Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 3 - Chapter 14

CHAPTER 14

A Story About All Kinds of Ashen Witches

Let me tell you a story about Elaina.

Well, no doubt I’ve been telling my stories this whole time, but now I’ll tell you a story about Elaina.

I am a witch who wears a black robe and a pointy black hat, and I am a traveler. I’m always wandering aimlessly through this world, meeting strange people, visiting strange countries, and getting caught up in strange happenings.

However, that doesn’t mean that I’m always having valuable personal experiences.

If I were to try to write down my experiences in a book, it would probably seem like I was always putting myself at the center of weird stories, but the truth is that’s not the case. Most of the time, nothing much happens to me. I do a little sightseeing, wherever I am, and then move on. Those strange chance encounters are actually quite rare. More often than not, I’ll be hoping for some excitement, and nothing will happen. When something does happen, it’s usually at the least convenient moment.

Travel is a series of meetings and partings and also a series of decisions. When I look back on it, I’m sure I’ve missed out on some interesting encounters, but I’ve also made some pretty interesting acquaintances.

It can’t be helped if there’s the occasional regret, right? That’s because when you travel, you have no choice but to keep moving forward.

This day was no exception.

I had been flying on my broom for only a short while when I had a hunch I was about to have an unusual encounter.

“The City of Granted Wishes, huh? Hmm…”

In the middle of the prairie, I had found a city with those words inscribed on its gate.

Well now, what do we have here?

What an interesting name that is.

What’s the deal? If I wish to be really, really rich, will I become really, really rich?

On the gate was also written ALL WISH-SEEKERS WELCOME. I didn’t know who was in there, but they seemed to be welcoming me in wholeheartedly.

How on earth are they able to grant wishes? What’s the deal with this city?

The rampart featured a low gate, but it wasn’t possible to peek inside. I couldn’t tell what it looked like in there.

Right now, it’s a mystery.

However, I knew one thing for certain: I was interested.

“Pardon me!”

For that reason, I opened the gate into the city.

On the other side of the gate was the city, but I had to wonder what in the world was going on, because I didn’t find even a single other person.

Inside, it was absolutely silent, just houses lined up in rows, no sign of other humans, let alone voices. Just the lonely echoes of my own footsteps.

It didn’t seem like the city had gone to ruin, as the buildings arrayed on both sides of the road were dressed in antiquated red brickwork, or had white stucco walls, or colorful paint, and looked very inconsistent. It was chaotic, as if scenery from all different kinds of cities had been crowded together in one place.

There were no signs of people, but cords with laundry hanging on them were strung between the buildings, and there were street stalls on the sides of the road. Fruits and other foods were lined up in neat rows, but the shops seemed unmanned. They all had signs with the words PLEASE LEAVE PAYMENTS IN THE BOX written on them.

Still, I didn’t see anyone. There wasn’t a soul to my right or my left.

All that remained was the feeling that someone had once lived here.

Huh? Isn’t someone going to grant my wish? What the heck is this?

I tilted my head in confusion at this inexplicable tableau. Whatever the case, the only thing I knew for certain was that something very strange was going on.

“……Hmm.”

When I had walked down the road a short distance, I could see a palace. It looked old and seemed out of place with the rest of the city. Its walls were full of cracks, and the whole thing looked as if it would crumble at the slightest disturbance.

Not far from the palace stood a clock tower, ticking the time away. According to the tower, right now the time was a little past noon.

“……”

What on earth?

Is this déjà vu?

Everything here, I’d seen somewhere before. The city looked as if it were made up of pieces of the various places I’d visited on my travels, all stuck together. The palace was the spitting image of where I’d met the queen who was the only survivor in a ruined country, and the clock tower bore a striking resemblance to the tower in the Clock Village of Rostolf that I had visited just a little while ago.

What in the world is going on here?

It was giving me the sense that this place had been prepared just for me, and that wasn’t the strangest part. Many of the buildings were clearly much taller than the city wall, so why hadn’t I seen them from the outside?

There was definitely something peculiar going on.

“Hellooooo! Do you live in this city?!”

I was puzzling over this mysterious situation, humming to myself and following the road as it bent to the right, when I suddenly ran into someone. She seemed like a traveler, just like me, and she came toward me waving her hands and shouting in a carefree voice.

“Hmm, no luck, huh? You’re not from around here, are you? That’s the kind of face you’re making.”

“……”

There was something very odd about the person standing before me. She wore a black robe and a pointy black hat. In addition, she had on a star-shaped brooch. She seemed to be a witch. Her hair was ash-colored, and her eyes were lapis-colored. She was about the same age as me.

That witch, who on earth was she?

That’s right. She’s me.

A me who wasn’t me… A girl who looked exactly like me was standing before my eyes.

Just like a doppelgänger.

“Well now. Would you happen to be a fan of mine? You’re doing a cosplay of me, aren’t you! I cannot approve of unauthorized cosplay. I collect royalties on my clothing, you know?”

“……”

By the way, it seemed like the only thing identical was our outward appearance. From her words and actions, I could keenly feel the weakness of her intellect.

“My name is Elaina. The Ashen Witch. I’m a traveler.”

“My name is Elaina. I’m the Ashen Witch and a traveler. Oh, the fee for violating my copyright and cosplaying as me without permission is one hundred gold pieces, if you please.”

I ignored the nonsense at the end there.

“Anyway, why are there two of me…?”

“Hmm? I’m me, and you’re playing dress-up, right? What are you talking about?”

“……”

I should ask you what you’re talking about. Are you stupid? Is your head empty?

“Sorry, I know this is strange, but would you please list all the places you’ve visited on your travels?”

I decided that, first of all, I needed to determine whether or not the other me standing there was just an imposter. I kept a notebook concealed in the pocket of my robe so I could always quickly recall the places I had visited. I had never shown it to anyone, and it was something I never took out in the presence of others. If she was really me, I figured she would use the notebook as a reference.

But…

“Why do you need me to list them all? I suppose you’re planning to make a pilgrimage to all the places I’ve visited? To worship them as holy ground? I knew it, you’re obsessed with me!”

“…This girl is a real pain.”

She spoke an awful lot and said an awful little. I was desperately hoping this girl wasn’t actually me.

Then, to my dismay, she produced a notebook from her pocket.

I refuse to believe it, but what do we have here? Nothing she says or does makes any sense.

