Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 8 - Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

That Is There, This Is Here

The city stood on the far end of a great plain.

Huge walls towered skyward, and a single guard stood at the gate. He saluted once after noticing me leisurely bringing my broom in, then he greeted me, “I bid you welcome, Madam Witch. This is the Western Capital.”

Then the guard took a pen and paper in hand and started a simple immigration inspection. “Have you come here today for sightseeing? For work?”

He questioned me on the purpose of my trip and asked for my age, my sex, my name, my occupation, and all sorts of other things. I dutifully answered each of the questions that he asked, one by one.

Finally, when the immigration questionnaire was over, the guard said, “Everything seems to be in order. By the way, Madam Witch, there are many things to be aware of in our city, so I’m required to give every foreign visitor this sheet.”

As he spoke, he handed me a piece of paper. It was densely packed with very small handwriting. There were so many dos and don’ts that any inclination I might have felt to read them instantly vanished.

“Please adhere to these guidelines as you enjoy your stay in our city.”

Then the guard stepped out of my way.

His body language said, Right this way.

“Thanks.”

After a short bow, I passed through the gate.

“Please enjoy seeing our highly advanced city, Lady Witch!” the guard called after me as I walked away.

“……”

Did he just go out of his way to call this place a highly advanced city?

Since the guard had declared this place to be highly advanced, I somewhat expected, for example, to find some splendid metropolis unlike anything I had ever seen stretching out before me on the other side of the tall, imposing city walls.

But the buildings that lined the main avenue were monotone, with white walls and black roofs, and looked like they had been standing there since antiquity. The city didn’t seem particularly highly developed to me.

If what the guard said was true, shouldn’t I expect to see it reflected in the lives of the people?

My heart was filled with anticipation as I walked over the cobblestone streets, but the people coming and going along the main avenue seemed like totally normal citizens. I saw merchants pulling carts and roadside stalls displaying rows of fresh fish and meat, but such sights as these were generally no different from what could be seen in other cities.

In short, there was absolutely nothing unique about this place.

“…This is just a normal city, isn’t it?”

There was nothing more to say.

I had entered the city, tempted by the guard’s remarks, which suggested there was something in here I had to see to believe, but what met my eyes was a perfectly ordinary scene of everyday life.

“……”

Maybe there’s something here that I can’t understand just by walking down the main avenue; could that be it?

After that, I roamed here and there throughout the city. I had been told that I would understand once I got inside, but nothing was making sense. So out of stubbornness, I got desperate to try to find something to convince me that this Western Capital deserved to be called a highly advanced city.

The first thing I tried was going into a restaurant.

“Welcome! One witch?” I nodded, and the waitress said, “All of our seats are nonsmoking. We hope you understand.” After adding that precaution, she showed me into the restaurant.

Now, as for the food… Again, it was perfectly average.

“Well, what do you think? The food in this city is quite delicious, isn’t it?” It seemed less like the waitress was asking and more like she was trying to convince me, an obvious visitor, that the local cuisine was, in fact, delicious.

“We’re the only place around where you can eat such wonderful fare, you know,” she continued. “The food in other cities isn’t fit to eat. Do you know why that is?”

“No…why?” I tilted my head questioningly.

The waitress answered, “It’s because our dishes are all made using ingredients produced right here! So they’re all super delicious and healthy! Please, eat up!”

“Uh-huh…”

It’s a little difficult to eat with you watching me, though…

“By the way, the cooks in the nearby Eastern Capital only use ingredients imported from foreign countries, so the food there isn’t fit to eat! It’s awful!”

And then I tried to enjoy my meal while being subjected to jingoistic bragging.

By the way, the food at the restaurant was fairly tasty but nothing special. So when she asked me if I thought it was as delicious as I’d expected from such a highly advanced people, I didn’t know what to say.

Apparently, this city had a long-running feud with a nearby undeveloped city. Or maybe the people here simply hated their neighbors, because they seemed to relish every opportunity to compare their city to their allegedly undeveloped rival.

“Hello there, Madam Witch. What do you think of the product lineup at my bookstore?” For example, while I was killing some time at a bookstore, the older man who owned the place spoke to me. “In our city, sales of any kind of violent or sexual content are strictly prohibited. Those are harmful books, you see.”

