Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 7 - Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Many Years’ Journey: Autumn in the City Is Harsh for a Country Girl

For the longest time, I have wanted very badly to become a mage.

It all started with a book that someone read to me when I was small. The mage in the story was strong and cool, and magic seemed pretty handy, and I wasn’t actually sure what kind of people mages were, but somehow, they seemed amazing. It was the simple aspiration of a young girl prone to daydreaming, but right about the time of my eighth birthday, I came to view this single dream as my sole purpose in life.

On that day, I had an encounter that would change the course of my life forever.

When I broached the subject of wanting to become a mage to my father, he was vehemently opposed: “What’n tarnation are you carryin’ on about, girl? Ain’t no sense in all that hootenanny! (dialect)”

As for my mother, she said, “Huh…? Must be somethin’ wrong with the girl. Y’feelin’ sick, hunny? (dialect)” and worried about the thoughts that were filling my head.

But that was only to be expected.

The real beginning of my journey to become a mage was a trip my family took to the big city in celebration of my eighth birthday. That was the origin of it all.

Huh? What kind of gift is it to take your only daughter on a trip to the city for her birthday…? I wondered that at the time, but the sightseeing was actually pretty fun.

It was the first city I had ever seen, and it was lined with rows of tall buildings. Coming from our hometown, where most houses were only one story and the tallest building I ever saw had just two stories, this city seemed like a metropolis for the rich and famous.

And I was there, wondering aloud at how amazing it was that people could live in such tall buildings without them toppling as my parents pulled me along by the hand.

“Here, Alte, look at this.” My father pointed to a nearby building. “That’s the house of a rich person who lives in the capital.” (I remember he spoke in very polite language so that the people around us wouldn’t realize we were country bumpkins.)

A moment later, the entire city block exploded.

“……”

“…Papa, can ya use magic? (dialect)” I looked at my father quizzically, but of course, that wasn’t the case.

Someone told me this after the fact, but that day, in the city that we were visiting—a place called the Commonwealth of Latorita—apparently some sort of monster went on a terrible rampage.

Huge icicles were flying through the air, buildings were crumbling and being blown away, and explosions were reducing whole sections of the city to rubble. This was definitely not a typical day in the big city. And apparently, it was all because of an angry monster.

The explosion sent my parents into a panic. They screamed and ran away in terror as fire and ice and stone flew through the air around them. I don’t blame them for being terrified. My parents gripped my hands, and I gripped them back tightly as we fled. We slipped into the crowd and just ran.

But suddenly.

“Kyah!”

The swarm of people running around desperately trying to escape pulled my little family apart. In an incredibly unfortunate turn, I had fallen over during our escape.

I could hear my father and mother calling my name in the far distance. A sharp jolt ran up my leg, and from the pain that came just with moving it, I could tell it was no use. I knew I wasn’t likely to run anywhere like that.

But the misfortunes that befell me did not stop there. A building was crumbling around me, threatening to bury me in rubble. It must have been damaged by the monster.

I had no time to prepare myself for death, and I didn’t even try to escape my fate. I could only sit there, staring up at the oncoming avalanche in a daze. My body didn’t listen to a single command I gave it.

And then, as the sky was blotted out by falling stone…

Crack! A sharp noise resounded.

“Huh…?”

I’ve never forgotten what I saw next.

A single mage was standing there.

She must have broken the rubble to pieces with a spell. A big lump of rock had fallen in two equal halves to either side of her.

Then the mage looked back at me.

I don’t have a good recollection of the face or hairstyle of the woman who saved my life.

“……”

I don’t even remember whether she said anything to me.

In my memories, her face and hair, and even her physique, are vague, but I admired her deeply.

From the bottom of my heart, I thought she was so cool.

I thought, I want to become like this person.

I longed to be a mage.

I could only stare blankly at her, but then she reached out toward me, touched my head, and patted me gently.

That was probably the moment I fell in love with the idea of mages.

There’s a saying that goes “there’s no time like the present.” That day was a turning point for me. I had always been the kind of girl who rushed headlong into things, and I began to study about mages as much as I could.

As soon as we had returned from our trip, I started shutting myself away in the only library in our village nearly every day. According to what I had heard, there was a school for magic in the Commonwealth of Latorita, the place I had visited with my parents, and people could go learn magic there.

So I started training. There wasn’t a single person around to help teach me, but if I wanted to attend that school, I had to study, so I practiced hard and eventually learned to use the lowest-level spells. It was honestly a surprise to discover that I had some magical talent.

My parents were against it. They thought that wanting to be a mage was nonsense. After the incident in the city, they had decided that the countryside was definitely the best, and I could tell it would be very difficult to persuade them. However, I never stopped studying, and when I mentioned that I was planning to pay for my own tuition, they quickly came to see it my way.

I stood before my concerned parents. “All right, y’all just watch,” I said, tossing my chestnut-colored hair dramatically. “I’m fixin’ to become a top-notch mage. (dialect)”

That had all happened exactly half a year ago.

