Spice & Wolf IX (DWT)

  She wasn’t the type who became a merchant thinking that betrayal came naturally, but rather the type who got where she was through many hardships. It wouldn’t be strange for her to willingly walk an evil path in the hopes of finding a world without pain.

  It wouldn’t be strange, but it was unnecessary. It was just an excuse to choose a path to harm others because she was in pain. But what if it was all just an act? Lawrence’s face became pale. Sometimes one would earn more through patience, and other times they had to be quick to earn at all. This time it was the latter.. once an agreement was reached, Keeman’s plan would be fruitless.

  If she wasn’t working in her own interest, but rather for someone else’s sake, then it made sense for her to take so long between replies - she was stalling for time. There were opportunists like Keeman in every city, patiently waiting to outwit their opponents at every chance. How would the veterans, who rose to the top on that same painful road, handle a young upstart like him? Wouldn’t they use someone like Eve to stop his reckless charge?If they were skillfully presenting him with a false opportunity to waste his time, then letting that opportunity go was the only way to find a way to beat them. Everything was falling into place for Lawrence. All those letters on the floor, but no one to deliver them.. no fear of reprisal written on Eve’s face..Lawrence handed her letter to Keeman’s messenger, but grabbed the man’s shoulder to keep him from darting off immediately to his master.“Please pass Mr. Keeman a message from me.”The man frowned, but Lawrence couldn’t bring himself to care.“I believe the wolf is a trap.”If someone like Keeman heard those words, he would be able to figure it all out. It was even possible that Jeeda, the current master of the guild, was using Eve to bait Keeman. If Keeman was using Lawrence as a disposable pawn, then it was no surprise if there were people above him doing the same thing to get rid of a threat through legal means. But Lawrence was the one who would end up suffering if that were true – even if he begged for Holo’s help, she couldn’t restore his status in the business world after something like that.The messenger looked pained at Lawrence’s desperate plea and left without any parting words. He must have the same orders as Lawrence, to not listen to anyone and to simply deliver messages. It was too dangerous for them to think on their own, but this wasn’t a situation where they could afford to do that. If Eve was a trap set for Keeman, he needed to avoid it now. They could still turn away before the trap was sprung, but once they fell in it was all over. Lawrence anxiously waited in the inn. Because of how long it was taking compared to Eve, this was the first time he was impatiently waiting on Keeman. He didn’t feel it had taken that long, but he was glad to finally see Keeman’s messenger return. He waited on pins and needles for the messenger to say something.. but he only gave Lawrence a letter in silence.

  “The boss didn’t say anything?”The messenger shook his head as if surprised Lawrence would even ask.

  “Please deliver this to her.”“Uh..”Lawrence was rendered speechless, unable to find anything but the most basic response.“He said nothing?”He grabbed the messenger’s shoulders as he asked, but the man just turned away and kept his mouth shut - he hadn’t told Keeman. But Lawrence wasn’t capable of anger right now, just nervousness and anxiety.“I’m not just speaking without evidence, and I know why they’d order you to stay silent, but there is no one who understands everything except the Almighty.. listening to everything is worthless if you miss the most important thing. We still have time to make a move, so please tell him-”

