Nobina and Her Strange Journey Through Another World

The following day, Nobina found herself hungry as she woke up. When she left the guild late at night the previous day, she had forgotten to ask Lare about money for food. She also hated having to ask again and again for stuff, so she opted to just go a bit hungry till she spoke with Sarah. Unlike Lare, she would be fine if Sarah would grill her for not asking about money for food. After all, Sarah paid a month for a room for Nobina and was likely willing to pay for her food for now. It might have been weird thinking it was better to ask more from Sarah than someone like Lare, but in her mind it made sense. Sarah was like a best friend to Nobina.

At the very least, Eric might have been willing to offer her some sort of starting bonus so she could get by if she didn’t want to bother Sarah.

She left the flashlight in her room, as bringing that thing around was going to be annoying. If someone got their hands on it, it might cause her problems later down the line. Plus, she didn’t want to know what would happen if she used it around people.

The streets were pretty busy, reminding Nobina that the world she was in was more than just adventurers coming and going from the guild. Though, the previous day she was mostly in isolation with Lare occasionally going into the library to check on her or to get a book. Eventually, she found herself at the entrance of the guild, ready to begin her day.

Entering the guild, Nobina saw that Sarah was telling off Mimiki, who seemed to be looking away. However, as soon as Mimiki saw Nobina, she said “hmph” before leaving.

“Mimiki,” yelled Sarah before she sighed.

The eyes of the other adventurers avoided looking at Sarah as she seemed to be steaming in anger. It made Nobina wonder if this was something that was more common than she thought.

As Sarah turned to the front, her gaze fell onto Nobina. Her expression shifted almost instantly from anger to shock.

“Oh my god,” she said, hopping over the desk and running to Nobina. She braced for whatever Sarah was going to do, which in this case was a hug.

“I’m so sorry,” she said in a plea. “I shouldn’t have let you meet Mimiki without explaining her horrible attitude.”

“Don’t worry about that,” smiled Nobina.

“Also, here.”

She gave Nobina a bag of coins, prompting confusion.

“What’s this?” asked Nobina.

“Money for food, cloths and other basic necessities for a month.”

“How…”

She rubbed the back of her head, chuckling almost as if she was guilty.

“When Lare told me about what happened, I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I forgot to give you money for food. Hopefully you didn’t go hungry because of me.”

Seeing her feel guilty, Nobina couldn’t help but thank her.

“Sarah…”

“Don’t even think about giving any of that back,” said Sarah, her hands against her hips. “That’s friend money. I want to make sure your sorted till you get your first paycheck.”

Nobina hugged her back, happy to have a friend. With Sarah, she felt dealing with Mimiki was going to be easier. Even if she wouldn’t ask Sarah to mediate things, she had a feeling it wouldn’t work out anyway. After all, Sarah did lay into Mimiki before she came in.

“By the way, what were you telling Mimiki?” asked Nobina.

“Hm? Oh, I was telling her how she was horrible for mistreating a fellow guild officer. How she shouldn’t slam one against the wall. How she shouldn’t ignore me as usual. When I learned from Lare about yesterday, I couldn’t help but give her a piece of my mind.”

“Sounds like you two are like water and oil,” chuckled Nobina.

“Water and oil?” asked Sarah, a bit confused.

Nobina realized her expression might not be something they’d recognize, so she quickly dismissed it as something from her hometown. However, it seemed Sarah had remembered hearing it before.

“Oh! Guild Master Eric calls us that. I mean he’s right, but… Anyway, they mention it in your hometown as well? I’m really curious where you came from, but all in good time, right?”

“Yeah,” responded Nobina.

She had no idea when she’d reveal the full truth to Sarah, if ever. However, she did feel like Sarah deserved it. She was probably her best friend at this point in this world. Besides another friend she had in college, she really didn’t have many.

“Now then,” said Sarah. “Lare told me that today is front desk training for you. He wanted me to make you capable of taking it over should both me and Mimiki be out. Hopefully you understand how it’s important to have coverage.”

Nobina nodded, remembering the same lesson being taught to her in her old world.

“Did Lare handle them if both of you were out?” asked Nobina.

“Yeah… Though he hates it,” she laughed back.

Both of them gave a laugh before relaxing. Nobina was excited to have a break from the numbers. Customer service might not have been her forte, but considering everything that had happened, she considered it a well-deserved break.

“I’ve showed you a bit of it two days ago, but now I’ll give you an example and then ask you to handle the next matter similar to it,” said Sarah. “Are you good with that?”

Nobina gave a nod.

