Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 2 - Chapter 6

CHAPTER 6

Before the Snow Melts

It was a cold winter day.

All sorts of people were meandering along the snowy road. Among them was a girl wearing a tattered hood, her eyes downcast.

“…It’s so cold.”

Her name was Elise. She was a cute little girl with long golden hair and skin as white as snow.

She was twelve years old.

Still a child.

“……”

The girl walked for a little while longer before arriving at a bakery.

Only two people occupied the shop: an older man—the owner of the place—who was reading a newspaper, and a young witch, who was staring at the bread lined up on the shelves with a blissful smile.

“Mister, I’ll take this one, please.”

At that, the man glanced over, folding his paper, then looked at Elise with a troubled expression.

“Back again, huh? …Sorry, but I can’t sell ya any bread. Hurry up an’ go home.”

“Why? I’ve got money. Sell it to me. I want to give my little sister something good to eat.” She dropped what she had on the counter.

“C’mon, I can’t take money that ya stole from who knows where.” The proprietor put his palm on top of the pile and pushed it back toward her.

“…Sell me bread.”

“Ya never give up. I already told ya, I don’t sell ta monsters.”

“…”

The girl turned and left the shop without buying anything.

“……?”

The young witch watched their exchange with considerable confusion.

Shortly after being turned away from the bakery, Elise arrived at a small street stall.

“……”

It was an unmanned counter. There was no shopkeeper, only a box for depositing money. On it was written ONE APPLE FOR ONE COPPER PIECE. PLEASE LEAVE PAYMENTS IN THE BOX.

Since no store would sell her food, recently the girl had eaten nothing but these apples.

I’d like to give my sister something to eat besides apples once in a while.

As she thought this, Elise placed the apples into her bag and put the money for her purchases into the box.

However.

“Hey, you. What are you doing?”

There was a voice, and someone grabbed her hand. She looked up in surprise and saw a man making a scary face.

“I set up this box for humans to use. I didn’t make it to sell to the likes of you—give those apples back.”

“But I paid…”

“I don’t care. I don’t want your money.”

“……”

“Come on, give them back, Monster.”

Then his grip on her hand tightened.

At this rate, we’re going to lose our only remaining source of food. We won’t make it through the winter. My sister will probably die— With wild thoughts running through her mind, Elise panicked.

Chomp.

She bit down on the man’s hand as hard as she could.

“Ow! What the hell’re you doing, you brat?!”

The man flinched for a moment, and Elise wriggled out of his grasp and darted away, still clutching the apples.

She kept running, watching her surroundings carefully, until she finally made it home.

More than half the roof had collapsed—the aftermath of a fire—and the part that still had some roof left was lacking a proper floor. There were holes in the walls, which were practically paper-thin and offered no protection from the wind, rain, and snow.

This is what she called home.

“……”

In front of the house, there was a small package, which perfectly fit in her two hands. Morning, noon, and night, there was always a small bundle left in front of their house.

But maybe, just maybe, there was something different inside today. With a faint bit of hope, the girl crouched down, hands on the package.

And then she opened it.

“Ugh! Gross!”

Elise immediately threw it aside. The package sailed through the air before crashing into the wall of a nearby house. The corpses of mice and all kinds of bugs exploded from the wrapping and scattered across the snow.

Their mud-colored carcasses slowly sank into pillowy white.

“…Oh no. And we went to all the trouble to make it.”

“What a wasteful thing to do.”

“How awful.”

Several neighbors stood watching her, exchanging words.

After glaring at those people, Elise disappeared into her home.

“Welcome back, big sister!”

Elise heard a voice from a corner of the house. She stepped farther inside and saw a smiling girl wrapped in a patchwork quilt.

She was the spitting image of Elise, with golden hair and pale-white skin.

She was Elise’s sister, two years younger.

Her name was Mirina.

“I’m home, Mirina—Here, I brought you something.”

After Elise had nestled close to her younger sister and wrapped herself in the blanket with her, she pulled a fresh green apple out of her bag and handed it to Mirina.

“Wow, amazing! How did you get this?”

“I bought it just for you because I want you to get better soon. Eat up, okay?”

“I will! Thank you!”

Watching Mirina smile as she bit into the apple, Elise’s expression softened a little.

“How are you feeling?”

“Much better, now that I’m eating an apple!”

“Oh? I’m glad.” Recalling the incident in front of the street stall, she felt a prickling pain in her heart. “…But I’m really sorry about everything.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“Don’t you get tired of eating the same thing all the time?”

“Hmm…? But I love apples! I’m happy eating them every day!”

“…I see.”

That’s good— Elise put her hand into her bag and fished out her own apple.

When all the apples were gone, this time for sure, they would have nothing to eat. Their lifeline had been severed.

Elise pulled back her hood as she bit into the apple, brooding over the dark future ahead. In the safety of home, there was no need to hide what was protruding from her head.

