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

"Uh huh huh!?"

Marg said with a smile, then took the muffin from the plate in the pathetic loser's hand and put it in her mouth.

"Hehe, it really is—cough cough cough…so salty…a weird taste that’s both salty and sweet…!"

Marge's nonchalant expression vanished instantly. Her flustered appearance, with a flushed face, coughing, and furrowed brows, actually revealed a cute side of her that she would never normally show.

"Ahem... You've outmaneuvered me, Brother Chang Rong, how did you do that—"

"Salty? Impossible, absolutely impossible! Cough cough cough—it's so salty it's cloying! What on earth is going on!?"

"...Eh?" Baosheng Mag's bewildered expression became even more pronounced. The reason was simple: Chang Rong, who had thought he was in a superior position in this battle of wits, immediately showed an even more confused and shocked expression after taking a bite of the pancake.

"Could it be... Waaah! They mixed salt and sugar together and put them all in the spice jar! And it's not just salt and sugar, they even mixed mirin with rice vinegar, and the soy sauce even contained cola... and it's flat!"

Chang Rong hurriedly went to check the condiment station, and to her surprise, almost all the condiments were mixed together. Because the pancake seasoning only used 'white sugar', Chang Rong hadn't noticed anything unusual before.

Upon realizing this, Chang Rong's forehead veins bulged instantly, and he rushed out of the kitchen and into the dining room.

"Hey! Kitchen condiment station—"

"No, no, no... Noah reported it, it was An'an who did it!" "What, what did we do!?"

Chang Rong had barely arrived at the restaurant and hadn't even spoken when Shirosaki Noah suddenly exploded like a balloon, startling Natsume An'an who was standing nearby, leaving her completely bewildered.

"Noah!" Although Mag could outwit Noah in a battle of wits, Chang Rong handled the little balloon with ease. Almost the instant their eyes met, Noah couldn't withstand the pressure and confessed that he was a suspect.

“Yes, I’m sorry, Noah… I wanted to cook for Rongrong yesterday too, but I didn’t know the specific uses of many of the seasonings. Also, I saw in the comics that the seasonings and ingredients in everyone’s cooking could fly in by themselves. As a result, although the seasonings flew up, they all mixed together, and some of them simply flew away and never came back… The sugar and salt got mixed up because I accidentally spilled them, so I could only put them back mixed together, Noah…”

Noah, who had been caught, lowered his head and muttered to himself while fiddling with his hands.

"Honestly, even if you want to learn to cook, you should at least find someone to teach you! As punishment, Noah, your pancakes for breakfast today didn't have maple syrup... No, that's a bit too harsh a punishment. In that case, Noah, you have to eat all the vegetables for lunch!"

"Noah doesn't like green peppers..."

"Well, in that case... never mind, I'll forgive Noah this time."

Chang Rong hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to forgive Noah. After all, the child knew he was wrong, so a token forgiveness would suffice. Our Noah is so well-behaved; he must have fully realized his mistake!

"Hehehe, Noah loves Rongrong the most... Hey, Rongrong, don't be angry, come and have a glass of water."

Noah smiled sweetly at Chang Rong with an innocent and romantic smile, then handed her a small water cup.

Because the warden had said, "Mr. Chang Rong, please don't always focus on torturing me, can you occasionally torture someone else, okay...?", Chang Rong could only use "I'm not thirsty yet, we'll talk about it after dinner" as an excuse to brush it off.

After teaching Noah Kinosaki a lesson with the hardcore, brutal, and violent methods of a Super Sigma man, Chang Rong was about to go back to the kitchen to deal with the messed-up seasonings when Mag appeared in the dining room from the kitchen.

"You have to accept the consequences of your bet~ Hey Chang Rong, please feel free to use this body of mine as you please—Noah, my innocence is all thanks to you, and it's about to be taken away... Hehe, isn't that cruel~?"

"Nono nono nono!?"

Hosho Mag gave Noah Kinosaki a wicked smile, while Noah, completely bewildered, could only yell, "There's a cow!" before exploding and shattering.

"I didn't say what body I was going to use!?"

"How could you be so heartless, Brother Chang Rong... Don't you really remember what happened between us in the infirmary back then?" Marg teased, and the bloodthirsty witches around them instantly caught on and crowded around.

"Eh?! Could it be that Mag won the DPS championship?!" "DPS what the hell?! You gorilla girl!" "Mag-chan... if it's the mysterious Mag-chan, maybe it really is..." "Waaah... Miss Mag, I, I always thought you were a good girl..."

The crowd started chattering amongst themselves, once again cornering Chang Rong against the wall.

