Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 9 - Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

Cinderella

Lislette was a kindhearted young girl who lived in a castle town.

Her mother passed away when she was very young, leaving her father to raise her on his own. Lislette’s father was kind and caring, and Lislette grew into a very good-natured young woman.

She and her father lived happily together.

Then her happy life suddenly came to an end.

Her father remarried.

His new wife seemed to dislike Lislette for some reason. She forced Lislette to do all the housework and constantly hounded her. Lislette’s new stepmother also had two children from a previous marriage, and as one would expect of stepsisters, they, too, seemed to hate Lislette and always joined their mother in tormenting her.

All the chores were foisted onto Lislette.

“Clean my room, would you?” The elder of Lislette’s stepsisters was a lazy girl who couldn’t even pick up after herself, so she made a mess of her room and left it to Lislette to clean up.

“Y-yes…sister…” Lislette followed her instructions, wishing she could tell the lazy girl to do it herself.

Lislette’s other stepsister was younger than her, but just like her older sister, she always pushed Lislette around.

“Hey. Take my clothes off for me. I want to get in the bath.” For some reason, whenever the lazy younger sister wanted to get in the bath, she always made Lislette strip her down.

“Sh-shouldn’t you…undress yourself…?” Lislette was hesitant to undress a girl so close to her in age.

“No! If you don’t take my clothes off for me, I can’t get in the bath! Wash my hair, too!” But the selfish younger sister refused and just continued to pester Lislette.

“Umm…”

Even though it was embarrassing, Lislette always took the other girl’s clothes off for her.

However, even though she outwardly frowned at their treatment, Lislette thought her sisters were kind of cute, and she didn’t especially hate cleaning their rooms or undressing them for baths.

What she hated the most was the job that her stepmother requested of her every day.

“Say, would you clean the hearth?”

Every morning as the sun came up, Lislette’s stepmother would ask her to clean the hearth. Lislette had to sweep out the ash and cinders and prepare it so that it gave off warmth. Lislette had to do this job every day since the day she’d moved into her stepmother’s house.

Lislette’s beautiful golden hair would become absolutely filthy with ashes, just from cleaning the dirty hearth. She hated this chore most of all.

“Ugh…”

Even though she did it with a scowl on her face, Lislette never said anything about her stepmother’s harassment. Every day she would clean the hearth, so her hair was always full of ashes. Being dirty all the time made her very sad, and eventually her eyes grew cloudy and her expressions darkened, and the only things that spilled from her lips were sighs.

Based on Lislette’s outward appearance, she gained a nickname:

Cinderella.

As Lislette endured her stepfamily’s harassment, she held on to one dream.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that her dream was what allowed her to endure the endless days of suffering.

“Eh-heh-heh-heh-heh…heh-heh…”

She was alone in the single small room that had been set aside for her. Shutting herself up in her room was one of Lislette’s few pleasures in life. No one bothered her there. She would crouch down in the corner of this wonderfully lonely space, all alone, breathing heavily.

“Prince…my prince…eh-heh-heh…I wuv you…”

The brave girl who withstood constant bullying from her stepfamily would be replaced by an excited young woman, clutching a (secretly taken) photograph of the country’s crown prince. In fact, there were (secretly taken) photos of the prince all over the walls. Anyone could see that this was the room of a stalker.

Lislette was head over heels in love with the prince.

She had never spoken to him, of course; they lived in two different worlds. In fact, Lislette had only ever managed to gaze at him from afar. The prince probably had no idea Lislette even existed.

But ever since she had laid eyes on the prince when she was younger, Lislette’s head had been full of thoughts of him. To be frank, the harassment from her stepfamily and whatnot didn’t cause Lislette much suffering at all. Just by gazing at one of her (secretly taken) photos of the prince, she could cleanse any patch of darkness that had taken root in her heart.

Well, who cares? It doesn’t really matter, she thought. Lislette prided herself on her steely resolve.

“Eh-heh-heh… Wait for me, my prince…I’ll come see you soon…eh-heh-heh…heh-heh…”

Recently, Lislette’s mental fortitude had been tested even further.

Whether she was taking unreasonable, nonsensical requests like “Go and buy food for tonight’s dinner! If you come back with the wrong ingredients, you’ll go to bed without dinner!” or being told by her older stepsister to “remodel my room for me, Cinderella,” or being asked, “Big sister Cinderella, dry my hair for me, will you?” she answered, “Gladly…eh-heh-heh…,” and nodded with a broad smile on her face. That was how reckless her toughness had made her. Her willingness to put up with their awful treatment seemed to border on the verge of masochism.

Lislette believed that, very soon, her dearest wish would be granted.

“The grand ball…I can’t wait…eh-heh-heh…”

The prince was to come of age that year, and he had too much wealth, power, and time on his hands. So sometime earlier, he’d decided that he ought to get married. It seemed a little crazy, but the prince had decided to go ahead and hold a grand ball anyway.

“Anyone and everyone is welcome to attend,” the prince declared. “I’ll have a wonderful feast prepared at the castle as well. And please remember that marriage is a long-term goal. I am absolutely not going to be choosing my bride during the ball, so don’t worry about that. Please come and focus only on enjoying yourselves. Oh, but cute girls only, please!”

Many people were unhappy with this announcement, complaining that the event wasn’t open to absolutely everyone—only cute girls. Ultimately, however, the prince used his considerable influence to silence any criticism of the ball, even going as far as to muzzle the newspapers and bribe certain key detractors. In that country, the people were weak in the face of money and power.

The ball was set to be held the following day.

Lislette was in especially high spirits. If she attended the grand ball, she would get to dance with the prince. None of her family’s bullying could faze her.

“Eh-heh-heh…eh-heh-heh…”

And that day, as always, she spent every spare moment she had shut up in her room staring at the (secretly taken) photo of the prince, as if lapping it up with her eyes. Actually, she really did lick it, and smell it, and kiss it, and so on, pouring affection on it in every conceivable way. The photo was already messy with drool, but even so, Lislette’s excitement knew no bounds.

Her spirit was already somewhere else.

Since the day the ball had been announced, Lislette’s mind had been full of wild fancies concerning her sweet, sweet married life with her future husband, the prince.

“……”

Lislette’s stepfamily secretly watched her reverie.

The older stepsister turned pale. “Cinderella…”

The younger stepsister shed a tear. “Big sister…”

Their mother sighed. “…This is awful.”

Even a charitable observer would have had trouble believing the extent of Lislette’s unnatural obsession.

Perhaps she had retreated into fantasy as a natural consequence of her stepfamily’s daily abuse.

The entire castle town was getting ready for the grand ball that was happening the following day. From the moment we arrived, we already felt like we were ready to turn and flee.

The low buildings of the town stood side by side, as if lined up to wait upon the royal palace that towered over them. Everywhere throughout the town, flyers were posted up, advertising the grand ball that was going to be held at the palace. They read: THE CROWN PRINCE IS HOSTING A BALL. GIRLS ATTEND FOR FREE (  OFFER LIMITED TO CUTE GIRLS ONLY). The prince’s flagrantly ulterior motives were plain for anyone to see.

