Once Lawrence was finished telling Matthias everything, he knew he had to send word to Kerube immediately.
But he was much too tired to head there himself, and he could not simply rely on Holo to do it.
And so he wrote a letter in Matthias’s manor, and left it in the hands of one of his servants.
Afterward, Matthias began to prepare a feast, as though it were the obvious next step in the process, but Lawrence firmly turned him down. What he told Matthias was that he needed to return to Karlan right away to begin his preparations, but the real reason was to reconvene with Holo. He knew what sort of look she would fix him with if he were to leave Holo in the woods as she investigated the old remains of the river while he ate his fill of delicious food and slept in a silk bed.
And so, as the sun started to set, Lawrence set off as he rubbed his sleepy eyes. When people’s homes grew distant, he felt an overwhelming presence from among the trees.
He glanced into the dim of the wood to see the shine of red eyes.
“It went well.”
Once the words left his mouth, the large presence vanished, and out emerged a girl, cradling her clothes. If one who did not know either of them saw this happen, they might think her a rambunctious girl who went bathing in the waters of the forest.
“You could stand to have a little more modesty,” Lawrence said, exasperated, and Holo only shrugged her slim shoulders.
“More importantly, dear.”
Holo quickly threw on her clothes and strode toward Lawrence. And as he dismounted the horse, she stood on her toes and grabbed his growing beard.
“You have something to tell me, no?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
The horse whinnied, shocked by the anger in Holo’s voice, but Lawrence knew this would happen, so he was not surprised at all. She was most certainly angry about what she had overheard of his conversation with Matthias.
“…Come on, my beard’s not as sturdy as your fur,” Lawrence said, rubbing his stinging chin. Holo looked at the horse, at Lawrence, then extended both arms toward him, frown on her face.
She was asking him to pick her up and put her on the horse’s back.
The lamb, the wolf’s loyal servant, placed the wisewolf on the horse’s back, then walked as he led the horse.
“I am not quite sure what I should be angry about first,” she said. The moment she settled on the horse’s back, she stuck her hand in their things, and pulled out some jerky.
“Clothes?”
There was quite a lot of extra meaning in the way she said that.
First was her wolflike logic—a nice outfit would never fill her stomach.
And the other was the likelihood that the clothes would not be for her.
“…If we say we have some clothes that would be popular in the south, Myuri might come back and visit.”
Lawrence knew that it would ultimately get dragged out of him if he were to remain silent about it, so he behaved and confessed.
Holo gave such a heavy sigh that it almost bent the horse’s back.
“You fool!”
She said it with such fervor that it almost brought Lawrence back to when they first traveled together.
“We’ll have to ask Meyer for tasty goodies from the forest. I’m sure he’ll put something together for you,” Lawrence said, offhandedly.
“Then you will be asking for it,” Holo confirmed.
There was one other reason why Holo had yanked Lawrence’s beard in anger.
That much he knew.
“And, well, I know you don’t want an all-out confrontation with Eve.”
It sounded like an excuse, but it was also the truth.
If Eve were a clear-cut villain, then they would break into her lair and start a fight with “We’ve seen through your tricks!” But that was not what was happening. Considering how it felt like Eve herself had mellowed over the years, it did not feel very nice to go out of their way to undermine Eve’s plan to make money, especially since it was not technically immoral.
“I actually find it surprising that’s the part you’re having the most trouble with.”
Even though it was Lawrence who had come up with the miracle plan, he had placed all the achievements, profits, and everything else into Matthias’s hands.
Holo thought highly of Lawrence at the end of the day, so she was perhaps frustrated that he was not getting the proper recognition he deserved.
Lawrence opened his mouth, ready to tell his beloved wife that he was perfectly happy with this outcome.
“This was my opportunity to brag about how clever my little lamb is!”
That reminded him that Holo had bluntly invited Eve and all the rest to their wedding so that she could show everyone how happy they were. Lawrence himself had not been entirely sure how he wanted to approach that whole situation, so it was indeed a very Holo mentality.
“But this is Eve. I’m sure she’ll see through whatever we decide to hide.”
And yet all he could really do was pray that when she saw him desperately trying to hide behind Matthias, she would show him no hostility and sense his faint traces of guilt.
“I want Eve to stay on Col and Myuri’s side, too,” Lawrence said.
Holo faced forward and sighed. “You truly are a fool.”
“Hmm?”
“She will not be angry. She would be delighted, in fact.”
“What…?”
Lawrence could glean only a little from the flat expression on Holo’s face.
Eve would be an excellent opponent if she were an enemy who could fight back.
Lawrence knew that could be the case if money were not involved, but expecting that from her while choosing to take on an all-out confrontation was a bet that did not quite match the odds.
“Well. You know I will be quite cross if it seems you two are enjoying your fight.”
Holo swished her tail, and the horse turned to look uneasily at the wolf on its back.
“You’re overestimating me,” Lawrence said wryly.
She shot him a cold look. “Do you mean to tell me that who I have chosen is not that impressive?”
You must be a merchant worthy enough to stand side by side with the wisewolf.
He had a feeling she had said that to him once.
“And yet you’d get jealous if I decided to fight Eve openly,” Lawrence retorted.
Holo nodded deeply. “Quite a predicament.”
That’s called being selfish, Lawrence thought but did not say. Instead, he said, “And I’ve worked through these predicaments hundreds of times. It’s why I’m here.”
Holo glanced at Lawrence, eyes wide in surprise, and then chuckled. “How arrogant of you.”
The smile on her face was genuinely delighted, and Lawrence naturally smiled in turn.
“It’s not like I’m totally confident in this turnabout plan, though.”
“Mm?”
“One part of this plan involves someone everyone acknowledges as an old enemy of Eve’s, remember?” Lawrence said as he tugged on the reins, commanding the horse to walk.
The reason why Eve stepped down when Col discovered her plot, and the reason she found it amusing when Lawrence tried to stand in her way as an enemy, was because she and Lawrence were in fundamentally different positions.
But Kieman was a practicing, big-name merchant, just like Eve, and Lawrence could tell they had bickered with each other over the strait between the kingdom and the mainland, and had double-crossed each other countless times.
Perhaps it was, in a way, a sign of closeness, but the question was whether or not Kieman could stifle the joy he would doubtlessly get from knocking the fat roll of bread from Eve’s hands just as she was about to help herself to it.
“Heh-heh. I cannot wait to see her stamping her feet in frustration. It will be fine.”
The moment Holo learned she could not act as she wished due to Eve’s thorough plan, she herself had stamped her feet in frustration. Her moods had been up and down, going through anger and vexation and joy, but she herself had said that every shift in her emotion was enjoyable.
It was so much like a wolf to delight in running at full speed ahead.
Perhaps Kieman and Eve were the same.
“I just want things to resolve peaceably,” said the sheep, tired.
Holo then chuckled and patted the horse’s back, asking him to join her.