Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 7 - Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

Once Upon a Time, in a Certain Place

That day, I arrived in a very, very strange city.

It was a mysterious place, and awfully difficult to form a solid impression of. I don’t mean that it had no distinguishing features or that it wasn’t an interesting locale.

The city had obviously changed a lot in recent years. Built up among the older stone structures that looked to have been standing there through the ages were newer wooden buildings that seemed to have been erected in a hurry, as well as brand-new homes with plaster walls. All of them were jumbled together, as if this city had been made of pieces of different cities from around the world. It was a weird sort of place that was hard to describe but easy to remember.

People were flowing endlessly through the city streets—there were normal people, there were mages, there were beastkin, and there were even demons. It was a city where, like the buildings, all species freely intermingled.

Thanks to this, my walk around town allowed me to witness all sorts of interesting sights.

I had visited cities like this one—where all sorts of diverse cultures met—only a few times before now. I could count the occasions on one hand.

I bet you could travel for years and never find a city as peculiar as this one. I was obviously intrigued. I had to know more about the history of a place that openly accepted people of all species.

I suppose this brand of curiosity is in a traveler’s nature, don’t you think?

“……Hmm.”

And so, I found myself standing in a used bookstore, eagerly perusing the historical records. Yeah, I know, it was a little rude of me to sample the merchandise, but since different history books and historical biographies emphasize different things depending on an author’s personal history and political views, it wasn’t like I was going to buy one without checking. If possible, I preferred to purchase several different histories after reading them first.

So I was quite rudely standing there, lost in a book, when I heard a voice behind me.

“Goodness! Would you have an interest in history?”

The old shopkeeper crept from the depths of the store. I felt a momentary chill, expecting to be scolded for standing there and reading without buying, but she wore a gentle expression, small wrinkles creasing her eyes, and said, “How admirable for one so young. It’s rare, these days, to find a child who takes an interest in the bygone eras.”

Her eyes were kind, as if she were admiring a grandchild who loved doing schoolwork.

Then the old woman looked me up and down and asked, as if she could see right through me, “You’re not from around here, are you, child?”

“…You can tell?” I half expected that, in a city like this, it would be easy to blend in no matter what I looked like.

I guess there was something that still labeled me an outsider.

“I’ve been in this city for a very long time, you know. I can more or less tell. Enough to know whether someone is a foreigner or not.”

“Wow… Is that so…?”

“To be honest, the folks who pop up in this dusty old bookshop are usually from out of town…” When I didn’t respond, the old shopkeeper chuckled. “Well, if you’ve got an interest in this city’s history, why don’t I tell you about it? That would be much easier to understand than reading a book, wouldn’t it?”

“……”

Well now, that’s a better offer than I could have expected.

“Um…so here’s the thing. I don’t really have any money right now, but—”

That was another reason I was trying to learn as much as I could by standing here reading.

The old woman laughed again. “It’s fine! Don’t worry about that. It’s something I like to talk about, so I just thought I would offer. In an old shop like mine, I’ve got nothing but time.”

“……”

“I’d love the company. Why not help an old lady while away the hours?”

Then she headed into the back of the shop.

She turned around and beckoned to me once to follow her.

I put the book I was holding back in its place and followed her back to a private room.

There, she took a seat in a chair and spoke. “Once upon a time, in a certain place…”

As if she were speaking to her granddaughter.

She began to recount the history of the city, bit by bit.