Nobina found herself waking up in a familiar spot. It was the same comfy bed she was in the last time she saw Medical Mage Kim. Looking to her right, she saw Eric was waiting there. His gaze turned to Nobina as she finally awoke.

“Nobina…”

Eric bowed to her before speaking next.

“I’m sorry Nobina. I’ve allowed a fellow guild officer to almost seriously hurt you. This is unacceptable and as the guild master and Mimiki’s master, I accept full responsibility. I will compensate you to the best of my ability and Mimiki will be released from the guild.”

His words felt sincere, and Nobina appreciated them. However, she already had her answer for what to do about Mimiki.

“Thank you, Guild Master, but please give no punishment to Mimiki. She was only trying to train me and made a mistake.”

He shook his head.

“I cannot say that was training,” he responded. “I was watching from the second floor earlier, and it looked like she was just beating you up. This is by no means how someone should ever be taught.”

She wanted to question why he was not intervening sooner if he had issues, but part of her guessed it was the same reason why he hadn’t been that much involved with the matter between the two.

What Mimiki did wasn’t solely training, and Nobina knew she should have just walked away instead of taking all those hits. However, Nobina’s main goal was to break Mimiki out of her shell. She had a shell around her that prevented her from trusting anyone. If there was anyone who could do it, Nobina wanted to believe it was her.

“I know, but please… I’ve been doing my best to make things work and it all falls apart if she’s punished for this.”

Eric gave it some thought and shook his head.

“Even if you wish for her not to be punished, my hands are tied. If it becomes known a guild officer wasn’t punished for basically bullying another guild officer, it’d be completely irresponsible of me and also ruin the guild’s reputation. I have to do something.”

Nobina thought about it and had an idea.

“What if you change the punishment? Instead of firing her, she must undergo business etiquette training.”

“Business etiquette training?”

Nobina realized the idea might not be familiar to Eric, so she began explaining what it was. She began to explain how the training would work on improving Mimiki’s behavior to everyone, not just her fellow guild officers but also non-adventurers. Ideally, the result is her being more open with everyone and avoiding incidents like this in the future. Hearing that, he gave a laugh, nodding his head.

“What an interesting idea. Sure. I’ll accept the punishment you’ve mentioned. As the victim, you have every right to help dictate it.”

With that, Nobina felt relieved as she leaned back against the bed.

“So, what now?” asked Nobina.

Eric thought about it a bit before speaking.

“Well you should take another day off. Going back right now can only turn out badly. I’ll have Sarah come back again to take over. It might be a bit cruel to ask her to do so but…”

“She’ll understand,” said Nobina. “Oh, and please tell her to see me. I don’t want her butting heads with Mimiki or worse until we talk at least. There’s a personal conversation that needs to happen between the two of us regarding her.”

“I’d imagine this extends to Lare and Mimiki herself, right?”

She gave a nod. This was a big mess, but it was also a matter that was hopefully close to being resolved. Deep down, she hoped forgiving Mimiki would finally give her the trust she wanted. If not, there was nothing left to do. Nobina wasn’t a miracle worker, and there really was a limit to what she could and couldn’t do.

With that, Eric told her Medical Mage Kim would do a final check before letting her go. After all, a head injury was always serious.

Once he was gone, Kim appeared and checked over Nobina again. She told her that she was really lucky her head wasn’t seriously hurt. Thanks to Eric’s healing potion, it likely helped prevent anything serious.

“How do those things work anyway?” asked Nobina. “Does it somehow indicate that its working?”

Kim shook her head.

“These potions work by restoring any damage done to a particular spot its applied to. More potion is required depending on how big the injury is. In this case, when you might have received an internal injury from, say, hitting your head hard against the ground, the healing potion caused your body to restore itself. I don’t know how to explain this… Even if your injured, the potion can be used to prevent injuries.”

Nobina looked at her blankly, trying to wrap her head around its logic.

“So… I wasn’t hurt visibility, but it made sure any internal injury was healed?” she asked.

“Best way to put it, I guess. He did that so he could move you without risking a serious injury. Even if you weren’t bleeding on the outside, for all he knew some part of your head could have been hurt internally. The potion was meant to heal an injury you might not have been able to see, especially internal ones. I can’t tell you how serious those can go untreated.”

Nobina nodded. She’d have to thank Eric for using something likely expensive on her well-being, but she knew Eric would say it was his responsibility anyway. With that, Kim gave her the go-ahead after confirming that her bruises were healed.

“Can you try avoiding any serious fighting Nobina,” chuckled Kim. “As much as I like healing people, its preferred no one is hurt at all.”

“I’ll do my best Kim.”

