Chapter  2 - I - Chersea’s calendar

 

Ah, so let’s get back to the weather.  May I remind you, the seasonal duration here in Chersea was just chaotic.

 

Yep, think of it this way; there’s a possibility that as you read this, it’s the Season of Sleep.  As you went through the texts, the season would change into the Season of Crystal Rain.  And the moment you end was the time when the Season of Fire—the current season—arrived.  

 

And no, I’m not speaking figuratively; it’s should be taken in a literal sense.

 

Not only the transitions of the seasons, but the order of its arrival was also a work of a madman—or a mad god.  The cycle was just messed up; the order I’ve read in the books wasn’t followed.  Well, after the Season of Sleep (the time of when I arrived here), the Season of Crystal Rain came, and now, it’s the Season of Fire.

 

The books’ order goes like this:  Festivals, Red Sky, Fire, Sleep, Crystal Rain, and White Rain.

 

I guess it was only listed that way for the matter of convenience.  Ah, no matter.  

 

I seriously think this world needed something like a calendar, more than my own Earth.  Like really, employees and employers would find it hard to do their duties and responsibilities without a proper way of counting and measuring the time they worked or was rendered work.  Add the fact that the ‘sun’, or whatever it was, up there was constantly shining and never setting, and you’d have utter chaos with things.

 

Okay, don’t get me wrong.  I knew Cherseans had adapted to this system.  They could show the time passing by how many seasons they passed.  Or could tell what time it was simply by following their body urges.  However, I guess they still should have a standard calendar.  

 

Why?

 

You see, one of the circumstances why I wanted to push for it was in the payment of wages.  Of course, the people of Chersea pay and get paid according to the work done.  The release of salaries comes right after the change of seasons.  

 

Now, if you think it’s all fine since they survived this long, think again.

 

What if the season was short?  Of course, the wage would be much smaller, because you get paid according to the number of jobs done in one season.  Now, what if the next season was ridiculously long?  How would one survive ‘till the next payment?

 

Cherseans had made countermeasures for this.  That’s why many of the people here had several jobs under their name, causing a shortage of work available to others (just like me), and a reduced quality of the job done.  It’s not uncommon for one to be employed as a city militia and simultaneously serve as a lord’s knight here.

 

Only the higher-ranked nobles, like the girls here at the Holy Palatial Gardens, can never worry about what to eat for the next day.

 

The gap between the rich and the poor was just disparagingly high.  If you believed Earth’s employees have it worse, here in Chersea, you’d be thankful you even have a job on Earth.

 

And, with the chaotic pattern of seasons, Maddie would often have to deal with the Seasonal Mass and Holy Congress, even if she just conducted those events not too long ago.  It’s not rocket science why she’d be exhausted and depressed once again if that happened.

 

Ah, I should talk about this to Maddie.

 

 

Now that I remembered about it, Earth’s current calendar, the ‘Gregorian’, was created and promulgated by many European kingdoms after the Catholic Pope Gregory supported its implementation.  

 

Soon, with the ‘westernization’ of all countries in the world, they adopted it, leading to the current time-reckoning system back in my home.  The Julian calendar, after realizing some contradictions in keeping up with religious festivals and observances, was obsolete and was replaced—save for a few modern-day countries in Eastern Europe, like Russia.

 

For Chersea, I felt it would work well.  Madelaine was pretty supportive with fresh ideas, and there’s nothing here that could show one ‘full day’, save for getting a ‘long sleep’.  And that system, no matter how ancient it was, was erroneous since anyone could go to a ‘long sleep’ anytime.

 

“A calendar?” Maddie’s tone was unsure when I finished explaining to her about it and its potential benefits, “Hmm…I guess it could work out.  After all, I also don’t want to conduct seasonal masses repeatedly for such brief intervals.”

 

“And, the Holy Congress.” Lily injected her opinion, “You just had met with those kings recently.”

 

“That one as well.” Maddie couldn’t help but shiver, “Thinking about that time makes me want to puke.  They aren’t easy to deal with.”

 

“So, Kuro, how do you make this work?” Lily looked at me with her sparkling eyes.  She’s really expecting a lot from me, eh?

 

“Well, first, we need to define the measurements of time.” I asked for a paper and pen and began writing, “In my world, the basic unit of time is called a ‘second’.  Its duration is just when you blink your eyes.”

 

Maddie and Lily blinked their eyes.

 

“Yep.  That’s one second already.  60 seconds would make up one minute.  Ah, wait—you guys don’t have to blink 60 times; it’s just for reference.”

 

The girls laughed and went back to listening.

 

“So, as I was saying, 60 seconds is one minute.  60 minutes is one hour.  And 24 hours would be called a ‘day’.”

 

“Whoa!” Maddie stopped me, “From 60, you went down to 24?  How’s that possible?”

 

“Well, my world is actually an enormous sphere rotating on its own axis.” I grabbed a nearby round object to show the concept.  I put a little mark on the surface and asked them to focus on that, “You see, our scientists determined that Earth—my world—takes approximately 24 hours to complete one rotation.  We call that a ‘day’.”

 

Maddie was getting lost in my explanation, so Lily is the one who asked the follow-up, “Kuro…uh, you said something that determined that ‘rotation’ thing.  What’s that ‘sayan…’ err…thing?”

