Chapter 192 – The Broomstick

Chapter 192 – The Broomstick

Mo Lan’s Witch Farming Tool Card had been Attuned countless times already.

Even the pruning shears, which she rarely used at the moment, were as obedient as her own hands.

As for strength, though… Mo Lan had only been using Vasida’s Dietary Fortification Card for a few weeks, and she couldn’t yet guarantee she could cut through every branch with speed, precision, and force.

In the end, she chose to let the pruning shears do the work for her.

Fortunately, nothing went wrong. Following the marks she’d made with charcoal pencil, the shears swiftly clipped away all the branches and roots of the entire Broomstick Grass.

The trimmed branches and roots piled together were indistinguishable—impossible to tell which had once grown Underground and which had once been laden with leaves.

The remaining main stem, stood upright, was about the same height as Mo Lan.

It was a long stick, thinner at the top and thicker at the bottom, though the variation in thickness was minimal.

There were some bumps along the body where branches had once grown, and a slight curve in the middle section.

The shape was nearly perfect—it could serve as a broom handle with almost no additional trimming needed.

“Next, I need to sand down these bumps, right?” Mo Lan looked toward Lady Amisha, and only began once she saw her nod.

The sanding file was also provided by Lady Amisha.

The other young witches, seeing how quickly she was progressing, hurried to mark their own trimming positions with charcoal pencils.

After Amisha reviewed them, she offered some suggestions for adjustments, and only then was the optimal trimming plan finalized.

By that point, Mo Lan had already finished sanding the broom handle and was asking Lady Amisha for rope to bind the broom head.

According to Mo Lan’s copy of Mo Lan’s 《Broom Flight》, the rope used to bind the broom head didn’t need to come from the Broomstick Grass itself—hemp rope, cloth strips, or anything with binding capability would do.

“Rope? Isn’t it all around you?” Amisha gestured at the lush grass surrounding them.

Mo Lan stared for several moments before realizing what Amisha meant by “rope.” “You don’t mean we have to twist grass rope ourselves, do you?”

“Mm-hm!” Amisha said. “Using materials on hand—how wonderful! If you want to swap it out later, you can do that on your own time, but none will be provided in class.”

Mo Lan had to hand it to her.

She had even reviewed all the little techniques for binding broom heads from her Earth memories in advance, thinking she’d be able to finish binding the broom head right away and have her very own broomstick.

And yet, she couldn’t even get rope without making it herself.

The grass-rope twisting she’d learned back when making her Grimoire was getting a second use now.

So that was why there was such a vast expanse of grass here—this was its purpose all along.

And conveniently, it was all grass suitable for rope-making. At this time of year in the greenhouse, most of it had even dried out already. Should she call that thoughtful of the Academy?

Mo Lan sighed and resigned herself to obediently twisting rope.

She picked some suitable grass blades, then looked up and noticed the woods behind her. She recalled seeing some thin vines while gathering magical plants for potion-brewing. If dried and processed, they’d make decent substitutes for grass rope and could add an extra layer of security to the broom head. So she went into the woods and came back with a bundle of thin vines.

Between twisting grass rope and working the vines, most of the class had passed. Even she, the fastest among them, had only just finished preparing her rope—to say nothing of the other young witches.

Determined to have her own broomstick by the end of the day, Mo Lan wasted no time sorting through the pile of branches, studying how to securely bind them to the thinner end of the broom handle.

All the branches and roots combined were enough for roughly two and a half broom heads. Mo Lan first divided them into piles, then tried binding them. 《Broom Flight》 had a detailed tutorial on binding broom heads, and her Earth memories contained similar knowledge. Having studied it all in advance, Mo Lan needed almost no guidance from Lady Amisha and figured out how to bind the broom head on her own.

At the same time, class was over.

“Headmistress, is this good enough?” Mo Lan hurried to ask before Lady Amisha could leave.

“Sweep the ground with it. If the broom head doesn’t fall apart, it passes. That’s all for today’s class. It won’t rain in the greenhouse tonight, so you can all leave your broom materials on the grass mats for now and continue tomorrow.”

Lady Amisha’s figure vanished swiftly into the woods.

Mo Lan, holding her freshly made broomstick, and the young witches still twisting grass rope: “…”

From Lady Amisha, Mo Lan gleaned only one message—overtime was absolutely, categorically out of the question.

Still, at least Amisha had told her how to check the broomstick’s quality in this final step.

Even though she normally let the broom sweep on its own, who didn’t know how to sweep a floor?

She held the broomstick and began sweeping vigorously. Seeing the other young witches sitting on the grass mats, clutching their grass rope and reluctant to leave, Mo Lan said:

“It’s fine, keep working! As for binding the broom heads—I’m good at that, I’ll teach you! And if all else fails, there’s always the Guardian Headmistress!”

“Let’s get our broomsticks all bound up tonight, and tomorrow we can go straight to having Lady Amisha teach us real flight!”

“Oh, does anyone have any Breadfruit Cake left? If not, I’ve still got some.”

The young witches’ spirits surged: “Yes, yes, yes!”

Nobody was leaving. They pressed on!

Mo Lan swept the ground to test her broomstick’s quality while teaching the young witches how to bind their broom heads.

She persisted until every single young witch had their broom head tightly bound and had swept the ground to verify quality without any issues. Only then did they reluctantly leave.

“Ahh! I really want to fly right now!” Vasida stroked her broomstick.

“Me too! But let’s wait for tomorrow’s class. Even though the Guardian Headmistress is around and we won’t die from flying recklessly, we could still get hurt. That would only delay us from properly learning to fly—not worth it.” Mo Lan said.

They didn’t leave their broomsticks on the grass mats in the greenhouse. Instead, they carried their broomsticks and leftover materials back to the Dormitory.

The broom materials were carefully stored away. As for the broomsticks—if they couldn’t ride them yet, at least they could keep them nearby to admire!

At the next morning’s flight class, Amisha had just flown above the greenhouse when she spotted the young witches outside greenhouse No. 1, clutching their broomsticks.

It seemed they had already completed the final step of broomstick construction ahead of schedule.

She was tired of being surprised.

Amisha landed on the ground. “That impressive? You all bound them yourselves?”

“Moira taught us!” the young witches said cheerfully. “Headmistress, we tested them! We swept all the way from the greenhouse to the Dormitory without losing a single bristle! Super sturdy!”

“Sure they’re bound tight?” Amisha asked.

“Sure!” the young witches answered in unison.

Amisha made no move to inspect them. Even young witches had to take responsibility for their own work.

Besides, the worst that could happen was a broom head falling off and having to redo it.

This cohort of young witches was already far ahead of schedule in their flight classes. A minor setback wouldn’t affect the course timeline.

She simply said: “Congratulations on having your very own broomsticks. You can now officially begin learning the art of flight. Follow me!”