Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 14 - Chapter 3.2

The reason for her discomfiture was because this woman, whom she had met here in this city and with whom she was currently eating dinner, was a member of the Judgment Squad, and because her name was Sena.

“Eh-heh-heh. Keep patting me, please.”

And because the version of her that Elaina saw during the day was practically a different person from the version she saw at night.

“…………”

Just like Sena, Elaina, too, acted like a completely different person at night. But just who was this Elaina woman?

I don’t even need to tell you, do I?

That’s right, she’s me.

Jumping back to five days ago—

In the midst of my journey, I arrived at a place called Baska, the City of Balance, and knocked on the gates.

“Lady Witch, I wonder if you know about our organization—the organization known as the Judgment Squad?”

Immediately after I finished the immigration check and passed through the city gates, a man dressed in a blue uniform appeared before me suddenly. “May I speak to you for a moment?” he asked, beckoning me over.

The man identified himself as the director of the Judgment Squad, an organization unique to that particular city.

Without really thinking, I went with him, and I was shown into the reception room of a building with the words JUDGMENT SQUAD written on it. There, I learned all about this special job unique to Baska.

“More than twenty years ago, regrettably, our city was terribly unsafe. Theft, fraud, intimidation, violence, and all sorts of other offenses were rampant. In those days, the whole city was overflowing with crime. It was so bad that our people even hesitated to walk around alone outside.”

“Uh-huh.” I nodded along, my eyes glued to the donuts and tea sitting on the table. “That sounds terrible…”

Come to think of it, I haven’t eaten anything since this morning.

“In order to improve public safety—and so that the people in town could safely walk down the streets—we had to crack down on crime. Oh, please have a donut and some tea if you’d like.”

“Ah, much obliged. Thank you.” I immediately bit into a donut. “So in order to improve public safety, you created this Judgment Squad?”

“Yes, indeed.”

The members of the Judgment Squad, all of whom were mages, were singularly entrusted with managing crime in the city. That included doling out punishment, and at their hands, many criminals were publicly penalized. One criminal after another was convicted, until eventually their very existence became a deterrent. Each day, fewer and fewer criminals walked the main avenue of the city. Now, twenty years later, the city had supposedly eliminated crime entirely.

“So now you have no crime? That’s a pretty amazing achievement,” I said, raising my donut in acknowledgment.

Through its perfectly round hole, the director frowned and nodded. “Yes it is…” Even though all the criminals had disappeared, just as they’d wanted, his expression was gloomy. “But eliminating crime completely has caused another problem…,” he continued. “We were happy to have a reduction in crime, but doing away with it completely was not quite so welcome.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, the Judgment Squad was only founded because of all the crime. As things stand, the reason for our organization’s very existence is in question.”

“…Ah.”

I understood what he was saying.

The Judgment Squad was, after all, created to crack down on criminals. So if all the criminals disappeared, there was no more work for them to do. Criminals were absolutely essential to their job.

Though the group was formed to eliminate crime and ensure peace in the city, paradoxically, if things became too peaceful, they’d be out of the job. A strange consequence indeed.

“Recently, people are saying that we, the Judgment Squad, are becoming a problem.”

“Mm-hmm.” I nodded.

I understood the situation perfectly well. Basically, he was trying to tell me that this land had known peace for too long and its people were growing complacent.

“So then, what exactly am I supposed to do about it?” I asked.

Why would you summon a traveler like me as soon as I walked through the gates?

I had my head cocked questioningly.

The director nodded slightly and said, “Right. For now, I was hoping that you, Lady Witch, might commit some crimes.”

“Hmm?”

I tilted my head in the other direction. I must have misheard him. My ears aren’t working right. I’ll have him repeat what he said.

“I’m sorry, what?”

“For now—”

“Yes?”

“I was hoping that you—”

“Yes, yes.”

“—might commit some crimes.”

“Whaaat?”

At this point, I tilted my head back again, sure this was some big joke. But evidently, he wasn’t kidding.

“Please use this money to pay the fines. As long as you commit minor offenses, you won’t be arrested or anything. I would like it if you could commit as many crimes as possible while here, Madam Witch.”

“Okay…” So basically, he’s asking me to do as many bad things as I can during my stay in this city. “I’d like to avoid getting a bad reputation for committing all these crimes, though…”

“If you’re worried about that, how about wearing a disguise? I can lend you some things to help conceal your identity,” the director answered without hesitation. “On the off chance a resident figures out who you are, we’ll hush things up so that information doesn’t spread. Don’t worry about that.”

“Hush things up?”

Isn’t that what a bad guy would do? I thought with exasperation as I bit into my donut. I wondered if this director guy was exactly the type of person meant to be punished by the Judgment Squad.

I held up the now-broken ring of my donut and gazed through it at the director’s wicked face.

“Lady Witch, you must understand. Not being acknowledged is the same as not existing at all.”

After sitting through that brazenly underhanded exchange, I officially made my way into the city. But I’ve already told you about what happened when I did.

“Step right up! Who wants one of these cookies? They’re cheap!”

Heh-heh-heh, I chuckled, selling my suspicious wares.

“Excuse me. It’s prohibited to sell items in the street.”

While I was selling cookies—or rather, while I was in the middle of my suspicious business—a member of the Judgment Squad called out to me. It was Sena.