With that, Nobina left the medical office. Stepping outside, she took a deep breath and looked in the direction of the guild. In her mind, she was so close to resolving everything. Tomorrow was a big day, and she had to be rested and ready.

Nobina headed back to her room, where she sat down and filled in her diary. Once again, Pausers was there, snuggling against her. Nobina was appreciative of how this was becoming a normal thing for her to end the night. It was a bit of progress in terms of writing, even if it wasn’t the book she intended to write. She was still thinking about potential subjects for it, but she wanted to make sure whatever it ultimately ended up being was something people resonated with.

As dinner rolled around, she decided to eat at the inn this time around. Sitting down, Harris approached her to take her order. However, in the middle of it, he gave a pause.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Are you alright Nobina?”

Nobina tilted her head, wondering what prompted the question.

“Oh. You seemed a little down. Just wanted to know if you were fine.”

“Thank you for the concern, Harris. I just have a bit on my mind, that’s all,” she replied.

Nobina had to imagine her face was reflecting how she was currently feeling. She couldn’t help but feel apprehensive given everything.

Harris, seeing Nobina not wanting to say more on the matter, merely nodded and took the rest of the order. In the meantime, while she was waiting for the food, she looked around at the adventurers and townsfolk in the inn. It was a large number of adventurers, but it made sense. Adventurers would be the primary people who’d enjoy this type of atmosphere. She had a feeling Mimiki must have visited this place relatively often.

Eventually her order of Chizen Staroff arrived. It was something familiar, and she wasn’t in the experimenting mood. As she was preparing to eat, she saw someone she wasn’t expecting arrive at the inn’s entrance. It was Mimiki, who was wearing a casual adventuring outfit. Her gaze saw Nobina, prompting Mimiki to look away.

Nobina stood up and approached her, curious about her being there.

“Mimiki?” asked Nobina.

“Nobina…”

There was a lot of guilt in her voice as she looked at Nobina. She seemed to be struggling to speak, but she slapped both of her cheeks and then looked at Nobina dead in the eyes.

“I’m… so sorry,” she said, lowering her head immediately. “You didn’t deserve any of what I did to you. This whole time… you were trying to get along with me but… I pushed you away…”

Nobina could hear her voice become more guilty as she spoke. Soon, she saw tears falling from Mimiki’s eyes as she spoke.

“I treated you like you were a bad person from day one. I hurt you again and again… I fully expected and even wanted you to push me away like Sarah has. However… I don’t why I was being so stupid.”

The room around them seemed to start to get quiet as their talk seemed to dominate the atmosphere.

“You might be disgusted seeing me right now and I’ll leave if you want. I just… wanted to make sure you understood that I really am sorry for everything… and I don’t deserve your forgiveness.”

Nobina, hearing this, hugged Mimiki. The hug shocked her, as she must have been expecting a different response.

“Mimiki,” said Nobina, giving her as much as a comforting hug as possible. “All I wanted was for us to get along. Even as you did everything you did against me, I tried as hard as I could to make it work. If I’m being honest, I only recently learned why you were doing all of this.”

Those words prompted Mimiki to look Nobina in the face, shocked.

“Wait… so you know about Eisa?”

She gave a nod.

“Please don’t blame Lare for telling me the full story. I forced it out of him so I could understand why you really hated me.”

Mimiki looked at Nobina, trying to find the words to say.

“So… So you still tried to work things out despite hearing everything? That story should have told you that things might have never worked out between us. If anything, it should have told you friendship between us might never happen.”

Nobina gave a chuckle hearing that.

“So… do you consider us friends?”

Hearing that, Mimiki struggled to speak.

“Do I even have the right to ask?” she spoke softly. “I haven’t even earned your forgiveness and asking for friendship seems wrong…”

“It’s a first step,” said Nobina. “But… Would you be so kind as to accept my own request for friendship?”

Mimiki looked at her, gathering herself. There was a pure look of disbelief on her face, unsure if she could even believe what she was hearing.

“Even after everything I did?” she replied.

“I honestly hope I did enough to earn it myself,” said Nobina kindly.

“Of course you have,” said Mimiki loudly. “You know what? If you want it, you definitely earned it. I’m happy to start calling you a friend.”

The inn around them cheered immediately as soon as that was said. Mimiki, seeing this, yelled out to everyone.

“Drinks are on me tonight everyone. To celebrate a newfound friendship.”

Nobina felt her embarrassment rapidly increase, but at the same time she felt as happy as could be. Her goal of working things out between them was finally done. There were still a few loose ends to resolve, but this was a major victory she intended to celebrate. Even if this was merely one small footnote in her life here, she knew that she’d always cherish this newfound friendship built on her determination to see things through.

