Nobina headed back to the main room and enjoyed the rest of her party with everyone there. The staff at the guild was very diverse bunch with people of different paths and upbringing. A few of them were a part of the town’s nobility or the nobility of other towns. Others were sons or daughters of crafters like blacksmiths or woodworkers. Many of them though had some ties to adventuring thanks to a parent who was either an active adventurer or a retired one.

What mainly surprised Nobina was how each of them seemed to enjoy chatting with her about her own Path and guild. Many of them showed a passion that Nobina would be hard pressed to not noticed. It was clear that many of them were there because they truly wanted to be guild officers and loved the idea of it.

When the time came, Aunai stepped forward and called everyone’s attention.

“Everyone! Thank you for attending the birthday party of our temporary Navira Guild Officer Nobina. While she might not be official to our guild, I believe she’ll play an important role of advancing the guild to levels that compare to that of the national guild. That being said, please treat her as a fellow guild officer, not someone that needs to be put on a pedestal. Anyway, happy birthday Nobina!”

“Happy birthday,” cheered the rest of the guild officers.

Nobina smiled and thanked all of them. Her gaze managed to catch Mimiki and Lila both cheering for her as well nearby, turning to chat with each other right afterwards. Seeing that made Nobina smile, as she returned to her spot at the table to enjoy the rest of her birthday.

Soon, the guild officers began trickling out of the room one by one. Nobina, as the birthday celebrant, took it upon herself to be one of the last ones to leave. Eventually, it was just Nobina, Mimiki, Lila, Aunai, Line, and a few other guild officers still chatting with each other.

“Nobina,” said Aunai, calling her over.

When Nobina came over, Aunai pulled out a small gift box to hand to her.

“This is for you. It’s a bit last second, but hopefully you enjoy it.”

Curious, Nobina opened the box and found a nice, purple stone necklace. It had rings of silver that made up the chain. Looking at the stone, it had a nice light purplish glow, making Nobina curious if it was magical.

“It’s a minor protection necklace,” said Aunai. “It should help reduce any damage you take, though of course its very minor in how much it reduces. Never know if it’ll save your life though.”

“Thank you Aunai,” nodded Nobina, placing it around her own neck. “I really appreciate it.”

Aunai gave a nod, satisfied that Nobina accepted her gift.

“Tomorrow will be a pretty calm day. I’ll introduce you to our two financial officers to help handle the financials. I’ll be in meetings all day afterwards, so if you need something please feel free to depend on them.”

Nobina gave a nod back.

“I’ll go ahead and do that,” she smiled.

With that, the party was officially over for the day. All of them headed back to their rooms at the guild inn to rest up. Nobina found it a bit lonely sleeping alone without her companions there, but she knew this was only temporary. Plus, it was similar to her old world, where she was alone in her old room.

“Guess some things never change,” she chuckled to herself.

Before heading to bed, she filled out her diary with the events of the day. As she did that, her bag glowed a few times, making her curious what about her remaining gifts.

“Hm,” said Nobina, taking out everything and placing it on her desk.

There were two last gifts to cap off the day.

One was a stew that seemed to have pork and some spices on it. Taking the spoon that came with the stew, she took a sip and found herself surprised by the hearty, bold flavor of it.

“It’s… pork, yet… hm…”

Nobina wasn’t the best at determining flavors. All she knew was some pork-based stew. There was a note with it though that called it Dinuguan.

“Well, this Dinuguan is certainly a nice treat. If I wasn’t full, it’d finish it now. Guess I’ll leave it for tomorrow.”

The other item she turned to was a book like any other. Opening it up, it had a note that the book contained a hundred-thousand blank pages for her usage.

“This is… one of the best gifts of the day for sure,” she nodded.

She had an unlimited pen in the ability of her Pen Blade, but pages had always been a concern for her. With the gift she had received, she felt a major problem solved, making her appreciate it greatly.

“You know… I’d argue this might be the second greatest birthday every,” she told herself.

In her mind, there was only one birthday that topped this. It was a birthday with her best friend Fay. She had only managed to share that one birthday with Fay, but it was one that Fay put her heart and soul in to make sure it succeeded. Nobina would have been hard-pressed to put another birthday over it.

