Chapter 61: Ou Ruola

From inside the door came a rustling sound, as if someone was struggling to get out of bed, and then the door swung open with a bang.

A woman stood at the door, her purple hair slightly disheveled and draped over her shoulders, the ends curling in a lazy arc.

She wore a loose robe, her collar open, revealing a hint of collarbone.

Her features were the kind of delicate that made it hard to look away: high brow bone, slightly upturned eye corners, and amber eyes filled with the impatience and anger of being woken up.

Those furious eyes swept over the three of them.

From Onyxia to Olivia.

Then they landed on Celia’s face.

That angry expression suddenly froze, and her amber eyes visibly widened, becoming round.

“Elariel? No, you’re not her. Who are you?”

Celia spoke politely.

“Hello, I’m Elariel’s daughter, Celia.”

The woman said nothing.

She just stared at Celia, at that face, at that silver hair, for a long moment.

“Like…”

She murmured, her voice so soft it was almost inaudible.

“So similar. I thought you had come back.”

Realizing she had lost her composure, she quickly turned sideways and moved aside from the door.

“Come in.”

The three exchanged glances and stepped inside.

The door closed behind them.

The room was much larger than it looked from outside, or rather, much messier.

Shelves were everywhere.

On them were bottles and jars of all sizes, high and low, transparent, brown, and dark green glass bottles crammed together.

Some held liquids of strange colors, some held powders, and some held dried plants whose names could not be identified.

A strange smell filled the air.

Against the wall was a large workbench, and it was astonishingly messy.

Mortars, test tubes, scales, crucibles, and a pile of tools Celia couldn’t even name were strewn about haphazardly.

On the wall behind the workbench hung dried medicinal herbs.

This place really didn’t look like a home.

It looked more like a laboratory.

“Make yourselves at home.”

The woman yawned, walked to the workbench, picked up a cup, and took a drink.

Only after swallowing did she realize it was the leftover potion from last night.

She frowned and set it down casually.

Celia and the other two squeezed onto a sofa piled with odds and ends, carefully moving aside a few thick notebooks.

“What’s my name again…”

The woman rubbed her temples, as if trying to wake herself up.

“Oh, I remember. I’m Ou Ruola. I’ve been sleeping a bit too long, and my head is a little dizzy. You can call me the Sunlight Witch.”

Olivia’s eyes instantly went wide.

“The Sunlight Witch?!”

The woman glanced at her.

“What, you’ve heard of me?”

“How could I not have heard? This is the Sunlight Witch! You’re the Sunlight Witch who wrote ‘Foundations of Alchemy’?! The Sunlight Witch who invented sixteen universal antidotes?!”

Ou Ruola nodded calmly.

“Mm, that’s me.”

Celia quietly asked Olivia beside her, “Is she very famous?”

Olivia turned to look at her, her expression exaggerated as if she had seen a ghost.

“Famous?! She’s a grandmaster of alchemy on the continent! Do you understand what a grandmaster means?! Many of the alchemical texts collected in the Dragon Royal Palace were written by her! Even my mother’s study has her works!”

The Sunlight Witch waved her hand.

“Alright, alright, stop flattering me.”

She pulled up a chair and sat down, her amber eyes once again landing on Celia’s face.

That gaze was complicated—nostalgia, emotion, and a hint of… something Celia couldn’t read.

Celia felt very uncomfortable under her stare.

Those eyes seemed to see right through her, examining her from hair to brows, from brows to mouth, inch by inch.

She cautiously spoke, “Sister Ou Ruola…”

Before she could finish, she was interrupted.

“Don’t call me sister.”

Ou Ruola quickly waved her hand.

“Call me aunt.”

Celia was stunned.

‘How strange. Normally, wouldn’t you want to be called younger? She had seen Sister Selina’s expression when called ‘aunt’—it was priceless. Why was this person asking to be called older?’

She blinked, wondering if she had misheard.

“A… aunt?”

“Mm.”

“Aunt, I came because Silvia told me you might know where my mothers’ burial place is.”

“That’s what she told you?”

“Yes, aunt.”

Ou Ruola looked at her, at that face that made her dazed.

Then she let out a soft sigh.

“Your two mothers… the team they were in disappeared after clashing with the Demon Empress during the war against the Demon Realm.”

“Disappeared?”

“Mm.”

Ou Ruola nodded.

“The entire team, along with their presence and traces, all disappeared.”

She looked at Celia.

“So I can’t be certain that they died.”

Celia’s heart beat fast.

“Then…”

“But.”

Ou Ruola interrupted her, her voice growing softer.

“No one has ever escaped from that person’s hands, so everyone assumed they were dead. Except for me. I believe she’s still alive—after all, she is Elariel!”

After Ou Ruola finished speaking, the room fell silent for a moment.

Onyxia looked at her and suddenly spoke.

“Celia’s mother… was she more than just a close friend to you?”

Ou Ruola paused.

Then she smiled, her face full of nostalgia.

“You girl, your eyes are quite sharp.”

She leaned back in her chair, her gaze falling on Celia’s face again, as if looking through her at another person.

“Your mother… she was the most upright person I’ve ever met.”

“So upright that she didn’t seem like a Dark Elf at all.”

She laughed self-deprecatingly.

“Sorry, I don’t mean to have anything against Dark Elves. It’s just… you know, back in my day, Dark Elves’ reputation wasn’t as good as it is now. But she wasn’t like that.”

“She never took advantage of others. She never lied. If she promised something, she would do it even if it cost her life.”

Ou Ruola’s gaze became a bit distant.

“The first time I met her was on the battlefield of the Ashen Plains. I had just arrived at the front lines and didn’t know anything. I was being chased by a group of monsters. She descended from the sky, taking them down one by one with her sword. Then she turned back to look at me, smiled, and asked if I was okay.”

Ou Ruola lowered her head and looked at her hands.

“Those eyes… they really are exactly the same as yours. Later I found out she was a Dark Elf. But so what? She was the best person I’ve ever met.”

“At that time, many people liked her, and I was no exception. But when I hinted at it, she directly rejected me, saying she already had a partner and would never betray her. At the time, I thought she was lying to me—after all, how could a Dark Elf have only one partner…”