Chapter 17

She couldn’t join the ring of dancing people. They told her she wasn’t the right age to participate, then spared her not a single glance after that as they danced across the harvested fields. In truth, she should have been able to dance alongside them. There were children younger than her among those who leaped and spun. What was wrong? One of the adults asked her. Wasn’t she going to go dance? Did her tummy hurt? She slapped aside the outstretched hand and fell farther behind the crowd. Adults had been kids once, so she’d believed they would get what it was like to be one. So why couldn’t they understand? Perhaps, just as there weren’t any children who could remember what happened before they were born, there weren’t any adults who could remember what happened before they grew up. Simple as that. She looked out at the fields in silence. She didn’t want to think about jealousy or hate. No, she wanted to watch them dancing, not a thought in her mind. Just then, a shadow fell into view. She blinked. In the direction of the ring of dancers, who were moving faster and faster. On the far side of the field. There stood a black figure. For a while, she thought she was the only one who could see it. Neither the young dancers nor the nearby adults noticed. A cold droplet fell on her nose. She looked up to find raindrops falling from ashen clouds. Before she could even register that it was pouring, a white light filled her vision, and a roar ripped through the sky. The only thing not washed out in that world of white light was the black figure. It stood out in stark contrast. “Witch.” Said someone. The witch. The witch was here. The witch had come. Fear spread from person to person, and it even seemed to reach the clouds as rain fell in a deluge to the earth. Adults and children alike panicked, mud coating them as they rushed as far away as possible. Their terror-stricken faces and screams were lost behind the downpour. Only the one girl remained; she crossed the field. As she walked, she felt the unpleasant squelching of mud beneath her feet. Despite almost getting trapped a few times, she continued straight ahead. As she approached the black figure, she noticed that they were staring at her…or so she felt. The figure was so much taller than her that she could barely make out their face. “Are you the witch?” the girl asked. The elements nearly drowned out the sound of her own voice, but for some reason, she could clearly make out the figure’s reply. “I am.” “You made it rain, didn’t you?” “Me?” said the witch in amusement. “Why would I do something like that? Aren’t you the one who made it rain?” “Why do you think that?” “Because of the face you’re making.” With that, she realized the witch was teasing her. “Where do you live?” asked the girl. “In the forest.” “…Take me with you.” “Hmm, are you sure?” “Why wouldn’t I be?” “Don’t you know?” Their mouth curved up into a crescent. “Witches eat humans.” “Really?” “Oh? You’re not scared?” “Nuh-uh.” “Hmm. Then you may accompany me.” “Okay.” “But are you really sure?” “I don’t mind. Besides…” If she got eaten, she wouldn’t worry about anything anymore. After all, when you died, surely you would forget everything that happened to you before that. Ix had expected to find an overwhelming crowd in the capital, but it wasn’t that different from the level of traffic in Leirest. He did notice, however, that he was seeing different sorts of faces here. Or perhaps it was better to say faces with a different destination. The people who came to Leirest were merchants or travelers, and they weren’t going to end their journeys there. The city was just a waypoint, a place for people to rest on the road to their real destinations. The most common type of person to pass through its gates was a merchant, who earned money by moving goods from town to town. These folks rarely gave much consideration to the areas they were currently in. Instead, they seemed to always have their minds on the town they would be visiting next. In that respect, the capital was different. It was the end of the line for the people who arrived there. Even if it would serve as the start of another journey someday, for the time being, it was their final destination. Thoughts of the next town in on the road vanished from the minds of travelers there. In the capital, they focused only on the place they were in. Perhaps that was what made all the people passing by on the streets seem relaxed. And indeed, despite the huge throngs in the streets, no one seemed rushed. Ix sat by a window, people watching. He was in an expensive room, waiting for someone. A new customer came through the door. An immaculate store employee approached them with silent steps, making idle chitchat as they led the customer into a back room. There, a number of staffs and wands for sale were on display. Ix had looked them over earlier, and they were all of the highest quality. Ix thought it would have been better to set up the store so that customers went straight into the showroom when they entered, but perhaps the room up front was used for something else. Lavishly decorated, it had several desks and chairs lined along the walls, each set spaced out from the others. There was no one sitting in the room besides Ix, just quite a number of shop workers standing at the ready for any new customers who might walk in the door. Ix sat in the back of the room. “Mr. Ix,” came a voice. It belonged to a young man in a work uniform. When Ix turned to face him, the man bade him to follow along, then opened a door to another chamber. They passed several rooms in the back, such as a storage room for equipment that wasn’t regularly used and a room where even more employees were silently toiling away. Ix had only a quick glance at them, but he decided they all seemed to be well-experienced wandmakers. Since he was just an apprentice, he wouldn’t be able to hold a candle to them. They continued deep into the building until the man came to a stop in front of