Trouble understanding this introduction

Question

From ふらいんぐうぃっち chapter 1 p38, this is how Makoto introduced herself

はじめまして

この度…こちらの方【ほう】で

魔女をやらせていただく

木綿 真琴です

I have difficulty understanding how the second and third sentence of the introduction works.

In the second sentence, what does「こちらの方で」refers to? A way of doing something or a place? According to the 方's furigana reading, I believed that it must refer to some physical direction. But, I can't see the direction.

In the third sentence, what「やらせていただく」means? All I know is that it has a similar meaning to「させていただく」. It means "to do (introduce with permission)," am I right?

Answer 1

• This こちらの方 just means "here" or "this place". で is a plain location marker. It's roughly the same as just saying こちら, but のほう has been added to make the phrase politer. See: 〜ほうを as in 準備のほうを
• やらせていただく is basically the same as させていただく, which is a humble version of させてもらう. Here, no explicit permission is related, so she is just trying to be humble. See: what does させてもらう really mean?

Answer 2

Aside from an actual place or direction,「こちらの方で」 can also refer to "from myself".

As for the third sentence, yes it means to be allowed or do something with permission. It's commonly used for polite situations.