Chapter 3: The Great Escape

I was totally thrown for a loop. This was all wrong, no matter how you looked at it. This wasn’t what Celes and I had talked about at all. It was around that time that I came to a realization:

“Ohhh, I get it. Celes totally has a few screws loose.”

It was an immediate answer on my part. I didn’t need any other information, and there was no need for me to think over it again. Why was I able to come to that conclusion so fast, you ask? Well, luckily for you, I had the perfect reason that should be enough to convince absolutely anyone: because she’s Celes.

Perfect reasoning, no? It was airtight; no room for any doubts here.

I’d thought something was off about all this... No one used healing magic when there was someone gravely injured in front of them, no one else was selling healing potions here, and everyone was freaking out over the low- and mid-tier potions I’d used.

Celes had said it herself: “Magic, monsters, and hunters exist.” In my head, I took “hunters” to mean “adventurers.” To be fair, I wasn’t that far off from the mark there. There were beasts in this world ferocious enough to be called monsters, that was for sure. The “magic” part was where my problem lay.

Magic did exist in this world. Celes said it existed, so it must have. However, that was different than the “mages and priests firing off combat and support spells” or “enchanted magic items and healing potions bonanza” image that I had in my head. The hunters and the Hunter’s Guild handled everything from resource gathering, hunting quests, and even escort missions. They pretty much took care of everything the adventurers and Adventurer’s Guilds you’d hear about in stories back on Earth would. But—and this was a huge but (stop laughing)—there was no magic here. I repeat: THERE’S NO MAGIC HERE!!!

The only battles were physical encounters with swords, spears, bows, axes, and all that other good stuff. There was nothing different about the weapons here and how they were back on Earth.

Magic, on the other hand, was said to have been created by an eccentric old geezer in a tower somewhere who had devoted his whole life to researching it. He was finally able to use it when he had become senile and was knocking on death’s door. These consisted of spells like “squirting one milliliter of water from your hand,” and “conjuring a flame about the size of a lit candle wick from the tip of your finger.” Friggin’ magic tricks were more impressive than that! There was no way in hell you could use that as your example to say magic existed here!

Huff...huff...huff...

It looked like there was no magic that could actually be put to any sort of practical use in this world. Like the fire breath that dragons could spew out, for example. Or that dragons weren’t aerodynamic enough to fly on their wings alone, but they still had the power of flight. Or how dragons had such high defensive abilities, which scales alone shouldn’t be able to give them.

Why is it all dragons?! What the hell!

...Anyway, in the midst of all the celebration and revelry, I managed to squeeze some information out of the hunters here. Medical treatment in this world consisted of medicine and salves made from herbs, splints and braces for broken bones, and needle and thread to sew shut any gaping wounds. Magical potions weren’t among those options, of course. So here was my conclusion:

...I really screwed myself over, didn’t I?

Here were all these fantastic miracle medicines that shouldn’t even exist in this world, and the only one who could make them? A helpless little girl with nobody to support her.

I think I may have backed myself into a corner on this one...

Welp, it was time to run away, I’d say.

The next morning, in the main hall of the Hunter’s Guild...

On one side you had the receptionist counters, the dining hall on the other, and a kitchen further in the back. Upstairs was where all the business related rooms were at, which was probably where the big wigs of the place had their offices.

So here I was, in the main hall on the first floor. It was utter chaos, since the mess from the hubbub yesterday still hadn’t been cleaned up. There were people waking up with massive headaches, people laid out flat across tables, and even people still out cold and sleeping on the ground. I’d slept on a bunk near one of the walls, but I had to make sure and get up early to get it all put away before things got busy. All I was cleaning up was my bed. A mess in the dining hall? Nope, didn’t ring a bell.

I was always the type of person who had a strict habit of showing up anywhere at least five minutes before I was supposed to be there, which is why I asked Celes to get me a wristwatch. And not some fancy brand name watch that looked like it could break if it smacked into a pole a little too hard, but an actual, functional, tough watch. This thing could withstand water pressure up to one hundred meters deep. If I dove any further than that, I think I would break before the watch did. It was solar-powered, which meant I didn’t have to worry about the batteries dying or anything. Actually, I might not need to worry about the battery at all. This thing was made by our favorite goddess after all. The time it displayed was synced with the rotation of this world, and of course I made sure it had an alarm as well. There was no oversleeping for this girl thanks to that.

I wasn’t getting plastered like everyone else last night, so I had plenty of time to think things over after I finished my intelligence gathering mission. My conclusion: I needed to get the hell out of here!

My plan was to get up first thing in the morning and clean up my bed, say thank you to the scary receptionist, then pretend to wander about town before making my escape... But, unfortunately, things weren’t going to be that easy for me. It looked like someone had painted a big target on me after what happened last night. Just as I was finished taking care of my bed, I ended up getting caught at the same time.

“So you must be Kaoru, girly!”

I was too late...

There were five men in total who had come for me, all working under the orders of some baron dude. The apparent leader of the group looked to be at least somewhat capable, but the other four looked like random thugs from off the streets with leather armor and swords. It looked like they were the “group of thugs that call themselves guards who are working for an influential person” you heard about so much in these types of stories. It seemed they’d managed to grab hold of some people last night who weren’t completely smashed and asked them all about this town. Information was money, which meant information was life...or something like that.

Anyway, there was a baron, who acted as the governor of this town and a few other villages, and he was trying to get together the money he needed to move up in the world by levying heavy taxes on his territories. Your real stereotypical, small-time aristocrat type. Naturally, it seemed like the people hated his guts for that, but I couldn’t really imagine a stereotypical aristocrat that was actually loved by the commoners they ruled over.

