Although there was a slight mishap during the process, the apprenticeship ritual was ultimately completed smoothly.
It's called a ritual, but in fact, it was simply the signing of a master-apprentice contract under the witness of Mother Dragon.
After all, the Witch World is still a world of spellcasters. When the Divine King founded the Eight Great Factions of magic, he referred to many spellcaster civilizations. That's because many of today's traditions in the Witch World carry the influence of traditional mage and wizard cultures.
For example, the master-apprentice contract is said to be a tradition from the past when mages or wizards would form such contracts upon taking apprentices. However, those contracts were more like indenture agreents, effectively making the apprentice the private property of the teacher, with a multitude of duties expected from the apprentice but few constraints on the teacher.
It can't be helped, as in most mage and wizard civilizations, apprentices usually need to beg teachers for the chance to learn, and teachers tend to treat their apprentices as free servants, teaching them sothing only when in a good mood.
However, master-apprentice contracts in the Witch World are much more equitable. The witches transford the old contracts into equal agreents, binding both master and apprentice with mutual obligations, though these tend to be fairly lenient—just basic requirents like the apprentice honoring and respecting their master, and the master earnestly teaching their apprentice.
Well, there's no helping it, as witches naturally love freedom, and under normal circumstances, they don't like being burdened with too many constraints. But the important event of taking an apprentice needs a touch of ceremony.
They value the process of forming contracts much more than the contract's content itself.
Thus, contract culture is very common in witch society. Witches like to sign contracts for formal matters, but if you look closely at the content, you'll find that these contracts usually have only minimal restrictions.
Basically, it's just to the extent of repaying debts and showing gratitude.
Anyway, witches prefer those simple and straightforward contracts—if they get too complicated, the witches might ignore you simply out of laziness to think about it.
If you still want to go further and try to exploit a contract to extort witches.... Stay updated with empire
Well, the bunch in the Abyss now reduced to manual laborers for the Lord Demon King, constantly harried by 007 demons, have plenty to say on that matter.
Of course, typically, a witch's apprenticeship ceremony involves signing a contract and, depending on personal preference, may also include a grand celebration. In theory, given the status of Noelle Rose and Euphilia, Dorothy's apprenticeship ceremony should have been quite spectacular.
But Spider Teacher was too impatient to wait any longer, fearing that any further delay might lead to more problems. Besides, Dorothy herself wasn't keen on making a fuss, so they both decided to keep things simple.
Noelle Rose imdiately whipped out an impressively lavish golden contract book from her pocket.
As ntioned before, for witches, a contract is a representation of ceremonial importance, so naturally, the more prestigious the contract book, the more ceremonious it feels.
Thus, the most common parchnt contracts no longer satisfied their ever-growing desire to show off, and inexplicably, the Witch World's contract books started an internal struggle, unveiling a variety of "skins" such as dragon skin contracts, angel docunts, demon contracts, and so forth.
Even the ink used to write the contracts eventually beca part of the competition—basically, the fancier, the better.
Dorothy took the seemingly ordinary golden contract from Spider Teacher's hand and examined it closely, her hands trembling slightly.
Indeed, whether by weight or touch, it felt like a genuine golden contract.
Although gold was indeed precious and was the main currency of the Witch World, the golden contracts paled in comparison to those truly high-end contracts.
Dorothy had originally thought that Spider Teacher was a person who rejected inner competition and valued practicality more,
After all, gold itself was an excellent material for storing magic power, so the efficiency of golden contracts had always been very good, making them among the contracts with a higher cost-performance ratio.
However, when she flipped the contract over to the back, she saw an elegant signature in the corner of the ordinary-looking golden docunt—an Astimos.
Damn, the Lord Demon King's own handwritten signature.
The hobody witch looked up at Spider Teacher, who appeared nonchalant, and had to admit that she had indeed been shown up.
The signature of a powerful witch was not like those celebrity-signed limited editions from her previous life which were just gimmicks; the signature of such a big shot carried their strength, especially on sothing like a contract.
This ant that the contract had been witnessed by the Witch King.
The efficacy of a contract was generally linked to its witness, and if soone were to break the contract, then the witness would have the obligation to uphold the contract's efficacy.
Most of the contracts available for sale in the Witch World at present were witnessed by Great Witches, while only a few high-end contracts had Peak Witches as witnesses. As for those contracts with the Witch King as a witness...
They were essentially priceless.
Such high-level contracts were typically used in alliances between powerful Witch Territories, and now, using one for a re apprenticeship ceremony seed like an overkill.
But Dorothy looked up at her own mother standing by, and quickly understood.
Alright, she herself might not be weighty enough to disturb the Witch King, but considering her mother Euphilia's status, her apprenticeship was indeed equivalent to an alliance between two powerful witches, which made the use of this contract book justifiable.
Thereupon, she no longer hesitated and directly squeezed out a drop of blood to fall on the golden contract, and that drop of vibrant red blood quickly transmigrated, turning into her own unique mark—a little witch riding a broom.
Afterward, Spider Teacher also dropped a bit of blood, and subsequently, the contract displayed a mark depicting a spider playing with silken threads.
Finally, the contract spontaneously combusted, and the pitch-black flas eventually ford the mark of a classic Horned Demon, whose eyes, initially just part of the mark, suddenly opened to survey those present.
It was initially just a casual glance, but when the gaze reached Dorothy, the Horned Demon's eyes clearly widened in shock, then shifted upwards. Upon seeing the hat on Dorothy's head, the Horned Demon's eyes widened even further.
"The contract is sealed."
However, the Horned Demon quickly returned to normal, and an exceptionally dignified voice arose beside Dorothy's ear.
..... Lord Demon King unexpectedly.....
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