Today was the first day of the fifth month. The Kitrod empire had been at a loss for ages over what each month should be named, but here in Badoth territory it was unofficially called May. Rumor has it that the person who created the calendar system already came up with names for the twelve months, but half of them were named after gods from his hometown, so the empire whose state religion worshiped a different god couldn't accept the names. As for this areligious territory I'm in, nobody cared about whether or not something was named after a god that nobody worshiped in the first place. In any case, assuming nothing bad happens in the near future, I'll be able to enjoy some peace and quiet until my next break starts on the fourteenth day.

After we finished breakfast, a carriage headed for Dasota town came to pick our group up. I asked Amber if she remembered anything after getting drunk last night, but she said she completely blacked out and didn't remember what happened. I carefully tried to get her to talk about her past, but she said she'd prefer to talk about it "at the right time."

On the other hand, I got to hear Casath and Hanung talk about their past. While the two don't remember where exactly they were born, they recalled growing up in a village surrounded by swamps and marshes. It was located somewhere near the southeastern province and was referred to as the eastern wetlands.

Due to the village's ability to self-sustain itself with the abundant food from the marshes and wetland farms, the village didn't need to interact much with the rest of the world for trading, and the two turned into what was considered country bumpkins, since they didn't meet enough people to learn common sense and basic manners.

One year, endless torrential downpours caused a massive flood to occur, taking out most of the village's homes and wildlife in the area with it. Because of the scarcity of food after the flood, the villagers had no choice but to abandon whatever remained in the village and try to reach the nearest town to ask for assistance.

Unfortunately, the lack of contact with the rest of the world meant that the villagers had no idea which way to go to reach the nearest town, since the people who came to their village were often just travelers that got lost. As a result, the villagers split into four groups and parted in different ways, with the promise that they would return to the village some day in the future to leave notes for others to know where they relocated themselves to. The siblings' group moved westwards.

Because of the swampy terrain, it was hard to travel fast. Casath and Hanung's group probably only managed to travel at most 10 kilometers each day, and it wasn't until a full week later that they finally arrived in a town. Along the way, most of the group perished: some from diseases, many from thirst, hunger, and fatigue, and most from drowning. After all, it was difficult to determine how deep the bogs and waters were because of the flood, and all the underwater sediment made it nearly impossible to escape once one began sinking. Tragically, all of the two's relatives lost their lives during that week. Of the 60 or so members of their group, only 10 made it out alive, half of whom were in critically poor health.

The lack of trade and interactions with the outside world meant that the villagers didn't have any money on them. Luckily, the townsfolk were kind enough to provide food, shelter, and medicine to the 10 for a while after hearing the story about what happened to their village. Another two succumbed to the illnesses they contracted, but the remaining 8 villagers fully recovered after about a week.

Needless to say, the tragic loss of her family members and of most other villagers heavily scarred Hanung mentally, resulting in her current unwillingness to be separated from her brother for too long, since Casath was the last surviving relative of hers.

The wetland villagers' lack of social skills and mannerisms made it difficult for them to adjust to living in a town, and the townsfolk also began losing their patience in their dealings with the wetland people. Knowing too well that the townsfolk would soon be unwilling to provide support for them, the wetland villagers tried to find proper work, but their lack of skills for handicrafts and the different techniques used in wetland farms made it impossible for them to find jobs at the farms and specialty shops in town. All they could do was resort to irregular work at construction sites or cleaning the sewers for meager pay.

Eventually, Casath and Hanung had to resort to petty theft since they couldn't earn enough money for their own minimal expenses. When they got caught, the townsfolk chose not to imprison them for their misdemeanors since they were somewhat sympathetic towards the troubles these two young adolescents were going through. At the same time, since the two did not have money to pay their fines, the townsfolk had no choice but to exile them from town, since the other option was public execution, according to the local laws.

As time went on, Casath and Hanung repeated the cycle of moving to another town further west, finding part-time work with meager pay, having to resort to petty theft, and getting exiled. When they finally reached Sachiru town, they ultimately got fed up with having to live such a tough life. Instead of trying to find work, the two resorted to being delinquents and making money off of extortion, until I put a stop to it and gave them proper jobs last month.

"I'm sorry to hear what happened to your village…"

"It's been a long time since then, so we've gotten over it."

"Still, it must be sad to have to live without friends or family like that…"

"It is, but we're happy with life now."

"Hm?"

"We finally have a proper home, stable income, and caring townsfolk, after all."

It was perhaps because I gave them a chance to live a better life that they quickly changed their ways and became proper citizens again. Their lack of knowledge wasn't a hindrance in town, either, since the orcs and goblins in town also had relatively low intelligence compared to other races. If anything, these two were probably smarter than the average citizen.

"Well, I'm happy for you two."

"All thanks to you, of course."

I almost blushed after seeing the two smile at me so earnestly.

"Come to think of it…"

I thought about the story they just told, and one small thought kept lingering in my head.

"…How old are you two, anyways?"

Their long journey westwards probably lasted at most two or three years, and they had just recently become adolescents at the time their village was flooded, so they couldn't be that old.

"Thirteen."

"Twelve."

"Oh."

Which means they were adolescents by the time they were 10 or so years old. I knew animals often matured faster because of their shorter lifespans, but didn't think such fast maturity would also apply to reptilians and harpies like these two. Maybe it was precisely the early maturity trait that rendered most non-human species incapable of using magic, since the ability to control mana could only be efficiently learned before puberty. Although, if that was actually true, then there was one anomaly…

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"Nothing."

