Stepping out of the guild hall, I'm totally pumped. The guild receptionist, apparently named Shiana, filled me in on a ton of information. First and foremost, location: We're on the Plane of Emerald, supposedly the way they refer to the different continents here. The town's named Emriset. Second up was the language, called Panir. Apparently it's named after some 'celestial' that I'm assuming is something like their god.

She did warn me not to leave town without a crest, because there are monsters and beasts and bandits and other dangers out there. As for why this 'crest' would help, it had something to do with protective magic. Sounds like an adventurer thing.

I would have drilled her for an hour to get all the details, but the more I heard, the cooler it sounded an the more my inner light novel reader squealed and I already decided I'm not staying.

So instead, I asked her where I could make some money. If I can't get pictures, snagging some fantasy coins or something is the next best thing to prove this insanity when I return.

Well, that, and apparently crests cost money but I'm not getting one. Shiana pointed one out on the chest of a nearby, shirtless adventurer.

They're motherfucking magic tattoos and I'm not getting one my parents would kill me!

According to her, I can make some money working at a tavern, like the one I saw earlier. It will get dark in three or four hours. I should be able to earn a little something by the time Ethinmond gets back to the guild.

Just as I'm outside, turning away, something new catches my eye. Is that a furry? Or, an animal-person? Beastkin? I wonder what they're called here? None of those, obviously, they have their own language, but still!

She breaks from the crowd just outside the guild, her black cat ears poking up from her blond hair. Apart from that, she's actually not furry or anything, she just looks like a catgirl. I'd think the ears were fake if they weren't twitching around at all the commotion.

She's followed just a moment later by a bunny-man who is pretty furry, and dressed in leather armor similar to that worn by the cat-girl. Without even meaning to, I'm drawn right over, closer to the pair.

Then they both turn as a normal human joins them. When I notice how dirty he is, mud on his metal armor and in his hair, I realize that the other two are pretty dirty themselves. The girl's ears and the man's fur are all tangles of fur and matted with dried mud. I guess they just got back from a quest? They certainly look happy despite the rugged appearances.

The human hands a pouch, jingling with coins, to the cat-girl, and says something.

“Eth, Master.” Master? He says something else to the bunny-man, who responds the same way. Then the group splits up, the men going one way, the woman going the other.

So they weren't an adventurer party? Were they his servants? Then why were they all covered in mud?

Ah, who cares? They have animal-people here! I guess they're rare since I haven't seen any others around.

But those words were weird. They took 'master' as a loan word from English? Well, it's also clear that 'eth' means 'yes.' I'll file that away, knowing a few words could be useful.

After a quick trip back to the tavern, I head inside. It's already pretty packed, mostly with adventurers from the nearby guild hall. Heading up to the bar counter, a burly, bald guy is bustling around behind it. He takes one look at me and asks, “Otherworlder?”

“Yes,” I answer, resisting the urge to use my newly learned word so I don't make him think I know more of the language than I actually do. “Can I work here?”

“Sure, help's always welcome.” His English is rough, but not terrible, so I can understand him without much issue. “You going home?”

“Yeah, waiting for... Ethinmond,” I take a moment to recall the name.

“How much Panir you know?” Before I can answer, he rushes over to pass a serving girl a big mug of some sort of alcohol.

Oh my god there's no way they would let me serve alcohol back on Earth! When the man comes back over, grabbing things up on the way, I answer that I don't know the language.

His response? He slams down a mug on the counter. “Ale. Ghen.” Another mug. “Water. Water.” Water is a loan word? Then a plate with some sort of meat on it. “Food. Burk.”

Without any further instructions, he says, “One gold per hour. Go.”

I hesitate for a moment. I took a couple summer jobs before, and they always had like, orientations and stuff.

I mean I'm assuming I'm supposed to serve customers, right? Well, might as well get to it?

Spinning back to the room full of tables, I figure I just have to take orders and tell them to...whoever that is. Baldy boss guy. I haven't worked as a waitress before, but I've seen enough tv to have some idea how it works.

The next three hours absolutely fly past. The job really is as simple as I thought. Just running to the tables, getting their orders, and back to the barcounter to pick them up.

I hadn't thought of it, but I have no idea how the money works here. The customers all handed me the coins to pay for whatever they ordered so I could pass them to the boss. Half of them ordered in English when they saw me, but the others ordered in Panir.

I fumbled my way through the language barrier, and even picked up some more common words like the first few numbers. Kind of need to know them when everyone's ordering two and three ales.

The food was more of a struggle. Usually they would say whatever it was and I'd just do my best to parrot it to the boss.

It was hard to tell time, obviously, but around when I thought, it started getting dark outside the tavern windows.

When I asked the boss about it, he just nodded and passed me three gold coins.

