Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 10 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

The Tale of a Mermaid Who Was in Love with Love

One day about three months ago, I was traveling from place to place on my own like I always do. The city I had visited the previous day happened to be by the sea, which piqued my interest somehow. I flew along the coast on my broom.

Everything was blue as far as the eye could see.

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, and the sea stretched out interminably before me. Small waves slowly, regularly moistened the beach and then retreated, as if the ocean was breathing. In between the waves, tiny crabs carefully poked their faces up out of the sand.

I was feeling pleased with my peaceful journey.

But in the middle of that idyllic scene…

…I discovered a corpse laying directly in my path.

“…………”

No, it probably just looked like a corpse, but…the woman lying there in the sand did appear to be dead.

Her golden hair was gathered into a single ponytail on the back of her head, and her exposed skin, which there was quite a lot of, was almost translucent white. She was very beautiful.

It was a very odd spot to be lying down for a nap, so as soon as I noticed the woman, I got down off my broom, walked over, and squatted down beside her.

“…Are you alive?”

My triangular hat cast a shadow over her face as I looked down at her. She didn’t stir, but in the shade, she finally opened her golden eyes, just slightly, and looked up at me.

Our eyes met. So…

“Oh, hello.”

I said a word of greeting.

In response, this was her answer:

“…I want to die.”

She said this and nothing more, then let out a sigh.

Don’t you think that’s a heavy confession to make to someone you just met?

“Did something happen?” I cocked my head.

The woman finally sat up and asked, “…Who are you?”

“A traveling witch.” I’m wearing a black robe and a pointy hat, and I’ve got a star-shaped brooch on my breast. Anyone could see that I’m a witch. “And who are you?”

“…Lacey.”

The woman answered me plainly, giving only her name.

“You look like you’re having some kind of trouble…” I tilted my head again. “If you like, I could listen to your problems.”

“……! Are you offering to give me…advice…?”

She looked up at me, and her face instantly lit up. It was like the spark of life had returned to her eyes.

“…Um, sure.” I felt like it would be exceedingly cold of me to just take off and abandon the woman when the very first thing she’d said was that she wanted to die.

I didn’t really mind listening to her story.

And so I inquired, “What is troubling you?”

Whereupon the woman suddenly lowered her gaze and muttered a single word.

“…Love.”

“Hmm?”

What was that?

“…I am troubled by love,” she told me, sounding somewhat embarrassed and yet a little happy, too.

She was troubled by love, worrying herself sick to the point that she wanted to die.

I see, I see.

“Well, there isn’t really anything I can do about that. Good-bye now.”

I stood up and grabbed my broom.

“Huh?! No way, wait! Why would you run away the second you hear it’s a matter of the heart?!”

“Sorry, that sort of stuff is kind of outside my area of expertise, so…”

…I don’t think I can give you any advice.

“Please! Just give me a little of your time! Please, listen! All you have to do is listen! Hey!”

Lacey yanked on my robe from where she was still lying in the sand. What could I do?

She must have been clinging to me pretty hard, because I couldn’t seem to shake her off. Ultimately, I let out a sigh of resignation.

There was no way out of it.

“…I’ll listen, but that’s all.”

“Fantastic! I’m so glad you’ll listen to my story, Miss Witch…!”

I mean, you’re not going to let me go until I hear you out, so…

After that, she told me of her troubles bit by bit.

She said…

One day, she happened to meet a man.

He was in his mid-twenties. He had black hair and handsome features. He was a traveler, a kind man who spoke eloquently, a true gentleman. She immediately fell for him.

Lacey was in love, and it sounded like she was head over heels.

The man was a wanderer, and even though she had only met him once, he had become her everything.

With every passing day they were apart, her heart ached and yearned, until she wound up laying around like a corpse on the beach just outside her hometown.

“I can’t take it anymore… Everything is awful… What on earth can I do to see him again…?”

In short, the absence of the man she loved had driven her into a state of despair.

I see, I see.

“Well, there’s not really anything I can do about that. Good-bye now.”

I picked up my broom.

“Wait! You’re not going to run away after hearing that much of my story, are you? I won’t let you go. Help me find romance! You’re a witch, aren’t you? Do something!” Lacey protested.

“No, um…it’s not like witches are all-powerful, y’know…”

“Well then, at least find a way for me to see him again! I don’t care how you do it, just please let me see him somehow!”

“I don’t really see how…”

“And I want you to make it so that when I meet him again, we can immediately get married! I want you to make me irresistible so that he’ll fawn all over me.”

“What do you think a mage is, exactly?”

“An amazing person who can do pretty much anything.”

“That’s ridiculous…”

“Anyway, I’m begging you!”

“I’m still not sure what you want me to do, exactly…”

“Turn me into a normal woman!”

“I’m not really sure what you’re asking…”

After that, she pleaded with me for a while, and eventually I gave in, let out a sigh, and decided to grant her request as best I could.

All of this took place about three months ago, before I reunited with Miss Fran in Bielawald.

In one of the countries Elaina and I visited on our journey, we heard rumors about a mermaid.

A mermaid.

They’re those bizarre creatures that have upper bodies like human women but are covered in scales on the lower halves of their bodies just like fish, with tails and fins. They were a hot topic in the region.

In every place Elaina and I visited, the whole town was abuzz about the mermaid, and understandably so. Everyone was making a fuss over the rumors about a mermaid who had suddenly appeared about three months earlier.

