(Part 1)

The paradox of the sound of waves, wild yet gentle, and the cries of seabirds. A nostalgic smell filling my nostrils, wrapped in the briny air.

How long had it been since I last stepped on my homeland’s soil?

For the first time in my life, I had spent a long time abroad and so I revealed myself capable of such nostalgic feelings for my country. That fact was completely lovely, it filled me with happiness, a feeling that seemed to dye my heart in many colors, like something joyously quivering in the depths of my body, about to burst out.

As if to match my feelings, I had a good view of the mountains far past the ramparts; they were dyed in vibrant reds and yellows. I realized that only a year had pa.s.sed since I left the King’s Citadel behind, since I recalled seeing those same colors the day I started my trip.

I got off my ship at File Harbor, in the northwest of the country, and took a deep breath of my homeland’s air, deeply moved. But since I was so close to the sea, the air of the homeland was actually a bit stinky and salty.

“Th-thanks for letting me travel with you!” Gathering my courage, I addressed the sailors and thanked them for taking care of me. The men stopped hauling their cargo of fruits to smile at me and waved good-bye.

‘Sailors might look scary, but they’re all good folks.’ The words said by him long ago echoed inside my head.

“I’ll see him soon,” I said out loud unknowingly and startled myself. Thankfully, when I looked around me, no one seemed to have heard my embarra.s.sing words; not it meant that my fl.u.s.ter was going away. I decided to leave File Harbor behind in order to quell the glow of my cheeks.

(Part 2)

 Judging by the position of the sun, it was probably past noon

In truth, I had to go report back to the Society’s headquarters right away, but unfortunately it was lunch time. When I thought of sharing a simple meal with them in that gloomy atmosphere after a hasty arrival, I took a decision: I have some time left, it shouldn’t be a problem if I take a walk. So to pa.s.s the time, I decided to wander around the city. It had been quite a while, after all.

…Growl…

Soon after I began walking, my stomach rumbled and I remembered that I hadn’t eaten anything since the previous night. Once I realized this, my feet turned towards En Pa.s.sant Marketplace.

“Wow…” An exclamation of wonder escaped my lips involuntarily, prompted by the huge amount of people. So, so many people; young, old, male, female…the marketplace was packed with them. The scenery, unchanged from a year prior, made me feel really at ease.

Although I was starving, the first thing inside my mouth after returning to my country had to be special. I advanced in silence through the crowd, until my eyes were suddenly drawn towards a fruit stall that seemed to match my tastes.

Remember: don’t go counter to the waves of people and don’t forget your ultimate destination.

Gradually, I neared the stall I was aiming for. As I walked without interruption, I felt a little proud of the fact that my body was recalling how to navigate the marketplace, despite my long absence.
“Excuse me! I’m in a hurry, please let me pa.s.s…!” All of the sudden, I heard a woman’s voice amidst the crowd. I say a voice, but it carried enough pa.s.sion to be more accurately described as a scream. However, the roar of the crowd was such that it was completely lost under the noise, leaving no trace.

For no obvious reason, I was drawn by that voice and began to search for its owner. When I did, I saw a trembling woman with long hair, her back turned towards me. She was desperately looking around her; I realized she was in some sort of trouble. Surely, the woman didn’t know the proper way to traverse the marketplace. From the looks of it, she was obstructed by the queue before the fruit stall, and couldn’t continue moving forward.

I wanted to help her, if there was anything I could do. But strangers are scary…Besides, even if I spoke to that woman, she might out right reject my help. When I considered that, my inflated desire to do a good deed deflated dejectedly. And yet…that woman urgently looking around her had such pretty hair, so much that it made me want to watch that pinkish tone forever.

In the end, I decided to move past the woman with pretty hair, while apologizing repeatedly to her in my mind.

“A-are you…in a hurry?”

Eh? Whose voice was that? It sounded like mine…

The woman with pretty hair turned towards me, with a slightly surprised expression on her face. So then, that had truly been my voice. Perhaps I unconsciously called out to her; seeing the woman acting so fl.u.s.tered had been too pitiful to resist.

Her eyes were sparkling, perhaps due to tears. A crazy thought came unsolicited to my mind: Ah, he could fall in love with a woman like this. 

“Yes, I need to go past this marketplace. If I don’t hurry…” Her voice clearly conveyed the strength of her feelings and how desperate she was.

I examined her more closely and realized she was carrying in her right hand something like an old shoe; the problem, though unknown to me, didn’t seem to be a mere trifle.

“T-this way…”

I’ve thought about it afterwards, but I can’t say why I talked to that woman at that point in time, and why I decided to help her. Quite simply, by the time I realized what I was doing, my body was already in movement. Back then, I couldn’t have even begin to guess the consequences of my capricious act for someone like myself, already afraid of strangers.
 

It might take a while for the next part of this to come out, just FYI.

(Part 3)

“…Thank you! Someday I’ll repay you for this, I promise…Goodbye!”

Together, we had escaped the crowd. For a brief moment, a sense of accomplishment bloomed in me as we talked. Then, I reminded the woman with pretty hair of her objective and she went away in a rush. What a gentle expression she had; what a warm voice. Without a doubt, she was running with that much energy for someone else’ sake.

“I’m glad I spoke to her.”

That woman whose name I didn’t know accepted my act of kindness and thanked me with a smile. I felt really happy that I’d been able to be helpful to someone, without getting hurt in the process. However, there was one problem.

While I was advancing through the marketplace with that woman, I grew more and more ravenously hungry. Perhaps it was due to the physical exercise involved in walking; however, a bigger factor was the fact that the woman smelled of wheat for whatever reason.

