Peter

Mina and I eventually went back home that day. Every week, she still went to the Adventurer’s Guild, but now I wasn’t as worried about her because she was starting to open up more to Alice and I. She had some moments where she would start talking like a normal girl, only to realize halfway through and swap back to talking like an anime protagonist. Alice and I were both allowed to address her by name, but if anyone else tried, she started throwing Destructive Blasts at them. I told her not to destroy the dining room, but she didn’t seem to listen. Not that it mattered, her blasts were all imaginary, anyway.

Leo and Orion were still the same as ever, but it seemed like Peter was even more reclusive than before, not even coming out of his room for lunch or chores. Father Paul had explained that Leo and Orion were just distrusting of others, but he didn’t have an explanation for what was wrong with Peter. Apparently this was new behavior for Peter. Alice and I just decided to give Leo and Orion some space so they could get used to us without us trying to push them too hard to open up. Peter, however, we needed to figure out what was wrong. He was 17, so if we didn’t find out what was wrong soon, he’d have to leave the orphanage. Once you turn 18, you no longer receive orphanage benefits from the city, so he would essentially be trespassing. Neither Alice nor I wanted him to be stuck out on the streets without help, so we needed to find some way to help him now.

The common thing to happen when you turned 18 in this world was that you typically got an apprenticeship, a job, or became a researcher at the magic tower or worked at the cathedral. We didn’t know much about Peter, so we couldn’t tell if he had any interests or hobbies. If we knew what he liked, we could try and find a path for him that incorporated his interests. If he liked magic, we could see if he wanted to become a researcher. If he liked making things, we could try to find him an apprenticeship making something he liked. Instead, we knew nothing.

“Peter? I think he liked reading big books with complicated words at the last orphanage.” We’d decided to ask the other children if they knew anything about him. First up was Mina. It was just me and her in my office. She’d been reading a book about the various heroes of the empire when I’d asked. “I don’t think he likes magic. He always said magic was boring.”

Magic? Boring?! It was inconceivable that anyone could find magic boring. That said, I was thinking that when I had 16 years of memories in a world without magic. Anyway, I decided to ask Leo next.

“What.” Ouch, that was cold. “Peter? He’s a loner. He likes weird things. I saw him playing with a weird circle. He hates when people don’t fix things, but he also hates when people fix things. He’s so weird.”

I didn’t know how much of this information was accurate, but I also didn’t have anything else to work off of, so I decided to trust everything Leo said, even though it seemed like a contradiction. The last person to ask was Orion. Alice and I had been able to get him to start talking to us, but he still didn’t say much and relied on his brother to do most of the talking.

“Peter? I don’t know much. Leo would know more. Leo knows everything. All I know is that Peter sometimes cries until he falls asleep. It’s been happening more and more, recently.”

Alice and I came to a decision. We’d be going on a field trip.

“Okay, everyone, we’re going to go to the lake today. I need to get water crystals for my next invention, so Garret, Rosella, and I are going to destroy some water monsters and the rest of you can play in the water or on the beach with Alice.”

This entire justification was a bit of a lie, but I had an idea. We needed a way to watch Peter and see what he did when certain things happened. Alice and I had planned 5 different events to see how he responded to each, but if he was just in his room all day, we couldn’t see anything.

First, defeating monsters. If Peter enjoyed fighting, adventure, magic, swords, or anything like that, he’d want to go watch us. Garret and Rosella both had experience with combat, so I brought them along. I had no experience with anything like that. I could maybe fight with a sword, but that was more from my memories of movies and anime and it was only enough to defend myself in a pinch. Garret had been a part of the city guard and Rosella worked at the magic tower, so both had enough experience to defeat some basic monsters.

The lake had three common types of monsters: the Raining Salmon, the Waterfall Gull, and the Sand Crab. The Raining Salmon could jump out of the water, spit water at its foes, and dive back into the water. The Waterfall Gull was more common at the waterfalls in the north of the empire, but it migrated to Katka since it was now winter. The Sand Crab was a normally-small monster, but if it lived long enough, it was the most dangerous monster here. Monsters didn’t die of old age and they never stopped growing, so they could get to be incredibly dangerous if they stayed alive for long enough. Because the Sand Crabs were the only ones who could reach the city and had armor, they could wreak havoc on the town if they grew to the size of a person. Waterfall Gulls could also reach the city, but they were only in town for a season, so there wasn’t much to worry about.

