Nobina and Her Strange Journey Through Another World

Once Nobina went back down to her work area, she went back to working on her project. The Ledger project would still take time to complete, but she was doing the best she could with the available information.

Getting down to it, the guild had what she needed to create the initial ledger. The guild had a book that kept track of its daily money reserve, which was a godsend at the very least. It gave her something she could use to keep track of everything and gave her the guild’s net income. While she might not have all the revenue and expenses that made up the income, she didn’t need it to set up the new system. All she needed to know was how the money flowed and the guild operated.

“I feel like I’m teaching myself,” chuckled Nobina.

In this world, the currency was relatively simple. The lowest currency used was copper coins. Next were silver, gold, and a rare metal called owal. Apparently, it was a really rare ore, yet it wasn’t good for anything besides being a status symbol. As a result, it suddenly became the most expensive currency in the world.

Speaking of the world, the world all shared the same currency. After the Demon War, the world united its currency to ensure unity and the best situation for trade. Nobina didn’t know much about the Demon War, but all she knew was that it was the classic Heroes verses Demon King situation. The world was now far removed from that war though.

For the sake of economics, all she knew was that it basically forced a massive overhaul of how the nations handled everything as they all swapped to a more uniformed currency system with those four metals being at the center of it. At some point she wanted to read more into the history of the world, but she had a job to do.

“Back to currency,” she thought, looking at the merchant guidebook she had been using as reference.

A silver coin was worth one hundred copper coins.

A gold coin was worth one hundred silver coins.

An owal was worth about a thousand gold coins and was much smaller than the other coins in terms of size.

One might be surprised by an owal being worth so much, but in a vast world like this, having something to reduce the sheer number of gold coins needed to purchase something into a small object was necessary. This world didn’t have anything digit, nor did it have a paper currency that could make having tons of money easier. Nobina knew that wasn’t her role though.

Next was understanding how money worked.

The food was relatively cheap for their location according to the merchant guidebook. Due to the world being in a peaceful state and food being relatively easy to obtain, food was generally priced in either copper or silver.

Rooms were decently priced, with rooms being in silver or gold. In Nobina’s case, her room for the month was about four gold, fifty silver, which was a discounted price thanks to Sarah.

She wasn’t too familiar with equipment prices, but she guessed it ranged from silver to gold considering metals were worth a decent amount. Looking at the merchant guidebook, it was a really good reference for the financial side of things. It was basically an overview of how to be a merchant. She didn’t know whether all of this was accurate, but it being in the library had to give it some legitimacy.

Regarding guild finances, the guild itself had a reserve of about 1,404 gold coins. It seemed like a ton of money, but that was just because the guild didn’t really spend it.

The guild received money from people who posted quests, from the larger guild for financial support, and from the city for basically protecting it.

The guild spent money by paying out people for quests, paying to maintain certain services like the Medical Office in town, paying salaries, or paying for any new additional services.

With all of this in mind, the guild was fine financially.

“Hm… There’s a lot of details to think about.”

Nobina knew she could spend awhile studying how everything worked, but she didn’t want to spend too long on the financial side. She really wanted to get back to writing and once this project was done, she’d be free to do so.

A few hours passed before lunch rolled around. At that time, she decided to see if Sarah was in the mood to eat and chat. Despite what happened earlier, she didn’t want to let it change the relationship the two had together.

Nobina made her way to the front, where she saw Sarah. Nobina felt hesitant about asking about lunch, but Sarah turned to her, and she seemed to be happier.

“Nobina,” said Sarah. “What’s your plans for lunch?”

“I… want to know if you wanted to go out to eat together,” said Nobina, fidgeting a bit.

“Of course,” she nodded. “Let’s head out.”

With that, Sarah closed the guild for lunch, and they headed out to one of the other restaurants in town that she hadn’t been to. This one felt fancier than the inn, yet below the proper restaurant they had gone to before.

