CH 68

Chapter 2 — Expand, my world! • Episode 2-Leisure • Extremists

Translated by KaiesV

Edited by KaiesV

On the day that the retirement of the Thunder Witch, Monarch Sprite, was officially announced, the Magical Girl Phantom rejoiced that the time of her reign was finally coming to an end.

Once, when Phantom was still a new Magical Girl, it was good. She joined the Natural Faction and takes full advantage of her backing to take over Hunting Grounds and earn points while improving her position within the faction. She had been smooth sailing, partly because of her unusual talent as a Magical Girl.

The change did not come out of the blue. The power of Rising Sun, the Sun Witch who was at the top of the Naturalist movement at the time, gradually began to wane, and at the same time, Monarch Sprite began to emerge.

Rising Sun was a typical hassler, and her membership in the faction was for the purpose of collecting score points, and she was not the type to actively intervene, although she functioned at least as a backstop. Therefore, the discipline within the Natural Faction was completely unregulated, and the radicals of the time behaved as they pleased.

While Rising Sun was higher than Monarch Sprite, the Extremists had the strongest voice. It wasn’t that Rising Sun was particularly beholden to extremists, but merely favored Magical Girls who made more money. But as the gap between the two Witches’ abilities narrowed, the voice of the Extremists gradually became weaker and that of the Moderates stronger.

Monarch Sprite was a righteous Magical Girl who wanted to balance not only within her own faction but also the Magical Girls as a whole and unite them against the Diest.

It was a blue-sky, dreamy idea, but Monarch Sprite had the ability and charisma to make it a reality. Together with Doppelganger, her inimitable best friend, she worked with other witches and influential Phase 2 Magical Girls, bringing the previously frequent factional strife to a complete halt and bringing peace of mind to many Magical Girls.

Naturally, there was no way that Monarch Sprite would allow such radical activities within her own faction, and when the pecking order of the two Witches was reversed, the radical faction was halfway to dissolution.

However, once people learn to take it easy, they cannot easily return to their former lives. Many of the radical Magical Girls were subsequently pandered to by Neutrals and Moderates, but some exited the Naturalist faction or sharpened their fangs in preparation for what was to come.

That is exactly what Phantom and the Magical Girls under her umbrella are. Once only one Magical Girl in a radical faction, Phantom, after a few years of obscurity, has gained an extremely high rank among Phase 2 Magical Girls, and has recalled those who, like herself, had sharpened their fangs and left the Natural Faction.

With the retirement of Monarch Sprite, Permafrost is now the only Naturalist Witch. As a matter of fact, she has been one of the Witches of the Natural Faction since the time of the power tug-of-war between Rising Sun and Monarch Sprite, but she had no intention of getting involved in the faction any more than Rising Sun and was not involved in any power struggles.

Phantom decided that Permafrost’s presence wouldn’t be an obstacle to her resumption of activities as an Extremist. She is a creepy Witch who shows no growth whatsoever, physically or mentally, which is why she wouldn’t be as interested in the movements within her faction as she was back then.

In fact, during the two months or so since Monarch Sprite retired, she have been tearing up turf elsewhere to avoid being too conspicuous and to avoid the thought of returning as a Magical Girl by thoroughly hurting her where there are no witnesses, but she have not felt any signs that Permafrost is making a move.

During the course of her tour, there were some accidents, such as the removal of some of the members by the neutral Magical Girls among the Naturalists, but other than that, there were no major problems, and Phantom decided that it was time to make a big move.

According to the report of a subordinate, the town is in the midst of a turf war, and is currently occupied by the Naturalists.

Phantom didn’t remember having the Extremists attack that town, and if that was the case, the people who were fighting should be Magical Girls who were not their relatives, even if they were Naturalists, so she decided to sidestep the issue.

Phantom did not have a shred of camaraderie just because they were also Naturalists. Rather, she still remembered that in the past, when the Extremists’ voice was weakened, they were cursed and talked about behind their backs.

She had no grudge against Magical Girls of other factions or unaffiliated Magical Girls; they attack them purely to take their territory, but nothing feels better than to be able to take their territory and take revenge on the Natural Faction Magical Girls at the same time.

Two troubling facts were uncovered in the course of the investigation into the raid, but Phantom determined that neither was a problem.

One was that the town was under the direct jurisdiction of a Witch. However, she didn’t seem to intervene in territorial disputes, and furthermore, rumor has it that she is a ruthless person who has no interest in others, so she thought that as long as she didn’t interfere with that Witch, they would not be attacked.

Two, the Magical Girls who are occupying the town hired mercenaries. However, there are only three of these Magical Girls, and in terms of financial strength, the Extremists are far superior. If they pull those three out, there will be no problem, but rather the Extremists’ strength will be strengthened.

From the outside, it seemed like a short-sighted and not very serious plan, but the long-suppressed Phantom was dazzled by the delicious Hunting Grounds. Moreover, although their abilities have grown significantly over the past few years, the Magical Girls who were at the center of the Radical Faction’s heyday at the time have long since retired, leaving them with no know-how rather than rusty skills.

Perhaps that’s why Phantom’s group were unaware of it. Their sloppy moves had been caught completely by one Witch.

.

The day that Phantom rode into Sakira town to take over the territory was, coincidentally, the same day that the Elephant’s group challenged the Dryad’s group to a battle to retake the town.

Phantom, who knew from the notification that multiple Diests had appeared, gloated that it was convenient. She said it would be more reliable to go around crushing them all one by one.

Phantom, excited at the prospect of spring at last, activates her transfer magic, and the Magical Girls in her circle follow suit.

Phantom couldn’t step on the ground of the Deception World, which had been transferred en masse in this way.

「Extra Freeze.」

All the Magical Girls of the Extremist group were instantly turned into ice statues as they floated in the air, enveloped in light by the transition. Even Phantom was no exception. Before any of them had time to realize that they had been attacked, they were trapped in ice that would not melt.

In a way, they were probably happy. They can live forever as long as that magic lasts, dreaming of their own future leaps forward.

「This is a nice place, so don’t disturb them.」

The girl, who uses Ice Magic, stares at the frozen Magical Girls with a cold expression that is hard to believe from her dainty, young appearance. Then, suddenly, she smiled and started taking selfies with the ice sculpture in the background.