The witch stepped into the house, set down a smartphone, and spoke. While everyone else here couldn't even guess what that thing was, I knew.
‘Why is that... here?’
It was the smartphone I'd had when I first fell into this world—the one the village chief had confiscated and sold to a merchant. I thought I'd never see it again after it left my hands—.
Just then, after confirming that no one was stepping forward, the witch turned on the smartphone and showed us the screen.
“You really don't know what this is?”
“—!!”
I felt my heart sink.
It seemed she hadn't been able to unlock it, but several months had already passed since I fell into this world. That meant the battery should have died long, long ago.
And yet, that witch turned it on so casually. As if to say she had the technology to charge a smartphone.
‘There's... electricity in this world, too?’
It wasn't entirely unbelievable. Electricity was first invented way back in the 1800s. The 19th century. I'd jokingly called this world uncivilized, but it wouldn't be strange for a pre-modern era to advance to a modern one capable of inventing electricity in the blink of an eye.
After all, this was a world with witches and the supernatural powers they used. If someone in power had thought to use witches, and had actually started doing so—civilization could advance in an instant.
‘In other words, this witch isn't just some individual who happened to find a smartphone and come here...’
She was likely a witch with some faction backing her.
There was a chance she was simply a witch with magic that could manipulate machines, but I couldn't imagine a witch who typically holes up in the mountains would be able to acquire a smartphone.
I tried to convey with my eyes that she had a faction behind her—and was therefore a threat to our life in this cabin. Seeing my wink, my teacher smiled and nodded as if to say, "Don't worry."
“You there. Your name?”
“Hm? Ah, my apologies for the late introduction. I'm Makina. As you can see, I'm a witch, just like you all.”
“Right, Makina. Now, would you please get out of my house?”
“Even a guest?”
“Isn't it the owner's prerogative to receive guests?”
As my teacher said this and glared at Makina, Makina nodded as if to concede the point and stood up.
Just as she stood and casually tried to take the smartphone with her, my teacher grabbed her by the wrist.
“And—leave that thing here.”
“...Heeh, so it's not enough to kick out a guest, you're going to resort to robbery too?”
“You came here because of that thing, didn't you? I'll have to make sure you can't do that again.”
While I was stunned by Evangeline's actions, Makina's eyes twinkled as she looked at her. She nodded to herself in agreement with something, then turned and disappeared out the door.
Having driven out the unwelcome witch, Evangeline immediately picked up the smartphone she'd left behind and brought it to me.
“Here, Yohan! You wanted this, right!?”
“...Huh? I did?”
“Yes! A moment ago, you looked at me and said with your eyes, ‘Teacher, I really want that’!”
“...When did I do that?”
“...Huh? You weren't asking me to take it from her?”
Teacher, when did I ever??
Evangeline had caused an unexpected incident, but I decided to think of it as a blessing in disguise and took the smartphone from her. The other witches shot me dumbfounded looks for making my teacher commit robbery, but I did my best to ignore them.
That wasn't what was important right now. I immediately held up the smartphone. A relic of modern civilization. An invention so incredible, it's said that humanity is divided into pre- and post-smartphone eras.
In an age where even soldiers use smartphones, I had been living without one for months. I was starved for civilization.
The freedom to roam the city and the female bodies I could enjoy at any time were not enough to satisfy my hunger.
I placed my finger in the middle of the smartphone, anticipating the feast of human civilization that was about to unfold—.
“...Why isn't this working?”
“Hmm? What's wrong, Yohan?”
“Ah, no. It's nothing...”
Thinking something was wrong, I tried pressing the power button myself, but the smartphone wouldn't turn on. Like a man possessed by madness, I repeatedly mashed the power button.
Eventually, I gave up and let out a hollow sigh.
“—Haaah.”
“...Yohan, is there a problem?”
“No, it's fine...”
With those words, I set the smartphone down and returned to my room, forcing myself to ignore the witches' gazes on my back.
Ah, Reina. Asuka. I thought I'd finally get to see you again... I'm sorry.
