“It doesn’t feel... very useful.”

The girl waggled the little black stick in her hand, making a wry comment with a conflicted look.

By her estimate, the boost this wand gave her amounted to a 2% increase in casting speed and a 1% increase in mana control.

Compared with the drawback of having one hand occupied, the wand’s boost was negligible—if anything, it was a net loss.

“Of course a basic wand isn’t much use. It’s just a piece of stationery.”

Lina joined in, then casually drew a deep-crimson knight’s greatsword from her waist. It was a full two meters long and covered in ornate engravings. She planted it in the ground with a loud thunk!

If the academy grounds hadn’t been reinforced with magic, she might’ve driven it half a meter into the earth with that one thrust.

And that wasn’t all. Lina drew on her mana and channeled it into the greatsword.

Blazing red flames erupted at once, scorching the ground until it was pitch-black.

“This is my wand. It boosts spell power by 50%, increases mana output by 30%, and has a few spell slots engraved on it.”

“A... wand?”

The girl’s eyelids twitched.

She looked from the little wooden stick in her hand to the enormous thing Lina was holding.

That greatsword had to weigh at least five or six hundred pounds. How was it supposed to be a wand?!

“Lina-chan’s is a long wand.”

He Qin covered her mouth and giggled softly as she explained things to Jiang Cha. “Wands come in all sorts of styles, and you can customize their appearance. It’s perfectly normal for a Combat Witch to use a melee weapon as her wand.”

“Generally speaking, though, there are only three types: short wands, medium wands, and long wands. Short wands use less material, so they’re the cheapest. But they don’t have many engraving slots, so they’re mainly used to help Witches channel mana and cast faster.”

“Long wands have more engraving slots, so you can customize them more freely. Most are made to boost spell power and add spell slots.”

“Medium wands combine both functions, but they don’t do either as well. They’re difficult to engrave, which makes them the most expensive to craft.”

“As for their appearance...”

He Qin seemed a little shy, but she still waved her hand and summoned her wand from thin air: a roughly one-meter-long laser gun with an intensely sci-fi design!

“You can pretty much do whatever you like.”

“So I fought that hard just to get this piece of stationery...?”

Jiang Cha looked at the wand in her hand, then at He Qin’s ultra-sci-fi laser gun and Lina’s cool, powerful flaming greatsword.

She couldn’t help finding hers a little disappointing.

She’d already finished analyzing the runes on the wretched stick. If she had the materials, she could make one herself right now.

There was no real skill involved—just a few basic runes. So basic, in fact, that the girl had seen them in a book about magical fundamentals.

But Lina and He Qin’s wands had runes and crafting techniques so complicated that Jiang Cha couldn’t even begin to understand them. If she tried to analyze them by force, her little brain would overload.

“Oh, well. It works, so I guess that’s enough.”

She sighed softly.

What could she do? She was just a poor girl, after all.

“Don’t worry. Wands aren’t expensive. If Cha Bao studies hard, she’ll be able to save up for one before long.”

He Qin had bought her own wand with money she’d earned herself.

In the Witch society’s age of abundant material wealth, wands really weren’t expensive—as long as you didn’t go for anything too high-end.

The Battle Club handed out basic models. The main reason was that Witches preferred customized wands that suited their individual tastes, and many even made their own. They looked down on mass-produced standard models, so those were only useful as a temporary option for special cases like Jiang Cha’s. The club figured there was no point wasting money on anything better.

...

After chatting for a while, Jiang Cha almost forgot they’d come out during class break. Luckily, the break was long enough that even after a match, they could take their time talking as they headed along.

After getting to know her two roommates a little, the girl began to understand them better, and the shape of their friendship started to emerge.

Lina was always the talkative one.

In the short time they’d spent together, Jiang Cha learned that Lina was the youngest daughter of the Noyce Family, a very traditional Witch family and one of the leading families of Dragon Witches.

Lina was the youngest in her family. Her older sisters had either graduated long ago and gone off to fight on the battlefield, or were already in their sixth year and rarely at school, busy with their own affairs.

All in all, her life was pretty easygoing. Aside from her love of battles, she didn’t have any grand ambitions.

He Qin was just as gentle and angelic as she looked. She was always happy to explain unfamiliar things to Jiang Cha. When there was nothing to explain, she’d simply smile and listen quietly as Jiang Cha and Lina chatted, occasionally adding a comment or two.

She didn’t say much about her background, but Jiang Cha could tell she’d had a difficult time before. No one had supported her financially, so she’d worked her way through school, mastered the craft of making magical puppets, and saved for a whole year before enrolling. She was also the oldest of the three.

He Qin was sixteen, Jiang Cha was fifteen, and Lina was fourteen.

Aislen’s only admission requirements were that you be under eighteen and pass the entrance exam, so it wasn’t strange for all three of them to be in the same year. Apparently, there was even an upperclasswoman in the fourth year who was only eleven—a literal little kid.

“Mana is the foundation of modern Witch society. Everything we have developed is built on mana technology... Jiang Cha, what’s the fundamental nature of mana?”

