Toyokawa Shoko doesn't want to become a witch

Page 318

When Xiangzi brought Miaomeng back to the stronghold, his face was almost completely black.

She is in an extremely bad mood right now.

The fact that Witch's Night's arrival time was brought forward was already bad news. Before Witch's Night even arrived, the Reed Plains had already become a place where witches roamed everywhere, and even a Dangous-level witch had appeared.

Although there are still eighteen hours until the expected landing, Xiangzi simply cannot imagine what it will be like if there are still so many uncontrollable witches in Reed Plain when Witch's Night lands.

Unfortunately, Miaomeng also brought another piece of information, which was something Xiangzi had asked her to do before.

About "Fairy Tale Town".

Normally, the size of a witch's barrier is directly related to her power, and this is no exception for the Flower Witch. Nirvana can create a barrier nearly the size of the Reed Plains because it truly possesses this ability. However, in Fairy Tale Town, it created a barrier far larger than the entirety of Japan, which undoubtedly violates this principle.

Therefore, Xiangzi speculated that it used some kind of trickery—such as cyberspace.

The size of cyberspace cannot be measured in a physical sense. If we insist on using physical measurement, then only server rooms exist in the real world.

Reed Plains is a cloud game where all the running data is on cloud servers. Xiangzi didn't know much about this, but just to be on the safe side, she asked Miaomeng to find the game's server on Reed Plains.

She had just received confirmation from Miaomeng.

The "egg" of Fairy Tale Town is right there, invading the server, turning it into its own nourishment, and using cheating-like methods to create a "world" that is almost as real as it is.

That server is the "root" of this world.

Everything Miaomeng investigated was practically telling Xiangzi that to kill Fairy Tale Town, all he needed to do was return to the real world and destroy it before it hatched.

Xiangzi stood on the rooftop, looking at the Sky City that blotted out the sky in the distance.

The plan Lin Hai mentioned, which would allow the Empire to invade the real world without collecting all the fragments, is said to only require one fragment.

The most crucial fragment—the one scattered throughout the divine realm.

The fact that the Empire has already prepared to this stage proves that they have already obtained the Holy Grail fragment of the Divine Kingdom.

"It's time to make a decision, Xiangzi."

As always, a voice that was both annoying and irritating rang out beside Xiangzi. She turned her head and looked at her feet.

Delete, this guy came in with the lamp, and he doesn't do any work all day, just lazing around, acting cute, and being a bystander. Whenever Xiangzi wants to hit him, he hides behind the lamp. Ironically, even though the lamp knows the whole truth, it still treats him quite well, which Xiangzi just can't understand.

Just because this guy is different from ordinary Kyubey and is a lunatic, does that mean we can tolerate him acting cute and taking advantage of us?

“The outside world is still waiting for you to save it.” Delete grinned like the Cheshire Cat and jumped onto her shoulder. “You don’t have enough time. You can only choose one: Reed Plain or Nagasaki Motoyo.”

"Tsk." Xiangzi clicked his tongue.

She didn't want to admit it, but Delete was right. If things continued at the current pace, the Empire would need another five or six days to complete all preparations, which would be the most suitable time to start the war.

However, this would mean that five or six hours have passed in reality, leaving only about ten hours until the Witch's Night event launches.

If it's just Witch's Night, ten hours is enough.

The problem is that there is also a Dangous-class Great Witch who almost killed Meowme. Without a doubt, with the old members all out of contact in Kamihama, only Mujica in the empty Reed Plains has the power to fight against a Dangous-class Witch.

Ten hours later, a Dangou, facing the imminent arrival of the Demon Lord Yi San (5) Weapon Kick & San (2$) Night of the Maidens...

Not enough, not enough at all.

It's impossible. Only if all the senior members of the old group are still around can they possibly hold out. But the senior members... the situation in Kamihama might be even worse than in Ashihara.

What exactly happened?

Xiangzi couldn't understand it.

