Kays Translations

Chapter 68: Refinement

According to the Spider Witch, who had just finished weaving her web in an ancient temple, Tokyo was now in the midst of reclaiming its lost territory.

The Tokyo Witches’ Assembly had reached its peak territorial control just before the Iruma Coup. However, the coup led to the deaths of many witches and wizards. The “Eyeball Witch” attempted to fill the void by leveraging her large number of familiars to manage the now-vacant areas.

Next, the “Vampire Wizard” fell during the Great Kaiju Advance, leading to the loss of Minato Ward. Since the Assembly was already stretched to its limits from handling the aftermath of the coup, they were unable to prevent Minato from falling entirely.

Following this, the “Hell Witch” left Tokyo, and with her departure, Adachi Ward was lost as well.

Later, Minato Ward was reclaimed through the use of the Magic Stone Staff and the Thirteen Ritual Artifacts.

At one point, there was momentum to further expand the safe zone, but a pandemic halted those efforts.

Three witches perished due to the pandemic, leading to the loss of Itabashi, Sumida, and Hachioji.

After reestablishing connections with Tohoku and Hokkaido, Tokyo had finally begun to recover from the pandemic’s devastation. Just as they were about to embark on another attempt at territorial reclamation, the Aratake Group launched an assault, once again stopping them in their tracks.

Their momentum was completely shattered. How many more setbacks would they have to endure?

Before they could recover from the Aratake Group’s attack, a sudden mutation caused Class-A Monsters to grow exponentially stronger. The witches were forced to focus all their resources on containment, leaving no room for further land reclamation.

Once they had finally overcome the Class-A Monster crisis and were about to catch their breath, the “Black Ships” arrived.

This event caused Tokyo’s primary combat forces—the “Blue Witch” and the “Dragon Witch”—to temporarily withdraw.

To compensate for the Blue Witch’s absence, the Spider Witch moved to Okutama. Meanwhile, territories managed by the Spider Witch (Nerima) and the Dragon Witch (Musashimurayama, Higashiyamato, and Higashimurayama) were now defended by a mage battalion that had originally been assigned to reclaim Adachi and Itabashi Wards.

Currently, another group of mages is leading an operation to reclaim Sumida Ward and Hachioji City.

Compared to a few years ago, the capabilities of mages have improved dramatically.

• The Combat Department at the Magic University has compiled and spread foundational knowledge of mage combat.
• Research on alternative incantation methods has expanded the range of castable spells.
• The quality of commercially available magic staves has improved.
• The Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm has provided Tokyo with artillery flora (Turret Balsam), which has now been cultivated in sufficient quantities for territorial defense.
• Amulets, while minor, have increased the rate of mana recovery.
• Despite production bottlenecks due to nitrate shortages, dynamite has been developed.
• Training techniques have significantly increased overall mana reserves.
• Even mana recovery potions, despite their severe side effects, have become available.
• Lastly, the Demon King’s summoning of Class-A Monsters has temporarily removed them from Japan.

If there were ever a time to reclaim lost territory, it was now.

Given time, the wildlife would begin mutating again, leading to the emergence of new Class-A Monsters.

Before that happened—or before yet another catastrophe struck—they had to act.

More than half of the mages assigned to the land reclamation forces were graduates of the Magic University, meaning they were equipped with the versatile staff I had designed.

When the reclamation succeeds, I fully expect them to say:
“Thanks to the 0933 Staff, we reclaimed our land, found love, succeeded at work, and even won the lottery!”

I look forward to the praise.

While Tokyo is fully committed to reclaiming lost land, I, on the other hand, am focused on studying magic script.

Magic script was… difficult.

Learning to write the characters was easy—just mimic what you see.

However, the grammar was a nightmare.

Fortunately, I had already studied spoken magic language under Professor Ohinata, which gave me some footing. Without that, I might have given up entirely.

Generally, the difficulty of learning a foreign language increases the further it is from one’s native language.

For example, Japanese speakers find Korean and Chinese relatively easy to learn. But English and French, being vastly different, are much harder.

By that logic, magic language wasn’t just foreign—it wasn’t even from this world.

Of course, it was difficult.

