Witch Troupe and the Undead

In the end, she abandoned her plan, sighed, rubbed her face vigorously, and had Alessina bring in a huge pile of papers from outside the door. "Do your homework!"

Livia decided to use Roach's ultimate method: it doesn't matter if you don't understand, you don't need to understand, just practice hard!

Thus, the witch's true "quality education" course, less than 20 minutes in, reverted to rote learning, and even this rote learning method...

If Roach's students were only somewhat skeptical about whether they were human, then the arcane students who received the Little Witch's exam paper had no doubts whatsoever. They were certain that they might indeed be some kind of creature that looked very human but was not fully evolved, or that they were actually a well-hidden idiot.

Especially when some talented individuals actually found some tricks in the lethal dose practice questions, the rest of the people felt that they might be mentally challenged or fake.

When the bell rang to signal the end of get out of class, the college was filled with a group of absent-minded, stiff-faced, and dazed zombies. As more classes were held, many professors also noticed that those troublemakers had all quieted down.

Even those who liked to use clever tricks became much more obedient. However, those top students who usually liked to answer questions first and thought their academic level was outstanding seemed to have lost all their energy and spirit.

Chapter 231 Nightmare Academy

In the academy office, Roach and Livia shared the same office. This was mainly because Livia was not used to being around strangers, and as a witch, her little request could naturally be perfectly fulfilled.

Stacks of freshly collected test papers were placed on the table. Livia pulled out a quill pen, and the nib slid automatically across the paper. Several ginger-yellow cookie figures climbed from the edge of her skirt onto the table and hugged another pen.

Besides gingerbread men, there are sugar men and dumplings that have grown arms and legs. Even the words on the paper are twisted as if they are about to grow arms and legs and break off from the paper.

"Smack!" The witch's small hand slammed down, as if swatting a fly, fixing the words in place. After grading a few papers, she felt bored. She reached behind her and pulled a magic book from the bookshelf, leaning back slightly in her recliner, letting the cookie dolls and animated magical snacks take care of grading the papers, leaving plenty of cookie crumbs and sticky sugar residue on the paper.

"Ha~" Her pink lips parted slightly, and her emerald eyes gradually narrowed. It seemed that the daytime lessons had exhausted her energy. The invincible witch collapsed once again from exhaustion.

Luo Qi then began to summarize the questions on a blank sheet of paper and arranged the explanation for the next class. "It seems that the students of Imperial Capital Academy do have some basic skills, but their minds are not very active and their mathematical foundation is too poor."

"Your foundation in mysticism is also very poor~" The shrunken black horse-headed monster sat in a chair, legs crossed, holding a reference book in one hand and drawing something on the exam paper with the other. He even wore a strange pair of glasses. Considering the distribution and structure of the horse's eyes, Roach suspected that the glasses were some kind of decoration.

"Oh, there's someone here trying to solve a problem using demonology. That's rare. Are young people these days so daring?" Black Horse was brought here by the Little Witch to do hard labor. After all, grading homework is a very tedious and boring task, and it's easy to get high blood pressure from silly mistakes.

“Unfortunately, all wrong~” Horse Head crossed out the answer on the paper without hesitation, and then wrote a note next to it: “I suggest you go to the Holy City Cathedral for further study, so that when people from the Demon Realm ask you, you can say that you studied Holy Light.”

"Given your groundbreaking work in this new field of mysticism, I suggest establishing a new discipline called 'The Ritual of the Inevitable Failure of Mysticism,' or simply 'The Divine Must-Study,' to distinguish it from mystical knowledge."

"Don't waste money. If you have money to spare, consider going to No. 66 Flower Street to chat with a pretty girl, instead of spending it on alchemy."

"If your father doubts whether you are his biological son, answer him confidently: humans and donkeys cannot have offspring. Also, please do not wear donkey ears on your head, lest the stableman mistake you for someone who has just escaped from the stable."

"Generally speaking, the stars in the sky represent a predetermined trajectory of fate in the future, and I have already seen the ominous star above your head shining brightly. Note: Give your report card to your father, but don't peek at it, or it won't be allowed."

“Hey, Old Ma, do you really need to write so much useless stuff?” Leslie looked curiously at Black Horse, who was writing the comments.

"Of course, these comments of mine are all blessings from the Great Demon. They'll all have nightmares when they get back." Nightmares are the Nightmare Demon's favorite seasoning and food. Before Roach even handed out the test results, he discovered that almost every dormitory room in the academy was filled with the sweet smell of nightmares.

