Memories were not reliable. They could be easily manipulated, even without Magic. For example, if I asked the silly Goddess, ‘what did you eat last night?’ and the silly Goddess answered confidently, ‘curry!’, I could make her doubt her memories with further questions. For example, ‘are you sure you are eating curry? I cooked chicken broth last night, you know?’ or ‘oh, curry? Didn’t you eat fried chicken last night? I am sure you ate fried chicken though.’

There was an eighty percent chance that the silly Goddess would try to remember what she ate last night. And if I kept questioning her memories, she would doubt her memories for sure, and it would be easily manipulated. If I wanted it to be more effective, I could ask the others’ help for making her lose even more confidence in her memories.

Alright, why did I start talking about memories in the first place? Well, it was because of the situation I was in right now. Everywhere I went, I heard people talking about me. Saying that I boasted about defeating ten Master Shiro, or using a single Spell to destroy the whole school. Also, they said that I mentioned that everyone was weak in the school in my speech.

Honestly, I didn’t remember doing any of that, but after hearing about it a hundred times already, I began doubting my memories. Did I really say something like that?

If I remembered correctly, I was talking with the big sister type of girl in the opening ceremony. I said something like using ten elements Magic… didn’t I? Also, I said that I was defeated by Master Shiro easily and could only block his ten attacks… I really couldn’t remember something so trivial like that.

However, the rumors became even more exaggerated, something like my past was revealed. Or rather than revealed, it was more accurate to say that my past was created in this academy. They said that I was an orphan and I was recruited by a hidden Master and trained to be an Assassin. A Magic Assassin, nonetheless. After that, they were saying that I killed a certain noble in the past, or I killed a rich merchant in the past. Also, I bullied a girl in the class just this morning and that girl was crying incessantly ever since this morning.

Human’s imagination was awesome. Perhaps, in the mind of the young students around me, I was not a cute one meter and half (actually, it was only 140 cm) cute girl, but rather, a three-meter demon with horns and fangs and I would kill everything in my sight… alright, that was my imagination about how they imagined me. But that was not the worst.

The worst was the rumors I heard from the Iron Lady, cough, Ms. Rosemary. She mentioned that rumors about me were circulating in the teachers’ circles. Actually, the root of this rumor came from Master Shiro himself. He said that I would be stronger and could defeat him if I trained hard in a year or so. However, the rumor that spread at the moment was saying that I could defeat Master Shiro easily right now. Also, I didn’t know why but the rumors also said that my personalities were bad and I glared at the teacher when they were teaching. Somehow, teachers were asking the principal to kick me out of school.

…please don’t do that, I wished inwardly. Perhaps, it would be better if I stopped coming to school, huh?

“Don’t worry about it. There will not be expulsion from the school just because of rumors like this. However, I suggest you to stop attending other classes. If you want to learn the basics of Magic, I can teach you. As for other subjects, you can read in the library.” The Iron Lady consoled me with these words of her. I nodded, though I was a little sad because I felt that I was bullied again, I wouldn’t let it get to me. Yes, the most important thing was to study to the best of my ability!

Speaking of which, later, I realized that the rumors were spread by the nobles’ children just because their scores were lower than me in the entrance exams. Seriously, kids, you should put your energy in studying instead of harming an innocent like me…

…

Late afternoon. It was almost dark. I returned to the inn while feeling dejected. Fortunately, both Rita and Rayleigh didn’t keep their distance from me. However…

“Oh, Fey, I heard that you become a bad girl in the school and start bullying others?” Rita abruptly asked this when I returned to the inn. She glared at me, it was not an unpleasant glare because I did something bad though, but rather, it was a suspicious glare as she didn’t believe that I could do something like that.

“…do you think I could get something from doing bad things like that?” I asked her.

“That’s right! So, what happened?” Rita asked curiously. I explained everything to her, and to my explanation, Rita laughed lightly.

“Nobles will always be nobles, won’t they?” She said while laughing. “Don’t you know that nobles have high pride? You see, Mr. Urch, the rich merchant that has almost half of the market in this city? Well, since he is so rich and so good at business, three years ago, the nobles give a pressure at him and finally, he relented and gave almost half of his stores to the nobles. Anyway, the point is, the nobles don’t want other people to be better than them. It’s already in their blood, I think.”

So, the nobles were contaminated by Pride and Envy? Well, from stories in Manga and Novels that I read on Earth, the nobles were not only had high pride, but they were also lustful, greedy, easy to be angered, love to eat until they were fat, and they were always envying other nobles that had a higher position than them. Hm, that was six of the seven great sins, right? Was there no lazy noble…? I couldn’t remember any lazy nobles though. If a noble was lazy, it would be easy to demote them after all.

