Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 2 - Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

A Paradise for the Resurrected

I drifted across the plain, enjoying the soft morning sunlight.

Following the rolling hills, I passed over fields of wildflowers.

The breeze was almost warm, enveloping me as it blew past. It was so relaxing I was worried I’d drift off to sleep and fall right out of the sky.

I could see my destination just up ahead; I had always wanted to visit ever since learning of its existence. And now there it was, right in front of me.

It was a tiny country surrounded by a tall wall. From where I was, I couldn’t get a good look beyond the border.

But I had a feeling in my gut that I’d have a lot of fun there.

At any rate, the border must have employed a different set of skills than in other countries. And by skills, I meant that large letters had been written on the wall.

“…Wow.”

Here’s what was displayed:

THIS COUNTRY HAS BEEN OCCUPIED BY THE DEAD. NO ENTRY.

Wow, very atmospheric.

I went as far as the gate, but it remained closed.

No response to the arrival of a visitor? How weird. Then I can’t get in.

Even when I rapped on the gate—which was so large I had to crane my neck to see the whole thing—my knocks didn’t echo. It just made a feeble clunking sound.

……

Ah, I see. What a group of committed actors. The scene is that the country has been overrun by the dead, huh. That’s why the big gate won’t open. Did I hit the nail on the head or what?

There must be another entrance around here somewhere, right? I wandered about restlessly near the gate.

“Hmm…?”

And I quickly found it.

Next to the gate, there was a relatively small door. In truth, the size of the door was perfectly average, just like you’d see on a house.

“……”

But just as I was about to open it, I noticed a sign stuck to it.

This place has been overrun by the dead. Do not enter.

The words had been messily scrawled, and below that was written However, there are probably survivors other than us. If there is anyone brave and strong enough, please enter and save the people inside.

Incidentally, there was a sign reading OPEN hanging from the doorknob.

“Oh-ho!”

Oh, what an elaborate set. Just as I expected. Okay, I’ll bite.

I opened the door without hesitation.

Because I’m brave and strong.

Inside was the strange country known as the Paradise for the Dead.

It was an incredibly weird place, designed to delight visitors by making a spectacle of spirits called ghouls. (Well, they were actually theatrical props.) It seemed to be a popular destination around these parts. Every time I asked the locals, “Do you have any places you’d recommend I visit?” I could almost guarantee one out of three people would mention this country.

It seemed too interesting a place to pass up, and I had purposefully avoided researching it to avoid any spoilers and found it overflowing with an interesting vibe.

Not only had they set up attractions to hook sightseers before they even passed through the gate, but on the other side, an even more amusing scene awaited.

Most of the buildings were halfway destroyed, with ivy creeping up the sides. The remains of fallen buildings were piled up along the large avenue extending from the gate, and the heads of weeds were poking out from the cracks.

It must have been in this state for quite a while.

“…Oh-ho—”

With just one step beyond the gate, I’d already reached an area that was in ruins. Man, what a cool atmosphere! It felt like a ghoul would pop out at any moment. My hat was off to whoever put all their energy into turning a whole country into a tourist resort.

I soared calmly around the country on my broom. I figured they had made the whole place look like this on purpose. I flew over the sunken road, pockmarked with pools of stagnant water, surveying the area in astonishment—to the extent that I wasn’t looking where I was going.

That’s when it all went down.

“Aaahhh…!” Something jumped out from the side of the road, groaning.

“Ack!”

I was unable to stop my trajectory or even dodge it, and I heard an unpleasant splat as my broom came to a sudden halt.

I’d practically crashed right into the thing.

I was thrown from my broom, flew through the air, and landed right in a puddle, leaving me soaked from the knees down. Well, this sucks.

Needless to say, I was pretty upset.

“Hey! It’s dangerous to jump out like that—”

However, when I turned around, I saw something even worse, and the handle of my broom was lodged deep within it.

“…Oh.”

Before me, I could see my broom: One end was in a puddle of water, and on the other end of it, there was a humanlike figure.

My broom had pierced straight through the man’s temple. The man, gripping swords in both hands and naked from the waist up (with bulging muscles), looked several kinds of dangerous. He was lying facedown in the pool of water.

