Chapter 3 - Section 2 - Border Crossing

"Quick get on!" <Raisa>

I didn't even stop to think, I just hastily climbed into the back of her cart lying between the stacks of crates she had loaded up.

Feeling the motion of the cart I could tell she was turning us around to race back to town.

"Looks like you had an eventful night" <Raisa>

"Sarcasm in this case does not make me feel better you know" <Satou>

"Well yeah but I mean you're going to have to explain just what happened to you, you just up and disappeared so everyone decided to go out looking for you. I personally had a suspicion you'd head off early to cross the border as soon as you could, so I decided to make a quick run there with my supplies" <Raisa>

[Right… well I could tell the whole truth but that make me look like such a bad guy, it won't hurt if I tell a little white lie will it?]

So I regaled Raisa with my harrowing tale of how I'd come across the merc party in a bar, at night they seemed trust worthy and when they said they knew a place some rare herbs grew nearby I was hooked into thinking it would be a great way to earn some cash to repay everyone for their generosity, but once we got a bit away from the city they turned on me, kidnapped me and then transported me to some cave past the forest.

Once they'd drunk themselves to sleep I used my skill to summon a knife and slip out of the cave, after stealing their stolen goods of course.

"Wh.. What really, I mean you're too much of a nice guy for your own good you know, that was obviously a trap, nobody in their right mind would leave town with people they just met just before dark. Hahahaha" <Raisa>

As I laid there among her wares time continued to pass, and I occupied myself by sorting through everything in my inventory, I created a new folder and called it Bandit's placing everything I didn't recognize into that folder and re-sorting my own goods within the main inventory page.

"Hey Satou, you should be safe to sit up here in the driver's box now it's been over an hour and it's not much further to the border, if you stay back there there'll be questions unless you act like your sick." <Raisa>

"Wait the border…? I thought we were going back to town?" <Satou>

"Oh no silly, I was on my way back to town when I ran into you, but given your state I figured something had happened so we all had agreed if we found you in distress we'd head straight for the border, the wolves got paid for their escorting from the both of us, and they said they owed you a lot so don't worry about them they'll get across no worries." <Raisa>

Nodding glumly I stood up and carefully made my way to sit next to Raisa on the driver's box.

"So… I know you probably don't want to talk about this, but I did kind of just save your life and all? Care to explain what's actually going on? I mean you told your version of the story the whole way but something's been fishy about it." <Raisa>

Turning an inquisitive grin my way.

"Fine Fine… you got me, I haven't been telling the whole truth lately" <Satou>

"Well duh, I mean you're one of the summoned heroes aren't you?" <Raisa>

I just about pulled a spit take.

"What! Why would you think that?" <Satou>

"Well when I first saw you in town you were wearing that weird outfit, then the royal guards came looking for you, and then you lambasted your way out of town first chance you got as soon as we got even remotely close to the border" <Raisa>

"Right well makes sense if you've seen pretty much my whole journey…" <Satou>

"So you gonna tell you saviour" <Raisa>

"Yeah yeah settle down, I'll tell you as long as you promise to keep it a secret from everyone." <Satou>

"I swear on my family name as a Daughter of Salide" <Raisa>

"Ok a bit over the top but whatever" <Satou>

Pursing her lips in a pout I started my story.

"So you're kind of correct in that I was summoned to this world like the heroes, however I'm the fifth… I was brought along accidentally with the other heroes and well when they appraised me with that stone thingy I was totally average without even having the hero title." <Satou>

"Wait but why do you have an item box skill surely they wouldn't cast you out if they'd seen that" <Raisa>

"Well technically I don't have the item box skill, see the skill I got is unique it's called Gamer, and well it makes sense in the world I came from but here, it registered as a dud. But with it I have access to a lot of skills that nobody can actually see even with the stones" <Satou>

"Whoa really, that kinda makes you sound like a heroes hero." <Raisa>

"Depends on how I use it I guess, but statwise im weaker than anyone, and so far the only skills I've managed to use are Itembox which seems far larger than anyone else's judging by people's reactions plus considering how much I already have stored, and Creature Summoning" <Satou>

"Hold on, you can use summoning magic!" <Raisa>

"I'm getting there, geez do you want me to explain everything or not?" <Satou>

"Fine fine, just hurry up it feels like your only focusing on the boring stuff" <Raisa>

"Well the boring stuff ends soon, cause after I left the 'heroes' behind, I found out about my skill sold some goods that are incredibly rare that I got through my skill, or at the same time i exposed my item box, and well thanks to that word must've got back to the castle and so they came after me, after all they had my name and description from when I was summoned.

That night I fought the orc's those goblins were actually my summons, so I really had an 8 vs. 7 fight not 1 vs. 14 like everyone thought, and well that's what catches us up to now." <Satou>

"So you're saying you really went out looking for herbs and weren't just running away huh?" <Raisa>

"Uh yeah I mean after all my skill has a potion making component so I was curious wouldn't you be?" <Satou>

"It can make potions to! That's a totally awesome skill" <Raisa>

[Wow her mood swing back and forth so much I'm getting dizzy]

Our conversation cooled down considerably after that, before we'd stopped at the border crossing I'd stored all of the good in Raisa's cart in my inventory as per her request.

"Heading back to Bobel Mrs. Raisa?" <Border Guard>

"Yes Sir! All done selling our wares here in the kingdom, as you can see I don't even have anything to take back with me" <Raisa>

"That's some pretty good skills you have there to manage selling everything, and makes your journey easier since bandits wont attack an empty cart. But whose the kid?" <Border Guard>

"He's my new body guard, I know he doesn't look like much but he was willing to work for meals and I saw him training at the guild so I figured I'd be a good learning experience for him, plus from a distance he'd be mistaken for an adult" <Raisa>

"Fair enough, you take care of the young miss alright kiddo" <Border Guard>

And with that we were allowed through the border and heading into the mountain tunnel to cross over into Joquet.

"That was far too simple wasn't it?" <Satou>

"What the crossing? Nobody messes with a merchant family if they do it'd mean disaster for their country if we stopped selling food and goods to them, but y'know now that we're through you're safe to dispel that illusion to change back to your normal self" <Raisa>

"Fair enough, except it's not an illusion..." <Satou>

Working my menu once again I purchased another "Cosmetic Change" reverting to my usual self, well close enough.

My Hair and eye color went back to normal, and according to Raisa I looked as tall and big as I used to, but the one change was my hair, where before it was a nice clean crew cut, now it was a scraggly mop atop my head and my face looked younger since i decided to keep the listed age as being 21 rather than returning to my actual age of 27.

Laughing at me for a good while Raisa agreed to give me a hair cut when we hit the rest stop halfway through the tunnel.