Before two weeks’ time had passed, our cow’s milk ran dry and as luck would have it, she ran out on the eve of a market day. With the harvest in full swing now, Agatha would have still sent me out with her today, even if she wasn’t dry, but it was nice that we got the last drop out of her.

“What’s the name of the butcher you’re supposed to go to?” Agatha asked me.

“Keith.”

“Good,” she said, handing me the cow’s rope. “He was your father’s butcher, so he’ll give you a fair price. Make sure that you hear from him first before you even think of selling the cow, okay?”

“I know, Mom,” I said. The noble born Jack had sold his cow to a butcher, so I definitely planned to pay Keith a visit. Commoner Jack and the king sold their cows to a stranger who knew their name, however, so maybe that would be the way for me too.

“And remember, Jack, you’re Jacob once you reach the market.”

“I thought I was always Jacob,” I said.

“Hmph, well then I’ll be seeing you later, Jacob.” Agatha gave me a hug and a kiss. “Be safe.”

“I will.”

With that, I set off from the clearing. Honestly, I was excited enough to start running. The only thing holding me back was the cow I had in tow. This is where adventure starts, I thought. This is where the story gets good.

I ended up taking the giants’ path through the forest as a shortcut. From where I emerged on the hamlet’s side, I could see the progress the villagers had made on the harvest since my visit last week. Less than half of the golden wheat remained. They wouldn’t need two more weeks before they’d made the fields bald.

The laborers, however, were mostly missing from their fields today. There were a couple of the usual hard workers still out there this morning, but even now, during the harvest, most everyone was either heading over to the market in Milaway or resting.

I followed the curve of the road as it turned into the hamlet and east away from the forest. And look who I found out and about down the way, Joyce and Hailee were having a conversation with Martha and her daughter, Maida.

Well, Joyce was having a conversation with them, at least. Looking back on it, I can’t remember ever running into Joyce when she wasn’t talking to someone.

I could see Joyce’s smile grow when she saw me coming up the road. She said something to Martha while I was still out of earshot, then turned to me and shouted, “Good morning, Jack!” I just waved to her in response.

“I see that cow you’ve got!” she said. “So you’ve finally come to pay a bride price for me have you now?”

“What?” I asked.

Martha started laughing while Maida gave Joyce a look that rested between amusement and shock.

“I said, you’ve come to marry me, haven’t you!” Joyce said, just as confident and loud as the first time. “Now I very much appreciate the offer, but I’m afraid you’re more than a few years too late.”

“Well, I reckon that’s a shame, Ms. Joyce,” I said, taking off my imaginary cowboy hat and placing it to my chest. I bounced my head with every word for dramatic effect.

“Auntie Joyce,” she corrected me. Over the summer, she’d grown much more fond of the more responsible me than she had ever been of the other Jack. “I don’t want to hear Ms. Joyce coming from that mouth of yours again, you hear?”

“Sorry, Auntie Joyce.”

“Hi, Jack,” Martha said. Her daughter greeted me as well and I greeted them both. “Well, I think we’ve held you two up long enough,” she said, turning to Joyce.

“Who’s holding up who now?” Joyce asked.

Martha smiled. “I’ll see you when the two of you return. Good luck to you both.”

“Thank you,” Joyce said, followed by Hailee. Joyce’s thanks came off as genuine, but Hailee was sounding much less enthused.

Martha and Maida walked away while I walked over and greeted Hailee. I wanted to continue on, but I knew I couldn’t pass Joyce by without a quick word unless I wanted her to file a complaint with me later.

“Heading to the market today, Jack?” Joyce asked.

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Can you escort Hailee and me then? I’m only giving Henry the day off since he’s taking us, but I’d rather have him be out in the fields if I can help it.”

I’d say having him out in the fields today was wishful thinking. Knowing Henry, he’d probably end up spending half of his time drinking out in the woods with some of the other men. Then again, knowing Joyce, she probably thought her husband was about due for one of those kinds of days.

“Sure,” I said.

“Perfect. Let me just go tell Henry you’re taking us real quick,” she said before setting off towards her house. “Henry! It’s back to the fields today with you!”

Henry groaned loud enough that I could hear him through the wall. I turned to Hailee with a smile, but she didn’t grace me with hers in return.

“Something up?” I asked. She was looking a bit depressed.

“Nothing much.”

“What’s got you looking down then?”

“It’s not a big deal,” she said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“If you say so.” I decided not to dig any further. “So, what are you and your mom going to the market for today?”

“You’ll probably hear it from my mom along the way.”

“Well, that’s true,” I said. If there was one thing Joyce loved, it was talking.

Hailee sighed, before trying to be a bit more engaged in the conversation. “Are you going to sell your cow?”