She sighed and said, “You’re a traveler, right? First time here? Listen, here in our city, we used to have a lot of people selling questionable merchandise on the streets, so it’s now prohibited to sell anything along the main avenue like this—” She started by explaining why what I was doing wasn’t allowed, then demanded I pay the associated fine.

“By the way, you’re also committing fraud, aren’t you? I’ll overlook it this time, but please refrain from such activities in the future.”

In principle, she could have added the fine for fraud and demanded a whole gold piece, but since it was my first offense, she let me off lightly. If I had really been a criminal, I probably would have been quite touched by her kindness.

“Thank you very much,” I said.

“Well, be careful, okay?” Sena clapped a hand down on my shoulder and left.

It was the Judgment Squad’s job to monitor the city. They were supposed to catch bad people in the act and levy fines on them right then and there, just as Sena had done with me. But the Judgment Squad would cease to exist if there were no bad people for them to catch. And so, to that end—

“Good afternoon! How would you like one of my cookies? Heh-heh-heh-heh!”

After Sena let me go, I once again began to ply my shady trade. Well, I didn’t have much of a choice, since the director of her organization had requested I go out and do bad things.

“Hmm? What? Hang on, you there. Seriously, what are you doing?”

Several minutes later, Sena returned. She looked at me like I was out of my mind. But I paid her the money again, and she told me, in a stronger tone than before, “Don’t do it again, you hear? Now hurry up and get out of here!”

“Okay!”

But the director asked me to commit crimes, so…

After that, I changed locations several times and continued selling my suspicious cookies. Sometimes I stood on the main road, sometimes in front of a café, sometimes in a back alley. In all sorts of places around town, I asked people if they would like a cookie. Then someone from the Judgment Squad would find me, ask “What are you doing?” and demand a fine. By my own count, I encountered the Judgment Squad about twenty times during that first day.

That’s a pretty decent number, huh?

“Hey, you! Seriously, give it a rest alreadyyyyyyyyyy!”

Incidentally, I must have encountered Sena about 70 percent of the time. The second time I encountered her, she was pretty angry. The third time, she just sighed. And the fourth time, she glared at me and said, “What, I— Are you serious…?” From the fifth time to about the eighth time she found me, her train of thought went off in a strange direction, and she began to wonder aloud about her own sanity. “Huh…that’s strange… Maybe I’m hallucinating?” After the ninth time, she came back to her senses and began yelling at me again, like now.

“I really respect your hard work,” I said.

“Oh, shut up!”

“Here, take this.”

Already used to this back-and-forth, I placed a gold coin in her hand with a fluid motion.

“Thanks!” Sena said frankly, accepting yet another fine from me that day. I’d already lost count of how many I’d paid. “I guess you’re a lost cause, huh? I know you’re going to offend again.”

“Heh-heh-heh.”

“Don’t try to laugh this off!” she said, raising her voice. She was fuming. “Come on, enough already! Just don’t do it again!” She turned and left.

Despite her spirited voice, Sena’s gait was unsteady, and she looked exhausted.

And that was more or less how I passed my first day in the city. I did as the director asked and committed a number of minor crimes in order to provide plenty of work for the Judgment Squad.

Perhaps because I’d spent the whole day facing off with them across town, by the time evening came, I was incredibly hungry. I checked into a nearby inn, left my belongings in my room, changed into a more mage-like outfit, then made my way to a restaurant.

Maybe because it was around dinner time, the restaurant was fairly crowded inside. I was shown to a counter seat, where I selected the safest choice—a pasta dish at the very top of the menu—and ate every bite. It was quite yummy. The employees were attentive, and I was pleased enough to want to come again during my stay.

If I had one single complaint, it’s that I couldn’t get into the bathroom.

“I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to…”

There was a young woman standing just outside the bathroom door, both hands resting on its surface, banging her head against it over and over again and grumbling to herself. The life had gone from her eyes, and when I called out to her, trying to get her attention, she didn’t even turn to look at me. Instead, she just kept repeating “I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job” over and over.

My, my. You’re a strange one, aren’t you?

“Excuse me. What’s the matter?” I asked, placing a hand on the woman’s shoulder.

If possible, I’d like you to move aside, please.

“I want to quit, I want to quit. I want to quit my job. I can’t do it anymore. I can’t do it…”

She just kept mumbling to herself and banging her head against the door. It was like my voice was passing right in one ear and out the other. Even when I tapped her on the shoulder a couple times, or waved my hand in front of her face, or put my hand on her forehead to prevent her from banging it against the door, she paid me no mind and kept grumbling, “I want to quit, I want to quit.”

I had absolutely no idea what had happened to her or who on earth this woman was, but somehow, I got the feeling I shouldn’t leave her alone. She was, after all, blocking the way into the bathroom—all the more reason I couldn’t ignore her.

“Um, for now,” I said, “you’re in the way of the other customers, so how about we move aside?”

And most importantly, you’re in my way.

“I want to quit my job, I want to quit my job, I want to— Ah, oh, I have work tomorrow, too… I have to go home…”

The young woman lifted her head as if she had suddenly woken up from a dream. How ironic that despite her odd behavior coming from an intense desire to quit her job, it was her sense of obligation to that very same job that brought her back to her senses.

