Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 5 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Castle Town Fresia: Plumeria in a Cage

This went down on the third day of my stay in the Castle Town Fresia.

Rising above the low row of eaves stood the castle, stretching straight toward the sky as if to pierce the clouds. Inside its tallest tower was me.

When I glanced outside the wide-open window, I could see the blue sky stretching forth. If I looked closer, tiny townspeople milled around below me.

“Isn’t it pretty? The view is really spectacular. It’s doesn’t surprise me that you’re captivated.”

The words spoken from behind my back seemed gentle, but the tone had an icy edge to it.

When I turned around, there was a girl with pink hair wearing a jewel-encrusted dress, staring at me. She was very, very beautiful, the girl who reigned literally at the top of the city. Her name was Plumeria.

The princess of the land.

“I’ve heard rumors about you—that you had a hand in exposing the evil deeds of the post office director. Is that right?”

Her cold eyes were fixed on me. I felt goose bumps and a shiver down my spine.

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

For now, I chose to feign ignorance. For some reason, I suspected she might get angry with me.

“…Please don’t misunderstand. I did not summon you here to rebuke you.” She sighed. “Also, I can’t say it would be wise to tell a lie in this place. You would hate for your journey to end here, wouldn’t you?”

“……”

A smile that was far too cold for her to be joking spread across her face.

I had been summoned and had ascended to Princess Plumeria’s private chamber, but we were not the only ones there. Behind me stood a number of skilled soldiers, holding weapons at the ready.

From the princess’s words and actions, I could sense a very dangerous nuance. Something along the lines of, If they felt like it, they could easily slice your head off.

Scary!

“Allow me to tell you the business on which I summoned you today,” she began, now that I was keeping silent. “Look at this.”

I was handed a single envelope.

I took out the letter, which had been folded in half, and opened it. There, in small, neat letters—awfully modest in comparison to the size of the paper—was written a single sentence.

This year will be the final year that Princess Plumeria’s birthday parade is held. —Ayame, the Great Phantom Thief.

In other words, it was a warning.

Indirectly, it was trying to suggest…

“It means my life is being targeted.”

Exactly.

…Wait, wait, wait. The Great Phantom Thief?

Is that something you call yourself? Is this person right in the head?

I shuddered to imagine the face of this Ayame person, the individual who wrote tiny words with total earnestness and handed this letter over to a carrier pigeon to be delivered to the castle.

“Yes… It’s only reasonable to shudder. When this letter was delivered to me, I, too, was so frightened, I couldn’t stand it.”

Oh, I was just trying to keep from laughing. Pardon me.

“…The enemy calls themselves the Great Phantom Thief, right? That doesn’t really sound like someone who’s out to murder you, does it?”

“This Great Phantom Thief is a professional among professionals. It’s said their prey never escapes. It’s likely that, in deciding to target me, Ayame means to snatch away my very life.”

“But listen. It doesn’t sound like they’re after your life at all—”

“How debilitatingly distressing.”

“…The thing is, nobody is trying to kill you—”

“Elaina. I want you to track down this Ayame character before the day of the parade. Won’t you accept this commission and save my life?”

“…Umm—”

“Of course, this is not a request that you can refuse.”

“……”

“If it’s money you want, I’ll pay you any amount.”

Flexing her wealth and power to advance the conversation, Princess Plumeria took my hand in hers and, with a sense of increasing recklessness, delivered the following proposal—an order, to be exact.

“I hear you are employed at the post office. Quit your job immediately and come work for me.”

So you’re telling me to become your servant? I see, I see.

……

The princess was being a little too pushy, and I couldn’t help feeling like there was a catch.

“Your response?”

“You know what’ll happen if you refuse, right? I’ll have you slaughtered.” …I couldn’t be sure that was exactly what she was implying, but judging by her iron-tight grip on my hand, I suspected any sort of refusal might cost me my head.

“What is this Ayame person like?”

“I have no clue.”

“…Is there anything you do know?”

“……”

Ah, you don’t know anything, do you…? I see, I see, I see—

“…Well, I’ll do my best,” I answered.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said the princess as she let go of my hand.

That didn’t stop the tingling sensation in my fingers, which had weathered her crushing grip. As I massaged my poor hand, as if showing it appreciation for its service, she whispered into my ear.

“Should you happen to find the Great Phantom Thief, tell no one, and bring the suspect straight here.”

After that, she spoke to me openly, while glaring coldly at her soldiers.

“This matter is not to leave this room.”

And then she drove me out of said room.

“…So that’s what happened. Starting tomorrow, I’m going to transfer and work as a servant to the princess. In other words, I’ve got to quit my job here.”

After that, I returned to the post office and submitted my letter of resignation during our chat as we finished up work. By the way, the expression servant to the princess sounded rather degrading, and I didn’t like it. It made me frown.

Gardenia and I had the same sour look on our faces.

People who can’t keep a job for long have no future.

Not that there’s a future in being forced to keep this job either…

“If I refuse, I think she’ll have me killed. I had no choice.”

Is it all right to tell me all this, even though the princess swore you to secrecy?

“Gardenia. That’s what girls say when they want you to tell someone about it.”

What’s that mean?

“It means that women are difficult creatures.”

That makes me a difficult creature, too. This is me trying to stop you from leaving, Elaina. Gardenia puffed out her cheeks and made an angry sound as she forcefully pushed the resignation letter I had handed her back toward me.

