Leaving the Forest of Illusions

A bit more than a month passed since the cult started their operation.

Shiba and Gregor were still traveling through the Forest of Illusions and didn't manage to meet with Eini, who was also there.

"Don't worry, Gregor. Today I have the feeling that we will leave this forest!"

Shiba seemed very convinced, but Gregor couldn't believe it because everything was like all the previous days. Of course, Shiba noticed it.

"Don't be so pessimistic. Today is the first anniversary of my meeting with Master Liye. It must be a special day. I am sure we will leave today."

It was only thanks to the system that Shiba could keep a proper track of the time, but for that same reason, he was sure that it had been exactly one year.

Of course, that didn't mean anything on the Forest of Illusions since it didn't have the slightest relation with Master Liye.

Still, maybe it was a prank of fate, but after ten minutes, the space distorted, and they really left the Forest of Illusions.

Given how much time Shiba had been inside, it was already about time to leave, but it was the day of the anniversary for coincidence, although Shiba's strong belief had part of the responsibility.

The confidence he had on the fate that made him meet his master couldn't compare to anything else. It was that confidence that helped him to trigger an exit of the forest.

The possibilities of triggering an exit increased each day after having reached the forest. Moreover, clearing the illusions also increased the chances greatly. Shiba was more or less guaranteed to leave in a few days, even if his sudden boost in confidence for the anniversary didn't happen.

In fact, Shiba's luck had been incredibly bad. With better luck, he could have left far sooner.

Gregor being with him should have trapped him in the forest, but Lina already made sure that the creator of the forest voided that rule regarding Gregor, so the long time Shiba needed was due to pure bad luck.

"We really left..."

Gregor couldn't believe that happened just as Shiba said, and his awe for Shiba only increased.

At the same time, Shiba's belief in fate also deepened.

"You must believe more in fate. The fate linking us to Master Liye is exceptional. You aren't directly related to him, but you are related to me. Just believe in him, and your life will be easier."

Gregor would have been skeptical hearing those words before, but after experiencing how they left the forest after Shiba declared that was the anniversary of meeting his master, he believed it. After all, he was still a kid. Even if there wasn't any concrete evidence, as long as it seemed that it was the reason, he would believe things quite easily.

"Sure. I know that my fate is cursed, but maybe the grandmaster will help me to break free from it."

Gregor was really amazed at the sight of the outside the forest, so he wanted to explore it more. However, he wasn't too confident about how much he would be able to explore with the limit of never being able to reach Rank 2.

Shiba remained silent. He hadn0t told Gregor that Master Liye was reincarnating.

He felt that although it was possible for fate to help them passively, Master Liye would need to act actively to break that curse, but he wasn't planning to mention it. Of course, Shiba didn't doubt that Master Liye would be able to undo that curse easily. In his eyes, Master Liye could do anything.

The truth was far from that. Curses of fate weren't easy to cast, but they were even more difficult to dispel. Moreover, it wasn't among Liye's expertise to dispel curses of fate. That wasn't something for a Law God to meddle with.

The ones that set up that curse of fate belonged to the same side as the ones sponsoring the cult. They were far more adept at curses than the rest.

Even Master Liye had been facing a curse on his soul from even before being born due to the same group of people, although that one was far worse than the fate curse Gregor and his people had.

After all, Gregor's curse was caused by his ancestry. It might be very difficult for Gregor to break that curse while being alive, but if he reincarnated on a different family, it would disappear without any effort.

On Liye's case was attached to his soul, so reincarnation wouldn't help. Even with his soul in dissipation, the curse didn't vanish, although it was somewhat weakened.

The reason Gregor's ancestor managed to flee instead of being completely exterminated was to make him suffer while seeing how his descendants suffered just for the fact of being his descendants.

Even if an expert capable of forcing reincarnations appeared, the solution would also make that man suffer.

"Shiba!"

