Chapter 459 – Miss Witch

Chapter 459 – Miss Witch

“She’s finally here!” Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph hid on the flying carpet, watching with eager anticipation until they finally spotted Mo Lan sauntering through the air toward them.

Mo Lan held her head high, pretending to gaze at the village on the other side of the river. As if by coincidence, she happened to fly directly over Greta’s head.

It was noon, and her wide witch’s robe cast an unmistakable shadow on the ground, immediately catching Greta’s attention.

Looking up, she saw an impressively large broom and a strikingly dashing witch! Just like that, the witch flew over the river that Greta had no idea how to cross.

Seeing the witch about to fly away, Greta didn’t have time to think twice and called out at the top of her lungs: “Miss Witch! Please wait!”

Mo Lan was even more nervous than she was. She’d been waiting for Greta to call out to her the whole time, terrified this entire performance would be for nothing.

Hearing Greta’s voice, she finally relaxed. Channeling every actress from Earth’s history, she reined in her broom and looked back down with a puzzled murmur: “A human?”

Then she turned her broom around and flew back toward Greta, lowering her altitude slightly but not descending all the way to the ground. After sensing the magical fluctuations from Greta’s body, she spoke:

“A mage… apprentice? What are you doing out here all alone?”

“Miss Witch, I’m a mage apprentice who escaped from the Yala Empire. I want to reach the Mage Empire. Could you carry me across this river? I can offer the most precious thing I have as payment!” Greta said.

“Oh? What thing?” Mo Lan asked curiously, putting on a look of great interest.

Greta presented a card with both hands.

Mo Lan drew the wand from her waist and used the Levitation Spell to float the card into her hand. She flipped it over casually, her face full of puzzlement. “What is this?”

“It’s a magic card that can heal serious injuries,” Greta said.

This was her last remaining {Magic Card – Heal Serious Injuries}.

She had nothing else to her name now. This card was the only bargaining chip she had to convince the witch to take her across the river.

“Oh?” Mo Lan put on an interested expression, flipped her hand, and tucked the card into a pocket of her mage robe. “Alright then! But I’m only taking you to the other bank! I’m not going any farther than that!”

“Just across the river is all I need!” Greta said happily.

If she hadn’t run into this Miss Witch, she truly had no idea how she would have crossed the river.

With the deal struck, Mo Lan lowered her broom to the ground. As if only now getting a clear look at Greta, she sized her up from head to toe, then frowned and said: “Would you like me to clean the dust off you?”

Greta looked down at herself—her dusty, tangled braids, her wrinkled clothes covered in grime and sweat stains, and a shoe with a hole exposing one big toe. A look of embarrassment crossed her face. “I’ll wash up right away!”

With the effectiveness of her Gather Water spell, she could barely gather enough water for a drink, let alone bathe.

The last time she’d bathed was when she encountered the lame old wolf.

After that, she hadn’t dared venture deeper into the Emerald Creek Plains. This river was only the second water source she’d come across in all this time.

But she didn’t feel right asking Miss Witch for help either. Her only {Magic Card – Heal Serious Injuries} had already been given as payment for crossing the river. Asking for cleaning on top of that—she couldn’t afford to pay for it.

She did still have one {Magic Card – Heal Moderate Injuries}, but she feared its value wouldn’t be enough to interest the witch, and she couldn’t bear to part with it.

The Temple’s scriptures hadn’t actually slandered witches—they merely described them as a race born with magical bloodlines, and rarely mentioned them at all. However, during lessons, the Temple instructors would say that witches were a group of people who relied on their magical bloodlines, showed no reverence for the gods, and did as they pleased—helpful when in a good mood, murderous when not, extremely dangerous, and to be avoided at all costs.

Though Greta no longer believed the things the Temple taught, she was still cautious in her dealings with witches, not daring to let Miss Witch feel the slightest displeasure.

So freeloading? She absolutely wouldn’t dare!

Even if the person before her weren’t a witch but a mage, given that her magical ability was far superior to Greta’s own, she would still need to tread carefully.

Mo Lan heard Greta say she’d wash herself and rather appreciated her sense of propriety. But waiting for her to manually wash by the riverbank in broad daylight would be a waste of time, and the results would likely be mediocre at best.

When it came time to carry her to the other bank, Mo Lan’s own nose would be the one to suffer.

Without another word, Mo Lan waved her wand, and water elemental force immediately surged toward Greta. In just a few breaths, it cleaned her entire body thoroughly from head to toe, including the grass netting draped over her.

Not a trace of odor remained.

However… the set of Preparatory Acolyte robes she wore had been corroded by Death Force and then subjected to sweat and dust for so long that they were already on the verge of falling apart. The moment the water elemental force washed over them, they tore into ragged strips.

“Ahem, sorry about that—I ruined your clothes.” Mo Lan rubbed her nose, somewhat embarrassed. This time it wasn’t an act.

She’d meant to show off a little, but ended up washing the girl’s clothes to shreds.

Greta had worn these clothes for so long, and despite having two {Clothing Cards – Shoddy Mage Robe} on hand, she hadn’t been willing to change. Clearly, she was very frugal.

“It’s fine, it’s fine! I was going to change out of these and throw them away anyway. Acolyte robes would be rather out of place in the Mage Empire.”

Greta quickly added: “Your magic is incredible! You cleaned me up in an instant!”

She suddenly noticed her nose felt clear. Before, she’d often felt congested and had assumed it was because she’d been traveling so hard and her body was exhausted.

Now she realized it was probably because the smell had been so bad she could barely breathe.

The moist air from the river, carrying the fragrance of grass and earth, flooded into her nostrils, and Greta felt thoroughly refreshed.

Mo Lan knew that mage magic wasn’t as versatile as witch magic—mages had nothing resembling a Cleaning spell. That was precisely why she’d chosen this particular spell to demonstrate witches’ capabilities, subtly building Greta’s favorable impression of the witch race.

After all, no matter how well they hid it, when the time came to formally sign the Sorceress Contract, their identities would inevitably be revealed.

A breeze blew past, and Greta felt the tattered strips of cloth on her body couldn’t quite hold up against the wind. “Would you mind waiting just a moment longer? Let me change clothes!”

She materialized a {Clothing Card – Shoddy Mage Robe} and changed into it, then gathered her hair and tied it up with a lace strip torn from her old clothes. She bundled the remaining cards with another strip of cloth and stuffed everything inside her roomy new robe.

“Hop on!” Mo Lan patted the invisibility cushion behind her.

Greta couldn’t see the invisibility cushion. She had assumed all along that Mo Lan was simply sitting on a bare stick.

Somewhat nervously, she squeezed her legs together and climbed on.