Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 14 - Chapter 7.1

CHAPTER 7

The Moonlight City of Eherias

It was a cool evening in early autumn, and everyone in the city was looking up.

Children and adults alike, regardless of social standing or gender—everyone, all at once, was looking at the sky, which was dazzlingly bright and not like the night sky at all.

People walking down the street stopped in their tracks, those inside buildings opened windows, and all of them let out the same sigh of astonishment.

Against the black background of the sky, with the moon hanging in it, little beads of light, golden and sparkling, were softly raining down over the city.

It was a truly fantastical night.

The dark sky was lit with a dazzling light.

So bright, it was impossible to sleep.

So radiant, no one would ever forget it.

“Fwaaah…”

In front of the city gates stood a lone traveler. As she got down from her broom, a pitiful growl came from the depths of her stomach, and a yawn escaped her slack jaw.

Her hair was the color of ash, and her eyes were lapis blue. She was dressed in a black robe and a pointed hat. Upon her breast was pinned a single brooch, shaped like a star.

She was a traveler, and a witch.

“Fwaaaaaah…”

And she was sleepy, because she had stayed up all night traveling from one city to another. She couldn’t stop yawning.

“Welcome to the Moonlight City of Eherias.”

“Heya…”

And who in the world was she—this pitiful witch, ready to wave the white flag and surrender to sleepiness?

That’s right, it’s me. And I’m so sleepy…

“Miss Witch, do you know much about our city?”

“Only the name…”

I had heard about it in a restaurant where travelers gathered. But all I’d been told was that if I went there when I was sleepy, something really interesting would happen. I didn’t know any of the details, but I believed the rumors and went out of my way to stay up all night before visiting.

I wonder what interesting things I’ll encounter…? So sleepy…

“Before you enter, there are some things I need to explain, but… Are you all right, Miss Witch?”

“I’m fine… Mmm…”

Well…if something surprising happens, it’ll probably wake me up…

“Well then, first things first, Miss Witch. Could you please leave all the money in your wallet in our custody?”

“Hmm…? Why…?”

“There is no currency in this city.”

“Huh?”

Hmm? What did he just say?

Something just jolted me awake.

“In this city, we exchange time instead of currency.”

The guard proceeded to give me all the details about this place called the Moonlight City of Eherias.

“…………”

As I listened to the unique story of this rather unorthodox place, I took a peek inside the city gates. Inside, I saw a castle with a massive golden crystal at the top.

“Welcome to my shop, miss. How about a piece of bread? Thanks very much. All right, that will be one hour, please.”

Beautiful white buildings stood in rows alongside the tree-lined main avenue, looming over the people as they came and went. Partly because it was lunchtime, there were all sorts of folks moving along the road.

I saw someone shopping and someone else reading at a café. One person was sitting on a bench, resting. Another offered food to people coming and going down the road.

And then there was me, a traveler trying to buy bread at a roadside stall.

“How am I supposed to pay you?” I tilted my head questioningly at the proprietor.

The gate guard had told me there was no currency in this city and instructed me to carry a pocket watch–like device in place of my wallet.

The device was very strange. Digits counting up to the number eight were engraved on its face, and there was only one hand. The case was inlaid with one pale stone and one gold-colored stone, and the whole thing gleamed in my hand.

Apparently, this thing was called a crystal clock, and it was used instead of currency here. I’d been told that the city’s people traded time instead of money.

“I don’t really understand how this thing works…”

It was easy enough to accept the device as I entered the city, but I still didn’t know how to use it. That was probably unavoidable, since I was so sleepy.

“One hour,” said the woman, pointing to my crystal clock. “Wind it back one hour’s time.”

When I did as she asked and turned the hand back, a small orb of energy floated up from the clock. Then, when the proprietor brought her own crystal clock close to mine, the magical orb swayed and shook before being sucked into her device.

The hand on the woman’s crystal clock then advanced by one hour. According to her, our transaction was now complete.

“Ha-ha, what a mysterious item.”

As I accepted my bread, I took a closer look at my crystal clock.

Apparently, the reason why only eight hours were engraved on the clock’s face was that eight was the daily allotment of credits.

But why in the world are they using these strange objects in place of a local currency? I wondered.

Naturally, I was curious about the origins of this strange practice. The time people exchanged here, what exactly is it for? I wondered.

“It all happened one year ago—”

Along the side of the busy main road, some children had gathered and were sitting flat on the ground. When I looked closer and followed their gazes, I saw a man putting on a puppet show.

THE TALE OF THE LAKESIDE WITCH WHO CREATED THE CRYSTAL CLOCKS, read a placard posted above the stage. A puppet modeled after a young woman with blue hair was dancing on its strings.

I’m not really sure what’s going on here, but it seems to be a local puppet play. How very interesting.

Casually, I sat down and joined the little kiddies to watch the show.

“The Lakeside Witch, Karoline, had a taste for adventure and invention—and in a certain cave, she found some mysterious crystals.”

In the cave, there were two crystals—one golden, and the other pale blue.

The two crystals appeared on stage, glittering brightly.

“Lady Karoline, fascinated by the crystals’ beauty, brought both of them back to our city.”

At this point, the background of the puppet stage completely transformed into a representation of the city. The puppet holding the two dazzling crystals began to tremble.

“There was extraordinary power in the crystals Lady Karoline had found. The golden crystal had the power to store the magical energy that spilled from trees and flowering plants, and the pale blue crystal could drain away sleepiness from people nearby and change it into energy.”

The puppet on the stage peered at the two glowing crystals. Apparently, the Lakeside Witch had become infatuated with these handy crystals.

“Was it possible to enrich our lives using this ability to drain away sleepiness? That question spurred Lady Karoline to study the two crystals.

“However, as convenient as it was to convert sleepiness into magical energy, there was a catch—the only thing the pale blue crystal took was the feeling of sleepiness. It did nothing to relieve one’s physical exhaustion.”

Partway through the play, the Karoline puppet suddenly collapsed on stage as the puppeteer cried out dramatically, “Oh, how terrible! Lady Karoline has collapsed after working for days on end! But she’s unable to sleep! How awful!” The puppeteer continued, “But then Lady Karoline had an idea. If she couldn’t sleep normally, she could just use magic.”

It seemed Karoline had decided to force her body to sleep using a sleeping spell.

One of the little kids stuck her hand up enthusiastically and asked, “Couldn’t she have solved the problem by getting away from those crystals?”

