Wolf & Parchment, Volume 3 Read online

  Ilenia wiped her eyes, raised her head, and smiled.

  “Of course. But our ways of thinking are different. I think what Huskins is doing is a wonderful thing, but there are some words that I just cannot forget.”

  She spoke as though she was renouncing her faith.

  “Don’t look for a place to run. Find a place you can head toward with hope. Then, no matter what you do, whether it be trade or not, you can live on in strength.”

  “…”

  “Those were the words of a human, who not only knew what I truly was but also taught me how to broker wool—the merchant I respect the most.”

  Col simply stared at her wordlessly because her expression as she spoke was that of such beauty.

  Perhaps it was the expression of one in love.

  When they were gathering information on her, one merchant had mentioned she was the kind to fall in love with her employer.

  She had met a wonderful person.

  “People like us are constantly looking for escape in the world of today. We hold our breath, change our form, and give up many things. While I do want to be saved, first and foremost, I want to show our people the possibilities that are completely separate from what Huskins has accomplished.”

  Col was overwhelmed by her words. Myuri, too, was shivering slightly, her eyes wide open.

  Sitting before them on the other side of the table was a strong sheep, her hooves planted firmly on the ground.

  “Of course, I do have some worries and there have been some troubles, and there are very few people like you who will listen to my story. Huskins and I parted on a very sour note. He said, even if the new land really existed, what would you do if the Moon-Hunting Bear was there?”

  She glossed over it with a bitter smile, but Col was surprised she had not been crushed after a fellow sheep, not to mention the legendary Huskins, had said such a thing to her.

  And he, too, had wondered the same thing.

  “…What do you plan to do?”

  Ilenia responded with confidence.

  “I’ll decide when we get there.”

  It could be called recklessness. But the legend of the Moon-Hunting Bear happened so long ago, and the reason for the war was still unknown. In a way, her lack of a plan could also be considered a foregone conclusion.

  What impressed him was how boldly and without hesitation she spoke. Her lack of a plan was not the result of carelessness. She must have come to such a conclusion after thinking long and hard.

  She had a strength unlike those who possessed fangs and claws and feasted on meat.

  In that moment, Col felt like he understood why believers were called lambs.

  They slowly continue forward, one step after the other, persevering through any storm or hardship.

  “So what did you think of my sob story?”

  Ilenia suddenly spoke in a friendly tone.

  He felt as though he had suddenly woken up from a dream, but he could not imagine that what she spoke about was entirely nonsense. On the other hand, Ilenia herself knew that her dreams were close to absurdity. Despite that, she was still conflicted over her desire to go forward with it, and he had caught a glimpse of that.

  “It would be much too much to ask you to help me in every aspect. So I was hoping you would just help me move forward, even just one step.”

  She would press on even if he refused.

  It made him feel like he wanted to help.

  “Of course, I won’t rush you. You are traveling with your own goals in mind, and getting involved in tax collecting might only get you wrapped up in some bothersome political conflict.”

  Ilenia stood from her chair and placed some copper coins on the table.

  “I am going back to work. If we keep talking, I might actually make up a story for you.”

  She wore a playful smile on her face, but their conversation was surely headed in that direction. She was a strong girl, so perhaps she could not stand the weakness she showed by telling her story.

  Col stared off in the direction the strong sheep girl disappeared in and sat still for a while.

  He finally snapped back to reality when he was pinched on his cheek.

  “Brother, you dummy.”

  Myuri was pouting.

  “No crushing on her.”

  It was not her typical comment on how he looked at women.

  Her fingers pinched his cheek lightly perhaps because she truly was worried.

  “I am not as soft as you think I am.”

  When he said that, her expression quickly reverted to her usual one, which seemed to say, “Sure you aren’t.”

  She then leaned over and clung to him, speaking softly.

  “I want to help her, even a little bit.”

  Don’t look for a place to run. Find a place you can head toward with hope.

  Col had left Nyohhira because he thought he could change the world and because he believed he could fight against the powerful organization that was the Church. Did he have an absolute plan for victory? Of course not.

  Not responding to Myuri, he reached out for the last chestnut.

  He popped it in his mouth, where a deep, smoky sweetness spread throughout.

  After their conversation with Ilenia, they returned to the trading house, where they found people waiting before the entrance.

  At first, Col thought they had come to pray, but they turned out to be sailors working on Yosef’s ship.

  Their complexions were all pale, but it was hard to discern exactly what they wanted. At the very least, he knew they wanted him at the ship, so he followed.

  There, the pier was crowded with people, and not a single person was on deck.

  As he wondered what the commotion was about, Yosef spotted them, and he looked like he had finally found his salvation.

  “Oh, Sir Col!”

  “Mr. Yosef, what’s going on?”

  Yosef placed a hand to his chest, as though calming his excitement, then pointed to the ship.

  “It’s Lord Autumn.”

