CH 34

Chapter 2 — Expand, my world! • Episode 2-1 • Expansion Witch ①

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

In a room decorated with gorgeous, cute accessories and adorable stuffed animals, a girl was standing in front of two smartphones with a grim expression on her face.

She is about 10 years old. She has white hair that reaches halfway down her back and bright red eyes. At first glance, she appears to be albino, but hers is acquired and yet not due to a genetic disorder. It was a sign of having the key to being a Magical Girl.

The girl checks the official website of the Magical Girl on her magiphone, which she operates with her right hand, and looks up various plans on a travel agency website on her smartphone for everyday use, which she operates with her left hand.

She looked at the small time displayed on her phone and saw that it was a little after 2:00 PM. It was not something the girl necessarily had to do right now, but it was also something that was more convenient for her to finish now. The time limit is 3:00 PM. The girl is slightly distracted by the fact that she does not have much time.

She is not in a hurry to get going at the last minute.

Today’s date is Saturday, July 25, and just yesterday we finished the first semester’s closing ceremony and entered summer vacation.

The girl had no specific plans for the day, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t think about just coasting along and wasting time. So, for the time being, the girl got on with her homework.

Just because she happened to have no plans with friends or family today does not mean that she always has free time on her hands. And as a being with a magiphone, i.e., a Magical Girl, there is always the possibility that she may have urgent business to attend to. What’s more, she was not just a Magical Girl. She was more than just a Magical Girl, she was a special being who was required to respond to sudden situations.

For such a girl, there is no better way to handle her summer vacation homework than to do it while there is still time. It is unthinkable for a young girl to expose herself to such an unbecoming behavior, such as facing the desk in a panic at the last minute.

Thus, the girl spent all morning and a little of the afternoon working on her homework, finished lunch a little late, and took an after-dinner break. That was roughly guessed, half an hour ago. Then she realized. To the announcement on the official website of the Magical Girls that the new Witches, and such, the Magical Girls who opened the third gate, have been announced.

Initially, the girl was not surprised when she saw the topic about the birth of a new Witch. Of course. Because she had known about it in advance. But when she opened the topic link and saw the details, her eyes widened.

「Haah!?」

The name of the new Witch presented is Extend Traveler.

And one more. A name the girl had not been told, but had seen before.

The Wind Witch, Tyrant Sylph.

It was, oddly enough, a name the girl knew.

•

The Witches’ Tea Party, a monthly meeting that only a very select few of the Magical Girls are allowed to attend. The meeting is held on a holiday at the end of the month, and even if an emergency meeting is called at any other time, the tea party at the end of the month will not be carried over.

Therefore, it was only natural that an end-of-month tea party would be held even during this month, when an emergency meeting was held due to the emergence of new Witches.

The time of the meeting was 3:00 P.M. The wall clock at the tea party already read 2:55. Not much time remained before the tea party, but the 14 chairs provided at the long desk were not completely filled.

「Leaving aside Lazy, it looks like Simeracres-chan is absent again today.」

「I hope she can join us at least this month, as it serves as a welcome party for the new Witches.」

The Octopus Witch, Doppelganger, who took one look at the chair inscribed with 1, shifted her gaze to the chair inscribed with 11 and let out a small sigh.

Wigs Crosseau, the Thread Witch, sitting in front of Doppelganger, responds to her in an indifferent tone of voice.

「I guess the mercenary business is going well. You’ve approached them, haven’t you?」

「I’ll be in touch with her all to let her know when it will be held.」

Doppelganger huffily retracts the hand she was about to extend with a small murmur of “good job.”

She was about to pat her head with her usual senses, when she realized that there were other witches there.

In a few months, after she retires, Wigs Crosseau will be responsible for keeping the habitual Witches together. Thinking of that time, she could not do anything that would diminish her dignity by patting them on the head in public.

「Hey, hey, Usagi-chan, are you still there～?」

「Still?」

To the right of Doppelganger, sitting in a chair inscribed with the number 6, is Red Ball, the Gravity Witch, who throws her upper body onto the desk and flaps her arms.

