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

"What the hell are you guys doing...!?"

Listening to everyone's 'judgment', Chang Rong didn't even have time to figure out what was going on before she was already being branded as the most evil and desperate person in the history of Witch Island, Sun Xiaochuan.

Didn't we agree to come and interrogate Xiaoxue? Why are you interrogating me?!

Finally, after hearing his own list of crimes and being told he would be subjected to "seven days of Five Finger Mountain suppression (exposing his buttocks)" as punishment, Chang Rong hurriedly shouted "Court adjourned!" and then fled in panic.

Because the ceremony abruptly ended, everyone eventually left the courtroom in twos and threes, each with their own thoughts. Among them, Meruru originally wanted to stick with Chang Rong, but was suddenly called away by the warden.

"Hmm... what should we do now?" Coco squinted and rubbed her eyebrows, asking Chang Rong and Xi Luo beside her.

“Anyway, I’ll go ask Mag again later… But it’s not good to keep entrusting such an important task to her all the time; we can’t put all the pressure on her. Perhaps that’s why she made the wrong translation. Anyway, let’s try to relieve Mag’s pressure a little. She must be the one who blames herself the most for the failed ceremony,” Chang Rong sighed.

"Feeling guilty..." Hiro looked thoughtful, but before she could say anything more, Meruru, who had been called away earlier, suddenly ran over, panting heavily.

"No, no, no, this is terrible, this is terrible—Lord Changrong…!!"

"What's wrong, Mei Lulu?" Chang Rong quickly hugged Mei Lulu to prevent her from falling, and while helping Mei Lulu calm down and catch her breath, she asked what happened.

"I, I, I...we...we have to—we have to start killing each other right now...!"

"...?"

Hearing Meruru's words, everyone was stunned for a moment.

Is this jellyfish acting up again?

-

10,000 chapters added today, still 3.5 chapters to go (9-5.5=19)

If all goes well, the bounty for the February Lunar New Year will be officially paid off tomorrow.

What? If you want to do it, you can do it, right? That's amazing!

230. The witches who are trying to live with their regrets for the rest of their lives.

"We...we have to find a way to fight each other...!"

Hearing Meruru's extremely anxious words, everyone was stunned for a moment.

"I knew this girl was up to no good! Sure enough, she's acting up again, plotting to be the mastermind behind the witch trial! All that love she showed me before was just a facade, an act! Onii-chan, for my sake, hurry up and use the witch-slayer potion on her!"

Sawatari Coco was the first to come to her senses, while Hakimi immediately bristled and hissed at Meruru, as Ichibanme's memories were reawakened.

"No... no, Miss Coco... I can ignore everything else, but this love I have for Lord Changrong is absolutely real and unadulterated... In fact, Lord Changrong is someone far more important than my own life..."

Faced with Coco's questioning, Meru Himeko revealed a yandere-like expression and breathed heavily as she whispered, looking like a fanatic completely engrossed in something.

"Waaaaah... This, this guy... is he not satisfied with just the nun/dark-skinned/masochistic/obsessed persona anymore? Is he even starting to add the 'female-centric/yandere' tag to the mix? What kind of monster are you trying to create... Ice Meluru!"

Sawatari Coco was terrified by Meruru's overly dramatic statement, while Nikaido Hiro, who was beside her, was much calmer when facing Meruru.

After all, in the 'first timeline' where Meruru shines, Hiro is completely detached from the plot and doesn't understand anything, so she doesn't care too much about Meruru's secret identity.

"Stop messing around... What's with that? Why are we suddenly starting to fight each other?"

Hiro sighed and asked helplessly, rubbing her forehead with one hand. Although she didn't have much PTSD about Meruru's 'behind-the-scenes' identity, she was well aware of the jellyfish-like nature of this guy, and guessed that the negotiations ahead wouldn't be easy.

