The Iron Box Tavern had four floors. The first was for drunks who wanted neither company nor conversation, only a quiet drink. The second housed old and new social circles. The third was the main venue for the welcome banquet and was still being arranged.
The fourth floor held a rotating bar. However, because the place had been booked out, there were currently only two people inside it.
One was a black-haired little girl in a penguin jacket. Her chin rested against the transparent counter, her cheeks puffed up as though she were sulking.
The other was a woman with short curly brown hair, red-rimmed glasses, and a fitted gauze-woven dress. She was mixing drinks across from the little girl.
They were sisters without blood ties, and also the true controllers of the Hermit Society.
Little Witch and Lila.
"It's been so many days already, and you're still angry? Your cheeks are puffed up so round." Lila dropped ice cubes into a shaker, poured in the base liquor, and gently shook it as she spoke to the sulking Little Witch. "The welcome party will be starting soon, and it'll be your first appearance before the newcomers. Do you want them to see a little chipmunk?"
Little Witch pursed her lips. "I don't want to... It just feels strange. In the Challenge Space, I even soaked myself in mud and made myself ugly and filthy, just so the eldest sister of the Adams Family would be a little less jealous and I could speak to her. But before I even started working on her, I got kicked out of the Challenge Space and told that I'd failed?"
"Why?!"
"There was obviously still time on the countdown, and the progress had already begun, yet they said I failed? What exactly happened?" The