Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Read online

  Due to seeing the royal charter, the crowd feared the consequences of getting involved any further and voluntarily made way for Hans.

  Beyond the sea of bodies, there were several people clad in armor who were easily recognizable as knights at a glance, as well as two noble-looking men on horseback.

  They stood in a manner that was clearly to protect what lay behind them. Riding on a horse with a finer coat than the others was a clearly unhappy Myuri and a very relieved Hyland.

  When travelers visited large cities, most of the time their lodgings ended up falling into one of three categories.

  There were inns that anyone could stay at by paying a fee.

  Then came association and trade houses, where only those with privileged connections could stay.

  Lastly were the manors within the city walls that only those of special standing could rent.

  “…So many of these houses are bigger than our bathhouse…,” muttered Myuri resentfully as they rode in the carriage Hyland had prepared for them.

  After the commotion in the square, Hyland had taken them to a district that was filled with rows of large mansions. The road was paved with neat flagstones, and even the stray dogs that wandered about seemed to have a finer pedigree than normal. Col spotted them sleeping daintily at the gates of most of the mansions, so he first thought they were being kept for hunting, but he occasionally saw people working at the manors fawning over and petting them, so it was more likely the creatures simply lived there.

  They could also serve as guard dogs, so this was a beneficial relationship for both the manor residents and for the dogs.

  Every time the carriage passed by these seemingly high-class strays, Myuri regarded them with hostility due to her wolf blood. All the manors were additionally made with a central courtyard, and apparently, it was in fashion to have a little fruit garden there. Going by the front of a house granted them a peek of sunbathed green, a slice of paradise in the center of a city brimming with noise and chaos.

  Hyland’s temporary residence was one of these manors as well.

  “It’s a relative’s house, so this is the only place I could borrow. If my attendants weren’t here, I might have rented an inn, but I can’t act as freely as I’d like here in the Kingdom.”

  Hyland’s voice sounded tired as she alighted from the carriage, and Hans, who had appeared earlier with parchment in hand to save Col, stared hard at her. Perhaps he was the sort of steward who fought to preserve the authority of his master, who tended to prioritize substance over titles and reputation.

  “Well, let’s keep talking inside. I’ve got sweets for you, little miss.”

  “What, really?!”

  Myuri, who had been in a glaring contest with the dog in front of the manor that Hyland was borrowing, immediately lit up and turned with intense interest.

  She was always shockingly disrespectful toward Hyland, but she was easily won over by food. While Hyland enjoyed how straightforward the girl was, it was beyond embarrassing for her big brother.

  They passed through the colonnade at the front of the manor, then made their way through the building, which did not have any corridors. Instead, the rooms were directly connected to each other.

  “This room is always bright and warm.”

  Hyland brought them to a south-facing room that looked out over the courtyard.

  “First, let us thank God for our long-overdue reunion.”

  When they sat in chairs with high backs at a long and narrow dining table, the house attendants poured wine into their silver goblets.

  Myuri alone was served the product of the grapes before it became wine: grape juice. She was not entirely satisfied with it, but she raised her glass for the toast anyway.

  “Your work in Caeson and Desarev was spectacular. You truly are the Twilight Cardinal.”

  Col had never written that nickname of his in any of his letters to Hyland. It sounded like the title was spreading through avenues he himself was not aware of.

  “Please stop…I am not worthy of such a grand title.”

  “Ha-ha. I’m glad to see that you are the same as always. By the way…” Hyland changed positions in her seat. “…I sent a letter detailing the situation here in Rausbourne to Desarev, but I received your letter saying you were on your way here not long after. Though I stationed people at the harbor to wait for your arrival, there were so many ships that the tax collector association beat us to it. I’m sorry.”

  Because she was a member of royalty, Hyland did not bow, but she still apologized by casting her eyes downward. Hans, who was standing by in a corner of the room, seemed rather angry, and Col panicked a little.

  “Oh, it was not a problem. Nothing happened in the end anyway. It’s all thanks to your help, Heir Hyland.”

  “My help…? Ha, my lineage’s help perhaps.”

  Hyland rarely ever flaunted her noble bloodline, but normally she wasn’t that self-deprecating, either.

  As Col sat perplexed, wondering what could’ve brought this on, Hyland continued.

  “After hearing about your work, I thought that I, too, should rouse myself to action. Shameful as it is, I have barely managed to produce any results in this city. The most my name can do is rout a rowdy crowd—”

  “Young lady!” A scolding voice interrupted them. “How dare you say such a thing before commoners. You will ruin your family name!”

  Hyland turned to Hans, her gaze weary but filled with love and respect.

  “Gramps, I thought I asked you to stop calling me ‘young lady.’”

  “But—”

  “Oh right. Do you think you could go explain to the city council why we exercised the right of arbitration in town? They must’ve received a report and are probably making grumpy faces in our direction right about now. We must take care to preserve our ties with them. Quickly now.”

  “…Very well.”