He was dead. Punctured through the head by a broom.

“…Um.” I fearfully approached the man and touched his shoulder.

And when I did—

“Unh…”

The human-esque creature with the half-rotten face spoke to me. One eye was an empty socket, and drool dribbled from his mouth.

Oh, it’s just a ghoul.

“Are you all right?”

“Ahnnn…”

He seems fine.

Better get going.

I stood on the ghoul’s shoulder and tried to yank my broom out. I couldn’t leave without it, of course.

“Ahnnn…”

But I couldn’t pull it free. The only thing my actions accomplished was making ripples in the puddle as the ghoul’s head splashed up and down.

“Nngh…!” I tugged with more force.

Then, finally, the broom came free with a splorch.

Yay, I got it out!

“…Uahhh—”

Uh-oh, I spoke too soon.

The ghoul’s head was still stuck onto the tip of the broom handle.

Looks like I accidentally pulled off his head. When I glanced down at my feet, the rest of his headless body was still twitching around.

……

Oh, crap.

My visit had only just begun, and I was already damaging public property. Even if I was to put him back together using magic, it would be meaningless if my broom was still impaling him through the head.

But I felt a little awkward wrestling it out by myself. I didn’t really want to touch him.

“……”

For now, why don’t we find someone and apologize…

As one would expect, I didn’t feel like walking around holding a broom with a ghoul’s head stuck on it. So for the time being, I wrapped the ghoul in fabric scraps I picked up around the area and flew on the broom.

But when it was just wrapped in cloth, the head made too much noise, with its Aaahs and its Nnhs, so I ended up stuffing a rock in his mouth. It added a decent heft to the end of the broom.

“Heyyy, is anyone theeere?”

Unfortunately for me, this country was fully committed to setting the scene. Even though I flew around calling for people, no one came to assist me.

“Aanh…”

“Uuuh…”

“Ohhh…”

What’s more, I was even being ignored by the ghouls who just groaned as I flew overhead and made no attempt to follow me.

“…Hmph.”

Before long, I encountered the first living humans I’d seen since entering this country.

“Hey, look! A witch! A witch is here!”

“Heeey! Please help us!”

Two people were waving their hands at me from the window of a very, very large house.

Thank goodness.

I was happier than I thought I’d be to see another living person.

I can finally say good-bye to the ghoul on the end of my broom!

My heart pounded with excitement as I gently picked up speed and proceeded toward the two people.

“……”

And then, I looked down at the garden of the big house.

“They’re really delivering the performance of a lifetime, huh?” I mumbled to myself as I stared at the scene.

Directly below me, ghouls had grouped together, swarming around the garden. There were about one hundred. They were Uhhhing and Ahhhing in a big, awful chorus.

“……”

Now, I was sure no one would mind if I just happened to destroy one.

I hadn’t understood it very well when I had looked from outside, but the moment I entered the building, a weird sensation overtook me.

As for the two people who had been leaning out the window, they were pretty odd, themselves.

“We’re saved! Just as I would expect from a witch. You did a great job spotting us.”

One member of the pair was a woman with disheveled brown hair and glasses. Now, that part seems normal, but for some reason, she had a very large sword strapped to her hip. Wow, she’s so cool.

“We’re so lucky you came! We’ve been stuck in this building for a week, and we were running out of food! Thank you!”

The other half of the pair was a man wearing armor and a helmet. He was also extremely cool. But smelly. I had to take a half step back.

“Are you two working here in this country?”

The woman nodded. “I think it’d be more accurate to say we were working. This country has already broken down into anarchy. As you can see, it’s been completely overrun by ghouls.” She sighed.

I was already over their whole act.

“But if you two are from here, that saves me some time. Actually, I need to apologize to yo—”

“By the way, Miss Witch! Could we ask you your name?!” Mr. Helmet cut in from the side.

You smell!

“Ah, I’m the Ashen Witch, Elaina. It’s nice to meet you, but could you maybe not stand so close?”

“Ah, is that so? It’s nice to meet you! By the way, I’m Anthony. This is my partner, Anna,” he exclaimed, excessively energetic.

