Spice & Wolf II (40 page)

Perhaps those tears were from the prospect of managing a revived company.

“So you’ll write the note, then? Holo—”

Upon hearing her name, Holo sighed and reluctantly released Remelio, nudging his head with the tip of her nose.

Lawrence untied the rope that bound Remelio and continued. “The terms will be yearly installments over ten years. The first will be ten
lumione
. The last will be one hundred. You understand, yes?”

It meant that the debt would increase every year. Added all up it came to 550
lumione
, but that was still an excellent interest rate.

If Remelio could get his company running successfully again, it would not be a difficult amount to manage.

“You can write it out at that desk.”

Remelio nodded and accepted Lawrence’s hand to get to his feet. His feet were still tied, so he tottered over to the desk and sat.

“S-so, should this be payable to...,” began Remelio, turning around.

Lawrence smiled and answered, “The Rowen Trade Guild.”

Remelio grinned almost sadly, realizing he would never be able to run from this debt.

If Lawrence held the loan personally, then as the years passed and Remelio gained strength, he could get revenge or default on the repayment.

Also, Lawrence dreaded the thought of having to return every year to the people who had wronged him in order to demand his money.

And more important still was the Remelio Company’s current utter lack of assets. No matter how many IOUs he might hold, Lawrence would see none of this money for a year. Even if the debt he had originally owed the company was now gone, the profits from the gold smuggling might be used up compensating Norah and paying obligations for the Remelio Company’s recovery. In the worst case, Norah might not even get her consideration.

But all those problems were solved by having the trade guild to which Lawrence was attached hold the loan. By selling the IOU to the Rowen Trade Guild relatively cheaply, he could cut his ties with the Remelio Company and convert ten years of repayment into immediate cash.

Also, defaulting on a loan held by a trade guild was like declaring war on another city. The Remelio Company would never dare to default.

“You’re a formidable man.”

“Not as formidable as the wolf,” Lawrence answered smoothly.

The wolf found the joke funnier than anyone.

“Now, all we need to do is pray the smuggling succeeds.”

Epilogue

Afterward, things were busy.

First, Lawrence and Holo had to borrow changes of clothes from the Remelio Company while the dirt and blood were washed from their own clothes. While those clothes dried, Lawrence took the IOU to the Rowen Trade Guild, leaving Holo (who said she was hungry) at a late-night tavern. Apparently, it was Lawrence’s job to take care of the details.

Lawrence was greeted heartily by the members of the trade guild, who had gathered there to drink after the end of the business day. He endured many vulgar questions about the wound on his face before finally reaching Jakob.

It wouldn’t have been at all strange for people from the Remelio Company to come beating down the door demanding repayment, but neither they nor Lawrence had been seen. Jakob had probably been worried sick ever since Lawrence’s debt had been incurred.

Unsurprisingly, Jakob’s first reaction upon seeing Lawrence’s face was to angrily give his skull a sound rapping.

But then his face split in a tearful smile, and he threw his arms wide, relieved that Lawrence was safe.

Lawrence turned the IOU over to Jakob, who could probably guess, in a broad sense, at what had happened. He brought a purse full of seldom-seen gold
lumione
coins out from within the guild and bought the IOU on the spot.

Of course, now there was a merchant who had entered his term of service. It had been entirely possible that the gold smuggling would not succeed, in which case the Remelio Company’s physical assets and accounts receivable would have been sold off to pay its debts. Normally, when a company failed, its assets were liquidated and divided proportionally among the creditors, so a five hundred
lumione
note from the Remelio Company would not be immediately worthless even if the gold smuggling had failed. In short, Jakob bought the IOU up at an amount that corresponded to the smuggling gamble.

Taking all those possibilities into account, Jakob had valued the IOU somewhat conservatively at thirty
lumione
.

If the smuggling succeeded, there was the promise of an additional hundred
lumione
. That was significantly less than the face value of the IOU, but there was a high probability that the recovered Remelio Company would still go bankrupt within ten years. It was a reasonable price.

Lawrence gave twenty
lumione
to Jakob as a way of compensating him for the damage caused to the Rowen Trade Guild’s good name. He intended to use the rest that Jakob gave him as a bribe to keep the butchers quiet if they had to slaughter the sheep.

