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

However, it's impossible to go back to being a "cold noodle π" now; all they can do is hope that the friendship within their little group can be strengthened. And the most crucial element in maintaining the stability of this group is this white-haired boy, an ordinary person without any magic, Chang Rong.

I must protect this precious creature. I absolutely cannot let him cause trouble for Xiaoxue again by messing around and ultimately causing the small group to collapse. If he loses his protection, he will be easily voted out in the witch's trial in the future.

She thought this kind of 'protection' would be a piece of cake for her, the 'older sister' type, but in reality, less than a week later, Kurobe Nanoha was already starting to feel some pressure.

Because of the incident at the restaurant, the rich girl from the small group next door, Gao Yuanlihua, has been paying special attention to Chang Rong. She can be seen hiding her face with a lace fan and secretly glancing at Chang Rong from time to time.

For some reason, the pink-haired girl, Sakuraba Nana, would occasionally observe Chang Rong during breaks in her conversations with Mizuyu Chisa.

On the contrary, within their own small group, apart from Alice who, for some reason, was absolutely certain that Xiaoxue was her adoptive mother and Changrong was her adoptive father, neither Meruru nor Futter had any particular feelings towards Changrong.

The only saving grace is that Chang Rong himself doesn't seem to have many other ideas about the prospective witches for the time being.

After observing him for almost 24 hours a day, Chang Rong only mentioned at dinner that he felt like he was being watched lately. He didn't notice the strange gazes from Gao Yuanlihua or Ying Ting Nana.

"This language is so strange, it probably doesn't exist in reality, right?"

Chang Rong's words interrupted Kurobe Nanoha's thoughts. She looked away and found that Chang Rong was staring at the books she had shown.

It seems that not everyone in my small group is a person who has never read books.

“Ahem… That’s right. When I was investigating the castle, I found that the castle’s library had a wide variety of books. Although most of them were novels in English or Japanese, there were a very small number of books that were not published, but were private records written in this strange script.”

Nanoka Kurobe pointed to the strange characters on the book and said.

"Two kinds of written characters combined into one product, perhaps we can try to compare their frequency of appearance with the English alphabet first." Chang Rong rubbed his chin, offering a translation idea.

"Character frequency? That's one method, but it would be very time-consuming to implement. For now, I've gotten a general understanding of the historical background of this prison island we're on through the pictures above."

Chang Rong's suggestion impressed Nanoha Kaori once again. The experience and reaction to extreme situations displayed by this boy, who was the same age as Sato Yuki, were so mature that they seemed out of place for his age.

Logically speaking, her younger sister should be the same age as Chang Rong, but she doesn't have the mature, rational, and reliable temperament of the boy in front of her at all. She still relies on her older sister too much...

If I could, I'd really like to have Chang Rong teach her a lesson, to make her realize that she should be a little more independent. After all, I, as her older sister, won't always be by her side; one day I'll find my own man... But I digress.

Nanoha Kurobe shook her head and showed everyone one of the illustrations from the book.

"This prison island—it seems to have been where the [witch] used to live."

"A witch? I see. So this prison island is my private property, right? I'll put it on the spinning top and sell it to buy film!"

"Eh!? That's not how it is, Miss Forte...! You...you can't sell it!"

As expected, the dropout group performed consistently well, which meant they were useless.

"This witch probably isn't referring to a prospective witch, is she?" Chang Rong asked, frowning.

"Hmm, they seem different from us. The witches who live here have existed for many years, but for some reason, they left this island—"

"It's not about leaving."

Sato Yuki, who had not participated in the discussion until now, suddenly interrupted Kurobe Nanoha Kaori in a somewhat cold tone.

"The witch... is not leaving."

After saying that, Sato Yuki herself looked somewhat surprised. She blinked, looking a little bewildered for a moment.

"Xiaoxue? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, Rong."

Sato Yuki got up from the table and prepared to leave the restaurant in an almost disheveled manner.

"I can't let you act alone; this is still Witch's Island, after all—"

"I told you, don't worry about me!"

"—!"