“I’m going to marry that mermaid someday…”

We overheard such statements all through town as we walked around.

“So I went down to the ocean earlier, right? And listen, the mermaid was there, and she winked at me! She’s clearly into me, no doubt about it, man.”

There was one fellow who had apparently gotten the wrong idea when the mermaid had something in her eye. Or maybe he got something in his own eye and imagined it.

“I got her autograph!”

To make matters worse, there was a gentleman who was in possession of a framed scrap of paper with the word mermaid scrawled on it in twisting letters.

“I got a handshake! I’m never washing this hand again!”

There was even a man proudly showing off his sticky, unwashed palm.

But the popularity of the mermaid didn’t stop with the townspeople.

“Step right up, I’ve got mermaid meat right here! How about it? Only one copper piece!”

There were street stalls taking advantage of the hype to sell their ordinary grilled fish under a strange new name.

“Our inn has windows out onto the water, so on days with good weather, you can see the mermaid…probably.”

There were even inns that had decided they could sell more rooms by including the word mermaid in their advertisements.

In that way, talk of the mysterious creature was bubbling to the surface all throughout town. That said, I was one of those people getting excited.

“A mermaid, huh? …Sounds interesting!”

If I do get the chance to meet her, I would at least like to talk to her.

I had said as much to Elaina as we walked through town.

But Elaina, on the other hand, hadn’t seemed particularly interested in the mermaid.

“…Sure does.” She’d nodded along to what I was saying with a distant look in her eyes.

That conversation took place just the day before, but I remembered clearly how she had made a very, very odd expression. It was a little strange for Elaina, the traveler, to not be interested in something so rare, and I was puzzled by her reaction.

At the moment, Elaina and I were each off on our own.

I had gone down to the seashore, where the mermaid was rumored to appear. It should be obvious what I was looking for.

The mermaid.

Actually, I had planned to go to the beach with Elaina, but she had said, “Oh, no thank you,” and stuck to it. Even though I’d tugged at her arm and pleaded with her adorably, in the end, she wouldn’t go with me. How sad…

Anyway, I was excited to see my first-ever mermaid, and I walked down to the shore.

“I think…I should be able to see her around here, right…?”

I wandered along the sand, holding a map in one hand, on which I had marked the spots where the mermaid was rumored to appear most often. The waves ebbed and flowed, and similar-looking scenery stretched out into the distance ahead.

Finally, just as the rumors had said, the mermaid appeared before my eyes.

A very, very beautiful mermaid appeared out of the water.

Her hair and eyes were golden. She had her hair gathered into a single ponytail on the back of her head. She was gazing up at the beach and didn’t seem to notice me.

Her top half certainly did look human.

But her lower half was covered in pink scales, and she had fins and a tail.

“I sure swam a lot today—”

Without a doubt, the girl coming out of the ocean was a mermaid.

“My, my…”

I never thought it would be this easy to meet one!

Her looks made a serious impression on me, and I stood there, enchanted by her, wondering what I might possibly say to her.

As I stood there—

“Okay—”

The mermaid must not have noticed me.

After pulling herself out of the water, she produced a wand and pointed it at her lower body. A bluish-white light enveloped her scaly tail, and she immediately transformed it into something else. Her fins and tail disappeared, and in their place, her lower body split in two. Before my eyes, she lost the thing that made her a mermaid.

By the time the light had disappeared, she had sprouted two lovely legs.

…Legs?

On a mermaid?

“Um…hey, you, what are—?”

What on earth is going on?

I approached the girl, my voice trembling.

“…!”

At that point, she seemed to finally notice my presence. Shocked, with her eyes open wide, she stood up on the sand using those legs of hers and exclaimed, “You saw me…!”

No matter how I looked at her, the person standing there was just an ordinary girl.

“So you’re…not a mermaid…?”

At that point, I was already incredibly disappointed, but the girl before me had no way of knowing my state of mind.

“Well…sometimes I am, and sometimes I’m not.”

She readily confessed to the truth.

On top of that…

“A passing witch turned me into a woman…,” she told me, her cheeks flushing red.

My, my.

“Who was she, and where was she from? Tell me about the witch who did this immoral thing.”

That’s right, it’s me.

I had some time to kill in town while I waited for Miss Fran, who was out on her mermaid hunt. I was sitting on a street corner, passing the time.

From there, I had a good view of the town.

The main avenue was packed with people, and their conversations flew past me in a constant stream. Above all other topics, there was constant chatter about the mermaid who had been appearing for about the past three months. At the same time, there were also a lot of businesses that were taking advantage of the popularity of the mermaid. Apparently, the word mermaid had the smell of money to it.

Oh, good grief.

What a mess.

I guess you can make money just by slapping the name of the mermaid on the beach on your product. I never knew marketing was such an easy job.

I’m not impressed.

“What’s this, now? You there, is something troubling you?” I demanded.

“Huh? You mean me…?”

The mild-looking woman to whom I had called out looked at me with some surprise, her eyes open wide.

I nodded. “Yes, you. Your face says that something is causing you distress… How about it? Won’t you try having your fortune read?”

“Fortune-telling… Listen, I don’t really go for that sort of…”

“You know, despite how I might look, I am acquainted with a mermaid, and I use a method of fortune-telling that I learned directly from her. Won’t you give it a try?”

