Go back? There's no going back.

At the same time, on the other side, the dormitory courtyard.

Su Wei, who had just hurriedly stepped out of the dormitory door, had a completely frozen expression on his face when he saw the face of the woman in the courtyard.

Because, without a doubt, that was my mother's face.

But... why would this witch suddenly appear here in the form of my mother...?

At this moment, this doubt almost instinctively emerged in Su Wei's almost paralyzed mind.

In fact, this doubt was mixed with some expectations that he himself was not even aware of... and disgust.

However, the witch in front of him did not give him any extra time to think.

"Let's go quickly, it's getting late."

Watching Su Wei walk out of the dormitory, Eve said calmly: "It's very congested outside now. If you dawdle any longer, you won't be able to catch up."

"..."

Listening to the sound in his memory that he hadn't heard for eight years, Su Wei blinked his eyes in sudden realization, as if waking up from a dream.

The next moment, he nodded and instinctively walked out of the courtyard.

But on the way, despite trying his best to control himself, Su Wei's gaze still involuntarily... moved back to the middle-aged woman next to him.

A few minutes later.

As Su Wei and the Witch Lady beside him arrived at the main gate of the training camp, he soon noticed that there was an animal cart waiting quietly.

On the animal cart, Su Wei saw a somewhat unexpected scene.

Even though the driver was still wearing a cloak.

However, even though he had just come into close contact with him yesterday, Su Wei still recognized him at a glance. The other person was none other than his scarred young man.

"It stopped again."

At this moment, the witch's voice urged him again: "Get in the car, and be quick."

"……it is good."

Hearing this, Su Wei was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously walked towards the carriage of the animal cart.

After arriving in front of the scarred young man, Su Wei instinctively recalled the other party's strange behavior yesterday.

He thought about it and was about to speak, but he saw that the scarred young man had stretched out his hand and lifted the curtain behind him.

"...Thank you."

Seeing this, Su Wei blinked in confusion. He wanted to say something, but found that the scarred young man did not look at him, so he had to calm down again and walked straight into the carriage.

However, as soon as he sat down, the expression on Su Wei's face became a little subtle.

Although he felt that the width of this beast cart seemed a little too narrow when he looked at it from the outside just now, after actually sitting in it he found out... it was no longer just "a little narrow".

It was even narrower than the lowest-gear animal carriages he had ridden in before.

It feels too crowded for two people to sit.

Especially for Su Wei, who had once sat in the princess's luxurious carriage, the contrast was quite obvious at this moment.

Just when Su Wei was feeling confused, he saw his mother...and saw the Witch also step into the carriage.

"..."

The black eyes looked around the carriage for a while, and then Su Wei saw the witch sighed slightly, walked slowly to his side, and sat down reluctantly.

It seemed that she had not expected that the scarred young man would find such a car for transportation.

Just as Su Wei was thinking this, the entire narrow carriage shook, the wheels rolled, and began to move forward.

At this point, a strange silence enveloped the entire carriage.

Su Wei sat upright, saying nothing.

Because at this moment, the long-lost, faint smell of cheap soap was lingering in his nose.

He glanced at the reflection of his mother... the witch lady on the iron bars of the car window. Almost instinctively, an idea emerged in Su Wei's mind.

A desire to make this moment last forever.

Su Wei gradually lost consciousness. He felt his heartbeat, which had never slowed down, speed up uncontrollably again...

Su Wei, who had thought that he would not have any psychological fluctuations when facing a certain witch in the future, even if he was killed by the other party, suddenly became nervous and at a loss for what to do.

But soon, Su Wei came back to his senses.

Although he still didn't understand why the witch suddenly appeared in front of him with his mother's face, after his sanity gradually returned, he realized that all this... was fake.

Both the existence of the mother itself and the "mother" who is sitting next to him are fake.

He tried to remind himself not to get too caught up in the drama.

As someone who had witnessed the creation process of the Thousand Faces Talisman, Su Wei knew very well that no matter the appearance, voice, or smell of his mother he saw now... in essence, it was just a continuous illusion.

After figuring this out, Su Wei tried to force himself to calm down little by little.

"Why... did you become like this?"

After a moment, Su Wei took a deep breath silently and turned to look at his mother beside him...the witch who brought disaster to the country.

He is different now than before.

At least, he has understood what it means to have the courage to face reality.

"Huh? Why?"

However, mother... no, the witch next to her just tilted her head and looked back at Su Wei with a puzzled look: "Is there anything wrong with the way I am now?"

"No, so, this appearance of yours is not your true appearance, and you have used it for a long time and have eliminated it..."

At this moment, watching the mother who was originally frozen in his memory, moving again at a very close distance in front of him, Su Wei slowly widened his eyes, and felt his brain go blank. Even the words he originally wanted to say were temporarily forgotten by him.