“No, um…I was planning to quit this job in a few days in any case, so…”

You can’t.

What do you mean, I can’t?

“Look, we might be ‘postal employees’ on paper, but we’re really just bird feeders now. You can do it alone, right?”

Plus, the job doesn’t require a mage any longer, so this was bound to happen one way or another.

No way. I like you, Elaina. You’re too good of a person to split from now. It would be too painful to separate. It would be sad. Cruel. Unbearable. That would make me want to die. Or rather, make me want to quit, too.

“Those don’t strike me as the words of someone who once told me that people who can’t keep a job for long have no future.”

Not having you is the same as having no future.

“Stop. That’s too heavy…”

That’s basically how our discussion went, but in the end, she did accept my letter of resignation, even though she sulked reluctantly the whole time.

Do you promise to come see me even after you stop working here?

She did, however, tack on one condition to my resignation.

“Of course.” I wasn’t sure if we would be able to see each other or not, but I had no intention of turning her down.

That was how things stood as we finished our work for the day.

“Coming in!”

With this exaggerated greeting, the doors of the post office were suddenly flung open, and a number of soldiers appeared, carrying packages.

“……? Uh, welcome…?”

……?

We tilted our heads in unison at the sudden visitors, and their leader bowed to us.

“This is the post office, right? If it won’t interfere with operations, we’d like to distribute a special announcement throughout the country. This is a direct request from the king.”

In other words: You don’t have the right to refuse. Thanks for your cooperation. I could just imagine him saying it. Apparently, it wasn’t just the princess; the people of this country, including the soldiers, were all the pushy type.

Since we just needed to give the soldiers’ flyers to the pigeons, it didn’t really make any difference to me whether we distributed them or not.

Anyway, at that point, the soldiers handed over stacks of folded newspaper inserts that were printed only on one side.

“……”

……

We gently opened the wafer-thin newsprint. Gardenia and I looked at each other.

There was something familiar about the contents of this special announcement.

THE ASHEN WITCH ELAINA, SUBJUGATOR OF THE POST OFFICE DIRECTOR. WILL SHE STRIKE AGAIN AND BRING THE GREAT PHANTOM THIEF TO HEEL?

Following this title, which seemed like it was specifically written to appeal to the tabloid audience, were a series of facts: that I was a traveler, that I was currently employed as a postal worker, and that I would be hunting for the Great Phantom Thief in a bid to protect the princess. It was all out there. It concluded with a photo of me that had been taken who knows where.

Whatever happened to personal privacy?

I stared, bewildered, at this new development, and Gardenia even forgot that she was on the clock.

“So the very person who swore everyone to secrecy has spilled it herself…” she said out loud. “You sure that’s okay, Elaina?”

“……”

It seemed the princess was going to be, as I had suspected, very difficult to deal with.

The following day, I walked to the castle from the inn, but since I had already been outed as the witch who had taken the post office director to task and who was hunting down the Great Phantom Thief on behalf of the princess, whenever I passed someone along the road, they gazed at me curiously.

It was unavoidably awkward.

“Hey! You’re Elaina, right?”

To make matters worse, it was always the weird ones who called out to me.

I ignored them, though.

“Heeey! Wait! Don’t ignore me! Ah, I didn’t even tell you my name! Sorry, sorry. I’m Iris. I work for the city newspaper.”

Apparently, my pursuer was someone named Iris. Her purple hair, bundled into a single ponytail on the back of her head, flicked to the side as she walked. Her white blouse and black trousers were very, very simple, even formal, just like a newspaper journalist. I could see she wasn’t worth my time, so I ignored her.

“Say, would you mind if I asked you a couple of questions?”

I ignored her harder, trying to convey that I would mind.

“Just a moment, really! It’ll be over in thirty seconds!” She went on, but if I stopped to talk to her, I knew I would be held up for more like thirty minutes, not thirty seconds, so I refused to look at her.

“I promise! Just thirty seconds! I’m serious. I only have two or three questions.” She kept on talking, but I just knew that once she asked one question, the floodgates would open, so I paid her no attention, of course.

I’ll do just fine without getting caught up in something even more annoying than I already am. Thanks very much.

I was going to take refuge in the castle to shake off Iris. Happily, she seemed to have given up at some point along the way, and when I looked behind me right after entering the castle, there was no one in sight.

“…Whew.”

If she keeps hounding me, I might need to ask to live in the castle… Or maybe I should ask them as soon as possible…?

“Um, why did you out me like that? Thanks to you, I’ve had strange people following me around all day. What a nightmare. I should also say I think it was crazy to put out that announcement after telling me to keep quiet. So please let me live here in the castle, starting now.”

I had been shown to the princess’s room at the sky-high summit of the castle, and I immediately started venting my grievances. With a dismissive flip of her pink hair, Princess Plumeria just replied: “I apologize for causing you such an inconvenience. But I can’t allow you to live here.”

Her attitude wasn’t particularly apologetic, but then again, a person who stands literally at the top of her kingdom is probably blind to the feelings of the common folk.

“If I could just get some first-rate meals and a spacious single room, I won’t need anything else. Please.”

“I see. Not happening.”

“I’d also be fine just being allowed to stay in your room.”

“That’s the one thing I absolutely cannot permit.”

“Come on.”

“…You want to sleep with me?”