Seeing this, the Ice Witch, Permafrost, began to imitate Red Ball’s gestures and words and began to hit the desk with her arm in the same way.

「Don’t copy me!」

「Don’t copy me!」

Doppelganger let out another sigh when she saw the two fighting like children.

She tried to be concerned about their dignity, but then she remembered that she had not been able to lead them at all.

「Rabbitfoot-san was a full-time attendee, but will she be absent today?」

Usually, Rabbitfoot is already seated at this time of day, chatting with the Magnetic Witch Ex–Magna and the Shark Witch Bullshark, or bickering with Red Ball, but today, she is nowhere to be seen.

It was highly unlikely that Rabbitfoot, who likes to imitate power games, would not attend a tea party where a new witch was attending for the first time, but at the same time Wigs Crosseau and Doppelganger understood that this was not an impossible possibility.

She made her move before they were nailed.

Rabbitfoot with the ability to act is a good possibility.

However, the results show that their guesses were unfounded.

「Don’t you dare make me absent without my permission!」

Opening the door and entering with a gruff voice was Rabbitfoot, a girl with rabbit ears and an orange apron dress. For a moment, all eyes are on Rabbitfoot and the conversation stops.

In the brief silence, the Rabbit moved her gaze once to look around the room and clicked her tongue loudly.

「Extend hasn’t come here yet, it seems.」

In Rabbitfoot’s line of sight, there was indeed no one sitting in the new chair inscribed with the number 13.

Thirteenth in the pecking order, Extend Traveler. The new Witch had not shown up less than five minutes before the tea party started.

「We have confirmed her intention to participate. There is nothing to worry about.」

「Ah, yeah. Aside from that, what is the meaning of this!?」

Rabbitfoot approached Wigs Crosseau with a big, zesty look on her face, appealing that she was angry, and thrust its own magiphone at her.

「Would you like to exchange contact information?」

「Of course not! It’s the 14th Witch! It’s about Tyrant Sylph!!」

What was displayed on Rabbitfoot’s magiphone was the very announcement made today on the official website that two new witches had been born.

Doppelganger saw Rabbitfoot’s state of mind and complained inwardly that this was what had happened after all.

「You knew about this, didn’t you!?」

It was what Wigs Crosseau and Doppelganger were asked by almost every witch now in the room, not just Rabbitfoot.

As expected, no one else seemed this excited, but everyone was curious about the unknown Witch named Tyrant Sylph.

But, from Doppleganger’s point of view, she would rather ask herself who this witch was.

Not long ago, Doppleganger obtained information from a certain source in the Bureau of Magic that a new witch had been born, and she immediately held an emergency meeting to share this information, but the only new witch they had heard about at that time was Extend Traveler.

The fact that a witch named Tyrant Sylph had been born at the same time was completely new to them, and like Rabbitfoot and the others, they had not even the slightest idea until today’s official announcement.

After making inquiries to the Bureau of Magical Arts almost immediately after the announcement, we learned that the procedure for registering this Tyrant Sylph as a Witch with the Bureau had apparently been delayed, and that even the upper echelons of the Bureau had not been aware of this Witch’s existence until recently.

Wigs Crosseau thought about inviting them to a tea party via the Department of Magic, but decided not to, because it would have been insane to invite them on the same day, and also because the main player of the day is Extend Traveler.

「Hmph… Well, okay, then.」

Wigs Crosseau, who spoke with a slight air of exhaustion, pulled back meekly, while Rabbitfoot showed no sign of being satisfied.

Doppleganger slightly questioned Rabbitfoot’s unusual candor, but thought, well, some days are just like that, and didn’t pay much attention.

Even though Wigs Crosseau had a direct response to the Department of Magic and other Witches, Doppelganger are feeling the same mental fatigue of dealing with an unexpected situation. As long as she was in the position of guiding the cohesion, she cannot say that she was a stranger to problems that arise.

