Chapter 18 – Simple Meals Workshop

Chapter 18 – Simple Meals Workshop

“A sprite? You ran into a sprite too?”

Several more young witches came over.

Every single one of them had encountered Bi’er while passing through the farmland, and the sequence of events was nearly identical each time.

Bi’er, who had supposedly been about to leave, had never actually left the farmland at all.

It seemed that every time a new young witch passed by, she would “inadvertently” reveal herself, luring the witch into chasing after her.

Then she’d suddenly appear and give them a fright.

Perhaps ordinary sprites wouldn’t readily show themselves, and once they did, they’d have a strong desire to form a contract.

But Bi’er was no ordinary sprite.

She spread her attention equally among all of them, dedicated to getting acquainted with every young witch and having them tell her stories.

As for sprite blessings and forming contracts—none of that was happening.

At this point, Mo Lan and the others were completely deflated.

“Forget it, let’s just pick out ingredients! The day’s almost over and we still haven’t sorted out food!” Mo Lan grabbed her basket and went to browse the ingredients on the shelves.

She truly did want to have an adorable sprite that could also help tend her fields, but that sort of thing came down to fate.

Even if Bi’er genuinely wanted to find a witch to form a contract with, her method of screening partners wasn’t suited for Mo Lan—it demanded far too much time and energy.

Senior Lilith had been right. That time would be better spent reading a few more magic books.

After graduation, there would probably be plenty of witches willing to spend the time earning Bi’er’s favor.

But these five years at the Witch Academy were a golden period for learning. Time wasted now would take a hundredfold effort to make up for later.

Sprites were cute and capable, but they weren’t irreplaceable.

Rather than contracting a sprite to help her, she still had convenient magic to choose from!

The supplies at the Ingredient Collection Station were far more abundant than Mo Lan had imagined.

Not only did she find many ingredients and spices that were common in her previous life, she also discovered many things she’d never seen in either lifetime.

However, there was no soy sauce here either.

Every ingredient was haphazardly piled on the shelves without any labels.

So for anything she didn’t recognize, Mo Lan didn’t dare take it—even if she had, she wouldn’t know how to cook it.

In the corner of the seasoning section, Mo Lan discovered cumin, stored in small cloth bags.

She tasted a bit. It was indeed cumin, so she took one small bag.

Remembering the lamb chops that Iris had raved about yesterday, she looked toward the meat section and sure enough spotted Iris picking out cuts of meat.

Mo Lan took her small bag of cumin and went over to hand it to Iris.

“Sprinkle some of this on at the end when you’re grilling meat. You’ll be pleasantly surprised!”

“What is this? A spice?” Iris sniffed it.

“Yes! The lamb chops at the enrollment banquet probably had this on them. I call it cumin, but I’m not sure if that’s actually its proper name here,” Mo Lan said.

Iris’s eyes lit up. “Where did you find it?”

Mo Lan pointed her to the spot.

Iris went back and grabbed two more bags, picking up some other seasonings along the way.

Her basket contained nothing but seasonings and various kinds of meat.

Mo Lan’s selection was far more balanced. She took some grains, oil, seasonings, vegetables, meat, and eggs—filling her basket to the brim before she was satisfied.

Iris finished her selections not long after.

They carried their heavy baskets and waited by the entrance for their companions.

The other young witches formed a stark contrast with the two of them.

Apart from fruits and vegetables that could be eaten after a simple wash, they didn’t dare touch anything else—even things they recognized.

Mo Lan and Iris noticed this and exchanged a glance.

“Help them out?”

“Yeah!”

“If they can’t cook… how about pan-seared steak? You can eat that even if it’s not fully cooked!”

“Add a vegetable salad?”

“Sure! I saw salad dressing.”

“There’s a small kitchen over there!”

With Earth’s planetary memories, Mo Lan had cuisine from every nation on Earth at her fingertips, from ancient to modern, East to West.

But what the other young witches needed right now was simply to make something edible to get through the period before they learned Culinary Magic.

Simple to make and hard to mess up—that was the priority.

Steak and vegetable salad were common dishes found on dining tables of every race in Valen.

Making them exceptionally well wasn’t easy, but making them exceptionally badly was equally difficult.

After a brief discussion, Mo Lan and Iris clapped their hands to draw the attention of the other young witches.

“Pan-seared steak and vegetable salad—come over if you want to learn!”

The young witches, who had been fretting over what to pick and how to cook it, all rushed over at once.

“I want to learn!”

“Me too!”

“Waaah! Moira, Iris! I love you guys so much!”

…

“First, go pick your ingredients! This way!” Mo Lan and Iris led them to the steak shelf.

One piece here, one piece there—the steak shelf was cleaned out in an instant.

They even had to divide things up to make sure every first-year got at least one piece.

When they came back after selecting vegetables, they discovered the steak shelf had been fully restocked, giving them all a fright.

“Did any of you see what happened?”

All the young witches shook their heads. Not one of them had seen anything.

The entire Ingredient Collection Station had only these young witches in it—there wasn’t a single attendant to be seen.

Yet the steaks had simply been restocked.

Mo Lan even inspected them out of curiosity. They weren’t exactly the same as before, but they were definitely completely fresh steaks.

It was as if an invisible person had placed the goods on the shelf.

Lilith, hearing their commotion, explained:

“Once you’ve read 《A History of the Witch Academy》, you’ll understand.

The entire planting district, including the Ingredient Collection Station, is managed by the sprite clan contracted to Lady Carmela.

The sprites work when no young witches are watching.

Just now, a sprite must have restocked the shelves.

But if she doesn’t choose to reveal herself, no one can see her.

All reveal magic is ineffective against sprites—they conceal themselves in a unique spatial dimension.”

“!!!”

“Then when we were talking about Bi’er earlier, could the sprites working here have overheard us?”

The young witches were alarmed, unsettled by the thought of who knew how many little sprites observing them from the shadows.

Lilith picked out a fresh steak and placed it in her basket.

“Of course! But don’t worry—even if they heard, there’s no need to fear the sprites causing trouble.

When these sprites moved into the Academy, their entire clan signed a contract. Under no circumstances would they act against the witches!

Besides, sprites have wonderful temperaments. Before Bi’er appeared, many young witches went all the way through graduation without ever noticing any trace of the sprites!”

The young witches: “…”

Were they worried about retaliation? They were worried about Bi’er being upset!

And now things were even worse. They’d already felt their hopes of contracting a sprite were slim, and now those hopes were completely dashed.

Better to just learn to cook. Dinner still wasn’t sorted!

After trying breadfruit once, unless they were on the verge of starving, none of them ever wanted to eat that to fill their stomachs again.

Iris and Mo Lan’s Simple Meals Workshop was now in session.

The two of them worked together to demonstrate for everyone, simplifying and streamlining every step to ensure that even complete kitchen novices could handle it.

(End of Chapter)