Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 4 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Amnesia’s Forgotten Travelogue

In a certain place, there was a mysterious girl who one day lost her memory.

Her name was Amnesia. She was seventeen years old. She wore a thick black headband in her sleek, white, shoulder-length hair, and her jade-green eyes were as beautiful as the flowers of summer.

She wore a white robe, a black skirt, and tall boots. She seemed to have retained some memory of handling a sword, because she also wore a saber at her hip. It was the outfit of someone who was not exactly sure whether she was a mage or a swordsman.

She could not remember anything. All she had left from her previous life were a few habits, deeply ingrained, like caring for her weapon before bed or reviewing her diary after waking in the morning.

The girl had come from an isolated city a short distance away. It was called the Holy City, Esto, and she was traveling toward it, apparently. She learned as much from her diary.

There must have been something for her there, in Esto.

There was always the chance that reaching Esto would not jog her memory. That fear crashed over her like a wave several times a day, but even so, she could do nothing other than move ahead.

She was continuing her journey on this day, carefully writing in her diary, which had Read this when you wake up in the morning inscribed onto the cover. She recorded the events of every day of her sojourn.

“Welcome! This is the Frontier Town, Albed! Are you a traveler?”

“Mm. Well, I suppose so.”

After nodding to the sentry at the gate, she curtly answered his two or three questions and proceeded without incident through immigration inspection. For his last question, the guard turned a suspicious eye on her and asked, “…You seem to be wearing a robe, but you’re not a mage, are you?”

“I can’t use magic or anything…so no?” she answered, tilting her head in confusion. That was the truth—and even if she had once been able to use magic, she certainly could not remember any now. It seemed acceptable to say she was not a mage.

In the end, the guard looked at the saber hanging from her hip and decided that she wasn’t. Then he opened the gate, and she passed through it.

Before her stretched a rather common townscape. There were lanes lined with brick buildings, and the streets were paved with the same brickwork. Moss burst from the gaps between the bricks in patches. The scenery gave one the vague sense that the town harbored some deep history, standing there unchanged since time immemorial.

On the other hand, towns like this were not hard to come by, and this one did not have any particular charm or anything to set it apart.

But that wasn’t the case to this girl.

“…Beautiful!”

Everything that caught her eye, everything about the places she visited, was novel to her. The scene before her eyes was fresh and new. It all glittered like gold. She was captivated.

To not forget that scenery, she took out her diary and began to write of the beauty of the town, for the benefit of her tomorrow self, as she walked. Even if she had no memory, she could capture the loveliness in prose. That’s what she decided.

And this was probably not the first time. When she read back over the diary, she had found she often went on at length about the beauty of other towns just like this one.

And so the girl lost herself in the movement of her pen over the page and entirely failed to notice the other person headed directly toward her.

“—Ack!” The new person fell on their butt.

“—Ah!” Amnesia skidded on her backside.

She had collided with a girl of a similar age. Her ash-colored hair was long and sleek, and she had lapis-colored eyes.

She must have been a local. She was dressed in extremely ordinary clothing, a simple cardigan and dress, accessorized with only a single expensive-looking necklace. She had a bag on her shoulder, but it was hanging open. She looked like she might have been in the middle of shopping, as between them was scattered a half-eaten apple and several magazines, as well as a diary and other items.

“Ah, s-sorry! I was caught up in my writing…” In a fluster, Amnesia scrambled to gather up the other girl’s belongings.

The girl with ash-colored hair stood up and calmly brushed the dirt from her backside. “…No, I’m the one who wasn’t looking where I was going.” Her words turned sour as she continued without pause. “But I can’t say I commend you for writing while walking. Nothing can be said for that except you limit your own field of vision,” she snapped.

Perhaps the half-eaten apple had been a poisoned one.

“Uh… Sorry…” Amnesia hung her head meekly and apologized.