And today.

“If this continues, we will have no choice but to expel you from this institution.”

Inside an empty school building. The scenery outside was a rich red color.

Only I, one other student, and one teacher sat in a classroom where usually several dozen students would be tightly packed and studying spells.

Sighing heavily in exasperation, the teacher delivered the news. I had the questionable distinction of having gotten failing marks in every subject on the most recent round of exams.

“Huh? Expelled…? Seriously…?”

That was my reaction at the time. My mouth hung open dully, and that’s what I said.

“No matter how you look at it, with these grades…” The teacher shrugged. She seemed ready to give up, as if I was beyond hopeless.

“Is it really that bad…?”

“It’s safe enough to say that it is. Your grades in the general curricula were especially catastrophic.”

“Oh…” I was in tears.

But there was a whole list of reasons why my grades were this bad.

The exams had covered eight general education subjects and only four specialty subjects. For some reason, the general education repertory at Latorita State University was quite rich. In the past, when there were a lot of students, the general course and specialty course had apparently been separate. Also, the relative abundance of general education courses was a relic of that time.

“But I wouldn’t have failed if it were just the specialty courses… It’s all because there are too many general subjects…” I wanted to get out at least one complaint. I was in the worst mood. “I don’t even understand why we have to study the general courses in the first place… Math class is just memorizing calculations and formulas that don’t seem likely to help us in the future, and philosophy is just a bunch of prudish adults twisting and bending things that are dead obvious into strange turns of phrase to make themselves seem smart, and history class is just reciting the history of this country on and on like some kind of chant, isn’t it? None of this improves my motivation…”

To summarize, I was saying, “I want to become a splendid mage! But I have no interest in general education!”

The teacher just frowned at me as I was grumbling out my poorly laid arguments.

“The things you learn here certainly will be useful in the future. It’s because you think they’re a waste of time that you’re wasting your time here.” She sighed. “Are you listening? The reason you’re having trouble is because school isn’t just for studying. It’s a place where you learn all sorts of new things. And you’ll be able to learn things in all sorts of different fields because you’re also studying how to study.”

“How to study…?” I didn’t really understand. I tilted my head questioningly.

The teacher put up an index finger at me, the dull-witted student.

“The method you use for studying is different depending on the subject, right? For math, you understand the formulas and use them to solve equations, while for history, you hunt down stories of the past. And for philosophy, you need to think about the words of the philosophers and consider their meaning for yourself. Students should spontaneously change how they work depending on the subject matter at hand. Sure, the actual information you study here probably won’t be of much use to you in the future. But you will have cultivated different ways to work. Your experience studying during your time as a student will prime you to seize new knowledge once you’re an adult. In other words, studying is your key to a bright future.”

Then the teacher said, “If you ask me whether or not studying is necessary, I can answer without any hesitation that it absolutely is. Not a single thing in your school life is a waste, Alte.” The teacher spoke indifferently, in a very flat tone of voice, and I couldn’t help but shudder.

In short, what she’s trying to say is, “Someone like you, who can’t even handle the general education curriculum, has a sad life ahead of her if things don’t change.”

Maybe because she sensed how shaken I was, immediately after she said that, she smiled gently and said, “And school is also a place where you learn to meet new people. Do you have any friends?”

“Huh? Why are you asking about that all of a sudden?”

“Spending all your time studying won’t get you very far in life…,” the teacher continued, wearing a slight smile but with a faraway look in her eyes. I didn’t really understand it, but she grumbled, “Those who pour all their effort into getting good grades are ostracized by those around them… In order to survive in human society, you also need to learn to be popular… People who only learn to study tend to have difficulty once they’re out in the real world…”

It seemed like something had happened to her in the past. Though I couldn’t ask for more details.

This was probably the teacher’s dark side.

“Ah, come to think of it, you’ve been taking supplementary lessons these past six months, so haven’t you made a study buddy or something? If so, then teaching each other the materials would also be good for studying.”

What is she talking about?

“Excuse me, Miss. First of all, I don’t have a study buddy or whatever,” I said, interrupting the instructor.

Today’s supplementary lesson was being held in a vacant classroom, and I was the only one there actually being taught lessons by the teacher.

Normally, after-school lessons were held in the school library, but the previous day, someone had snuck into the library in the middle of the night and stolen a book that was not allowed to be taken out, so the school had temporarily closed the library. Many useful reference books were collected there, so surely there were many students who were distressed and annoyed by this temporary closure. Including myself.

Anyway, although she was here in this same classroom with me, the other student was certainly not taking the same supplementary lessons as I was.

The other student.

I shot a fleeting glance her way.

“……” The female student with her purple hair tied up in a single ponytail on the back of her head was staring at her desk, studying quietly. Her cold blue eyes didn’t seem to perceive my gaze, and she didn’t move in the slightest.

Sitting at that desk was a famous student.

Her name was Linaria.

She was an honors student who had gotten perfect scores on every exam that I had failed.

