> Ellie PoV

“So, how did it go?” (Kira)

He holds up his adventurer card so that we can see it.

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NAME: ZUBLOS

TITLES:

TEAM: BLACK FLAME

POSITION: VANGUARD

RANK: B

STATUS: DISCIPLE (ELLIE MIL QUASSE)

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How come even his card is loud?

“Well, it looks like you’ve successfully registered. You still have just about a month to earn that Rank B, so you better get busy!” (Kira)

Zublos nods and heads off to check the request board.

Even in the Runetap Adventurer’s Guild that guy sticks out like a sore thumb.

“Thanks so much for doing this sort of thing for the boss.” (Lara A)

The waitress is here to translate from Zublos-ian as usual.

“Hmm? It’s purely a business transaction, though.” (Kira)

That’s right, this whole thing is part of a deal between Kira and Zublos.

He’d never make it all the way to Rank B in time for that big tournament on his own.

But since we’re taking him on as a disciple, we can help him rise through the ranks faster.

In return for that, he has to pay half of the money he earns through commissions to Kira.

Obviously we can’t catapult him straight to Rank A, the guild would never allow an obvious loophole like that.

“No, that’s exactly what I mean. You made a fair deal with him instead of trying to exploit his desperate situation! Most of our ingredient suppliers constantly try to rip him off, I’m really glad you’re not like that after all!” (Lara A)

After all?

Did she honestly expect Kira to be a money-grubbing scro-

No, let’s stop that train of thought right there.

I don’t think I’d enjoy seeing where it led to...

“Well, I do sympathize with him a bit. I’ve also suffered from raw deals in the past.” (Kira)

“I can’t say I completely trust that guy, though.” (Ellie)

“Ellie!” (Kira)

“No, it’s okay. Thank you for being honest. And also for offering your name despite how you feel.” (Lara A)

The waitress shows her gratitude by bowing slightly in my direction.

“I don’t mind, so it’s okay.” (Ellie)

Truthfully, I demanded it be my name.

Otherwise it would be the team leader’s name.

More of a tradition rather than a law.

However, I hate the thought of having Kira’s name tied to someone else!

I don’t care if it’s some temporary arrangement!

What’s mine is mine!

“Still, you should stop by the shop sometime! I’ll get you a few dishes on the house! Did you know the boss came up with something called Mild Macaroons recently?” (Lara A)

“Hmm?” (Ellie)

“They don’t have any special ingredients with quirky side-effects, they’re simply little bundles of deliciousness! He made them especially for people who just wanted a tasty snack, you see!” (Lara A)

Wow, she gets really fired up whenever it comes to that guy.

It’s not like I can’t relate to her feelings of a maiden in love, but combined with her normal cheerfulness it’s almost a bit too much!

BEHOLD MORTAL! ZUBLOS HEREBY DECLARES THE LIVES OF THESE FILTHY VERMIN FORFEIT!

Zublos had ripped off one of the fliers and is showing it to the guild clerk.

Several people in the guild turn their heads towards him in amazement when they hear that voice.

Must be newbies.

“Goblin King subjugation commission is it? Understood, Mister Zublos.” (Clerk)

Honestly, it feels a bit weird when the clerk isn’t Clara.

But we came here just this morning so she hasn’t had time to change locations yet.

Since Brand already delivered the reply from Ecebis, we really had no more reason to stick around the capital.

Not for the next few weeks anyway.

“Alright, good luck on your hunt, Zublos. Drop by our house if you need something.” (Kira)

Zublos nods his head and starts walking through the door, high-class robe and ominous looking greatsword in tow.

“Boss! Wait up!” (Lara A)

Lara chases after him in a rush.

“Now then Ellie, should we find a job too?” (Kira)

“Hopefully something that doesn’t involve mucus this time...” (Ellie)

Those giant toads we fought several days ago were absolutely disgusting!

Thankfully we had Picorio’s ointments on hand.

Otherwise the smell would probably still cling to my armor.

Kira walks over to the request board and looks it over.

“Hmm, then how about that pack of feral Iron Golems? They don’t have any bodily fluids at all.” (Kira)

“That’s fine, I guess…” (Ellie)

“What is it Ellie? You’re normally more spirited about adventurer jobs.” (Kira)

“Iron Golems and I have bad compatibility.” (Ellie)

We’ve fought them before, I have trouble damaging them thoroughly enough to disperse the mana holding them together.

There doesn’t seem to be anything else particularly worthwhile though.

Adventurers get really busy around this time of year to prepare for the next season.

So it’s natural that any decent jobs get taken almost immediately.

Well, we’re not much different.

We’ve taken on work almost every single day ever since we came back from Ecebis.

Not to mention all those meetings with the king, his ministers or the Grandmaster of the guild.

Then there’s taking care of the new additions to our little household.

Even that Kelly who spent three days straight locked in her workshop recently called us workaholics.

Actually, surely we already have plenty of capital for a long time.

We should sit back and enjoy life while we still can!

“Kira, can we not work and just stay at home? I think we’ve earned a vacation for all our hard work lately...” (Ellie)

“... You have a point. I still wonder if it’ll be okay in case that whole Ministry of Progress business flops and we end up owing a lot of money we can’t-” (Kira)

“Kira. It’ll be okay. Everything’s going more or less as planned. Even the news Brand brought us was amazing.” (Ellie)

Turns out Titansteel wasn’t that rare, they were just unlucky.

The mage Kira sent them found an enormous deposit some 200 meters down from where that steel titan was sleeping.

Since that’s the only place to grow crops in the entire country, nobody dared to excavate under or around it.

So they never realized what they were standing on.

And now that both the nation and the mountain are exposed to the outside, they can outsource their ale production.

