Miss Witch, please don't leave your fragrance everywhere

"…That's right. Some say Louis died in an accident a year ago before Miss Antoinette was cursed."

"Fighting vampires? So this is the cause of Louis' death."

"Huh? Sister Angelica already knew about this?"

Angelica was not at all surprised to learn of Louis' death.

"Don't forget that I'm a genius and beautiful magician. Nothing can be hidden from me."

"Sister Angelica, what's going on?"

Abigail was completely confused, but Angelica pieced together the complete context through the information provided by Abigail.

"First, Antoinette was chosen by the inherent magic to become the contemporary "art" hero, because she is the one with the best magic talent among the descendants of the "art" hero. A year ago, vampires invaded this territory, and Antoinette's only relative Louis also died in that battle. Abigail, do you still remember the iron rule of the dead?"

"Remember. No matter how powerful a magician is, he cannot resurrect the dead."

Angelica was extremely confident in her own magical talent, but even as a witch, she wisely chose to give up after studying the inherent magic of resurrecting the dead. An impossible thing is impossible no matter how many times you try.

"Antoinette undoubtedly knew that magic could not revive the dead. When she lost her brother Louis, the curse of Hades fell upon her. However, the curse of Hades gave Antoinette inspiration. The human body is not a machine. Clearing the memory on time at midnight every day is definitely not something that the human body can achieve naturally. This is human interference."

"Isn't it the influence of the curse?"

"The anterograde amnesia is the effect of the curse, but the fact that new memories are cleared on time at zero o'clock makes it impossible to store memories for a long time is the inherent magic that Antoinette cast on herself. She trapped herself in the past."

"But why did Miss Antoinette do this? She..."

Abigail suddenly thought of a possibility, and Angelica nodded with a teachable expression.

"To deceive. To deceive myself and the world - Louis is still alive."

68 The Witch Lady and Her Brothers

One year ago. After the crusade against vampires, Antoinette ignored the officer's commendation and ran to every magician's door, looking for a way to save her brother.

But it was of no avail, no one could save a soul that had already passed away. In fact, Antoinette's qualifications had surpassed more than 90% of the magicians in the principality. Even she could not save Louis, so naturally other magicians could not do it either.

Cruel fate ensued, and the curse of Hades was imposed on Antoinette. Antoinette found that her recent memory was gradually becoming blurred and she could not remember what had happened recently.

Geniuses think differently, and perhaps it was the despair of losing her last loved one that drove Antoinette to near-paranoia. Antoinette came up with a strategy, a strategy that could win back Louis.

"Antoinette used the curse of Hades to create a new inherent magic, projecting the Louis depicted in her memory into the world, and forcibly fixing Louis' soul in his dead body. In other words, as long as the Louis in Antoinette's memory is still alive, Louis' soul will not be recovered by Hades, and his body will not rot."

"Can this kind of thing be done with magic?"

"It is indeed possible. In a sense, Louis is now almost immortal. Am I right, Louis?"

At some point, Louis came behind Abigail, his expression still very calm.

"I did try to commit suicide, but it didn't work. No matter how I tortured my body, it would recover intact the next day. My sister's inherent magic has a distance limit, and it will become ineffective if the distance is too far, but it still didn't help. The next day I was the same as before. My form was fixed in my sister's memory of me a year ago. The me a year ago... was still alive."

"Louis..."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to deceive you, but this is my only chance. I've always been aware that my sister and I are far less talented. Miss Angelica's assistance is my lifeline. During the few days we worked together, Miss Angelica led me along, and in just a few days I surpassed my research progress over the past ten months."

"So, what Louis is fighting against is not a curse, but..."

"Yes. I am not fighting against the curse that is plaguing my sister. I am fighting against the inherent magic that my sister has researched in a few days: the magic that forced me to stay in this world when I should have been dead."

“There’s no need to belittle yourself.”

Angelica, in a rare move, chose to comfort Louis.

"Antoinette is a genuine magical genius. Her talent has every chance of reaching my level."

Angelica's evaluation was not false at all. Antoinette's qualifications were enough to reach the realm of Extraordinary, but Angelica could not guarantee her luck. There were countless genius magicians in history, and what they lacked was not qualifications but luck. By the way, the youngest Extraordinary was "Purple", and there had been no Extraordinary for 600 years before "Purple".

Angelica really wanted to complain about how this color, which symbolizes old age, had only appeared so late in the history of immortal Beyonders, but this topic had nothing to do with the present, so she decided to put it aside for now.

"Antoinette used fixation magic to bind Louis to the form in his memory, and then fixed her own memory to the time when Louis was still alive, allowing Louis to survive by deceiving herself. So as long as this inherent magic is still working, Louis will survive. I have to say, Antoinette's thinking is very interesting."