The day after a round of tests, when the chart of scores was posted up in the hallway, she was always the one standing at the exact opposite end from me, staring at the chart.

In other words, she was a genius. She was also the daughter of a good family. And being gifted with both intelligence and beauty, she was nothing short of perfect. To put it simply, she was far beyond me in every sense.

She was untouchable.

“……”

I was in a self-pitying slump now that the difference in our positions was so bluntly put on display.

“Alte.” The teacher touched my shoulder and said gently, “By the way… I know this is a different matter, but…when you’re done studying, please take out the garbage. The truth is, the chore was forced on me by the other teachers…”

“……”

I had been a fool to expect for even a second that she might be coming over to encourage me. Instead, the teacher mercilessly kicked me when I was down.

I think I’m starting to see how she ended up spending all of her time studying instead of making friends…

“Um, aren’t you just asking me to do that because you want to skip out on the job—?”

“Well, you can think of this as a form of studying, too.”

“It’s obvious that you just don’t want to do it—”

“Weren’t you listening? At this school, there is no such thing as a pointless topic…”

“……”

Don’t think you’ll be forgiven just because you spit out some corny line…!

In the end, the teacher offered to end the study hall early if I agreed to help, so I became an accomplice to her laziness.

At this school, taking out the garbage was a simple job that entailed collecting the contents of the trash cans all throughout campus and tossing them all into the incinerator behind one of the buildings. Even though you could use a spell to transport huge quantities of garbage all at once, there was still nothing more annoying. Consequently, teachers and students alike hated doing it.

“Okay…think of it as studying how to study…” Telling myself this as I waved my wand, I threw the collected garbage into the incinerator.

Flames engulfed the garbage piece by piece as it was sucked in. The magical flames were turning the garbage to charcoal completely independently. I wasn’t sure where the magical energy was being supplied from, but there were many strange facilities like this on school grounds.

The garbage being tossed in clump by clump. The garbage burning up in the rumbling fire. Me, standing there just watching, with my garbage grades. Suddenly, the fruitlessness of it all threatened to bury me.

“What on earth am I doing in a place like this…?” I asked the incinerator with a sigh. My lukewarm breath made the flames inside it waver ever so slightly.

I had made a big deal about leaving the countryside to study magic in the big city, and before I knew it, I had ended up on the verge of expulsion. I just could not keep up with the classes.

In this predicament, there was no way I would be able to become anything even approaching a splendid witch. Becoming like the mage who had saved my life was probably nothing but a distant, distant dream.

Reality didn’t work out as well as all that.

All I could do was sigh, thinking about my obvious shortcomings, and stare up at the night sky.

“What should I do now…?” I muttered sadly.

Then, it happened.

Whack! With a violent sound, something hit me directly in the forehead.

“Owwwwwwwww!”

A sharp pain pierced my head, and my eyes filled with tears. I crouched down, head low, covering my forehead with both hands and groaning. Something tumbled to the ground at my feet.

Through tear-filled eyes, I saw that it was a silver pocket watch.

Apparently, it was this pocket watch that had struck me when I was already at rock bottom. How annoying!

“Come oooooon! Who’s theeere?! Who’s harassing meeee?!”

I picked up the pocket watch as I got to my feet and glared in the direction of the school building while shouting. However, no one appeared to talk back to this angry country bumpkin.

The school building was uninhabited.

“……”

The emptiness of it all came back to me again.

The pocket watch bore an archaic design. It probably would have been fitting to call it an antique.

……

Looks like it might be worth something if I sold it, huh…?

“Alte?” Just then, a voice pierced through the darkness behind me and broke me out of my reverie. “Nice work on the garbage disposal. Thank you.” It was my teacher.

“Oh, what are you doing here, teacher…?”

“Hmm? Did you just put something in your pocket?”

“Huh? I don’t know what you mean.” It was a lie. I had stored the watch away in my pocket. I had shoved it in there reflexively.

“…? Is that so…? Well, that’s fine, but…” The teacher was staring at me with lapis-colored eyes.

“By the way, Alte, are you free right now?”

“Huh? Is there something else…?”

I put myself on guard. But the teacher shook her head. “Ah, it’s not because I want to ask you to do another job. Actually, it’s been decided that the library will be opening up again tomorrow. So I unlocked it today to do some cleaning.”

Apparently, the teacher had been tidying up in the library while I had been throwing away the garbage.

So she didn’t just want to skip out on the job, huh…?

“Well, I just got to a stopping point with the cleaning, so how about it? If you like, you can borrow some books. At present, the library is basically deserted, so I think you could borrow whatever you want. Of course, if you go now, you could also read as many of the books that are prohibited from leaving the library as you like.”

“Really?!” There was nothing I would have been happier to hear. But… “But is it really all right…? It feels like I’m getting some kind of special treatment…”

I couldn’t deny my intense feelings of guilt.

Actually, isn’t it normally against the rules to utilize the library under the pretext of cleaning?

