shall be buried by snow. All pass through but go only to their end. No one stays. The only thing that piles up, like sediment, is time.”

Millike’s talkative voice was clearly filled with resentment.

Lawrence realized that this lord was like Holo.

But unlike Holo, Millike was wrapped in resentment at the unassailable providence that governed the world.

“So, you are a poet.”

It was Hilde, who unlike Holo and Millike was certain the world could be changed, who made that reply.

“Prattle,” said Klaus von Havlish the Third. In this town, Jean Millike.

Holo and Hilde had known at one glance he was not a man; Holo had said he was half inhuman.

No doubt he, too, built a solid foundation for himself in this land while taking care not to stand out.

Concealing oneself was also a matter of skill.

To conceal himself, Huskins the golden ram had gone as far as to eat the flesh of his fellow sheep.

Thinking of Millike as merely a pessimistic half-human lord would be a dramatic mistake.

“But do not underestimate the power of money.”

The vast profits from issuing new currency caused his dazzled subordinates to betray him and had bought off the Hugo Mercenary Company.

But for whatever reason, Hilde’s words made Millike shoot him a look of what seemed to be sympathy.

“I see. Well, then, if you will excuse me.”

Millike turned about, showing not a single shred of hesitation, and left the room without another sound.

As the door closed shut, Hilde lowered his face and made a heavy sigh.

The town’s leaders were not welcoming Hilde and the others. That was largely a declaration of defeat in itself; furthermore, because Hilde had not been aware of the fundamental fact that Millike and Havlish were the same person, investigating “Millike” and striving to win him over and such was doubtful with so little time.

This made Lawrence think of the choices that remained.

Assassination. Flight. Surrender.

All the options he could think of were extreme and likely none of them would bring any good result.

Therefore, since Lawrence was so concerned, he could not help himself but ask, “Do you have a plan?”

Hilde, who surely knew the gist of what he had promised Holo, raised his face and made a listless smile.

No doubt, what he wanted to say was, What are you doing, trying to make me say no?

They knew that Lawrence was not the kind of human who ran away just because the going got tough.

But Hilde said, “I do.”

A great merchant of a great company was far worse at giving up than any traveling merchant.

“I am, despite it all, the former treasurer of the Debau Company. I have a grasp of what the company needs and lacks to continue operating. If we can assemble and organize the humans of this town and get them to close the gates, it should be enough to force the company to the negotiating table.”

However, mercenaries specializing in siege warfare were apparently pressing near Svernel.

Lawrence did not think the walls would hold against such a force.

“They should no longer have the funds to fight a siege.”

The Debau Company, its arms full of mines that gushed profits like spring water, lacked the funds to fight?

Lawrence did not think so.

“Just as we were doing, they are using the profits from issuing new currency to bind together the lords, the mercenaries, and the townspeople. However, there is an overwhelming lack of base metal with which to issue the currency; it shall take some time until they can issue it. They need to melt down lower quality silver coins and reforge them at a higher purity level. Then, what do you think will happen if they must continue to pay lords and mercenaries in new, freshly minted, high-value currency for the sake of war? What will happen if the currency is not distributed to the travelers and peasants of the northlands that want it?”

People giving up on getting their hands on the new currency would no doubt return to their homes with silver trenni and other runners-up in hand. If that happened, the speculation fever would abate, and the lords would be enraged that the value of the payments promised to them in the new currency had plummeted.

Lawrence gazed in astonishment at Hilde’s calm judgment.

“Based on my memory of all the company’s accounts, I have deduced that the betrayal of the Hugo Mercenary Company and the dispatch of the captain of a thousand have now placed them in a very difficult situation, at the very limit of their ability to raise funds.”

The size of those business dealings were far out of the league of any traveling merchant.

Lawrence could not even begin to grasp the vastness of the dealings of something on the Debau Company’s level.

But just as Lawrence remembered every deal he had made on his trade route, Hilde might well remember the vast majority of his own deals.

“That, therefore, is why they are creating the conditions for immediate surrender. And if we surrender without a fight, the Debau Company saves itself a vast amount of war expenditures, and they can behave as if their funds are unlimited in the future as well. This is far too outlandish a scheme for the sake of a single wounded treasure and a small mercenary company, even an elite one. In a manner of speaking, it is the same technique of defeating one’s foe with a paper tower that Debau and I used ourselves.”

No matter what the situation, he forgot no weapon at his disposal, overlooking nothing.

But if it was so, the problem boiled down to a single issue.

“Therefore, it is a matter of whether we can get the town gates closed or not. If we can get them closed, we force them to the table. If we surrender without a fight, we play right into their hands.”

Surely Millike had foreseen that far himself?

It was possible that, precisely to avoid such a situation, a messenger from the Debau Company had simply delivered a letter requesting the gates not be closed under any circumstances.

Then there was the matter of what if Hilde could not implement his plan? And even more so, there was the matter that even if things went according to the degenerate way of thinking Hilde had sarcastically referred to as poetry, liberating this one town from the Debau Company did not amount to any great thing.

But Lawrence did not think that the people at the Debau Company were underestimating Hilde at all. Surely, they realized Hilde would remember all of the accounts and perceive that their funds were in a precarious state.

