Editing Failing Witch:Volume3 Episode3 (section)

===Part 3===

Going home wasn’t an option.

Maleficium’s Student Council President could easily access a student’s registered address.

(But why is she even attacking me?)

1. He had run up against Maleficium or White Magic’s interests in some way.

2. The President had been involved in some of the cases he had resolved in the past.

3. Someone outside Maleficium had hired her and it wasn’t personal to Ulrike.

Coming up with a few possible explanations wasn’t going to tell him the answer.

It scared him that he couldn’t see President Ulrike’s angle.

Because that meant he couldn’t predict her next action.

But…

“4. No one must reach the ends of this world.”

He had only been brainstorming ideas, but that one caught his attention.

The President made a habit of saying that line, but could that really be the reason?

He wasn’t certain.

Staying safe had to take priority. He and Tedaura had arrived in the shopping distract at night.

He knew it would be a lot of trouble, but there weren’t that many people he could rely on.

He just had to hope that the President wouldn’t have Viocia’s personal information since she hadn’t gotten into Maleficium yet.

(Formula Broom – Wittenberg.)

With that strange point in common, he couldn’t be 100% certain of that, though.

“Argh, my back. A-and I would be completely untouchable if not for this.”

That one line dragged Yagoro back from the realm of thought.

The world’s greatest witch – in name and fact – had been reduced to this.

After seeing it for himself, he could kind of understand where Viocia was coming from.

This was Viocia’s grandmother, but she looked like a young girl of only 10. But instead of a case of de-aging taken too far, this was apparently the result of her trying to do something about her bad back. And given the current situation, Yagoro was skeptical it had worked very well.

“B-b-but, Sir Tutor, how far are you planning to make me walk?”

“?”

Oh, right.

He had forgotten this would be Tedaura’s first time seeing where her granddaughter lived.

“Wh-what is this gaudy building? What kind of establishment are you taking me to?”

“If you don’t like it, we can go somewhere else. But it’ll be a long walk to the used bookseller’s place.”

“Wait, wait, I was only kidding, this is fine! If this is where my granddaughter is staying, it must be safe, so please no more walking! All the stairs in this city are hell on my back!!”

He took the tearful little (but actually old) girl around to the back entrance of a sketchy-looking bar so they could sneak in…earning him some experience points in things he couldn’t let the Benandanti see him doing.

Viocia must not have left for the Maleficium Trial Class yet.

It was a close call, but he just barely managed to run into her.

She held a hand to her mouth, eyes wide, and shouted.

“Teacher, are you saying my grandma visited you and got her back blown out!?”

“That is not what that phrase means!!”

Olivia the dancer sighed and intervened.

Apparently she was on break.

Tedaura was obviously in need of assistance, but unlike the idiot, the capable young woman’s sharp eyes noticed the dark red splotches here and there on Yagoro’s clothing.

But the fact that she didn’t immediately mention it showed she was truly capable indeed.

Olivia knew how to set her priorities.

“If that really is a bad back, this is no laughing matter. Strena, could you bring me some aloe and nettle? There should be some in the pantry. If you can’t find it, ask Kevin in the kitchen. I can throw together a quick witchcraft compress.”

“Wow, you must know a lot about this, Olivia,” said Viocia.

“It only relieves the symptoms, so it does nothing about the underlying problem. With a job like this, a lot of us end up with hip pain pretty young.”

Dancer Olivia gave a demonstrative wiggle of her hips in her gaudy midriff-baring outfit.

For now, Yagoro guided Tedaura to her granddaughter’s room on the 2nd floor.

“Ah, agh, aghhhhh!”

Simply climbing the narrow, steep stairway had her twitching in pain, but they couldn’t leave her on the 1st floor full of dancers. A wrinkly old lady would be one thing, but her little girl appearance would lead to some terrible misunderstandings.

The Limit Breakers were said to have conquered the concept of a lifespan, which reminded Yagoro of the supposedly immortal Baldr from Norse mythology, but this real example suggested it had its pros and its cons.

But while Baldr could be resurrected if all life around the world were to weep for him, there wasn’t much help available for this old little girl.

Bodyguard Strena poked her head in through the door.

“I have the ingredients and tools, Olivia.”

“Thanks.”

Olivia had clearly done this more than a few times before. She made the necessary medicine by crushing some aloe and a few other herbs and mixed that with some vegetable shortening made from nuts. She was quick and precise. She would smile self-deprecatingly when talking about how she had given up on the witch entrance exam, but the skills she used in everyday life had been honed to a level that impressed even a Maleficium student like Yagoro.

But…

“Ehh? A compress? But that’s so old-fashioned,” complained Tedaura.

“Olivia, can you heat some water in the kettle? I want to use that in place of moxibustion,” said Yagoro.

“Wait, wait, I’d die!! Heat my bad back with the bottom of a kettle and it’ll explode with pain and I’ll die! Okay, bring on the compress!!”

“'''x…I see. But there is a trick question here…x'''”

“Yes, of course! A cold compress is needed for back pain!!”

Placing the compress over her clothing wouldn’t do any good, so the little girl(?) lay face down on her granddaughter’s bed and bared her back. Also, why did she have to be wearing a dress? That made it hard to remove. Or rather, what should only have meant revealing her lower back instead meant essentially stripping the dress off, leaving her nearly naked.

Yagoro sensed her glancing back at him.

The next thing he knew, the idiot’s grandmother looked like she was asking him to apply some suntan lotion.

Tedaura lay face down in only her underwear, kicking her little feet.

“Heh heh. Since you’re here, I might as well ask you to do the honors, Sir Tutor. Oh, dear, but I just realized I’m down to my underwear. Is this perhaps a little too stimulating for a strapping young lad like you?”

“(Would Olivia be mad at me if I seriously attempted a (________) on this old little girl with a bad back?)”

“I can hear every word you are muttering to yourself. (Boston crab). Anyway, is that the only thing in this wide world holding you back? I’m kind of ready and waiting here, you know? And I did save your life, if you’ve already forgotten.”

She told him to do it, so Yagoro applied the rectangular compress to Tedaura’s lower back – which meant just above her white kiddie panties.

She jumped a bit when he did.

Then her extremely juvenile body slowly relaxed.

“Oh, ohh, yesss, mwohhhhh. That’s it, that’s it, that’s it. Ahh, i-it’s soaking iiiiiiin.”

“Are you serious? If I close my eyes, this just sounds like an old woman getting into a hot spring.”

“Of course it does, Sir Tutor. Heh heh heh. But there’s no need to be embarrassed. I know you’re actually into this. Those ordinary little girls just aren’t enough to satisfy you anymore, are they?”

“That’s not a very nice thing to say, don’tcha think? And the way you keep dragging back up topics we’ve finished discussing is enough to know you really are an old lady through and through.”

“How can you look at this naked little girl brimming with youthful vigor and pretend it reminds you of your old relatives?”

That aside, Olivia’s skill was real.

Tedaura was already sounding more like her usual self.

The homemade compress appeared to have some effect. Skills built up through repetition in everyday life were on another level.

The living legend spoke with a quiet but dignified voice while lying face down (with her witch’s dress removed to give access to her back).

“You know what this means, don’t you, Sir Tutor?”

“?”

“I could crush that Student Council President in mere seconds if I had access to my full strength, but I currently cannot move. Since I have been rendered useless, you will have to deal with this instead.”

“I know knowledge and skills aren’t genetic, but I’m starting to wonder if my student’s tendency toward idiocy and uselessness is inherited.”