“A mermaid’s acquaintance…? Wait, you mean that mermaid?”

Well, well.

“I don’t know which mermaid you’re talking about,” I said, “but if you mean the mermaid on the beach who has been causing excitement in town lately, yes, she’s the one. She’s an acquaintance of mine. I’ve met her several times now. I suppose I could even call her a friend. It might not be out of line to say she’s my best friend.”

Oh, good grief.

How sketchy, using the mermaid’s name to make money!

“I’m sure you’re well aware of this, but speaking of the mermaid, she’s an incredible creature who right at this very moment has captivated men across town. And I’ve got a fortune-telling method that I learned from a woman like that. Aren’t you curious?”

“…………”

The woman sat down. Once they sit, they’re all mine.

“Looks like you are curious.” I nodded, a meaningful smile spreading across my face. I overturned a box that I had found nearby and set it in front of us. On top of it, I set a teacup filled with seashells.

Actually, the statement that I had learned a fortune-telling method from the famous mermaid was in fact the truth.

“By the way, what is it that’s troubling you?”

I shook the teacup, mixing the clattering shells as I tilted my head questioningly.

Hesitantly, the woman said, “Um…right now, there’s someone who I like, but…” Even though no one was listening to her besides me, the woman whispered as she told me, “I’m worried about whether or not I should confess my feelings to them.”

“I see.”

Love problems, huh? That’s outside my area of expertise.

But that’s nothing to worry about.

“Well then, let’s read your fortune.”

After mixing the clattering seashells around in the cup for a little while, I sprinkled them evenly over the top of the box. The shells of various colors and sizes, which I had collected just the day before, were littered sparsely across the box.

This was the fortune-telling method I had gotten her to teach me about three months earlier.

“I have your result.”

In total, there were ten shells on the box. Seven of them had fallen faceup, and three of them facedown. According to the famous mermaid, the more shells that were faceup, the more likely it was that your wish would come true.

In other words, this result…

“It looks more or less like you’ll be able to date them,” I announced confidently.

But the woman before me looked slightly suspicious.

“It’s kind of sloppy… Are these predictions accurate?”

“Roughly accurate.”

“It’s sloppy…”

“By the way, using magic, it’s possible to manipulate the chances that a shell will fall faceup or facedown.”

“Isn’t that fraud…?”

“Well, they do say that your fortune is of your own making…”

And so…

I tried my hand at fortune-telling, in that sloppy kind of way.

One thing I had predicted was that I would be able to attract considerable popularity just by using the word mermaid, and I did get a fair amount of attention, even with my half-joking divinations. Word spread steadily from person to person so that by the time I had been sitting beside the main avenue for an hour, people had started coming to see me without me needing to go to the trouble of calling them over.

“You’re a friend of the mermaid? Do you think you could tell me how to get in touch with her?”

“…………” I dumped out my shells. They all landed facedown. I asked the customer to leave.

“So listen, I don’t need her contact information or whatever, but what kind of things does the mermaid usually eat? Don’t get the wrong idea, it’s not like I want to drug her or anything, but say I wanted to offer her some refreshments that I had poured my heart and soul into making, what then?”

“…………” I dumped out the shells, but they all landed facedown, so I asked the customer to leave.

“I wonder if the mermaid thinks I’m handsome. Did she say anything about me?”

“…………” The shells also landed all facedown, so I asked him to leave.

“About the mermaid…”

“…………” I asked him to leave.

A sigh escaped my lips.

Before long, I was showing every man who came to see me a bunch of facedown shells, making it clear that nothing would ever happen between them and the mermaid before sending them on their way.

“Are all the men in your country so forward with their advances?” I started asking in exasperation.

The men all responded with indignation.

“It’s not like I want to date her, not really!”

“How rude! I’m the decent one here!”

“Wait, I’m not that bad, you know?”

“I’m just jumping on the bandwagon. I want to know more about her, that’s all.”

And so on and so forth.

Every one of them insisted that they were behaving normally.

Yet the mermaid and the men of the city were literally living in different worlds, and furthermore, the mermaid wasn’t the kind of simpleton who would fall for every person she shook hands with. Actually, I think that’s true of most girls, not just mermaids.

“I’m not getting any decent customers…”

Perhaps advertising myself as a friend of the mermaid had been unwise. All the customers who came to see me were weirdos.

I wonder if maybe I ought to close up shop early…?

“Could I talk with you for a minute?”

As I was sitting there pondering the strange ideas that seemed to fill the heads of every man in the city, another fellow arrived at my booth.

He seemed to be in his mid-twenties, with black hair and handsome features.

“I want you to predict my romantic fate,” he told me.

“Your romantic fate with whom?”

With the mermaid? You want to know how things are going to work out with her?

My mind half made up already, I swirled the cup around and readied my wand in secret.

“…………”

Then the man finally answered me.

He told me the name of the mermaid who had captivated the public.

The girl I met down by the ocean ended up accompanying me back into town.

“But how on earth were you able to do such a thing?” I questioned her as we walked along the beach.

There was no question that she had suddenly appeared on the beach three months earlier and had kept doing things that made her the subject of rumors in town.

The girl seemed very inclined to do things at her own pace. She ignored me walking by her side and crouched down nearby to roll a number of shells on the sand like dice.