Its learning difficulty was off the charts.

The study materials I used contained example sentences written in magic script, meaning that I could technically copy them verbatim without fully understanding them.

However, using magic script without understanding its principles was dangerous.

If something went wrong, I wouldn’t be able to fix it.

I wouldn’t be able to customize it, either.

If I integrated magic script into my staffs and a client complained, I couldn’t just say, “I don’t know how it works, so I can’t fix it.” That would ruin my reputation as a craftsman.

No matter how hard it was, if I wanted to incorporate magic script into my staffs, I had to study it seriously.

That said, studying all the time was exhausting, so I often took breaks to brainstorm new applications for magic script.

But almost every idea I came up with had already been tested by the United States.

For instance, magic circles.

The fundamental principle of magic script dictates that characters must be written in a straight, linear sequence.

What happens if you curve that line into a circle?

This would create a magic circle—an idea that seemed revolutionary to me at first.

However, upon checking my materials, I found that the U.S. had already researched and implemented it.

To summarize, magic circles allow for rapid-fire spellcasting.

When casting a spell through a magic circle, mana flows along the circle’s perimeter, glowing as it moves. Every time it passes through the script, the corresponding spell activates.

In other words, a single incantation continuously loops as long as there is mana.

This technology drastically increased the firepower of American Transcendents.

Instead of casting a spell once per incantation, they could now cast it ten, twenty, or even hundreds of times in succession.

It was like upgrading from a single-shot rifle to a fully automatic machine gun.

Of course, the mana consumption was extreme, reducing their ability to fight prolonged battles.

But their burst damage skyrocketed.

With magic circles, American Transcendents could obliterate Class-2 Monsters with ease.

Even Class-1 Monsters could be taken down by a coordinated group of five or six.

This placed them on the same level as the Tohoku Hunting Association’s Daidarabotchi hunters, who wielded my Gun-staffs.

Although magic circles focused more on raw firepower compared to Japan’s magic staves, they were still an impressive application of magic script.

Magic script was full of untapped potential. If I could properly integrate it into magic staves, their performance would skyrocket.

It could also be embedded into armor, accessories, or simply written on paper or boards.

While I was immersed in my studies, the Spider Witch had taken over the tasks that Hiyori used to handle.

The Spider Witch was reserved, spending most of her time secluded in an ancient temple. She used a decoy in Ome City to interact with others.

She was also filtering out suspicious individuals probing for information about me(0933), while handling university orders and product deliveries.

I was grateful.

However, she was kinder than Hiyori, meaning that requests Hiyori would have outright rejected were now making their way to me…

For example, it seemed like the Dragon Witch wanted me to process magic stones for her.

The magic stones owned by the Dragon Witch are currently overseas along with her, so the request is effectively canceled. However, judging from the request form, she apparently wanted them to be “cut to sparkle and shine.”

I feel like I’ve heard that phrase before. That woman seriously only sees magic stones for their gemstone value.

The Dragon Witch once kidnapped me, put me in handcuffs, and tried to force me to work like a slave.

It’s no wonder Hiyori rejects her requests. But the Dragon Witch has a hoard of precious metals in her nest.

Until now, the gold and silver treasures gathered not just from Tokyo but also from surrounding prefectures had been nothing more than excessive indulgences. But the moment magic script was introduced, they gained practical value.

The Dragon Witch possesses a massive amount of precious metals essential for the use of magic script.

By cutting magic stones in exchange for precious metals → manufacturing alloys at my metal processing plant in Shinagawa, which has been left unused for ages → using them to make staffs… I might be able to establish this cycle.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider my relationship with the Dragon Witch. It’s worth thinking about. That said, this is all something to discuss after she returns to the country.

Hiyori is definitely coming back, but I don’t know if the Dragon Witch will survive the battle against the Demon Lord. I’ve heard she’s quite strong, but my main impression of her is still that of someone fleeing from Hiyori and begging for her life, so it’s hard to picture her as a powerhouse.

Another request that Hiyori rejected, but the Spider Witch passed through, was related to the Tobacco Witch’s horse ownership proposal.

The Tobacco Witch has converted Yokota Air Base in her domain into a ranch and is protecting and raising racehorses that were on the verge of being lost after the Gremlin Disaster.

