"Asta's room is right there!" Noelle pointed to Asta's room from mid-air.
"I see Asta! He seems to still be lying in bed!" Upon spotting Asta, Vanica enthusiastically greeted him, "Asta, how have you been?"
"Vanica? Noelle?" Asta looked at Vanica and the others in mid-air, hesitating. When did they start hanging out together?
"We heard about your condition and have come specifically to take you for treatment!" Vanica said bluntly. Noelle had originally wanted to hide the truth from Asta until they arrived, fearing that Asta would refuse to let them seek medical help in such a dangerous place. However, Vanica felt that for a real man like Asta, it was better to be honest.
"I didn't expect even you guys to hear about it. Did Noelle find you?" Asta opened the window and smiled.
"And me, Asta! Everyone has been busy since earlier. Luck and Magna have already gone to an unknown Magic Palace, Gauche and Gordon have gone to the Royal Library, and Charmy and Grey have gone into the forest to search for gourmet food that can cure curse magic. Noelle and I found Vanica and his partner, hoping to get some different clues, and we actually found them!" Finral said, sounding like he was fishing for credit.
"Thank you all for your hard work!" To be honest, Asta was truly touched by everyone; this is what a group is all about! But come to think of it, someone seemed to be missing. "Where is Vanessa?"
"As for big sister Vanessa... she has already gone ahead. Like Vanessa, Domina is a witch from the Witchs Forest. The queen of the Witchs Forest is best at curse magic and all sorts of strange magic, so finding the queen might be able to cure you," Finral said.
"The Witchs Forest?" Asta said, leaping out of the window. He summoned a flying orb out of thin air and pulled Noelle, who was sitting behind Domina, into his arms. "Then let's set off!"
"What are you doing?!" Caught off guard, Noelle ended up in Asta's arms, and in front of everyone, too. The Princess couldn't maintain her composure, and her face turned incredibly red.
"It's more spacious here. But Noelle, you need to learn to fly as soon as possible. Otherwise, it will be very inconvenient if I always have to carry you when we go out," Asta said, feigning innocence after taking advantage of the situation.
"Annoying! Who said I always let you carry me!" Noelle lightly pinched Asta's waist and then couldn't help but ask, "Asta, aren't you going to ask what kind of place the Witchs Forest is?"
"No matter what kind of place it is, even if it's hell, I will bring you all out!" Asta's face beamed with a confident smile. Although he couldn't use his arms, limiting his attack methods, his destructive power hadn't diminished in the slightest. Once the Eight Gates were opened, he could still kick his way to a conclusion!
"That's truly heroic. Let's go then!" Vanica said with admiration.
"Sorry for the trouble!" Asta thanked everyone and then followed behind Domina, heading toward the Witchs Forest.
Meanwhile, the Witchs Forest was in an uproar because Vanessa, who had defected long ago, had actually returned!
"Did you see that? It's really Vanessa! I can't believe she dared to come back after running away!" a slightly plump witch said in shock.
"My god, Vanessa has become so charming. Compared to how pitiful she looked when she was little, she has much more spirit now!" another witch exclaimed.
"It seems she's been living well out there. But why would she be so foolish as to come back?" a witch dressed quite boldly asked, puzzled.
"Could it be that she was abandoned by that man outside? So she couldn't survive out there and came back?" another witch speculated maliciously.
"That's possible. The man who lured Vanessa away didn't look like a good person. Thinking about it now, Vanessa is truly pitiful. After finally managing to escape back, she'll be punished by the Queen!" a sentimental witch said pessimistically.
"I'm afraid Vanessa won't be able to leave her room this time." After one witch made this prediction, the Demon Queen in the Queen's Palace had already finished scrutinizing Vanessa.
"You've changed. When you were little, you never dared to look me in the eye like this. It seems life outside has made you forget the rules here." The Demon Queen sat on her throne, looking down at Vanessa, who was standing in the hall, with eyes that surveyed the world with disdain.
"Life outside taught me that bad rules are meant to be broken!" Vanessa lifted her small face, stubbornly staring directly at the Demon Queen.
"Defective product! Look at what you're saying now! Originally the most perfect witch, yet you were seduced by a human and follow human orders. Don't you feel ashamed?" The more the Demon Queen spoke, the angrier she became. With a roar, her powerful magic even burst through the wall, instantly brightening up the somewhat dim room.
This made the Demon Queen's mood even worse, because the room had also become "defective."
"You are the real defective product! You seem to do everything perfectly, but you have ignored the most important point: in your excessive pursuit of perfection, you have lost your warmth toward others!" Vanessa shouted back, refusing to be outdone.
"Warmth?" The Demon Queen paused slightly, as if something in her heart had been touched, but soon anger flooded her face. "A girl who doesn't know the rules, actually daring to lecture me? It seems you need to be punished!"
"Do you think I will still let you manipulate me like before?" Vanessa assumed a defensive stance. Although she knew the Demon Queen's strength far exceeded her own, Asta was always nagging in her ears about exceeding one's limits, so how could she give up so easily?
"Everyone, be careful. That dense forest ahead is the Witchs Forest. The Queen has spread her magic throughout the entire forest there. As long as any intruder uses magic, the Queen will notice!" Domina said with a serious expression.
"Isn't our ultimate goal to find the Demon Queen? This actually saves us some trouble," Asta joked.
"You're unbelievable! We're the ones asking for a favor!" Noelle complained.
"Haha, just kidding!" Asta smiled.
"To think he still has the heart to joke at a time like this... but it does help ease the tension..." Mariella couldn't help but glance at Asta.
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