“I thought you might cry had I let you return home alone,” she said and pushed the cask onto him. Lawrence removed the cork, and his stomach tightened at the smell of mead that wafted from it. That was when he recalled that he had nothing to eat since morning. He filled his mouth with drink, and the unbearable sweetness soothed his tired body. Holo often talked about this and that, but she always looked out for him.
And it was likely that the lonely one was Holo. Winter was over and the guests had gone home. Col, who had supported the bathhouse for a long time, was away traveling, and to top it off, their only daughter, Myuri, had followed him. They had one strange guest after all that, but he, too, left a short while ago. It was especially cute that Holo came to see him because she could not stand being left alone in the empty bathhouse. He tightly embraced her slender body, which seemed to draw closer to him than usual.
“But ’tis quite the amount of goods in the shed next door. The coins, too, seem like a mountain of treasure.”
“Oh right, you’ve never seen it before, huh?”
Holo almost never left the bathhouse if she did not have anything particular to do outside. For one, she did not age with time and was not human, so she tried not to be seen. There was also the simple fact that she just preferred staying at home.
“I think there’s more than usual this year…Every year, I watch how the others work, but I was surprised to find out how tough this is. I was so busy working all day today. Thinking about how this will continue for a few days is a bit scary.”
He gave a wry smile and had another drink, and Holo smiled again.
“What is it?”
“Heh-heh. I’m happy.”
“Why?”
Holo was wagging her tail under her overcoat. Lawrence thought she was tricking him somehow, and he unwittingly checked himself.
“You are slowly being accepted as a member of this village.”
Holo had lived for hundreds of years in a wheat field, watching over a town called Pasloe. She understood how much work it took for a new resident to finally fit in with the town.
Knowing that, she was happy.
“I’ve been working quite hard, too, you know.”
With a tired look, he put on a front, though seemingly on purpose. Holo giggled and held out her hand to help him up.
“Only since you have had my help.”
“I suppose so.”
He took her small hand and stood up.
Lawrence greeted the merchants gathered in the meeting hall, then exited the building. The sky was madder-lake red, but the snow on the ground was dyed indigo by nightfall. Tall mountains enveloped the village on all sides, so there was no true sunset in Nyohhira. It would dip straight from a bright sunny day into evening’s dim murkiness.
“But…,” Lawrence murmured. “Even with what you’ve already done, I feel like I need more.”
“Hmm?”
A reason that work was so busy today was that there were few young folk to take over the chores.
Kalm, whose father Cyrus was also a bathhouse master and rather close with Lawrence, came over to help, but even then it was hectic.
As he counted and weighed the masses of coins, he could not count how many times he wished that Col was still around, since he had set out to travel a bit earlier. He also thought about how his daughter Myuri could have taken care of collecting and sorting goods from the surrounding communities.
But the two had left on a journey together. Originally, it was just supposed to be Col, but wild-hearted Myuri apparently secreted herself into his luggage. Holo would tease Lawrence for being overly protective, but he thought it was normal to worry. And what’s more, though her partner was Col, she was still traveling alone with a boy!
“If only our two younglings were still around…”
There were many meanings in the words he uttered, but she chose to interpret a good one.
“Well, you have been sagging lately. Perhaps some labor will do you good, as well.”
She said this while poking his side.
He thought that the dignified look of a fat chin and a big belly suited the master of a bathhouse, but Holo was not fond of that, so he always ate and drank in moderation. The most he did to cultivate his poise as a master was grow his beard out a bit.
“That’s true, but if they don’t come back for the time being, today I realized it really is a problem if we don’t hire more people. When the customers start coming again, there’s no way I’d be able to run the bathhouse by myself.” Lawrence also added, “That includes your mending and Hanna, our resident cook’s work.”
He had not forgotten that gratitude was the key to a happy marriage. Holo snorted, as though saying, Very well.
“Shall I suggest going down to town soon, then? You may hire anyone you need there, since ’tis full of people.”
“That’s true, but can I find someone that’s as excellent a worker as Col?”
He sighed, and Holo gave him an exasperated look.
“Wheat does not bear its fruits immediately.”
“Hmm?” He looked back at her and finally understood what she was trying to say. “Bring them up with your own hands, you mean.”
“Mm. You don’t know how hard I’ve worked.”
She looked at him intently, and all he could do was smile wryly. There were definitely many parts of him that were the result of Holo’s help.
“Well, you too, have become a proper male.”
She looked up at him and smiled proudly.
She could say anything to him with that smile.
“But we still have you, so I can’t just hire anyone.”
He could feel Holo’s body shrink a bit when he sighed.
It was a bit rough for Holo to live in a human village, since she was not human and did not age.
Now, the woman named Hanna, who helped out at Lawrence’s bathhouse, was unaware of the full details, but they had convinced her that Holo was the incarnation of a bird or something similar. Col was genuinely a normal human, but they had traveled together in the past and knew Holo’s true form. As for their daughter Myuri, it went without saying.
