Witch Taming System-Chapter 15: Reproductive Theory

"That wasn’t how it was supposed to go..."

Ishtar lay on her bed, staring up at the ceiling as she replayed the events from that afternoon.

To be honest, she still didn’t fully understand what had happened.

From the very beginning, her intention had been simple. She only wanted to kiss Lancel again and reenact another scene from the romance novels she loved reading.

That was all it was supposed to be.

She had never expected things to escalate like that.

"Haa..."

Ishtar let out a quiet sigh and rolled slightly onto her side.

There was also the strange sensation in her womb that she had been feeling for some time now. An itchy feeling that had been bothering her for a while, centered around her clit, though she had absolutely no idea what to do about it.

The feeling would come and go at random, leaving her confused more than anything else.

"Winona said he was nice..."

In truth, she had known who Lancel was long before meeting him.

Archmistress Angelica’s assistant.

Her friend Winona, one of Angelica’s apprentices, had spoken about him more than once.

According to Winona, he was a rather good-looking man who willingly participated in Angelica’s demonstrations during lectures.

From the outside, he always looked somewhat grumpy while standing there in front of the class. But apparently that expression was misleading.

In reality, he was quite kind to the apprentices.

Winona had mentioned how he would sometimes help them during lectures, answering small questions or assisting with demonstrations when Angelica asked him to.

That alone had caught Ishtar’s interest. Men who appeared in those lectures usually knew nothing about magic. They were simply subjects for demonstration. Most of them were confused half the time and only followed instructions because a witch told them to.

For someone like her, who adored reenacting scenes from romance novels, Lancel seemed like a perfect candidate.

There were men in Riviere from time to time, but most of them were already claimed by other witches the moment they arrived. Opportunities like that rarely lasted long.

Lancel, on the other hand, was different.

Although he now belonged under Archmistress Faust, Ishtar had concluded from Winona’s description that he was the type who would still help apprentice witches when asked.

That was enough for her.

Which was why she had felt comfortable approaching him.

And, to her surprise, his reactions had turned out exactly the way she liked.

"Sigh."

In any case, the novels she read did contain the occasional "spicy" moment.

That was exactly why Ishtar had grown curious.

What exactly was sex?

Why did the female leads react like that?

Why had her mother shouted "Oh yes!" so loudly every night back then?

And most importantly, what did it actually feel like?

She knew the most basic explanation. It was the process through which humans reproduced. She also knew that, according to the novels, it often left women gasping for breath and unable to walk properly for days afterward.

At least, that was how the stories described it.

"Ugh."

Still feeling sticky and irritated, Ishtar pushed herself up from the bed.

She walked over to her bookshelf and scanned the rows of arranged volumes. Dozens of romance novels filled the shelves.

But none of them actually explained anything. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

After a moment, Ishtar turned away and left her room, heading deeper into the mansion.

The corridors were quiet as she made her way toward the estate’s private library.

Compared to her own bookshelf, the library was far larger. Ishtar walked straight toward the section that belonged to her mother.

She scanned the titles for a moment before pulling out a thick book.

[Foundations of Intimacy for Witches: A Practical Guide to First-Night Rituals and Reproductive Theory]

"This should do."

She carried the book back to a nearby chair and opened it.

"My god..."

Ishtar blinked as she stared down at one of the diagrams.

The drawing showed a woman kneeling before a man with her head lowered. Her mouth was wrapped around something protruding from his body.

"What is that?!"

She leaned closer to the page, scrutinizing the details.

Until now, Ishtar had never actually seen a proper diagram of a man’s anatomy. None of her romance novels ever showed anything like this. At most, they used vague descriptions and conveniently skipped past the details.

But this book did not skip anything.

It labeled everything.

"...So that’s how the penis actually looked."

It was way too graphic for Ishtar, and it looked disgusting.

"...."

But it was intriguing.

Her mind immediately jumped back to earlier that day.

Could that have been the same thing Lancel pressed against her panties?

Ishtar stared at the page again, her face slowly growing warmer for reasons she couldn’t quite explain.

"Ugh..."

The strange itch from earlier kept growing more noticeable the more pages she flipped.

* * *

"Lancel, what’s wrong with you?"

"...."

For the past two days, Lancel had barely been able to concentrate on anything. The memory kept replaying in his head whether he liked it or not.

When would the Grand Witch show up?

At any moment, she could appear at Faust’s doorstep and drag him away. If Ishtar had said anything, if even a single word had reached the Grand Witch, then his fate was already sealed.

"...Nothing."

Faust narrowed her eyes. "If you’re not going to focus, then we’ll end the lesson here."

"No. Keep going. I’ll try again."

At this point, he had more or less perfected the water test. Raising the surface without spilling had become something he could do almost instinctively now.

The next step, however, was far more complicated.

Now he had to apply mana practically. That meant constructing a proper Hexencircle and channeling his mana through it to form an actual spell.

Faust crossed her arms as she observed him.

"I’m still confused," she said. "How are you capable of casting ice magic, yet struggle with something this basic?"

She tapped the table as she continued.

"From my analysis, you’re not particularly attributed to ice."

Magic had many branches.

Every witch understood that much. While it was technically possible for a witch to cast many different kinds of spells, most of them naturally gravitated toward certain fields.

Specialization was inevitable.

A witch’s natural attribution determined how efficiently they could control certain forms of magic.

Even though all witches studied the same foundations, their results were rarely the same. Natural attribution always tilted the scales.

Which made Lancel’s case even stranger.

From Faust’s perspective, all he had done was cast an ice spell.

Yet the more she analyzed it, the less sense it made.

To begin with, Lancel did not possess the kind of mana reserves required for that level of spell formation. Even if he somehow managed to form a Hexencircle properly, he still lacked the necessary output to tune his mana into the ice attribute.

"Nearly there. Now expand the oscillation."

"Got it."

Lancel adjusted the flow of mana just as Faust instructed.

Slowly, the fourth Hexencircle began to take shape.

It was just another exercise. Lancel let out a breath as he finished forming the structure. Faust watched the circle closely, making sure the lines were stable, before nodding.

Lancel’s progress was surprisingly fast.

She didn’t say it out loud, of course. But if her memory was correct, he had reached this stage much faster than she herself had.