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

It's true that petting the cat helps relieve frustration, but Chang Rong also wanted to take the opportunity to learn more about this cat's fussy and difficult nature so that she could address the problem appropriately later.

However, it seems I've accidentally gone too far and messed things up (referring to shutting down the live stream), so I'll probably have to put the keycap correction process on hold.

Moreover, I have more important things to deal with right now.

Chang Rong glanced at the bulging shoulder bag on the desk beside her and thought of it.

"Click-click-click...snap!"

A sound of prying came from the tightly closed door lock, and in less than 3 seconds the study door was turned open, revealing a ghostly floating quilt in the room.

"Um, you should know I'm in the room, right, Kurobe-kun?" Chang Rong put away the bell, sat up from the sofa, and asked the 'Ghost Blanket' while rubbing her eyebrows.

"This is more efficient."

The mysterious female sniper, Nanoha Kurobe, peeked out from the gap in the blankets, wearing her cycling helmet and goggles as always, and responded with a serious expression.

"Generally speaking, only thieves would consider the efficiency of breaking into someone's house... Anyway, thanks for coming."

While thinking that he must ask the warden to change the lock, Chang Rong pulled back the quilt that belonged to Kurobe Nanoha Kaori, spread it on the sofa, and pounced on her with a happy expression of having found what he had lost.

"..."

"So comfortable, so warm, so smooth, oh my god, I'm going to turn into a wooden pillar that only sleeps... What's wrong, Kurobe-kun?" Chang Rong, who was lying on the quilt wriggling like a maggot, noticed that Kurobe Nanoha was standing to the side, looking at him with a serious and nervous expression for some reason.

"...No, does it taste like anything?"

"Smell? Sniff—"

"No, there's no need to smell it...!" Kurobe Nanoha Kaori quickly raised her hand to try to stop Chang Rong, who had buried his head in the quilt.

"It smells like flour or wheat," Chang Rong said, touching his nose after taking an epic deep breath.

"Ah, um... that's fine then."

"?"

I still can't figure out what's going on in this guy's head.

As a chef who has been single for nearly 20 years, Chang Rong naturally couldn't understand the delicate inner thoughts of girls.

[I accidentally covered myself with the wrong blanket last night, and I'm afraid it might have picked up some weird smell when I returned it today] I just can't understand this kind of girlish sentiment.

As far as Chang Rong is concerned, as long as you don't use my sleeping gear to wrap WWII rifles, WWI grenades, 40K bombs, or plasma bombs, making it smell like gunpowder wrapped in oiled paper, I'm already grateful to have something to cover myself with.

The time after dinner is the only time when the shower room has hot water, so it is also the time to prepare for the witches and demons to take a shower.

However, due to the well-known gender issue, after discussion, the time allotted for Chang Rong to shower was fixed at 30 minutes before lights out.

This timeframe seems tight, but normally it should be more than enough.

However, because Noah Kinosaki was clinging to the door and refused to take a shower, she struggled with Hiro Nikaido for a long time but still wouldn't budge. In the end, it was Chang Rong who gave Noah a live demonstration of biting a lighter and creating a fireball to amuse her before finally coaxing her into the shower room.

This resulted in Chang Rong's hot water supply being cut off halfway through her shower, turning her into a cold rabbit head and chilled rabbit meat meal.

Thankfully, Kurobe Nanoha Kaori kept her promise to come over for dinner, and this time she didn't forget anything. Otherwise, Chang Rong would probably have had to sneak into Wisteria Arisa's place to warm up tonight, and also pay homage to Los Angeles at 4 a.m.

"So when you said you needed my help to unlock the door at dinner, what did you mean?"

"Oh, is that so—can you pick this type of lock, Kurobe-kun?"

Chang Rong took out her phone and scrolled through the album, showing the punishment cell door to Kurobe Nanoha Kaori.

"It should be fine, Lin. Actually, in this castle, only the electronic locks on the private cells are difficult to deal with. The locks on the other rooms are all too old and easy to pick. As for the electronic locks on the cells, I used my illusion ability to find the hidden electronic circuitry and short-circuited it to leave the cells during curfew. But that's still a bit troublesome. I'm actually considering moving the base to the hidden warehouse at the back of the castle. That place can effectively avoid the warden's watchful eyes and ears and has ample supplies."