Letting his little speech waft right past me, I asked in a roundabout way, “By the way, there are a lot of ghouls in this country, right? Just how many are there?” I tried to lighten the mood a little.

“The mob of them outside are all the real deal. There are no artificial ghouls in operation right now,” said the woman with brown hair and glasses, or rather, Anna.

“Um, let’s just drop the entire gig for a second. Just how many are there?”

“…Well, if we’re counting the artificial ones, there are about fifty.”

“Really? Only fifty? Just from looking at them, I’d say there were more than a hundred outside.”

“Those are the real deal.”

“Yes. I know. That’s the whole act, right?”

“It’s not. They’re genuine ghouls. In the past, we used shabby imitations, but recently some moron started using the real thing, saying ‘Authenticity is important!’ and thanks to him, the ghouls have taken over. The result is…this.”

“……” For some reason, a part of me still wanted to believe she was lying, but her words started to sound a little too real. “That’s…all part of your acting gig, right?”

“It’s all real.”

“……Oh, quit pulling my leg.”

What a joke.

That’s the setup, right? …Right?

“Sorry to disappoint, but I’m telling the truth. If you still don’t believe me, why not try getting bit by one of the ghouls outside? You should have all the proof you need then.”

“……”

“I’ll say this as many times as it takes. This isn’t a joke.”

“……”

“Our country has been overrun by ghouls,” Anna delivered matter-of-factly with a tight smile on her lips.

I couldn’t believe it.

The ghouls running rampant through town are real? Seriously?

The very first thing I did after that was get my broom as far away as possible.

Now that I was up to speed, this country’s unique circumstances didn’t actually seem to be all that complicated. If one was to tell it clearly and concisely, it would be something along these lines:

Rewind to a little more than a week ago. One of the mages living in this country said, “Why is our country doing business using fakes? It would be much better if we went with the genuine article.”

But the citizens had their own opinions about that:

“Isn’t using the real thing just asking for trouble?”

“I don’t understand how we’re supposed to catch the ghouls in the first place!”

And so on.

In response, the male mage laughed. “Don’t worry. I’ll use my amazing powers to control the ghouls.”

So the next day, he brought a number of ghouls with him.

“Hey, look! These ghouls are totally real!”

The people were overjoyed.

“Amazing! Just what you’d expect from a mage!”

“I see… I didn’t realize real ghouls were this nasty…”

“You can tell the ghouls we have right now are cheap imitations.”

“People will be even more excited if we use real ghouls.”

“No objections here.”

The man spoke to the people, who had erupted with glee, nodding vigorously. Then he let their approval go to his head.

He stuck both hands into a ghoul’s mouth and forced it open before saying, “By the way, all the ghouls have had their teeth removed. Ghouls infect living people by biting them, right? By taking the teeth out of the equation, they won’t be able to infect anyone! In other words, this arrangement allows us to use real ghouls without fear of being attacked! Plus, ghouls can live forever even if we don’t give them any food! Meaning that there are no hidden maintenance fees! How about it? Surely you’ve never heard such a good idea!”

The populace was exuberant all over again.

“Incredible! Mages are the best!”

Their hoots and hollers consisted of the same thing as before.

Of course, the man let it go to his head again.

He held his arm out to the ghoul and then took it a step further, forcing the spirit to bite down on his own neck as he let out a high-pitched laugh.

“Look! No matter what the ghoul does, it’s meaningless! I’m unscathed! How about that! Isn’t it just perfect?! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

“Aan…”

“Uuh…”

“Ooooh…”

And then right after that, the country became infested with ghouls. The end.

As far as what actually happened, to make a long story short, the mage was bitten by one of the toothless ghouls who appeared to be docile, but to his surprise, the bite was effective. Apparently, contact with a mucous membrane was all it took.

“The plan looked perfect on paper, but it came apart at the seams,” Anna concluded.

“…So is it safe to say that all the characters in this story were idiots?” I asked.

This was my main takeaway.

Anna replied, “There’s an error in your interpretation. You see, I’m not an idiot.”

“…Well, never mind that. The fact of the matter is that you two are the last remaining survivors of the ghoul epidemic, right?”

