The Bear and the Runts
The Bear and the Runts
Hey, wait, isn’t it pretty amazing that there’s still a bunch of room in my item storage? I mean, I stored at least 10 boulders in there. Well, not that I expect to attack anything, though.
Last evening, Mom asked if I could put the whole cupboard in there since it was getting in the way of her cleaning. I timidly did so, only to find that there was still room to spare.
...There’s no way all this would fit in the item bag the school had. Now that I think about it, just how is an item bag made from a dimension stone, anyway? Well, in my case it got embedded in a talking crown, so it’s not like that’s ever going to matter for me...
At any rate, it’s really handy to be able to store that much stuff when you’re in the process of moving. As an aside, I still hadn’t tested the difference in time inside and outside of item storage. I mean, it’d take some serious courage to put a boxed lunch in there and investigate as it rots. But it should be fine if I eat it quick, right?
My preparations for heading to Donius were steadily moving along. I’d thrown towels and other daily necessities and the like into my gear, and more or less had a grasp on my skill’s quirks. There may have been a limit to the number of big gears I could summon, but I could make quite a few small ones. The faster they rotated, the less quickly I could move them. And also, I could fix them in place.
It didn’t really stand out when compared to Fire and Wind magic and the like, but it seemed like it could do a lot of stuff depending on how creative you got. I could put my hair up in twintails in an instant, and use it to scramble eggs. This morning, I had one of my gears spin in the bottom of a large cup and threw in some vegetables to make a smoothie. It was pretty tasty, too...
Seriously, what the heck am I doing?
Things were strangely noisy when I returned to Cardiff after my secret training at the mine.
A number of merchants and residents had gathered and were talking with gatekeepers, who were clad in leather armor. I spotted a gatekeeper who frequented our restaurant.
“What’s going on, old-timer?”
“Where were you, Annie?!”
“Huh? Um, I was just out at the old mine for a bit...”
“I guess that place should still be fine... But for the time being, you shouldn’t go out of town.”
“Did something happen?”
“The merchants said that they saw a bergbear on their way here.”
“A b-b-b-bergbear?!”
Wolves and goblins were spotted deep in the woods around here now and again, but a bergbear was FAR more dangerous than them. The monster known as a bergbear was a type of bear with cross marks all over its stomach. If a human took a hit from its claws, they’d find themselves on a one-way journey to the afterlife in no time at all.
“Those merchants weren’t attacked. Still, they said there was a big one in the forest off the side of the highway about 400 mel from here. They kicked their horses up as fast as they could go and fled in a panic...”
“Oh, man... that’s right nearby, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s been a real uproar around here for a while now. We’re going to be closing the gate earlier than usual today. And there’s no going outside tonight, no matter what.”
“G-got it.”
This was no joke. As the single daughter of a restaurant, unable to even use proper magic, there was no way I could beat a bear. Fortunately, though, the joined log wall surrounding Cardiff was pretty dang impressive for such a small town. As long as the gate was closed, we’d definitely be safe at night. Like it said in my school textbook, monsters hid in the forest during the day and would only very rarely approach a town. It was nighttime that was scary. When it grew dark they’d become active and leave the forest, coming right up to the edge of town. There were a ton of scars left on the walls of Cardiff by monsters, some of them still quite fresh.
“I seriously don’t want to croak before I even accomplish anything...”
The gatekeepers mused over whether to take the intermediary guild’s horse over to Donius to put in an extermination request. Looks like my special training for tomorrow will have to be postponed...
I left the gate behind me and headed into town.
It seemed like everyone had already heard about the bergbear, since they were all talking about it. I don’t think I’d heard the town this noisy for at least four years, back during the incident with the forest wolves.
“Being under lockdown for more than a few days may mean the restaurant’s shipments can’t come in...”
I guess my thoughts were pretty laid-back compared to the people around me...
“There’s no way you could ever defeat a bergbear, you dummy!”
“Shut up! You never know until you try!”
“Hey, come on, cut it out, alright?”
I knew the voices of the kids behind the nearby house all too well. I sighed, walking toward the source of the commotion.
