Chapter 59: The Teacher

In fact, Audrey wasn’t the only one stunned—Noerose was equally bewildered, her narrow eyes wide open as she rubbed each of her eight eyes one by one, wondering if she’d squinted too long and damaged them.

Worried about her niece, she hadn’t left at all during the exam, watching every moment.

At first, she’d kept her gaze fixed on Audrey, and the girl’s performance had indeed not disappointed her.

She’d answered more than half the questions correctly.

That wasn’t easy—this exam had a perfect score of 100; scoring 10 was average, 20 was a genius, 30 was a prodigy, and Audrey’s score looked to be around 60, barely scraping past the passing line.

For a 16-year-old little witch, this was an astonishing level—Audrey had earned her title as the first genius of her family in nearly a thousand years; her knowledge already matched that of past top graduates.

But...

It wasn’t until Audrey was nearly finished that Noerose remembered there was another student taking the exam. Out of sheer, negligible teaching duty, she glanced over—and couldn’t look away. She immediately forgot her niece.

What could she do? This troublemaker was just too terrifying.

When Noerose looked over, she caught the troublemaker beginning to construct a puppet—and the moment she saw it, she nearly jumped. Those components were far too familiar; they were clearly the same techniques she’d used to build the giant puppet prototypes displayed on the first floor.

Though those giant puppets were failures in her eyes as a puppet master, even these failures were hot commodities outside the school—elite, rare creations.

Every year, disposing of her “failures” generated massive revenue for the school, which was why they tolerated her as a deadweight teacher who took funding but never took students—she earned far more than she cost; no one truly kept a slacker around.

But what had she just seen? A 16-year-old new witch, barely passing through her warehouse, had instantly mastered these puppet techniques?

What the hell kind of wild prodigy is this? Does she have some kind of strange magic eye?

Noerose thought to herself.

In the witch world, some gifted witches awakened powerful talents called Magic Eyes—mystical eyes with wildly varied abilities, some so potent they were like cheat codes; for instance, Audrey, her niece, possessed the famed “Domination” Magic Eye.

Noerose had heard rumors that some Magic Eyes could blatantly steal others’ research—like a spell you spent years developing becoming someone else’s the moment they glanced at it. It was envy, jealousy, hatred—no, wait, it was just shameless.

Now she suspected this little witch might have one of those free-ride Magic Eyes, able to steal her puppet techniques with a single look.

Fortunately, as she watched, she relaxed—because while the initial appearance and basic structure resembled hers, when it came to crafting the core of the puppet—the Puppet Heart—the girl used an entirely different method.

So, good news: her core techniques hadn’t been stolen. Bad news: her signature craft, the one she’d always been proud of, had been seen through in an instant.

Damn it, you’re worse than cheating with a Magic Eye, kid—you’re making me look like an idiot.

Realizing the girl hadn’t actually copied her, Noerose turned her gaze away, refusing to spy on the prodigy’s technique.

Witches always protected intellectual property; stealing another’s research was a grave sin in the witch world, and even as an invigilator, she couldn’t casually observe another’s technique—this was a matter of principle.

Though she had no teacherly morals, that was because she never saw herself as a teacher—she’d only accepted the invitation from Brewster Academy to gain easier access to other academic elites; deep down, she was still just a puppeteer obsessed with her craft—a researcher, a scholar.

As a scholar, she couldn’t stoop to spying on a student’s technique, even if what the student was demonstrating was a brand-new method she’d never seen before—and which deeply intrigued her.

“Well, there’s plenty of time later—I’ll exchange techniques with her afterward.”

The spider witch thought to herself.

At this moment, she acknowledged the troublemaker witch’s skill—just this puppetry alone was enough to pass the exam.

Such talent had stirred her desire to take her as a disciple; in some ways, this girl seemed even more suitable than her niece as her successor, since her niece was an artist, ill-suited for her war-focused puppetry.

Before, she had no choice. Now, she wanted a better disciple.

But she didn’t know which puppeteer family this troublemaker came from—taking a disciple required informing the family.

As one of the world’s top puppeteers, Noerose knew every puppeteer family intimately—but the girl’s technique didn’t match any she remembered. Was she perhaps a disciple of some reclusive elder? That would be troublesome.

But none of that mattered—this student was mine. If they refuse, I’ll take her by force. Below the Peak Witch, my puppet army is invincible—they can do whatever they want.

Noerose thought to herself. Demon witches were just like that—capricious.

But puppetry wasn’t the end—what followed was her architectural skill, which stunned Noerose even more. Though such intricate methods seemed overly complicated to her as an architecture master, she had to admit the final result was impressive.

Especially the design—it carried the aura of a true master. Had she not seen it built with her own eyes, she’d have sworn it was the work of some legendary architect.

But this palace seemed to follow Eastern immortal styles—how unusual.

Witches ruled the Western Universe, but across the vast Void Sea lay the Eastern Universe, dominated by immortals who had built civilizations older and more prosperous than the witch world. Legends said that during the early rise of witches, wandering immortals had aided them.

But for tens of thousands of years, storms in the Void Sea had grown fiercer, making passage nearly impossible even for powerful immortals or witches—so contact between the two worlds had dwindled to near nothing. Many witches today didn’t even believe immortals existed.

Clearly, this little one had an impressive background.

(Just background—worldbuilding flavor. This shouldn’t involve the Eastern Universe; just a hole dug for future xianxia themes.)

In short, Noerose found herself liking this troublemaker more and more. What she’d once dismissed as garish makeup now seemed part of the little witch’s charm.

Well, kids have personality, right? At her age, with such talent, even heavy makeup was just leading fashion—if she walked out naked, it’d still be trendsetting.

The spider witch thought to herself.

Okay, she admitted it was hypocritical—but what of it? As a demon witch, being hypocritical was fine. She despised waste, adored geniuses, and if you disagreed, come fight her.

“Teacher, I’m done. Here’s my paper.”

The voice of her beloved future disciple interrupted the spider witch’s musings. Noerose walked forward with a genuinely warm smile to take the exam, momentarily forgetting her adorable niece had already finished too.

“Let me see.”

Since she hadn’t paid attention to the written portion, Noerose didn’t know how the girl had done on the theory questions.

But it didn’t matter.

With that skill, even a blank paper wouldn’t be a problem—practice was the only true test of knowledge.

But...

“Uh...”

Looking at the densely filled exam paper, the spider witch’s hand trembled. Her eight eyes widened again—but this time, they held not malice or coldness, but shock and disbelief. And because they were so wide, she no longer looked terrifying—instead, she looked oddly cute.

After a long silence, after triple-checking the paper, Noerose forced herself to calm down.

Holy mother, perfect score. Where did this monster come from? Is some old geezer pretending to be a kid just to mess with me?

How could a little witch score perfectly on this devilish exam? Did she not eat, drink, sleep, or rest since birth, just studying nonstop?

“Master, please stop your magic tricks. I’m not joking around this year—I’m seriously recruiting students.”

The spider witch looked at the sweet-faced black-skinned girl and spoke carefully.

.....The spider witch trembled in anxiety.....