We were able to leave the capital ‘Sintel’ without any problem, we were lucky that we were able to outrun the knights and the guards. The guards on the entrance to ‘Sintel’ were dispatched to catch me, but thanks to that stupid move we were able to escape easily.

Currently, we were in the forest putting up a camp to rest for tonight. Willow used his storage magic item to bring out a tent kit. “I’ve got to say that thing is convenient as hell!”, I praised the magic item.

“I know, right?”, Willow agreed to my remark. “Hey, could you please release me from this tree?!”, Alice asked trying to cut off the threads I used to bind her to a tree.

“I’m going to tell you this once again. I have to make sure you don’t escape.”, I answered. “I promise I won’t escape! This is starting to hurt, please!”, Alice begged once again.

“Okay, okay. Athena make sure she doesn’t run off.”, I released her from my web of threads binding her to the three trunk. “Ahhh. Thank god, I feel way freer than before.”, she rubbed her amrs to calm the pain.

“Master! I won against Willow in a game called ‘Cards’.”, Azure exclaimed her victory against Willow. “Really? Well done!”, I praised Azure by patting her in the head.

“What do ya mean by ‘won’, ya cheated ya little twat!”, Willow refused to believe that a slime had won against him. “I didn’t cheat, you’re just a sore loser. Bleh!”, Azure annoyed him even more while sticking her tongue out like a child.

“THAT’S IT! One last round!”, Willow used his magical item once again and took out a set of cards. “Whoever wins gets to be ultimate winner!”, Willow announced. Azure looked at him in the eye with mischievous eyes.

“Alright one last round. “, and thus, their little game started. However, I ignored both of them and mounted the tents together with Athena.

I didn’t know how to build tents to be honest, I just tried what I thought it would work and see how it ended up like. “Master…. Are you alright?”, Athena asked out of nowhere.

“Huh? I’m fine.”, I responded and continued with my work, however I suddenly stopped and dozed off. “Master?”, Athena snapped me back to reality and made a concerned look.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just dozed off a little, I’ll get right back to work.”, I tried continuing my work, but I felt a hand grabbing my arm.

Out of nowhere, I felt a soft sensation on my cheek. “Huh?”, I got confused by the sudden sensation. I looked up and saw Athena looking at me with a kind look in her eyes.

“I-I-is this a lap-p pillow?”, I asked Athena as she gently caressed my white hair. “Yes, it is.”, she responded.

“But why?”, I asked a little embarrassed by a girl giving me a lap pillow. “Because you looked tired.”, Athena responded.

‘I’m not……. tired… huh?...’, I was trying to refuse her statement but my lips wouldn’t move. My body was feeling heavy, the sensation on my head was comforting, and the slow caressing on my head was reassuring.

‘I never realized….. that I was…. this…. tired….’, I was full of energy the whole day, however the moment I laid down I felt like my body could give up at any moment.

“I…. can’t go to……. sleep….. yet….”, I was able to muster these small words. If I fell asleep, what would happen? Would Alice try to run away again? I didn’t trust her completely yet, so I couldn’t let my guard down. What if the guards and the knights found us? What would we do? I was at my limit already, I was worried, anxious, and scared of what would happen.

I didn’t feel tired before because of the skills ‘Status Effect Resistance’ and ‘Surpass Limits’, these skills practically nullified the feeling of being tired.

“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure that we make it safe and sound. And if Alice escapes, I’ll go and hunt her down.”, Athena tried to soften my burden and I heard someone say, ‘hunt me down?’ In the distance.

“You…. no longer have to…. follow me……. you’ve already…… avenged your parents.”, the sole reason she came with me was because I told her I’d help her gain revenge, and in return she would help me as well. And now she no longer had a reason to travel with me.

Athena moved her head left and right. “I’ve lost everything before I met you master, my parents, friends, noble name and my place to stay….So please, would you allow me to come with you?”, Athena held my hand with both of her hands.

‘Why… would she want to continue on coming with me?’, I thought as I felt my eyelids closing down. I always thought that people had reasons to do something, whether it was emotion or rationality. However, I never understood the emotional reasons well.

“Yeah, I’d be glad…. if you could.”, I felt my eyelids finally closing in, my consciousness was slowly closing in and my ‘Spirit Form’ was starting to heal itself.

My spirit was heavily damaged, the fact that I was even able to stay awake and survive was a miracle.

“Now, go get some good sleep.”, Athena caressed my hair one more time and it was enough to bring me to sleep.

 

 

 

“Hm..”, I felt something press on my cheek. “Hmm, not yet.”, I murmured changing my sleeping position a little.

Pinch, the press turned into a pinch and I still didn’t wake up. ‘Mhm, thank you ‘Pain Nullification’’, I continued sleeping until the soft sensation disappeared and I opened my eyes.

I felt a hard as rock sensation on my cheek, I realized I was sleeping on the floor. “Huh? What happened? What time is it?”, my consciousness was still hazy that I couldn’t remember what happened.

“Sure took ya long enough!”, Willow said taking a jug from his wine that he dad brought with him. “How long was I asleep?”, I asked.

“Ya slept for eleven hours, the king must’ve been tough on ya.”, Willow told me. For me it was normal to sleep that long…. well, on earth it was. “I’m sorry.”, I apologized

Athena wiped her skirt clean and stood up. ‘Oh yeah, she gave me…. a lap pillow.’, I remembered the embarrassing memory of me lying on her lap and dowsing off.

“It’s no problem, we just woke up ourselves.”, Willow said. We were not careless as to let our guard down, that’s why they stationed turns on who would sleep first while I slept.

