The day seemed to come and go quickly as the two headed back to Mimiki’s house to train more. Once there, Nobina noticed Mimiki wasn’t really as focused as usual, seeing her gaze up into the sky occasionally. It was serious enough that midway through the end-of-day training, Nobina stopped, prompting Mimiki to ask her what was wrong.

“Mimiki… You’re thinking about tomorrow, right?”

She nodded her head.

“Sarah… Will never forgive me.”

Hearing that shocked Nobina. Just earlier, Mimiki seemed so confident in resolving things.

“Change of heart?” asked Nobina.

“No… I’m just… being realistic…”

As she said that, Nobina’s bag glowed again. She looked at Mimiki, who merely shrugged.

Nobina opened the bag and saw two things. First, she saw a map with the locations of the Goblin Nests and nearby camps of goblins. It was useful considering all that happened, so she merely recalled it for later.

“Glad that worked,” she nodded.

Next was a cake that said something that bothered Nobina.

“What… is that… for me, Nobina?” asked Mimiki, her face shocked.

She was going to say something, but a hand reached out and scrapped off the letters of the cake, leaving an unappealing smear along the cake’s top.

“Is… that hand clean?” asked Mimiki, a concerned look now on her face.

“I’m not sure…” Nobina responded.

The bag glowed once again, showing the hand holding what Nobina recognized as a disinfectant wipe.

“… I guess it’s clean now…” she smiled nervously.

The hand then pointed strongly at the cake before retreating.

“…”

Neither of them said a word, but Nobina had a feeling that it was in her interest to eat the cake.

“Oh my god, it’s clean. That cake is your favorite Nobina. Don’t waste it,” came a fairy-sounding voice from the bag.

“Nobina… did your bag…”

“Yeah…”

Both of them were stunned to hear the bag talk. It was still a matter of determining if the thing behind the bag was one entity or multiple people, but this was an unexpected development.

“I guess… we’ll call it today and eat some cake,” said Nobina.

“Sounds… good to me,” said Mimiki.

The two returned to Mimiki’s house, where the bag transformed into a blue crossbody bag, a different shade from last time. Mimiki didn’t say a word as she grabbed the utensils and set them on the table.

“Can I not comment every time your bag does something odd?” asked Mimiki.

“Yeah… I think it’s for the best,” she responded.

The two began eating the cake and were surprised by how good it was. Despite the hand smearing on the top, the flavor was a nice, rich sweetness that brought both of them into food bliss. Both were too engrossed in being in flavor heaven to say a word, merely devouring the cake slowly but surely.

Thirty minutes passed, and soon, the cake was gone.

“What was that,” said Mimiki. “I don’t think I’ve ever tasted something that good.”

“It was a blueberry cake with ice cream filling. Something that’s probably rare around these parts.”

“Wow… Can we have more of it?” asked Mimiki.

“If the Gaze wills it, but… I think that much cake is bad for you. Luckily, it’s only one cake.”

“I see,” she nodded.

“By the way… where did you try blue berry and ice cream? I’ve never heard of those.”

Nobina immediately entered a panic, with Mimiki laughing before speaking.

“Remember?”

Nobina sighed and nodded.

“I can’t say.”

It did bother Nobina holding the secret of her otherworld origin from Mimiki, but Eric did say it was best not to reveal it.

As she said that, the bag glowed again, and this time appeared what seemed to be a platinum dome over a plate. Taking it out of the bag, she set it down on the table. There, she opened it up and saw the same cake.

“What is this metal Nobina?” asked Mimiki, tapping the metal dome.

“Not sure if your world has…”

She instantly covered her mouth, but Mimiki merely laughed.

“Hm… so you’re from another world…”

Nobina became embarrassed immediately by her blunder, prompting Mimiki to shake her head.

“I guess… I couldn’t hide it forever,” she sighed.

Mimiki nodded her head.

“I will say anyone around this bag will eventually find out you’re from another world. You recognize how strange this bag is right? Changing shape, speaking, having a hand, producing unique items and foods… None of this is normal.”