  Hans deliberately breathed a caustic sigh, bowed his head, then exited the room.

  The moment the door shut, Hyland smiled weakly.

  “He is a very stronghearted man who works hard to preserve my family’s good name, but no matter how much time passes, he always thinks of me as a little girl. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I know how you feel.”

  Myuri loudly sympathized with her and turned to give Col a reproachful look.

  Hyland’s smile brightened as she raised her goblet to Myuri.

  “Well, either way, I was in high spirits when I first waded into this city, but I’ve been unable to accomplish anything; I was on the verge of declaring it all hopeless right before you arrived. The situation has been evolving too quickly for me over this past week in particular. It feels like I’ve been waiting an eternity for you.”

  “I see…But I must admit I am at a bit of a loss. What was that whole scene at the port about?”

  Col had done a measure of traveling in his life and he knew quarrels of that sort could be found in every town anywhere in the world.

  The antagonism between the bakers’ and butchers’ guilds was a tale as old as time; it had even become a typical setting for poets to write about. The tavern and inn associations also often had overlapping functions that soured their relationship, and fights between the sword smithies and knife crafters over what fell in whose jurisdiction would probably never be settled.

  In that sense, conflict between tax collectors and merchants was not that unusual.

  The abnormality started with the fact that both parties armed themselves and confronted each other in the harbor.

  Moreover, one side was charged with the task of collecting taxes, a business that had support from some of the highest powers within the Kingdom. Openly challenging them to a fight—regardless of what the reasons may have been—could be interpreted as a challenge to royal authority.

  Such a daring deed required backing.

  “Those mercenaries said they were hired by the traders’ association, and the traders’ association is siding
with the Church. And it seemed like the tax collectors were after me from the very beginning…”

  “Yes, exactly—that problem has been giving me a huge headache the whole time. The traders’ association officially volunteered themselves as friends of the Church and stand opposed to the tax collectors. The reason the tax collectors went for you was likely because you look like a priest. They must have thought you had come to support the city’s cathedral or were an envoy of some sort.”

  Ilenia had mentioned that the farther south one went, the stronger the Church’s influence.

  Things here couldn’t be compared to Desarev’s cathedral, which felt isolated and unaided.

  “That’s why they both were trying to keep me away from the other group…Also, this is something that’s been on my mind, but…the merchants should need the approval of local authorities in order to conduct trade. Is it okay for them to simply ally themselves with the Church and oppose the tax collectors so openly?”

  During the journey he once took with Lawrence in his merchant days, Col had seen trade and markets moved by the whim of the local authorities many times. Perhaps there was no need for Hyland to overthink the situation; why not just brandish royal authority and go over their heads? Merchants who couldn’t trade were like fish out of water.

  As those thoughts ran through Col’s mind, Hyland’s expression twisted in annoyance.

  “You are exactly right, but while the traders’ association might call themselves as such, the core of their group is not made up of inhabitants of Rausbourne. Theirs is a collection of companies whose headquarters are overseas, often farther to the south. And the south is firmly under the Church’s influence, you see. So yes, while they cannot risk displeasing our king, they must also stay on friendly terms with the Church; otherwise they will lose their standing at home. On top of that, the Church wants to shoulder in here to launch an aggressive counterattack. In that sense, the traders are acting aggressively thanks to the Church’s backing.”

  “The Church’s backing? But the Church has avoided making any overt moves up until now. Have they gained important new allies on the mainland who are allowing them to be this forward?”

  There was a certain number of those who did not want the Church to reform, such as conservative authorities and nobles with monasteries and churches in their territories that housed immense amounts of wealth, and it would not be surprising to hear that those various individual forces had colluded to join the Church’s side by forming a union to oppose the Kingdom.

  Col steeled himself for the countless terrible scenarios he could imagine, but for some reason, Hyland offered only a troubled smile.

  “Must I spell out the reason? I mean—don’t tell me you really still haven’t noticed yet.”

  He stared blankly at the woman, who sipped her wine and looked at him apologetically.

  “You’re the reason.”

  “Huh?”

  “The Twilight Cardinal.” Hyland murmured his alias and sighed deeply. “I should be proud that my eyes were keen enough to pick out talent as fine as you, but I’m rather uneasy, as things have turned out in ways far beyond anything I imagined. You sit across from me now, yet you hold more influence than an illegitimate royal could ever hope to wield.”

  It did not seem like she was joking.

  “Could I…ask you to elaborate?”

  Hyland’s vague smile made it seem like she was apologizing for getting him wrapped up in such serious matters.

  That was why his heart beat as intensely as it did.

  How did the world see him? How were stories about him spreading?

  “Everything started there, in Atiph. Thanks to you and your God-given wolf, I managed to light the signal of revolution. It was then that many of the Church officials learned how deeply the people’s anger ran, driving them into a panic.”

  Hyland grinned when she said “God-given wolf.” Myuri, of course, pretended not to know what she was talking about, and it was unclear as to how certain Hyland was about who Myuri truly was, but it did not seem like she was ready to ruin the relationship.