“…Sigh.”

Appearing from beneath the tight hood were two curled sheep horns.

The girl was a beastkin; she possessed a human form with a touch of the wild.

Sadly, she had brought home only enough apples for one day. By the next morning, they would be out of food. Elise slowly slipped out of the blanket, so as not to wake Mirina, and headed for the main street of town—toward the stall with the apples.

After checking that the proprietor was nowhere nearby, Elise took a number of apples and dropped them in her bag.

Then, after her bag was full, she took money from her pocket and was about to drop it in the box…

“…No, that’s all right. I don’t need to put any money in.”

…but then she didn’t.

It doesn’t matter if I pay or not. Which means I can steal as much as I want. This isn’t a bad thing to do. I’m not a bad person.

Repeating excuses to herself, the girl turned to leave the stand.

Then it happened.

A hand came down on Elise’s shoulder.

When she looked up in surprise, there stood a witch.

“You mustn’t do that. You have to pay for what you take.”

It was the young witch she had seen in the bakery the day before.

Tossing several silver pieces into the box, she said, “Why don’t we talk for a little while?”

Her ashen hair swung loosely, and she smiled gently as she spoke.

I had been traveling without a care in the world when I was first summoned by a government official, right after I had done some shopping at the bakery on my first day in the country.

From time to time, I’m called upon as a witch to help solve some country’s problems.

“Please have a seat over there, Lady Elaina.”

I was shown to the waiting room, where I took a seat on one of the sofas facing each other across a coffee table, bowing before I sat.

“So what seems to be the problem? Oh, want some bread?”

“No, thank you.”

“Really? …Mind if I eat while I listen?”

“…Go ahead.”

“Thanks.”

From my bag, I retrieved a piece of the bread I had just purchased from the bakery and stuffed it into my mouth.

The government official sighed and began his explanation.

“Our country has a bit of a problem right now… We’d like to ask you to solve it for us, Madam Witch.”

“Mm-hmm.”

Om-nom.

“……”

Wearing a dubious expression, the official continued, “Our request to you at this time involves this beastkin.” He handed me a sketch.

It depicted a human with a strange form…or what looked like a human. The most striking characteristic was the pair of horns growing out of the girl’s head. They were curly and crooked, just like a sheep’s.

“The truth is, there are these creatures currently living in our country, but there’s a problem… To put it plainly, a rift has formed between these beastkin and our citizens. So we want to get the beasts to leave the country for the time being.”

And then he told me the full story behind the request.

He told me about the cruel country, and its people, and the pitiful little girl.

“……”

I wonder what kind of expression I was wearing after I had heard the whole story.

I’m sure it wasn’t a very nice face.

It must have been scornful. It must have been angry.

“…Are you telling me that’s the reason you’re banishing a child from this city?” I asked.

He tightened his fists at my statement and nodded slowly.

“Personally, I can’t help feeling sorry for them… However, now that the situation has worsened, there’s no other way.” He continued, wearing a very gloomy, heartbroken expression, “Please. Isn’t there some way you can save her…?”

I didn’t want to decide whether to accept the commission based only on the official’s story. That’s why I decided to spend a day looking into the state of things myself.

I went to the place marked on the map that the government official gave me, the place where the beastkin were currently living—and found a dilapidated house there, more than halfway collapsed.

“…Goodness.”

I found the girls living inside and was quite surprised.

One was the girl I had seen at the bakery the day before.

“……”

And so I decided to accept the commission from the government.

I didn’t meet the girl in person that day. First, I did some investigating. I went around asking about the beastkin girls, interviewing the proprietor of yesterday’s bakery, the owners of the shops lining the city’s main street, random passersby, and people in the neighborhood.

Every one of them told me the same thing, more or less.

The following morning, I set up a stakeout next to the crumbling house and watched the girl leave. She was headed for one of the stalls. It seemed to be an unmanned counter with a box set up for depositing money.

And there, the girl did a bad thing.

So I immediately stepped in to stop her.

“You mustn’t do that. You have to pay for what you take,” I said as I clapped a hand down on her shoulder.

I took her with me to a restaurant on a street corner. It was mostly empty because it was early in the morning.

After we were seated by the window, we turned to face each other.

“……”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I assured the girl. “It’s my treat.”

Even as I told her she didn’t need to pay for the mouth-watering dishes lining up on the table, the girl’s expression was as gloomy as always.

I wonder if she’s nervous. She’s probably bothered by the negative attention she’s getting from the other people in here.

“What’s your name?”

“…Elise.”

“Elise, is it? My name is Elaina. I’m a traveling witch.”

“……”

“So what exactly were you doing earlier?”

The girl flinched and drew her hood farther down to cover her face.

“…Um, please don’t tell anyone about that.”

“I didn’t ask to threaten you. I was just curious. I believe we first met in the bakery the day before yesterday, didn’t we? You were acting a little strange back then, too, so I was curious about you.”

