They had finished the sewers in no time. I am unsure if they worked fast or if I had lost track of time again. I had went through 421 iterations of a youth potion but I finally had found something. It even made the subject a bit younger. I had extensively tested it on rats and other animals. I had decided to test it on myself before I went to give this to Paul.
I stood in front of the mirror ready to drink the potion. I dropped it. I held my hands on my face. I looked like a 60-year-old woman! I tried to control myself. My looks aren’t important right now! I ran back to my workshop, grabbed all my samples, and ran to Paul and Paula’s house. A descendant of them had given me their address a while ago. Running was hard in this body. How have I not noticed that so many years had gone by? Please let Paul be alive! I rang the door of a small house on a hill and a woman my age opened. She smiled and hugged me.
“Paula, I’m so sorry. Is Paul..”
“He is still alive.” I came in and saw him sitting in a big chair. I have no idea how old he looks like but he looked like he should have already been dead. One thing convinced me that he was alive though. His eyes.
His eyes were fiery and still full of life. His will to live must be exceptional.
“I have completed the potion but I didn’t test it. I wanted to test it on myself but when I saw myself in the mirror, I rushed over…”
Paul didn’t say anything. He was clutching his head but he held out his other hand to accept the potion. I placed it in his hand and he gulped it down without any hesitation. I had brought more than one and he pointed at them. I gave him all the potions and he gulped them down. I could see him getting younger although not by a lot. Or maybe it was a lot. He didn’t look like he could die at any moment anymore.
“You succeeded I’m so glad! Everything I tried ended up in failure!”
“The ingredients here are extremely limited…” I handed Paula the short paper I had written. It detailed the protocol and possible alternative ingredients.
“Why don’t you continue making them? It will give you a reason to visit.” I pointed at Paul who was clutching his head and passed out from the pain shortly after.
“I would love to but I don’t want him to die because of my presence. I am sorry.” I returned home with a heavy heart. The potion has side effects so he can’t drink the potions too often. He might age a bit in between the doses and I feel like I was cutting it close there. I could have killed him there. They still think of me as a friend but I’m a terrible friend. I looked in the mirror. I had even lost my looks. I can’t get a man like this. And even if one wants me, I won’t feel good about it. I want to lock down a man when I’m hot and sexy and grow old with him. I’m skipping out on so many memories by not doing that.
I can’t break this prison. I am a bad friend and I am not young and hot anymore. What use do I have? Selling potions? For how long? I just wanted to be happy. I wept. I tried to distract my mind but it kept going back to thinking that I was unneeded. I attempted to have an [Azure Flower] attack me but the seal on me jumped into effect and blocked the azure petals flying to my neck. I grabbed a petal and tried to slit my throat but the seal prevented that too. I looked at some poisons that I had made years ago. I reached for them but the seal activated and shattered and disintegrated them.
I collapsed on the floor. I started to get angry. Those fairy tales I used to read in my early years were a lie! Nobody is coming to save me! They always made it out that no matter what happens there is always someone that will save you! Where is my prince charming? Where is my happy ending? Will I really stay here for eternity? Having lost the will to live I went to bed. I had the same nightmare I had for the last millennia. It didn’t faze me anymore. I know exactly how this story goes. An arrogant witch thought she knew it all and got punished heavily. How I wished that I could do everything over. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fairy tale.
Magic is great but it has its limits and as I am now there is no way I can pull that off… I had blocked off everything from my heart. It was the same thing every day. Brewing potions, making candy, cooking some new specialty I could come up with. Boshi town was getting more and more successful and in turn, the inhabitants cared less and less for each other. They just saw me as an old lady in a shop. They didn’t even say ‘Hello’ or ‘Bye’ anymore. I had given up on everything because there was no point.
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Years went by. Our town got popular again because of the barrier. Some big names attempted to dispel it but they all failed. People flocked over to live in Boshi Town even knowing about the barrier. It just made me mad. Why would they choose to be trapped here? Don’t they know that the worst thing that can happen is having your freedom stripped? A rumor went around. Someone had left Boshi town and didn’t return. Most people thought that it just meant that that person had died while hunting. But more and more people seemed to have left and didn’t return.
I got interested and helped out with the investigation. This investigation took 44 years. The conclusion was that the barrier had been weakening and that it was possible to leave once every 10 years. It didn’t seem to apply to me. Another sliver of hope got crushed.
I visited Paul and Paula for the first time in almost a century and relayed the information. I told them to try to see if they could leave but they refused after hearing that I tried and couldn’t leave. I got mad at them and even yelled at them. If they have the chance to leave then they should try it! It was my fault after all that they were here! This had evolved into an argument. An almost 2000-year-old argument that this wasn’t my fault with which I disagreed. Paul looked quite healthy though. Our arguments gave Paul and Paula a headache on top of the one they got from being in my presence so I left.
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Paula ran after me. “Uraya! Paul is finally in a good enough condition for us to attempt to escape again! You might have given up but we haven’t!” I went back home and prepared a potion for the next day.
I looked in the mirror. It seemed like I had stabilized as an old woman around her 80’s. I sighed.
“How unsexy.” I tried to attack myself again with [Azure Flower] but it failed again. I attempted mana exsanguination but the seal blocked that too. I sighed. I wonder if I can die of old age in this state.
