Ep.3 - First Lesson (1)
Ep.3 - First Lesson (1)
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It was the hour when the moon, still trailing its lingering regrets, tilted beyond the horizon, and the sun flushed the vacant space with gold.
At that hour graced with the lovely name of "dawn," Chichi was awake alone, filling the pages of her notebook with contemplation and scholarly fervor.
"The mana within his body is resonating with my magic. Only mine? No. If it resonates with mine, then it must resonate with all magic. Why?"
A single strand of Delin's hair lay between her exquisitely delicate fingers. Chichi stared piercingly at that one thin strand as she wrote down her thoughts and opinions.
Unique constitution.
Or talent.
Or an ability belonging solely to that child.
Bestowed by God?
Or connected to the demon race?
"What is it, what could it be..."
The witch academy directors, of course, and even the so-called renowned dull mages of the mundane world could not counter her magic.
She had put to shame women of all kinds, relying on nothing but innate talent and natural intuition.
But.
A single boy who hadn't even properly inherited mana... had broken through her magic?
"Hoh... pumpkin porridge..."
That little one, sprawled across the bed and searching for pumpkin porridge even in his dreams—did he have any idea what she had just done?
Her childhood came to mind then.
When Chichi was a girl, the Archwitch Ripinella had told her, "Your magic has no areas left to improve. You are no longer a student, but a professor."
Hearing those words, Chichi had smiled brightly and went home, thinking she had received praise. Only days later did she realize.
In this Raftel, there was no longer any witch who surpassed her.
There was no more magic for her to learn, no more teacher to guide her...
The girl of those young days, who had resolved to reach the pinnacle of witchcraft upon becoming a witch, achieved her dream on that very day.
And a dream achieved too quickly vanished, leaving an emptiness deep within her heart.
She no longer honed her magic. After all, it had already been deemed perfect. For no one dared to evaluate her magic anymore.
Her interest was directed solely toward [other witches striving hard to bloom their flowers].
Perhaps that singular passion of hers
was an expression of envy
toward girls her age who still held
the dream she herself had lost
and a fierce, desperate longing.
But enough of that digression.
Rather than dwelling on Chichi's past, let us focus more on the situation Delin found himself in.
He had devoured Chichi's pumpkin porridge until his belly swelled up round and full, and even in that state he was still murmuring "pumpkin porridge..." and craving more.
But his hardships and trials had scarcely even begun.
"...Delin. Let us be off."
Ah.
Now, it had truly begun.
Chichi, who had spent the whole night muttering to herself as she pondered Delin's bizarre power, now used her blue magic to levitate Delin into the air,
and in that state, she set him atop her broom and whisked him away.
The faintly chill air of dawn, and the warm light that would soon wash it all away.
Traversing the receding dusk, Chichi led Delin toward the witch academy at the heart of Raftel.
That place, vast and towering, possessed an exterior that could rightly be called a castle.
That magnificent exterior stirred even Delin, still chanting about pumpkin porridge atop the broom, to idle musings like "I wonder if Harry Potter lives here?"
It had the feel of an exquisitely crafted medieval artifact.
Yet at the same time, it was cozy enough to embrace countless souls.
Yet at the same time, it was also eerie—with all manner of pumpkin decorations, spider figures, skulls posted at the main gate, and strange patterns carved into the ceiling.
However, the deeper they ventured inside, the more the eeriness faded, until only the wondrousness of the witch academy's interior, animated by magic, remained to greet Delin.
Books flapping their pages like birds in flight, and headless knights patrolling the corridors...?
No—merely armor missing only its helmets. These strange beings, hollow yet wandering as though alive, approached Chichi and bowed politely before resuming their patrol.
Staircases shifting here and there in time with Chichi's footsteps. Women in paintings giggling as they watched Delin being carried on the broom.
And, most noticeably...
A witch who, unlike Chichi, wore extremely proper attire, a tidy appearance that revealed not a single glimpse of bare skin.
"Ah! Chichi."
"Shasha, have you been well?"
"Of course. Oh my... you've secured such fine teaching material. Everyone will be pleased, won't they?"
"It eases my heart to hear you say so. Thank you. Shasha, will you be observing the class as well?"
"No, no. I'm a bit busy today. And personally, [toying] around with men isn't really my taste."
"Oh dear. That's a shame. I had thought you, of all people, Shasha, would enjoy this sort of [play]."
The two exchanged smiles. But those smiles were nothing more than purely formal—enough to give any onlooker a fair guess as to the nature of their relationship.
"Until later, then."
"Until later."
With that brief farewell, the two parted once more and headed for their respective destinations.
