Wolf & Parchment: New Theory Spice & Wolf, Vol. 4 Page 8

  “This…”

  “Whoa, what’s with the book?”

  Myuri loved reading, including adventure stories, so she reached out from beside him to flip through the pages.

  And she realized what it was right away.

  “Wait, this—”

  “…is part of the common-language translation of the scripture.”

  It was a selection of the most well-known parts often used in sermons, and there were even parts in there that he had translated. It was roughly bound together with a fraying twine, but the pages were dirtied with finger marks—he could tell that many people had read through it.

  Even with the emblem of the Church gone, the people’s faith was still present here. This little book on its own was supporting the hearts of the people while the priest himself was gone.

  And those were parts that Col had foregone sleep to translate.

  Something he had done was nourishing the faith of these people.

  While he felt a lump forming in his throat, Myuri spoke, still peering into the book.

  “That’s a part you did.”

  Col’s breath caught at her sudden comment.

  When Myuri looked back, however, her expression was surprisingly puzzled.

  “Wait, you know that the way you write is exactly the same way you talk, right? I could tell right away.”

  “Is…is that so?”

  Col responded, still reeling, and Myuri pouted a little.

  “Why wouldn’t I be able to tell? I know you best out of anyone in the whole world!” proclaimed Myuri boldly. Col felt like he had been thinking the very same thing just a little while ago…but he dared not say that out loud.

  There was an epigram that went, Stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares back, and that was exactly right.

  “And when I think about how all these people are reading stuff you wrote, it makes me want to brag,” Myuri said with a tickled smile, her mood now totally refreshed. He saw her impish, pointed canine peeking out from beneath her lips, and as he thought about how innocent she looked, she suddenly grasped his hand gently.

  She was ever changing, more prone to sudden shifts than the mountain weather, and without a hint of teasing she said, “I really think you should be more confident in yourself.”

  He could not say the thought that she simply said that because she was his sister and she saw him in a favorable light by default did not cross his mind. Col could tell she was being earnest.

  A sincere comment warranted a sincere response.

  “…I should. Thank you.”

  Myuri was supporting him, and so he needed to work even harder for her.

  As he collected himself again, he looked to her, who had turned her gaze back toward the book, and figured this was a good opportunity.

  “By the way, the part I translated—”

  “Oh, I like you, Brother. I’m not really interested in what you write in the scripture.”

  “…”

  The hope that she would at least accept the parts of the scripture he had written in his own words was squashed in an instant.

  Myuri hummed with satisfaction at cornering her brother, then turned around to poke him in the chest.

  “That’s because you are a greater man than you think you are. That’s why I believe that while Blondie’s getting stomachaches over what’ll happen to her country, you’ll be out there as the great Twilight Cardinal pulling your awesome moves to solve it.”

  Even though she was much more heroic than he was, she wanted her brother to act like that. Deep in his heart, he knew she was expecting way too much of him, but she was his little sister, and as her older brother, he had an obligation to step up to her expectations.

  He patted her head as she clung to his arm and cackled, and he gave the best response he could.

  “I cannot say it will be very awesome, but I hope to help in any way I can.”

  He believed that even doing what he was doing now was much too audacious for someone who had been working as a helper in a remote mountain bathhouse just one month prior.

  But Myuri was not satisfied.

  “Come ooon, Brother, again? You turned down Blondie’s reward! I bet she was going to give us amazing treasure!”

  “That is not the reason I am traveling. Receiving clothes, food, and shelter is enough for me. And please let go. You’re going to damage the book.”

  She reluctantly let go and placed the book back onto the altar.

  Inside were the blessed teachings of God and the seeds of his wishes to be of help to the world. Col would be lying if he said he felt no pride in seeing these buds starting to sprout.

  It seemed the dreaming boy who shivered at the thought of having the power to change the world was still somewhere inside him.

  “I am of little influence, so I do not know how much I can accomplish, but I do pray that I can settle the dispute between the Kingdom and the Church.”

  That being said, he still could not frolic about before Myuri, so he had to be cautious with his pride.

  Myuri seemed like she was going to say something else, but a sudden, third voice echoing around them cut her short.

  “I agree, but you must double-check what that solution might mean.”

  There were no other figures in the chapel, and there did not seem to be any places to hide. Yet, he still did not know where the voice was coming from as he looked left and right.

  It was the wolf-blooded Myuri who noticed first.

  “Brother, above us.”

  Col looked up, and there, sitting on the edge of the opened skylight, was a bird.

  If Col thought himself a servant of God, this would be where he would think that he appeared through a messenger, but unfortunately, he knew of beings like this besides God.

  “Are you…Miss Sharon?”

  When he said the name of the tax collector they’d met at the harbor, the bird above them puffed her feathers out, spread her wings, and flew down.

  But she did not land at their eye level. She stopped on top of a candleholder fixed to the wall at about where the second floor would be in a normal building and looked down at them.

  “…I hate her,” Myuri muttered with a growl, but she was being not entirely unreasonable.

