Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 7 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

Things Unseen

A letter was delivered to the palace of a certain country.

The sender was a witch—a young traveler known as the Ashen Witch.

A few days earlier, she had received a direct commission from His Majesty the King and had gone to visit the nearby Northern Woods. She had apparently sent back her report.

“Oh-hoh, that witch had a vacant look on her face the whole time she was listening to me talk, but she seems to take her job fairly seriously.”

They had made an arrangement that the king would pay money after the witch carried out his request. She had probably sent this letter as a progress report, telling the king that she was still on the job.

At least, that’s what the king thought until he cut open the sealing wax.

Greetings, Your Majesty.

Please pardon my abruptness as I cut to the chase.

One day has passed since I accepted the commission from your fine country.

Currently, there are two things that I can report to Your Majesty.

As the common saying goes, I have good news and bad news.

Which would you like to hear first? Oh, start with the good news? As you wish.

First, then, the good news.

I was able to find Elfriede and Louis, who left your country one year ago, without issue.

As your intelligence suggested, the two of them were living in a deserted village in the Northern Woods. Apparently, they’ve been lying low there ever since they left your country.

I was able to deliver Your Majesty’s message to them without incident.

That concludes the good news.

Well then, on to the bad news.

As for the two individuals whom you instructed me to locate…

I told them that Your Majesty wished to recall them to your country, and then—

They died.

Both of them.

Sure enough, the forest known as the Northern Woods was located to the north of the capital.

It wasn’t a particularly convoluted forest, just a bit wild and overgrown. If you looked up at the sky from beneath the trees, the partially blocked rays of the sun formed a pattern that seemed to waver back and forth. Now that winter was over and spring had arrived, the sunlight streamed down warmly.

I’d been given a map to the deserted village along with files on the two people I was meant to bring back with me, so there was no way to get lost.

If they’re in the deserted village as the intelligence suggests—and if I haven’t taken the wrong road—I should come face-to-face with them quite soon.

Then I stopped for a moment and looked over the files one more time.

Ahead of me, I could see the deserted village.

I could also see the figure of a single man walking toward me.

According to his file, his name was Louis.

His golden hair hung sleekly down to about his shoulders, and his delicate physique and diminutive stature made it difficult to tell at a glance whether he was a man or a woman. The fact that he was wearing an oddly frilly robe contributed to his outward appearance of androgyny, or ambiguous gender.

He was walking with unsteady, tottering steps, waving a long stick from left to right.

He certainly looks like the mage who used to work in that country. He matches the description in all the documents…

He had been living here the whole time since leaving the country a year earlier.

“……”

His unusual appearance was not the only thing remarkable about him.

Louis came quite close to me, then stopped, wearing a puzzled expression.

“…? Who is it? Is someone there?”

Sniffing at the air, Louis restlessly shook his head left and right. But his eyes never landed on me.

Louis was blind.

He couldn’t see anything.

“Hello there.”

I called out to the man who was in the dark.

“Nice to meet you. I’m Elaina, a witch.” I carefully spoke the words I had prepared in advance. “Actually, I’m a traveler, but…do you live in that village over there?”

Then Louis said, “Huh? A traveler? Wow, how rare…!” Staring into empty space, he smiled broadly. “Do you perhaps have some business in the village up ahead?”

“…No, I got lost. I’ve been walking around looking for a place to stay.”

“Ah…well, this area is quite easy to get lost in, isn’t it? I get lost sometimes, too… Though I get lost because I can’t see where I’m going!”

“……”

Louis didn’t hesitate to make an awkward attempt at a joke.

“Oh, I’m sorry, didn’t you notice? I can’t see—”

“No, it’s pretty obvious that you’re blind.”

“I thought so. You can tell just by looking at me, right? Though I’ve got no idea what I look like, heh-heh!”

“Ah, um…I don’t know how to respond to that…”

“Oh, sorry. I almost never have the opportunity to meet new people, living in a place like this, so… The only ones I have to talk to are my roommate and the carrier pigeons!” Louis said, chuckling and scratching his head with embarrassment.

He seemed to be a very, very cheerful individual.

“By the way, Elaina, you’re lost, right? If you like, you can stay at my place. I’m living in a fairly spacious house right now, so if you want to rest, I think I can accommodate. You can even make it an extended stay if you feel the need.”

He was also apparently a very kind individual. At least, that was the impression he gave off.

“……” After a brief silence, I asked, lowering my voice, “I’m grateful for the invitation, but…are you sure I won’t be a bother to your roommate?”

