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Table of Contents
Table of Contents ................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER 1: The Giants’ Kitchen ....................................................... 11
CHAPTER 2: A Country Girl, a History Addict, and a Potion Dosing ... 49
CHAPTER 3: The Resurrection Lily That Blooms in Solitude .............. 93
CHAPTER 4: Cinderella .................................................................... 166
CHAPTER 5: Familiars ...................................................................... 217
CHAPTER 6: A Country Girl, a History Addict, and the Aroma of Wheat
........................................................................................................ 282
Afterword ....................................................................................... 286
Thank you for buying this ebook, published by Yen On. ............. 292

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 Copyright

Wandering Witch: The Journey of Elaina

JOUGI SHIRAISHI
Translation by Nicole Wilder
Cover art by Azure
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used
fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons,
living or dead, is coincidental.
MAJO NO TABITABI vol. 9
Copyright © 2019 Jougi Shiraishi
Illustrations copyright © 2019 Azure
Original Japanese edition published in 2019 by SB Creative Corp.
This English edition is published by arrangement with SB Creative
Corp., Tokyo, in care of Tuttle-Mori Agency, Inc., Tokyo.
English translation © 2022 by Yen Press, LLC
Yen Press, LLC supports the right to free expression and the value of
copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and
artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without
permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you
would like permission to use material from the book (other than for
review purposes), please contact the publisher. Thank you for your
support of the author’s rights.
Yen On
150 West 30th Street, 19th Floor

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New York, NY 10001
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First Yen On Edition: September 2022
Edited by Yen On Editorial: Payton Campbell
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Yen On is an imprint of Yen Press, LLC.
The Yen On name and logo are trademarks of Yen Press, LLC.
The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that
are not owned by the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Shiraishi, Jougi, author. | Azure, illustrator. | Wilder, Nicole,
translator.
Title: Wandering Witch : the journey of Elaina / Jougi Shiraishi ;
illustration by Azure ; translation by Nicole Wilder.
Other titles: Majo no tabitabi. English
Description: First Yen On edition. | New York, NY : Yen On, 2021–
Identifiers: LCCN 2019052222 | ISBN 9781975332952 (volume 1 ;
trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975309565 (volume 2 ; trade
paperback) | ISBN 9781975309589 (volume 3 ; trade paperback) |
ISBN 9781975309602 (volume 4 ; trade paperback) | ISBN
9781975309626 (volume 5 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975309640
(volume 6 ; trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975309664 (volume 7 ;

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trade paperback) | ISBN 9781975309688 (volume 8 ; trade
paperback) | ISBN 9781975309701 (volume 9 ; trade paperback)
Subjects: CYAC: Fantasy. | Witches—Fiction. | Voyages and travels—
Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S517725 Wan 2020 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019052222
ISBNs: 978-1-9753-0970-1 (paperback)
978-1-9753-0971-8 (ebook)
E3-20220819-JV-NF-ORI

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CHAPTER 1: The Giants’ Kitchen
I am always very direct about my feelings, a characteristic that I think
I probably picked up from my teacher, Miss Fran.
I certainly never suggested out loud that I would like to travel
together with her, yet there we were, flying on our brooms, heading
in the same direction.
The plains below us, mostly flat and empty except for a few small,
squat shrubs, seemed to stretch on forever. The green grass below
swayed with the wind like ocean waves, as the sound of a refreshing
breeze came out of nowhere and blew between and past us.
I wish I could keep flying through this scenery forever.
I turned this thought over in my mind as I listened to the lonely
sound of the wind.
“Elaina?”
Just then, Miss Fran spoke up.
She was wearing her usual kind smile.
“Aren’t you getting a little hungry? Come to think of it, I haven’t
eaten anything since this morning. I don’t really care what it is, but
I’d like to eat something; how about you? Aren’t you getting hungry?
Shall we take a little break?”
“……”
Miss Fran’s inelegant words ruined the moment.
I let out a sigh. “Well, you should be able to find plenty of weeds to
eat, don’t you think?”
“My, my. You can’t be serious about me eating weeds, or anything of
the sort. Who do you think I am?”
“My teacher, Miss Fran.”

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“That’s right, I’m your teacher, Miss Fran. And by the way, isn’t it
true that pupils typically treat their teachers to meals as a show of
gratitude?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea what you’re talking about.”
“It’s common knowledge.”
Mm-hm, sure… This common knowledge certainly wasn’t known to
me.
“Anyway, I’m in the mood to have you treat me to something,
Elaina.”
“You say some really absurd things when you’re in one of your
moods…”
But, well, we’re together for the first time in a while, so it would be
easy enough to treat her to a meal.
“Won’t you treat me to something tasty?”
She sure is persistent, this teacher of mine.
With a sigh, I said, “All right,” then with a smile, I added, “If I can
even find anything edible around here, that is.”
We were in the middle of a journey.
There was nothing but grass and trees as far as the eye could see.
Even if there was anything to toss into Miss Fran’s bottomless pit of a
stomach, the only things growing around us were weeds and acorns.
I guess she’s requesting a dish of weeds. When did Miss Fran start
liking weird food, I wonder?
“Oh-hoh-hoh.” Miss Fran laughed at my words and smiled boldly, as
if to say she had been waiting for this moment. “You said you would,
right? You said you would treat me, didn’t you?”
“I did say that, but…”
…But so what?

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“Well then, I’d like to take you up on that.”
“But, Miss Fran, there’s nothing here…”
There’s not a cook in the world who works with only grass and
flowers and acorns. Even if I wanted to treat her, there was no place
to spend my money, and even if I was going to do the cooking, there
weren’t any proper ingredients.
But Miss Fran, full of confidence, said, “No, no, Elaina, take a good
look at your surroundings. There is grass, there are flowers, and
there are acorns, right?”
“……”
“That should be plenty.”
“……”
When did Miss Fran start liking weird food, I wonder?
“No, no, really, there’s a great restaurant just up ahead. Really, there
is. Have I ever once lied to you, Elaina? I haven’t, have I? Wait, I
have…? No, I have no memory of that… I don’t think I have? At least,
that’s not how I remember things. No lies, not from me. Anyway,
there really is a tasty restaurant, I’m telling you…”
On and on.
Miss Fran pushed through the small forest, dragging me along
behind her. As we proceeded, she kept grabbing flowers, acorns, and
weeds from the side of the path and shoving them into my pockets
for some reason.
“…I really doubt we’ll find a restaurant in a place like this…”
“It’s here. I know it is. It’s a hidden gem, a real well-kept secret.” As
she said this, Miss Fran pointed to a spot in the trees farther on.
“See, look over there.”
“……”

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There was, in fact, a cottage, standing right there.
It looked like it had been used as someone’s vacation home a long
time ago. The wooden walls and roof were falling apart, and I got the
impression that it wasn’t so much a restaurant as a private
residence. That is, if anyone lived there, which seemed unlikely,
given the poor state of the place. It looked altogether abandoned.
No matter how I looked at it, it didn’t appear to be a restaurant.
However, near the front door, there was a single sign.
It read THE GIANTS’ KITCHEN in big block letters.
“……”
I looked at Miss Fran. “Um, is this place…legit?”
“It is. This restaurant operates all year; they never close. Look, the
sign says, ‘Open for Business’ today as always, right?”
“I feel like maybe they should take a day off, though…”
Well, that’s not really my problem. What is worrying is the fact that
the place looks like it might collapse at any moment. Is this even safe?
“This place is like a little hideaway in the woods.”
“More like it’s just a house, hidden in the woods.”
“Restaurants like this always serve the tastiest food, in contrast to
how they appear. That’s what it means to be a well-kept secret.”
“It looks too well kept. I don’t see signs of anyone else…”
“But it’s always delicious,” Miss Fran said as she forcefully pulled me
inside. “Well, shall we go in? It really is wonderful, you know. You
won’t regret this! Come on.”
“……”
I had a bad feeling about the place…

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As we made our way inside, I hoped to myself that perhaps it was
only the outside of this restaurant called The Giants’ Kitchen that
was so run-down, and that the inside might be clean and well kept
instead. I was trying to be somewhat optimistic, but I figured that
probably wasn’t the case.
It was not a surprise to see that the inside was just as dilapidated as
the outside. I figured that a restaurant that isn’t inclined to keep up
the outside isn’t likely to keep just the interior in good order.
There wasn’t even a proprietor around when we passed through the
front door.
Welcome to The Giants’ Kitchen. You must be tired. Please remove
your footwear.
The front door opened into a small room. The only welcome was
these words, carved into the door on the opposite wall.
It was clear that the custom in this restaurant was to remove one’s
shoes. I had visited a number of countries to date that upheld the
same custom, so it didn’t bother me. Miss Fran and I both took off
our shoes and tossed them into a shoe box that was sitting off to the
side.
But when we passed through that door, we didn’t see the restaurant,
just a wall with some hangers on it.
Your clothing may get dirty during your stay. Please leave any
baggage here before entering. Customers wearing coats and hats,
please remove them.
“Miss Fran, what is this?”
“We might as well go with the flow. Let’s follow the unique rules of
this restaurant.”

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She was already removing her cloak as she spoke.
“…Sigh…”
If that’s the rule, I guess I’ll follow it. Though I have absolutely no
idea why on earth they would set up all these doors like this…
After we had both removed our cloaks and hats, Miss Fran and I
opened the door in front of us.
But…
Our deepest apologies, but our restaurant is very sensitive to smell.
Before opening the next door, please apply a spritz of perfume.
Apparently, the proprietor of this restaurant was a very fussy
individual, despite the shabby appearance of the place.
In front of the door was a small stand, with a bottle of perfume
sitting on it bearing a label that read HELP YOURSELF.
“Miss Fran, what is this?”
“Just go with the flow…”
“…Again?”
With an experienced hand, Miss Fran sprayed herself with the
perfume. A sweet, fruity aroma filled the air. I impatiently wondered
when on earth we might be getting some food. In contrast, Miss Fran
seemed incredibly calm. It wasn’t at all clear who had invited whom
for a meal.
I had to ask.
“Miss Fran, I’d like to ask you something before we go any further.”
“Yes?”
“This isn’t one of those weird theme restaurants, where we’re going
to end up getting cooked by giants or something, is it?”
“Oh-hoh-hoh!”

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“Would you mind answering my question instead of laughing at
me?”
I narrowed my eyes intently, and Miss Fran smiled.
“You’ll get your answer after we open the next door…,” she said as
she pushed the door open.
Cautiously, I followed my teacher through.
We had been made to remove our shoes and our cloaks and
relinquish our baggage. On top of that, we’d had to spray ourselves
with some strange-smelling perfume. I wondered what on earth we
might be compelled to order after we got inside.
To be perfectly honest—and I hate admitting this—but as reluctant
as I was to proceed, I was getting a little bit curious about this
strange restaurant.
“……”
But the place had seemingly already outwitted me.
As we opened this door, I half expected to find another small room
waiting for us. But instead, there was a completely ordinary dining
room.
In short, we had finally arrived inside the restaurant.
“Sorry for the delay, Elaina.” Miss Fran chuckled pleasantly. “This is
The Giants’ Kitchen.”
I was surprised by how quiet the interior was. There was no greeting
from any staff or anything. It was utterly still.
Actually…
“Um, I don’t see the owner…”
Inside the cramped restaurant was a single table with a set of chairs
around it, and a kitchen in the back. That was it. It looked less like a

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restaurant and more like a typical kitchen you’d find in a private
home.
The proprietor must have expected us. They had left cookies for the
two of us sitting on the table.
“Miss Fran, what is this?”
I stared at the cookies as I took a seat. They were displayed neatly on
a plate, and they were all long, thin rectangles, a strange shape for
cookies.
“That’s our appetizer,” she answered without hesitation as she sat
down across from me.
“Uh-huh…”
I don’t really understand what’s going on, but if nothing else, this
does not, in fact, appear to be a restaurant where giants prepare
dishes using humans as ingredients.
“By the way, I don’t see any sign of these giants,” I said as I picked up
a cookie and snapped it in half.
“……”
But Miss Fran didn’t give me any kind of answer; she just covered her
mouth with one hand and started shaking with silent laughter.
“…What’s wrong?”
“…Oh, nothing…”
“…Sigh…”
As I munched on my cookie, I tilted my head questioningly at my
teacher, who was behaving quite strangely.
“So where are the giants?” I inquired again.
After catching her breath, Miss Fran replied, “The giants are already
here.”

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Effective today, I will be assuming responsibility as record keeper, in
place of Liscia, who succumbed to insanity after the battle a few days
ago.
The job of the record keeper is not easy. I must always be on the
front lines, in order to record our battles against the giants. By no
means can I condemn Liscia for losing heart. From the moment one
assumes this post, a record keeper is constantly fighting to keep hold
of their mind.
So it’s not like I can complain.
Besides, I’m sure that the captain has it even worse than a new
recruit like me. Our leader has had to constantly throw the troops
under her command into battle against the giants ever since the day
we took up this position.
“Are you getting used to your job as record keeper, Acre?”
The captain looked at me as she surveyed the fortress that was being
repaired after the previous battle with the giants. Her features were
hearty and healthy, and she was a strong, dignified woman.
“Captain…”
“What is it?”
“I just assumed the position of record keeper today, so I’m not used
to this crap at all.”
“You’ve got a mouth on you, Acre.”
“Always have, ma’am. Get used to it.”
“It’ll take me a while to get used to it…”
“Same goes for my job as record keeper, ma’am.”
There’s nothing to do but get over it. Hopefully I’ll have time to get
used to the job.

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“Captain! There’s trouble!” one of the sentries called, looking
suddenly grim.
I had a bad feeling.
“…What is it?”
The captain’s face changed, too. The air suddenly became tense.
After catching her breath for a moment, the sentry announced,
“Giants have invaded our fortress!”
It looked like I wasn’t going to get any time to get used to my new
job after all, or have the chance to get to know the captain better.
“What did you say…?! Impossible, it’s too soon…! It hasn’t even been
a week since we withstood the last attack!”
A giant had invaded our fortress just a few days earlier. There were
no formal records, since Liscia had lost her wits in the middle of the
battle, but I had heard that the casualties were considerable.
And now our enemy had appeared again. We hadn’t even had a
chance to recover from the previous attack.
We were as shocked as you would expect.
But the captain was calm. “Describe the enemy. We’ll deal with them
immediately. What are we up against?”
“It’s”—the lookout faltered as she answered—“the same giant as
before…”
“…What was that?”
“The black-haired giant that attacked us last time has come back to
attack again…!”
“I see…back for revenge?”
“That’s not all!” The lookout raised his voice again.

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Then she reported the dreadful truth to the captain, whose
expression had stiffened slightly.
“She brought a friend…!”
“What…?”
It wasn’t that she had failed to hear the guard’s words. She couldn’t
believe it.
“This time the giant has brought a companion with her…! There is
another female giant by her side, this one with gray hair!”
Two giants had shown up at once. As far as I could remember, this
was the first time that had ever happened. What’s more, one of
them was known to us as the “black devil,” the horrible creature who
had broken the previous record keeper’s sanity.
“I see… It seems that devil means to slaughter us in earnest…”
The captain stubbornly feigned composure. But I dutifully recorded
the fact that a single bead of sweat rolled down her cheek.
Our fortress has multiple layers of traps set up as anti-giant
measures. These are our unique means of combat, devised over a
long history of battling giants.
Our tactics are always evolving.
Welcome to The Giants’ Kitchen. You must be tired. Please remove
your footwear.
The first trap is set up right after they open the first door, to get
them to take their footwear off. The giants are deceived by our polite
wording and heedlessly remove their shoes.
Sure enough, the two giants had taken off their shoes.
“Heh-heh-heh…these devils never learn. They obediently removed
their shoes this time as well…!”

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The captain’s face relaxed once she had verified from a distance that
the devils had both removed their shoes. The first tactic was a
success.
Your clothing may get dirty during your stay. Please leave any
baggage here before entering. Customers wearing coats and hats may
remove those as well.
The most formidable thing about facing down a giant is the thickness
of the clothing they cover themselves with. We don’t know for sure
just what technology is employed to make such garments, but there
can be no doubt about the fact that they get in our way. Therefore,
we trick the giants into removing their outer garments before
entering our fortress.
The stupid black-haired giant had fallen for that trick once again, and
her companion with the ash-colored hair had imitated her. Despite
their size, giants are significantly inferior to us in terms of intellect.
Our deepest apologies, but our restaurant is very scent-conscious.
Before opening the next door, please apply a spritz of perfume.
That was writing on the last door they’d passed through, and of
course, this, too, was a piece of strategy. The giants have very keen
noses. They are able to sense our presence by scent alone, so the
perfume disguises our smell and keeps them from detecting us.
“Our total victory is assured in this battle, isn’t that right, Captain?”
All I felt was absolute admiration for the captain’s brilliant planning.
As long as we had our strategies in place, which had performed
perfectly to date, we could surely seize victory in the coming conflict.
I was certain of it.
“…Don’t get careless, Acre.”
But the captain wore a gloomy expression.
“I haven’t forgotten the losses of the previous battle.”

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She was talking about that time…
“H-hey…Captain…! Captain…”
The former record keeper, Liscia, had approached the captain on
the battlefield. “Gimme some leaves…leaves, now!” she said, clinging
to the captain. “If I don’t have ’em, I’m done forrr…!” She had seemed
almost mad.
After that last battle, Liscia had changed. All she did was demand
leaves, day after day. She was broken, reduced to nothing more than
a leaf junkie.
Such was the fate of the record keeper who had been so devoted to
her duties. I had felt a chill run up my spine.
“Let go of me!” The captain had torn Liscia off her. “…Listen up,
Acre. Unexpected circumstances always arise during battle. Just don’t
let your guard down.”
It had seemed like she was issuing an unspoken threat that “this is
what will happen to you if you’re not careful.”
But were we really going to have any problems this time? As far as I
could see, the two giants who had entered our fortress were being
manipulated by the captain’s scheme.
Actually, they didn’t suspect a thing, even now that they were sitting
inside.
Without knowing that it was the signal for us to commence a battle
against them, the giants had taken their seats.
“All hands, advance!”
At the captain’s signal, the soldiers picked up their weapons and
charged. It was going to be a brief yet decisive battle, an all-out
assault. This, too, was part of the captain’s strategy.
We simply didn’t have the stamina for a drawn-out campaign.

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Therefore, we needed to engage the giants immediately and quickly
drive them away.
However…
“Captain! Big problem! We have no weapons!”
“What did you say?!”
There was nothing in the warehouse where the weapons should
have been stored. It was completely empty.
“Oh no, Captain! For some reason, we left our weapons on the
giants’ table!”
“What did you say?!”
Why didn’t anyone notice until now?
Our weapons had been left on the tabletop.
“Who was the idiot who left them in a place like that!?” The captain
raised her voice in irritation.
“Eh-heh-heh…” Liscia laughed.
“Why yoooooouuuuuu!” The captain grabbed her by the collar.
“Wait…Captain, calm down, please…!”
She seemed worked up enough to throw a punch at any moment. I
rushed over to try to grab the captain from behind and stop her, but
she pummeled Liscia brutally with her small fists. “Do you have any
idea how foolish a mistake that was?! Damn you!”
“Eh-heh, eh-heh-heh…”
Liscia almost seemed to enjoy the beating. I don’t think it was a side
effect of the leaves either… She’d always seemed weird that way.
“Captain, terrible news!”

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“What is it this time?!” the captain shouted. Any semblance of
calmness and composure was nowhere to be seen.
“Look at that!”
One of the soldiers pointed. There was one of the enemies we were
supposed to be confronting—one of the giants.
There she was, one of those disgusting giants, chomping away on
one of the weapons that we had held so dear.
“What…the…?”
She was eating our weapons.
A scene that none of us could have imagined, spread out right there
before our eyes.
There was nothing to do but tremble with fear.
Unexpected circumstances always arise during battles, after all.

“Um, by any chance, are we the giants?”

Ever since we had come to this restaurant, I hadn’t caught so much
as a glimpse of any staff, so I’d been discreetly looking around the
place, and had noticed some…strange details.
“Seems like you’ve figured it out.”
“…Yeah, I guess.”
Straining my eyes to take a close look toward the kitchen, I saw a girl
dressed in armor, and another girl beside her wearing glasses,
scribbling desperately. With them were many others, including a girl
who was constantly cackling with laughter.
The surprising thing was their size.

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Unless it was some trick of the eye, they were each small enough to
fit in the palm of my hand. They looked human, but it was hard to
see them as regular people because of how small they were.
“This place, which they named ‘The Giants’ Kitchen,’ is a trap that
they built to take down humans like us.”
“Why do they think we’re their enemies…?”
“Actually, I came here about a week ago and got them to tell me a
little bit about it.”
“Oh?”
“According to what they told me, it pretty much boils down to the
fact that we’re too big, and they don’t like it.”
“That’s a really superficial reason to hate someone…”
“True, but they make really tasty food, so it’s pretty convenient to
have them here, in the middle of an otherwise empty wilderness.”
“Speaking of food…I can’t imagine anything served by people that
small will be especially satisfying…” Actually, the first issue is… “They
haven’t even emerged from the kitchen yet, have they?”
“There’s no need to worry.” Miss Fran pointed to my pocket and
said, “Earlier, we collected lots of flowers and grasses and acorns,
right?”
“If my memory serves me, you just crammed them into my pockets,
but…”
“Try pulling a little bit of that stuff out.”
Sure, no problem, but…
“Why? Did they tell you that they like common weeds and flowers?”
As I puzzled this over, I went ahead and pulled out a bit of plant
matter.

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Immediately after I did—
“Ahh! Leaves! I love leaves!”
A girl about the size of my palm suddenly appeared on the table and
crouched over the grass, laughing maniacally.
“……”
I was silent.
“These girls really like common weeds and flowers, you see.”
“……”
Is this little tribe of people an endangered species or something?

“Captain! Terrible news! Liscia has been captured by the enemy!”

“Yes, I know!”
It was plain to see.
Even though only a few minutes had gone by since the beginning of
the battle against the giants, the fighting had already claimed one
victim. Looming over Liscia, who had run out onto the table, the
giant with ash-colored hair spoke.
“Huh…looking at them close up, they’re really cute, aren’t they…?”
As the giant’s repulsive voice boomed, she poked at Liscia with her
fingertip.
“Oww!” Liscia toppled over. Then the giant’s finger casually pushed
on her stomach several times.
“Heh-heh-heh…” The giant laughed.
Disgusting. The ashen-haired giant had only just captured Liscia and
was already showing no intention of treating her as human.

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“That monster…! She’s torturing Liscia!” The captain’s expression
was steeped with hatred.
But there was nothing that we could do. We were powerless before
the giants.
“Ah…! St-stop it…! Ah-ha…!”
But the giant didn’t stop.
Instead, the ashen-haired giant put on a pleasant smile as she stared
down at the struggling Liscia.
“You want leaves? Which leaves? These? Or these over here?”
An unbelievably dreadful scene was playing out before our very eyes.
After tickling Liscia’s belly for a little while, the giant feigned bringing
leaves close to Liscia’s face, then started tickling her again.
“Stop…! Ah, I love leaves… Stop it… Ahhh!”
This is torture.
Receiving pain and pleasure at the same time, Liscia was gradually
losing her mind.
“That must be irresistible for a masochist.”
“Should we be doing something, or…?”
On the other hand, Liscia has always been kind of strange.
Meanwhile, on the tabletop, the ashen-haired giant seemed to be
having fun toying with Liscia.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…” She cackled.
“……”
The giant didn’t seem to have noticed the icy gaze coming at her
from across the table.

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Then the ashen-haired giant who had been toying with Liscia for a
while suddenly stopped moving her hands.
“Ah-ha—huh?” Liscia was taken aback when the tickling and the
leaves were abruptly withdrawn. She sat up and stared at the giant
with a pleading expression.
“You want more?” The ashen-haired giant was in high spirits now. “If
you want more…could I get you to tell me about your companions?
They’re over there, right? How many are hiding?”
It was a foolish question.
“Tch…it’s no use.” Beside me, the captain let slip a smile. “The bonds
of military service are unbreakable. There is no way that Liscia will
ever give up her comrades. She may be off her rocker, but she’d
never stoop so low as to sell the rest of us out—”
“There are thirteen.”
She did, in fact, stoop so low.
“Any weapons?”
“You ate all of them a minute ago.”
“Oh-hoh. So that means that all of your companions are unarmed—
Wait, huh? I ate them? What do you mean, I ate them…?”
Then Liscia easily spilled all the information she had to the enemy—
everything, starting with the captain’s strategy. She didn’t hesitate to
reveal it all. The girl on the table was now the lowest of worthless
wretches, calmly selling out her comrades for leaves.
“I see; it’s all clear now.”
After making Liscia tell all, the ashen-haired giant nodded heartlessly.
“By the way, I came here today to have a meal, you know.”
Her eyes seized on us.

Page | 29
Those eyes, a lapis blue color that threatened to suck me right in,
abruptly narrowed, and a smile appeared on the giant’s face.
And then she said, “I’m guessing there’s food over there in the
kitchen, right?”

Page | 30
Page | 31
 Food…?
“She wants to eat…! She’s going to gobble us up, every one of us…!”
I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that everyone in the kitchen
shuddered with fear.

“Elaina. If you go into the kitchen, we’ll never get any food.”
Just when I thought that we were finally going to get to eat, after
being teased for so long, Miss Fran spoke up with a sigh.
Huh?
“Aren’t we going to plunder food from these tiny girls?” I asked.
“Absolutely not, they would just run away…”
For some reason, Miss Fran had really drawn back. I wondered what
on earth I had done to warrant that reaction.
It seemed like Miss Fran was a repeat customer here at The Giants’
Kitchen. Her tone suggested that she knew everything about the
place, though I had my doubts.
“There’s no need to make any deliberate moves. Now that you’ve
captured one of their friends, it won’t be long.”
“Won’t be long for what?”
“For the food to come out.”
Immediately after she’d said that, I heard a noise from the kitchen.
Something fell down with a crash.

Page | 32
Hey now, what on earth is going on over there? I tilted my head
curiously, and I could just barely make out something small
squirming over toward us from the kitchen.
“……”
I soon understood what I was seeing.
Thirteen tiny girls, each the size of the palm of my hand, had formed
a little phalanx and were advancing in our direction. In their hands,
they were each gripping some sort of cylindrical object.
“Miss Fran, what is this?”
“It looks like they’ve brought us something to eat.”
“Huh…?”
I tilted my head the other way.
Each of the tiny girls was carrying a sweet treat—not exactly what I’d
expected for a meal.
The blond girl leading the charge was carrying a long, round cookie.
Beside her was a girl in glasses, who was still desperately writing,
balancing a macaron on her head.
Behind them, the girls grouped into columns had also armed
themselves with various sweets. They appeared wielding cookies,
chocolates, and similar bite-sized treats.
“…Um, what is going on here?”
My face contorted in confusion, but Miss Fran nodded, “The truth is,
their species excels at making sweets.”
“Uh-huh…”
“But apparently, they don’t eat the sweets they make.”
“What does that mean?”

Page | 33
“To them, the sweets are used as building materials, or to make
weapons, even. They’re more like a resource than food.”
It sounded like their species saw things very differently. To us, the
things they made were nothing more than tasty treats.
“……”
So when it comes down to it…
“In other words, they’ve armed themselves and are coming to do
battle with us?”
“Well, to put it bluntly, that’s what it amounts to.”
“……”
By the way, just a moment ago, Miss Fran said something about
“the food arriving,” but…
“Huh, you mean we’re going to eat their weapons?”
“Indeed.”
Miss Fran nodded easily, as if this were completely normal.
“…What will happen when we eat them?”
“Their resources will be depleted, of course.”
“……”
“Well, now seems as good a time as any. Shall we begin our
teatime?”
Miss Fran wore a carefree smile as a voice echoed from the direction
of the kitchen.
“Chaaaaaarge!”
I wonder if there has ever been such a brutal teatime before…

Page | 34
“Don’t worry, everyone. Our enemy is enormous, and we have no
weapons. But if we don’t have any weapons, we can just make
more.”
Following Liscia’s utter betrayal, the captain ran over to the empty
warehouse.
“Let’s break down this warehouse to make weapons.”
As she spoke, the captain snapped off a piece of the warehouse wall.
The wall was brittle and fairly easy to break. A faintly sweet scent
filled the air, and the captain turned back toward us, her soldiers,
who seemed to be facing a hopeless battle.
“There are times when we must fight.” Our captain looked
courageous and strong, as always. “That time is now! All hands, tear
this warehouse apart and prepare to charge!”
The captain was always able to find a way out of trouble, no matter
how desperate the situation. As long she’s with us, we have no
reason to worry. I’m certain that’s what everyone was thinking. We
all exchanged looks, and without saying a word, we each picked up
our own weapons.
“As the record keeper, I’m going to ask you to come with us to the
battlefield, but I won’t make you carry a weapon. Acre, it is your duty
to leave behind a record of this battle for posterity. Put this on.”
The captain placed an unfamiliar round yellow object on my head.
“…Um, Captain, what’s this?”
“It’s material that was used to make the warehouse roof. It’s brittle,
but it should protect your head, at least.”
“Captain…”
Wait, we’re fighting giants. Protecting my head isn’t going to do
anything…

Page | 35
“Don’t worry. I’m going to protect you, I swear. Protecting my
comrades is what I do!”
“Captain…”
“Acre, you just carry out your duties. Make a record of this battle and
return with your life.”
“Captain…”
“Come on, you don’t need to be that nervous. Once the battle is
over, let’s go for a drink, okay?”
“Captain…”
Just now, I thought I smelled the stench of death wafting through
the air… It must have been my imagination.
“All right, let’s go, everyone!”
Ignoring my concerns, the captain stood at the front of the formation
and looked up at the giants. There are times when we must fight.
Even when we know we will lose.
And then…
The captain sucked in a determined breath, and—
“Chaaaaaarge!”
Our fateful battle began.
“Oh, Elaina, a moment ago you took a leaf out of your pocket. You
should still have all sorts of things stashed away in there, right?”
Looking down at us, the black-haired giant said, “How about pulling
some of those things out?”
“Suppose I could.”
Grinning like the devil she was, the ashen-haired giant pulled her
hand out of her pocket and opened it on top of one of the huge
white platters.

Page | 36
“……!”
It was at this moment that we finally realized the gravity of our own
error.
Liscia’s capture, this attack of ours—everything was part of the
scheme devised by the giants.
We were nothing more than pawns in their enormous hands.
“These are what you want, right…?”
On top of the white platter, she’d scattered leaves, flowers, and
acorns.
It was unbelievable.
The giants had come prepared with a strategy to get us to lay down
our weapons. They were obviously cunning opponents who
understood their enemy.
But there was no way we would be led astray.
Because we had to emerge victorious against them.
There’s no way that there is anyone here on this battlefield right
now who is enough of a fool to fall into such an obvious trap—
“Leave this area to me! The rest of you, go on aheeead!”
For some reason, the captain had thrown herself down atop the
white platter. She had even tossed her weapon aside nearby. She no
longer had even the tiniest glimmer of fighting spirit in her.
“Captain…”
What the hell is she doing?
“Don’t worry…I’ll definitely catch up with you later…!”
“No, um, Captain…”

Page | 37
The immediate capture of their leader sent the remaining troops into
disarray. They milled to and fro like a bunch of wild beasts.
They lost all fighting spirit at the sight of their captain’s pitiful
showing.
“It can’t be…! The captain is…!” One girl sank into despair and threw
down her weapon.
“Wait for me, Captain! I’m coming to save—gyaaah!” One girl tried
to jump onto the white platter, slipped carelessly, and fell down.
“Heh-heh…it’s all over now…” One girl gave up entirely and started
to make herself at home on the platter.
“Why, you! I was the first one to find this flower!”
“Shut up! What does that have to do with anything?! Hand it over
now!”
There were even girls fighting with their comrades over flowers, of
all things.
One after another, my compatriots abandoned their weapons.
“So, you see, just like when I came here last week, they’ve given us a
lot of sweets. Apparently, they have a weakness for leaves, flowers,
and acorns, and all you have to do is give them some to get a bunch
of sweets in return.”
“…To me, it looks more like a revolt than anything else, though…”
The two giants picked up the weapons that my comrades had
dropped and, without taking any notice of our suffering, tossed our
weapons, one after another, into their gaping maws.
From the way they were acting, they didn’t even seem to consider us
a threat.

Page | 38
Either that, or they were showing off their absolute dominance. No
matter how we might struggle, we had no way to retaliate against
the giants.
“Oh? There’s only one of them left.”
Suddenly, the black-haired giant’s gaze landed on me. Looking across
the table, only I, the record keeper, was still outside the borders of
the white platter. Now that everyone else was imprisoned on the
platter, I was the sole survivor.
“You’re right.”
The ashen-haired giant nodded and peered down at me with her
lapis-colored eyes.
“…Ah!” She clapped her hands and fished around in her pocket.
She was probably going to try to bait me with grass, or flowers, or
acorns, or another one of our favorites.
But there’s no way that I can die! I must live on for the sake of my
fallen comrades—
“I think you’ll probably like this.”
What she handed me then was a mysterious disk. It was round, and
glossy, and sparkled like gold. It was profoundly heavy.
I’ve heard rumors about these.
In the world of the giants, those golden, sparkly disks were known as
“money” and could apparently be exchanged for goods or services.
No one in our world had ever laid eyes on one before, but there
were persistent rumors that anyone who touched one would be able
to, at the very least, live the rest of her life in leisure.
“Ah…so shiny…”

Page | 39
Needless to say, I fell right into the enemy’s hands. I abandoned the
duties that the captain had given me, and just like my fallen
comrades, I surrendered.
Looking down at me as I rubbed my cheek lovingly against the shiny
gold, the black-haired giant opened her eyes wide. “You really knew
what she would like, didn’t you?”
In response, the ashen-haired giant popped the armor that I was
wearing on my head into her mouth and said, “Oh, I just sort of saw
that same look in her eye.”
“Ah, you mean she’s greedy like you?”
“How rude. I prefer to think I’m ‘devoted to my desires.’”
And so our battle came to an end.
It goes without saying that we suffered a crushing defeat. At least
that’s what I thought.
But from the center of the white platter, our captain announced with
satisfaction, “Phew…this battle was an absolute victory for our
side…”

Once we’d left The Giants’ Kitchen, Miss Fran finally told me the
story of her visit to the restaurant the previous week.
Apparently, she had come across the place on her way to her
hometown.
“This is embarrassing, but I’ve got a terrible sense of direction, and
also, I haven’t been home once since I set out on my own travels…so
I got completely lost. I was traveling along, asking directions from
every merchant and traveler I passed, but…”
Um, I’m actually trying to go to a country called Bielawald, but—
huh? No such country exists anymore? All right, well, the former site

Page | 40
will be fine, so could you tell me where it is? Huh? In the forest? I’m
sorry, there’s nothing but forest around here, so specifically, what part
of the forest is it in? Ah, that way? …I see…
Excuse me, but the merchant I asked earlier said that Bielawald was
in this part of the forest, so…huh? There’s no such country? No, I know
it exists. The ruins will be fine; can you tell me where they are? Huh?
In the forest over there? Wait, but it’s forest as far as I can see—
And so on.
One way or another, Miss Fran had apparently continued her
journey, wandering from place to place.
And in the middle of all of that, she had discovered this cottage.
When she’d first come across the place, the sign declaring it to be THE
GIANTS’ KITCHEN hadn’t yet been on display. She told me that it had been
nothing but an ordinary little house.
“At first, I was in shock. When I snuck into the cottage to get some
rest, I never expected to find a race of tiny women living inside.”
According to Miss Fran, as one would expect, the tiny women had
seemed to fear humans of our size. They had surprised her with a
sudden attack.
“Though, of course, their attacks don’t present any threat to us
humans, so I also hardly paid them any mind.”
For example, the so-called artillery that had been launched at her
were just sugar candies, and the things that the little ladies had been
holding up as shields had been ordinary cookies. She had squared off
against the pastry-clad women, but from Miss Fran’s perspective,
they had just looked like strange, little creatures who were
showering her with treats. We think that, from their perspective, it
must have gone down in history as a gruesome, protracted battle.

Page | 41
After being showered with sweets for a while, Miss Fran must have
started feeling a little pang of conscience about the one-sided
exchange. She had asked one of the women about it.
“Um, is there anything you would like in return?” she’d asked.
One of them—the one named Liscia—had answered with hatred in
her eyes.
“Something we want? Of course not, how could there be?! Get out
of here at once!”
My, my, why on earth would she be so bitter toward me?
Miss Fran had wondered what the reason might be.
At that point, she’d had an idea.
“I feel bad just taking, without offering anything in return… I wonder
if I have anything I can give you…?”
But because Miss Fran was always such a carefree person, when she
searched her pockets, the only things she had found were a few
leaves she’d happened to shove in there during her travels, and
some flowers she’d picked because she’d thought they were pretty,
and a handful of acorns that she’d collected for some reason or
other. It was all just rubbish.
Oh no! They won’t be happy with this stuff. Far from it! It’ll probably
be a nuisance.
That’s what she had thought anyway.
“Aaah! I love these! This smell…! I love it!”
But then something unexpected had happened. The tiny woman had
grabbed the leaves Miss Fran had produced from her pocket and
started breathing heavily.
The strange developments kept on happening.

Page | 42
One after another, Liscia’s companions, who had been stealthily
watching everything from nearby, had appeared, and they had all
started fighting over the rubbish that Miss Fran had produced, saying
things like, “What is this?” “Oh, flowers!” “I love acorns…” “Hey, hey,
this is out of this world…!”
Apparently, they had hardly ever seen the flowers and leaves that
litter the outside world. The cottage was their whole world.
One after another, the tiny women had dropped their weapons, and
Miss Fran had eaten her fill of them (the sweets, that is).
After the soldiers had all given up, the one whom everyone called
“Captain” had stood before Miss Fran and raised a white flag as she
announced, “Gah…we’re no match for you… Do as you will, Giant.
Boil us, roast us, eat us alive…!”
Wait, wait—
“No, thank you.”
I’ve already gotten all the sweets I want—Miss Fran had shaken her
head.
There had been something more important weighing on her mind.
“By the way, why do you all think I am your enemy?”
“Is it not natural to try and drive away intruders?!” The captain had
been extremely angry. In a full-blown rage, even. “Plus, you’re a dirty
cheater! Using our favorite foods to bribe your way to victory—does
your cowardice know no bounds?!”
“Oh, favorite foods? Do you mean these?” Miss Fran had casually
waved a leaf toward the captain’s face.
“Ah…s-stop it! I won’t be tempted!” The captain had swatted the leaf
away.
Then the captain had told Miss Fran about their circumstances.