  “Enough!”That short little man, perfectly suited to be a messenger, responded with a surprisingly deep voice. Without realizing it, Lawrence released the man’s shoulders: he didn’t sound like a person who walked along the right path.“You are just a merchant, don’t think so highly of yourself. The boss knows everything.”Every syllable was filled with the taste of bloody mud. It wasn’t surprising for Keeman to use someone so obviously from a street gang on his team.“You and I.. we just have to do our jobs.”Lawrence finally learned what it meant to “be loyal.” It was a stupid word that caused the unnecessary deaths of many knights and mercenaries. But merchants were supposed to be able to avoid that by using logic. Lawrence wasn’t afraid. He pressed on.“Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes the only person who sees what’s going on is the one who is actually there. It’s also our job to keep our boss from making an obvious mistake, isn’t it?”The messenger finally averted his gaze and stared at the floor. Of course he would regret his loyalty if it ended up killing Keeman. He had to convince the man. He must. As he worked up the courage to continue, the man raised his face and spat.“Remember this, merchant. We are only dogs. We don’t think. Hands and legs don’t need a mind of their own. Do you understand?”There was no anger in the man’s voice. It was simply the voice of someone living deep in the world of crime, threatening and insidious. It took Lawrence’s breath away, even if he wasn’t scared. That tone of voice was gone when the man continued.“Since you understand, deliver this letter. That’s the bosses’ only order.. for both of us.”After speaking he gently hit Lawrence on the shoulder as he stood frozen to the spot. He then took off like a man trying to regain the time he had just wasted. No one around them was paying attention, it was a brief conversation and obviously trivial.Lawrence was working for Keeman. There could be no doubt. Thinking wasn’t a pawn’s job. Lawrence did understand. He knew he had to tolerate all of this to find the right chance. But as a lonely traveling merchant, he had his pride. And that’s why this felt so awful.He might be a small fry, but he never thought of himself as a faceless cog. He had a name. He was an independent, thinking merchant. Being denied his basic nature felt even worse than he’d expected. Being told he was just an unthinking part of some machine was like having his heart shot by an arrow.However, it was just as the anger was swelling through him and making him want to shout that it suddenly made sense.. why Eve was acting like a child and doing what she wanted.. why she was driving so hard to get all the profit.. it wasn’t because she was buying time, or because she had a plan. From the bottom of his heart he felt that if he was going to be caught in a trap, he might as well close his eyes and jump right in. There wasn’t any time for logic now, just emotion.

  This time when he arrived at Eve’s inn, he was actually permitted to see her. There was no way to see a person’s true mind behind their eyes, but it was possible to understand it to some degree through their behavior and expressions. She kept her head above the table with her hands, smiling so innocently that it could fool anyone.“You seem to be doing well today.”But the wolves of the Roam river didn’t wear their true smiles on their faces. Lawrence held out the letter he was ordered to deliver.“You really are planning on taking all the profit from the Narwhale, aren’t you?”

  * * *

  Her smile vanished, and after a moment her eyebrow raised as she frowned. Now that was the kind of smile suited for a wolf who secretly laughed at everything. Her family was sold for money, her destiny thrown about. In order to swim in this sea of sulphuric acid, she used various powers and people. And as she did so, she must have been used even more by others.

  Had she first gained fame as the leader of her family, or as a beautiful woman? Certainly, there was nobody who would call her name with affection. Perhaps that was why she was no longer going by “Fleur Boland.” When others used her as a tool, she hid behind a mask. Perhaps that was being too simple and emotional, but it couldn’t be that far from the truth.She finally took the letter, slowly closing her eyes, before gently smiling again.“You’re not cut out to be a merchant.”“And you’re not cut out to be a wolf.”But such a short and sharp conversation was better-suited to be held between priests and their gods. Eve squinted at the fire before speaking.“I plan to survive no matter who I have to use. But it seems I can’t keep running from reality forever.”She held her finger to the left corner of her mouth while speaking, as if joking. It seemed she couldn’t say anything serious without trying to cover it up as a joke.“When the mess in
this city came up, all the furs - my entire net worth – were confiscated. Arold, the one who took this dangerous trip with me from Lenos, was arrested. Under such circumstances there’s no way I can find the courage to be a wolf anymore.”It was clear that the northerners were finding the negotiations difficult. People caught at an impasse would fling those who were weaker into oncoming danger to save themselves. Just as Lawrence expected. Eve had probably been used like this countless times, but this time they were making a mistake.. this time her patience was at an end.“My name has always been a convenient tool. Only my grandpa and a few others have ever called me by name. And Arold is the only one of them who’s still alive.”Living one’s entire life as a pawn or a tool was something beyond Lawrence’s comprehension. It seemed somehow both complicated and trivial. He could only truly understand what it was like to go on an unexpected journey after having a chance encounter. He slowly spoke.“So all you want is to hear someone call your name.”She lived at the summit of a hill that was surrounded only by enemies, not friends.“It’s too embarrassing to hear you blurt it out so casually.. ah.. don’t get angry.. I’m glad that we don’t have to fight each other with knives and swords. It’s nice to understand and be understood. But it’s also surprising.. you’re such a nice guy that I thought it would be easy to manipulate you.. but..”In Eve’s talkative speech there were many unforgivable words, but a merchant’s tongue was able to bring money as well as trouble. The fact that she was throwing these insults so freely meant that she wasn’t speaking as a merchant.

