Everyone’s Dreams, Coming True!? Chapter 1 - The Box that was Found

Hello-! The name’s Amitie! I’m a student of the Primp Magic School in the peaceful Primp Town! My dream is to become a wonderful magician.♪ I’m not that great at studying, and maybe a bit clumsy, but I’m always the cheerful one. Nice to meet you!

---

This here is the Primp Magic School classroom, and very soon it'll be time for the morning chime to ring. I sat down at my desk and neatly folded my hands, staring at the little chest sitting on my desk.

"Hm~~~m...What to do with this..."

The little chest right in front of me is just the right size to pick up with my hands, and is shaped like a treasure chest. The outside is painted white, and on top of that is rainbow and stars pattern drawn everywhere, and it has a shiny glass surface over all of that. It's soo cute! But...

"Amitie, what are you doing?"

Right on cue, someone called me from behind.

"Ah, Raffine!" I called her name as I turned around.

This pink-long-haired girl here is my classmate Raffine. She can get pretty scary when she's angry,  but is always brimming with confidence and reliable!

"I never thought I'd actually see the trouble-making Amitie be quiet today...What's this little chest right here?"

Raffine got her sights set on the little chest on my desk, folding her arms and looking straight at me.

"Ah well, I picked it up on the way to school this morning. Surely someone must have lost it, right? It is a pretty cute box, and there has to be something important in here, kinda like a jewelry box~..."
"Well!"

Raffine's eyes sparkled the moment she heard those words and almost immediately snatched the little chest.

"I wonder what kind of expensive jewels are inside!"
"R-...Raffine..." I said, in a bothered way.

Raffine always loved extravagant jewels and accessories. She didn't hesitate in trying to open it, but...

"...h-huh!? It won't open!"
"Yeah, about that~"

The little chest doesn't appear to have a lock of sorts. Yet, no matter how many times I tried, it won't open, the lid not budging an inch. After struggling for a while to get it open, Raffine eventually gave up, giving it a few whacks in frustration. But then it made a kinda pretty "rattle-rattle" sound inside.

"There's definitely something inside this thing."
"Yeah, I agree~, since it won't open, the owner must have a hint to it. Anyone losing a precious thing is pretty troubling either way."
"Hmm. I don't know who owns this, but I better get some kind of reward from the one who picks this up. This is such a bother."
"Raffine... I was the one who found it."

I humbly tried to poke myself in, but she didn't listen at all.

"If you heard a sound just now, then don't you think there's a luxurious necklace inside? A dainty gold chain could only make that sound! An elegant necklace is perfectly suited to someone so lovely, like me!"
"Wowzers, I can totally imagine the sound of that~"
"I'll get this open to see what's in here for sure...that's right, Sig!"

Raffine, holding onto the little chest, pursued the cyan-haired guy from the other end of. That guy's name is Sig. He's always so spacey, and has a rather carefree personality. He's quite different from the others, having a red left eye and a red red left arm, but he always tells us "I don't mind it.", how carefree. Sig looked this way, and another guy that was talking to him looked here too.

"Morning, Klug!"

I greeted that guy, but then Raffine ran up to him. Klug's the hat and glasses-wearing super-smart first-year guy. He really likes reading books, and is always carrying that big book in his hands.

"What were you two talking about?"

After asking him, Klug adjusts his glasses, "Sig forgot his textbooks, so he's borrowing them from the neighboring class." he sighed.

"Ahh, what timing to forget them all, huh Sig~."
"You too, Amitie? Geez, why do you even come to school then..."
"Hey, you do it too sometimes!"
"Wh...You sometimes do that too!"

Ignoring that little argument Klug and I are having, Raffine was being pushy as usual with Sig.

"Sig. You're the only other one with considerable strength, would you mind opening this little chest for me?"

Sig suddenly tilted his head.

"What's this?"
"This little chest won't open up and it's annoying me!"
"What kind of chest?"
"Probably a jewel box! Won't you open it for me? Chop-chop!"
"Eehhh..."

Sig got curious about seeing what's inside, and without much thought, Raffine got more forceful and placed Sig's red hand on it.

"Uh...m~~~..."

And then he put toooons of force on it.

"Well!? Is it opening!?"

Raffine is giving an intense glare.

"Go for it, Sig!"

I cheered him on too, but...

"Nope."

Sig tried his best for a bit, but with a sigh, he just gave up in the end.

"Sig can't get it open it either..."
"Whaa! No way~..."

Raffine and I dropped our shoulders, but then Klug curiously looked at the chest.

"Hmm, it appears it doesn't use a key to open. If barbaric force from one of you is ineffective, then perhaps some special magic spell will open it?"

Then Raffine reacted to Klug.

"Hey! What do you mean by 'barbaric force'!? Clearly you are mistaken, addressing a lady so rudely!"
"Hmph, I wasn't sure, judging by your constant raging. As a matter of fact, wasn't I the one that deciphered this small chest?"
"How splendid! NOT! Who would depend on a wimpy glasses kid like you!"
"Wi- Wimpy glasses kid!?"