“It’s fine! My roommate doesn’t like talking to people, other than me, of course. In fact, my roommate won’t even go near strangers, so there’s no problem!”

“By the way, may I know a bit…more about your roommate?”

“She’s a girl.”

“…Is that all right?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?”

“……”

Are you sure I won’t get stabbed or something?

I was suspicious, but since I had accepted the responsibility of this commission, I didn’t have the option of running away now.

“…Well then, I’m grateful for the hospitality.”

There was nothing to do but prepare myself.

“Fantastic!” Louis said with a wide smile. “Okay, please come this way.”

And then he extended a hand toward the village and showed me the way.

“……”

How much blood had been spilled by those hands…? It was a question I would rather not know the answer to.

I had been invited to the castle as soon as I reached that country.

Perhaps they had heard a rumor about me somewhere because a crowd of soldiers gathered around me and escorted me inside.

“There is something that we would very much like to ask you, Miss Traveling Witch. Please, you must attend us.”

I’m sure that to anyone watching this ostentatious spectacle, it looked like I was simply being dragged away by the authorities.

At the castle, the doughy king was waiting for me atop his throne.

“So you are the traveling witch, are you? There is something I would very much like to request of you.”

When we met face-to-face, the king looked down at me with cold eyes and snapped his fingers without breaking his gaze. Soldiers appeared from near the throne and pressed several sheets of paper into my hands. Apparently, the king had not the slightest intention of moving from his seat.

I see. I understand now how you swelled to such proportions.

“…What is this?”

I tilted my head in confusion.

The king told me, “I want to have you bring back two people who left this country one year ago.”

Included in the documents I had been handed were a map of the surrounding area and information on one man and one woman. There were written profiles on each of them, accompanied by photographs.

I looked over the documents as I flipped through them.

“The first one is Louis. He’s a blind mage.” The king began telling me about Louis in an indifferent tone.

“When he was small, he suffered from an illness of the eyes. He’s been blind ever since, although to compensate, his nose became much more sensitive. He’s smart, too. In my country’s most recent war, he wielded his power primarily behind the scenes.”

According to the king, Louis was also a master of poisons, and countless people had died by his hand.

Sometimes, he spread his poison throughout enemy countries. Other times, he would poison traitors. Yet other times, he would put his poisons to use as euthanasia for soldiers who were no longer useful.

Many, many people had been slain by his unique odorless and colorless poisons, which couldn’t be detected by any except Louis himself.

Apparently, he had a blood-soaked history that one would never imagine by looking at the photo of the gentle, androgynous face in his file.

“…So you’ve let such a dangerous individual live outside the country for a year?”

“It’s because he’s such a dangerous individual that we couldn’t let him remain within the country’s borders.” His Majesty cast his eyes downward as he spoke. “A year ago, the war ended. There was no longer a need for him to make poisons—but, as you’ll understand by taking a look at his deeds, he had committed many crimes against humanity. The people of my country unanimously shunned him, regardless of the fact that he was a war hero.”

“……”

“And so, I gave him plenty of money to live on and exiled him. It must have been painful for him to have to stay in a place where he wasn’t wanted, after all.”

I assumed that the other person who had gone with Louis, a woman named Elfriede, had left the country under similar circumstances. Despite outstanding service to their nation, they were feared by their own countrymen, so I wasn’t surprised that they had been forced out.

However…

“So why are you trying to get them to come back again?”

In response to my overly naive question, the king answered readily. “Because we’re going to war again. You see,” he explained, “those two don’t belong anywhere but the battlefield.”

“I’m usually doing some sort of medicinal research, see, so I frequently enter the forest to collect wild plants.”

Louis walked in front of me, swinging his stick left and right like the pendulum on a clock.

Even if his eyes couldn’t see, his body seemed to remember the route. Taking steady steps along what amounted to a game trail running through the forest, he didn’t seem to hesitate.

“This forest is great. Almost all of the ingredients I need for the medicines I’m studying to make now are right here. The air is clean, and best of all, there’s no noise—it’s nice and quiet. I enjoy every day here.”

“What medicines are you studying now?” I asked.

“Ah, Elaina? Once we pass this fence, we’ll be in my village.”

I was sure I had asked a question, but maybe it didn’t make it to his ears. Louis tapped on the tattered fence with his walking stick. The sign that must have once had the name of the village inscribed on it was so wrapped up in ivy that the letters were illegible.