"What is it then?"

If the non-human races had traits similar to animals, then a demihuman like Amber would likely have matured sooner than Casath and Hanung. Yet, she was able to use basic magic, albeit with the quirk of her spells only working on males. Given her work as a spy of sorts, and employment as a maid at commander Mavuto's household, it was definitely impossible for her to still be a child. Did she just have an abnormally late puberty phase, then?

"Um… I kind of want to know your age after hearing these two talk about it, but if you think it's rude to ask, then you don't have to answer."

"Oh, you think I'm also younger than I look, right?"

"I guess I technically am thinking about that now, since you brought it up. I did think these two were 18 or older before they told me their ages…"

I was thinking about how she even has a mana pool and was able to use magic, but I guess her question was also thought-provoking, too.

"Well I'm the same age as you."

"You're… also 20?"

"Yes."

"Okay… That's nice to know."

Yep, definitely an anomaly. She didn't want to talk about her past right now, so I'll have to make a mental note to myself to ask her how she managed to learn magic some day.

After some idle chatter among ourselves and the merchant troupe that owned this carriage, we finally reached Dasota town shortly after noon.

* * * * *

"Welcome back!"

The town chief happily greeted us after we got off of the merchant carriage.

"Thank you."

"Are you on your way home?"

"Yes, although we don't have a carriage. Do you know anyone planning on going to Sachiru town?"

"I do, actually."

"Really?"

"Yes. As it turns out, the bandits you handed over a few days ago were guilty of killing a few prominent people in the southern province, so they need to be transferred over to the southern courthouse for trial."

"Hey Amber, where's the southern courthouse?"

"About five kilometers north of Sachiru."

Wasn't the area outside the Sachiru town walls just empty, open fields? Why the heck would anyone even build a courthouse there?

Oh well, at least it should be easy to walk home from there.

"Could we travel with the people transporting the captives?"

"Of course! That was going to be my request, anyways."

"Request?"

"Sending too many people away would disrupt our honey production, so we were going to request a group of army men to come help with the transportation. Since you're here, you can take over for the army escort, since you were the ones who overpowered the bandits."

I didn't overpower them, I just badly poisoned them. But I guess keeping them under control shouldn't be too hard as long as Casath is around, and as long as they remain tied up in the carriage.

"By the way, how is the sick girl doing?"

"She's still ill, but her headaches and hallucinations aren't as severe anymore."

"That's good to hear."

Before leaving town, I walked by the Ursine girl's house to check up on her. She appeared to still be frail, but she was at last not bedridden anymore. Once she saw me, she came over and gave me a hug as thanks for the medicinal tea. I don't exactly know what the Ursines' definition of frail was, but I felt like her bear hug was tight enough that my ribs could have been shattered if she gave it her all.

Our ride went without any issues, and we reached our destination after about seven hours. The courthouse was located somewhere within a heavily guarded walled area that spanned 500 meters on each side. I really wanted to explore what was inside, but we weren't allowed to enter, so we left the captive transport carriage at an outpost by the walls and walked back to Sachiru town. I have no idea why nobody in town had ever talked about such a conspicuous place nearby.

Once we got through the town's northern gate, Casath and Hanung parted with us since they lived somewhere in the west area, while we lived by the southeastern area. I really wanted to follow them just to know where they lived, but I'm sure I'll have other chances for that. Besides, Amber and I had to go talk to the owner of the carriage we borrowed to apologize for getting it destroyed. The owner was angry at first, but after I reimbursed him the full cost of a carriage, two horses, and the security deposit that Amber paid a few days ago, he happily forgave us. He even offered to let us borrow a different, more expensive carriage for our future travels.

Afterwards, we walked in the direction of the market district where our shop was located. Along that twenty minute walk, a reptilian carrying a large barrel walked by. Like Casath, he had an alligator-like face and large tail, but his scales were yellowish in color, while Casath's were a somewhat dark green. I had never seen him before in town, so perhaps he was one of the villagers from the wetlands that came over recently to help Casath and Hanung with their courier job.

"Ah, home sweet home!"

After all that unnecessary running around I experienced over the past few days, it felt relieving to know that I could finally stay put for two weeks. It was almost nine o'clock right now, so I asked Amber to go buy something for dinner since no grocer would be selling fresh food this late. She wasn't happy with the thought of me lazing around right away, so she shoved a feather duster into my hand and told me to clean up the shop since everything had been left untouched for four whole days. I thought about refusing, but she waved her claws so close to my face that I couldn't do so.

"I'm back."

Twenty minutes later, Amber came back with two sandwiches, one for each of us. I only did a halfhearted job at cleaning since Amber usually did this each night while I was brewing potions, but it seemed like I did a good enough job in the shop space that she let me stop to eat.

"Thanks, Amber. Although… why sandwiches?"

This was what she got me on my first night here, and she would often get these on nights when she didn't feel like cooking anything.

"It's late. All the other food stalls are closed."

Couldn't she have easily gone into a pub and bought any other food to take away instead? Why look for a food stall in the middle of the night? Well, I don't particularly mind eating sandwiches frequently, anyways. It was certainly better than food scraps and leftovers.

I took a nice, refreshing bath after dinner, then retired to my room after a little more cleaning with Amber's help.