“Mana is omnipotent. It’s the power of miracles, capable of anything.”

Their magic theory teacher was a Grand Witch who looked to be in her twenties but was actually over seventy. She was far more lively than Aelivia, their Witch history teacher, and often cracked little jokes in class.

“You may sit down.”

“Mana is omnipotent, but that comes with a condition: you need enough of it.”

“With enough mana, even magic that defies Fate or turns back time is merely a forbidden spell. Creating a world isn’t just an empty promise, either—as long as you have enough mana.”

“But cost-effectiveness is one issue, and efficiency is another. If you rely on brute force alone, even a Dragon Transformation spell consumes an astronomical amount of mana. You could drain a Sage dry and still not have enough. But with a spell model to improve its efficiency, Dragon Transformation becomes a spell that most Grand Witches can learn and use.”

“That’s why we develop mana technology and optimize spell models: to improve efficiency.”

“But the fundamental principle that mana can do anything is still important. Don’t forget that, my dear students.”

“Mana can do anything. Without mana, you can do nothing.”

Witches often used that line online to poke fun at the universally known First Law of Mana, as well as their own limited mana reserves.

So when Teacher Diana said it, a quiet ripple of laughter passed through the classroom.

Fundamentals of Mana seemed like a useless introductory class. It covered things that were either common knowledge or had no practical use in daily life—and you only had to look at how soundly Lina was sleeping to see that.

But what Diana was really teaching her students was confidence.

The confidence to believe in yourself, and leave the rest to mana.

Perhaps these first-years couldn’t understand that yet. During their studies and training, they might even feel that “mana can do anything, but its abilities sure are limited.”

Once they found themselves in a desperate situation, they’d understand just how right that principle was.

At an ordinary school elsewhere, where Witches had only one or two thousand units of mana, this class really wouldn’t be so important. But anyone admitted to Aislen Witch Academy had at least eight thousand.

—A deep reserve of mana is the foundation for working miracles.

“I see...”

After class, the girl sat at her desk and murmured under her breath, seeming lost in thought.

“Did you have any particular insight, Jiang Cha?”

He Qin asked curiously.

Compared with Teacher Aelivia’s lessons, Teacher Diana’s classes were much more relaxed. He Qin hadn’t felt any pressure at all.

“Now I understand why Lina said this class was useless.”

The girl held out a finger and poked the golden-haired girl’s soft, youthful cheek again and again, a helpless smile playing at her lips.

“Why? I thought Teacher Diana’s lesson was really good.”

“Because she’s always had that kind of confidence—the confidence that as long as she has mana, she can do anything.”

...

She didn’t understand.

But she didn’t need to.

Witches could develop in all sorts of directions. He Qin leaned more toward rigorous theory and precise calculations. Maybe that had a lot to do with her love of sci-fi designs.

“Lina~ Lina~ Wake up!”

Jiang Cha didn’t say anything else. She just tapped the golden-haired girl on the forehead and gave her a gentle nudge.

“Huh? Is class over?!”

A moment ago, she’d looked ready to fall asleep at any second. But the instant she saw her classmates filing out of the classroom, the golden-haired girl perked right up!

Her bright blue eyes practically lit up!

“Class is over.”

The girl leaned over her desk and glanced sideways at Lina. Her beautiful ruby-red eyes were soft and warm, full of affection.

“Then let’s go battle!”

“I’m going to the library to borrow a book.”

The girl was still smiling—a mischievous smile. In the dazzling sunlight from the window, even her soft pink lips seemed to shine.

“Guh! Th-then that’s fine too.”

Lina swallowed and quickly turned away, the tips of her ears turning pink.

‘Whoa~! Cha Bao, that was too much! Heart, heart, take it easy!’

“Your ears are really red, you know?”

Lina had already backed down, but the girl pressed her advantage. She gently wrapped both arms around Lina’s neck and leaned close to speak, her warm breath brushing Lina’s skin.

Jiang Cha pressed her full weight against Lina, the softness of her chest clinging tightly to Lina’s back through the magical robe.

A stray lock of the girl’s hair slipped across Lina’s cheek as she moved, tickling her.

The soft rustle of their clothes made the moment feel even more awkward.

“I-I’m not! My face isn’t red at all! Hahahaha~ Come on, let’s hurry to the library!”

A flash of pale blue light appeared and vanished. Lina activated her Dragon Skin, ducked down on the spot, and darted out from under the desk.

“You two hurry up, too! We have to get going—we still need to make it to the cafeteria!”

After tossing out that remark, Lina turned and ran.

He Qin watched her go, puzzled. “What got into Lina-chan all of a sudden?”

“I have no idea~”

The girl was still smiling mischievously, like a cat who’d just pulled off a successful prank.

Then she leaned comfortably against He Qin’s shoulder and said with a grin, “Maybe she just got a sudden whim. She is a kid, after all.”

“I see.”

He Qin nodded. She couldn’t think of another explanation, so she simply believed Jiang Cha.

“Let’s head to the cafeteria too, before Lina gets too far ahead.”

“Okay~”