AI Model: gemini-2.0-flash
Chapter 2: Witches and Half-Witches
"Sister, are you ready yet?"
Outside the door, Alice's voice interrupted Dorothy's thoughts.
"Coming, coming. Girls always need time to get ready before going out, what's the rush?"
She actually didn't have much to prepare. She just casually picked up a scarf hanging on a nearby hanger and wrapped it around herself, completely covering her exposed chin and lips. Fully armed, she walked out of the room.
"Sister, what kind of outfit is this?"
Outside the door, Alice looked at her sister, who was completely wrapped up, and couldn't help but feel a bit speechless.
However, she wasn't surprised. After all, her sister had always been like this—beautiful enough to incite Greed, yet always hiding, as if she couldn't be seen by anyone.
"Heh heh, my peerless beauty belongs only to me. If others see it, I'll be at a loss."
Dorothy looked triumphant in response to her sister's helplessness.
This body was a girlfriend bestowed upon her by a god. How could her own girlfriend be casually shown to outsiders?
"Let's go, let's go. Where are we buying things? The supermarket in town?"
Seeing her sister's hesitant expression, as if she wanted to persuade her further, Dorothy quickly interrupted her.
She walked quickly to the front door, reached for her broom from the broom rack by the door, and then looked at her sister, Alice.
Alice didn't say anything more. She also stepped forward and took her own broom.
"Of course we're going to the city! What's there to browse at the town's supermarket? Their selection isn't complete, and the quality isn't good enough. Sister, we can't skimp on school supplies. We need to buy good quality ones. Today, we're going to the Witch Specialty Store."
She rolled her eyes at her sister's perpetually glum face, feeling even more helpless with this homebody sister who had disliked going out since childhood.
"Alright."
Thinking of the long distance from home to the city, Dorothy really didn't want to move. However, her sister's sharp gaze made her choose to shut up. She could only nod, not daring to say more.
Moreover, the quality of magical items in the town's magic shop was indeed mediocre. There were rarely high-end goods for sale. Such ordinary magical items often couldn't withstand the load generated by the Demonesses' excessively large magical energy flow and were prone to problems. Therefore, for Witch supplies, it was usually best to purchase them at a Witch Specialty Store.
However, because the number of Demonesses isn't actually that large, there aren't many specialty stores dedicated to serving Demonesses. While they are quite common in big cities, for the small, eighteenth-tier city where the two sisters live, they can only be found in the city center.
"Then you lead the way. I'm not very familiar with that area."
Dorothy said to her sister.
She was indeed not very familiar with the location of the Witch Specialty Store. This wasn't entirely because she was a homebody who disliked going out; it was more because she hadn't needed to go there before.
After all, strictly speaking, she was only a Half-Witch. She was the child conceived by a mortal wizard father and a Witch mother; she only had half Witch blood in her veins.
This brings us to the origin of the Witch race. The earliest Demonessesactually mutated from mortal witches. Therefore, strictly speaking, Demonesses are actually an evolutionary branch of humanity and do not have reproductive isolation from humans.
However, such Demonesses who evolved from mortals are now very rare. These Demonesses are also called Original Witches, a very uncommon existence even among Demonesses.
Most pure-blooded Demonesses currently in existence are conceived within Witch families. Of course, this is not natural same-sex reproduction (emphasis: not same-sex reproduction), but rather a special magical ritual that seeks the World Mother's blessing.
The ritual requires two Demonesses who have formed a partnership to preside and pray together for the World Mother's blessing. If their feelings are strong enough, the ritual will succeed, and the world consciousness will absorb the magic of both Demonesses to form a drop of Original Dew. Afterward, either of them can ingest that drop of Original Dew to become pregnant.
It's similar to the setting of the Women's Kingdom's Mother-Child River in Journey to the West, which Dorothy had read in her previous life.
However, Demonesses have always been open and free, so there is no saying that Demonesses must only pair with Demonesses. While some Demonesses who pursue ultimate strength do have this inclination, most Demonesses are much freer in their choice of partners.
Dorothy's mother was one such Witch who chose a human wizard as her partner. Her Witch mother was smitten by her father's looks at first sight, and then the two fell in love and had her. After that, her overly free Witch mother quickly grew tired of the boring emotion of love, realizing that magic was far more fun than dating. So, after their relationship broke down, she chose to dedicate herself to endless magical research.
And then came the story of her father meeting his current stepmother and forming a new family.
Of course, also because she was a Half-Witch conceived naturally by a man and a woman, lacking the most crucial blessing process from the world consciousness, her innate abilities were greatly diminished compared to pure-blooded Demonesses.
Dorothy, with only half Witch blood, was naturally considered a genius among human wizards. However, by Witch standards, she was actually considered mentally deficient, otherwise she wouldn't have barely met the admission standards for a Witch school at sixteen.
You should know that her sister, Alice, a pure-blooded Witch, entered school at three years old. Now, at thirteen, she has already completed half of her twenty-year compulsory Witch education, while Dorothy is only just preparing to start first grade this year.
Hmm, starting tomorrow, if she meets her sister at school, she'll probably have to call Alice 'Senior'.
"Okay, then sister, make sure you keep up with me."
Alice nodded. She understood that her sister wasn't very familiar with the city and reminded her with a bit of worry.
At this moment, the roles of the two sisters seemed to have reversed; the younger sister was far more mature than the older.
"Yes, yes, yes. Just fly slowly. If you go too fast, I won't be able to keep up. You have to be considerate of your weak, pitiful, mentally deficient sister."
Dorothy nodded and said.
"What are you talking about? Sister, you're not mentally deficient, don't talk nonsense. Many Apex Witches nowadays are also Half-Witches. Pure-blooded Demonesses just get a faster start, but later on, everyone is the same. Sister, you'll definitely be very powerful in the future."
Dorothy was just teasing, but Alice stubbornly retorted. The golden-haired beautiful girl looked at her seriously, her emerald-like eyes filled with confidence in her sister.
This made Dorothy pause. She felt a bit embarrassed, but simply reached out and messed up her sister's hair, just like she used to when Alice was little.
Hehe, she hadn't doted on this little girl all these years for nothing. She even knew how to care for her sister. Very good, very good.
"Okay, okay, I'll work hard. Let's leave quickly. It's really far to the city, so let's go early and come back early."
Saying this, she reached out and opened the main door.
And so, the world outside was revealed, and what met their eyes was a vast sea of clouds.
"Good morning, Dorothy, and little Alice. Are you heading out?"
The old lady next door flew past their door on her steampunk-modified broom, greeting the two sisters briefly before whizzing away again, leaving only a trail of black smoke and a single sentence.
"The supermarket next door has a half-price sale today. I'm off, old lady!"
Dorothy: "..."
Tsk, even after more than ten years, she still wasn't quite used to this fantastical style.
She thought this to herself as she straddled her broom.