Chapter 26 – The Head-Head-Headmistress

Mo Lan, who had been leading the way at the front, stumbled as Vasida and Sylph bumped into her from behind.

Vasida, quick on her feet, grabbed hold of her. “Moira, what’s wrong?”

Mo Lan pointed upward. “The Headmistress!”

“The Headmistress? But isn’t she—” Vasida looked up, and sure enough, who else could be coming down the stairs but the Headmistress herself?

Except this Headmistress was wearing a deep purple robe.

Faced with the young witches’ expressions as if they had seen a ghost, Lady Amisha greeted them warmly. “Good morning, young witches! If you’re heading to the West Tower, go up to the second floor, turn left, and keep going straight!”

“Thank you… Headmistress…”

The purple-robed Amisha headed down the corridor to the right on the second floor and soon vanished around the corner.

“Um, I wasn’t seeing things just now, was I? That really was Headmistress Amisha?” Vasida rubbed her eyes.

“You weren’t seeing things. I saw her too.” Sylph rubbed her arms and edged closer to Mo Lan. The brightly lit Castle suddenly felt a bit eerie to her.

“We all saw her!” All the young witches shivered and huddled together, talking over one another.

“How can there be two Headmistresses?”

“Maybe the Headmistress we met earlier went up to the third floor from another way and then came back down here?”

“But one was in a blue robe and the other in purple. Would she really bother changing clothes?”

“I’ve heard some witch robes can change their appearance at will…”

“But the blue-robed Headmistress already said good morning! Why would the purple-robed one say it again?”

“Maybe the Headmistress is just very polite?”

“That’s it! That must be it!”

“But we ran all the way here, and the staircase on the other end of the corridor is still really far away. How fast would the Headmistress have to be to take that long detour and still get here ahead of us?”

“Well, she’s not called the First Witch for nothing, is she?”

“True enough!”

Everyone managed to find a barely passable explanation and put the matter to rest.

Only then did they regain their composure and continue on toward the West Tower.

The West Tower had seven floors in total. They had come through the second-floor corridor, arriving at the second floor of the West Tower, which meant they still had stairs to climb.

After a laborious climb to the top floor, they finally found the classroom for their lesson.

Just as they were about to enter, they were startled by a black-robed witch who flew in from the tower balcony.

Seeing them, she greeted them enthusiastically. “Good morning, young witches!”

“Head… Headmistress?”

This time, the young witches truly could not come up with any reason why Lady Amisha would have taken a massive detour through the first and second floors of the Castle, then flown in from the west side, changing into three different colored outfits along the way.

Surely the Headmistress wouldn’t deliberately try to scare them on the first day of school!

Witches didn’t have twins, let alone triplets.

The young witches’ limited experience offered absolutely no explanation for this.

At this moment, their minds raced in every direction, but none of their expressions looked particularly good.

“Ha! So you’ve already met the other two of me!” Amisha could tell what was going on at a glance. She spoke while setting her broom on the broom rack on the balcony.

The young witches were full of questions. “The other two?”

“Inside the Academy, no matter how many of me you see, don’t be surprised—they’re all me!” Amisha said as she counted the young witches. “Good, everyone’s here. Stop standing around like that and come into the classroom!”

The young witches followed timidly behind the Headmistress and filed inside.

The spacious tiered classroom was furnished with thirty roomy desks and chairs.

Six to a row, five rows in total.

Amisha waved her Wand, sending three sets of desks and chairs from the first row into a side room next to the classroom. The remaining three desks in the first row shifted toward the center.

“There! Take your seats. From now until the end of your third year, all your alchemy lessons will be held here.”

By unspoken agreement, the young witches left the three seats in the first row for Mo Lan, Vasida, and Sylph.

Everyone said the Sorceress had well-rounded talent—sitting in the front row where everyone could see her meant they could learn from her at any time.

Mo Lan sat in the middle of the front row, with Vasida on her left and Sylph on her right.

But at the moment, no one cared much about seating. All eyes were fixed on the Headmistress.

They watched her finish rearranging the desks and chairs, then go through the door behind the lectern to bring out a large pile of parchment and various objects of unknown purpose. She even gave them an introduction:

“Half of the West Tower serves as the alchemy classroom, and the other half is a low-grade magical materials warehouse. In the future, if you need any materials, look for them yourselves in the materials warehouse on the east half of the West Tower. Every floor has an entrance, and the one for the top floor is right here.”

Finally, Cheryl—whose curiosity was practically bursting—couldn’t hold back any longer. “Headmistress! How did you… how did you make three of yourself?”

“Hmm…” Amisha took in the young witches’ curiosity, letting the suspense build to its peak. But when she finally spoke, what she said was: “On the day you graduate, ask me this question again, and perhaps I’ll tell you.”

The moment she finished speaking, the bell rang—the timing was neither early nor late, but perfectly on the mark.

“Alright! It’s ten o’clock. Class begins!”

The young witches, only four days into their enrollment: “…”

Mo Lan even suspected that the Witch Academy had some kind of tradition of keeping people in suspense. How else could everyone from the Headmistress to the senior students be so perfectly in sync about it?

Now she understood what Senior Lilith had meant when she told them not to be startled.

Running into three Headmistresses in a single morning—how could anyone not be startled?

The young witches had no time for idle speculation, though. Lady Amisha had already begun her lecture.

“When the class schedule updated on Friday evening, you must have all been wondering why it was entirely introductory alchemy lessons, right?”

Lady Amisha sat in the high-backed chair at the lectern, her slender legs crossed, and spoke at an unhurried pace.

“That’s because to formally begin studying magic—whether theory or practice—you cannot do without two things.

“The first is the book of inheritance that accompanies every witch throughout her life—the Grimoire. The second is the essential tool for casting spells—the Wand.

“The Grimoire, the Wand, and the broomstick you’ll encounter later—these three items are to witches what the Manifested Gift is to an Sorceress: special magical objects that only witches can wield.

“Every aspect of a witch’s studies, spellcasting, and daily life requires them.

“Every witch must master the methods for crafting all three of these items, regardless of whether she specializes in alchemy.

“A Grimoire, a Wand, or a broomstick may be lost or damaged, but the crafting knowledge you possess can serve you forever.

“This week’s introductory alchemy lessons will be devoted to learning how to craft your very own Grimoire and Wand!”

Only then did Mo Lan realize that every witch’s grimoire, wand, and broomstick were made by her own hands.

It made sense, after all. Witches who had clawed their way free from despair and hardship could barely even use magic at first. Besides crafting them herself, where else could a witch possibly obtain such precious magical items?