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

"In conclusion, if we want to achieve a truly happy ending for everyone this time, we must find the mastermind behind everything—the Great Witch. The ancient text that records what appears to be a ritual to summon the Great Witch was compiled in witch script. Because the dementia-stricken mastermind doesn't use witch script, we'll have to translate it. We hope everyone will lend a hand so we can summon the Great Witch as soon as possible—that's all. Does anyone have any other questions?"

If not, I'll go back to raising the rabbit.

Individually defend against other witches, share intelligence, help everyone understand the current situation, and demonstrate the next goal—

Hiro thought he had done a good job. He neither hid information for his own desires nor openly offered Chang Rong to everyone. It was a compromise that was both reasonable and appropriate.

However, Hero overlooked one thing:

"Um, I want to help too! I think I also served as a clergyman during the previous witch trial, and Hiro told Coco that I seem to have some special constitution and abilities, so... I want to share everyone's burden in my own way!"

Chang Rong, who had been silently observing, suddenly raised her hand and blurted out her thoughts before Xi Luo could react.

"I will try my best to be a qualified temporary novice pastor. Yes, whatever pressure you have, secrets you can't tell, or impulses buried deep in your heart, you can come to me for confession. Of course, I'm not entirely sure if I can do it well, so regular invitations are fine too. As long as it's something I can do and can help you, I will try my best!"

Chang Rong spoke to the witches with a serious expression.

"……what?"

Trainee pastor? Helping others relieve their worries and fatigue? Confession? Is that the kind of behavior where two people squeeze into a small, dark room with only a small window that can fit their arms through, and then do all sorts of shameful and disgusting things through that window?

"You idiot rabbit... what's going on in your head... I'm really going to kill you right now—"

"Hey!?"

Just five seconds after Chang Rong announced that she would become a stress-relieving toy to help everyone relieve stress, the first customer who was about to explode with stress came to her door on the spot seeking stress relief services.

That's right, Nikaido Hiro overlooked one thing. Although she had temporarily prevented the other prospective witches from provoking Chang Rong, the problem was—

I should have known... This idiot rabbit, if left unattended, would definitely run off and philander, eventually ending up in some weird place with a litter of offspring...!

"【Coo coo coo... I brought the books, Lady Meruru. Lady Meruru, you can't understand these words at all, are you planning to tear them up and fold paper airplanes? Working overtime because of this kind of thing, my bird life is really bleak...coo coo?】"

The warden, kicked out of his sleep to work as a deliveryman for Meituan, arrived at the reception room with a yellowed witch's tome. However, upon arriving, he didn't see Meruru pretending to be deep as she opened the cover, but rather a group of witches surrounding a white-haired boy, seemingly fighting over something—or rather, a bizarre scene of a black-haired girl carrying the white-haired boy, only to be stopped by other aspiring witches.

The girl with black twin ponytails and a cycling hat appears to be blocking the girl with long, straight black hair, but in reality, she's frantically groping the white-haired boy, practically trying to rip off his shorts. Meanwhile, the girl with pink and white hair is crying and sobbing, desperately trying to throw herself into the white-haired boy's arms.

As for his superior, Commissioner Meruru, she was panting heavily as she lunged at Chang Rong, but unfortunately, the blue-haired detective blocked her and she couldn't catch the rabbit.

"[…working overtime occasionally isn't so bad, is it?]"

This thing is much more interesting than human-made short plays.

Volume 1: Chapter 157. You've been seducing me all along!

"Wow...isn't this a bit...uh, a bit too efficient...?"

"【Coo coo coo, after all, Lady Meruru is taking this matter very seriously for the first time in a long time... It's really strange. Before, Lady Meruru was always slow in everything she did, and she would forget what she had said if her orders were left unattended for a few days. It's quite unusual for her to take this so seriously today, coo coo...】"

In front of a room in the entrance hallway on the first floor of the castle, Chang Rong and the warden stared at each other in amazement at the newly renovated room.

Less than two hours after everyone watched Nikaido Hiro and his group in the reception room, and after Chang Rong's stress-relieving declaration, the abandoned room on the corner of the first floor had been transformed into what it is now, a 'confessional' that looks quite decent at first glance. Whether it's the two small partitions or the thick wooden boards used for soundproofing, although it's not a very complicated renovation, the speed at which it was done by hand still surprised Chang Rong.