“She could have. But Lady Karoline was an airhead.” The man didn’t even look up as he very politely made this bizarre statement.

“So you’re saying this Lady Karoline was an idiot?” the little girl asked.

Taking a closer look, the man noticed the “little girl” was actually a full-grown woman with hair the color of ash, sitting among the children.

“Ah, yes. That’s correct,” he replied, adopting a more formal tone.

Not long after that, it seemed Karoline’s research wound up producing some results.

“She knew the pale blue crystal converted sleepiness into magical energy and the gold-colored crystal stored that energy. Combining these properties with her own sleeping spell, Karoline created the first crystal clock.

“When she wanted to sleep for one hour, she wound the clock back one hour’s time, and when she wanted to sleep for eight hours, she used the same method to cast a sleeping spell for that length of time. Then she would fall asleep.

“Once asleep, no matter how much sleepiness the pale blue crystal converted into magical energy, the crystal clock maintained the spell so that Karoline didn’t wake up until the desired hour. And because magical energy was constantly circulating through her body, her exhaustion was miraculously cured. Or was it?”

The man manipulated his puppet on stage as he spun this dubious tale for the children.

“When she presented the completed crystal clock to the king, he was absolutely delighted.”

A bearded puppet slid onto the stage beside Karoline. The puppet with the scraggly beard peered down at the crystal clock in Karoline’s hand, then leaped into the air.

“Soon, the king, too, was captivated by these interesting, if slightly suspicious, crystals. He proposed to Karoline that they use these crystal clocks instead of currency. She agreed to the king’s proposal and set to work improving the device.

“The result of those improvements is the crystal clocks we all now carry.”

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket watch—or something that looked like one, at any rate. He opened the lid, which was inlaid with pale blue and gold-colored crystals, and revealed the clock inside. Inscribed into its face were the numerals one through eight. There was only one hand to keep time, and it was pointed at the top of the clock, unmoving. There was also a small window in the clock face. In most clocks, a window like that would display the date. But in this crystal clock, the number forty-two was displayed instead.

At first glance, it just looked like a watch that had been broken in a rather novel way. But apparently, this number indicated the remaining days the man was able to sleep.

“In this city, sleep is an important resource that we use instead of currency. It’s all thanks to Lady Karoline that we can live with peace of mind.”

Then the scene changed, and the Karoline puppet lay down in a casket, surrounded by beautiful flowers.

“Creating such an incredible device as the crystal clocks brought Lady Karoline great fortune. After that, she left word that she would wake again when her invention had helped the city flourish and develop into a wonderful, remarkable place. Then she settled in for a long slumber.”

Thus, he said, Lady Karoline slept continuously for one whole year.

…………

Wait, wait, wait.

One of the little children raised her hand again.

“Hey, mister! If you sleep for a whole year, won’t your body start to break down?”

After cautiously raising his head, the man frowned and stared at the adult woman who’d casually joined the group of children.

“This is an old folktale,” he said. “So I’d appreciate it if you stopped heckling me…”

“Isn’t this story a little recent to be an ‘old folktale’?”

“Furthermore, this is a play for children, so I’d appreciate it if any adults would mind their own business…”

“Despite my appearance, I’m still a child.”

“If you’re a child, how come you look like a grown-up?”

“I get plenty of sleep.”

At any rate, I expect he’s probably embellishing the story a little for the kids. I don’t know what really happened to this Karoline, but I suppose there’s a possibility she’s already passed away.

“So to make sure we’re able to show Lady Karoline a flourishing, prosperous city, our king uses the crystal clocks to rule,” the man told the children. “And that’s why we all must live honest, upright lives.”

Then the children stood up and applauded in unison.

“…………?”

After standing and clapping, the children stared vacantly at the stage. Alongside the two crystals, the bearded king puppet was dancing around in front of the backdrop.

I thought of Karoline, who fell into a long sleep immediately after making a device powerful enough to restructure the whole city. Then I thought of the king, now in charge.

I get the feeling there’s something shady going on in the background here.

“Lady Karoline has indeed been sleeping for the past year. That’s the truth.”

Later, at an inn, I told the proprietor about what I had seen, and that was his even reply.

“Really, she has?” I asked.

Isn’t the idea of someone sleeping for an entire year kind of ridiculous?

“That’s what we’ve been told anyway.”

He didn’t look at all like he was joking. Though, with all due respect, it didn’t look like there was much going on in his mind at all as he spoke.

This city’s residents could make conversation just like anyone else, but all of them had something strange going on with their eyes. Their gazes were vacant and dark and never seemed to settle. It was as though they were all perpetually sleep-deprived.

“…………”

The inn’s proprietor charged me two days’ worth of sleep for one night’s stay and sucked up two big, buoyant orbs from my crystal clock.

“But for the entire year,” he continued, “the king has been convinced she’s coming back. He’s been governing our city well, hoping she will declare it a wonderful place when she returns.”

A fine attitude, but something still bothers me.

“What does Karoline mean to the king, exactly?”

Even if she did invent something incredible enough to change the city, he seems a little too attached to this one witch…

“She’s the first person he ever loved.”

“Oh my.”

I closed my crystal clock’s lid with a snap and accepted the key to my room from the innkeeper. He told me to make myself at home, and I headed for the room he’d arranged for me.

“But what a strange feeling this is…”

The moment I arrived, I set down my bags, stretched out on the slightly too-firm bed, and gazed up at the ceiling.

I’d flown all night on my broom, and as expected, I was exhausted. I’d used up all my magical energy. My body was heavy and sluggish, and I sank into the bed. I wanted to stop moving and just lie there.

By all rights, I should be unable to keep my eyes open. I stayed up all night, after all.

“…I’m not sleepy at all.”

But my eyelids refused to go down as I stared up at the ceiling.

When I’d been sightseeing earlier, it had been the same. I’d closed my eyelids a few times as a test and found I was unable to fall asleep. My vision went dark, and that was all.

My body was screaming for rest, but to my mind, sleep remained distant. It felt almost as though my body belonged to someone else.

“I’ll give this a try, I suppose.”

I set my crystal clock back three hours.

Three little round balls rose gently to the surface. I tried shifting them onto my palm, and, still half floating, the orbs drifted over to dance in my hand.