By the way, the girl with the ashen hair who had run into her from the opposite direction had been using poor manners, eating an apple while walking. Of course, she hadn’t been looking at her surroundings. She had been deeply absorbed in eating her apple. Despite that, she’d had a bone to pick with Amnesia, blinded to her own role in the incident, possibly because she was a bit angry that her apple had gotten dirty when they ran into each other. She’d shown her own character to be rather rotten. Perhaps the half-eaten apple had been a rotten one.

“…Well, let’s both be more careful from now on, shall we?”

The two of them picked up their belongings that had scattered and mixed together, then turned their backs on each other and walked away as if nothing had happened.

They took separate paths.

“…Maybe I shouldn’t write in my diary while I’m walking.”

Having returned the diary to her breast pocket, the girl started to talk to herself.

However, she didn’t know she had always written in her diary as she walked. She also had no way of knowing that she had never taken the time to write in her diary before bed. And finally, she didn’t realize the diary she had just tucked away had gotten mixed up with one belonging to a different person.

That evening, she booked a room at an inn and slept, falling into a deep slumber without recording the events of the day.

And then she forgot even that fact as soon as she slipped off to sleep.

“…The Holy City, Esto, huh?”

I had inquired with a local merchant as to whether there were any interesting places to visit nearby, and that is what he told me.

“Yes. That place is really incredible. And when I say incredible, I mean it’s incredible because we don’t know what’s so incredible about it. It’s so incredible that we don’t know what’s so incredible. I mean, it’s really, really incredible.”

“Sorry, but could you please explain it in a way I can understand?”

“Uh-oh, was that too difficult for you, princess?”

“I’m afraid I lack the royal upbringing needed to understand your nonsensical speech.”

“……”

“So then what kind of country is it? Please tell me the specifics.”

The merchant cleared his throat with a cough. “First of all, I should tell you I’ve never been there. Esto is largely closed to foreign trade. Outsiders are absolutely forbidden unless they are accompanied by a resident. I hear they’re trying to keep powerful magical secrets from getting out to the rest of the world.”

“Huh…”

“However, every now and again, somebody manages to prevail upon some resident of Esto that they’ve met on the outside and infiltrate the city, but…most everybody, for whatever reason, comes back with absolutely no memories of the place. They forget everything that happens after they enter the city and can’t remember a single thing about the days of their stay.”

“……” There was one word I had gotten a little hung up on. “When you say, ‘most everybody,’ you mean that not everyone loses their memories, right?”

The merchant nodded. “There are some who remember. But…”

“But?”

“Anyone who doesn’t lose their memory becomes a loyal citizen of Esto. And as loyal citizens, they’re entirely dedicated to keeping the city’s secrets.”

“……”

In other words, you either lost your memory or became a citizen.

…What kind of city can this be? No one knows, and those who do know won’t tell.

I’m intrigued…

This sounds like a place I should visit sometime soon. But I can’t enter unless I’m accompanied by a local, so it’ll be pretty difficult.

“Thank you very much. You’ve been very helpful. By the way, are there any interesting places around besides that one?”

“Let me see—oh, right, right. There is one more interesting place to visit. And it’s straight down the road from here.”

“Oh-hoh. What kind of place?”

I tilted my head, and the merchant said, “It’s called the Frontier Town, Albed, and, well, it is an interesting place, but—ah, that’s no good. It’s difficult for witches to get into.”

“……”

Again? Whether it’s Esto or Albed, why does this region have so many restrictions?

I had my cheeks puffed out in frustration, and the merchant said, “Albed bans entry to mages.”

Entry prohibited to mages.

I see. So there is no limit to the difficulties of immigration.

…But I guess you could say it’s all right to enter if you’re not a mage.

“I see. Please tell me all the details.”

“Huh? But witches can’t—”

“Details, please.”

“……”

And then I got the merchant to spit out all the information he knew.

The Frontier Town, Albed, had a long history, said to have been founded several hundred years ago. In times long past, in the surrounding countryside, magical supremacy was the order of the day, and anyone who was not a mage—well, the usual course was apparently that those people were mocked and treated as subhuman, and even faced banishment. That was just the way of things back then.

