I Shall Survive Using Potions! Volume 1 Page 7

  “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 nice and 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 sent his private army into territories owned by the other aristocats, 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 or the same blonde when she finally broke free from the baron’s mansion. She’d also long since changed out of the maid outfit to 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 drinks 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 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 often, 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. The fact 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 jack 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 had arrived at the next town. She wasn’t going anywhere near it of course, seeing as there was too much of a risk that the baron may 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 had 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 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 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 or claims he could make to get at Kaoru any longer. If there was 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 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 cart, horse, or otherwise. 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—not to mention that 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 just seemed 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 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 broke 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 someth
ing? 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 female 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 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 female 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 in the middle of 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 crisp 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 clamored down from the carriage, and with a short, “I’ll come with you too,” her brother followed after her.

  The captain, female knight, and brother all headed a little ways into the forest together to accompany the girl. Only the female 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 female 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 they would just leave me alone already.

  I’d pulled out the bed I took 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 and enjoy myself in her world.”

  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 almost 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 quick, 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!”