Page | 43
The tiny women loved acorns and leaves, but there were many
dangers in the outside world, so they had no other option but to live
in this cottage, she had explained.
Really, they would have liked to go out into the world and eat leaves
and acorns to their hearts’ content, but even small animals were like
giant beasts to them, so they didn’t think it would go too well if they
tried.
Only inside the cottage were they truly safe.
Surely they couldn’t permit enormous humans to come stomping
into their safe house with their muddy shoes. So they always tried to
drive them out.
Of course, the massive difference in size meant that they had never
yet been victorious, but…
“Gah…this is the one and only place where we can feel safe, but…you
giants keep breaking in…!”
“……”
At that point, Miss Fran had suddenly had an idea.
Ultimately, the tiny women wanted leaves and acorns, and they were
equipped to provide sweets in exchange for them.
Maybe, if they were careful about how they did things, they might be
able to make an arrangement that would benefit both parties.
“Um, I’ve got a suggestion for you. Would you be so kind as to lend
me your ear?”
And then Miss Fran made a suggestion to Liscia and the captain.

After the two giants had left together, the captain summoned me,
the record keeper, and told me a story. She told me about the

Page | 44
problems with our territory, and about what had happened about a
week earlier when the black-haired giant had appeared at our door.
“That giant made a suggestion to me. She said, ‘We giants want to
eat your weapons and building materials. If you let us have them, in
return, we’ll bring you leaves, and acorns, and flowers.’”
According to the captain, the things that we valued so highly were
easy for the giants to acquire, while our weapons and raw materials
were apparently their favorite foods. As such, the giant proposed we
trade.
“So you accepted her proposal?”
“……” The captain nodded silently. “Since we can make things like
weapons and construction materials easily, I figured everyone would
be happy to get things from the outside world.”
There could be nothing more desirable than a peaceful, mutually
beneficial solution. For the sake of the dignity of our race, the
captain had accepted the giant’s idea.
“Heh-heh-heh…but who would have thought there would be such an
easy way to get our hands on leaves… Those giants may have
formidable bodies, but their heads are empty…!”
She had accepted the giant’s proposal for our sake…or so I’d like to
think.
It seemed to me that we had ostensibly suffered a loss in this most
recent battle, but apparently, in truth, neither we nor the giants had
suffered any damages.
It had been a total farce.
“But, Captain, if both we and they were going to each bring the thing
the other wanted, and simply trade, then there was no need to go to
the trouble of staging a whole battle, was there?”

Page | 45
 Was there any need for us to go through the motions of driving the
giants away, like we did when we didn’t know anything about them?
It sounds like we could have concluded the whole interaction by
appearing before them, presenting them with some building
materials, and grabbing what we wanted in return.
Wasn’t rallying the troops for a glorious last stand actually kind of
pointless?
But the captain just nodded, then said, “It was the black-haired
giant’s suggestion that we wage battle. She asked me to be sure to
launch an attack just like we did last time.”
“…Why?”
“Apparently it was more interesting that way.”
“I really don’t understand how those giants think.”
“Me either.”

“…Huh, so in other words, if we give them leaves and stuff in

exchange for sweets, those little ladies will be satisfied with the
exchange?” I asked. “Is that what you’re saying?”
“Well, to make a long story short, yes.” Miss Fran nodded.
We’d left The Giants’ Kitchen behind, continuing to our next
destination. As we traveled, we chatted about what had happened.
“But then why did they try to attack us? If we were going to
exchange sweets for leaves, shouldn’t that have been the end of it?”
“Who knows? I wonder why?”
My teacher looked out into the distance, wearing a devious smile.
Frankly speaking, the fact that she basically averted her eyes from
me made it somewhat obvious that she was hiding something, but I
decided to hold my tongue.

Page | 46
When it came down to it, the real reason that Miss Fran had guided
us to the little women’s cottage was so that she could see if they
would follow her instructions. The rest was just a pretext.
She had been awfully pushy about leading me there, but now I saw
that she had apparently been using me as a test subject.
“Was it fun?” Miss Fran asked.
I nodded halfheartedly. “Sort of.”
“Hmm, I see.”
Miss Fran nodded, seeming satisfied, and then pulled a piece of
paper from her breast pocket and started writing something very
misleading: Received a rave review from the world-traveling Ashen Witch!
What’s this?
“Wait a minute, what are you doing?”
I grasped Miss Fran’s hand.
She was holding a pamphlet with phrases on it like, The
dominion of a
profoundly mysterious race of tiny people, and Eat your fill of their
handmade sweets at The Giants’ Kitchen, and Plan your visit after
collecting leaves, along with a neatly drawn map to The Giants’ Kitchen.
“…What is this?” I scowled.
Miss Fran cocked her head, puzzled. “What is it…? It’s business.”
Huh? Business?
“…Don’t tell me you’re thinking of making a profit off them?”
“No, no, I was just going to spread the word about a rare species,
with the best of intentions.”
“……”
Looking at the pamphlet, I could see that she had written
instructions on the edge: Gladly accepting a finder’s fee, in the amount you deem appropriate.

Page | 47
It seemed particularly devious, keeping the exact sum vague. If she
felt like it, she would be able to overcharge people by pressuring
them after the fact.
My, my.
“How greedy you are.”
I gazed wearily at my teacher.
In her usual nonchalant way, she smiled and replied, “How rude. I’m
simply ‘devoted to my desires.’”
Dear me, I wonder where Miss Fran learned such things…?
“Miss Fran, you are my teacher, so it makes things difficult for me
when you refuse to behave with anything approaching decency or
maturity.”
I made a point of puffing out my cheeks, but Miss Fran just smiled as
she always did.
“Unfortunately, I may be your teacher, but I am also myself.”
Oh my, well then…
“You’re a real lowlife of a teacher, you know that?”
“Oh, I agree.”

Page | 48
CHAPTER 2: A Country Girl, a History
Addict, and a Potion Dosing
I’ve heard it was around seven or eight years ago, or thereabouts,
when news of the mysterious place known as The Giants’ Kitchen
began to spread among travelers.
Pamphlets claiming that a certain traveling witch—the Ashen Witch,
who had traveled the world over—had given it a rave review started
circulating among tourists. Eventually, for a certain segment of the
population, these pamphlets became quite valuable.
Even now, the pamphlets seem to have retained their value,
considering that even my own traveling companion was clutching
one to her chest like a precious object as she said, “This pamphlet, I
can’t believe it… I finally got my hands on one at an auction… I’m in
love…”
“By the way, this Ashen Witch…could that be our teacher, by any
chance?”
I pointed to the bottom of the pamphlet that my companion was
holding. There was a silhouette printed there alongside the Ashen
Witch’s endorsement. It was a figure I had seen before.
“I have the same feeling.” My companion nodded.
And then she looked up at the dilapidated building rising before us.
There was a sign hanging on the front door that read, CLOSED FOR
RENOVATIONS, though the state of the place gave off the sense that, far
from being closed for renovations, it was closed for good.
“Huh? But the pamphlet says they’re open every day of the year,
doesn’t it…?”
How strange. What on earth could this mean?

Page | 49
“Hmph!” My traveling companion smiled unexpectedly. “It looks like
they made arrangements so that no one would enter the restaurant
by mistake. But that’s fine. I’m sure that this sign is a lie,” she said,
before tossing the CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS sign away.
“Should you do that?”
“It’s fine. The pamphlet was right after all.”
Apparently, my companion placed a great deal of confidence in this
pamphlet that she had worked so hard to acquire (all she did was
win it at an auction).
“I’m sure they don’t want random travelers wandering in here.
Nobody is even supposed to know about the existence of this
restaurant unless they have the pamphlet… Heh-heh…heh-heh-heh-
heh…”
My traveling companion, a girl named Linaria, who had her purple
hair tied up in a single ponytail behind her head, placed one hand on
the door.
Standing behind her, watching her with very cold eyes, was the
chestnut-haired Alte.
“……”
…By which I mean myself.
We were currently right in the middle of a history hunt, exploring the
history of various countries.
What on earth is a history hunt, you ask?
And what awaited us on the other side of that door?
Before I tell you how Linaria went even crazier after touching a
genuine piece of history, I suppose I must tell you how we wound up in
a place like this.

Page | 50
 Let me wind back the clock to around one week earlier, when all of
this began.
Latorita State University has a long vacation period, from late winter
until early spring.
Most students visit home during the break, and I’d also made plans
to go show my smiling face to my family in the countryside as usual;
however, this year I had no choice but to abandon that plan. It had
nothing to do with suddenly needing supplemental lessons because
I’m not too clever, or with being busy at my part-time job, or
anything like that.
There was something else going on.
“I’m going traveling.”
Late at night, the day before the start of vacation, my friend Linaria
suddenly appeared at my dorm room, waking me from a deep sleep
to happily tell me some urgent news.
“I’m using the long vacation to set out on a journey and go on a
history hunt. A history hunting trip…heh-heh-heh…”
Linaria was so excited that she didn’t seem to care what time it was.
When we’d first met, I’d thought that she was really cool and
awesome. But apparently, when it came to history, she became a bit
unhinged.
At first, the sudden changes that came over her had perplexed me,
but eventually, I got used to them. Now she was suddenly barging
into my room at all hours, rambling on about who knows what. But
we were friends, so I didn’t want to shut her down.
“Ah, come to think of it, you’ve been saying something like that for a
while, haven’t you…? Fwaah…” I let out a yawn.
Still dazed, I thought back on the past, almost as if I were slipping
into a dream.

Page | 51
I recalled a moment between classes.
Linaria had come to show me a weathered old pamphlet that was
obviously suspicious.
“Listen, apparently there’s a strange restaurant not far from here
called The Giants’ Kitchen. The tiny women there view us humans as
their enemies and try to attack the patrons. Despite them being tiny,
the place is called The Giants’ Kitchen. Doesn’t that strike you as a
contradiction? I think it is. It’s awfully mysterious.”
And another time, when the two of us were picking at our lunches,
she had held a one-sided conversation.
“Apparently there’s a certain country where there are plaster busts
lining the walls of the historical archives, including one of a goddess.
I’ve heard that the goddess was repaired about seven years ago and
the new bust is simply stunning. Don’t you think it would be worth
visiting?”
Or once, when we were on the way home from school, she had
talked with great excitement about something.
“I heard that there is a country where they’ve been holding broom
races for ages. Apparently, many travelers gather there from all over,
hoping for their chance to strike it rich by betting on the outcome of
the race. Honestly, I don’t care too much about the race or the money,
but historically speaking, countries that hold such races are quite rare.
Wouldn’t you like to go see that?”
I remembered one time when the two of us were soaking next to
each other in the dorm baths, and she was jabbering on.
“This reminds me, speaking of baths, I heard that in a place fairly
far from here, there’s an underwater city called the Sunken City. Until
recently, it was thought to be a ruin, but actually, the people of the
Sunken City had cut off contact with the outside world and continued
living in isolation. Don’t you think that’s incredible?”

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She had been carrying on about such things quite often recently, and
for my part, I had been giving perfunctory answers like “I see” and
“Sounds interesting” during Linaria’s impromptu history lectures. She
seemed satisfied enough just having someone to talk at and didn’t
really seem to mind my clipped responses.
“And listen, and—”
Her eyes glistening with excitement, she would speak at length,
recounting tales from yesteryear.
That’s what had been going on lately.
I knew her well enough that I could guess just how Linaria would
make use of the long school break.
“When do you leave…?” I asked with another unsteady yawn.
“What a silly question… Right now, of course!”
Apparently, she was leaving right that minute.
When I rubbed my sleepy eyes and took a better look at her, I could
see that Linaria was dressed in her usual school uniform, but she had
a huge rucksack on her back.
I see—so she stopped by my room after she got ready.
“Is that so…? All right, I expect souvenirs…fwah…”
I let another yawn slip out and started to close the door.
“Huh? Wait. What are you saying?”
I tried to close it, but Linaria stuck her foot in the crack and stopped
me. She even put her hand on the door and forced it open again.
“Why aren’t you ready?”
Huh?
Ready for what?

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“Huh? What do you mean?” At that moment, my drowsiness
suddenly fell away.
Huh? Ready? What am I supposed to be ready for?
I couldn’t hide my bewilderment. Linaria narrowed her eyes at me in
dissatisfaction, then said, “You’re coming with me. On my history
hunt.”
“……”
“……”
Huh?
What is she talking about?
“You promised, didn’t you? Have you forgotten?”
Linaria puffed her cheeks out angrily.
Did I promise?
I had just woken up from a deep sleep. My hazy mind went into
overdrive, fumbling through past memories just like when we used
the time-reversing pocketwatch.
I clearly remembered Linaria talking passionately at me about her
history hunt idea whenever she got the chance, but not one instance
of getting an invitation.
“I want to go on a history hunt, but…well, it’ll be lonely all by
myself.”
“I see.”
Hm?
“So…if it’s okay with you, I’m just asking, but…if you want to, how
about coming with me?”
“Sounds interesting.”
Hmmm?

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“……”
“……”
I managed to recall a scene in the baths.
We had been talking and soaking for much too long, and I hadn’t
really been paying attention when I answered. Now I could see that
Linaria had assumed that I was accepting her invitation to join the
history hunt. I had even nodded in agreement.
Thinking back, it had seemed like Linaria had been in an unusually
good mood ever since then. Now I knew why. She was in high spirits
because she’d found a partner for her expedition.
I see, I see.
……
“And I suppose it would be bad if I didn’t get ready right now…?”
“That goes without saying.”
That was all she said before closing the door.
It was guaranteed that I was going to have a rough time if I wasn’t
prepared to set out traveling the next time that door opened.
“……”
Dear Father and Mother:
Circumstances dictate that I will not be returning home this year
during winter break.
Instead, I will be embarking on some kind of “history hunt,” so
please expect some nice souvenirs.

So that’s how Linaria and I ended up setting off on a history hunt

together, touring other countries and visiting historic sites.

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The first place that we visited on our trip was this cottage that served
as the location of The Giants’ Kitchen.
Welcome to The Giants’ Kitchen. You must be tired. Please remove
your footwear.
Apparently, this restaurant had some unique rules in place. I
expected to go straight into the restaurant when we passed through
the front door, but that wasn’t the case. First, we had to take off our
shoes.
Apparently, there was already one other customer here before us. A
single pair of shoes was placed neatly in the shoe box.
Judging from appearances, they belonged to a woman, but—
Your clothes may get dirty during your stay. Please leave any
baggage here before entering. Customers wearing coats and hats,
please remove them.
After the shoes, we had to leave our luggage behind. I wondered
whether our bags might get stolen if we abandoned them in a place
like this, but I figured we had to follow the rules of the restaurant.
Actually, the other customer had left her bags, too, so we followed
her lead and set our rucksacks down before opening the next door.
Aren’t you thirsty? Before entering our restaurant, please drink
this.
That’s what we saw when we opened the third door. There was a
bottle sitting atop a pedestal with a label attached that read, DRINK ME!
Wow, this Kitchen is really demanding.
I had no real reason to be suspicious, so I picked up the bottle and
imbibed some of the contents.
“…Blech!” It had a strange taste. For a clear liquid, it was awfully
bitter, and tasted more like medicine than like plain water.

Page | 56
It was absolutely disgusting.
“…Here you go, Linaria.”
But it was the restaurant’s rules, so we had to drink it.
I expected the history-loving Linaria to drink it down happily and say
something like, “Ah! I can taste the history!” I held the bottle out
with the mouth of it toward her, but she didn’t take it.
“Linaria?”
I tilted my head to the side in confusion.
She wasn’t acting like a high-spirited history buff. Instead, she was
acting cool and distant.
“That’s weird…” Her cold gaze was fixed on the bottle.
“Hm? What’s weird?” I was puzzled.
She answered me, “I had heard that you have to pass through three
doors to get into The Giants’ Kitchen, but the instructions written on
this third door are different from the stories I’ve heard. If I
remember correctly, there is supposed to be perfume sitting in front
of the third door…”
Oh?
“Then does that mean I might have just drunk perfume…?”
Eww, no wonder it was gross!
“…………”
But Linaria slowly shook her head. “Probably that wasn’t perfume.
The words on the door are also different than in my research.”
Huh?
“So then, what on earth…”
What did I just drink?

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I took another look at the bottle, and that’s when it happened.
“Wah!”
A shock of pain ran through my chest.
My heart was pounding hard, and my breathing grew heavy. I
crouched down and dropped the bottle, letting the contents spill out.
As I watched the clear liquid spread out over the floor, I sucked in a
deep breath to try to calm my ragged breathing.
But that didn’t fix the pain in my chest.
“…! Alte! Are you all right? What’s wrong…?”
The sudden throbbing in my chest was so painful that I could only
just barely make out the sound of Linaria’s panicked voice.
“Ugh…it…hurts…”
I could tell immediately that this pain was eating my body up, worse
than any food poisoning. Along with the pain in my chest, I was
steadily losing all of my strength.
And then I collapsed.
My body and my clothes got soaked as I fell to the floor.
“Wait, I’ll fix you up with a spell!”
Linaria had realized that whatever I had swallowed was not water or
perfume, but something more dangerous.
In a panicked rush, she went back to get our bags, and immediately
after she’d left…the door to the restaurant opened.
As my vision dimmed, I saw someone appear from the other side of
the door, grinning widely.
“Oh-hoh-hoh…welcome to my ideal world!”

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Then she picked me right up off the ground and walked back inside
the restaurant.
As we moved inside, I noticed something strange.
Somehow, I fit entirely within her cupped hands.
I was snug inside the hands of this girl, who was as big as a giant.

When I opened my eyes, I could tell right away that something was
amiss.
Apparently, I had been fast asleep in the kitchen, because there was
a frying pan and all sorts of cooking utensils lying beside me.
But the strange thing was that all these kitchen utensils were
ridiculously huge. For example, the frying pan was big enough that I
could easily fit inside it. The knives could have sliced me right in half,
and the pots and plates and everything else were all just enormous.
The sight made me suspect that I was about to get cooked.
It was literally a giant’s kitchen.
“……”
Wait, but maybe…
“Did I…shrink…?”
That was the only answer I could come up with.
I looked up and saw bars. I looked to the front and saw bars.
Actually, everywhere I looked, my whole field of vision was covered
by bars.
I felt like I was in jail.
Well, it was less like a jail cell and more like a birdcage.
“You’re awake.”

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I sat up and saw someone beside me.
It was a pretty young woman with glasses on.
“Who are you…?”
“I’m Acre. The record keeper.”
Record keeper…?
I tilted my head in confusion, and the girl who had called herself Acre
said, “So you met with misfortune, too, huh? Ever since that woman
came here, this kitchen has changed… This is the punishment pen.
When entering our cottage, your body was shrunk down, clothes and
all, and she captured you.”
She suddenly launched into an explanation.
No…no, no, no.
“Sorry, you’re suddenly telling me all these things, and I can’t really
keep up. Would you mind explaining it from the beginning, step by
step?”
“……” Acre wordlessly puffed out her cheeks.
“First of all, where am I?”
“…Don’t tell me that you came here without knowing anything about
the place?”
“……”
All I could do was nod.
To be honest, Linaria had charged in without inspecting the place or
anything, and for my part, it wasn’t as if I had been longing to come
here out of some passionate interest like Linaria. I didn’t really know
what kind of establishment this was supposed to be.
Linaria had probably told me all sorts of things about this place
before we came here, but since I was in the habit of completely

Page | 60
ignoring her when she launched into one of her long talks, I really
didn’t know anything. I was starting to regret not taking her history
lectures more seriously.
“…Sigh.” Acre the record keeper let out a sigh. “Well then, read this.
I’ve been acting as the record keeper here at The Giants’ Kitchen for
a long time, so you ought to understand most everything about this
place when you’re done.”
As she said this, she handed me a book.
She said it contained a record of everything that had happened
recently.
I opened the cover.
X month, X day
Compared to how things were several years ago, it seems like our
“Giants’ Kitchen” has really started thriving. I suppose it’s all thanks
to those two giants we confronted a little while ago.
From time to time, travelers have been showing up at our doorstep.
They gladly present us with the acorns and leaves and flower
petals—our favorite foods. In return, we offer them building
materials.
This new relationship benefits both parties.
If I had one complaint, it would be that very few humans bring my
personal favorite with them.
X month, X day
My favorite is something smooth and shiny called “money” in the
outside world. But apparently, it’s quite valuable, so despite how
readily travelers hand over leaves and stuff, they almost never offer
us money. They’re so stingy.

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Day after day, I perform my duties while rubbing my cheeks against
the smooth, shiny piece of gold that the ashen-haired giant gave to
me before…eh-heh-heh-heh-heh-heh…so smooth, so shiny, I love
it—
“You don’t need to read that part.”
I got a kick in the shin when I was in the middle of reading.
“You love money…?”
“Don’t look at the parts that have nothing to do with the main story.”
Acre was huffy with anger. She grabbed the book forcefully from my
hands, flipped some pages, and handed it back after opening it to a
page with more recent dates.
“That woman came here yesterday.”
X month, X day
Today a strange woman came to our restaurant.
She completely ignored our three rules, “remove your shoes,” “leave
your bags,” and “spray yourself with perfume,” and marched right in.
When she saw us, she shouted, “Ah! How cute!” and started
breathing heavily.
In the course of our work, we have grown used to encountering
strange customers. We weren’t happy that she hadn’t followed the
rules, but we started to serve our customer as we always do.
Serve the customer.
In other words, we launched an attack.
The captain roused the troops as usual, and we began preparations
for an all-out offensive. If things had proceeded normally, the
customer would have observed our oncoming attack and offered us
some leaves or something, but on this day, the situation was a little
different.

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“Oh no, I’ve been defeated!”
Before we even launched our assault, the woman fell down right on
the spot. Then she writhed around in a strangely erotic way. “Go on,
do your worst…take my treasure and go…!” From her pockets, she
pulled out leaves, acorns, and flower petals, and scattered them all
over the floor.
“…What is she doing? We haven’t even attacked yet…” The captain
also couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable about this customer’s
strange behavior.
“Well, whatever! We win!” But the captain gave in to excitement and
declared victory, taking her soldiers along with her to crowd around
the leaves.
They were fools.
I greatly prefer the stuff called “money,” so I didn’t participate in the
charge. I just watched from a distance, observing my compatriots’
behavior as a record keeper should.
That was how I was able to notice the change coming over them
faster than anyone else.
Usually, they would just swarm the offerings and kick up a big fuss,
shouting with excitement.
But on this day, everything was different.
“Urk…!”
“What’s…happening…?”
“What on earth…?!”
One by one, my compatriots collapsed.
Then, immediately afterward, they abandoned their weapons and
staggered back to their feet. Their bodies were limp, and they looked
just like they were being hung up by invisible strings.

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They stood back up like marionettes.
“Heh-heh…looks like my potion took effect quickly.”
Potion.
I’m sure that’s what I heard the woman say as she politely reseated
herself.
Then she looked down at the soldiers before her.
“From now on, you all work for me. Understand?”
“Yes, ma’am!”
They kneeled. The captain and all the other soldiers and the lookout,
they all bowed their heads to the woman in unison.
I immediately understood the situation. All of my comrades were
being manipulated by her hand. The leaves and flowers the woman
had offered us were having this effect. They had been laced with a
potion.
I immediately ascertained her objective.
“Heh-heh-heh…I’ve already investigated and found that every
customer that comes here is rich… They can’t get ahold of the
pamphlet without winning it at an auction, after all… So if I swindle
money off the people who come to this restaurant, I can become
very rich indeed…! Ah…what a perfect plan…!”
When I say I “ascertained” it, I mean she just announced it herself.
“Understood, mistress! From now on, we shall extort money from all
the invaders!” With tottering steps, my comrades began to clamber
up the woman’s body. It was impressive how exactly they followed
her instructions.
“Ah, wait…! You’ve got it all wrong! You can stay where you are.
Don’t move.”

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“Roger!”
I had no doubt that the effect of the potion didn’t extend to me
because I hadn’t taken the bait that the woman had offered us.
However, now that everyone else was under her control except for
me, I wasn’t safe.
It was clear that if I didn’t escape as quickly as possible, that woman
would do something to me, too.
“What’s this…? One of your little friends is still hiding over there,
isn’t she…?”
Uh-oh.
As soon as I took a step toward escaping, the woman caught sight of
me.
“If you won’t listen to what I have to say, I guess I have no choice.
Seize her!”
The woman snapped her fingers.
Immediately after that, the others rushed on me, and that pretty
much brings us to the present. I was placed here in the punishment
pen.
“Heh-heh-heh…with this, the initial preparations are complete.” The
woman looked down at me now that I was her prisoner and smiled.
That terrible woman’s name is Priscilla.
Apparently, she’s a young mage.
“You two, there in the punishment pen, how are you doing?”
Immediately after I’d finished reading Acre’s long, long record, “that
woman” appeared before us.
She had on a soft and fluffy black hat, round with a flat top, and her
glossy, golden hair hung down out of the hat in flowing waves. She

Page | 65
was dressed in a very distinctive black robe with an elaborate design
like a gothic dress.
From the look of her face, I figured she was about the same age as
me. But her unusually mature way of talking and her ample figure,
which was noticeable even under her thick clothing, made her look
less like a lovely young lady and more like an elegant and beautiful
adult woman.
I looked up at her from inside the cage.
At the girl dressed in thick, black clothes.
“Isn’t that hot?”
Those were the first words that came to mind.
It’s early spring now.
You know, spring. And you’re dressed for the dead of winter?
When I asked, Priscilla snorted haughtily.
“What a foolish question!”
“Is it a foolish question?”
“Of course it’s hot!”
“Oh, it is?”
“But I won’t take it off!”
“……”

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Page | 67
“Because this is who I am!”
“……”
Priscilla tossed her long hair back. “I’ve taken custody of your
baggage.” She hoisted my bag into the air for me to see. “So you’re a
student? Are you traveling over your long vacation?”
“…That’s right.”
“Oh-hoh-hoh…but too bad for you! Your journey ends here!”
Priscilla put on a smug look of triumph. She looked mature, but her
behavior was certainly appropriate for a girl her age.
“Umm…I’d like you to release me right away…”
“I will not honor that request!” she answered decisively. “If you
really must get out, you’ll have to steal the key from my minions! By
the way, they’ll give you a quiz, and if you pass, they’ll hand it over!”
“Huh…?”
Priscilla presented me with an unusually specific suggestion for
acquiring the key. The little women whom she had already declared
to be her “minions” were on standby in front of the cage. She even
suggested a difficulty level that seemed way too lenient, by adding,
“You can fail the quiz as many times as you need.”
“Also, I don’t really have any money… Could you please return my
bag?”
It makes sense to try to steal from rich customers, but the premise
that only rich people would have a pamphlet in the first place is a little
bizarre. After all, even a self-supporting student like Linaria managed
to save up and win one at an auction.

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“I will not honor that request!” As expected, the answer to my
proposal was a hard no. “If you really must have it back, try and steal
it back from me! By the way, I’m going to take a nap now! Are you
listening? Don’t you dare steal the ‘growth potion’ that I have in my
pocket! If you stole that, you could return your body back to its
original size!”
“Why do you keep presenting me with solutions like that?”
It was almost like she was asking me to steal the potion.
“Silence, you! Anyway, I’m going to sleep!”
Priscilla didn’t seem the least bit interested in what I had to say. She
left the kitchen and went into the dining room, where she huffed as
she spread a blanket out on the floor, slapped her pillow several
times to puff it up, and stretched herself out for a nap.
Ignoring me as I watched in stunned silence, she did exactly as she
had announced and drifted cozily off to sleep.
She looked just like Sleeping Beauty, lying faceup and dozing
peacefully.
……
Uh…
“What on earth…?”
At a complete loss, I looked over at Acre, the record keeper. “Can
you believe that I have to take a quiz…?!” I balked. “There’s no way
that I’ll be able to answer with the little I know…!”
“You became really dumb all of a sudden, huh?” my caged
companion replied. Acre grabbed me by the arm, a little forcefully,
and dragged me over to where one minion was standing in front of
the cage.

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“All right, customer!” the tiny woman outside the cage said. “First of
all, you must answer this quiz!”
That’s when it happened.
Someone tapped gently on the kitchen window.
When I glanced over, I saw Linaria, looking down at us through a pair
of binoculars she held in one hand…from the outside of the
dilapidated Giants’ Kitchen. The way she peered stealthily through
her binoculars at us made her look like she was bird-watching or
something. Though her target wasn’t a bird; it was just me, in a
birdcage.
She stared fixedly at me.
She was holding up a memo pad on which she had written, You shrank
down really small… What happened?

Of course, right in the middle of all that, the rules of the quiz were
being explained to me. The minion who was standing in front of the
cage said, “I’m going to give you a quiz now, so please write your
answers on this memo pad. If you answer correctly, I’ll let you out of
the cage. Also, Miss Priscilla said this earlier, but you can retry the
quiz no matter how many times you fail.” Then she handed me a
memo pad and a pen.
……
This is perfect. I can write on here.
I don’t really understand what’s going on, but for now, I apparently
have to take a quiz. I held this up facing the window.
“Ah-ah! I haven’t even given you the questions yet! Why are you
writing without permission!?” The minion was upset by the
interruption.
Quiz…? What do you mean? I don’t get it. Linaria cocked her head to the
side.

Page | 70
There’s a mage named Priscilla here who is trying to take over The
Giants’ Kitchen, and apparently, she’s the reason why this place has
gotten so weird. It’s her fault I’m like this. I gave a succinct
explanation of the situation.
“I told you already! I haven’t even asked any questions! Stop writing
whatever you want!” The minion was still angry.
I don’t really understand, but for now, I just need to take out this Priscilla woman, right?

Please stop saying such unsettling things…

“Unbelievable! You did it again! How many times do I have to say it

before you understand?! Wait until I give you the questions! I’m
going to get really mad if you do it again!” the minion said, even
though she was already fuming.
Behind the minion, Linaria held another piece of paper up for me to read. Wait
there,
Alte. I’ll come up with something. You take their quiz or whatever
and kill some time.
“All right then, here’s your question! Actually, this came up once in
Acre’s records already. What exactly was the final line that I shouted
out in the records she kept? Heh-heh-heh, you got a hard one right
off the bat, huh? Well, do you know?”
Paying no attention to what the minion was saying, I held my memo
pad up to answer Linaria.
Roger.
“Yes! That’s correct!”
The birdcage door opened with a clank.
Huh? What the heck is going on all of a sudden?
I was extremely confused, but I seemed to have unwittingly passed
the quiz.

Page | 71
Behind me, Acre seemed impressed. “You’re actually quite
perceptive…”
The minion also looked pleased. “You’re the first one who’s ever
given the right answer so suddenly, and on your first time taking the
quiz, no less…”
“…Huhhh?”
When did I…?
I was totally bewildered, but the other women impatiently began
pulling me by the hand before I had fully grasped the situation.
“All right then, proceed to the next stage.”
I had been told to wait where I was, so I wanted to remain inside the
birdcage until Linaria got to me, but both Acre and the minion
insisted that we didn’t need the cage anymore, and ultimately,
without understand anything that was happening, I was driven out of
the cage and then driven out of the kitchen entirely.
At any rate, the only thing I could be sure of was that I had
immediately broken my promise to Linaria.

“Now that you’re out of the cage, all that’s left is to steal the potion
from Priscilla.”
I wanted to go back to the cage, but it seemed like I didn’t have that
option. With Acre tugging me along by the hand, I wandered around
The Giants’ Kitchen.
But I knew that Linaria was outside working on some sort of plan, so
now that I had left the cage, I couldn’t sit around idly doing nothing.
I very much wanted to solve this predicament myself.

Page | 72
To that end, I set off on an adventure, heading toward Priscilla,
whom I could see off in the distance, a slumbering giant in this tiny
world.
But my journey would not be an easy one.
“Be careful, okay? My comrades are going to come confront you one
after another,” the minion told me.
Except for Acre, all the tiny women were under Priscilla’s control,
after all.
It was only to be expected that they would jump in to stop me if I
tried to cause any harm to their mistress, Priscilla.
I was first confronted by a single girl, small and cute. She was little
enough to fit in a human hand, just like Acre, the first minion, and
me.
“Humph…you’ve done well to make it this far. Now it’s time for you
to face me in a little game. If you win, I’ll let you move on.”
Wearing a self-satisfied expression, she challenged me to a game of
Othello.
“……”
Othello?
They have Othello in the world of tiny ladies…? Well, I don’t mind
playing, but…
At any rate, if she’s going to bar my path, I suppose I’ll have to fight.
If I don’t, I can’t progress.
And if I don’t win, of course, I won’t be able to make it over to
Priscilla.
Which means…
“……” I immediately took the corners.
“…Ah.” The girl fell into a panic.

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“……” I mercilessly colored the top of the board black.
“…Waah.” The girl’s eyes filled with tears.
I won by an overwhelming margin.
“I could have won even without taking the corners…”
I gave the sobbing girl back to her friends and started walking again.
The next one to block my path was a girl holding a deck of cards.
“Face me in a game of Concentration! I don’t mean to brag, but I’ve
never lost before!”
Never lost a round…? Well! She must be a really tough opponent!
…Or so I thought.
“……” I mercilessly collected every pair of cards.
“…Huh?” The girl watched, dumbfounded, as I snatched up the tricks,
one after another.
“……” I kept on turning over cards, in spite of the fact that I was
already holding the majority in my hand, meaning the match had
been decided.
“…Wahhh!” The girl’s eyes filled with tears.
Another crushing victory.
I grew up in the country, which meant that we didn’t have much to
do for fun. I had been playing these sorts of games my whole life.
I had loads of experience.
You could even say I was confident in my abilities.
And so…
After that, the tiny ladies came and challenged me to every
conceivable type of game, but I relentlessly defeated every single

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one of them, made them cry one after another, and worked my way
toward Priscilla.
In response to this state of affairs, Acre stared at me. “You
heartbreaker…,” she muttered, in a way that could have easily been
misinterpreted.
Don’t look at me that way…
At any rate, after defeating an endless stream of tiny women, there
was only one final person standing in my way. She appeared to be a
very dour knight.
She didn’t tell me her name.
But she was the one whom all the others called “Captain.”
“Tch…so you made it this far, huh…?”
The little captain, perched atop Priscilla’s enormous chest as it rose
and fell with her sleeping breaths, looked down at me with a
triumphant expression that didn’t waver.
“But this is where your steady advance ends! I doubt you will win so
easily against me.”
Then, with a heave-ho, she produced two pieces of paper and one
lottery machine.
After that, she handed one of the slips of paper to me and said,
“Here, take this.”
“Uh, thanks…” I accepted the paper coldly.
There were rows of numbers on it.
……
It’s a BINGO game.
Then the woman started turning the lottery machine with a clatter.

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“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Your strengths won’t help you in this
game! I can triumph through good fortune alone—”
“BINGO.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaaahhh!”
Another crushing victory.
After emerging victorious over every one of the tiny women who
stood in my way, I climbed up Priscilla’s sleeping body and claimed
the “growth potion.” It was surprisingly anticlimactic, perhaps
because humans are fairly defenseless when sleeping. Priscilla didn’t
show the slightest sign of waking. The whole time I was climbing on
top of her, she just kept snoring away.
It was a good thing that she didn’t stir in the slightest. I grabbed the
potion bottle with the DRINK ME! label on it and immediately pulled off
the cap.
She told me…
“If you dash that potion all over your whole body, you’ll return to
your original size. That’s what Priscilla said,” said Acre before adding
that if I didn’t pour it on my clothes, too, only my body would grow
larger, which would lead to some unfortunate results.
She seems awfully knowledgeable about Priscilla’s business…
“…Um, what is your objective here?”
The whole sequence of events, from when I was placed inside the
birdcage up until this very moment, had been indescribably weird. All
of Priscilla’s minions had given up quite easily after losing their
various parlor games.
Wait, actually…

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 None of this seems necessary to steal money from people. Priscilla
could have just tossed me back outside the moment I drank the
shrinking potion.
It’s like some sort of game…
Whenever one of the girls had challenged me, the mood in the air
had been like we were just playing a game together.
“…?” Acre tilted her head at my question. “You’re very dull, aren’t
you…?”
“…Dull?”
What on earth is that supposed to mean?
“Our restaurant is called The Giants’ Kitchen,” Acre told me.
The reason why Priscilla had made me drink the potion. The reason
why Acre had been with me the whole way, almost like a tour guide.
The reason why the other girls had challenged me to relatively lazy
games.
I put it all together.
“This whole thing has been a demonstration,” Acre said.
“……”
“……”
“Demonstration?” I cocked my head.
“Yeah.” Acre nodded. “We recently developed a program where
customers can experience the world as we see it. We even hired a
mage as a part-time employee. That’s what’s going on.”
“……”
“……”
“Part-time?” I gazed at Priscilla, who was murmuring in her sleep.
“Yeah,” said Acre. “Priscilla’s a part-timer. She’s just a regular mage.”

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“……”
“……”
So that means…what, exactly?
That Priscilla wasn’t actually planning to try to steal money from
the customers who came to this restaurant? That she was just a
regular girl playing the role of an evil mage? And that the majority of
the tiny ladies who inhabited The Giants’ Kitchen weren’t actually
being manipulated or anything; they were just playing games with me
so that I wouldn’t get bored in their tiny world, because it was their
job? Is that what this means?
……
Huh? So doesn’t that mean that I was never actually a captive at
all?
So there was no need for me to ask Linaria to save me?
“Oh.”
Uh-oh.
These thoughts and more occurred to me, but it was too late.
“You must be Priscilla! Give back my Alte!”
Crash!
Linaria made a heroic entrance by smashing through the window,
landing right on Priscilla’s sleeping face.
……
Umm…

“An ‘Incredible Shrinking Adventure Course’?”