She seems to have plans to revive horse racing in the future. Lately, she’s been approaching influential figures in Tokyo, inviting them to become racehorse owners. It looks like my name came up as part of that.

When I took orders for staffs before, I already thought she was quite the amusing witch.

Honestly, I’m making a fortune from crafting magic staffs, so I have more money than I know what to do with. I’ve been reinvesting the excess into my Shinagawa factory, but putting some toward horse breeding doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I don’t dislike horses.

But I don’t particularly love them either. I’m not interested in horse racing. Even if I became a racehorse owner, there’s no way I’d show my face at a crowded racetrack—that’d be suicidal.

I’m more interested in horseback riding experiences or maybe keeping a pony. I’ve heard horses are smart, so I feel like we could get along.

This is worth considering too. I won’t become a racehorse owner, but since I’m interested in horses themselves, maybe I could still invest. Would the Tobacco Witch be okay with that?

For a few weeks, the Spider Witch had been managing negotiations without issue.

But I noticed she was starting to drift into deep thought more and more often.

It’s hard to read a spider’s expressions, but after spending weeks with her, I’ve started to get a feel for it.

Bringing some fish meatballs as a gift, I visited the old temple and asked if something was on her mind. The Spider Witch reacted with an exaggerated flinch.

“You noticed? But the Blue Witch said, ‘Dairi is so dense that if you don’t spell it out, he won’t notice a thing.’”

“Oh, she’s absolutely right. My social skills are dead. I’m probably missing a ton of things without realizing it. But when it comes to you, Spider Witch, I can tell. Tell me anything. If I can help, I will.”

Speaking sincerely, I heard the Spider Witch make a clicking noise.

She clacked her mouth together as she hesitated, but after a while, she finally spoke in a small voice.

“So, you know how I’ve been using my decoys to talk to people in Ome? People find them creepy. It’s not that their ability to distort perception is bad—it’s that they just look like these weird, unfinished, featureless dolls…”

“Hmm…? Well, I can kind of understand that. Some people find mannequin-like figures unsettling.”

Recalling the decoys’ appearance, I nodded slightly.

I don’t mind them, but yeah, I could see how some people would dislike them. Moving dolls are a common horror trope. Even I understand that I’m the odd one out for finding moving humans scarier.

“I even tried dressing them up, but their body proportions are just slightly off from a human’s… Hey, Dairi, it’s totally fine if you don’t want to, but… do you think you could make my decoys look more human?”

“More human? I don’t know anything about makeup, but I’ll do my best.”

“No, not like that. I mean sculpting their faces and hands properly so they really look human…”

“Oh, you mean overcoming the uncanny valley? Yeah, I think I can do that.”

I agreed without hesitation.

The “uncanny valley” refers to the phenomenon where something that looks almost human feels eerily unsettling.

Even if something has a humanoid shape, people don’t find robots with exposed metal and an obviously mechanical design creepy.

However, robots that seem to be “imitating” humans—those that look like they’re trying to pass as human—feel unsettling.

But if a robot is so lifelike that it’s indistinguishable from a real human, even if people know it isn’t human, they don’t find it creepy.

This sharp drop in likability when something is only halfway human-like is what’s known as the uncanny valley.

The Spider Witch’s decoys fall right into this uncanny valley.

They do look halfway human. If I can make them perfectly human-like, that creepiness should disappear.

“There are a lot of different sculpting styles. Greek, Japanese… Do you have a preference?”

“Greek…? Sorry, I don’t know much about sculpture… But, um… I-I’d like it to be a beautiful girl…”

“Got it. I’ll make the most beautiful girl in the world.”

The Spider Witch, awkwardly fidgeting with the tips of her legs against the old temple’s wooden floor, hesitantly voiced her request. But there was nothing to be embarrassed about. The desire to look beautiful or make something beautiful is completely natural. She could have said it with more confidence.

I immediately got to work carving the decoy that had been temporarily recalled from Ome to Okutama. While I sculpted, the Spider Witch wove a wig from her spider silk. With or without hair makes a huge difference in appearance—it was a must.