The banished searched around for a place to dwell and eventually arrived at the remains of a fortress that had previously been used in war. In the end, the people settled there. While they were settling, the population continued to increase, and before anyone knew it, the people were cultivating the land around the fortress, building houses out of bricks, and constructing walls.

A long time passed, and that place became known as the Frontier Town, Albed.

Because of what happened to them, the people who lived there resented all mages, and because no magic users were allowed into the country, their negative feelings only festered, generating a vicious cycle.

Well, that’s the legend anyway.

“In other words, it’s no problem as long as I’m not a mage, right?”

With that in mind, I quickly changed my clothes to an ordinary cardigan and dress. After donning this very plain outfit, I continued down the road toward Albed.

It was not long before I arrived there.

“Welcome to the Frontier Town, Albed! Are you a traveler?”

The guard who came out to greet me with a smile fired off two or three questions. He finally cocked his head. “Well, I think you’re all right, but—you’re not a mage, are you?”

“I think you can tell by looking. No, I’m not,” I answered with a calm expression.

The guard nodded vigorously. “I thought so!”

And thus, I successfully infiltrated the Frontier Town.

“……”

This was hearsay from the merchant, but apparently there were quite a few mages who had secretly crossed the border.

That’s why I wasn’t terribly worried as I stepped inside.

The first thing I did was take a walk around the town, filled with anticipation for what kind of country this place that forbade mages might be. To my surprise, any description of the country could be reduced to a single word—ordinary. It was done up in brick as far as the eye could see, but it was really nothing special.

The street stalls were plain. They had fruits lined up for sale.

The bookstore was ordinary. There was nothing in particular that could be called unique about this country.

Of course, the restaurants were also average. There was nothing that could be called a distinguishing characteristic.

I was nibbling on an apple as I went down the road, making my rounds and wondering if there wasn’t anything at all interesting here. I continued walking along the unremarkable road for several dozen minutes. Before I realized it, I discovered I had made my way back around to the gate where I had started.

“—Ack!”

“—Ah!”

And that’s exactly when I ran into a total stranger.

The following day. I opened my eyes in the room of an inn.

The light that leaked in from outside shimmered with the swaying curtains, telling me that morning had arrived with the warmth of early spring.

After yawning once, I changed my clothes, rushed out of the inn, and leaped out into the sunny street.

Stillness echoed through a town that had only just awakened.

“…Let’s see… How about I go around to all the spots I haven’t visited yet?”

I walked absentmindedly through the town.

As yesterday had been the first day of my stay, there was one place I had deliberately avoided.

The ruins of the fortress.

The place where the exiled people had founded their new homes. It was a place that could not be forgotten by the people here. If those people were still rejecting magic users, I was sure the fortress would have persisted. It wouldn’t have been demolished. One could imagine the fortress had a very high possibility of standing even now.

“……”

I mean, I could see it there at the end of the road and everything.

MAGIC USER TEMPORARY INTERNMENT CENTER said the sign hanging from the building.

Ivy crept up the towering ramparts, and beyond the high walls, the rustic keep was dyed orange where it was hit by the light of the sun.

It looked like it had been here for a very long time. It showed signs of repairs from place to place. Even as the ages passed and the repairs mounted as it fell apart, it must have been standing on this spot the whole time.

Near the sign, there was a sentry standing stock-still, serving as a gate guard. He had a rifle on his shoulder, not moving even the slightest bit, like a mannequin.

Why on earth had this place become a prison for mages? And just what did it mean by “temporary”…?

“Aheh-heh-heh. This place, well…this is the place where we arrest mages who sneak into Albed and hold them until we toss them back outside.”

“Ah. Uh, okay.”

The suspicious old woman who had suddenly appeared on the scene explained it all to me. Thanks, but who are you?

“We were expelled by the mages, and this building has been right here ever since the first day we arrived. Historically, this building has been emblematic of our hatred toward mages. That’s why in the old days, our ancestors used it as a place to imprison mages who snuck into the country. Heh-heh…”

The old woman had a rather carefree demeanor for someone who was telling me about her country’s dark past.