“I normally go to Oga Rants to eat. It’s a nice place and they have a good mixture of foods,” said Sarah, casually walking in with Nobina.

The two were seated quickly despite how packed it was. Nobina noticed there were mainly civilians in the restaurant. There were still some adventurers but not the rough sort at least.

As the two sat down, Sarah looked at Nobina curiously.

“What?” asked Nobina.

“Oh… Nothing,” Sarah smiled.

When asked for the order, Nobina didn’t even need to say anything before Sarah ordered for them. This time, it was an easy-to-understand meal called Chicken Pie.

“Uh… Sarah,” said Nobina.

“What is it?” she asked.

“What’s the difference between Chizen and Chicken?”

Sarah’s look of surprise made her pause for a bit before speaking.

“Obviously Chizen is a low-level monster while chickens are animals. Any reason you’re asking?”

Nobina blinked a few times before nodding.

“Oh… I was just wondering if chickens were rare around these parts.”

Sarah nodded her head back.

“At least rarer than Chizen. With so many Chizen’s in the area, why would people grow chickens? Doesn’t make much sense. Sure, chicken technically tastes better than Chizen, but cheap is cheap, right?”

She gave a nod. Nobina was learning more and more about the strange oddities in her new world. At the very least, she started to wonder if all animals had monster variants.

As their meal arrived and the two began to eat, Nobina noticed that Sarah seemed a bit sad.

“What’s wrong?” asked Nobina.

“I’m sorry for earlier Nobina,” said Sarah. “I treated you rather harshly when…”

“Don’t worry about it,” said Nobina. “You did what you felt was right and I’m thankful for it. You do not need to apologize for being mad when your right to be so.”

Sarah, looking at Nobina, shook her head.

“I know it was my right, but Nobina… Perhaps you aren’t so wrong yourself. I know that there are times that you shouldn’t be kind and you should put your foot down, but it’s so rare to find someone who wants to resolve things peacefully despite being wronged. I… I just don’t want to be a part of the reason you change.”

Hearing that, Nobina looked at Sarah and saw she was feeling guilty.

“Sarah… I cannot say that I won’t change,” said Nobina with an appreciative voice. “This world could possibly make me someone I never want to be, but I know a lofty idealist with no real power wouldn’t remain constant. At some point, I might pay a price for being too kind. All I want you to know is that no matter what, I appreciate what you’ve done for me.”

Sarah gave the biggest smile and nodded.

“Of course. What are friends for.”

With that, they finished their meal and headed back.

Back at the office, time seemed to fly as Nobina worked on the Ledger project. By her estimates, it would take one more week to resolve everything, but she was putting her all into getting the guild’s modified money-handling system set up. The main thing she was working on at the moment was working on the system to track the income and expenses of the guild.

At some point, she didn’t notice that Lare was standing in the doorway to the library.

“Hey Nobina,” said Lare, who was giving a rather soft smile.

“Oh Lare,” said Nobina, her concentration broken as she looked at him. “Did you need something?”

“Have some time to chit-chat or are you too focused on your project.”

Nobina, looking at her papers, shook her head.

“We can chat. What’s up?”

Lare took a seat and looked at Nobina.

“I want to apologize for my unnecessary outburst earlier. It was unbecoming of me as your supervisor and I hope you forgive me for it.”

Nobina wanted to accept it immediately but decided to go with a different approach.

“Lare… Do you honestly think I’m too kind?”

Lare, curious about her question, gave it some thought. A few minutes passed before she gave his answer.

“Your kindness is both a blessing and a curse. Kindness should always be expected from others, but at the same time not everyone will show you kindness back. Some people can eventually change, but others will refuse to and would rather break you than ever show you kindness.”

Nobina nodded, agreeing with what he said.

“As to your question, I believe you might be too kind. You should have your limits and stick with them. If someone does something unforgivable, be willing to not forgive them until they truly deserve the forgiveness. Does that make sense?”

