Chapter 50: Women are truly terrible creatures.

Walking along a quiet, cobblestone path through the woods, sunlight filtering through the trees, Feifei Bai and Xiaoxiao Ye held hands, buzzing with excitement about their fantastical day.

A magical creature—a wondrous white ferret.

Magical girls—as of today, they were part of that world.

A pollutant—faced on their first day as magical girls, nearly costing their lives.

The witch—when they were almost killed by the pollutant, they met the Greed Witch, who, due to a deal with the previous Iris, eliminated the pollutant and saved them in passing.

The day’s events were enough to brag about to classmates for a lifetime, but they couldn’t say a word.

They couldn’t reveal their identities, not even to family.

Passing a café, hands full of snack bags, they headed home.

Inside the café, a man and woman who’d just arrived sat by the window, one behind the other.

A poised server approached with a notepad.

“Sir, madam, what would you like?”

“Two Americanos and some random pastries, thanks.”

The server noted the order and returned to the counter.

“Natasha, did you recover those two tarot cards?”

“Of course.” Natasha flipped her hand, revealing two tarot cards glowing with faint starlight hovering above her palm.

“Not just the cards—I also got some of Augustus and Lilith’s magic factors.”

In her other hand, Natasha held two test tubes containing liquid.

Dark red, magic-infused blood.

Magic factors—the origin of magic.

Among countless beings, only a rare few had cells containing magic factors.

“Recovering the tarot cards is enough. Those two failures disgraced our [Page] division. The old-timers mocked us for ages when they learned our members were so easily killed by a witch.”

“What are you doing with their magic factors? Planning to build them a tombstone for remembrance?”

The man half-joked, his heart full of disdain for Augustus and Lilith’s failures.

Augustus had caused two major incidents, which the man had bragged about to other Arcana members.

But Augustus, that pathetic loser, failed twice, losing his life the second time.

And dragging Lilith down with him—what a hopeless romantic.

Challenging a witch for a man?

Lilith clearly didn’t know how to spell “death.”

Then again, their dictionaries probably didn’t have the word “death.”

The server returned with two Americanos and Natasha’s random pastries, and Natasha tucked the items back into her pocket.

“Your coffee and pastries, madam.”

“Mm.”

Natasha nodded lightly, pulling a crisp red bill from her bag and handing it to the server.

“Tip.”

The server froze, staring at the bill—she was just a server, and she got a tip?

“Don’t want it?”

“Thank you!” The server quickly pocketed it. “Call me if you need anything—I’ll be at the counter.”

“I will if I need to.”

Natasha wasn’t local to Huanglong; she always tipped service workers when traveling, hoping to ease their seemingly half-dead livelihoods.

Poor, unlucky bunch.

Back to business, Natasha pulled out the potion vials again.

“Lei Li, don’t you think Augustus’s experiments were interesting?”

Natasha’s dark purple eyes gleamed as she looked at Lei Li.

“Making pollutants? Don’t joke—that stuff could contaminate you.”

“Those are demon-realm monsters. Even one can cause massive destruction. Only those foolish magical girls would sacrifice themselves for so-called ‘justice’ to protect those worthless commoners.”

At the mention of ordinary people, Lei Li’s fleshy face twisted with contempt.

People without magic factors, unable to use magic, were a pure waste of resources.

Death was their best fate.

“Making pollutants is boring. If we’re going to play, let’s go big.”

Natasha gripped the vials, resting her chin on her crossed hands, staring into Lei Li’s eyes, enunciating each word.

“I want to replicate a witch.”

Lei Li’s eyes widened, nearly spitting his coffee.

“What!? A witch? Are you insane?”

He’d thought Augustus’s pollutant-making was crazy enough, but Natasha was on another level.

“I’m not insane. Augustus’s pollutant experiments? My suggestion.”

“I didn’t expect he’d actually succeed, creating a near-calamity-level pollutant dragon. That’s worth celebrating.”

Natasha’s words made Lei Li uneasy.

Augustus’s experiments were her idea?

That meant…

Hiss!

Lei Li sucked in a breath—Augustus was Natasha’s test subject.

So, replicating a witch—Natasha was confident she could do it?

If she succeeded, the possibilities were limitless.

They could climb to the top three Arcana ranks, maybe even face the Fool himself.

At this, Lei Li silently mourned Augustus.

He shouldn’t have called him a failure—Augustus died for a worthy cause!

Women were truly terrifying creatures.

Good thing he was fat and ugly—no women liked him.

He’d be in trouble otherwise.

Seeing Lei Li’s dawning realization, Natasha was pleased.

It showed he understood and was intrigued.

“But I’m still missing two ingredients.”

“Name them.”

Hooked, Natasha was thrilled.

This massive project wasn’t something she could do alone.

“Magical girl blood—specifically, their magic factors—and witch magic factors.”

Natasha’s audacity was staggering. Augustus challenging a witch was bold enough, but Natasha was on another level.

Magical girl factors were one thing, but witch factors? She dared to dream.

Lei Li regretted asking.

“Of course, witch factors aren’t essential—having them would be ideal.”

Natasha knew it was a tall order and added, “Without witch factors, we’d need an unimaginable amount of magical girl factors.”

“You could manage that, right? Just some magical girl blood.”