The day was finally done, and Nobina was a bit exhausted. She might not have done much, but listening attentively and chatting with Sarah most of the time did leave her a bit mentally drained. She wasn’t an extroverted person, so long chats tended to drain her.

“Are you ok Nobina,” asked Sarah, noticing her gaze was a bit distant.

“Oh… Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, brushing her hair a bit. “So much has happened today that I was just thinking about whether these would be what the days to come would be like.”

Sarah put her hand to her chin, trying to think about what she just said.

“Maybe. All depends on you though. I know your primarily going to be working on that money stuff, so probably not. Also, are you planning to take combat training?”

Nobina gave a shrug. She wasn’t sure whether combat training would be something she’d enjoy. As much as she wanted to try new things, it was time away from writing. She didn’t want to delay it any longer. Plus, she wasn’t the most athletic person either.

“Oh,” said Nobina. “Do you think I can take a spare book and something to write with?”

“Of course,” said Sarah. “We have plenty of ink, pens, paper and books. You should be sorted.”

Nobina smile lit up so much that Sarah couldn’t help but laugh.

“Seems like that stuff really captures your interest huh? Over my stories as well.”

Seeing Sarah frown, Nobina instantly panicked, but Sarah immediately laughed, waving her hand.

“I’m joking,” she said, recomposing herself.

“Man… I guess laughter isn’t in the list of things your ability stops huh,” chuckled Nobina.

The two of them laughed before calming down. With that, Nobina headed into the guild library, grabbed a set of supplies, and put them into her bag. It was getting rather full thanks to the fishing rod, soup bowl, spoon, and now the writing material.

“Man, I need to get this stuff put down,” she sighed. “It’s getting a bit heavy.”

With that, she left the guild with Sarah. As the two walked, Nobina noticed how beautiful the town looked. The sunset gave the town a nice orange hue, giving off a sight that Nobina had never seen before. Everything seemed to be preparing for the night as she saw someone going around lighting the candles of the lanterns. The streets themselves seemed to be slowing down as everyone was heading in for the night. For them, they had dinner left to do, and that would be it for the day.

“Let’s get going,” said Sarah, tugging Nobina along.

The two headed to a place not that far away, heading to an inn that seemed far more active than any place nearby. Once they entered, Nobina was caught by an awe-inspiring sight. The tables were filled with all sorts of people from adventurers to civilians. All of them seemed to be having a good time eating and drinking.

“How many Sarah,” called the innkeeper from behind the bar.

“Two,” she responded.

The innkeeper pointed to an empty table with two seats, and the two made their way there. As they sat down, the innkeeper asked what they’d have.

“Do you want to check the menu or do you want me to pick,” asked Sarah, staring at Nobina with a kind smile.

“I’ll leave it up to the expert,” she said, offering a kind smile of her own.

Sarah nodded, telling the innkeeper to give them two orders of the Chizen Staroff. The innkeeper nodded back, prompting Nobina to speak.

“Chizen Staroff?” she asked with a curious look.

“It’s amazing,” replied Sarah. “A well-seasoned Chizen that uses Staroff spices. You’ll love it.”

Nobina had no idea what a Chizen was or what Staroff tasted like, but she trusted it was good. As they waited, Nobina took this time to chat with Sarah.

“Man,” said Nobina. “Today was pretty crazy.”

“I’d say,” responded Sarah. “I haven’t chatted this much in a long time. Usually it’s just me bored out of my mind just accepting quests completions or approving adventurers to take quests. It’s so rare to do anything else. Chatting was a nice change of pace.”

“What about that incident with that kid?”

“Oh? That’s rare as well. Normally we don’t have serious incidents like that. Luckily it was merely a case of someone chewing off more than they could handle and no one actually getting seriously hurt or worse. Those moments are really tough to deal with, no matter how long you work as a receptionist.”

Nobina could understand that. Working as a receptionist meant dealing with people on the regular, and adventurers were certainly tougher than the average person. These were people dealing with life-and-death situations, so they were hardened thanks to it. Nobina respected them for being able to go out there and help others, risking their lives. At the same time, she understood that bad things happening was something that was unavoidable. When they did happen, all she could do was offer as much support as possible.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Here’s your two Chizens,” said the innkeeper, arriving with the plates. A strong scent of chicken, with a spice smell similar to curry, filled Nobina’s nose. Besides that, there were carrots and an unknown green plant on the plate as well.

“Wow,” said Nobina. “This smells great.”

“I know,” said Sarah. “Don’t let me hold you back. Dig in.”

Sarah began eating first, followed by Nobina. The Chizen tasted like chicken, albeit a bit different. Imagine chicken with the slight taste of a burger patty. She didn’t dislike it, and the curry taste added a bit to it. As for the carrots, they were as she expected them to taste. All that was left was the unknown plant.

Taking a bite into it, it gave off a rather refreshing taste. It wasn’t mint per say, but it had a similar sensation to it. Think mint plus broccoli. It was interesting to say the least.

The two enjoyed the nice meal together, chatting more about casual stuff like likes and dislikes. As time passed by, it seemed like the dinner would be uneventful. At least until a group of two adventurers approached the table.

One of them looked around thirty while the other was a bit younger. Both males and both swordsmen as far as she could tell.

“Hey there Sarah,” said one of them. “Who’s the friend?”