“Yep,” I held up her rope. “She ran out of milk just the other day.”

“Why not have her bred, then if that’s the problem? She’s not too old is she?”

While I was thinking about what I should tell her, Mr. Edward came strolling up to us.

“Well, if it isn’t my favorite student,” he said. Hailee and I greeted him and he greeted us in return. “Haven’t had you stop by in a while. I assume that means you think you’ve learned everything you need to know?”

I gave an awkward laugh to that. “No, I’ve just been busy lately is all.”

“Is that so?” Mr. Edward asked.

I looked to Hailee expecting her to give me a ‘weren’t you just goofing off exploring in the forest with me’ look, but she was preoccupied putting on her best ‘I’m not depressed right now’ act for Mr. Edward at the moment.

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“Then I suppose it couldn’t have been helped,” he continued. “You know I never imagined you could be so studious.”

Neither did I, I thought. I suppose I’d just been lacking the right motivation in my previous life.

Mr. Edward looked to Hailee. “He came to my house ready to learn everyday and never needed me to repeat a thing. Tested him a few times too. Never misremembered a thing.”

And that was true too. I could make mistakes, but misremembering things was beyond me now. When I first realized that myself, I assumed it had something to do with me being a Teller and sure enough, when I checked my page, there was now a sub-trait listed under my Teller trait’s description.

Perfect Recall: Any part of a story you’ve heard, witnessed, or told can be remembered without error.

The loophole was that life counts as a story too. Which meant that everything that’s happened to me since I woke up in the forest and before, I could remember perfectly.

“That’s pretty amazing,” Hailee said.

“Indeed,” Mr. Edward agreed. “I’m sure such a skill will find him gainful employment with a noble if he seeks it.” He turned back to me. “I know you’re more interested in fey and magics, but have you considered that a connection to a lord may be what you need to come upon either?”

“I haven’t really put much thought to it,” I admitted. I was more focused on the leads I already had, plus actually getting myself connected to a lord through merit sounded like the kind of work I didn’t want to deal with at the moment.

“Alright, we’re all set to go,” Joyce said, popping out of her house before Mr. Edward could try to sell me on the merits of noble employment. “Oh, hello Mr. Edward. Good to see you today.”

“You as well,” he replied. We all exchanged a few more words and having had no interest in holding us up, Mr. Edward went on his way.

“Thanks again for agreeing to this, Jack,” Joyce said as we left the hamlet.

“No problem, Auntie,” I said. Hearing me call her that definitely made her happy.

“So you're off to sell that cow today?” she asked once we were about thirty-odd paces out from the last house.

“Yeah, she just ran out of milk yesterday,” I said.

“Can’t spare the money to have her bred?”

“I don’t know. All my mom told me to do was to get a fair price from the butcher, then sell the cow.” I hadn’t been checking cow breeding costs since I got here, but I’m sure we could afford it if we wanted it done. I just wasn’t about to tell Joyce that we were selling her because we were leaving when Agatha had decided to do so when she had two weeks time to tell her.

“Hmm,” Joyce muttered. “Has Hailee explained to you what we’re going to the market to do today?”

“She told me, you’d end up telling me anyway.”

“I see,” she paused for a moment. “Well, I’m not much one for beating around the bush, so I’ll tell you straight. I want you to marry Hailee.”

Excuse me? I thought. “What?”

“We’re going to marry Hailee off soon and I’d be happier if you were the one who took her rather than a stranger.”

“... And what does that have to do with you going to the market?” I asked.

“The matchmaker from Dearing is coming by,” she said. “Her and her husband only come around to Milaway once every month and they won’t be coming around at all when it gets cold, so we need to go while we still can.”

“Why can’t you just visit them in Dearing then?”

“Well, for one, I’d prefer if we can get her matched with someone who lives nearby. But also, unless you're coming from another town or from outside the barony, the matchmaker won’t accept anyone from out of town. The only village girl who's getting a chance there are the ones she’s handpicked.”

“Okay, but why did you choose now to marry her off?” I asked.

“Well, she did just come of age,” she said, “But it’s also because we can’t afford to have her stay anymore. At least, not if those giants come back around. Everyone in the hamlet is desperate for coin right now, you know? At least you can hide that well enough from the giants. But nobody wants to sell their grain for it. Imagine being the one they end up saying, ‘That’s not enough,’ to.”

“I don’t have to imagine,” I reminded her.

“Right. Which is why nobody wants to sell their harvest. At least not until the giants’ have taken their share or at least until the army tells us they’ve gotten rid of them. The problem is that if the giants’ come and take as much as they took from us last time, they won’t be leaving us with enough.

