Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode4 (section)

===Part 15===

Myousou Yagoro raised his head while picking up his the limp form of his injured former student Nancy.

The villain she had used her last ounce of strength to warn him about was already there.

Someone stood a short distance away. Their gazes collided head on.

He recognized her.

She was the one who irregularly sold a large number of rare books to the used bookstore.

(Which would suggest her job requires an intimate knowledge of witchcraft. Such as an excellent educator.)

According to the ice witch, she had likely gotten into the real estate business by buying up empty homes all across the city.

(And all those Dracae emerged from empty houses!!)

“It was you?”

“I never formally introduced myself, did I, Navigate Exam? The Benandanti were apparently already keeping an eye on me, so there is no point in hiding my identity any longer.”

“The false god was you!?”

“I am Wedding Exam – Flamberg Wyrd. I move workplaces from time to time, but I am currently an instructor at the Aurora Swan Flight Sports Gym. Of course, I will be abandoning this appearance and name soon.”

She was a woman with short blonde hair.

Her slight frame was contained in a wedding dress and a witch hat of the same color. However, the unnatural red glimpsed at her neck and wrists may have been the glint of thick leather belts. She was like an anthropomorphized version of a strong but unwanted marriage.

The white with a touch of red gave her the coloration of a shortcake.

''Wedding Exam.

That instructor was a specialist who boosted a hopeful witch’s chances from outside the prep school system, but in a different way from Myousou Yagoro.

The boy glared at her and didn’t hesitate to draw his collapsible baton.

Flamberg’s bewitching lips whispered in response.

She carried an extremely twisted Formula Broom. Its pair of main wings were so short they looked like part had been sharply cut away and the four wings of the tail assembly were partially hidden in the end of the broom. In addition to those transparently thin wings, there was a crystal ball at the tip of the broom. The overall silhouette was reminiscent of a surface-to-air missile. It was designed for just one thing: pursuing and killing the witch it targeted.

She spoke faithfully to that cutting-edge witchcraft device.

“Formula Broom – Loudun MTD. I request accurate instruction, my sweet, beloved Belzebuth.”

Yagoro froze.

She had already used several meaningful words.

Belzebuth was well-known as the Lord of the Flies and an archenemy counted among the seven deadly sins. And the French name of Belzebuth in particular was seen as a title of evil. In some eras and regions, he was a supreme being said to possess and rule over all witches.

Furthermore, in Goethe’s Faust, Beelzebub was the archenemy above Mephistopheles.

That was dangerous enough on its own, but the MTD at the end was the clincher.

Yagoro was furious over what happened to his former student, but this sent a chill down his spine.

(MTD – mobility test device. The broom’s safety and the witch’s physical limitations are set aside to push past the tolerance limits and make sharp, high-speed turns that are nearly suicidal? You only ever see those in Maleficium’s labs. I can understand grabbing one if you had no other choice, but does she seriously use one on a regular basis!?)

“Prepare yourself.”

“I already have.”

“To be clear, I would prefer not to do this. You are not my original target. Would you be at all willing to stand back and keep your life?”

He gave a snort of laughter.

She had his priorities all wrong.

“A tutor is entrusted with their student’s life and future. That’s what our teaching contracts entail. Did you really think I would give up just because the going gets tough or that I would abandon my students on the front line to ensure my own safety!?”

“Oh?”

Flamberg laughed.

And spoke quite clearly.

“Then I was right. I am the same in that way, Navigate Exam.”

“?”

And a moment later…

“ATU 0709, Snow White.”

Molten metal rushed in from dead ahead.

“Kh.”

“By marrying the prince, Snow White gained great political power, arrested her cruel step-mother, and had her wear red-hot (____) and dance until she died.”

He dodged aside while holding Nancy, but it didn’t end there.

(Dammit.)

“(Iron slippers)!!”

“The idea may have come from the Spanish boot used during the witch hunts. ATU 0328a, Jack and the Beanstalk. The boy stole someone’s treasure and then used an axe to cut down the beanstalk, sending the owner plummeting to his death. ATU 0510a, Cinderella. The villainous sisters chopped off part of their foot to fit in the glass slipper.”

(''This isn’t just one story. She’s using multiple stories and focusing on the horrific elements that have been eliminated from the kid’s versions''!!)

He ducked to dodge the axe spinning toward him and pulled his foot back to avoid the bear trap that suddenly snapped shut from the empty ground.

Or he thought he had dodged them.

It all happened so fast.

He used his back to protect Nancy in his arms and dull pain spread across it.

(Gah!?)

He could defend with magic, but Flamberg’s cycle was too fast. If he focused solely on defense, he wouldn’t have a chance to fight back and his situation would only deteriorate.

If that happened, his former student and his current student would be swallowed up by this tragedy.

“Your technique is solid and your skill isn’t bad.”

Yagoro asked a quiet question while burning with rage.

“Then why did you stoop to these misdeeds? An instructor at a famous flight sports gym shouldn’t be hurting for money.”

“Whether or not these are ‘misdeeds’ is a matter of perspective.”

The white dress woman laughed lightly.

Wedding Exam.

That other teacher with definite skill asked a question.

“Navigate Exam, you too have sent several girls to Maleficium in the past, haven’t you? You taught them how to study and they passed the entrance exam.”

“?”

“''But can you look me in the eye and tell me this brought happiness to those girls''?”

A deep darkness lurked within the woman’s eyes.

This was the opposite of the red serpent’s eyes of someone who had been hijacked by a Voland. They contained an endlessly black and murky darkness.

That was the ultimate form of human hatred.

“Passing that exam brought my students only one thing: death. Sure, it was always announced as an accident during flight training, but it happened inside Maleficium so who knows what actually happened. …Was it truly only an accident, or is some greater conspiracy at work? Either way, by helping those girls achieve their dream, I stole their future from them.”

“…”

“It should have been obvious, really. No one is going to live a happy, peaceful life attending ''that extraordinarily abnormal school''. I did that to them. I measured their happiness based on one-sided values and irresponsibly sent them to their deaths just because they wanted to go. If I had known what would happen, I never would have allowed any of my adorable students to get into Maleficium.”

So…

Because of that…

“I made a choice.”

“Wait, don’t tell me…”

“I will not allow anyone else to get into Maleficium – not one more. All those girls with their mistaken dreams will find a much safer happiness beyond failure and resignation. Yes, yes. You see it all the time here in Temple School City. People give up on getting into Maleficium, open a shop for themselves, and live good lives. The smile on their faces as they manage to survive into adulthood is the one and only correct answer – they are the proof that I am correct.”

(Wait…)

Yagoro didn’t know how long Flamberg had been working as an instructor at the flight sports gym.

But what if…?

(Those who fail the exam open their own shops? This isn’t new. If she’s been doing this long enough, it’s possible she’s the reason the dancer Olivia and the bouncer Strena failed their exams!!)

That was beyond the pale.

It was irredeemable.

People’s lives were their own. Some people did find a life for themselves past their failure at the exam and they might have found their own happiness and fulfillment there. Yagoro wasn’t about to deny that.

But that was only if they had given it everything they had and then accepted the result.

What if they weren’t allowed to give it their all?

What if the teacher they had trusted above all else had given up on them and worked behind their back to ensure they failed? There was no happiness found there!!

That was a profanity.

It was the last thing a teacher could do to the students who trusted in them!!!

“If you can’t trust in your student’s future…”

The tutor boy gently lowered Nancy to the round and clenched his teeth.

His sense of pain had long since vanished.

“You have no right to call yourself a teacherrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!”