Chapter 5: Getting It All Out There

“He’s back again...” I muttered, furrowing my eyebrows.

That Fernie guy Allan had brought in before had been showing up here more often lately. He’d always show up right when things were getting busy, calling me over to his table to ask me a whole bunch of questions out of nowhere. If he kept this up, my boss wasn’t going to let me run my counseling service anymore. I mean, I was only supposed to do it during the off times, when the crowd had thinned out. It wasn’t like Aimee and Agathe couldn’t run the restaurant by themselves during rush hour. Allan knew the rules, so why not this guy...

Right now, that troublesome customer was staring straight at me while slurping up a bowl of Big and Soft Soup Noodles (one of the dishes I got the restaurant to officially put on the menu—it’s udon, by the way). His hair was a nice shade of blond, and it was true that he didn’t look half-bad... Still, my only thoughts on him were as follows:

What a creep...

Prince Fernand had become very, very interested in Kaoru, and would frequently come to the restaurant to watch her work. It wasn’t like he was the king (yet), so as long as he didn’t slack off too much and let work pile up, he didn’t have much to do in the first place.

For some reason, Fernand wouldn’t invite Fabio along, having snuck out to the restaurant all alone, and Allan had gone back to his hometown the other day, meaning he was out of the picture for now.

While it wasn’t as if Fernand was completely ignorant of the ways of the world, the concept of not bothering other people was foreign to him. Being the prince, there was no one around him who had work that took priority over him. It was due to this that he simply forgot why Allan had taken them to the restaurant way past the lunch rush, despite Allan specifically mentioning only going after the last order was called and the waitresses had less work to deal with. People were meant to work themselves around his schedule. To Fernand, that was just common sense—and that was exactly why he committed faux pas after faux pas.

He would call for Kaoru when the restaurant was packed. Even when Kaoru had other people ahead of him for counseling, he would push his way ahead of them so he could see her first. His questions began heading into territory that Kaoru didn’t want to talk about, like asking her for more personal information.

At first, Kaoru had made sure to handle it as well as any person would. He was a friend of Allan’s after all, so she put up with him. She diligently answered all his questions on policies for the country, even though she couldn’t tell if he was testing or messing with her. But Fernand’s questions and actions began escalating over time, getting to the point where Kaoru couldn’t even answer them anymore. He was even beginning to cause trouble for the other customers, as well.

There was a limit to these sorts of things. It was true that he paid well, but the way he was going about it made it seem like he was saying Kaoru would do anything for him, as long as he gave her money for it, and that attitude was ticking her off. Even when he threw in a gold coin to show off, it only put her more on guard.

Finally, Kaoru went to her boss to ask him for a favor. The manager and the other employees already knew Kaoru was having trouble with Fernand, which was how she received permission to give him a specific reply...

“I’m sorry, but I can no longer be your waitress, Fernie. If you need to order anything, please ask one of the other staff.”

The next day, Fernand went out of his way to ignore that Agathe was right near him and called Kaoru over, and such was her response. It was practically written on the other customers’ faces that they were all waiting for this to happen.

A blank expression hung on Fernand’s face, as if he couldn’t come to terms with what he’d just heard, before suddenly flying off the handle.

“Wh-What are you saying?! Why not?!”

“I already told you why, didn’t I?” Kaoru answered coolly. “Over and over again at that! You’re causing trouble for the other customers, and I’ve had enough. Someone else will be in charge of taking your orders from now on, and I won’t be taking any more of your requests for counseling, either.”

Fernand’s legs almost gave out when Kaoru glared at him. Granted, most normal people would tremble in fear if Kaoru truly put everything into glaring at them, especially since she already had that harsh look in her eyes to begin with.

“B-But I’m a paying customer! You can’t do that to a—”

“The manager told me he’d be fine without your business if you tried getting involved with me any further.”

The other customers murmured their surprise that even the owner of the restaurant had gone this far.

“Wh-What... What are you...”

The only ones who had ever told Fernand “no” were his parents and his two friends. A bubbling anger built up inside him at being denied, until it swallowed him completely.

He suddenly grabbed her arm and yanked her toward him. “Come with me!”

“Ow! Stop it!”

