I cracked my neck as I sipped some of the soup Hina brought. Morning came and Kagerou announced his exit before I canceled the summon. His vanishing act was just assumed to be shadowstep so that was a nice aspect.

“So, what was Aki’s problem?” I asked Hina.

“He is a fucking dickbag! That’s his problem!” Hana shouted.

I just sort of let my jaw hang for a second. What was I supposed to say to that? Also did she not notice I was trying to be discreet?

“Hana! Shut it!” Hina shouted before turning to me. “Sorry. It is understandable when you think of it. Yumeji is home to many lycanthropes, so of course they were recruited for the war effort. Yugure is Aki’s home. So lycanthropes are invading his home. But the thing is-”

“We are refugees!” Hana shouted again. “We aren’t supposed to bring the baggage from the war here! Yugure has hurt Yumeji citizens too but we aren’t calling him…”

“Yeah,” Hina said. “Though, it isn’t just that simple. Lycanthropes don’t have many places that offer them citizenship. So most places don’t hold them to the same standards we do.”

Huh. Wolves with citizenship. Interesting. I hadn’t considered that a possibility. Now I wasn’t sure if I should be mad at other places for not trying to integrate the wolves or proud of Yumeji. Though, that was perhaps harsh. It was just a gut reaction. I am sure the politics is way more complex than I realize.

“Yumeji sounds like a nice place to live,” I said looking at the sky.

“Yeah totally!” Hana said in her loud booming voice.

“You make it sound as if Hikarigawa isn’t,” Hina added.

“Oh no, I didn’t mean that… it’s just,” I paused. Not like I could say anything about Hikarigawa. What to say!

“No need to feel pressured,” Hina said. “I know that look. It is clear you miss home too. I wouldn’t want you to feel like you have to share.”

I sipped the soup. “Thank you. I do miss home. I feel comfortable saying that much.”

I wondered what everyone was doing back home? I didn’t have many friends, would they even notice? My family was certainly looking for me. They were probably stressed and worried. Would I ever be able to get home? Aoi’s cooking is wonderful and I feel fortunate to have it, but it isn’t mom’s.

We packed up and began walking. At first I couldn’t even begin to keep up, but they let me toss my bags on the back of a wagon. That helped a ton but even then I was struggling to keep the pace. It was odd. I knew I was out of shape but I felt heavier. The air felt denser too, like I was in a deep valley or something. I could be just imagining it, but then again it was reasonable to conclude that the gravitational constant was different here.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

That would bear investigation. But it wasn’t the first on my list of priorities. For now I needed to make it to the border, find some paper and make a fake birth certificate. Everything else was secondary. I paused for a moment trying to catch my breath.

“You really are a girl aren’t you?” Yuto asked as he pushed me forward. “How else do you explain being so weak?”

I decided to use it to my advantage, I stumbled forward and tripped. That hurt but it would be worth it. I wasn’t going to win against someone like Yuto, but-

“Yuto!” Hana shouted. “What is your problem! Pushing a tired person is just cruel!”

“I barely touched him!” Yuto countered.

“Apparently not!” Hana fired back.

Hina helped me back to my feet. I had to be careful, I tried to just let my natural tiredness carry me. I didn’t want anyone to realize I fell on purpose. Helping my little sister practice for her elementary school plays actually paid off!

“How are you so weak!” Yuto asked. “Like how did you even make it on this trip?”

“Maybe he is tired cuz he made a full freaking tree after we already told you he used a lot of mana! Did you think of that!” Hana said.

“It is the last day, maybe we could let him ride in the wagon?” Hina asked.

Yuto just rolled his eyes but Hina and Hana seemed to take that as a cue I could. I grabbed the wagon and tried to pull myself up but I couldn’t. Yeah I was definitely heavier. I don’t know how much, but otherwise I should have been able to climb up five feet. Even if I would have struggled.

Hana gave me a boost and I stumbled into a bundle of smelly blankets. I was more than welcoming to the dirty smell since I at least got a soft landing out of the situation. I got to finish my first big trip with a whimper.

We arrived about five hours later. So we still had a few hours of daylight still. I jumped out of the wagon ready to go. Mina had her own mission to find any useful information around here. I was looking for paper.

My immediate surroundings contained a few things of note. Vast plains to the east, the way we came. A forest to the south and mountains to the north, though the mountains looked to be a week's walk at the absolute fastest. West was the city, and it was mostly a sturdy wooden fence about fifteen feet high, but there were stone parts of the fence that seemed to connect to a castle.

It was beautiful to see a real life castle in person, or at least part of one. A small part of me wanted to draw it immediately but that wouldn’t be smart. So I held back for now. As luck would have it. The border did have a bit of a community set up. So it didn’t take long for me to find a bazaar.

It stunk way worse than the dirty blankets too as they seemed to mostly be selling food of one sort or another. Non-food items were more like blankets or knives, not what I was looking for. But I only needed to find one guy selling what I was looking for.

Most of these people didn’t have signs or anything either. I wondered how widespread literacy was. My guess, given the time period it seemed like I was in, probably low. Wait, I noticed a guy was writing. I ran over to his shop to notice he was selling rope and snares, along with other small but useful pieces.

“Hi, I was wondering. Can I purchase some parchment and ink?” I asked.

“Hmm?” he said looking up from his writing. “Why?”

Probably better to play dumb here. “I dunno, my boss asked me to get at least two sheets though.”

“Hmm,” he said, scratching his head. “Two silvers per sheet and three for this ink,” he said, holding out a glass jar that seemed to be half used.

I handed him my gold coin. “That would be a deal.” I tried to hold a confident face. I had no idea if silver converted to gold or the other way around. But since I already mentioned I was working for someone, I could probably just claim to be dumb if I was wrong.

He took the coin and handed me three silver coins back. Oh thank god! Base ten and silver is cheaper than gold. He handed me the two sheets and the jar of ink with the quill that seemed to act as a stopper as well. I hurriedly ran off. I need privacy now! Time to forge my documents!