Prologue 0-1: Chelsea Margaret

For Chelsea Margaret, setting foot on the soil of a foreign land inspired no special feelings. She and her little brother had run away from home when they were little, and ever since then, they’d traveled from one strange country to the next like migratory birds. East, then west. North, then south. If you were to draw out the entire distance she’d traveled in a straight line, it would probably be long enough to circle the globe five times.

This was her third time in Japan. But this time, she wasn’t here for business or sightseeing. She was here to see a world-renowned specialist about a surgical treatment for her sick brother. But...

“What do you mean, he’s not going to get better?!”

When the doctor delivered the news to her in the dimly lit examination room, she got so mad that she grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up.

“C-Calm down.”

The elderly doctor must’ve expected this kind of response because he just kept moaning “calm down” again and again in pain.

“...Tch.” Once her initial explosion of emotion subsided, Chelsea pushed him away. “Wh-What are you saying...? My brother’s not going to get better? Is it the money? What? Do you think I can’t pay? I may not look it, but I’m—”

Maybe the doctor didn’t think she could afford the hefty bill for the procedure... Or maybe that’s just what she was telling herself. She leaned forward like she was about to grab him again.

“That’s not the problem,” the doctor explained in as calm a voice as he could muster.

Her brother’s disease was too advanced. At this late of a stage, the surgery would be in vain. And...

“I think, at most, he’s got another three months...”

He said the last thing Chelsea wanted to hear.

“...!”

There were no words to express the feelings that welled up inside of her now. She realized there was no point in listening to any more, so she stood up and turned to go.

“...Miss Margaret?”

“...”

Just before she left the room, Chelsea uttered a few last words.

Not a few seconds after she walked out of the door to the exam room, there was a commotion from inside. It was the doctor, whose height had shrunk to that of a child. He was screaming.

Chelsea didn’t even look back.

I have to do something...

She couldn’t count on doctors anymore. But she couldn’t go back to her family, either. Even if the Margaret clan was famous for the skill of its mages, she’d long since cut all ties with it. Besides, magic might be able to heal wounds, but it couldn’t cure illnesses. Only saints and Christ could do that.

I have to do something... Anything...

Practical measures like medicine weren’t working. Even more fantastic measures, like magic, wouldn’t work. The only thing left... was a miracle.

There was one option she’d looked into, just in case everything else failed. If it was really true, she might be able to save her brother. But the odds of that were close to zero.

Could she really make a miracle happen in just three months?

I have to try. I’ll make my own miracle.

And then Chelsea, who had hardly been paying attention to where she was going, slammed straight into a young girl.

“Kyah!”

Chelsea was the one who’d been moving faster, and her momentum sent her tumbling to the ground.

“I’m sorry. Are you all right?”

The person she’d hit had only been knocked back a single step, and they offered Chelsea a hand up. The girl was just a black silhouette against the setting sun, but Chelsea could see that the hand she held out was wearing a fingerless glove.