Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 4 - Chapter 9

CHAPTER 9

A City on Ice

A broom carrying two girls soared over the spring plains.

It weakly bobbed from side to side as it was propelled forward.

“Are you sure we’re going in the right direction?”

A black robe and pointy hat. The witch with a star-shaped brooch pinned to her breast posed the question to the girl sitting next to her. As indicated on the map that she had spread out with both hands, if they continued in this direction for a long time, the Holy City, Esto, should be ahead. But it was absolutely nowhere to be seen.

The girl sitting next to the witch peered at the map. “Hmm…I think so? It’s circled with a note that says ‘Around Here!’ See? That settles it!”

“Settles what?”

Sure enough, the map did have a note reading Around Here! but the girls were sure that they had already entered the area circled on the map. In other words, had they already arrived? Really? It was just an empty field. There was nothing—just blue skies and open plains stretching on forever. But I guess we’re here? Are you an idiot?

“…Well, for the time being, let’s go a little farther and then reassess our situation.” The witch controlled the urge to say something mean and replied in an adult way, feigning calm composure.

Who on earth could she be?

That’s right. She’s me.

“Suppose so,” said the person beside her, whose name was Amnesia. “Well, it’ll work out somehow. It seems like we’re close, anyway.”

“……”

She has a hopelessly laid-back, happy-go-lucky personality.

We had been traveling together for about a week, but since Amnesia lost her memory whenever she slept, I couldn’t sense any progress in our relationship.

The broom beneath us, on the other hand, continued to progress…toward the Holy City, Esto.

“Mmph.”

I was taken by surprise as Amnesia suddenly embraced me.

The broom bucked, threatening to shake us off.

“What is this, sexual harassment? I dare you to keep this up,” I snapped after straightening the broom back out. I think I was looking angrier by the minute.

“No, it’s because the broom was swaying. I thought I’d better hold on.”

How can you say that with a straight face?

“It’s going to sway more if you hold on to me.”

“Then I’ll just have to hold you tighter, huh? Got it!”

Are you hearing yourself?

“If you do that, the broom is going to fly wildly out of control.”

“What? Does your broom get angry when we’re flirting?”

“Not the broom. I’m the one who’s angry.”

“Ah, don’t tell me you’re embarrassed? How cute!”

“……”

It had taken me a few days to realize that even though we had to meet each other for the first time every single day, her sunny disposition was part of her basic nature. Despite repeating the cycle of meeting and parting daily, she didn’t seem the least bit bothered.

……

So even though our relationship hadn’t made any progress, I felt like we had started out quite close anyway.

“Elaina, you’re so warm!”

“…Sigh…”

Fine, whatever. But how long are you planning on clinging to me?

I let out a sigh and fixed my gaze beyond the tip of the broom.

And then we entered a forest.

“…Hmm? It’s chilly.”

We had only traveled through the forest a short while when Amnesia pulled away from me and spoke in a puzzled voice.

Immediately after her body heat peeled away, the wind rushed through the gap created between us, and her warmth vanished.

It was early spring. Until just a moment ago, we had been enjoying the fine weather, and yet before we knew it, the wind had chilled us through like a deep winter gale. A bit of shade was hardly enough to cause this kind of chill.

“…Looks like it’s not just cold weather.”

I had only just begun to feel the cold, and we were already lost in another dimension.

It began to snow.

Our breath was cloudy white, and the small, cold flakes fluttered as they passed us by. Any snow that landed on our cheeks melted and disappeared, flowing down in little droplets.

We found ourselves moving through a picturesque winter forest.

“What on earth…? Isn’t this a bit much, even for extreme weather? Is this the kind of thing that happens often?”

“……” I shook my head slowly. “No, you don’t really hear about it…”

We looked out over the scenery streaming past us. The strange thing about it was that everything was blanketed in blue-white snow that glittered even in what little sunlight could reach it. Nowhere were there any signs that the snow had been disturbed, no tracks at all. Only from time to time, the trees growing under the blanket of snow would tilt their heads, as if they had just remembered something, and deposit the snow onto the ground. The falling flakes would begin covering the new green with white once again.

In one section of the spring forest, winter had come.

“I suppose it would be possible to create this phenomenon using a spell, but…”

The more I thought about it, the stranger it became.

A spell to change the weather would require a significant amount of magical energy. What would be their motivation for this? I didn’t understand the merits.

“Maybe they like winter?” Amnesia was looking vacantly up at the sky.