Wondering what exactly that left to read, I took a look at the shelves and saw only somewhat difficult-looking academic books and a variety of philosophy texts.

“Books are for studying, you know. It’s so vulgar to read books for amusement. Though I hear that in the east there’s a city that sells plenty of those types of books.”

And so on.

Apparently, this city had quite a few rules.

“Drinking alcohol is prohibited in our city!”

For example, a merchant who had been walking around with a drink in hand was now being lectured by a soldier on the side of the road.

“Alcohol is the drink of the devil! It causes a man to lose himself! I’ll be confiscating this!”

“W-wait, just wait a second, now!” The merchant refused to back down. “I never heard anything about there being a ban on bringing alcohol in…! They allowed it in other cities—”

“Other cities are other cities! Here in our city, alcoholic beverages are strictly prohibited! You must pay a fine of five copper pieces!”

The soldier didn’t listen to a word the merchant said. He just snatched away the alcohol and the money and left.

It was about this time when I remembered the sheet of paper that had been given to me by the gate guard. I had been in a hurry to enter the city, so I had hardly read it and just jammed it into my pocket, but…

…apparently, this city had quite a few restrictions.

Consumption of alcohol within the city is prohibited. It is prohibited to bring in meat, vegetables, fish, and other raw foodstuffs from outside sources. Walking while eating is prohibited. Street performances are prohibited. Possession of illicit books is prohibited. Live animals are prohibited. Smoking moonflowers is prohibited. Bringing in wurstams is prohibited.

And so on.

Not only was there the sheer number of rules to consider, but the fines for breaking any of them were quite steep as well. Five coppers for bringing in prohibited food or drink. From there it rose sharply, with fines of one silver, five silvers, and more for breaking other edicts.

There were two items for which even heavier fines were levied.

For the crimes of bringing in a wurstam or a moonflower, you would be made to pay five gold pieces for each infraction.

I had never heard of either such thing.

Let me see, what on earth could those two things be?

“Um, excuse me?” To find out, I stopped a person walking nearby and pointed to the rule sheet. “These two things written here, wurstams and moonflowers, what on earth are they?”

The man looked like he was probably out for a walk. He stopped when I held up my sheet. “Oh my, a traveler.” He smiled, “Which ones, now?” He peered at the paper. “Oh, wurstams are dangerous beasts that live in this area.”

“I see. And what kind of animal are they, exactly?”

“They’ve got eight legs, and their faces resemble that of wild pigs. In the local dialect, the word wurstam means ‘rotten bastard pig.’”

“What an awful name!”

“They’re awful creatures,” the man said. “Wurstams have voracious appetites, and they’ll eat pretty much anything. They lay waste to farmlands, and they eat up the pasture that’s meant for livestock, plus any rotten meat that’s lying around. They even bite the livestock. They’ve got poison in their tusks, so anything that gets bitten is more than likely a goner.”

“My goodness!”

I can see why they’re treated like dangerous beasts if they’re that vicious.

“…But in the undeveloped city to the east, these wurstams are apparently bought and sold for high prices, for some reason… Because of that, merchants sometimes make the mistake of bringing them here, thinking that we’ll buy them, too. Good grief, how much trouble do we have to put up with because of that backward place…” The man went on and on, grumbling his complaints.

Having more or less grasped the situation with the wurstams, I asked, “And what about these moonflowers?”

When he heard my question, the man nodded. “Ah, those are moonflowers over there.” He pointed to the other side of the street.

“……”

There was the merchant who had had his alcohol confiscated earlier.

As he vented his dissatisfaction, he leaned against his cart and put a burning cylinder to his mouth. “Damn it…I can’t take this kind of stress…jeez…”

Out came a plume of white smoke from between his lips.

The man I was talking with grumbled and frowned as he covered his own mouth with a handkerchief. “Unbelievable! That’s a cigarette made from dried moonflowers,” he muttered. “It’s an incredibly dangerous substance, so you should be careful not to inhale any of the smoke. Scientists in our city learned of its dangers. Those moonflowers are hallucinogenic and toxic. That means they’re a dangerous drug!”

