Shin and Jakob grew much closer over the rest of the journey. Sometimes Shin would see them off at an inn, as per the schedule, only for them to vanish for days at a time. Other times, they would be off on another journey the next morning. Learning that Jakob was over level 100 came as a shock to Shin, however, now that Shin knew Jakob better this new knowledge comforted him rather than scaring the juvenile cart rider. Shin had watched as the old man and his guests dispatched an Ogre at the border of the kingdom, with what could only be called “excessive force”. According to Jakob, this was a way to comfort the people of Jakobs world. Jakob claimed it was a requirement for his people to feel comfortable with their bodies in this world and this was the best way to experience it.

Shin felt slightly uneasy with the amount of power Jakobs guests had. Their use of magic was on par with the royal mages. Unlike the royal mages however, their power was almost entirely combat focused as opposed to the magic for improving life for which the royal mages were so prized. The people of the Autumn kingdom were ecstatic after the royal family had negotiated a deal with a particularly powerful Holy Earth mage, who could ensure that famines would become a thing of the past. A single high tier specialist mage could change the nature of an entire kingdom through wise application of their power. The Autumn kingdom had changed so drastically that it was now a powerhouse of food production as compared to it’s barren lands of only two decades ago. Monster attacks had also declined near the capital drastically due to the holy element’s effect on the surrounding territory. Shin came to believe this was why Jakob had asked for a tour of all the border towns and villages.

Jakob clearly wanted his people to fight monsters. Jakob would often ask Shin to make detours into dangerous territory, making the young man nervous, only to have his guests obliterate a band of goblins or an orc settlement. The combat had become so commonplace that Shin eventually stopped hiding in the cart and watched, Jakob often acting as his bodyguard. On one such outing a bristle from a Spiker (A kind of flying bat faced monster with a tail coated in poisonous bristles it used for long range attacks) almost hit Shin in the back as he was dismounting from the cart only to be turned to ash in the blink of an eye by a wall of flame, summoned by Jakob, so intense that it had changed colour from red to blue and ended in a blinding pure white. Jakob had dogmatically insisted on Shin resting for the rest of the day and even gone so far as to use a healing magic scroll to ensure he wasn’t poisoned. Jakob’s clear care for Shin had struck a chord with the boy, reminding him of his own father who had forgone food to ensure he would survive in the great famine, from then on Shin had viewed the old man as an extension of his own family.

Shin’s tour group would explore a town or sight-see, even going so far as to climb trees to confirm “realism”. The guests changed almost every trip with the exception of Jakob who seemed to be a staple of this journey. Shin didn’t mind so much as Jakob had explained that he went back to the ‘real world’ at night which was only 1-2 hours for him when he was there and he grabbed a new group to show the world to. The whole time thing really confused Shin but he had resolved to trust in the old man and, as such, tried not to pry.

Shin had begun asking as many questions as he got, setting up a barter system with the guests of trading an answer for an answer. Through this action alone, Shin managed to gain a greater understanding of Jakob’s people and the world they came from. They were very clear that they wouldn’t give him information about the method they used to travel here or elaborate on what they meant by NPCS, AI or why they were coming to this world. The information Shin was able to decipher, was that they had already sent four sick people over to this world and a handful of details about how their home world was run. Shin also gained clarification that “millions” was not their currency but rather the amount which greatly embarrassed him, his knowledge of mathematics left a lot to be desired. He had never paid much attention when his uncle brought the subject up and tried to teach him.

According to Jakob the reason he would be gone for days at a time was because he was sleeping in his world. The only thing about the trip that bothered Shin, aside from the guests love of violence, was the constant attempts to confuse him by the guests using what Jakob called ‘moral dilemmas’ and ‘logic puzzles’. Shin didn’t mind the latter as they were like riddles and his Intelligence was above average, so he enjoyed showing off a bit.

As the journey was coming to a close and he was almost back at the western capital ,more than two weeks after having departed, only Jakob and Shin were left. Jakob had explained that no guests were scheduled for the rest of the trip. They had grown close over the course of trip and traded jokes and insults like old friends, Shin’s professional demeanor was long gone and clearly Jakob preferred it this way. Shin was upset at first that Jakob was hiding the details about the mechanism of travel and the relationship between the worlds but he concluded that he didn’t want to know. The last guests had been some kind of healers from the other world and their excitement about how this could heal their people had convinced the novice cart rider that he was indeed doing the right thing. He had come to understand Jakob’s reasoning that all people are just that - people. By Shin’s standard helping people was good and that’s what Jakob was doing, therefore, helping him was good by extension. Shin slumped in his seat, dejected that tomorrow would be the last day of the trip.