Reincarnated Maid is About To Be Captured by All Players

Evening.

At the end of our flight, our group temporarily rested at the foot of a mountain.

“I really want to take a bath…”

“Me too, meow…”

“Please bear with it a little longer. Once it’s safe, I’ll use water magic to help everyone.”

Higdelytha and Carol Cat were sitting on stones to rest and adjust themselves. With the help of adventurers, our escape had not faced major obstacles, but it was still fraught with difficulties.

Elves are a race that loves cleanliness. Higdelytha, having sweated profusely and unable to clean herself, her obsidian-like pupils began to lose their luster.

We were still not out of danger. Although many adventurers had joined our cause, their sheer numbers were too great. They harassed us like a sparrow war, giving us no time to rest.

We also lacked the time to prepare dinner. Although I could eat raw food while on the move, eating alone was not befitting of a maid. Making use of the hard-earned rest, I prepared a meal from the food stored in my spatial storage.

“Lily, come here.”

“…”

Lily, looking listless, moved her lips as if she wanted to say something.

Her mood was not much better than Higdelytha’s. During the escape, it was always Higdelytha who carried Lily, also using the elf’s kind’s plea to nature’s protection, which was quite draining.

“Anna, I…”

“We didn’t struggle till now just to see Lily upset, did we?”

I spoke softly, preempting Lily’s self-blame.

Lily, though young, was not the kind of child who took full advantage of a child’s privileges. Even when she unknowingly received help from Duke Borgias, Lily had vowed to repay him.

She must be feeling guilty for not being able to help. It’s unrealistic to expect a child to be useful in such a situation, but Lily probably felt responsible and guilty for it.

Surprised, Lily’s eyes widened, but after a moment, she accepted my sandwich and began to eat it in small bites.

Despite the difficult situation, Lily finally mustered all her strength to cheer up.

I gently stroked her small head, but I was also worried.

Where would we go now?

From a distance came the sound of horse hooves. Baron Trafalgar, spurring his horse, arrived at the coordinates provided by Carol Cat to meet us.

“Is everyone safe?”

“Thanks to your good words, Baron Trafalgar.”

“Sorry, we can’t go to Baron Hearst’s domain anymore… Ah, I’m partly to blame for this mess.”

Trafalgar sighed, gripping his arm. I knew it wasn’t his fault. Who could have expected Uncle Francois to ambush us there?

“Meow… It’s a bit of a buzzkill to say this now… I don’t have much time left, meow…”

Carol Cat awkwardly raised her hand, looking like a student who had made a mistake in front of a teacher.

“I played games for too long today…”

Carol Cat must have been scolded at home, for which I felt deeply sorry. She had been immersed in the game world almost all day, and an adventurer’s time is ultimately limited.

“Are you logging off?”

“Meow… I can play a little longer… but if it’s any later, I’ll really get scolded, meow…”

Even Trafalgar didn’t argue with Carol Cat. He was also resting his forehead in his hand, thinking of a solution.

Carol Cat smiled optimistically: “It’s okay, meow~ If we run out of time, just leave me behind, Miss Anna~”

“Carol Cat…”

“Meow!”

“Carol Cat…” I accidentally added an honorific without thinking, my habit hadn’t completely changed, “I won’t leave you behind.”

“It’s okay, I’m an adventurer. If I die, I can be resurrected, and after resurrection, I’ll just go find Miss Anna, meow.”

If we didn’t leave Carol Cat, who was logging out of the game, behind, and if we really encountered adventurers hunting Lily, with me carrying Carol Cat and Higdelytha carrying Lily, the fight would be extremely difficult.

We had encountered adventurers with malicious intentions on the road, and I had managed to turn dangers into safety, but with one more non-combatant, it would probably…

The situation was very unfavorable for us.

All players were converging towards Hearst, and we couldn’t escape the encirclement. If we encountered adventurers hunting Lily without the support of adventurers on our side, it would take us a lot of time to get rid of them, and we might even have to take necessary detours.

“How about we break through in a specific direction?”

“Fight through the enemies instead of avoiding them, meow?”

After Higdelytha finished replenishing, she voiced her opinion. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line… We had made many reluctant detours along the way. If it weren’t for my high-level “Geography” ensuring we always moved away from Baron Hearst’s domain, we might even have been going around in circles.

Higdelytha suggested a concentrated breakthrough instead of avoiding detours, which would undoubtedly be more efficient.

“It’s not very feasible.”

Trafalgar was the first to object. He opened the mission panel and shared the information with us.

“Meow?! The rewards have changed?”

The time-limited mission rewards provided by Trafalgar, compared with the information shared with us in the morning, showed that Duke Borgias had almost doubled the rewards.

“Didn’t you notice?”

“We’ve been busy hiding and seeking…”

“Alright. Anyway, the news I got is that many guilds have decided to continue hunting Amaris. Apart from the written rewards, Duke Borgias has other promises. The adventurers we’re going to face next might include well-organized guilds.”

“They’re not interested in Miss Anna’s heart anymore, meow?”

“I understand their thoughts. The chance for medium and small guilds to get exclusive NPCs is originally slim. For guilds mainly active in the Kingdom of Mikael, the benefits from Duke Borgias are more tangible. He also stated that every participating guild will receive a certain base reward, definitely not a losing deal.”

Duke Borgias was indeed sparing no expense, Trafalgar said.

As if to confirm Trafalgar’s warning, Higdelytha also received bad news from nature.

“Damn… A large group of adventurers is coming…”