Halo City
The back alley I had landed in was pure chaos.
The floor, solid concrete by the look of it, lay cratered and shattered. Boxes that seemed to be trash bins had spilled their guts and were rolling across the ground, and pipes of no clear purpose lay broken and scattered wherever they had fallen.
What was I supposed to do with a scene this thoroughly wrecked? After chewing my lip for a moment, I squeezed my eyes shut and bolted out of the alley.
"Sorry for running off without cleaning up…!"
I didn't have a choice. Right now I was, for all practical purposes, an undocumented illegal with no identity at all. Getting picked up by the police would have been a disaster.
I could only time-travel for three days at most. Spending that entire stretch locked in a holding cell answering questions was not on the itinerary.
If the ground had been dirt or stone, I could at least have restored it with magic. Concrete, though — I knew nothing about the stuff, so there was no easy way to fix it.
I genuinely felt bad for whoever managed this city. Still, my life had been on the line. I hoped they'd forgive me.
When I judged I had put enough distance between myself and the accident site, I looked around, confirmed there was no one nearby, and let out a long breath.
"Haa… haa…. This far should be fine…."
"Witch. How long am I supposed to stay cradled like this?"
"Sorry, Cheshire. Holding you just… calms me down. Can we stay like this a little longer?"
"…W-well, I suppose I have no choice! If I'm that much of a help to you, Witch!"
I gave the head of the cat in my arms a gentle rub. Cheshire's cute little reaction only made me want to keep petting.
A warm black cat was excellent for keeping my composure. I hoped they understood.
Then a discarded mirror along the roadside caught my eye, and I stopped in front of it.
At least I won't draw attention with my looks. That's a relief.
Even at twenty-six, my appearance still tended to stand out. Becoming a witch had apparently frozen my aging as well; I could have passed for a mid-teen without anyone batting an eye.
Which was why, from the moment I cast the time-travel spell, I had worn a large robe capable of hiding me thoroughly.
Throw a hat on top and I might look a little suspicious, but at least the face under the hood wouldn't be easy to spot. Perfect.
After checking the mirror for anything odd, I secured the wand I was carrying inside my robe so I wouldn't lose it.
This is…
I strode out of the alley with renewed confidence — and then stopped short, stunned by the spectacle unfolding before me.
Even in the dead of night, the lights blazed so bright you could almost mistake it for day. People of every sort of look and style filled the street, each one walking with their own distinct flair.
On the outer walls of impossibly tall buildings, flashy advertisements flickered across electronic billboards. On the road, cars rolled past in orderly lines.
"Hieee…. Hup."
"Cheshire. No talking."
I hurriedly clamped a hand over Cheshire's mouth before they could raise their voice in shock. The last thing I needed was a crowd turning to stare at a talking cat.
I had thought the same thing looking down from above. The time-travel magic seemed to have worked without a hitch.
No matter where I looked, nothing resembled the civilization of my own era. We had definitely arrived in the distant future.
Still, something felt slightly off. By my calculations, we had crossed only about seven hundred years — a mere seven centuries.
In a world without paper-making, modernization had taken roughly eighteen centuries. Could development really have accelerated this much?
Then again, in my previous life it took only about two centuries to go from the Industrial Revolution to the invention of AI. If technological revolutions stacked one after another, it wouldn't be completely impossible….
And this world had magic as well as science. Trying to estimate the pace of progress might have been meaningless from the start.
Either way — time to look around. Careful not to bump shoulders with anyone if I could help it, I set off down the street at random.
I pricked up my ears and listened to every voice that drifted past, and in the process I managed to pick up a few important pieces of information.
First, the language here didn't quite line up with the language of my original time. Centuries of drift had changed the words and the grammar.
The advertising on the billboards, in particular — I could only understand about half of it. New coinages that hadn't existed in the past, I supposed.
Context is still clear enough… but until I learn the local tongue, I'd better keep my mouth shut.
Next, I learned that this city was called Halo City, founded about sixty years ago.
And that nearly every object I saw carried a faint trace of mana. The flat panels that looked like TVs, the four-wheeled automobiles, the streetlights holding back the dark — all of them held magic.
In my era, magic was a power that only ever manifested through people. Sacred relics existed, but magic tools did not.
Inanimate objects casting magic? That was nothing less than a revolution capable of rewriting the world's entire paradigm.