“……”

“And so, if you don’t mind, would you tell me about yourself?”

I made my inquiry, and Elise finally spoke normally. “…If I tell you about myself, I’m sure you won’t like what you hear.”

“Because you have horns growing out of your head?”

“How did you…?”

“I mean, I could see them under your hood the whole time. They’re cute horns, curly like a sheep’s.”

Elise quickly looked out the window. Brown horns peeked out of her hood, reflected in the glass.

“I’m a traveler. I’ve seen all sorts of people and hold no prejudices. I really don’t find you unpleasant.”

I actually think the horns are pretty cute. I said something to that effect, and she finally turned back to face me.

And then she began to talk, a little at a time, as if resigned to it.

“Um, please don’t tell anyone else this, but…”

She told me her story.

In the past, Elise had lived a quiet life with her family on a remote mountain.

Her father and mother had hunted the animals of the mountain with bows and arrows, and together with her sickly little sister, Elise had cooked the game they brought back. She and her family had passed their days in peace.

Then, about a month ago, something had happened.

“We’ll teach you to shoot a bow when we get home,” her mother and father had said, and then they went out together to hunt, like always.

While Elise waited with her little sister for their return, she had become restless, thinking about how she was finally about to come of age.

But even though the two girls waited and waited, their parents didn’t come back. Were they having a hard time hunting? Hours passed, but their parents never returned.

The following day, strangers pulled up in a big carriage and paid a visit to their home. One person introduced himself as a government official of the nearby country. There were three merchants with him.

The adults who had suddenly appeared outside their home took two huge sacks down from the carriage and told the girls the sad truth.

Elise’s parents had fallen off a cliff while hunting and perished. The merchants had found their bodies as they traversed the mountain. As he told them this, the official opened the sacks to show the girls the battered remains of their parents.

The girls wept. They clung to the bodies and wailed at the top of their lungs. But the bodies of their parents had long since grown cold.

The government official had a proposal for the girls, now that they had no parents to support them.

“There’s no way we can just leave you here by yourselves. I’d like to take custody of you in our country.”

After commissioning the merchants who had found the corpses to make gravestones for the parents, the official took the girls by the hands. Without a moment to come to grips with reality, the two girls were whisked away to a strange new place.

When they arrived in this country, a house was provided for them to live in.

“From now on, I’m going to leave food in front of your house every day; so eat it, okay? Also, here’s money to live on.”

He placed food and just enough money for everyday expenses into Elise’s hands. “I’ll bring you money at regular intervals, as well. You can use it however you like. I don’t mind. If you lose it, please let me know right away.”

He also told her, “Until your heart is whole again, our country will look after you.”

The country accepted the two girls.

“…But the people who live here were not so welcoming.”

After a short pause, Elise said, “Right after it was decided that we would live in this country, the house that had been prepared for us was set on fire.”

“……”

I recalled the place where she was living presently. It was a burned-out husk, more than half turned to rubble.

“The harassment continued after our house was burned, of course. We’re treated like monsters by everyone we meet, we’re not allowed to buy anything even though we have money, and the food and funds the official brings are all for nothing.”

“……”

“So until the day before yesterday, we were living on apples from the unmanned stall, but—”

That went south, too.

I see.

“…I understand your situation. You could say you’re in legit danger, and you’ll probably starve to death if things continue as they are; is that right?”

“…Yeah. Well, something like that, I guess.”

“I see, I see. I think I’ve got the picture.” I nodded several times. “By the way, I have one favor to ask. Is that okay?”

“What is it?”

“If you’ll listen to my request, you can eat all this food. You can even take the leftovers home.”

“I thought you said this was your treat…”

“Oh, go ahead and forget I said that.”

“……”

“Well?”

“…What’s your request?” She stared at me, eyeing me cautiously.

After a dramatic pause, I looked right back at her and made a simple request:

“Please allow me to help you.”

Elise continued staring at me, but this time, it was in confusion, maybe because she wasn’t expecting this.

As I waited for her answer, I reached for my knife and fork. We had been talking for so long that all the food we had ordered had gone cold.

At this point, the girl didn’t have many options—or any, really. She wasn’t allowed to use money, so she couldn’t even get the bare necessities. And since there was no one in the country she could really depend on, the girl had no choice but to join forces with an outsider like me. At least she was sharp enough not to let this chance slip away.

“……Hey, what would you do if I denied your request?”

“I’d spread the news of what you were trying to do at the unmanned stand.”

“…No fair. You said you wouldn’t threaten me earlier.”

“Oh, go ahead and forget I said that.”

“……”

“Well, how about it? Will you grant my humble request?”

“…Fine. But you do know I have nothing to offer in return, right, Elaina?”

“That’s all right. I’ve got a lot of time to kill. Besides…”

“…?”

“I’m not the kind of coldhearted person who can ignore your plight after hearing a story like that.”

