Editing Failing Witch:Volume1 Episode2 (section)

===7===

“Ehh? Viocia, wh-why did you leave so many of the question blank? Eep. You can’t get any points on the Bealtaine unless you actually write something down.”

“If I leave it up to luck like that, I just know my test will be posted on the hallway bulletin board to show off my ‘funny’ answer. With only my name covered up for privacy.”

“Stop being weirdly hesitant about answering test questions and actually study so you can avoid that kind of embarrassment. Now, you should have known Cernunnos would be on the Aspect of Antiquity section of the Bealtaine. Why did you focus all your studying on flight magic, and ultra-high speed flight at that?”

Dorothea, Viocia, and Melehe were arguing in the self-study room one night.

The Bealtaine was meant to check how well each student understood the material and to give the students practice assessing their own work. So once the test was over, they were allowed to discuss it with each other.

Now, Carraway Cs Prep School’s self-study room was always open, but the students could not stay there forever. They had to rent time there using free tickets they were issued. If they were allowed to stay there all day long, some would curl up on the floor below the desk and sleep there.

Gyaru-style Instructor Schanze – who looked like a Mont Blanc in her vest, tight skirt, and leopard print show-off bra – gave the girls a sidelong look. As the broom instructor, she wouldn’t normally be here for this, but overseeing the test was considered a boring job and she had apparently secretly gotten another instructor to pay her to do the job for them. When even the instructors were filling in for each other, you had to wonder how sound the prep school’s business model really was.

Of course, the gyaru-style instructor’s thoughts were on something else entirely. She whispered with Myousou Yagoro in an empty booth.

“I see Dorothea is totally back. What even happened between her and her Formula Broom?”

“With Aristotle, you mean? He’s back inside the broom. I may have threatened to mess with the inside of the broom so it would ''read in a different geographic location'' if he pissed me off again.”

“I see. Well, if a real monster like you is totally keeping an eye on things, that broom shouldn’t cause any more trouble for a while.”

Schanze had a “that explains it” look on her face.

The girls’ peaceful conversation continued while she watched.

“By the way, Viocia, based on which questions you left blank, it looks to me like you didn’t study the Black Mass much at all.”

“I-it is true the Aspect of Amorality has a lot of frightening things in it, so I don’t like reading about it much either. Eep. L-like offering a part of your clothing to a demon or using blood as an ingredient.”

“Ugh. I hate gross things.”

“Well, deal with it. The textbooks are nothing but knowledge, right? Besides, there’s a lot more to the Aspect of Amorality than that. Like creating curses by letting tools go to waste. That’s the logic behind monsters making homes out of abandoned churches.”

“H-how about we focus on the Aspect of Admiration for a change of pace? Eep. ATU 0123 is the Wolf and the Young Goats.”

“Gyahhhhh! A story about young goats carelessly opening the door and being eaten by the wolf disguised as their mother is plenty gross!!”

“Anyway, your practice exam results are always going to be catastrophic if you don’t study the Aspect of Amorality. And you, uh, must have a reason you want to get into Maleficium, right?”

“Hmm? Melehe, have you gotten nicer recently?”

“I am not nice and I am not harmless!! Do not mock the fearsome future leader of Private Striga!”



The gyaru-style instructor gave an arbitrary nod and got down to business.

“I’ve totally finished questioning Dorothea after what happened.”

“Questioning her about what?”

“''The guaranteed weight loss talisman.'' Or more accurately, the crazy recipe for it.”

That was another issue regarding Dorothea.

How to mix herbs to produce different effects was one thing a witch had to know for the entrance exam, but dangerous recipes were a different matter. In this city full of witches who had failed the exam, there would always be idiots trying to get rich quick at the cost of someone else’s future.

Schanze Dwelling crossed her lithe legs as she continued.

“Yellow District, Block X.”

“Sassafras Cfa Prep School, huh?”

Myousou Yagoro instinctually lowered a hand to his hip. He rubbed the grip of the collapsed baton to ensure it was there.

“They have a ''super bad reputation'', don’t they?” said the gyaru-style instructor with a bewitching laugh.

