Whose youth romance story begins with a witch's trial?!

“Is there another guard? Hmm… Come to think of it, the warden also said that if the alarm is triggered, other guards will be dispatched to handle it, so… the three guards came to the warehouse in two batches. The first guard who arrived here triggered the alarm for some reason, which attracted the second batch of guards. And it seems that something happened between the three guards, resulting in two of them having their controllers damaged.” Emma analyzed, holding up a few fingers.

"So it's not infighting, but rather the emergence of two opposing guards? Is that really possible?" Nikaido Hiro didn't quite understand Emma's reasoning.

"Hmm... there aren't many clues. That's all we know for now." Sakura Emma shook her head somewhat disappointedly.

"After all, Witch Island is full of strange things left behind by the old guards. It's not impossible that we might encounter a poisonous mushroom that would make the guards turn against us after eating it, right?" Tachibana Sherry said, holding up a magnifying glass.

"It's impossible for Desuwa!!" Then Tono Hannah rejected her reasoning with a single vote.

“The guards aren’t Emma, ​​so they certainly won’t put every weird thing they see into their mouths. But the possibility of infighting does exist… and that might be related to Nanoha Kaori.”

While appreciating the adorable barking coming from Emma's side, Chang Rong remarked that internal strife among the guards was a possibility. Although "Big Sister" had never attacked any colleagues, the "intelligence" she had displayed in front of him and Nanoha Kaori might allow her to do so.

After investigating the most dangerous, but in a sense the least demanding, guards, the group could no longer delay and had to begin investigating the corpses of their former close companions.

"This is...this is Nanoha's...um..."

"Young Miss, would you like to go outside for some fresh air?"

"No, no need... I'm fine with that level..."

When Tono Hannah saw the lone arm of 'Kurobe Nanoha Kaori' lying on the floor, its hand still tightly gripping the spear, her face turned ashen. However, she waved her hand at Chang Rong's suggestion, indicating that she could handle it.

Naoka's right hand was forcibly severed near her upper arm, and judging from the smoothness of the cut, it was probably done by a guard.

"Such a neat, clean, and smooth cut could only have been made by a guard, and only a guard could have done it."

Although everyone wanted to ask Hero why he was so certain of his judgment, they found his experience and wisdom surprisingly convincing, so they didn't press him further.

The guards not only fought amongst themselves but also attacked Kurobe Nanoha. Judging from Nanoha's gun-wielding posture, she must have retaliated.

"Two bullets are missing from the magazine... Normally, you should look for bullet holes in this situation, but... in this messy environment, it will probably be very difficult to find bullet holes."

Chang Rong suppressed his unease and examined the magic spear. Judging from the magazine, it had been fired twice. However, given the current state of the warehouse, finding the bullet holes would probably not be an easy task.

"Difficulties are not a reason to refuse. You can continue investigating other clues first. I will try my best to find the trajectory of the two bullets."

Nikaido Hiro took out a flashlight and addressed the group, then began meticulously shining the flashlight into the dimly lit corners of the warehouse, trying to locate the impact point.

—This methodical search, though old-fashioned, is quite 'correct,' Hiro.

Chang Rong watched as Xi Luo solemnly began investigating the walls surrounding the warehouse, and sighed inwardly. She knew that the 'detective' the club president so admired was ultimately just a fictional artistic creation; solving most cases, in essence, still relied on manpower to diligently search for seemingly insignificant evidence.

So how did Heero manage to find only a bunch of nonsensical and bizarre dark histories that he forced onto Emma Sakura during his last search...? Is it really true that the closer Heero gets to Emma, ​​the further away her intelligence is from Heero's...?

In any case, at least Hiro was able to actually help in this part of the investigation, instead of skipping the evidence collection process by going to jail right from the start, or just breathing on the pink and white-haired girl during the evidence collection process. It would have been better to just replace the suspect, Nanoha Kaori, with Hiro and let her go in and operate the sewing machine instead of Nanoha Kaori.