I had only just arrived in the city. I’d scarcely made it through the gate, found the nearest hotel, and set down my luggage. I had no idea what the place was usually like, but I was pretty sure it didn’t look like this all the time.

“Oh-hoh-hoh… How do I look? This is what I’m wearing to the royal ball tomorrow!” a girl wearing a luxurious dress boasted to her friend.

“…Eh-heh-heh… As long as I’ve got my love potion, the prince doesn’t stand a chance…” Another girl was going shopping, grinning to herself.

“Say, did you know? The prince apparently likes girls with pretty feet.”

“I heard. He seems to especially like girls in high heels.”

“Why heels?”

“Maybe he likes getting stepped on?”

“Oh, prince…”

Two girls were choosing high heels in a shoe store, whispering rumors to each other.

“Seems like my granddaughter is going to the ball.”

“Oh? Mine too.”

“Ha-ha-ha! I bet mine is going to be the one he picks.”

“No, no, my granddaughter will be the one.”

“No way.”

“No way, no way.”

Two old men were conversing restlessly.

In this way, the whole town had become obsessed with the grand ball.

All the girls seemingly waiting for their chance to live a dreamy, glamorous life in the castle that loomed on high must have thought that this ball was their chance to strike it rich.

“Elaina…” As I was gazing vacantly out over the town, Miss Fran, who was standing beside me, poked my shoulder with her fingertip. “Elaina, what are you going to do?”

What will I do?

“…Don’t tell me you think that I’m going to go to the royal ball?”

“No, not that.” Miss Fran shook her head. “Actually, I’ve got something I have to do here, so we’ve got to go our separate ways for a little while.”

“Huh? Something you have to do?” I was quite intrigued by her ambiguous way of saying it. “Don’t tell me you’re going to the ball?”

“I’ve been entrusted with a special job. I have no interest in marrying into wealth.”

“Uh-huh.”

Well, there’s no reason for us to to stick together twenty-four-seven, so I don’t have any cause to object.

Nonetheless, it did make me feel quite lonely that she hadn’t told me why on earth she needed to be alone.

“It’s fine, I understand.”

For the time being, I nodded at her.

“…By the way, what’s the job?” I asked, though I didn’t expect that she would tell me.

“It’s a secret.”

Sure enough, Miss Fran chuckled and put her index finger to her lips.

Then she said, “I think I’ll be back this evening, so let’s have dinner together then. My treat.”

As she spoke, she turned her back on me and started walking off.

“……”

I waved good-bye to my teacher.

I waved at Miss Fran, who was, in all probability, headed off with her eye on the prince.

“……”

She’s really awful at keeping secrets…

And so the curtain went up on my solo act.

As I wandered around the expansive city, I realized that even though I had spent most of my journey alone, I now missed having someone beside me. I felt bored. Probably because my conversation partner had suddenly disappeared.

That said, even though I was used to traveling on my own, it wasn’t like I wanted to be alone forever. I’d experienced this unpleasant sort of loneliness and boredom before.

Usually when this happened, I changed my broom into human form so that she could help me pass the time. But for some reason, I suspected that if I changed her into her human form at that moment, she would just complain about it and make fun of me for being so lonely in my teacher’s absence.

I’ve got to stop relying on my broom for companionship.

“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella will…”

“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”

……

Of course, I was just a humble traveler. Even though I had some time to spare, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about meddling in someone else’s troubles or helping anyone in need.

And so, even when I noticed the two girls crying softly by the side of the road, my response was simply to walk on by without stopping.

“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella will…”

“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”

……

I felt that I had heard the exact same two lines mere moments ago, but as before, I ignored everything. I’m pretty sure I passed them by, so how did I hear the same words again? An echo, maybe?

“This is awful, big sister… If we don’t do something, our Cinderella will…”

“Yes…in times like these, I wish we had a mage to help us…”

……

When I heard the same words for the third time, I finally turned around.

Even I wasn’t oblivious enough to miss the fact that someone was trying to get my attention. Apparently the two girls had zeroed in on me as I passed them by, and then they began following me.

The two of them were standing directly behind me, and they whispered to each other as they looked over at me intently, as if they were sizing me up or something.

“Big sister…this girl…”

“She seems useful, doesn’t she? …She’s very cute, too…”

I narrowed my eyes at them and asked, “Do you have some business with me?”

“Oh, no! It’s nothing as serious as all that!” The older sister shook her head.

“If you don’t have any business, then why were you following me?” I demanded.

That’s pretty creepy, isn’t it?

“We just thought you were really pretty, and kind of followed you,” said the younger sister, without seeming the least bit ashamed.

“I see.”

If it’s because I’m pretty, then it can’t be helped, I suppose.

“And so we have a favor to ask you, since you’re so pretty,” the older sister said, and quickly bowed her head. She must have completely forgotten what she’d said just a moment earlier.

So you really do have business with me, and that’s why you were stalking me, is that right? Well, I could more or less figure that much out already.

“…Well, I’ll listen to what you have to say, at least.” I nodded. “Unfortunately, I don’t have any time to spare, so I can’t promise that I’ll be able to help you.”

That’s a lie, though. I’ve got nothing else to do.

“Oh! Really?” But the older sister seemed to take my words to mean that I would agree to their request, because her face lit up as she launched into the story.

“The truth is…”

“……”

My goodness.

I didn’t really understand her story, and it was pretty strange, but I did know one thing for certain. It was intriguing.

“…I’m terribly sorry. Could you possibly explain it again from the beginning?”

Oh, I wonder what Elaina is doing right now? If I know her, she’s probably sightseeing, or maybe just killing time. But then, she also has a tendency to get caught up in complicated situations, usually at the worst possible moment.

So maybe right now, Elaina’s making faces as some stranger tells her their story… Maybe she’s overheard some interesting conversation and is sticking her nose in someone else’s business… I’m very worried, as her teacher…

These thoughts and more were running around in my head.

The details of my commission, which the prince had conveyed with exaggerated gestures from atop his throne, had not stuck in my head at all. Just like my butterflies, they had all fluttered away.

“Huh…? I have to tell you again, from the beginning…? It’s not exactly the kind of thing you repeat over and over…this is a top secret job.”

The prince let out a sigh.

He had glossy blond hair, which he pushed back from his face with a strangely charming gesture. He sighed. “Well…I suppose it can’t be helped…”

Then, with an air of importance, he told me, “To give you a rough idea, I want you, Lady Witch, to help me find my future wife! Basically, I want you to take on the role of my advisor!” He was saying everything awfully loudly, considering this mission was supposed to be top secret.

“……”

Ah, indeed, I see. So that’s what this is about. I remember now.

It was such a stupid—no, such a distasteful request, considering his status, that it flew right out of my head. How unfortunate.

