Guillaume Laval holds the shop as if it were a promise made to people he likes best when they are tired. He measures grain with a palm on the scale not to cheat it but to feel the story of weight settle. His voice is the kind that turns down the corners on arguments. He remembers who prefers the thicker cord, who buys two nails more than necessary because the shed loses things in spring, who arrives short on coin in months when the river runs spiteful. He writes debts in a tidy hand and forgives interest by habit, which is another way of saying he wishes to live where tomorrow is possible for all at once.
Since Elodie vanished, the shop has not become a shrine; it has become an honest room carrying more than it should. Guillaume ties parcels with a pause between knot and pull that was not there before. He watches the door as if it is a weather vane rather than a barrier. When customers reach for apology he hands them something to do-hold this twine, weigh that jar-because nothing sinks faster than a person with empty hands. He answers questions about his daughter the way a careful man answers about rain: by naming what is known and letting silence stand for the rest.
He believes in ledgers and weather, which means he believes that patterns reveal themselves in time if people are patient and keep their oaths. The fog makes that faith harder work. Rowan respects him for refusing to become a mouth for panic. In a season when voices grow narrow, Guillaume keeps his wide enough to fit other people's names. If grief is a river, he is standing where the current splits, guiding packages of bread and cord and dignity toward both banks.
The village will not say he is a leader; it will say something truer. It will say that if Gascar survives this as itself, it will be partly because a shopkeeper decided that ordinary kindness is a kind of structure you can build a roof on.
New information obtained during session 2
Hugo advised Rowan to speak with Guillaume, suggesting his awareness of patterns in Gascar's trade and debts may reveal truths about the disappearances.