“Hey, Ahim, are you there?”
After Wolf called out, there was a brief pause before he got a response.
He must have come to the little shed for farm work.
“Yeees!”
“Can you ask your father if he’s free this afternoon?”
“Okaaay, got it!”
Nodding, my brother closed the window.
Having some idea, I asked a question.
“Hunter?”
“Yeah. Ahim’s father, Dimo, is a farmer, but ever since he was young, he’s also worked as a hunter in that Forest. Out of everyone I know, he’s the most knowledgeable about the Forest.”
“Forest, go.”
“You want to go? You mean you want to go into the Forest?”
“Yeah.”
“You want to check it out with your own eyes?”
“Yeah.”
“But… I wonder if we’ll get permission. Mother would definitely be against it.”
“Just say, go outside.”
“Only get permission to go outside, huh. Hmm—well, the weather’s nice for a change today…”
My brother thought for a while, then finally nodded with some effort.
After that, he stopped talking about heavy topics and explained some of the common knowledge of this world to me.
Back to my very first question when I came into this room: the days of the week.
The days of the week are, in order, ‘Wind’, ‘Fire’, ‘Water’, ‘Light’, ‘Sky’, and ‘Earth’.
Six days make up a week, and five weeks make up a month.
Then, the months are named from ‘First Month’ to ‘Twelfth Month’, making up a year.
That makes three hundred and sixty days in a year.
Seasons, of course, vary a little by region, but in this domain, roughly the Eleventh to the Third Month is winter, Fourth and Fifth Month is spring, Sixth to Eighth Month is summer, and Ninth to Tenth Month is autumn.
Today, it seems, is the ‘Fourth Earth Day of the Tenth Month’.
Since it’s the end of the fourth week, that means it’s the twenty-fourth day of the month.
A day is divided into forty-eight koku.
It starts from the first koku of the morning (AM), then second, third, and so on.
After the twelfth koku comes the first koku of the afternoon (PM), which refers to when the sun is highest in the sky.
Then, after the twelfth koku of afternoon, comes the first koku of night, then after twelve more, the first koku of midnight—at that moment, the day changes.
In places like the Kingdom’s Capital and areas with a Church, bells are rung at the first koku of morning, afternoon, and night, but in this domain, they don’t do that, so they check the time with the Sun Dial in front of the Village Chief’s Mansion.
Right now, it’s just past the eleventh koku of the morning.
“Every day, lunch is around the twelfth koku,” my brother was explaining, when, as if on cue, Westa’s voice called out from behind the door, “Lord Wolf!”
“Alright,” my brother replied, picking me up and poking his head into the hallway.
“Please wait just a moment. I’ll return him to his room.”
“Understood.”
Nodding, Bettina went down the stairs.
My brother immediately opened my room door.
“This afternoon, I’m taking him outside to play.”
“Eh, eh?”
“I’ll tell Henrik too. Get him ready.”
“That’s so sudden! Are we going to the village?”
“Yeah.”
“Carrying Lord Rudolf? That’s dangerous!”
“It’ll be fine.”
“We don’t know what might happen, so at the very least, be sure not to drop Lord Rudolf—please carry him on your back.”
“Carry… on my back?”
“Yes.”
Saying this, Bettina picked me up and made me cling to my brother’s back.
Then she took a strange bundle of cloth from the basket at her feet, set it under my bottom, and tied the attached straps around my brother’s shoulders and waist.
Apparently, it’s a tool specifically for carrying children on one’s back.
“Aren’t you oddly prepared for this?”
“I was thinking that eventually, I’d want to take Lord Rudolf outside on my back, so I prepared for it.”
“I see.”
My brother’s face looked as sour as could be—probably because he looked every bit the babysitter now.
In contrast, I showed my delight by patting his shoulder with my small hands and squealing, “Kyai kyai!”
His face twisted even more.
But there’s no helping it.
If we’re going to the Forest, this is obviously the best way to go.
After lunch, I was bundled up in several layers.
Bettina, holding the carry cloth, took me down the stairs, and waiting at the front door was my brother, wearing a short fur coat and equipped with a Bow and Arrow and a sword at his waist and in his hand.
“That’s a pretty dangerous look you’ve got there.”
“I’m going to talk with Dimo about Wild Rabbit hunting, so I need to bring hunting tools.”
“Please, just be careful with Lord Rudolf.”
“I know. Of course.”
Once more, I was carried on my brother’s back.
Like this, his ear was right in front of me—perfect for whispering secrets.
As Bettina saw us off at the gate, my brother muttered a barely stifled curse.
“This is all your fault.”
“Hehe…”
He really didn’t like the babysitter style.
But he still didn’t refuse, probably because he recognized that this was necessary for our trip.
“Dimo and Ahim should be waiting at the entrance to the Forest.”
“Roger.”
That was about all we could say, because once we entered the village, there were people everywhere, so I couldn’t let my voice be heard.
The villagers all immediately recognized us as the lord’s sons and greeted us with polite bows.
Little children would wave and speak to us cheerfully; it was easy to see how popular my brother was.
“Lord Wolf, and your little brother?”
“Yeah, this is my little brother, Rudolf. Please take care of him.”
“How cute—!”
When I waved my hand and squealed, a little girl shrieked with delight.
Maybe this was one of those rare periods in life when I could be popular.
We passed through the village, and soon a wooden fence appeared on our right.
According to my brother, this was a Wild Rabbit fence they’d put up in the spring.
At the break in the fence, two men were standing.
Ahim, familiar to me, held an axe, while the middle-aged man who looked like his father, Dimo, was armed with a Bow and Arrow.
Apparently, they weren’t expecting us—Dimo and Ahim stared wide-eyed at me.
“For social studies,” my brother explained with some difficulty.
Without pausing to think, my brother asked about Wolves, and Dimo folded his arms and tilted his head.
“Wolves, huh. Now that you mention it, maybe we haven’t seen them much lately. But honestly, I’ve been too distracted by the annoying Wild Rabbits multiplying everywhere.”
“So there’s a chance they’ve decreased?”
“Well, but I don’t see any reason for Wolves to be declining.”
“But if that’s the case, then there’s no reason for Wild Rabbits to be increasing so much, either.”
“True.”
Still, nothing could be certain without seeing for ourselves.
“Let’s head in a little,” my brother said, turning toward the Forest.
As soon as we entered the mountain path threading between the trees, the light dimmed.
“Dad, is it safe even if a Wolf appears?”
“Sure. They’re bigger targets than Rabbits. Easy prey for a Bow and Arrow.”
“But we can’t let anything happen to Lord Rudolf.”
“Of course.”
Can I trust them?
Listening to the father and son, I resolved to pay close attention to our surroundings.
All the trees around us had lost their leaves, and red and brown debris covered the ground beneath our feet.
As we walked—
“Ahh!”
I turned to Ahim’s cry and caught a glimpse of something small darting into the bushes nearby.
“A Wild Rabbit. How bold, running right across our path.”
“They’ve gotten really shameless now that their numbers have increased.”
With a bitter face, the son spat, and the father did too.
Shaking it off, we resumed our march.
Before long, the path forked in two.