“Well, it’s my way of saying thanks for taking on garbage duty for me.” My teacher smiled slightly and said, “I told you, didn’t I? Not one single thing is pointless.”

“All right, I’m closing up in an hour, at eight o’clock. Bring any books you want to borrow to me by then. By the way, please keep today’s events a secret from the other teachers, okay?”

After putting her index finger to her lips and smiling, the teacher sat down behind the checkout counter and began reading a book.

“All right then, each of you can take care of yourselves, please.” She added these perfunctory words.

Each of you…

Meaning that there was someone besides me who was sharing in this not-so-great secret.

“Understood.” Linaria gave a simple answer, then hurried off toward the bookshelves. It was truly a cool response.

She’s so great.

Apparently Linaria, who had been studying in the back of the classroom a while ago, had also gotten wrapped up in a job after school, just like I had.

She quickly disappeared between the orderly rows of bookshelves so tall that you had to look up—you couldn’t possibly reach everything without using a broom or something.

I also bowed to our teacher. “Roger that!” Then I turned on my heel.

Walking all the way to the back of the library between the shelves, I passed a number of locked rooms. In this old library, those rooms gave off even more of a musty scent, containing as they did grimoires filled with grandiose content, and documents covering everything imaginable from the time of the founding of the school up until the present day, and even volumes of recipes for dangerous magic potions.

I opened the door that had HISTORICAL RECORDS written on its signboard and walked in. This was where all of the questions and answers for past exams were stored, together with historical documents related to the school.

Materials like this were generally prohibited from being removed from the library and were usually occupied by other students well before I got a chance, so I hadn’t been able to lay my eyes on them before now. I still wouldn’t have if it wasn’t for this opportunity.

Tracing my finger over the spines of the books that filled the room, I hunted down a particular volume.

A REPORT REGARDING THE MONSTER THAT I SEALED AWAY THE OTHER DAY

Ah, not this one.

REGARDING THE MAGICAL ENERGY SUPPLY SYSTEM AT LATORITA STATE UNIVERSITY

Kinda interesting, but this isn’t the one, either.

PAST EXAM QUESTIONS (MATHEMATICS)

Ah, that’s about right.

I immediately pulled every book off the shelf that had PAST EXAM QUESTIONS on the spine and set them on the desk in the center of the small room.

“……?” Looking at them, last year’s questions—the two most recent volumes of past questions—were the only ones missing.

Maybe they’re still being used…?

At any rate, I read and read, devouring every book I could find, and took plenty of notes. I couldn’t afford to fail the next exam. At the very least, I had to be scrupulous in my preparations.

I kept studying for as long as time would permit.

Then, in the middle of everything, I suddenly realized…

“…Huh, come to think of it, there’s no clock in here…”

I surveyed my surroundings, but I couldn’t hear the ticking of a clock. Since this place was going to be locked up after an hour, part of me would have preferred to keep an eye on the time while I read, but…

…I’m in trouble, huh…?

“…Oh!” I touched my forehead lightly. “…I just remembered, I’ve got that thing I picked up earlier…” I chuckled to myself as I stuck a hand in my pocket.

The antique pocket watch greeted me from inside.

I never would have thought that something I picked up would come in handy so soon…

To borrow the teacher’s words, it seems indeed that not one single thing is pointless.

“……”

However, I was forced to revise my understanding the moment I opened the lid of the pocket watch.

“I…can’t read it…”

First of all, I didn’t really understand how to read the dial on this antique watch. There were way too many clock faces and hands.

How strange…all the clocks I’ve ever known had just one dial and two hands, but…

Other than that, there were strange buttons and knobs stuck to the side. It did appear to be working, at least for now, but I was at a total loss as to which face was showing the current time. The watch’s design definitely gave some insight into the manufacturer’s ego and narcissism.

“Um…? Uh…? I don’t get it… What is this thing…?”

I was flustered as I held the pocket watch up to the light, and I tried shaking it and examining it closely and all sorts of other things, but even still, it wasn’t clear how I was supposed to read it.

And then…

“Um…?” Tears gradually started welling up in the corners of my eyes as I was completely stymied by how to use the watch. “…Ah!” I pushed one of the side buttons with a click.

—Kiiiiii—

The watch made a noise, and one of the faces gave off a bluish-white light.

“Wah-aaahhhhhh!” Thrown into a panic by this sudden development, I tossed the glowing pocket watch out of my hand. Still glowing, it rolled across the table.

A bomb? Did I just set off a bomb?

In a full-blown terror, I ran to a corner of the room, pulling historical documents from the shelf to shield my face…

…but nothing in particular happened. With a whooshing sound, the bluish-white light simply went out, and the small room was cloaked in darkness.

“……”

Is it possible that the button I just pushed was just an ordinary light?

It was the first time I had considered that.

Phew… I’m so easily startled… That really surprised me.

I silently cursed myself.

That was the start of my strange journey.

