A witch was another name for a woman who had formed a contract with a demon.
Through a "Guardian," one of a demon's servants, witches could wield the same abilities as demons. Though human, they could command enough magical power to rival even higher-ranking demons, and their technique with that power could surpass even the greatest magi. They were, in every sense of the phrase, women touched by the demonic.
Of course, forming a contract with a demon required a price.
The heavier the price, the more power a witch could draw from the demon.
Some sought a demon's favor for the sake of power. Yet there were also rare, exceptionally gifted beings who caught a demon's eye from birth—or, for some other reason, had already formed a contract with a demon the moment they came into the world and became witches.
People called them pure-blood witches, meaning witches by birth. In both aptitude and innate quality, they far surpassed ordinary witches. If allowed to grow to maturity, each one had the potential to become a figure capable of shaping an era.
The girl was a pure-blood witch.
The Gigafloat Management Corporation that governed the island had granted the girl considerable authority. As long as her requests or wishes were not too excessive, they would either satisfy them or simply turn a blind eye.
All because the price the girl had to pay for her contract was exactly what they needed.
Before she began carrying out her duties, the girl was permitted to complete her education as an "ordinary student" and enjoy everything she possessed as an "ordinary person."
But in the end, she was not the same as ordinary people. She did not need to worry about what she would do after graduation, much less feel anxious over whether a job would pay enough. From that perspective, perhaps it was a good thing. At least her future was guaranteed: a secure position for life. She would never have to worry about being swept up in the waves of unemployment brought on by the changing times.
To be honest, she was already growing tired of school life.
The classmates around her squandered their youth and spent their energy on meaningless things. No matter how close the girl appeared to be to them, she could feel an invisible wall standing between them, forcing her to wake up to the truth...
She did not belong to the same world as them.
Even when she returned home, no family member would tell her, "Welcome home." The only people she saw were staff sent by the Gigafloat Management Corporation to monitor and protect her.
She even wanted to end her studies outright and go work for the Gigafloat Management Corporation. The girl could not find any meaning in the life she had lived so far.
Meaningless...
Meaningless.
She truly did not understand why people were so fond of looking back on their youth, on their school days. Or was it that people could only remember the beauty of something after they had lost it?
'I'm not really sure either... Personally, after I graduated from school, most of what stayed in my head were happy memories. Worries, regrets, pain—they were like clutter and trash my brain automatically filtered out and dumped in some corner of my memory... Or maybe my brain just really hates digging those bad things back up?'
"!!!"
The girl jumped in fright.
A completely unfamiliar voice had suddenly sounded inside her head. Surely anyone would be startled by that.
This was a world where vampires, beastmen, witches, succubi, sirens, magi, and all manner of other beings existed. Many "impossibilities" from other worlds were simply "common sense" here, and as a witch, the girl was a little better at accepting such things than an ordinary person would be.
"Who are you?"
If the other party could speak directly inside someone else's head, did that mean they could do other, even more excessive things to her brain?
She was a witch, but before that, she was still a ten-year-old girl. The high wall she had built and named "strength" was not sturdy enough to dispel the unease in her heart.
"Could it be... the demon who formed a contract with me?"
The girl summoned her courage and asked.
'...Demon? How rude! I'll have you know I'm technically a member of the clergy! Even children's slips of the tongue have limits. Under the Lord's watch, there are some things one absolutely must not say!'
The owner of the voice seemed somewhat surprised, and somewhat angry.
Though she could only hear the voice, an image of the other party flustered and fuming had already formed in the girl's mind.
Still, how unexpected...
A member of the clergy?
...That felt even worse than a demon.
When it came to clergy, the only thing the girl could think of was the Western European Church, which included many exorcists who despised demons and considered exterminating them their duty.
To them, witches who signed contracts with demons were not all that different from demons themselves.
'But demons, huh. Mm. Demons...'
The voice rang out in the girl's head again. If possible, she really wished the other party would be a little more considerate of her feelings and switch to a less invasive way of communicating.
But she could not voice that complaint, because she was very afraid this member of the clergy would shout, "Holy Light! This evil is worth fighting!" and blast this talkative little witch into dust.
Still...
Was it her imagination? The girl felt that the owner of the voice had grown somewhat hesitant.
Had they perhaps run into some kind of problem?
'It's just... speaking of demons, I do seem to have run into a few earlier. I am a member of the clergy, after all. If I run into demons, there are only two possible outcomes: either they die, or I live. So I wiped them all out while I was at it.'
