The dormitory building was silent at night.
Only the faint glow of the emergency lights in the corridor seeped through the crack under the door, casting slender shadows across the floor.
Su Bai was lying on her bed, sleeping soundly, the corners of her mouth slightly parted as she mumbled indistinctly,
“Delicious… so delicious…”
She was probably still savoring the steak from the Western restaurant in her dream.
Her cheek rubbed against the pillow like a satisfied little cat.
She completely failed to notice that on the bed diagonally opposite, Jiang Yuelan had already silently sat up.
Jiang Yuelan’s gaze fell on Su Bai’s sleeping face and lingered for a few seconds before she carefully lifted the blanket and stepped barefoot onto the floor.
She lightened her movements and shifted step by step to the side of Su Bai’s bed, then lowered her head to look again—
Breathing even, eyelashes casting shallow shadows beneath her eyes. She was indeed sleeping deeply.
After confirming there was no mistake, she turned and walked toward the balcony, gently pulling the sliding door.
The metal rollers and track rubbed together with an extremely light “hiss” that was immediately scattered by the night wind.
The night breeze carried the coolness of early autumn as it brushed against Jiang Yuelan’s face.
She slightly narrowed her eyes, long eyelashes trembling under the moonlight as if enjoying this brief moment of peace.
The ends of her hair swayed lightly in the wind, and a corner of her clothing lifted along with it.
“Tick.”
The phone in her pocket suddenly vibrated once, breaking the silence.
Jiang Yuelan’s eyes snapped open.
The originally gentle gaze instantly turned sharp.
She took out her phone, the light from the screen illuminating her face.
A person noted as “Senior” sent a message: 『Did things go smoothly today, Xiao Jiang?』
Jiang Yuelan’s fingertips quickly tapped on the screen: 『Smoothly. Just that…』
She raised her head and looked toward the rising and falling bed inside the dormitory, softly speaking that name: “Su Bai…”
The ending sound dragged out a little, as if she were thinking about something…
The senior quickly replied: 『The association’s informant, right? How is she? Difficult to deal with?』
Jiang Yuelan looked at the screen and could not help curving the corners of her mouth.
She turned her head again and glanced at Su Bai sleeping in a sprawled posture on the bed, then typed: 『A bit dumb, but… not bad.』
Senior: 『…Don’t lower your guard. That one used to be very strong.』
Jiang Yuelan: 『I know what I’m doing. Official investigation starts tomorrow. I’ve already familiarized myself with the school interior and the main urban area. Preparing to explore the suburbs.』
Senior: 『Be careful.』
After this message was sent, there was no further activity in the chat box.
A few seconds later, the entire chat history was wiped away as if by an invisible hand.
The interface was clean and empty, as if the conversation had never existed.
Jiang Yuelan put away her phone and nodded.
She raised a hand and removed the black-framed glasses from the bridge of her nose.
In the next second, she leaped forward and jumped down from the fifth-floor balcony.
Night wind blew past.
The spot was already empty.
In the night sky outside the dormitory building, a figure slowly appeared.
It was a woman wearing a pitch-black cloak.
The edges of the cloak were embroidered with complex, strange patterns that reflected a dark purple luster under the moonlight.
Underneath was a purple-black lace lolita dress with layered skirts that made her figure appear even more slender and graceful.
Her long, jet-black hair was taller than a person and floated freely in the air.
A silver hair ornament was pinned among the strands, set with three black-red gemstones that flickered with an eerie light in the night.
A black mask that seemed both crying and smiling covered most of her face, revealing only a beautifully lined jaw and lips the color of swallows’ red.
Black stockings wrapped around her slender legs.
The tops of her long boots fitted against the lace, every inch radiating allure and mystery.
If Su Bai had been here at this moment, she would certainly have cried out in alarm—
A witch! A true witch!
That’s right.
This was Jiang Yuelan’s witch form—the Pitch-Black Witch.
She raised a hand.
A mass of pitch-black mist instantly surged up at her feet.
As the mist churned, a completely black crow flapped its wings and flew out, the tip of its beak gleaming coldly.
“Go.” Jiang Yuelan’s voice carried a magical echo, cold and clear with an unquestionable command.
The crow flapped its wings, circled once, and landed in the shadows of a corner of the balcony, instantly merging with the darkness.
Only those eyes that resembled insect compound eyes shone with startling brightness as they stared fixedly at the movements inside the dormitory.
After finishing this, Jiang Yuelan turned and shot toward the clouds, her speed so fast she almost transformed into a black shadow.
Every time she swung her cloak, it carried the howling of the wind.
She could feel the magic power inside her body boiling.
