Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.32

CHAPTER 1 STORY 32

A Tale of Teachers and Students

“What do you think makes someone a ‘witchy’ witch?”

Saya suddenly asked me this question as I was teaching her magic in the Country of Mages. In other words, when I was gripping my wand, right in the middle of expounding on how to do this and that to a girl who was at her wit’s end because she just wasn’t making any progress, she interrupted me with that sort of question.

And so I also wound up tilting my head and asking her, “What’s this all of a sudden?”

Up on the roof of a house, surrounded by the kind of scenery that abounded in that country, she suddenly started talking about some strange thing. It was extremely puzzling.

This is what she said next:

“I’m working on being an apprentice now, and someday I’d also like to become a witch, but—even among witches, there’s a lot of variety, isn’t there? There are witches who give their lives for their countries and witches who live their lives devoted to their own desires, and then there are people like you, Elaina, who are free-spirited and spend their time traveling.”

“…That is true.” Certainly, even when talking about witches, it wasn’t that simple to lump them all together. There were all sorts of different witches living different lives.

“It just sort of occurred to me while you were in the middle of teaching me a spell, but I’ve got a very vague reason for wanting to become a witch, I think.”

“There’s not really anything wrong with that.”

“Why did you decide to become a witch, Elaina?”

“…Hmm…” At that juncture, I remembered that we hadn’t taken a break in our magical training for some time. I took a seat near Saya. “Let’s take a little breather, shall we?” I patted the roof tiles to tell her to sit down beside me.

Saya did as I urged, and as soon as the somewhat nervous-seeming girl had sat down beside me, I began reminiscing as I looked up at the blue sky.

“There’s a book called The Adventures of Niche that everyone’s read, right? It’s just a collection of short stories about a lone witch wandering through the world, but back when I was little, I was very, very enamored with the world that unfolded in the book. How happy I would be, if I could travel the world like her—if I could see such a world with my own eyes, reach out and touch it, how much fun would that be, I thought, admiring her as I got absorbed in the story.”

“…Mm-hmm.” Saya had picked up on the signs that this was going to be a long anecdote, and she started nodding along, with an attentive look on her face.

“So since I wanted to travel after reading that book, I made that my goal. I was told that if I wanted to become a traveler, I had to become a witch, so I became a witch.”

“…Mm-hmm.”

“The end.”

“…Huh? Story’s over?”

“It’s over.”

“Wha…?”

She seemed like she might be irritated by how quickly I finished my reminiscent story after going out of my way to make her sit down, because she asked quizzically, with some reservation, “There wasn’t, like…some kind of episode where a witch saved your life or something…?”

“There wasn’t.”

“You didn’t, like, aspire to become a witch so you could wrap men around your finger, or make tons of money, or something…?

“I didn’t.”

Though I can’t deny the second part.

“……” A few moments later, Saya cocked her head and asked, “So the reason why you became a witch was, in short, because you read a book? Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

“Isn’t that a shallow reason…?”

“How rude,” I replied.

First of all—

“You don’t need a special reason to become a witch,” I said. “It’s not as if every girl who becomes a witch has some splendid sense of purpose, or that only really sincere people can become witches. Some witches are total jerks, and although they have the skills, their terrible personalities make you wonder why they even became witches in the first place. And there are some people who just simply felt like it, so they became witches.”

“……”

“So to sum up, not everyone who is wearing a witch’s brooch is some sincere person who has amazing, magnificent goals in life. There are a few absolute jerks in the mix, too. We’re not all wonderful people. But that’s the world we live in.”

There was no need to go all out in order to become a witch. It was all right to take it easy.

I said, “In short, even if your spellcasting doesn’t improve, that’s not really because you lack a strong sense of purpose, or any reason like that, is what I’m saying.”

Beside me, I could tell that Saya had opened her eyes wide.

I kept talking.

“Maybe you thought it wouldn’t be appropriate for you to become a witch, since you don’t have any clear purpose of your own—but that’s not really something to concern yourself over. Even if you don’t especially have any amazing, magnificent goals, you can still become a witch.”

“……” After a few moments of silence, Saya cast her eyes down and answered, “…I wonder if I can.”

I nodded.

“Probably, if you keep working hard at your training. But before you become a witch, Saya, you have to become an apprentice witch.”

“…I wonder if I can.”

“……”

“Huh, wait a second, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Well, to be completely frank, becoming an apprentice is much more difficult than becoming a witch.”

In order to become an apprentice, she would need to pass an exam, but after that, to become a witch, she’d have to find a teacher, then go through training, and only when her teacher approved her could she finally become a witch.