The girl was still trying to figure out what difference there was between "they die" and "I live," but the other party's next words left her unable to think about anything else.
What did they mean, they had wiped out every demon they had run into while they were at it?
Demons were beings that existed in other dimensions. Since ancient times, many witches had signed contracts with them, but no one had ever seen their true forms. There was not even a definitive answer as to whether they should be called demons in the first place. They were as mysterious as spirits and angels.
Humanity's current technology could not observe demons, much less destroy them...
So just what in the world was the owner of this voice?
They said they were a member of the clergy...
Could they be an angel, an existence just as mysterious as demons?
'...I see. I more or less understand your situation now. A witch who forms a contract with a demon in exchange for power, is it? But the demon who contracted with you has already been destroyed by me, so naturally, that contract is null and void. Well? Do you want to return to the life of an ordinary person?'
To the girl's surprise, although the owner of the voice was full of hostility toward demons, they were quite calm toward her, a witch.
She could not rule out the possibility that all of this was an act, but she still hoped the other party's behavior was genuine. Otherwise, she probably would not escape death today.
Even if she had yet to find a reason to live, dying in such an absurd way was even harder for her to accept.
"The life of an ordinary person...?"
The girl suddenly curled her lips into a smile.
It was not a smile of relief, but one of self-mockery.
"Now that things have come this far, where I go is no longer something I can decide for myself."
Even if the demon who had formed a contract with her was gone, the Gigafloat Management Corporation on this island would never let her go.
They had invested too much time and effort into the girl, and they had also allowed her to come into contact with too much darkness that ordinary people would never see. Those things bound the girl like shackles, keeping her from surfacing into the sunlight. She could only continue sinking into darker depths until the pressure and darkness around her suffocated her.
"My ties to them run too deep. They may all be idiots, but they're not so stupid that they'd let me walk away unharmed... No. Precisely because they're idiots, they'd definitely choose the easier method and make sure I could never leak their secrets."
The Gigafloat Management Corporation was no charity. The girl understood her position clearly. She was like a caged bird with a passable singing voice. If she lost the ability to sing, what awaited her would not be freedom, but having the last of her value squeezed out of her before being thrown into the trash.
'Wuh? Huh? Isn't that just a black company? What a horrible bunch of people. They won't even let a little girl like you go?'
Though the other party was a member of the clergy, they were actually willing to show concern for a witch like her? They really were nothing like the clergy she had imagined...
Though she had never met a real member of the clergy even once.
That was only natural. The relationship between witches and clergy in this world was extremely poor. They could be called mortal enemies. If the girl had ever met a real member of the Western European Church, there was a high chance she would already have been killed by them.
When was the last time someone had worried about her like this?
It was so distant as to be hazy. So hazy that the first thing the girl felt toward this concern was not gratitude, but tension and unease.
Her classmates' concern meant nothing to the girl, because they understood nothing about her.
The Gigafloat Management Corporation's concern was merely mutual exploitation and did not contain even the slightest sincerity.
Concern like this, with no concealment and no falsehood, was like the beautiful but unreal rainbow shimmer inside a soap bubble. The girl fell into a daze.
'What should I do... I can't say this result has nothing to do with me. If I abandoned a girl in trouble and ignored her, the Lord would be disappointed in me, right? The next dessert I ate wouldn't taste good anymore, right? I'm really sorry! I'll think of a way to make it up to you...'
The owner of the voice rattled off a great many words at tremendous speed, to the point that the girl missed nearly half of them even though they were ringing directly inside her head...
Judging by the tone, the other party seemed very flustered. It looked like they were a truly responsible, good person. Could they actually be an angel?
The voice in her head rang out again.
'Ah, I almost forgot. I still haven't asked. What's your name?'
The girl no longer remembered why she had trusted that unfamiliar and suspicious voice back then.
Without even a moment's hesitation, she told the other party her name.
"My name... is Natsuki Minamiya."
...
This was Itogami Island.
Located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, floating atop a leyline three hundred and thirty kilometers south of Tokyo, it consisted of four artificial islands built from resin, metal, and organic matter through magecraft. It was a city where humans and demons coexisted, drifting upon the Pacific.
Its total area was roughly one hundred and eighty square kilometers, with a total population of about five hundred and sixty thousand. Of them, approximately four percent were demons who had obtained formal citizenship.
The bell announcing the end of school had rung long ago. The campus was filled with cheerful laughter, and the warm late-afternoon sun streamed through the windows into the classroom.