According to the innkeeper, in this city, you could only sleep using the hours taken from your crystal clock. In other words, I would be unable to sleep any more than that. That must mean no one here could use oversleeping as an excuse for being late.

I swallowed the three little orbs.

Immediately, my crystal clock made a metallic rattle, and the sweet, sweet scent of flowers wafted through the air. The aroma itself seemed to be the sleeping spell. My body grew steadily heavier, and I sank into the bed.

According to the innkeeper, as long as no outside stimulation disturbed me, such as someone touching my shoulder or calling out to me, I would absolutely not wake up until the set time had elapsed.

I looked at the clock.

Three hours from now, it will be evening. I wonder what kind of world will be waiting for me when I wake up?

I had a dream.

I saw the castle standing in the center of the city, and a chamber underneath it.

A large casket sat in the middle of an underground room filled with flowers.

When I opened the casket, I found a young woman with short blue hair dressed in white robes with her hands pressed together in a gesture of prayer. She was fast asleep. I peered down at her, entranced by her beautiful face.

“I’ve been waiting.”

A moment later, a pair of emerald-green eyes bore into me. I’d been sure the woman was asleep, but now she awoke, sat up, and smiled boldly at me.

“I’ve been waiting for someone just like you.”

Then she placed her forehead against mine.

“…………”

I slept for exactly three hours, and during that time, I had the dream I just described.

When my eyes snapped open and I looked out the window, the city was already shrouded in darkness.

The day was approaching its end, and I was struck by the feeling that I had somehow done something wasteful.

“…Whoa.”

Immediately after I got up, I noticed an abnormal feeling in my body. My limbs felt strangely light. Energy surged through me. I could have cast any kind of spell at all.

Normally, three measly hours of sleep could never have replenished my magical energy and cured my physical exhaustion after a whole night of flying. And yet my body seemed to have forgotten it had ever been tired. My energy level was so high, it was bizarre. I knew it must be an effect of the crystal clock, but I still found it hard to believe.

“This is amazing…”

Using my excess energy, I jumped off the bed with a little shout.

“Heh-heh-heh. It is, isn’t it? That’s the power of my crystal clocks.”

Just then, I saw a woman leaning against the wall beside my bed, looking self-important. She had her arms crossed and a smug smile on her face.

“…………”

I rubbed my eyes.

“Sorry if I surprised you. My name is Karoline. I’m the designer of that crystal clock you’re holding.” The woman introduced herself calmly.

I slapped my cheeks, trying to wake up.

“Hey, hey, are you doubting my existence?” she said, sounding fed up. “Believe me, I’m a real person who really exists!” She shrugged in exasperation.

Incidentally, I could see right through her body to the wall behind her.

“What? What’s with the glaring all of a sudden? You wanna fight? Hey!”

Karoline, or whoever she was, unleashed several punches in my direction. Her fists went right through my forehead.

She wasn’t able to touch me, and I couldn’t touch her either. It seemed that, whatever she was, she had no physical substance to her.

“…………” My mind was in turmoil at this sudden development. “…What’s going on? Do you start seeing weird hallucinations or something when you use a crystal clock…?”

“Humph. Good guess. Just as you suspected, whenever someone uses one of my crystal clocks, a variety of strange phenomena occur, both big and small. Most people don’t notice, though. But when someone with strong magical energy like you uses one, they’re able to notice the changes. Also, I’m not a hallucination, so don’t underestimate me. Hyah!”

This time, she slapped my face with her open palm. She failed to make contact, of course. Only a cool autumn breeze tickled my throat.

“If you’re not a hallucination, then what are you…?”

“A dream…maybe?”

Isn’t that just another kind of hallucination? What does this dream Karoline want with me anyway?

“Oh, say. I bet you’ve got some time on your hands. Wanna go on a date?” She jabbed her thumb toward the window.

“…………”

Following her gesture, I looked out the window. Soon, night would fall.

A date? …I’d rather not, actually.

“Hey, don’t make such a sour face! I’ll send you flying. Hyah!”

She unleashed a series of kicks directed at my knees. As before, all the translucent woman’s attacks passed straight through me.

“…………”

“Hey! Hey, are you ignoring me? If you keep this up, I’ll keep hanging around in front of you forever. Is that what you want, huh?”

That would be a little irritating…

“Incidentally, what happens if I turn you down?”

“Isn’t it obvious? I’ll haunt you.”

Maybe my judgment was off since I’d just woken up. Under normal circumstances, I would never agree to an invitation from some strange woman who just appeared in my room and then waltz right out the door with her… Actually…maybe this was pretty in character for me…

Well, whatever. I accepted her invitation with a nod.

“Oh, what’s this? Sounds like you’re finally catching on. I love a nice, agreeable girl. I knew you were just the kind of witch I was looking for.”

To be honest, I was quite interested in the translucent woman myself.

Her short blue hair, the white robes she was wearing, her emerald-green eyes looking straight at me—she was identical to the woman I had seen in my dream.

In fact, she could have been pulled straight from the puppet play I’d watched that afternoon.

The city livened up as the sun began to set.

Hollow-eyed people flooded the main avenue, and when I tentatively entered a nearby restaurant, I saw that it was nearly full. While the employees walked busily to and fro, adults dressed in fashionable attire indulged in food and drink.

“So what in the world are you? Where did you come from? Or maybe I should ask why you decided to contact me? Oh, and why have you been hiding yourself for a year?”

Water and food were placed before me and me alone. Apparently, I was the only one aware of the translucent woman’s existence. To everyone else, I must have looked like some weird lady talking to the empty seat across from her.

But, well, it wasn’t as though I stood out.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Ha-ha!”

“Ee-hee, hee-hee… S-stop it… If you keep making me laugh, I’ll really lose it!”

Jovial voices were coming from all around the restaurant.

Maybe they had too much to drink, and now everything seems funny.

Bits of conversation and the sound of laughter fluttered around the room. At one table, someone burst into side-splitting laughter just because they dropped their fork. Elsewhere, a group of men were shouting “Wheee!” and making other incomprehensible noises. At yet another table, a man and woman appeared to be completely misunderstanding each other.

“I think I drank too much…,” said the woman.

“Did you, now?” the man replied. “Are you all right? Can you make it home?”

“I don’t feel like going home tonight…”

“Well, I didn’t ask you what you felt like.”

“I want to stay over.”

“I think there are a few inns nearby. Do you want me to drop you off at one?”

“I can’t sleep unless I’m with someone.”

