Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 11 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Junk Princess

WELCOME, CUSTOMER. MAY I TAKE YOUR ORDER?

Flower Garden Theomea.

As I was gazing at the menu in a terrace seat at a café in that city, a waiter walked over to me and asked for my order.

I looked up at the waiter and answered with an extremely conservative order. “For now, I’ll have a coffee,” I said.

The waiter bowed politely and left my table. Not a moment later, a different waiter appeared carrying a tray. It was surprisingly quick service. I wondered if they had poured the coffee the moment the first waiter had taken my order.

With a clatter, the waiter set my coffee on the table, and along with it, a newspaper.

…A newspaper?

“But I didn’t ask for this?” I said, implying there must have been some mistake. I held the newspaper right back out to the waiter.

But the waiter looked down at the newspaper and bowed. WE PROVIDE THEM AS A FREE SERVICE.

Oh-hoh, a free service, you say?

“What a nice service.”

IT’S OUR PLEASURE.

Then the waiter went away.

Even though it was still early in the morning, there were a fair number of people in the café. A man relaxing and killing time before work. Elderly people who really just had too much time on their hands. And a witch who just happened to visit this city during her travels—that’s me.

“…………”

I had nothing else to do, and I was starting to get bored, so I went ahead and opened the newspaper that had been given to me. Apparently, there was some incident that had been agitating the whole city for quite some time. The whole front page was filled with not-very-good news.

SEVERAL NEW-TYPE MAGICAL TURRETS DEPLOYED TO WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITY

The article explained that these new magical defense guns were configured to attack immediately whenever a human being approached, meaning that even if someone just approached the disposal facility by mistake, there was a danger of casualties.

Many people objected to the idea of automated magical turrets that might kill people, and there was a lot of criticism. The government claimed they were necessary to keep people from stealing the waste from the disposal facility and had not indicated any intention of removing the turrets. The cutting-edge magical guns had already been installed at the disposal facility, which meant that even as I was reading about them in the paper, someone trying to get into the magical doll disposal facility would be faced with certain death—probably that’s what it meant.

There was one single reason why the government was taking such forceful measures.

The events that led to these changes were considerately outlined in the newspaper article.

About one month earlier—

There had been an incident in which one of the magical dolls responsible for protecting the waste disposal facility had malfunctioned, gone on a rampage, and injured a person. The magical dolls in Flower Garden Theomea looked human, but they were not human. It’s worth noting that they were built to follow human orders. They were animated by magic and were compelled by magic to follow human commands and to keep working until they fall apart.

Despite that, the magical doll at the waste disposal facility had disobeyed orders.

Consequently, her fate was to be destroyed.

Completely dismantled, leaving no trace.

“…………”

Though it was small, the newspaper had printed a photo of the scene.

“…Halverie.”

As I touched the photo of the wreckage, I stared at the final form of the girl I had spent time with.

The last picture of the girl who had done nothing but protect the waste disposal facility for many long months and years.

One day, about a month earlier…

In a forest with broad-leaved trees growing thickly enough to blot out the sky, their swaying leaves blocking the sun’s rays, I concealed myself in the foliage, peering at distant scenery through my binoculars.

The place I was looking at was bright.

There was a lot of rubbish, enough to cover the ground, and flowers poked their way up through the trash. I saw artificial arms and legs, torsos and heads, and guns, swords, and shields. There were also all sorts of everyday goods like plates, phonographs, books, chairs, and the like. I was looking at a graveyard of human-made objects that had reached the end of their useful lives. At the same time, lots of flowers were threading up between the objects, swaying in the breeze.

“…Found her,” I whispered, shifting my binoculars a little.

I had gone to that waste disposal facility with a single purpose.

That purpose had come from a poster I happened to notice at an inn in a nearby city.

THERE IS A BROKEN MAGICAL DOLL IN OUR CITY’S WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITY. THIS MAGICAL DOLL WAS DEPLOYED THIRTY YEARS AGO TO PROTECT THE FACILITY FROM THIEVES BUT HAS BECOME DAMAGED OVER TIME AND MUST BE DISPOSED OF.

But when a new model of magical doll and an official from the government had gone to dispose of the old doll, it had refused disposal—and of all things—had pointed a gun at the human.

So they wanted to enlist the help of travelers and mages in destroying the problem doll.

At the bottom of the poster was the government’s seal and a map to the waste disposal facility.

The city that had issued the request was called Flower Garden Theomea. At the time, it was a place I had yet to visit. As far as I could tell by looking at the map, it didn’t seem to be that far from the place I was staying.

And what drew my eye more than anything was the reward for completing the task.

“A hundred gold pieces…!”

That was big money. I was surprised. So surprised, I even squealed a little.

Is that for real? Can I really get that much money? Sounds fishy. There has to be some kind of catch, right?

“…………”

With those thoughts in mind, who should casually show up at the waste disposal facility the following day but me?

At the end of the day, I was lured in by the aroma of a tasty little moneymaking scheme, huh…?

Sure enough, there was something that looked like a magical doll standing in the waste disposal facility amid the flowers and old junk.

It was holding two machine guns, one in each hand. Its body was surprisingly slim, but it had a curious physique that was neither male nor female. The doll was white, and it didn’t seem very human.

For starters, it wasn’t wearing a scrap of clothing.

And it didn’t have a head.

The strange doll had its back to me, among the junk.

“…That’s probably the magical doll, right?”

Unfortunately, the information I had been given hadn’t included the doll’s characteristics. Actually, all the request had said was that they wanted someone to destroy the magical doll that was at the waste disposal facility.

Yeah, but I think if there’s someone standing in this garbage dump, I can be pretty sure it’s the broken magical doll that was described in the request—

“Huh?”

I blinked, doubting my own eyes, and let out a short shriek.

The magical doll, which I had been sure was facing away from me, had turned toward me. It hadn’t moved its legs, just whirled its torso around from the waist up.

“…Huh?”

What’s going on?

By the time I had that thought, the doll had already turned its machine guns on me. The attack had begun.

The bullets whizzed toward me, scattering the flowers and rubbish that was spread over the ground.

Ah, so this thing is broken. Definitely broken, beyond a doubt. And I haven’t even done anything yet.

This must be the broken magical doll that Flower Garden Theomea wants handled, no question about it.

As I jumped out from between the trees, I took my wand in hand and conjured up some magical energy. I formed an improvised shield of solidified magic at the tip of my wand. The barrier repelled every bullet, protecting me. The shots ricocheted off of my shield and hit the trees behind me, sending splinters flying.

The forest was thrown into commotion by the echoing din, and the birds flew off to escape.

Even so, the hail of bullets didn’t let up.