Next, all I have to do is sit in the small cubicle near the back, and through that sound transmission grid that's only half the size of my face, I can finally soothe the psychological pressure on the aspiring witch.

"Because, because, because it's Changrong-san's request, I have to do my best to fulfill it no matter what... And, I don't know why, the guards are working extra hard and diligently, even though I haven't given them any orders yet... Anyway, if you like it, Changrong-san, that would be so great...!"

Meluru, the chief shady character from Witch Island, also came over. She timidly inspected the decoration of the confessional room while smiling and responding to Chang Rong.

"And actually, there are a lot of building materials and supplies on this island... Because many people take things apart after they become witches, so we always have to prepare some materials for repairs, sob sob... This is a place full of memories with the Great Witch, so if people really have an emotional breakdown and want to take things apart to vent, why can't they take me apart... At least, at least I'm easier to put back together and repair... Like when they turn the whole room upside down and throw it around, even my magic can't completely restore it..."

As Meruru was talking, she started to drop her little pearls again. It seems that the magic of "restoration" is not omnipotent. Many times, this behind-the-scenes figure still needs to personally bring her employees to temporarily act as the "ice lady" of AAA Construction Materials Decoration.

"Full of memories... Hmm, I don't know why, but I feel like this room is indeed full of 'memories' for me...?"

As Chang Rong listened to Meruru's words, he looked again at the confessional room in front of him, which had been converted from an abandoned study. Whenever he saw this room, he could vaguely see some strange fragments of memories.

Putting everything else aside, at least the unfounded common sense that "the door to this room feels like it's just for show," "you can't put bedding in this room," and "An'an can't sleep here" was immediately imprinted in my head.

"Memories... Waaah, yes, indeed, I do feel like I have some memories in this room, but they don't seem to be any good ones worth recording... Waaah, I can't remember anything at all... I feel like I had many wonderful experiences with the Holy Son, but now I can't remember any of them—I guess this is the punishment the Holy Son has given me to judge my sins, right...!"

Meluru Ice, who once ruined the entire game with her superb rhetoric in front of this 'temporary photo developing darkroom', was racking her brains to recall the past.

"If it's a real trial, there's no need to wipe out my own memories along with the AOE... I'm really not a hypocrite."

Chang Rong rubbed her temples helplessly, wondering how she, at such a young age, had developed Alzheimer's disease just like Ice Rider.

"Anyway, um... if it's a request from the Holy Child, Chang Rong-san, I will do my best to fulfill it, no matter what it is! Because, because Chang Rong-san is unique, just like the Great Witch!"

Meruru clasped her hands together in front of her and smiled at the white-haired boy in front of her, making a promise.

"In that case, could we release everyone from this prison?"

"Waaaaah, I'm so sorry, so sorry...! But this is the only thing, this really won't work... Because this island is under the jurisdiction of the human government, if I want to leave here, I at least have to prove my 'harmlessness' to them... Waaaaah, I'm so useless. If it were the Great Witch—ah, Great Witch, please come back soon... Meruru has found a very, very good Holy Child, and I really want to show him off to the Great Witch...!"

As Ice Slide Meruru was talking, her mole got hard again, and she made a disgusting face, saying "Brother, you smell so good," as she slowly crawled towards Chang Rong's body.

"Chang Rong-sang... Ru, if possible, please stay on this Witch Island...! Let's become family together, okay? Chang Rong-sang, me, and the Great Witch, we, we can definitely form the best family! If the Great Witch doesn't like you, Chang Rong-sang, then... then I'll threaten to kill myself—ah, Holy Child, you don't need to die with me, my own death is enough—"

"Waaaaah, can you not die, Meruru?! ^q^...!?"

"Tsk, you slipped away to seduce someone else's fiancé in the blink of an eye. You're a rotten piece of trash in every sense of the word, Meluru Ice."

Just as Chang Rong was caught off guard by the gravity-based release of the Ice Meruru, a familiar, dignified, elegant yet authoritative female voice came from behind them. It was then that Xi Luo, while untying the somewhat awkward apron she was wearing, walked to the side of the Ice Meruru with veins bulging on her head. Without saying a word, she grabbed Chang Rong's wrist and pulled the white-haired boy away from the nun jellyfish.

"Xiro, what's this apron?" Chang Rong blinked and pointed to the apron that Xiro was holding.