  Sharon was so clearly peering down at them from the candleholder, both figuratively and literally, that it bewildered him.

  Ilenia was friendly, and Autumn was practically apathetic. He found himself upset to see a nonhuman this overtly hostile toward them.

  “Let me ask you something,” said Sharon, the majestic eagle. “Are you dogs of the Church?”

  “Huhhh?”

  Myuri’s voice, every bit as angry as Sharon was hostile, echoed through the quiet chapel.

  CHAPTER TWO

  The eagle, ruler of all birds, looked down at them over her beak.

  The one glaring at the eagle with a growl rumbling deep in her throat was a girl who had inherited the blood of the wolf, the king of the forest.

  For Myuri, who could command the stray dogs of the city with a glance, to be called a dog was the greatest insult.

  “Did you just call me a dog, you chicken?!”

  Myuri yelled with her ears and tail exposed as Sharon literally looked down on her, puffing out her chest.

  The hairs on Myuri’s tail instantly stood on end, but Col stepped between them.

  “By dogs of the Church, might you mean the inquisition?”

  Sharon puffed herself up and shook out her wings, as though sighing.

  “How insolent.”

  “Hey! Get down here! Chicken!”

  As Col held Myuri, who was practically threatening to rip the other to shreds, back by her shoulders, he responded.

  “If we really were with the inquisition, then how would you explain Myuri’s ears and tail?”

  Those who were not human were deemed by the Church to be possessed by demons and had the fate of being burned at the stake if they were discovered.

 
; The inquisitor’s job was to find those who followed pagan beliefs and the very pagan gods themselves.

  “Simple. Taking that dog along with you would make sniffing out our kind an easy task, and it serves as a simple way to lower our guard as well. Two birds…two dogs with one stone.”

  “Hey! You clearly called me a dog just n—Gwah!”

  The fur on Myuri’s tail was standing completely on end, and she was ready to run after Sharon to bite her, even if it meant climbing up the wall, but Col reached around to put his hand on her mouth. His gaze never left Sharon as he held the thrashing wolf pup still in his arms.

  “Miss Sharon.” He called her name and dropped his shoulders. “Could you please cut the act?”

  “Gwah…gwah?!”

  Myuri calmed in his arms, her ears twitching inquisitively.

  “If you truly believed we were inquisitors, then I do not understand why you would appear in your true form to confirm such a thing.”

  “…”

  Sharon remained silent, staring hard at them.

  “Perhaps you really did believe we might be inquisitors, but I’m sure you have already ascertained what you wanted to.”

  Sharon and the other tax collectors were trying to take back the fortunes of the Church within the Kingdom. It would not be unusual if the Church tried to carry out some sort of sabotage. He could understand how cautious she needed to be, even after reading Ilenia’s letters and hearing about the Twilight Cardinal.

  But what he heard Sharon say and what he saw her do did not add up.

  “You came to us in this form for another reason, did you not?”

  “You’re a clever one,” she said and spread her wings, flapping them several times, carrying herself to a shelf in the corner of the chapel. She was matching her eye level to theirs in her own way. “I first thought you had forced her into slavery to put her to work. A disciplined dog will do as it’s told, no?”

  “Hey!!”

  Myuri’s tail puffed up at being called a dog again. Col had thought she was maturing, but she was still easily riled up by even the most obvious provocations.

  It was hard to tell exactly, as Sharon, a bird, was expressionless, but it almost seemed like she was having fun teasing Myuri.

  “Miss Sharon.” He called her name with an admonishing tone, and Sharon flicked her tail feathers, as though shrugging.

  “I received word from a fellow bird and observed you long before you arrived at port in this city…Honestly, I can barely stand watching you two interact,” she said, exasperated.

  Much like the wolf’s sense of smell, human eyesight was no match for that of the bird, and when she mentioned it, he remembered how many seabirds had been above the boat when they arrived in Rausbourne.

  On the one hand, Col suddenly felt rather embarrassed knowing that someone had seen his private moments with Myuri. Conversely, Myuri puffed out her chest in pride and took his arm, but Sharon uncomfortably turned away.

  “Miss Sharon, please let me say this before there are any misunderstandings—Myuri is the daughter of the man who helped me through life and is like a little sister to me.”

  “Brother’s just shy.”

  While birds were not supposed to be that expressive, Sharon’s irritation appeared in the form of a half-open beak.

  “I don’t think one should expect much of a relationship between human and nonhuman.”

  “Hey!”

  Sharon easily brushed off Myuri’s threatening attitude by simply looking away.

  “Because that dog there looked thoroughly tamed to me. I didn’t think she could possibly be working for the Church, but I couldn’t shake the last of my suspicions.”

  Myuri bared her fangs and growled at being called a dog again, and she gripped so hard on Col’s arm that it hurt.

  “However…If she gets this angry at being called a dog, then at the very least, she hasn’t lost her pride as a nonhuman. She could not possibly serve as the leader of the Church’s hunt.”

