Chapter 7

Chapter Seven of the second volume of the Witch Hat Atelier manga series.

Summary

The girls realize that in order to escape the labyrinth, they will have to get past the dragon and reach the glyph on the tower. That's when Coco proposes a plan. She suggests that they use Tetia's cloud spell to create a giant bed, in the hopes that the dragon will lie on it and fall asleep. Agott is unconvinced, but once she realizes that Coco expects to fail and is willing to try anyways, she gains some respect for her, and agrees to help.

After some brainstorming, the girls decide to make the cloud out of sand, as it will be dense enough to support the dragon's weight. Using Coco's plan and the other girl's skills, they begin work on drawing the seals to make the spell possible, while Coco practices her seal drawing skills.

Unfortunately, they have no way to contain the spell, so it won't be able to hold together. Agott tries to come up with a solution, but to no avail. That's when Coco comes over with a Pyreball Seal, which, to Tetia's delight, is almost perfect, a massive improvement to the spells Coco had made before. Coco says that by practicing over and over again, she managed to pull it off. The words "over and over" give Agott a spark of inspiration, and she adds a Repetition Seal to the spell, allowing it to be contained, and letting it return to its original shape, even when being laid on by the dragon.

Agott completes the seal, and the cloud is produced. The dragon walks over and lies down on top of it, falling asleep, allowing the girls to run to the tower. They climb up the stairs, and finally reach the glyph.

Meanwhile, Qifrey and Tartah are chasing after a Brushbuddy, hoping that it would lead them to the girls. It stops in an alley, and starts messing around with one of the flagstones in the alleyway's street. Tartah comments on how the alley used to be paved with cobblestones and wonders why they changed it. Qifrey, remembering that brushbuddies are attracted to the scent of magic ink, lifts up the stone that Brushbuddy was messing with and activates the portal that took the girls to the labyrinth.

Tetia erases part of the seal, hoping to cancel the spell, but causes the place to collapse, waking the dragon. It smashes it's tail into the side of the tower, knocking Agott off, who isn't wearing sylph shoes. As she begins to fall, Qifrey, who had entered through the portal, catches her, using his sylph shoes to fly. He casts a spell that creates an enormous dragon made of water, and slams the real dragon to the floor in a massive pillar of water. Tetia and Richeh join him in the air using their sylph shoes, but Coco is nowhere to be seen.

Elsewhere, Iguin knocks out and briefly abducts Coco. He says that he's been waiting a long time for his "seed" to "sprout," and wonders if this "task" he prepared for her (the labyrinth) has made her stronger. He muses how in the future he will teach her things that Qifrey will not, and leaves with her a gift before placing her back on the tower stairs, so it looks like she simply passed out when the dragon attacked rather then be abducted by him.

Coco later awakes in the Kalhn alleyway from before, having been carried there by Qifrey, with all the other girls plus Tartah being there too. Coco wakes up surrounded by all of them, Qifrey explains they found her on the stairs of the tower, to which Coco replies "Which stairs?" Qifrey upon hearing those words gets frightened and thinks Iguin had erased Coco's memory, to which Coco replies that she is just still drowsy from waking up. Coco then apologizes to everyone and for getting them into that mess. Qifrey says that Tetia told him that Coco saved everyone, telling Coco that ideas are just as important for magic as how you handle a pen, helping to comfort her.

Just then, Mr. Nolnoa arrives, and says it's good that Qifrey found them all. Qifrey hands him part of the flagstone with a portion of the spell drawn on it, and asks him to figure out what was mixed in with the magic ink on the seal. He also asks, and then demands that they not tell the Knights Moralis about what had occurred, much to Mr. Nolnoa's distress and Tartah's confusion.