“It surprises me how they haven’t found us yet.”, Willow was astonished by the fact they have not found us yet. To me it all seemed kind of suspicious. ‘What could they be planning?’, I got concerned and thought.

“Master! Where are we going?”, Azure as cheerful as always asked. “Yeah, where were you going to drag me to?”, Alice who was leaning slightly on a tree asked.

“Why don’t you look at that. The princess didn’t run.”, I praised her presence of being here. “Athena literally stalked me the whole night!”, Alice threw a look at Athena who was whistling ignorantly.

“Good job Athena.”, I praised her. “So, back to the question. We have to leave this kingdom and that’s why we’re crossing the border if there is one.”, Alice face went from zero to one hundred really quick.

“What! I’m not going to be able to go back?!”, Alice asked startled. “Well of course, if we cross the border we won’t come back, at the very least for a while.”, I told her with the most relaxed voice I could muster.

“But I have to go back. My father has to be punished for what he did.”, Alice said full of righteousness. “You want to kill your father?”, I asked kind of disturbed by her thought of process.

“Do not get me wrong, what my father did was unforgivable, however he deserves something more fitting.”, Alice tried to act tough, but I could tell that what she really didn’t want her father to die.

“I understand, but we’re not going to leave forever. With our current strength going against him is suicide and that’s why our main course of action is leaving this country and get stronger.”, her father was a true monster in my perspective, there was no way I would stay in that beats territory while alive.

One of the other reasons were that Iris’s twin sisters were still alive, but they were sold off as slaves and are being carried to Zeltram.

“So we’re goin’ against the king, aye?”, Willow said finally putting the gears together. “Willow, if you don’t want to, then you don’t have to come with us. The same thing goes for you Azure.”, I didn’t want to drag anyone unrelated to this matter.

“I want to go with master!”, Azure answered like a child. “Well, if ya need help. Then I’m always available for ya boy.”, Willow said that I could count on him.

“Alright, now does anyone know where the border is?”, I asked. Willow spat out a small laugh, Athena face palmed, Azure just…. kept on being herself and Alices expression froze. “You don’t know where it is?”, Athena asked in a pained voice.

“Of course, I don’t. I do everything at the last minute, how could I have found out where it is in a short amount of time?”, I said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. I was always the type to do either everything as soon as possible or at the last minute.

“I’m almost starting to think you took me here because you didn’t know where it is.”, Alice speculated while pressing her hand on her forehead to suppress the headache.

“Bingo.”, I agreed with her speculation even though it was a absolute coincidence. “You!.... uhhhh. Alright, I’ll lead the way.”, Alice said.

 

 

 

Alice pointed us the way by opening a map that Willow had brought with him. We would have to pass by the town of Blue Tear and three others to reach our destination. The border was also the splitting point between Dawnwell and Zeltram.

We traveled two weeks at foot, since we couldn’t simply go into town and rent a horse carriage because we could be recognized and get caught.

And neither could we use Willows magic item to just place ourselves in it, apparently the magic item can only allow inanimate objects into it. Because if a living being is placed in there it wouldn’t be able to breathe.

During the journey Alice kept on complaining about wanting to use a carriage or we would take weeks to get there. Thus, we eventually found a couple of bandits and we stole their equipment. Athena and I did most of the job of dealing with the bandits, since Alice didn’t know any fighting skills and only had ‘Life Attribute Magic’ she couldn’t do much.

In this world where human rights were not really a thing, killing bandits wouldn’t be recognized as a crime and instead as a good deed. Bringing them back to the guild would just be buying them some time before their inevitable death anyway.

The bandits had a carriage loaded with food and supplies for weeks of travel together with healthy horses, they probably took it from a defenseless merchant and made it their own.

We took the carriage and used it to travel, and soon arrived at the border between Dawnwell and Zeltram. We were currently hiding in a small forest nearby and were currently strategizing in how we’re going to cross it.

“Does anyone have ideas?”, I asked for everyone’s suggestions, we couldn’t just walk through the gates unnoticed by the guards guarding it, it wouldn’t be so easy.

“We could try’n climb over the walls?”, Willow suggested. “We could, but I doubt everyone here can climb.”, I sure know I can’t, but I could fly instead though.

“We could go undercover?”, Athena suggested. I thought hard about it and answered. “Yeah, let’s go with that.”, and this we set our plan in action.

 

 

 

“Yawn…”, a guard yawned with his mouth wide open. “Man, I’m just so tired…”, the same guard said with bags under his eyes.

“Alright, you may pass. Next!”, a different guard spoke to a merchant sending him off to the other side of the border. “You sure do have it easy.”, the first guard envious of his friend said.

“It isn’t as easy as it looks, I have to inspect every single one of these carriages and people to make sure that not some type of criminal gets away.”, he explained to his friend as the next carriage arrived.

“Hello sir, please state your business.”, the guard asked the driver of the carriage. “I’m here to go see my family on the other side, in the carriage are my two nieces.”, the dwarf driver said.

“Alright, however I have to inspect the carriage first.”, the guards said looking into the carriage. In there he saw two shadows, one of them was covered by a coat and the other was trying to hide their face as much as possible.

“Is there something wrong?”, the dwarf asked. “Uh… no it’s nothing. You are free to pass sir.”, he said exiting the carriage and returning to his post.

“Was there something wrong?”, the guards friend asked as the carriage disappeared onto the other side. “No, it’s just that I thought I saw a transparent girl in there, I think I must be hallucinating.”, the guard said rubbing his eyes.