Fernand was trying to drag Kaoru away from the restaurant as she struggled against him.

“A girl like you doesn’t belong here. You’re coming back with me!”

Aimee and Agathe came running over to stand in front of him, and the other customers got up as well to block his path. The owner and the chefs also came sprinting out of the kitchen with the same goal in mind.

“Get out of the way! Do you have any idea who I...”

He stopped halfway through his sentence, suddenly coming to terms with the cold stares fixed solely on him. That, combined with the look of disgust in Kaoru’s eyes, caused him to lose the ability to speak. His head rapidly cooled off, and regret began building up inside him.

What was I doing here? Was I really about to let slip the fact that I’m royalty?

Fernand let go of Kaoru’s arm, then silently left the restaurant.

“I’m sorry for causing so much trouble, everyone...”

Kaoru looked absolutely crestfallen as she apologized, but the customers around her immediately tried cheering her up, telling her, “It’s not your fault at all, Kaoru!” and “We’ll be here to protect you anytime you need it, so don’t worry ’bout it!”

“A mug of ale on the house to everyone who stood up to protect Kaoru!” Cheers erupted inside the restaurant at the owner’s words, since every single customer there had stood up for her.

It’d been three weeks since that incident. I hadn’t seen Fernie back at the restaurant since then, and I spent my days in relative peace. Everyone at my workplace and all the customers had been really good to me, and I took a day off every ten days to go to the library to study up on where I was. Thanks to that, I’d gotten a pretty good grasp on everything I needed to know about this world—or this continent, I should say. I knew everything about the countries around me, and even their political climates.

Just like what Charles had told me back when I was hitching a ride with him and his dad, the Kingdom of Brancott was located at the base of a peninsula that stuck out to the west. The country was surrounded by oceans to the north and south, and by four other countries to the west and east. The political situation here was relatively stable compared to the other countries and, along with the Kingdom of Balmore to the north, Brancott was said to be a country that was very easy to live in. I’d say Celes ended up dropping me off in a pretty good place, considering it was her.

As I was thinking all this over while sweeping around the entrance to the shop, a super fancy carriage came up and parked itself right in front of the restaurant.

“You. Girl. Would this be the ‘Big Belly Bistro’?” An arrogant-sounding voice called out to me from the open window of the coach.

That’s right, I almost forgot how generic-sounding this place’s name is...

“Oh, yes, it is.”

Even if I wanted to snuff him, nothing good would come of going against a noble—but I’d still go against them if I needed to, of course.

“Then would a girl by the name of ‘Kaoru’ be here?”

“Y-Yes, that would be me...”

Sirens were blaring in my head, telling me that nothing about this was good.

“What?!” With a shout, the man speaking stuck his face out the window. “You’re telling me that Kaoru is this little girl?!”

Well excuuuse me for being little!

Everything about the haughty, chubby man practically screamed “aristocrat.” He looked me up and down for a few seconds before sticking something that looked like a letter out the window of the coach. Don’t be so lazy about it, man...

“Take it.”

I didn’t say a word as I reached out and grabbed the letter from him. I couldn’t really just ignore him at this point, after all.

At the same time, someone stepped down from the other side of the coach and placed a decently sized trunk down on the side of the road. The window to the carriage closed, and the person who had set the box down got back in before the cart trundled away, without anyone explaining a thing to me.

“...The heck is this?”

I didn’t know what it was, but I did know I had a bad feeling about it. And, somehow, I didn’t think I was going to be wrong about that...

I hadn’t touched the box at all, by the way. I mean, the guy hadn’t said anything to me about it, and he’d left it in front of the hardware store right by us instead of the restaurant. That was probably a delivery for someone else, that’s all. I’d just be a thief if I tried touching it, so touch I shan’t. No one said anything to me about it, and it was even delivered to a completely different place, so it didn’t have anything to do with me. Nope, nothing at all.

After going back into the shop, I waited a little bit before checking again, only to find that the box was already gone.

Yup, looks like whoever that was supposed to be delivered to picked up their stuff. All right, let’s move on to the problem at hand: the letter.

I opened the envelope with great trepidation, and inside I found a single sheet of paper. It was an invitation to a party being held at the royal palace next week.