And so it was decided that I would help Elise.

But it was too annoying to do something that very day—er, what I mean is, I needed time to prepare, so I let her go for the moment.

And then, the following morning, we met up next to the gate—outside the city.

“…It’s so cold!” I stamped my feet, clutched my gear, and waited several minutes.

She passed through the gate looking the same as yesterday. She trotted over when she saw me.

“Sorry. I was running late… Huh, what’s that?”

Elise’s gaze fell on the thing in my hand.

“Oh, this? It’s a bow and arrow.”

As I plucked at the bowstring and listened to the sound it made, I said, “I thought I would teach you how to handle a bow, Elise.”

“Why?”

“If you learn to hunt for your own food, you won’t have any reason to rely on the people of the country, will you?”

Which means that yesterday I had gone around acquiring a bow and arrow, along with various things the girl would need from now on.

“Miss Witch, can you shoot a bow?”

“I’m so good that I can pierce an apple placed on top of someone’s head.”

“Huh? When would you ever need to do that…?”

“You could call me an expert. I’m so good that if I was ordered to entertain someone with my archery skills, I could reluctantly shoot an arrow through a paper fan that was swaying on top of a boat.”

“Again, when would you possibly need to do that…?”

I pulled the dubious girl by the hand, and we walked into the forest of white.

Inside the forest, where tall trees grew in rows, a handmade, fully equipped archery range was waiting for us. The surface of one of the trees had been shaved down flat and had a round target carved into it. There was a sign placed in a spot a little distance from the tree, upon which was written: Please aim for the target from here (rewards given for hitting the center).

By the way, it was my handwriting.

“There’s no way you’ll hit anything if you try hunting animals from the get-go, so let’s practice here for a bit.”

This was the place I had secretly prepared the day before.

“What kinds of rewards will I get?”

“Heh-heh, you’ll find out after you hit the target.”

And then I stood next to Elise and showed her the correct way to hold the bow, as well as certain techniques for hitting the target.

“For now, try taking a shot.”

“Okay… Hyah.”

She loosed the arrow, and it fell to the ground right in front of her.

“…Did you think the target was buried beneath the snow somewhere?” I asked.

“……”

And that’s how the curtain rose on our training days.

Nearly every day, we would leave the city early in the morning, practice archery in the forest, return to the city in the afternoon, shivering cold, go to a restaurant, and then return to the forest with full bellies.

It wasn’t long before Elise’s arrows flew straight and hit their mark.

In less than three days, her shots were looking clean. She picked that up surprisingly quickly. Or could it be that I am a particularly skillful instructor? Do I have a future in teaching?

“Oh, yay! Look, Elaina! I hit the center!”

On the fifth day of training, I heard a thunk and then Elise’s cheerful shout.

“Hey, what are you going to give me for a reward?”

Rushing over to me in her excitement, Elise wore a broad smile.

So I spoke, putting on an air of importance.

“I’ll buy you all the clothes you want. That’s your reward.”

I had thought that this would make her happy, but her face scrunched into a complicated expression.

“…You mean…only for me, right?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Um… I was hoping I could ask you to buy some for my sister, too.”

“……”

I patted Elise’s head gently.

“If that’s what you want, you can have it, no matter the cost.”

Running her fingers over her stiff clothes and feeling the rough texture of her horns, she smiled with her eyes.

“Yay!”

With her new wardrobe, Elise was ready for the next phase of her training. On the snowbanks, her petite footsteps had made little wave patterns as she stepped back and forth. Some distance ahead of her was a white rabbit that blended into the snow, twitching its nose and ears as it hopped off somewhere.

Today we were aiming not for still targets but living prey.

“Is there a reward this time, too?”

“If you hit that, I’ll let you eat my delicious home cooking.”

“…Is it more delicious than the restaurants we always go to?”

“It’s mean to have the same standards for amateurs and pros.”

“…I wish it was a different prize—”

“That’s a little too honest, Elise.”

“Eh-heh-heh.”

“Hey, your rabbit is going to run away if we keep wasting time,” I said, and Elise seemed to remember her task, readied the bow, and turned a keen eye toward the rabbit.

Then she exhaled one white puff of breath and released her finger.

The arrow buried itself into the snow with a thunk.

“…Did you think the rabbit was hibernating beneath the snow?”

And so, just as before, we spent many days going back and forth between the forest outside the city and the restaurants inside.

“Oh no, I ordered more than I can eat today, again! My mistake. Here, you can have it. Enjoy it at home.”

As we sat in the restaurant, I handed Elise my leftover food, as always.

“Thank you, Miss Elaina.”

Taking the leftovers carefully with both hands, Elise smiled faintly. The girl who always wore a dark expression now graced her gentle face with a warm smile—or so it appeared.

Maybe I’ve got the wrong impression. Maybe it’s hubris.

But I got the feeling that her story was headed in a positive direction, little by little.

