All of us had really enjoyed the school festival, but to the girls, our ride back to Crimonia was no less enjoyable.
I dropped Fina and Shuri off first, then took Noa home.
Now that the children were all back to their respective families, my job as an escort was complete.
As much as I had enjoyed the school festival, I didn’t think I would go to the capital anytime soon. Rumors were said to last for seventy-five days, so I couldn’t return before that.
Well, I had no set plans to return there in the near future anyway. I planned to spend my days leisurely relaxing at my home in Crimonia.
Now that their trip was over, Fina and Shuri worked and studied hard. They also played with the children at the orphanage from time to time. Sometimes, when Noa was supposed to be studying, she would come to play with Fina as well.
I spent my time making quite a few new sweets, and I always brought them to the girls and the orphanage. For a while, we spent days in peace, without anything interesting happening.
Then, one day, Noa received a letter from Shia. The letter was addressed to me, and in it, Shia thanked me for my help at the festival and also praised my food as delicious.
She also mentioned that the king had suddenly appeared during their meal at the capital’s shop, and told me all about the trouble that ensued because of that. Just what had he been thinking…? When I had first made the pudding, he suddenly showed up at my house, too. I sometimes wished he would act more like a responsible king, but it was thanks to that attitude that I was able to see Princess Flora whenever I wanted, so maybe it was fine.
Still, if the king suddenly wanted to act more dignified, wouldn’t that mean he only wouldn’t drop by any time I came to visit but continue to allow such visits?
Anyway, him dropping by at the shop was simply bad luck for Shia and her group of friends, so they could do nothing but accept their fate.
My plan for today was to go to the orphanage and give the children volume three of the picture book.
It wasn’t because I had forgotten about it until now… It really wasn’t…
Okay, it was because I had forgotten all about it, but I was bringing it to them today, so what was the difference?
「Thank you, Bear-oneechan.」
「Thank you.」
The children carefully took the books and thanked me. I told them to read them together and line them up with the previous volumes when they were done.
After making sure they all read the books together, I spoke with the Headmistress for a short while before checking up on the children taking care of the clucker pens. They all seemed to be working hard, which made me happy. After watching them for a few minutes, I went to Tirumina-san and Liz-san to speak about how the egg business was going.
「Everybody is working hard.」
「We have even more cluckers now, but things are still going smoothly, thanks to the children.」
「Nif-san and Arn-san help take care of the children, so it makes things a lot easier.」
The women from Mireera were supposedly enjoying their time with the energetic children. They would scold them occasionally, but that was necessary to educate the children properly.
Still, even with the two of them helping, it should be quite difficult for four people to manage the orphanage all by themselves, no?
When I asked them about it, Liz-san said that it was actually pretty easy. Thanks to me, they never had to worry about money and food again.
Still, shouldn’t it be exhausting having to play with so many lively children all the time? Well, they seemed quite fine to me…
As we continued to chat, a few children entered the office room.
「Liz-sensei, can we go drink some water?」
「Make sure you clean yourself up first, okay?」
「Okay!」
Ever since they had started taking care of the cluckers, I had been telling the children to wash their hands and rinse their mouths so they wouldn’t get sick.
The children listened to me and made sure to do so before rushing off to the cooling water station.
Tirumina-san had placed the station in the office room so that the working children could drink water any time they were thirsty, which I agreed was a good idea.
The children clearly seemed to be enjoying the water, and I noticed they had sweat beads on their forehead.
It had gotten a bit hotter recently. When I had checked up on the children working in the henhouse, I saw they were sweating a lot, too. On the other hand, although my fluffy costume looked hot, the Bear Suit was always adjusting my body temperature, so it was never an issue. Still, because of that, I more often than not failed to take note of the surrounding environment, though I was pretty sure the temperature had gone up a bit in the last few weeks.
First thing next morning, I went to Raruuze Town to give Aruka the third volume of the picture book.
I went through the Bear Gate in Crimonia, and arrived at the small house in Raruuze Town that Letobell-san had bestowed me.
It felt like it had been a long while since I had come here, but it really wasn’t that long ago.