“…………”

The magical doll didn’t say a word—it hadn’t even turned to face me properly. But it was obvious that the doll had identified me, a person who had been poking around the garbage dump, as an enemy.

Even as I ran away, trying to escape the gunfire, the doll kept following me with only its upper half turned nimbly toward me. I trampled trash and flowers underfoot as I ran, but the doll kept on firing, unchecked.

Since I was under constant attack, I didn’t have the chance to make a counterattack. For instance, I hid behind a mountain made of garbage and, in that brief moment, dissolved my impromptu shield and tried to bring my wand to bear. But the moment I emerged from shelter, the bullets rained down on me. Since my opponent had no head, and what’s more, its upper body was turning round and round, no matter where I tried to hide or how many times I hid, the moment I came out, the machine guns started firing.

No weak spots, huh?

In that case—

“Looks like I need to get a little reckless—”

From my hiding spot, I used magic to lift up every single thing I could see scattered around me and blindly hurled it all in the direction of the gunfire.

For a moment, the bullets and the junk met in midair. The bullets shot right through and smashed all the trash to bits, but undeterred, I kept on endlessly flinging junk from my hiding place.

I had no way of knowing clearly where my opponent was. Even so, I continued my desperate counterattack until I sensed a response.

Then, finally—

I heard a dull crash, then right after that, the shooting stopped for a moment.

“…Got you, huh?”

That was my chance. Without pause, relying on momentum, I leaped from the shadows and leveled my wand.

I didn’t have time to fire off any particularly strong spells. As soon as I caught sight of the magical doll staggering over the mounds of trash, I pointed my wand at it and let loose.

The ball of magical energy that flew straight on like an arrow pierced the doll right in the stomach and disappeared.

If it had been a human, that alone would have been more than enough to deal a fatal wound, but the spell seemed to have little effect on the magical doll. It shook and staggered but then immediately pointed the muzzles of its guns at me once more.

But I wasn’t planning to be on the receiving end of that gunfire again.

“Eiah!” I walked forward, swinging my wand. An ice boulder fell down from immediately above the magical doll and crushed its body flat.

“Hyah!” I approached, waving my wand sideways. A mass of garbage crashed full-on into the ice, smashing it to pieces.

“Rrrah!” Then I tapped the crumpled magical doll lightly with my wand. Immediately, vines of ivy sprouted from all directions and tore its body apart.

“…………”

When I was done, there was no longer a magical doll left. It was nothing but debris.

That should be good enough, right?

“Now, if I just take this back to Flower Garden Theomea, the reward will be mine—oh-hoh-hoh!” Cackling like a villain, I waved my wand again and wrapped the ivy around the remains of the doll.

If I’m making an honest confession, at that time, I was under the impression that I had already completely defeated the magical doll. In short, to tell the unvarnished truth, I was careless.

That’s why I didn’t deliver a finishing blow or check that I had completely killed it.

The result was that in spite of how proud I was feeling of myself, I found myself on the receiving end of a counterattack like any other pleb.

“…………!”

Apparently, this magical doll thing that was facing off against me was, despite its humanlike outward appearance, nothing like a human at all. Even after it had mostly been crushed, it forced its barely functioning arms and legs to move and pushed itself to its feet. Then, without a moment’s hesitation, it grabbed me, brandishing a dagger.

It only took an instant.

I didn’t even have time to ready my wand.

“—Ah!”

This is bad.

By the time I had that thought, the dagger was already pressing on my neck.

Ah, too bad. If this is how it ends, I should have just flown off on my broom and continued my travels, without getting carried away with a shortsighted get-rich-quick scheme. It is with great regret that I meet the end of my journey—

I was prepared for the worst, but—

But somehow or other, it seemed my end had not yet arrived.

“—Hup.”

A calm and composed voice came from behind me. A pleasant floral scent gently tickled my nose, and immediately afterward, a bayonet pierced through the body of the magical doll in front of me, stabbing it time and time again. This time, for real, the doll broke into pieces.

I was still reeling from the doll’s attack, and I fell onto my backside. Or maybe I collapsed from fear of imminent death.

“…………”

Or maybe I was just dazed as I looked up at the person who had saved me.

Standing before me was an incredibly beautiful young woman.

Her hair was purple. It was cut into a short bob. Her eyes were green. There was no light behind them. Judging just from her appearance, she seemed to be my age or a little older. She was dressed in a sharp outfit—at least it seemed to be, but when I looked closer, I saw that it was pitifully ragged and filthy, ripped to shreds. The sleeves were completely torn up, and her midsection was exposed. There was only a dangerously short length of skirt left.

The woman dressed in these unusual clothes had an unusual body as well.

Her left arm was completely missing from the shoulder down. Her legs had holes all over them and cracks in the skin. Parts of her face were crumbling even then, and bits were falling down onto the rubbish below.

“…………”

It was at that point that I realized I had somehow made a terrible mistake.

Thinking back very carefully, I had been told that the magical doll at the waste disposal facility was supposed to have been protecting the place for the last thirty years. Yet in spite of that, the magical doll I had just done battle against—or the doll-like thing—had obviously been brand-new.

If the doll had been living in a garbage dump for thirty years, and was malfunctioning, then at the very least, it wouldn’t have maintained its outward appearance.

It’s rather strange, isn’t it, that the doll hadn’t looked all tattered like the young woman in front of me.

“Hey.”

At that point, the woman in front of me finally turned to face me and held out her hand.

It was a battered hand, broken in places, and delicate. It was pitiful to look at, and it seemed like it might come right off if I pulled on it.

She smiled at me awkwardly over that hand and said, “Are you hurt, miss?”

She told me her name was Halverie.

And that she was the magical doll who protected the waste disposal facility.

At the waste disposal facility not far from Flower Garden Theomea…

Picking my way through the garbage and the flowers, I proceeded to the very back of the facility, where there was a small hut. That was the hut where Halverie, who protected the disposal facility, lived. It was her base of operations.

“Heh-heh-heh. Human, you are now my prisoner!”

The magical doll Halverie was wearing a bold grin.

“Coming to a place like this at a time like this… Are you by any chance here because you’re after my life? Heh-heh-heh. But I caught you, you see?”

It seemed like Halverie understood the situation she was in. After making her grand entrance and asking if I was hurt, she had gone right on to say, “Ah, please don’t move, all right?” Then she had tied me up with rope so that I couldn’t fight back and led me away to this one-room hut.

“Thank you for earlier. You saved my skin.” But I was a witch, so I was not nervous at all. “What a lovely place,” I remarked. “It’s like a secret hideout.”

I gazed vacantly around the room as she made me take a seat on the floor.

