When she came out, the first thing that caught her eye was a large stone. That must have been what was blocking the top of the box.

“Those crazy bastards really were trying to kill me.”

Reibella gritted her teeth, remembering the man who had threatened the princess.

The surroundings were dark and quiet. Truly not even an ant could be seen.

“Not even a punishment……”

She had to accept it.

That she had simply been abandoned.

Crawling out of the room where she had been confined, she saw the full view inside a fairly large cabin.

As if it had been raided, all the items in the room were overturned or broken and scattered on the floor, with blood stains everywhere. There must have been quite an intense battle.

Seeing that not even the wounded remained, it seemed everyone had been taken away by the knights.

Reibella picked up a sword lying nearby on the floor and cut the rope binding her hands. Then she quickly left the cabin to avoid the thick smell of blood.

‘Logically, I should wait here for rescue.’

When lost in a dark forest, the best strategy was to stay put and wait for rescue. But that was assuming there were people who would come looking.

Where in this world would there be anyone to look for Reibella Felicity?

The only person who would rescue Reibella Felicity was herself.

‘It’s dangerous to stay here until morning.’

Though it seemed the Emperor and knights had dealt with all the kidnappers, she couldn’t be certain there weren’t any remnants. If they came back here, it could become dangerous.

‘Should I follow the water stream?’

They said there were always villages where there was water. So, following the stream might lead her out of the deep forest.

Reibella quietly listened. Fortunately, she could hear the sound of water nearby.

Walking in the direction of the sound, she fortunately found a stream.

‘I can follow this.’

To prepare in case she got lost, Reibella made small marks on trees at her starting point.

Then she slowly followed the direction the water flowed.

How long had she walked, eating berries nearby when hungry, taking short naps when sleepy, and leaving marks from time to time?

Finally, through the undergrowth, she saw houses.

Relief at finally being saved welled up. As the anxiety she had felt seeing the endless forest instantly flew away, her legs that had barely been holding up gave out and she collapsed.

Someone seemed to have witnessed this. The person who approached Reibella was an ordinary-looking young man.

“Little one, what’s wrong?”

“……”

“What happened? Why are you coming out of the forest alone?”

Though he asked in a gentle voice with a kind expression, his eyes weren’t smiling at all.

Could he possibly be in league with those who kidnapped the princess?

If the person before her was with the kidnappers, then the village likely wasn’t safe either.

Though thoroughly suspicious, Reibella suppressed her rising wariness and reddened her eyes as if finally feeling relief at meeting him.

Then she spoke in a sniffling voice.

“Mom……”

“What about Mom? Did you lose her?”

Reibella slowly nodded while whimpering. Sympathy entered the man’s eyes.

“Where?”

When Reibella pointed somewhere in the forest, he quietly looked in that direction while lost in thought for a moment. He seemed to be gauging what might have happened.

Reibella naturally lowered her head while quickly examining her appearance. Dirty clothes from crawling out of a dusty hole. Tattered shoes and hem. Sleeves grimy from only being roughly washed in water.

Her face probably wasn’t very clean either.

“How did you get here?”

“Mom said, if I get lost, follow the leaves floating on water……”

“So you followed the leaves?”

Nod nod.

“Do you remember anything else Mom said?”

“She said we’d go somewhere nice……”

The man paused briefly at Reibella’s story. He seemed to have guessed ‘this child was abandoned’ from her last words.

“Then……”

Growl.

At the timely sound of hunger, he stopped his question and smiled. A large hand was placed on Reibella’s head.

“Then shall we go to uncle’s house for a bit? Uncle has fragrant bread and warm milk.”

She still didn’t know this person’s identity. It felt risky to follow him carelessly.

But she wasn’t in a position to refuse his offer either. She thought refusing might raise unnecessary suspicion. Since it was true that she had no way to escape from him now with all her strength gone, it seemed better to enter the village and observe the situation.

Having finished thinking, Reibella nodded and stretched out her arms, and he smiled as he picked up the child.

Thus they headed to his house. 

 * * *

 “The little one eats well.”

Reibella chewed on the hard bread while staring at the man and woman before her.

The man, Tom, was the person who had brought her into the village, and beside him was his wife, Jessie.

‘Where did you pick up this child?’

‘Oh my, so dirty. Let auntie give you a bath.’

‘So pretty after washing up. Want to be auntie’s daughter?’

At first she was suspicious they might be with the people who kidnapped her and the princess, but from the atmosphere, it didn’t seem so. They just appeared to be kind people who willingly extended a hand to those in need.

As soon as Jessie saw Reibella, she comforted her wondering how scared she must have been in the forest, warmly embraced her, cleaned her up thoroughly, and willingly shared their food.

They were good people.

‘……I would have thought so if they hadn’t put something in the food.’

Reibella thought as she gulped down the milk.

‘Good thing I always carry raffle.’

Because she never knew what situation might arise when and where, Reibella always carried antidote herbs with her. Fortunately, since they were kept in a shabby pouch, no one paid much attention to them during the kidnapping or when changing clothes here.

‘What kind of drug is it?’

Poison? Or truth serum?

‘Whatever it is, raffle will neutralize it.’

Though it would be safer to eat the antidote herb now, Reibella decided to wait for now. She wanted to confirm the effects of the drug they had given her and act accordingly.

If it was poison, she could pretend to be in pain to make them lower their guard and then escape, and if it was truth serum, it would be safer to deceive them to her advantage.

“Could she be from the western village? I heard they had a bad harvest recently.”

“That village is about a day’s journey from here, so it’s quite possible.”

Reibella pretended to be sleepy from a full stomach while carefully listening to their words. Wondering where exactly this was and where she should go next.

But before long, a deep drowsiness really came over her. Drowsiness that couldn’t be resisted no matter how she tried, couldn’t be endured no matter how she struggled.

‘Does raffle work on sleeping drugs……?’

Unable to fight the overwhelming sleepiness, Reibella’s head kept nodding until it hit the table. As she did so, she quickly put the flower petal in her mouth.

Their gazes turned to Reibella.

“The little one is very sleepy.”

Giggle. Jessie smiled as she approached and picked up Reibella. Then she carried her to a small room and laid her on a cozy bed.

“Sleep well.”

Under the patting touch, Reibella’s eyes slowly closed. Though she tried to hold onto consciousness, thinking she needed to stay awake, needed to protect herself, she ended up falling into a deep sleep. 

 * * *

 “……hey?”

“……will, ……right.”

As she slowly opened her eyes to voices tickling her ears, once again an unfamiliar ceiling came into view.

The sun must have set while she had dozed off briefly, as everything was wrapped in quiet darkness.

“How is it? Anything suspicious?”

Tom answered the unfamiliar man’s voice.

“Well, not yet.”

“Don’t get attached needlessly. If she turns out to be sent by the guard, we’ll have to kill her.”

“I know. By the way, what happened to those suspicious guys visible in the inner forest?”

“The scouts we sent haven’t returned yet. Something definitely happened two days ago.”

“Nothing serious, right?”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

“Damn it. If only that cursed Emperor would just die, we wouldn’t have to worry about this stuff.”

Tom ground his teeth as he expressed his dissatisfaction with the Emperor.

As if in agreement, numerous voices began pouring out from here and there.

“His Highness the Crown Prince should have ascended to the throne back then. If that had happened, we wouldn’t have had to go through this.”

“Those were good times.”

Though the unfiltered words being poured out were vicious, still no voice spoke up to stop them.

‘Is this a village of people who have grievances against the Emperor?’

Goodness. To think such admirable people existed.

So there were actually some sane people. There seemed to be a little hope even in this crazy Empire.