Volume 2 Chapter 8 (2/2)

In this way, the king would always have to hold on to the present that she made for him She's such a schemer

”…Why must I only use my dominant hand?”

『That's because the effect will be stronger that way』

That was a lie It was actually so that I could stay by his side and serve hi his dominant hand

”Fumu… By the hy do you not speak?”

The king asked her after feeling curious about her behaviour, and she revealed all of what she had done After hearing that, he lamented what she had done

”To think you would go so far to follow my order… If only everyone possessed the same level of loyalty as you, I wouldn't have had to do so like this…”

『I a of such praise』

And then, when the king accepted the sword from her,

”Still, this sword looks so lousy It's in such bad taste I have to keep holding so like this?”

『Eh?』

”…damn”

His true feelings were exposed

That day ended with a subtly aard atmosphere

Starting the next day, the king used that sword to change the country To begin with, he used that sword to find his disloyal retainers and banished the that, he used ate the citizens ere displeased at having lost the ability to lie

And so, the Country of Honesty—or rather, the country where only the citizens who couldn’t stand up to the king were left— was completed in this fashi+on

At this point, the only people left in the country were those ould obey the king, no matter what he does By the way, Eihemia-san was labeled as an incompetent and banished froic

『Apparently, I had no value to hiic…』

After co her story, Eihemia-san wrote those words in her sketchbook

Could she have been any more stupid?

”You were hired as a witch, so of course your ”

『I had hoped that he would allow me to reic』

As Eihe depressed, Saya-san spoke up while standing next to her

”You gave up both your voice and ic power for his sake, isn’t that kind of heavy? Maybe the king disliked that?”

She delivered such a finishi+ng blow

She hardly had any right to say such a thing, considering that she ie etime

As I stood there feeling aain

”Eihemia-san, your request is to turn this country back to the way it used to be, right? What needs to be done in order to make that happen?”

『You just need to o of the sword』

”I see…”

Saya-san said that while nodding, and I asked,

”What will happen if the sword is destroyed?”

『The power I put into the sill disappear, and ical ability will return』

”Hoho…”

”In that case, the fastest way to do this would be to destroy the shen the king comes out to make a speech, like he did yesterday”

『The king doesn’t have any speeches scheduled until next month』

”Elaina-san, let's share a room and stay here for the next month—”

”Let's think of a different option”

『If you plan to take the sword away fro, you will need to enter the royal palace』

”…But wouldn’t it be really hard to get inside if we can't lie? The whole plan will fall apart the o inside”

That's true

”It's the Country of Honesty, after all We can't lie our way into the palace”

I continued to speak

”But if we use what Eihee Sure, we can't lie in this country, but we can mislead people all ant”

Even if we can't speak lies in this country, we can

Eihee with 『YES』written on it It looked like she had already discovered the loophole in the barrier that she had created—the loophole that was i here Perhaps it had been created with such an intention fro

”…? What do you mean, Elaina-san?”

Allow me to explain

I borrowed the sketchbook and pen from Eihemia-san, and,

”Now, pay attention This is all we need to do—”

And so, I wrote down the strategy

At so Saya-san with her job, but I decided not to touch upon that point until the end

That's because in this country where people cannot lie, they will not be able to hide their embarrassment either

”Excuse me Please state your business You may not pass beyond this point without His Majesty's permission”

As expected, ere stopped at the gate after walking up to the royal palace

The guard then realized that one of us was none other than Eihemia-san, and he exclaimed,

”Ah, you! What are you doing here!? You've been banished from here, haven't you!?”

『Hiiii! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!』

”Hey, behave yourself”

Eiherab her by the scruff of her neck before she could run away, and,

”Saya-san, hurry up and explain the circumstances to him”

Saying that, I lightly pushed Saya-san forwards Standing in front of the guard, Saya-san boldly pulled out a piece of paper

”Ahem Guard-san, do you understand what is written on this paper?”

The dirty, stained paper had the folloords written on it

”The banishment of the Witch of Quicksand, Eiheranted to The Witch of Ashes, Elaina, and the Witch of Charcoal, Saya”

Even the King's signature was properly present at the bottom

”The banishenuine?”

Oh, what's this?

”What are you talking about? This is the Country of Honesty, isn't it? There's no way lies could exist here Or else, are you i that His Majesty lied to us?”

”…Ugh, you're right”

”Now, please let us pass”

”………”

The guard moved away from the entrance, albeit reluctantly And so, ere able to boldly pass through the gate

While holding the fake document in hand

This country does not allow one to lie using spoken words However, the circu them down

Unlike speech, characters that have been written down can be erased It's very easy to write a lie by jotting down a bunch of rando some select characters

You can only correct speech with , no matter how hard you try However there area pen

I discovered this fact while I riting down randos in my inn roonboards of shops in this country had been made in the same way, and I also understood how the inn roonboard insisted that they were beautiful

The people of this country had discovered how to lie using written words, but they were keeping that fact a secret

”It ell As expected of you, Elaina-san”

”Why, thank you”

Saya-san was looking at the paper that I had forged while alking inside the castle Incidentally, the King's signature ritten byrando his handwriting and forging his signature next to that sentence was possible Once that was done, the previous sentence could just be erased to coery

『Truly, the pen is htier than the sword!』

There was a person next s with a triumphant expression on her face, but I pretended not to see that

”By the way, Eiheo now?”

