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

"Seriously, why does that awful brat Balloon always spray paint on my face without warning, whether it's this time or the last time... Hmm, the perjury girl? And—ah, Onii-chan~!"

Ze Du Ke Ke, who had been muttering complaints with her head down, instantly changed her expression upon spotting Chang Rong. She beamed with joy and excitement, and rushed towards Chang Rong in a few quick steps.

"You've worked hard, Coco—uh, what happened to your face?"

For some reason, Chang Rong was already quite adept at handling the situation of 'someone suddenly lunging at you' and skillfully caught Hakimi who lunged at him. However, he immediately noticed the bright paint on Ze Du Ke Ke's cheeks, which was comparable to the camouflage of the Vietnam War.

Chang Rong quickly took out a handkerchief to try to wipe the spray paint off Ze Du Ke Ke's face, while asking what happened. Could it be that she secretly went to learn Sichuan opera face-changing, but forgot how to recreate the face after learning how to change it?

Volume 1: Chapter 161. With the literary giant An'an

"Hmm, this? It was sprayed by Noah... It's okay, Onii-chan, she said the paint would be 'removed' by itself in a while—ah, it really was removed."

The paint on Ze Du Ke Ke's face seemed to come alive the next second, peeling off her cheeks and turning into a wisp of fluid that slowly drifted away and disappeared.

"Wow... It feels so magical, just like the rainbow over the flower field not far from the entrance."

Seeing this, Chang Rong sighed softly. This is the kind of magic a beautiful girl should possess, not some mysterious information magic or sound magic with no numerical values, or physical magic with excessive numerical values.

"However, even if it can be withdrawn, this is still a bit too much. Noah Kinosaki? I should talk to her about it if I have the chance later... What's wrong, Hiro? I have spray paint on my face too?"

Chang Rong seemed to be deep in thought and planned to have a chat with the girl who was spraying paint on other people's faces. However, after hearing these words, Xi Luo, who was standing next to him, immediately looked at Chang Rong with a ghost-like expression.

"No, it's nothing. I'm just feeling a bit sentimental. If you live long enough, you really can see all sorts of things," Hiro murmured.

In my third playthrough, I not only witnessed 'xyymll', 'Elegant Leia', and 'Haomao Coco', but I even saw 'Sha Nu Wu Hui Chang Rong'. Limited edition characters are now as common as wholesale items.

"It's not like I'm some kind of stupid parent who would unconditionally spoil others..." Chang Rong complained after almost being defeated by her daughter's sleeping pills.

"But Coco, what exactly did you do to be used as a canvas by Noah to spray paint?"

"Meow... Although that guy inexplicably mentioned something like 'Let's try out the body spray paint effect on you first,' which is quite ambiguous, if I had to say why, it's probably because I upset Noah when I told her about the 'forbidden points.'"

Zedu Coco waved her hand helplessly; her job was truly no easy task. She had to repeat the same few words almost ten times, and each time she had to adjust them depending on the person she was speaking to, otherwise, her well-intentioned act of telling someone a taboo might itself offend that person…

There was no other way. Putting aside the fact that maintaining the number of trainee witches was necessary for Chang Rong's healthy life, Coco herself had developed feelings for the trainee witches after watching them for so long as if she had experienced it firsthand. She didn't want another irreversible tragedy to happen, and she could only watch from the sidelines without being able to change anything.

“When I told Noah, ‘Be a little careful with An’an. She’s very sensitive and mentally unstable. Too much happiness or too much unhappiness might make her emotionally extreme,’ Noah pouted and said, ‘An’an isn’t like that,’ and then sprayed me in the face with a spray paint can… Why is it always me?!

Coco, who was always getting one-on-one killed by the spray paint can, looked annoyed and sulked.

"This job is really thankless and exhausting. I should have just stayed by Onii-chan's side all the time—meow!? Onii-chan...?!"

Just as Ze Du Ke Ke was complaining, she suddenly let out a short scream. It turned out that Chang Rong had opened his arms and hugged Ke Ke directly.

"You've worked so hard, Coco-chan. Coco-chan, you're so cute and cool for running around protecting everyone."

"Hehehe... Well, not really, Onii-chan... Hmm, now I'm full of energy again...!"

Zedu Coco, who was originally feeling somewhat helpless and complaining, was instantly revived as if she had been injected with chicken blood, and couldn't wait to continue running business and opening the remaining reserve witches.