Excluding the title of “Knight,” which couldn’t be passed down to your children, barons were the lowest ranks in the aristocracy. They were pretty much the lowest rung of the nobility ladder. Now, if I remember right...the guy had a wife, two sons, and a daughter. I guessed that, after he heard about the incident last night, he must’ve seen this as his chance to make a fortune and move on up in the aristocratic world. I bet he was jumping for joy when he told his lackeys to come after me... But sending five thugs to deal with one little girl was totally overkill. I guess you could say that was to make sure I wouldn’t be able to get away, and just in case any of the hunters got in their way.

“Can I help you? My mother always told me never to talk with strangers, and especially not to go places with them...”

“What the...” The man who looked to be the leader of the group practically had his eyes popping out of his sockets. “The governor’s calling you, so be a good girl and come with us!”

“But I don’t live here, you know. I’d follow the orders of the governor where I’m from, but why do I have to obey some person who has nothing to do with me? This governor or whoever doesn’t mean a thing to me. In fact, they’re a total stranger—a stranger who’s trying to force a girl to come to their house. And they’re not even going through the trouble of doing it themselves either... They’re just making their underlings do it for them.”

It looked like my comment had the blood rushing to the man’s head.

“Y-You little brat!”

By the time he noticed, the hunters were beginning to gather around us.

“Tch, just hurry up and come with us!”

“Ahh!”

The group of men grabbed my arm and forcefully dragged me outside. Even if the hunters wanted to stop these guys, they were all technically soldiers working directly under the governor. If things went south, not only could the people who tried to help me end up killed, but their families could be targeted as well. They could only stand there and grind their teeth as they watched us go.

Right then, it looked like I couldn’t exactly make a run for it at the moment... At least it didn’t seem like I had to worry about them trying to kill me or do other horrible things to me—for now. Then until I could find that window of escape, I thought it was time to start messing with these guys...

The corners of my mouth curled up into a smile as I thought that.

“Ah, wait, Mr. Soldier! Please don’t touch that!”

I made that request to the leader of the group as he kept his grip on my left arm. I was being surrounded on all sides by the other four men after I obediently began walking along with them, which was also the reason why the leader didn’t have such a tight grasp on me.

“What, this? Actually, what is this...”

The leader looked at me curiously.

I showed off my watch. “It’s very expensive, and worth at least ten gold coins.”

“What?! Ten gold coins?!”

To him, this must’ve looked like a rare accessory the likes of which he’d never seen before.

A large sneer crossed the man’s face. “I’ll just go ahead and hold onto it, if it’s so important.”

He snatched the watch from me as I tried resisting him before shoving it into his breast pocket.

Heheh, I totally just made bank on that one! I still have to split it with these guys since they saw it, but still...

The leader of the group just couldn’t stop smiling.

Of course, I couldn’t stop grinning on the inside, either.

The group ended up bringing me all the way to the governor’s estate. Even if the baron was on the bottom of the aristocracy’s totem pole, he was still nobility, and the most powerful individual in this small domain. Maybe he was just compensating for something, but I had to admit he had quite impressive digs.

Nobody asked who I was as they brought me inside, and I ended up being led to some sort of parlor room. I was passed off to one of the servants waiting outside, and the group of thugs took their leave.

“I have brought Miss Kaoru with me.”

After making that announcement to the room, the servant ushered me inside.

Sitting at the table inside, I saw a portly man—who I assumed to be the baron himself—a woman who was probably his wife, and three others who I’d bet were their children: a guy who looked to be around twenty; a boy who was probably about sixteen; and a girl who seemed somewhere between thirteen and fourteen years old. Everyone seemed like they were a bit on the plump side (probably due to a lifestyle of no exercise and rich food). And I didn’t know if it was hereditary or something they’d acquired later, but the whole family had this sort of... malicious look in their eyes.

...I should stop judging them based on their eyes. It was making me sad for some reason. Right, it was time to switch to a different train of thought. Yeah.

Okay, so Rodolph is the eldest son, and the daughter and next oldest son are... Agh, I forgot!

Man, I really wasn’t good when it came to remembering foreign names.

One thing I remembered the hunters telling me about the eldest son Rodolph was his horrible reputation. Apparently, there were plenty of incidents, ones where he acted like he’d already inherited his father’s baronial title. I thought that might come in handy later, so I made sure to keep that in mind when I heard it.

The second son was supposed to be pretty decent compared to his older brother, and smart, too. I tried asking around about the daughter, but I didn’t manage to wrangle any decent info. An aristocrat’s daughter wouldn’t really just wander about town, so I guess it made sense there wouldn’t be as many rumors about her when compared to the sons.

“Glad to have you here, my dear Kaoru.”

The baron gave me a nice broad smile. It was pretty gross having him grin at me like that. Still, this was probably a huge service for me. I mean, not only did someone from the nobility come to greet me with his entire family, he was also being welcoming about it. Not to mention, this particular baron didn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about the common folk. I was willing to bet something like this wasn’t exactly an everyday occurrence here.

“My humblest gratitude for your invitation, Baron.” I gave a small curtsey, something I’d learned from watching movies.

“Oho, now would you have a look at that...” The elated baron wore a smile that stretched across his entire face. “Please, have a seat. Allow me to welcome you on behalf of my household.”

Baron Renie was absolutely over the moon. He’d been very displeased at first when one of the hunters who worked under him came at an ungodly hour late last night, but was utterly floored after hearing what they had to say: There existed some sort of magical medicine that could heal wounds in an instant. Not only that, but the one who brought them was a little girl with no one around to protect her. It was hard for him to believe, but, if it were true, then he could be making more money than he knew what to do with! No, not just something as small-minded as that—becoming an earl, nay, a marquis, may not just be a dream anymore!

This enigmatic medicine was said to be able to bring a person back from the jaws of death in the blink of an eye. Not only was this something he desired for himself, but all the nobility would want some of this miracle medicine. Who knew when they would need it for friends and family who might be injured in battle or other unforeseen accidents? He could scarcely even imagine how much money they would pay for it, or what sort of conditions they would accept just to have it... He might even be able to get the royal family in his debt! The baron couldn’t believe what good luck he had for this girl to have appeared within his domain. Fortune certainly seemed like it was smiling upon him...