“Oh, I don’t really care if you’re here or not.” I was getting a little frustrated, but all I wanted was to try to sleep in this lofty place. As a traveler, that was my MO.

“That’s quite a way to talk to a princess!” She shrugged. “…Why is it that you want to stay?”

“It’ll be easier to protect you if we’re always together, won’t it?”

“The soldiers are always by my side. There’s no need for a witch escort.” Princess Plumeria didn’t seem the least bit inclined to accept my company. “Plus, I was sure I asked you to search for the Great Phantom Thief.”

Plumeria shot me down flat, and it didn’t seem like she was going to budge.

“…By the way, I haven’t gotten an answer to my question from earlier yet.”

“What question would that be?”

“The question of why you decided to advertise the fact that I’m searching for the so-called Great Phantom Thief to the whole kingdom.”

I believe it was the princess herself who told everyone that this was supposed to be kept secret.

“……” After glancing quickly at the soldiers who were standing behind us, she answered me at last. “The special announcement was ordered by my father. He told me it would be the best way to keep the Great Phantom Thief in check.”

“……”

“It was never my intention for things to turn out like this. You must understand that.”

Supposing it hadn’t been her intention, then who could have leaked that information? I was sure the only people here besides us yesterday were her bodyguards.

Could they have tattled to her father or something? What if they were working against the princess?

The soldiers were always watching over the princess’s movements in this place, so it wasn’t so difficult to believe that they were more than simple escorts and were something a bit different.

“And where did you say your father is now?”

“He’s retired below.”

The princess looked down at the floor—almost as if she were hanging her head.

Upon descending a long spiral staircase from the princess’s room, one arrived at the father’s retirement retreat.

I had made a request to the guards, and they had secured me an appointment right away, permitting me to have an audience with the princess’s father. I heard from the soldiers that he had ruled the land before the princess and that he still had a hand in the city government despite his supposed retirement. It seemed the old man still had life in him.

I was shown to the deepest parts of the castle.

His room was even more luxurious than I had expected, especially for someone in retirement.

When he saw me, the elderly man let out a shout, stood up from his very expensive-looking chair, and approached me for a handshake. “Oh! You must be the Ashen Witch. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you!”

“My pleasure.” I squeezed his hand, then let go immediately. It was kind of oily.

“I’m sorry for causing you trouble with the matter of the post office director. Delivering mail by carrier pigeon is an ancient tradition in this city, but we had no idea what was really going on behind the scenes.”

“Don’t mention it.” The incident at the post office had simply been a matter of correcting one idiot. “Anyway—”

I’ve come to ask you all kinds of things about Princess Plumeria.

That was what I was about to say…

“It’s not only the matter of the post office director. I’m sorry you were suddenly handed the unreasonable task of searching out the Great Phantom Thief. That was something Plumeria decided all on her own. I learned of it for the first time from the soldiers, so I couldn’t immediately jump into action. I’m sorry. If I had known about it beforehand, I could have prepared you a place to live.”

“……” So it was the soldiers who’d leaked it.

“She’s been this way forever. Never consults anyone on anything. I don’t know what she’s thinking. She doesn’t even seem to enjoy hosting her parade.”

Though members of the public liked that she was cold, the people who had to deal with her on a day-to-day basis didn’t seem to feel the same way, apparently.

To the masses, the princess existed only at a distance, so she must have looked to them like nothing more than a beautiful ruler with no flaws. Even her chamber at the top of the highest tower served to keep her physically separated from everyone else.

By the way—

“Why does she live so high up?”

“Hm? You didn’t hear that from Plumeria?”

“She doesn’t tell me anything.” And apparently, that isn’t new.

“Is that so…?” The former monarch nodded. “This isn’t something we talk about publicly. I’ll ask you that you don’t say a word to anyone—”

And then he explained:

“…Several months ago, a thief snuck into our castle. The one called Ayame, the Great Phantom Thief, who sent us the warning letter about Plumeria’s birthday parade.

“The crook went around the castle, stealing a large quantity of gold and jewels. But even petty thieves ought to know better than to creep into our castle. The culprit was obviously discovered and seized by the palace guard on the spot.

“She called herself by the colorful name of the Great Phantom Thief, but she was actually a young lady about the same age as Plumeria.

“Ayame was locked away in the dungeons under the castle. Her actions didn’t warrant the death penalty, but breaking into the castle was a grave offense. I needed several days to think of a reasonable punishment.

“The incident happened during those several days. I don’t know what method she used, but before anyone realized what was going on, Ayame slipped out of her jail cell, took Plumeria hostage, and fled the castle. She made threats like, ‘If you come any closer, the princess will lose her life!’ as well as demands like, ‘Prepare us an escape coach!’

“In the end, we had no choice but to let Ayame escape—

“After that, Plumeria began living up in the tower. At least she knows she’s safe there, and she has the soldiers as well.”

But now, for some reason, the Great Phantom Thief was after the princess’s life.

Nobody knew what her objective was, or what exactly she was planning to steal, but at the very least, the name of the Great Phantom Thief Ayame was not something that the former monarch of this city could ignore.

“We must capture the Great Phantom Thief, no matter what methods we have to use. I have no intention of allowing an incident like that to happen ever again.” Then the former monarch looked directly at me. “I’m begging you, Lady Ashen Witch. Please find Ayame.”

Something strange was going on.

