Chapter 32
The Witch’s Reflection
“Hmph, it’s just a small coin. I, Liya, don’t believe I can’t handle things without you,” Liya muttered.
That evening, with nine days left until the competition, Liya was continuing her research on “Gentle Blessing of Warmth” in the laboratory, and what awaited her was… failure.
This time, it seemed like too much was used. The solvents that exploded in the laboratory scattered everywhere.
“I… I just accidentally spilled a bit too much,” Liya said, her face smeared with sticky white solvent.
With eight days left until the competition, Liya arrived at the laboratory early in the morning, full of fighting spirit, and began her work. What awaited her was… failure.
This time, it seemed like too little was used. The solvent extinguished itself before it could even heat up. Somehow, it also managed to put out the nearby lamp.
“It’s just… a technical adjustment. A small, small problem,” Liya said, wiggling her rear as she fumbled for lamp oil under a table in the darkened laboratory.
Failure.
With seven days left until the competition, the problem this time was with Liya herself. She had channeled too much magic, and it ended up exploding and hitting her.
“I can really do it! It’s not like I haven’t been doing experiments for a day or two. Am I really going to let a student teach me?!” Liya said, holding a comb and a straightener as she straightened her frizzy blond hair.
With six days left until the competition, Liya gathered her courage, determined to try every method.
By evening, her experiments had collapsed again and again. No matter how she adjusted the proportion of catalysts and mediums, they all failed.
“It’s just… it just won’t come out!”
“Argh… how could this happen!”
It felt like she was being forced to regret not agreeing to Will’s offer that day.
For the past few days, even the slightest fluctuation in experimental data would lead to serious deviations. Yet, maintaining the original data was just not enough.
After calculating, the magic that generated “Gentle Blessing of Warmth” with the longest duration and most stable temperature was the one from when Will gave her the coin yesterday.
Not only were the data the best then…
Her physical condition was also at its peak. After one experiment, she felt refreshed, as if the fatigue of several days had been cleared in a single day.
As the clock ticked later and later, Liya remembered that as a homeroom teacher, tomorrow was Monday. Although she didn’t have any classes in that class, she had to check in on them in the morning.
So…
She took out the folding bed from under the laboratory bench, carefully unfolded it, spread out the mattress and quilt, took off her robe, and lay down.
In fact, she had been sleeping in the laboratory for several nights already.
“Sleep, sleep, sleep…”
“Sleep…”
“I can’t sleep!”
About half an hour later, Liya, lying on the bed, gazed at the lamp overhead in the laboratory. Not only were her pupils red, but the rest of her eyes were also bloodshot.
“Why… why is this happening?”
Her heartbeat wasn’t as rapid as it was last night.
Her blood and magic circuits weren’t surging and circulating like they were last night.
But…
She just couldn’t sleep.
Thinking about it carefully, it had been like this every day for the past few days, only able to fall into a deep sleep after midnight.
It was slightly better when she was awake and experimenting. Now that she was lying down, with nothing to do and no experiments to think about, she started remembering…
Emotional matters.
The moment she closed her eyes, she remembered Will’s blue right eye when she was cornered against the wall, and her own shadow reflected in that right eye.
“…Do you want to fall in love with someone else? Do you want to have someone you love by your side? Do you want to not be lonely anymore?”
“With your immense power and long lifespan, there’s nothing you can’t obtain if you set your mind to it, Liya.”
“As long as you try, you’ll surely make his eyes hold only you…”
In her long life, there had been people who asked her if she was lonely living like this.
Vice Dean Mary had also advised her to interact more with people and stop living like this.
Liya thought, hugging her quilt tightly, even clasping it with her legs.
She had always felt like an outsider. Although she was confident in her own power, no one ever approached her, let alone kept watching her.
But…
“Will… Hysterm is such a terrible student.”
He was merely her student, yet he believed in her so much, wanting to teach her… how to act, how to obtain what she desired.
“According to… according to what he said… could it really… work?”
There were six days left until the 8th Annual Flame and Flame-like Magic Research Academic Competition.
Calculating it, one day for successful experimentation, one day for repeated testing, one day for organizing the procedures… and then one day for rest. Time was too tight.
