Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 2

A Trombe Appears

The season had become such that waking up and getting out of bed in the morning was quite the challenge. As I lazily stayed in bed, thinking about how cold it was, my dad finished getting ready for work.

"Myne, how're you feeling?"

"Mmm? Same as always. Why do you ask, Dad?" Maybe he misinterpreted me staying in bed as me feeling sick. I lazily sat up and Dad looked at me with concern.

"Otto wants to have a winter meeting with you and asked if you could come today."

"Okay, I can go. I'm not sick right now and I don't have any business with Benno."

Dad left to get to the gate before it opened at second bell. After seeing him off, I got out of bed to quickly change. "Mom, Tuuli. I'm going to the gate today."

"Got it. There won't be much to gather in the forest soon, so I think you should be fine not going there anymore this year."

"Tuuli is right. We don't want you catching any unnecessary fevers around this time of year, Myne. You should stop going to the forest for now."

As the temperature dropped and catching colds became more normal, it became increasingly common for me to have days where I just didn't feel good. Pushing myself just led to those around me having to take care of me, so I decided it was best if I indeed stopped going to the forest.

"Hey, Myne. Going to the gate today?" said Lutz after seeing me leave my building with just my tote bag. I was bundled up in clothes to not catch a cold, but in contrast, the other kids were all wearing relatively light clothing. Bundling up made it harder to move freely and it was important to gather as much firewood as possible in this brief period of winter right before the snow came.

I walked to the gate along with the other kids. As of late I could more or less keep up with them, ending up only a little behind. Though almost every time I decided to try and catch up, Lutz would stop me.

"Alright, I'll be passing by the gate on my way back, so be sure to wait for me."

"Uh huh. Good luck with your gathering, Lutz." Everyone else was going to the forest, so we split at the gate. I didn't see my dad at the gate, but the guards recognized me by now. I saluted at one of them and they took me to the usual night watch's room.

"Mr. Otto, are you here? It's me, Myne." I opened the door and saw that the shelves along the walls were already filled with budget-related boards. Otto was surrounded by the boards, sorting through them.

"Heya, Myne. Good to see you here."

"It's been a while, Mr. Otto." I gave him a sharp salute and moved to the chair closest to the furnace. After basically climbing up the decently sized chair, I took out my slate and pen from my bag.

"So, let's talk about our winter plans. How often do you think you'll be able to drop by?"

"Umm, I talked to my dad about it, and he decided that I can come when I'm feeling good, it's not snowing, and he's on morning or noon shift."

First of all, it wasn't common for me to feel good during the winter. I was stronger than last year and could pray that I wouldn't be bedridden with colds as much, but it was impossible to predict.

Second of all, there was the weather. There were constant blizzards during the winter. Dad said that it didn't have to be completely sunny and I could go when there was just light snow, but I knew he would go back on that the second he saw a snowflake. He was just too overprotective.

And finally, Dad worked the night shift on a third of his working days during the winter.

"I think I'll be able to count on both hands the total number of times I can visit the gate during the winter."