Witch on the Holy Night - Volume 1 - Act 1 - Chapter 1

Volume 1

Act 1/ A Strange Person

Chapter 1

TLed by: TanoshiKara

It was a quiet morning.

Although the sky, a glimpse visible from her bed, was the color of gray paint; Although the temperature on the thermometer was around six degrees, a brutal record (number) for November; Although the time for breakfast had long passed, and as embarrassing as it was, she had woken up due to her hunger; To Aoko, merely being able to sleep without a care in the world made this morning a blissful time.

The clock had long ticked past eight.

On a regular day, it would have been a hopeless time, one that would guarantee she would be late no matter what she tried, but the school was closed today to commemorate its anniversary.

Thanks to that, she could spend the morning lazing about, something she had not done in a long while.

It was a dull gray outside, so gloomy she thought it was evening rather than morning, and she found it a stretch to call it a pleasant morning.

However, to Aoko, who had been up all night until just three hours earlier, the sky was a trivial matter. Sleep was her top priority at the moment.

To her, it was a pleasant morning if she could doze off in bed, so she shut out whatever was going on outside the window as she couldn't care less about it.

She shut the curtains as if she was flipping a page.

She shut her eyes again, trying her best to fall back to sleep.

"......Hope I can have an uneventful dream for another two hours at least"

Much of her tiredness remained, so her bliss soon arrived. Her consciousness sank deeper and deeper into slumber.

However…Aoko's modest wish would be mercilessly rejected.

"———"

It was faint but shrill, and it lingered in her ears - the unmistakable ring of the telephone.

It was probably a force of habit. Her eyes popped open against her will.

"Argh, it's always on days like these......"

The telephone was in the lobby on the first floor, a place ten meters down the hallway and one floor away.

To the sleep-deprived Aoko, it was a distance so far it sat between the horizon and beyond.

......The phone rang incessantly.

Although Aoko knew it would eventually stop if she ignored it, she was hard on herself, so she could not bring herself to do it.

"......Is Alice not gonna answer it?"

As her reluctance grew, she tried clinging to the hope that her housemate would work her magic, but she quickly gave up on it.

When she thought about it, only her school had a holiday, and her housemate was a student of that hilltop school. She would have long since left for school.

The endless ringing (calling) of the telephone. The caller proved incredibly persistent.

"Argh, my precious sleep......!"

Having no other choice, Aoko got out of bed, put on a top, and left her room.

The room Aoko rented was at the corner on the second floor, at the end of the 'world.' The hallway was long, and it took a minute of jogging to reach the telephone on the first floor.

"Whoa, it’s cold—"

She rubbed her hands together to warm her numb fingers.

The building’s heating system was inadequate, so winter temperatures were a formidable challenge. This was especially the case on the cloudiest mornings, when one would know it was midwinter-like frigidness without the need to look at a thermometer.

This building was situated a little further into the mountains and was surrounded by dense forest, so winter arrived earlier than in the city.

The robotic ring of the telephone reverberated throughout the long hallway.

The furnishings in the manor were well-kept, but it felt uninhabited. The place felt more desolate than it was lavish, and coupled with the dreary scenery outside, it could have passed for a haunted house.

"......Well, it is the very definition of a haunted house, though. In the first place, this manor is too large for just the two of us"

The number of rings had already exceeded thirty.

The caller either had a lot of free time on their hands, or had a good understanding of the house's circumstances.

The color of the window above looked dejecting.

Aoko hastened her steps, as if she were trying to catch the unrelenting ringing of the telephone, all while having the ominous feeling that her blissful morning would likely come to a close the moment she caught it.

A school holiday. It was raining, ironically, and a single student was commuting to her school in the middle of it.

The rain had subsided somewhat by the time Aoko reached the front gate. Sunlight seemed to be playing peek-a-boo behind the clouds in the distance.

Looks like the rain might stop by early afternoon at this rate.

"......That said, it has nothing to do with me, though"

Contrary to the weather, Aoko's luck was horrible; Woken up after an all-nighter only to be pelted by the winter rain.

At this rate, it is looking like that matter or whatever is nothing good as well—

Aoko passed through the front gates, head aching from that premonition, and headed for the school building. She did not encounter any students along the way, nor did she see anyone taking part in club activities.

The reception desk to the faculty room had a sign that said 'Faculty Closed.'

The school had granted all its students a holiday without exception.

Excluding me, of course, as I got called here at a time like this.

When she opened the faculty room’s door, she saw a teacher she recognized looking down at his desk.

He was an effeminate man in his mid-twenties, wearing a plain but neatly pressed shirt and suit; Slim-framed glasses adorned his face, giving off an amicable yet cunning air. He was smoking, something that clashed with his image.

He did not appear to have noticed her yet.

"Mr. Yamashiro"

She slammed the door shut.

Mr. Yamashiro lifted his head, unfazed by the sound.

"Hey there, good morning, Aozaki-kun. Have you heard about the matter?"

