"Oh, hey, Anna."
"...Eh?"
Anna noticed the voice and looked up.
This was the room in the inn she had rented for a little while in the capital.
A soft sofa. She was sitting on it wearing light armor, and in her hand was the hood mantle she had taken off, used like a lap blanket.
...What was I doing?
The room was lit by magic-stone glow. When she looked out the window, it was pitch black outside. She didn’t know how much time had passed.
When had she returned? Her memories before and after were hazy. The blurry sensation felt like she had been dreaming.
A golden strand of hair suddenly floated into view at the edge of her vision.
The person who had just spoken was standing right beside her. Both hands on her hips, she leaned in with a worried look.
An adorable expression. Before her familiar friend, Anna blinked.
"Are you okay? Your face is really pale. You should rest today—"
"U-um, I’m fine. I was just spacing out. More importantly, Teeto. Where’s Clock?"
She confirmed the current situation.
Her companions’ worry was always welcome, but right now she had priorities.
She clenched her fist tightly and recalled the fleeing man.
"...That bastard is already out of the capital. Hermine found traces of his escape, so there’s no mistake."
Anna lowered her eyes at her words.
If she thought about it, her heart still hurt.
The enemy was Clock Rivorno. The next heir of the Rivorno family.
The Rivorno family was already gone. He had resigned and was now secretly living in the capital as a thief. Her enemy from her previous life who had driven Anna to death. And also her former lover.
The revenge procedure had been almost perfect.
He had been completely surrounded from the outside, meticulously prepared so he could never escape, and finally trapped with people and magic.
He should have had no choice but to be captured. He should have knelt before Hero Anna and begged for forgiveness.
But it failed. Thanks to unexpected means, he had easily escaped.
"The escape method has also been identified. It was the emergency escape skill after all. Who would’ve thought he was a unique-skill holder."
Unique skills. Talents born with the person.
Special abilities that an individual possesses, different from the technology of using mana as magic.
Emergency Escape is a skill that lets you transfer outside any structure or area.
It is relatively well-known, so there is plenty of information. If he used it at that moment, the destination must be outside the capital.
Unique-skill holders are extremely rare.
It’s said that there is at most one per town. The ability itself is already decided at birth, and there are few ways to determine if someone is a skill holder. If they stay quiet, it’s common for them to never be discovered in their lifetime.
In the previous life, she had never heard such talk when she was involved with him.
It seemed he had kept it hidden even from Anna, his lover.
So she never thought of it and didn’t guard against that kind of means.
"You gathered allies for the kingdom, cast an extremely meticulous barrier over the entire capital, sent soldiers everywhere, and still failed. Did you not know he was a unique-skill holder?"
"I don’t know."
Her companion’s question was answered bluntly.
"...Why don’t I know? When I was... in that kind of relationship with him, you never said anything. Normally, when you’re lovers, you share secrets and tell each other... right? Maybe I wasn’t really abandoned but just played with from the start?"
"...Huh? No... um..."
Teeto’s face twisted in confusion.
For a moment, the room fell completely silent.
Then the sound of a door opening and closing came from behind.
"Don’t make Anna cry."
"...I’m not making her cry. Don’t say something ugly."
Teeto puffed out her cheeks.
At that moment, a beautiful woman with long black hair and sharp eyes appeared, wearing a robe.
Hermine, who had been conducting the pursuit investigation. Behind her was Oriana, who had gone to explain the situation to the kingdom.
"The Hero’s emotions are quite unstable right now. You should rest properly and calm down."
"I’m not the problem..."
"Big trouble. That little scoundrel. You could have killed him on the spot the moment you found him, but you didn’t. Why? You said you were going to cut off the past, but you’re still dragging it on a lot."
Hermine’s words silenced her.
Hermine was right. Anna could have killed the man immediately if she really wanted to, but she had started with talking instead. That itself wasn’t wrong, but the result was that he had escaped.
For this incident, quite a few people had moved because of Anna alone.
Because it ended in a form that was hard for others to accept, she ended up having a lot of trouble explaining the situation to the kingdom.
When she looked toward them, Oriana was smiling as if to say "don’t mind it," while heading to places she had been sent.
"...Sorry."
"I’m not angry. I can understand how you feel. But for now, let’s put this matter on hold. You need to go back to your Hero duties for once."
Anna raised her head at Hermine’s words.
"The incident that happened in the theocracy. Weren’t you going to help with the search? We’re in a hurry there, so let’s end this revenge for now. We’ll handle the little scoundrel ourselves."
Hermine patted Anna’s shoulder.
Hero Anna quietly nodded.
No matter where she looked, the road was filled with trees.
A rich natural mountain path.
The forest rustled in the faint wind. The sun had begun to set, and the surrounding mountains were dyed red.
Three days had already passed since leaving the capital and continuing the escape.
Clock had used his drinking buddies as a shield to escape and had been walking on foot day and night.
He avoided any road where people normally walked.
He kept passing through narrow paths hidden in thickets used by animals.
By piling up precautions on precautions and walking while being extra cautious of pursuers, he steadily pushed forward.
He had nothing with him—no money, no food.
The only thing he had drunk was water from the streams along the way.
He occasionally took breaks, but he had been rushing toward another town.
There should have been a somewhat isolated mountain village near the capital.
Food there. No matter what, food. Then after one night of sleep, straight to the port town. They would definitely be pursued, so he had to leave the kingdom before they arrived.
Because he had fled the capital in a hurry, he had nothing with him.
He had no money to begin with, and having no food on the journey was extremely difficult.
If he could hunt even one small animal along the way, that would help, but as someone raised in the city, Clock had no hunting skills. Even if he caught something, he didn’t know how to prepare it.
Wild plants should be growing around.
But unfortunately, Clock had no knowledge of whether they were edible or how to cook them.
Fruits sold at shops he could eat.
But they conveniently wouldn’t appear along the way. Clock’s stomach was sustained only by supplies from others.
"Ah, damn it. My stomach is really empty."
His stamina was already at its limit.
...Just a little more. He should arrive soon.
While walking the mountain road tormented by rising pain, he was a human who could not be called suitable for survival.
But he still had the mental strength to endure fatigue and hunger and keep fleeing.
Until now, he had walked a life where he could at least feel that he was a filthy human.
He wasn’t the type to die from a single beating by some woman who had abandoned him.
If he gave up and died at that level, he couldn’t have run a thief business.
But still...
The opponent was really too dangerous, wasn’t she? Was she really the Hero?
It was a question-and-answer he had thought about many times during the escape.