A week after Layla had expressed her feelings to Kotori she had called a meeting with her whole party,.

“We’re leaving” Kotori told her group

“Ehhh?” Everybody said

It seems they had gotten comfortable with their living space in the current dwarf village. It wasn’t like they had to move. Amelie had complained about there not being enough strong monsters to defeat but she was happy to enjoy her temporarily peaceful life.

She was even talking about going back to the village and meeting the Boss.

In truth, Kotori also wanted to live peacefully. But she was truly unable too. Her Karma number wouldn’t allow her. She was thankful that her party was loyal enough that that they would be following her.

“But why are we going back the kingdom don’t they have a search warrant out for our arrest?’ Amelie asked.

“That’s true but we still have to resolve the issue, even if we’ve been able to hide in the dwarf village, we won’t be able to hide here forever they still are in contact with the kingdom as a result of smithing contrast,” Kotori explained

Horatio and Nick had been coming back with tales of a group fugitives from the kingdom it didn’t seem like they were suspicious of Kotori and her party yet. Kotori Still made sure to feign ignorance in case they were trying to get a reaction out of her.

Kotori relayed the story.

Amelie gave a toubled expression.

“So you don’t think it’s feasible to stay here?” She asked,

“The dwarves have been quite nice to us but we won’t be able to stay here” Kotori said.

Amelie pursed her lips. It was obvious that she was split on whether they had to leave the village.

“Kotori are you sure this is the way”

“I’m afraid so” Kotori lied slightly.

In truth they could probably stay in the village for a little while longer. But she wasn’t exaggerating the fact that they would likely still be caught. They were simply too valuable and although they had a good relationship with the dwarf village it only took one greedy dwarf to compromise their whole operation.

“Still, going to the kingdom seems dangerous. What about going over to the Atlea Republic?” Amelie suggested

“Denied!” Kotori vehemently wanted to avoid Atlea where she had grown up. She would rather be hunted down in Faramouth than go south the Atlea. She hated the country and it's nobility even if it was technically safer she'd rather take her chances in Faramouth.

Amelie looked taken aback

“What wrong with Atlea?” She asked shocked by Kotori’s reaction

Kotori explained the situation. The story was still a little bit emotional for her, but she had gotten better about handling it.

“How horrible!” Umi said

“Truly barabaric…” Layla said soft.

Umi and Layla were sniffling.

Shu had a difficult expression on his face. Shu had witnessed the even firsthand and it seemed like he felt bad for not being able to protect Kotori at that time. Ever since Shu had transformed into this humanoid form he had gotten much more knightly with each passing day. He was also pursued by the girls in the village, but he politely turned them down.

[Ah, please don’t look like that I’m not that bother by it. I just want to make sure that Mr. Derkin dies a very horrible death] Kotori thought.

“I see, then we won’t go to Atlea” Amelie said.

She had always wondered why Kotori was running in the forest of wood elves alone but now that she heard the explanation, she pitied Kotori.

“So what do we do when we get caught in the kingdom” Amelie asked

It was a good question and one that Kotori had thought about.

“We’ll pretend to be travelling nobles” Kotori’s Hikaru could transform into a carriage. And since Shu and Umi and Layla were not with their party and not recognizable by tother adventurers and they pose as attendants. Kotori herself had grown much faster than a normal human and thus it would be difficult to recognize her unless the person knew her personally before. Only Amelie had to completely hide her face.

Kotori also had her [Charm] Skill. To make sure any straggling gazes were blocked. To be quite honest, they were rich. Kotori had sold so much Manatanium she could easily buy a plot of land and buy nobility status with plenty to spare.

Her plan was to do exactly that. She would then use her status to act as secluded nobility to fund public works and gain karma. It should be slow working but with enough time it should be enough. The only problem was that Kotori had to go to the kingdom capital to buy nobility status.

Amelie was not happy with the idea of going to the kingdom capital.

“Isn’t that just walking into a den of wolves?” Amelie asked

“Do you have any better ideas?” Kotori asked.

They were eventually going to get found out. Their other option was going back to the wood elf village, but Kotori knew that Amelie wanted to avoid that as much as possible. The ribbing they would get from the Boss would be too heavy to bear and Amelie’s pride wouldn’t allow it.

Amelie stayed silent after Kotori’s question.

“Is this really the only way?” Amelie asked

“I can’t think of anything else” Kotori said.

Kitsura

Turns out the crap feeling yesterday was chronic sleep deprivation. I slept 16 hours and felt much better.

Currently working on a new novel. 

I can't say too much since I plan on getting it trad publishing instead of as a web serial but I hope that you all can say one day.

"Well, I knew her before she got famous."