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

Chang Rong looked awkwardly at the fluffy white-haired girl in the bathrobe beside him. Theoretically speaking, this game was meaningless for him to participate in. After all, Chang Rong had no leverage over her. Even if not playing the game would cause Mag to be 'uncooperative' in the conversation later, there was no evidence to show that if he obediently played the game, she would honestly tell the truth.

"You stupid monster... If you dare to quit and run away, I'll hypnotize you into stripping naked and dancing in the living room...! After dancing for a month, I'll turn you into fried rabbit meat in a frying pan!!"

An'an seemed to have noticed Chang Rong's posture of trying to surrender and unplug the internet cable. She immediately gritted her teeth and fiercely threatened to prevent Chang Rong from actually running away.

"I didn't say I wouldn't participate... and I'm actually quite curious about what happened next in that story, wouldn't it be better to just release it directly?"

Chang Rong sighed and sat down at the table, observing the two seemingly harmless but actually mysterious liquids while asking An An a question.

"That's not good... because... because... because I know very well that what I write is just a mess, utterly meaningless garbage."

An'an slumped down next to Chang Rong and sat on a chair, swinging her legs and burying her head in her sleeves as she whispered her response.

"The so-called writers, novelists and all that... we've always known, it's just a way to cover up our own incompetence and clumsiness. As long as we immerse ourselves in our own fictional world, we can ignore the regretful and desperate realities of the outside world. And we can also deceive ourselves in this way, telling ourselves that we are actually very capable, that we are also famous writers, not some worthless good-for-nothing..."

"..."

Chang Rong remained silent as he listened to An An's confession. An eerie silence filled the space between them.

A dozen seconds later—

"Hey, you stupid monster! Shouldn't you be patting my head and reassuring me that I'm not a trash writer, but a true literary giant with the talent to create timeless masterpieces?! Why are you completely silent?!"

"Because unlike Noah, I've really hardly seen anything you've written, An'an! At least finish one short story, even just one! -- Aww, sob sob!!"

"You idiot...!!!"

An'an had already slightly raised her head, waiting to be patted on the head and comforted with a hug, but found that Chang Rong was completely unmoved. This made her instantly furious. She directly cosplayed as an amazing human library who, although she had never written a book, had 103,000 magic books hidden in her mind. She pounced on Chang Rong's head and bit him directly to express her dissatisfaction.

"This wasn't the scene when you were comforting Noah! Noah's drawings are a mess even without the help of magic AI, so why can you, you stupid monster, comfort her but not us?!"

As expected, best friends are often enemies. Chang Rong now realized that another reason An An was angry was her inconsistent attitude towards Noah and An An.

However, Chang Rong also had something to say. No matter what, her little balloon had been drawing all along. Even if it started with a negative number, through Xi Luo's strict education and its own efforts, it had at least broken through the threshold of zero, which naturally deserved praise.

But for An An, it was a completely different story. This little brat who called himself a literary genius, Chang Rong was a complete novice in the first playthrough, so he didn't know much about it. But up to the second and third playthroughs, Chang Rong still knew that An An's output of works was still zero, an inexplicable zero, a despairing zero.

Although Chang Rong is very good at guiding some misguided aspiring witches back to the right path, even someone like Chang Rong cannot bring herself to give insincere praise when faced with something that is as nonexistent as a log.

"As expected, as expected, you monstrous, stupid creature have always looked down on me...! I, I'm going to hypnotize you into a stupid rabbit who can only stick out its tongue, lift its leg, and expose its belly—"

"Waaaaah, calm down!?"

"Pfft...!!??"

How do you deal with a terrifying witch who can manipulate words and easily brainwash people, turning cause and effect upside down? The answer is simple—just use physical silence.

Just as An An was about to hypnotize Chang Rong in a desperate attempt to do so, the latter immediately covered An An's mouth and said, "Okay, stop talking." An An, whose magic was physically suppressed, could only shake her head repeatedly but could not break free. Although she tried to bite Chang Rong's palm with a snake, her teeth could not reach it at all. In the end, she turned to licking Chang Rong's palm with her tongue through the gap between her lips, a behavior that seemed to be flirting.

After this 'physical silencing' lasted for a short while, An'an finally stopped struggling. Seeing that the fluffy girl in his arms had become even fluffier, Chang Rong released his grip again.

Have you calmed down yet?

"I...I didn't lose my temper...!"

An'an still wore a fierce expression, but this time she didn't pounce on him, hissing and shoving. She knew very well that although Chang Rong was 'gentle,' he wasn't a pushover, and her goal was actually to gain his praise and encouragement, not to be disliked by him. If she continued to act unreasonably like a child, she might really be disliked by Chang Rong, or he might whip her into a spinning top with a Seven Wolves cigarette...