  “But I couldn’t stand not letting you know. Of course you’re free to believe what you will..”Lawrence didn’t have a clue how to answer that. Anything he did now would hurt her.“When this deal is over, I’m leaving this awful place right away. So by the end..”

  Her smile was frightening. It’s beauty in his mind’s eye was something he had to keep in his heart forever.

  “By the end, you’re going to make them call out your name.. is that it?”

  Her lips raised, like a true wolf without moving her jaw. Revealing her fangs, she laughed sadly.“Exactly.. when the time is right, I’m going to betray them in the worst possible manner and make them call out my name.”

  Lawrence could only reply with the soft coldness of someone ordering a soldier to their death.“Even if they shout out ‘Eve Boland!’ with pure hatred?”

  “Exactly.”In an instant Eve had recovered that wolf nature he was more familiar with.“Then, let me ask this of Kraft Lawrence, the merchant who uttered my name..”Kings would only speak to a few people in their palace, where they governed the destiny of an entire country with but a few words. It wasn’t because they were chosen by God. It was because they were human, and could only trust in those precious few people who were closest to them. Eve had told Cole on their first meeting that being liked by others was some kind of destiny. By saying that, this is probably what she meant.

  “Shall we join forces in betrayal?”Her face right now, with a painful bruise on the left side of her lower lip, was the face of a true wolf.

  Chapter 9

  After passing Eve’s letter to Keeman’s messenger, Lawrence waited at the inn for his reply. It was taking a lot longer than usual. The number of merchants by the bar was dwindling. Things were quieting down. Several merchants remained, exactly where he saw them each time he came by. They too were probably messengers, given how quickly they averted their eyes when he looked at them.

  It was still a while before sunset, but according to the already-drunk merchants the meeting was reaching a conclusion. Their task for the day was drawing to a close. It seemed the meeting was finally coming to a simple, boring, consensus: the northern landowners would give up on the Narwhale, and the southerners would compensate them appropriately.

  It made sense, since the southerners could still leverage their enormous capital to sway the northern farmers, thus winning the Narwhale. As such, the northern landowners had little choice but to give up on it. In fact, they probably had no choice but to do so.

  The southerners could only buy the Narwhale back or win it by force of arms. Both options were costly, but if war broke out then all business activity in town would cease, and other cities could take advantage of the situation. Everyone in Gerube would lose. Unfortunately, it was quite unlikely that the southerners could raise the funds to buy back the Narwhale.

  With the looming threat of such an unreasonable war, the plight of the northerners - who only had their fists to fight with - invoked sympathy. But unreasonable situations were as common as the pebbles on a road. If you stumbled and fell, few who would offer their hand to help you back up.

  “Sorry to keep you waiting so long.”

  By the time Keeman’s messenger returned with his reply, the smell of wine and roast meat had seeped into Lawrence. Lawrence hadn’t read Eve’s last letter to Keeman, but given that Keeman’s reply was sealed with red wax its contents must have been of some importance.

  “This’ll be the last letter for today.. but you must bring me her reply.”

  That small-bodied messenger was the type one might mistake for a coward, only to find a poisoned dagger in their side later. Lawrence knew that “must” the man forced into his sentence wasn’t just for emphasis. Keeman’s seal was on the letter so Eve would know it was for her eyes only. In other words, it contained Keeman’s final offer.

