Chapter 80: The Bear Opens Shop, Day Two

Chapter 80:
The Bear Opens Shop
Day Two

 

WHEN I WENT to the shop the next day, Rulina and Gil were already there.

“Morning, guys.”

“Good morning, Yuna,” said Rulina. (Gil just grunted.) “It looks just like the rumors said.”

“What were the rumors? You mentioned them yesterday too, didn’t you?”

“It’s nothing odd. It’s just that word spread that the ‘bear adventurer is making a shop,’ and that it was apparently a mansion, and there were weird bear ornaments, and there was a nice smell coming from inside, and that the kids who work there look exactly like you. Those types of rumors.”

All of that was true, though hearing it all out loud was…odd.

“What are we supposed to do?” she asked.

“Like I explained yesterday, if any customers come by, please tell them that we’re opening in the afternoon. And please keep an eye on things to make sure there isn’t any trouble when the store opens. I don’t think anyone would hurt children, but better safe than sorry.”

“Fair enough. We’ve got Gil here, so I don’t think anybody’s going to talk back to us. If they do, they’d settle down with just a look from our guy.” Rulina smacked Gil’s sinewy back. It looked like she hit him pretty hard, but he didn’t so much as flinch.

“Okay, but they’re still customers, so please don’t, um. Kick their butts.”

“Oh, ’course not. Not civilians. We’ll just menace them a little.”

“If there’s something menacing can’t handle, just call me over. I’ll deal with it.”

I left the outside to the two of them and headed into the shop. The inside was overflowing with the mouth-watering scent of fresh bread. Morin and the kids bustled around the kitchen. While Morin and her daughter baked, they’d give instructions to the kids, who in turn would work their little selves as hard as they could. Some real future bakers among the little guys.

“Good morning, miss!” When one of them noticed me, the kids gave me an energetic greeting…but they still all looked pretty tired. Morin and Karin were used to this, but the kids absolutely were not. They were probably working late into the night yesterday to get things ready for today too. On top of that, they were bustling from the crack of dawn.

Well, they could rest after baking the bread till the store opened…but since their jobs involved fire and oil, it’d be dangerous to let them keep working while tired. I walked through the kitchen and placed my bear hands on the kids’ heads.

“Bear girl?”

One of the girls cocked her head to the side when I placed my hand on her head.

“Heal,” I said. “Hold in there for just a little longer.”

I used stamina-replenishing magic on all of the orphans. That’d keep them going for a while, but they were tilting their heads to the side in puzzlement like they didn’t understand what just happened. Finally, I did a once-over of the whole shop and headed back to Rulina. Right as I got outside, I walked into a conversation Rulina was having with a customer explaining the situation. The customer obediently went home after hearing what the deal was.

“Things okay?”

“Yes, once I explain things, they go right home.” She nodded at her partner. “Gil helps.”

“All I’m doing is standing,” said Gil.

“Like a muscled mountain, my guy.”

“Hrm.”

Yeah, your average citizen wasn’t willing to pick a fight with an adventurer.

“Are things going all right with the adventurers?” I asked.

“That’s going to be fine. I mean, whose shop do you think this is?”

“Uhh, mine?”

“Right, Bloody Bear. It’s your shop. You’re the one who knocked out nearly a dozen adventurers the first time you came by the guild, whacked a goblin king, and liquidated a freakin’ black viper. No idiot is going to pick a fight with you after that. If someone is stupid enough to try that, I think they’d be a fledgling adventurer or an outsider. At which point this here mountain,” she pointed back at Gil, “is going to get moving.”

“Mmhm.”

“Thanks, guys. You can eat anything you’d like once we open the shop.”

I went back indoors again and headed over to help everyone.

 

As I was helping out with kitchen prep, Rulina came in looking a little anxious. “Yuna, could I borrow you for a moment?”

“What’s up?”

“There’s a young lady who came by, and Gil and I are having a wee bit of trouble with her.” She looked a little worried. By “young lady” I guess she meant the person wasn’t an adult.

“Who is it?”

“An aristocrat girl.”