Hearing that scream, Shiba fell to the ground after Eini appeared from nowhere and jumped to hug him. He wasn't expecting it, so he couldn't maintain his balance.

It hadn't even been five minutes since he left, so he wasn't expecting Eini to appear so soon.

Of course, that wasn't a coincidence. A moment before Lina had said.

"It is time to leave."

Hearing those words, the remnant will interfered to let Eini leave and made her appear beside Shiba.

Lina felt that the Forest of Illusions was a good mental training, so she didn't force the creator of the forest to act, but once Shiba had left, she found that it was useless to continue waiting for the random chance for Eini to leave.

Lina also left after that, which relieved a lot the pressure on the remnant will that controlled the forest.

Gregor was quite shocked to see Eini. He had heard about her from Shiba, but based on what he said, they were good friends. However, what he was saying didn't seem a relationship between two good friends.

He didn't need more than a few seconds to label Eini as his master's girlfriend. He just felt that Shiba was too shy to say it, so he decided to also remain silent about it.

"Have you been waiting for long?"

Eini would feel really bad if she had been making wait Shiba for too much time.

"No, less than five minutes. That is why I was so surprised when you appeared."

As Shiba spoke, he noticed that Eini was still hugging him. It was quite strange that she lasted so long, hugging him.

"I see glad to hear it."

After speaking, she didn't let off Shiba.

"Eini?"

Shiba didn't know what was wrong.

"Let me stay like this for a while."

She didn't tell any reason, but Shiba felt that maybe she saw illusions of him like he had seen of her and that it had affected her greatly.

Gregor retreated several meters to leave them some intimacy. He wasn't so mean to interrupt a couple that met each other after a long time. Even more so when his master was implicated.

After several minutes, Eini finally let Shiba go.

"Sorry, I was too emotional."

She hadn't met an illusion with Shiba's form, but her father and sister like Lina expected. However, Shiba had been an important topic in the illusion.

"Don't worry. Can you tell me what happened?"

Shiba was worried about her, but he didn't plan to force her to explain if she didn't want to.

"What would you feel if I did this to another guy?"

Shiba didn't really understand the meaning of that question, but he decided to reply anyway after pondering for a while.

"I would probably be quite pissed. Like if my position was stolen."

Shiba was telling the truth, but he was attributing it to having his only friend stolen by someone else.

"I see. I am glad to hear that."

Eini smiled and hugged Shiba again.

"Again?"

Shiba didn't expect Eini to hug him again.

"I promise that I won't do this with any other boy, but you can't let other girls hug you either. Deal?"

Shiba wasn't sure why Eini was offering that deal since he felt that it was quite obvious, but he didn't find any reason to disagree.

"Deal."

After Shiba replied, Eini seemed to hug him even stronger than before. Fortunately, Shiba had trained his body well, so it wasn't an issue. Gregor might have been harmed if he received such a hug.

Shiba didn't know about it, but since the moment he agreed, Eini considered that Shiba was her boyfriend.

Her family had strict rules regarding that, so she didn't dare to put it bluntly with words, but she wanted to confirm that Shiba was hers and hers alone.

It was inside the illusion that she noticed that she saw Shiba as far more than a friend. It was due to how strict the rules on her family were that she unconsciously always avoided thinking about it.

However, on the illusions, she was being forced to be separated from Shiba and was engaged to someone else. Shiba didn't appear directly on the illusion, but he was the main reason Eini had such a difficult time breaking the illusion.

Eini felt that she would rather die than never see Shiba again while marrying someone else. After that, she couldn't deny her feeling for him. She didn't know since when she was in love with him, but what mattered was that with the rules of her family, it wouldn't be easy for them to be together.

Even Lina was considered too weak to have a boyfriend, let alone Eini.

Thus, Eini needed a lot of resolution to face her father and sister and go against their orders on the illusion.

Her resolution was to become strong enough to clear all the conditions to be with him, but the issue was that Shiba needed to fulfill the same or he wouldn't be accepted.