Autumn passed, and the early days of winter arrived. At last, the Active Season came to an end. The Kingdom of Wils had weathered it with the lowest damage in its history. The citizens, upon hearing that the divine beasts had aided in subjugating the monsters, expressed their gratitude to them. The kingdom had always held strong beliefs in the divine beasts, but now, that faith grew even more pronounced.

Lil and Ria leaned against Kohaku in a warm spot, brushing the divine beasts’ fur. With the forest now fully at peace, the divine beasts were in full relaxation mode.

“Will we get to play a lot this year?”

The fox wagged its tail happily.

“Lil, let’s play in the forest when spring comes. It’ll be so much fun!”

The tiger, who had unusually come to visit, extended the invitation.

“Yeah! I’ll ask Dad to let me go into the forest!”

Lil was about to turn eight. It was probably safe for her to start venturing into the shallower parts of the forest.

This past year had been truly hectic. Sadly, quite a few divine beasts had perished. Lil was heartbroken, but everyone told her that a baby boom would start in spring, so she realized she shouldn’t dwell on sadness forever.

While this kingdom had suffered minimal damage, other nations had apparently lost many lives. The Kingdom of Reiz—where Lil was born—normally deployed barriers to prevent monster invasions, but this time, monsters had spawned inside the barrier, causing massive casualties.

As for the other neighboring kingdom, the Kingdom of Ex, an ally, they were reportedly coming soon to observe this country’s Active Season countermeasures. Lil hoped that even neighboring nations could foster good relations between humans and divine beasts.

The Kingdom of Reiz despised beasts, so it might be difficult there, but the Kingdom of Ex apparently revered divine beasts, so it should be possible.

“Big Brother Jay, are you still going to keep guarding us?”

Justin naturally replied to Lil’s question.

“An ‘Interpreter’ without guards is a problem. This Active Season only went as well as it did because of you, Lil.”

Lil believed it was more thanks to the divine beasts than herself. But since she was the only one who could understand them, she supposed she needed protection.

Still, she was happy to stay with Big Brother Jay, so she didn’t mind.

“Not just Jay—I’ll guard you too!”

Ria, who had recently been honing her swordsmanship, puffed out her chest proudly. Justin wanted to point out that she was also supposed to be guarded, but knowing it would upset her, he held back. Ria was someone the divine beasts trusted unconditionally—a legitimate protectee. But since she saw herself as Lil’s guard, it was a bit of a problem.

On this rare, leisurely day off, Lil pondered what to do.

Then she remembered her promise to teach the divine beasts how to read.

She brought out a sketchbook and began writing large characters. The first one she wrote was “Help.” The divine beasts peered at her hands, tilting their heads in confusion. It wasn’t a drawing like usual.

“These are letters. If you can write them, you’ll be able to talk to humans!”

The divine beasts seemed to understand. They began copying the letters in the snow, but writing with their front paws proved extremely difficult. The characters inevitably ended up huge. Lil frowned. Even if they memorized the letters, they wouldn’t be able to communicate if they couldn’t write them.

“What if we prepare boards at each outpost? We could make boards with pictures and words for expected situations and have the divine beasts point to them. For the little ones, that should be enough. For those interested, we can teach them the letters in more detail later.”

Ria’s suggestion made sense. That way, both Lil and the divine beasts could solve the language issue easily. With pictures to help, memorization would be simpler, and since there wouldn’t be too many variations, they wouldn’t need to study too hard.

Lil immediately set to work making the boards.