"Oh, there were so many people huddled together in the kitchen just now, and I couldn't bear to watch, so I helped out a little."

Because more than 24 hours had passed since they were captured and imprisoned until they regained consciousness and attended the meeting, the girls' stomachs began to rumble after the initial adrenaline rush from panic had subsided. When lunchtime arrived as per the prison handbook, Emma and the aspiring witches rushed straight to the dining hall.

However, upon seeing the 'food' laid out on the long table in the restaurant, everyone except Emma and Hannah, who tried to convince themselves that 'maybe it just looks bad,' looked disgusted at the pile of excrement.

Considering that everyone was just saying "Oh Bin, I'm so hungry," rather than "I'm starving, I'd even eat shit if I could," after a brief moment of thought, they decided to cook for themselves. It turned out they had to stir-fry it themselves.

As a veteran, Hiro simply couldn't stand the way these people would dismantle cabinets just to find a piece of sugar, so he had no choice but to stay and temporarily help them organize the kitchen.

"No matter how many times I see it, I still feel disgusted. Those things that can't even be considered food are really... really disgusting."

Recalling the days when he had to eat excrement in the restaurant, Hiro glared fiercely at the mastermind behind it all, Meruru.

"I'm sorry... but, sob sob, I'm so glad you don't like it...! Those dishes were recipes I painstakingly experimented with for three months before finally settling on. Although I nearly died and came back to life more than 20 times due to acute food poisoning and acute gastroenteritis... but, but if everyone can hate it in the end, then my efforts won't have been in vain, right...! You know, the threshold between 'I'd rather die than eat' and 'I have to eat' is really, really hard to grasp...!"

On the ice, Meruru clasped her hands timidly in response, looking more like she was there to curry favor than to admit her mistake.

"You bastard..." Even Hiro was speechless when faced with Melulu on Ice, and could only sigh and rub his forehead.

"In short, now you're going to put away and delete all those annoying little tricks you've been using, understand?"

"Waaah...! I, I understand, but Miss Hiro... you, you have no right to order me around. After all, what kind of pet would order its owner around, right...? Wouldn't that cause chaos?"

"Aha!?"

The soft, almost pearly response from the ice-cold Meruru made Hiro instantly furious. If Zedu Coco hadn't been around, Haomao would probably have already rolled up his sleeves and rushed over to say, "Why waste words with this pervert? Just feed her B-water (No. 13 Demon Killing Potion)! Someone, bring a big cup!"

"Meruru, please don't disturb everyone's lives in strange places anymore."

"Very well, Holy Son...! If you feel that my existence also affects everyone, then you can lock me in an abandoned sewer. As for me... as long as you can spare half an hour or an hour each day to pamper me, to wantonly ravage my body as a way to vent your frustrations and atone for your sins, then that will be enough for me...!"

"I'm not that kind of monster!?"

Chang Rong said something that echoed Xi Luo's sentiments, and this time, Ice Meluru immediately said that it was no problem. Then she came over and, panting heavily, said that she could be treated even more harshly, which almost scared the white-haired boy into revealing his hidden spiny back form.

"In short, first cancel the fixed detention time, provide 24-hour hot water, open the canteen and warehouse, cancel the guards' patrols and privileges, renovate and clean the dilapidated furniture, replace horror movies with romance movies—oh, and the warden might as well just die too..."

"【Coo coo coo, am I going to die too?】" The warden, who had just been AFK, tilted his head, wondering why his senile boss knew so much about how to improve the environment, and ended up modifying his own head instead.

"Meruru, in your eyes, what kind of beings are those aspiring witches? Are they merely...pets that can be arbitrarily saved or tormented for one's own selfish desires?"

Chang Rong interrupted Meruru's plan to drag the warden to commit suicide, and frowned as she asked the chaotic being in front of her, who had an angelic and holy appearance but had been the nightmare of countless aspiring witches for centuries, what her values ​​were.

"I...I never considered everyone as 'pets'...Although you all are indeed like inferior mongrels I've been raising among the people of this island...But, but you are ultimately different from those plants and animals...Plants don't cry out in pain, but you, those children...they scream incessantly from the unbearable shocks they've suffered, those sounds...I, I'm terrified...I really want to help save you all, even, even if they are 'sinners burdened with original sin and deserving to die' in the Great Witch's words...But since killing humans is the Great Witch's long-cherished wish, I...must obey the Great Witch's will..."