“Well, I say ‘my village,’ but it’s just an ordinary ghost town now.” He let out a quiet laugh.

“……”

Sure enough, the village was abandoned, as promised.

The private homes that we passed were all slowly crumbling, the places that were once home to gardens were overrun with weeds, the pond was totally dried up, and I could see almost no signs of people living here.

But it hadn’t fallen completely into ruin. Neither did it show any signs of having been attacked by anyone. It looked as if, some number of years earlier, the citizens of this village had simply vanished, all at once.

“Total population: two,” Louis added. “It’s just me and my roommate, Elfriede.” Louis continued tap-tapping his stick, swinging it back and forth as he spoke. “This village was abandoned quite a while ago, and no one really lives here any longer.”

“Where did the people who used to live here go?”

It looked as if a fair bit of time had passed since the village had been abandoned.

“Ah…,” Louis mumbled, as if he had just remembered something significant. “Apparently, everybody died.”

“…That’s…”

But why?

I almost asked the question.

“Oh, come to think of it!”

But just when I was about to open my mouth, at exactly the wrong moment, Louis clapped his hands as if he had suddenly remembered something else and turned around to face me.

“Elaina. I forgot to tell you one thing.” Staring off into the space behind me, Louis said, “It’s about my roommate, Elfriede. I don’t want to say too much, but if you can, please try to avoid staring.”

“……” After a brief silence, I tilted my head and asked, “Why?”

He answered, “You’ll know once you see her.”

And then, we finally arrived at his house.

“As for Elfriede—the other person who left our country one year ago—she’s the one you need to be especially careful around.”

The king spoke in a torrent. “Unlike Louis, who did his work in the shadows, that woman’s power really shone on the battlefield. I put her out on the field for one moment, and the strength of the opposing army immediately crumbled. There probably isn’t another person alive as strong and terrifying as that woman.”

“……”

Flipping through the materials I’d been given, I came to a photograph and a file on a single woman.

She was an adult woman with green hair that just about reached her shoulders. She was wearing a gloomy expression and had her eyes cast downward. She wore only a simple robe and plain clothing.

At first glance, there didn’t seem to be anything terrifying about her. I thought it looked like a photo of a normal mage.

On top of that, there was even a caption on the photo: “EXCELS AT THE ART OF HEALING MAGIC.” In fact, it went on to conclude, “HAS NEVER ONCE USED AN ATTACK SPELL. LIKELY INCAPABLE OF DOING SO.”

What on earth could he mean, saying that this mage shone on the field of battle? Like, she went around healing all the injured soldiers?

But if that was the case, it would be hard to believe that she was feared by the citizens and forced to leave the country.

“What kind of powers does she have?”

I tilted my head questioningly, and the king replied, “Take a look at the next photo and see for yourself.”

I did as I was told and flipped past the first photo. Apparently, there had been two.

“……”

There, in the second one, was Elfriede, standing in the center of a battlefield, facing away from the camera. She was not holding a wand.

Around Elfriede were arranged several stone statues shaped like soldiers.

“Elfriede has the ability to turn anyone who meets her eyes into stone.”

The king continued, “That woman possesses a terrible power that frightens even witches.”

So she was feared for turning every last enemy on the battlefield into stone. “That’s why I had to be especially careful.”

“Okay, come on in! This is my house!”

“Uh, ah…thanks…”

I did as Louis urged and stepped through the door into his house. Though this was a deserted village, the interior was in pretty good shape, and he had arranged a minimum of furniture and fixtures so that it looked like an ordinary house.

If I had to point out something that was different from houses elsewhere, I would have to mention the way that suspicious potions and mysterious documents were casually scattered over the dining room table. That, and the fact that Louis had a roommate who could change people into stone.

“Ah, Louis! Welcome ho—”

As I was gazing absently around at the interior of the house, a woman with green hair appeared suddenly, bounding into the room.

Right, she must be…

“Wh-who is this outsider?!”

……

She had hidden herself again the moment she saw me, but from the brief glimpse I had gotten of her, she appeared to be exactly the same Elfriede I had seen in the photos.

“You brought a woman into our house… Adulterer…! Louis, you…adulterer…!”

…Though she gives off an entirely different impression than her photograph…

Growling from her hiding place, she seemed just like a wild animal that bore its teeth in hostility toward humans.

“How cruel when you have me! So you do prefer younger girls? You’re the worst!”

I feel like the woman I saw in the photos had a bit of a listless air to her, but this…?

