A FAKE WITCH OF THE HIGHLANDS APPEARED
Clang, clang, the break-time bell rang.
“Phew! Time for a quick rest.”
I stretched out my arms and headed for the break room, then flopped down on the sofa. There were only a few people who worked the morning shift, so I had the sofa all to myself.
Halkara entered the room. She always wore this jacket-like thing over her clothes when she was working as the company president.
I might have been imagining it, but it looked like her expression was kind of strained.
“Thank you for your hard work this morning, Madam Teacher.”
“Yes, you too. Phew, sometimes work like this is good for me!”
“But don’t you get bored of it? Wouldn’t a more creative field be more suited to your experience and skills? You don’t have to be here just for such simple labor…”
“But it’s actually kinda fun to get into simple work!”
“Well, it puts a lot on my mind when you’re here, so I would prefer if you stayed at home, like usual!” Halkara was being honest, so she was serious.
“Aww. Shouldn’t it be easier on your mind to hire someone you know for a part-time job instead of a complete stranger?”
“Well, maybe for a younger sister of mine. But you’re my teacher, Madam Teacher! I have to be much more attentive if someone of a greater status than me is working at my factory!”
That’s right—I was actually working part-time at Halkara’s factory.
I wasn’t in need of money, so I was really just killing time. It had been quite a long while since I actually wanted to do something work-like.
By the way, the job I’d been doing until just a few minutes ago was sticking labels onto the products that the company sold.
No conversation, just making sure there were no wrinkles.
“Man, you know, I’ve gotten pretty good at sticking the labels on. None of them was on crooked, and I think if I kept going, I’d be a master at it.”
“You really don’t need to go that far… If you want to aim high, then please do so with medicine… Personally, I would be much prouder and happier if that’s how you earned your greatness, Madam Teacher.”
I see. I mean, I understood what Halkara was trying to say. She wanted me to do something where she could genuinely respect me. But—
“If I was to become a top-tier herbalist, I’d have to travel far and wide on foot to discover herbs. That sounds like a huge pain. And it’s not like I can drag the whole family along with me, so I’d be alone…”
What made me sad was that I’d have to leave my beloved daughters and family behind and take up work on my own.
And if I did become a legendary herbalist, requests from nobles and the rich asking me to cure their diseases would come in from all over the world. I’d get way busier.
You couldn’t build a laid-back lifestyle on that.
That’s when Halkara said with a blush, “That’s true. We’d hate for you to leave us.” Why did she blush there?
“I like taking things little by little. I don’t really feel like gaining power, even as an herbalist or a witch. The other part-time workers just think I’m a girl who lives nearby anyway.”
That was when an older lady who also worked the same shift as me came in and said, “Oh, Miss Azusa! Lovely to see you.”
There weren’t photographs or anything in this world, so even if the name of the Witch of the Highlands was well known, many people couldn’t match the name with a face.
Halkara looked like she was trying not to say anything. She probably didn’t really like that I wasn’t being worshipped, but my desire for recognition was fulfilled enough in the area around Flatta.
Once that boundary started expanding, it would never stop.
“Hey, Azusa, do you have a crush on anyone? Shall I bring in some prospective husbands for you?”
“Oh, no, that’s all right! I’ve actually got two daughters already.”
“Wha…? I see… Ha-ha-ha…”
Once I mentioned I had daughters, conversations like these stopped immediately.
People often said I looked really young, so it was the most glorious way to put an end to that.
“Oh, that’s right, have you heard about the great Witch of the Highlands?”
Of course she’d bring up the Witch here.
“I live near Flatta, so I’ve seen her in the flesh several times.”
I played along innocently. Halkara would probably want me to say, That’s me! though.
“I hear the great Witch is traveling around the entire country. She truly is a great woman!”
Wha—?
I feel like I’ve just heard the beginning of an impossible tale…
“Oh, that’s the first I’ve heard of it…”
“I hear she vowed to cure the world of illness and is walking from land to land selling medicine. Living legends truly are on another level!”
“I—I see… But I saw the great Witch of the Highlands near the village today… I wonder why that is…”
“There’s a dragon child at the great Witch’s place, no? Couldn’t she just have ridden her to come back?”
