Volume 1 Chapter 9 (2/2)

The various emotions that had accu unable to be suppressed

The despair of being betrayed by the person I trusted The frustration of being unable to return the attack even once, although the opponent was a Witch The sadness that despite trying nized just because I was young

The various e

My patience reached its limit

”U-Ugh Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah”

I cried I sank down at that place and cried hard

The large drops of tears flowing from my heated eyes overflowed heavily, and didn't cease no matter how much I wiped them

I bit down onof my miserable cries, but I lost the way to put power to it

I just kept crying in the rasslands

It was quite unsightly

”Huh? Eh? Hey”

Fran-sensei looked ather eyes about Then it turned into so

With suspicious movements, she rushed towards my side,

”I-I'm s-s-s-sorry! I didn't think you'd really cry”

And while apologizing as such, she nervously waved her hands about

”Uuuuuuuuuuuuuu”

”Oh my, oh my”

She covered her eyes with both hands, not wanting to see th toI would be able to bite my lips this tiave up on

Then, thinking about so, she started to search for a way to stop

”I-I know! Hey, please look Elaina I made your favorite butterfly!”

Fran-sensei shaved the ice she ic into the forh it wasn't me who liked butterflies

I continued to cry

”Eh? It failed? Then, how about this? A crown made from weeds!”

Fran-sensei cut the surrounding ith Wind Magic in one go and made a round crown She came to put it on top of ht

”I-Is it no good? Then, how about this? Look, a fireball!”

I did not knohat I wanted anymore

”It can't be helped then I'll make funny faces! Please look at me, look at mee!”

I ignored her

”Uhhhh, then in that case Ah, I know!”

After exhausting every other way, she came to embrace me

Thinking there was nothing else she could do, this seemed to be her last resort, but the effect was io

”Funununu”

I immediately rejected her with all my power

”No Calm do, Elaina”

”Stop it! What, what are you planning!?”

Perhaps she thought that I was acting embarrassed She was off mark I rejected it because I really found it unpleasant

However, with the power that came from God knohere, her arms coiled around me and I wasn't able to escape

”Really, I'm sorry It seemed I overdid a little”

”Stop h you enjoyed yourself by torh you had no intention to make me a Witch from the start!”

”What enjoyed myself?”

”Please let go of me! I can't take this anymore, I hate everyone! The Witches of Robetta, and also you! Aren't you all the same in the end?! And you said you were different from the Witches of Robetta so I trusted you!”

””

”You don't even know just how hard I worked! You are scorningat the results! Why won't anyone ever look at h I only wanted to be recognized──”

The strength of hands e me had increased

”I'm truly sorry, Elaina I perfectly understood your true feelings,” she said and gently brushed my hair, ”You’ve endured it well until now”

”Didn't I say to stop it!? Acting like that again, are you trying to deceive me!?” My voice trembled

”──No, I won't deceive you any”

Because you see, Ithat, she placed her hands on my shoulders and started directly at me Her usual smile appeared to have traces of some sorrow

And then, she slowly opened her mouth

”You see, I came because of a request from your parents”

Part 3

After returning to the isolated house in the forest, Fran-sensei told

”About one o when I e a with such a request

‘Please give the hardest test you can to our daughter’

I didn't understand what they were trying to say at all

As I listened to their story, they said they were concerned about Elaina's future If she continues on like this without learning of a failure, then when she strays froet back from it

I will say this for your parents, but please know that they did not propose this because they wanted to bully you, okay?

There was also a reason on why they came expressly to ht? The Witches living there were intimidated by your ability ‘I won't be able to teach sos Well, as the naests, that country is far too peaceful, so it can be said that there aren't any Witches with real power there

So, anticipating that the country's Witches would reject you, they decided to come to me

Well in a word, because you were getting ahead of yourself, they proposed to quickly teach you a lesson

Reluctantly, I went along with their story

And then, you came

You did not have an impression of a mere cocky little brat unlike how your parents described it, so at first, I planned to give you an extremely difficult exam and completely break your spirit

However, as ere together practically all the time, I noticed that you were coe of you

You are an extre to work as oal And you have the ability to match your actions

To the degree that you were as good as a Witch since the very start

As I spent tiot carried away fro but success learn failure’ that I initially planned Surely, your parent's wanted to teach you that ”Soo as planned”, however they realized that it was futile

As soon as I forced you to make a mistake, the result was visible I was sure you would stand up toyour failure I did not expect that I would break your heart

And because of that, because I'm your teacher, I was able to discover it – your weakness

Elaina, you are enduring everything too much

Exactly because you understood of your youthfulness and ability well, you endured things that were more or less unreasonable

No matter how insincere I was or how absurd my requests were, you didn't coht? Why was that so? Was it because you thought that you had no one else to rely on?

What did you think when Robetta's Witches rejected you? Wasn't it that you told yourself that ‘It couldn't be helped’? Did you even once object to those Witches?