This is fun. Just wandering around is strange enough to be delightful.
With Cheshire cradled in my arms, I toddled about the city like a tourist let loose in a theme park or a fascinating museum.
Eventually I slipped into a side alley where people wouldn't jostle me, looked out at the crowds flowing past in the distance, and spoke to Cheshire.
"Cheshire. Did you notice? There's almost no mana in the air here."
"Yes. I felt it too, Witch."
The last thing I had learned was that, for some reason, the atmosphere itself held almost no mana.
Strange. In my time the air had been thick with mana flowing from every living thing and every concept. When you spent it, you simply drew more in from outside and recovered.
Here, once you used it, it was gone. I couldn't cast casually. No wonder the flight spell had refused to work!
Of course, I could still use magic itself. Large-scale spells that gulped ambient mana like a hippo at a watering hole, though… those I would have to give up.
"For now the comet brushing the night sky is lending me a little leeway… but it's a strange world in every way. The people here seem used to it, though."
"I'm more amazed by how many people there are. Like a swarm of ants."
"Have you never left the sanctuary before, Cheshire? If I'd known, I would have brought you out more often."
"But if I'm not there, the library is empty. I don't mind much, Witch."
"Heh. What a good familiar you are!"
Contracting Cheshire really had been the right call. I kneaded the cat in my arms with both hands like a ball of dough.
That was enough recon. Having wandered the city to my satisfaction, I turned to the reason I had come here in the first place.
"Well then… shall we go read some books?"
I had cast the time-travel spell for one reason only: to read. In a world this advanced, there had to be books piled high.
Unfortunately, I had none of the currency used here. And I wasn't about to pickpocket some passerby's wallet. That would have felt wrong.
So my destination was a public library — somewhere anyone could enter. With that decided, Cheshire and I set off in search of one.
"This place is huge."
"It really is…."
"Don't you feel like people are quietly avoiding me? Maybe a robe looks a little weird here."
"You can say that again…."
"Hey, why are your answers so cold all of a sudden? Do you want a scolding?"
"Mmrph! I said I don't know…!"
And so three hours of wandering Halo City went by.
It was a first visit. I couldn't ask for directions, and I couldn't freely use magic. The result was only natural.
Above all, Halo City was vast. No — vast didn't cover it. In terms of my previous life, it was as densely packed with people as New York or Tokyo.
Imagine roaming a metropolis like that alone, with no map, no guide, and no prior knowledge of the streets, and you might understand how lost I felt.
Still, maybe thanks to my past-life memories, I'm not panicking.
Unless I took the robe off and collected every stare in the city, people living in a place like this simply didn't take much interest in strangers.
And for all the noise and chaos, there was an underlying order and set of rules. I didn't need to be afraid. Not knowing those rules was the real problem.
Wouldn't someone please just gift me a single map? I could cast a health-boosting spell in return.
I was staring up at the comet in the night sky and heaving a long sigh when, all at once, a familiar sensation brushed me from not far away.
"Magic."
"What?"
"Magic just appeared over there. Magic carrying malice."
"A m-mage or a witch, then?"
"Maybe."
There was no mistaking the feel of it.
And it was clearly different from the mineral, civilized magic of this era — magic that held a human's ill will.
After a brief hesitation, I scooped Cheshire back into my arms and ran toward the source of the sensation.
I was busy looking for a library, true. But this was the first real magic I had felt in this city. I at least wanted to see what was going on.
Luckily I had been walking a quiet stretch of road. A few turns later, I arrived at the back alley where the magic had flared.
"…!"
"……!"
"Is that a person's voice…?"
"Witch. It sounds like a fight."
Faint voices reached me, and the ripple of magic came again. The source was deeper inside, no question.
Getting this far only to think, I'd rather not get mixed up in a mess like this, felt a little ridiculous….
After a moment's thought, I set Cheshire on the ground and drew my magic wand from inside my robe.
Ordinarily I wouldn't have needed such a cumbersome tool; I could have flung magic around bare-handed.
But right now I had to conserve mana. Even a little reduction in consumption was worth it.
I'll peek at the situation first. If it looks like someone needs help, I'll jump in.
Helping them and then asking for the library's location as payment didn't sound half bad.
Memories of extracting books from a kingdom in the eastern continent suddenly rose fresh and vivid, and confidence welled up inside me.