Oh, so that was the only part she knew well. I guess dragons were a separate topic.
“Well, I’m going to grab a bit of water. Bye-bye, Miss Azusa!” the older lady said and left the room.
Halkara and I were the only ones left. We inevitably looked at each other.
“Halkara, this isn’t good…”
“Madam Teacher, I can’t believe you never told me you were doing something so virtuous.”
“I’m not.”
I couldn’t possibly have told her. Because I wasn’t doing anything of the sort.
“It means there’s a fake out there pretending to be me. She probably knew her medicine would sell better if she used my name.”
“Who…? Who would do this…? This is unforgivable… We must demand compensation for the psychological distress caused by this!”
Whether or not she would pay damages was a different matter, but it was true that we needed to do something about it.
If this fake did too much work, that would put me in a bind, and if she committed a crime or did anything to lower my reputation, that would just bring the negative consequences to the real Witch.
“Okay, we’ll sue her in court.”
“Being the president of a company really makes you choose the proper adult course of action, doesn’t it, Halkara…? But we can’t do anything if we don’t know where the defendant is. She’s traveling around, so we don’t know where she lives.”
Halkara looked at me in agreement.
“So first, we’ll give this fake a good earful ourselves.”
When I got home, I held a strategy meeting.
“—Which basically means there’s a fake me out there.”
“Utterly unforgiveable.” (Laika)
“We’ll string her up!” (Rosalie)
“I’ll kill her.” (Flatorte)
“If we follow precedent, we can be sure she’ll serve five years in prison.” (Shalsha)
“Yeah, you’re my only mommy.” (Falfa)
It was starting to sound pretty gory in here, but I wanted to administer a less-harsh punishment if possible.
“Either way, we won’t get anywhere if we don’t gather any information. I guess we should head to a faraway province to ask around. She’s a fake, which means she has to tell people that she’s the Witch of the Highlands. That basically means she can only work in places where no one knows the real thing.”
Which meant the fake should be somewhere far away from here.
“Lady Azusa, isn’t this a time to ask for help from the demons?” Laika offered a constructive idea. It would be effective to have more people searching, but…
“Sorry, I think I’ll pass on that… Those guys do things way too thoroughly…”
If the demons ended up coming to town to investigate, “the Witch of the Highlands” might just end up “the Demon of the Highlands.”
“For me, I just want this to end peaceably. I’d honestly be satisfied with the fake earnestly reflecting on her actions. But of course, if she’s been selling medicine that doesn’t actually work, then she should be punished.”
Selling fake medicine was fraud, and in a worst-case scenario, someone could die. That’s when she’d end up in court.
“Then can I ask each of you to search for info on this fake on your own?”
And that was how we began our hunt for the imposter.
Laika and I decided to ask around in a town in the west.
On the other hand, Flatorte flew off to the east.
I didn’t think I was very well known in the south, but I’d won a tournament the other day, so now I was famous there. That probably wasn’t an easy place for the fake to work. It was unknown if this imposter had any experience in battle, but people usually didn’t want to be randomly asked to spar.
So for now, our strategy was to investigate everywhere but the south.
“Oh, right. I feel like it’s been a long time since we’ve asked around or gathered information.”
It’s a pretty standard thing in RPGs, but it wasn’t a common task for people unless they were adventurers.
There was a game series called The Ark, and I remembered ignoring the main story line and instead working on side quests from the guild. The main story line was really dark, so I had to take more breaks from it than usual. Well, that didn’t really matter anymore.
“If we’re to ask around, then how about a tavern?” Laika suggested. “I’m not very fond of them, since they’re usually teeming with ruffians, though.”
“Or a guild, because there might be drifting adventurers there. One of those, I guess. We’ll need patience for this, so we just have to keep our heads up as we go. Okay, I’ll go to the guild across the river, and you take the tavern nearb—”
Laika was tugging at my clothes.
“I…do not do very well in places like taverns, so…if you could come along with me, I would be most grateful…”
Aww, she’s so cute!
