Chapter 123: What Am I Even Supposed to Learn Here
“That’s more than enough. Thank you, Victoria.” Peiya smiled in satisfaction and pointed at the alchemy tools on the table. “Are you planning to do alchemy?”
“Yes,” Victoria said, dragging her eyelids down, looking like she was about to collapse. “Who knew the teacher would give so much homework…”
“Wait a moment, I’ll help you. What do you need to make?”
“Here, this one.”
Peiya took the assignment Victoria handed over. After just a quick look, she already had an idea.
“The way you placed these is wrong. For unstable energy like magic power, the best way is to add a protective layer around the path it flows through, or use another magic device to keep it balanced. The reason your experiment failed is that your energy flow is messy. The magic is moving around randomly inside the test tube. How can it stay stable like that?”
Peiya carefully adjusted the test tubes. Victoria stood beside her, staring blankly. At first, she didn’t understand, but once she realized what Peiya was doing, she was completely shocked.
Normally, this step should require very precise measurements according to the textbook. But Peiya was doing it directly with her hands.
And she got it right.
It was like carving a piece of wood casually and somehow creating the correct shape of a person. It made no sense.
“Y-You… don’t measure anything?”
“Normally, yes. But I’ve done this experiment many times. I can tell most of it just by touch. My method isn’t very standard though, it might deform the test tubes. You shouldn’t copy me.”
Victoria: …
What am I even supposed to learn from this?
Thanks for thinking so highly of me.
Peiya ignored her and continued adjusting the equipment. Once all the values became stable, she added the materials and injected magic into the channels one by one. Soon, a crystal dropped out.
Victoria quickly caught it and checked its quality. As expected, it was at the highest, perfect level.
At that moment, Victoria felt completely defeated.
It was like you spent the whole summer working hard on your homework, but then a top student casually writes a few lines faster than you, and still gets everything correct.
It was ridiculous.
Who could she even complain to?
“Master… c-can you make a slightly worse one? This quality is too perfect. My teacher definitely won’t believe I made it. She always says, ‘If you can make something like this, even a bishop could climb a tree’.”
Peiya couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, I’ll make a slightly worse one for you.”
She injected magic again and started the process, but it didn’t feel very smooth. So she looked up at Victoria.
“I’ll handle the first half. You finish the rest.”
“I… I… can I really do it?” Victoria held the flask tightly, afraid she would mess it up.
“Yes. Try to lower the quality. To be honest, I’ve done this experiment too many times. I really don’t know how to make it worse.”
This…
Victoria felt like her soul had left her body. Was this really the kind of problem top students had? Could she please have even a little bit of that kind of “problem”?
“Alright, I’ll handle the later part, injecting the magic energy.”
Victoria followed Peiya’s steps and tried again. But the result was still a perfect-quality product.
“Wait, I tried really hard to mess it up. Why is the quality still this high?”
Victoria felt annoyed. She had seen many people fail to get full marks, but this was the first time she saw someone trying to lose points and still getting full marks.
Nara, who had been watching from the side, suddenly spoke up, “Could it be that Miss Peiya did the first part too perfectly, so Victoria… well… anyway, there’s no room left to make it worse.”
Victoria: ?
Thanks. I feel offended.
Then another question came to her mind, wasn’t Lisa in the same team as Peiya before?
Victoria really couldn’t understand. Just how bad do you have to be for someone this strong to not be able to carry you?
Or maybe, it was exactly because Peiya was so strong that she could carry her teammates back then.
“Let’s leave it like this for now, Miss Peiya. I’ll redo the experiment later. Do you have anything else to do?”
“No, I’m planning to go back. Nara, do you have anything this afternoon?”
“I don’t either. Let’s go together.”
Peiya nodded and left the church with Nara. They walked together until they reached a crossroads ahead.
“I’ll walk you up to here. Go back quickly, it’ll be sunset soon.”
“Okay, you stay safe too.” After watching Nara leave, Peiya headed back to her apartment.
As soon as she got home, Peiya summoned the Moon Tree and spoke to the shadow inside, who was sleeping soundly.
“Hunhun, wake up. I need to ask you something. How much do you know about Blackwater City?”
The shadow representing the Moon Tree climbed down, circled around, and landed on Peiya’s shoulder.
“Blackwater City? Do you mean the Eternal Night City?”
“The Eternal Night City? Why is it called something else again? We usually call it the Land of Night.”
Peiya thought about it carefully. When she asked Victoria earlier in the church, she also used the name “Land of Night.”
Blackwater City, Land of Night, Eternal Night City, City of Thorns. They all referred to the same place.
The Moon Tree shadow swayed slightly. “That’s what people in my time used to call it. The meaning is about the same. Speaking of which…”
It circled around Peiya again. “Wow, you actually completed the witch transformation without using the Moon Tree’s power. Impressive! As expected, my lady, you were born for this!”
“……”
Here it goes again.
Peiya raised her hand to stop the teasing and asked seriously, “What is the witch ritual you mentioned earlier?”
“It’s exactly what it sounds like. Every witch has her own awakening ritual. After all, witches are people who carry powerful energy. But some people, even if they have such power, don’t realize it. The witch ritual is basically a way to awaken that awareness…”
“...Normally, the Witch’s Heart slowly guides the witch to awaken her power step by step. But I didn’t expect you to take over the ritual yourself. This is the first time I’ve seen someone actively perform a witch ritual. I wonder what kind of result it will bring. It’s really exciting.”
Hunhun looked extremely excited. Just like she said, every witch’s awakening ritual was very important. But for Peiya, it was even more special.
It changed from something passive into something active.
“My master, do you feel anything different? Like wanting to soar into the sky, or burn everything around you? Anything like that?”
“Uh… let me think.” Peiya carefully felt her body. Everything inside her was unusually calm. There was nothing like what Hunhun described.
“No. My magic feels very stable. I don’t feel anything strange.”
“That’s weird… But since you’re the first person to complete a witch ritual on your own, maybe this is what makes you different. Or…”
“Maybe your witch ritual is incomplete. And one day in the future, a full awakening ritual will still be waiting for you. And I, your most loyal servant, will follow you until that day arrives!”