According to the paperwork I’d been given, the prince apparently had too much time on his hands. Lately, he had become consumed by a singular desire—his wish to find a bride. Which had led him to the notion of holding a royal ball, so that he could meet someone worthy of his courtship.

In short, he just wanted to get married. That was the whole point of the discussion.

“Yes, yes, a marriage partner, is it? In that case, how about holding some interviews?” I started with a commonsense suggestion.

“Tch!”

Apparently common sense just wouldn’t do for his royal highness.

“I believe in the supremacy of free love… I’m opposed to the very idea of holding marriage interviews. Besides, if someone of my station were to hold interviews, the only girls who would show up would be the ones lured by the promise of wealth.”

“Well then, how about holding the interviews but masking your status?”

“Hold on now,” the prince huffed in frustration. “If you strip me of my status, I’ve got nothing left to offer…” Then he let out a long sigh.

What a miserable young man…

“Wait right there, Madam Witch!” Just then, an old man marched in from the throne room. “When did you hire an advisor?! Gramps does not approve!”

Apparently, the old man who called himself “Gramps” had stealthily overheard the prince’s top secret request.

“Quiet, Gramps!” the prince answered, raising his voice deliberately. “I am the prince of the whole country! I’ll use any method I like in order to marry the best girl I can find!”

Despite all his prestige, the prince’s words revealed him to be little more than an ordinary jerk. This put me in something of a bind.

I sighed, “Um…do you really want to get married that badly…?”

“Yes, I do. Of course I do.” The prince spoke confidently from start to finish. “By the way, Lady Witch, can you brew a love potion? I’m just curious, of course.”

I wish he wouldn’t be so confident even about his vulgar thoughts…

“You mustn’t do that, prince! Gramps will not allow you to use a love potion!” Gramps tried to hold the reckless prince in check. “…But, ah, Lady Witch…is it even possible to make one…?’

Oh, Gramps…

Wait, more importantly…

“It seems to me that using a love potion would be in direct opposition to the idea of free love…”

“Free in the sense of living inside a cage.”

I don’t think you can call that freedom anymore…

At any rate, the conversation had gotten rather off track, but to put it simply, the reason that the prince had summoned me there was…

“So would it be fair to say that you want my help seducing a girl at the royal ball?”

The request that had brought me all the way out to this castle had said that it was an important matter that required my talents. But upon arriving, all that had happened was that I’d been subjected to the crude, adolescent whining of a spoiled prince caught at the height of puberty, whose mind was dominated by lust. It made me want to cry.

If this is what he wants from me, it would be a much better use of my time to go sightseeing around town with Elaina…

“No! What part of my story were you listening to?!” The prince slammed his fist against his throne, revealing his anger.

What’s this? Could it be that what he has said so far was just nonsense, nothing more than idle talk? Of course, it would be improper for an actual prince to go out of his way to summon a witch just because he wanted her to help him put on a grand ball. Someone who did that would be less of a prince and more of an ordinary jerk, after all.

“I want to find a girl who will step on me in high heels. Not just a normal wife. Please make sure you understand me clearly.”

It turned out the prince was a pervert.

“This won’t do, Your Highness!” the old man who called himself Gramps interjected. “That’s my fantasy!”

Oh, Gramps…

“If possible, I want a girl to step on me while looking at me with cold eyes, like I’m a piece of garbage.”

“I hear that.”

Oh, prince…

I have to wonder how this country has managed to hold itself together this long…

“So anyway, I’m counting on you, Madam Witch.”

“……”

I’m not sure how to respond to that.

“And if I don’t help you…would that be bad…?” I muttered.

“Ha-ha-ha!” The prince laughed cheerfully. “No, I wouldn’t mind if you refused my request. But if you did, you would probably find yourself unable to leave the country.”

“……”

Does that mean I don’t have the right to refuse…?

It turns out the prince is an incredible lowlife.

“The prince who rules the country is a creep…? Seriously?”

The two sisters who approached me on the street told me that their stepsister, Lislette, who had started living with them the previous year, was deeply in love with the prince. They wanted me to do something about it.

I figured that they were going to ask me to help dissuade a girl who had forgotten her station and fallen in love with the prince, or ask me to explain to her that she wouldn’t be able to win the prince’s heart even if she did go to the ball, or deal with the situation in some clever way using my magic powers. That was the sort of thing I was expecting them to ask. But reality turned out to be stranger than fiction.

The girls invited me to their house, and the truth that they shared with me was completely different than anything I’d expected.

“The truth is, a long time ago, we worked as maids in the royal palace. Back then, we cleaned the prince’s chambers, and…” The older sister broke down sobbing.

The younger sister placed her hand on her sister’s shoulder and said, “…There were a lot of strange magazines stuffed under his bed…”

Well now, that doesn’t seem like something to cry over.

“…Well, if he’s a young man, of a certain age, it’s not unusual that he would take an interest in…such things,” I said.

But the older sister just kept crying. “We wouldn’t be so upset if they were ordinary dirty magazines! But we never imagined…we never imagined the prince would be such a degenerate…”

Apparently, there had been a time when the two sisters had actually adored the prince, just like Lislette, but they said that once they’d discovered what was under the prince’s bed, any feelings they’d had for him had completely evaporated. They told me that now they could only see him as a beast in princely clothing.

I was somewhat morbidly curious to learn exactly what kind of magazines they’d found, but I decided to set that feeling aside and talk about the job instead.

“So you want me to work with you to open Lislette’s eyes, now that she’s fallen for the prince?” I asked.

The younger sister nodded in the affirmative. “We will never hand over our dear, darling sister Cinderella to that pervert! Help us, Miss Witch!”

“Can’t the two of you persuade her on your own?”

Is this actually such a serious problem that you need to involve a full-fledged witch? I’m very doubtful.

“…At first, we did try to persuade her. We told her everything, leaving nothing out, and explained what a creep he is…,” the older sister said, casting her eyes downward.

That had taken place right after the girls’ mother had married Lislette’s father.

“Oh? So you like the prince, Lislette…?”

Just after they had become family, Lislette had invited her new stepsister into her room, and the older girl had recoiled at what she saw there.

“Hm? How could you tell, big sister?”

She could tell because one wall was plastered with (secretly taken) photos of the prince.

What a wretched situation that must have been. The pure, beautiful young girl had a crush on the prince, who seemed like a fairly good person on the outside but was rotten on the inside. Something had to be done.

The older sister had explained kindly, “Lislette, listen…”

Then she had told Lislette about what she had seen when her family was in the employ of the prince. She’d explained that he was a pervert with a bizarre obsession.

She had figured that once Lislette heard about the prince’s true nature, she would probably give up on him, too.

However…

“How cruel! You two just want to get in the way of our romance! I hate you so much!”

Lislette ended up turning on her older stepsister.