“…Oh!” Just as I was about to answer her, I spied the edge of the forest. I could see the light shining through the trees. “Well, I suppose we can ask them later,” I said optimistically.

Talking cheerfully as we took in the scenery, we emerged from the forest on my broom—and immediately realized that everything we had imagined about the place had been wrong.

“…What is this?” Amnesia mumbled in confusion as she alighted from the broom, which I had brought to a stop.

“……” I stood beside her.

Beyond the forest—on cleared land—was a city.

Or at least a place that had once been a city.

“…I think it’s safe to say they weren’t big fans of winter.”

There was a land where all the humans and the buildings—everything, without exception—was frozen in place.

If the forest had been white, the city was blue.

The ground was completely covered in a thick layer of ice. It looked like one wrong step would send you slipping. There was snow falling, but any flakes that stuck to the ice soon fused to it and disappeared. Maybe because of that, the ice was ever so slightly wet, meaning that the ground was fairly slick and very difficult to walk over.

On the large avenue, flanked with tall buildings, the people still looked like they were going about their business, except all of them were completely encased in ice.

“I wonder if they’re alive…,” Amnesia said as she tapped on the foreheads of the pedestrians frozen in the middle of the street.

“If they were frozen by a spell, there’s a chance they’re still alive. Ice spells often incorporate time-suspending magic, you know.”

“Umm…meaning?”

“Meaning it’s likely they’re alive inside.”

“…Really? Isn’t magic a bit too convenient?”

“It’s magic. Isn’t convenience the whole point?”

“Is that how it is?”

“That’s how it is.”

The frozen city was far colder than the forest had been. The very air itself seemed to be frosty, too.

As you would expect, we couldn’t just pass by a city under such a strange spell without stopping to take a look, and besides, we couldn’t shake the haunting feeling that the punchline was that this was the Holy City, Esto. We embarked upon a thorough investigation of the city.

“…But everything is frozen. There’s nothing here!”

My companion began complaining about ten minutes into our operation. Incidentally, in those ten or so minutes, she had slipped and fallen down no fewer than ten times.

“I’m gonna break my butt,” she said, but I let it pass.

“Come on, pull yourself together. All right, stand up.” She was on the ground, and I pulled her up.

“…Ouch,” cried Amnesia.

“Why are you in tears? Aren’t you a knight or something?”

At least, according to your clothing anyway.

“Knights feel pain!” She turned serious. “Besides, I don’t even remember whether or not I was a knight.”

“I don’t really know how to respond to that. Let’s move on to another topic…”

“You don’t have to walk on eggshells around me. I bet I said the same thing yesterday, right?”

“Not just yesterday. You say it every single day.”

“I’m going to keep saying it tomorrow, too. Thanks for putting up with me.”

I wish she would spare me the gratitude.

I sighed. “…But why is someone in your predicament dressed up like a knight?”

Amnesia shrugged in exasperation. “You’ll never know until you can ask the version of me who put on these clothes.”

Somehow, she didn’t seem to be that interested, even though we were talking about her personal circumstances. I suppose if she’s this cheerful after losing her memory, she must have been sunshine and rainbows before this all happened.

“For now, let’s head to the palace,” I said, bending over to swat away some dirt that had stuck to her backside.

“Is there something there?”

“Whenever I don’t know what’s going on, I usually understand if I go to the palace.”

I straightened back up.

Fortunately, the palace was situated directly down the road we were on.

Like everything else, it was encased in ice, but it would provide a bird’s-eye view of the surrounding area.

“At any rate, the people of this country are kind of strange, huh?” Amnesia said after we had been walking down the road for a little while, as she traced one of the frozen people with her finger. “Everyone looks frightened of something.”

She was right. The pedestrians—suspended in ice—all wore distorted expressions, looking exactly as if they had witnessed something horrific. One person had been frozen mid-leap. Another had been prostrating themself. One individual had been calmly standing their ground. Another had been cowering in despair.

It was clear they had not been shut up inside the permafrost at their own request.

That much I understood just by walking down the road.

“Plus, hey, look at this. The ice doesn’t melt.” Amnesia showed me her white fingertip—totally dry without a single drop of moisture on it. “Earlier, I got a bit curious and tried striking it with my sword, but I couldn’t make a single scratch on it. It’s less like ice and more like crystal.”

“But it’s cold.”

“All right, it’s like cold crystal.”

“……”

Imitating her, I traced my finger over the ice. An icy chill instantly coiled up my finger. However, that was the only thing that came from it. The ice did not melt even the least little bit, and there was nothing stuck to my fingertip. When I pulled my finger away, only the cold of the ice stayed with me.

