Kumi pushed the corpse off of her as she stood up and wiped the sand off of her torn clothing.
She looked down at the dead man, who was just doing his job of bringing her back.
Kumi crouched down and searched through what the man had on him.
Besides a few clothing items that she used to fix up her appearance slightly, Kumi also took a watch that he had embedded in his sleeve along with the blade of a short dagger that was hidden in the other sleeve as well as a small pouch.
In the end, the man had next to nothing anymore. Robbed to the point that he was nearly naked.
"...sorry."
Kumi could only mutter a slight apology as she cleaned her stained hands on the cloth she left behind.
She quickly looked through the pouch, seeing a few small coins, a card and a small glass bottle.
'Money, identification and either poison or potion...'
She put the pouch in her pocket and looked at the watch.
'It's not even a proper timepiece. Made of wood and instead of anything resembling a clock, it's just filled with water or something.'
Kumi didn't see any mechanical parts to the watch and she didn't find anything magical about it either, but the man had definitely used it to contact Ayaka.
'It might be worth a lot if I sell it... but it could have a function like a GCS or whatever it was called. Geographic position. GP?'
Kumi threw the thought away, moving to the next.
'It might have sent an alert when he died. I have no idea for sure though. It feels too risky to even touch it.'
Kumi threw the watch on the sand before stomping on it, shattering the item to pieces.
Looking towards the corpse, Kumi raised her hands towards it, emitting a steady stream of rot and making the body decay rapidly.
After some time, only bones remained.
Kumi stomped down, breaking the bones apart before covering them, and everything else remaining, in sand.
'I can't waste too much time getting rid of evidence. He alerted Ayaka and if she makes a direct move then I don't know if I have a few hours or a few minutes left.'
Kumi turned towards the distant port city and didn't hesitate to run.
'A plan... a plan...'
...
Half an hour later.
Ayaka stood on a patch of sand speaking into a small wooden and glass disk filled with water.
"Reporting."
Hilde's image appeared in the water and responded to Ayaka.
"Go."
"First contact deceased. Can't find much that remains of the corpse, only the Mini-Communion Table remains besides torn cloth and bones."
"Fuck." Hilde swore, covering her face with her hand, "Who is the deceased?"
"With all due respect-"
"Yeah, I know! We don't have time."
"She must have gone to the nearby port city. There's no other logical destination from here."
"Find her. Search every corner. We officially have a rogue bioweapon on the loose. We don't know if any civilian casualties could appear."
"Understood. I'll move at once."
"Remember, every moment is precious time. Find her with haste."
Ayaka put away the small table in her pocket, looking at the distant city and the ocean beyond it.
For a moment, she felt melancholic.
"It's been so long since I've been on an outing like this."
She muttered to herself before she blitzed off towards the city.
Ayaka had taken the field.
...
Kumi, who had reached the city a while ago, briskly walked through the port.
There were stalls and busy streets. Few ships lined the dock as seamen ran to and fro.
One such seaman was looking through a stall of fruit before scowling at the price and walking away.
Seeing that man, who by her assumption, was wearing attire befitting of a merchant, she walked up to him and spoke.
"Hello."
The man turned and looked down after a second, not having noticed her approach.
"Hello?"
The man responded as he looked down at Kumi's ragged appearance. Thinking of her as an orphan from some slum, he didn't bother being polite if Kumi were to ask for anything. At first, that is.
"I would like to ask, if possible, are there any other port cities nearby? The person I am meeting didn't specify."
Kumi spoke clearly and politely, naturally weaving a lie into what she said on second nature.
"Well... to this city? Depends on what you define as close, ay? Nearest one is about a day long sail Eastward, I'd reckon."
The man estimated, or rather, guessed.
"You have any particular business in a port, lass?"
Kumi was hesitant in answering for a moment, but was confident in her lying.
"An acquaintance promised cheap passage off the continent. We were supposed to finalise the deal and exact destination at port but they never specified which port or city."
"Oh, sorry for that, lass. I feel for ya."
Kumi was internally debating whether to attempt going to another port city or taking her chances as a stowaway here.
The seaman took another glance at Kumi's appearance before speaking up again.
"Hey, out of curiosity."
Kumi looked up to meet his gaze.
"You look like you've traveled here by foot, yeah? Considering your dirty state and all that. With that desperate appearance and all, how much exactly was the promised payment for the voyage, hmm?"
Kumi reached into her pouch, taking out both the potion and card before hiding them in her other pocket.
She then took out the pouch itself.
"Desperate, yes. I am not sure about the exact payment since we never finalised it but I didn't want to show up with too little so I took everything I have."
Kumi showed the open pouch to the seaman, who glanced inside.
"That's quite a fair amount."
He commented before tilting back his hat.
"Say. I can offer you passage to the Western continent. I just so happen to be leaving in a short while. For half the coin you have, I'll take you along. Fair?"
Kumi closed her pouch as she deliberately looked like she was thinking for a moment.
"Too steep?"
"It is everything that I have..."
"Well, wouldn't want to leave a young lass in poverty on arrival in the West of all places, that's true. How about two fifths?"
"That's fine."
Kumi decided that leaving the continent at once would be better than trying the same at a different port city. This kind act from a stranger was a stroke of luck.
Though the city she left from would most likely be searched and the ships leaving the port would likely be followed as well, Kumi didn't plan on staying in the West. Her end goal was to reach the Neutral Ground Continent, Central.
At first, considering the distance to the other closest port city, she was ready to pay with all the money she had.
Kumi properly divided the coins as the seaman showed her to the ship they would be leaving in.
It was a magnificent ship. Mediocre in size and quality as it was a simple merchants vessel filled with basic cargo, but considering Kumi's first true view of an actual ship in this world as well as the fact that she might just be able to escape with it, the ship was amazing in her eyes.
Kumi gave the proper amount of money and boarded the ship.
"We'll reach the southern coast in a few days. Depending on weather, five maybe eight days. You can treat the vessel as your home till then."
"Is it common for merchants to treat their ships as moving inns?" Kumi asked curiously, not knowing if this was a type of 'public transport' that she vaguely remembered.
The merchant laughed as he pat her on the back.
"It's not uncommon if people pay a fair price! A merchants life depends on the customers, after all."
Kumi walked down the stairs into the lower level of the ship after asking if she could sleep for a while.
The seaman, named Thursdon, didn't mind in the slightest as he let her know that they would be disembarking in a short while.