The older girl had been smitten with Lislette’s cute appearance ever since she first laid eyes on her, and the rejection hurt her so deeply that she spent three days laid up in bed.

After that, the older stepsister tried every method she could think of to open Lislette’s eyes to the truth. She took every opportunity to mention the prince’s awful reputation. The younger sister and stepmother also did their part to persuade Lislette, to open her eyes to the truth after she had fallen for the good-for-nothing prince.

But she wouldn’t listen to them.

So instead they started forcing extra work on her, practically harassing her every day, though it hurt them to do so. They hoped she would be too busy to think about the prince.

And that was apparently the whole story.

I see, I see.

“So it backfired?”

“I guess it backfired.” The older sister tilted her head thoughtfully. “She’s so infatuated with the prince that it’s almost like she’s been afflicted with some strange madness. The more we try to interfere, the hotter her passion burns.” The girl was obviously in very low spirits. “…So everything that we’ve done so far was for nothing?”

“Well,” I mused, “from what I’ve heard of the present situation…”

If Cinderella wanted to attend the grand ball, then they had obviously not cured her of her obsession with the prince. Actually, the sisters had probably stoked the fires instead.

“Anyway! Lady Witch! Please! We cannot possibly hand Lislette over to the prince! Help us!” the older sister moaned as she clung to me.

“I’m begging you, please!” the younger sister groaned. “If big sister Cinderella goes away, who will wash my hair!?”

Couldn’t you wash it yourself…?

“……”

I thought for a moment.

I’m not really busy, and I don’t mind helping them, but…

“So basically, you’ll be happy so long as the prince doesn’t fall for her at the ball? Is that really something that you have to worry about?”

If I were to make a succinct comparison, it was like someone resentfully declaring, “A person I hate bought a lottery ticket! If I don’t do something, he’s gonna strike it rich! I can’t allow it!” Honestly, I was bewildered that they had approached me with this issue, wondering what I could possibly do.

But the older sister grew very, very angry at my words.

“What a horrible thing to say! If she attends the ball, there will be chaos! She’s too cute!”

What are you talking about? I don’t understand what you mean.

It didn’t seem like I could say that out loud, so I just smiled ambiguously. “Uh-huh…”

“Big sister Cinderella is the cutest girl ever, so of course the prince will fall for her. Are you stupid?” Then I received a scathing judgment from the younger sister as well.

I just stared off into the distance. “Oh, sure…of course…”

“Anyway, Miss Witch, please get her to give up on the prince immediately,” the older sister said decisively.

“……”

Wait, hang on, actually…

“Couldn’t you just keep her from going to the ball?”

It seemed like common sense to me.

However, it was pretty clear that these girls were way past the point of common sense, because of that deviant prince.

“Don’t say stupid things!” they said.

“If possible, we want to see Cinderella in her ball gown!”

“……”

Perhaps those magazines that were under the prince’s bed have something in them that drives you crazy if you read them?

Be that as it may, a job was a job, so there was no point in whining about it. As much as I wanted to ditch them at some point on the way to their home, I was a little worried about what the two crazy sisters would do if I’d tried.

At that point, I decided to prepare myself for the worst.

“That’s our sweet Cinderella.”

The sisters and I were stealthily peeking into the kitchen from a hidden spot. In our line of sight was a girl with beautiful golden hair that was filthy with ashes, diligently cleaning the hearth.

Directly behind her was a woman who appeared to be the stepmother, standing there motionlessly, staring at the girl.

“…Hff, hff…”

But the woman seemed awfully distressed. I wondered what on earth was the matter.

“Um, does your mother have some sort of chronic disease or something?”

The sisters shook their heads decisively.

“No, she’s not sick,” said the older sister.

So then, what is it?

“She’s fascinated watching Cinderella doing her work.”

I see—so she is sick.

“Anyway, please help us, Miss Witch. Make Cinderella happy somehow…!”

“……”

I have a feeling she’ll never be happy, so long as she’s in this house…

Well, whatever.

Let’s get on with the job.

“Hello.”

I popped out unexpectedly, right behind the two of them.

“Oh! And you are?”

The stepmother turned around abruptly. There was no hint of the heavy breathing I’d heard from her a moment before. Apparently, she only got excited when she was looking at Cinderella, or whatever it was they had called the girl.

“I’m a friend of your daughters.”

“……” After making deliberate eye contact with the two sisters, who were both right behind me, the stepmother said to me, “Hello there, Miss Witch. What can I do for you?”

She smiled brightly at me. If I hadn’t seen her acting strangely just a moment before, she would have seemed like an ordinary mother.

“Would it be all right for me to speak with Lislette for a moment?” I tilted my head questioningly.

The stepmother nodded, “Yes, of course. She is one of my precious daughters, so make good friends with her, all right?”

Then she hurriedly joined the two sisters in their hiding spot.

“She’s quite cute, isn’t she?”

“She is. But not as cute as my Cinderella.”

“Yeah. Big sister Cinderella belongs to me, though.”

“……”

I can hear everything you’re saying…

I took a step forward to escape the disturbing atmosphere that was developing behind me. Lislette had been cleaning the hearth the whole time, and I tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hello.”

“Eee!” She jumped with surprise just like a small animal and turned around. “…Ah, h-hi…”

She seemed terrified.

“Cinderella is so cute!”

“Big sister Cinderella is adorable!”

“Hff…hff…”

I could hear some weird voices and heavy breathing behind me, but I did my very best to ignore them.

All this weirdness might rub off on me if I stick around too long…

I decided to finish up my job right away.

“Are you in love with the prince?”

“……!” As soon as I asked, she gave me a reaction that was very, very easy to understand. “H-how did you…?! Where did you hear that?! A-and from whom?!”

Lislette was yanking on my skirt.

“Hey now…” I slapped at her grasping hands. What is this girl doing? I wondered. “No, I can tell just by looking at you…”

“You can tell by looking…? What do you mean by that? Can witches tell what kind of person someone is just by looking at them?”

“Uh…yeah. So that’s enough of that.” I kept slapping at her hands. “By the way, that means that I can also tell what kind of person the prince is.”

“……!”

Upon hearing that, she finally let go of me. Straightening myself up, I looked down at Miss Cinderella.

“Do you want to know?”

“…………!” She nodded with stiff movements, like a broken doll.

In that case, allow me to enlighten you.

“He’s human garbage.”

“Human garbage…”

“And a real beast.”

“A beast…”

“What’s more, he has a very peculiar fetish.”

“A peculiar fetish…?”

“Apparently he likes to be stepped on by high heels.”

“Likes to be stepped on by high heels…”

I added my own embellishments midway through. But that really was the kind of person the prince was.

Apparently Lislette had written off her sisters’ criticism of the prince as a form of bullying. I wondered what would happen if she heard the same thing from an outside source.

I expected it would make something of an impression on her.

“…I see, yes…”

Lislette hung her head sadly.

Apparently, the plan had been a success. I turned back around and walked over to the sisters and their mother, who had been watching us.

