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

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Thanks to Guichen for the sudden, unexpected attack.

Thanks to Xiaoqiqi·Book Guest 102546 for the donation.

205. Meruru's Witch Slayer

The evening dinner time is one of the few times when the aspiring witches on Witch Island can gather together. The girls will get together to chat about what they did that day, ask about the progress of deciphering the ancient witch's book, think about how to pass the time tomorrow, imagine how to return to life after leaving here, and also subtly ask Chang Rong if she needs to choose someone to serve her tonight.

In the seemingly harmonious, peaceful, and joyful atmosphere, a girl with long blonde hair and dressed in a pure white nun's habit seemed somewhat out of place.

"Where did you go, Meruru? We've been looking for you everywhere, but we haven't seen you anywhere."

"Um, that...that...I, I just..."

Hasumi Ryoa asked with some curiosity, while Meruru looked like she was sitting on pins and needles, stammering and not knowing how to respond.

"How suspicious! You're not up to something again, are you...?" Ze Du Ke Ke stared at the 'big-breasted senile woman' and suspiciously questioned this shady lady if she was up to something again.

"No, no! How could I possibly have any crazy ideas...! I just, I just—picked some flower tea for everyone and made some drinks."

Meru on the ice was so angry at Zetsu Coco that she almost dropped her little pearl again. She responded helplessly, and then, as if she had finally made up her mind, she suddenly stood up from the table.

"Um... everyone...!"

Meruru, who usually appears timid, suddenly stepped forward to be the 'eyeball,' and the restaurant instantly fell silent. Everyone looked at the nun with curiosity and scrutiny.

"Waaaaah... So many eyes... I, I'm really bad at dealing with this kind of situation, waaaah..."

Just being stared at like that was enough to kill Meruru. But she still mustered her courage and awkwardly walked to the front of the group, taking out a jar filled with floral scents.

"I... I picked some flowers that can be used to make tea today, and I also asked the warden to get some tea leaves and fresh fruit through special channels. This is my specially made honey fruit flower tea. If you don't mind, please... please try it. I'm still a little confident that it should... taste very good."

Meruru held up the jar and spoke timidly to the crowd.

"What's the point of suddenly doing this?" Hiro frowned. She didn't know much about Meruru on Ice, but even so, Meruru's behavior at this moment was quite abnormal.

"I...I wanted to formally apologize to everyone...Although I was exposed as the mastermind, no, you didn't judge me, but allowed me to continue living. I...I wanted to express my gratitude to everyone, and I also wanted to apologize to everyone...That's why I wanted to do it this way—"

The jellyfish tried to explain, sounding tearful, and everyone was even a little worried that it would die of dehydration from losing its little pearls before its motives could be explained.

"Well, Meruru-chan said it was an apology or something, but..." Emma Sakura's expression was somewhat subtle. In fact, for Emma, ​​or rather for almost all the 'prospective witches', they were unaware of Meruru's evil deeds as the mastermind, and had not even experienced much of Meruru's various wicked little schemes as a veteran mastermind.

If we had to pick one person who was most severely hurt by Meruru during this retrospective, it would probably be Chang Rong, who was tormented by Meruru's selection of horror movies and also suffered a nervous breakdown from Meruru's various 18G remarks.

Since people cannot truly understand Meruru's 'evil deeds,' they naturally don't know how to respond to this abrupt request for forgiveness.

Therefore, after a brief exchange of glances, everyone turned their attention to Hiro and Coco. After all, they were the only ones among all the prospective witches who knew Meruru's true nature.

"Ha... You haven't really caused much trouble lately. I heard you even helped out as a temporary healer before. And from the perspective of finding the Great Witch, your goal is at least temporarily aligned with ours, so—if we're just talking about the present, I'll choose to forgive you, Meluru Ice."

Hiro rubbed his forehead and reluctantly accepted Meruru's confession for the time being.

"Waaaaah, Miss Hiro...!"

"Hey! I've forgiven you, but I have no intention of trying this drink that was suddenly served out of the blue!" Ze Du Coco said, breathing heavily on the side.

"Guan, about this... I really just wanted to treat everyone... Well, how about I drink first?"

Upon hearing Coco's question, Meruru quickly poured herself a cup of fruit tea, picked up the cup, and put it in her mouth.

"Hmm... indeed, it tastes even better with fruit and honey..." Meruru raised a large glass, then shyly revealed a smile of enjoyment.

"Let me try some too, Meruru." Chang Rong raised her glass, expressing her trust in Meruru in this way, and it was definitely not because she was just looking at it with longing.