“Laika, you’re a proper lady, aren’t you? You don’t like spots full of drinkers, right? Then I’ll go with you.”
“But, Lady Azusa, my question is, why are you fine in places like that?”
“Because I used to fall asleep in cheap bars that would be open until late—or early morning, whatever you want to call it—then head in to work the next morning…”
Now that I thought about it, those days really were the worst. It’s no surprise all that work killed me.
And old guys who sexually harassed girls also hung out in the taverns of this world. If Laika went in on her own, it wouldn’t end well.
The tavern was on the larger side, even for the capital of the province, so there was still quite a crowd during the daytime.
“Hey, pretty lady! Step on me!” “Please, call me names!” “Glare at me and say I’m the worst!”
“Why are all these vulgar catcalls so masochistic?!”
Then, a female employee with a sharp glare approached us.
“Welcome to the public tavern, A Pig Would Be More Useful than You.”
This was definitely more in line with a gimmicky bar than a public tavern.
“Hey, miss, another drink, please!”
“Shut up. Go to the kitchen and get it yourself,” said the employee. The concept of customer service had been thrown out the window.
The perception that the customer was always right was a bit much, but there was something wrong about treating them as lesser than pigs.
“See, Lady Azusa? I don’t really deal with places like this very well…”
“Trust me, Laika, you shouldn’t treat this place as a standard for taverns.”
“This shop was about to be shut down a long time ago because the employees’ hospitality was so awful, but when they started anew and made the rough treatment the focal point, it immediately flourished. A little change in perspective won the day, didn’t it?” said the employee with the sharp glare.
That was too much of a change.
“It doesn’t seem like you two are here for our special brand of rough treatment. Did you want to apply for a waitress position?”
I wouldn’t be caught dead working here.
“We have a question for you, but I’d hate to ask for something without giving anything in return, so I’d like to place an order.”
“If you want to return the favor, then could you taunt those men over there? If possible, it would be best if you acted disillusioned or uncomfortable, like you were looking at something dirty.”
I can’t believe we found ourselves in a place like this!
Oh well. The employee looked like she had a lot of information, so I would go along with what she asked, just for a little bit.
I did my best to look as ticked-off as possible.
“Missy, we want to order more!”
“Don’t talk to me when you reek of alcohol.”
“Missy, we also want—”
“You want to get kicked. Is that it? Quit flapping your gums.”
“Maybe I should order an expensive drink?”
“The water in a horse’s bucket is good enough for you.”
“Missy, how ’bout a smile?”
“…I’m sorry? Did you just tell me what to do?”
I wondered if I was doing okay, but some of them were tearing up with delight.
These people are bonkers!
“Ooh, being insulted really does feel great…” “This is exactly what I walked three hours here for…” “Ooh, I got the shivers!”
Laika said, “I want to disinfect them with flames.” I know how you feel, but please don’t burn them.
“Thank you! Now the financial support will come rolling in thanks to those pigs!”
The employee finally outright compared the customers to pigs.
“Now, ask me anything you like. I’m pretty confident when it comes to information.”
But still, it wasn’t like she would know right off the bat.
“Has an herbalist calling herself the Witch of the Highlands been around here?”
“The Witch of the Highlands? Yes, she has. I think she even stayed in this town.”
She did know right off the bat! She had every right to be confident.
“We’re looking for her. Please tell us about her; anything is fine!”
“Well, I haven’t seen her. I’ve been dealing with these drunk pigs here, after all.”
“The customers might chew you out if they hear that. But I guess that’s why they come here, so never mind…”
You could say she was still thinking about work even when she was talking to us.
“Once, a new employee called a customer sir, and he lost it. What the hell; don’t behave modestly like that! he said.”
This is way too twisted. This world is doomed.
“One of these drunk pigs may know something. You can ask them if you like. They can speak human language.”
I still can’t believe we came to a place like this…
Laika and I posed our question to a few of the old men who were good and drunk.
“Do you know the Witch of the Highlands?”
“Yeah, I do. She’s that witch, from the highlands.”
“You don’t know anything!”
“Hey, nice jab! Be meaner about it, though! Like, You’re worthless, or something!”