“Okay, first up—”

She then enumerated my travels up until that point, and despite a few slight differences, as far as I could tell by hearing her summary, she was unmistakably me. I had absolutely no idea what on earth was going on here, and it was enough to make my head ache. Since the city itself was some kind of strange mishmash, though, I decided to stop thinking about the doppelgänger situation for now.

“Well, it must have been fated or something for us to meet here, so shall we look around town together?”

“Oh, you were charmed by my cuteness, were you? No, you must have already been in love with me by the time you started cosplaying! Well, all right, I suppose there’s no helping it. I shall grace you with my presence.”

After that, I spent about five hundred words whining before eventually saying, “I’ll go along with you.”

We walked side by side through the town.

Around lunchtime, I was feeling a bit peckish, so I took an apple in my hand. In the same laid-back way, she had a kebab in her hand.

…Wait, why a kebab?

Anyway…

“Um, so what should I call you?”

“Hmm? My name is Elaina?”

“But I’m Elaina.”

I was at a loss and frowned, but at almost the exact same time, the girl with the same cavalier look as me puffed her cheeks out.

“Hang on. You just adopted that name after you started dressing like me, right? I’m the real Elaina!”

“……”

From my perspective, you’re the imposter, though…

Still, arguing with her wouldn’t get me anywhere. Just like how, to a foreigner, you appear foreign, it was plain to see we would never reach the end of the debate, no matter how much we went in circles.

This is getting troublesome, so I’m going to give the carefree girl the temporary name High-Strung Elaina before proceeding with the story. Because she’s excessively high-strung.

“By the way, what did you wish for when you came here? This is the City of Granted Wishes, you know. Did you have a wish?”

“My wish? Well, that’s obvious, isn’t it?!” After gnawing wildly at her kebab, she said, “Nothing in particular!”

Wow, what an idiot.

“Well, I was hoping to become rich when I came here.”

“Wow, what an idiot.”

“Sorry, but you’re the one person I don’t want to hear that from.”

“What did you say? The real pleasure of traveling is to travel by instinct, without overthinking things! Am I wrong?”

There’s some truth to that, but in your case…isn’t the inside of your head just hollow?

Despite our wishes being completely different, though, we’ve somehow been brought together. Why?

It makes me feel like some sort of unseen designs are in motion.

After we had explored the city a bit, two things became clear.

The first was that this place was indeed made of parts and pieces of all the places I had visited on my journey. Every building, every street stall, I had seen somewhere before.

And there was one more thing.

Not a single thing existed aside from that.

There was absolutely nothing I didn’t recognize. No matter how long I scrutinized my surroundings, I couldn’t find a single unfamiliar fixture. The whole city was the very embodiment of déjà vu.

“…I’m getting kind of bored,” High-Strung Elaina said as she finished eating her seventh kebab of the day.

You’re eating too much…

“Well, that’s because there’s absolutely nothing new here to see,” I answered.

She had already spent several weeks going around and around the city. Nevertheless, she didn’t understand the first thing about it and, consequently, was a nuisance.

Admittedly, it was rather novel to see a city made up of all the things I had seen before, but if that’s all there was to it, well, I could have imagined that in my own head. Even if the whole place did have a mysterious appeal, after several weeks, it probably grew stale.

“…Mm. I’ve had enough!”

“I’ll say. Just how many kebabs did you put away…?”

“Well. That’s true, too, but I meant I’ve had enough of this town. It looks like a reproduction of the places I’ve already been. That’s all there is to see. As you can imagine, I’ve had my fill of it.”

“…Same here.”

It seemed the version of me that was standing next to me was a very high-strung individual, just like me. We were thinking the same thing.

However—

This city seemed like something someone had created after peeking into my head. At the exact moment our boredom was reaching critical mass, the story took a new twist.

Suddenly, before our very eyes, a lone girl appeared.

She had two twisted horns on her head and wings just like a bat’s were growing from her back. Unfortunately, this person was nothing new, either. She was simply another version of me but with wings and horns and…

“What a demanding bunch you are. And after I went to all the trouble of creating this city just to amuse you.”

The voice that slithered from her mouth was nothing like my own. She looked quite a bit older than me and had a calm demeanor.

She may have been my spitting image, but there was no doubt in my mind that she was an entirely different person.

“Are you from around here?”

She nodded. “Indeed. This City of Granted Wishes is a place I created for travelers, just like you two.”

“Oh-ho! In that case, let’s cut to the chase. What on earth is the deal here? It’s only got stuff I’ve already seen before.” High-Strung Me took up her eighth kebab.

“Why, it’s the City of Granted Wishes. In order to grant your wishes, the city needs to look inside your heads, right? Of course it’s all stuff you’ve seen before.”

I see.

“I didn’t come here to take a trip down memory lane. I came to get rich.”

“I’m sure you believed that to be the reason. However, your true desires are something no one knows. Perhaps, deep in your heart of hearts, you were thinking that you’d like to visit these places once again.”

“……”

“I see!” High-Strung Elaina was chowing down beside me.

“In other words, this city grants the wishes slumbering in the deepest recesses of visitors’ minds. Try to enjoy it. You may stay here for three days, so get some well-deserved rest.”

“Huh.”

“How generous!” High-Strung Elaina was chewing away beside me.

“By the way, there’s no fee.”

“Seriously?”

“Amaaazing!”

“Well, I am the city’s founder after all.” The stranger in my body put her hand on her hip impatiently.

Let’s give her the temporary name of “Devil Elaina.” Because she seems like someone took a minor character and made her a devil.

Devil Elaina continued, “Well, that’s what’s going on, so please rest for a while. My wish was to create a place where travelers can relax, you see.”

Then she spread her wings and flew up into the sky.

She had appeared out of nowhere and disappeared just as suddenly.

“……”

It seems too good to be true, though, right? I smell something fishy. And her appearance was clearly demonic.

“…What do you think? About that woman, I mean.”

After our host had disappeared into the horizon, I turned to High-Strung Elaina.

“She’s awfully generous, huh?! That’s just like someone who has the same body as me.”

“……”

High-Strung Elaina was not only happy-go-lucky but terribly naive.

She’s such a mess. I’m surprised she’s survived this long on the road by herself.

Well then.

I had been told to rest and relax, but I didn’t feel the least bit like doing that.

High-Strung Elaina and I were staying together in a cheap inn (deserted, of course), and both of us were awake until late that night.

