Majo no Tabitabi - Volume 15 - Chapter 1.37

CHAPTER 1 STORY 37

The Cursed Box

“Apparently, there’s a demon inside this box.”

In a certain country I was visiting, a man appeared before me wearing a troubled expression.

According to him, he was “in possession of a cursed box.” When I asked to hear more, he said that box was bringing all sorts of disasters down upon him.

“Oh-hoh. Just what sorts of troubles have you had?”

When I asked, he said very sorrowfully, “For example, yesterday, a flower vase fell on me. It really hurt! And the day before yesterday, the floor in my house suddenly gave out, and I fell through it.”

Apparently, the man had been struck by frequent misfortune. It wasn’t just the flower vase and the floor; he had been struck with every conceivable type of mundane disaster.

For example, bird poop fell on him whenever he was walking down the street, and he never won anything when he drew lots. On top of that, if he sat down on a bench, it was always the one that had just been painted, and he lost his wallet a lot. He was apparently the victim of all sorts of bad luck.

So I said, “Oh, tough break,” and felt a modest sort of pity for him.

“I just know it’s because of this box. There’s no question.”

The man said that he had only started to meet with these strange-seeming situations after he had acquired the box. The small wooden box was locked and couldn’t be opened. Apparently, he had purchased it at a curio shop.

The owner of the curio shop had evidently had some words for the man when he bought the box.

“I wouldn’t buy that if I were you. That’s a cursed object.”

But the man didn’t believe him. Ultimately, he had ignored the owner’s objections and purchased the box. Since he’d been suffering through strange experiences ever since, he was convinced he had been struck with bad luck because of the box.

“If that box is the cause, couldn’t you just throw it away?” I foolishly suggested.

“If it was possible, I would. But I don’t think I can.” The man shook his head. “After all, I’m suffering through all this just because I have the box, right? If I dump it, I’m sure something even worse will happen.”

“Mm-hmm…”

“Which leads me to ask, Miss Witch, if you might be able to do anything?”

“……”

He probably thought I could solve his problem with my magic. He asked me the question with a frown on his face.

I thought it over briefly. It was hard to suddenly believe in a box that gave people bad luck, but it did seem to be true that this man had been plagued with misfortune.

I wonder if there is anything I can do?

“……” One idea occurred to me. “Lend me the box for three days. Let me remove the curse that hangs over that box for you.”

Less than a week later…

“Wow, Miss Witch, you’re really amazing! Ever since you took the box, I haven’t had a single accident!”

The man appeared before me, overjoyed. During the three days when I had borrowed the box from him, I had lifted the curse—or so I’d told him when I’d given it back.

As for how the result turned out, the curse was gone.

“Every day has truly been a blessing since then! I got a girlfriend, and I stopped having bad luck, and I just can’t help but enjoy every passing day,” he told me, his eyes sparkling.

“My, my. That’s wonderful! Oh-hoh-hoh-hoh.” I laughed as I extended my hand toward him. “Well then, could I get my fee?” We’d established earlier that if he saw real results, I would get paid.

“Ah, of course!” The man pulled out his wallet, then cocked his head. “How much was it? I’m sure that lifting a curse was hard work, so I’ll pay you your proper reward.”

Now then, by the way—

To be perfectly clear, I had indeed taken charge of the box for three days, but after that, I hadn’t really done much of anything.

I hadn’t done a thing to it, really.

Initially, I had opened up the box, but there hadn’t been anything inside. No curses or anything. The box was just an ordinary antique-style box. It must have been the man’s imagination that had him convinced it was definitely cursed. It was one of those things where anything can turn out good or bad, depending on your frame of mind. All I had to do was convince him that it was not cursed, nothing more.

And so I answered him—

“I’ll take whatever amount you feel is right.”

[Publication Information] Volume 10

Melonbooks Buyer’s Bonus

[Author Comments]

If, for example, a fortune-teller told you in the morning that you would have an unlucky day and then some disaster would befall you, you would probably attribute anything bad that happened to you to the fact that the fortune-teller had said that it was an unlucky day. Even if it really had nothing to do with that, if you put your mind to it, you can connect just about anything, I figure.