The night was in full swing as Nobina was staring out of her room’s window. Her legs were sore from the training earlier with Mimiki, but tomorrow was luckily a rest day. As she took a breath, admiring the beautiful moonlight, she turned to her desk.

“Summon.”

Her diary came out, landing in its usual writing spot. She chuckled as she enjoyed the fact that she was able to do something as magical as summoning a book, even if it was limited and not useful for combat.

Something she had figured out was she didn’t have to be directly over the summoning spot. All she had to do now was aim her hand at the location where it was to be summoned. Of course, there were limits to this. She could only do it a few feet, but she had tried repetitive training to see if she could get the summoning distance up. To her surprise, it wasn’t repetitive summoning that increased the range but additional writing in her diary. As she wrote, she could summon not only her diary but her comment page further and further away.

“Still much testing to be done,” said Nobina.

She wanted to see what would happen if she damaged the comment page and recalled it. Would it leave lasting damage, or would it create a perfect-condition piece of paper when resummoned? What would happen if she summoned multiple and damaged one but not the other? She was still contemplating whether to risk damaging the paper since she didn’t want to permanently damage it. She had tried writing scribbles on a page and checking if she could Recall it, but the test had failed. It was then she guessed she’d have to actually write something worth recalling for it to work, but that required more testing.

She did a sigh before heading to her diary to write. As she opened to write, she noticed Pausers hop up to snuggle against her, making her smile.

“Better summarize how things have been so far, right buddy?”

Pausers looked at her in the eye before continuing to snuggle. Nobina gave a chuckle before beginning to write in her diary.

“Hey there. It’s almost been two weeks since I started working at the guild. So much has been happening ever since the Mimiki situation, so I’d like to summarize my thoughts for myself. Let me just say that so much has happened ever since I spoke with everyone so bear with me if this is a lot.”

Nobina took a breath before continuing to write.

“A few days after the meeting, I received another letter with comments. The first one was the Entity commenting on their surprise at their comments being noticed, followed by them giving her a special bag that apparently could hold twice as much as it looked. It was the same size as the bag Nonomo gave her, and it could only hold objects she received from another world. I was shocked that I received another pretty useful item and had plans to use it to carry my special objects.”

“The next comment asked me whether the Chizen or the egg came first. At first, I laughed then I began wondering if Chizen came from eggs like chickens or if they had another process. It made me research the topic and apparently, they did come from eggs. So… I’ll say the Chizen came first cause that’s what you said first in the sentence.”

“Beyond that, I’ve been working on training with Mimiki every chance I got. She’s a tough teacher, but nowhere near as aggressive as the first two not really training days. She pushes me hard, but now it’s out of the desire to make me stronger rather than to push me away.”

“The Ledger Project is going as planned. Most of it is done, but there are still some fine details to work out. Hopefully it’s presentable within a week so I can free up my time to do other guild activities and start writing. Speaking of writing, I plan to take a day off soon to fish and determine the topic of my first book. It’s both nerve wracking and exciting at the same time. To be able to kick off my dream is something that will truly mark a step in the right direction.”

“Sarah and Lare have been fine. I’ve been hanging out mostly with Sarah and she still enjoys talking my ear off with her stories. However, I’ve been transitioning and telling her more about my own fictional stories. I can’t tell you how amazed she is about my story ideas, though it’s to be expected. Telling someone in a fantasy world about sci-fi is basically telling them something that’s fantasy to them. The talks were very entertaining to say the least.”

“As for Lare, the talks were mostly about how I was doing with the project, but also how I’m doing in general. In particular, he was interested in knowing how hanging out with Mimiki was now. When he learned how things were going well, he told me he was thankful that I was breaking Mimiki out of her shell. It made me happy that things were turning out great. Anyway, that’s all I have to say. Tomorrow, I meet with the Path Specialist to confirm my Path, which should be interesting.”

With that, Nobina put down her quill and gave a stretch. As she did, Pausers hopped onto the desk, causing her to look at them confusingly.

“What is it Pausers?” asked Mimiki.

It moved to her bag, where she noticed that there was something in there. She went to grab it, and when she pulled it out, she immediately let go of the objects.

Tears ran down her eyes as she found herself saying three words.

“Mom… dad… bro…”

She tried to compose herself as she picked up the photos. The first one was a photo she remembered all too well. It was the four of them celebrating Christmas together. It was hard to get all four of them in the same room back then, but Christmas was an exception. Nobina immediately began remembering all of them, and the longing to see them again was in full swing.

“I miss you guys…”

She occasionally had moments where she missed home, but she had been able to hold them back. Now, her desire to one-day return home was even stronger. However, the fact that she died basically made that impossible. She gave a sigh as she placed the first photo down.

Nobina went to the next photo and chuckled. It was a photo of her brother, but one where he was celebrating with his co-workers. Her brother worked in a software company, and they had been doing fine. However, the photo seemed to give off the impression they must have completed something major, making her smile.