"Well, um... it's like this, I just suddenly remembered that I've been so busy absorbing Lord Chang Rong's—I mean, busy managing all the affairs of Witch Island—that I forgot to coordinate with 'the other side.' The warden just reminded me that I haven't submitted any reports in a long time. Because of the lack of reports, the other side has started to suspect that something went wrong during this witch trial and is planning to investigate further..."

Meruru frantically tried to explain the situation, but everyone was still somewhat confused.

"Hmm... does 'the other side' refer to government agencies?" Chang Rong asked, resting his chin on his hand, while Meruru nodded vigorously.

"No, that's right...! Actually, Witch Island has been in a semi-abandoned state since the Great Witch left. The fact that it can be put back into use like this is thanks to the assistance of human national agencies, which have provided a lot of resources... including the food, clothing, and living supplies, which are regularly delivered by sea from the mainland. The prospective witches were also screened and transported to this island by the national agencies."

"It's fair to say that without the help from the other side, I probably would never be able to get Witch Island back to normal operation on my own... However, as a price, I also have to regularly contact and exchange intelligence with the other side's government agencies."

Meruru lowered her head and explained with some helplessness. For Meruru, she had always lived as a witch. Her former home had fallen into ruin and she had to rely on the power of the 'culprit' to restore it. This matter probably caused Meruru some resentment.

"So, state agencies are interfering with the witch trial project... Hmm, that's not surprising at all." Hiro snorted coldly. To be able to carry out such large-scale imprisonment, unless state agencies intervene, it would indeed be difficult for an individual to come up with a way to do it.

"At first, those people seemed to simply want to find out the specific reasons for the 'witch attack incidents' that were gradually emerging in various places and try to study containment. As a witch, I happened to know some of the details, so I quickly got the necessary contact and made contact with those people..."

Meruru's expression looked very solemn; that memory was probably not something she could recall with a smile.

"Dealing with those guys must have been tough. You've had a hard time, Meruru." Chang Rong noticed Meruru's unusual behavior and reached out to rub the veil on the nun's head to comfort her.

"Lord Changrong... Waaah, although I did feel so lonely and wanted to die every day back then, and I cried every day because I didn't know why the Great Witch abandoned me, but I still managed to get through it... And Lord Changrong's words are enough to comfort me."

Meruru held Chang Rong's hand and responded with an extremely gentle smile.

"Ha—!!" Coco, who was standing nearby, was furious when she saw this. What is this?! Her Onii-chan is going to be kidnapped by this bad woman!

"Anyway... at that time, I was just trying to understand the Great Witch's true thoughts. Those people seemed to have some information that could help me. Also, those 'inferior prospective witches' transformed by the witch factor... could they become the Great Witch's companions? In any case, directly containing and executing them was too cruel... I, I also want to help them, but I don't know the specific way..."

"Although it was a mess at first, with the help of those people, Witch Island still became one of the places to house prospective witches. But later, those people quickly noticed the immortality of the 'remains' and wanted to use the mechanism of the witch trial to develop some kind of weapon on Witch Island based on the remnants..."

"I feel like I've seen this kind of plot countless times already, just put it away already... So, did they end up shooting themselves in the foot, causing the witch factor to leak out further?" Chang Rong shrugged. This is truly a textbook example of human self-destruction.

"No... well, the experiment itself actually went quite smoothly, and the debris controller was developed around that time... but, it seems that because Commissioner Smith's quote was too outrageous, a piece of debris that could be cleaned would cost 15 billion US dollars, and because it was too expensive, no one was willing to take it on, and then... nothing happened."

"Ah this"

Chang Rong blinked. She had thought it would be a classic scenario where the government gets itself into trouble and drags all of humanity down with it, but instead, it turned out that Commissioner Smith had singled out her? How great Hayek was! How great Wall Street was! Have you been protecting the pan-human history from being blown up time and time again?

"After that... Witch Island became a place used solely to house prospective witches. Those people didn't make any further demands, but regular communication and information exchange still continued."

