Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 13 - Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

A Blizzard during Eternal Summer, and an Easygoing, Lovable Girl

Outside the window, the world was shrouded in pale gray.

The landscape was so blanketed in white that the view hardly changed even if you fogged up the glass with a puff of your breath.

However…

Contrary to the dour exterior, the interior of the room where I was staying was extremely cheerful. The bed, the curtains, and the duvet all had a lively color scheme, and in the untitled painting hanging on the wall, the townsfolk were depicted frolicking under the midsummer sun.

On the table was an arrangement of fruit and a welcome drink. Despite the fact that I had paid a high price to stay there, the beverage was an ordinary glass of ice-cold juice. To make matters worse, the glass was festively decorated with a hibiscus flower. It was an undeniably poor match for the climate outside.

“…It’s chilly.”

I mean, I couldn’t possibly drink an iced beverage when snow was on the ground.

Is setting out a cold drink in this kind of weather some kind of hazing ritual for newcomers?

I considered it for a moment, but according to the inn’s staff, the snow outside my window was the result of an entirely unexpected situation.

Right beside the drink that didn’t seem to be welcoming me at all, there sat a limp pamphlet about the place, which I picked up and opened with numb hands.

It was filled with the following sorts of things:

“WELCOME TO URSULA, THE LAND OF ETERNAL SUMMER!”

“THANKS TO THE ETERNAL SUMMER WITCH, URSULA, EVERY DAY HERE IS THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER! IF YOU WANT SUMMER WEATHER, YOU CAN’T GO WRONG BY VISITING OUR LAND!”

“ONE OF THE LEADING RESORT AREAS IN THE WORLD, WHERE CELEBRITIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD HAVE VACATION HOMES!”

“ANYONE LOOKING FOR AN EASY WAY TO EXPERIENCE THAT RESORT FEELING IS WELCOME HERE!”

And so on.

There were pictures of celebrities I couldn’t name, who supposedly had vacation homes here, flashing their white teeth proudly and announcing in speech bubbles, “Summer really is the best!” and “I always dreamed of having a vacation home here!”

But I wondered if that was really true.

Outside, it was snowing, and ridiculously cold.

Summer…? What summer? I wondered.

“Grr…”

I had come from afar seeking the summery vibes of this land, and yet…

Why on earth were things like this?

The whole place was already blanketed in snow when I arrived, and at that time, I had even cocked my head in confusion and asked, “Huh? Is it possible I actually came to the land of eternal winter?”

But the place was clearly, unmistakably the land that went by the name of Ursula. The name was written on the sign, and even the guide standing in front of the gate dressed in short sleeves had announced, “Welcome! This is Ursula, the Land of Eternal Summer!”

I walked around town a little bit and spotted a number of girls dressed as mages.

Apparently, every year around this time, swarms of girls from neighboring lands who were aiming to become witches gathered in this town, which was known as a first-class resort.

A huge number of girls came to take their advancement exams to become apprentice witches and do some sightseeing while they were here.

Incidentally, compared to other locations, the test takers here had an extremely low passing rate. I’m sure the reason for that goes without saying.

The girls were all horribly outraged to find the Land of Eternal Summer locked in a state of eternal winter.

“Eternal Summer, psh… How is this eternal summer?!”

“This is snow, isn’t it? Does snow fall in the summertime here?”

“Whaa—?! Now we can’t have fun after our exams! This sucks!”

And so on.

I walked around town observing the girls.

Then, before long…

“Hm? Oh, hey! Would you happen to be Elaina?”

Hmmm?

Out of nowhere, a voice called my name.

I spun around abruptly and saw a young woman wearing a star-shaped brooch—the symbol that she was a witch—on her breast, walking toward me as she waved her hand back and forth.

“Ah! So it is you, Elaina.”

“…………!”

She wore a light pink robe and pointed hat. The front of her robe was unfastened. Her unruly brown hair fell in loose waves, and she had a mole under one of her green eyes. She looked the same as ever. Her face hadn’t aged a day, even though several years had passed.

She might have gotten a little bit taller. Maybe she looked a little more grown-up than before.

But she was still the same girl.

I knew this person.

“Um, who are you again…?”

I had forgotten her name, though.

Who is she? Uh…

“Really?! How cruel! It’s me, Lilitia.”

“Ah, Lilitia, was it? That’s right, that’s right. Hey.”

“Seriously, it’s been so long! Eh-heh-heh!”

As she greeted me in a sticky-sweet voice, she slapped my shoulder.

Ow…

She and I had met once before, on the day when I’d taken my written exams in order to become an apprentice witch. If I remembered correctly, her seat was next to mine. She had seemed flighty and aloof the whole time we were there, and I still hadn’t forgotten how extreme her influence had been on me, just because I was young.

It was a surprise to meet someone from the same town in a place like this.

“What are you doing here? Could it be that you’ve also taken a gig as a proctor for the written exams, Elaina? That’s great! It’s reassuring to have someone I know here administering the exams with me!”

I shook my head.

“No, I’m not planning to pick up any part-time work.”

“Oh? Then what did you come here for?”

“I just stopped by on a whim.”

“Oh, okay.” Her voice was just the slightest bit subdued. She seemed disappointed, but a moment later, she broke into a smile again. “Ah, but if you like, why don’t you give it a try with me? Be a proctor. At this very moment, it’s snowing everywhere, right? Even though it’s supposed to be the Land of Eternal Summer. So apparently, they’re short-staffed.”

Lilitia gave me a piece of paper. On it was an exhortation to COME PROCTOR TESTS IN A POPULAR RESORT AREA! Beneath that was a picture of a celebrity whose name I didn’t know, flashing her white teeth and proclaiming with a smile that “Working part-time at a resort sure is the best!”

This lady again?

“Why are they short-staffed just because it’s snowing?”

“Um, well, because half the proctors went home with complaints like, ‘I only applied to proctor the advancement exams so I could relax and enjoy the resort atmosphere, not put up with this snow,’ and, ‘This isn’t what I was promised. I’m going home,’ and, ‘I came here because I heard a rumor that there was an ashen-haired witch in the area, but I don’t see her anywhere? That’s it, I’m going back!’ and so on.”

“So every one of them was a lazy, whiny baby about it?”

Actually, one of those comments was sort of interesting…

“But from what I can see, you didn’t come here with any such wicked motivations, did you?” I asked, tilting my head.

Lilitia threw out her chest proudly. “Of course not! I’m just here because I wanted to see Ursula, the Eternal Summer Witch!”

“That’s a wicked motivation, isn’t it?”

“Eh-heh-heh!” Lilitia slapped my shoulder sharply.

Owww…

“So, what will you do? Elaina, from what I can see, you appear to have become a witch, so the people administering the exam will probably be happy to have you!”

Nevertheless, I shook my head.

“It’s not my style, I’ve got to decline.”

“Oh… Too bad.”

Lilitia puffed her cheeks out, sulking. After I chatted with her a little while longer, we parted ways.

“Well, if you change your mind, come take a part-time job as a proctor, okay?!” she shouted from a distance. I waved goodbye and walked away.

As for what happened after that—

I trudged around the snowy landscape that was a far cry from a land of eternal summer, searching for proper lodgings. Eventually, I found my way to an inn that was styled in a way that completely mismatched the scenery outside. Not to mention, the prices were quite high.

Thinking it over, it was probably the moneymaking season for all the hotels in the area, what with the hordes of girls streaming in from all across the land at the same time every year.

I could just imagine the faces of the innkeepers as they counted their money, saying things like, “Heh-heh-heh, they’re gonna stay no matter what, even if I jack the price up a little. Easy money!”

Anyway—

Through a series of events more or less like that, I found myself sitting by the window of an inn, gazing vacantly out at the city below.

But why was the city blanketed in snow?

…I don’t really care, but I do have time to kill, and I guess it wouldn’t be so bad to ask around while I’m out for a walk.

