Black Badger

So, five days after the three of us got enthusiastically beaten up by the senior knights of the Western Order—

Rei suddenly brought up something strange.

“My birthday is coming up soon, so I guess I should show my face at home at least once.”

I stared at him.

Kyle, who had been rubbing his wounds with a cold stone he’d picked up from the stream, also turned his head.

“Birthday?”

Kyle asked.

“You celebrate your birthday?”

“Of course—” 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Rei began answering, then suddenly stopped mid-sentence with the look of someone who had just realized something.

The wind swept across the grass of the open field.

There’s a fawn hiding between the blades.

While that thought drifted through my mind, Rei’s yellow eyes narrowed.

The first friend I had made since leaving the village spoke.

“You’re about to bring up my status again, aren’t you?”

“No. I said it because our tribe doesn’t celebrate things like that.”

Kyle quickly explained.

A few days earlier, Rei had gotten completely drunk—not on plum wine, but on ordinary alcohol—and we had barely managed to stop him from committing the crime of insulting nobility while hurling every curse imaginable.

I didn’t know whether insulting a noble still counted as insulting nobility if the one doing the insulting was also a noble.

Anyway, none of us could forget the sheer level of self-directed aristocratic hatred Rei had displayed that night, and ever since then Kyle had noticeably restrained his usual grumbling about nobles.

Compared to when they first met, it was practically a miracle.

The black-haired knight tossed the stone into the stream.

“In our tribe, children born in the same season of the same year are grouped together and celebrated all at once. We don’t have individual dates. In the first place, we didn’t even use a calendar.”

“What season were you born in?”

Curious, I asked.

Kyle answered casually.

“Spring.”

“Wow. That really doesn’t suit you.”

“What?”

Kyle raised an eyebrow at Rei’s immediate retort.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Then that handler of yours, Kairos—did he celebrate his birthday the same way?”

To prevent the two of them from starting another squabble, I threw out a random question.

Kyle nodded.

“He’s summer. Same year as me.”

“How do you even tell the seasons apart?”

Rei asked.

I had been wondering the same thing. Do they notice from the changes in trees? From the smell in the air?

I had my own way of judging the seasons too, but...

How did Kyle’s tribe do it?

“When the season changes, the wind changes.”

Kyle said it as if that explained everything.

I had no idea what he meant.

But I didn’t ask. By now I knew Kyle could read changes in weather from the air, clouds, and other signs with uncanny accuracy.

I used to think I was pretty good at reading the weather from herding sheep, but Kyle was far better than me.

Maybe the direction of the wind changes when the seasons change...

I nodded vaguely, and Rei suddenly turned toward me.

“What about you?”

“Me?”

“Yeah. Hilde, you’re from the Empire too, right?”

That was true.

Though it was from the farthest edge of the Empire imaginable.

“When’s your birthday?”

I looked at my two friends.

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“At the temple where I grew up, we didn’t celebrate individual birthdays. And since I was found as a newborn, there’s no way to know my real birthday.”

Rei looked at me with a complicated expression.

There was really no need for that kind of troubled face.

I had been very loved at the temple.

I was about to say that when Kyle asked,

“But you still counted your age. There had to be some kind of 기준.”

“Oh, we did use the Imperial calendar. And there was a large sacred tree in the center of the temple. On the day that tree had been planted, everyone celebrated together and considered ourselves one year older.”

That sacred tree—the one I personally cut down with my sword—had been planted in the spring, when flowers bloomed.

Whenever that time approached, the temple grew busy. People cleaned everywhere and prepared a banquet. Flowers were picked and dried. Fruit wine that had been aging all winter was brought out. Sheep were slaughtered, hung on hooks, and drained of blood.

We also made huge amounts of bread and dumplings.

We took out the clothes worn only during the banquet, and the day before the ceremony everyone bathed and purified themselves.

Because we could eat so much delicious food, I always looked forward to that day.

I also liked being able to freely approach the sacred tree and wrap my arms around its trunk...

“The High Priest celebrated his birthday though.”

Rei’s bewildered voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“And the saints at the Grand Temple undergo the formal priesthood ceremony when they turn sixteen. I once attended someone’s ordination ceremony.”

“That’s the Grand Temple.”

There was no way the temple in the imperial capital and the temple at the far edge of the Empire had the same circumstances.

For starters, their finances would be completely different.

“So I don’t know my birthday. I only learned that birthdays were something people celebrated when I was fifteen.”

“How did you find out at fifteen?”

Kyle asked.

I smiled faintly.

“I saw the birthday celebration of the local lord’s son.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right.”

“So you’ve never /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ celebrated your birthday even once?”

Rei shouted in shock.

Was that really so surprising?

Most commoners probably didn’t celebrate their birthdays either. At least I assumed so.

“We celebrated together.”

“That was the tree’s birthday, not yours!”

“That was enough for me.”

Not once had I felt disappointed about it.