Characters by Appearance

• Agott
• Coco
• Richeh
• Tetia
• Qifrey
• Tartah
• Iguin
• Nolnoa

Image Gallery

• 
  Japanese Morning Two chapter cover
• 
  The giant scaled dragon of the illusory labyrinth
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  A comprehensive look at the Serpent's Bed of Sand spell
• 
  The dragon enjoying the Serpent's Bed of Sand spell
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  Tetia feeling wonderful that her spell brought someone else joy
• 
  The girls looking at the Illusory Labyrinth spell
• 
  Qifrey's Water Dragon spell used against the giant scaled dragon

Chapter Notes

• The four apprentices from Qifrey's Atelier collaborate and create a new spell: the Serpent's Bed of Sand.
• Iguin gave Coco a gift, which won't be realized until Chapter 12 and Chapter 13.
• The Morning Two magazine publication of this chapter included a unique color cover featuring the four girls with giant pens and ink bottles that did not get published in the volume editions. This cover also included a unique phrase not present in the volume version of this chapter. It reads: 「魔法使いのたまごたち。　その手が描く魔法は、どんな未来を紡ぐ―？」 and can be translated as: "The young witches. What kind of future will they weave with the magic drawn from their hands?"
• The final page of the Morning Two magazine version of the chapter also includes a unique phrase not present in the volume version of this chapter. It reads: 「少女たちの陰で蠢く「とんがり」と「つばあり」の争い。」 and can be translated as: "The conflict between Pointed Caps and Brimmed Caps slithers in the girls' shadows."

Magazine vs Volume Changes

For the volume release of this chapter, the following changes were made:

Dialogue Changes

• On Page 6 (first panel), additional dialogue was added. In the 'Morning Two' version Coco says: 「上手くいけば怪我しないですむもん」　「私たちも　あの巨鱗竜も…」 which can be translated as: "If it goes well, we shouldn't get hurt. us... and that dragon...". While in the volume version, that dialogue is shifted to the second speech bubbles so she instead begins with this new line: 「魔法は皆を幸せにするためのものだもん」 which can be translated as: "Magic is meant to make everyone happy."
• On Page 8 (first panel), some of the ideas along the page edge were switched around and moved more inward, perhaps to help prevent being cut off in printing errors. The ideas listed in the magazine version read: 「綿」 「毛」 「ちぎった紙」 from top to bottom, which can be translated as "cotton; fur/hair; and shredded paper." For the volume version, these ideas were changed to: 「動物の毛」 「綿」 「ちぎった紙」 from top to bottom, which translates to "animal fur; cotton; and shredded paper".
• On Page 20 (third panel), Tetia's dialogue is changed. In the magazine version she says: 「もう完全に曇どこ行ったってかんじだけどね!」 which can maybe be translated as: "However it feels like the perfect cloud has gone away!" For the volume version, Tetia instead says: 「全然　曇じゃないけどね」 which can maybe be translated as: "However it's really not like a cloud at all."
• On Page 23 (first panel), a sound effect for the strong wind was added over the background.

• 
  Page 6: Dialogue added to include "magic is meant to make everyone happy"
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  Page 8: Dialogue switched around and slightly modified
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  Page 20: Dialogue simplified
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  Page 23: Sound effect for strong wind added in

Panel Redraws

• On Page 1 (second panel), a background of the labyrinth pillars was added behind Coco.
• On Page 3 (fourth panel), a black fade-in was added to the background behind Agott to segue into the flashback.
• For Pages 4 through 15, the page gutters were changed to black to show that the scene is a flashback.
• On Page 11 (second panel), a view of the labyrinth was added to the background.
• On Page 15 (third panel), Coco's trail of practice spells was redrawn and expanded.
• On Page 16 (top panels), a black fade-out was added to the page gutter to show the end of the flashback.
• On Page 24 (first panel), the labyrinth pillars were added to the background.
• On Page 25 (first panel), the dragon was colored in with screentone.

• 
  Page 1: labyrinth pillars added to background
• 
  Page 3: black fade-in added to background for beginning of flashback
• 
  Pages 4 through 15: page gutters changed to black for flashback
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  Page 11: labyrinth view added to background
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  Page 15: Coco's trail of practice spells was redrawn
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  Page 16: black fade-out added to page gutter for end of the flashback
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  Page 24: labyrinth pillars added to background, and for Page 25 the dragon was colored in with screentone