As always, Meruru's words on the ice were filled with a kind of ambiguous, self-contradictory style, and amidst those fragmented remarks, Chang Rong had only one thought:

Holy crap, how could this witch be so wicked!

"...Hmm"

On the other side, as Meluru recounted her struggle with inheriting the Great Witch's 'malice' towards humanity, Hiro wore a thoughtful expression.

Should he tell Chang Rong about his relationship with the "Great Witch"—that is, Xiao Xue?

Unlike her childhood sweetheart, who rose to power through false evidence, Xiaoxue, though unwilling, truly belonged only to Chang Rong as his childhood sweetheart.

Chang Rong seems to still retain some memories. If I tell him about the Great Witch, he might be able to recall some things, but that would also mean he'd be tormented and pulled along by all the mess Xiao Xue has caused again...

Hiro didn't want Chang Rong to get caught up in the vortex of the Great Witch so soon, and more importantly, he didn't know what Xiao Xue herself was thinking.

The 'Great Witch' that Hiro currently perceives is as if she has been poisoned by the Tiger Talisman, and has been split into two beings.

Yuki, the final, world-destroying witch who exists in the "Witch Island Videotape" and Meruru's memories, attempts to bring down a death judgment upon all humanity.

Existing in Chang Rong and Xi Luo's past experiences, Xiao Xue, a light and clumsy girl, tries to protect the ephemeral happiness in her palm but it dissipates like snowflakes.

—So… what exactly is Xiaoxue thinking? Although she spent some time with me and Emma as a friend, and kept searching for the 'death reversal' magic to save Changrong, this only proves that this idiot rabbit is indeed Asakusa, which is only human nature.

The real key question is whether Xiaoxue's attitude towards humanity is still as extreme as it was in the documentary. At least in Xiaoxue's actions before her disappearance, I really couldn't sense any hatred she harbored towards humanity.

...So, the focus of everything is on Emma? Or rather, on 'Emma's magic'?

If Emma truly possesses the "Witch Killer Magic," a button capable of destroying the world, and if Xiaoxue genuinely gave this button to Emma with the intention of "hoping everyone can survive"... then it means that Xiaoxue at least no longer wants the destruction of humanity.

If that's the case, I could retrieve the photos hidden in the corner of the library bookshelf and let Chang Rong try to recall his past experiences with Xiao Xue.

With that in mind, Hiro decided to find an opportunity to talk to Emma, ​​whether it was about Xiaoxue, about magic, or about how she had unintentionally bullied Emma with passive-aggressive behavior.

We must face the past, for only in this way can we better face the future. Perhaps this is why I possess the 'magic of rewind'—to embrace the past and create the future.

"Wow! It's been renovated so well already? It really looks like a proper house, you can't even tell what the room originally looked like. It used to be a brothel—Pugh meow!!?"

Sawatari Coco also came over. Hakimi was startled by the abandoned study that had been converted into a confessional. However, before she could finish her exclamation, Yamato Nadeshiko, whose cheeks instantly turned red, forcibly withdrew her statement with an ancient girl's etiquette technique: chokehold.

"Cough cough cough—Are you really planning to betray us and tear up the alliance treaty...?!" "It's all because you suddenly said something that was completely meaningless!"

The intelligence duo exchanged their usual greetings, while on the other side, Meluru on the ice suddenly thought of something. She clapped her hands, and soon a low-IQ guard came to the group carrying a box.

"Oh, right... because Chang Rong-san said she wanted to become a pastor, I immediately designed a few 'work uniforms'... I wonder which one Chang Rong-san prefers?"

"Wait, how many sets? It seems like it hasn't even been two hours since Onii-chan suddenly went crazy and said he wanted to be a public stress reliever!" Sawatari Coco was startled by Meruru's efficiency. How could this girl make clothes by hand faster than she could make new leather suits?

"Hmm? Isn't this normal efficiency...? I design and sew at least 10 outfits every month..."

"...I'm the abnormal one who's hoping to find 'normal' in you."

Looking at the innocent and confused expression on Ice Meruru's face, head tilted to the side, even Hakimi lost the strength to breathe on her. And it has to be admitted, this cunning, eccentric, and somewhat dim-witted girl has impeccable taste in clothing. Zedu Coco even plans to debut as the persona of this outfit after leaving Witch Island, only she'll have to hide the fact that she and Chang Rong are already married and have children www (not true).