I looked over the pamphlet again.

“THANKS TO THE ETERNAL SUMMER WITCH, URSULA, EVERY DAY HERE IS THE HEIGHT OF SUMMER!”

It wasn’t difficult to imagine that something might have happened to this witch Ursula.

I pulled on some tights, wrapped a scarf around my neck, and walked around town.

The city was still covered in snow. It had piled up so much that my feet crunched through it as I walked.

The streets were quiet, and all the stores were closed. It seemed like most of the commerce here was built on the premise that it was always summer, and under a blanket of snow, nothing they had was selling. Since all the stores were closed, people had no reason to be out, and the city was shrouded in silence.

I probably don’t have to tell you where the people of the Land of Eternal Summer directed their anger, once they were unable to shop or do business.

“…Hm.”

After walking down the main avenue for a little while, I spotted a crowd.

I could tell that those people, their whole bodies wrapped up in blankets, were gathered in front of the gate of a certain residence.

The gate, large enough that I had to look up to see it, was shut tight, as if to deny the people access, and written on it were the words HOME OF THE ETERNAL SUMMER WITCH, LADY URSULA. In other words, this was the residence of the very witch who controlled the weather here.

By the way, what kind of person adds a noble title to her own name?

I tugged at the blanket of a woman in the middle of the crowd.

“Is something the matter?”

The woman turned around, and I could see that her nose was bright red.

“Miss Witch! Listen, please! This Ursula woman hasn’t taken a single step outside her house, even though she’s the one who’s thrown our fair city into this state! At this point, the only thing to do is burn her at the stake!”

For some reason, the man beside her also turned toward us.

“She needs to quit messin’ around, seriously… The reason this place is so good is because it’s the Land of Eternal Summer…! Who asked her to make it snow?!”

In short, they were just as angry as the girls who had come here to take their exams.

I asked them what had happened, and they said that this unusual phenomenon had started just a few days earlier.

Apparently some of the witches from other lands who were going to proctor the apprentice witch exams had arrived to prepare the venue, and Ursula, as the city’s representative, had also gone over to the test site to help.

However, when she returned, Ursula had seemed very unhappy, and after that, summer had slipped away, and winter had quickly settled over the land.

Then, every one of the girls who had arrived that day looking to do some vacationing after their exams had thrown a fit. The proctors had been livid, too. And of course, the city’s residents were enraged as well. And I was mad, too. It was like walking into a portrait of hell.

It was obvious to anyone that something must have happened while the witches were setting up the testing site.

After I’d listened for a while, someone said, “Say, you’re young, but you’re a witch, right? Listen, if you don’t mind, would you go to Ursula, and ask her what happened?”

Someone else agreed. “Oh yeah. If we go in there, there’s no telling what she might do to us with her magic!”

The crowd banging on the gate seemed to settle on me being the one to speak with Ursula.

“That’s a great idea!”

“I bet it’ll be easy for a witch to talk to another witch! Please help us, Miss Witch!”

Even though they had yet to hear any kind of answer from me, they seemed to have already decided it was a done deal.

I’d rather you didn’t joke around like that.

Why should I have to take a hand in something that seems like such a bother?

I’ll just go ahead and turn you down—

“I’m terribly sorry, but—”

“By the way, we’ve got a fair amount set aside.”

“This is a resort town, you know.”

“You can expect a decent reward.”

“I’ll do everything in my power to settle this issue for you.” Elaina finished.

All right, I’ll just go ahead and get in there, shall I? They say it’s best to strike when the iron is hot, and that time is money.

Oh? A closed gate? Huh? I can just smash that, can’t I? Hey!

I broke through the gate.

The front door wouldn’t budge, like an unyielding block of ice, so I smashed through that, too. If she wasn’t going to come out, there was nothing to do but break in. Since doors and gates are designed to open in the first place, the ones that won’t open are basically not fulfilling their original purpose. After I’d passed through, I magically mended them to appear exactly as they had been, so I figured there was no problem.

The inside of the estate was even more frozen than the outside, which was blanketed with snow. It was so frigid that it was less like a winter wonderland and more like the house had been imprisoned in a block of ice.

It seemed like if I stayed too long in such a place, I might freeze to death.

“…………”

It made me wonder if maybe Ursula the Eternal Summer Witch, or whatever her name was, had died before I had even arrived.

I was feeling way more than a little uneasy.

But she did seem to be alive. The sound of faint sobbing was coming from a room at the end of a hallway in the back of the house.

I slowly walked down the hall, and finally came to a stop in front of the door.

I knocked on the door with my fist.

Knock, knock.

“Hello?”

There was no answer.

I kicked the door.

Bam, bam.

“Hello…?”

Still, there was no answer.

“…I’ll break down this door, too!”

“Eeek! Stop, please!” Finally, there came an answer. “Wait, who are you?! This is my house!”

“My name is Elaina. The Ashen Witch, Elaina.”

“…What does a witch want with me? Why are you here? Is it because I made it snow? Is that why you’ve come to kill me?”

“No, that’s not—”

“Ohhhhhh… Life is so cruel… Why am I the only one who has to feel these feelings…?!”

“…………”

“Sometimes when I feel like it, I make it rain, and then they say, ‘Hey, all our plans for the day got canceled, can’t you do something about it?’ But on the other hand, if I make it sunny all the time, they say things like, ‘How much longer before you make it rain? Are you trying to dry us out, Miss Witch?’…”

“…………”

She started complaining immediately…

“Since everyone knows that I control the weather here, people come up to me whenever they feel like it to tell me to ‘Make it sunny,’ or ‘Make it rain,’ or that ‘I think it would be nice to have clouds once in a while,’ but no one takes responsibility for what they say! If I make it cloudy for the people who requested clouds, I get complaints from other folks, and the cloud people don’t back me up!”

“Sigh… You have my sympathies…”

But that means—

“Is it possible that you’ve gotten so fed up with the rude treatment that you’ve decided to make it snow?”

“Huh? No, you’ve got it all wrong.”

That’s not it?

“Actually, the rude way they treat me is…well…rather exciting…”

“Right…”

It was a mistake to offer you my sympathies.

“So…hey? Hey, Miss Witch, Elaina, will you hear me out? Will you listen to my very sad tale?”

“The abridged version, please.”

“Well, it’s about the incident from yesterday—”

“…………”

No matter how you looked at it, that was not the introduction to a story that was going to wrap up clearly and concisely.

She began telling me her story bit by bit.

Her very sad tale—

“Um…hah, hah…so yesterday, right, yesterday morning…hah, hah…sorry. Just remembering it gets me a little…”

“Are you alright?”

“It’s just, I get a bit…worked up…”

“Seriously, are you okay?”

“Stop it! Don’t show any concern for me! Treat me more carelessly!”

“What I’m concerned about is your mental state.”

“I’m fine, of course!”

“Are you really?”

“Well, if you must know, I’m a total masochist.”

“You don’t say…”

“Yeah… And on the other side of that door, your eyes are all full of scorn, aren’t they…? Oh, I just know it…”

“Never mind that, would you hurry up and tell me your story, please?”

“Hah, hah…”

“Quickly.”

After all that, her story began at last.

If I were to summarize the things she told me, the tale would go something like this.

The previous morning, she’d left her house ridiculously worked up, excited to give it her all and help set up the testing venue. Almost dancing down the street, she had arrived at the city assembly hall that was hosting the exams.

What I need to tell you before I go any further is that the weather is controlled by her emotional state.

Here in Ursula, the Land of Eternal Summer, the name Ursula is like a title that is granted to the mage who represents the land. In other words, even the woman known as the Eternal Summer Witch Ursula really had a different name.

Come to think of it, I’m certain she hasn’t called herself Ursula even once since I got here.

“So, what is your real name?”