"No, I don't want to do my homework anymore!!!" The blonde girl suddenly sat up. The warm light from the desk lamp shone on her face, and she suddenly realized that she had been having a nightmare.

"You're awake~" Natalia raised her head expressionlessly to look at her roommate. The individual desk in front of her was piled with parchment scrolls and reference materials copied from the library.

This world has printing and papermaking, but it also has magic. Many magic books and materials cannot be printed and must be copied by hand, because the text itself constitutes part of the spell. Without copying it by hand, it is just a pile of useless characters.

Not to mention that many of the materials are magically encrypted and belong to the academy's intellectual property. Printing? You're probably overthinking it. Without the authorization of an academy instructor to open the seal, you can't even look at them.

You have to pay to make a copy yourself, and a seal will be placed on your copy to prevent you from repeatedly copying and spreading it. Some spell materials really cannot be spread on a large scale, otherwise the professors and archmages who provide these materials will add some special effects to your head.

"Ah~ I just dreamt I was doing math problems, all of them math problems, plus mystical concepts problems, and alchemical equations..." The blonde girl covered her forehead, her whole body covered in cold sweat.

“That’s great.” Natalia’s monotonous tone sent a shiver down her spine. “Looks like you remember what you said before you went to sleep, Lena.”

"What I said before I went to sleep?" A deep memory gradually surfaced, like a monster in a nightmare, pulling her back into another real nightmare... "Nali, I need to take a nap first, we can talk about the homework later." Suddenly, the blonde girl trembled all over.

"Now that you're awake, come and do your homework." Natalia mercilessly pointed to the seat next to her; at least an inch thick stack of homework was waiting for her to do.

"No!!!" Elena covered her head with her hands, completely unable to accept this terrifying reality.

"I told you, if you keep going like this, you won't be able to sleep tonight~" Natalia started working on her homework again. As a wizard, she didn't have to do many assignments, and it didn't matter if she made mistakes. Her pressure was much lower than Elena's.

After all, the field of wizardry is like asking a foreign language student to do physics homework compared to the field of arcane magic. It's normal that she doesn't know how to do it—it won't affect her professional title anyway, since she can't pass the arcane magic exam.

As for wizard instructors, the academy does have one, but wizardry is an elective course, and not many people choose it, so there are only a few classes a month.

However, what Natalia didn't know was that although she wouldn't have nightmares because of her different field, it would be the poor wizard instructor's turn to have nightmares when it came time for his elective witchcraft class. He would probably let out a sharp, explosive sound when he heard that there was a "wild spell wizard" in the class.

"No, this is too cruel!!!!" Elena's scream wasn't the only one, because many dormitories were in the same chaos. Roach had assigned too much homework, and no one could finish it... Don't think that the Imperial Royal Academy has no punishments. In fact, it does, and it's corporal punishment, and this punishment is approved by the parents or the nobles.

For the middle class and wealthy merchants, the price to pay for sending their children to the Imperial Royal Academy was too high. As long as they weren't beaten to death or maimed, it was perfectly acceptable to beat them to death if they didn't learn well. This was an important matter for them and their entire families.

The same applies to nobles. Those sent to the academy are either indifferent hostages or heirs on whom everyone places their hopes. As long as the former are not killed, no one cares; as long as the latter are not crippled, injured, or killed, they can beat them at will in order to get a better heir. In fact, if the professor really sends a complaint letter to the parents, the position of heir may not be kept.

However, most professors in the college lack this sense of responsibility. They don't assign too much homework to students, and as long as students don't act arrogantly and disrupt the teaching process, they don't bother to manage them. The knowledge they teach is truly valuable, and if you don't want to learn it or don't absorb it, they're happy to save themselves the trouble.

"Isn't Professor Roach afraid that students in the elite classes will complain about him?"

"..." Natalia looked at Elena with the eyes of someone looking at an idiot. "You mean complaining about a master alchemist who solved the emperor's illness and curse, caused another purge in the palace, and has the guarantee of three master alchemists? He also has a gold-level witch mentor?"

"And the thing you're complaining about is that he genuinely wanted to teach you something, but instead made you do a lot of homework?"

Elena remained silent. If some idiot really did that, his family would soon suggest that since the child wasn't suitable, they should get a different one.

"You know what life is like for a knight's squire apprentice, right?"