Everything had been fine before, so how did things suddenly become so bad?

No, racking my brains to figure out why nothing works is no use. Now I should be thinking about how to deal with it.

Reed Plain and Plain World —

“…I want both.” Xiangzi clenched his fist. “There’s enough time. If we start the war early, there’ll be enough time.”

It's enough for her to collect all the Holy Grail fragments, enough for her to bring the real Once Upon a Time to life, enough for her to awaken the Ancient World. Then, she can return to the real world and defeat the Great Witch Dangou who has taken over the Reed Plains.

She is no longer the weak person she once was who couldn't even protect herself.

"Being too greedy will only lead to getting neither," Delete's smile grew increasingly blatant. "I bet you'll fail. Trying to win both ways will only result in a lose-lose situation. Then... not only will you be unable to save Nagasaki Motoyo, but Ashihara will also be ruined because of your negligence—"

"You bastard, did you do this on purpose?" Xiangzi grabbed Delete's ear, lifted it up, and carried it outside onto the rooftop.

Delete hung precariously outside, cold sweat instantly breaking out on its brow. Its two beady eyes stared at Xiangzi in terror, its short front paws dangling in the air.

"No, no, no! Even if it's only four stories high, falling down will still hurt a lot, okay?!"

"You need to find a reason for me not to throw you off." Xiangzi looked at it with disdain.

"Oh~ that's easy, that's easy. You want a solution, right? Of course I have one." It cleared its throat and adopted a salesman's tone. "I know what you're worried about, and I also have a way to avoid this lose-lose situation."

Delete looked confident, as if the problem that puzzled Xiangzi was no problem at all for it.

Xiangzi cast a suspicious glance at Delete.

What other constructive suggestions do you have?

"The lamps haven't been lit yet—"

Snapped.

Xiangzi let go of his hand.

Delete was caught by gravity and fell downwards.

"Let me finish what I have to say!"

Paji.

On top of the thin layer of snow on the ground, a hole shaped like a Cupid had appeared. Xiangzi clapped his hands, turned around and went downstairs.

She shouldn't have had any—even the slightest—expectation—for this lunatic.

The Lost Story: The Lost Child - Chapter 405: Separation

As a result, Xiangzi's plan was brought forward by a full six days.

She called everyone together for a hasty and unmotivating pre-battle meeting, and almost got into an argument with Lin Hai.

Due to the various gazes they faced, they ultimately restrained themselves, keeping their thoughts to themselves and not revealing them.

However, once they were in private, their conflicts were fully exposed.

Lin Hai practically burst into Xiangzi's room.

"Attack before the ground forces have withdrawn? Won't we be facing attacks from both the ground and the air?" Lin Hai said angrily, recounting the task Xiangzi had assigned him. "After Sky City's debut, the Empire is no longer the power it should be in this era. Aren't you overestimating the fighting strength of the resistance forces in Saint Huya?"

“I told you, all we need to do is draw attention; the most important task is to leave it to the decapitation squad.” Xiangzi closed the map, took off his glasses, and turned to look at her.

"You mean those people went there to get their deaths?"

"Yes, but so what? No one is sacrificing their lives. Is there any hope for this battle?"

"You're treating them like expendable resources!" Lin Hai slammed his fist on the table. "These people are mine, I gathered them up! How can you just throw them away like that!"

"So what if I'm treating them like expendable resources?" Xiangzi slammed his fist on the table, not backing down. "It's not the first time for you, is it?"

Xiangzi was referring to the assassination attempt on the Red Queen. She had personally witnessed Saint-Shuari treating strange people as expendable objects and using their negative emotions to create monsters.

Upon hearing this, Lin Hai immediately wilted, like a withered flower.

“…That wasn’t my order.” She bit her lip and said, “But I can’t escape blame.”

“Lin Hai—no, I think it’s better to call you Gross here.” Xiangzi sighed, his tone softening slightly. “You can’t be a leader if you don’t treat them like numbers.”