She’d mentioned before that “the decoys are really sturdy,” and she wasn’t exaggerating. The material was incredibly strong and hard. My chisel, sharpened for cutting gremlins, couldn’t even make a dent. So, I switched to a metal file and slowly ground it down.

Once the shape was complete, I polished it with sandpaper. To achieve a human-like skin texture, I had to be careful not to over-polish.

After three full days of work, I had sculpted the perfect life-sized (1:1 scale) beautiful girl. I placed the Spider Witch’s handmade wig on its head.

I admired the finished decoy—Version 2—completely satisfied.

But then, a strange sense of déjà vu hit me.

I felt like I’d seen this decoy somewhere before. But where…?

“What’s wrong…? I think it turned out great. It looks just like her…”

“Just like… who?”

“Uh… the Blue Witch…”

“!!!! THAT’S IT!”

The Spider Witch’s timid words snapped everything into place.

That’s right.

This decoy looks exactly like Hiyori.

Its hair is white because it’s made from spider silk, but everything else is a dead ringer for her.

Well, of course. When she asked me to make a beautiful girl, I naturally sculpted the most beautiful girl in the world. Of course, it ended up looking like Hiyori. I hadn’t even realized it.

“You did it unconsciously…? I thought you were trying to rub it in. So when you heard ‘the most beautiful girl in the world,’ your mind automatically went to the Blue Witch…? Ugh, my brain is frying…”

The Spider Witch suddenly started writhing in distress, which caught me off guard. But she still gave the finished piece her approval.

Her wording had been a little off, so I offered to make changes if she wasn’t happy with anything. But she just said.

“My emotions are all jumbled up, so I don’t even know if I’m dissatisfied or not…”

I had no idea what she meant.

I sculpted the ultimate beautiful girl, exactly as ordered.

I tried thinking about it, but I couldn’t figure it out. Asking her directly didn’t help either, so I just tilted my head in confusion and left the old temple.

Well, whatever! If she asks for adjustments later, I’ll fix them as needed.

Sculpting was a nice change of pace.

Alright, time to get back to studying magic script.Chapter 68: Refinement

According to the Spider Witch, who had just finished weaving her web in an ancient temple, Tokyo was now in the midst of reclaiming its lost territory.

The Tokyo Witches’ Assembly had reached its peak territorial control just before the Iruma Coup. However, the coup led to the deaths of many witches and wizards. The “Eyeball Witch” attempted to fill the void by leveraging her large number of familiars to manage the now-vacant areas.

Next, the “Vampire Wizard” fell during the Great Kaiju Advance, leading to the loss of Minato Ward. Since the Assembly was already stretched to its limits from handling the aftermath of the coup, they were unable to prevent Minato from falling entirely.

Following this, the “Hell Witch” left Tokyo, and with her departure, Adachi Ward was lost as well.

Later, Minato Ward was reclaimed through the use of the Magic Stone Staff and the Thirteen Ritual Artifacts.

At one point, there was momentum to further expand the safe zone, but a pandemic halted those efforts.

Three witches perished due to the pandemic, leading to the loss of Itabashi, Sumida, and Hachioji.

After reestablishing connections with Tohoku and Hokkaido, Tokyo had finally begun to recover from the pandemic’s devastation. Just as they were about to embark on another attempt at territorial reclamation, the Aratake Group launched an assault, once again stopping them in their tracks.

Their momentum was completely shattered. How many more setbacks would they have to endure?

Before they could recover from the Aratake Group’s attack, a sudden mutation caused Class-A Monsters to grow exponentially stronger. The witches were forced to focus all their resources on containment, leaving no room for further land reclamation.

Once they had finally overcome the Class-A Monster crisis and were about to catch their breath, the “Black Ships” arrived.

This event caused Tokyo’s primary combat forces—the “Blue Witch” and the “Dragon Witch”—to temporarily withdraw.

To compensate for the Blue Witch’s absence, the Spider Witch moved to Okutama. Meanwhile, territories managed by the Spider Witch (Nerima) and the Dragon Witch (Musashimurayama, Higashiyamato, and Higashimurayama) were now defended by a mage battalion that had originally been assigned to reclaim Adachi and Itabashi Wards.

