Chapter 72 – Weekend at Last!

“Headmistress! I’ve finished the initial Attuning!”

After a full week of Culinary Magic classes, Mo Lan had finally managed to attune every item in her mobile kitchen during Friday afternoon’s lesson.

At this point, the other young witches were still practicing making white bread, and Iris had only attuned about a third of her mobile kitchen.

Amisha looked over at Mo Lan’s mobile kitchen.

From pots and bowls to the stovetop, every item had taken on a faint glow of energy. Though the glow was still quite dim, it was unmistakably there.

“Well done! You can move on to the next step now.

Take your wand and find a spot with a good vantage point where you can see the entire cooking process. Then channel your mana and direct the items in the kitchen to move.

Just like when you practiced cooking by hand, start with making black bread.

Begin by directing one item at a time, following the preparation steps slowly. Don’t rush.

Your magical commands must be clear in your mind—no hesitation. Imagine yourself standing right there, cooking with your own hands.

There’s no special trick to this step. It’s simply a matter of practice.”

Mo Lan followed Lady Amisha’s instructions and gave it a try.

Thanks to her experience self-studying the Spring Water spell the previous night, she already had some understanding of how to issue clear magical commands.

Combined with the demonstration Lilith had given earlier, she proceeded with extra caution.

She stepped back a few paces, eyed the bag of flour sitting in the corner of the table, and channeled the faintest thread of mana. The flour bag wobbled upward and began drifting toward the cutting board.

Less than two seconds later, the bag dropped onto the table with a thud.

Mo Lan: “…”

Well, that was more or less expected.

At least the bag was tied tight—otherwise things would have gotten messy.

Just moving the flour bag to the cutting board—this single step alone—took Mo Lan several faltering attempts before she finally got it to the right spot.

The flour bag rising and falling again and again made Mo Lan feel like her Culinary Magic control was about as capable as someone with no muscle strength whatsoever.

Normally, once the flour bag was beside the cutting board, she could move on to the next step.

But Mo Lan worried that her control wasn’t refined enough. If she tried to direct a spoon to scoop flour and dropped it, she’d end up with flour scattered everywhere—and that would be a real hassle.

So Mo Lan chose to keep practicing with the flour bag.

She used magic to move the flour bag back and forth, from here to there and back again, for half the class period.

Only when she could lift and set down the bag smoothly did she finally stop.

Step two: opening the flour bag. A whole new challenge.

In the end, this bag of flour could not escape its fate of spilling all over the floor.

Fortunately, the Headmistress used a Cleaning spell to tidy up the flour for her. Otherwise, Mo Lan would have spent the rest of the class just sweeping the kitchen and still not finished.

After two hours of practice punctuated by one mishap after another, she hadn’t even managed to scoop out any flour by the time class ended.

“Is it really that difficult?” Iris asked curiously. “What does it actually feel like to use Culinary Magic?”

“It’s incredibly hard. For the first time ever, I feel like magic is less useful than my own two hands.” Mo Lan sighed.

Learning Culinary Magic was far more difficult than learning to cook.

She had no idea how long it would take before she could be like Shana’s mother—doing something else entirely while simultaneously using Culinary Magic to prepare an elaborate dinner.

Mo Lan didn’t dare practice on her own outside of class either.

During Culinary Magic lessons, if she made a mess, Lady Amisha was there to clean up after her.

Practicing outside of class? Just tidying up the ingredients she’d scattered would eat up who knows how much time. She would simply have to wait for the next Culinary Magic class.

The slow pace of learning Culinary Magic did nothing to dampen the young witches’ excitement about the approaching weekend.

Everyone could clearly feel that this week’s coursework had been much heavier. For five straight days they’d been rushing from class to class, constantly feeling like there wasn’t enough time—so many things they wanted to do but never got around to.

After a week of hard work and six essay assignments, two class-free days felt especially precious.

“I finally have time to work on making a new Grimoire!”

“I can actually rest for two days. The Academy’s hills are murder to climb!”

“I’m going to pick out some nice ingredients and treat myself to a proper meal!”

“All I want to do is go back and lie down!”

“Let’s go!”

…

Watching the excited young witches, Mo Lan felt as though she were back in school on Earth.

Even she couldn’t help letting out a small cheer for the coming weekend.

“Moira! What are your plans for the weekend?” Vasida asked.

“Finish the essay assigned today, practice the Spring Water spell, and finish reading 《What Exactly Is Magic》, ‘《History of Witches》,’ ‘《The Changing Ages of the Continent of Valen》,’ and 《Babbling Brook》. If I still have time after that, I’d like to look through 《Fire, Light, and Water》 too… Oh, and Vasida, Sylph—don’t forget to come to my place for dinner Sunday evening! I messed it up last week, so this time I’m cooking without magic! I’ll treat you to hometown dishes from my previous life.”

Talking about her weekend plans, Mo Lan couldn’t help but smile.

She’d finally have time to read the books she wanted to read, and she could share food from her past life with her little witch friends. Could life get any better?

“Yes, yes! We absolutely have to finish making our Grimoires this weekend!”

Vasida and Sylph had already agreed to meet at six-thirty tomorrow morning, departing promptly for the Alchemy Classroom in the Academy Castle.

To free up as much time as possible for reading, Mo Lan wasted no time after returning to the dormitory and threw herself into writing her Continental History essay.

This course, as its textbook ‘《The Changing Ages of the Continent of Valen》’ suggested, covered the history of the Continent of Valen from the Primordial Era through the Divine Descent Era to the present Magic Era—tens of thousands of years of change.

Today’s lesson had covered events from the early Primordial Era.

Back then, humans were the only intelligent race on the Continent of Valen.

Angels, demons, dragons—none of them had appeared yet.

The world was still dominated by plants and beasts. Humans gathered in tribes, struggling to survive.

In those times, witches who possessed special abilities were still revered as shamans within their tribes, protecting the ordinary humans around them.

How witches eventually came to be reviled by everyone was anyone’s guess.

Mo Lan recalled the discussion topics from class and wrote rapidly on her parchment.

Once the essay was done, this weekend would be entirely hers.

She could do whatever she wanted.

During class today, she had been curious about what came after the Primordial Era.

With time to spare after finishing her essay, she went ahead and flipped her Grimoire to the second chapter of ‘《The Changing Ages of the Continent of Valen》’ and read on.

The book was quite concise and not very long. It recorded only the most significant historical events—just enough to give young witches a general understanding of the Continent of Valen’s past.

Of the three recorded eras, the Primordial Era had the shortest section—only three brief chapters. Mo Lan finished it in no time.

Nothing particularly remarkable there; it was much like Earth’s own ancient times.

After that came the Divine Descent Era, when the various races emerged.