As Nobina spoke, she saw her Gaze bag glow a different color than usual. There was a rainbow light that appeared from its entrance, and it flashed for a bit before fading away. Nobina and the rest of them looked at her bag curiously, all of them wondering what had happened.

“What is that rainbow glow for Nobina?” asked Line, keeping his eye on her Gaze bag.

“I honestly don’t know,” she responded. “Normally the light is plainer.”

Not wanting to let her curiosity get to her any longer, she opened her Gaze bag to check what she had received. To her surprise, she saw there were wrapped gift boxes inside her bag. There were three in total, making her wonder if these were entities wanting to give her a gift for her birthday.

“Let’s see,” she said as she took one of the boxes out. It was a rectangular box that was wrapped in purple wrapping paper. It had a nice red bow on it as well, making Nobina curious about its contents.

“Should I open it right now?” Nobina thought to herself.

She checked the contents of her Special bag and saw there was still a lot of room. Plus, she really was curious about what her gifts were.

Opening the first box, she saw the first gift, which was a scarf. Reading the note with it, apparently it was magical and would give strong resistance against low temperatures. To her surprise, it also didn’t specify any drawbacks, which was quite new for the magical items she received from the Gaze entities.

“Neat! I guess it’s because it’s my birthday the items are less restrictive. I’ll be sure to use it responsibly,” she nodded.

“Nobina,” said Line, getting her attention. “Uh… What’s happening?”

“Well… I… I guess it’s a long story,” she chuckled, rubbing the back of her head. “I’m guessing my bag is going to give me gifts because it’s my birthday. I don’t suppose you celebrate birthdays in this nation.”

“You’re not from here?” asked Line, surprised by what she said.

“Yeah… It’s a long story,” smiled Nobina. “Anyway, I’ll probably need to open all of these back in my room, so shall we head out?”

Line gave a nod.

“I agree. Sorry for the inconvenience we’ve caused Mara.”

Mara, who seemed to be in a state of shock, came back to her senses and nodded.

“Oh… yeah. Don’t worry about it. Thanks for stopping by,” she waved, a slightly confused look still remaining on her face.

As the two left, Line chatted with Nobina a bit regarding what had happened.

“So… I guess there’s more than meets the eye regarding you and your bag, huh?” said Line, keeping a rather composed face.

“You can say that,” responded Nobina as the two walked. “It’s rather complicated, so please forgive me if I can’t answer any of your questions.”

“As long as you provide them eventually, it’s fine,” he replied back.

The walk towards the guild was rather quiet. Neither of them was saying anything else at this point. It was a chance for Nobina to take in the sight of the city as she was still amazed by its sheer size of everything. It was still as busy as ever, though not much time had passed since she entered that store. The day was still young, so Nobina was enjoying the remaining part of her birthday. She had a few more gifts in her bag but didn’t want to just open them in Mara’s store for obvious reasons. It would be awkward if more and more people came into the store and saw her pulling out gift after gift, it’d become a mess very quickly.

As they walked, the constant glows her bag was receiving were not helping her avoid attention. Each rainbow glow drew more and more eyes onto her. People began chattering about her, and soon, Nobina found herself walking faster and faster, trying to hide her embarrassment.

“I got to get somewhere more private fast,” she told herself.

Soon, they arrived at the front of the guild. It was there that Nobina saw a sight that made Nobina forget her immediate problem.

“Woah,” said Nobina, admiring the sheer size of the guild.

Unlike the guild back in her hometown, this guild was probably three times the size or even larger. It seemed to cover the whole block and have its own dedicated plaza. At the plaza itself was a large statue of a female adventurer with a sword at her side. The statue was looking forward, giving off an aura despite it being made of stone.

“This is so cool,” said Nobina, her eyes glittering.

“This is a symbol of one of our great heroes,” said Line, appearing next to Nobina. “The Hero Harana had defeated a dragon at the cost of her life. The town is forever grateful for what she did, and her students have grown to A ranks, with one even becoming an S rank herself. They are an inspiration we all look up to, even if we all do not follow the path of the sword.”

