The Two Witches' Eventful Journey

1

“Whoa! Look, look! We’re reaaally high up! I didn’t know such a beautiful view existed!” Emilia exclaimed, her eyes widening at the sight from the window she had her hands pressed against.

The brilliantly blue sky infinitely stretched out in front of her, with a sea of thick cloud clusters floating within it. The airplane carrying the sparkly-eyed Emilia flew as it let out a deep roaring sound, and was already traveling above the clouds.

What a luxurious experience I’m going through right now! Emilia thought, flustered and unable to stay composed. “Hey, come on, you. Come here and take a look. You’ve never seen anything like this before either, have you?”

“───”

Without receiving any response from her companion, Emilia started beckoning them over with her hand. “What’s wrong? Hey, Echidna! Echidna!”

“You don’t need to keep calling me. I hear you,” the white-haired Echidna, clad in a black dress, spat.

Even though they were on the same plane, Echidna didn’t pay attention to the scenery outside the window and kept her gaze on her lap. Her face was pale, and she looked gloomy.

Furrowing her brow at her companion’s disposition, Emilia tilted her head. “What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well? That’s not good! We should get you off…”

“Unfortunately, that negotiation already ended in failure as soon as I was dragged onto this airplane by Natsuki Subaru.”

“I had no idea. Jeez, what was Subaru thinking… Dragging you around even though you’re not feeling well.”

“It’s not that I’m feeling unwell… I’m just having a hard time understanding something.”

“—?”

“About why I have to be here of all places with you,” Echidna spat, glaring at Emilia with her eyes framed in long white lashes.

Emilia looked confused at first, but then quickly showed a smile. “That’s because it’s my birthday, and you have to do whatever I ask. Have you forgotten, Echidna?”

“No, I haven’t, even though I should have. And these things you want me to do are…”

Emilia nodded. “The items on the list of things I want to do that Subaru asked me to write!” she exclaimed, taking out a file.

Inside the file was a list of wishes she had written for this day. This was one of Subaru’s ideas, and he had asked her to draw it up for her birthday.

“He said we probably wouldn’t be able to get to them all, so he picked some at random and got everything set up, and this is the first one,” Emilia explained as she let out a chuckle. “It’s only the first one and I already feel like I’m being spoiled.”

Even though some of my wishes on the list were fantastical, the dedication everyone put in for me is amazing. I can’t believe I’m able to enjoy such a wonderful view.

Since Emilia couldn’t use flying magic like Roswaal, it was her first time looking down from such a height.

“I can empathize with your desire to overlook the world from a high place,” Echidna said.

“Then why are your brows furrowed like that?” Emilia asked. “Could it be that you’re scared of heights?”

“Nothing of the sort. Didn’t I tell you? I’m just having a hard time understanding something. You can enjoy the view from a high place all you want. But what is this thing we’re shouldering?” Echidna asked, pointing at the bag-like item on her back.

Emilia turned her attention to the similar bag she was wearing.

“What do you mean what?” she replied. “These are parachutes.”

“Why?!” exclaimed Echidna. “Why is it that your wish is to jump out of an airplane instead of just enjoying the view?! There’s something wrong with you!”

Emilia was taken aback by the rare instance of Echidna raising her voice. However, she empathized with her outburst nonetheless. The idea of jumping out was also not something she came up with.

“At first, I just wanted to enjoy the view too,” Emilia explained. “But then Subaru told me about an activity called skydiving and…”

“And…?”

“It sounded reaaally fun, so I wanted to try it with you, Echidna.”

“And thus I ended up in this predicament…”

Emilia began to feel bad as she listened to Echidna’s begrudging words. However, Subaru, being the great storyteller he was, made skydiving sound extremely fun. Due to this, Emilia had written, “I want to go skydiving with Echidna,” before she even realized it.

“Ah, Echidna,” Emilia called. “We’re almost at the point. Let’s make sure we don’t fool around like we were told before the airplane took off!”

Echidna groaned. “Wait, on second thought, I think I’d rather return to solid ground with the airplane…”

“Jeez, it’s also your first time doing this, isn’t it? You’re always curious about everything, so you should try this and find out how it feels.”