“Oh, no, Elaina. I plan to tell my true name only to the partner whom I marry for life.”

“Is that so?”

“So…do you want to hear it…?”

“No, not really…”

Let’s get back on track.

In the Land of Eternal Summer, a mage with extraordinary powers was born every few decades. It was said that among the many powers this mage would possess was the power to control the weather. If her mood was cheerful, the weather would be sunny. If she was feeling down, it would rain. If she was gloomy, it would be cloudy.

And if she was feeling hopeless, it would snow.

Apparently, the witch controlled the temperature and the weather, so this land did not have the usual four seasons. Instead, it could be spring, summer, autumn, or winter depending on the witch’s mood. If she was feeling well, it was summer. If she was feeling poorly, winter. And if she was somewhere in between, it would turn to spring or autumn.

But the townspeople wanted her to make it summer every single day.

That was why Ursula, the Eternal Summer Witch, had left her home and headed to the testing venue in such high spirits.

“In other words, every day you force yourself to put up a good front and act happy?”

“Well, even if I don’t force it, I’m more or less a naturally cheerful person. I’m pretty much always excited, you know.”

“Ah, is that how it is?”

“Ahh…! I can feel your ice gaze through the door…!”

“…………”

So—

A number of witches who had come from distant lands had gathered in the meeting hall.

When Ursula arrived, the person who seemed to be in charge of setting up the venue had already begun their explanation, meaning Ursula had probably been the last to arrive. When she got to the meeting hall, she told me, the looks she got from the other witches had been sublime.

So I take it you arrived late on purpose?

“Uh, all right then, everyone, let’s get hyped up and get this venue ready. That said, what we need to do is simple. First, we clean, then we take the answer sheets to each room—”

The supervisor laid out the process carefully with a professional attitude, then at the end, said, “All right then, please begin the preparations,” and released everyone from their boredom. After all, the witches there had gone through these sorts of routine duties many times before. Most of them paid no attention to the formal explanation.

Even Ursula was no different.

“Yawn…”

She was overcome by boredom, and when she started working, she cut many corners.

But then, something happened.

“…………!”

A shock ran through her like a flash of lightning.

Standing there before her eyes was the most beautiful witch she had ever seen in her life.

She was lovely and sweet, and just Ursula’s type.

Ah, if I got rejected by a girl like her, I think that might be the end of me.

She was practically salivating.

It was gross.

By the way, they say that human beings are sensitive to looks from others. When a person looks at someone, the one they’re looking at notices the gaze on them.

And so, when Ursula looked at that witch—the witch also looked back at Ursula.

And then—

Immediately after that—

The incident occurred.

“Oh…! By any chance are you the Eternal Summer Witch, Lady Ursula?”

The witch trotted over, calling out to Ursula in a voice as sweet as a blooming flower. Everything about her exuded a kind of flighty, easygoing air.

“Y-yes…I am,” Ursula responded coolly. But on the inside she was melting into a degenerate mess because of her special inclinations. Apparently that was Ursula’s way of doing things. Not that I cared.

“I’ve been a fan for a long time! If you don’t mind, would you give me your signature?”

The witch’s starstruck attitude immediately seized Ursula’s heart.

Ursula was assailed by feelings she had never experienced before.

“…………”

In this momentary silence, she was apparently having all kinds of thoughts.

Ah, this girl is so beautiful! Really, really beautiful, and amazing! She’s so pretty that if this girl got red in the face and yelled and screamed at me, I wouldn’t be able to control myself—ah, but no, there’s no way. This girl couldn’t do that…because she’s just too kind! I can see how kind she is just by looking at her! This girl is definitely too nice, she could never get angry at someone. And besides, she has total trust in me! Even though we’ve just met and have only exchanged a few words, I can tell! Suppose, for argument’s sake, that I were to date this sweet little witch. She would never treat me badly, not even once, for the rest of our lives. In fact, this total trust of hers would never break down for all eternity. I can tell! Undoubtedly, this is a girl whose life has been nothing but beautiful fields of flowers! She can’t possibly be with a filthy human being like me—

After many more thoughts that would take about fifty more pages to summarize, Ursula finally spit out a reply.

“No, thank you. I make a point of not signing things for dumb girls like you.”

Apparently, Ursula wanted to pick a fight.

However, the young witch seemed to have a pure heart, just as Ursula had assumed.

“Oh right, of course…I’m sorry. Sorry to bother you.”

With a few tears welling up in her eyes, she went back to work.

At that point, Ursula couldn’t help but feel a terrible heartache. She loved being resented and despised by other people, but she hated making others sad.

Ursula had rudely handled the most beautiful girl she might ever meet in her whole life, who was just her type, and had only ended up making her sad. She went about her work feeling like an empty husk, then went back to her house and shut herself up in her room.

“Now is the age of winter… The summer of my life is over…”

Then snow fell over the city.

The end.

“…………”

After enduring to the end and listening to her whole story, I had just one question.

“Do you know that witch’s name?”

The witch that had featured in Ursula’s story, there was something about the way that Ursula had described her—

I had a feeling I might know that witch.

I waited there in front of the door as Ursula searched through her memory. Finally, she answered. “Umm, she said it was Lilitia.”

Well now, let’s try and sort this situation out.

The reason winter had descended on the Land of Eternal Summer was because the Eternal Summer Witch Ursula had fallen in love at first sight with Lilitia, an acquaintance of mine. My acquaintance Lilitia had come to this land in order to take a part-time job supervising the advancement exams for witch apprentices, so she would be leaving after just a few days. If Lilitia’s time here passed without things moving forward between Ursula and herself, summer might never return to this land, meaning there was a possibility that this famous resort would be gone for good.

Hmm…

I see, that is a problem.

And so—

“Elaina, I had faith that you would show up… Ohh… Thank you…”

The next morning, I headed over to help Lilitia with her work, wearing a totally innocent look on my face.

The job of test proctor consisted of three main duties, the first of which was reception for the exams. Next was explaining the exams, and then finally came supervising them.

Lilitia had already started the reception work by the time I got there, and she was openly delighted by my unexpected arrival. She seemed flustered, and blabbered out a bunch of words I didn’t really understand. Then she grabbed my hand, and with a puff of white breath, said, “Oh… Elaina, your hands are so warm.”

The reception was at the front door of the test venue. The doors were propped open, and the heater wasn’t working very well, so it was cold—in fact, it wasn’t much warmer inside than it was outside.

“Well, I understand that you’re short-handed, and I felt bad just abandoning you.”

As I answered, I handed her a cup of hot tea which I had brought as provisions. Lilitia took the cup in both hands, and mumbled awkwardly, “I love you…”

She said something I didn’t really understand.

“You love this tea? Glad to hear it.”

Let’s go ahead and revise that statement so that there are no misunderstandings. I’m sure you meant the tea, right? Not me, right?

“I love you, Elaina…”

“You really went out of your way to clarify…”

But I was supposed to be the one correcting her…

“It’s a little problematic if you turn your affections on me”—I muttered to myself as I gazed out beyond the entryway at the outside world, where it was snowing hard.

Out in the silvery white world, the test takers, who were headed into an important stage of their education, were walking our way. They were trembling as they staggered forward on clumsy legs. I wondered what on earth could be the matter with them. Was it the extreme cold, or maybe their nerves were making them tremble?

“…………”

Or maybe they were trembling in fear of the suspicious person who was spying on the test takers from behind a tree.

“Lilitia, look there.”

I tugged a little at Lilitia’s robe, who was standing beside me, and pointed to the suspicious person lurking behind the tree.

It was a lone woman with long blue hair. Her robe was also a refreshing sky-blue color. And her eyes, the same color as her hair, were glaring at the test takers—and also right past them, at us.

“That’s a suspicious person over there, isn’t it? Don’t you think you’d better go tell her off?”

I’m sure that protecting test takers from suspicious characters must be one of our duties.