The day that the mage Priscilla happened upon our restaurant, she
tilted her head curiously at the proposal that we presented to her.

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Her reaction wasn’t surprising.
After all, she’d come with the usual pamphlet in hand, curious to see
how we lived our lives in The Giants’ Kitchen.
But we hadn’t treated her with hostility or entertained her in any
way. Instead, we’d all lined up before her and presented our
proposal.
“Recently we’ve decided to start a new enterprise…and we’d like to
borrow a mage’s power to do it.”
That’s right—it was a new business venture.
To tell the truth, we had been operating The Giants’ Kitchen for a
long time and had faced off against many travelers, but every time
we battled, our resources were depleted.
Frankly, we hardly had anything left. Talk was circulating among the
junior soldiers. People were saying “This isn’t worth it” and “We
object to this exploitation.” There were even some who issued near-
threats, like “I’ll inform the labor union.” Not that we have a labor
union anyway.
With no better ideas, the captain had spoken up: “How about we just
start a new business?”
And so we had devised the “Incredible Shrinking Adventure Course.”
“Basically, we were looking for something more sustainable. So
having guests shrink down to our small size works out well in several
ways. If the guests are small, so are their stomachs, so they won’t be
able to consume as much, and the cost per guest will stay low.”
We had approached the visiting mage with our proposal.
At the time, we didn’t really know much about magic users, but we
had figured that it should be pretty simple for one of them to shrink
people down to our size.

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“Hmm…”
Priscilla the mage had puzzled over the question with coquettish
gestures. “I understand the situation. In short, you want me to
provide you with potions that will make people and objects small; is
that right? Well, I think I have something here…all right, now, where
did I…”
As she talked, Priscilla pulled a potion bottle out of her bag.
Then she dribbled a little bit of it onto a bundle of paper (which was
apparently called a “deck of cards”).
Then something amazing happened. The bundle of paper shrank
right before our eyes, until it was small enough to fit neatly into our
hands. Priscilla presented the deck of cards to one of my comrades
and explained that she was a mage who specialized in making
potions.
It was clear that our proposal was a perfect match for her skills.
However…
“But I’ve decided that I won’t engage in such business any longer…”
Priscilla frowned at our plan. Apparently, she had once been involved
in certain dishonest enterprises but had since decided to turn her life
around. She explained that when it came to her potions, she kept
them on hand so she could give them out to people in need. I really
wanted to ask if there were actually ever any circumstances where
someone would need to shrink down to our size, but I decided to
stay quiet for the time being instead.
“Well, please reconcile it somehow. We’re counting on you!”
The captain bowed her head. I followed suit.
“If things remain as they are, our race will surely die out!” the
captain told her tearfully. In her arms, she was cradling a girl on the
verge of death—Liscia, one of our own.

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Liscia had been suffering from a chronic lack of leaves, probably
because customer traffic had been waning at The Giants’ Kitchen
lately. As a result, her mental state had become quite unstable.
“Oh…Captain…my Captain…when I die…wash me down the sink drain
with some leaves…”
“Here, see for yourself! She’s at death’s door, isn’t she?!”
By the way, Liscia had always been a bit of a drama queen.
But the mage Priscilla seemed shocked at Liscia’s wretched state.
“…! My goodness!”
Liscia, of course, had always been wretched.
But Priscilla began to cry.
“I’ll help you…I’ll…I’ll save all of you…!”
“Thank you.” The captain grinned.
The most underhanded person of all had been with us the whole
time.
After that, the mage Priscilla visited us almost every day. She came
to have detailed meetings about the new business venture we were
starting, of course, but more importantly, she had turned out to be
more kindhearted than we’d ever imagined.
“This is called a BINGO game. You turn this clattering thing round and
round, and punch holes in your card that match the numbers that fall
out. When you complete a row, you win!”
Nearly every day, she brought some new plaything for us, who’d
hardly had any decent entertainment. She would douse every new
game in her shrinking potion and offer it to us.
She had all the benevolence of a goddess made flesh.

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There were more than a few soldiers who said, “I want to marry that
girl in the next life…,” or something similar.
She had come to the cottage nearly every day to refine our business
plan, and then, at long last, our scheme reached completion.
Fortunately, since we had hung out the CLOSED FOR RENOVATIONS sign on the
front door of The Giants’ Kitchen, we hadn’t had any customers in
some time.
Then, that morning…
“All right, first thing tomorrow, we’re switching over to the new
business model.”
We all agreed.
The details of our new enterprise were as follows:
There were three doors on the way into our restaurant. The first two
would stay the same as always, directing people to remove their
shoes and outerwear. But in front of the last door, we placed a
bottled potion with DRINK ME! written on the side.
Customers who drank this potion would shrink until their bodies
were the same size as ours. Then Priscilla would stuff them into a
birdcage.
The record keeper, Acre, would be waiting inside the birdcage, and
she would explain what was going on in the restaurant.
Then the customer would sneak out of the birdcage in order to
recover the antidote from Priscilla. And essentially, along the way,
my compatriots would each use their own methods to waste the
traveler’s time and get in their way.
After overcoming those obstacles, the customer would recover the
antidote from Priscilla.
“Do you think I should also do something to block the traveler’s
way?”

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Priscilla only appeared at the beginning of the scenario and then the
rest of her role was spent sleeping.
The captain shook her head at the question.
“Don’t worry. We’ll put an end to everything while you’re sleeping.”
That seemed like a strange way to phrase it. An expression like that
was just begging to be misunderstood.
The following day, we were busy with our final preparations.
“Bad news, Captain!”
The lookout was wearing a grim expression when she appeared
before us with news.
“What is it?” The captain stayed quite calm.
Tears welling up in her eyes, the lookout answered, “Intruders have
entered the restaurant! They took down the ‘Closed for Renovations’
sign and forced their way in!”
“What did you say?!”
It was an unforeseen situation. This was the first time that the giants
had ever been so callous and rude as to break into a restaurant that
was still setting up.
But even so, the captain kept her cool.
“All right, don’t worry. We’ve been changing things around the
restaurant, but the perfume should still be there in front of the last
door like it always has been. There shouldn’t be any problem with
handling them like we always have.”
However…
“About that…!”
The lookout shouted.
A brief but terrifying announcement.

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“The potion! Is already! In place!”
The potion bottle with DRINK ME! written on it was already in its spot in
front of the final door.
“Which one of you idiots left it in a place like that?!” the captain
shouted furiously.
“Eh-heh-heh…” Liscia cackled.
“Why, yoooooouuuuuu!” The captain grabbed her by the collar.
Ultimately, we wound up rushing to entertain the travelers without
being fully prepared.

“So in other words, The Giants’ Kitchen is no longer the place where
tiny women will treat customers with hostility and attack them, as it
had been in the past… Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s what I’m saying,” Priscilla answered Linaria.
After Linaria had come crashing through the window, I had doused
myself in the antidote potion and returned to my normal size. Linaria
seemed to have finally regained her composure after I thoroughly
explained the situation to her, and she confirmed the facts with
Priscilla again.
“What a terrible ordeal that was…” Priscilla let out a sigh.
I think it went without saying that she had woken up in the worst
possible way. That’s because not only had she been awakened by a
sudden pain on her face, but she had been confronted with a
stranger, an extremely angry girl, pointing a wand at her and yelling,
“Hurry up and return Alte to normal! I told you, put her back—don’t
you dare ignore me! What are you crying for? Stop messing around!
If you don’t do as I say, I’ll break your fingers one by one!”

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Fortunately, I had been there, right behind Linaria, and already back
to my normal size, and I had managed to stop her from doing
anything.
Linaria had glared at Priscilla before demanding to know what was
going on.
Priscilla, on the other hand, had simply started crying.
After we went over the whole story again, and Priscilla and Linaria
had gotten their composure back, I was finally able to tell Linaria
what was going on with the restaurant.
I told her that the place had gone through a transformation since the
pamphlets had originally been distributed. Linaria was quite
despondent to hear of this state of affairs and just grumbled, “I
see…”
Priscilla blew her nose loudly and responded to her. “It was awfully
cruel of you to kick me out of nowhere…,” she sobbed, still sitting on
the floor.
“That was… I’m sorry about that.” Linaria averted her eyes uneasily.
“Well, I suppose that just shows how magnificent my performance
was!” A moment later, Priscilla was smiling as if nothing had
happened. “So please, don’t worry about it too much. And please
don’t apologize.”
Certainly, her performance had been excellent. A bottle of eye drops
was lying on the floor by her side.
Those were fake tears…
But the tiny women of The Giants’ Kitchen had all clasped their
hands and fixed their eyes upon her.
“She’s a goddess…”
“There is a goddess among us…”

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“Marry me…”
They worship her…
“…But I would have liked an explanation at least, if The Giants’
Kitchen was changing,” Linaria said.
“That was always our intention!” Priscilla told us. “After all, we were
planning to start our new enterprise tomorrow. We were going to
put up a new sign and everything.”
As she said this, Priscilla showed us the newly made sign.
INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ADVENTURE COURSE
All the details were written there. By the way, the cost was one gold
piece per person.
“It’s priced quite fairly, oh-hoh-hoh!” Priscilla laughed.
In other words, if we had shown up the following day, the two of us
would have apparently received a normal, hospitable welcome.
“……” I looked at Linaria.
“……” Linaria averted her eyes. “…I mean, I figured there would be a
lot of people trying to hog the restaurant for themselves on opening
day, so…,” she squeaked out in an unusually frail voice.
“Well, that wasn’t so bad if we consider it like a rehearsal for
tomorrow. Though I am rather bruised… But what kind of
relationship do the two of you have?”
What?
“What kind of relationship? What do you mean?” What on earth is
she talking about? I wondered. “We’re just ordinary friends…”
But Priscilla didn’t seem convinced by my answer and tilted her head
questioningly. “Is that so?”
She kept going.

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“It’s just, earlier, she was really quite angry—”
“Stop,” Linaria interrupted.
“And she called you ‘my Alte’—”
“Really, stop it.” Linaria smacked her.
Huh?
Linaria had burst in so suddenly earlier that I hadn’t really heard
anything she said. I was very curious what this was all about.
“Did you really call me that?”
“I did not.”
“What on earth does ‘my Alte’ even mean—”
“I never said that.”
I got smacked, too.
It didn’t hurt, but I thought I could see red creeping over Linaria’s
face, so I gave up on asking any more questions.
“My, my.” Priscilla smiled broadly as she watched our exchange.
“What a lovely thing to witness…”
“Your nose is bleeding.”
“That’s from when I got kicked in the head.”
“Uh-huh…so you have brain damage…”
After that, Priscilla mumbled some nonsensical words for a little
while—things like, “Two girls…how nice…,” and so on. It was enough
to make me anxious that she had lost a few marbles when Linaria
had kicked her.
Ultimately…
They were starting their new business enterprise the next day. For
the rest of that day, however, the three of us humans enjoyed very

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courteous entertainment from the tiny ladies of The Giants’ Kitchen,
in their own typical way.
This is something that we learned later on, but Priscilla was
apparently attending a magic school in another country, and her
school had a long holiday in the time between late winter and early
spring, just like Latorita State University. That’s why she had taken a
part-time job at The Giants’ Kitchen.
I see, I see.
“So you’re wearing those clothes on purpose, in order to give off a
villainous vibe?”
Apparently, her true identity was that of an ordinary student. She
seemed like a decent person.
“Incorrect!” Priscilla replied enthusiastically. “I’m wearing this
because I want to!”
“But isn’t it hot?”
“It is hot! But I won’t take it off!”
“……”
“Because this is who I am!”
……
She’s probably just a weirdo after all.

Linaria and I left The Giants’ Kitchen and mounted our brooms
together.
Our history hunt had only just begun.
“I figured that it would be a strange restaurant, but…I never
imagined that the whole thing would be one big practical joke…”

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As I think back on the experience, there had been several points
along the way when I ought to have been suspicious of what was
going on, but I hadn’t doubted a thing. I had just enjoyed my time in
their little world.
I had a feeling that if I had been a little faster to realize that
something was amiss, we would have never ended up meeting
Priscilla, who seemed to have the wrong idea about us—
“Well, there was no helping it. They didn’t have their sign out, after
all. That’s on them. Of course, it was partially on me, for throwing
away the ‘Closed for Renovations’ sign, but…” She let out a sigh.
“Sorry, Alte. This place was really different from what I expected.”
For some reason, she sounded remorseful. But I didn’t think she had
anything to apologize for.
Besides…
I couldn’t help saying that actually…
“It’s my fault, too, for being so thickheaded.”
“……” She stared fixedly at me. “Couldn’t be helped. There’s no cure
for your thickheadedness.”
“Huh…?”
I had been certain that she would contradict me, saying that I wasn’t
dull at all. But instead, she had spit poison in my face. If anything, she
even looked a little peevish. She had her cheeks puffed out and
everything.
“…Why are you mad?”
“I’m not mad.”
“Yes you are, I can tell.”
“I said I’m not mad!”

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Linaria looked away in a huff.
For a short while, a quiet atmosphere filled the air around us.
Finally, I said, “…What country are we going to visit next?”
I cocked my head at Linaria, who was directing our history hunt. I
couldn’t tell yet where she was heading; I was just following her as
she flew along on her broom.
I figured she must have a ton of places she wanted to go, since she
was the one who had been going on endlessly about this trip.
She looked straight at me and asked, “Where do you want to go?”
Apparently, she also wasn’t sure of our next destination.
Just like me.
We had only just started our brief journey together. I was sure that
there were many more encounters and partings in our future.
Perhaps the next place we visited would turn out to be exactly as
Linaria had envisioned it, or maybe it would be someplace we never
could have imagined.
So I answered.
“All right, I want to go to another place like The Giants’ Kitchen.”
That was all I said.
“…………?”
Linaria tilted her head.
She didn’t seem to understand the meaning behind my words.
So I explained myself to the thickheaded girl.
I rephrased my request into something a bit more direct,
and said:
“I just want to go somewhere fun.”

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 Someplace that will blossom like a happy flower in my memories
and make me smile whenever I think back on it. Whether it turns out
to be how we expected or not. Somewhere amazing.

Page | 91
Page | 92
CHAPTER 3: The Resurrection Lily That
Blooms in Solitude
This happened back when I was still an apprentice witch.
Before I became Saya the Charcoal Witch, I met a certain girl.
New recruits who have been accepted into the United Magic
Association must first take lessons from Association witches for
several months in order to become fully qualified members.
They study how to handle magic, hear explanations of the kinds of
jobs the Association will commission them for, see examples of how
the Association has resolved cases in the past, and learn basic skills
for coping with situations until they are brought to resolution.
Generally speaking, those several months are a period of intense
learning in almost every field.
The girl and I first exchanged words around the beginning of this
period. It really did happen by complete chance, but if I hadn’t met
her then, I doubt I would have ever spoken to her or made friends
with her in my life.
I clearly remember the first day I ever spoke to her.
I was studying so I could work at the Association and training so I
could become a witch at the same time, so after lectures were over
for the day, I would stay behind at the branch office to learn magic
from my instructor, Sheila.
I had repeated the same routine every day since arriving in the city,
studying and training without a moment’s rest. Accordingly, when it
was time for me to go home for the day, the sun was always about to

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sink below the horizon. Studying made up the entirety of my daily
existence.
I spotted the girl right as I was heading back to my lodging,
exhausted from my demanding routine.
She had her purple hair tied up in a ponytail on one side of her head,
and in spite of the bright color of her hair, there was a shadow
hanging over her. She gave off the impression that she had left her
mind behind somewhere. She always seemed to be searching for
something. She seemed detached from reality. I had never seen her
chatting pleasantly with anyone, not at the lectures and not during
break times either.
Her name was Monica.
When I came upon her then, she seemed to be in a daze as always,
crouching down silently, looking at a flower blooming by the side of
the road.
The stem was growing straight up out of the ground. At the top was
a red blossom, brighter than the setting sun, its petals spread out in
a burst of color.
Monica was just staring at it, fixated.
Staring at the resurrection lily.
“Do you like those flowers?”
Even though I had never spoken to her, I recognized her face, so I
stopped walking and addressed her.
“I do,” she answered curtly, without even looking my way.
That was the first time that I heard her surprisingly clear and lovely
voice.
“…What are you doing in a place like this?” I had stayed behind late
because I had my special training to attend, but usually most of the

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new recruits dispersed around lunchtime. No one would have stayed
at the branch office without a good reason.
“I was studying.” As before, she answered without looking at me.
“Working overtime?”
“……” Monica nodded sharply.
Let me see now, can she really be so dense that she has to stay for
extra lessons?
I had my doubts. I had known her for only a few weeks at that point,
and this was our first time really meeting—actually, we had never
even exchanged words before now—but I knew she always scored
highly on our weekly exams.
Surely there’s no need for her to work late? I thought. But
immediately after I thought that, I realized something. Maybe the
reason she does so well on the exams is because she works late all the
time? Wow, such a serious student.
“I can’t concentrate during the lectures, so I stay after class and
study.”
This time, she finally turned to look at me. Her purple eyes, the same
color as her hair, seemed to sparkle in the evening sun.
“…Is it really that noisy during the lectures?”
The only people taking the lecture courses were the mages who
were set to enter the Association as new recruits. We weren’t
actually students or anything; it was more like we were receiving
training for the posts where we would each be working.
Sure enough, there were some girls who wouldn’t think twice about
quietly exchanging a few words with the person sitting next to them
during the lectures, but that sort of chatting never got loud or
anything. Truthfully, I had never noticed it or been bothered by it.
So I didn’t really understand the meaning behind her words.

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“……”
But she didn’t offer any further explanation as I stood there with my
head cocked. In her mind, she seemed to have decided that her
conversation with me was over. Her eyes had already shifted from
me back to the flower.
The resurrection lily.
In my homeland, it was regarded as a sinister, ominous flower.
Monica just kept staring at it.
“It’s so beautiful, but there are people who hate it,” she mumbled.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever heard anyone call it beautiful.”
“Oh?” As she spoke, she extended a hand toward the resurrection
lily.
Oh my, uh-oh!
“Uh, you shouldn’t touch that. It’s poisonous.”
She wouldn’t actually be in any danger just from touching it, but it
was the truth that the flower was toxic. I stopped her in somewhat of
a panic.
In the bulb, and stem, and leaves, and even the vivid blossom—the
resurrection lily had poison in every part of it. The whole thing was
chock-full of poison. The reason why it was so hated was probably
because it was toxic from root to tip, while having such a lovely
appearance.
“…I see.”
She withdrew her hand and stood up.
“It’s so beautiful on the outside, but it does nothing but cause harm.
Just like a human.”

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As before, I didn’t really understand the meaning behind her words.
Probably because I didn’t think that the flower was especially
beautiful in the first place.
Even so, I remember that day well, the day that I first spoke to
Monica.
That’s because her eyes, the eyes of the girl who had called the
resurrection lily beautiful, were hopelessly steeped in sorrow.

I am a traveler who is at the same time affiliated with the United

Magic Association, so my reason for hopping from country to country
usually has something to do with my job.
Because of my experience traveling to so many places, or maybe
because I am burdened with the unwieldy witch name of the
Charcoal Witch, the Association often really takes advantage of me,
and pressures me to accept jobs that the local registered witches
don’t want to do.
In the end, that was the main reason why I had come to this
particular city on this particular day. A branch office agent of the
United Magic Association had contacted me with an appeal for
assistance from a nearby city. So there I was, knocking at the gate.
Emadestrin, a Town Where People Live.
Deep in the gloomy forest, the city seemed to have been there since
antiquity, long enough for thick ivy to creep up over the outer wall.
It was a plain, inconspicuous city, a place I probably never would
have visited if I didn’t have some business there.
As soon as I passed through the gate, a city official appeared before
me. “You must be Lady Saya, the Charcoal Witch. We’ve been

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awaiting your arrival. Thank you very much for accepting this
commission from our city.”
Since I have a very petite frame, people often look puzzled when
they first meet me. Many even doubt my abilities as a witch, despite
my record handling various urgent matters. The official standing
before me here, however, didn’t react like that at all.
“Lady Saya, did you read the documents we sent concerning the
incidents?”
Or maybe he simply had no interest in me personally. The official
plowed straight through the formalities and, still wearing a stiff
smile, immediately launched into the topic of the job at hand.
“…I read them on the way, mostly.”
I nodded.
The Association had provided me with a dossier.
“Well then, my apologies for getting straight to it, but…” The official
turned on his heel and urged me to follow. “I don’t know whether
your timing was good or bad, but this morning we had another
incident, so I decided that I’d like to have a witch take a look at the
scene. If you please.”
I nodded and followed the official.
The simple, modest scenery of a city lined with old brick houses
spread out before my eyes. It did not seem like the kind of town that
would play host to any gruesome affairs or bloody incidents.
But, of course, that wasn’t the case, which was why I had been
summoned.
“It was apparently spotted this morning by a restaurant worker who
was taking out the trash.”
In a back alley.

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The city official matter-of-factly explained the ghastly scene to me.
The victim was an unmarried woman who had lived nearby. From the
state of the remains, the conclusion was that she had died sometime
the previous night.
“First of all, there can be no doubt that this was the work of the
bloodthirsty serial killer who has been terrorizing our city. We’ve
been seeing the same thing all across town. The killer leaves no
external wounds and lays the victim’s body out in an alleyway.”
According to the request that was sent over to the United Magic
Association, the killer had appeared about half a year earlier.
At first, everyone thought that victims were just collapsing in the
street.
Then, one cold winter night…
Someone reported an awful smell outside their home, and when
officials rushed over to investigate, they discovered a man was dead
in a nearby alley. He was a homeless man who had been loitering
around the area for a while, so no one had paid any attention when
they saw him lying on the ground. No one had imagined that he was
dead, and that had delayed the discovery. His body had no external
wounds, his clothes weren’t torn or ruffled, and there was a stolen
bottle of alcohol lying nearby. From this evidence, city officials
concluded that the man had simply collapsed and died.
But there was one peculiar thing about the scene: the position of his
corpse.
His hands were tightly clasped, almost as if he were offering prayers
to some deity, and he had died looking upward, face to the sky.
What on earth could he have been praying for?
Then, several days later, it became clear that this unfortunate
homeless man had not, in fact, simply dropped dead all on his own.

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Another corpse turned up in another alley.
This time, it was a young man in his thirties. He was a shopkeeper
who had just opened a store nearby. A man who didn’t seem to be
having any difficulties in life. And there he lay, dead.
Just like the homeless man, he was found on his back, facing the sky,
hands clasped as if in prayer.
The third victim was a teenage girl. She was an upstanding young
woman who had never caused any trouble at home or at school, and
she, too, was discovered in an alleyway, praying to the sky.
More bodies were discovered after that.
One victim was an elderly person. Another, a young person. Another,
a man. A woman, too.
There was no connection to the weather, or the phases of the moon,
and nothing seemed to connect the victims. The frequency of the
murders was also scattered. Sometimes, two bodies would show up,
one after another, and other times, half a month would go by
without an incident. But over the past six months, too many people
had been discovered lying discarded in back alleys.
“The only thing I can assume is that the killer is somehow mocking
the customs of our city,” the official spit coldly as he stared down at
a woman’s corpse praying to the dark but cloudless sky.
Here in Emadestrin, a Town Where People Live, the death of a
human was regarded as the greatest of tragedies. Whether by
murder or suicide, the act of snatching away a human life for any
reason was considered the worst thing a person could do. So a series
of murders like this was perhaps the most shocking thing imaginable.
So that was the sequence of events that led the city to request
assistance from the United Magic Association.
However…

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“…I thought there was a mage in this city who was affiliated with the
United Magic Association. What’s become of her?”
As soon as I’d gotten the request from this city, there had been no
doubt about it. This city—Emadestrin, a Town Where People Live,
was her hometown.
Monica.
The girl who always stayed late studying, who always got top marks
on her exams and kept her grades up—she should have been
working here.
That brilliant girl, much more capable than someone like me, was
supposed to be here.
“……”
The official was silent for a while, then slowly nodded. “Yes…as you
say, there is a mage in our city who is affiliated with the United
Magic Association. I expect she is headed here as we speak. I believe
you will be collaborating with her on this investigation.”
“…Is that so?” I nodded.
Then the official added, “But listen, Lady Witch, please don’t rely too
heavily on her. We summoned you because it didn’t seem like she
could solve this on her own.”

Walking through town, I could hear people mourning. I was not

surprised, considering another gruesome incident had occurred.
I dropped my gaze to the brick-paved road as I walked, and all that
reached my ears were voices full of disgust for the person who had
let the culprit escape again.
“It’s Monica.”

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“What is she doing in a place like this?”
“Even though she’s a mage, she can’t solve these crimes.”
“What a useless mage she is…”
“She used to be much better, brilliant even…”
“At any rate, I don’t suppose she’s managed to find any clues today
either.”
I had been told that a witch was coming from the United Magic
Association to help me today. Whether because of the difficulty of
the case or my own incompetence in finding any leads, the city had
apparently decided to enlist the help of someone else.
It was an unusual move for a place that didn’t like to deal with
outsiders, proof of the desperation and fear gripping the city in the
wake of these serial murders.
“……”
I was sure that the city would have preferred to deal with the
problem on its own rather than recruit outside help. However, I was
apparently completely incapable of handling the matter.
When I’d first started working at the government office, there was
no case I couldn’t solve. But this case was different. Far from solving
it, I couldn’t even find any clues. So everyone thought I was totally
incompetent.
Despite going to the trouble of taking myself to a foreign country and
becoming an Association-affiliated mage, if I couldn’t manage to
produce some results in this case, then what good was the moon-
shaped brooch on my chest anyway? That question had been hurled
at me many times over these six months.
I didn’t have any experience with people getting angry at me, so each
time I just answered, “I’ll get it right next time.”

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But the city had apparently finally given up on me.
The result was an appeal for assistance.
I was almost certainly finished here.
“Tomorrow, a witch is coming from the head office of the United
Magic Association to help us. You will act as her assistant.”
When I had been informed of that the day before, I finally
understood. I knew that there wouldn’t be a next case, not for me,
not if I couldn’t solve this one.

Page | 103
Page | 104
Pretending not to hear the scathing criticism that people hurled at
me freely, I turned a corner and ducked into a back alley.
I didn’t want to meet her.
I would know what she thought of me as soon as I saw her, so I
really, really didn’t want to.
After all, any witch from the Association would surely ridicule me,
just like the people of this city.
I would be exposed as a pathetic mage who had accomplished
nothing despite dressing myself in a robe—the formal uniform.
So I really didn’t want to meet her.
“……”
From the darkness of the alley, the witch turned to look at me.
But—
What I saw on her face was not disgust or scornful laughter.
Instead, there was joy and affection.
“…Monica.”
She called my name.
I saw a very familiar face before me.
“…Saya.”
My one and only friend was standing there.

I remember it like it was yesterday.

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“Basically, the United Magic Association gets requests to solve cases
and incidents that have something to do with magic, and sometimes
we get called in when it’s still unclear whether the situation was
originally caused by a mage or not. That’s my area of responsibility.
Nice to meet you all.”
My teacher, Sheila, was also a lecturer for the new recruits.
Her specific area of responsibility was murder cases.
She spoke matter-of-factly, standing at the lectern in front of the
new-recruit mages, who were seated in rows of chairs.
“You could say that murder cases are the most troublesome among
all the commissions that the United Magic Association receives.
Because at the time the request is made, we don’t even know
whether the culprit is a mage or not, you see?”
Mm-hmm, I see. I nodded with a know-it-all look on my face.
“By the way, what do you think is the first thing we have to do when
we get a request to work on a murder case? Saya.”
“Huh? Why are you calling on me?”
“You were nodding along.”
“……”
I shouldn’t have had that know-it-all look on… She surprised me
with a question, and I don’t know the answer… This is the first lecture…
I started to panic under Sheila’s fixed gaze. But she kept staring. The
look in her eyes was threatening—Hurry up and answer, hey, if you
can’t answer, it must mean you don’t know—and grew ever sharper.
I kept on panicking. Before long, my eyes filled with tears. I was done
for.
Eventually, a pen on my desk started to rattle around. At first, I
thought that my own trembling was shaking the desk, but when the

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pen floated up in the air and started to scrawl out letters, I realized
that it was moving because of magic.
The pen began writing words in thin air.
“…‘Learn about the area’?”
I read out exactly what it wrote, and Sheila nodded.
“That’s right. When an incident has occurred, the most important
thing to do first is to learn about the region where the incident took
place. For example, if a series of murders have occurred in a country
where there are no magic users, most of the time, the culprit is
probably not a mage. That’s because a mage would stand out in a
place without any other mages. The opposite is also true. When it
comes to murder cases—especially serial murders—it’s rare that a
visitor is the one doing the killing. It’s best to think of the culprit as
someone who’s local.”
Continuing from there, Sheila launched into her lecture proper.
The pen that had written words on its own fell with a clatter onto my
notebook. Someone had apparently given me a helping hand.
Sitting in the seat next to me was Monica.
“……” She sneakily tucked away her wand so that I wouldn’t see it.
But the truth was obvious. I leaned over and whispered into her ear
quietly enough that no one else could hear.
“…Did you prepare for the lesson?”
“More or less,” she said with a nod.
“Thank you for helping me.”
“Whatever.” She immediately turned away.
Generally, that’s about how it went with her. Somehow, she and I
started talking to each other after that and started doing things
together, too.

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“Monica! Want to eat lunch together?”
“Whatever.”
“That means we can eat together, right? I get it!”
After that, we started eating lunch together regularly.
“Monica! It’s break time; do you want to chat?”
“Whatever.”
“That means you do, right? I get it! By the way, what do you do on
the weekends?”
“Nothing.”
She and I also started spending our breaks together.
“Monica, where are you from?”
“Emadestrin, a Town Where People Live.”
“When our training period is over, will you go back to your
hometown to get a job?”
“I have no plans to return.”
“Oh, so you’ll work in some other country or something?”
“I haven’t thought about it.”
“……”
“……”
Coincidentally, we also started heading home together more
frequently.
……
Actually, it’s possible that I was just developing a one-sided
connection with her.

Page | 108
But just because she didn’t particularly want to talk to anyone, that
didn’t mean that she had to be alone. And just because she wasn’t
inclined to make friends with anyone, that didn’t mean that she had
to just stare out the window.
As time passed, her attitude gradually softened up.
“Monica, what do you do on the weekends?”
“I get up, read a book, study, and go to bed. In short, I do nothing,”
she answered.
“Is that so…?” I struggled to respond.
About a month had gone by since we started taking courses at the
United Magic Association, and I had kept up with both my lectures
and my training to become a witch, every day without pause,
whether it was a weekday or a weekend. But suddenly, I had an
actual break coming up, for the first time in a long while.
My teacher Sheila had received a request for aid from a nearby
country. She’d told me, along with a snarky comment about it being
“a real pain in the ass,” that we would be taking a break from
training that weekend. In other words, since my training plans for the
weekend were now wiped clean, and an unexpected gap had
suddenly opened in my normally jam-packed schedule.
So since this was such a rare occurrence, I thought I might try
walking around someplace other than the Magic Association branch
campus, but…it occurred to me that Monica was in the same boat as
me, and only ever went between her lodgings and the branch
campus and back again.
“…I don’t normally do anything on the weekends, but if I do happen
to have some free time, I go out into town and wander around.”
Surprisingly, Monica seemed to read my mind, and suggested, “…If
you want to go sightseeing around town, I’ll go with you.”

Page | 109
I was delighted.
Both with the suggestion itself, and the fact that Monica had
proposed something like that, when she was always so cold.
“All right, then, would you please show me around a bit?”
So I took her up on her offer.
And I depended on her in the days after that as well.
She wore a grumpy expression, but she accepted my request.
She might be cold, but she’s a good person.
After we’d turned the corpse in the alley over to the custody of the
city’s medical experts, Monica and I headed for city hall.
There didn’t seem to be a branch office of the United Magic
Association here, and in its absence, the government apparently
handled cases and incidents related to magic in a department in city
hall.
Well, I say “department,” but…
“Basically, I alone am responsible for dealing with all cases and
incidents related to magic. As you can see.”
The room I was shown to contained a sofa for receiving visitors and a
desk scattered with papers. There were apparently quite a few magic
users in the city, but it didn’t seem like any of them were keen on
working for the government.
“Most mages work at the hospital… It’s rare for one of us to take this
kind of employment.”
Apparently, Monica had been sleeping in her office because there
were blankets on the sofa and a pile of discarded clothes nearby. For
a room in a government building, it had a real lived-in feel.
“…Can you manage the job on your own?”

Page | 110
“I could, at least until these past six months.”
Huh? Reeeally?
I couldn’t help narrowing my eyes intently, given the state of the
room…
“They told me I could use the office however I wanted…”
Monica averted her eyes, seeming a little ashamed under my gaze.
“…Are you doing all right? Have you been sleeping?”
“Not much lately.”
The incidents had probably cut into her sleeping time.
“I hope the incidents are over soon.”
“No kidding.” Monica yawned once, then sat down on the sofa.
“Please.” She urged me to sit, too. I sat down facing her.
Then, taking another long, hard look at me, she said, “But to think
the witch they sent us turned out to be you. What a surprise!”
The fact that she didn’t actually look all that surprised was probably
because she had never been very expressive. She didn’t seem to
have changed a bit from when we were new recruits.
“I was surprised, too. I heard that a request for aid had come in from
your hometown, so—”
I had figured the situation must really be dire if Monica couldn’t deal
with it. She was an excellent mage, much more talented than
someone like me.
She was certainly more cut out for the work than stumpy little Saya,
even if I did carry the title of “witch.”
“…………” After a very solemn silence, Monica said, “…It’s a case that I
just couldn’t solve.” She averted her eyes.

Page | 111
“I’ve already read the details in the files they sent over. Seems like a
really troublesome serial murderer, huh?”
“If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t have called for backup.”
I knew we had learned some general information about murder
cases and the strategies for solving them in our training courses
when she and I were new recruits, but even so, this case was
daunting.
Speaking boldly and honestly, I hadn’t been enthusiastic about
coming to this city, both because it was Monica’s hometown and
because I had had a hunch that this case would be difficult to
untangle.
“What do we do now?” Monica tilted her head inquisitively.
“Well, we’re in a situation with no clues, but…still, we know what we
have to do.”
“…What’s that?”
Let’s recall what we learned in our lectures. When we come across
a murder case, as members of the United Magic Association, we know
what the first thing to do is.
Namely, we must learn about the area.
In other words…
“Would you please show me around town a little?”

Considering I was currently quite unpopular around town, I had

hoped to avoid walking around with Saya. But since she had asked, I
figured it couldn’t be helped.
I took her to many places throughout the city.

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We started with the spot where the first incident had taken place. It
was an ordinary back alley, sandwiched between two houses. Our
next stop was the alley near the restaurant. Then an alley near the
bakery. After that, another alley between houses. And another alley.
Then we went to an alley, and another alley after that.
“What’s up with all the alleys?!” After walking through more than
ten of them, Saya expressed her frustration at yet another alley.
“Jeez!”
I shook my head and answered simply, “The incidents all happened
in places like this.”
“Are there no places we could visit other than the crime scenes?”
If we were going to follow what we learned when we were new
recruits, we needed to tour the city in order to get to know the area.
I knew that was why she’d asked me to show her around town.
However…
“This tour has been back-alley-focused, but you should have gotten a
clear idea of the atmosphere of the city,” I said. “Our city isn’t an
especially dangerous place, you see. And there are a fair number of
mages, but it’s mostly non–magic users.”
“……” As Saya listened to what I was saying, she stared at the people
coming and going down the main thoroughfare that was visible from
the darkness of the alley. “But the wealth disparity is pretty extreme,
huh?”
Walking out there in the sunlight were the city’s valued citizens.
Saya had probably noticed the disparity while we were walking
through town, and she was exactly right.
“It’s probably more accurate to say that it’s easy for mages to
become rich.”

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Every one of the mages mixed into the crowd looked like they were
dressed in resplendent fashion. Their triangular hats were decorated
with golden ornaments, and some wore necklaces of jewels on their
chests. It was obvious they had more money than they knew what to
do with.
But that didn’t seem out of place to me. It was only natural that
mages had an easier time making money.
Because there are lots of things that mages can do better.
And there are some things that only mages can do.
So it was unavoidable.
“…So are there no places we could visit other than the crime
scenes?” Saya was still staring at the road.
I nodded. “Just one place.”
The place where most of the mages living in the city worked. The
hospital.
The hospital was the only place that treated injuries and illnesses and
developed new medicines. It was also where corpses were taken for
autopsy. In many ways, the hospital was the heart of the city.
Most mages worked there, to help the citizens of Emadestrin. They
were indispensable to the community, and I had no doubt that the
people placed more confidence in them than in someone like me.
At the same time, I knew that the mages at the hospital were less
than pleased every time I came in with the fresh corpse of yet
another murder victim.
So if I’d had any way to refuse, I would have avoided taking Saya
there at all.

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“Take me there, please.” But she turned around and smiled at me.
“Let’s hurry up and finish our work for the day, and then go get
something good to eat together!”
I felt my chest tighten.
The largest, oldest building in Emadestrin, a Town Where People
Live, was the hospital. There wasn’t even any need for me to show
Saya the way. I just said, “That’s the hospital over there,” and started
walking, with her accompanying me. We didn’t even talk on the way,
and it didn’t take much time before we arrived.
When we went inside, a doctor rushed over to us as soon as she saw
me. “We finished the autopsy,” she said icily.
She was the physician in charge of autopsies, Frauze.
The doctor led the two of us to the morgue. “Though I doubt you’ll
figure anything out by seeing it,” Frauze whispered bitterly, so that
Saya wouldn’t hear, and then she showed us the body of a girl who
had collapsed in an alleyway.
“As you can see, there are no external wounds. And no toxic
substances were detected. It’s likely that healing magic was used on
her after she was killed. There were no clues left behind on this
corpse.”
“……” Saya, who had stayed about three steps behind me ever since
we arrived at the hospital, frowned and looked away from the body.
“In other words, it fits the motive of the murderer in question?”
For some reason, her voice sounded pained. It was obvious that she
was not used to looking at dead bodies, and her breathing had
become a little ragged, as if she had forgotten how to breathe.
“That’s correct.” Frauze nodded. “She was most likely killed in her
sleep, and then her body was restored to its normal state… It’s a
small mercy that she was able to meet her end without suffering.”