Saya-san pretended not to see that as well

『Eh? The throne room, perhaps? His Majesty usually whiles away the time in there』

”Hoho So, where is this throne room?”

『It's still quite far from here』

”I understand Both of you, follow me! I'll protect the two of you!”

”You seem to be all fired up, Saya-san”

『At any rate, I cannot fight at all, so I'll just hide behind the both of you』

”Sure, just leave it toshould only take me an instant”

Just where did her confidence come from?

”Do you have a plan?”

”Well, for starters, I'll go in from the front and say, 「Hey there, I'ic, and I'ic Would youme take a look at that beautiful sword?」 Once I say that, he's sure to give me the sword See, isn’t that a perfect plan? Hehehe~”

”True, I have never seen a plan so perfectly full of holes”

『There's no way he would let go of my sword for such a flimsy reason!』

We have titches here, so the best way to do it would be to have one of us distract him from the front while the other sneaks up on him from behind and steals it Actually, we don’t even need titches for this

Well, it'll work out somehoe —thinking that, we proceeded to walk deeper into the royal palace

And that's when it happened

”What's all this noise about? What is going on—”

The king came out of the door directly in front of us

He actually came out at a time like this

Why was that, though? Wasn't he supposed to be in a place still far away from here?

When I looked around while having a questionabove my head,

『I'm sorry, we have reached the throne room It was unexpectedly not that far away』

So said the words, written by Eihemia-san

It was a very insufficient apology, in more ways than one

”Seeing as you've already found us, I guess we have no choice Your Majesty, please let go of that sword at once”

I instantly saw that it was is peacefully, so I pulled out , and made him return to the throne room

However, while retreating, the king shouted,

”Intrudeeeeeeeeers!”

Regrettably, he called for help

I things like ”What's going on?” and ”Who's there?” and ”That was His Majesty's voice!” and a large nuh the open door

Our retreat was instantly cut off

Hmm

”Saya-san I will deal with the king Please do souards”

”Leave it to me!”

Saya-san also took a stance with her staff As for Eihe up a sign saying 『Ah, I am a non-combatant!』

She has no intention to help at all Oh well, I guess it's better than her just ju in blindly

”Your Majesty, please give that sword to me”

I sloalked closer to the king

”Silence! Shut up! da to do?”

『Your Majesty, that artifact is very dangerous Although thatfrom the person who made it』

Eihe behind me

『So please, return that to me』

”What are you saying? This sword is truly the perfect weapon to guide this country As long as I have this, I can lead this country in the correct direction”

And then, the king said,

”Even if there are some bad people who are after my sword, I can take care of them by myself—like this! ”

The king swung the sword horizontally in a straight line

A y was released froht in the shape of a crescent fleards

”Whoops”

I dodged it like it was nothing

It hit Saya-san instead

”Ouuuuuuuuuch!”

An agonized wail echoed throughout the chamber

”Ah, I'm sorry”

”Uuu… So mean…”

By the way, I didn’t hear anything about that sword being capable of producing y

『That sword is capable of releasing accu it, so be careful It'll hurt like hell if it hits you』

Isn't that warning a little too late?

”Tch… As expected, ordinary ainst a witch—in that case, how about this? Ei!”

Saying that, the king swung the sword several tiy at me

I carefully struck down each of them so that they would not hit Saya-san Fros like ”Orya!” and ”daht to protect my back

”Your Majesty, has this country become a better place now that the lies have disappeared?”

”Of course it has! Can't you see how happy the citizens of my country are?”

”Isn't that because you only let the people who approved of your vision of a country stay behind, and kicked out everyone else?”

”It's the sa out the seeds of rebellious intent?”

”You're right—I agree with you on that point On the other hand, there is a possibility that not all the people re”

”……What did you say?”

As the king furrowed his eyebrows in doubt, I thought back on all the things I had seen after conboards on the shops and the

”This is the Country of Honesty, right? There are a lot of people who confess their true feelings, and sometimes come to blohen they express themselves frankly But there’s undeniably a sense of round”

The people of this country often say things that are better left unsaid, but that's probably not out of good intentions It ht just be due to accumulated stress

It's the sas as well Actually, that additional writing on shops ht have been done by some malicious individual

Although the people were athered in the courtyard of the royal palace, not a single one of theful aloud This was probably because they were hiding their true feelings

”Being honest is not necessarily always the best option That's why this world has the concept of lies—”

”Elaina-san! Sorry to interrupt, but we're out of tioing to go flying! Iyaaaaaaa!”

