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.