And so, he turned his attention to the girl who had been brought before him. She had well-defined features, and an absolutely dastardly look in her eyes. She reminded him of one of his cousins who used to bully him when he was a child... He showed no fear, however, and feigned being a gracious, aristocratic host as he sat in his chair.

He heard there’d been four vials of this medicine in total. Not just one, but a whopping four. Not only that, but she’d tried selling them, and at an absurdly low price. That meant there was more of this medicine somewhere, and she was able to get it very easily. If he could get a hold of the person who made it, then he could have a monopoly on production of this miracle cure-all!

Forcing her to spill everything she knew was definitely an option, but there was a chance this girl might not have enough information to go off of. It would be a problem for him if she went and died too easily. There was also the possibility that one of the girl’s relatives was making this medicine, and he’d be in trouble if they flat-out refused to listen to him. His best bet here would be to act as friendly as possible to try and appease her. She may have been a petty commoner girl, but he’d made sure to urge his family to feign being as kind as possible to her. Everything should go off without a hitch.

Kaoru felt like she had a rough idea of what the baron was thinking, judging by his suspiciously pleasant attitude. To her credit, she was mostly right.

He introduced her to his family, then they spent some time enjoying tea and expensive snacks while making idle chit-chat. Eventually, while taking great care not to be too impatient, the baron got to the matter at hand.

“By the way, Kaoru, about that medicine you had... Well, just how did you get a hold of it? Was there someone who made it that you got it from, perhaps?”

There it was, the real reason she was here.

And so, Kaoru gave her answer: “Oh, I made that myself.”

“““WHAAAAAAT?!”””

It wasn’t just the baron who had yelled in surprise, but his entire family as well.

“B-By yourself... Does that mean...”

“Correct. I lived together with my father, who worked as an apothecary up in the mountains, where resources were abundant and plentiful. We made and researched medicine together all the time. After he passed away, I tried making my way back to town, but since I’ve been living in the mountains since I was five, I couldn’t seem to figure it out at all...”

The baron thought he was going to fall over, he was so pleased. She was the one who made the medicine! This little girl, who had no one around to support her! All with a method that hadn’t been made available to the public as of yet!

“Th-Then, do you suppose...you could make it here?” The baron’s voice trembled ever so slightly as he asked.

Kaoru, however, flatly gave her response: “That’d be impossible.”

“Wh-Why not?!”

“It’s because someone stole the device I need to make the medicine,” Kaoru calmly answered the screaming baron.

“Wh-When was this, and who?!”

“Just a little while ago, by the man who brought me here.”

“Call Riche here, NOW!!!” the baron thundered.

Alrighty, if I’m gonna mess up security around here, then I think I’ll stir things up a little bit more... Kaoru silently thought to herself.

The man called Riche—the leader of the thugs who’d brought Kaoru here—was brought to the room in response to the baron’s summons.

“What can I do for you, Bar—”

“Silence! Return what you stole from this young girl immediately!”

His jackpot find was about to be taken away. The man glared at the little girl who ran her mouth too much, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. Riche reluctantly took what he stole from her earlier from his chest pocket and handed it to the baron.

“There! How about it, is this it?!”

Kaoru took the wristwatch from the baron, inspecting it carefully before she opened her mouth again.

“Ahh... While this is certainly my device, it appears to be broken.”

“Wh... Wha...”

Though a nice shade of red just moments earlier, the baron’s face had suddenly gone pale. Riche didn’t know what was going on, and just stared blankly, stupefied. After all, the accessory in question wasn’t broken; he hadn’t taken any parts from it, either. That’s when Kaoru threw down another bombshell.

“There are plenty of people in the world who wouldn’t want you to have my medicine. Not only did he steal it from me, he even made sure to break it as well. What kind of horrible person wouldn’t want you to recover in case you were injured? I wonder if there are any people out there who would even benefit from something like that...”

Kaoru casually sent a glance toward Rodolph as she threw that out there. Meeting her gaze, he stared blankly back at her, before the color drained from his face once he realized the meaning behind her words.

“Wh-What are you...?” the baron let out.

By the time the baron looked over at Rodolph, his once dazed expression was already long gone, along with all the color in his face. The only thing to see was the baron’s eldest son, looking like he’d completely lost his composure. It was almost as if the reason Rodolph seemed so nervous...was because Kaoru’s words had found their mark.

Who was the one who would inherit the title of baron if the current baron died? Rodolph. Who might feel like he was in danger of losing that title to the baron’s more competent second-oldest son? Rodolph. Who had invited the baron to go on a hunting trip this week for the first time in what seemed like forever? Rodolph.

An oppressive silence had settled over the room. Though Kaoru was the mastermind behind this little chain of events, she couldn’t help but squirm over how much she didn’t want to be here anymore.

“Sorry, but can I leave now?”

That wasn’t going to happen, of course, and Kaoru was instead led to one of the guest rooms. Before that though, she didn’t forget to ask the baron if it was all right to have a maid bring her the parts she would need to fix her ‘device.’

I was left all alone in the guest room. I covered the doorknob with a cloth so they couldn’t peek through the keyhole. I went ahead and opened the curtains as well. We were on the second floor, after all, and it’d be harder for anyone to get close to the window if I had it wide open like this. Didn’t want anyone trying to spy on me through the cracks in the curtain either.

I had asked the maid to bring me things like scissors, a file, and a whole bunch of other tools as well. Had to make it seem like I was actually trying to “fix” something, and I was thinking about just hocking everything once I busted out of here. I was flat broke, dang it! I made sure to order a bunch of food as well: sausages, candy, and all that other good stuff. Though the maid warned me it was almost lunchtime, I told her I didn’t want to look like a pig stuffing my face when I was in front of the baron, which convinced her to bring me what I asked for. The real reason, of course, was so I could stuff all of it into my Item Box for later. I was slowly getting everything ready to break myself out of here.