  Apparently, her provocations had also been a form of confirmation.

  “I’m glad your questions have been cleared up. Let me just say this again: We are not friends of the Church. Of course, we are not entirely its enemies, either; what we are hoping for is a reformation, not to overthrow them.”

  “Whether you are friend or foe is up to interpretation. It seems your faith is true, even if you’re going around with that dog.”

  Myuri’s eyes sharpened again, so Col got a handle on her before answering.

  “God created everything on this earth. And so we must love everything equally.”

  “No, we shouldn’t!”

  Myuri immediately interjected, and Sharon puffed herself up.

  “Erm, Myuri…”

  “You can’t love everything equally! I should be number one!”

  She would not listen to him if he explained to her that it was a quote pulled straight from the scripture.

  As he found himself at a loss as to what to do about Myuri as she howled, Sharon murmured softly, “…So this is the Twilight Cardinal.”

  While she sounded annoyed, he could not possibly be angry about it.

  “To be honest, that nickname is far beyond what I deserve.”

  “But it is your name nonetheless. Whether you like it or not, that position already belongs to you.”

  Hyland had told him the same thing. The friction between the Kingdom and the Church had been at a standstill for many years, but it was now making its way to the next stage with earth-rumbling steps.

  And the one who caused that was none other than himself.

  “…I suppose I have to accept it, don’t I?”

  “You do. Any bridge with a weak keystone will collapse.”

  She was right.

  “Also—”

  The eye of the eagle, the hunter of the sky, twinkled.

  “If you do not securely establish your position, others can easily use you. You could become either my friend or my foe. That would be trouble.”

  “You’re a foe! I won’t ever be your friend!” Myuri yelled and stuck out her tongue.

  Sharon gave only a birdlike tilt of the head.

  “It is true—I am in a rather awkward position. However, I have heard about the situation of the city…of the Kingdom. You could end up being either friend or foe as well, Miss Sharon.”

  He paused and fixed his gaze deep on her expressionless face.

  She was one of the three forces who would decide the fate of the city.

  Sharon was the vice president of the tax collector association, who was acting under the Kingdom’s prerogative.

  “Are you aware that your tax collecting carries the possibility of cutting the life from the Kingdom?”

  That was essentially the main point of what Hyland had told him.

  The Church knew they had the strength in numbers and were trying to light the flame for a counterattack. If he stayed on the sidelines, especially now, all the riches of the churches within the Kingdom would end up in the hands of the tax collectors.

  The option of war was growing ever more likely, and it seemed Heir Klevend, who backed Sharon and the tax collectors, was rather hoping for that possibility. By using the collection rights to corner the Church and forcing the cornered Church to start a war, chaos would erupt within the Kingdom, which he would take advantage of to usurp the throne…

  Just as it had been demonstrated in countless tales of conquer, chaos was the perfect chance for those lower in standing to distinguish themselves. Even a man who had held a simple job in a remote bathhouse could one day come to be called the Twilight Cardinal.

  However, if war did break out and all the foreign merchants stopped their trade, an unprecedented tragedy would befall the people of the Winfiel Kingdom. Not to mention that the outbreak of civil war would be far too terrible a sight.

  Was Sharon aware of what sort of web she had a hand in?

  Or perhaps, as Hyland had said, she was fully aware of w
hat she was doing.

  “I pray for peace for the people, just as much as I pray to correct the evil practices of the Church.”

  And he also wanted to help Hyland, whom he knew on a personal level. If Heir Klevend revolted and caused a civil war, then Hyland would have to fight her own people in order to protect her country.

  Then, on the slim chance that she lost, history very clearly demonstrated what happened to fallen leaders.

  “You said you wanted my cooperation and reputation, yet you ask my help only for collecting taxes, heedless of the state of the Kingdom?”

  While he may be pitiful when it came to other things, he could take pride and confidence in his own convictions.

  He spoke loud and clear to Sharon, who puffed herself up as though taking on the challenge, and said, “You think it’s money we want?”

  Tax collectors cast successful bids on collection permits, collected through their own wits, and profited.

  But the reason he froze when he heard her say that was because it occurred to him that perhaps Hyland’s conjecture was off its mark. In short, perhaps they were not the vanguard following Heir Klevend’s scheme, deliberately cornering the Church to cause a war.

  In that case, that made it clear if he and Sharon were friend or foe.

  “You think we would come together for money? We want something else.”

  Sharon spread her wings wide and, like a stretching cat, flapped them several times in place.

  And what she finally said after a moment of silence was nothing he could have ever predicted.

  “We want revenge.”

  “…Revenge?”

  It was so unexpected, but when he remembered how she was not human, he could imagine all sorts of pasts she might have had.

  But in that case, he still questioned it.

  “If you hate the Church…then I can think of several reasons why. But then, does that mean all the tax collectors I saw in the harbor are also not human?”

  If so, Myuri would have said something, so when Sharon heard him say that, she narrowed her eyes in vexation.