Seeing Rei getting so agitated as if I’d suffered some terrible injustice made me flustered, so I pointed at Kyle.

Ignoring Kyle raising an eyebrow, I argued,

“He said they celebrated everyone born in the same season together too.”

“I was still treated as the main character.”

Kyle shamelessly drew a line.

“I even got presents. Don’t tell me you’ve never gotten a birthday present.”

“You get presents on top of the birthday feast?”

I asked sincerely.

But judging by the simultaneous horrified expressions on Rei and Kyle’s faces, that apparently wasn’t a normal thing to say either.

That felt a little unfair.

“You’ve gotten gifts, right?”

Rei had started asking questions like this now.

“A gift just for you. Not something handed out to everyone. Something meant specifically for you! Something someone chose thinking about you!”

“Calm down.”

Sometimes I could understand why Kyle couldn’t help calling Rei a noble brat.

Thinking that something like this would provoke two days of rage from Rei, I calmed my friends down.

Then I said calmly,

“I did once. When I was eleven. A sword.”

“A sword?”

Kyle snorted.

“So your first gift was a sword too? Same for me.”

“Ah, same here.”

This time Rei wasn’t shocked.

Instead he nodded as if it were obvious.

“It was the first gift I received once I was old enough to understand what a birthday present was. In my case I was eight.”

“Same.”

“Eight?”

This time I was the one shocked.

“You got a sword that young? Isn’t that dangerous?”

Rei and Kyle both looked at me as if I’d said something ridiculous.

After thinking about it again, I concluded their reaction wasn’t unreasonable. After all, noble families famous for producing knights supposedly began sword training at seven.

Eight might be old enough.

Even I had followed my teacher around at ten, begging him to let me hold a sword.

He had refused for an entire year.

“Anyway, your birthday is coming soon, right?”

I looked at Rei, who was bent over staring at a frog near his feet.

“It might not satisfy you, but I’ll give you a present. What do you want?”

“Brew me alcohol.”

Rei answered without hesitation.

“Fruit wine or mushroom wine.”

“That’s it? I can make that anytime. It’ll take a little time though.”

“Make it with way more care than usual.”

My friend said seriously.

“Put the size of our friendship into it. And don’t share it with anyone else. It’s only for me. Not a single drop for anyone else.”

That wasn’t difficult...

Kyle, who had been listening to our conversation with a doubtful expression, spoke.

“I want—”

“Make me a bow.”

Rei requested immediately, as if he had already decided.

“Carve patterns into it too. Like the one you made last time.”

I was relieved that Kyle didn’t make one of his usual sarcastic remarks about noble taste.

Instead, the black-haired knight simply nodded silently.

Well, he was the son of a count. Even if we pooled our money and bought something, it probably wouldn’t satisfy Rei anyway.

I should start thinking about what kind of wine to brew.

As I scanned the trees near the stream, Rei suddenly turned his head toward me.

I blinked at the golden gaze that flew toward me.

“What?”

“...Now both of you have Imperial birthdays, right?”

His tone was far more cautious than before.

I understood. It was a topic that could easily irritate Kyle.

On the day we became official Imperial Knights, we were given new birthdays.

Unlike me, Kyle’s tribe apparently had their own way of celebrating birthdays, yet the Empire ignored that entirely and gifted us new “Imperial calendar birthdays.”

In truth, they simply assigned them arbitrarily.

Since you couldn’t grant someone a knighthood without an Imperial birthday on record.

For my part, I had just thought, so that’s a thing, and forgotten about it. But Kyle probably hadn’t felt so comfortable about it.

To make matters worse, the birthdays hadn’t even been assigned with much care, so Kyle’s and mine ended up strangely close together.

Kyle became a knight before I did, so his birthday came earlier than mine.

Only by a few days, though.

Perhaps realizing we were watching his reaction, Kyle snorted.

“I told you, we didn’t celebrate them individually anyway.”

“Tell me when the wind changes and it becomes spring.”

I said, looking at Kyle.

“I’ll prepare your gift on the day you say it’s spring.”

“And you?”

Kyle asked back.

I blinked.

“Me what?”

“You celebrate yours on your Imperial birthday?”

Kyle asked casually, arms folded.

“You said you don’t even know your real birthday.”

Hmm?

“You’re planning to celebrate mine?”

“Wow.”

Rei let out something like an impressed sound.

“So you’ll celebrate our birthdays, but we’re not allowed to celebrate yours?”

“No....”

That wasn’t what I meant.

The very concept of having my birthday celebrated felt unfamiliar.

I had never even held a birthday feast, let alone received gifts, so the idea of a day that existed only for me felt strange.

But hearing Rei say it like that did make it seem a little odd.

Embarrassed, I rubbed the back of my neck.

“Well... if you want to celebrate it, then do it that day. Honestly, I don’t really care what day it is.”

“Alright.”

Kyle said decisively, as if refusing any further discussion.

“Then we’ll use that day.”