“Mmm… tomorrow, maybe I should go look for him… But last time was too embarrassing. If I’m going to find him this time, I’ll have to avoid the other students…”
***
On the same day, Will woke up, glanced at the date, and then looked at his “Quest System”—oh, not the page belonging to any of the heroines, but the rare “Will’s” Quest System.
“It seems writing the Quest System is quite useful. According to the system… hmm, Monday of the second week, indeed, something important is going to happen.”
Because Monday was used for practical testing and they had two days off afterward, the first day of school was Thursday. After two days of wits and battles with his homeroom teacher, they both had a weekend.
Oh, Will’s weekend was quite comfortable. He spent time with Iaar… no, he trained Iaar’s tougher ice-condensing techniques and gave her special classes on blackened magic… then he casually went to the capital, bought a lot of things, and ate and drank well.
Will yawned and walked downstairs.
His three-story private residence in the capital had the third floor for Iaar and Will’s bedrooms, the second floor was a small living room, and the first floor contained the staircase and reception entrance. Inside the first floor, Iaar’s private high-temperature sauna room for training had also been relocated.
In the small living room on the second floor, Iaar, wearing a maid outfit, swayed her ears and held a plate with a perfectly bouncy fried egg and a few slices of hot bread.
Her tail wagged, and she hummed a little tune, looking very happy.
Because she still had to continue her daily training in the sauna room, she woke up much earlier and naturally prepared breakfast as well—as she said herself, this was a maid’s duty.
“La la la~”
“Iaar, good morning.”
“Good morning, Young Master! You’re down for breakfast quite early today. You had two days off, are you ready to go to school again today?”
Iaar smiled brightly, turned around with a hop, her tail and ears wiggling. She placed the fried egg and bread she had prepared in front of him.
“Oh, alright. Thank you again today.”
However, this smile vanished the moment Will sat down and thanked her.
“Th-that… Young Master, what… what are you spreading on the bread?”
Iaar watched with her own eyes as her young master, after sitting down, took out a bottle of a red, viscous liquid. The red wasn’t a normal red; it even shimmered. Such a strange-looking thing was likely from the Dungeon side!
Could things from the Dungeon truly be edible…?
“Oh, it’s chili oil. Don’t worry, it’s just ordinary chili oil.”
“Young Master… you call this chili oil?”
As Will spread it, Iaar could smell the pungent chili aroma from two meters away. Her sensitive nose twitched.
“It’s really ordinary.”
The liquid on Will’s spoon seemed to still carry heat, and steam rose as he spread it on the bread. In an instant, Iaar felt like her delicious and cute little bread had turned into some kind of dark culinary creation.
“Moreover… it should… be delicious.”
Will remained calm, picked up the bread, then hesitated and put it down again.
“Iaar, remember to pour me a glass of cold water, the coldest you have, the best for spicy food.”
“O-okay.”
Iaar quickly poured a glass of ice water and placed it on his table.
“Hmm… doesn’t your collar have Ice Dragon’s stomach fluid in it? This is Fire Dragon’s stomach fluid… actually, in some regions where people like spicy food, Fire Dragon’s stomach fluid is a highly sought-after condiment for spiciness. I’m going to eat it, ah—”
Will swallowed, his expression becoming much more serious, but he still unhesitatingly swallowed the bread.
Iaar truly admired such a Young Master! He would surely achieve great things when he grew up!
“Cough… cough, cough, cough… it does seem a bit stimulating… gulp, gulp…”
Then, Will furiously drank three glasses of water.
“Young Master… are you… going crazy again?”
“…No, no. Cough…”
His voice sounded very hoarse, and even his lips were burned red, even slightly swollen.
But even so, he stuffed the remaining half-eaten piece of bread into his mouth.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Then, after he completely cleared his throat.
“It’s because… fate whispered to me that today I will face the frosty cold, and only by overcoming this hurdle can I harvest the brilliant spring and welcome the bright moonlight.”
Iaar handed him his schoolbag.
“Young Master, stop acting crazy, it’s already summer.”
“Oh, right. Iaar, speaking of which, this afternoon, I have a very important mission for you.”
“What, what?”
“Come a little closer.”
Will instinctively leaned his head close to Iaar’s ear.
“Uh… Young Master, if you want to whisper something…”
Iaar crouched down and offered her wolf ear to him.
“To… to this…”
“Oh, simply put, it’s…”
Will whispered a crucial mission into Iaar’s ear, one that was deeply connected to “today” and its special significance.