However, perhaps part of the reason Hero is investigating so diligently right now is to 'escape'—she wants to 'escape' our next move.

Taking a deep breath, Chang Rong once again came to the side of Renmi Ryoya's corpse.

No matter how well you prepare, you may never be truly 'prepared' for something. When Chang Rong saw Renjian Leia's dim body, which could no longer shine, a wave of nausea and dizziness washed over him.

"Leah...she's really dead...uh...waaaah...! How could this happen...I had only just started to like her..."

Hannah Tono finally couldn't hold back her tears after seeing Rhea's body.

"Actually... I hated Rhea from the moment I was first imprisoned... I even had disgusting thoughts like, 'This kind of person should just die...' because Rhea is rich, popular, carefree, and confident. She's practically... my opposite."

Hannah awkwardly and shyly wiped away her tears, while telling everyone about her past 'hostility' towards Rhea.

"Actually, Rhea didn't have any bad intentions... But back then, I always felt that Rhea would look down on me with an air of superiority, and would even 'humiliate' me with words like, 'I don't understand why Hannah is so persistent in mending and washing clothes. It's pointless, isn't it?'"

"How could that kind of person possibly understand the meaning of our desperate struggle to survive? Because she's the kind of carefree, attention-grabbing heroine from a comic book, someone who's never troubled by life..."

"But... when Leia later saw the stage costume I sewed—the one she's wearing—she immediately put on a happy and excited expression like a puppy, grabbing my hands and praising me incessantly, saying that my talent was far superior to hers... That's when I realized that Leia wasn't just a narcissistic idiot after all, and I didn't dislike her as much anymore. In fact, I really wanted to see Leia wear this costume, which was completely incompatible with her temperament, to see if she would embarrass herself on stage. But, but..."

However, all of this has become an unattainable 'fantasy'...

Arisa Fujito regrets not being able to join the other prospective witches, and Hannah Tohno shares a similar regret. She clearly wanted to know more about Rhea, and perhaps she really misunderstood this 'manga heroine,' but... there's no going back now.

"Let's continue rehearsing the stage play after this trial is over...! How about we consider it as carrying on Léa-chan's will? So, so... we have to work hard now..."

Emma Sakura mustered her spirits and raised her hand in a gesture of encouragement, urging everyone to keep going.

“Hmm… Emma is right. But Rhea-sama was in charge of conducting a rough ‘condition check’ on the deceased before. We don’t have that capability, so we just need to gather information within our capabilities.”

Chang Rong ruffled Emma's hair, using these words to encourage herself.

This time, because there were other companions around, even when observing Ryota Hasumi up close, the feeling of suffocation and despair did not completely overwhelm Chang Rong as before, and he was able to perform the most basic examination.

Dressed in a princess-like costume, Hasumi Ryoua slumped in a corner of the warehouse. Judging from the numerous bruises and scratches on her body, they appeared to be injuries sustained during the impact. However, Hasumi Ryoua's fatal wound was a stab wound that appeared to pierce her throat.

Hasumi Ryouya's right hand, which was holding her sword, was cruelly twisted and fractured, and the sword broke into two pieces, scattered on the ground as scrap metal.

"The wound on Rhea's right hand looks more like it was caused by a blunt object, since it's different from the way Nanoha Kaori was cut off. Instead, the throat looks like it was pierced by some kind of sharp blade... Was Rhea attacked by different guards at the same time...? Speaking of which, Rhea's left hand seems to be holding something—is that, a hairband?"

Emma Sakura noticed that Rhea Hasumi was holding something in her left hand. When she opened it, she found it was a black and gray hair ribbon.

"Huh? Isn't this Nanoha Kaori's hairband?" Tachibana Sherry, who had previously taken on the 'finding the hairband' request on her own, immediately recognized the strip of cloth.

"Nanoha Kaori-chan...?" "Eh!? Then, doesn't that mean Kurobe Nanoha Kaori is—"

“No, I saw the hairband that Nanoha was wearing when I was treating Nanoha’s wounds. This hairband should be… the one that guard was wearing.” Chang Rong immediately explained to everyone.