By the way, who are you?

“……” I replied with silence, and the old woman kept talking.

“Mages are locked up in here without exception and held until arrangements can be made for their expulsion. Then they are ransomed back to their friends and families on the outside for an exorbitant fee. This building is the biggest cash cow in all of Albed.”

“…I see.”

Smart business. I’m impressed.

The old woman continued. “Right, look here. See that carriage over there?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah.” I looked at the carriage heading down the road, straight for the Magic User Temporary Internment Center.

It was no ordinary carriage. The back was a large metal cage.

“That is a carriage for hauling any mages they catch. Look, there’s one in there now, isn’t there?”

“……”

I was quite taken aback.

In the cargo hold of that carriage was a girl I remembered, staring blankly at the fortress with her jaw slack open.

……

It was the white-haired girl I had collided with the day before.

What’s this? Is she a mage? Did she infiltrate this country just like I did? I guess if you look closely, she has a vaguely magical look about her.

The carriage stopped in front of the gate.

Since I came all the way out here, I might as well see how they treat the mages once they apprehend them.

“We’re here. This is the internment center.” The driver of the carriage turned around and gave the girl a hard stare.

“Amazing…! You’re saying I can stay in a huge castle like this? Nice!”

The way the girl was acting—her eyes sparkling earnestly from where she sat atop the carriage—did not seem to match the vibe of the place at all. Naturally, the driver got angry.

“Why, you! Do you understand what you’ve done? You entered our country without permission! How about feeling a little more remorseful of your crime?”

“Oh…but don’t you think it’s strange to tell me to repent when I’m being sent to such a luxurious facility?”

“…That’s enough! Get out of the carriage! We’re throwing you in jail!”

The irritated driver opened the cage around the cargo hold and dragged the girl out. The handcuffs jangling around both of her hands were the type that held each finger in place so that she couldn’t close her fists. One chain stretched out from the handcuffs like a leash, and the driver yanked on it as he handed several pieces of paper over to the gate guard.

The guard flipped through the papers silently.

“Because you’ve been going around spreading rumors to the citizens of the town and to the owners of shops that you are a mage, from this point, you shall be confined in the Magic User Temporary Internment Center. If you wish to go free, you must contact your friends, acquaintances, or family outside the city. Do you understand, Ashen Witch, Elaina?”

……

Huh?

I blinked in surprise, but the guard was still staring at the white-haired girl without so much as glancing in my direction.

“…No, um, I lost my memory, and I don’t know whether I have any friends or family outside—”

“Take her away,” the guard ordered the driver sharply.

“C’mon!” the driver barked and yanked on the chain attached to the handcuffs.

“Um, hang on! Hey, listen to what I’m saying—”

Her voice faded out on the way to the dilapidated fortress.

……

Huh? What’s going on?

Even though the exact particulars of a rather clever business strategy had just unfolded before my very eyes, I was preoccupied by something else. Exactly what had happened, and why had it ended with that girl getting called by my name?

And did she say she lost her memory…?

“Say, by the way, missy, won’t you give me some money?”

“Huh?”

The overly familiar old woman was still by my side. To make matters worse, she had her hand extended, pressing me for money. I’m sorry, who are you?

“What? You’re a sightseer, and I told you about the sights. Come on, fork over some cash… Think of it as an information fee.”

“……”

I had been wondering what her deal was, and I guess it was a high-pressure sales tactic for sightseers.

Yet another clever business strategy. I let out a sigh.

By the way, she demanded one gold piece for her information fee. I was angry, so I used magic to enchant a copper piece to look like gold and handed it over.

Why on earth was a girl going around using my name when we’ve only run into each other once?

This was really bothering me. To begin, it was an extreme disgrace to have someone going by my name who had foolishly gotten herself arrested infiltrating this town.

I was annoyed—fuming!

“Um, excuse me. Could I ask you something?” I spoke to the gate guard. “Why on earth was she arrested?”

