"No, these two schools aren't suitable for you."
Youfeiliya, with her impulsive nature, instinctively spoke up, immediately opposing her daughter's choice.
"What's unsuitable about them? I think they're great. I spent a long time choosing, Mother, don't forget the freedom you promised me earlier."
Dorothy was not pleased.
She was simply informing them, not discussing. She had already said that her life was her own to control, and she didn't like the feeling of people dictating her future.
"That's because Sophia didn't use her full power, not because your strength truly has my approval. Don't you know your own level right now?"
"I don't care about that. Anyway, I won earlier. Are you, a dignified Apex Witch, going back on your word?"
"You're wasting your talent."
"I'll use my talent however I want. The Witch World isn't going to stop functioning just because one of me is missing. There are far more talented people in this world than me, so what's the talk about wasting anything?"
"Anyway, I don't agree."
"And I don't need your agreement."
For a moment, the atmosphere between mother and daughter once again became tense.
Caught between the two, the Angel Witch felt exhausted, but there was nothing she could do. Sophia had no choice but to speak up again to mediate.
"Teacher, Young Miss, can you two calm down for a moment?"
To better quell the real anger that was about to erupt between them, she even used the power of the Spirit Word in her sentence.
Amidst that voice, like a heavenly hymn, the mother and daughter temporarily calmed down.
Dorothy was truly affected by the Spirit Word, while Youfeiliya slightly regretted her impulsive words and took the opportunity to back down.
The Dragon Witch felt a bit annoyed. She also wanted to get along well with her daughter and build their relationship. She knew that such arguments were meaningless and would only make their already fragile relationship stiffen again. But there was nothing she could do. Why was her daughter so willful? Why did every decision she made step on her landmines?
Having been overbearing for so long, the Dragon Queen, who had always been absolute at home, had never experienced such grievances in her life.
So, although the two who had just stood up to argue sat down again, the silent battle of glaring eyes continued.
"Is there anything that can't be discussed properly? Conflict always stems from misunderstanding. Teacher, Young Miss, why don't you both state your thoughts first? Perhaps once you speak openly, you can understand each other?"
Sophia continued to helplessly mediate between the equally stubborn mother and daughter.
"So, Young Miss, you go first. Why do you also want to go to Brewster Academy? And you chose..."
"Emmmm, Mechanical Civil Engineering. As far as I know, this seems to be a new major launched in the last two years, quite unpopular."
As the Student Council President, Sophia was quite knowledgeable about various matters at the Witch Academy, but even so, she paused slightly when she mentioned the major Dorothy had chosen.
Wasn't this a new major established only a few years ago? It seemed to be a brand new project that combined automated puppet technology with Civil Engineering technology, but it had always been quite deserted. Not many students chose this major, so Sophia only knew of it and wasn't very familiar with it.
As for the Angel Witch's persuasion, Dorothy was actually still a bit angry.
Tsk, what's all this about? What's wrong with me wanting to be a Research Witch? Why do you look down on Research Witches? Are you Armed Witches so great? Without Research Witches as logistics, you warmongers would have starved long ago. Don't you eat, wear, and use things made by Research Witches?
However, this was unavoidable. After all, Demonesses themselves were a War-like race, and the social norm was that Armed Witches held higher status. Except for those Demonesses who genuinely enjoyed research, most others who chose to be Research Witches were actually failures eliminated from the path of Armed Witches.
And the two in front of her, Youfeiliya and Sophia, were both Armed Witches, and moreover, they were the elite among Armed Witches, at the absolute top of the social hierarchy. It was only natural that they would think Research Witches had no future and would oppose her choice.
Alas, a scholar meets a soldier, and reason cannot prevail.
But Dorothy herself didn't think that way. She truly hoped to become a Research Witch.
Firstly, because she genuinely disliked fighting. Magic Net Duels were just games, but real-life combat injuries could be very painful, and she might even die. People die when they are killed, and Demonesses are no different, so why not do something else when there's nothing else to do, instead of fighting and killing?
Secondly, Dorothy genuinely enjoyed researching things. In her previous life, she was a homebody because she was addicted to games, novels, and anime, but in this life, she was a homebody because she was immersed in exploring the mysteries of magic. She liked the feeling of researching the principles of magic and then creating brand new spells.
As for why she chose Brewster and Newest, these two schools? Of course, it was because these two schools were strong.
The various schools within the Witch Academy also had rankings, and the two schools Dorothy chose had consistently ranked in the top five for years.
Brewster Academy specialized in Alchemy and architecture, while Newest specialized in magic potions and animal husbandry/cultivation.
These two sounded quite grand, but in Dorothy's eyes, they clearly spelled out "infrastructure" and "farming" in big letters, which directly moved her soul's DNA, wasn't it?
After comprehensive consideration, she finally bit the bullet and gave up on the agricultural-focused Newis Academy, opting instead for Brewster Academy, which specialized in infrastructure development.
