Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode1 (section)

===Part 10===
The small girl in a tattered dress and witch hat – Roslynica – ran through Temple School City’s night using the illumination of the large pumpkin lamps filled with sunlight seals.

She was not on her way to sell firewood or gather trash.

She was headed to a large boxy building in Red District, Block A.

“Roslynica.”

“!”

She jumped and turned around to find a familiar face. It was Viocia, a prep school witch.

''Not'' another helper searching for last-minute jobs.

“You were right, Roslynica! The Spanish Fly Indulgence Bank is even better than I imagined. I can’t believe they let you borrow ten times as much as your security deposit. It’s like alchemy. Now I can go on the field trip with everyone else!”

“Oh, no! This way!!”

“?”

''This'' meant Viocia was involved now, so Roslynica grabbed her hand and pulled her along with her.

Little Roslynica had introduced Viocia because she trusted Miss Rayon to take care of everything.

The Spanish Fly Indulgence Bank was an exchange that provided loans for exam students. The upper levels of Temple School City could be dangerous, but the merchants also had their bases there since the city entrances were there. The danger there was similar to the danger at a harbor during the night and the lawless squatter’s district was quite close by.

Business hours had passed, so the exchange’s windows were all dark.

This might not seem like a place a 10-year-old girl would go, but the squatter’s district children had been creating notebooks and drawing pads out of fliers they gathered off the streets. It was entirely possible they could have seen an advertisement there.

Viocia still looked confused.

“Where are we going?”

“I just hope I’m wrong…”

They walked into the impressive boxy building. No, they snuck inside.

Perhaps none of this would have happened if she didn’t have these sketchy skills picked up in the squatter’s district.

The exchange was run by Accounting Witch Rayon Risoniphimil.

She seemed like a kind and pretty adult woman. She was a beautiful witch. Her job was to put together and manage loans for exam students, but she had also found the time to look after Roslynica.



''“Don’t worry. Our Spanish Fly exists to financially support any and all exam students. We will not reject you just because you are from the squatter’s district. In fact, you are the kind of person we should be working the hardest to support. I can run the numbers myself to determine your ability to pay, so don’t you worry about a thing.”



Rayon was also a skilled witch.

She could determine what problems afflicted a person and put together the appropriate spell or potion to resolve it. It hadn’t bothered her that Roslynica couldn’t pay anything. It was a bit of a mystery how that friendly helper was making any money out of this.



''“Yes, this is a talisman. I call it a focus doll☆ It is a witchcraft device that boosts your focus and artificially makes you love studying. Witches use things like this to tune their bodies and minds toward studying for the entrance exam. It isn’t fair for you to be deprived of this tool just because you don’t have the money.”



It had scared Roslynica how much she was being given, but that woman had always smiled sweetly at the nervous girl.

Rayon had always said the same thing even though no one could be certain that Roslynica would really get into Maleficium.



''“Having a Spanish Fly user get into Maleficium would do wonders for our reputation. So you see – we do get something out of this. You have no reason at all to feel bad about the financial support we provide. Please just focus on the entrance exam.”



But…

“…”

Something had occurred to Roslynica.

That kind teacher would lend money to anyone and had given her focus dolls for free. But young Roslynica’s life in the squatter’s district had led her to doubt her own benefactor.

Money was important.

So would anyone really just give it away like this?

“Please let these be silly, shameful doubts. Please let me find out it was nothing so I can hate the ugly part of me that made me do this.”

“What are you talking about?”

She couldn’t answer the question that had occurred to her.

In the dark hallway just one door was cracked open.

Rayon and a woman – seemingly a secretary – were conversing inside.

Roslynica held her breath.

She hesitated to call out to Rayon like she usually did.



“I just checked on the group of 5-time failures. It’s probably about time we called it quits there.”

“Yawwwn… That goody-goody act is exhausting. My shoulders are killing me. Is the commemorative exam ready to go?”

