Chapter 1: Study Session in the Castle Town

1

On the continent of Amusehorn, the months were denoted by colors. The year began with the silver month, and then cycled through the brown, red, vermilion, yellow, green, blue, white, gray, black, indigo, and violet months, for a total of twelve.

However, once every three years, a special gold month was inserted between the silver and brown, giving those years thirteen months. Leap years existed back in my old world too, to adjust for the shifts in the calendar that built up over the years because of the orbits of the Earth or the Moon. Since the coming year was a leap year, the gold month would begin once the silver one ended.

I first started living at the settlement at the forest's edge back on the twenty-fourth of the yellow month. However, I didn't learn that date until a good bit later. It wasn't until the blue month, after the yellow and green months had already passed, that I found out about the local calendar system.

At any rate, by the end of the violet month, I had lived here at the forest's edge for over seven months.

On the twenty-fourth of the yellow month, I had met Ai Fa. Several days later, Rimee Ruu had visited the Fa house, which had led to me forming bonds with the members of the Ruu clan. Then the green month had rolled around, with the Rutim wedding being held in the middle of the month and my post town stall opening in the last third. I had met a ton of people who would become important to me during that month, such as Kamyua Yoshu, Tara and Dora, Milano Mas, Yumi, Shumiral, and "Pops" Balan.

Then, in the blue month, there had been the turmoil with the Suun clan, during which I had met Naudis, Nail, Diel, and Jeeda. Shumiral's Silver Vase and Pops's construction group had also departed around that time. The clan head meeting had been held back at the forest's edge too. With all that had happened, the blue month really stood out in my memory.

However, the white month that followed had been just as tumultuous, with my abduction to the castle town and the showdown with Cyclaeus. It had also been when I had become acquainted with Duke Marstein Genos and Polarth of the house of Daleim, as well as Mikel, which had made it a real turning point.

After that, the conflict with the Suun clan and the house of Turan had settled down, and the gray and black months had turned out to be relatively peaceful. I had spent that time focusing on pushing my business forward, and toward the end, I met Myme and Varkas.

During the indigo month, I had visited the Daleim lands and the neighboring town of Dabagg for the first time, and then we had opened the outdoor restaurant. As I recalled, the massive giba known as the lord of the forest had also been taken down with the help of the Sauti clan on the final day of the month. Then the sun god's revival festival had been held in the violet month, closing out the year.

Looking back, the last seven months had been really turbulent. However, the days ahead were sure to be super busy too.

Even just considering the near future, Shumiral's Silver Vase would be returning to Genos around the end of the silver month, and after the gold month, we were going to enter into a two-month rainy season. But before all that, there were some things I had promised to do for my acquaintances from the castle town, the Gamley Troupe were still hoping to capture a live giba, Lem Dom's trial to become a hunter hadn't been resolved yet, and Dora was making arrangements for his family to visit the forest's edge... Plus, the Fa clan would soon be entering a break period, and we were planning to hold a festival of the hunt together with the nearby clans. That would be happening sometime in the silver or gold month, so long as there were no major changes in the way the giba were migrating around in the forest.

It was hard to imagine ever feeling bored with this much going on. Now I just had to start tackling the jobs ahead of me one by one.

It was currently the fifth day of the new year-the fifth of the silver month-and we were on our way to the Genos castle town to handle a not-so-small job.

"Thank you so much for going out of your way to invite someone like me, Asuta," Myme called out after transferring to our wagon from the one she had ridden to the castle gates in, as we were heading toward the former Turan manor, which was now used for welcoming esteemed visitors. Varkas had told us he wanted to observe Myme's skills, which Mikel had agreed to surprisingly easily.

However, Mikel had firmly refused to come along, despite having been invited, and I hadn't been inclined to try to persuade him to change his mind. Though he had once been a famed chef, Cyclaeus had cruelly taken his ability to cook from him. All things considered, I didn't feel that it was my place to say anything.

"We're visiting today so we can check out some new ingredients, and you're also going to be teaching the chefs from the castle town how to make your fuwano recipe, right, Asuta? I can't see how I'll be any help. Is it really okay for me to come along?"

"You really don't have to worry so much. Polarth's the one managing everything, and he's very understanding. He's been looking forward to trying your cooking too."

Myme was bringing along some of the dish she had been selling in the post town during the revival festival. Though her cheeks were flushed red with excitement, she also looked a bit worried.

"But it's not like I can use as many different ingredients as you... The nobles won't get angry at me for feeding them such a shabby dish, will they?"

"Are you calling it shabby because the ingredients don't cost all that much? You have nothing to worry about. Polarth is a noble, but he isn't the type to judge a dish solely on the ingredients it uses."

Still, Myme's father had suffered greatly due to the outrageous acts of a noble. The look on her face was as innocent as ever, but she didn't appear to be completely free of worries. Overall, though, she seemed shockingly peppy, considering her circumstances and her young age. Reina and Sheera Ruu were probably much tenser than her over in the other wagon right now. They would be presenting a dish today as well: the teriyaki stew they sold in the post town. Varkas had been really harsh when he had tried the stew they had made last time, and now they were going to ask him to sample their cooking again.

But honestly, that was just a bit of personal business between us and Varkas. We still weren't permitted to enter the castle town for that kind of reason alone, though, so if we ever wanted to interact with Varkas, we had to add our request to something the nobles were asking of us, as we were doing today.

Still, Polarth was in charge and had approved eagerly, so we were heading to the castle town with a fairly big crowd in tow. That included me, Myme, Reina Ruu, and Sheera Ruu, plus Toor Deen, Yun Sudra, and Rimee Ruu, who would be our cooking assistants, as well as Sufira Zaza, coming along as an observer. Six hunters were also coming with us, including Ai Fa, Ludo Ruu, Dan Rutim, and three others related to the Ruu whose names I didn't know. The Ruu clan's break period had ended on the second of the silver month, so the rest of their hunters would be out in the forest by now.

Incidentally, we did still have a couple guards protecting us while we were working at our stalls too, since Donda and Jiza Ruu had decided that even with the sun god's revival festival over, there were still a good number of outsiders in the post town, so it was important to exercise caution until things calmed down. However, with the break period over, subordinate clan heads like Rau Lea and Giran Ririn were now busy managing their own houses, so they could no longer act as guards. Even so, Donda Ruu was definitely still showing us favor by sending especially distinguished hunters like Ludo Ruu and Dan Rutim to accompany us.

Then you had Ai Fa. She had injured her ribs in the battle with the lord of the forest, but had finally stopped wearing bandages around her chest and had begun training to rebuild her strength as a hunter.

Any time she wasn't acting as a guard, she was out climbing trees and swinging her sword, constantly putting her all into her workouts. With a break period coming up, Ai Fa was showing some serious drive to get back to work before it arrived.

Then, once Ai Fa was back to normal, it would be time for the bout with Lem Dom. Would she succeed in defeating Ai Fa in a contest of strength, with her future as a hunter on the line? Well, regardless of the result, her days of helping out with prep work for our business would soon come to an end.

"Now that I think about it, weren't the leading clan heads invited to the castle town today too?" Yun Sudra suddenly asked, tirelessly staring out the window.

"Yeah, but they're coming later, and to a different location entirely, so we won't be seeing them."

Today was the day that came once every three months, when the leading clan heads were summoned so that their reward money could be handed over to them. This would be the second such time this had happened since Melfried had taken over from Cyclaeus as the arbitrator between the castle and the people of the forest's edge.

Ever since Melfried had taken on the role, it had become an event not only for handing over money, but also for both sides to formally...