This natural deterrence could have been the reason Kerube had not resorted to violently obstructing the plans of their rivals. Eve was no ordinary merchant. She had not only accumulated great wealth, but she was now also on familiar terms with the Twilight Cardinal himself. In other words, she was a politically connected business owner. Not even Lawrence could imagine how the Kingdom of Winfiel and others would retaliate if she were to be harmed.
“But it’s unlikely that Eve actually holds a serious grudge, and since she’s in Col’s court, I think she wants talks to go smoothly. And so from her perspective, she might be uneasy about how far she can go with this deterrent. That’s why she wants us to throw me in the middle of all this before her bluff gets called.”
It was hard to determine someone’s true intentions when they wouldn’t show their face. If an attendant sent to deal with an issue reports that something is black, even the whitest things can start to look different. That was what Lawrence had been asked to do.
“Mm…,” Holo hummed, thought for a moment, then said, “Then how do you plan to negotiate? You must have something in mind.”
“I don’t,” Lawrence replied readily.
Holo’s eyes went wide, then narrowed in displeasure.
“I’m not teasing you. I’m serious. But it’s not like I’m going in empty-handed.”
She seemed like she did not understand at all.
Lawrence continued, “No one is going to be completely happy with the outcome. We just have to plan things out in order.”
“In order?”
Holo’s right ear twitched, followed by her left.
“For example, let’s say we negotiated with Kerube just in case before Eve, Karlan, and Tonneburg finalized their contract. That would be a bad move.”
Holo stepped away from the window, sat beside Lawrence, and thumped her tail against the bed, indicating that she did not understand.
“A chain can’t be any stronger than its weakest link. The negotiations with Kerube will likely be drawn out and rough, so it’s possible Matthias will raise the white flag and give up on the whole thing.”
The wolf hummed again.
“First we talk to Matthias, then realize the contract with Col through Eve. A lord values their honor, so Matthias will probably hold up his end of the bargain once he signs it.”
Matthias was trustworthy in that regard from what Holo had seen in the forest; she thought back on it, and was satisfied.
“And on top of that, we have to calm Kerube’s anger. How we do that will…honestly depend on whether Kerube approaches this aggressively. But that’s a technique you use all the time, so you’re probably familiar with it.”
“I am?”
“Forcing someone to pay back a debt you pushed onto them.”
Though Holo flashed him a frown, she did not retaliate. That was likely because she had recalled how readily she had taken the mead from Meyer before listening to what he had to say, which then forced Lawrence to do exactly that. They would be using the same tactic here.
She folded her arms and listened, puffing out her cheeks as though ruminating over the bitter fact, but she soon made a face like sand had been mixed in with her food.
“Which means that fool…is trying to use you for more than she lets on.”
“Huh?”
“You are ideal. No—she would have jumped for joy if we were the ideal negotiators for her.”
How would Holo be of use in negotiations with Kerube?
As Lawrence followed her line of thought, she quickly elaborated on her point.
“Think about what might happen if talks become complicated. If she sends anyone else on her behalf, they may be arrested and put to death, like she once was. But who do you have by your side?” she huffed proudly.
“The Wisewolf.”
No matter how many times Lawrence got embroiled in trouble, Holo would always send fools packing. That put them at an advantage for many things.
Though it was hard to tell whether Eve was planning on throwing them to the wolves from the beginning, it was a fact that the two of them were ones she could send off without too much worry.
“…I bet she learned this by watching Col and Myuri.”
He pictured Myuri, the hair on her tail standing on end as she stood to protect the unreliable Col.
As a wry smile drew across his face, Holo bumped her shoulder against him.
“And this brings something else to my mind as well.” Holo, arms still folded across her chest, brought her legs up onto the bed and crossed them in thought. “We will not die in her neglect, yet she still throws us into a most troublesome negotiation.”
“That’s right.”
“Then that does not mean she will be promptly moving onto her next business venture, does it?”
“It—”
—doesn’t, was what he wanted to say, but could not say for certain.
Because she would be avoiding aimless negotiations, and she would still be winning if Kerube ran out of patience; the only problem was who would be taking the brunt of that wasted time.
“We have left our mountain bathhouse to leisurely check up on our daughter. She perhaps wrongly assumes we have too much time on our hands.”
Her glum tone was not finding fault with Eve’s craftiness but poking at the foolish sheep’s mind.
“And…we cannot bother little Col and Myuri.”
Because even if they could discern Eve’s true intentions, they had no choice but to work to make sure the plan reached completion. At the end of the day, they were essentially cleaning up the messes left in their children’s wake.
“It is almost as though it had been decided that you would be cornered here ever since you decided to stand before her,” Holo said. She was not finding fault with Eve after all; she was getting annoyed with the simple mind of this sheep before her, whose destination could be easily manipulated once put on the fence.
“You are quite easy to read for how comfortable you are with doing things with little foresight. I am surprised you survived long enough to meet me.”
“…”
All Lawrence could do was smile at that. The man she knew that was comfortable with doing things without thinking ahead had honestly been minding his business with mundane trade deals before he met her.
If he were to name the reason why he started doing things with little foresight, Holo would grin and wag her tail.
Because she already knew the reason why.
The reason she teased him like this now was because she wanted to hear him say it.
Holo had also skillfully corralled Lawrence in the direction she liked, but what set her and Eve apart was that Holo’s emotions were apparent in her ears and tail.
“The reason I constantly run into danger is because whenever I look at you, I always get carried away.”
Though his words had come out a bit stilted, it was exactly what Holo wanted to hear.
Holo looked at Lawrence like a taskmaster watching her apprentice during an examination. At length, she huffed, and then a satisfied expression crossed her face.
“You truly adore me, don’t you?”
Her freshly brushed tail whipped through the air.
Though their interactions had scarcely changed in the past decade, Lawrence had grown.
And so he wrapped his arms around the satisfied Holo and asked, “…Can you turn a blind eye to the Tonneburg Woods?”
Doing as Eve wished and advancing the project would mean convincing Matthias to join, too, and going through with the plan to cut down the woods. That would mean Lawrence would be giving up on protecting the forest for Holo’s sake.
Since they had Col and Myuri to think about, Holo understood that there was no other choice. And since she did not want Lawrence to push himself any more than he already had, she had prepared a way out for him.
“I do not mind. The lushest forests are no joy walked through alone.”
When Holo said this to him, Lawrence gave up on his dream of becoming a great merchant.
She flashed her canines in her smile, and then pressed her face into his shoulder.
“And the men of the forest are genuinely worried about their home. They will do everything they can, even if they cannot protect all of it. How could I call that a lost cause or wasted effort?”
When she lifted her head, her expression was at once wistful and somehow refreshed.
There was a great difference in their life spans, and Lawrence could not make Holo happy forever. This well of joy would one day dry up.
But to sate one’s thirst was not a wasted effort at all, and it was not a mistake to work hard to make it last just a little longer.
If it were, then they would have parted ways back in Lenos.
“But perhaps it would not be a bad idea to give that gluttonous squirrel a good kick in the pants and bring her here to plant some of those acorns.”
Tanya was a squirrel spirit who had brought life roaring back to a mountain stripped of its forest due to mining.
That she only planted trees that bore her favorite nuts was her one obvious flaw, but trees that bore nuts typically lost their leaves in winter. That would prevent the forest from becoming an empty sea of conifers.
“Then we should move with haste. Let’s talk to Matthias.”
“Aye.”
“I’ll ask Eve to get me a fast horse, and you stay—ow!”
Lawrence, shocked by how Holo pinched his arm, looked down at her. She glared coolly at him.
“But wouldn’t it be strange if we both went together to send an urgent message?”