All right, looks like my hunch was right on the money!

...I wasn’t happy about that at all, though.

Viscount Alemann wasn’t in a good mood. He’d been entrusted with delivering an invitation for the party being held next week by the prince, which was a good thing. This wasn’t an invitation that had been made en masse to be sent to the other party guests, but something given to him directly from the prince. This was something to be ecstatic about. The recipient was probably someone the prince’s heart was set on. He’d thought there must be some good fortune waiting for him at being made the bearer of such happy news...but the moment he thought that, he made the woeful discovery that the invitation was addressed to a commoner!

The prince is using me, a viscount, as an errand boy for some commoner!

He almost fainted from the humiliation. Not only was he being made to deliver this commoner’s invitation, but a trunk with a dress, shoes, and a handwritten letter from the prince himself. Was this girl his secret lover or something? Was he planning on revealing her in front of everyone at the party? He may be able to use that information to his advantage...

...is what Alemann thought, but it turned out the recipient was just a child. She did have good features, but the look in her eyes was awful; “make other children cry” awful. There was no feasible way she could be his lover. All Alemann could wonder was what sort of cruel joke this was...

He had a duty to deliver the prince’s letter personally, so he made sure to hold the farthest corner of the invitation as he handed it through the window of his coach, so that he wouldn’t have to risk being touched by a commoner. There was no need for him to hand over the box with the dress and shoes in it himself, so he made the attendant with him set it down. After finishing his unpleasant task, he immediately left for home.

Oh, what a truly horrible day this was...

Doesn’t look like I can wiggle my way out of this one, huh...

I’d ignored that box from earlier on purpose, and it wasn’t like I didn’t have my hunches over what that invitation could be about. It was true I wanted someone here who would support me—but not like this.

I already had tons of food packed away in my Item Box, as well as all the money I’d saved up from my job. I had learned my lesson from last time and made sure to stock up on plenty of water, too. Potions just didn’t do the trick when it came to washing your face...or that’s the feeling I got, at least.

All right then. Time to prepare myself for the worst.

Six days later, I had the manager and all my co-workers gather together, after telling them I had something important to talk about. I came clean and told them how some higher-up had singled me out and summoned me to appear tomorrow. I didn’t tell them about how they had called me to the palace or anything, but I figured I should at least give them a heads-up so it didn’t come back to bite me later. Everyone was shocked, and even recommended I run away right now if I didn’t like it, but I laughed it off and told them I would be fine. Aimee and Agathe were crying and clinging to me, but that wasn’t because they’d be losing their other source of income, right? Sorry about that, girls... Everyone else there was sad over me leaving as well.

The past few months had been relatively peaceful, and I’d managed to get a grasp on this country’s culture, economy, and almost everything else you could want to know. Now would’ve been just the right time for me to look for a place to begin settling down...if this hadn’t happened. This town could’ve been where I started my new life proper, but it didn’t look like that was going to happen anymore.

I would work lunchtime as normal tomorrow, then leave the restaurant for good right after. I couldn’t just run away now. I was going to the palace, just watch. I’d make sure to put an end to this, and in a way where they weren’t going to send people chasing after me again.

The time was evening, and the place was the main entrance to the castle.

“Excuse me...” a single noble girl called out to the guard standing at the gate. “I received an invitation for the party, so may I go through?”

The guard was taken aback by her words. He knew there was a party being held today, and he knew of the droves of nobles who were invited as well. But if she was supposed to be nobility, normally she should have arrived with the rest of her family in a carriage bearing their family crest. At the very least, a noble’s daughter would never come walking up to a party. Ever.

Though it was obvious she didn’t exactly look like the type of person to be invited to a party at the palace, she was wearing a dress no commoner would be able to get their hands on. Most importantly of all, she had an invitation. If he were to turn away the daughter of an aristocrat who was actually invited, heads would roll—more specifically, his head. And that wasn’t a figure of speech.

Those eyes... They were the eyes of someone who was used to tormenting those below her! She had to be the wicked daughter of some aristocrat’s family, no doubt about it! This wasn’t a girl to be trifled with!

The girl gave the guard a slight bow before heading through the gate.