There was only one person who came to mind who fit that description. Then again, I didn’t know how many aristocrats there were in this town in the first place, so it wasn’t necessarily her.

“If she were a normal aristocrat,” Rulina added quickly, “we could manage.”

When I headed outside to check for myself, I found a blonde little girl lashing out at Gil. Yep. Figures.

“Please do kindly let me in. I have business with Yuna.”

“Wait. We are calling her over.” Still, Gil seemed troubled as he used his towering form to block the entrance from a child. And—unsurprisingly—this aristocrat girl was Noa. Since I couldn’t stand back and watch forever, I came out in front of the two.

“Noa, what’re you doing?”

“Yuna!” she broke out into a grin when she saw me before turning back to Gil and Rulina and fuming. “I told them I wanted to see you, but these ruffians wouldn’t let me inside!”

“I did ask them to guard the shop, Noa. I’m impressed that they knew you’re an aristocrat.”

“We have seen the young lady accompanying the lord many times,” said Rulina.

I see. Looks like Noa was famous around here.

“What’s up, Noa?”

“What is up? What is up is that I couldn’t stop by for a while because of Very Important Noble business, and then when I finally came by today, I see this! What is this shop!” Noa pointed at the chibi bears at the shop entrance. “These weren’t here when we were deciding on the shop name!” she said, delivering some impressive pouts.

“We talked about making the shop more ‘bearish’ before, right? So…I did.” Noa had been taken home by Lala before I made the bear ornaments. She hadn’t swung by since then.

“Ughhh. I simply cannot believe you made these while I was unaware,” she sniffled.

“Yeah, totally. Anyway, what brings you here today?”

“Pudding, naturally!” I just didn’t know what to do when she hit me with that disarming smile. “I actually wanted to come by yesterday, but I simply couldn’t. I would have come much earlier if I’d known there were these cute bears!”

Since I couldn’t send Noa away in a situation like this, I let her into the shop. The moment we got inside, Noa froze.

“Wh-Wh-What is this?” she yelled when she saw the bear ornaments in the shop. Then, she sidled closer to me and clasped my bear puppet. “Please, please do this to my house too!”

“Cliff would actually, physically melt if I did that.”

“I’ll convince him! Please make them for every room.”

“Let’s chill for a sec, okay? Okay. Just…keep yourself satisfied with this for now.” I took my hand back, made a tiny chibi bear statue, and handed it to Noa.

“Thank you very much. I will treasure this forever and always!”

“You don’t need to do that.” I really wouldn’t know what to do if she actually treated a doll made of dirt like a lifelong treasure. Noa preciously cradled her bear figure as she walked from one bear ornament to the next, looking positively gleeful.

“Yes, I see,” said Noa. She put her hands on her hips. “I shall be taking them all, Yuna.”

Obviously, I refused. “Actually, where were you, anyway?”

“I was behind on my studies from the visit to the capital, so my father assigned me a household tutor.”

Which made sense—she’d really done nothing but play at the capital. If she was an aristocrat’s daughter, then she needed to study. An ignorant aristocrat is worse than a smart one.

“But my father is terrible,” Noa groaned. “He won’t let me go outside at all.”

“Well, if you’re not studying up, what else can he do?”

“He could let me have a break every once in a while.”

“In that case,” I said with a wink, “the pudding is my treat…as long as you study hard.”

For the time being, I led Noa to a seat. If I left her alone, she’d go prowling around the shop forever—better to have a Designated Noa Zone. Even seated, she was still turning and looking all around the store.

“It’s still early,” I continued, “but would you like anything other than pudding to eat too?”

“Can I really?”

“Sure. Most of the stuff is simple to make, so we can bring it by right away. Oh, but you can only have one pudding. I have limited supplies.” I brought Noa a pudding, a small pizza, and some juice.

“You’re not opening yet? Isn’t it past your opening time?” she asked between mouthfuls of pudding.

“Stuff happened.” I gave her the gist of what happened yesterday.

“Well, naturally! After trying your food once, even I want to go tell everyone about it.”

“Even so, there were a lot more people than we were expecting.”

“Dearest Yuna, you’re so blissfully unaware! As pure and naïve as your pudding!”

