When we arrived in front of the building, I walked around it to see if I could get a peek inside. But there was no place from where I could look inside. There’s a window, but it’s closed, so I can’t see inside.
[What’s going on in there?] Yuna
[There’s nothing else inside the building. The gate of trials is behind that door. But I’ve never been in there, so I don’t know the details.] Rikka
[You’ve never been in there? Are you sure you haven’t seen the inside of the gate of trials?] Yuna
If that’s the case, I wouldn’t be able to cheer for Jade-san. In the first place, that would be boring because I wouldn’t be able to see the trials.
[Only the blacksmiths who made the weapons and those who’re handling the weapons are allowed inside the gate of trials, no one else.] Rikka
I heard that you have to participate in the event to get inside the gate of trials. The event is there, but you can neither participate nor observe. As a former gamer, this kind of thing is killing me. It’s also entertaining to watch the event.
[From what I’ve heard from my father, Gordo, and Ghazal, there’s a large space behind the gate of trials. That’s where get to they try out the weapons they’ve made.] Rikka
[What do you mean by trying it?] Yuna
[My father, Gordo, and Ghazal didn’t tell me the details. But it seems that the trials differ depending on the weapon used.] Rikka
I feel like if the trials were different, I wouldn’t know whose weapon was the best.
[If so, we wouldn’t know whose weapon is better.] Yuna
[The weapon creation is already a battle in itself. Proving that the person you are now wasn’t the person you were yesterday, the person you were yesterday wasn’t the person you were a month ago, the person you were a month ago wasn’t the person you were a year ago. Well, that’s what my father used to say.] Rikka
I think I get what he’s saying.
[Isn’t this a competition though?] Yuna
It’s good to challenge yourself, but it’s also important to have someone to fight with. Sometimes you write a name of a friend, but read it as a rival. That’s how you grow.
[There are knives, swords, spears, hammers, and many other types of weapons. There is no way to choose which is the best. Each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses.] Rikka
Well, if you put it that way, then yeah. Am I the only one who thinks it would be nice to have divisions? But I heard that the gate of trials was not judged by people, but by the gates of trials itself, so maybe it’s too much to ask for. But after hearing such stories, I become even more curious about the contents of the trials.
All I can do now is to ask Jade-san after the trials are over.
After that, we took a short break to enjoy the view of the city from the mountaintop before going back.
But, going back means taking that long flight of stairs once again.
[Fina, do you need a piggyback ride?] Yuna
[U~u, I’m okay. Why are you trying to give me a piggyback ride?] Fina
[Because you’re the youngest and you’re neither an elf nor a dwarf.] Yuna
I muttered in my mind, <not even a Bear>.
Elves seem to be lightfooted and dwarves have their physical strength. By the way, the Bears have an image of being all-rounders. So I felt that Fina was the weakest of the three.
Ruimin, who had been listening to the conversation between Fina and me, hugged me from my back.
[Then I’ll be the one riding on Yuna-san’s back.] Ruimin
Then I had an interesting idea, so I agreed.
[Etto, why the front?] Ruimin
I’m carrying Ruimin in my arms like a princess. I told Ruimin to hold on tightly to my neck.
[You’ll die if you fall.] Yuna
[Yuna-san, we’re just going down the stairs, right?] Ruimin
[…………] Yuna
I slowly turned my gaze away from Ruimin.
[Why are you looking away?] Ruimin
Without answering her question, I stood on the side of the stairs. There was a cliff next to the stairs, which was a good place to jump off.
[Yu, Yuna-san, there are no stairs there.] Ruimin
Ruimin looks anxious.
All right then, Fina, Rikka-san. We’re going ahead.
[Yuna-oneesan?] Fina
[Yuna-chan?] Rikka
I ran and jumped off the cliff.
A scream echoed from within my arms and Ruimin’s arms tightened around my neck.
I broke my fall by making a scaffolding on the way down, then continued my descent all the way to the bottom. I made a clean landing.
In my arms, Ruimin is clinging to my neck tightly. If this wasn’t wearing my bear gear, it would have been very painful.
[U u~u, Yuna-san. It’s terrible that you suddenly jumped off the cliff. I was so scared.] Ruimin
Ruimin got off of my arms and sat down on the ground. There were tears in her eyes. It looks like she was really terrified by that stunt.
[Because I thought it would be boring to just go down from there the normal way.] Yuna
It’s like a ropeless but safe bungee jumping. I thought she would enjoy it, although looking at her, I don’t think she did.
[You can’t feel your legs, perhaps?] Yuna
[And whose fault do you think it is!] Ruimin
Ruimin complained, but her legs were shaking and she couldn’t stand up properly.
Then, after a while, Fina and Rikka-san made it down.
[Ruimin-san, are you okay?] Fina
[U~u, I was so scared. I thought I was going to die.] Ruimin
Ruimin hugged Fina when she came over. Apparently, she can walk now.
[Do you want to try it next, Fina?] Yuna
[No, thank you.] Fina
I thought it would be fun, but she said no.
