Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 2 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

A Country for Mages

Sunlight cascaded through a break in the clouds and poured down onto the meadow. In the bright light, the flowers swaying in the gentle breeze shook off the droplets clinging to their petals.

As I flew into the patch of sunlight, my body was enveloped in warmth.

Ah, that feels so nice! I thought for a moment, before passing under the clouds again. I wished the sunlight would follow me, but that sunny patch was already out of reach.

The rain had stopped a while ago, but the air was still damp and chilly. The clouds had completely obscured the sun, and it looked like the frigid downpour would start up again.

“……”

I hated rain. It made everything soggy, it put a damper on my mood, and—more than anything—it forced me to stop traveling for a while. It was the worst. But I did love to splash around in puddles when it finally stopped. Rain was awful in the moment, but the period afterward was another story entirely. I loved it. What a strange, troubling feeling.

But when you feel the rain coming, you have to hurry, right? I urged my broom onward, picking up the pace a little.

Before long, my destination came into view.

It didn’t take long for a border guard to appear after I dismounted my broom in front of the gate. Strangely, this guard was not dressed as a soldier but was clad in a pointy hat and robe.

“Welcome, welcome. Are you a witch?”

Isn’t it obvious?

“Yes. I’m a traveling one.”

“Ah, is that so? You’re young for a witch.” He nodded in admiration, then continued, “Pardon me, but may I have your name?”

“Elaina.”

“Lady Elaina. I see. Pardon me, but do you have a significant other?”

“Excuse me?”

That one caught me off guard.

Did he just make a pass at me?

However, there seemed to be some other reason for the question.

The guard shook his head slightly. “Sorry for the confusion. I can assure you I have no ulterior motives. It’s just that, if you happened to be in a relationship with someone who ranked below a mage, you would almost certainly find our land less than hospitable.”

“…?”

“That said, are you currently seeing anyone?”

I’m not totally satisfied with that explanation, but I guess I’ll understand once I’m inside. Probably.

“…Um, nope. Can’t say I am.”

The guard nodded. “I see—Well then, please come in.”

He stepped back from the gate.

And then the massive steel portal rumbled open, shaking the ground mightily.

“Welcome to the Country for Mages.”

I stepped forward as the gate guard bowed very deeply and welcomed me in.

I passed through the gate and found myself on the city’s main street. Private residences and shops of all shapes and sizes were lined up in rows along the road.

The city was overflowing with mages. They were walking around in pairs or groups or going about their business alone. Turning my gaze toward the line of shops, I saw many mages carrying on with their totally ordinary lives.

That said, there also appeared to be a few non-magical people among the crowd. They scurried along the very edges of the road and gave way whenever it looked like they might run into a mage, keeping their heads lowered. They were going to such lengths to humble themselves that it was actually a little uncomfortable.

Every single one had ratty clothing. In this country, there were either people clad in expensive-looking robes or people with cheap bits of cloth wrapped around them—and nothing in between.

This is weird. Whatever’s going on in this country, it’s strange.

After proceeding a little farther, I stopped dead in my tracks.

There was something odd up ahead.

“…What is that?”

These were the first words out of my mouth.

A strange box, like nothing I had ever seen before, was moving along a path laid out with iron rods. But what really caught me by surprise were the people seemingly stuffed inside the huge box.

I realized it was some kind of vehicle when the box pulled to a stop in front of me. When the door opened, a flood of people came pouring out. And then the flow reversed, and the box sucked up new passengers.

It appeared to be a means of transport for large quantities of people.

How interesting.

Should I go for a ride?

Yeah, I wanna go for a ride.

Without another thought, I stepped forward. Weaving past bodies as I walked against the flow of foot traffic, I approached the box.

However, despite my best efforts to get on board, I didn’t make it—because right before I did, someone stopped me.

“You can’t.”

“Gueh,” I said, making a strange sound. Someone had yanked on my robe from behind.

Hey, what’s the big idea, you meanie?!

When I turned around, fuming and ready for a fight, there was a witch standing there.

A weird witch, wearing a suspicious smile.

“Can I help you?”

“You’re a mage, right? You can’t ride in the first car. You’re not allowed.” The witch spoke smoothly, ignoring my obvious hostility. “You can ride in that one,” she said, pointing to the car behind the one I had been about to board…or something.

“…But it doesn’t look like there’s anyone else in there.”

“Yes, it’s empty. But there’s a reason for that. Just trust me and take this one.”

“So you’re saying it’s fine for me to be in this car?”

“Yeah, of course—I’ll explain the reason to you later. So go ahead, get on.”

“…Huh.”

I don’t get it.

After hearing her out, I learned that the weird witch was the inventor of the moving box thing. Apparently, the vehicle was called a “train.”

When I asked what kind of mechanism allowed it to move, she seemed more than happy to go into excruciating detail. It was hard to follow everything she was saying.

I felt my brain drowning in the waves of excessive information. I understood that “the driving force that moves the train is magical energy,” but everything else went completely over my head.

Well, I don’t think it matters much whether I know how the thing works.

“By the way, I’m currently conducting a poll for mages who ride this train for the first time.”

“Oh, is that so?”

I gave a halfhearted response from where I was seated, legs outstretched, on the long, long sofa set up in the train car.

“Miss Traveler, how are you finding the ride so far?”

“It’s quiet.”

An ordinary cityscape streamed past the windows. The fantastical moving box did not actually move particularly quickly. In fact, I think I could have flown faster on my broom. But the trade-off was that the ride from inside the train car was extremely quiet. It was actually pretty nice.