“Oh no, Elaina, there’s no need for that! Oh-hoh-hoh,” Lilitia said with a smile. “That’s Lady Ursula, the Eternal Summer Witch!”

“Oh, it is?”

Now that she’d mentioned it, since I had only talked to Ursula through her door the previous day, I hadn’t been able to tell what she looked like. She was younger than I expected. She looked like she was still in her early twenties.

“……”

I couldn’t help but feel like Ursula’s gaze had been locked on me and Lilitia the whole time.

“Isn’t she kind of glaring at us?” I queried.

“I’m sure her eyes are just bad!” chirped Lilitia.

“You think so?”

“Ah…lovely today as always…”

“Seems like you might be the one with bad eyes.”

Could it be that your vision is blurred by adoration?

Finally, Ursula, still lurking behind the tree, slowly held up a sketchbook for us to see.

HOW ARE YOU FEELING?

That was all that was written on it.

Those were the words written on the paper.

To be perfectly frank, the only thing the question made me think was, Huh? I almost wondered out loud what she was going on about in this frigid cold.

But that silly question gave Lilitia a shock like a bolt of lightning.

“Wh-wh-whaaaaaat do we do, Elaina?! Lady Ursula is asking us a question! What do we do?! Surely she’s concerned for us, about whether we’re able to do our jobs properly in this cold weather!”

“Calm down, please.”

As if she had forgotten how coldly she had been treated the day before, Lilitia seemed deeply moved. She was on the verge of tears.

“Wh-what am I supposed to do, Elaina?! Am I okay? Do I look cute right now?”

“You’re plenty cute.”

“Eh-heh-heh. Oh, I’m so embarrassed!”

Lilitia gave my shoulder a whack.

Ow…

It’s almost like she develops some sort of weird nervous condition when she’s in front of someone she looks up to—well, whatever. Anyway, Lilitia doesn’t seem to harbor any distrust of Ursula based on what happened yesterday.

In such a way that Lilitia couldn’t see what I was doing, I stealthily made a ring with my thumb and forefinger, and sent Ursula an “okay” signal.

As soon as she spotted my gesture through her binoculars, Ursula broke into a wide grin.

The snow stopped, and it felt like it got just a little bit warmer.

To get straight to the point, I had figured that if I could go ahead and sort out the whole situation, if I could bring Ursula and Lilitia together, the two of them would be happy, the townspeople would be overjoyed, the land would warm up again, and my wallet might get heavier as well. Actually, I had no doubt about it.

No one would be unhappy with the result.

It would be an incredibly joyful thing.

With that in mind, the day before—

I had said something to Ursula, when she was shut up on the other side of her door.

“Why don’t I take on the role of Cupid, and help you and Lilitia get together?”

In order to get the two of them together, I had asked Ursula to come to the meeting hall that day. Since she had been involved in the work of proctoring the exam from the beginning, she didn’t show any reluctance about doing so.

“Got it. And then just how am I going to be able to get involved with Lilitia?”

“Leave that to me. I’ve got a good idea.” On the other side of the door, I was wearing a self-satisfied expression.

“Oh? What kind of idea, I wonder?”

“So, about that…I’ll use some kind of…strategy, of some sort, to help you two get closer.”

“Specifically?”

“Kind of like…skillfully closing the distance between you and Lilitia.”

“Without thinking it through, you mean?”

“Well, I’m sure it’ll all work out.”

Anyway, just show up tomorrow—after that rough explanation, we parted ways. That was why the day after that, which was today, Ursula had appeared behind the tree.

It must not be forgotten, however, that Lilitia was, at that moment, doing her ordinary job as a receptionist.

“I’m here to check in.”

A young novice with an airy, flippant demeanor handed me her admission ticket for the exam. I felt like the novices I had seen in my hometown who were hoping for advancement had been a little stiffer, more nervous perhaps, but here, there were very few girls like that.

In fact, there were so few, they were basically nonexistent.

“Checking in.”

They said, and—

“Check in.”

They all sounded so casual about it.

Kids these days… I thought to myself, like some old lady, but then I reasoned that since this was an exam being held in a resort town, there might be a lot of girls taking it without any actual regard for their chances of passing.

“Yes, here.”

I accepted exam tickets from the girls, signed them, and handed them back with basic instructions. “All right, from here, go into the room on your right—”

But lackadaisical girls just kept appearing one after another.

“Chekkin.”

With some of them, I could hardly even tell what they were saying to me.

Still, I chalked it up to being in a resort area.

One girl tossed her exam ticket at me like she was throwing away a piece of garbage. Even in the cold, she had a lot of skin exposed, and it was tanned golden-brown. She stood before us munching on a piece of bread. With a yawn, she said, “Jeez, it’s seriously so cold, like give me a break! This Eternal Summer Witch or whatever totally sucks!” There wasn’t the slightest hint of dignity in the way she spoke these words.

Her rudeness was unparalleled.

That said, I didn’t really care, so I took her exam ticket and told her, just like I had the girls before her, “All right, from here, go into the room on your right—”

That’s what I did, but—

“Oh no, you don’t.”

The woman sitting next to me, who was still maintaining a frivolous demeanor, nevertheless spoke plainly. “You can’t go in if you’re going to have such a flippant attitude at the time of an important exam. Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh!”

Lilitia had a smile on her face.

She was smiling, but I could see a little anger behind her eyes.

“…………”

But the girl ignored her.

“Are you listening to me?”

“…………”

“Hm? Are you listening?”

“……Tch.”

The girl clicked her tongue dismissively and hung her head as she took her exam ticket back and then left. I could see that she was dejected as she slunk away.

“No matter the motivation, we must do whatever we’re doing in earnest, right? Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh!”

Lilitia watched the girl go with a soft smile.

“You’re quite earnest.”

“Eh-heh-heh-heh, oh no, I’m nothing special!”

Lilitia smiled bashfully. She didn’t seem entirely displeased with the praise.

In the distance, behind her tree, Ursula held up her sketchbook, with words written on it.

JUST NOW, I LIKED THE LOOK IN HER EYE.

Oh really?

I’M SURE SHE’LL MAKE A FINE SADIST.

Oh really?

In that fashion, with Ursula watching—or rather, with Ursula spying on us—we continued our reception work.

“…Great. Okay. So just go into the hall and wait, all right? …Huh? You’re anxious? You’ll be fine! Do your best! Oh, and if you get hungry, just eat this!”

I looked over and saw that when Lilitia gave the test takers back their tickets, she was also handing them some sort of small package.

“…What are you giving them?”

“I baked these to get them to give it their all.”

She was handing out homemade cookies.

“Oh no! I didn’t give any to the girl I scolded earlier! Wait right here, Elaina! I’ll go give her some!”

Lilitia made a panicked commotion as she remembered, then ran off into the hall holding one of the little packages.

I glanced over at the tree.

I THINK I MIGHT DIE IF A NICE GIRL LIKE HER SCOLDED ME.

Lurking there in her hiding space was Ursula, scrawling her nonsense with an extremely serious look on her face.

Before I realized it, the snow had stopped outside the test venue.

HEH-HEH-HEH… JUST IMAGINING IT WARMED MY HEART…

Thinking about how I was ready to go home, I responded with a simple, Oh really?

Not long after that, with too much time on my hands in the spare moments between reception work, I was thinking things over, and eventually my mind came to the extremely reasonable conclusion that if Ursula was so interested in Lilitia, she ought to talk to her in person. But trying to implement that approach went so poorly it was exasperating.

Even though it was obvious that both of them were into each other, they were on such different wavelengths that it was like they were missing each other on purpose.

For example, around the time that Lilitia and I were wrapping up our receptionist duties—

Ursula came over to where the two of us were sitting. She intended to say hello to Lilitia. The plan was for them to hit it off a little right there, but…

“Ah… Lady Ursula…!” Lilitia couldn’t hide her panic and agitation when Ursula, the object of her adoration, suddenly appeared before her eyes. “Ah, ahh… What do I do, Elaina?! Lady Ursula is here!”

