Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 11 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

The House of Fluttering Birds

  The Ashen Witch

The sky seemed to go on forever. There were only the slightest wisps of clouds floating through it.

There was hardly anything to block the view as a cool wind blew across the hilly country, setting the flowers swaying up and down. There were no signs of civilization and barely any traces of human activity.

The witch walked alone through the wild, wide-open landscape.

“…What nice scenery.”

She let those silly few words slip out. She was somewhat overcome with emotion at the utterly ordinary scene. The witch was dressed in a pointy black hat and a black robe. Her name was Elaina.

She was a witch, and a traveler.

She didn’t always walk when she traveled. She often rode on her broom and enjoyed the scenery at her leisure, but this time, she wasn’t doing that.

She was simply walking slowly along.

By the way—

Just who could that witch be, who was still indulging herself in such freedom on her solo journey?

That’s right, it’s me.

There was one small house a short distance down the gently sloping road. From where I was, I couldn’t see the whole thing, but I could tell it was probably two stories tall. The walls were made of pale brick, and the roof was red. It was constructed very simply—as far as I could see from where I was, it looked like it was just a long, narrow box.

It was an ordinary, boring house. Just a plain house that looked like it might belong to a modest family. To all appearances, it was just a lovely, commonplace sight.

But I was frowning.

Right over the top of the house was something a little strange.

“…………”

Just overhead, birds were drifting around and around in pleasant-seeming circles. As far as I could count from a distance, there were at least ten of them. Whether there was something in the house or they were being kept as pets—I couldn’t tell, but the birds kept drawing the same neat circles, wheeling round and round in the sky as if they were searching for something. Their behavior was indescribably strange.

At the same time, I was probably a strange traveler too, as I was drawn to such a strange place.

I walked straight on toward the house, and before long, I arrived at the front gate.

When I had been looking at it from afar, I had thought it was probably just an ordinary house, but of course, now that I was closer, I could see a sign standing before the door.

It read—

THE HOUSE OF FLUTTERING BIRDS

…………

Written on the sign were words that described just what I was seeing. I suspected that if I opened the door, it would become clear just what this house was and why the birds were fluttering over it.

“I feel like this is extremely suspicious, but…”

If I had been someone with an ordinary disposition, I would have been on my guard. At that point, a normal person would have thought, Oh, there’s no way anyone living in such an obviously suspicious building is normal, is there? They must be bad news; I’d better hurry up and turn around! and gotten out of there. Actually, the moment they saw the house from a distance, they would have thought, Wow, it must be covered in poop! A normal person would absolutely never visit the house.

That’s right, exactly.

Well, then—

“Pardon the intrusion!”

Knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock-knock.

I knocked at the door with great vigor.

Travelers are people who live their lives every day with energy and enthusiasm. Remember that.

To be clear, at the moment, I was thinking it was unlikely that anyone actually lived in the house. I assumed that the area had long since been abandoned by humans and that the decaying house was being reclaimed by nature.

However—

My expectation was, unsurprisingly, quickly overturned.

“Yes?”

Someone came out.

I was shocked to see it was a very beautiful young woman.

  The Merchant

The woman who opened the door and identified herself as the “Favor Witch” was enchantingly beautiful and seemed very charming as well, though I was judging only by her outward appearance.

“Welcome to my house, esteemed guest.”

She bowed her head respectfully as she walked past me toward the sitting room and informed me, “You are my last guest. How fortunate.”

Last?

“Do you mean I’m your last visitor for today?”

The same sunlight that was streaming in through the windows was falling evenly across the plains outside. It seemed kind of early to close up shop.

But the woman shook her head.

“No, after today, I don’t intend to ever perform this job again. I’ve been thinking it’s about time for me to quit. So you are quite literally my last customer.”

Based on what she told me, it would be difficult to say the woman’s business was a very efficient one. It required specialized magical techniques, but her patrons only paid her one copper piece.

The money that changed hands between her and her customers was only enough to buy a small slice of bread. It was hardly appropriate for the risks she assumed and the special skills she possessed.

So it made perfect sense that she should resign from the job.

“That’s really too bad…” Nonetheless, I was, as she had said, fortunate for having made it here right before she quit.

“Yes,” she said, nodding slowly. “But I don’t intend to cut any corners, even though it’s my last job, so don’t worry—” As she spoke, she took her wand in hand and waved it in the air.

Immediately after she did, the window behind her opened.

She did something I couldn’t have.

She wielded a power I could never have mastered, no matter how hard I worked at it. Through the open window came all the birds that I was sure I had seen flying above the building, forming a line as if they had arranged it all beforehand. They flew right in and lined up behind her.

There were a wide variety of birds, from small to large, from the kind of birds you often saw in cities getting breadcrumbs from residents to ferocious, carnivorous birds of prey.