Assuming that the king was telling the truth, the person known as the Great Phantom Thief should already be known to Princess Plumeria.

If that was so, then why hadn’t she told me anything about Ayame when she commissioned me to find her?

Could she have lied when she said she didn’t know anything?

At any rate, even though I had been told to hunt for the Great Phantom Thief, I was working blind. I ran through all kinds of schemes as I left the castle and proceeded down the main avenue, but it was simply absurd to expect to track down a single person in this expansive city.

For starters, I’ve been outed by the former king, which means the Great Phantom Thief is probably already in hiding.

“……”

Not to mention this makes it extremely hard to move about the city.

“Ahh, I’m so hungry…but the editor-in-chief told me not to come back until I’ve interviewed Elaina… Oh, I want to return home…”

Iris, the newspaper journalist who had chased me all the way to the castle, was as persistent as a pesky stain.

I proceeded to march down the road, then bought some bread at a roadside stall to distract my hunger. I could hear her complaining the whole time as she flickered in and out of my vision in reflections off windows.

Is this girl a stalker or something?

“Hey, sis… Is it time to eat yet?”

To make matters worse, she had a small child with her. The very young girl spoke in a syrupy-sweet voice as she tugged at Iris’s sleeve. From the way she spoke and acted, I could guess she was her younger sister, and from her ragged appearance, I could guess they lived in serious poverty.

“I’m sorry… I want to go back home, too, but…can you wait until I finish my work?”

“Awww, I’m hungryyy… I want to eat bread. Why is our family so poor…?”

“I’m sorry… If I worked harder at my job, you wouldn’t have to suffer.”

“I’m hungryyy. Siiis…I’m hungry!”

“I’m sorry…sorry…” Iris’s eyes grew moist as she stroked the girl’s head. She never broke eye contact with me the whole time. I watched this extremely calculated, almost unbearable exchange take place.

Honestly, I’m not the kind of person who is usually won over by these kinds of emotional displays. If anything, I’m more the depraved type who would throw my bread on the ground and make a mockery, like, “I thought you said you were hungry? Go on, eat!” But in this one instance, the circumstances were different.

“…You just need your interview, right?” Without facing them directly, I spoke to Iris in an exasperated tone. “I’ll do it. If I do it, you’ll be okay, right?”

I mean, what do I have to lose?

“Ah. Really? Hooray! We’ll be able to fill our bellies with food!”

“You did it, Sis!”

Gone were the pitiful attitudes of the sisters. The two girls were hooting and jumping for joy.

“But you need to give me some information, too—information about the Great Phantom Thief, Ayame.”

We agreed to an exchange of information. If we did that, then I suppose an interview would be all right. You could think of it as an alignment of interests.

“What do you say?” I asked.

“Sure. Oh, here’s your pay. Looking forward to working with you again.”

“Call me anytime. I’m your girl for any doleful kid roles. That’s my area of expertise.”

Iris handed a gold piece to her “little sister,” who walked away, whistling a little tune. To my surprise, just as she was leaving, she said, “Ah, it’s so easy to trick out-of-towners!” and flung off her tattered clothes.

“…And that was…?”

“Oh, yeah. An actor.”

“……”

Unbelievable.

In reality, Iris seemed to earn a reasonable income. Her house, where we headed for the interview, was a large, freestanding building that faced the main avenue.

In the drawing room, she took out a memo notebook.

“Now, about your earlier promise. Tell me a few things about yourself, Elaina.”

“…I mean, what is there to say, really?”

I don’t feel like I’ve been through much that anybody would want to write about. I guess I could tell her about being summoned by the princess and ordered to find the Great Phantom Thief, or about getting the details of my assignment plastered everywhere by the former king. But in short, I’ve got nothing special to talk about.

Won’t this article turn out incredibly dull? A little worried about this possibility, I told her about those things that had crossed my mind.

“…Interesting.”

Iris nodded in understanding after my explanation of the events that had transpired so far. “So that means you were originally planning to search for the Great Phantom Thief under the veil of secrecy, Elaina.”

“Yeah, that’s right.” Though that plan is a bust, thanks to the former king.

“Now, this land is supposedly ruled by Princess Plumeria, but the one actually running the place is the former king. Apparently, she isn’t ready to rule yet, so the old man has a hand in almost everything. This time, it seems his meddling has proven disastrous. Thanks to him, I expect it’s gotten much harder for you to move around the city.”

“Yes. I’m in a real bind, with people like you following me around everywhere.”

Iris responded to my pointed remark with a dry smile and then lined up several articles on the table. “Well then, next is information regarding the Great Phantom Thief that you’re after—”

All of them were clippings of newspaper articles.

“To speak frankly, there is no one who knows the true identity of the Great Phantom Thief. However, we know that she seems to hold some affection toward common folk. The Great Phantom Thief has so far only stolen from nasty businessmen, swindlers, and the like. And Ayame has distributed all her stolen goods to the people.”

To make a long story short— “She’s a noble thief?”

The newspaper articles even included photographs. Her face wasn’t visible under her black hood and mask, but her physique was slim, and she seemed to have a similar body type to me.

As I flipped through the documents, I cocked my head to the side. “By the way, it looks like the Great Phantom Thief hasn’t made an appearance for several months…?”