a heavy-looking door. He turned back to Ix and told him to wait. “Can’t you just open it?” Ix asked the man, who was standing by the entrance. “I am unable to.” “Uh-huh.” Suddenly, the door swung open, and much more lightly than one would expect at that. A cloying perfume assaulted Ix’s nostrils. The chamber inside was dimly lit. There were no windows, and the only light was from a few candles. As the door opened, it created a draft that sent their flames flickering. The decorations were incredibly gaudy, and the whole place was slathered in reds and golds. It would have dazzled the eyes had it been fully lit. A massive bed sat in the center of the room, it, too, in a lurid red and gold. Gauzelike curtains cascaded around the bed, blocking the inside from sight. Ix unceremoniously swiped the curtains aside, and the woman in bed stirred. “It’s me,” he said. “You’ve come a long way,” came a muffled voice. It was muffled because she was wearing a mask. The mask wasn’t the kind that only covered the area around your eyes. In fact, it was far larger than the wearer’s face. Elongated and ovular, it stretched up and down at an angle. It was crafted of wood that had been painted white, with a face drawn on using tribal patterns. Her voice emanated from behind it. The mask wasn’t the only strange thing about the woman. Although she was sitting upright, her vivid red hair spread out all across the bed, so long that it hung over the edge. Instead of bedclothes, she was dressed in high-end clothing that looked as though she was about to attend a noble’s ball, right down to the inordinate amount of jewelry dangling from her wrists and neck. Beside her, an incense burner let out white smoke, the kind that gradually made your mind go hazy. Ix shook his head and looked down at her. “Why’d you call me here?” he asked. The woman was called Layumatah, the most senior of Munzil’s apprentices. She gracefully gestured toward the edge of the bed with a gentle clink of metal on metal. “Sit,” she said slowly. “I’m fine standing.” “Sit.” “I’m—” “Sit.” “……” Ix took a seat on the edge of the bed. It was unbelievably soft. The mattress sank beneath his weight, and some of Layumatah’s hair brushed the ground. As the most junior of all the apprentices, Ix had no right to go against the eldest. With their master dead, she now held the most authority over him. He sat with his hands on his knees, only his upper body turned toward her. “I hear you’re not making wands,” she remarked. “How would you know that?” “Morna told me.” Morna was Layumatah’s junior and Ix’s senior. She was also the craftswoman for the store where he was currently staying. “…Uh-huh,” Ix replied. “And why aren’t you?” “’Cause I don’t have any reason to make any, I guess. The shop doesn’t need any more craftspeople. Morna makes way better wands than I do, so I’m just staying out of her way.” “That girl is a genius. If the excuse you just gave was valid, you would go your entire life without making a wand. In fact, by that logic, no one but the single most skilled craftsman would have cause to make a wand. Is that what you meant to say?” “…Who even cares about why people make wands?” Truth was, however, that he was probably stuck in this rut because he lacked a reason to practice his craft. “So you going to give me advice or something?” “Of course not. Why would I help you?” “Then cut to the chase. Why’d you call me all the way out here to the capital?” “The wand wall has been undone.” “Huh…?” The simplicity of the statement left Ix dumbfounded. “The wand wall? Wh-which one? It broke?” he asked, his tone unintentionally growing stronger. “Here, of course. The capital’s wand wall. It hasn’t been broken. And while I said it has been undone, even that is not a certainty. Thus far, all we have is the discovery of a secret document that claims as much.” “Huh?” “A guard at the city gate found it concealed in a merchant’s cargo. But even the merchant didn’t know it had been hidden there. Since the merchant travels the same route regularly, they were likely just a convenient mule. The document has been inspected, but there are no to or from names. That merchant won’t be used again to transport such things, since the secret document was found. They should have let it continue on; it was foolish of them to stop it.” According to what Layumatah said, whoever wrote this document claimed to have discovered a method to undo the capital’s wand wall. A wand wall was a specialized structure built into the walls of a city. Put simply, it was just a massive wand in its own right. An entire tree trunk would be worked into a wand-like shape and embedded into the barrier’s interior. If there was ever an attack on the city, the wand wall would be activated to increase the strength of the city’s fortifications. Although there were weapons that could counter these devices, known as siege wands, that didn’t change the fact that wand walls were essential for defense. Generally, each wand wall was equipped with a safety feature known as a lock, which acted as a sort of code. Locks could be undone through a specific process, which would nullify all the wand wall’s capabilities. This was apparently put in place as a safeguard in case a rebellion took over a city. But even the person who installed the lock didn’t have the knowledge to undo it—only a select few government officials were privy to this. Suspicious, Ix asked, “Sure it’s not just some bad prank?” “The secret document also detailed other security issues within the capital. They were all confidential, yet I am told almost none of the information in the document was incorrect.” “Seriously? This is the capital’s wand wall we’re talking about. That’s not your everyday problem. You could probably gather a whole conference worth of craftsmen to debate the issue, and they’d still draw a blank. I find it hard to believe someone could secretly investigate and undo—” “Do you really think no one else drew the same conclusion as you?” countered Layumatah