Chapter 43 : Chapter 43

Chapter 43 : Family Messages in the Old Phone

After cleaning the entire villa, a long time had passed.

I was so exhausted I was sweating.

The cleaning spell was a skill in itself; it didn't eliminate dirt but “stripped” it away, so the grime still needed to be dealt with.

The villa looked clean, but after a thorough sweep, there was no shortage of dust and dirt.

Once I was done, I wanted to take a shower.

No time like the present.

I returned to my bedroom and started sorting my clothes, all prepared by Bai Yu.

I could tell she put a lot of thought into them.

From afternoon to evening, I probably wouldn’t go out.

It was too dangerous outside, with reconstruction work happening nearby.

And that huge hole in the sky hadn’t been fixed yet.

As for dinner…

That was a problem.

Work usually included meals, but I forgot to bring back any bread.

There was nothing to eat in the villa.

Should I order takeout?

The academy should have delivery services.

I’d seen the delivery senior sisters at the shop, always super busy.

But would my old phone’s apps work?

Witch Academy was practically cut off from the outside world, especially for freshmen.

The admission notice was a one-way ticket.

Once you were here, your phone lost signal.

You could only use the academy-issued phone.

I wasn’t sure if it could download those apps.

Probably… not?

The academy phone’s apps were mostly tied to the academy system.

There were apps in the store, but after downloading, they didn’t seem to work.

Before downloading, I saw the description clearly stating they didn’t function within the academy.

Even information was blocked?

Was it the Curtain Wall?

But hadn’t the Curtain Wall been breached?

I opened a short video app I’d just downloaded.

It was a bit laggy but seemed to work…

Did the breach in the Curtain Wall allow outside information to connect?

The academy wouldn’t have such a flaw, would it?

Otherwise, news about the academy would’ve leaked to society long ago.

Deleting posts alone wouldn’t keep things under wraps.

Before enrolling, I had no idea that Witch Academy accepted boys.

Sure, you could find out if you looked into it, but the fact that boys turned into girls here?

No way anyone knew that.

Something that explosive would’ve blown up public opinion if it got out.

Boys who wanted to be girls would be ecstatic, right?

No need for surgery, no apparent side effects, no periods, and, well, no pregnancy either but for some boys, that might be a plus.

After some tinkering, I downloaded a campus delivery app and decided to splurge on takeout for dinner.

Oh, and I needed to transfer my meager savings from my old phone to the new one.

I picked up my old phone, which I’d tossed aside.

It was dead.

No battery…

Was there even a charger in the villa?

I looked around my bedroom but found nothing.

No way a villa this big didn’t have a charging spot?

Did everything here run on magic power?

That was too depressing…

Maybe I should ask Little Workhorse.

It was the villa’s smart housekeeper, after all.

“Little Workhorse, does the villa have a place to charge?”

Little Workhorse, still on its charging dock, activated and replied, “Yes. Though Witch Academy uses magic power for energy, to accommodate freshmen’s habits, there are charging ports.”

“Where?”

I asked concisely.

“I have a port. It converts magic power into electricity, adjustable to the required output.”

“On you…”

I inspected Little Workhorse and, after a while, found a hidden socket.

It really had one!

I grabbed my old phone’s charging cable and plugged it in right there.

This old phone had been with me for ages.

Though I had a new one and felt a twinge of wanting to move on, this phone held too many memories.

“Fine, in its final moments, I’ll delete those diaries. Consider it… saying goodbye to the past…”

I still remembered the diaries on this phone.

They were my deepest ties, filled with poignant memories, not explicitly written but buried between the lines.

I’d hoped to dilute those negative emotions this way.

Even living a second life, my childhood experiences still affected me deeply.

What did that mean?

It meant my inner strength wasn’t enough.

After a while, though the battery was barely charged, the phone could turn on.

With the familiar startup sound, I waited a bit longer for it to be usable.

It was an old model, so it was slow.

I was patient.

When it finally turned on, a flood of notifications bombarded the lock screen, even causing it to lag.

I saw the fleeting messages and familiar contacts.

At that moment, I didn’t want to open the phone.

I didn’t have many contacts, barely even classmates’ numbers.

In other words, my social circle was tiny.

I could already guess who was bombarding me.

How long had I been away from home?

Quite a few days, I think.

I spent a lot of that time at Bai Yu’s place.

They knew I was there but didn’t come looking or contact me.

Now that I was gone, they were frantically trying to reach me?

I wondered if they’d gone to the Public Security Bureau to find me.

But the bureau probably couldn’t touch supernatural academies.

Ordinary people weren’t allowed to access a student’s personal info at a supernatural academy, so they likely didn’t know I was at Witch Academy.

I opened the phone and checked my chat history with them.

Private chats, family group chats all filled with their messages.

My father, my mother, even my brother.

I didn’t remember them being this concerned about me.

I deliberately checked another person’s chat.

Her messages sat silently in my list of my girlfriend, or rather, ex-girlfriend now.

There was a slim chance she’d suddenly message me, but if she did, I’d be the one with a headache.

I didn’t know how to continue a relationship that was already dead in name.

Did we even have a real relationship?

I could barely remember.

Back then, I just wanted to try to see what campus romance was like.

And this was the result…

Her grades were about the same as mine, so how did she soar so high?

I didn’t know…

Was it when we were slacking off in class together, or doing other things?

Maybe that was just genius acing exams without studying.