"..."

"So believe me, if Professor Roach really calls your parents, I don't think he'll be the most panicked one!"

Therefore, even a pampered noblewoman like Elena, when faced with Professor Luo's real threat that he might call her parents because she hadn't handed in her homework, obediently got out of bed and sat down at her desk to do her homework like a walking corpse.

"Ughhhh, why does math even exist in this world?! Let me copy your homework!"

“I’m a wizard, so I don’t really need to study arcane arts and mathematics,” Natalia said, looking at her companion with sympathy. “So even if I get zero on those basic courses, Professor Roach won’t say anything to me.”

"what?"

“What I mean is, are you sure you want to copy my homework? Let me make this clear: whether your parents are called in or your report card is sent back by the professor, the consequences are the same.” Elena felt a chill run down her spine.

So the blonde girl obediently picked up her pen and began to write down her answers to the dizzying questions.

"By the way, I can lend you these reference materials." Natalia was referring to the ones she had copied. Although they couldn't be copied again, they could be borrowed, but only within the academy, since everyone had paid tuition.

If you can learn or remember something after just a couple of glances, then the academy won't need to charge you extra for books; in fact, they might even give you a scholarship and living expenses.

"These materials..." "I know Princess Livia. This is the basic section she recommended I look at." Although Livia isn't very good at teaching, or rather, she doesn't teach in a normal way, the materials she recommends are indeed full of useful information.

After all, those "fraudulent books" with little substance and many errors all ended up in the fireplace. The ones she collected and remembered were genuine "true teachings" level magic books and materials.

It may not be very high-end, but the skills and knowledge it teaches are all genuine and verifiable, without any mystifying concepts or meanings; they are all solid core knowledge points.

"Let me see~!" Elena decisively chose to borrow it, and then found that it was indeed worthy of being called "Witch's Choice". These materials were really damn useful. They basically covered the parts that I didn't understand in my homework, and explained them in great detail. Although I still didn't understand them, at least I could use them as formulas without any problems.

"Ah, Natalia and Irene, you two are both here~" The second-year prefect pushed open the door and saw the two girls working hard on their homework, a knowing look on his face.

"Next week, Princess Livia will be giving us a lesson on 'Theory of Fundamental Elements,' and there will be an exam, so the student council will remind everyone to prepare in advance."

"Huh? The witch herself is giving the lectures?" Elena immediately became interested. Judging from these recommended materials, they were indeed packed with useful information!

"Right, right, this pre-study wasn't the Witch's requirement, but the Student Council's. Half of the fourth-year students haven't finished the homework assigned yesterday, even though Elementary Theory is one of the general foundational courses and not considered very advanced..."

"..." Elena looked at her companion in despair, "You said Professor Roach's mentor is Princess Livia, so... this is their school's tradition, right?"

“Probably,” Natalia shrugged. The good news was that she had finished studying the theory of elements, which wizards also needed to learn, otherwise they wouldn’t even be able to identify magical materials.

Two days later, many students in the academy had received their first exam results, and Roach and Livia began explaining their mistakes. Of course, they also received feedback from the dark horse.

“Ms. Elena, I want to know…” a girl stammered as she approached Elena, who had just finished explaining a difficult transformation ritual in the Life Science department, “In your opinion… I mean, in your view, do I really have a talent for the Mysterious Realm of Life?”

What she really wanted to ask was, "Am I really not an idiot?"

When she was taking courses in the Secret Realm of Life, she could understand a significant portion of even the Dean's lectures, and she was even the class representative or class leader of the Life Sciences Department. She was very confident and even proud of this. However, after taking Livia's course, she began to doubt whether she was an idiot, but the Dean and the others were too embarrassed to say it before.

“In my opinion, your talent isn’t the best, but it’s not bad either,” Elena said after a moment’s thought. “However, why do you have such a question?”

"...Then, Madam Dean, I want to hear the truth. Am I really not a fool? I mean, in arcane science."

Yes, you are not.

“But I can’t understand or comprehend Princess Livia’s lessons at all. She has written them down in great detail, and there are even questions like that…”

"What are the questions?" Elena took the test paper covered with crosses representing mistakes from the girl's hand, glanced at the questions, and fell silent.

To be honest, the fields involved are not particularly advanced or beyond the scope of the curriculum, but the depth is too great and the questions are too tricky.

