The first day of her period passed smoothly, thanks to the special medication prescribed by Dr.
Cecilia.
The second day, some lingering symptoms remained.
After finishing the remaining packet of special medication, she got through it successfully.
On the third day, the symptom of total mana increase had completely subsided.
Originally, formal classes were scheduled to begin today, but a sudden notice rescheduled it to two days later.
Arcana speculated that the adjustment to the formal class start date might be related to the sudden outbreak of mana explosion phenomena this year.
Because on that same day, Arcana saw the news officially released by the Empire on the neural network.
All Young Witch Academies within the Empire, including the Young Witch Academy in the capital of Witch Star, had suddenly experienced a massive outbreak of mana explosion phenomena among new Little Witches.
According to statistics, the total number of Little Witches experiencing mana explosions reached 300,000, with less than a thousand successfully treated.
Because the incident was sudden, and such an outbreak had never occurred in the Empire’s history.
99% of the Little Witches either died en route to the hospital, died because hospitals were suddenly overwhelmed with Little Witches and lacked sufficient medical resources, or died because parents had no experience in handling it and could only watch their daughters perish.
Currently, the Witch Empress had announced the establishment of a special investigation team to look into this year’s bizarre mana explosion phenomenon.
Furthermore, she had allocated special funds for long-term, continuous compensation to all affected families and immediately summoned Empire officials to discuss countermeasures.
Seeing this data, Arcana was also deeply shocked.
Mother Starshine said there were 1,493 Little Witches enrolled in their academy this year.
The number of Little Witches who experienced mana explosions was 55, significantly more than what Dr.
Cecilia had mentioned earlier.
This academy had been established for a century, with at least hundreds of thousands of Little Witches having graduated.
Yet, in the academy’s history, a mana explosion phenomenon had never occurred.
Considering that the Witch Empress had mobilized all official forces within the Empire to thoroughly investigate the cause of this outbreak and immediately summoned officials…
…one could understand the severity of the situation.
Further incident reports had not yet been released by the authorities.
Online discussions were all speculating about the possible reasons behind this mana explosion event.
Some netizens were also continuously sharing and tracking the official follow-up handling of various aspects of the incident.
After setting up alerts for related keywords, Arcana returned to her daily life.
Her current daily life was quite fulfilling.
After breakfast, she would read and study.
After lunch, she would play ranked ladder matches in the Virtual Arena with Nova.
After dinner, she would hone her control over the Emperor’s power and do some simple physical exercise.
Then she would sleep.
During this period, as she spent time with Nova and played ranked matches, their relationship had grown quite close.
Nova had gradually opened up to Arcana, though, of course, they never discussed topics related to reality.
Over these days, they had achieved a 12-win streak in their ranked ladder matches in the realistic simulation battles, and the system notified them that their next match would be a promotion series.
Defeating two Master-tier opponents would allow them to advance to the Master rank.
If they failed, naturally, their win streak would end, and they would remain in Diamond.
However, in the short term, they probably wouldn’t have time to play this promotion series.
Because the academy was starting.
Today was the first day of school.
Arcana once again put on the outfit her mother had given her as a gift.
A white shirt, a black blazer vest, a red-plaid skirt, black thigh-high socks, and a pair of round-toed leather shoes.
For her hairstyle, Arcana chose high twin tails.
She had learned to tie her own ponytails; simple hairstyles she could manage herself.
Regarding the weather, the cold front that had swept through their city had receded, and the city had returned to its warm and pleasant spring climate.
But just in case, her mother had placed a few warm coats she could change into at any time in her Portable storage space (portable storage space).
There was also a magic runestone that, once activated, would form a thermal barrier without requiring active mana input.
After making thorough preparations, Mother Starshine took Arcana, flying to the teaching building where classes were held.
Starshine simply escorted her daughter to the foot of the teaching building, bid her farewell, told her to enjoy her academic life, and then took her leave.
Arcana looked around at the other Little Witch classmates who, like her, had been brought to the foot of the teaching building by their witch mothers.
She didn’t know if it was a tacit agreement (tacit understanding) reached by all the parents or an academy regulation.
All the witch parents only brought their daughters to the front of the teaching building before leaving.
Not a single one chose to take their daughter directly to the classroom door.
It was really strange.
But just as Arcana was about to go find her classroom…
Suddenly, someone hugged her waist from the side.
And with quite some force.
Arcana turned her head to look: pale golden hair, a petite figure.
“Nono?”
The little loli witch hugging Arcana looked up.
Those timid, azure-blue eyes met hers.
“Sister…
Arcana.”
Nova called out timidly.
Arcana instinctively raised her hand and gently stroked Nova’s soft golden hair.