She opened the door.

“I’m home!”

“That’s the bathroom.”

She hasn’t come back to her senses at all, has she?

“Ah, I can relax now… Smells like home.”

“I think you’re smelling the air freshener.”

“I’ve got to do my best at work tomorrow… I have to bear with it…bear with it…” She started mumbling the same words over and over again.

“Um… Are you all right?” I asked her.

“Bear with it…bear with it— Ugh, bleeeeeeeeeeeehhh!”

As soon as I spoke, she threw up.

She vomited violently in the direction of the toilet. She must have been under a tremendous amount of stress. Perhaps she was in a situation where she wasn’t allowed to vent her complaints. Holding the toilet bowl, she cried and groaned in a pitiful voice that sounded more like a child’s than an adult woman’s.

“A-are you all right?” I asked.

As flustered as I was by this sudden development, for the moment, I stroked her back.

This young woman, sobbing as she retched—this woman with her blond hair pulled back into a single ponytail—I knew her.

Her name was Sena, and she was a member of the Judgment Squad tasked with maintaining law and order in this city.

“Waaaaaaaaahhh… Weeeeehhh… Sniffle.”

The same petite woman was sitting in the seat across from me, crying big tears like a little girl as she stuffed her face with pasta.

Trying to calm her down after her perplexing behavior in the bathroom, I had taken her by the hand and gotten her to take a seat. Circumstances aside, I couldn’t very well leave her alone as she was.

I figured my first order of business was to get the woman in front of me to eat, drink, and settle down.

“Ugh, weeehhh… This is really good. Really, really good…” The woman busily moved her hands as she brought her fork to her mouth, wiped her tears, then picked up her glass.

“No need to rush; there’s plenty more where that came from,” I said. The woman was eating restlessly, as if it was her first meal in several days. “Go on, please. It’s my treat, so eat up.”

“It’s been a long time since I’ve eaten such delicious food…”

“In that case, what were you doing at this restaurant earlier…?”

“I don’t remember…”

“Well, that’s not good.”

“I don’t have any memories from after I finished work… I wonder why I came here…?”

“This is sounding worse and worse.”

According to her, she was standing in front of the restaurant’s bathroom when she came to. Apparently, whenever she exhausted herself completely, her memories flowed right out of her brain.

As far as I could guess, she had come into the restaurant but never ordered anything, instead simply banging her head against the bathroom door the whole time.

“With what I earn, I can’t even afford to eat my fill at a place like this…,” she said, wiping her teary eyes as she stuffed her face with pasta.

Her job is to maintain law and order in the city, but she barely gets paid for it? What’s that about?

“My job is so exhausting, and the pay is so low…”

Perhaps because she had finally gotten some nourishment, Sena was gradually regaining the ability form whole sentences.

“Recently, the crime rate has gone down, and the citizens are saying we’re a waste of tax money and calling us a burden on the city. That would be bad enough, but all my coworkers and superior officers are bad people who don’t do their jobs, and because nearly the whole organization is made up of people like that, the citizens only look down on us more and more…”

Most of the sentences she managed to form were just complaints, however.

The more she ate, the more she talked, and soon she was sharing very interesting tidbits, indeed.

“Today, there was this really strange woman who wouldn’t stop selling her strange cookies on the street, no matter how many times I warned her…,” Sena said with a big sigh. “Everyone, and I mean everyone, only ever thinks of themselves. I’m so sick of it all. I’m so tired…”

“…………” I looked away and nodded. “Seems like you’re having a really tough time…”

“Yeah… But I feel a little better now that I’ve met someone like you, Miss Witch.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

“You make me think there are still people in this city who care about others.”

“Oh, but I’m a traveler.”

“How sad…” Sena slumped in her seat.

“My name is Elaina, and I’m a traveling witch. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”

I felt guilty about getting her hopes up, though I suspected I wasn’t that different from any of the other people in this city. I had only spoken to Sena because I wanted to go to the bathroom, after all.

“By the way, I just arrived in your city today. If you have time, would you tell me all about it?” And even now, I was proposing something that was for my own benefit alone. “I want you to tell me everything about your job on the Judgment Squad. Of course, you can leave out anything secret or classified. I only ask that you tell me what you’re allowed to share,” I said, adding that if she was willing to talk to me, she would be able to eat like this every day.

I figured that, despite the director’s request, there wouldn’t be any harm in befriending Sena. And from her point of view, my proposal shouldn’t have any drawbacks.

After chowing down on her pasta for a while, Sena finally regained some of the vitality she’d had when we met earlier that day. At last, she nodded.

“As long as you agree to listen to my complaints as well.”

Just as Sena had said, her job at the Judgment Squad was exhausting, and just as she and the director had told me, their reputation had recently been declining all across the city.

Once I had been there for five days, I had a pretty good picture of the situation in Baska.

“Hey, you. You over there. Stop!”

One day, as I was passing a peaceful afternoon on a park bench, two guys obviously up to no good called out to some young women walking their dogs.

“…What?” The two women looked at them with annoyance.

Both the men were dressed in blue Judgment Squad uniforms and were holding bags that were giving off an awful stench.

