Chapter 104 – The New Course Schedule

The other young witches also began cleaning their cooking utensils one after another.

In their spare time outside of class, they had been studying some magic as well.

In fact, unlike Mo Lan, who had taken on the task of proofreading workbooks and lost a great deal of her free time to it, the young witches had actually been progressing faster than her in self-studying magic.

Mo Lan had only managed to learn both casting methods for the Cleaning spell.

The other young witches, however, had already gotten started on both the Spring Water spell and the Cleaning spell—the two spells they used most in daily life.

Sylph had even read ahead in the Plant Magic textbook and was already researching Plant Magic.

Vasida had learned the Light spell just a few days ago.

The advantage Mo Lan had built up earlier was nearly closed by the other young witches.

So those three Red Gold Coins—she really had not earned them easily.

Young witches without much talent in water magic could only control cleaning tools to sweep; they couldn’t learn to convert magical power into water elemental force for direct cleaning.

After buying Cleaning Tool Cards, they all Attuned various rags first.

Controlling cleaning tools was much easier than controlling cooking utensils. With several rags working at once, the washing went quickly too.

Once the cooking utensils were cleaned and stored back into Cards, the wrap-up work for this lesson was finally complete.

Back at the Dormitory, Mo Lan practiced the Cleaning spell by controlling the most obedient broom along with a dustpan that never quite behaved when paired with the broom, sweeping up dust from the floor together, all while reading through the fourth-year workbook.

She had been keeping a close eye on the time, and the moment it struck eight o’clock, she flipped to the course schedule in the《Newcomer’s Guide》.

Sure enough, it had updated.

The morning theory classes were the same as always, but the afternoon magic classes were different.

Monday through Thursday afternoons were all Plant Magic classes, with the textbook being that《A Few Things About Growing Vegetables: An Introduction to Plant Magic》. As for Friday afternoon’s class…

“Magic Q&A class?” Mo Lan read aloud in puzzlement.

What kind of class was this? Why was there no textbook for it?

Surely it couldn’t be what she was thinking?

On Saturday morning, spotting Lilith tending to the vegetable garden in the backyard, Mo Lan curiously asked about the Magic Q&A class.

Without even turning her head, Lilith sprayed herbicide as she spoke: “The Magic Q&A class? It’s just a class for answering your questions about learning magic. If you have questions, you go; if you don’t, you skip it. Go to the first Q&A session though—Lady Amisha will explain everything…”

Halfway through, she turned around in surprise: “—Wait, your Culinary Magic course is already over? They’ve opened the Magic Q&A class?”

“Mm-hm!” Mo Lan nodded. “It ended on Friday.”

“That fast?” Lilith thought back to their own time—two-thirds of the first academic year had passed before their Culinary Magic course ended.

The hardest magic to get started with was just that troublesome.

It had only been a little over half a year now, hadn’t it? And they’d all learned it already?

“If the course doesn’t wrap up soon, with Plant Magic, Broomgrass Cultivation, basic potions, Sewing Magic, plus Household Magic, the Spring Water spell, the Light spell, the Flame spell, and all the rest—can we really finish everything this year?” Mo Lan couldn’t help asking. “The theory classes still feel like they’ll go on for ages!”

“Don’t worry! You’ll definitely finish in time! You lot might even wrap up magic classes early this year and get a break!” Lilith said.

If the junior students couldn’t finish, then as second-years, they’d probably have to repeat the year.

“???” Mo Lan was completely lost.

“You’re going by the required reading list when you say all that, right?” Lilith asked.

“Of course! Aren’t the required readings the course textbooks?” Mo Lan asked.

“They are textbooks, sure, but that doesn’t mean they’re all taught in class!” Lilith counted on her fingers:

“Plant Magic, Broomgrass Cultivation, Sewing Magic, and basic potions—those four will definitely have classes.

Among them, Plant Magic has the most class hours. Broomgrass Cultivation wraps up very quickly.

Sewing Magic and basic potions come last, and first-years only cover a tiny bit.

The former you’ll learn quickly since it’s somewhat similar to Culinary Magic, so they only teach the sewing portion in class.

The latter has a high proportion of theory, so they can only teach a few basic potions.

As for the magic portion of Sewing Magic, plus the Flame spell, the Light spell, the Spring Water spell, the Cleaning spell, the Tidying spell, the Repair spell—all of those are spells you’re expected to self-study outside of class.

Once you’ve been in theory classes for a while and your reading comprehension reaches the standard, the Headmistress will tell you. It should be soon.

The Magic Q&A class was created specifically to answer questions you run into while self-studying magic.”

Mo Lan’s jaw dropped.

She had assumed the Magic Q&A class was meant for young witches who wanted to study Culinary Magic in greater depth!

After all, it had only opened after the Culinary Magic course ended.

Now it seemed her guess had been far too conservative!

It wasn’t just advanced Culinary Magic study that you had to learn on your own from books. Of the remaining first-year magic courses, aside from planting magic and basic potions being fully taught in class, everything else was entirely self-study.

Even in Sewing Magic class, only the sewing portion was taught—the magic portion had to be self-studied using the experience gained from learning Culinary Magic.

No wonder the Academy set up so many hardships!

Having to fetch your own water, not providing food, and in the second year even limiting the varieties of ingredients supplied.

School Robes were only provided for one year too—next year they’d only give out fabric.

Wasn’t all of this because they were afraid the young witches would lose motivation to self-study without classes pushing them along?

Mo Lan suddenly felt a surge of anxiety.

Originally, she had gotten ahead by self-studying the Light spell, the Spring Water spell, the Flame spell, the Cleaning spell, and others in advance. Even though proofreading workbooks had recently slowed her magic self-study, she hadn’t been worried.

After all, she was already ahead of schedule, the proofreading came with compensation, and she’d figured she would learn all those spells in class eventually anyway.

Now she realized she still had at least the Tidying spell, the Repair spell, and the magic portion of Sewing Magic to find time to study on her own.

All at once, time felt even more insufficient!

Lilith consoled her: “Don’t worry—you’ll definitely finish the classes, but whether you can master all the magic is another matter.

It’s fine if you can’t finish learning everything. You can continue in the second year—it’ll just be a bit tougher until you do.”

Not only was Mo Lan not consoled, she became even more anxious.

There was no way she wanted to still be learning first-year material in her second year!

“I understand now, upperclasswoman!” Mo Lan hurriedly bid Lilith farewell.

She needed to rush back and get to reading.

Fortunately, the theory portions for the fourth and fifth years were significantly reduced—combined, they were less than what the third year alone covered, so it wouldn’t take long to finish.

It was yet another weekend of grinding through workbook proofreading, and it wasn’t until Monday morning on the way to class that Mo Lan finally had time to briefly skim the first few chapters of《A Few Things About Growing Vegetables: An Introduction to Plant Magic》.

After the morning Fundamentals of Magic Theory class, they headed to the farmland area of the Planting District that afternoon.

This week’s planting magic classes would all be held there.