“…Huh?” I saw that the books I had used as shields were the volumes of past exam questions from the previous year. “…But I was sure they weren’t here just a moment ago…” When I went to place them on the table, I met another strange sight. The mountain of past exam question books that should have been there was gone.

“What on earth…?” When I turned around and looked, all except for the two volumes I was holding were lined up perfectly on the shelf.

Moreover…

The small room I was in had gone dark.

The entire library, in fact, was enveloped in darkness.

Everything felt strange.

“I’m closing up in an hour”—I recalled the teacher’s words. Though it feels like not even thirty minutes have passed…

“What on earth is going on…?!” I shoved the pocket watch back in my pocket and quickly rushed out of the historical records room. In the pitch-blackness, I ran past the looming bookshelves and made my way to the library entrance.

But just as I feared…

The doors were already closed, and no one was there. Not my teacher, not Linaria, no one. It was as if I had been the only one in here the whole time.

Not understanding a thing, all I was able to do was to stand in place.

And then…

At that moment, inside my pocket, I was certain I heard the watch make a clanking sound.

“Alte? …What are you doing in front of the doors?”

In the blink of an eye, the library was brightly lit again. My teacher was there beside the front counter, frowning.

Was my memory of the pitch-black library a dream? Had it all been an illusion?

“Um…uh…Teacher?”

Feeling bewildered by this unnatural, inexplicable phenomenon, I stared at my teacher. I was trying to ask for help.

“…?” She was still staring at me with a puzzled expression; then she clapped her hands. “Ah! You want to borrow those books?”

She pointed at me.

The books I had used earlier as shields were still in my hands. I had been in such a panic that I hadn’t noticed, but somehow, it seemed I had come out here still gripping them.

“Ah, no… That’s not…what I want, but…”

The words spilled out sloppily, as I still hadn’t managed to collect my thoughts.

“…Goodness.” My teacher narrowed her eyes sharply as she looked at me and said, “…Alte. Those books can’t be removed from the library. It’s forbidden! If you take them out of here, I’m going to get angry.”

Her eyes were still focused on my hands.

“Oh, sorry… I was panicking, and… I don’t actually want to check them out…”

“……”

My teacher didn’t sound particularly upset, but she tilted her head and asked, while staring at the covers of the books, “Where did you find those anyway?”

“Huh? They were just in the historical records room, but…”

I had only lost control of myself and taken the books out of the room. I didn’t know what to say when asked where I had found them.

“There’s something about them.” She put her index finger to her mouth and hummed as she thought, then said matter-of-factly, “Oh, actually…”

At about eight o’clock, we disbanded.

“All right then, you two, be careful going home.”

The outside world was completely engulfed in darkness. The teacher waved and saw me and Linaria off.

We bowed to her and started for home.

“……”

That meant walking through town to the student dormitories, where those of us with distant hometowns resided. Apparently, Linaria’s hometown was also far from here because she and I were heading in the same direction.

“……”

An uncomfortable silence fell between us. I had never spoken to Linaria, or even made eye contact with her, so the very act of walking beside her was somehow stressful for a coward like myself.

That’s how far removed Linaria was from someone like me.

If she talked to me right now, I think I might even die on the spot.

“Say, what’s your name?”

“Eek!” I nearly died right away. I cleared my throat to mask the strange noise I had made and answered, “Ah, um…A-Alte.”

“Okay. I’m Linaria.”

I already knew all about her, but she didn’t seem to recognize me. Though I had expected that to be the case.

“Nice to meet you.” She nodded slightly as we walked.

“Ah, yeah…nice to meet you.” Still nervous, I imitated her.

It had been about half a year since I started attending this school. Since I had spent every day up until now working hard at both my studies and my part-time job, I hadn’t made a single new friend. If things continued in this way, whenever someone asked me after graduation, “What do you remember from your student days?” I was likely to find myself in the awkward position of saying, “Let’s see…garbage duty…I guess…” I wasn’t sure I could live with myself if it came to that.

However, in that case, might this possibly be my chance? The thought suddenly dawned on me.

Wouldn’t it be good to take this opportunity to chat a little and maybe get to know her? I mean, the girl next to me is the top honors student in the whole school, right? I could make a friend and a study buddy all in one! That’s killing two birds with one stone!

Another version of myself whispered to me inside my own head.

“Ummm…” After some hesitation, I turned to look at her. “Li-Linaria, do you always stay this late—?”

“Ah, I’m gonna go do some shopping, so this is where we part.”

Linaria walked off at a brisk pace. I could tell from her cold demeanor that she was not interested in being friends. It seemed pretty clear to me.

“…Waaah…”

I cried alone as I watched her walk away.

Well, Mom and Dad, you were right…

It’s not easy making friends in the big city.

I returned to the student dormitory and went straight to my room. After tossing my bag onto my bed, I locked the door. My movement disturbed the daily calendar beside my bed, and the pages fluttered. Even if I hadn’t locked the door, I didn’t expect anyone to visit the room that belonged to lonely little me, but it was best to be on the safe side.

