Spice & Wolf III Read Online Free PDF Page B

town merchants, who rose still earlier than the notoriously early rising traveling merchants, Lawrence arranged the days plans in his mind, finally saying “all right” to himself when they were in order.
    Though it would not exactly compensate for the previous night’s blunder, Lawrence wanted to be able to fully enjoy the festival—which started the next day—with Holo, and that meant concluding his business today.
    The first order of business would be selling the merchandise he’d gotten in Ruvinheigen, he thought to himself as he turned around to look back at the room.
    Still a bit heavyhearted from the previous evening, Lawrence walked over to his companion, who slumbered away as usual, intending to wake her—when he stopped and furrowed his brows.
    It wasn’t unusual for Holo to sleep as late as she pleased, but something else was amiss.
    Her usual guileless snoring was entirely absent.
    Lawrence wondered if the silence was what he thought it was, reaching out to her. She seemed to sense it; the blanket stirred minutely.
    He lifted the covers' up gently.
    What he saw made him sigh.
    Holo’s face beneath the covers was more pathetic than any abandoned kitten.
    “Hungover again, eh?”
    Her ears twitched slightly; perhaps it hurt too much to move her head.
    He thought about teasing Holo about it but remembered the previous night and thought better of it. And in any case, she would be in no mood to listen.
    “I’ll bring a cup of water and a bucket just in case. You just be good and rest.”
    He put extra emphasis on the “be good” part, which her ears twitched at yet again.
    Lawrence didn’t think she would behave just because he told her to, but she was unlikely to go wandering off in her current state. Given the impossibility of her packing up and striking off on her own, he let himself relax a bit.
    He knew Holo was fully capable of faking a hangover, but her face had been so pale he doubted this one was fake.
    Turning the thoughts over in his head, he finished his preparations for going out without saying another word and then came back to her bedside—she was evidently incapable of so much as turning herself over.
    “The festival doesn’t get going until tomorrow, so you needn’t rush yourself.”
    Relief showed instantly on Holo’s exhausted, alcohol-ravaged face; Lawrence had to laugh.
    It seemed that even suffering a hangover was less important to Holo than attending the festival.
    “I’ll be back in the afternoon.”
    Holo’s ears were still; this statement did not interest her.
    Lawrence gave a strained smile, at which point the corners of Holo’s mouth curled ever so slowly into a grin.
    She seemed to be doing it on purpose.
    Lawrence slumped over and drew the covers back over Holo. She was undoubtedly still grinning away under there.
    Still, he was genuinely relieved that she seemed not to hold a grudge from the previous night.
    As he left the room, Lawrence took one more look back at Holo. Her tail stuck out from underneath the blanket, and it flicked twice, as if waving good-bye.
    Thinking he would buy her something tasty, he closed the door behind him.
     
    Trying to do business before the ring of the bell that opens a market is not generally smiled upon in any town—and this is even truer when one is smack-dab in the middle of the marketplace.
    However, depending on the time and circumstances, this rule can be bent.
    In Kumersun it was even half-encouraged to mitigate the congestion that came with the opening of the market during the festival.
    So despite the early hour, with the sun just beginning to rise above the buildings, the marketplace—which took up half of Kumersun’s southern plaza—was already busy with merchants.
    Here and there were stacks of crates and piles of burlap sacks, and pigs, chickens, and all manner of livestock stood tied up or caged in the cramped spaces between goods and the stalls. As Kumersun was the largest exporter of fish in the landlocked region,