Chapter 55 – A Busy Saturday

The young witches also really wanted the small satchel bag Mo Lan had described, but… not a single one of them knew how to sew.

“It’s fine, it’s just a small satchel bag — very simple. I can teach you! It’ll only take a few hours.”

Mo Lan said, “Isn’t one of the required readings called ‘Learning Sewing Magic from Scratch’? I’d guess sewing is a mandatory subject just like cooking. Getting a head start on it wouldn’t hurt!”

“That would take up too much of your time. We can make them after we’ve learned Sewing Magic.”

Unless absolutely necessary, the young witches were reluctant to trouble her again.

Sewing was different from cooking.

Without learning to cook, they’d have to gnaw on Breadfruit every single day, and that was truly miserable.

Without learning to sew, going without a satchel bag wasn’t a big deal.

They could hold their wands by hand, tie them to their waists, or stuff them in their pockets — any of those worked.

A Sorceress’s Talent was superior to that of a witch, and by the same token, she had many times more things to learn. Her time was even more precious.

Mo Lan had no choice but to go to the Castle Warehouse alone to pick out materials.

By evening, she had finished making a large soft-leather satchel with several pockets.

It could hold not only her wand but all sorts of miscellaneous items as well.

Slung over her shoulder, it looked a little oversized on her — but as long as it could carry everything, that was all that mattered.

After finishing the bag, Mo Lan opened the 《Newcomer’s Guide》.

This little booklet was different from the books in the library. The maps and class schedules inside couldn’t be copied or transcribed — the entire booklet could only be absorbed whole into the Grimoire.

So now, the 《Newcomer’s Guide》 had become one of the pages in her Grimoire.

Today was Friday, and the schedule for next week’s classes would be updated tonight. She wanted to see what courses were coming up.

Sure enough, the course schedule had changed.

All morning sessions were theory classes.

Monday and Wednesday mornings: “《 Fundamentals of Magic Theory 》,” with the textbook ‘《 What Exactly Is Magic 》.’

Tuesday and Thursday mornings: “《 《History of Witches》》,” with the textbook ‘《《History of Witches》 》.’

Friday morning: “World History,” with the textbook ‘The Changing Ages of the Continent of Valen.’

Every afternoon was magic practicum.

There was only one course — “Culinary Magic,” with the textbook ‘《Learning Culinary Magic from Scratch》.’

Morning theory classes were all held up in the Castle, while afternoon classes were in the cooking classroom next to the Ingredient Collection Station.

And afternoon classes didn’t start until four o’clock — the lunch break had been extended.

In other words, next week they’d have to climb the mountain to the Castle in the morning, come back down at noon, and then head to the Ingredient Collection Station for afternoon classes.

The commute time for classes was getting longer and longer.

On the bright side, Culinary Magic ran from four to six o’clock, and whatever they made would probably serve as dinner.

Mo Lan shook her head. It seemed the Academy taught magic courses one at a time, sequentially, rather than studying a bit of this today and a bit of that tomorrow in parallel.

Relying on the Castle bell tower’s chimes to estimate the time was really inconvenient.

And those bells only rang during the day.

So Mo Lan used her Book of Cards to create a ladies’ mechanical wristwatch.

A card made by combining Earth craftsmanship with Valen’s timekeeping methods consumed very little mana to produce.

Mo Lan couldn’t be bothered to specifically market this watch card either.

Even at five times the profit, it wouldn’t sell for much Mana. Senior Lilith already had a magical pocket watch — supposedly she’d made it herself by studying ahead in the second-year Alchemy curriculum.

That meant once second year began, everyone would be able to make their own portable timepieces.

Rather than spending time hawking cards, she was better off reading more books.

Once she’d accumulated enough knowledge, she could make more impressive cards for greater returns. This watch card — she’d just sell it whenever the opportunity arose.

Mo Lan materialized the watch from the card and put it on her wrist. One glance at the dial — eleven forty.

Good thing she’d made the watch. Otherwise, she’d been planning to read a bit more of ‘The Birth of an Exquisite Cover’ before sleeping, and might have accidentally stayed up past midnight again.

Her current mana reserve was 969 Mana, and her total mana capacity had increased by 1 point today, now sitting at 990 Mana.

After midnight, her card sales income of 591 Mana would arrive, and she’d deposit that directly into the Book of Cards.

She’d also keep half her total capacity in her own reserves, channel 474 Mana into the Book of Cards, and leave herself with 495 to maximize tomorrow’s natural mana recovery.

The moment midnight struck, Mo Lan checked her two cards.

{Status Card — Intermediate}

【Magic Power: 495/990 Mana】

{Book of Cards}

【Stored Energy: 1,272 Mana】

Now none of her naturally recovering mana would go to waste.

Mo Lan fell asleep at ease.

When the six o’clock morning bell rang, she was still a bit drowsy, but she reached over to the edge of her bed and grabbed her wake-up weapon of choice — a Breadfruit — and took a small bite.

Instantly alert, she sprang out of bed.

Sleeping until she woke up naturally? Absolutely out of the question.

The bell tower’s bells worked even on weekends. How could a young witch with so much to do afford to sleep in?

Mo Lan dragged out her laundry hamper.

Inside was a whole week’s worth of dirty clothes.

With classes keeping her out from early morning to late evening on weekdays, just washing her undergarments and socks when she got back was already an achievement.

She simply hadn’t had the time or energy for anything else.

Thankfully, she’d gone back to claim a few extra regulation School Robes, which was the only reason she’d had clean clothes to wear every day up to now.

Unfortunately, there was a limit — each young witch could have at most seven sets checked out at once, just enough for one per day of the week.

As for why, Mo Lan didn’t need to ask Lady Amisha to figure it out — it was to increase everyone’s demand for “Cleaning Magic,” so they’d study it more earnestly when the time came.

Mo Lan understood the reasoning, but she still didn’t want to wash by hand.

She had over a thousand Mana stored in her Book of Cards now. She could absolutely afford to make a washing machine card.

Even if she couldn’t sell it to other young witches, it would still save her own time!

And even with a washing machine, Mo Lan was still fully motivated to learn Cleaning Magic.

While the washing machine ran, Mo Lan juiced a Breadfruit and made it into a honey Breadfruit drink.

The leftover pulp wasn’t wasted either — she turned it into fruit cake.

She poured the juice into a waterskin, wrapped the fruit cake in wax paper, and tucked everything into her satchel.

Her Grimoire and wand went in as well.

After hanging the freshly washed clothes out to dry in the yard, Mo Lan headed out with her satchel on her back.

Today, she was the only one on the mountain path leading up to the Academy Castle.

She went to the Alchemy classroom in the West Tower and began sketching the cover design for her Grimoire.

She wanted to make a Grimoire in the same style as the Book of Cards.

The card slots from the Book of Cards wouldn’t be needed, though. Instead, Mo Lan planned to add several Purple Gemstones and pair them with gold-carved detailing to fill the space.

Once the design sketch was complete, she cross-referenced the crafting methods for the corresponding decorative elements in ‘The Birth of an Exquisite Cover,’ familiarized herself with the production process and required materials, and then took her list to the materials warehouse next to the classroom.

The West Tower’s warehouse was labeled as a low-grade magical materials repository, but it actually stocked some ordinary metals and mineral materials as well.

After all, witches could use their magic power to infuse ordinary materials and transform them into magical materials.