Chapter 48 - Episode 47: Re-education ②
Returning to her room while her irritated emotions remained unappeased, Christy took out her stress by venting her frustrations on the bed.
She punched the bed over and over, pressed her face into the pillow and screamed according to her emotions, and finally, the blazing anger subsided.
"...Damn it. Damn it, damn it."
Recently, Christy had always been in this state. Whenever she had a spare moment, she would spout abuse toward her current situation and the people around her.
Collapsing onto the bed, where the sheets had become a mess from her repeated punching, she casually looked around the room.
"...What a piece of shit room."
The private rooms for live-in servants were narrow. The minimum necessary furniture was provided and the cleaning was thorough, but for Christy, who had lived in a spacious room surrounded by luxurious furniture and fixtures at her family home, she felt nothing but dissatisfaction.
To ensure that Christy, who performed intellectual labor, could get as much rest as possible, the cleaning of the room was left to the maids; while it was luxurious treatment for a slave to not have to clean her own room, Christy couldn't care less about such things.
Looking around the room, Christy happened to look toward the window and noticed.
"...!"
It wasn't locked.
Because Christy could not be called obedient as a slave, and there was a risk of escape, an additional lock had been installed on the outside of the window of her private room.
The maids of the mansion would remove this lock to ventilate the room during cleaning, but it seemed they had forgotten to close the outer lock today. A mistake typical of stupid country maids.
The main windows and entrances of the mansion were equipped with security magic tools that would make a sound if someone arbitrarily opened or broke them in the middle of the night. However, the private rooms did not have them.
In other words, if she went outside through this window, she could escape.
"..."
Christy agonized over what she should do.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. If she missed this opportunity, she didn't know when she would be able to escape next.
The fact that Noein's attitude earlier was somehow meaningful also bothered her. Perhaps, from now on, he would try to make her obey through violence. She refused to be scarred by a guy like that.
After escaping, she could head south, slip through the chaos of the conflict zones, and go to the Lancel Kingdom. The status of a slave and the slave crest were only valid in the Lordberg Kingdom. In a neighboring country, those things wouldn't matter, and as a highly educated person, she should be able to find work easily.
There was a possibility she might die in a ditch along the way, but that was better than being kept like a pet in a country village like this.
She couldn't take it anymore. I'll escape. Christy made her decision.
.....
In this world, in order to save the oil and candles used for lighting, many people did not stay up late and began preparing for sleep. This was no different in the Arqvist Knight-Baron territory.
In the lord's mansion, Noein sometimes stayed up somewhat late for work, but even so, once it became the middle of the night, there were almost no people awake within the capital city of Noeina.
It was during such a midnight that Christy took action.
She opened the window carefully so as not to let sound echo and peered at the situation outside. Since night watchmen were not stationed within the peaceful capital city of Noeina, naturally, there was no one outside the window.
Shouldering a cloth bag containing dinner bread she had saved as food and valuables she had pilfered from the mansion as escape funds, she descended from the window into the garden.
While maintaining a flawless vigilance of her surroundings, Christy quickly left the mansion grounds. She then ran as if following the wooden fence that surrounded the capital city of Noeina.
Sentries were stationed at the gates of the wooden fence to keep watch, but as long as she didn't pass through there, she wouldn't be found. Moreover, the wooden fence was only at a height that could be dealt with if one intended to climb over it.
Using a wooden box or barrel she found by chance as a foothold, Christy climbed over the wooden fence at a position somewhat distant from the gate, and finally stepped outside the capital city of Noeina.
Running through the farmland and hiding herself in the forest, she proceeded a bit through the forest and emerged onto the highway at a spot invisible from the gate, then began running down the road.
(I did it! I did it! I did it!)
I've escaped, Christy thought. With this, she was free.
She just had to escape as far as possible during the night and make her whereabouts disappear.
Because the inside of the mansion was full of gaps, she had been able to steal several ornaments that could be exchanged for money. If she handed these over, she could probably get a ride in a carriage of a merchant or traveler heading south, or she could sell them to exchange for food and lodging expenses.
She could just hide the slave crest carved into her neck, and recently, due to the worsening situation, runaway slaves were not uncommon. Even if she was viewed with suspicion, it would be easy to silence them with the power of money and goods.
It'll work out. Everything will go well.
While intoxicated by the freedom and sense of liberation she felt for the first time in a long while, Christy ran down the highway in high spirits—and then she couldn't.
Along with a dull "thud" sound, her vision sank, and she fell clumsily onto the ground. Looking at her feet, it seemed her foot had gotten caught in a depression in the ground and she had tripped.
She tried to stand up in a panic, but
"Ow!?"
A sharp pain shot up from her ankle. Since there was only moonlight, she couldn't see her feet well, but just touching it caused a throbbing pain that echoed. It seemed she had sprained her foot badly.
"N-no way..."
This is no joke. There's no way she would give up on freedom in a place like this, over something like this.
Somehow standing on one leg, she proceeded along the highway, dragging the sprained foot.
I have to move. I have to move forward even a little during the night.
In stark contrast to her light footsteps from before, Christy continued to walk, though at a frustratingly slow pace, never stopping.
However, just then, from the bushes beside the highway, the sound of branches and leaves rustling echoed.
I've been found. The pursuers have come.
Someone must have seen her escaping. Christy thought this instinctively and was enveloped in a sense of despair.
She was already a runaway slave. She didn't know what would happen to her if she were brought back.
Even so, she would rather die than bow her head and beg for forgiveness from that brat of a lord.
"Hmph! Even if you bring me back now, I'll absolutely never listen to you obediently!"
While saying so defiantly, Christy looked back, and
The one there was not a pursuer from the territory, but a single goblin.
"Gogaaa!"
"N-nooo!"
Seeing the goblin that appeared from the bushes, Christy screamed and tried to flee.
However, in a situation where one leg was not free, she could not run and instead fell pathetically.
The goblin, viewing Christy as wounded prey, approached her while crying "Gogya gogya" happily.
"Don't come here! No! Don't come!"
Christy instinctively kicked the goblin that tried to grab her leg. The small goblin suffered an unexpected counterattack and fell on its buttocks helplessly, but that wasn't much damage, and instead, it approached again while angrily shouting "Gugogooo!"
The goblin swung down the weapon it held in its hand—a club made of wood.
Christy, who had no weapon or anything, blocked the club the goblin swung down with her own arm. A dull thud echoed, and a pain shot through her that made her think her arm might have cracked, but this arm was the only thing she had to protect herself.
Furthermore, the goblin swung down the hand that wasn't holding the club, digging its sharp claws into Christy's leg. She had no means to block this, and her skirt was torn as a sharp wound ran across her leg.
"It hurts! It hurts, stop it! Please stop it!"
There was no way Christy's words would reach the goblin, and she was struck repeatedly with the club and had claws dug into her leg.
Because it was a small goblin, it didn't reach the point of inflicting a fatal wound on the resisting Christy, and raw wounds continued to increase on her body. Only the pain increased.
Struck. Scratched.
Struck again. Scratched.
Sometimes she couldn't block it with her arm, and a blow from the club hit her face.
Christy was already battered all over.
At this rate, her strength would be exhausted and she would be tortured to death. And yet, she had no means of counterattacking.
I don't want this. I'm scared.
Someone help me. Anyone, please help me.
What reached the ears of Christy, who prayed so from the bottom of her heart, was
"Hey Christy, you've become a terrible sight."
The voice of Noein, mocking her as if ridiculing her.