Chapter 17: As everyone knows, invincibility is actually a debuff.

In the living room, Yukina, wearing pink pajamas, sat at the dining table, resting her cheek on her hand and staring blankly at the kitchen.

Inside the kitchen, the petite Charlotte was wearing an oversized apron, holding a frying pan over a blazing fire summoned by a magic circle, grilling her most prized dish—charcoal-grilled steak.

Honestly, there were too many things to complain about in this scene.

If Charlotte hadn’t suddenly clung to her leg, shouting tearfully, “Onegai,¹ if you don’t eat the breakfast I personally made, watashi…”² Yukina wouldn’t have obediently sat here waiting for Chef Charlotte to finish her “five-star gourmet meal”!

“Brother, why are you using your own fire magic instead of the gas stove? What if you accidentally burn the house down? I don’t want to live on the streets with you!” Yukina complained.

“Relax, Yukina. Your big brother is the strongest Star Witch in the other world! Even if I accidentally set the house on fire, I can put it out immediately!”

“Not setting the house on fire should be what you do in the first place, brother!” Charlotte’s miraculous brain logic left Yukina speechless. She changed the subject. “So, does that slab of meat absolutely need to be cooked with fire magic?”

“Wow, Yukina, you’re so knowledgeable! That’s right. This azure dragon steak must be cooked with magic-infused flames to fully bring out its umami flavor. Otherwise, the deliciousness will be overshadowed by an intense gamey odor. One bite, and it’ll be like eating a deer penis full of stuff, and your whole brain will be overwhelmed with stimulation.”

“So why did you have to use such a difficult-to-handle ingredient? Where did this thing even come from?”

“That was back when I had just entered the Starsea Magic Academy as a first-year student, I think,” Charlotte began to tell another story. “Instructor Mashiro gave me a simple commission, saying that a village was being frequently attacked by dragons and asking me to deal with the problem single-handedly.”

“And then you just went and slaughtered that dragon?”

“That story is a bit complicated. When I got to the village, I found an injured red dragon. After beating it up, I realized the one attacking the village wasn’t the red dragon but another azure dragon. So, I took down the azure dragon in one combo, packed up the whole thing, meat and bones included, and took it away. But when I got back to the academy, Instructor Mashiro actually used the excuse that I had blasted the entire village to smithereens to refuse to pay the commission reward. She even deducted my academic credits! I really wanted to shoot her horse with a Qilin Bow!³”

Saying this, Charlotte clenched her small fists. It seemed she still resented Instructor Mashiro’s unreasonableness to this day.

“How could this Instructor Mashiro be so mean? Why is she always giving you trouble, brother?”

“Who knows? I didn’t provoke her or anything. When I first arrived at the academy, I just announced that I was the disciple of Chloe, the Night Witch, and this Sun Witch, Mashiro, started targeting me everywhere.”

“Hmm?”

Yukina immediately sensed the fishy nature of the situation. Mashiro means “pure white” in Japanese, which corresponds to the Sun. Chloe is often phonetically associated with Kuro meaning “black,” which corresponds to the Night.

This meant that this Instructor Mashiro and her brother’s master, Chloe, were actually mortal enemies? That would explain everything.

“Brother, you still don’t know why Instructor Mashiro keeps targeting you?”

“Yes, I totally don’t understand her thinking. I’m clearly so cute and a once-in-a-millennium magical genius. She could have raised me like her own overpowered daughter! Why did she have to treat me like a Japanese character getting the shaft?⁴”

“It’s probably because she hates narcissistic children.”

As they talked, the news broadcast on the television caught Yukina’s attention.

The news was reporting that a gas leak had suddenly occurred at the Silver City First Central Hospital last night, causing everyone to fall unconscious. After rescue efforts, all individuals were reported to be out of danger.

“See? Using gas can be dangerous!” Charlotte said triumphantly after hearing the news report. “My fire magic is much safer, right?”

“Your fire magic is much more dangerous, you idiot!” Yukina retorted. “But speaking of which, can a hospital really have a gas leak? Could it be…”

At this thought, Yukina suddenly stood up in a panic.

“Did some mysterious organization target you, brother, and try to steal your remains in the dead of night?”

“Huh? Yukina, you’re overthinking it. This is the real world. Where would you find such an incredible conspiracy?”

“Do you even have the right to say that, brother? The most unbelievable thing in the world is you! Who’s to say you’re the first person to return to the real world from another world?”

“Ngh…” Charlotte was instantly silenced by the rebuttal.

What Yukina said wasn’t entirely wrong. The parchment recording the cross-world magic was found on Feiye Zhenhong, not conjured out of thin air. This meant that at least one person had successfully used the cross-world magic before for it to be recorded and passed down.

However, no one could guarantee that only the real world and the other world existed. Perhaps the previous user of the cross-world magic arrived in yet another different world, and her returning to the real world was pure coincidence.

“Well, even if there is a conspiracy, your big brother is the strongest Star Witch in the other world, and I’ll definitely protect you.” Saying this, Charlotte clenched her fist to show off her strength, wearing a confident expression that seemed to say, “Dare to trespass, and I’ll make sure you suffer a crushing defeat.”

“Brother, do you think you’re completely invincible just because you were the strongest witch in the other world? You’ve read enough manga to know that being ‘invincible’ is actually a negative debuff!”

“…” Charlotte was again rendered speechless by Yukina’s retort.

She had witnessed the downfall of an invincible being just last night.

No one could have predicted that the strongest character would be defeated, and what a brutal defeat it was—sliced in half.

The previously exciting manga had suddenly become extremely hilarious.

“Just to be safe, I’m going to call the hospital and ask.”

Yukina took out her phone and dialed the hospital. After a brief inquiry, Yukina sighed in relief and hung up.

“Your brother’s body is still there. It looks like I was overthinking it.”

“See, I told you there aren’t that many conspiracies in this world!”

Yukina gave a side-eye to Charlotte, who was cooking with fire magic.

‘If someone else found out that a little witch had crossed over from another world and was now living in our house, even if there weren’t any conspiracies to begin with, they would multiply like mushrooms after the rain, so numerous that it would be suffocating.’

¹ Onegai: Japanese word for “Please,” used often in anime/manga dialogue.

² watashi: Japanese word for the first-person pronoun “I.”

³ Qilin Bow: The Qilin Bow is a specific weapon from Chinese lore (and the Sanguosha card game). 

⁴ treating me like a Japanese character getting the shaft:  Chinese internet slang. She is complaining that she is being treated unfairly, like a protagonist in a story (often a Japanese one, given the reference to manga tropes) who is being excessively tormented or made to suffer.