There was a wide variety of prep schools in Temple School City. With its focus on the instructor’s salaries, some might think Carraway Cs was a waste of time.

But one thing was for sure: it was better than Sassafras Cfa.

“Sabotaging your rivals is assumed. That totally criminal prep school doesn’t even try to raise successful students of its own. Instead, they search out students that look like they could totally get into Maleficium and then threatens them into transferring. And even with that, I’ve heard rumors they falsify their pass rate each year. And any investigative reporters or internal whistleblowers have a way of disappearing. They probably end up thrown into Lakeside’s semi-underground park where they’re ''eaten''.”

“That’s one of the most deadly areas in the city, isn’t it? It started out as an overgrown dungeon no one had bothered looking after, but after witches started using it as a dumping ground for giant gargoyles, mandragoras with deadly screams, and other things they can’t look after themselves, it’s turned into a real den of monsters.”

“There are even adventurer parties who bring along a dog and try to have it uproot the mandragoras from a safe distance. Really, anything in Lakeside is totally like that. You can’t even trust the length of a meter or the mass of a kilogram there. The rich all want to live on the convenient lower levels, but Block Y and Block Z at the very bottom totally aren’t an option, are they?”

At any rate, if students from that school were involved in Dorothea’s case, this was more serious than Yagoro had thought.

She might not be their only victim.

He had to assume this “attack” was targeted at the entire school. How far had the corruption spread through Carraway Cs? They had used a guaranteed weight loss talisman. It was possible students worn down in body and mind had been so worried about the exam they leapt at the easy solution presented to them and now effectively worked for the culprits. If so, letting this problem fester could bring unnecessary danger to Viocia.

But…

“''That’s totally not the biggest problem.'' Are you familiar with the Arena?”

“You mean the public exercise facility at the bottom of the city, bordering Lakeside? And the Arena isn’t its official name.”

“Right. Basically, it’s a free facility for anyone to use when their prep school’s indoor training ground is too crowded.”

“Are you saying these dangerous people have turned it into their base?”

“It’s in Block Z, at the very bottom, remember? And people like that have a way of appearing at tourist attractions, shopping districts, and anywhere else you find a lot of people. But that means the recipe sellers will have corrupted more than just Carraway Cs. We haven’t heard of it anywhere else because every school totally has to keep up appearances, but shouldn’t we assume several schools have already been affected?”

This was more than a direct clash between two schools.

The infamous Sassafras Cfa Prep School had put all the city’s prep schools in danger.

Like they had spun a spiderweb that captured and devoured people’s lives.

“…”

If Yagoro was going to make a move, what should he consider his goal?

Did he only want to remove the rot from Carraway Cs? Would he drive the recipe sellers out of the Arena? Or would he oppose infamous Sassafras Cfa as a whole? His objective was simply to help Viocia with her entrance exam. The ''weight loss talisman'' incident was a major threat, but dragging his student into a lengthy battle was the last thing he wanted when the entire point was to eliminate any unnecessary noise from her surroundings.



“To be honest, I’m amazed you’ve managed to just barely keep your right to use the basic equipment this long.”

“Incredible. It looks like the things you studied – eep – were exactly what ended up on the practice exam.”

“That was the pervert tutor’s doing, I’ll bet.”

“Heh heh. Now, before we continue, a special weapon to help keep me focused: a chocolate bar.”

“<span style="font-size:75%">I-I will be confiscating that.</span>”

“Ahhhh!! Dorotheaaaaa!”

“Do you have any idea how much work it is for a witch to keep in shape? And sugar would only make you sleepy.”

“You don’t understand, Melehe! I need it! It’s that effect where two things that come in contact will continue to affect each other even from really far away. And wasting food is bad luck!!”

“The fundamental law of curses does not apply to this, you stupid failure!”



Melehe raised her fist but started fidgeting and couldn’t bring herself to swing it back down. This was probably because she had learned Viocia’s reason for wanting into Maleficium.

Myousou Yagoro sighed softly while watching those girls from a distance.

If he wanted a simple answer, he knew where to find one.

(I know exactly what ''Viocia would say to do''.)