Chapter 304 – Fourth Academic Year

“You actually forgot about the mana-earning stuff!” Lilith said with exasperated disappointment. “Well, I guess this time we’ll be the ones profiting.”

“You’re lying! You’re Moira! The Moira who never forgets anything she’s seen! How could you possibly forget!”

That was Vasida, incredulous and wildly speculating.

Sylph glanced at her watch. “Three minutes left. Flyers are probably out of the question, but we could still manage a simple promotional poster. But do you really not have any new seasoning packet cards?”

“If you had new seasoning packets, I think I could help you copy out a few of last year’s flyers,” Vasida said.

Mo Lan: “…”

What rotten friends!

“Forget it, forget it — we don’t need posters or flyers! Your Sorceress Magic is all linked to our Card Magic, and you have to buy lots of things from my card shop! Promoting yourselves is promoting me too,” Mo Lan said.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph: “…”

That stung.

“With the time I have left, I’d better just throw together a simple tasting event for new products. Good thing I came prepared!” Mo Lan said.

She had some seasoning packet cards that she hadn’t listed yet — might as well use them now.

Mo Lan pulled out the Book of Cards, and one minute later: “Done!”

Vasida immediately went to look: “{Food Card – Seaweed Soup Packet}, {Food Card – Nanchang Mixed Noodle Seasoning Packet}, {Food Card – Beggar’s Chicken Marinade Packet}, {Food Card – Spicy BBQ Seasoning Packet}? These look great!”

She immediately bought several of each kind.

“Of course! The food cards I’ve listed so far don’t even amount to one ten-thousandth of Earth’s cuisine!” Mo Lan said.

She also prepared the cards she’d need for the tasting event later and tucked them into her shoulder bag.

Fortunately, her Culinary Magic was well-practiced by now — she could run a tasting event all by herself.

“It’s starting!” Sylph said, looking at the Magic Waterbed in the center of the grounds.

Mo Lan hurriedly dispelled her Silencing spell and turned to watch the new students’ entrance.

They were about to be fourth-years now — each time they got to see this was one fewer remaining!

The same black hole as every year, the same little witches tumbling ungracefully onto the waterbed and refusing to get up — a tradition faithfully passed down.

“Hahaha! Guess when they’ll get up?”

“Pfft! They definitely won’t get off the waterbed on their own! Even now when I’m recovering from injuries, I often just lie there refusing to move.”

“Hey? That little witch has the same hair color and eye color as you — do you think she has the same magical talent?”

“Hair and eye color have no direct connection to magical talent — that’s all just wild speculation from 《Unsolved Mysteries of Witches》!”

“I think the speculation is pretty spot-on though!”

…

The upperclassmen spectators chattered away loudly.

The new students on the waterbed eavesdropped while questioning their very existence.

“…twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven, twen— Huh? No more black holes appeared. How come there are only twenty-seven this time?”

“Totally normal. The third-years — well, I guess they’re fourth-years now — that class only had twenty-seven too!”

“The fourth-year class may be small in number, but they have three Sorceresses!”

The eavesdropping freshmen: “!!!”

Sorceresses? Where? There were new Sorceresses?

Before they could catch a glimpse of any Sorceress, Lady Amisha gently set them down on the ground:

“Dear little witches, welcome to the Witch Academy.

Without further ado, let the enrollment ceremony begin!”

Mo Lan silently mouthed the words along with her. Four years now, and Lady Amisha hadn’t changed a single word!

Soon, the new students had all been tested for their talents.

It seemed the world consciousness had only favored the little witches from Mo Lan’s class three years ago.

Once again, not a single Sorceress appeared.

But that was fine — every little witch was the precious crystallization of love from their mother or parents.

Once the talent testing was done, it was time for the socializing segment.

Before the freshmen could even ask about the Sorceresses, their dear Sorceress upperclassmen took turns stuffing a flyer into each of their hands.

Mo Lan didn’t have flyers, but she made sure to approach every freshman who received another Sorceress’s flyer and tell them that Card Magic was her Sorceress Magic, and they could find her Sorceress Magic books in the library or reading rooms.

The freshmen were overwhelmed with flattery: “Are the Sorceress upperclassmen all this approachable?”

It was just that the promotional routine was so polished, it couldn’t help but remind them of certain short-statured, thick-limbed, pointy-eared creatures described in the 《Young Witch’s Primer》.

No, no, no — how could Sorceresses be compared to goblins!

Lilith and the others were completely unaware that their reputations were being damaged.

But even if they knew, it wouldn’t matter — earning Mana was what mattered most.

After they’d promoted to all twenty-seven little witches, the evening banquet began.

Mo Lan and Sylph quickly set up their booths, said a few words using the Amplification Spell, then hurried back to the fourth-year table to sit down and enjoy dinner.

“I’ve been waiting for this meal for so, so long!” Mo Lan expertly loaded her plate with heaping portions of all her favorite dishes.

Vasida, who was already eating at top speed, looked up in confusion. “Your Culinary Magic is so good, you cook so fast, you eat so little, and you have so many food cards — how could you possibly be lacking for food?”

“You don’t understand what kind of life I’ve been living lately,” Mo Lan said.

She had spent most of her time holed up in the valley, rarely going out to hunt or forage.

Cooking for herself every day with only a handful of ingredients — no matter how much variety she added, she’d gotten tired of it all.

Not to mention she’d been mining every day, barely even bothering to cook, and had mostly been getting by on Breadfruit Cake!

But saying all this would prematurely reveal details about her living situation, and then there’d be no surprise later.

“You’re the ones who don’t know what kind of life I’ve been living. If I weren’t worried about not being able to feed myself after graduation, I’d have just dug a burrow on the Greengrass Plains, on the other side of the Hedge Wall outside the Breadfruit Grove, and called it home,” Vasida declared.

Thinking of Vasida’s appetite, Mo Lan silently shuddered.

Mo Lan herself just forgot to eat when she got busy — Vasida was probably perpetually on the road to filling her stomach!

“By the way, have you finished building your home?” Sylph asked. “Mine is already done!”

“Mine too,” Vasida said.

“Same here,” Mo Lan said, then suggested: “How about after the Academy ceremony ends, we visit each other’s homes? Remember the bet we made before?”

“Of course! Whoever has the worst living conditions has to drink a big jug of unsweetened breadfruit juice!” Vasida said. “But Moira, you’re definitely going to lose.

A few days ago, Sylph and I wanted to find you to ask about today’s promotions. We went to Wild Boar Valley, and although we kept our promise and didn’t go inside the valley, we could see perfectly clearly — you haven’t even built a home yet, have you?”

Sylph also asked: “Moira, did you move somewhere else?”

Mo Lan smiled mysteriously. “I didn’t move, and this time I absolutely won’t lose. If you don’t believe me, how about we go to my place first?”