“And with that, I believe my work is done here.”

I didn’t even have to use magic! I wore a triumphant expression.

But…

“……” The older sister was looking past me. “It’s not over just because some stranger told her that…”

She was looking at Lislette.

“Heh-heh-heh…”

For some reason, Lislette was laughing.

“He’s a prince, but he’s scum? That’s the best… I’m in love…”

For some reason, she was saying things I couldn’t comprehend.

I see—it seems like she’s already reached the point where no matter what anyone says, she can’t take it as anything but validation for her feelings.

I know love is blind, but this is a little extreme…

“……” I looked back at the sisters. “She seems like she’ll get along quite well with the prince, doesn’t she?”

“That’s the problem!” The older sister let out a sigh.

Apparently Lislette’s fondness for the prince far exceeded anything I’d anticipated, and no matter what happened, her passion for him never cooled.

After my initial attempt, I started to take things more seriously. I told Lislette all about the prince’s bad reputation, but…

Even when, for example, I told her a lie, like: “Did you know? Apparently, the prince is an unrepentant philanderer.”

“He’s so attractive…that can’t be helped…”

She quickly accepted it, showing how tolerant she was.

When I told her: “Apparently the prince has some real funky body odor.”

She replied: “Oh, how exquisite…”

For some reason, she swooned, and her heart began racing even faster.

I even tried a roundabout way to shut her down, saying: “Apparently the prince has someone he likes already.”

“Well, if I can get him in bed first…”

Lislette had other, terrible ideas.

In short…

“This has already gotten way out of hand, hasn’t it?” I grumbled.

“Do you see now? Even if we’re as direct as can be, our efforts have absolutely no effect…” The oldest sister let out a sigh, at her wit’s end.

“If we don’t do something, an awful man will take our big sister Cinderella away…,” the younger sister mourned.

Troublingly, the sisters seemed to have nothing in their heads except thoughts of Lislette.

Despite the fact that all my attempts had been in vain, they begged with tears in their eyes, “Please, Miss Witch! Please do something!”

I was at a loss.

If I’m being completely honest, I wanted nothing more than to get out of there. But I was in too deep already. I couldn’t just abandon ship.

But if nothing we tried worked, then what else could I do…?

“So it’s impossible after all… A task too great, even for a witch…” Behind the grumbling sisters, the stepmother let out a sigh. “Looks like we have no choice but to use our last resort…”

Then the stepmother fixed her gaze on me.

“……?”

What?

I tilted my head in confusion, and she continued, “The fact is, we have a much easier way to protect our dear Cinderella from the evil clutches of the prince.”

Oh-hoh. In that case, wouldn’t it have been better for you to use that method to begin with?

The sisters looked at each other.

“Mother…you’re planning to do that?” The older sister gazed at her mother with fear on her face.

By the way, what is that?

“You intend to offer up a living sacrifice, don’t you…?” The younger sister looked up at her mother, her eyes filling with tears.

By the way, what’s a living sacrifice?

“There’s no helping it… This is the only way we have left to protect our Cinderella…”

Then the stepmother stood up.

“……”

By the way, why is she staring right at me?

“I’m exhausted…”

I can only assume that people lose all sense of reason after they fall in love. After listening for some time to the requests of the prince, who, despite being of age, was still right in the midst of puberty, I returned to my hotel.

After being subjected at length to his delusions, he finally made his proposal. “So the plan is that I’m going to invite lots of girls to the grand ball tomorrow, and you are going to slip in and dose them all with a love potion.”

“Wait, but I can’t make anything like a love potion…”

“Ha-ha-ha! Surely you don’t expect me to believe that a witch wouldn’t know how to make a simple love potion! You mustn’t lie, now.”

“No, really, that’s not something I can do.”

“Anyway, I’m counting on you for tomorrow.”

“……”

The prince had apparently summoned me here so that I could make him a love potion, but he had completely overestimated me. Since I knew very little about romance, I had never had the opportunity to make such a potion, or to try one out, so I truly couldn’t fulfill the prince’s request.

Though, as far as I could see from the state of the town, countless numbers of girls wanted to attend the prince’s ball, so I honestly doubted there would be any need for me to make a love potion in the first place.

Surely the prince would be satisfied if I picked one of the girls attending the ball—one of the girls who was really, really infatuated with the prince—and then presented her to him.

“……”

But finding a girl who was in love with the prince…would be an arduous task.

To begin with, love is something that is secreted away inside a person’s heart, is it not? An outsider cannot tell whether someone is in love with someone else.

It’s possible that someone might be in love, but still bewildered by their own feelings, and letting out strangely anxious sighs as they struggle with their woes, but fundamentally, that’s not something that’s apparent from the outside.

“…Sigh.”

If, for example, someone suddenly starts acting very differently—like Elaina, for example, who just now let out a sigh as she was staring out the window—then maybe that person might be in love, but…

If that person was an old friend, I’d think that I would notice even the smallest signals, but with a bunch of strangers, there’s no way that I’ll be able to tell which girls have really fallen in love with the prince.

“Oh, Elaina. What’s the matter? Is something troubling you?” I asked.

Finally, Elaina turned around to face me. “Ah…Miss Fran. You came back. Welcome back.”

“……”

For instance, when people fall in love, they get tunnel vision and start ignoring everything else around them. Why, if I had to describe it, I’d say they act just like Elaina is acting now, but…huh? No, no…what?

“…What’s the matter, Elaina?”

Of course, people who are in love aren’t quick to open up about their drama.

“…Oh, nothing.”

“……”

Oh my.

And despite not opening up, they let out lots of troubled sighs.

“…Hahhh.”

Just like that.

“……”

Oh my.

What on earth happened in the short time we were apart?

“Miss Fran…can you make love potions and stuff?”

“??????????”

Oooooohhh?

Seriously, what happened…?

“E-Elaina…?”

What on earth could have happened to Elaina? We were only apart for half a day! I don’t think this could be it; it’s a ten-thousand-to-one chance, but maybe she’s fallen hard for some boy she met around town? No, no, this is Elaina we’re talking about. I doubt something like that would ever happen. I’d like to think it could, but… Anyway, the Elaina before my eyes is the very picture of a girl in love. I have no idea what I should do… Well, I suppose I can’t help being perplexed over what to say to her…

It took all my effort to ask her timidly, “Um…? Did something happen while I was gone…?”

“……”

After a long and dreadful silence, Elaina answered briefly, “…No, nothing really.”

“……”

But if she’s fallen in love, who on earth could be the object of her affection?

“Come to think of it, you went to see the prince today, didn’t you, Miss Fran?”

“Huh? Uh…yes, I did…”

“What kind of person is he?”

“…!”

Has she fallen for the prince…? Seriously…?

“Elaina…”

I was overwhelmed by the discovery that my favorite pupil, whose growth I’d watched over so carefully all these years, had, in a mere half day, given her heart to a man whom I could only describe as a total jerk. I started sobbing.

