Chapter 3: Escaping the capital on the stagecoach

After breakfast, I set off from the inn.

Next, I went to the waiting station and checked out the departure time and when to make payment.

It appears that the stagecoach service cost 1 gold coin and the trip to the city near the borders would take at most 4 days.

There is still some time before departure, so in the meantime, I went to prepare food supplies for the 4 days and also some weapons in case something happens.

Using my Online Supermarket readily in front of people is not good; the item box is also considered a rare skill and using it could cause an uproar, so it’s best I don’t use both.

I bought a leather bag filled with water, dried meat, rye bread, and a slightly larger than normal knife.

Now my preparations are done.

All there’s left is to get on the stagecoach and get out of the capital.

Apart from me, other passengers include a middle aged merchant, a young couple with their two children, and a lady in her mid-thirties.

Also, there were 4 adventurers that were acting as our guards.

After the stagecoach departed, I tried to have a chat with the merchant.

[So, what are you going to buy at Kiers?]

We started an undisturbed friendly conversation.

[Ah, a certain contact of mine wants me to help obtain some soap. I am planning to buy it from my friend’s company at Kiers.]

Oh, soap? This world has it too eh.

As I listened further, I learn that even though there exists soap, it is something used by the royalty as I expected.

One piece of soap can fetch around 3 pieces of silver coins if you sell it to the aristocrats, so it seems.

I tried to indirectly learn more about the item box, and from the merchant, I found out that the aristocrats and the big companies are hiring people with such a skill.

Not only is it rare, where one in one thousand have the skill “Item Box”, the capacity of the item box depends on the user’s magic powers. The aristocrats and big companies are only hiring those with a large capacity item box.

[No matter how small the object I am carrying on my back, it seems that the item box can carry about 3 times of that. Man, I’m so envious of people who have that item box skill!]

The merchant claimed while laughing.

I see, so there are people with the item box skill after all.

I believe if I reduce the item box capacity setting, using it may not be a problem.

[Having the appraisal skill helps a lot in becoming a trader right?]

Since I asked about the item box, I decided to try and talk about the appraisal skill in an indirect way.

[Ah~ having that skill is a dream for all merchants. However, the only people with the appraisal skill are from fairy tales where the heroes are summoned from another world. Yeah, but I do think merchants are the ones that should have the appraisal skills instead of those heroes.  The appraisal skill is surely a dream for everyone in the trade industry. Even without the appraisal skill, just allowing the appraisal magical tools to spread would be good enough. Well those are considered ancient relics and are seen very rarely and would have an eye-popping price tag, so even countries and guilds do not possess them. ]

Oh, that’s good. So it’s a skill exclusive to summoned heroes.

And there really exists appraisal magic tools.

Still, because of the crazy high price, an individual cannot possible own it.

Ancient relics mainly appear in high difficulty dungeons so there are limited numbers of them.

I was glad to hear this.

This means the risk of me being appraised is as good as zero.

While having the discussion and talking about numerous topics, I gathered that the middle-aged merchant was attempting to travel to the neighbouring country too.

On this particular topic, the merchant chose to whisper and explained to me frankly.

[There are signs that this country is about to go to war. I think I won’t be able to do this if I had a family but, luckily I am unmarried and can quickly get out of the country. There is a rumour that perhaps the borders nearby are going to be closed up.]

Closing the borders? This country is really terrible.

It’s good that I managed to quickly assess the situation and make my move.

En route to Kiers, goblins and demon wolves appeared (I mean after all this is a sword and magic fantasy world, and I still hate demons) but were safely suppressed by the adventurers acting as guards, so the stagecoach proceeded smoothly.

◇　◇　◇　◇　◇

After arriving at Kiers, the merchant told me the location of the waiting station for a stagecoach heading to the neighbouring country.

[You’re kidding……]

At the waiting station,  a sign that said [Operation of the stagecoach has been suspended] was hanged.

What do you mean it’s suspended?

The merchant did say that the borders were about to be closed, is that it?

But still, if the countries’ borders were locked up, shouldn’t the city be in a state of panic?

For now, it’s time to gather information.

To gather info and fill up my belly at the same time, I went to an eatery where adventurers from all sort of countries gathered.

I took the counter seat, and talked to a group of two adventurers that were directly adjacent to me.

[Excuse me?]

[Oh, what’s up?]

[Actually, I just arrived at this city and would like to ask about a few things……]

Without hesitation, I called out to the shop employee to order ales for the two of them.

After doing so, the adventurer was like “so you do understand bruh” and was in a good mood to share information with me.

[I see. The suspension of the coach is to prevent people from leaving the country.]

[Ah. If the population decreases, both the number of soldiers and taxes would decrease.  If the current situation continues, eventually, the country’s borders would have to be closed. Despite already having a conflict with the demon race, this country seems to have the intention to begin a war with the Marlbert country.]

[Right right, it is only a matter of time before war starts.]

Drinking alcohol resulted in the talkativeness of these adventurers.

The demon race’s country lies at the north of this country, while Marlbert lies at the west.

If I had to pick where to go, it would be the south-east, where the Veenen country lies at.

[We plan to goodbye to this country real soon.]

[Well, hunting demons fits our personality better than fighting wars. It’ll be good if you could quickly get out of this country too.]

Getting out of this country might be difficult. If demons appear, while I might be a tad stronger than the average person; there is still nothing much I can do to fend them off.

This is quite troubling, but I thought of meeting the adventurers.

I could request help from the adventurer’s guild and it might work out fine.

It might cost some money, but I can’t afford to be stingy in this situation.

Before the borders are completely closed, the first priority should be getting out of this country.

I had decided to hire guards from the adventurer’s guild to bring me safely to the neighbouring country.