In other words, this was a gamble testing the intellect and courage of Hilde, Millike, and the Debau Company.

Whose plan was the softest, the weakest? Whose liver was the most delicate, most frail?

Lawrence knew that there was no place for him in such a thunderous dispute.

“From a certain merchant, I have heard the words trade war.” Lawrence spoke to Hilde, seemingly in admiration. “What I do as a traveling merchant is trade. There is no place for me here.”

Holo made a sigh of relief as Hilde gently smiled. It was a smile like one made to praise a child who had realized that a man could not move a mountain.

Soon after, there was a clamor outside as Millike’s voice commanded those around the inn to withdraw.

As their footsteps became distant, heavy footsteps approached from the corridor in long strides.

It was Moizi who entered the room.

“It seems you had a conversation?”

Hilde did not lift his head right away. Perhaps it was simply difficult to put into words to explain.

Of course, it was not something that could be shown with one sentence.

“He said, if you can do it, do it.”

But he gave no indication that anything more had taken place.

Hilde shifted his gaze to Holo. “Are you going to laugh?”

Holo sounded unamused as she replied, “I shall not. I am somewhat envious, however.”

Holo had lost all of her confidence that the world could be changed.

As Holo said that, she put a hand on Lawrence’s forehead. It was as if she was saying, There’s but a single human I can rest my hands upon.

And as she got up, she beckoned for Lawrence to get up as well.

“Mr. Lawrence.”

Hilde spoke toward Lawrence.

Holo did not seem of a mind to linger, but Lawrence, borrowing Holo’s shoulder, turned around.

“What is it?”

“The words you spoke to Master Millike were marvelous. I shall never forget them. Having realized this truth, I am sure your store shall be a most prosperous one.”

“…Thank you very much.”

It was nothing to be delighted at.

But he properly said his thanks.

Then, Lawrence and Holo left the room. It was not a bad way for a traveling merchant’s dream to come to an end.

Naturally, however, there were other ways of thinking, too.

So far as the townspeople would be concerned, the arrival of an envoy was clearly the first step toward a declaration of war. Should negotiations fail, they would surely shut the town gates.

Furthermore, the townspeople had already accepted Hilde and the others as chivalrous rogues. Even should the envoy and Millike come to agreement, wholly ignoring the will of the people, with the merchants’ council deciding on its own to leave the gates wide open for the Debau Company, there could even be civil strife. Lawrence wondered if Millike would court such a thing.

In the first place, if all was in perfect agreement, no envoy would have been accepted to begin with.

Or perhaps Millike had some kind of plan?

Plain thinking could only arrive at a single conclusion.

But though exceedingly simple, even Lawrence did not want to believe it.

That was, he had confidence that the will of the people could be assuaged.

However, regardless of what the envoy and Millike wanted from negotiations, Hilde had to bite. The worst thing was for them to discuss things between themselves alone. Even if the Debau Company’s army did not enter the city, no good would come from civil strife arising.

“Er, and Master Hilde…”

“Is there something else?”

As Hilde asked, the young man spoke, his voice filled with all the courage he could muster.

“The envoy wishes to negotiate with Master Hilde.”

This was completely unexpected.

But when Hilde poked his head out of the wooden shutters, he instantly pulled back and looked at Lawrence.

“It’s bad if you leave right now. All of Millike’s soldiers are already heading this way.”

They might be questioned, and if they were not careful, they would be suspected of being spies.

Even if that was not so, if they were closely examined on a busy street in broad daylight, Holo’s ears and tail would be exposed for all to see.

“Understood. We will lie low for a while and go when the time is right.”

“Please do so. I do not believe they will be so absurd as to put us in irons. Should such a thing happen, at least you two must escape.”

If they clumsily stayed behind and the worst happened, it would bring anguish to Hilde and Moizi and the others, and the one who would suffer the most would be Holo.

Lawrence hardened his resolve and nodded.

“But—but…no, perhaps…?”

Hilde was desperately questioning himself. Even someone as intelligent as Hilde—no, probably precisely because he was sharper than the likes of Lawrence, he simply could not understand the envoy’s actions.

What did he intend to do by negotiating with Hilde?

It was plain that talks would rupture.

Or was it that they intended to compromise from the start? Then, why would they be paying an exorbitant expense to command such a large army? Or did he truly believe he could persuade Hilde to give up?

“If you go and meet him you will know,” said Lawrence.

Then Holo spoke curtly. “There are many mysteries that cannot be resolved by simply gazing at them. You had the rug pulled from under you once before. Do you intend to repeat the same mistake?”

The words of Holo the Wisewolf firmly grounded the great merchant Hilde’s floating thoughts.

“…Thank you very much.”

“Hmph.”

Holo snorted as Hilde left the room, taking the young man along with him.

Remaining in the room, Holo reached her hand out to the coining hammer, its head sticking out of the hemp sack.

She pressed her thumb against it, looking it over. “That fool,” she muttered. “Males are all fools,” she finished, annoyed and turning over the coining hammer engraved with the symbol of the sun.

They heard a voice from outside the window. “Is Master Hilde Schnau here?!”

When they looked outside, the streets had become packed with people at some point.

Right in the center was Millike, straddling a rather fine horse, with soldiers escorting both.

