We exited the dome-like part of the cave, and we continued riding our horse through the cave. 

The colourful illuminating worms were still around, but not as much as it was before.

The more we travelled forward, the more the worms were dwindling.

And after awhile we saw a small source of light.

"Ah, have we almost reached the exit?" (Kazu)

"It appears so." (Lillia)

That was quick, I thought it would take awhile, but it only took around 20 minutes to traverse through the cave.

The light source became bigger and bigger, and as we get closer and closer, the more we could see the outside world.

And...

Why do I see no road?

No way, is that a cliff?

Which means.... A dead end?

Wait what?

Hang on, why are we still going there?

"I know what you're thinking." (Lillia)

"Huh?" (Kazu)

"It appears as a dead end, but it's actually not." (Lillia)

"???" (Kazu)

What I thought was a cliff leading to a fall of certain death, was actually a mere trick to the eye.

From our perspective, it doesn't seem to have any road, but as we get closer and look, there's actually a road that goes through the side of the cliff.

Haha, getting bamboozled by a cave. That's a new experience.

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Hmmm, this road is pretty narrow. I can see why people can't seem to see the road from far away.

The width of this road is around 2 meters or so.

But, wow, the view as expected, is magnificent. There's really no place in the human world like this.

On our right side, there's a mountain acting as a wall for this road, which means we're truly on the side of a mountain.

On our left, there's what you would call an endless pit.

That's what it looks like anyway. We have no means to measure the depth of the pit.

All we know is that it's enormously wide, enough to fit a small city. And that a mist covers it at a certain depth.

Beyond the pit, there was a gigantic mountain. It's peak couldn't be seen as it was also a cloud breaching mountain, just like the other mountains.

Maybe this was why no one bothered exploring this place?

Nah, people wouldn't be scared of just a road beside some mountains and a cliff.

And besides, she said it was a secret passage.

So, if I put it together....

What we exited through would be the cave entrance of people going through this road.

So their point of view would be different from ours. They can see the cave entrance. Which means it's not really hidden that way.

Could there possibly another cave on the road that we're going through?

And....

After travelling quite a long path....

Turns out I was right. There really was another cave almost the same as the one we were in before.

Meaning, people who would enter this cave from the opposite side, would see this road as non-existent from far away.

And what do you know, once we entered the cave, it was pitch black, and quite a long one. That adds up to the hiddeness of this passage.

So, Lillia took out a torch from one of the bags she brought, and lit it up.

Once we exited, I realized that it was truly a long cave. Judging by the sun, it probably took around an hour or two to exit.

Doubled by the fact that there's rarely any people from these parts, and bam! We got a secret passage, leading to a hidden land.

Looking around it really has the same feel to the forest. Well, it is the same forest, so it's not like anything has changed.

Since we could attract anyone or anything to the secret passage entrance, if we stayed here or hunted here, we went far away from the cave entrance.

She then abruptly stopped the horse we were riding.

"Okay, this is where we'll hunt. I can smell the boars." (Lillia)

"Oh? So this is the smell of a boar?" (Kazu)

Seems like I can smell it too. Bravo heightened senses, bravo.

"It's around that way." (Lillia)

She points at a distant opening of the forest.

Huh, she might have better senses than mine. Even I couldn't know where the smell was coming from.

"Alright, this is where we will camp." (Lillia)

"What? Camping? You never told me we were camping. I thought we would just hunt one boar and come back." (Kazu)

"Stupid, hunts aren't that simple." (Lillia)

"Oh, okay.... But camping right here? Aren't those boars dangerous?" (Kazu)

"It is alright, I can take care of them if they ever came to us." (Lillia)

"Even if you can take care of them, aren't there other scarier and stronger monsters here." (Kazu)

"No worries, stronger monsters usually comes out in autumn and winter. Right now, we're in the spring season." (Lillia)

"Huh, is that so?" (Kazu)

"I've been here for 10 years, of course I would know." (Lillia)

"Hmmm, so how long are we camping?" (Kazu)

"Just one night, not too long. We wouldn't want to ignore the crops back at home." (Lillia)

Home huh? Well, I guess that place IS my new home now.

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We've set up camp here. She was well prepared for this, as she did bring a bag full of camping equipment.

A tent, some pillows, some blankets, cooking utensils, fire wood, and etc.

All of those were in one of the bags that she had brought with us.

I do think she was a little bit overprepared for just one night of camping.

But let's just put that aside, as now that we're done, it's time hunt for some boars.

According to Lillia, the plan of our hunting trip goes like this:

1. Set up camp.

2. Hunt the boar(s).

3. Drain the blood.

4. Process the meat, skin, and bones.

5. Have dinner.

6. Rest for the night.

7. Go back home the next morning.

That sounds like a solid plan to me.

"Hey, prepare and check your equipment." (Lillia)

"Okay." (Kazu)

I quickly check and prepare my equipment.

After I've confirmed it. I told her that I was ready.

"Boss, I'm ready." (Kazu)

"Boss huh? You've never called me anything other than 'You'. But...." (Lillia)

"Do you not like it? You're my boss anyway, so I thought I could adress you as 'Boss'." (Kazu)

"I think 'Queen' should fit me better." (Lillia)

"Geh? Mhhhhmmmm???" (Kazu)

"Why do you sound so uncertain? I did say that I was planning on making a kingdom." (Lillia)

Yeah, I'm not sure she's capable of building her own kingdom. 

But I'm not going to tell her that.

"It's too cringey for me to call you 'Queen'." (Kazu)

"It's too cringey for you to call me boss either." (Lillia)

So she thinks getting called as 'Boss' is cringier than getting called as 'Queen'?

That's some weird logic over there.

"Let's just call you by your name." (Kazu)

"Hmmm, I guess so. I will call you by your name too then." (Lillia)

Surprisingly, even though we've introduced our names, we've never properly called each other by name.

"Ah, we're getting sidetracked here, let's start the hunting." (Lillia)

"Oh yeah." (Kazu)

~To be continued.....

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A/N: I decided to change the title from 'Re-Phantasia' to 'Re-Phantasia: Thriving in a fantasy world' since it can easily explain the gist of the story. Anyways, thanks for reading the chapter!

ヽ(°^ω^)ﾉ