Editing Failing Witch:Volume2 Episode4 (section)

===Part 4===

After some studying in their desks, it was time for broom practice.

That was standard for Carraway Cs Prep School. Do it the other way around and the exhausted witches would fall asleep at their desks and waste their chance to study.

Myousou Yagoro sighed softly.

Exam students tended to grow careless after a big event like the field trip.

“And there’s even an official practice exam coming up. If she was the only one who keeps studying hard now, she could easily pull out ahead of her rivals.”

“Just relax.”

He was in the prep school’s quiet hallway.

Gyaru-style instructor Schanze and tutor Yagoro had left the lecture hall to speak in the deserted hallway. Today’s lecture was on psychoanalyzing a broom-riding witch. With no right or wrong answers, the tutor had no advice to give.

The instructor at the lectern was Antoi Nosecone.

She was a boyish woman who specialized in meditation and mental focus.

“Pride, greed, lust, gluttony, wrath, envy, and sloth. Each of the seven deadly sins has an associated archenemy, so pay attention. This is very convenient for making a test, so there is a good chance it will show up on a practice exam. For example, pride is Lucifer and gluttony is Beelzebub.”

“'''Trick question warning: different scholars assign different archenemies to the sins, so watch out.''' For example, Beelzebub can be either gluttony or envy and gluttony is sometimes given to Moloch.”

“Moloch!?”

The instructor at the lectern must have explained the same thing because the failing witch reacted.

“The hierarchy of archenemies isn’t fixed either. Satan or Lucifer are usually at the top, but there is also a common method that places Beelzebub at the top. And if you see Beelzebub referred to as Belzebuth, you should probably suspect you’re dealing with a 19th century method, don’tcha think?”

“Sigh. You know Viocia can’t hear you if you say all this out here, right?”

Schanze sighed in exasperation while leaning against the wall.

And the beautiful blonde woman with brown skin gently took Yagoro’s right arm.

She took him into her arm and leaned sideways against him.

“Hey…”

“Hee hee. Nervous? If one of those kids focused on their desk totally looks up for whatever reason, they could see everything.”

She rubbed the side of her head against his chest and tried to get a listen at his heartbeat, but then her small smile turned to puzzlement.

“Hold on. Why isn’t your heart racing even a little bit!?”

“Um, a clear mind provides great control over the body?”

In truth, he was simply wearing parchment armor below his sailor uniform.

Schanze pouted her lips and lightly stomped on his foot.

But then the self-taught witch whispered to him.

“(''If we totally stay this close, we don’t have to worry about anyone overhearing, right?'')”

The mood changed.

“…”

“You’ve totally noticed, haven’t you?”

Schanze’s smile now had a belligerent air.

She looked like a mercenary who had sniffed out a coming battle.

“You got in a fight with an old witch during the summer solstice field trip, right? Elinalva Longhouse. But her magic was way too cool to be something a single witch came up with.”

“You can tell?”

“I’m totally a self-taught witch too☆” Schanze was confident. “Which means I too have to do everything on my own without an alma mater to support me. And I assure you that was totally not something Elinalva could have set up on her own. It’s not an issue of talent or smarts – no individual could do that. You need multiple people. There is just no way she could have put together that kind of magic without someone else’s help.”

“The Spanish Fly Indulgence Bank was the same.” Yagoro didn’t sound happy about it. “Their case was centered on money because that’s a value everyone shares. They wanted power, but no one took an interest in their self-made mythology, so they swapped that out for a love of money. That wasn’t a system a failed witch could build on her own.”

“So there was totally ''someone else'' behind it?”

“Since we still haven’t discovered who that was, ending those cases individually isn’t good enough, don’tcha think? Someone we still haven’t identified was at the top.”

A heavy air set in.

But the usual mood of studying continued in the lecture hall, like there was a barrier between them.

“As you can see, while the seven deadly sins sound frightening, they are really just a classification of things anyone with a human heart experiences. So unless you are a saint who has achieved enlightenment and eliminated your desires, we all have those seven traits within ourselves. Plus, a witch wouldn’t be able to fly if we fully eliminated the desires we control to motivate us. Thus, the deadly sins can be used as a personality test to map out our minds.”

The personality test was written on the parchments that had been handed out ahead of time. The test was made up of several simple multiple-choice questions.

The prep school instructor toyed with a piece of parchment.

She would be calling on each of them individually, but there were no thick soundproof walls in the way. The things she said could be heard outside.

“Let’s see, Melehe Superlative. No surprises here. Strong in gluttony, lust, wrath, and envy, but weak in greed. Very few weaknesses here.”

“Heh heh.”

“But you are truly weak in pride, so watch out for that. Maybe the talented have their own problems.”

The “truly” modifier indicated a level higher and “greatly” indicated a level higher than that.

The distribution was endlessly variable and it created each individual mind just like a perfume or cooking. So there were no right answers and no one was perfect enough to be strong in all seven. That would be like an emotionless robot who had no interests, hobbies, or preferences.

“Dorothea Rockpool. You are strong in pride, greed, and gluttony, but weak in sloth and lust. Hm, this says you secretly have no resistance to lust whatsoever.”

“<span style="font-size:75%">Eep.</span>”

The busty glasses girl shrank down with a look that said that was not what she wanted to hear.

“Viocia Modestlucky. Now this is impressive. Strong in wrath and lust and weak in sloth, pride, and envy. And greatly weak in gluttony. You have a lot of weaknesses.”

“Heh heh heh,” laughed Viocia. It wasn’t clear if she really understood what had just been said.

After giving everyone advice, the instructor returned to the lectern.

“Most people think of Formula Brooms and ointments as the primary factors in a witch’s flight, but her mental condition can have a great influence as well. However, self-counseling can be dangerous, so always do this with your friends or with an instructor. Okay, that’s enough boring copying down notes from the blackboard. It’s time to have some fun practicing!”