Chapter 80 – The Witch Council’s Source of Funding

In Fundamentals of Magic Theory class, Amisha noticed the identical dark circles under every young witch’s eyes and was somewhat surprised.

While first-year witches in previous classes had also struggled with their first essay assignment, it was quite rare for them to stay up late enough to end up looking like this.

After all, this essay had been assigned a full week ago.

Regardless of the quality, there should have been more than enough time to complete it.

This year’s young witches had always been reassuringly dependable. Even if this time was a bit unexpected, they would learn their lesson for next time.

So Amisha saw the dark circles and pretended she hadn’t.

Only by fully experiencing their mistakes could they truly develop the ability to solve problems independently.

“Everyone should have finished the essay I assigned last Monday, right? Hand them in and let me take a look!”

The young witches submitted their essays one by one.

Behind their exhausted eyes glimmered excitement and anticipation.

As Amisha read through the essays, her surprise grew with each one.

This class was supposed to be an essay review session.

The plan had been to critique their essays as a way of teaching them how to extract information from books.

But not a single one of the young witches’ essays had any problems.

Every single paper clearly explained the differences in how various races utilized magical energy.

And they clearly weren’t copied, either.

Though the content was largely similar, with some identical phrases here and there.

But having taught Fundamentals of Magic Theory for so many years, she could tell at a glance that those identical phrases were excerpted from the reference texts.

If there was any issue at all, the handwriting in every essay looked rather sloppy, as if they had been written in a rush.

But this class was meant to teach methods for filtering information, not penmanship.

It seemed today’s lesson plan would need to change.

“The essays are all well-written…”

The young witches: (><)

“…Can you tell me how you all managed to write them?”

Amisha needed to understand just how much the young witches had actually grasped.

The young witches raised their hands one after another.

What they described was much the same as what they had written—largely identical approaches.

As it turned out, they had all learned the method and written their essays that very morning on the way to the Castle.

The one who had devised this systematic reading and writing method was the only young witch without dark circles under her eyes.

In all her years teaching this theory course, Amisha had never thought of such quick-reading techniques involving keywords and key sentences.

She had generally just taught the young witches to read with questions in mind.

She had to admit that Mo Lan’s method was more structured and clear—and clarity meant it was easy to imitate and learn.

“Moira! The reading techniques you taught the young witches today—could you compile them into a book? If you submit it to the Witch Council for value assessment and it gets added to the Academy library’s collection, you can receive a gold coin reward.” Amisha walked over to Mo Lan.

“Absolutely!” Mo Lan said without a moment’s hesitation.

Up until now, the only place she had ever seen gold coins was in the pages of the Mo Lan had been wanting to ask for a very long time, and now that the opportunity presented itself, she couldn’t hold back:

“Headmistress, the Witch Council and Academy raise young witches all the way to adulthood, and even give witch mothers birthing rewards, but they never ask for anything in return.

But raising and educating young witches requires funding, doesn’t it? Where does that funding come from?”

“Yeah! Where does it come from?”

Most of the other young witches had never considered this question before, but now they couldn’t help being curious too.

“With all that spending and no income, the Witch Council really won’t go bankrupt?”

“The Academy doesn’t even feed us—is that because they’re too poor?!”

…

A smile appeared on Amisha’s face. “Over eighty percent of the Witch Council and Academy’s operating funds come from witches’ inheritances.”

“Inheritances?”

Mo Lan had imagined that the Witch Council might own some kind of business, or that there was some special magical knowledge that required payment to access, generating profit that way.

But she had never considered inheritances.

“That’s right—inheritances. Long ago, when witches reached the end of their lives, they would entrust the knowledge and wealth they had accumulated over their lifetime to the next witch.

The Wilds belong to Sorceresses and witches. After the Witch Council and Academy provide growth and educational resources to underage young witches, many witches choose to leave their inheritances to the Council, to be used for nurturing young witches and sustaining the development of witch-kind.

The wealth a single witch accumulates over several hundred years is more than enough to raise dozens or even hundreds of young witches.

So you needn’t worry about the Witch Council going bankrupt. The Council is far wealthier than you imagine. Not providing you with three meals a day isn’t because of poverty—it’s simply to make sure you properly study Culinary Magic.” Amisha said.

Mo Lan couldn’t help thinking—if one day her own life reached its end, what would she do with her wealth?

Other witches had no need to suddenly become rich from an inheritance.

Only the Witch Council that had once raised her was still protecting batch after batch of young witches as they grew.

Leaving her wealth to the Witch Council really was the best choice.

Even though the Witch Council never asked witches to repay the community, witches always gave back to the Council in their final moments.

“Headmistress, I’m willing to organize all the knowledge I possess and share it with the witch library, without needing any reward,” Mo Lan said solemnly.

She too had benefited from the precious knowledge left behind by her witch predecessors. Leaving her own knowledge to benefit future generations was only right.

“No need. Apart from inheritances, the Witch Council never takes anything from a witch for free.

Regarding rewards for shared knowledge, the Council has its own reward system. It exists to incentivize everyone to research and study, enriching the witch heritage.

The Council truly does not lack for money! It doesn’t need a young witch who hasn’t even come of age yet to make selfless sacrifices.”

Amisha refused without hesitation.

“You don’t have a single gold coin to your name—seize every opportunity to acquire resources while you can! If you want to give back, the day your life reaches its end will be soon enough.”

“…” Mo Lan felt as though an arrow had struck her right in the chest.

She truly didn’t have a single gold coin to her name.

Just how lavish were the inheritances left by the witch predecessors? The Witch Council was this generous!

“Alright, back to the topic at hand! For the rest of this class, everyone summarize the reading techniques Moira taught you today and write it up as an essay. Turn it in to me when class ends.

If you finish during class, there won’t be any extra homework today.” Amisha returned to the podium.

The moment they heard there would be no homework, the young witches were overjoyed and immediately began writing their summary essays.

Tomorrow’s 《History of Witches》 assignment was also a question-summary essay. Mo Lan had already helped them recall the material, so they just needed to organize it—relatively easy to write.

Tonight, they might actually get a good night’s sleep!