“Yes… Thank you Lare. And as for your apology… I accept it.”

He gave a nod before leaving. As Nobina turned back to her project, she wondered if she should speak to Mimiki after work.

A few more hours passed, and it was basically time to head home. As she left, she saw Sarah waiting for her.

“Want to head dinner together?” asked Sarah.

“I actually wanted to ask if you knew where Mimiki lived.”

Hearing her name, Sarah seemed hesitant to say something. However, she eventually caved and gave her Mimiki’s address.

“I’m… Still not comfortable speaking with Mimiki,” said Sarah. “We can eat together another time. I’ll just enjoy a dinner by myself.”

Feeling guilty, Nobina felt obligated to make sure Sarah was fine.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to leave you without someone to eat with.”

Sarah chuckled, shaking her head.

“Don’t worry about it Nobina. I’ve eaten alone before you came here.”

With that, Sarah took her leave. Nobina, with Mimiki’s address in her mind, started to head to Mimiki’s home.

Mimiki’s house was located on the west side of town. It was rather small, but Nobina guessed that Mimiki didn’t need a fancy house as a former adventurer. The lawn itself did look maintained, making Nobina wonder if Mimiki maintained it regularly.

Before she reached for the door, Sarah and Lare’s words flashed in her mind, giving her pause.

“She… could have killed me…”

That one fact made her wonder if she should change how she interacted with Mimiki. However, she wasn’t here to demand a personal apology. Mimiki had already made an apology a few times. Nobina just wanted to speak to her regarding her plans for the future.

She reached for the front door and knocked on it.

“Coming,” came Mimiki’s voice.

Soon, Nobina saw Mimiki in casual attire, surprising Nobina with how cute she looked outside of her adventuring gear.

“Oh. Nobina,” said Mimiki. “Did you need something?”

“Do you mind if we ate dinner together?”

She shook her head.

“Plenty of free time on my end. I was just finishing up cooking a meal, but we can half it.”

Hearing that she would be taking Mimiki’s food made Nobina feel reluctant to accept it.

“I'd rather not take your food unnecessarily,” said Nobina, looking away slightly.

“Nonsense. I’d rather you not starve. Come in,” motioned Mimiki.

Entering Mimiki’s house, Nobina noticed how it reflected Mimiki’s adventuring style. There was a lot of gear and objects that appeared related to monsters. Besides that, the furniture was minimalistic, and everything was relatively clean. However, it seemed the cleaning was done recently as she noticed the cleaning supplies against one of the walls.

Mimiki set down a bowl for Nobina and began distributing the food. Nobina was surprised to see it was a large bowl of stew, considering that Mimiki was the only one there.

“You… eat a lot of stew often?” asked Nobina.

Mimiki gave a shrug in response.

“One of the easier things to make. It doesn’t feel like a lot, but I guess that’s the stomach of an A-rank adventurer. I need way more food if I train hard.”

“Oh…”

Nobina wasn’t too familiar with how someone like her trained, but she had hoped Mimiki would teach her at some point.

“Right,” said Mimiki. “I wanted to talk to you about your training.”

“Training?” asked Nobina.

Mimiki, raising a brow, seemed surprised.

“You’re not telling me you forgot, right? You wanted me to train you still… right?”

When she said those last words, a flash of worry appeared across Mimiki’s face. Nobina had to wonder if she feared that she pushed her and that she would no longer want to become a combat-capable guild officer.

“Oh right… Yeah,” said Nobina. “That hasn’t changed.”

A relief look overcame Mimiki before she began speaking further.

“Honestly… I was so worried you’d never want to train again. If I… traumatized… you… I…”

Seeing Mimiki seemly start to unravel as she spoke, Nobina thought it was a good time to help Mimiki change.

“Mimiki… Use this as a motivator to change and learn. Imagine if you became the reason someone hated adventurers. Wouldn’t that break you?”

