Chapter 5 — Olympia Green Awaits

1

The sun was starting to sink below the horizon, setting the clouds ablaze with yellow light, as we arrived back at Nito’s auto-trike. A mound of water drums and boxes stood in front of the pit, and we still had no way to get the auto-trike moving. Nito was sitting atop one of the boxes, hugging her legs to her body. She didn’t raise her head from her knees even as we came to a stop.

“I dunno what the witch told her, but you go cheer her up, boyo. I’m heading off for a walk,” Jack told me, before putting his words into action and heading off up the road, away from us.

Cheer her up how? I wondered.

It was a bit of a point of pride, but I’d never had to cheer a girl up before. I’d have preferred the older man with all his life experience to not casually tell me what to do, just assuming I had the same value system as him. Either way, though, I couldn’t just sit there for eternity, so I got out of the car and walked to her side.

Her silver hair fell in a cascade around her shoulders and almost seemed to blend in with the light of the setting sun. She wasn’t taking any notice of even that, though, and was just sitting motionless, curled in on herself. I crouched down in front of her, opened my mouth...failed to think of anything to say, and softly closed it again.

The witch’s words had completely stripped her of her aspirations. The Golden Sea...didn’t exist. She had given up her precious notebook in exchange for finding out that the whole reason for her journey, the place from her mother’s memories, didn’t actually exist in this world. She had taken the revelation as utter fact.

“Nito,” I said.

It was the first time in my life that I had ever spoken so softly to someone else. I didn’t know whether it would work, but I wanted to get at least some of my feelings across to her. Nito’s head rose slowly, as if weighed down. The setting sun cast its light across her face, which just made her reddened eyes more obvious.

“Keisuke, welcome back,” she said and smiled at me—a weak smile that just showed her pain all the more.

I felt the urge to tell her not to force herself to smile. The only thing that held my tongue was that I knew, without even having to think about it, that she didn’t want to worry me.

“Yeah, we’re back...” I managed eventually.

“Where’s Jack?”

“He went on a walk.”

“Why did he want to go to the bridge?”

“Well, that’s an interesting story, actually. I’ll tell you the whole thing later.”

“Oh? I’ll look forward to it.”

She didn’t look even slightly like she really felt that way as she brushed her hair from her cheek and back over her ear, exposing its pointed tip. I remembered her telling me she was a half-elf, and her anger when I’d stared at her ears rather rudely on the day we met in the train station.

“Keisuke,” she spoke again, her beautiful cobalt eyes looking at me. “Did you ask the witch anything?”

I simply shook my head.

“Shouldn’t you?” she asked after a pause. “You might be able to find the person you’re looking for.”

While the way she’d worded it was slightly careless, there was no falsehood in her words. She really did hope that I could find him. At the same time, though, her voice held an undertone that made it clear that it was too late for her.

“Have you given up on the Golden Sea?”

“I haven’t given up on anything,” she answered. “It doesn’t exist. It’s not a real place, just something my mother made up for me. Don’t let it worry you. I’m okay. I’d thought it was a lie from the start.”

“Even though you were searching for it?”

“I mean, I was stuck in my room, wasn’t I? I couldn’t believe in a place that beautiful,” she said with a weak smile. “Mom told me that it was a secret place she’d never told anyone else about. She said that I was the only one she’d ever take there, that we’d go together once I got better. I knew that was never going to happen. After all, I was going to die stuck in my room.”

She looked up at the sky, her face twisting like she was holding down her gorge, gritting her teeth so much that I could feel her pain.

“But then, all of a sudden, the mana collapse happened.” Her voice was strangled with her emotions as well. “My mother, father, aunt, uncle...each and every one of them vanished. They all went away, and...then all that was left was me, the only one of us whose death wouldn’t have even mattered.”

Her head dropped again and I heard her nails dig into the edge of the wooden box, her fingertips going paper white. All I could do was give a brief hum of acknowledgment; it probably held no empathy, no consolation for her. I doubted I could truly comprehend her pain and sadness. I could imagine it, but I wasn’t so self-centered that I would try and use that pretense to console her.

“Everyone had gone, and I was all alone in the house. I couldn’t even die right. It was painful just staying there, so I decided to leave. I decided that I’d rely on that notebook and go on a journey—I’d go to the Golden Sea and keep our promise. That was the only reason I had left to live. My father had told me it was a lie, and I thought it was too, but I still wondered ‘what if’...”

Honestly, her world might have ended long before it fell apart as it had now. All through her childhood, she couldn’t leave her room and live like the other kids; she could only watch from the window and let her imagination run with make-believe stories and the tales of her mother’s travels. Living like that, day in and day out, couldn’t have been truly fulfilling. But then suddenly the world had changed, and she could live like a regular person.