Every cell was cheering and leaping for joy for this power.
This feeling was wonderful, yet it also carried a dangerous temptation.
Jiang Yuelan was very clear that she had never been a magical girl who shone under the light.
Instead she was an existence hostile to the masses:
“Witch.”
Therefore she had always restrained herself, living under a false identity, afraid that this power would lose control and backfire.
She had seen too many witches who, because they failed to suppress their own desires and obsessions, lost control of their magic power and ultimately turned into mindless “monsters.”
She did not want to become like that.
While suppressing the surging magic power, she flew toward the suburbs of the city.
The decision from half a month ago flashed through her mind.
She had come to C City to find the missing Thorn Witch senior.
There was a major secret hidden here.
The seniors of the “Tea Party” refused to say much and had only sent her to investigate.
Rumors said the Thorn Witch had gone mad and even attacked the association’s branch in C City.
But Jiang Yuelan did not believe it—
That senior was not the type to kill indiscriminately.
There were hidden circumstances here.
And so she had infiltrated the city to investigate, ultimately discovering that the last place the Thorn Witch appeared was Chengjiang University.
This was the true purpose of her managing to enroll as a student.
During this process there had also been a few small incidents.
In order to investigate this matter, she had done several things on the west side of the city without thinking too much, leaving behind some tails that were noticed by the association.
Yet what surprised them was that the association had only sent an informant to approach her.
Jiang Yuelan’s lips curved into a playful smile—
The association still underestimated witches far too much.
Witches had long since infiltrated their interior.
She had known the details of this undercover plan in advance.
The people in the “Tea Party” were of the same opinion.
Better to go along with the plan, remain unchanged in the face of change, and see exactly what the association was trying to do.
She had simply never expected that the association would actually send the former Super S-rank magical girl [White Iris] to her side.
“Just what kind of person are you?”
Jiang Yuelan looked at the image transmitted back by the crow—
On the screen, Su Bai flipped over and kicked the blanket onto the floor, her sleeping posture still indecent.
For the first time she cared so much about a single person.
That inexplicable emotion in her heart was like a lake surface stirred by the wind, spreading outward in circles beyond her control.
—When was the first time she had seen Su Bai?
Jiang Yuelan’s thoughts drifted back several years.
At that time, she was not yet called Jiang Yuelan.
She was only a little girl who did not fit in very well at school.
What she looked forward to most every day was watching news about magical girls, especially reports about [White Iris].
“I will save every single person.”
[White Iris] would say this sentence every time she accepted an interview.
It was her motto, and also the light Jiang Yuelan hid in her heart.
Until that day, the school was suddenly attacked by demonic beasts.
Their group had not had time to take shelter and were trapped inside the teaching building.
Outside the windows came the roars of monsters and the cries of classmates.
Despair flooded over her like a tide.
At that moment, a beam of white light shot over from the distance, broke through the window, and landed in the corridor.
Jiang Yuelan still remembered that scene to this day—
The white figure weaved through the group of monsters, the hem of her skirt lifting into a beautiful arc.
Energy light cannons fired one after another.
The demonic beasts that had been so ferocious a moment earlier instantly lost all signs of life.
[White Iris] floated in the air in front of them, a clean smile on her face.
“It’s all right now. Hurry and take shelter.”
That was the first time she had seen her idol up close.
Her heart pounded as if it were about to explode.
“I really want to become a powerful magical girl like [White Iris]…”
This was the wish Jiang Yuelan had buried deep in her heart before she became a witch.
She worshipped [White Iris], wanted to cherish her, and then, like an ordinary fan, silently support her from a small corner.
Unfortunately…
The accident still came too quickly.
What exactly had happened that day, Jiang Yuelan could no longer remember.
She only remembered a terrifying magic power suddenly surging out from her body, then being absorbed again.
Under the repeated pulling, her bones, muscles, and skin felt as if they were being torn apart, reorganized, and regenerated over and over.
The intense pain made her curl up on the ground, unable to move.
She could only watch with wide eyes as her reflection in the mirror continuously twisted and deformed.
Accompanying it was an uncontrollable desire for destruction that surged up from the bottom of her heart.
That was the first and last time Jiang Yuelan lost control.
Uncontrolled magical ability exploded from her body and spread wildly outward with her as the center.
Everything that came into contact with this violent energy was annihilated.
Within a one-kilometer radius, everything that had existed in her life before—things she cherished, things she hated, people she knew, people she did not know—were completely evaporated from this world.
From that day on, a certain unremarkable little girl disappeared along with the accident of the magic power explosion.
And she, Jiang Yuelan, the Pitch-Black Witch, was born.