Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.04

CHAPTER 1 STORY 4

The Witch’s Magic Trick

“Elaina. The fact is, you know, about me…is that I can use magic.”

This happened during my training days.

Deep in the forest, in a little house that stood quietly at the top of a tree.

My teacher, Miss Fran, said something very strange.

“What’s the matter, teacher? Did you finally lose your mind?”

My teacher, who went by the name of the Stardust Witch, appeared to have forgotten who she was. Nothing could be more awful, right?

“Ah, sorry, my mistake. Wait just a moment, please. Ummm…”

After flipping frantically through a book that had the title Weekly Publication: Magic Tricks for Dummies written on it, my teacher seemed pleased to say, “Now I’ve done it. So that was the line for people who can’t use magic, huh…? I’m sorry, please let me start over again from the beginning.”

……

Apparently, my teacher is interested in magic tricks or something like that.

“Do you have a lot of free time on your hands, teacher?”

“I do not. I just wasn’t doing anything, so I thought, ‘Oh, that’s an idea. It might be nice if I could do magic tricks.’ There’s not really any reason beyond that.”

“That situation is called having a lot of free time.”

“By the way, Elaina, would you like to make a little wager with me?”

“A wager?”

My teacher nodded as she set a deck of cards on the table.

“I’ll ask you now to take one card of your choosing from this deck. After you’ve memorized the number that is written on that card, please return it to the pile. In a splendid feat, I will find the card you chose and hold it up,” my teacher said, holding Weekly Publication: Magic Tricks for Dummies in one hand.

Incidentally, the first issue of that publication apparently cost one copper coin. However, subsequent issues cost one gold coin each. A real rip-off, huh?

“…So what about this wager?”

I could more or less see what was about to happen, but just in case, I went ahead and asked. Anyway, I had no doubt she was going to say something like “If I win, I want you to swap dish washing duty with me.”

“In the event that I correctly guess the card you chose, I win. You’ll take over dish washing duty, please.”

See?

In the kitchen, a huge number of plates and utensils had piled up and overflowed. I had unintentionally gotten carried away and cooked too much food, so the number of used dishes had grown to ridiculous levels. Add the fact that the dishes containing the dark matter Miss Fran had created were in there with mine, and the kitchen was an absolute picture of chaos.

She was probably fed up with the overwhelming number of them.

So this was her giving in to temptation, I suppose.

“Heh-heh-heh… As long as I have this book, it’s an easy feat to fool Elaina’s eyes…”

Miss Fran was buzzing in anticipation of tricking me.

“Well then, if you fail, you wash the dishes instead of me for a week, please.”

I was buzzing with the excitement of seeing through her plot.

“All right, go ahead.”

My teacher fanned out the deck of cards and said this as she held them out to me. The red patterns drawn on them spread out in an elliptical shape, like so many flower petals.

“Okay.”

I pulled one card out from around the center of the deck. It was the joker.

While I was doing so, my teacher was glancing down at her copy of Weekly Publication: Magic Tricks for Dummies. By the way, it looked like the first issue came with a free gift.

When I replaced the joker back into the center of the deck of cards, my teacher said with a gasp, “You returned your card, yes? Well then, now let’s bring the card you drew up to the top of the deck.” She gathered the cards with a couple of taps.

Then she held her hand over the top of the deck and said something that sounded like a kind of incantation. “…Hi-yah…”

She looked a little embarrassed.

Then she turned over the very top card.

It was a joker.

“The card that you drew was this joker, right, Elaina?” My teacher wore a self-satisfied look. “Heh-heh-heh. I am your teacher, after all, Elaina. I have insight into everything you do!”

“……”

“Well, all right then, Elaina. As promised, I think I’ll have you take over washing the dishes for me.”

She sounded incredibly self-satisfied.

In response, I let out a deep sigh.

“Completely wrong. The card I drew was not that card at all.”

“Oh my, you mustn’t lie, Elaina. I am your teacher, you know? I have insight into everything you do. The card you pulled was, without a doubt, this joker.”

“No. It wasn’t that joker.”

“…What did you say?”

I spoke plainly to my teacher, who wore a puzzled and somewhat apprehensive expression.

“Those cards—they’re all jokers, right?”

“……………………Whatever are you talking about? Of course not. That’s silly.”

“Okay, turn over the second one and show me.”

“I would rather—”

“Miss.”

“I refuse.”

“Not allowed. Flip it over, please.”

“I would rather—”

“Quickly.”

“I decline.”

Since I was getting nowhere, I snatched the cards away forcibly.

When I spread the cards I had taken from my teacher’s hands out on top of the table, I covered it in clowns. It was truly a magnificent display, nothing but clowns. Smiling at me with the petty smiles of those intent on making a fool of me.

They were jokers. All of them.

“It looks like I win.”

I flashed the most satisfied expression I could muster, and my teacher made a truly disappointed face.

“…Tch. How did you know…? My magic trick ought to have been perfect…”

My teacher was glaring bitterly at Weekly Publication: Magic Tricks for Dummies.

“I am your pupil, you know? I have insight into everything you do!” I replied.

Weekly Publication: Magic Tricks for Dummies

Every week, in exchange for its high sales price, that book apparently came with a free gift item that supposedly helped the user perform the trick inside. It was written right there on the cover.

Incidentally, Miss Fran’s copy had written on it: COMES WITH A PACK OF ALL-JOKER CARDS THIS WEEK! USE IT, AND YOU, TOO, CAN BE A FIRST-RATE MAGICIAN!

Since she had been reading it right in front of my eyes, that meant both the secret of the trick and the means of her trickery were completely visible. To put it another way, it meant it was a magic trick even a moron would understand.

“I have to do all of these all by myself…? Ahh…I can feel my heart breaking.”

Miss Fran’s head drooped as she beheld the terrible spectacle spread across the kitchen.

So far, I haven’t revealed to her how I had seen through her magic trick. I probably never will.

After all, my teacher has insight into everything I do, right?

[Publication Information] GA Books Official Blog

[Author Comments]

When I told the editorial department they would be fools to present the above bonus story in order to advertise my books, they said, “Fine, but we’re putting it up on the GA Books blog!” This was the second story that was published that way. There actually was one more, but that one got stuck into the main books.