He turned his head toward me quickly and mechanically. “The Ashen Witch, Elaina? She’s a fairly stupid witch.”

Are you trying to pick a fight?

“…What do you mean?” I quietly swallowed my anger.

“According to the documents, she was going around in the morning asking ordinary citizens to teach her how to use magic. Apparently, she has completely lost her memories of anything before yesterday, and with them, her ability to do magic.”

“Huh…is it amnesia?”

“Mm. But this country, as you know, forbids entry to mages. So even though we don’t know what happened to her yesterday, once she revealed herself to be a mage, we arrested her.”

“……” I suddenly had a thought. “But that witch didn’t actually use any magic, right? Isn’t it unfair to arrest her?”

Well, this girl wasn’t me, but somehow it was hard to tolerate the idea of someone using my name getting arrested, so I made an excuse for her.

However, the gate guard shook his head firmly. “She doesn’t appear to recall how to use magic, but unfortunately for her, we have a diary that confirms she’s a mage. She may have lost her memory, but her notes prove her guilt.”

“…A diary?”

Huh? This is getting more and more confusing.

I opened up my bag and pulled out my diary in a panic.

“Hmm…?”

It was a small book with a very similar design, but clearly different to my own.

On the cover, in neat calligraphy, was written Read this when you wake up.

The moment I looked at the cover, I knew it wasn’t mine.

“……”

Wait…

…What?

What in the world is this?

I returned to my room at the inn for the moment, where I cracked open the diary.

Read this when you wake up.

When I turned the cover with those instructions, I found recorded there the journey of a girl named Amnesia.

It seemed she had begun her journey roughly one year earlier. It felt wrong to read too much of it, so I flipped through the pages, looking at the dates, and found that this girl Amnesia had a fairly consistent nature. Every day without fail, she recorded the events that had occurred. Personally, I would rather not write about a day unless something interesting happened, so you could say we had practically opposite personalities.

In the diary entry for the previous day, Amnesia was going on endlessly in a long passage about the beauty of the Frontier Town. Halfway down, a strange line slithered across the page, and the entry abruptly ended.

“……”

The girl with white hair and a headband must have been named Amnesia. That would explain things.

I imagined we accidentally swapped diaries when we bumped into each other, and we had ended up leaving the scene with the wrong one in hand.

“……”

…What a mess.

But why on earth was she going by my name?

I discovered a clue that might explain it written at length on the page behind the front cover. It said:

This is your diary. Read it when you wake up in the morning.

Your name is Amnesia. You are seventeen years old. Since you just woke up, you probably can’t even remember your own name. But take a look at the necklace hanging from your neck—I believe it bears the words “To our beloved Amnesia.” I don’t know who you got it from, but there can be no doubt about the fact that your name is Amnesia.

In this diary, you record everything you have done and everything you have yet to do.

You are currently beset by an illness that erases your memory when you sleep at night.

I do not know the cause of your illness. However, your fine clothing and the saber at your hip were clearly crafted in a particular city. That place may be your home, so that is where you should head. Please continue onward to your native land.

I’m praying for your safe return.

Then the page behind the cover was brought to a finish with a single sentence.

The name of your home is the Holy City, Esto.

That’s what it said.

“……”

I found it hard to believe.

However, if I thought backward from the present situation, this new development was consistent with what I had seen so far.

For example, let’s assume she really did lose her memory every day.

She collided with me, swapped diaries with mine, then for some reason, she went to sleep without recording the events of the day.

Then she would wake up in the morning, missing all her memories. Since she wouldn’t even know her own name, she must have found my diary by her side and mistakenly thought that she was Elaina.

Without knowing anything about this country, she then must have been under the impression that she had lost the ability to use magic, despite being a witch.

Of course, she had never been able to use magic at all.

To make matters worse, I hadn’t written in my diary for several days, so the last page that she read would have been dated several days ago.

It wouldn’t have been a stretch for her to assume she had lost her memories of the past few days.

“……”

Unfortunately for her, that all seemed to fit.

“…The Holy City, huh?”