“We don’t mind if you walk your dogs in this park, but if you don’t pick up their poop, we have a problem.” The vulgar men tossed the foul-smelling bags at the women’s feet. “We have to ask you to pay the fine for leaving dog poop behind and spoiling the scenery.”

The women seemed quite surprised by the man’s words.

“Huh? But I never left any—”

“If you’re going to talk back, we’ll raise the fine to include interfering with our activities.” Both men smirked.

There was no evidence that the two women had left the excrement behind, and the two men appeared to be framing them. Nevertheless, the women were forced to pay the fine, and they left the park.

I had spotted people wearing Judgment Squad uniforms everywhere around town, even when I wasn’t going out of my way to repeatedly commit crimes.

Uh-oh… What’s this guy up to?

I could see a Judgment Squad member standing in front of a certain cake shop on a street corner in town. Rows of colorful cakes had been set out at the front of the shop. The Judgment Squad member called the proprietor over and said to him, while pointing to the various cakes, “Mister, this is an indisputable breach of the rules here.”

What kind of problem could there be with a bunch of cakes? I thought.

“Having something so colorful lined up in front of your store spoils the scenery, don’t you think? And that calls for a fine.”

From what I could see, the cakes didn’t look overly colorful. But ultimately, the Judgment Squad were the ones who set the rules in this city, and even the seriousness of each crime was up to their mercurial whims.

“Tsk, tsk. You there. Show me the bag you just bought from that store.”

A young woman on the Judgment Squad called out to stop a young man exiting a bookstore. She snatched the bag out of his hands and began interrogating him.

“Oh? And here I was sure you left without buying anything. So I wonder why there are books that were for sale in this bag? What’s more, you’re a minor, aren’t you? I’m going to have to ask your parents about this situation…”

For once, I had spotted a member of the Judgment Squad other than Sena taking her job seriously.

“I-I’m sorry…!” cried the boy. “It was just a sudden impulse…! Please don’t tell my parents! Anything but that…! I beg you…!”

“Hmm? You want me to keep quiet? Well…you know what to do, then, right? Right?”

The woman scooted closer to the young man and stealthily initiated an exchange. I couldn’t see what happened next very well, but she must have extorted an absurd amount of money from the youth in exchange for her silence.

…………

Is Sena the only honest member of the Judgment Squad?

“Young lady, selling in the street is prohibited. Did you know that?”

One day, when I was conducting my shady business around town, as requested by the Judgment Squad’s director, someone from his organization called out to me. I was disappointed that the man wasn’t shouting and raving at me like Sena usually did. But I supposed I had been giving them a lot more chances to do some honest work these days.

Sena usually demands one gold piece, if I’m not mistaken…

“As a penalty, I think I’ll take three gold pieces.”

But for some reason, this Judgment Squad member demanded three times what Sena had been asking.

My, my. That doesn’t sound right.

“Don’t you have the amount wrong?” I asked.

“What’s that, back talk? I can raise the fine even more, you know? …Or would you like to be arrested?”

The man looked at me, then opened his jacket a ways so I could see his magic wand and a bundle of rope he kept there.

In this country, the Judgment Squad was the law. In other words, if one of its members said you were guilty, then you were guilty. Opposing them could get you thrown into prison. According to Sena, the man’s rope was a special kind only given to members of the Judgment Squad. No matter who they were arresting, even if that person was a witch, the special rope had the power to restrain and incapacitate up to ten individuals…or at least that’s what she’d been told. I couldn’t say if any of it was true.

“Okay, okay. I just have to pay you, right?”

With a sigh, I complied and handed the man three gold coins. The people of this city didn’t disobey the Judgment Squad because they could all too easily imagine what would happen if they did. Put simply, they didn’t want to get arrested.

“With such a powerful magic rope, won’t the Judgment Squad wind up acting like tyrants?”

Later that evening, I puzzled over this question, indirectly telling my companion about the man’s misdeeds.

“I saw the weird woman you’re always complaining about getting fined three gold coins today by a man from the Judgment Squad,” I said. “It seems like she got her just deserts. Serves her right, doesn’t it? Humph!”

Isn’t the balance of power unfairly weighted toward the Judgment Squad?

“Back when our organization was first established,” said Sena, “its leaders believed it was necessary to be somewhat oppressive if we wanted to actually reduce crime in the city, you see. There was a time when, in order to punish the bad guys, we needed to be a little heavy-handed.”

“So you’re saying they’re still using the same tools as back then?”

“Exactly. That rope isn’t very suited to the current environment, and I almost never have to touch it. Unfortunately, I do know of coworkers who use it for no good…”

“What an awful thought,” I replied. Can’t they just get rid of such things? “But I thought there weren’t any criminals left in this city?”

The current situation completely contradicted the story I’d been told when I first arrived.

I was certain the director had said all the criminals were gone. Crime was supposed to have disappeared from the city completely. However, from what I could see, the members of the Judgment Squad spent their days going around finding fault with various residents. During my several days in the city, I’d also seen residents committing obvious crimes, like shoplifting.

How can the director say there are zero criminals in spite of all of that?

“That’s an easy one,” Sena said without hesitation. “Most of the people on the Judgment Squad don’t report the crimes they stop people for each day.”

“But you’re reporting them, aren’t you, Sena? When I entered this city, I was told there was zero crime.”

