Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 1 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Before the Match Begins

I arrived at a certain country in the morning. I had found it by coincidence while flying over the plains on my broom, so I had absolutely no idea what kind of place it was.

In villages too small for a gate, an immigration inspection is unnecessary, but whenever you enter a country that has some territory to it, the gate guards always have questions for you. That said, unless something unusual is going on, they always ask the same ones.

“Name?”

“Elaina.”

“Country of origin?”

“The Peaceful Country of Robetta.”

“Reason for entry?”

“Sightseeing.”

“Length of stay?”

“Probably three days.”

Usually the questions end there, you pay the entry fee if there is one, and the guard should say, “Welcome, and take care” as he steps back to let you in…

“For breakfast, do you take bread or rice?”

…However, the questions continued. And with a very odd question at that.

“…What?” I frowned and asked him in return.

Without so much as a twitch, the guard repeated himself. “With breakfast, do you eat bread? Or do you eat rice? This information is required upon entry, so please answer honestly.”

There must be some kind of dispute going on in their culinary scene. Well, he says it’s required information, so I should answer honestly. Though I think the question is a little out of place in an official procedure.

“I don’t have a preference. I’m a traveler, so I intend to adapt to the tastes of the places that I visit.”

I mean, I can’t say “I only eat bread!” in a country where they always eat rice. And the opposite is also true, of course. I’ll maintain a neutral stance.

“Hmm… How unusual,” said the guard, stroking his beard before continuing. “I see. In that case, I’ll put you down for both.” Then he stepped back and said, “Please take care, Madam Witch.”

After bowing to the guard, I passed through the gate.

I immediately understood the reason behind the strange question.

It looked like two different cultures met here.

When I came out of the gate, there was a large canal right in front of me. With the canal as the dividing line, the houses to the right were all built in the Eastern style, while the houses to the left were all built in the Western style.

Immediately in front of the gate, there were two roads. The sign to the right said EAST TOWN: RICE EATERS THIS WAY! while the other said WEST TOWN: BREAD EATERS THIS WAY!

It looks like the country is divided into two factions: rice and bread.

“…Hmm.” I was stuck. I really didn’t care either way.

But come to think of it, this might be my first time walking through an Eastern-style town. I’m always traveling through Western-style towns. All right then, it’s decided.

I veered right.

The road was lined with neatly placed square stones, and dignified wooden houses formed neat rows. I could see the royal palace ahead and surmised that it was placed at the center of the divide, like the canal.

About halfway down the road to the palace, there was a bridge. The brand-new structure was somewhat at odds with the historical townscape. I could see a small boat passing through the middle of the circle formed by the bridge and its reflection on the water.

“……?”

I cocked my head in confusion at the strange figures on the boat.

There was a man sitting on the handrail eating breakfast. He was clad in Eastern clothes, so clearly, he was a resident of East Town. But even when I doubled-checked, he was definitely holding a piece of bread. A rice person is eating bread.

Next to the man, a woman was stuffing her cheeks with a delicious-looking rice ball. She appears to be a member of the rice faction, but she’s wearing a Western-style dress.

I was intrigued. It was a very strange scene.

“Um, excuse me?” I called out to the two of them.

After sharing a glance with the woman, the man answered me. “Yes, what is it?”

You’ve got bread in your hand, but you’re wearing Eastern clothes. That’s odd.

I asked a simple, clear question. “What kind of country is this anyway?”

“What kind of country? Hmm.” The man crossed his arms, and then left the answering up to the woman next to him. “How would you answer that?”

“A great country.”

“Yeah! It is a great country. Miss Traveler, you’re here in a great country.”

That’s not what I meant to ask. I meant more like, well…

“The townscape is great, but you’re even better.”

“Nooo, you are.”

“Oh-ho-ho.”

“Ah-ha-ha.”

......

It seems I’m just a third wheel here. I should probably leave now.

Plus, I get the sense that asking these two isn’t going to get me the information I want, so it’s not like I’m cutting our conversation short, is it? No, I mean it.

At any rate, I thanked them and left.

I walked around both the Eastern and Western parts of town for as long as time would permit in the hopes of finding some information.

However, the longer I walked, the stranger it got. I hadn’t been able to tell because there were so few people out in the morning, but in the afternoon when the streets were full, there were so many people crossing the bridge that it was like there was no clear division at all.

Even stranger, despite their own signs reading WE CANNOT SELL TO MEMBERS OF THE RICE FACTION, the bread stalls were brazenly handing over their goods to people in Eastern clothing.

It wasn’t only the stalls; every store in town seemed to have a regulation in place, from the dry goods store to the greengrocer to any number of others. They all had signs on display prohibiting service to customers who came from the opposite side of town. However, everyone ignored them. The signs had absolutely no purpose.

Returning to East Town from West Town, I parted the curtain of a dumpling shop.

“Welcome. What will you have?”

