Chapter 2 – Dodo Bird Egg Custard

Mo Lan held the letter and waved excitedly at her mother. “It’s here!”

Shana looked at her daughter’s seemingly empty hand, which appeared to be holding something invisible.

“Keep it safe. The enrollment letter carries the Sorceress’s magic—only the young witch herself can see it!”

This was the first Mo Lan had heard of this. So the letter even had an anti-peeking function!

Shana hurriedly asked about the date of this year’s enrollment ceremony.

Once her daughter started school, she could venture beyond the Wilds and continue her own journey.

“Eight o’clock in the evening, three days from now,” Mo Lan said.

Each year’s enrollment ceremony was typically held between June and August. This year, it was unusually early.

The thought of leaving Emerald Creek Plains, the place she had called home for thirteen years, stirred a pang of reluctance in Mo Lan.

Shana could see her daughter’s sadness. Every young witch felt this way the first time she left home.

She lifted the basket in her hand, redirecting her daughter’s attention.

“Moira, I got your favorite dodo bird eggs today! I’ll steam some egg custard for you later!”

“Dodo bird eggs?” Mo Lan’s eyes lit up, and she immediately headed downstairs. “I’ll go pull some scallions from the backyard!”

The dodo bird was a species of waterfowl native to Emerald Creek Plains. Its meat was nearly inedible, but its eggs were extraordinarily delicious—one of the rare delicacies on a witch’s table.

Most witches preferred them fried.

Mo Lan privately believed that dodo bird eggs were at their finest when steamed into custard.

A spoonful of sesame oil, a spoonful of soy sauce, and a sprinkle of chopped scallions—savory, fragrant, and silky smooth.

The soy sauce they used for cooking at home had been produced by Shana using magic, guided by Mo Lan’s verbal descriptions of soy sauce-making from her previous life.

It was the only one of its kind on the entire continent of Valen.

Unfortunately, dodo birds mostly laid their eggs in early spring, and once the season passed, egg production dwindled steadily.

Mo Lan hadn’t had dodo bird egg custard in over a month.

Mama Shana’s Flash Freeze spell was rather poor, but her culinary magic was superb. Her steamed egg custard carried an extra layer of flavor beyond anything from Mo Lan’s previous life.

At the thought of it, Mo Lan couldn’t help but swallow her saliva, quickening her steps downstairs.

*

After breakfast, the dishes lined up single file and hopped into the sink to wash themselves. Mother and daughter slumped contentedly into their rocking chairs to rest.

Mo Lan savored the lingering taste of her mother’s breakfast, a touch of worry creeping into her thoughts. “I wonder if the Witch Academy serves dodo bird egg custard!”

“Custard, certainly not. But there will be no shortage of dodo bird eggs,” Shana said with a smile. “Once you learn culinary magic, you’ll be able to make all those dishes you’re always going on about yourself.”

“Mama! You’re reading my mind again!” Mo Lan put her hands on her hips in protest.

“Sorry, my magic has been improving lately, but my control still has some gaps.”

Shana sheepishly averted her gaze. As long as she didn’t look into her daughter’s eyes, her recently unstable mind magic wouldn’t suddenly trigger.

Mo Lan sighed. “Fine, read away. I haven’t had any secrets from you in ages anyway.”

After all, her mother was a mind witch. Only a witch who specialized in mind magic and had reached the advanced stage could be called a mind witch.

Even the waterfowl living nearby couldn’t escape the influence of Mama Shana’s mind magic. Captivated by her charm, they would eagerly deliver gifts to her doorstep.

Let alone her daughter, who lived with her day in and day out.

Mo Lan had long since gotten used to it.

When she was first born, Shana had tried using magic to decipher baby babble—and promptly discovered Mo Lan’s identity as a soul from another world.

At the time, Mo Lan had thought she would be killed as some kind of aberration.

Instead, Mama Shana had simply laughed and said, “A reincarnated little witch is so much easier to raise than a naturally born one,” leaving Mo Lan completely dumbfounded.

She later learned that in Valen, reincarnation with intact memories was something quite a few types of magic could achieve. Some extremely xenophobic races that strictly adhered to traditional bloodlines did care about the purity of a newborn’s soul.

But witches were not among them.

Since even her greatest secret—her transmigration—was already known to Mama Shana, Mo Lan had nothing left to hide.

It was also around that time that she learned of the Well of the Sky’s existence and conceived the idea of studying magic diligently, returning to Earth before the great cataclysm, and preventing the apocalypse.

Unfortunately, traditional witch doctrine held that a young witch under thirteen deserved a carefree childhood.

The real period of study began only after thirteen, when the Witch Academy would provide every young witch with a free foundation in all the knowledge and skills she needed.

And so Mama Shana refused to teach her anything academic ahead of time, let alone actual magic.

To prevent her from studying on the sly, all the witch spellbooks in the house had been hidden away.

Books written by other races were left out in the living room, but Mo Lan couldn’t read a single word of them.

The only book she had access to was the 《Young witch’s Primer》, which every young witch received.

Since it was written in witch script—a language all witches innately understood—Mo Lan had been able to read it from birth. Over thirteen years, she had read it cover to cover more times than she could count.

The book contained only basic common knowledge about witchkind, with scarcely any information about the Witch Academy itself.

To this day, aside from the enrollment letter, she knew absolutely nothing about the Witch Academy—she didn’t even know which direction it was in.

She had truly wanted to leverage her transmigrator’s mental advantage to study ahead and stay ahead of the other witches, but there had simply been no way.

The innate advantage of being reborn with knowledge had been thoroughly wasted.

So far, she was no different from any ordinary young witch.

The Well of the Sky was a place only a select few of Valen’s most powerful could set foot in.

Having failed to study early and build a lead, she would simply have to work harder once she enrolled!

*

Three days later, Mo Lan sat flipping through the dog-eared first volume of the 《Young witch’s Primer》, bored out of her mind, glancing repeatedly at the magic clock on the wall.

Tonight, she would finally begin her enrollment.

Never before had time felt so agonizing.

Shana came over carrying a cloth sack in one hand and a wand in the other. “Little Mo Lan, stand up for a moment!”

Mo Lan sighed and moved aside.

Shana tapped the sofa lightly with her wand, and it instantly shrank to the size of her palm, dropping neatly into the sack she was holding.

“Do you still want this stool?” Mo Lan pointed to the worn wooden stool by the wall.

It was a stool Mama Shana had carved with magic—crudely made, uneven on the bottom. Mo Lan had sat on it often as a child.

“No, it’s too beat up. Even the secondhand market wouldn’t take it,” Shana said after a glance.

Only then did Mo Lan feel at ease moving over to sit on it, watching Mama Shana bustle about inside and out.

After receiving the enrollment letter, Mo Lan had been idle with nothing to do, while Mama Shana had been incredibly busy.

Busy packing.

As everyone knew, all supplies for a young witch’s studies and daily life during her time at the academy were provided free of charge.

All she needed for enrollment was to put on the academy-issued school robes.

Mo Lan had virtually nothing to pack, so it went without saying whose luggage this was.

Once Mo Lan left for school, Mama Shana would also be leaving Emerald Creek Plains.