Holo’s endurance was infinite, and she could run faster than any horse, but even so, they were unable to put the forest behind them until the sun was beginning to set.
Her feet bit into the earth and the landscape grew dimmer, as though candles were being put out one by one. The rain was relentless, and Holo’s breath trailed behind them like a cloud.
Soon they found the road to Ruvinheigen. Holo turned right with no hesitation and gathered still more speed.
Occasionally, while on her back, Lawrence could hear a sound distinct from her breathing; perhaps it was her growling.
She had said she might kill someone.
At the time, Lawrence had thought she planned to stop just short of killing anyone.
If not, there was no “might” about it. There was not a human alive who could survive Holo’s claws and fangs.
“Hey,” came Holo’s sudden voice. There was too much tension in her voice for it to be idle chatter. “We’ll be upon them soon. I don’t mind a bit if you stay on my back, but you might not like it. I’m going to jump clear over them. I’ll crouch downright afterward, so you jump off then.”
“Understood.”
“If you dillydally, I’ll shake you right off.”
Lawrence couldn’t respond, and Holo plunged ahead, accelerating with terrifying speed.
He wondered if this was what it would be like to ride an arrow shot from a bow when he heard Holo take a deep breath.
Then it echoed a thunderous howl.
Suddenly the steady pounding of Holo’s stride ceased.
They were flying.
The only way to come close to the sensation would be to jump a horse off a cliff—but terrifyingly, the feeling lasted. Lawrence clung to Holo’s body as they fell for an agonizingly long time. Now? Now? Now? Lawrence’s mind cried out, wondering when the landing would come.
When he finally felt the impact of Holo’s feet striking the ground, Lawrence wasn’t sure if he was still alive.
He was afraid he would be flung off from the sudden deceleration when Holo suddenly wheeled around and crouched low.
“Off you go,” she said quietly.
Lawrence remembered what he had been told before. The terror of the leap had not faded, but he managed to climb off Holo’s back and make it to the ground without falling. There was a tiny moment of relief, then Holo got to her feet.
“Leave the rest to me,” she said and dashed off, Lawrence scrambling to follow her.
Holo leapt into her hunting grounds in a twinkling, and despite the gathering gloom, Lawrence could clearly see the confusion caused by the giant wolf appearing in her prey’s midst.
There were close to twenty people. The Remelio Company men raised a cry, and Lawrence somehow saw that Norah was among them. They had made it in time.
Holo stood in the middle of the maelstrom. Some of the men brandished long spears, but they might as well have been waving white flags. With the spear tips pointed high, they flourished the weapons uselessly back and forth; the extent of their disarray was obvious.
In the middle of all that, something that looked like a ball of mud would occasionally be sent flying. It was difficult to tell in the darkness, but they seemed to be people—Lawrence could see their hands flap wildly as they searched for the ground that hail suddenly disappeared.
If Holo had been seriously striking people with her paws, they would surely be dead, so perhaps she was batting them aside on purpose.
One man was flung into the air—now two—and the long swords that were hurled at Holo in panic made high keening sounds as they were deflected away.
With the darkness beginning to take control, the swords were hit away from Holo so high and hard that Lawrence’s eyes could not follow them. He got close enough to Holo to hear her breathing before the swords started to strike the earth near him.
Lawrence could tell they had been hurled quite high because the swords came down with such force that they buried themselves up to their hilts in the ground.
The Remelio Company had bet everything on this operation and had dispatched too many people to kill Lawrence and Norah.
However, the majority of them now lay unconscious, sprawled on the ground like stunned frogs, occasionally trampled on by the panicked sheep that ran around in circles.
“Protect the sheep and the shepherd!”
Lawrence drew a sharp breath at the voice.
It was Liebert.
He looked and saw that the young manager was one of the few taking rational action.
Keeping his panicking horse in check, Liebert waved a spear and shouted orders from a slight remove.
