Epilogue

I burst out of the Adventurer’s Guild and headed for Rock Cliff’s main street. The main street was packed with people.

I pulled up my hood and shouted loudly, “A celebration, a celebration! Good news, good news! Time to celebrate! I’m throwing out money, even gold coins!”

I pulled a single gold coin from the leather pouch holding my money and tucked it into my inner pocket. Then I ran while scattering the rest of the coins.

Panic overtook the main street as everyone scrambled to grab the coins on the ground. After I finished tossing the money, I crouched down as if trying to pick coins up myself and blended into the crowd.

While the guards chasing me got tangled up in the agitated civilians, I quietly slipped out of the chaos and headed for the slums.

The outer wall of Rock Cliff is the symbol of the town. Its purpose ended once peace came, but it had been maintained as a symbol.

Even so, parts of it had deteriorated badly, and areas that weren’t properly maintained were falling apart.

There’s a particularly terrible part of the slums, which is the bottom of the bottom. The sewage there had collapsed, and a foul stench filled the air.

In case of plague, the district is surrounded by an empty buffer zone so the area can be burned without the fire spreading. It’s the worst place even within the slums.

The outer wall there was never maintained.

Pieces of reinforcement and even the wall’s stones themselves had been torn off and used as building materials. Thanks to the hands of the slum dwellers, the wall was on the verge of collapse.

I had planned my escape route in case I ever got chased by guards. Without slowing down, I rammed straight into the slum wall.

Rock Cliff’s outer wall, once called an impregnable fortress, crumbled with shocking ease, and I burst through to the outside.

I kept running toward the mountains near the border.

The mountains thick with trees were my home field. I would hide there until things cooled down, then cross over the mountains to escape the country.

The guards must have completely lost track of me; no one was coming after me. Even so, I kept running. Once I entered the mountains, I began preparing for camp.

I leaned branches against a hollow in the rock and made a simple lean-to shelter. I fixed leaves to the wood with vines.

I carefully added leaves so it would look natural, weaving branches and vines together. I gave the entrance flap the same treatment.

It was a simple camouflaged shelter like the ones wildlife photographers often use.

I wanted to smoke the inside with fire to keep insects away, but the smoke might give me away. I couldn’t risk it. The bug bites would be rough, but I had to endure it.

Maintaining presence-hiding and presence-sensing, I lay down. I needed to recover my stamina… I couldn’t fully relax, but I was finally able to take a breath.

I never expected to catch the attention of a noble… No, that’s not true. I should have anticipated it. I’d gotten carried away after breaking through the level barrier.

Frustration and anger welled up inside me. Was this anger aimed at the greedy noble? Or at my own foolishness?

I took a slow, deep breath to calm myself. I didn’t have the luxury to be ruled by emotion. I needed to think about survival.

Fortunately, I still had my gear. I had gone into the banquet still in my traveling clothes, drunk, and fallen asleep just like that. My weapons and equipment were all still on me.

Thanks to the hooded cloak I wore, I’d been able to hide my distinctive face and blend into the crowd. Being able to escape the town smoothly was the only reason I had this moment to breathe now.

Most people in this world have blond hair. Blond stands out badly in the forest. That’s why scouts and hunters often wear hooded clothing.

And the best part was that I still had my knives. The blacksteel knife, of course, but even the small iron knife for delicate cutting work was incredibly useful.

In survival life, having a knife makes a massive difference in difficulty. This would be far easier than my last survival experience.

Most of all, the salt was a huge advantage. It’s valuable both nutritionally and for morale when it comes to flavor.

I had hidden several packets inside the linings and pockets of my clothes in case of emergencies. I hadn’t expected the day would actually come when I’d need them, but here we were.

It made me a little sad that I’d used up all my pepper grilling that rock lizard meat. If I’d had more spices, my survival BBQ lifestyle would have been way better.

I was starting to doze off iwith my thoughts drifting, when my Presence Detection skill reacted. Impossible. They’re too fast. Did they bring along a hunter skilled in tracking?

As I wondered that, more and more reactions popped up. So many of them… I slowly eased the flap aside and quietly slipped away.

To confuse whoever was tracking me, I deliberately snapped branches and left unnatural footprints as I moved.

