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Summary:
While getting some paperwork done at the trading company, Lawrence inquires about anyone wanting to go to the town of Ramtora. The head of the company knows that he’s referring to Nora and urges him not to get involved because of how the church feels about it. He then pauses when Lawrence tells him to address the paperwork to the Remerio company because he realizes that it means Lawrence has bought something on credit, but he decides to let Lawrence handle it himself. When Lawrence goes back outside, Horo teases him about liking Nora, but he takes it seriously and ends up declaring that he thinks very well of Horo too. She is happy about that, but she pretends not to necessarily believe him so that he’ll prove it to her by buying her honey-preserved peaches. Lawrence catches on when he notices her ears perking under the kerchief on her head, and though he’s initially angry, he eventually he calms down and agrees to hold hands with her.
Before proceeding any further, the two return to their room at the inn and discuss how Lawrence is temporarily in debt while he’s dealing in the armor. He’s taking a risk, but this could get him a bigger profit. The two then head to the Remerio company to sell the armor, but the place is bare of any trade goods or people. The one merchant there to greet them identifies Lawrence and reveals that he knows about the armor because the Ratpearon company that Lawrence got it from transferred the rights to claim his debt to the Remerio company. Because armor has been losing its value, Ratpearon put Lawrence into debt with this dead stock and then transferred the rights to it. The merchant suggests that Lawrence is basically bankrupt now, and Lawrence is too shocked to respond because he’s realized that he’s been set up. He then meets with the head of the company who explains that Lawrence has a debt of 47 and 3/4 of the Lumione currency, and he’s got two days to repay it. That means that Lawrence has to find some way to sell the worthless armor at a high price.
Horo privately suggests that they run, but Lawrence knows that the information network between merchants is like the eye of God, so they’ll be found wherever they try to do business. For him, this all boils down to returning those 47 Lumione. Horo, however, still promises to help him escape if it comes to that. Lawrence decides for now to head back to his hometown company building, and when Horo insists on coming inside with him this time, he worries because bringing a woman there has special meaning. She thinks that they should use the guise that they’re lovers, though Lawrence makes her his business partner and introduces her to the head of his hometown company by telling of the fur incident. In any case, the head now knows about the debt and explains that the company can’t save Lawrence in this instance. He also lays out the consequences of Lawrence not being able to pay the money: 10 years of hard labor as an oarsman or a miner. Still, having said all this, he urges Lawrence to do his best and promises to cooperate in any business dealings.
Lawrence’s plan for the time being is to get money for this urgent debt by borrowing even more from others. Unfortunately, none of the people he is acquainted with in this town are willing to lend him anything, and with each one that rejects him, Lawrence gets more and more frustrated. It gets to the point where he even completely stops paying attention to Horo as she tries to follow him from place to place. That evening, Lawrence arrives at a house of a particular acquaintance who seems at first willing to help because of how Lawrence had helped him make money in the past. However, this man also thinks that Lawrence should live morally by God’s teachings, and he doesn’t see in Lawrence’s attitude an attempt to show others his sincerity. He is specifically referring to how Lawrence is walking around with a woman while trying to appeal to others’ charity to borrow money, and he ends up slamming the door in Lawrence’s face in disgust. This throws Lawrence further into shock, and when Horo tries to tell him to go back to the inn for a while because he looks ghastly pale, he pushes her away and snaps at her. Lawrence immediately realizes what he just did and tries to apologize, but it’s too late. With a pained look on her face now, Horo says that she’s returning to the inn and leaves him.
You know, I can’t help but think that, bad circumstances or not, Lawrence isn’t a particularly good merchant. We’ve already seen several examples in the past of how Horo’s had to help him out, like during the fur incident. In this episode, he gets a huge debt that he didn’t expect from a deal that was designed by the Ratpearon company to screw him over, and none of those highly touted connections of his are willing to help. I think that at the very least, he should have done his homework on armor prices and should have had a back-up plan ready for what appears to have been a very high-risk deal.
All in all, I thought that things got pretty interesting again (compared to last week anyway), despite a relative lack of Nora in the episode. I’m mentioning her again because I still think that the wolf aspect is the most compelling one, but they did a good job here of building tension, such as when the head of Lawrence’s hometown company talks about the dark and painful life that Lawrence could lead if he doesn’t pay the debt. In any case, I bet that Horo’s going to have to do something that’ll save Lawrence again, and maybe Nora can help too…
Poor Lawrence………………………………..
oh that’s sad..
NUUUUUU, HOOORROOOO xD
2 or 3 episodes to go was it? I really like this series 😉
OMG Lawrence is a beggar now!!!!
OMG NOOOOOOOOOOOO…do larence and horo everr kiss?
he shouldn’t get mad at someone that can help him anytime when he is really in the dead end.
Oh shit, that’s bad… Not only did his dream, but Horo is about to go Bye-ni.