Waiting a small ways behind was a man dressed in extremely fine garments who had to be the Debau Company’s envoy. Even watching from the inn’s second floor, the hat made of river mouse pelt and the fur-hemmed overcoat resembled a horse draped in gold-and-silver embroidery without the slightest sense of embarrassment.

Even his servant seemed to be clothed quite well; he was pulling a horse with some kind of baggage piled upon it.

While they bore solemn faces while straddling the horses, they did not bear the bitter taste peculiar to those left behind by a situation out of hand. They had a sure-footed confidence as to who was the victor here.

But those gathered all around them were not here simply to see the sights.

There was a butcher, his meat cleaver in his hand, and a baker, holding a stone rolling pin heavier and harder than any wooden one. They were those who had accepted Hilde as a chivalrous rogue who had come to do battle against any foes who would invade the town.

Furthermore, they were here to look over the Debau Company, which having danced ahead so far now had mercenaries with weapons poised with one general after another under their thumb, an old way of thinking it had rejected in the past.

The circumstances were absolutely not one-sided.

And Moizi and the stout men of the Myuri Mercenary Company stood in front of the inn’s door, trading glares with the soldiers that had demanded Hilde’s presence. It was apparent at a glance who was friend and who was foe.

What broke the stalemate was the opening of the inn’s door.

Seen as the leader of a chivalrous band of rogues, Hilde rushed out, and a scrum began with the soldiers protecting Millike and the Debau Company’s envoy.

“You demand dialogue with us! What is the meaning of this, bearing arms in the presence of an envoy?”

Hilde was the one who shouted.

The excited populace somehow stopped shifting around.

“Master Hilde Schnau, is it?”

One of the soldiers examined him. Hilde nodded and replied, “Indeed, I am.”

“We have accepted an envoy from the Debau Company. He wishes to establish a place for negotiations with Master Schnau.”

As the soldier conveyed his message, the common folk around them mocked Millike and the soldiers’ weak attitude.

For it was only through setting up walls that a town could protect its autonomy.

There were many who coveted towns. There were lords who viewed the people of the land much the same as common weeds; mountain bandits thinking only of plunder; the Church, which thought nothing of burning disobedient heretics at the stake; avaricious great merchants; and even failing those, no small number of wolves and bears came down from the mountains in search of food. The fear of having one’s knees broken and being chewed all the way down to the bones was certainly not paranoia.

But Millike paid the shouts of the crowd no more heed than the buzzing of flies.

He maintained a completely neutral expression as he gazed at Hilde.

“I, too, desire this.”

“Very well. Now, then, the envoy from the Debau Company is…”

As the soldier attempted to provide an introduction, Hilde checked him with a hand.

“I know this man well.”

Hilde spoke quietly and took a step forward.

Lawrence did not think Moizi and the other mercenaries were walking beside Hilde simply to open a path.

Even watching from the second story, he was able to take in Hilde’s incredible resolve.

“Emanuel Yanarkin…”

The man maintained a cold smile on top of his horse and replied to the seemingly spat-out words.

“It seems that you are well, Master Hilde Schnau.”

Hilde pressed his right shoulder lightly.

Perhaps it was this Yanarkin who had inflicted that very wound.

“If it pleases you, we will go to my mansion for the negotiations.” It was Millike who interjected.

This was natural, coming from the chairman of the merchants’ council, its most powerful member, and the man who approved merchants.

However, the townspeople could not accept this being moved behind closed doors.

That moment, the clamor began to build anew.

“I have nothing to be ashamed of. I do not mind having this debate right here.”

It was Yanarkin who spoke those words.

It was this very man who had the most to hide in a place like this.

Furthermore, as if to display this was no simple whim, he climbed down from his horse.

The crowd’s presence was conveyed by the collective sucking of breath, for the act of coming down from his horse meant they could raise no tumult about it.

“…How about you, Master Schnau?”

Millike, playing the role of the neutral mediator offering a place to negotiate, looked down at Hilde from horseback as he spoke.

It seemed that this development had simply caught Hilde off guard.

Hold negotiations that would determine the fate of the town right in front of the crowd?

It was only natural that business be done behind closed doors; that was even more true of political dealings, with no reason to speak of them in front of others whatsoever.

For compromises, traps that looked like compromises, and sometimes threats and pleadings were all traded back and forth.

It was nothing one wanted most people to see.

Yet even so, Yanarkin dismounted, standing on the road.

“…I do not mind.”

Hilde, after a silent pause, could only reply thusly.

Since he was a chivalrous rogue, he had to appear forthright and open at all times.

Though Debau and Hilde’s dream was without question something to be proud of, whether the path to achieving it was something that could be fully revealed before others was a different question altogether.

Lawrence was painfully aware of how merchants were broad-minded when it came to good and evil.

But Lawrence did not know whether the general public would understand that.

“Very well. Let it be done here and now, then.”

Millike issued commands from horseback. The soldiers employing spears lowered them, opening a space right in the middle of the street. Upon noticing this, many faces poked out of the building on the other side to watch what was going on.

Even as Lawrence watched the people driven away form a crowd, he felt that the situation was indeed not so bad.

If anything, he thought things had tilted in favor of Hilde.