“Ah! Lots of backs! Let me roll again,” she exclaimed, and she picked the shells up again.

I paused and watched her.

She was no longer dressed in a mermaid-like getup.

She was wearing a simple blouse and a long dark blue skirt. She had fully sprouted two separate legs, and I didn’t think any person would recognize her as the mermaid if they saw her as she was at the moment.

She responded to my very straightforward question with a little smile. “I wanted to see the person I loved one more time, so…this is how I ended up.”

“How you ended up?”

That’s a pretty lame reason, dont’cha think…?

“You’ve become the subject of many rumors in the city, you know? They’re saying that a cute mermaid has been showing up frequently near town,” I said.

But she seemed to already be well aware of that. Lacey nodded. “I know. But, but…there’s no other way! My plan is to keep appearing on the seashore as a mermaid until the man I love hears the rumors about me and comes to see me again. All sorts of people have come down to meet me and spread the word about me. But I’m already in love, so I’m not selling any favors down here, you know!”

She really emphasized that point.

As she explained, the rumors I had heard in town flashed through my mind.

The mermaid winked at me! She’s clearly into me.

I got her autograph!

I got a handshake! I’m never washing this hand again!

…………

“Really? Are you sure you’re not selling favors?”

“…………” Lacey averted her gaze awkwardly. “W-well…maybe I did do a little…fanservice? Stuff like that, but…”

I already knew that.

But I wasn’t there to scold her. There was a part of me that had wanted to meet a mermaid and get a signature from her, too. Besides…

“It doesn’t seem like you’re down here swindling money off the townspeople when you do your fanservice as a mermaid, so I suppose that’s all right.” I chuckled.

“…………”

But Lacey looked away again.

…What’s this?

“Are you swindling money off them?”

“Oh! Um…? Whatever are you talking about?! M-m-m-money? I’m not taking their money!”

“You’re shaking terribly…”

“B-but it’s true! I’m really not getting any actual money for it! Seriously!”

“No money, specifically?”

“…………!”

It must have been a slip of the tongue. She clapped both hands over her mouth and fell silent.

But it was already too late.

“What does that mean? Are you doing something unsavory? Would you mind telling me about it in a little more detail?”

What on earth could she be up to, transforming back and forth between a human and a mermaid?

“Oh, well…” She stood there looking extremely uncomfortable. “It’s just, the people in the city, they’re…well, they’re all good people, and…when I sign something, or shake their hands, they give me various things…”

“Uh-huh. Various things like what?”

“Just like…expensive clothes and accessories…and other stuff.”

When I pressed for more detail, Lacey told me that a man from town had spotted her by chance about three months earlier in her mermaid form. The man had been amazed to see her and, in his excitement, asked her for a handshake.

Lacey had been changing back and forth between mermaid and human forms in order to catch the eye of the man she loved, so she didn’t return the man’s affections. But she did offer him a handshake and asked him to spread rumors about her around town.

The results were unprecedented.

“After shaking one person’s hand, all sorts of people started coming down to the beach the very next day, and one of them even asked for my signature…”

And once she started giving away signatures, they began offering her money.

“I see, I see.” I nodded.

“But you know, somehow, I felt really guilty getting money just for signing a piece of paper, so I turned it down. I was satisfied as long as they continued spreading the word about me.”

“Oh, is that so?”

“But when I didn’t accept the money, the next day, my fans started bringing me clothes and accessories…”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded again. “So you didn’t turn those down?”

“Well, you know, we girls enjoy presents more than money.”

“…………”

So naive…

“But I’m already in love, so…getting presents was also troublesome, and I was honest with the men about it. But they all said, ‘I’m rooting for your love!’ and stuff, and ultimately kept bringing me gifts… I don’t get it… I don’t know what those men are thinking…”

“…………”

Some people say that a woman’s mind is the ultimate mystery, but perhaps from the perspective of a naive young lady like Lacey, the mentality of the men of the world was also inscrutable.

Whatever the case, it didn’t seem like she was trying to rip off her fans or anything.

“I can’t bring myself not to use their gifts once I receive them, so now I wear and use the presents I get from my fans,” she told me as she continued to toss shells down on the sand. “But you know, to tell the truth, I’m really not interested in money or fame.”

Lacey stretched her hand out toward the sand, picked up only the shells that had landed facedown, and gazed down at the faceup shells she had left behind.

“If not money and fame, then what are you interested in?” I asked.

She answered with a brief whisper, “The heart of the man I love.”

“And his name is?” I pressed her for more.

She whispered again, “Keith.”

“A kind man, eloquent and gentlemanly, a fantastic guy—” she added.

Lacey told me the story of her and Keith as we walked toward town.

…She told me, but…

“That day, I was swimming in the ocean with the fish. I called out to them, ‘How do you do?’ and they answered, ‘Ah, h-how do you do?’ and smiled at me. It was part of my daily routine to swim down this part of the coast.”

For better or worse, maybe because Lacey was a naive and dreamy girl, her recollections were like something from a daydream.

“On that day, I was playing tag with the fish in the ocean as I always did. They would flee, and I would chase them. Fish are really very good at running away, so like, no matter how I chase them, they always escape. And you know—”

“Uh, sorry, but please cut out any parts that aren’t related to the main thread of the story.”

“…………”

For a short while, she was silent, with her cheeks puffed up in discontent.