Nobina couldn’t help but feel a bit inspired. Her journey might have been writing, but she wasn’t someone who didn’t respect effort. If someone who was also called a hero was willing to sacrifice their life, then she had no excuse to not continue to work hard to make sure no tragedies happen because of her.

“Oh right,” said Nobina, remembering the reason she was there. “Can you lead me to my room Line?”

“Certainly,” he nodded.

The two of them went into the guild and started to make their way into the back. Many of the guild employees greeted Line, who offered a polite greeting back. Nobina herself drew a few stares and curious looks, but none of the guild employees said a word to her.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

Eventually, they exited out the back of the guild and found themselves in front of an inn. It was right next to the guild and had a sign saying, “For Guild Employees Only.”

“Is this a private inn?” asked Nobina, her eyes taking in the sign of the inn.

“Yeah,” responded Line, his gaze falling onto the Gaze bag as it glowed twice again. “Uh… I guess you want to get to your room sooner rather than later?”

Nobina, who was now glowing red in embarrassment, nodded.

Line led Nobina inside, where there was a guild employee at the receptionist desk. She greeted Nobina and Line, asking Line who Nobina was. When he responded back, the employee merely nodded.

“Please take this key. Your room is Room 204 on the second floor. Please come down if you have any questions or need anything,” said the guild receptionist, giving a nice, calm smile.

“Thanks,” Nobina smiled back.

Nobina made her way to her room, where she saw it was a rather simple setup. It had a nice single bed, a desk and chair for her to write, a small empty bookshelf, and a closet to put her things in.

“Shall I inform Aunai that you have settled in?” asked Line.

“Please do,” nodded Nobina.

As soon as Line left, Nobina moved to her Gaze bag and began removing everything. There had to be more than six remaining gifts. Without wasting any more time, Nobina began opening them one by one.

“Let’s see. Oh! This is a nice hairclip. It’s a nice royal blue color as well. Thanks,” she smiled.

She put on the hairclip, happy with how it felt. She didn’t have a mirror but hoped that it was on correctly.

As she did that, her bag glowed again, giving her another box to open.

“So many boxes,” she smiled. “I’m being spoiled rotten it feels.”

The next box she opened contained food she didn’t recognize. It had a nice meaty smell to it, and reading the note, Nobina could only smile.

“Pork Adobo huh… I’ve never tried it, but it smells divine. Can’t wait to eat it for dinner.”

After that, Nobina decided to change it up a bit and open the newest box, wondering what one of the entities wanted to give to her. When she opened it, it revealed a ring with a sapphire on it. The note read that it could summon and recall Hammy by her merely calling their name. It had no cooldown either.

“Woah,” she said, putting it on immediately.

“Hammy!”

Upon her saying the words, Hammy appeared in front of her. They immediately went to her, flying around her head. Eventually, they laid themselves on her shoulder, with Nobina giving them a pat.

“I missed you Hammy,” she smiled.

It had only been a few days, but Nobina had wondered how Hammy was going to find her after she sent them to the town to deliver the letter. With the ring though, it made the process significantly easier to do.

“Also, I can store you in this ring as well, so it all works out,” she nodded.

As she said that, another rainbow glow happened, and a note flew directly onto her face. Nobina quickly took it and read it, becoming suddenly confused after she did.

“Uh… Why do you want me to hate Utah? Uh…”

Nobina knew Utah was a state but had no idea what that had to do with her birthday.

“Uh… Please forgive me whoever gave this note, but I can’t just hate Utah for no reason. I’m sorry,” she bowed, hoping the Gaze entity would understand.

She recalled the note and moved on to opening more boxes. The next box was a box full of her favorite candies, which were Snaps. It was a chocolate that was meant to be snapped into individual pieces to share. It had a nice caramel and nut filling as well, which she enjoyed.

“Man… These will be my treat for this world,” she nodded.