"Me too...!" Sakura Emma quickly followed suit. She had always hoped that everyone could get along well, and this opportunity was truly rare. It was definitely not because she was greedy.

"Hehehe, it's sweet, even better than sleeping pills...!" Noah had already dipped his finger in it and put it in his mouth.

"This, this smell...!" Arisa Fujito suddenly showed a surprised expression, and everyone immediately asked what was wrong.

"Wow, this is delicious... even better than the Pink Claw!" Arisa's eyes widened. It was just a mixture of flower petals, fruit, and tea leaves, yet it was so incredibly delicious!

"You guys are really... Fine, then I'll try some too... Damn, it's actually quite delicious... But it seems to have an alcoholic taste. Oh well, anyway, it's really delicious..." In the end, even Ze Du Ke Ke reluctantly succumbed to temptation.

"Waaaaah... Thank, thank you so much for forgiving me..."

"I have no intention of forgiving you, meow! Also, get me a larger cup!" Ze Du Coco quickly retorted, blushing, then shyly turned her head away to indicate that she should be given a larger cup and filled to the brim.

"Hehehe, okay, okay, please drink slowly, everyone—"

"【Coo coo coo... Lady Meruru, for some reason, the entire door frame of the confessional has suddenly been removed. We need to get funding approved for the repairs. Thank you for your help, coo coo...】"

Meruru happily poured tea for everyone, but the warden suddenly flapped his wings and flew over, giving a report with a somewhat helpless expression on his face.

"Waaaaah...!? Why, why was it demolished!? Well, there's not much of that solid wood left..." Meruru, who had been smiling, instantly turned back into a jellyfish.

"Hey, why is that? Even Sherlock Holmes is pondering this question!" "Hey my foot!!"

The suspect standing nearby made a cute, endearing sound.

"Waaaaah, I... I'll go check the extent of the damage. If it's been too long, even restoration magic won't be able to completely fix it..."

Meruru put down the fruit tea can and ran out of the restaurant crying.

Once Meruru on the ice was out of everyone's sight, she immediately stopped and cast a restoration spell on herself.

"Ugh...!!"

A flash of green light appeared, and the liquid she had just drunk flowed out of her throat, leaving some residue even in her eyes and nostrils, making Meruru look rather 'miserable'.

"Waaah, it turned out like this, but... this should be alright, right..."

Meruru wiped her cheeks and then leaned against the wall.

"【Coo coo coo... Although this kind of question is overstepping boundaries... But Lady Meruru, what exactly are you doing?】" The owl next to him tilted its head.

"Hehe... Of course, we're cleaning up witches, just like we always do, aren't we?"

Meruru on the ice smiled in response to the warden, her expression appearing so holy, innocent, and pure.

A few minutes later, the once somewhat noisy restaurant fell into complete silence. Ice Meluru entered the restaurant, glanced at the aspiring witches, then went straight to Chang Rong's side, gently carried the equally silent boy on her back, and slowly walked towards the goblin chamber outside the castle.

—While I don't expect the other guards to be able to control it, just buying some time would be enough…

Meruru led Chang Rong back to the bedroom. She carefully placed the boy on the bed, then knelt by the bed and made a praying gesture towards Chang Rong.

Since the 'Holy Child' awakened, Meru on Ice no longer needed to pray like this. However, today she committed the sin of killing a witch once again, which forced her to clasp her hands together once more and pray for her own peace.

A deathly silence hung over the room until the cool moonlight streamed in through the window, at which point Meru slowly rose to her feet.

At this moment, the nun in pure white had an incredibly firm expression; she had made up her mind and made her choice.

On the ice, Meruru gently placed her hand on front of Chang Rong, and a faint emerald light slowly shone forth—

"Pfft cough cough cough—!?"

"Waaaaah... Your Highness, you...you're finally awake...!! Please, please have some water first!"

Chang Rong sprang up from the bed as if she had choked on water, while Mei Lulu immediately wiped Chang Rong's mouth and nose with a tissue and then handed her a water glass.

"Um, sorry Meruru... um... what's going on? Wasn't I having dinner at a restaurant...?"

Startled awake, Chang Rong took the water glass, suppressed the drool, looked around in a daze, and asked Meruru what had happened.

"Um... Chang Rong-san, don't you remember at all? After dinner, someone went into the witches' wine cellar. Everyone just wanted to try it out, but they ended up drinking too much, especially Chang Rong-san. To protect me, she was forced to drink three bottles of red wine... Waaah, I'm sorry, I'm so useless...!"