Soon, the celebration was in full swing, and Nobina noticed something was missing. Normally, the Gaze would be a constant pressure on her that she had grown accustomed to. However, with it gone suddenly, she felt a sense of privacy, like her actions right now would not be seen by anyone else but herself.

“It’s a bit liberating,” she chuckled.

After she took a sip of the drink she had received, she placed it down and began to relax. At the moment, she was alone at her table while Mimiki seemed to be having the time of her life speaking with adventurers. It highlighted how she cared so much for adventurers. Despite this, she didn’t feel like Mimiki was intentionally avoiding her right now. Instead, she was merely enjoying the moment with people she was still much closer to. She was in her comfort zone and Nobina understood that well. All Nobina could hope for was their friendship would one day reach similar levels. Perhaps one day all the guild employees could celebrate together.

Hours passed and people were either calling it a night, were still celebrating, or passed out. For Nobina, who wasn’t really a drinker, she merely finished the second meal she had ordered. Her drink was still mostly full. This time, she ordered a Walsh Cheese Platter, which was a plate full of various cheeses. She was always a fan of cheese, so having something like this in the world was great. At some point, she wanted to travel a bit to try the different foods from different places.

“Nobina,” called Mimiki, taking a seat across from her. Despite all the drinking, it appeared that Mimiki was still very much sober and perfectly fine.

“I wanted to thank you for everything,” she said, a sad look suddenly going over her face. “I know my time at the guild will be over soon, but I’m glad I could make things up with you.”

Nobina tilted her head, confused by what she said.

“What do you mean? Did you get fired?”

Nobina was worried that perhaps Eric had ended up firing her despite her request. It didn’t make much sense that he’d disregard her desire like that, but he had every right to fire Mimiki. It would have been disappointing if that ended up being the case. However, she knew the guild had its policy, and she was in no position to exert any influence.

“It’s pretty obvious that it will happen,” she sighed, putting her head against the table. “You can’t hurt a fellow guild officer, let alone almost seriously injure one. I have no right to be a guild officer and I know both Sarah and Lare would voice their complaints against me. Heck, I’m sure that despite us being friends you must have wanted me gone before that.”

Nobina shook her head.

“I was more worried about losing my job if we couldn’t work things out to be honest,” said Nobina, staring at her drink that was half full. “However, I don’t want you to lose your job either.”

Mimiki shook her head back in response.

“Eric said it himself, there was only so much he could overlook. Tomorrow, he’ll likely call me in and fire me.”

Mimiki was facing down as soon as she said that. Nobina could tell she was frustrated, but there was something that she managed to catch.

“Wait… are you assuming your fired?” asked Nobina.

“Of course,” she said, raising her head. “There’s no way I go unpunished for this, even if you want it.”

Nobina gave a hearty laugh, prompting Mimiki to look at her confusedly.

“Don’t worry about it Mimiki. I worked something out with Eric, and you should be fine. Of course, there’s still a punishment but you’ll be an employee regardless.”

Mimiki’s face instantly lit up as she heard that. She ran to Nobina and gave her a strong hug. It was a bit painful, with Nobina mentioning it and Mimiki releasing it a bit.

“Oh. Sorry,” said Mimiki, rubbing the back of her head. “But what is the punishment?”

“Eric will explain it more tomorrow, but it isn’t too bad,” said Nobina with a smile.

“Hmph, well if it’s from you, I guess it won’t be that bad,” said Mimiki in a sarcastic tone.

Nobina raised her eyebrow, with Mimiki blowing up in laughter. Both began to laugh, showing how things between them had already started to resolve themselves. As the laughter died down, Mimiki gave a sigh.

“I’m so grateful you’re such a kind person Nobina,” Mimiki said as she looked at Nobina with a rare kind face. “So many people would never forgive me for what I did. Heck, I don’t want to forgive myself either, but I’m sure you’ll get mad if I did that.”

“Yeah. I don’t want that baggage holding either of us back.”

Mimiki gave a nod.

The two chatted a bit more regarding their interest, slowly getting accustomed to each other even more. Mimiki seemed to do her best to show at least some interest in her talking about writing, while Nobina had no trouble showing her interest in adventuring stuff.

“I guess a writer would love interesting things to write about,” chuckled Mimiki. “I’ll have to bring you out in the field after our training.”

“Oh? Some proper training is coming?” smiled Nobina.

“Yeah… I’ll do my best to ensure you are capable of doing the bare minimum. It’s the least I can do.”

“Cheers to that,” said Nobina, raising her drink.

The two drank one more time, capping off the night. All that was left to resolve any ill feelings from Sarah and Lare, and things would be fine. While she didn’t know if they’d easily forgive her, especially Sarah, she’d do everything she could to make it happen. After all, she wanted all of them to be happy together as a guild.