“I know… Listen, everything so far in this world has been mostly normal. It’s just strange stuff that has been happening recently and I have no idea why. Nor do I think I have control over any of it.”

Nobina felt herself going a bit crazy trying to deal with the bag.

“I’m just worried about this bag Mimiki. You can see that it’s capable of a lot, right? Actually, take a look at this.”

Nobina summoned her Legendary Adventurer card, forcing Mimiki to stare at it stunned.

“That’s… a Legendary Adventurer card… That bag… gave it to you?”

“Yeah… the Gaze did give it…” replied Nobina reluctantly.

Just then, two more glows happened, but their focus was on the card.

“You realize… this is not good to have, right?” said Mimiki seriously. “It’s illegal to have a fake adventuring card and can get you in deep trouble.”

“The thing is, I don’t know if it’s fake. Is it real Mimiki?” she asked.

“Only the Capital Guilds can likely confirm. Anyway, never show anyone else, got it? Not even Eric.”

She nodded, recalling the card.

“My advice for you Nobina,” said Mimiki in a serious tone. “Do not open that bag outside of your privacy ever again. Unless it’s a dire emergency, nothing good can come from you showing people, got it?”

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She nodded again. Mimiki was right. The bag was too dangerous to open around people. If the Eric body pillow wasn’t enough to indicate that, the fact the bag activity talked and used a hand would make anyone around her worried. If she left it closed, it would likely not say or do anything. At least, she hoped that’d be the case.

“So, what were we talking about again,” said Mimiki, going for another slice of cake.

“Sarah,” she responded, moving to slap Mimiki’s hand. She easily pulled it out of the way, with Mimiki giving a tiny pout as a response.

“What was that for?”

“We can’t stuff ourselves with cake. We got work, remember?”

Mimiki sighed and nodded.

With that, Nobina packed everything up. As for the cake, Nobina had an idea.

“Let’s bring this in tomorrow. Maybe it’ll help smooth things over with Sarah,” said Nobina.

“I doubt it, but we can try,” responded Mimiki.

Nobina packed the cake into her special bag, hoping that it would be fine within its platinum container in the special space. If time did pass normally inside the bag, then the ice cream would melt, and the cake would be ruined. If not, then it would be another new thing learned about her Special Bag.

With that, Nobina headed home for the day. Once she was back in her room, she opened her Gaze bag and found two lists with two pencils. Looking at the top papers, it read “write down clothing items you want to receive” on the top of one and “write down clothing items you want Mimiki to receive” on the other.

“Huh… New outfits? That would be neat.”

Nobina didn’t have the best fashion sense, but the ability to receive “any clothing items” from the Gaze seemed valuable.

“I… think I should save this for later,” she said.

As much as it would be cool to receive clothes now, she didn’t have an outfit in mind yet. Rather than rushing to get something nice, she wanted to give it some more thought.

She then began writing in her diary what had happened for the day. As she did that, Pausers hopped onto her lap, snuggling against her.

“At least as everything around me changes, you remain the same Pausers. Such a good bunny,” she said as she gave Pausers a pet.

Nobina finished up her writing, testing her Recall and Summon spell as usual to see what her limits were. As she tired after summoning about eighty pages, she retired for the night, hoping that Mimiki and Sarah wouldn’t do anything too crazy the next day.

The following day, Nobina awoke to a note showing itself from the Gaze bag. Opening up, the note read the following.

“I DID NOT SEND THOSE CAKES!! I’M BEING IMPERSONATED.”

Nobina looked blankly at the note and smiled.

“So, there are more than one of you out there, huh?”

With everything that has happened so far, one mystery was solved, but more questions were now to be answered. Who were all these entities? Did they have different responsibilities? Did they have limits on what they could do?

“More questions, not enough time,” she sighed.

Nobina packed everything for work and was about to leave when Pausers squeaked.

“What is it Pausers?” Nobina asked.

It hopped into her Special Bag, prompting her to shake her head.

