Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 2 - Chapter 10

CHAPTER 10

Travel Tales

A little while ago, I briefly reunited with my former teacher, Miss Fran.

“You know, I also admired The Adventures of Niche so much that I went on a journey of my own. I even started a novel while traveling,” she’d said, as if she had suddenly remembered it.

“…Wow, is that so?”

“You don’t seem very interested.”

“No, no, I’m on the edge of my seat.”

“Your reaction says otherwise.”

“I was just unsure how to react.”

Privately, I’d thought, What is this lady talking about all of a sudden?

“So when you say you started a novel, do you mean you gave up partway through?” I asked.

“No, I never said that. It’s more accurate to say I had no choice but to stop in the middle of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I wrote it as a pastime and never showed the draft to anyone, but when the manuscript reached about one hundred pages, I read it over, found it painfully embarrassing, and lost any and all desire to write more.”

She had gotten a chill up her spine as she reread it. My teacher slumped her shoulders as she told me.

“So that’s why you had to stop?”

“Yes. I thought, Oh no, my writing is downright terrible and decided I would never write anything again. Then I stuffed the manuscript into the bottom of my bag.”

“Oh, so you didn’t throw it away?”

“I mean, it was my manuscript. After all the hard work I put into it, I couldn’t bring myself to just toss it out.”

“…You can disparage it all you want, but your actions don’t match your words.”

“Well, I guess you could say that. In the end, that pitiful past is a part of who I am, so I couldn’t really bring myself to abandon it. Not at the time, at least.”

“Hmm.” I nodded.

My teacher’s shoulders sagged even lower, and she let out a long sigh. “Of course, I didn’t feel like showing my novel to anyone—because those were my personal memories. But it didn’t take long for something terrible to happen.”

“What?”

“It all went down when I visited a certain country. A merchant who saw my bag said something like this—”

“Hey, you! That bag in your arms. Could it be the legendary traveler’s bag? It is, isn’t it?! I knew it! That’s the type of bag that the legendary traveler used to use! Sell it to me! Please!”

That had been what he said, allegedly.

Just what is he saying? Back then, Miss Fran had tilted her head in confusion. The bag was just some cheap thing she had purchased from a nearby pawnshop. She had no knowledge of any legendary traveler or whatever, and she certainly hadn’t known there was anything special about it when she bought it.

“Well, I guess one man’s trash can be another man’s treasure. That merchant offered me an unbelievable sum for the bag. I was so surprised. To the point that I wondered if it was some new scam.”

“Hmm…”

I felt like I could finally see where this story was going.

“And I was pretty strapped for coin at the time…so I agreed and handed over the bag. I poured out the contents, bought a new, cheap bag on the spot, transferred all my possessions, and handed the old bag to the merchant. And of course, I accepted a mountain of dough.”

“……”

“There was something about my own writing that was addictive. On rare occasions, I would want to read it over again, you know. A few days after I parted with the bag, I fished around in my new bag, searching for the novel I had patched together from my cringey stories. And in that moment, I realized something awful.”

“……” Don’t tell me. “…Your novel wasn’t there?”

“……………I was shocked. Apparently, I had handed over the old bag with my manuscript still inside.”

“Oh gosh.”

“I went straight back to the merchant’s place, but a week had passed since he’d bought my bag. The merchant had long since left for another country. Ultimately, even though I searched for the merchant, I couldn’t find him, let alone the bag.”

Miss Fran buried her face in her hands.

“…Sometimes, there’s something that I think about. What would I do if that manuscript was to fall into someone’s hands, and what if they read it? What would I do if I was made a fool of…?”

“Miss…”

Her ears were bright red. Is she gonna be okay?

“When I think back on my time spent traveling, when I remember my lost manuscript, I get uncontrollably embarrassed. It sends shivers down my spine. Oh, what should I do…?”

“……”

There wasn’t really anything I could say, so I stayed quiet.

After a few moments, Miss Fran removed her hands from her face, looking like nothing had happened. “Well, it’s just a random memory that popped into my head. Yeah, it’s an embarrassing one, but at this point, it’s in the past. A good travel tale.”