“What does that even—”

“I dearly wanted to show you the hall where they presented your puddings for the king’s birthday festival.” She pointed her heaping spoonful of pudding at me and then immediately carted that into her mouth.

“I heard a little bit about that from the king. He said there were tons of inquirers asking him to tell them who made the pudding or something.”

“Of course! When the pudding first arrived, everyone was puzzled by the novel cuisine. But at the king’s recommendation, everyone tried it. From there, the hall was in a clamor!”

Had I started some kinda pudding riot? “Am I in trouble?”

“Whyever would you be?”

“If they figure out I’m selling it here, people might turn up trying to force me to teach them the art of pudding.” Which could put the orphans in danger.

“It’ll be okay. The king himself told my father to protect you. If anything happens, then everyone will be told this shop was opened under His Majesty’s instructions.”

“Really?” First I was hearing about it.

“I heard it from my father, so I think it’s true.”

“No one bothered telling me.”

“Out of consideration for you, I’m sure. You have a lot on your plate, Yuna. And please pretend you didn’t hear anything from me. He was also saying that the adventurers’ and trade guilds were given instructions too.”

Was that why the adventurers’ guild’s master came here to eat? Then again, Cliff was doing all those things for me without my knowledge. Sure, it was an order from the king, but I still needed to be grateful for this benevolent pudding conspiracy.

“I think that if my father is involved with the shop as the lord, and the royal family is involved further behind the scenes, you don’t have to worry about anyone harming you. If anything happens, you can tell my father and it should be all right.”

So I had the lord and the king himself backing me. The kids couldn’t be safer. I accepted the king’s sentiments with gratitude…though it wasn’t like I could decline them.

“Also, the pudding is delicious, but it’s all delicious. Bread and pizza. Even the atmosphere is delicious! I think people won’t be able to help but gather,” Noa said. The kid was making me feel naïve.

 

After talking with Noa for a while, I noticed that there was a clamor outside. I went out to check and found that a crowd had formed.

“What’s up?” I asked Rulina.

“When I told them that the shop would open in the afternoon, they said they’d start waiting.”

Fair enough. There wasn’t even half an hour until the shop would open, and it wasn’t that odd for customers to start lining up. “Rulina, could you have the customers form two lines? If any of them get agitated or try to cut, make sure to give them a warning.”

“Are you sure?”

“As long as they’re not causing any trouble. I mean, I guess this’ll cause some trouble for you.”

“Not really. I just need them to form two lines, then?”

“Yep, you got it.”

In the meantime, I’d have everybody working the shop eat and take a break so we wouldn’t have a repeat of yesterday. When opening time rolled around, the lines grew to about thirty people, but (thanks to Rulina and Gil) it was smooth sailing.

“Rulina, Gil, thanks.”

“It’s our job, so don’t worry about it. Make sure you treat us to lunch though.”

“I’ve got it ready, so you’re all set.”

This time, after we opened, we didn’t have any chaos. The customers obediently lined up and ordered as Mount Gil loomed.

Until we could mass produce the pudding, we were limiting them to one cup per customer. After talking to Noa, I thought we would have a lot of pudding orders, but many of them ordered hamburgers and pizzas. Made sense—it was lunchtime.

Then, at a good time for a break, I prepped the lunch I promised Rulina and Gil. “Thanks for your work,” I told them. Since they finished their job, I had them sit at a couple seats I prepared just for them.

“You weren’t kidding about the crowds,” said Rulina.

When opening time came, both the customers we turned away and the customers who knew the new business hours came all at once, filling the shop to full capacity.

“This really is delicious, though,” said Rulina. “The pizza and the hamburger…”

“Hrm.” Gil ate silently in front of Rulina. He didn’t seem unhappy.

“If you want more, just let me know. I can bring you more of anything other than the pudding.”

“Ah, the infamous pudding. I heard from Helen that it’s very good.”

“It’s sweet, though,” I said, “so sometimes guys complain about it.”

“It’s fine,” Gil rumbled. “Good. Yeah.”

“Yeah, it is good. Getting to eat this for a whole week is a great perk.”

