Once they retrieved the horse they had left behind, Lawrence and Holo headed for Tonneburg.
They passed into the western part of the forest just after noon; Holo ventured into the trees alone as a wolf to look into all the things she had heard from Lawrence.
Now on his own, Lawrence followed the road he remembered seeing on the map he borrowed from the old priest, but people rarely ever used it; it was in disrepair, and he had to ultimately dismount from his horse and walk.
“I should have just gone in the forest with Holo,” Lawrence said to the horse, and he thought he saw the horse frown in response to Holo’s name. It was probably sick of the wolf’s scent after having her fur tied to its mane the whole night. Lawrence could not help but smile.
After taking a roundabout way through the woods, the sun began to set.
He had walked the whole way on little sleep, so his relief was immeasurable when he saw the large pond in the distance.
On the priest’s map, the lord’s manor should have sat on the edge of this pond—big enough to be called a lake.
There were a few other houses in the area, not enough for it to be called a village, and waterways filled to the brim with water extended in all directions—those waterways fed not wheat, but vegetables. On the way from the checkpoint in which they met Meyer to Tonneburg, they had encountered more and more water as they got closer to the forest, and plenty of those bridges crossing over them had been in sorry states. The reason Tonneburg had managed to keep the forest intact was the natural keystone that was the marshy terrain.
All the roads and fields here sat on uneven ground, and the closer he got to the waterways that led to the lake, he could see the water spread below him. There was a small pier built onto the pond, and two equally small boats were docked there.
If he were to walk here early in the morning, amid the humidity, he would surely lose track of what was a field and what was water in the mist.
The state of the land brought him confidence.
Travelers did not understand the circumstances of the land, and traveling merchants were often in a disadvantageous position when it came to information, but there were times when an outsider could see things with clearer eyes—Salonia was one such case.
And this time was no different.
The way the map had been put together on the parchment caught Lawrence’s eyes. Of course, Matthias, the Karlan merchants, Eve, and even Kieman had looked at that map countless times and used every ounce of knowledge they had to plan their moves.
And though he knew he could not be smarter or outmaneuver them by looking at the very same thing, Lawrence had one advantage.
Specifically, it was what had happened in Salonia.
Parchment was expensive, and so it was not uncommon to chip away at what was already written with a knife to rewrite something. One could then see what used to be written on the page by looking at its backside. When he had been involved with the lumber merchants, the very instance that had started this whole mess, he had realized what had been written beneath the map. Just like this.
That was the memory of ancient land—something modern merchants never once looked at, something Eve and Kieman had no way of knowing.
And it was here that he compared it to his memories of the journey only he and Holo shared.
How had he and Holo found a new spring, something everyone said was impossible, all to build a new bathhouse in the hot spring village of Nyohhira?
When he placed these maps together, he saw the lay of Tonneburg change.
Two towns, brothers snatching pieces of bread from each other, could be brought together in one trading area beneath the great flow of trade.
And it was the Tonneburg Woods that acted as the key to bringing them together—to be more precise, the ancient memory that still remained among the trees.
“Sir Lawrence?”
As Lawrence stood on the path, gazing out over the pond and the lord’s house, he suddenly heard his name.
He looked to see Matthias, on horseback, accompanied by his attendants.
“My lord.” Lawrence moved to kneel, but Matthias raised a hand to stop him.
“How did things go in Karlan?”
Matthias dismounted, left his horse to his attendants, and motioned for Lawrence to walk with him.
Lawrence looked at Matthias and his horse’s feet to see they were all covered in mud—they must have been in the forest.
Perhaps it was his way of saying his final farewells, to burn the image of the lush forest into his mind.
“Eve Bolan, the representative from the Winfiel Kingdom, can be trusted.”
Matthias did not doubt the veracity of the report, but he did seem somewhat discouraged by the news.
Though he knew Karlan’s project would save his territory, a part of him wanted Eve to be such a bad person that they had no choice but to discard the project entirely.
It was wrong for him to hope so, but he knew that he could not both protect the forest and keep his land running.
And so Matthias had placed his hopes on keeping the territory up and running for the sake of his people.
“…I see. Well done,” Matthias said, swallowing Lawrence’s report and letting it settle in his stomach.
Upon seeing his reaction, Lawrence felt relieved he turned down the landowning nobility rights in Salonia. With less to protect, there were fewer troubles he needed to go through in order to safekeep what was most important.
He watched Matthias, sympathy filling his heart as he watched the man order his entourage to rush to the manor and begin preparations for him to sign the contract.
But it was in that moment when far in the distance, a flock of birds took to the sky from the trees.
It was as though the forest itself had been ejected into the sky; a few moments after Matthias’s head whipped to look in that direction, there came a shock wave that rattled their ears. A great howl ensued, like the forest itself was crying out, and the wind blasted over Lawrence and Matthias; the surface of the water rippled. All living things were shaken to their core.
The enormity of it all was sudden, as was its disappearance. Once it passed, it felt like a daydream. Matthias seemed unsure if this was reality and stared out in shock into the trees. The only one calm was Lawrence.
No—perhaps he was excited.
Because he knew that howl was a sign from Holo.
“My lord,” Lawrence said, and Matthias jumped as he turned to look at him. “Eve Bolan saw how rich this forest was and had drawn up a plan for herself. That in itself is not an unjust profit, but she is profiting a bit too much from this.”
Matthias looked to Lawrence, perplexed, then turned an uneasy gaze out toward the forest, then back to Lawrence.
“What do you mean?”
“The reason you decided to join in on Karlan’s plan was because you were thinking of your relationship with the Church, your debt, and about better lives for your subjects.”
Matthias did not want to cut down the forest for simple personal gain.
“But you are running the risk of losing your forest because of it. And one can say the same thing to Karlan as well.”
Though he did not explicitly say that Eve was taking advantage of him, that was how Matthias took it.
That was because he had that indistinct feeling to begin with, and yet he felt ashamed that he could not approach the situation with greater tenacity.
“Why do you feel the need to point this out now, Sir Lawrence?” Matthias asked, his expression tired.
This was the way of the world, and they had no choice but to obey it.
But Lawrence felt rather strongly about pushing aside the ways of the world.
“What would you say if there was something within this forest you could sell for a very pretty penny?”
Kieman had joked about there being gold veins in the ground.
Gold itself was a reach, but there had indeed been a map that pointed to treasure.
No one had been able to find it, so outsiders had found it in outside towns.
“My lord, do you know where I hail from?”
Matthias faltered in the face of Lawrence’s sudden question and his merchant’s smile.
But the reason he could not look away was because he saw the odd glint of confidence in his eyes.