After all, none doubted the fact that a large army was marching upon the town; nor was it false that Hilde thought the northlands could be unified without force of arms. He had not only mere words, but also practical methodology as well.

That being the case, surely it was Yanarkin who was at a disadvantage negotiating in front of people.

But Yanarkin was not intimidated in the slightest. Millike was not flustered whatsoever.

The only one who was tense was Hilde, who should have had the advantage.

“Are they planning something?”

Lawrence murmured out of the blue.

“I know not. Logically this should favor the hare.”

So Lawrence was right. Even Holo thought as much.

But after staring intently below the window, Holo quietly said this.

“But that gloomy-eyed lord told the hare, ‘You are wise, so there is no place for me on the stage.’ If by that, he meant the comfort margin he is showing here, then…”

Lawrence shifted his gaze from Holo to the street.

It was Yanarkin who broke the ice.

“We have been misunderstood!” The voice and gestures he used were far too grand for a one-on-one conversation. “We are not the ones bringing harm to this land!”

A storm of jeers arose from the public at the all-too-transparent statement.

One could not win trust from others if there was a difference between their words and their deeds.

Hilde said as much, of course.

“How dare you speak so? Where, then, is the army under your command headed? Is it to the land beyond that continues to infinity? Have you confused consuming every single ear of wheat with profit? That you have brought an army with you is proof of your selfish avarice!”

One would think the treasurer of a great company would spend his days locked in a room staring at numbers.

However, Hilde’s posture was actually majestic, splendidly so.

Come to think of it, the Debau Company surely was not a large company when it started.

When he had joined hands with Debau and began doing business, he had no doubt been too busy to even sit in a chair.

Hilde was absolutely not an intellectual who had never set his feet on the ground.

He was an adventurer who had endured many hardships without forgetting his dreams.

For his part, Yanarkin spoke with calm. “Therein lies the misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding? Misunderstanding, he says?”

The spontaneous murmurs from the crowd all around were not spoken with nearly as much calm.

“What kind of misunderstanding would this be? Or are you saying you are such a coward that you require an army of this size to protect you?”

The crowd agreed with Hilde’s words. Pressing close to town in command of a large army was not some misunderstanding. It was a clear fact that the town stood in opposition to the Debau Company; that being the case, no excuse would suffice. In the first place, the very arrival of an envoy was recognition that they were in conflict.

But that moment, a very bad feeling came over Lawrence. Yanarkin was smiling. He was clearly smiling. The smile said, “You’ve fallen into my trap.”

Misunderstanding. Protect. Coward.

Lawrence forgot the pain of his leg as he moved his body forward.

This was bad. What Millike had said was true.

“That is correct!” Yanarkin proclaimed with a great voice.

Not only was the crowd shocked, but also Hilde as well.

They could not comprehend it. Did he think such an excuse would fly?

But it would fly. He would make it fly.

Lawrence set his eyes upon the baggage Yanarkin had brought with him.

There were a number of wooden boxes atop a horse’s back.

Why had he not noticed that before? Now, he understood.

It was because he had Hilde’s explanation from the day before in his head.

That the Debau Company had no surplus funds. That it did not have the funds to fight a war.

So spoke Hilde, the treasurer of the Debau Company, who had memorized all of its accounts.

But Lawrence remembered. He remembered the tumult at the great monastery in the Kingdom of Winfiel.

Treasurers were not all-seeing and all-knowing. The numbers matching up cannot tell one if they are true or false.

No doubt Hilde had considered improprieties. Even so, he must have been certain, There’s no way they could’ve hidden that much money from me. But what if that premise was in error? And this was the same Debau Company that had used those funds to make the Hugo Mercenary Company betray them.

Millike was correct. Hilde was wise. Too wise.

That was why a fool’s method would bring him to his knees.

“We are not the ones bringing harm to this land! To the contrary, it is we who require a great army to protect us! Behold!”

Yanarkin’s servant unfastened a wooden box and opened the lid.

“Ohhh.” The crowd’s voices rose.

The box was packed to the brim. Silver coins. It was packed with silver trenni.

There were eight boxes just like it. If they all contained silver trenni, it was quite a fortune right there.

“I am no intellectual agitating people through my mouth alone! I am a merchant! Merchants use goods and money to bring happiness to people! I am not like the man there who deceives people through words alone!”

As Yanarkin shouted, he grabbed a fistful of silver coins and threw them all about.

Silver coins danced like falling snow, pouring on top of people’s heads. “Ohh, silver coins…they’re real!” “Real silver coins!” Excitement arose from the mouths of various people. Of course it did. Depending on where one lived and if they spent wisely, a person could live off a single silver trenni for a month.

The crowd’s eyes were pinned to the direction the coins were dispensed.

Then, Yanarkin turned around and threw another fistful of coins.

“Go! Take it! The Debau Company dispenses silver coins to the people!”

As the silver coins danced in the air with a rattle, people dropped their weapons and chased after the coins.

“I am a merchant! Merchants do no harm! We dispense these silver coins here for our business! We know that to dispense silver coins brings prosperity, which brings us new silver coins in turn! If you think I deceive you, pick up a coin and look at it! They’re real! Real silver coins!”

Rattle, rattle. He dispensed handful after handful, finally hurling the box itself, along with all the coins left remaining.

