Chapter 1073 – Mo Lan’s Headmistress Daily Life 5

To burn through their stamina as quickly as possible, the first-year little witches ran with everything they had.

Tessa’s speed was astonishing—she left even quite a few upperclassmen a year ahead of her trailing behind.

Before long, she had surged from the middle-rear of the pack all the way to the very front.

Sylvia, Dorella, and Evelyn gritted their teeth and kept close behind. The four of them had agreed long ago that once they started school, they would live together.

Under the moonlight, four small dark silhouettes broke away from the pack of new students, leaving everyone else in the dust.

At the foot of Academy Mountain, the East District dormitory cluster stood quietly in the night.

A small number of little witches who couldn’t keep going any longer peeled off into the East District and began searching among the scattered dormitories for an empty courtyard.

The remaining little witches pressed onward.

As they passed through the first Breadfruit Grove, the sweet fragrance of the fruit mingled with the night breeze and brushed across their cheeks, but no one had the mind to stop.

The lakeside greenway stretched out beneath their feet, and Magical lamps receded one after another behind them.

By the time the North District dormitories came into view, more than half the group had already dropped out.

Most of the witches who had made it this far had reached their limit. They turned off into the dormitory area one after another, searching among the rows of adobe houses for the door that would be theirs.

After passing through the second Breadfruit Grove, the West District dormitories finally appeared in the distance.

By now, only a handful of new students were still running.

They, too, gradually turned off into the dormitory area, stumbling as they searched for empty rooms. Only Sylvia’s group of four kept going without stopping.

Tessa still had plenty of energy, her pace barely slowing at all.

Sylvia, Dorella, and Evelyn had slowed down, but their steps remained steady and resolute.

The four of them ran all the way to the end of the lakeside greenway.

The last upperclassman who had been running alongside them stopped here. She pointed to a small courtyard by the greenway, its walls draped in climbing ivy. “I live here.”

Then she pointed down a side path next to the courtyard, her voice tinged with admiration. “Keep going down there. Run to the very end, and you’ll find the most remote dormitories in the West District. They’re all empty—no one’s ever lived in them.”

The four bid the upperclassman farewell, turned, and headed down the side path. But as they ran, they gradually sensed something was off.

Earlier, along the greenway, the dormitories on either side had been standard adobe houses, but each had its own charm: some had flowers planted beneath the windows, others had vines climbing the courtyard walls, and the yards were kept clean and tidy. While not as comfortable as home, they still felt reassuring.

But the dormitories lining this side path looked as though they had been abandoned for decades.

Weeds grew past their knees, crowding thickly in front of the courtyard gates, making it impossible to see where the path to the house even was. Moonlight fell on the wildly overgrown grass, casting jagged, uneven shadows.

By the time they reached the end of the side path, Sylvia, Dorella, and Evelyn had essentially hit their limit. Tessa still had a bit of energy left, but she was exhausted too.

They chose four adjacent empty dormitories to move into.

Tessa got West District Dormitory No. 1000, Sylvia got No. 999, Dorella got No. 998, and Evelyn got No. 997.

Pushing open the creaking courtyard gates, parting the knee-high weeds, the four of them stumbled and staggered their way toward the front doors.

After fumbling around for a while, they finally found the Magical lamp switch beside the door.

With a soft click, a dim yellowish light flickered on.

Although the sight of the courtyard had already prepared them, when they actually saw the inside of the room, they couldn’t help but feel a pang of disappointment.

The walls were rough, uneven packed earth. The floor was hard-tamped dirt.

The interior was divided into a kitchen, a study, a washroom, a storage room, and a bedroom… All the basic functions were accounted for, but there wasn’t a single inch of extra space.

The furniture was the most basic kind of raw wood tables and chairs—so plain it bordered on shabby.

The one consolation was that daily necessities had been fully stocked. On the corner of the table sat a {Level 1 Magic Card — Cleaning spell}, placed there neat and tidy.

The card held just enough power to clean the sweat and grime from one’s body—it couldn’t even cover the clothes one was wearing. But at least it meant they wouldn’t have to grope their way to the well at the Intersection in the dark to haul water back for washing after that frantic run.