Our target, however, was the Raining Salmons. Rosella carried a staff made of wood that had a green crystal hanging from the crook. She pointed the staff out to the lake, spoke a word, “Silvus” and the plants in the lake began to grow. The plants, mostly lilypads, quickly had their roots grow long enough to wrap around the unsuspecting Raining Salmon, then throw them up onto the shore. A few tried spitting bullets of water at us, but Garret, who had a shield and spear, blocked the attacks. I then pulled out a small knife and began to kill the beached fish. Garret helped me and we quickly had a number of water crystals. When most monsters died, they dissolved, leaving only their crystals behind. However, if you knew where to attack, you could destroy the crystal within their body, which meant that the monster didn’t dissolve. This was how fishermen in Katka were able to bring in large hauls of salmon.

We had finished our first task, but Peter wasn’t even paying attention. Instead, he was sitting underneath an umbrella that Alice had set up. Mina and Leo were running through the water, splashing around, even though it was winter. Winters in Arkana weren’t very snowy or even that cold. There was about a month where it got cold enough to snow, but most of the winter was rather comfortable. Summer was similar, with only about a month that was hot enough to be uncomfortable. This was a completely different climate than I was used to in Japan. Meanwhile, Orion sat under the umbrella, reading a book, while Peter just sat there, not doing anything. Alice was helping take care of Roy. Roy had finally gotten to a point where he could fully stay in human form, even while sleeping. He still changed form to eat, but we were trying to work on getting him to eat in human form, so Alice had brought some assorted fruits for Roy.

We decided to move on to our next task. This would be where the lie started to seep into the plan. I had been given a strange crystal by Clare a few weeks ago. She’d been given it by a patron at her restaurant. It was supposedly part of a proposal by a drunk customer, but the drunk never came back to pick it up. It wasn’t a water, earth, wind, plant, ice, or fire crystal. I’d taken a guess that it was some other type of crystal, but the magic tower only had evidence of two other types: light and dark crystals. If it was a light crystal, it would glow, ever so slightly. If it was a dark crystal, it would be pitch black. This was a magic crystal that had no color.

“What’s this thing?” It was my time to start the act. I made a bit of a scene. This was a signal for Alice to come over and look at what I brought. When Alice set down Roy and came over, Mina followed, while Roy turned into dragon form and flew back into Alice’s arms. The scene was made. Now, I just needed Peter to join in. While Alice was talking to Rosella about what it could be, I looked over at Peter. He took a glance at what we were doing, but went back to staring into space. Welp. The second event failed. I guess Peter didn’t have much of an interest in strange phenomena. Time to move onto event three.

“Well, we got the water crystals we were looking for, so we should be able to go back soon. I just need to stop at the general store and the magic tower. Who wants to come with me?” Mina and Orion raised their hands. Mina was obvious. She enjoyed doing anything fun and different. Orion was a bit of a surprise. I guess he must have had a bit of an interest in magic. Well, event three or four couldn’t get Peter’s attention, so I turned to my last idea. “If the rest of you can head home, I need someone to be there when the repairman comes to fix the clock in the living room.”

Bingo. I saw Peter’s ears twitch at the mention of a repairman, then again at the mention of the clock in the living room. When Leo had said that Peter had been messing with a weird circle, I’d gone into Peter’s room and looked for it. Peter was taking his bath at the time, so the room was empty. Inside, I couldn’t find anything like what Leo had said. When I thought it was time to give up and I left, I passed by Peter on his way back from the bath. In his hand was a small gear. This was my first definitive clue. My second definitive clue was when the clock in the living room happened to mysteriously break. I’d removed a gear from the inner workings, then shaved off a tooth of the gear with a file, then put the gear back in the clock. All of a sudden, the clock stopped working. I made an appointment with a repairman and with that, my final event was planned.

