The dormitory building.
Wang Yue stood before the whiteboard, looking up at the newly posted announcement.
The current points for the Class Competition were as follows:
Class Five: 5 points.
Class Two: 4 points.
Class One: 3 points.
Class Three: 2 points.
Class Four: 1 point.
The rankings followed the order of elimination.
Wang Yue turned to Medeili and said, “This victory belongs to us. It has nothing to do with those other two.”
Medeili pursed her lips and smiled. Her heart felt light and refreshed, as if she had just downed a chilled glass of sweet and sour citrus slushie in the middle of a sweltering summer.
Wang Yue didn’t spend much time basking in the satisfaction of winning the competition or defeating Lilith. Instead, she threw herself back into her work. Among the freshmen, she was easily the busiest; every second of her spare time was spent laboring.
Returning to her room, she called out, “Dorothy.”
The little maid turned her head, crumbs from a biscuit falling from her lips.
Wang Yue gestured toward the “Crumb Maid” with a tilt of her chin. Dorothy understood immediately and moved to pick up Prima.
Wang Yue walked over to the crate sent by Ed-Bear and cast a Weightlessness spell. The crate, which weighed hundreds of pounds, suddenly felt as light as a massive block of styrofoam, nearly floating off the ground.
Grabbing the handle on the side of the crate, she carried it effortlessly out of the dormitory and headed toward Donna’s wand-making workshop.
“Are you planning to make prosthetics for your classmate?” Donna asked, her eyes glowing like pinpricks of light within the deep folds of her wrinkled face.
Wang Yue nodded and set the crate against the wall.
As Wang Yue became increasingly famous within the school, rumors about her reached Donna through various channels.
The teachers discussed her during their tea parties, claiming she possessed a natural quality that made people adore her and find joy in serving her. She was like a lantern in the darkness, bringing hope and warmth to everyone around her.
Such a trait was exceptionally rare, especially among witches.
The typical traits of a witch were usually the polar opposite: “Dominance” and “Greed.” While these weren’t obvious in the first-year students, by the time they reached the upper grades, they easily formed one-on-one or one-on-many relationships of absolute mental and physical submission.
The school did not forbid this behavior.
Intimate relationships between those of the same gender were seen as conducive to forming strong bonds, which in turn enhanced the witches’ combat effectiveness.
Long ago, the Holy Kingdom had established a peerless, world-renowned knightly order—the Bauhinia Knights—based on a similar principle.
Back then, the Church had selected a group of blonde, blue-eyed boys with exceptional talent, subjecting them to closed-off training until they reached adulthood.
Unsurprisingly, they formed bonds that transcended mere friendship. Their ranks were filled with passionate camaraderie and a shared love for philosophy; they encouraged each other on the battlefield and shared every hardship. Their combat power was terrifying.
And the ones who eventually defeated them were none other than the witches.
Wang Yue pulled a thick stack of manuscripts from her bag. These were blueprints designed based on Prima’s limb measurements and the materials currently at hand.
To create them, she had spent the vast majority of her free time in the library, researching mechanical engineering and ergonomics.
Wang Yue walked over to Donna. “Master, I’ve drafted several designs and compared hundreds of existing prosthetic schemes, but I’m still a bit uneasy. You’re the professional here—could you take a look for me?”
Donna took the stack of blueprints. They were heavy, weighing at least half a pound.
Her expression shifted from slight surprise to genuine admiration. This wasn’t some impulsive whim or a passing interest; this was a meticulously planned, resolutely executed project that had required immense time and the overcoming of countless obstacles. It was a high-value, highly effective piece of work.
Watching this, Prima’s eyes began to sting. Hot tears threatened to spill over, but she grit her teeth and forced them back.
She didn’t want to let her tears fall so weakly. She didn’t want her soul to become thin and cheap.
***
Machinery is a man’s romance.
Smooth, beautiful curves, high-durability components, tightly meshing gears, rhythmic strokes, the transmission of energy and force…
Even though she had undergone a transformation, machinery still brought Wang Yue a sense of joy.
Donna sat down and carefully reviewed the design drawings, then picked up a pen to suggest improvements.