“Ah, sorry, Elfriede.” Unlike Elfriede, who never let her guard down for a second, Louis was as nonchalant as could be. “This person is the traveling witch Elaina. She got lost, so I want you to let her stay here.”

“Stay…? Did you say ‘stay’?” From her prickly tone of voice, it was clear that Elfriede was not a fan of the idea. “No way, Louis. We can’t let people stay here in these times…”

Oh, I knew it.

“You say that, but if she can’t stay here, she’ll be in a bind and have to sleep outdoors. We must help others when in need!” Louis soothed Elfriede a little, then closed the door to the house.

With a bang, my path of retreat was closed off.

Ultimately, Louis persuaded Elfriede, and I ended up staying.

“Louis, I’m against this. No matter what you say, I won’t hear it.”

“Oh? But what could possibly be wrong? There’s really nothing to worry about.”

“The truth is, I have a witch allergy…”

“I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Whenever I’m near a witch, I can’t stop feeling nauseated.”

“You never get close to anyone anyway, so there’s no problem!”

“……”

“……”

Well, he didn’t persuade her, exactly. It was more like he just brushed off her complaints.

That evening, I was treated to Louis’s home cooking. As their home was located deep inside a forest, the dinner table was laden with wild greens and mushrooms and the like. There was no meat. There was no bread, either.

Chewing a mouthful of salad, Louis said, “Sorry about this. If we had known a guest was coming, I’m sure we could have prepared something a little more substantial, but these are the only kinds of foods we have here.” He smiled. “I do my best, though. I mean, I’m in charge of making dinner, and I can’t see!”

“……”

Was that supposed to be a joke?

“Maybe I made a mistake and used poisonous mushrooms instead of normal ones!”

“……”

I guess that was supposed to be a joke?!

“Um, actually…I’m not sure if I can eat this…”

“Oh, sorry! Did I not cook them all the way through? As you might expect, when you can’t see, it’s hard to adjust the temperature, so…”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

“Oh, perhaps you don’t like mushrooms?”

“No, that’s not what I mean.”

“Well then, what do you mean?”

“I have no idea how I’m supposed to react… Is it okay to laugh?”

I couldn’t hide my bewilderment at Louis’s ever-cheerful demeanor, especially now that I knew a little bit about his and Elfriede’s pasts.

“Louis has always been like that,” Elfriede added from her place beside him at the table.

Shortly thereafter, Louis set his fork down with a clatter and answered, “Well, if I don’t act like this, the people around me are too reserved! You know, I’m not really bothered by the fact that I’m blind. I certainly haven’t led the best life, but looking at the way things are right now, I can only conclude that it’s all been worth it.”

“I’m sure you’re right.” Elfriede nodded slightly beside him. “And you always seem to enjoy your research into new medicines, Louis.”

“That I do.” Louis went back to munching on his salad.

“…Though you never tell me what kind of research you’re working on.” Elfriede had some very biting words for him.

“If I tell you, will you tell me what spells you’re working on now, Elfriede?”

“I’ll tell you if you tell me, Louis.”

“No, you tell me first.”

“No, no, you first.”

“No, you.”

Sitting across from the two of them when they started to have this pointless back-and-forth, all I could do was let out a sigh.

Could these two love-addled sweethearts actually be feared and hated in their homeland?

“Generally, I’m always mixing medicines in my room, so if you want to know that badly, you can go into my room and take a look. I doubt you’ll understand what anything is, though.”

“And if you want to know what I’m working on, you can look in my research materials, can’t you? I’m always writing my documents in the living room, so you can take a look any time you like!”

“Wait, but I can’t see!”

“And I can’t mix potions just by smell!”

As the two of them continued shouting at each other, I noticed Elfriede looking Louis in the eyes and Louis grabbing Elfriede’s hand to confirm where she was. In contrast to their forceful words, these gestures were something normal sweethearts would do.

“Um…”

I interrupted their lovers’ quarrel.

“Ah, I’m sorry! What is it, Elaina?”

Louis lent me his ear with a smile.

“……”

Elfriede turned away. She probably did it to be considerate and avoid inadvertently making eye contact. Or maybe she was simply embarrassed.

I stared directly at the two of them—and coughed once, clearing my throat apprehensively, then asked, “Why are the two of you living in a place like this?”