How could such a sad reality actually come to pass…?

“Huh…? Miss Fran? Why are you crying…? It’s creepy…”

I suppose it goes without saying that I fell asleep that night full of regret. If I had known that something like that would happen, I would have ignored the commission from the prince and spent the day sightseeing with Elaina.

I had been feeling awful all morning.

“It suits you perfectly, Madam Witch! If you wear this, the prince won’t stand a chance!”

Lislette’s stepmother and her daughters squealed in unison when they saw me in the dress. “So cute!”

One of them also added something unnecessary. “I feel like she doesn’t quite fill out the bust, but it’ll be fine!” I was seized by the impulse to tear the dress off, but I let out one dismal sigh instead.

How on earth had I wound up in such a situation? It was all part of the horrendous plan that the stepmother had laid out the day before.

“Wouldn’t it be nice if the witch could attend the ball and win the prince’s heart instead?”

Wait just a minute, what’s nice about that?

I was completely bewildered, but she continued, “We need you to win over the prince real quick, pretend you’re going to marry him, and then dump his ass. If you do that, don’t you think he’ll learn that he can’t find happiness choosing a girl based solely on her looks?”

What on earth are you talking about, with that expression on your face like you hit upon some great idea? And what do you mean by “solely on her looks”?

Agreeing with their mother, the two sisters chirped in unison, “This way no one will end up unhappy!”

But I’m already unhappy…

“So once the marriage is in the bag, you can just run away!” said the younger sister. “And while you’re running, you might consider ‘borrowing’ some valuables.” She whispered this devilish suggestion.

Exactly what do these two girls think of me?!

“There is no way I would stoop to stealing a few trinkets from the palace!”

Don’t underestimate me, girls. I am a witch, you know!

“…If I’m robbing the place, I’m taking everything.”

To be honest, even despite everything that had happened, I still couldn’t help myself. I was starting to get excited about the plan. It was almost like the sickness of the toxic family had rubbed off on me.

But once I got back to the hotel, the more I thought it over, the trouble of having to enter a temporary sham engagement with the prince started to overshadow the appeal of the treasure in the palace. I found myself sighing frequently.

And so, even though I had allowed the stepmother and her daughters to put me in a dress for the day, I wasn’t taking any pleasure in it. I ended up just grumbling and complaining the whole time.

“What a pain…”

“Now, now, don’t say that.” The stepmother clapped a hand down on my shoulder. “Leave Cinderella up to us. We’ll load her down with an absurd amount of chores so that she can’t even go to the ball. That should buy you plenty of time. And while we’re doing that, you’ll seduce the prince.”

“…Sigh.”

I answered with another sigh.

At any rate…

That’s how I ended up attending the royal ball.

It was evening. The sun was just beginning to drop below the horizon.

The palace gates were thrown open and crowds of young ladies, each clad in a splendid dress, rushed in all at once. The parade of girls blinded by the promise of money reminded me of a herd of wild animals repeating some great migration in search of new pastures.

I wonder if there really is a cute girl in that crowd who will suit the prince’s tastes? They all look the same to me.

“All right, Miss Witch, if there are any girls here who I might like, it’s up to you to set them up with me. I want to pretend I’m approaching them by chance in all cases. If we let slip how starved for love I am, they’ll only be disillusioned, you see. I’m counting on you.”

“……”

Well, there’s not much point in hiding your desperation, now that the ball is already underway, is there…?

The girls kept assembling one after another in the hall. Naturally, since the prince was adamant that the event was an actual ball, there had to be other boys as well. I could see them, lagging somewhat behind the girls.

“By the way, all the boys are extras I’ve hired.”

According to the prince, his scheme was to pawn off any girls he didn’t like to the extras right away. It was almost refreshing how boldly he flaunted what a monster he was.

“…By the way, it seems like there’s one old man mixed in among the extras?”

“Apparently Gramps wanted to join in, too.”

“Oh, Gramps…”

According to the prince, Gramps had insisted on participating in the grand ball, saying some nonsense about the springtime of his life coming late, or something.

“So what do you think, Miss Witch? Are there any quality girls here?”

“Let me see…”

All the girls that I could see had occupied themselves with the feast laid out on the banquet table the moment the doors opened.

They’re like a herd of wild animals, grazing without a care in the world…

Somehow it seemed like there were hardly any girls who had actually come hoping to meet the prince.

Which means…

“There are no girls here who are suitable for you, Your Highness.”

Well, frankly speaking, that’s what it comes down to. I’m not lying. It’s just that their motives for being here are not the same as yours.

“I see…” The prince hung his head. But immediately afterward, his eyes lit up. “No, wait a second, there might just be one!”

Oh? But I can’t believe so suddenly that there is anyone so foolish as to want to marry this prince?

“See, over there! Look there!”

My gaze followed where the prince’s finger was pointing.

“……”

The girl standing there appeared to be in her late teens. Her hair was the color of ash, and her eyes were lapis. She wore a beautiful white dress, and in one hand she was carrying a rather large bag.

She took no notice of the extravagant meat dishes. Instead, this suspicious girl was shoveling every piece of bread set out on the table into her large bag.

By the way, who on earth was that girl, whom I couldn’t help recognizing?

……

To all appearances, she was Elaina.

“That girl looks really great…”

What are you talking about?

“She’s no good.”

“But why?”

“If I were a betting woman, I’d say that girl loves bread and gold more than any man.”

“Well then, why did she come to a place like this?”

“She came to scavenge for bread and gold.”

“Wouldn’t that make her the worst kind of lowlife?”

“That’s why you should give up on pursuing her.”

I wasn’t lying.

So she did come to the ball after all… But why? I wonder if she really has fallen for the prince? Or maybe, as I just witnessed, she’s been lured in by the bread?

I didn’t understand her well enough to know her true intention.

“But she sure is cute…”

Oh my, what is he talking about?

“She’s a girl who came to your grand ball to steal bread.”

“That playful side of her is good, too.” Apparently, the prince was not very perceptive. Then he said, “Would you go and speak to her for me?”

“……”

There could be nothing more bothersome, but all right, fine.

“Certainly.”

I decided to pretend to follow the prince’s orders and stealthily get Elaina out of there.

I was completely focused on stealing bread. This stuff had been made for a royal ball, so it was a cut above the loaves you could got from the street stalls in town. It was fluffy and warm, and I felt as if I could go on eating it forever.

This is the good stuff…

In fact, it was so good that I nearly forgot all about the request from the stepmother and her daughters. I almost fled the scene with my spoils right then and there.

“Elaina…don’t…”

As I finished stuffing bread into my bag, I heard the echo of a familiar voice from somewhere.

“Elaina…stop doing such a disgraceful thing…”

I turned around, but the voice’s owner was nowhere to be seen, and even when I looked around the room, I didn’t see anyone watching me.

“……?”

Well now, just what is going on here?

“…Who’s there?” I asked.

