Spice and Wolf by Kitsame

Author:Kitsame [Kitsame]
Language: srp
Format: epub
Publisher: Deftones

Chapter Three

As Lawrence finished paying the tavern bill, Col and Holo amused themselves by trying to step on each other’s feet.

Col stopped to look up at Lawrence, and Holo mercilessly took the opportunity to slam her foot down on Col’s.

“I win!” she exclaimed proudly while Col humbly admitted, “I suppose I lost,” making it difficult to tell exactly who was the child.

Of course, it is said the older one gets, the more one returns to childhood, and perhaps that was not wrong.

“Now, then,” said Lawrence, and Col and Holo, looking almost like twins thanks to their similar heights, both turned back to him. “You’ve memorized your roles, then?”

“Yes!”

“Aye.”

Col’s answer was the swifter.

Lawrence had a sudden vision of what he must have looked like as a student in the capital of learning, Aquent.

By contrast, Holo’s answer was curt and rude, and she yawned loudly.

“I’m a little nervous,” confessed Col.

“Don’t worry. If there’s one piece of advice I can give, it’s that the secret to telling a lie is telling yourself that depending on how you think about it, it’s actually the truth. That way you’re not actually lying,” Lawrence advised in response to Col’s uncertain smile.

“Er... no, I’m all right. I’ll make sure to gather all the stories.”

The boy seemed like a young knight bracing himself for his first battle. Lawrence patted his shoulder. “I’m sure you will,” he added.

To Lawrence’s eye, Col would mature to match as much responsibility as he was given.

He was not a mere slate-toting, chalk-dusted boy from Aquent.

He possessed the practical skills he had managed to gather after being deceived, expelled, and forced to travel.

Lawrence said he was sure Col would perform well, and it was no lie.

“So, we’ll meet again in the evening.”

“Yes.” Col nodded, his expression entirely different from when he had been trying to step on Holo’s feet, and walked off boldly.

Though his receding form was small, it bore a certain dignity.

Lawrence barely had time to wonder what his own back would have looked like at that age when he felt a tug at his sleeve.

It was Holo, and though she was hardly a working woman trying to lure in a customer, somehow she seemed even more vicious than that.

“So, shall I be off then, too?”

“Er, yes.”

Holo strode off immediately, then looked back at Lawrence, whose feet were a bit slower. “Hmm?” she queried.

She was so fond of Col, and yet when it came time to put him through hardship, she was happy to do so.

Or was it that she simply thought that highly of him?

Lawrence didn’t think poorly of the boy himself, but he found it harder to trust so completely.

“Will you really be all right on your own?” Lawrence could not prevent himself from asking.

They were on their way to the landing for the ferry headed to the south side of the town.

Since their collective had the advantage of containing three people, it would have been the height of stupidity to move in a group, so they had decided to split up to gather information.

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