“There’s an error in your interpretation. We’re not the only survivors.”

“And by that, you mean…?”

I tilted my head in confusion, and Anna continued, “Well, as far as we’ve been able to confirm, as of right now, there are actually hundreds of survivors. Look out the window. From here, you should be able to see messages that they left.” She pointed to the broken window behind me.

When I turned around, I could see nothing but clear skies overhead. What lovely weather.

“…Hmm.”

Gazing out at the ruined cityscape from the window, I understood what she was trying to tell me.

I hadn’t noticed them while I was flying through the city, but there were signs hoisted all around town with things written on them, like “Help!” and “We’re alive” and “There are children here. Please rescue us!”

“Customers were in here as usual on the day the male mage brought the real ghouls. Which means that some of those day visitors also became ghouls.”

“I see.”

“As long as there are still survivors, I’d like to go around and help the people that made those signs, at least…”

“…That seems like it will be quite difficult.” I looked down.

I made eye contact with a group of ghouls. Ahhh.

Anna sneered at me as I glared back at the ghouls below us, fed up with them. “Oh, it’ll be easy enough to break through that bunch.”

“That many? How?”

As I tilted my head, a metallic clunking noise cut in between us. By which I mean, Mr. Helmet came over.

“You know, we were academics researching the ecology of ghouls back when this country was still functioning normally. Incidentally, Anna is quite distinguished among researchers, as she’s known by the nickname the Ghoul Artisan.”

“I don’t really care about that, but why are you wearing a helmet and armor?”

“It’s cool, right?”

“Amazing.” But smelly.

“Right? So back to what Anna was saying—”

According to Mr. Helmet, Anna had been the number one crafter of imitation ghouls. One could say that, generally speaking, she knew all there was to know about ghoul behavior.

Anna snorted “Hmph” as if this was no big deal. “Well, if we had a specimen, maybe one of the ones that are crammed in directly beneath us here, I could easily make something for ghoul countermeasures. To that effect, I made this.”

She held a small bottle up to me.

“…What is that?”

Connected to an atomizer on top, the bottle was filled to the brim with a dark-red liquid. It looked somehow dirty. It looked like it smelled bad.

“This is ghoul-repelling perfume. Those creatures won’t cannibalize their own kind, no exceptions. So if we can give off the same scent as their buddies, it should be possible to avoid the ghouls. Their sense of smell isn’t amazing, so they shouldn’t be able to sniff out the truth. That’s how I came up with this little invention. If you use this, the ghouls won’t attack you for as long as the scent lasts. It’s perfect.”

“…Oh. That’s amazing.”

“It’s also my get-rich-quick scheme. Heh-heh-heh…”

“……”

Even if a country is in ruins, it isn’t completely destroyed so long as a bold, shameless commercial spirit lives on. This was the first time I realized that fact.

I could only hope that this woman was not the same type of person as the male mage, or whatever he was.

“Uh-oh. What’s this? So you don’t believe me? Well, relax. Its effectiveness has already been proven. The two of us tried going out into town together after putting on the perfume, and the ghouls didn’t even notice us. I’m not going to screw up like that stupid mage.”

……

“In that case, why didn’t you go rescue the townspeople still in hiding?”

“There’s a major reason. A troublesome fact came to light when we went out into town.”

Anna gripped the perfume bottle, looking dejected, and Mr. Helmet continued for her.

“The mage who brought the other ghouls to this country is now a ghoul himself, and…well…he’s incredibly powerful.”

“…What does that mean?”

“It seems he’s a mutant form, and that ghoul mage is supernaturally strong. To make matters worse, the perfume has no effect on him. Even when we hid among a herd of ghouls, he sniffed us out and chased us around. Ugh!”

Mr. Helmet stamped his feet in frustration. So noisy.

“Dammit… If we could just do something about that ghoul mage…! If only he weren’t around…! We would be able to go around and help everyone…!”

Anna was glancing at me to gauge my reaction.

She thinks she’s so slick.

……

Is she seriously trying to use me?

