Chapter 28: Heqin: Please Reimburse Me, Desu!

A deafening explosion shook the ground, signaling the end of a battle that had been deadlocked for a full thirty minutes.

And…

No one survived.

“Damn it, Chabao, if you were going to make a move, you could’ve given me a hint! Do you know I almost died of fright just now!? What the hell is going on in your mind in that full power mode—it’s insane!”

The golden-haired loli, soaking wet as she came out of the revival room, was the first to complain.

“I couldn’t help it. Mentor Carol is just too strong. No matter how I calculated, the best outcome was a draw… You should’ve known the result if I gave you a heads-up, right?”

The girl picked up a towel and lazily wiped the water off her hair, explaining softly.

With Carol being such an experienced ace witch in combat, to fool her and achieve the greatest effect, Jiang Cha had to deceive even her own teammates.

Any abnormal behavior would alert Carol, so she had no choice but to blow herself and her own teammates up together: “Besides, even if I gave a hint, I would’ve only told He Qin to dodge the explosion and go full defense… She’s the only one who could withstand this blast.”

“That’s pretty ruthless!”

Lina understood but just couldn’t swallow the bitterness.

And for their first team battle to end like this…

The golden-haired loli worriedly glanced at He Qin but was surprised to find that He Qin seemed completely unfazed, her expression calm and collected.

Only a gentle yet helpless reminder:

“…Try not to use this kind of tactic next time.”

“I’ll try~”

The girl nodded cheerfully.

If she had the energy in full power mode to choose a better method, she would’ve tried to get the best result. But if not…

Guess what happens~?

As for where the explosion came from?

It was Chabao’s old trick. The four witches used nearly fifty thousand mana points on the battlefield, creating a magical vortex far stronger than the one she triggered in the forest.

They even warned Lina ahead of time to regulate her breathing and channel mana, which boosted the blast’s power even further.

The protective runes on the battlefield were shaken and nearly destroyed—the explosion’s power far exceeded their limit.

If you want a comparison, it’s roughly equal to the ultimate casting of a level 6 pure offensive spell, “List’s Red Dragon’s Breath.”

This is a famous ancient spell—not rare but very practical and expensive.

And the last time this spell became famous was actually related to them, mainly related to Lina—one of her many sisters.

At the Witch Cup, she used it perfectly, blasting and killing four opponents at once.

“Damn it! These young rabbits today are so ruthless.”

Carol wasn’t killed by the explosion but lost the ability to act, which in a battle without teammates was basically equivalent to being out, so the result was judged a draw.

Casey poured a revival potion on Carol’s charred and dried-out “body.” The ace witch recovered visibly fast and immediately started cursing.

Casey couldn’t help but wonder if she had wasted that precious fifth-tier potion. Honestly, if Carol were mute, she would be the most popular mentor in the entire Eslen Academy—no contest.

“Hey! Casey, why did you stab me last time!?”

The blue-haired witch nearby couldn’t hold back and confronted her.

“You know, Rin, reviving once costs way less than resurrection potions.”

Casey shrugged with no sign of regret.

“Damn it! Come here, I swear I’ll beat you to death today!”

“But you can’t beat me, right?”

“Go to hell, you wooden witch!”

The blue-haired Rin punched her hard and turned away, making Carol sigh.

But there was nothing she could do. She’d been trying to matchmake these two for a while now, and even though she had chosen them as a team before, nothing had happened in four years. It wasn’t that they were uninterested in each other; one was tsundere, and the other was stubborn.

They could only keep grinding it out slowly.

“Why am I even playing matchmaker?”

Carol scratched her head and shifted her focus to business: “Casey, what do you think of these three kids?”

“Three against four isn’t stressful at all. The only weak point is easy to fix. Newcomers are getting really strong, and it’s stressing me out.”

“How do you fix it?”

Carol pressed for more details.

“Let her develop on her own. I heard from Lina that she learns fast and plans to develop all professions and paths fully. If trained properly…”

She didn’t even dare imagine what it’d be like to have a team with such a comprehensive and extremely rational commander, paired with a genius automaton mage with her own system, and the Nois Red Dragon Witch.

Simply invincible!

The only downside was it took too long to develop. One year wasn’t enough.

Because the five major sub-professions and six major magic systems were each a bottomless pit of time and money. Seven years at the academy would barely get you halfway.

But a halfway product was good enough.