Oh yeah, and I had my potion-making abilities handy to take care of drinks, so there were no problems there.

By the time lunch came around, things seemed to have settled down from earlier. I guessed that, once they calmed down and thought it over, nobody would think the baron’s barely twenty-year-old son would do anything like that. It seemed like he was let off the hook without anyone really grilling him about it. Darn.

On the other hand though, I didn’t see that Riche guy around anywhere.

I wonder if me pulling a Maya and passing along all those messages through the maid worked... Like, “It hurt having my arm twisted,” and “I’m scared he’s going to get violent or try and take away what’s precious to me again,” or my favorite, “I shake so much when I see him that I can’t repair my device.” Well, I guessed it was true he could just be out and about, or was off somewhere else. Oh, and “pulling a Maya” just meant putting on a performance that rivaled the main girl from this famous shoujo manga (it was about acting, from way back in the day), especially so you could trick or deceive someone. It was a classic.

Conversation at the table was sparse. There wasn’t much common ground for aristocrats to talk about, and that went even doubly for me, the girl who was born and raised in another freakin’ world. The baron had asked me how the repairs were coming along, and I made sure to tell him it would take a few days. It’d be just peachy if that made him think I wouldn’t try running away so long as I was absorbed in fixing my thingie. But still, nighttime was a long way away. They brought me here first thing in the morning, after all!

Finally, I made it to dinner. After safely wrapping up our mealtime conversation without incident, I went ahead and made another request to the baron.

“Would it be all right to have another girl who’s just about on the same wavelength as me to help me out?”

“And what would you mean by ‘wavelength’?”

“Oh, it just means someone who’s compatible with the waves that magical energy gives off.”

I made up some random crap to explain it, and the baron allowed it without a second thought. Why wouldn’t he? There were no downsides to it for him, since not only would this girl keep a lookout over me, he could also have her report how the repairs were coming along as well.

After carefully scrutinizing my options, I decided to go with a young maid who was probably about fifteen or sixteen years old, with blonde hair down to her shoulders, and a pair of emerald green eyes. I told her that she could chill in her room for now, and that I wanted her to come by later when I called for her.

With that, I headed back to the guest room they gave me.

The evening wore on, and, soon enough, everyone was fast asleep except for the staff working the night shift. I slowly opened the door to my room to find a guard standing right outside. It was supposed to seem like he was there to protect me, but I already knew he was supposed to keep me from running away.

“Call that girl for me, please.”

With a nod, the soldier retrieved the maid who was waiting on standby in a nearby room.

I spent a good while having her do things like place her hand on the watch and concentrate really hard on it, and all sorts of other pointless stuff, as I waited for my chance. When that time came, I declared that I was hungry and asked the maid if she could get some tea and snacks. The girl immediately left, then came back just barely ten minutes later with a light meal, a pot of tea, and a bunch of dishes all stacked onto a trolley. Dang, that was fast... I wondered if they already had a late-night snack prepared for me because rumors of my supposed “huge appetite” had spread or something.

The girl closed the door and began pushing the trolley into the room. Right when she was close enough to me, I grabbed her hand to pull her away from the cart and got her closer to the bed. Totally unaware of what was going on and at my mercy, that was when I pressed the handkerchief against her face.

With the maid now laying down in bed, I was busy stuffing anything and everything I could from the room into my Item Box. First up was the dresser. There were a few dresses in there that I could only assume used to belong to the baron’s daughter once upon a time, but I wondered if he put those there for me or something. If anything, I could at least say it seemed his daughter wasn’t as chubby back when she wore these.

Next on the list were the candlesticks, the pictures on the wall, the desk, the chairs, the carpet, the spare change of sheets in the chest of drawers, then, upon further consideration, the chest of drawers as well. Everything on the trolley was going in as well, of course, but I wasn’t taking the trolley itself with me; not yet. The real reason I asked for all these snacks wasn’t just to build up a stockpile of food, but because I had a feeling I could hock the type of tableware aristocrats used for a tidy profit. And there was one more reason as well...

When I was just about finished packing away my loot, I stripped the girl and changed into her outfit while I packed away my own clothes. I made sure to save her at least one of the spare bedsheets and covered her with it. After I got her down off the bed, I packed it away too. I spread out a towel on the floor, then used the scissors the maid had brought me to snip off my hair so it came just down to my shoulders, the same length as the girl out cold on the floor. I balled up the towel—my freshly cut hair and all—and tossed that in my Item Box as well, then placed the white, frilly maid headdress I took from the girl on my head.

And for the cherry on top: a potion. The one I just downed would change the hair color and eyes of whoever drank it. After I finished that off, I placed my hands on the cart.

The door slowly opened, and a girl exited the room. After taking a bow while facing the door, the blonde-haired maid stayed slightly bent over her trolley as she deliberately made her way toward the kitchen. The guard posted outside had no interest in children, so he barely even glanced at her. His mind was occupied thinking about the curvy maid who was just hired the other day, trying to find ways to keep himself occupied and get through the long, long hours until morning came...

There wasn’t a soul to be seen this late into the evening. Kaoru packed the trolley away into her Item Box and snuck away from the baron’s residence. Even if anyone were to see her now, they would most likely think she was just a maid running errands for a guest, or, at most, maybe she was off to have a little rendezvous with a boy or something. They probably wouldn’t even take a second glance at her as they pretended not to see her.

In the end, Kaoru’s breakout was a success, and she made her escape without her being spotted by anyone. With that, she disappeared into the night.

