Maydare Volume 1 Chapter 2 - The Salt Forest (Part 3)
Honestly Chapters 1 and 2 feel like one big prologue. If you read the manga you'll know that the story really starts in the next chapter.
We had too many detours. Our original goal was to go on an errand to my grandmother, who lived in this forest.
We went off the regular route, but we tried to walk where we could for the time being.
If we found that we were clearly in distress, we had ways to deal with the situation in that case, so we didn’t take it all that seriously and were captivated by the scenery that was a bit different than what we saw previously.
The trees around here were from an older time, so they were incredibly tall with thick trunks. They had strange scratches, like metal threads were wrapped around them or something like that…
“Hey, look, red anemones.”
“Amazing… They are blooming all over. So much that it is a little bit scary.”
Certainly...precisely because this was a white forest, the red color looked even brighter, and this scenery seemed strange.
This sweeping red reminded me of something…
“Would you like to go and pick a few?”
“I...suppose so. Let’s give them to Grandmother as a present.”
I stepped into the flower field of bright red anemones and carefully picked one.
The center of anemone flowers was pure black, just like some sort of eye.
Come to think of it, I thought anemone flowers were the symbol of the “Scarlet Witch.” What were they in the language of flowers again?
“Wah!”
Suddenly, something jumped out from the root of the flower.
They were crimson, ball-sized frogs, charging repeatedly at my cheeks and feet.
They were Ribito frogs, a native species of the Salt Forest. One of the ingredients for the “Ribito Salve” was the saliva of these frogs. One wasn’t a big deal, but having several of them was troublesome, and no matter how many times I shook them off, they kept headbutting me for some reason.
“Milady!”
Thor pulled out his short sword and swung it, cutting off several of them.
However, just as he was having a hard time because there were too many of them, the shrill sound of a whistle came from somewhere, and the frogs, hating that sound, hopped away.
“Makia, are you there?”
Hearing that very familiar voice, I looked up.
A witch, holding a staff from which a magical lantern hung, was standing on the other side of the flower field with a dove. The small and thin whistle hanging from her neck was made from the tears of the Salt Forest.
“Grandmother!”
I ran up to her and hugged her. This fashionable witch with short, flaxen hair and dove feather hair ornaments still looked young, even though I call her Grandmother.
“Just when I thought you would never come, I see you loitering in a place like this? The headbutts from Ribito frogs are quite painful. They are creatures of the attribute【Fire】, so they have the tendency to go towards warmer things. They must have been attracted to your high body temperature, Makia.”
“Grandmother, you knew that I am here!”
“The Salt Forest is my garden. My faithful dove told me where you two were.”
Doves gathered around Grandmother with the flapping of wings. Those were doves that patrolled the Salt Forest.
“I have been waiting for you with plenty of freshly baked cookies. Now, come with me. The young lad over there as well.”
We cut through the anemone flower field and followed Grandmother’s guidance. After going through the depths of the forest where the trees were tall and the sun didn’t shine through, we reached an old brick hut.
The name of my grandmother, who lived in this hut instead of the O’Drielle family mansion, was Camellia.
She was a witch who married the previous head of the family. Apparently, she met my now-deceased grandfather when they were in magic school, and after she worked as a royal tutor, she married into the O’Drielle family.
By the way, she was the one who named me. When she gave me the name “Makia,” my parents trembled with joy as one and exclaimed, “How wonderful!”, and I loved that name as well. So I loved Grandmother as well.
The outside was chilly, but the hut was warm and filled with the sweet and savory scent of cookies.
“Did you enjoy your walk through the forest?”
“Of course! We must exercise the O’Drielle’s family’s special privilege to get valuable magical resources for free. Oh, here’s a present from the royal capital from Father. And seasonings and a letter from Mother.”
“My, I’m delighted. Here is the book I’ve been waiting for. And the seasonings I’ve said I wanted.”
Grandmother lived in this remote place, so sometimes she used a carrier dove to tell Father and Mother what she needed that she couldn’t get. Father would buy them when he went on business trips to the capital, Mother would put them all together, and I would bring them here.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you as well, lad. Have you already gotten used to the O’Drielle mansion?”
“Yes, Madam,” Thor stood up straight and bowed.
“When we met last, you looked like a burdock, but now you’re starting to look a bit like a boy. Now, I shall make some milk coffee. Makia, your favorite cookies are on the table.”
“Yay!” I said, taking my place at the table and reaching for a cookie.
I loved Grandmother’s homemade cookies. Thick, swirled cookies of cocoa and plain flavor, with plenty of brown sugar stuck to the sides. Grandmother’s cookies especially were exquisitely baked, and the crunchiness of the brown sugar was irresistible.
“Fufu, you truly do love sweets, Makia. You were like this ever since you were little.”