I sat down in a chair, and a young woman dressed in Eastern clothes crouched before me. I pointed to the sign outside that said WE CANNOT SELL TO MEMBERS OF THE BREAD FACTION, and said, “I’m a bread eater.”

“Is that a joke?” The waitress covered her mouth politely with one hand and giggled.

“A joke?”

She smiled up at me and said, “No one pays any attention to those decorations!”

Of course. I can see that just by observing the state of the town. But what’s the point of the signs, then?

“Your order?”

“Oh, I’ll have three sweet-soy-glazed rice dumplings, please.”

“Coming right up.”

Still feeling uneasy, I hunted for an inn on the Western side of town.

There are lodgings on the Eastern side, too, but I can’t stay over there. I can’t sleep unless I’m in a proper bed. Or maybe I just have a harder time adjusting to Eastern-style rooms. I’m not the biggest fan of walking barefoot on straw mats.

I walked around and around the town, then went into the cheapest-looking inn. It had a sign out front that read WE DECLINE THE PATRONAGE OF MEMBERS OF THE RICE FACTION.

Well, let’s just ignore that.

“Evenin’.” When I entered, the indifferent-looking innkeeper was resting his chin in his hands over at the counter.

“One night’s stay, please,” I said, taking out a silver coin.

“Thank ya. Go on and fill out the form.”

“Sure.”

I was already used to these forms. I finished filling it out with a series of quick pen strokes. As I handed the completed form over to the innkeeper, I asked him, “If you don’t mind, could I ask you to tell me a bit about this place?”

“…Haven’t seen ya ’round here before, ma’am. You a traveler?”

“Yes. And this land is so strange I can hardly wrap my brain around it.”

The innkeeper was quiet for a moment, then said, “Whaddaya wanna know?”

Oh, he gets it. As one would expect from a person who regularly does business with travelers.

“All right, tell me the reason why West Town and East Town are so different from each other.”

The innkeeper finally gave me the information I had been craving.

“Back in the day, this land was two neighboring countries that straddled the canal. The country on the east side had inherited an Eastern culture, and the country on the west side a Western one. Each country had its own king. The two kings got along well, and there was a great relationship between the countries—well, it wasn’t all that different from how it is now.”

“Mm-hmm.” Simple enough.

“One day, the two kings got to talkin’. They said, ‘Why not make the two countries into one?’ No one had any gripes about it since West and East both wanted the same thing. Actually, it felt like the decision was long overdue.”

“Was that when the bridges between the two towns were built?”

The innkeeper nodded. “Yep. The kings built those to commemorate the merger.”

“I see.” That must be why they’re so new and out of place.

“A while after that, the two kings each had a child. The king on the Western side had a daughter, and the king on the Eastern side had a son. The kids got along just like their fathers, and eventually got married. They built a palace right off the canal—in the exact middle of the united country—and started living there. Now the two of them have become a symbol of our land. And that’s about all I know,” the innkeeper said, placing the key for my room on the counter.

I took it and said, “Thank you very much. By the way, mister, can I ask you one more thing?”

“What’s that?”

I told him about the strange question I had been asked when I entered the country, and about the weird signs by the gate and in front of the stores, and about the couple I had met on the bridge. “At first, I thought the country was divided internally, but looking around me, it seems like people don’t pay any attention to the signs at all. They cross the bridges and intermingle just fine. So what’s the point of having the signboards at all?”

The innkeeper listened quietly as I spoke and nodded when I was finished. “Mm. Those signs are in preparation for the big match.”

He said it so matter-of-factly, I wondered if I’d misheard. “Big match? What on earth does that mean?”

“I hear they want to unify the country under either Eastern or Western culture. Well, that’s why the gate guards are asking strange questions anyway, and it’s the reason for the signs.”

Perhaps after this country was merged under the good auspices of the kings of the previous generation, there’s a movement to split them apart again.

But why?

“Those two don’t know the meaning of the word compromise,” the innkeeper said with a laugh.

Incidentally, he charged me an “information fee” after the fact.

After I had spent several days there, I began getting ready to set off again. This blend of Western and Eastern cultures was of course quite fascinating, but if I may be blunt, that was the only thing it had going for it.

I felt like I had seen enough.

Ultimately, I was leaving without understanding an essential part of the place, but oh well…right? I didn’t care enough to really go digging for answers. Though I would listen if anyone cared to explain why the signboards were up.

Well, that’s all right. Trying to convince myself that I didn’t care, I passed through the gate—

“Ah, wait a minute, please, Miss Witch.”

—and was stopped. The guard was holding his spear out in front of him, blocking my path.

“…Um, what is it?” I’m sure I looked very confused.

“If you can, would you please give us a little more of your time?”

“…? Why would I do that?”

Depending on the time and the situation and the reason, I wasn’t opposed to hearing what he had to say. If it’s something silly, I’m going to say no and leave, though.

“You’ve been summoned by the lord and lady.”

“……Huh?”

Well, it appears the reason isn’t silly at all.