She asked me for help, so I suggested, “For now, why don’t you go ahead and greet her?”

“H-hello, Lady Ursula! You look lovely today, as always…!”

Ursula, on the other hand, played it extremely cool, standing there in front of Lilitia. She was acting just as cool as the temperature outside. The way she dramatically flipped her hair was like she was someone totally out of Lilitia’s league.

“My name is Helen. It’s not Ursula.”

“…Huh? But you are the Eternal Summer Witch, aren’t you…?” Lilitia was perplexed.

“Yes. I am the Eternal Summer Witch Ursula. But my real name is Helen.”

“Oh, um, all right…?”

“I can give you special permission to call me Helen.”

“No, that’s— It’s really all right…”

“…………”

She looks like she’s gonna cry…

“Ah, um, rather than something like that, would you consider working with me as an exam proctor today, Lady Ursula…?”

“Pfft. What a stupid question.” Ursula took the opportunity to laugh at her mockingly. “Tell me, why should I have to work alongside peons like you two?”

As a devoted masochist, Ursula had an extremely rude attitude. She acted and spoke rudely in hopes of being abused in return.

She forced her way in close to people, or pushed them away. From an outsider’s perspective, her speech and actions seemed terribly frenetic.

“Ah… R-right, of course… I’m sorry…for making such a strange request…” And Lilitia, who was just Ursula’s type of girl, was simply a good person. “I’m sorry…” she continued. “Of course someone grand like Lady Ursula wouldn’t want to work alongside little old me! Eh-heh-heh…!”

Lilitia smiled courageously.

“…………”

And, looking at Lilitia’s sad face, the grand Lady Ursula despaired, even though she was the one who had hurt Lilitia.

As I watched, the area outside the test venue was enveloped in a total blizzard.

Ursula seemed heartbroken that she had hurt her intended sweetheart with her thoughtless words and actions. Feeling that she shouldn’t have acted that way, I stomped on Ursula’s foot.

“Hyah!”

Like that.

We had already talked about this the previous day, when I’d spoken with Ursula through the door. Although it didn’t make any sense to me, Ursula was a total masochist. When she was upset, a painful shock would make her forget what was bothering her. So she had a request: whenever she fell into despair, she wanted me to give her a shock somehow, either mentally or physically.

I see. Like a kind of shock therapy, huh?

Oh dear. I’m not enjoying this one bit, but this is what she requested, so there’s no avoiding it.

And so, I stealthily ground my foot down on hers.

“…!” Ursula stood up straight, and at the same time, the blizzard outside stopped. “Hah, hah… What a great idea!”

Her spirits seem to have risen.

All I could think was, Yikes.

Lilitia, on the other hand, who was genuinely just a good person, saw that the person she adored was suddenly acting strangely, and naturally offered her concern.

“Um, Lady Ursula…? Is something the matter…?”

Grind, grind, grind, grind.

“Hah…hah… No, nothing at all…!”

“…? Oh, but—”

“Nothing is wrong!”

“Ah, a-are you sure…?”

As I was watching their exchange, I nearly came to my senses for a moment and wondered what on earth I was doing. But in this type of situation, I knew that coming to my senses would mean certain defeat.

“By the way, Lilitia, it sounds like Ursula is going to work alongside us for the rest of the day. Isn’t that great?”

And so, I made this thoughtless remark.

“Oh, but—”

Lilitia was baffled by my sudden announcement.

“No, I wouldn’t deign to work alongside commoners like—”

“Hyah!”

Grind, grind.

“……! Work, working together…hah…hah…”

“You will do it, right? Ursula?”

Grind, grind, grind, grind.

“Wait, but—”

“Hm?”

Grind, grind, grind, grind.

“……! I-I will… I’ll do it…! Hah…hah…”

“Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh! Sounds like she will!”

I patted Lilitia on the shoulder.

“……?”

Tilting her head to the side sweetly, Lilitia asked me, “Um…is Lady Ursula all right…? She seems to have been having a hard time for the last few minutes…”

Lilitia was a good person and was naturally concerned about Ursula. I was certain that she must have been an angel or something in her previous life.

I looked behind Ursula’s back, at the scenery outside.

The blizzard had long since stopped, and in fact the sun was shining brilliantly down on the snow that blanketed the ground.

I see, I see.

“She’s actually feeling just fine, so you don’t need to worry.”

“Huh…?”

Ultimately, we finished our receptionist duties without having made the slightest bit of progress in bringing the two of them together.

After handling the reception of students, our next task was explaining the exams.

Rows of desks were lined up in the main hall, which was filled with test takers as far as the eye could see. In the center of it all was a platform where Lilitia and I stood beside each other. Hardly any of the girls were paying attention to us, and even though there were mere moments before the test, the room was filled with a very relaxed atmosphere, so much so that I wondered whether they had all forgotten their nerves at home.

From my position, I could see all varieties of girls.

There was a girl who had started studying in a panic just before the exam commenced.

There was a girl who was casually chatting with her neighbors.

There was a kind girl handing out sweets to the strangers beside her, saying, “Let’s all do our best!”

There was a girl looking out the window at the suddenly-sunny scenery, and abruptly gushing, “Maybe we can enjoy the resort this afternoon?!”

There was a girl who had never even taken her seat to begin with.

There was a girl with a know-it-all look on her face leaning against the wall beside us, staring at Lilitia— Oh wait, that was Ursula.

…………

Well, I kind of understood, and maybe it was inevitable for an exam being held in a resort town, but there was no tension in the air at all.

“Oh my… This isn’t good…”

Beside me, Lilitia was wearing a smile, but I could tell she was suddenly seething with anger, so I scolded the test takers to behave and made them sit down quickly, then launched into my explanation of the contents of the exam.

“Good morning, everyone. My name is Elaina, the Ashen Witch. I’ll be observing you during the test today, so while we’re here, you can call me Miss Elaina.”

When I said that, one of the test takers raised her hand and asked, “Why do we have to address you like a teacher?”

Allow me to answer that.

“Because I like it when people address me that way.”

An air of disbelief spread across the exam hall.

The next moment, Lilitia tugged at my sleeve, and, with an adorable tilt of her head, asked, “Should I also call you Miss Elaina?”

“Good question. Yes, please do, Miss Lilitia.”

“Okay, got it. By the way, Miss Elaina?”

“Yes?”

“Take this seriously, okay?”

“Oh, certainly.”

“You mustn’t joke around too much, all right? Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh!” Cheerfully, Lilitia brought her fist down on my head with a thunk. It didn’t hurt at all.

From an outside perspective, it probably just looked like we were fooling around. But I did not misunderstand her. It was her way of saying, “I could kill you at any moment, you know?” It was terrifying. The force of the blow was totally unlike all the times she had hit me before.

I coughed and cleared my throat, then launched into the explanation of the exam.

“Just like every year, the time limit for the exam is two hours. It’s okay for those who finish early to leave. In fact, it stopped snowing earlier, so I’d think that once you’re done with your exam, you could go let your hair down at this top-class resort—”

“Miss, miss.” One of the test takers suddenly interrupted me.

“Yes, what is it?” I asked.

Miss Test Taker pointed out the window and said, “It started snowing.”

“Whoa, it’s a blizzard.”

Before I knew it, the world outside was covered in silvery white.

And when I looked toward the back of the hall, there, with her cheeks puffed out angrily, was Ursula. She was obviously quite upset.

I paused in my explanation and walked over to Ursula, then asked her quietly, in a low voice that no one else could hear, “What’s the matter? Did something bad happen?”

The snow outside meant that Ursula’s mood had sunk. Something must have happened.

“…I want to…do it, too.”

“Hmm?”

Do what?

