Yukitaka was stopped by the gatekeeper at the city gate.
"You can't get in without an ID. Right now this city is on higher alert by order of the Lord," The gatekeeper looked past him to the woman beside him. "The woman with you is... Gold Rank Adventurer Iris? Ah. She's done work in this city a few times before. Ms. Iris is no problem."
"An ID...! I never thought about that at all..."
Yukitaka had no choice but to be confused by the gatekeeper's strict attitude.
Iris was the same. She had forgotten about it too, it seemed, and like Yukitaka, she looked troubled.
(An ID, an ID... Ah, there's a license in my wallet, but I wonder if that'll work somehow?)
When that thought hit Yukitaka, he took out the wallet he had in his pocket.
When he opened the wallet, the money and cards that should have been there were gone, and only the license was left.
When Yukitaka tried to take it out, the license changed in an instant and turned into an ID for this world.
"Huh? What, you do have an ID!" The gatekeeper's whole manner changed. "You thought you'd lost it? Ha ha ha. So that's why you two were so confused. I get it now. You're Yukitaka Goto? You can go through."
When Yukitaka showed his ID, the gatekeeper's strict attitude from before did a complete turn, and he smiled and let them into the city.
"Y-yes," Yukitaka said it faintly.
Yukitaka exchanged a look with Iris and felt relieved, and they entered the border city of Kyogai.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Goto. I completely forgot about the ID," Iris said it quickly, the moment they were inside.
Once they entered the city of Kyogai, Iris quickly apologized for forgetting.
"No, I was so happy about my clothes being changed that I completely forgot about the ID too. But I'm glad we found out that the ID won't be a problem," Yukitaka smiled from relief. "Ha ha ha!"
Yukitaka showed the license that had turned into an ID, and put it back in his wallet.
"You always go beyond what I imagine, Mr. Goto," Iris had gotten used to being surprised by now, and laughed because it was genuinely funny. "Heh."
"I'm just winging it too, so I'm surprised myself, you know? But thanks to this ID, I think we won't run into many more problems."
Yukitaka felt relieved that most of their problems were solved by getting an ID from a neighboring country.
"Mr. Goto, I know I've said this many times, but please be careful not to tell anyone else about your belongings," Iris pressed the point, because that open smile brought her both relief and worry at the same time. "It's dangerous if people find out."
"Yes, of course!"
Yukitaka felt that a friendly mood had grown between him and Iris, and he answered a little jokingly.
"I mean it, okay?" She did not look away. "Next, we're going to the buyer the guild assigns, to sell the monsters and magic stones we collected underground. Are you ready?"
"Yes. I'll do it just like we planned."
Yukitaka was starting to enjoy traveling as a pair with Iris.
His Party offer right after they met had been turned down, but now, if he asked again, he felt like it might work. But he thought there was no need to bother saying it while they were together, so he didn't bring it up.
At the buyer's shop, Iris used her newly learned Magic Storage and acted like she was taking out what they had collected in front of the shopkeeper, while Yukitaka timed it right and took things out of his bag that had turned into a Magic Storage function.
At first the shopkeeper was impressed by the monster corpses coming out. "Now then, you lot have been busy. Some proper impressive monsters, that."
But as higher-ranked monsters kept coming out one after another, his face gradually went pale.
The finishing blow was the fur and magic stone of the A+ ranked Gray Six-Legged Demon Bear, something even adventurers fear.
The monster that had attacked Iris in the Dungeon was not brought out.
"A- Gray Six-Legged Demon Bear!" The shopkeeper's voice jumped. "Hold on! I can't lay my hands on that much money, no way!"
And so they were stopped.
Yukitaka, who had been taking things out in time with Iris's movements, hurriedly stopped at that timing.
"Now then, miss. You've come on a good bit since last I saw you," The shopkeeper looked Yukitaka over. "Is this fella your employer?"
The shopkeeper had mistaken the mild-looking Yukitaka, who did not look like an adventurer at all, for something else.
Yukitaka looked at her.
"No, I hunted these monsters together with him."
"Whaaat! You can fight!?"
The shopkeeper glanced over Yukitaka's whole body and was surprised.
After all, the monsters piled up were all high-level ones.
If it were goblins, he could accept being told they fought together, but against higher-ranked monsters, Yukitaka only looked like dead weight.
But Yukitaka did not feel the shopkeeper's reaction was rude, because he thought the same thing himself.
On Earth, he had been an ordinary office worker with no fighting experience, so forget hunting monsters, he had never even been in a fight.
Even after coming to this world, he had been dead weight to the Hero's High School Student Group, and after months of feeling the reality of being powerless to the bottom of his heart, now this. Even he felt it was all too unreal, and his senses had gone numb.
So he silently nodded at the shopkeeper's surprise.
"Blimey, you never can tell, can you? You must be really blessed with Skills," The shopkeeper counted out coins as he talked. "Right then, this here's a part payment for today. I'll put the Gray Six-Legged Demon Bear fur and magic stone up for auction straight away and turn them into money. The rest comes after, so you come back to me, right enough?"
The shopkeeper handed Iris a leather bag full of a large amount of money that an employee had brought over.
Iris nodded. "Yes, of course, I'll come to you again next time."
Iris put the leather bag into Magic Storage, and she and Yukitaka left the shop together.
Iris took the leather bag out of Magic Storage and tried to hand all of it to Yukitaka. "That went well," she said. "Here, this is yours."
Yukitaka held the bag back. "Wait a moment, Ms. Iris. Without you, I couldn't have gotten the talks to go this well."
"But the one who defeated the monsters was Mr. Goto," Iris pushed the leather bag back again.
"Defeating them isn't the only skill that counts, right? Please take seventy percent," He had thought about it before he opened his mouth.
Yukitaka then gave his reasons. "Thanks to you, Ms. Iris, I've been helped a lot. You've taught me valuable things like taking out magic stones, butchering work, and knowledge about this world, so more than half of this is your pay."
"Seventy percent is too much! I'm also getting Experience Points, so I'll take thirty percent," Iris did not budge.
Yukitaka sighed. "Then let's make the split half and half. We're both helping each other, so it's fifty-fifty."
Because of Iris's kind nature, Yukitaka had figured from the start that she wouldn't accept half, so he had started by saying a bigger amount.
"...Are you really sure?" Iris seemed to think that complaining too much would be rude, and she showed a reluctant look.
"Yes. I want an equal relationship with you, Ms. Iris."
When Yukitaka answered with a smile, Iris nodded with a somewhat convinced look.
Notes:
• Yukitaka - A salaryman caught up in a Hero summoning who now lives in the Kingdom of Karlsen and travels under the alias Lance Fais, using his commuter gear's transformation into exclusive Divine Artifacts to change his appearance and identity, produce valid identification, and store items through Magic Storage, while helping Iris with quests and valuing their friendship.
• Iris - A Gold-Rank Adventurer from the Kingdom of Thordein who possesses the Sage Skill and formerly belonged to Platinum Fang, a Silver-Rank team, before being betrayed by her teammates, presumed dead, and stripped of her account; after Yukitaka saved her from monsters, she began traveling with him, remaining a skilled, sincere, polite, and considerate companion who recently learned Magic Storage and looks out for his safety.
• Goto - Family name of Yukitaka Goto. He is a former ordinary salaryman from Earth who was caught up in a Hero summoning and lacked combat experience, but his commuter gear became unique Divine Artifacts, including a wallet that functions as identification and a bag with Magic Storage, allowing him to travel freely with Iris.