Except that now the world was dying. I bit my lip. She’d had it way tougher than I had.

“The most beautiful place in the world was something my mother made for me, a dream. That’s why it can be the most beautiful place,” she said, a carefree smile on her face as she bowed her head at me. “Thank you for everything up until now. It wasn’t for long, but traveling with you really saved me. We met so many people and saw so many sights, I drew so many things... It was the most fun I’ve ever had in my life.”

I couldn’t mistake the meaning behind her words.

“Your journey’s...over?”

“It is. After all, the place I wanted to go doesn’t exist.”

On her face was...

“So I’m fine here,” she continued.

...a beautiful smile.

She’d given her all, tried her best, and gotten results. This was the tired smile of someone satisfied with the effort they’d put in, and coming to terms with where they’d ended up.

“But I owe you money.”

“There’s lots of money in the town,” she answered.

“Your auto-trike’s broken still.”

“It’s fine. The fastenings are all broken anyway, and I don’t need it anymore.”

“I haven’t taught you everything about camping yet.”

“That’s okay. I won’t be camping.”

“I haven’t paid you back.”

“Paid me back? I already said, the mon—”

“Not that.” It wasn’t that, not at all. “I just...”

I scratched a hand through my hair.

Seriously, just...

I put my hand to my forehead and screwed my eyes shut.

“I owe you.”

“But I haven’t done anything?”

“You didn’t need to!”

You saved my life.

I’d been completely alone. No one had ever been at home, and things had just gotten cold and dark. There’d been no warmth in that house, no conversation. I didn’t remember ever going out with my parents. My family was just an empty vessel—it looked right, but there was nothing inside. The house was just a collection of walls and a roof to keep out the wind and rain, nothing more. That’s why I’d run away.

“I like seeing you eat my food.”

She looked blankly back at me.

“I can wake up and tell you good morning. We can eat together, clean up, and watch the world go by as we drive. When we take a break, you get out your easel and start painting with such a serious look on your face. I can get the food ready while you paint, and enjoy the breeze, and bask in the sun through the trees. Once the sun sets we can eat dinner and just chat around the bonfire. Then I can say ‘see you tomorrow’ and get in the tent. It feels amazing—like the world hasn’t even ended. Honestly, I’ve been surprised at how much I enjoy having you there.”

I knew why I hadn’t asked the witch anything: I didn’t want to go back.

The world was rotting. Sooner or later, I might also turn into crystals and die. I knew that. Even so, I didn’t want to give up my time with Nito. It felt like I’d found the family I’d craved for so long.

I stretched out a hand to her.

“Let’s make a deal.”

“What good will that...”

Even as she looked back at me in confusion, I smiled at her.

“I’ll give you back your dreams, so stay with me.”

“Hwhaaah?”

After a moment, she parsed what I’d said, and the tip of the ear poking out from her hair went bright red as her eyes widened. The reaction felt a little over the top, prompting me to quickly take a look at myself. I was on one knee, holding out my hand toward Nito. Somehow, I’d gotten into the same pose Ned had taken to propose to Julie.

I wondered for a second whether I should correct the misunderstanding, but I decided it didn’t matter. It changed nothing about my wanting to stay with her, and I hadn’t spoken a lie. Her face was still red as she looked at me and managed to gulp.

“Wh-What romance novel are you supposed to be from?!”

“Huh, so you read romances too. Guess that tracks.”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said, jerking her head to the side and puffing up her cheeks. “I don’t know how you can say such embarrassing things with a straight face. You must have been dropped on your head as a baby to be so strange.”

“I think you might be even better at chewing me out than at painting, huh?” I answered with a rueful smile. “So, your answer?”

A crease deepened between her eyebrows as she grumbled, glancing at me.

“What do you mean about my dreams anyway? What are you going to do?” she asked eventually.

“I’m going to go see the witch.”

“And then...?”

“You’ll just have to wait and see. It’ll definitely be a surprise.”

She glared doubtfully at me, while I just stayed there with my hand held out to her. Gradually, her right hand reached out and gripped mine, timidly—just by my fingertips. It was a clumsy and reserved handshake.

“It’s a deal, then. Let’s go. I’ll show you what procrastination can achieve. Or maybe it’s more like waiting for the right moment? Whatever.”

“Are you supposed to be a philosopher or something?”

I pulled her up with an “it doesn’t matter,” and she stumbled forward off the box. I led us toward the Kettle, still holding her smaller hand in mine. Once Nito was in the passenger seat and I’d shut the door, I settled into the driver’s seat and put my hand on the throttle.