“Was it really necessary for your character to be clumsy too? All the data is right here.”

“People’s memories are so easy to manipulate. If we push them to see it as an ‘all’s well that ends well’ situation that boosted their experience, we don’t have to worry about anyone suing us.”

“Some of those morons even tearfully thank you and help you pack up. Even though they still have all that debt to pay off.”

“The trick is to keep the interest something they can actually pay. Don’t get too greedy.”

“I understand. The Benandanti have been on the prowl around here lately.”

“Just be smart about it. There are plenty of ways to drain a sucker’s wallet without putting yourself at risk.”



“…”

Roslynica didn’t have the courage to knock on or open the door.

Even bigger Viocia had chosen to hold her breath and remain as still as possible.

This was bad.

They weren’t supposed to have heard that. The two of them had silently reached that mutual understanding in the shadowy hallway. They still didn’t know the details, but trouble was brewing here.

(What do I do?)

Roslynica bit her lip, but she couldn’t turn back time.

For one thing, how had Roslynica arrived at the exchange in the first place?

(I took all the moneybox money everyone saved up and deposited it here at Spanish Fly. I thought if I could ''keep that safe'' here and borrow even more money based on it, I could more quickly pay for the exam preparations so the others wouldn’t have to work for me anymore.)

“(Wh-what do we do? I know! I’ll contact teacher and get him to help us.)”

“(N-no, not yet!)”

The two of them had crept away from the door, but they couldn’t bring themselves to leave the exchange.

Roslynica doubted sneaking in again would be so easy.

So it had to be now. Even if they would go to a grownup for help, she needed to learn more now.

The exchange was a large place. They peeked inside another room and Viocia pulled a moonlight seal from her hat to dimly illuminate the room, revealing a large set of scales, gold ingots, a special loupe, and tons of diamonds. There were safes of all sizes. There were even gold coins on the table, their serial numbers smashed flat with a hammer to prevent tracking.

They had to keep a lot of money on hand in order to loan it out to exam students in need.

But something about this smelled fishy.

“(Wow, look at all that money,)” said Viocia.

“(But this isn’t the heart of the secret.)”

Roslynica knew she wasn’t going to find what she was looking for searching at random.

Not that she knew what it was she was looking for.

Hiding in the shadows, she squeezed the rolled-up sleeping bag against her chest. Gently but firmly. It was made of thick cloth coated in wax for some level of waterproofing and the storage bag had dog-like ears at the top. In the squatter’s district where a roof over your head was far from guaranteed, it was as crucial a necessity as a frying pan or a washboard.

Roslynica poured her willpower into it and muttered under her breath.

''“It works best with something you always have with you – especially something you need to live your life.”

Yes, Rayon Risoniphimil had kindly taught her what to do.

“Please, lend me strength.”

When she relaxed her arms, the cylindrical sleeping bag squirmed on its own. The movement was weak, but the rolled-up sleeping bag’s ears definitely pointed in a single direction. Like a doll moving its little hand.

“Th-that way.”

“Hm? What kind of magic was that?”
Roslynica and Viocia went that way.

There were a lot of doors, but they found some kind of library right away.

The two of them crept into the dusty library. All four of the small room’s walls were covered by bookcases.

An especially thick dictionary stood out from the rest of the books.

Little Roslynica picked it up without thinking and it opened on its own to a creased page. Her finger and eyes followed an entry there.



“Commemorative Exam: An entrance exam taken with no intent to pass. Obtaining the experience of attempting a difficult school’s exam can grow a person even if they do not pass.”



“…”

No.

Roslynica and the rest of the hopeful witches who had relied on Spanish Fly for exam prep funding weren’t attempting the Maleficium exam just for fun. Others might see it as a silly dream with no chance of success, but the students themselves were serious as could be.

But.

