My 9th birthday came and passed, it was treated no different than any other day by my parents. In this world, most people only celebrate one's 5th, 13th, and 15th birthday, this is because, on our 5th birthday, we get baptized and find out if we have any special skills. On our 13th birthday, we either go to one of the few schools in the capital or get registered with one of the guilds, whether it be the adventurers, merchants, alchemists, fishermen, farmers, or transportation guild. I've heard that the transportation guild deals with passenger carriages that run to different places around the kingdom and beyond on regular schedules.

Outside of our 5th birthday, and this is especially true for commoners, the most important birthday is our 15th birthday. It is on our 15th birthday that the kingdom recognizes us as full-fledged adults, even though they have us work like adults at the age of 13. I think the whole allowing us to register with any guild as a full-fledged members at 13 is to match up with nobles sending their children to school, but I could be wrong. Because of my Earthly knowledge, the lack of birthday celebrations seems strange to me, though.

The games and toys I made before seemed boring to me already, probably because there were too few choices. I also considered that I got bored of them too fast because of the knowledge I have, or because of my physical and magical abilities overshadowing the enjoyment. I chose to ignore any possibility aside from the possibility of having too few choices and decided to make new games/toys. First, I made a frisbee out of Rebound wood, then a boomerang in a similar fashion, and last, a deck of cards.

The deck of cards became a viable option because Jay started selling colored ink, which one of his workshops must have figured out. Cutting the cards, drawing out each card of the four suits (plus jokers), and coating both sides in the same solution I used on the boards outside of the Cat's Paw was all it took. The cards were my favorite creation so far because there were many games to play with them. From playing solitaire by myself to playing old maid, go fish, blackjack, and poker against others, even Kaede and the spirits started playing with me from time to time. When I sold the idea to Jay, I told him about other games as well, including memory, which I don't play because my Perfect Memory skill makes it too easy and boring.

With the new games and toys being simple to manufacture and, therefore, not too expensive, a lot of people ended up getting them and playing as well. The cards became popular among adults as well, seeing a few decks in use at the guild tavern was a bit funny to me since I made them. I was happy about the change because it gave me more things to do, considering I still had a lot of restrictions from being a kid.

In the late summer, as I kept up with my morning training every day, I was, once again, running around the town walls this morning. While I was nearing the completion of my first lap of the day, I spotted a monster in the shadow of some large rocks. Carefully moving closer to the unknown monster with my sharp single-edged dagger drawn, and magic ready to fire at a moment's notice, I got a clear view of it and used Detailed Appraisal.

As it turns out, it was a heavily injured Royal Bee queen on the brink of death, about the size of a puppy. Feeling bad for the defenseless monster and not wanting to let such a great opportunity pass me by, I sheathed my dagger and moved close enough to cast taming magic. Because the monster was so weak, it was unable to put up any resistance against my magic, but it also made the connection weak. Quickly using healing magic, I also pulled out and used an elixir on the queen bee as she was missing a large chunk from her abdomen.

Since her life was no longer in danger, I picked her up and carried her with me toward the gate. I didn't sense anything else in the area through presence detection or magic detection, but I thought it best to move away from the area quickly. The guards stopped me, recognizing the monster in my arms, but let me go through after I explained that I had tamed her while she was injured, near the wall, and warned them to watch out for whatever managed to injure her.

Instead of heading directly home, I ran to the adventurers guild. Once inside, I walked up to the counter to speak to one of the receptionists.

"Excuse me, is Revna in today?"

"Oh, if it isn't Cero, yes, she's here. Do you need her for something?" She asked me, not being able to see the monster in my arms because of the counter.

"Yes, it's a bit important, so can you tell me where I can find her?" Then, hearing that she was in her office, I headed straight there. After knocking, I was told to enter.

"Excuse me," I said as I opened the door, causing Revna to look up from her desk. Seeing what was in my arms, she nearly jumped up before calming down upon seeing that it wasn't moving.

"What are you doing bringing a C-rank monster into the guild like it is nothing?" Her voice oozed with displeasure.

"She's a B-rank queen actually, but that isn't important…"

"Not important?! I'd say that is quite important!" She loudly interjected

"I tamed her, so it is fine. More importantly, I found her on the brink of death near the wall, only about a 2-minute walk south of the west gate. For something to be able to injure her so badly, and for me not to find any soldier or worker bees near her, means that something or a group of something bad likely showed up in Honey Meadow." I said to her, not giving her another chance to cut me off.

Hearing what I said, her eyes went wide. "What kind of injuries did it have?"

"A large chunk of her abdomen looked like it had been gouged out. The wound was quite deep but not super wide, and her wings were a bit torn up. She also seemed to have been poisoned." I replied, picturing the wounds that I saw before using healing magic and the elixir.

"That only narrows down the potential suspects to small and medium-sized monsters and potentially a group of them." She thought aloud while groaning.

"Don't forget that they likely have poisonous claws too. The good news is that this girl was able to escape in her condition, meaning that even a C-rank scout should be able to get in and out of the area without issue, though you should ask a B-rank scout if there is one available. Oh, and I told the guards at the west gate to be careful, but someone should probably alert the rest of the guards, especially the south gate guards." I added to her unintentional muttering.

