Chapter 155 – Sorceress Carmela

Chapter 155 – Sorceress Carmela

Mo Lan and Lilith whipped around in alarm. Behind them, a black hole had appeared at some point without their notice.

A tall witch with soft, pale-gold hair that cascaded all the way to her ankles stepped out of the black hole, clad in a fitted white silk robe embroidered with gold filigree scrollwork.

Behind her followed Lady Amisha.

There was no need for Lady Amisha to make introductions. Having read the 《Young Witch’s Primer》 and seen the portraits of distinguished witches and Sorceresses within, both Mo Lan and Lilith recognized her immediately.

They both shot to their feet, backs ramrod straight, and called out with a mix of excitement and nervousness: “Lady Carmela!”

Mo Lan truly had to exert tremendous effort to steady her emotions, just to keep the busy kitchen utensils from clattering to the ground at that very moment and making an untimely racket.

But the Sorceress’s arrival also meant she could no longer split her attention between cooking with Culinary Magic and chatting.

She carefully guided the utensils down onto the cutting board, withdrew her Culinary Magic, and only then let out a breath of relief.

“Hello there! I’m sorry—the moment Amisha told me, I just couldn’t resist coming to see for myself. Did I startle you?” Carmela said gently, a hint of chagrin in her pale-gold eyes.

Mo Lan and Lilith both shook their heads vigorously, answering in perfect unison: “Not at all! It’s our honor to meet you, Lady Carmela!”

This was one of the three great Sorceresses—the Sorceress of Contracts—the idol of every witch!

“I just came to ask about the card channel you mentioned. There’s no need to be so formal—sit down and let’s chat!” Carmela said.

Mo Lan hurried over to the dining table, pulled out chairs, and invited Lady Carmela and Lady Amisha to sit, then poured them each a glass of Breadfruit juice.

It was a good thing the Mobile Kitchen came with its own dining set, otherwise the dormitory’s original furniture wouldn’t have been enough seats for everyone.

Mo Lan abandoned her cooking plans. The ingredients she’d brought back were roughly enough for her and her senior sister, but with the Headmistress and Lady Carmela added to the mix, there simply wasn’t enough.

She pulled out several cards directly, preparing to manifest them.

Carmela shook her head at her:

“I already feel terrible barging in on you at this hour—how could I possibly let you treat us?”

As she spoke, she produced a card of her own and manifested it.

In the next instant, the dining table was piled high with dish after dish, layer upon layer—two, three layers deep—until the plates beneath were completely hidden from view.

Thankfully it was the card’s dining table. If it had been the dormitory’s original small table, even stacking three layers high wouldn’t have been enough space.

“What card is this? So many dishes!” Lilith exclaimed, while pulling out her own Mobile Kitchen Card’s table to push alongside it so they could spread everything out.

“Food Card – Imperial Banquet Feast. A total of one hundred and eight dishes—a palace banquet from a certain dynasty of Earth’s China,” Mo Lan said, looking toward Lady Carmela.

She hadn’t expected that Lady Carmela would use cards to treat them too.

Did that mean she had also purchased her Card Magic?

Mo Lan was dying to check her Contract Mailbox right now, to look at her Book of Cards and her Status Card.

“That’s exactly right!” Carmela said. “This is the card with the most dishes out of all the Food Cards I bought. Perfect for entertaining you all—I haven’t tried it yet myself.

Oh, and Amisha, have your clone call Sylph and Vasida over too. Since we’re already here, let’s all meet together!”

Lady Amisha gave a slight nod. Without any visible action on her part, within a few minutes there was a knock at the dormitory door.

Mo Lan hurried over to answer it.

The two young witches standing outside, having been summoned, could barely contain their excitement: “Lady Carmela is here?”

Mo Lan nodded, stepped aside, and jerked her chin toward the room: “We’ve just been waiting on you two.”

After an excited round of greetings and pleasantries, everyone finally took their seats.

The two long dining tables pushed together formed one large square table.

Amisha and Carmela each sat on one side.

The four young witches paired off on the remaining two sides, huddled close together. Normally, with such a lavish spread of Earth delicacies before them, they would have already been stuffing their faces.

But right now they all sat upright and proper, valiantly suppressing the urge to swallow, their eyes fixed on Lady Carmela.

The very picture of being unmoved by food, with eyes only for their Sorceress elder.

Being stared at so intently by all four of them, Carmela couldn’t help but sit up straighter herself.

Were young witches these days really this resistant to temptation?

She, as their elder, certainly couldn’t hold out any longer: “Eat, eat! We can talk after we’ve eaten.”

She had just purchased Card Magic and bought some cards, but hadn’t yet tried the Earth cuisine that Amisha had raved so much about!

Only after Lady Carmela and Lady Amisha had both picked up their chopsticks did Mo Lan and the other three begin eating.

In truth, even Mo Lan herself was eating a complete Imperial Banquet Feast for the first time.

In her previous life, she had only ever heard of it—never actually tasted it.

She had created this card entirely from the planetary memories that Earth had gifted her.

She had only ever personally cooked a few of the individual dishes, never the full spread.

Of everyone present, only Amisha had tried it before—and eating through a clone still counted as eating.

Lilith, Vasida, and Sylph’s restraint lasted only that long.

Once they started eating, their attention was completely captured by the food.

Especially once they saw Lady Carmela and Lady Amisha eating freely—that put them even more at ease.

They couldn’t manage the chopsticks that came with the Food Card, so they simply used their own familiar forks.

After tasting all the dishes within reach, Lilith followed Lady Amisha and Lady Carmela’s example and used the Levitation Spell to float distant dishes over to herself.

However, while the elders could cast the Levitation Spell wandlessly, Lilith still had to hold her Wand in her other hand.

Mo Lan followed suit.

Vasida and Sylph hadn’t learned the Levitation Spell yet, so they could only watch longingly.

But when Mo Lan and Lilith caught their pleading looks, they floated servings over to them as well.

Food sailed across the table as witches and Sorceresses devoted themselves to the serious business of eating.

One hundred and eight dishes for six people was still a bit too much.

But that was no problem—they had Vasida.

Even with Lady Carmela present, Vasida still couldn’t bear to see good food go to waste.

After everyone else had eaten their fill and set down their cutlery, Vasida kicked her eating speed into high gear.

She couldn’t even bring herself to feed the leftovers directly to her Devouring Stomach.

Instead, like a whirlwind tearing through the remains, she personally emptied every single bowl and plate.

Mo Lan and Lilith helped by stacking dishes and passing them to her one pile at a time.

By the time Carmela went to clean up, all that remained were empty plates.

She recalled what Amisha had mentioned in her messages—that Vasida’s Manifested Gift was the Devouring Stomach, and her domain related to consumption and energy conversion.

Now, seeing it firsthand, that was clearly the case.

The more this child ate, the more radiant she became. Her Mana visibly brimmed to overflowing and had begun nourishing her physical body.

Such a powerful effect of one’s own energy nourishing the flesh—Carmela had only ever seen that in Dragons.