They needed to hire someone that would not be shaken by this fact and willing to keep the secret, or maybe someone who was not human at all.
“I can ask Millike.”
That was an influential name in Svernel and, at the same time, one of the few who knew Holo’s identity.
He was also not human and was a reliable person they could consult with on these problems.
“If we can’t find anyone even then…it might be good if we stretch out a bit further.”
“Stretch, you say?”
“Yeah. We’ve been holed up in the mountains for quite a while now. Even I’m surprised.”
When they first started their bathhouse in Nyohhira, he could not really believe that they would never set out traveling again. He lived his life up until then on the road—from town to town, village to village. He knew people here and there, and he belonged to the loosely affiliated merchant association from his hometown. But never staying in one place for more than a month, he never made anything he could call a friendship. At worst, he feared there would be no grave for him to rest in when he died.
But at some point, the part of him that proudly said, In return, I get to see most of the world, disappeared, and he entirely isolated himself from the world beyond the mountain.
However, he never felt trapped. Rather, he was quite happy.
“I walked around so much that you would tease me and call me a dog. But now I stay put even more than the hemp cloth in the shed.”
Lawrence turned back, a short while after they had left the meeting hall, and at the bottom of the gentle slope, he could see the large building and the shed that sat next to it.
“Can you believe this? I heard that in Svernel at the foot of the mountain, hemp cloths are flying off the shelves. But some of the cloth isn’t used there and instead sold in another town. They
say they travel like that, down the river, before finally reaching the ocean.”
“The ocean?”
On their journey over ten years ago, he had sailed the ocean with Holo, and near their travels’ end, they made a side trip to the beach in summertime. Holo, hearing about the ocean, of which she had little connection to, looked off distantly.
“The world is at peace, and trade is booming. People have started thinking lugging their goods across land isn’t good enough anymore, so they are building an incredible number of boats now. And apparently some hemp from our village transforms into the sails on some of those boats. And then, filled with wind, they’ll face the endless ocean that I’ve only ever heard about in stories.”
Riding on the hopes of many people, that cloth would go through endless journeys. Instead of snow as far as the eye could see, maybe it would wind up in a country where scorching sand piled high like mountains. There, the ship’s hold would fill up with fragrant spices, gold, and exotic fruits before heading home. It was a risky business that could mean great riches if the traders returned safely or losing everything if something went wrong on the way.
Beyond the sky Lawrence looked up at every morning as he cleaned the front of the bathhouse, wondering how the weather would be that day, lay such a world. And now, that world rocked as it faced a new era.
Long ago, he would not be able to sit still knowing that.
“It might be good to take a whiff of adventure every once in a while.”
That way, Lawrence could restore his vigor and reapply himself to work hard at running the bathhouse. It would even be perfect if he could find outstanding staff to work at the house. Lawrence merely entertained the idea, but Holo took it in a different way.
He realized this after working for a few days, when he was about to travel to Svernel.
Under the blinding sunlight, he checked to make sure he had all the cargo he needed to go to town, and confirmed with the other masters the contents of their purchases. When all the little preparations were squared away, at last he hooked the horse to the wagon when someone pulled themselves up onto the driver’s perch.
Though she was supposed to stay and look after the bathhouse, there was Holo, dressed for travel.
“…What’s wrong?”
His voice faltered as he asked, only because Holo, who sat on the perch, wore a terrifying expression on her face.
“Nothing.” Holo responded flatly, and she stared down at him. “’Twould be a pain should a fool like you lose your way.”
“…”
Lawrence stared back at her blankly before he realized what was going on.
Long ago, Holo left her homeland of Yoitsu and could not go home for hundreds of years. During that time, her homeland had been swallowed up by the changing era, and the ones she once called companions had vanished. To Holo, who would live hundreds of years, she could not stand the possibility of someone going off somewhere and for that to be their eternal parting.
When Lawrence thought this, he regretted his carelessness from a few days ago, suggesting they stretch and travel a bit.
But as he checked the horse’s yoke, he could not help but think. Holo had supported Col’s decision—and particularly Myuri’s choice—to leave the village more than Lawrence did. She was confident that her own daughter could safely overcome anything she might face. So she should not worry as much as she did if he was only heading to around Svernel, then back.
She simply might have wanted to come along since staying behind to watch the house was surprisingly lonely.
“I, too…”
Holo spoke suddenly, as Lawrence was gathering how she felt.
“…Fancy the delicious foods in town.”
She spoke with a pout on her face, so he left it at that.
He greeted the other bathhouse masters, who stared in surprise at Holo sitting on the cart, then briskly finished his preparations and led the wagon outside. Though the sunshine was like that of a spring sun, snow still lay thick around the mountains surrounding Nyohhira.
“Keep it warm for me.”