“I could east a pastry for lunch.” Just after I said those calm words to myself, a strong wind went whistling past. Behind me in the marketplace, I could hear people crying out, “Aaah!” or “Wow!” The timber of the stalls creaked all around the market, startling the clients. I saw the people around the stalls handing back things to the owners, perhaps products that had fallen to the ground from the stalls due to the strong wind.

Most likely, that wind wasn’t natural.

“A witch…?”

I felt a bit of magic in the particles of the atmosphere. The ‘magical nature’ of the environment seemed to have strengthened. But the magic used by the witch in her incantation felt short-lived and of little quant.i.ty. What was going on? Where was she?

I began to picture in my mind the map of the city. I studied the air around me, so that I would be able to move immediately once I sensed even a tiny bit of magic. In this country where there are witch-hunts, and where people are promptly apprehended if they are outed as a witch, there’s simply no way that a sorceress would use her powers in the vicinity of a crowd.

So what’s the most deserted place around here…?

Calling upon the year-old memories of my hometown, I remembered Diagonal Alley. By night, it was a highly frequented street, but around noon it was pretty much deserted.

…If I were a witch, I would use my magic there. 

When I reached that conclusion, I swiftly activated the holy weapons under my clothing. From the sleeves of my robes, chains came out flying; one end pierced the wall of a nearby building and an instant later I was dancing in air, pulled by it. I managed to land soundlessly on the building’s rooftop.

If you need to look for someone, the search is more efficient if you stand in a high place, with a good vantage point and nothing to obscure the transit of people. Once more, I rested my eyes upon the nostalgic view of the city of Kings. For a year, I had fulfilled my duties in the country beyond the sea. And now, it seemed a new job had begun right after my return to my birthplace, before I had time to rest.

“I’m home,” I muttered while staring at the palace, the place where he had to be. With those words, all the tiredness of the trip left my body. The wind made my robes flutter, exposing the silver holy instruments wrapped around my arms.

It didn’t matter where I was. For a witch hunter in the service of the Society like myself, there was only one thing to do.

I have to put down all the witches in the world, until there’s none left.

Part 4

To tell you the conclusion right away, I couldn’t find the witch. Though I was able to help a certain person once more.

That is to say, while I was travelling from roof to roof, I happened to see in an alley at my feet a huge man, about to hit someone. The woman cowering in fear was none other than the person I had met in the marketplace earlier.

Before I could think about what I was doing, I extended my chain and wrapped it around the man’s arm and used my momentum to drop down from the building. In an attempt to look cool, I felt like saying something to the man, but my heart was pounding so hard that I’m sure my words came out even shakier than usual. I don’t even want to remember what I said.

To mask my embarra.s.sment, I struck him in the jaw with a roundhouse kick.

“We…we meet again,” I attempted to say with a smile, but the more I thought about it, I had just knocked down a huge man with a roundhouse kick, in front of a woman I barely knew. I even felt dizzy, due to my embarra.s.sment and the frantic pace of the situation.

To start with, who was to say my a.s.sessment of the situation was correct? I had leaped into action, guided by the stereotypical image of a woman being a.s.saulted by a big man. It wasn’t hard to buy into that, but there was a chance that the woman was the villain and the man her victim.

Besides, I was in the middle of investigating the whereabouts of a witch. Although…Now that so much time had pa.s.sed, perhaps it was hopeless to follow the faint magical energies used to create the wind I felt before in the marketplace.

“Th-thank you so much!” The woman voiced her grat.i.tude and began crying profusely. She had been facing a scary situation, no doubt about it.

...Ah, I’m so glad I saved her.

The worry filling my chest vanished in an instant, thanks to her tears and grateful words. More than for a witch whose location I ignored, I wanted to move in defense of the people in front of me.
I decided to give up the search for the witch for the day. I made the crying woman sit on a barrel by the roadside; little by little, she told me what happened to her that day between sobs: A thief stole the earnings of the bakery where she worked, but she managed to track him down. Then, the criminal somehow lost his footing and fell, and she tried to steal back the money while he was still unconscious. One more accomplice appeared, but I saved her just on the nick of time…As she explained, the reason behind the delicious fragrance floating around her and her altered mood became clear. I felt just like a detective having a moment of realization.

But more importantly…” A, a girl shouldn’t do such dangerous things…!”

“I’m- I’m sorry! But I had to…get my boss’ money back…I won’t trouble you again…” The woman’s voice, which had finally steadied, again sounded in the verge of tears; it seemed as if her feelings had flared up once more.

“It’s okay…to trouble me. It’s okay…” I hugged her.

Her shoulders shook as she cried, but gradually she calmed down in my arms.

“…Do you feel okay now?”

I was in the middle of rubbing her back gently, when a sound suddenly broke the stillness: a loud growl. She was startled, and so do I; for an instant, even I wasn’t sure what had happened. An yet, that was unmistakably…

“Ah, this, I haven’t eaten lunch! And I had some physical activity as well! In any case, it’s not what you’re thinking!”

She looked at me flabbergasted as I gave her my confused explanation. As for me…I knew I didn’t want to see myself in a mirror at that moment. Surely, I had an awkward expression on my completely red face.

“…fu, Ahahaha!” With her face swollen from crying, she suddenly burst out laughing.

“You…there’s no reason to laugh so hard…!”

“But it sounded so loud, ahahaha!”

“W-wait a second…Saving you is the main reason my stomach is this empty…” When I tried to point that out with a sigh, she began laughing even harder, flapping her legs.

I couldn’t help but feel amused as I saw her laugh so hard at the growling of my stomach, considering moments ago she had been crying profusely.