Think about this, please. There was a person who looked exactly like me, with a devil-may-care personality entirely unlike mine. Moreover, when I asked her for her story, she told me she had started her journey the same way that I had and had visited all the same places.

It was so strange, I couldn’t stand it.

However, I needed a little more information before I could put all the pieces together. What on earth could I have wished for that would cause another me to appear…?

I was at a total loss, even though it was my own doing.

The following morning, we resumed our exploration.

“Shall we head for the palace today?” I asked.

“The palace? Oh, is that where we met Mirarose?”

“Yes. Yesterday, we just looked around, but we didn’t go in any of the buildings, right? So today, let’s search through every inch of every building we’ve seen before.”

“Oh-ho! I suppose there’s something there?”

“We’re going in to find that out.”

With that, we decided to head for the palace.

After turning the wooden doors to ash, just as I had done before, we stepped foot inside.

“……”

“……”

Immediately after we did…

“Don’t move!”

I recognized her voice right away. Apparently, there was yet another version of me here. She was standing in the foyer with her wand pointed at us. She was wearing unfashionable black-rimmed glasses, so let’s call her Glasses Elaina.

“Are you two good Elainas? Or evil Elainas?” Glasses Elaina demanded, glaring at us.

Hang on, I have no idea what you’re talking about.

“What do you mean, ‘evil Elainas’? I’m me. I’m not evil whatsoever.” “How much were those glasses?” said the two of us.

“……” She seemed to realize something from our responses. Glasses Elaina slowly lowered her wand. “I see… How many other Elainas have you two met so far? Assuming the Elaina with horns and wings that looks like a devil isn’t one of us, what number Elaina am I for you?”

The number of me’s and I’s and us’s was getting out of hand. I could already feel a headache coming on.

“You in the glasses makes two. We haven’t met that many of us.” Come to think of it… “Um, how many of us are there?”

“I don’t know how many there are in total, but…there are fourteen of us here.”

“Huh?”

“Wow, amazing!”

“Oh, including you two, that makes sixteen.”

“Huhhh?”

“That many people cosplaying as me… Oh my, am I really that popular…?”

……

Seriously? Sixteen?

My head’s gonna explode…

Just as Glasses Elaina had said, in the throne room of the castle was a whole crowd of me. We stood before them all as Glasses Elaina directed.

“Everyone, it’s time for introductions. These are the fifteenth and sixteenth Elainas.”

My voice responded from all corners of the room. “Oh, hello there,” and “Don’t think you’re special just because you’re numbers fifteen and sixteen,” and “Yeah, whatever,” and so on.

I now understand why I wasn’t given much of a welcome.

“All right then, I’ll introduce you newbies to everyone else.”

Then Glasses Elaina proceeded to point to them one by one.

“Over there is Dummy Elaina.”

“Hi there, fifteen and sixteen! I’m the cutest Elaina here! Tee-hee. ”

Starting with the cringey one, huh?

“The one moving around suspiciously over here is Girl-Lover Elaina.”

“Oh-ho-ho…sixteen of me… Ah, there are so many… Oh, could this be heaven?”

It would be better to call her Self-Lover instead of Girl-Lover, wouldn’t it?

“Over here is Bust-Size-Complex Elaina.”

“What’s this? If you two are also supposed to be the same as me, why are your chests are all shriveled, unlike mine? What happened? Are you drinking your milk? Hmm?”

That’s airheaded, even for me. Anyway, it looks like she has bunches of cotton stuffed in her shirt. Airhead.

“This is Slightly Peevish Elaina.”

“Huh? Could you not stare at me just because you’re late to the party? What is with you jerks? You wanna go? You wanna do this? Huh?”

She seems weak.

“This is Unsavory Elaina.”

“Heh-heh-heh…I could make serious bank if I robbed all the Elainas here…”

This one seems normal.

“This is Painful Elaina.”

“Uff! The black dragon-like thing imprisoned in my eye is trying to attack you all—get away!”

She certainly is painful. In several ways. And she’s wearing some sort of eyepatch.

“This is Lovesick Elaina.”

“Eh-heh-heh…SayaSayaSayaSaya…”

…? Why Saya?

“Hiding over there is Elaina Who Harbors Deep Darkness in Her Heart.”

“………………………………………………………………………………………………………I want to die.”

What happened there?

“Over there is Elaina Who Harbors Deep Darkness in Her Heart (The Second).”

“Oh no… It’s scary outside…”

Then why are you traveling?

“Also over there is Elaina Who Harbors Deep Darkness in Her Heart (The Third).”

“I can’t do it anymore… All the Elainas here should just die…”

How many of these are there? Aren’t we harboring a bit too much darkness in our hearts?

“Over here is Foreign Affectation Elaina.”

“Privyet!”

What does that mean?

“This is Gelatinous Elaina.”

Glorp.

Aaaand here come the demi-humans.

“And this is Ghoul Elaina.”

“Auggh.”

Something terrible must’ve happened to her…though I can probably guess what.

“And I’m Brainy Elaina.”

“You’re calling yourself that, huh…?”

“Because it’s true.” She puffed out her chest with pride. Even I got kind of upset at that. Then Glasses Elaina, renamed Brainy Elaina (self-appointed), said, “I think you already understand this, but we’ve each got special nicknames that we use here so we don’t get ourselves confused with the other Elainas. The names match up with each of our most prominent characteristics.”

“Uh-huh.”

“That being the case, I’d like to give names to number fifteen and number sixteen as well, but…what would be good, everyone? What kind of identifying characteristics do you think Elaina number fifteen has?” Brainy Elaina put a hand on my shoulder and called out to the other Elainas in the room.

Voices responded from all corners.

“Characteristics? None, really.” “Nothing special.” “No boobs.” “No individuality.” “Nothiiing.” “She’s extremely un-individual. She’s got no eyepatch, even.” “Saya!” “I want to die.” “Me, too.” “I want a sleeplike death.” “Khorosho!” Glorp. “Uahh.”

“I see, I see. Thank you, everyone. Good consultation.”

“……”

So no one is taking this seriously, I suppose?

Brainy Elaina looked at me elatedly.

“Since that’s how it is, I’d like to name you Main Character Elaina, number fifteen. How about it?”

“What train of thought did you follow that led you to such a nonsensical nickname?”

“I tried to reframe your lack of any prominent characteristics as a strength.”