But they were coming straight toward me. Their tracking ability was terrifying. Did they have some kind of skill? Even after night fell, the pursuit showed no sign of slowing.

Morning came. They were still on my trail. Running all night was exhausting physically, but the mental stress was even worse.

Avoiding monsters in the darkness using Presence Detection while also fleeing from the guards put tremendous pressure on me.

I even tried to lure monsters toward the pursuing soldiers.

But with their sheer numbers and the disciplined strength of a military unit, which was so different from adventurers, they dealt with everything instantly.

Driven into a corner, I climbed a tall tree, risking being seen just so I could get a look at who was chasing me.

Judging from how many lights I’d seen during the night, I assumed a decent number of people had been deployed for the mountain sweep.

But I never imagined they had mobilized a force this huge.

They weren’t city guards but Count Meagan’s private troops, that is the domain’s army. This was the reality of what it meant to strike a noble.

No wonder they had such high-level scouting skills. And it made me realize something again: if I could just make it out of this country, my chances of safety would increase dramatically.

Nobles value their honor above all else. Adventurers also believe being looked down on is fatal, but a noble’s concept of honor is something entirely different.

An adventurer’s honor is just their own life.

A noble’s honor includes their entire family line, the people living in their domain, and the blood their ancestors shed to protect that honor.

They’ll spare no effort to protect it.

But nobles are also bound by the peculiar rules of their privileged class. Even revenge against someone who damaged their honor must be carried out in a socially acceptable way.

Hiring an assassin to kill someone secretly is the lowest of the low. Other nobles would ridicule them for being uncultured, damaging their honor even further.

If I were to flee to another country, they’d have to ask that country for help. That would also hurt their honor, and who knows what concessions the other nation would demand.

I’m sure some nobles would think, “I hate him so much, I’ll send an assassin without leaving a trace.” But in that case, they’d need to hire a truly top-tier assassin who wouldn’t reveal their employer even if they failed. Or they’d need an elite family assassin held exclusively by a very powerful noble house.

But the noble I punched was probably some distant relative of the local lord and therefore a barely-qualified, insignificant noble.

The ruling family is busy with court politics.

Al had said the capable relatives were all in the capital, leaving behind only the incompetent ones to put pressure on the steward who actually runs the domain.

There’s no way someone like that would spend a fortune hiring top-tier assassins just to kill one adventurer. They wouldn’t have the money or the connections.

So capturing me within their own territory is their only option. That’s why they’ve thrown everything aside and sent such a huge force into the mountains.

As I watched the pursuing unit, I noticed someone strange at the head of the formation. What was that hair? No… it’s fluff.

Of course. A beastman! On a five-level scale of beastliness, maybe a three? Not just a human with animal ears and a tail, but more like an animal that stood upright and looked somewhat human.

Oh no, so fluffy! I wanna pet it!! Calm down, me. Now is not the time.

The fluffy figure was probably one of the so-called “barbarians” who once ruled this region. A dog-type beastman.

I’d heard they lost the war and were either killed or enslaved. This must be their descendant. The dog-type beastman pressed his nose to the ground, sniffing intently.

So it was scent! No wonder trying to confuse them with fake tracks didn’t work, they were tracking me by smell.

Realizing this, I quickly climbed down the tree. I ran full speed without worrying about tracks, putting as much distance between us as possible.

Once I’d gained some distance, I searched for a river. I climbed a tree again to look from above, and when I couldn’t see one, I tried to predict its location from the terrain.

I eventually found a river. I splashed along through the water, soaking myself without hesitation. This should make scent tracking much harder.

After walking for a while, I exhaled deeply. Once I caught my breath, I steeled myself.

I stripped off my clothes and tied each piece to a rock before hurling them in all directions. My scent-marked clothing would scatter my trail everywhere.

That should confuse them quite a bit.

Once naked, I washed myself thoroughly. I put the gold coin in my mouth so I could carry it, and smeared mud all over my body. I even coated my knives in mud, in case any lingering scent from field dressing remained.

I’d have to clean them carefully later.

Completely naked and covered in mud, gold coin in my mouth, two knives and a pouch of salt in my hands, I had become something beyond a wildling or barbarian as I dashed deeper into the mountain woods.

First the forest, now the mountains? Damn it! I’m completely naked in the wilderness again!

That wicked god clearly has no intention of letting me live a civilized life.