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The killer’s victims were abandoned in back alleys, looking like
beautiful dolls that had never had life in them to begin with. No
matter how well the culprit fixed up the corpses, even if they knit
every wound, it didn’t change the fact that the victims would never
return to life.
“I wonder why the culprit leaves the bodies in alleyways? If killing
people is the goal, then it seems like going to all the trouble of fixing
them up just to dump them outside would be a big waste of effort.”
Frauze shook her head at Saya’s question. “My job is examining the
corpses. I really have no idea.”
“……”
“I shall cooperate with you to the best of my ability, so that this case
can be solved as promptly as possible.” As she spoke, Frauze covered
the body up with a sheet. “However, aside from the fact that the
perpetrator was the same killer as before, there is nothing else I can
learn from this corpse. I’m terribly sorry that I can’t be of more
assistance…”
Then she bowed once politely and, in a detached, formal tone, said
stiffly, “Again, you have our full cooperation, that you may solve
these cases as quickly as possible.”
This came as no surprise to me. It would have been nice if the most
recent body had provided any clues, but I’d known it was a long shot.
Our investigation was immediately at a standstill.
“No clues again, huh…? I thought maybe we would learn something
by looking at the body, but…”
Walking briskly in front of me, Saya was trying to get out of the
hospital quickly.
If there weren’t any clues, then we no longer had any business there.
“Let’s go back to city hall. There’s nothing for us here.”

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“…You’re right.”
I couldn’t stand the hospital. I had never wanted to go there in the
first place, partially because I knew that there wouldn’t be any clues
for us, but that wasn’t the only reason I had been so reluctant.
The real reason I hated the hospital was the awful sense of despair
that seemed to envelop the place.
“…This is the infirmary, isn’t it?” As Saya walked down the hallway,
she peered into the rooms one by one.
Inside were rows of feeble patients laid out on cots.
“Lycoris Disease.”
“…What?”
“It’s an illness that has been spreading through our city for some
time,” I explained from behind her. “People get infected without
knowing it, and once the illness takes hold, the first symptom to
appear is a high fever. When the fever dies down, next they lose the
ability to move, then gradually lose all control over their bodies, lose
consciousness, and then finally, they fall into a vegetative state.”
“……”
“Even when we’re able to detect it early, before fever symptoms
start to show, we haven’t been able to slow the progression of the
disease.”
By the time the illness was detected in a patient’s body, they were
faced with an awful choice. They could either leave the city and die
someplace else, or they could die here after being burdened with
immense medical expenses. But in order to leave the city, they had
to deal with equally immense departure costs. In the end, normal
people without any money had little choice but to stay.
However, taking a life in any capacity was a serious crime in the city.
That applied to euthanasia as well. Even stopping the administration

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of medication to someone who was riddled with disease and possibly
unconscious was considered no different than premeditated murder.
For that reason, the mages working at the hospital could not stop
treating these patients. And that’s why despair ran rampant through
the place.
“…In other words, as soon as someone contracts the disease, their
grim fate is sealed?”
“Right.” I nodded. “All they can do is lie in bed and endure the
suffering until they die.”
It was a miserable thought, but there was nothing anyone could do.
So the mages continued their treatments, prolonging the lives of
people who were never going to recover.
I couldn’t stand this place.
Because the contradictions of this city were on display at every turn.
“Oh, Monica came by, huh?”
“She must be investigating another case.”
“What an unpleasant sight she is.”
“She can’t do anything.”
Besides that, voices criticizing my incompetence echoed freely down
the halls.
“She’ll never live up to her father’s legacy, I guess,” someone
uttered.
I stopped in my tracks and turned around, but nobody was looking
my way. As if they had all conspired together, everyone had their
back to me and was walking away.
“…What’s wrong, Monica?”
“…No, it’s nothing.”

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I shook my head and followed Saya out.
At least I could consider it a silver lining that the voices hadn’t
seemed to reach Saya’s ears.
Saya and I stuck together for a while even after I’d finished showing
her around.
“Say, Monica? Let’s interview witnesses for the investigation this
afternoon!”
“…I don’t think we’re going to find any clues, though.”
“Come on, don’t say that!”
Saya dragged me outside, and we started to interview various
people. From afternoon until night, we wandered around town, even
though I knew perfectly well that it wouldn’t yield any results no
matter how long we kept at it, since I had already long since
investigated whether or not there were any eyewitnesses among the
citizens.
Yet Saya walked around town the following day, and the day after
that, pulling me along behind her.
Nearly every day, she would visit various places with me, buy some
snacks, go watch a show, and do other, similar leisure activities. Then
she would conduct some interviews about the incidents almost as an
afterthought.
“All right, Monica, where should we go next?” Saya smiled at me as
we walked through a crowd. She was carrying an armful of bread
that she had purchased at a nearby street stall.
“…You’ve got to be kidding?”
To start with, the place that we were visiting now was a main street
that had nothing at all to do with the incidents. It was an utterly
inappropriate place to conduct witness interviews, and it was
obvious that coming here was a wasted effort.

Page | 119
There was no meaning to it at all.
“I’m doing my job, more or less,” Saya said to me as I frowned
suspiciously at her. “I’ve come to a place that has nothing to do with
the incidents, and I’m watching the reactions of the townspeople.”
“…For what purpose?” I tilted my head.
Saya answered matter-of-factly, “Humans are selfish creatures, so no
matter how many others are suffering, they can ignore it as long as
it’s happening somewhere else.” Pressing a piece of bread into my
hands, she continued, “And at least around here, there aren’t that
many people who are upset with you. If anything, there are too
many people around to tell who might hate you, right, Monica?”
Saya said, as if it was a matter of course.
I thought I had managed to keep my troubles hidden from her, but
she had obviously guessed what was going on with no difficulty.
“…………” So I was surprised. “You noticed?”
I felt just like she had read my mind.
“I knew right away. You had such a pained look on your face.”
“…I thought I had on the same expression as I always do, but—”
“That’s not what it looked like to me, not at all.”
“Oh?”
“No. When someone is in pain, sometimes it’s all they can think
about. They don’t have the energy to think about anything else.”
Saya took another bite of bread, swallowed it, and continued, “You
may think you’re acting normally, but everyone else can see that
that’s not true at all.”
“…………”
“When you’re having a tough time, the best thing to do is to cast
aside everything in your head and wander around absentmindedly in

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an unfamiliar place, thinking about nothing. So now that we’re
somewhere that has nothing to do with the incidents, will you
wander awhile like this with me?”
It seemed like I was even more exhausted than I had realized.
The bread that Saya had given to me was unbelievably delicious. As it
passed my lips and dropped into my empty belly, I remembered that
I had hardly eaten anything in the past few days.
“It’s good, right? Well, it is bread that I bought, after all!”
Bossy Saya was there by my side, spouting logic that I hardly
understood.
I smiled.
“That’s what I like about you.”
“Aw, I’m blushing.”
I wanted this peaceful time to continue forever, just like this.
But…
“Saya, don’t forget that we have a mission… We have to solve this
case as quickly as possible.”
“There’s no problem there,” snorted the bossy Saya proudly. “After
all, visiting a place that has no connection to the incidents is also the
thing to do when an investigation gets tough.”
Then she pointed to the edge of the street.
This was a place with lots of pedestrian traffic, so there were all sorts
of folks coming and going. People shopping. The fragrance of
delicious-smelling food. Carts carrying heavy loads. Adults on their
way to work. Mages buying snacks. People passing up and down the
street on all sorts of business.

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We also noticed a homeless man on the side of the broad street,
someone who had nowhere else to go. Saya was pointing at the man,
who I could see was sitting on a wooden crate, begging for money
from passersby.
“If I remember correctly, the first victim was a homeless man, right?”
She looked excited as she gazed at the man by the side of the road.
“And look, the pose that he’s in, doesn’t it resemble the way that all
the victims were praying?”
In other words, she seemed to have discovered a connection
between the incidents and this homeless man, who was begging for
money.
I let out a sigh.
“…He’s not praying.”
“Hm? Then what is that pose?”
I answered, “He’s begging for salvation.”
Up until now, I had never asked anyone for help, or expected
anything from anyone.
I had always believed that it was pointless to do so.
My mother left us before I was old enough to understand, and my
father, who was a doctor, worked late every night, so I was always
left at home alone. Even when my father did come home, all he did
was drink. I had no memories of playing with my father when I was
young.
I always did all the cooking and housework by myself. Other adults
would frown and say, “Poor thing,” as they watched me do the
shopping when I was a child, not yet ten years old. But I knew
perfectly well that my father loved me from the bottom of his heart.
Much more than the strangers who just pitied me from a distance.
He loved me deeply.

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From the time I was very small, my father wanted to get me out of
the city.
“You’re a magical genius,” he told me. “It would be a waste for you
to use your powers in a narrow-minded place like this.”
He said such things to me often. Eventually I found myself wanting to
meet my father’s expectations and get out of the city.
So I worked hard, harder than anyone else. All the other kids who
had been born into magical families aspired to become local doctors,
but I alone began to study to join the United Magic Association.
Everyone looked at me like I was some kind of freak. Some people
thought I was just eccentric, and other people looked down on me,
calling me my father’s puppet.
Despite all that, I continued studying, trying to live up to my father’s
expectations.
I easily passed my mage exams (either because I studied so hard, or
maybe just because nobody else in my hometown was interested in
working for the United Magic Association) and was all ready to leave
the city.
My father paid the unbelievably expensive departure costs for me,
and I set off. He’d been too busy with work to see me off in person.
The last words I ever exchanged with him were earlier the day of my
departure, when he’d suddenly told me, “Don’t ever come back
here.”
That was the only thing he ever said to me that resembled a farewell.
In his eyes as he looked at me then, I could see his feelings for my
mother, whose face I had never known.
In truth, I had always wanted to save lives, just like my father. But I
had never admitted it out loud.
I had known everything since I was young.

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I had known, better than anyone, that my father hoped I wouldn’t
live my life as he had.
And yet in the end, I had returned to the city.
Once I was accepted into the United Magic Association, I was
supposed to spend the first few months attending lectures with all
the other new recruits.
Personally, I thought it would be a waste of time.
All my fellow students were confident, outgoing girls, and when
lessons were over, they would stand around the lecture hall asking
each other if they wanted to go get something to eat or hang out
elsewhere. It seemed like they were only interested in having a good
time.
Rather than concern themselves with their future responsibilities, all
they worried about was having fun and goofing off when they should
have been studying. From what I could see, there was only one other
girl there who was earnestly trying to learn anything.
“I will definitely become a witch, I will definitely become a witch, I
will become a witch, I will become a witch, I will become a witch, I
will become a witch, I will become a witch, I will become a witch…”
She was the odd one out, mumbling her mantra in the seat next to
mine.
“…………”
Her face was stiff with nervousness when she first introduced herself
and told me her name was Saya. There was definitely something
strange about her. She said she wanted to work with the Association
while traveling.
Most of the new recruits in our class were planning to return to their
hometowns as soon as their training was over, so that they could

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work for their local branch offices. Someone like Saya, who wasn’t
planning to go back home, really stood out.
She and I had that in common.
Maybe that was why I noticed her. Every day, she showed up to class
looking like she was at death’s door, and during breaks she just
studied. She didn’t speak to anyone. Once the lectures for the day
had ended, she would immediately run off somewhere. There were
times that other girls attempted to invite her to go hang out, but in
the end, she barely seemed to acknowledge them. Eventually,
everyone began to think of her as an oddball, but she didn’t seem to
even notice.
The other mages back in my hometown had looked at me the same
way. Maybe that explained the strange affinity I felt for her.
I decided at some point that I would like to try to talk to her
sometime. But even though I was interested, I hadn’t actually spoken
to anyone either, and I strongly doubted that I would ever get the
chance.
Even now, I remember our first conversation quite well. We ran into
each other on the way home from studying.
From that day on—actually, from the next day on—she made a point
to come talk to me during every break and after every lecture.
Probably because I had caught her attention during class.
When she did, I gave her only cold, short responses. Which was the
opposite of how I really felt.
When other girls approached me, they didn’t even try to hide their
intentions. They were only interested because I was a good student.
So it took me a long time to let my guard down.
Even so, Saya kept talking to me.
I was so happy.

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Eventually, she and I became friends.
“And then, see, the witch who helped me out back then, Elaina is her
name, she’s generally a pretty good person, and—”
Saya often talked about the witch who’d rescued her.
Really, really often.
Enough that I was completely sick of hearing about her.
“…I’ve heard this story ten times already.”
“Great, I’ll tell you a hundred more times!”
“……”
According to Saya, this Elaina person was the witch who had inspired
her to become a witch herself.
Even though I made terribly bored faces at Saya whenever she
repeated the same stories over and over, I really felt jealous that she
knew a witch who had had such an influence on her.
I thought about how nice it would be to mean that much to
someone.
Saya and I talked about a lot during that time together, but none of it
was worth noting. Our time together as students was not particularly
exciting.
However, I loved the time that I spent with Saya. Even though I
always wore a sullen expression, I loved hearing her tell me about
herself, and I loved every minute that she spent with me.
We began walking home together after lectures each day.
“She’s as merciless as ever…”
Miss Sheila, Saya’s teacher, must have been very strict, because Saya
was always completely exhausted. I didn’t know why she put up with
it, maybe because of how badly she wanted to become a witch, or

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because she wanted to catch up with Elaina or whoever. Whatever
the case, Saya was completely absorbed in her training. She certainly
didn’t balk at hard work. Compared to the other girls, who were just
going through the motions of taking the lectures, Saya seemed much
engaged.
“…Sorry to hear that. If you’d like, we could go get something to
eat.”
“Yes, please!”
Saya was the kind of girl whose intentions were always written
plainly on her face. As soon as I looked at her, I could tell what she
was thinking. She did not seem to have a single underhanded bone in
her body. If she was happy, she smiled broadly; if she was sad, she
frowned; and if she felt hungry, you could read it on her face.
She always said what was really on her mind, and I felt like I could
trust her more than anyone else. That was why we could spend time
together.
“You’re a really honest person, aren’t you?”
“Well, there’s no reason to lie, is there? I’m hungry!” Saya answered
coolly. She added, “Actually, I lied once a long time ago, but I got
found out.”
“By Elaina, right? I know.”
“Did I tell you about this already?”
“Only about ten times or so.”
“Well, I’ll just have to tell you a hundred times, then!”
“Please don’t. My ears will fall off.”
Saya was always repeating the stories she told me about herself.

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One day during a break, as she was animatedly telling me some
trivial tale, I’d asked her for the first and only time: “…Why do you
tell me these stories about yourself?”
Saya had looked at me with a curious expression, then, as expected,
answered me truthfully, “Hm? Isn’t it normal to want your friends to
know more about you?”
“…………”
I wondered just how normal that was.
I had never made a friend before, I had never wanted anyone to
know about me, and I had never met anyone whom I cared to get to
know.
In my case…
I had also never been able to trust anyone else.
“…And is it normal to accept your friends for who they are?”
Even I had to wonder what I was asking. I would have been utterly
bewildered if anyone had suddenly asked me such a thing.
Saya tilted her head curiously. I could tell that she was wondering
what I was getting at. But then she laughed easily and said, “Well,
I’m not sure, but I think that would be a normal thing to do, right?”
Of course, these words, too, contained no lies, only her true feelings.
“…………”
That was when a foolish thought came to me. I thought that maybe,
if anyone could understand me, it would be Saya. That this girl in
front of me might somehow choose to stay with me even after she
knew about my past.
And so…
“The thing is, I…,” I started to tell her.

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To tell her my truth.
The truth about me.
But…
“Break’s over. Lecture’s starting, so take your seats.”
…I had really bad timing. As soon as I opened my mouth to speak,
Miss Sheila casually strolled through the door to the lecture hall.
“Ah! Sorry! We’ll talk later!” Saya hurriedly returned to her own seat.
She seemed particularly intimidated by her teacher.
In the end, I didn’t get the chance to tell her my secret.
I kept that secret, which I had never told anyone, not even my father,
hidden in my heart, as the lecture began.

“Generally speaking, serial killers can be divided into two criminal

categories.”
My teacher Sheila was giving a lecture about how serial killers can be
sorted into the predatory hunter type and the impulsive type.
“One category contains the people who kill because they enjoy it.
These are typically intelligent people who understand that murder
flies in the face of morality. Fundamentally, this variety of killer is
smart, and proficient at communicating with others. Often both of
their parents are alive and well, and they were born into the upper
social classes. Killers with these characteristics frequently think of
murder as a hobby. In other words, these are the hunters.”
Sheila continued, “But the other major type of killer is the opposite
of the hunter. They don’t actually enjoy killing, and they’re not
capable of understanding that it is wrong. Typically, killers of this
type are less intellectual and have difficulty communicating with
other people. Oftentimes they have only one parent. Poverty may

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also be a factor. Killers with these characteristics often suffer from
visual and auditory hallucinations, and that suffering leads them to
commit murder. In short, to these impulsive types, killing people is
simply a means to an end…but there are those serial killers who do
not fit either of these classifications. Do you know why that might
be? Monica?”
Sheila suddenly called on Monica, but Monica didn’t look worried at
all. With a very cool expression, she answered, “Because those
people likely possess characteristics of both classifications.”
Sheila nodded. Monica had apparently answered correctly.
“That’s right. And this type of serial killer is considered to be even
more difficult to catch. Hunters tend to be very selective about their
prey. Most of them also use weapons that they have prepared
beforehand, so if you base your investigation on the victims and the
tools used to kill them, it’s easy to narrow down a suspect. Impulsive
killers aren’t too picky and kill at random—on impulse—but since
they often improvise weapons and tend to make a mess of the crime
scene, they usually leave plenty of physical evidence, and you can
narrow down a suspect if you start your investigation from the scene
of the crime. But people who have both types of characteristics are a
different story.”
Sheila explained that, basically, they leave no evidence behind at the
scene, and it’s extremely difficult to figure out how they choose their
victims.
“Killers who fall outside the two major categories are almost
impossible to profile. If you find yourself on the trail of one of those,
you can expect a difficult investigation.”
She must have confronted such a killer in the past. Sheila stood in
front of the lectern, shrugged her shoulders, and let out a sigh.

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“It might take you a long time to catch them, which can sometimes
lead the community you’re working in to doubt your abilities. This
can be…difficult.”
At the time, Sheila had warned us, almost like a threat—
“You’d better be prepared if you ever have to deal with that type of
killer.”
And then we found out that it really was just like Sheila had said.
All that I knew, after entering this city and investigating for several
days, was that the culprit left no clues to speak of. The killer
appeared out of nowhere, committed the murder, and disappeared
without leaving behind any evidence. We didn’t even know the
killer’s age or gender, let alone any defining characteristics, and all
we had done was waste precious time.
Monica and I had started going on patrol together, hoping to at least
prevent any more murders from occurring. Even though the city’s
soldiers were supposed to be keeping watch, we felt that only mages
like us were fit to take on another mage, so with Monica by my side, I
walked around the city every night until it was late.
A week passed.
As always, there were no developments in our investigation.
And so the curtain fell on another day, free of death.
How pleasant it would be if we could just spend our time like this.
How joyous if things would stay like this, with no murders.
“So what it comes down to is that a serial killer who is both impulsive
and a hunter is someone who is very intelligent yet feels compelled
to kill people—is that what it means?”
“If they possess characteristics of both types, then I think that’s what
it means.”

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“I wonder why they have to kill people.”
“Who knows?” Monica’s voice was cold. “I wonder why, myself.”
It wasn’t something I often heard Monica say. Ordinarily, Monica just
knew things; her knowledge seemed boundless. For instance, during
our lessons, whenever there had been something I hadn’t been able
to understand, she had always quickly explained things for me.
It always seemed like there was nothing that Monica didn’t know.
I smiled at her. “Monica, where should we go tomorrow?”
As I looked at her from the side, her expression seemed wracked
with distress.
I had been thinking that she must be wearing herself out again, and
that we ought to go somewhere to relax.
I wanted to see Monica smile again, even just a little.
But she seemed to see right through me and shook her head.
“We have work tomorrow, too. I’m not going anywhere unrelated to
the case, like we did before.”
“But—”
“I’m not going.”
Then she came to a sudden halt.
“……”
A moment later, I stopped, too. When I turned around, I saw Monica
standing beneath a streetlight, hanging her head.
She stood in the light, but her expression was dark, as if she might
dissolve into the shadows at any moment.
I spoke to her.

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“…All right, at the very least, if something’s bothering you, won’t you
discuss it with me? You’re my friend, Monica. Why are you suffering
alone? Why won’t you tell me anything? Something is causing you
pain, isn’t it? So why…?”
Why are you hanging your head like that?
As soon as I saw her face, I knew the answer.
No matter how unreadable her expression was, or how little her
emotions fluctuated, I knew. It had been many years since we last
met, but I had seen Monica make a face like that once during the
time we’d spent together as new recruits.
So when I saw it, I knew.
I’d known as soon as I’d arrived in this city and saw Monica again.
She was being tormented by some intractable problem.
I stared her straight in the face.
But Monica averted her eyes.
“Let’s work separately from tomorrow on. We shouldn’t be
together.”
“…No way. We’re sticking together.”
“Why?”
“……” I answered, “I can’t let you go off on your own, Monica. In your
state, if you’re by yourself, you might get attacked by the killer—”
“I’m fine. I won’t get attacked.”
“But…”
“Or are you saying that because you’ll be at a disadvantage if you let
me go off on my own?”
“……”

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Monica looked at me with eyes that felt like they were looking right
through me, and I couldn’t help averting my gaze.
It was as if my whole world had gone dark. From somewhere on the
edges of my perception, I heard a sigh, and then a sorrowful voice,
filled with disappointment.
“You’re not how you used to be anymore, are you?”

After the day’s lectures were over…

Saya had her witch training and I stayed behind to study, so we
would often each be heading home at the same time, and as the
days of lectures wore on, we walked home together more often.
On the day in question, we were walking down the road, side by side,
as the sun set.
“Come to think of it, what were you trying to tell me this afternoon?”
As I was staring at a resurrection lily blooming along the side of the
road, Saya suddenly intruded on my field of vision, her head tilting to
the side inquisitively.
I immediately understood that she wanted to know the rest of what I
had been about to say before Sheila had started her lecture.
But I was too embarrassed to say it again.
“What do you mean?” I feigned ignorance.
“You were about to tell me something, weren’t you? What was it
that you wanted to say?”
“Nothing in particular.”
“Huh? You’re lying. You were definitely going to tell me something.
What was it? Love troubles?”
“No.”

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“All right, what then?”
“I told you, nothing in particular.”
“…Hmm, is that so?” Based on her personality, I was on my guard,
expecting Saya to try to draw the secret out of me by force, if
necessary. But she backed off immediately. “Well, if you don’t want
to tell me, that’s fine, but…”
But she continued.
“…If you do want to tell me, don’t hold back, okay? I might not be
very dependable, but if something’s troubling you, I’d like to help
you.”
I want to know more about you, Monica. Those words that Saya had
said to me were not a lie or a falsehood.
What she really thought had just come straight out of her mouth.
That’s why…
“…You definitely won’t tell anybody?” My mouth was moving before
I realized. “I’ve never told this secret to anyone before. Not any
acquaintances, not my parents, no one.”
“I won’t tell. Of course I won’t.” Saya nodded readily, her face
brimming with trust.
I got the feeling that if it was Saya, she would accept me even if she
knew the truth.
I felt like I wanted her to know the real me.
“I…”
And then…
On that day, I spilled my secret to her.
With just a few words, I revealed the secret that I had never told
anyone, all these years.

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“……”
In the twilight, Saya was quiet for a little while. Then, after a pause,
she frowned as if wondering whether I might be joking. But she
looked at my face and understood that it was no joke, and then
finally, her cheeks flushed just a little.
“Is…that so…? That’s…I’m a little…embarrassed…”
She didn’t seem to find me repulsive. She simply believed my words
and smiled.
I was happy.
“I like you.” The words rushed out impatiently, and I smiled to try to
cover my embarrassment. “And I like lots of things about you.”
She was a hard worker. Diligent. Kind. She couldn’t stand hurting
others. She never lied. She didn’t even tell little white lies. She just
lived honestly in the moment, and I was dazzled by her.
I admired her so much, and I wished from the bottom of my heart I
could live like she did.
So much so that I hoped—begged—to become the most important
person in her world.
“Never change, okay, Saya?”
But I knew that there was
someone else who already occupied the deepest reaches of her
heart. I knew that there was no place for me there.
I had known everything from the time I was very small.
I had always been painfully aware.

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Immediately after I had arrived in this place—in Emadestrin, a Town
Where People Live, I had come face-to-face with Monica, and I was
very surprised to see her.
The fact that the problems in her hometown hadn’t been resolved
yet had led me to believe that either Monica had left some time ago,
or there was some other set of circumstances in play keeping her
from addressing the problem.
When I had initially accepted the commission, concern for her well-
being had been the biggest thing on my mind.
That’s why I was surprised to see her.
I found it strange that Monica was still here in the city and hadn’t
cracked the case yet. It was unthinkable.
Because she knew everything.
Because the Monica that I knew could solve any problem.
Because several years earlier, she had told me a secret that she had
never revealed to anyone else.
“I can read people’s minds.”
Because she had told me, and only me, the truth about herself.
When I’d arrived at Emadestrin and met up with Monica, I had
immediately and intentionally closed my mind off.
I had forced myself to forget about the case and had gone to the
main avenue that had absolutely nothing to do with it, where I had
put on a show of wild, disordered reasoning.
At any rate, I had endeavored to think about nothing at all.
I had lied, too, and manipulated.
Even if it went against Monica’s wishes, I couldn’t allow her to read
my thoughts.

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“The reason why you’ve been dragging me around all day and night
is that you think I might kill someone if you leave me alone…right?”
“……”
If Monica was still in this city but hadn’t solved the murder cases, the
truth was one of two options.
Either she was unable to catch the culprit for some reason, like, for
example, they were threatening her, or were an acquaintance of
hers, or something, or she herself was the killer. One of these had to
be true.
But I had ruled out the former option. After a brief investigation, it
became clear that there was way too little information about the
killer.
It’s almost as if they can see right through into the minds of all the
townsfolk and can sneak around without anyone suspecting them.
It was strange that, despite the incidents happening for the past six
months, not a single eyewitness could be found. The soldiers were
supposed to be on patrol, and if they had spotted anyone suspicious,
we certainly would have heard about it.
But I hadn’t picked up on a single rumor.
This was not something that even a hunter-type murderer could have
pulled off, let alone an impulsive type.
No one could have, except for Monica.
“…You’ve got some sort of problem, don’t you? Some reason why
you feel you have to kill…?”
I was positive she had a reason. I was certain that she had been
driven into a corner, to the point where there was no way she could
avoid doing it.
That was why I had begged her to let me help her.

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“It’s got nothing to do with you.”
Unfortunately, my feelings didn’t get through to her.
Monica was already gripping her wand, pointing it right at my face.
“If you leave me alone, I can let you go.”
In other words, she meant…
“…So if I get in your way, you’ll kill me?”
“You’re quick on the uptake. That’s a big help.”
“……”
Since Monica could easily read anyone’s mind, she was probably
perfectly aware of what I was thinking at that moment.
She knew that I had absolutely no intention of backing down.
“…I see.” Sorrow surfaced on her face. “…That’s unfortunate.”
Then she waved her wand.
Countless balls of fire appeared around her. Along with their
radiance, I could feel their heat on my skin.
Before I could get my wand out, Monica flicked her wrist. That slight
movement sent the fireballs flying toward me, one after another.
“Tch—!”
Just before they hit my face, I deflected the fireballs with water
conjured from my own wand.
“Wait, please…Monica…! I—”
One by one, I extinguished the flames with orbs of water, countering
her attack.
My mind was racing, wondering if there was anything I could say or
do to get her to stop. I began to walk toward her, and to block my
approach, Monica waved her wand again.

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I had no intention of hurting her, and certainly no intention of killing
her. So I wasn’t able to use any highly lethal spells.
When Monica shot icicles at me, I shattered them. When she
uprooted a streetlight and threw it at me, I changed its trajectory
and dropped it onto the road.
I made almost no offensive moves myself.
The most I did was pull up garbage cans and flower beds from houses
nearby and fling them at her in halfhearted attacks that were not
even threatening.
But that didn’t stop her.
“For someone who managed to become a witch, you use awfully
unbecoming spells, don’t you?”
“Is that what it looks like?”
“Yeah.” Monica chuckled, then proceeded to smash every single
object I had hurled at her into tiny pieces. “If you’re not willing to
cast real, lethal magic, you’ll never stop me, Saya.”
I tried to gather up all the scrap wood and bind her with it, but the
moment the thought occurred to me, she had already set fire to the
materials scattered all around us.
No matter what I attempted, she countered my spells.
“……”
But…
By no means was I at a disadvantage.
“…I didn’t want to have to do something like this to you, Monica.”
I gathered power into my fingertips and pointed my wand at her.

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Since she could read her opponent’s mind and was thus fully aware
of the kinds of spells I was trying to cast, it was probably going to be
difficult to stop her using superficial magic.
But that didn’t mean that I couldn’t stand up to her.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
Then I fired a spell from my wand.
The first thing I fired off was a volley of fireballs, which she easily
extinguished with balls of water, but immediately after the fire, a
blast of wind pressed in on her. Of course, she had been able to
anticipate that attack, too, and easily dodged it, but her reaction to
the shower of icicles that loomed overhead was a little slow. Just
then, there came the sound of an explosion from behind her, where
the wind had destroyed the wall of a house, sending countless pieces
of rubble to strike her in the back. Before her face could even distort
with the pain, the next attack, an artless clump of raw magical
energy, approached before her eyes, but she hit it with an identical
clump of spell energy and they negated each other. In the
momentary distraction that that provided, ivy broke through the red
bricks that covered the ground and stretched upward until it seized
Monica, but even this she calmly tore away. I launched the broken
bricks directly at her face, but there couldn’t have been much
damage where they hit her, and all she did was look slightly
displeased. But even so, I knew it would take a little bit of time
before she noticed that the bricks had been a distraction just like the
magical energy blast.
Because she released the tension from her arm, just for a moment,
and when she extended it to make a counterattack, she was already
no longer gripping her wand.
“……!”
That was the first time I had ever seen her look surprised.

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In between hitting her gently in the face with ordinary bricks, I had
managed to knock the wand out of her hand. Ivy wound around her
feet again as she stood there, bewildered, after realizing that she had
no wand, and this time I restrained her completely.
“…I’m sorry,” I apologized again.
I had known from the beginning that she was able to read my mind. I
had also known how to stop her if we ever got into a fight.
It was quite simple.
I just had to bombard her with so many spells that she couldn’t keep
up with all of them even if she could read my mind.
I had always known that I could stop her that way. I had been
reluctant to do so only because I hadn’t wanted to injure her.
“……”
I figured that she probably knew what I was thinking at that moment.
Restrained, unable to move a muscle, she surrendered.
“I guess I was no match for a witch,” she said with resignation, and
smiled.

Word that Monica, the mage who was supposed to be working to

protect the public peace, was actually the serial killer spread through
the city immediately.
Everyone either shuddered with fear or shook with naked rage. This
was only natural coming from the bereaved family members of her
victims, but other related parties, as well as people who had, up until
then, never spared a thought for the incidents, all attacked her
without exception. It was not a surprising response to the news that
the city’s protector had actually been preying upon it.

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The city was overflowing with animosity for Monica.
“Thank you so much for what you did, Lady Saya.”
Even the government official who offered me a businesslike
expression of thanks in a composed tone of voice probably felt the
same.
“If you hadn’t been here, she would probably still be going around
killing people. I would truly like to express my gratitude…”
I’m sure that if I had been able to read minds like Monica, I wouldn’t
have been able to even look him squarely in the face.
“I was just doing my job,” I said, shaking my head. “As for
Monica…what will become of her now?”
“I suppose she’ll receive punishment in accordance with the laws of
our city.”
“……”
“It goes without saying that the crimes she committed were of the
utmost seriousness. She’s a murderer. It might be appropriate to
sentence her to capital punishment.”
When a mage affiliated with the United Magic Association resolved a
case and captured the culprit, one of two things happened.
Either the mage returned to the Association head office with the
culprit in tow and a suitable punishment was meted out there, or the
culprit received punishment in accordance with the laws of the
country where the crime took place.
The former option was a special exemption that applied in countries
where no laws had been established regarding mages, so as a
general rule, the fate of the culprit was usually left to the local
authorities. This was also beneficial for Association mages because it
allowed them to finish up their cases quickly. However, considering

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the circumstances, I felt really, really reluctant to leave Monica in the
hands of these people.
“…Will she be sentenced to death?”
I had discovered her true identity as a murderer.
I was even able to apprehend her.
But as for why she kept on killing people…when it came to that one
point, she had stubbornly kept her mouth shut. I still had no idea
why.
“Capital punishment in our city is not the death penalty.” The official
shook his head. Apparently, I had been mistaken. “We do not
approve of any sort of killing here. Both suicide and homicide are,
without exception, considered to be the most serious offenses. That
goes for the death penalty as well. Issuing the death penalty for
killing someone would seem to contradict our laws, don’t you
agree?”
“……”
But in that case…
“So what is the capital punishment here?”
The official answered me readily.
“Exile.”
I walked through the city in a daze.
My business here was concluded. I had no other reason to remain in
this city. I had finished everything I had come to do, so the logical
thing to do would be to hurry up and fly my broom to the next place.
But for some reason, I couldn’t leave.
Monica.

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Ultimately, I still had no idea why she’d felt compelled to kill people,
or what her goal was.
I wanted to see her just one more time.
That was why I was walking around the city in a daze.
“…You’re Saya, right?”
And then…
Someone called out to me. When I turned around, a mage was
standing there alone.
I had met her only once, but I remembered her.
Let’s see, her name is…
“It’s…Frauze…is that right?”
I was pretty sure she was the doctor who had performed the
autopsies on the murder victims. I had met her only briefly when
Monica and I had visited the hospital, so I wasn’t entirely confident
that I’d gotten her name right.
“Yes. I’m the coroner, Frauze.” Apparently, I had gotten it right. “Do
you have some time to spare right now?”
“……”
Her expression was cloudy.
I could tell that she was holding on to feelings that were completely
different from those of most of the people living in the city.
“I’ve got something to tell you…about Monica.”
“…What is it?”
She answered me briefly, “We knew the motive of the killer the
whole time.”

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They knew yet stayed silent, she told me.
This was a weighty confession indeed.

Once I’d left the city, like my father had always wanted, I thought I
would never go back again. I thought I would probably never see my
father again.
That was why I answered with the same words every time, whenever
Saya asked me whether I was planning to go back home after our
training period was over.
“I have no intention of returning to my hometown.”
Those words were not a lie.
Around the time our training came to an end, Saya, who had stayed
with me even after learning that I could read people’s minds,
seemed to have forgotten our exchange not long after meeting,
because she asked me in the same words as back then, “Once our
training is over, are you going back home, Monica?”
I answered her honestly, “…It looks like I have no choice but to
return.”
Just before our training ended, a correspondence had reached me
from Emadestrin, a Town Where People Live.
Written on the piece of paper was a long, businesslike message.
But in summary, it basically said, Your father has killed someone. He
has received the punishment of exile. We need to discuss the issue of
damages. Please return to the city promptly.
That was all it said.
I had never expected to go back to my hometown again.
And yet in some part of my mind, the thought had occurred to me.

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The idea that a day like this might come sometime.
Awaiting me when I got back to the city were suspicious gazes for the
only daughter of a criminal.
As soon as I got back, a city official told me just what kind of person
my father had been. “Your father was a doctor, but he purposely
administered dangerous drugs to his patients and ended their lives.
He was a serial killer, I’m sorry to say. He must have been doing it the
entire time that your family was living in this city; long enough that
there were many, many victims. And as for the financial damages…”
The sum of money that was then presented to me was an amount
that I could never possibly hope to pay off on my own.
The official told me that the city was going to use the money to ease
the pain in the hearts of the families of the victims killed by my
criminal father. And since my father had already been punished with
exile, there was no other way than for me to pay it myself. They had
already seized everything my father had saved up, and sold his
house, but it wasn’t nearly enough to satisfy his debt, which would
now be forced upon me.
Then the official made a proposal.
“How about going to work for the city? Until the debt is repaid, you
could devote yourself to the maintenance of public safety.”
Since most of the local mages worked at the hospital, they had
apparently been looking for someone to work for the city for a while.
What’s more, I had a United Magic Association brooch hanging on
my breast. Having me work for the city was probably ideal for them.
“Most of the people in this city know that you were on bad terms
with your father. He abused you, and you got out when you couldn’t
stand it anymore, right? There are many who sympathize with your
circumstances. I don’t think anyone will object to your presence.”