"..."

Seeing Chang Rong hugging and stroking Ze Du Ke Ke, rubbing her face against it, Xi Luo's black lines on her forehead became even more pronounced. Then, as if remembering something, she cleared her throat:

“It must have been quite difficult for us to search everywhere for clues to translate ancient books,” Hiro said with a smile to Chang Rong.

“Yes.” Chang Rong nodded.

“'Yeah'...and then what?” Hiro paused for a moment, still waiting for Chang Rong’s next sentence, but the guy just went and started rubbing the keycaps.

"And then what?" Chang Rong was also completely bewildered, having no idea why Hiro was suddenly asking these questions.

"And that's it, right? Okay, very good, you idiot rabbit, I really did manage to kill you—"

"Eek?! Why, why, why?!" Chang Rong was completely baffled by the trigger mechanism of Hero's 'I'll kill you'... Could this be the Cthulhu Yamato Nadeshiko corrupted by fate? Unpredictable, indescribable.

"Your so-called childhood sweetheart image is completely ruined!!" Ze Du Ke Ke quickly stopped Xi Luo to prevent him from acting rashly and throwing himself away on the spot.

"However, if you want to find someone to translate the ancient witch's book, you should ask Mag. I remember that Mag often spent the whole day in the library during the first playthrough, and I think she was also in charge of the beginning of this book during the second playthrough."

Zetsu Coco recalled the stories from the previous two timelines and felt that Hosho Mag was the best candidate to decipher the witch's script.

"That's what they say, but I just don't want to get too involved with that guy..." Hiro sighed and rubbed his eyebrows.

"Hmm, Mag's taboo is indeed quite troublesome... In the first playthrough, everything was peaceful until the end, just because Mag's relationship with everyone remained relatively cold until the very end. In the second playthrough, just because she was saved by that old senile lunatic, she turned her love into hatred and stabbed Meruru. It's really... terrifying."

Normal interactions with Baosheng Mag don't seem to trigger any taboos in Mag, but if your presence piques her interest, she'll likely take the initiative to approach you. Will this trigger any taboos? Nobody can guarantee it.

What if you choose to actively approach Mag? You could easily step on a landmine and send yourself flying.

So, is Chang Rong destined to be cut by the copper wire...? No, if left unchecked, Chang Rong will most likely be attracted to Mag, and Mag will also become curious about him. When the two of them get close to each other, as long as they use the invincible head-patting technique, everything will be fine.

...There are cows!

After thinking for a long time, Ze Du Ke Ke's final solution was "Don't make your Rong Ge laugh." This led Ke Ke to simply give up and stop thinking about it, waiting until things got really bad.

And there's something even more important right now than Mag—

"I mean, why do I feel like everyone's reactions, and even their 'personality,' are subtly different from the formulaic start of the second playthrough?"

Zedu Coco leaned close to Hiro and whispered something in his ear.

"Hmm... I've also vaguely noticed that. It seems that my 'rewind' didn't bring everyone's consciousness back to the blank beginning as originally expected."

Hiro and Zedo Coco huddled in a corner, the three-time playthrough player duo whispering and discussing what to do next in their current situation.

"Although they're basically only at the level of 'déjà vu' right now, the possibility of them regaining their memories later isn't small. What will we do then? Right now, we can barely manage to fool them with various excuses, but they'll definitely be exposed eventually, and then..."

As Zedu Coco spoke, she swallowed hard. Her and Hiro's determination to save everyone was genuine, but so was their resolve not to sneak off and eat with everyone.

If their false testimony is exposed later... putting aside everything else, they will probably face a storm of retaliation.

The thought of their recent boasting and perjury sent a chill down their spines. As the saying goes, boasting may bring momentary pleasure, but the end result is execution. They feared being surrounded and investigated by a group of people, and who would ultimately become a tragic couple was anyone's guess.

"...Since that's the case, and things have come to this point, we can only—eat first and talk about it later!"

After a brief silence, Hiro made up her mind. In fact, if it weren't for all the strange guys causing trouble, she would have already turned her mind into reality.

"Huh!? Do we have to make it now, here...? As for the soup—" Ze Du Coco was startled and asked in disbelief.