quickly. “That argument has already been dismissed. A decision has been made. Security will temporarily be increased in the capital while a new lock is made. I have been put in charge of that.” “…Uh-huh.” Well, if she was leading the project, it wouldn’t even matter much if the old lock had been dismantled. The new one would provide security for at least another hundred years. However, there was still a but on Layumatah’s lips. “There is something that still bothers me,” she admitted. “It’s not often you don’t understand something.” “I didn’t say I don’t understand it; I said it bothers me.” Her body hardly moved as she spoke. It was like speaking with a ventriloquist. “I’ve examined the wand wall’s designs in the course of my work. It has been repaired on the several occasions it was installed, and its most recent mending took place approximately sixty years ago. That time, they used the emission method.” “Well, that’s a standard procedure… Wait.” Ix opened a hand. “Didn’t using the emission method only become commonplace around thirty years ago?” “That same thing occurred to me. I looked into it but found that was indeed the procedure they used.” “Did the kingdom hide the technique? No, even if they did, they would have used it on military wands before it found its way to the public…” “I did not ask for your speculation. Regardless of what went on back then, there was a person who designed the emission method sixty years ago. And I suspect it’s that same individual who’s undone the lock now.” “Ah… I see.” Deactivating a wand wall’s lock was an incredibly difficult task. But if someone had been involved in working on it in the past and comprehended enough to be able to design the emission method sixty years ago, they might just have been able to do it. “After investigating further,” continued Layumatah, “I discovered there was one name among those who worked on the wall that didn’t belong to a craftsman: Mali, a noblewoman. It wouldn’t have been strange for an aristocrat to participate in name alone, but there are very few records about this lady. It’s strange. You would expect her to take credit for the project.” Layumatah raised her right arm and pointed at Ix. “I order you to investigate her.” “…What?” “Investigate Mali and report back to me.” “Wh-what the hell?” Ix couldn’t stop himself from standing up. “I don’t get it. This is the first time I’m hearing about this woman. How am I supposed to investigate her? Besides, isn’t this the kind of request you give to an adventurer? Why ask me?” “I heard you’re adept at this kind of investigation.” “Who would have—?” “Morna told me.” Flashing an exceedingly bitter look, Ix sat back down on the bed. Even so, this conversation was generally playing out how he’d suspected. Layumatah wouldn’t have invited him to the capital for no reason. He’d assumed she would have an appropriate job of sorts to give him. But he hadn’t exactly expected to find himself investigating an unfamiliar noblewoman. “You will likely need assistance, so I have arranged for some help. Take them with you,” said Layumatah. “Help? You’re sending a shop employee off, too?” “They’re under my jurisdiction. I wouldn’t just lend them to you.” A furrow appeared on Ix’s brow as he wondered if they were going to be some random adventurer, then. He’d avoided the Adventurers’ Guild ever since those two adventurers had beat him up out of revenge. “Time limit?” he asked. “None. But you must return your assistant by autumn, and it will be more difficult to act once winter comes and the snow falls. Send a report before then. I expect a good one.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” hissed Ix, making no effort to hide his complaint. Not that he expected Layumatah to listen. As he sat there thinking of at least one way he would resist her, she turned her stare—from behind her mask—toward him. “Something else—?” he began. “Witch.” “Huh?” “Witch,” Layumatah said again. “Master told me a witch made it. This happened before I finished my apprenticeship. I asked him about the capital’s wand wall, and he told me, ‘That was made by a witch. Humans can’t learn from that thing.’ I assumed he was just spouting random nonsense again, so I forgot about it until this incident occurred. Perhaps what he said was true.” Layumatah’s mask turned up slightly. “Have you heard that before?” Ix shook his head wordlessly. Witch. It was the first time the word had ever crossed his ears. If a witch could make the wand wall, perhaps they were some kind of magic user or craftsman? Though it was a mystery to him why they would need a special term. Perhaps it was because they were some sort of special being? If it was related to this incident, that meant this noblewoman Mali could be one… “Sixty years ago, yeah? If she was the witch, we’ll be lucky if she’s still alive,” said Ix. “Master said witches are immortal.” “Huh?” “But in exchange for their endless life, they have to eat humans.” “Huh? What the hell is that?” Ix shrugged at the absurdity of it all. He could vaguely understand people putting some powerful being on a pedestal, but when you threw in immortality and cannibalism, it made the whole thing seem like something out of a folktale. “Layumatah, you can’t be saying you actually believe this stuff?” “I am simply recounting to you what I heard. What I believe or don’t believe has no bearing on reality,” she replied coldly. “I have confirmed two things: that Mali still lives and her current location.” “If you know that much, just go yourself.” “I’m giving you this task since she’s closest to you.” “Closest? So she’s in Leirest?” “Mali Saneeld. She is the current head of the Leirest Library.” “She’s the head librarian…?” “Do you know her?” “Guess you could say that.” “I see. Well, off you go, then,” she ordered, raising her chin toward the door. “……” As he went to leave the room, she called out to him again. “Ix.” He turned back but said nothing. The mask was facing him. “Do you remember the first staff you ever made?”