I didn’t have much actual work at the general store or the magic tower, but I decided to use this time to show Mina and Orion around the places. The general store, run by Sara and Elias, was a decently-sized building on the main street. It had everything you could think of, from food to the appliances I invented. There were clothes, general goods, potions, medicine, cookware, furniture, and everything else. Most people in town sold their products to the general store, then the general store sold them for a slight markup. This meant that you could buy things for cheaper if you bought them directly, but it was more convenient to buy from the general store. Mina ran around the store, looking at everything until she came back with a bag that hung by her side that was covered in small bunnies. I decided to buy the bag for her. It wasn’t the cheapest, but it was a manageable cost.

The magic tower was less interesting for Mina. She kept looking out the windows, watching the street. When I remembered that the Adventurer’s Guild was across the street, it made sense. Orion was really shy, but I could tell he wanted to learn more about what happened here, so I brought him over to one of the people that I’d gotten to know while working on my inventions.

“Matthew, I wanted you to meet someone.”

“Huh?” Matthew Flitter was a fairy, so he was only about 30 centimeters tall, but he spoke with the voice of an old man who’d smoked cigarettes for years. As he turned around, he looked at me with annoyance. He’d been interrupted in the middle of his work, trying to figure out a way to remove magic crystals from a living monster without killing it. When he saw that I was with a child who looked incredibly excited to be here, he softened enough that it wouldn’t scare Orion. “Who’s the kid, Simon?”

“Orion, go on, introduce yourself.”

I was pretty sure that Orion wouldn’t be able to do it, but I was pleasantly surprised to hear him say, “M-my name is, uh, Orion, sir…”

“Well, kid. Do you like magic?”

“Y-yes! Magic is super interesting!”

“Tell ya what, kid, come back here when yer done with school. Then, I’ll teach you how to do all kinds of fun stuff with magic.” That reminded me, I needed to get these kids signed up for the next year of school. It was the last month of the year right now, so they’d be starting the next year in about four months.

After Orion and Matthew walked around the research lab a bit, it was time for us to head back. I needed to see if the last stage of my plan was working. When we got back to the house, I saw that a repairman was just outside the door, about to knock when we walked up behind him.

“Are you the repairman?”

“Ah, yes. I’m Doug Brand, the repairman. Are you Mr. Westwind?” Doug Brand was a tall, muscular man with deeply tanned skin, long brown hair that covered his eyes, and floppy dog ears like a basset hound. He was also much older than me, so it felt weird for him to call me Mr. Westwind. He wasn’t incredibly old like Sara and Elias or even the governor, but he was probably in his late 30s.

“I’m Simon Westwind. Sara and Elias recommended your services to me. By the way…”

As we stepped inside, I saw Alice about to open the door. She’d surely heard the knock at the door and had come down to greet whoever was waiting. The other person who was waiting was the target of our plan: Peter. Peter was sitting on one of the couches, staring into space like he was disinterested, but as soon as we brought Doug inside, he kept stealing glances at what we were doing.

“Well, here’s what’s wrong. There’s a gear in here that had one of the teeth break off. I’m sure I have a replacement gear somewhere at my shop, so I can come back tomorrow and get this all fixed up for you.”

“That’s wonderful. Thank you, Doug. I’m sure you’re quite busy, between trying to fix everything people break in town and trying to teach your apprentices.”

“Apprentices? I wish I had apprentices. It’s just me, trying to fix everything in town. If I had a couple extra hands, that would make everything go faster.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll be able to find some extra help.”

“You’d think I would, but no one wants to be an apprentice for a repairman. If you have the skills, you’d want to work for a more specialized artisan. But, if you’re like me and can’t make things, all you can do is fix things. Everyone just wants to buy something new, nowadays. No one wants to fix things.”

“That’s not true. I’m sure there are plenty of people who’d want to be a repairman.”

“Thank you for trying to save my feelings, but I know that isn’t true.” And with that, the bait was laid, the trap was set, and we caught our target, hook, line, and sinker.

“I want to be a repairman! I like fixing things. It’s really fun to see how everything works. Is it possible for me to be a repairman? I never got to go to school and I didn’t learn much from my parents, but I still want to be a repairman!”