After Meruru finished speaking about the relationship between Witch Island and human government agencies, she blinked her watery eyes and looked down cautiously at the three of them.

"Hmm... So, it's not really easy to analyze the stance of the 'human state agencies' right now. I don't know if they're just responsible for containment or if they still have their own agendas."

After hearing the whole story, Hiro pondered and said that, overall, the actions of the national authorities in the matter of Witch Island were not too extreme. Although there were evil attempts to weaponize the witch's remains, they were quickly subdued by capital. Therefore, it was difficult to judge the current stance of the national authorities.

"Generally speaking, in these kinds of works, the government departments are always portrayed as evil masterminds and villains..." Coco muttered in dissatisfaction.

Although Coco herself is the type who would applaud the idea of ​​"the government dragging unstable elements underground to mine coal for a hundred years," at this moment she herself is that crazy miner, which naturally makes Coco extremely unhappy with the behavior of these people involved.

"I don't think those people would just drop Raccoon City-style missiles on Witch Island without saying a word... When I was captured and brought here for the witch trial, I was told that the witch hunter's readings showed a witch factor of 0, so they were planning to send a special plane to transport me back."

Chang Rong pondered and recalled his experience when he and Xiao Xue came to participate in the witch trial. Before the witch trial even started, the warden had already agreed to take Chang Rong, the unlucky guy who was affected by the AOE, back home. However, Chang Rong refused to leave because he was worried about Xiao Xue.

“If we could really negotiate or even be released, it would be much more convenient—wait, you're right in front of Meruru…!” Hiro suddenly realized halfway through his sentence that Meruru had seen Chang Rong talking so eloquently about the old veterans. Even the most foolish jellyfish should be able to realize that Chang Rong had regained his memories.

"Well... Lord Changrong has already told me that he has regained his memory."

Meruru noticed Hiro's panic and directly confronted the two of them with a smile.

"You rascal—" "After all, we're from the same year, and there are many complicated reasons behind it..."

Hiro glared at Chang Rong, who quickly waved his hand, saying they were just friends and shouldn't worry about the details.

"...Never mind, everyone will find out about this sooner or later anyway, and it doesn't seem to have a big impact right now. Besides, you only confronted Meruru, right? You didn't stir up any other trouble, did you?"

"Of course not!" "Hehehehe...do you have one or not...?"

Chang Rong, filled with righteous indignation, gave false testimony that was in a sense not exactly false testimony, while Meruru, standing to the side, gave a thoughtful and shy smile.

"...?" "??"

Hiro and Coco were both dumbfounded. Although, from a time perspective, someone like Jellyfish Mother, who has a strong sense of impact, shouldn't have had enough time to satisfy Lord Chang Rong.

But this guy's reaction was really too weird... And speaking of which, wasn't there a big blond guy next to Chang Rong at that time? Maybe the blond guy suddenly had a desire to perform when they were doing something serious, made everyone laugh, and forced them to shut down, causing the speedrun to come to an abrupt end... It doesn't seem impossible!

Chang Rong's star power is indeed very high, and once it's activated, it's even more insufficient, but Leia's comedic talent makes up for this.

Most importantly, both Hiro and Coco noticed a subtle change in Meruru. Since emerging from the underground cryogenic chamber, the jellyfish, while still as repressed and listless as ever, had stopped dropping small pearls so frequently. It seemed to have become much stronger in character?

As we all know, the only way to make someone suddenly grow up is for someone to help them grow up suddenly—

"You two, stop staring at me like that... Anyway, what exactly is going on right now?"

Chang Rong sensed that Hiro and Coco's gazes were becoming increasingly sharp, so she quickly coughed twice and asked Meruru, who was standing nearby. "Something big is going to happen!"

"The current situation is... because I haven't reported to the other side for too long, they've started to get suspicious. If I don't submit a data report similar to those from previous Witch Trials, they'll most likely take action, such as sending investigators to Witch Island during the next supply period to conduct an investigation and assess the current situation... If that happens, the situation might become even more chaotic and out of control..."