Having had her smartphone taken and been kicked out, Makina left the cabin with a sly smile on her face.
Her smartphone was gone and her plan was in shambles, but she wasn't too concerned.
She had obtained something far more important.
‘One, two, three, four witches...’
A whopping five witches, all living together in one cabin.
And a human man was with them.
Most people would find it hard to guess that there was some kind of relationship between the witches and the man. After all, rumors were rampant that witches captured people for biological experiments, and it was said that they even ostracized each other because of their curses.
But Makina was different. With her own eyes, she had discerned that all the witches were in love with the same man.
‘A human seducing a witch is surprising enough... but five of them at once—.’
The times were changing.
Just as the Emperor of the Empire had appointed her to enrich the country and strengthen the military.
The way witches treated humans was changing, too.
Amidst this powerful current of the era, Makina thought about what she could do.
“For now—I suppose I'll head back.”
She drove her business card deep into a tree near the cabin and vanished. Hoping that they would find it and take an interest in her.
Negative emotions. The kind of feelings that make a person depressed clung to the heart like grime and wouldn't wash away easily.
To scrub them away required a powerful emotional outlet, and Yohan chose sadism as his method.
Having vented all his resentment thanks to Margaret, who had taken him until her throat felt like it would tear, Yohan left the cabin early in the morning, as he did every day.
He ran for his training, cutting through the mist formed by the cold dawn air.
By the time beads of sweat had formed despite the chilly air, Yohan finished his training and headed back, where he discovered a business card that had been hidden by the mist.
‘...What's this now?’
Business cards had existed for a very long time, but rectangular, card-shaped ones like this were a modern invention.
Slightly surprised to see a trace of civilization for the first time since the smartphone, Yohan stared at the card.
「Makina, Minister of Science and Technology, The Empire」
The card simply bore a name written in cursive, but Yohan realized it belonged to the witch from yesterday.
And seeing the words written there, he also confirmed that his suspicions had been correct. He'd never heard the name "Empire" before, but he figured Evangeline or Regina would know of it.
With that thought, Yohan took the card and went inside.
“Yohan-gun. Good morning.”
“Ah, Regina.”
“Are you on your way back from training?”
“Yeah. I actually have something I want to show you.”
Yohan handed Regina the business card he'd found. After reading the text on it, Regina nodded and gave it back to him.
“A business card from an official of the Empire. Was it that woman from yesterday?”
“Probably? It was stuck in the tree out front.”
“Then it's likely authentic. But the Empire, you say...”
“You know of it?”
“I do. The problem is that I know it all too well.”
Regina said, her thoughts turning to the Empire. The power that had divided the world. The strongest nation on the planet. And at the same time—a name she never expected to encounter in this remote forest.
“The Empire is on the exact opposite side of the world from here.”
“...The exact opposite side? What do you mean?”
“Do you know that the world is round?”
“Well, yes, but...”
“Then this will be easy to explain. It's exactly as it sounds. The Empire is located on the precise opposite side of the planet from here, this remote region of the Kingdom.”
A distance of roughly 18,000 kilometers, far too great to travel by horse or ship.
Hearing this, Yohan began to roughly calculate the distance. Even on a passenger plane traveling at the speed of sound, it was an ultra-long-haul flight of over 16 hours.
Considering that even Evangeline, known as the strongest witch, couldn't fly at the speed of sound for more than thirty minutes, it was a distance that couldn't be easily traversed.
‘Then—how in the world did that witch get here...?’
Just as he was wondering how Makina could have possibly traveled so far, the other witches, having woken up, began to appear one by one.
Seeing Yohan standing there blankly, the witches tilted their heads and asked if he had something on his mind, but they soon realized the reason for his concern.
After hearing Yohan's story, Margaret spoke up nonchalantly, as if it were no big deal.
“Wanna go? To the Empire?”
“What? But you said it's on the other side of the world...”
“It won't take long. We can be there in a minute.”
It was only then that Yohan remembered he was standing before the world's one and only witch of space. A being for whom the constraints of distance were virtually nonexistent, who could visit the moon itself if she so desired.