The day seemed to just pass by slower and slower as Nobina’s mind was focused on what had happened between the three of them. Sarah wasn’t helping either, as her focus was no longer on herself but on talking about Mimiki and how she was rude and was causing them too much trouble. Nobina wondered how wise it was for her to talk about Mimiki like this, but Nobina wasn’t in the mood to voice her complaints.

On Nobina’s side, it didn’t seem like she was paying any attention to Sarah at all with her distant gaze. However, she was listening intently to her talk about the various situations involving Mimiki. The most prominent of those situations was how Mimiki didn’t like non-adventurers.

“It can’t be as simple as that,” said Nobina, finally speaking up.

Sarah shook her head in response.

“I wish it wasn’t that simple, but she prefers hanging around with adventurers. You can see it if you hang out with her enough. It’s as clear as day.”

It made sense to a certain degree to like hanging around with people you work with. Nobina was kind of the same as well, preferring to hang out in crowds of like-minded individuals. However, to say you didn’t like non-adventurers was hard to believe. Most of this world had to be non-adventurers.

“Anyway, looks like the day’s almost over. I’m so excited to be done with it,” said Sarah, trying to avoid yawning.

Nobina was in the same boat as her. She was pretty exhausted mentally with thinking about both work and Mimiki. She was in the middle of training as well and that was drawing her attention.

The two eventually gathered their things and headed out. As they left, Nobina noticed Mimiki was outside, laughing. Mimiki either didn’t notice them or was ignoring Nobina and Sarah. It was clear she was having a great time. Her expression was completely different from what it was every time Nobina saw her. It was good to see she was happy, but also frustrating knowing someone was only gloomy and rude around a certain individuals. That certain individuals being Nobina and Sarah.

Eventually, the two passed by, with Mimiki not saying a word as she continued to talk to the adventurers about a recent quest they went on. When they were out of earshot, Sarah went back to complaining.

“You see? Only cares about adventurers.”

There was a look of disappointment as Sarah shook her head.

Nobina didn’t like talking like this behind another fellow employees’ back, but at the same time, it was hard for her not to be annoyed as well. However, she held her tongue on the matter.

“Let’s just… enjoy dinner,” she said, remaining as calm as possible.

This time around, the two of them went to a nice restaurant near the east side of town. It wasn’t a fancy restaurant by any stretch of the word, but it was calmer and more civil than the inn where she was staying. Once again, Sarah ordered for the two of them. It was a Glaze Haem with Potatoes this time around, another food Nobina didn’t recognize. However, it was pretty obvious what the equivalent food was compared to her old world. Not wasting any time, the two quickly dug in. The flavors melded in Nobina’s mouth, making her forget all about her troubles as she enjoyed the food.

“Why can’t I be in this bliss all the time,” she thought to herself.

On Sarah’s end, she went back to talking about herself, enjoying the food while having a good time. They were in their own world, and Nobina was having a good time being calm and relaxed. Soon, they were done with their food, and it was just general chatting. At that time, the taste of the food started to give way to negative thoughts about Mimiki.

Nobina’s face must have been giving away her feelings as Sarah gave her a concerned look.

“What’s wrong,” she asked.

“Oh… Mimiki is still on my mind,” she sighed.

Hearing that, Sarah inched closer, almost whispering her next words.

“Want to hear a story?” asked Sarah.

Nobina nodded immediately, curious about the story she was going to give.

“Did you know that Mimiki was an adventurer before becoming a guild officer?”

Nobina gave a chuckle, shaking her head.

“You act like that’s supposed to be surprising.”

Sarah couldn’t help but laugh, nodding her head.

“It’s more than that though. See, Mimiki originally was never aiming to be a guild officer. Rather, she came to the guild to train under Eric. I think it was… five years ago? One year after I started.”

It made sense to Nobina. Mimiki wasn’t handling much on the administrative side from what Nobina could see and her skills were likely all related to the adventuring side. For her, she must have just seen working as a guild officer as a means to an end. Quite similar to how Nobina somewhat saw this path. Her end goal was, after all, to release a book. Whatever was necessary for her to reach that goal, she’d go for it.

“So… Did she make a deal with Eric or something?” asked Nobina, relaxing in her chair.

“Basically. Eric promised to train her every so often if she assisted in reducing his workload working as a guild officer. Safe to say, the deal is the only real reason she’s still here. I doubt the adventurers here are convincing her to stay thanks to her strength as an A-rank.”

Nobina wondered if it was going to be a similar deal with her. Did she care about being a guild officer at all, or was this her means to an end? Would she leave if a better situation arose?