“Heh-heh-heh.” Sena laughed weakly. “I know… If they actually counted all the criminals I catch, they couldn’t say that. But, well, you know…”

“Ah…”

It didn’t stop with her coworkers. There were probably countless people within the organization fudging the numbers. As a result, by the time the reports reached the director’s desk, the city had been transformed into a utopia, free of crime.

“That’s why they find someone like me, who’s going around cracking down on minor crimes, to be such a nuisance…”

“And if your coworkers can just change the number to zero, they can pocket the fine money, right?”

“Yeah…” Sena sniffled.

“That’s really tough…”

“Oh, stop it… Don’t be so nice to me… I’m going to cry…”

“There, there.”

“Waaah!”

I stroked her head, and she immediately started crying.

When I was dressed up as the shady saleswoman, two out of three times, it was Sena who stopped me. It was obvious that she was the main person keeping order throughout the city.

“Hey! You over there! Smoking on the street is a finable offense! Stop immediately!”

For example, when she found a man puffing out billowing clouds of smoke by the roadside, she immediately ran up to him, snatched the cigarette out of his hand, and extinguished it. Then she snatched the appropriate fine from him, too.

“Heeey! You guys over there! Yeah, the ones who threw out your drinks! You have to properly dispose of the leftover liquid! In fact, if you can’t finish a drink, don’t buy it!”

For example, when she spotted some girls purchasing picture-perfect colorful drinks from a roadside stall and making a fuss over how cute they were, only to toss them into the garbage almost immediately, Sena pounced and quickly fined them.

“There are rules to be followed when demonstrating in the street! You must refrain from any activities that might inconvenience people using the road for its intended purpose! In fact, if you have a complaint, you should bring it to us directly rather than making a pointless racket in a place like this!”

As another example, when she spotted demonstrators marching in the street, she swiftly forced them to stop and made the group disperse as she collected fines from each participant.

Sena was very passionate about her job. Though I had only spent a few days in the city, I had heard her angry roars echoing in every neighborhood.

But despite her enthusiasm, people did not think very favorably of the Judgment Squad.

“You people are always such a nuisance.” The smoker had cursed at her bitterly. “Greedy wench.”

The girls who had thrown away their drinks had talked loudly about Sena after she’d departed.

“There are plenty of people doing way worse things than us!”

“She must have loads of free time if she’s going out of her way to show up here.”

And the people participating in the demonstration had whispered and grumbled about Sena, too.

“I suppose people given authority by the state can never understand the struggles of the common people.”

“She’s nothing but a stooge.”

“Our government is corrupt because of people like her.”

“…………”

Even when she heard their various complaints, Sena didn’t pay any mind to the people’s discontent. She just kept on matter-of-factly collecting fines from them. After all, doing a job like this, she was used to being showered with criticism. Either that, or her heart was as cold as ice and made of steel. If not, I was sure she would have quit long ago. None of the criticism ever seemed to have any effect on her.

“Uuuuuugh… I can’t do it anymooore…!”

Or so I had thought. In truth, it seemed to have wounded her quite deeply. Every night, I met up with Sena to eat dinner at the same restaurant, and as soon as she saw my face, she would always collapse onto the table in anguish.

“I can’t do it…,” she would say, looking up at me from the table. Then she would whine and make the same single request. “Comfort me, please…”

“There, there.”

“Ah… I love you…”

“…………”

They seem to be working her to the bone. I’m sure anyone would want to complain.

“I wonder how I can get my work done without everyone in town hating me…?”

Just because I didn’t answer back right away, that didn’t mean I didn’t care, and it didn’t mean I wasn’t listening. I knew Sena was just an ordinary girl shouldering a heavy burden and a difficult responsibility.

As I roughly stroked the hair of the young woman across the table from me, I finally gave her my answer.

“What if you tried changing how you think about your job on the Judgment Squad?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, if you get on friendly terms with the bad guys, it might make your life a little easier.”

The reason everyone in town shunned the members of the Judgment Squad was because, compared to how it had been in the past, they no longer seemed necessary. And most of them, aside from Sena, no longer did any honest work.

Most of the organization’s current members could probably, in all honesty, be called bad guys. Considering the present situation, Sena was the odd one out.

If most people weren’t honest, then in a way, dishonesty could be considered normal.

“I can’t do that,” she replied. “It would go against my principles.”

“Is that so…? But isn’t it difficult, spending every day like this?”

“Hmm? I could spend all day with you stroking my hair. Actually, this is my favorite time of the day.”

“No, that’s not what I’m talking about…”

“…………” Looking up at me as she always did, from a completely relaxed position, she said, “There’s no way one person can clean up the whole Judgment Squad. I don’t have that kind of power by myself.” A pause, then: “So I’m waiting. If I wait patiently enough, I’m sure times will change.”

Currently, the residents of the city were shunning the Judgment Squad, and many of its members weren’t doing their jobs properly. But just as the city, which had once been full of criminals, had seen a drastic decrease in their number with the passage of time, so time was sure to resolve the present situation as well.

“I have the patience to wait until then,” Sena said, full of hopes and dreams for the future.

“I wonder about that,” I said. “Seems to me like the corruption will only get worse the more time goes by.”