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The official touched my shoulder as he spoke.
But I knew the truth.
I knew that my father had loved me more deeply than anyone else
ever had.
I had never once been grateful for the ability to read people’s minds.
As I walked around town, the animosity and discontent of other
people echoed incessantly in my head. For example, two people
exchanging words with smiles on their faces might secretly despise
each other, or two lovers walking along hand in hand might not love
each other at all. If I walked close enough, I could learn everything.
There was nothing that I didn’t know.
Everything was perfectly clear to me, all the anger, pain, joy, and
sadness that people were hiding deep in their hearts.
Of course, I also knew that my father had been killing people while
working as a doctor.
But at the same time, I knew that he suffered more than anyone else
in the city.
My father certainly had not been killing people for his twisted
amusement. And he wasn’t mad or cruel. He was neither an
impulsive person, nor a hunter.
It was simply that he had no other choice but to end their lives.
The Lycoris Disease had ravaged the city for a long time, ever since I
was a child, but no one had ever found a way to treat it. Once
someone contracted the disease, the only thing the doctors could do
was put the patient on magical life support, which was incredibly
expensive.
These daunting sums, greater than any normal person could hope to
pay, loomed over the patients’ families. But in this city, euthanasia

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was as unforgivable as homicide or suicide. The doctors had to keep
the patients on life support, which only drove their families further
into debt. But euthanasia was forbidden, and so for the patient and
their family, waiting for the end was nothing but endless suffering.
In order to save these people from their awful fates, my father had
slipped certain lethal drugs into the patients’ normal medications. He
kept his actions a secret, bottling up the pain and refusing to confide
in anyone as he thanklessly laid his patients to rest once and for all.
Every day, my father’s spirit was worn away by his work. When he
came home, he would lose himself in alcohol, and occasionally he
even raised a hand to me. But I never once fell into despair.
Because I knew that my father’s heart hurt worse than my cheek
ever did.
Just as he had spent his life battling his own demons, I, too, stifled
my own secrets. I lived by turning a deaf ear to people’s grief.
When I was fifteen, my father said to me, “You’re a magical genius. It
would be a waste for you to use your powers in a narrow-minded
place like this.”
But his true feelings were different.
My father knew. He knew that at some point his actions would come
to light, and that the city would not be happy about it. My father was
choosing a surface-level reason to drive me out of the city. But it
wasn’t because he hated me, or because I was a burden.
It was simply because he could see no point in me remaining here in
this joyless city.
“Don’t ever come back here.”
Even the words that he said to me right before I left were a lie.

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I knew what he really felt. I knew that my father wished he could be
with me, that in his heart he hoped I would, in fact, return someday.
But he was suppressing all these feelings.
So in the end…
When a letter arrived at the Association from Emadestrin, I resolved
to return to the city.
The truth is that everyone thinks this city is strange.
They all have their doubts about the place, but they never say
anything. They look away, choosing to believe that they themselves
are the strange ones for having those doubts.
So they shut their mouths and put up with anything, no matter how
unreasonable.
But I could hear everything.
My mind was filled with the anguished thoughts of the victims of
Lycoris Disease, who still had no hope for recovery, and of the mages
who had yet to discover a single successful treatment for the
epidemic.
Someone has to tell them. Tell them that what they’re doing is
wrong.
Someone has to save them. Save these people from their endless
suffering.
Someone has to become a martyr.
I know that.
And I know that revealing the truth does not always end in tragedy.
Even though I was the one who could hear the thoughts in people’s
minds, Saya was the one who had taught me that lesson, by not
treating me any differently.

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So even though I knew that my father hadn’t wanted me to live the
same kind of life he did, in the end, I walked down the same path.

“It’s a famous story among the mages who work at the hospital.”
Frauze told me the tale of Monica’s father.
“Her father administered euthanasia to his patients, fully aware that
it went against the laws of the city. He’s been painted as someone
who killed for pleasure, while ostensibly disposing of the dangerous
drugs, but…at least among the mages who work at the hospital,
Monica’s father is something of a hero. That’s because he
accomplished something that no one else was able to do. Up to now,
we have seen countless families destroyed by enormous medical
expenses that drown them in debt. Your father saved people before
it got to that point. We’re under a strict gag order from the higher-
ups in the city government, and this truth has never surfaced before,
but…”
“……”
I answered her with silence, and she continued, “I can see most
everything when I perform the autopsy. I’ve always known that all
the victims to date were afflicted with Lycoris Disease.”
“…Are you saying you kept quiet?”
There is nothing else that I can learn from this corpse. She had said
something like that. I seemed to remember her also saying that she
would do anything she could do to help.
“It’s not just me.” Raising her voice ever so slightly, Frauze stared
back at me. “Most of the mages in this city are aware that every
single murder victim was a Lycoris Disease patient.”
“…In that case…”

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 Why didn’t you tell me anything?
Frauze interrupted these words before they made it out of my
mouth.
“We didn’t want Monica to solve the case. Even though we knew
that the government leaders had hung their hopes on her.”
If Monica solved the case, the patients suffering from Lycoris Disease
would be left without any relief again and would just have to suffer
on in despair.
So the mages had decided to stay silent. That must have been why
they found it so unpleasant when Monica came sniffing around
trying to resolve the incidents.
But the person who had been saving the Lycoris Disease patients had
been none other than Monica herself. Even when the people of the
city called her incompetent for not being able to solve the case, and
no matter how the mages at the hospital despised her, Monica had
never revealed the secrets of her own heart to anyone. She had
struggled on alone.
“Saya…”
By the time both of us knew all the details, Monica was already
beyond our grasp.
“We’ve done something horrible to her…”
She fell down in a fit of unbearable remorse, and tears ran down her
face.
“Recently, among the people I’ve met along my travels, there was
someone a bit strange.”
I recalled an earlier meeting I had with Elaina, a witch whom I hold in
the highest regard. She told me one story from her travels.
A story about an amazing girl she’d met in a certain city.

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“She could apparently see what was going to happen in the future,
the next day, and the day after that. She could even see further, and
she knew what was going to happen to the city, and how the
people’s lives would change, and things like that.”
“Wow, that’s a useful ability to have. If I had that kind of power, I’d
probably use it to make lots of money.”
I nodded noncommittally, and Elaina continued telling the story in an
even tone of voice.
“But this girl never used her power to fulfill such selfish desires.
Instead, she put her power to use by going around telling people’s
fortunes. She told one person, ‘You’ll have an accident tomorrow,’
and another, ‘Your partner is cheating on you,’ and another, ‘You will
die in one month.’ And all her predictions came true, just like she
said. Though that was only to be expected, of course, since she could
see the future.”
“…So in short, she was going around harassing people?”
“Pretty much, yeah. That’s what most people said about her.”
“……”
“Why do you think she did it?” I had more questions. I wondered
why on earth she would go around incurring people’s anger like that.
There didn’t seem to be any meaning behind it. Who on earth would
choose for everyone to hate them, I’d wondered. Apparently, my
inner thoughts were plain on my face, because Elaina answered my
unspoken question.
“Well, you see, she wasn’t just mindlessly getting involved in other
people’s affairs. Helping people avoid terrible fates meant dealing
with their resentment. The girl knew that she couldn’t ward off the
unhappy futures that awaited them, but in order to keep their

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suffering to a minimum, she deliberately went around issuing
prophecies that seemed like harassment.”
Then Elaina said…
She told me…
“That girl…”

I wonder why I’m remembering that now?

And why is my chest tightening up like this, at what should be
nothing more than a fun memory?
As I was running down the street, out of breath, I shook free of the
memories of my conversation with Elaina that were flickering
through my head. I was cursing myself for my own foolishness as I
sprinted toward Monica.
The Monica that I knew was not the kind of person who would kill for
pleasure. In fact, I was fairly certain she wasn’t the sort of person
who could do something like that lightly, even when compelled by
absolute necessity.
Because she was much smarter than me, and a kind person.
“Excuse me!” I shouted as I ran.
I caught sight of the government official walking down the road
ahead. He stopped, and without even waiting to catch my breath, I
grabbed ahold of him.
The official’s eyes opened wide with surprise at my sudden
appearance. “Oh, Lady Saya…what’s the matter?” He tilted his head
quizzically.
I gripped him tighter and said, “Listen…! About Monica…! Where is
she right now…!?”
I have to talk to her. I’ve got a duty to discover her true motives.

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 If what Frauze said is true… If Monica was actually driven to that
path in order to save the people living in this city…
If that’s what happened, then it would be completely wrong for the
city to condemn her, wouldn’t it?
Monica didn’t do anything wrong, did she?
“Unfortunately, she is no longer in the city.”
The official shook his head and tried to brush me off. “A short while
ago, her exile was officially declared. She’s probably already been
escorted outside the city walls,” he said readily and indifferently,
then turned his eyes toward the borders of the city.
She’s not here anymore…
That was simply the truth, but it set my heart pounding.
Elaina’s words flashed through my mind.
“That girl understood the pain of others all too well.”
I had a bad premonition.

In this city where killing people was not allowed, murderers were
sentenced to exile. Apparently, the city didn’t abide people who
broke the law.
But no one knows.
They don’t know what the punishment of exile really means.
“Stop.”
I was bound with chains down to my fingertips, so that I couldn’t
even get my wand out. From behind my back, someone called out to
me, and I did as they ordered.

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There were two soldiers behind me. They were traveling with me,
escorting me outside the city walls. They didn’t see fit to exchange
words with me, the criminal; they just hurled them at me, one-sided.
And since I could see what was in their hearts, and even knew the
fate that awaited me, I didn’t go out of my way to speak to them
either.
“……”
Before me spread a bank of red flowers.
Their stalks stretched straight up out of the ground. Atop the stems
were brilliant red blossoms, with petals spread out like fireworks.
Here in the forest, with the blue sky stretching out overhead, the
resurrection lilies were in full bloom all around us, completely
blanketing the ground.
It looked like a lake of flowers, or perhaps like a sea of blood.
I figured that my father had probably also come here once, and the
thought that I was standing in the same place where my father had
met the end of his life filled me with complicated emotions.
Did you really think that monsters who killed other people would be
permitted to go on with their lives outside the city walls? That just
exiling them would be enough to make up for their crimes?
Of course not.
My father, and probably anyone else who committed a serious crime
in Emadestrin, had surely met this same end. Punishing someone
with exile was simply a means to an end in a country where all killing
was prohibited.
I knew all this.
I even knew what my own final moments would be like.
“Do you have any last words?”

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Behind my back, one of the soldiers hurled this emotionless question
at me.
I looked back over my shoulder and shook my head.
“No.”
“All right then.”
Then the two soldiers started walking.
They trampled the resurrection lilies underfoot.
While pointing the tips of their spears at me.
My first victim was the homeless man.
His mind had told me that his body was afflicted with the illness.
Knowing that he had contracted Lycoris Disease, he had abandoned
his family, thrown away his social standing, and chosen the path of
loneliness for himself. All this, he had told me without saying a word.
So I made him a proposal. I would put him to sleep with a spell and
then end his life.
He had immediately accepted.
My second victim was the shop owner, for whom life was supposedly
going smoothly. The discovery of Lycoris Disease during a checkup at
the hospital had put him on the precipice of despair. I made my
proposal. And he had immediately accepted.
My third victim was a very earnest student. She had become afflicted
with Lycoris Disease and had chosen to kill herself. I’d stopped her
and made her a promise to end her life painlessly instead.
Person after person had allowed me to bring their lives to an end
with my own hands.
Those crimes had to be atoned for.
“Thank you.”

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Even though they had all worn smiles on their faces at the end, even
though they had spoken words of gratitude to me as they died, these
facts ultimately amounted to nothing.
“I’m sorry.”
Even these words could be no comfort to all those people who had
already taken their last breaths. Even the tears of remorse streaming
down my face didn’t change the fact that I had killed people.
I had to accept my punishment.
So I welcomed the blade that was thrust into me.
Before I realized it, the blue sky stretched out before my eyes.
The sounds of footsteps grew distant.
The two soldiers had not finished me off; they had just dealt me a
fatal wound and then left. I was certain that this was what “exile”
really meant.
Murderers were not allowed to die quickly, without suffering.
Suffering on and on, as much as possible.
The soldiers had left me only half dead.
With everyone else gone, now all alone, I extended a hand toward
the sky, in the same position as all the people whose lives I’d ended.
And then…
“…Help me… Someone—Saya, help me…”
I let out the words that I had been keeping in my heart all along.
But with my hands bound by chains, I couldn’t even beg for salvation.

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In a place a short distance from Emadestrin, a Town Where People
Live, there is a stretch of forest where the resurrection lilies bloom in
great numbers.
And there was one particular place that was brimming with those
blossoms, which Monica so loved.
I left the city and flew my broom around searching for her. I didn’t
know where she was, or if she had already long since gone off to
another city, but when I found that spot, that bouquet of red
blossoms, I was convinced that she must be there, too.
And sure enough, I spotted her there among the flowers.
“…Monica.”
She was lying in the middle of a pool of crimson blossoms, staring up
at the bright blue sky.
She was just lying there, her eyes open wide, as if absorbing the
view.
The red flowers were wet with blood.
“…Saya.”
She was still breathing. She turned her head heavily and looked at
me with eyes wet with tears. “…You came.”
I quickly cradled her in my arms.
If she’s still breathing…
“Hang in there! I’ll cast a spell right now!”
I can save her.
I pulled out my wand. If it was still possible to save her, then I
thought I had a duty to do so, even if she was considered a criminal
in her own city.
Because I was her friend.

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“Don’t…”
But she refused my help. She brushed aside my wand with hands
bound and bloody.
“What are you—”
What are you doing? Do you want to die?
“You can’t…,” she answered resolutely. “No matter what you do, I
don’t have long…”
“…Huh?”
“Lycoris Disease.”
She spoke those words shortly and concisely. Just two words. With
only that, I knew the reason that she refused my help.
She said, “I don’t have long.”
The disease must have already eaten into her body. The same
disease that had afflicted so many people living in Emadestrin was
inside her, too.
“…But I want you to live. Even one second longer. So…”
So I picked up my wand, ready to try to cure her, even if she didn’t
want me to. With a hand now wet with her blood, I gripped my wand
again. My fingers were trembling, and my aim was unsteady. My
vision was also unusually blurry, and that’s when I realized that I was
sobbing.
Monica shook her head slowly at me.
Then she said, “Let me rest for now.”
I replied, “…I can’t. Please keep going. From now on, forever and
ever…”
I wanted her to live forever. I wanted her to stay alive and keep on
living. I begged her to stay by my side.

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Through teary eyes, I watched her shake her head.
“…This is fine.”
Then, stroking my cheek gently with fingers that were also bound by
tiny chains, she said, “To be surrounded by the things I love in my
final moments…there can be no greater happiness than this. It really
is fine. Thank you.”
With that, she smiled one last time.
I was about to say something more to her. I was about to cast a spell,
but by the time I extended my hand, she was no longer with me.
She had fallen into a sleep from which she would never awaken.
Her face looked somewhat peaceful once she had entered her long
rest.
I would never hear her voice again.
“…Say something…”
Yet still I spoke to her.
“…Say something, please…”
Even though she wasn’t there anymore.
“Monica…”

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Page | 162
Even though she was never coming back.
“Don’t leave me…”
Even so, I kept on speaking to her, clasping tightly to the hands of the
girl I adored.

The rest of the story I heard only secondhand, so I don’t know how
much of it is true.
I heard that not long after Monica’s death, Emadestrin, a Town
Where People Live, began to collapse. All the mages staged an
insurrection and began euthanizing the people who had fallen ill, in
imitation of Monica, and the disease spread out of control. These
rumors and more made it to my ears, but unfortunately, I never got
the chance to learn the real reason why the city fell to ruin.
That was because I never went anywhere near that place again.
“We’ve got a request from a country along the coast. You can read it
on your way but be sure to look over their application form.”
As always, the United Magic Association received requests from
countries all over the world. And as always, convenient witches like
me often got the troublesome jobs foisted upon us. That day, the
request I looked over seemed like a real pain.
My teacher, Sheila, seemed to understand that, and she cursed the
sender as she handed over the form. “Good grief, they always make
such unreasonable requests…”
“…Understood.”

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After glancing quickly over the paper, I tucked it away in my pocket.
As Sheila had said, I could read it through in more detail on my way.
I had a lot to do, and not a lot of time to do it, so I immediately
turned on my heel and walked off.
That behavior must have seemed unusual for me, considering I
ordinarily had nothing but complaints.
“…Are you okay?”
I heard Sheila call out to me from behind my back.
“……”
Unfortunately, I wasn’t sure that I was okay.
But I didn’t want to make my teacher worry…
“Yep.”
…so I turned around and smiled.
“I’m fine.”
Compared to the pain that Monica had held on to for so long, being
busy with work was nothing.
So of course I was all right.
I left the United Magic Association branch office, and soon I left the
city.
Small flowers bloomed beside the city gate.
Their stalks stretched straight up out of the ground. Atop the stems
were brilliant red blossoms, with petals spread out like fireworks.
Resurrection lilies.
The ubiquitous flowers were poking out from the gaps in the
cobblestones that covered the ground, swaying in the wind.
I’m sure that I’ll remember every time I see those flowers.

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I’ll remember the girl who blossomed in solitude, more beautiful
than anyone else.

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CHAPTER 4: Cinderella
Lislette was a kindhearted young girl who lived in a castle town.
Her mother passed away when she was very young, leaving her
father to raise her on his own. Lislette’s father was kind and caring,
and Lislette grew into a very good-natured young woman.
She and her father lived happily together.
Then her happy life suddenly came to an end.
Her father remarried.
His new wife seemed to dislike Lislette for some reason. She forced
Lislette to do all the housework and constantly hounded her.
Lislette’s new stepmother also had two children from a previous
marriage, and as one would expect of stepsisters, they, too, seemed
to hate Lislette and always joined their mother in tormenting her.
All the chores were foisted onto Lislette.
“Clean my room, would you?” The elder of Lislette’s stepsisters was a
lazy girl who couldn’t even pick up after herself, so she made a mess
of her room and left it to Lislette to clean up.
“Y-yes…sister…” Lislette followed her instructions, wishing she could
tell the lazy girl to do it herself.
Lislette’s other stepsister was younger than her, but just like her
older sister, she always pushed Lislette around.
“Hey. Take my clothes off for me. I want to get in the bath.” For
some reason, whenever the lazy younger sister wanted to get in the
bath, she always made Lislette strip her down.

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“Sh-shouldn’t you…undress yourself…?” Lislette was hesitant to
undress a girl so close to her in age.
“No! If you don’t take my clothes off for me, I can’t get in the bath!
Wash my hair, too!” But the selfish younger sister refused and just
continued to pester Lislette.
“Umm…”
Even though it was embarrassing, Lislette always took the other girl’s
clothes off for her.
However, even though she outwardly frowned at their treatment,
Lislette thought her sisters were kind of cute, and she didn’t
especially hate cleaning their rooms or undressing them for baths.
What she hated the most was the job that her stepmother requested
of her every day.
“Say, would you clean the hearth?”
Every morning as the sun came up, Lislette’s stepmother would ask
her to clean the hearth. Lislette had to sweep out the ash and
cinders and prepare it so that it gave off warmth. Lislette had to do
this job every day since the day she’d moved into her stepmother’s
house.
Lislette’s beautiful golden hair would become absolutely filthy with
ashes, just from cleaning the dirty hearth. She hated this chore most
of all.
“Ugh…”
Even though she did it with a scowl on her face, Lislette never said
anything about her stepmother’s harassment. Every day she would
clean the hearth, so her hair was always full of ashes. Being dirty all
the time made her very sad, and eventually her eyes grew cloudy
and her expressions darkened, and the only things that spilled from
her lips were sighs.

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Based on Lislette’s outward appearance, she gained a nickname:
Cinderella.
As Lislette endured her stepfamily’s harassment, she held on to one
dream.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that her dream was what
allowed her to endure the endless days of suffering.
“Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh…heh-heh…”
She was alone in the single small room that had been set aside for
her. Shutting herself up in her room was one of Lislette’s few
pleasures in life. No one bothered her there. She would crouch down
in the corner of this wonderfully lonely space, all alone, breathing
heavily.
“Prince…my prince…eh-heh-heh…I wuv you…”
The brave girl who withstood constant bullying from her stepfamily
would be replaced by an excited young woman, clutching a (secretly
taken) photograph of the country’s crown prince. In fact, there were
(secretly taken) photos of the prince all over the walls. Anyone could
see that this was the room of a stalker.
Lislette was head over heels in love with the prince.
She had never spoken to him, of course; they lived in two different
worlds. In fact, Lislette had only ever managed to gaze at him from
afar. The prince probably had no idea Lislette even existed.
But ever since she had laid eyes on the prince when she was
younger, Lislette’s head had been full of thoughts of him. To be
frank, the harassment from her stepfamily and whatnot didn’t cause
Lislette much suffering at all. Just by gazing at one of her (secretly
taken) photos of the prince, she could cleanse any patch of darkness
that had taken root in her heart.

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Well, who cares? It doesn’t really matter, she thought. Lislette prided
herself on her steely resolve.
“Eh-heh-heh… Wait for me, my prince…I’ll come see you soon…eh-
heh-heh…heh-heh…”
Recently, Lislette’s mental fortitude had been tested even further.
Whether she was taking unreasonable, nonsensical requests like “Go
and buy food for tonight’s dinner! If you come back with the wrong
ingredients, you’ll go to bed without dinner!” or being told by her
older stepsister to “remodel my room for me, Cinderella,” or being
asked, “Big sister Cinderella, dry my hair for me, will you?” she
answered, “Gladly…eh-heh-heh…,” and nodded with a broad smile
on her face. That was how reckless her toughness had made her. Her
willingness to put up with their awful treatment seemed to border
on the verge of masochism.
Lislette believed that, very soon, her dearest wish would be granted.
“The grand ball…I can’t wait…eh-heh-heh…”
The prince was to come of age that year, and he had too much
wealth, power, and time on his hands. So sometime earlier, he’d
decided that he ought to get married. It seemed a little crazy, but the
prince had decided to go ahead and hold a grand ball anyway.
“Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend,” the prince declared.
“I’ll have a wonderful feast prepared at the castle as well. And please
remember that marriage is a long-term goal. I am absolutely not
going to be choosing my bride during the ball, so don’t worry about
that. Please come and focus only on enjoying yourselves. Oh, but
cute girls only, please!”
Many people were unhappy with this announcement, complaining
that the event wasn’t open to absolutely everyone—only cute girls.
Ultimately, however, the prince used his considerable influence to
silence any criticism of the ball, even going as far as to muzzle the

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newspapers and bribe certain key detractors. In that country, the
people were weak in the face of money and power.
The ball was set to be held the following day.
Lislette was in especially high spirits. If she attended the grand ball,
she would get to dance with the prince. None of her family’s bullying
could faze her.
“Eh-heh-heh…eh-heh-heh…”
And that day, as always, she spent every spare moment she had shut
up in her room staring at the (secretly taken) photo of the prince, as
if lapping it up with her eyes. Actually, she really did lick it, and smell
it, and kiss it, and so on, pouring affection on it in every conceivable
way. The photo was already messy with drool, but even so, Lislette’s
excitement knew no bounds.
Her spirit was already somewhere else.
Since the day the ball had been announced, Lislette’s mind had been
full of wild fancies concerning her sweet, sweet married life with her
future husband, the prince.

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Page | 171
“……”
Lislette’s stepfamily secretly watched her reverie.
The older stepsister turned pale. “Cinderella…”
The younger stepsister shed a tear. “Big sister…”
Their mother sighed. “…This is awful.”
Even a charitable observer would have had trouble believing the
extent of Lislette’s unnatural obsession.
Perhaps she had retreated into fantasy as a natural consequence of
her stepfamily’s daily abuse.

The entire castle town was getting ready for the grand ball that was
happening the following day. From the moment we arrived, we
already felt like we were ready to turn and flee.
The low buildings of the town stood side by side, as if lined up to
wait upon the royal palace that towered over them. Everywhere
throughout the town, flyers were posted up, advertising the grand
ball that was going to be held at the palace. They read: THE CROWN PRINCE IS
HOSTING A BALL. GIRLS ATTEND FOR FREE ( OFFER LIMITED TO CUTE GIRLS ONLY). The prince’s

flagrantly ulterior motives were plain for anyone to see.

I had only just arrived in the city. I’d scarcely made it through the
gate, found the nearest hotel, and set down my luggage. I had no
idea what the place was usually like, but I was pretty sure it didn’t
look like this all the time.

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“Oh-hoh-hoh… How do I look? This is what I’m wearing to the royal
ball tomorrow!” a girl wearing a luxurious dress boasted to her
friend.
“…Eh-heh-heh… As long as I’ve got my love potion, the prince
doesn’t stand a chance…” Another girl was going shopping, grinning
to herself.
“Say, did you know? The prince apparently likes girls with pretty
feet.”
“I heard. He seems to especially like girls in high heels.”
“Why heels?”
“Maybe he likes getting stepped on?”
“Oh, prince…”
Two girls were choosing high heels in a shoe store, whispering
rumors to each other.
“Seems like my granddaughter is going to the ball.”
“Oh? Mine too.”
“Ha-ha-ha! I bet mine is going to be the one he picks.”
“No, no, my granddaughter will be the one.”
“No way.”
“No way, no way.”
Two old men were conversing restlessly.
In this way, the whole town had become obsessed with the grand
ball.
All the girls seemingly waiting for their chance to live a dreamy,
glamorous life in the castle that loomed on high must have thought
that this ball was their chance to strike it rich.

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“Elaina…” As I was gazing vacantly out over the town, Miss Fran, who
was standing beside me, poked my shoulder with her fingertip.
“Elaina, what are you going to do?”
What will I do?
“…Don’t tell me you think that I’m going to go to the royal ball?”
“No, not that.” Miss Fran shook her head. “Actually, I’ve got
something I have to do here, so we’ve got to go our separate ways
for a little while.”
“Huh? Something you have to do?” I was quite intrigued by her
ambiguous way of saying it. “Don’t tell me you’re going to the ball?”
“I’ve been entrusted with a special job. I have no interest in marrying
into wealth.”
“Uh-huh.”
Well, there’s no reason for us to to stick together twenty-four-
seven, so I don’t have any cause to object.
Nonetheless, it did make me feel quite lonely that she hadn’t told me
why on earth she needed to be alone.
“It’s fine, I understand.”
For the time being, I nodded at her.
“…By the way, what’s the job?” I asked, though I didn’t expect that
she would tell me.
“It’s a secret.”
Sure enough, Miss Fran chuckled and put her index finger to her lips.
Then she said, “I think I’ll be back this evening, so let’s have dinner
together then. My treat.”
As she spoke, she turned her back on me and started walking off.
“……”

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I waved good-bye to my teacher.
I waved at Miss Fran, who was, in all probability, headed off with her
eye on the prince.
“……”
She’s really awful at keeping secrets…
And so the curtain went up on my solo act.
As I wandered around the expansive city, I realized that even though
I had spent most of my journey alone, I now missed having someone
beside me. I felt bored. Probably because my conversation partner
had suddenly disappeared.
That said, even though I was used to traveling on my own, it wasn’t
like I wanted to be alone forever. I’d experienced this unpleasant
sort of loneliness and boredom before.
Usually when this happened, I changed my broom into human form
so that she could help me pass the time. But for some reason, I
suspected that if I changed her into her human form at that moment,
she would just complain about it and make fun of me for being so
lonely in my teacher’s absence.
I’ve got to stop relying on my broom for companionship.
“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella
will…”
“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”
……
Of course, I was just a humble traveler. Even though I had some time
to spare, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about meddling in someone
else’s troubles or helping anyone in need.
And so, even when I noticed the two girls crying softly by the side of
the road, my response was simply to walk on by without stopping.

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“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella
will…”
“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”
……
I felt that I had heard the exact same two lines mere moments ago,
but as before, I ignored everything. I’m pretty sure I passed them by,
so how did I hear the same words again? An echo, maybe?
“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella
will…”
“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”
……
When I heard the same words for the third time, I finally turned
around.
Even I wasn’t oblivious enough to miss the fact that someone was
trying to get my attention. Apparently the two girls had zeroed in on
me as I passed them by, and then they began following me.
The two of them were standing directly behind me, and they
whispered to each other as they looked over at me intently, as if they
were sizing me up or something.
“Big sister…this girl…”
“She seems useful, doesn’t she? …She’s very cute, too…”
I narrowed my eyes at them and asked, “Do you have some business
with me?”
“Oh, no! It’s nothing as serious as all that!” The older sister shook her
head.
“If you don’t have any business, then why were you following me?” I
demanded.

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 That’s pretty creepy, isn’t it?
“We just thought you were really pretty, and kind of followed you,”
said the younger sister, without seeming the least bit ashamed.
“I see.”
If it’s because I’m pretty, then it can’t be helped, I suppose.
“And so we have a favor to ask you, since you’re so pretty,” the older
sister said, and quickly bowed her head. She must have completely
forgotten what she’d said just a moment earlier.
So you really do have business with me, and that’s why you were
stalking me, is that right? Well, I could more or less figure that much
out already.
“…Well, I’ll listen to what you have to say, at least.” I nodded.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have any time to spare, so I can’t promise
that I’ll be able to help you.”
That’s a lie, though. I’ve got nothing else to do.
“Oh! Really?” But the older sister seemed to take my words to mean
that I would agree to their request, because her face lit up as she
launched into the story.
“The truth is…”
“……”
My goodness.
I didn’t really understand her story, and it was pretty strange, but I
did know one thing for certain. It was intriguing.

“…I’m terribly sorry. Could you possibly explain it again from the
beginning?”

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 Oh, I wonder what Elaina is doing right now? If I know her, she’s
probably sightseeing, or maybe just killing time. But then, she also has
a tendency to get caught up in complicated situations, usually at the
worst possible moment.
So maybe right now, Elaina’s making faces as some stranger tells
her their story… Maybe she’s overheard some interesting conversation
and is sticking her nose in someone else’s business… I’m very worried,
as her teacher…
These thoughts and more were running around in my head.
The details of my commission, which the prince had conveyed with
exaggerated gestures from atop his throne, had not stuck in my head
at all. Just like my butterflies, they had all fluttered away.
“Huh…? I have to tell you again, from the beginning…? It’s not
exactly the kind of thing you repeat over and over…this is a top
secret job.”
The prince let out a sigh.
He had glossy blond hair, which he pushed back from his face with a
strangely charming gesture. He sighed. “Well…I suppose it can’t be
helped…”
Then, with an air of importance, he told me, “To give you a rough
idea, I want you, Lady Witch, to help me find my future wife!
Basically, I want you to take on the role of my advisor!” He was
saying everything awfully loudly, considering this mission was
supposed to be top secret.
“……”
Ah, indeed, I see. So that’s what this is about. I remember now.
It was such a stupid—no, such a distasteful request, considering his
status, that it flew right out of my head. How unfortunate.

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According to the paperwork I’d been given, the prince apparently
had too much time on his hands. Lately, he had become consumed
by a singular desire—his wish to find a bride. Which had led him to
the notion of holding a royal ball, so that he could meet someone
worthy of his courtship.
In short, he just wanted to get married. That was the whole point of
the discussion.
“Yes, yes, a marriage partner, is it? In that case, how about holding
some interviews?” I started with a commonsense suggestion.
“Tch!”
Apparently common sense just wouldn’t do for his royal highness.
“I believe in the supremacy of free love… I’m opposed to the very
idea of holding marriage interviews. Besides, if someone of my
station were to hold interviews, the only girls who would show up
would be the ones lured by the promise of wealth.”
“Well then, how about holding the interviews but masking your
status?”
“Hold on now,” the prince huffed in frustration. “If you strip me of
my status, I’ve got nothing left to offer…” Then he let out a long sigh.
What a miserable young man…
“Wait right there, Madam Witch!” Just then, an old man marched in
from the throne room. “When did you hire an advisor?! Gramps does
not approve!”
Apparently, the old man who called himself “Gramps” had stealthily
overheard the prince’s top secret request.
“Quiet, Gramps!” the prince answered, raising his voice deliberately.
“I am the prince of the whole country! I’ll use any method I like in
order to marry the best girl I can find!”

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Despite all his prestige, the prince’s words revealed him to be little
more than an ordinary jerk. This put me in something of a bind.
I sighed, “Um…do you really want to get married that badly…?”
“Yes, I do. Of course I do.” The prince spoke confidently from start to
finish. “By the way, Lady Witch, can you brew a love potion? I’m just
curious, of course.”
I wish he wouldn’t be so confident even about his vulgar thoughts…
“You mustn’t do that, prince! Gramps will not allow you to use a love
potion!” Gramps tried to hold the reckless prince in check. “…But, ah,
Lady Witch…is it even possible to make one…?’
Oh, Gramps…
Wait, more importantly…
“It seems to me that using a love potion would be in direct
opposition to the idea of free love…”
“Free in the sense of living inside a cage.”
I don’t think you can call that freedom anymore…
At any rate, the conversation had gotten rather off track, but to put
it simply, the reason that the prince had summoned me there was…
“So would it be fair to say that you want my help seducing a girl at
the royal ball?”
The request that had brought me all the way out to this castle had
said that it was an important matter that required my talents. But
upon arriving, all that had happened was that I’d been subjected to
the crude, adolescent whining of a spoiled prince caught at the
height of puberty, whose mind was dominated by lust. It made me
want to cry.
If this is what he wants from me, it would be a much better use of
my time to go sightseeing around town with Elaina…

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“No! What part of my story were you listening to?!” The prince
slammed his fist against his throne, revealing his anger.
What’s this? Could it be that what he has said so far was just
nonsense, nothing more than idle talk? Of course, it would be improper
for an actual prince to go out of his way to summon a witch just
because he wanted her to help him put on a grand ball. Someone who
did that would be less of a prince and more of an ordinary jerk, after
all.
“I want to find a girl who will step on me in high heels. Not just a
normal wife. Please make sure you understand me clearly.”
It turned out the prince was a pervert.
“This won’t do, Your Highness!” the old man who called himself
Gramps interjected. “That’s my fantasy!”
Oh, Gramps…
“If possible, I want a girl to step on me while looking at me with cold
eyes, like I’m a piece of garbage.”
“I hear that.”
Oh, prince…
I have to wonder how this country has managed to hold itself
together this long…
“So anyway, I’m counting on you, Madam Witch.”
“……”
I’m not sure how to respond to that.
“And if I don’t help you…would that be bad…?” I muttered.
“Ha-ha-ha!” The prince laughed cheerfully. “No, I wouldn’t mind if
you refused my request. But if you did, you would probably find
yourself unable to leave the country.”
“……”

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 Does that mean I don’t have the right to refuse…?
It turns out the prince is an incredible lowlife.

“The prince who rules the country is a creep…? Seriously?”

The two sisters who approached me on the street told me that their
stepsister, Lislette, who had started living with them the previous
year, was deeply in love with the prince. They wanted me to do
something about it.
I figured that they were going to ask me to help dissuade a girl who
had forgotten her station and fallen in love with the prince, or ask
me to explain to her that she wouldn’t be able to win the prince’s
heart even if she did go to the ball, or deal with the situation in some
clever way using my magic powers. That was the sort of thing I was
expecting them to ask. But reality turned out to be stranger than
fiction.
The girls invited me to their house, and the truth that they shared
with me was completely different than anything I’d expected.
“The truth is, a long time ago, we worked as maids in the royal
palace. Back then, we cleaned the prince’s chambers, and…” The
older sister broke down sobbing.
The younger sister placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder and said,
“…There were a lot of strange magazines stuffed under his bed…”
Well now, that doesn’t seem like something to cry over.
“…Well, if he’s a young man, of a certain age, it’s not unusual that he
would take an interest in…such things,” I said.
But the older sister just kept crying. “We wouldn’t be so upset if they
were ordinary dirty magazines! But we never imagined…we never
imagined the prince would be such a degenerate…”

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Apparently, there had been a time when the two sisters had actually
adored the prince, just like Lislette, but they said that once they’d
discovered what was under the prince’s bed, any feelings they’d had
for him had completely evaporated. They told me that now they
could only see him as a beast in princely clothing.
I was somewhat morbidly curious to learn exactly what kind of
magazines they’d found, but I decided to set that feeling aside and
talk about the job instead.
“So you want me to work with you to open Lislette’s eyes, now that
she’s fallen for the prince?” I asked.
The younger sister nodded in the affirmative. “We will never hand
over our dear, darling sister Cinderella to that pervert! Help us, Miss
Witch!”
“Can’t the two of you persuade her on your own?”
Is this actually such a serious problem that you need to involve a
full-fledged witch? I’m very doubtful.
“…At first, we did try to persuade her. We told her everything,
leaving nothing out, and explained what a creep he is…,” the older
sister said, casting her eyes downward.
That had taken place right after the girls’ mother had married
Lislette’s father.
“Oh? So you like the prince, Lislette…?”
Just after they had become family, Lislette had invited her new
stepsister into her room, and the older girl had recoiled at what she
saw there.
“Hm? How could you tell, big sister?”
She could tell because one wall was plastered with (secretly taken)
photos of the prince.

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 What a wretched situation that must have been. The pure,
beautiful young girl had a crush on the prince, who seemed like a fairly
good person on the outside but was rotten on the inside. Something
had to be done.
The older sister had explained kindly, “Lislette, listen…”
Then she had told Lislette about what she had seen when her family
was in the employ of the prince. She’d explained that he was a pervert
with a bizarre obsession.
She had figured that once Lislette heard about the prince’s true
nature, she would probably give up on him, too.
However…
“How cruel! You two just want to get in the way of our romance! I
hate you so much!”
Lislette ended up turning on her older stepsister.
The older girl had been smitten with Lislette’s cute appearance ever
since she first laid eyes on her, and the rejection hurt her so deeply that
she spent three days laid up in bed.
After that, the older stepsister tried every method she could think
of to open Lislette’s eyes to the truth. She took every opportunity to
mention the prince’s awful reputation. The younger sister and
stepmother also did their part to persuade Lislette, to open her eyes to
the truth after she had fallen for the good-for-nothing prince.
But she wouldn’t listen to them.
So instead they started forcing extra work on her, practically
harassing her every day, though it hurt them to do so. They hoped she
would be too busy to think about the prince.
And that was apparently the whole story.
I see, I see.
“So it backfired?”