That really requires a thorough understanding of the basic concepts and knowledge points of life sciences, and even the ability to independently deduce subsequent theories in order to be able to answer the questions at present. Even she herself was not entirely confident that she could answer these questions in a short time without using knowledge points and techniques beyond the scope of the curriculum.

It's roughly like watching a math major look at a middle school math olympiad problem. The solution is definitely solvable, and it's quite simple. But the problem is, it will inevitably take some time for a middle school student or even an elementary school student to solve it with the limited knowledge they have.

“I don’t think these questions should be part of your studies at this stage. You should be learning simpler courses,” Elena comforted her, and she did feel that starting with such high difficulty was a bit too much and the difficulty should be reduced.

"Oh, I see. I understand now." The girl finally breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that the professor's course was too difficult, not that she was a female monkey! Now, many people in the college are doubting whether they are really the smartest and most talented person in their family, and whether their family members and other professors' evaluations are just to save face for them.

"Don't worry, I'll talk to Professor Roach and Miss Livia later." Elena's so-called "lowering the difficulty" is true, but the reduction is probably not as large as the girl in front of her imagines. At most, it will just allow Roach and Livia to give them some transition period.

After all, from the perspective of a witch like Elena, there's nothing wrong with solidifying the foundation, especially the in-depth knowledge system derived from the most basic knowledge points, which is very beneficial for these students.

She had always felt that the college's courses were too superficial. However, the professors were there primarily for the salary, and they didn't put much effort into teaching, or rather, they didn't consider whether their students had the ability to deduce and learn deeper knowledge.

Now that Roach and his friend are genuinely planning to teach something real, why would they be asked to change it back just because it's too difficult?

Although these are the most common and basic things, without this kind of intensive teaching and in-depth exploration, these students would have to spend at least several years after graduation navigating through various pitfalls in practice to truly understand them.

"Ah, adding transitional knowledge content, that's what I've been working on lately. The homework and exams at the beginning of the semester were just to assess their specific abilities and progress." In response to Elena's request, Roach indicated that he had already considered it. "However, the homework I'll be assigning next might require equipment, and the quantity will also increase relatively. And then there's the matter with the students' parents..."

On Earth, he had encountered quite a few fragile college students, beautiful girls, and unreasonable parents. Of course, Professor Luo's status meant that even if he was just a nobody at an international conference, it would be a different story at the university. However, even so, he still felt his head was spinning when faced with those beautiful girls who were recommended for graduate school. He hoped that such a thing wouldn't happen in another world.

"What could they possibly have to say?" Elena was dumbfounded. Who the hell would dare to have a problem? She would personally meet with each of them and tell them to take their idiots back and teach them themselves.

"That's great. By the way, can we transfer students who don't meet the requirements to other hospitals?"

"Well, that might be a bit difficult, but if there's really something that can't be taught, you can consider dropping out."

"..." Luo Qi wanted to say, "Aren't you being a bit too radical? Just drop out of school!"

He was just trying to prepare for the possibility of some exceptionally talented students getting guaranteed admission to graduate school, those who were recommended through internal channels but were actually useless and just trying to ride on someone else's coattails. He was trying to see if he could transfer these people to a college or professor that was more suitable for them. But the dean said: What college are you talking about? Just expel them!

“Although you don’t seem like that kind of person, Master Roach, when you punish them, please take it easy and don’t do anything too serious. At the very least, don’t break any bones or cause any obvious external injuries.”

"Huh? Isn't this corporal punishment? Is this even allowed!?"

"Yeah, which apprentice didn't go through that process?"

"Well, I personally don't recommend corporal punishment, but punishment does exist. What kind of disciplinary measures does the academy have?"

"I don't quite understand this. I'll have someone explain it to you later." Elena really didn't know. After all, students who could drive the dean crazy were usually expelled. Anyway, there were no parent-teacher meetings or "the witch of a hundred faces" to deal with. She usually turned into an owl, but if necessary, she could also turn into a three-headed dragon to conquer cities and seize strongholds.

Chapter 232 How do you guys manage to sleep at your age!

Although he was granted permission to use corporal punishment, Professor Luo, as a professional and experienced mentor, chose to avoid physical punishment as much as possible. As for mental "punishment," he would give his apprentices the full amount of it.

Roach's approach was simple: he had Old Horse pull out everyone's comments, then singled out the test papers of those who hadn't submitted their homework as examples for explanation, and had him read aloud the comments given by Black Horse.