“B-but! It’s because I’m so hungry! Hahaha!” In that back alley blown by a pleasant breeze, with a big man collapsed at our feet, I found himself laughing loudly alongside her.



Part 5

Drag, drag, drag.

People had been relentlessly giving us piercing stares for a while now, as I pulled my prisoners along the avenue that lead to the palace.

“Hm…Ah, I still haven’t asked your name.”

Drag, drag, drag.

“My name is Lucca, what’s yours?” The baker girl to my right began introducing herself.

“I’m Mich.e.l.le.”

“So your name is Mich.e.l.le…”

Drag, drag, drag.

Lucca seemed to be pondering something while she took stock of our surroundings. I felt unease for a while at this, until she began talking. “Mich.e.l.le, you’re really strong.”
Before Lucca’s eyes, two unconscious thieves were being dragged along the ground; their bodies were wrapped up in chains that extended towards my shoulders…In short, a girl like me was hauling two adult men around.

I can’t let villains roam free.

Regardless of how it looked to pa.s.sersby, I had to keep the thieves under custody until I could hand them to the palace guards.

“It’s…I was born like this…And the nature of my job requires it…”

The fact that I’m a witch-hunter can’t be publicly revealed, so I must keep it a secret even from relatives or a close friends. Unfortunately for me, I had neither, except for one person. So until that moment, I’d had little trouble protecting my ident.i.ty.

“The nature of your work, huh? Mich.e.l.le, what’s your profession?”

“Um…I serve the church as a nun.” And what part of the work at a church would require such physical effort…? The implausibility of the lie I spat out on the spur of the moment stumped even myself.

After mulling over my words for a bit, Lucca muttered, “The work at the church must be really demanding, right?”

I felt relieved when I saw how innocent she was, to be able to swallow such a lie. At the same time, once more I felt a sense of guilt for deceiving her. Lucca was quite a mysterious woman, but with just a little time talking with her I could already tell that she was a good person at heart.

As we approached the palace, we asked each other more questions about our lives. Obviously, I intended to avoid giving her any specific information about my real ident.i.ty. So I just told her that I’ve been abroad for a year, and had finally returned that day. Also, there was someone I wanted to meet. Aside from him, it was perhaps the first time I’ve had such a long conversation with anyone.

For her part, Lucca told me several details regarding her current lot in life. At the same time I was leaving the country, she had settled here and started working at a bakery. She also told me about her boss, who had done many things for her, and their clients.

It was at that point, listening to her explanations, when I realized that the bakery where she worked was the famous ‘Guns & Bread’, a store I’d been thinking of visiting, but was said to be managed by a man with a very scary demeanor. However, since now I knew Lucca worked there, I privately vowed to visit it as frequently as I could.

“Stop!”

We finally reached the front of the palace as I continued to make a heavy dragging sound thanks to my captives; the two gatekeepers fixed us with a sharp glare.

“These men are guilty of stealing of stealing money from the shop where this woman works. Are they in the wanted person bulletin?”

After studying me from head to toe with suspicion (after all, I had been dragging two grown men on my way there), the guards began to check the pages of the bulletin.

“Yes, they are here…Are there only two of them? The bulletin says this is a three-person band.”

At those words, Lucca clapped her hands apparently remembering something, and took a step forward.

"Ah, there"s another one at my shop! The boss must have him captured, please come right away."

"Look, you might ask us to come right away, but there"s a procedure to follow. Besides, it"s not like your problem is the only thing going on in the city."

"But the boss... We can"t reopen the shop like this."

While Lucca continued to negotiate with one of the guards, taken aback by his cold words, I surrept.i.tiously showed the other the cross-shaped pendant peeking from under my robes. Following the official procedure would make the process of handing over the scoundrels very lengthy. Even if it was only for a minute or a mere second, I wanted to spare Lucca from the dirtiness of the world.

The face of the guard underwent a clear change when he saw the symbol of the slain witch hanging from the crucifix around my neck and he adopted a respectful posture.

"We"ll attend to this matter immediately," he muttered, speaking with a voice I had rendered impa.s.sive, and then he right away rebuked the other guard, granting Lucca her request.

Part 6
 

"Mich.e.l.le, thanks for all you did today! Come to our shop sometime, ok? We"ll do something special for you."

"Yay! I"ll go for sure!"

After handing over my heavy load to the guards, we left the palace gates behind. Then, we stood in front of the main road, saying our goodbyes.

Lucca seemed to find the sudden att.i.tude change of the guards a bit strange, but apparently wasn"t in the mood to touch upon it. She was satisfied for the time being with the solution to the incident, so she took her leave with a look of delight.

I had the feeling that in our short time together, we had opened up to one another to a degree that surprised even ourselves. Lucca had invited me to her store, not out of formality, but from a genuine impulse, and I had answered genuinely that I wanted to go.

To be able to speak so frankly with a girl close to my age is so...Maybe Lucca and I could become friends?

As that thought crossed my mind, I waved enthusiastically at her.

Holding the bakery"s stolen money like a precious thing, Lucca answered with a small wave of her hand; again and again and again she turned to wave as she slowly walked away, until she was gone.

I continued to wave until I could see her no more.

"....Mich.e.l.le, are you waving your hand at an invisible man or something?" Suddenly, a voice I had missed dearly spoke up behind me.

"Uwah!" When I turned around, the person I had yearned to see for a whole year was before my eyes.

"There"s no need to act so surprised," the tall man in front of me said with a smile, completely unperturbed by the fact he had startled me.

"Of course I would be surprised...!" I"d say anyone would be shocked, if the person they wanted to see so badly they could hardly stand it appeared before their eyes, or more accurately, right behind them.

