Chapter 59: Flags—Even Witches Can’t Escape Them

A journey through the Fragmented World—although Jiang Cha felt as if more than a hundred years had passed in a blur, in reality, it had only been a brief five days.

When she took a ride back to the academy and saw the dormitory completely empty, she finally realized:

Spring break had only just begun.

“Ahh… what should I do next~”

A sudden wave of laziness made her feel tired. She lazily lay down on the sofa, kicked off her little pink slippers, wore a pure white set of pajamas, and curled up hugging a pillow.

She actually had many things to do.

But she simply didn’t want to move.

From noon until evening, half asleep and half awake, she even forgot to eat dinner.

“Fairy Express! Delivering the newspaper, Miss Witch!”

A noisy and lively voice woke her up.

She jumped off the sofa and opened the kitchen window. This time, the little fairy wasn’t like the cat-girl she had met before, but rather resembled a chibi dog-girl.

“Thank you…”

“You’re welcome.”

Noticing the girl’s low spirits, the dog-girl blinked her eyes. “Did I disturb your rest?”

“No, not at all.”

The girl shook her head, hesitating a little before continuing, “Can I pet you? I don’t mind paying.”

“No need~ If you want to pet me, just go ahead! If it cheers you up.”

The dog-girl’s personality was completely different from the previous cat-girl—very cheerful and friendly toward the witch.

But don’t think that means they’re better than the cat-girls.

These dog-girls are all energetic and quite flirtatious, friendly to everyone.

It’s just that their way of attracting customers differs from that of the cat-girls.

But the girl didn’t mind.

Feeling a bit down, she reached out and gently rubbed the dog-girl’s little head, stroking the fluffy dog ears.

She felt her body and mind being somewhat healed.

Back on the sofa, Jiang Cha habitually glanced at the day’s newspaper headline.

Reading the news was a habit for witches—even though they had more efficient and cheaper means of news transmission, newspapers were still very popular.

It was quite nice as casual reading during tea time.

Jiang Cha didn’t particularly enjoy it; she just needed something to divert her attention and help herself perk up.

But today’s headline…

[Frontline Victory! The Sage Great Saint and the Water Lord intervene; the Level 3 Mechanical Civilization is annihilated. A batch of battle witches may return to society, and the peak sales of magical puppets are about to end.]

‘Great Saint…’

A cold sweat dripped down Jiang Cha’s forehead. Her mouth twitched, feeling a bad premonition.

‘Could it really be… such a coincidence!?’

…

“Why are you asking about this?”

Mortel looked at her apprentice oddly, not understanding why she suddenly brought up such a topic.

“But generally speaking, events that occur in the Fragmented World don’t affect the original body in any way. It’s called a simulation, but the entities and avatars in the Fragmented World are essentially different from the original body, and have no connection with it.”

“Not even a little possibility?”

Jiang Cha seemed to breathe a sigh of relief but also felt a bit disappointed.

Mortel didn’t know what she was troubled by, only guessing it might be some aftereffect of her first time in the Fragmented World, which was quite common.

“There is one possibility, but the probability is extremely low. There have been fewer than five cases in the entire witch society, so normally it’s not a concern.”

“What!?”

Jiang Cha was somewhat shocked—so it really could happen!?

“You know about Transformed Witches, right? Excluding awakened witches like you, most Transformed Witches come from other powerful races. The reason the transformation technology can give them a new life is because of its principle.”

“This technology converts all past experiences of a sentient being entirely into magic power. Let me repeat—that’s everything from their past.”

“That means…”

“That’s right.”

Mortel snapped her fingers.

“This includes their experiences. This falls under the realm of occult knowledge, and might be a bit early for you to fully understand, so I’ll just give you the conclusion.”

“When a transformed witch’s past experiences are all absorbed and converted into the magic power of this witch, if her original world happens to have split off a fragment before her transformation, and she happens to be the main character in that fragment, then a situation similar to a soul fragment parasitizing a world can arise.”

“Only when that fragment world collapses, and the carrier of the recorded experiences disappears, can she regain this part of the magic power.”

“The return of magic power naturally brings back the recorded magical information… This is the only possibility, and you don’t need to worry too much. Only sage-level witches can achieve this, and even if you did something, they wouldn’t bother with a little witch like you.”

“I see…”

Jiang Cha relaxed a bit.

She was really afraid that Great Saint might come looking for her and cause more trouble.

After all, what she did to the monkey-girl in the Fragmented World… To put it nicely, it was heart-fluttering teasing; to put it harshly, it was deception and seduction.

Even if the original being came looking for her, she’d be in the wrong!

…

Startled like this, Jiang Cha’s laziness was almost gone. She had planned to rest for one day to adjust to the sudden surge in magical power.

That laziness was actually her body’s early warning of fatigue.

So from the next day, the girl returned to her previous routine.

She worked on perfecting the mind magic she had developed, studied steadily, and when her brain was tired, she went for walks or to the great library to browse some leisure books.

“Sister Mortel~ Why are you still working overtime during spring break?”

The great library was nearly empty during spring break, except for a few people. Only Mortel, yawning lazily, was still steadfast at the front desk.

“Ha~~ No choice. As long as you kids don’t leave school, I have to guard the library… Alright, go do your thing, don’t delay Sister’s beauty sleep.”

“Yes, yes~”

Seeing that Mortel clearly didn’t want to chat with the ‘overtime culprit,’ Jiang Cha could only wave her hand and run off.

Mortel was a great witch, and when she got angry, the girl wouldn’t be able to escape.

She’d end up getting spanked!

“Hey, wait.”

Just as Jiang Cha was about to find the book she hadn’t finished and continue reading, Mortel suddenly called her softly.

“Hmm? What’s up?”

The girl immediately turned around, her cute face smiling as she leaned toward Mortel.

“Could it be Sister Mortel finally noticed how good I am and wants to have a long talk with me?”

But Mortel remained lying on the desk, not moving a muscle.

Like an old salted fish drowning.

But the corner of her mouth curled slightly, seeming a bit schadenfreude-like.

“A big shot has come to the Battle Club recently. If you want, you can apply for guidance this afternoon. After all, witches can’t escape fighting.”

“Thanks, Sister Mortel~~”