“Don’t shoot me down like that.” From across the table, Sena looked up at me and puffed out her cheeks.

I’m really at a loss for what to do here. The more I got to know Sena, the worse I felt about carrying out the director’s request.

“Heeeeeeyyy! You just won’t learn your lesson, will you?! How many times do I have to tell you before you get it?!”

The following morning, as always, I was dressed in my disguise as the shady saleswoman when Sena stormed up to yell at me. I was already used to this exchange, which we kept repeating day after day.

Once again, Sena lectured me at length. “You’re always out here making a public nuisance of yourself. Really, how many times do I have to tell you—?” And again, I laughed it off with a smile. After she’d been at it for a while, she sighed and said, “Be more careful next time.” And with that, our latest exchange was finished. Once she’d delivered the familiar closing line, she patted me on the shoulder as always.

However, as it turned out, she wasn’t done.

“Also, here.” As if she had just remembered, Sena pulled two gold coins out of her pocket and pressed them into my hand. “I believe you had three gold coins taken from you the other day by my coworker. I’m returning the difference to you.”

I asked her about it, and she told me that after I had tattled on her coworker the other day, she had tracked down the Judgment Squad member in question and taken the money back from him.

“Of course, you were still the one in the wrong for committing fraud. But fining you three gold pieces was too much.”

“…………”

I stared down at the two gold pieces now in my hand. They were only a tiny portion of the heap of gold coins the director had given me to hand over to the Judgment Squad.

She really went out of her way to give the money back. How incredibly conscientious of her.

“Thank you very much,” I said.

What a pickle I’m in. I feel terrible deceiving such a good person.

And so I scooted up close to her and leaned in. “Here, take this,” I said, sticking a small bundle into her pocket.

“You really never learn, do you…?” Sena replied, exasperated.

But I placed an index finger to my lips and said, “Our little secret, okay?”

Not long after that, I went back to my room, gathered my things, and prepared to leave the city.

From the beginning, I hadn’t planned on staying long, and I must have done more than enough misdeeds in that time. Even the director had to be satisfied.

If I could have, I would have liked to share one final meal with Sena. But it wasn’t like I had any particular obligation to do so, and I figured it would be all right to just leave.

Still dressed like a shady saleswoman, I followed the road I’d used to enter the city all those days ago and once again met with the director of the Judgment Squad.

“Oh…and you are?”

Uh-oh, maybe he doesn’t know who I am, since I’m still in my saleswoman getup.

I removed my hood and greeted him with a bow. “I’m the traveling witch.”

“Oh, Lady Witch! I’ve been waiting for you.”

Despite showing up unannounced, without an appointment, several days after entering the city, I’d still been able to see the director in person without any trouble.

He must not be very busy.

“Excuse me for interrupting your busy schedule,” I said.

“No, no, I don’t mind at all. Come on in, please.” The director urged me toward a table set up in the reception room. When I sat down, I saw tea and donuts laid out just as before.

But unlike my previous visit, I didn’t feel like partaking. This time, I intended to engage him in a serious conversation.

“I’ve been staying in this city for several days now,” I said, “and I’ve witnessed a variety of things.” I’d been out committing crimes at the director’s request, of course. “When I first arrived here, I was told there was no crime. But in the last few days, I’ve seen countless people carrying out innumerable misdeeds—city residents and Judgment Squad members alike.”

“Oh really? No reports have made it to me, though…”

“Do you get out of the office much?”

“Well, as director, my job is mainly desk work.”

“…Is that so?”

Well then, I have no other choice.

I nodded, then proceeded to explain to him everything that had come to light in the course of my conversations with Sena.

I told him how the Judgment Squad had lost the people’s confidence—how there were scoundrels within the organization extracting as much money as they could from the citizens and not making any reports. I told him how the existence of these bad actors was affecting those who actually took their duties seriously and how, even among the higher-ups, there were people covering up reports of crimes sent to them by hard workers lower down the chain.

I then explained how, as a result of all this, by the time reports reached him—the director—the number of crimes had been arbitrarily reduced to zero.

“It seems to me that corruption within the Judgment Squad is a bigger issue than the apparent lack of petty crimes,” I said. “If you leave things as they are, vice will run rampant in the city.”

“Hmm…” The director considered my words. He nodded once solemnly, then asked, “By the way, Miss Witch, what became of my request that you commit petty crimes? And of the gold coins I gave you to pay the resulting fines?”

My goodness, is he ignoring everything I’ve just pointed out? Well, I suppose it doesn’t really matter to me…

“Just as you requested,” I said, “I went out and committed crimes until I used up the money I got from you. It’s all gone now. Unfortunately, I don’t have any left that I can return to you.”

“Well, that is strange.” The director spoke clearly, shutting me down.

Uh-oh. Could he have found out that I secretly pocketed the two gold coins Sena returned to me?

I felt a chill run down my spine as I considered this, but the director’s next words caught me by surprise.

“No such reports have made it up to me,” he said. “Are you sure you didn’t just pocket the money I gave you?”

Well, now. What on earth is this man trying to imply?

His words were beyond baffling, and I tilted my head in confusion. Suddenly, the door to the reception room burst open, and several members of the Judgment Squad marched in, holding their wands and rope.

