Chapter 34: The Fifth Voice

Chapter 34: The Fifth Voice

"Why do I feel like that voice sounds a bit familiar?" Lilith tried her best to recall.

She only knew a handful of people, so with a quick thought, she recognized it: "It's the Headmistress!"

"That's right! It's me!"

Moran and her two companions, who had been startled by Ms. Amisha three times in a single day, were left speechless: "..."

Was the elusive Headmistress even omnipresent in voice as well?

Once they realized it was Ms. Amisha, they relaxed.

"Headmistress, what did you just say wasn't allowed?" Moran asked.

"You must not freely share the recipe for breadfruit juice with the first, second, or third-year little witches."

The Headmistress did not appear; there was only her voice.

"Why?" Moran was puzzled.

"Witches and Peak Witches have traveled in other worlds for many years and have discovered countless new species.

There are several types of fruits, much like the breadfruit, that can both provide satiety and replenish magical power or mana, some even more effective than the breadfruit.

They all require special environments and laws to cultivate, but do you know why we ultimately chose to plant breadfruit next to the dormitory area?"

"Why?"

The four little witches looked confused.

They had previously thought the breadfruit was incredibly precious and rare, something indispensable!

Were there actually better options available?

"It's because breadfruit tastes terrible!"

"..."

This was an answer Moran and the others never could have imagined.

Was being unpalatable somehow an advantage?

They had been trying every possible way to make the breadfruit taste better, only to be told that it was made to taste bad on purpose?

"It tastes bad so that you won't develop a dependency!

Breadfruit is merely a short-term transition before you learn culinary magic and how to brew recovery potions.

If breadfruit were both delicious and useful, would you work as hard as you are now when you encounter difficulties while learning culinary magic or refining recovery potions?

And yet, both of these are essential survival skills for the future; even if you don't master them, you at least cannot be ignorant of them."

Moran and the others could not argue with this reasoning at all.

Indeed, growing through adversity was not only a consistent educational philosophy of the Witch Academy, but also the very origin of witches.

Since they weren't even providing three meals a day, it was only natural to specifically choose a bad-tasting breadfruit to plant, ensuring the little witches wouldn't starve to death simply because they didn't know how to cook.

"Yesterday's breadfruit cake was acceptable, as it requires a certain level of culinary skill to make; sharing it is fine.

But today's breadfruit juice—having it replace the function of recovery potions in advance is not a good thing.

After all, once you leave the academy, there won't be breadfruit available for picking at any time.

The few of you may use it yourselves, but you must not teach other little witches, nor should you become slack in your studies of culinary magic and recovery potions just because you have breadfruit juice!

Once you reach the fourth year and begin to arrange your own study content, whether or not to make the recipe public is up to you.

At that time, your library access will also be fully opened to you. If you are interested, you can read the 'Breadfruit Consumption Methods' compiled by past little witches; it contains various flavors of breadfruit juice as well!"

This time, after the Headmistress's voice faded, it did not reappear.

Moran now understood. As Senior Lilith had said, once a little witch encountered a life-threatening danger within the academy, they would immediately be brought back by Ms. Amisha for treatment.

All the little witches in the entire academy were under the Headmistress's control!

Moran even suspected that not only were the Blue, Purple, and Black-robed Headmistresses teaching them, but there was also a whole crowd of Headmistresses hiding in various corners, secretly observing the little witches.

Perhaps every little witch even had a dedicated Headmistress supervisor.

Otherwise, how could the Headmistress appear so timely? She even knew about the breadfruit cake.

"So it wasn't that no one knew how to cook breadfruit, but rather that the Headmistress ordered the cooking methods to be kept secret in the lower grades!"

It was only today that Lilith learned this news.

No wonder they often ran into fourth-year seniors in the breadfruit groves, yet never saw the seniors eating the breadfruit raw!

Unlike them, who often got so hungry they didn't want to bother finding ingredients, so they would just grab a fruit from the forest, wipe it off, and start gnawing on it.

The seniors kept it so well-hidden!

"No wonder! Juicing wasn't exactly a sophisticated idea; it's not like it would go undiscovered forever!"

Moran had felt something was strange for a while.

The powerhouses of Valen were capable of inter-world travel!

The cultures and specialties of other worlds would inevitably have some influence on Valen.

In a world like this, how could it be a culinary desert?

It was one thing for something like soy sauce to be missing, but what was so special about a juice?

She had originally thought that since most little witches were unskilled at cooking when they first enrolled, they hadn't researched it much, and once they learned culinary magic, they were too lazy to bother because there were so many delicious things to eat!

As it turned out, the seniors had even come up with breadfruit recipes; they were just circulated among the fourth and fifth years, so the lower grades didn't know.

She had still underestimated the witches.

"It looks like we'll have to drink this juice in secret," Sylph said.

"Fortunately, we didn't make much; we won't be able to drink it for long even if we keep it in the dormitory," Lilith said. "We'll just make less at a time in the future."

Vasidat, who had made a large pot: "I can't finish it all. I'll just pour it into my stomach to prevent it from spoiling if it sits too long."

"I'd better drink more tonight!" Moran said helplessly.

She had originally intended to bring a large pot to school tomorrow.

Now that they had to hide the recipe for honey breadfruit juice, bringing a large pot would be too conspicuous; at most, she could bring a waterskin.

Fortunately, the juice wasn't very filling; she would just have to make more trips to the washroom after drinking it.

After the seniors and Vasidat left, Moran began to gulp down the juice.

She would drink for a while, then wander into the courtyard to stroll, weed, and turn the soil, before returning to drink more.

Fortunately, there was only a pot and a half in total. She had finished most of it in a short time; if she drank a bit more when she woke up tomorrow morning, it would be just about gone.

The next morning, Moran set out with a waterskin full of juice and a bag of breadfruit cake.

She walked to the dormitory intersection with Vasidat and Sylph, but they still hadn't seen Senior Lilith.

The other second-year seniors were nowhere to be seen either.

"Strange, where are the seniors?"

Ais, who was nearby, told them: "You were walking at the back yesterday, so you didn't hear? The second-years have their first class in the herb garden today. I heard they are preparing to refine flying brooms!

The herb garden is closer than the castle, so the seniors should still be sleeping right now!"

"Then doesn't that mean the seniors will have their own flying brooms soon?" Vasidat was incredibly envious.

"On this mountain path, soon it will only be us twenty-seven first-year little witches huffing and puffing as we climb!" Cheryl let out a long sigh.

"I wish I could be in the second year right now!"

"Who wouldn't?"

...

(End of Chapter)