I went outside and saw a clear blue sky, much unlike the first time I had come to this city. I didn’t waste time and started to walk towards Letobell-san’s shop which was quite a distance away.
The people I passed by all glanced at me, whispering 「Bear?」or「Bear-san?」. It didn’t surprise me as this was the usual treatment in places I wasn’t that well known.
Since I had spent the last few days holed up in Crimonia, I hadn’t gotten that many stares lately, but I had been here only once, so they came in full force.
I pulled down my Bear Hood to hide my face and quickened my pace.
When I arrived at Letobell-san’s shop, Rodis-san, who was inside, looked quite surprised when he saw me.
「Aren’t you the bear from before?」
「Is Letobell-san in? I brought a new picture book over for Aruka.」
I didn’t have a very good impression of Rodis-san, so I only told him what I came here to do.
「Please wait a moment. I will notify him of your arrival.」
Rodis-san responded and quickly rushed up the stairs at the back of the shop.
I was left behind with another shop clerk, who took a few glances at me but said nothing, so I walked around the shop while waiting for Rodis-san to return.
Various antiques and paintings decorated the place. Maybe I could get a piece for one of my houses if I found something interesting. Well, I didn’t really know if my taste in art was any good…
I wasn’t Noa, but even I thought it might be best for me to decorate my place with bear-themed ornaments instead of risking it.
After I walked around the shop a few times, Rodis-san finally returned from the back.
「He’s waiting for you upstairs.」
This time, he didn’t speak to me so harshly and let me through easily. Did he act that way before just because he had tried to obtain Ruimin’s bracelet for Letobell-san and failed?
I thanked him and went up the stairs where Letobell-san was already waiting for me, standing in front of a door.
「Thank you for coming. Please come in.」
I accepted his invitation and let myself in.
「It’s been a while since we’ve last seen each other. I heard that you brought a new picture book over. Is that true?」
「Yes, I recently made a new one, so I brought a copy over.」
I said and took out volume three of the picture book from my Bear Box.
「But, my acquaintances from the Capital haven’t mentioned anything about a new picture book… 」
Eleanora-san didn’t distribute the books yet?
Did she have them made but simply forgot to distribute them, or maybe they were only just finished?
「Is Aruka here? 」
「Yes, I just asked my wife to bring her here.」
Letobell-san motioned back towards the door just as Aruka and her mother, Sefuru-san, came into the room. Aruka was clutching the Hugging Bear plushie I had given her; I was glad to see that she was taking care of it properly.
「Bear-san!」
When Aruka noticed me she quickly trotted over to me.
「How are you, Aruka? I brought you a new picture book today.」
I said and handed her the picture book with my Bear Puppet. Aruka happily accepted it.
「Come on, Aruka, say thank you.」
Sefuru-san reminded Aruka, seeing that she was beaming with happiness at the new picture book.
「Thank you.」
「You’re welcome.」
Aruka then quickly jumped onto the sofa and started to read the picture book with the Hugging Bear plushie on her lap.
Sefuru-san reprimanded Aruka about her actions, but she was too absorbed in the book to listen. Giving up, Sefuru-san apologized to me and said, 「I’ll prepare some tea for you,」then rushed out of the room.
「I also apologize for Aruka’s behavior. Aruka really likes your books and she reads them over and over again. She looked forward to your next book very much.」
Letobell-san told me. I was happy Aruka felt that way, but I also had to admit it was a bit embarrassing.
「By the way, how come you are in the city? Was there something you needed?」
「I came to give Aruka the picture book, that’s all.」
「You came all this way just to deliver the picture book?」
Letobell-san seemed shocked by my reasoning.
Well, it made sense that he was surprised that I traveled to a far-away city just to deliver a book. He didn’t know I had my Bear Gate, after all, and that doing so was very easy for me.
「I apologize for making you come all this way from the capital.」
Letobell-san said and bowed deeply.
Soon after, Sefuru-san returned with tea.
「Thank you for doing this for our daughter.」
「Is there something you would like in return?」
「I already received a house from you, so I think that will be more than enough.」
I had used the house to set up a Bear Gate, which made this city easily accessible for me. I was pretty sure a house should be far more expensive than a few volumes of the picture books and a set of plushies, so demanding something more would be ridiculous.