“Um,” she spoke. “What will you do when we get there?”

I pushed the lever up, letting the pressurized steam flow through the pistons and start shifting the Kettle forward. Then, gripping the steering wheel, I answered.

“Naturally, I’ll ask the right question.”

2

The door to the mansion was still open, the same song was playing, and the witch was even still leaning on the cabinet. Nothing inside had changed since the morning, except that the room was now much darker since the sun had dropped in the sky.

Upon noticing our arrival, the witch said nothing, simply standing and lighting a lantern on the wall. I sat down on the sofa, and Nito followed suit, still confused. The witch sat opposite us and looked at us with a gentle expression. She didn’t ask us why we were there.

I rubbed at my left wrist, thinking of the watch I always wore as a faint connection to my original world. It was certainly a precious item. I unfastened it and placed it on the table. The witch looked down at it and broke out in a smile.

“A tool from another world? It must be very precious to you.”

“It is. I inherited it from my grandpa.”

“He must have been a good grandfather.”

“The best,” I answered, looking back at the witch, trying to confirm whether my assumption was correct.

“Very well, I will answer any question for you. However, the answer will only be either an affirmative or a negative, and you only get one question. What is it that you want to know?”

“Well, there’s a mountain of things I want to know.”

I’d been thinking about what to ask the whole time. However, I was sure that whatever question I chose, it would have been pointless. There was only ever one question worth asking.

“Are you...a real witch?”

Nito let out a gasp—almost a scream, in fact. The woman and I merely held each other’s gaze, saying nothing.

My palms were sweaty with nerves. Maybe I’d been wrong. If I had, then I’d wasted such a precious thing and such an important chance in one go, all on a worthless question. Still, though. I clenched my fist. This was the right question.

The woman smiled at me like a teacher praising her student.

“That is the best question I’ve ever been asked,” she told me. “You’re quite right. I’m not a witch.”

I let out a deep breath and wiped my hand on my leg. I glanced at Nito to see her with her mouth agape, looking between the two of us. Her face certainly was a picture.

“You see?” I asked.

“See? See...what?”

“She’s not a witch, just pretending.”

As Nito closed her mouth and searched for a response, the woman interjected.

“How did you know?”

The inscrutable expression she’d worn until now had vanished as she looked at me with interest.

“The first thing that bothered me was how you’d acted when you took Nito’s notebook.”

“Her notebook?”

“You said that there were pictures inside, and that it had been her mother’s... She was surprised you got it right.”

“Th-That’s right,” Nito exclaimed. “I didn’t say anything, but she still knew that it had pictures and that it was mom’s!”

“It’s a common technique among fake soothsayers and stuff.”

I’d seen it on TV, and I was pretty sure I’d read about it too. That’s how common it was. Even so, I hadn’t picked up on it at all when it was being done right in front of me.

“That notebook’s fairly heavy, and the cover’s stiff. The paper itself is pretty thick, so you can guess that it’s not just a normal notebook, but one for art. Also, watercolors use a lot of water, right? The paper distorts when it absorbs the water, so you might even be able to see the edges of the color.”

I’d thought of this on the trip to and from the bridge with Jack. Driving was more time than I knew what to do with, so I’d had plenty of opportunity to think. Still, I wasn’t sure that I was right, and the woman’s expression was just a faint smile on her lips as she watched me.

“Then how did she know it was my mom’s?”

“It looks fairly old, and there aren’t many people who’d offer their own paintings as something precious to them. Besides, think back: you told her.”

“I did?”

“She said that it was your father’s first, but then noticed that was wrong from your expression and corrected herself.”

Nito didn’t respond. I continued anyway, wanting to get everything out at once.

“Jack asked her a question too, and she told him that his father had died without reading the letter he’d sent. That was wrong, though. He’d read it, drawn a map, and been heading to that bridge.”

That was what had cemented it. The people of this world believed in witches, but they weren’t something I’d come across before, so I could doubt them more easily. I’d started to wonder if she really was a witch.

“This watch,” I added, looking at the woman, “is something I bought myself. You used the past tense to talk about my grandpa, but he’s still alive.”

“So you set a trap?”

“I did, and it confirmed my guess. You just pretend to have some mysterious power, but you aren’t a real witch.”

I was done. I’d spewed out all the words that had crowded up inside of me, and felt an almost physical weight of exhaustion settle onto my shoulders. The woman raised her hands from where they’d been resting on her lap and clapped.

“You’re right about me just being a soothsayer. I’m not quite so happy about the ‘fake’ part though.”

“Why pretend...?” I asked.