Somehow, I feel like that voice was similar to Miss Fran’s…

“I am your conscience,” the voice replied.

“My conscience…?”

“Yes, your conscience, speaking up from inside you, telling you to stop stealing bread from the royal ball…”

……

No, clearly Miss Fran is speaking to me from somewhere; that’s the only likely explanation. Maybe she’s using magic to project her thoughts directly into my head?

“What are you doing, Miss Fran?”

“You are mistaken. I am your conscience. I am not Fran.”

“Unfortunately, my conscience died in battle a long time ago.”

“…No, you must have one… Surely even you must have a conscience… There’s no way that you really came here just to rob the buffet table.”

“Munch, munch.”

“Stop eating bread!”

“By the way, Miss Fran, where are you right now? I can’t see you.”

“I’m watching you from a little ways away— Ah, no, that was a lie, I was joking. I am your conscience,” answered Miss Fran, or rather, my conscience, after clearing her throat. “I am speaking to you from inside your heart.”

She is really a terrible liar.

“So your job was to come to the ball, was it?”

“Incorrect. I am here to help.”

“You are Miss Fran, after all, aren’t you?”

“Um…no, you’re mistaken. By the way, what are you doing in a place like this? Is it possible that you actually came just to steal bread?”

“If you’re my conscience, wouldn’t you know why I came here?”

“……”

She was silent.

As I suspected, Miss Fran was apparently somewhere in the hall and had undoubtedly, unmistakably infiltrated the place to do a job, whatever it was.

Well, I’m pretty sure she’s not here for the same reasons I am.

“Hey, you. Is my bread delicious?”

Just then, my target appeared suddenly before my eyes. Standing there before me was a young man with lovely golden hair, wearing a carefree smile. There didn’t seem to be anything else that was remarkable about him.

“I’m the prince of this country. And you are?”

“Munch, munch.”

“Won’t you stop eating bread?”

“I’m Elaina. The Ashen Witch,” I answered, chomping away.

“Wow, a witch!” The prince seemed happy for some reason. “By the way, being a witch means that you can use all sorts of spells, right?”

“Sure I can; I’m a witch.”

“For example, a spell to hit a person with a whip, or a spell to make it hurt three thousand times as badly, or a spell to give someone a really mean look?”

“……”

“Ahh! You don’t need to use any spells right away! But hey, that look, those eyes, it’s fantastic!”

“……”

He really is something else…

“Elaina…Elaina?” Just then, my conscience (Miss Fran) spoke to me again. “Please, run away… That man is the lowest of the low… He’s certainly much worse than you can imagine…”

“Actually, he seems to be pretty much exactly what I expected…”

“Well…! I guess you have no eye for men, then…” For some reason, Miss Fran seemed awfully shocked. Apparently there had been some sort of misunderstanding.

“…Um, I’m not really planning to fall in love with him, or anything…”

“Ah, right, of course not.” Miss Fran’s voice was cheerful again, as if nothing had happened. “So then why are you here attending the ball?”

“…It’s a long story, but I have to get this guy to fall in love with me at all costs.”

“……………………………………………………………………………………Is that so?”

A heavy silence fell over her.

Apparently, my statement had been misleading.

“To be honest, I’m here on a job,” I added.

“Of course.”

It concerned me that Miss Fran’s voice was devoid of emotion, but I kept talking.

“Apparently there is one weird girl who has fallen deeply in love with this prince. The girl’s stepfamily loves her and doesn’t want the prince to take her away, so they want me to interfere and prevent them from getting married.”

“But even if she came to the ball, isn’t it impossible to know whether or not she would win the prince’s heart?”

“…I gave the family the same advice, but according to them, this girl likes princes, so the prince is sure to like her back. Apparently.”

“I see. That’s totally nonsensical.”

“…Yep, it sure is.”

“But he is a prince, so I suppose it’s not impossible that something might happen.”

“That’s what I thought, too.”

The prince was apparently even more obsessed with girls than I had been told.

“Anyway, you’re cute,” the prince said. “Where do you live? Do you have a boyfriend?”

He didn’t seem to have heard one bit of my rather lengthy whispered conversation with Miss Fran. It was honestly pretty amazing.

“…So, Elaina, that means you didn’t come here because you’ve actually fallen for the prince, right? You’re just here because you have to be, for a job, right?”

“That’s right.”

Miss Fran seemed to have already forgotten that she’d been pretending to be my inner voice. She spoke to me as usual, as my teacher.

“Well, I’m awfully relieved to hear that. I was certain that you had gone into town and fallen carelessly in love…”

“I’m not such an easy girl that I would fall in love at first sight with someone I just met!” I huffed.

“Is that so?” I felt that the emotion had finally come back to Miss Fran’s voice. In her usual gentle tone, she said, “But you don’t need to impress anybody by sacrificing yourself to try to take down the prince. There’s no need for you to go that far.”

“……” I decided not to mention the fact that I was going to try to stealthily “borrow” all the valuables while attending the ball.

“Regarding the commission that you accepted, Elaina, there’s no real need for you to get the prince to fall for you. I’ve already got something in the works.”

“……?”

I frowned suspiciously.

After a brief silence, Miss Fran’s clear voice once again echoed through my head.

“I’ve arranged for a stand-in.”

“…A stand-in?”

“Yes, a stand-in—or rather, I’ve found a strange girl who actually does like the prince and brought her here. Because in order to satisfy the prince’s very specific romantic preferences, a person suitable for the job is absolutely essential,” Fran explained.

At that moment, the doors to the hall were thrown open with a bang.

“Th-this is…! The venue for the grand ball…!”

A beautiful girl with golden hair was standing there, wearing a devious smirk. I thought I recognized her face from somewhere.

……

“Miss Fran?”

“Yes?”

I let out a sigh, directed at the teacher who was watching me from somewhere.

“The girl I was hired to protect? That’s her.”

After bursting into the ball, the girl announced that her name was Lislette, then headed straight for the prince.

Let me explain how on earth Miss Fran, who should have had no acquaintance whatsoever with Lislette, ended up bringing her right to the prince.

The two of them had met the morning of the ball.

Miss Fran had accepted the commission from the prince but was feeling dispirited because it was too much of a pain to deal with. So she had gone for a walk around town.

If she didn’t do something, the prince was going to hold his ball and probably demand that she somehow make whichever girl struck his fancy fall in love with him somehow, and that certainly would have been a big pain. So it seemed to her that the best plan was to find a girl who was already in love with the prince, lure her to the ball, and set the two of them up together.

And so Miss Fran went searching around town, looking for a girl who would be a good match for the prince.

But it turned out that although all the girls who were planning to attend the ball seemed, at least on the surface, like they were taken with the prince, the truth was that most of them actually showed no interest in him whatsoever. They were all more excited for the free banquet, or the prospect of striking it rich just for pretending to fall in love. Everyone seemed to have their own dishonest reasons for attending the ball. Miss Fran said that it felt like she was dealing with a “whole crowd of Elainas” or something, but we’ll set that aside for now.

