Chapter 169: No matter how angry you are you should never hit your child

Feiye, Sevyara, and Caroline spoke in calm, even voices, yet with an unquestionable firmness.

“Help me hold Perletti down.”

“W-Wait wait wait! No, what are you trying to do?! Stop!” Alarm bells instantly went off in Perletti’s head. Looking at Feiye—whose face practically screamed I’ve wanted to do this for ages—and Sevyara, who clearly didn’t understand what was happening but looked eager anyway, she immediately sensed danger.

Her eyes flicked toward the open window. Gritting her teeth, she suddenly burst forward, trying to leap out—

A powerful yet gentle current of wind curled around her perfectly and pressed her lightly back onto the bedside.

Before she could struggle upright again, the broom in Caroline’s hand whistled through the air and landed on her backside with a loud smack!

“How many times have I told you? Be careful when you act, stop causing trouble! Why can’t you ever listen?!” Caroline’s voice finally carried obvious anger.

“Owowowow! It hurts hurts hurts! Stop hitting me! Teacher Caroline, I was wrong! I really was wrong!”

Perletti twisted desperately, trying to dodge, but the two little ones—Feiye and Sevyara—had already pinned themselves onto her back from either side, while Caroline’s hand firmly held down her shoulder. All she could do was kick her legs uselessly and let out completely unthreatening wails.

“How many times have we even met? The first time, in Falisa, you relied on Feiye and me being there and dared to confront Ailberna head-on! The second time, Feiye went berserk and you still fought against her! Do you have any idea how much you actually weigh against dangers like that? If something happened, who would take responsibility?!”

Every sentence Caroline spoke was accompanied by another strike of the broom. The force was controlled perfectly—painful enough to make someone bare their teeth, but nowhere near enough to cause real injury.

“And this time you went even further! You actually dared to posture and play political games in front of the living elves! Did you think that just because they needed something from you, you could do whatever you wanted?! If I don’t knock some sense into you today, you’ll become completely lawless sooner or later!”

The “educational” scene made Sevyara’s eyes shine brightly. She excitedly raised her head.

“Um… can I hit her a couple times too?”

The room instantly fell silent.

“Hey! Sevyara! I’m your ‘mother!’ I worked so hard to save you from that curse and this is how you repay me?!” Perletti twisted around in disbelief to glare at the little dragon girl on top of her legs.

Caroline rejected the idea without hesitation.

“No. You’re too strong. You wouldn’t know how to hit lightly.”

As she spoke, the sturdy broom in her hand suddenly snapped in half with a crack.

Her expression didn’t change. Magic surged, and a brand-new broom condensed in her hand.

“Stop stop stop! Caroline, what are you doing?!!”

A shocked voice suddenly broke into the room, interrupting the completely one-sided disciplinary session.

Judy had appeared at the doorway at some point. She grabbed Caroline’s wrist before the broom could fall again, while her other hand scooped Feiye and Sevyara up by the backs of their collars like kittens and placed them aside.

“Can’t you talk things out properly? We’re all elders who’ve lived for hundreds of years already, so how can you still fail to control your tempers? No matter how angry you are, you can’t actually hit a child.”

Judy frowned disapprovingly at Caroline.

Perletti looked as though she had seen a savior descend from heaven. She instantly bounced off the bed and threw herself into Judy’s arms, her voice filled with exaggerated sobbing.

“Waaahhhh! Big Sister Judy! Teacher Caroline hit me! It hurts sooo much, wuwaaah…”

“Alright, alright, stop pretending already.” Judy laughed helplessly as she patted her back. “I noticed it the very first time we met. Your body’s layered with passive defensive magic after passive defensive magic—harder than a thousand-year-old turtle shell. Caroline didn’t even use magic. How could a broom possibly injure you?”

“Uh…”

Perletti’s crying abruptly stopped.

She scratched her cheek awkwardly.

“Well… even if you’re getting spanked, you should at least react a little. Otherwise it wouldn’t feel realistic, right?”

“You have no idea what this little brat did today in the Elven Palace.” Caroline still hadn’t calmed down. She recounted everything Perletti had done—taking out the featherfolk clothing to hint at Marsha’s connection, along with the implications hidden within her statements—word for word.

After listening, Judy blinked, looking confused.

“But doesn’t that just sound like a little mischievousness? Plus that youthful desire to show off a bit? She’s still just a child. Being impulsive and wanting attention is normal.”

“You…”

Caroline stared at Judy’s utterly unconcerned expression and became speechless for a moment before pressing a hand to her forehead helplessly.

“Forget it. Explaining this to you was my mistake.”

She had nearly forgotten that the Flame Witch in front of her had been a troublemaking demon king ten times worse than Perletti in her younger days. In Judy’s eyes, Perletti’s actions probably counted as nothing more than harmless little antics.

“Enough about that. Look what amazing thing I brought back!”

Judy successfully changed the subject and excitedly opened a massive chest she had brought with her.

As the lid lifted, everyone saw it—

A gigantic gemstone over two meters long, deep dark purple in color, with something like swirling nebulae flowing within it.

It rested quietly atop a specially-made cushion, radiating an ancient and pure energy fluctuation.

“S-So… so huge…”

Perletti’s attention was instantly stolen completely. Her eyes sparkled brightly. In all twenty-one years of her life, she had never seen such a massive and beautiful gemstone before. Unable to resist, she reached out to touch it.

However, before her hand could even reach the surface—

A tiny white figure shot forward first, clinging tightly to the purple gemstone with all four limbs.

“You stupid dragon! Let go! Big Sister Judy brought that back for me!”

Perletti angrily grabbed Sevyara’s tail, trying to drag her off the gemstone.

To her surprise, Sevyara held on unbelievably tightly, as though glued to it. No matter how hard Perletti pulled, she wouldn’t budge an inch.

“What do you mean your gift?! This is obviously my stone! It was stolen from my home!”

Sevyara pressed her cheek tightly against the cool gemstone surface. Tears actually welled up in her large purple eyes, her voice choking with emotion.

“Uuu… I-I thought I’d never see you again in this lifetime… I clearly buried you hundreds of meters underground beneath my dragon nest in a secret rock layer… how did this witch dig you out?!”

The second half of the sentence was directed accusingly at Judy, her tone filled with grief and anger.

Judy froze for a moment, scratching her head awkwardly.

“Well… I did pick it up from underground… uh, bring it back from there. But strictly speaking, I wasn’t the one digging. I just happened to run into a dragon that was excavating the area, so I brought it back.”

Her explanation sounded extremely vague.

Sevyara instantly cursed a certain member of her own race in her heart a thousand times over for trying to steal her treasure.

“Speaking of which.” Judy’s attention returned to Sevyara herself. She pointed at the little dragon girl still hugging the gemstone tightly and asked Perletti, “Where exactly did this young Violet Radiance Dragon come from?”

Perletti was still wrestling with Sevyara and answered rapidly without turning her head.

“Long story short, she dug tunnels for hundreds of years and escaped from the Fallen Dragon Valley, happened to run into us, then I used magic to remove the curse on her. Since I basically revived her, we’re also in a mother-daughter relationship now. That’s it!”

“Ohhh, dug her way out, removed the curse, wait…”

Judy processed the information for a moment before suddenly reacting. Her eyes widened slightly.

“You just said… what kind of relationship?”

“I’m her mom.”