The last photo was from several months earlier, and recent articles were all plain text, without photos. Although the incident had not been made public, the Great Phantom Thief’s attempt to rob the castle coincided with a drop off in eyewitness reports. After that, it had been nothing but half-remembered sightings, or copycats imitating her crimes, or rumors about plausible-seeming death theories.

“Looks like she washed her hands of the burglary business, huh? Or got bored of it.”

“All right, in that case, why did she issue a letter of warning this time?” I asked.

“Why ask me? I have no idea,” Iris answered me without much thought.

Ultimately, I still didn’t understand the Great Phantom Thief Ayame’s identity or anything at all about what she was thinking. Far from it, in fact, the mystery had only gotten deeper.

In the end, without any idea what the Great Phantom Thief might be up to, or what Princess Plumeria might be thinking, I went around searching aimlessly through the castle town.

“If you have any firsthand information, I’d like you to tell me right away. Can I count on the carrier pigeons?”

Since I had to make use of every method available to me if I was to be of any assistance despite my limited information, I had immediately come to request the cooperation of my friend Gardenia.

I’ll go ahead and tell the pigeons about it, but don’t expect too much. After all, they’re mostly occupied with delivering the mail.

“I know that— Sorry. I know I’m asking for the impossible.”

It’s fine. It’s not really any trouble for me. And it shouldn’t be too difficult for the carrier pigeons to look out for a woman in an odd getup while they go about their jobs, she wrote.

“Thanks so much.” I bowed once, politely, then after killing some time in the post office, I walked around town.

“How ’bout it? Any good info?” As I expected, as I walked down the main avenue, Iris appeared from who-knows-where to ask me about the present state of my investigation. It was like I was fated to have another encounter with my stalker.

Nevertheless, my reply was as it had been before:

“Not a thing to show for my efforts.”

Nothing you’d be interested in anyway.

“Aw, that’s too bad.” She looked like she had known I was going to answer that way. “By the way, I’m also investigating it from various angles, and just like you, I’ve got zilch.”

“Yeah…?”

“Seems like she’s been in hiding recently.”

“…Because that darn king circulated that stupid newspaper without thinking about the consequences.”

“You can’t say that in front of the king, you know? Or it’ll be off with your head!” Iris giggled.

“How did it go? Were you able to learn the whereabouts of the Great Phantom Thief? I suppose you were able to gather quite a bit of information with me issuing that announcement in the newspaper, hm?”

I had trudged through the city until my legs were stiff, then returned to the castle, completely exhausted. When I did, the former monarch came out to greet me.

“……Uh, yeah. I mean, after a fashion.”

I put all my effort into averting my eyes. Thorny words were already halfway out of my throat. Huh? No thanks to you, I’ve made absolutely no progress! Not even the slightest bit!

“That’s wonderful! I have great expectations! No matter what it takes, you must protect my daughter from that Great Phantom Thief!”

He was burning with his sense of duty as a father, or maybe as a king. In either case, he took his leave.

“Well then, I’m very busy with preparations for the parade, so I’ll be going.”

A stream of soldiers followed behind him.

“……”

He looked strangely fierce for someone talking about his daughter’s birthday celebration, but I suppose that could be blamed on the Great Phantom Thief’s antics.

“…So my father is all worked up about protecting me from the Great Phantom Thief.”

Apparently, Princess Plumeria never came down from the city summit, so when I visited her room, she grilled me about what the former monarch was doing.

Those were the words she had grumbled when I answered her.

With her back still turned to me, facing the table, she spoke coldly.

“Elaina, you just focus on carrying out your job.”

“I’m doing it. You don’t need to tell me. Relax.”

“And your progress?”

“Before I tell you, can I ask you one thing?”

“…What?” She did not turn around.

“What do you want to do once you find the Great Phantom Thief?”

“……” She didn’t even answer me.

“You’re not going to open up to me, are you?”

After a few moments of complete silence, her hands stopped whatever they had been doing. “…I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t trust you.”

“Then what is it?”

“…It’s just, I don’t know anything about the outside world.”

“That’s too abstract. I don’t understand what you mean.”

Stop trying to dodge the question with profound-sounding nonsense.

I was getting fed up, when she turned around and said, “I don’t know who, or where, or how to trust. And so, I don’t open up. I don’t even know how. That’s all there is to it.”

Looking into her eyes, I finally realized something.

Her gaze was neither cold nor calculating.

“…Is that how it is?”

She was frightened.

The world outside was terrifying, and yet, the sights were so dazzling, she feared she might be blinded by them.

To me, she seemed just like a little bird, looking out at the world from the safety of her cage.

That evening, I had a visitor at the inn where I was staying.

“Thought I’d stop by.” Gardenia smiled bashfully and waved.

What are we? Girlfriends?

I beckoned her inside. “What are you here for?”

“Well, I’m not really here for anything,” she admitted, taking a seat in the living room. “Something’s come up that I need to discuss with you, Elaina.”

“……” Well, well. Could this roundabout introduction be what I think it is? “Did you find her? The Great Phantom Thief?”

That would save me a lot of trouble. I waited for her to talk, feigning indifference while my heart was jumping out of my chest.

“Mm-mm. Sorry. Nothing on that front. Actually, I just remembered our other conversation.”

“……” Well? What do you want?

“Elaina, do you remember this? You gave me this letter, two or three days ago.” Gardenia laid a single letter on the table.

