Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.33

CHAPTER 1 STORY 33

Another Scary Story

Saya, whom I encountered for the first time in a while during my travels, had said something strange.

“Ohhh…Elaina’s scary… I’m scared of Elaina…”

This “Elaina” whose name spilled from Saya’s mouth from time to time, who on earth could she be?

There’s no need to tell you, is there?

That’s right, it’s me.

However, for what possible reason was she frightened of me? I didn’t have any memory at all of doing anything to threaten her.

Well then, why is that?

“What’s the matter, Saya?”

“Kyah! Stop, please, Elaina! Don’t touch me!”

She raised her voice. Saya backed away from me while shaking her head no, but rather than looking scared, instead, she looked delighted. As she glanced over at me, her quivering face had a look of expectation, as if she wanted to say, “Come on, now, startle me more!”

I sighed.

“…Um, did something happen?”

“Stop it, please! Don’t get any closer to me! I’m scared!”

“Wait, even if you say that all of a sudden…”

…I still don’t know how to deal with you.

At any rate, the only possible way to describe Saya’s behavior that day was “strange.” I was certainly confused.

Fortunately, I just so happened to have plans to meet up with Saya’s teacher, Sheila, later that day, so in the course of our conversation, I talked to her about Saya’s sudden transformation, but—

“Ah, right.”

Sheila nodded as if she understood something about it, and moreover, she said, “Must be because she likes you,” and made a somewhat unpleasant face.

“She called me scary because she likes me? I don’t really understand what you mean…”

“Her birthplace is in the East, see, and apparently they have some kind of legend about publicly proclaiming that they are afraid of their favorite foods so that other people who want to cause mischief give them that food or something.”

“…Huh?”

So in other words, if I grumbled about being afraid of bread in an Eastern country, I would receive lots of bread? Good to know…

“In short, I think maybe she was trying to act out that story with you.”

“So she thought that by continuing to say she was afraid of me, I would go to her…? But wouldn’t that be pointless, unless I already knew about that Eastern legend…?”

“Well, she’s always doing weird stuff. In fact, I tried to give her a little warning about it.” Sheila said that, and then, still holding her pipe in her mouth, she left.

The following day—

“Sheila’s scary… I’m afraid of Miss Sheila…afraid of my teacher…”

Saya was there, teeth chattering and trembling with fear. She was sitting in a corner, shaking so badly that I didn’t even feel like asking her what on earth Sheila might have done to her.

I looked at her like that, and for some reason or other, I felt a desire to cause mischief smoldering away deep in my heart.

And so I spoke up and presented her with a single question.

I asked—

“Which meaning of scary would that be?”

[Publication Information] GA Novels Published Fair

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[Author Comments]

I truly was not aware of this in the least, but this turned out to be like a sequel to the bonus story I wrote for Volume 1. Elaina finally found out the meaning of “scary manjuu” in Volume 10. Life is interesting sometimes. I surprised myself.