“Oh, it’s nothing. After all, three of us are messengers of God.”
Vino would have no trouble imagining that Fran and Holo were from the Church, but he wasn’t sure about Cole.
“This lad here’s a student learning to copy the Scriptures; it’s quite a rare calling.”
Vino’s shock was obvious, though he immediately apologized.
“Pardon my impoliteness..”
“Besides, it’s dangerous enough for them to spend a night with me.”
The well-timed joke made Vino laugh out loud. But Lawrence switched right back to a somber tone.
“But, that being said..”
“Hmm?”
“If we come back to your village at night, will we be treated like evil spirits?”
Once more Vino was shocked, but this time it was into laughter.
“Haha.. of course not! We live on a mountain, so we know how badly one wants to come home. Now if it was our kids wanting to spend the night in the forest, we’d beat some sense into them.. but that would hardly work on you, would it?”
Lawrence recalled his first expedition into a forest with his mentor.
“Still, even if it’s dangerous to spend the night in the mountains, the night won’t last forever. I’ve walked around here long enough to say that with confidence.”
Vino was a proper villager to the core, it seemed. It made Lawrence smile and nod in response.
“Then I guess I’ll leave you to it.”
Vino then breathed in deeply and put an end to this jovial atmosphere. They were standing on a road by the riverbed, which looked the same for as long as they could see.. but that wasn’t all that far, because it turned out of sight a bit further into the forest.
“If you follow that, you’ll come to a small waterfall above the lake. The hut we used for shelter isn’t far from there. And, if you feel you’d rather turn back, then just go ahead.”
Vino was sending them off like a father instructing his children.
“May God go with you.”
I see, thought Lawrence, maybe the villagers are the real angels here.
There was no mud on the riverbed, just a thick layer of snow. They had no trouble making their way on the wagon. After Vino vanished from sight, Holo crawled into the driver’s box.
“How upsetting.”
Those were her first words. She held a small bottle in the palm of her hand, the distilled liquor people carried for emergency use in the winter. Lawrence’s first instinct was to snatch it from her right away, but only until she glared at him.
“She knew all of that already, yet still pretended she did not.”
Fran rode ahead of them again, as if in a hurry. They knew the details of the legend now, but Fran was after the truth. By that token, of course she wouldn’t have responded. But saying that wouldn’t improve Holo’s mood.
“You’re not angry?”
He tilted his head toward her.
“Anger knows no end.”
She bit the lid of the bottle while continuing to glare at him. Surely she knew better, so maybe she was drunk? But as he debated this, she sighed and tossed the bottle back to him.
“You are terribly kind.”
“..H-hey!”
He had no time to properly reply before she returned to the back of the wagon. What was that all about? Lawrence studied the bottle and realized she hadn’t drunk nearly enough to be intoxicated. Was she just being difficult on purpose? He capped the bottle and took the reigns once again.
After that incident, their ride went smoothly. When Fran finally stopped, they were in front of the hut, with the waterfall still in plain sight. It was barely trickling, but quite tall nonetheless.
The legendary hut was placed between two stunted trees; perhaps it was just that cold. Thankfully they still shielded the hut from the snow with their overhanging branches. Fran hopped off her horse and walked toward the hut. Lawrence nervously followed, remembering Vino’s words that the witch had dogs at her disposal.
“Nothing.”
That was all she said after opening the door. She’d done so too quickly for anyone to stop her. Lawrence just stood there as Holo pulled Cole over to them, who was looking around in worry.
“She seems to know how things work.”
Even Holo couldn’t hate everything about Fran, and Lawrence agreed with her assessment. It was like Fran had been there before.
The hut looked old, but not abandoned. There wasn’t much dust inside, and the wood hadn’t rotted.. and yet, Vino had said no one from the village came here anymore. Was he lying?
“Mr. Lawrence, please bring our luggage indoors.”
Fran spoke, her face half-hidden behind the door. Lawrence felt like he was an apprentice all over again.
“Now.”
“Don’t be upset, now.”
Lawrence placed his hand on Holo’s shoulder as he said that and walked by her, which earned him a kick. But at least that kick also freed Cole from his fear, so Lawrence consoled himself with that fact. He took their bags indoors one by one, where Fran had pointed. They had food for the four of them, wine, blankets, and firewood for days. It was quite a lot of luggage, so he was sweating by the time he finished.
The hut was just large enough to accommodate them and their luggage. It was a bit musty, but there were no cobwebs nor the smell of rot, nor even any holes in the ceiling - clear signs that someone visited here regularly. Their last visit seemed likely to be before the last snowfall. Lawrence wiped the sweat from his brow as he considered this, watching Holo enter an adjacent room by brushing aside the animal-hide curtain that served as a door.
“Where did that brat go?”
Of course she meant Fran, so Lawrence pointed outside.
“She’s getting her smithing tools on her own; maybe she doesn’t want me to touch them.”
“Hmm.”
Holo nodded.
“And Cole?”