Louis answered, not seeming particularly interested. “…Ah, come to think of it—I haven’t told you about that yet, have I, Elaina?” He continued, wearing an amiable smile, “The truth is, Elfriede and I used to live in a nearby country—”

It was a story I already knew.

And it was the truthful version, as told by the people who lived it.

Louis had been quite young when he had lost his sight, but by that time, he’d already developed certain abilities as a mage.

He was also skilled at mixing magic medicines and could even identify them by smell.

And so, when he lost his sight, he did not sink into despair. On the contrary, he’d known for a long time what was going to happen, as the disease claimed his eyesight little by little, he told me.

By the time he lost his sight completely, he had learned how to live on his own. His specialty was making magic medicines, so he was able to earn a certain living, and he could use other kinds of magic as well, so he experienced little discomfort in his daily life.

After losing his sight, he ran a drugstore in a quiet corner of the country for a long time.

Then one day, something happened.

A state official appeared before Louis and commissioned him for a job.

To state the substance of the job plainly…

“We want you to make poisons to euthanize livestock.”

That’s what it was. According to the official, the old methods of culling livestock were too inhumane, so the state wanted to move to performing euthanasia with poison instead.

For that purpose, Louis was requested to create a poison that was odorless and colorless, and that would absolutely not remain in the body after death.

“Oh, no…I couldn’t possibly…”

Honestly, Louis was not interested in accepting such a commission. He didn’t like killing. However, if there was a way to kill without causing suffering, he felt obliged to ascertain whether poison would be an effective method.

In the end, he decided to accept the commission.

The potion was soon finished, and a supplementary commission was made for its mass production.

“Wow! This is fantastic, Master Louis! Thanks to you, the people against euthanasia can finally stop complaining.”

“…Is that so? That’s great.” Louis was not particularly thrilled. “But is this large quantity really necessary? I feel as if I’ve already made plenty…”

“No, no. Recently, a pestilence has been going around among livestock herds, and no matter how much poison we have, it’s never enough.”

“……”

Though he suddenly felt even more uncomfortable, Louis continued making his special poison.

It was only several years later that he found out the poison hadn’t been used on livestock at all.

Louis’s poison had been spread widely throughout neighboring countries and villages—to kill people.

Elfriede had been born into a lineage of mages, but she told me that, for as long as she could remember, she had been disinherited from her family.

That was wholly due to the power residing in her eyes.

As for how long her eyes had been this way, or why on earth that kind of power dwelled within them, no one—not even Elfriede herself—could say. Even when she was a child, people had been afraid of the power of her eyes.

“You bring shame to our family. Hurry up and leave.”

There wasn’t a single relative who would accept her with her strange power.

After she was kicked out, Elfriede was on her own, and she started living on the streets. At her young age, homelessness hit hard. She begged for change and occasionally swiped food from roadside stalls.

But she never once intentionally used the power in her eyes. It was painfully clear that she had been driven from her home because of that power.

“Once more…once more, I want to return to my family…”

She lived through each day with that wish in her heart. She learned healing magic and figured out how to cure anyone she accidentally petrified.

She wasn’t able to use her healing magic to cure herself of her cursed gaze, but even so, she had been able to find a coping mechanism.

“Now that I can do this, I can probably return home…”

Or so she thought.

But her family still rejected her.

“So you’ve figured out a way to cure the people you turn to stone. What of it?”

“Weren’t you disowned a long time ago? Don’t come back.”

“You hear that? We don’t want to see you ever again, you monster.”

There was no way they were going to accept her. Even though she had taught herself how to use magic, still, anyone who made eye contact with her would be turned to stone.

It seemed only natural that no one would want to get close to her.

After that, she had no other choice but to continue living alone. She lived quietly, trying her best not to make eye contact with anyone. But it’s not possible to avoid eye contact forever. She would sometimes accidentally meet someone’s eyes and then have to apply a healing spell to turn them back to normal after they were petrified. And every time that happened, she faced another cruel rejection. Eventually, no one would even come near her. She was cursed at, shunned, and told to leave the country. Hers was a lonely existence.

Then one day, something happened.

“You’ve got the power to turn anyone who meets your gaze into stone, yes?” a country government official called out to her. “If you’re interested, there’s a job that we would very much like you to do. How about it?”

And then the official took her to the battlefield.

“We want you to turn the enemy soldiers to stone.”

Ultimately, that was how she ended up standing on the front lines of the battlefield.

Then Elfriede, who had spent her entire life rejecting her curse, refused.

“No way! I don’t want to use my power for something like this!”

