The initial part of the journey was relatively peaceful. They were traveling at a rather slow pace, but that was mainly due to the wagon. They didn’t have too much in terms of gear, but two people and two heavy bags did slow down the group a bit. Nobina felt a bit bad that they were slowing down the whole party, but Mimiki told her that it was a part of the job.

“It’s expected to pack a lot if you’re going to be somewhere for a while,” said Mimiki as they sat in the wagon. “I have no idea how long this trip will be, but at the very least, it’s best to be prepared.”

As she said that, Nobina saw her Gaze bag glow. She had taken a bag of pretzels out of it before noticing it glow again. The second glow had what appeared to be a sword in the bag. Pulling it out, she was shocked at how large the sword was. After pulling out of the bag, it ended up being about as long as Harden’s hammer. No one failed to notice it either, as the whole group stopped the moment, she finished pulling it out.

“Uh…” said Aunai, bringing her horse closer to see what Nobina had. “Why do… you have a large sword Nobina?”

“It’s… sigh… the bag,” Nobina said, sounding a bit drained. “I have no explanation for this. Sorry for the distraction.”

“Ah, no big deal,” laughed Lila. “I’d love to see some of our sword users try to wield this thing. Let me try.”

Lila hopped off her horse and headed to the wagon. Once she was there, Nobina handed it off to her. Grabbing it, Lila was shocked as she tried to wield it.

“Woah,” she said, trying to get a good grip on it. “This thing is much lighter than I thought it’d be. That being said, the metal seems of decent quality. Hm…”

Lila spent a good minute trying to get a good grasp of the sword. Eventually, she managed to hold it, but it felt unstable in their hands. It made Nobina wonder who the sword was meant for considering the profile was quite large.

“We should get going,” said Line, joining the group. “Soon it will be nightfall, and we would best reach the planned rest stop for the added safety. Not that we need to worry about it, but the demon is still out there.”

Hearing that, Nobina remembered that a demon was part of the reason the whole incident happened in the first place. Luckily, the demon’s summons were dealt with, but the fact a rather strong demon was involved was concerning.

“Right,” said Aunai. “Let’s continue on Lila.”

Lila nodded, handing off the sword to Nobina to put in the wagon. It was a bit annoying now that there was just a large sword in the middle of it, but there was nothing Nobina could really do about it. Once they started moving, Nobina took the bag of pretzels and tried one. As expected, it was a rather crunchy yet salty treat. Nobina went for her water pouch and began to drink some, prompting a confused look from Mimiki.

“What are those?” asked Mimiki.

“Pretzels,” she responded, wiping off the excess water around her mouth. “Always need to have water with them, else the saltiness might be too overwhelming.”

“Salt? Isn’t that used to preserve stuff?” asked Mimiki.

“Right, but it also adds a nice unique flavor to things. Want to try one?” asked Nobina, handing the bag over.

Mimiki looked over the bag a bit before grabbing a pretzel and eating it. Watching her reaction to the saltiness made Nobina laugh as she watched Mimiki go for her own water pouch. Nobina noticed the looks of the others drawn to them, but it seemed this time they had no intention of stopping. Not wanting to eat all of them herself, she put the pretzel bag back into her Special Bag. She was thankful the Gaze was rather tame with the suggestions this time around, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before she received something crazy.

Soon, the sun began to disappear and the sky itself began to darken. Lila told Aunai that they were close, making her a bit relieved.

“Hopefully the site still has room,” said Aunai. “Else we’ll have to make room somewhere nearby.”

The group arrived at the designated stop site, where there was another adventuring group already there. Nobina saw that it was a rather large spot meant to take four adventuring groups. Even with their carriage, they managed to contain themselves to one spot as they began to set up.

Aunai and Lila talked with the adventurers, who were more than happy to answer any of their questions. Nobina could notice they all looked nervous, but it was understandable. Those two were S-ranks, and to adventurers, such a thing was a sight to behold. They were the pinnacle of the adventuring lifestyle and what many strive to become, even if only a few would actually become S-ranks.

As Line and Mimiki handled most of the setup for the campsite, Nobina was left to enjoy the whole environment. The smell of the forest occasionally blew through the campsite, serving as a constant reminder of how they were deep within the forest at this point. The trees had a majestic feel to them compared to the trees closer to the town, reflecting a bit of the forest’s age. Walking close to one, Nobina could tell the forest was a bit old. While she wasn’t a forester or someone who studied nature, she had a sort of sense for things like this.

“I guess you never forget your past, huh,” she told herself.

Nobina began recalling a deep memory of traveling to the state park as a kid. She recalled a park ranger talking about the trees and their various ages. It seemed like such an unimportant thing to learn as a kid, but Nobina was surprised she could still recall such a thing.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“The past makes us who we are,” she nodded as she touched the tree that she was next to.

“Nobina,” called Mimiki. “Time to eat.”

“Coming,” she replied back, leaving the tree to rejoin the group.

Dinner was relatively quiet amongst the group. She had shared some of the extra food she had gotten from the innkeeper. All of them appreciated it, since it was fresher than their preserved rations. Nobina also took the chance to share pretzels with everyone. All of their reactions to it differed, which fascinated Nobina.

Line ate it without even flinching, showing how well he could control his reactions. Aunai, however, reacted like Mimiki. She immediately got water, shaking her head at how she didn’t like how salty it was. Last was Lila, who ate it and seemed disappointed.

“Man… I thought I’d be challenged by the ‘saltiness’ like Aunai, but I guess it was merely a weak opponent.”

Nobina stared at Lila for a bit, trying to figure out what exactly she meant by that.