Just as we talked (badmouthing) the nobles, I heard a slight commotion just outside the inn. It seemed that a dozen armored soldiers rushed to this inn. Were they looking for someone?

“Fey, you hide! I think they are looking for you!” Rita whispered with urgencies in her tones. How could she think something like that? Well, anyway, I hurriedly went into the kitchen and looked at the situation from here.

The armored soldiers entered the inn, seemingly looking for someone as they grabbed Rita's arm forcefully. “Where is she? Where is that girl?”

“S-sire, who are you talking about? Th-there’s no girls here except me and my mother…” Rita replied, stuttering. I wanted to praise her act now. She looked really scared, with her trembling lips and pale face.

“That girl that lives in this inn! Her name is Fey!” That soldier yelled at Rita, causing her body trembled even more.

“F-Fey? She isn’t home yet.” She replied while her hand making a gesture at me. It seemed she wanted me to leave, huh? Well, I was not a Hero, so leaving people in distress wouldn’t leave a bad taste in my mouth. Naturally, if they dared to do something like that, I would make them regret later, but I wouldn’t try saving Rita with my meager strength at the moment.

“Don’t lie!” The soldier raised his hand and slapped Rita, only to hit Rayleigh. Unknowingly, he took his sister's place when the captain raised his hand.

“Rayleigh!” Rita screamed as she saw Rayleigh fell to the ground. “Sir, as I said, the girl named Fey hasn’t returned yet! If you don’t believe me, you can search for her or even in her room!” Rita glared at the soldiers fiercely.

“You don’t need to tell me what to do! Search this inn! Don’t let that girl escape!”

“Sir, yes Sir!”

Without hesitation, I retreated from the backdoor that the owner of this inn, Rita’s father, opened for me. He nodded meaningfully and let me escape despite the risk to his own family, huh? I would never forget this kindness.

While thinking like that, I retreated and escaped from the inn under the cover of darkness. Because it was still early evening, there were still a lot of people walking in the streets. I hid in the crowds as I covered my face with the shawl I took randomly from the vendor. Naturally, I tossed the vendor a piece of silver. It should be enough for this simple shawl.

Hiding in this big city was quite easy. Not to mention that not many people knew my face. I went to the Adventure Guild as it was the other place that I knew that it would be safe. When I entered the Adventure Guild, I saw several familiar faces. If I remembered correctly, they were from the same Newbie Village as me. I didn’t know them personally though.

“Oh, miss Fey! Why are you here?” The Tank waved his hand with amiable smile, so I came to him and sat in front of him. If I remembered correctly, he was the Tank that was quite good at giving a command in battle with the Rhino-Bear. He was with his party members that consisted of one female Mage, one female Healer, one female Warrior, and one female Archer. Hm, was he a protagonist of harem anime?

“…escaping from a certain noble.” I replied honestly.

It seemed I got their attention as they got closer to me. “Is this a quest?” They asked.

Right, I could give a quest to the Players, couldn’t I? Something like protecting me or something like that. So, I nodded. “Yes, it is a quest. Well, as you can see, I’m hiding now, so, as long as you help me hide here until midnight, I will give you appropriate rewards.”

“Oh, cool! So, we can get rewards without doing anything?” The female Mage exclaimed in excitement.

“Well, I can give you bonus rewards too. For example, if you can get the identity of the one chasing after me, I will give you additional reward.” I said after thinking for a while. I remembered the soldiers were having emblems on their armor, but unfortunately, I didn’t know which noble house had that emblem. Using the Players to look for that kind of emblem should be easy, right?

“Leave it to me!” The female Archer said as she stood up. “I’m quite good at information gathering after all.”

The female Archer left, leaving us. “So, you only need to hide until midnight, right? Where are you going after that?” The leader asked me.

“…nowhere in particular. I just need to hide for a while.” I replied. Naturally, I wouldn’t tell them that I was going to a Dungeon. Besides, I didn’t enter the Dungeon legally, so it would be troublesome to explain everything to them.

We chatted while waiting for midnight to come. I was curious as none of them logged out even though it was midnight. I thought that they would log out when it was night. After all, I rarely saw a Player when the night came. Well, I heard that some Players played twenty-four hours a day in the game and when the night came, they went hunting, so it was natural that I never saw a Player in the night before. I never stepped out into the field after all.

When it was late at night, the female Archer returned with a wide grin on her face. Speaking of which, there were a lot of Adventurers in the Adventure Guild. As it was a place to gather information, a tavern was built for the Adventurers to have leisure time.

Anyway, the female Archer said with her big smile. “Hey, I found out about the guys who chased after you! There are thirteen different nobles!”