As the witch called Shasha passed by Delin, who was perched on the broom, she seemed to unconsciously sweep her eyes over him with a lingering gaze, but then, as if embarrassed, she let out a series of coughs and simply walked straight on.
Witch society shunned sexual matters. And when those matters involved relations with a man, they shunned them all the more.
Among witches, the perception that 'men are infinitely lacking and incomplete beings' was widespread.
Whether this was mere self-consolation for witches who could not keep men by their sides, or whether men truly were lacking and foolish, no one could say.
At any rate, within witch society, sexual desire toward men was regarded as a most [immature and insufficient urge].
Nevertheless, witches, who valued the worth of knowledge above all else, periodically abducted men and conducted all manner of classes using their bodies.
In the course of that process, the [young and inexperienced witches (adults)] either abandoned their lingering attachments to men and devoted themselves fully to the advancement of magic, or redirected their desires toward the esteemed ideal of [homosexual relations] with other witches.
This phenomenon resembled the male homosexuality said to have flourished in ancient Greece,
and thus love between women, who were considered perfect, became solidified as the desirable form of love...!
So, to reinterpret Shasha's parting words in a way that might needle Chichi: "Young and immature Chichi. So you're going to play around with a man, are you? Honestly... this is why youngsters are so hopeless."
Because Chichi had achieved so much in too short a time, such envy always followed her. To other witches living in the same era, she was a target of admiration and longing, but also a target of endless jealousy.
The fact that she had ended up saddled with Biology and Mana Circulation was also, perhaps, due to the jealousy of other witch instructors.
The logic being that they were mature witches unsuited to handling filthy men, and therefore Chichi, who was younger, must shoulder all such classes.
Of course, since it was merely a 'liberal arts elective,' Chichi didn't pay it much mind. She figured that even if it was born of envy, it was only the petty flailing of talentless witches who found her an eyesore. And besides, she did have a genuine interest in men... and...
She was still young compared to the other witch instructors, and so her sentiments and values had not yet been dyed by that idealized homosexuality. She was still truer to the instinctive longing and desire—that men yearn for women, and women yearn for men.
And the same held true for the young witches of other academies, so they waited with fire in their eyes to hear the sex education taught by this century's greatest witch, Chichi. How could they possibly resist?
"Now, everyone, settle down—"
Inside the lecture hall, incessant murmuring.
The witches, crammed together and groaning over the lack of seats, were packed nearly twelve or more onto chairs meant for six per row.
And yet, even that wasn't enough—an estimated thirty witches were left standing to listen.
Truly, it could only be called an explosive response. A lamentable situation that would make other witch professors click their tongues—but still!
"I hadn't expected so many of you to come. The Advanced Mana Computation course I normally teach, you all raise a fuss and say you won't take that one."
The witches giggled. A lively lecture atmosphere was taking hold.
Of course, for Delin, who was simply blinking dazedly in the midst of it all... it was not a good atmosphere at all.
'What is this?'
'What the hell is going on right now?'
"It's quite alright. Curiosity about men is, I believe, a natural instinct. Some dismiss this desire and longing as naive and immature, but... in my view, the pull toward the male sex is an instinct of women. The pull of men toward women is instinct as well. The instinct between the two sexes is a biological... sort of homework, inherent ever since God molded us. Go forth, meet one another, and create offspring—that sort of thing."
Kyaa—!
Exclamations burst from the young witches. They were girls who followed her around outside of school, calling her "eonni, eonni," and listened to her lectures inside, calling her "Professor, Professor"—and when risqué words came from Chichi, whom they regarded as their role model, they blushed furiously at each other and wore lewd smiles.
"We witches, too, cannot escape this homework. There are limits even to gathering children abandoned by the mundane world. For witch society to function properly, shouldn't we give birth to new witches? If we come to depend on a mechanism of bringing them in from outside, we will lose the independent survivability of witch society. That is why we all must learn about the process of creating life. Yes... I mean sex. Sex."
At Chichi's words, delivered with a chuckle, the lecture hall erupted into chaos. Heads pressed together with friends seated beside them, giggling, some outright screaming and covering their beet-red faces with their hands...
"We'll leave the sex you're all imagining for later. Today, let me first teach you about men. The name of this child who will be helping with today's class is Delin. You'll be seeing him going forward as well, so please do memorize his name."
With that, Chichi stripped Delin's clothes off in an instant. The precise movements wrought by her blue magic writhed like tentacles as they rendered Delin completely naked.
"Uh, uh?"
Delin's entire body was laid bare in the blink of an eye, but he endured it, desperately suppressing his shame.
Because Chichi had promised to make him delicious pumpkin porridge if he simply stood there without resisting.