The tiny little hut felt cramped and was furnished only with a bed, a table, and a bookshelf. She seemed to have procured all sorts of things from the mountains of junk. On the bookshelf, she had books and figurines, plus some decorated plates and little stones. There were artificial flowers and ordinary scraps of paper and all sorts of other things displayed with pride. I struggled to understand exactly what sort of criteria she had used in gathering them all.

And stuffed under the table were bodies—the bodies of magical dolls, in relatively good condition. At first glance, they had the unsettling appearance of being a bunch of dismembered corpses crammed under there.

“You’ve got a good eye, human. This room is where I’ve gathered all the wonderful treasures I’ve collected over the long years. To me, this is paradise. The castle of cool.”

“Castle of cool? What’s that?”

From what I can see, you’ve only got a bunch of low-value stuff sitting around…

“By the way, human, what’s your name?” She sat in a chair and looked down at me.

“Elaina. I’m a traveling mage.”

“Heh-heh-heh, a mage, huh? There were a lot of people like you in my hometown. How nostalgic.”

I had never visited, but presumably Flower Garden Theomea was a place with a lot of powerful magic. They had created beings like the woman before my eyes as much as thirty years ago, after all.

“So would it be correct to say that you are animated by magical energy?”

Though considering your origins, I feel like you are just brimming with humanity.

She didn’t seem to have any trouble discerning what I meant. As she set about covering the chipped part of her face with fresh material, she nodded wordlessly and closed her eyes.

“Once you’ve lived thirty years in a place like this, even things like emotions tend to sprout up,” she told me.

“Or perhaps…,” she continued, “…maybe I’m simply broken, from passing so many long months and years here.”

“By the way, I’d like it if you could untie me.”

A look at her appearance was more than sufficient to tell me that she was broken, but I had absolutely no idea why she had captured me.

“I’m afraid I can’t do that, human.”

“It’s Elaina.”

“I’m used to people from my hometown coming after me, but recently, humans like you—foreigners from other lands—have started showing up at this waste disposal facility. Unless I give up on the place right now and run away, I’ll probably soon end up like all my other companions that have been abandoned here. Don’t you think, human?”

“It’s Elaina.”

“At any rate, I don’t want to die here. As thanks for saving your life—well, not exactly, but I’d be happy if I could get your help.”

She explained to me that she had wanted to capture a human like me, someone who didn’t know anything about her origins, to help her accomplish her goal. Honestly, I had no idea what she wanted to do.

If you want to run away, can’t you just do that?

Or maybe there’s some reason why you can’t?

At any rate, it is true that you saved me when I was in danger, so—

“I want you to stay silent and follow my orders just like a magical doll. Got it, human?”

“It’s Elaina.”

Anyway, I listened carefully to her plan or whatever.

The plan that Halverie, the magical doll, had devised, was as follows:

“First, we wait for just the right sort of thugs to come visit this waste disposal facility, looking to claim the bounty that’s been placed on my head.”

As luck would have it, I was not the only visitor at the waste disposal facility that day.

“Heh-heh-heh…listen, brother. If we can get paid just for smashing up some doll in this dump, that’s easy money!”

“Sure is, heh-heh-heh.”

A pair of guys who, judging from their appearances, seemed like very bad news, swaggered boldly into the waste disposal facility.

“Once the thugs appear, we will block their way. Incidentally, at that point, you’ll be tied up with rope and tethered to my waist.”

So we stepped out, following her instructions.

The fact of the matter was that her body was apparently a little peculiar, and she was limited in how she could act under her own power.

“I’m under orders from my hometown to protect this place and keep anyone from stealing anything, so no matter what I do, I can’t leave here under my own power. At the same time, I can’t injure innocent people. That’s how I was built.”

The government had probably started commissioning outsiders like myself because they didn’t want to make their citizens face off against the broken magical doll.

She had told me the story of how she ended up with a target on her back.

“Once, an official from Flower Garden Theomea came here, and I accidentally pointed a gun at him. It surprised me because by nature, a magical doll like me should have restrictions that keep me from injuring people—especially people from my homeland. And yet I had made the choice to injure someone. Strong emotions and the feeling that I had to point the gun at him had released me from my constraints.”

But apparently, it was very difficult for her to manifest a strong will like that on her own.

That was why she had chosen to take me as a hostage.

“Don’t move, you thugs! Are you listening? If you guys move one step from where you are, I will blow this girl’s pretty, cute face right off her head!” she threatened.

This is… How do I put it? This seems like it’s definitely going to result in her injuring someone if she doesn’t get out of here.

…………

Wait, wait, wait.

Isn’t this plan a little sloppy?

From the thugs’ perspective, what would they care if a complete stranger like me died? Plus, there was the possibility that Halverie would die alongside me.

“W-wait! Don’t be hasty, miss!”

But the thugs were, surprisingly, decent people.

“F-first things first, you set that dangerous thing down, okay?”

The two men looked desperately back and forth between me, with the gun muzzle pointed at the side of my head, and Halverie, who was making vague threats and trying to get them to retreat.

“I’m getting out of here. You hear me? If you lay a single finger on me, her life is forfeit, got it? Do you understand me?”

Halverie dragged me along behind her as she spoke. I was confused about what I was supposed to be doing, but for the moment I decided to scream like a hostage. “Kyaaah! Help me!”

“Tch…what a despicable magical doll she is…!”

“If we don’t do something, the witch’s life is…!”

Well, actually, my life was never really in danger, but…

But I couldn’t interfere with Halverie’s plan, so for the time being, I did what was expected of me and wailed in a pitiful voice, “Waah! I don’t want to die!”

“Heh-heh-heh. She’ll remain like this until I am free. Until then, stay quiet and watch.”

Halverie kept on dragging me along. With no one to stop her progress anymore, she only had to keep walking straight for the border of the waste disposal facility.

And then—

“Now I am free—”

Just as she was about to take her first step out of the waste disposal facility—

“…………”

She stopped in her tracks.

I looked up, wondering why, and saw that she was standing stiffly, gazing up at the sky. Her body started shaking violently, and then she abruptly collapsed.

“L-looks like it’s no good…” Halverie was lying right beside me. “That always happens when I try to leave this place…”

She had to protect this waste disposal facility. She could not threaten a human life.

Those were the orders handed down to her thirty years prior, and she had faithfully continued to obey them. Actually, it was probably more like she had to obey them in order to survive.

“Not gonna work?”

“Ugh, not gonna work… Um, I’m really sorry to ask, but could I get you to take me back over to where we started, human?”

“It’s Elaina.”

No helping it, I guess.

I hauled myself to my feet and started walking. Since the rope tied around me was still tethered to Halverie’s waist, this time I was the one dragging her along behind me.

