Clothing

At eight in the morning, at Sweet Nest.

While Jiang Han slept soundly, hugging her pillow, the bedroom door was gently pushed open. Jiang Zhenling, already dressed and ready to go, walked in.

She frowned as she looked at her older sister, still fast asleep, then cleared her throat and sat down on the bed. She lifted a lock of her sister's hair, pinched its icy-blue tips, then brushed the back of her hand against her sister's still-warm cheek.

"It's time for class. You should wake up from your dream."

Jiang Han shuddered and opened her misty, icy-blue eyes. She looked at her younger sister pleadingly, with a hint of a pout and resignation. Then she covered her nose, sniffed, opened her mouth in a yawn, closed her eyes, and curled up, hiding her petite body in her long hair.

—Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle, gurgle...

Not only that, she burrowed even farther under the covers. A witch's hair was magical and closely connected to its owner, so even if it was flattened, it wouldn't hurt. She curled up in it, hiding beneath the blanket like a dainty little hedgehog, as peaceful as if she were dead.

"...Han, Han?" Jiang Zhenling kept trying.

Touched by all that effort, Miss Hedgehog Jiang opened one eye halfway. She affectionately rubbed her face against the hand stroking it, then spoke as if hypnotized, explaining a sentence at a time, with several seconds of sleep in between.

"Teacher's meeting me... after noon... We can go together... Huff." Jiang Han was good at keeping her mouth shut. Even half-asleep, she would never let a secret slip.

In her previous life, she'd been a Real Madrid fan who managed to stay safely among her Barcelona-supporting coworkers for over ten years. That had everything to do with how well she kept secrets...

"I put your breakfast in the fridge. For lunch, I only made a few buns. Heat them up yourself, or skip lunch and wait for Mom to get home tonight." After giving her sister one instruction after another, Jiang Zhenling left the room and headed out first.

The cozy hedgehog nest fell quiet. Miss Hedgehog Jiang curled up inside, happily snoring and occasionally kicking her legs. She slept comfortably until sometime after noon.

She woke in a daze, rolled over, and sprawled on her stomach, propping herself up like a cat. Her toes pressed into the bed as she stretched lazily.

With a blissful smile, she was nearly awake. She checked the clock, figured she still had time, and carried her clothes to the bathroom.

After a refreshing shower, she changed into an outfit for going out, took the money for buying new clothes, and bounced out the door.

She was meeting Cen Jing at a place called Southern Amusement Mall. It wasn't far from Jiang Han's home, about ten kilometers out over the sea. It might have been a bit of a distance from Cen Jing's place, but she had a car, so it wasn't much trouble. She'd chosen somewhere near Jiang Han's home to accommodate her.

Witches especially liked making natural hazards, such as canyons, on floating islands.

Southern Amusement Mall was one such Sky Island, built around a canyon. Many streets had been carved into the cliffsides, facing outward, while shops and attractions had been dug farther inside. It was like a city that never slept, built into a canyon.

Unlike the witch market, the mall was full of shops selling finished goods. Shops selling materials were rare, while places selling finished magic scrolls, spellbooks, and regular books were common. There was even a Maritime Arena built by witches, like an ancient Roman colosseum, except hidden among clouds and floating islands. From the cleft in the canyon at the center of the mall, one could see it in the distance—if one had enhanced eyesight.

The witch market was good for finding bargains. This place was where middle-class witches went to shop.

After entering the mall, Jiang Han, whose looks turned heads, was accosted by witches from time to time. Some asked if she was available for a day of temp work; others asked if she was up for a "one-day, 196" job. She politely turned down the former and just shook her head and spat out a curse at the latter.

Cen Jing had already arrived at the meeting place.

The witch, dressed in a kimono with two-foot sleeves and a hakama skirt, sat on a bench in a small plaza, reading a newspaper. If not for her mature appearance, her poise alone might have made people think she was a student.

From a distance, Jiang Han saw two witches who seemed to be recruiting give Cen Jing a hard time.

She found it rather amusing to see the usually mature, charming witch flustered as she tried to turn them down. Smiling, she walked over and greeted her.

"Good afternoon, Miss Cen."

At her greeting, the witches pestering Cen Jing sighed and walked away. They had to be given credit for showing some restraint.