“Nobina,” Sarah replied, giving off a professional attitude. “She’s a new guild officer, so don’t get any funny ideas.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he replied, holding up his hands. “Just good to see now faces around here.”

The two of them offered a kind smile before leaving.

“Who were those two?” asked Nobina.

“Eh… Nix and Lagune. Two hot-headed adventurers who are just too curious. Both E-rank so don’t mind them.”

Nobina nodded, enjoying the rest of her meal. She found herself looking back at them, seeing them enjoying their meal with two other adventurers. They seemed to have forgotten about her already, so she paid them no mind.

Eventually, the two finished eating and headed to the innkeeper.

“Need a long-term room?” asked the innkeeper to Nobina.

“How…”

“I heard you’re a new guild officer. I wouldn’t think Sarah would take you here unless you needed a room. My food isn’t the best.”

“No way,” Nobina responded, a bit more adamant than either expected. “The food was great, and you should be happy you’re serving it to others.”

He gave a hardy laugh, nodding.

“You’re a good person. Though, don’t expect discounts,” he nodded.

“How about guild discounts,” batted Sarah’s eyes.

“Especially not for you Sarah,” he chuckled. “But… fine. The first two weeks are half off. I expect at least a month stay though.”

“Deal,” said Sarah, handing over a bag of coins. The inn keeper began counting them as Nobina pulled Sarah to the side.

“Are you really sure about this Sarah? That’s a lot of money for someone you just met today.”

“Relax,” she responded. “You aren’t the type to just skedaddle after a month, right?”

Nobina shook her head strongly.

“My welcome to the guild present, just for you.”

The look of joy on Sarah’s face calmed Nobina down. Eventually, Sarah was handed back the bag of money and put it away. With that, the innkeeper handed her a key and told her it was a room upstairs, room two-hundred and twelve.

Heading up there with Sarah, the two found a modest-sized room awaiting them at the end of the hall. Inside was a desk, a closet to put her clothes in, and a nice bed for one.

“Well then,” said Sarah. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”

As Sarah left, Nobina called her.

“Sarah,” she said.

When Sarah turned to her, Nobina gave the brightest smile she could.

“Thank you… for everything.”

“What are friends for,” responded Sarah with her own bright smile.

With that, Nobina entered her room and closed the door. Now that she was finally alone, she found herself immediately taking everything out and putting it on the table.

“Let’s see…”

She took inventory of her items. It was a fishing rod, soup bowl, spoon, pen, set of ink, set of paper, and two books of paper. She didn’t know when she’d use the soup bowl and spoon again, but she knew she wanted to try fishing one of these days.

“Hm…”

She put everything to the side except one of the books, the set of ink, and the pen. She began writing everything down, treating the book as a diary.

“My name is Nobina. I’ve come here from a place far away. Thanks to a powerful individual, I was given a chance to live my life after an unfortunate accident. So far, I’m happy with how everything has turned out and I’m hoping to document everything in this little diary of mine.”

She began writing about her first encounter here with Fitz and Alfar. She noted how they taught her to be more trusting and open since people could tell when others lie. Considering Guild Master Eric confirmed that as well, she kept those words to heart.

The two became friends and soon made their way to this town.

“I should say goodbye to Fitz tomorrow,” said Nobina to herself.

She didn’t know when Fitz would leave, so she had to make sure to say her goodbyes. He was her first friend here, so it’d be rude not to do so.

Nobina then went back to filling in her diary, talking about meeting Eric and telling him her secrets. She didn’t write them down though. If someone got a hold of this diary, it’d be extremely problematic if she had anything too serious in it and it was stolen.

Her diary focus turned to Sarah and her time with her. This time, she found herself writing a lot about Sarah and how good of a friend she was. She was someone Nobina respected a lot and hoped that the two would have a long-term friendship. Soon, she ended the entry with her arriving in the room, excited for the next day.

As she finished the diary entry and closed the book, she felt something drawing her hand to the book. An invisible force that wanted her to lay her right palm on it. The moment she made contact, a set of words came into her mind.

“Recall,” she said.

Soon, the diary was gone. She almost panicked before the voice gave her another word to say.

“Summon.”

The diary appeared again, calming her down. The voice and force seem to disappear as well, leaving her to take in everything that happened.

“Wait… was that… magic?”

Her face suddenly exploded in joy as she celebrated doing magic for the first time. It seemed that all her worries had gone away immediately, as this acted as confirmation that she indeed had the Path of the Writer. This was an ability that allowed her to summon and recall a book as far as she could tell. She wanted to test it out more, so she decided to check if she could summon more than one book.

“Summon,” she said, her palm out once more.

However, she felt a bit tired the moment that happened and soon found herself wanting to sit down.

“Oh… Maybe that’s my limit,” she said, wanting to rest. “I guess that’s good for the day anyways…”

Nobina found herself going into her bed and lying down. As she did, she closed her eyes, thinking about everything that had just happened.

Making new friends, discovering magic and getting to use it, and also having a job was amazing. The most important thing though was her second chance. She was now in a position to continue writing and one day planned to release a book of her own. It was starting from scratch, but that was fine with her. This world had its own stories, and she wanted to tell them. At least she wasn’t going to let fear control her. With that, she closed her eyes and soon let sleep take hold of her.