Currently, another group of mages is leading an operation to reclaim Sumida Ward and Hachioji City.

Compared to a few years ago, the capabilities of mages have improved dramatically.

• The Combat Department at the Magic University has compiled and spread foundational knowledge of mage combat.
• Research on alternative incantation methods has expanded the range of castable spells.
• The quality of commercially available magic staves has improved.
• The Hokkaido Magic Beast Farm has provided Tokyo with artillery flora (Turret Balsam), which has now been cultivated in sufficient quantities for territorial defense.
• Amulets, while minor, have increased the rate of mana recovery.
• Despite production bottlenecks due to nitrate shortages, dynamite has been developed.
• Training techniques have significantly increased overall mana reserves.
• Even mana recovery potions, despite their severe side effects, have become available.
• Lastly, the Demon King’s summoning of Class-A Monsters has temporarily removed them from Japan.

If there were ever a time to reclaim lost territory, it was now.

Given time, the wildlife would begin mutating again, leading to the emergence of new Class-A Monsters.

Before that happened—or before yet another catastrophe struck—they had to act.

More than half of the mages assigned to the land reclamation forces were graduates of the Magic University, meaning they were equipped with the versatile staff I had designed.

When the reclamation succeeds, I fully expect them to say:
“Thanks to the 0933 Staff, we reclaimed our land, found love, succeeded at work, and even won the lottery!”

I look forward to the praise.

While Tokyo is fully committed to reclaiming lost land, I, on the other hand, am focused on studying magic script.

Magic script was… difficult.

Learning to write the characters was easy—just mimic what you see.

However, the grammar was a nightmare.

Fortunately, I had already studied spoken magic language under Professor Ohinata, which gave me some footing. Without that, I might have given up entirely.

Generally, the difficulty of learning a foreign language increases the further it is from one’s native language.

For example, Japanese speakers find Korean and Chinese relatively easy to learn. But English and French, being vastly different, are much harder.

By that logic, magic language wasn’t just foreign—it wasn’t even from this world.

Of course, it was difficult.

Its learning difficulty was off the charts.

The study materials I used contained example sentences written in magic script, meaning that I could technically copy them verbatim without fully understanding them.

However, using magic script without understanding its principles was dangerous.

If something went wrong, I wouldn’t be able to fix it.

I wouldn’t be able to customize it, either.

If I integrated magic script into my staffs and a client complained, I couldn’t just say, “I don’t know how it works, so I can’t fix it.” That would ruin my reputation as a craftsman.

No matter how hard it was, if I wanted to incorporate magic script into my staffs, I had to study it seriously.

That said, studying all the time was exhausting, so I often took breaks to brainstorm new applications for magic script.

But almost every idea I came up with had already been tested by the United States.

For instance, magic circles.

The fundamental principle of magic script dictates that characters must be written in a straight, linear sequence.

What happens if you curve that line into a circle?

This would create a magic circle—an idea that seemed revolutionary to me at first.

However, upon checking my materials, I found that the U.S. had already researched and implemented it.

To summarize, magic circles allow for rapid-fire spellcasting.

When casting a spell through a magic circle, mana flows along the circle’s perimeter, glowing as it moves. Every time it passes through the script, the corresponding spell activates.

In other words, a single incantation continuously loops as long as there is mana.

This technology drastically increased the firepower of American Transcendents.

Instead of casting a spell once per incantation, they could now cast it ten, twenty, or even hundreds of times in succession.

It was like upgrading from a single-shot rifle to a fully automatic machine gun.

Of course, the mana consumption was extreme, reducing their ability to fight prolonged battles.

But their burst damage skyrocketed.

With magic circles, American Transcendents could obliterate Class-2 Monsters with ease.

Even Class-1 Monsters could be taken down by a coordinated group of five or six.

This placed them on the same level as the Tohoku Hunting Association’s Daidarabotchi hunters, who wielded my Gun-staffs.

Although magic circles focused more on raw firepower compared to Japan’s magic staves, they were still an impressive application of magic script.

Magic script was full of untapped potential. If I could properly integrate it into magic staves, their performance would skyrocket.