“Okay.”

As a test, I pulled out my wand and rained flames down on the ice.

The result was the same. The fire had certainly scorched the ice, but it didn’t melt.

It was still there, still frozen, unchanged.

…It appears to be unmelting ice.

Why would someone bother creating this…?

“I was hoping this was all fake,” Amnesia admitted.

“Yeah, me too…”

However, it was much too elaborate to be fake. Plus, that wouldn’t explain the extreme weather.

I was certain there was something going on here that we hadn’t figured out.

However… Waiting for us at the palace was just more of this world locked away in ice.

“There’s really nothing here, is there?”

With the building itself frozen, we weren’t even able to go inside. In other words, there was nothing to say except that we didn’t know anything.

“I’m going to try looking down on the town from above with my broom.”

I took it out and looked at Amnesia. If everything in this city was completely covered with ice, then we would know there was no longer anything here. If there were any unfrozen places, we could think about what to do then.

At any rate, I was thinking it would be best for us to give up quickly and change course back toward the Holy City.

However…

“Wait…there’s someone there.”

At that moment, Amnesia’s expression changed. Her gaze had fallen on the shadows of a frozen house. She put her hand on her sword, still staring intensely at a single point.

I also drew my wand a beat later. I was gripping my broom in my right hand and my wand in my left.

“You over there, who are you?”

When she spoke up the second time, the thing emerged from its hiding place.

“……………………”

It is difficult to describe.

It was shaped like a girl. Black hair dangled loosely over its face, and in the gaps between hair floated lifeless eyes. It was wearing filthy, shredded rags.

It had probably once been a witch. On its head was a pointy hat, upon its breast was a star-shaped brooch, and in its hand, it gripped a wand.

But strangest of all was that all over its body were spots where ice crystals were growing. We could see them from the gaps in the scraps of cloth that once were a robe. And on its face and legs. Ice was growing out of it like parasitic mushrooms on a tree.

“……………………”

Dragging its legs, the thing walked slowly toward us.

“Don’t come over here!” She must have sensed the danger to her person immediately. Amnesia had already drawn the saber that she kept at her hip. “I don’t know where you’re from or who or what you are, but—if you come any closer, I’ll slice through you!”

“……………………”

Her words didn’t seem to make it to the ears of the thing.

Slowly dragging one leg behind it, the creature did not stop.

“…Doesn’t look like you heard me.”

“……………………”

“Are you the one who did this?”

“……………………”

Her words washed over the creature in a one-sided exchange. There was no reply. It just continued walking intently.

It closed the distance between them bit by bit. Amnesia backed away. “What is with this girl—”

“……………………!”

Its hand squirmed. With a repulsive, unnatural movement, like a creeping insect, it readied its wand and pointed it at Amnesia.

A stream of ice blasted from the wand.

“Watch out!”

I blew Amnesia out of the way with a spell, and immediately after, an icicle formed in the place where she had been standing.

“Wha—?”

If the attacker’s spell had landed, Amnesia would surely have ended up like all the other people here. “I’m starting to think this is the culprit who froze the city!”

“Looks that way.” I readied my wand again.

Because the thing had already shifted the target of its attack from Amnesia to me.

“……………………”

It waved its wand again, shooting out more ice.

I was sure a single blast would be powerful enough to freeze me head to toe. As I dodged blast after blast, I waved my own wand, sending out balls of magical energy to keep the attacks in check.

But—

“…It’s like they have no effect on you.”

The creature did not so much as flinch as I bombarded it with magical energy again and again. I felt as powerless as if I were casting spells at a huge tree.

“……………………”

It was still staring right at me. Its colorless eyes were as black as the abyss and showed not the slightest bit of emotion.

Who had this thing once been? And what on earth was its purpose here?

It was all a mystery, but one thing was crystal clear—the creature before our eyes was trying to kill us, no doubt.

“……”

Yet again, I readied my wand. “This should do it—”

I fired a heat ray. The single stream of scorching thermal energy, hot enough to melt blood and meat and earth and ice and air and anything else it might encounter, engulfed the human-shaped thing in an instant.

Rays of light were blinding, glinting off of every surface in the frozen city.

I was certain that not even my twisted opponent could resist a spell of this magnitude.

That’s what I thought.

I thought this would surely end the threat.

I was convinced.

“……………………”

However—

“—It can’t be.”

Oh, this is bad, I thought.

I suddenly understood very clearly that I’d never had any hope of defeating the thing.

