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

"Eee-yaa ...

A piercing wail came from upstairs, interrupting the girl's words and instantly making Chang Rong Kurobe Nanoha Kaori tense up.

"It's from upstairs...!"

"It seems like a few people followed the warden upstairs right after he left. Could it be... tsk!"

Chang Rong climbed the stairs to the second floor, where a girl was already slumped on the ground in front of the recreation room, covering her mouth and vomiting repeatedly.

"Are you alright? What happened—?"

Chang Rong suddenly realized that he didn't need to ask at all.

The culprit that caused the girl to vomit was now laid out before everyone, like the most expensive and luxurious dish in the center of a dining table, attracting everyone's attention simply by standing there.

On the crystal chandelier on the ceiling of the recreation room, an object that shouldn't be there was incredibly conspicuous—it was a corpse that had been pierced by the chandelier's candlestick, torn in two from the abdomen, with only the internal organs and intestines connecting them, hanging precariously.

The corpse's head was wearing orange cat-ear headphones—no, that's not right.

The corpse had orange highlights—no, that's not right.

The corpse is Sawatari Coco—no, that's not right.

corpse—no

It was as if a bug had appeared in a fictional world; the corpse, which could never possibly be here, was rapidly devouring and corrupting everything like a virus.

No, that's not right. This 'thing' shouldn't be here. This isn't reality.

No, no, no, it shouldn't be here... No, where is this place...?

Realizing that this was not the real world, something began to tear at his brain. The scene before him was like a sandcastle being battered by waves, collapsing and crumbling at a visible speed.

【Rong, this is my original sin】

"Chang Sang, Chang Rong—!!"

In the final moment before his vision was crushed, Chang Rong saw Kurobe Nanoha Kaori's anxious face.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

-

"...Cough!!!"

As if struggling desperately to finally surface from a stagnant, decaying swamp, Chang Rong woke up with a start from the sofa, panting heavily, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

My brain was throbbing with pain, and my body felt nothing like the relief it would have felt after resting; instead, I was overwhelmed by a sense of exhaustion.

He immediately looked around; it was still that dilapidated, simply furnished study.

A bookshelf filled with strange and unbalanced heavy books; a sofa so big that one person could lie down while two people squeeze together; a desk with an old-fashioned feel and a musty smell of decaying wood; and Kurobe Nanoha, lightly sleeping and breathing on the desk.

Nothing strange about it; I'm still myself, and this is still the abandoned study/bedroom on Prison Island—wait a minute.

"..."

Chang Rong swallowed hard and turned her gaze back to Kurobe Nanoha, who was dozing on the table.

He felt less like a prepared magic pill lying on the sofa and more like an unlucky knife runner who had stepped on a landmine.

Chang Rong was terrified all night, fearing that Kurobe Nanoha, whom he had betrayed, would come to claim his life.

However, after carefully watching for a long time, the mysterious female sniper did not kick down the door. Could it be that she finally realized that 'using a lock pick to enter someone else's bedroom' was somewhat unreasonable from both a moral and legal standpoint?

Chang Rong slowly entered a dream while self-hypnotizing and comforting herself. She then had a bizarre nightmare in which she could not remember the details, but felt disgusted and resistant all over.

When she opened her eyes again, Kurobe Nanoha was there, looking fresh and vibrant, on the desk.

Honestly, landmine girls are scary, but they're nowhere near as scary as landmine girls who will deliberately crawl into your house.

—Let's slip away before she wakes up. Even if we can't escape it on the first day of the month, it's still much better than being slaughtered and divided up on the first day of the month...!

Having made up his mind, Chang Rong carefully got up and crept closer to the study door, whose security was even worse than the cheat codes in Apex Legends.

But just as he was about to leave naked...

"Sister... Sister... Sister..."

The girl's mutterings, sounding like she was about to cry, made Chang Rong stop and turn to look at this 'accomplice'.

My dear sister, Kurobe Nanoha Kaori... my brain is throbbing again.

Chang Rong shook her head violently, using the same trouble-dispelling technique she had learned from Hakimi.

Speaking of which, why did Kurobe Nanoha fall asleep on her desk?

The answer is simple: she must have seen herself trapped in a nightmare and was worried about it, which is why she stayed by the table until she herself couldn't resist the sleep.

...Otherwise, I really can't think of any other reason why I would still be alive to see the sun rise the next day.

Chang Rong sighed and walked to Naiye Xiang's side. First, she gently wiped the glistening liquid from the corner of Naiye Xiang's mouth with a tissue, then she took off her crumpled hat and put it aside.

He took a deep breath, assumed a horse stance, focused his energy in his dantian, and then used both hands to hold onto Kurobe Nanoha's legs and shoulders, lifting her from the awkward chair and settling her steadily on the sofa.

It's a bit heavier than ●●●...wait, who?

The discordant thought quickly passed by without causing a ripple. She's probably a little heavier than Miss Tono.

"Phew—anyway, thank you for keeping watch over this 'corpse' last night, Kurobe-kun. Get some rest, I'll bring you some breakfast."

