Songstress of Schwarzwald: The Secret of Zoe, the Exiled Music Mage

I’m thrilled that I can use storage magic now!

But that aside, I had such a hard time getting things back out.

“I wonder why you can store things but can’t retrieve them,” Selina muses.

She says it’s normal to be able to take things out if you can put them in, but still.

She showed me how to retrieve items a few times, but I just don’t get it.

“Isn’t there an incantation for taking things out?”

Selina closes her eyes, trying to remember. “I’ve been using it since I was a child, you see. I’m pretty sure it was… Discharge!”

Finally, she remembered the spell.

“Discharge♪”

All the Treant branches I’d stored came tumbling out.

“Oh, you’ll need to learn how to take out just a few at a time too. Hmm? What’s this?”

Something glints beneath the pile of branches.

“Zoe, try storing the branches again!”

And I just got them out!

But thinking it might be a gold coin—or even a silver one would be nice!—I greedily store the branches away.

There on the ground in front of our house sits a golden pendant!

“Was this lying in the Great Forest? Did you store it along with the branches?”

If it belongs to someone else, wouldn’t taking it make me a thief?

But if it was just lying around in the forest, it should be fine to keep it, right? Or is that wrong?

While I hesitate over picking it up, Selina lifts the pendant and examines the centerpiece carefully.

“This is... I believe this bears the crest of the Shazane Empire. I saw it once long ago at a castle. But why would it be here...? Though I suppose it’s not so strange, since the Great Forest was once where the Shazane Empire stood...”

Selina’s serious expression as she stares at the glittering pendant makes me uneasy.

“I don’t want that thing! Or let’s sell it in the royal capital and buy books or an instrument!”

Something about it seems ominous, and I want to get rid of it.

“If you sold something like this in the capital, it would cause an uproar. Actually, it would bring trouble even to the merchant who bought it.”

“Then it’s just some troublesome thing that was lying around in the Great Forest. Why don’t we just return it to the woods?”

If we can’t sell it, I don’t want it!

But Selina’s face grows serious again as she tells me to bring out the branches once more.

Before I retrieve the branches, she places the pendant on the ground. I don’t understand why!

“Discharge♪”

I still have to sing to get things out. I hope I won’t need to once I get used to it.

“Now store the branches.”

“We keep putting them away and taking them out over and over!” When I complain, Selina—who usually scolds me for such remarks—just looks thoughtful.

“Storage♪” After I store the branches, the pendant remains on the ground.

“That’s strange. Or maybe it’s normal since you only stored the branches?”

Selina stares at the pendant on the ground for a while, then slowly picks it up and hands it to me.

“This could only have been within your Storage since you were a baby, Zoe. Did your parents give it to you? But why would they put it in storage magic instead of around your neck?”

“Oh, that sounds just like the story of Princess Cressida!”

Selina glares at me. It was one of those books I wasn’t supposed to read.

“Even so, how could anyone store a pendant with a baby who couldn’t even use the magic yet? There are many mysteries here, but you should keep this, Zoe. However, you must never show it to anyone.”

The pendant feels surprisingly heavy in my hands.

“Don’t give weird things to babies, sheesh! They shoulda left something normal and useful instead. What good is something I can’t sell or even wear as decoration? I don’t want it!”

Anger toward the parents who abandoned me wells up inside me.

I hurl the pendant as hard as I can toward the forest.

“Zoe!” Selina gasps in surprise.

“I don’t want some suspicious thing like that!”

Yet, as I shout, the pendant I’d thrown changes direction in midair and flies back toward me.

Since it’s heading for my face, I instinctively catch it with my hands.

“Selina, is this some kind of cursed item?” I hold the pendant as far from my body as possible while asking, because it creeps me out.

“No, I don’t sense any curse. It seems to be trying to protect you, Zoe. And it appears to have an owner-identification spell on it. Your parents, or someone close to them, was certainly a skilled mage.”

That’s what Selina has been telling me since I was little. Back when I’d throw tantrums about wanting to live with other people.

“Your parents were probably mages, Zoe. I don’t know why they had to let you go, but they deliberately entrusted you to a witch living hidden in this great forest.

They didn’t leave you with other humans, and there must be a reason for that. So until you’re older and have better judgment, it’s better for you to stay here with me.”

Sigh. What should I do with this pendant in my hand?

“Just keep it in storage like before. But learn to take out only what you want instead of everything at once.”

“If I’m keeping it stored away forever, isn’t that the same as throwing it away? But I guess I can’t do that. Is this like Princess Cressida—an item that reveals who my parents are? Maybe the Shazane Empire pendant is a family heirloom?”

I can’t help feeling like the poor protagonist from the Princess Cressida story I snuck a peek at.

She grew up poor and mistreated, but the pendant she’d had since infancy became proof of her identity, and she lived happily ever after with her parents.

It’s such a clichéd setup, but since I’m a foundling, I guess I started dreaming.

Though honestly, there are so many plot holes in staying poor while keeping a pendant without it getting stolen. While reading, I kept mentally shouting at the book, “If you’re that hungry, just sell the pendant!”

“Maybe Cressida’s pendant was cursed too. Like it would come back even if stolen! That’s why she never lost it despite living in poverty.”

Hearing my muttering, Selina remembers making the same complaint about that story and bursts out laughing.

“Well, some nobles do possess relics from the Shazane Empire. But would they really give one to a baby they were abandoning? There are many mysteries about how you came to me, Zoe. They left no trace—no presence at all when they set down that basket and departed.”

It’s true that when Selina’s reading, she neglects everything else. She won’t even answer when I talk to her, which made me lonely when I was small.

But still, for her to go outside to find me and not be able to sense whoever left me there is strange.

“Maybe they teleported? If they teleported far away, even you wouldn’t be able to sense them, right?”

Selina seems to be remembering the day she found me.

“No, teleportation should leave a faint disturbance. I couldn’t sense that either, but... if they were more skilled than me, it’s possible!”

Someone more skilled than Selina, who’s always so confident?

“If they were such excellent mages or witches, why didn’t they just raise me themselves?”

Whenever the topic of the parents who abandoned me comes up, I can’t help getting angry.

“They must have had their reasons. I wasn’t good with children, but raising you has made me grow fond of you. For parents to give up a child, there must have been quite serious reasons.”

Selina hugs me, which is rare. My fierce anger toward the parents who abandoned me subsides a little.

Selina may be eccentric and careless about housework, but she raised me. And for such a strange old woman, she’s quite beautiful too!

“Now, put that pendant away!”

I don’t think I’ll ever use this thing, but if I can’t throw it away, I guess I have no choice.

“Storage! Oh, I stored it without singing!”

If our conversation ended here, I would’ve felt grateful to have been found by Selina.

But nope!

“Zoe, shell those walnuts. I’m going to the capital to sell the Treant wood! Oh, and don’t go to Lang Village while I’m gone!”

With that parting shot, she leaves! All that’s left is an enormous pile of walnuts!

“Selina! You’re so mean!” I yell.