Chapter 210: Who is this child?

Seeing Mom Ten’i tying her apron and happily preparing to cook, while still thinking about her brother, Yukina’s face showed a complicated expression.

She turned to look at the nearby wardrobe. At this very moment, her brother—the brother who accidentally struck it lucky and became the strongest Star Witch in the other world—was hiding inside that wardrobe.

Her Brother Xinghe could never come back. She had been hiding this from her mother, not giving her any details. Her reason for doing so wasn’t simply a fear that her mother would have an emotional breakdown upon learning the truth.

If her mother could accept her hot-blooded son suddenly turning into a soft, delicate little witch, there would be nothing to hide.

But clearly, this premise was beyond her mother’s imagination. If she just told her, it was impossible to predict what terrifying things her mother might do.

Realizing the gravity of the situation, Yukina took advantage of Mom Ten’i’s attention being entirely focused on heating the oil in the pan. She quickly reached into her pocket and frantically typed on her phone screen.

Then, a strange vibrating sound came from inside the wardrobe.

This naturally caught Mom Ten’i’s attention.

“Hmm? I thought I heard a strange vibrating sound.”

“Eh? D-did you? I didn’t hear anything! Could you have misheard, Mom? You must be exhausted from working so hard recently and are hallucinating! You really need to take good care of your health!” Yukina hastily put on a slightly awkward smile to cover it up. Then, she glared fiercely at the wardrobe, glaring so hard it made the wardrobe itself seem to bristle with fear.

‘Brother, couldn’t you have put your phone on silent mode?’

Meanwhile, Charlotte, hiding in the wardrobe, was secretly peeking out at the situation.

Seeing Mom Ten’i put on an apron and enter the kitchen, seemingly not intending to leave anytime soon, Charlotte was also worried. ‘Are Lillian and I going to be stuck hiding in this cramped wardrobe indefinitely?’

However, just then, a vibration came from her pocket.

Confused, Charlotte took out her phone and saw it was a distress signal from Yukina.

– “Brother! Use your invincible magic to think of something! Just turn back into your old Brother Xinghe self to fool her!”

Reading this message, Charlotte felt troubled.

‘Magic isn’t omnipotent, you know!’

‘There is no magic in the other world that can alter one’s own body.’

This statement wasn’t entirely accurate. Lillian’s Dragon Transformation Magic allowed her to change from her original human form into a massive red dragon. Instructor Kura could also transform into a small, fire-breathing dragon—though Charlotte later learned from Instructor Mashiro that Kura’s transformation was merely illusion magic; she didn’t physically alter her body into a small dragon.

Despite such exceptions, there was undoubtedly no magic in the other world that allowed one to freely alter their body.

At best, one could permanently transform their body into another form, but even minor adjustments were impossible.

Charlotte had scoured the Starsea Magic Academy’s library but found no records of such magic.

After all, no one wanted to use such magic more than she did—to change her flat-as-a-board, utterly un-developing, completely unimpressive physique.

Asking her to revert to her previous form was asking the impossible of a powerful witch!

‘However…’

This didn’t mean she was entirely helpless.

She still had a sliver of hope.

Her original body was currently lying quietly in a cemetery.

Although almost a week had passed and the body had surely begun to rot and smell.

However, as long as the body wasn’t missing arms or legs, she could use Puppet Magic to manipulate it slightly and make it crawl back out of the grave. Though that scene would be quite terrifying for the cemetery caretakers.

‘Some zombies can sing, dance, and rap even after their heads fall off. I just want my past self to come home, greet Mom Ten’i, and show his face. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?’

With this whimsical idea, Charlotte decided to try a desperate measure. However, because she and Lillian were stuffed into the cramped wardrobe, their bodies were practically overlapping.

At this moment, Lillian’s exceptionally voluminous “snow mountains” were wriggling back and forth on top of Charlotte’s head.

Of course, Charlotte was already accustomed to Lillian’s shape and naturally wasn’t particularly bothered by Lillian’s massive assets. However, Charlotte’s right hand was pinned underneath Lillian’s body, and it was starting to feel a bit numb.

“Lillian, move a little. My right hand is stuck.”

“Eh? Sorry, Lady Charlotte!”

Noticing this, Lillian hastily propped up her body, trying to let Charlotte adjust her position.

However, the space in the wardrobe was just too small. As a result, in a moment of carelessness, Lillian slipped out of the wardrobe, bringing Charlotte down with her, and they crashed heavily onto the floor outside.

‘Fortunately, to be safe, I had already applied Wind Magic to myself and Lillian.’

‘Even if we accidentally fell out, we wouldn’t be easily seen by others.’

‘In other words, the Wind Magic applied to myself has completely failed.’

Just like now…

Charlotte, sitting up slowly and grimacing in pain after her back hit the wooden floor…

…looked up to see Mom Ten’i, wearing an apron, holding a long iron ladle, bending over and staring at her in surprise.

“Little Yukina, who is this child?”

Mom Ten’i asked Yukina behind her, looking puzzled.

“Eh?”

Charlotte looked completely bewildered. ‘Is “this child” referring to me?’

‘Didn’t I cast Wind Magic on myself?’

‘Why can Mom Ten’i still see me?’

‘Did the Wind Magic fail?’

Charlotte turned her head in astonishment and stared at Yukina behind Mom Ten’i.

At this moment, Yukina was also staring at her in shock, like someone watching their child scratch their neighbor’s black luxury sedan with a rock.

Seeing Yukina’s reaction, it was clear she could see her too.

Then that meant…

Realizing things were going terribly wrong, Charlotte wore an awkward expression. Like Conan backed into a corner by Ran, she reflexively retreated, but quickly hit the wardrobe and had nowhere left to go.

“Uh… I am… I am…”

“Um… Mom, have you forgotten? She is the little sister from our seventh uncle’s brother’s eighth uncle’s nephew’s family, Kanon-chan!”

At this critical moment, Yukina hurried over to rescue the accidentally exposed Charlotte.