“Sorry, but I’m not particularly happy hearing there’s nothing special about me.”

To which Brainy Elaina replied, “Isn’t it a good thing to be without a single defining characteristic? You can become anything you want! Just like a main character.”

Aren’t you kind of making fun of me by calling me the main character?

“By the way, what about you, number sixteen?”

“I’m called High-Strung Elaina.”

Only in my mind, though?

“I see, well then, let’s call you that.”

For someone who called herself intelligent, Brainy Elaina was a rather careless girl.

“But why exactly are you all holed up in a place like this?”

After hearing a quick rundown of each Elaina’s travels while we were getting acquainted, I had confirmed that, as expected, each had visited all the same places as I had, though each of their stories was slightly different.

Brainy Elaina was the one who answered me. “I think I touched on this a little bit when we first met, but…apparently, a bad version of us slipped into the mix. Violent Elaina. She attacks any of us she meets, without warning.”

“Huh.”

“She’s the violent one, so we call her Violent Elaina.”

“Well put.”

Apparently, while High-Strung Elaina and I had been wandering aimlessly around town, the other Elainas had been attacked by that Violent Elaina.

It was lucky the two of us didn’t end up encountering Violent Elaina, huh?

“So then, you’re holing up here to escape from Violent Elaina, is that it?”

I see. I’m kind of shocked.

“But your opponent is also an Elaina, right? If you confront her head on, shouldn’t it at least result in a draw?”

This was my assumption, but Brainy Elaina shrugged her shoulders and said, “Think about it, Main Character Elaina. Really think about it. Our foe is also one of us, meaning it would be the same as inflicting self-harm. Can you imagine what might happen if she were to die?”

“……”

“Not a single one of us had any idea what to do, so the fourteen of us gathered here to discuss the matter. Should we wait right here until the third day, when the time limit placed by the city expires, or should we go out there and fight? Right now, we’re at something of a crossroads.”

“I see. And what if this place is attacked?”

“Well then, we would have no choice but to fight, though we’d rather keep that as a last resort. Right now, our two options are to shut ourselves up in here or go out there and try to capture Violent Elaina. In short, the question is whether to act or to hide.”

“……Hmm.”

“So what I want to know is, which do you think is the best option?”

“Oh, I don’t want you putting that decision on me.”

“What are you talking about? You’re Main Character Elaina, aren’t you? We’ll all be in trouble if the main character doesn’t take the helm at a time like this.”

I’ ll take the advisor role and assist the main character—she added, then sharply pushed her glasses up her nose with a finger.

…So you purposely decided to call me Main Character Elaina so you could use me to make your decisions, is that it? What a schemer. That’s just like me.

If she’s gonna be like that, then I also have a trick up my sleeve.

I sat on the throne and looked down at the other Elainas.

“Well then, everyone besides me, go and explore the city. I will wait here for your return. What do you think of that strategy?”

Immediately, booing erupted at me from the other Elainas.

“What’s this crazy jerk talking about?” “Down with dictators!” “Don’t joke around, please.” “Are you dumber than a flea?” “I can’t accept this.” “There’s no discussion to be had.” “Please resign as the main character.”

And so on.

I’d caused a big stir with just one statement.

They really say whatever they like, huh? I mean, what is with this? I was arbitrarily elevated to the position of main character, and now, when I try to take the helm like a main character would, I get this. I mean, they can show a little restraint, even when they’re making fun of me.

I might also turn into a Violent Elaina, you know?

“In that case, everyone make up your own mind.”

I raised my voice from where I sat on the throne while stuffing all my pent-up feelings down into the bottom of my stomach.

Then…

Wha-bam!

The door to the throne room opened with great force. No, rather, the door itself went flying into the space where we were all relaxing, crushing two of us beneath it.

Squish. A wet sound could barely be heard in the intervals between thunderous roars.

“Ahh! Ghoul Elaina is dead! She’s been smushed!” “It’s super gross!” “Ohh, the rotten stench is overpowering.” “That’s definitely an instant death.”

“Aaugh…”

“Oh, she’s alive.”

The most important thing is that she’s safe.

“And Gelatinous Elaina was squashed into jelly.” “Wait, wasn’t she jelly to begin with?” “You have a point.” “That’s true…” “Sorry, apparently both of them are fine.”

The most important thing is that they’re safe.

“—Ah, I was starting to think I would never find you. But you were all gathered here, weren’t you?”

Interrupting the relaxed atmosphere, entirely devoid of any kind of tension or drama, an ice-cold voice rang out. Of course, the voice was my own, and the person who appeared after blasting the door off was—to no one’s surprise—also me.

“This is just perfect. I’ll dispose of each and every one of you right here.” As she spoke, the new Elaina smiled and advanced toward us.

That Elaina had her hair cut short. It was exactly the same length mine had been after it had been cut off by a creepy doll in some other city somewhere. As she approached, an unpleasant atmosphere reminiscent of that time also followed her.

Perhaps…

“Um, excuse me? Is that Violent Elaina?”

“She is.” Brainy Elaina nodded rapidly.

“…You there, sitting on the throne. Are you the leader who rules over these Elainas?” Violent Elaina glared at me.

“I don’t know whether I’m the leader or not, but they called me Main Character Elaina.”

“I see, I see. The main character, huh? You, the one sitting there grinning like an idiot, are supposed to be the main character?” She pointed her wand at me.

Countless spears materialized in the air around the wand’s tip. “I don’t like it. Please die.”

Accompanied by her cold statement, all the spears flew at me at once. I conjured up an equal number and threw them back at her, intercepting her attack. The metallic sounds of their collisions filled the air, and small fragments of what had been spears poured down like rain, scattering around the room.

I looked down at her.

“I have absolutely no idea what you were thinking, attacking another Elaina just because you don’t take a liking to her. Do you think you can win against sixteen of us?”

“Ah, Gelatinous Elaina and Ghoul Elaina are smushed, so there are actually fourteen,” Brainy Elaina said beside me.

“…Do you think you can win against fourteen of us?”

However, Violent Elaina, despite her overwhelming numerical disadvantage, laughed. It was a fearless laugh, frigid and devoid of any of the emotions she ought to have been feeling.

“I don’t live in a happy-go-lucky world like the rest of you. I’m different.”

My, my, what the heck is she talking about?

“I don’t suppose any of you have looked in a mirror lately… Ugh, that is so like me.”