The following were Kaoru’s conditions for picking the girl who would “help her”:

They had to have hair and eye colors completely different from her own. Moreover, their hair had to be much shorter than hers, and at a length where the difference was night and day. Finally, they needed to be around the same height and body type as her. The girl unfortunate enough to meet those criteria was sleeping in a room where even the carpet had been whisked away. The handkerchief that had been pressed against the girl had been soaked in a potion where, even if you breathed the slightest amount in, it would knock you out, but would leave no negative side effects.

The girl Kaoru had thought to be fifteen or sixteen...was actually only twelve years old.

The next morning...

The baron’s estate was in an uproar. When a maid had arrived at the guest room to announce that breakfast was served, all she found was a room devoid of furniture, decorations, and carpet. The only thing there was a young maid wrapped in bedsheets. There wasn’t even a trace left of the girl the baron was so keen about.

The strength drained from the maid who discovered the barren room, and she fell to the floor on the spot. After sending the guard who saw everything flying, the baron immediately sent out a search party to capture Kaoru. He found himself with a severe lack of people at his disposal, however, and he’d chased away Riche in a fit of anger yesterday, the one person he could count on the most for something like this. Out of options, the baron unwillingly made his way to the Hunter’s Guild himself.

“...You’d like us to not only search for a girl, but take her into custody?”

“That’s right! I’ll pay you handsomely, so hurry and get people together to do so at once!”

The receptionist gave a curt response in the face of the baron’s hysterics.

“As I’m sure you are already aware, all fees for requests must be paid up front. The Hunter’s Guild doesn’t afford anyone special treatment, no matter if they’re nobility or a baron. Also, I must mention that we don’t accept quests where only the one who finds the target is paid. Please make sure to prepare payment for each person you’d like to take on your request. Keep in mind that the search period will be determined by the amount you pay, and please be sure to have a separate reward for when the job’s completed.”

“Yes, yes, now hurry up and send people out already!”

“That will happen after you provide the fee.”

“Damn it! I’ll be right back, so just you wait!”

The baron frantically rushed back to his mansion to procure the money he needed for the request. The main hall fell deathly silent, until the receptionist’s voice cut through it loud and clear:

“Hey, looks like our li’l angel made her escape!”

“““Gyahahahahaha!”””

Her words were met with an explosive torrent of laughter.

“Like hell anyone’d take that job!” someone yelled out.

“Tch, tch, tch,” the receptionist rebuked him. “That’s what makes you such an idiot. Of course we’re going to take it—all of us. But first, we need to make sure we’re nicely compensated by our baron friend. Next, we’re going to have sightings of her coming in from all over the place, like, ‘We saw her in the forest but she got away,’ or, ‘We found a scrap of her clothing on a cliff’ or something. And if we ever happen to run into the baron’s search party, we’ll have to make sure we tell them the good news, won’t we? There may be times our eyes play tricks on us, or we just happen to get a wrong report, but there’s nothing to be done about that, right?”

“That’s our receptionist from hell for ya! You’re cold-blooded, Gilda!”

A folder of papers found their mark and smacked the man foolish enough to say that, and the raucous sounds of laughter continued ringing out from inside the Guild.

Around that same time, Kaoru had succeeded in making her escape from the baron’s mansion and the town, and was still in the middle of her getaway. Since she’d been walking all through the night, she was already long gone from the tiny area under the baron’s control. Things could get hairy if the baron decided to send his private army into territories owned by the other aristocrats, and she would undoubtedly be captured and spirited away again. She still had to be on the lookout for potential pursuers.

She’d already made sure to use another potion to dye her hair silver, since she wanted it to be different than her original hair color, and definitely not the blonde from when she had finally broken free from the baron’s mansion. She’d also long since changed out of the maid outfit and into one of the dresses she took from the chest of drawers. She picked the most plain-looking one she could find and tore off all the frilly extras to make it seem more like something a commoner would wear.

There was enough food stored up to last a good few meals, and she had nothing to worry about for hydration, either. All that was left now was to make it to her next goal without being jumped by bandits and everything would be golden. She’d have nothing to complain about if she could replenish her stockpile of food and acquire herself a new mode of transportation, but life just wasn’t going to be that easy. There wouldn’t be anything to worry about if she could pack her Item Box full of food at least once, but she hadn’t had the chance to do so even once since arriving here.

Looking behind her, she could see clouds of dust far off in the distance, as well as what looked like horses galloping in her direction. Just to be safe, she went off the beaten path to take a breather while hiding behind some trees. Everyone needed a break once in a while, after all. It wasn’t like she was in a huge rush to get anywhere, either. As long as she kept checking behind herself on a regular basis, it’d be much easier for her to spot the people on horseback coming before they could spot a girl traveling on foot. No problems there.

Kaoru had been reborn in the Kingdom of Brancott and was currently aiming for the country’s royal capital: Aras. Its population was massive, and since it was a place that attracted all sorts of people, it was the perfect spot for someone to blend in and disappear.

There were tons of nobility living there, but that actually acted as a good deterrent to make sure any particular member of the aristocracy couldn’t do whatever they pleased. On top of that, it was a great place for her to gather information. The capital should be chock full of all sorts of helpful wisdom for her to pick up on, and she was thinking it might be a good place for her to finally settle down. That it had a library was another big draw for her.

She had no plans to travel to any other countries at the moment. She barely knew anything about the country she was in right now after all, and it was just too much of a risk to head anywhere else without looking into what kind of international affairs were going on in this world.

It was around evening when she arrived at the next town. She wasn’t going anywhere near it of course, as there was too much of a risk that the baron might have already sent his subordinates there ahead of her. So, stepping off the main road, she took a wide detour to go around it. Even though this was the first town she’d made it to since making her great escape, they wouldn’t be dumb enough to not lay some sort of trap to try and catch her. Her hair and eyes may be a different color, but Kaoru would be SOL if there was someone who recognized her face.

She would have to put shopping and selling off her plunder for another time. For now, she would spend the night camping out far away from town. Remembering to make a beast-repelling potion for herself was just the icing on top.