“Well,” I said, “you could take up permanent employment with me. I have tons of things you could do.”

“Tempting, Yuna, but, I’d like to keep being an adventurer for a while.”

“Speaking of adventurers, what’re you going to do about Deboranay?”

“Ugh, him. I’m thinking of splitting from him and the rest. It was supposed to be temporary from the start, anyway. What are you going to do, Gil?”

“Unsure.”

“You could come work at the shop too, Gil.”

“Don’t cook. I fight.”

“Fine by me. I could put you in charge of security, and since there are kids who want to become adventurers, it’d be nice if you could teach them the different skills to become one.”

I think the reason why some of the kids wanted to become adventurers was because of me. I saved the orphans, and I was an adventurer, and so some kids apparently wanted to emulate me. To become “strong enough to protect the orphanage!” I overhead one kid say.

According to the headmistress, the orphans didn’t have a place to work even after growing up, so many of them would’ve taken up adventuring to begin with. She told me not to worry about it. Still, it would be much better if they learned from Gil rather than jump in without any skills or knowledge about fighting.

If they needed a place to work, I’d make one for them. I really didn’t want them to do anything dangerous.

“Also, I’d like you to protect the kids while I’m out of town. There’s tons of work for you.”

“I’ll think about it.”

I thought he’d turn me down, so I was surprised by his answer. I was convinced he’d say something dramatic like “My destiny lies with adventuring” or whatever.

“Take your time. You don’t have to tell me right away.” Fair enough—I wasn’t in a hurry.

Our second day passed without incident. The customers who came late looked disappointed as they went home without knowing the taste of pudding. Supply chains, man. They’ll always get you. If we had surplus eggs, I’d also wanna try making egg sandwiches…at least for myself.

Oh, and Lala whisked Noa away. Apparently Noa gave her the slip while studying. Noa cried and begged for help, but I couldn’t do anything.

I did not want to mess with Lala.

---

Chapter 81:
The Bear Buys Stock

 

SEVERAL DAYS HAD PASSED since the opening, and things were going great, except for the potato and cheese stock. We still had enough, but we were really living on the (starchy) edge with those. Before we ran out of stock, I decided I’d head out to the villages that provided them.

The potato village was closer. I rode on Kumayuru to get to the village right quick—Kumayuru was definitely faster. Were my summons becoming more powerful along with me?

I slowed down and entered the village, and…some stranger approached.

“Wh-who the heck are you?!” he asked, quivering. For a moment, I didn’t know why he was so freaked, but then I realized he was looking at Kumayuru.

“I’m the adventurer Yuna. This is my bear, so it’s safe.” I gave Kumayuru’s head a little pat to demonstrate.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, as long as you don’t try to hurt it. I’d like to see a guy named Zamoru. Is he around?”

“Zamoru?”

“Yeah, I met him at the capital. He sold me some spuds.”

The man relaxed his guard. “You’re that bear girl who bought from him?”

“Unless there are any other bear girls, yep.” Oh, I hope there aren’t. That’d be such a pain.

“You really are dressed as a bear. Zamoru told everybody that, but…okay, that bear of yours really is harmless, right?”

“It’s fine.”

I once again gave Kumayuru a pat on the head, and the little guy let out a satisfying “Cwooom…”

“Okay. I’ll call out Zamoru, so wait here. Don’t just head in; you’ll scare everybody.”

Made sense. Any normal villager would be scared if a bear just took a stroll through the village, so I did as he said as he went to get Zamoru. Some villagers watched me from afar and I could hear the man faintly tell them: “Zamoru knows her; she’s fine.”

Soon enough, the man brought Zamoru over.

“Long time no see,” I said, offering a friendly smile.

“A bear girl and a proper bear.” He looked at me, at Kumayuru, and back. “You know, I thought he was kidding about a bear girl riding a bear, but here we are. So, what do you need? Isn’t our appointment in Crimonia slated for later? You’re not here to complain because someone became sick, are you?”

Ugh, what a nasty thing to say. He could at least ask before making assumptions.

“No. I didn’t have enough spuds, so I came to buy more.”