“The weight at the distal end needs to be reduced. A prosthetic isn’t like a natural arm; it isn’t one with the body. During intense movement, even the smallest accumulation of stress can turn into an unbearable injury. You can’t let the connection point bear too much force.”
Wang Yue nodded repeatedly. Watching her master take a fine-liner pen and make sweeping changes to the design—especially the forearm section—gave her the feeling of a student watching a teacher grade their homework.
“The rest is just refining details. Also, your idea of embedding a wand inside the prosthetic is quite ingenious. Although the mana conduction path is long and the materials will be hard to find, the logic is sound,” Donna praised.
“You’re the Master Wand-maker. I’ll need your help to actually get the wand embedded,” Wang Yue added quickly, not missing the chance to flatter her.
A wand buried within a prosthetic had to be flexible and resistant to bending. It was similar to an electrical wire. A wire consists of a conductive material and an insulating material; these corresponded to the wand’s core and its casing.
Donna agreed to the task and set off to design and create the soft-core wands.
Wang Yue, meanwhile, got to work using the improved blueprints.
She first stripped the disabled girl of her clothes, leaving her in only her chest wrap and small panties. She caught a glimpse of Prima’s soft, cute little belly and thought to herself that it was no wonder Lilith had such a “taste” for her.
Then, she took a candle wrapped in oil paper from her tool kit, placed it in a holder, and struck a match to light it. The candle emitted a strange, pale blue glow.
Under the light’s influence, the girl’s flesh took on a gel-like, transparent, and soft texture. The internal skeletal structure emitted a brilliant silver-white glow, while the internal organs appeared as dark green outlines. The boundaries were sharp, and the layers were clear.
Even the hand Wang Yue used to hold the candle looked like it was under an X-ray, her silver-white bone hand encased in transparent, gel-like flesh.
There were hundreds of types of “Candles” made from ancient animal and plant fossils, each possessing different functions.
The one in her hand was “Transparency Type 3.” It was said to be extracted from the fossils of a certain prehistoric horseshoe crab, and its ability was to make the illuminated object appear in colored, transparent layers.
“Are you cold?” Wang Yue asked.
Prima shook her head gently.
“If anything’s wrong, just speak up. Don’t be shy.”
Wang Yue placed the candle nearby and removed the cap from a surgical pen. She reached out and drew a circle about an inch away from the surface of the girl’s stump, then marked the position of the cross-section of the arm bone.
Before crafting the prosthetic itself, she had to forge four bushings that were closed at one end. These bushings would be fitted onto the ends of Prima’s stumps to handle the torque at the connection points.
Wang Yue first created plaster molds, then used witchcraft flames to melt steel ingots, pouring them into the four molds.
Once they had cooled and set, she took the bushings to a witchcraft-driven milling machine. She cut uniform, oval ventilation holes into the sides of the bushings to prevent sweat buildup.
In the center of each bushing, she bored a hole—this was where the Pyre-Bone would be wedged in.
When Pyre-Bone touched human bone, it would fuse with it, acting like a lighter, stronger surgical pin. It possessed excellent strength and toughness, and it was inert and non-toxic, meaning it wouldn’t cause internal infection or rejection.
Wang Yue ground the four pieces of Pyre-Bone into specific fastener shapes and then disinfected them along with her own hands.
She walked over to Prima and warned, “This is going to hurt quite a bit. Bear with it.”
Prima nodded vigorously.
Wang Yue knelt down, using surgical gauze as a buffer, and pressed the sharp end of a Pyre-Bone fastener through the center of the bushing.
Prima craned her neck, her entire body tensing up. Her face turned bright red from the pain, but she didn’t let out a single scream.
The gauze was stained red with blood as the fastener pierced through the flesh and made contact with the broken bone. After a period of softening and blending, it would eventually form a hardened, integrated structure.
The protruding part of the fastener acted as a lock for the bushing. Now, the only way to remove the bushing would be to break the bone.
“You’re very brave,” Wang Yue said, patting the girl’s head encouragingly. “Just hold on a little longer. There are three more to go.”