  Col gulped. Not just because Autumn had actually showed up but now he also knew why Yosef and the others were so frantic.

  They must have been wondering why and how Autumn came here. His awe-inspiring presence rivaled that of the pope himself.

  Col felt bad he could not give the details, but Yosef urged him on and he quickly went inside the ship.

  It was like heading into a beast’s cage, and he was not necessarily wrong.

  He opened the door to the captain’s quarters, and there was Autumn dressed in rags.

  “Do you need something?”

  His question came without any sort of pretense or greeting. Col must have imagined how unhappy he looked.

  “…Um, I hope you don’t mind.”

  He commented unwittingly. Autumn might have made it safely, but after not being able to find him, he found a familiar ship and asked them to find him.

  The entire crew was from the islands, and they most certainly had been stunned.

  “Mind what? You are the one who called me.”

  “That’s true…”

  There were many assumptions the crew must have made after seeing Autumn suddenly appear, when he should have been in the north, but the man himself did not seem to mind at all.

  “It’s a miracle of the Black-Mother.”

  His response seemed slightly annoyed. Since the islanders concentrated their faith onto him, they must have broadly thought most things were solved by those miracles and believed that she was watching over him. Appearances were important.

  “I can accept that, but…My apologies, this was something I wanted to speak with you about face-to-face.”

  “Mm.”

  It was hard to tell what he was thinking behind the long hair that nearly consumed his head and face.

  As he stroked his beard, there came a noise that sounded out of place in the captain’s quarters.

  It was Myuri’s stomach, and Autumn blinked in surprise.


  “Do you plan to eat me?”

  “N-no!”

  Though she had just eaten some chestnuts, it was almost noon, and they had not been around buying snacks. Not only that, but sitting next to Autumn was a plate of various foods, perhaps given by Yosef and the others out of his consideration.

  “Eat as much as you like. I don’t mind a bite or two.”

  Sitting there was fresh bread and several cheeses.

  Autumn himself reached out for a piece of bread, so Myuri, after glancing at Col, eagerly took a piece for herself.

  “And? I imagine you’re here because of the storm the other day, but why have you called me? Do you want me to take you to Rausbourne on my back?”

  As Autumn used his fingers to delicately subtract small bites of bread from his piece, Myuri bit straight into hers and responded.

  “We met a sheep.”

  Myuri spoke with her mouth full, and from behind his long bangs, Autumn turned to look at her with his deep, ocean-blue eyes.

  “A sheep?”

  “She works for a trading firm from a distant southern country and is brokering wool here in the kingdom. We met her, and she is the embodiment of a sheep. We were conversing with her just now.”

  “Mm.”

  “Yeah, that’s the kind of sheep we met. She said there’s a bear at the edge of the sea.”

  There was another glimmer of a dangerous fire in her red eyes, but it quickly vanished.

  “A bear…at the edge of the sea. I see.”

  He placed the bread he had just begun to eat back down, and his beard wavered with a sigh.

  “Now I can see what she told you. And so you call me.”

  “You must know the story. It’s…”

  “A new world at the edge of the sea and the Moon-Hunting Bear that guards it. But why would a sheep speak of this?”

  “She wants to build a country just for nonhumans in the new world.”

  It almost sounded as if it could become reality when they were speaking with Ilenia, but when Col spoke about it with his own mouth and attempted to explain to someone else, he once again heard how ridiculous it sounded.

  Autumn’s eyes, too, were the same as when he could not accept the reality of the northern islands and indulged himself in easy ideals. You are getting carried away in such fantasies again.

  But Autumn closed his eyes and shrugged.

  “I, too, have heard rumors from birds that come to the north on their passage. There are those who are eagerly searching the far reaches of the seas. I see, so that was a sheep’s plan.”

  A migratory bird resting its wings on a giant whale, floating in the sea, and having a chat.

  The image felt like one from a fairy tale, and when Col imagined Ilenia listening to a bird talk about what lay beyond the sea, his heart suddenly clenched.

  A sheep could not fly, or swim, or run fast for a long time like a wolf.

  And yet, she was taking one step at a time toward her extraordinary vision.

  “If the legends are true, however, then the bear will not welcome newcomers. What does she plan to do about that?”

  “She said she would decide when she gets there.”

  Though it had been terribly convincing when he heard Ilenia say it, her plan suddenly sounded incredibly stupid when he said it.

  Autumn, of course, thought of something and looked at Myuri. There was a silent exchange between them, and in the end, he simply shrugged his shoulders.

  “There is not much I can say about the existence of the new land. The passing birds are the same. But as far as I know, I can tell you the sea stretches out to a vast ocean to the west of here, and it is endlessly deep—a barren, lightless world. On the other hand…”

  Autumn continued.

  “It is true that the Moon-Hunting Bear headed west.”

  Myuri held her breath, and Col was shocked.

  Could it be that Ilenia’s theory was correct?