Strangely enough, they were the same ones I’d seen finding fault with people around town and extorting money from them.

They surrounded me and, using their wands to control the ropes with magic, quickly tied me up. They restrained my arms and legs, and they were careful to hold my hands open so that my fingers couldn’t grip my wand. It was as if they had already decided I was some common criminal and were treating me as such.

“…What exactly is going on here?” I said as I glared at my captors. “This is no way to treat someone like me, who went out of my way to do bad things I didn’t even want to do, all at your request.”

“It’s come to this because you didn’t do the job I requested of you, Lady Witch,” the director said. “Even after you came to this city, the crime rate in town stayed exactly the same—nonexistent. None of the city’s residents are out there committing crimes.” He asserted that the only plausible explanation was that I had pocketed the money.

Did you listen to anything I said?

“I told you, that’s because these people surrounding me have all been neglecting their reports.” In fact… “Isn’t that what I just said? Your whole organization is made up of nothing but dishonest employees like these guys, so by the time the reports reach your desk, the numbers have been artificially reduced to zero.”

There was no way the entire city had no crime at all. All the crime was merely being covered up.

“What are you talking about, Lady Witch? Most of my subordinates are doing their jobs perfectly. They’re sending the numbers they receive up to me, exactly as they should.”

“But if that were true, you’d know crime hasn’t been eliminated.”

“Indeed—and that’s where I come in.” At this point, the director casually made his confession. “I’m the one who’s been covering things up.”

“Not being acknowledged is the same as not existing at all.”

I see. It seems corruption within the Judgment Squad has progressed much further than I thought.

“Our organization, the Judgment Squad, was formed to eliminate crime from the city. And once all the criminals were gone, tourists started showing up in droves.” As soon as I was tied up and basically defenseless, the director started calmly explaining the situation, a smug look on his face. “However, once criminals were no longer running rampant throughout the city, we were no longer able to earn any extra money on the side. And that created a problem.”

“…………”

There had probably always been a certain number of people in the Judgment Squad inclined to use their authority in wicked ways.

While their honest compatriots punished wrongdoers in the correct way, they had lurked in the shadows, using underhanded methods to line their pockets.

“So,” I said, “because you’ve been unable to turn a profit recently, you’ve started making it your business to entrap travelers. Is that it?”

“Well now, I certainly wouldn’t call it a business. All I’ve done is have my colleagues arrest a traveler who stole money from me.”

“But you asked me to go out and commit crimes.”

“Do you have any proof to back up that preposterous story?”

“…………”

“I don’t suppose you do. In this country, the Judgment Squad is the law. The law has now caught and restrained you, and you will have to answer for your crimes.”

“I see.”

Now, this is a problem.

It seemed I had underestimated the amount of authority wielded by the Judgment Squad. In this city, if they said someone was guilty, they were guilty, and people had no way to fight back.

That said, using four people to restrain me is clearly overdoing it, right?

“I thought I heard that the average mage could restrain about ten people at once with one of these ropes.” And yet they were binding me from four different directions. “Could it be that these four aren’t very skilled in magic?”

I glanced around at the faces of the four Judgment Squad members surrounding me. They were frowning at my cheap provocation, but they remained silent.

“It’s because they’re up against a witch,” the director answered for them. “They’re being extra careful, you see. They have no way of knowing what you might do to them if you get violent.”

“They don’t have to worry. With both of my hands incapacitated, I can’t use magic anyway. I have no way to fight back.” I sighed. “So what happens now?”

The director sneered. “Let me see. You’ve committed a serious theft, Lady Witch. You’ll definitely need to repay all of the money you stole from me, on top of the fine for your crime, of course—and we’ll have to investigate your other crimes, so you’ll be the subject of an inquiry.”

“Other crimes?”

“I’ve heard rumors that you were conducting some kind of shady business in town. When a person has committed a lot of crimes, or particularly serious ones, they are restrained so they can be investigated.”

“You mean serious criminals are put in jail, I suppose?”

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“And how long do your investigations usually take?”

“Well, now… They can drag on for quite a long time if someone gives false testimony or stubbornly refuses to confess. Oh, and we have to question any victims, so we’ll need enough time to do that as well.”

“And when there are a lot of people involved, I suppose that can take a pretty long time, right?”

“Naturally, yes.”

Hmm.

“Well now, that puts me in a real fix,” I said, imitating him. Then, sighing, I asked, “So while I’m under arrest, I won’t be able to leave the city, I suppose?”

“……Hmm?”

The director had just cocked his head and looked at me as if to say, “What on earth is this woman talking about?” when something wrapped itself around his body like a long snake, binding him hand and foot.

By the time the director realized it was the exact same kind of rope restraining me, it had already begun winding itself around his four colleagues.

They shrieked in surprise as the rope slithered like a living creature. While they panicked and waved their wands around, the rope restraining me gently untied itself. The first thing I did once my arms and legs were free was to relieve the others of their wands.

Once I was done, the rope cinched tight around them, as if it had been waiting for its chance. The whole thing was over in a flash.

“Looks like the bad guys got caught after all, huh?”

Thank goodness, I thought, nodding in satisfaction.

In the blink of an eye, the members of the Judgment Squad who had been abusing their authority had been arrested themselves.