"Did you grow a bit taller? Your hair looks longer as well..." To keep him from noticing how hard my heart was pounding, I spoke out my impressions as soon as they crossed my mind.

“Maybe. You used to be a little chubby, you lost some weight, right?”

Ah, he’s the same as he was a year ago. Such a serene man, like a cloud lightly sailing through the sky. I couldn"t never tell if his narrowed eyes were seeing me or looking steadily at the future of this country. My childhood friend...such a marvelous man.

"Why, Prince Cougar, you remain unchanged!" I replied purposefully using a pompous tone. As I expected, his expression soured.

With this, we"re even.

"Don"t call me prince, will you? It"s getting quite annoying already with my father naming me his heir. My dealings with the ministers and my brothers are stiff enough already..." In an unusual move for him, Cougar sighed. In all likelihood, the atmosphere inside the palace was very oppressive for him at the moment.

"So that"s why you sneaked out, right?"

"Hahaha, when I heard that my dearest friend Mich.e.l.le was back after a year of absence, I had to come see you, no matter what."

"Then you should"ve come pick me up at the harbor, jeez." Even though I adopted an angry tone, it made no difference to me that we were just outside the palace gates. Prince Cougar had come out of the palace just to meet me, that made more and more happy when I thought about it, whether he was being sincere or not.

"Welcome back."

"I"m glad to be home."

It was a casual exchange, something commonly said. But at that instant, I finally felt a sense of having returned to the place where I belonged. If only the moments I spent with him like this could stretch on endlessly towards the future...

"By the way Mich.e.l.le, you were waving your hand with a very happy expression on your face. You barely returned home and you already met someone? Who was that?"

"Ah, hum, I ran into a woman called Lucca, she works at a bakery. It was a chance encounter, but I think we might be able to become friends..."

"What!? You made a friend? I"m so happy to hear that, you truly grew up during the time we didn"t see one another."

Cougar listened to my hesitant explanations nodding happily.

From the time I was a child, I couldn"t talk with the people I knew, much less open up to them, with the exception of Cougar and the teachers at the Society. Cougar wasn"t the only one surprised that someone like me could"ve made a friend. I was the one most surprised about it.

But actually, it wasn"t that I had suddenly transformed into a sociable person: as far as I was concerned, the biggest reason the meeting and subsequent time spent together with Lucca had gone so well due to the sweetness of her character.

"So when did you meet this Lucca?"

"Um, I was crossing the marketplace, on my way to the Society, when..." I started to say, then my mind went blank.

With so many things that had happened that day, like the ship arriving before schedule, meeting Lucca, capturing the bad guys... I had completely forgotten my original plans. However, at that moment it finally came back to me.

"Cougar, I"ll tell you all about it later, I need to go!" Even before my lips began forming sounds, my feet were already in movement.

Ah, I"m going to get scolded again...

As I heard his placid voice bidding me farewell from behind, I activated the chains under my robes.

(Part 7)
 

"Come here, Mich.e.l.le," the identical voices of a young boy and girl echoed in the chapel. It was the two of the high church administrators, that came to greet me when I pushed open the doors of the church.

"I"m... I"m back." Even though I had literally flown to get there, I unfortunately arrived a little past the appointed time. The pair looked at me coldly as I took in a big gulp of air.

"Finally, you say. It seems you dawdled along the road, though."

"Tell us the results of the witch hunt in the Flower Country Frouvel."

"Before that, tell us why did you take so long to arrive here."

"The report is more important."

The golden-haired twins, a boy and girl about the same in stature, argued heatedly. Their discussion, with two unchanging voices ringing in stereo in my ears, finally wore me down.

"Um, the archwitches that appeared in Frouvel: Sabrina, Mekhashshepheh and Gerald were successfully captured and incapacitated without incident. After that, um...oh yes, they are currently in custody of the Frouvel"s Witch Hunter Society; after that trial, they"ll be....eliminated by the hunters." Since I managed to inform them about the results of the expedition accurately, if haltingly, I sighed softly with relief. I felt a small sense of pride, particularly since I had manage to recite the names of the witches without any mistakes.

But the boy administrator, called Lane, was staring fixedly at me, waiting for an explanation for my tardiness, so I ended up adding in a hurry, "after I reached Kings, I went to the marketplace...and I helped someone, so I ran late..."

"Then, once more...Welcome back, Mich.e.l.le," they said as one. Perhaps satisfied with my response, at last the twins deigned to show some appreciation for my efforts. When I heard their words, a weight was lifted off my shoulders.

"That"s our Mich.e.l.le, her opponents were a trio of archwitches and she came back to us completely unharmed," the girl administrator, called Lean, praised me, yet her face remained completely inexpressive.

I laughed awkwardly thanking her, but as usual, the two of them seemed completely uninterested in my reaction.

"Mich.e.l.le, sorry to spring this on you so soon after your return, but..." Lean said, although she didn"t look sorry at all. From who-knows-where, she pulled out a stack of parchments and handed it over to me. When I examined them, I discovered that all the parchments had portraits on them.

"Those are the likeness of individuals suspected of witchcraft. From now on, you will seek them out and if necessary, detain them."

In this kingdom, people suspected of practicing witchcraft are denounced to the Society. Then a likeness is made and we witch-hunters are entrusted with the case.

It"s not like every time a portrait is completed the person depicted ends up being a witch, but all the people accused in this manner must be located, contacted directly and observed to find out if they are witches. In most cases, it ends up with us apologizing and recognizing our mistake. But if the person really is a witch, we apprehend them. The cases when we met resistance are the worst: they end up in battles or executions.