And then…

“I met Keith in the afternoon that day. Right after I managed to catch several of the fish, you see, I…got hurt.”

Lacey’s voice became ever so slightly subdued, and she rubbed her arm.

“Did something happen?”

As far as I could see, it didn’t seem to have been an injury that left a mark.

“A jolt of ocean lightning passed through my body…”

“…What?”

“You know, ocean lightning?”

“I’m really sorry, but could you explain that in words I can understand?”

“…I was stung.”

“By what?”

“A jellyfish.”

“…………”

I had nothing to say about Lacey’s extremely ordinary injury having a bombastic name like ocean lightning.

“So then, like, anyway, it hurt really badly, so I got out of the water for a moment.”

She told me that was when she had met Keith.

Keith had spotted Lacey, writhing in pain on the sand, and he must have sensed immediately that her injury was no trivial matter.

Keith didn’t know how to use magic, but he was a traveler, and as might be expected of a traveler, he had a certain amount of knowledge about how to deal with such an injury.

He washed the wound in clean seawater, and once he confirmed that it was starting to swell, chilled the area.

“Ohhh…”

Lacey was suffering from the pain. Keith squeezed her hand and reassured her, “Y-you’re all right!”

Lacey told me that she had felt a pleasant warmth in the depths of her heart. At the same time, the sting from the ocean lightning had been extremely painful. I did not offer any comment.

Keith had clumsily smeared a salve on Lacey’s red and swollen skin. Travelers often have some knowledge of how to treat wounds, but apparently Keith wasn’t really used to being around girls.

Lacey found his nervousness charming.

“Looks like a jellyfish got you… I think the pain should subside if we slather this on and wait a little while, so h-hang in there!”

Lacey shook her head at him.

“It wasn’t a jellyfish…”

“Hmm? Not a jellyfish? Then what stung you?”

“Ocean lightning…” Lacey seemed strangely fixated on those words.

Keith wasn’t sure how to answer.

“Huh? Ocean lightning? No, this is an ordinary jellyfi—”

“I was struck by ocean lightning!”

“Um, right, of course! It was ocean lightning!”

Keith was a very kind and gentle man.

After that, Keith sat with Lacey until the worst of her suffering had subsided. He told her many stories so that she wouldn’t be bored.

Even though he wasn’t used to female company, he told her bit by bit about passing through many places on his travels.

Apparently, Keith had a dream.

It was a humble dream of a quiet life in the countryside, but his eyes sparkled as he told her about it.

Lacey, who was a simple, naive girl who had never stepped foot outside her hometown, thought his stories sounded like exceptionally lovely fairy tales.

So to thank him for everything, Lacey told him her own story.

“I’m, like, always here swimming with the fish.”

“Oh? Uh-huh, um, is that so…?”

The two of them were sitting around a bonfire. The dancing flames lapped at fish impaled on skewers.

“The fish always flee and leave me behind. So I chase them, and I catch them.”

“W-wow…”

Lacey smiled and chuckled as she bit into a fish roasted to perfection.

She told me that the fish the two of them ate together were very delicious.

The fish…

“So then…”

After that, Lacey and Keith had a lively conversation about anything and nothing. She was so entranced that she forgot the time and about her pain as she chatted with him. She had never talked with a stranger on the beach before, so even as the sun began to set, the words kept bubbling up out of her.

She felt like she could go on talking forever, as long as she was talking to him.

“…………”

Before long, Keith was staring intently at her.

Even in the slanted rays of the sun, she could tell that his cheeks were tinged red.

This guy is in love with me!

Lacey realized it immediately. She had suspected as much from the moment they’d met.

“Say, Keith? What kind of girls do you like?”

Girls like me? You like girls like me, right? That’s true, isn’t it?

She asked with tremendous confidence that he would confirm her suspicions.

Keith averted his eyes and answered, “Mermaids, I guess…”

He had a thing for mermaids.

…………

A mermaid obsession?

They still couldn’t get enough of talking with each other. In order to get better acquainted, they would need more time.

“…Um, so, Lacey…” And so Keith said, “Could I…see you again? If I came here tomorrow, I mean?”

Lacey told me that she found his straightforward feelings very dazzling and that she was very happy.

However…

“…You can’t.” Lacey shook her head. “You can’t see me.”

They probably could have met there the following day. They probably could have talked a lot more. But Lacey prevented it.

She was a very pure and innocent young lady.

At the same time, she also had a tendency to overthink and get herself worked up.

She figured that even if they did get together, there was no way it could work out between them in the long run. Keith was a traveler, and she knew nothing of the world.

“Never come here again after today.”

Lacey thanked him for his help, and with that, she departed.

Even though she wanted to be with Keith forever.

And then, when the following day arrived…

Lacey went to the beach again. Even though she had rejected him, one corner of her heart was hopeful. “Maybe Keith came anyway?”

But he wasn’t there.

“Aaaaaahhhhhh, nooooooooooo!”

She cried and collapsed right there on the sand.

In the end, she visited that beach nearly every day after that, but he never came again.

“…So that’s my story up to this point. What do you think?”

“I think you’re a really annoying person.”

“…………”

“…I see.”

I nodded once after I had finished listening to the story of the man who had come to me for love advice.

He told me…

He had been wandering from place to place, living as a traveler, but he had been unable to forget about one incredible girl he had encountered three months earlier, and he had come back to see her.