Chang Rong looked at Kurobe Nanoha, who was lying on the sofa, and reached out her fingers to remove the strands of hair stuck to her fair face.

Boom boom boom!

"Ugh... Ugh... Ugh!?"

The knocking woke up Kurobe Nanoha from her light sleep. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was the white rabbit standing in front of her, reaching out to stroke her cheek with a doting expression.

"—"

The sound of a kettle boiling water came from Kurobe Nanoka's cheeks and forehead, and the girl's blush spoke louder than words.

"Often, often, frequently—"

Boom boom boom!

The first knock broke the hypnotic spell cast on Nanoha Kurobe by the Sandman, while the second knock brought her back to reality.

—W-what's going on?! It's already dawn! I was planning to interrogate Chang Rong last night about that blue-haired detective, but I was worried because of his sweaty, frowning sleeping posture, so I stayed by his side first. But... how did I fall asleep? And in his, his bed...!?

"Calm down, Kurobe-kun! I want to live! Promise me, I will live!"

Equally embarrassed, Chang Rong placed his hands on the shoulders of Kurobe Nanoha, who had transformed into a pressure cooker, and spoke to Nanoha in a semi-commanding tone.

"Chang Rong, I... that..."

"Don't worry, nothing happened last night, and nothing happened this morning either. We just 'accidentally overslept,' right?"

"W-nothing happened...?"

—Why did you suddenly look a little disappointed?!

"But I feel something wet at the corner of my mouth. Could it be... Chang, Chang Rong?" Kurobe Nanoha Kaori blushed and looked at the beastly rabbit in front of her in horror.

"You were drooling because you were half asleep."

"Ugh...!?"

Seeing Nanoha Kaori trying to bury her head in the blankets, Chang Rong realized that this girl was definitely not like Nikaido Hiro or Tachibana Sherry.

If it were someone like Nikaido Hiro, he would definitely say, "Yeah, so what? I'm here to investigate your sleep, and by the way, your sleeping posture is 'incorrect'"—trying to brush it off in this kind of stubborn way.

If it were the detective agency president, Kawaii Sherry, I imagine she'd be grinning broadly, strapping herself to the sofa bed with a rear-naked cross, and then, when a bunch of people gathered and things escalated, she'd still maintain that innocent, silly grin, saying, 'Sherry-chan doesn't know anything, huh?'

One of them knows the emotion of 'shyness' but can brainwash herself with false evidence and self-brainwashing; the other has absolutely no idea where her definition of 'shyness' lies.

But the girl in front of me, who looks older but is actually a third-grader and is just a nobody, is different. Although she appears to be a rational, emotionless older sister who doesn't care about emotions, she is actually a clueless nobody who is fully aware of all kinds of emotions but is completely bad at dealing with them.

By the way, if it were Hasumi Ryoua, she could have just told the people who came over, "We're rehearsing," and that would have been enough to get away with it.

Nanoha Kurobe knew her actions were inappropriate and feared being gossiped about. Since that was the case, she, the poor victim who had failed to protect her own chastity, was now forced to clean up her mess… What kind of world was this? She was furious and trembling with cold.

Let's check their statements and excuses first... Forget it, we can't count on Kurobe Nanoha Kaori anymore.

Seeing that Kurobe Nanoha was dressed in clothes that concealed half of her true identity and was being deceived by her appearance, Chang Rong completely ripped off the 'hidden master' label on this sniper woman.

He had originally planned to exchange statements with Kurobe Nanoha to see if he could get away with it, but now that things had come to this, he had no choice but to physically block Hiro and let Nanoha escape.

Although I was instantly killed last time, as the saying goes, "a friend in need is a friend indeed." After a life-or-death battle with Sawatari Coco and Shito Arisa, I might be able to last another 3 seconds... no, it's not impossible that I could even last another 5 seconds!

Having made the sacrifice, Chang Rong kept concocting various false evidences in her mind that might fool people, and finally gritted her teeth and opened the door.

"Knock knock—ah, good morning, Rongrong~"

Surprisingly, this time it was Noah Kinosaki behind the study door. No wonder the sound of the shrapnel seemed a bit lower than before.

"Hey, what are you doing here, Noah? Were you having a nightmare?"

Chang Rong blinked and asked Noah Shirosaki curiously, while simultaneously activating the automatic pickup and rubbing of the cute, colorful little cotton-padded jacket in front of her.

"No, no, no, no... Here?"

Noah's happy smile, which had appeared on his face because Chang Rong had stroked his hair, vanished instantly upon noticing Kurobe Nanoha Kaori hiding in the room, just like paint that had been painted incorrectly.

"Rongrong...Rong..."

"What's wrong, Noah?"

“Rongrong, stick your head out here, Noah will tell you.”

Noah Shirosaki lowered his head, his voice barely audible, while Chang Rong immediately stepped forward to show her concern.

And just as he peeked over—

Chi Chi!

"Waaaaah, don't spray paint in my eyes, okay?!"

Chang Rong emitted the exact same sound effect as Ze Du Ke Ke, like a small fish being hit.

Volume 1: Chapter 56. Noah's Spy Playhouse (6K)