"Next time, please don't say such things like they're an afterthought." She told me as she quickly got up from her desk and ran out, giving orders to other employees as she went.

Figuring that I had done my part, I decided to leave without saying anything, though I did wave to Oliver when I saw him. I then proceeded to head home, and explain my new pet (?) to my mom, who had a wide smile and sparkling eyes when she realized that this meant we would have a nearly endless supply of royal honey in the future. Girls love sweet things, this is just a simple fact, it doesn't matter how old they are or what world you are in, sweets simply have that much power. Of course, children also love sweet things, which includes me, which may or may not be the main reason I tamed this Royal Bee.

I decided to name the queen bee Rose, because of the velvety red and purple colors that made up most of her fur. After 10 minutes or so, Rose woke up, and feeling the connection through taming, did not freak out. I took her out back and through our tamer connection, found out which area felt most comfortable for her. I then built a very large bee hive, it had to be that large because other than her puppy dog size, Royal bee soldiers are about half her size, while workers are about the size of a ping pong ball.

In the end, the hive I built was about 8 feet tall and 5 feet wide with multiple levels to the internal structure. I designed it in a way that both made it easy to access and made Rose happy about her new home. I also made and installed heating magic tools for when winter comes. I then led Rose around, and let her know what areas she should stick to, as well as what plants and areas she should avoid. I then asked her if she needed anything, and she was able to send me an image of a few trees.

The trees in the image looked like cherry, apricot, and plum trees, so I'm guessing those are the kinds of trees available in her previous home. I had only grown one kind of apple tree using the seeds of a delicious apple I had eaten before, so I decided to see if I could get seeds for those trees as well. I tried to leave rose behind in her new hive, to go to the store, but she clung to my head and refused to let go. Perhaps she knew I was planning to look for the fruits of the trees she wanted.

I got a lot of strange looks on my way to the market, but I smiled wryly and kept walking, I mean, I would look at someone the same way if I saw them walking around with a bee slightly larger than a softball attached to their head. After walking through the market, I was able to find cherries and apricots, but not any plums, so I decided to ask Jay about it.

Not wanting to explain everything when Jay asked about the bee on my head, I simply told him it was a long story and forcibly changed the subject. I described the plums to Jay since I didn't know what they are called here. When I was told their name and that they are used in a type of medicine, I remembered reading about them as an ingredient. I would have never thought that plums were the ingredient mentioned in that book, but regardless, I now knew where to get a plum pit or seed, if not the whole plum.

Arriving at the merchants

guild, I asked at reception about buying a few plums but was told that for small orders like that, I would have to go to an alchemy or materials store. Then following the receptionist's directions, I reached a small store that looked a bit run down. Inside, there was a man of unidentifiable age leaning heavily against the countertop that barely acknowledged my existence. Despite his demeanor, I was able to purchase a few plum pits that had yet to be dried out, then quickly left the store.

When I got back home, I immediately went out back and picked good locations to plant the fruit trees. After planting them, I grabbed my slime and had it produce fertilizer that I then mixed into the soil around the seeds before watering them with well water. Lastly, I used plant magic to expedite the growth process. I needed them for Rose after all, and making Rose happy meant getting more honey sooner.

I ended up using multiple rounds of plant magic to get at least one of each tree close to the flowering stage, using a mana potion and adding more fertilizer between each round of magic. Unfortunately, using so much growth magic in such a short period ended up turning the three most-grown trees into Treants. After then, having to quickly tame the Treants, I found that they still resembled the trees they were born (?) from and that they had flower buds, so I just had them remain in place.

I gave Rose some fruits and got her comfortable in her hive before going inside to rest. I, hopefully, conveyed to her that she should work on birthing a new family now that she was in a safe place. Sadly, I knew it would take a while before I would be able to collect honey. Drinking multiple mana potions in a short span of time makes you feel a bit sluggish, so I had to lie down a bit to recover.

I then had to add a few new things to my daily routine, providing fruits to Rose and fertilizing and watering the fruit trees and Treants when needed. Occasionally, I would use plant magic on the trees, being careful not to create any more Treants. Fortunately, it only took a few days before Rose laid eggs, and another three days for them to hatch, followed by a few more days of eating royal jelly before they were old enough to fly.

It only took about a month for the hive to be completely operational. Thankfully, all of the soldier bees and worker bees born were completely subservient to Rose, and since Rose was tamed by me, they didn't attack anyone. I also found out what happened to Honey Meadow, it seems that almost all the bees were destroyed along with their hives by a wandering monster. The adventurer's guild already sent a few parties to have it subjugated, so now it was just an issue of whether enough bees survived to repopulate the meadow.

A few weeks later, I got my first batch of honey, the amount was far greater than I had thought it would be. I ended up giving some away as gifts to people I knew and sold a good amount to Maya at a fair discount. I tried to give her the honey for free, but she refused because she said she was going to be using it for business rather than personally. She did accept some for personal use as a gift, although I still had quite a lot left, so I tried making mead.