Lawrence wondered whether to joke about her having left him on his own again, but thought better of it.
“You’ll find out when you come back out here.”
Holo just let the animal hide curtain fall back down as she turned back into the room. As Lawrence was wondering what was in that room, Fran entered the hut with a chisel, hammer, rasp, bellows, and anvil. Each of them was small, but it seemed a lot to carry at once. She’s wrapped them up nicely into a bundle on her back, and looked to Lawrence like she was ready to go on an adventure, no matter how difficult it proved to be.
“Are the others inside?”
“Oh, here, let me help you with that..”
It was more difficult to put down heavy and cumbersome objects, but Fran shook her head. She bent her knees like this was something she did all the time, and set her bundle down on the floor. Lawrence’s mentor had always advised for him to use his knees like that instead of his waist or he’d regret it later, so Lawrence found himself wondering where she’d learned that little bit of apprentice’s wisdom.
“What’ve you got there?”
Fran didn’t reply, and just pulled out the tools needed to light a fire. She just turned to him with the tools in her arms and eyed the fire. Apparently, she wanted him to light the fire. Anyone seeing this would think he was some pathetic manservant, but as he walked up to the hearth with tools in-hand, she finally answered him.
“You’ll see soon enough. We’re heading out.”
“..Huh?”
He didn’t get the chance to ask her who ”we” meant before she ran into the room behind the animal skin. What was she talking about? Lawrence pondered what it might be as he lit a fire, until he heard two people walking up to him. Looking up, he saw Fran pulling Cole behind her.
“You’ll be cold wearing those. Change into these.”
She pulled a thick pair of shoes from their luggage and handed them to Cole. They were made of tanned fur, several layers, and looked rather expensive. Cole took them, but looked worriedly at Lawrence. It’s not like she??
?s eating you, thought Lawrence, and nodded at Cole.
“We should be back by evening. Would you mind preparing supper?”
Lawrence sucked in his pride, reasoning that he had no reason to be stubborn if he was begging her to draw him a map. And besides it felt like she was slowly opening up to them, so he happily accepted. Had Holo been there she would have probably flown into a rage. Fran nodded and waited for Cole to change his shoes, then took his hand and left with him.
After lighting the fire, Lawrence stood up and walked around. The only decoration here was the dirt on the ground. It was so barren it made him feel cold, but at least it was tidy. There wasn’t even any sign of rats. It was a bit eerie. When he finally entered the room behind the animal skin, he found Holo sitting on a chair and staring at an emblem of the Church.
“Wait.. what?”
No, that was completely wrong.. Holo was standing in front of a bookshelf, sniffing at a book. So who was that on the chair? He turned back for a better look, and the rays of sunlight poking in through the window shutters revealed someone only slightly taller than Holo. Upon closer inspection, her cloak was mended, and her hat torn.
“That should be our ‘witch’.”
Holo returned the book to the shelf, and walked up to the figure in the chair, poking it in the head.
“H-hey!”
“It does not matter, she is dried out. I expected Cole to be shocked, but he is actually quite bold.”
Dried-out corpses were common in places thick with snow. And now, Lawrence also understood why Fran wanted to drag Cole around with her.
“And yet she died looking at the sign of the Church.. some ’witch’.”
“According to Cole she is quite famous.”
“Really?”
The room was full of books and papers, so it made sense that the nun lived here. She was still praised even after she lost her mind, and to this day people came here to pay their respects. Otherwise this place wouldn’t be so tidy, and the books would be gone.
Lawrence could see the deceased nun’s hands clasped together in gentle prayer, and beyond her, the papers on her desk. And in spite of the badly-deteriorated state of those papers, he could still more or less make out the words inscribed on them.
They read almost like a question-and-answer study of the Church doctrine. Throughout her life, the nun seemed to have been ostracized for seeming too radical.. but in reality that perception might have been caused by her extreme candor. Even the briefest glimpse of the dried wildflowers at the corner of her desk was enough to dispel any preconception that she was a “witch.”
“Hey you.”
“Hmm?”
Holo pointed at the shelf, which she was still happily observing.
“Look here.”
“What is it?”
She was pointing at some space on the shelf.
“What, so there weren’t enough books to take up all of the space?”
“Fool. What about the dust, and the fact that one book in the series seems to be missing?”
The room was clean, but there would always be a little dust. Lawrence looked more closely and realized there was indeed less dust on that spot then on the rest of the shelf.
“I don’t know when, but someone took one of the books.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Holo looked around in disbelief before eyeing him suspiciously.
“Surely even you can tell.. Someone has been here before us.”
She meant ”here” as in the home of the witch, where Vino said no villagers would tread. But Holo didn’t seem to be suggesting that he was lying, so that meant someone outside of the village had to have visited, or someone that Vino was unaware of from the village. Who else would have taken the book?
“That brat has been here too. So, you..”
She stopped talking and look up at him with pleading eyes, as if saying “be careful.”
“I know. Hey, where do you think she took Cole?”
