Read Online Spice & Wolf III by Hasekura Isuna - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Hasekura Isuna
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even if it’s only by stories, I came to want to visit the places I’ve never been able to see in person and to travel back to those ages that God in his capriciousness has prevented me from experiencing. When I was a young man with nothing on my mind but profit, such things would never have occurred to me, but now I often wonder if I’d had the chance to consider them, my life would have turned out quite differently. So I must admit I’m a bit envious of you, Mr. Lawrence. Hah, I must sound quite ancient.” Batos laughed at his own folly, but his words left a deep impression on Lawrence.
It was true that the old tales and legends allowed one to know of things that were impossible to experience directly.
He felt a new weight behind the words Holo had said to him not so very many days after they had first met.
"The worlds we live in, you and I, are very different.”
For the greater part of the time Holo had lived, the people from her own era had been long since dead, the era itself lost to time.
And Holo was not human, but wolf.
Thinking on it, Lawrence saw that Holo’s very existence began to seem special in more ways than one.
What had she seen and heard? Where had she traveled?
He began to want to ask her about her travels—perhaps when he returned to the inn.
"But when the Church looks at the old tales and legends, all they see are superstitions and pagan stories. Where the Church’s eye falls, tales become hard to collect. Hyoram is a mountainous region and had many fascinating stories, but the Church was there, too. Kumersun is quite nice in that regard.”
Ploania was a country where both pagans and the Church existed side by side, but it was precisely because of that coexistence that the Church was much stricter in those towns and regions where it held power.
Pagan towns that resisted Church control had to be constantly prepared for battle. Kumersun was unique in Ploania for its peaceful avoidance of those problems.
Even in Kumersun, it was not the case that there was a complete lack of conflict.
Lawrence and Batos headed to the north district of Kumersun in order to meet with the chronicler.
The town had been built with expansion in mind, so the city walls were constructed of wood that could be easily disassembled and the streets and buildings were spacious.
Yet even within this town, there existed a high stone wall.
The wall encircled the district housing those who had fled to Ploania because of Church persecution.
The very fact that the district was walled off with stone proved that the people of the town considered the presence of the persecuted a burden.
While they were not considered criminals in Kumersun, in Ruvinheigen—for example—they would have been beheaded as a matter of course.
Upon reflection, Lawrence changed his mind.
The wall did not exist simply to isolate these people; it was probably necessary for their protection.
“Is that...sulfur?” Lawrence asked.
“Aha, so you’ve handled medicinal stones as well, have you?”
Hyoram boasted a variety of very productive mines, and while Batos may have been used to the distinctive odors of the region, Lawrence couldn’t help but make a face.
The smell reached his nose as soon as they passed through the door in the stone wall, and he immediately knew what sort of people lived here.
The Church’s greatest enemy—alchemists.
“No, I’ve knowledge of it is all.”
“Knowledge is a merchant’s greatest weapon. You’re good at your job.”
“...It’s kind of you to say so.”
The area within the walls was several steps lower than the outside ground.
The spaces between the buildings in the district were narrow, and although they called to mind alleys Lawrence had seen in other towns, there were some strange differences.
For one, many of the alleys they walked in were scattered with bird feathers.
“One can’t always smell the poison wind. People keep small birds—and if the bird suddenly dies, they know to
It was true that the old tales and legends allowed one to know of things that were impossible to experience directly.
He felt a new weight behind the words Holo had said to him not so very many days after they had first met.
"The worlds we live in, you and I, are very different.”
For the greater part of the time Holo had lived, the people from her own era had been long since dead, the era itself lost to time.
And Holo was not human, but wolf.
Thinking on it, Lawrence saw that Holo’s very existence began to seem special in more ways than one.
What had she seen and heard? Where had she traveled?
He began to want to ask her about her travels—perhaps when he returned to the inn.
"But when the Church looks at the old tales and legends, all they see are superstitions and pagan stories. Where the Church’s eye falls, tales become hard to collect. Hyoram is a mountainous region and had many fascinating stories, but the Church was there, too. Kumersun is quite nice in that regard.”
Ploania was a country where both pagans and the Church existed side by side, but it was precisely because of that coexistence that the Church was much stricter in those towns and regions where it held power.
Pagan towns that resisted Church control had to be constantly prepared for battle. Kumersun was unique in Ploania for its peaceful avoidance of those problems.
Even in Kumersun, it was not the case that there was a complete lack of conflict.
Lawrence and Batos headed to the north district of Kumersun in order to meet with the chronicler.
The town had been built with expansion in mind, so the city walls were constructed of wood that could be easily disassembled and the streets and buildings were spacious.
Yet even within this town, there existed a high stone wall.
The wall encircled the district housing those who had fled to Ploania because of Church persecution.
The very fact that the district was walled off with stone proved that the people of the town considered the presence of the persecuted a burden.
While they were not considered criminals in Kumersun, in Ruvinheigen—for example—they would have been beheaded as a matter of course.
Upon reflection, Lawrence changed his mind.
The wall did not exist simply to isolate these people; it was probably necessary for their protection.
“Is that...sulfur?” Lawrence asked.
“Aha, so you’ve handled medicinal stones as well, have you?”
Hyoram boasted a variety of very productive mines, and while Batos may have been used to the distinctive odors of the region, Lawrence couldn’t help but make a face.
The smell reached his nose as soon as they passed through the door in the stone wall, and he immediately knew what sort of people lived here.
The Church’s greatest enemy—alchemists.
“No, I’ve knowledge of it is all.”
“Knowledge is a merchant’s greatest weapon. You’re good at your job.”
“...It’s kind of you to say so.”
The area within the walls was several steps lower than the outside ground.
The spaces between the buildings in the district were narrow, and although they called to mind alleys Lawrence had seen in other towns, there were some strange differences.
For one, many of the alleys they walked in were scattered with bird feathers.
“One can’t always smell the poison wind. People keep small birds—and if the bird suddenly dies, they know to
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