“Is that so? I’m surprised you’ve lived this long with a condition like that.”

No one seemed concerned about what was going on around them, except for the employees tirelessly walking around carrying food.

“What am I, you ask? I told you before. I am like a dream.”

“I’d like something a little more concrete, please.”

“Don’t look for concrete answers from a translucent person.”

“For now, since you’re see-through, can I think of you as a ghost?”

“Calling myself a ghost would be misleading. I’ve got a proper body, but it’s still asleep. So I’m less like a ghost and more like some kind of astral projection—”

“Too complicated. I think I’ll just stick with ghost.”

In such a hectic atmosphere, even a witch carrying on a conversation with a ghost seemed unlikely to draw any attention.

“Hey…! Look over there, at that table!”

“What’s the matter?”

“That witch girl is talking to herself… There’s no one in the seat across from her…”

“Huh? Whoa! She really is…”

“I wish I had the guts to be that cringe in public…”

“For real…”

…………

At least, I’d like to think I wasn’t drawing any attention…

“By the way, I haven’t asked your name yet. What should I call you? …Hey, isn’t your face a little red? What’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing…”

I told her my name and explained that I was a traveler and that I had come to this city after hearing about how unique it was. I explained that I was quite interested in the crystal clocks, devices only found in Eherias.

“Oh? Really? Are they that amazing? Heh-heh-heh… If you say that again, I might blush…”

Karoline, who professed to be the crystal clocks’ original creator, giggled bashfully.

“How did you make these things?” I asked.

“Heh-heh. That’s a secret, of course. If you ask again, I’ll send you flying.”

She’s clearly mad, but she’s still laughing…

“Can you tell me what kind of effects they have? I still don’t understand how I’m able to talk to you.”

I had seen her in my dream, then she had appeared before me after I awoke, though she’d become translucent for some reason. I still wasn’t sure if she was dead or alive.

Honestly, I don’t know what any of this means.

“There are a number of reasons why you and I are able to converse. But to summarize, the main reason is that we’re both witches who possess great power.”

My, my.

“Me? A powerful witch? You’re making me blush. Hee-hee-hee.”

“Wow. Suddenly bursting into laughter all by yourself. You look like a creep.” Karoline’s face twisted in disgust.

You’re right here! I’m talking to you!

“Hey, look over there. That girl is laughing to herself…”

“She really is.”

“I wish I had the confidence to be that cringe…”

“I think this goes beyond cringe. She seems like bad news.”

“Don’t suddenly start talking sense, now.”

…………

“You know how party people gravitate toward parties? It’s just like that. It was inevitable that I’d find my way to someone like you, who possesses strong magical energy,” said Karoline. “My crystal clocks are quite special, but they don’t have the power to let you talk to translucent people. Didn’t they teach you about their functions when you arrived in the city?”

“You can use them to set the hours when you sleep, right?”

“Right. And thanks to that, nights here have become wonderfully exciting.”

She looked around the interior of the restaurant. People were making merry, talking, and drinking quietly. All sorts were out enjoying the evening.

Here, no one needed to worry about staying up late. Whether they had work the next day or not, all they had to do was sleep for about three hours. Their fatigue would simply evaporate, and there was no chance they’d oversleep.

“It seems this restaurant has extended its business hours as well. I suppose that’s because the residents are able to stay up later. It seems they now operate right until dawn.”

In other words, Karoline’s crystal clocks had freed up the city’s nights.

I followed her gaze and took another look at our surroundings. Sure enough, everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. It felt like the day before a holiday. To the restaurant’s customers, this city’s evenings must feel like a wonderful dream.

“…………”

However, I couldn’t help focusing in on the waiters dashing busily around through the gaps between customers. As long as there were people able to enjoy their time, other people would have to work to afford them that privilege. The fact that the restaurant had extended its business hours meant the employees now had to work longer.

I began to wonder if freeing up the city’s nights was more of a blessing or a curse.

“Come to think of it, it sounds like you came here expecting to see something interesting, so what do you think of this scene?” Karoline looked at me expectantly.

But I just shook my head and said, “I’d prefer someplace a little quieter.”

The evening wore on.

Nighttime in the Moonlight City of Eherias was incredibly brilliant. Streetlights painted the city in golden light. Their glow enveloped everything, from the rows of buildings facing the street, to the cobblestones, to trees by the roadside—themselves decorated with yet more lights.

Every time the autumn breeze rustled and shook the trees, leaves scattered through the air and disappeared into the night, twinkling dazzlingly as they went, like sparks from a fire.

According to Karoline, all the streetlights illuminating the city got their power from the gold-colored crystals.

“When you woke up this evening, didn’t you feel more energized than usual?” She pointed at something farther down the street as she spoke. Following the line from her finger, I found the king’s castle at the center of the city. A great golden light sparkled above it. “That bright light over there is the largest crystal in the city. It’s up there casting a veil of magical energy over the whole city, and thanks to it, my crystal clocks are able to function. It even makes it possible for mages like you to manifest more power than usual.”

According to Karoline, that crystal sitting atop the castle was constantly releasing magical energy, making it possible for mages to use very powerful spells.

“And this incredible bounty of magical energy is what makes the nights here so spectacularly beautiful.”

It wasn’t only mages who received the benefits of the magical energy flooding the city.

I looked around at my surroundings.

“…………”

It seemed like the tree-lined avenue was a popular date spot. When I looked around, I saw many other people quietly enjoying the golden scenery. A pair of lovers held hands among the trees. A married couple sat on a bench, looking up at the sky. A family played among the glittering branches. From time to time, I heard the sound of reserved laughter carried by the breeze. The area was very calm and quiet.

“I guess I don’t stand out as much here as I did earlier.”

“Well, you’re still out of place, but in a different kind of way.”

I threw a punch at her with all my might, but all I struck was air.

“Good thing for you that you’re not corporeal, huh?”

“Hey, are you trying to pick a fight…?”

She scrunched up her face, and I sighed and walked on. The night scenery reminded me of a fairy tale. It was like everything beautiful had been gathered up and put on display.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, I thought, if everyone could enjoy this scenery at their leisure? I wondered just how many of the people living here were able to walk among these trees.

“One year,” the woman beside me mumbled. “Nearly one year has passed since I introduced the crystal clocks.”

“What kind of place was this a year ago?”

“It was a normal city.”