“Miss Greysius, your writing is as beautiful as the dress you wear, and your knowledge is as beautiful as your appearance.”

At first glance, this evaluation seemed to be a compliment to her intelligence and beauty. However, when her answer sheet was explained as an example of mistakes, as more and more wrong questions appeared on the blackboard and the mistakes became more and more basic, the noble lady's face became redder and redder. She looked as if she was about to be steamed alive, and her expression became more and more ferocious.

For a woman who spends most of her time on makeup, dressing up, and beautiful clothes, beauty is undoubtedly her most valued quality. And now that we know her knowledge is just a blob on the blackboard, her beauty, which is supposedly linked to her knowledge…

"Damn it, who is this teaching assistant House? Has his mouth been soaked in venom?!" Miss Grace clenched her fists tightly, while her roommate next to her was already slumped over the table, looking at the comments on her answer sheet with a pale face. There was no doubt that this girl had also failed to hand in her homework.

Her comment was much shorter than Graysius's, consisting of only one sentence: "Don't feed the monkeys, especially the female monkeys." The reason was simple: her answer was the same as her companion's, and she made the same mistake in one place, which is why Roach didn't take her up to explain.

"...Ah, that example is finished. Let's look at the next one, the part about the calculation of the four elemental essences. This is very important. You will have a hard time buying sufficiently pure elemental essences on the market in the future. Most of them will have some impurities. Even so-called pure essences are not actually that pure. They may cause explosions in some difficult alchemical experiments."

It must be said that, combined with the crisscrossing lacerations on Roach's body, this was very convincing for a genuinely eager alchemist, because the marks on his mentor's body and face were clearly caused by an alchemical explosion. In other words, if he said he was going to explode, then he really meant it.

Even the scoundrels couldn't help but sit up straight when they heard this. They were worried that one day their handsome, slicked-back face would be slashed like Roach's by a shattered glass, and their luck with women would be completely ruined, at least until they reached the level of a master.

"Therefore, we know that the impurity ratios of the four elemental essences are respectively... their fluctuation range is... and according to the law of conservation of elements and the law of annihilation of elements, it is easy to obtain..."

Roach was genuinely trying to teach them the basics of arcane magic, how to quickly perform calculations of elemental reactions, so that he could use elemental annihilation and conservation to obtain pure and virtually unadulterated essence.

Meanwhile, the sorcerers in the audience were completely lost in their own thoughts. The general studies students were taking notes, the academy students weren't attending the class today, and the alchemy students were the most dazzling ones in the room, in a state where they couldn't understand but had to force themselves to listen.

"Okay, that's all for today. And here's today's homework paper, due next Monday!" Another large stack of papers was handed out. Natalia glanced at it; it was a bit easier than the exam, with a lot of added challenging content. This made Elena next to her breathe a sigh of relief, almost thinking that she would have to perform some kind of ritual to ask the gods for blessings again.

Compared to the lower-grade students who simply received another pile of test papers, the upper-grade students were about to face the little witch's punishment. She was prepared to use corporal punishment, but hitting their heads was also a physical drain on her. And there were too many students who hadn't handed in their homework or whose test scores were almost zero, so Livia quickly stopped, panting.

To be honest, being tapped on the head by Livia wasn't much of a punishment. Her strength was no different from a caress. Coupled with the witch's unique charm and outstanding appearance, many boys even showed expressions of "what a good thing!" However, they soon stopped being happy.

The witch gave up on punishing them herself, so she raised her staff and tapped the blackboard. One by one, the chalk words twisted and coiled around the students who hadn't handed in their homework like venomous snakes. Then, every question on their test papers, their answers, and the words on the answer sheet all twisted and stretched out.

Amidst the students' terrified, even irrational expressions, the words emitted a series of eerie "hehehe" laughs, climbing up their sleeves and clothes, flowing into their ears, nostrils, and eyes. Once inside, they stirred countless sounds within their minds, forcibly shoving knowledge into them.

Their senses of sight, taste, hearing, and even smell were overwhelmed by countless pieces of information, which were repeatedly presented to them, leaving an extremely terrifying impression. Perhaps they didn't learn anything, but at least they would never repeat the same mistake this time.

Those lucky ones who handed in their assignments but didn't submit blank papers looked in horror at their classmates who were bound by chains made of countless ink-black words, and at the words that burrowed into every hole of their faces like tentacles. Suddenly, they gained a very profound understanding of the title "witch".