“Glad you’re doing good bro…” she smiled.

The last photo made her freeze. Instead of tears, she now found herself worried. Her eyes turned to where she perceived the photo was being taken from, with her looking at the photo to confirm. She then headed to the spot she suspected it was taken from. When she held up the photo, she nodded, confirming her suspicions.

“Someone took a photo of me… in this world… standing right here,” she said.

The mystery of the Gaze grew even larger. Was there someone constantly tracking her life and taking pictures? Initially, she thought someone was reading about her life, but now she wasn’t sure. It could be far more, but she wouldn’t know.

She took a deep breath and used Recall on the photo, finding it disappeared.

“So, photo’s count as objects I can Recall and Summon,” she said, summoning it back. “Does that mean that it allows me to store or summon media related directly to me?”

It was a question she’d need to figure out. She had initially thought it merely had to be meaningful writing she did, but perhaps it extended past writing. Though, if her Path was the Path of the Writer, it didn’t make much sense that photos worked.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Maybe the phrase ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’ applies?” she chuckled.

Eventually, she’d look for the answers to her questions.

“I need to head to bed,” she sighed.

Tomorrow was the day the Path Specialist came to town. Apparently, it was a big event, so the guild would be packed. She had the first priority to get her ability checked, so she was told to wake up early. With that, she went to bed, excited to confirm her path was the Path of the Writer.

The next day, Nobina headed out to the guild. She had recognized she had woken up at the same time as normal, prompting her to get ready faster. As she got close, she immediately saw a line of people waiting to enter. Some were adventurers, but there were a lot of civilians. It was then she remembered that civilians would be the majority of people checking their Path. After all, Paths helped people get a job or hurt the chances of landing a job if their Path did not align.

Entering the guild, she saw Sarah was swamped helping people out. Even Lare was at the front handling people.

“Nobina,” called Lare. “I told you to come early.”

“Sorry,” she replied, heading to the back. “What should I do?”

“Maria is in the back. Follow me,” he said, leading Nobina past the line and into a special room.

The room itself was one of their standard small meeting rooms. However, it had a few nice seats and a special orb at the center at the moment. In the room was Eric and an older woman. She seemed to be around her sixties and had grayish hair. Her attire matched the guild, but it had extra flourishes about it and was more robe-like than Sarah’s.

“Lare,” called Eric. “She’s late.”

“I’m sorry,” Nobina replied.

Maria looked at Nobina and chuckled.

“It’s alright dear. Let me introduce myself. I’m Path Specialist Maria. I’m rather old, so do forgive me for working slow. Us Path Specialist are a group always in high demand.”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Nobina.

With that, Nobina was invited to sit down in one of the nice chairs. Lare left the room right after, leaving her to wait patiently. The orb in front of her was swirling in a white and blue light. Maria, who was standing nearby, went to the orb and placed her hand on it.

“Path Revelation,” she spoke, her voice sounding more authoritative than before.

Immediately, the room went black. Nobina was starting to worry a bit, but she heard Maria’s voice.

“Nobina. This is Maria. I forgot to tell you that you and I will be the only ones to see your Born Path and Current Path. Understand?”

“Got it,” Nobina replied.

With that, Nobina saw images of her past appear. Images of her in her old world. Tears began flowing as she saw her life flash before her eyes. It started with her childhood when she wanted to be an astronaut. Then she saw herself in school, where she moved towards a desire to write. College came and went, as her focus was now on getting her economics degree, and she didn’t do much else. She saw a dear friend she had that she no longer spoke to after college, which made her sad. Eventually, she saw herself at work and saw herself writing. It really showed how she had really spent a lot of her life writing casually, never releasing anything. Eventually, the last memories were of her appearing in this world and going through it, eventually leading up to this moment.

At that time, the vision stopped, and everything appeared as normal. When she looked around though, she saw Maria had a stern look on her face.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

Immediately, Nobina realized she had likely seen her whole past, making her worried that she’d reveal everything to Eric. However, Maria merely smiled after a bit.

“Sorry dear. It appears that mostly all of your Path Memories were blocked for some reason.”

She felt relieved upon hearing that, but then she remembered that this was all to confirm her path.

“So?” asked Nobina, hoping she didn’t sound impatient.

“Well dear… I can confirm the Path of the Writer is your current path. However, I’m unable to confirm if it was your starting Path.”

Nobina found herself cheering but was quickly shut down by Eric’s judgmental gaze.

“Sorry guild master,” said Nobina in a downcast voice.

“No worries,” he replied. “You’re free to go.”

She stood up, thanking Maria again before leaving.

As she left, Eric went to Maria, who showed a serious look as soon as Nobina was gone.

“What’s the situation,” asked Eric.

“She’s… different. Her memories were all blocked as I said, confirming she is indeed from another world. Though you did already confirm that with that sly meeting of yours with her,” she chuckled.

Eric gave a nod, unphased as she continued to talk.