「Still, you came all this way just to deliver the book, so we have to repay you somehow.」
It might look that way to him, but it had actually taken almost no time for me to come here.
I couldn’t tell him that, though, and he soon began trying to think of a gift. I really didn’t need it though…
I didn’t know what Letobell-san would think up, so I decided to ignore him for now and had some of the iced tea Sefuru-san brought. The tea was of high quality and quite delicious.
Lately, I had been drinking a lot of high-grade tea at the castle, at Cliff’s place, and at Eleanora-san’s place. I was starting to be able to tell the difference in quality.
「You live in the capital, right?」
Well, that wasn’t exactly correct. He must have thought I lived in the capital because I was with Sanya-san, who was the guild master of the capital’s Adventurer’s Guild. It would be a pain to explain, though, so I just kept quiet about it.
「Do you know the guild master of the Commerce Guild there?」
「It’s that granny, no?」
I had met her once when I went to buy the plot of land at the capital.
「If you run into any trouble, go to her and tell her I referred you. I will let her know about our relationship, so feel free to speak to her about any problems you face.」
I already had my connections from Eleanora-san and Gran-san, though, and there wasn’t anything I needed the Commerce Guild’s help with anyway.
Well, if there was anything I didn’t know about business endeavors, I could try asking her for help. It never hurt to have more connections.
「In that case, I will take you up on that offer and consult with the guild if I run into any trouble.」
Letobell-san smiled when I told him that.
I continued chatting with Letobell-san while having tea for a while longer before Aruka finished reading the picture book and came up to me.
「Can Bear-san turn small?」
「Only the Bear-san in the picture book. Real bears can’t do that.」
She asked the same question as Flora-sama, so I taught her about the real bears. I didn’t want her to end up embarrassed when she turned older.
Aruka looked disappointed when I told her that, though.
I couldn’t lie to her since this was something concerning her future, so there was nothing I could do to cheer her up.
At least Aruka didn’t know about Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear, so she was easier to convince than Princess Flora, who knew all about their cub forms.
After confirming she was fine, I finished the tea, gave my regards, and promptly left.
Since this was the first time I was actually taking a stroll through this city, I thought of heading to the Adventurer’s Guild to check out what kind of requests they had. Still, I was getting a lot of stares in this city. If I went to the Adventurer’s Guild, things might get chaotic.
「Yuna?」
I turned around and saw Miranda-san and her party. They had helped us out when we were trying to retrieve Ruimin’s bracelet.
「I knew it. I saw you from behind, but I recognized you immediately.」
「Miranda, it’s kind of obvious, considering her outfit.」
「Yeah. You could tell just by looking at her small tail.」
Miranda-san’s party commented with amused expressions.
They were right, of course. I was the only one walking around dressed as a Bear, after all.
「Anway, what are you doing here, Yuna? Is Ruimin with you?」
「No, she isn’t. I only came to visit Letobell-san.」
I thought it was best for Ruimin to not leave the village. If she did, she would probably only get deceived by someone again. Yeah, I could already see her road of misfortune if she stepped out of her village.
Honestly, I was really glad that she had managed to meet with Miranda-san and her party. If she hadn’t, some unspeakable things could have happened to her.
I proceeded to tell them that Ruimin had returned to the Elf Village and that we parted ways there.
「I see, so Ruimin returned to the Elf Village safely. That’s good.」
「Yeah, we were all worried about her.」
「Especially given her personality…」
We all agreed that it was best for her to be at home.
「Yuna, where are you heading to now?」
「Hmm, I was thinking of taking a look around the Adventurer’s Guild, but I might honestly just head home for the day.」
「Were you going to take on a contract?」
I shook my head.
「I was only curious about the kinds of requests this city has. I had no intention of taking anything.」
「Really? If you want to do something, we could take a job together, you know?」
「Maybe next time.」
I didn’t know when I was going to come here next, so making promises wouldn’t be a good idea.
「If you see Ruimin, tell her to come find us once in a while.」
After chatting with them for a while longer, I decided to head straight back to Crimonia.