“You could never beat it with that wooden sword!”
“Gah, what are you doing?!”
“Hey, don’t fight, okay?”
Toss. Clatter, clatter.
Ah... looks like his favorite sword ended up on the roof.
Pitiful hero, you are now unarmed.
...What am I thinking? I should go break up that fight.
“Hey!!!!!”
“Gah!!!” all three of them yelled out at once.
“Hmph, you need to stop fighting. Ana has been telling you to cut it out, too, right?”
“B-but this loser’s saying he can beat the bergbear.”
“Don’t call your friend a loser. Yuuta is—”
“How dare you do that to a hero’s blade, you jerk?!”
Slap!
“Owww!”
“Not ‘you jerk.’ Logg.”
This trio of runts — Ana, Logg, and Yuuta — were famous around the neighborhood. I guess technically I’m still kind of a runt myself, but it’s especially fitting for these three. Ana was a meek red-haired girl. Logg was plump and looked like a bit of a rich kid. And then there was Yuuta, who was never without his “hero’s blade.”
“Logg! You didn’t have to go and throw it up on the roof, did you? Don’t you feel sorry for him?”
“Hmph! That weapon would just be a toy against a bergbear! He might as well not have a weapon at all!”
“You bastard!”
“Don’t call me a ‘bastard,’ you idiot!”
Slap!
“Ow!”
“Are you alright?”
Ana, you’re spoiling these brats by being so nice to them. You need to find some better friends than this little hero wannabe.
“T-this is nothing for a hero!”
“Hmmm, so should I give you another, then?”
“Gah!”
“Haha, see! You can’t even beat flashy ol’ Anti, so how do you expect to beat a bergbear?!”
“Don’t call me ‘flashy ol’ Anti,’ fatty.”
“Fatty?! Ugh...”
Logg put his hands on his stomach, looking depressed.
“Haaah... Anyway, you’d better go borrow a ladder from the old guy across the street.”
“Ugh...”
“What is it?”
“Um, you see, Logg and Yuuta were playing before, and Logg knocked his sword up on the roof with a plank. So then...”
“Ana, don’t say— grmph!”
I put my hand over Yuuta’s mouth.
“And then?”
“We had the old man from across the street get it for us, and he was super mad!”
I see... So they had a previous offense, huh...?
Yuuta, I’m pretty sure you’re already disqualified as a hero.
“I-I wasn’t scared of that old guy!”
“Yuuta was seriously about to break down sobbing!”
“U-ugh...”
You should probably give him a break, Ana...
The old man with the ladder must’ve seriously chewed them out, judging by the look on Yuuta’s face. They should be playing someplace more open, then... If they keep flailing toy swords around back here, then of course they’ll end up ripping up flower beds and flinging them up onto roofs...
I glanced up at the roof, but I couldn’t see the wooden toy sword at all. It must have gotten pretty far up there.
Hmm, if I could at least see it, I could use a pole or something to knock it down... And I’ve had my own bad experiences with the old man with the ladder, so I didn’t want to go talk to him. A way to climb up without a ladder... that’s it!
“Hey, I’ll use a little magic trick to go get it.”
“A magic trick?” Ana repeated, tilting her head.
“Since when can you do magic tricks?”
“Hey, show me some respect!”
Hmph, I’m Anti the Great, the world’s top Gearcraft user!
...Ugh, well, technically I’m the world’s only Gearcraft user...
“C-can you really get the sword back?”
“...Well, just watch.”
Since I already know I can make lots of small gears and fix them in place...
Crown, summon gears in the form of a staircase.
[—Ready.
—Deploying in correspondence with the situation.]
Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh fwoosh.
“Wow!” all three of the runts exclaimed.
A multitude of metal discs appeared before my eyes. The teeth soon grew into them, finishing off my pretty orange-gold gears.
They spun around steadily.
“What’s that?!”
“So cute!”
Cute? I don’t quite get that from them...
My gears steadily rose up. One stopped at a certain height, while the next rose up a little higher before stopping...