Kaoru slipped in with the other guests pouring into the castle, wandering around to find a room to be in. She finally found herself a dressing room, filled with older and younger women alike, fixing their dresses, tightening their corsages, redoing their makeup—it was pretty much an all-purpose room for girls here. She took off her “hand-me-down” from the baron’s daughter, which she’d snuck off with during her escape a while back, before changing into her maid outfit (also taken from the baron’s mansion). Who would have thought the daughter’s old clothes would come in handy so often?

After she finished changing, Kaoru quietly left the room before finding an older maid with an air of dignity about her.

“Um, excuse me. I was told to head where the party is...”

The woman turned around, looking Kaoru over with bloodshot eyes. “Great, some backup from one of the other noble families! Do you have any experience serving drinks? Do you think you can hold about five or six glasses on a tray and walk around the room?”

Though Kaoru couldn’t help but notice how scary the woman’s eyes were, she decided she wasn’t exactly one to talk.

“Y-Yes, I’ve had some experience as a waitress...”

“All right, then you’ll be a great help! Go into that room over there and find some clothes you can change into! After that, head out to the party and circle around out there! If the supervisor out on the floor tells you anything different, follow their directions instead. Now hurry!”

“A-All right!”

Swept along at the woman’s urging, Kaoru dashed off to get changed.

Prince Fernand had a sour look on his face as he scanned the venue of the party. It was around then that Allan came over to talk with him, finally back from home and wearing some clothes an actual noble would wear, for once.

“What’s with the scary face, Fernie? I heard this party was supposed to be some informal way for you to choose who you’d be getting hitched to, but none of the ladies are going to come close if you look like that.”

Allan probably hadn’t gone back to the restaurant since he’d come back, since he didn’t bring up the incident with Fernand and Kaoru.

“I was just looking for someone, is all.”

“Hmm... Looking for someone, huh...”

An endless parade of aristocrats and potential bachelorettes had already come to visit with the prince, so there was no need for Fernand to look for anyone. Allan was well aware of this, which was why he looked a bit confused about what he just heard.

“Fernand, none of your potential marriage candidates are going to come near you if you keep that look on your face.”

“You too? Really?”

As Fabio showed up to make that comment, it was fairly obvious that Fernand was fed up over hearing the same thing again. But Fabio’s next words, however, caused his eyes to fly wide open.

“By the way, I just saw that Kaoru girl not too long ago. I wonder why she’s here... She looked quite busy, so I didn’t have the chance to ask her myself.”

“What?! Where, where did you see her?!”

Fabio and Allan were a bit taken aback when faced with Fernand’s sudden change in attitude.

“Well, uh...she was just over there a moment ago...”

Fernand dashed off immediately in the direction Fabio pointed, his two friends hurrying to follow after him.

“Hey! What’s up with you all of a sudden?!”

Allan and Fabio were thrown for a loop at seeing Fernand do a complete about-face, after he’d mostly sulked around until now.

“Hm? Oh, I thought she’d just ignored my invitation, but it looks like she’s here after all.”

“An invitation?” Fabio looked confused upon hearing those words. “But she wasn’t exactly—”

When Fernand finally spotted Kaoru, he ended up yelling in shock. “Wh-Why are you wearing that outfit?! And why are you working as a server out here?!”

“Well, I’m a waitress...and I’m a waitress. Don’t you think it’d be normal for me to wear this?” Kaoru answered coolly. But on the inside...

So it was him behind this, after all...

A silence fell over the room at the commoner girl’s disrespectful attitude toward the prince.

“I’m not talking about that! I’m asking why a guest I invited here is working as a maid!”

A guest???

The nobles around them were all in silent shock at those words.

“I mean, I’m just a commoner girl working as a waitress. If someone told me to come to a party at the castle without any explanation whatsoever, don’t you think I’d assume it was to help out with the wait staff? There’s no way I could be a guest. I don’t even have a dress for these things,” Kaoru answered indifferently.

“Wh-What...?!” Fernand went speechless for a moment, then yelled out across the room. “Viscount Alemann! Where is Viscount Alemann?!”

“Y-Yes, right here!” Alemann came running through the crowd after his name was called.