“You are worthless!”
“Aah, that’s great! I get stressed when my wife says it to me, but it’s like a compliment when it’s from a young girl!”
I bet his wife would have a few choice words for him if she found out he was coming here…
Laika had seemed bewildered by the old men at first, but something in her had snapped during this whole ordeal, and her gaze had gotten colder.
“Silence, puny humans. You dare speak to a red dragon in such a manner? Do you wish to be ripped to shreds?”
“Whoa! This is my first time seeing this type! More, please!”
“Such filth has no right to request anything from me.”
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Laika, don’t forget, our whole point of this is to ask about who the fake is, okay?
In the end, no one there had seen the Witch of the Highlands herself. They were all worthless (which is an expression I’d use only for this tavern, since I’m normally a milder person).
Then, we decided to ask if there was anyone who had bought medicine from the witch.
If she was selling harmful drugs like poison while using my name, it would not only affect others’ lives but also my position. This was the one thing I wanted to check before anything else.
On the other hand, if she was selling a bunch of useless junk without any medicinal value, then someone who needed medicine might end up taking something ineffective and die without a cure.
“Well, my wife went out to buy cold medicine from her, but the witch said, My position doesn’t yet allow me to sell curatives, and apparently didn’t sell her anything.”
“Huh, that sure is a commendable thing to say…”
I was relieved to hear she wasn’t selling medicine, but I was mad that the imposter just decided to lower my reputation…
Come on. I can make cold medicine…
“Right. I hear that she didn’t sell any medicine in other lands, either. Apparently, she said she didn’t want to earn money on her fame alone.”
While what the customer said gave me relief, the mystery only deepened. If she didn’t need to earn money on fame alone, then why was she acting as my fake?
I was almost certain that she was selling fake medicine to get rich quick. I mean, what other reason was there?
Not knowing what she was after gave me a bad feeling.
“Lady Azusa, the Witch of the Highlands left on a road heading north two weeks ago. If she is staying in every place along the way, then she might not have gotten very far.”
“Thanks, Laika. Then I guess we can follow her.”
It was a big relief even just getting an idea of what to do next.
“Are you leaving already?” The employee approached us. “If you like, you’re welcome to come back and work for us again. Your wages would be five times what you’d earn in a normal tavern.”
I’ll bet. That definitely wasn’t the salary for someone working in a bar…
First, we went to the outskirts so Laika could turn into a dragon, then we headed to a town sixty miles to the north.
Incidentally, miles wasn’t really a unit of measurement in this world, but I still had a habit of converting things in my head. Here, the units of measurement were slightly different depending on the region, so it was hard to keep track.
It would take a (very average, not someone like Laika or me) woman about three or four days to travel sixty miles by foot. The people in this world had stronger legs than those of twenty-first-century Japanese people.
And if she stayed two or three days in the town along the way, then I figured she would be right around here.
I began my questioning at the greengrocers near the town square. The fake was probably hoping for attention, so she would likely come to the town square.
“The Witch of the Highlands? Yeah, she was just here two days ago. But she was different than I thought she’d be,” said the lady at the shop.
We were closing in on the fake! But I wondered what she meant when she said she was different than she’d thought.
“I heard through the grapevine that the Witch was more of a beautiful young woman. But she wasn’t like that at all.”
“Oh gosh, well… I don’t really pay much attention to my beauty. It might just be the climate.”
“Why do you look so happy? Though I guess you are a pretty one.”
“Ma’am, I’ll take some of those apples and oranges.”
We had to contribute to the shop’s sales. It was a given, since she gave us some good info.
“Lady Azusa… Are you sure you’re not buying too much…?”
“It’s fine. I can eat plenty of fruit, no matter how much we have!”
I regretted it a little when I lined up all my apples and oranges at the inn.
“We can’t cook when we’re traveling, so I think I might get bored of this…”
“Lady Azusa, you sure are vulnerable to flattery.” Laika seemed scandalized, but she soon started chuckling in delight again. “But I am happy to have seen that side of you.”