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“I guess it backfired.” The older sister tilted her head thoughtfully.
“She’s so infatuated with the prince that it’s almost like she’s been
afflicted with some strange madness. The more we try to interfere,
the hotter her passion burns.” The girl was obviously in very low
spirits. “…So everything that we’ve done so far was for nothing?”
“Well,” I mused, “from what I’ve heard of the present situation…”
If Cinderella wanted to attend the grand ball, then they had
obviously not cured her of her obsession with the prince. Actually,
the sisters had probably stoked the fires instead.
“Anyway! Lady Witch! Please! We cannot possibly hand Lislette over
to the prince! Help us!” the older sister moaned as she clung to me.
“I’m begging you, please!” the younger sister groaned. “If big sister
Cinderella goes away, who will wash my hair!?”
Couldn’t you wash it yourself…?
“……”
I thought for a moment.
I’m not really busy, and I don’t mind helping them, but…
“So basically, you’ll be happy so long as the prince doesn’t fall for her
at the ball? Is that really something that you have to worry about?”
If I were to make a succinct comparison, it was like someone
resentfully declaring, “A person I hate bought a lottery ticket! If I
don’t do something, he’s gonna strike it rich! I can’t allow it!”
Honestly, I was bewildered that they had approached me with this
issue, wondering what I could possibly do.
But the older sister grew very, very angry at my words.
“What a horrible thing to say! If she attends the ball, there will be
chaos! She’s too cute!”
What are you talking about? I don’t understand what you mean.

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It didn’t seem like I could say that out loud, so I just smiled
ambiguously. “Uh-huh…”
“Big sister Cinderella is the cutest girl ever, so of course the prince
will fall for her. Are you stupid?” Then I received a scathing judgment
from the younger sister as well.
I just stared off into the distance. “Oh, sure…of course…”
“Anyway, Miss Witch, please get her to give up on the prince
immediately,” the older sister said decisively.
“……”
Wait, hang on, actually…
“Couldn’t you just keep her from going to the ball?”
It seemed like common sense to me.
However, it was pretty clear that these girls were way past the point
of common sense, because of that deviant prince.
“Don’t say stupid things!” they said.
“If possible, we want to see Cinderella in her ball gown!”
“……”
Perhaps those magazines that were under the prince’s bed have
something in them that drives you crazy if you read them?
Be that as it may, a job was a job, so there was no point in whining
about it. As much as I wanted to ditch them at some point on the
way to their home, I was a little worried about what the two crazy
sisters would do if I’d tried.
At that point, I decided to prepare myself for the worst.
“That’s our sweet Cinderella.”

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The sisters and I were stealthily peeking into the kitchen from a
hidden spot. In our line of sight was a girl with beautiful golden hair
that was filthy with ashes, diligently cleaning the hearth.
Directly behind her was a woman who appeared to be the
stepmother, standing there motionlessly, staring at the girl.
“…Hff, hff…”
But the woman seemed awfully distressed. I wondered what on
earth was the matter.
“Um, does your mother have some sort of chronic disease or
something?”
The sisters shook their heads decisively.
“No, she’s not sick,” said the older sister.
So then, what is it?
“She’s fascinated watching Cinderella doing her work.”
I see—so she is sick.
“Anyway, please help us, Miss Witch. Make Cinderella happy
somehow…!”
“……”
I have a feeling she’ll never be happy, so long as she’s in this house…
Well, whatever.
Let’s get on with the job.
“Hello.”
I popped out unexpectedly, right behind the two of them.
“Oh! And you are?”
The stepmother turned around abruptly. There was no hint of the
heavy breathing I’d heard from her a moment before. Apparently,

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she only got excited when she was looking at Cinderella, or whatever
it was they had called the girl.
“I’m a friend of your daughters.”
“……” After making deliberate eye contact with the two sisters, who
were both right behind me, the stepmother said to me, “Hello there,
Miss Witch. What can I do for you?”
She smiled brightly at me. If I hadn’t seen her acting strangely just a
moment before, she would have seemed like an ordinary mother.
“Would it be all right for me to speak with Lislette for a moment?” I
tilted my head questioningly.
The stepmother nodded, “Yes, of course. She is one of my precious
daughters, so make good friends with her, all right?”
Then she hurriedly joined the two sisters in their hiding spot.
“She’s quite cute, isn’t she?”
“She is. But not as cute as my Cinderella.”
“Yeah. Big sister Cinderella belongs to me, though.”
“……”
I can hear everything you’re saying…
I took a step forward to escape the disturbing atmosphere that was
developing behind me. Lislette had been cleaning the hearth the
whole time, and I tapped her on the shoulder.
“Hello.”
“Eee!” She jumped with surprise just like a small animal and turned
around. “…Ah, h-hi…”
She seemed terrified.
“Cinderella is so cute!”

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“Big sister Cinderella is adorable!”
“Hff…hff…”
I could hear some weird voices and heavy breathing behind me, but I
did my very best to ignore them.
All this weirdness might rub off on me if I stick around too long…
I decided to finish up my job right away.
“Are you in love with the prince?”
“……!” As soon as I asked, she gave me a reaction that was very, very
easy to understand. “H-how did you…?! Where did you hear that?!
A-and from whom?!”
Lislette was yanking on my skirt.
“Hey now…” I slapped at her grasping hands. What is this girl doing?
I wondered. “No, I can tell just by looking at you…”
“You can tell by looking…? What do you mean by that? Can witches
tell what kind of person someone is just by looking at them?”
“Uh…yeah. So that’s enough of that.” I kept slapping at her hands.
“By the way, that means that I can also tell what kind of person the
prince is.”
“……!”
Upon hearing that, she finally let go of me. Straightening myself up, I
looked down at Miss Cinderella.
“Do you want to know?”
“…………!” She nodded with stiff movements, like a broken doll.
In that case, allow me to enlighten you.
“He’s human garbage.”
“Human garbage…”

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“And a real beast.”
“A beast…”
“What’s more, he has a very peculiar fetish.”
“A peculiar fetish…?”
“Apparently he likes to be stepped on by high heels.”
“Likes to be stepped on by high heels…”
I added my own embellishments midway through. But that really was
the kind of person the prince was.
Apparently Lislette had written off her sisters’ criticism of the prince
as a form of bullying. I wondered what would happen if she heard
the same thing from an outside source.
I expected it would make something of an impression on her.
“…I see, yes…”
Lislette hung her head sadly.
Apparently, the plan had been a success. I turned back around and
walked over to the sisters and their mother, who had been watching
us.
“And with that, I believe my work is done here.”
I didn’t even have to use magic! I wore a triumphant expression.
But…
“……” The older sister was looking past me. “It’s not over just
because some stranger told her that…”
She was looking at Lislette.
“Heh-heh-heh…”
For some reason, Lislette was laughing.

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“He’s a prince, but he’s scum? That’s the best… I’m in love…”
For some reason, she was saying things I couldn’t comprehend.
I see—it seems like she’s already reached the point where no matter
what anyone says, she can’t take it as anything but validation for her
feelings.
I know love is blind, but this is a little extreme…
“……” I looked back at the sisters. “She seems like she’ll get along
quite well with the prince, doesn’t she?”
“That’s the problem!” The older sister let out a sigh.
Apparently Lislette’s fondness for the prince far exceeded anything
I’d anticipated, and no matter what happened, her passion for him
never cooled.
After my initial attempt, I started to take things more seriously. I told
Lislette all about the prince’s bad reputation, but…
Even when, for example, I told her a lie, like: “Did you know?
Apparently, the prince is an unrepentant philanderer.”
“He’s so attractive…that can’t be helped…”
She quickly accepted it, showing how tolerant she was.
When I told her: “Apparently the prince has some real funky body
odor.”
She replied: “Oh, how exquisite…”
For some reason, she swooned, and her heart began racing even
faster.
I even tried a roundabout way to shut her down, saying: “Apparently
the prince has someone he likes already.”
“Well, if I can get him in bed first…”
Lislette had other, terrible ideas.

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In short…
“This has already gotten way out of hand, hasn’t it?” I grumbled.
“Do you see now? Even if we’re as direct as can be, our efforts have
absolutely no effect…” The oldest sister let out a sigh, at her wit’s
end.
“If we don’t do something, an awful man will take our big sister
Cinderella away…,” the younger sister mourned.
Troublingly, the sisters seemed to have nothing in their heads except
thoughts of Lislette.
Despite the fact that all my attempts had been in vain, they begged
with tears in their eyes, “Please, Miss Witch! Please do something!”
I was at a loss.
If I’m being completely honest, I wanted nothing more than to get
out of there. But I was in too deep already. I couldn’t just abandon
ship.
But if nothing we tried worked, then what else could I do…?
“So it’s impossible after all… A task too great, even for a witch…”
Behind the grumbling sisters, the stepmother let out a sigh. “Looks
like we have no choice but to use our last resort…”
Then the stepmother fixed her gaze on me.
“……?”
What?
I tilted my head in confusion, and she continued, “The fact is, we
have a much easier way to protect our dear Cinderella from the evil
clutches of the prince.”
Oh-hoh. In that case, wouldn’t it have been better for you to use
that method to begin with?

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The sisters looked at each other.
“Mother…you’re planning to do that?” The older sister gazed at her
mother with fear on her face.
By the way, what is that?
“You intend to offer up a living sacrifice, don’t you…?” The younger
sister looked up at her mother, her eyes filling with tears.
By the way, what’s a living sacrifice?
“There’s no helping it… This is the only way we have left to protect
our Cinderella…”
Then the stepmother stood up.
“……”
By the way, why is she staring right at me?

“I’m exhausted…”
I can only assume that people lose all sense of reason after they fall
in love. After listening for some time to the requests of the prince,
who, despite being of age, was still right in the midst of puberty, I
returned to my hotel.
After being subjected at length to his delusions, he finally made his
proposal. “So the plan is that I’m going to invite lots of girls to the
grand ball tomorrow, and you are going to slip in and dose them all
with a love potion.”
“Wait, but I can’t make anything like a love potion…”
“Ha-ha-ha! Surely you don’t expect me to believe that a witch
wouldn’t know how to make a simple love potion! You mustn’t lie,
now.”
“No, really, that’s not something I can do.”

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“Anyway, I’m counting on you for tomorrow.”
“……”
The prince had apparently summoned me here so that I could make
him a love potion, but he had completely overestimated me. Since I
knew very little about romance, I had never had the opportunity to
make such a potion, or to try one out, so I truly couldn’t fulfill the
prince’s request.
Though, as far as I could see from the state of the town, countless
numbers of girls wanted to attend the prince’s ball, so I honestly
doubted there would be any need for me to make a love potion in
the first place.
Surely the prince would be satisfied if I picked one of the girls
attending the ball—one of the girls who was really, really infatuated
with the prince—and then presented her to him.
“……”
But finding a girl who was in love with the prince…would be an
arduous task.
To begin with, love is something that is secreted away inside a
person’s heart, is it not? An outsider cannot tell whether someone is in
love with someone else.
It’s possible that someone might be in love, but still bewildered by
their own feelings, and letting out strangely anxious sighs as they
struggle with their woes, but fundamentally, that’s not something
that’s apparent from the outside.
“…Sigh.”
If, for example, someone suddenly starts acting very differently—
like Elaina, for example, who just now let out a sigh as she was staring
out the window—then maybe that person might be in love, but…

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 If that person was an old friend, I’d think that I would notice even
the smallest signals, but with a bunch of strangers, there’s no way that
I’ll be able to tell which girls have really fallen in love with the prince.
“Oh, Elaina. What’s the matter? Is something troubling you?” I asked.
Finally, Elaina turned around to face me. “Ah…Miss Fran. You came
back. Welcome back.”
“……”
For instance, when people fall in love, they get tunnel vision and
start ignoring everything else around them. Why, if I had to describe
it, I’d say they act just like Elaina is acting now, but…huh? No,
no…what?
“…What’s the matter, Elaina?”
Of course, people who are in love aren’t quick to open up about
their drama.
“…Oh, nothing.”
“……”
Oh my.
And despite not opening up, they let out lots of troubled sighs.
“…Hahhh.”
Just like that.
“……”
Oh my.
What on earth happened in the short time we were apart?
“Miss Fran…can you make love potions and stuff?”
“??????????”
Oooooohhh?
Seriously, what happened…?

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“E-Elaina…?”
What on earth could have happened to Elaina? We were only apart
for half a day! I don’t think this could be it; it’s a ten-thousand-to-one
chance, but maybe she’s fallen hard for some boy she met around
town? No, no, this is Elaina we’re talking about. I doubt something like
that would ever happen. I’d like to think it could, but… Anyway, the
Elaina before my eyes is the very picture of a girl in love. I have no idea
what I should do… Well, I suppose I can’t help being perplexed over
what to say to her…
It took all my effort to ask her timidly, “Um…? Did something happen
while I was gone…?”
“……”
After a long and dreadful silence, Elaina answered briefly, “…No,
nothing really.”
“……”
But if she’s fallen in love, who on earth could be the object of her
affection?
“Come to think of it, you went to see the prince today, didn’t you,
Miss Fran?”
“Huh? Uh…yes, I did…”
“What kind of person is he?”
“…!”
Has she fallen for the prince…? Seriously…?
“Elaina…”
I was overwhelmed by the discovery that my favorite pupil, whose
growth I’d watched over so carefully all these years, had, in a mere
half day, given her heart to a man whom I could only describe as a
total jerk. I started sobbing.

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 How could such a sad reality actually come to pass…?
“Huh…? Miss Fran? Why are you crying…? It’s creepy…”
I suppose it goes without saying that I fell asleep that night full of
regret. If I had known that something like that would happen, I
would have ignored the commission from the prince and spent the
day sightseeing with Elaina.

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Page | 198
I had been feeling awful all morning.
“It suits you perfectly, Madam Witch! If you wear this, the prince
won’t stand a chance!”
Lislette’s stepmother and her daughters squealed in unison when
they saw me in the dress. “So cute!”
One of them also added something unnecessary. “I feel like she
doesn’t quite fill out the bust, but it’ll be fine!” I was seized by the
impulse to tear the dress off, but I let out one dismal sigh instead.
How on earth had I wound up in such a situation? It was all part of
the horrendous plan that the stepmother had laid out the day
before.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if the witch could attend the ball and win the
prince’s heart instead?”
Wait just a minute, what’s nice about that?
I was completely bewildered, but she continued, “We need you to
win over the prince real quick, pretend you’re going to marry him,
and then dump his ass. If you do that, don’t you think he’ll learn that
he can’t find happiness choosing a girl based solely on her looks?”
What on earth are you talking about, with that expression on your
face like you hit upon some great idea? And what do you mean by
“solely on her looks”?
Agreeing with their mother, the two sisters chirped in unison, “This
way no one will end up unhappy!”
But I’m already unhappy…

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“So once the marriage is in the bag, you can just run away!” said the
younger sister. “And while you’re running, you might consider
‘borrowing’ some valuables.” She whispered this devilish suggestion.
Exactly what do these two girls think of me?!
“There is no way I would stoop to stealing a few trinkets from the
palace!”
Don’t underestimate me, girls. I am a witch, you know!
“…If I’m robbing the place, I’m taking everything.”
To be honest, even despite everything that had happened, I still
couldn’t help myself. I was starting to get excited about the plan. It
was almost like the sickness of the toxic family had rubbed off on
me.
But once I got back to the hotel, the more I thought it over, the
trouble of having to enter a temporary sham engagement with the
prince started to overshadow the appeal of the treasure in the
palace. I found myself sighing frequently.
And so, even though I had allowed the stepmother and her
daughters to put me in a dress for the day, I wasn’t taking any
pleasure in it. I ended up just grumbling and complaining the whole
time.
“What a pain…”
“Now, now, don’t say that.” The stepmother clapped a hand down
on my shoulder. “Leave Cinderella up to us. We’ll load her down with
an absurd amount of chores so that she can’t even go to the ball.
That should buy you plenty of time. And while we’re doing that,
you’ll seduce the prince.”
“…Sigh.”
I answered with another sigh.

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At any rate…
That’s how I ended up attending the royal ball.

It was evening. The sun was just beginning to drop below the
horizon.
The palace gates were thrown open and crowds of young ladies,
each clad in a splendid dress, rushed in all at once. The parade of
girls blinded by the promise of money reminded me of a herd of wild
animals repeating some great migration in search of new pastures.
I wonder if there really is a cute girl in that crowd who will suit the
prince’s tastes? They all look the same to me.
“All right, Miss Witch, if there are any girls here who I might like, it’s
up to you to set them up with me. I want to pretend I’m approaching
them by chance in all cases. If we let slip how starved for love I am,
they’ll only be disillusioned, you see. I’m counting on you.”
“……”
Well, there’s not much point in hiding your desperation, now that
the ball is already underway, is there…?
The girls kept assembling one after another in the hall. Naturally,
since the prince was adamant that the event was an actual ball,
there had to be other boys as well. I could see them, lagging
somewhat behind the girls.
“By the way, all the boys are extras I’ve hired.”
According to the prince, his scheme was to pawn off any girls he
didn’t like to the extras right away. It was almost refreshing how
boldly he flaunted what a monster he was.
“…By the way, it seems like there’s one old man mixed in among the
extras?”

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“Apparently Gramps wanted to join in, too.”
“Oh, Gramps…”
According to the prince, Gramps had insisted on participating in the
grand ball, saying some nonsense about the springtime of his life
coming late, or something.
“So what do you think, Miss Witch? Are there any quality girls here?”
“Let me see…”
All the girls that I could see had occupied themselves with the feast
laid out on the banquet table the moment the doors opened.
They’re like a herd of wild animals, grazing without a care in the
world…
Somehow it seemed like there were hardly any girls who had actually
come hoping to meet the prince.
Which means…
“There are no girls here who are suitable for you, Your Highness.”
Well, frankly speaking, that’s what it comes down to. I’m not lying.
It’s just that their motives for being here are not the same as yours.
“I see…” The prince hung his head. But immediately afterward, his
eyes lit up. “No, wait a second, there might just be one!”
Oh? But I can’t believe so suddenly that there is anyone so foolish
as to want to marry this prince?
“See, over there! Look there!”
My gaze followed where the prince’s finger was pointing.
“……”
The girl standing there appeared to be in her late teens. Her hair was
the color of ash, and her eyes were lapis. She wore a beautiful white
dress, and in one hand she was carrying a rather large bag.

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She took no notice of the extravagant meat dishes. Instead, this
suspicious girl was shoveling every piece of bread set out on the
table into her large bag.
By the way, who on earth was that girl, whom I couldn’t help
recognizing?
……
To all appearances, she was Elaina.
“That girl looks really great…”
What are you talking about?
“She’s no good.”
“But why?”
“If I were a betting woman, I’d say that girl loves bread and gold
more than any man.”
“Well then, why did she come to a place like this?”
“She came to scavenge for bread and gold.”
“Wouldn’t that make her the worst kind of lowlife?”
“That’s why you should give up on pursuing her.”
I wasn’t lying.
So she did come to the ball after all… But why? I wonder if she really
has fallen for the prince? Or maybe, as I just witnessed, she’s been
lured in by the bread?
I didn’t understand her well enough to know her true intention.
“But she sure is cute…”
Oh my, what is he talking about?
“She’s a girl who came to your grand ball to steal bread.”

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“That playful side of her is good, too.” Apparently, the prince was not
very perceptive. Then he said, “Would you go and speak to her for
me?”
“……”
There could be nothing more bothersome, but all right, fine.
“Certainly.”
I decided to pretend to follow the prince’s orders and stealthily get
Elaina out of there.

I was completely focused on stealing bread. This stuff had been

made for a royal ball, so it was a cut above the loaves you could got
from the street stalls in town. It was fluffy and warm, and I felt as if I
could go on eating it forever.
This is the good stuff…
In fact, it was so good that I nearly forgot all about the request from
the stepmother and her daughters. I almost fled the scene with my
spoils right then and there.
“Elaina…don’t…”
As I finished stuffing bread into my bag, I heard the echo of a familiar
voice from somewhere.
“Elaina…stop doing such a disgraceful thing…”
I turned around, but the voice’s owner was nowhere to be seen, and
even when I looked around the room, I didn’t see anyone watching
me.
“……?”
Well now, just what is going on here?
“…Who’s there?” I asked.

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 Somehow, I feel like that voice was similar to Miss Fran’s…
“I am your conscience,” the voice replied.
“My conscience…?”
“Yes, your conscience, speaking up from inside you, telling you to
stop stealing bread from the royal ball…”
……
No, clearly Miss Fran is speaking to me from somewhere; that’s the
only likely explanation. Maybe she’s using magic to project her
thoughts directly into my head?
“What are you doing, Miss Fran?”
“You are mistaken. I am your conscience. I am not Fran.”
“Unfortunately, my conscience died in battle a long time ago.”
“…No, you must have one… Surely even you must have a
conscience… There’s no way that you really came here just to rob the
buffet table.”
“Munch, munch.”
“Stop eating bread!”
“By the way, Miss Fran, where are you right now? I can’t see you.”
“I’m watching you from a little ways away— Ah, no, that was a lie, I
was joking. I am your conscience,” answered Miss Fran, or rather, my
conscience, after clearing her throat. “I am speaking to you from
inside your heart.”
She is really a terrible liar.
“So your job was to come to the ball, was it?”
“Incorrect. I am here to help.”
“You are Miss Fran, after all, aren’t you?”

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“Um…no, you’re mistaken. By the way, what are you doing in a place
like this? Is it possible that you actually came just to steal bread?”
“If you’re my conscience, wouldn’t you know why I came here?”
“……”
She was silent.
As I suspected, Miss Fran was apparently somewhere in the hall and
had undoubtedly, unmistakably infiltrated the place to do a job,
whatever it was.
Well, I’m pretty sure she’s not here for the same reasons I am.
“Hey, you. Is my bread delicious?”
Just then, my target appeared suddenly before my eyes. Standing
there before me was a young man with lovely golden hair, wearing a
carefree smile. There didn’t seem to be anything else that was
remarkable about him.
“I’m the prince of this country. And you are?”
“Munch, munch.”
“Won’t you stop eating bread?”
“I’m Elaina. The Ashen Witch,” I answered, chomping away.
“Wow, a witch!” The prince seemed happy for some reason. “By the
way, being a witch means that you can use all sorts of spells, right?”
“Sure I can; I’m a witch.”
“For example, a spell to hit a person with a whip, or a spell to make it
hurt three thousand times as badly, or a spell to give someone a
really mean look?”
“……”
“Ahh! You don’t need to use any spells right away! But hey, that
look, those eyes, it’s fantastic!”

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“……”
He really is something else…
“Elaina…Elaina?” Just then, my conscience (Miss Fran) spoke to me
again. “Please, run away… That man is the lowest of the low… He’s
certainly much worse than you can imagine…”
“Actually, he seems to be pretty much exactly what I expected…”
“Well…! I guess you have no eye for men, then…” For some reason,
Miss Fran seemed awfully shocked. Apparently there had been some
sort of misunderstanding.
“…Um, I’m not really planning to fall in love with him, or anything…”
“Ah, right, of course not.” Miss Fran’s voice was cheerful again, as if
nothing had happened. “So then why are you here attending the
ball?”
“…It’s a long story, but I have to get this guy to fall in love with me at
all costs.”
“……………………………………………………………………………………Is that so?”
A heavy silence fell over her.
Apparently, my statement had been misleading.
“To be honest, I’m here on a job,” I added.
“Of course.”
It concerned me that Miss Fran’s voice was devoid of emotion, but I
kept talking.
“Apparently there is one weird girl who has fallen deeply in love with
this prince. The girl’s stepfamily loves her and doesn’t want the
prince to take her away, so they want me to interfere and prevent
them from getting married.”

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“But even if she came to the ball, isn’t it impossible to know whether
or not she would win the prince’s heart?”
“…I gave the family the same advice, but according to them, this girl
likes princes, so the prince is sure to like her back. Apparently.”
“I see. That’s totally nonsensical.”
“…Yep, it sure is.”
“But he is a prince, so I suppose it’s not impossible that something
might happen.”
“That’s what I thought, too.”
The prince was apparently even more obsessed with girls than I had
been told.
“Anyway, you’re cute,” the prince said. “Where do you live? Do you
have a boyfriend?”
He didn’t seem to have heard one bit of my rather lengthy whispered
conversation with Miss Fran. It was honestly pretty amazing.
“…So, Elaina, that means you didn’t come here because you’ve
actually fallen for the prince, right? You’re just here because you
have to be, for a job, right?”
“That’s right.”
Miss Fran seemed to have already forgotten that she’d been
pretending to be my inner voice. She spoke to me as usual, as my
teacher.
“Well, I’m awfully relieved to hear that. I was certain that you had
gone into town and fallen carelessly in love…”
“I’m not such an easy girl that I would fall in love at first sight with
someone I just met!” I huffed.

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“Is that so?” I felt that the emotion had finally come back to Miss
Fran’s voice. In her usual gentle tone, she said, “But you don’t need
to impress anybody by sacrificing yourself to try to take down the
prince. There’s no need for you to go that far.”
“……” I decided not to mention the fact that I was going to try to
stealthily “borrow” all the valuables while attending the ball.
“Regarding the commission that you accepted, Elaina, there’s no real
need for you to get the prince to fall for you. I’ve already got
something in the works.”
“……?”
I frowned suspiciously.
After a brief silence, Miss Fran’s clear voice once again echoed
through my head.
“I’ve arranged for a stand-in.”
“…A stand-in?”
“Yes, a stand-in—or rather, I’ve found a strange girl who actually
does like the prince and brought her here. Because in order to satisfy
the prince’s very specific romantic preferences, a person suitable for
the job is absolutely essential,” Fran explained.
At that moment, the doors to the hall were thrown open with a
bang.
“Th-this is…! The venue for the grand ball…!”
A beautiful girl with golden hair was standing there, wearing a
devious smirk. I thought I recognized her face from somewhere.
……
“Miss Fran?”
“Yes?”

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I let out a sigh, directed at the teacher who was watching me from
somewhere.
“The girl I was hired to protect? That’s her.”
After bursting into the ball, the girl announced that her name was
Lislette, then headed straight for the prince.

Let me explain how on earth Miss Fran, who should have had no
acquaintance whatsoever with Lislette, ended up bringing her right
to the prince.
The two of them had met the morning of the ball.
Miss Fran had accepted the commission from the prince but was
feeling dispirited because it was too much of a pain to deal with. So
she had gone for a walk around town.
If she didn’t do something, the prince was going to hold his ball and
probably demand that she somehow make whichever girl struck his
fancy fall in love with him somehow, and that certainly would have
been a big pain. So it seemed to her that the best plan was to find a
girl who was already in love with the prince, lure her to the ball, and
set the two of them up together.
And so Miss Fran went searching around town, looking for a girl who
would be a good match for the prince.
But it turned out that although all the girls who were planning to
attend the ball seemed, at least on the surface, like they were taken
with the prince, the truth was that most of them actually showed no
interest in him whatsoever. They were all more excited for the free
banquet, or the prospect of striking it rich just for pretending to fall
in love. Everyone seemed to have their own dishonest reasons for
attending the ball. Miss Fran said that it felt like she was dealing with

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a “whole crowd of Elainas” or something, but we’ll set that aside for
now.
Anyway, finding a stand-in was rough going. Miss Fran couldn’t find
even one decent prospect.
“Eh-heh-heh…once I’m done with this job…I can go to the ball…heh-
heh…”
Not even a single decent girl.
“……”
Most of the girls in town thought of the ball as nothing more than a
chance to fill their stomachs. Anyone actually looking forward to
meeting the prince would have been a real outlier.
After wandering around town for a while, Miss Fran apparently
spotted a strange girl out doing her shopping while frequently
muttering, “I wuv the prince…,” and other less intelligible things to
herself.
“……”
Immediately after she saw the girl, Miss Fran thought, Ah, certainly
this girl is madly in love with the prince. I see, I see—
Then, an idea flashed into her mind.
That’s it! I’ll stick this girl and the prince together.
“Um, excuse me.” And so Miss Fran immediately put her hand on the
girl’s shoulder. “Are you, by chance, in love with the prince?” she
asked, so directly it could be called tactless.
Immediately, the girl—Lislette—shrieked in surprise, “Eee! H-how
did you…! Who are you…?”
“I’m a witch, just passing through.” Miss Fran’s words were not
untrue. “You looked so troubled, I couldn’t just watch, and I decided
to say something to you. I am a good witch, you know.” That part

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was mostly made up. “You are in love with the prince, yet you think
that your dream of being with him will never be realized… Am I
wrong?”
“……”
“If you like, perhaps I could be of assistance?”
“Assist…me…?”
When a suspicious witch suddenly appears out of nowhere and
offers to help, most normal people would turn her away. That’s
probably what I would have done. I might have even spit at her. So it
was hard to believe that someone would just obediently nod along
to whatever such a stranger proposed.
“Uh…you…assist me, you say…?”
But Lislette was apparently sort of off in the head, and she
immediately agreed.
“…Oh, happy day!” she exclaimed.
At that point in the story, I became very worried that Lislette was
going to spend the rest of her life falling for various fishy scams and
such, but that’s another matter, so let’s leave it aside for now.
“Please, attend the royal ball. If you do, I will support you and make
sure you’re wed to the prince,” Miss Fran assured Lislette.
“But…I’ve got work to do…”
“What work do you have?”
“I’ve got shopping. My stepmother asked me…” Lislette’s stepmother
and sisters were planning to keep her busy with too many chores, so
that she wouldn’t even have the chance to attend the royal ball.
“Oh-hoh, shopping, is it? By the way, where is your house?”
“Over there.” Lislette pointed.

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“Over there, hm?” Miss Fran waved her wand.
“……” Lislette stared in the direction of her house. Some sort of weird
fog descended on her stepfamily’s home. “Um, what’s that?”
“I’ve put all the residents in that area to sleep. Now the person who
asked you to go shopping is no longer in the picture, you see? So
please attend the royal ball.”
Miss Fran had brought Lislette’s errands to a close in quite a forceful
way. That said, all she had done was produce some fog, so she hadn’t
actually put anyone to sleep, but—
“…Amazing! So this is a witch’s power…!”
Since Lislette was a little off anyway, she believed every word that
Miss Fran said.
“You’ll have to change your clothes, too.”
She would need to be appropriately dressed in order to attend the
ball. Miss Fran pointed her wand at Lislette next.
Miss Fran had already had her meeting with the prince and had
accepted his request. Of course, she was also well informed about
the prince’s awful fetish, so doing Lislette’s makeup and hair so that
her appearance matched the prince’s tastes was right up her alley.
As Miss Fran waved her wand around effortlessly, Lislette’s shabby
clothes transformed quickly into a beautiful outfit.
“……”
It was a leather dress in tones of red and black, and sharp high heels.
It even had a coiled whip fastened at the hip. She looked less like she
was on her way to a ball, and more like she was going to kill
someone violently.
The outfit was absolutely not the kind of thing Miss Fran liked.

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The day before, the prince had given Miss Fran a piece of paper with
a picture on it and told her that he was sure to fall in love with any
girl who looked like the girl in the picture. Miss Fran had figured out
that the prince was actually just telling her how to dress any girl she
presented to him.
The outfit was obviously utterly inappropriate for a royal ball.
“…So apparently the prince likes outfits like this…” It was bad enough
that even Miss Fran felt guilty about dressing an innocent young girl
in such a getup.
“Mm-mm…don’t worry about it…” But Lislette cupped her own
chest. “It’s really kind of exciting…,” she said.
“Uaaagh…”
Ah, this girl seems like a good match for the prince…, Miss Fran
apparently thought in her heart of hearts.
And that’s how Miss Fran ended up helping Lislette attend the ball.

“Which is all to say, I failed utterly at the job you all gave me. I’m
sorry.”
So I made it through the royal ball, returned to the stepmother and
her daughters, and explained the situation to them at length.
I had never imagined that Miss Fran would be operating behind the
scenes, so I hadn’t foreseen the possibility of failure. There was
nothing I could do but apologize.
I prepared myself for the inevitable shower of complaints that I was
sure would follow.
But…

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“I see, hmm…” The stepmother was unexpectedly calm. “So in other
words, our Lislette has become someone’s wife…”
Ah, I was wrong; she’s not calm at all.
“……” The older sister, who had been listening quietly to the
conversation, seemed to react to the word wife. “You know,
housewife fetishes…are a thing.”
What are they talking about? I have no idea what’s going on.
“……” The younger sister nodded her approval. “Actually, we can
think of it like a new facet to appreciate our big sister Cinderella…”
“You two are so optimistic, it’s killing me.”
So then, there was no reason for me to even try? That’s sure what
it seems like.
But as a matter of fact, the prince choosing Lislette as his partner did
not seem to have been a bad thing for the country.
Miss Fran and I had stayed in town for a little while after the ball, but
we hadn’t heard one bit of negative gossip about the prince and
Lislette.
Rather, when it came to the prince, people were even saying that he
had regained some of his composure as a man.
Now, I wonder why that could be?
“I’m sure that he no longer feels the need to act out, now that he’s
found his ideal partner,” Miss Fran said.
“…How does that work?”
“Nobody wants to reveal their ugly side in front of the person they
love, right? Everyone naturally tries to show off in front of their
beloved.”
“……”

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 Um, well, when it comes to the prince, I feel like he had nothing but
ugly parts to begin with…
“In any case, even that prince is going to do a splendid job from now
on…probably…I think.”
“…That would be nice…”
Because I’d rather not go through so much trouble the next time I
visit.
Miss Fran and I continued chatting as we made our way toward the
city gates.
On the way there…
“By the way, Elaina.” Miss Fran suddenly looked at me. “What kind of
person would you say is your preferred type?”
Oh my…
“What’s this, all of a sudden?”
“Oh, I was just wondering what kind of person you might try to show
off in front of.”
“……”
Someone I would show off for?
After thinking for a little while, I smiled back at Miss Fran.
“That’s a secret.”
Surely Miss Fran cannot possibly understand my feelings on the
matter.
Because unlike her, I am great at keeping secrets.

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CHAPTER 5: Familiars
Born on a vast estate, the girl knew almost nothing of the outside
world.
She had been a captive on the grounds her whole life. Daughter of
the only family of mages in the whole country.
“Listen, child, you are to become the heir to this household,” the
girl’s grandmother told her.
The girl spent her days learning about magic.
Learning how to command familiars.
This especially was part of the girl’s obligations as the heir to a
distinguished house.
“Ready? Inside the box is a vegetable. Cast a spell of transformation,
and turn it into a living creature.”
The girl’s grandmother was a strict and overbearing teacher, and the
girl came to despise her harsh lessons. She didn’t want to become a
witch in the first place and sometimes even wondered why she had
to learn magic at all.
“Inside the box is a mouse. As a test, try turning it into a dog.”
“Does this look like a dog to you? When will you ever learn to do real
magic?”
“If this is the best you can do, you’ll never master your own familiar!
You’re hopeless!”
Day after day after day after day, the girl kept practicing.
But her efforts were in vain.
Because the girl hated magic from the bottom of her heart.

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She loved something altogether different.
“Oh! You want to make bread again?”
The girl’s sole pleasure was learning how to make bread from her
mother. Every time her mother would go to the kitchen, the girl
would follow her and beg to be shown how it was done.
But the truth was that making the bread was nothing more than a
bonus.
The girl really just wanted time with her mother.
Because only her mother understood her.
“It’s always difficult for you, isn’t it? But you’ll be all right. I’m sure
that someday you will command many splendid familiars,” her
mother often told her, as if she was trying to convince her. “Your
great-grandmother used to always be angry with me, too. But you
know, because she was so harsh with me, I learned many spells, and
now I can use magic to run the household. Grandma wants you to
become splendid, too, so she’s being strict with you on purpose—
severity is the other face of expectation.” The girl’s mother stroked
her face lovingly as she spoke.
By her side, a wolf with a tawny coat sat wagging its tail. The wolf,
which was the mother’s familiar, probably felt the same way as its
mistress.
The first time the girl saw the outside world was when she was ten
years old.
To celebrate her birthday, her mother took her into town. The world
full of people seemed to sparkle and shine in the eyes of the girl who
knew nothing but the inside of her family’s mansion.
In town, the people fawned over the girl’s mother because of her
magical abilities. The girl’s mother and grandmother were the only

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people who could use magic in the area, so whenever either of them
left the estate, people would make all sorts of requests of them.
They would be asked to mend broken cups, or find lost items, or
fulfill other insignificant requests that might ordinarily be laughed
off.
But the girl’s mother smiled kindly at the townspeople, and replied,
“Yes, of course,” and listened to each of their requests.
The girl admired her mother deeply. She wished that someday she
could be just like her.
Then one day, while the girl and her mother were walking through
town, something happened. After checking that there was no one
around them, the girl’s mother whispered to her, “To tell you the
truth, when I was about your age, I also hated learning spells. Just
like you. Long ago, I wondered why I had to suffer and learn magic.”
“……”
“But you know, I realized why once I grew up. All the hard work paid
off, and now I have the power to help other people in need.”
The girl’s mother told her that she would have to overcome the
hardship of learning, so that she could become strong and capable of
helping people, too.
“……”
But the girl responded with silence. It wasn’t that she didn’t
understand. It was just that she didn’t believe it. She didn’t believe
that she could ever become a strong woman like her mother.
She stared up at her mother, who stroked her hair kindly. “…I’m
sorry, dear. You’re only ten years old. It must be so difficult for you.”
In addition, her mother told her one more secret. “When you’re
feeling down, you can leave the estate by yourself. If you learn about

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the outside world, I think you, too, will surely come to appreciate
magic a little bit more.”
“…But…”
Leaving the estate by herself had always been strictly prohibited. The
only time the girl had ever seen the outside world was when she was
at her mother’s side.
The only thing that had ever been permitted for the girl was magical
training—such was her unpleasant life on the estate.
“Try pushing your way through a certain bush about thirty paces to
the right of the front gate. There’s a small hole in the fence there.”
The girl’s mother stealthily explained to her that she could get out
that way. “You know, your mama was actually a naughty kid back in
the day!”
She taught her daughter one method to become more like her.
After that, the girl started escaping outside the grounds whenever
she had free time.
Even though she knew it was bad, even though just thinking about
what punishments awaited her if her grandmother ever found out
was terrifying, even so, as soon as the girl had snuck out once, she
became numb to that fear and started slipping away from the
mansion more often.
The town looked quite different alone, compared to when she’d had
her mother by her side. This new, lonely world seemed awfully vast,
and shining with promise. But at the same time, she could also see
darkness. The girl soon realized that her mother had kept to the
larger, more crowded, and safer parts of town.
There were lots of people in the city. There were lots of animals, too.
The girl learned that she was by no means the only unhappy one.