Raffine and Klug broke out into a huge fight. They still get into a lot of fights by the day...though, the opposite would surprise me. Lately, they've been getting into these arguments as if they do it on their spare time. They've completely ignored the little chest too.

"Ah geez...What can we do, Sig~."

I gave a wry smile to Sig as I talked to him.

"Nothing really. Oh, here."

Having said that, Sig gave the little chest back to me. He didn't make any progress or experience on this...But then the morning chime rang.

"Ah, come on come on, the teacher's coming right now!"

I went and forced myself between Raffine and Klug. And so, a new scene began to unfold.

---

After school was done for the day, I raced over to the park, located at the heart of Primp Town. I should ask the girls about the little chest. I'm sure they're also here today...Ah, there they are!

"Heyo! Arle, Ringo!"

I quickly waved my arm as I called them over to the park, and alongside them was a yellow-colored animal looking this way.

"Hiya Amitie!" I returned the greeting to Arle.

She wears a blue cape, a breast plate, and is a very adventurous one. While she's been to lots of places, somehow she ended up in Primp Town and became one of my friends.

"Guguu!"

The yellow animal hopping alongside Arle is Carbuncle. He's Arle's partner, bt he can't speak any words. All he says is "Gugu~", but Arle can communicate with him, heart-to-heart. And then another girl, just her and no one else, came up and stared sharply at the chest I'm holding.

"Good afternoon Amitie! But if I may ask, what is this thing in your hands?"

The one with the red, loopy-curled hair here is named Ringo. She's always polite, pretty mature, and very curious. But when she sets her eyes on something she doesn't know, she gets really excited, and that's when she starts looking real weird. Arle and Carbuncle, Ringo, and I are the members of this so-called familiar group. When school's out, we always gather at the park and have lots of fun.

---

I explained everything about the chest from the top, but Arle and Ringo don't look interested. Arle got the chest from me. After a few tilts, she says "The chest doesn't have a key to open with, huh...", then gave it back to me after checking it out.

"Whatever is inside, if it has no locking ornament at all, then perhaps there is an alternate method of opening it?"
"I think so too~"
"Yeah. If it doesn't have a key, what else could it be...maybe it's a magic seal that's keeping it shut?"
"Magic seal?" I asked, and Arle nodded.

“Yep. I’ve seen it once or twice in my adventures. It’s a unique spell that makes it so you can’t open chests.”
"Whaa! Then how do we get it off?"
"Ahem...Usually, they follow a pattern in which a password is recited..."

Ringo listened to the conversation between Arle and I, and after pondering about it, she answered "I see I see. Let's try it out. Please lend me the box," and held it in her hands. And then...

"Alright...Open Sesame! Open Says Me! Abracadabra! Bibbity Bobbity Boo! Open up chest! Wait, don't open! I lied, open up! I'm gonna scold you if you don't open! Don't be scared! Ah, excuse my unruly behavior! Anyhow, open up!"

Now she's fiercely yelling at the box.

"R-Ringo...what are you saying?" I timidly asked.
"They're passwords from my home town's fairy tales, tried through from end to end! But they don't seem to do a thing..."

Ringo sighed in disappointment.

"...I didn't quite get that last one, what was that password?"
"I went astray and was just angrily shouting at it!"
"H-Huh...What were you shouting?"
"That shouting was punishment!"
"O-Oh..."

What kind of punishment for the box is she planning? Uhm, she's really deep in this, huh.

"Hmm. I don't know what password to guess, though that's expected...Maybe we should try another spell on it?"

This time, Arle got an idea.

"Another spell? Like what?"

I was loaded with expectations when I asked, and then Arle smiled.

"That's right, we all use spells, don't we? A mysterious power will probably react to that!"
"I get it! What spell do we use then?"
"Umm. I don't know, but we'll take it from the top. Fire, Thunder, Ice Storm..."
"D- D-D-D-Don't, Arle!"

I flailed my arms in a panic, with the expression to match.

"It's someone else's lost item, and we might get ten-thousand injuries if we broke it, and that's bad!"
"Ah, that's right~"

She carelessly laughed.

"Guess I was so focused on getting it open, I kinda forgot. Right, Carby?"
"Guguu?"

Carbuncle looked at us and is confused. Geez Arle, sometimes you get really daring.

"Mrr...It's all a mystery in the end. However, we can't admit defeat to an unopening box, we have to keep the mood!"

No one's attempts could get it open, but with her eyes set on the mystery box, her curious spirit is burning up and she clenched her fists.

"R-Really now? I'm not exactly in that mindset."

I'm more or less calmed down. But for Ringo, she's in this mode where she decided on her next step...

"We should go around and acquainted with everyone, learn if they remember the small chest, and ask how to break the seal! Let's! Dispel the secret of the small chest!"

I expected that! And thus, we, on Ringo's persuasion, departed for mission "Expose the Little Chest's Secret."