Pure bullshit on the MC escaping, he just had to say the truth to the vllagers, and leaving the bandit alive to say his own version he will became a hunted criminal, is just a bad way to make him start travelling.
I doubt the appraisal skill doesn't work on a dead target so he just had to say their identity and put under surveillance until someone with the skill was called from the outside and confirmed the facts, and as he didn't kill the bandit he could have proven it even if the skill only works on the living.
Dumbass could have left a note.
The most realistic thing is that following a situation like that a person is really confused and can't act right, just gone through a danger and trauma, still, I think the author just wanted to push the travel to the elf country as fast as possible.