“Perhaps one day, we’ll be able to celebrate such an amazing day together… Fay,” spoke Nobina out loud, her voice trailing as she finished the sentence.

Not wanting to let the sad thought of missing Fay overwhelm her, Nobina headed to bed for the night.

The following day, Nobina found herself waking up to a nice, pleasant sunlight piecing into her room. The air of the room felt new, reminding her she was a far ways from both her home town and her old world. As Nobina got up, she found herself stopping in front of her bags. A thought occurred to her, bringing her towards her closet. There, she saw the guild uniform that she had hanged the previous night.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“You know… I think I should wear this. It’s Mimiki’s gift after all,” she nodded.

Putting on the uniform was a task, as it had a lot of parts to it. It was very form fitting on the bottom, but the top was a bit loose at least, giving her some room to breathe. Putting on the leather parts in particular felt as if she was preparing to go on an adventure. It was one of the nice aspects of the guild uniform she liked, making her wonder why she didn’t wear it sooner.

“I guess it’s hard to give up such a familiar feeling,” chuckled Nobina as she looked at her regular cloths sitting on her desk.

Deciding it was time to get the show on the road, Nobina put her old clothes into her Special Bag. She was surprised that they went in, but she had a feeling those cloths had an exception to them. After all, those were the things she had when she initial came to the world.

Once that was done, Nobina headed downstairs and past the reception desk. As she walked, she heard the female guild officer wish her a good day, which Nobina did in kind.

Walking out into the open, Nobina felt a bit nervous. She was in a guild officer uniform, which made her feel like she’d naturally draw more attention from adventurers. Of course, she had grown somewhat use to excess attention back in her hometown, but this was different. This was a guild that served a rather large city, and there were all sorts of people there.

Not wanting to be too much of a coward, she took a deep breath and headed for the guild. Once she was there, she saw that it was significantly busier than her home guild. There were lines going into each available receptionist desk. Tons of people reviewing the many quest boards on one of the guild’s walls. A lot of people chatting either in parties or duos, showing how common group questing was in this guild. Back in her home guild, single adventurer were more common.

“It’s going to take time to get used to this,” said Nobina, her gaze moving all over the guild.

As she walked, she found someone waving to her.

“Nobina,” spoke a male guild officer.

Looking closely, his uniform was slightly less decorated than Lare’s, but it was decorated, nonetheless. One symbol in particular indicated he was a guild supervisor, causing Nobina to immediately change her tone.

“Do you need anything supervisor?” she asked.

He must have not expected to be address so formal, cause his eyes widen upon hearing her response.

“Oh… It’s been a while since I’ve been addressed as a supervisor,” he said, giving a hearty laugh. “Most people are too casual with me, but I’m totally fine with it. Please… While Aunai says we should treat you like any other guild officer, she’s also made it clear your someone more akin to a guest. Please call me by my name, Hearth.”

“Oh ok… Hearth. Are you one of the officers Aunai wanted me to work with?” she smiled.

“Oh no. I’ve come here to bring you to them. Aunai is currently in a meeting and unfortunately cannot introduce you to the financial officers. I can do it in her stead. Let’s go,” he nodded.

Nobina was led into the back of the guild and up a set of stairs. Eventually, they reached a room that had a guard right next to the entrance.

“Morning Jimmy. This here is Nobina. She’s already been approved to access our Financial Room.”

He gave a nod, opening the door.

“I work in the office down the hall,” said Hearth, pointing to a door all the way at the end. “If you need anything, feel free to see me.”

“Thanks,” nodded Nobina.

Once Hearth took his leave, Nobina entered the financial room. Once she was there, she saw two people arguing with each other. She was surprised she didn’t hear a word before the door open, making her wonder if the room was soundproof.

Nobina could tell the two of them were vastly different. One of them wasn’t wearing a uniform. Rather, she was wearing a nice dress with decorations that made it clear she was part of the nobility. If not for the badge of the guild, it would be hard to tell that she was a guild officer. Besides that, she had long, blond hair and an aura of authority. It was similar to the council back in her hometown, yet it was far greater as nobility of an estate had significantly more power.