“Pausers… You can’t come today. You’re not allowed in the guild, remember?”

It peeked its head out of the bag, frowning before going onto the bed. It broke Nobina’s heart to leave Pausers, but it was guild policy.

Nobina headed to the guild right after. The moment she was inside, she saw that Sarah was in a bad mood.

“Oh come on,” said Nobina out loud, causing people to look at her.

“Nobina,” said Sarah, clearly upset. “What did you tell Mimiki?”

“What do you mean?” asked Nobina as she stepped behind the desk.

“She’s begging me to forgive her, which is… honestly making me so upset.”

Nobina couldn’t believe Mimiki would beg Sarah for forgiveness. There had to be more to this than Sarah was indicating.

“Are you sure this is the Mimiki I know?” Nobina asked, hoping for some evidence Sarah was misunderstanding things.

Sarah led Mimiki to the guild library, where her head was against the desk.

“Oh… she did beg huh,” said Nobina.

“I’ll.. leave you two to work it out,” said Sarah, walking back to the front.

As she left, Nobina noticed that she was still in a bad mood. She then went to Mimiki, tapping her shoulder.

“What did you do?” asked Nobina.

“I… tried a different approach. I feel like an idiot and want to just… go home.”

Nobina sighed. At the very least, Mimiki was trying, but it looked like the first attempt had a horrible result.

“Listen… I’ll talk to Sarah. We’re a team, remember?”

“Good luck with that,” she replied, not raising her head.

Nobina headed to the front to see Sarah merely standing there. Even if she didn’t see Sarah’s face, Nobina could see that Sarah was exerting an aura of someone in a bad mood.

Before she could say anything, her Gaze bag glowed.

“Not now,” said Nobina to the bag.

“What?” asked Sarah, turning to her.

“Oh nothing… wait…”

Nobina went into her Special Bag and pulled out the cake. Immediately, Sarah flashed a face of joy but tried to hide it behind her somewhat faded bad mood.

“Nobina… food… can’t…”

Sarah couldn’t find herself to say the words as Nobina shook her head.

“I’m going to the ‘let’s sit down and talk’ party. Anyone who wants cake can come,” she said, walking into the guild library.

Sarah sighed and followed, disappointed by her lack of willpower.

Once there, Nobina found a chair for herself and Sarah. The three sat around, with Mimiki finally bringing herself to raise her head.

“Sarah,” said Mimiki.

“Don’t think I’ll say your forgiven after eating this cake,” said Sarah, keeping her gaze on it. “I’m just hear for Nobina sake… and cake…”

“I don’t expect it… I’m sorry for earlier,” said Mimiki, finally standing up.

“It’s fine,” she responded. “Honestly Mimiki, what you did was pathetic. Trying to act like someone you’re not… You know what you need to do, right Mimiki? You aren’t stupid, right?”

“Sarah,” said Nobina sharply.

“It’s alright, Nobina,” responded Mimiki, somewhat returning to her composed self. “Sarah. I’m trying. I can’t guarantee you I’ll change today… tomorrow… or anytime soon. But… Please know I’ll try…. To rid myself of this instinct to not trust people.”

“Non-adventurers,” said Sarah loudly. “Don’t think I don’t notice how this only applies to them and how you completely trust adventurers.”

“Non-adventurers… yeah.”

Mimiki was looking down, but Nobina noticed Sarah seemed in a better mood.

“Ok. If that’s what you are saying, I’ll hold you to it. Despite things between us… the one thing I can say is you’ve never lie to me Mimiki… You’re always brutally honest.”

“I am,” she said, looking at Sarah.

“Then… I’ll be watching,” Sarah said, her face remaining serious. “You haven’t earned my forgiveness, but… I’ll try to be more open to being forgiving.”

Nobina was happy things were starting to resolve themselves.

“Alright,” smiled Sarah, drawing the attention of the two. “Cake time!”