Angelica summarizes Antoinette's approach, but Abigail also sees the contradiction.

"Wait a minute, Sister Angelica. That means Louis and Miss Antoinette's inherent magic are inseparable. Once Miss Antoinette's inherent magic loses its effect, Louis will..."

"Yes, if my sister realizes that I am dead, I will naturally die. The reason why I can still stand here and talk to you is all thanks to my sister's inherent magic. My sister deliberately made me mistakenly believe that her brother is still alive, so that I can talk, eat, and sleep like a normal person."

Louis seemed to be narrating something that had nothing to do with him. Seeing Louis' calm attitude, even Abigail regained her composure.

"Louis believes that the dead should not continue to exist in the world in their current form?"

"How is that possible? I don't think the dead should be buried honestly. What's wrong with being alive? Besides, I was less than 15 years old when I died, and I didn't even have a girlfriend."

"It's not okay for me to make up for your regret and become your girlfriend, okay?"

Angelica was the first to reject this possibility.

“I didn’t say that…”

"But everyone in their right mind would want a girlfriend as cute as me, right?"

"That's... No, girlfriends aren't the point at all. Anyway, if I can stay in this world and continue to live with my sister, I'd be willing to sell my soul."

If so, what is the reason why Louis is so obsessed with breaking the cycle that Antoinette created?

Louis himself knew very well that Antoinette's awakening from the dream would mean his death.

This would be a real death, Angelica would cure Antoinette's curse, so Antoinette would not be able to save Louis even if she used her inherent magic.

Angelica broke the dull atmosphere and told Abigail the answer.

"——Antoinette's time is still running out, Abigail."

"..."

Living in Antoinette's false memories, Louise has gained a nearly eternal life. Louise will not die, and each day will be reset according to Antoinette's memory of living on the same day; Louise will not age, and the Louise in Antoinette's memory will always be young, and they will always live in the summer before Antoinette entered school.

"Miss Angelica is right. Time is still passing for my sister on the hospital bed. She lived a year ago, but she has grown a year older. She can only confirm this through her notes. I think it is very cruel to her. When you wake up, you still remember your youth, but when you open your eyes, you find that you are already an old woman. Only after reading the diary do you realize that you have spent most of your life in the nursing home."

This was the only thing Louis couldn't accept.

Antoinette will spend the rest of her life in a hospital bed, her memory constantly being reset and her body continuing to age.

"My sister should have been prepared when she used her inherent magic. She was going to use her future life in exchange for the last moments of my already dead brother. My sister may have always thought that I was a good child, but this is the only and last time I will rebel against her... I will break my sister's reincarnation, even if I die as a result."

69 Miss Witch and Her Family

That night, Angelica, Louis, and Abigail come to the nursing home while Antoinette is asleep.

The inherent magic rituals studied by Angelica and Louis will remove the magic cast by Antoinette on herself, and with Angelica's intervention and addition, it will also end the curse of Hades.

Fixation sequence one: things are fixed.

According to Angelica's theory, by inserting the magic of fixing the phenomenon when Antoinette clears her memory, Antoinette's state can be fixed, and she will no longer be in reincarnation, and there will be no more anterograde memory amnesia.

"Are you ready, Louis?"

"Ah."

Louis gazed at Antoinette's sleeping face. After wasting a year, his sister still maintained the beauty of her youth. But Louis knew that if he did not do something, his sister would spend the rest of her life in a nursing home bed.

"let us start."

Louis said softly that Angelica gave him the choice. Maybe it was a bit cruel to decide to kill herself with her own hands, but Angelica felt that no one had more say than Louis.

The moonlight tonight is not very bright, and the sky is covered with dark clouds, as if mourning for Louis' passing.

Angelica and Louis didn't say a word. They drew a magic circle under the bed, forming the necessary steps of the ceremony. Antoinette lay quietly in the center of the magic circle. Angelica injected magic power into the magic circle, and then a translucent protective shield covered Antoinette's body.

Louis knew that this was proof that the magic circle was working, and his mental state was rapidly declining.

His soul will soon dissipate, and Abigail's soul will return to the body where she belongs, and Louis's body will also lose the immortality guaranteed by Antoinette.

"--Wait a moment!"

"?!"

Before his consciousness collapsed, Louis suddenly heard an impossible sound. Antoinette, who was supposed to be asleep, woke up unexpectedly. Louis remembered that he had confirmed with Angelica that he would not disturb Antoinette.

"She has set up a protection mechanism. If someone interferes with her magic, she will automatically restore her will."