He turned to Holo as he spoke, and she faced the other way, huffing. That brought back memories of old times together. It was when the wagon bed had been filled with Holo’s favorite apples, so many they could not finish them all.
Lawrence jumped onto the driver’s box and, in high spirits, gripped the reins.
On the road to Svernel, they had to stop and stay one night each at an inn, then a small settlement, making it roughly a three-day journey. Though it would be faster to take a boat on the river that flowed from the village outskirts, it was wise not to use it during this season. The melted snow raised the river’s water level, and it was currently used to transport harvested lumber down from the mountains, so it would not be a cozy boat ride at all.
As they traveled the mountain paths, he could see the logs floating along whenever he caught a glimpse of the river beyond the trees. According to the woodcutters that came and used their baths, timber had been selling rapidly these past few years, and most, though not all, was used to make boats. And some of those boats would sail untold distances across the sea.
Lawrence was proud to think that long ago, he worked as a part of the trade network that blanketed the land. But now, he could not imagine going back to that world.
“What?”
Holo sat next to Lawrence, working hard at her mending, and noticing his gaze, she peered up.
“Oh, nothing. You look good is all.”
Holo was not dressed as a traveling nun the way she had long ago. She wore a plain, wool-woven hood over her head, and from it hung her roughly braided hair. On her shoulders she wore a shawl that had the barest embroidery in the corner—she seemed proper and modest. Since she looked young, if she behaved herself, she seemed like an innocent, meek young bride.
She sat next to him, dressed like this, working on the mending, so there was no need to foul her mood.
And there was no more reason for him to go to the ends of the earth searching for treasure.
“You…hmm. ’Tis not bad.”
Lawrence had not held reins in quite a while, so Holo’s evaluation was quite forgiving, considering how awkwardly he managed the horse. The weather was pleasant, so she seemed to be in a good mood as well.
“And we shall see your capacity as a male once we’ve reached the town, aye?”
She narrowed her eyes, and her mouth twisted into a mischievous smile.
Even Lawrence knew she would say that. There was a reason they brought down the coins Nyohhira collected during the winter at this time of year.
That was because they held a big spring festival in town, so people gathered, trade bustled, and everyone soon ran out of coins. Without hard currency, they could not do business. Supplying the town at this time with coin relied on the basic concept of bringing goods to places that needed them and selling for a high price.
And at the same time, he need not ask what the wolf, the gourmet, would want in a town at the height of festivities.
“I don’t mind. You can ask for whatever food you like.”
“Oh?”
Lawrence spoke to Holo, who seemed surprised, not expecting him to be so generous.
“I know you’re really taking our finances into consideration.”
He gave her his merchant’s smile, and she pulled back, glaring at him.
“You are quite sassy in old age.”
“It’s all thanks to the great wisewolf’s discipline.”
Holo puffed out her cheeks and stomped on Lawrence’s foot. He stomped back, and she head-butted his shoulder.
The horse pulling the wagon swished its tail, as though telling them to take it elsewhere.
“We still have a heap of things to deal with, though. Don’t be pouty if I can’t entertain you in town.”
“I am not unreasonable, like Myuri.”
Their daughter Myuri’s unreasonable nature suited her, but Lawrence believed that part of
her personality came from Holo.
Lawrence looked at her with the same look as before, and she stomped on his foot again. This time, it was stronger.
“Hmph. ’Tis not even all that much. Sell the goods in the back, buy things for the village, and then look for workers.”
“Just looking for workers might take a while…And there’s still more.”
“Hmm?”
She gazed at him doubtfully in response. She was likely checking to see if his head was filled with schemes to turn a quick profit. On their journey over ten years ago, that was often the source of all their biggest, rowdiest adventures.
“The whole town is busy preparing for the festival. It’s a custom for Nyohhira to help with the preparations in exchange for the town’s money changer association buying all the village’s goods at once. So I’ll probably be busy with that during the festival.”
“Hmm.”
Nyohhira was wholly reliant on Svernel for the distribution of their goods, so it was a give-and-take relationship.
“So what will you help with during the festival?”
“I don’t know all the details…but I’m sure there are several jobs. I’ve heard that it’s been quite a lively festival these past few years.”
“I know that. ’Tis why I wished to see it with you…”
Holo spoke dejectedly. She was craftily letting her adorably true feelings show.
“And this time, there’s one more important job.”
Holo, who had her lips pursed in boredom, looked up expectantly.
“I have to find out more about the people who might be building a new hot spring town on the other side of the mountain.”
That was the most shocking information that spread this winter in Nyohhira.
He knew nothing about the details, but traveling merchants told the village about this rumor.
Though it would be on the other mountainside, most roads in this area led to Svernel, so they would end up fighting over customers. And of course, they would likely get their food, drink, and other necessities from Svernel, so prices would rise accordingly.
He had to confirm whether the rumors were true or not.
“So I’m going to be very busy in town.”