“Jiang Cha-chan, we’re not taking this train today.”
Early the next morning, after spending all night reading alchemy books, Jiang Cha stumbled toward the train on instinct, still half-asleep. He Qin gently tugged her back.
Seeing the dazed, exhausted look in her eyes and how utterly spaced-out she seemed, Lina couldn’t help teasing her. “What, did you overdo it with the solo fun last night? Even a Witch’s body is tough, but you still need to know when to stop, Cha Bao.”
“Hey! Qin Bao, why’d you hit me?”
He Qin’s gentle chop hadn’t been very hard. It barely registered for the blond loli, who could be slammed into a wall without a scratch, but it still stopped her muttering under her breath.
“Don’t assume the worst about people, Lina-chan.”
“I just stayed up a little late reading... I’ll be fine after I rest for a bit.”
The girl’s brain felt slow and heavy. Before the two could start bickering again, she cut in, her voice still a little hoarse.
“Why aren’t we taking the train that just left? We have combat class today, don’t we?”
“We do have combat class... but you might not get much time to rest, Jiang Cha-chan...”
One look at the girl, who seemed to have overdone her cultivation, and He Qin knew she’d spent the whole night reading. Her thought circuits were all busy processing the high concentration of knowledge she’d taken in, so the rest of her mind had gone into standby. That was why she looked so groggy.
—A Witch’s body could handle three days and nights of pleasuring herself without getting this tired!
Lina had just been making a dirty joke. That lewd little loli was always like this, and she’d given He Qin a headache more than once.
...
First-year Little Witches didn’t have the wide variety of electives that older students could take to develop their individual interests, so their schedules were still pretty simple.
Three days of basic theory: Witch history, an introduction to magic, and basic spells.
Two days of Witch combat class.
Witches lived in a society where everyone was ready for war—and, in fact, everyone was a warmonger. Everything looked peaceful and stable on the surface, but in truth, it all served the goal of expanding their territory and growing their colonies.
They were also extreme racists.
That was why the more elite the Witch academy, the greater the proportion of combat classes.
At some ordinary public academies, which taught students with poor magical aptitude, combat classes were electives. They put more emphasis on teaching secondary disciplines like alchemy.
So the curriculum at Aislen Witch Academy, and the Battle Club’s popularity, came as no surprise.
Two full days of combat classes a week made the academy’s attitude clear: at the very least, students who graduated from here couldn’t be useless in a fight!
In other words, every school in Witch society could really be called a military academy...
Jiang Cha was still groggy when He Qin and the others brought her to combat class. It was only then that she realized something was off.
“This is... a classroom?”
The girl stared at the vast forest before her, a question mark practically popping up over her head.
Thanks to her powerful memory and a Witch’s natural sense of direction, she could tell where they were, even though she’d been half-asleep on the way through the subspace transit lanes.
The academy’s southwest corner was marked on the map as a vast, uninhabited forest.
She’d even wondered why a school needed such a huge, untouched forest. Was the Witch World going green, too?
But now, she was about to find out.
“That’s right! This is where we have combat class! And our training equipment...”
Whenever the blond loli saw anything related to combat, her eyes lit up with excitement. Her attitude in class was completely different from yesterday, when she’d acted like a textbook underachiever—sleeping whenever she could and slacking off whenever she couldn’t.
She was like a Chinese high school student who’d finally gotten a rare art class.
Absolutely brimming with energy!
“...is all the magical creatures in the forest.”
Jiang Cha: “.....”
Was Witch combat class... just a little different from what she’d imagined!?
She’d always thought combat class meant a Mentor would have them stand at attention and practice military drills, like they were at boot camp!
So they were going straight into live combat!? The oldest first-year Witch was only seventeen. Weren’t they worried about an accident—and getting blamed for not keeping their students safe!?
Oh, right. Witches could bring people back to life.
Then no problem.
“Class, fall in!”
One Little Witch was already a high-energy menace. But a whole group of sixteen- and seventeen-year-old Witches, with an average of around 15,000 mana each...
Heh. That was an army of little demons ready to run wild and turn the world upside down! The kind even an ordinary hundred-year-old Witch couldn’t keep in line!
So naturally, the Mentor teaching combat class—the perfect outlet for all that energy—was no pushover either.
“Cha Bao, Cha Bao, remember—don’t cause trouble! Mentor Vladimir hits harder than any of the other Mentors!”
When the Witch in a military uniform emblazoned with red stars descended from the sky, standing ramrod straight, her face set and a thick murderous aura in her eyes, even fearless Lina could only hurriedly whisper a warning to Jiang Cha before obediently standing still and keeping quiet.
‘Vladimir?’
Jiang Cha had heard that familiar surname in her general knowledge before. She took in the Mentor’s outfit and thought about Witch history and human history...