Angelica's tone did not conceal her admiration for Antoinette's genius. The time Antoinette had to build the inherent magic to save Louis was extremely short, because if it took too long, Louis' body would become stiff and rotten, and his soul would be recovered by the god of the underworld.

The magic ritual built in such a short time even had a protection mechanism. Antoinette is indeed a genius.

According to Antoinette's idea, if someone interferes with her magic formula and stops her endless reincarnation, she will have a chance to rebuild a new magic formula after regaining consciousness and save Louis again. The memory replay time point set by Antoinette is before Louis survived, and Antoinette chose to seal the memory after Louis' death.

Now that Antoinette has her memories back, she desperately clings to Abigail's body. Because she has retained the memories that were not cleared today, Antoinette mistakenly believes that Louis' soul is still preserved in Abigail's body.

The souls of the two people had already been exchanged. Louis was unable to speak. His body was already dead, and only his soul retained a trace of consciousness.

Antoinette hugged the pure Abigail, both physically and spiritually, but Abigail did not choose to push Antoinette away. She did not have the habit of taking advantage of Louis regardless of the occasion like Angelica. Abigail seemed to understand Louis' thoughts.

"Thank you, sister."

Imitating Louis' tone, Abigail also hugged Antoinette.

Abigail also firmly believed that her brother Samuel, whom she did not see for the last time, felt the same way on the day when the tragedy happened at home.

"I hope you can be happy more than anyone else... because we are a family."

Samuel did so much for Abigail, even going against his out-of-control father to protect her. The reason was very simple and pure. Abigail was Samuel's sister, so Samuel hoped more than anyone else that Abigail could end her dark childhood memories.

The same reason applies to Louis. As Antoinette's brother, Louis must be the most intolerant of Antoinette sacrificing the rest of her life, even if Antoinette did it for him.

No one wants Antoinette to leave the nursing home and pursue her own life more than Louis, instead of living in the false memory that Louis is still alive. It is blood that connects this obsession... that is, family. Even if I am no longer in this world, I still hope that you can move towards a better future, not stay in the past.

Antoinette stared at Abigail in a daze. She was not a fool. From the answer Abigail gave her, she had already understood that it was Louis who broke the cycle she created.

Louis's soul dissipated.

Abigail's words were also what he wanted to say to Antoinette. Although he could not say them in person and felt regretful that he could not hug his sister for the last time, in the moment before Louis' soul dissipated, he undoubtedly felt relieved and satisfied.

Antoinette's shoulders trembled slightly.

No one knows whether Antoinette can tell at this time that Louis' soul is no longer in Abigail's body. What Antoinette can understand is that her brother Louis has returned the future to her and the fact that Louis is truly dying.

Antoinette hugged Abigail and cried out loudly. Only then did she finally understand and accept that her last blood relative in the world had passed away suddenly.

Abigail just hugged Antoinette and accompanied her to vent her sorrow. The cloudy night sky gradually cleared up, and the sunlight from the morning sun once again penetrated the glass of the nursing home, shining on the face of Antoinette, who had cried until she lost all her strength and fell into a deep sleep.

"Mademoiselle Antoinette...is asleep."

Abigail sat on the bed with Antoinette resting her head on her knees.

"Sister Angelica, will Miss Antoinette's memory not have any more problems in the future?"

"I can't say for sure what will happen to Antoinette when she gets older. For now, I have used events to fix Antoinette's form. As long as she survives until midnight today, Hades' curse will no longer be effective on Antoinette."

From then on, Antoinette would have to face life without her brother Louis.

But Abigail has a new idea. Since she also lost her last relative, can she and Antoinette try to comfort each other?

70 Antoinette, the Brave Warrior of "Art"

About a week later.

"Congratulations! Miss Antoinette!"

"That's great. Senior Antoinette finally..."

Abigail and Susan celebrated Antoinette's recovery in the nursing home. Antoinette stayed in the nursing home because she sealed her memory herself and the curse did have a physical impact on her.

Antoinette is a magical genius, but her physical strength is no different from that of an ordinary girl.

"I feel like I can handle him with force," the witch said. By the way, as a witch, Angelica knows some hand-to-hand combat skills. Angelica explained that it is normal for magicians to know hand-to-hand combat.

"If Senior Antoinette is discharged from the hospital now, she should be able to catch up with Onee-sama's election."

"That is impossible."

Angelica bluntly denied Susan's expectations.

"Only third-year students can run for election, and Santa Barbara Girls' Academy has already said that Antoinette is still a second-year student, so she will not be eligible to run until next year."

After all, if there were no age limit, Angelica felt that she should be the unprecedented and unrivaled big sister for three consecutive years.