The Witch Trial Begins with the OO Buckethead Zombie

But now he's back in that familiar prison.

【...】

[No further words, please act now!]

After a moment of silence, the system quickly picked up where Utsunomiya Hoshino left off.

I think this system and Lord Hoshino are a pair of star-crossed lovers...

It added this sentence, albeit weakly.

"Take your ill-fated lover and go eat a large portion."

He may not understand the work, but he's a master at picking up on jokes.

At this point, Hoshino Utsunomiya was able to understand how teachers sometimes felt about certain students.

This is a terrible overhead crane system.

If it could find an explanation, it certainly wouldn't choose to follow the joke.

But...

When his suicide attempt failed last time, he chose to trust the system one more time.

Logically, after yet another failure, he should have opted for a liquidation system.

The problem is coming.

How should the system be cleared?

I hadn't thought about this kind of question.

From the perspective of making the system uncomfortable, the system's goal is for him to fall in love with the witch, so as long as he doesn't fall in love with the witch, he's in the system's way.

...But he has no plans to continue dating any witches right now.

From this perspective, he may have been involved in the liquidation system from the very beginning.

But it definitely can't be calculated that way.

Ugh......

Forget it, let's see if we can get some magic from the system.

It seems like the most useful thing the system has is magic.

Although I can't beat Tachibana Sherry, the bootleg version of Super Strength is still quite useful.

The magic of the flower field isn't entirely useless; after leaving this prison, she might even be able to open a flower shop and make a living.

To put it bluntly, after being tormented twice and begging the witch to kill him twice, Utsunomiya Hoshino's eagerness and fervor had finally subsided considerably.

He now has two paths to take.

If you comply, you'll pretend you were never bound to any system, and stay in this prison with everyone else. After the witch is thrown out, you can think about escaping, or stay in prison and freeload.

Disobey, and believe in the system again and again. Grasp the system's magic with one hand, grasp the existence of the witch with the other, and grasp the reason for the death reversal with the third, thus becoming a four-handed overlord.

...Actually, there's not much to choose from.

No matter what choice he makes, he has to investigate the reason for the retrospective.

Reasons for backtracking, triggering mechanism for backtracking, timing of backtracking, and number of backtracking attempts.

Last time I was in such a hurry to die that I put all these problems aside, but this time I definitely can't be so casual.

[Waaah...]

【Ah, host, please check the magic you've entrusted to me~】

Carefully, following the system's voice, the familiar touch returned to my hand.

Utsunomiya Hoshino then remembered.

Oh right, it's a rewind; a spell that was cast once has to be cast again.

That's true; death determination can't be as fast as rewind, so magic obviously can't be brought back either.

“…Too little.” Hoshino Utsunomiya said softly as they shook hands.

【Huh?】

Is that too little?

[The superhuman strength is still there... Flower Field didn't send the wrong message...]

【No, no, no, I didn't skimp on anything, Master...】

“I said, it’s not enough.”

Hoshino Utsunomiya repeated it again.

Hearing his voice, the system began to doubt itself.

[The host didn't say enough...]

But I can't find it...

[So what exactly is missing?]

The system, dull and slow-witted, pondered for quite a while.

Suddenly, I understood something.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, it's just missing!

[As expected of the host, your keen insight has uncovered the problem!]

[This will replenish the missing magic for the host!]

【Ta-da!!!】

[Congratulations, host, you have regained the 'Summoning Bucket Magic'! You can now summon a bucket filled with water every day!]

As the system exclaimed in realization, a similar sensation returned to Hoshino Utsunomiya's hand.

From this moment on, a bucket full of water will appear in his hands with just a flick of his wrist.

"..."

...What's the use of this?

He discovered that the system actually liked these strange and shabby little magic spells.

He looks like a scavenger.

Super Strength is a bootleg, Flower Field Magic is a special effects master, and now we have Iron Bucket Magic.

...Are you so fixated on this iron bucket?

and......

"Why is it one a day?"

Cutting corners and shoddy workmanship is becoming increasingly serious.

From being a permanent passive source of superhuman strength, to actively releasing flower fields, and then to creating an iron barrel every day.

【...Well, um, don't you think...creating things out of thin air is an amazing thing?】

Some people were trying to evade the issue, the system said in a loud voice.

Powerful features always come with limitations!

What kind of powerful function is summoning an iron bucket...?

But never mind.

It seems there's no way to get anything more out of the system.

That's all the system can do.

...And what does the power of creation have to do with your summoning?

"So, do you have any clues?" Shaking his head, Hoshino Utsunomiya raised his hand and placed it on his thigh, tapping lightly with his fingertips: "About rewinding."

He could have pondered and thought about it on his own, but since there's a system here, he could have a chat with it.

...Although it's a bit stupid, it's still somewhat useful.

should.

【Witch】

The system's answer was the same as the one that Hoshino Utsunomiya had noticed at a glance.

If we consider the common thread between the two deaths, there is no doubt that he died at the hands of a witch in both cases.

The witch detected by the system scan, the witch that the other party admitted to in their last moments before death.

Almost without thinking, one should instinctively suspect the witch.

But why a witch?

To be precise, it should be...

Why myself?

Although the exact time of my complete death and the degree of incompetence determined by the system are unclear, it is difficult to say whether something else happened after my death, leading to the regression.

However, adhering to the idea that what is unclear may not exist, Hoshino Utsunomiya decided to focus his thinking only on the information he already had.

Piecing things together, integrating them, and then guessing.

Let's just assume that the witch will trigger a time reversal after I die.

But why?

Because the witch likes me?

This was the argument presented by Nikaido Hiro at the witch trial meeting, and it was also the love at first sight that Tachibana Sherry, a witch herself, admitted to.

Because the witch likes me, she captured me. Because the witch likes me, she wants to rewind time and start over after I die.

Who would believe that?

This logic contains a very crucial contradiction.