I’d mentioned this plan to Doug before we walked in the door. I’d told him that I wanted to find a job or an apprenticeship for Peter, but we didn’t know what he wanted. We’d heard stories that he enjoyed fixing things, but didn’t know if that was true or not, so we decided to put on a little act. With this act, we were able to get Peter to finally open up about what he wanted. He wouldn’t be able to start working as Doug’s apprentice until he turned 18, but that wouldn’t be too far off in the future. As for the present, time moved forward.

As the year started to draw to a close, it was getting closer and closer to Alice’s and my birthday. We didn’t plan to do anything too extravagant, but Alice was turning 18, so I wanted to make her a cake, at least. With flour, eggs, sugar, milk, a bit of salt, and my secret ingredient that was really hard to find, I was ready to make her a cake. Alice and I had decided to celebrate our birthdays on the same day, even though it wasn’t Alice’s real birthday, so I wanted to make it special. I also bought some berries to top the cake with. With that, the preparations were all complete. As the year drew closer and closer to an end, the day finally came. I had Rosella take Alice out shopping for whatever she wanted. In exchange, I’d promised to give Garret more time off so that he can spend it with her. While those two were out, I started working on the cake. Mina was playing with Roy, who’d been starting to learn how to walk. I’d heard from the governor that most babies didn’t learn how to walk until about a year old, but Roy was only about 3 months old. He really was growing fast. At this rate, he’d start learning how to talk soon.

I began mixing the wet ingredients. The eggs, the sugar, the milk, and my secret ingredient all went in. Then, I mixed in the dry ingredients. The flour and salt went in. Normally, you’d need some kind of baking powder or baking soda to make the cake fluffy, but I’d whipped the egg whites to add in the air. This meant I was technically making an angel food cake, which I found a bit ironic. Then, it was time to bake. In the meantime, I decided to make the night’s meal. There was a different tradition in this world for the last day of the year than in Japan. In this world, families ate a large spread of roasted meats, roasted vegetables, and anything else you had left from the year that was about to end. By eating everything you had left, you were creating a clean slate for your new year. Over time, it shifted from being about eating whatever you had left and instead became about eating a large meal of roasted meats and vegetables with your family.

I did think that the point of the tradition was important, though, so I decided to make some changes once the new year came. If the new year was supposed to be a clean slate, then I’d become a new man once the new year came. First, I’d get all of the children registered for school. Mina, Leo, and Orion were all of school age, so this would be very important for their growth. Next, I’d make sure Peter had everything he needed before he moved out for his apprenticeship with Doug Brand. Finally, I was going to do everything I could to help Roy grow up big and strong. For my work, I planned on finding a way to make a complete water treatment and sewage system for the city, all using magic crystals. Then, for my personal life, I would work on planning a wedding. Once I turned 18, I’d be able to finally get married to Alice. That would mean I’d need to wait another year, but I didn’t plan to wait much longer than that.

As I saw the last few grains of sand in the hourglass pour out, it was time to take out the cake. As the oven opened and I pulled the cake out, I saw my birthday gift to Alice: a chocolate angel food cake.

The meal was great. As everyone sat around the table in the dining room, we ate everything from roasted carrots, roasted broccoli, roasted chicken, roasted pork, and even roasted apples. Once everyone was full, it was time for dessert. The cake was light and fluffy, but also rich with chocolate and topped with berries for a burst of freshness. Chocolate was surprisingly difficult to find in this world. The Kingdom of Arkana was the southernmost part of the continent, but the weather wasn’t tropical enough for chocolate to grow here. Instead, there was apparently an island just south of Arkana that had chocolate, coffee, bananas, mango, and other tropical fruits growing on it. Getting chocolate wasn’t cheap, but as a birthday present, it was worth it. And as for the birthday gift, it made Alice really happy. She really enjoyed the meal beforehand, but the dessert was her favorite part. When I told her that it was an angel food cake, she seemed a bit confused. I explained that it was called that because it was so light and fluffy that it was thought to be the food of the angels. Alice laughed at that. She told me that angels mainly ate birds that flew near cloud cities and a special fruit that grew on cloud cities called angelfruit. Even if it wasn’t really what angels ate, she still enjoyed the meal.