“I want to flirt with Lilitia, too—”

“You’re not by any chance telling me that you’re upset because you want to flirt with Lilitia, and that such nonsense is why you’re making it snow, are you?”

She had been about to say something weird, so I immediately put my arm around Ursula’s shoulders, brought my face close to her ear, and whispered my question.

My actions looked just like those of a shady debt collector.

“How many times did I warn you earlier not to make it snow for no reason? Why can’t you keep your promise? You dullard. You incompetent, walking trash heap.”

“Ah, um, well…s-sorry… Eh-heh, eh-heh-heh…”

Oh no.

“If you feel bad enough to apologize, I’d rather you just didn’t make it snow in the first place… You understand me?”

“Yes, yes… I’m sorry, Miss Elaina… Eh-heh, heh-heh-heh…”

“All of the test takers here are looking forward to enjoying the resort this afternoon. So, as for what you need to do now…you understand, don’t you?”

“S-Sorry…eh-heh, I’ll make it sunny right away…heh-heh.”

The plan’s a bust…

And so, after that somewhat suspicious exchange, I returned to the platform with an innocent look on my face.

“Take a look, please. The sun has come out.”

It had completely cleared up outside the window. The sun shone brilliantly, lighting up the snow that remained on the ground as if it had never gone away. The students seemed delighted by this state of affairs. Lilitia, on the other hand, who had watched the whole thing from afar, was wearing a puzzled expression.

“…Are you friends with Lady Ursula?”

I wouldn’t say we’re friends, exactly.

“Well, we talked a little bit yesterday, anyway.”

“Oh, did you now? How nice. I’d like to have a nice long conversation with Lady Ursula sometime, too.”

Lilitia adored Ursula, so seeing the two of us talking and interacting probably inspired a little bit of jealousy.

I ignored Lilitia as she carried on in an ever so slightly dejected voice about how nice it was and continued with my explanation of the examination.

After that and a ten-minute rest break, the exam began.

As test takers so often did, the girls used those ten minutes to do some final studying, or to go to the bathroom, or to distract each other with complaints like, “I seriously did not study at all!” and so on. Even though the exam was being held in a resort town, the same little scenes that we might have seen anywhere else unfolded before us.

“Elaina, it feels like old times, doesn’t it?”

Lilitia seemed to find something nostalgic about the atmosphere of the test hall. Standing beside me, her expression softened.

“It sure does.”

I nodded lightly.

It had been quite a long time since I had taken my exams. Most of the content that I had crammed into my head for the exams had long ago disappeared from my memories, but the atmosphere before the test and what had happened in the days leading up to it were seared into my mind even now.

Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

I looked at the clock and saw that it had been almost ten minutes already.

The scattered test takers each returned to their own seats, and gradually the exam hall fell silent.

“…………?”

In the middle of it all, something unusual suddenly caught my eye. Just before the start of the exam, among other test takers who were whispering to their friends, or studying, or spending their last few minutes before the exam in their own way, I spotted one strange girl.

She was sitting in her chair, hanging her head.

Her mouth was moving restlessly, and she looked like she was mumbling something to herself. She might have been cold, because both of her shoulders were trembling, and she was not holding a pen in her hand, but a wand.

I wonder why.

After all, there’s absolutely nothing to use a wand for on a written exam—

“All of you, everyone, don’t move!”

The moment after I sensed something was slightly amiss—

That one test taker pointed her wand at the ceiling and shouted those words. With bloodshot eyes, she glared at me and Lilitia up on the platform.

“I’ve taken control of this meeting hall!” The girl raised her voice as she stood on top of her desk. “Okay now, nobody move!” she shouted. “If anyone tries anything funny, I’ll destroy this whole hall!”

I really don’t understand what’s going on here.

It seems we’ve been dragged into some sort of weird situation just before the exams were going to start.

Lilitia, who had been about to hand out the exam papers, was in shock at being dragged into this kind of sudden incident, but she managed to whisper to me, “…Well, this isn’t like old times at all.”

My, my, you’ve got that right.

I recognized the test taker who had suddenly raised her voice.

It was the girl who had clicked her tongue when Lilitia had cautioned her about her tone earlier—from her bizarre actions, I figured that she must have some demands of her own.

Glaring up at the three of us on the platform, the girl laid her anger bare.

“Just what in the heck is going on with the weather in this country?! Quit jerkin’ us around! Bring out the Eternal Summer Witch!”

She was demanding that we bring her out, but Ursula was already standing right there. She was behind Lilitia, with a know-it-all look on her face and her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“My life… This stupid town ruined my life!” the test taker shouted. “So I’m going to ruin this year’s exams!”

The girl was clearly not in her right mind—there were three witches up on the platform, so we could have easily taken her down right away. It was only the possibility that the other test takers might get hurt if she decided to put up a struggle that kept us from acting. Surely this was the safer choice to avoid pouring more fuel on the fire.

“C-calm down now, okay? What’s going on? What happened…?”

Feeling the heat, Lilitia turned both of her palms toward the student, showing her that she was unarmed.

The student said, “Last year, I came to this town from far away. I came a long way to take the exam to become an apprentice witch! It was my dream, so…so in order to take the test, I came here one week before the exam date, and rented a room so that I could study!”

“Yes, okay. And then?”

In a gentle tone of voice, Lilitia prompted her for more of her story.

I, on the other hand, standing where I was behind Lilitia, clicked my tongue and tutted to Ursula. “All of a sudden, I’m getting a whiff of something fishy.”

Ursula responded, “I’ve heard this before—she spent all her time playing around.”

“Even though I stayed here for a week before the exam date, I didn’t get any studying done! Why do you think that is? It’s because this town is a resort! I hardly got any studying done all week!”

Well, that does sound tough.

“The day of the exam, as I stared at my answer sheet, the only things that came to my mind were the events of that week. Listening closely, I could hear the sound of the waves. I remembered a bar with great drinks that I found walking around town, and the seafood dishes made with fresh-caught fish, and the town locals dressed in gorgeous fashions. And going down to the shore, the beach at the height of summer, with a refreshing breeze blowing across it…”

It sounds like you really enjoyed yourself, didn’t you? You never had any intention of studying for your test, am I right?

“Eventually I realized that I had no chance of getting a good result on the exam, and I got up from my seat thirty minutes after it started.”

But testers have two hours to complete the exam, don’t they? You gave up awfully quickly, didn’t you?

“And then I went to the beach.”

Well, they do say people should gaze out at the ocean when they’re feeling sad.

“Then, before I knew it, I was shouting at the ocean.”

Also something that sad people often do.

“Then, before I knew it, my friend and I were splashing each other with water.”

Okay, that’s different—you’re just playing in the water at that point.

“On my last night in town, I ate lobster at a seaside restaurant…”

It sounds like you just had a nice vacation.

“The exam results were sent out later. I don’t think I have to tell you how mine turned out—I bear a bitter grudge against this town, against Ursula, the Land of Eternal Summer. Do you know why?”

Because you’re an idiot?

“It’s because this place is a resort!”

Got it. Your resentment is completely unjustified.

She had been talking for a long time, but nothing she had said indicated that Ursula or the government were at fault. Frankly, I was getting a little fed up with it. In short, she had spent all her time on amusements, and she wanted someone else to take responsibility.

Wait, wait, what are you saying?

“And so, I vowed to get revenge on this land! I’ve lived the last year of my life resenting this place! I’ve written any number of threatening letters! I wrote that I failed my exam because of this resort town. And that I was going to get revenge on the Eternal Summer Witch! But even though I sent countless letters to her, she has ignored them all!”

Oh my.

“Is what she just said really true, Ursula?”

“Hah, hah…”

“Ah, sorry, I was foolish to even ask.”

It seems like menacing letters and the like are just more excitement to Ursula.

The passion of the enraged test taker hadn’t cooled off yet.