Maybe I’ll be able to complete this job in my own way.

The day after I had that idea, Elise brought down her first rabbit. The snow had finally stopped, giving way to a beautiful sunny day.

“Hey, look, Elaina! I did it! I did it; look!”

A small field rabbit lay stretched out atop a mound of snow glittering in the sunlight. Its legs were twitching as if it meant to escape the arrow sticking out of its neck, and a red stain was spreading out on the white snow.

“Finally. Looks tasty.”

Without waiting for the rabbit’s life to come to an end, I held up the arrow. The rabbit came with it, hanging limply and heavily.

“…So about that prize you mentioned…”

“Yep. It’s my home cooking.”

“You mean you’re going to cook this?”

“That’s right.”

“Can you handle it?”

“I may look sophisticated, but I’m top-notch when it comes to dressing a rabbit. In fact, I’m too good. I make all the rabbits tremble in fear.”

“…Aren’t rabbits always trembling?”

“Also, this isn’t part of your prize, but I have a proposal.”

“What?”

I laid the rabbit, which had finally stopped moving, down on a patch of clean, unbloodied snow. There was a crunching noise, and the snow directly below the rabbit parted, as if splitting open.

“You have a house you used to live in long ago, right? Don’t you have any desire to live there again?”

“In our old house? But—”

“You’ve learned to hunt on your own. You no longer have any reason to stay in that city. So how about it? Do you feel like returning once again to the house where you lived with your parents?”

“……”

She was silent.

“Of course, I’m not trying to force you, though.”

I waited eagerly for her to speak again.

Silence fell over the forest. After a little time had passed, as if she had remembered what was going on, Elise nodded.

“That’s…right. Yes. I want to go. I probably should have left this city a long time ago.”

Her words brought me relief.

Now she would definitely thrive—or so I thought.

After bleeding out the rabbit Elise had caught, we tied it up with string and headed back to the city.

It was lunchtime when we got back, and there were plenty of people on the main street. When we passed them, they gawked like they were witnessing something unusual, and each time, Elise shrank a little more.

“You don’t have anything to worry about anymore,” I said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She smiled weakly.

For her, getting some distance from this country—from the thing that resembled a house, destroyed by fire—was a cause for happiness. As soon as we arrived at the house, Elise ran to gather her things.

The government official who had commissioned me appeared exactly at that moment.

“…Lady Elaina. How is that request coming along?” Holding a small package in his hands, he bowed slightly.

“Swimmingly. I think that things will soon go the way you all had hoped.”

“…Is that so? That’s good.”

“You don’t seem too happy about that.”

“Well, when our wishes come true, it isn’t always in our best interest in the end.”

After a moment’s pause, I said, “I’ve been trying to do the very best I can for her sake. And now this can all come to an end. There’s no need for you to leave those packages anymore.”

I could see that the government official gripped the package more tightly.

“…Thank you very much. Please accept our apology for dragging you into our business.” After bowing very deeply, the official turned his back on me. “This is rather forward of me,” he said over his shoulder, “but could I make just one more request of you, Miss Elaina?”

“Depending on what it is, I might require an additional fee; is that all right?”

He didn’t answer. He simply said, “If you get the chance, I would appreciate it if you could somehow convey our true feelings to her.” Then he walked away.

I had no response.

Because I didn’t know whether I would be able to do that.

“……”

Elise came back shortly after the official left, balancing a great deal of luggage in both arms.

“Sorry for the wait. It took a while to pack everything after I woke my sister up.”

She had her little sister on her back.

“I haven’t introduced you to Miss Elaina yet, have I? This is my little sister, Mirina.”

It felt like the time when I would have to tell her their true feelings was drawing near.

We walked on, slowly but steadily.

“We’re home,” Elise said, sweeping off the snow that was stuck to her shoes near the front door. She walked inside, still carrying Mirina.

“……”

Imitating her, I brushed myself off and followed the trail of melting snow into the house. The small, snowy footsteps led from the entryway to the dining room.

Just in front of the kitchen, there was a table set up with two chairs on each side. They had likely been occupied by the four family members once upon a time.

She pulled out one of the chairs and sat her sister down in it.

“Hey, Elaina. What kind of dish are you going to prepare using that rabbit?” Elise’s gaze turned toward my hand.

“…How about cream stew?”

“Yay! Mirina loves that!” Elise hugged her sister’s shoulders from behind, happy as can be.

There was no response.

“…Yep! This is gonna be great.” Elise nodded at her sister with a wide smile.

“……I’m going to start the cooking,” I said. “So wait just a little while longer, Elise.”

“Okay, I’ll wait here with my sister.”

Still smiling, Elise sat down next to Mirina.

“…Okay.”

My voice echoed vacantly through the house.

I heard her cheerfully chatting as I busied myself in the kitchen.

“Hey, this is really nostalgic, isn’t it?”