Although Margot prides herself on being a con artist, the undisguised shyness on her face when she said those words instantly convinced all the prospective witches of the truth in her statement.

"So, that's why it was like that at that time..." Chang Rong broke out in a cold sweat. He knew he was no match for Mag in eloquence, especially since many of them were already fans of Vanilla and he just needed a declaration of war.

If Mag really gets into trouble like this, who knows how things will end up?

Under everyone's gaze, Marge, with a slight blush on her cheeks, chuckled softly and spoke:

"Back then you were very rough, like a wild beast—rubbing my head, didn't you?"

……

"So, uh... is that all? Just a head rub?" Kurobe Nanoha blinked, her voice trembling with disbelief as she tugged at her older sister's arm, and asked Hosho Mag.

"Oh dear...? This kind of strange and subtle atmosphere, don't you all think that being suddenly patted on the head by a strange boy is too intimate and radical?" Baosheng Mag tilted his head. Doesn't he think that being suddenly placed on his head and gently patted is very Silverlight-like?

"...Tsk, I've been tricked twice in one day, you bastard!" Arisa clicked her tongue in annoyance, and then the people who had gathered around by the smell scattered all at once.

Even the most innocent version of Arisa Fujiwara thinks the 'head pat' is just plain ridiculous, which shows that there is indeed a numerical inflation mechanism on Witch Island.

"Um, if it's something like a head pat, that's fine anytime, Mag?" Chang Rong leaned closer to Bao Sheng Mag, smiling as she raised her hand to ask if he wanted a hair-smoothing service.

"...No, no need."

Baosheng Mag hesitated for a moment, then looked away, deciding it was better not to engage in such inappropriate adult behavior so early in the morning.

----------

Thanks to Chenguang Moxin for the helpful tip, I'm going to buy some peanuts now.

Thank you to Brother Ascart Ω Admirel Fish Cat for the food!

217. Master? Owner?

"By the way, speaking of which—the translation of ancient texts in witchcraft is almost complete."

"Oh, Margot-chan, could you please pass me the syrup? Wait, what?"

In the restaurant, after delivering the pancake breakfast to the still-lying-down Hero (Cocoa was fed by the uncle), Emma Sakura returned and chatted casually with Mag Hosho.

After all, he was just a nobody who even found patting his head a sign of affection, so he probably wouldn't have anything important to say. Thinking this, Emma Sakura belatedly realized that what Marg had just said seemed to be something quite serious.

"Is the translation almost finished, Margot?"

Upon hearing this, Chang Rong, who was wiping An An's lips, immediately came over.

In the previous timeline, Mag ended filming early, leaving behind only a small part of the 'translation of unfamiliar texts' ideas, which slowed down the progress of the translation of ancient books.

Later, the ancient book itself was directly destroyed in the tragedy caused by Nanoha Kaori's hallucination rampage, and it was never successfully deciphered until the end.

In the current timeline, Marge suddenly says that the translation is almost finished, which naturally makes Chang Rong extremely curious and excited.

"Well, thanks to you lying in the infirmary, everyone was busy trying to take care of you. With no one bothering me, the translation progressed much faster. In short, what we know about the [Witch Summoning Ritual] is that the ritual requires 13 'summoners,' which is exactly the number of our prospective witches each year."

Marg smiled and looked around. Leaving aside the two who were still resting and hadn't arrived yet, the number of prospective witches on this witch island was just right for Meruru's selection of candidates for each witch trial.

"I... I don't know... I actually prefer the number to be under ten, at least that would be easier to keep track of... No, but considering the efficiency of finding the Great Witch, perhaps 100 trainee witches at a time would be better...? No, no, that won't work, we wouldn't be able to make enough clothes...!"

Everyone looked at Meruru, who then demonstrated through her actions that she wasn't a brilliant strategist who was pretending to be weak while secretly plotting the whole thing, but was simply pretending to be weak while eating feed.

"In addition, it seems that the start of the ceremony requires a 'key,' and that key is the ruby ​​longsword in this picture, which looks very beautiful."

Baosheng Mag pointed to a picture in the ancient book. The girl in the picture was holding a strangely shaped longsword. Although the color could not be seen on the yellowed pages of the ancient book, the book described her as "as beautiful as a ruby".

"Hehe, I don't know why, but I feel like I'm very familiar with this sword."

"Waaah, that sword must have been a decoration that's been here for a long time. I put it away because it looked very valuable... And it does feel very familiar..."

Both Baosheng Mag and Ice Meluru seemed to be very 'familiar' with this ruby ​​longsword, clearly having had heart-to-heart talks about it.