“I checked her profile. Not sure where the principal got this naturally awakened witch, but she only officially started training this Wednesday.”

Carol added.

“What kind of monster is that!?”

Casey widened her eyes in disbelief, but Carol just smiled and asked back, “Which one of the Nine Great Sages isn’t a monster?”

“….”

That was true.

Witches are basically hacked beings. If ordinary witches are like using cheats found online (in the gene pool), great witches write their own cheat tools, sages write hacking programs, then the great sages are basically electronic lifeforms in the network, doing whatever they want without rules.

“So, Mentor, you’re optimistic about Jiang Cha?”

“Even Vladimir personally reminded me to watch her. Why shouldn’t I be optimistic? By time, I was the first to discover her potential.”

“Alright, got it. I’ll make sure she gets enough resources.”

Casey was not just an ordinary fifth-year student. Since the sixth and seventh years were usually away and didn’t intervene in internal affairs but only provided training guidance, she was basically in charge of the battle club.

The actual third-in-command, the club manager—basically the butler.

With the president and vice-president mostly absent, one in seventh year and one in sixth year, Casey wielded full power.

Resource allocation was just a matter of a word for her.

“Weak magic library? Hehe.”

Thinking of the girl’s learning speed in class, Carol chuckled.

Even if He Qin didn’t come, just pulling Lina and Jiang Cha to compete in the Witch Cup was enough. And these two…

She was confident she could tempt them.

He Qin was an automaton mage with a master-level mentor behind her, even if the specialty didn’t match, no problem. Lina was after her magic library, and Jiang Cha was a poor witch—easy to deal with~

“Wow—Mentor, you’re smiling so **. I only like first-year juniors, no interest in older girls.”

“Get lost. If you lose again this year, I’ll open your butt up.”

“Okay~”

Casey quickly left.

Coincidentally, she bumped into the girls coming out of the revival room.

“Casey-senpai, is this your new hobby?”

Seeing Casey writhing and crawling on the ground, Lina scratched her golden hair, confused.

“Oh, you don’t get it. I’m exercising.”

Casey lied casually, but the three sharp girls clearly didn’t buy it. Luckily Carol, who had put a binding spell on her, came to save face so Casey’s dignity wasn’t ruined: “What are you waiting for! Come back and keep fighting!”

“Got it~! Qinbao, you wanna keep playing? If not, you can watch.”

She agreed readily, but in Lina’s eyes, friends were more important.

A little pushing was okay, but never against He Qin’s wishes, especially since He Qin hadn’t said a word since just now, which worried her.

“Eh, I’m fine, it’s just…”

“Just?”

Jiang Cha tilted her head.

“Will the battle club reimburse the damaged automata?”

He Qin summoned the broken parts of her automata, all charred and in pieces, looking so painful she almost cried!

The explosion had completely destroyed all ten of her automatons.

Never mind the hard work—it was all models she’d improved step by step, destined to be replaced sooner or later.

But who’s going to pay for the materials!?

That was another big reason she hated battles—so expensive.

Sub-professions, no matter which ones, all require a pay-to-win style.

Mana potions, alchemy items, enchantment scrolls were consumables. Even the seemingly reusable automatons needed repair fees, not to mention they were extremely fragile.

“Uh… Casey-senpai, could you take a look…?”

Lina turned to Casey, who was about to run off.

“Reimburse, everything gets reimbursed, alright? But He Qin, you have to join the battle club. I can’t reimburse materials for members of the automaton club, right?”

“Phew~ Thanks, senpai.”

Witches always find a middle ground.

Compared to joining a club she didn’t like, getting materials reimbursed was much more important to He Qin.

“Lina, I won’t say anything else for now. You know your family’s system better than I do. But don’t stop training your emotional control, alright? You can’t rely on others to command you forever.”

Back on the battlefield, Carol showed her role as mentor, giving each of them advice.

“I know~!”

Lina stuck out her tongue, trying to get by cutely.

“As for you, He Qin…”

Carol thought for a moment, then continued: “I won’t interfere with your career plan, but if you want to improve in battles, I suggest taking some mechanical courses. It’ll really help your path.”

“Got it, thank you, mentor.”

He Qin valued this advice highly, and she herself had thought about pursuing mechanics as a sub-profession.

“As for Jiang Cha…”

Carol rubbed her forehead, worried: “Too many problems, I don’t even know where to start.”