Chapter 49: The Upcoming Spring Break

A week isn’t exactly short but not very long either, yet the girl living in the academy truly felt the atmosphere of an upcoming holiday.

The witch academy’s holiday schedule is a bit unusual. They don’t have holidays for various festivals, but during the academic year there are three relatively long breaks.

The War Campaign Break, which students prefer to call the winter vacation, usually starts about a month before the end of the year and lasts until the end of January the following year. This break traditionally originates from the times when witches on the frontlines of war needed some time off after a year of fighting to process their gains and rest.

However, the frontlines couldn’t be left unattended, so senior students would take over the defense.

It was another form of internship. Some academies with a stronger focus on combat still maintain this tradition, but in more academically inclined academies like Aisilun Academy, it’s simply a vacation.

Next is the Academic Break, which is the summer vacation, generally between August and September.

Its origin lies in the fact that during this period, the major tech cities hold events and competitions to scout for talented individuals for their cities.

Then there’s the spring break Jiang Cha is about to face, which is purely a holiday.

It was set to enjoy the spring season when all things revive — in fact, the four seasons aren’t distinct in the universe; at any moment, multiple worlds are experiencing spring. So the reason for spring break purely comes from the academy not giving a holiday, which made the tutors go on strike.

Regardless of how these three holidays came about, for the girls still studying in the academy, they are all times to relax and enjoy themselves.

So it’s not surprising to see the campus filled with happy little witches chattering excitedly about where they plan to go for spring break.

“Speaking of which, I’ve been busy studying every day and haven’t asked what you all plan to do during the holiday. Qin Bao, do you want to come to my house? My sister is coming back this year, so I can introduce you to her.”

Walking along a sunny stone path under the trees, the cute blonde girl seemed to feel refreshed by the comfortable spring atmosphere, as if her spirit was purified.

The usual vulgar tone in her words had completely disappeared, and she really looked like a pure and adorable little girl.

“Probably not… Sorry, Lina-chan, I might have to work at the shop during this spring break. The shop owner said they suddenly got a surge in orders from a frontline civilization.”

The gentle black-haired girl with her hair tied in a bun shook her head with a troubled look, politely declining Lina’s invitation.

“Is there another war going on somewhere?”

Jiang Cha asked curiously.

“Apparently, the frontline in this universe encountered a mechanical intelligence civilization. You know, Cha Bao, we witches hate that kind of civilization the most.”

“Eh~ really? I haven’t been paying attention to that.”

Mechanical intelligence civilizations, as the name suggests, are civilizations made up of artificial intelligence.

There are very few purely mechanical species in the multiverse. These civilizations usually appear because some intelligent species lost control over their AI experiments.

Such civilizations generally harbor extreme hostility toward biological species, considering all biological lifeforms to be inferior. Once they meet, it’s basically a fight to the death.

Although witches usually win, the mechanical species do have unparalleled advantages in technological development speed. Apart from the newborn mechanical civilization, these kinds of civilizations do have considerable overall combat power.

Also, they have huge numbers of high-level cannon fodder to throw into battle. Witches are precious, so they definitely won’t throw themselves recklessly against those cannon fodder iron lumps. That’s why puppet masters become very popular at times like these.

— Mechanical creations can be hacked or invaded by the enemy, and the servant armies can’t withstand heavy artillery, but puppets, being creations of a completely different system, are different.

It makes perfect sense that He Qin’s puppet shop suddenly got busy.

Though Jiang Cha felt that the so-called shop owner He Qin talked about was actually just the teacher wanting He Qin back, using this as an excuse.

“Well then, what about you, Cha Bao? Are you free? My house has a big battlefield arena!”

“Um…”

The girl gave a shy smile.

“My master said she’s taking me to tour a Fragmented World… so…”

“Eh!! So you all have special training!?”

Although Lina always seemed like the butt of jokes in the dormitory, appearing a little silly, this blonde little girl was definitely not stupid.

She immediately figured out what her two roommates were up to.

“Damn! I can accept being ‘in competition’ at the academy, but why do you guys keep making me compete during the holidays too!?”

“I really want to take a break, spring break! It’s only given seven times in a lifetime! Can’t we just go out and have fun together!?”

Listening to Lina’s complaints, Jiang Cha and He Qin, walking on either side of her, exchanged a glance and smiled helplessly.

They really didn’t want to push things…

Witches get tired too, but who’s to blame when there’s always someone pushing them to grow?

“There will definitely be a chance next time.”

The Yamato Nadeshiko gently ruffled Lina’s hair and spoke softly to comfort her.

“We can go to the Tech City together for summer vacation?”

The girl quickly followed up.

But clever Lina immediately saw through their ulterior motives: “Damn! Going to the Tech City means you guys will still be competing with me!”

Those two… plus Estelle, all witches on the path to omniscience in secondary roles. If they went to the Tech City together, Lina would be the only one getting no growth!

“Well…”

He Qin gave an embarrassed smile.

“In the first year, even if we go to the Tech City, we can’t participate in competitions. Lina, you’re overthinking it.”

“No way! I don’t believe you guys, you’re all competition freaks!”

The blonde girl pouted with a look that said “people are cruel but I see through it.”

But Lina’s emotional intelligence was still quite high; she was only complaining a little and didn’t really need comforting.

Her expression changed; she waved her hand and quickly brightened up.

“Forget it, forget it. I’ll just go home and train with mom.”

“Cha Bao, be careful. When you come back from spring break, I’ll definitely give you a hard time.”

“Just don’t rub your face on me.”

The girl laughed and made a subtle, slightly suggestive joke.

“I’m not talking about that kind of rubbing!”

Lina immediately retorted, then giggled, “Of course, Cha Bao, if you want, after a battle, we could rub on the bed at night, that’s okay too.”

“Enough! Don’t say things like that in public.”

He Qin patted Lina’s head.

“Can we say that stuff when we get back to the dorm?”

The blonde girl’s eyes sparkled with expectation. She was very cute.

But there was nothing cute about what she actually meant.

“No way! And Jiang Cha-chan, you don’t keep saying those kinds of things either!”

“Got it, Qin Mama~”

“You two!”

Seeing their perfectly synchronized cute tone and unison, Yamato Nadeshiko couldn’t help but puff up her cheeks in frustration.

Hmm, but even so, they were still smaller than the bun on her head.