Imperial Lands are about the only place that could be. There's not many other places with roads that there isn't another way out of.

I recommend not going into Imperial Lands without a return potion and probably a teleport potion as a character who is completely unwilling to pay Centurions to preserve his life.

This is a game where a character's particular ethics can often create a situation in which they will die. The Battle cabal is the most obvious example of this, but not the only example. This is part of the fun and challenge of playing a character with an inflexible moral code. If you don't yet feel up to the mechanical challenges and hardships of playing such a character, you might enjoy a more morally flexible character for now.

Not even every character in an opposing cabal or alignment should necessarily be unwilling to pay Centurions to pass them undetected. Books and films are full of heroic characters doing sneaky things, disguising themselves, or paying bribes to execute covert operations at to their enemies' detriment.