My scorching ray of heat had been frozen. Ice was flowing upstream toward me from the humanoid monster, coating over my heat ray. It had even been able to freeze heat itself.

Even the bits of the heat ray that had scattered. Even the attack coming out of my wand. The ice had even swallowed up my left hand.

“…Tch.” I clicked my tongue in frustration. I could no longer move my left hand.

“……………………”

On top of that, I could see the monster beyond the frozen heat ray, looking entirely unscathed. Nothing could have made me angrier.

I thought I would have done at least a little bit of damage.

That didn’t have any effect at all. What is that thing?

“Elaina…!” Amnesia wore a miserable expression as she started to rush over to me. “Wait! I’m gonna help you!”

What are you talking about?

There’s nothing you can do. Our icy opponent isn’t even affected by a heat ray.

“Sorry. It seems I’m kind of done for.”

I let go of the broom in my right hand and let it drift.

I took out a fresh wand. “I’m sorry.”

In this dire situation, even in my current state, I felt as calm as could be.

I cast a spell on my free-floating broom with the wand in my right hand. “Take care of her.” I sent it flying off.

The broom kept to my instructions faithfully, cutting a straight path through the sky to Amnesia.

“Huh…?” It hooked itself on Amnesia’s clothes and took her far away from me. “Elaina…? What’re you…doing?”

“You need to escape. I don’t think I’m going to make it.”

It doesn’t seem like I can move from this spot. I’m locked in place.

“……………………”

And that thing is still coming after me.

Checkmate.

“But, if you do that, you’ll—”

“It’s fine.”

“But—!”

As if to interrupt her, the broom whizzed off, carrying her by her clothing. It wasn’t long before she disappeared from sight.

“……………………”

The thing watched her go as if looking at something curious.

I suppose it’s thinking about going after her. It seems driven to pursue anything that moves. That, and I guess it’s registering me as someone who can’t fight anymore.

That gets on my nerves.

I pointed my one free arm at the thing.

“I suppose you think you’ve already beaten me?”

It turned around. As if it had just remembered I existed.

“……………………”

“Why don’t you say something?”

Fine. Whatever.

“…I’m not going to give up, you know. I hate the idea of it all ending in a cold place.”

If I was to freeze here… If I was to remain for eternity like the rest of this city—like all these people…

At the very least, I’d like to put on a good show.

“I’m going to put up a real fight, so prepare yourself—”

I fired off some spells.

I’m leaving the rest up to you, I silently pleaded to anyone who might be listening.

“Wait…! Let me go! Let go! If we leave like this, Elaina will…!”

I drifted through the sky, dragging along a piece of oversized baggage.

In the cold air, she was kicking and struggling on my handle, with her robe drawn up around the scruff of her neck. She looked just like a kitten being carried away by its parent.

“Why you…! To be manhandled by a mere broom…! Gah!” She was thrashing her hands around, trying to separate her robe from me, so I continued to restrict her movements by veering back and forth in a zigzag pattern.

It’s extremely rude to call me “a mere broom.” Who do you think you are?

The changes to my body began to occur after we had flown a little bit farther and put plenty of distance between us and Mistress Elaina.

At exactly the right moment, I said, “Please calm yourself, Mistress Amnesia.”

After I had tossed Mistress Amnesia to the ground, I landed. She fell onto her backside yet again, and I very calmly pointed my brush end downward and stood upright.

Immediately afterward, my figure changed from that of an ordinary broom into a different form.

“…Huh? Elaina?” Mistress Amnesia looked up at me with teary eyes, dumbfounded.

“I am a broom.”

“Huh? No, but…? What? Oh, well, your hair color is…different.” I could almost see the many question marks floating above her head as she was gripped by a state of shock.

Certainly, my hair was pink, and Mistress Elaina’s was gray—but other than that, we were almost identical, so it was not surprising that I had been mistaken for her.

“Mistress Elaina cast a spell on me earlier and gave me this form. She uses a spell that changes objects into a human shape,” I explained, but she still seemed confused.

“…Huh? What on earth…?” she asked.

…This is a waste of time, so let’s try to wrap up the explanation.

“I am a broom. I have been given Mistress Elaina’s form. As such, I look like this. And right now, we are in the middle of escaping from that monster back there.”

“…!” At that point, Amnesia’s expression changed, and she bolted upright. “That’s right…! We have to go help Elaina!”

“No.”

I grabbed Mistress Amnesia by the scruff of her neck as she tried to run off. Oddly enough, we found ourselves in the same arrangement as when we had been flying earlier, even though I had changed forms.