It could also be embedded into armor, accessories, or simply written on paper or boards.

While I was immersed in my studies, the Spider Witch had taken over the tasks that Hiyori used to handle.

The Spider Witch was reserved, spending most of her time secluded in an ancient temple. She used a decoy in Ome City to interact with others.

She was also filtering out suspicious individuals probing for information about me(0933), while handling university orders and product deliveries.

I was grateful.

However, she was kinder than Hiyori, meaning that requests Hiyori would have outright rejected were now making their way to me…

For example, it seemed like the Dragon Witch wanted me to process magic stones for her.

The magic stones owned by the Dragon Witch are currently overseas along with her, so the request is effectively canceled. However, judging from the request form, she apparently wanted them to be “cut to sparkle and shine.”

I feel like I’ve heard that phrase before. That woman seriously only sees magic stones for their gemstone value.

The Dragon Witch once kidnapped me, put me in handcuffs, and tried to force me to work like a slave.

It’s no wonder Hiyori rejects her requests. But the Dragon Witch has a hoard of precious metals in her nest.

Until now, the gold and silver treasures gathered not just from Tokyo but also from surrounding prefectures had been nothing more than excessive indulgences. But the moment magic script was introduced, they gained practical value.

The Dragon Witch possesses a massive amount of precious metals essential for the use of magic script.

By cutting magic stones in exchange for precious metals → manufacturing alloys at my metal processing plant in Shinagawa, which has been left unused for ages → using them to make staffs… I might be able to establish this cycle.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider my relationship with the Dragon Witch. It’s worth thinking about. That said, this is all something to discuss after she returns to the country.

Hiyori is definitely coming back, but I don’t know if the Dragon Witch will survive the battle against the Demon Lord. I’ve heard she’s quite strong, but my main impression of her is still that of someone fleeing from Hiyori and begging for her life, so it’s hard to picture her as a powerhouse.

Another request that Hiyori rejected, but the Spider Witch passed through, was related to the Tobacco Witch’s horse ownership proposal.

The Tobacco Witch has converted Yokota Air Base in her domain into a ranch and is protecting and raising racehorses that were on the verge of being lost after the Gremlin Disaster.

She seems to have plans to revive horse racing in the future. Lately, she’s been approaching influential figures in Tokyo, inviting them to become racehorse owners. It looks like my name came up as part of that.

When I took orders for staffs before, I already thought she was quite the amusing witch.

Honestly, I’m making a fortune from crafting magic staffs, so I have more money than I know what to do with. I’ve been reinvesting the excess into my Shinagawa factory, but putting some toward horse breeding doesn’t seem like a bad idea. I don’t dislike horses.

But I don’t particularly love them either. I’m not interested in horse racing. Even if I became a racehorse owner, there’s no way I’d show my face at a crowded racetrack—that’d be suicidal.

I’m more interested in horseback riding experiences or maybe keeping a pony. I’ve heard horses are smart, so I feel like we could get along.

This is worth considering too. I won’t become a racehorse owner, but since I’m interested in horses themselves, maybe I could still invest. Would the Tobacco Witch be okay with that?

For a few weeks, the Spider Witch had been managing negotiations without issue.

But I noticed she was starting to drift into deep thought more and more often.

It’s hard to read a spider’s expressions, but after spending weeks with her, I’ve started to get a feel for it.

Bringing some fish meatballs as a gift, I visited the old temple and asked if something was on her mind. The Spider Witch reacted with an exaggerated flinch.

“You noticed? But the Blue Witch said, ‘Dairi is so dense that if you don’t spell it out, he won’t notice a thing.’”

“Oh, she’s absolutely right. My social skills are dead. I’m probably missing a ton of things without realizing it. But when it comes to you, Spider Witch, I can tell. Tell me anything. If I can help, I will.”

Speaking sincerely, I heard the Spider Witch make a clicking noise.

She clacked her mouth together as she hesitated, but after a while, she finally spoke in a small voice.

“So, you know how I’ve been using my decoys to talk to people in Ome? People find them creepy. It’s not that their ability to distort perception is bad—it’s that they just look like these weird, unfinished, featureless dolls…”

“Hmm…? Well, I can kind of understand that. Some people find mannequin-like figures unsettling.”