With the hundred additional
lumione
he might have from the success of the smuggling, Lawrence had to compensate Norah the twenty
lumione
she was due, and he planned to give more by way of apology to the various trading companies he had begged for loans. If that came to thirty
lumione
, that still left him with fifty for himself.

Somehow, he would be back to where he was when he had sold off his pepper in Poroson.

Given that at one point he had resigned himself to dying aboard a slave ship, this could only be called a miracle.

Next, Lawrence used his guild connections to get introduced to a butcher whose discretion could be trusted. He secured a promise from the butcher to receive the sheep from Norah and butcher them, no questions asked, for ten
lumione
. He was paying the butcher very well and had every expectation that things would proceed smoothly.

After making the various preparations, Lawrence returned to the Remelio Company to retrieve his clothes and then left Remelio to round up and rehire his former employees, who were probably all huddled together, shivering in the cold weather. Lawrence also ordered Remelio to return his cart horse, which he had forgotten about entirely. He was a bit sharp in saying so, as he expected his orders to be carried out quickly.

By the time Lawrence finished all his preparations, the night sky was beginning to pale with the dawn.

He walked along the street quietly in the early morning, a chill still in the air from the previous day’s rain.

His destination was a tavern that was able to remain open all night, courtesy of bribes paid to the appropriate authorities.

The distinctive pale blue sky of dawn hung over the city. An out-of-place lamp, still burning, marked the tavern.

“Welcome.”

The voice that greeted him was listless—not from illegality necessarily, but rather from the exhaustion of staying up all night.

The tavern was perhaps half-full, though surprisingly quiet; the patrons drank their wine quietly, perhaps mourning the inevitable daybreak.

“Ho there.”

Lawrence turned to face the voice and found Holo, who had appeared at his side holding a small cask and some bread. If a priest had spotted Holo (who was dressed again as a town girl) in the all-night tavern, there might have been some real problems—but nobody seemed to mind her presence.

Holo caught the eye of the tavern master behind the counter, and he sleepily waved to her. Holo had probably charmed the goods she was carrying out of the master with some sweet talk.

“Come, let’s go.”

Lawrence had actually wanted to sit and rest for a moment, but Holo took his hand and would not be argued with.

“Come again,” said the tavern master as they left.

The two had no particular destination and for the time being were content to walk.

It was cold outside. Thanks to the humidity, their breath hung in the air.

“Here, bread,” Holo said, and Lawrence’s stomach groaned as he realized that he had not eaten since midday the day before. Lawrence took the bread—actually a bacon and vegetable sandwich—from the happily smiling Holo and bit into it without hesitation.

“Also, this.” Holo held out the small cask.

Once he uncorked and put his lips to the cask, it proved to contain a warm mixture of mead and milk.

“’Tis good for what ails you.”

The warm, sweet liquor was perfect.

“Now, then,” said Holo. She probably hadn’t meant the food and drink to loosen his tongue per se, but as he finished eating, she began to speak.

“I have two questions to put to you.”

Lawrence braced himself for the worst.

Holo paused for a moment.

“How far do you trust that girl?” she asked, not looking at him.

It was a question he both had and had not expected. The fact that Holo had left the time, place, and circumstances unclear meant that there was probably some vague doubt in her own mind.

Lawrence took another drink from the cask. “I don’t know how far I trust her,” he said without glancing at Holo. “However, I do know that if Norah were to take the gold and disappear somewhere, she would be easily followed. I don’t trust her enough to think that would happen and still have handed her the gold.”

Holo was silent.

“Unless she travels a significant distance, no one will buy it up at a reasonable price, and tales of a shepherdess just happening to sell off gold are rare enough to travel far and wide. She would be easy to follow.”

It was certain that he did not trust Norah absolutely. As a merchant, Lawrence was always thinking of the contingencies.

“I see. I suppose that is the size of it, then.”

“And the other question?” Lawrence asked.

Holo faced him with an inscrutable expression.

It wasn’t anger. It was, perhaps, hesitation.

But hesitation about what?
Lawrence wondered.

He found it hard to imagine that she was vacillating over whether or not to ask the question at all.

“Whatever it is, I’ll answer it. I owe you a huge debt, after all.”