Meaning they can dig up as much Titansteel as they want.

“Okay. Know what? You’re right. I’m not going to argue. Truth is I’ve been feeling really worn out lately as well.” (Kira)

“I know.” (Ellie)

I can pretty much see the fatigue on her face even now.

“It’s settled then! Let’s just finish our Autumn preparations and spend the rest of the year cuddling in peace.” (Kira)

“Yeah!” (Ellie)

> Narrator POV

And thus, on the first day of the twelfth month of the year 1437 SSSC, the majority of adventurer team [Black Flame] went on a long, well-deserved break. The only exception was Zublos, who would continue to work hard towards his ambition of owning a Vestiges of the Empire cake shop in every major city in Ferseit and beyond.

But before any of that could happen, Ellie and Kira went on a long shopping spree. Preserved foods, warm clothing, several magic tools, dozens of Magic Stones and a few other supplies - just in case. The harsh Autumn season was slowly yet steadily approaching. The way the seasons and weather worked in this world was something that endlessly bothered Nano. It was much too different from every single planet in the artificial intelligence’s databanks.

To begin with, it was a pleasant surprise that the way time was measured was so similar to that of Old Terra, a system that was used as a baseline for the Galactic Standard Time System once humanity spread across the cosmos. A minute had 60 seconds, an hour had 60 minutes, a day had 24 hours and a week had 7 days. This so far had been familiar and easy to grasp.

That, however, was where the familiarity ended. The seconds of this world were longer. A day was actually closer to 28 Galactic Standard Hours rather than 24. This caused quite a bit of trouble until Nano found out how to calibrate its internal system clock. A rather underwhelming use of the highly advanced and highly illegal self-evolution capability it possessed.

As for Ellie, it was the first time she was ever on the surface of a planet, so something like a day-night cycle was completely foreign to her. That did not matter to her in the slightest, however. She just slept when Kira slept, ate when Kira ate, and appreciated her in all the moments in-between.

Following the longer seconds, the next surprise came in how the year worked. It was 350 days long, separated into exactly 50 weeks, which in turn formed 12 four-week months and a 13th half-month. What was special about this wasn’t the number of days in the year, but rather what the year signified.

A year on this world did not represent a revolution of the planet around its sun. Indeed, according to Nano’s calculations based on measuring the positions of the stars, a traditional year would take approximately 563 days and 22 hours. No, what signified a year on this world would be the completely inexplicable and absurd (from Nano’s point of view) seasons.

Ellie and Nano had arrived at the beginning of the third month of a Summer year - pleasantly warm weather with the odd chilly evening and occasional rainy days. Since the planet did not appear to have its axis on a tilt, it was not a surprise the climate would be this stable. Even extreme weather like typhoons, hail or tornadoes simply didn’t happen.

At least, not until the 12th month ended.

Starting at noon on the first day of the 13th month and lasting until noon of the first day of the next year, the world would experience a two-week Autumn. It was a dark, depressing time where thick clouds would form and block out the sun almost constantly. They would bring all sorts of nonsensical weather - upwards-falling rain, ice-cube shaped hail, triangular tornadoes, gusts that were felt through stone walls and thick clouds of steam that rolled in like fog, to name a few.

The capital city of Kotero had even suffered a tsunami of oddly red and sweet-tasting water 14 years ago. There was a rumor that King Frederick Ferseit was laughing like a madman as he watched the impossibly tall wall of crimson liquid approach from the horizon. The city survived unscathed thanks to its defensive barrier, but the surrounding farmlands were devastated and the soil had become infertile. It took hundreds of Elven mages several months of work to repair the damage using their Life Magic.

This situation looked as if Mother Nature kept holding it in for twelve months only to boil over and go completely mental for the remaining two weeks.

That was not the only side-effect of the Autumn season, however. During those turbulent two weeks, mana would not recover and monsters would go into hibernation. This meant, like it or not, adventurers simply had no work during this time. Not that they would dare leave their homes in the first place. Long-distance travel in these conditions was a fool’s errand.

The common practice for getting through the 13th month was simple. First you stock up on food, water and other necessities. Then you go home, bundle up, have a pint and wait for this whole wacky weather thing to blow over.

Then, at exactly noon on the first day of the next year, Autumn would disappear like a bad dream and the world would enter a Winter year. For the next 12 months, the world would have cold weather with the occasional snowfall. Some days would be warmer or chillier than others, but overall it was important to bundle up when going outside. Then, at the 13th month of a Winter year, Spring would come. Pretty much identical to Autumn, only the days would be getting gradually warmer rather than colder, and a Summer year would begin once more.

And how exactly would such strange phenomenon happen? Titans, that’s how. It is said that they were the ones who made the world. But Nano surmised whoever made the sun did a very poor job of it. It didn’t seem like it would explode, but it was definitely defective.

Kira had explained that, during a Winter year, the normally yellow Enuri would become blue and its warmth would noticeably weaken. The drop in temperature made sense to her since ice was usually blue or white. As for the completely absurd notion that a star would change its color every 350 days like clockwork, she simply didn’t have any reason to question it.

Kira wouldn’t know this, but a blue star would actually be many times hotter than a yellow one. Indeed, if a genuine blue star suddenly replaced the current one, this planet would be reduced to ashes within seconds.

Ultimately, in order to protect its logic circuit, Nano had decided very early on it was best just to assume magic was responsible for everything that didn’t make sense and to avoid analyzing anomalies too deeply until there was more information.

‘It’s your loss if you mind it’ was a serious matter for an AI like Nano. They’re notoriously bad with paradoxes.

As for Ellie, she was simply looking forward to playing in the snow with her family.

SSSC stands for Since Somebody Started Counting.