Chapter 38 – A Runaway Noble

Third person POV

 A few months later, one late evening before her 13th birthday, at the home of the Wole family, Gretchel was dragging her trunk full of most of her stuff to the family horse wagon. She had just wake Jan up a few minutes ago to ask him to take her to somewhere far from her family. And now, Jan, knowing what to do, is waiting for her to load her belongings into the wagon. But they had to be quiet and can't make any noise; otherwise, anyone in the household would wake up. 

Once she had managed to load her trunk into the back, Gretchel hopped at the front next to Jan and gave him the green signal. 

Jan nodded, and he whipped the horses slightly to make as little noise as possible. 

And so, they left the palatial mansion together to go somewhere. 

But Jan knows the best place to take her: Wooda. He did, and they went westward towards that new country. 

 "Hey, Jan-san," Gretchel asked him. "Where do you think we will be going?" 

In response to that, Jan looked around, only to see that they are still in the city streets, so he said to her in a low voice, "Not yet, we're still in the city." 

To that Gretchel became quiet, not wanting anyone to hear their conversation or spot them escaping in the middle of the night.

 A few hours later, at 5 in the morning, they are now almost at the gates of Lewole when Gretchel woke up from her sleep in the front. 

 "Hey, my lady, wake up." Jan shook her slightly. "We're almost here." 

Gretchel did woke up fully and rolled her eyes a few times. "Are we there yet?" 

 "Yes, my lady, we're almost there." Jan pointed at the wooden gates of the capital. 

Meanwhile, at the same time, Lloyd, Zeke, and Sati are having a joint training session at the administrative house's training ground.

 Shortly thereafter, the horse wagon stopped just in front of the main gate, and the two Undead animal guards came to them for verification. 

 "You're Jan Hol, right?" one of them asked Jan. 

 "Yes, I am," Jan confirmed in response. 

Upon seeing their red eyes, Gretchel was a bit frightened by their appearance. 

But Jan assured her that they are friendly and that they know about her. 

 "Are you sure about that?" Gretchel asked. 

 "Yes, I'm sure," Jan replied with positive optimism. 

 "What brings you here for today?" the second guard asked. 

 "I'm here because my lady here wants to be far away from her family," Jan responded. 

 "Oh, why is that?" the first guard asked back. 

Jan then replied on his lady's behalf, "She doesn't want to meet her family's expectations for her, so she ran away before her 13th birthday, which is today." 

In response, the two guards understood Gretchel's pain and let them in. 

 "We'll take both of you to our leader," the second guard said to them. "Come with us." 

Jan agreed to do so and whipped the horses once more to enter the capital.

 Along the way, Gretchel was amazed to see a large town inhabited by Undead animals from different tribes. "Wow, this is so lively." 

 "Yes, and your older half-brother had been introducing a lot of acts of modernization in this formerly primitive tribal settlement," Jan explained to her. 

 "Okay then." 

At this point, Gretchel hoped that Lloyd would accept her into his home.