“Wow!”

I had finally made it to Devosh. The salty scent of the wind told me that the sea I had longed for was right before me. The sound of the roaring waves crashed and surged, and the sight of the blue sea was breathtaking.

Before I knew it, I had flung open the carriage door and stepped out.

“I’ll only take a quick look since we have to wait for two more days! Just a short break. Don’t forget that our final destination is the village of Castalt, Mabel.”

“Aren’t you coming out, Annie?”

“I’ll rest for a bit.”

Annie waved her hand, urging me to hurry and see the sea.

I closed the door and got off, letting Annie take a short nap before I walked slowly toward the water’s edge.

I had heard that his pursuit had begun, so I needed to lay low for a while until things died down. That was why I decided to let go of all the tension and frustration that had built up inside me while I was here. I was still considering emigration if things didn’t improve.

If I were caught, he definitely wouldn’t let me live after hitting him twice on the back of his head.

Since I couldn’t attend Lily’s wedding… I would send her a huge gift. Lily was such a kind heroine that she would probably understand. Honestly, I thought I had done a great job just by getting them halfway out of Kairos’ clutches.

Anyway…

“Let’s just enjoy this moment.”

Huh, go ahead and chase me. I hoped Kairos learned that he should never play with people’s hearts.

I decided not to call him Noah anymore. It was simple. He was a stranger. He was no longer my husband. His presence, which had begun to fade from my mind, would only get smaller, and I would shake off everything as soon as possible.

Now, he was just the villain in the story, an ex-husband I had met by chance. That was how I thought about it.

I took off my shoes and enjoyed the sea before getting back in the carriage.

“Annie, wake up.”

“Ugh, have you already seen everything?”

“I think it’s been about an hour.”

“Oh, then we should get going. There’s an inn I booked in advance, and we’re going to stay there for a couple of days. The innkeeper is trustworthy.”

Annie quickly regained her senses.

“I realize once again that you have a lot of connections.”

“Otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to do this kind of work. Let’s go.”

This time, I pulled the reins first. I didn’t even feel the pain in my buttocks anymore, probably because I had gotten calluses. I felt like I had gotten the hang of it since I had spent more time in the carriage than sleeping or eating.

The pointed, corncob-shaped green leaves of trees passed by through the window.

Pyronte looked like a well-developed countryside, unlike Ferarium, which was in the same area. There were more single-story houses than two- or three-story houses, and the houses were much smaller. There were so many red roofs that the houses looked like twins.

As soon as we arrived at the inn, I decided to stay in the room, and Annie went out to check the situation.

Annie said that today would be the most dangerous day. She said that if they found even the slightest trace, they would come for us today or tomorrow. She added that she had put more effort into saving me than any other request she had ever taken, so I shouldn’t worry. Then, we would stay here for two days and immediately tear the teleport scroll to Mabel.

Would Ginger and Edmond be able to avoid them and make it to Mabel?

Maybe I was worrying too much, and Edmond could escape again. I had also taken that into account, so I wasn’t going to stop him if Ginger left without taking the additional payment. Either way, the most important thing was to survive.

I didn’t take a single step outside the room until Annie returned.

Knock, knock.

I had dozed off for a moment, but the sound of a knock on the door startled me, and I flinched. It was already evening, and the sun had set. Was Annie not back yet?

Knock, knock.

Someone knocked on the door again.

“….”

“Levian, it’s me.”

Annie’s voice made me relax and sigh in relief. Then, I immediately unlatched the lock and opened the door.

“I fell asleep for a moment.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Annie stepped back, and I came in and naturally locked the door.

“It seems like he had let some people to Elkard. My colleague said that he couldn’t check further because he was afraid of being caught.”

“…Really?”

“Ferarium is… well, it’s useless to talk about it. It seems like the pursuit has begun. Just in case, I went around the outskirts of the town, and it’s quiet here. Let’s stay until around noon tomorrow and then head straight to Mabel.”

“Okay.”

“Annie prepared to go out again, then head straight to Mablelang.”

“Okay.”

Annie prepared to go out again.

“Don’t come out until I call you tomorrow morning. And keep the curtains drawn. Don’t even respond until I call you in the morning.”

“Yes, be careful, Annie.”

After Annie left, I locked the door and prepared myself to bolt at any moment.

The fact that Kairos’ men were tracking me in the capital made the danger feel all the more real. Still, as long as Kairos himself didn’t show up in front of me, there was no one whose abilities I couldn’t handle, so there were plenty of ways to escape.

It seemed like it was going to be a long night.

* * *

Ten days later.

It had been ten days since I’d come to Mabel. And twelve days since I’d shaken off Kairos.

I heard that the fake carriage that had headed north was caught the day we moved to Mabel. The carriage that had headed south was also caught two days later.

“Boss, aren’t you going to lunch?”

Ginger and Edmond had also arrived safely. In fact, I had thought that Ginger and Edmond had escaped somewhere else since I hadn’t heard any news of them for three days after arriving in Mabel. But then I saw Ginger and Edmond in rags on my way back from dinner with Annie.

‘G…Ginger?’

‘B…Boss?’

And the only thing Ginger said was, ‘C, Can I have some water?’

Edmond was better off than Ginger, but he still looked exhausted. I later found out that Ginger had gone somewhere completely different to create a proper diversion when doing her job, leaving traces behind as she came this way.

She apologized for using up all the teleportation scrolls, but I was just glad that Ginger hadn’t betrayed me.

I was staying in a fairly large house that Annie had prepared for me. It was small compared to the Viscount Edith’s manor, but it seemed like a palace compared to the first house I’d gotten in Ferrarium.

Annie was still staying here. She had successfully escaped, and I had paid her a very generous commission. Excluding the jewels the emperor had given me, I had given Annie more than half of all my assets. It was enough to make Annie smile broadly.

I was able to do this because, in addition to the revenue from the guild, I had gradually saved up money using the information I had gained from the original story. And later, when the purification stone skyrocketed in price, the share I had given Annie would make her ridiculously rich.

Anyway, I had paid the price, so it was my turn to survive here, but Annie was seriously considering retiring and taking a vacation with me.

Ginger and Edmond were staying separately a little ways away. Once, I told Ginger that she and Edmond could go their separate ways now, her response was amazing.

‘I feel like I’d become even more useless if I worked away from boss. It’s better than working in a restaurant or as a porter, so I’ve decided to stay a little longer. You still have more gold, right? Please let me work for you, boss!’

Fortunately, no one here knew that Edmond was a former slave or that I was Kairos Hadid’s wife, so it was easy to live. I still had to look around when I went outside, and I had to be ready to run away if anything seemed even slightly suspicious.

If I just held on a little longer, wouldn’t he give up? Would it take a month? Three months?

It all cost money to mobilize that many people just to catch me. By now, it had been several days since the letter and money I had left behind had reached Kairos, so I hoped that he had fallen for it.

As time passed, I could settle down here and live my life once more.

“Oh, I should buy some apples, too. I should also buy some cherry pie for dinner.”

I cleared my mind and hummed a song as I headed to the fruit shop.

—