The two thugs didn’t seem to understand this sudden development at all, so I explained what I knew about Halverie’s situation.

These were the responses from the two virtuous thugs:

“Uh-huh…sounds like a tough lot…”

“Well, good luck. You can have this.”

As he cut the rope tied around me with his knife, one of them split off quite a large portion of his trail rations for us. Encountering such human kindness in a junkyard like that secretly made me want to cry.

“Uuugh… I can’t even eat field rations…because I’m a magical doll…”

Halverie, on the other hand, was still just shaking, lying facedown underneath me.

“Well…cheer up.” I clapped a hand down on her shoulder.

“Sniffle.”

“Are you crying?”

“Oh, this is oil.”

“You seem to be doing fine.”

After that, the virtuous thugs collected several pieces of junk they thought they could sell and went back home.

At that point, I suddenly realized something.

“Looks like that thing about you being broken is true, huh?”

“You can tell?” Halverie looked up from where she was still lying facedown.

I took a seat on a bookshelf that was lying on its side nearby and said, “Yes. I mean, you didn’t even do anything to those guys just now.” I popped a bit of the trail rations into my mouth. “Surely pointing a gun at people who come here with the intention of stealing things is part of the job of protecting the waste disposal facility, right?”

The men had boldly “borrowed” things right in front of Halverie, but even as they were picking things over, she had just sat there dribbling oil and never even pointed her gun at them.

I got the sense that a magical doll that was serious about her duties would never have let them get away.

She nodded.

“There was a time when I would have shot my gun the moment they touched anything in here. But as I am now, I sometimes deviate from my orders. I’m broken, you see.”

According to Halverie, she and the other magical dolls apparently operated on three main commands.

She listed those commands, in order of highest priority, counting on her fingers.

First, command number one—

“Follow all orders from my homeland.”

Command two—

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with command one, protect human life.”

And command three—

“As long as it doesn’t interfere with command one, protect my own life.”

Then she told me that she had been given only one original order: to protect the waste disposal facility.

In other words, essentially—

“I have to stay here, even at the cost of my own life.”

She had to protect this place, where magical dolls who had finished their duties were interred.

She stood up and said, “This is a place I’m supposed to protect, but at the same time, it’s also my final resting place.”

She gazed outward, over the remains of the magical dolls that were spread across the whole facility.

Flowers swayed between the piles of debris.

Thirty years earlier.

As was clear from looking at Halverie, Flower Garden Theomea had always been quite technologically advanced. Even its garbage contained many things that might be valuable in other lands, and consequently, the government of Flower Garden Theomea had stationed a magical doll to protect its waste disposal facility.

That doll was Halverie.

And she worked single-mindedly.

If anyone strayed into the forest, she pointed her gun at them without a moment’s hesitation. If any animals tried to settle in the waste disposal facility, she drove them out immediately. Other than the times when garbage was delivered from Flower Garden Theomea, that’s what she did, constantly protecting the place in her own way.

Most of the waste that was delivered to the disposal facility was the remains of magical dolls that had reached the end of their useful lives. But sometimes, some unfamiliar things would be mixed in with them.

There were, for example, books, or cutlery, or cameras, or phonographs. All sorts of different things were constantly being thrown away.

For Halverie, the outside world was uncharted territory.

“…Unfamiliar things from an unknown world.”

That was why she was so curious.

Eventually, she started picking up the discarded items.

There were peaceful, lovely stories written in the books. The cutlery made nice noises when she threw it. The phonograph was full of songs from faraway places.

Even as she was left behind by the passing years, she kept on following her orders, all alone.

But time gradually changed her.

One day, she built a little hut. When something caught her fancy amid the mountains of rubbish, she took it there.

To human eyes, it was nothing but junk.

But to her, they were treasures she wouldn’t trade for anything.

“This book is interesting.” She didn’t really understand what made something “interesting,” but she was able to process the book’s contents the same way she analyzed other information.

“This watch is stylish.” She didn’t really know whether that was true, but she liked the noise the watch made as it ticked away the time.

“These plates make a nice noise when I throw them.” So she kept them, for stress relief. By that point, she already understood the concept of stress.

“This squirrel is cute.” So she didn’t point her gun at it, and pet it instead. Sitting atop her cold hand, the little squirrel narrowed its eyes, looking ticklish.

She was building her own tiny kingdom there in the deserted waste disposal facility.

“I am alone.”

Before she knew it, she had developed an interest in the outside world, where all those unknown objects came from.

However, she kept upholding her important role.

The days and months of thirty years went past in that way.

Then, about six months before I met her—

A wagon was sent to the waste disposal facility from Flower Garden Theomea as always.

Ah, I wonder what kind of treasures it’s carrying today. She was filled with joyful expectation; however—

“……?”

But that day, the situation was a little bit different.

When the wagon stopped in front of the waste disposal facility, several people got out of it. It was the first time that had ever happened in thirty years. They had always tossed the load into the waste disposal facility and turned right back around.

So when the people who had gotten out of the wagon headed straight for her, she knew right away that something she had never experienced before was happening.

“Thank you for all your hard work.”

Her first response was to bow.

The person at the head of the group returned her bow and said, “Allow me to introduce you. This is a magical doll used for processing waste.”

The magical doll had arms and legs but no head. It could optionally split its arms into four, in order to carry lots of stuff. It seemed the dolls had been optimized in that way over a long period of time.

Without saying a word, the new model of magical doll bowed just once to Halverie.

“……!”

She was thrilled. Her first coworker! Her heart was pounding; she desperately wanted to get along well with it.

“Um, hello. I am the magical doll of the waste disposal facility. My name is Halverie. I am thirty years old.”

So she slid over and snuggled up close to the new model.

“…………” No response. To begin with, the thing didn’t even have a head, so she didn’t have any idea where it was looking.

Even so, Halverie wasn’t discouraged, and asked, “What’s your name?”

“…………”

“Hmm?”

Ignoring me?

“Can you hear me?” Halverie poked it repeatedly with her finger and walked restlessly around and around the new model, and yet there was no response.

Wait, wait, but, by the way—

“Exactly what is the reason for introducing a new model?” Halverie asked the government officials.

She had thought she was doing her job at the waste disposal facility perfectly well on her own, after all.

The one who answered her question was the new model.

“…………”

Ka-chunk. It made a loud robotic sound, then spit out a slip of paper from an opening in its torso.

“A function like that, instead of talking!”

…It’s so cool!

She dashed over and pulled out the slip of paper, giggling to herself.

On it, Halverie told me, was scrawled a single sentence.

It said—

TO BE BLUNT, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU’RE BEING LAID OFF.