There was no other way; even in the Witch World, real estate was incredibly profitable, and Dorothy needed money.
Since her life goal had been set, to achieve that goal, she first needed to become a witch Territory Lord.
The fastest and best way to become a witch Territory Lord was naturally to become an Armed Witch and go to the front lines to open up new worlds; as long as she could conquer one, a territory would naturally be hers.
But since Dorothy didn't want to become an Armed Witch and fight in all directions, she could only rely on buying, spending money, splurging, and using her financial power to acquire the territories of other Demonesses.
Witch territories could be bought, sold, and traded, which was quite normal; after all, even among Demonesses, there were those who did well and those who did poorly.
There were always some wasteful prodigals who could squander the old foundations their ancestors had built, and it was normal for wealth not to last for many generations.
While large territory lords were fine, small territories like Sea Moon Island, where Dorothy grew up, were actually very susceptible to decline.
These small territories were basically sustained by the territory lord themselves; once the territory lord met with an accident and their successors hadn't grown up, they would quickly decline.
It was common for some declining witch Territories that couldn't sustain themselves to put their land up for sale.
Dorothy's current goal was to first earn enough money to purchase a territory.
This was no small sum; Dorothy had inquired about the market price, and the smallest witch Territory would cost approximately one small target of Witch Gold.
The Demonesses' currency was quite conventional, still using the medieval system of copper, silver, and gold coins, with a decimal system.
However, unlike ordinary metal currency, the witch coins were cast from extraordinary materials refined from common metals: refined copper, mithril, and true gold.
These three extraordinary metals had excellent storage effects for a Witch's magic power, and the value of the witch coins cast from them was equal to the amount of magic power they contained.
One copper coin could store exactly one Mana of magic power, one silver coin was ten Mana, and a gold coin was one hundred Mana.
And because of the omnipotent nature of magic power, these witch coins were destined to be valuable.
Perhaps in the hands of Demonesses, this currency was merely a medium of exchange, at most used as a magic power charging bank when magic power was depleted, or a few coins thrown in as casting materials to enhance spell power when casting spells.
But for other races, witch coins were also known as universal coins; if enough witch coins were accumulated, one could even cast a wish spell.
Therefore, the actual purchasing power of witch coins was quite high; for a normal week's living expenses for a Witch's House of three, one Witch Gold coin was generally enough, and for a mortal family, one Witch Gold coin could last them a year.
And in this premise, one small target of Witch Gold...
This was an astronomical figure that would scare Dorothy to death; compared to this, her past small goal of saving money to buy a house was simply not worth mentioning.
For this, she had to find a way to make money, and in her mind, the most profitable business in the world was always real estate.
Anyway, she, Dorothy, was determined to be the future real estate tycoon of this Witch World.
However, could she convince her mother with this reason?
Heh, forget it. Her humble wish would probably be seen as lacking ambition and drive in the eyes of a big shot like Youfeiliya.
Given her mother's personality, Dorothy felt that if she really said it, she would probably just throw money at her again.
Alas, is there really a generation gap between parents and children in every world?
What she truly wanted wasn't money, but a home she built herself, little by little, from scratch.
If it wasn't achieved through her own efforts, it would be meaningless.
Can't you stop corrupting my dreams with dirty money?
Dorothy sighed; although she had almost no hope, she still gave face to the Angel Witch who was mediating, and honestly spoke her mind.
Don't they say that speaking your mind leads to mutual understanding? Let's see if you two can truly understand me.
After Dorothy finished speaking in one breath, she crossed her arms and quietly watched the reactions of the two people beside her.
Come on, I've said my piece. You can insult me with money now, though I definitely won't take it.
On the other side, the master and disciple looked at each other again.
Having never worried about money in their lives, they truly couldn't understand Dorothy's thoughts.
Sophia, in particular, was full of questions.
The Angel Witch really wanted to ask the young lady in front of her if she was bored out of her mind. If she wanted a territory to play house, she could just ask her teacher for one.
Her teacher wouldn't refuse, would she? After all, everything her teacher had would eventually be inherited by her, so why go through such a big roundabout way?
Tsk, such a naive idea, truly a young lady.
She didn't know the dangers of the outside world, and because of her boring and uninteresting pride as a novice, she refused to use the readily available resources around her.
It was simply ridiculously foolish.
However, her teacher definitely wouldn't agree.
Thankfully, it was the young lady; otherwise, with her teacher's personality, she would have started hitting someone already.
The wisp of hair on the Angel Witch's head twitched as she grumbled inwardly.
She was once again convinced that she and this young lady simply didn't get along.
However, what happened next stunned both Dorothy and Sophia.
The Dragon Witch, whose expression had initially been similarly grim, remained silent and pondered for a long time.
Just when both of them thought she was about to erupt, she let out a heavy sigh and then nodded.
"I think I understand what you mean, Dorothy."