It Is a Ranger

Setting aside the issue of the fox ears, Jiang Han turned her attention to the outfit Cheng Yu was wearing.

To be honest, it didn't look like a witch's attire at all:

A hood with three long tail feathers, a black-based cloak, a tight-fitting black sweater, mountaineering pants with five belts and leg straps, leather boots that didn't look like mountaineering boots, and fingerless gloves. Inside the long cloak, there were also several large pockets.

"Mentor, what kind of clothes are you wearing?" Miss Li Li asked with a frown.

Well done! Jiang Han applauded her internally. The fox lady had already developed a certain rapport with her, or rather, she had been trained quite successfully; she was always able to express opinions that hit the mark just when Jiang Han needed them to.

"...I'll tell you both in a moment."

Perhaps Cheng Yu also knew she didn't look like a proper witch, so she simply flicked her cloak and strode toward the classroom with her long legs.

Miss Li Li also picked up her pace to follow.

Jiang Han remained silent for two seconds, then, under the amused gazes of the other witches in the hall, she broke into a trot to catch up.

After those two long-legged, irresponsible, student-neglecting, classmate-neglecting scoundrels walked into the classroom, Jiang Han ran in as well.

Inside the classroom, Mentor Cheng Yu sighed and said:

"Dream Garden invested in a new witch society called 'Ranger' today, and well, I was forced to go over and help out. This outfit is their uniform; I didn't have time to change before coming here."

"...I see." Li Li examined it with curiosity.

"Ranger, what is the society's focus?" Jiang Han asked.

Cheng Yu paused, then sighed: "Helping ordinary people develop occupations that carry a bit of magic, much like a witch."

"...That's very noble." Jiang Han was silent for a moment before squeezing out this sentence.

Eastern witches often thought about helping ordinary people develop power, which brought to mind the deep connection between the people and the land...

There were quite a lot of witches produced in the domestic environment, arguably ten to twenty times the number in the West. Because domestic witches liked to have 'local troops' when going to the battlefield—meaning witches from the same city or hometown—if the number of witches wasn't enough to form an army, they would find ways to train witches to fill the gap.

By the same token, after entering the modern era, domestic witches often tried to find ways to give their fellow ordinary people a hand... although the vast majority of experiments ended with the result of 'we just can't hold onto our ordinary brothers,' they still persisted and made enthusiastic efforts.

Miss Li Li asked:

"Then what is the goal of Dream Garden this time? To form a patrol?"

Cheng Yu nodded: "Yes, the Ranger society accepted a commission from the South City Hall to train a batch of rangers for the city. These rangers will be used as a new pilot program. If successful, it will create a bunch of job openings for South City."

Jiang Han felt that sometimes witches really had strange ways of thinking.

Although witches were created by witches, they could be considered weakened versions of witches. It was fine during wartime, but after the war, they would naturally snatch up quite a few positions... This was also why witches didn't have a very good attitude toward witches.

And this batch of rangers... cough cough, I'm afraid... once created, they would be snatching jobs from the witches again.

Even if they could create witch positions, it probably wouldn't be sustainable... Eh? Jiang Han suddenly thought of the super-large folded space right next to South City. Could this batch of rangers have been created specifically to develop that space?

That would explain why the City Hall would place such an odd order.

Li Li seemed to have thought of this as well and nodded to herself:

"Indeed, if witches and rangers are used to replace some of the lighter work, it could liberate more witch productivity to be invested where it's actually needed."

Cheng Yu didn't seem to have much interest in teaching today. While handing out the assignments to Li Li and telling Jiang Han to self-study those four spells, she smiled and said:

"Perhaps in the future, the security of the Sky Island will be handled by rangers."

Liberating civil servant labor, huh... There is indeed a need for that. Jiang Han recalled the situation on the streets. Because witches were all intellectuals, security issues were definitely much better than in the other timeline of the same period. However, the witches serving as security officers were all elite witches, many of whom were veterans who had participated in the war, including some elite witches working in factories and state-owned enterprises.

Using these precious human resources left over from the war entirely for commerce and security seemed a bit of a waste.

But the government really had no other choice. The autonomy and productivity of witches were too strong. Currently, some iron smelters were just two or three witches gathering together, using spells to find iron ore in the ground or in folded spaces, and directly 'fireball smelting' it. The iron they blasted out was all high-quality... with a little further processing, it could be hauled off for steelmaking.

In this situation, the positions in the municipal offices of each region were not enough to attract witches to apply, which led to an awkward situation:

The positions witches wanted, such as librarians, lawyers, doctors, and engineers, were always in short supply.

Yet, the grassroots civil servant positions could not be filled, forcing the witches who had participated in the war to take on these roles.

Originally, witches could have met the City Hall's requirements, but even more awkwardly, witches and weak witches were about the same; they preferred to participate in light magic industrial work and had zero enthusiasm for the many vacant grassroots civil servant positions.

Of course, this also had to do with the fact that the country didn't want to spread too many powerful spells.

Civil servants could indeed make money and support a family, but what couldn't a witch do to support a family? Even going to the hills to raise chickens could make them self-sufficient enough to live in seclusion for a lifetime. A witch's requirements for a job were simple:

Ability to learn magic > Ability to obtain rare spell materials > New knowledge > Exercising paperwork skills > New social circles > Salary.

Of course, if the salary exceeded their imagination, they could also attract witches.

It was just that this 'beyond imagination' salary was indeed beyond imagination...

For example, a weekly salary of 4000. In this era, a 4000 weekly salary was enough to attract decent witches to join.

It seems the South City Hall is thirsty for talent... pinning all their hopes for filling grassroots positions on ordinary people.

Jiang Han didn't know whether to laugh or say something. Witches are the source of both success and failure.

If you let witches play on their own, as long as a witch learned all the level 1, 2, and 3 spells from the textbooks, they would almost never have to worry about food or drink, not even about where to live.

Unlike the witches in the West who were still playing with castle building, the witches in the East were more pragmatic. To describe it in one sentence:

'Farming is the most fun game in the world, unlike those people in the West who play RPGs.'

After letting her thoughts wander for a bit, Jiang Han lowered her head to study her spell notes.

Cheng Yu's curriculum could be said to be perfectly suited for an Archwitch, or rather, she truly possessed unique insights into educating Archwitches.

Jiang Han would jot down the parts she didn't understand in a notebook and hand it over to her; after returning home, Cheng Yu would write annotations for each point, allowing Jiang Han to study them on her own. Simply put, it was letting the Archwitches explore on their own, with the results then being reviewed by the other party to prevent Archwitches like Jiang Han from making fundamental errors.

Furthermore, Cheng Yu would not rush to have the Archwitch learn more spells, avoiding any attempt to force growth. Like a patient veteran farmer, she was experienced, capable of enduring solitude, able to withstand pressure, and slowly cultivated Jiang Han.

As for Li Li, she provided as much guidance and lecturing as possible, and would transcribe the essence of each day's lessons to pass on to Jiang Han.

It was like a cycle, constantly integrating knowledge with spell research.

Of course, most of the time, Jiang Han spent her days in self-study, only asking questions and taking notes when she encountered something she didn't understand.

So, when she asked if Cen Jing could take her for a couple of lessons, Cheng Yu agreed immediately: "Cen Jing, that witch... hmm, I have some history with her. Her Botany is quite good; you can go and learn from her."

"...Mm." Jiang Han turned her head away, feeling guilty.