“You must be joking. I sold you quite a few spuds at the capital.”

“Well, er. We weren’t prepared for preposterous popularity of the meals I prepared with the purchased potatoes, and now we’re practically plum out. It can’t wait until we meet in Crimonia. Not anymore.”

“I cannot believe it…”

Since there was nothing else I could do, I pulled the potato chips and fries from my bag. “I made these from the spuds.”

Zamoru ate the potato chips, made from his own sliced spuds.

“Oh. Hrm. Delicious.”

“They’re good for snacking, right? All I did was fry them up in oil and sprinkle some salt over them.”

“This, too, is soft and delicious.”

“Fried those in oil too.”

“Are you sure these are spuds?”

“Mhm. We even put them on pizza to eat, so we’re really working our way through them.”

“What is this…Peter-Sa you speak of?”

Oh, right. Duh. I pulled a pizza out from my bear storage too.

“Piz-za. Spuds are more of a side character in this show, but they’re still essential. Take a bite.”

Though Zamoru seemed surprised at seeing pizza for the first time, he ate it.

“Amazing! Does this really use the spuds I produced?”

“Yep. A lot. I mean, a lot. Please produce the potatoes?”

“Yes, of course I shall, but not immediately.”

Oh, right. He probably needed to dig them up or something. “I’m not in a rush yet, so that’s fine. But I’d like them sooner rather than later, so could you bring them to Crimonia when they’re ready?”

“All right. I’ll bring them right away.”

“Cool. In that case, have this.” I gave him an item bag I’d gotten from the robbers.

“And this is?”

“An item bag. I’ve never used it before, so I don’t know how much it can hold, but I think the spuds’ll fit.”

“An item bag? And you’re just going to… give this to me?”

“Eh, sure. When you’re not using it, you can let the other villagers use it. It’ll be easier to carry things with this, right?”

“It…really would, yes.”

“Then we’re golden. Just bring me the spuds.”

“Yes, of course! How many should I bring?”

“The same amount as last time will do just fine. There’s a shop called the Bear Lounge in Crimonia. Talk to a woman named Morin at the shop.”

“Morin from the Bear Lounge, is it?”

“You’ve got it.” I leapt onto Kumayuru’s back.

“You’re leaving already?”

“I have places to go, things to grab.” Kumayuru and I, we rode like the wind to the village in search of that finest of meltable goodness…cheese.

 

Faster than you’d expect, the village came into sight. I followed the directions of the old cheese-selling man. Based on his info, this seemed right.

This time, in order to keep from frightening the villagers, I had Kumayuru slow down and only dismounted once we drew near the town. A man carrying a spear still approached us, which was fair. I made sure to keep in front of Kumayuru so my little buddy didn’t get turned into a pincushion.

“You dress as a…bear?” Here we go again. “Were you possibly the girl who bought cheese at the capital?” At least he sounded chill about it.

“Yep, bought cheese, dressed as bear, all that. Can I talk to the guy? The, uh, cheese guy who sells stuff at the capital.”

The man nodded in understanding. “Yes. I heard about that matter from the village chief.”

“Did he tell you about me?”

“He said to allow ‘a girl in a bear outfit’ to enter the village. Since you were our mighty cheese-purchasing benefactor, he ordered the guards to treat you with the utmost respect.”

I glanced around. “You seem pretty heavily on guard. Did something happen?”

“Goblins recently turned up and started attacking the livestock. We’ve been on patrol ever since.”

Goblins, huh. So Kumayuru hadn’t been what he was afraid of…

“Well then, I’ll bring you to the village chief.”

“Um, can I bring my bear along?” Explaining the whole summoning bit seemed like a pain, but I’d also feel bad just leaving my bear.

The man furrowed his brow. “Unfortunately, I think not. I shall call the village chief, so could you wait here?”

Once again, I ended up waiting outside the village to avoid causing a stir. Eventually, the cheese guy came over.

“Oh, the bear lass! You came here after all!”

“I promised, didn’t I? You haven’t forgotten that you’d give me a discount on the cheese if I stopped by, right?”

“Why, of course not.”