“They didn’t leave us with enough in spring either. We all had to burn through our savings to make sure no one would starve, so we’ve got nothing left if they come by again. Someone will be starving this year for sure if the army doesn’t do something about them, but it won’t be happening in my house. I’ll be making sure of that.”

“Are Ben and Matthew going to help you out?” I asked.

Joyce looked to Hailee. “You didn’t tell him yet?” Hailee shook her head, then Joyce turned back to me and said, “The king’s army took them.”

What? “But they’re not Jacks,” I said.

“Didn’t seem to matter much to the army. Found that out when I came to give them a good talking to after they didn’t show up on their last day off. Took them along with half the town guard last month spouting some crap about a duty to protect their land.

“Apparently, the baron is furious. All these people fleeing from the count’s territory, but it’s our people the army is taking to fight the giants there? Doubt we’ll even see a copper coin for their duty if they don’t come back alive.”

“Sorry,” I told her.

“For what?”

“Well, I’m the one who’s supposed to be fighting,” but instead it was her sons.

“What, am I supposed to be mad that your parents didn’t want to send you off to die? I don’t blame them for what they did and I don’t blame you. I’d have renamed my boys too if it meant the army wouldn’t end up taking them and I’d have fought harder against them getting those guard jobs too if I had known it would end up like this.

“Of course it didn’t help that you were encouraging them back then…”

“Sorry.”

“Enough of that. I told you I’m not blaming you,” Joyce insisted. “But ugh, you used to be such a brat. It was enough that I’d be fine telling your mother I couldn’t stand you to her face.

“Oh, and before I forget, remember that you're supposed to be Jacob when we get to the market. I don't want Agatha to come crying to me that I took her son to the market and let him get snatched up.”

Who’s taking who to the market now? “I’ll remember,” I said.

“You sure you will, Jack?”

“Who’s Jack?”

Joyce smirked. “Anyways…” she said, before walking behind Hailee and grabbing her shoulders, “So what do you say to our proposal? We could take the cow or whatever you get for it for the bride price.”

“You don’t think you can get a better offer through the matchmaker?” I asked.

“It’s not all about just the bride price, Jack—”

“Jacob,” I said.

“Now that you’ve matured some, I’m sure everyone in the hamlet would be eager to marry their daughter off to you. After all, compared to everyone besides Mr. Edward, you and your mother are wealthy.”

“I don’t think I’d be selling our last cow if we were so wealthy.”

“That’s because the count hasn’t paid for your work this season right? You’ll have your money once he takes back what’s his. And if he takes too long, I’m sure you can just sell what you’ve cut down to the baron. Count can’t complain much when he isn’t doing his job, after all.

“Either way, you’ll be plenty wealthy after you sell all that wood you’ve been chopping down to the baron. You’ll have more than enough coin to buy the grain to deal with the giants if it comes to that too.”

“I suppose so,” I said.

“So I can assume you haven’t had any offers from the way that you're acting?”

“None that I know of.” There were probably ones Agatha wasn’t telling me about, though, if I was as much of a catch as Joyce led on.

“That’s probably because you’ve been spending so much time Hailee this summer,” Joyce said, looking very pleased. “Kept the competition away.”

“So is that the real reason you sent Hailee over to our house for the summer?” I asked.

“No.”

“Is it part of the reason?”

The guilty party made no further comment on the subject. Silence is practically an admission in this case, you know?

I sighed. “What does Hailee think about all of this?”

“Hailee.” Joyce looked to her daughter.

“I wouldn’t mind getting married,” Hailee said, before looking at me, “As long as you stay with me.”

“Hear that, Jack?” Joyce asked. “You won’t run away from her right?”

“Of course I won’t,” I said. The way Haliee was looking at me, though, It felt like she wanted to run away with me rather than stay here.

“Then everything’s good isn’t it?” Joyce said. “We’ll finish our business at the market today and you two can head back to your mother to tell her the good news.”

“I think we’re going to have to hold off on that,“ I said. “I can’t be accepting or making proposals like this without my mother’s input.” Plus, the thought of marrying a fifteen-year old wasn’t exactly something that made me eager. My body may have been seventeen, but I was still nineteen going on twenty on the inside.

“Okay, but don’t be too sad if my Hailee gets snatched up today while you’re taking your time.”

“I’ll try my best not to.”

She continued, “Remember that I’m only offering you such a good deal on the bride price since your mother and I have been good friends for a long time now.”

“I appreciate it, Auntie Joyce.”

“Ha!” she smacked my arm. “You better.”

That was about all there was to our discussion on the possibility of Hailee and I getting married. The rest of the way to the market, Joyce and I—but mostly Joyce—just shared some small talk.