Spice and Wolf (2024) Ep 13 – 15

Not much happening in episode 13 to really discuss. It was mostly a recap with Holo’s perspective while she was down with a fever. It was very cute and endearing how Lawrence was so worried sick about her that it looked like he had gotten every blanket in town to throw on top of her to keep her warm! Surely she didn’t need that many. It was the last time we got to see Nora chat with Holo before they finally parted ways, and that’s about it.

Episode 14 kicks off volume 3 of the novel, bringing us to to the town of Kumerson, just on time for the Ladra Festival. And oooh boy… The very moment I saw the barrels of fish and the blond boy Fermi Amati, I thought, “Oh right, there’s this little shit…” and I remembered exactly what drove me nuts about this arc. It’s been a longgggg time, but I will say this is probably the one arc that might have frustrated me the most. You know, the kind that makes you want to shake the characters because of stupid choices and misunderstandings while shouting, “YOU FOOL!” If it wasn’t obvious already, Holo’s going to eat her own words that she mentioned earlier on about how men go crazy when women give them kindness.

So who is Amati? Well despite his young age, he is a rather successful travelling merchant who is also a part of the Rowen Merchant Association. Holo’s beauty combined with her act as a charming travelling nun had Amati fall for her at first sight. He’s so taken by her that he wants to win her heart. Thanks to that, despite all the inns being all booked up, they were able to secure a good room and delicious food.

Unfortunately this is terrible timing because things are about to get rocky for Lawrence and Holo. There’s a couple of things at play here, one of them is how Lawrence was just reminded of his lifelong dream (settling down in a town, opening his own shop and having a family of his own) when he meets up with his friend Marc, who has all of that now. We saw that when Lawrence was trying to get an estimate of how much further they have left to go until they reach Holo’s home town. The problem is that Holo doesn’t actually remember how to get there or where it’s precisely at apart from remembering landmarks that are close by. Only through that he had been able to estimate it’ll take at least two months, whereas for Holo in her Wolf-form would only take her two days. This is concerning because Lawrence doesn’t really want to travel through the brunt of snow, and on top of that, he’s worried about it interfering with his own lifelong goals. The fall of armour prices had caused him to backtrack on his progress, and now he needs to make up for it. (Funny enough he just got a letter informing him of that, but I digress).

Understandably, two months is too long for someone who has a much shorter lifespan than Holo, who has been alive for god knows how long now. And she’s reminded of that when Lawrence accidentally slips up by asking if she could find her way back home from Nyohhira. He regretted his poor wording immediately, but even if he didn’t say it, this was always going to be the elephant in the room. Frankly better to air this out sooner than later. But I think we can all agree that it’s still a less than ideal time for things to be awkward between them when Amati is hot on the pursuit for Holo’s heart (aka: no hesitation in spoiling her rotten with expensive purchases). It just makes things more complicated than it needs to be.

Speaking of making things more complicated than it needs to be… Holo, goodness girl. She got ahead of herself with her mischief of weaving the dramatic and pitiful tale of how Lawrence saved her, and now she’s shouldered with a huge debt she could never pay back. So in exchange, she is paying back by praying for his safety during their travels. That right there, is just fuel for the fire when you’re dealing with young man who is very obviously smitten with her. This is just a recipe for disaster, and it does Lawrence no favours to be turned into a villain– something which he points out to her.

So when you consider all of that, and then Lawrence receiving a message from his buddy to get his ass over there quickly, just after was learned there were rumours of his ‘fallout’ (for the lack of a better word) with Holo already floating about and was warned to be wary of Amati… Yeah, doesn’t take much imagination to know Lawrence is going to have his hands full with a new mess on his hands, one conjured by Holo’s mischief…

Apart from that that clusterfuck we’re about to dive into, Lawrence has taken the initiative to further investigate the whereabouts of Holo’s hometown, but most importantly seek confirmation on information he came across in Ruvinheigen. We finally heard what was muted out back then, and it was information saying that Holo’s hometown was said to have been annihilated by a monstrous bear. Thanks to Marc, he was referred to Gi Batos, a middleman to introduce him to a Chronicler named Dian Rubens (a woman, who’d rather be called Diana). Diana knows of many tales, and the tale of Yoitsu is no exception. She too spoke of the tale of the town of Yoitsu destroyed by a bear that hunts the moon (the moon hunting Bear, Irawa Will Mhedhend). However she also knows of another tale from the town of Lenos, a lone wolf appeared in the village, called herself: Holou of Yoitsu, who promise great harvest. She hailed from the eastern mountains, and was travelling down southwards. Thanks to that, Lawrence now has a more concrete direction to their destination. Instead of Nyohhira, they’ll make their way to the town of Lenos.

Lastly, we did learn a couple of new things that are bound to pop up later on. While Holo was going around town with Amati, she came across a piece of Pyrite, a golden cube that was marketed and auctioned off in the market by a fortune teller that claimed the die could see through fate. Alchemists were also brought up thanks to the introduction of the Chronicler, so the goods Lawrence may find himself working with this time are minerals.

Extra Note: For those wondering where my first impressions are for the Summer Season, as it stands right now, I may only be covering Spice & Wolf this summer. Unfortunately the summer shows haven’t really clicked with me, or feel too slow to write about, so I’m in a bit of a pickle… There’s still one more title I’m waiting for (ATRI) that comes out next week, but until then, I’m waiting to see if I can somehow make at least one work for me, even if it means doing double-triple posts like I am doing with Spice & Wolf.