Chapter 191 – Trimming the Broomstick Grass

Chapter 191 – Trimming the Broomstick Grass

“I completely understand your eagerness to have your own broomsticks, but you can’t skip lunch! I don’t want to see you so dizzy from hunger this afternoon that you snap the branches!” Amisha said.

Upon hearing this, the young witches all fished small wax paper packets from their pockets, unwrapped them to reveal two slices of Breadfruit Cake each, and stuffed them straight into their mouths.

“There, all full!”

The entire process took less than ten seconds.

They had come prepared today!

Not to brag, but after seeing the course schedule on Friday evening, they had prepared their lunches for the entire week in advance—nothing but Breadfruit Cake!

“…” The blue-robed Amisha was utterly stunned. She glanced at Mo Lan.

Although today was her first time meeting the second-year young witches, she knew Mo Lan very well.

This was definitely her doing. The young witches had surely been influenced by her.

Mo Lan maintained that she was completely innocent.

Honestly, last Saturday afternoon, when Vasida came to remind her to pick Breadfruit and make cakes in preparation for the flying class, Mo Lan had been utterly bewildered.

Though she had also prepared Breadfruit Cake as her lunch for class days well in advance, that didn’t stop her from being embarrassed by the young witches’ double standards.

Last year, everyone had urged her not to eat cake every day just to save time, and Iris had even given her dried meat.

This year, everyone was voluntarily preparing cakes for flying class.

On the way to class that morning, Mo Lan had specifically asked Iris what she had brought for lunch.

She had also brought cake, reasoning that it was dry and not greasy, wouldn’t dirty her hands, had a pleasant texture—neither too hard nor too soft—and was faster to eat.

In short, for the young witches:

For any other class, going back to the Dormitory was absolutely non-negotiable, lunch was absolutely mandatory! Eating cake would be mistreating themselves.

For flying class? Cake was simply wonderful~

Headmistress Amisha’s gaze left Mo Lan feeling puzzled. Could it be that the Headmistress also didn’t want to go back for her lunch break?

She rummaged through her satchel and pulled out the extra packet of Breadfruit Cake she had brought. “Headmistress, would you like some too? It’ll save you the trip back to the Castle for lunch.”

As far as she knew, only the Guardian Headmistress and the Headmistress’s main body had teleportation privileges within the Academy. The Headmistresses who taught their classes all had to travel by broomstick.

Moreover, these avatars also needed to eat.

To this day, they remained loyal customers of the card shop’s pre-made Food Cards.

While other witches used the card shop’s Food Cards to treat themselves, Headmistress Amisha’s avatars used the card shop as their work cafeteria.

Amisha immediately took a step back. “No, thank you.”

The students could push themselves all they wanted, but she, as Headmistress, would pass.

She didn’t just need to eat—she needed her afternoon nap too!

Under the young witches’ imploring gazes, the blue-robed Amisha fled the greenhouse as if running for her life.

How terrifying. She had nearly lost her lunch break.

“What a shame. This way, once we finish cleaning the Broomstick Grass, we won’t be able to move on to the next step right away,” Vasida said with regret.

“I know! Although the textbook does describe the steps, without the Headmistress here to supervise, if we make a mistake and damage the Broomstick Grass, that would be terrible,” Sylph sighed.

Mo Lan: “…”

Who was the real overachiever here?

That afternoon, the blue-robed Amisha arrived at the greenhouse right on time. Walking through the grove of trees, she saw the young witches sitting in neat rows on the grass, each cradling their Broomstick Grass.

Twenty-seven pairs of eyes had locked onto her before she had even emerged from the trees.

The moment she stepped out of the grove, they all stood up in unison. “Headmistress, you’re finally here! We’ve already finished cleaning the Broomstick Grass.”

Amisha’s steps faltered slightly. She even checked her pocket watch—no, she wasn’t late.

It was normal for young witches who had walked to school for an entire year to be enthusiastic about flying class. Previous cohorts had been the same.

At most, though, they would proactively preview the textbook outside of class and pay close attention during lectures.

But these young witches before her? The Broomstick Grass that was originally estimated to take a full day to clean was now spotless after just one morning.

Those branches, those roots—polished to a gleaming shine, looking as though they had already been rubbed down and treated with tung oil.

Had she not been absent—meaning the young witches wouldn’t dare disassemble the Broomstick Grass’s main trunk, branches, and root system on their own—she suspected she would be looking not at young witches holding Broomstick Grass, but at young witches holding broomsticks.

No previous cohort of young witches had ever been like this. Their drive was so intense that it made her, a Headmistress who had simply gone for a normal lunch break, feel a twinge of guilt.

At this rate, flying class might wrap up ahead of schedule.

Amisha was already considering whether, if the young witches completed the flying class curriculum early, she should move next week’s lessons forward.

Since class time had arrived and the young witches were so eager, Amisha didn’t dawdle either. She laid out twenty-seven grass mats on the lawn, had the young witches sit on them, and distributed a charcoal pencil to each one.

“Use the charcoal pencil to mark where you plan to trim. Remember, prioritize trimming the main branches and main roots. If a cluster can be cut off as one piece, cut it as one piece. Preserve large clusters and long branches as much as possible.

“This makes them easier to handle, easier to store. It also makes assembling the broom head simpler, and maintenance afterward will be much less work.

“Don’t rush. Think carefully about how to trim so you can make the best use of the trunk and root system. Once you’ve marked everything, bring it to me for inspection before you may begin trimming.”

This was one of the rare steps that required the Headmistress to personally verify that the young witches weren’t wasting materials.

Although Mo Lan, like the other young witches, had waited for the Headmistress to arrive before starting this step, she had actually long since studied in her mind how these branches and roots should be trimmed to make full use of everything.

Once again, thank you, Earth memories.

Earth didn’t have flying broomsticks, but it had plenty of sweeping brooms.

After all, the basic model flying broomstick really did look exactly like a regular sweeping broom.

While modern Earth had little use for such primitive brooms, in ancient times when technology was undeveloped, brooms like these were everywhere!

She had a wealth of construction methods and techniques stored in her mind.

While the other young witches were still puzzling over where to cut, Mo Lan was already marking her Broomstick Grass with the charcoal pencil, each stroke decisive and unhesitating.

In three minutes, she had finished marking and raised her hand to call Headmistress Amisha over for inspection.

After examining it carefully, Amisha nodded.

“Well done! This trimming plan is indeed the most optimal one. You may begin trimming.

“Take out the smallest pair of pruning shears from your Witch Farming Tool Card and direct it to follow these marks, cutting off all the branches and roots from the Broomstick Grass.”

“I shouldn’t cut by hand?” Mo Lan asked.

Previously, she had always done everything by hand. When handling the Broomstick Grass, she had barely even used Magic, simply to avoid any accidents—after all, using Magic always carried a chance of failure.

“Cutting by hand actually can’t match the force and decisiveness of Attuned farming tools,” Amisha said. “Of course, if your pruning shears still aren’t very responsive, then cutting by hand would be better.”