Episode 3

**"The Girl as Pretty as a Flower / Bottled Happiness"** (花のように可憐な彼女 / 瓶詰めの幸せ, *Hana no Yō ni Karen'na Kanojo / Bindzume no Shiawase*) is the third episode of the *Wandering Witch* anime.

## Synopsis

Elaina encounters a young girl alone in a field of flowers. She asks Elaina to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the nearby countryside and the young witch accepts. Little does Elaina know that there's more to the flowers than meets the eye.

In the next country that Elaina visits, she encounters a young man named Emil who collects happiness in a bottle for her servant Nino.

## Summary

### The Girl as Pretty as a Flower

Elaina flies on her broom through a forest and at the end reaches a vast and wonderful field of flowers. Soon she sees a lone young girl tending to the flowers in the field and talks with her about said flowers. Seeing her witches symbol, the young girl asks Elaina to deliver a bouquet of flowers to the country she'll soon enter. As to whom they're to be given to, it's anyone who thinks the flowers are beautiful and Elaina agrees to do so.

That night, Elaina arrives at the country checkpoint where she's stopped by a young abrasive guard there because of her flowers. A senior guard arrives and breaks up the confrontation, sending the young guard on his way and explains the reason for his rude behavior. The guard also explains that the flowers need to be disposed of due to their poisonous nature and how Witches are immune to said poison. Hearing this, Elaina allows the man to dispose of her flowers. Afterward, Elaina rents a room at an inn and writes in her diary. She then recalls a story in her favorite book involving a sentient mutated plant that wreaked havoc on people who could use magic.

The following day, Elaina leaves for the next country, but before she does, she flies back to the flower field one last time. Upon arriving there Elaina encounters the young soldier she met the day before who has been infected with a plant-like mutation. He's thankful for Elaina bringing the flowers and the shawl that was used to wrap the flowers in as it belonged to his missing sister. Said sister was now just a humanoid looking plant and as her brother embraced her, she wrapped him up with her vines. Seeing this, Elaina flies away as it starts to rain, while humanoid figures wrapped in vines and flowers head toward the city.

### Bottled Happiness

Continuing her journey on her broom, Elaina encounters a young man named Emil who carries a bottle full of "happiness" in a glass jug. The purpose of bottling happiness is for a young girl that Emil likes. This reminds Elaina of a story she read about a magician husband who travels the world and recreates beautiful scenery for his bedridden wife with his magic. However, Elaina can't recall how the story ends. Emil believes the story must have a happy ending as what the husband did was a great deed for his wife. He then explains that the bottled happiness is for his servant in his house named Nino who is gloomy and ill.

Riding on their brooms back to Emil's country, the man discloses that he's tried to gather happiness from plants, but failed. This makes Elaina note that it's good that the plants didn't kill him, which confuses Emil. They soon arrive in the village and Elaina notes the biggest house there must belong to the village chief, which is also Emil's house as well. When Elaina inquires when Emil will give the bottle of happiness to Nino, he answers that he'll do it after lunch. He then asks Elaina if she'd like to join them, to which, she politely declines due to having breakfast earlier. However, Emil insists and the two head to the village chief's house.

Inside the village chief's house, Emil tells Elaina to make herself at home. As Elaina settles herself in the house, a young girl appears and acts cordial in a timid manner. Elaina asks if the young girl is from the east, stating that she knew someone from there. Emil enters the scene and confirms that the young girl is indeed from the east, as his father "found" her there. Asked as to where the chief is, the young girl notes that he's in his study and wants grilled fish with salt. As the young girl enters the kitchen, Emil notes that he has a special present for the young girl who was Nino and has a present for her. Although Nino declines as the chief would be angry, Emil insists and makes it an order.

Nino and Emil then head into the kitchen and the village chief enters the scene and he and Elaina are acquainted with one another. Eventually, lunch is served and afterward, Nino and Emil leave to clean the dishes in the kitchen. While cleaning, Elaina asks the chief about Nino's background, and he answers that Nino was "bought" by him. She was bought as a slave to do the work that the chief's wife who left him did around the house. It's also noted that Nino is quite beautiful and she'll become more beautiful when she matures. A scene then occurs involving Nino breaking a pitcher of water, caused by Emil unintentionally surprising her. Angry, the village chief reprimands Nino as his son tries to defend her. So, Elaina solves the situation, by using her magic to repair the water pitcher.

Outside of the house, Emil and Elaina talk about Nino's depressed attitude. Elaina notes that now would be the perfect time to give her his gift. Later, Emil does this and the results leave Nino overjoyed as Emil promises to make her happy. At dusk, Elaina leaves the heads off on her broom and recalls the ending of the story, that she told Emil. Apparently, the magician who showed his ill bedridden wife the various images he captured didn't make her happy, but more depressed. This leads her to kill herself at the end of the story. Recalling this, Elaina refuses to think any further about what Nino will do after seeing the captured images.

## Differences in Adaptation

* The anime didn't include the scene where Artemisia make some weird expressions as she's requesting Elaina to bring the flowers to the city.
* The anime skipped the explanation that Artemisia has been infected by the plants when Elaina meets her, and that she's not able to leave the field of flowers due to her body has been rooted under the ground.
* In the light novel, after Elaina recalled there's a type of plant that can infect people, she immediately went to find Artemisa and see if she's still okay. In the anime, Elaina went to find her in the next day instead.
* In the anime, after Elaina left the country, there's several people has been infected by the plants and went to attack the city. In the light novel, Sorol is the only one that goes to the city instead.
* The anime seemingly hinted that Nino might've been sexually abused by the villager chief before they went out from the room, while there's no single hint implying that happened in the light novel.

## Characters

* Elaina
* Artemisia
* Muscle Man (cameo)
* Sorol
* Emil
* Nino
* Saya (Indirectly mentioned)