When we arrived at the Illusory Forest area where the third test would be performed I came out of the illusion in five seconds as I wasn’t fooled by something of that level, Orion seems like he himself wasn’t affected by the illusion, Layla and Nix were affected by the illusion by will own using it as a form of entertainment.
But Vanessa issued mild killing intent as she cried when she woke up from her delusion shortly after I finished talking to Orion.
I got up from my seat and went to give her a hug, she hugged me tightly while crying, I just waited while hugging her, the others were waking up from the illusion one by one meanwhile.
“Don’t cry, tell me what happened?” (I)
“It was just an old wish that I had forgotten about, this is something I wanted over 500 years ago.” (Vanessa)
“If it’s something you wanted then why are you crying?” (I)
“You know Father, when I decided to leave the Church of Light 500 years ago, the first people I told this to were my parents at the time, do you know what they did?” (Vanessa)
“My mother tried to capture me and my father tried to kill me, when I ran away my father led the army that was hunting me, if the leader of the neutral faction of Vampires that later became my mother hadn’t saved me I would now be dead or worst.” (Vanessa)
“Up until the moment I was put to sleep, my greatest wish was that my Father and Mother had supported me and run away with me.” (Vanessa)
“Was that your illusion now?” (I)
“Yes, but that only served to open an old wound, I was not deceived by the illusion, but the memories of the past seem to still be there.” (Vanessa)
“Maybe those wounds are always there, betrayal by someone who is in your heart is not something you can forget, but know that now you have many people by your side.” (I)
“Yes I know.” (Vanessa)
“Thanks, Dad.” (Vanessa)
After Vanessa calmed down a bit she was able to tell me what had happened, but at that moment a powerful Aura went out of control near me.
“<Wake up.>” (I)
I try to run using my Aura to suppress the Jade Aura that was out of control as I approach her I also focused some of my Aura on my throat, I was using my Aura ruler effect on my voice to give an order that it made Jade open her eyes right away, moreover as soon as she saw me she cried silently with her hand on her face for a few seconds before saying something to me.
“I’m sorry master, it seems I was deceived by the illusion.” (Jade)
“What happened?” (I)
“The illusion I saw was from the time I left the village and joined Farus, my wish was never to have left the village.” (Jade)
“I saw in the illusion how I stood by my mother and the people of the village, saw them all fighting together against Farus and defeating him.” (Jade)
“So what was the problem?” (I)
“Because of this illusion, I remembered all the horrible things I did.” (Jade)
“Just calm down, everything is fine now.” (I)
I look at the others, but everyone is already awake from the illusion, only Vanessa and Jade had problems with their illusions, it seems it was because of memories that the illusions made them come back, traumatic memories for both of them.
I look at Sophia who was the calmest.
“Was that the last test?” (I).
“This is the last test, it will take a week to reach the village gates, until then we will have to resist the illusions, it usually tires someone’s mind, but we should all be fine.” (Sophia)
“You call what happened with Vanessa and Jade okay?” (I)
“Their sadness and suffering is not caused by the illusion, it means that the impact on them was almost nothing, with the exception of Jade who succumbed to the illusion.” (Sophia)
“It was hard to deny a wish that would have made all the bad things I did disappear.” (Jade)
“Don’t look for a simple solution, what comes easily also disappears easy, I’ve said before that you need to walk with the weight of what you’ve done, so stop always looking back, just look forward and find out what you can do to make up for your past mistakes.” (I)
“I know that master, but I was weak in the face of temptation like this, but it won’t happen again.” (Jade)
After that Nix woke up, I had pulled her out of my shadow as she looked sad, as there wasn’t much space in the cabin I let her lay over my legs and patted her head while I waited for her to wake up.
When it got dark and we stopped again that’s when I woke up Layla who was smiling disturbingly.
———-
Pov Alan’s:
From the first time I saw them in the city I knew they were interesting people, they looked suspicious at first sight as they all wore masks, but a person doing suspicious things usually avoids drawing attention, in their case it was different.
When I was walking on the city streets I always saw them walking around the food stalls, there were also some going to stores or restaurants, and they acted in a very normal way for such suspicious people, it was something that caught my attention.
But Darcia was a big annoyance, the first day I saw them was when they were fighting Darcia, I thought they were going to completely lose since Darcia should be the strongest person in town after me at the moment.
I was surprised to see so many strong people among the masked ones, when I asked later why Darcia was fighting I was surprised to find it was because he saw the face of the red-haired masked man who was the shortest.
Darcia always does these things, my luck that she is not able to see Fairies or Spirits, or my suffering would never end in this city, I’m also lucky that people with contracts with Fairies or Spirits in this city make their Familiars invisible to normal eyes, It saves me a lot of trouble, but I think it might get worse when we get to the Elves’ village.
It has happened more than once where she hugged Elves and Elves in the street simply because she thought they were very cute, exactly why I didn’t want to come with her, but I had no choice in that decision since Darcia even being a strange person is still the strongest Knight from the Grimo Kingdom, I met her in the Empire a long time ago when I was training there.
Fortunately, Bianca is with me, as a childhood friend and Priestess only she can stop Darcia from doing this kind of thing, even though I’m stronger I can’t babysit Darcia all day.
I was curious about the masked ones, but they never took off their masks, in fact, it seems they changed their mask after the incident with Darcia, and now they don’t even take off their masks to eat.
From your Auras, I know that you have a strange Human, a Beastman woman from the tribe of Wolves, a Dark Elf, a White Elf, a Gray Elf, an Oni, a Demi woman who has an Aura similar to a Serpent, a Vampire and that strange person who seems to be the leader Darcia is so desperately going after.
From the description Darcia gave he must be a boy, he has a strange wingless Fairy on one shoulder and a strange baby monster on the other shoulder, apart from that boy only the Gray Elf had a Spirit with her.
I must admit that I was a little jealous of having so many women besides that boy, but I was more curious about the boy himself that I couldn’t feel anything about, I couldn’t feel his Aura or his presence, but to be surrounded by strong people he must be strong too, but I don’t know how strong it would be.
On the day that we were finally going to enter the Illusory Forest to go to the Elves’ village, I was already prepared for the two tests that were missing.
But I was very surprised to see the masked people there too, their carriage was quite big, Darcia looked very happy and ran towards them before I or Bianca could stop her.
Just when I thought I would need to run to avoid another fight in front of the Elves before the trip, I suddenly feel something ominous and see Darcia with a serious face jumping back as she walks away from the masked carriage, she tries to get her weapons but passed out before Besides, I ran and caught her before I hit the ground.
There was no doubt the culprit was the red-haired boy, but I didn’t know what he had done, Darcia wasn’t hurt, but her body was shaking and sweaty, it looks like he didn’t want to hurt her, just stop her from causing trouble before entering the Illusory Forest.
I was going to take advantage of the tests to find out more about this mysterious group, while I had to get Darcia to behave, this wasn’t the time for her to be acting like this.