His servant took another box as well, dispensing handfuls one after another.

Not a single person in the crowd held a weapon any longer. There were silver coins to be had. No one had any time for holding weapons.

“Wait, everyone. Wait!”

Though Hilde cried out, it was a meaningless gesture amid the tumult.

Even the spear-carrying soldiers seemed torn between their desire to bring the tumult under control and to pick up silver coins themselves. Realizing this, Yanarkin walked over and poured silver coins right into the palms of the soldiers’ hands.

Millike watched the scene with a neutral expression. It was not that he lacked desire for gold and silver. No, Millike knew the shallowness of men and the might of money. He also knew to his core how the overwise Hilde’s idealistic arguments held no sway over either.

Hilde and Moizi grabbed the shoulders of those picking up the coins and tried to convince them against it, but to no avail.

Lawrence wanted to cry. He could not accept that Yanarkin was a merchant. He could not accept this as a way of doing business.

Using this to subdue Hilde and Debau was no different than old power whatsoever.

The tyranny of money: tyranny that could only be practiced by those with a great fortune.

Words, just causes—before this, nothing held any meaning whatsoever.

By such a crude, ugly method, Hilde and Debau’s dream was being crushed. Merchants had dreamed of an ideal world, but other merchants were bringing that dream to naught.

This was a victory of overwhelming force, indiscriminately mowing down everything in its path.

Millike had said that the world would not change. Would not change. The world would not change. That was truth, for most people would not change. It was indeed the truth.

Hilde shouted until his throat was parched, but it was useless.

Lawrence pounded the window frame as hard as he could and rose up.

He turned around and reached toward the hemp sack lying on top of the table.

An eye for an eye. A sword for a sword. Gold coin for silver.

As Lawrence began untying the sack’s cord, Holo stopped him. “Come, you, do not do anything stupid!”

“It is stupid! Oh yes, it’s stupid! But I can’t just watch like this! I can’t just let them win like this!”

Having said that, he did not think dispensing gold coins would make a difference.

He knew it would not.

But Lawrence could not help but yell it anyway. This was not something that could be forgiven.

As he and Holo struggled over the sack, the gold coins poured onto the table. Hilde’s memos based on his memory as the Debau Company’s treasurer and Col’s carry bag fell as well.

Then, Lawrence looked at the stamp, which had also fallen.

The stamp upon which was engraved the symbol of the sun, made to lead this land, or even this world, to a brighter future.

“’Tis fate,” Holo said in a quivering voice.

Her voice was like a parched breeze, as if she had been crying for centuries.

“There are things that cannot be changed. Aye, there are many such things in this world…”

Millike had said as much. If the world could be changed, those with power would change it.

Holo had not changed. She had been unable to change the ways of the world that had taken everything from her.

Lawrence let go of the sack, wobbled, and fell on his rear. Holo continued to hold the sack of gold coins as she made a suffering look down at Lawrence. He could hear a tremendous clamor outside the window. He could not hear Hilde’s voice any longer, not even a little.

Surely no one’s ears could have.

“’Tis by enduring it I have come this far.”

So she was saying, you need to endure it, too?

He was no wisewolf. Lawrence looked at Holo in despair.

“And still…” Holo crouched beside Lawrence and wrapped both hands around his head. “Even I could not have endured it without you. I was able to walk forward because you pulled my hand. So, come.”

It was as if Lawrence had made Holo come this far.

“The world shall not change. But we have both gained something precious. Come, you…we should be satisfied with that.”

Lawrence searched for words.

However, none came forth. All he could manage was a sigh, close to sobbing, at how pathetic he was, unable to do anything save listen to the sounds of merchants’ dreams being violated.

Was this all right? Was this forgivable? Was there no God? Why must the righteous be forsaken?

The world was harsh, cold, and senseless.

Few dreams were granted. Few were even seen.

Lawrence wept. He wept without restraint.

And he looked at the fruits of Hilde’s labors scattered across the floor, and at the sack belonging to Col, even now in Kieschen, no doubt still clutching his dreams.

Right now both were of equal value.

With Hilde’s dream smashed, his precious treasurer’s memos were mere fragments of the past. What poked out of Col’s carry bag were bonds that were truly empty shells. He had spent all his money buying them from a swindler, only to discover they were all worthless. Hilde’s records of his time as treasurer would soon suffer the same fate.

Humanity was like a carry bag. No matter how much one patched it up, precious things fell out of it.

Col still held on to his dreams. Lawrence thought that was a very cruel thing.

If the likes of Hilde and Debau could not succeed, who in this world could?

Lawrence glared at the papers scattered across the floor. He glared at the useless, worthless paper bundles.

In the end, money was everything in this world. It was not a dream or a just cause, but money that one could see, touch, and that enabled one to eat.

The numbers written on those bundles of paper had been Hilde’s livelihood. For their sake, he had overlooked something very important and had finally arrived at this point as a result. Lawrence felt like they all shared the blame.

Lawrence flew into a rage at the papers scattered about. He wanted to drag them to an unseen place and kick them as if they were no-good children. But as if to spite Lawrence, the paper he had raised up kept slipping out of his palms. Every last thing mocked those who lacked strength.

“Shit!”