Fernand fixed the man with a glare. “Viscount Alemann, I specifically made a request to you, did I not? Deliver her the invitation, the dress, the shoes, and my letter. How do you explain this?!”

“I-I certainly delivered them to her!” the viscount stammered, sweating bullets.

“You say that, but look at her!”

“Oh, is this the person who came to the restaurant? All he said back then was ‘take this’ and handed me the invitation to the castle before leaving,” Kaoru answered Fernand’s question for Alemann.

“What about the dress and the letter?!”

“I haven’t the faintest idea...”

“That is not true!” The viscount turned white as a sheet when he heard their conversation. “I delivered that box with the dress, shoes, and your letter in it!”

“Box? Are you talking about the package delivered to the place next door?”

““...What?””

“Well, another person came out of the carriage and left a box or something near the shop next to ours...”

“Wh-What happened to that package?!” Fernand shouted furiously.

“He didn’t say anything about it, so I wasn’t going to take a package that I thought was for the store next door. When I checked in on it a little while after, the box was already gone. I thought whoever it was for took it away.”

“Then the dress...and my letter...” Fernand shot a menacing glare at Alemann. “What is the meaning of this? We’ll be discussing this in detail later, Viscount Alemann.”

It seemed like the growl in Fernand’s voice was coming from the depths of hell itself. All color had drained from the viscount’s face and he began quivering.

“But that doesn’t matter now!” Fernand one-sidedly continued the conversation. “Though you may be here because of a misunderstanding, what matters is that you’re here. This is nothing to worry about. Now, come here! I’ll introduce you to everyone as my wife-to-be.”

“““Whaaaaaat?!”””

The nobles, Allan, Fabio, and Kaoru herself all let out a cry of shock.

“Wh-What in the world do you think you’re saying?!” I shook off Prince Fernand’s hand as he tried dragging me up onto the stage. “There’s no way a commoner could do that!”

“There’s no problem if we just have you become the adopted daughter of some earl’s household.”

“You have the order of this all wrong!” I fire off a rebuttal at the prince’s words. “I should have been adopted before you asked to marry me! Even then, you would have to make sure to not let anyone pry into my past or where I came from, but no one’s going to believe that after I’ve already announced to everyone that I’m just a commoner! Not only a commoner, but a waitress at that! I would just be made fun of behind my back, and none of the aristocrats from other countries would even think about talking with me!”

Prince Fernand sent another bitter glare at Viscount Alemann.

“And then, there’s still the most important issue of all!” I declared, pointing my finger at him. “Did you actually check to see if I even wanted to marry you?”

His only response was a blank expression on his face. It was the type of face that said he never expected me to reject him once I knew he was a prince.

“The answer is no! I absolutely refuse!”

“““WHAAAAAAAAAT?!”””

“Being a princess is on my top three list of jobs I’d never ever want to do! You have no privacy, you can’t get close to the people you want to, you have to fake a smile and talk to people you don’t like, your children get taken from you by your wet nurse and you never get the chance to be a real family with them, and you have to go to parties all the time with other nobles or royal families from other countries! That’s not to mention that you’re pushing out babies until you get a boy, and if you get a girl you have marry her off for diplomacy later! Your husband will even go off and have children with other women like it’s no big deal! Nothing about that life sounds fun to me!”

One of the queens who’d come over to see what the fuss was about just stiffened up... Ah, now she’s crying.

“It’s pretty much the same thing with counts and earls and all that. You’re barely allowed to leave the house, and outside of the odd party, the only people you end up talking to are your servants. Even then, the difference in status is so big that it’s not like you’re going to be friends with them. In fact, they would never dare speak their own opinion to you, and would instead just follow your orders to the letter. Your husband would always be gone because of work, and you’d have your step-parents always breathing down your neck for a successor to their household. Then they’ll pester you about how you have to follow the traditions of the family you married into, and tell you how you’re a member of their family now, so there’s no need for you to go back home, and that their grandchildren only belong to them, and so on and so forth. Let’s not forget how your husband can use the excuse that they need many, many children to cheat on you like there’s no tomorrow, and you could end up stuck living in the same house as the woman he’s cheating on you with and their children as well.”

