"I Became a Witch, but Now Everyone's in Love with Me!"

Chapter 7: The Curse of Knowledge Itself
 
From what Jiang Cha had experienced so far, witches had peculiar personalities.

They emphasized efficiency, yet made extravagantly wasteful decisions—like setting up subspace orbital commuter buses across campus. For a school environment, it felt entirely excessive.
Yes, wasteful.
The Aislyn Witch Academy was undeniably large. According to the map, it spanned about 450 square kilometers. But even with that much space, Jiang Cha couldn’t understand why students needed such advanced transportation. After thinking it over, she reached a conclusion:

They just didn’t want to spend ten extra minutes walking.
The amount of energy and the cost of creating such a system would have been unthinkable back in her world. But here, no one questioned it. Strangely enough, despite this over-the-top technology, witches lived like nobles from centuries past.
They enjoyed slow afternoons, books, and tea. Their everyday habits were refined, traditional, and borderline antiquated.

Take the Academic Affairs Office, for instance. It was located in a remote woodland area at the northwest edge of the school. A narrow path led from the bus drop-off point through the trees. From an urban planning perspective, it made no sense.
There were no nearby landmarks. Technically, the bus could’ve stopped right at the door. But instead, students had to walk ten minutes after getting off the shuttle. Whatever time was saved by advanced transit, it was immediately lost on the walk.
Was it for some kind of ceremony? A sense of tradition? Or just bad design?

Jiang Cha couldn’t tell.
But either way, she was now part of this society. She wouldn’t be able to leave anytime soon—possibly not for many years. So she had no choice but to adapt.
—

After finishing her visit to the Academic Affairs Office, she walked out holding three books. Her expression was dazed.
She had expected eccentricity, but she was still surprised. The textbooks were retrieved by scanning her ID card into a clunky, steampunk-looking machine. Once verified, the machine spat out three paper books—real ones, with cursive print and the smell of fresh ink.
They weren’t magical scrolls or high-tech e-readers. Just ordinary printed paper.

The machine condensed a complicated process into one smooth step, which was impressive in itself. But for all its complexity, it only produced standard textbooks.
“Witches really are wasteful in ways I don’t understand,” Jiang Cha muttered.
Her books were:
Introduction to the History of Witches

Simple Magic Mechanics
Introduction to Basic Magic
Together with Witch Combat Techniques, which didn’t have a textbook, these made up the first-year curriculum.

The course load was clearly designed to be manageable—understandable given the mental burden of witch knowledge. But for someone like her, whose magic far exceeded average levels, it felt like a light challenge.
No wonder Senior Sinan said first-year classes were easy.
She didn’t know her exact stats, but she had a general sense of how strong Qu Sinan was. From what she’d observed, her magic capacity was easily in the tens of thousands.

In witch society, magic power was closely linked to one's spiritual coefficient, which determined how fast a witch could absorb knowledge. In simple terms, magic power equated to talent.
That didn’t mean weaker witches had no future. The admission manual explained that low-magic witches could succeed by specializing in potions, alchemy, or similar fields.
Resources in witch society were so abundant that everyone had opportunities. That much was clear. What wasn’t clear to Jiang Cha was where all those resources came from.

—
Instead of heading back to her dorm, she followed the map to the campus library—known simply as the “Great Library.”
As someone with no memories and no cultural context, rebuilding her basic understanding of this world was her top priority.

Despite her curiosity about magic, Jiang Cha made the rational decision to start with Introduction to the History of Witches.
—
The library was silent.

In fact, aside from the dorms and classrooms, Jiang Cha noticed most parts of the academy were sparsely populated. Even though Aislyn Witch Academy was the top magical school, there weren’t many people around.
Its total population, including staff and students, was estimated at twenty to thirty thousand. And many of the sixth and seventh years were off-campus for internships. Given the campus’s massive size, it felt almost empty.
Inside the library, only a few dozen students were quietly reading. No one spoke.

“Hello. Welcome to the library. I’m the librarian—Moore,” said a voice as Jiang Cha stepped inside. “Hmm… should I call the disciplinary team? Skipping class is against school rules.”
The woman wore a brown witch uniform, clearly tailored to her figure. The outfit was modest at a glance, but somehow managed to draw attention in all the right ways. Her violet hair and playful brown eyes added to her mature, composed presence.
She was beautiful—and a little dangerous-looking.

Right in my strike zone… Jiang Cha sighed internally.
Normally, she might’ve felt flustered speaking to someone like this. After all, her “common sense” came with a lot of confused opinions about older-sister types. But thanks to her inherent magic, she didn’t feel nervous at all.
“Hello, Miss Moore. I’m a transfer student. I just arrived today and classes start tomorrow,” Jiang Cha explained, bowing politely. “I wanted to preview my assignments, so… please don’t report me.”

“Oh? Such a polite little freshman.” Moore smiled and waved it off. “Apologies for the misunderstanding.”
Her tone was warm, but Jiang Cha wasn’t sure if the teasing from earlier had been a joke or not.
“As an apology, why don’t I recommend a few books?” Moore offered. “They’ll help you get used to things here. The academy is… very different from the outside world.”

“That would be a big help.”
Jiang Cha smiled softly, playing up her manners just a bit. “I’d really appreciate it, Sister Moore~”
“You called me # Nоvеlight # ‘sister’? How unexpected,” Moore laughed gently. “Then I’ll pick some of the good ones.”

She paused for a few seconds, then quickly listed off several books.
“These are light on knowledge contamination and should help you with the basics.”
“Thank you so much.”

Maybe that old stereotype about librarians being secret bosses actually applies here...
Jiang Cha hadn’t expected much when she asked for help. But Moore was clearly no ordinary librarian. To recommend so many books meant she’d read them—and in a library this size, that was no small feat.
Still, Jiang Cha didn’t overthink it. Anyone responsible for managing the Great Library was bound to be powerful.

There was no rush to build a relationship. Right now, the most important thing was learning about this world.
With help from a magical guide sprite—a creature that appeared as a tiny floating orb with a personality—Jiang Cha was led to an unoccupied seat. The system seemed to avoid assigning seats near other people, respecting the privacy of each witch.
She opened her first book and began to read.

—
I can memorize much faster than I thought.
Twenty minutes later, Jiang Cha closed the first book.

Thanks to her enhanced vision and strengthened memory, she could read a page at a glance and absorb everything instantly. Her mind—empowered by her inherent magic—retained every word and organized it neatly in her “memory attic.”
The information quickly turned into understanding, forming the framework for how she now viewed the world.
In just twenty-one minutes, she had finished an entire textbook—and her speed was only improving.

Over the next two and a half hours, she read through all thirteen of Moore’s recommended books.
That was her limit.
Because…

Witch knowledge was harder to handle than she’d imagined. Most miscellaneous books were manageable, but they still caused minor fatigue that didn’t match the physical strain. It was more… mental.
But when she opened the real textbooks—the ones rich in magical theory—she finally understood what witches meant by “knowledge contamination.”
With every new fact she absorbed, a black mist seemed to erode the edges of her mind. It wasn’t visible, but she could feel it.

There was no defense against it. No shield or countermeasure.
All she could do was stop herself before the damage became irreversible.
It wasn’t infection.

It was a curse.
—The curse that came from knowledge itself.