After asking about the way, Alysia drove the horse-drawn carriage towards the Explorer's Guild branch in the town.
Because the streets were so narrow, the carriage moved slowly, often having to retrace its path when the narrow streets impeded its progress.
Basically, driving a carriage in this town was an awful experience.
There were no clearly defined streets in the town, only roads trodden out by foot. Maybe they could be called half-formed dirt roads.
Aboard the carriage, the old witch suddenly spoke about divination.
"Your Highness, did you know every wizard and witch must learn divination?"
Ivita shook her head. "I had no idea, why is it so?"
"Because it is one of three prerequisites to graduate to a full-fledged witch or wizard." The old witch chuckled, her own skilled divinations were few, mostly offensive to normal tastes, and her genuinely talented apprentice was who excelled at divination.
Her apprentice's gift in divination was so strong; it had landed her a viscount!
The reason she mentioned divination was merely to hasten Ivita toward Ambros.
A silent shiver ran down Ivita's back.
Did wizard apprentices have to study divination to become full-fledged wizards?
This reminded him of how in his past life, old Daoists living in the mountains could all read fortunes.
The old witch smirked: "Ordinary wizard and witch apprentices might need to serve me for 20 to 30 years to learn this piece of information."
"And that depends on my mood that day."
"On the days when I'm feeling rotten, I might mislead them with false information."
As if remembering something, the old witch smirked creepily. "I once told a petulant young sorceress that to become a full witch, she'd need to swallow ten thousand live eels. The idiot took me seriously and only caught on to the joke about four months later, after swallowing over three thousand eels."
"However, in the end, she just remained an apprentice witch, because I forgot to tell her that to advance to a full witch, she needed to learn divination."
Black Wolf and Rayli edged away a little bit at this.
They were starting to regret the single carriage decision, they and the witch obviously lived in different worlds.
This woman was terrifying.
No wonder she suspected her teacher had deceived her — this was what she'd done in the past.
By being consistently villainous, she'd found it difficult to trust genuine kindness when she encountered it.
Ivita ignored the old witch's boastful recounting of her evil deeds, he was more interested in something else. "So, why did you reveal the true method to your favored disciple?"
The old witch suddenly fell silent, then said: "That is the thing I regret the most in my life."
"I was too young, too soft-hearted then."
"I wasn't mature enough, I wasn't bad enough."
So are maturity and being evil related in any way?
Black Wolf and Rayli couldn't help but roll their eyes.
Ivita was also speechless.
However, the problem was that the old witch seemed to think demon god was her confidant and started to discuss some of the other evil deeds she had done.
Ivita quickly coughed to regain the reins of the conversation, his tone tougher. "So why is divination key in becoming a proper wizard?"
"Remember to not include any extraneous or useless information."
The Hearthstone Grand Witch realized she had been gloating too much. "Yes, your Highness, I swear by my professional reputation that I will not deceive you."
"The practice of divination is necessary because in order to ascend to being a proper wizard, one needs to improve and transform spiritually."
"Divination can create a unique Spirit Knowledge Mist in a wizard apprentice's soul."
"This special spiritual form of Spirit Knowledge Mist, even gods like you don't possess. So you not knowing is perfectly understandable."
Ivita nodded, more or less understanding. "What kind of divination do you know?"
The old witch said: "I don't know many. When I was learning from my teacher, I didn't pay much attention to divination."
"Even magic spells of a Great Witch level can't predict the results accurately, they have a success rate of only around 30%."
"This is also in ideal situations without external influence. The time and place of divination, the identity of those being divined, their locations, all can affect the accuracy rate."
"Divination is somewhat like metaphysics, you know?"
"Sometimes when someone is in a good mood, the predictions tend to be a bit more accurate, so I never really studied it seriously."
"Oh, and if it were divination spirits, I clearly predicted that I could succeed. Who could have thought that you would appear in that manor."
The old witch muttered under her breath, somewhat deflated. Turning to Ivita, she conceded, "I only know three types of divination spells."
"Organ divination."
"Toad divination."
"Mirror divination."
"But my disciple has a real passion for this line of work, I've heard she's collected dozens of divination spells, she even neglected her magic training for it."
Ivita ignored the look in the old witch's eyes, which clearly read 'let's go find my apprentice'.
Even though he wasn't sure what the old witch was plotting, he didn't have to let her lead him and go to Ambros right now.
"Introduce me to the three types of divination you know," said Ivita. "Since I have you as a resource nearby, there's no need for me to go looking further afield."
"If the number is fewer, then so be it."
"In any event, I only need to learn one type."
A bird in the hand is worth ten in the bush.
He didn't need to be greedy.
The old witch's face changed slightly, she quickly recovered a smile, but it was clear she wasn't very pleased. "Your Highness, organ divination uses the internal organs of animals to predict outcomes, it's suitable for war or when dealing with mortal enemies. However, it does not work well for minor domestic issues or predictions relating to wealth and luck."
"In toad divination, we use a toad, it is most suitable for discovering the correct path. If you want to hunt for treasures, this could be useful. It's just that dealing with toads can be somewhat disgusting."
"Mirror divination involves confining a ghost in a mirror, and through black magic we allow it to possess extensive knowledge to aid in divination. This divination is the most comprehensive, but because it can be applied everywhere, it often gives a lot of false answers."
"Some of these false answers could even lead you towards death, almost no witch chooses this magic."
Just as Ivita was about to speak, the carriage suddenly halted. Maid Alysia announced, "Sirs, there appears to be a brawl up ahead."
"We are planning to take the detour."
Unexpectedly, the roof of the carriage was smashed in, and a battered, bloody man toppled in.
From outside came the chatter of spectators.
"Really now, this is such a trivial matter."
A crow perched on the carriage, with one eye as black as coal and the other blood-red. It stared straight at Ivita.
Then it spread its wings and flew away.
Rayli and Black Wolf quickly drew their swords, for they believed that the chaos might have been instigated by the Small Brotherhood of Trustworthiness or the Wild Boar Knights Group.