“In my past life, I died from overwork before I was recognized for anything… I’m avoiding things that’ll make me too conspicuous, but I mean, I’m still happy when someone compliments me. There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”
“Indeed. As your pupil, I truly respect how you keep nothing from others, Lady Azusa. I might even say that it’s an ideal way to live.”
Well, that was a nice thing to say!
And now that I thought about it, this was my first time traveling alone with Laika. Had I started on an aimless journey, this was probably what our life would have been like.
“All right, as a reward, I’ll give this to you.”
I held out an apple.
“I’m tired of it already. I would prefer some meat…”
We switched up our search for the fake and continued on foot. As long as we silently walked along, we’d catch up to her sooner or later.
“We’ll check every settlement as we find them. If there’s a crowd gathered in one of them, that’ll be our answer.”
“Understood! We will absolutely catch her!” Laika was more enthusiastic than I was.
And then we discovered a suspicious crowd at one settlement.
I called out to someone near the back.
“Excuse me, what is all this for?”
“The great Witch of the Highlands is here! How thankful we are!”
We had finally caught up to her.
Laika and I slowly made our way through the crowd. I guess our first job was to see how she was acting and what she was saying.
And there she was—a decrepit old lady.
Her back was practically hunched over at ninety degrees, and she was even gripping a cane.
I felt like the bend in her back was much more of a problem, though.
She definitely wasn’t a beautiful young woman! She wasn’t young at all!
A beautiful witch, then? No, that didn’t work, either. No matter how I looked at her, she wasn’t beautiful.
Lovely old lady? No, I thought lovely was pushing it once you reached the decrepit stage.
She was feebler than I thought, and her stretched skin hung down—it was all rather peculiar.
“Ho-ho-ho-ho. Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho.
“Ho-ho-ho,” the fake was saying. Actually, that was all she was saying.
“When you have energy, you can do anything. Ho-ho-ho.”
You don’t have any energy to begin with! You look like you’re gonna collapse any second now!
“I am the Witch of the Highlands. For roughly three hundred years, I have lived in the highlands.”
That was the same as me. But of course it was, since she was plagiarizing me.
“The great Witch is incredible.” “She is so experienced.” “There’s so much to gain just by looking at her.” “Are we sure she’s not undead?”
The people watching were all saying whatever they pleased.
One of the audience members raised their hand. “Why are you traveling at your advanced age, great Witch?”
“I am collecting yet unknown herbs and traveling the country. Ho-ho-ho-ho. Even yesterday, I went through the mountain pass from Melte to arrive here.”
“But isn’t it hard going around the whole country on foot? It’ll take so much time… And wow, I’m impressed you got through the mountain pass at all.”
I thought I saw the old woman jump slightly in response.
“Yeah… Now that you mention it.” “Even a horse has a hard time getting through that pass.” “But an undead would be fine, right?”
Yes, good! Doubt her, audience!
“When you have energy, you can do anything!” the imposter yelled, opening her eyes wide.
There was her aggressive technique!
“I see, as long as you have energy, huh?” “Energy is important.” “The undead need energy, too.”
She was sweet-talking them.
And I was really starting to wonder what happened to the person who kept mentioning the undead…
“Then what’s the secret to energy?”
There came a question. But this fake didn’t seem to have any energy at all, no matter how hard I looked.
“To not die.”
Another thoughtless answer!
“She’s not wrong.” “We’re winners just by being alive.” “Because the undead don’t die, y’know.” “Will you honestly shut up about the undead already?!”
She’s really pushing it… And someone in the audience finally complained about all the undead comments!
Then someone from the audience said, “Please sell us medicine!”
Talk of the Witch of the Highlands’s medicine should have spread to this region.
I made a living killing slimes, so I sometimes forgot, but a witch’s main line of work was pharmaceutical.
These could be health brews or strange-looking substances filled with lizards or scorpions, but either way, my main job was making those.
Laika also seemed to understand that this was an important point and tugged on my clothes. It was her signal for me to pay attention.
Now, fake, how will you respond?
“…I have not yet reached a level in my training that allows me to sell medicine. Once I have matured more, I will sell.”