“Lila,” said Aunai, looking a bit irritated. “Don’t call my taste buds weak. You must have gotten a pretzel without much salt.”

Being challenged, Lila took the whole bag and poured the rest of the pretzels and salt into her mouth. The reaction she had to the pure saltiness of everything made all of them laugh as she desperately tried to get some water.

“Oh you guys are so funny,” smiled Nobina as she enjoyed the moment together.

After that was done, Lila began messing around with the large sword again as everyone else began to get ready for bed. The site was supposed to be safe, so no watch was needed. However, for the sake of Nobina’s safety, Lila was told to sleep next to Nobina to keep her safe.

“I don’t think that’s necessary, but I shall do as you ask,” nodded Lila.

Everyone else finished getting settled in and soon, they all began to fall asleep one by one. Nobina found herself the last awake as she watched the campfire of the group continue to burn. The smell of burning wood reminded her more of her past. It felt like it wasn’t too long ago that she was sitting by the campfire enjoying marshmallows with her brother, mother and father. The laughter between all of them made the whole camping experience something Nobina loved.

Unfortunately, she could recall them only doing it once. The mosquito bites discouraged every future attempt at camping.

As the fire continued to crackle, Nobina saw Lila finish up trying to use the large sword.

“I think I’m finally getting it,” said Lila, lying down next to Nobina.

“Really? I’d imagine that the sword wasn’t meant for people our size,” chuckled Nobina.

“You could say that, but remember Harden uses a similar sized weapon,” replied Lila. “If I could master the sword, I’d love to face him one on one. Sure, his experience with his hammer gives him the advantage, but having the reach will be nice.”

After she said that, a silence formed between the two as they both ended up watching the fire.

“You… really like challenging people, huh?” said Nobina, her eyes not leaving the fire.

“I… guess so,” Lila replied back. “Honestly… I’m always aiming to be stronger. Whenever there’s a mountain that appears before me, my mind tells me to ‘climb it,’ no matter how hard it is. Of course, that doesn’t mean I’ll climb every mountain. When there’s a bunny that can destroy a dragon on that mountain, I’ll move on to the next one.”

Nobina sighed a bit hearing Lila still scared to death of Pausers. However, she respected Lila’s desire to get stronger. Improvement was important and Nobina was no different. She wanted to improve at everything she did, even if it was a small amount of improvement.

“How else will I write my book if I remain the same,” she told herself.

Before she could close her eyes, she heard Lila say one last thing.

“I’ll find a way to face you though Nobina… One that will finally let me see how tall my next mountain is.”

Nobina was about to say something, but Lila was already asleep.

As the fire began to die down, Nobina found herself closing her eyes. Nobina hoped the next day would provide even cooler things to see.

As the morning sun landed on Nobina’s eyes, she found herself the last to wake up. Everyone else was packing up everything as they prepared to go on the next leg of their trip. Nobina saw that Lila was speaking with the other adventurers, who seemed excited to hear whatever she was saying. Aunai was watching over Line and Mimiki as they cleaned up. Once she noticed Nobina was awake, she called her over.

“Nobina,” said Aunai. “The trip is going to be awhile, so I suggest you stretch before we head off. Don’t want to get too rusty as an adventurer.”

“Of course,” she replied back.

Nobina did a few exercises to keep herself limber. After Mimiki was done with her part, she joined Nobina and assisted her a bit with her exercises. Lila joined in moments later, and soon, their group started doing a short training session. There was no sparring due to them being a bit pressed for time, but they all enjoyed the short break.

Soon, the carriage was moving, and they continued on their way to the City of Navira. The day felt longer and longer as they continued to move slowly through the dense forest. The initial awe went away as Nobina got used to the sight of the forest. Instead of looking around, her focus turned to reviewing her writing as she summoned and recalled her books and documents.

Before she knew it, they stopped again for lunch, where everyone was eating their rations. There wasn’t much talking this time, making it a bit boring. However, Nobina knew not every meal could be exciting. Once they began to move on, Nobina wondered how long it would take before they got out of the forest. She didn’t do too much research on the geography this time, as she was leaning on Aunai and her party for navigation. Who was she to not trust S-ranks to know what they were doing?

As the day seemed to be nearing an end, Nobina was in awe as they finally left the forest area. Nobina moved to the edge of the carriage the moment she saw a massive field of flowers. The color seemed to vastly vary, showing what felt like a rainbow of color. Amongst the flowers were all sorts of monsters and animals as well. Some were easier to recognize than others, like the horses and what appeared to be buffalo. Besides the obvious animals being monsters, she recognized them as well. From basic ones like slimes to more complicated ones like cows with five heads, the whole sight was a reminder that Nobina was in another world. She was growing accustomed to it, but new sights like this were what she really loved seeing.

“So much inspiration,” she said, thinking about using this moment in her book.

To her surprise, she noticed Hammy come out of her special bag. Nobina had been keeping Hammy there the whole time to avoid drawing attention. She didn’t like keeping them confined, but they seemed comfortable in the bag rather than flying around constantly.

That being said, she wasn’t surprised to see them enjoy flying into the air. They went around the field, going from monster to monster. Many of the monsters kept to themselves, but some did take notice of the flying creature, trying to follow it as it passed by.

“You’re such a mysterious thing Hammy… not that Pausers and Lebron aren’t equally as mysterious.”

Nobina had treated her companions as simple pets, but after learning about Pausers potentially being an Alpha Death Hare, she wondered if there was something special behind Lebron and Hammy as well. Besides them not needing food, what other secrets did her small companions hold?

“More secrets to the list I guess,” smiled Nobina, thinking about what new things would find themselves getting involved in her life.