His timid nature while traveling with Lawrence and the rest had apparently been an act to get them to lower their guard.
If the man was cunning and careful enough to carry off this intricate betrayal, he was certainly capable of that much.
“Protect the shepherd! Run! Run!” Liebert called out again, Even if he planned to kill Norah eventually, she was still critical for getting the gold through the checkpoint.
Despite the resolute orders and the brave attempts of some Remelio men to carry them out, in the face of an attack by Holo obviously designed to smash their hopes, many of the men cried out and took flight. Holo ignored the stout few who still brandished their swords or spears and chased after the panicked.
It was a devilish tactic.
Once Holo pounced on one from behind, she would roll him over, then send the poor cowering fellow flying with a flick of her nose.
This all happened so quickly that it seemed it could not last much longer.
The number of men still standing had been steadily winnowed.
Now it was just Liebert on his horse, a petrified Norah, and Enek valiantly trying to protect her.
Holo shook her great head.
Something splattered—rain or sweat or blood.
“Sh-sh-shepherd! Protect me! Protect me!” Liebert cried out, clutching his chest, but it was unclear whether that was because his heart was on the verge of failure or to protect the gold in his coat.
Liebert screamed, looking not unlike the statues of sinners suffering in hell that decorated churches, but by some miracle, he controlled his horse and stayed behind Norah along with her sheep.
She may have been a shepherd, but Norah was a girl of delicate build.
The display made Lawrence nauseous—and Liebert had planned to kill both him and the girl.
Just as Norah was about to crumple from terror, the shepherdess seemed to remember her duty.
With an uncertain hand, she raised her staff aloft, ringing the bell at its end, and Enek crouched low, as though ready to receive directions.
Holo looked at Norah head-on, lowering her huge body like a loaded catapult.
Lawrence’s breath caught. Holo was serious. At this rate, Norah could be killed.
Between the darkness and the sudden confusion caused by Holo’s appearance, no one had noticed Lawrence some small distance away.
He thought if he identified himself, then at least Norah would recognize the giant wolf as Holo.
There was the risk of tipping Liebert off, but Lawrence was trying to think realistically.
There was no way that Holo would let him leave unharmed.
Lawrence had to make his presence known.
He was about to shout when—
“Shepherd! I’ll give you three hundred lumione to protect me!”
In the midst of her fright, having raised her staff mostly by reflex, Norah’s expression suddenly changed.
Three hundred lumione could do that to a person.
Norah silenced her bell. Her face began to fill with resolve.
Liebert, with his snakelike cunning, seemed to sense it.
He turned his horse’s head around and began to gallop away at full speed.
Lawrence cried out in a strangled voice.
Norah, true to her profession, swung her staff.
It was too late.
The realization exploded in Lawrence’s head as time seemed to slow down.
Enek and Holo, though their sizes were vastly different, assumed the same posture, like arrows in a bow the moment before taking flight.
Norah’s staff was still, pointing straight at Holo.
Lawrence thought he heard a bell ring, quietly—ting!
Lawrence shouted something, but whether it was Holo’s name or Norah’s, he didn’t know—if it even was a name.
His strained eyes watched Enek and Holo for the barest hint of movement.
Thus, he saw the instant when the gallant sheepdog and the huge, godlike wolf pounced.
He was sure that in the next instant he would see Enek’s body ripped through by Holo’s massive claws before those same claws were turned on his mistress.
Then those paws would stretch farther out and render their judgment on another unworthy existence, turning it into a mass of gore not even fit to be butchered.
Regret.
Lawrence didn’t even know what or how he regretted, only that regret now filled his soul.
And then—
“Enek, wait!”
Those words were like some magic signal, restoring time to its normal flow.
Holo’s huge form leapt through the air like a stone hurled from a catapult, clearing both the dog and his mistress and landing among the sheep, which scattered chaotically.
Immediately upon landing, Holo sprung forward after the fleeing Liebert, whose desire for money had reduced him to a swine.