“Not only that, but her path appears to be special. It is the Path of the Writer, but it gives off the same indications of a special path like the Path of the Hero and Path of the Anti-Hero.”

Eric felt troubled hearing that.

“So does that mean…”

“It means she has a ton of potential, but it’s up to her to both realize what that potential is and to determine how or if she dictates history. All I know is that if we allow her to operate independently, we must be sure she doesn’t bring about any significant change for the worse.”

Eric gave a nod. Seeing his suspicions confirmed, Eric knew that Nobina would play a key role in perhaps the next century. It wouldn’t be immediate, but it would happen eventually.

“Shall I report it to the main guild, or do you want to keep that information private?” asked Maria.

“You’d do that?” asked Eric, surprised by Maria’s disregard for policy.

She chuckled, nodding her head.

“Eric… We’ve known each other since you checked your Path with me when you were a kid. Don’t think I wouldn’t do such a favor for you. Especially since you’ve done so much for me.”

Eric could easily recall their rich history together, but he had other concerns.

“But what about the safety of the kingdom or even the world in this regard?” he replied, curious about her response.

“Please… If she was a Hero or Anti-Hero, I’d report her without question,” said Maria with no hesitation. “However, her destiny feels far different. Something about Nobina feels… normal? She seems like someone who wouldn’t want to influence world affairs. Someone who wants a simple life.”

Eric gave a nod.

“Perhaps, but people have been molded the moment they gain even a bit of power. If she changes, we’ll have to be ready.”

“It’s up to you Eric,” said Maria. “If she turns out to be a bad seed, then…”

“I’ll handle it,” he said with a straight face.

Nobina came back to the front, assisting Sarah with the mass of adventurers.

“Man, this is kind of crazy,” said Nobina.

“I’d say,” said Sarah. “Without Mimiki, it’s hard to keep the adventurers in line. Especially the rowdy ones that a former A-rank guild officer could force to back down. We are just lucky that nothing problematic has happened yet.”

When those words came out of her mouth, a rather large adventurer appeared. He approached the desk aggressively, slamming his hand on it.

“Hey,” he yelled.

Nobina hid in a panic while Sarah stood her ground. Her Composure skill was showing as she gave a smile to the adventurer, showing no sign of panic.

“Welcome,” said Sarah in a friendly tone. “You must be new to the guild. We have a policy where you must stand in line with everyone else if you’re here for Maria. Else, I can help you apply to become an adventurer.”

The man reached into his pocket and slammed an adventurer card onto it. Nobina appeared back and saw it was a B-rank adventuring card.

“I’m a B-rank. I demand to see Maria immediately,” he barked.

All around them the eyes of the others in the line were focused on watching everything play out. The fact no one was stopping him made Nobina worried.

“Sir,” smiled Sarah, keeping her positive attitude. “Despite your rank status, it cannot be deployed here to skip the line. I can get my supervisor to confirm it, but…”

As she said that, Sarah found her outfit grabbed, making Nobina panic. Despite this, Sarah had remained calm.

“Sir,” said Sarah, merely keeping calm. “Attacking a guild officer is a serious crime.”

“You listen here…” he spoke aggressively.

Before he could say another word, Nobina heard Sarah call out a name using her other ability.

“Eric! Attacker!”

Immediately, Eric appeared and grabbed the large man, slamming them down into the guild floor. The whole building shook the moment the man contacted the floor. Eric then stood up slowly, dusting herself off. The downed adventurer was groaning in pain as Eric spoke coldly to him.

“Attacking a guild employee as an adventurer is an immediate stripping of your rank. I don’t care if you’re a B, A or even an S. No one hurts my employees.”

Upon hearing those words, the man slowly got up, fear in his eyes.

“My… apologies…” he spoke in pain.

Nobina could see he could barely stand at this point, showing the sheer difference in power between them.

“Get out of my sight,” said Eric, his voice still cold and showing authority.

As the adventurer made his way out, Eric turned to the two of them, asking if they were alright.

“Yeah,” said Sarah. “Man, that was something.”

Eric turned to Nobina, asking if she was fine. Nobina shook her head.

“I felt… powerless,” she said. “I couldn’t do anything. Even if I wanted to, I was… frozen in fear.”

“That’s expected,” said Eric. “Adventurers can be a scary bunch. So long as you’re careful, you should be fine and don’t worry about that adventurer. I’ve marked him so if he tries anything again, I’ll know immediately. He won’t get a chance to regret that decision.”

Nobina’s eyes widened upon hearing that. Eric was truly a powerful and scary individual. As a former S-rank, it made sense, making her wonder more about his past.

“Now then… I will be heading back to Maria,” said Eric.

As he left, Nobina realized that while she had her Path, it did not help her protect people. She was nowhere near strong enough to protect the people she cared for. While her goal was writing, and she’d love abilities solely related to it, she also didn’t want to feel powerless. With what happened, she planned to work even harder to get into shape to begin her swordsmanship training.

“Perhaps I can get some combat ability as well one day,” she chuckled.