I thought about Amnesia, who had lost her memory. About my diary. About the Holy City, Esto, where she should be headed.

What should I do?

Assuming she is a citizen of Esto, they ought to allow me to enter the country as her fellow traveler. And if she isn’t a citizen of Esto, I’m sure the city has something to do with her memory loss. If we make enough noise about it, they should let us at least enter the country.

I wonder if I have a duty to help the girl who has mistaken herself for being Elaina? Is it necessary?

“…Suppose it is.”

Or rather, I have no reason not to help her. Not to mention it’s no reach to say I’m part of the reason why she’s in jail right now.

It seemed like helping the girl made too much sense.

And so I stood up and proceeded toward the fortress once again.

“Yeah, so like, when I really thought about it, I realized that witch from earlier, Elaina, is like, my friend!” claimed a lone girl in a very stupid way, scratching her cheek. “Tee-hee!”

She was at the ruins, giving this line as an excuse to the guard.

Who was she?

That’s right. She’s me.

“For some reason, she’s had this illness where she periodically loses her memory and then gets it back, and so, like, she’s been traveling with me. Apparently, she doesn’t even know who she is, and somehow wandered over here, you know?”

The guard nodded at me while I was making my excuses. “…Huh. So you’re saying the witch only just remembered this morning that she is the Ashen Witch?”

“Bingo.”

The basic plot was that I was trying to sell him on the idea that she had only carelessly entered Frontier Town because of her unfortunate condition.

I would have been grateful if things went well and the guard simply released her, saying something like, “If she had no memory, then I guess it’s an honest mistake. I’ll let her go.”

“Even so, that doesn’t shake the fact that she’s a witch, and she came here. Before I can release that woman, you’ll have to pay her fine.”

“Tch.”

“Hey, did you just click your tongue at me?”

“No! I would never do something like that!” I did. Whatcha gonna do about it? “So about that fine. How much is it?”

“Roughly twenty gold pieces.”

“Oh no. You’re trying to swindle me…”

It’s too much… I mean, I have enough on me…but I don’t want to pay up…

“If you want me to set the witch free, you need to pay that amount. Up front. In cold, hard coin. It’s no problem if you can’t! Your friend will just spend the rest of her life in jail.”

“……”

From his firm stance, it was more than apparent the guard had not even the slightest inclination to back down.

I resigned myself and let out a big sigh. “…Fine. I’ll pay.”

Because it seemed like there would be no moving forward if I didn’t.

“Well then, before we hand the Ashen Witch over to you, we’ll have you confirm it’s her. You said you’re her traveling companion, right? In that case, you ought to know all the places she’s visited up until now.”

“……”

I had expected them to obediently hand the girl over, but they hit me with an even more bothersome plot twist.

I was already feeling resentful. I did not much care for being strung along.

With an indifferent look, the gate guard cracked open the diary of the Ashen Witch—well, it was my own diary, though.

“First, which country did the Ashen Witch visit most recently?”

“……”

Of course, he was talking about me.

“Sunken City.”

“Correct. And her least favorite food?”

“All varieties of mushrooms.”

“Mm-hmm. And the person she secretly idolizes?”

“…Her teacher.”

…What’s with this Q&A session? And just how much of my diary did he read?

“All right then, what’s the title of this diary?”

“……Wandering Witch.”

“Very well.” After that, the guard paused for a moment, then tilted his head. “I have one last question… Why on earth does the Ashen Witch repeat ‘That’s right. She’s me’ so often? Is it a catchphrase or something?”

“………Um, I think so, yes.”

“And she seems to be really obsessed with money. What’s the deal with that? Does it mean witches don’t take any issue with committing dirty deeds?”

“…………I’m sure she considers those occasions to be exceptions, like when she’s stolen from someone so nasty that she’d like to forget their existence immediately.”

“Plus, she spends a lot of words waxing poetic about her beauty. What’s with that? Is the Ashen Witch in love with herself?”

“……………I suppose she is, yes.”