We proceeded all the way down the canal, where I was shown to the castle watching over both cultures. They walked me through the perplexing interior of the keep, a blend of Eastern and Western styles, and finally we arrived at an enormous reception hall.

The hall looked like a Western-style room and an Eastern-style room had been cut in two, and one half of each had been stuck together.

It doesn’t go together at all…

I heard someone closing the door behind me as I stepped into the room, and I could see two thrones a little farther ahead. The man and woman seated there appeared to be in the middle of an argument. They didn’t seem to notice me there at all.

“I’m telling you, the match ought to be a game of shogi! There’s no other way!”

“That’s because you’re better at shogi! How many times do I have to tell you we ought to play chess!”

“And how many times do I have to tell you, you’re better at chess!”

“Grrr…”

“Rrrr…”

The volatile atmosphere seemed like it might erupt into violence at any minute as the two of them glared at each other from their thrones. I cleared my throat to let them know that I was there. Not the most polite thing to do in the presence of royalty, but it was effective in getting them to notice me.

“Huh? You must be…”

“The traveler, aren’t you? My, my…”

I bowed. “I was told that Your Highnesses had some business with me, so I came as soon as I was called. How can I be of service?”

“Mm. The truth is—”

The king opened his mouth to speak, but the queen cut him off.

“I’ll tell the witch, so you can stop there.”

“What the—? I’ll explain…”

“No, I will.”

Will someone hurry up and tell me what’s going on? I don’t care who it is… Hello…?

Eventually, after arguing in circles, the king took the lead and told me everything.

“The fact is: This land is on the brink of war. As you can see, this woman and I are not getting along. We agreed to settle things with a contest, but now we can’t decide what the contest should be. I’ve heard you are a neutral party, not associated with either faction, so we want you to decide how we proceed.”

“…You can’t decide on the contest?” No, before that… “First of all, would you begin by telling me why you want to hold this contest in the first place?”

The king raised his voice, “Because she insulted the people of the Western side! She said, ‘People who don’t eat rice for breakfast aren’t human’!”

Without a moment’s delay, the queen interrupted him with an objection. “No, it’s because you said, ‘People who don’t eat bread for breakfast are lower than dogs’!”

“Okay, enough. Both of you be quiet a moment, please.”

“……” “……”

This was getting exasperating, so I shut them up and took control of the situation myself. I turned the conversation back to the king. “Your Highness, when I entered this land, the first thing I saw was a strange signboard. It was a perplexing sign, meant to divide the rice faction and the bread faction, but tell me—exactly what purpose does that serve?”

“It makes it easier to see which side has more people.”

“We put them in place so that we could tell which one was more influential.”

Why is the queen answering, too…? Well, whatever. Calling her out on it would be too much trouble.

“And what has the result been?” I asked.

The king answered, “There are more people on the Western side.”

“There are more people of influence on the Eastern side,” the queen added.

“That’s why I said we should decide based on the larger number of people.”

“No. We should decide a winner based on financial clout. Obviously.”

“You don’t understand a thing, and you never have.”

“I could say the same about you.”

“……”

“……”

As the two of them glared at each other again, I suddenly remembered something. What had they been shouting about when I first entered the reception hall? It was chess and shogi, wasn’t it?

If the argument is over whether to decide through majority rule or through financial leverage, then why were they talking about board games?

Without even waiting for my response, the two of them obstinately resumed their argument. “So we can’t decide after all. In that case, I want to choose the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method for determining the method of holding the match with a game of chess.”

“No. Shogi.”

“……”

“You don’t understand. If we play shogi, you’re better at it!”

“You don’t understand, you always win at chess!”

“……”

I felt like I had just gotten a peek behind the curtain. Just to be sure, I asked the king and queen, “By the way, when did this quarrel begin?”

The two of them turned to me and answered simultaneously, “Two years ago.”

“Ah, I see. Well then, I think you should probably let it go, because you’re never going to solve this,” I said, and left the palace. The two of them kept on yelling and made no attempt to stop me.

Now I understood why the residents of each town totally ignored the signboards. It had been two years since the king and queen had said they were going to hold a contest and unify under one culture or the other. Time had just passed by without anything happening, and none of the citizens probably cared about a bunch of signboards erected for the sake of a quarrel.

The signs had already become nothing more than decorations.

Looking at it a different way, it was a sign that the authority of the crown had become meaningless. Right now, no one in the whole land was actually paying attention to what the royals said.

“Ah, Madam Witch. How did you like our country?”

The guard came out to greet me as I returned to the gate from the palace. I passed right by him, and only turned around after I had set foot in the outside world.

Gazing at the curious collision of cultures, I said, “It’s a nice, peaceful place.” Though I can’t speak for its future.

Maybe the king and queen would realize they had been wasting their time and turn their attention back to ruling. Maybe they would keep dragging it out, and the whole place would get stranger and stranger. Or maybe everything would stay as it was.

Whatever ended up happening, it was no concern of mine.

“That’s right; it is a nice place, isn’t it?”

The gate guard nodded with satisfaction.