After staring at the picture for a few seconds, Kurobe Nanoka nodded to indicate that she could do it. Then she went on to tell Chang Rong the secrets of the prison island's door lock system, and even went so far as to tell Chang Rong the information about her planned hiding place.

"..."

"What's wrong?" Kurobe Nanoha noticed Chang Rong's dazed look and tilted her head to ask.

"No, no, I'm just a little happy. I didn't expect Kurobe-kun to trust me so much," Chang Rong replied with a smile.

Although he was almost killed by the Black Division at first, mistaking him for someone else, the child was able to see the error of his ways and even regarded him as a comrade-in-arms whom he could entrust with his back and who knew where he was hiding. This rare trust moved Chang Rong quite a bit.

"Trust? I haven't decided to completely trust you yet, and I won't tell you where I'm hiding—my... Ugh!?" Kurobe Nanoha realized something, her pupils instantly contracted, revealing a surprised expression, and then she reached up to touch her back.

Click!

"So you just let it slip?! I thought I'd gained your trust... And hey, don't suddenly pull out a gun and point it at me with that belatedly panicked look on your face! Are you really the type who's obsessed with entrapment but too lazy to even buy a hook?!"

"Selling hooks and all that... I, I already know what that means! Anyway, I have to silence them...!"

"Playing the same joke so many times in a row will get boring, okay?"

At this very moment, just like at that very moment, Chang Rong had lost count of how many times Kurobe Nanoha had shoved her thick, hard thing into his face (?).

As for Chang Rong, she had an expression that said she had already tasted it too many times and should just take it away. She lay down on the sofa with her hands outstretched, adopting a "come on, hit me on the chest!" attitude, just hoping that the Black Division leader would stop her.

"..."

The headband-wearing guard, who had secretly arrived at the study door at some unknown time, watched the farce unfolding inside through the crack in the door. In the end, he simply shook his head, casually closed the door to prevent disturbing the neighbors late at night, and then quietly left.

Volume 1: Chapter 42. Kurobe Nanoha has requested to team up with you.

"Forget what you said before."

"Before? What did you say?"

"This is the passage where I plan to move from the prison to a hidden warehouse behind the castle, which will serve as our new base."

"That's not how the script went, ma'am! Or am I really going to Facebook today? You might as well just give me a straight answer!"

"Feeling good? What do you mean..."

"What I mean is, you're invincible, really, Kurobe-kun."

On their way to the punishment room on the lower level, Chang Rong, carrying a shoulder bag, chatted with Kurobe Nanoha about how she felt she was about to turn into a witch.

If I had to describe Kurobe Nanoha in one sentence, to put it bluntly, it would be "high ability, low intelligence".

Calling it 'intelligence' isn't quite right. In fact, Chang Rong could see from many places that Kurobe Nanoha Kaori did indeed possess greater intelligence than Nikaido Hiro.

For example, the reason the two of them can move around freely in the prison is because Kurobe Nanoha used [Illusion Magic] to obtain the guards' patrol routes and patrol schedules.

She was still upset about the incident last night when she attacked Chang Rong and almost exposed that she was being guarded at Chuan Chuan Xiang. So, early this morning, she went everywhere looking for intelligence that could help her discover and predict the guards' regular patrol patterns.

For example, her ability to immediately crack the electronic lock on the cell and obtain the weapon 'simple spear' proves that Kurobe Nanohaka possesses the highest level of action, decisiveness, intelligence, and survival skills among all the prospective witches.

However, she herself always makes all sorts of mistakes and even acts out of naivety and absurdity, and her interpersonal skills also seem immature and awkward, which seems completely out of place with her abilities.

This feeling is like a young girl whose mind is not yet fully mature, who has been given power, either willingly or unwillingly, that she cannot yet skillfully control.

"【False Evidence】: Speaking of which, Kurobe-kun, are you getting used to living alone in a cell? It must be quite troublesome without anyone looking after you, right? I heard you're not quite used to the pace of life here?"

Chang Rongqi casually made up an umbrella with a non-existent "I've heard" story, trying to confirm his three dead guesses by listening to the quotations from Kurobe Nanoha.

"That's not true. I'm not a child anymore, and I don't need anyone to take care of me..."

"But I heard from Miss that you forgot to bring a towel when you went to take a shower?"