War broke out.

The other thirteen Elainas and I launched ourselves at Violent Elaina one after another.

Violent Elaina dealt with us one by one, never losing her composure.

Her first victim was Dummy Elaina. “All right.” With an unenthusiastic shout, Dummy Elaina produced iron chains from the tip of her wand, but they were repelled instantly. “Ah!” Our first wave found herself transformed into a caterpillar, bound by chains.

Next was Bust-Size-Complex Elaina. Violent Elaina quickly closed the distance between them and kicked her aside after pulling out the wads of cotton she had stuffed in her shirt.

“Ahhh, my boobs…”

She fainted the moment the padding was removed.

Good riddance.

Next were the three Elainas Who Harbor Deep Darkness in Their Hearts. The trio fought rather bravely. “Scary, scary, scary, scary…” “Eek! Don’t come over here!” “I want to go home.” As they shouted all this and more at their opponent, the three Elainas shot fire, water, and lightning from their wands. The pillars of magical energy undulated and entwined as they swooped down on Violent Elaina.

Violent Elaina retreated as she dodged the attack and escaped the castle. We only realized it was a trap after the three Elainas Who Harbor Deep Darkness in Their Hearts went chasing after her. The ground outside had already been transformed into a swampy morass, and it swallowed the three Dark Elainas up, leaving only their heads sticking above the surface, before hardening again.

“…Heh-heh-heh. Looks like we’re about to be executed.” “It’s cool and soothing inside the ground.” “I want to return to the earth like this…”

Looking over the three of them, who were for some reason sedate despite being quickly hardened into place, the rest of us flew up on our brooms. Violent Elaina was nowhere to be seen, so we spread out to search the area.

Suddenly, long ropes stretched out from the houses below, capturing four of the nine remaining Elainas and dragging them down to the rooftops.

When Violent Elaina appeared before us again, Foreign Affectation Elaina, Lovesick Elaina, Unsavory Elaina, and Girl-Lover Elaina had been altogether disposed of.

The five remaining Elainas tried to oppose her in some way, but despite the fact that she was taking on five opponents, Violent Elaina was as calm as could be. We were clearly not on her level.

Slightly Peevish Elaina raised a charming war cry—“You jerk!”—and closed the distance between them on her broom, but Violent Elaina evaded her attack, swatted her wand away, and with a powerful wand strike to the back of the neck, knocked her unconscious.

After Slightly Peevish Elaina fell onto the roof of a house somewhere, Painful Elaina, Brainy Elaina, and High-Strung Elaina encircled Violent Elaina, hitting her with spells from their wands.

The three of them slowly advanced on her, trying to keep her pinned down with showers of spears, or a torrent of water that writhed like a dragon, or masses of blue-white magical light, but as expected, Violent Elaina brushed them off with cool indifference.

The shower of spears she counteracted by hitting them with more of the same going the opposite direction, just as I had inside the castle. The writhing water she turned into ice and shattered. After dodging the balls of magical light and escaping the three Elainas, she battered them with her own magical attacks.

This Elaina trio was pushed back to the castle entrance, where these Elainas collapsed in a heap near the three Elainas Who Harbor Deep Darkness in Their Hearts, still buried with only their heads aboveground.

“……”

And then—

Violent Elaina, who had disposed of all the Elainas except for me in just a few minutes, landed her broom on the roof of a house that looked like it belonged in a faraway country where I had once taught magic to a young girl with black hair.

I was there waiting for her.

“You’re not fighting, I see. Even though the other Elainas are done for, you’re content to play the carefree observer, is that it?” She cast a reproachful glare at me.

“Because you were so confident. Being that certain of victory is a winning scheme in and of itself. I could see that if I flew out there without thinking, I wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“So then, to what conclusion have your observations led you?”

“Well, I don’t think I stand zero chance of beating you.”

In the end, I’m up against myself.

“You’re cheeky, aren’t you?”

“Yes. Just like you.”

“……”

Violent Elaina didn’t reply. She just glared at me.

As I stared directly into her eyes, I asked, “By the way, why is your hair short?”

No, I think what I should have said is, Why did you leave it that way after it got cut?

“……”

My hair had been cut off, oh, several weeks earlier, when I had visited a city lined with red brick buildings. If I remember correctly, I apprehended the criminal the day after my precious locks had been stolen by a Serial Slasher, who was going around using magical dolls to steal girls’ hair.

Why had Violent Elaina left hers that way?

“You know the reason my hair was cut off, right?”

“I do because the same thing happened to mine.”

On the other hand, in some of the stories of the other Elainas, they hadn’t had their hair maimed. In the palace, I had gone around asking everyone about their lives, but although they had all encountered Sheila, apparently, some of them had met her after she had already resolved the matter on her own.

That meant that even though we were all the same Elaina, we hadn’t necessarily followed the exact same path.

“Certainly, I had my hair cut in that city. However, I didn’t have the energy to restore it, so I continued my travels, maintaining the short cut.”

“……”

You didn’t have the energy? Why not?

“Did you go to the Clock Village of Rostolf?”

Violent Elaina looked at me hard with dark, dull eyes like a corpse’s.

“I did.” She nodded, as if it was a matter of course. She pointed to the clock tower rising above the sea of rooftops and added, “That’s the city with that clock tower, right? It was a good place.”

“……A good place, huh? That city was a good place, you say?”

“Yes.”

The clock tower stood in the middle of the city, featured prominently in local theater, and was lovely to look at. It made an appearance in the popular play Estelle of District Two, which was perfect for killing time. The play depicted the life of a witch named Estelle, who came to hate evil from the bottom of her heart after her best friend was murdered when she was young. The throwaway ending was a little disappointing, when she said, “Until I find the culprit who killed my best friend, her struggle is not over,” but it was at least good for staving off boredom.

“Well then, what about it?”

I tilted my head in confusion and stared at her. I finally realized what had turned the Elaina before my eyes into Violent Elaina.

“As expected, I am different than all of you.” Though she gripped her wand very, very tightly, her voice was calm. “There, in that city, I went back in time ten years. I returned to the past in order to save someone. What I saw there, though, was a reality more awful than anything else, and in the end, I couldn’t save anybody. Have you ever seen it? The moment when love turns to hate before your eyes? The moment when a person you love turns on you with murderous intent…”

“No, I haven’t.” I cut her off. “I don’t know what on earth happened, but you’re saying that because of that awful reality or whatever, you lost the energy to reclaim your hair and fell into despair?”