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She saw adults who had failed to do their jobs and who were being
reprimanded harshly. She saw people sleeping by the side of the
road, who had no homes to live in. She saw stray dogs, rummaging
through trash cans for food. She saw a mouse that had gotten caught
in a trap and was dying.
In a back alley, covered in blood and close to death, she saw a tiny
creature.
“……”
That was the first meeting between the girl and her familiar.
She had been born on a vast estate, but sure enough, she knew
almost nothing about the outside world.
“…The same dream again.”
The girl rubbed her eyes and looked around. The world seemed like it
was filled with light. On top of the table, dense reference tomes
were piled up like a mountain. Nearby lay a pen and an unfinished
document.
Apparently, she had fallen asleep in the middle of writing.
Partway through the text, the letters devolved into clumsy lines,
dampened by tears and sweat. They were completely illegible.
“……”
Filled with frustration, the girl crumpled the paper up into a ball and
tossed it to the floor. There was no one there to chide her for doing
so. This was her private room.
Besides that, there were no longer any humans in the mansion, other
than the girl.
Half a year earlier, everyone else had disappeared from the estate.
They had left her behind and passed away.

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There was no one around to criticize the girl, no matter how dirty her
room got, no matter how untidy she was.
Almost as if possessed, she muttered to herself.
“Harder… I’ve got to work harder…”
Then the girl took up her pen once again.

“Are the two of you in possession of any familiars?”

A government official had taken us aside as we were waiting to enter
Ballad, the City of Silence. She had told us only that she had
something important to discuss, then invited us into a separate room
near the city gate, locked the door, and tossed out that question.
Familiars?
“I don’t have any.” Miss Fran shook her head.
“Same here.” I nodded.
To begin with, magic users can manage to handle most situations by
themselves, so there aren’t many circumstances where we would
need to use familiars. These days, you could even say cultivating
familiars is more like an old-fashioned, traditional hobby, and it’s
rare to see mages who keep one on hand.
“Is that so…?”
But the government official’s expression grew cloudy at our answers.
What’s this now?
“By any chance, are you saying that we can’t enter the city if we
don’t have familiars? Not only do we not have any, but I hardly even
have the knowledge to use them in the first place…”
What a pain.

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 We’ll be in trouble if we can’t get in the city… We’ll have to camp
out.
But my concern was nothing more than unfounded worry. The
official shook her head.
“No, you’ll be permitted to enter regardless of whether or not you
have any familiars. The reason I summoned you here has nothing to
do with customs.”
“Well then, why?” Miss Fran asked the obvious question.
The official’s expression didn’t change much as she told us, “The only
family of mages in the area has employed familiars for ages.
Generation after generation, down to the present head of the family,
they have inherited the tradition. We have a request for the two of
you regarding this family—no, regarding an issue that is troubling the
city.”
She held out a piece of paper in front of us.
It was a request form to be submitted to the United Magic
Association. In the section for remuneration was an amount of gold
coin based on the estimated total cost of all food and lodging for the
period of stay in Ballad, the City of Silence.
It was a considerable sum.
Enough to take my breath away.
“I’d like to ask you to undertake the job, with the conditions that are
listed here.”
But if they were offering substantial remuneration, that could only
mean one thing.
The problem itself was equally substantial.
“…What on earth happened here?” Miss Fran held the paper up.
I glanced at the paper from the side and read only, Seizure of Familiars.

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“One of the familiars employed by the family went on a rampage and
murdered almost every one of them, sparing only its mistress, a
young girl. Now the wild familiar is appearing around the city,
threatening people’s daily lives… This is a local problem, so we’re
terribly ashamed of asking for help from travelers, but…”
The family that had been using the familiars had been completely
annihilated, leaving only one girl, the mistress of the murderer.
Which means…
“There was only one mage left alive.”
…that the very person who let the familiar carry out its rampage is
the only one left.
And presumably the girl wasn’t a capable enough magic user to stop
her family’s murder. So that was why this official had turned to me
and Miss Fran, even though we were travelers.
From the official’s perspective, we had arrived at exactly the right
time.
“……”
Miss Fran was silent as she stared down at the piece of paper.
So from beside her, I asked, “What is the girl’s name?”
The government official looked at me and answered with a single
word.
Karen.
That was the name of the pitiful girl, the only one left on the estate.

I could smell the faint aroma of saltwater wafting throughout the

city.

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As we looked down the gently sloping road, the glaring light
reflecting off the ocean’s surface was dazzling. The city extended
right down to the water’s edge.
We were approaching the end of Miss Fran’s journey. She had plans
to return to Royal Celestelia by boat.
“It showed up right after sunrise. My pet dog suddenly started
barking, so I looked out the window to the garden, wondering what
was going on, and there it was. It looked disgusting.”
Miss Fran had immediately accepted the official’s request, and I had
agreed to join her on the investigation.
We’d been going around randomly speaking to people we passed in
town, and we had discovered that apparently Karen’s familiar had
been causing quite a lot of trouble for the people in the city.
We heard countless eyewitness reports.
“My shop’s garbage cans were broken into. It somehow removed the
lids and picked out anything that still seemed edible from the cans. I
know it’s not really serious damage, but…”
They said that the familiar took the form of an animal. Its coat was
black. Its eyes were green. Its fangs were sharp, and its claws were
filthy. Apparently, its form resembled a wolf in some respects, but
more than anything, its build was enormous, and it was about as
long as a grown man is tall.
“It seems to like bread. It used to come to my shop often and stare
hungrily at the bread. I can easily chase off the homeless kids that I
always see hanging around, but that thing, I mean, it’s huge! And I’ve
got a little daughter at home, so it scared the living daylights out of
me, thinking it might hurt me.”

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We heard that the beast rarely appeared to humans, but since it had
apparently been lured in by its favorite food—bread—we decided
that it couldn’t be especially intelligent.
But the question was why a creature like this had been ignored by
the people of the city for half a year? If it was so repulsive, a ghastly
monster that destroyed crops and went rummaging through garbage
cans, then why on earth had no one dealt with it yet?
A guard on his rounds was kind enough to answer this extremely
natural question for us.
“We’ve tried to capture it many times before, but it didn’t work. We
even recruited help from the townspeople and chased the beast
down with everything we could muster, but…that wolf is very fast.
There’s absolutely no way that ordinary people could ever hope to
catch it, not without magic,” the guard told us with a sigh. “It would
be great if we could turn to our own mage for help, but…”
He explained.
Ever since the death of her family, Karen, the mistress of the familiar,
had isolated herself in her estate. She had stopped leaving the place
altogether.
Many people in the city felt like they owed Karen’s family for their
help in the past, while others took pity on the poor girl and her awful
circumstances. Some people occasionally went to check on her and
left food for her, but not one of them had actually seen Karen in
person.
At this point, no one knew whether she was alive or dead behind the
closed gates.
“…Where is that estate located?”
The guard nodded to me and pointed to an enormous mansion at
the other end of town.

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Since we knew the characteristics of the rogue familiar and had a
rough estimate of its territory, we figured that was sufficient.
Next, we planned to search the mages’ estate, then hunt down the
familiar’s whereabouts, and then finally, head to find Karen…into the
mansion where the girl whom we had never even seen was holed up.
That seemed like the thing to do if we hoped to resolve the affair
quickly and decisively.
In any case…
“Um, first let me get one of the chef’s special salads, and a cup of
your cheapest coffee, and then all of the bread from here to there.
That’s my whole order.”
I promptly slammed the menu book shut.
Miss Fran and I were sitting across from each other at one of the
city’s cafés. We had more or less finished interviewing witnesses for
the day. A member of the waitstaff had come to take our order, so I
had done something I’d always wanted to do, and asked for all the
bread from here to there.
“Is it all right to ask for so much?” Miss Fran tilted her head
questioningly beside the waiter, who was hurriedly jotting down my
order on a memo pad.
There was no cause for concern. After all…
“The city is covering all of our food expenses, yaaay!”
As long as someone else is paying, there’s no problem ordering
exactly what I want, right?
The unexpected boon was messing with my head and leading me to
make some odd choices. Miss Fran, on the other hand, was as
reserved as always.
“Ah, I’m fine with a cup of tea,” she said to the waiter.

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 How modest.
“But is it all right, Elaina? An order like that?”
After the waiter had left, Miss Fran leaned forward and whispered
the question at me.
She was probably worried about whether I would be able to eat all of
it by myself.
“No need to worry. This is the kind of upright café that allows
carryout.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.” Miss Fran shook her head in
exasperation. “Is the cost all right?”
“It’s someone else’s money, so I really don’t care.”
The government is covering the full cost of our meals as long as
we’re in the city. No matter how much money we spend while we’re
here, as long as we get receipts, we’ll get it all back. What are you
worried about?
“But if we mess up the job, we won’t be getting any money, you
know.”
“…!”
“I mean, that’s just common sense.”
“………………………………………………………………I knew that!”
“I’m letting you know this in advance. I’m not paying for you, okay?”
“Miss Fran, under no circumstances can we fail to fulfill the city’s
request!”
“Now there’s something I might have liked to hear you say once or
twice before…”

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Only after the risk of having to pay my own way for everything had
come up, and before I had time to cancel my order, the waiter
brought over everything we had ordered, all together.
At that point, it was too late to do anything. Hanging my head, I
stopped him before he could leave. “Um, sorry, but…could I get a bag
for takeout? A big one, if possible.”
With a puzzled face, the waiter brought me a bag.
I packed all the bread into it, sobbing the whole time.
Miss Fran watched me vacantly and took a sip of tea. Then, as if she
had just remembered it, she said, “When we leave this café, we’ll be
going to Karen’s place, of course.”
“……” After getting my bread bag together, I nodded. “Yes, of
course.”
Frankly speaking, neither Miss Fran nor I had much experience with
familiars.
If we were able to stop the rogue familiar with the help of its
mistress, Karen, then we would do that, and if she couldn’t leave her
mansion for some reason, then we would need to determine what
that reason was.
There was no way to do either without meeting her.
But if we were going to meet someone…
“From here on, it would be best if you and I took different paths,
Miss Fran.”
“Right,” my teacher said. “We don’t know what kind of state Karen
might be in, but she hasn’t left her mansion in half a year, so we can
be quite certain that she’s got some reason for that.”
Since Karen had lost her family, and on top of that, the familiar that
was supposed to belong to her had been causing so much trouble in

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the city, it was hard to imagine that she was just up there relaxing
with too much time on her hands, completely unbothered.
Maybe she’s closed up her heart just like the doors to her house?
If that was true, we still needed to go meet her and talk to her. But
although we’d been traveling together, it seemed to me that if both
of us showed up uninvited at her door, could she really be expected
to open her heart to us?
Probably not.
“I’ll go alone to Karen’s place.”
According to the government official, Karen was a little bit younger
than I was.
I figured that if one of us was going to head up to her mansion, I
would be more suitable, as I was comparatively closer in age.
“I’ll leave it to you.” Miss Fran nodded. “Meanwhile, I’ll chase down
the familiar’s whereabouts.”
And then, not long after we’d stopped to rest, we stood up from our
chairs.
Right as we left the café, Miss Fran proposed, “I’ve got to go make a
reservation at a hotel, too. Let’s meet up at the end of the day and
both report on our progress.”
I see, I see.
“Please choose a cheap place.”
“Let’s stay somewhere expensive.”
“Miss…”
“We can split the cost, all right?”
“Miss……”

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In the end, after much badgering and quarreling, it was decided that
we would be staying in a reasonably expensive inn.
This means that we have to fulfill the city’s request, by any means
necessary…

“Excuuuse meee! Your gate was open, so I came on in! Is anyone

heeere?!”
Well, now.
On an estate somewhere, there was a mage who, after using a spell
to easily open the lock on a gate that had been shut tight, made a
shameless introduction as she casually committed criminal
trespassing.
Who on earth could this girl be, who didn’t hesitate at all to commit
such a blatantly illicit act?
That’s right, it’s me.
“…Huh, there’s no answer.”
I wonder what that means. I made my entrance pretty obvious.
As I pondered this, I walked toward the huge mansion that towered
before me.
I wasn’t particularly worried about one girl, especially because we
weren’t even sure if she was alive or dead, so I also unlocked the
mansion doors easily with another spell.
“……”
Unlike the stately exterior, the inside of the place had fallen into
ruin.
A chandelier that must have once hung from the ceiling lay pitifully
on the red-carpet runner, sparkling fragments scattered all around

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the floor. The paintings hanging on the walls were black with filth,
and the staircase was riddled with holes. The place looked like a
storm had blown through.
Whenever I took a step, chandelier fragments crunched and snapped
underfoot.
Karen must be somewhere in this house.
“Hellooo?”
I didn’t really know which way to go in order to find her, so I walked
around aimlessly, exploring the house and shouting greetings into
empty space.
After trekking through the mansion for a while, I eventually came to
an area of the house where there were no glass shards underfoot.
Instead, the place was littered with balls of scrap paper.
When I picked one up and smoothed out the wrinkles, the scrap of
paper revealed rows of messy writing.
After that, I picked the papers up one by one as I walked.
Eventually, the pieces of paper led me deep into the mansion—to a
door that was slightly ajar.
“……”
Inside was a spacious room, in terrible disarray.
The balls of rubbish that had spread out into the hallways were
scattered liberally across the floor of the room and on top of the bed,
and here and there across the walls, overlapping papers were held
up by pushpins.
The sound of the creaking door echoed through the quiet space,
where an open curtain swayed in the sunlight, and the gentle breeze
that flowed in turned the pages of a book that sat spread open on
the desk.

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The girl who was facedown in front of the book frowned slightly and
sat up. Her golden hair went down past her shoulders, and her robe
was decorated all over and looked incredibly expensive. She certainly
appeared to be the daughter of a noble family.
In age, she was probably about two or three years younger than me.
There was still youth in her features. She finally noticed me standing
beside the door and turned her head in my direction.
Her eyes looked dull, and I could see faint, dark circles beneath
them.
“…Who?”
She made an expression that looked halfway between enraged
suspicion and unbearable drowsiness and tilted her head to the side.
I wasn’t sure how to answer her.
“I’m a traveling witch.”
I offered the briefest of introductions.
“I came here to put a stop to the trouble your familiar is causing in
the city,” I added.
“……”
I wasn’t sure what she made of what I said. She just stared at me
silently, with no change in her expression.
Surely she must be aware of the strange things that are happening
around town.
Maybe she felt responsible for what was going on. Maybe she was
worried about it. I was sure that she had to be in a more difficult
position than anyone in town. So I stood there waiting for her to say
something.
“Trespassing.”
That was it.

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“……”
She was unexpectedly calm.

After Elaina and I had gone our separate ways, I heard all sorts of
stories from the residents of the town, but there didn’t really seem
to be anyone who had any promising leads.
Apparently, the people who lived in town had seen the familiar many
times, but they had absolutely no way of guessing where or when
the elusive creature might appear next.
I was at a loss.
But my meandering hadn’t been a complete waste of time.
“…What’s this?”
Just as I was thinking that there was no way I’d run into the familiar
by chance, I happened upon something very strange in the back
alleys of the city. I had no way of knowing whether or not it had
anything to do with the familiar.
Right in the middle of a dirty alleyway, placed neatly atop a small
plate, was a single piece of abandoned bread.
“……”
What’s this, lost and found? But it’s sitting on a plate for some
reason. I feel like it was clearly left here intentionally. Wait, wait, this
has got to be a trap.
“My goodness…”
When I looked up, I saw another piece of bread farther down the
alley.

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That was approximately when even I, as clueless as I am, noticed that
the plates with bread sitting on them continued endlessly down the
alley.
“My, what a waste…!”
I picked them up one by one and stuffed them in my bag.
I’ve never seen anything so absurd. Surely this must be a trap that
has been laid out in order to catch the familiar. In that case, the person
who came up with the strategy to waste all this bread probably ought
to be lying in wait at the end of the trail.
I believe I know of someone who purchased such a huge quantity of
bread recently.
Actually, I was just with her.
“Elaina…unbelievable.”
If I’m not mistaken, she should be on her way to Karen, but…what
on earth is she up to? Actually, it’s outrageous to think that she would
come up with a strategy like this that wastes so much food!
And so I walked along collecting pieces of bread, so that I could scold
Elaina, who I assumed was lying in wait at the end of this ridiculous
trap.
After proceeding on for a little while, I reached the final piece of
bread.
The bread had been laid out nicely on plates the whole way, but the
last piece was in an unusual place.
It was hanging suspended beneath a streetlight.

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Page | 236
Moreover, it had been dusted abundantly in a mysterious white
powder.
Too suspicious…
I wasn’t sure whether eating the bread would knock you out or just
paralyze you, but it was quite clear that there was something off
about it. The trap was just too obvious. But I was certain that no
harm would come to me, as long as I didn’t eat it.
So I pulled the last piece of bread toward me and took it in my hand.
“Elaina, where—aaah!”
—are you? Come out now. Jeez. That’s what I was about to say. But
the rest of the words didn’t make it out of my mouth. Instead,
halfway through, they were cut off by an immodest scream.
“……”
The trap sprang into action as soon as I tugged on the last piece of
bread. Before I realized what was happening, I was suspended below
the streetlight just as the last piece of bread had been a moment
earlier.
Both arms were pinned near my hips, and both legs were restrained
along with my skirts. I was completely helpless, just swaying slowly
back and forth under the lamp.
Nothing could have been more wretched.
And then…
Just as flames of shame and humiliation were about to erupt from
my face, the person responsible for catching me in the trap stepped
out of hiding.

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 Is it Elaina? It must be Elaina. There’s no one else it could be—that’s
what I thought, until I saw her face.
“I never thought you would be that easy to catch. You may be a
familiar, but in the end, you’re still just a dog.”
Standing there was a witch…but it wasn’t Elaina.
She wore a white robe and a white triangular hat, and upon her
breast she wore both a star-shaped brooch and a moon-shaped
brooch with pride. Her hair was golden blond, and she was about the
same age as me.
“……” She studied my face, frozen in place, her pipe dangling from
her mouth.
“……” For my part, I was already physically immobilized, ever since I
had been strung up.
Now, if I had stopped to think about it, I would have realized that
since there was an organization in the world whose very purpose
was dealing with magical disturbances, it was probably pretty likely
that the government here had already reached out to that group
before asking a couple of wanderers for help. And that it was also
fairly likely that another mage had already been dispatched from the
United Magic Association.
And so…
…the face before me was a very familiar one.
I was looking at my fellow former apprentice, Sheila.
“…What’re you doing?” she demanded coldly before blowing smoke
in my direction.
“…What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Something stupid.”
“……” I stared at her silently.

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“……” Sheila stared silently back.
“……” Eventually, I looked away. “Um, first of all, could I get you to let
me down?”
Sheila nodded solemnly. “And afterward, we can go get something to
eat together. My treat.”
“Stop that. Don’t talk down to me,” I huffed.
“If you’re strapped for cash, come and talk to me. I’ll help you out if
you need it.”
“Seriously, stop it—you’ve got it all wrong anyway—this is…”
“Sure, sure. Of course I’ll keep quiet about it to your pupil. Even she
would feel sad if she knew that her esteemed teacher was eating off
the street.”
“Oh, there’s no issue there. Elaina’s had her fill of watching me do
that.”
It made me sad to admit it.
Why am I telling her that?
“……” Sheila made an extremely complicated face, then clapped a
hand down on my shoulder. “We can go get something to eat
together. My treat.”
“Stop that. Don’t talk down to me.”

“I figured someone would come sooner or later,” the girl said after
glancing at the brooch on my breast. Maybe she didn’t have enough
strength left to turn me, the trespasser, away. Or maybe she allowed
me in because she could tell I was a witch.
With an expression like she understood everything already, she said,
“I suppose you’ve come to kill me?”

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……
No, you don’t understand a thing, do you…?
The girl probably had no idea what I was doing there.
“No, um…not at all?”
Why would you suddenly jump to such a disturbing idea? Are you
so tired that you’re ready to die?
“I just came to talk…,” I insisted.
“And you’re planning to kill me after we talk? You mustn’t. Please, I
must ask you to wait a little longer before killing me.”
No, I’m telling you, I didn’t come here to kill you, Karen…
And anyway…
“Even supposing that I did sneak into your mansion intent on killing
you, I would have finished the job while you were taking your
afternoon nap.”
“…!”
“What about that is surprising?”
Karen looked unusually confused. Fatigue must have been sapping
her wits. The bags under her eyes told me that she hadn’t been
sleeping much lately.
“All right, so if you didn’t come to kill me, what did you come here
for?”
“I think I said this already, but…” I figured I would repeat myself. “…I
came here to put a stop to the trouble your familiar is causing in the
city.”
“……”

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Karen listened to my words, and then glanced quickly behind and
around me, then cocked her head and asked, “Miss Witch, do you
not have a familiar?”
“As you can see, I do not.”
“So your knowledge of familiars is…?”
“Rather poor, unfortunately.”
“So you don’t really know what you have to do to stop a familiar?”
“Well, I suppose when you put it that way…”
That’s why I came to see you. If I had known why you abandoned
your familiar and locked yourself in here, and how to stop a familiar to
begin with, I wouldn’t have bothered breaking in.
“I see.”
Karen nodded curtly.
Either she was a naturally stoic person or just deadened by
exhaustion. She kept her gaze fixed to the ground and didn’t make
eye contact as she began to fill me in little by little.
“The word familiar describes an animal that has been imbued with
magical power. When a familiar goes rogue, there are two ways to
stop it. One is to dissolve the connection it has to its master. If you
do that, the familiar will revert to its original form. It’s even possible
to stop my familiar from threatening the city that way.”
Well, how about doing that, then?
The heartless words made it into my throat before I stopped them.
Karen has stayed shut up in her house despite knowing a way to
stop the familiar, which must mean that it is not an easy method.
As far as I could see anyway, the girl before me now did seem to be
moping around all heartbroken.

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“What can you do to dissolve that connection?” I asked.
“What will you do if I tell you?” Karen asked me in return.
“Help you do it.”
“I don’t need your help,” Karen insisted briskly. “This is my problem.
It’s got nothing to do with you. Besides, even if you do help me, I
can’t compensate you in return.”
Well, if it’s a question of payment, there’s a chance I can squeeze
plenty out of someone else, so you don’t need to worry about that.
“If you wouldn’t feel right without paying me somehow, you can tell
me the sequence of events that led to your familiar’s rampage. How
about that?”
“…Why are you so insistent on helping me?”
“Because you seemed to be feeling awkward about not being able to
pay me.”
“I don’t really feel awkward about it. It’s simply that it’s my fault that
my familiar is causing so much trouble, so if I don’t resolve the
situation myself, it won’t mean anything.”
“You mean you want to accept the full responsibility for the disaster
you caused?”
“That’s it exactly.”
I see, I see.
A sigh slipped out of my mouth.
“Well, I have to ask you to save that tiresome way of thinking for
later,” I said. “You can take all the responsibility you want for
releasing your familiar onto the city after we resolve the problem.
We’ve got to get it done, no matter what it takes.”
“……” She stared at me silently for a short while.

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And then, finally, Karen tilted her head and asked, “And I’m
supposed to trust you, a witch I just met?”
“It’s fine if you don’t particularly want to trust me. But at least let me
help, please. At the very least, it’ll be far more effective than
continuing to sit at your desk by yourself,” I replied.
“……”
Karen answered with only silence. She glanced once out the window,
then looked at a picture frame that was standing on her desk. After
that, she spoke very reluctantly, and said, “…Understood. Then, I will
make use of you.”
But before I began the long work of reverting the familiar back to its
original form, another thought occurred to me.
“That reminds me, what was the other method for stopping a
familiar?”
How on earth can we stop it, other than by dissolving the bond it
has with you?
Karen answered flatly, without looking at me.
“The death of the master,” she said.
If the master dies, so does the familiar…
I realized why there were no familiars left in the mansion.

“How long have you been here?”

We were in the alley.
I asked Sheila the question with a composed expression, as if nothing
strange had occurred in the past few moments. She tapped a bit of
ash out of her pipe onto the ground nearby and answered, “I was
dispatched to this city about a week ago. You?”

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“I just got here today. I happen to be visiting, along with my pupil,
Elaina. We were asked to help capture a familiar.”
“……” The moment she heard Elaina’s name, a slightly strange
expression surfaced on Sheila’s face, and she nodded. “I see.”
“…What?”
“No, nothing.”
Ah, come to think of it…
“Is your pupil Saya getting on well?”
“…Recently, she’s—no, that’s not something to discuss now.”
“……?”
“More importantly, you could say that my objective and yours are
more or less the same, huh?”
“Yes, though I would be grateful for any help you could give us.”
“Sure, as long as you don’t interfere with my next plan.”
“Oh, did I get in your way or something? Oh-hoh-hoh!”
I don’t remember that at all.
“……”
Sheila screwed her face up into a very, very crude expression.
At any rate, I then revealed to Sheila that I had basically been
gathering information since my arrival in the city. I also revealed that
Elaina was, at that very moment, heading up to the mage’s estate.
“Hmm.” Sheila nodded slightly, as if she didn’t care. “So you left it up
to her to make friends with the familiar’s mistress?”
“Yes. Its capture has been left up to us, though.”
The familiar’s whereabouts were still unknown. We didn’t know
anything about where it was or even what it was doing.

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“Have you gotten any results after being here a week?” I asked.
“For now, I know that the familiar likes bread,” Sheila answered.
“Ah, so you interviewed witnesses for your investigation.” Elaina and
I had also obtained that information. “And? Anything else?”
“Apparently it won’t eat bread that has fallen on the ground.”
“……”
“What else?”
“That’s all.”
“That’s all?”
But I already knew that, and I’ve been here less than a day…
“That’s how hard this thing is to pin down. I’ve been looking
everywhere for a week, and in the end I still haven’t laid eyes on it
once.”
“……”
So that’s why you resorted to desperate measures like leaving
bread out in the middle of the road… Well, the only thing you caught
was me, though.
Sheila scratched her head in irritation and spit out, “…For something
that pops up all over the place, it doesn’t seem to be anywhere at all.
It’s a real troublesome dog.”
“My, my. If it can appear anywhere, then maybe if you wait for it, it
will simply show up sooner or later.”
Let’s think positively about this.
“You think I’d be having so much trouble if it was really that easy?”
As Sheila was speaking, her eyes turned in the direction of the
lamppost where I had been strung up a few moments earlier.
A moment later, I looked, too.

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It seemed like something was moving over there.
“……”
At that exact moment, I remembered something.
I remembered that, earlier, I had collected all the bread that Sheila
had scattered down the alleyway, placing each piece one by one in
my bag. But when I’d reached out for the last piece and gotten
strung up in midair, I had carelessly dropped that bag on the ground.
Then Sheila had appeared, so I had completely forgotten about the
existence of the bread.
I recalled that fact right at that moment.
The moment that I spotted a familiar holding my bag in its mouth.
“……” Sheila stiffened.
“……” Naturally, I stiffened as well.
I was surprised that the familiar had suddenly appeared from out of
nowhere, but more than anything else, I was surprised by its
appearance.
It seemed that the rumors hadn’t been exaggerated.
Its coat was black. Its eyes were green. Its fangs were sharp, and its
claws were filthy. Its form did resemble a wolf in some respect, but
more than anything, it was enormous—about as long as a grown
man was tall. Sure enough, it was huge, just like the rumors said.
But one thing, one single thing, was completely different from the
rumors.
The familiar was all skin and bones.
I could tell even through its black coat. Its limbs were as slender as
twigs, its tail drooped, and its paws trembled on the ground. I knew
right away that it had to be starving. And yet it didn’t eat the bread
that was before its eyes. Holding the bag in its mouth, not so much

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as looking our way—it probably didn’t even have the extra energy to
look at us—the familiar jumped up on top of the roof of a nearby
house and disappeared, dragging one leg behind it.
All we could do was stand there doubting our eyes at the
astonishingly sudden sight.
I wondered if a creature in such a weakened state could really have
been threatening the people of the city.
“…Hey.” Sheila finally looked back at me. “Shouldn’t we chase after
it?”
“…I suppose we should.”
I nodded and pulled out my broom.
We finally had a lead on the rogue familiar. We weren’t about to let
it get away.
Apparently, we were going to have to investigate just where the
creature had been and what it had been doing before now, before it
got so thin.
As we followed the familiar, I thought that it looked very, very frail.

According to Karen…
When an animal made a pact to become a familiar, it was infused
with magic and took on a new form. It became a servant, made to
obey any order from its master and carry out any task.
Once master and servant were tied to each other, the familiar gained
the ability to borrow magical energy from the mage, and its physical
abilities improved as its form changed. Additionally, it gained the
power to cast spells, and grew more intelligent, even gaining the
ability to speak. Those were generally the kinds of changes that
appeared, Karen said.

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But it was important to remember that the changes applied only so
long as the compact was valid.
So then, if the compact failed, what would happen? Karen answered
my extremely reasonable question while she read over some
documents.
“Usually, when a pact fails, it happens before the transformation.
And in most cases, it results in death at the moment of failure.”
“……”
I feel like that is a slightly different circumstance than the present
situation with the rogue familiar. Because actually, right now, that
familiar is out walking freely around town.
“If a familiar goes wild after a compact has been formed, then the
worst possible thing happens,” Karen said. “That’s what happened to
my familiar.”
“What happens to them when they go wild?”
“They go into a temporary frenzy, and often injure or even kill
anyone nearby.”
“……”
That seemed to be what Karen was dealing with now, as she
continued her research in isolation.
“You said ‘temporary,’ meaning that their rampage must end at
some point, right?” I asked. “What happens to them once it’s over?”
“They are no longer bound to follow their master’s orders. They act
only on their own intentions.”
That probably described Karen’s familiar at the moment. Halfway
bound by pact, but no longer under its mistress’s command, the
familiar had been prowling around the city.
One of two means could be used to dissolve the compact.

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Either Karen had to die, or the defective pact had to be broken.
Karen told me that she had suffered a setback when she first started
searching for a method to rescind the master-servant pact. No
matter what she tried, she hadn’t been able to make the magical
potion she needed to do it.
Although she had inherited all kinds of books on magic along with
her estate, the recipe for a potion that would dissolve the pact
between mage and familiar was not recorded in any of them.
The idea of doing so had probably been unthinkable to any of the
people who had lived in the house before her.
“I’ve been researching the problem for half a year, but it hasn’t been
going well.”
All she had done was cover the floor in scraps of paper, with nothing
to show for it. Sparing almost no time for sleep, she had found it
incredibly difficult to try to fumble her way through the magical
tomes.
She had studied, made up a recipe for a potion, mixed it, failed, then
repeated the process nearly every day. Over and over, she had done
it again and again, only to fail each time, destroying the inside of the
mansion in the process. The chandelier had fallen, the paintings had
gotten filthy, and still, she had repeated her experiments many
times.
“……” I picked up the documents that were sitting on her desk. “I
understand the circumstances now. First of all, please give me all of
the potion recipes you still have on hand.”
“But all the ones I mixed were failures—”
“But if I mix them, we might get different results.”
“…Understood.” Karen nodded reluctantly.

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After I took the recipes from her, I started comparing the documents
in my hands.
I don’t know anything when it comes to familiars, but all my other
knowledge and experience should amount to something.
So I sat down beside her, facing the desk just like she was.
“……”
“……”
Both of us remained absolutely silent as I ran pen over paper in fits
and starts and discarded scraps of paper by tossing them behind my
back.
We forgot the time and sat there all day until the sun set.
The hours passed quietly.
“…Come to think of it, was that familiar originally a dog?”
It suddenly occurred to me to ask, as I was reading over documents.
“Why do you ask…?” Karen looked over her shoulder suspiciously.
“Oh, just because I heard a rumor that its appearance is like a wolf.”
Although it wasn’t like I had ever actually seen the familiar, so I only
had the gossip I’d collected to go on. My rough guess was that if a
dog got bigger, it would pretty much look like a wolf. It was almost
too simple.
“Wrong.”
And apparently my rough guess missed the mark.
“Completely wrong.”
Apparently, it was a total miss. Karen shook her head so strongly that
her hair swayed. “You can turn your familiar into any form you like.
Once the bond between master and servant is formed, the familiar
can become anything at all.”

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 Well, from what Karen says, it sounds like transformation magic is
a big part of creating a familiar, so I suppose it makes sense that it
would take on a new form during the process.
Karen pushed herself away from the desk and turned around.
“My family lineage has raised wolf familiars for generations, so my
familiar also took the shape of a wolf, that’s all.”
So in that case…
“All right, so what kind of animal was it to begin with?”
I was just asking out of curiosity.
I was sort of interested, that’s all.
“……”
In response to my completely natural question, Karen hesitated,
looked bewildered, and her eyes began to waver.
I must have asked something that I shouldn’t have. I had made a
mistake. I felt uncomfortable at the strange way she was acting.
“My familiar is…”
And then, after a brief hesitation, she answered.

The familiar, still clutching the bag of bread in its mouth, eventually
led us to the ruin of a small factory on the outskirts of town. There
were no signs of people, and it wasn’t hard to understand how no
one would have noticed the familiar hiding out in a place like that.
On top of that, the familiar got around by bounding across the
rooftops.
“It’s hardly surprising that people say it appears out of nowhere,
huh?” Sheila nodded to herself, hiding in the shadows so as not to be

Page | 251
noticed by the familiar. “No one pays any attention to their
rooftops.”
“…Yes, indeed.” I nodded, too, observing the familiar from a
distance.
The wolf with the black fur alighted from a rooftop and headed
straight for a small hut that stood in one corner of the ruined factory.
There was no hesitation in its gait. It didn’t look tired either, even
though it was so unsteady, it had barely been standing a short while
ago.
The familiar just walked slowly toward the hut.
“What should we do? Capture it?”
Sheila pulled out her wand and looked at me. Compared to earlier
when the creature had been moving around, it seemed like it would
be easy to apprehend with magic.
“……”
I didn’t answer. Watching the familiar’s actions from afar, I just kept
silent.
There was a great deal of food lying around the hut in front of the
familiar.
There were fruits and vegetables and bread—plenty of food just
sitting there. The familiar set the bag of bread that it was carrying
down on top of the pile and stood motionless.
It didn’t eat any of the food.
It’s probably been bringing food here like this for a long time. Even
from afar, I could see the remains of the food that had been strewn
about in front of the hut, as if someone, or something, was inside.
“…What’s it doing?”

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“……”
Again, I didn’t answer.
But one thing I could have said without a doubt was that even if we
didn’t capture the familiar today, or tomorrow, or the next day, if we
kept on waiting, the familiar was certain to return to this place.
There was no need for us to try to capture it right away.
Before long, the familiar took its leave from that place. Just like when
it had arrived, it moved slowly and weakly toward town.
“……”
“……”
In the end, we didn’t capture the familiar. But it didn’t matter. We
knew that we would have many more chances, even if we didn’t
force ourselves to act on that occasion.
It turned out that our decision was the right one.
Immediately after the familiar left, small figures came crawling out
from inside the hut.
Clad in tattered scraps of cloth, three little girls came out, checking
their surroundings.

That evening, when I went back to the hotel, Miss Fran and Sheila
were waiting for me.
They told me about how Miss Fran had run into Sheila in town, and
how Sheila was working toward the same goal as we were.
Moreover…
“In the meantime, we’ve got a general grasp on the familiar’s
movements. We can capture it at any time,” Miss Fran told me
hopefully, without hesitation.

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But…
“……”
I wasn’t exactly happy about the news.
Even if they could capture the familiar, I didn’t want them to. For
Karen’s sake, and for the familiar’s sake.
“How did things go for you?” Miss Fran tilted her head.
I answered frankly, “I’m now working with Karen to make a magic
potion. Once we perfect her potion, we should be able to return the
familiar to its original form.”
At my words, Sheila nodded. “Is that so? Then, what kind of animal
was that familiar originally?” she asked, staring at me. “I don’t
suppose it was any ordinary beast.”
“……”
I kept silent as the two of them told me about the spectacle they had
witnessed that afternoon.
They described the figure of the familiar, which appeared basically as
the rumors said, yet completely changed for the worse. They told me
about the homeless children who were living in the crumbling hut.
And they recounted the familiar’s mysterious actions and how it only
showed mercy to the children, leaving without taking a single bite of
food for itself.
Sheila and Miss Fran, who had witnessed the whole thing from
beginning to end, told me that, ultimately, they had totally lost any
inclination to capture the familiar.
“We were supposed to hunt down a familiar that was destroying
crops and causing panic among the people. We witnessed no such
behavior from the familiar we saw earlier. I can’t help but doubt that
the familiar we saw is actually a threat to the people at all. Do you
know anything about it, Elaina?” Miss Fran looked at me.

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 I do know.
I know because I got Karen to tell me about her familiar’s original
form.
I know why the familiar is gathering bread and leaving it at the hut.
I know everything.
“……”
Hesitantly, I opened my mouth.
“Karen’s familiar’s name is Scieszka.”
I told them the story of the familiar and Karen.
I told them a tale of two girls.
The two of them first met when Karen was walking down a back alley
by herself.
Scieszka was near death.
Her black hair was tied up in a single ponytail on the back of her
head. Her eyes were green. Her skin was a little darker than Karen’s,
and she had bruises and cuts all over. Her clothes were tattered, and
Karen actually couldn’t tell whether they were just worn, or if they
had been torn apart by whatever had caused her injuries. It looked
like she wasn’t even wearing clothes at all and was just wrapped in
plain cloth.
Right away, Karen could tell that Scieszka was in no condition to walk
on her own.
But Karen was still an inexperienced magic user.
She didn’t know any spells to heal Scieszka’s injuries.
“…Wait here, I’ll call someone!” Karen called out to the girl whose
name she didn’t even know.
At the time, that was about all she could do to help.

