Chapter 5: Strange and Bizarre Witch Technology and Culture

“Don’t do that.”

A sapphire-blue light flickered in the girl’s eyes. Jiang Cha grasped Morin’s hand just as it was about to touch the thin fabric covering her body, her expression fragile and panicked.

Like a deer cornered by a hunter, her eyes were watery.

“Oh?”

Morin raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Then she smiled softly, her laugh no longer the stiff, operatic tone from before but mature and gentle: “Alright, alright~ I was wrong, I was wrong.”

“Please don’t concentrate too much magic power—these machines here are quite expensive.”

She raised both hands in a gesture of surrender, but Jiang Cha felt no apology—only deep danger.

‘The gap in strength… is still too big.’

Morin showed no aggression and didn’t even call on her magic, but Jiang Cha’s unusually sharp mind immediately concluded:

‘Resistance is impossible.’

Luckily, Morin didn’t intend to force her.

It would have been one thing to be fully examined and receive all the benefits—after all, they were all girls, and Jiang Cha didn’t mind—but she didn’t want her first time entrusted to such an environment.

Secrets of the laboratory? No thanks.

And definitely not to a woman she just met.

“Are you done with the test?”

Qu Sinan appeared just in time, breaking the awkward atmosphere. She seemed to materialize out of nowhere in the lab and sighed with surprise at the girl’s neat clothes and calm expression.

“That fast?”

Jiang Cha: “…”

“Hey, hey, hey, I haven’t even gotten a chance to start yet.”

Morin shouted back like she was wrongly accused, then sighed suddenly: “Too bad, it’s easier to fool those crazy ones.”

“Senior, you knew this would happen?”

Jiang Cha put on her coat carefully and hid behind Qu Sinan—for now, this senior was the safest witch she’d met since waking.

Yeah, her chastity was in danger.

“Witch knowledge isn’t easy to learn.”

Qu Sinan nodded, then smiled sweetly at Morin.

“That’s why I deliberately came a little early.”

“Tch! Anyway, it’s my fault this time. Goodbye, the lab won’t be receiving guests for now!”

…

“Witch knowledge—or rather, everything related to witches—is inherently ‘contaminating.’ Witch history, modern potionology, sculpting magic, and so on.”

As they left the research lab through a portal, just as Jiang Cha’s dizziness faded, Qu Sinan’s voice came at the perfect moment.

“But this contamination can be resisted through mental training, and even learning such knowledge itself is an efficient way to strengthen the mind… Are you feeling dizzy now?”

“No.”

Jiang Cha shook her head. Though slightly uncomfortable, it was likely just residual effects from spatial teleportation, unrelated to the ‘witch knowledge’ Qu Sinan mentioned.

“Seems like your mental coefficient is quite high. That’s a good talent, both for learning and research.”

“The deeper and more complex the magical knowledge, the stronger the contamination it brings. And the strength of the mental coefficient is closely linked with magical power. That’s why passing on witch knowledge is difficult, which is also why the academy and the grand library exist.”

“But you also have to be careful.”

“Careful about what?”

Jiang Cha tilted her head curiously. She had awakened from a blank world with no memory, yet her capacity for receiving knowledge was surprisingly high—perhaps because she was a blank slate, or naturally easygoing, or maybe her innate magic was at work.

She felt her mind was calm, with an almost instinctive craving for knowledge.

“Because of this contamination, witches’ minds are extremely unstable. We’re born craving pleasure—both mental and physical. And fresh witch flesh is obviously a prime choice.”

“So I have to watch out for seniors’ ‘kind’ extracurricular tutoring?”

The girl joked.

“Exactly.”

Qu Sinan nodded.

‘What is this place… a school for lustful witches?’

Jiang Cha silently cursed in her heart. Thinking back on everything that had happened in the past hours, she had to admit Qu Sinan was right—in this place, a girl really needed to protect her chastity.

“Don’t worry. Forced acts are forbidden in the academy.”

“So, aphrodisiacs and knowledge contamination that make people lose control don’t count?”

The girl narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

“Witches are naturally immune to various negative drugs; our immune systems are extremely strong. As for extracurricular tutoring… it’s an unspoken agreement. Accepting it means consenting to that kind of relationship.”

“In witch society, knowledge is an extremely precious resource, you see?”

“They can only fool new students who know nothing about witch society, and for victims… it’s not necessarily a bad thing. Many little witches still actively seek tutoring even after learning the truth.”

Qu Sinan smiled helplessly and looked at Jiang Cha.