That’s the moment it happened. She waved her wand at me and fired several blasts of chilling ice.

“I haven’t fallen into despair. I’m seething with anger!”

“Oh. Anger over what?” I asked as I dodged the ice blasts.

“That should be obvious! I’m angry at myself!” Then the short-haired Elaina said, “I resent all the different versions of me who just continued their carefree travels, unlike me. And I’m angry with myself, because I couldn’t do anything to change the terrible reality before my eyes.”

So this is just a messed-up way for her to vent.

That’s just like me.

And so we had ourselves a little war.

First, she used her wand to conjure several massive icicles. I dodged them one by one, then in return, I used a spell to lift up all the roof tiles spread around my feet and made them fly at her from all directions.

She knocked them all down using her icicles, as if she had known from the beginning that was what I was going to do. She then produced a huge ball of ice in the air. It seemed Violent Elaina liked using attacks that involved ice.

She dropped the giant ice ball directly where I was standing, but a large attack like that is just flashy and dramatic—nothing to worry about, really.

I jumped on my broom and dodged the strike. The house I had been standing on was crushed beneath the ice… There was nothing I could do about that.

The attack with the roof tiles hadn’t done much of anything, so this time, I used a spell to pick up an entire house and hurl it at her. However, she was unscathed. She surrounded herself with a wall of ice just in time.

She really loves ice!

After that, our conflict fell into a bit of a pattern. She would use a spell to conjure lots of ice and chuck it at me. While dodging, I would use a spell to pick up one of the many surrounding houses and throw it at her.

She seemed to like flashy, dramatic attacks, so I matched her and also made quite a spectacle.

As she was conjuring yet another ball of ice, Violent Elaina shouted, “People like you…gah! I wish people like you would just disappear!”

“Exactly who are you saying that to? To me? Or to yourself?”

“……Be quiet,” she spat. “Do you know what led me to this city? This is the City of Granted Wishes. I absolutely could not forgive you Elainas who just travel around so carefree, without any painful memories, so I came here. I found my way here to make all you other Elainas feel the same way I do…”

“That’s your wish, not ours.” I answered her as calmly as possible. “This city grants my wish at the same time it grants everyone else’s, so your way of thinking is mistaken. It’s very, very mistaken.”

When I came to this country and encountered the various other Elainas, I had had one thought.

Devil Elaina—the person who created the city—had said something like this, hadn’t she?

Your true desires are something no one knows.

Perhaps in your heart of hearts, you were thinking you’ d like to visit these places once again.

In other words, rather than my surface-level wish for wealth and riches, there was another, more powerful wish, deep in the recesses of my heart.

“In that case…” Violent Elaina’s voice was trembling. “In that case, what are you saying?! What force are you saying gathered us all here?!”

“You don’t know?” I answered indifferently. “Or are you just pretending not to?”

“Don’t make fun of me!”

With that…

She sent blasts of ice at me one after another.

Meanwhile, I continued reducing the city to rubble.

Our abilities were miserably well matched, and no matter how much magic we threw at each other, neither of us could get the upper hand. Though to be honest, she was probably stronger than me, as she had already taken down the other Elainas.

However.

I suppose you know how the fight, spun out of many layers of our shared history, came to an end, don’t you?

There were really only two possibilities. The first possibility was total victory for one of us. The winner would go down in history as a righteous hero, and the loser would be remembered as an evil villain. That was the ending that would leave a bad aftertaste.

Happily, that isn’t the one that came to pass. Our fight was evenly matched to the very last; there was no way to decide a clear winner and loser.

In other words, we were headed for the second possible outcome.

“……”

“……”

It must have been several hours since we’d started fighting.

We found ourselves staring up at the sky together in the ruins of a city, more than half of which had been reduced to rubble.

In the blue heavens, clear like after the passing of a storm, vibrant gray, nearly white, clouds spread out, tracing patterns in the air.

The two of us had both used up nearly all our magical energy.

We were both out of power, and for better or worse, our fight was still undecided. This was the second way it could end and the option we had taken.

Then, as is often the case, there was only one way this could proceed.

“…For what possible purpose did I come to this city?” she asked sharply.

“Before I answer that, let me tell you what I unknowingly wished for in the deepest part of my heart,” I said while gazing at the sky. “I’m certain I came here to meet the other Elainas.”

It’s said that this city will grant your wishes.

Well, I wasn’t surprised to learn I wanted to look at some other possibilities. Traveling is a series of meetings and separations and, at the same time, a series of decisions. When you look back on it, sometimes you have a strange experience and sometimes you miss out.

But what if there was a version of me who hadn’t missed out? What if there was a version of me who had the strange encounter? What then?

What if it was possible to have versions of me besides myself?

I was certain the very possibility was what I had wished for. That was why I’d come to this place and met the other versions of myself.

“Even so, that doesn’t explain why I came here.”

You still don’t get it…

“Yes, it does. You must have also felt a yearning for your other selves, just like I did. Your yearning for the version of yourself that didn’t get caught up in the tragedy at the Clock Village of Rostolf brought you to this place.”

“……”

“You don’t hate the rest of us as much as you think you do. You’re wishing for the possibility of a you that isn’t you, of a self that didn’t experience that awful incident. That’s why you came here. It certainly wasn’t so you could hurt your other selves but because somewhere in your heart, you were wishing for the possibility of a different you.”

It certainly wasn’t so you could hurt the rest of us Elainas.

You found your way here in order to heal your own wounds.

I’m sure the rest of us are the same. We came here because we wanted to know the possibility of a self different from ourselves.

“…That would just be selfish.” She sounded like she was criticizing someone she was pretending not to know.

“Wishing for other possibilities for yourself isn’t a bad thing. Besides, you said it would be selfish, but you’re the only one here, you know?”

Then I took her hand.

Her slender white fingers trembled in surprise when I touched them, as if they were going to pull away for a moment, but after that, she gradually entwined her fingers with mine.

“…Will you listen? To the story of when I went back in time ten years?” She turned her gaze away from the sky and stared at me.

I stared back. “That’s why I came here.”

And that’s how our war concluded.

Not with a winner and a loser but another way.

With reconciliation.

Let me tell you what happened after that.

