Spice & Wolf II Read Online Free PDF Page B

made public, he would be ruined. To that extent, a little bowing and scraping was a small price to pay.
    Lawrence would have taken a huge hit to his own assets if the trick hadn’t been noticed.
    “Hee-hee. Poor little man,” said Holo with a delighted chuckle that made her seem even nastier.
    “You’ve certainly a keen eye, as usual. I didn’t notice a thing.”
    “I’m beautiful and my tail fur is sleek, but my eyes and ears are also keen. I noticed the moment we entered the room. I suppose he would’ve been sly enough to fool the likes of you, though,” said Holo, sighing and waving her hand dismissively.
    Lawrence would have been happier if she’d said something sooner, but the reality was he had not noticed the fraud, and the fact that Holo did had turned a great loss into a great gain.
    It wouldn’t kill him to be polite.
    “I’ve nothing to say for myself,” Lawrence admitted. Holo’s eyes twinkled at his unexpected meekness.
    “Oh ho! I see you’ve matured a bit.”
    Lawrence—indeed having nothing to say for himself—could only smile, chagrined.
    There is something known as “spring fever.”
    It is most common during the winter in places far from rivers or seas. The streams freeze, and people survive on salted meat and stale bread day in and day out. It’s not that no vegetables can survive the frost, but rather that such produce is better sold than eaten. Eating the produce does nothing for the chill, but with the money gained from its sale, firewood can be bought and furnaces stoked.
    Rating naught but meat and drinking nothing but wine takes its toll, and by spring, many have broken out in rashes.
    This is spring fever, and it is proof of neglect for one’s health.
    Naturally it is well-known that resisting the temptation of meat and the comfort of wine will spare one this fate. Eat vegetables and meat only in moderation—such will the Church’s sermon be every Sunday.
    Thus come spring, the sufferers of spring fever will often find themselves being terribly scolded by the priest. Gluttony is, after all, one of the seven deadly sins—whether or not the glutton knows it.
    Lawrence heaved a long-suffering sigh at Holo’s overindulgence.
    She burped. “Whew...that was tasty.” She was in high spirits after washing down the fine mutton with some fine wine.
    Not only was it all free of charge, but after eating and drinking her fill, she could curl up in the wagon bed for a nap.
    Even the most extravagant merchant will, as a matter of course, think ahead and limit his excesses, but not Holo.
    Tapping her feet in delight, she had eaten and drunk with glee and only stopped to take a break.
    Lawrence reckoned that if it had been their travel provisions, she would’ve eaten three weeks’ worth—and she drank so much wine he began to wonder where it was going.
    If she had turned around and sold the food she extorted from the Latparron master, she would have put a big dent in her own debt to Lawrence.
    This was yet another reason Lawrence was stunned.
    “Now, then, I daresay I’ll take a nap,” said Holo.
    Lawrence didn’t even bother to look at the source of this exemplar of depravity.
    In addition to squeezing some fine wine and mutton from the Latparron Company master, Lawrence had obtained a large load of arms at a very reasonable price. He and his companion left the town of Poroson without so much as waiting for the noontime bells. Little time had passed since then, and the sun was just now overhead.
    With the clear skies and warm sunshine, it was perfect weather for a midday drink, followed by a nap.
    Owing to the load, the wagon bed was in a state of disarray, but with wine enough in her, Holo probably wouldn’t mind.
    The trade road that they took to Ruvinheigen was full of steep inclines and sudden turns just outside of Poroson but smoothed out and gave a grand view as it slowly descended.
    The road meandered on.
    It was well traveled, which made for a firmly packed surface with