Every dormitory was furnished identically, so none of them felt like visiting each other’s rooms. They hurriedly stripped off their dirty clothes, used the {Level 1 Magic Card — Cleaning spell} to take a bath, changed into the sleeping robes from the wardrobe, and climbed into bed.

Early the next morning, the four were woken by birdsong outside the window.

Opening their eyes, they saw rough earthen walls and an unfamiliar ceiling. They stared blankly for a moment before remembering—they weren’t at home anymore.

Sylvia kicked off the covers and got up, walked into the washroom, and out of habit reached for the faucet.

No water.

She twisted it again. Still nothing but a faint hiss of air.

“Do any of you have water over there?” Dorella’s voice called from the neighboring courtyard.

“No.” Evelyn stood beside the water tower, her voice limp and defeated. “The water tower is empty.”

Tessa had already darted out of her room, carrying an empty bucket, brimming with fighting spirit. “Let’s go! Time to fetch water!”

The four of them grabbed their buckets and headed for the well at the Intersection.

When they reached the well, they happened to see last night’s upperclassman standing by the water tower in her own backyard.

A clear stream of water flowed from her fingertip, filling the tower at an unhurried pace.

Sunlight fell on the column of water, scattering into tiny glinting points of light, making her figure look composed and elegant.

By contrast, the four of them were fumbling to lower a bucket into the well, clumsily cranking the windlass, and managing to spill nearly half the water they drew up.

Tessa stared at the upperclassman’s silhouette, eyes wide and unblinking. “That… what Magic is that?”

“The Spring Water spell.” Sylvia swallowed hard, her voice heavy with longing.

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Dorella started walking back with her half-full bucket. She accidentally picked up the pace, and a third of the water sloshed right out.

“…”

The four exchanged a silent glance.

Their desire to learn this spell reached its absolute peak in that moment.

The water tower still wasn’t full when their stomachs started growling first.

Evelyn clutched her rumbling belly and looked at her companions.

The Ingredient Collection Station was near West District Dormitory No. 1, and it only had raw ingredients—everything needed to be cooked before it could be eaten.

All four turned their gaze toward the Breadfruit Grove beside their dormitories.

The upperclassman had told them that Breadfruit was very filling, highly nutritious, and could even speed up Mana recovery. One a day was enough to keep you full, and they couldn’t be heated or cooked—you had to eat them raw.

Ripe ones gave off the scent of bread, making them easy to identify.

“Come on, let’s go pick some!”

Tessa charged into the grove first, with Sylvia and the other two right behind her.

Before long, they found several fruits giving off an enticing bread-like aroma.

Starving, the four didn’t fuss. They gave the fruit a quick wipe and eagerly bit into them.

The next second—

“Ptooey! Ptooey! Ptooey!”

All four little faces scrunched up at once.

The texture was soft enough, but the sourness… It was like biting into an unripe lemon. So sour it made their teeth ache and their mouths flood with saliva.

“How is it this sour?” Dorella was on the verge of tears.

“Did we pick the wrong ones? Are they not ripe yet?” Evelyn clutched the fruit, questioning her entire existence.

“No, these are right…” Tessa sniffed hers again. The bread-like aroma was unmistakably rich. “They smell ripe!”

Sylvia silently pulled out her student card and found the upperclassman she had added as a friend the night before, then sent her a message.

The reply came quickly, brief and to the point:

“Yes, ripe Breadfruit is sour. Is there a problem?”

Sylvia stared at those words in silence.

She turned the light screen toward her companions.

The three of them read it. They, too, fell silent.

Morning light filtered through the gaps in the leaves, falling on four faces utterly drained of the will to live.

“…”

Their desire to learn Culinary Magic, in that moment, also reached its absolute peak.

Back at the dormitory, the first thing Sylvia did was dig out her 《Study Checklist》. She took the previously four-out-of-five-star rating for “Culinary Magic ★★★★☆” and firmly filled in the empty star, making it a solid five. Then, in neat handwriting, she added a new line at the bottom:

“Spring Water spell ★★★★★ (Need water just to wash my face and brush my teeth. Haul one bucket, spill half of it. Exhausting. Importance: five stars. Must learn. Learn as soon as possible.)”

She closed the checklist and let out a long, deep breath.

Away from Mom, without ready-made cards at her disposal—only now did she realize that living on her own, even the most ordinary little things like drinking water and eating a meal, were full of inconveniences.