Welcome to the Demon’s Cabin - Chapter 39

“Speaking of which, Mr. Idris, how old are you?”

Idris, who had been carving wood to make a new cup, stopped the hand that held the thick knife. Irene’s gaze, which had traveled up his hands, heavily calloused like a knight’s and with particularly prominent veins, and along his arms, landed on Idris’s well-defined face.

Hmm, she was not quite sure. For one, he did not look young, perhaps because he was so composed.

‘He is probably around my age, right?’

“Strictly speaking, I am nineteen years old.”

“Nineteen?!”

Irene struck the table in consternation and stood up abruptly. He, he did not look like that at all. He was that young? Irene’s pupils shook uncontrollably.

Idris tilted his head slightly as if puzzled. His gaze suggested he did not understand Irene’s reaction at all.

“Yes. I did not think I particularly looked old or young for my age, but… seeing your surprise, it seems my thought was mistaken.”

Nine… teen…

Her head throbbed. No, she thought he would be twenty-three at the very least.

“How old are you, Miss Irene? I do not think the difference between us would be very large.”

“I am twenty-three.”

“……Pardon? Are you certain?”

“It is not exactly easy to be mistaken about one’s own age, is it……?”

Idris wore a flustered expression. His eyes busily scanned Irene’s face before manifesting a clear question mark.

“How should I put it, I naturally assumed you were younger than me. It is, well. I do not mean it in a bad way, but you have a somewhat young-looking impression.”

“I also thought that would be the case…… not that I thought that, but I thought we were almost the same, so this is unexpected.”

Irene, who almost reflexively cursed him for looking old, hurriedly twisted her conclusion. It was not a lie. She had thought he was about twenty-four or twenty-five.

Unlike Irene, who was working hard to persuade herself by thinking ‘That could be the case,’ Idris kept looking at her with eyes that said ‘No matter how I look at it, that does not seem right.’ Then, he suddenly let out an exclamation and set the carving knife down on the table with a clack.

“Miss Irene, you spoke in terms of the Orihen age system, did you not?”

“Ah, that is right! You are correct. I think I heard that other countries usually count age using different methods. No wonder it was strange.”

“From what I recall, it is a method where one is a year old from the moment of birth and age is added as the year changes, is that correct?”

“Yes. That is right. You know it accurately.”

Irene smiled while giving a light round of applause that made only small tapping sounds. Her confused mind was spinning fiercely. Then, if she converted Idris’s age……. Ah, wait a moment. How did other countries count age again?

“Then, since I am nineteen because my birthday has not passed this year, I would be twenty-one if counted by the Orihen system.”

“Ah, no wonder. I thought it was far too strange for you not to even be twenty.”

“That is a relief. I was a bit surprised because I thought I looked tremendously old for my age.”

Idris spoke playfully with a bit of bravado, but Irene broke into a cold sweat internally. She must never tell him that she was half-certain he was three or four years older than his actual age.

Irene naturally shifted the topic slightly away from his age.

“Then how old am I by the Imperial system?”

“You would be twenty-one or twenty-two, but in the Empire, we calculate quite strictly down to the birthday. By any chance, when is your birthday?”

“It is July 18th.”

In truth, no one knew when the day she was actually born was.

Still, there was a date to give as a birthday. Even if not a single drop of blood was shared, it was the birthday her beloved parents had set for her.

“Then, since your birthday has not passed, you would be twenty-one.”

To summarize, by Imperial age, they were nineteen and twenty-one, and by Orihen age, they were twenty-one and twenty-three.

“Ahuh, then does that mean we have a two-year age gap?”

“Yes. Even so, it is unexpected that I am the younger one. I actually thought Miss Irene was two years younger than me.”

“I…… am? Do I look nineteen years old?”

“Yes. To be honest, I thought you would be about eighteen by the Orihen system.”

Idris, who had instantly reduced another person’s, no, someone else’s, age by five years, looked serious without a hint of playfulness.

If she was eighteen, that was an age where one had only just held a coming-of-age ceremony, so did that not mean he saw her completely as a child? Irene floundered in a fresh state of shock once again.

“Do I look that much like a child?”

“I wonder if it is not so much because you look youthful, but because your eyes are simply so large.”

Your face is also a round shape. Idris, who added his words plainly, was still examining her face intently as if he could not quite believe it.

It was strange. Her face had certainly matured a lot compared to that age…….

Irene began to suspect that perhaps the people of the Crescent Empire were relatively old-looking. Then, seeing Idris, who had already started diligently carving the cup again across from her, she folded that hypothesis away.

‘Now that I hear it, he does look that age. It was just that I thought he was older because he acts so mature.’

“Speaking of which, Mr. Idris, when is your birthday?”

“It is May 22nd.”

“The 22nd……. If it is the 22nd…… since today is the 22nd…….”

No, wait a minute.

“Today is your birthday?!”

Irene, who had sat back down at some point, stood up abruptly again. The chair fell backward with a clattering thud. It felt as if she was experiencing a few days’ worth of surprises all in one day. Idris continued his carving while looking at her as if he did not understand Irene’s violent reaction.

“No, you clearly said your birthday had not passed yet?”

“Crescent is a bit peculiar, so we raise our age by taking even the hour of birth into account.”

“…….”

What kind of exhausting calculation method was that. Nineteen in the morning, twenty in the evening?

She doubted the mental state of the Imperial citizens who lived by this. There was one more question.

“But the Empire is so vast that even within it, the time changes, does it not? If the place where you were born and the place where you live now are different, how do you know the exact time you were born?”