The stack of parchments seemed unending; no matter how long I leafed through it. It immediately dampened my spirits. As I put the parchments in order glancing quickly at each face, I noticed a woman with dark hair.

“That apparently is an archwitch named Meyrin. From the description they gave us, she seems to trade in potions,” Lane calmly spoke up.

Amongst witches, the ones with more magical power are called archwitches. The term grand sorceress designates the witch that caused the historical catastrophe, so the currently living witches with the highest magical power are called archwitches instead.

“A archwitch, in this country…” I stared hard at the portrait of the person supposedly called Archwitch Meyrin, committing her face to my memory.

“Now, this next one…” Suddenly, Lean handed me another parchment.

“Eh?” I couldn’t help to speak aloud without thinking; that portrait…I had just seen the face of the girl in the portrait.

“She hasn’t been denounced as a witch, but she seems to meet with the alleged Archwitch Meyrin from time to time.”

Fluffy long hair, gentle eyes like the sun, the smell of fresh bread carried by the breeze. The first girl outside of the church I ever thought I could be friends with.

“Take care of this matter appropriately,” the administrator’s cold voice gradually iced my heart.

To think I would see Lucca’s face in a wanted poster...!

My hands moved on their own, with fingertips sweaty and strained, and grasped the parchment.“Understood.”

There’s no way that Lucca is a witch.

Witches are ruthless and cold-hearted beings that bring misfortune upon people. A gentle person like her, that laughed and cried without restraint, couldn’t possibly be one of them. But there"s the fact that as a witch-hunter, I had the obligation to investigate the matter properly with my own eyes.

I placed the wanted posters inside one of the pockets of my robes and turned towards the door to leave; my destination was the bakery where Lucca worked.

“May G.o.d guide your hunts, Mich.e.l.le,” the twins said in unison behind me, but I didn’t turn back to look at them.

Without replying, I placed my hand on the door connecting to the outside.

(To be continued...)

Have this ready for the end of the chapter:  8)

Once outside, I noticed that the wind had picked up again.

It wasn’t a wind birthed by magic like the one a little after noon; this time it was the natural autumn wind that made the church’s windows rattle and cloud up. I was alarmed by the idea of leaves entering the church, but before I could close the door to prevent it, the wind slammed it on its own, making a huge noise.

“I’m going to get scolded again by those two,” I thought as I used my hands to keep my hair and robes from fluttering around in the wind. Making sure the wanted posters wouldn’t fly out of my pocket, I waited for the wind to abate.

“What a fierce wind!” I heard the people that lived nearby comment as they walked about.

While the dust danced, housewives began to gather the laundry fallen from the clotheslines and youngsters returned street signs to their previous positions. I watched these familiar sights unfold nearby as I briskly walked towards the bakery.

Today the wind has shifted so often…going there, coming here, as tumultuous as my own feelings. 

My stomach growled as it had done so often, with no regard to my mood, perhaps to keep me from waxing poetical thoughts.

Now that I think about it, I ended up not eating anything at all.

“Well, since I’m going to a bakery, I might as well have a late lunch over there.”

Lucca was probably going to be surprised to see me so soon, but she was sure to welcome me with a smile. I indulged myself with that mental image as I walked out of the town square, then an unbelievable sight caught my eye.

A tall man with a woman with long hair by his side: the man I had recently been reunited with after a year’s absence, together with the woman I was now going out to meet.

“Cougar…and Lucca?”

Suddenly they hid themselves, and began peeking out examining their surroundings. They were discussing something I couldn’t make out, but they looked like they were having a great time together…they looked happy.

They look like two people made for each other.

Why was the crown prince of our country conversing so affectionately with a baker girl?

Even conjecturing the reason made me suffer, so my feet stopped, robbed of the strength to go meet Lucca. I completely froze on the spot.

Part 9

(Part 1)

“Mich.e.l.le, thank you for today! Come to the shop some time, I’ll have something special for you.”

“Yay! I’ll go for sure!” The pet.i.te girl rejoiced with an innocent smile.

Not once, but twice, this girl had saved me. In the end, it had been too heavy a burden for a half-witted and useless…no, a half-breed useless witch like me, to recover on my own the money from those strong thieves. If she hadn’t been there, I could still be there rotting away in the marketplace. Although I’d been lucky enough to get to the culprit, I ended up almost succ.u.mbing to their violence.

Truly, I was glad to have met that girl at that place and time.

My own inclinations as well as the rules of courtesy suggested I invited her to have tea with me somewhere. However, I had to hurry back; I needed to return the money to the store and ease my boss’ anguish. So I relegated the desire to talk some more to Mich.e.l.le to the back of my mind and began to ran back to the bakery.

When I turned back to look at her, Mich.e.l.le was still waving her hand, which made me unknowingly smile.

Mich.e.l.le had the gentleness to save those in need, plus the strength to face others when needed. If I had met her sooner, my days might’ve been much more colorful, for sure. However, apparently she travelled abroad around the same time I first came to the country. The bad timing of it all made me somewhat disappointed, but at the same time, the fact that we had managed to meet either way seemed so marvelous that it made me overjoyed.

When she comes to our bakery, I should make something really special for her. My boss will surely allow it; after all, she was the shop’s savior. Maybe she could try the new pastries I suggested. I want to speak more with her, when there aren’t so many clients around. Maybe she could have lunch with me the days when Meyrin wasn’t around, that would be nice. And…and…

‘It’s not like witches and humans can be friends.’ Suddenly, the words Meyrin once uttered echoed in my mind. Those sad words damped the high hopes I was beginning to harbor. If I’m not mistaken, Meyrin said that phrase a few months before; she was staying at my place and we were drinking fruit wine together.