"Yes. An hour ago, at home. Without being consulted whatsoever beforehand"

He (Yamashiro) was a graduate of this high school, but he was not much older than the students. For that reason, he was well-liked by the students, more so than the other teachers. He also had a gentle tone and could talk about a great many topics.

To the students, he was like a reliable Senpai rather than a teacher.

Unfortunately, Aoko was not really fond of him.

Teachers should be austere. An impregnable wall, inspiring both love and hate from their students……Never a friendly man at a resort - that was Aoko's belief.

Mr. Yamashiro was the polar opposite of Aoko's ideal teacher, so it was only natural that her manner towards him would be forced and unfriendly.

"Sigh. You look unhappy today too, huh, Aozaki-kun"

"That's just your imagination. It's not like I'm any different today, after all," Aoko replied flatly, all while knowing full well that her face looked miserable.

Her bad mood from being woken up, coupled with her dreariness from sleep deprivation, had made her look like she was out for revenge.

"Is that so? Then that's fine with me. Please go easy on him, okay? We also don't know how to handle him, after all"

"Mr. Yamashiro. I still haven't received a proper explanation about that," Aoko said, her tone sharp, gaze piercing.

"Ahh," Yamashiro replied, snuffing his cigarette.

"Hmm, what did they tell you over the phone?"

"Only to introduce a transfer student to the school. An explanation with no reason or logic whatsoever"

One of Yamasiro's eyebrows stood up, impressed by the brevity of her answer. 

He understood from looking at Aoko that she was angry, but he never thought it was because she did not get the details over the phone, merely thinking it was because she was called to school on a holiday.

My, my, she sure is responsible, or so Yamashiro thought as he chuckled awkwardly.

"Mr Yamashiro. It is about time that I take my leave if this is a joke. Is that alright?"

"No, no, sorry, sorry, I apologize. This isn't a joke; I'm serious. We kind of need your help"

"Really? For a transfer student issue?"

"Yes, he's got circumstances, or rather, it'd be difficult for us to do it. He......His name is Soujuurou-kun, by the way, and he is peculiar in many places, you see. We thought that, rather than we do it, as someone his generation, it'd be better for you to show him around"

"............"

Aoko's face was clouded with suspicion.

It is negligent of the teachers to push their duties on me, but what in the world does the transfer student being 'peculiar' mean? It'd be easy to imagine if it were 'His behavior is problematic' or 'He is difficult to handle.' But what even is 'peculiar?'

'Peculiar' is not a term that is frequently used......

Aoko thought over it dubiously, but she soon decided to change gears.

Brooding over all this will do me no good. I feel like this very conversation is peculiar, and it's uncomfortable. There's too little information, and in the first place, if I wanted to turn this down, I'd be on my bed looking like a suspicious clam by now.

"I have a question"

"What is it? Ah, he's a second year, the same year as you. He has a calm personality and is a good listener. Depending on how you look at it, you could also say he’s lacking in enthusiasm, but he's easy to interact with even if that is the case, right? He's in a different class, but you'll definitely become good—"

"I'll ask those things and ascertain his character in person. That's not it. I wanted to ask why I was chosen"

Although her voice (question) was thorny, she had also accepted the task to introduce the transfer student to the school. She was dissatisfied, but she decided to put her feelings aside and focus on the task at hand.

Aoko was self-centered, but a trait of hers was that she tried to be as fair as possible. It was quite queer, but her strong conviction in it made Yamashiro and the others feel she was reliable.

......At times, her strong conviction might cause incidents that shatter expectations, but that was that. Mr. Yamashiro had learnt over the past year that giving up and treating them as natural disasters was the way to deal with this student.

"I’ll ask once again, Mr. Yamashiro. Why was I chosen?"

Pressured by a question without a clear yes or no answer, he answered. 

"Well, about that. It's not because the teachers believe in you as much as they're keeping you at arm's length, and that you're an iron-clad student council president who'd sacrifice teachers and students alike for the school"

"......I can't think of any other reason you’d called me in like this, though"

Suspicious, or so Aoko thought as she stared doubtfully at the student council adviser.

Intensity unbecoming of a seventeen-year-old girl, and the beauty of a seventeen-year-old girl.

Her gaze struck a miraculously perfect balance between the two, and had Mr. Yamashiro smiling gently, as if he were charmed.

"I mean, I'd handle this myself if it was just about pure obligation. But who gets this job has nothing to do with whether they're a teacher or the student council president. How to put it... I thought you were the only one who'd accept such a request without weighing all sides, so I strongly recommended you for the task"

In other words, it's like saying, 'All that said, you're an exceptionally good person.'

"—Mr. Yamashiro"

"Whoa, you're scary. Geez, stop it, stop glaring at me. I said it already, right? I'm fine with it, but smile when you're with him. Well, let's head over now that you're satisfied. We've already kept him waiting for quite a while, you see. Also, thank you for coming over in the rain. I'll send you back in my car, of course"

Mr. Yamashiro stood up gracefully.

That's not needed, or so Aoko replied as she left the staff room.

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Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.