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“Don’t.” Scieszka grabbed her hand and stopped her. “It’s no use.”
According to Scieszka…
She had been beaten by the owner of a bakery. She had stolen some
of the bread lined up on a shelf at the shop, been chased into the
alley, gotten caught, and taken a beating.
“I always steal from there, see, so I think that I hit the limits of the
baker’s patience. As he was beating me, he said he was going to
make it so I never stole from there again. I’m paying for my own
mistakes, you know.” The girl grinned foolishly, still stretched out on
her side.
For someone who was nearly dead, she somehow seemed to have
enough strength left to smile.
“……” Karen looked down at Scieszka. “So then, is there anything I
can do?” she asked.
Scieszka answered, “I guess I’d like to eat some bread.”
That was her only request.
“……”
Karen wondered what her mother would do in such a situation.
She probably wouldn’t hesitate to help.
She decided that if her mother had been there, she would have
answered the request with a smile.
“Got it. All right, I’ll go buy some bread.”
So Karen heeded Scieszka’s wishes.
That was the first time Karen had ever eaten bread sold from a
bakery in the city.

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She didn’t think it was particularly tasty. It was hard, and cold, and
not really special. She felt that the bread her mother made for her
was much better.
But she figured it must taste good to the city folks, because Scieszka
devoured the bread with gusto, weeping as she ate.
Mysteriously, Karen and Scieszka seemed to be linked by fate. After
that day, every time she went into town, Karen would encounter
Scieszka.
One time, Scieszka was being chased by someone. Another time,
Scieszka was walking along eating some bread that she had probably
stolen. Yet another time, she was gazing into a bakery window with a
look of determination in her eyes. Scieszka apparently wandered
here and there around the city at all hours of the day and night, and
every time Karen saw her, she spoke to her.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t thanked you yet, have I?”
One day, Scieszka pressed a bundle into Karen’s hands. It was soft
and a little warm.
Inside was a single piece of cheap bread.
“Thank you for what you did before. You saved me.”
Apparently Scieszka really liked bread. And she must have thought
that Karen also liked what she liked.
But…
“…This isn’t stolen, is it?”
“That’s confidential.” Scieszka held a finger up to her lips and smiled.
“What does confidential mean?”
“It means I’ll tell you once we’re better friends.”
“But it’s obvious, even if you don’t try to hide it.”

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Scieszka had been beaten nearly to death, and yet Karen had seen
her stealing from bakeries many times since then. At this stage, even
if Scieszka wouldn’t admit it, Karen knew perfectly well where the
bread she had been handed had come from.
She wasn’t happy to be given stolen goods. Even less so if Scieszka
had put her life in danger to steal it, as she had before.
“Why do you steal things?”
Karen couldn’t understand why. She wondered how on earth
Scieszka could cause such trouble for other people and then be so
calm about it.
“Why? Because I have no other way to get things. Someone like me
can’t get a proper job. I can’t even feed myself tomorrow. So I’ve got
no choice but to go digging through garbage or steal in order to
survive.”
Scieszka didn’t look pessimistic.
Still speaking in a very cheerful tone of voice, she said, “I don’t have
any other means of getting by, you know.”
Then Scieszka added, “But I’m not unhappy,” and turned to look at
Karen. “I think it’s boring to live life feeling sorry for yourself.”
Karen felt like Scieszka had been making fun of her, in a roundabout
way, for leading a boring life. Though she knew that Scieszka had no
way of knowing the kind of treatment she received at home, she still
felt a little bitter about it.
About the fact that she was leading a boring life, trapped on a limited
estate, and about the girl who smiled happily despite living as a thief
with no family.
After that…
Karen began to take her magical training very seriously. Under her
grandmother’s instruction, she kept practicing her spells.

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Of course, she also kept meeting up with Scieszka whenever she
went into town.
Scieszka taught Karen all kinds of things. Like which restaurants
threw away the tastiest foods, and how to steal bread from a bakery,
and how to pickpocket.
Most of this was not knowledge that Karen needed, but Scieszka
talked about it unprompted, in one-sided conversations.
One day, Karen said to Scieszka somewhat cynically, “For someone
who refused to answer whether or not that bread was stolen, you
sure talk a lot.”
With a composed face, as always, Scieszka answered simply, “Didn’t I
say I would tell you once we were good friends?”
Then she added, “Though I guess you could say I dodged the
question because I wanted to become better friends. Nothing gets
people invested like a juicy secret,” she said.
The two girls did become friends.
Spring, summer, autumn, winter—before long, Scieszka and Karen
would chat excitedly whenever they saw each other.
Scieszka was a mysterious girl. She lived a very hard life, after all.
With no one by her side, she lived each day not knowing if it would
be her last.
She should have been anxious, insecure.
And yet she was always smiling.
“I’ll introduce you. This is my house.”
One day, Scieszka took Karen to the ruins of a factory and showed
her a little hut that had been built out of random scraps of wood.
Bits of cloth were spread out over the roof so that the rain wouldn’t
get into the hut, and similarly, a sheet hung over the entrance.

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It was quite a bit smaller than Karen’s bedroom. Too small for
someone to live in.
That was what Scieszka called home.
“…It doesn’t look like a house.”
“You’re supposed to say, ‘Wow, what a great house!’ Even if you
don’t mean it, you know.” Scieszka puffed up her cheeks and opened
the cloth curtain. “I’ve got a family, too.”
Several little girls were sitting inside. The girls, who all looked a lot
like Scieszka, were gathered around a book propped open on a
wooden plank, reading.
When they lifted their gaunt faces, they all smiled.
“Welcome home, big sister!”
“Welcome back!”
“No food yet?”
As soon as she saw them, Karen understood.
She knew that the girls in the hut were children with no families, just
like Scieszka.
That was when Karen first realized that there were many more
children in the same circumstances as Scieszka.
And that Scieszka had been giving the stolen bread and other food to
girls younger than herself.
“Big sister, how do you read this word?” one of the girls asked,
holding the book up and pointing to it. Scieszka hummed for a
minute, staring at the book, but she had probably never learned to
read and write.
“Sorry, your big sister’s a dummy. I have no idea,” she answered with
a smile.

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“Useless!”
“Totally!”
Scieszka’s sisters teased her.
“Come on, now!” She smiled, as always.
“I have a dream, you know.”
The second spring had arrived since the two girls had met.
Munching on stolen bread, Scieszka tore a piece off and pushed it
into Karen’s hands as she said, “I dream of saving up lots of money
and leaving the city when I’m grown, to run a bakery in some distant
land.”
Karen, holding the bread she had been given, asked, “Have you ever
made it before? Bread, that is.”
“Of course I haven’t. But I’ve already decided on the name of my
shop.”
“…What will it be?”
“The Black Bakery.”
“…What’s the inspiration for the name?”
“My hair is black.”
“That’s too obvious.”
“…Ah, wait. Not that…how about The Black and Gold Bakery?”
“…And I suppose I’ll be working there?”
“Not just you, Karen. I’ll hire the girls who live with me, too, and the
five of us will somehow manage to run the place. And…,” she
continued, “after we get that going, I want those girls to live decent
lives. I don’t want them to have to go through what I’ve been
through. I want them to live honestly, without stealing. I’ve suffered
enough, and there’s no need for those girls to suffer the same. So I

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want to save up money as quickly as I can and get out of here,” she
said.
“……”
Karen marveled at Scieszka.
She was always amazed by her friend.
“Why are you telling me all this?”
Scieszka had told Karen every little thing about herself, like how she
lived her life, and what kind of family she lived with, and about her
dreams.
Karen wondered why she had done that.

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“You have the same eyes as I do,” Scieszka answered casually, as if it
was the most obvious thing.
“What kind of eyes?”
“Eyes that want to escape from this place as soon as possible.”
Scieszka’s eyes were clear as she spoke.
Karen looked away from Scieszka, as if to escape, and bit into her
bread.
“This is terrible.”
“You’re supposed to say it’s delicious, even if you don’t mean it.”
Before long, Karen began visiting Scieszka’s house frequently. She
had lots of books in her mansion, and she could read and write.
She started to help the little girls with their studies.
The days went by peacefully.
Ever since Karen had started going out into the city alone, her magic
had improved day by day.
“Perfect. I have nothing left to teach you,” her grandmother told her
one day.
That year, it was officially decided that Karen would be granted a
familiar on her fourteenth birthday.
Scieszka was invited to the estate on the day of Karen’s fourteenth
birthday.
“Your magic has improved, thanks to your friend, right? In that case,
we need to thank her, as a family.”

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Karen’s mother was delighted and suggested the idea of bringing
Scieszka to the house.
Karen honestly felt a little reluctant at the thought of bringing
Scieszka around. Her family’s mansion was obviously very luxurious,
while Scieszka lived her life not knowing where or when she’d get
her next meal.
Karen wondered what she would do if Scieszka’s visit made her feel
inferior—or made her hate Karen.
So she was hesitant.
But Scieszka was always so cheerful in front of Karen.
After wavering for a while, Karen finally invited Scieszka to her home.
“…It doesn’t look like a house.”
Scieszka, looking shabby as always, stood in front of the gate, staring
up at the mansion with her mouth hanging open.
When Karen showed her inside, the servants, along with Karen’s
parents and grandmother, came out to greet the two girls.
Everyone who came out of the house to greet them stared at
Scieszka, aghast. Probably because she was such a shabby little girl.
They probably couldn’t believe that such a dirty child was Karen’s
friend.
So Karen puffed out her chest. “This girl is my friend, Scieszka,” she
said clearly. “The fact that I learned to use magic is all thanks to her.”
Karen’s grandmother let out a sigh, and the servants were obviously
flustered. It was not surprising that everyone was so perplexed, since
the two friends were so different in social standing.
Only one person smiled tenderly at the two girls.
“I see—so you are Karen’s friend?”

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It was Karen’s mother. “You’re the one who’s been looking after my
daughter, are you? Thank you. I hope you enjoy your time here
today.”
Karen’s mother welcomed Scieszka as an honored guest.
Scieszka seemed hungry, so she fed her a delicious meal. Scieszka
was dirty, so she let her take a bath. Scieszka was wearing tattered
clothes, so she dressed her in the finest outfit that they had. By that
afternoon, Scieszka fit right in on the estate. She was dressed in
beautiful clothes and decorated with beautiful accessories. She
looked just like she had lived there all along.
“Amazing…I look like a different person.”
Scieszka’s reflection in the mirror looked like someone else entirely.
“You can keep those clothes,” Karen’s mother said, placing one hand
on Scieszka’s shoulder. “Take good care of them.”
“Such nice clothes, is it really okay…for me to have them?”
“Yes. It’s no problem. They’re extras anyway, and besides…,” Karen’s
mother continued, “…you’re Karen’s friend, which makes you
family.”
In Karen’s family, children were treated as fully grown from the day
that they were granted their own familiar.
On the day of Karen’s fourteenth birthday, as the sun set, all of her
family gathered in one room of the mansion, including the servants
and the familiars.
Scieszka was instructed to stand beside Karen’s mother and
grandmother.
“……”
But the strange thing was that one essential party was missing—the
animal that was to become Karen’s familiar.

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Karen had assumed that she would be using a mouse or something,
just like she did during practice. She had been under the impression
that she would be employing some animal or other as her familiar.
But there was no animal on the altar.
“Mother?” Karen had never learned how to produce a familiar from
nothing. “What about the animal…?”
She gazed at her mother with eyes full of anxiety.
Her mother smiled at her tenderly as always.
“It’s right here.”
Karen didn’t understand.
There is no animal anywhere. The only familiars here are already
bound by master-servant compacts; otherwise it’s just people.
“Right here,” her mother said.
Standing beside her, Karen’s friend Scieszka just watched the two of
them, oblivious to what was going on.
“This girl will become your familiar.”
Then there was a spray of red.
It fell from Scieszka’s neck, onto the floor. Karen’s mother was
holding a short knife. When Scieszka let out a mute scream and
collapsed, the mother stepped over the fallen girl and approached
Karen.
Then she whispered into her ear, “All right, Karen. Try casting the
spell, just like Grandma taught you.”
Karen was astonished. She struggled to make sense of what had
taken place. It was like the inside of her mind was blank.

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Her mother spoke to her as gently as always. “We were surprised
when you brought her here, but I won’t deny you. It’s fine. If this girl
is important to you, I’m sure you’ll be successful.”
“Mo…ther…?”
“Come now. Hurry. If you don’t do it quickly, she’ll die. If you turn
her into your familiar, the wound will heal. If you don’t want her to
die, hurry and make her into your familiar.”
Karen looked down and saw Scieszka.
She saw Scieszka, suffering on the cold floor, spitting up blood.
“Scieszka…”
She called her friend’s name.
“Come now, hurry.” Karen’s mother took her hand and pointed her
wand toward Scieszka. “Cast the spell quickly. It’s all right. You can
do it, just as I once did. I know you’ll do a fine job.”
Scieszka’s pretty clothes were dirty now. They were covered in
blood, tears, and saliva.
Karen had never questioned the customs of her family. She had
never worried about where they had gotten generations of familiars,
or what forms they had held before the ritual.
Finally, she realized how foolish she had been.
“Ah…”
She realized her own foolishness after it was too late to turn back, no
matter how much she regretted it.
With a trembling hand, Karen readied her wand. With an endless
stream of tears, through a blurred vision, sobbing inconsolably, she
took aim.
“Aaah…! Aaaaaaaaah!”

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Cursing herself for her own ignorance, she cast the spell.
That day, Karen became a fully realized mage of her family.
In the puddle of blood on the floor was her familiar, which had taken
the shape of a black wolf.
“Great job, Karen! It was a success! Have a look! It’s a great familiar,
isn’t it?”
“……”
Karen’s mother stroked her head happily.
Karen lay flat on the floor and apologized over and over and over and
over again.
For bringing Scieszka to a place like this. For stealing any chance of
her dream ever coming true. For the fact that she would no longer
be able to help the little girls grow into splendid adults.
She kept on apologizing to the wolf.
Resentment toward her family coursed through her veins.
She hated them—her grandmother, who believed that employing
familiars was the only correct way to live, and her mother, who had
never actually had the least bit of kindness in her. From the bottom
of her heart, Karen wished to escape from that place as soon as
possible.
From the bottom of her heart, she wished that everything and
everyone would disappear.
Just then…
The black wolf bit into her mother’s neck.
“Wha—!”

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Its powerful jaws tightened around her throat, gouging into her flesh
so that she couldn’t even scream. It kept biting, until her expression
was twisted with fear.
“You beast—!”
While everyone else was too astonished to move, Karen’s
grandmother readied her wand.
“Hey, Karen!” She glared at the girl. “Stop that anima—”
But before she could finish, the wolf bit into her arm.
“Aaaaaah! Aaah! What have you done!”
What happened next was like a scene from hell.
Karen’s mother stood up, bleeding, and fired off a spell—a blade of
force slashed at Scieszka’s leg. A brown wolf bit into Scieszka’s
throat, but Scieszka did the same and tore at the throat of Karen’s
mother’s familiar. Covered in blood, the two of them rolled around in
the middle of the room. Karen’s grandmother tried to restrain them
from afar, but Scieszka must have seen her and bit her in the leg. The
old woman’s face warped with intense pain, and she lashed out at
Scieszka, but every time she landed a hit, Scieszka dug her fangs in
more and more powerfully, rending the flesh.
The first to die was Karen’s mother. Next was her grandmother, then
all the servants who were running around trying to escape. No one
made it out alive.
“Ah…ahh…”
In the middle of the room, surrounded by screams and the spray of
blood, stood Karen, hanging her head and sobbing.
Eventually, once all the noise had died down, she dared to look up.
Her surroundings were soaked in blood.

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Gradually, she realized that her spell had succeeded. The pact with
her familiar had definitely taken hold. But her intense emotions had
sent her familiar on a rampage.
The gruesome scene before her eyes was the result.
“……”
She wondered what Scieszka was thinking, now that the rampage
was over and she had come back to herself, looking at the sea of
blood spreading out before her. Scieszka surveyed her surroundings
with her lovely green eyes and let out one frail cry, then bounded for
the exit of the mansion, dragging her leg behind her.
“Wait. Scieszka. Please, wait!”
Karen sank to the floor in a daze and called her name.
But she didn’t know what to say to get Scieszka to come back. She
had turned her friend into a monster, and made her kill people, and
didn’t know what she could possibly say after that.
In the end, she said nothing at all.
Karen’s familiar disappeared into the dark of night without looking
back.

After the tragic incident, half a year went by, but there was nothing
that Karen could do on her own. She just hung her head, powerless,
and didn’t accomplish a thing.
She knew that she had to turn Scieszka back into a human as soon as
she possibly could.
But her distress addled her wits, and as a result, all her potions were
failures, and all she did was destroy her house, without anything to
show for it.

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But that was because she had been going up against the problem
alone.
“First of all, I’ll be staying here in the mansion twenty-four-seven,
starting today. So let’s hurry up and make that potion.”
It was the day after I’d reported the situation to Miss Fran and Sheila.
I headed for the estate as the sun rose and began researching
potions right away. Karen looked like she hadn’t slept, and she stared
at me with an expression so hollow, I couldn’t tell whether she was
awake or asleep. “…Thanks,” she murmured. It was an automatic
reaction.
Just how long has it been since this girl slept?
“You ought to go rest for a while,” I suggested.
“No.” For someone who was just barely conscious, she managed to
respond very clearly when she was refusing me. “I’d rather research
than sleep.”
“Um, in your condition, you’d be better off sleeping rather than
conducting research.”
“No. I’d rather research than sleep.”
“……”
“I’d rather research than sleep.”
When she spoke the same words like a broken record, I gave up and
let out a sigh.
The two of us took our work very seriously. Karen would write the
recipe for a potion, then I would mix it. The work was perfectly
divided. Though I also did my own research on familiars while Karen
was puzzling over her recipes.
“…What do you think of the compound in this recipe?”

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“I’ll try mixing it.” I skimmed over the recipe Karen handed me and
then mixed a batch. “Finished…and it’s a shrinking potion.”
“Hmm,” Karen thought. “…It won’t return a familiar to normal but
maybe we can use it.”
No, no.
“Also, as a side effect, anyone who drinks this will have their lifespan
shortened by about one hundred years.”
“Wouldn’t that mean instant death?”
“This one’s a bust.”
But she wasn’t discouraged, and before long, Karen brought me
another recipe.
“How about this one?”
“I see, let’s try it.” I mixed that one as well. “Done. This is a potion
that can create an inexhaustible supply of gold.”
“Got it. Useless.”
Karen tossed the liquid aside.
“Ah…um, sure it is…yes.”
Every day, I kept mixing and mixing, and kept shaking my head no,
no.
“This one’s perfect, huh?” I held up a piece of paper that contained
an ordinary cooking recipe.
“Look at this. I made a recipe.” Karen proudly brought me a blank
sheet of paper.
Such outrageous things did happen sometimes, maybe because we
were exhausted, but even so, we continued the work.
For one, two, three, four days we continued the work, on and on.

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Morning, noon, and night we went on endlessly mixing magic potions
that all turned out to be failures.
And then finally…
After suffering through failure after failure, drifting through the days
like a dream, or perhaps a waking nightmare…
…Finally we saw the light.
It happened on the fifth day of our work together at Karen’s house.
“Look at this.”
I understood immediately what kind of effect the potion would have.
I started mixing the potion right away. I followed the recipe,
assembled the ingredients, threw them into a cauldron, infused
them with magic, and stirred as the mixture simmered.
Karen fell asleep while I was working, so I did every bit of the job by
myself. But there was no helping that. After all, I was tasting only a
tiny bit of the suffering she had gone through long before I had
arrived.
It’s good for her to have some time to sleep soundly.
“Rest well, Karen.”
I put a blanket over her shoulders and let her sleep, facedown on her
desk.
Scattered all around her were finished potions.

Day one.
Looking down from high overhead, I clearly recognized Scieszka’s
usual behavior. Every day, she dropped down from the rooftops into
town and went rummaging through the garbage or stole some food.
She was living the same way she always had before.

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Her appearance had changed, yet her actions were the same.
She stole things and provided food for the girls waiting in the hut,
but she rarely ate anything herself and just wandered from place to
place.
That was how she passed the days.
She didn’t know who she was, and no one knew her. She was just a
monster, and she lived like that for half a year.
Alone.
Never meeting anyone face-to-face.
“……”
But those days were over.
Scieszka was walking around town when she came upon a piece of
bread sitting on a plate. The girl who had been turned into a black
wolf sniffed the bread gently, then picked it up in her mouth and
started walking. After she had gone a little farther, there was
another piece of bread sitting on a plate. There was also a bag sitting
beside it.
Clearly, this was very suspicious. It was an obvious trap.
Even so, Scieszka picked up the bread and stepped forward on frail
legs, placing both pieces into the bag. She must have been thinking
about providing the girls with bread again.
As I watched from high up in the air, Scieszka wandered on and on,
picking up the pieces of bread that were laid out like guideposts on
the road and packing them into the bag.
And then she stepped forward.
To the last piece of bread.
She stopped under a lamppost.

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“……”
Scieszka looked up.
There was a girl there.
“Scieszka.”
Her golden hair went down past her shoulders, and her robe was
elaborately decorated all over, and seemed very, very expensive. She
looked like the daughter of a noble family. She was probably about
fourteen years old, and there was still youth in her features.
When she kneeled before the eyes of the black wolf, she finally
broke.
“I’m so sorry I hurt you…,” she said tearfully.
Karen, the familiar’s mistress, was crying.
The black wolf didn’t answer. She just squinted at Karen.
Finally, Karen embraced Scieszka. As she stroked the stiff, fluffy black
fur, she cried and smiled and addressed her friend.
“Let me take responsibility. For the rest of our lives, for a long, long
time to come, let me make amends for your loneliness…,” Karen said.
In her hand, she held a small vial—the magic potion that had only
just been perfected the day before.
And then…
As Sheila and I, along with Elaina, watched from the sky, Karen
administered the potion to Scieszka.
Day one.
The first day after completion of the potion.
Their long, long days of loneliness came to an end.

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It was very difficult for us to summarize everything that had
happened, but we managed to convey it all to the government
official, without keeping anything secret.
We explained that Karen’s familiar was a girl—that it was Scieszka.
And that Scieszka certainly hadn’t been rampaging around town. We
also explained that Karen had not just shut herself away out of grief.
We told the government official that the familiar would never
terrorize the town again.
We laid everything out in clear detail.
“…I see. It’s difficult to believe, hearing that all so suddenly, but—”
But it’s the truth.
Since three witches are each giving you the same testimony, it
would be troublesome if you didn’t believe us.
After she’d finished interviewing us, the official told us she was going
to talk with Karen. Probably to confirm the facts.
The rest would be decided by the people of the city. In the end, we
were outsiders, and wouldn’t have anything more to do with the
matter.
Besides, it wasn’t difficult to imagine how things were going to go for
the two girls, even without our involvement.
If I had one concern, it was that there was basically nothing of value
left in Karen’s ransacked house. It seemed like it would be very
difficult for her to lead a normal life like that.
“By the way, I have one more request…” I tilted my head as I
pocketed only a few of the gold coins that the official had offered me
in payment.
“…What is it?” The official also tilted her head and frowned, looking
puzzled.

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“I want you to give the rest to Karen.”
“……”
The official didn’t say anything for a while.
Maybe she was having trouble understanding what I was doing. Or
maybe she was stunned because the two people beside me had also
done the same thing.
But eventually, the official nodded. “…Understood. If that’s what you
ladies want.”
Then she collected the three stacks of coins sitting on the table.
After we had divulged everything to the government official, we left
the city immediately.
There was no need for us to stay any longer, and Miss Fran was in
the middle of her own return trip.
If anything, I already felt bad that we had stayed in a single city for
almost a week. The fact that it took me so much time to mix the
potion was to blame.
“Are you two headed for the harbor now?” Sheila cocked her head.
We were standing in front of the city gates. Sheila was holding her
pipe in her mouth as always, but the wind was blowing and the
smoke curled up into the sky, so the smell didn’t bother me that
much.
Miss Fran nodded at her. “That’s right. That’s my plan. What are you
doing?” she asked.
Sheila made a slightly bitter expression. “I’ve got another job to get
to. Guess this is where we part ways.”
“Oh, that’s too bad,” Miss Fran said quite readily, in spite of the
actual words. “I can tell that you’re enthusiastic about your work, but
don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

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“Does it seem like I am?”
“I was just being polite.”
“……” Sheila shrugged. “I’m jealous of you two. If I had my way, I’d
like to fly over to the harbor, too, but…work is work. Unfortunately, I
can’t go with you.” She already looked fairly exhausted. “You don’t
need to see me off. It’s not like this is our final farewell, or anything.”
“We’ll meet again someday, so don’t feel like you have to come with
us.” Miss Fran smiled.
Sheila sucked in a breath, exhaled, and blew out smoke like a sigh.
“It’s such a pain the way your responsibilities increase as you get
older. You can’t even do what you want anymore. I’d like to go with
you, but I can’t.”
Sheila had been working at the United Magic Association for a long
time and probably had a lot of responsibility there.
She had the duty of going from place to place and resolving incidents
as an Association-affiliated witch.
She had the duty of teaching classes as a professor.
She had the duty of being Saya’s teacher.
“……” Miss Fran was a little bewildered. “Um, I’m not sure how to
respond, now that you’ve said something like that so suddenly…”
“……” Sheila chuckled at seeing Fran that way. “Well, enjoy your two-
person journey as much as possible. The third wheel is leaving now.”

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And then, without any further parting words, Sheila turned on her
heel and walked off.
Though she kept her back to us, we could see ribbons of smoke
wafting from her silhouette, and an odor that made me screw up my
face in disgust was carried our way by the breeze.
We also turned our backs on Sheila.
Neither of us suggested getting on our brooms.
We just started slowly walking.
I turned to look at Miss Fran. “I wonder what kind of place is waiting
for us next?”
She looked at me and gave a vague answer. “I bet it’ll be a place
fairly close to the seashore, where the scent of the ocean fills the
air.”
But right after that, she added with a smile, “I hope it’s someplace
wonderful.”
I just said, “Me too,” and nodded, then kept walking alongside my
teacher as always.
Before long, the smell of smoke that made me screw up my face had
dissipated. Without turning around, Miss Fran and I pulled out our
brooms and set off.
Toward the end of our journey together.

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CHAPTER 6: A Country Girl, a History
Addict, and the Aroma of Wheat
Linaria’s history hunt continued.
Since the whole period from late winter through early spring was a
holiday, neither of us was too concerned with the return trip. Far
from it. We told each other optimistically that no matter how far we
got from Latorita, we could just head back when the holidays were
drawing to a close. But we ended up traveling for so long in this
cheerful state of mind that I wondered whether we might really have
gone too far to make it back by the end of the holiday, no matter
how hard we might try.
Still, we weren’t worried.
Our first priority was to enjoy the present, not worry about the
future.
“Looks like there’s a little city there if we go just a bit farther this
way,” Linaria said, sitting atop her broom with the map spread out in
front of her.
“What kind of place is it?”
At my inquiry, Linaria closed the map suddenly and answered,
“There’s no further information.”
Oh-hoh, I see!
Which means…
“So we can look forward to finding out once we get there?”
Linaria just smiled at my words. “We sure can.”

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Immediately after we’d passed through the city gates, I said
confidently, “Oh, this is definitely a good city, no doubt about it!”
Right next to the gates, in the best possible place to attract hungry
travelers, there was a small shop with an incredible aroma wafting
out of it.
The place wasn’t obviously flourishing, but neither did it seem to be
in decline. Sending out another wave of that wonderful fragrance,
the baker, who had apparently been on the watch for customers,
opened the door and waited for us to come in.
Three girls with smiles on their faces stood in front of the shop,
shouting, “Fresh-baked bread!” and “It’s delicious!” and so on.
At first glance, I could see that this was a lively city.
“Miss, are you a traveler? If you like, how about trying some of our
bread?”
One of the girls, holding a basket filled with lots of fresh-baked
loaves, pressed one into my hand.
Oh, what?
“Um, ah, I don’t have much money to spare right now…”
“That’s fine. I’ll give you one for free.”
The girl pushed more insistently.
Huh? For free? Is that for real? Hooray!
Completely captivated by the delicious smell, I took a bite of the
bread.
“Ah…so good…”
The flavor of the bread, soft and warm like sunlight, spread through
my mouth. It felt like flowers were blooming all around me. It was
just my imagination, but that’s what it felt like eating the bread. I
was filled with joy.

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“Linaria! This is so good! It’s incredible! Try some—here!”
I vigorously pushed a bit of the bread into Linaria’s hands, but she
tilted her head quizzically.
“Incredible, you say? Then shall we go buy some of each type?”
Contrary to my wild excitement, Linaria’s response was extremely
dry. There was even a slight air of condescension.
Who are you, my mother…?
As I munched on the rest of the free bread, I started walking, with
Linaria following behind me. Seeing as how I worked part-time at a
bakery, we could kill two birds with one stone and scope out the
competition by getting some of each type of bread in the store and
eating every last bit. Filled with energy, I headed for the store.
And the bakery welcomed us.
“Oh-hoh!”
Well, well.
The bakery was very clean inside, and the place had obviously just
opened recently.
Two women stood on the other side of the counter, smiles on their
faces just like the girls outside, and they greeted me and Linaria
when we entered, “Welcome!”
One was a lovely young woman with blond hair that went down
about to her shoulders. She had a refined look to her. She appeared
to be in her mid-twenties.
Next to her was a young woman with black hair and dark skin. She
appeared to be about the same age as the blonde, and at a glance,
she seemed like a lively character.
The two women appeared to be running the place.
“Hello.”

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After bowing slightly to the two of them, I strolled around the inside
of the shop.
In a quiet city, in a peaceful shop, Linaria and I enjoyed a little break,
in a bakery run by two women who seemed tremendously happy.
The shop’s name was The Black and Gold and Gray Bakery.
When I asked the two proprietors what the name meant, they
looked at each other and smiled roguishly.
“It’s confidential.”

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Afterword
“Mister Shiraishi…starting today, your teeth are going to hurt, and
you probably won’t be able to eat anything, so please prepare
yourself for that, all right?”
If the alignment of your teeth isn’t an absolute disaster, then
whenever you mention your distress or discuss your plans to have
them fixed, people around you actually question it, like, “Huh? Are
your teeth really that bad?” That’s about how mine were.
But struggles with your body are a very personal sort of thing, hard
for other people to understand. So at age twenty-five, I finally got
around to fixing the misaligned teeth that had been troubling me
since middle school. Those words up there were what the dentist
said to me when I went in for the procedure.
And I said, “Ha-ha-ha! I’ll be fine! I’m stronger than the pain, you
know!”
My words were filled with an unearned confidence. Maybe it was
because the dentist I had been going to—Y Dental—was an
extremely conscientious clinic that had recently acquired some new
equipment. Maybe it was because every procedure I’d had to date
had gone very smoothly. Whatever the reason, I placed tremendous
confidence in the orthodontic prowess of Y Dental.
And, in fact, the installation of my braces went extremely well,
without any pain at all. Before I knew it, the dentist had finished
attaching them, and I left the clinic in an extremely good mood.
“Ha-ha-ha! I knew this would be no big deal!”
Just before I got out the door…
“Please don’t eat anything too tough, starting today, okay?”

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The dentist gave me that advice, which I immediately, completely
forgot.
That evening—
“…I’ve finally gotten the braces I wanted for so long, so I ought to
have a big celebration tonight, right?”
I said something intensely idiotic like that and rushed into a nearby
restaurant. I ordered a fried pork cutlet. Promising myself that I
would do my best to fix my teeth, starting that day, I ate the cutlet
that was set down in front of me.
Why, this doesn’t hurt at all; what was I scared of? Heh-heh-heh-
heh! I was totally calm and collected.
But the more I chewed, and the more time passed, the more my
teeth gradually began to scream from the pressure of the braces and
the force of my jaw chewing the meat.
And then, once I was done eating a small slice of pork cutlet—
“Ah…………………………………this hurts like crazy…………………………………!”
I set down my chopsticks.
In the corner of the restaurant, at the booth by the window, there
was a twenty-five-year-old man pressing his hand against his mouth
and shaking. To all appearances, he probably looked like a man who
had gone out into the world and had the first hot meal of his life. But
actually, he was just a pitiful, unlucky man who was seriously on the
verge of tears despite his age, just because his teeth hurt.
I decided I would listen carefully to everything my dentist said from
then on…
Anyway, leaving such stories aside, before I get to the proper
Afterword, I’ll give some comments on each chapter. Anyone who
wants to avoid spoilers, skip forward a few pages, please!

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• Chapter 1The Giants’ Kitchen
The original sources of inspiration for this story were Gulliver’s
Travels and “The Restaurant of Many Orders.” I’d been wanting to
write a short story based on “The Restaurant of Many Orders” for
some time, but since our main character is allergic to cats, the only
outcome I could see was her refusing to go into the restaurant at all.
“Huh? I’m not going into a suspicious place like that!” So I rejected
the idea for a long time, but by Volume 9, one way or another it
came out as a restaurant run by tiny little women. Personally, I like
the captain best.
• Chapter 2A Country Girl, a History Addict, and a Potion Dosing
This is Alte and Linaria’s second appearance. I had fun writing
dialogue for the Alte and Linaria that I remembered so fondly.
Originally I was planning to have Priscilla and crew appear in a
“Wandering Through Time” chapter in Volume 7, but much to my
chagrin, we had to cut that one for length, so I was happy to be able
to fit it in now.
• Chapter 3The Resurrection Lily That Blooms in Solitude
I have a strong emotional attachment to the resurrection lily. It was
possibly the first flower that I ever thought was beautiful. I decided
that if I ever put a resurrection lily in one of my books, I would have
it show up in a symbolic story, and I held on to that idea for a long
time. By the way, resurrection lilies are often seen blooming alone in
the countryside, and apparently that’s because they’re grown as
mole repellents. That is to say, more so than the multicolored
blossoms lining florist shops, I saw a flower that was just quietly
carrying out its task and thought it was beautiful. What’s up with
that?
The definitions of serial killers that Sheila alludes to in the chapter
are based on the serial killer classifications that the FBI uses to sort

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them into systematic-nonsystematic types. This is a fantasy series, so
I changed it a bit, though.
By the way, in flower language, the resurrection lily signifies, among
other things, “passion, isolation, reunion, resignation, and sad
memories.”
• Chapter 4Cinderella
I intended to make this a crisp, short comedy chapter, but as I was
finishing it up, I realized that it had become quite long. I think it’s
because once I decided to write a story on the theme of Cinderella,
there were lots of points that I had to be sure to touch on…
I realized that once I’m done writing them, the princes that appear in
this series have a really high chance of turning out stupid.
• Chapter 5Familiars
This is a bit of insider information, but when Journey of Elaina was
optioned for commercial publishing, my editor floated the idea of
giving the witches familiars, but I rejected the idea out of hand. “No
way! Absolutely not!” I didn’t remember this until I was in the middle
of writing this chapter, not until I had reached Volume 9 of the
series, but now, finally, a familiar has made its first appearance. This
is similar to what happened with Chapter 1 of Volume 9—actually
there are quite a lot of stories on subjects that get pushed back due
to various considerations, like the balance of each volume as a
whole.
Take your best guess as to why Karen didn’t have a father.
• Chapter 6A Country Girl, a History Addict, and the Aroma of Wheat
I tried to split the time line within one story, as I did in Volume 3 with
“The Wall That Travelers Inscribe.” I didn’t have enough time, and
tried rearranging it in every which way, but I’m glad that I was finally
able to arrive at this punch line.

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This book is a continuation of Volume 8, with Elaina and Miss Fran
traveling together.
I haven’t written the manuscript for Volume 10 yet (actually, I’m sure
you could have guessed that), but in Volume 10, I’m planning for
Elaina’s journey with Miss Fran to come to an end. Timing-wise,
there was no other place where we could put Chapter 3, “The
Resurrection Lily That Blooms in Solitude,” so this book ended up
having a lot of longer chapters.
The next book is going to be a Limited Special Edition with a drama
CD included (preorders are open now!), so that’s one more reason
why I’m glad that I could write some stories in Volume 9 that will
continue into the next book. I don’t have any plans to conclude the
series with Volume 10, but it would make me very happy if you
would stick with me at least until the end of Miss Fran and Elaina’s
tandem journey.
Now then, on to the acknowledgments.
To M, the head editor: When we first met, you were kind enough to
be concerned for me. “You don’t eat much, do you?” you asked. Now
that I’ve gotten braces installed, I’m back to being Jougi Shiraishi,
who doesn’t eat. Moving forward, I’d like to become Jougi Shiraishi,
who appreciates quality over quantity in food, and I’d just like to say
it makes me very happy that you’ve stuck with me for so long.
To Azure: Thank you for your work on the illustrations, as always.
Your illustrations for the Amazon limited edition of Volume 9 are
really preposterously lovely, and a primo work of art. The moment
they arrived, I decided to keep them as family heirlooms.
To Ikki Nanao: I’m really enjoying all the updates in the comicalized
version of Journey of Elaina. I’ve already said this many times on
Twitter and my other social media accounts, but your original plot
twists in Book 2 were just the best…

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To everyone involved with these books, everyone at SB Creative,
everyone in distribution, all the bookstore employees, and everyone
who had a part in the publication of this book: Thank you all very
much. And thank you in advance for next time.
To all my readers: Thank you so much for sticking with me through
Volume 9. Volume 10, as well as the Limited Special Edition with
drama CD, should go on sale simultaneously around mid-August.
Thank you so much for your support!
That’s all I have to say, but between when I got my braces and the
time I’m writing this now, my body weight has dropped by about ten
kilograms.
I wasn’t really all that fat to begin with, but after I got the braces, I
was surviving on porridge and energy jelly every day, so my weight
took a sudden dive like the Black Monday stock market, and now I’m
below average. It’s pretty bad.
The pain in my teeth has finally let up, and I’m back to being able to
eat again, but it doesn’t seem like the size of my stomach has gone
back to normal, which has improved my undisciplined eating habits.
Thanks to that, my treadmill can take a little break.
I hope that, even as my weight declines, the popularity of the
Journey of Elaina series only continues to grow from here. Well then,
let’s meet here again in August, shall we? See you then!

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