Her name was Lacey.

She was the mermaid who had recently grown famous in the area.

“To make a long story short, I haven’t been able to forget about her, so I came back.”

He must have heard rumors somewhere about the beautiful mermaid appearing on the nearby beach—stuff like that.

And then the more he heard about the mermaid, the more certain he became that she was Lacey, whom he had met just once before. He knew he had to come back to see her.

That was the basic impression I got from listening to his story.

I see, I see.

“By the way, when you said that you came back to town, how many days ago, specifically, did you get back?”

“Huh?”

I had gotten to the city one day earlier.

And I had spent all day reading fortunes and sitting down face-to-face with quite a lot of customers.

“Everyone’s talking about you around town, you know,” I informed him discreetly.

Innumerable men had come to me to request I predict their luck in love with the mermaid, but whenever I sighed and got fed up with them, they all said the same thing.

“No, no, I’m not the worst of them, you know.”

And so on.

The first time I had heard those words, I’d figured the men were so obsessed that they didn’t even realize how deeply in love they were, but once I’d listened to what they had to say, somehow that didn’t seem to be the case.

One of the townspeople had told me, “There’s a strange man who will give you money just for going to see the mermaid and talking to him about it.”

Another person informed me that “He’ll give you money just for getting an autograph from the mermaid. I don’t really know what he’s after, but he’s probably a stalker or something.”

And yet another said, “Earlier, I was asked to deliver a gift to her. I don’t really understand why, but he seems like a stalker.”

Based on such eyewitness testimony, I could tell, in short, this stalker-like man had been making indirect contact with Lacey for at least the past month.

That was why all the other men had been able to say they weren’t the worst. It was because they knew about the one man who was deeply, deeply bogged down in his obsession.

As for that stalker’s appearance, they all said he had black hair and kind-looking features, and he looked to be in his mid-twenties.

Oh my. He looks familiar, doesn’t he?

“By any chance, have you been spending the whole last month spying on Lacey?”

“…………” Keith looked away from me forcefully. “…N-no, what do you mean…? I don’t know what you’re talking about…”

Wow, he’s really easy to read.

“Wouldn’t it be better to go talk to her directly instead of gathering information from a distance?” I bluntly offered him this bit of advice.

You can’t start anything without talking to her, you know?

But he looked exceedingly put out by my blunt words.

“If I could do that, I wouldn’t be having this problem!”

“But you’ve only ever met her once, right? Are you satisfied with nothing but secondhand information? I bet you don’t even know what she looks like now.”

“Huh? Of course I know. She’s a mermaid, right?”

“…………”

Well, yeah, that’s true, but…

“It doesn’t seem to shock you that she’s a mermaid.”

“No, not really,” he replied. “The world is a big place filled with all sorts of people.”

“…………”

It’s good that you’re so understanding, but…

“Why did a single rejection stop you from ever seeing each other again…?”

“Well, I want to see her, too, you know? But it’s impossible…”

“Never come here again after today.”

Those were the words Lacey had said to him the last time he saw her. Keith was a conscientious person and had fully accepted those words, probably believing them to be Lacey’s true feelings.

“I keep thinking that she must have been bored, even when we were together, even when we were chatting, and I always lose my nerve to go talk to her… I’ve tried to go down to the seashore so many times! But I’m afraid of getting rejected, and I can’t do it.”

“…………”

“Isn’t that pathetic? Go ahead and laugh.”

“Eh-heh-heh.”

“Don’t laugh at me!”

“Um…”

Didn’t you just tell me to laugh…?

“Anyway, I want to know what my chances are with her. If there’s no hope, I’ll give up on her. So please tell my fortune. I’m counting on you.”

Keith bowed his head to me very deeply.

That must have been the conclusion he had reached after months of worrying.

“…I understand.”

In that case, allow me to tell your fortunes with my extremely sloppy method, as requested.

I shook my cup, trusting that Keith would make his own fortune, and quickly scattered the shells out before me.

The result was immediately apparent.

“…………”

Keith huddled over the shells I had sprinkled on top of the box, staring at them for a little while. Then he looked up at me and tilted his head. “…So what kind of result is this?” he asked.

I don’t mind answering, but—

“You can enjoy finding that out later.”

I’m sure that’s the better option—

I turned my gaze toward the city gate.

“…………?”

A moment after me, Keith looked that way, too.

The timing was perfect.

Miss Fran came back into town at exactly that moment.

“…………”

Keith’s eyes opened wide. I’m certain he must have been surprised.

Because there with my teacher was the lovely girl he had met only once, three months earlier.

And because the lower half of that girl, who had been a mere mermaid three months earlier, had sprouted two legs.

This is the story of three months ago.

Along the seashore, I met a mermaid who was lying on the sand like a dead body.

She clung to me, shouting strange phrases like “Turn me into a woman!” and begged me to transform her into a human woman.

She was in love with a certain man. However, there was one reason why they couldn’t be together.

Lacey and Keith lived in two different worlds.

That reason alone had torn their relationship asunder.

Because Keith was a human who walked on land, and Lacey was a mermaid who lived in the ocean.

Actually, Lacey had fallen for Keith, too. What kept them from realizing their love was that it seemed very clear to Lacey that things wouldn’t go well if they got together.

That was why she had told him to never return.

But to put it another way, the only thing that was keeping Lacey and Keith apart was Lacey’s own hesitation.