With that, Sarah once again handled the front desk while Nobina sat back, shadowing. Watching Sarah, she was back to chatting about random stuff as she waited for adventurers to approach. It made her mostly forget the whole thing about Mimiki and her money project, giving her some peace and relaxation.

“Most of the quests are taken before you come in, so you might need to adjust your working schedule a bit to accommodate them,” said Sarah. “Though, we don’t have much action here anyways, so you might not need to change anything.”

“Whatever is needed of me,” responded Nobina.

Soon, Sarah began helping out an adventurer who wanted to take a quest. Nobina observed the whole process, which was pretty simple. Sarah confirmed the quest they wanted to take, checked their guild license, checked a list of individuals to be questioned, and then approved or denied the quest.

“It’s pretty simple stuff,” said Sarah as the adventurer headed off.

“I can see that,” chuckled Nobina. “Hopefully my first adventurer doesn’t give me problems.”

“I doubt it,” said Sarah.

A moment later, Nobina had her chance. Another adventurer appeared, a quest in hand. As he approached, his gaze fell on Nobina, who gave a gentle smile. He seemed to freeze, causing Nobina to be confused. Eventually, Sarah interrupted, coughing to get his attention.

When he realized what had happened, he got embarrassed and approached, handing Nobina a quest flyer and his adventuring card.

She began looking at both and going through the process. Not a minute later, she handed both back, giving a smile.

“Approved,” she said.

“Th.. thanks,” he nodded back, leaving quickly.

As he headed off, Nobina noticed Sarah chuckling.

“What is it?” asked Nobina.

“I don’t think you notice, but you look quite good Nobina. Some people would easily get flustered like that.”

Nobina, hearing that, immediately became shy.

“I’m… pretty average.”

“Average people don’t have glasses,” chuckled Sarah. “That’s something only those from another nation would have.”

Thinking about it, no one ever commented on her glasses. In fact, she realized how bad it would be if they ever broke. She had to hope to god that if it ever did, the entity in charge of her bag would bless her with glasses. After all, her vision wasn’t too good without them.

“You know, I’m surprised no one commented on these things,” she said, taking them off to observe them.

“Of course not,” said Sarah, speaking as if this was a matter of fact.

“Glasses are pretty common in the Federation of the Great Gar Gar amongst scholars is what I heard. People likely assume you’re a scholar as well.”

Hearing that, Nobina mentally noted down a new place to research about. This world was vast, and she was excited to find time to research it. Both for her writing and for her own joy.

“Anyway, congratulations on dealing with your first adventurer. Cheers to more to come.”

Sarah’s voice seemed to be a bit louder than Nobina expected. She didn’t know why Sarah was doing that, but it seemed it became clear instantly.

“Sarah. Nobina’s a human, not some puppy. You should treat her like any normal person.”

The voice came from Mimiki, who was standing at the doorway leading to the receptionist area. That one comment immediately made Sarah more hostile than Nobina had ever seen.

“Well, if you’d do that first, then that’d be appreciated. Not that I expect you to treat everyone normally.”

Mimiki moved in front of Sarah, and neither of them backed down as they stood in front of each other. As both were similar in height, they were basically staring down at each other. Nobina could only watch as both of them had rather aggressive words for each other.

“You’d be horrible teaching anyone with a backbone,” said Mimiki, her gaze intensely on Sarah. “People who want to earn their effort don’t expect praise for some tiny thing anyone can do. Then again, I don’t expect that from someone like Nobina.”

That ticked Nobina off, but Sarah came to her defense immediately.

“Really? Well, it’s better than no praise from someone who can be as heartless as you. Oh right, you do have a heart but only to adventurers and people who can fight.”

Mimiki’s face was full of shock before she barked back.

“They work hard to protect people. Don’t they deserve that? After all, not everyone has the heart to protect others.”

Sarah took a breath, trying to return herself to a calm state.

“Maybe, but to act like us non-combat folks deserve less is horrible. No wonder you’d never be trusted to handle anything non-combat related. Leave this field to an expert to handle.”

The fire between the two was growing intense before Nobina decided to try to put it out.

“Ok. The two of you need to calm down.”

With that, Mimiki remembered she was there and stormed out. Nobina caught Mimiki clenching her fists, clearly annoyed with both of them.

“Pay her no mind Nobina,” said Sarah, returning to the front.

She seemed in no mood to work, but suddenly she had a calm expression on her face. It seemed her passive ability didn’t work when dealing with Mimiki. As Sarah began speaking casually like before, Nobina wondered how in the world she’d work things out with Mimiki. If Sarah was having this much trouble, what chance did Nobina have of working things out with Mimiki? She could only hope the rest of the day would have no other issues.