Part of her wanted to share these with everyone, but she had no idea of how long it would take till she’d get more of them, if ever. For now, she decided to eat one to savor and put the rest away. When she took a bite, she couldn’t help but become nostalgic about the candy. Memories she associated with it began swarming her brain. The moment the ones involving Fay appeared though, she quickly brushed the thought aside and finished the candy.

“That was good,” she smiled.

Nobina moved on to the next box, which she opened to a rather surprising cake.

It was a chocolate cake glazed with hard chocolates, some layers of jam, and a single candle on top. Reading the note, it told Nobina the following.

“Happy Birthday! Light the candle around friends,” with the white v branch symbol following right after.

Nobina began wondering what would happen if she lit it, but she remembered that her friends were all over the place. Sarah and the others were still back in the town. Fay was somewhere in this world but far away. Mimiki was the only friend she really had since she wasn’t sure where she stood with Lila after the spar.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt to save this,” Nobina told herself as she stored the gift.

She looked and saw there were only three more gifts to open. The next one was a normal birthday cake, making Nobina happy.

“Ah. Something I can share. That’s good,” she nodded.

The next gift caused Nobina to jump for joy as she read the letter attached to it.

“This is a book that shall show a new fiction book that fits your interest. Merely tap the book’s cover five times to change it to another book.”

Nobina felt excited to see what the first fiction book would be, but she held it in. She decided to open the last gift first as she knew she’d easily get side-tracked reading the fiction book.

When she opened the last gift, Nobina froze. Inside was a single letter with one sentence that made her extremely confused.

“A gifted sub to Nonomo…”

That phrase was one she instantly recognized. It indicated that Nonomo was some sort of viewer, and someone was giving him a sub to someone else. That made the whole situation she was in extremely confused because she had always guessed Nonomo was some divine being. However, was that not the case? Was he a part of the entities of the Gaze like everyone else?

“Why did you have to make me so confused for my birthday,” sighed Nobina. “Well… thanks for the gift of knowledge I guess.”

With that, she had opened every gift. At least, that’s what she thought. The moment she finished putting away the note, a knock came on her door.

“Coming,” she said, heading to the door.

When Nobina opened it, she was surprised to see a man in a company delivery uniform of her old world.

“Uh…” said Nobina, extremely confused.

“Your package is out front,” he smiled, disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Nobina, still stunned, wasted no time heading out of the inn. When she got to the front, she saw a rather large gift box sitting directly in front of the inn.

“Ok. I have to open this as soon as…”

“What’s that,” said Lila, appearing next to her.

The sheer shock caused Nobina to fall, making Lila laugh.

“Are you alright Nobina?” she smiled, helping her up.

“Thanks,” replied Nobina dusting herself off. “Oh Lila. Can you do me a favor? Can you open that box?”

“Sure,” she nodded.

Before she knew it, Nobina saw her appear in front of the box and slash into it, creating a large gap. She then tore it open, revealing the gift instead.

“What in the…” said Nobina, completely shocked.

“Wow,” said Lila, taking a step back herself.

As the box around the gift fell apart, what appeared at the center was a giant bunny holding a bowl of miso soup. It had to be twice Nobina’s height. The fact that it was also in front of the inn put Nobina in a full-blown panic as she had no idea what to do with it. It certainly wasn’t going to fit in her bag and was going to draw in a constant stream of people with questions. She was going to ask Lila what she was supposed to do, but she suddenly calmed down when she saw Lila was examining the bunny with sparkles in her eyes.

“Wow,” she said. “This is an amazing bunny.”

“I love it but… man this is going to be so hard to explain,” sighed Nobina.

Nobina didn’t expect her birthday to turn out like this, but she couldn’t help but smile. Everything had turned out crazy and fun. She received a good number of gifts she appreciated and would cherish. The giant bunny would be hard to handle, but she had to hope things would work out. Regardless, she found herself smiling as she saw Lila suddenly hug the bunny.

“So fluffy,” she said, giving it a careful hug.

“Yeah…” smiled Nobina. “Today was a blast.”