Which, frankly, seemed like a problem that could be solved with magic.

And so I took Lacey by the arm as she clung to my waist, and I smiled down at her.

“I know one good way to solve this.”

Then I offered her one of my wands.

“…What’s this?” Lacey tilted her head to the side, puzzled.

I said, “You can use magic to grow legs right now.”

And then the whole matter will be settled, right?

Magic is quite the convenient thing, after all.

It is entirely possible to change one’s own form with magic. It’s something I’ve done many times myself. So then, why shouldn’t Lacey also use a wand and turn her tail and fins into legs? That was my thinking.

Honestly, at that moment, I didn’t really know whether or not mermaids could use magic, and I figured if it turned out that she couldn’t cast spells, I might just give her a potion and hand over the recipe for it. But my worries were unfounded.

Lacey could use magic. She had the gift for it. Maybe people who are a little different from normal humans have some innate talent for magic as a rule, because she immediately mastered the wand, even though it was her first time wielding one.

Still, no matter how talented she was, transformation spells and the like demand a relatively high level of skill, so it did take her a little bit of time to learn.

“Like this?”

She cast a transformation spell on herself.

“That’s a failure.”

Her tail and fins had just changed a little.

“All right, like this?”

The following day, she cast a transformation spell on herself again.

“Now you’ve turned into a different creature.”

That time, her lower half transformed into a horse.

“Hmm…how about this?”

The day after that, she cast a transformation spell on herself again.

“Um…I feel like you’re steadily getting further away from human…”

Not only her lower half but also her upper half was a horse.

In the following days, I was with her whenever I had the time, teaching her magic. I think it took about five more days before she was able to reliably turn her lower half into human legs.

“Like this?”

She had two lovely pale legs forming the lower half of her body.

“That’s a success.” I nodded.

Five days, not exactly of magic training, but of training for how to turn her lower half human. In the end, she couldn’t use any spells aside from transformation spells, but if she was just doing it in order to live with a man, I figured that should be sufficient.

And so as soon as I verified that she had sprouted legs, I started gathering up my things. “Well, I guess you don’t need me anymore,” I said.

Since I am a wandering traveler, I figured it was best not to prolong my stay.

“Huh? You can’t go, Elaina! I can only stay in human form for a short while.”

Lacey screwed up her face in open distress. Indeed, right after she made that complaint, her legs changed back into a tail.

It seemed her spells weren’t perfect just yet.

However…

“Well, now you need to practice on your own. I think you’ll be able to walk pretty well in no time.”

“You won’t stay with me…?”

She was sitting in the sand, since she had no legs, and looked up at me with pleading eyes from where she sat. There was something flirtatious about her gaze.

But I quickly shook my head.

“You’ll be all right without me now, won’t you? Besides…” I patted her head. “I’m a traveler, so I shouldn’t prolong my stay. I’ll be going now,” I said.

“…Humph!”

Lacey puffed out her cheeks discontentedly, but she didn’t throw a tantrum like she had the day I met her.

Instead, she asked me one question.

“Is traveling really that interesting?”

It was a question that I was unsure how to answer. Considering that Keith was a traveler, she was probably curious about travel, if only a little bit.

“Hmm.” I pondered the question briefly, then smiled at her. “Well, you don’t know until you try, right?”

I think it was an extremely vague and very tiresome answer.

I arrived in town with Elaina just yesterday.

The public was gushing about a mermaid, and I, too, was in high spirits, putting no small stock in the rumors, but Elaina didn’t seem particularly interested.

“A mermaid, huh? Cool.”

Needless to say, I felt something was out of place.

“What’s the matter, Elaina? You’re not acting like your usual self.”

“And how would I normally act?”

“You’d be tugging at my sleeve, saying something like, ‘Whaaat? A mermaid? Let’s go down to the seashore and go mermaid watching!’”

“Who is that supposed to be?” Elaina narrowed her eyes. “I’ve never behaved like that.”

Well, I was joking, of course. But anyway… “What’s wrong, really?” I asked. “You’re not interested? In a mermaid?”

“Well, I’m not not interested, but…”

Then Elaina told me what had happened.

She told me that she had met the mermaid three months earlier. And that she had taught some magic to the girl, who was lovesick over a man she had only met once.

Elaina explained that she wasn’t uninterested, she just wasn’t particularly surprised to hear about the mermaid, since she already knew all about her.

“I don’t know what to do… I can’t believe she’s still hanging around the sea even after three months… It wasn’t what I was expecting… I guess it would have been better to stay with her a little longer…,” Elaina grumbled.

Then she made a proposal.

“Miss Fran, do you think I could get you to go and see the mermaid?”

Elaina told me that she wanted me to bring the mermaid in question back to town.

I cocked my head. “I don’t mind doing so, but…I’m going to meet a mermaid, right? How am I supposed to bring her here?” I knit my eyebrows in confusion. “Won’t it cause a fuss if I bring her here? The people of this town all seem terribly worked up about the mermaid—”

But Elaina said to me in my confusion, “Oh, that’ll be fine. I doubt there will be any kind of fuss. I think you can just bring her in like you would anyone else.”

I could guess that something had happened to the mermaid when they met three months earlier. Yes, that much was clear.

“…What are you hiding?”

I stared intently at Elaina.

