Chapter 3: Coldfall

Arthur jogged back to the shop, pausing at the door to appreciate his beautiful sign.

In the demon world, signs were usually just simple logos, carved or painted as a one-off for individual stores. A produce market might have a wood representation of a single piece of fruit, while the location of a cutlery store would be indicated by a knife.

Above Arthur’s door was a large piece of dark hardwood with a poorly carved cup of boba on it. The carving was much too small for the plank it sat on, and hardly recognizable as a beverage. The boba pearls themselves had come out decent, but that was about it. If he had done it himself, he’d replace it in a second. But this was Lily’s work. She had spent hours on it and surprised him with it as a gift.

I will never, ever replace this sign.

Turning the handle, Arthur pushed into the shop. His early afternoon crew were already there, waiting for their drinks.

“There he is! Told you he’d be back soon,” Lily said, lining up drinks and ingredients on the counter. Unfortunately, she couldn’t fully make the drinks. Arthur’s brewmaster skill and his majicka required him to do the final assembly to make the teas special, but the prep work always helped.

“No need to hurry back on our account, Arthur,” an eagle-demon said. “We can always wait.”

A month ago, Arthur might have argued with that. Now, he knew better. This was a magic world where very few people had combat classes. Crafting classes were everywhere, pumping out goods, repairing buildings, and producing raw materials at miracle speeds only possible with system assistance. That meant goods were cheap and plentiful, but it also meant that most demons didn’t need or want to work particularly long hours. There were exceptions, of course, but for most people, “regular office hours” weren’t really a thing they paid any mind to.

Arthur hopped behind the counter and got to work. His new skill kicked in, indicating that a few of the regulars just wanted their regular, usual drinks. Lily had prepped so well that those were ready to go with just a few more motions. The next several were more ambiguous, but eventually settled on their regular drinks, too.

That left a group of four demons, the eagle included among them, who didn’t seem to know what they wanted. Arthur decided to take a chance and asked a weird question.

“I’m experimenting with some different stuff today. Do you four have any interest in that? The drinks would be free, but I couldn’t guarantee they’d be very good.”

All four said yes, and with Mizu and Lily, Arthur had a group of six willing testers. He went back behind the counter, pulling out a small box he had brought in just for this purpose. Removing a new kind of leaf from it, he crushed it under a pestle until it was wet with its own juices, then listened to the guiding call of Food Scientist as he carefully added portions of the herb to both a small batch of tea and a small jug of milk.

Ladling out half-servings of boba pearls into some sample-size glasses Rhodia had been kind enough to make for him, he put the whole experiment on a tray, ingredients and all, and placed it in front of the six at a table.

“On Earth, I think we would have called this kind of plant as a mint. There’s a chemical in it called menthol. I’ve noticed you all don’t eat it much, but on Earth we put it in everything.”

Lily smelled the pestle before quickly pulling back. “Arthur, that’s so strong.”

“Don’t worry. I only used a little bit in this. Add milk to the tea if you like, and then go ahead and drink.”

The group first tried the mint-infused tea and then mint-infused milk. Shockingly, it was Mizu who talked first.

“It’s interesting. Is it supposed to make my mouth cold?”

“It is. Does it taste good?”

Mizu took another cautious sip. “I like this tea. And I can still taste it. But it’s… hmm.”

“I agree. It’s very ‘hmm.’ The flavor, that is,” the eagle said. “I can’t quite describe it.”

“That’s because it’s not quite a flavor?” Lily took another sip. “It’s more like an effect.”

The others around the table nodded. The wolf woman turned to her hedgehog friend, taking another sip of the drink and smiling.

“It’s cooling. I could see this being very refreshing on a hot day.”

“Oh, with ice, yes. It would be very nice when I’m on a break from the foundry.”

“Of course. This would be nice for you almost immediately.”

“But not for you?” Arthur thought he caught a bit of polite reluctance in that last statement. “Immediately, I mean.”

“No, I don’t think so. It would be very good for a hot day, but I think we’ve seen the last of those for the season. If anything, I’ll be trying to keep warmer soon.”

Since Arthur had come to this world, he had become intimately familiar with a certain creeping sensation on the back of his neck, a subtle crawling of the skin that usually indicated he had missed yet another huge baseline piece of local knowledge. Lately, those sensations had been harder to come by, but that was made up for by the sheer intensity of this particular iteration of the sensation. Somewhere, someone had forgotten to tell him something important.

“There’s...” Arthur tried to figure out how to ask a question in a less embarrassing way, then gave up on it. “There are seasons here?”

Everyone at the table froze. Mizu was caught mid-sip, visibly trying not to choke.

“Of course there are seasons! You didn’t have seasons on your world?” Lily yelled.

“Shh, Lily, it’s…”

“Don’t shh me. You can’t tell me seasons are another thing Arthur only knows from myth.”

“No, we had them, it’s just… It’s been basically the same weather here. Since I got here. The whole time. It’s rained a couple of times, that’s it. I just didn’t know.”

The adults at the table watched Arthur get very red indeed, then moved as one to take pity on the poor boy who didn’t know about winter in front of his girlfriend. It turned out the demon world had two full seasons, one hot and one cold.

“So it’s just the ‘hot season’ and ‘cold season’ and nothing else? No spring or fall?”

“Just that, Arthur,” the eagle said, sipping on his tea. “There is a thing called warmfall, the rainy season, which marks the transition from the cold season to the warm. And the festival happening today is built around coldfall, the first snow. For the next six months, it will be quite cold indeed.”

“That suddenly? It was a gradual transition on Earth.”

“In a day or two. It was terrible when I lived in the hole.” Lily shivered. “Snow would get in any time the wind blew, and you couldn’t get enough blankets.”

Arthur patted her head as he eyed the drinks. Snow and winter was going to be a whole problem. He was sure some people would still order the drinks cold. That was true even on Earth. But his whole menu was built around cooling down the warm, not the other way around. He was afraid that the mint tea wasn’t going to be a hit. Now, that problem seemed trivial. He now had an open question of whether they’d want any of his current drinks, not just the mint one.

“Well, thank you for your help. Looks like we’re benching this particular experiment for now.” He nodded at the hedgehog woman, kindly. “Of course I can still make it for you, when you need it.”

“Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary. I’d have to walk here to get it, you know. And the cold air would do the same work.”

The little group scattered then, drinks in hand, and set up for their normal leisure time at the shop. Arthur plopped his forehead down on the table.

“Are you all right?” Mizu said. “I thought the drink was good, even if it’s not for this season.”

“Oh, I’m fine. It’s just that I realized I need to redo my entire menu now. Lily, we need to make warm-weather drinks. Pretty much immediately, if I understood how quickly winter comes on here correctly.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry, Arthur. I should have thought of that.”

“No, it’s okay. I didn’t think of it, either. It’s been busy.”

“Do we even have time?”

Arthur knitted his brow. “Maybe. The festival started today, and it goes all the way through tomorrow, right? And the day after that is our normal day off anyway. We might be able to get it figured out by then.”

“So lab time?”

“Lab time. Full development cycle. Starting tomorrow morning.”

“Really? I’d think you’d want to start tonight.”

“No. Tonight...” Arthur looked over at Mizu, who blushed. “Tonight I have a date.”