 

“It’s ‘scientists’.” I reiterated, “Those are the smart people from my world that has dedicated their lives to studying the natural phenomenon of our environment.  You could say that they are like what you call ‘scholars’ here, only several levels higher.”

 

“Hoh…so your world has magic as well?”

 

“Nope.  More like, my place relies on science—a subject that bases most of its conclusions and theories on factual and real evidence.  We have nothing like magic there, and our scientists could become one by simply studying!”

 

“WOW!  So, your world has a lot of intelligent people!”

 

“Haha…” I could only laugh.  I couldn’t tell them that while we have the smarts, we also have the idiots:  people who stubbornly refuse to learn just because their gut feeling tells them so.

 

“Ahem!” Maddie cleared her throat; she wanted to enter the talk, “I think we’re getting off-topic?  I thought this is all about the calendar thing.”

 

“Well then, shall we continue?” I took another round object, only bigger than my first one, “Now our time-reckoning doesn’t end there.  We have this thing called ‘year’.  It’s basically our sign that our Earth had completed one revolution around the sun.  365 and ½ days would make up one year.  The year is further subdivided into 12 months, a month is divided into four weeks, and a week is formed with seven days.”

 

“…”

 

Maddie and Lily were having a hard time absorbing all the information I just dumped on them.  The Saint was massaging her head, and Lily was holding a handkerchief to her nose…I think she’s having a nosebleed.  

 

Well, I uh…I apologize.  I could get carried away with explanations whenever I’m teaching.

 

 

I let them take a break for a while and also used the lull to have me return to my ‘calm mode’.  Once rested, Maddie continued our conversation, “Alright, Kuro, I think this calendar thing is useful, but how do you propose we measure our world’s day?”

 

“Hmm…for that, my world got a device called a ‘clock’.”

 

“H-Hold up!  I know you’re excited to explain everything and all, but can you keep it to a minimum for now?”

 

“Okay.” I took the pen and paper I used earlier, “Well, I know Chersea is kind of lagging in mechanical technologies, compared to my Earth.  But we could always adopt some basic innovations from my world’s ancient civilizations here.”

 

“Which is?”

 

“Hmm…a sundial is one.” I drew a sample of the said device, “But, I don’t think it is useful in Chersea.  While that sun in your sky—or whatever it is—is constantly shining, it’s also stuck in the same position.  A sundial relies on the various positions of the shadow cast from this thing here to show the passing hours.”

 

“Oh…”

 

“I also thought of using a candle clock.  You guys are also producing candles, so we’ll just put some marks on it and it could show time.  However, it may not work out in the end.”

 

“Why?”

 

“Well, for starters, a candle clock needs to be constantly lighted.  One slip up, and we could mess the flow of time.  Another is that you can’t possibly use a candle clock outside during rainy, or windy weather.  And also, the materials used in making a candle could affect its burn-out duration.”

 

“True enough.” Maddie nodded, “So, let’s get back again with the topic, what do you propose we do about the time reckoning?”

 

“I got one simple device left.” I drew that familiar sand-and-glass device, “This thing over here is called an hourglass, also known as the sand clock in my world.  Its principle is simple; you just put a measure of sand inside this peculiarly shaped glass.  Now note that narrow part at the middle, it’s where the sand trickles down on the bottom end.  Once the sand on the upper bulb is empty, you just turn it around and the entire process repeats.  One turn is one hour elapsed.”

 

“Hmm…you think it could work?”

 

“I guess?  For one, the sand is inside the glass, so unless it’s cracked, not even the water could get inside and interfere with the time-reckoning.  Second, you could always make variations of it.  A small hourglass for daily travels, a bigger one for city time-keeping, or an official hourglass to be installed here as a time reference to every country out there.”

 

“Hoh…I like this hourglass thing!” Lily commented.

 

“And what makes your time-reckoning easier than Earth’s is that your world has no natural phenomenon in which we could base our measurement of a ‘day’.  We could simply invent and be done with it.” I took the balls once again, “For reference, my world has a concept of ‘night’ and ‘day’.  The night is the time in which our part of the world turns away from the sun’s light as it rotates.  Our entire sky darkens, and it is our time to take our ‘long sleeps’.”

 

Maddie’s eyes—though I could tell she’s having headaches from all the knowledge—were glowing with interest, “Kuro, I really like to hear more about your world, but let’s focus on this ‘calendar’ for a while.”

 

“Right.”

 

“Okay, so now we got this hourglass thing to measure a day, how about this ‘year’ you talk about?”

 

“Maybe we should do it like this:  seven days completed would be called a week.  Then, four weeks—that’s 28 days—would make up a month.  12 months would make a year.  It’s regardless of the changing seasons, mind you.  So, how’s that sound?”

 

“And who operates the hourglass?” Lily asked, “You said that it has to be constantly turned every hour to ensure that the time-reckoning isn’t messed up.”

 

“We could assign someone to do it.  Have two or three people monitor the time and list down the years, months, weeks, days, and hours.  And since we’re the first to do it, we’ll be the reference point for all countries to follow and emulate.”

 

“I see…that could work.” Maddie then used her magic to bring out a pen and paper.  She also began writing magically with it (without physically touching the pen), “Well, I think it’s time for Chersea to have a standardized keeping of dates.  Lily, please make sure the glass workshop at Arles meets the details I specified in this letter.”

 

“Sure!” Upon taking her leave, an excited Lily headed out to the glass-maker in the nearby town of Arles.