I went back to my workshop. I worked on the potion I had made for Paul and attempted to reverse its effect. Make the user older instead of younger. I miss my young and sexy self but what is the point if I got that back? I would still be stuck here. My relationship with Paul and Paula would still be bad. The lack of useful materials made everything difficult. I couldn’t gather them by myself anymore. This body was too old and fragile. I know that moving around as an old lady is important but I couldn’t do that anymore. I made 2 water clones.
I got depressed looking at them. They still had their youthful look. I sent them out to gather materials. The clones could leave the barrier because they had the intention to return. I had tried to swap myself with them but it failed, unfortunately. I kept brewing potions and testing. Nothing worked for the first 401 tries. After that, the frogs and rats started to age. I didn’t care for the side effects and downed all of them. It made me sick but it didn’t kill me. I didn’t notice any effect relating to getting older. I kept trying and I gave up after the 941st time. Nothing I created made me noticeably older. I sighed and looked out of the window. I saw a strange red ring in the sky.
“I wonder what that was?” I tried to come up with a hypothesis but I concluded that I didn’t care and that it had no consequence to me. Unless it would be related to something that would set me free it would just be as inconsequential as any store visitor.
There was a ruckus the next week, or was it two weeks later? I can’t tell. Time had lost its meaning to me. Some inhabitants of the town had returned and brought something interesting back to the town. This happens all the time so I paid it no heed. Apparently, the only blacksmith in the town had finally found what he had been looking for. I was envious as people kept finding things they wanted and I couldn’t even find the will to live. I closed the shop for the day and went to sleep early. I had expected another nightmare but I had a pleasant dream. I was wrapped in something soft and fluffy. I wish I could just stay in this dream forever and never wake up.
I woke up and decided that I might have to start a research that gives me the ability to stay in a dream indefinitely. If I can’t be happy in reality, I will choose to be happy in my dream, forever.
Two weeks had passed and I couldn't recall my pleasant dream. I had opened my shop at the usual time. No customers. I wondered why I always open the shop so early. Most of the customers start coming in at noon. I wanted to go to the back to start researching a bit when an unfamiliar kid came in. He had black hair in a ponytail and the end of his ponytail seemed silver. How unusual.
He put 1 silver on the counter and I reached for the lollipops.
“One salmon please!”
My eyes widened “Huh? No lollipops?”
“What’s that?”
I pointed at the lollipop I was holding.
“Looks like junk, do you have salmon? Oh, wait. People always tell me that I have no manners.” He extended his hand. I shook it.
“My name is Agnis, I’m 7 years old and I am the new kid in town. Apparently, I’m a blacksmith now.”
“I am Uraya, nice to meet you Agnis, why is someone so young a blacksmith?”
“Uhh, this and that happened, my friends and I messed up and here we are.”
I sighed. It seems they have brought children into the barrier. These poor kids will spend the important years of their life here. The way he talks and carries himself interested me though. This was the first real conversation I had in years.
“I’m sorry I don’t have salmon.”
Agnis looked at me as if he could see right through me. His eyes had an unusual color.
“Hmm, it seems so. So Ubusu are you alright? You look tired. And not the I-was-up-till-4-am-playing-games kind of tired.”
I had no idea what this kid was saying and who is Ubusu?
“My name is Uraya. Please remember my name it’s very important to me.”
Those eyes again. I was certain now; they were a different color than the last time he stared at me. I was used to various types of gazes but this gaze seemed the most uncomfortable. It seems like he could see every thought of mine, my past, my future, all my insecurities, and so on. “Hey, I know that you have already introduced yourself but can you tell me more in detail who you are?”
“Sure! I am Agnis Hourai, I got brought here with my friends Greg, Raishin, and Ted. Because we messed up, we got separated from our parents and we are working on a plan to go back home!”
“So, you lost your home. How unfortunate.” Something about what he said gave me the feeling as if I had forgotten something important.
“So now it’s your turn!” He made a chair out of ice. His magic seemed unpolished but… It was better than most Misha with water affinities.
“I am Uraya, I’m the owner of this shop. That’s it.”
“Uraya… will do my best to remember that. It does seem to be an important name to you. But don’t you have goals and dreams?”
“Oh, my name is dear to me yes.” Thoughts went out to Aya’s first appearance till her death.
“I am old, I don’t have any goals and dreams. I will keep working here till I die.” This young boy was interesting but he would pass away from old age before I would even realize it. All of the humans I have been interested in have undergone this same fate.
Agnis leaned forward and stared at me. “Then what keeps you going? What makes you want to get up every morning? For me, it’s to get back home.” I had difficulties with this question. Is this boy really 7 years old? And do I tell him about the barrier? And how do I answer his question?
He got up. “I have my answer. Keep the 1 silver. If you can’t find a reason to go on how about you help us? Maybe you will find something after that.” He waved and walked away.
What a strange kid. I looked at the silver coin he had left behind. I had unintentionally made another promise to a kid. Thoughts flashed by. Every encounter with Aya flashed by. Would she have lived if I had decided and acted earlier? Do I want to do nothing until this boy reaches his mid-40s before he gets to escape? I don’t want to repeat what had happened to Aya. I don’t want to abandon more people.
I can’t find the will to live for myself but maybe, just maybe, I could live for the sake of someone else for a bit. My drive to weaken the seal on me and to improve my skills got awakened.
This seemed to have been the correct choice as it didn't take long for me to start getting hope of finally getting out of this prison. I only had to wait a mere 5 years before the turning point. A point in my life which would change everything.
This is where the life of Ayaru Mistflower truly ended and where the story of Uraya or Azu, as I would later be known as, started.