Spice & Wolf I by Hasekura Isuna Page A

company representative.
    “Well then, do we have an agreement?” It seemed the buyer was ready to conclude the deal. Lawrence smiled and was about to reply.
    “Wait just a moment.”
    “Wha—” said Lawrence, without thinking.
    Before he could say anything further, she kept speaking—just like a canny merchant would.
    “One hundred forty trenni , you said, yes?”
    “Uh, er, yes. One hundred forty in silver trenni pieces,” answered the representative, a bit taken aback by the sudden question from t he up-to-now silent Holo. Women were rare in places of trade—not unheard of, but rare.
    For her part, Holo either didn’t know or didn’t care; she spoke as freely as she pleased. “Ah, perhaps you didn’t notice?”
    The buyer, quite taken aback, looked at Holo. He seemed not to understand what she was getting at; Lawrence didn’t know, either.
    “My apologies, but have I overlooked something?” The buyer, a merchant from a neighboring country, looked to be roughly the same age as Lawrence. He was a veteran of countless negotiations, who’d dealt with innumerable parties in his career.
    It was to his credit that despite his experience, he appeared to be sincerely apologizing to Holo.
    Of course it was far from surprising that he was taken aback. Holo had effectively asked him if he knew what he was looking at.
    “Mm. I can see you’re a fine merchant, so surely you pretended not to notice? I can see I won’t need to hold back with you.” Holo grinned underneath her cloak. Lawrence nervously hoped she wasn’t showing her fangs, but more than anything he wanted to know what she was doing.
    The buyer had been accurate and honest. If Holo was telling the truth, then Lawrence himself had also missed an important detail.
    Which was impossible.
    “My intention is anything but, I assure you. If you’ll kindly point out what you’re speaking of, we will be happy to adjust the price appropriately...”
    Lawrence had never seen a buyer act so meekly. To be sure, he’d seen them pretend meekness, but this was no act.
    Holo’s words had a strange weight, and her delivery was perfect.
    “Master,” she said to Lawrence. “It’s not polite to make sport of people.”
    It was hard to tell whether she called him “master” to mock him or because it was appropriate to the situation, but in either case, if he bungled his response here, he knew he’d hear about it later. He frantically groped for a response.
    “Th-that was certainly not my aim. But perhaps you should be the one to tell him.”
    Holo grinned a lopsided grin at Lawrence, flashing a fang. “Master, pass me a fur, if you please.”
    “Here.”
    It struck Lawrence as silly that he had to exert himself to maintain his dignity in the face of being called “master.” Holo was the only master here.
    “Thank you, master. Now, if you please, sir...” said Holo, turning to the buyer and showing him the fur. At a glance its lay, size, and luster did not seem to merit an increased price. Even if she were to talk up the lay as being especially fine, the buyer would unavoidably ask to examine the fur more closely, and would inevitably find flaws. The price was unlikely to drop, but the relationship between buyer and seller would suffer.
    “These are fine furs, as you can see,” Holo said.
    “I quite agree,” replied the buyer.
    “You won’t see their like in many years. Or perhaps I should put it this way—you won’t smell their like in many years.”
    Holo’s words froze the air in an instant. Lawrence had no idea what she was talking about.
    “’Tis a scent, but to miss it you’d need to be blind!” Holo laughed. She was the only one. Lawrence and the buyer were too stunned to be amused.
    “Well, a smell is worth a thousand words. Would you care to sample the scent?” Holo handed the pelt to the buyer, who took it and looked uncertainly toward Lawrence.
    Lawrence nodded slowly, hiding his confusion.
    What was the point in smelling the