Even though I say we're at around the same latitude as Hokkaido, the temperatures during the winter and summer were more extreme than I thought. When I got the chance to look at a map, I found that our village was situated in a valley. Because of that, I figured that the temperatures here were probably reasonable, considering our continent's overall climate.

The Lockhart family's territory was similar to an enclave. It was stuck between a group of free states called the City-State Federation, the country of mercenaries, Fortis, and finally, the Kaumu kingdom. The City-State Federation and Fortis came into existence when the Kaelum Empire had too much unsettled land in their frontiers. After all, these miserable left over lands belonged to the Kaelum Empire only on paper. There was a reason why these lands had remained unsettled by the Kaelum Empire. Due to the widespread presence of monsters in these areas, the cost of keeping the citizens safe was not worth the marginal increase in tax revenue.

However, it's worth mentioning that the Kaelum Empire never did have a policy of actively protecting the villages it established to reclaim the frontier. It's not necessary wrong to say that these lands near the border were autonomous. However, these lands which belonged to the Kaelum Empire only in name were often given as rewards to nobles and knights. My grandfather, Govan Lockhart, was one of them.

Due to his distinguished services in a war eighteen years ago, my grandfather rose from the within the ranks of the commoners and was conferred the rank of a knight. However, just three years later, he ended up coming to his own territory, Rushmore, due to some kind of problem. He's lived here ever since.

I've never heard my father and mother talk about the incident in detail. Even when I asked those who have served our family a long time, like Walt, they merely tried to avoid the question and refused to tell me anything. However, it was clear that what they knew about the incident was not something that should be told to a three year old child. After that, I stopped inquiring any further about it.

So, as a way of wrapping everything up: Rushmore village was located in near the northeastern border of the Kaelum Empire where it was allowed a certain degree of autonomy. South of the Rushmore was the mountainous Kaumu Kingdom. Numerous dwarves call the kingdom their home. North of Rushmore was Periclitar, the city of adventurers and a member of the City-State Federation. And finally, west of Rushmore was Fortis, the country of mercenaries.

It's also worth noting that Rushmore village was about five kilometers away from the main road, the Alsu road. Due to the presence of thieves in these "five kilometers", the village was completely cut off from any trade routes. Nobody on the Alsu road ever bothered visiting our village, instead, they either traveled directly north or south.

However, if our disadvantageous location was ignored, there were still various benefits that could be found.

One of these benefits was the existence guilds. Major guilds included the Merchants, Mercenaries, Adventurers, Mages and Blacksmiths Guild. These were commonly known as "The Five Guilds".

My books didn't contain too many details, but, from what I could grasp, guilds were organizations that relied on mutual benefit and possessed branches in relatively large cities. In order to become a merchant or an artisan, joining their respective guild seemed to be a requirement. Passing their examinations also seemed quite difficult. However, I didn't investigate too deeply into that because I was a member of the knight class and their guilds had nothing to do with me.

Of course, the guild I was interested in was the Adventurers Guild.

Although I wasn't sure about all the differences between adventurers and mercenaries, it seemed like the main point was that adventurers mainly acquired bounties through defeating monsters and mercenaries made living by taking on escort missions. Of course, mercenaries were still exceptionally proficient in large-scale subjugations of monsters. Mercenaries also acted as soldiers when they accepted long-term contracts from various countries.

I couldn't gather much information on the Mages Guild due to their self-enclosed nature. However, based on public information, I learned that the guild's main branch was located in Doctus. It was known as the Academy City and was a member of the City-State Federation. The Academy of Mages was also located in Doctus and entering the academy seemed to automatically give you the qualifications needed to enter the Mages Guild.

In order to make the most out of my magic abilities, I wanted to learn more about The Mages Guild. However, Rushmore didn't have many mages, only three healers who could use healing magic.

Although my knowledge of magic was quite limited, I was still able to glean some information on it by studying various myths about the Gods of this world.

The world was created by a creation god named the Creator. After that, there were the three main gods: Kaelum the God of the Heavens, Monsu the God of the Earth, and Vita the God of Humans. Apart from these three main gods, there were also the gods of the eight attributes: Ignus the God of Fire, Rukydous the God of Light, Ventus the God of Wind, Arbor the God of the Forest, Phonsu the God of Water, Noctus the God of Darkness, Rimsu the God of Soil, and finally, Ferrum the God of Ore. These gods of the eight attributes had a strong influence on magic and seemed to be more widely worshiped than the three main gods.

I have a feeling that there were also twelve gods in my dream but as for who I spoke with, I have no idea.

Incidentally, Rushmore didn't worship any specific god. Instead, the village only had a single shrine dedicated to all twelve gods. At first glance, the priest of our temple might appear to be dedicated to Rimsu the God of Soil. This is because our temple is located fairly closely to the Kaumu Empire. However, the priest usually lived in Bogwood, a town located on the border of the Kaumu Empire, and didn't stay permanently in Rushmore. Since our shrine was basically a mere rural shrine, the priest seemed to only visit us during festivals in order to perform rituals.

The standard for weights and measures utilized units that were essentially identical to those in our world. Their units were also based on the MKS system of units and used the decimal system. There were only subtle differences in the way they were read. For the standard units of weight, grams changed to grans and kilograms changed to kigrans. For the standard units of length, meters changed to mertos, kilograms changed to kimels, and centimeters changed cemers. Their symbols and quantities were the same as those used on earth, so memorizing them was hardly a problem.