Jiang Cha didn’t know why witch knowledge itself carried a curse, and it wasn’t something she needed to worry about.

After a quick analysis, she realized that with her current abilities, the only thing she could do was slightly ease the intrusion by optimizing her study rhythm. So she couldn’t be bothered to think about it any further.

Compared to solving a problem on the scale of the universe’s ultimate answer, she cared more about what tomorrow would bring.

“A strange sense of exhilaration, a sense of accomplishment, and a heavy fatigue.”

The girl murmured softly, closed the book, and let out a long breath.

She hadn’t read it all in one sitting, but she’d still learned a little about the history of witches.

Year 450 of the Witch Era.

The Primordial Witch, Alice, was born. She was the starting point of the witch race.

By the standards of today, this Primordial Witch’s magical power and Mentalism coefficient were both pitifully low. If she were born in the modern Witch World, she’d be considered to have a disorder. She couldn’t even cast the simplest Fireball. But she was, without question, the witches’ original ancestor.

No one knew how or why she had come into being.

Her life was almost laughably simple.

She was born, started a family, and had children. That was all.

She gave birth to three daughters. All of them were witches, and their magical power was still pitifully low.

But they were supernatural beings. By carefully keeping their secret hidden, the witch race gradually grew.

Under the influence of magic, their genes continually optimized themselves, and the average magical power rose with every generation. Knowledge was passed down as the race continued: knowledge of magic, potions, alchemy, and more.

Then, in the fifteenth century, the witch hunts began.

Witches were naturally gifted, but back then, they still couldn’t take on more than ten heavily armored cavalrymen alone. It was a brutal chapter in the history of the witch race—but it was also when witches entered a new era.

Today, it’s impossible to say what truly caused the witch hunts. Was it the ignorance of humanity in the old age? Fear of the witches’ superior abilities? Or a struggle for power between the two races?

Perhaps it was all of those things. There’s no way to know for sure.

But there’s no denying that many figures worthy of being remembered by future generations emerged among the witches during that time.

Emma Carlisle, the Witch. She broke through the limits of magic and made her race stronger.

Irene Norton, the Sage. She gathered knowledge, organized it into a system, and developed education.

Natalie Dillon, the Leader. She founded an organization, sheltered witches, and stood up to humanity.

It was an age when the stars shone bright, an age that defies easy judgment. But its most important and far-reaching achievement was the emergence of a new way for witches to reproduce. It finally freed the witch race from humanity, making them a truly independent species.

It also set the witch race on the path to accelerated evolution.

Then, in the eighteenth century, the first Grand Witch with over ten thousand units of magical power appeared.

That was another major turning point.

Grand Witches had gained the ability to build traits with magic and use them to optimize themselves.

Every trait on the modern witch race’s list of abilities—【Immortality】, 【Super Magic】, 【Optimized Spellcasting】, 【Spatial Traits】, 【Long-Lived Species】, 【Research Sage】, and countless other incredible traits—all came from Grand Witches developing and optimizing themselves.

The traits built by Grand Witches were varied, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. They intermarried, then built stronger and more numerous traits.

These traits lay hidden inside their bodies, like the excessive, complex strands of DNA found in living things throughout nature. Most of the time they barely showed. They only evolved—or regressed—when needed.

And witches had the ability to build their own traits!

Generation after generation, they built, reproduced, and shared their traits with one another.

This gave the witch race limitless potential for evolution and sent both their power and their tech tree into explosive growth.

So, after exploring the Milky Way in the twentieth century, their ever-stronger spatial traits naturally led them to discover passageways to other dimensions.

And so, on May 30, 2121...

The witches had become a high-level civilization in the multiverse.

And they would keep evolving until the potential of magic—the energy of miracles—was exhausted, or until they destroyed themselves.

‘They’re like creatures from a fourth-rate disaster.’

That was Jiang Cha’s verdict after reading An Introduction to Witch History.

The history of the witches’ development was practically that of an overpowered protagonist. From the moment the first Grand Witch appeared, they’d been in an age of explosive technological growth. It had already lasted more than two hundred years, and there was no end in sight.

Every second, witches brought resources back from other star systems and other worlds. Every second, new technologies were being developed and put to use.

It was thanks to the witches’ fierce appetite for conquest, paired with the curiosity of research-obsessed nerds.

Other races could never understand how the witches had combined the 【Warrior Race】 trait—an all-consuming drive to conquer, with everyone ready for battle—with the 【Research Race】 trait—an endless thirst for knowledge, with everyone devoted to research—and built an entirely new, advanced civilization.

But Jiang Cha could guess at least part of the reason.

Perhaps...

‘Are knowledge’s corrupting influence and the mental traits inherited from humans working at the same time?’

‘No. Maybe there’s an even deeper reason.’

The girl shook her head, brushing away those wild thoughts.

She looked up at the fiery red sunset outside, gathered her books, and returned the ones she’d borrowed to their shelves, one by one, relying on her memory.

