23. Mother and Daughter

When the silhouette on the couch stood up, everyone in the room looked up at her.

This witch was exceptionally tall, towering over two meters in height, but when she turned her face around, Alice by Dorothy's side let out a gasp.

"She's so beautiful, Big Sister, this lady looks a bit like you."

Even though Dorothy was filled with impatience at the moment, when this face came into her view, the anger in her heart subsided a bit.

Humans are always particularly forgiving of beautiful things, and the tall witch's beauty could indeed hold up to that standard, rivaling the beauty of the pure white Angel Witch she had encountered in the bookstore before. The two of them could be ranked as the second most beautiful people Dorothy had ever seen in her life.

Like that pure white Angel Witch, this tall witch named Euphilia also had a high degree of evolution, even to the extent that some inhuman features inevitably appeared on her body, like the pair of dragon horns on her head resembling a crown or those cold, golden, vertically slitted pupils gleaming like gold.

However, these inhuman features not only did not detract from her beauty but instead added a wild and majestic charm to her, complementing her expressionless, delicate face, making her seem unrestrained yet distant, beautiful yet dangerous, with a distinctively untouchable and awe-inspiring temperament.

Even though she had seen this face once before in her memories, now that she saw it again, Dorothy was still stunned by her beauty.

But such emotions were fleeting, for what Dorothy lacked the least was resistance to beauty. Thus, with a frown, she completely resisted the enticement of this demonically charming face, her expression remaining unfavorable as she stared at the witch, her gaze firm and unshaken.

Seeing Dorothy, the tall Dragon Witch's indifferent gaze softened a bit.

"....."

She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but then hesitated, eventually uttering just a few words.

"Long time no see."

"But I don't particularly want to see you, Euphilia."

Dorothy did not appreciate the sentiment, her words sharp in retort.

Upon hearing such an unreserved remark, the Dragon Witch's brow furrowed, her gaze intensified, and a terrifying strength surged from her, which ultimately disappeared before reaching Dorothy, leaving only a breeze across.

"Whether or not I come to see you is my decision, irrelevant to your will, Dorothy, go pack your things, today you're going back with me."

She restrained her temperament, finally articulating such words in an icy voice.

"Who are you? Why should I go with you? Please, do as you please and leave me out of it."

Even though the sudden burst of power made her tremble from head to toe, Dorothy did not back down in the slightest, scoffing and mocking the dignitary before her.

"I am your mother."

The Dragon Witch, seemingly not the best-tempered, finally erupted, raising her voice, roaring with a voice that, in its loss of control, even included a dragon's roar, carrying an astounding authority.

"I have no mother."

Dorothy roared back, just as defiant. The usually gentle and calm girl was now rarely losing control of her emotions, causing the magic power that had always been bound by her will to erupt uncontrollably along with the outpouring of her emotions.

This caused her pupils to suddenly contract, transforming into the vertical pupils of a dragon. Her voice became similar to that of the Dragon Witch opposite her, like a Dragon Roar, except it was the roar of a Juvenile Dragon, crisp but lacking some majesty.

The change in herself also made Dorothy somewhat annoyed, as there were things that objectively existed whether she acknowledged them or not.

After taking a deep breath, she regained her composure, and the abnormalities on her body dissipated.

However, the standoffish atmosphere between mother and daughter felt oppressively tense, making Alice, who had been standing by Dorothy's side, tremble and run to her parents' side. She had never seen her big sister so irritable before.

Annie, the petite mother with a stature not much different from her daughter's, stretched out her arm to embrace her child. The standoffish atmosphere between the other mother and daughter meant little to her; she simply cast a cold glance at her husband beside her, signaling the useless man to quickly resolve the matter.

This caused the silent, refined middle-aged man to show some bitterness, but he still gritted his teeth and stood up, wanting to say something.

But before he could speak, the domineering Dragon Witch fixed him with a fierce glare, making him sit down once again.

"It's not your place to speak, Adam. All of this is a result of the mistakes you've made," she said.

Her words turned the man's face pale; he opened his mouth wanting to say something, but under the mountainous pressure, he couldn't make a sound.

After all, he was just a Human Mage, legendary among humans, but before a witch, especially a Peak Witch, his strength was nearly insignificant.

"This is my home, and you are the one who should shut up, Euphilia. Since you chose to leave us all those years ago, why bother returning now? Please leave immediately and stop disturbing our peaceful family life."

Dorothy quickly moved in front of her father, managing with some difficulty to withstand the pressure, akin to the weight of Mount Tai. Even though every cell in her body screamed in fear and urged her to flee at the overwhelming force, she ignored her body's instinct for survival and spoke each word with firm resolve.

Fortunately, the terrifying pressure soon vanished, and the illusion of the Dragon Witch, who had nearly fully transformed into a Great Dragon in Dorothy's exceptional Inspiration, faded away too. She returned to normal, as if her earlier rage had been nothing but an illusion.

"Not bad, my daughter, Dorothy. Your talent even surpasses mine. My Divination was not wrong after all; Adam may be incompetent, but his genes match mine perfectly," the Dragon Witch stated emotionlessly, the gold in her eyes showing appreciation as she looked at Dorothy. Finally, a mocking sneer appeared on her cold face.

"I abandoned you? Dorothy, so this is how that useless creature Adam has been explaining it to you all these years? I have been looking for you for sixteen years, my foolish daughter. Perhaps you should ask your dear father why he took you away from me and ran... for sixteen years."

Umm...

Facing such an inexplicable accusation, Dorothy was stunned. She turned incredulously to look at her father, but the middle-aged man was now looking down, seemingly unable to meet her gaze.

Oh my...

At this moment, Dorothy was dumbfounded. Was her life story this complicated? Had she been hating the wrong person all these years?