“I’m going to take the place of Mom and Dad from now on, okay, Mirina? Oh, but since I have to do the cooking, too, I think I’ll have even more jobs than they did.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure I can do a great job.”

It had been like this the whole way here. It had been particularly awful as we exited the city, Elise holding her sister in her arms. The whole way, she had been smiling and listening to her little sister’s voice, which I couldn’t hear.

“……”

A pleasant aroma wafted out of the pot that had been brought to a bubbling boil.

Amid the suffocating atmosphere, I was finally able to suck in a breath. After inhaling deeply, I stirred the pot, and the fragrance of carrots, potatoes, and rabbit meat stewing in cloudy-white cream filled the air.

“……”

Everything I had done since arriving in this country had amounted to nothing.

This included agreeing to the official’s request, getting the girl out of the cruel city, and, at the same time, providing her with an environment where she could be able to hunt and live on her own. I had worked hard for her to be able to return to this house.

I thought if I could get her this far—get her out of the city, away from other people—then the pitiful girl would come to her senses.

But it was no good.

It seemed that had only been my wish.

And there appeared to be no cure for the deep sadness plaguing her.

From the kitchen, I looked over my shoulder and watched her.

Turning away from her sister with a smile, the girl noticed me.

“Oh, Miss Elaina, are you done already?”

“I just have to let it simmer.”

“Oh really? Well, it won’t be long now!”

“……”

“What’s wrong?”

“…Nothing.”

“…? Hey, you’ve been acting kind of strange this whole time, Miss Elaina. You barely said a word the whole way here, and you haven’t spoken much since we got here.”

“……”

“You know, my sister hasn’t said much, either… Isn’t that strange? Something’s off.”

“…I’m acting weird?”

“Yeah.”

“……” I was silent.

“I know, right? Something’s definitely off.” Elise nodded in response to a voice I couldn’t hear.

And then she went back to the cheerful conversation she was having with her sister, completely disregarding me.

“…You must not be feeling well. That’s probably it.”

“…Ah-ha-ha. That’s right. You’ll feel better once you eat some stew.”

“…I know. I’d better cook her something next time to show our gratitude.”

On and on, she spoke to her sister, her face the picture of contentment.

“……”

It was more than I could bear.

“…Elise.”

“What?”

I recoiled a bit as she turned her relentless smile on me. At some point, I had begun to find her smiling face terrifying.

“…Elise, just…stop it already,” I begged, unable to meet her eyes.

Then I said the only thing there was left to say. I voiced the truth that lay before me.

“Your sister is dead.”

There, propped up in one of the four chairs, was a young girl dressed in a long coat, the very same kind Elise was wearing. Beautiful blond hair dangled down from her hood.

The corpse reeked of death.

“It happened about a month ago. A group of merchants from the city made a grave mistake.”

“Hmm.”

The government official, seated across from me, began to tell an impossibly sad story.

“There was a family of beastkin living near our city. The merchants came up with a plan to capture and sell them. They told me it was because they were short on money.

“First, the merchants planned to capture the couple who went out hunting. They were going to lie to them and tell them they were lost, then get close to the man and woman, catch them off guard, and abduct them.

“Of course, there was no way they were going to simply catch a couple of beastkin. Surrounded by the merchants, the two resisted fiercely.

“As they struggled on the unstable sloping face of the mountain, they lost their footing.

“The merchants who survived went to the bottom to check on them, but everyone who had fallen was dead. The innocent beastkin couple were intertwined with the evil merchants in death.

“This was the cause of everything that’s happened.

“Three merchants survived. They brought the bodies to our city and told me about what happened. Unfortunately, they lied to me.

“‘Three merchants and two of the beastkin living nearby lost their lives in an accident,’ they said. Regrettably, I believed them. Since the two beastkin had been a couple, I thought that there might be children. I feared they might even be awaiting the return of their parents at that very moment. So I took the merchants with me into the mountains. We found their home.”

The rest of what he told me largely matched Elise’s story. The government official who visited Elise and her sister in their home had told them that their parents died in an accident and had taken the two girls back to the city.

However, as far as what happened from that point onward, Elise’s and the official’s stories were completely different.

“It happened several days after the girls came to this country. There was an incident.”

Then he told me the truth.

“The surviving merchants targeted the girls, for money and revenge. They sneaked into the girls’ house at night, torches and knives in hand.

“The three merchants found the older sister first. Just like her parents, she—Elise—did not falter, even surrounded by adults. She fought and fought and fought.

“But she’s still a child. Physically, she never really stood a chance.

“The merchants held her down and took their revenge. The men set their knives aside and beat her. They kicked her. Even when she was cowering, begging for their forgiveness, tears streaming, they did not stop.

“I suppose they intended to hurt her but leave her alive and abduct her, rather than kill her.

“That’s when one of the men was stabbed in the back by the very knife he had set aside. When the merchants turned, there was another girl, a bit younger than Elise. The little sister, Mirina, had tried to save her big sister from the one-sided assault.