“Alright, it’s done!”
“A-amazing!”
I made a gear staircase!
Thankfully, we were right behind the building, so we were probably well out of sight.
...Hey, wait, the gears are spinning. How am I supposed to climb that?!
“Stop.”
All of the gears stopped moving.
“Wow!”
“Miss Ann, you can do stuff like this...?”
“What a shock...”
Right, it is shocking, isn’t it? I never imagined I’d be able to do something like this just a few days prior.
I had more fantastical dreams about magic back then, sniffle...
“Hup!”
Wobble.
I-it seemed to have some give. Did I fix them in place properly...? I wasn’t in for a sudden fall, was I? It would be no joke, plunging to my death in a place like this.
“Alright!”
O-ooh, I got on top of it! But it really did seem to be reacting strangely.
The gears themselves were rigid, but it felt like the air beneath them had some give. It was like they were on top of a cushion, making for a bit of a tricky climb.
I ended up having to climb step by step, slowly and steadily.
Sproing-oing-oing-oing.
Gah, that was a surprise!
As I lifted my foot from the “step” behind me, the gear quaked up and down. It looked like it was connected to the ground by an invisible spring.
Wait, ah, that’s scary! I shouldn’t be looking down! S-scary! My footholds are so small, it’s frightening!
I climbed up until I was level with the roof, panicking and trembling internally all the while
Ah, there it is, the hero’s blade... stupid little pointy stick... If you could’ve jutted out just a little...
Now to go down and... Ooh, that’s scary...
Huff, puff...
I came down real, reeeeeeal slowly, seriously wearing myself out in the process. Muscles that I normally never used were aching. In my heart, I swore to myself that I’d never do this again.
“Here. Try to take better care of it from now on.”
“T-thanks!”
“You’re amazing, Miss Ann!!”
“What are all those things...?”
Fwoosh!
Logg tried to touch one of the hovering gears, so I swept them away hurriedly.
“Wow, they disappeared!”
“A-alright, that’s the end of my magic trick!”
“Huh? Come on, do more!”
“No can do. Oh, yeah, you all probably already know, but you can’t go outside tonight, alright? If you do, the bergbear will eat you.”
“I won’t get eaten! I’m gonna beat it!”
“I’m telling you, there’s no way...”
After reminding the three runts not to wander outside, I headed home.
There weren’t as many customers in the restaurant as usual, and the ones we did have were all discussing the bergbear. I asked my parents what would happen if this went on long enough to affect our stock. They just said they’d deal with that when it happened. I guess that made sense.
I looked out beyond the borders of our uneasy town. The sun would set soon.
Nobody realized that in the midst of that sunset, there were children having a secret conversation.
“With this... as long as I have this, I can defeat the bergbear...”
“What are you doing, Yuuta?”
“Gah, Ana! Why are you here?”
“Because you left your house, even though it’ll be dark out soon.”
“Hmph, what, do you think you can beat the bergbear or something?”
“Logg! You’re here, too?!”
“Is there a problem with that, you fake hero?!”
“I’m not a fake!”
“Cut it out! Miss Ann told us not to fight, remember?!”
“Look at this!”
“...? What is it?”
“A Fire magic stone!”
“I’ve seen one of those before!” Ana said. “It’s that thing from the kitchen, right?!”
“Right! That old-timer, the gatekeeper, said the monsters from the forest won’t come near flames!”
“Y-you dummy, you won’t beat it like that.”
“Shut up! As long as I have this and my hero’s blade, I’m invincible!”
“But the gate’s already closed, right?”
“It’ll be fine. They close the irrigation gate last! We’re small enough to get out that way!”
“H-hey, are you actually going? Cut it out! Our moms and everyone will get angry with us!”
“Shut up! I’m not a wimp like you!”
“W-what’d you say?!”
“I’m a hero! Just watch! I’m going!”
“Yuuta, wait! I’m coming, too! Me, too!”
“Hey, hold on, you two!”
.....
“I-I’ve got nothing to do with this. I tried to stop them, so it’s not my fault...”