“Isn’t it? This train is my pride and joy, and I developed it so people could go sightseeing around town while gazing at the wonderful scenery and looking at a fun little attraction.”

“Mm.”

“But it isn’t all that popular among mages… When it first debuted, many mages used it, but before I knew it, nobody was riding it anymore.”

“I suppose that makes sense.”

It’s so slow, after all.

“Actually, you’re my first customer of the day. Welcome to my train car.”

“First customer…?”

I leaned forward to look out the window, wondering what she was talking about. When I looked in the direction the train was heading, I could clearly see the other car, packed with passengers.

There are that many people riding in that train, yet I’m the first customer?

What is she talking about?

“Oh,” said the witch, following my gaze. “The people in that car aren’t customers. Don’t worry about them.”

“‘Don’t worry about them…’ Now that you’ve said that, I’m even more curious. What in the world are they, if not customers?”

To this, she replied simply, “Hmm? They’re anima. They’re not human, so of course they can’t be customers.”

“……”

“You’re not from around here, so I suppose you don’t understand, but—in this country, people who can’t use magic aren’t considered human. They’re basically animals.”

“…That’s quite the statement.”

Treated like animals, just because they can’t use magic?

The witch cast her gaze at the front train car. “Look at them. Don’t you find them pitiful? They don’t have any other way to get around, unlike us mages, so they’re eager to ride the train all crammed together. What a funny sight!”

“…I don’t really find it funny.”

“Oh? But when this train was first completed, it was a real crowd-pleaser. Those anima would ride in the front car, and we would watch them from back here. We would point and laugh at their wretchedness. It was a popular way to let off a little steam at the end of the day.”

“The anima, you say…”

Long ago, I read something in a book. If I recall, it was about the slurs that mages made up for other people. It was surprising to find that there was a country where such language was in use.

“But that fad fell out of popularity, as they all do, I suppose. These days, my only customers are people like you—those that come from abroad.”

“…Makes sense.”

“Do you think there’s anything I can do to get people to take the train again? I guess I should find a way to bump up the entertainment value, hmm?”

“What if you got rid of that factor altogether?”

“Then I guess there wouldn’t be any reason to keep the train running.”

“……”

“So? Got any ideas?”

“Nope.”

“That’s an awfully indifferent answer.”

“Well, I’m awfully indifferent about it.”

“Don’t say that. I need some fresh ideas. If things remain as they are, this train is headed straight for the junkyard.”

“Ideas, huh…?”

Nothing came to mind.

“Don’t you have anything? Even your feedback on the ride would be fine.”

“…Ah, that I can do.”

“Well?”

I had already decided on my review.

I turned my gaze from the dull, unchanging scenery to the witch with the shallow smile—and I gave her my honest feedback.

“It’s unpleasant.”

But she didn’t seem at all bothered by it.

“I see… Unpleasant, huh?” she pondered.

Starting from the next day, the city was assaulted by a torrential downpour. Unable to leave during in the middle of a storm, I holed up in my hotel room for a while.

My, my, even in a cheap room, you can get by if you have to.

There was nothing to do, though, and the days I wasted sitting around in the muggy weather were even more boring than I expected. Eventually, I began to worry that I would start sprouting moss.

When the rain showed no sign of stopping even after several days, I decided to leave despite the poor weather.

As I trudged down the road leading to the city gates, holding an umbrella against the unrelenting storm, a train passed by me at a leisurely pace.

Moving only slightly faster than I was walking, it then came to a sharp stop just ahead.

“Hmm…”

The door opened, and a sea of people came rushing out.

“Oh, if it isn’t the witch from before. Hello. Nice weather, huh?”

It was the witch who had invented the train in the first place.

“You call this nice weather?”

“I do. I mean, my train’s seeing a lot of use. If this isn’t nice weather, what is?”

“Somehow, I don’t think we see eye to eye.” I left it at that. “But it looks like business really is booming. I guess most of the customers who weren’t riding before came back.”

Peering past the witch, I saw a train car crowded with mages. Those getting off and those getting on were all the same—only mages.

The girl followed my line of sight and nodded vigorously.

“Yep! It’s all thanks to you that so many mages have come back!”

“Me?”

Um, did I do something?

I gave her my honest opinion…but there’s really no reason for her to be thanking me. What on earth is she going on about?

As I was questioning myself under my umbrella, she spoke up. “Like you said, once I got rid of the aspect you found unpleasant, the customers came back!” She stepped to the side. “See? Look, I removed the car for anima and made the train exclusively for mages.”

She smiled.

“……”

A train full of mages stood before me. The frontmost car, and all other cars, were teeming with mages and no one else.

“You were right; the thought of having those anima ride in the same train cars as mages is extremely unpleasant. I’ll admit it was a bit of an oversight on my part. Honestly, what was I thinking? Such a ridiculous idea. Thank you, Miss Witch.”

“……”

“My train is finally popular again. Now, from the comfort of the train, we can all point and laugh at the wretched anima as they walk around in the rain. It really is a great way to relax at the end of the day.”

“…Is…that so…?”

The mages disembarking from the train put up their umbrellas and dispersed along the road. They passed shabby-looking people huddling under scraps of cloth and others running by, bent over and holding parcels close to their stomachs to keep them from getting wet. The mages chuckled scornfully at them before disappearing into the city.

“How about you, Miss Witch? Don’t you want to ride around and watch the pitiful anima from inside a comfy train car?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have the stomach for such spiteful pastimes.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. But if your tastes don’t agree with it, then I guess that’s that.”

I shook my head again. Letting out a long sigh, I stared up at the rain, that hated rain, and said, “My conscience doesn’t agree.”

Not with this country, nor with you.