"I really like this sword. I feel like it can shut up those noisy, hypocritical, and clumsy guys right away~?"

"I...I don't like this sword..."

Even after the second phase of the memories were revisited, some of them remained, which can be clearly seen from the different perspectives of Meruru and Mag.

"I understand. I'll go get this." Chang Rong interrupted the first pair of star-crossed lovers in the second playthrough, indicating that she could go and bring the ceremonial sword.

"Huh...? Lord Changrong, do you know where this sword is kept?" Ice Meluru blinked and asked.

"After all, I'm quite familiar with the basement area; it's my initial spawn point, after all."

"Oh, I see..."

As everyone knows, every time you rewind, an old popsicle will respawn in the basement, which is in some ways a more familiar place to Chang Rong than the infirmary.

"Going to the basement? Hey, take me with you, take me with you, Watson!"

Suddenly, Shirley Tachibana raised her hand and eagerly applied to join the firepower squad. Indeed, Shirley had quite a connection with the underground cryogenic chamber.

After all—this is the story you started, Sherry! (Refers to punching Chang Rong out of the freezer)

"No need, Sherry. The elevators there have a very complicated capacity limit, so the more people there are, the less convenient it becomes. Besides, there are sophisticated instruments everywhere there; if you punch someone, you might cause a blue screen crash."

Chang Rong shook his head and rejected Tachibana Sherry's application to join the team. Part of his reason was made up on the spot, such as the elevator.

While the number of people is indeed limited, such a limitation can simply be addressed by moving the goods in batches.

Unless you're saying someone will take advantage of the time spent waiting for the elevator to pull off a double kill, blowing up the team's glue in this playthrough and killing everyone in the process, then I can only say you're ridiculous.

The main reason is that the underground cryogenic chamber is indeed a bit dangerous. The witches who transformed into remains are sealed in airtight containers, and encountering 'Hannah's Explosive Fist' might lead to unexpected situations. In fact, 'Nana's' remains escaped in this way before.

"Ugh... what's going on? Watson, are you going by yourself?" Sherry Tachibana, who had been rejected, asked with a dissatisfied expression.

"Of course not, at least someone needs to look after us—but I've already decided on someone, and naturally, Meruru will need to help us out."

"Eh...? Me, me, Lord Changrong? You, you're planning to take me to that deserted place and then do all sorts of things to me...!"

Melu was stunned for a moment. She had never thought that she would be chosen by Chang Rong. After pinching her cheek to confirm that this was not a fantasy, Melu immediately started to imagine the various thrilling interactive games that would happen in the empty basement.

"Don't worry, whatever you're thinking right now, Meruru, it's absolutely impossible for it to come true," Chang Rong said with a smile.

"Waaaaah...!!" Meruru instantly descended in her true form, dropping countless little pearls.

—I'm sorry, Meruru, but I have something important to discuss with you.

Although Chang Rong had promised Coco-chan to maintain the status quo for the time being and not let the situation become increasingly chaotic, she still felt that at least one person should know about her 'regained memories,' and that was Meluru on Ice.

The witch trial of the past must be brought to a close, whether it's myself, Meruru, or my sister... Although everyone is now living in a hard-won 'peace', a part of their souls is still trapped in that witch trial that ended inconclusively.

In order to face the unknown future, we must give an account of the past no matter what—that is why Chang Rong wanted to invite Meruru to join us.

"Um... well... no, it's nothing. I guess I'm just overestimating myself..."

On the other side, when Arisa Fujito heard that Meruru was her companion, she first showed a confused expression, and then immediately shyly hid her head in the protection of her hood and mask, trying to hide the embarrassing scene of 'taking it for granted to stand on the podium, only to find out that she was disappointed to be eliminated'.

—I'm sorry, Arisa, but this time we really don't need your magic as a heat source. Get some rest.

In the previous playthrough, Arisa joined the Icebreaker team as a human-shaped hand warmer and successfully activated her second phase mode in the basement.

Although Arisa found her ideal of being a Yamato Nadeshiko (ideal Japanese woman) ahead of time this time, she was unable to get the chance to be chosen and favored again.

After all, I conquered the Dark Master right from the start this time and unlocked administrator privileges. Don't say that the underground freezer is too cold to explore. That's just a matter of Meruru and the Warden saying a word!

If Chang Rong wanted, he could even have Meruru completely thaw the underground freezer, but then he'd be chased and beaten up by a bunch of seasoned veterans like Andy Lau crawling out from underground.

"Then Meruru and I will go and fetch the longsword needed for the summoning ritual—"