Another three days passed. After taking care to avoid a good number of villages and other settlements, Kaoru had arrived at a decent-sized town.

It had already been four days since she had made her escape, and the baron had probably given up on finding her after this much time had passed. Trying to capture a little girl, who wasn’t even one of his citizens, outside his own territory...it would only make him a criminal. It didn’t matter that he was a baron; the iron hammer of the law would probably be brought down on him if he tried pulling anything now. There were no privileges he could invoke or claims he could make to get at Kaoru any longer. If anyone who tried coming after her, all she had to do was make as big a commotion as possible to get the people around her to step in and help.

I think I should be good to actually go into town by now. Today’s goal is to find an inn to stay at, then get myself stocked up on cash and food.

I had a good feeling that the baron’s search radius was waaay off the mark. First, I’d made sure to avoid and hide from anyone who looked like they were in a hurry, whether they were on a cart, riding a horse, or otherwise situated. Second, it seemed like my stamina was actually pretty low compared to the denizens of this world, so I thought I’d been moving at a pace much slower than others around my age. No one would think a fugitive on the run would actually be running away half as fast as anyone would normally get around—also, I’d already changed the color of my hair and eyes. I was pretty sure I didn’t need to be so on guard anymore. I was almost out of food, as well, so I’d still need to go resupply anyway.

Oh yeah... I wondered what the baron was thinking when he saw the empty room I’d left behind. Maybe he thought the whole thing was just incredibly bizarre. Maybe he thought he’d messed with the wrong person, or that it’d be for the best to just forget everything that happened. There was also a possibility that he couldn’t forget his one chance at attaining fame and rising up in the ranks of the nobility, or that he convinced himself there was a group of people who had broken into his manor to help bust me out. Who really knew?

Whatever the heck he made of it, I couldn’t care less now that I’d finally made it to safety. With that in mind, it was time to head toward the town.

I barely had any money to my name right now. I’d only managed to scrounge up forty bronze coins and four small silver ones back at the guild, after all. That was probably about the same as 400 yen back home, I’d say. I would end up blowing through everything I had if I just, say, bought four meat skewers from a food cart or something...

And, right now, I found myself holding four large skewers in my hands.

“Ah...”

My current savings: a big fat zero. I’d planned ahead for something like this, of course, and made sure to change in the shelter of the trees before going into town.

I was back to wearing the maid outfit from before. Anyone would be suspicious if a commoner like myself came up and tried selling the things I had, ahem, “acquired” from the baron’s place. There was a pretty good chance they’d suspect these were stolen goods (and they’d be right, but I digress). So you’d think putting on one of the dresses that used to belong to the baron’s daughter would be a good idea, right? Maybe pretend to be some rich noble’s daughter or something? Wrong. There was no aristocrat dumb enough to send their daughter, ignorant to the ways of the world, to sell some trinkets. That just seemed sketchy, no matter how you sliced it.

And so, my conclusion: The outfit I was now wearing was the least likely to cause anyone to be suspicious of me.

At a certain second-hand shop—

A young maid entered the store, then gingerly approached the owner.

“Um, excuse me, sir... My master told me to sell this so I could go buy food for today...”

She looked up at him with forlorn, puppy-dog eyes, cradling a candlestick in her hands. The shopkeeper’s eyes, on the other hand, practically popped out of his sockets.

“Booyah!”

I had six silver coins clenched in my hand. It only cost four coins to spend the night somewhere, including dinner and breakfast. If we assumed it’d cost about four small silver coins for stuff like a towel and hot water to take a bath, then I should have one silver coin and six small ones left to go out and buy food. That should be enough to keep me going when I’d rough it in the wilderness tomorrow, then I’d reach the next town the day after that! All right, it was time to head to the inn.

“That’ll be five silver coins for a night’s stay with two meals.”

Son of a... It seemed big towns meant bigger prices than back out in the sticks.

It’d still be a few days until I could make it to the capital. Right when I was thinking I should be looking for a place to set up camp, I saw a clearing not too far off from the main road that had clean water flowing down from the side of a mountain.

“Hey, this ain’t half bad!”

I scooped out some water and used it to wash my face. I could make potions that were like water, but this was the real good stuff if you wanted to wash your face. I could even use it to wash my hands, should nature call.

All right, I’m totally camping here for today! But, that said, a girl like myself can’t just sleep in a place you can see from the road. I think I’ll head a bit deeper into the forest so all the travelers passing by aren’t gawking at me.

After having my fill of using all the clean water I’d wanted, I pushed my way through the trees to set up camp.

“Are we there yet?”

“Please wait until we can find a place to park the carriage away from the main road,” the lady knight in her late twenties said, trying to pacify the ten-year-old girl fidgeting around restlessly in the carriage.

“That’s why we told you to go before we left...” There was a pointed rebuke from a boy around twelve or thirteen as he rolled his eyes at his little sister.

“But I didn’t have to go then...”

This particular kind of carriage was used only by the nobility, and had an entourage of six mounted knights in front of and behind it acting as escorts. There were four passengers currently riding inside of it, including the brother, his sister, and the lady knight from before, as well as a maid. The aristocratic siblings were on their way to visit their grandmother, who had taken ill recently, with the escort of knights accompanying them there.

The little girl had apparently been set upon by the call of nature, and asked for them to stop the carriage so she could go take care of her “business.” They told her they couldn’t stop in the middle of the road and block off traffic, so they were currently looking for a place to park the carriage.

“There’s a spot just up ahead we can stop at!” the knight captain leading the escort shouted back.

Looking into it further, they decided it was indeed a good place to pull off. It was a fairly spacious place, and even had a running stream with fresh water flowing down the side of a mountain. No one would have any complaints washing their hands there. They’d probably cleared the area to make it a rest stop that everyone could use, and the group couldn’t be more thankful for that.

