"I Became a Witch, but Now Everyone's in Love with Me!"

Chapter 53: Sun Taotao

 
After confirming that this was most likely a parallel world fragment to the one where the “Great Sage” exists—it might sound awkward, but in truth, aside from advanced civilizations like the witches who can trace their own race’s destiny, the existence of parallel worlds is actually quite common.
At that point, Jiang Cha knew what she had to do.

“Hey, little monkey lady, why don’t you go fight for the position of Monkey King?”
Perched in the treetops overlooking the monkey crowd, Jiang Cha asked out of genuine curiosity.
After all, the story of the Water Curtain Cave is where everything begins. If the Great Sage hadn’t been involved from the start, he might’ve lived a quiet, forgettable life as a low-level demon.
And everything that followed—the Monkey King, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, the battle in Heaven—would’ve never happened.

“Why fight for that useless title? What’s the point?”
The monkey girl curled her lips in disdain, her eyes filled with contempt as she glanced toward the waterfall.
“Isn’t it natural for monkeys to want to compete to be leader?”

“I’m a demon. I’m not like those ordinary monkeys. Besides, the one you’re talking about is male. What’s that got to do with me, your monkey sister?”
“…”
That… she really didn’t expect.

But this raised a problem. If the little monkey girl had no ambition or drive, then how was the world’s “drama” supposed to unfold?
Jiang Cha decided to wait and observe a bit longer.
After all, she still wasn’t entirely sure what this world’s script was.

While Jiang Cha and the monkey girl fell into silence, the monkeys on the hillside finally worked out a “rule.”
You had to admit—primates were truly born to squabble. Even on this tiny Flower and Fruit Mountain, there were three different monkey factions. Their leaders had bickered and fought for three full days before reaching a crude and simple agreement:
Whoever made it into the Water Curtain Cave first would become the Monkey King.

“Hey, little monkey lady, you’ve lived here so long—don’t you know any of them?”
Watching the monkeys line up to fling themselves into the waterfall—only to get spat out by the current one by one—Jiang Cha couldn’t help but ask.
“Nope.”
“Wow, you really don’t get along with anyone, huh~”

The girl’s teasing laughter seemed to irritate the monkey girl. After scratching her ears and cheeks in frustration, she finally gave up kicking the human girl off the branch and simply snorted.
“Only the weak need to survive in groups.”
She was qualified to say that.

Setting aside the fact that the Great Sage was a fundamentally different existence from these monkey demons, even now, the monkey girl was strong enough to take on the whole group below all by herself.
“Hey, look—doesn’t that little monkey look like you?”
“…”

The monkey girl had no intention of responding to Jiang Cha’s nonstop chatter. She was already regretting wasting her time coming here to watch a bunch of monkeys play “rush to be the alpha.”
But when she glanced down—just idly, not expecting anything—she suddenly froze.
That little female monkey who had just stepped forward looked timid, frightened, like she’d been forced into it. She was visibly weak—one of the lowest in the entire troop.

There was no reason she should’ve been involved in something like this.
Unless…
“Looks like some monkeys are trying to get rid of her. Tsk, monkey infighting is no joke.”

That little monkey’s only real “advantage” was probably her appearance. Jiang Cha could guess what was going on without much effort.
But her tone was light, almost playful—she wasn’t taking it seriously.
They were just shells in a simulated world anyway. Even if they were real, it was just a monkey.
“Damn it, they’re not strong, but they sure know how to gang up on the weak… You, stay here. I’ll be right ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) back.”

“Huh?”
Jiang Cha blinked, confused.
But before she could even react, the monkey girl had already leapt from the tree and somersaulted toward the waterfall—cutting in before the hesitant little female monkey could jump.

…Is this world correction? Or historical inevitability?
Jiang Cha couldn’t help but wonder.
Even if she hadn’t brought the monkey girl here, would some other event have eventually driven her to this spot? Would she still have broken into the Water Curtain Cave to save that little monkey with some tenuous connection to her… and ended up becoming the Monkey King?

Then, as the story always goes, she would rise to protect her kind, fight demons and deities alike, cause an uproar in Heaven, and ultimately be sealed by the Buddha.
If you want to wear the crown, you must bear its weight.
Even if there were outside influences, the moment she became the Monkey King, her fate became inescapably entwined with this world’s cause and effect.

“Tsk… I kinda regret bringing her here so soon.”
The truth was, Jiang Cha hadn’t expected the reason the monkey girl would enter the Water Curtain Cave to be… to save someone.
As expected, you really can’t trust a tsundere’s words.

Don’t believe a single thing that golden-furred girl says.
“The Monkey King is born! The Monkey King is born!”
“Whose general is this? So powerful!”

Cheers erupted as the monkey girl emerged from the waterfall completely unharmed. The whole troop of monkeys erupted into a noisy frenzy.
But the monkey girl ignored them all and casually returned to Jiang Cha’s side.
“…Don’t think you’re getting off the hook that easily,” Jiang Cha muttered with a sidelong glance.

“…One day at a time. That’s all I can manage right now.”
“Fine.”
The so-called Water Curtain Cave was really just a naturally occurring cave.
Who knew if anyone had lived there before—but once the barrier was broken, getting in wasn’t difficult at all.
If a thin sheet of falling water could stop a group of demon monkeys, that would be pretty pathetic.

The next few days passed uneventfully.
“Hey, monkey lady—do you have a name? I can’t keep calling you ‘monkey lady’ forever, right?”
“No. What about you? Little human girl?”

Picking a peach at random, the monkey girl turned to look at her.
“Of course I have a name. But it feels unfair if I’m the only one revealing mine…”
Jiang Cha lowered her head, swinging her legs idly on a tree branch, pretending to think. Suddenly, she clapped her hands and said with excitement, “Then how about I give you a name?”

“Get lost. Why would I want a human name?”
The monkey girl waved her hand dismissively, but Jiang Cha wasn’t discouraged in the slightest.
After all, she was a golden-haired tsundere—the prototype for nearly all tsunderes in Earth’s fictional canon.
Only an idiot would take her words at face value.

“So you do agree! Let me think… since you’re a monkey, your surname has to be ‘Sun.’”
“I said I don’t want a name!”
“Xingxing and Wukong sound too masculine. I need something cuter…”

“How about… Sun Taotao? It’s just a name—cute and easy to remember!”
“…Do you want me to hit you?”
“Ah, so you do like it!”

Monkey girl: “…”
… … …