"Uh...uh? Is that so...but my head is really foggy...Is everyone drunk?" Chang Rong rubbed his head, and he did feel dizzy. He had never experienced a hangover and didn't know if this feeling was a manifestation of drinking too much and blacking out.

"None of them will wake up..."

"How much did they drink?! This is such an ominous saying!" Chang Rong was sobered up quite a bit from the fright.

"Waaah! I'm so sorry... I gave them some hangover medicine, they should recover soon..." Meruru quickly changed her tune, saying that everyone was actually fine and would be better after a good night's sleep.

"Seriously, isn't it illegal for minors to drink alcohol, and they all drank too much... But it doesn't really have any legal effect on Witch Island anyway—ugh, my head is still a little fuzzy," Chang Rong complained softly.

"Since that's the case, Chang Rong-san, would you like to pick some flower petals with me? Just... how about it help with sobering up? Besides, Chang Rong-san promised me... right?" Ice Meruru asked softly, looking at Chang Rong with a mixture of nervousness and anticipation.

"Hmm—no problem, thank you for taking care of everyone, Meruru." Chang Rong only thought for a moment before readily accepting Meruru's invitation, and then smiled as she rubbed the jellyfish in front of her to express her gratitude.

"No, don't say that, Your Highness...!" Meruru waved her hands in a panic, as if she hadn't done anything at all and had been mistaken for a good person.

After leaving the goblin chamber, the silvery moonlight shone on the castle's perimeter. Witch's Island was far from the town, with no other light sources to influence it; one could see the dazzling Milky Way and stars without squinting.

At the same time, because it was late at night, everything was incredibly quiet. Apart from the sound of the breeze blowing through the flowers, everything was so quiet that Chang Rong even had the illusion that the whole world consisted of only him and Meruru.

"It feels so...so amazing, Chang Rong-san!" Meruru couldn't contain her smile as she put her hands on her chest and exclaimed to Chang Rong with great joy.

“Yeah, I’ve never experienced picking flower petals late at night before… It doesn’t feel so bad,” Chang Rong replied, following behind Meruru.

"This is a red five-petaled flower; it makes a sweet tea and can even help with colds. This is a purple morning glory; although it's bitter, it smells wonderful! That's a white triangular-leaved flower; it can't be used to make tea, but if you chop it up and make aromatherapy, it can be calming—"

"...At least remember the names, right?" Chang Rong complained awkwardly after listening to Meruru excitedly reciting the names of the dishes, only to hear a bunch of adjectives.

"Well, even if you can't remember the name, it's still quite vivid! At least Miss Arisa successfully made the sachet based on my description, right?"

On the ice, Meruru rarely showed a sullen expression. She waved her hands and retorted softly, "Even an illiterate person without culture can find the correct flower in my naming method!"

"That's what they say..."

"Ah, this is a four-leaf clover! It doesn't have much value, but I heard it's a symbol of good luck—Chang Rong-san, please, please accept this good fortune…!"

On the ice, Meruru suddenly spotted a green leaf with four petals. She carefully picked it and handed it to Chang Rong.

"Thank you, Meruru. But now that I've been blessed with good luck, I should be able to find another piece soon. It'll be my turn to give you the next one."

Chang Rong took the four-leaf clover and pinned it to her chest. Then she bent down and plunged into the pile of flowers and grass, preparing to find one for Meruru as well.

"Waaah, no, you don't have to do this, Chang Rong-san...!" Meruru hurriedly followed, trying to dissuade Chang Rong in a flustered manner.

The two chatted and fiddled with the flowers in the moonlit flower field, occasionally punctuated by Chang Rong's complaints: "Why are there only 3 petals again! Shouldn't 3 petals make 4 petals?!"

“Um… Chang Rong-san…”

After an unknown amount of time, on the ice, Meruru stroked a red flower, a smile on her lips, and softly called Chang Rong's name.

"What's wrong, Meruru?"

“I’m so happy. The way everyone is so noisy and chaotic, and occasionally causing trouble... reminds me of the time when the Great Witches still lived on the island, and sometimes... it’s even more interesting than that.”

Meruru closed her eyes slightly and spoke softly.

"But... ever since the Great Witch decided to take revenge on humanity, I haven't been able to stroll through the flower fields with her like this... It's as if the Great Witch has become a different person; she hasn't smiled at me since. I... I even wonder if the Great Witch truly considers me family? Or... am I just... one of these random flowers in the flower field?"

On the ice, Meruru twisted off the stem, held the bright red flower in the middle of a long white silk glove, and slowly crushed it, letting the scarlet juice soak into the glove.

"Those questions... have no answers. And they're no longer important. Because—I'm no longer qualified to answer them."