People went to work on the weekdays and slept before each day changed over, only to go to work again the next morning. After repeating that routine day after day, they’d let loose all at once on the weekend, all the while worrying about how much time they had left before it all started over again.

It had been that sort of ordinary, unremarkable place, she told me.

“There’s no sense of that at all now, is there?”

“That’s because this city has undergone a major change. The scenery, the people, and everything else are all different.”

Karoline’s crystal clocks had released the city’s people from the constraints of time.

Their exhaustion vanished after a mere three hours’ sleep. They could use their daylight hours freely, and they didn’t have to worry at all about staying up late into the night.

“The people here have had their nights set free. And as long as they have the crystals, that will never change.”

Karoline looked up at the crystal sparkling brilliantly atop the castle and came to a stop. A moment later, I stopped, too, and turned around.

“…………”

She was gazing up at the castle, looking dazzled.

At that point, a thought suddenly occurred to me.

Come to think of it…

“I still haven’t asked you why you came to see me.”

In my dream, she said, “I’ve been waiting for someone just like you.”

But why? What does she want with me?

“I have two requests to ask of you.”

“What are they?”

“I wonder if you’ll grant my wishes.”

“It depends on what you want.”

At that, she drew close to me, and despite the fact that no one else could hear her, she began to whisper, like she was afraid someone might eavesdrop. The castle glittered behind her all the while.

“I’ve got to wake up now,” she said.

She would wake again when her invention had helped the city flourish and develop into a wonderful, remarkable place.

The old folktale I’d heard that afternoon flashed through my mind.

That was when she made her request.

“Please wake me up.”

She asked me to wake her up from her year-long slumber.

It was just like in my dream.

Karoline’s body had indeed been laid to rest in the basement of the castle. Following her lead, I tiptoed along, doing just as I was told.

“As expected, security is tight, huh…?” I said as I strolled boldly through the front gate.

There had been a security guard standing watch out front, but I’d been able to pass through easily. Once I’d made it through the gate and entered the castle, I took in its ornate interior. There were dazzling chandeliers and a great hall covered in gold. Mage guards patrolled the place on their brooms.

“Wow, amazing…”

I would have liked to go back to the castle and sightsee, if possible. However, today I was here to trespass, so I didn’t have time to leisurely explore.

“Where should I go?” I asked Karoline, looking up at her.

“If you continue to your right, you’ll find a staircase. Go down, and you’ll end up in the basement.”

“Got it.”

I started tiptoeing along again. And then—

“Huh……? Who goes there?!”

—just as I was approaching the staircase, one of the mages on patrol spotted me. Immediately, they came flying over on their broom.

“Meow!”

Hiding myself in the shadows, I casually made a noise like a cat’s cry.

“Hmm. Guess it was just a cat…”

After casting a fleeting glance in my direction, the man left.

“…………”

I had temporarily taken the shape of a cat with ash-gray fur.

“You want to know if the castle has heavy security? Don’t worry about it! Just transform into a cat or something, and you’ll get in no problem!”

Karoline, the original proponent of this rather reckless strategy, waited until the mage disappeared from sight and said proudly, “See? That went well, right?”

“…Even if I was a cat, I’m still clearly trespassing! Isn’t that a little suspicious? Is it all right for them to dismiss me like that?”

Is everything all right with this city?

“Their critical thinking skills are quite low,” Karoline told me proudly. “So as long as you don’t look human, you’ll have an easy time.”

I proceeded to the castle’s basement, as instructed, and snuck around trying to avoid the guards’ notice. Then, as if retracing the plot of my dream, I found a room I recognized.

“…………”

Deep underground, I found a room filled with flowers. The large casket at the center, as well as everything else, could have been pulled directly from my dream.

Once there, I lifted the transformation spell and opened the casket.

“Wow. What an amazing beauty. Who could she be? Oh, it’s me.”

I mercilessly slapped the cheek of the young woman sleeping inside the casket.

“Hey, come on. That’s my body! Treat it with care, would ya? What? You wanna fight?” Karoline swung her fist at my face.

“I heard you would wake up immediately with any outside stimulation, but it’s not working, is it?”

Slap, slap, slap, slap.

She’s been sleeping for a whole year; maybe she’s just a little groggy?

“I’ll wake up if you give me a kiss.”

Whap!

I slapped her again, a little harder this time.

“Owww!”

All at once, the translucent figure disappeared. When I looked down at my now warm palm, I saw the woman in the casket open her eyes. Groaning, she squinted against the light.

Looks like we were successful.

“What was that sound just now?!”

But it seemed we had been a little too reckless.

A guard had heard me slapping Karoline’s cheek with all my might and had entered the room with the casket.

He must have been terribly surprised to find a witch, whom he’d never seen before, standing in front of the casket surrounded by flowers, in which another witch was now sitting up, awake.

“Wha—? You there! Who are…? Huh? Lady Karoline? Have you woken up, Lady Karoline?!”

This guard, who, just as Karoline had said, seemed to be rather bad at critical thinking, was more surprised to see her awake than to find an unfamiliar intruder standing beside her.

“Yes,” she replied, nonchalant. “For the first time in a year.”

With a grunt of exertion, Karoline got up out of the casket and walked over to the guard, holding her cheeks.

“Um, Lady Karoline, what in the world is—?”

The guard seemed very confused by what was happening. Karoline stormed up to him, then stopped and held out her hand.

“Crystal clock,” she said.

“Huh?”

“Crystal clock. You have one, don’t you? Get it out.”

“Huh? Oh, r-right…” Bewildered as he was, the guard pulled his clock out of his pocket.

“Thanks.” Karoline took the device from the guard. As soon as she had it, she pulled out her wand and destroyed the clock with her magic.

Crunch.

“……Huh?”

Without hesitation, she mercilessly smashed it to bits. The crystals, now ground to dust, fell through her fingers.

“I’ve got to wake up now,” Karoline had said as she told me her two requests. “Everyone in this city has got to wake up.”

She’d explained that she, along with every other person living in the Moonlight City of Eherias, needed to wake up. That was the reason for her two requests.

The first request was to wake her up, and the second concerned the crystal atop the castle.

She’d asked me to destroy it.

“Let’s go, Elaina.” She turned around and flashed me a bold smile.

My goodness. We may both be women, but I must say she looked quite dashing just now.

…………

Her cheek was bright red.

“I’m sorry, is your cheek all right?”

