Chapter 20: Mass Producing Troops Is Driven by Population Demand

“Jiang Cha-chan, we’re not taking that bus today.”

Early the next morning, when Jiang Cha, who had been reading alchemy books all night, was half-asleep and about to board the bus on instinct, He Qin gently tugged her.

Seeing her tired and confused eyes, and her fairy-like appearance, Lina couldn’t help but tease, “Did you overcharge your magic last night? Even if witches have strong bodies, you still need to take care, Cha-bao.”

“Ah! Qin-bao, why did you hit me?”

He Qin’s light chop didn’t use much force—it was basically nothing to this golden-haired loli who could be slammed into walls without a scratch—but it still stopped her from her endless nagging.

“Don’t be so malicious in guessing others’ intentions, Lina-chan.”

“I just stayed up reading last night… I’ll rest a bit and I’ll be fine.”

Dragging her heavy, sluggish brain, the girl cut off their bickering before it could start again, her voice still slightly hoarse.

“Why aren’t we taking that bus? Today’s combat class, right?”

“Yes, it’s combat class… but Jiang Cha-chan, you probably won’t get much rest today…”

With that immortal-cultivator-overworked look, He Qin didn’t even have to guess that she’d stayed up all night reading. All her thought processes were in a dormant state from the intense knowledge overload, which explained the dazed look.

—With a witch’s physique, even if she powered herself nonstop for three days and nights, she wouldn’t be this exhausted!

Lina’s previous comment was just a dirty joke; this horny loli had always had that personality, which had caused He Qin quite a headache.

…

The first-year little witches didn’t have the varied electives for personalized development that upper grades had, so their schedule was quite simple.

Three days of basic theory—witch history, magic power overview, basic magic.

Two days of witch combat class.

Witches were a society of universal soldiers, even war maniacs—everything in society seemed peaceful but was actually geared toward expanding territory and colonies.

And extremely racist.

So, the higher the level of the witch academy, the greater the proportion of combat classes.

Some ordinary public academies, which taught witches with poor magical talent, even made combat classes optional and focused more on alchemy and other secondary professions.

So the curriculum at Aisilun Magic Academy, and the popularity of the combat club, were no surprise.

Two full days a week of combat classes showed that students from this academy had to be competent fighters at least!

In other words, all schools in witch society could basically be called military academies…

When Jiang Cha, still dazed, was brought by He Qin and the others to the combat class, she immediately felt something was off.

“This is… a classroom?”

The girl looked at the vast forest before her, a question mark popping up over her small head.

Thanks to her excellent memory and a witch’s innate sense of direction, even though she’d been dazed and half-lost in the astral space path, she could still identify this location.

The academy’s southwest corner—on the map, a vast, uninhabited forest.

She had once complained about why a school would have such a huge, deserted forest—was the witch world into carbon neutrality too?

Now she should soon understand why.

“Yes! This is the combat classroom! And the teaching tools…”

The golden-haired loli’s eyes sparkled with excitement whenever she saw anything combat-related, a total contrast to her usual sleepy, lazy attitude from yesterday.

Like a Chinese high schooler rare to have art class—super energized!

“It’s various magical creatures in the forest.”

Jiang Cha: “…..”

Is the witch combat class really… a little different from what she expected!?

She had thought the combat class was about a mentor leading them to stand at attention and practice martial exercises like military training!

But this was straight-up live combat!?

The oldest first-year witch was only seventeen—weren’t they afraid of safety incidents and criticism for ignoring student safety!?

Oh, witches have resurrection magic.

That’s fine then.

“Class start!”

A group of little witches full of energy were troublemakers; these sixteen- or seventeen-year-old witches had an average magic power of about 15,000…

Hehe, that’s basically a gang of little hell-raisers!

Even a normal hundred-year-old witch couldn’t control them.

So the combat class instructor who had to handle this bunch couldn’t be gentle either.

“Cha-bao, remember, don’t cause trouble! Instructor Vladimir is the harshest of all the instructors!”