The envelope with elegant gold leaf contained a love letter addressed from a mystery sender to a mystery recipient and had been mistakenly delivered to my room earlier.

…Come to think of it, I think I asked Gardenia to investigate the issue of the mistaken delivery for me.

I had just this moment remembered our previous conversation about the letter.

“Did you find something out?”

“Yeah. You know, it took me a while because I tackled this one after I had dealt with all the other misdelivered letters, but I looked up the addresses of the sender and recipient of this letter just earlier. I came today to tell you the results.”

You made a special trip here for that?

For someone who was prone to blurting out complaints like, “I’m so tired,” and “I want to quit,” she sure was a workaholic.

“…Thank you. So what are we up against?”

“It seems that, as expected, this letter was not meant for you, Elaina.” And then she said, “I didn’t recognize the name of the recipient, but the sender is exceptionally difficult.”

At that point, I would have drifted off and stopped paying attention, but then Gardenia said the name.

“ ”

Indeed, it was the name of a very pesky person with whom I was already very familiar.

At that moment, I felt like all the separate threads of this story began to tie together.

The following day, I headed directly for the highest room in the castle, without wandering through town at all.

The princess sounded like she hadn’t been expecting me. “How did your hunt for the Great Phantom Thief go?”

She narrowed her eyes as she turned around. As if I was really bothering her. Apparently, she was clinging to her desk again today, secretly writing, and she didn’t seem to want to do anything else.

“I wanted to see you before I went hunting. I’d like to hear from you about your real motivations.”

“Use all the tricks you want. I don’t intend to speak to you about my situation.”

I was ruthlessly cut down. “Is that so?”

“Yes—”

Fair enough. It seems like your lips are sealed. But I’m not so good-natured as to trust in a companion who won’t open up to me.

“Uhh, ahem,” Standing directly behind her, I opened a certain sheet of paper. It was the mysterious love letter.

“‘I like you. I love you.’” I carefully read out the prose that would make anyone cringe.

“…What? Are you touched in the head?”

“‘Recently, I haven’t gotten any replies from you, but I want you just to know how I feel, so I’m forgoing etiquette and sending you letter after letter.’”

“……?”

“‘Please answer me. I’m so very lonely. Ever since we met, I think only of you. I want to live alongside you. As long as I’m with you, no matter what happens, life will be full of wonder.’”

“…! Uh…that letter…” She might have recognized this passage, because the princess’s face gradually became tinged with red, but I ignored it.

“‘When you’re not here, I feel like my heart has a gaping hole in it. It feels like something is missing. Come fill the space in my heart—’”

“H-hang on!” She finally seemed to have realized what I was reading. “That’s my letter, isn’t it?! Why do you have it?!” In a flustered panic, she attempted to snatch the letter from me, but I ignored her.

I ruthlessly continued to read the letter as I dodged her.

“‘Oh—when I think about you, I can’t sleep at night. My chest pounds and burns—’”

“Rude! What do you think you’re reading out loud?! Ugh!” Her eyes, which had remained chilly until a moment earlier, were now brimming with tears, and her face was as red as a ripe apple. “Come on… Stop it! Please, stop!”

At this point, I stopped ignoring her pleas.

“…Who were you sending this to?” It’s certainly a very passionate love letter.

“Tch! T-that is…”

Oh, you’re reluctant to say?

“‘…I vividly remember the several days we spent together. Your voice, the sensation of your hands, your lips, the warmth of your skin—’”

“Aaaaaahhh! Wait! I’ll tell you! Stop reading! Don’t read any furtheeerrr!”

Just like that, I finally got her to confess her true motivations.

I wouldn’t have had to embarrass her if she had been honest with me from the beginning.

The princess forced the soldiers out of the room, glowering at them.

“I have to deal with this disrespect right now, so all of you get out! If you come back in, it’ll be off with your heads!”

After she had driven them from the room, we got down to business concerning the truth about the time the Great Phantom Thief had snuck into the castle—the story of what happened several months earlier, which I had come to hear.

The person to whom Princess Plumeria had sent the letter was none other than the Great Phantom Thief herself.

“…Tch… How did you get that letter…?”

“Well now, the circumstances surrounding my receipt of the letter don’t really matter, do they?” She seemed unaware that delivery errors were a frequent occurrence.

Haven’t you got an extensive view of your realm, perched up here in your lofty tower?

“So how did you come to send a letter like this? I can guess from the contents that you’ve been corresponding for quite a long time.”

“……”

Oh, you’re reluctant to say?

“Let’s see… ‘When I think about you, I—’”

“Fine! I’ll tell you!”

I had thought she was an aloof and moody princess, but apparently, if I pulled on her reins, she was very easy to handle.

Reluctantly, the princess told me the truth of the matter.

“…When she snuck into the castle several months ago, that was the first time I had ever spoken to a girl my own age. From the time I was small, I have lived my whole life inside the castle, and I’ve never known anything of the outside world. I go out into the city once a year for the parade, but aside from that, I just look down on it from above, and there’s always been a sea of separation between me and the common people.”

And so, when she heard from the soldiers that the Great Phantom Thief was a girl about her age, the princess had slipped down to the dungeons to converse with her.

“When I first met her, she seemed to have misunderstood me. She seemed to think I tricked men and enticed them into sending me money and things. That was also the reason why she had snuck into the castle.”

It was a story I had heard from Iris as well. But it was a misunderstanding, of course.