“It’s infuriating to hear you talk about the fate of the Witch of Greed as if you know anything… Ah, wait, wait, ah, ahhhhhhhh!!”

“Kyaahhh!!”

2

“Skydiving was reeeally fun!” Emilia exclaimed cheerfully. “Next up is baking a cake!”

“Do you not realize the great disparity in those two activities?”

Emilia looked confused. “What do you mean?”

“Never mind if you don’t get it,” said Echidna, letting out a sigh. She was wearing a headscarf and leaning on the kitchen table, exhausted. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the energy to explain it to you.”

Emilia thoroughly enjoyed skydiving. However, as someone who wasn’t used to screaming like Emilia was, Echidna was exhausted from the activity.

“Good thing we did that first, then,” said Emilia. “They say sweet things help you when you’re tired, right?”

“That only applies if the sweet things are within reach and ready to be consumed. That being said, how experienced are you in baking…in making sweets?”

Emilia smiled. “Glad you asked. Back in the forest, I used to make sweets using crushed berries. Puck always complimented them, saying they were reaaally good.”

She puffed out her chest to show that she was confident in her skill in making sweets by sharing a memory she had with Puck. Life in the forest was hard, and since there weren’t any sweet fruits, the pastries she made out of berries had a rough texture. However, it was an occasional delicacy she enjoyed nonetheless.

“But today we have sugar,” Emilia said. “We could eat sweet pastries.”

“I see where this is headed. Give me the sugar. I’ll directly consume it and rejuvenate myself.”

“No need to do that! Just wait a little. I’ll make it really fast! Let’s see, it says one scoop, so it must be a scoop from a large container. Should I use this bowl?”

“That’ll make it too sweet. Whatever happened to the education you’re supposed to have received from the great spirit? I refuse to be the victim of your educator not doing his job!”

Echidna jumped at the door, trying to make an escape from the kitchen. However, the door was made so that it wouldn’t unlock until they finished baking a cake. Whether Echidna could exit the kitchen depended on Emilia’s baking skills.

“That’s a lot of responsibilities,” Emilia said. “Echidna, you help me too if you want to get out of here!”

“Just remember, I’m doing this for my own sake and not to be friends with you.”

“Oh no, I put in too much sugar. I wonder if I can balance it out with salt…”

“Stop!”

3

And so they went down Emilia’s wishlist.

“It’s the earth dragon endurance race! Let’s go, Echidna!”

“Just throw me off during the race…”

“Don’t worry. I’ll make sure to carry you till the end.”

“I wasn’t worried about being a dead weight.”

“It’s hard to score a hundred in Karaoke,” Emilia lamented during one of their activities.

“We’d have a better chance if I sang… Wait, I’m not allowed to sing? Only listening? Then why does it have to be me? It could be anyone else.”

“Yeah, I’ll do my best next song. I have a feeling it’ll go well.”

“Are you saying your score will increase fivefold just like that?”

“Everyone did so much for me,” said Emilia, “so I want to get them something in return. And I wanted you to help me choose what to get, Echidna.”

“Although I have a reputation of providing wisdom to those in need, it was based on the condition that the problems those people faced were so difficult that my knowledge was required. Your wish doesn’t satisfy that condition…”

“What do you think I should get Beatrice? I’m sure Subaru will get her something too, so I want to get her something that’s just as good or even better than what he will get her.”

Echidna paused for a moment. “She’s probably read most books available, but it should still be something related to that. Perhaps a nice bookmark will do.”

4

One by one, they crossed off the activities on the list. It was virtually impossible to go through them all in only one day, but they still managed to cross off a great deal of them. However, Emilia thought wrong if she thought she was becoming an expert at having fun.

“Echidna, I’m sorry,” she said. “Looks like I made a mistake. This is the south pole, so there aren’t any polar bears here.”

Echidna said nothing.

“They say they’re reaaally big white bears. Doesn’t that sound like the Sacred Beast Odglass of Gusteko? I wanted to see one so badly…” Emilia slumped her shoulders and sighed a white breath as she fixed her ear muffs.

The pair was at the freezing continent of the south pole to fulfill another one of Emilia’s wishes. Their objective, as Emilia mentioned, was to see the polar bears that inhabited the freezing land, but they had failed to do so.

