This novel covered the anime episodes 7-13. Along their travels, Lawrence and Holo come across a female Shepard called Norah, whose life shes owes to, but is also manipulated by, the church. we quickly find out that she leads an unhappy life, where one false move and she would be accused of being a witch. she really wants to be a own a shop and be a dress maker.
Upon arriving at the huge city of Ruvinheigen, Lawrence makes a contract to trade his recently acquired armor with the Remelio company. once arriving to the company, he realises just how screwed he is because business in armor sales has dropped to such an extreme that they are on the verge of liquidation. This also means that Lawrence is bankrupt.
After trying his damnedest to borrow from people he knows in the city, Holo comes up with a gold smuggling proposition, involving hiding gold in the stomachs of Norah's sheep.Lawrence talks to the guy in charge of the Remelio company and they agree on the idea. they would be able to make shit loads of money by smuggling in gold untaxed. After finding Norah, Lawrence is able to convince her to help him, which would help her to have enough money to follow her dreams as a dress maker.
The three of them, as well as a guy from the Remelio company called Liebert, travel to a nearby city where gold can be obtained. the only thing is, the route they take has to be through a short cut through a dense forest where men fear to use because of the threat of wolf attacks.
Things go fine as far as arriving to the city and purchasing the gold. But on the way back through the forest they are stalked by a wolf. Holo forces everyone to go on ahead so she can deal with the wolf alone. Liebert and Norah go on ahead further than Lawrence, who holds back and waits for Holo to come back to him.
After waiting a while Lawrence sees someone arriving in the distance, but it is not Holo, it turns out to be two men from the Remelio company who have been ordered to kill him in case he betrays the company. They assume Holo has been killed by wolves already, and tie up Lawrence and kick him about instead of killing him, hoping that he would surely be killed by wolves soon enough.
Holo arrives and finds the stricken Lawrence. She explains that the wolf was just a youngster that was curious of Holo who was invading his territory (it also gives us the impression Holo had to pay the price of invading this wolfs territory by acting like a dog, or something unflattering for her. Still, she didnt need to change into her full form to sort the issue out, getting out of the situation with only muddy trousers and scratched arms and legs).
After Lawrence explains how they have been betrayed, she gets mad and eats a grain of wheat. she unclothes and demands to know what Lawrence thinks of her naked body, where he says she has an impressive tail (lol good answer!). She then changes into her full form, and he climbs on her back and they dash off to catch up to the others.
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| Holo and Norah |
In the end the gold smuggling goes well, but it leaves Lawrence and Holo financially much the same as they were before their troubles began.
There was no epilogue to Norah though, which was disappointing. this could still be covered in the next issue. After all they did promise to meet once again in a new city.
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This book was excellent. 10-10 again. The pictures were modest and not overused, mostly focusing on key character designs so the visuals could work better whilst reading this book. there were no mistakes in the translation and editing, unlike some other novels I could mention (like Battle Royale from Viz for example).
I have to say though i feel burnt out of reading two Spice and Wolf novels back to back. Im going to take a break with the series and read some Haruhi novels before returning back to the series.
And yes, I have started calling her Holo. not that this really matters.
P.S. Chronologically, the next story to read before diving into volume 3 is 'Wolf and Amber Melancholy' from volume 7 (click here for the link).
Holo the (sexy) Wisewolf :p
Just commenting here to say that I really like your Spice and Wolf reviews. It seems a shame that so few people have looked at these when they're so well written. Keep up the good work. :)
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