“I’m sure you’re aware of this after having been here with me for several days. I’m certainly not the kind of person to do such a thing, and I don’t have any interest in a love affair.”

Oh, that can’t be true. Maybe I ought to read another passage from your letter?

“And so I told her it was a misunderstanding, and after that, I got her to tell me why she was playing the mysterious thief. From that day forward, we kept corresponding with each other. Every day, I would creep into her jail cell and get her to tell me stories of her life. Like about the time she punished a corrupt merchant or shut down an immoral business… She was a hero to the common people.

“I decided there was no way I could allow her to go to the gallows. This person is not someone who should be in jail, I thought. That’s why I set her free.”

In other words, the former king’s recounting was somewhat inaccurate.

The Great Phantom Thief had indeed snuck into the castle and distributed the stolen lucre throughout the land. She had eventually been arrested, but even so, it wasn’t necessarily true that she had taken Princess Plumeria hostage and made a clever getaway.

In reality, it was the exact opposite—

“I told her that she could get away if she held me hostage. That’s how she got free.”

“…”

The relationship between the two girls had not ended there. After the Great Phantom Thief had escaped from the castle, Ayame and Princess Plumeria began a letter exchange. Princess Plumeria kept living her life inside the castle, forced to move to the top of the tower as a result of the break-in.

Despite this, she pined for the outside world more strongly than ever before.

That’s why she had said in her letter that she wanted Ayame to whisk her away.

“But I stopped receiving letters.”

Because they were mistakenly delivered to me.

To make matters worse, a few days after contact between them had stopped, the warning from the Great Phantom Thief had been issued, and the mood inside the castle immediately got tense. The soldiers became even more watchful, and it became impossible to either send or receive letters.

In the end, Plumeria had passed the days without any means of communicating with the Great Phantom Thief.

That must have been why she had put me in charge of the investigation.

Since the break-in had been handled in complete confidence, the princess had been unable to tell me anything at all about the Great Phantom Thief’s characteristics. It wasn’t like she could have told me right there in front of the palace guards, “I haven’t been able to get in touch with my beloved, so could you search for her? Here’s where she lives. Got it?” So she’d had to be clever about it, believing that subterfuge was the only route left.

Princess Plumeria’s letter had not been delivered, and neither had the one that I assumed the Great Phantom Thief had sent to her, and in the end, the two of them had no option left but to force the issue. The Great Phantom Thief had issued her warning, and the princess had used me.

“I’m happy she issued the warning and declared she was going to carry me off—however, as a result, my father is beset with worry. And that’s how we got to this state of affairs,” Plumeria explained.

Really, the best way for Plumeria to find happiness was for the Great Phantom Thief to come steal her away.

“……”

I looked down at the letter in my hand.

The sender was Princess Plumeria.

And the recipient was—

Princess Plumeria’s birthday parade was held with somewhat tacky pomp and circumstance.

There were groups of carriages rolling down the main avenue and companies of soldiers who each had their own musical instruments in hand, playing music as they marched in perfect formation.

The song they performed was festive, even annoyingly loud, and didn’t suit Princess Plumeria’s cool disposition, but the common people seemed to be enjoying it as it was.

Glancing over the advancing rows of the parade, I could see people hanging out of the windows of every house, standing by the side of the road, or chasing after the procession, smiles on their faces.

Their happy shouts carried on the music and made it all the way up to the castle.

“……”

However, this parade, which could be seen from the castle, was missing its guest of honor, Princess Plumeria.

Not because she wasn’t participating.

Not because she hadn’t come down from her perch.

This year’s parade, as the Great Phantom Thief had told everyone, was sure to be the last. Today had been Princess Plumeria’s last day in town. She had disappeared.

“…Our official statement was that the princess will not make an appearance, because she’s receiving medical treatment. But I wonder how long that excuse will hold…”

The king simply looked down silently at the bustling crowd.

“All right, let’s go.”

After we had finished our lengthy conversation, I took Princess Plumeria’s hand.

“What…? Huh? Go? Where?”

The princess’s eyes were wide with surprise, and I answered her as I pulled out my broom. “To see your girlfriend.”

“…You know where she is?”

“Yep.” I flashed the letter at her.

The address is written right here. And the real name of the Great Phantom Thief.

Come to think of it, this was a pretty simple matter.

After all, hadn’t there been a suspicious person hanging around from the very beginning? Someone who had approached me and followed me around, trying to pry information out of me through all kinds of methods.

It wasn’t all that strange to think that when I had been assigned to guard Princess Plumeria, this person—who hadn’t been able to get in contact with the princess and who was impatient to confirm her true intentions—had come to me.

“But…my father will never forgive me. For being so selfish.” She looked at me sitting sidesaddle on my broom then hung her head.

She lacked the courage to take her leap of faith.

“Do you want to keep living inside the castle forever? Or do you want to become an ordinary girl?”

“……”

“By the way, if I may be so bold… The world is not so kind to sheltered girls who don’t know anything about their land or their people…and are not fit to lead a country.”

Most of the second-generation rulers who run rampant through our world are idiots, spoiled brats who just ride their parents’ coattails.

I extended my hand to her. “From a place like this, you can’t really see the world or the people very well, can you? So let’s go to the girl you love.”

“……” But she fell back one step. Then she spun around and faced the table. “…If I were to go, then what would happen to this land? Their ruler would be gone!”