When the witch in a green uniform with a red star, standing straight with a stern face and deadly gaze, descended from the sky, even fearless Lina only dared whisper a quick warning to Jiang Cha before standing silently.

‘Vladimir?’

Jiang Cha had heard this familiar surname from common knowledge, and seeing this instructor’s outfit combined with witch and human history…

She roughly understood her background.

Historically, after the witch hunts, though witches weren’t defeated, their numbers dwindled, and the research-oriented witches chose to hide in the human world under the first sage’s leadership.

Until the 21st century, their existence remained secret on Earth.

This made the history of this alternate Earth’s 21st-century humanity not too different from her own knowledge.

But in reality, it was a history of witch civil war.

Witches in different regions infiltrated local governments and militaries, secretly controlling wars to compete for leadership after witches became dominant on Earth.

This war revealed to witches the joy of warfare and accelerated magical technology development, even discovering multiverse travel.

In urgent need of resources to develop quickly, witches stopped fighting openly and unified Earth in two years, invented witch transformation technology, and began large-scale conversion of humans into witches to create massive armies.

With enough population base, genius witches flourished, driving magical technology forward, overthrowing the old order, forming the Sage Council, and beginning a new style of warfare—the witch era of the 21st century, a century full of war.

Fifty years ago, witches, adopting sustainable development, slightly paused conquest as resources from colonies were sufficient, mainly because population growth couldn’t keep up with expeditions.

But every year, many growing witches still left to explore new worlds and earn resources.

After all… even in resource-rich worlds, Earth’s housing prices were expensive, and a great witch needed astronomical resources to grow.

The academy only taught basics; to obtain forbidden spells, legendary magical gear, and increase magical power, they had to earn it themselves.

Only accomplished witches with resource-world wealth could leisurely research magic and drink tea daily—the younger generation was still fierce.

The current instructor Vladimir, though her exact age was unknown, was obviously born in the Red Empire and fought in the witch civil war, judging by her clothes and personality.

A so-called Russian witch.

Russian witches…

Were known for their heavy-handedness.

“Good!”

Instructor Vladimir nodded approvingly at the assembled little witches. Though not as disciplined as her soldiers, for witches’ free spirits, their quality was quite good—after teaching at Aisilun for years, she’d relaxed her standards.

Otherwise, she would have kicked that golden-haired loli who insulted her to teach her a lesson in Soviet commissar combat power!

Did she think she was flying too high to hear it!?

“First, today’s task will be done in groups by dorm number.”

“Jiang Cha, step out!”

Maybe from habit, the girl instinctively stepped into a military stance on hearing the sharp command, nearly saluting.

But from her “common knowledge,” she thought she was from the Huaxia side—not the Russian style.

“Yes!”

“Mastered spellcasting techniques? Learned witch martial arts?”

“Spellcasting techniques fully mastered; witch martial arts not yet learned!”

“Good.”

A trace of satisfaction flashed in Vladimir’s eyes: “Fall back in line, obey commands, don’t act rashly during the mission! Go to He Qin to make up martial arts lessons; I’ll check next week!”

“Yes!”

“Move out! Today’s mission: hunt ten level-2 magical creatures and one level-3 magical creature!”

“Yes!” *many

The answers were scattered, not very neat.

But Vladimir didn’t mind, flying back into the sky to smoke her cigar and watch students strategize in groups below.

Witch armies weren’t human armies—each individual was at least equal to a mechanized missile unit in combat power. They didn’t need obedience but fought in cooperative groups.

So she didn’t train them like human soldiers.

Watching the students in small groups, some rushing to seize the initiative straight into the forest, others carefully discussing tactics, Vladimir smiled quietly, reminiscing the old days.

“Oh oh oh oh! Let’s go!!!”

—the golden-haired dragon loli was the first to dash off.

“Lina-chan! Wait! Let’s discuss strategy!”

He Qin ran after Lina.

Jiang Cha’s first-ever combat class started in such chaotic circumstances.

…

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There’s another update tonight, with ten thousand words today!