When the man turned back and saw the wolf pursuing him, Lawrence caught a glimpse of his pathetic face.
A short scream tore the air, but it was soon silenced.
Holo ran lightly for a few more paces, then stopped.
Norah still held Enek.
However, Lawrence could tell that it wasn’t from fright that she clung to him.
Somehow, Norah knew. She either knew that the giant wolf was Holo or that it wasn’t trying to attack them, but in either case, she knew not to let Enek give chase.
She had cast aside her staff—something no shepherd ever did—and desperately held on to Enek to stop him.
That wasn’t fear.
“Norah!” Lawrence shouted and ran toward her, still worried that she was hurt.
Still restraining Enek, Norah looked up, shocked, and was doubly so upon seeing Lawrence. She then turned slowly to Holo, this time unsurprised.
Her aspect suggested that she both did and did not understand.
The emotion in Lawrence’s chest practically exploded from his mouth. “I’m so glad you’re all right!”
Norah could see that the giant wolf responsible for all of this was still unhurt, so she had no idea how to react to these words. She looked to
Lawrence with a dazed expression on her face, overwhelmed.
“The wolf is Holo. My companion, I mean.”
Norah smiled awkwardly; she probably thought it was some kind of joke.
She gave a little gasp as Holo came bounding up to them. A pair of legs protruded from Holo’s mouth.
“You didn’t kill him?”
Lawrence himself had felt a certain homicidal urge when he had seen Liebert use Norah as a shield. If it had been up to Lawrence, he would have killed the man.
Given the legs dangling from Holo’s mouth, the matter would seem to be settled, but instead of replying, Holo shook her head slightly and let the man drop to the ground. Soaked with saliva, Liebert fell with an unpleasant splat.
“I thought about swallowing him, I’ll admit.” Holo seemed to smile. “But gold doesn’t agree with my stomach.”
She sniffed lightly and inclined her chin toward Liebert.
“Take the gold,” she seemed to be saying.
“I think it was in his coat...Ugh, he’s soaked,” Lawrence complained, when a huge snout poked him. He begrudgingly peeled back Liebert’s warm, wet clothes and easily found the bag of gold.
“There it is. The genuine article,” he said upon opening the bag and seeing the gold grains inside.
“Norah,” he said, tossing the bag to the shepherdess.
Holo gave Lawrence an aggravated look, which he ignored.
“The job’s still not done. You’re the one that has to get that gold into the city.”
The massive wolf heaved a huge sigh. Surprised, Norah glanced at Holo but then turned back to Lawrence. “B-but...how are you still alive?”
Lawrence gave a pained grimace. After meeting up with his comrades, Liebert had sent men back to the forest to “save” Lawrence.
But those same men had returned without him, which meant that Lawrence and Holo had surely died.
Lawrence tried to think of where to begin his explanation of events when he felt the air stir and, looking over his shoulder, saw Holo raise her front leg and bring it down hard.
“—Urghyaaaaa!”
There was a loud crack, like a thick tree branch breaking, followed by an ear-splitting shriek that echoed in the darkness.
It seemed excessive to Lawrence, but also well deserved.
After his shriek died down, Liebert—whose left leg had just been broken by Holo’s forepaw—flapped his mouth wordlessly, eyes open.
“Good evening, Mr. Liebert! And how fare you tonight?”
“Wh-wha...Uh? H-how are youuuugghghh!”
“Holo. Honeyed peach preserves.”
As if by magic, those words dispelled Holo’s reinvigorated anger, and she reluctantly took her paw off the man’s broken leg.
“Mr. Liebert. Mr. Liebert! Would you be so kind as to explain to Norah how while you were getting dressed you, shall we say, got the buttons wrong, please?”
Liebert wiped the sweat from his forehead, and for a minute, his merchant sense showed past the terror and pain—it was the shrewd face of a merchant who understood the situation and was trying to discern how to save his own life.