“Tch—let me go!” She scowled at me.

“How do you intend to fight against an opponent even Mistress Elaina is no match for?”

“That’s…”

“While I am moved by your sense of obligation and responsibility, I’d like you to consider why she might have sent you far away.”

“……” Her insistent tugging at my arm tapered off.

“Have you composed yourself?”

She turned around to face me, looking like she might cry at any moment.

“I have to help Elaina…but there’s nothing I can do…”

“……”

“…Say, Miss Broom? Did Elaina send me away so I could summon help?”

“……”

“I won’t even remember her face tomorrow, you know that…? Even if I were to go for help, it’s a certainty that if I go to sleep, I won’t remember a thing about Elaina or about this place. Even if I leave myself a note, there’s no way of knowing how seriously I might take it tomorrow.”

“……”

“I’m afraid of forgetting her…! That’s why—”

She has never known a morning without Mistress Elaina. She has never known a single day without her friend telling her about herself when she opens her eyes.

To this girl with no memories, having Mistress Elaina in her life must be incredibly important. She has someone who will tell her who she is again. That alone must give her an incredible peace of mind.

That must be why she depends on Mistress Elaina more than necessary. That must be why this girl can be so happy-go-lucky.

However, I know how much work Mistress Elaina does to give her that peace of mind. How she waits for her to awaken every morning, how she stays with her constantly while they travel, how she watches her at night until she falls asleep, and so much more.

But Mistress Elaina is now encased in ice. And all the fear that Mistress Amnesia had pushed down into the deep recess of her mind must be surging up and overwhelming her.

I suppose it’s only normal that it would break her composure.

“If you decide to fall into self-loathing after being crushed by your sense of obligation and responsibility, that is your choice to make. But please consider why Mistress Elaina might have given me a human form.”

“……?”

“From the outset, she had not the least intention of putting this matter off until tomorrow.”

While wiping away the tears that had accumulated in Mistress Amnesia’s eyes, I pointed with my finger.

There stood a single large mansion.

Among these people and buildings that were all encased in ice, Mistress Elaina must have thought: If there’s nothing here but ice, then maybe we should hear what the ice has to say.

That must be why she changed me into human form and entrusted me with unraveling the mysteries of this place.

Her intuition had turned out to be correct.

“Look ahead of you.” “The building straight ahead.” “Go there.” “Hurry up.” “Straight ahead.” “Pick up the case.”

Since the moment we had entered the city, I had been shutting them out—the rambling words of the ice that surrounded us were terribly loud.

“I’m certain if we go there, we will understand everything.”

It was a single large building, a mansion, and the only thing in this frozen city that stood free of the ice.

Perhaps because the other buildings around it were all frozen, the mansion felt awfully cold, even inside.

When we exhaled, our breath was cloudy white before spreading thin and disappearing into the chilly air. The light shining in through the windows swayed gently like curtains.

“The name of the owner of this mansion is the Great Witch Rudela…or so it appears.”

The broom lady walking beside me could hear the voices of the wind or something, and from time to time would suddenly tilt her head and give some information that she found out from who knows where. It was mysterious, but I thought that even if I asked her to tell me more details, I probably wouldn’t understand anyway, so I just stayed quiet and nodded along. After all, to tell the truth, this occasion of a broom standing and walking around was too perplexing, and I was having trouble following along.

“It’s the room farthest toward the back.” Miss Broom tugged hard at my sleeve.

We proceeded down a long corridor.

Without hesitation, Miss Broom opened the doors at the end and let me pass. “All right, go ahead.”

“…What’s in here?”

To all appearances, it was a private room that could have been anywhere and belonged to anyone. It was barely furnished with spartan fixtures—a desk and a bed, plus a bookshelf.

Miss Broom did not answer my question and moved as if this was not her first time coming here. As if she was being guided by the voice of someone else, she headed for the desk and picked up the letter that was sitting on it.

“This is it.” She handed me the letter.

It was covered in dust and looked very old.

“And this is?”

“Well now, it seems to be something written by the Great Witch Rudela.”

“……”

Why do you know that…?

“I am able to hear the voices of objects, you know. This is an object.”

As if she saw right through me, Miss Broom let out a quiet chuckle.

Can she hear the thoughts that are in my mind, too…?

“…If I read this, I’ll know how to turn Elaina back to normal?”

“……” She didn’t answer me.

In any case, it seemed I was meant to read it.

I took the letter from her hands. Glancing sidelong at Miss Broom, who was already wandering away again as if guided by someone else, I opened the letter.