She then looked in the direction from which Nova had come.
Sure enough, Nova’s mother was looking at her somewhat awkwardly.
This mother clasped her hands together in a pleading gesture, her smile towards Arcana also full of apology and helplessness.
This only made Arcana even more puzzled.
After all, why did all the parents only bring their daughters to the foot of the teaching building and then leave?
For a Little Witch with a personality like Nova’s, what if something happened if she were just left alone?
Watching as Nova’s mother looked back several times, taking only a few steps at a time, before reluctantly leaving…
Arcana looked back down at Nova, who was still clinging to her waist, and asked softly, “Nono, do you remember which class you’re in?”
“Thir…
thirteen…”
Nova’s voice was very soft, but Arcana still caught it.
At that moment, Elysia suddenly whispered in Arcana’s ear, “Arcana, your teaching building is quite interesting!”
“The teaching building is interesting?”
“Elysia, did you discover something?”
“Mhm~ Of course!
I am an all-capable fairy, after all.”
“But, it’s a secret.
You’ll find out when you experience it yourself~ Interesting, but quite simple!”
It seemed she had grown fond of her Elf Elysia form from the Virtual Arena.
Recently, Elysia had been appearing in her Elf Elysia form, both in reality and in the Virtual Arena.
“Teasing me again…”
This only made Arcana more curious.
Perhaps it was an opening trial, the content of which the parents were also aware.
Thinking about it this way made sense.
No wonder all the parents only brought their children to the foot of the building and not directly to the classrooms.
“Let’s go, Nono.
You don’t need to hug me anymore.”
Seeing that Nova didn’t react, Arcana simply changed her approach.
“Nono, aren’t you a knight?”
“A knight must be brave.
Hugging me like this isn’t quite the demeanor a knight should have.”
Recently, aside from their daily afternoon ranked ladder matches in the Virtual Arena, Nova’s mother had also been bringing her to visit the dorm every day.
This had also allowed Arcana and Elysia to ascertain Nova’s situation.
It wasn’t social anxiety, just timidity.
She was afraid of contact with any strangers.
But if it was someone familiar to her, communication and interaction were fine.
It was just that Nova tended to be a bit more shy and timid.
Arcana’s encouragement was quite effective.
Nova gradually loosened her arms from around Arcana’s waist.
One hand tightly hugged a cute knight doll, while the other hand firmly grasped the middle three fingers of Arcana’s left hand.
Her hand wasn’t big enough to hold Arcana’s entire palm, so she could only hold her fingers.
“That’s great.
This is more like a brave knight.”
The word ‘knight’ held special meaning for her, which was why Arcana often used it as a key word to encourage her.
Turning her left hand to hold Nova’s small hand in hers, she led her towards the stairwell of the teaching building.
Today, Nova’s attire was similar to Arcana’s: a white shirt, a black blazer, a red skirt.
The difference was below the waist.
White thigh-high stockings and a pair of black-and-white canvas shoes.
Her pale golden hair was loose, soft, and flowing down her back, adorned with a large blue bow hair accessory that swayed cutely with her steps.
When interacting with Elf Elysia, she seemed a bit scared and didn’t respond, but she would still look at Elf Elysia with curious eyes.
Yes, Nova could see Elf Elysia.
Elysia said she enjoyed interacting with cute girls.
Since Nova would be Arcana’s classmate for a year and their relationship might grow closer in the future, she didn’t mind revealing her presence to Nova.
Most importantly, the reactions of such a shy and timid little loli when teased were really fun!
Arcana didn’t interfere with the interaction between Elysia and Nova.
She trusted Elysia.
When it came to getting along with beautiful girls and lolis, and understanding boundaries, she was much more skilled than Arcana herself.
For now, it was time to go report to the classroom.
Nova’s class was Class Thirteen.
Coincidentally!
She was also in Class Thirteen.
They were assigned to the same class.
The classroom for Class Thirteen was room 4013 on the fourth floor of the teaching building, so they needed to walk up to the fourth floor.
Arcana found it strange.
The Witch Empire’s technology and magic were highly developed.
Various space-jump teleportation devices existed for both military and civilian use.
The application of spatial magic teleportation arrays was deeply integrated into all aspects of Empire life.
Why not just install a teleportation array into the teaching building?
Why make them climb stairs?
But as Arcana led Nono up five flights of stairs and found the floor indicator had changed to ’10’, she fell silent.
Finally, amidst Elysia’s laughter, Arcana said with a look of exasperation, “Why do we have to solve puzzles just to go to class on the first day of school?”
“Am I playing some kind of real-life open-world game?”
It might not seem tempting right now but who knows what the future holds?
“And If you’re enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!”