With the carriage parked, the girl hastily clambered down from the carriage, and with a short, “I’ll come with you too,” her brother followed after her.

The captain, lady knight, and brother all headed a little ways into the forest together to accompany the girl. Only the lady knight ended up as the one chaperoning the girl all the way, however. The remaining knights stayed behind to guard the carriage. After all, there was a much higher chance of bandits attacking them back on the road rather than anyone running into danger in such a small forest.

After the girl had finished her business, she walked back with the lady knight to meet up where the guys were waiting. However, the boy and the captain were both staring in a daze at something deeper in the forest. Curious, the two girls got closer to take a look for themselves...

It was there...that they found a goddess.

She laid upon a large bed, enshrined in a small clearing among the trees. Judging by how thick the underbrush was, there was no feasible way such a large bed could have been carried there. There were no nearby indications that suggested it was dragged there, either. Resting on top of the unlikely sleeping arrangements was a young goddess, hair the color of silver, and clothed in a gown of pure white.

The four of them stood there, unable to say a word...until the little girl summoned up all her courage to step forward.

“Y-Yunith!”

The boy tried stopping her, but his little sister paid him no mind and kept walking ahead. When she finally made it just beside the sleeping goddess, she called out to her.

“Miss Goddess... Miss Goddess!”

The goddess slowly opened her eyes, then gracefully turned toward the girl before saying the following:

“Whaddya want?! Shut the hell up!”

“Eek!”

It appeared getting up was harsh for the goddess—just about as harsh as the look in her eyes. It was then more than ever that the girl was glad she had finished her business before coming here.

“So you come down here from heaven sometimes to rest?”

“Yes, that’s right. That way I can bestow my holy power upon nature’s forests like this.”

I made up some random BS to answer the little girl’s question and prayed from the bottom of my heart that they would just leave me alone already.

I’d pulled out the bed I’d taken from the baron’s place to sleep on, and was wearing a white dress as a replacement for actual pajamas. After sprinkling some of my beast-repellant potion everywhere, I was in the middle of getting myself some nice shut-eye...but it looked like I’d overslept a bit. Though I couldn’t see it that well, because of all the trees blocking it, it seemed like the sun was already pretty high up in the sky.

“So why would the goddess Celestine be—”

“Oh, I’m not Celes.”

“““What?!”””

Oops. Since they thought I was a goddess, everyone seemed to be in a panic when I said I wasn’t Celes, who was supposed to be the one and only true goddess of this world. Welp, guess I better think of something!

“Actually, I’m a friend of Celes. I came here from another world. She told me I could stay here in her world and enjoy myself.”

Well, I wasn’t lying.

“Oh, a goddess from another world! Not only that, but an acquaintance of the great Celestine as well...” the guy who looked like a knight exclaimed in surprise.

Well, yeah, can’t say I blame him. Guess anyone would react like that after hearing what I just said. But it looks like they actually understand the concept of “other worlds”... Huh, how ‘bout that.

I went ahead and listened to what they had to say.

It seemed like the grandmother of the brother and sister had fallen ill, and things weren’t looking good. The grandmother had always been so nice to them that they insisted on seeing her, which was why they were traveling with a group of knights to escort them there. It sounded like grandma was an aristocrat who had married early at fifteen, and gave birth just as early at sixteen. That wasn’t a strange thing to hear about in this world, and usually a “grandma” could be a person anywhere between thirty and forty years old. If this grandma already had grandchildren this old, I guessed she was over forty, though.

Anyways, it looked like she wasn’t suffering because of old age or anything, but because of an actual disease.

“Goddess, please grant us a blessing for our grandmother...”

That was the plea I heard from the boy.

Hmm... Yeah, sure. Why not? Right now I’m just a nameless, green-eyed, silver-haired goddess to them. Now then, let me think up a good reason to give them my “blessing”...

“Very well. Someone tell me a sad story, if you please.”

“““...Huh?”””

“I mean, it’s like what I just said: Someone tell me a real tear-jerker of a story and make me cry, please.”

Any miracle medicine has gotta be made with the “tears of a goddess” or something, right?

Everyone seemed to catch on quickly, and thus began our impromptu “Sad Story Time” competition.

“...and that’s how she ended up dumping me...”

Next!

“...which is when Father got absolutely livid with me...”

Nope!

“...it was awful! How could Felicia do that!”

Nuh-uh! Man, these all kinda suck... Maybe I went with the wrong idea?

“Um... I don’t think any story I tell will be that interesting, but...”

Last up is the knight lady, huh.

“Back when I was around sixteen or seventeen, I had plenty of gentlemen callers express their interest in me, but I turned them all down to focus solely on my training, so I could become a knight. Right as I finally came to think of myself as a full-fledged knight, that’s when I realized my friends and my colleagues had already married and had children. I’m already twenty-seven, my hands are covered in blisters from using my sword, and the muscles I’ve gained put me as far away as possible from having anything close to a soft, woman-ish body... I’ve started to wonder if I’m going to be alone my whole life, or that I’ll, um, grow old by myself... And, um, when I thought about that, I... No, never mind. This isn’t something you would care to hear about, I know, but... Wait, whoa!”

And lo, the Goddess wept!

I’m bawling my eyes out here!

I presented them with three potion vials.

“That was so sad, I already made three of these...”

“O-Oh...” The lady knight seemed a little taken aback, as if she didn’t seem to think the story she told was that sad.

“Give this blue one to your grandmother,” I said as I handed the boy a potion.

“For you, I want you to drink this red one. Just be warned that you may be in trouble if you don’t drink this in front of someone everyone really trusts. And your superiors. And maybe whoever you work for as well.”

“R-Right...” the lady knight said.

“You can give this last yellow one to whomever you want, so just have whatever sick or injured person you want to heal drink this.”

I handed the last potion to the lady knight as well.