"Ciel-san, you look like you're in a hurry. Are you going to the church again after school today?"
"Ah, no. It's actually because of Natsuki-oneechan. She told me to come home early after school today..."
"Oh? So it's Minamiya-sensei... No wonder you look like you're in such a rush, Ciel-san. Minamiya-sensei is scary when she gets mad, right?"
"Is she? I don't think so at all. Isn't she pretty cute?"
After finishing her conversation with the girls in her class, the girl with short blue hair and glasses left the classroom and began walking toward the school gate.
She had not even reached the stairwell when several girls from her class, clearly on familiar terms with her, called out to her.
"Ciel-san, do you have time after school? A new place opened on the south side of town. I heard their curry is amazing!"
"Really! Ah... But Natsuki-oneechan told me to go straight home after school today, so I'm really sorry. I can't make it. Let's go another day! I'll treat everyone then."
"No, no, we couldn't possibly... If Natsuki-san called you back, it must be something important. You don't need to apologize to us, Ciel-san."
"You know... if Natsuki-oneechan heard you call her that, she'd definitely smack you on the head with her fan again."
"Hehehe!"
On her way out, not only students, but even teachers smiled when they saw Ciel.
"Ciel-san, could you come help me with something?"
"Hmm? Of course, if it's something quick. Natsuki-oneechan is still waiting for me at home, so I probably can't stay here too long..."
"Natsuki Minamiya, huh... Then it can't be helped. Hurry on home. I'll think of something else."
"Okay! Goodbye, sensei!"
It was a very peculiar phenomenon. The girl named Ciel seemed to be popular among both students and teachers.
She was known as "Saikai Academy's all-purpose upperclassman."
If a first-year student had worries, talking to her would make them positive and optimistic again.
If a second-year student was troubled by something, she would help them solve the problem directly.
If a third-year student was causing trouble for their kouhais, she would stop them from continuing to bully them.
Even teachers and the student council would ask her for help, so some students called her the true student council president.
This perfect figure also had an older sister.
Everyone at Saikai Academy knew that Ciel, the academy's most popular student, and Natsuki Minamiya, the academy's most popular teacher, were sisters.
Supposedly, Ciel had come to Saikai Academy because Natsuki Minamiya had arranged it herself.
...
[MYSTERIOUS EXECUTOR C.I.E.L / TEACH ME! CIEL-SENSEI / STAR CIEL]
[CLASS]: MOON CANCER
[LEVEL]: 110
[PERSONAL SKILLS]:
HUMAN MANA FACTORY A
PHASE SLIP SWORDSMANSHIP B+
IDEA BLOOD B
[CLASS SKILLS]:
MAGIC RESISTANCE A
INDEPENDENT ACTION EX
AUTOMATIC REGENERATION A
EXECUTOR (BOW) A
[PARAMETERS]:
STRENGTH C+
ENDURANCE EX
AGILITY B+
MANA A+
LUCK C+
NOBLE PHANTASM A+
[NOBLE PHANTASMS]:
CODE: ORIGINAL SIN: SEVENTH HOLY SCRIPTURE - DEATH BY ORIGINAL SIN A+
CALVARIA GALGALIM: IDEA BLOOD - GUILLOTINE A+
---
A/N: It really is easy to find beautiful pictures of Ciel-senpai. I found more than ten without any effort. Too bad CWM only lets me post ten images per chapter.
In summary, the new arc is Ciel and Strike the Blood. A lot of people said they wanted to see Arcueid, but the book next door already covered that, so writing the same thing again wouldn't be interesting. And when you mention Arcueid, I think of Ciel. It just so happens I spent a lot of Saint Quartz on Ciel's banner not long ago.
Also, about what I mentioned yesterday... this book is going to open another bounty event.
The rules are one chapter per 100 monthly tickets, one chapter per 100 blades, and one chapter per 10,000 tips. The bounty period is tentatively set at one week, lasting until 4 p.m. on January 14, 2026.
For reference, before the bounty, there are 11,587 monthly tickets, 243,300 tips, and 2,545 blades.
I've been writing this book for so long. There shouldn't be many big spenders who've made it all the way to the latest chapter, right?
Can I win?!
T/N: NAH ID LOSE
bonus chaps
200 stones -> 1 chapter
400 stones -> 2 chapters
600 stones -> 3 chapters
and so on
hehe every 100 followers on either instagram or twitter is 5 bonus chapters...? (for all tls ongoing)
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