Being an exam student was a painful, grueling experience. Again and again they would try and fail and they would be presented with numerical results that seemed to quantify their failure as a human being. Once they were truly worn down in body and soul, the day might come that they succumbed to the internal whisper telling them to just give up. Like an exhausted mountain climber choosing a courageous withdrawal.

What if Spanish Fly had incorporated the psychological release of “giving up” into the gears of their exploitative business model?

“Oh, no. This is really, really bad.”

“Roslynica, there’s something over here.”

A few small memos were pasted to a piece of parchment on a reading desk in the center of the library. They looked like meaningless numbers at first, but a closer look showed they indicated bookcases, books, and page numbers.

(This one would be…)

“ATU 0709a. The Snow White type story that uses a poisoned claw in place of the apple.”

The focus doll was a 5cm doll, about the size of a keychain. Roslynica had one herself.

“This is Brunhild of Norse mythology who sleeps surrounded by flames and this is the witch’s curse that started a storm to stop a ship?”

“So the Three Aspects have a common theme of stagnation and binding?” asked Viocia.

They were apparently talismans periodically given to the exam students who had taken out student loans, but these would do nothing to help those students. Quite the opposite, in fact. They created magical stagnation and binding. If the students studied and studied without achieving any change at all, their academic ability would never ever grow.

The Spanish Fly Indulgence Bank claimed to financially support exam students, so why would they use a trick like that?

“Kh.”

She let it go.

The keychain glinted in the light as it rolled along the floor. Specifically, the sharply pointed clasp, which almost looked like a bird of prey’s deadly talons.

Without the dog ears sleeping bag as her magical companion, she might have fled in fear before investigating it all.

The answer was there.

One of the thick grimoires had a folded piece of parchment held between its pages. She read what it said.



''Chronological Loan Solicitation Plan

''1st Failure

''Solicitation Period: They will be highly skeptical so soon after taking out the loan. Be very cautious while expanding their debt.

''2nd Failure

''Inertial Period: Blindly following the status quo will become routine for them. They question things the least during this period, so pressure them to take as many additional loans as possible here.

''3rd Failure

''Inertial Period: Generally the same as above, but be careful as this varies a lot between individuals.

''4th Failure

''Fatigue Period: They begin to question the status quo at this point, so prepare the commemorative exam.

''5th Failure

''Selling Period: Fully shift over to the commemorative exam here. Quash their doubts with emotion. Their debt will be too large for them to even pay off the interest at this point, so push them toward some form of forced labor.

''*Failed exam students tend to return for another loan after each consecutive failure, which just means more profits for us. Be very careful to hide this fact from them when introducing them to our different loan plans.



“What...is this?” said Viocia.

“Uh.”

Roslynica felt her vision darkening from the corners of her eyes. It took her several seconds to realize this was simply due to tears, not her vision narrowing from anemia.

What conclusion did this add up to?

Spanish Fly was never interested in helping exam students. In fact, they made more money if the students repeatedly failed, so they were using curses to surreptitiously hinder the students’ academic progress!?

(What do I do? What do I do?)

She had given Spanish Fly the moneybox containing all the money gathered by the squatter’s district. And now that money was gone forever? She couldn’t bear to think about that. But she also couldn’t think of any way of fighting back against the great machine she had been caught within.

“W-well, this should be enough to go to teacher with. We need to get out of- gyah!?”

Viocia shouted so loud Roslynica literally jumped.

She looked over to see Viocia sprawled out on the floor. Viocia had apparently backed up in the darkness, slipped on one of the parchments littering the floor, tumbled backwards, and hit her head.

“Hey, Viocia. Viocia!”

Roslynica shouted in her ear and even slapped her cheek, but Viocia showed no sign of waking.

She was out cold.

Roslynica tugged on her arm, but she was too little to move the bigger girl.

Miss Rayon was a grownup, so Roslynica needed another grownup to stand up to her.

Who could she go to? Raynold was always helping her out, but he was still a child. As strong as he was, she couldn’t ask him to fight a grownup. Plus, this exchange was staffed by real witches.