Night fell fast, and waited for no one.
Bang! Bang, bang! ...Bang!
“...?!”
I woke up to some sort of banging sound.
Bang! Ba-bang!
“Huh...? My door...?”
What do you want at this time of night?! Our restaurant doesn’t even serve dinner! Is this the first customer we’ve had in a while who doesn’t know that...?
I still wasn’t fully awake. I could hear someone shouting something, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. Dad and Mom must be up now, too.
Before long, I heard the sound of a door opening. It must’ve been Dad who opened it. Hopefully this customer isn’t too much trouble...
Ugh, I still can’t understand what they’re shouting. And it’s so noisy. Give me a break...
...Thud, thud, thud.
That was the sound of someone climbing the stairs. From the sound of those footsteps, it had to be Dad.
The footsteps stopped, and a voice called out from the other side of the door.
“...Anti, are you up?”
“I am now. Did somebody stop by?”
“He’s still here. Logg, I mean.”
“Logg...?”
What’s he doing here at a time like this?
“Apparently he’s got something to talk to you about.”
“Me?”
“Sorry, but could you come downstairs and see what he wants?”
“What does he want, in the middle of the night...?”
“I wasn’t happy about it, either. But he started crying and going ‘Please, please!’ He sounded really desperate.”
...? What’s going on? Usually that runt is super arrogant. Is it something urgent?
Hmph, guess I’ve got no choice. I’ll give him a chance to tell me what he wants, then give him a scolding.
Dad and I went down to the first floor and entered into the restaurant proper. Mom and Logg were waiting there. Dad wasn’t kidding. Logg really had the waterworks going.
“Hey! Did you and Yuuta fight again or—”
“Antiiiiii...!!!”
The moment our eyes met, Logg ran over to me as fast as he could and hugged both my legs.
I-I can’t move... And he’s seriously sobbing. It’s not normal for him to be crying this much. But just what exactly happened?
I tried to keep my tone as calm as possible. “Okay, we’ll forget how late it is for now... So, what happened?”
Logg’s sobbing slowed a bit, and he looked up at my face with a sniff, sniff.
“...went...”
“Hmm?”
“Yu... went...”
“Hey, Logg, you’re a man, right? Speak up.”
Tears spilled from Logg’s eyes. What he said next caused my heart to skip a beat.
“Yuuta and... Ana... they... left... to... defeat... the bergbear...!”
.....
You...
You’re messing with me, right...?
If they do that, they’ll die, right...?
Clutch!
I grabbed Log by his collar and pulled him closer as hard as I could.
“You mean outside?”
“Eep!”
“Did they go outside?”
“Y-yeah...”
“You... why didn’t you stop them?! Don’t you get it?! This is no joke!! You know what’ll happen if kids go outside now, right?!!!” I pressed him with a tone I would normally never even think of using with a visitor.
Logg was a good bit younger than I was, but that didn’t matter right now. Despite the angry look on my face and his trembling, he forced the words out.
“I tried! I tried to stop them! But they didn’t listen, and Yuuta... he was all, ‘I’m not a fake!’ He said he’d beat it... with a Fire magic stone from the kitchen... then he and Ana ran off!!”
“Damn! What about their parents!! Do they know?!!!”
“Things were real noisy... at their houses... so it’s probably... already out... that they’re gone... I saw that... from up in my room! I was scared, but... I was... I was too scared to tell their parents!”
“You idiot... So then why did you come to me...?”
He was just using a roundabout approach...
“When was this?”
“A-about 3 hors ago.”
“The gate was already closed by then, wasn’t it?”
“They said... the irrigation gate... was open...”
Damn...! That was some knowledge they would’ve been better off without...
“This is bad...”
“I’ll alert the gatekeepers. Sola, go wake up the neighbors, and let Yuuta and Ana’s families know what’s going on.”
“I’m on it.”
“Dad...! I’m coming, too!”
“Me, too...!”
“You two wouldn’t be able to do anything!”
“Would you be able to just sit and wait at home, Dad?!”
“...Good point.”