“Hallucinogenic and toxic?”

What an awful flower.

I covered my own mouth. Mumbling just like the man, I summarized, “So put simply, moonflowers are a drug.”

“It’s more accurate to say they’re somewhere between a drug and tobacco,” the man said, mumbling. “By the way, the smoke rising from the end of the cigarette is much more dangerous than what he blows out of his mouth, so you should be careful. Moonflowers are more harmful to the people nearby than to the smokers themselves, so that’s why they’re strictly prohibited.”

So does that mean that the smoke causes bystanders to see hallucinations?

I covered my mouth even more carefully.

I hate cigarette smoke.

“What a stupid man he is. If you smoke moonflowers on a big street like this…”

The man with me was about to say something else with a frown, when—

“You, there! What are you doing, smoking right in the middle of the street— Wait, you again?!”

The soldier from earlier had returned, wearing a furious expression. He looked even more fired up than before.

“Huh? You’re joking, right? Moonflowers are banned?!”

Apparently, the merchant hadn’t really read the sheet he’d been given upon entry, either.

“A funny guy, huh? Get over here!”

The soldier snatched the moonflower cigarette away on the spot and grabbed the merchant by the scruff of his neck.

“Hey…! Wait a minute, now! Look, it was okay to smoke moonflowers in the city to the east, and you grow ’em here anyway, so—”

“Other cities are other cities! Here in our city, this is an illicit drug! Why, you…! What else are you hiding?” The soldier glanced over at the merchant’s cart. “Show me what’s inside!” As he spoke, he boarded the cart.

And inside, he found…

“You bastard! This is a wurstam, isn’t it?! So you weren’t satisfied with importing forbidden drugs; you entered this city with prohibited animals as well?! This is outrageous! You’re coming with me!”

Yanking the merchant along behind him, the soldier disappeared down the street.

“……” I quietly tucked my sheet of paper away as I watched this sequence of events. “…I think I understand. Thank you.”

It had all unfolded so suddenly, but there seemed to be a clear reason why certain things were prohibited.

“That man just now said as much, but I’ve heard that cultivation of the moonflowers is permitted in the nearby Eastern Capital. Unbelievable…,” the man beside me said with a grimace. “Undeveloped cities are like that, so it causes problems. It’s because they keep on using that flower for fun, without realizing how dangerous it is.”

What it boiled down to was that this place calling itself a highly advanced city all hinged on just that one factor—on there being another city that lagged behind by comparison.

After I had spent some time sightseeing, it came time for me to leave the Western Capital.

When I went to leave, I met the same gate guard whom I had seen when I’d entered.

“Oh, Madam Witch! How did you like this city of ours?”

As he was going through the departure procedures, the guard looked me over. “Thanks to vigilant enforcement of our rules, the citizens here are promised a peaceful and secure life, so it’s only fitting to call this a highly advanced city. Don’t you think so?”

“……”

Well, it’s not impossible to see that point of view, but…

In other words, what it comes down to is…

“It looked to me like you literally just put a lid on anything that stinks, but…”

The guard laughed at my words. “Isn’t that wonderful? It saves us from smelling the foul odor.”

After leaving the Western Capital, I immediately turned my broom to the east.

Since everyone had been so insistent on comparing the two cities, I was curious, as anyone would be, so I wanted to see just how backward the Eastern Capital was—this place that the people in the Western Capital seemed to despise for being so undeveloped.

After all, it’s in a traveler’s nature to be drawn toward excitement and captivated by anything intriguing.

I pointed myself east and spurred my broom onward. I hadn’t really looked up the exact location, but after several hours, and after flying my broom a fairly long way, the silhouette of a city came into view in the distance.

At the same time, I could see many fields being farmed outside the city’s walls. They were really beautiful flower fields. The pure white flowers stretched on and on into the distance. The ground was buried in flowers, which waved their blooms in the stream of wind caused by my broom.

“……”

I daresay that the city up ahead is the Eastern Capital.

The faint fragrance drifting up from the carpet of white flowers was such a lovely scent, it seemed like one could get addicted to it.