Chang Rong didn't actually look closely at the hairband in Kurobe Nanoha's pocket, but he was certain that when he saw 'older sister,' the hairband that should have been wrapped around the controller on her head didn't seem to be properly tied on.

"The guard has Nanoha Kaori's hairband on him?" "I don't quite understand what this means..."

"In other words, this hairband belongs to 'another guard,' or rather, to Nanoha Kaori's older sister, who has now become a wrecked guard."

"...?" The sheer amount of information in that sentence caused even Hiro Nikaido, who was searching the bomb craters nearby, to freeze in shock.

Now that things had come to this, it was no longer time to hide it. Chang Rong sighed helplessly and told everyone about the relationship between Kurobe Nanoha and her sister.

"Huh?! You idiot knight, are you saying that Kurobe Nanoha came to Witch Island on her own initiative to find her sister, and that her sister is the guard in that castle...?!"

The thought of visiting Sherry in the punishment room with Chang Rong and almost being chopped into mincemeat by Nanoha Kaori's sister filled Tono Hanna with lingering fear.

"Hehehe, since Watson brought it up himself, there's one less secret I have to hide. That's great." Tachibana Sherry said with a thumbs up. Now she no longer needs to hide Chang Rong's witch factor or Kurobe Nanoha's relationship with the 'veteran older sister'. The next step should be to openly announce that her and Chang Rong's child has been safely born.

"So what exactly did Leia-chan do...? She attacked 'Sister,' so she was retaliated against..." Sakura Emma frowned as she pondered.

"Hmm, it seems we can't confirm the full picture of the incident at the warehouse yet—"

"I found a bullet hole."

Nikaido Hiro's voice interrupted Chang Rong. Following the direction of Hiro's flashlight beam, the group saw a bomb crater on one side of the warehouse wall near the roof.

Judging from the angle of the crater, it seems that one of the shots fired by Kurobe Nanoha was aimed at a very high height, at least two heads higher than her. Could it be that she was shooting at the bookshelf?

After noting down one of the craters, the group returned to Noah Kinosaki's side.

No matter how many times I see it, I can't get used to the way the girl looked in the end of her life, brutally cut apart... Chang Rong couldn't understand why Noah had to suffer this kind of torment.

“Hero, Noah, she—” “Don’t bother me, I’m still looking for another bullet.”

Chang Rong shook her head and asked Hiro, but the black-haired girl continued to scan the surrounding walls, shelves, and corners with her flashlight, never looking at Chang Rong, or rather, at the direction of Noah's corpse.

Everyone knew that Hiro was running away at this moment. She didn't dare to witness the deaths of Noah Kinosaki and Rhea Hasumi, but no one would really criticize her for this choice.

"Noah's injury... there's no need for investigation at all. It could only have been done by the guards, and, moreover... by 'Sister'."

The previous optimistic guesses were indeed overturned... When Chang Rong first arrived at the hidden warehouse, he didn't carefully observe the weapons used by the two wrecked guards. However, the investigation just now confirmed that these guard remains used blunt weapons.

In other words, the only one who could cut Noah in this way was his 'sister' who used the scythe.

The 'older sister' showed no mercy or gentleness towards the other prospective witches. Therefore, it must have been she who gave Noah to…

But... the question is 'why'? The warehouse is currently in a temporarily usable state due to the deal with the owl, so even if Noah appears here, it wouldn't be considered a violation of the rules, and there's absolutely no reason to kill her, right...? And Noah's personality doesn't seem like the type to actively resist or attack the guards, so why is that?

"These, these pages...aren't these from that witch's ancient book!?"

Scattered around Noah were many sheets of drawing paper and yellowed old papers. Tohno Hannah suddenly realized that those old papers were the very 'witch's ancient book' that Mag had found at the beginning, which seemed to record many secrets. It was also the precious 'key' that everyone was working hard to translate, trying to find a way to escape from Witch Island.

But this very key, with the translation not even halfway complete, turned into a pile of scraps of paper.