“Anyways, don’t worry about patching stuff up with Mimiki. Worst case you two can ignore each other like how I do it with her already. Sure, this isn’t the best situation, but it keeps the guild functioning. That all that matters, right?”

Nobina nodded, wishing that wasn’t the case.

Once they were done, they headed out, with Nobina heading back to her end. As they reached the intersection where they’d go their own ways, Sarah gave her a serious look before continuing on.

“Try to not get too involved with Mimiki tomorrow. I won’t be there to knock her down a peg or two.”

Nobina nodded, hoping she could do just that.

Back in her room, she summoned her diary and began filling it out. This had become a sort of training in itself, as it was the only time she could write whatever she wanted. She still had yet to start her own book in this world, but she didn’t know what the topic would be just yet. Until then, she wanted to leave her options flexible. After all, she didn’t have unlimited resources.

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Finishing her diary, she used Recall to bring it back out of existence. As it was close to the end of the day, she decided to practice more with her ability. She began using Summon and Recall one after another. It seemed she could do it for as many times as she wanted, but on the 20th attempt to Summon, she felt tired.

“Another limit, huh?”

It was good data to know. Besides the limit of how many she could summon, there was a limit to how many times she could Recall and Summon in general. With that, she gave a stretch and decided to head to bed. Tomorrow would hopefully just be a day of working on the Ledger and nothing else.

The following day, Nobina found herself waking up early. It was a rather peaceful day, with the birds chirping and the sunlight feeling particularly warm on her skin. She checked her clothes and began noticing something a bit strange about them. For something she had been wearing the whole time, they were still in rather good condition. She began wondering if they were magical at all, but she had no intention of damaging her only clothes from her own world. Besides that was her bag, which was her link with the Gaze. Part of her wondered what was in store for her next with the bag, but she didn’t have time to research more into it.

Leaving her room, she made her way to the guild, where Mimiki was once again at the front. The two basically ignored each other, which potentially could just be how things were going to be. When Nobina sat down and began spreading out the financial documents, Lare called her.

“Hey Nobina,” said Lare.

Nobina stopped organizing her documents and asked what he needed.

“Mind talking to me in my office?”

Nobina, hoping that this wasn’t something too serious, nodded and followed him. A part of her was feeling nervous, but she trusted Lare that this wasn’t anything of the sort.

As she took a seat in his office, Lare gave her a serious look and made a recommendation that made her winch a bit.

“You should undergo combat training under Mimiki.”

The suggestion itself seemed ridiculous, but she knew better than to immediately respond. As suspected, Lare began explaining the proposal.

“See. Mimiki is our only combat guild officer. It would be beneficial to the guild to have a second one. Of course, I know a bit about combat myself, but I’m more so a supervisor. Sarah doesn’t do combat either, so I just wanted to ask if you would be willing to do so. Especially since you’ll be here the most often of the three. You’ll be compensated well for it, if that makes it any better.”

Nobina had to give it some thought. Logically, it made sense to make her somewhat versed in combat. Guild officers were people who had to deal with adventurers. While she wasn’t expected to fight them one-on-one, she saw the importance of being able to defend herself to a degree. The main problem was dealing with the fact she’d be under Mimiki.

“It’s not an easy decision to make,” said Lare. “I know you and Mimiki aren’t on good terms, but I think this would be a good way to help smooth things over with her. What do you say?”

The answer seemed obvious, but Nobina knew that, deep down, she hadn’t given up on working things out with Mimiki. She was willing to go even further to make this work.

“… Ok.”

Lare seemed happy with her answer, calling over to Mimiki. It didn’t take her long either before Mimiki arrived.

“What is it Lare,” she asked, trying to avoid showing her being a bit annoyed.

“Can you train Nobina in the basics of combat?”

His question made Mimiki rather shocked. She looked at Nobina then back at Lare, repeating this a few times before asking one question.

“Why?” she asked, clear suspicion in her voice.

“You’re our only combat guild officer,” smiled Lare. “And Nobina seems fine with it, so why not?”

Hearing that, Mimiki seemed to smile ever so slightly. Nobina noticed it as well, but she made no indication of her seeing it.

“Right now?” Mimiki asked, still looking at Nobina.

“Yeah. I’ll take over the front. Does that sound good to the two of you?”

Both of them gave a nod. With that, Nobina stood up and followed Mimiki out of the guild’s backdoor and into an open training field. There, Mimiki went over to a rack and grabbed two training swords.

“Now then,” said Mimiki, seemingly more excited than usual. “I’m going to warn you that training isn’t going to be easy. You’ll probably be knocked down a lot and it might seem like I’m being cruel, but this is merely a check to see how dedicated you are to this.”