We had known each other a long time. I knew perfectly well what kind of answer she would give at a time like that, and still, just to be sure, I asked the question.

And Elaina did not betray my expectations. Remaining stubbornly aloof, she smiled slyly and replied, “You can enjoy finding that out later.”

The following day, I went to see the mermaid, just as I had discussed with Elaina. I was surprised to see that she had sprouted legs, but…then again, Elaina had taught her a spell to allow her to turn herself into a human.

Her spellcasting was still imperfect, but her skills had been improving day by day, and when I asked, she told me she was now able to make a round trip between town and the ocean.

So when we arrived in town together, I could tell that Lacey the mermaid was definitely surprised.

“…………”

It was obvious, because she just stood there silently, staring at the man sitting in front of Elaina.

I didn’t have to ask if the man was her sweetheart. Her gait was hesitant as she slowly approached him, but she didn’t shrink away at all.

She walked toward the man slowly, like she didn’t want to let him get away again.

“…Keith,” her gentle voice resounded.

“Oh, Lacey…”

I was able to see that the man, on the other hand, was a little nervous.

The two of them walked slowly toward each other. Neither of them rejected the other. Questions such as why the mermaid had grown legs or why the traveler was back in town were unimportant. The two of them were completely absorbed in their own little world.

They probably didn’t even see me or Elaina.

“…………”

As I walked past the two sweethearts, I leaned in close to Elaina’s side. “Do you think you could have told me ahead of time that you taught her a transformation spell?”

That was my one complaint.

I had been convinced that a mage was pretending to be a mermaid at first.

Elaina smiled. “I thought it would be more fun that way.”

Oh my, no remorse at all?

Well, I suppose it’s fine.

“What did you do while I went to meet the mermaid?”

When I asked, Elaina lowered her gaze.

Then she answered, “A little bit of fortune-telling.”

She was staring at a handful of shells, all faceup, scattered across the top of a box.

There’s not much reason to go on at length about what happened to Lacey and Keith after that, but I think I’d better tell the tale just in case, so allow me to relay it concisely.

“Eh-heh-heh, Elaina, listen, listen! Okay, so Keith here said he wants to go traveling with me! So starting tomorrow, we’ll be going to all sorts of places together!”

This is what happened the following day.

While I was wandering around town with Miss Fran and the two sweethearts, Lacey told me that. She sounded overjoyed.

I asked her about her transformation spell, and she said that while she hadn’t been able to perfect it yet, with every passing day, the length of time that she could maintain her human form had grown.

Apparently, she was planning to make a tour of the seaside towns first while continuing to practice her magic. She told me all this while giggling and clinging to Keith’s arm.

“Is that so…? Well, good for you.”

I glanced over at Keith, who was by her side.

“Ah, wait, um…s-so close…” His face was bright red.

He’s still…not used to girls…is he…?

In Lacey’s recollections, he was fairly talkative, though… I wonder if he can’t handle it now that she’s got legs? I bet that’s it. I bet Keith should have gone through a crash course or something to get him used to girls, the same way Lacey needed to practice her spells.

I mean…

“He was able to talk to me just fine… I wonder why he gets like that when he’s with Lacey?” I wondered.

“It’s probably because of his mermaid fetish.”

“What’s a mermaid fetish?”

“Who knows? I’m not sure myself,” said my somewhat negligent teacher. She had a faraway look in her eyes.

Meanwhile, Lacey and Keith didn’t seem to be listening to our exchange. They were completely inside their own little world.

“Oh, Keith darling, where should we go next? I’m okay with anywhere, as long as you’re there!” Lacey was perfectly happy to leave all the decision-making up to him.

“Er, ah…um, I think I’d like to travel alone for the time being… I feel like I might die if we go on like this…” Keith, on the other hand, looked like he was on death’s door.

“…………”

The two of them were supposed to be setting off on a journey to find a new hometown, but…

“Prospects seem grim…”

Will Keith get used to Lacey’s company, or will Lacey learn how to maintain her human form? Which will happen first?

I’m sure I’ll find out the answer to that question if I ever see them again.

After that, once we said good-bye to the couple as they left on their journey, we also prepared to leave the city.

I was sure the news that the mermaid had disappeared from the beach near town would spread through the whole country right away. But, well, no one had been able to get a good look at her up until three months ago anyway, so in the end, they were just going back to the way things used to be, and it didn’t seem like too big of a problem.

Though it might cause issues for the food stalls and other shops that had hopped on the mermaid bandwagon and given things like ordinary grilled fish funny names.

“Love is wonderful, isn’t it?” Miss Fran mumbled just as we were leaving the city, almost as though she had just remembered something.

She seemed to be basking in the lingering memory of the two sweethearts and their shameless flirting (though it would be more accurate to say that Lacey was the one hanging all over Keith).

“Elaina, have you ever been in love?” Miss Fran chuckled as she asked this strange question, in the spirit of the occasion.

Oh-hoh, love, huh?

Oh-hoh!

Well then, have my honest answer.

“I’ve been in love ever since we first met, Miss Fran,” I said.

Miss Fran made kind of a strange face. “…Oh my, with whom?”

Her expression looked guarded somehow, and I put on a big smile.

“With traveling,” I replied.

“…What kind of answer is that?” Then Miss Fran laughed. “You say some pretty strange things!”

But there’s no helping that, is there?

“People get a little annoying when they fall in love.”