Indifferent to my sixth sense of impending doom, Anna continued talking. “The mage turned ghoul is a powerful enemy, unlike the average ghoul. He’s very muscular, and for some reason, he doesn’t wear a shirt. To make matters worse, he carries a sword in each hand. We tried mimicking him and carrying swords, too, but we didn’t stand a chance against him. If only we had someone who was capable of striking at him from a good distance away, we’d definitely be able to take him down. Then we could go around helping people.”

My terrible hunch was proving to be right. Then, suddenly—

“…Mm?”

Something strange occurred to me.

Hey.

Hmm?

Muscular? Half-naked? A sword in each hand?

I had seen someone who checked those boxes somewhere before. To be more specific, just after I had entered the country.

“…Um.” I trotted over to pick up the broom I had tossed aside earlier and peeled off the strip of cloth wrapped around the bulge on the end. “By any chance, did the ghoul mage have a face that looked something like this?”

Liberated from the fabric, the ghoul…or his head anyway, spit out the stone that had been stuffed into his mouth and turned toward the two of them, groaning a greeting. “Ngaa…”

“……”

“……”

The two were silent for a moment, then looked at each other.

And then, bang! They exchanged a booming high five.

“You’re the greatest!” said Anna.

“I get that a lot.”

As it happened, I didn’t bring him down from a long distance, but from no distance at all.

Right before we headed out, as Anna was sprinkling perfume over herself and Mr. Helmet, she said, “Ready? Here’s the plan. First, the two of us wearing perfume will go out into town. You’ll give us directions from up in the air, Miss Witch. From there, you should be able to get a good view of the houses that seem to be waiting for rescue, right?”

The smell of the ghoul repellent perfume was already in full effect, so stinky that just a whiff made you wonder if they had covered themselves with excrement.

“Uuuurp…”

By the way, Mr. Helmet actually did cover himself with excrement. His legs were sloshing with it.

Gross.

“All right, Miss Witch. Next, it’s your turn.”

“Um, thanks, but I’ve got this, so I’ll be fine.”

I gestured to the ghoul head stuck to my broom and turned Anna down.

Our rescue operations began in a casual fashion.

“I can see a house with HELP! written on it after you turn that corner. And there are five ghouls on the road,” I said, giving directions.

“Roger.” The two nodded and headed down the road.

To my surprise, the perfume seemed to be working, and the ghouls didn’t pay any mind at all to the two of them, letting them pass by with a moan.

So they were able to rescue the hidden citizens without difficulty.

“Thank you! I didn’t think anyone would come rescue us!”

“You guys stink.”

We had rescued a couple.

Anna showered the embracing couple in perfume without mercy. They promptly threw up.

And so the rescue operations continued.

I would give directions from the sky, guiding the horribly smelly people to salvation. However, the rescued—the people who had survived until now, without exception, were all people with hopeless backstories.

For example—

“Heh-heh… So this is the last bottle, huh…? Heh-heh-heh…”

There was someone who was practically drowning in alcohol.

“Guh… I’ll take on these ghouls! You all go ahead!”

There was someone who suddenly started spouting nonsense.

We came to rescue you; what are you talking about?

“The ghouls are no match for us, seriously.”

“Totally; it’s an easy win. They move so slow.”

“Anyone who’s afraid of ghouls is a total coward, for real.”

“Woot-woot!”

We found a group of carefree teens loudly hooting. It was a total mystery how they had survived this long.

“She’s not here! My sweet little Madonna has been missing since yesterday! Madonnaaaaaa!”

There was also a rich-looking middle-aged woman searching for her dog that had suddenly disappeared. I knew her type. On top of being completely useless, these people were seriously prone to dangerous flights of fancy, so I was opposed to taking her along, but in the end, the woman came with us.

“Nooo, I’m scaaared. I hate ghouls and stuff.”

There was a woman with a voice so sickly sweet, I thought my ears would rot just from listening to her. They rescued her, too, of course. And then she was sprayed from top to bottom with perfume and covered with excrement. Yaaay.

“……”

Before I knew it, we had rescued ten people.

What was it about them? I got the feeling that the only people left alive were the hopeless ones who normally would be the first to die.

Of course, our rescue operations didn’t have a one hundred percent success rate. We’d visited a few houses with the intent to rescue the people inside, only to discover that we were too late.