Together with Short-Haired Elaina (formerly Violent Elaina), I went to collect the other Elainas. We had virtually destroyed the city, so I was afraid some of the other Elainas might have gotten crushed beneath the buildings or the ice. Luckily, all of them were completely unharmed.

“That was an amazing fight, huh?” “Do you know how hard we worked to go around and collect everyone?” “Even when making a ridiculous uproar, please don’t get too carried away, okay?” “Fighting amongst ourselves! I really do some foolish things, don’t we?” “You dummy.”

They had already finished collecting themselves.

Some of the other Elainas had herded the rest back to the palace.

“……” “……”

By the way, the Elainas who’d scolded us a moment ago were the ones who’d collected the others.

Apparently, they had all been hiding around the city and watching the battle play out. There were all kinds of Elainas in existence, so I’m sure those were the types always content to stand on the sidelines.

“Having this many of me, though, is… How do I say it? It feels weird.”

At my words, High-Strung Elaina spat, “You’re just mentioning this now? I mean, all of you are cosplaying me, aren’t you? I’m sure you all think you’re just the spitting image of my character.”

It seemed she still had her head in her carefree world.

“Well then, what are you planning to do now? According to what Devil Elaina—that is, the Elaina who looks like a demon—said, we still have about a day left here.”

The bystander Elainas made puzzled faces at Brainy Elaina, who had a finger on the edge of her glasses.

“First of all, we should be asking whether we can trust that demonic Elaina.” “That girl is suspicious-looking.” “I think she’s definitely hiding somewhere around here.” “She’s definitely doing something behind the scenes.”

They were quite right.

However…

“To put it another way, no matter what we do, one day should be no problem, right? Our stay in this country is limited to three days, meaning that something bad is likely to happen once the three days are up.”

“I see.” “That’s just the kind of thing a self-proclaimed main character would think.” “So that means it’s all right for us to stay until the third day, right?” “It would be a great way to save on hotel charges.”

The bystander Elainas basically seemed to have no inclination to work hard. It was also in their nature to hate waste, so they were apparently very taken with this city, where we could acquire anything and everything for free.

As a result, we spent the rest of that day enjoying ourselves in the city.

We ate what we wanted to eat and drank what we wanted to drink. After carousing around as much as we liked, I stood before all the other Elainas, holding a glass of wine in one hand.

“Everyone, it’s fine to have a good time, but will you listen to my proposal?”

It’s rare to be gathered together like this.

It would be a waste to just play around.

“Everyone, do you have a notebook in the pocket of your robe?”

So let’s try making one more memory while we bask in the memories of our travels.

We all brought our travel diaries together.

As expected, each of our stories seemed to follow its own path. For example, when I was having a totally boring day, on the same day, a different Elaina was going through a fateful encounter, and so on. They were all different.

In the Clock Village of Rostolf, where I enjoyed several days of entirely ordinary sightseeing, the Elaina who now had short hair had apparently gone through a really bitter ordeal, so even though we were the same Elaina, we had spun very different stories.

It had occurred to me, after meeting High-Strung Elaina and heading for the castle, that it might be interesting to collect everyone’s stories. Anyhow, we had one day left, so I decided to make it happen.

All of us gathered in the spacious throne room of the castle and passed each of our diaries around to read.

“I see, that’s a good idea, pretending to be a fortune-teller in the city with high prices…” “Miss Fran is the same as always, no matter which of us she’s with, huh?” “These are some unspeakably awful people?” “Oh, the Country of Truth Tellers…” “The Saya in this story was the cutest.” “What are you talking about?” “Don’t you mean she was the craziest?” “And yet you were happy to receive the necklace.” “……” “Aauugh…” “How did Ghoul Elaina wind up as a ghoul, I wonder?” “She probably didn’t escape from Dead Man’s Paradise.” “What a dummy.” “Yeah, really.” “By the way, why are you wearing an eyepatch?” “This is where the black dragon—” “Oh, enough already.” “Aren’t your boobs a little big?” “This is just cotton.” “Oh, enough already!”

I took a seat on the throne as I watched them making a fuss over the diaries spread out on the floor.

“I’ll listen to your story, as promised.”

“……” Sitting on the arm of the throne, leaning her shoulder against the back of it, Short-Haired Elaina produced her diary from her robe. “In that city, I…”

Then I took her diary from her and passed her mine in return.

After that, for a little while, we were absorbed in reading each other’s stories.

There were also many things we all had in common.

In the countries we visited, without exception, we had all encountered the same people. For example, we all met Saya in the Country of Mages and met her again in the Honest Land. In that way, we all encountered the same people in the same places.

And then, in the same way, we separated from them.

Also, it’s probably a matter of course, but our reasons for beginning our journeys were the same, and our teachers were all the same. With only the slightest variations between us, we were inspired to become witches by The Adventures of Niche and then trained under Miss Fran. Up to that point, our stories were exactly the same, just like copies.

After everyone had finished reading everyone else’s stories, someone suddenly made a suggestion.

“Wouldn’t it be interesting to make this into a book? Something like The Adventures of Niche, for example.”

Not a single one of us rejected that proposal. On the contrary, everyone nodded like they had hoped for that very thing.

The title of the finished book was the last thing to be decided. We put forth many candidates, but in the end, we settled on my suggestion by majority vote.

Imitating our beloved book The Adventures of Niche by calling it The Adventures of Elaina would also have been good, but if we did that, it would be too similar to an embarrassing error of the past that somebody somewhere would like to erase from history, and more importantly, it wasn’t particularly clever.

Of course, an eccentric title would be a better fit for an eccentric protagonist like us.

And so we settled on this title.

We called it The Journey of Elaina.

It was the morning of the third day.

Most of us (especially the bystander Elainas) had strongly objected to leaving, but there was no one among us who knew what was going to happen now.

After handing out copies of The Journey of Elaina to everyone, I halfway forced them to disperse.

As we were responsible for the considerable damage that had been done to the city, Short-Haired Elaina and I stayed behind and searched to make sure there were no others hiding anywhere.

“No one else here, huh?”

“Nope, there isn’t.” I nodded at Short-Haired Elaina.

After looking at me for a moment, she looked back at the city around us. Morning sunlight was shining in through a part of the city we had only narrowly avoided leveling, spreading a pale scarlet color over her ash-gray hair.

With the beautiful scenery behind her, she wore an expression that seemed just a little bit lonely.

“What are you planning to do from here?”