“I never called myself a witch. People just started doing so themselves,” she admitted with a reluctant smile. “I started off as just a soothsayer. What I did didn’t change—the world did. Soothsaying is just providing a little push, showing someone the way when they’re lost or worried. That little push can show people what they’re really looking for.”

“That...sounds complicated.”

“Essentially, they can decide what to do with what they hear. If they don’t like it, they can just ignore it,” she said, then laughed. “But, once they knew the world was falling apart, people started searching for salvation outside of themselves. Giving someone an answer that comes from outside their own heart can set them at ease.”

I’d never understand that logic. When I’d arrived here, the world had already ended, and everyone I’d met had accepted that.

“I just kept up my soothsaying for anyone that arrived. The people that come to me don’t want to hear what I have to say. They already know the answer they want, even as they ask someone else for it, so I just infer that answer and give it to them. It puts them at ease, and they leave happy.”

“But...isn’t that...” I said before trailing off.

“Fraud?” she asked with amusement. “People will believe what they want to believe. That’s always been the case. That’s why people started calling me a witch—after all, isn’t a witch more trustworthy than a soothsayer? I didn’t deny it, just played the role for as long as there were people that needed me to.”

“Then why?” Nito asked, finally opening her mouth and breaking her silence.

I’d thought she might be angry because of being fooled, but her voice was the same as always.

“Why what?”

“Why did you tell me that the Golden Sea doesn’t exist?”

“Do you think you actually wanted it to?”

Nito’s breath caught.

“You were traveling in search of it, but the question you asked wouldn’t have told you anything about where it was or how to get there. You couldn’t simply believe it existed. If you’d wanted it to, then you wouldn’t have asked, you’d have kept your belief and just searched, right?”

The woman smiled.

“Even as you asked whether it existed, you didn’t think it did. That was the answer you wanted, from the absolute authority a witch represented to you. Then you could stop clinging to your mirage of hope and escape the fear of betrayal. That’s why I gave you the answer I did,” she finished with a helpless shrug.

I’d ruined that.

A shudder ran down my spine at her words. It was from shock both that she’d read so deeply into Nito in that single instant, and that I didn’t understand Nito in the slightest. I bit my lip. I’d screwed up. Maybe it had been a bad idea to just drag her along and unveil the witch’s tricks. I’d just assumed that I could play detective for my own satisfaction, flush with the triumph of my deduction.

I was wrong, though.

Nito hadn’t wanted the truth, she’d wanted an answer. Whether the answer was correct didn’t matter, it just needed to be one that she could accept. The correct answer wouldn’t necessarily help the person that had asked for it.

“You...might be right,” Nito said. “I wanted to come here as soon as I heard the rumors. Then I’d know. I was devastated when you said that it didn’t exist...but I was also relieved. I didn’t have to worry about hating myself for doubting and believing her in turns.”

She cast her gaze down. The room was silent. Still, her eyes were alight as she raised her head again to look at the woman.

“But now that I know that what you said was a lie, I’m even happier, even more relieved. It might still exist.” For some reason, she paused to look at me there before continuing. “I can still travel with Keisuke.”

Searching for the Golden Sea was her goal, her reason to travel.

“I guess that deal’s on, then?” I smiled. “I don’t want to travel alone, so I’m really glad you’ll be coming with me.”

“I’ve got no real choice, especially if you’re going to go this far.”

Slow applause broke across us like a wave. I looked to see the woman clapping with a bemused expression.

“I couldn’t read that at least. Right, it’s my loss,” she said, standing and walking over to the cabinet.

She opened the door and removed something before placing it on the table.

“I’m returning this, and yours as well.”

I took the watch back off the table and refastened it around my wrist, nodding. Nito reached out hesitantly, picking up her notebook and clutching it to her chest.

“Um...” she said eventually, looking up at the woman. “Can I ask a question?”

The woman looked slightly puzzled before smiling.

“You still have one? Sure, I’ll even answer it for free.”

Nito’s gaze wandered for a moment before she spoke.

“Please would you tell me your name? I can’t call you ‘the witch’ anymore.”

The woman’s eyebrows rose before she suddenly gave a languid smile. I wondered if the loneliness in her expression was my imagination or not.

“I’m Olympia. It’s been quite a while since I’ve introduced myself like that,” she answered. “Perhaps that’s the question that I was waiting for.”

As she spoke, Olympia offered her hand to Nito.

“Nice to meet you.”

[Keisuke’s Notes] Witch

I doubt they’re the kind going around giving out poisoned apples, but apparently the people in this world believe in witches. Witches, dragons, things like that—they all show up in stories, but they just don’t feel real without having seen them myself. Magic used to exist in the past, but was it anything more than what you can do with science and engineering?