“……”

With my back to the door, I fished the watch out of my pocket. When I opened the antique silver case, it was quietly keeping the time, among all the many faces that I still didn’t understand.

As I stared at this inscrutable object that had suddenly flown at my forehead earlier that evening, I recalled what had happened in the library.

“Oh, actually,” my teacher had said as she stared suspiciously at the two books I had in my hands, “those are the books that disappeared from the library earlier. After the uproar over their theft, we ended up having to close the library for a while.”

According to my teacher, apparently, all of the books that were not allowed to be removed from the library had an enchantment on them that teleported them back to their shelves after a day had passed, but somehow, those two particular books had not returned, and it had caused quite a disturbance. The administration had closed the library and waited for them to return, but even so, they had never come back.

It had been like they had disappeared from the world completely.

“Eventually, we gave up on these two volumes and planned to reopen the library, but…there’s something strange about it, isn’t there?”

The teacher shrugged and smiled, then put the books back on the shelf.

“……”

At this point, I thought maybe…

Let’s hypothesize. Perhaps the strange events that I experienced when I pushed the button on the pocket watch were not a dream or an illusion, but simply reality?

Suppose the pitch-black library had been real?

That would lead me to only one conclusion, would it not?

“Alte. I’ll ask you one more time. Where did you find these two books?” Her hand on the books, my teacher had said jokingly, “Maybe you went to a past version of the library?”

Wait, wait, there’s no way I could go back into the past. That’s crazy.

That just couldn’t happen, could it? What was the teacher talking about? If I had such a handy tool, I could use it to master time itself! I would be the greatest mage ever!

Laughing internally, I leaned back against the door and stared at the pocket watch.

If I remember correctly, in the library, I think I pushed the button on the side.

“…No way.”

Half believing and half doubting the possibility, I went ahead and pushed the button again.

And immediately after I did…

—Kiiiiii—

Once again, the watch emitted a bluish-white light.

“……”

And then, when the light from the pocket watch went out, I saw another strange sight.

The bag that I was sure I had tossed onto the bed had disappeared. In its place was the figure of a person sleeping peacefully in the bed.

“…Heh-heh…whaddaya say? C’mon…heh-heh…”

Another student was there, in my bed, wearing a stupid face and mumbling some nonsense in her sleep (in dialect).

No matter how many times I looked, the girl in the bed was…me.

“…No, no, no…”

This can’t be happening. Is it an illusion?

I was starting to panic. As a test, I pinched myself on the cheek.

“Heh-heh…owwie…”

To be more specific, I pinched the cheek of the version of me who was lying asleep in the bed.

It didn’t seem to be any kind of dream or illusion. I could feel her warm skin between my fingers.

“…Seriously?”

That means this is real.

It meant that the pocket watch I had picked up was capable of jumping into the past. That was the only conclusion that explained what had happened earlier and what I was seeing right now.

“Seriously…?”

I was still incredulous, but as if to give me the final push on the back, my daily calendar stood there quietly beside the bed, displaying the date of several days earlier.

Generally, there are two possibilities when an ordinary person falls into a situation where they coincidentally acquire an extremely odd but useful item.

Possibility number one: After experimenting a little and finding out what the thing can do, they throw it away, saying, “No way! I can’t use such a terrifying thing!” Most serious and sensible people fall into this pattern.

Possibility number two is getting carried away, like, “Just think of what I could do with something like this! Hooray! I’ll use it as much as I like!” Most fools fall into this pattern.

Well then, I think you can guess what I did with the strange pocket watch…

“Okay!”

The following morning, I pushed the button as soon as I arrived at school. To my overwhelming regret, I most definitely fall into the second category. Of course, any fool who gets their hands on an item like that pocket watch is sure to eventually suffer for their hubris, but at the moment, I didn’t have the time to contemplate such philosophical lessons.

I couldn’t forget for a second that I was failing every single subject. I was driven into a corner here. My energy was focused on clutching at this one straw of salvation. If I could use the watch to go back to the past, it was a done deal. I was pressing that button.

It would be no exaggeration to say that day was a turning point in my academic career.

While I was using the pocket watch to return to the past, the hands of time in the present apparently did not progress much. For example, if I pushed the button on the watch just before the start of class, I would be whisked away to the classroom of the past, and even when I returned from my trip, the present class wouldn’t have started yet. In short, I could stretch out a single day in my subjective experience. I could attend classes on my own schedule; it was like the instructors would wait for me. Handy!

Excited by my discovery, I started tinkering with the watch in all sorts of other ways.

I explored how far back I could go and how long I could stay in the past. I tried all sorts of stuff to figure out just what this thing could really do.

“Right. Well then, is there anyone here who knows the answer? We just covered this in our previous class.”

In the middle of history class, the teacher tapped on the blackboard with her wand.

Written there were questions about the names and characteristics of the monster that had attacked the city seven years earlier, speculation about the reason for its attack, and so on. As the students around me were flipping through their notes, I raised my hand right away.

