Kino no Tabi:Volume11 Chapter2
The Country of Disappointment —Hope Against Hope—[edit]
“Traveler! Traveler!”
“Me? —yes, what is it?”
“Sorry for catching you while you’re packing up to go. But as a citizen of this country, there’s one thing I’d like to ask of you.”
“Ooh, what what? Something Kino might know?”
“It’s something only a traveler can do. –please tell us your opinion of our country!”
“Let’s see… It was a very pleasant stay. It’s a wonderful country.”
“Yeah, yeah. No one tried to jump us and no motorad thieves, either.”
“All the people I met were kind—personally, I loved the meals. The fried chicken soaked in vinegar and topped with tartar sauce was superb. I’d actually come again just for that.”
“Is that so… I guess that’s great, that we’ve satisfied you…”
“Why the down face when we praised you? Is there something bothering you?”
“Ah…yeah, sort of…”
“What, what?”
“Er…it’ll sound weird, but…it’s a request for the traveler.”
“What is it?”
“When you go to other places, and they ask you about this country—”
“Yes.”
“Could you badmouth us with all your heart?”
“Pardon me?”
“Badmouth us. Like ‘it mistreats travelers so badly,’ or ‘the food is awful,’ or ‘it wasn’t comfortable,’ or…”
“Why?”
“Truth is…our country gets lots of travelers and merchants, and word gets passed down in its own way…but it seems all that comes out are good opinions—how the people are nice, how we’re always thought of as a country who greatly welcomes our guests.”
“My, my.” “Please continue.”
“In actuality, that’s not the case. There are some people like that, who think, ‘it’s been a long while since we’ve had a newcomer,’ so they welcome them with open arms and pay for them right out of their own pockets. But there are also people who don’t think so kindly of guests and end up avoiding, even hating them. And then that disappoints some of the people who come here.”
“Disappointment, is it?”
“Yes. They are clearly disillusioned and we know how gloomy they become. Some of them even get angry and exclaim, ‘I never would have thought it was so horrible! I should have never come!’”
“Oh my.”
“As for us, we’re just normal people living our normal lives every day. Very normal lives. With such high expectations, we get so confused. In the end, we end up wishing we could get the guests who come and leave to spread bad rumors about us. Could you favor us with this?”
“Me… I’m not really good at lying, so on this matter, I can’t do anything but tell the truth. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to grant your request, I’m sorry.”
“I see… No, it’s my fault for bringing up an reasonable favor.”
“Hey hey, I was wondering, if you wanted to look bad to travelers—”
“Yes.”
“From the moment they come to the moment they leave, you could have just treated them badly from the start. Then it’ll naturally get around how horrible a country this is.”
“Oh! No! We could never be so rude! Never!”
After departing, the traveler said,
“Just a while ago, I thought, ‘It’s a rather wonderful country’—”
To her own motorad.
“But now I’ll revise that to, ‘It was a very splendid country.’”
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