“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...