“No way!” That was when I raised my voice and interjected. “You’ve been doing this for three hundred years, right? Then how long do you need to do this to be independent? The world of witchcraft isn’t so severe that you’d stay a novice for five hundred years!”
“Lady Azusa, they’ll notice you; they’ll notice you!” I was about to lunge forward, so Laika intervened.
“It’s fine; she’s a quack anyway. It’s not like she’s selling anything, so I’m not obstructing her business at all.”
Then I went all out on the offensive.
“I heard that the Witch of the Highlands was young, so then why are you so old?” I stared at her thinking, You’re so fake.
The imposter’s expression read, This is bad…
“Oh yeah, I heard that the Witch of the Highlands was a beautiful young woman.” “Apparently, she looks seventeen.” “Tch, so she’s not undead…”
The audience seemed to realize that something was odd.
“I heard she’s the most beautiful in all of Nanterre.” “No, I heard she’s the most beautiful girl in the kingdom.” “Yeah, no man can look at her without falling in love.” “She’s glowing with a bright light all the time and stuff.”
You guys are getting carried away! This will make it too hard to reveal who I am!
Well, even if I didn’t reveal myself, I could still give this fake a good lesson.
“I am Liliri the Witch. And, by the way, the Witch of the Highlands is my friend. I’ll be straight with you—this old woman is a fake!”
The name I used was, of course, a false one. I didn’t need to say I was the Witch of the Highlands here.
The fraud hunched over even more than before. She was definitely trying to avoid eye contact.
“The young girl said that.” “She’s cute, so it’s probably true.” “Yeah, she is cute.” “It’s almost like she’s undead.”
People were agreeing with me for the most random reasons.
And whoever that was who likened me to the undead? Rude.
“If you’re going to keep calling yourself the Witch of the Highlands, then show us proof that you are. Let’s have a magical sparring match. The Witch of the Highlands would never lose to me.”
I went straight in and asked for a real fight. Testing people wasn’t a very good thing to do, but it wouldn’t help if news of the fake’s loss didn’t spread.
“Hmm… Very well. I’ve made up my mind.”
Oh, are you gonna do it? It’s not fun if you don’t. Sorry, but I’ll show you what I’m made of.
The phony witch suddenly straightened out her back…
Then immediately bent it again to ninety degrees.
“I am a fake! I am sorry!!!”
“Now you’re hunched over because you’re bowing?!”
I ended up commenting on the fake’s very graceful response.
“What, she’s a fake?” “She’s not a beautiful young woman, of course.” “But I thought she was undead.” “Dude, your obsession with the undead is really weirding me out.”
The audience dispersed.
I guess that was fine. Well, the fake was an old woman, so it would’ve been cruel to hound her for further answers. She wasn’t gaining profits by swindling others in this region anyway.
But we stayed, because this was when the real deal began.
Laika slowly approached the fake.
“I am Laika, apprentice to Lady Azusa, Witch of the Highlands. I heard there was someone pretending to be my master, so I was searching for you. Why have you decided to act out such a lie?”
“…My back hurts.”
She was clearly trying to dodge the question!
“That is odd. When you bowed earlier, your back stretched out fine.”
Laika the detective… She was conducting a thorough interrogation.
The fraud must have thought it was inevitable, because she stood up straight at attention. Laika’s deduction was correct.
“Please forgive me…” Her voice sounded somewhat younger. Of course she couldn’t have traveled in such a feeble body.
“Then can you answer my question? Why did you decide to make yourself into an old lady? The Witch of the Highlands is known to be a much younger woman.”
“That’s…because I ended up getting into it without really knowing the details… I learned that the Witch of the Highlands was young after I started doing this…”
“That sure is a half-hearted attempt at impersonating someone!”
I had the same impression when she was explaining to the crowd, but people who did stuff like this didn’t often plan very well…
“Now a question from me. Why did you take the name of the Witch of the Highlands? And without even selling anything? There’s nothing to gain by assuming a fake name like that, then, no?”
Yeah, I was wondering the same.
Without any means of making money, then the risks of being a fake stood out much more. She might not have expected the Witch of the Highlands’s apprentice to show up, though.