“If you wanna know, it really hurts.”

Allow me to rewind the clock, so to speak, and explain the events of a year earlier.

Karoline, who held the rather strange status of adventurer, inventor, and witch, had discovered two crystals while exploring a cave.

One was pale blue and the other golden. The crystals each had their own magical properties—the former could absorb sleepiness and transform it into magical energy, while the latter had the power to store that energy.

Obviously, she took an interest in these crystals and their strange, curious properties.

“This is so freakin’ cool!”

“What is cool, Miss Karoline?”

As it happened, Karoline was employed by the kingdom at the time, and she had been assigned to teach the young king about magic as court witch.

“Take a look at this,” she said.

“That is…quite beautiful,” the king replied, captivated by the brilliant golden crystal.

“Which is prettier, the crystal or me? Hmm?” Karoline teased him.

“W-well, you are, of course, Miss Karoline…”

“Hey, what’s wrong with you? Don’t be so embarrassing!” Karoline slapped the king mercilessly.

“S-sorry…” The king blushed.

The young king admired the witch Karoline greatly. She was his good friend.

Karoline, then, had even more titles. Not only was she an adventurer, an inventor, and a witch, but she was also a member of the court and a confidante to the king. It seemed harder and harder to pin her down.

“By the way,” she said, “my shoulders have gotten a little stiff from all this adventuring. Massage them.”

She was also the only person in the world who could order around the king.

I wonder if her shoulders were stiff from carrying the burden of so many different roles? But I suppose we should leave that aside for now.

Karoline took the mysterious crystals back with her and began to study them.

As a test, she tried casting a sleeping spell nearby and was able to sleep. But when she awoke, her body was filled with much more magical energy than usual.

“To summarize, by using a clock installed with one of each of these two crystals, people will be able to shorten the time they spend sleeping.”

Utilizing the pale blue crystal’s ability to absorb sleepiness and the golden crystal’s ability to store and release magical energy, Karoline created the first crystal clock and showed it to the king.

It wasn’t as though she considered sleep a bad thing. She merely thought that by using the crystal clocks, people would be able to use their time more freely.

That was what she believed anyway.

“What an amazing invention! Let’s distribute them immediately!” The king was very pleased with her crystal clock.

At first, he distributed them only to the uppermost echelons of society. These wealthy citizens were delighted by the devices, which allowed them free use of time they would otherwise have spent sleeping.

However, the crystal clocks weren’t perfect.

“The fact that they reset each day is something we might improve on…”

The crystal clocks functioned by using magical energy and produced sleeping spells in the form of white orbs. But even with the power of both crystals, they could only perform this function for the span of one day. Once that time had elapsed, the user had to allow the pale blue crystal to absorb their sleepiness once again in order to store up magical energy inside the golden crystal. As a result, the clocks couldn’t be used again for several days.

In other words, they were simply short on magical energy.

This problem, however, was easily resolved with the king’s help.

“Take a look at this, Miss Karoline! I’ve unearthed an enormous crystal!”

The king made full use of his wealth to install this giant crystal, which would provide a permanent supply of magical energy, atop the castle.

“Seriously? Good going.”

And so with the clocks receiving additional power from this enormous crystal, it became possible to use them all the time.

Once Karoline and the king had solved the clocks’ energy problem, they embarked on a project to mass-produce them. Under the king’s instruction, guards unearthed more crystals from the cave, and Karoline made more crystal clocks. Then the king would have more crystals unearthed, and so on and so forth.

They continued, day after day.

Karoline was very satisfied spending her days like that. She truly believed that if everyone in the country could freely determine how to use every hour of their lives, the future would be amazing.

And so her crystal clocks spread throughout the country. Now that everyone had one, the people of the Moonlight City of Eherias ought to have been living richer lives than ever before.

However…

“I have a report.”

Around the time the crystal clocks had spread through the general population, Karoline and the king discovered they had a serious defect.

A retainer came and outlined the facts for them dispassionately.

“Someone has tried to utilize a crystal clock to commit murder. Thankfully, the attempt failed.”

At the time, the crystal clocks were not yet being used as currency, and everyone had access to unlimited hours of sleep. Under these circumstances, a villain had appeared who tried to use the crystal clock’s abilities to make someone sleep for hundreds of hours at once in an attempt to kill them.

Throughout history, there have always been people who try to misuse convenient tools for their own nefarious purposes.

“…What a fool.”

Karoline was incredibly hurt and angered that someone would use her invention for evil.

But that wasn’t all that had happened.

“What was strange about this incident, Your Majesty, was the condition of the victim,” the retainer continued without emotion. “Though the victim in this case slept continuously for an entire week, when struck on the shoulder, they awakened easily.”

The victim hadn’t died. In fact, according to the retainer, after waking up, the victim’s body had been the picture of perfect health. If anything, they were overly energetic.

This should have been impossible for a normal person. It was as if the victim’s body had gained superhuman powers.

After hearing this strange report, Karoline examined her crystal clocks again.

“What could have happened…?” she wondered.

Her crystal clocks now contained much, much more magical energy than they had when she’d created them.

By bringing large quantities of the golden crystals into the city, they’d made it possible for the crystals to store up an overabundance of magical energy, which was then absorbed into people’s bodies. As a result, the clocks had begun to manifest bizarre effects, greater than anything Karoline had imagined.

“…………”

Karoline decided the crystals needed to go.

The crystal clock was a useful invention. But people weren’t ready for such a thing. And so, as the first step, she decided to destroy the golden crystal on top of the castle.

However, immediately after she got on her broom—

“Miss Karoline? Where are you going?”

—her body began shaking violently, and she fell to the ground. Unsure of what had happened, she looked around and saw the king looking down at her, along with all his retainers.

Then an unceasing rain of white orbs came down upon her body.

Her consciousness faded, and she lost her grip on her wand.

Just like Karoline, the king had been doing his own investigations after hearing that strange report from his retainer. And he had realized that the crystal clocks hid the potential to grant great longevity.

How could he give up a monopoly on something so useful?

“Thank you so much for this wonderful invention, Miss Karoline.” The king grinned broadly.

His eyes were no longer those of the young man in the cave who had called Karoline’s crystals beautiful. Now they were empty and dark.

Karoline’s crystal clocks now contained much more energy than they had when she’d created them, and the wealthy citizens of the kingdom—the king included—had already become entranced by their power.

