Spice & Wolf 07 by Hasekura Isuna

Author:Hasekura Isuna
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780316229128
Publisher: Yen Press
Published: 2012-12-11T05:00:00+00:00

Huff, huff, huff.

After taking three breaths, he would swallow to hide his fatigue.

Then three more breaths, then swallow again – over and over.

The wine was an encumbrance and had been long since discarded. Half of the water he’d gone to such lengths to fetch was also left.

The rain had started to pour down on the forest in earnest, with Aryes removing her robe – it had been tangling up in her legs – and draping it over her head.

The lingering sense of fun in their last conversation was nowhere to be found now.

From her expression, Klass gathered that she’d be willing even to toss aside the robe if only to lighten her burden a bit.

The number of times she’d tripped and fallen to her knees was too many to count on both hands.

Aryes was working very hard.

But a certain clinging tendency had begun to tinge her efforts, and Klass was too close to his own limit to feel it as anything other than an extra burden.

“Keep at it,” he said as she took his arm more than his hand, speaking not so much for encouragement as prayer.

He didn’t think her tendency to trip was due only to exhaustion.

No doubt the blisters on her feet had long since burst.

The pouring rain was only intensifying, making it seem as though they were walking through a shallow river.

Small streams were everywhere, and every small hollow was rimmed with green and filled with brown water.

He desperately wanted to get to the town and sit in front of a warm hearth with a bowl of porridge.

With each step, thoughts of escaping their pursuers or protecting Aryes ran out of his ears.

The forest seemed to never end, and with the dense foliage and the cloud-choked sky overhead, it was a dim and gloomy place.

He couldn’t imagine anything more terrifying than trying to traverse the forest at night in this rain. Holo had told him that come what may, she would be with them but had given him no hint of a clear resolution.

“Miss Holo!” he finally cried when they reached a small clearing.

“…” From her wordless over-the-shoulder glance and breathing, he could tell she was tired.

“I just…” Can’t walk anymore, he thought – but he didn’t have to finish the sentence. He looked at Holo and held up Aryes, who seemed to be on the verge of sitting herself.

Holo was a spirit who’d lived for centuries and had sounded full of confidence when she’d said that if worse came to worst, she’d be able to do something.

Hadn’t that time now come?

He accused her with his eyes, and she looked evenly back at him, then pushing her rain-soaked bangs aside, turned her gaze upward.

“I am sorry.”

“Huh?” For a moment, he thought she said, “I am stopping,” but Holo said it again.

“I am sorry.”

“Wh-what for?” asked Klass, standing there, barely managing to support Aryes.

“I may not be able to save you.”

“Wha–?” he started to say, then was cut off.

It wasn’t because Aryes was nearly collapsing; nor was it because of the way Holo bitterly chewed her lip.

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