“…Huh, is that so?”

“You don’t seem to be very interested.”

“No, no, I’m on the edge of my seat.” By the way— “So what did you want to tell me?”

“Well, there’s only one thing to say, isn’t there?” my teacher said. “As you continue on your travels, I think you will have many fantastic experiences.”

After a short pause, she stared directly at me. “If we should meet again, please tell me of your lovely memories—let me hear your travel tales. That’s all I wanted to say.”

Then my teacher smiled gently at me.

I recalled that conversation with my teacher in that exact moment.

“……”

It was just as I happened to drop into a bookstore in a certain country, entirely by chance.

“The Adventures of Fran, huh…?”

There was a book there engraved with a familiar name. The author was also named Fran. It was all too familiar.

……

I proceeded to stand there and read the whole book. It might not have been the right thing to do, but I just had to know what was in the book.

The contents were extremely simple. It was just the story of a witch named Fran who went around sightseeing in all sorts of countries. The main character had a personality that wasn’t all too different from my teacher’s.

“Miss Witch! If you’re going to stand there and read, please purchase the book.”

After a little while, an employee discovered me reading. They came up beside me, beating the dust off books with a scrap of cloth attached to a stick.

“…Hmm? Oh, if you’re reading The Adventures of Fran, you must have good taste.”

“Is it popular?”

“You can’t be serious! In this country, there isn’t a single person who doesn’t know that book. It’s a wonderful novel. A real bestseller.”

“Is it really that interesting?”

This book gives me secondhand embarrassment.

Apparently, no one else in this country shared the sentiment. The bookstore clerk nodded over and over at my question.

“Of course it is! It’s downright fascinating! Miss Witch, I haven’t seen you around here before. Are you a traveler? I think you should do some sightseeing in this country. After all, our country is overflowing with merchandise for The Adventures of Fran, you know.”

“…Hmm.”

“By the way, are you going to buy that?”

I said, “Give me three copies. I want one to save, one to share, and one to enjoy.”

Taking my new purchases, I tried to do some sightseeing, and it was just as the bookstore clerk had said.

The town was teeming with merchandise for Fran the Witch.

For some reason, a bronze statue had been erected that resembled my teacher, and its plaque read THE LEGENDARY TRAVELER—STATUE OF FRAN THE WITCH.

A restaurant there advertised a false-sounding sign declaring it A RESTAURANT BELOVED BY THE LEGENDARY TRAVELER—FRAN THE WITCH.

There were any number of inns declaring themselves to be “the inn that once housed the Legendary Traveler, Fran the Witch.” How many inns did you flit around to, Miss Fran?

“……”

But that’s how popular the Legendary Traveler was.

When I asked some people walking down the street about the stories, I learned some interesting facts.

“Huh? Did you just ask me why Fran the Witch is so popular?”

“About ten years ago, the king of this country purchased the bag that the Legendary Traveler had used from a merchant.”

“When he looked at the contents of that bag, there was allegedly a manuscript inside. And apparently, that was the novel that the Legendary Traveler had written!”

“The king read it and was moved. Then he decided to distribute it as the book that the Legendary Traveler wrote.”

“Everyone read it, and it was really gripping—I bet there isn’t a single person in this country who doesn’t know about Fran the Witch.”

That’s what they told me.

……

“Um, and that so-called Legendary Traveler was Fran the Witch?” I asked each person, and everyone gave me the same answer.

“Of course!” they said.

The merchant and the people of this country are definitely thinking of different people as the Legendary Traveler—

As a matter of fact, The Adventures of Fran did not seem to be that valuable of a book—

Well, there was no reason to go out of my way to contradict them.

As my teacher had once said, the value of things differs depending on the person.

“…But that was a good find, huh?”

While staying in a room at an inn that was supposedly loved by Fran the Witch, I cracked open the book.

I had a feeling that the next time I met Miss Fran, I would have a very, very interesting travel tale for her. I smiled to myself.