In short, achieving the title of “witch,” for better or for worse, depended a great deal on the discretion of one’s teacher.

“Becoming a witch is easy?”

“It’s so easy that if you put your mind to it, it would be possible to become a witch in just one day.”

“Seriously?!” Saya nodded hopefully.

“If you capture a nearby witch and give her drugs or something to brainwash her, you could acquire the title of ‘witch’ in a single day.”

“Isn’t that a crime?”

“Not everyone who is wearing a witch’s brooch is some sincere person who has amazing, magnificent goals in life, I told you…”

“But hearing that remark now only makes me feel anxious…”

“That’s the world we live in.”

“…By the way, what kind of person was your teacher, Elaina?”

Saya narrowed her eyes sharply. She was suspicious of me. She was wondering whether I might have become a witch through criminal means.

No, no, unfortunately, I apprenticed under a teacher to earn my title in the proper way.

“She was kind of hard to pin down.”

“Oh?”

“She couldn’t handle mornings, and she always left the cooking up to me, and she always ran off chasing butterflies when I thought she was coming to train me, and she spent night after night absorbed in her own research, and I spent a whole year with her, but she only spent the tiniest amount of time actually teaching me magic.”

“Elaina, that’s not someone who’s hard to pin down, that’s just a total jerk.”

“But she did teach me something. Not magic, but something even more important.”

“…What?”

“She taught me that when humans are corrupt, they can fall to incredible depths…”

“I knew it. She was a total jerk, wasn’t she…?”

“But she was a good person. I felt disgusted with her while I was in training, but looking back on it, I can now see how all of that was actually for my benefit.”

“……”

After keeping silent for a brief while, Saya frowned and tilted her head. “But why did that witch end up giving you your brooch, Elaina?”

I answered her.

“One way or another, a year passed, and she gave it to me.”

“Sounds sloppy.”

“That’s the kind of teacher she was.”

Well, regarding the particular details, we can talk about that another time.

I had been studying with my teacher for about a month when I remembered what had happened to me while I was in the Country of Mages.

Miss Sheila, my teacher, was another person who was extremely hard to pin down, and just like Elaina’s teacher, she spent her days lazing around and seemed like a useless person with too much time on her hands.

For example, even if I said, “Teacher! Take a look at my spell!” and triumphantly shot off a magic spell, she would just barely acknowledge me.

“Huh? …Seems fine to me?”

For example, even if I threw a girly tantrum and whined, “Teacherrr! Hey, teacher! Teach me some magic nooow!” my teacher would just blow a cloud of tobacco smoke in my face.

“Ah, sorry, I’m kinda busy right now, so…”

It stinks! Damn you!

Since I almost always received this kind of awful treatment from my awful teacher, I suppose it was inevitable that my heart became blackened, just like a lung polluted by tobacco smoke.

At the same time, my teacher showed her dislike of me by blowing comments like “Huh? No way. Can’t do it” at me like puffs of smoke.

I was getting worried.

“This is bad… If this keeps up, I’ll be an apprentice witch forever…”

I felt hopeless. At any rate, as things were, my teacher wasn’t paying proper attention to me. I wondered what was wrong with me.

Oh, if only Elaina was here at times like these…

Even if she made an unpleasant face, surely Elaina would have some sort of advice for me, I thought.

Help me, Elaina!

Actually, I have a feeling Elaina said something like “Becoming a witch is easier than becoming an apprentice,” but that’s not true at all, now, is it?

I was at my wit’s end.

And then—

“No, no, you’ve got it all wrong. Becoming a witch is easy.”

—I heard a voice echo through my mind.

“That voice…! Elaina!” I raised my head at once and looked around. But she wasn’t there. In fact, the only person around was my teacher, who was wearing a puzzled expression. “…What’s up?”

“Saya… Saya… I’m talking to you inside your mind right now…”

Ah, Elaina’s voice is inside my head…

Holding myself in check before my excitement boiled over, I whispered, “Elaina…! Are you watching me from somewhere…?”

I exercised my self-control because I didn’t want my teacher to think I was a weird girl.

But even my hushed voice seemed to reach Elaina.

“Saya, unfortunately, the real me is in the middle of a journey right now. I’m probably nowhere near you…”

“You’re probably not here…?”

“Not even I know where the real Elaina is or what she’s doing right now,” the voice echoing in my head was quick to say. “That’s because I’m the version of Elaina that you made up in your own mind.”

“…What’s going on here?”

“Basically, I’m a fantasy you made up. I’m me, but I’m not me.”

