━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The moment she'd arrived in this world, Emilia knew that the first thing she needed to do was to find a suitable identity.
After all, it was impossible for her to not stand out in the future, and she couldn't afford the hero or the world will figuring out that she was actually an 'outsider' in this world.
Not to mention being thrown out and losing the energy they'd invested in their arrival, it was even possible that, due to the current disparity in their strengths, they might be eradicated entirely before Cynthia could react and have them withdraw.
Luckily, Emilia had managed to glean quite a bit of useful insight into how this world worked already, and Cynthia also helped her with some ideas.
Although it was quite modern and everyone had to have a valid 'ID' in most countries, the one where the hero and the heroine lived wasn't too strict, and there were several remote communities where people lived completely off the grid.
Whenever such people, or their children, decide to change their way of life and pursue a life in the city, they could simply go through a simple background check and get their paperwork done before living a relatively normal life.
Of course, to pass this background check, Emilia knew that she had to lay down some groundwork first.
She'd knowingly made herself a little younger to attract less suspicion, and then pretended to 'faint' close enough to the settlement that she'd be noticed by the hunters.
There was still some luck needed for her plan to work, as she couldn't be sure what kind of people would come across her, but in the worst case she could just get rid of them and try again.
Fortunately, Mira turned out to be quite a good person.
Emilia soon pretended to 'wake up', with just the right amount of confusion and uncertainty in her eyes, and allowed Mira and her sister to 'bring her up to speed', meekly answering all their questions.
Mira sighed. "So… you really don't remember anything at all?"
The crimson-haired girl hung her head in shame. "I-I know I am Emilia, I-I know what my room looks like… b-but I can't remember… anything else."
She sniffled, and Mira's sister hurriedly stepped forward to hug the girl comfortingly. "I-It's okay! You'll remember it all sooner or later!"
Then, she glared at the older huntress. "I think she's had enough. I'll go give her a bath first."
Mira rubbed her nose in embarrassment as she watched the crimson-haired girl being dragged away towards the lake. "I was only trying to help…"
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Emilia didn't intend to stay in the small settlement for long, but she understood that it was still important for her to take her time and not appear suspicious.
She spent the next few weeks getting familiar with everyone in the small settlement, and quickly became quite well-liked among most of its inhabitants.
Being both pretty and polite, the only ones who didn't like her were either those who were jealous, or those whose advances she'd rejected. Of course, they didn't dare to voice such thoughts out loud, lest Mira teach them a lesson.
Speaking of the woman, Emilia couldn't help but have a headache. 'What am I gonna do if she doesn't allow me to leave?'
Cynthia giggled. "It's your own fault… I told you not to go overboard."
"Emilia! Dear, there you are!"
The crimson-haired girl jumped as she turned around to find Mira running towards her with a big plate of roasted pork, and her face turned pale.
Mira's cooking… she'd tasted it more than once, and it was a complete antithesis of everything Crystal's mom ever taught her.
Sometimes, she even wondered if the woman just dug up charred coal from somewhere and carved it to make it look less suspicious.
Of course, there was little she could do except let the woman shove it all down her throat as she cried. "I'm full! Full!"
But Mira was having none of it. "Look at you, so skinny and weak, ahh! How are you going to survive out in the city looking like this? I don't want my daughter to be bullied!"
Emilia couldn't bring herself to say that she wasn't her daughter.
As Cynthia said, it really was her own fault for calling her 'Mama' and clinging to Mira when the woman had been unnaturally squinting her eyes at her for a while. At that time, she had no idea that it was actually just because of the sun.
Emilia na?vely thought it would make her less suspicious, and then… this was how things turned out.
Luckily, the crimson-haired girl had been smart enough to lay the groundwork for leaving the settlement well in advance, or she might really have needed to run away, with probably a crazy huntress chasing her down.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Did you pack everything you needed?"
Mira rolled her eyes at her sister as she patted the big bag strapped to her chest and the 'child carrier' on her back. "Relax, I can stuff that kid in here and easily carry her to the city. Didn't you already triple-check everything?"
Her younger sister hummed. "It's a pity that she has such a strong desire to seek out her parents, or we could have just taken care of her here… I hope it will be alright."
Neither of them was na?ve enough to believe that a young girl like Emilia could end up alone in a forest by accident, especially after looking at that face.
Most likely, she'd ended up attracting someone's jealousy and hatred, and given how she wasn't too injured… it was definitely someone she used to trust.
They already understood the girl's somewhat na?ve and mischievous personality after living with her, and while she couldn't be called stupid, Emilia was simply too easy to deceive.
She'd even been fooled into thinking sewing clothes was a 'game', and had a lot of 'fun' with the neighboring seamstress as free labor until Mira found out.
The huntress sighed. "I just hope that bastard is still working in the police station, or it will be a bit troublesome getting her paperwork done."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Emilia was obviously a bit embarrassed at being carried for such a long distance by Mira, and had tried to protest to be allowed to walk on her own, but it only earned her extra swats to her butt, further adding to her shame.
Mira snorted. "Don't make trouble and be still, alright? We still have a long way to go."
Watching her partner sulk, Cynthia giggled. "Princess Emilia getting spanked like a naughty little kid… should I let your 'knights' know about it when we get back?"
The crimson-haired girl sighed. 'I'm not a princess now… just an ordinary little girl.'
She slightly regretted changing her form to her younger self now, but it was a bit too late.
Emilia convinced herself that it was worth it to appear less suspicious, though. 'I suppose I can only slowly 'grow up' to not be treated like this…'
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
It took a while for them to arrive at the city Mira was taking her to, and Emilia couldn't help but sigh at the somewhat familiar sights. 'It's not much different from those in the previous world, is it…?'
Cynthia nodded. "The base level of both civilizations is quite similar, after all. But the world will here is leading them on a completely different path, so it's all about to change soon."
Of course, Emilia knew that.
This seemingly peaceful modern world… was about to welcome the chaos of fantasy.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Visit freewe𝑏n(o)vel.𝑐𝘰𝑚 for the best novel reading experience