Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 12 - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

The Story of a Certain Photographer

As a traveler, when I’m wandering through foreign lands, people often come up and talk to me.

I wear a black robe and a black triangular hat. I’ve got my star-shaped brooch. I’m always dressed more or less like that. Now, I’m not sure if it happens because of my obviously witchy appearance, but when people abruptly come up and talk to me, most of them seem to either immediately realize I am a traveling witch or at least have some inkling.

No matter how naturally I behave, I always stand out as an outsider.

Such was the case with the person who came up to speak to me while I was savoring my dinner alone at a restaurant that evening.

“A traveling witch drinking alone makes a lovely picture.” The woman sitting at the table beside mine was staring at me with her chin resting in her hands. Her black hair swayed, and she peered at me with black eyes. “Although it would be even nicer if your drink was alcoholic…”

When I looked over, I saw that her face was a little flushed and that an empty wineglass was sitting on the corner of the table. She looked drunk.

“Good evening.”

I answered her with a bob of my head.

Well, I am often hassled by drunkards.

After that, the strange woman asked me all sorts of questions. Where was I from? How many years had I been traveling? Where was I planning to travel to next? Were there any beautiful places nearby?

I had been getting bored, so I honestly answered all the woman’s questions one by one. If there’s no reason not to, it’s best to answer honestly.

And after she’d asked me all that, I was getting curious about her, too, so I asked, “What country did you come from?”

“Oh, you noticed I’m not from here?”

“Yeah, well—”

No matter how naturally you behave, you stand out as an outsider.

Then she revealed things about herself, little by little.

Her occupation was photography, and she apparently traveled the world taking pictures. She mainly took photographs of animals, contributing to research into their ecosystems from time to time as the mood struck her.

It was a total coincidence that she was visiting that city on exactly that day.

And it was also a total coincidence that she was drinking alcohol next to me.

“It’s fate, huh?” She chuckled deviously and shot me a sidelong glance. “If you don’t mind, let me take your photo next time.”

“It’ll cost you.”

“That’s a no from me.”

“Well it’s a no from me, too, then.”

I turned her down.

When I hit her with a clear refusal, she just laughed and said, “But I thought a traveler would let me take her picture…”

According to her, the people in the region didn’t think very highly of photographers. There were some places where they looked upon her with suspicion just because she was a photographer.

“One place called the Principality of Alessari is especially harsh. You see, because of a scandal caused by some photographer from somewhere, they have a very poor opinion of the entire profession.”

“Certainly seems that way.”

“Oh. You know about it?”

“I’ve been there, just once, about a month ago.”

She was talking about the scandal caused by the photographer named Sario.

Sario had taken photos depicting the overhunting of creatures known as angiers and had distributed them widely throughout the land. I’d heard the people there had gotten a terrible shock from those photos.

The angiers were beloved animals, kept as pets in the Principality of Alessari, so the people there got very upset to see them being handled so violently.

And then, as the photographs spread, the people noticed something.

They noticed that Sario’s photographs were taken much too precisely and from very close up.

Before long, a rumor spread that the photographer named Sario was secretly connected to the poachers, and the people ended up turning on her.

“Apparently, the photographer was driven out of the country.”

But I don’t know all the details, since I only stayed in the Principality of Alessari for a few hours.

At least, they were saying that the photographer who caused the scandal wasn’t around anymore.

Well, once everyone knew her name and her face, and that she had caused the terrible uproar, I suppose she couldn’t live there comfortably anymore.

“Do you think what she did was right?” the photographer beside me asked.

She must have been curious, as a member of the same profession.

“Who knows? It’s hard to say,” I answered with a shrug. “But I don’t think she feels any regret over causing a scandal in her hometown.”

Considering that she called herself a good-for-nothing.

“Oh, do you know the photographer in question?”

“I met her, just once.”

“What kind of person was she?”

“A strange one.”

Her personality changed when she was taking photographs, and she called herself a good-for-nothing. But ultimately, she couldn’t overlook other people doing bad things. Or so I thought, until she arranged her own counterfeit photos and created a big scandal. She was a greedy person who wasn’t picky about her methods if it meant she achieved her objective.

“Do you know where that photographer is now?” the woman beside me asked.

She must have been curious, as a fellow photographer.

But I hadn’t seen Sario again after running into her that one time. Naturally enough, I didn’t know where she was; in fact, I wasn’t even sure she was still alive.

And so—

“Who knows?”

—I shook my head.

“Maybe she changed her name and her hair and decided to live as a normal photographer or something.”

That was all the answer I gave.

Before me, the black-haired photographer just nodded. “Oh, I see.” Then, after we had continued making pointless small talk with each other for a while, it suddenly dawned on me.

Come to think of it, she and I haven’t given our names yet, not even once.

“Oh, right, I haven’t introduced myself yet, have I—?”

I was sure she must have been thinking the same thing as I was.

She put on a thin smile.

“My name is Kaena. How do you do?”

She extended her hand toward me.

Kaena.

It’s my first time meeting you, isn’t it?

So I took her hand and responded:

“Nice to meet you.”