Indeed, very strange: Lawrence doesn’t look this kind of guy… and at this point, he would be cleaver enough to know that he have a Goodness by his side… Money is not a matter…
There’s something called a “human’s pride”. He doesn’t want to always depend on a “god’s” ability to get him out of a crisis.
And he likely snapped knowing full well that he could just ask Horo to fix it and she probably could.
Human…. error (sigh) — financial issues are the single greatest strain on a companionship. Be interesting to see how this plays out and if Horo is wise enough to realize Lawrence is just showing his youthful irrationality in a tough spot.
Don’t understand this part:
“one acquaintance pointing out that he shouldn’t be bringing around a woman (Horo) when begging for money”
Why is that?
If the reason behind this is he would be embarrassing himself in front of his women, but why does it matter to them, why do they even care or pointing it out to him(Lawrence).
lawrence should have got with the program earlier
its the steel age biatch
Lawrence that bastard….
How dare he snap at Horo?
Grrr…..
Tom
“Don’t understand this part:
“one acquaintance pointing out that he shouldn’t be bringing around a woman (Horo) when begging for money”
Why is that?”
Well considering the time setting of the anime and how backwards people were when the real world was in this time frame, jackasses would see a desperate man with a beautiful women by his side and try to use the man’s deseperity to get him to sell the girl.
he didnt just “snap” at horo, in which horo might understand, but he actually hurt her. i would call it a “hit” but he forefully pushed her back. which shows how much of a man lawrence really is. horo then left him at the end of the episode.
sorry forgot to add spoil warning. my bad
ouch sound like a friend of mine who stocks crashed now he in the red
ah the life of a merchant you never know when that thing your selling is gonna go up or down
“Don’t understand this part:
“one acquaintance pointing out that he shouldn’t be bringing around a woman (Horo) when begging for money”
Why is that?”
‘Well considering the time setting of the anime and how backwards people were when the real world was in this time frame, jackasses would see a desperate man with a beautiful women by his side and try to use the man’s deseperity to get him to sell the girl.’
Not correct. As have been suggest earlier in the story, people look at Horo as Lawrence’s girl. That is, he supports her financially. Horo is also very cute, which also causes jealousy.
So basically, imagine a relative of your coming to your house with a hot girlfriend wearing expensive jewelry and asks you for a loan… not exactly the best way to go about it.
“jackasses would see a desperate man with a beautiful women by his side and try to use the man’s deseperity to get him to sell the girl.”
“Not correct. As have been suggest earlier in the story, people look at Horo as Lawrence’s girl. That is, he supports her financially. Horo is also very cute, which also causes jealousy.”
I’d say both things are true somewhere. The sad thing is though is, that these are things still happening. Recently I saw a report on tv about appartmens in Paris. Since they are very rare the people renting them get the women who want an appartment to sleep with them.
Welcome on our world..
I’m sure Lawrence will be able to fix the matter. He was able to survive without Horo all the time so why shouldn’t he now? That he snaps at Horo is very understandable in such a situation.
“i would call it a “hit” but he forefully pushed her back. which shows how much of a man lawrence really is”
If you were in such a situation you wouldn’t react any different. The point is here moreover, that Lawrence doesn’t want to depend on Horo’s powers, that’s why he snapped her.
Love the study of history and business in the series, (will major in business someday) but before that…
Nora is almost nowhere to be found in the episode??? Darn! She’s way cuter than Horo and a step above Chloe. Would’ve preferred any hint about her relationship with the church but this episode centers on Lawrence turning into a bum. It’s not exactly a stretch for Lawrence to show his frustration and anger in one ep. other than Horo being kidnapped previously. If he got screwed with the prices of armor going down, he has no choice but to sell the entire inventory at cut-throat prices or exchange them for something extremely cheap and barter them for something valuable that he thinks will go up in value. It’s a brutal cycle but this ep. will surely test his relationship with Horo.
I just saw the raw. He snapped at Horo at the very end and regrets it immediately.
Horo says something I don’t understand then and leaves. Lawrence wants to follow her but he just can’t.
She said she would go back to wherever they spend the night.
Ah ok, thanks!
I’m sure in the end Horo will save Lawrence again. But who knows, maybe he can think up something himself.
I miss having pizza hut ads everywhere….:(
Well Lawrence isn’t a bad merchant by any stretch, but doubt he’s been in this kind of situation before. In an ugly spot and has to get out of it or his merchant career will be taking an early end. Sadly when frustrated people take it out on those closest to them.
Will be counting on Horo’s smarts to find a way out of this situation. Of course Lawrence has to cool his head a little so they can find a solution. That and patch things up with Horo.
I think Lawrence mentioned a previous deal that he regretted which was somehow affecting his current situation. Does anyone know what it is? Or is he just pissed over the deal he made for the armor two eps ago?