“A golem! A troublesome class of monster with a body animated by magic! The reason it attacked the city is still unclear, but the destruction it caused was a terrible tragedy!”

I had an exhilarated smile on my face.

“That’s correct.” The teacher nodded solemnly. “It seems the last lesson really stuck with you, hmm?”

Well, that’s because you just taught it to me! Ha-ha!

I was openly wearing an expression of triumph.

“Just as she said, there is much about the golem that is still shrouded in mystery. The destruction it caused was considerable. It’s truly incredible that there were no casualties—”

I wore my triumphant look for the rest of class.

Eventually, I learned to use the pocket watch in other ways as well.

“Man, stretching out a single day like that sure is exhausting…” I massaged my stiff shoulders. I had been visiting the past many times in a single day, so physically, it felt like I had lived through several days at once. However, the original day wasn’t even over yet. I still had to go to a neighborhood bakery (the one with the dine-in area) and work at my part-time job.

But if I went like this, I’d be much too tired to work.

No problem!

“Okay!”

I pushed the button on the watch and went back in time. After resting up in the city of the past, I headed for my job. This was another way to use the pocket watch.

That day, I was able to do my work even more briskly than usual.

“Eh-heh-heh, thought so!”

I mean, I just had a nap!

With quick and nimble movements, completely different from usual, I ran circles around the shop, handling all the customers’ orders. I had bidden farewell to fatigue forever and never had to worry about wasting time again.

By the way, that day, I had a familiar customer.

“Good afternoon, Alte.” Standing by the door that had opened with the jingling of bells was a student with a familiar face.

It was Linaria.

“Oh, welcome to our shop!” Now that I could go back in time at will, it was far beyond me to have any kind of inferiority complex. “Are you on your way home now, Linaria?” I wore a carefree customer service smile. If I had been my old self, I don’t think I could have acted like that.

She nodded and replied, “Sometimes, I like to study at a bakery.”

I showed her to a seat, and she glanced at a menu. “One house blend coffee.” She looked at me.

Apparently, that was her whole order.

“Got it!” I was still wearing my customer service smile.

I didn’t really talk to her beyond that, but for me, even that brief interaction felt like I had taken a big step.

After that, I felt like I could do anything. No matter what happened, no matter what I did, it was all in the past, so it didn’t really matter.

I kept fiddling with the pocket watch all day long.

I pushed the button in order to take classes I hadn’t been able to take in the past, I pushed the button whenever I wanted a nap, I pushed the button when I wanted to study in the library.

By fiddling with the knobs and moving the hands, I figured out how to go back not just days but years, and even how to manipulate the duration of my stay in the past. Apparently, the reason for having so many watch faces was to keep track of these various time scales.

By the time I had it all figured out, I was practically unstoppable.

“Okay, here’s the question. What on earth happened to the fallen golem?”

In the middle of history class, the teacher tapped on the blackboard with her wand. While the other students may as well have had question marks suspended above their heads, as expected, I confidently raised my hand.

“It turned to sand! Up until three years ago, there was a sandpit outside the city made of the remains of the golem, commonly known as the Golem Dunes, but sightseers kept taking sand home as souvenirs, so now it’s just an empty field!”

“Correct.” The teacher nodded in the affirmative. “Three years ago, someone apparently figured out that they could profit from the sand and then began bottling and selling it. Thanks to them, our country lost one of its premier sightseeing spots. What a scoundrel.” She let out a sigh.

As the teacher had said, when I went back in time three years earlier and took a look, there had been someone collecting sand in vials and running a roadside stand with a sign that proclaimed, EXTREMELY RARE ITEM! GOLEM SAND!

The girl behind the stand shouted, “Come and get it! Famous golem sand for sale!”

Well, that girl from the past was me, though! It was only natural that I had been able to answer right away in class. I mean, I was there!

By now, I had ascertained that, for some reason, the further back in time I went, the more time passed when I returned. As a result of going back three years and staying for several hours, when I came back to the present, about thirty minutes had gone by. Apparently, the device wasn’t all-powerful.

But really…thirty minutes was basically nothing!

“Alte, did you know this? I heard that golem sand contains a special magical energy.”

“Seriously?”

Linaria had begun to visit the bakery quite frequently. Apparently, the atmosphere in the shop suited her, and she said that it was perfect for studying.

She was often there just before closing, and the two of us would chat.

“Earlier, I was doing some research in the library. Apparently, mages would get more powerful just being in the area around the Golem Dunes.”

“Uh-huh…”

“Though, since the tourists bought up all the sand three years ago, there probably won’t be another chance to confirm the theory… Too bad, huh?”

She shrugged.

“You really know a lot about golems, don’t you?”

What could have attracted so much of her interest?

“Unfortunately, I really don’t know that much.” She shook her head slowly. “No matter how much I research, there’s always so many things about the golem that are unclear. And when it comes to the incident seven years ago, we still don’t have any idea where the golem even appeared from. All we know is that it suddenly appeared and suddenly attacked. It might even appear again.”

