This... kinda confuses me. The emperor is suddenly acting like he has been interested for a long time, she doesn't seem to be bothering to learn about ANYTHING, magic or otherwise, and PALACE knights should definitely know better than to mess with witches/mages. That is, of course, aside from the fact that they knew there were trainee witches in the area, and their conduct is terrible. Seriously, unless they were going to kill her and somehow magically hide all the evidence, they were screwed. There aren't many witches accepted there in the first place. They're all quite important. And they'll probably hold a grudge for a while, soon getting the magical power to ACT on that grudge. Just... why?