Their faces, seen through her increasingly blurry vision, looked strange and unfamiliar—these were no longer the people she knew.

It was almost as if the crystal clocks were now controlling them.

“…You fools,” she managed to whisper just before her consciousness faded. But her words fell on deaf ears.

After that, she slept continuously.

Just as the old folktales said, her body was sealed up beneath the castle, and there she lay, still alive, sleeping in her casket.

Ironically, she had received the greatest share of the crystal clocks’ out-of-control power.

“This abnormal supply of magical energy ruined everything about our city. Starting with the elites who first used the crystal clocks, everyone lost their former powers of judgment and reason. The mages gained strange powers. And I, during the course of my long slumber, acquired this body that isn’t really there.”

The overabundance of magical energy had led to changes beyond all her expectations.

According to her, the citizens had grown stranger and stranger under the influence of this unusual magical energy. They could still converse, and nothing had changed about their outward appearance. But something about them was clearly abnormal.

“The crystal clocks didn’t just take the people’s sleepiness. They also stole their ability to think clearly. Now everyone is like a puppet, hanging by invisible strings.”

They had no distinct will of their own and were simply being made to dance upon the stage. Now captives of their crystal clocks, they couldn’t live without them. According to Karoline, the city was now flooded with strange phenomena.

It’s hard to disagree, seeing as I’m currently speaking to a translucent woman.

“And that’s why I want your help waking up my people from their long slumber.”

I was to rouse her sleeping body, then go around the city, destroying the crystals and returning things to how they used to be.

“…………”

Before responding, I asked her a question, just to be sure.

“What happens if I refuse?”

She smiled boldly. “Isn’t it obvious? I’ll haunt you.”

“L-Lady Karoline? Um, what are you—?”

Crunch.

“What are you doing, Lady Karoline?! You just broke my crystal clock!”

Crunch.

“Hey! Are you really Lady Karoline? Why would you break my—?”

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

“This lady’s definitely an imposter! Everyone! Get her— Aaaaahhh, my crystal clock!”

Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch. Crunch.

Karoline and I snatched away the crystal clocks of any guards who approached us, using magic to smash them to pieces as we headed for the center of the castle.

“The people of this city are enthralled by the crystals.”

Karoline had reached two conclusions just before the king put her to sleep.

The first was that the crystals were both poisonous and addictive. The second was that the huge crystal placed atop the castle was greatly amplifying the effects, keeping everyone under the sway of the crystal clocks for a long, long time.

“Go around and break every last crystal clock. Once the clocks are destroyed, the guards will be incapacitated for a short while.”

Karoline snatched the crystal clock from an approaching guard and destroyed it without the slightest hesitation. Golden and pale blue light scattered from her hands.

The guards who had had their crystal clocks broken collapsed one after another, like puppets with their strings cut.

As strange as it was, I got the feeling they’d finally been set free from time.

“I see now,” I said.

Following her lead, I began snatching the guards’ clocks and breaking them.

“Yah!” I dodged an incoming spear and broke a clock in passing.

“Hyah!” I broke another as I avoided a sword swinging down at me.

“Grah!” Following the path of an arrow speeding toward me, I found another clock and destroyed it with a spell.

But the guards kept attacking us.

“Are you confused, Lady Karoline?!”

“I bet you put some kind of nonsense in Lady Karoline’s head!”

“What is she thinking, breaking our crystal clocks?!”

Even though she was the clocks’ original inventor, the guards acted like anyone trying to steal their clocks was an enemy. It didn’t matter why she wanted to take them or why she wanted to destroy them.

It didn’t matter who tried to snatch their precious clocks away. They couldn’t allow it.

The mages patrolling the castle were the same. They appeared suddenly from all directions and swooped in to attack us.

“…………!”

Witches though we were, we flinched in the face of this onslaught.

When we flew up to avoid the guards’ weapons, mages showered us with spells before we could even catch our breath. Fire, water, wind, arrows, swords, axes, lightning bolts—every kind of attack imaginable came at us from all directions like pouring rain.

“Let’s work together to bring down that witch!”

“Justice is on our side!”

“Take down the traitor and the gray-haired witch!”

Pathetically, I was stuck defending. Never mind destroying the crystal clocks—I couldn’t even manage to point my wand at our attackers. I was just swinging it around and steering my broom, flying up and down between the marble-covered floor and the chandelier. Not only was I unable to get out any attacks, but—

“I can see you hesitating.”

Clatter.

My broom tumbled to the floor.

Before I knew it, I had fallen off, and Karoline was holding me by the shoulders. Apparently, she had forced me to a stop while I was flying around trying to escape. My broom, having suddenly lost its owner, lay still on the marble below.

Karoline swept away all the spells the mages cast at me.

“I don’t know what you’re hesitating for, but you don’t need to hold back! They’re all being manipulated by the crystal clocks I made, and by the big crystal on the castle.”

When I tilted my gaze upward, a pair of emerald-green eyes were staring back at me. Karoline was treating me like a weak little girl. She had no hesitation at all.

When I turned to look at our surroundings, I saw numerous guards and mages lying unconscious all over the place.

“Tch…! Everyone! Don’t give up! Take them down, no matter what!”

The surviving guards shouted indignantly at their fallen comrades.

Karoline looked out coldly over the scene.

“…………”

Finally, she took her hands off my shoulders and walked calmly into the midst of the guards still shouting their threats.

As she moved, she grumbled, “The most pitiful thing in the world is always believing you are right.”

I wondered who those words were meant for.

She swung her wand, shattering the guards’ crystal clocks one by one. Bits of both types of crystal scattered like little fireworks.

“And the saddest thing is never getting the opportunity to atone.”

It seemed like she regretted what she’d done and what she’d created. She was determined to correct her error, even if that wasn’t what her people now wanted.

“…………”

What Karoline and I were trying to do must have seemed like a terrible idea to the people of this city. It was something very harsh—something that would set back this place’s technology, which was so far beyond anything I’d ever seen before.

I was certain that, from the perspective of those around us, we were unforgivable villains. At that moment, we must have been the most wrongheaded pair in the city.

I trotted over to pick up my broom and knocked the dust off it, then followed Karoline.

“Sorry. I got kind of absorbed in my own thoughts.”

“You must be quite relaxed to be able to daydream at a time like this. Come on, now.” Karoline nudged me with her elbow. “You’re over it, right?” she asked.