Nobina was surprised by what Mimiki said. She was basically giving her a way for them to get closer together. If she wasted this chance, then she’d only have herself to blame.

Mimiki, noticing her expression change, smiled.

“So… you’re still fine with this… Nobina?”

“Yes, I am,” said Nobina, giving a vigorous nod.

“Great. So, the first exercise will be evaluating your current skill level. I want you to try to strike me with the sword. Every time you do, I’ll block or dodge and occasionally strike you back. Any questions?”

It seemed simple enough to her. Nobina gave a nod, having her sword ready for training.

She had no combat experience whatsoever, only having the anime she watched and games she played as references. This was by no means the same thing. In fact, she had a feeling she wouldn’t even land a single hit. However, she wanted to believe that it was possible.

With that, Mimiki took a ready stance, and Nobina did the same. Both looked at each other, and soon, Nobina was off to make the first move.

She charged and tried to swing at Mimiki, but her sword was easily dodged, and Mimiki landed a strike on Nobina’s side. It hurt quite a bit, prompting Nobina to freeze and check if the sword left a bruise.

“Nobina,” said Mimiki, her voice full of focus. “In combat, you won’t get a chance to stop and check a wound like that. Next time, I’ll try striking until you retreat so be aware.”

Nobina gave a nod, retreating and getting ready for another strike. She took a deep breath, focusing on trying to find a place to strike. She could already tell that she wasn’t really prepared for training. The sword felt hard to hold and she had no idea what whether she was holding it right or wrong. If someone was to ask, she needed the full basic rundown, but she guessed Mimiki meant to teach her that as soon as they were done with this.

“Nobina,” said Mimiki. “Focus. Or are you actually just messing around and don’t care about doing better?”

Hearing those last words, Nobina regained focus and went back to trying to strike Mimiki yet again. This time, she found her strike being blocked and a counter hit to her other side. This time, she noticed Mimiki strike her leg moments later, prompting a yelp as Nobina tried desperately to retreat. She got hit once more in the leg before finally being out of her range.

“Hey,” said Nobina, sounding annoyed by her hit.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I not make it clear? Retreat when you fail to hit. Unless you really want to keep getting hit. Would make this a rather dull exercise.”

As Mimiki was saying that, Nobina noticed that Mimiki had already started to get bored with this training. It lit a fire in Nobina’s heart as she focused up yet again.

“Ready,” said Nobina.

“Come at me,” replied Mimiki.

The training went on for about an hour and it was safe to say a one-sided endeavor. Mimiki had no intention of letting Nobina land a single hit. At the same time, Nobina was starting to feel bruised all over. Mimiki had intentionally not been targeting the same spot, making her feel the hits all over rather than having one really bad spot. If it wasn’t bad enough, Mimiki clear dislike for the training grew as it went on.

“Come on! Stop wasting time and come at me again!”

Mimiki sounded pissed off, causing Nobina to grit her teeth. This prompted Mimiki to lay into her even more.

“Why are you even mad? Are you telling me that you’re only just getting frustrated now? Please. Tell me your done so I can head back.”

Those words made Nobina more and more desperate to land a hit, but no matter how hard she tried, it was impossible. Not only that, but she was starting to want to yell back at Mimiki but held her tongue. She wasn’t going to let her be the reason for this falling apart. Soon, it wasn’t a choice any longer. Her body was demanding her to stop.

Exhausted, Nobina leaned on her sword as Mimiki seemed already done with training. She looked at Nobina disappointingly, close to snapping Nobina’s willingness to keep silent.

“Honestly,” said Mimiki, dropping her sword. “This is a waste of time. Go back to doing what you like. Not that it will amount to anything.”

Those words caused Nobina to snap as she charged at Mimiki. The response was Mimiki using her foot to toss the sword back into her hand, giving her the ability to easily parry and knock out Nobina’s sword. When she went for the follow-up hit, Mimiki found her sword knocked out of her hand from what appeared to be a blast of concentrated wind.

Both turned to see Lare at the entrance of the back side of the guild, shaking his head.

“You were going to hit her hard with that last one Mimiki,” said Lare. “This training is over.”

“Hmph,” said Mimiki, leaving.

As she walked past Lare, giving him a shoulder bump, Lare went to Nobina. She was standing still, looking at the sword she had previously held.

“Nobina?” asked Lare.

“I’m done,” she yelled, not even looking at Lare. “If Mimiki wants to be alone, fine. She wins. I can’t believe I wasted my time with this.”

Nobina stormed off, her head full of emotions she couldn’t process. Lare, looking at the two swords on the ground, could only sigh.

“I wonder if this was the final straw,” he said, picking up the swords of the two.