Chapter 71 – The Seniors Have It So Rough!

But excited as they were, their Grimoires still weren’t finished!

The shabby little notebooks didn’t even inspire the desire to transcribe anything into them.

“Making the Grimoire, transcribing texts, reading books and writing essays, and only then learning the Spring Water spell.” Vasida counted on her fingers. “There’s so much to do!”

“Today’s 《History of Witches》, tomorrow’s World History—there’ll definitely be homework for both. That’s at least two more essays. I think it’d be impressive enough just to finish all six essays by the weekend!” Sylph said.

The more they calculated, the more they felt there wasn’t enough time.

“I suddenly kind of understand why Moira has been surviving on Breadfruit Cake,” Alba said, rubbing her chin.

“No matter how busy you are, you still need to eat properly. Don’t you dare follow Moira’s example! Cooking is also practice for Culinary Magic!”

Iris hurriedly put a stop to their dangerous line of thinking. “If you don’t learn culinary arts well, you’ll only be able to live near marketplaces in the future. Once you leave the Academy, where are you going to find Breadfruit to fill your stomachs?”

“That’s true… Culinary studies are more important after all!” The little witches abandoned the idea of surviving on Breadfruit Cake.

Only then did Iris breathe a sigh of relief.

Mo Lan also agreed with what Iris said. Whether or not one mastered Culinary Magic was secondary—cooking itself was a must.

She played along with Iris and changed the subject. “Has everyone previewed Chapter Two of 《history of Witches》? Have you thought of what questions to ask?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve already done the preview!” Vasida suspected Mo Lan had also learned the Headmistress’s clone magic!

“No! I was planning to read it on the way to class. I haven’t even started yet!” Mo Lan said, gazing at the Castle in the distance.

The little witches: “!!!”

How had they already walked halfway up the mountain?! They hadn’t even thought of their questions yet!

They certainly didn’t want to “win” themselves another two essays.

One after another, they pulled out their Grimoires and began previewing the day’s material.

The walk had cost them some time after all. When Lady Amisha called on them to read the contents of Chapter Two during class, they were still preparing their questions.

They hadn’t managed to organize all the questions they’d thought of onto paper.

When the question-and-answer segment began, every little witch except Mo Lan activated their recording cards.

Amisha raised an eyebrow. “It seems I won’t need to slow down my answers today to give you time to take notes.”

The little witches: “Well, who told you to be so merciless when assigning essays, Headmistress!”

Through rounds of questions and answers, the class finally came to an end.

Then came the nerve-wracking moment of homework assignments.

“One question-summary essay, due next Thursday.” Amisha paused briefly, taking in the nervous expressions on the little witches’ faces, then said with a hint of regret, “Class dismissed!”

Oh well—a question-summary essay contained far more knowledge points than a research essay anyway.

The moment she finished speaking, several little witches couldn’t help but cry out in delight.

Three days ago, they had thought even one summary essay was too many.

Three days later, it was still one summary essay, yet they felt it was so few.

During Friday morning’s World History class, the little witches employed the same tactic, bombarding Lady Amisha with questions, and after class earned themselves another question-summary essay.

On the way down the mountain, they ran into a group of second-year seniors led by Lilith.

The seniors leisurely rode their brooms, expressing their concern for the younger students:

“How are you adapting to this week’s theory classes? Finding them easy?”

“Easy? Not even close! They’re more exhausting than magic class!” The little witches shook their heads at the mere thought of theory classes.

“Hahaha! We all went through the same thing! Back when we were in your shoes, we got hit with six essays in the second week, four of which required reading reference books! And it was like that every single week.

“Later, there were so many books to read that our Beginner Grimoires didn’t have enough space, and we didn’t have enough magical power either. Everyone had to clear out books they’d already read just to make room for new transcriptions.

“But essays—well, the more you write, the better you get. Lady Amisha is just trying to help us learn more. It’s all benefits, no downsides.

“In the future during theory classes, don’t ask too many random questions. Leave some margin, and each theory class will only have one essay.

“As for how to write the essays, just look at the reference books.

“If you ask too many questions, you’ll have to write question-summary essays, and there’s no way you can remember everything Lady Amisha said.

“Reading books and writing is still better than writing a bad essay and having Lady Amisha send it back for a rewrite!”

The second-year witches wore the expressions of seasoned veterans, consoling their juniors.

The bitter days of rushing to finish essays were soothed by the sight of their frowning underclassmen.

After all, the juniors were just as miserable as they had once been!

But the outcome was a little different from what they expected.

“Wow! Seniors, you had it so rough!”

“If your essays aren’t good enough, they actually get sent back for rewrites?”

“Good thing Moira helped us review Monday’s question-and-answer session.”

“Question-summary essays should be easier to write than research essays, right?”

“Seniors, you must have had to ask fewer questions and write research essays because you didn’t have recording cards!”

“Just buy one of Moira’s recording cards! Then you’ll never have to worry about forgetting what the Headmistress said in class. Having the Headmistress personally explain things is faster than looking stuff up, right?”

“We have six essays, but only two of them need research. The rest we can just transcribe from the recordings! Hehe~”

The first-year witches were also healed.

After all, the seniors had it even worse than them!

The second-year witches couldn’t laugh anymore.

“Recording cards? What recording cards?” The witches who hadn’t been to the Academy warehouse didn’t even know what recording cards were.

The ones who had visited the warehouse and seen the card advertisement poster outside suddenly had an epiphany. “So that’s what recording cards are for!”

Previously, recording card sales among the other years had been dismal, far behind the Mobile Kitchen Card and Portable Utensil Card.

But if you could record the Headmistress’s voice, who would want to flip through books looking for information to write essays?

“Moira! One recording card, please!”

“Sure, sure, sure!” Mo Lan pulled a stack of parchment from her satchel and began writing up contracts one by one.

Yet another card raking in the profits!

“Moira, all your cards only cost disposable mana. Isn’t that kind of a bad deal for you? Other Sorceresses’ magic costs permanent mana!”

Some little witches who had bought cards on installment were worried about Mo Lan getting shortchanged.

Lilith shook her head at that. Mo Lan might take a loss giving things away, but could she possibly lose money selling them? Absolutely not!

Rather than worrying about whether Mo Lan was losing out, they’d be better off worrying about whether their own mana was enough to survive her schemes!

Sure enough, they heard Mo Lan say, “Cards aren’t actually part of my Sorceress Magic! Perhaps the ability to make cards is? Anyway, once I develop my Sorceress Magic, those abilities will cost permanent mana too. When that time comes, I hope everyone will show their support!”

The little witches: “…”

They’d worried for nothing.

This was the Mo Lan who had already traded away their disposable mana that hadn’t even regenerated yet!

Who among them didn’t owe her mana?

She didn’t just want disposable mana—she wanted permanent mana too.

If Mo Lan ever took a loss, every other Sorceress would be in even worse shape!