(Oh, I know. That’s it.)

What about Myousou Yagoro?

Her thoughts were a mess, but she still managed to think of him. He was friends with everyone in the squatter’s district and he was a tutor who knew a lot about the witch entrance exam. If she went to him with this paper, he might be really mad at her, but he might still help her. Was there a window anywhere? Little Roslynica couldn’t move unconscious Viocia, but she couldn’t just leave her on the floor either. If she could use her sleeping bag magic to warn that teacher of the danger like using a carrier pigeon-

“!?”

She heard a creaking.

From the library’s only door. Roslynica nervously turned around and found a pair of eyes staring into her own.

It was Rayon Risoniphimil.

The tall woman with the short green hair was a grownup witch with a broom. She had seemed like a living image of success before.

Now, she looked more like a threat capable of using real magic.

“You let it go.”

“Ah...ah.”

“You let your focus doll go. Hee hee. I can tell because ''it’s made'' to let me know. It stagnates the ignorant child’s academic ability while also sending out a warning if the child begins to doubt us and lets it go. Such a lovely witchcraft device that helps me in two ways at once.”

Rayon gave a quick glance at the documents scattered across the library.

That was all.

“Now, ''the usual solution'' would be to silence the both of you by chucking you off a random building rooftop. Making it look like a tragic accident during some unauthorized and unsupervised flight training.”

“…”

Roslynica couldn’t find any words.

This didn’t seem like the woman she had known.

Rayon looked down at the rolled-up sleeping bag in Roslynica’s hands.

“Tch. I forgot you don’t have a broom. Making it look like an accident is going to take a bit more doing.”

“Um.”

“God, how did you ever think some filthy brat ''who can’t even buy a Formula Broom'' could get into Maleficium?”

A sneer gradually filled the words that stabbed straight into the young girl’s chest.

That was true enough.

It was never going to be easy for a child in the squatter’s district.

But with enough of the proper knowledge, she could use witchcraft. After all, her sleeping bag really had moved a little when she poured her willpower into it hard enough.

“B-but...I can still use magic without a Formula Br-”

Roslynica’s shaky voice was cut off by Rayon Risoniphimil smashing the sleeping bag below her heel. Roslynica’s breath caught in her throat when she saw her partner twisted and distorted, but that wasn’t the main point.

When the wicked witch removed her foot, something changed.

Roslynica had not recited an incantation or imbued it with her willpower, but the sleeping bag still moved.

Because…

“''Squash a bundle of cloth hard enough and it’ll try to return to its original shape when you let it go.''”

“...Ah.”

Was that why she had been advised to squeeze the rolled-up sleeping bag when she concentrated?

It wasn’t witchcraft at all?

“It was all a con – a lie! Ee hee hee. We need to bait the hook somehow to get you idiots to bite. You don’t need money to pass the exam? You don’t need the equipment if you have the knowledge? I can’t believe you bought that hogwash! Ah ha ha ha!! It costs money to pass the exam. If you can’t pay for the best gear and lessons, you don’t even have a one-in-a-million chance of passing!!!”

Roslynica felt  sense of dissociation, like a gentle tug on the back of the head.

She was met with only mocking laughter.

She couldn’t even make herself move. Which was why she couldn’t stop Rayon from saying what she said next.

Rayon’s lips formed the word “besides”.

“''Besides, you’re a boy''!!!”

That was the clincher.

This world’s magic had fully died out once. But the people couldn’t forget the convenience of magic, so they sought out magic from the world of Earth, leaving only witches, who borrowed power from others, capable of using magic.

So…

That meant… 

Self-loathing bore down on Roslynica.

Because of the part of her that was instantly glad that Viocia was unconscious.

“How can a boy become a witch? How can a boy become a witch!? How can a boy become a witch!!?? Ah ha ha ha ha! How stupid are you!? It was never going to happen!!”

Roslynica hadn’t been born in the squatter’s district. She had arrived from elsewhere.