“Then this year, I showed up to this test venue, just like I said I would! And I thought I would get a meal at a seaside restaurant on my way home, but…but…!”

Let’s take a look out the window.

Well, the weather might have improved somewhat, but the ground is still completely covered with snow. It goes without saying that this is a far cry from eternal summer.

And I don’t have to imagine how the test takers felt when they got a look at the weather here. I’ve seen their reactions time and time again since I arrived.

“The Eternal Summer Witch has made it look like this just to harass me! I’ll never forgive her!”

Her persecution complex was entirely inflated. To me, it seemed like the girl was simply enamored with the resort town, just like anyone else might have been.

“Now, now…come on, calm down. Okay? We can see that you’re having a difficult time. But you can’t push people around like this.”

Lilitia tried again to persuade the girl to stand down, but—

“Quiet, you! Shut up!”

We couldn’t expect someone who had been holding on to her pent-up frustration for an entire year to calm down just because someone tried to convince her to.

“Come to think of it, you were the mage who tried to pick a fight with me at the entrance, weren’t you? What’s your deal? You wanna have it out with me right here?”

“O-oh no, I wasn’t trying to…”

By the way, Lilitia had advanced from apprentice to witch two years earlier. She had apparently decided on a rather foreboding witch name—the “Stonecrusher Witch” —that contrasted with her gentle appearance.

In other words, if she and the test taker had it out right there, it was obvious how the fight would turn out.

“Shut up! Never mind!” the girl shouted. “I’m telling you to bring the Eternal Summer Witch here right this instant! If you don’t, I’ll burn you all up one by one, starting with you!”

“Y-you wouldn’t…” Lilitia was in a panic. Her voice trembled and there were tears in her eyes.

“Stop right there.”

Then a lone witch forced herself between them.

The blue-haired witch stood in the way, as if she was protecting a helpless maiden.

Well now, just who could this be?

“If you want to hurt someone, hurt me!”

“L-Lady Ursula…!” Lilitia gave a cheer that sounded like a shriek. “Protecting me…how amazing…!” Her eyes were blurry with tears, and she clutched her chest.

What’s the matter? Is your heart pounding?

“I bear full responsibility for everything that happened. So, do to me what you will! I’ll take whatever you dish out…!”

“So you’re Ursula…?! This is your fault… It’s all your fault…!”

The student waved her wand.

She fired off a bolt of magical energy. The bluish-white ball flew through the air with a fair amount of speed before smacking into Ursula’s cheek.

“Tch…! Is that all you’ve got…? Heh-heh-heh! That was nothing…”

Lady Ursula wore a confident smile. From my perspective, as someone who knew about her personal preferences, I couldn’t help but hear the hidden meaning behind her words.

“Lady Ursula…!”

Lilitia, standing right behind her, worried over Ursula with tears in her eyes. If I had to say, she looked like she might be the one bearing the brunt of the emotional damage from the attack.

“Taste my wrath!” The student launched another spell.

“Ha…! That was a pretty good shot…!”

Not that I really care, but she stepped forward on purpose so she could be on the receiving end of all these spells, didn’t she?

Behind her, Lilitia swooned.

“Lady Ursula…!”

The two women continued their battle.

“You rotten witch!”

“Good…!”

“Lady Ursula…!”

“Diiieee!”

“Goood…!”

“Lady Ursula…!”

“Drop deaaadddddd!”

“Ahhhhh! So good!”

“Lady Ursula…!”

“Go to heeeeeeeeeeeellllll!”

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh! M-more…!”

“Lady Ursulaaa…!”

“Wait a second.”

After several rounds of attacks, the test taker abruptly stopped casting spells, and walked briskly over to me. Then she gave me an incredibly dirty look and said, “Hey, you.”

“Yes?”

What is it?

“You seem to be the sanest person here, so I want to ask you something.”

“Okay.”

“Is that really the Eternal Summer Witch Ursula?”

“Seems so.”

“She’s a little…creepy, don’t you think?”

“I think so, too.”

“Hang on, hang on. Is that all? Are you done?” Ursula obliviously butted in. She even put her arm around her opponent’s shoulders in an overly friendly way. I felt like I was losing my mind a little bit.

Then the test taker burst into a rage.

“Shut up! Don’t touch me!”

Smack!

Her open palm violently slapped Ursula’s cheek.

“Good…!”

“What is your deal?!”

“Hah, hah… Call me Helen…”

“Are you happy with anyone, as long as they’re rough with you?”

So what was that about not revealing your true name to anyone but your life partner? Please, put yourself in my shoes. I’ve heard it twice just today.

“Stop it already! Poor Lady Ursula!”

The test taker was about to send another spell flying at Ursula when Lilitia grabbed the girl’s wand without hesitation and smashed it into pieces right there.

“Huh? My wand, you broke…huh?”

“Please…! Stop this! Stop fighting, okay?”

With eyes full of affection, Lilitia gently grabbed hold of both of the test taker’s hands and made her appeal. At their feet lay the pulverized remains of the wand.

The gesture looked every bit like it was meant to intimidate.

“……………………”

The test taker was silent for a long time.

“Hah, hah…”

Ursula’s imagination was running wild, inspired by the fragments of wand on the floor.

“Please…!”

Lilitia threatened in a sweet voice.

“…………”

And I started handing out the question sheets for the test as if nothing much was going on.

Finally, the test taker sighed very, very deeply, as if she had accepted her fate.

“I understand… I give up. I won’t have anything more to do with this place. Is that what you want?”

She spit out this line, still trying to look cool so late in the game and escaped from Lilitia’s grasp.

“Wait.”

Lilitia immediately grabbed the test taker’s shoulder.

“Eek!” The girl let out a shriek that I couldn’t fail to hear.

“Oh, I’m jealous…” Ursula said, in a desirous tone that I would have liked to fail to hear.

“Wh-what is it?”

Surely you didn’t think you were getting off that easy after causing such a disturbance?

“All right, please don’t open your question booklet just yet,” I instructed the other testers as I watched what Lilitia and the troublemaker were doing. I should keep an eye on them in case I needed to step in, I thought.

“Your purpose for coming here was just to cause trouble? Surely that can’t be right, can it?”

“No, I did come to cause trouble, but—”

“Dummy!”

Smack! Without any advance warning, Lilitia slapped the test taker with her open palm. She went flying right into Ursula, and they both fell to the ground.

“Why would you say such a miserable thing? You are not such a bad girl! Don’t lie to yourself!”

“No, I’m not telling lies—”

“Don’t turn away from yourself!”

Smack!

“Um—”

“Let your true feelings out!”

Smack!

“Wait—”

“Don’t back away!”

“I want to take the test!”

“Great! That’s it!”

Then, as if nothing had happened, Lilitia helped pull the reeling test taker to her feet and sat her down in her chair.

Why?

“Miss Elaina, please allow this girl to take the test as well.”

…Why?

That student didn’t have the slightest inclination to take the test in the first place, did she? That’s what I thought, but as for the student herself—

“Thanks to you, my eyes have been opened…”

She had fighting spirit in her eyes.

I think she might have hit her head.

“Huh…well, okay then.”

I handed a question sheet to her as well. Thankfully, there had been no casualties (except for Ursula), so the start time might have been delayed, but if we began right away, we could probably still be done by around midday.

“Don’t tell lies to yourself…yeah… Those words resonated more than any kind of scolding…”

Ursula, who had been pinned underneath the test taker during that whole exchange, staggered to her feet. She was wounded almost everywhere. But outside the window was sunlight and the haze of warm air.

She must be feeling good.

“Lady Ursula…”

As usual, Lilitia stared at Ursula like a lovestruck maiden.

“Lilitia…I…have something I need to say to you…”

Ursula gently touched her shoulder and gazed back at her passionately.

The two of them really looked like they were in love. However—

“We’re going to start the exam now, so could I get you to do that outside?”