“Logg! Run like your life depends on it!”
“Y-yeah!!”
The white light of the moon pierced through the deep darkness as the three of us ran to the place where the gatekeepers were on night watch. Logg fell behind, but he ran as hard as he could to keep up.
Of the two people on night watch, one of them was that familiar old-timer.
“Hey, what’s going on, Derek? Annie, and Logg...? What’s up? What are the kids doing with you?”
“Torne, two kids went outside the town walls. Yuuta and Ana.”
“Please... tell me this is a joke, Derek...”
The old-timer’s shoulders sank weakly when he heard Dad’s words. They’ve known each other for ages, so he already knew it wasn’t a joke just from Dad’s tone.
“But the gate was closed! Nobody left!”
“They apparently used the irrigation gate. Logg heard them say so.”
“Damn it!! Konobo, go get everyone from the station! And some oil! We’re mounting a search!!”
“R-right!!”
The other man, a young guy wearing leather armor, took off running.
The number of voices and flames in the dark town behind us were growing.
Cardiff was a small town. The remains of the former village lay before the gates to town, and among those who were in the know, rumors spread fast. It wouldn’t be long before everyone knew the kids were missing.
As the moonlit town grew steadily noisier, an awful, inexpressible feeling welled up inside me.
It was then that it happened.
...Rooooooar...
“Stop...! Just please make it stop... I haven’t even had a drink today...” the old-timer said, as if he was pleading with the darkness.
“...The search has been called off.”
...Huh?
“Tell me why,” Dad said, not wasting any words.
“We’d need to use fire for the search.”
So what? Is that reason enough to just abandon children to their fate?
“What’s the matter with that?”
“If we were just talking wolves or something, they’d run from the flames. But this thing’s different. Fire would just attract him. We’d end up getting eaten before we could ever find Yuuta and Ana, without a doubt.”
“But...”
“So that’s reason enough?!” I shouted out without thinking. “That’s a good enough reason?! There’s two kids! We know they’re out there, and we’re just going to leave the gate closed and go on like nothing’s wrong?!! Old-timer! You’re a gatekeeper, aren’t you?! Are you really okay with this?!” I hounded, tears in my eyes.
“That’s not the only danger! The fire would lead it to the village... If we keep the gate closed, we could keep from provoking it. But if people come or go, it’ll learn that there’s food here. And a bergbear never leaves a place where there’s food to be had. It would settle down here and target us relentlessly... If that happened, it wouldn’t just be trade that dries up. We wouldn’t be able to travel to the adventurer’s guild. The town would die...”
“So... so that’s enough to—”
Dad’s hand shot out, motioning for me to be silent.
“What do you intend to do?”
“Searching the forest would just provoke it. Besides, we’re weaklings. If we ran into it, we’d just get eaten. We’ll send an envoy to Donius. That roar just now came from the small mountain in the depths of the forest. It should still be far enough from the highway that we can slip by it.”
“Will we be able to send out a search when morning comes?”
“...That’d be difficult. The best armor we’ve got in this town is two partial bits of orc leather armor. I can’t tell my subordinates to head off towards the threat of certain death. We’ll just have to pray that Yuuta and Ana can stay hidden until an adventurer arrives from Donius.” The old-timer choked back tears. It was true that the thought of going out with Dad to search for them made me want to call it quits. But even so, we wouldn’t ever accomplish anything if we just sat around waiting. Even if we just looked around a bit nearby, there was a chance we could get lucky and find them.
“Anti, Logg, go back home.”
“But...!”
“Go back!”
I could tell by the look on Dad’s face that he was serious, so I silently took Logg’s hand and walked quickly back in the direction of our house.
“M-Miss Anti...”
If we used fire, it would endanger the town...
But, the moon’s so bright tonight. The old-timer and his group are by the gate, so I can’t get out there. Isn’t there anywhere to slip out past the walls...?
“That’s it...!”
“Miss Anti...?”
I have to get there as soon as possible!
I let go of Logg’s hand and took off running.
“Miss Anti! Where are you going?!”