And after that, I forgot about birthdays for quite a while.

When Rei’s birthday came around, I gave him a fairly satisfying batch of apple wine, and after that I forgot about birthdays again. Kyle’s real birthday was in spring anyway, so it had already passed. Aside from Kyle and Rei, there was no one whose birthday I would celebrate, and since I still wasn’t used to the concept of celebrating birthdays at all, I spent my time without paying attention to dates.

The important things were swords and the changing seasons.

Neither required looking at a calendar.

I only paid attention to the things that revealed themselves as days passed by. I watched my friends, watched my sword, watched the sky and the trees. It was a simple life.

So one morning, around the time when the dawn wind brushing my cheeks had begun to grow cooler—when my whole body could feel that the season was starting to change—I woke up and was startled by the objects placed beside my pillow.

“What’s this?”

There were two bundles.

One tied with a black cord, the other with a white one.

“Hey, Kyle.”

“What.”

“Are these yours?”

Kyle, lying on the worn-out bed, didn’t turn around.

He only waved his right hand dismissively while showing me the back of his head.

Guess he wanted to sleep more.

Breathing in the fading scent of summer in the air, I blinked.

Not many people came into our barracks.

Had Kysis come by and left something?

Or maybe Rei stopped by briefly last night and forgot it.

If someone with bad intentions had entered, I would’ve woken up halfway through the night.

“Did someone come by last night?”

“Just open it and see.”

The rough answer came back.

I looked back and forth between Kyle’s back and the two bundles by my bed, then realized he had a point.

“I’m opening it?”

“Yeah.”

He didn’t even try to pull off the blanket.

“Just see what’s inside.”

Seeing how relaxed he was, it probably wasn’t anything dangerous.

Still, preparing for the worst just in case, I carefully untied the black cord.

With both feet planted on the floor, I leaned closer to peer inside the bundle.

If it was something cursed or enchanted, that would make things complicated.

Hopefully it’s not something like that—

“Huh?”

What is this?

“Is this Black Starstone?”

And it was brand new.

A beautiful dark rock embedded here and there with sparkling silver fragments. I widened my eyes as I stared at the stone any swordsman would covet.

Did the seniors leave it here?

Or did Rei buy it nearby and forget to take it with him?

“Hey, look at this.”

Pulling the stone from the bundle—a stone in a condition we would never see in the Western unit—I spoke excitedly.

“It’s incredibly beautiful Black Starstone. Did Rei leave it? Look at these shining bits inside. Something like this would only get issued in the southern units.”

“It’s not Rei’s. It’s yours.”

Kyle replied.

“It’s your birthday.”

My eyes widened.

So wide that I could feel my eyelids stretching open.

Holding the sparkling black stone in my hand, I stood there with my mouth hanging open, staring stupidly at the back of my friend’s head.

Birthday...

My Imperial birthday.

My birthday present?

“You bought this?”

I jumped to my feet.

“You actually paid money for it? This expensive thing? Just because it’s my birthday?”

“Hey.”

Kyle sat up.

He kicked aside the blanket irritably and turned to look at me. I flinched at the irritation in his voice.

The black-haired knight ran a hand through his hair and glared.

“Just accept it and be grateful.”

“But... still....”

“Shut up and take it!”

Kyle snapped sincerely.

“It’s also manners to accept someone’s sincerity properly!”

I stood in the barracks holding the black stone like an idiot.

The most beautiful Black Starstone I had ever seen before was about the size of the giant dumplings sold in the village. It was nothing like the small, dull pieces we were issued in the barracks that had no shine at all. This one was almost a perfect sphere.

It was really beautiful.

It looked like a crystal ball used by mages.

It felt like a waste to grind swords on it.

My first birthday present.

“How long are you going to stand there looking like an idiot?”

Kyle grumbled as he got up from the bed.

“Hurry up and open Rei’s gift.”

“Kyle.”

When I lifted my head from the stone, the black-haired knight flinched slightly.

But I didn’t have the presence of mind to ask what had startled him.

Instead, I greeted him in a happy voice.

“Thank you. Really.”

So this is why people exchange birthday gifts.

“This is incredibly beautiful.”

I should store it somewhere safe.

It was too precious to put into the old drawer.

So I placed the Black Starstone back into its bundle and spent the entire morning staring into it.

Until Rei came bursting into the barracks not long afterward, angrily telling me to open his present too.

Inside the bundle tied with the white cord was Rei’s gift.

He had given me sword maintenance oil.

A product I hadn’t even known existed.

It must have been incredibly expensive—the bottle holding the oil was dazzlingly beautiful as well.

I spent the entire day staring alternately at the Black Starstone and the bottle of oil.

Eventually the two of them became so fed up that they tried to drag me away from the gifts.

But just looking at them made me happy.

Thinking that I should prepare Kyle’s upcoming birthday properly, I kept examining the presents until I fell asleep.

It had been a very happy day.