The Favor Witch stood up, and keeping the tip of her wand pointed toward the birds, she looked at me.

“So then, which one do you want to become?”

Won’t you try flying freely through the air?

I had heard that such letters were sometimes unexpectedly delivered, targeting the poorest populations of neighboring lands. Those people who were down and out, saddled with huge debts. The nameless masses living in slums. Citizens of countries that had been defeated in wars. The letters, sent to them from who-knows-where, served as invitations to the witch’s house.

For just a single copper coin, I’ll make you forget your daily suffering forever.

Fascinated by the promises in the letters, many people visited the woman’s house.

The spell the Favor Witch had created could apparently swap the consciousness of a human and a bird for a set period of time. I didn’t know what principle such a spell operated on, but I’d heard that many invitees had flown through the air as birds thanks to her spell. For just one copper coin.

“By the way, you are not one of my expected guests, are you?”

The Favor Witch smiled sweetly and looked down at me.

I shook my head.

“Occasionally, someone will be so rude as to sell one of the letters you distribute to a merchant.”

“Oh my. So that means you bought the letter off of that merchant?”

“No. I am that merchant.”

I had been curious about the place for a while. I had picked up various bits of information as I wandered from country to country. Not very many people knew about her house, and I had never met someone who had actually visited it. There were many rumors about its existence, but little else was said about it.

People talked about how there were always mages in the sky when they looked up as they led their cramped and boring daily lives. How, unlike themselves, who could only crawl along the ground, the mages had the sky. How the mages had access to something they could only look up at.

I heard from people who had always yearned for what the mages had.

People who wondered what the world looked like from the sky.

“I welcome anyone who yearns for the sky, even if you are not one of my invitees.” Standing before me, the Favor Witch smiled at me. “I want even those people who cannot use magic to know the splendor of the sky. That is why I started doing this job.”

“But you said I was your last customer?”

“Yes. It’s unfortunate, but when you do a job for such a low price, unsavory characters tend to show up.”

She smiled.

It was a fleeting smile.

According to what she said, she was going to change locations and go into a different business. She also told me she would most likely never be able to work again as an ally to the poor, showing them scenery from the sky.

In other words, that genuinely made me her final customer. The last person who would fly through the air at will, despite being a human who could not use magic.

“Which bird will you choose?”

She put the question to me again.

The line of birds was still waiting politely near the woman.

Any one of them would have been fine.

I pointed.

“Let me see—I think I’ll go with this blue bird.”

I was fortunate.

  The Midnight Witch

“Have you ever seen this man before?”

I pointed at a photograph and showed it to the Favor Witch, who was facing me across the table.

In those days, I had just started working with the United Magic Association, and I was still uncharacteristically enthusiastic about the job. I frowned and scowled at the other woman so that she wouldn’t underestimate me.

The Favor Witch, on the other hand, was unfazed.

“Yes I have. He was my last customer at my former job.”

“You’ve got a very good memory, then.”

“I simply treasure each and every one of my patrons.”

Three months had passed since the disappearance of the merchant. The last traces of the man stopped at the house where the Favor Witch had previously lived.

The building had been completely abandoned by the time personnel from the United Magic Association got there. She had already moved on.

About three months’ time had gone by, and I had finally managed to track her down. She had been living a quiet life in a small country, and when I’d prodded to see if I could ask her a few questions about her previous employment, she had nodded and invited me into her home.

She appeared to earn very good money. The extremely spacious residence was much too luxurious for a single woman’s use.

“What kind of work are you doing now?”

Apparently, her previous line of work had been providing a service by which patrons could become birds for the cost of a single copper coin.

“I don’t work or anything.” She shook her head readily. “Right now, I am only doing my research.”

“Is that so…? It looks like you are living quite well, in spite of that.”

“I have some moderate savings.”

The Favor Witch chuckled.

I could tell the tea she had set out was also high-grade stuff. The swaying steam rising from the teacup carried such a lovely fragrance, I almost sighed.

“Let’s talk about the merchant,” I said. I looked at her and started talking. “All news of him ceased after he sent a letter to his daughter saying he was headed for your house. He hasn’t appeared since, not even to meet with his regular customers. Are you sure he didn’t say something to you? Might he have mentioned where he was going after he was a customer at your place?”

“No, I’m afraid he didn’t say a thing.” She bowed her head, still smiling. “But don’t you think he might be off somewhere gallivanting throughout the world right now? After all, he is a merchant, isn’t he?” she added at the end.

“…………”

“Unfortunately, I don’t happen to have any information that will help you. I’m sorry.” She hung her head.

I doubt she’s lying. Surely she doesn’t know where the man went.

But—

“I see. That’s too bad.” I hung my head.

I had been lying through my teeth.

I hadn’t expected clear answers from her from the start.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance.”