Spending time with her best friend Noah during this period wasn't entirely fruitless. At least An'an figured out one thing: if Hiro is torturing Noah, then Chang Rong will play the role of the 'stupid, doting father'. But if Hiro isn't around, and someone starts throwing a tantrum, even Chang Rong will actually activate her hidden Seven Wolves form.

Actually, I almost got beaten up by him back in the 'secret art studio'...

“Now that my dear writer has calmed down—actually, you were wrong about something just now. An’an is not some good-for-nothing fool. I have always believed that you are capable of writing great works that are worthy of praise. It’s just that you haven’t been serious about it yet.”

After noticing that An'an had calmed down, Chang Rong finally raised his hand and gave An'an the stroking and smoothing she wanted.

"Am I... not a useless fool?" An An raised her head, her always sleepy purple eyes looking at Chang Rong, and asked in a low voice with some uncertainty.

“That’s right. Although you’ve never actually written anything down, those unfinished fragments are always interesting enough to spark the imagination. Since you’ve said that writing is just a way to deceive yourself and escape reality, then think about it from another angle—since you already have the courage to face reality, why not try to turn writing into your own power?”

"……strength?

An An blinked, her small eyes revealing great confusion.

"That's right. Using writing as a channel for expression and a way to communicate with the world is not a passive escape, but an active way to think about what to say and do in this way."

"—We...we think we understand...!"

Hearing the words of the boy who was hugging her, An'an's eyes widened in surprise.

"In the past, we would only write something to escape reality after encountering unpleasant things, but... but it shouldn't be like this...! We've decided to write down everything that happened on Witch Island, the experiences of becoming the Great Witch, the prospective Witch, and the Witch Trials! Not only this time, but also the 'first two times' that Hiroko mentioned, to prove everything we've experienced and every effort we've made!"

An An's perpetually sleepy, half-open eyes sparkled with light. The little writer, who had always passively relied on 'fantasy writing' to escape herself, finally took the initiative to write something for everyone.

Although she hasn't been able to regain her past memories, the repeated retracing of those memories, the changes etched into her soul and spiraling forward, make her want to record everything she has experienced on this island. This is not only her own growth, but also proof that all the aspiring witches gathered here have lived.

"However, there are too many characters... There must be a protagonist to connect the story, and as for that protagonist—"

An An raised her head and looked at the white-haired boy who was gently stroking her head. She felt a warmth on her cheeks, so she quickly buried her head back into her loose dress.

The male lead has already been decided: a frozen, amnesiac boy with a mysterious past – he's practically the perfect template!

Of course, if there's a male lead, there naturally needs to be a female lead. And the female lead... well, judging from this, only I am barely qualified, am I?

The male and female protagonists meet and experience minor frictions, even to the point of mutual suspicion and betrayal. However, through the female protagonist's efforts and wisdom, they eventually reconcile and together defeat the mastermind behind the scenes—the wicked and foolish nun.

Finally, beneath the flower field at sunset, the male protagonist knelt before the female protagonist and made a lifelong promise to her. The female protagonist smiled, and with everyone as witnesses, they successfully... successfully...

When An'an imagined this part, she suddenly stopped, as her existing knowledge base did not contain the information to fill in this gap.

What should the male and female leads do when their relationship is at its peak? Of course they should!

However, whether it's games I've played, anime I've watched, or horror movies, this part is either not described at all or only briefly mentioned.

This, this won't do...! I'm a great writer, and a cartoonist once said that the best creators must personally experience the story they're writing in order to achieve a sufficient sense of realism!

Since that's the case, and since even that stupid monster said that we are only one step away from becoming true great writers—

A dark will flashed in An An's eyes.

Suddenly, she jumped out of Chang Rong's arms, went to the table with two glasses of water, picked up one of them without hesitation, and gulped it down.

"Whoa! Don't just drink the water without saying a word! We could have tried other methods to find out which glass was laced with the mysterious little pill—"

Chang Rong was startled by An An's sudden behavior. Unable to keep up with Natsume An An's thought process, Chang Rong naturally couldn't understand why the girl who was curled up in his arms seeking comfort just a second ago suddenly adopted a resolute attitude of "I will walk the path of certain death alone" and poured the unknown liquid in the cup without saying a word.

"So, anyway—how are you feeling now, An'an!?"

Since she had already drunk it, and she wasn't Noah who could control liquids to make An'an squirt water from all seven orifices, Chang Rong could only swallow hard and ask An'an how she was doing.

"We... don't seem to have any special feelings."

Noah licked her lips. Although she didn't know how effective the O drug would be, she didn't feel anything unusual at the moment.