—or something to that effect.

“…………” She didn’t really understand the meaning of what was written there. “Hmm?” Halverie was puzzled. Despite being a magical doll, she had limited understanding.

One of the officials addressed her kindly. “Your disposal has been ordered. We are going to take you back to the city and disassemble you. Come along.”

“Huh? Wait—”

Seriously? Disposal? I’m being relieved already?

With a sidelong glance at the bewildered doll, the official issued an order to his companions, and they restrained her on the spot.

“No! I can still work! I’m excited to work! Please let me keep working!”

But the officials were merciless.

“Pipe down. So this is how broken you get after thirty years? Good grief…”

“New model! Help me!”

I CANNOT, the new model wrote unemotionally.

“You heartless thing!”

I CANNOT. The new model was pitiless.

“No, wait—”

Then, as the people from the city were dragging her away—

Something inside her snapped.

After that, she blacked out for a little while. When she came to, the new model was lying there in front of her, reduced to debris.

Over the long months and years, she had developed emotions. Her anger had overwhelmed her. The new model was battered and broken, while the government officials all ran away, screaming, “Eee! She wrecked it!”

And since that incident six months earlier, Halverie told me, the people from the city had been coming after her.

The days that followed were a little strange. As always, lost people and animals wandered into the waste disposal facility, and a wagon came with deliveries from Flower Garden Theomea, but at the same time, magical dolls designed for combat began to appear.

Though she was nearly an antique, built thirty years in the past, Halverie had been constructed with combat in mind. She fought reasonably well, even against the newer models.

Even so, it was a war of attrition.

Over the past six months, her body had gotten worn down.

“So that’s how I came to be in my present condition.”

We were back in her hut. Halverie shrugged.

She was missing an arm, and her face and legs were tattered. The way things were going, she wouldn’t survive much longer.

“So that’s why I wanted to escape from here at once, but—well, you know how that turned out.”

Since she was trapped in this place as if caught in a binding spell, all she could do was stay here and wait for death.

What a predicament.

“But I still have another plan.” She smiled boldly. “Currently, I can’t escape, but there is another method I can use to get out of here, human.”

“What’s that?”

Also, it’s Elaina.

I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, but Halverie didn’t seem to notice my reaction. She laughed in a somewhat stiff, monotone way and said, “I can do it if I cease to be myself.”

The reason why she was stuck in the waste disposal facility was because she was Halverie, who had been assigned to protect the waste disposal facility thirty years ago.

Which meant she could escape if she replaced every bit of her body with a new part and became someone else. But in her present condition, she could only move one arm properly. That was how battered she was.

Which must have been why she wanted to enlist someone else’s help.

“So what should I do first?”

“Good question. I think I’d like to get you to fix my arm first of all,” she said while slipping off her top. She showed no hesitation in exposing her bare skin, perhaps because we were both girls.

Her skin was battered and covered in scars.

“I no longer have my left arm from the shoulder down.” She presented her left shoulder to me, and I saw that there were a number of ragged threads protruding from it. “I ran out of spare parts a long time ago. But there are arms from other magical dolls under the table, so please connect one of those.”

“…Mm-hmm.” I did as I was told and pulled a magical doll arm out from under the table. “…How am I supposed to attach it?” I tilted my head to the side in puzzlement.

“There’s a red thread sticking out of my shoulder.”

Mm-hmm.

“This?” I tugged on it.

“Wah!” Halverie shouted.

“…What?”

What is it now?

“My body is finely tuned and highly sensitive, so please don’t be so forceful.”

“Uh-huh…”

What a pain…

Well, but if that’s what you want, then that’s what I’ve got to do. I guess I should be gentle about it? I usually use magic to get things like this done; this isn’t really a specialty of mine…

Starting off with a light touch, like I was stroking her shoulder, I took hold of her and—

“Hyah!”

“…What?”

Come on, seriously?

“My body is finely tuned and highly sensitive, so please don’t touch me like that.”

“What do you mean, ‘like that’?”

“In a perverted way.”

“I do not understand what you’re saying.”

“I’m asking for the perfect touch, not too gentle or too forceful.”

“You’re very demanding.”

“I just want you to touch me with love, out of respect for my years.”

“Oh, is that all? All right, how about this?”

“Kyah!”

She glared up at me, her eyes narrowed. “Are you possibly doing that on purpose?”

“This is pretty much what my love is like.”

“You’re really twisted…”

The damage went far beyond Halverie’s left arm. According to what she said, she wouldn’t be totally fixed until we swapped out almost every part of her.

This was further complicated by the fact that none of the bodies perfectly matched an antique magical doll like her, so there were some parts we would have to make from scratch.

And, she told me, she unfortunately had not gathered up all the bodies she needed yet.

Which meant…

Once I fixed her arm…

Halverie and I immediately went fishing through the mountains of rubbish.

“Heh-heh-heh. Now that I’ve got two arms, I’ve got nothing to fear!!”

“Oh, I’ve read this book before. It’s pretty interesting. Have you read it, Halverie?”

Halverie and I fished through the mountains of rubbish.

“Human. Could I ask you to take the search for my body seriously?”

“Sure. By the way, Halverie, what’s that you’ve got in your hand?”

“It’s a plate. They make great noises when they break.”

Halverie and I fished through the mountains of rubbish.

“Halverie. Did you know this? If you pinch this grass between your fingers and blow through it, it makes a great noise. Here, listen. Phwee!”

“Whoa, cool! Do it again, please?”

“Phwee!”

“Amazing! By the way, would you actually take this search seriously?”

“Phwee…”

Halverie and I fished through the mountains of rubbish.

“We’re not making any progress at all, human…” Halverie had a faraway look in her eyes.

“I wonder why that is… How strange…” I also had a faraway look in my eyes.

Before we knew it, the sun was setting, and the day was coming to an end. The results of our efforts were that we had collected several pieces of rubbish, some broken plates, and some bits of bug-eaten grass.

A sense of emptiness assailed us, like when you find some nostalgic object in the middle of cleaning your room and end up carelessly spending way too much time on it.

“Let’s place our hopes in our tomorrow selves, human.”

“Yes, let’s.”

Even as we said those corny lines, we knew we were the kind of people who weren’t going to do our best tomorrow, either. But there was no way we were going to admit it.

I ended up sleeping in her little hut that night. The room was a total mess, but there was enough space for one human being like me to lie down.

“Heh-heh-heh. How inconvenient to be a human. Imagine being unable to function without sleeping for several hours each day.”

The night wore on, and as I was preparing my bedroll, Halverie opened up a book. It was a light entertainment novel that had been popular quite some time ago.