"...I, what I want to say is, don't you already have a new mask? Why do you need to change back to this appearance...?"

Staring at the face in front of him, Su Wei swallowed hard, trying to suppress a certain impulse deep in his heart.

“That’s a really strange question.”

However, facing Su Wei's questioning, my mother remained calm.

Instead, she stared at him with a somewhat troubled look, and asked softly, "This posture originally belonged to me. Do I need to prepare any special reasons if I want to use her now?"

“…No, I don’t need to.”

Hearing this, Su Wei fell completely silent.

It wasn't that he was stumped by the question, but after the brief exchange just now, he had once again realized that the woman in front of him was not his mother.

Although the face is exactly the same.

However, no matter her manners or words and deeds...there are some differences between her and my real mother.

Sure enough, the perfect mother in my memory will never come back.

"..."

Thinking of this, Su Wei suddenly calmed down little by little.

For some reason, he suddenly felt fortunate.

……Very good.

It's just... another person with a very similar face.

"Come to think of it, you haven't had breakfast yet, have you?"

At this moment, the voice came to his ears again. Su Wei subconsciously looked at the latter, only to see that the other party had taken out a small lunch box from somewhere.

She opened the lid of the lunch box and handed the box to Su Wei.

Inside the box was a beautifully presented breakfast.

Su Wei had seen this before. It was a bento breakfast sold in a convenience store inside the training camp.

I heard it's selling very well.

"I made this myself, you know? I suggest you eat it all."

After signaling Su Wei to take it with a kind look, the witch looked at him with even kinder eyes and reminded him.

"..."

However, after the other party finished speaking, Su Wei, who had originally breathed a sigh of relief, was stunned again.

At this moment, in his mind, the middle-aged woman who distorted the facts in front of him and the woman who once handed him a small bag of buns that were obviously bought from outside after he woke up, and said seriously that she made them herself... briefly overlapped.

The expression on his face became stiff at this moment, and Su Wei subconsciously turned his eyes away and looked down at the lunch box.

"Why... do this specifically?"

After a moment's silence, Su Wei let out a long breath and spoke in a slightly stiff tone.

To be honest, Su Wei felt that he had expressed his meaning very clearly yesterday.

He didn't blame her for abandoning him back then, and she didn't need to pay special attention to his thoughts.

"Oh, have you forgotten that I am now your mentor?"

However, as if she had expected Su Wei to say this, the witch in front of her just blinked and said calmly: "If the student I am responsible for misses the audition of the Fire Plan because of oversleeping... are you planning to have me dismissed from the training camp and exposed?"

"…I'm sorry. I was negligent."

Hearing this, Su Wei was stunned and lowered his head slightly.

"It's okay, I forgive you."

As the witch's voice sounded in his ears, Su Wei also felt a gentle touch on his head.

His whole body stiffened, and Su Wei subconsciously wanted to struggle.

But the next second, after meeting the middle-aged woman's eyes, he fell silent, turned his eyes away and looked out the car window.

The animal cart driven by the scarred young man was now moving back and forth on the road.

Just as the witch said before, it's so crowded outside that it's scary.

However, although it seemed very congested, Su Wei's progress speed was surprisingly not affected too much.

Perhaps because the width of the entire carriage was too narrow, under the driving of the scarred young man, the three people were able to move freely between the gaps between the cars.

Occasionally, when the carriage next to him would be brushed against another, the scarred young man would easily take out a few silver coins of varying sizes from his pocket and throw them directly over, and the other party's shouting would soon die down.

Seeing this scene, a look of surprise flashed across Su Wei's face.

He remembered that this assessment was not originally a closed assessment?

But why... there are so many people on the road now, and they all seem to be rushing towards the first venue?

"Yesterday, around this afternoon, a certain queen ordered changes to the assessment of the Spark Project."

At this time, the witch lady beside him looked at Su Wei, seemed to guess what he was wondering about, and said: "Now the entire assessment process has changed from closed to open. All citizens of the royal city can go to the first venue to watch the assessment up close."

"……is that so."

Hearing this, Su Wei blinked, as if thinking about something.

Soon, as if he had thought of something, he retracted his gaze from the car window and turned to look at the witch beside him: "Then... are you going to the venue later too?"

"of course."

Facing Su Wei's gaze, Eve nodded and said calmly, "Besides, it's in the front row."

"..."

Hearing this, Su Wei fell silent for a moment.

The entire carriage became quiet again.

Seeing this, Eve did not speak again.

Because this silence was completely different from the silence she experienced in the dormitory living room yesterday.

At least here, she didn't feel at all uncomfortable this time.

After taking in all the reactions of a certain little kid since he went out, Eve suddenly felt in a better mood.

Originally, it was just a sudden thought while I was waiting for a kid to wake up outside the dormitory, in line with my duties as a mentor.