Spice and Wolf - 05

[Arika]

Summary:
Having received the letter with wolf hair inside from the Medio company, Marle Heidt realizes that they’re being presented with a threat to take Horo to the church. The problem is that even if they get her back, they’ll have problems with the church, and it’ll be hard for Lawrence and Horo not to get prosecuted no matter where they go. Lawrence, however, recognizes that the greatest benefit from the silver coins is in the privileges that they can get from the king since the royal family is financially pressed right now. Depending on the negotiation, one could use the coins to get mining rights, minting rights, tariff rights, and market management rights, and Lawrence proposes that they use these privileges as a negotiation card before Medio prosecutes. He thinks that Medio would be willing to buy those privileges from them, and if the church has its eye on them, then the king who has these dealings would also antagonize the church. In short, Medio won’t prosecute them because it wouldn’t want the king’s animosity, and so Milone can use Horo as a condition in a trade for the privileges. Lawrence also adds that he doesn’t think Medio has amassed many silver coins yet because of how they didn’t immediately turn Horo over to the church. He feels that Medio putting them in a difficult position shows a lack of confidence on the other side.
As for what Lawrence will do, he plans to take Horo back and to continue on running until the negotiations finish. When he asks Marle how long it’ll take to get enough silver coins to negotiate with the king, Lawrence is surprised to learn that the Milone company is ready to go right now because they can use an optimistic estimate. Marle is confident in the company’s negotiating ability and knows where Horo is being held. He feels that their emergency measures are perfect, but their one rival is the church which has reached an even larger number of towns and countries than they have.
Summary in progress. Check back later.



-As expected, it was Chloe, and she had some harsh words for Horo (basically saying that they don’t need to be afraid of Horo’s whims anymore and that they’re putting an end to the old age). It’s not clear how much of an antagonist she’ll end up being though (if at all). The church always seems more sinister…
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