Why did the previous Gross and her Sanctuary remain insignificant until the kingdom intervened and began to expand fiercely, eventually becoming tools of the kingdom and completely sidelining the previous Gross?

It's because those who dream of saving the whole world are too idealistic, too kind, and too weak.

Weak people are unable to make up their minds about anything, and in the end, they accomplish nothing.

Xiangzi has already learned his lesson from this.

"I know what you mean," Lin Hai said, pursing his lips. "But..."

“This is a virtual world,” Xiangzi said softly.

This was the umpteenth time Xiangzi had brought it up; she seemed to be talking to Lin Hai, but also to herself.

“No, not to me!” Lin Hai raised his voice, responding forcefully. “To me, this is my home! These people, they are all trying so hard to survive! They shouldn’t be sent to the front lines so meaninglessly—”

"—It's not meaningless at all." Xiangzi's tone suddenly lowered a few degrees. She straightened her back and, taking advantage of being a little taller than Lin Hai, looked down at her. "They helped us divert our attention, and that's the biggest significance."

“But they will all die, tens of thousands of them.” Lin Hai clenched his fist and looked directly into Xiangzi’s eyes. “They will go up to their deaths because of your orders.”

"To me, they are not human, they are familiars."

"I don't believe it." Lin Hai scoffed. "Do you think others don't know? The way you looked at the Little Red Queen makes this statement very unconvincing."

"..."

Xiangzi's face immediately darkened.

"...She's different."

“To me, they are different too.” Lin Hai shook his head and turned around. “Everyone in this world is different.”

She raised her hand and stroked the wooden furniture in the room.

The feel of the wood traveled through his fingertips to his heart. Lin Hai lowered his eyes, picked up a history book from the bookshelf, and randomly opened a page.

"For me, this is the real world, and that is the virtual world."

She closed the book, as if she had made up her mind.

"No matter what I say, you won't change your mind, right?"

"Hmm." Xiangzi rubbed his temples. "There are more dangerous things happening in the real world. I don't have time to waste here."

“Alright, I don’t object to your plan.” Lin Hai held the history book and pushed up his glasses. “However, I have one condition.”

"What conditions?"

"I want to leave the decapitation squad."

Originally, besides the magical girl, Lin Hai, Ning Ning, and several other "transmigrators" with combat abilities were all part of the decapitation squad's plan. Including the magical girl, there were a total of fifteen or sixteen people who could be divided into three teams to sneak into Sky City amidst the chaos.

"Then join the main battle?" Xiangzi asked.

Lin Hai nodded! Er Jiu (7) ^ Lu Jiu Yin San Ba ​​Liu.

"As Gross, my presence can boost morale and minimize casualties."

"Whatever you say." Xiangzi shook his head, sat back in his chair, and curled a strand of hair. "It won't make much of a difference if you're not here."

"Thank you."

“We are allies, not superiors and subordinates.” Xiangzi waved his hand. “You don’t actually need to ask me, or even listen to me.”

"We're all trying to make things turn out well, aren't we?" Lin Hai smiled. "It's just that we have some differences of opinion."

“...Haha.” Xiangzi chuckled. “Yes.”

She was beginning to understand Yukina better and better.

I'm still too easygoing.

Xiangzi stared at the deep blue strands of hair at his fingertips, his eyes losing focus slightly.

=====

It wasn't until her focus shifted back that she remembered she was now on the battlefield.

Mu stopped and looked back at Xiangzi, who had suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Xiang."

"Xiao Xiang, what's wrong?" Chu Hua turned around and asked.

"It's nothing, I was just spacing out." Xiangzi blinked and refocused his eyes.

Just as agreed, Lin Hai left the decapitation squad. In fact, the entire team that was with her also left.

She wondered how the battle was going, but she saw that the Empire had mobilized a considerable number of troops.

Hopefully, things are alright.

Xiangzi raised his head and looked at the huge goddess statue standing in the center of Sky City.