「The next Tea Party is another month away, but we cannot leave it until then. I will talk to Tyrant Sylph-san at a later date on my end. As I told everyone else, don’t do anything extra until then.」

「I know that. Well, I’m going to be a little busy with my personal life, and I don’t have time to mess with the new girl.」

Rabbitfoot, whose gaze turns momentarily to Ex–Magna and Bullshark, laughs and replies. Bullshark did not seem to understand, but Ex–Magna looked convinced with a look that said so and so.

Wigs Crosseau stared at Rabbitfoot, checked on Ex–Magna, stared at Rabbitfoot again until she was pierced, and then asked her to be seated.

「You’re late, Rabbit-chan! Did your tummy ache～?」

When their conversation has reached a lull, Red Ball calls out to her with a thin smile, but Rabbitfoot ignores her, slumps into a chair marked 10, and glances at her watch.

Red Ball, looking momentarily miffed and about to open her mouth again, recognizes the current time as if caught by Rabbitfoot’s gaze and retracts her words in frustration.

The long hand of the clock was pointing to 12.

「Shall we start the Tea Party then?」

「Hey–hey! The main lead ain’t here yet!」

Captain Treasure, the Pirate Witch, objected to Wigs Crosseau, who announced the start of the tea party when everyone was seated and 15:00 had passed.

「Perhaps she have something to do. I have tried to contact her but she hasn’t responded and we can’t keep waiting forever.」

「I’m sorry you had to cancel so abruptly.」

Rabbitfoot, who has a particularly low boiling point among witches, mutters lowly as she drinks tea brewed by a fairy.

「But, but, it’s not like she’d decided not to come yet!」

The Dragon Witch, Dragon Call, sitting on a chair inscribed with 7, defends Extend in a flustered panic.

For Dragon Call, a relatively sensible person among witches, it was unthinkable for her to be absent or late without a single call, and she was worried about Extend, wondering if she was involved in some incident or fighting a Diest.

「Being late is not good.」

「Well, maybe she’ll come around.」

「Rabbit-chan, want some gum?」

「Haah? What’s with you suddenly? Go away.」

「Then I’ll eat it!」

「Frost-chan, you can’t!」

「Eh～! I’ll eat, I’ll eat, I’ll eat it～!」

「Dragon, let’s go out for dinner after this. I haven’t had lunch yet.」

「Are you going away again, Senpai? You shouldn’t go to dangerous places.」

「If push comes to shove, you can just transform.」

「I was glancing over here earlier, and I thought Rabbitfoot was traveling?」

「Yes, I did. That’s why I said I was busy.」

「…Where?」

「The Land Of Rats.」

「Ohh, nice～ I’ll take that as a present.」

「Tch, it can’t helped then.」

「Rabbit-chan, are you going to the land of the rats? It’s like little animals make a good match for each other, ahahaha!」

The new witch’s unexcused absence or tardiness triggered each witch to start talking, and the topic quickly veered off in an unrelated direction, and they began chatting among themselves.

It is said that when these three women gather together, they became noisy. If that is the case, then what if ten people gather together, was the noise three times as loud?

As Doppelganger pondered such an unhelpful thought and wondered how to get Wigs Crosseau to settle the matter, the door opened with a violent bang. It was just like the impact of Rabbitfoot kicking open the door at the recent meeting, and the gazes of the witches, who were busy chatting, were focused on the open door.

「Hey there, Senpais, sorry to keep you waiting.」

A girl with a seemingly shaggy gray wolf cut, wearing a loose-fitting blue dress, stood with glinting golden eyes.

There was no hesitation at all, and she stepped into the space that only this witch was allowed to enter, as if it were a matter of course.

The Witches know about the girl because the information was shared with them in advance. Each of them confirms in advance their dress, appearance and magic as well as their names.

So no one blames her for showing up at this Witch’s tea party. They understand that she is entitled to do so.

「Nice to meet you. I am Extend Traveler.」

Extend Traveler appeared with a reverent bow.

Looking at her sophisticated movements alone, it would appear that she is paying courtesy and respect to her predecessors, but in fact, the atmosphere she is wearing is something else entirely. The air is glistening, like a predator that is about to devour the witches at any moment.

「The 13th Witch.」

The girl proclaimed confidently and proudly, as if she did not care that she was late.