Subaru’s warning resonated in Emilia’s mind.

“Remember, Emilia-tan, they’re called polar bears precisely because they live at the north pole. Don’t mistake it with the south pole, otherwise it’ll be tragic!”

However, the existence of the two poles confused Emilia and ended up with them in such a predicament.

“I’m so sorry, even though you came all the way to this freezing place with me,” Emilia apologized.

Echidna said nothing.

Emilia groaned. “Are you mad? Surely you are. This is all my fault. Hey, I’m really sorry, so will you at least speak to me?” Even though Echidna often complained, she still obediently tagged along to all the activities. Emilia was anxious whether she made her truly angry this time. However, noticing Echidna’s dull response, Emilia grabbed her by the shoulder and began shaking her. “Hey Echidna? Echidna?” It was at this moment she realized that Echidna was freezing. “Oh no! Echidna! Please, move your body! You can’t freeze up!”

“Let…me just…say…one thing…” Echidna squeezed out.

“What is it? A way to defrost a frozen body?”

“I hate it when it’s too hot…but, I also hate it when it’s too cold.”

“Everyone does! What’s gotten into you, Echidna?!”

Even her voice sounds like it’s iced up, Emilia thought, widening her eyes.

As a measure to warm Echidna’s body, Emilia embraced her. I’m worried that she’ll lower my body temperature and end up freezing both of us, though. Then, she remembered there was something they could do in a situation like this that Subaru had taught her.

“That’s it!” Emilia exclaimed. “Oshikura Manju! We should try playing Oshikura Manju to resist the cold!”

“As irritating as it is to have to depend on you, could you stay still for a little while?” Echidna asked.

“S-Sure,” responded Emilia. “Whatever you want, but I’m really bad at staying still.”

As much as she wanted to respect Echidna’s wishes, Emilia wasn’t comfortable not doing anything. She couldn’t help but think it was a better idea to move her body so that she could raise her body temperature and warm Echidna as well. Carefully, so Echidna wouldn’t notice, she began doing small squats. However, Echidna immediately noticed.

“Stop it,” she said.

Emilia let out a small groan. “Okay.”

Emilia held onto her companion anxiously. As she stood on the icy continent that lacked polar bears, she looked up at the sky. She contemplated how she made a terrible mistake in her last wish, despite successfully crossing so many items off the list while dragging Echidna along the whole day. She was worried Echidna would be fed up with her by this and wouldn’t celebrate her birthday again. As she was beginning to feel depressed, Emilia noticed a change begin to take place in the sky.

“Ah,” she let out at the change.

A banner emanating colors took form in the night sky. Emilia didn’t know what the array of colors projected in the sky before her was.

Then Echidna whispered from Emilia’s arms. “It’s an aurora.”

“Aurora,” Emilia repeated.

The banner of colors slowly wafted across the night sky. It was unbelievably large and beautiful, causing Emilia to question if she was dreaming. Next to her, Echidna gazed at the brightly lit colors with her dark black eyes.

“Aurorae appear only when all the conditions are properly met,” she said. “You could say it’s dependent on the sky’s mood on any given day. It’s not something you can see easily even if you want to.”

“What are you trying to say?”

“We’re witnessing something way more significant than polar bears.”

Emilia thought the last remark was rude to polar bears, but decided not to scold her. She understood that Echidna was trying to console her for having mistaken the north and south poles. Even though we couldn’t see any polar bears, you shouldn’t feel down. Such was how Emilia interpreted her words.

Emilia chuckled happily at her interpretation. Hearing that, Echidna threw a glare at her, but Emilia met it straight on, locking eyes with her until she averted her gaze. Emilia turned her attention back to the aurora. She decided to enjoy the rare sight. Even though she wasn’t able to see any polar bears, she was happy with how her birthday turned out. The moments were imbued with an ethereal quality, reminiscent of a dream, their magic heightened by the unlikely fusion of different elements. She was extremely happy.

She looked down at Echidna with a smile on her face. “Hey, Echidna,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I wonder what happens if we skydive into an aurora. If I write that on my list, will you do it with me on my next birthday?”

“Absolutely not,” rejected Echidna, making a face expressing repulsion at Emilia’s request.

END