The moment Lawrence was about to start trying to tear the dancing paper to shreds…

“…?!”

Lawrence’s hands stopped. It was not that he had a reason. His hands truly stopped out of the blue.

He had felt misgivings the instant he had looked at the paper. Something was wrong. Something was odd. His sixth sense, developed from the adventures he had engaged in as a merchant, trying to get Holo to stay, was going off.

What danced down into the palms of Lawrence’s hands was one of the bills of exchange Col had been fooled into purchasing. Apprentices who found their service to their company difficult stole them and sold them to swindlers for carriage fare as they made their escape.

It was an ordinary, already-used bill of exchange, no longer bearing any value whatsoever.

But Lawrence’s head was struck by a powerful impact as if a nail was being pounded into it.

Bills. Bills of exchange.

There was a way. A way for the Debau Company to hide money.

A way still open to them.

But Hilde had not thought of this? Lawrence untangled himself from Holo’s arms and ran his eyes over the documents scattered over the floor.

Then, his eyes found and ran over the paper upon which Hilde had written various methods.

There was a list. Changing the way cargo was packed, fictional trades, inflating fees, and so forth.

But it was not written there. Bills of exchange were not written there.

It was a marvelous method invented so that travelers would no longer need to carry heavy sacks of coin with them. A person deposited their coin at the branch of a trading company in one town and received a bill of exchange, brought that with them to the next town, and exchanged the bill for coin at the company’s branch in that town. It was a commonly used method, not something prone to impropriety at all.

But the important thing was, the actual coin deposited stayed with that company the whole time. The only things that moved were the traveler and the bill; the money itself did not move at all.

That is why Hilde had overlooked it. Had it been a deal with merchandise it would have never escaped his sight.

But in the first place, there was no profit involved; he had paid no attention to bills because they were merely a convenience. In accounting terms, bills of exchange did not create any change whatsoever. But that did not mean they had no impact on reality.

All the more so for an organization with business as massive as the Debau Company’s; surely, its bills of exchange could be redeemed for an unbelievable amount of money. Lawrence had no doubt they had used that.

Come to think of it, when they had met Col on that ship, the sailors were gossiping about a thousand pieces of gold. They were perplexed by the strange bill of exchange being transported. The bill was to be brought to Kerube, to be shipped to Lesko without ever being converted into coin.

That was probably due to issuing a bill of exchange so large that Kerube could not pay the coin. At any rate, since physical money was not actually moving whatsoever, the branch paying out the money would eventually run dry. That was the precise method via which Lawrence had arranged for Le Roi to obtain the forbidden book back in Lenos.

And bonds could be used in reverse, too.

All the more so considering how abnormal the money prices in Lesko was compared to other towns. Gold was cheap; silver was expensive.

That being the case, there was no doubt that many people were using that difference in prices for profit. That was to say, taking gold obtained in Lesko and bringing it to the Debau Company for a bill of exchange, taking that back to Kerube for gold, and exchanging the gold for silver, was a surefire way to make money the easy way. No doubt a mountain of people jumped at the chance.

Therefore, there had to be an unbelievable amount of money resting with the Debau Company in Lesko.

As a surprised Holo watched beside him, Lawrence endured the pain of his leg as he rose once more.

Yanarkin was scattering silver coins all about as Hilde desperately grabbed shoulders, trying to persuade people.

But Lawrence did not speak.

He could not speak yet.

He knew that the Debau Company had used bills of exchange to secure the coinage to produce this wild scene. But it was not enough. He could not find a way to calm the crowd and silence Yanarkin. In the first place, bills of exchange were not bad things. They were not bad things at all.

Even so, the thumping in Lawrence’s chest told him there was something.

He felt like he had when he had seen through the Debau Company’s scheme in Lesko; he knew something was there, but it was tantalizingly out of reach.

There was a way he could use to take the offensive against Yanarkin. A way that involved bills of exchange.

But what? What was it?

Bills of exchange. Differences in prices. Misappropriation of deposited coinage. Such words ran about in Lawrence’s head. He had found the answer but the words would not come out.

Lawrence looked at Holo in search of aid.

However, Holo looked at Lawrence with a sad face.

His tongue had already run dry saying that to take responsibility for obtaining Holo, he would adventure no more. He could understand why sadness laid on the other side of anger.

But this was his nature. A nature he could not change.

Therefore, Lawrence clasped Holo’s shoulders. He gripped her shoulders firmly, as if asking her to help him out of his wordless suffering.

“Come, you…”

As Holo spoke, she lowered her head as if in surrender.

Holo’s desire was to live quietly in a little store, chasing after tiny pieces of happiness. It most certainly was not for him to thrust his head in a dangerous situation, risking his life for a dream with no end in sight.

Lawrence had meant to give all that up. He had truly meant to.

Even so, idiocy was incurable for life.

If I could toss it aside here, that’d be nice, too. He was amazed at himself for thinking it.

Then, Holo spoke.

“Do it already, then. I shall quiet the howling ones.”

“…!”

As Lawrence sucked in his breath, Holo made an awkward smile. “I am quite benevolent myself.” She put her hands on top of Lawrence’s. “Someday you shall repay this debt to me.”

Debt. That was it.

