There was silence after I posed the question. No one seemed eager to take the lead and suggest our next course of action. To my surprise, Hew was the one who stepped forward, but he only turned to Alice and asked her.

"Alice," he said, "you're from around here, right? What should we do? What do you suggest?"

Alice, who was carefully turning the roast above the fire, chuckled.

"I'm not exactly local. I'm from a different continent, but I get what you mean," she sighed. "What would I advise? I'd say it's best to head to a place with fewer and weaker monsters. That means heading to a big city. Human cities are preferable, though some dwarf or beastkin cities could work, too. Most cities tend to be safer, and we're lucky to be in a relatively stable, great human kingdom. I've been to Guarava with Cala three times already, and I can say it's a good place to live, but..." she added with a shrug, "you need money to live well. So, we need to find a way to earn enough money to support a group this size. I have some, but not much. What can you all do to earn money?" she asked, then turned to me. "Do you have access to Cala's money?"

The question caught Hew off guard, and he looked at me.

I shook my head. "I doubt I could access anything from her bank account."

The elf girl immediately offered her assistance. "I do have some money! Unfortunately, banknotes and property notes from Earth are useless here, but I still have some gold and jewelry," she said.

"And would you share that with us?" Mike wondered.

"If we stick together for a while, I'd certainly be willing to help. But my funds wouldn't last us through the elven winter," she pondered.

"Hmm, elven winter? What exactly does that entail?" Hew inquired. He turned back to Alice. "We're still students, and we haven't finished school yet. What kind of work is available here?"

"All kinds," Alice replied. "Fieldwork, menial tasks, accounting, guarding, but honestly, I'm having trouble thinking of something suitable for any of you. You seem too weak for physical labor, and you don't know how to read or write in Guaravian. You don't even speak the language."

"Isn't English spoken here?" Tom asked. "It's a game world, so it should be spoken, right?"

"English is spoken only at the adventurers' guild and the shops around them, but..." I interjected, "To answer your previous question about the elven winter, you know that this is a binary star system. We do have two suns, isn't it? So, we have normal years, which are slightly longer than Earth years..."

"Three hundred ninety-seven days and a half," Julietta chimed in.

I nodded in agreement and continued, "...but the rotation of the entire system around the larger star creates what they call elven years, which take about forty normal years to complete. During this rotation, there's a period of colder years known as the elven winter."

Julietta took over from me. "The elven winter lasts about ten years," she explained. "The first one or two aren't too bad, but it gets progressively colder after the second year. As a year here is a bit longer than on Earth, and the long winter spans ten of these years, that's roughly equivalent to about twelve Earth years."

"You forgot to account for the longer days," Michael pointed out.

"I think I factored that in," Julietta conceded, nodding. "So it's a little over twelve Earth years."

"Wait, hold on! Hopefully, we'll get back before! I'd be over thirty by that time?" Tom exclaimed.

"How do we get back as long as Mephisto has the only stable portal?" Michael questioned.

"No!! Are we really stuck here?" Mike exclaimed with horror in his voice.

"Earth to Mike. We've already established that!" Hew chuckled.

Tom snorted. "Hew, we're not on Earth. Change that to Guarava!"

"Guarava is the country, not the planet!" Hew tried to clarify, "What was the name? Aldea or something..."

I took a deep breath but remained silent. White Flower did have her lightfires, but with my reduced magic power, I couldn't recall the runes of that spell in my mind. I'd tried countless times without success. I was hoping it would work again once I regained my levels, but it was simply too complex a spell for my current magical ability.

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Therefore, I didn't want to give them false hope. If I told them about it, they'd only expect me to find a solution immediately. I'll try to resolve the situation, but I didn't need that additional pressure from all sides.

"I'd suggest we go to Spartacius's ranch," Michael said. "But it's in Adrai, on a different continent, and it'll be abandoned during the long winter anyway. It could be a solution for the first year, though, for later, we'd need a place in the warmer regions. Isn't it true that the elven winter isn't as severe here in Adwana as it is in Adrai?"