The dusty smell of mildew wafted into the air.

There on that page was the history of the country.

Hello there. I am the Great Witch Rudela.

I wrote this letter for no other purpose than for you to read it. I know not where you come from or who you may be, but I drew this up because I want you to save the people of this city.

To put it plainly, I am the reason this city is frozen. The blame lies with me.

However, please understand there were extenuating circumstances that led me to take this course of action. Despite my wishes, I had no other choice but to do this, temporarily, to save the city.

It all began a year ago—though I say that not knowing just how far into the future you may be reading this, so I suppose it will probably be more than one year in the past.

Anyway, one year before I wrote this letter, a plague began to spread across this land.

It is a terrible disease by which the skin becomes inflamed and the body is wracked with a burning fever. From the onset, it takes just a few days for the infected to pass away.

Its origin is unknown. After the first person contracted the illness, there was a sudden outbreak. The plague ripped through the countryside with terrifying speed.

I was commissioned by the king to concoct a cure with all haste.

I paid frequent visits to the sick, gathered blood samples, and created medicines. Day after day, I repeated this exercise.

However, never mind the source of the disease, I never even understood how to cure it. No matter what kind of medicines I made, they had absolutely no effect.

Citizens died in droves, suffering until the bitter end.

And as the plague continued to spread, a rumor began to circulate.

—A rumor that Rudela the Witch might be the one who had brought about this plague.

I suspect the citizens began to hold suspicions against me because I was never stricken by the disease, despite frequently visiting the sick in the midst of a countrywide pandemic.

The rumors themselves spread like a second plague. Rumor begets rumor, and before long, it becomes popular opinion. The citizens stopped greeting me, and even when I went to their houses to try to heal them, they would refuse me entry.

I became something of a pariah.

However, I didn’t even mind that so much.

To be honest, I wasn’t overly fond of the people here. I mean, I’ve never been a people person. Always hated them, really. I always keep up a friendly appearance, of course, but I really only bother with the most basic interactions. That’s the kind of person I am.

Anyway, I did not stop my study of the disease.

This was wholly due to my feelings of patriotism.

I love my homeland, where I was born. I may hate people, but what led me to research a cure for the plague was a simple sense of obligation and of duty. That was why there was no way I was going to quit.

Eventually, the plague sank its teeth into the king himself.

Time had run out, and if I wasn’t able to solve the mystery within a few days, it was crystal clear that this country would fall to ruin.

I was at my wits’ end. The people eyed me with suspicion; not a soul trusted me. I had stones thrown at me as I walked down the street, and some people who had lost family members to the plague even came at me with knives.

Oh, this is hopeless, I thought.

At that point, I had to make a decision.

I was out of time.

I’m sure that now, the scenery around you appears to be frozen. Strictly speaking, it is not ice that you’re looking at.

To save the city, it was essential for me to buy some time. And so I preserved the whole town, suspending it in time after the spread of the plague.

I’m sure I appeared as a frightful figure to the people here as I went around freezing everything in the city. However, they would not listen to a word I said, so I had little choice in the matter.

After everything in the city was completely frozen, I could devote myself to the study of the disease, alone.

Even if I had gained time by freezing the city, it wouldn’t mean anything if I couldn’t solve the problem.

My research went on for a long time, but eventually I was able to unravel the mystery of the illness that had started spreading so suddenly.

The origin lay in a nearby country—the Holy City, Esto.

Apparently, that country has been experimenting with some questionable magic, and as a by-product, corrupted magical energy turned into a toxin and polluted the water discharged into the river. That was probably what caused my countrymen to fall one after the other, while I was spared. I have a certain resistance to magical energy, while they did not. That’s all there is to it.

Once I understood the cause, the solution was simple.

I immediately devoted my energy to the development of a vaccine.

However, there was a problem.

About a year had passed since I had frozen the city, and despite my magical resistance, the corruption had eventually begun eating into me. Each time a part of my body became infected, I froze the diseased part to halt the progress of the illness and continued working relentlessly on the vaccine.

Finally, the cure was completed.

By the way, do you see snow falling outside the window?

That snow is the very vaccine I created. The snow that combines with the ice, melting and adhering to it, should eventually cure the illness plaguing these people.

However, this is the end of the line for me.

Freezing my body bit by bit must have had some negative side effects. Or else I must have used up too much magical energy making the vaccine.

The snow has not healed my illness, though neither has the disease progressed. All that has gradually faded away is my humanity.