This is not false evidence. Because of the experience of being forced to pour ice water on the rabbit head due to the time limit today, Chang Rong has made a deep grudge against all the witches who delayed their showers and added them to the Book of Hatred. Kurobe Nanoha Kaoru, who wasted time by 'forgetting to bring toiletries', is also on the list.

"That's because my older sister used to always—well, I don't want to talk about this."

Seeing Kurobe Nanoha's serious and excited rebuttal, only to stop halfway through, Chang Rong vaguely guessed the girl's situation.

[Clue: 'Big Sister'] [Clue: 'Clumsy in daily life'] [Clue: 'I don't need anyone to take care of me']

That's right, connecting all the clues will lead to the undeniably 'correct' answer.

Nanoha Kurobe – a complete idiot who can't do anything right without someone taking care of her!

The person taking care of her must be the 'older sister' who just let it slip.

Thinking about it this way, the 'hehe' sounds she made last night when the two of them were huddled on the sofa hiding from the guards shouldn't have been the Soul Palace's strange laughter, but rather a hallucination of her sister.

If we view Kurobe Nanoka as a girl who is used to being taken care of, but for some reason has to start trying to live on her own, and although she has learned various survival skills, she still has not been able to get used to living independently, then many of her contradictory behaviors can be easily resolved.

The remaining question is, what happened to Kurobe Nanoha's 'older sister'?

"—Waaah"

A long-lost tingling sensation returned to Chang Rong's head, but this pain only reinforced her theory.

Whenever I actively or passively obtain some 'fragments' related to the past, I feel a sharp pain in my head.

There is definitely a reason that can be clearly explained for the sense of déjà vu that this body evokes in the black-haired twin-tailed girl in front of me.

The only problem is... it seems that every cell in 'myself' is resisting, resisting finding this reason.

Unfortunately, the protest was ineffective.

The 'Chang Rong' standing here now is Chang Rong. He wants to live a shameless, sweet, and youthful love life with the girls, so he must understand what happened before. Not even the obstruction of 'this body's' previous owner can stop him.

That's right, anyone who tries to stop me from reaching the world of Galakram, even if they're a god, I'll show them what I'm made of!

This is one of the reasons why Chang Rong invited Kurobe Nanoha to stand at the entrance of the punishment room corridor at this moment; he wanted to learn more about himself from Tachibana Sherry.

“If there are prisoners in the punishment room, the guards will check on you every 3 hours. In other words, you have 2 hours and 30 minutes, and then you have to leave.”

"There should be plenty of time. As expected of Nanoha Kaori, she's incredibly reliable when she can be. (And incredibly reliable when she can't be either.)"

"...I'll take it as a compliment for now, but such sweet talk means nothing to me. In any case, I won't lift the surveillance on you because of this; you're still highly suspicious... Even if you praise me like this, it won't make a difference."

Naoka Kurobe coughed as she turned her head to respond.

—Huh? It seems like Kurobe is more susceptible to this than Tono Hannah?

Chang Rong, seemingly having unexpectedly discovered a new continent, became eager to try it out. He immediately grabbed Kurobe Nanoha's bandaged left hand with both hands and spoke with an extremely sincere attitude:

"No, it's true! Oh, Lord Kurobe... Nobody knows how skilled you are at lock picking, nobody knows how powerful your illusion magic is... If it weren't for Kurobe, Watashi!"

"I won't help you for no reason, don't flatter yourself... This is just repaying a favor from last night..."

Faced with Chang Rong's sincere praise, Kurobe Nanoha pulled her left hand back and then pulled her hat down to cover her eyes. Although her words were cold, her tone was like a kettle about to boil, and she dared not meet Chang Rong's gaze at all.

If you were to seriously praise Nikaido Hiro, she would simply nod indifferently to indicate that her behavior was 'correct,' and there was no need for further praise.

If it were Tono Hannah, the young lady would realize that this was flattery, but she would still pretend to be reserved while actually accepting it happily.

As for Kurobe Nanoka—she seems to really enjoy the feeling of helping others and being thanked by them.

"In short, I don't know what your purpose is in trying to get along with everyone, including Sawatari Coco and Tachibana Sherry, but there is one thing I have to tell you."

Nanoha Kurobe shook her head to calm herself down, then returned to her usual feignedly cold and indifferent demeanor.