  “Very well, I’ll make it so.”

  A pawn was just a pawn. It wasn’t there to think. Hearing Lawrence’s response, the messenger nodded in satisfaction. But his eyes still followed Lawrence until he left. The meeting was over; the man’s job must have ended.

  As Lawrence walked through those crowded streets he raised his head, gazed up at the clear sky above him, and grumbled under his breath. So now they were suspicious of him? It made him laugh, though he wasn’t sure why.

  “Tomorrow morning we’ll move the Narwhale out, as though we’re conducting normal operations. We’ll exchange the boat with the Narwhale for the deed of land ownership, on the river. After that, get lost! Signed Keeman.”

  That last sentence sure was amusing. Eve handed the letter to Lawrence after she finished reading it out loud. She had read exactly what was written, including Keeman’s bold signature at the bottom. If she were to expose Keeman now, it would be impossible for him to retain his status.

  The fact that Keeman handed the letter to Lawrence meant that he believed it was safe to give it to Eve. Lawrence found it difficult to believe that Keeman really considered “safe”, but he wouldn’t simply have done so without justification. He must have a contingency prepared in advance, just in case she tried to expose him.

  “It’s a trivial exchange of products. What say you?”

  “If things go badly, we could always capsize the boat to hide the truth, so it’s not a bad plan.”

  Eve raised her eyebrows at his suggestion, which was the one Holo had suggested to him earlier, before whispering bemusedly.

  “Indeed.”

  “Then perhaps I ought to reply like this.. How does this sound to you?”

  She playfully voiced out a letter as she wrote it onto a very smooth piece of parchment. It was not the sort of parchment a merchant would play around with; it was the type that would be used by a proper monk in a grand stone monastery to record the wisdom of God. Indeed, the words she wrote - written as beautifully as any monk’s - were formidable.

  “Understood. I, Eve Boland, shall be aboard a boat with the deed as our representative for the exchange, and aboard your boat shall be the creature of legend, and your representative..”

  She looked straight at Lawrence.

  “Kraft Lawrence.”

  Lawrence moved to respond, but Eve didn’t care. She simply signed the parchment in a very natural motion, and casually threw it over to the old man who was stirring the wax. After it had been sealed and tied with a strand of horse hair, it would be ready for delivery. Now Lawrence would have to also be on the boat for the exchange. br />
  “I haven’t responded yet.”

  He heard chuckling behind him. The guards at the door had been listening. He’d heard that Eve had them spared from death sentences. Her scheming was so masterful that she even told them her plans to earn their trust and their complete support. Now those same men were laughing at his expense. They were rude, but cleverer than they looked.

  “Responded? You say such silly things sometimes. What solid meaning could words have to merchants, who lie every day?”

  Lawrence smiled bitterly.. What a relaxed way for her to say something like that. Of course, any facial expression was meaningless to a merchant, so aside from smiling he kept his expression the same.

  “Trading is dangerous. Only the Almighty can see people’s thoughts, but He has no desires. Only a person consumed by greed or desire will trade. And in this world, there’s nothing more dangerous than trusting such a person. I wrote my reply to Keeman, and now you’ll deliver it. As for the results, all we can do is pray or threaten while we wait. I’ve done all I can do in giving you this letter.”

  She handed the letter to Lawrence as soon as she received it back from the old man. It could decide her destiny, yet she handed it away with such ease. She wasn’t being brave, she just didn’t care about her own life. Should things go badly her worth would plummet, and worthless things were abandoned. As Lawrence took the letter, her words reminded him of the words of a famous reckless hero.

  “Keeman will definitely do as the letter says. If he tries putting someone other than you on his boat, then to be safe we’ll have to add someone on our own boat. Because of suspicion, we’d both end up with an army on our boats. So-”

  She paused, placed the hand that had given Lawrence the letter on her desk, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath, clearly nervous.. all apparently for dramatic effect.

  “So, when we meet again it will be on that lonely river veiled by the morning haze.”