‘Why?’ I recalled myself asking.

‘Because we’re witches and they’re humans!’ She answered roughly.

Certainly, humans and witches were two races with different lifespans and senses of values. Long ago, before the incident with the grand sorceress, it seems like relations between the two groups weren’t as rocky, but nowadays in the modern world, humans hated witches and witches lived in fear of humans.

As for me, I was attempting to make friends with people that didn’t know I was a witch; however, there was the possibility they might denounce me to the Society, if they discovered my true ident.i.ty. That’s why a witch has to lie. No matter how close the friendship, she has to live hiding her true self.

‘Can you call them true friends, despite that?’ Even now, I can’t forget Meyrin’s sad, resigned smile.

It’s merely conjecture, but perhaps long ago Meyrin became friends with a human, and then they betrayed her…I didn’t explore the topic too deeply.

"Then, what about romance between and witches?" It’s not like I had interest in the subject, I just tried to ask so that I wouldn’t have to endure an uncomfortable silence. Meyrin countered by asking if I was wondering whether her maiden heart had been pierced by some human or perhaps I was fixed upon falling in love with someone.

Perhaps I had fallen in love with a frequent costumer; or maybe, I was waiting for a fateful meeting with a handsome prince from a foreign land, one I had yet to meet? Or maybe I harbored a forbidden love for my boss Mr. Bread…and so on.

After Meyrin had her fun for a while posing wild theories, she reached inside her ingredients box and handed me a potion labelled ‘Love Potion X’ which she had just brewed the previous evening. Then, she excused herself and went to sleep. That suspicious-looking potion is gathering dust in the back of one of the shelves in my room. I’m pretty sure the day to use such a thing will never come.

Finally, I turned a street corner and couldn’t see Mich.e.l.le any longer.

A witch and a human. Someone that has magic powers, someone that doesn’t. Such a small difference, and at the same time it const.i.tuted such an insurmountably huge gulf between us. And yet, I wished from the bottom of my heart to be friends with Mich.e.l.le.

(Part 2)

When I returned to the store, several palace guards were already there; they were in the middle of accepting custody of the thief Mr. Bread had tied up with a rope.

The reaction of the soldiers I spoke with at the palace gates had been pretty surprising; but once again it shocked me how quick they had responded coming to our help.

“Lucca!” When my boss realized I was back, he pushed past the soldiers in front of him and ran to my side. I could see a mixture of different emotions in his face, worry and anger and more, but in the end, he just hugged me without saying a word. His big hand ruffled my hair roughly.

“Ow, that hurts, boss!”

“Idiot, this is what you get for making me worry. Idiot…!” His voice sounded a bit choked.

Hearing him sound like that had the effect of cutting the thread of tension, I guess, because before I realized it, I was bowling my eyes out. My boss was caught in the emotion and began weeping as well with burning tears. Crying out loudly like that in the middle of the city, we probably looked like a stray puppy and a bear howling together…in other words, quite a peculiar sight.

The soldier and busybodies around us were staring at us with vacant looks. It was a bit embarra.s.sing, but I still felt like having a good cry with my boss. After a while, when we finally became tired of sobbing, we released one another.

“Boss, here!” While wiping my tears I showed my boss the bag of stolen money.

“That…no way, it can’t be?!” My boss’ eyes, bloodshot after shedding so many tears, opened widely.

“I chased down the thief…and then…he dropped it…” I’d forgotten to invent an excuse to justify how I’d managed to get the money back. No matter what, there was no way I could say I had recovered it using magic to vanquish the thief. So in the end, I ended up babbling incoherently as I searched for words to say.

“That was a dangerous thing to do.” My boss let out a sigh when he noticed my dirty clothes and the gash in my cheek. A moment later, he rapped me over the head. However, I felt no pain; more than actually hit me, I felt him place his hand on my head.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized sincerely.

It really had been dangerous. If I hadn’t considered myself able to defeat the thief using my own powers, I wouldn’t have even tried catching up to him. But ultimately, I had misjudged what I was able to do.

It’s not like I’m able to accomplish every single thing I try, just because I have magic. Until that point in time, all I could were simple spells, like reducing my apparent weight as much as I could and looking for people. If I tried to use the power of blood, I’d likely be able to produce much more powerful effects, but I had never attempted it so far. For a wimp like me, it had been shameful to act motivated by my sense of justice in this conditions.

All those thoughts coursed through my head as I apologized; my boss received my words with a smile. “Thanks, you did save me, Lucca.”

“…Yes, you’re welcome!”

Perhaps because he was feeling bashful, for a while my boss had been evading my eyes. But his words were clearly directed towards me, so I peeked at his face from below, extremely happy. When I did that, he gave me a noogie.

“Ow, it hurts…”

I needed to reflect about several things about myself, regarding my actions that day. But just one word of thanks from my boss gave me relief. I was truly glad I chased down the thief when I did. With my feelings overflowing, being held as I was by my boss, once again I burst out crying.

(Part 3)

It was the time before dusk, with the early part of the afternoon already concluding. I was walking along a small road covered by leaves, crunching them loudly under my feet. From time to time, the leaves twirled around in a whirl, allowing me to see the shape of the wind. When I imagined the wind eddies to be the result of unseen sylphs tracing circles as they danced, the whirls seemed lovelier somehow; the image made me laugh.

That day “Guns & Breads” had closed early. At that moment, my boss and the guards were probably checking the store to uncover the thieves’ methods. Given that the store was full with guards, it had become completely impossible to do business properly.