Sato Yuki's tone was even more serious, and Chang Rong, who had stood up and wanted to chase after her, was even stunned in place for a moment.

"Um, I'm not..."

Seemingly realizing her lapse in composure, Sato Yuki wanted to say something to Chang Rong, but all the words got stuck in her throat, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make a sound.

"...Anyway, don't worry about me for now, Rong."

In the end, Sato Yuki only managed to leave those words behind before departing from the restaurant.

Volume One: Chapter 80. Snowflake Fragments, Part Five

"Xiao, Xiaoxue, is she alright? Waaah, we can't fight...!"

Meru on the ice was caught off guard by the sudden conflict. She could only sit there and keep looking at Chang Rong and Sato Yuki. She was eventually diagnosed with jellyfish, which could only drop small pearls and then deflate.

"..."

"Don't worry too much about it, Chang Rong. No matter what, this place is still a 'prison' after all. Xiao Xue is probably under too much pressure and hasn't shown it all, but she finally couldn't hold on any longer today. Let her vent like this; it might be good for both of you."

Kurobe Nanoka walked to Chang Rong's side and gently comforted the white-haired boy.

"Hmm...maybe."

Chang Rong responded softly, but her gaze remained fixed on the direction where Sato Yuki had left.

In fact, Chang Rong noticed that Xiao Xue looked a little strange not long after she arrived.

Of course, anyone would become strange after waking up one morning and being inexplicably thrown into this castle to play some kind of witch battle royale.

However... Xiaoxue's 'abnormality' was not the panic, confusion, or loss of composure that one would expect in the face of such an unfamiliar and extreme environment and her current state of imprisonment.

Rather, she seemed overly calm in the face of this situation, almost as if she was certain that a murder would not happen, or that she would not become a murder victim.

What truly struck Chang Rong as odd was that the girl, as light as a snowflake, would occasionally and inexplicably reveal an expression that was almost 'sad' within the castle.

Sometimes she would stop at the corner of the stairs and stare at an ordinary portrait on the wall.

Sometimes she would stand on the second-floor balcony of the recreation room, her hands resting on the railing, staring motionlessly at the abandoned fountain.

Sometimes she would walk into a corner of the library and have Chang Rong lift her up so she could reach out and touch the rows of dusty ancient books on the shelves.

Sometimes she would stand in front of the castle's entrance gate, looking at the iron gate covered with layers upon layers of ivy and rust, and mutter to herself.

Sometimes she would peek through the door of the medical room and secretly observe the person fiddling with medicine bottles and studying the brewing of herbal tea while making iced Merlot, and then she would reveal a slight smile.

Whenever Rong felt something was wrong and asked Xiaoxue if she was feeling unwell, the girl would only shake her head and say, "Nothing's wrong, Rong," before continuing on her way.

Even though he had been imprisoned on this prison island and was spending more time with Xiaoxue than before, Chang Rong felt, for some reason, that he was finding it increasingly difficult to connect with that fleeting, ethereal, and dreamlike girl, who was like a snowflake.

"If you're really worried, Chang Rong, then go over there."

Nanaka Kurobe's words brought Chang Rong back to his senses.

"Hmm...should we chase after her? To be honest, I haven't seen Xiaoxue like that much before. Maybe it would be better to give her some space?"

Chang Rong hesitated. After arriving here, the familiar 'Sato Yuki' in her memory was gradually becoming blurred.

Although Chang Rong knew that Xiao Xue was still the same Xiao Xue, she was not quite sure how to get along with her.

"Then, let Alice handle it. It's Alice's mission to win back that silly mother."

The Lolita maid girl, Misawa Alice, who had been sleeping quietly, suddenly spoke up.

“Misawa Tong… uh, Alice?” Chang Rong blinked.

To be honest, even though almost a week has passed, Chang Rong still doesn't know much about Alice's situation.

She almost never initiates conversations with people, and the occasional conversations are just the bare minimum of communication with Chang Rong or Xiao Xue, such as "Daddy, give me a hug," "Daddy, lean on me," "I'm hungry," "Mommy is stupid," "Mommy is so good at somersaults," "Mommy has to stand on tiptoe to be taller than me," and "Mommy is a nobody."