As the year came closer and closer to a close and the hours ticked away, Alice and I sat in the living room, watching the clock. It was now almost midnight. We’d agreed that everyone could sleep in the next morning after all of the children wanted to stay up until midnight with us, but none of them could stay awake. Roy was the first to fall asleep. He had just eaten a large meal, so he was sleeping in his dragon form. He’d probably stay asleep for most of the next day because the meal was so big. Peter was the next to fall asleep. He was technically the youngest of the four other children, relative to how long elves lived. The next one to fall asleep was Orion. He had been trying to read books to stay awake, but fell asleep around 10 PM. Leo and Mina were trying to compete with each other to see who could stay awake the longest, but neither one could stay awake past 11 PM. In the end, it was just Alice and I, sitting on the couches, surrounded by snoring children. We’d just finished bringing out blankets to cover the sleeping children when I noticed that it was 11:45 PM.

“We only have fifteen minutes left. Do you have any goals for next year?”

“I think I want to bring in some more children to the orphanage. If Peter’s going to be leaving for his apprenticeship, it’ll feel a bit more lonely around here, even if Peter wasn’t always the most social one.”

“That’s a good goal. We have plenty of space in the house for more children. If we start caring for more children, I do want to be more of a help with raising them. I feel like I’m so busy with all of my other work that I don’t spend much time taking care of the children.”

“You do plenty to raise the children. If you didn’t work on your inventions, we wouldn’t have enough money to feed Roy.”

I laughed. “That’s true. Roy does eat enough to bankrupt us if we weren’t careful.”

“Anyway, don’t feel bad about not being there for every single moment. Instead, focus on being there for the important ones.” As we sat there, waiting for the last few minutes of the year to tick away, Alice asked, “Do you have any goals for the next year?”

“I want to get all the children in school, I want to make a water treatment system for the city, and I want to start planning our wedding.”

As the clock chimed midnight and the moon shone brightly through the windows, Alice’s face wasn’t bright red. Instead, she stared at me, eyes wide. As faint tears began to trickle down her face, I saw her lips begin to quiver as she said, “Finally. I’m so happy.”

“Happy new year, Alice.”

As the new year came around, I had a ton of paperwork. For about a month, I was stuck in my office all day, trying to get through all of the paperwork for the city’s budgets that needed approval, the approval of various festivals throughout the year, and every other thing that needed to be checked over by someone with higher authority than the governor. I was starting to regret giving Garret that extra time off. Though, once I heard what he’d used that time off for, I didn’t mind.

“She said yes. I gave her the ring that you and Alice helped me get and she said yes. We’re going to be married.” Garret had gone to the artisan’s district and brought a scale that we gave him to make it into a ring. Roy’d been going through a molting phase, so he had been staying in dragon form for a longer period of time than normal. It did mean that we had some cloud dragon scales that we could sell, but very few were of any use for making weapons or armor. Roy was still too young to have hard scales like Yroka did, but his scales were still pretty enough to be used for jewelry and decorations. The ring Garret had purchased was made with one of these scales. It was a small scale, about the size of my fingertip, the shape of a rounded triangle, and was mostly translucent, but that caused it to refract the light in beautiful patterns.

“Congratulations, Sir Garret. Now, if you aren’t too busy, can you please get back to work? We’re very behind on paperwork.” As I kicked Rosella out of my office, Garret and I got back to working on the stacks of papers that were taller than the children.

As the second month came to a close and I finally got caught up on paperwork, I decided to go on a date with Alice. If I was in Japan, it would be around the time of Valentine’s day. Valentine’s day wasn’t celebrated in this world, but there was a festival of love around that same time. We got Clare to watch over the children for a day as Alice and I went out onto the lake. We were sharing a small boat where we’d sit together and watch the fireworks as they were launched above us. We’d just finished eating a fancy dinner at a nice restaurant recommended to us by the governor. He’d said that it was where he proposed to his wife many years ago. They frequently went back, but after his wife died of pneumonia a few years ago, he’d never had the heart to go back. Now, it would be a place for us.

The meal was phenomenal. It was food that would even be considered fancy in the fanciest restaurants in Tokyo. After the meal, we finally made it out onto the lake. As we sat there, enjoying the multicolored fireworks as they went off above us, Alice leaned her head on my shoulder. I laced my fingers with hers and we took in the sight.