That moment, some obstruction in Lawrence’s chest melted away.

“Now, then, please.”

Holo made a satisfied smile and put both hands on the window sill, exhaling until she was bent over as if to cough something up, then inhaled with all her strength, her body arching back in the other direction.

She made a marvelous howl, as if yelling at a pack of idiot males.

“Aoooooooooooo!!”

Even though they were inside a town’s walls, the townspeople were sensitive to wolves in the forests and mountains that lay just beyond.

Everyone became deathly still, as if cold water had been poured over the entire disturbance.

“The Debau Company’s impropriety must be redressed!”

Lawrence’s voice resounded.

The crowd’s gazes converged upon Lawrence at once.

“The Debau Company’s impropriety must be redressed!”

Hilde, too, looked up at Lawrence dumbfounded.

“The Debau Company’s impropriety must be redressed!”

As Lawrence spoke a third time, it was Yanarkin who moved.

“Wh-what are you saying! Impropriety?! Based on what evidence?!”

Evidence. Yes, evidence. There was no evidence.

Even if the logic added up, without evidence, he had nothing.

Lawrence’s head went blank. The rug had been pulled out from under him again.

Finding no comeback, nausea assaulted him.

That moment, Holo slapped his butt. As he looked at Holo, she turned her chin aside in an annoyed look.

“Have you no confidence, Lawrence? Evidence is support for your case, no more.”

Wisewolf Holo.

Lawrence looked out of the window, raising the paper in his hand.

“This is evidence! A Debau Company bill of exchange!”

A complete lie. Furthermore, even had it been real, it would not have been evidence of anything.

However, it brought results. Immediately.

“Wh-what is…! What evidence of anything is that?!”

Yanarkin had been unnerved. Lawrence had not been mistaken. This was the correct path.

Lawrence inhaled and shouted. “What are you saying, you who fling about coins deposited in Lesko for bills of exchange! That money was entrusted to you by others!”

Hilde was right. The Debau Company did not have the coin on hand to fund waging war. It certainly did not have money to pursue a battle to break down town gates that had been shut. Even if it did, it would interfere with issuing the new currency, which bound the lords and mercenaries to it.

But the Debau Company’s treasury contained all the coinage deposited when it issued bills of exchange.

Bills of exchange would eventually become coin once more, but there was a time lag. During that time, it was as if the Debau Company was borrowing the money. The money Yanarkin and the others were flinging about would eventually need to be replaced from somewhere to make the accounts balance.

If collections slowed because town gates had been shut, it would hinder repayment. Even more so, if everyone learned how money they had merely deposited was being used behind their backs, no one would want to use bills of exchange anymore.

If that happened, their financing would suddenly dry up.

“I think we should send a fast horse to Lesko and confirm the situation! This is a life-and-death issue for this town, indeed, all the northlands! There’s no reason to rush a decision whatsoever! Or is it that you wish to dazzle the townspeople with stolen money!”

At those words, many people’s heads pulled back.

As they regarded at one another’s faces, perhaps they were remembering what they looked like when they were picking up the scattered silver pieces—wretched, miserable, without a single shred of dignity.

Lawrence went to shout one final time.

However, his breath cut short and his head went dizzy. He had come to the limit of his physical strength.

His eyes were spinning; his legs were shaking. At the end of his vision, a broad smile came over Yanarkin.

This was bad. If he could not press his case, he would lose the crowd.

“Th-this is absurd! Of course this is not borrowed money! If we did such a thing, th-the Church would surely be angry! But, we, the Debau Company, bear the seal of the Church as well! The Church and the lords are with us because what we are doing is just!”

Here he was, speaking of the Church in the middle of the northlands. Proof enough he had lost his cool.

It was working.

“Then…!”

But right after Lawrence got that far, his throat felt pressure as if someone was pressing a lid on it as the edges of his vision wavered.

Grave wounds. Fever. Giddiness.

He had spoken too much.

Lawrence’s spine arched back from lack of breath. The edges of his vision were going black. His head was throbbing; his consciousness was growing distant. Even though he had the words to retort with, he lacked the strength to speak them.

Lawrence fell to his knees.

Strength. Once again, he lacked strength.

As Lawrence wept, an angel slapped his cheek.

“You truly are a fool.” Somehow managing to crouch against the window, he looked beside him. “But you are not alone any longer.”

Even if one person could not move forward alone, two people could.

That was the true meaning of his journey with Holo.

“My lines.”

And with Holo’s one sentence, he understood all. Holo had the appearance of a nun, and her skill in speech was magnificent enough to tie even merchants into knots.

Lawrence put his embarrassingly shaking hands on his knees, finally pulling his body together when it seemed like it would fall apart.

Even so, he could firmly say, never in his life had his heart ever been supported more.

“…Then, I ask you…”

“Then, I ask you!”

Holo’s voice reverberated like a bell. That it was a girl’s voice made its strength all that more poignant.

Furthermore, Holo seemed amused from the bottom of her heart, which reassured Lawrence tremendously.

“While you, fling silver coins about…”

“While you fling silver coins about!”

“You speak of…prosperity giving rise to new silver coins…”

“You speak of prosperity giving rise to new silver coins!”

Lawrence gave up on crouching against the windowsill and sat on the floor, resting his back against the wall.