Already I can feel my mind fading. My head feels empty, and it’s getting hard to control my body. Simply writing these words requires every ounce of effort I can muster.

I’m glad I could last long enough to make the vaccine. However, I don’t have the energy left to melt the ice. I fear my beloved home will remain preserved in ice for all eternity.

There is only one way to melt it. If I die, the source of the magical energy that froze the city will die with me, and the ice should go away.

There is no other way than that.

And so I entreat you.

Please kill me—

The letter ended there.

The extremely unsettling note read less like words and more like a scratching of unrecognizable symbols. It was, in fact, a desperate entreaty to anyone who might read it.

She wanted us to kill her.

The letter had concluded with those heavy words.

“Mistress Amnesia.”

Miss Broom came back exactly as I finished reading. In her hand, she was holding a large scrap of cloth.

“…What is that?”

“It was in the other room.”

She spread the fabric out. It looked like a cloak made from rags. She stared at it with all seriousness. “It is likely that Mistress Rudela predicted something of our present circumstance. This appears to be a cloak that can nullify her magic.”

“……”

How do you know? I no longer had the energy to ask. I was sure it was something she heard from the voices of the objects.

“Miss Broom, do you know what was in the letter?”

“More or less.”

“…I see.”

“Yes.”

I took the cloak from her hands. “…So we have to kill her.”

“……” She averted her gaze. “At present, it’s safe to say there is no other way.”

“…Seems to be the case.”

“…I’m terribly sorry. This dirty job is something that I should take on, not a human, I think. But—” She stared at her own hands.

The spell that Elaina had cast on her must have already been coming to an end, because her body was starting to fade away, and she was growing translucent. I could see the other side of the room right through her.

Miss Broom did not have very much time left.

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” I held my trembling hands in check. “Actually, this kind of duty is ideal for me, you know?”

—Because I’m going to forget about it tomorrow.

“Mistress Amnesia.” Suddenly, a warm sensation enveloped my body. Miss Broom’s voice was coming from somewhere very close, and when she continued speaking, I realized that she was embracing me. “You have no reason to feel any responsibility or sense of duty. Even if you were to run away, there is no one who would begrudge you.”

“……”

“So please. Follow your heart and act as you see fit—because if you don’t, then in time, you are certain to lose the ability to act on your own.”

She embraced me all the more strongly. She seemed like she would fade away at any moment, but she was so warm I thought I might melt. It was hot. It burned.

I brought my dangling arms up around her.

“Thank yo—”

However, that moment, Miss Broom disappeared.

She slipped through my hands, and an ordinary broom clattered to the floor. She left behind only the faintest sensation of her presence.

I was left behind as the only person in this frozen city.

I had no other choice.

Snow was falling outside, drifting down slowly.

Covering my body, the cloak absorbed the snow and became slightly tinged with moisture.

No matter where I walked in the ice-covered city, the scenery did not change, and I knew neither how long I had been outside nor how long I would have to keep wandering around.

“……………………”

From the other side of the icy city, the creature that was formerly Rudela appeared, dragging its leg. It was certain there was no humanity remaining inside of her.

When she caught sight of me, the woman with ice crystals growing from inside her body pointed her wand at me and immediately blasted me with icy cold.

“……Tch!”

The ice broke apart when it struck the cloak I had gotten from Miss Broom, and the cold dissipated in the air. Oh, thank goodness, it actually worked. Feeling slightly relieved, I stepped forward firmly, one foot at a time.

Struggling under the onslaught of magical ice, my footfalls felt very, very heavy. It felt like I would collapse the moment I stopped trying.

Feeling many times as if I was about to slip, I placed a hand on my saber where it rested beneath the cloak.

It rattled noisily with my trembling.

Before I lost my memory, I was probably no stranger to battle. This is fine.

If I don’t do this, I won’t get Elaina back. There’s no other way.

Rudela is prepared to die. Nothing about this is sad.

Repeating these excuses in my mind, I closed the distance between us one step at a time.

“……………………”

And then…

“I’m sorry.”

I stabbed her.

My saber pierced through the cloak and into the chest of the creature that had been Rudela. The blade sank deep into her, sliding smoothly through the gap between bones.

My chest hurt. It was almost like I was the one on the receiving end.

The blood that leaked from Rudela’s breast traveled down my blade and fell in thick drops onto the ice. The frost magic streaming from her wand ceased, and she dropped it as her hand went limp.

Rudela’s body collapsed onto me. Her head slammed down onto my shoulder.

She was heavy.

“—Thank you.”

Heavy, too, were the words that she breathed into my ear.