“That’s pretty scary, huh?”

I nodded in agreement.

Listen to me, Mom and Dad, I can talk like a real city girl now! And chat with the top honors student at school! Amazing!

“I know. That’s why I’m researching them.”

I was lost in a moment of deep emotion, but Linaria’s voice was flat as she continued.

“I hate not knowing things.”

She was always so cool.

I kept fiddling around with the pocket watch and learned a lot more about it.

First, the number of years I could go back was way higher than three. I could go back dozens, even hundreds of years. The longest I could stay in the past was about ten hours. Staying any longer than that didn’t seem to be possible.

If I went back once per day, returning to three days earlier and staying there for ten hours, physically, that one day would last thirty-four hours for me. However, since there was no limit on using the pocket watch, thirty-four hours was nothing. I could make one day last several hundred hours if I wanted to.

Since I had discovered that going further into the past cost me more time in the present, I decided it was smart to only return to more recent days if possible.

Aside from that, there seemed to be all sorts of other rules to the thing.

Just like the first time I had used the pocket watch, when I went to the past, I was able to bring the things I was holding with me to the future. That day when I had first used the watch, I had pulled two books into the future without realizing I had gone into the past and, as a result, had caused the library to close.

I see, I see. In other words, if I felt like it, I could get my hands on things that aren’t being sold in the present day, right? I was grinning suggestively to myself.

“Golem sand! Come and get your famous golem sand!”

To that end, I was set about collecting the remains of the golem, three years in the past. I sold a ton. Enough that I thought I could probably go ahead and quit my part-time job.

In this way, I solved the problem of money and the problem of time in one fell swoop.

“Alte, you seem to be doing really well lately.”

Unfortunately, no matter how many times I went back to the past, I wasn’t able to change the awful grades I got on the previous round of exams, so I was still diligently taking supplementary lessons even after acquiring the pocket watch. The teacher’s impression of me, however, seemed to have made a complete about-face. “Recently, you seem to be studying with a real passion. I’ve heard about it from the other teachers, you know? They said you’re lively and energetic, like a totally different person.”

“Ah, is that so? Eh-heh-heh…”

“If I remember correctly, you’re working a part-time job as you attend school, is that right? Are you doing okay?”

“Piece of cake. Right now, I’ve got so much energy, I feel like I could do anything.” I boldly puffed out my chest.

Without any change to her expression, the teacher kept looking at me, then focused on my hand.

“By the way, what’s that?”

I was holding in my hand a small vial filled with that rare golem sand. I had collected it from three years earlier.

“Huh? Well, actually…” But there was no way she would believe me if I told her the truth, and it would invite all sorts of other inconvenient inquiries, so I dodged the question. “I got this from a friend. Apparently, this sand stores magical energy.”

“Hmm… If this is the real deal, then I think that’s amazing, but…” She picked up the vial out of my hand. “I’ve heard that recently, some wicked person has been walking around selling golem sand and ripping people off. You should be careful, Alte.”

“I’ve already got some, so don’t worry about me.”

I mean, I’m the culprit, after all…

Though of course I could never admit that.

The day before, Linaria had come to the bakery. Already, it felt like we had been seeing each other almost every day.

“Welcome!” I bowed to her as always. As soon as she arrived at her seat, she answered with “My usual, please.”

I poured her house blend coffee and took it to her.

“You’re always studying. Aren’t you tired?” I set the coffee cup on the table with a clatter.

She looked up at me and answered my question with a question. “You’re always working. Aren’t you tired?”

“Mm…” After a short hesitation, I answered, “I am tired, but I’m also having fun, so it’s not really a hardship.”

Now that I was able to make money selling golem sand, I didn’t need to work a part-time job, but even so, I was still waitressing at the bakery.

When I was always short on time, it had seemed like a demanding and bothersome job. But now that I had all the time in the world, it felt good to spend some time on my feet.

Besides, if I was here, I was able to chat with Linaria.

I wanted to become even better friends with her.

“Right. I’m the same.” Linaria let a smile slip out.

“I hate not knowing things.” I recalled the words she had spoken earlier. I suppose that for Linaria, studying, satisfying her thirst for knowledge is the thing that gives her a sense of fulfillment.

“……”

Supposing I was able to help a girl like that, wouldn’t I become better friends with her? It felt like there was a little voice inside my head whispering to me.

“Ah, Linaria? Here.”

I plunked a small vial down on the table.

It was golem sand.

“Do you remember what you talked about before? Well, I just happened to acquire some, so you’re welcome to it, if you like.”

I offered it to her politely.

“Goodness!” Her blue eyes widened ever so slightly. “So you just happened upon such an incredibly rare substance?” Then she peered at me with a piercing gaze. “Maybe you can answer a question for me.”

“Hmm? What is it?”

Startled by her stern gaze, I tilted my head.

And then.

“How many times?”

Linaria stared directly at me.

“How many times have you gone back in time?”