There was a small place in the middle of a deep forest.
Twilight Helbe.
Streetlamps cast their meager light on the quiet city; the night was still and silent. As far as the eye could see, the lamps were the only lights in the city, and the patches of their feeble light were surrounded by darkness.
There were no people on the large thoroughfare that started at the gate that linked the city to the outside world. Only a single set of footsteps struck the cobblestones.
The wind was cold enough to bring on a shiver, and looking up, only a slim sliver of moon hung like a thread in the empty night sky.
Looking up at the dark night sky, the witch thought to herself that the moon made for a pitiful sight, all alone in the dark. It was like it had been abandoned. It looked lonesome.
“……”
Thinking about the moon made the witch realize that she was similarly alone and that her whole life was lonely. The pitiful lone witch stood alone on the city street.
To describe the way she looked in detail, she had ash-gray hair and lapis-blue eyes. And wearing her black robe and pointed hat, she looked like a traveler. Ordinarily, as soon as she entered a new city, she would be showered with cheers of “Ahh, so cute!” but that evening all was quiet, and no one raised their voice from anywhere.
So that’s how the lonely witch ended up walking down the road, dejected and lonely.
Who on earth could she have been?
That’s right, it’s me.
“…What a conundrum.”
It had been about thirty minutes since I’d arrived.
For the past ten minutes, I had been walking along the main avenue, following the light of the streetlamps, but I had yet to encounter a single person. The many tall houses I passed had their windows tightly closed, as if to turn away visits from traveling witches.
The place was so still, it made me wonder if the city was actually inhabited.
Either that, or maybe I’d been imagining the cheers and showers of praise the whole time.
Well, at any rate—
“What a conundrum…”
As I repeated the same words again, I let out a big sigh.
Really, I should never have arrived at that time of night.
For better or worse, this place had a reputation after dark, you see.
“—Listen up, Lady Witch. Even if you are a witch, nighttime here is very dangerous. We’ll take care of your immigration check quickly, so please hurry and find lodgings where you can sequester yourself.”
These were the words the gate guard said to me during my immigration check. Luckily or unluckily, I had arrived just as the gate was about to close. The gate guard was also just about to conceal himself indoors, so he let me through with the warning that I had better find lodgings immediately.
However, no matter how long I walked around town, I never caught sight of another human, much less any open establishments.
After night fell, there was no one out walking around. I’d expected that of the residents, but the guard told me the same was true for soldiers, and travelers, and merchants, and even animals.
The nights here did not belong to people.
“…Ah.”
I heard a voice behind me.
Oh, maybe it’s a resident?
I turned around, mainly by reflex.
As soon as I did, I deeply regretted walking around at night, though it was too late to change anything.
“I have to get my money, I have to get my money, my money, my money, money, money—”
A person was standing there, hanging their head and muttering to themselves.
Their skin was so pale that it was like all the blood had been drained from their body. There was a rope wound around their long, thin neck, one end trailing loosely on the ground.
It was obvious just from looking at them that this was not a living human being.
Judging by appearances, they didn’t seem to be alive, and anyway—
“Whoa, you’re see-through!”
—they were translucent.
“My money, my money, my money, my money—”
The same words kept coming repeatedly from the thing that looked like a translucent person.
Then, as if responding to that voice, another, and then another of the same type of figure appeared out of the darkness.
“It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts…”
“Why did you abandon me…?”
“I’ll kill you, then I’ll die, too… I’ll kill you, then I’ll die, too…”
The things that were not people walked around muttering to themselves.
“……”
It had turned into a troublesome scene.
Tales of the infamous Twilight Helbe, where inhuman creatures roamed the streets at night, were popular among merchants and travelers.
That’s exactly why I entered before the sun went down, but—
“Hmm…”
Actually, I wonder what I’m supposed to do when I encounter one of these things?
I wound up standing in front of one of the inhuman creatures that had slowly approached me, puzzling over this question.
I wonder if magic will work on them? Or if they’re even the kind of enemies I can fight in the first place?
I had heard dangerous things roamed the streets here, but I hadn’t asked what I was supposed to do when I actually ran across one of those dangerous things.
Good grief.
“What a conundrum.”
Making the same comment for the third time that day, I pulled out my wand.
Let me just try shooting off a little spell—I pointed my wand away from the things and shot off a small fireball onto the road.
With a sizzle, the fireball burst on the cobblestones and disappeared.
The inhuman things all turned around, following the fire.
Then—
“My—”
—one of the things was about to say “My money” when its whole body disintegrated and then vanished like mist.
“……?”
Of course, the fireball I had created had certainly not had the effect of breaking the inhuman creature into tiny little pieces.
“It hur—”
“Why—?”
“I’ll ki—”
Still less did it have the effect of shattering every single creature around me in the same way so that there was not a single one left standing.
For a moment, a thin fog rolled across the road. The light from the streetlamps dimmed, and the world was shrouded in white.
“I can’t believe you’re out walking around at night like this.”
The sound of a single set of footsteps echoed down the road.
“You must not be from around here.”
After the momentary fog had cleared, standing there was another witch.
She had silver hair with a hint of blue and gold-colored eyes. She wore a white robe and a long black skirt. On her breast, she had a star-shaped brooch.
And the most distinctive thing about her was that instead of a wand, she carried a huge sickle.
Swinging her sickle around in wide arcs, creating a breeze that dispersed the fog, she snickered. “That was a close one, huh?”
Twilight Helbe.
For better or for worse, this place was famous.
Inhuman creatures ruled the night here.
And people said that there was a single witch who hunted those inhuman creatures.
“My name is the Crescent Moon Witch, Clarice. And you are?”
Smiling amiably, she held out her hand.
In the dark night, only her sickle, like a little crescent moon, caught the shine of the moonlight.