Lawrence bought armors at half the price(at least he believed so) 2 eps ago, and he satisfied with the deal because he thought he forced the guy to accept a supposedly disastrous deal for the guy. But now it appears it was a con. He is learned the price of armors in this city has been freefalling for quite a while and he sees his armors turns into total garbage. To make his situation worse, he didn’t bought all of those with cash(apparently he didn’t have all the money), but borrowed 47 gold coins on a bond from the con merchant. The con guy sold the bond to the armor shop which Lawrence planned to sell his armors, so now, he owes the shop 47 golds, and they want Lawrence to pay the bill in 2 days.
Bottom line, Lawrence is pwned. Now he is looking for something to turn everything around. I’m quite sure that’s where Nora gets involved and Horo helps him big time, once again.
As for the guy who blamed Lawrence being with Horo, his point is this; a merchant with a pretty girl around him is considered to be showing off his prize and his wealth to keep the prize girl happy with him. So he thought Lawrence should not be as desperate as he looks.
As for the guy who blamed Lawrence being with Horo, his point is this; a merchant with a pretty girl around him is considered to be showing off his prize and his wealth to keep the prize girl happy with him. So he thought Lawrence should not be as desperate as he looks.
LOL… you guys are readin way to much into this..basicly they mean people might want him to whore horo out for money..jeez dont yall watch hentai
Um, it’s more like reading the original novel than reading into the Anime.
Wow, I just saw Ayako Fansub’s explaination of what it means to go “bankrupt” in the middle ages; ergo what will happen to Lawrence if he doesn’t pay his debt.
Damn!
No wonder Lawrence snapped! It really IS a fate worse than death.
BTW, the explaination is after the ending credits in Ayako’s fansub if anybody cares to learn about Lawrence’s predicament.
mutio said: “If you were in such a situation you wouldn’t react any different. The point is here moreover, that Lawrence doesn’t want to depend on Horo’s powers, that’s why he snapped her.”
I don’t think his “pride” is preventing him from finding a way out. Honestly, it’s not that obvious what Horo can do to help him [in just one day] unless you’ve read the novel? Under the circumstances, his behaviour is perectly understandable and the fact that he can still feel remorse after having repulsed Horo (no, he didn’t hit her) shows that he’s a good guy even under these circumstances.
Again, it’s a matter of context: it’s not a matter of “pride”; far from it. Lawrence believes that he will become a pariah (in the REAL sense of the word) in the next 24 hours. How would you handle it?
Well one thing to remember is that no matter what Lawrence isn’t going to be taken to mines or anything. Horo will transform, grab him, and carry his ass all the way to the north if it comes down to that. Of course that’s not their first option since it will mean the end of his professional life as a merchant.
Not a surprise though that Lawrence is really on edge. Such a difficult situation to try and find a way out of with so little time remaining.
Just a few things that came together for the result at the end of the episode. Horo didn’t want to leave Lawrence by himself since as his partner she feels responsible for doing everything she can to help. Sitting around would in her mind reflect badly on her. Sadly the merchants Lawrence visited saw it in a different context. Toss in the stress of his future going down the drain and Lawrence reacted before he thought.
Sadly they don’t have much time left so will need to put it behind them and find a way out.
I’m not quite clear on Lawrence’s fate, but considering the times it’s probably bad.
Anyways, watched the ep and I agree Lawrence’s attitude is perfectly understandable. He’s under a huge amount of stress and Horo isn’t exactly helping with her hanging around him asking how’s it going when she can clearly see it isn’t going well. It’s only human to react that way. I don’t know of any human who wouldn’t snap under all that pressure. Happens enough in college and the real world.
Accoding to the next ep’s title seems like things may turn around.
Before watching ep10: I thought Lawrence is too lame to snap Horo
After watching ep10: Lawrence, you are the man! I couldn’t even tell if I could do more or less in that situation. I’m pretty sure Horo won’t get angry from your outburst but rather feel guilty. Poor Horo.
Oh… after a few viewings NOW I understand:
I finally *get* what that last merchant was such an ass about — he had turned into a snooty “better than thou” Church-goer and basically turned Lawrence down because he had the audacity to obviously be in the company of a woman that was not his wife. O the horror of living in sin ….
Poor Horo had no clue when she said earlier in the episode “well just say we’re lovers! no big deal!” that the New Age contained that kind of balderdash.
I will say the first part of the episode was very sweet with Lawrence basically confessing and Horo and him holding hands as they walked — made the painful end of the episode that much more sad.
Spice and Wolf rocks! As someone else pointed out,it breaks the old sword and sorcery mold.
The economics and crooked business schemes are not much different now then they were in that era. Subprime mortgages anyone?
Is really his fault he could just lie about horo being his wife and ppl wouldn’t have a problem with it, nothing wrong with the wife standing by her husband in bad time, but instead hes acting stupid and say shes his partner. Then ppl would see him not so desperate cause he can afford to walk around with a women. Is his stupid pride, I wouldn’t lend him money myself if I see someone enjoying his company with a women and come asking for a loan.
how much is 1 lumione?