Volume 1: Chapter 138. Same Gun, Same Target

"Speaking of which, it seems it really was Noah's turn to translate the ancient texts today. She brought them with her so as not to delay the stage play rehearsals... So, does that mean we... we'll never be able to do it again..."

"Take care of the immediate matter first, Miss."

Although Chang Rong was aware of what the destruction of the ancient books meant, he forced himself to shake his head and focus on the on-site investigation instead of thinking about future problems.

There weren't many clues about Noah. The biggest clue was the wound near her chest, which proved that she was killed by her 'sister' who cut her open with a scythe, because among all the guards, only her 'sister' had a scythe that could cut others.

But wouldn't that mean that Nanoha Kaori was also a target of the 'older sister's' attacks? What exactly happened between them...? The clues gathered only made the situation more confusing.

"Now that we've done a general investigation and gathered some information, let's have Detective Sherry organize the current situation!" Tachibana Sherry raised her magnifying glass and began to 'deduce' for everyone.

"Nanoha Kaori's right hand was severed by the guards, Rhea was attacked and injured by the 'low-level guard' and then killed by the 'headband guard' who pierced her throat, Noah was killed by the 'headband guard' with a scythe, and Milia was lucky enough to barely escape, but she was left with wounds... All the victims' injuries could only have been caused by the guards, so Nanoha Kaori's sister, the 'headband guard', is the mastermind behind everything. She suddenly went mad and killed almost everyone, even the 'low-level guard' who came to help after hearing the alarm—that's the whole story, proof complete!"

Tachibana Sherry explained her point of view in a simple and easy-to-understand way: since everyone has wounds that only the guards could inflict, then it must have been the guards who did it.

While it may seem simplistic and crude, it's logically sound. And most importantly... this way everyone becomes a victim, eliminating the concept of a 'witch'.

Perhaps this is the right outcome, and we should just accept the reason that 'the guard went mad and killed everyone'... But is that really all there is to it?

"Hmm... If Nanoha or Miria could wake up, we wouldn't need to go through all this trouble. We could just ask them what happened..."

Tono Hannah's quiet complaint reminded Chang Rong of the witch trial he had once participated in. Back then, he had also encountered situations like this, where the full picture couldn't be gleaned because the person involved was unconscious or had amnesia.

It even felt so familiar; in that case, someone had their arm severed, and a bullet had disappeared for a time—a bullet?

On the surface, all the injuries of the dead do seem to be related to the 'guards', but there is still one clue that has not been found so far, which is the second bullet fired by Kurobe Nanoha.

Furthermore, if the 'headband guard' suddenly went berserk, the timeline of the entire event becomes somewhat chaotic. Since the alarm was clearly triggered, there must have been an 'initiator' who triggered the alarm for the other wreckage guards to arrive.

Rhea was unaware of the controller; she couldn't possibly attack the 'headwear' that appeared to be just a device in front of her 'sister,' so she couldn't be the 'initiator.'

If Nanoha Kaori was the instigator... would she have attacked her own sister? And what caused the subsequent massacre?

And... why was Noah killed? Judging from Rhea's condition, if Noah had resisted the guards, there should have been at least some marks on his body from being attacked with a blunt weapon by a 'low-level guard'. But all that could be seen on Noah's body were marks from being cut by a scythe.

Unless 'Sister' killed Noah immediately...why would she do that? Noah...wouldn't have attacked the guards first.

"Hmm? That's strange."

Shirley's voice interrupted Chang Rong's thoughts as he walked into the dead end. He saw the blue-haired girl holding two fragments of an ancient witch's book in her hands, trying to piece them together, but failing repeatedly.

"What's wrong, Sherry?"

"I was trying to salvage this potentially important book, but after finally finding the same page, I couldn't piece it together—in fact, even the shapes don't seem to match up, let alone the pictures."

Shirley Tachibana placed the two fragments in front of Chang Rong. The cut surfaces looked neat, but when put together, they couldn't even form a rectangular structure.