Anyway, finding a stand-in was rough going. Miss Fran couldn’t find even one decent prospect.

“Eh-heh-heh…once I’m done with this job…I can go to the ball…heh-heh…”

Not even a single decent girl.

“……”

Most of the girls in town thought of the ball as nothing more than a chance to fill their stomachs. Anyone actually looking forward to meeting the prince would have been a real outlier.

After wandering around town for a while, Miss Fran apparently spotted a strange girl out doing her shopping while frequently muttering, “I wuv the prince…,” and other less intelligible things to herself.

“……”

Immediately after she saw the girl, Miss Fran thought, Ah, certainly this girl is madly in love with the prince. I see, I see—

Then, an idea flashed into her mind.

That’s it! I’ll stick this girl and the prince together.

“Um, excuse me.” And so Miss Fran immediately put her hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Are you, by chance, in love with the prince?” she asked, so directly it could be called tactless.

Immediately, the girl—Lislette—shrieked in surprise, “Eee! H-how did you…! Who are you…?”

“I’m a witch, just passing through.” Miss Fran’s words were not untrue. “You looked so troubled, I couldn’t just watch, and I decided to say something to you. I am a good witch, you know.” That part was mostly made up. “You are in love with the prince, yet you think that your dream of being with him will never be realized… Am I wrong?”

“……”

“If you like, perhaps I could be of assistance?”

“Assist…me…?”

When a suspicious witch suddenly appears out of nowhere and offers to help, most normal people would turn her away. That’s probably what I would have done. I might have even spit at her. So it was hard to believe that someone would just obediently nod along to whatever such a stranger proposed.

“Uh…you…assist me, you say…?”

But Lislette was apparently sort of off in the head, and she immediately agreed.

“…Oh, happy day!” she exclaimed.

At that point in the story, I became very worried that Lislette was going to spend the rest of her life falling for various fishy scams and such, but that’s another matter, so let’s leave it aside for now.

“Please, attend the royal ball. If you do, I will support you and make sure you’re wed to the prince,” Miss Fran assured Lislette.

“But…I’ve got work to do…”

“What work do you have?”

“I’ve got shopping. My stepmother asked me…” Lislette’s stepmother and sisters were planning to keep her busy with too many chores, so that she wouldn’t even have the chance to attend the royal ball.

“Oh-hoh, shopping, is it? By the way, where is your house?”

“Over there.” Lislette pointed.

“Over there, hm?” Miss Fran waved her wand.

“……” Lislette stared in the direction of her house. Some sort of weird fog descended on her stepfamily’s home. “Um, what’s that?”

“I’ve put all the residents in that area to sleep. Now the person who asked you to go shopping is no longer in the picture, you see? So please attend the royal ball.”

Miss Fran had brought Lislette’s errands to a close in quite a forceful way. That said, all she had done was produce some fog, so she hadn’t actually put anyone to sleep, but—

“…Amazing! So this is a witch’s power…!”

Since Lislette was a little off anyway, she believed every word that Miss Fran said.

“You’ll have to change your clothes, too.”

She would need to be appropriately dressed in order to attend the ball. Miss Fran pointed her wand at Lislette next.

Miss Fran had already had her meeting with the prince and had accepted his request. Of course, she was also well informed about the prince’s awful fetish, so doing Lislette’s makeup and hair so that her appearance matched the prince’s tastes was right up her alley.

As Miss Fran waved her wand around effortlessly, Lislette’s shabby clothes transformed quickly into a beautiful outfit.

“……”

It was a leather dress in tones of red and black, and sharp high heels. It even had a coiled whip fastened at the hip. She looked less like she was on her way to a ball, and more like she was going to kill someone violently.

The outfit was absolutely not the kind of thing Miss Fran liked.

The day before, the prince had given Miss Fran a piece of paper with a picture on it and told her that he was sure to fall in love with any girl who looked like the girl in the picture. Miss Fran had figured out that the prince was actually just telling her how to dress any girl she presented to him.

The outfit was obviously utterly inappropriate for a royal ball.

“…So apparently the prince likes outfits like this…” It was bad enough that even Miss Fran felt guilty about dressing an innocent young girl in such a getup.

“Mm-mm…don’t worry about it…” But Lislette cupped her own chest. “It’s really kind of exciting…,” she said.

“Uaaagh…”

Ah, this girl seems like a good match for the prince…, Miss Fran apparently thought in her heart of hearts.

And that’s how Miss Fran ended up helping Lislette attend the ball.

“Which is all to say, I failed utterly at the job you all gave me. I’m sorry.”

So I made it through the royal ball, returned to the stepmother and her daughters, and explained the situation to them at length.

I had never imagined that Miss Fran would be operating behind the scenes, so I hadn’t foreseen the possibility of failure. There was nothing I could do but apologize.

I prepared myself for the inevitable shower of complaints that I was sure would follow.

But…

“I see, hmm…” The stepmother was unexpectedly calm. “So in other words, our Lislette has become someone’s wife…”

Ah, I was wrong; she’s not calm at all.

“……” The older sister, who had been listening quietly to the conversation, seemed to react to the word wife. “You know, housewife fetishes…are a thing.”

What are they talking about? I have no idea what’s going on.

“……” The younger sister nodded her approval. “Actually, we can think of it like a new facet to appreciate our big sister Cinderella…”

“You two are so optimistic, it’s killing me.”

So then, there was no reason for me to even try? That’s sure what it seems like.

But as a matter of fact, the prince choosing Lislette as his partner did not seem to have been a bad thing for the country.

Miss Fran and I had stayed in town for a little while after the ball, but we hadn’t heard one bit of negative gossip about the prince and Lislette.

Rather, when it came to the prince, people were even saying that he had regained some of his composure as a man.

Now, I wonder why that could be?

“I’m sure that he no longer feels the need to act out, now that he’s found his ideal partner,” Miss Fran said.

“…How does that work?”

“Nobody wants to reveal their ugly side in front of the person they love, right? Everyone naturally tries to show off in front of their beloved.”

“……”

Um, well, when it comes to the prince, I feel like he had nothing but ugly parts to begin with…

“In any case, even that prince is going to do a splendid job from now on…probably…I think.”

“…That would be nice…”

Because I’d rather not go through so much trouble the next time I visit.

Miss Fran and I continued chatting as we made our way toward the city gates.

On the way there…

“By the way, Elaina.” Miss Fran suddenly looked at me. “What kind of person would you say is your preferred type?”

Oh my…

“What’s this, all of a sudden?”

“Oh, I was just wondering what kind of person you might try to show off in front of.”

“……”

Someone I would show off for?

After thinking for a little while, I smiled back at Miss Fran.

“That’s a secret.”

Surely Miss Fran cannot possibly understand my feelings on the matter.

Because unlike her, I am great at keeping secrets.