She had a pretty good idea where this Mentor came from.
After the Witch hunts, the Witches hadn’t lost, but their numbers were small, and they were more of a research-focused race. Under the leadership of the First Sage, they chose to go underground in the human world and build up their strength.
Their existence remained a secret on Earth until the twenty-first century.
That was why human history on this alternate Earth, up to the twenty-first century, looked much like the version Jiang Cha knew.
In reality, though, it had been a period of civil war among the Witches.
Witches from each region secretly infiltrated the upper ranks of local governments and militaries, becoming the decisive force that shaped the course of wars from the shadows.
Their goal was to fight for control of the world after the Witches became numerous enough to establish a Witch-led society on Earth.
But that war also made the Witches discover the thrill of warfare. The rapid advances in magical technology during the conflict unexpectedly revealed a way to travel through the multiverse.
The Witches needed vast resources to grow quickly. So they decided there was no point in fighting among themselves. In just two years, they unified Earth, invented Witch-conversion technology, plundered resources from other worlds, and converted humans on Earth into Witches on a massive scale, building up their forces at a crazy pace.
With such a huge population base, talented Witches emerged in droves, driving magical technology forward in turn. They overthrew the old order, formed the Sage Council, and ushered in a whole new era of warfare. That was when the war-filled twenty-first century truly began—the Witch Era, as history books called it.
It wasn’t until fifty years ago, when the Witches adopted a more sustainable approach and their colonies were producing enough resources, that they finally slowed their expansion a little. The main reason was that their population simply couldn’t keep up with the pace of their expeditions.
Even so, every year, plenty of Witches still went off to open up new worlds and make money while they were growing up.
After all... even in a world overflowing with resources, property on Earth, the Witches’ home planet, was still expensive. And raising a Grand Witch took astronomical resources. The knowledge taught at the academy was only the basics. If they wanted forbidden spells, legendary magical equipment, or rare treasures that could increase their mana, they had to earn those for themselves.
Only the veteran Witches who’d made names for themselves and amassed assets across several resource-rich worlds could spend their days leisurely drinking tea and studying magic. The younger generation still had to hustle.
No one knew Mentor Vladimir’s exact age, but a Witch’s early years had the greatest influence on the development of her personality. Judging by her clothes and temperament, she’d clearly been born in the Red Empire and taken part in the Witches’ civil war.
In other words, she was what people casually called a Russian Witch.
And Russian Witches...
were famous for having no idea how hard they were hitting.
“Good!”
Mentor Vladimir looked over the Little Witches lined up before her and nodded in satisfaction. They were nowhere near as good as the soldiers she’d once commanded, but for Witches, who were naturally undisciplined, they were already pretty impressive. After so many years teaching at Aisilen Academy, she’d lowered her standards without even noticing.
Otherwise, she’d have called up that blond loli who’d been badmouthing her and given her a flying kick, just to show her what a Soviet political commissar could do!
Did she really think that just because Mentor Vladimir was flying up there, she couldn’t hear her!?
“First, a reminder: today’s assignment will be completed in groups according to your dorm numbers, as usual.”
“Jiang Cha, step forward!”
Maybe it was a habit her body had retained, but when the sharp command rang out, the girl instinctively snapped into a military step. She almost saluted, too.
But from what her ‘general knowledge’ said, she seemed to be from China. Chinese and Russian military salutes weren’t the same!
“Yes!”
“Have you mastered spellcasting techniques? Have you studied Witch martial arts?”
“I’ve fully mastered spellcasting techniques. I haven’t studied Witch martial arts yet!”
“Good.”
A hint of satisfaction appeared in Vladimir’s eyes. “Return to your formation and follow orders. Don’t act rashly during the assignment! Find He Qin and make up your martial arts training. I’ll test you next week!”
“Yes!”
“Move out! Today, each group’s assignment is to hunt ten second-tier magical creatures and one third-tier magical creature!”
“Yes!” × n
The replies came in a scattered chorus, nowhere near in unison.
But Mentor Vladimir didn’t mind. She flew back into the sky, puffing on a cigar as she watched the students below discuss their plans in groups.
The Witch army was nothing like a human army. Every individual Witch had at least the combat power of a mechanized missile force, so they didn’t need to be blindly obedient. They also fought in coordinated groups on the battlefield, so Vladimir didn’t train them according to the principles of a human military.
Watching the students split into groups of two and three—some eager to seize the initiative and rush into the forest, others carefully discussing their plans before acting—Vladimir only smiled and quietly reminisced about the old days.
“Ooooooh! Let’s go!!!”
—The blond dragon loli was the first one to charge off.
“Lina-chan! Wait! Let’s discuss a strategy first!”
He Qin ran after Lina.
And so, Jiang Cha’s very first combat class began in utter chaos.
...
