...I can't say it wasn't a bad idea or bad explanation for her being with , but I still felt offended.
Really, did I have to be portrayed as a pathetic person who had to cling to Lily for assistance in escaping the cave?
Sighing, I shook my head and turned towards Ruby, not surprised at her current suspicious and confused expression.
Well, desire or not, I'd be pretty disappointed if she thought that figure alongside Lily was the real .
After another brief mont of silence, Alya waved her hand at Lily before gesturing for her to co forward.
Sending an order for the corrupted figure to follow Lily, I watched with interest as Lily, the corrupted figure, and the rest of the main cast stood in silence.
After a mont, Kevin looked at the corrupted figure, which still had sothing covering its face, before shaking his head and saying.
"You're really thinking of taking him with us, are you Lily?" _em _pyr.
Stepping in front of the corrupted figure, Lily defended by replying.
"We wouldn't have found this place without him. What good did you guys do running around the forest while he helped us find this place and the exit?"
The entire group hesitated for a mont, shell-shocked at Lily's sudden defense for, before Kevin muttered out.
"...you're the one who told to r-"
Interrupting Kevin mid-sentence was Alya, as she stepped in front of Kevin, staring at the corrupted figure and replying.
"Enough. Lily's right, we may not like it, but he could prove to be useful."
Fainting hearing sothing from the other side, I turned around and barely managed to hear Liam whisper.
"Yeah, useful as a fucking bait."
...really dude?
It was ironic as I was in fact currently using them as a bait right now, so I didn't take his words too personally.
Reexamining Alya's expression, I saw her eyes light up with a spark before returning to normal as she took the lead of the group.
As the other main cast nodded their heads at Alya's words, Ruby's nod was sowhat forced and skeptical... at least that was what I thought it was, they departed.
I still had one question remaining.
Did Alya know she was being influenced and essentially possessed the spirit or not?
It was possible that the spirit was communicating to Alya through their contract and telling her that sothing bad would happen if they didn't imdiately go to the end of the path.
On the other hand, it was also possible that the spirit was manipulating Alya's sense of ti by telling her that every second that passed in this loop was a day on the outside.
Whatever the spirit was telling her though, it was clear that he had one goal.
Reach the end of this path with all of us.
As the main cast began walking in the direction of the end of the path, I also started moving, using the darkness of the cave to trail behind the main cast by a couple of steps.
For the ti being, Lily did not say anything or attempt to showcase the corrupted figure's strength to Alya and the spirit, so I simply observed.
If we rushed and were caught sohow by the spirit, we would lose our chances of escaping.
The spirit was part of that tree that we had destroyed, and that tree was the end condition, so in other words, this spirit was also an end condition.
Sothing we had to kill to get rid of the loop.
The spirit had all the cards in this scenario; if he wanted to, it could just leave us here and run away, leaving us trapped in the loop forever.
It had all the leverage.
Hearing a conversation spark up between the group, I got a bit closer.
Irene, turning to Lily, Alya, and the corrupted figure who was at the front of the group, asked.
"So, what's up with your face? Suddenly, you're scared to show it. Finally, looked in a mirror and realized sothing was wrong?"
..?
I understand Liam's hate a bit, but what the actual hell did I do to deserve that insult from Irene?
Struggling to keep my mouth closed, I instructed the corrupted figure to simply turn to Lily in response to Irene's question.
The corrupted figure could not communicate, so I had to let Lily know that so she could respond on my behalf.
Noticing the corrupted figure's expectant gaze, Lily seed to have an idea as she stopped mid-walk and turned back to face Irene.
"I-i saw him fighting an A-rank beast back in the cave, and it gave him a bloody scar. I think he's covering his face to prevent the blood from leaking out."
Almost wanting to run over and thank Lily, I sighed in relief from behind the rocks.
At first, I thought that we were going to be caught as since the spirit could see through anything in the cave, it would be alerted if a monster were to appear, so it would know that Lily was lying.
Fortunately though, Lily had ntioned that it was the underground space that we had first fallen into, not the secret tunnel that we were currently in.
Working with instead of against other regressors who have a ton of knowledge is kind of nice sotis!
Examining the expressions of the main cast, I saw Kevin and Liam give a weird expression while Ruby's entire face was slanted while staring at the back of the corrupted figure.
huh?
Did she really still think it was after what Lily said earlier?
Irene stared at the silent corrupted figure for a mont before shaking her head and staring at Lily, clearly not believing the story.
On the other hand, Alya's eyes flashed a cold silver for a mont before returning to normal as she quickened her pace, not questioning Lily's statent.
The bait had been set... all that was left was to wait.
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