Those words were her last, and she didn’t move again.

I couldn’t say anything.

I was certain I would never tell this part of the tale. To whom? To Elaina.

There’s no way I could tell her…that I killed someone for her sake.

“Oh, Madam Witch, I really feel terrible about this.” As I was restoring the city, the king approached me with a low chuckle.

I shook my head and continued my work. “No, no. It’s my way of apologizing for destroying your city.”

“But you defeated that woman for us. Even if the buildings are a little worse for wear, it’s clear that was a necessary sacrifice. You certainly didn’t need to go to such great lengths!”

“I won’t be satisfied unless I do. And at any rate, I’m glad no one was injured,” I replied and got back to work.

The humanlike thing. I had been frozen during my fight with the creature that had been difficult to describe. When I had returned to normal, I’d found the buildings around me were thoroughly demolished.

Oh crap, I had thought, and started repairing them immediately.

While I was doing that, the townspeople around me had started making a fuss: “Did you defeat that monster for us, Miss Witch?!”

We had arrived at the present situation, in which the king came over specially to greet me.

It’s not as if I was the one who actually defeated that thing…

Even after I was finished with my work, the king was trying to get on my good side.

“You really helped us out! We were trapped in a long nightmare on account of that evil witch. If you hadn’t saved us, we might have stayed like that in the ice for all eternity…”

“…Yeah?”

He keeps piling on the praise, but it’s not like I was the one who saved them.

In fact, I was frozen, too.

“……”

Amnesia, the one who had actually saved the country, just stood behind me the whole time, hanging her head, not uttering a word, not even moving.

I didn’t have even the slightest idea what had happened.

Amid the cheerful citizens, delighted to have their freedom back, she alone was somber. She looked so heartbroken, I couldn’t even bring myself to say anything to her.

“We wish to show our gratitude to the witches who killed that devil for us, so how about it?” the king asked. “We should commemorate this day. Let us etch it into eternity as the day that devil was vanquished from our land.”

“……”

“How about it? Won’t you allow us to show you our gratitude? We’d like to provide you with treasure, or anything else you might desire. Ah, and do you have a bit of time to spare? If you’re amenable, I shall have a first-rate feast prepared for you at the palace!”

“……”

He’s in quite a festive mood. Is it really such a joyous occasion?

I don’t really understand what’s going on.

“How about it?” the king, in his good humor, asked me again, rather insistently.

“—We can’t,” someone said in a small voice while pulling firmly on my robe. When I turned to look, I saw Amnesia looking down darkly and shaking her head ever so slightly.

Those were the first words she had uttered since the ice had melted.

I had absolutely no idea what had transpired. However, I did understand that something awful had happened to her, something she couldn’t even put into words.

I turned back to face the king.

“Please don’t go to the trouble. We’re in a hurry to move on. We are travelers, after all.”

It had already stopped snowing outside the city that had been freed from the ice. The snow flurries in the forest, too, in the end, must have been the result of the magical weather.

“……”

Even I myself did not understand how everything had ultimately returned to normal.

We left the country and proceeded through the forest on foot. We simply didn’t feel like riding on the broom, so we kept on walking all the way.

Eventually, around the time when the silhouette of the city completely faded from view, I turned around and looked at Amnesia.

“……”

She had been wearing the same expression the whole time, ever since I was freed from the ice—silent and morose.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

She nodded slightly. “Yeah. I’m going to forget it soon, so—” She spoke despairingly, in a very, very shaky voice.

Her fingertips were trembling, her shoulders were quaking, even her mouth was quivering. As if she was shivering from some unbearable cold.

“All right”? Even though you seem so troubled?

It was too pitiful.

Thinking it might bring her some relief—though I didn’t know if this would have any effect on her—I embraced her.

“…Please don’t say something so sad.”

“……”

The arms of the trembling girl grasped me immediately. She squeezed, harder and harder, as if making sure I was solid to the touch, gripping on to me as her arms encircled my back. I could barely breathe.

“…I’m…sorry. I’m sorry…! I’m sorry…!”

The girl buried her head in my shoulder. She was apologizing to me. She kept on saying sorry as she let out great sobs and soaked my robe with tears.

I rubbed her back. Despite her knightly appearance, it was the small, helpless back of a lonely little girl.

I stroked her hair. It was soft and warm, the hair of a living girl.

“Once you’ve finished crying, let’s continue our journey.”

I could feel her nod slightly.

I continued holding her, not letting go, for as long as it took for her to calm down.

“……”

There was no way I could ask her…about what had happened.