“And isn’t she too sweet toward other women? Sounds to me like she’s biased against men.”

“………………I think she’s just not accustomed to dealing with men.”

“On top of that—”

I don’t particularly want to recount the entire rest of the exchange, so allow me to omit it.

“…………………Please stop…I’m begging you…”

After every aspect of my diary was thoroughly skewered, I could feel my face burning red.

The gate guard finally seemed satisfied and closed the diary. “Mm, very well. Hey, bring the woman here!” he shouted behind him.

“……”

We waited a moment. From the building on the other side of the gate, a woman appeared, pulled along by a man. She had a thick black headband in her white hair, and her eyes were wide with surprise. “Huh? Am I being released?”

She met eyes with me. She must not have recalled colliding with me the previous day, because she cocked her head. “…Who are you?”

“I’m your friend. I don’t suppose you remember me,” I answered.

“Why is your face red? Do you have a fever?”

“Please leave me alone.” I turned my face aside. I wanted to escape the fact that my own diary had been read aloud.

The guard looked at each of us in turn. “Ashen Witch,” he said to her. “Your friend has come to collect you. Once you are released, you are to leave straightaway and never come back here again!”

To me, he said, “That’ll be twenty gold pieces. Hand it over now.” He stuck out his hand.

“……” After letting out a big sigh, I paid him the amount from my purse. “…Here you go.”

“Very good.”

The guard simply confirmed the amount of gold, put it away, and took the handcuffs off the girl. While he was at it, he handed over her personal effects, like the diary and saber. Well, the diary was mine.

The girl had gotten back her hands and her freedom with a clink. “…Thank you?” she said with a tilt of her head, perhaps not yet able to comprehend the situation.

“Don’t mention it,” I replied, then took her hand and started to walk off. “Could you come with me for a second?”

And this is how I left Albed at a brisk pace—taking with me the amnesiac who had assumed my name.

We had left the Frontier Town and were walking through a prairie.

After changing back into my usual robes, I explained everything.

I explained that I was not really her friend. That I was the true Ashen Witch, Elaina. And the reason why she had been arrested.

“…Hmm? Wait a minute. What on earth do you mean?”

In response to me yammering on and explaining everything, Amnesia seemed to have difficulty processing the situation, as I had expected.

“Like I said, you’re not the Ashen Witch. The reason why you think you’re Elaina is because you picked up my diary by mistake.”

“…But I don’t remember that happening…”

“Read this.”

It would probably be faster to have her read it than for me to explain further.

I handed her the diary.

“……”

After she had turned a few pages as we walked, she whispered, “My name is…Amnesia… Huh. That seems to fit me better than Elaina…” She took out a pen.

With incredibly natural movements, she started writing while walking.

Her lovely penmanship looked like it was written by the exact same person who had penned the words in all the other entries.

At this point, she seemed to have finally realized she was Amnesia.

“But…I certainly did think it was awfully strange… It was written right there in the diary that I was a witch, even though I didn’t feel like I could use magic at all…”

“I’m sure.”

“And even though I didn’t think I was all that cute when I looked in a mirror, I spent an awful lot of time praising my own appearance…”

“Do you want to get knocked over the head?”

Are you looking for a fight? Is that what you’re doing?

“But why did you—umm, Ashen Witch, Elaina? Why did you help me? I’m grateful, but I’m afraid I don’t understand your motivations.”

“It’s written in your diary that your hometown is the Holy City, Esto, right?”

“Huh? Mm. Seems that way.”

“Well, I have an interest in that place. But since I can’t get in unless I’m with you—”

Amnesia clapped her hands sharply and nodded vigorously. “I see! So it was a scheme to use me to get into Esto, right?”

Yes, but wasn’t there another way to say that? It makes me seem like the bad guy.

“Is it all right if I accompany you on your journey?”

“Of course!” She broke into a smile. I had more or less realized it already, but she didn’t seem to be a bad person. “I was planning to ask you the same thing. Since it seems like I can’t get by without my diary—I was just thinking I’d like to have someone like you with me. That’s why when you told me you were my friend, I was glad. Oh, so this kind of person was my friend, I thought…though I guess that wasn’t really true……” She seemed just a bit sad.

