Ascendance of a Bookworm Part 1 Volume 3

Report to Lutz

Everything was awkward the day after the family meeting. Dad's smile had a tinge of sadness to it, Mom hugged me out of nowhere multiple times, and Tuuli would randomly start crying. But as the days passed we slowly returned to the lifestyle we had before the meeting.

"You don't have to do that, Myne. I'll do it."

"Bwuh? But I can do it just fine. Weren't you the one who said I had to learn how to do this, Tuuli?"

Things were definitely the same as they used to be, except that Tuuli had become even more overprotective of me at the expense of encouraging my independence.

"Wow, it's so bright! We need to get some parues!"

I was awakened by Tuuli's voice. The sky was still murky and dark, but there weren't any clouds. The dim light sneaking its way into our roomed hinted at the good weather and Tuuli threw the window open, allowing a burst of cold outside air to flood in.

"Tuuli, it's cold."

"Ah, whoopsies." She closed the window and hurriedly got to work eating breakfast. I also went and nommed away at my food while everyone else rushed through theirs.

Mom and Dad finished quickly and began preparing the hearth and firewood. As Dad lined up wood next to the door, he turned to look at me chewing my bread. "What're you gonna do, Myne? Want to wait at the gate?"

"Mmm, maybe I should go gather parues too?"

According to what Tuuli had told me, parue trees were weird fantasy plants but in a good, not-terrifying way. Her explanation of a spinny, shining tree or whatever didn't exactly give me a clear mental image of it, so I wanted to see one for myself. But my innocent suggestion was met with angry glares from my whole family.

"No! You're either staying at home or helping at the gate."

"Gathering parues is very difficult, too much for you to handle. You'll definitely get sick."

"Yeah! You're not good at climbing trees and you can't walk through the snow, so you won't be able to do anything."

Everyone shot down the idea of me coming along to help them. They were right that I couldn't even walk to the gate through all the snow and would basically be dead weight in a snowy forest.

"Okay. Parue-gathering ends at noon, right? I'll help at the gate until then."

I grabbed my tote bag and started packing for the gate. I thought that since Dad had today off that Otto might not be at work either, but it seemed that around this time of year Otto went to the gate basically every day.

We left once both I and the parue-gathering tools were on our slightly large sled. Dad pulled the sled in the direction of the southern gate where a crowd of other city goers were also heading, doubtlessly to gather parues as well. The air was so cold it felt like needles on my skin, but everyone was so excited to gather parues that I got excited too. It was like a festival.

"Sorry, but take care of Myne for me. She's helping Otto out until noon."

"Yes sir!"

Dad set me down gently by the gate. I waved goodbye to everyone and greeted the guard, who I now knew on sight, before heading to the night watch room like always with him.

"Good morning, Mr. Otto."

"Huh? Myne? I thought the captain had today off." Otto blinked in surprise and I nodded with a small smile.

"It's sunny today, so everyone's going to gather parues. I can help while waiting for them to get back."

"Ah, I get it. Guess we've got until noon then." Otto grinned, figuring out the situation right away, and started piling up paperwork that needed its math checked. Once he scooted aside to give me some space, I thanked him for giving me advice earlier.