Since I'm too young to drink, I didn't bother using magic to speed up the fermentation process, choosing to have it ferment naturally. It took a little longer than a month before it was ready, and I did taste a small sip to be sure it didn't taste horrible. I wasn't sure if it could be considered good or not, but at the very least, it didn't make me think I was drinking poison or anything. The mead was well received, though my mom said my dad wasn't allowed to drink more than one cup, probably because she liked it and didn't want him to drink all of it.

While I was waiting for the mead to ferment, I was able to collect the second batch of honey as well as some royal jelly. I was collecting so much that I had to make a kiln, get some clay and feldspar, then make glazed earthenware pots and lids to hold the honey, shoving it in my item box. I also had Rose produce another queen, tamed it, and had some adventurers take me to Honey Meadow, where I had the young queen find a spot for herself before I helped her work on making a nest. Once her nest was completed, I left a bunch of fruits for her, set up a barrier, and canceled the taming magic before leaving.

In the fall, after the third batch of honey and second batch of royal jelly, I went to the merchants guild and sold some to Livia. I also mixed royal jelly and beeswax to use as a cream or lip balm and gave them to the women I knew as a gift. They were very happy when I explained the effects of the mixture, and they asked a few questions about it before trying it out immediately after. After I explained how much the little jar of the mixture I gave them would cost if sold in-store, they promised to use it sparingly, but not one tried to return the gift.

Back when I went to the usual material store to get some things I needed to make the kiln and pots, I found they had cotton-like material there. After things had settled down with the mead and other bee-related products, I found some time to work with the cotton. First, I upgraded the bathrobes, towels, and slippers I had previously made and also made a fluffier pillow than I currently had. I then made a somewhat dense ball, sewing a tough fabric around it, and tossed it to Kaede who played with it for a little while before wandering off somewhere else.

My next goal was to be able to make a modern pocket spring mattress and innerspring cushions for the chairs and couch, and perhaps a portable pocket spring cushion for future carriage rides. I had been intentionally not doing this, but I needed the space, so I built a shed-like workshop in the backyard and expanded the space inside it using space-time magic. After I purchased all the materials I thought I would need, I made a spinning mule, loom, and felting machine magic tool.

Casting a sound barrier around my workshop, I started producing the thread, fabric, and everything else I felt I would need. I made these magic tools to basically operate without external aid, so I was able to work on other parts at the same time. I then made a sewing machine magic tool, and a spinning metal cylinder magic tool to help make the springs. Using earth and fire magic, I start turning an ingot of steel into coils with the help of the magic tool I made.

By the time I finished making a bunch of coils, the spinning mule had made quite a few spindles of thread. Shifting the finished thread over to the loom, I added more spindles and cotton to the spinning mule and started both magic tools. I also added more wool to the felting machine magic tool since I would need a lot of that as well. I then went back to producing more coils, as I did not have anywhere near enough yet. Even with the help of magic and magic tools, I wasn't able to finish making the materials I needed to produce a mattress in one day by myself.

It ended up taking about a week to finish my mattress and a few cushions, the innerspring cushions were good for the dinner table chairs, but I ended up using pocket springs for the rest, including a chaise lounge. I later made another mattress, that one for my parents, but it didn't take as long the second time around. I didn't want to keep making them though, so I sold the felting machine magic tool design to Tristan, and a foot-pedal powered sewing machine design to the Merchants guild, having me get a fixed amount every time a company made one using my design.

I then sold the mattress and cushion designs to Jay so I wouldn't have to make them for everyone who finds out about them. I did, however, have to make one each for Miya and Maya because my mom told Maya about it, and Miya discovered it when she was visiting. I also tried making yarn and crocheting a small blanket for Rose, my mom also got interested in yarn and crocheting, so I made her a set of crochet hooks and a few skeins of yarn in different colors.

Yarn and crocheting seemed like it might become popular, particularly among the poor people, so I sold a complete set to Jay, explaining how the yarn is made. I figured anyone who made thread would quickly understand how to make yarn, so I didn't bother going into too much detail. The crochet hooks could be made from metal or wood, so there would also be different price options. Of course, I had to provide a booklet that explained how to crochet using pictures. When that got popular, I sold him knitting needles and a booklet that showed how to knit and showed how to make a few simple patterns.

Crocheted and knitted scarves were popular this winter, I even saw a few people wearing sweaters made the same way. Part of me hoped that a trend similar to the 'ugly Christmas sweater' would catch on, while the other part of me hoped it would never happen, even by mistake. The nice thing is that since this world has the DEX stat, people here are quick to learn and produce items of high quality. It also prevents major quality issues between knitted or crocheted goods.

All in all, the winter was quite interesting, and near the end of it, a messenger came to inform me that Jay was asking for me to come by for a meeting. This was the first time Jay had ever asked for a meeting with me, so I didn't know what to expect regarding the meeting. I had the messenger express my agreement to the meeting, which was set for two days later, and went back inside wondering what he could possibly be so important that he sent a messenger.

ShadowWolfGuild

A special thanks to Yeuromain for the support