When I got to the gate, I didn’t see any sign of a gate guard. Instead, there was a government official standing there.

I guess officials conduct the entry procedures in this country?

I got down off my broom and bowed once to the official.

“Good day. I’m the Ashen Witch, Elaina.”

I’d like to enter your city, but what do I need to do?

I tilted my head quizzically, signaling my confusion.

The official returned my bow casually. “Oh, thanks for coming. We don’t conduct any kind of entry inspection here. You’re free to enter as you please,” he told her.

My, my, no entry inspection, you say?

“These days, having you stand here and go through an entry inspection is behind the times. The soldiers watch over our city from on top of the ramparts, so if you made it this far, it means you’ve been judged not to be a threat.”

As he spoke, the official looked up at the gate. I could see a soldier waving down at us from on top.

I see, I see. But…

I tilted my head again. “In that case, what are you doing?”

It seemed like this official was only going through the motions of his outdated job.

He answered me matter-of-factly, “I’m waiting for a merchant. He had arranged to deliver some wurstams today, but…apparently he’s running late.”

Wurstams.

“If I’m not mistaken, those are dangerous beasts, right?”

Come to think of it, the merchant who brought wurstams into the Western Capital was dragged away by that soldier, so…

Could he be the one?

“Oh!” The official looked me over with a slightly surprised expression. “Miss Traveler, by any chance did you come here today from the Western Capital?”

“…That’s a good guess.”

“I ask because over there they consider wurstams dangerous creatures.”

“……?”

From the way he was talking, it was clear that he did not consider wurstams to be a threat.

What’s going on here…?

“I mean, they are unsightly, have violent tempers, and store venom in their fangs, but their livers are quite tasty, and they’re coveted as a delicacy in our country. The dummies over there don’t know that, and they’ve taken to exterminating them as dangerous pests, though…”

“……”

He went on to tell me about how here, in the Eastern Capital, wurstams sold for a fairly high price, despite being dangerous, and how in the Western Capital, they didn’t understand that line of thinking.

I see, so it seems there’s a good reason why they fetch a high price.

“By the way, Madam Witch, is it still prohibited to take moonflowers into that city?” As he spoke, the official pulled a cigarette from his breast pocket.

It was the same item that the merchant had been holding—it must have been moonflowers.

“Yes, well…” As he lit the cigarette, I took one step back.

“Oh…I’m sorry. I don’t have many chances to smoke these inside. Smoking bans are popular right now, so I never have a chance to smoke freely except for outside the city gates.”

The official exhaled a plume of smoke as he spoke.

“……?” But that contradicted what the merchant had said. “I thought that moonflowers weren’t prohibited in your country.”

“Oh, is that what they said in the Western Capital?” The official laughed. “These cigarettes packed with dried moonflowers are a popular vice, so they’re regulated in our country, too. The places and times you can smoke are regulated, to keep smokers from bothering anyone. Like this.” He continued, “But the moonflowers themselves aren’t harmful.”

Gazing at the flower fields behind me, he asked, “Did you know? If you handle moonflowers just right, they can become a potent medicine for certain otherwise-incurable illnesses. If you dry them, they become a drug similar to tobacco, but if you grind up fresh moonflowers, apparently you can use them to help with recovery from illnesses that were thought to be incurable until now. Scientists in our city have made many such discoveries recently.”

“……”

So that’s why they’re being cultivated so widely? And here I thought this was nothing but a dangerous city overrun by people in the throes of moonflower addiction.

“In other words, the moonflower has limitless potential. It can become either a poison or a medicine. And the fools in the Western Capital have banned its import, not knowing the truth.”

The people of the Western Capital did not hesitate to ban or restrict anything unpleasant, so it would likely take some time yet before they learned that the moonflower had an important use.

No, not just the moonflower—the fact about the livers of wurstams being delicious was another thing. At the end of the day, by just banning things and then ignoring them, they ensured that they would miss out on many useful discoveries.

That seemed like a sad and regrettable state of affairs.

“And you won’t go and tell the people who live there?”

When I asked, the official smiled and said, “We wouldn’t dream of it. That is there and this is here, you know.”