With that, the three of them began eating cake. Luckily, the guild did have spare utensils for occasions like this. The conversation was mostly centered around Nobina, with Sarah and Mimiki having trouble talking to each other directly. However, there was a tiny bit of effort being made during the cake eating. Sarah would ask a casual question involving adventuring, and Mimiki would dive deep into it. Mimiki would ask a casual question involving fashion, and Sarah would dive deep into it.

“Oh,” said Nobina. “I got something recently.”

She took out the lists and showed them to Mimiki and Sarah.

“I’m no good with fashion, but you can write down clothing items you want to receive on them and either me or Mimiki will receive them,” said Nobina excitedly.

“Really,” grinned Sarah. “Hey Mimiki… Do you mind if I pick your cloths.”

Mimiki was going to say something, but she shook her head.

“Do what you want.”

Sarah turned to Nobina and asked them the same.

“Of course,” she smiled.

“Fantastic. I heard of a new style in the Trade City Binso that’s going around. If this works, I should be able to give you two the latest fashion,” said Sarah.

“Speaking of fashion… Nobina… where’s your guild outfit coming in?” asked Mimiki.

“I… don’t think one was ever ordered,” said Nobina.

As far as she could recall, she never actually requested an outfit. She had assumed that Eric or Lare would bring it up, but neither of them ever did.

“Honestly, I don’t think you need one,” said Sarah. “Your outfit is so nice. It’s like… actually, is that the same outfit you’ve been wearing?”

Nobina nodded, prompting a confused look from Sarah.

“Are you using a cleaning ability or something? It’s always so clean,” said Sarah, examining the clothes.

“Well, it has to be something,” said Mimiki. “After our training, the outfit looks scuffed up, but the next day it feels like it cleans itself.”

“I have none,” said Nobina. “I’ve guessed that the outfit was magical, but I have no way to confirm that.”

“We’ll have to check later,” nodded Sarah. “If your guild outfit hasn’t been ordered yet we can just apply some additional markings to your current one to show your status as a guild officer. Technically, your badge should be good enough, but you currently don’t wear it high enough. We should have it pinned in the traditional spot to make it clear you’re a guild officer.”

“That would be good,” Nobina nodded.

The three were getting close to finishing the cake when Lare appeared. Seeing the cake, he showed an upset look.

“You guys know there’s still work to be done right? Honestly, if you three weren’t the only guild employees you’d be receiving disciplinary action for leaving your post unannounced. However, I’ll overlook it this once. I’ll handle the cleanup and…”

“This is the ‘let’s sit down and talk’ party cake Lare,” said Sarah. “We’ll return to our posts and you can have the cake, but are you willing to sit down and talk to Mimiki?”

“Of course,” he said, a bit insulted. “If you can talk to Mimiki, I certainly can.”

Lare grabbed a chair and joined them, with him looking at Mimiki.

“Look, Mimiki. Things between us are bad because you broke my trust. As someone who’s always been trustworthy, that is my requirement for forgiveness. Even if you can never earn back being absolutely trustworthy, you can at least become trustworthy again. Got it?”

Mimiki nodded, her face showing her resolve.

“Of course, Lare,” she said.

“Where was that motivation speaking to me?” asked Sarah, feeling insulted this time.

“Sarah,” snapped Nobina, prompting her to eek.

“I’ll show that same dedication as well Sarah,” she responded.

Both Sarah and Lare looked at each other before nodding.

With that, Lare joined in to eat the last of the cake. From Nobina’s perspective, everything should have been fine from here on out, but she knew that wasn’t true. Her bag once again played a role in helping resolve the matter, but she was worried that she might try to lean on the bag in the future. Not only that, but she still had a bad feeling about the goblins. Were things really fine? They hadn’t absolutely confirmed it with a check of the nest.

“I need to keep track of this,” nodded Nobina.

It might have been just her paranoia, but she refused to believe that she was involved in an isolated incident. Especially considering how weird things were around her. Why was she receiving all these things if not to signal something crazy to come. All she could do was train hard, develop her ability, and keep her eye out for something unusual.