“But these are not the Church’s teachings…for silver coins are silver coins. And if silver coins do give rise to anything, that…”

Holo yelled in a loud voice in accordance with Lawrence’s murmurs.

It was as if she were a shopgirl calling customers over to his store.

“That would be interest! The Church does not approve of interest! You, the thief, misusing the name of the Church! What is your objective?! Or is it on purpose that you anger the Church, invade a blameless land, bringing about destruction?!”

Holo had not been aimlessly journeying, either. She had read scripture together with Col and had observed many things this way and that. Lawrence thought so because he was not sure he had spoken the latter half of her lines properly.

But Holo’s speaking was so perfect, she could go preaching on the street just like that.

“Hff, hff.” As Holo finished speaking, Lawrence heard small, ragged breaths.

And after seeming to swallow once to get her breathing in order, Holo turned toward him.

Lawrence looked up at Holo and said, “Well done.”

The crowd outside was astir. Lawrence could not see from where he was, but Yanarkin was probably looking all around with tears on his face.

“S-silence, silence! Si— No, it’s not like that…listen to me, I—I only want to…to profit, profiting, is delight…”

He had fallen to pieces, no longer bearing any words worth speaking.

When, with Holo’s support, Lawrence somehow managed to get to his feet, Yanarkin was desperately searching for words, finally gazing all about at the crowd, looking like he was pleading for help. But now, the crowd all around him that he had dazzled so much by scattering silver coins about merely gazed at him from afar.

Finally, Yanarkin thrust his quivering hand into the box he carried and flung silver coins out. The crowd surrounding him watched with their eyes, like a dove observing a thrown pebble, but not a single person stretched out his hand.

They had won. It was a complete victory.

They had won against those who would seize the hearts of men by scattering money about.

Hilde looked his way, and their eyes met.

Lawrence said nothing and closed his eyes, raising them toward the heavens.

“You who have just witnessed the courage of my comrades! Close the gates! A great army invades!”

As Hilde shouted, the crowd rushed as one. Soldiers joined them in ones and twos as well; they too loved their town, and they too held the power to determine what was just and what was unjust.

Finally, nearly all of them had joined the crowd, running off to prepare for the great army’s onslaught.

Yanarkin stood in terror as he watched the crowd go. As he regained his senses, he unsteadily pressed close to Hilde and latched onto him.

“D-don’t do anything rash! If you close the gates, th-they’ll blame me. They’ll kill me! They’ll rip me to pieces!”

It was all too pathetic how he pleaded for his life. Lawrence could not even summon anger over how he had made his gamble without a single thought about such a risk.

Even with Yanarkin grabbing him by the collar, Hilde made no move to resist. It was Moizi who peeled Yanarkin off him. Hilde’s silence was a de facto death sentence for Yanarkin. Finally, Yanarkin stopped struggling in Moizi’s arms, hanging his head in defeat.

Hilde shifted his gaze to Millike next. Even as those surrounding him lost their bearings, the man who governed the town council calmly watched the flow of the crowd from horseback.

He had not erred to think as he had.

But people were not quite that foolish, nor quite that wise.

Though Millike noticed Hilde’s gaze, silently trading glances with him, he suddenly spurred his horse, departing together with the few soldiers remaining with him. Moizi let go of Yanarkin, and Yanarkin stumbled after Millike and his men.

It seemed to be over.

Hilde and Moizi looked up at Lawrence from the street, waving their hands as if making a salute.

Lawrence made a light wave in return as he leaned on Holo’s shoulder.

Then, the two men set their subordinates in order and returned to the inn.

Lawrence finally made a sigh of relief and looked at Holo beside him.

But a moment later his vision blurred, and without understanding what had happened, he found himself fallen on the floor, gazing straight up at the ceiling.

At the same time, Lawrence realized not only that he had been slapped on the cheek, but also that a Holo-shaped rump sat on his chest while a deft tail lay atop his head.

“That you would sit quietly in a store from here on truly was just a dream…”

Holo turned tired eyes toward Lawrence as she sat on top of him, resting her elbows on his lap and her chin on her palms.

To gain Holo, he had to take responsibility and cease adventuring. Lawrence had taken Holo’s hand with every intention of doing so, but having watched the scene before her, it was quite natural to doubt him.

And yet, he thought, even if Holo would have left him for it, he would have done it anyway.

This was Holo, after all; surely she had realized how absurdly determined he was.

More than that, Holo had gone along with a great fool of a man’s pastime.

But even as he thought those things, he wanted to excuse it all with That’s just how it turned out; it couldn’t be helped.

And it went well, had it not?

Holo’s tail softly patted Lawrence’s cheek. Perhaps it was because she thought there might be even the slightest dissatisfaction on his face.

“I keep getting pulled along by no-good males.”

Lawrence replied to Holo’s oft-spoken words.

“But you love me anyway, don’t you?”

Holo looked taken back for a moment, not dismissing it out of hand like usual.

As Holo gazed into space, as if immersed in the aftershocks of the great tumult, she made very deliberate movements with the tip of her tail, took a deep breath, and said this.

“Certainly, that is where the problem lies.”

At the end, Holo glanced sideways at Lawrence, grinning and bearing it.