And so I waited, until your patience would run out And yesterday, as I looked at your Magic, I guessed that it would come soon

Today's exam was the end of it

By the way, if the exam went on like I had planned and I won, and yet you still endured it without a word, I was planning to preach you about it Because what I did was simply unreasonable

It's no good to s Because, you see, one day you would have ended up falling apart

That said, I didn't really expect you to cry

So you went through such painful experiences, huh Because of you being unusually ot that you were still a fourteen year old girl

So I'm truly sorry”

Then finally, Fran-sensei added this at the end

”It's no good to endure everything If there's soht with you, then oppose it You should learn to clearly say what you don't like Please let your feelings out sometimes and protect yourself”

What I felt back then when I accepted those words fro I can't recall anymore

However, it was the first time in my life that anyone had ever said those words to me

Do not endure

It could be thanks to those words──that I am here now

But well, even now, I so a lot of stress

Part 4

My training under Fran-sensei lasted for one year

After being told not to endure everything too un

”Good ”

”Here, have some weed”

”Umm, what is this harassment?”

”You told s that ‘Making breakfast for Sensei is a pain’”

””

”Just kidding”

In the end, we decided to eat the bread from yesterday

The thing aboutin ic, it wasn't all that bad

Ehe it, okay? it's tuition fee

According to Fran-sensei,

”You both have skills and talent If there's so you don't have, that would be experience”

I was told as such, so I coain experience

Those were very fulfilling days

Those days felt so short compared to the hellish firstwhile studying Magic after returning to the forest house It was fun, very much so

There is one particularlysessions that Fran-sensei gave me

This is about one tiic in front of the forest house

”Elaina”

Fran-sensei said abruptly, ”There's a bottle over there, right? Can you see it?”

Certainly, there were two sake bottles in the direction she was pointing

”Yes, I can see it──but what about it?”

”Try to hit one of theic”

””

The distance to the bottle was about one tree's length

To put it siht if she waswith me

”Eii!”

I swung my staff and moved the wind

With a whoosh, the ball of ent straight at the bottle I was ai, and began to towards the bushes

”I did it, so?”

However, Fran-sensei shrugged her shoulders looking somewhat disappointed

”Did anyone say to send it flying?”

”No, but you said to hit it, didn't you?”

”Is that okay? If you are an Apprentice Witch, then sending it flying would be counted as a success However, for Witches, a more reliable and accurate skill is essential”

”Haah”

”If it was a Witch, rather than knocking the bottle down, they would instead aim for the situation where the bottle would end up in between falling and not falling In other words, so like this──”

Fran-sensei swung her staff

The wind produced fro bottle and directly hit it But the bottle didn't fall, and instead stayed standing with it's top shaking from side to side

Fran-sensei revealed a smiled and said

”Ah, great, it was a success Well for Witches, it is essential to be able to control their Magic precisely just like that That's why ood”

””

I understood what she was trying to say, and there was also reason behind it

However, was it really necessary for her to make me fail at it at start

After one year had passed since beco her Apprentice, I became able to compete with Fran-sensei fairly well

And just once, I was able to win against her

That day beca

”There is nothing to teach you anymore,” she told , really strong”

I still don't get as I able to win at that time Probably, it was just luck

Fran-sensei took away the bellflower corsage fro a Witch in its place

That was the star-shaped brooch

”Congratulations, Elaina The Witch of Stardust has now officially recognized you as a Witch──speaking of your Witch Name, what do you say about the Witch of Ashes?”

”Isn't that a bit too plain?”

Did you decide it while looking at my hair color?

”Eeh? I thought it sounded really nice”

”Speaking of which, why is Fran-sensei called the Witch of Stardust?”

”Because it sounds cool, isn't that given?”

””

”S-So how is it? The Witch of Ashes”

”That's fine with ainst it

”In that case, it's settled You are the Witch of Ashes, Elaina Please do your best from now on”

She hit my shoulders with a clap sound

Taking a deep breath, I replied with ”Yes”

While having a reminiscent talk, we returned to the isolated house in the forest and Fran-sensei ih she called herself vagrant, she actually was the great Witch of a certain country That was the first time I heard about it

That's why, ‘it ht be quite bad that I have left the country for a whole year’, she said with a s matter, was it? I was the one at fault, however

In that case, why did she coht I tried to indirectly ask her about that, but the only reply I got was ”Because there was someone I had to see by any means”

”I would very o now For there are many ait me in my country”

And so, this is goodbye──Saying so, she turned her head towards where she used to chase butterflies one year ago

”Goodbye, Sensei”

Those parting words chilled my body just like a cold wind

”Goodbye, Elaina I will coain someday Please look forward to it”

”Yes!”

Then, Sensei got on her broom and ascended in the sky

I continued to wave my hand

Towards her silhouette slowly beco smaller, on and on

Until it faded within the blue sky

At that moment, I didn't hold back my tears