“Sorry, looks like the store is done for today,” my boss explained to me, as I intently watched the situation; the soldiers were trying to figure out how the thief had broken into our store.
It made some sense; the men were everywhere inside the store. From the looks of it, we had at least two more hours of this ruckus before we could operate properly. So in the end, it was simpler to close down for the day and just prepare for tomorrow.

I consented to it and began to prepare for my return home, as I peeked out of the corner of my eye at my boss, who seemed pretty busy. He was loudly recounting his experience to the guards, using numerous onomatopoeia instead of words. As a result, even I, someone who had the greatest understanding of the situation outside of the speaker, was having trouble following his words. In any case, I was glad my boss’ good mood seemed restored.

For my part, the plans I had formulated in the morning regarding how to spend my leisure time had gone off the rails.

“What should I do?” Suddenly finding myself with free time, I didn’t know how to spend it.

My only friend was the witch Meyrin; I had no other distractions. I certainly love reading books, but the truth was that it felt a little lonely to go shut myself inside my room when the sun was still up in the sky.

I wanted to meet someone.

After I became involved in the events at the bakery, I used magic again after a long time, and rushed across the city in a way that seemed to render the tranquility of my morning a complete lie. I was rescued by Mich.e.l.le, I confronted a thief and got my boss a little angry at me. Finally, I cried a lot.

Maybe being released so suddenly from such a hectic situation made me crave a bit for company.

Perhaps I should go to Meyrin’s potion shop, or I could try to visit the church where Mich.e.l.le lived and worked…No, both were in the middle of their work day, I was only going to be a bother. I guess the obvious answer was to simply go back to the store and help clean it.

Turning and turning around, the direction of my footsteps changed from one moment to the next; to an onlooker in the vicinity, I must’ve looked like a person fiercely looking for something lost, or maybe just someone restless.

I know, I’ll go take a look around in En Pa.s.sant marketplace. It was the place where I first met Mich.e.l.le, and there was plenty of people there. More than anything else, I felt that I ought to know more about the city, after the events of the day.

In the year since I first came to the city, I had failed to turn my eyes towards the world outside of my bubble. I ended up working at the bakery while socializing only with Meyrin; so far, my world hadn’t extended beyond my room and the bakery’s counter. I had no one to blame but myself for becoming stuck in the nearby marketplace, in the very city where I lived.
I had enough of such timidness.

With the resolve to change my att.i.tude thus far, my pace became lighter and I treaded firmly the ground of this country, one step at the time.

I had to expand my world, little by little.

(Part 4)

When I reached the marketplace, the arrival of the afternoon had transformed it, leaving few people around. I could feel in my skin a breeze colder than the one I felt at noon, perhaps due to the coming dusk. Apparently, the busiest hours of the day for this marketplace were from noon to the early hours of the afternoon; after that, the influx of people tapered off. I had managed to learn another thing about this country.

Enjoying a small sense of accomplishment, I bought a raspberry juice from a nearby juice stall. I peeked at the surface of the red liquid filling the cup to the brim; the reflection of my face looked a bit tired.

It’s because so many things happened today, I thought while bringing the juice to my lips and the sugary taste filled my mouth. For some reason, it tasted really good. My good spirits returned with that fresh feeling, as if I was just waking up on a Sunday morning.

“Looks like you drank something to your liking, miss.” Likely because I was smiling so wide, the plump store owner handed me another cup of juice when I returned the empty one. “This one is on me!”

This time, it was grape juice and the ripe sweetness of the beverage was delightful. With a smile, I said my thanks and left the stall behind.

In the marketplace there were also stalls dedicated to accessories, fruit, meat and fish. One year prior, I used to live with my father deep in the woods, so for me it was a completely dazzling sight. It was one thing to be like this when I didn’t live in the city, but to think I had wasted time so stupidly, even though such a beautiful world was spread out within my reach!

When I advanced further into the market, I ran into a stall selling dairy products. These look like stuff we might use in the store, I thought, taking stock of the b.u.t.ter and cheese arranged in rows.
All of the sudden, the wind picked up, making the dust dance around. I closed my eyes in response to the sudden event. Just before my eyelids closed, I saw the sellers covering the merchandise to keep it clean.

I guess that even in a situation like this, the sellers in an open market have to be careful, I realized, impressed. Then, I abruptly noticed that head felt somehow lighter. I extended my hand and patted myself, wind abated or not.

…My headdress was gone.

The lace headdress my boss had given me the day I started working on the bakery was missing. Probably it had flown away, carried by the violent gust a moment before. I looked around me, but I couldn’t see it nearby.

“Is something wrong?” The attendant of the dairy products stall asked me with a concerned face, as I dithered about in dismay.

“The wind carried my headdress away…”

However, since she’d been protecting their products so fiercely, she had no idea where the headdress had gone either.

“Wow, a fairy!” Just as I was losing heart, a girl screamed nearby.

When the word ‘fairy’ reached my ears, I became extraordinarily startled. Had a witch used spirit magic somewhere in the middle of this city? When I looked upwards in the direction the child was pointing, I saw a familiar object fluttering in the air.

“My headdress…!”

It was riding an updraft, perhaps, and thus had managed to climb from the top of my head to the distant sky. I felt momentarily relieved, having found what I was looking for. However, as if the lace headdress felt more at home in the skies, it fluttered here and there, without descending towards me no matter how time it pa.s.sed. While it was defying me in such a manner, suddenly a strong gale blew over, and my headdress took off flying towards the western sky.

“Wait!” Saying my goodbyes to the seller, I ran away as fast as my legs could carry me.