“Do you think this land is so unstable that it would all go to ruin just because of a change in management?”

There were girls working terrible jobs, complaining that they were tired, that this was hard, that they wanted to quit. There were underhanded newspaper journalists trying to get the next big scoop using any means possible.

Somehow, watching their king squander resources to throw lavish parades for his daughter, I suspected the people wouldn’t mind a change of government.

I suppose you can’t even see that yet—

“…Right. I hope not.” Plumeria nodded, then collected the bunch of papers that had been carelessly scattered on the table.

She tapped them together gently, folded them in half, then placed them into an envelope.

“Might I ask you to do one last job?”

“What might that be?”

As she climbed onto the back of my broom, she stuck the envelope into my pocket.

“This is the letter that I was planning to hand to my father on the day of the parade. I wrote it because I didn’t want my father to worry after I had been carried off by the Great Phantom Thief.”

“……”

“Please, Elaina. Won’t you please give this to him? Please?”

She wrapped her arms around my waist.

An ever-so-slightly embarrassed smile spread across her face.

“Didn’t you know? I used to work at the post office.”

Consider it done. I nodded.

And then the little bird flew out of her cage.

“…So I didn’t understand anything about my daughter after all.”

In contrast to the boisterous celebration going on below, the voice of the former king was subdued.

I had a chance to give the princess’s letter a quick once-over. In her words, he found both the truth about what had happened between Plumeria and the Great Phantom Thief and her gratitude for everything he had done to raise her thus far. Also written was an apology for her betrayal.

…And a statement that, sooner or later, she hoped to return to the castle.

“I wouldn’t say you didn’t understand anything.”

In the end, this former king, on top of being the man who controlled the country, was a father with a daughter at a difficult, moody age. Sorrow was practically radiating off his back as he bent low under the sadness of his daughter’s absence.

“To a girl like her, who knows nothing of the outside world, it looks like a beautiful place where anything and everything is new,” I helped explain. “That’s all it is.”

“……”

“She was still too young to take responsibility for the country. She’s just a young girl.”

Plus, fathers have wanted to shelter their daughters, and those daughters have always wanted to see the outside world. These desires have clashed since time immemorial.

That’s what this was about.

“Your Highness. Precious things are easily broken.” If you preserve them without a scratch, they become brittle and weak. “She’ll go see the outside world and come back a little sturdier than she is now. You just have to be patient until then,” I told him.

“What will become of my daughter now? I’ve only met the Great Phantom Thief a few times. Truthfully, I have no idea what kind of person that woman is.”

“It’s all right. She’s a good person.”

Though she’s got a bit of a crafty nature, I never said out loud. I swallowed the words back just in time.

A witch walked down the main avenue flooded with people.

Walking next to her friend, the postal employee, who she had run into on the streets, the witch was headed out of the city.

Her duties here had already been concluded. There was nothing left for her to do, and no longer any need for her to interfere in anything. She was walking slowly, gazing at the anticipated parade.

“Elaina, send me letters even after you leave, all right? I’ll be looking forward to them.”

“I’ll write if I feel like it.”

“I read in a book that women say that when they don’t want to do something.”

“……”

“Write to me, okay?” The witch’s friend was a little overbearing.

“…Uh, fine.” I was going to write without you nagging me. Elaina looked up in exasperation and saw carrier pigeons soaring through the air.

As they drifted lazily across the sky, it seemed like the birds were taking the day off work. Rather than swooping from job to job, they looked like they were floating right over the parade.

“Looks like the birds have enjoyed this day as well. We’re going to be working extremely late tonight.”

“I guess they learned how to play hooky…”

“Well, I suppose it would be all right just for today. I’m playing hooky, too, anyway.”

“Get back to work.”

“I actually have a surprising amount of free time, now that I’m just feeding them. I’m thinking of taking on a side job.”

It wasn’t so much the conversation of people who regretted their parting. On the contrary, the words exchanged were nothing if not passive and relaxed, like in normal times.

They probably didn’t want to think about their upcoming separation.

“…All right then.”

“……”

The witch gazed over the city while listening to her chattering friend, who was unexpectedly talkative outside of work.

All kinds of people could be seen in town, gathered for the parade.

People watching the parade. People doing their jobs as usual. People working the parade. People walking with their friends. People strolling with their sweethearts. People moving alone.

“……”

Just then, the witch walked past a certain pair.

It was a pair of girls around the same age—one with a swishing, long violet ponytail, and the other with pink hair, freshly cut short, fiddling with the ends of her hair bashfully as they walked.

The witch had met one of them somewhere before and thought she had met the other one, but with a different hairstyle.

But she didn’t call out to them.

The witch was thinking of a newspaper journalist and a princess.

These two girls, walking along happily, were not those people. They were ordinary girls.

It would have been insensitive to intrude on their relationship.

“…Good-bye.”

And so, the witch mumbled words of parting to no one in particular.

“…What did you say?”

The witch shook her head at her friend, who looked puzzled.

“…Thank you.”

She had the feeling that someone had said that behind her.

The witch broke into a smile as she proceeded down the main avenue to return to her travels, and the friend walking beside her had a suspicious look.

The witch walked on, thinking of how someday the time would come to tell her friend the truth about the missing princess and the Great Phantom Thief.

By the way, just who could that witch be?

That’s right. She’s me.