But she didn’t have the right to resist. The moment she had been brought to the battlefield—from the moment her eyes had been enlisted as weapons of war—there was no way she could simply go back home.

Against her will, she was tied up by soldiers from her own country, carried in front of the enemy, and forced to open her eyes. Though she cried and screamed, no one came to her rescue.

She suffered, alone, in the middle of the battlefield.

Until the day the war ended.

After the war was over, His Majesty the King summoned Louis and Elfriede to the palace and handed each of them a large sum of gold.

“I’d like you to take this gold and find a new country to live in.”

One of them was a fiendish killer who had brought about the deaths of a great many people with his odorless, colorless poisons. The other was a mage who had mercilessly turned entire battalions of enemy soldiers to stone.

After the war, all anyone felt toward them was fear.

Anxiety was flooding the country, as people wondered when the two of them might turn on their countrymen and whether their dangerous powers might be directed at the citizenry.

So they were told to leave.

It was all too convenient. Not a single person showed any concern for the two of them.

“In short, we’ve served our purpose, so we’re banished?” Louis asked bitterly.

“……” Elfriede didn’t say a word. She just took the money.

Ultimately, the two of them left the country.

That was the only option left for them.

“Hey, you. Is this the way to the Northern Woods?”

Standing in front of the gate that had just been slammed shut behind them, Louis tapped gently on Elfriede’s shoulder.

“……” Elfriede nodded.

“Hmm? Sorry, I’m blind. Were you nodding just then?”

“…That’s correct. That’s the way to the wood.”

“All right. And your name is?”

“…Elfriede.”

“I see. Thank you, Elfriede.”

He stared in Elfriede’s direction and smiled cheerfully. That was an expression that no one had ever directed toward her before.

And…

For the first time since her birth, here was a person she couldn’t turn to stone.

“See ya!”

Louis started walking, swinging his stick as he went.

There was no hesitation in his steps. In the Northern Woods, there was nothing but a deserted village that all the people had already left. He must have been planning to live there in the forest all alone—Elfriede didn’t have to think about it too hard to understand as much.

“……”

Elfriede told me that she spontaneously chased after him. For the first time since she was born, she had met a person who didn’t turn to stone when she made eye contact with him. She had found someone she could live with.

After walking for a moment or two, Louis stopped short.

“Elfriede, would you possibly be standing behind me right now?”

He must have heard her footsteps. He had asked the question without turning around.

Elfriede was quite flustered. She realized that she must have come across like some kind of stalker or something.

“…I-I’m sorry. Um…” She made her excuses in a feverish haste, with wild gestures, but of course, Louis could see none of it.

Her agitation didn’t make it through to him, and with an extremely calm demeanor, Louis turned around.

“Perhaps you’re coming with me?”

“……!” Elfriede nodded excitedly. “Y-yes…I’ll go!” She hurried over to his side.

“All right. Well, let’s go.”

Then he started walking again.

Ever since that day, the two of them had been living in this village, Louis told me.

“Now the two of us live here without issue. I daresay we’re both much happier than when we were living in that country.”

Here, they weren’t being used by others or forced to be complicit in evil deeds. Compared to what they had been through, living in a deserted village must have seemed like paradise.

“By the way…” Louis crossed his arms and spoke in a low voice. “Recently, there have been signs that the surrounding countries are planning to launch attacks against our former home.”

Taking over for him, Elfriede kept her eyes cast downward and said, “For the past several weeks, we have received many letters asking us to return to that country. They said war is breaking out again, so they need our powers.”

“……”

“Of course, we’ve been ignoring them. We have no intention of giving up our life here.”

She looked like her intentions were firm.

But letters would probably keep coming, so long as they stayed here. Over and over, they would receive requests to return to their country.

“…Suppose someone from your country was to come here directly… If someone like that appeared before you, what would you do?”

Louis tilted his head for a moment, like he was thinking. “I wonder…,” he said, then, “If it was someone we could have a conversation with, I would resolve it by talking to them.”

“And if it’s someone who talking didn’t work on?”

He smiled at my question.

“Let me see. I would probably feed all three of us poison and kill everyone, including the visitor.”

I couldn’t tell whether he was joking or being serious.

But for now, there was just one thing I could say.

“…I’m not sure I can eat this…”

“Just a little joke. Please don’t let it bother you.”

Louis seemed unconcerned.

But Elfriede, who had been seated beside him the whole time with her eyes cast downward so as not to make eye contact with me, looked concerned.

