It was nearly the end of the hot season and Iris was starting to grow concerned. No matter how she looked at the numbers, it seemed like her most recent quest should have been completed by now. They had taught people during the cold season, the rainy season, and now the hot season. Shouldn't that be more than enough to cover a mere 10% of the population being taught how to read, write, and do basic math? It just didn't make sense!

After Iris sighed in frustration for nearly the dozenth time since dinner started, her mates could no longer remain quiet. They had tried asking her if she was alright and had been giving her concerned glances the entire time. However, she had only said she was fine, and that there was a lot on her mind. Well, that was no longer a satisfactory answer, so Ember spoke up to say

"Alright, out with it! There's clearly something wrong, you can't keep making us worry like this without telling us anything."

Iris frowned more as she looked up from her food. She hadn't meant to make them all worry. Hesitantly she answered

"Well, it's just that... I would have thought that we'd have done enough to complete the quest we received last cold season by now. Even if the classes aren't over for another few weeks, they should have learned enough for it to count. That's three seasons now that we've been educating them, surely that should be more than enough?"

Ember shut up at Iris's response, letting someone else take the lead. He hated talking about the quests they were forced to deal with. Caspian furrowed his brows as he asked

"Well, how many people are you accounting for again?"

Iris pulled out her tablet and read over it for a moment

"There were fifty five total females and nine-hundred-ninety eight males the last time we took count. That's a total of One-thousand-fifty three people. So, ten percent of that would be one-hundred and six, at the most.

Fifty people took the classes in the cold season, when it was just Fern teaching. The number of new people enrolled in classes was increased to seventy five per season after that, thanks to Basil. I know some of them had to play catchup, but that should still be a little under two hundred people who've taken the classes now."

Basil cleared his throat before asking

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"What about the number of cubs? Did you account for them?"

Iris couldn't help the look of shock and embarrassment that took over her features at that question. She hadn't taken the cubs into account at all! The only time she had ever even noted down a number regarding the cubs was when the Rabbit Tribe had joined their city and brought their cubs with them. While it was entirely possible that she had just gotten used to there being no cubs besides her own around in the beginning, it wasn't like she hadn't known that there were now quite a few cubs running around their city with their parents.

Basil smiled affectionately as he patted her hand affectionately. Then he reassured her

"Don't worry, I'm sure I can get the number of cubs figured out for us soon. However, even if the population was double what you had thought it was, we're likely to have the quota met by the end of the harvest season, so don't worry so much, alright?"

Iris nodded, still feeling embarrassed at her miscalculation. She was lucky to have such understanding mates. They clearly were doing their jobs well since even something like this couldn't phase them. It was a shame to have to wait until the last moment to know if they'd be successful, but Iris was still glad that they had time to fix things.

Ember, who had been the one to insist Iris speak up in the first place, had his own thoughts about matters. While he found the quests rather frustrating and wished the Beast Deity would just leave them alone already, he still found the progress their city had made quite fascinating.

Late at night, after Iris and the cubs were tucked into bed, the males in their family often spent some time talking amongst each other at the dining table. The mornings were far too busy to do such a thing, so this was some of the only time they had to talk amongst themselves. Still, Ember had heard Basil talk about just how much the birth rate had increased since they had moved here.

Previously, Basil had only had theories about why such a thing would be happening. The abundance of food, the higher survival rate during the cold season, and even, potentially, the Beast Deity's favor. In more recent developments, Basil had gotten a book on medicine and healthcare processes. This shone a light on just how important it was to eat a balanced diet, get proper exercise, and even that some females may need to be put on bed rest if they were prone to especially hard pregnancies. This was all something that Iris had been gradually addressing, even if it was for other reasons, so the changes had resulted in a higher birth rate in their city than he even heard of elsewhere.

Ember didn't have much to say or think about the logistics of such a thing. He wasn't particularly fond of reading books nor was he well-versed in medicine. There wasn't even a reason for him to care about how fertile other females were since they were entirely unrelated to him and his family. The only thing he could really think about the matter was that it was incredible how everything Iris had worked to accomplish came together to create such results as this.

Of course, Ember was still convinced that he would have been just as happy had Iris been a completely unremarkable female. She didn't need to change the world to earn his love and affection. He just wanted her to be safe, happy, and his for the rest of their lives. That would be more than good enough for him.