Rehearsal

Information on Frost Demons was not especially scarce among witches, particularly those in the middle and upper ranks, but it was by no means abundant either.

Frost Demons had once been witches' enemies, and even after provoking the witches, they had not been wiped out as a nation or a race—though they had lost several countries. Naturally, all witches were curious about the Frost Demon race and liked to dig into their intelligence.

But because the physical distance between the two sides was simply too great, spanning several star systems, only a small number of witches could use powerful wormhole spells to reach their celestial system and gather information.

Thus, there was not much intelligence available.

It circulated only among the top-tier witches.

The most famous thing about the Frost Demon race was that they looked like witches, possessed spellcasting abilities like witches, and had even fought the witches without being driven extinct! This had shocked the entire universe. Then, after the Amilant Stars Alliance—a positive-alignment faction—invited them to join, only for its envoy to be turned into carrot-and-meat stew, the whole universe learned that this race was just like witches:

An evil-alignment faction!

And like every Caster Empire or spellcasting civilization, they were homebodies to the bone.

The universe contained countless civilizations and an incalculable number of planets, yet spellcasting civilizations were few, and every last one of them was the stay-at-home type.

They expanded only when resources grew tight; otherwise, they stayed obediently within their own celestial systems and managed their territory.

Honestly, witches were like that because they found expansion boring. The other spellcasting races were probably much the same.

As genuine villains, watching others cry was indeed quite entertaining—but it could not be a full-time occupation. What truly mattered was researching spells, refining magic, and seeking