Moving on, I needed to put Ruimin in a good mood. So we decided to have dinner together at Rikka-san and Rojina-san’s house and talked about today’s events, stories from Crimonia, and the royal capital.
Then, Rikka-san wanted to hear about the elven village, so Ruimin talked about it.
[I also want to visit Ruimin-chan’s elven village and Fina-chan’s hometown.] Rikka
[Isn’t the royal capital also a good place to go?] Yuna
[Of course, I would like to visit the capital and check if Ghazal is doing a good job. But it’s too far away, so I can’t go there easily.] Rikka
I can easily go there because I have the bear gate. But that’s not the case for a normal person, it’s too far from here.
[How did Yuna-chan and the two of you travel from such a faraway place?] Rikka
[I have summoned beasts.] Yuna
[Summoned beasts?] Rikka
I can’t tell them about the bear gate, so I’ll answer with that. Well, it’s not a lie, because we actually rode Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear from the elven village to this place.
[Yuna-san’s summoned beasts are bears and they’re very cute. They’re also very fast, it took less than two days to get here from my village.] Ruimin
[Really? But I thought bears were scary.] Rikka
[Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan are so cute.] Fina
[Bear Summoned Beasts…] Rikka
Rikka-san looks at me.
[You want to see them?] Yuna
[They’re not dangerous, right?] Rikka
[Of course, as long as Rikka-san doesn’t attack them out of the blue, they’re not dangerous.] Yuna
[I wouldn’t do something so scary.] Rikka
Rikka-san shook her head from side to side.
I got permission from Rojina-san and Wyola-san, then we move to the room where Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear can be summoned.
I stretch out my arms and summon Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.
[Bears!] Rikka
Rikka-san quickly hid behind Rojina-san.
[The black one is Swaying Bear and the white one is Hugging Bear.] Yuna
As I’m introducing Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, Fina and Ruimin are already hugging them.
[Are you sure it’s safe?] Rikka
[It’s okay.] Fina
[They’re not going to do anything.] Ruimin
After being told by Fina and Ruimin, Rikka-san slowly comes out from behind Rojina-san.
Rojina-san and Wyola-san were surprised, but they didn’t seem to be afraid. Rikka-san carefully reached out and touched Swaying Bear.
[It’s soft. And it feels good.] Rikka
Swaying Bear made a small <ku~u ~ n> cry as if it felt good. Rikka-san was relieved that Swaying Bear doesn’t do anything and let her pat his head.
[And this one is a white bear. It’s white and beautiful.] Rikka
When Rikka-san found out that Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear were not scary, she stroked them around. Then, when I returned them to the bear puppets, she looked dejected.
We thanked Rojina-san and Wyola-san for cooking for us and returned to the inn.
[I’m really tired ~] Ruimin
Ruimin collapses on the bed.
[My legs are heavy.] Fina
Fina was also sitting on the bed, massaging and relaxing her feet. Well, Fina did her best to climbed up and down the stairs on her own feet.
[Well, let’s take a bath and then get some rest.] Yuna
[But the bath is at…….] Ruimin
[It’s okay.] Yuna
There was no bath at the inn and I heard that we had to go to a public bathhouse to take a bath. I don’t want to go there now and I don’t want to be unprotected in public. I locked the door to our room tightly and took out the bear gate. The only people here are the ones who know about the bear gate.
There’s no way I will not use it.
I opened the doors of the bear gate connected to the bear house in the Elven Village.
[Fina, Ruimin. Just wait a moment. We’re inside the sacred tree’s barrier, so we don’t know what will happen if Fina enters.] Yuna
I closed the door once and move to the bear house in the sacred tree. Once outside of the sacred tree’s barrier, I took out my bear house for travel from the bear box. I go into the bear house and move to the room where the bear transfer gate is set up, then open the door to the bear transfer gate at the inn where Fina and the others are. Then I take the two of them and move to the bear house for travel.
[Now then, I’ll get the bath ready and you two can just relax for a bit.] Yuna
[Yuna-oneesan, why did you choose the one in the elven village? I think the one in Crimonia would be good.] Fina
[Well, we’re going to turn on the lights, but by doing so, people would notice us in Crimonia, the Royal Capital, and Mereera. Here, it’s deep in the forest and far away from the elven village, so even if the light leaks a little, it’ll be hard for them to notice us.] Yuna
Besides, the village chief, Mumroot-san, knows about the bear gate, so it’ll be easy to deceive everyone with his help if something goes wrong.
Then we took a relaxing bath to unwind our tired feet after walking all day.
Bathing is a good culture.
Author’s Note:
We are now at 400 episodes. Thank you very much.
At the same time, volume 7 of the book was released. I hope you enjoy it.
To celebrate the release of volume 7, I posted a story about Karin in SS, so if there are readers who haven’t read it, please read that as well.
The publisher made a PV video of Kuma. It is written in the activity report, and I would be happy if you could watch it
Please take care of Kuma…
