“Ha, ha, ha, ha.”

It hadn't even been an hour after I left the mansion; I was already out of breath, and my legs were really killing me. I haven’t felt this exhausted since I was inducted into the military with my sister Norn to become a pilot.

I’m starting to regret not exercising before I ran away. In honesty, why did I think I could just walk there with no problems?

By the time the sun rose, I managed to reach a split in the road.

Deciding it was a good opportunity to take a break, I looked around and saw a big rock on the side of the road and sat on it. Then I took out a flask of water to drink.

“Blegh, how do people drink this?”

Not trying to spit it out, I swallowed it. I know the vinegar in it is supposed to keep the water from going bad, but still, this is nasty.

I put away the flask with a sigh and pulled out a map from my backpack. I was supposed to reach the split a while ago, but it took way longer than I expected because I forgot to account for the fact that I was a kid, not an adult, so it’s going to take even longer to get there.

Looking at the map and doing some math, I try to figure out where I am on the map and where I want to go. Then I figured out how long it would take to get to Farsbarow, which was at least two to three days.

Okay, I'm going to have to cut my break short then. I reluctantly stood back up and continued walking, taking the left road on the split.

I walked for the rest of the day till I reached a lake I was supposed to pass by in the afternoon.

It was almost dark, and seeing the lake, my legs finally gave out, and I fell to the ground flat on my face.

“Uuuuugh… I don’t want to walk anymore.”

There was a small clearing next to the lake for me to camp out for the night, so I begrudgingly got back up and dragged my feet there.

I gathered some twigs and wood to make a campfire.

I sat on a log next to the fire. I took off my boots and massaged both my feet.

“Ahhh, this feels nice.”

My feet feel extremely sore from walking all day, so massaging them feels really good right now.

After massaging my feet, I took out the rations I packed in my backpack for my escape. They were a pouch of dried meat, bread, and some trail mix.

I think I should make a sandwich for dinner. Putting two pieces of bread and some dried meat together, I bit into it, and I immediately knew that it was a bad idea—a very bad idea. It was so hard, I thought I’d nearly chip off a piece of my tooth trying to bite into it. Why did I think it was a good idea?

Oh right, I forgot this is travel bread; it was made to be non-perishable, so it was made to be hard instead of the softer bread I usually eat.

I looked at the flask and took another deep sigh for today. I guess the only way to eat this is to soften the bread.

After pouring some of the water on the bread, I managed to cram the sandwich down. I’m honestly starting to regret running away in the first place if it was like this. The bread was now all soggy and tasted like vinegar.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

While struggling to eat my dinner and contemplating my choices, I heard rustling behind some bushes. Immediately I was on guard, pulling out my knife and dropping my, frankly, inedible sandwich to the ground in the process.

“Who's there?”

I shout in the direction of the rustling. Did the servants find out I escaped and send people to find me? I doubt it since it would be too soon for any of the servants to notice I was missing.

It didn’t take long to know because I saw multiple pairs of red eyes from a bush, and then coming out of the bushes were white rabbits, five in total, with long pointy horns sticking out on their foreheads.

They are bigger than normal rabbits—about three-fourths bigger. The horn sticking out of its head made it pretty obvious what it was. From my gaming knowledge of my past life, it definitely looks like a horned rabbit.

I grin seeing them; I’m going to have to kill them since they are monsters.

After all this time of not fighting anything because I was born a daughter of nobility, I finally have the opportunity to let loose for the first time in this life. Let's test how much my skills as a pilot have rusted over the years.

Immediately, they screeched, with two of them charging directly at me while the rest started circling me.

I sidestep to the right, dodging and swiping at the neck of the first-horned rabbit with my knife as it jumps and tries to use its horn to impale me with it. It left a big gash on its neck, with a lot of blood coming out.

Without breaking a step, I stabbed my knife at the second-horned rabbit, who was also trying to do the same thing as the first, through its left eye and into its brain.

Both of them fell to the ground, not moving.

Two horn rabbits that were circling me jumped on my left and right, attempting to use their horns to impale me.

I instinctively twisted my body out of the way of the horned rabbit to the left since it jumped first, grabbed it by the horn, and threw it towards the horned rabbit coming on my right, causing it to be impaled by the horn of the horned rabbit I threw it at.

While they were getting up after colliding with each other, I immediately swung my body around, instinctively knowing that another horned rabbit was going to attack me from behind.

I switched the grip on my knife to a reverse grip and slammed my knife, using the momentum of turning around, right through the neck of the horned rabbit that was about to pounce at me from behind.

Then I return my attention to the last-horned rabbit that wasn’t injured. It looked pissed off and was hissing at me after I threw one of its friends at it.

It charged at me and jumped, but I kicked it away. Then I plunged my knife into where I think its heart is, as it was trying to get up disoriented.

I think that was the last of them. I stood up and caught my breath. I checked my body for any injuries, and luckily, it looked like I didn't get any.

“Hehe, so I wouldn't have gotten that rusty.”

I still have to train my body, though, to build up some muscle and stamina and adjust to my fighting style since I was a kid, but overall, my fighting ability hasn't diminished that much.

Then I looked at the horned rabbits around me and my dinner, if you could call it that, which was on the ground.

It would be a waste not to eat them; it beats eating what I have. Plus, I can sell the furs and horns for some money when I get to Farsboro.

Gathering the dead horned rabbits, I began the process of skinning and butchering the horned rabbit after a bit of trial and error.

I decided to make some jerky so I could snack on it as I travel to Farsborow and roast one of them whole for dinner.

I cut the flesh of the horn rabbits into small pieces, skew them on sticks, and place them near the fire to smoke.

Then I flattened a horned rabbit and began roasting the horned rabbits on a stick. When it finished cooking, I bit into the roasted horned rabbit; it was surprisingly tender and juicy and tasted way better than what I have.

For the rest of the meat, I threw it away in the lake so it didn't attract any more monsters.

After eating the horned rabbit, I decided to turn in for the night since I’m going to be dreading tomorrow because it would be another grueling day of walking, so I’ll need all the rest I can get.

I should sleep on a tree tonight; it is better to be safe than sorry since I might be attacked by a monster in my sleep.

Finding a tree with branches that could support my weight, I struggled to climb up due to not having that much strength in general and being exhausted from the day.

After several minutes of struggling, I managed to get up to a branch. Then I took some bandages out of my backpack to use as a rope to tie me to the tree so I wouldn’t fall off the tree as I slept.

When I was done, I shut my eyes and went to sleep.