“That's true,” Julietta said. “Here in Adwana, it's warmer and wetter, and they don't abandon all localities to migrate, but the population tries to survive in some enforced points. The kingdom does have defined shelters. There are some eighty days without ice in the year here in Guarava, even in the worst years.”

“Shit!” Tom exclaimed. “And when does this long winter start?”

“Next year,” Julietta explained.

"Well, Michael's idea is not bad," Hew pondered. "A farm would still be a good place to survive for one year, isn't it?"

Alice sighed. "Possible, but it's a long way. That would be costly and dangerous. Besides, farms are not that safe, but still better than nothing."

"No portals?" Mike wondered.

"A portal could cost us as much as a year's subsistence; however, it might be possible to buy one in Uldaman," Alice explained. "With that amount of money, we could try to buy something here, but do we have so much?"

Michael turned to me. “Cala should have at least a villa in a city or a farm bigger than Spartacius' one. Where is your property?”

I shook my head. “I didn't want to settle, so I didn't buy any farm. I didn't want the bother!”

Michael's face darkened, disappointed at my answer, but then he seemed to have an idea.

“Did Cala participate in any wars? There were all kinds of war trophies. What did you do with the tokens? Did you sell them all?” he asked.

I exchanged a look with Alice. He might be onto something! Acts of bravery in war were richly rewarded, and Cala did have her fair share of such acts. Her inventory was still locked for me, but luckily, I had given Alice many things to keep to save room for my dresses in my inventory.

“Alice, do you have any tokens from Guarava or anything from a country in Adwana? I should have a couple of those!”

"Are there only two continents?" Tom questioned.

"Only two are known and populated by humans," Michael explained, "but they are really huge."

After a while, Alice raised her gaze to look at me.

“There is a silver token from Constancia and a gold token from Guarava.”

“A gold token from Guarava?” I exclaimed, pleasantly surprised. She took it out from her inventory. It looked like a big round gold coin that fit neatly in one's palm and weighed about 100g.

“As recognition for the heroic deeds in the battle of Theomix,” she read from the coin.

"What's the deal with this farm token?" Hew inquired.

Michael eagerly snatched the coin from Alice's hand and examined it closely.

"This is more than just a farm, Hew. Look at these royal emblems. Cala was granted a small barony with this token. Its true value exceeds ten thousand gold. She'll need to travel to the capital city to receive the official title from the king! How did you manage to earn such a reward?" he marveled, a hint of astonishment in his tone as he gave the token back to Alice.

I sighed. What did I do? Cala was an assassin, so it was pretty obvious.

"Well, I fought in the battle and took out the commanding general of Constancias' troops during the Battle of Theomix, but the reward was actually for assassinating King Elefteares. They couldn't openly reward the murder of a king, even though it brought about a resolution and forced Elefteares' ally, Constancia, into a negotiated settlement. That's why the text on the coin mentions the Battle of Theomix. Elefteares had always been a thorn in Guarava's side, and after his demise, his kingdom had to seek peace."

"And what about Constancia's silver token?" Tom inquired.

I shook my head as dread filled my heart at the memory.

"Let's not talk about that. You didn't hear or see anything about it. It could cause huge problems here in Guarava... Cala took on all sorts of jobs from the assassin's guild back then. Nobody knows that I did it..."

Tom raised an eyebrow but didn't comment further.

"Would it work even though you're not Cala? Or are you planning to impersonate her?" Mike asked.

I grinned. "Oh, it'll work! Michael, you're a genius!" I turned to Mike. "There's no need for illusions. It's a transferable token. I could have sold it. I mean, Cala could have sold it."

"What does this mean for us?" Tom inquired.

"It means we have somewhere to go. First, we head to the capital city, Uldaman, where we get the official title, exchange this token for the barony, and settle in for the winter. We can all live off the estate until we figure out how to return to Earth. You're all invited!"

"And what about us?" Tina asked. I raised an eyebrow. "What makes you think I wasn't including you too? When I say 'all,' I mean everyone, including our treacherous elf who tried to burn me. She's also invited if she wants to come!"

Feeling generous, I thought a barony would be a good place to spend the winter.