Meruru poked her finger while explaining in a low voice that she was so happy after getting the 'Holy Child' that she not only forgot about the Great Witch, but also skipped her weekly work report.

If the warden hadn't casually glanced at the back-end communications while cosplaying as the warden ringing the bell today, these two smiling tigers might have actually managed to sneak into a government agency and kick down the door without even realizing it.

From a certain perspective, Meruru's behavior is surprisingly in line with the style of the great witches.

"Even though you've temporarily shed the 'behind-the-scenes' label, why are you still constantly sabotaging your teammates... So your idea is to make everyone fight each other?" Ze Du Ke Ke asked in an annoyed tone.

"Of course, it's a fake battle... As long as we can find something to submit in the report to dispel their suspicions, that's enough... Otherwise, I don't know what will happen next..."

“Pretending to commit murder to fool those people… Hmm—” Chang Rong fell into thought.

Although the act of 'playing dead for fun' feels somewhat dangerous, comparable to Nakagiri's fake death, as Meruru said, if the human side is really dragged over, what will happen next will truly become an unpredictable stage of fate.

"In other words... if the investigators come and see that we're not killing each other, but living together peacefully, will they let us leave? After all, Onii-chan said before that those people at least actually let people out obediently! I... I've always wanted to go back with Onii-chan to see my push!"

Sawatari Coco suddenly thought of another possibility: if she could communicate with the investigators from the national authorities, would that mean she would have the possibility of leaving Witch Island?

"Although I also want to leave this place I'm so tired of, it's obviously not that easy. For now, it's better to maintain the status quo. Besides, even if you really leave here, Coco, you won't be able to live with Chang Rong. Because—"

Hiro sighed. She suddenly realized that she had always assumed that Coco had more information than herself, after all, her clairvoyance could see the contents of the first and second playthrough timelines, but that was not actually the case.

Coco's observations about the second playthrough were actually fragmented and intermittent. At least Hiro only just discovered that Zetsu Coco did not have the information that Chang Rong 'needs to rely on the number of prepared witches to survive'.

That's true. This wasn't mentioned much when the silver party was held, so it's normal that VIP audience member Coco didn't know.

However, just as Hiro was about to refute this with this reason, Chang Rong interrupted Hiro first:

"Let's hear what Meruru has to say first. What are your thoughts, Meruru?"

“…?” Hiro frowned and looked at Chang Rong, wondering why he had to interrupt him in such a rude way.

"I...I think...we should...or we should just take that investigator hostage and then we can launch a counterattack together—"

"Okay, that's enough."

Although Meruru has gradually become much stronger after experiencing those events, it's clear that her brain, which was eaten away by the hallucinogenic flowers from sleeping pills, won't recover anytime soon.

“Coco and Hiro’s opinions are slightly conflicting… If that’s the case, then let’s get everyone together to make a decision. After all, no matter what we choose, we have to work together to deal with it. If we just make a choice without ignoring everyone’s thoughts, even if we do come up with a plan, it probably won’t be able to be implemented.”

Seeing that the plot was really heading towards the bizarre timeline of "Witch Island 3: Civil War", Chang Rong rubbed her eyebrows and decided to call over the other prospective witches to discuss it together.

"Meruru, how much more time do we have to prepare?"

"Well, um... if possible, it would be best to respond within a day..."

"Hmm, it seems time is quite tight—then let's immediately notify everyone to gather in the reception room."

Without a word, Chang Rong made arrangements in a leader-like manner, and then prepared to head towards the reception room. Before leaving, she also dragged Xi Luo out with her, leaving Ze Du Ke Ke, who was live-streaming to inform everyone, and Mei Lu Lu, who was confirming the schedule, both looking completely bewildered.

After avoiding the two of them, Chang Rong dragged Xi Luo to a deserted corner.