I waved my hand in lieu of an answer and fired off some magical power at nearby clocks. Fragments of crystals rained down around us.

After that, we pushed onward toward the center of the castle.

As we headed for the dazzling golden crystal at the top of the castle, we faced off against more mages and guards who seemed to pour out from around every corner.

They shouted constant abuse at me, calling me an evil witch, and scolded Karoline, labeling her a traitor. Even so, we never stopped, leaving a trail of broken crystal clocks behind us.

“Where the heck is this crystal?” I asked, brushing away bits of the clocks that had clung to me when I broke them.

It seemed to be true that these crystals all had the power to store magical energy or absorb sleepiness. Currently, not only was I wide awake, but I also had plenty of magical energy. There was no chance I’d run out. No matter how much I waved my wand or how many spells I cast, energy surged inside me.

“This way,” said Karoline.

Her unwavering steps finally led us to the crystal at the very top of the castle. She opened a door to reveal a strikingly bright, dazzlingly beautiful golden light.

“Isn’t this a bit extreme, Miss Karoline?”

In the room stood a man with a tasteful beard.

Wand in hand, he stood in our way, as if protecting the crystal. His eyes were sad and downcast, and his face was familiar. I’d seen it immediately after I arrived in the city. He was the scruffy, bearded character who had been made to dance on stage during the puppet play.

It was the king.

“That beard doesn’t suit you.” Karoline snorted at him.

It had been a year since their last meeting, but since she had been asleep the whole time, events that happened a year earlier must seem relatively recent to her. She stared at the king without a hint of sentimentality.

“Why are you breaking the crystal clocks that you yourself created?” he asked. “Do you intend to destroy this crystal, too?”

The king was lit from behind, and I saw no trace of our reflection in his eyes. He spoke without emotion, like a puppet rather than a human.

“Isn’t this a bit extreme, Miss Karoline?” Like a broken record, he repeated the same words.

“Don’t you understand why I’m trying to destroy it?”

“I don’t.”

“Figures.” Karoline sighed and took a step forward.

The crystal clocks didn’t just take the people’s sleepiness. They also stole their ability to think clearly. Now everyone is like a puppet, hanging by invisible strings.

After living so long directly under this enormous crystal, the city’s people appeared as though they were living in a dream.

Though they could converse, they lacked the ability to think and consider. They spoke and moved as if on instinct alone.

However, when it came to the king, his instincts and drive were a real pain in the butt.

“Hyah!”

As a test, I stealthily launched a fireball at him mid-conversation.

“Please, stop it already, Miss Karoline! I don’t want to fight with you!”

But he smoothly deflected my spell off into the night with a flick of his wand and continued to speak, his words even hotter than the fire.

Huh? That was a pretty strong spell…

As I puzzled over this, I tried again—a lightning spell this time.

“If you had just stayed asleep, we could have been together forever!”

As he spoke, he repelled my lightning attack and sent it crackling into the night sky. Karoline and I were shocked by the king’s actions, of course, and by the rather disturbing line of thought he’d just voiced.

In the end, our surprise wound up giving him an opening for a counterattack.

“Watch this, Miss Karoline! Thanks to you, I’ve gotten really good at magic!”

He waved his wand and shot off a ceaseless stream of orbs of magical energy. Their dazzling light swooped in on us from all directions. Carefully dodging each one, and sometimes negating them with my magic, I waited for my chance to strike back. As he showered me with spells, I wasn’t able to spare the energy to go for his clock. Every time I defended against or dodged one of his attacks, it gouged a hole in the ground by my feet or smashed a wall, and the sound of explosions shook the room. If I’d been hit, I wouldn’t have stood a chance.

In a spare moment between the king’s relentless attacks, I glanced over to see how Karoline was doing and saw that, just like me, she was avoiding the attacks one by one.

“He’s turned into an impressive spellcaster since I last saw him…,” she said thoughtfully.

“Is this really the time to be impressed?” I shot back.

What are you doing? We’re so busy dodging, we can’t even attack!

“He’s probably absorbing magical energy from the big crystal behind him. He must have an inexhaustible supply of magical power right now.”

“Seems that way.”

The king’s attacks were ceaselessly gouging into the floor beneath my feet. If the castle collapsed, we might end up in a midair battle, and there would likely be casualties among the guards we had previously defeated.

It would be best to end this as quickly as possible.

“…………”

In that case, we had to put a stop to his attacks, even if it meant being a little reckless and possibly injuring the king.

There was a good chance that Karoline had reached the same conclusion I had.

“Grah!”

The moment she waved her wand, countless debris from the destroyed walls went flying at the king. The onslaught, which included chips as small as pebbles as well as boulder-sized chunks, threw him off balance.

It was now or never.

Using the opening we’d just created, I destroyed his crystal clock with magic. When it broke into pieces, the king collapsed on the spot, once again like a puppet with his strings cut.

He was now lying on the floor amid the rubble. And just before he lost consciousness, he mumbled, “Isn’t this a bit extreme, Miss Karoline?” He gazed up at her with vacant eyes.

“It sure is.” She nodded and walked over to him. Crouching down, she gently stroked his hair, a sentimental look on her face.

Then, as pebbles fell from between her fingers, she whispered to the unconscious king, “That’s why I came back to redeem myself.”

In order to put an end to the evil that Karoline had started, I used my magic to levitate the big crystal.

No sooner had I waved my wand and made it float up into the air than an extraordinary amount of magical energy poured into me. It was like the crystal itself was pleading for its life.

For a split second, I was struck by a feeling of omnipotence, like I could have done anything at all.

If I could only master the use of this stone, what a brilliant future would await me! It seems a waste to destroy it here.

Such thoughts momentarily passed through my brain.

But such temptations were useless and unnecessary for a traveler like me. After all, I can only carry so much with me.

“Hyah!”

So I waved my wand and sent the crystal flying into the night sky above the city.

I packed all the magical energy I had just received into my wand, then fired it all off at once. As if following the shining golden crystal rotating in the air, a bluish-white light climbed up into the sky.

Then the two lights overlapped and exploded. When my magical energy struck the crystal, it shattered into pieces in midair, and fragments of it flew off in all directions.

Like snowflakes, golden bits of light rained slowly down over the whole city.

The crystal had kept the people locked inside a dreamlike state, and now it showed them a final vision—a fantastical scene in the night sky.

I squinted at the city now flooded in light.