When I asked, she gently combed down her short hair.

“I thought I might go and get my hair back. It’s probably still implanted in one of the dolls.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, well, since the culprit has already been caught, I should be able to find it just by searching for the dolls.”

“I hope you find them.”

“Yeah.”

Neither of us wanted to say good-bye.

For starters, she was me, so it was strange to speak of separation. Saying good-bye to someone I could see anytime I looked in a mirror…I found it somehow odd.

……

Well, that was the reason I was willing to admit to anyway.

I simply didn’t want to say those parting words.

And so…

“Thank you, Elaina,” she said.

“Don’t mention it, Elaina,” I replied.

With just that exchange, she left the city.

I had one final thing that I needed to do.

“I’m alone now!” I called out to no one in particular. My voice echoed loudly through the city, which answered only with silence and made me think it could echo everywhere without me even having to strain my voice.

In fact, sure enough, the one I’d been waiting for came when she heard my call. The girl adorned with two twisted horns descended to where I was standing, flapping her bat-like wings.

“You called?”

Devil Elaina had appeared.

“Yes, because there’s something that I really want to discuss with you.”

“I don’t really have anything to say, though.”

“……” I stared at this girl who had demonstrated she would never pass up the chance to crack a joke. “I realized your true identity halfway through.”

“Before we discuss my true identity or whatever, I’d like you to take responsibility for trashing my city.”

She’s funny, really.

“This place is in a dream, right? I don’t think there’s any responsibility to be taken.”

“…Hmm.”

The City of Granted Wishes, where I encountered all the other Elainas, was built entirely out of parts of other countries I had visited. That was one conclusion I had drawn from the state of this place, which was full of all kinds of impossible phenomena.

This was my dream world, and everything in this dream was being shown to me by the Devil Elaina before my eyes.

It seemed irrational.

It was, though, a very compelling conclusion.

“The state of this city—This place looks like you crammed every ideal thing into one…and that reminded me of another incident in a certain country.”

All the citizens had fallen into dreams, and while everyone else was sleeping, only one lone girl was left behind. It had been quite sad.

The peacefully sleeping citizens all got lost in dreams of their ideal worlds created by a certain demon, and when three days had passed, they died in their sleep.

Three days—exactly the same amount of time Devil Elaina had given us.

“You meddle with people’s dreams and consume their life force by trapping them inside their idealized worlds. And I’m one of your victims. Am I wrong?”

“Oh-ho!” She smiled slightly and shook her head. “You’re just a little off the mark. You haven’t joined them yet.”

“That’s right. Because it hasn’t been exactly three days yet.”

There are still a few hours left.

“So what are you planning to do? Will you stay here like this and become my nourishment?”

“Certainly not. Why do you think I tore up the city so much and drove all the other Elainas away?”

“……”

Well, it was mostly coincidence that the city had gotten trashed, but driving all the other Elainas away had been part of the plan.

It was likely the other Elainas who had appeared here had been reproduced from my memories and were my other possible selves. In other words, they were images I had created out of my yearning for alternative possibilities.

“Even if this was my dream world and not any of the other Elainas’, there’s nothing I desire here anymore. There is absolutely no reason for me to stay in this dream.”

“…You did well. What a shame. I thought for sure that a witch’s life force would be particularly delicious.”

“If you were hoping to get a witch for dinner, I’d say your makeshift plan has backfired.” I took my wand in hand. “Well then, hurry up and let me out of here. If you don’t—”

“If I don’t, you’re going to hurt me? Ha-ha-ha, what a fool you are.” She cackled and then said, “If you go out the gate like normal, you’ll return to the real world. I never prevented anyone from leaving in the first place, and I don’t pursue anyone who leaves. If you want to escape, you can.” She waved me away.

“……So you’ve consumed a lot of people’s life forces by doing this?”

I suppose that, after waiting for the allotted three days, she devours the life force of anyone who chooses to stay.

“That’s right. It’s how I eat, you see.”

“…You feed on people’s lives? Don’t you feel guilty for devouring innocent humans?”

“To me, a human life is nothing more than a meal. Do you think it’s unforgivable to eat the meat of livestock?”

“……”

“You look like you want to say you can’t understand me. I’m not really trying to get you to understand or anything. Creatures like me are different than you humans, down to the most fundamental parts. I never thought for a second we could understand each other.”

“…That’s too bad. If you could use your power in a more amicable way, you would probably have been useful to humans.”

“Ha-ha-ha, you really are a dummy!” she said frankly. “Why should I befriend my livestock?”

Different down to the most fundamental parts.

I see. Sure enough, the beings we call demons would probably be like that.

“Oh, right, right. I’m not going to hold you back, but let me tell you something good.”

“…What is it?”

I was just about to take my leave.

She spoke offhandedly, as cheerful as always.

“The Elainas who came here; they weren’t just your imagination… All of them were the real you.”

Gray clouds, nearly white, drew patterns as they moved through the clear sky, like they do after a storm has passed.

The breeze made a commotion as it ran through the grass, forming waves of brilliant green. Tickling my nose was the fragrance of early spring with the scent of winter still lingering in the warm sunshine.

Blue and green, and a little bit of white, were reflected in my eyes.

“…This place.”

Apparently, I had been in a deep sleep, smack in the middle of a field.

Exactly how long was I out? My memory before falling asleep was hazy, and I couldn’t really recall much. Why, how, and for what reason was I sleeping in the middle of a field?

Though I remember the events that took place during my dream pretty vividly.

“……”

Then it suddenly came to me.

I can’t remember what happened before I fell asleep, so let’s look at the diary. Diaries are useful things when your memory is hazy. I think it should be in my robe.

“…Here.”

When I fished around in my robe, a book fell out along with my diary.

It had a very plain cover with the title and my name written on it. By hand.

“……”

It was, without a doubt, the book we had created while in the dream.

Ah, now that I think of it, the people who come out of those kinds of dreams usually get to take one thing with them.

I see. So mine was this book.

For a moment, I compared the two books in my hands then returned one to my robe pocket.

“…The diary can wait until later.”

I’m going to get back to my travels after I finish reading this book. It’s no big deal. I’ve got plenty of time.

Plus, right now, I feel like taking a trip down memory lane.

So I crossed my legs and sat in the middle of the field.

As if urged on by the cool breeze, I carefully flipped the book open.

Inside, sure enough, was my story.