Chapter 83: Sometimes, the only cure for a wounded heart is an irrational act.

After the unpleasant spar, Magna finally got the chance to excuse himself. He returned to his room to eat and keep training his spellcasting.

His whole morning had been ruined by all the drama. But there was still something that made him look forward to the evening.

Before he left, he had overheard Celeste and Rowena talking. They were planning an attack on the Faceless Witch that evening.

From what he could understand, Celeste had first asked for Azelith’s help. But Azelith refused, since she could not come anytime soon for some reason.

Celeste did not want to wait long, since the danger was too big to leave alone. Rowena also wanted her revenge as soon as possible. So the two of them decided to make a plan for the attack on their own.

Though the Matriarch of Death’s spells were not a direct counter to Time, Rowena apparently had a way to break through her dimension.

Magna got really excited when he heard that. He was so hyped to watch a battle between three powerful Witches.

Celeste was a 10th Trial Witch. Rowena was an 11th Trial Witch, just one step behind Seraphina, the head of the Winterborne family.

If their guess was right, the Faceless Witch had to be a 10th Trial Witch, or an 11th Trial Witch at most. That meant the fight would be in their favor, as long as they could find a way to reach her.

’Ahh, when was the last time I felt this excited?’

He remembered being a child, watching Smackdown and waiting for the Undertaker to rise from his coffin. He had felt the same exciting tension back then.

He found it hard to stay still in his room, so he decided to go eat his meal in the kitchen.

While he walked toward the kitchen through the long hallways, something outside a window caught his eye.

A figure in a red robe was walking out through the garden gate.

’Rowena?’ Magna thought at first. But the figure was smaller and leaner than her. ’She’s Renna. What is she up to?’

She looked like she was sneaking out, walking fast while constantly glancing around to see if anyone was watching.

Magna felt an uncomfortable thought rising at the back of his mind, but he shook his head.

’Well, I don’t care.’ He kept walking through the corridor. The only thing he wanted right now was to eat and keep building up his mana reserve.

—

"Which way was it again?" Renna stood in front of the forest, holding a crudely drawn map on a piece of paper.

She had drawn the map herself, after hearing all the details from Faye and Magna, and after asking a few hunters she had met along the way.

But the forest was too big, so she tried to understand more before moving into the woods.

If she lost her way, it would be very hard to find her way back out of the woods. So she did not want to get lost like some fool.

She even thought about returning to Winterborne city, or the nearest village, to bribe a hunter into showing her the way. But she decided against it.

If Rowena heard she was trying to sneak into the forest, she was sure she would stop her.

After thinking her plan through and matching it carefully to the map in her hand, she finally started walking down the dirt road.

"So I just need to follow the road until it ends." She muttered meanwhile looking around, taking in the scenery.

She lifted the brim of her Witch Hat, which usually hung low, so she could see the sunlight pouring down through the branches and treetops.

Her crimson eyes shone in the peaceful air, filled with the sound of singing birds.

A small smile even formed on her red lips.

But soon her eyes trembled, and silent tears slowly slid down her cheeks.

Remembering that this peaceful, beautiful forest was the same place that had taken her mother from her, she felt an unbearable ache in her chest.

The place she was trying to reach was where the Faceless Witch lived.

She wanted to face that Witch herself and fight her.

She knew it was not a fight she could win. But even if it ended in her death, all she wanted was to feel for herself what her mother had gone through.

It was also not a suicidal thought.

It was just her way of easing the pain in her chest and the anger that burned inside her every day.

She just wanted to land one single punch on the Faceless Witch’s face, so she could finally start sleeping better at night.

Then she could tell her mother, in a dream while she slept, that she had punched the monster who had taken her life. She could say it proudly, with a big smile on her face.

With those thoughts in her mind, after walking for a long time, she finally found a place where the bottoms of the trees were covered in sunberry bushes.

Knowing this was the place, she started looking around.

What she needed to find was something her mother had left behind.

From what she understood about the dimension spell, she just had to find something that still held mana inside it. Once she touched it, she would be able to enter that place.

She was already 20 years old, past her childhood. But in the Witch world, that age was still considered very young.

So, like what had happened to Magna and Faye, she was hoping she could trigger the same thing too.

The only problem was that after searching for a while, she could not find anything.

She even started to think about going back to get her mother’s Witch Hat and returning with it.

But if she went back, apart from the risk of being caught by her grandmother, coming here again would take too long. She did not have that much time.

’What should I do?’ She was starting to lose her spirit. She raised her head and looked up, the warm sunlight falling directly on her face.

There was so much pain and anger inside her that she started thinking about burning down the whole forest, until that Witch showed herself.

But before she could put those thoughts into action, she flinched at a voice coming from behind her.

"If you want to kill yourself, there are less painful ways to do it, you know?"

When Renna turned to look at the person who just spoke, she was surprised to see someone she never expected to see standing there.