  Hyland sipped her wine and continued.

  “And then the two of you pulled Caeson, core of the northern islands, completely onto the side of the Kingdom. The Kingdom’s position has gotten even stronger with them as our ally because of their control of large fishing grounds for herring and cod. After all, any who dare to challenge the Kingdom now will automatically end up in conflict with the pirates of Caeson. And then ample shipments of fish would no longer grace their market stalls. Cheap fish is one of the keys to staying in the good graces of the common people, you know. People who can no longer buy fish will direct their anger toward the Church and their local authorities for endangering their livelihoods in order to support their indulgences.”

  There were, of course, fish in the southern seas, but their numbers were no match for the herring and cod fisheries of the north. That influence was powerful.

  “Also, what you did in Desarev,” Hyland said and sighed again. It was a sigh of admiration, as though she was surrendering to something. “The Kingdom and the Church have stood in stalemate for years, and you suddenly drove a huge wedge between them. It’s like scales that had been maintaining some semblance of a hazy balance, but then one side suddenly starts plummeting down. The Desarev cathedral, which had kept its doors firmly shut, made amends with a Kingdom city practically overnight due to the actions of one person, finally opening its doors again. Can you even begin to imagine what sort of shock that caused when news of it hurtled across the land?”

  When she explained it like that, Col was shocked into silence.

  As someone who had been at the center of those events, he knew that the reality had been far more complicated and much messier; there was a good reason and a sense of inevitability that led to the reconciliation between the cathedral and the town. It was absolutely not something that came about because of his actions alone.

  But he also realized that was not how it would be perceived.

  There was only so much space in a letter, and people had no choice but to describe the most intricate of storms in a general, easy-to-understand way.

  People had to find ways to encapsulate and explain the most complicated of affairs with a limited number of words.

  His being called the Twilight Cardinal was just one example.

  And it was with the birth of these easily understood symbols that the tide of society changed.

  Col, despite how dull he was, finally managed to swallow the situation.

  “With those three incidents side by side, most people have simply guessed what happened, haven’t they?”

  Hyland nodded.

  “Yes. People are buzzing—now that the Twilight Cardinal has appeared, it won’t be long before a fourth revolution occurs, and then a fifth, before a final, surging avalanche will come roaring down and bring the whole state of affairs to a decisive end. That’s why I believe the Church has finally made up their mind. They must think that waiting for the troubled people of the Kingdom to admit defeat while they continue to withhold religious services like weddings, baptisms, and funerals is a stupid plan now that our side obviously holds the advantage.”

  The proverb one ant hole came to mind. It referred to how the destruction of even the greatest of flood levees began with the tiniest of leaks no larger than one ant hole. Similar lessons were taught in the scripture as well.

  Perhaps Col was close to powerless.

  Yet, it seemed that even without much power, he had managed to open a hole wide enough for a tiny leak.

  And before he realized it, events had become a mess far beyond his control.

  “Now that the Church wants to take a more aggressive approach, they’ve begun holding talks with the merchants in the south.”

  Col returned from his introspective thoughts when Hyland spoke again.

  “Right now, since the right of taxation against the Church is being handed out left and right within
the Kingdom, the power of tax collectors is growing. To long-distance traders and merchants, tax collectors and tax officials are essentially their mortal enemies. They’ve become increasingly worried that if they simply stay on the sidelines, they might get the short end of the stick when this is all over. The Church has always been influential as a major patron of business and trade, so when they approached the merchants, I’m sure there were plenty of reasons to take their side.”

  Col started to piece the situation together in his head and recalled the recent events at the port like a fog had lifted.

  He realized there was still one question lingering in his mind.

  “I understand how things have reached this point. It was all caused by my—no…” He looked to Myuri, sitting beside him, and corrected himself. “…Our journey. I see that now.”

  Myuri’s eyes widened, and as she happily rubbed her face against his shoulder, he continued.

  “But I still do not understand why the people from the traders’ association were willing to oppose royal authority with weapons in their hands. I doubt they would be able to continue trading within the Kingdom after that.”

  He could even go as far as to phrase it as picking up change in the path of an oncoming carriage.

  Even if a passerby managed to collect a whole pouch full of copper coins, being struck by the carriage would far outweigh any potential gain. From Col’s perspective, the merchants were trying to do something exactly like that.

  If they challenged royal authority, then they would surely be banned from conducting trade within the country.

  There was no point in cooperating with the Church to chase away tax collectors if they lost the right to trade altogether. What did taxes matter if they could not earn any money at all?

  Yet, there was a helplessness in Hyland’s expression.

  “I suppose you could say we underestimated how cunning and shameless the merchants could be.” Her loud sigh echoed throughout the room. “In response to the threat of losing the right to trade here, the merchants became hostile and shot back with, ‘Would you be able to survive even a single winter if we withdrew all our ships from the Kingdom?’”