“No, please don’t worry about it.”

To begin with—

I had come to visit this place for a different reason entirely.

“By the way, could I ask you one more thing?”

“Hmm? Oh, sure. Go ahead.”

“Just how much profit did you make off your previous job?”

“……?”

Perhaps she didn’t understand the meaning behind my question, or maybe she hadn’t expected me to suddenly ask about it. All she did was tilt her head to the side in confusion.

I continued.

“I assume you need considerable savings in order to live in such a grand mansion. And yet you said that right now you are only conducting research. Exactly how much money were you able to earn at your previous job?”

“Ah…” She let out a sigh. She seemed sad. “I’m afraid it wasn’t the kind of business you are thinking of. It was something I did in order to help people who cannot use magic realize their dreams. So I only accepted a single copper coin.”

I see.

But—

“From your customers, you mean.” I stood up and took my wand in hand. “A tip came in to the United Magic Association a little while ago, and we arrested some merchants who had been smuggling human organs. The tip said they were cutting open human bodies with magic and selling fresh organs on the black market for a high price.”

Apparently, these black-market organs were magically preserved and sold for a lot of money. Thanks to the work of the United Magic Association, the organ dealers were arrested, and the smuggling ring was stopped.

But after that, one more question surfaced.

The source of the organs.

The group doing the smuggling were not the ones taking people’s lives and removing their organs. Ultimately, all they did was purchase the organs from a different person.

“The smugglers immediately told us where they acquired the organs.”

According to the information they had given us, a lone witch living somewhere in the hill country—a woman who went by the name of the Favor Witch—had been making periodic deliveries to the organ dealers.

“Apparently, that witch brought them corpses that were entirely too fresh, almost as if the spirits had been magically removed from the bodies. So then—”

I pointed my wand at her.

“Just how much profit did you make off your previous job?”

It was a simple story.

Since she knew for certain that she could get money elsewhere, she had only taken one copper coin from each patron who came to fly through the sky as a bird, that’s all.

People who were down and out, saddled with huge debts. The nameless masses living in slums. Citizens of countries that had been defeated in wars.

The Favor Witch had sent out letters that targeted these vulnerable people, luring them to her door with the promise of a spell that would switch their consciousness with a bird for a set time, and then put them to sleep.

Not a single one of the people whose consciousness was put into a bird ever returned from the house.

“I needed to perform repeated experiments for my research, no matter the cost. They were all very helpful for my research,” the Favor Witch stated in a later hearing, after she was captured by the United Magic Association.

The spell she was working on was a spell that would forcibly move a person’s consciousness into another person—in other words, a spell to sacrifice others so that she might have eternal life.

It was probably still in development.

It sounded like she had been testing the spell on birds.

She had been getting money for her experiments by putting people’s minds into birds, then selling their vacant bodies to the organ smugglers. Which meant that, for her, the house with birds flying around it was both her laboratory and fertile ground for making money.

Without a doubt, as far as the Favor Witch was concerned, that house was the most logical place to be.

Once it was all over, I headed for a branch office of the United Magic Association, where an office clerk bowed politely to me. “Thank you for your hard work, Lady Midnight Witch. We’ve confirmed the Favor Witch’s role in the incidents. It sounds like she’ll be sentenced to some severe punishment. That’s your achievement. Congratulations.”

After praising the work of a newcomer, the clerk continued, “I’m sure you already know this, but please don’t let a word of the truth about this incident get out. As far as the masses know, the Favor Witch lured poor people to her house surrounded by birds, killed them, and sold off their remains to smugglers, and that’s what happened.”

What had the Favor Witch been researching in that house? It had been decided that the Association would be concealing all information about that part.

It was an attempt to prevent anyone else from trying to continue her research.

The incident was resolved.

“…Is something the matter?”

But apparently, I was wearing a long face. The clerk looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“Well…”

The Favor Witch, who deceived people and used their lives to further her own experiments, had been safely captured. No innocent person would be caught in her sinister clutches ever again.

But—

“Something’s still bothering me a little.”

“Bothering you?”

I nodded and looked at the clerk.

“Listen. When was it that the United Magic Association captured the smugglers?” I asked.

There was no need to look it up. The clerk answered me immediately. “Four months ago.”

Four months earlier. In other words, it had taken one month’s time before I had located the Favor Witch’s dwelling.

When the United Magic Association captured the organ smugglers and discovered their connection to the Favor Witch living somewhere in the hill country, they had widely publicized the facts in the surrounding lands. They had made it known that anyone who went to her would be killed.

An alert was issued not to visit under any circumstances, no matter the temptation.

And yet—

“…Why on earth did he go to that house, I wonder?”

I couldn’t help but question why the merchant had gone out of his way to visit a place that was known to be dangerous. I had a feeling of unease that I couldn’t shake.