"Phew...that's great, I guess I was just lucky and didn't drink the one that was spiked!" Chang Rong breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

"Why are you so sure? What if it's still in the incubation period?"

"Oh, no, that won't work. After all, that thing works really fast—cough cough, I... I read that in the instruction manual."

Chang Rong coughed twice and quickly tried to cover it up. He couldn't very well say that he had personally tested the medicine with Arisa, Ye Xiang, and Emma by the lake.

"I see..."

An'an nodded after listening to Chang Rong's explanation.

"Anyway, I'm glad you're alright, An'an. Now all we have to do is wait until the time is up—"

Chang Rong relaxed and sat down, and then the next second—

"Ton ton ton...!!"

The white-feathered pigeon spirit suddenly grabbed the second cup of water and once again swallowed it whole without hesitation.

"Ugh!?!"

Now it was Chang Rong's turn to be completely dumbfounded.

Thanks to Chenguang Moxin for the helpful tip!

April was such a sluggish month, mainly because I wasn't feeling well and there were issues with my biological clock.

I think I'll update all at once in May and finish the book! Keep it up!

264. Mag's clever design led to An'an's loss of Jingzhou.

Chang Rong considered many solutions to the puzzle of the two glasses of water presented by Mag. For example, she could try taking small amounts of each glass to see if there was a difference in taste, or have each person drink half of the water to reduce the drug's effect, or use a mobile phone flashlight to create the Dali Garden effect, so that one of the glasses might be more turbid.

In short, Chang Rong thought of many things, but she never considered An An's solution at this moment—to simply show off both cups at the same time.

"Mmm..." After swallowing both glasses of water, Natsume Anan stood there blankly, raising her loose sleeves as if waiting for a miracle to happen.

"Cold, calm down, An'an! Take a deep breath first. It's normal to feel dizzy! It's normal to feel your heart racing and your body hot. It's also normal to feel sensitive and out of control in your limbs! It's even more normal to have a strange itching sensation. There's no need to be nervous!" Chang Rong hurriedly tried to soothe the gloomy landmine pigeon spirit bean sprout in front of her.

"...Why do you know so much about that stupid monster?" An An frowned and looked at Chang Rong. When did this guy start to know so much about O drug?

"Ah... Ahaha, well, when I was doing the mine-clearing operation with Nanoha Kaori, she told me that."

Chang Rong gave an awkward smile, while simultaneously shifting the blame onto Kurobe Nanoha. However, strictly speaking, it wasn't exactly shifting the blame, since she was indeed one of the people involved in the poisoning.

After awkwardly getting away with it, Chang Rong stared intently at the girl with long, fluffy white hair in front of her, swallowing hard. While trying to calm An An down, he wondered what he should do if she really got carried away by OO.

Like I said before, I'm a Sigma man! I've already made up my mind not to bother with collecting random CGs before finishing the main story. Besides, with An An's constitution being even more pathetic than Coco-chan's, it's fine if she just gets carried away, but if she really loses control and passes out, An An might not be able to get out of bed for the next week...

"Hmph... I, I am making a great self-sacrifice, so you stupid monster should thank me properly. And, even if I do something strange next, it's all because of that damn drug, and has nothing to do with me. So naturally... naturally I don't need to take any responsibility!"

With a flushed face and her hands on her hips, An An struck a smug pose and said, "This pigeon spirit has already begun to seriously make excuses and lie about what she's about to do."

"Don't worry, An'an, no matter what you become, I will never let you succeed. I will definitely protect this bottom line!" Chang Rong revealed a resolute look in her eyes, her tone extremely firm and determined.

"Idiot, you stupid monster...! I didn't ask you to protect the bottom line! At times like this, you should play dumb and half-heartedly accept it, right?"

An'an was a little flustered. She could only fool herself with those strange words she just said, but don't actually believe them! I drank two glasses of water at the same time. Can't you see what my purpose was?

However, after the initial outburst, An'an suddenly noticed something – not only An'an, but Chang Rong also noticed this anomaly.

"..." "——"

The two stared at each other. After initially adopting a somewhat fanatical martyr-like pose, Natsume Anan quickly slumped down again because her arms were getting too sore from being raised for so long. Nothing unusual happened after that.

Based on the previous battle between the three domains by the lake, An'an should have been rushing towards him with a flushed face by now, instead of standing there with a cute, bewildered expression, staring at him blankly.

"Um, you idiot monster, what did you say was the feeling of O-drug poisoning? Fever, shortness of breath, and a foggy head, right—"

An'an realized that something was wrong, and she quickly asked Chang Rong about his specific symptoms.

"To put it simply, the way it manifests is somewhat similar to being drunk. An'an, do you feel anything special right now?"

"Um... my stomach feels a little bloated... could it be—"