As Jiang Han gave the Griffin Carriage's owner her address, Li Li, whose ride had yet to arrive, asked in surprise,
"You live near All-Things Trade Street?"
Jiang Han turned around. Li Li stood by the bus stop, straight-backed and wrapped in a blue cloak with white trim. She looked rather refined, once again making Jiang Han suspect she came from an extraordinary background. Ordinary witches didn't have that kind of bearing or spirit.
"Mm-hmm. Do you live nearby too?" Jiang Han asked with a sweet smile and a nod.
"I live in Flower Valley District, near Trade Street." Li Li studied Jiang Han's face, then added after a moment, "We're going the same way."
I know, I know, we're going the same way... Jiang Han felt a little uncomfortable under Li Li's gaze. She tilted her head, then unconsciously bit her lip and asked,
"Then shall we go together?"
"Sure." Li Li switched off the signal on the bus stop and nimbly hopped onto the Griffin Carriage first.
She's pretty considerate.
Jiang Han rose onto her tiptoes, grabbed the edge of the floating earth platform with both hands, and clambered aboard.
Seeing her struggle to get on, Li Li jumped back down onto the floating platform and helped her up.
"It'll be much easier once you learn Flight Spell."
"Mm... Yeah, I have the formula, but I haven't gathered all the potion ingredients yet."
Flight Spell was one of those spells whose formula could be found everywhere, but whose potion ingredients were rather rare.
Hearing this, Li Li nodded. "Its potion requires a manticore's tail barb and a Sariel Poison Butterfly's carapace. Those two monsters are too strong for graduates who've just mastered third-level spells. To be honest, even witches who've mastered fifth-level spells don't like dealing with them."
Venomous creatures were a headache for anyone who ran into them.
With a rumble, the Griffin Carriage carried them into the air. This time, their witch driver was rather reckless, yanking the griffin sharply upward and gaining altitude at speed.
The owner of this Griffin Carriage seemed to be a staunch supporter of domestic products. The drinks inside included Jianlibao, and the magazines included the entirely Chinese-language Witch Journal, the complete collection of Hundred-Day Witch Techniques, and Hey! The Asahi Witch Talk, which was peppered with Japanese.
Jiang Han's thoughts stirred. This was the second time she'd come across the word "witch"—it seemed to mean something different from "witch" as she knew it. She pulled out Witch Journal and flipped through a couple of pages. The layout was rather haphazard, and the content leaned more toward fanciful ideas and intuitive spellcasting. All in all, it wasn't a very professional magazine.
Seeing Jiang Han reading it, Li Li leaned closer and asked, "You don't know what a witch is?"
"No, I don't."
At her answer, Li Li nodded. "A witch is an ordinary person with the ability to cast spells."
"An ordinary person?" The answer caught Jiang Han off guard. Or rather, she'd never even considered that possibility.
If witches came from ordinary people, then what was their relationship with witches like her? Puzzled, Jiang Han asked, "Then how do they become witches?"
Li Li gave a faint smile. "They undergo training, drink a potion, and have a witch guide their magic. Eventually, they awaken as witches with abilities equivalent to those of a Weak Witch."
Still puzzled by her smile, Jiang Han asked, "What are you smiling about?"
"Nothing..." Li Li gave her a meaningful look, then suddenly let out a laugh she couldn't hold back. "Before becoming witches, it doesn't matter whether they're men or women."
...It doesn't matter?
What the hell do you mean, it doesn't matter... Jiang Han understood what she meant, but couldn't get a word out.
Before becoming witches, it didn't matter whether they were men or women...
Good grief. She'd thought witches who hatched from eggs were weird enough, but witches were even weirder...
Wait, did that mean Instructor Cen Jing could also have been...
Jiang Han's face turned a little green. Cen Jing was the most beautiful person she'd ever met. She had a unique air that set her apart from other witches, a mature, graceful, married-woman sort of bearing, and a captivating charm that would surface from time to time. She was beautiful, even a little cute, and tall with a sexy figure... Well, put another way, her chest was two sizes bigger than the Fox Witch's.
If such a beauty had been a boy before...
That might be even better.
Jiang Han shook her head. Ever since arriving in this world, her standards had kept falling further than she'd expected. But after thinking it over, she realized it didn't matter whether a witch had been a man or a woman. As long as they were a witch, what difference did it make?
Her sense of decency was steadily entering dangerous territory.
Even after Jiang Han got home, had a late-night snack, showered, and lay in bed staring at the key spells Instructor Cheng Yu had marked, the whole matter was still on her mind.
"It doesn't matter. Whew, it doesn't matter."
She put the book, now covered in annotations and notes, back on the shelf. She was studying a third-level spell called Dispel Magic. The spell had turned the tide in many famous battles. In one instance, an Archwitch had tried to finish off a witch with low magic power by weakening her magic resistance and following up with a single meteor. But a perfectly timed Dispel Magic had countered the meteor, turning the tables on her.
It was a spell beloved by experts and beginners alike, and Jiang Han was enthusiastic about it too. She'd spent half a day learning most of the principles behind it.
But now she couldn't bring herself to focus on the spell she loved...
Pressing her lips together, Jiang Han lifted the quilt, slipped out of her robe, and slowly crawled beneath the covers in her thin pajamas. She stared blankly at the ceiling. "It doesn't matter... Whether a witch was a man or a woman doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. It's just something unrelated to witches like me."
She closed her eyes and began to breathe evenly.
Six hours later, she was still staring at the ceiling with her icy-blue eyes.
"Damn it, why..." There were still bloodshot veins in those icy-blue eyes.
She'd been lying in bed for so long, and she still couldn't stop thinking about it! And Instructor Cen Jing's image had popped into her head again and again! She was so beautiful—probably the most beautiful woman Jiang Han had met across both her lives—and there was a tiny chance she might be a man!
Just thinking about it was a little exciting.
And that excitement was exactly why she was so conflicted.
Signs of dawn had appeared outside. The darkness gradually receded, and fatigue swept over her all at once. Witches really weren't suited to working in the morning. That was why most schools scheduled only reading and rest in the morning, leaving practical lessons with wands for the afternoon.
Using her hands to push herself upright, Jiang Han sat on the bed. She couldn't sleep.
Might as well go to the garden and cuddle the bear!
She wrapped her robe around herself and went to the garden. Ice Bear was curled up asleep in its cave, which didn't smell like an ordinary bear's den at all. It was very clean inside, and Ice Bear was spotless too. Its soft, icy-blue-and-white fur was a soothing sight.
Jiang Han rubbed its fur with her hand. It was warm and soft, so she lay down on top of it, closed her eyes, and began to breathe very softly.
Before you continue