“You don’t need to sleep?” I asked as I lay down on my bedroll.

“No. I just deactivate my functions temporarily whenever I swap out a body part. Then I reboot immediately, so if you count that time as time spent sleeping, it’s about thirty seconds.”

“My goodness, you’re quite the hard worker.”

“It’s because I’m powered by magical energy.”

A place like this out in the forest was sure to be brimming with magical energy, so there was probably no risk of her ever running out. Truly, aside from the threats to her life, it was an ideal environment for a magical doll like her. Leaving aside the question of whether or not it was a “castle of cool.”

“Heh-heh-heh. That means I can get started on a new book while you’re sleeping, human. I suppose not having any downtime is a special privilege of us magical dolls.”

“I suppose it is,” I answered with a yawn. “But sleeping the day away is a special privilege of us humans.”

I pulled up my blanket and closed my eyes.

In a world covered with darkness, her voice alone echoed gently like a lullaby.

“Aren’t humans jealous of our bodies, which don’t need to sleep?”

“Well, sure, to an extent,” I replied. “But I also appreciate the idle time before I fall asleep in its own way, so I can’t say I’m entirely envious.”

“…Is that so?” she replied in a subdued voice.

Before long, she whispered, so quietly I could barely hear it, “I’m envious of you.”

I wondered whether that was because I had been traveling through a world she had never seen. Or maybe because I was able to rest for several hours at a time. Or perhaps there was some other reason.

But I didn’t respond to her words. I just quietly let my breathing slow and pretended to be asleep. I couldn’t find the words to answer her, so I ran away.

Perhaps this kind of sneaky trick could also be called a special privilege of humans.

The following morning, we continued our quest to repair her body as she defended the waste disposal facility.

New parts were absolutely necessary in order to repair her. But the stuff that was brought to the waste disposal facility was all worn out. None of it was in very good condition. And besides that, since there was so much rubbish, it was going to take quite a lot of time to search through it all.

My goodness, what a dilemma. There’s no way we’ll gather up all the parts we need to fix her like this, is there?

But unexpectedly, the issue of the spare parts wound up having a fairly simple solution.

In addition to the worn-out old parts, some clean, brand-new ones turned up.

“Hyaaah!”

I waved my wand.

“Hi-yah.”

Halverie fired her gun.

There in front of us was one of the new models of magical doll, just like the one that had been sent over from Flower Garden Theomea the day before.

It would have been difficult to challenge it solo, but it was not that hard to fight it two-on-one. We demolished the new model, as if doing some light exercise after breakfast, and recovered the parts.

I don’t suppose I have to tell you what we did after that.

“Hyah!”

Repair.

“Please don’t make weird noises.”

The second day I was there, I rebuilt her battered legs. The design of the legs on the new model apparently didn’t suit her tastes very well—she had complained that they weren’t attractive enough.

So I used Halverie’s own spare legs for the outer casing and only used the new model’s parts for the interior mechanisms.

“I made these legs out of random parts we collected, but they’re quite well done, don’t you think?”

When they were finished, the legs that we installed on her were so pretty that they may well have been mistaken for real human legs. They were surprisingly soft to the touch, with an almost skin-like texture.

“Oh my, are you interested in my legs, human?

“…………”

I stared up at her.

She tilted her head, setting her purple hair swaying.

“I was just thinking, it’s a little strange,” I answered.

“What is?”

“I wonder why the bodies of the new models are so different from human bodies, when you, who were made to protect this place, have a body that is nearly human?”

I would think that if they were upgrading them, they would make the dolls’ appearances even more humanlike.

But thirty years had gone by, and the magical dolls from Flower Garden Theomea had apparently taken on a more artificial form. They were now very obviously not human.

I wonder why that is?

“It’s to clearly distinguish the roles of people and magical dolls,” she answered me in a definite tone. “Magical dolls can never become people.”

But I dare say that as far as I could see, the magical doll named Halverie seemed to be extraordinarily humanlike.

While we were searching through the rubbish, she would shout, “Ah! What a great plate!” and start smashing, and when someone showed up trying to destroy her, she would block their way, spouting very human lines like “If you want to steal something from here, you’ll have to go through me!”

She seemed to have clear human emotions.

If she read a funny book, she laughed.

I often heard her right before I fell asleep, chuckling softly as she read a book. When I asked her if it was funny, I always got the same answer.

“I just start laughing without knowing why. If this feeling is called ‘funny,’ then I suppose this book is funny.”

If she found a beautiful flower, she would be happy.

She never picked any of the beautiful flowers, but her eyes looked full of affection as she stroked the blossoms growing up between the piles of junk.

Whenever she came across a fellow doll that was broken and dead, she became very somber.

“…Good work, friend,” she said as she gently lifted the ruin of a fellow doll that had been discarded by her homeland.

“Grrrah!” Whenever a new model of magical doll showed up, she leveled her gun at it without hesitation, as she had been doing day after day.

She went on replacing parts of her own body with parts we picked up and parts she recovered from dolls she destroyed with her own hands. After fixing her missing arm and her legs, we repaired her face.

“How about it, human? Is my face pretty? Heh-heh-heh.”

Halverie looked at me with her newly constructed face.

“Let’s see… Sure it is, in its own way.”

Also, it’s Elaina. Do you think you could remember my name already? Is that so hard? Oh, I see.

Anyway—

The days went by like that.

We gathered things out of the trash, destroyed any magical doll intruders, and embedded new parts into Halverie’s body like a patchwork.

The parts that had served their purpose and been discarded gradually piled up, until it seemed like it might be possible to make a duplicate of Halverie by skillfully assembling the stack of old parts.

In this way, the repairs to her body proceeded well.

In fact, maybe a little too well.

“Kyaaaaaahhh…!”

On the fifth day after I had started helping her—

We were facing down a new doll that had arrived from Flower Garden Theomea, as usual, when for some reason, Halverie suddenly threw herself at the doll in a suicide attack.

Her body collapsed with a horrible shriek, and her head popped off and went flying.

“A-are you okay?!”

In a panic, I caught the head.

Simultaneously, I smashed the new doll to bits with a spell.

“I guess being in too good of shape can also be a problem.”

Luckily, both her body and her head were undamaged. Though they had come apart.

“What were you doing?” I was in disbelief as I carried her head over to her body, which was lying there on top of the trash like a corpse. Apparently, the body couldn’t move without the head.

“The abilities my body has and the memories inside of me don’t sync up.” She let out a sigh. “I thought I was functioning normally, but…it looks like I need some adjustments.”

“I don’t really understand how your body and your memories could not sync…”

“To put it in human terms, it’s like having a young body but an incredibly brilliant mind.”