Using magic, I casually levitated the two of them, then promptly tossed them both out the window. I was content to keep any heat strictly outside.

“Right. Okay then, begin the test.”

Then, I was the only one left up on the platform.

In the exam hall, which had once again fallen silent, the test takers turned over their papers in unison, and began running their pens over the answer sheets. All of those girls who had been complaining about what a pain the test was, how tiresome it was, and how they wanted to hurry up and finish the exam so they could go enjoy themselves now temporarily put away their frivolity and faced reality.

Up on the platform, I stood there staring into space, resting my chin in my hands, ruminating on the two hours I had ahead of me.

Outside the window, the snow melted under the hot rays of the sun, and midsummer arrived once again. Sunlight was shining down so brilliantly that I was certain once the exam was over, it would feel great to go down to the sea.

Shining just as brilliantly was the heated embrace of the two women outside.

I sighed at the spectacle and mumbled to myself.

“Guess it’s really summer…”

By the way, the troublemaking tester once again left the hall just thirty minutes after the exam had started.

As I might have expected, the advancement exams for apprentice witches held in a resort town known as the Land of Eternal Summer were over extremely quickly. Starting with the troublemaking tester who left the room after about thirty minutes, the students exited the room in droves, walking out one after another with straight faces, like, “Oh, the test? Ah, it was so easy.”

I collected the finished tests, but, well, the results were awful. It seemed like most of the testers had been more preoccupied with what was out the window than with their exams.

“Heh-heh-heh… Hey, did you hear? It sounds like the testers couldn’t help but be curious about what was going on with me and Lady Ursula.”

No, that wasn’t it.

“Oh no… I suppose my romance with Lilitia got a little too heated.”

“Oh, stop it, Lady Ursula!”

Smaaack!

“Ah…! So good…!”

“Stop it”? That’s my line…

When the exam was about half over, the two of them had come back in from outside, and by then they were completely smitten with one another.

Lilitia and Ursula just spent the whole time flirting, unconcerned with what anyone else might think. Even now that the exam was over and it was just the three of us in the room, they were all over each other, not caring that I was shooting them chilly looks.

“Okay, say ‘aah.’”

Lilitia was feeding Ursula one of her homemade cookies.

“Aah!”

Ursula (a woman in her twenties) opened her mouth like a baby bird. It goes without saying that this extremely saccharine scene immediately turned my stomach.

If we hadn’t been inside, I might have spit.

“The two of you seem to be getting along quite well…”

“Eh-heh-heh…” Lilitia was blushing.

“Oh-hoh-hoh…” Ursula looked pleased with herself.

I asked, and they told me that while they’d been outside, they had both confessed their hidden feelings to each other.

Lilitia had told Ursula how she longed for her.

Ursula had told Lilitia of her special fetish, and also that she had a crush on her. That, and that her real name was Helen. And it was her intention to pair up for life with the person to whom she revealed her true name.

“Well…! Then, Lady Ursula and I are in love, aren’t we…?!”

“Oh-hoh-hoh…we are. And my real name is Helen, so…”

“Lady Ursula…I love you.”

“No, listen, it’s Helen.”

“Lady Ursula…”

“Um, but I want you to call me by my real name…”

“La-dy Ur-su-la.”

“No, um…my real name…”

“Eh-heh-heh…but aren’t you happier being treated this way?”

“…!”

I was surprised to see Lilitia acting so impishly. Ursula seemed to show her feelings by biting her lip.

I had to sit through it all, and I had no idea how I was supposed to react, but for the time being, I just responded with, “Seems like she’s already been won over, huh?”

Ursula was wearing a slightly gratified expression on her face.

What a masochist…

Eventually, after a lot of flirting, the conversation began to turn back to lighter matters, like, “What should we do now? Go get something to eat?”

“Hey, Elaina, if you like, why don’t you come with us?” Lilitia asked, in the same cheery mood as always.

No, no.

“I could never put myself between the two of you.”

It was a polite way for me to decline.

“Oh, come on!”

Whack!

A hand like a steel vise clamped onto my shoulder.

“Ow…”

You’ll break my bones…

“Miss Witch?”

Ursula beckoned me over with a quick wave of her hand.

When I approached her, Ursula whispered to me so that Lilitia couldn’t hear.

“Your reward. This is for you.”

She stuffed a wad of money into my pocket.

It had quite a bit of heft to it.

Well, then…!

“Ursula?”

“Yeees?”

“I certainly do understand your feelings.”

“Right… That is a gift of love from me to you, Miss Witch…”

“…………”

Wordlessly, I dropped the packet of money on the ground.

“Aah…and seeing you treat it with disdain is so good…!”

Lilitia, who had been off to the side watching our exchange, pressed in close to Ursula. “What’s all this, Lady Ursula?” she demanded. “You’ll take anyone, as long as it’s a girl? Huh?”

Her hands rested on both of Ursula’s shoulders. It was her way of saying, “I could crush both of your shoulders in my hands at any moment, you know?”

How terrifying.

“N-no…this is, um—”

“Hm? It’s what?”

“Um—”

“Care to explain?”

“Well, um…M-Miss Witch! Miss Witch, help m—”

“Elaina, we’ll see you later, okay?”

Just like that, Lilitia dragged Ursula off with her somewhere.

Ah, Ursula’s really in for it now, I thought, but the sun was still shining brightly.

“Well, just because someone stops lying to herself, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going to turn out well…”

I suppose a little bit of suffering is just her getting her just desserts.

However, I was sure that the summer weather was there to stay for a long, long time.

Well then.

Meanwhile—

Though there had been many twists and turns, ultimately Ursula got her groove back, and high summer returned to the land.

You don’t need me to tell you the townspeople were delighted.

“We knew you could do it, Lady Witch!”

“Thank you so much! Our resort is back!”

“Resort life really is the best!”

“It’s summer again! Yahoo!”

The townspeople, dancing with joy, treated me with lavish hospitality.

We all have to be up-front about our desires, don’t we? So surely it wouldn’t be healthy for me to suppress my desire to get lots and lots of money.

So when it comes right down to it—

To borrow Lilitia’s words—

“Heh-heh-heh. Truly, we mustn’t lie to ourselves…”

In a land at the height of summer, there was a witch wearing a vulgar smile on her face.

Well now, who on earth could this be?

That’s right, it’s me.

…Yep.

As I was counting my money with great satisfaction, I could clearly overhear the voices of the townspeople.

“—Hey, that reminds me, I heard there were some young folks playing at the beach earlier.”

“Oh? What happened?”

Right next to me, two men happened to be talking.

“Sounds like Lady Ursula got herself a girlfriend.”

“Oh, that is good news.”

“Plus, I just heard this from Ursula herself, mind you, apparently the weather has been bad lately because Lady Ursula was lovesick.”

“Ha-ha…huh? So, who is that girlfriend of hers? That witch over there?”

“No, it sounds like it’s a different witch.”

“Well, what did that witch have to do with it?”

“I don’t think she did much of anything, did she?”

“…Just a minute. So, what then? We paid out a reward to a witch who didn’t really do anything?”

“Seems that way.”

“…Do you think maybe we were swindled?”

“Seems that way.”

My goodness!

The clouds are starting to look a little menacing—even though it’s sunny outside.

Seems like it’s the right time to leave this place.

So I gathered up the money I had collected, and—

“Could we have a moment of your time, Lady Witch? We’d like to talk to you about the reward we paid you.”

One of the townspeople grabbed me by the shoulder.

When I turned around, I was faced with a group of residents glaring right at me.

My, my.

“What seems to be the matter…?” I asked with feigned ignorance. But I’m sure it goes without saying that the money I had swindled from the residents was confiscated from me right then and there.

Well, I suppose in the end—

Just because someone stops lying to herself, that doesn’t necessarily mean that everything is going to turn out well…