The exceptionally beautiful witch let out a relieved breath.

"Good afternoon, Miss Jiang."

Jiang Han sat down beside her. Cen Jing had returned to her usual elegant manner. She glanced discreetly at Jiang Han's witch's robe and smiled. "There are no tickets left for today's puppet show, so I booked tickets for the South City Witch Invitational. Besides watching the competition, is there anything else you'd like to do?"

Jiang Han considered it. Should she actually go buy clothes, rather than just make a token effort and go home to return the money to Mother Ye?

She had to admit, Cen Jing's little glance at her clothes made her realize that wearing such a plain witch's robe with a checked skirt and shirt seemed a little rude.

She did care about appearances, so she said, "I'd like to buy some new clothes. Do you have any recommendations, Miss Cen?"

"Are you looking for casualwear, battlewear, formalwear, apprentice robes, alchemy robes, or clothes with magical properties?" Cen Jing asked without a moment's hesitation.

Jiang Han was at a loss for words. Were witches really so particular?

She understood ordinary clothes and battlewear, but she could only try to make sense of the rest. Formalwear sounded like something you wore for other people to see. Apprentice robes and alchemy robes might have something to do with witch alchemy?

Jiang Han considered how much money Mother Ye had given her and tentatively asked, "Should we look at casualwear first?"

"For casualwear, let's go from shop to shop. Compare prices," Cen Jing said with a knowing, playful smile. "We might also get caught in a witch's Möbius loop: after three shops, we look at three more."

"..." As someone who struggled to make decisions, Jiang Han felt deeply uneasy.

Going from shop to shop, Jiang Han saw all kinds of bizarre clothes.

The greatest convenience of being a witch was that, as long as you had the nerve, you could travel the world on a broom. Hungry? Use a bread spell. Thirsty? Use a water-making spell. Tired? Pick any number of magical homes. This had led to fashion boutiques in the world's bustling cities selling all sorts of strange things.

One shop she passed specialized in bandage outfits. They called it "Pharaoh-inspired retro." Jiang Han wondered if pharaohs really had bounced around wearing bandages like that.

They also passed two shops that specialized in battlewear.

Witches' battlewear consisted of skintight suits, either one-piece or two-piece, and there were reasons for choosing one style over the other.

Witches from the Conjuration, Evocation, and Transmutation schools all wore one-piece skintight suits. They offered better protection, and could be made with exceptionally durable materials. They were also highly resistant to the elements, preventing a situation where you cast a fireball and, whether or not you hit your opponent, ended up naked yourself.

The two-piece style was more common among witches from the Abjuration and Necromancy schools. Those schools required more spellcasting materials, and sometimes relied on scrolls for offense, so their practitioners wore pants or skirts with plenty of pockets to store their battle gear.

Of course, those were just common preferences. Plenty of witches didn't follow those conventions when choosing battlewear.

Take Lin Zhaojun, the strongest witch in the country. She fought in a modern leather skirt and high-top shoes. Or Teacher Yu, who fought in a cape. She hadn't taken enough care with her defenses and had her cape burned, then got taken out in one hit. As for what happened in the arena... Ahem, it wasn't about the clothes. It depended on the person. Yes, the person...

Take capes and cloaks, for example. Lilith, one of the great witches, also fought in a cloak, but no one had ever burned her cloak or cape. She took care of the details.

Jiang Han paid no attention to battlewear. She'd just see how things went... For now, she wasn't willing to learn a spell just to protect her cape. (Cape Protection was a fourth-level spell, after all.)

Casualwear... casualwear... Jiang Han sighed as she wandered into shop after shop.

Worse, the moment she entered one shop, her mind was already drifting to the next.

As she watched the shopkeeper introduce her to a Dullahan Outfit, she didn't know what to say. It was enchanted, and once you put it on—hey presto—you could actually take your head off.

"Hey, do you have any normal clothes here?"

"Of course these are normal clothes, miss," the shopkeeper said with a straight face. "Why not buy two outfits? I'll throw in a dozen Pharaoh Witch egg fossils."

...Who the hell did they think they were fooling? Witches hadn't appeared until 1443, had they? Jiang Han immediately pulled Miss Cen out of the scam shop.