Which meant no on there really knew if she was a boy or a girl.

When she had first arrived there, they had assumed she was a girl based on her appearance and she had just never corrected them. She had never thought of herself as particularly smart, but after winning a few games against everyone in the squatter’s district, they had started saying she could become a witch.

One day, she had found the rest of her family gone.

One day, she had found herself in the squatter’s district.

The people there had assumed she was a girl.

The people there had assumed she could become a witch.

She had felt pushed into this life against her will.

But.

She had decided it was for the best if it would lead her to a future she had never thought possible.

There was always that nagging part deep down telling her it would never work, but she still believed it would amount to something eventually if she kept working at it hard enough.

And yet.

And yet…

“Was it the weight of their expectations that kept you from telling them? But that’s not my problem!! Really, you’re the same as me: human trash who tricks people out of their hard-earned money!!!”

Rayon took a booming step into the library.

The floor physically bent and the bookcases creaked despite being screwed into place. Rayon Risoniphimil’s beautiful form grew distorted and bloated. Her unchanged skeleton strained under the weight of the muscle and fat endlessly expanding inside her as her entire body grew until her head nearly touched the ceiling.

She looked like filthy cotton candy that had been left out in the sun until its surface melted.

“Formula Broom – Bastille.”

With the deep metallic sounds of a spring loaded device operating, the broom handle clutched in her fattened palm spread out near the tip, fanning out into five pieces. This clearly wasn’t designed for flight. Greed, heavy bombardment, load bearing assistance – this Formula Broom had been thoroughly customized as a grounded cannon.

This witchcraft device had grown and grown as it absorbed the blood, sweat, and tears of the exam students who had come running in need of money.

“This is a witch! This is true witchcraft!! Gee hee hee hee hee. Now, Cagliostro, it’s time to replace this broken gear. You can handle the cleanup like always!!”

“I-is that all you think of the children who rely on you?”

“Hmm? At best, you’re the worms used to catch fish. Bwah hah!! You’re just ugly live bait raised in a box so you can be skewered on the hook and tossed into the water!!”

She had said they would be thrown from a building rooftop to disguise their deaths as accidents during unauthorized and unsupervised flight training.

But what about Roslynica who didn’t have a Formula Broom?

Would it be disguised as a crash with both of them on a single broom?

Or would it be disguised as an accident with a carriage on the road?

She was surrounded by walls and bookcases on all sides. There was no other exit, so she had no way out. She also couldn’t just leave unconscious Viocia behind and the older girl was too heavy to drag with her. She was stuck. Someone with no chance of becoming a witch squeezed her sleeping bag tight with tears filling her eyes.

She knew it had all been lies.

But it was the only option left to her.

“Please, witchcraft. Lend me strength…”

“Are you stupid!? I already told you I made all that up!!!”

The mocking roar approached the small girl like a thick, invisible wall.

She squeezed her eyes shut with tears spilling from them.

And a moment later, a deafening impact burst out.

Rayon Risoniphimil, who had grown to the point her head reached the ceiling, was knocked from her feet, crashed through the nearby bookcase and wall, and rolled all the way out into the hallway. Something incredible had just happened, but Roslynica obviously wasn’t capable of this.

Then who or what had done it?

''Her cylindrical rolled-up sleeping bag had stretched out on its own and knocked the witch away?

“Bwuh?”

Rayon held a hand to her face as blood flowed from her nose.

She forgot to get back on her feet as she shouted with a face twisted more by confusion than anger.

“What the hell just happened? That wasn’t witchcraft. That sleeping bag was some bullshit I thought up – it was just a cheap trick!!”

A footstep sounded, but it didn’t come from Roslynica or Rayon.

Someone else stood beyond the broken wall.

“''How stupid are you? Hey, crooked moneylender, this is magic. You would know the answer if you’d actually studied.''”

The tutor extended his baton with a sharp swing.

The counterattack had begun.