“We’re open-minded here. Consensual relationships are nobody’s business. Witches mature sexually very early; thirteen is considered mature, though the official permitted age is fifteen.”

“…Got it.”

Jiang Cha twitched at the corner of her mouth but accepted the bizarre fact, storing it firmly in her mental archive.

“Alright, next I’ll take you to the dorm area. After that, you’re on your own. My job ends here.”

Qu Sinan waved casually and pulled out a small, exquisitely designed sticker from thin air—a cute chibi witch design.

“This is the academy’s access card, which also functions as a basic communication device. Stick it on your arm to use it. It stores basic info, your schedule, and includes a map of the academy. You’ll also find the transfer student enrollment process in it.”

“Just this tiny thing?”

The girl took the sticker, surprised, and examined it closely on her fingertip.

Under sunlight, it looked semi-transparent—just a normal sticker, indistinguishable from any ordinary sticker in Jiang Cha’s knowledge.

“Of course, it’s magic.”

Qu Sinan smiled as she watched Jiang Cha stick it on her inner wrist.

A blue glow of magic flickered, and a virtual electronic screen suddenly appeared before the girl.

“To use it, just stimulate it with magic power. You can set it to summon by voiceprint. It recharges every three days.”

“Thanks, senior.”

Jiang Cha hadn’t recovered from the shock of this ultra-realistic device.

Even though she’d experienced the wonders of magic firsthand, she still couldn’t understand how such surreal things were made.

Analyzing it with her brain yielded no clues.

—She simply knew too little. In witch society, she might even be behind kindergarten kids. Her knowledge barely surpassed prenatal education.

“Alright, next to the dorm area. It’s far, so we need to leave soon.”

Qu Sinan clapped her hands, bringing Jiang Cha’s attention back to reality.

This senior seemed quiet and composed, but Jiang Cha couldn’t forget how, in the infirmary, she had once single-handedly flung another senior named Helen nearly a kilometer away.

So she was extremely well-behaved and dared not cause trouble.

“Walking?”

“There’s a shuttle.”

Qu Sinan pointed to a pure white vehicle parked beside the fountain—no different from the park sightseeing cars Jiang Cha knew.

“I thought it’d be something like a broomstick?”

The girl joked.

“That’s too fast, and accidents happen easily on campus.”

“…”

‘There really are broomsticks!?’

Jiang Cha’s mind immediately pictured Hogwarts, wondering if there was a Triwizard Tournament here.

But now she wouldn’t see witches flying on broomsticks. The senior said it would cause accidents, so broomsticks were banned on campus.

Though disappointed, Jiang Cha felt less so once she got on the shuttle.

Because it was fast. Super fast.

At the moment it started, the quiet and peaceful reality with fountains, pigeons, and laughing girls was instantly replaced by surreal, hazy, and strange scenery.

Jiang Cha carefully discerned, even seeing a distorted image resembling a real path.

“This is a subspace orbit shuttle. Compared to direct spatial teleportation by broomstick, it’s slower, but fast enough on campus.”

Qu Sinan explained succinctly.

But these terms made Jiang Cha’s mind freeze.

‘What kind of advanced civilization is this?’

Everything in the witches’ architecture exuded strong medieval style—even the dorm area was a series of detached two-story European-style houses.

But Jiang Cha no longer dared treat these buildings as ordinary structures. Who knew what bizarre black technologies—or rather, black magic tech—were hidden beneath their ordinary exteriors?

“Let me see… Dorm D124. Hmm, a standard freshman dorm, at least not unlucky enough to be assigned to upperclassmen’s dorm area.”

Qu Sinan breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly happy for the girl’s luck.

Jiang Cha relaxed too.

Who knew what kind of monsters these witches were? At least living with freshmen, she’d still have some ability to resist.

At least she could still call for help.

‘If something happens, would asking for help here really be any better than calling the police in India?’

Jiang Cha didn’t know, but it was some small comfort.

Dorm D124 wasn’t far.

They walked less than ten minutes to the front of this detached European-style villa.

It even had a small garden with flowers and plants Jiang Cha didn’t recognize, faintly radiating magic power.

“Stick your access card here.”

Jiang Cha obediently did so.

[Student ID 1680021, Jiang Cha, welcome to your dorm.]

After a pleasant mechanical female voice, the door opened automatically—but what awaited wasn’t an ordinary European living room.

It was a portal.

‘I knew it wouldn’t be this simple…’

“D12 is the dormitory building section, 4 means the fourth dorm, a double room. It uses spatial expansion magic.”

Seeing the girl’s blank expression, Qu Sinan chuckled softly.

She stepped inside first.