Mimiki, who had focused on Nobina’s words, nodded.

“Your right Nobina… I have to engrave everything into my heart and change. I can’t become someone I don’t want to be… nor should I stay who I currently am. I… Need to become better.”

Nobina, happy with what she said, gave a nod.

“That’s all I can ask for.”

With that Mimiki relaxed and nodded.

“So, about your training… Truth be told, I can’t train you properly yet Nobina. What you need is general exercise. It should help increase your strength and agility. If you don’t know how to exercise, I can help you out. Until I feel you’re fit enough, we’ll have to hold off on the sword training. Hope you don’t mind.”

Nobina shook her head.

“It’s fine. I do agree I’m pretty flabby in terms of muscle. It’s not like there’s items that can make me as strong as a rhino,” she laughed.

“What’s a rhino?” asked Mimiki.

Realizing her fumble, she decided there was no harm in mentioning what is was.

“A rhino is a large beast with a horn.”

“Oh,” said Mimiki. “Like a unicorn! Or a bear-corn! Or… even a Death-howl-unibear-corn!”

“A Death… Howl… Uh… Sure.”

Nobina was shocked such a weird monster existed, but it seemed to be a topic Mimiki wanted to dive into. She began an hour-long talk about the three monsters, especially the Death-howl-unibear-corn, which was an extremely deadly variant of the unibear, which wasn’t the same as a bear-corn. A unibear was a bear that had the mane of a unicorn and was pink, while a bear-corn has the horn of a unicorn and was white. It was so confusing to Nobina, but she could merely nod as she absorbed Mimiki’s passionate talk about the creature and how a legendary adventurer almost died fighting the Death-howl-unibear-corn.

By the time the talk was done, Nobina realized it was really dark outside.

“Should have brought that flashlight,” she told herself.

“Hm,” said Mimiki, catching what she said.

“Nothing... But you really do love adventuring, right?”

Mimiki smiled and nodded. “It’s what I grew up dreaming of. I gave up that life to learn under Master Eric, but I’m hoping it pays off in the end. He’s so strong and if I can gain another ability while under him… I’m sure I can be an S-rank adventurer one day.”

Nobina gave a nod.

“Is it necessary to learn under him to get such an ability?” said Nobina.

“Not really. Every Path can be mastered differently. Learning under a master is just one of them, especially if you want an ability related to them. In this case, I want one of Eric’s extremely fast strike abilities. If I had that, I’d be able to beat anyone.”

It was a reminder to Nobina that she still lacked knowledge of abilities, but it did invite her to ask Mimiki one question.

“Do you think I can learn a combat ability related to writing?”

Mimiki put her hand to her chin, thinking.

“Maybe? There’s only one way to find out. I have a training regimen I want you to follow to improve your agility and strength. It’s a lot of self-guided stuff, but I’m willing to assist you if you want.”

“I appreciate it,” said Nobina. “I do want to train under you when I can, even if it’s just exercise.”

Those words made Mimiki give the biggest grin.

“Then… I’m happy to help.”

With that, the day was basically over, and Nobina headed back to her room. There, she made her daily entry of the day into her diary and spent some time playing with Pausers. As she did that, her eyes turned to the objects she had that came from the bag. Specifically, her eyes turned to the fishing rod and the chair.

“Is this… setting me up for fishing?” asked Nobina to herself.

Nobina knew that she had planned to fish at some point and at some point, she’d have a break to do so. It would be a good time to gather her thoughts and also think about beginning her first story in the world. Before heading to bed, she tried to summon her diary twice, but the second one failed to materialize and she felt tired.

“I guess I’m not there yet,” Nobina told herself.

As she went back to bed, she began thinking about her future plans. She would finish the Ledger, train to get strong enough to learn swordsmanship under Mimiki, learn more about the world from everyone, and finally begin writing. With that in mind, she started to fall asleep, excited for the days to come.