"Forget about being the first to enjoy the meat, so many people have already shared the rabbit meat before, this time the two of them can practically eat it all by themselves! And forget about the 'what if we were supposed to do it all the time but it turned out to be Xiao Chunu' kind of plot hole, just... just do it!" Nikaido Hiro's tone was filled with resolve, a pure (obsessive) resolve that could only be acquired after experiencing great storms and witnessing countless twists and turns!

"Okay, fine...! If you eat rabbit, I'll eat rabbit too! Let's go all out...!"

Zedu Coco finally made up her mind. The ease she had initially felt as a runaway gradually faded during her conversations with the other prospective witches. If she continued to have the 'advantage' in her favor, she feared she might really crash and burn.

"So, Chang Rong... um?" "Onii-chan... huh?"

The two, determined to make it a fait accompli first, turned around only to find that the white-haired boy who should have been beside them had vanished without a trace.

"...Where is he?" "Huh...Onii-chan was just here..."

"Still wearing those headphones? Where are you?!" "I'm nowhere to be found, meow!"

The two who had lost Chang Rong were initially shocked, and then, as if by habit, began to breathe on each other.

The reason why the seemingly unbreakable alliance crumbled at the slightest touch today is: the rabbit got lost.

However, Chang Rong did not actually 'get lost'; rather, he was actually on top of Xi Luo and Coco's heads.

"Hmm... I seem to recognize this place too."

Feeling a bit bored while waiting, Chang Rong went up the stairs not far away to the second floor of the castle while Hiro and Coco chatted.

The second floor retains the castle's classic and luxurious style, but there are far fewer rooms and pieces of furniture compared to the first floor.

"what……"

After leaving the corner of the stairwell, Chang Rong saw a girl in the second-floor corridor.

The petite girl wore a long, dark blue dress with fluffy lace trim. Her long white hair, draped under a blue headband, was as fluffy and open as a sheep's wool. She wore fluffy slippers, held a sketchbook in her arms, and her light purple eyes were unfocused, making her look as if she hadn't woken up yet and might fall asleep on the spot at any moment.

The other party seems to be Natsume Anan, the other "problem child" that Hiro mentioned, who is on par with Hosho Mag.

Chang Rong was unsure how to approach Natsume An'an. Considering Hiro's words and the fact that the dazed An'an seemed not to notice him at all, perhaps it would be better to turn around and leave at this moment?

But... looking at the furry sleepwalking girl not far away, Chang Rong felt a sense of 'owing' something.

If you think about it a little, it's not hard to understand. His younger sister, 'Sawatari Coco', killed Natsume Anan with her own hands in the previous timeline, and the reason was just a murder that didn't exist and was a complete misunderstanding.

In other words, as someone protected by Zedu Coco, I also have to bear some responsibility for what An An went through.

Since that's the case, since that's how it is...

"Um, this is An'an, right? I'm sorry, it seems our little sister did something bad to you before... I'm really sorry...!"

Chang Rong took a deep breath and came to Xia Mu An An's side. Without saying a word, he bowed and apologized.

"...?"

Natsume Anan stared at the scene before her, her previously dazed eyes widening in surprise.

After a brief moment of surprise, Natsume Anan pulled out her sketchbook and quickly scribbled something on it:

[Apologizing for something that didn't even happen upon meeting someone? Are you an idiot?]

"Huh...?!"

Is the very first sentence a sarcastic and venomous remark?!

[But you really do seem to be an idiot, the kind of idiot who gets completely led around.]

"Huh?!"

Aside from making meaningless, silly noises, can't you speak human language? Should we go to the infirmary and get some intelligence-boosting medication? If such a drug even exists.

"Waaaaah...!"

An'an came to apologize with mixed feelings, but Chang Rong defeated her in just three sentences, and she hid in a corner and started shed small pearls.

Now I know why Hiro wouldn't let him get close to An'an, that gloomy and sullen bean sprout girl...!

"Hey, An'an, what are you doing here? Are you sketching?"

After finishing planting the mushrooms and dropping the little pearls in the corner, Chang Rong obediently came back and quietly asked Xia Mu An An why she was here. Judging from her clothes, which resembled high-end pajamas, she didn't seem like the type to go out and run around.

Drawing is Noah's hobby, not ours, you silly dog.

“kiang! {氿O肆刘棋捌+二把？}

I'm not a dog...! I'm at least a rabbit... no, no, that's not right, I'm a Sigma man!

Chang Rong shook her head violently. She had almost been brainwashed and hypnotized by this guy and trapped in his way of thinking. It was terrifying!