Several other wives crumpled to the ground in tears. An older noble grabbed the man who looked to be the husband of one of the wives. I wondered if that was the wife’s father...

“That’s why a viscount or a baron would be nice. They’re still nobles, but are a bit more far-removed from the power struggles you would find elsewhere. You can also be a little closer to the help because of your position, like having tea together and chatting with them. You can even raise your own children along with the wet nurse or maids that babysit them. When your son gets a little bigger, you can travel around your territory with him, having the people celebrate your child on their birthday or things like that. It seems like you would have a much happier life spending time with your family and the people living in your domain.”

The girls who had their eyes on some of the higher-ranking nobles looked around nervously. While it was true their parents wanted them to marry someone of high rank, the parents didn’t want to make the daughters unhappy. At the same time, it was plain to see several upper-class nobles wincing. Probably the parents and step-parents of sons waiting to get married and carry on the family lineage.

“That’s why the only way I’d want to marry into money is if I could find the rich son of a merchant, or even a lower-ranking noble. I would never want to be with someone who is of higher rank at the cost of a boring or stressful life. I’ll leave that to the actual daughters born into nobility, the ones who live lives of luxury because they’ve sucked the people dry with taxes, or who are ready to give everything for their country in exchange for having a higher education.”

Silence fell over the party.

“I don’t care about any of that!” Fernand cried out. “I want you, and your knowledge! With your beauty and wisdom, I want you to help me develop this country even more! Together!”

“Knowledge? Beauty and wisdom? Those are all just things you want to use for yourself, aren’t they? So it’s not that you actually love me, you just want to use me. Then what about me, huh? Do you not care about what I feel? Is that something you don’t have to take into consideration just because you’re a prince?”

“W-Well...” The words caught in the prince’s throat, making him unable to answer me.

I picked up a plate from a nearby table and slammed it against the table. A noise accompanied the shattering of the tableware, and I stooped down to pick up one of the fragments of the broken plate. All eyes were on me as the guests wondered what in the world I was doing.

Shng!

I used the plate shard to slash open my right cheek.

“Wh-Wh-What are you doing?!”

Blood dripped down from my face. The women let out screams, while Fernand was rendered speechless. The other nobles could only stand there, dumbfounded.

“There, now I’m nothing more than a foolish and unsightly girl. I’m worth nothing to a prince like you; just a commoner with nothing to offer. Now you should have no more business with me, right?”

After I finished saying my piece, no one even tried stopping me as I walked out of the party.

The guests at the party began stirring once more, and the first words to break the silence were finally spoken:

“What rash remarks! What disrespect—”

“What elegance!” one of the counts present shouted over the voice seeking to condemn Kaoru. “She knew the prince marrying a commoner such as herself would only disrupt the political balance here, so not only did she give up on being queen, she even went so far as to sully her own beautiful visage! And she used all that coarse language to make herself look like the villain here... Though she may just be a commoner, she chose the peace of the country over the fear of being punished! What loyalty! What devotion!”

It may have seemed like a stretch, but those gathered there had no choice but to accept it as fact to preserve the prince’s dignity. No one would complain as long as it meant that the commoner girl would be kept safe behind the pretense. Besides, if Prince Fernand’s reputation had suffered too much, that would bolster the people who were backing Prince Ghislain, the second prince, instead. If the girl had gone so far as to injure herself to protect Fernand, then no one would be able to say anything contemptuous about the prince, for fear of turning her efforts to naught.

This sudden declaration was quick thinking on the part of one of the earls backing Fernand, and the partygoers were all caught up in the moment. There were voices of admiration coming from all over the venue, signaling that the earl’s plan had gone off well.

“Fernand, my friend... What did you do?” Allan looked down on Fernand with scorn as the prince knelt on the ground.

“I had just made the necessary arrangements with my father to look into her background, so we could be ready to bring her here at any time...” The disappointment in Fabio’s voice was evident.

“Life actually might have been pretty fun if she ended up being your fiancée...”

Fernand lamented the foolishness of what he’d done when he heard Allan’s words. But a broken plate was never going to be the same as it was before.