Seriously, how does currency work here? Everyone gave me random handfuls of all sorts of different coins and the boss passed me another random handful for their change.

Well, whatever world you're in, work is work. As interesting and fantastical as everyone was, I still ended up hot and sweaty by the time I stepped back into the street.

Now with three gold coins in my pocket, I turn back toward the adventurer's guild.

This was awesome, even just playing waitress in another world for a while, but it really is time to go home. I'll never forget this place.

A quick trip down the block is all it takes to make it back to the guild. It's almost a bit regrettable I couldn't walk around town a little more, but it would be really bad getting lost here. Well, maybe people could have given me directions, but how many can even speak my language? I certainly didn't pick up enough of theirs in three hours at the bar to ask for directions, much less understand their answers.

Once I'm back in the guild hall, I head over to the counter where Shiara is still working.

I have to wait behind someone who's asking her something, from the sound of their voices. At least that's my guess, they don't inflect the end of their sentences to form questions. I think there are some 'question particles' or something, like they have in Japanese. I think I can sort of recognize a few of them from the agitated man, but he's speaking really fast so it's hard to tell.

Shiana eventually finishes with him, walking over to another area teeming with adventurers, holding a big piece of parchment. Putting up a quest maybe?

Then she returns. “Hello again, Yumi. Sir Ethinmond has returned, will you be leaving now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Alright, I will inform him.” After another bow, she heads off into the back of the building like before. It's just a minute until she returns with a tall, old man at her side. His face is pretty wrinkled, but he has that straight, tall posture of some powerful guy like a medieval lord from a tv show. Or a big name politician maybe.

“Hello there, you would be Yumi, right? How has Emriset been treating you?” He sounds like a pretty nice old guy, nothing like my grandparents.

“Well. Everyone's been really nice, actually.” Almost too nice... I don't mention that though, I shouldn't be suspicious of them just because they haven't been overtly shitty to me.

“That's good to hear. We get otherworlders pretty often, it's an unfortunate side effect of the wild nature of our world's magic. Being displaced so suddenly must be very frightening, so we try to get you back home to your lives and families with as little trouble as possible.”

Oh, that... actually makes a lot of sense. Because they're actually decent people. Trying to get me home to... my family.

Why am I going back?

With a big wave, he begins to lead me from the building. The adventurers at the entrance make way for us to pass. As soon as we get outside, he gestures for me to lead, reminding me that I need to go back to where I first arrived.

Then Ethinmond takes up position at my side as I start down the street.

Eventually, I work up my courage. “Hey, I have to ask, how many people stay?”

“About half decide to stay, usually becoming adventurers. Nine out of ten return home after their first quest.”

“That many?” It's... really that bad? One out of twenty?

“Ours is a harsh world with many dangers. Many otherworlders come from kinder places, they aren't cut out for staying here.”

“Wow, I totally didn't get that impression.”

“Good, we try not to let the troubles of our world affect the poor souls brought here by accident. Not when they already have their own troubles to deal with.”

“That's... pretty cool, actually...” They... actually care...

Ethinmond grins. “We try.”

I keep an eye out until we reach the right spot. I... am still going home, right? “How close do we have to be?” I ask, turning to try and identify the exact spot where I was.

“Within a few meters should be fine.” As I keep turning, taking a few steps to try and find the right position, I realize the crowd has parted, forming a little open bubble of empty space around the two of us.

“Here, I think this is it,” I finally confirm.

“Ok, stay right there. Once the spell completes, you will be sent back directly to where you came from. Be careful, you may experience some dizziness, so you may want to sit down.”

Following his instructions, I sit down on the cobblestone street.

“I'll begin now.” In our little bubble, he starts chanting in Panir. Then, the lightshow begins.

Big magic circles, blue, white, and purple, all appear, traced from light in thin air around him. One by one, they expand, filled with dozens of geometric shapes and curly, scrawling scripts.

I just stare, enraptured by the show of actual magic before me. I have no idea how long it takes. Whether long or short, it's over far too soon.

Pausing in his chant, I know he's ready to cast. Despite the pang of heartache, I share a smile and a nod with the friendly old wizard.

“Othum pell ka riola minien detta!” Ethinmond calls out, and I'm engulfed in blindingly bright light.

It's followed by a wave of nausea and disorientation. Once I manage not to throw up and my head stops spinning, I realize that yes, I'm sitting right back in my computer chair, at my desk. I... did the right thing, right? He told me not to stay.

With my attention returning to my surroundings, I see my game is just like I left it. Exactly like I left it... My badass fire mage character is standing listlessly outside the dungeon entrance, so at least my friends were able to carry me through.

Far more important are the dozens of angry chat messages and yeah, a bunch of pissed off texts waiting for me when I grab my phone.

They're all logged off already, I was gone for hours, so I just send off a couple texts, while rubbing my fingers over the gold coins in my pocket.