With the third month of the year’s approach, it was time to finally prepare for changes in the house. As school would be starting next month, it was time to sign all of the children up. Roy was too young and Peter would be leaving before the month ended, but Mina, Leo, and Orion would all be able to go to school. In addition, the governor told me that there were a few more children for us to take in. All of those children would be school-aged, so I needed to sign them up, as well.

First, I needed to sign up the ones I already knew. Mina, age 10, Rabbit Beastfolk, also goes by Evil Queen of Darkness (EQD). Leo, age 8, Human, older brother of Orion. Orion, age 7, Half-Orc, Half-Human, younger brother of Leo. We’d also need to get school supplies for them, but that would need to wait until after we met the new children.

“Hello, Lord Simon. I’ve brought four more children. All of them are school-aged, like the others, so if you could all introduce yourselves.”

“Hello, Lord Simon. My name is Jun. I am twelve years old. I was born in Sakura, but my parents were adventurers, so I traveled with them. I am certain you can guess where this story ends.” Jun didn’t feel the need to mention it, but he was a dwarf. Dwarves live around 200 years, so a twelve-year-old dwarf was around five in human years. Given his height and his age, he looked even younger than five, but his manner of speaking was so mature that you couldn’t tell. His hair was cut very short, but it was dark brown, the same color as his eyes.

“I’m Hana and I’m eight.” Hana was a human, but her blonde hair had a white streak in it. It was in pigtails with a heart-shaped clip holding each pigtail. She almost seemed to have a combination of my hair color and Alice’s hair color, but the similarities didn’t stop there. Her eyes were also muddy brown, like mine, but had small flecks of gold in them, like Alice’s. I knew that it was impossible for her to be Alice’s and my child, given that she was eight and I didn’t know Alice back then (also, I was 9 eight years ago), but something in my mind couldn’t shake all these facts.

“My name’s Alec! I’m seven!” The one who was practically shouting was a young boy with green hair, skin the color of birch bark, and a small sprout coming out of his head. It practically looked like he’d stepped out of a tree. I wasn’t too far off, either, because he was a plant elemental. Everywhere he went, plants seemed to turn to face him. But, whenever he talked, he shouted everything he said, so people tended to keep their distance, so as to not destroy their eardrums.

“Name’s Jack. I’m six.” Before, I’d thought that Leo had a mischievous look in his eyes. This boy, however, truly looked like he was a trickster spirit from fairy tales. In my old world, there were a number of fairy tales about a boy named Jack. For a second, I almost thought that this was that same Jack. All I needed was a candlestick to see if he would jump over it, like the nursery rhyme. “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick.” The thing that made me sure it wasn’t the same person were the orange hair and orange fox ears growing from his head. Unlike Mina’s hair and ears, which were a pale orange, like a bunny, Jack’s were a vibrant orange, like a fox’s. Jack also had a white streak in his hair, as well as white tufts in his ears.

Jun and Jack would be sharing a room on the bottom floor, next to the dining room. I wanted the very mature Jun to watch over the trickster spirit that was Jack. Hana was originally going to be sharing a room with Mina, much to Mina’s dismay. “The Evil Queen of Darkness will not let her castle be invaded by these treacherous forces of girliness!” Fortunately for Mina, Hana wanted to have a room to herself, so she took the room on the bottom floor between the living room and the bath. Alec was almost forced to have a room far away from other people. Apparently, these three were well aware of his volume problems, which continued when he snored. Thankfully, the walls of this house were well-insulated and mostly soundproof. In the end, he took the room on the bottom floor that was across the hall from the living room, furthest from the kitchen and dining room.

After a few days trying to get all of the new children settled in, I took a day to go to the school and register all of the new children. Jun, age 12, Dwarf. Hana, age 8, Human. Alec, age 7, Plant Elemental. Jack, age 6, Fox Beastfolk. Now that I finally had everyone signed up for school, things could start to slow down around the house. Peter would be leaving in a week to start his apprenticeship with Doug Brand, the repairman, then school would start shortly after that. Once the kids had school to go to four days out of the week, Alice and I’d be able to take a short break. Sure, we still had to take care of Roy, I had all of my work, especially now that there were more ice crystals in stock, and we’d have to watch the children on the other three days of the week, but even this small amount of free time would help us start working on planning our wedding.