Her eyes were focused directly in front of me—on the plate from which I had taken not a single bite.

A short while later, after we had finished our meal, Louis said, “Well, I’m working on my medical research, so please excuse me,” and closed himself up in his room. “Oh, and Elaina, please relax and make yourself at home, okay?”

He didn’t fail to extend this consideration before disappearing.

But…

“……”

“……”

Does he really think I’ll be able to take it easy with Elfriede sitting right next to me? There’s no way!

Strange silence and a heavy feeling of tension dominated the room. It was hard to believe that the atmosphere had gotten this oppressive just with the absence of the carefree Louis.

Several minutes passed, and both of us remained silent. Then finally, Elfriede opened her mouth.

“Right now, if I looked you in the eye, you would turn to stone, and there would be no returning you to normal.”

Her calm tone of voice was a bit of a mismatch for her frightening words.

There would be no returning to normal. In other words, she had no intention of turning me back.

“Is that a threat?”

“No.” Elfriede shook her head slowly. “I just want to ask you one question.”

“……”

I was silent, waiting for her to speak again.

Elfriede sucked in a breath and sighed, then said, “You’re a mage sent by that country to come here and bring us back. Am I wrong?”

She thrust the truth straight at me.

“You may be able to fool sweet, innocent Louis, but you can’t fool me, Elaina.”

Her tone was pointed as she cross-examined me.

“……”

But I didn’t answer her. I was simply silent.

“I’ll take your silence as confirmation.”

“Do whatever you want.”

I didn’t really care how she perceived my reaction.

In response, Elfriede let out a single sigh, then said, “I was certain they were going to come take us back by force soon… But I never thought they would send a traveling witch to do the job.”

“…I’m sure you didn’t.”

“Elaina. You’re planning to take us from here back to that country, aren’t you?”

“……”

I didn’t answer.

But she kept talking anyway.

“As you heard in our story earlier, both Louis and I love our lives here in this village. We have no intention of leaving.”

That was painfully clear just from watching the way the two of them behaved. For these two people, who had never belonged anywhere, this village was the only place they could relax.

“…But I know that you are under orders to bring us back. The king takes no issue with committing crimes against humanity, so…”

She bit her lip.

She tightly grasped some sheets of paper that were sitting on the table.

“Elaina. There’s something I must ask of you. Please, please, I beg you…give us just a few more days.”

“…Is something happening in a few days?”

Elfriede nodded and lowered her gaze to the rustling sheets of paper.

“My research will be complete.”

She had been researching a new spell and keeping it a secret from Louis.

She must have wanted me to wait until it was finished.

“What will you do with it once it’s complete?”

“Strip away Louis’s magic,” she answered plainly, “and restore his sight.”

“……”

In other words…

“He will become an ordinary man, who can’t make poisons or anything.”

That’s what she was after.

Elfriede had probably been conducting this research ever since the letters started arriving, or maybe even before then.

Louis, a mage who excelled at brewing poison. The king only wanted him for his special talents. That meant that if he lost the ability to use magic, he wouldn’t be worth anything anymore. That was the idea.

Elfriede bowed very, very deeply and said, “I don’t care what happens to me. If they want to use my eyes again, that doesn’t bother me. I’ve long accepted my fate. So please, I’m begging you. Please, just leave him out of it. Don’t drag the most important person in my life off to war again…”

She was trying to tell me that she wanted to save him, and him alone, no matter what happened to her.

That was a very pure and admirable sentiment.

However.

“Unfortunately,” I said, “I’m afraid I can’t grant your wish.”

“What kind of person is Elfriede?” I asked Louis as we walked through the deserted village to their dwelling.

I had read her file, so I already knew a bit about her, but over the course of our conversation, I ended up asking about her anyway.

“She’s the person I love most in this world.”

“No, I meant to ask, like, how’s her temperament…?”

You were certainly ready to gush over her, though, weren’t you?

“Her temperament? Um…she’s got a great personality, and she’s a cheerful, kind person…”

“…What’s with that noncommittal answer?”

I feel like you could describe just about anyone you like that way…

“Well, I can’t see anything, so I really don’t know anything about her external characteristics.” Louis wore an easy smile as he spoke. “The only thing I do know is that her eyes are sick in a different way than mine.”

“And that would be…?”

“You’ll understand when you see her.”

Louis dodged the question with an ambiguous answer.

Though of course, since I had already read the file on Elfriede, I didn’t need him to go out of his way to explain it again. I was fully aware of the danger of her eyes.