“The wounded man released the older sister, screaming, and hit Mirina with a torch. Then he quickly tossed the torch aside and picked up a knife. Mirina was wailing, her hands covering her face, and he stabbed her over and over again until she drew her last breath.

“It was awful. Horrified, the remaining two merchants tried to stop the third man. But just after they approached him, the man who was straddling Mirina stopped moving.

“Elise had killed the man using another of the merchant’s knives.

“While Elise stood still, in a daze, the fire rose from the discarded torch, the flames lapping everything in the house, the blaze growing larger by the second.

“The two surviving merchants ran away in a panic.

“Hearing news of the fire from citizens living nearby, I rushed to the girls’ house, and when I finally arrived, the fire had spread to the street. We immediately got to work fighting the flames, but even so, half the house couldn’t be saved.

“We soon identified the cause of the fire. We found the three knives at the scene, the charred corpse of the merchant, and received eyewitness testimony from the neighbors. With those things as proof, we questioned the other two merchants and arrested them.

“And then, upon cross-examination, the two of them finally told us the truth.

“However, even knowing what had really happened, it was already too late to do anything.

“Elise has been different ever since the day of the fire.

“She doesn’t want to part with her sister’s body. Far from it, she’s treating the corpse like it’s alive. She gives it food, dresses it in clothes, and snuggles up with it to sleep.

“Due to the poor judgment of our country’s merchants, as well as my own, the poor girl has lost her grip on reality.

“The two merchants have confessed to everything, and news of her actions has spread to the people of the city. Even though the citizens pity her, they’re frightened and have begun avoiding her.

“Also, she’s stopped listening to anyone else. She actively avoids people, regarding others with eyes full of terror.

“This problem goes far beyond anything we can solve, and it’s been out of our hands for quite some time now.”

That’s what the official told me.

But I was still foggy on one crucial detail.

“…To sum it all up,” I said, sighing, “you didn’t mind taking in the pitiful child, but now that the situation’s gotten out of hand, you want to kick her out. However, your words aren’t getting through to her, so even though you’ve tried a gentle approach, she won’t leave. You don’t know how she’ll react if you try a more aggressive approach, so you’re making an outsider do your dirty work. Sound about right?”

“……”

The coward replied with silence, so I continued.

“…Are you telling me that’s the reason you’re banishing a child from this city?”

I headed for the partially destroyed house, debating whether to accept the commission, and I was very surprised when I saw you, Elise.

And that’s when I decided to take the job. Because I had met you once before, in the bakery.

Before I met you at the stall with the apples, I had carried out an impromptu survey inside the city. And in my research, I found that the people all had the same thing to say about you.

“The pitiful child.”

The people walking around town repeated the same phrases.

“She’s really pitiful.”

“To fall into such a state because of a group of bad men… It’s tragic.”

Even the housewives living in your neighborhood wrinkled their brows as they told me.

“She came to live here because of some horrible adults…right?”

“Right… How devastating. She doesn’t even touch the meals the official leaves for her.”

“Yes, look. Over there. That’s the lunch box she threw at the wall. She always does that—throwing what he leaves at the wall. She doesn’t care if it’s money or food.”

The man who owned the unmanned stand also spoke to me, rubbing his bandaged hand. “Yeah, it seems like she’s been stealing apples from us for a while. Well, I knew about her situation, so I didn’t really feel like scolding her, but—A kid can’t survive on nothin’ but apples, so I tried to get her to go somewhere else, thinkin’ she might eat something else if she did. But she just shouted some nonsense at me… And, well, this is what it came to.”

I even talked to the proprietor of the bakery.

“Oh, Miss Witch. You saw it, too, didn’t you? That girl always tries to buy bread with…you know. I know her situation is grave, but—I’m running a business here, so I wasn’t sure how to deal with her.”

The first day I met you, Elise, I caught sight of something strange in the bakery. A girl wearing a big hood pulled a heap of dead bugs from her pocket and tried to buy bread with them. A very peculiar sight.

The girl referred to the bugs as money.

After arguing back and forth with the shopkeeper, who gently explained with a concerned expression that you can’t buy bread with dead bugs, that girl screwed up her face in shock and flew out of the store.

I tilted my head in confusion as I watched you go.

And then, the following day, I realized that that girl was you.

And that’s why I decided to accept the request from the government, for your sake.

“Lies.”

Right after I finished explaining everything, Elise mumbled a single word.

From her spot next to Mirina, she raised her head.

“That story is a bunch of lies—all lies. Why? Why are you trying to torture me, too, Miss Elaina? Did someone make you do this? You saw everything that happened, right, Miss Elaina? Those people in the city are awful.

“The jerks from the city treated me like a monster. They burned my house. But my sister’s not dead. She’s alive and well right here beside me.

