I think I got played.
I have been heading north from the moment I escaped that place. I started running in the middle of the night, and now it is already late into the morning. Despite all that effort, I haven't made any real progress.
"Sigh... what was I thinking?" I muttered to myself. I slapped my forehead with a tired hand. I was exhausted, hungry, and my throat felt like sandpaper. I desperately needed water.
I tried to lean against the bark of a tree to catch my breath when something caught my eye. Through the thick trees, I saw what looked like an open path—a real, official road.
"Is that what I think it is?" I squinted, trying to be sure. "It really is!"
I laughed out loud. I bolted forward, completely forgetting how tired I was. Before long, I burst out of the bushes and into a clearing. However, as I looked left and right, the reality of the situation hit me. I was still in the middle of nowhere.
Finding a road was a good sign that civilization existed somewhere, but there was no telling how long it would take to reach it. For all I knew, I could die of thirst right here on the dirt. When I first arrived in this world, I survived because I found a destroyed caravan stocked with food. Here, there was nothing like that.
Well, except for one thing.
[Arrive at Pehidro: ???]
A blue interface floated in front of my eyes. I actually have a system.
At first, I thought the hunger was making me see things, but the screen stayed right there. It didn't go away. I realized that maybe it hadn't shown up before because I refused to leave my comfort zone at Jenny's house. Now that I was in real danger of dying, the system finally made itself known.
There wasn't much to see, though. I tried to pull up a "Status Window" like the main characters do in those transmigration novels, but it didn't respond. I took it as a sign that I hadn't earned those privileges yet. I would have to finish this mission of reaching Pehidro first. Luckily, that was already where I was trying to go.
"Huh?" I frowned. I noticed something moving further up the road.
I quickly hid behind a tree and peeked out.
"A battle," I whispered.
Up ahead, a carriage was stopped in the middle of the road. A group of men was clashing with the guards. Whoever was inside that carriage had to be a noble. I had to decide what to do next. I could run away and mind my own business, or I could try to help. If I helped, the nobles might give me a ride or some food.
"That sounds about right," I muttered.
Helping the attackers was an option, too, but they looked like the type to kill me the moment the job was done. That was a high-risk, low-reward move. Helping the carriage seemed more profitable, but there was also the chance the noble inside was a jerk who wouldn't thank me.
"Ugh, forget it," I decided.
I took the risk. I began to sneak through the brush, moving closer to the fight. I was very careful, staying low and quiet until I was close enough to see the details. The guards around the carriage were well-trained and had good equipment. However, the people they were fighting weren't just common bandits. These guys moved with precision. They looked more like assassins. It seemed like someone powerful had hired them to kidnap or kill the person inside the carriage.
I started to reconsider. Fighting those guards would lead to death, and fighting those assassins would lead to death just as fast. They were all professionals, and I was just... a guy with a high libido.
"I should probably just run," I told myself.
Dying on the road was better than getting my head chopped off here. I figured I had at least a forty-percent chance of making it to the city on my own if I left now.
Kink! Shink! Kank!
The sound of metal hitting metal echoed through the woods. The fight was brutal. From what I could see, the assassins were starting to win. They weren't as skilled as the guards, but they had more people. I also realized there might be others hiding in the bushes nearby to act as backup.
...Wait.
"Don't move."
Well, I really did it now. I jinxed myself. I felt the cold presence of someone behind me.
"I'm just passing by, I swear! Please don't kill me," I said, immediately raising my hands in the air to show I wasn't a threat.
"So you're not one of them?" a voice asked.
"One of who?" I responded. It was a female voice, very clear and sharp.
"Those guys in black," another voice added. This one belonged to a man.
I heard a scoff from a third person, another girl. My head was spinning. What was going on?
"I'm not! Can't you tell from what I'm wearing?" I asked. I started to realize these people might not be with the assassins after all.
"I think he's telling the truth," the first man said.
"...Fine," someone conceded.
The pressure at my back disappeared. The threat was gone for the moment. My heart was hammering against my ribs. For a second there, I really thought I was dead.
I turned around slowly. The moment I did, I stopped breathing. I was looking into two bright green eyes set in a slender, beautiful face. Her hair was a striking shade of lemon green.
"Who are you?" she asked.
I couldn't speak. My mind went blank. I didn't know who these people were, but looking at her, I knew one thing for sure: This is definitely a Heroine!