Jiang Cha was already used to the magic hidden beneath the Witch World’s seemingly medieval surface.

In a witch society where subspace railcars served as commuter trains and brooms were used to travel through space, spatial expansion technology and portals weren’t all that shocking, were they?

She had no memories to begin with, so she found it easy to accept all this. The only thing that felt a little off was the strange common sense lingering in her mind.

—She’d already swept that into the trash.

What surprised her, though, was that the moment she stepped through the portal, she found herself not in her dorm room but in a European-style fortress straight out of the medieval witch archetype.

A lavish red carpet covered the spacious hall. A crystal chandelier imbued with magic hung from the lofty ceiling, and straight ahead stood a grand staircase leading to the second floor, beside an abstract oil painting with an air of mystery.

Setting aside the portal behind her, glowing with a faint blue light and brimming with magic, this looked no different from a European castle—the sort of lord’s castle that often appeared in movies and TV shows.

‘Movies and TV shows?’

The moment the question surfaced in her mind, she found the definition in that ‘common sense’ of hers.

She also understood why the witches she knew from her memories didn’t match the witches in reality—or at least, she thought she did.

‘So they’re a product of fiction...?’

‘No, did I cross over?’

She seemed to have a vague idea of where she came from, but she’d need more evidence and clues to know whether her guess was right.

For now, the girl could only settle in at the bewildering Aislen Witch Academy.

“I thought I’d be able to teleport straight to my bedroom?”

Jiang Cha smiled and teased Qu Sinan.

“Witches are a troublesome species.”

She sighed. She seemed a little unhappy, but mostly just helpless. Spreading her hands, she went on, “Deep down, we’re always after more knowledge, more mysteries, and more advanced applications of magical technology. But in our daily lives, we still prefer things to be a little old-fashioned, as if we haven’t shaken off habits left over from centuries ago.”

“And what you see before you is the result: a...”

She raised a finger to her chin as if thinking. Her expression was playful and relaxed, making it clear she was only joking—an elegant bit of humor.

“Magic punk?”

“That’s not bad. Though I don’t know what other worlds might be like.”

The girl shrugged, looking perfectly at ease, but kept the strange common sense in her mind to herself. She knew of another kind of world: one ruled by humans, a world of technology.

“You’ll find out. Once you’re in your third year—or your second, if you’re good enough—you can apply. Witch mentors value practical experience, and with your magical capacity, they’ll be happy to take you out and show you the wider world.”

Jiang Cha didn’t fully understand what Qu Sinan was hinting at. She assumed it was something like a field trip or an extracurricular activity.

“Now that’s something to look forward to.”

“Oh~ Only a little witch like you would look forward to that. Anyway, let’s not talk about it.”

Qu Sinan waved a hand.

The two walked with small, slow, graceful steps. Though this ‘dorm’ looked several times larger inside than it did from the outside, it was still a dorm, and as they chatted, they reached the last room on the right side of the second floor.

“This is your room. Your classmates are all in class right now, so you can meet them tonight. You’re not a shut-in, are you?”

“As for the rest... you’ve got the whole afternoon to get familiar with the academy and pick up some textbooks from the Academic Affairs Office. You can do some reading tonight. You’re already a month behind in classes, and you’ve lost your memory...”

“But you could also have a party with your roommates. First-year classes are pretty easy, so there’s no need to put too much pressure on yourself.”

Qu Sinan rattled it all off in one breath, speaking a little hurriedly. Clearly, she wanted to leave.

Dropping the new student off at the dorm was the last part of her job.

“Thanks, upperclassman. I have one more question.”

“What is it?”

“About my memories.”

“Oh, that.”

Qu Sinan patted her forehead, looking a little vexed. “I forgot to explain. Your memory loss isn’t quite like ordinary amnesia. Put simply, the brain has one area for knowledge and another for memories of experiences. As for your amnesia... I don’t know what happened, but your experience-memory area was clearly damaged very badly. Almost all the cells in it were destroyed. Then something happened—perhaps your brain regenerated because you awakened as a witch.”

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Noticing the girl’s shocked expression, she smiled gently and waved a hand. “Witches—especially powerful ones—are incredibly hard to kill. A little hole through the brain is just... well, like getting a cut on your hand?”

“But your case is unusual. Those brain cells that stored your experiences were already all gone before you became a witch, so even our technology can’t restore them. It’s like a storage device: if the contents are deleted, there are plenty of ways to get them back. But if the device is destroyed and there’s no backup, then there’s nothing you can do.”

