“Don’t do that.”

Azure light flickered in the girl’s eyes. Jiang Cha caught Molin’s hand just as it was about to touch her thin clothes, looking fragile and alarmed.

Like a fawn cornered by a hunter, her eyes brimmed with tears.

“Oh?”

Molin raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Then she laughed softly again. Unlike her earlier, stiff, operatic laugh, this one was mature and gentle. “All right, all right~ I was wrong, I was wrong.”

“Please don’t gather too much magic. The machines here are very expensive.”

She raised both hands, as if admitting defeat. Jiang Cha couldn’t sense even a hint of apology from her, though—only a deep, unmistakable danger.

‘The gap in strength... is just too great.’

Molin showed no aggression. She hadn’t even summoned any magic, yet Jiang Cha’s extraordinary brain instantly reached a conclusion.

‘There’s no chance of resisting successfully.’

Fortunately, Molin had no intention of using force, either.

She’d already been thoroughly ogled during the tests, and she supposed she could count that as a free show. At least they were all girls, and Jiang Cha didn’t mind. But she didn’t want her first time to happen in a place like this.

She wasn’t into any of that “secret lab” stuff.

And she definitely didn’t want her first time to be with a woman she’d just met.

“Are you done with the tests?”

Qu Sinan arrived just in time to break the awkward silence. It was as if she’d appeared out of thin air in the lab. Seeing the girl’s neat clothes and calm face, she let out a surprised sigh.

“You’re done so soon?”

Jiang Cha: “....”

“Hey, hey, I haven’t even had a chance to make a move yet!”

Molin protested as if she’d been slandered, then suddenly sighed. “What a shame. Those crazies are going to get all the fun.”

“Senior, did you know this would happen?”

Jiang Cha put on her coat and cautiously hid behind Qu Sinan. At least so far, this senior seemed like the safest witch she’d met since waking up.

Right. Her chastity was in danger.

“Witch knowledge isn’t easy to learn.”

Qu Sinan nodded, then smiled brightly at Molin. “That’s why I came a little early on purpose.”

“Tch! Anyway, I messed up this time. Goodbye! The research institute isn’t receiving visitors for a while!”

.....

“Witch knowledge—or, really, anything related to witches—is contaminating. Witch history, modern potion studies, Evocation magic, and so on.”

They left the research institute through a portal. The moment Jiang Cha’s dizziness faded, Qu Sinan’s voice came at just the right time.

“You can resist this contamination by training your Mentalism. In fact, studying this knowledge is itself an efficient way to train it... Are you still dizzy?”

“No.”

Jiang Cha shook her head. She did feel a little uncomfortable, but that was probably just the lingering aftereffect of spatial travel. It had nothing to do with the “witch knowledge” Qu Sinan had mentioned.

“It seems your Mentalism score is very high. That’s a good talent to have, especially for learning and research.”

“The more profound the magic, the stronger the contamination it brings. And Mentalism is itself linked to magical power in countless ways. That’s why passing on witch knowledge is so difficult. It’s also why the Academy and the Great Library exist.”

“But there’s something you should watch out for.”

“What?”

Jiang Cha tilted her head curiously. She’d woken up in an empty world with not a single memory of her past, yet she was surprisingly accepting of everything. Maybe a blank slate was easier to write on. Maybe she was simply the easygoing type. Or maybe her innate magic was at work.

She felt that her mind was very calm, and that she had an almost instinctive hunger for knowledge.

“Because of the contamination from witch knowledge, witches’ minds are especially unstable. We’re born craving pleasure, both mental and physical—and a young witch’s body is clearly one of the best ways to get it.”

“So I should watch out for my seniors’ ‘kind’ after-school tutoring?”

The girl made a joke.

“That’s right.”

Qu Sinan nodded.

‘What kind of place is this... a lewd witch academy?’

Jiang Cha complained bitterly to herself. But when she thought back over everything that had happened that morning, she had to admit Qu Sinan was right. In this place, a girl really did need to be careful with her chastity.

“Don’t worry. Coercion isn’t allowed in the Academy.”

“And aphrodisiacs or knowledge messing with your head until you lose control don’t count?”

The girl asked, eyes narrowed.

“Witches are naturally immune to all sorts of negative potions. Our immune systems are incredibly strong. And as for after-school tutoring... it’s an understood custom. Accepting it means agreeing to that kind of relationship.”

“In witch society, knowledge is an extremely valuable resource. You understand?”

“They can only fool little girls who’ve just enrolled and know nothing about witch society. And for the victims... it isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Quite a few Little Witches still actively seek tutoring after learning the truth.”

Qu Sinan gave a helpless smile, then looked at Jiang Cha. “We’re open-minded. We don’t interfere when both parties are willing. Witches mature early—thirteen is considered mature, though the rules set fifteen as the permitted age.”

“...I understand.”

Jiang Cha’s mouth twitched, but she accepted this bizarre fact all the same and firmly filed it away in the attic of her memory.