  “There are clear footprints left at the bottom of the ocean. They were so big it took me a hundred years to realize they were footprints. For a while, I thought it was just how the land was formed.”

  Autumn stared off distantly as he spoke. This was not something Col could easily imagine.

  Myuri must have been able to, though, since her eyes were wide open as she tightly gripped the bread.

  But her excitement did not stem from getting one step closer to exacting her revenge, rather, learning of giant footprints at the bottom of the sea was awakening her sense of adventure; Col was rather relieved.

  “I have never seen an animal bigger than myself, but if those were his feet, then I see how it could have ended an era.”

  “You…you didn’t follow the footprints?”

  Myuri braced herself and pressed him with questions, and Autumn blinked.

  He then answered slowly.

  “I had no reason to.”

  It was a natural answer.

  “So you would say no if I asked you to do it now, right?”

  She gulped. She was almost about to say it.

  “There are several reasons for it, but the biggest is that even I don’t know if I would come back.”

  Autumn swam in one night what took them three days on a ship.

  And surely, that was not the extent of his strength.

  Such a man did not even know if he could return after going.

  He sighed because he knew she would not be satisfied until he explained.

  “There are currents throughout the ocean. To go west, you must first go south, then ride the strong current that goes west. At that point, there is no need to swim, as the current will carry you.”

  “What’s wrong with that?”

  “The currents are the same as a hill. If you go down, you must come up. Not to mention that even if you wanted to rest, below you is an abyss that drains the light and does not give it back. There is nothing to hold on to. As long as you float, you will drift in the currents. Going forward two steps will only bring you back three, and you will never return home.”

  If he said it, then it must be true.

  But there was something that struck Col as odd.

  “If that is the case, then was the story about a ship that came back from the new world a lie?”

  When he asked, Autumn frowned.

  “I can’t say that. Because there is a current that flows out from the west to the north of here.”

  Myuri tilted her head, but a thought occurred to Col as he looked at the round bread, acting as a plate for the food spread out on it.

  If there really was an edge to the sea, then the currents would have to eventually run into it, and if they were to continue…

  “It’s going in a circle.”

  A majestic current tirelessly going round and round the gigantic lake that was the sea.

  If that were the case, then it was impossible to leave and never come back.

  “But I don’t know if it’s going in a circle. It may be that in just one small part of the sea, the current is flowing east. There are several places like that, thanks to the landforms at the bottom of the ocean. Are you asking an elder to take on such a dangerous journey?”

  He shot down the question Myuri was about to ask before she could.

  He closed his mouth, as if realizing he had said too much. When he closed his eyes, it did not seem to be simple silence but rather deep contemplation, and he finally spoke with purpose.

  “But humans are not like me. It is possible they could have used the wind.”

  “The wind…Technology that would allow a ship to move forward against the wind.”

  Autumn was the avatar of a whale, the soul of the faith that supported the northern islands, and he was also the leader of the pirates who controlled trade on the seas.

  “Yes. The wind blows without any influence from the currents, and there are some seasons where it will always blow in the same direction. They might be able to return if they use the wind well. Humans have knowledge an
d technology. They overcame the things we could not accomplish, and they now dominate this world. I could not make a ship like this.”

  He gazed about the room as he spoke.

  There was honest respect in his eyes.

  “Our power is nothing before this technology. The sick and young can simply sleep here and cross the ocean. It is truly a miracle. Prayer is nothing next to this.”

  Autumn, the leader of the people of the islands, dressed in his monk clothes, smiled behind his beard.

  When Col thought about how crude he looked, Autumn looked off into the distance.

  “Technology…Yes, technology. But could it?”

  He murmured almost incoherently, and Col noted how his profile looked like a painting he had seen once. It was a painting of a monk who had felt God’s light from beyond his window as he worked. Autumn’s eyes were wide open, just like the monk who had risen from his chair to look out the window.

  The man who had gone to such desperate lengths to unify the northern islands spoke at last.

  “The sheep is planning to kill the bear. In order to live in the land where it dwells, that is her only option.”

  Impossible—the word caught in Col’s throat, and Autumn looked at him.

  “Miracles are often close companions of the impossible.”

  He then mentioned that human technology itself could bring about miracles.

  Ilenia had the power to blend in and live among humans. She had the skill to turn the workings of human society into her own strength. And on top of that, the way she spoke of her dreams.

  That must have been where her strange persuasiveness came from.

  How confident she was when she stated that they would decide when they got there.

  It might have meant that while she did not mind an offering of peace, she was prepared for the alternative.

  She was embarrassed by her own weakness as a sheep. She almost seemed as though she was pained by her nature to depend on a flock to live.

  But she was not giving in. She had the courage to stand up to something big.

  “That being said, it is not logical for a sheep to hunt a bear. You called me in order to receive my counsel, because while you don’t entirely believe it, you cannot ignore it, right?”

  That was exactly it.