“Honestly, that’s the biggest question. I have to ask to understand why.”
I wanted to know the culprit’s intention. In cases like these, it was unlikely that the culprit did it because she suddenly lost her head, so it wasn’t an unmotivated action.
And if the reason was rational, then we could also be careful to make sure that a second or third fake didn’t appear. Or if it was a sympathetic reason, then we probably could allow for extenuating circumstances.
“Er, well… You know… See, it’s a common thing…” She was having a hard time coming clean, which convinced me that there was something shady going on for sure.
“Spit it out, or I’ll drop you into the mouth of a volcano from the clouds,” Laika threatened with a straight face.
“I’ll say it; I’ll say it!”
All right, we’ll finally find out why. We’ll have her say it loud and clear.
“The reason I became the fake Witch of the Highlands is…”
““Is?!”” Laika and I said simultaneously.
“…because I wanted to be pampered!!!”
The answer came out of left field—out of a completely different dimension of reality. I just stood there blinking.
Laika looked even more confused and stared at her almost as though she hadn’t heard.
“I’m sorry—I don’t really understand what you mean. Could you provide more detail?”
Answering must have taken a lot out of the old lady, because she slowly slipped down to sit with her legs splayed out on the floor.
When she was in this form, we looked bad, since we weren’t helping her out. I wanted her to turn younger if that was what she truly was.
“Um, I’ve been a witch for a long time, too, but I’m not in the public eye at all… And I wanted to be noticed, so I took on the name of the Witch of the Highlands. But I thought she might track me down if I walked around selling medicine, so I pretended I wasn’t that skilled in medicine yet so that I didn’t have to sell any.”
“Please don’t try to distract us with such nonsense details. I am not a very kind person, so I may spew fire at you.” Laika didn’t think her reasons held water. “In the end, the Witch of the Highlands will get all the credit for anything you do, not you. And your true name will remain unknown, so it makes no logical sense!”
“Laika, wait, wait! That’s a fair argument, but it’s true that there are people like this in the world…”
I was pulled back to a memory of my past life, of jerks who presented pictures other people drew as their own.
And while that absolutely was plagiarism, it wasn’t done for money or for fraud, so it was rather difficult to punish them.
There were probably people like that in this world, too.
You know those old guys at public taverns who say stuff like, Hey, I’m pals with that minister? If you pester them for more details, it turns out they just happened to pass him on the street. This was pretty similar…
Even if there was no actual benefit, people would lie for their fifteen minutes of fame.
“I suppose I’m having a hard time understanding. That wouldn’t improve your skills at all, would it, fake? Even if your improvement is slow, you may grow stronger if you act as yourself. This is illogical. Are you giving up on yourself?”
“Laika, she looks like she’s about to cry, so we should probably stop with the logical arguments soon…”
Laika was a big proponent of personal growth, so she probably couldn’t fathom this…
“I—I’ll show you my true form.”
The elderly lady suddenly transformed into a young redheaded girl.
By normal standards, it looked like she suddenly de-aged sixty years.
That said, there were way too many beings in this world whose looks and ages didn’t match, including my family, so the girl’s true age was a mystery.
“I am Eno, a witch… I have the power of immortality, but I’ve been living in obscurity for almost a hundred and fifty years… A terrible voice told me that I might hear some positive feedback if I became a fake…”
A hundred and fifty years…
I couldn’t deny the possibility that such a strong desire for recognition could drive someone crazy after all that time.
“Honestly, you lack humility. My master, Lady Azusa, would never look smug, no matter how strong she is.”
Laika was in lecture mode, as always. Ever the serious one.
“The difference in strength between you and Lady Azusa here is that attitude!”
Whoops, she blew my cover… That was a bad way to put it…
“Oh, you mean this girl here is Azusa, the Witch of the Highlands?”
Laika’s expression gave it all away. I really wished she’d wipe the guilt off her face.
“Well, she’s been found out now, so I suppose I should just tell you. This girl here is Lady Azusa, Witch of the Highlands!”
“Laika, at least try to bluff!”
We still could’ve gotten away with it, right?!
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