“...That’s pretty shocking.”

Strangely, Jiang Cha somehow knew this much. It was as if the brains of creatures before they became witches in this world weren’t all that different from the humans in her memories.

So if Qu Sinan’s information was true, then there probably was no hope of recovering her memories.

Not that she was particularly eager to get them back.

Jiang Cha wasn’t ready to reveal a secret like being a time-traveler from a hundred years in the past—possibly from a different world altogether.

And what shocked her... was the witches’ ability to survive almost anything.

Were witches even living organisms? How could someone survive having their brain pierced through?!

“Hey, even ordinary witches are shocked when they learn how hard they are to kill. It’s a phase every little witch goes through when she first enrolls. If you’re interested, you can look up books on the subject in the Great Library. You can borrow them with your access card, and you don’t need to spend any Witch Gold. But you can only read books at your own year’s level.”

“All right, it’s getting late. I’ll head back.”

“Mm. Thanks for everything today, upperclassman. I’ll go study at the Great Library.”

The girl nodded and gave a well-behaved little bow.

“We’ll have plenty of chances to see each other again~”

Clearly relieved to be done with work, Qu Sinan waved, then vanished from Jiang Cha’s sight in the blink of an eye.

There was barely any trace of magical energy. Even Jiang Cha’s brain could pick up only the faintest hint of Information—it was probably magic that worked on a principle similar to portals.

“All right, let’s sort out what I know so far.”

The girl sat on the bedroom bed. It was a standard bedroom, with no decorations—just a desk, a wardrobe, and a bed.

But that wasn’t all. This personal dorm room also had a living room, study, bathroom, kitchen, toilet, and even a balcony!

Who knew how a building with a footprint of only about two hundred square meters could fit a dorm room this big? And there were four more rooms like it in the building.

It was a standard five-person dorm.

But that wasn’t important. Compared to the virtual screen that had appeared on the inside of her wrist... all right, the dorm was more astonishing after all. Still, compared with the things the girl had seen in the research institute, the gap in technology—or magic? Whatever it was, the difference was pretty big.

“My secret... Maybe it doesn’t even count as a secret. Either way, I should be careful. If I can avoid telling anyone, I shouldn’t let it slip.”

“As for everything else...”

After she’d regained consciousness, Jiang Cha had noticed that her mind was unusually clear. She later learned it was the effect of her innate magic. But it wasn’t until she finally sat down and thought carefully that she realized just how fast her mind could work. Maybe it wasn’t even right to call it a human brain. ‘Quantum computer’ seemed more fitting.

The girl had analyzed the simple situation she was facing in just a fraction of a second.

She had no idea what other cutting-edge technology existed in this world, or what the upper limits of a witch’s abilities were. Even what that upperclassman had said seemed to hint that witches could travel between worlds or planets. Maybe travelers from other worlds were nothing unusual to witches.

But her own crossing might involve time, a factor the witches might not have studied. So it was better to keep it hidden—at the very least, she didn’t need to go around announcing it.

And what she needed to do now...

‘Grrr~’

“I should find somewhere to get something to eat first.”

Following the map on her access card—that virtual screen—Jiang Cha left the dorm, boarded a commuter vehicle, and reached the cafeteria in almost no time.

Yes, the academy had a cafeteria.

Of course, there were places to buy groceries, and the dorms had kitchens too. Most witches cooked for themselves. If they were too busy, they could also order delivery from little sprites. But, well...

The cafeteria was free, and the girl didn’t have a single coin in her skirt pocket.

Of course, her plans involved more than just grabbing a meal. Still, the food was delicious, and she was starving, so Jiang Cha spent more than half an hour filling her stomach in the nearly empty cafeteria, where even the chefs were magical automata she couldn’t make sense of.

But she did have other things to do.

“The Academic Affairs Office, textbooks... I wonder what witch textbooks are like.”

She was genuinely curious. These witches already had sci-fi technology like personal computers, so surely they didn’t need ordinary textbooks for class.

That was even more convenient than using a tablet in class.

So when Jiang Cha arrived in front of the woods, she was full of anticipation.

This completely unfamiliar world.

But...

She stared at the old, shabby wooden hut, tucked away deep in the forest and perfectly matching her common-sense image of witches as recluses. Then she looked at the sign hanging in front of it.

【Academic Affairs Office】

The sign was written in Chinese, too!

‘Witches... what kind of hodgepodge aesthetic is this?’

The girl could only complain silently to herself.