Then Louis turned around to face me and said, “Elaina. Would you please wait just a few days?”

“…What are you talking about?”

“You are a witch sent here by our homeland. Am I wrong?”

My secret was out.

Though it was pretty unlikely that a traveler would deliberately come all the way out to a place as remote as this, so I had figured I would probably be found out before too long, but…

“Well, it’s more or less as you suspect.” I didn’t try to deny it. “I am a witch who was asked by the king of the country in question to bring the two of you back. By the way, if anything happens to me, it sounds like he’s going to try again. With force.”

His Majesty seemed to want the two of them back no matter the cost.

He was probably going to chase them down until he got his wish.

…It did make me wonder what was wrong with the country, that losing just two people could cause such a crisis.

“Force, huh? I suppose he’ll send soldiers after us, then?” Louis let out a quiet laugh, like it was all a joke. “But even so, I’d like you to wait a few days, Elaina.”

“…Why is that?”

I tilted my head questioningly, and Louis said, “Right now, I’m working on a new medicine. One that will cure the disorder of her eyes.”

“……”

“A few days from now, I’ll be able to fix her eyes. I’ve already completed the potion that will turn her into a normal mage.”

After a short pause, he continued, “Do you think you could let Elfriede escape? I don’t care what happens to me. So please, I’m begging you.”

So at the end of the day, that’s what I was dealing with. It would be impossible to grant both their requests. And anyway, I’m not really into helping people sacrifice themselves.

I’m a fairly impatient individual, so even though they asked me to wait a few days, I couldn’t stand to just sit around doing nothing.

“Louis. Your mixture is slightly off. Look, there’s too much of one ingredient.”

And so, to make the days go by faster, I was, for example, helping Louis with his research, or—

“Elfriede. You don’t have enough magical energy to use this spell. If you perform it, then even if his eyesight does come back, he won’t be able to see clearly.”

Or helping Elfriede with her spell research, as presumptuous as that was.

I also—

“…Should I write a letter or something?”

I wrote a letter and sent it off to the king, anticipating what was to come.

In the letter, I reported that Louis and Elfriede had died.

In the end, that was all I was able to do.

And then, the following day…

Both Elfriede’s spell and Louis’s potion were complete, and there was no longer a part left for me to play.

“…Elaina, could we get you to stay just a little bit longer? We haven’t been able to properly thank you yet…” Louis frowned, looking off somewhere far away from me.

Both of them had finished their respective projects, and all that was left was for each of them to give the other the final results. I had figured it was time to take my leave.

“Oh, no, I don’t want to intrude on you two any longer. I’m the kind of person who knows how to read the room.”

Besides, it was sure to be awkward if I was around the first time they ever faced each other with their new eyes.

And most importantly, I did not want to have to stand there and watch them get all lovey-dovey.

“In that case, we’d at least like you to accept some money.” With prickly words, Elfriede pressed a bag full of gold coins into my hands.

I pushed it right back at her.

“I don’t need it.”

“How come?”

“After this, you two will need to get out of this forest, right? I’m not the kind of person who would snatch away the cash you need to start your new life in a new country.”

“……”

Elfriede puffed out her cheeks in displeasure. “No way. Elaina, I’ll never be satisfied if I can’t get you to take this money.”

“Oh, come on, I just said I don’t need it…”

“No, you must.”

“No, I can’t.”

“……”

“……”

Eventually, after we spent several minutes pushing the money back and forth between us—

“Oh, enough of this! I understand. Fine, fine. If I take this, you’ll be satisfied, right? Just to be clear, I really don’t need it…” With much sulking, I agreed to a compromise: I would accept a single gold coin. Usually, I would have taken all the money, but this was a special case.

“What are you planning to do after this, Elaina?”

After our quarrel was over, Louis asked this one question with his usual nonchalant attitude.

Of course, I replied, “Isn’t it obvious? I’ll return to my travels.” And so. “It’s possible that I might meet the two of you again somewhere.”

We were all heading out. Me to return to my travels, and the two of them to begin a journey to find themselves a new hometown.

Thinking that I might like to see them again if the chance arose, I opened the door to leave their house.

Louis, gazing at my back, smiled and said in parting, “The next time we see each other, it will be for the first time.”

And so, the evil mage who turned people to stone with a glance and the mage who produced odorless, colorless poisons disappeared from this world.

From now on, they would just be two people, tied together with invisible strings.