Recalling the decoys’ appearance, I nodded slightly.

I don’t mind them, but yeah, I could see how some people would dislike them. Moving dolls are a common horror trope. Even I understand that I’m the odd one out for finding moving humans scarier.

“I even tried dressing them up, but their body proportions are just slightly off from a human’s… Hey, Dairi, it’s totally fine if you don’t want to, but… do you think you could make my decoys look more human?”

“More human? I don’t know anything about makeup, but I’ll do my best.”

“No, not like that. I mean sculpting their faces and hands properly so they really look human…”

“Oh, you mean overcoming the uncanny valley? Yeah, I think I can do that.”

I agreed without hesitation.

The “uncanny valley” refers to the phenomenon where something that looks almost human feels eerily unsettling.

Even if something has a humanoid shape, people don’t find robots with exposed metal and an obviously mechanical design creepy.

However, robots that seem to be “imitating” humans—those that look like they’re trying to pass as human—feel unsettling.

But if a robot is so lifelike that it’s indistinguishable from a real human, even if people know it isn’t human, they don’t find it creepy.

This sharp drop in likability when something is only halfway human-like is what’s known as the uncanny valley.

The Spider Witch’s decoys fall right into this uncanny valley.

They do look halfway human. If I can make them perfectly human-like, that creepiness should disappear.

“There are a lot of different sculpting styles. Greek, Japanese… Do you have a preference?”

“Greek…? Sorry, I don’t know much about sculpture… But, um… I-I’d like it to be a beautiful girl…”

“Got it. I’ll make the most beautiful girl in the world.”

The Spider Witch, awkwardly fidgeting with the tips of her legs against the old temple’s wooden floor, hesitantly voiced her request. But there was nothing to be embarrassed about. The desire to look beautiful or make something beautiful is completely natural. She could have said it with more confidence.

I immediately got to work carving the decoy that had been temporarily recalled from Ome to Okutama. While I sculpted, the Spider Witch wove a wig from her spider silk. With or without hair makes a huge difference in appearance—it was a must.

She’d mentioned before that “the decoys are really sturdy,” and she wasn’t exaggerating. The material was incredibly strong and hard. My chisel, sharpened for cutting gremlins, couldn’t even make a dent. So, I switched to a metal file and slowly ground it down.

Once the shape was complete, I polished it with sandpaper. To achieve a human-like skin texture, I had to be careful not to over-polish.

After three full days of work, I had sculpted the perfect life-sized (1:1 scale) beautiful girl. I placed the Spider Witch’s handmade wig on its head.

I admired the finished decoy—Version 2—completely satisfied.

But then, a strange sense of déjà vu hit me.

I felt like I’d seen this decoy somewhere before. But where…?

“What’s wrong…? I think it turned out great. It looks just like her…”

“Just like… who?”

“Uh… the Blue Witch…”

“!!!! THAT’S IT!”

The Spider Witch’s timid words snapped everything into place.

That’s right.

This decoy looks exactly like Hiyori.

Its hair is white because it’s made from spider silk, but everything else is a dead ringer for her.

Well, of course. When she asked me to make a beautiful girl, I naturally sculpted the most beautiful girl in the world. Of course, it ended up looking like Hiyori. I hadn’t even realized it.

“You did it unconsciously…? I thought you were trying to rub it in. So when you heard ‘the most beautiful girl in the world,’ your mind automatically went to the Blue Witch…? Ugh, my brain is frying…”

The Spider Witch suddenly started writhing in distress, which caught me off guard. But she still gave the finished piece her approval.

Her wording had been a little off, so I offered to make changes if she wasn’t happy with anything. But she just said.

“My emotions are all jumbled up, so I don’t even know if I’m dissatisfied or not…”

I had no idea what she meant.

I sculpted the ultimate beautiful girl, exactly as ordered.

I tried thinking about it, but I couldn’t figure it out. Asking her directly didn’t help either, so I just tilted my head in confusion and left the old temple.

Well, whatever! If she asks for adjustments later, I’ll fix them as needed.

Sculpting was a nice change of pace.

Alright, time to get back to studying magic script.

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