“Maybe he didn’t know about it?”

“Maybe, if he was an ordinary guy, but it’s hard to believe that a merchant who travels from country to country wouldn’t read a newspaper article now and then, right?”

“So he knew, and he went there on purpose?”

“We can’t discount the possibility.”

“I can’t imagine that someone would intentionally throw their life away like that, though…”

“…Yeah.”

And that’s why this is bothering me.

The merchant who became the witch’s final victim probably hadn’t known exactly what was going on in the house with birds flying overhead, but he should have known what would happen if he went there.

He shouldn’t have even considered going there unless he had a very good reason for it. Not to mention that the merchant, unlike the victims before him, was not struggling with poverty. If he was really a merchant, it should never have even occurred to him to approach that house.

Not unless he, like the Favor Witch, had a logical reason.

  The Ashen Witch

“It’s rare for people to come all the way out to a place like this, but it does happen sometimes.”

Maintaining a carefree attitude the whole time, the woman who had invited me into her house set cups of tea down on the table and asked me, “Miss Witch, would you happen to be a traveler?”

I nodded.

“As you can see, I am a traveler.”

“Indeed you are. I thought so. The people living in the countries around here don’t come near this place—,” she said.

Judging from appearances, she was probably in her early twenties. She had long black hair and startlingly pale skin, and the arm that reached for her teacup was thin.

“So this building…it has a dark history.”

She spoke quietly and told me about the ghastly incident that had taken place in the house.

A long time ago, when my host was a child, the witch who had lived in this house had apparently lured innocent people in, used them as subjects in her experiments, and then killed them.

Since it was the scene of such a tragic incident, after the witch had vacated it, there was no one who wanted to settle in the house, and it stood abandoned in the middle of hill country for a long time.

Then, my host said, she had purchased the house, and now she lived quietly there by herself.

“I’m impressed you can live here.”

I gave my frank opinion. I didn’t particularly believe in ghosts and the like, but even so, I wouldn’t want to live in a place that was the scene of such an affair. It would feel a little creepy.

But she didn’t seem to mind it.

Instead, she put on a gentle smile. She seemed completely at ease.

“When I was little, I contracted a terrible disease, and the doctor told me I wouldn’t live to adulthood. In order to save me, my father traveled the world, working hard and making lots of money. But even so, he couldn’t cure my illness. All he could do was help me live a little longer.”

“…What’s your father’s trade?”

“He was a merchant.”

“Was?”

“He died when I was little. In this very house.”

“…………”

I could only respond with silence, while she told me, persistently, matter-of-factly, “My father died, and all I had left was the large sum of condolence money I received, and his body, missing most of the organs. The money saved my life. But my father is never coming back.”

“…………”

“You know, I don’t believe in ghosts and the like, but somehow, when I’m here, it’s like I’m with my father—that’s how I feel.”

She told me she felt like her father’s presence was somewhere in the house.

“Is that why you are living here?”

“Yes. That, and because I had some of that condolence money left to spend. The house was cheap because of the incident,” she said with a smile.

But I couldn’t tell whether it was okay for me to smile back or not, so for the time being, I wet my lips with the tea that had been set out for me.

“I’m almost certain no one set a hand on anything in here after the incident. Not a single thing seems to have changed since it happened. The furnishings are exactly as they were, and…”

She looked outside the window.

A single blue bird flew in through the open window, and after making a slow circle around the room, then roaming about looking for a place to land, it came to rest on top of the girl’s shoulder.

“…even the birds that the Favor Witch kept as pets haven’t changed all these years; they seem to only live right here.”

“They seem quite attached to you.”

“There was probably just nowhere else for it to sit.” She let out a very small sigh and told me, “Besides, this is the only one that’s tame.”

The blue bird peered up at her from her shoulder.

“Just this one, for whatever reason, comes near me.”

She extended a pale, thin finger and stroked the bird’s head with her fingertip.

“Strange, right?”

The blue bird made a happy expression as the pale, thin finger stroked it affectionately.

After drinking tea with my host and enjoying a short rest, I returned to my travels.

It seemed like the girl who lived in the mysterious house in the hills would continue staying there in the dwelling with the dark past, along with the birds.

“If you ever pass this way again, be sure to drop by. I’m always here alone, so—”

With those words, she saw me to the door.

Surrounded by swaying flowers, I waved to her and walked off.

Apparently, I hadn’t stayed very long. Looking up, I saw that the sun was still shining brightly. The breeze blew past, filling the whole area with a pleasant aroma.

All around me, the scenery was just as it had been before I’d gone inside the house.

I felt certain the girl was going to continue on living in this house in the hill country, with her father’s lingering presence.

“…………”

I looked up at the house.

Sure enough, the scenery hadn’t changed much.

As before, the birds were still flying overhead.