I had only picked those colors because I wanted to make the potions easy to tell apart from each other this time around. They didn’t have the same effects as the healing potions I made the last time I’d chosen this particular color palette.

“Then you should all be off. I’ll be taking my leave from this world soon, and the surge of divine energy from when my bed disappears can have harmful effects on humans. Hurry along now.”

I said as much to urge them to get going, and the four of them thanked me profusely before they took their leave. I made sure to threaten them with that whole “divine energy” mumbo jumbo, so I doubted they’d come back to try and take a peek at what I was doing... But, just to be safe, I used the gaps between the trees to watch the carriage and the escort of mounted knights be on their merry way before I did anything else. When they were gone, that was when I got to changing my clothes and packing my bed away before getting the heck out of there. That ate up some of my time, but it was actually kinda fun, so I’d say everything worked out fine.

I only had a little farther to go until I reached Brancott’s capital.

I may have been a little rash conjuring up those potions, but I doubted anyone would come searching me out if they all thought I was a goddess who just happened to have descended to this world. It wouldn’t be strange for those potions to have miraculous effects on them either; everything that happened was “the work of a goddess” after all.

That said, I may have gone a little overboard with the red potion. I didn’t know if it’d have the exact effects I was thinking of, but I bet that lady knight would be pretty happy as long as it did even a portion of what I tried to make it do. I mean, that story was just too sad. She really made me a blubbering mess back there... I had to make sure I didn’t end up like that myself. Let’s call the gift I gave her a sort of “tuition fee” for that valuable life lesson she ended up giving me.

A few months after Kaoru had escaped from Baron Renie—

The nameless girl from the baron’s mansion—well, it wasn’t like she really didn’t have a name of course—but the girl Kaoru had taken the maid outfit from was a girl of little fortune. Kaoru had thought her to be around fifteen or sixteen years old, but that was only because Kaoru had the bad habit of thinking foreigners looked older than they really were. In reality, this girl was only twelve years old. And right now, that girl was in a panic—more panicked than she’d ever been before. After all, the girl had just taken on an enormous debt, since the baron was charging her for the maid outfit that girl who knocked her out ran off with.

While the baron was no saint, it wasn’t like he was the very embodiment of all the world’s evil or anything. He was just your normal, money-grubbing sleazeball, who loved looking down on commoners. Just your average, everyday aristocrat.

Her maid outfit had been loaned to her by the baron’s household. Since it was her fault that it had been stolen, she had to reimburse them for the missing clothes. It wasn’t an unreasonable request by any means; in fact, you could even say she was lucky she got off with only being yelled at for letting the girl escape, and not having them demand her compensate them for everything that was taken from that room. It seemed even the baron wasn’t that much of a horrible excuse for a human being.

However, the outfits used for maids working in noble households were expensive. Like, “almost costs a small fortune” expensive. That’s why they were provided free of charge instead of being paid for out of pocket by the maids. Now, she had to work to send money back home, so she could only repay her debts a little at a time. As of now, she’d barely even made a dent in paying off that debt. At this rate, who knew how long it would take to pay the whole thing off... Just thinking about it was enough to sap away what hope she had left.

The girl was looking all gloom and doom as usual today, and while her fellow maids felt sorry for her, their hands were tied. Just like the girl, everyone else was also sending what money they earned back home to their families, and they didn’t have the luxury of sparing any for her.

It was then the head maid called out to the girl, “A package arrived addressed to you, so come pick it up later.”

After her work was finished, the girl collected her package and went back to her room. It wasn’t actually her own room, however. It was a room made for four people, with two bunk beds. The other three maids just hadn’t come back yet.

The name on the package said it was sent by a “Kaoru,” but she had no clue who that could be. It was definitely addressed to her, though, and it wasn’t like she could return it now. There was no address for the sender, and it wasn’t like she had the money to send it back either. Reluctantly, she opened the package.

“Ah...”

Inside was the maid uniform that had been taken from her. Not only that, but there was another smaller, carefully packaged box tucked away inside the bigger one. When she opened that as well, she found a small bottle filled with some sort of strange liquid, and a letter that came with it.

I’m sorry for before. I’m returning the clothes I ended up borrowing from you. Make sure to drink everything inside the bottle as soon as you read this, so it isn’t stolen from you, and I recommend you don’t speak of it to anyone.

—Kaoru.

The girl was utterly bewildered. She was angry toward the girl who stole her outfit, then she was overjoyed having it back so she wouldn’t be in debt anymore. And then, she was tremendously doubtful about this suspicious liquid.

With all these thoughts whirling around inside the girl’s head, she just stopped thinking and downed the contents of the bottle—all at once.

“M-Mmph... That...was pretty good...”

“I heard you got your outfit back. Thank goodness, right?”

“Yeah, the person who took it sent it back here! I’m saved!”

The other maids were celebrating the fact that a smile had finally returned to the girl’s face.

“So I can tell you’re feeling a lot better now, but aren’t you kind of, I dunno...too happy?”

“Huh? You think so?”

The girl tried feigning ignorance, but there was obviously something up with her. Her hair was glossy and smooth, her cheeks soft as silk, and her hands showed no signs of the wear and tear from work whatsoever. She had actually been constipated until yesterday, due to all the stress, so there was no way she would suddenly start acting like this now.

“Did something happen?”

“Nope, nothing at all. I’ve never felt better, now that I’m debt-free, and I even got back the money I already paid, too! I bet all that happiness I’m feeling is just showing up on the outside now!”

“Seems a bit fishy if you ask me...”

“Ehehe...”

Not long after, rumors of an “angel” spread among not only the maids in the mansion, but to the neighboring countries as well. But there wasn’t a single person who connected those rumors with the commoner girl who’d been held at the mansion for all of one day... Well, except for maybe one person. And right before she went to bed that day, the young girl offered another prayer of gratitude, just like she always did.

“Thank you again for everything, Kaoru, the angel sent by the goddess Celestine herself...”