“…… So what should I call you from now on?”

“Amnesia! And you?”

“Elaina.”

“Nice to meet you, Elaina.”

“Same to you, Amnesia.”

Our exchange was a little strange, and she and I laughed in mutual embarrassment. After that, as if nothing had happened, we lined up shoulder to shoulder with each other and took off walking.

Down the same road this time.

After the Ashen Witch and the girl had left, the man guarding the gate stood at attention in front of the building that served as the Magic User Temporary Internment Center, as he always had.

“I’ve seen those clothes before,” he muttered to himself.

The soldier who had taken the Ashen Witch to the Internment Center earlier overheard him. “…Where did you see them?”

The gate guard looked up at the sky, as if to follow his own memory as it flowed along like the clouds.

“I’m starting to think she wasn’t the Ashen Witch after all.”

“…Well, from her easygoing attitude, I didn’t get much of a witchy impression, but…”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“…Meaning?”

“Those were the clothes of the Order of Holy Knights from the Holy City. I read about it a long time ago.”

“The Holy City, huh…?”

Those were words that neither the soldier nor the guard were particularly glad to hear.

The so-called Holy City was the very same one that had once driven the ancestors of the people of Frontier Town out of their original homes while preaching the supremacy of magic users.

The woman calling herself the Ashen Witch—the woman they had arrested—had been wearing the uniform of that very same order.

That fact was beyond incomprehensible.

It called into question whether that girl with the white hair and headband was the Ashen Witch after all.

The soldier suddenly tilted his head in puzzlement. “But the fact that a witch had lost her memory was…strange, right? When you leave the city, only your memories of Esto are supposed to be erased. But…if she belonged to the Holy Knights, then she must be a citizen of Esto. And in that case, her memory shouldn’t have been erased at all—huh?”

When the Frontier Town was founded, the Holy City had surrounded itself with a magical barrier that prevented knowledge of their magical skills from leaking into the outside world. This way, any outsiders who left the city would have all memories of their stay erased.

If you were a citizen, they let you keep your memories, trusting you to keep their secrets.

However, the girl who had been arrested as the Ashen Witch did not fall under either of those categories. Her situation was nothing short of peculiar.

“…So do you suppose she was really an actual witch?”

“I wonder—” The gate guard shrugged dramatically. “Though it doesn’t really matter if she was a witch or not—I’m certain that woman was wrapped up in some kind of complicated situation.” He continued. “Oh, I’ve got the money we extorted from the other woman. Take it to the vault.”

He lazily tossed the bag containing the twenty gold pieces to the soldier.

The soldier quickly snatched the bag from the air, and in the same motion, opened it to inspect the contents—

“…Hmm?”

He discovered an even stranger situation.

The soldier seemed nervous. “…Um, all of these are copper pieces.”

“Come again?”

“…Why did you accept coppers?”

“No, I’m sure I checked them! Huh? They really are. What happened?!”

“Well, don’t ask me…”

Somehow, the money he had taken from the woman was now a sack of copper.

It was almost like the copper coins had been enchanted to look like gold.

After that, Amnesia and I greeted the morning sun together many times.

The day after we met, I had learned that, unlikely as it seemed, her diary contained the truth.

Although we walked the same roads, she never remembered a thing, and in the morning, the only words she would say to me were simply, “Who are you?”

No matter how friendly we became, no matter how much we talked, the words she spoke to me when we met every morning were always the same.

It was painful and sad. These feelings became stronger as time went on. However, the girl who I met every day, who knew nothing of the world, was always cheerful and asked me all sorts of things with a smile on her face like a flower in bloom.

And then one day—

“…Say, what kind of place was the country where we first met?”

Suddenly, she asked me such a thing as if it just crossed her mind.

“Let me see…”

After pretending to think on it for just a little while, I answered her with just two words, as jokingly as possible.

“I forget.”