The Witch Who Ate Children

"Ding-ding-dong-dong."

A herd of cows with bells around their necks ambled across the railway tracks.

By the time the train reached Neuchâtel, it was around seven in the evening, Greenwich Mean Time.

Nearly eight hours had passed since they had departed Paris at noon. Night had almost completely fallen, so if they wanted to admire Neuchâtel's scenery, they would have to choose another time.

Switzerland's scenery was beautiful. Everywhere offered lakes and mountains, but after seeing too much of it, one could grow aesthetically fatigued. Worse still, they had only completed half their journey. The stops in the latter half were numerous and would take even longer than the first half. If they were lucky, they could reach Venice on February 27.

Forests were unsafe at night. All sorts of hidden magical creatures emerged then. In Germany's Black Forest, there was a kind of elf called an Erkling. Larger than a Goblin, they especially loved eating children. They made sharp, cackling sounds to lure children away from their guardians before devouring them.

In Muggle fairy tales, the "murderers" were often Hags. Muggles frequently mistook them for witches. They truly had once been in the habit of eating children. There was a famous Hag in Russia who specialized in eating children, but in Britain they had begun taking on the role of nannies—or at least, they wanted to do that job. The number of people actually willing to hire them could probably be counted on one hand.

Although the German Ministry of Magic had strictly controlled the Erkling population, and attacks had declined since 1927, with the last injury occurring in 1989 to six-year-old Bruno Schmidt, who successfully smashed the Erkling to death with his father's collapsible cauldron, reports of Erklings attacking Muggle children still surfaced from time to time. Those