On the other end of the desk was a smaller man with glasses. He had a book on his side and was wearing the male version of the guild uniform. Unlike the female version, it had less leather protection and was looser on the top. The bottom pants were very baggy though and had a lot of pockets, reminding Nobina how she wished she also had that many pockets.

“I’m sorry Carina, but the numbers don’t lie,” he said in a softer tone. “The numbers clearly say that five percent to training will result in an overall increase in income by ten percent.

“I’m telling you that we should have allocated only four percent to the training budget,” said Carina, shaking her head. “I’ve studied economics, and all signs point to another recession that will come up. We need to reserve as much money as possible.”

“Yeah, but…”

The two continued to argue with each other, making Nobina wonder if she should eventually draw their attention. It didn’t take long for one of them to notice her though, as Carina turned to her immediately.

“Hey,” said Carina. “No one but authorized personnel should be in here. Get out.”

Nobina felt a strange sensation, as if her voice was compelling her to follow her orders. However, before she could say anything, the male guild officer slammed his hand on the desk.

“Carina,” he called. “You can’t use the Nobility Authority on a fellow guild officer. That’s clearly against policy.”

“Shut it Mesten,” she shouted back. “The financials of the guild are too important to let anyone see them. The only people authorized to see all of the financials are me, you, Aunai and… uh… the new girl.

Mesten pointed her finger at Nobina, drawing Carina’s attention.

“She’s the temporary guild officer Carina,” he spoke.

Hearing that, Carina shook her head.

“She certainly doesn’t look like a financial person.”

Nobina felt insulted by her insinuation, but she didn’t want to set her ablaze again. She merely took a breath and introduced herself.

“My name is Nobina. I’m a member of the Agora Adventuring Guild. It is a pleasure to meet you,” she said, giving a bow.

“Respect to nobility,” nodded Carina. “As expected of a commoner.”

Mesten open his mouth, but didn’t other a word, merely shaking his head.

“Welcome Nobina,” smiled Mesten. “My name is Mesten and I’m one of the senior financial officers of the guild. The other one would be Carina here, who is also a part of the estate’s nobility.”

Carina gave the biggest grin as she nodded.

“Glad we have another female guild officer,” she nodded. “You can finally break the constant ties we have between each other. I hated going to Aunai cause she often sides with… that guy.”

“It’s Mustan,” he responded, shaking his head.

“Whatever,” she chuckled. “But yeah, we’ve been informed yesterday that you’ll be determining the budget that will be sent to Agora in a few weeks. Until then, you were also given to us to help update our financials system, right?”

Nobina gave a nod.

“Yeah… She wants me to help as much as possible.”

“Well… Then there’s a bit of bad news on that front,” sighed Carina. “I predict that there will be a sort of financial crisis soon. I’ve been tracking our numbers and that of my father’s and every sign is pointing to a downturn in the economy.”

Nobina was surprised to hear such a thing. Normally, she’d never see the topic of financial crisis mentioned in a fantasy world. After all, that indicated that the economy was vastly complex and could have scenarios where the nations finances could collapse. Then again, she guessed it had to do something with the genre of book she’d often read.

“It’s a pretty outrageous prediction,” said Mustan. “I’ve looked at the trends of our numbers and everything is still holding steady.”

“Watch,” said Carina. “Nobina can review the books herself and give her thoughts. Anyway, I guess we should give you an assignment. Your task will be to study the books and determine how much of the budget should go to Agora. Note that while we have significantly more capital than Agora, we cannot offer too much due to the programs we have, mandatory expenses, and other factors. I’m trusting Aunai’s word that you know numbers, so we’ll leave it to you as we handle the current allocation of the budget.”

Nobina gave a nod. She was somewhat excited to be working with others that also handled numbers. No one was really like that back in Agora, so Nobina felt it’d be a fun experience. At least, fun in the sense it was a cool thing to do. In a perfect world, she’d have all the time in the world to continue writing her book and explore the town. She also wanted to adventure a bit with new people, but that would have to wait.

“I shall get right on it,” said Nobina, giving a nod.

Thus began Nobina’s first day working at the Navira guild.