“A young body but a brilliant mind…?”

In other words, you’re describing me…?

“Human, self-confidence and pretension are two different things.”

“Should I go on and throw your head away, then?”

We argued as I approached her body. Suppressing the urge to chuck her head as far as I could throw it, I set it down near her neck instead.

“Thank you…”

Her body was successfully reunited with her separated head, but Halverie remained as weak as she had been when they were apart.

What’s this?

“What’s the matter? Your body won’t move?”

“No…” She shook her head and remained stretched out on the ground. “I’m adjusting my power levels. Hang on a second.”

“Uh-huh…”

I wasn’t sure how to respond, but I decided to behave myself and wait patiently for her to finish. To kill time, I picked at the broken remains of some nearby magical dolls or pushed them around with my foot. I had way too much time on my hands.

“…………”

Eventually, I looked at her, lying on the ground. At the broken new model, and at the young woman lying beside it.

Our positions were reversed this time, but I had a definite sense of déjà vu.

“Sorry for the wait, human.”

So when she was done adjusting her power levels and tried to sit up, I extended a hand.

“Are you hurt, miss?”

She looked at my hand curiously and said, “Thank you.”

Then, not too gently and not too forcefully, but with the perfect touch, she took my hand and told me, “I owe you a great debt.”

My goodness, what a dilemma.

“Didn’t you know? I feel the same way about you.”

The days went on and on.

The night of the fifth day—

I greeted the end of the day from atop my bedroll, as always.

“We’re done—”

After five days, we had collected most of the spare parts for Halverie’s body. She had just finished assembling the final part, and she set it down on the table with a thunk.

“…What part of you does that fit into?”

The part was a perfectly round lump of inorganic matter about the size of a fist. It was obviously meant to fit inside her somewhere.

“Right here.” She pointed to her chest. “Once I change this out, all of my parts will have been replaced.”

She had told me something when we first met.

“—I can do it if I cease to be myself.”

If she could do that, she might be able to get out of the waste disposal facility.

“Are you going to swap it out right now?”

I sat up in bed and looked at her, but Halverie slowly shook her head. “No. Right now, I want to read. Let’s work on it tomorrow morning.”

She sat down in her shabby-looking chair and smiled. I guess it was her usual habit. Whenever I looked over at her before going to sleep, she always had a book open.

“Is that book any good?”

In her hands was a familiar book. I had also read it previously. It was a book I had found in a mountain of rubbish on the day I arrived at the waste disposal facility, and I had recommended it to her.

I was happy to see she was interested in reading it, but—

“I only just started reading it, so I don’t know.”

She shook her head.

She had only turned the first few pages of the book in her hands. The story was just beginning.

“Oh really?”

Well then, certainly you wouldn’t know, would you?

“I can’t wait to hear what you think about it.”

Well then, good night. I pulled the covers up and closed my eyes.

It was the same scene as always.

Always the same scene, never changing.

Ever since I had arrived, Halverie had been reading the same book, and never made it past the beginning.

Halverie was a magical doll, and the act of swapping out the parts of her body and changing into a different version of herself was probably somewhat close to discarding herself.

It was on day two that I became convinced she had changed from the person I had initially met.

When I’d asked Halverie about the difference between her and the new-type magical dolls, she had given me a clear and concise answer.

“It’s to clearly distinguish the roles of people and magical dolls.”

“Magical dolls can never become people.”

I had been curious how exactly Halverie had learned about the outside world, even though she had never left the disposal facility for thirty whole years.

It must have been through her new body parts.

Each time she swapped out a part, she changed into a different version of herself.

She must have been aware of it—she had to know that each time she swapped parts, she turned into someone new.

She must have looked at humans like me with envy.

Because even when we went to sleep, we woke up as exactly the same person.

But she was different. Once she swapped out a part and went through the thirty-second temporary shutdown, the person who opened her eyes was a different version of herself.

To her, sleep was the same as death. Even if she transferred part of her memory, she lost some of herself along with whatever part she’d exchanged.

The following morning—

Halverie opened up her own chest and said, “All right, human, this is your last job.” Her inorganic innards were exposed. “Please swap this part for me. If you do that, I will surely be free.”

“…………”

In order to survive for so long, Halverie had to abandon many worn-out parts, along with many memories.

Doing so had been the only way she was able to live.

“Got it.”

I nodded and reached out toward her chest.

Over the past few days, I had gotten used to helping her with these operations. I pulled out the part where her heart would go and fit the new part right in.

The operation was over quickly.

Then, for just thirty seconds, she closed her eyes.

Before long, she woke up.

“Hello, human.”

She smiled.

I answered.

Wearing an identical smile.

“It’s Elaina.”

Right to the very end, you never remembered my name, did you?

After a month had passed, I headed toward Flower Garden Theomea.

I saw that word of its incredible magical technology was no exaggeration. At the café I visited, new-type magical dolls were milling around inside without saying a word to anyone.

I sat alone in a seat on the terrace, drinking my coffee as I read the newspaper.

IS THAT NEWS ITEM OF INTEREST TO YOU?

A magical doll with no head stopped in front of my table and emitted a slip of paper from its chest with those words written on it.

In my hand, I was holding an article about a particular waste disposal facility.

“…Yeah. Sure, I guess it is.”

IF YOU LIKE, I WOULD BE HAPPY TO EXPLAIN THE MATTER.

My goodness.

“Is that another service offered by this café?”

AS YOU SAY.

“…What a great service.”

HONORED TO SERVE.

Then the doll standing beside me started pulling out a long strip of paper.

It said—

The magical doll at the waste disposal facility that had been identified as a threat by the government had been discovered a month earlier, completely broken.

It had been carefully dismantled and the pieces scattered part by part, bit by bit, all around the center of the facility.

Since Theomea had put out a request to all its neighbors for the destruction of the old-type magical doll named Halverie, it was assumed that a stranger had disposed of her without anyone knowing.

But the curious thing was that the person who disposed of her hadn’t made a single appearance in the month following. Even though Theomea had prepared one hundred gold coins as a cash reward, there had been no word from anyone.

Ultimately, the question of who had destroyed Halverie remained a mystery, and the government had decided to install new magical defense turrets—that was the story.

WE TRIED TO COLLECT THE PARTS OF THE OLD MODEL AND REACTIVATE IT, BUT STRANGELY, THIS OLD MODEL WOULD NOT START AGAIN. CURRENTLY, ITS REMAINS HAVE BEEN LEFT AT THE WASTE DISPOSAL FACILITY.

That was the explanation from the waiter about the sequence of events that happened one month prior.

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS? asked the waiter.

I cocked my head.

“What do you think about this article—about this old-type magical doll?”