“Hey! We came to…help…”

“Aaann…”

“Unn…”

The people who politely came out to meet Anna when she briskly opened the door had already turned into ghouls. About ten of them.

“…Damn. Looks like this house is a bust.” Anna clicked her tongue in frustration, like something had gotten on her nerves.

It was around that time that she and her companion began to lose it.

“…Another bust, huh.”

Whenever they found residents who had already turned, or when the numbers of the survivors swelled, Anna and her partner would become arrogant.

“Hey, hey. They’ve turned into ghouls. Let’s hunt them down right away, shall we?”

Finally, when they found yet more ghouls in one of the houses on the rescue mission, they began slashing with their swords.

“Niiiiiice! More ghouls! Hunt them down! Don’t let a single one escape!”

In the end, it turned violent.

“……”

Pretty soon, I had trouble telling who the real ghouls were.

I wouldn’t mind some perfume for repelling fanatic ghoul hunters.

The ten survivors gathered in front of the gate.

Standing on top of rubble, Anna looked down at them.

“Once you pass through this gate, you’ll be able to return to the outside world. Anyone who wants to escape, you may do so right now.”

Standing next to her, Mr. Helmet finished her speech. “We intend to remain here and rebuild. We can’t allow our country to remain a base of operations for ghouls. We’d like to resurrect it as a theme park.”

“If there are any among you who want to stay with us and spearhead the rebirth of this country, your assistance would be greatly appreciated. Won’t you work together with us to resurrect the greatest theme park ever? If you would like to volunteer, please raise your hands.”

The survivors just stood there silently. A few inhuman figures shuffled around them and between them, groaning “Uaagh…”

Finally, one man raised his hand.

“S-say…if we work for you, will you give us some of that perfume?”

As for who it was, it was the man who had been deep in his cups.

Anna nodded readily. “Of course.”

“In that case, I’ll do it! Heh-heh… I’m already getting addicted to the smell of that perfume, you know… I can’t give it up… Heh-heh-heh…”

I suddenly got the feeling that he was a dangerous individual even before this whole disaster.

One after another, people started following him and expressed their support for Anna’s mission.

“I’ll do it, too! I haven’t found my darling Madonna yet!” said the rich lady searching for her dog.

“I’ll go, too!” said the girl with the too-sweet voice.

“Woot-woot!” hooted the rambunctious group of teens. They probably didn’t think much of it. I’m sure that they were leaving everything up to the mood of the place.

Finally—

Every person in that place raised their hand and got on board with Anna’s plan.

“Hooray, Anna! If we have this many people, we can definitely revive the country!” Mr. Helmet was extremely pleased with the situation.

“Heh-heh-heh… The reconstruction will go off without a hitch, and once the country is resurrected, I’ll be a billionaire… Heh-heh-heh…”

Anna was mumbling some disagreeable things to herself.

…She’s dead set on making money.

Right before I left the country, I got Anna to take off the ghoul’s head.

“So it turns out you’re the only one who’s going to leave the country, huh?”

Anna yanked it out with her bare hands, chucking it far away.

The head fell to the ground in front of the group of carefree youngsters who kicked away as they Woot-wooted.

Gross.

“It seemed like a good idea to leave before the end of the day.”

“If you’re feeling up to it, come back in a month. By then, I’m sure our country’ll be back to normal—in fact, it should be even better than it was before.”

“……”

I replied with silence, then looked over her shoulder. The survivors were all gathered together, punting the ghoul head. I didn’t watch for long.

“Well, if I feel like it, I might come again.”

In the end, I left the country without making any definite promises.

But, well, eventually, I would probably end up coming back. Because I still hadn’t gotten my chance to experience the country in the way I’d hoped after being excited for so long.

One month later.

I followed the same road, proceeded toward the same walls inscribed with writing, and made it through the door that had an OPEN sign on it.

And then I soared through the country on my broom, same as before.

Well, what do you think I found there?

“Aan…”

“Uooah…”

“Uee…i.”

“Uwah…”

“Ohhh…”

…What’s going on?