“All right, I’ll take you to the dormitory area next. It’s a long way, so you’ll have to handle everything after that yourself. My job ends here.”

Qu Sinan casually waved a hand and pulled a delicate little sticker out of the Void. It showed a cute chibi witch.

“This is the Academy’s access card. It also works as a basic communication device. Stick it on your arm to use it. It stores basic Information, your class schedule, and things like that. There’s also a map of the Academy, and you can find the transfer student enrollment process in there, too.”

“It’s really this tiny?”

The girl took the sticker in surprise, balanced it on her fingertip, and examined it closely.

In the sunlight, the sticker turned translucent. It looked like an ordinary sticker, no different from the kind Jiang Cha knew from her “common sense.”

“Of course. It’s magic.”

Qu Sinan smiled and nodded as she watched Jiang Cha stick the card to the inside of her wrist.

Blue magic light flashed, and a translucent electronic screen appeared in front of the girl.

“When you want to use it, just stimulate it with magic. You can also set it to respond to your voice. It needs to be recharged once every three days.”

“Thanks, Senior.”

Jiang Cha still hadn’t recovered from the sudden appearance of this surreal object.

Even though she’d experienced the wonders of magic firsthand, she still couldn’t figure out how something so unreal had been made.

No matter how much she analyzed it, her brain couldn’t make sense of it.

—She knew far too little. In this witch society, she might know less than a kindergartener. She was basically at the level of someone who’d dropped out of prenatal education.

“All right, let’s head to the dormitory area. It’s a long way, so we should get going.”

Qu Sinan clapped her hands, bringing Jiang Cha’s attention back to the present.

The senior seemed like a quiet, composed girl with short hair. But Jiang Cha couldn’t forget the sight of her in the infirmary, hurling another senior named Helen nearly a kilometer with one hand.

So Jiang Cha was extra well-behaved and didn’t dare act up at all.

“Are we walking?”

“There’s a shuttle.”

Qu Sinan pointed to the pure-white little car parked beside the fountain. It looked just like the sightseeing carts in parks that Jiang Cha knew.

“I thought we’d be riding brooms or something.”

The girl joked.

“They’re too fast. You’d easily get into an accident riding one around the Academy.”

“....”

‘They really do have brooms!?’

The image of Hogwarts flashed through Jiang Cha’s mind. Did this place have something like the Triwizard Cup, too?

But she wouldn’t get to see witches flying on brooms just yet. Her senior had said they caused accidents, so they were clearly forbidden as a means of transport inside the Academy.

It was a shame, but once Jiang Cha climbed into the shuttle, she suddenly didn’t feel that disappointed anymore.

That was because the shuttle was fast, too. Really, really fast.

The instant it started, the girl’s vision blurred. The peaceful scene of fountains, white doves, and laughing girls vanished in a flash, replaced by a strange landscape that seemed both unreal and hazy.

Jiang Cha looked closely and even caught glimpses of what seemed to be a twisted image of an ordinary path.

“It’s a subspace rail shuttle. It’s much slower than the brooms, which travel through space directly, but it’s fast enough for getting around the Academy.”

Qu Sinan’s explanation came at just the right moment.

But the terminology made Jiang Cha’s brain crash. She only vaguely understood those two concepts.

‘What kind of advanced civilization is this?’

All the witches’ buildings and scenery had a strong medieval feel. Even the dormitory area was made up of rows of standalone, two-story European-style houses.

But Jiang Cha didn’t dare treat them as ordinary buildings anymore. Who knew what bizarre high-tech—or, well, black magic—might be hidden beneath their unassuming exteriors?

“Let’s see. Dorm D124. Good, it’s a proper freshman dorm. At least you didn’t get unlucky and end up in the upperclassmen’s dormitory area.”

Qu Sinan let out a sigh of relief, seeming happy about the girl’s good luck.

Jiang Cha let out a sigh of relief, too.

Who knew what sort of monsters these witches might be? Based on what she’d seen today... at least if she roomed with other freshmen, she’d have some chance of resisting.

At least she’d have time to call for help.

‘If something like that happened, would calling for help here really be any different from calling the police in India?’

Jiang Cha didn’t know, but it was at least a little comforting to think so.

Dorm D124 wasn’t far away.

They walked for less than ten minutes before reaching a standalone house that looked like a small European-style villa.

It even had a little garden, with flowers and plants Jiang Cha didn’t recognize. They gave off faint traces of magic.

“Stick your access card on the door.”

Jiang Cha did as she was told.

【Student ID 1680021, Jiang Cha. Welcome to your dorm.】

After a pleasant female mechanical voice spoke, the front door opened automatically. But what came into view wasn’t an ordinary European-style living room.

It was a portal.

‘I knew it wouldn’t be that simple...’

“D12 is the section of this dormitory building. The 4 means it’s dorm four. It’s a double room, and it uses spatial expansion magic.”

Seeing the girl’s exasperated expression, Qu Sinan gave a soft laugh.

Then she stepped inside first.