“So it must be a lie. That story is nonsense.”

She shook Mirina by the shoulders. The little girl had been dead a long time, and her head lolled unnaturally.

“See? Look. There. She’s alive, isn’t she? My sister can’t possibly be—”

As if to interrupt her, as if to betray her—the corpse she had been violently shaking fell right off the chair.

With a heavy thunk, Mirina slumped onto the floor.

“Ah—” In that moment, realization flashed over Elise’s eyes. “N-no… My sister is… Mirina is alive—”

She stood up, stretched a hand out toward the corpse, then stopped halfway. Her fingertips were trembling violently.

She made an unbelievably heartbreaking figure.

“Elise…”

“No. No, no, no…! No way, no way, no way, no way! Mirina has, I mean, she’s been living with me the whole time. She can’t be dead…!”

“……”

I stepped between Elise and the corpse and embraced the girl tightly. I could feel the rough texture of her long coat with my fingertips, still carrying the chill of the winter air.

“Miss Elaina…this can’t be. Mirina is…”

“…Elise.” I tightened my grip. “You can’t… You can’t run away anymore.”

“I’m not running—”

“You’ve been through a lot. There’s no denying that. I understand that you just want to run away from it all. But you can’t. Because if you keep averting your eyes and running away, you’re going to run so far that you’ll never be able to come back to reality.”

“……”

“I’ve worked so hard to become your friend, and I can’t bear to watch as your trauma slowly eats you alive.”

“……”

“Come back to reality, please.”

And then I asked once again.

“Please let me help you.”

There was no response.

Just silence as she opened her mouth, no sound escaping her lips. Her trembling fingers gripped my robe tightly as she mouthed incoherently, “No, no, no way, stop it.”

Before long, her mumbling turned to wailing, and she clung to me and cried and cried.

I didn’t let her go until the tears finally stopped.

“Hello.”

“Oh, Lady Elaina. Hi there… I see you’re eating bread from the bakery again.”

“Yep. I’ve taken a liking to it—but this is probably the last time I’ll be eating it.”

“…?”

“I told you: I finished the job without issue. After I leave the city, I’m not planning to return to this area again.”

“…Is that so?”

“A gloomy face, as always.”

“I told you before. We really didn’t want to cast the girl out. It’s just that was the only way.”

“In any case, that doesn’t change the fact that you were just going to throw her out—and let’s talk about my payment.”

“…Ah, right. There was that. Um—”

“I don’t need it, so would you send it to her house for me?”

“Huh?”

“I won’t repeat myself.”

“No, it’s just—”

“It doesn’t matter what you say; I’m not taking it. End of story.”

“…Lady Elaina, how is the girl? Has she recovered?”

“Who can say? Not me, that’s for sure.”

“Is that so…?”

“Yes. I’ll be going now.”

“…Please take care.”

“Oh, right, right. I forgot to say one thing.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

“When she comes here again—do your very best not to make that kind of face again, okay?”

I had spent my time with the girl for a while.

We would run through the snowy scenery on sunny days, she would hunt, and we would cook together. Rinse and repeat.

I lived in this pleasant flow of time.

And then, when Elise had truly learned how to hunt on her own, suddenly she said, “I’m all grown up now.”

In front of the graves where the three members of her family rested, she said that to no one in particular.

“Well then, I guess my work is done.”

“I’m not saying you should leave, but… But thank you for everything, Miss Elaina.”

“No need. I just did what I thought was best.”

“What will you do now?”

“I’ll get back to traveling.”

“…I’ll be lonely.”

“…Me too.”

“In that case, I could go with you!”

“Ah well… That’s a little…”

“You’re too honest, Miss Elaina.”

“What are you planning to do now, Elise?”

She took off her hood and peered at the sky. Head tilted toward the clear horizon, her breath rose like smoke and disappeared in the cold air. The sun had given off the slightest warmth, but it was so weak that it was easily lost amid the frigid wind.

Elise turned to look at me.

“I think I’ll try going back to that city for a little while.”

“…Even though you have nothing but bad memories there?”

“Mm. If I go now, I feel like I can make some different memories,” she said. “Plus, since I did some bad things to the people there, I’d like to apologize.”

“……”

“I say that, but I haven’t decided for certain yet, you know. It’s just…something I think I’d like to do one day.”

“Is that so?”

I think it’s a good idea— I nodded.

“Well, in any case, if I go, it’ll be after I’ve made up my mind and finished saying good-bye to everyone. At least for a little while longer—at least until the snow melts, I’m going to keep living here.”

Just then, in the forest behind her, there was a rustling sound.

She turned around, and the snow that had been resting on a tree branch fell to the ground. The top of the tree swayed gently, and a bit of green returned to the pure-white world.

It seemed that the snow would be melting away little by little from now on.

However…

“I guess it’ll still be a while, huh?”

She slowly shook her head at my statement and smiled.

“Soon,” she said.