“Finished reading? If you’d like to borrow any of them, just register them with me. They all have advanced marking spells on them.”

Miss Mo'er saw Jiang Cha and asked with a gentle smile.

“I’ve read them all. And I have to thank you for your help, Sister Mo'er. It meant a lot to me.”

The girl’s petite frame looked even smaller as she hugged three large, heavy magic books to her chest. She answered politely, her smile bright.

“You read all of them?”

“Did I miss something?”

She blinked. Mo'er blinked too.

The air fell suddenly silent. Two seconds later, Miss Mo'er shook her head and chuckled. “It’s nothing. I’m just delighted that Aisilen Academy has another little genius.”

“Ehh—”

The girl drew out the sound, then smiled mischievously. “Then people will call you the one who discovered a genius, Sister Mo'er! That makes us even closer, doesn’t it?”

“Hmm, perhaps you’re right. Well, off you go, my lovely little genius witch.”

“Miss Mo'er, you’re kind of mean, you know.”

Jiang Cha blushed a little. She’d only said that because she was caught up in the moment.

She’d only learned about witch history, so she had no idea what made her a genius. Her brain’s analysis said it was her resistance to knowledge’s intrusion—in other words, her Mentalism coefficient.

But she had no idea just how exceptional she was, or how far she stood above the average witch.

“A lot of people say that. But witches are more charming when they’re a little wicked, don’t you think?”

“Hahahaha! I’m starting to fall for bad older sisters!”

......

Nothing from 【Common Sense】 played out—not the story where the Great Library’s legendary super-witch took a liking to someone and accepted her as a student, nor the one where word got out and professors from all over the academy fought to recruit her.

The girl left the Great Library like anyone else, took the commuter car, and returned to the dorm once again.

【Welcome back, Miss Jiang Cha. Your roommate has left you a voice message. Please use your commuter card to check it.】

The same pleasant electronic voice as before, but now with something extra.

With a magic-activated sticker, the translucent screen appeared again. The girl stepped into the dorm and tapped the message.

A bright, energetic, youthful, and adorable voice rang out.

【Hi there, mysterious new roommate! I’m Lina, Lina Noyce! I’m in dorm room three. I’m so glad you’re listening to my message—at least you’re not like a certain someone who still hasn’t opened even one of theirs!】

The message cut off there, and the system automatically played the next one.

【Okay, okay, I’ll stop rambling, happy? This is all Estelle’s fault! She never checks her messages! Oh, and new roommate, don’t send that shut-in voice messages either. Just go knock on her door!】

There was some noise in the background, as if she were arguing with someone beside her. Then she seemed to remember she was recording a message and turned back to continue.

It sounded like she’d also been teasing another roommate.

Then the next message played.

【We don’t really have a welcome tradition in our dorm, and everyone’s busy today, so! We’ll just have to meet in class tomorrow. What a shame—I can’t meet my roommate, who’s a whole month late, right away! I’ll treat you to grilled fish tomorrow. It’s a super-plump magic fish from the Falling Star World, and the meat’s amazing!】

【Oh! He Qin should be back later. She’s in dorm room two, so if you need help with anything, go find her. Don’t worry, she’s a really sweet girl, even if she can be a little stubborn sometimes... She’s still easy to get along with. I love her! She’s such a Yamato Nadeshiko, you know!?】

【Well! That’s it! See you tomorrow!】

Jiang Cha: “.....”

After being bombarded by one voice message after another, Jiang Cha reached her dorm room. She opened the door and sighed.

“Looks like dorm life won’t be very quiet from now on.”

She smiled wryly, typed up a self-introduction, and sent it back.

A few seconds later, another string of voice messages came in.

Jiang Cha converted them to text and skimmed through. They were mostly rambling, along with repeated complaints about how sad Lina was that she couldn’t meet her today. She also asked Jiang Cha to send her a photo.

“A photo?”

“Come to think of it, I don’t even know what I look like.”

The girl tapped her chin. She was still a little mentally tired, but she got up from beside the bed and took a photo with the beautiful sunset outside the window behind her.

In the photo, the girl’s smooth, shoulder-length black hair was tinted a dreamy, beautiful crimson by the sunset.

Beneath her wispy bangs, her delicate face was as pretty as a doll’s—adorable, with a quiet, lasting charm.

What caught the eye most were her glistening ruby-red eyes, bright and dewy.

Like a newborn fawn, they were innocent and pure, their clarity irresistible.

Though they were the color of blood, they gave off only a gentle impression. Alongside her perfectly delicate features, her thin lips and long lashes completed the picture.

Together, they made a fragile-looking girl who seemed both saintly and faintly, wickedly unhinged.

【Oh my god! Jiang Cha, you’re so pretty!!! I’m already falling for you! Seriously, totally in love!】

The voice message played automatically.

Lina really did seem to be smitten.