“Allan and I will go to the restaurant tomorrow by ourselves to see her. Please don’t come with us. I’ll see if we can’t get some money together for her, or maybe a way to get her another job, since I’d imagine she won’t be able to work at the restaurant anymore...”

Fernand barely managed to whisper a “please do” in response.

Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!!!

The moment I left the party, I whipped up a painkiller and styptic combo potion and drank it all at once. The pain from the gash on my cheek calmed down right away.

All right, no one’s following me. Time to make my escape from the capital!

I headed straight for the city gates. People were looking at me in shock as I jogged through the streets at night. An eleven- to twelve-year-old girl, wearing a first-class maid outfit from the royal palace, with her face smeared with blood, who also had a harsh look in her eyes... Yeah, anyone would be a little surprised by that.

I finally made it to the gates and called out to the guard there.

“Pardon me, but I need to leave!”

The gates leading out of the capital closed once nighttime fell, and would only be opened for the odd passerby coming in and out of the city. It was around this time a small girl called out, asking permission to leave. The kind-hearted guard took his lamp and left his station to see what all the fuss was about. Depending on what their story was, he was planning on detaining them and convincing them not to leave. It was dangerous outside the city walls at night.

“What happ— Whoa!” The guard let out a shout once he saw Kaoru’s face smeared with blood.

“I got on the wrong side of some nobles, and I have to leave town right away...”

Though the gash on her cheek had stopped bleeding, it still left an awful scar. It may have healed cleanly if it was just a straight cut, but injuries like this where the flesh was rent completely were bound to leave a scar. Though she was still young, this was a blemish that would affect her for the rest of her life. If she was running away from nobles, who could lash out at her for any reason at any time, it might actually be safer outside the city walls.

“Wait just a second.”

The guard had given up trying to detain Kaoru, heading inside his barracks for a second before returning and handing something to her without a word. It was a leather pouch with water inside, something that looked like dinner, and five silver coins.

“Um, what’s this...?”

“Take it with you.”

The guard quickly opened the small gate for her. Bowing her head to the guard, Kaoru hurried through the open doors.

After walking for a short while, she created a health potion and drank it down. The cut on Kaoru’s face healed completely before fading away.

“Oops, I kept the maid outfit I got from the castle... Oh well. This may come in handy down the line!”

All she had to do to get rid of the bloodstains was make some type of cleansing potion.

Her next stop was the capital of the Kingdom of Balmore: Grua.

“All right, let’s get going!”

Several years later—

A lone city guard was hurrying on his way home, looking worse for wear.

The man’s son had been badly injured in a horrible accident last year. Though it was a miracle that he didn’t lose his life, the young boy had lost his sight in his right eye, and he could barely see out of his left. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before he wouldn’t be able to see out of that eye, either...

Of course the man felt heavy-hearted for his son when he thought about his son’s future. If only he had those “tears of the goddess” he’d heard rumors of... It was a legendary medicine, said to be yellow in color, and found within an elegant glass bottle. But it was said to be something that even the nobles had trouble getting their hands on, so it was out of reach for a simple commoner like himself.

“Welcome home, dear. A little girl was here earlier, and she brought something addressed to you.”

After his wife greeted him, the man went over and opened up the small box she’d left on the table. Inside were several assorted items, as well as a letter.

Who could this be from? And just what is it, anyways...

As he began reading over the letter, an expression of shock eventually took over his face. He grabbed something from the box before shouting out for his son.

“Joshua! Joshua!”

His son gingerly approached him, surprised to hear the unusual fervor in the man’s voice. He took the bottle filled with medicine and had Joshua drink it. The next moment...

“Huh? I... I can see? And there’s no scars either... Why?”

The man held his son tight and cried, while his wife ran over in shock.

On top of the table was the same box, filled with just a few things—and a letter.

“Thank you for everything you did for me. I’m returning the things I borrowed from you back then. As thanks, I’ve also included something called the ‘tears of the goddess’ as well.”

Also in the box was a familiar leather pouch and five silver coins.

The man had been promoted from his job as gatekeeper to being a city guard, but he still remembered the young girl he had lent a helping hand all that time ago.

The tears wouldn’t stop flowing.

“Goddess...”