『Good luck, Witch-san froic』

”You should help out toooooooo!”

『I'm sorry, I specialize in inspections and the like』

”It looks like we're out of tis up here”

However, the king snorted at my proposal

”Wind things up? Who are you trying to fool? It's taking everything you have to just deflect my attacks”

”……No, I'm sorry I've already completed the preparations necessary to take the sword away from you”

”H”

”Can you still say that after seeing what is behind you?”

”……What?”

Without ceasing his attacks onquickly peeked behind him When he saas there, his attacks abruptly ceased

The broo in the air behind him

”What!? When did you—”

Without even allowing the king to complete his sentence, I o

Right after that, a dull thuh the air and the brooave a low groan and was throards me

The sword that he had held up until that point, fell froers

”Ei”

Seeing that, I conjured up a large lu at the sword as it fell towards the ground Aftera heavy sound, the lump of iron easily broke the sword into two pieces and then round

Once the sword broke with a nice, clean sound, a large aic was iht returned to Eiheht looked like the stars in the night sky

After being entranced by that sight for a short while, I leaned forward and said,

”People with evil intentions can still do bad things even if they cannot lie All the people reood people”

”………”

”Similarly, not everyone who lies is a bad person”

If the truth is like a sword, then lies are the sheath The truth is encased in lies to prevent it fro people for no reason

Lies can also be used in such a way

”……”

The king slowly moved his body and crouched down on the spot

He just kept staring at one spot on the floor Maybe he's thinking about so, or he's just depressed

After a few very long seconds passed,

”So what are you saying…!? Are you saying I was mistaken…?”

He vaguely whispered those words

”No, you were not mistaken”

An unfa's words

It was immediately apparent who had said that It was Eihemia-san, whose voice had returned

”Your Majesty, you were just a little too honest with your own feelings From now on, why don't you relax a little and live a life where you can lie when needed and stay silent about things that don't need to be said?”

Eiheently

Was that really the truth, or was it a lie tofeel better?

Honestly, I can't tell anymore

This is what happened afterwards

The king publicly apologized for turning the country into a place where people couldn't lie forthat had happened so far was his fault, and he sincerely asked the people to forgive him

The reactions of the people were surprisingly indifferent There was no riot, and nobody booed the king while he spoke They just accepted the apology while looking unconcerned, and once the speech ended, there was some scattered applause in the courtyard of the royal palace

Most likely, the king has not yet recovered the trust of his people

After recovering her voice and ic, Eihe in the palace

”It's going to get busy from now on!”

She was full of excite as she stood next to the king as busy dealing with the aftermath of this event

It looks like it will still take sooes back to how it used to be

”Elaina-san, about the reward for this job”

Saya-san held ates of the country and went outside

”What is it?”

”You helped out with this job as well, so I think… I think you deserve to get a reward”

”Eh, but I don’t want it”

”It doesn’t work that way”

Saya-san said as she lowered her eyebrows

”We need to share the reith anythe job, that's the rule I need to do so to thank you for your efforts”

”If you keep doing everything by the book, you'll become an inflexible person”

Besides, I didn’t do what I did this tih

”Still, please letto thank you!”

”…No, really, it's fine”

This girl was pestering

It was a strange feeling

”In that case, let's do this I need to thank you for givingnice!”

After clapping her hands, she searched her bag and pulled out so small

She held two small necklaces in her hand, and pushed one of them into my hands

”…What is this?”

I asked while accepting the necklace, and she made a pleased sound

”This is so I used all ain, Elaina-san By the way, the reason I was broke was because I spent my money on these That's the reason why I accepted this job, but I happened to meet you because of it, so it really is fate, isn't it!?”

”Eh, that's pretty heavy”

I thought it was heavy enough to equal Eihe to thank

”Please think of that as me and keep it safe!”

”……”

I don’t really want to accept so like this……

I ht s like this

After silently looking at that necklace and Saya-san for a few seconds, I said,

”Thank you I will take good care of it”

Oh well, it should be fine That's what I thought

It s differently for a change

”Well then, I guess we part ways here—I' to the branch office of the Ad to continue your journey, right, Elaina-san?”

”That's right”

I replied while putting on the necklace

”It's tioodbye, Saya-san”

”…I hope we can ain somewhere in the future”

”If that coain If not, this is the last time ill see each other”

”I definitely won't let it be the last time”

Saying that, she held up her little finger and extended her hand towards me

”…What are you doing?”

”This is a char a proes! Please wrap your little finger around mine”

”………”

Just how does wrapping er around hers constitute a charm?

I extendedsome doubts

She wrapped her little finger around mine

”Elaina-san, it's a proain”

Saya-san smiled and said that She also said that she would become an even better witch by that time

And so, I responded,

”I will patiently wait for that to happen during my travels”