Chang Rong didn't even know what Alice's magic effects were—

"Alice can create rainbows, such beautiful magic that even a slug mother can't withstand it, Alice is so sure of it."

The girl stretched out her finger and twirled it, and a mini rainbow suddenly appeared in the cafeteria, startling the aspiring witches in the cafeteria.

"A rainbow? How beautiful! I never imagined you possessed such magnificent magic! It seems I was wrong to categorize you as a 'consumable' item before—kid, can you use this magic at night too? One of my dreams is to fall asleep surrounded by a rainbow~!"

The rich girl with twin ponytails, who is also Alice's roommate, 'Takahara Reika', instantly perked up. She stood up and went straight to Alice and said.

"Are you an idiot, Miss? Sleeping with a colorful RGB flashbang, how can you sleep?" The girl, who was wrapped in bandages and called herself "Serial Killer Vulture," chuckled and laughed loudly.

"Hmph? A mere rainbow? My radiance will make sure it never returns! Besides, I've been putting up with this for so long, can't I enjoy it a little? You despicable wretch, shut your mouth!"

The two, who had been at odds since the first day they met, started arguing again, looking like they were about to fight.

Alice, the instigator, took advantage of the chaos and slipped away happily, leaving the parents of the unruly children forced to stay behind to clean up the mess and maintain discipline.

“Um—Miss Gaoyuan, Gu Yuan (Vulture), although I know you two have some prejudices against each other, in this situation, considering what the warden said earlier, it would be best if we maintained the most basic relationship, right?”

Chang Rong walked between the rich young lady and the bandaged girl, trying to break up their increasingly tense gazes and mediate.

"...Hmph, since you're a 'commoner' saying that, cough cough...! Then I'll show you the elegance and arrogance of a nobleman once more. You've been given a second chance at life, you scoundrel."

The young lady winked at Chang Rong, then coughed twice with feigned modesty, and pointed to the bandaged girl to announce.

"Heh heh heh... Chang Rong, right? You're quite an interesting fellow... I'm becoming more and more interested in you. I feel like the 'oracle' will soon descend upon you... Hehehe, I wonder what kind of wonderful expression you'll show when we cut you open—"

"I can't take such a lewd statement as a joke. I take back your threat."

Kurobe Nanoha Kaori stood between Chang Rong and the bandaged girl, and spoke to the bandaged girl in an extremely serious tone.

"That's right, that's right! Our Arong may be a bit of a goofball, but Ana is incredibly strong!" Photographer girl Futo popped out from behind Nanoha Kaori, snapping photos and shouting.

"The only thing I don't want is for you, my uneducated father, to call me an idiot for not going to school..."

"Huh?! Shouldn't we be united against the enemy at a time like this?! Don't, don't suddenly turn your killing intent on me!"

"Waaaaah, everyone, you can't fight...! This isn't how the Witch Trial is supposed to be. You should all explode one by one and become witches, not all of you all ganging up at once. If you all maliciously sacrifice yourselves and die together, the next generation of witches won't even have time to gather enough to meet the KPI, waaaah..."

Meruru on the ice was caught off guard by the sudden chaos and could only frantically wave her hands, begging everyone to calm down, while muttering the rest of her words to herself in a voice that no one could hear.

"Ha! I knew this mess would happen, so I made it a long time ago! Okay, great! Ta-da! [A simple high-explosive bomb that explodes on the slightest touch], let's have a spectacular explosive ending!"

"Waaaaaah!?"

As the girl in the white coat pulled out an enormous PROMAX pop-up cannon from who-knows-where, with an air of 'I'm going to blow them all up,' everyone instantly became docile.

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.

Outside the castle, by the flower field, Xiaoxue leaned against the steps, gazing motionlessly at the distant clouds.

"...?"

A rainbow suddenly appeared in the clear blue sky, hanging above the canvas where the horizon meets the sky.