“Mr. Liebert!”
“It—it wasn’t me! It was Remelio’s orders. I told him not to do it. I told him betrayal would call down God’s wrath. I swear, I was against it—”
“As you can see, this is no ordinary wolf. Think of it as a representative of almighty God. In other words, lies will not avail you,” said Lawrence.
Liebert’s mouth snapped shut, and he looked up at Holo with despair in his eyes.
Slowly, very slowly, Holo’s white breath emerged from between her teeth.
“I-I-I, I th-thought, I thought we were paying too much compensation. Remelio, too. At this rate we’d use all the p-profit paying our debts and have
nothing to keep. Remelio told me to do something about it. I h-had to. I had no choice. Y-you underststand, don’t you? After all, we’re both merch—”
He was cut off when Lawrence punched him in the nose.
“I’m nothing like you.”
“Ha-ha-ha-ha!” Holo laughed heartily, taking her paw off the again unconscious Liebert.
“So that is how it is. The Remelio Company had planned to kill you, Norah. I swear this to you—they betrayed us.”
Norah’s expression was blank, but the situation seemed to be slowly seeping into her head nonetheless.
She looked up slowly at Lawrence.
“B-but, what about the wolves in the forest...?”
“That was something else,” interjected Holo, causing Norah to give a small yelp of surprise. Holo’s voice carried well, after all.
“I am Holo, the Wisewolf of Yoitsu. What was in that forest was nothing more than a brat whose only redeeming feature was its sense of territory. I’ve prudence enough to avoid a pointless fight over something like that.”
Norah listened to Holo with a half-credulous expression, then smiled helplessly as she slowly let go of Enek. “I don’t know why, Miss Holo, but somehow when you say it, I kind of believe you.”
“Incidentally, your dog was never smitten with me. He simply realized my true form. I thought I should let you know.”
“Wha—?”
said Norah, surprised, at which point Enek gave a single angry bark.
“Now then, Norah, back to the issue at hand,” said Lawrence. He felt bad about changing the subject yet again, but the affair was not yet settled.
The gold was still in transit, and Lawrence’s debt was yet unpaid. There was also the issue of what to do about the Remelio Company.
“We’re in the middle of a kind of storm right now. However, by the grace of God, somehow we’ve recovered the gold. If Liebert is to be believed, it’s worth six hundred lumione. However, if we can bring it into Ruvinheigen and sell it to a broker, we should get close to ten times that—six thousand lumione.”
Norah seemed to quail at the huge figures, which were so big that even Lawrence had trouble wrapping his head around them.
“Six thousand is far more than we could possibly take receipt of, and even without facing that danger, we have six hundred in hand right now.
However...”
“How...ever?”
“However, while it is true that it’s the Remelio Company’s fault that this plan has been more eventful than anybody would’ve liked, it is also true that without their investment, we never would have been able to buy the gold. And if we take the gold and run, they will be left ruined, bankrupt immediately. Thus—”
Holo nudged the side of Lawrence’s face with her nose and not in a playful fashion.
Lawrence understood what she was trying to do.
“Thus, I propose the following.”
“Now, hold—,” Holo began, her tone displeased, but Lawrence would not yield.
“Holo. We do not live in a fairy-tale world. We cannot simply take revenge on those who have betrayed us and say, ‘The end.’ We have to live on after this. And taking revenge for betrayal only invites more revenge.”
“Well, then—”
“Are you going to tell me you’d kill the entire ruined company?
“Um—”
“In the end, I don’t want the bread I buy tomorrow to have been paid for in blood. There are many ways to end this, but if we want to have a life tomorrow, we have to choose to do so.”
Holo’s amber eyes closed.
She looked away.
“If it weren’t for you, I’d be freezing to death by the forest right now. I’m well aware that if you hadn’t been here, all would be lost, and I thank you for hearing my plea. But—”