The headdress flied away, wavering. It was just like as if a whimsical wind fairy had decided to play a prank on me.

I’ve done nothing but run today, I told myself as I pursued it.
 

(Part 5)

While I pursued my headdress, I b.u.mped into three people as I ran looking upwards. Despite that, I chased it desperately without taking my eyes off it, while clutching my throbbing chest with a hand.

My precious headdress exited the marketplace riding the wind and went down a street; by the time it reached the town square, it finally began to lose alt.i.tude.

Ok, now’s my chance. I need to catch the headdress once it falls to the ground, before the next gale blows.

Guided by that determination, I ran down the paved street, trying to estimate the landing point of the headdress. But in the end, the headdress never reached the ground.

When it was about to land and I stretched out my hand, unsure of whether I would be able to grab it…A big hand swiftly s.n.a.t.c.hed it off the air.

“Ah…!”

“This headdress is yours?” The tall man with beautiful deep purple hair showed me on the palm of his hand the very thing I was looking for.

“Ah….ah….y-yes?” For an instant, his graceful actions left me so captivated that I breathed out like a dunce. I tried to answer, but I had spent myself running to the point that my respiratory system was at its limit.

“Hahaha, this one won’t escape from you any longer. Calm down and take a deep breath.”

Resting my hands on my knees, I inhaled and exhaled as I was told.

“That’s it, just like that. Slow, take it slow…”

Inhale. Exhale.

I heard the man before me inhale and exhale along with me. It was just like a grown man teaching a child how to breathe.

“Hehehe, don’t make me laugh, please!” After I exclaimed that, the man looked confused and tilted his head.

“I wasn’t trying to make you laugh. Did I do something strange?”

 “It’s just….hahaha!” Apparently, there was enough air in my lungs to laugh.

The man in front of my eyes wasn’t intending to make fun of me, and there was nothing further from his mind than to make me laugh; he was just a very unaffected individual.

“Well then, I shall ask again. Is this yours?”

In my opinion, there was no room to be mistaken, since the headdress never left my sight during its flight. However, under the man’s earnest stare, I felt a mysterious sense of duty to take the matter as seriously as him. As such, I examined the headdress from all angles and made sure.

“Yes, no doubt about it. Thank you very much.” It’s not like I expected otherwise, but it was indeed the genuine article, the headdress my boss gifted me, so I thanked the purple-haired man and returned the headdress to its spot on the top of my head. I was very glad I could go with my life without having lost it.

“Is it important?” The man in front of me was smiling at me with a kind expression.

“Yes. Someone important gave it to me; I would’ve been in trouble at the store tomorrow if I didn’t have.”

“The store…?” He considered this for a moment, then took a sniff and clapped his hands together. “Are you by any chance Lucca from the bakery?”

I was startled. My heart throbbed wildly as I met the eyes of the man who appeared to see right through me.

Who was this man? Was he a customer of the store? No, I remembered the faces of every client that came into the store. Perhaps we had seen each other elsewhere? No, there was no way that was true. Even if we had, it was weird that he even knew my name.

Although I knew it was impossible, the thought that he might’ve figured out my true ident.i.ty began bounding around inside of my confused mind.

“Why do you know about me…?” My fear grew and grew. Who are you?

“Hm, I wonder.” The wind blew his deep purple hair, as he gave me that evasive answer with a grin on his face.

When I gazed into his kind eyes, there was no way I could think that man could be a threat to me. Still, it didn’t feel right to be in a situation where he knew about me, and yet I didn’t know a single thing about him. When I was just about to vent my dissatisfaction, he suddenly made the source of his knowledge clear.

“The truth is, it was Mich.e.l.le…” It finally clicked in my mind when I heard the name.

So in all likelihood he was an acquaintance of Mich.e.l.le, and he had heard about me from her that very day. If that was the case, was he a member of the church as well? Considering his warm demeanor, perhaps he was a priest.

 At first, I didn’t realize it, but after taking a good look at him, I became aware that he was wearing expensive clothes; he probably was a person with a higher social standing than me…As I thought about it, I gazed at his face and saw his expression cloud a bit.

“d.a.m.n, they found me.”

“…Eh?”

He seemed to be staring at a point behind me. I turned around and saw a contingent of soldiers coming into the square, while shouting things like “That’s the one!” and “Catch that person!”
“Perhaps it’s an incident of some sort,” I thought and then promptly realized how odd the situation was.  Those men were coming straight towards us, there was no mistake about it, and running with great haste.

What in the world is going on? Do they know my real ident.i.ty…?

“Dammit, I wanted to speak with you some more…” He scratched his forehead with a finger in a childish gesture, looking troubled.

From what he was saying, I could discern that the objective of the soldier wasn’t me, it was the man.

Who was this man, who had to be pursued with more zeal than a witch like me? Maybe he was an arch-villain, capable of throwing the world into turmoil. Even though he appeared so kind, looks could be deceiving.

Was he a robber? A swindler? A master thief?

“Sorry, but I’m going to escape now…Please be kind to Mich.e.l.le from here on.”

As he was about to leave, I suddenly caught hold of his hand. If he was truly an evil man, I had to detain him until the soldiers from the palace arrived. At least, that was my reasoning when I grabbed his hand; but the thought soon vanished from my mind. I couldn’t believe that a man concerned about Mich.e.l.le’s well-being could be a bad person.

He looked at my face, surprised. I suddenly realized, as I stared head on at those eyes, that I had no idea of what to do now that I was gripping his hand.

“You want to come with me?”

“Eh?”

I nodded my head in response to his invitation, delivered with narrowed eyes like those of a mischievous child.