WHAT DO I THINK?

“Why do you think this magical doll wasn’t able to wake up again? If you don’t mind, I’d like to hear your opinion, please.”

I HAVE NO THOUGHTS OF MY OWN.

It didn’t seem able to answer me.

“…I suppose not.”

HAVE I ANSWERED ALL YOUR QUESTIONS?

“Yes.”

I nodded, and the waiter, having finished its duties, left my table and went back to its job. Just like Halverie, it wasn’t able to tell me its opinion.

That was a little bit disappointing, but even so, one thing about my conversation with the waiter set my mind at ease.

One month earlier—

“—For now, let’s leave all the parts we replaced around here.”

Right before Halverie left the waste disposal facility.

I stood in a clearing that was full of junk, and after carefully dismantling the old parts we had finished replacing, I scattered them around the area.

“……? What are you doing?” Halverie screwed up her face. “Huh? Is this some new type of bullying?”

No, no, nothing like that.

“I’m making it look like you died. If there’s a body, you can get away without people from your hometown chasing you.”

From the beginning, the people of Flower Garden Theomea had been trying to destroy her because she was already broken. If she suddenly disappeared one day without leaving a body behind, they would naturally search high and low to make sure the broken doll was not posing any danger in neighboring lands.

Then there would be no point to her running away.

“We’re faking your death.”

The real Halverie wasn’t dead yet.

But it would be more convenient if we pretended she was.

“I see. That’s a good idea, human.”

She seemed satisfied as she watched me work and clapped a hand down on my shoulder.

“Human,” is it?

“In the outside world, you’ve got to be sure to remember people’s names, okay? If you go around calling every person you meet ‘human,’ who knows who might zero in on you?”

If she wants to travel around and see the outside world like anyone else, the best thing to do would be to pretend to be normal.

“You don’t need to worry about it. I won’t act like that in the outside world. If I behaved like that in the human world, it would be obvious that I was not human myself.”

“But you haven’t been calling me by my name.”

Not that I really care, but—

Then she said, “Would you rather I did, Miss Elaina?”

Tilting her head, she readily called me by name.

“You remembered?”

“Of course. I’ve never forgotten your name. I had my own reasons preventing me from calling you by your name until now.”

“Reasons?”

Like what?

“The version of me from five days ago entrusted something to the present version of me—something I absolutely had to abide by each time I changed out a body part.”

She told me—

“The imperative to call the virtuous young woman who was guiding me toward escaping the waste disposal facility ‘human.’”

“…………?”

Why would you make yourself do such a strange thing?

I screwed up my face in confusion, and she told me everything.

“We performed many repairs over these past five days, and I had no way of predicting exactly what effects they would have on me. There was a possibility I might lose all my memories of the past thirty years. I avoided calling you by name from the start so that I wouldn’t be rude to you in the event that I ran into some kind of trouble mid-repair and forgot your name.”

Then her explanation came to a finish.

“These heavy-handed repairs were unknown territory for me.”

Just like the outside world.

“…………”

In other words, she had done it out of consideration, in order to avoid causing me too much worry.

I had been certain that she had forgotten my name, along with the contents of her book—I had even felt a little bit depressed about it.

As it turned out, that was all the reason there was to it.

Way to make me laugh.

“Did you know?” I said just before we parted. “In the human world, that’s called thoughtfulness.”

And it goes without saying, it’s a special privilege of us humans.

“…I’ll remember that.”

Then she took one step beyond the border of the waste disposal facility.

She stepped forward into unknown territory.

But I was certain she wouldn’t have any problems, even though she knew nothing of the outside world. Because I had come to know how she dealt with things.

“Well then, I guess this is good-bye,” she said to me.

“I guess it is—” I nodded, then turned around abruptly.

Spread out before me were the remains of magical dolls, covering the whole area. The place was littered with objects that no longer functioned.

Flowers swayed in the gaps between the wreckage.

A lone traveler was walking through a certain city.

The people of the city turned to look back at her every time she passed.

The young woman had a very, very mysterious aura about her.

Her hair was purple. It was cut into a short bob. Her eyes were green. There was no light behind them. Judging just from her appearance, she seemed to be in her twenties. She was dressed in a sharp outfit—at least it seemed to be, but on closer inspection, it was pitifully ragged and filthy, ripped to shreds. The sleeves were completely torn up, and her midsection was exposed. There was only a dangerously short length of skirt left.

The young woman clad in these pitiful clothes was carrying an enormous satchel on her back.

More than her shabby clothing, more than her surprisingly pretty face, the people of the city stared at what she had on her back.

She had a clock that was old and worn. And a phonograph. Books that had been read over and over again. A stack of plates.

A huge collection of what seemed like ordinary junk filled her bag, sticking up over the top.

But she walked on, carrying that junk on her back with pride.

By the way, the city she had arrived at that day was a somewhat dangerous and lawless place.

“What the hell?! I already apologized, didn’t I?!”

A young woman had fallen on her backside on the ground and was looking up at a man. There was fear in her eyes.

She looked like she had been struck. Her cheek was red and swollen.

“This ain’t over just ’cause ya said, ‘Sorry for bumping you.’ Got it? What’re ya gonna do about these clothes? What’re ya gonna do about my drink that’cha wasted?”

The man standing over the woman was holding a liquor bottle. He appeared to already be fairly drunk, in the middle of the day, as he was slurring his words somewhat. But he was still gulping down alcohol even as he threatened her.

“You’re the one who started it by running into me, aren’t you? Drinking like that in the middle of the day—”

“Huh? Shaddup! It’s up to me when I wanna drink!”

“……” The woman was already cowering, and she shrank even more as he shouted. “F-fine then, I’ll pay you for it. So just forgive me…”

“No way. Ya can’t fix this with money.”

“Well then, tell me what to do!”

At those words, a smile came over the man’s face.

“Let’s see now. We can start with your body—”

He was about to say something, when…

—Smash!

…the bottle in the man’s hand burst open.

“……Huh?”

He was dumbfounded by this sudden turn of events.

Beside him stood the traveler.

“Next I’ll blow this away,” the woman said to him in an extremely cold voice. In her hands was a rifle.

The muzzle was thrust toward the man’s head.

“……! E-eeek!”

The blood instantly drained from the man’s face, and he immediately stammered out, “J-just joking! I—I don’t need a thing!” He put his hands up and fled the scene.

It was over in a flash.

“…………”

The stunned woman looked up at the traveler.

“Here,” the traveler said before she put the gun away and offered her hand.

Her hand was very, very beautiful. It was so impeccable that it almost looked fake.

The traveler smiled awkwardly as she said:

“Are you hurt, miss?”