“It’s completely in ruins…”

It was completely in ruins.

To clarify, all the familiar faces had, without exception, been changed into ghouls. Anna, Mr. Helmet (I forgot his name), the rich-looking lady, the hooting lads, the drunk man, the couple.

They were all ghouls. Not a single living soul was left.

“Huh… But why?”

My mouth hung agape in astonishment. What had happened in the month since I had left?

“Aaah…”

“Ooooh…”

“Anhh…”

“Ouuu…”

I watched them for a little while, dumbfounded, and saw Ghoul-Anna hand a perfume bottle to Mr. Helmet and, in return, receive a notebook from him.

The notebook had Armor Diary written on it in big letters.

I immediately snatched it from above, ignoring a sad groan from Ghoul-Anna, and flew back up into the sky.

I thought I might learn what had happened in the course of the past month if I read the diary.

“……”

So I opened it.

XX Month / XX Day

My armor is in excellent condition again today. The way it shines is especially splendid. I want to ignore my research and pour all my energy into my armor. I really love my armor. I love it.

“Oh. Who cares?”

I skipped ahead.

XX Month / XX Day

Today we were able to take the first steps toward the restoration of this country, thanks to a witch.

Anna is very happy, too. We had a party, an advance celebration of the restoration. Using the head of that mage as a ball was so fun. After the party, the woman who was looking for her dog disappeared somewhere. Oh well.

XX Month / XX Day

Three days have passed since we began preparations for the restoration. Everyone’s really motivated. Anna is absorbed in her research, so I’m keeping busy by brainstorming attractions. Everyone else chipping in, according to their specialties. The older woman is still missing, but oh well. It’s probably nothing to worry about.

XX Month / XX Day

The woman who was searching for her dog finally came back, but not before she had been turned into a ghoul. She must have run out of perfume.

XX Month / XX Day

Something terrible happened.

While we were prepping one of the attractions, one of the youngsters was bitten by a ghoul. Not by a human ghoul. By a dog ghoul. And it had a tag on its neck that said Madonna.

It seems that Anna’s perfume doesn’t have any effect on dog ghouls. Apparently, they can detect human smells even when it’s mixed in with ghoul scent.

The people I had been working with on the restoration preparations were bitten one after the other. Anna, too. Actually, I’m the only one left. This sucks.

By the way, I was safe because I was wearing my armor. Even though I was bitten, it’s impossible for a dog’s fangs to pierce metal.

Thank goodness I had on my armor.

My plan right now is to try to escape tomorrow morning. Right now, I’m just so…sleepy…

XX Month / XX Day

They got me while I was asleep. I thought I was only dreaming that my helmet was torn off by some doglike creature. This is the worst.

XX Month / XX Day

…Shit.

The diary ended there.

And there you have it. The plan looked perfect on paper, but it came apart at the seams—These were words Anna had once spoken to a certain someone.

In her own mind, there’s no doubt that the strategy of making ghoul-repelling perfume was a perfect one. However, that unraveled in a way that no one expected.

“Aaah…”

“Woo…t.”

“Ooooh…”

“Augh…”

“Blergh…”

If I were to describe what Ghoul-Anna had been doing ever since I took the book from her, she seemed to be doing business with the other ghouls. She was taking notebooks, rotting meat, and clothing from the ghouls, and in return, she was handing them boxes stuffed with perfume bottles.

Apparently, the ghoul-scented perfume was popular among ghouls, as those who received the boxes all doused themselves with it and moaned with ecstatic expressions while drooling.

“……”

I guess even death couldn’t extinguish her shrewd soul of a saleswoman.

I left the country soon after that.

There wasn’t really anything else to do, so after witnessing the people’s fate, I left. In the end, I still hadn’t been able to experience the country I had long looked forward to seeing, but in exchange, I had gotten to see something rather amusing.

From now on, this country would be the land of the resurrected, hanging on by a thread in a remote corner of the world. Living people were no longer needed there. It could be a paradise for the dead only.

Therefore, in order to allow them to immerse themselves in their own world—my final responsibility, as someone who had been involved—I returned to the sign on the small door of the gate.

Then I flipped it around from OPEN to CLOSED.