“Hmm.. the lake, I should think.”
“Why the lake?”
“Do not ask me, I would not know.”
Given how unhappy Holo was, she was probably ordered about by Fran as well. So even if Cole wasn’t free of her grip, of course Holo would be angry. But that just made Lawrence realize what she wanted to hear.
“Well then, shall we join them?”
Hearing this, she finally smiled.
“Took you long enough.”
She happily grabbed his hand. Why was she being so obtuse about everything? Lawrence didn’t have the time to joke around with her if he was going to cook supper, but she pulled him anyway.
“Hey, hey!”
She ignored him and paid the fire no mind. She had her heart set on pulling him outside with her. She only halted when he flinched from the brightness outside.
“What do you think of our dried-out friend?”
It wasn’t that the sun was too bright; it had just been dark inside the hut. Lawrence shielded his eyes from the light. He squinted and looked at Holo.
“What?”
“I do not feel that the title of ‘witch’ suits her.”
Holo didn’t know that much about the Church or its religion, but her intuition was sharp. Lawrence felt the same way, given the flowers at the nun’s desk. She didn’t seem to be a witch.
“I feel the same way, especially because of the flowers on her desk.”
Holo didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about, but he was more interested in the fact that the nun wasn’t related to her in any way. Would she be, if she had turned out to be a witch? He felt Holo’s hand tighten around his as he mulled that over.
“I have met those like her before; the girls were always so nice to me. They were the very embodiment of kindness.”
Lawrence remembered Holo saying something like that not long after they’d met. He nodded, but she just stared at the ground as they walked.
“She feels the same way to me.”
“Mhm.”
He agreed with her, but let her keep talking as he held her hand.
“I just wanted to say..”
“..Say what?”
“She was rumored to take wild dogs into the forest..“
She looked up with an unexpectedly determined expression on her face, but he knew she was really holding back tears.
“..But no one considered whether they were wolves, did they? Be careful, you.”
He didn’t know how to react. She then ran from him, letting her tail free as if she knew no one was watching. Its tip looked even more beautiful when contrasted with the snow, though it was as difficult to make out as a belt on a goblin. She slowed down as she approached the snow-covered lake, looking even more like a goblin.
“Well, I can only say that I understand our dried-out friend’s stubbornness.”
She spun around suddenly, her usual fearless smile now on full display. He stared at her next to the lake, beside a mossy cliff, and saw how easy it was to imagine that an angel really did pass through here into heaven.
“And why is that?”
He took her icy hand as he walked up to her.
“Because I too am stubborn and think too much, sometimes acting foolishly in the process.”
She laughed at herself, making him look at the crumbling cliff and reply.
“Like when you hop into merchants’ wagons in the nude?”
“Or leave home to find a friend.”
Her embarrassment made him want to touch her face, but he decided not to. She was probably seeing visions of Yoitsu in this place with a hut and village like the ones she should be familiar with. He was in no mood to ruin her nostalgia, so he simply held her hand as they wandered around the lake.
They wouldn’t even have a goal if Cole’s footprints weren’t there for them to follow. Holo looked like she was recalling similar events from the past, possibly sad ones. But when he looked at her, and she looked at him, they both seemed to have the same th
ought. She had long ago made up her mind to avoid a path of sorrow and worry. It was the wisest course, but neither of them wanted to regret their parting. His hand gripped hers more tightly.
“So.. was an angel ever really here?”
That was her first question after they silently walked beside the lake for a while.
“Well, I’d guess it was someone like you or Mr. Athner, and they were mistaken for an angel.”
“Indeed.. we met that bird after all. But I should have felt something if that were true..”
She sniffed the air around them.
“Could you really still smell it after such a long time?”
“Well, I have no idea.. but their presence should not have faded entirely, and I feel none. This may simply be a forest overrun and controlled by humans.”
It was especially convincing to hear that from a guardian spirit like Holo. She seemed to detect his thoughts and intentionally bared her fangs.
“Or perhaps it is just hidden in the snow, waiting for a cowardly human to prey on. There are many monsters like that, you know.”
Holo surely knew a lot about this, given how happy she seemed.
“Oh? Such as?”
The path beside the lake was surprisingly firm; it was especially fun walking in Fran and Cole’s footprints.
“I’m mostly familiar with the ones living in wheat fields, and the ones that skulk in the night. There’s at least ten that live in the wheat alone.”
To Lawrence they sounded more like creatures to be pitied, but somehow, strangely, they had become monsters.
“But some of them were nothing like me.”
It seemed that Holo had missed his thought that time.
“Which ones?”
Holo seemed to be at a loss for how to answer, and sighed.
“I remember one child who fell down crying, and thought his own echo was a monster, and only ended up crying louder and louder.”
“Oh, that’s what you mean.. I see.”
“Hmm?”
Climbing up a steep slope was easier going in a zig-zag; whoever conceived of that notion was a genius. They were already quite high, but were only halfway up.
“That reminded me of a famous miracle that everyone understands now.”