That’s kind of a philosophical way of putting things. So in other words, that means—

“…You’re saying that the person talking to me inside my head is a fantasy I made up? An imaginary Elaina…?”

“To put it clearly and directly, that is what I’m saying.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t it totally crazy that I can do this?”

“I think so, too.”

Ah. That dry delivery was very Elaina-like…

“So then, Imaginary Elaina, what do you want with me…?”

“Saya, let me help you solve what’s troubling you—you recall it often, the conversation you had with me in the Country of Mages—you call to mind the conversation we had while we took a break… There’s a hint hidden there…”

My exchange with Elaina…?

I put my head in my hands and groaned. “Ummm…”

The conversation back then, I think it went—

“Saya…I, my feelings for you… Um, I know this is a weird thing to say, since we’re both girls, but…I…love you.”

“I’m so happy…! I’ve always had feelings for you, too, Elaina—”

“I would appreciate it if you would avoid fabricating false memories…”

“Oh, but I do feel like we had a conversation like that at least once.”

“Do you have trouble distinguishing between fantasy and reality…?”

Well, if I was good at distinguishing between them, then Imaginary Elaina wouldn’t have suddenly appeared with no warning, would she?

After letting out a disgusted sigh, the Elaina in my head said, “What I’m trying to talk to you about wasn’t that stuff. When we were up on the roof, you asked me about my teacher, remember? Please, think back on that.”

Think back on that…

I put my head in my hands again.

That time…I think…it went—

“Saya, becoming a witch once you’re already an apprentice is a total walk in the park! All you have to do is make some kind of love potion for your teacher and make her fall in love with you… If you do that, everything will turn out fine. Oh-hoh-hoh…!”

I see! So that’s what I need to do!

“Thank you so much, Elaina! I’m gonna go make a love potion!”

“Huh? No, that’s not what I said…”

Ignoring the exasperated Elaina in my head, I dashed out of the room in order to go make a potion that could brainwash someone.

Then, several days later—

“Miss Sheila! Thank you for all you do! This is from my heart… Won’t you please accept it…?”

With big puppy dog eyes, I openly flattered my teacher as I handed her my homemade cookies (with ultra-powerful love potion in them).

Once she eats these, my teacher will become my slave and do whatever I say…!

“…Hmm?”

My teacher took the cookies from me and said bluntly, “Sorry, but I don’t like cookies. You can have them.” She crammed a cookie into my mouth.

“Mmph…!”

Unfortunately, I’m a person who is usually pretty unguarded, and so the cookie my teacher shoved in my mouth went straight down my throat and right into my belly.

I ate my own ultra-powerful love potion cookie.

My teacher had probably seen right through what I had been trying to do. She had probably figured me out.

“Uuuuugh…ugh, I already have someone, named Elaina…” I writhed in agony there on the spot.

Looking down at me in my suffering with frigid eyes, my teacher said, “So it was a love potion, huh…?” and blew out a puff of smoke. She looked disgusted with me. “If you want to make me do what you want, you’ll have to improve your magic skills a little more.”

Then, with a sneering grin, my teacher sat me up and said, “For now, though, rub my shoulders.” For as long as time permitted, for as long as the potion was in effect, she ordered me around like her slave.

“After that, make some dinner.”

“Go buy me tobacco.”

“Go buy some bread.”

“Gimme a light, a light.”

And so on, like that.

The sad thing is, the love potion I had made seemed to work perfectly, so even in the face of that kind of treatment, I answered my teacher in a sickly sweet voice, “Eh-heh-heh…of course I will. I love my teacher!” as I followed her every command.

What’s more, even as she kept on pushing me around like her little servant, I proclaimed, “Eh-heh-heh… How are you such a good person, Miss…?”

Just then, I suddenly remembered something. Elaina had told me that her own teacher was a good person, but could that possibly have meant…?

After that, I had an opportunity to meet up with Elaina, so I stealthily whispered something into her ear.

I said—

“Elaina, did your teacher force-feed you a love potion? Are you all right? Are you still feeling the effects?”

“Huh? Sorry, what are you talking about?”

[Publication Information] Animate Previously

Published Fair Buyer’s Bonus

[Author Comments]

I always had a feeling I would be collecting these stories into a bonus story volume someday, but many of the bonus stories are quite long, huh? I made a big fuss, begging them to put out a bonus story volume, and as a result I got the opportunity to publish this one, but if you never ask, you never get your way! There was no way I could bring myself to leave this many bonus stories as only limited-time offers and then scrap them.

If I ever get the chance, I also want them to put out a drama CD volume, too!!!!!!!!!!!!