This might even be enough to dispel some of the people’s misunderstandings about their organization. What a relief.

Though I hadn’t done anything myself, the situation had reached something of a conclusion. So I put on a satisfied expression as if I’d just finished a bit of hard work.

A moment later, the door to the reception room opened.

“…What exactly is going on here?”

Wearing a very, very puzzled expression, Sena stared at me intently, brandishing her wand.

I’d had my doubts as soon as I entered the city.

Unlike what the director had told me, there seemed to be an ordinary number of criminals hanging around, and other people besides me were being stopped by the Judgment Squad.

If no one was committing crimes, it should have been so peaceful that I didn’t even notice the Judgment Squad’s presence. But the state of affairs in this city was no different than anywhere else.

Criminals existed, as always, and the Judgment Squad was doing their job, as such organizations usually did. Yet the director was claiming there was no crime in the city.

I had immediately intuited that there was more to the situation than he had let on.

My question was how the numbers were being reduced to zero. I needed some time to ascertain just how corrupt the Judgment Squad really was.

The more I listened to what Sena had to say, the more I learned about the Judgment Squad’s corruption. And the more she talked, the more suspicious I became of what I had been asked to do.

Perhaps the director is planning to trick me and extract a fine?

By the time I thought of this, I had already been forced to pay fines several times for my suspicious activities. At that point, I probably should have feigned ignorance and run away, but the Judgment Squad members had those weird ropes, and if I got caught, it would all be over. And so early that morning, right before I left the city, I ran into Sena and tucked a slip of paper into her pocket.

The brief note had read, Good things will happen if you follow me in secret.

Though I was still dressed as the shady saleswoman, she had done as I asked.

“…You really are unkind, you know that?” Sena said, puffing out her cheeks and sulking.

She balled up the paper and tossed it aside. There had been an addendum to the little fortune I’d written on that slip of paper:

From the witch who has been comforting you every night.

I had figured that would be more than enough to clue her in to my real identity.

“W-wait…!” pleaded the director. Still tied up with the magic rope, he sounded desperate. “Y-you’re Sena, right? Stop this nonsense at once. You’ve been deceived by that witch!”

But Sena only shook her head and said, “I’m very sorry, but I overheard the whole conversation. I’m afraid I’ll have to investigate the details of the situation in the course of my inquiry.”

She yanked her wand upward, and the rope tightened even more. Then she dragged all five of her colleagues away. The director continued to plead with her even as she hauled him out the door. He just didn’t know when to give up.

“How much? How much do you want? A promotion, maybe? I’ll put in a good word for you!” He went on and on, showering her with his dubious, pathetic pleas.

“Wait, please, Sena. Listen to what I have to say, listen—” The director desperately searched for the right words to make her stop.

“I’m terribly sorry, but—” Sena smiled pleasantly, as if a great weight had been lifted off her shoulders, and she turned around. “—I’m tired of waiting.”

I later heard the director and his corrupt colleagues were officially punished by the Judgment Squad’s headquarters not long after Sena arrested them.

In the investigation that followed, it was established that they had been using fraudulent means to rip off townspeople and travelers for quite some time. The more headquarters investigated, the bleaker the picture became, and eventually the townsfolk were saying that the Judgment Squad’s vices were even worse than those of the criminals who used to run rampant in the city back when the streets were unsafe.

Sena, who had exposed the misdeeds of the director and the others, received a commendation from the government.

“It sounds like they’re going to make some changes to the Judgment Squad after this.” The young woman was sitting across from me at the restaurant as usual. “In time, I’m sure this city will get better,” she said, her tone matter-of-fact.

“You think so?” I said, mostly to let her know I was listening. Something about her demeanor felt off to me. “Not going to lie down on the table today?”

Sena’s expression that day was more like the one she wore when out patrolling the city.

“Lying on the table? There’s no way I would do anything so unseemly.” She huffed and turned away. She didn’t seem to like this particular topic.

My, my.

“So you can’t act like that in front of a shady saleswoman? Is that it?”

“That’s not the issue.” Sena shook her head, then turned to look at me. “I don’t know who might be watching. I was just publicly commended, after all. I can’t very well do something unseemly.”

I see, I see.

“I guess not.” I nodded.

In this life, it is quite difficult to go unnoticed. Your actions are certain to make an impression on others. That applies to everything—the good and the bad. And of course, the things that are just a little embarrassing, too.

“But there is always someone watching you, you know,” I said as I touched her head, stroking it along the direction of her hair.

Sena’s eyes went wide with surprise. “Hmm? What are you doing?”

“There, there.”

“Why are you stroking my head right now?”

“There, there.”

“Did you hear anything I just said? Hey!”

“It’s our little secret, okay?”

“Heh-heh-heh”, I chuckled as I teased her.

“Good grief…” Sena looked exasperated as she rested her chin in her hands and covered her mouth. Underneath, she grinned slightly. Somehow, even as she cursed at me, I knew she wasn’t displeased.

I was certain that, just as she’d said, the city would improve. But until then, honest people like Sena would need to do a lot of hard work—a fact that mustn’t be forgotten.

That wasn’t why I was here, though. In place of parting words, I stroked her head again.

“You might convince me to stop, if you’re willing to pay,” I said.

“You really feel no remorse at all, do you?”