“Because I’m a witch.”
“That’s true. All the famous magicians in history had a sweet tooth. The reason for this is because intaking sugar is the most effective for recovering after using magic.”
I took a sip of the milk coffee with plenty of honey and sighed deeply.
As expected, it was the nature of magicians to feel happy when ingesting sweets.
“But Thor doesn’t have such a sweet tooth, does he?”
He had a point. Because he did, I felt a bit irritated. And Grandmother burst into laughter.
“That’s right,” I said and took out a thick book from my basket, and then opened it to the place where I had put a tag.
“Grandmother, I really don’t understand this magic...When chanting the incantation, what does ‘forget your child’s heart for ten seconds’ mean?”
“Ah, that is…”
Grandmother was very good at teaching, enough that she used to be a tutor for the royal family.
She explained the parts I didn’t understand in an understandable way, so whenever I visited Grandmother, I put together everything I wanted to ask beforehand.
Meanwhile, Thor was looking around the room curiously. He looked very interested as he sipped his milk coffee.
The dim interior was illuminated by the magical lamp. Wild rose seeds and dried mimosa flowers hung down from the walls, and there were bottled medicinal ingredients, beans, nuts, dried fruits, sparkly minerals, animal bones, compasses, brooms, and old earthenware pots that look like they could hold a person. There were a lot of things in the O’Drielle house, but there was a good old-fashioned magician’s atmosphere here.
“Is there something you’re curious about, lad?”
“Um, Madam, what era is this house from? It seems quite old.”
Thor was probably wondering for a long time why Grandmother lived in a place like this by herself. Even though the O’Drielle family had such a magnificent mansion.
“This is the house where the ‘Scarlet Witch’ lived five hundred years ago. Of course, it had gone through a few repairs.”
“...That Scarlet Witch was born in this Salt Forest?”
“Ah, yes. I am living here because I want to know more about her.”
Yes, the O’Drielle family was not a noble family from the beginning. Thanks to a certain young girl who later made a name for herself as the ‘Scarlet Witch,’ and yielded great achievements and even greater crimes, we received a title and flourished. While our notoriety became widespread.
Grandmother was a researcher by nature and a Scarlet Witch enthusiast. While she managed this hut, she researched the Scarlet Witch and the Salt Forest.
“...Um, why did the Scarlet Witch burn the center of this world? All the books I read only say that she dragged in the Hero of Fraxinus and blew herself up. That is the only thing I do not understand. Was it necessary to go that far, or not?”
“That’s right. History books only describe events in detail and don’t tell us what was going on within the minds of the people involved. Although the Scarlet Witch ended up being called the ‘Worst Witch in the World’...”
Grandmother cast her eyes down, put in a huge dollop of honey into her milk coffee, and while mixing it in with a spoon, she whispered, as though sharing a secret.
“It seemed that witch merely had an impossible love.”
That was the first time I heard of that, and I, who was stuffing my mouth with cookies, stopped my hand.
I had heard that the Scarlet Witch was a witch who got what she wanted at all costs. But was there something she couldn’t obtain?
And then at that moment, I remembered. The language of flowers for anemones, which I had picked earlier and were just now displayed in a vase right at the middle of the table…
“Now, you have to return home soon. Your father and mother may be hands-off in regards to you, but Godwin will start to worry if you are late in returning. He is our loyal retainer who served the O’Drielle family since the previous generation. Please treat him well. Lad, grow bigger soon so you can let that elderly man retire.”
“...As you wish, Madam.”
“Makia, here is the herbal and salt toothpaste. For a magician, your teeth are your life. If there is anything else magic-related you don’t understand, come and ask me.”
“Yes! Thank you very much, Grandmother!”
“Also...take good care of that basket. It is a legacy of the ‘Scarlet Witch’, after all.”
Grandmother informed me that in my ear, like she was telling me another secret.
She always smelled of salt and herbs.
While we had Grandmother’s dove guide our way back, I continued to ponder worriedly.
“What’s the matter, milady? Your face looks scarier than usual.”
“Hey, Thor. Have you ever been in love?”
“Pardon?”
Thor looked puzzled at my sudden question.
“Love isn’t allowed for slaves, so there’s no way I have. Oh, but there were quite a few ladies who were devoted to me.”
...This devilish twelve-year-old.
“Hey, Thor. When we get home, let’s make magical tools with the things we got today, okay? We’ll make a ring for you with the tears of the Salt Forest, and make coats out of the blue dragonfly’s wings.”
“Love is a long way off for you too, milady.”
For us, it was still magic over love.
But, I remembered it completely now. The red anemone’s meaning in the language of flowers.
I love you.
That was the “I love you” of an impossible love.
Thank you for the translation!! :)
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