The guard nodded. “Village chief, I will return to my patrol.”

“Yes, please do.”

The man bowed his head to me and went back to his post. The old man—or rather, the village chief—gave Kumayuru a long look. “So, lass, what is that bear?”

“It’s mine. Don’t worry about it.”

The village chief frowned as he looked at Kumayuru. Because it was a Large Bear.

“So,” I said, hoping to change the subject, “I heard that there are goblins attacking your livestock. Are things going all right?”

“Yes, we have strengthened our patrols, so we should fare fine.”

“You’re not submitting a quest to the adventurers’ guild?”

“We already did that, with the money you paid us in the capital, but…”

But nobody came. I guess the village was at the adventurers’ whims. They’d come if the reward was high, but after a while, all the requests look the same. Why not pick the closer one? I do the same, honestly.

“We are driving the goblins back as well as we can, but their numbers keep growing, and they’re decimating our cattle. At this rate, we won’t even be able to make cheese.”

No way. No…cheese? That was a life or death issue. This was unacceptable. There was only one thing I could do.

“I’ll kill the goblins. All of them.”

“What? All of the—” The village chief almost tripped over himself in surprise.

“Hey, I’m an adventurer. Don’t mind the bear onesie, it’ll be fine.” I showed him my guild card. The village chief seemed surprised as he looked at it.

“And I got my bear.” I gave Kumayuru a pat. The village chief looked at me and Kumayuru in turn. “Plus, no cheese would mean the death of pizza as we know it, y’know? And I can’t just abandon this village to the goblins either.”

“Are you really going?”

“For the glory of cheese.”

 

With Kumayuru, I headed into the goblin-filled woods. Apparently, they couldn’t even set foot in ’em for all the goblins. When I used my Detection skill, it pinged them all over the place.

“Okay, buddy,” I said, giving my bear a pat. “Let’s do this.”

I gave Kumayuru a pat and we broke out into a run at the goblins.

Needless to say, it ended quickly. Goblins eradicated, I headed back.

“Lass, did you give up then?” the cheese-selling village leader asked. He waited at the village entrance, worried.

“See for yourself. There’s not a single goblin left in the woods. There was an orc in there, so I killed it, too. You’re good to go.”

“Very funny, girl.”

At which point I pulled out all the goblin corpses, plus the orc corpse, out of my bag in front of him. Thinking of the future, I mowed down every single monster.

“Why, these are…!”

“Extremely dead, yeah.”

“You really did defeat the goblins…”

The chief grew all misty eyed. It was sweet but. Come on. After a while, even the villagers noticed that the village entrance was piled high with goblin corpses and started to gather.

“Chief, what is this?”

“I think you won’t believe me, but this lass dressed in the bear clothes just really…” He rubbed his eyes, emotional. “Absolutely wiped out these creatures. Is that what you said?”

It was. The villagers looked at me. For all their internal doubts, when they listened to the chief and saw Kumayuru, they did believe me about all the cool goblin killing that I did.

Appearances really did matter, huh?

 

In exchange for having the villagers dispose of the dead monsters, I gave them the mana gems. The villagers started clearing everything and I headed into the village with the chief. Of course, Kumayuru came too. No one turned us away.

Then, I was led to the place where the cheese was stored. This was an underground warehouse lined with all varieties of cheeses.

“Are you sure?”

I was getting cheese as a thank you.

“Of course. This is all we can do for you.”

We discussed the future cheese with the chief. Until now they only made enough for the villagers to eat, but that was no good—if I bought it all, they’d run out of their stock right away. We agreed to a contract where I’d periodically buy cheese and he would make it for me.

“Do you really enjoy our cheese that much…?” He began to get teary-eyed again. This old man sure had some overproductive tear glands.

“Just make me some delicious cheese, okay?”

“Yes, all right. I’ll put my body and soul into making it.”

Then, we went around the village and he showed me all kinds of livestock. When I asked him on a whim to show me how to make cheese, he obliged. Wasn’t it the village’s secret technique or something though?

When I asked him that, he whispered, “There’s no reason to hide that from you, the savior of the village.”

Neat. I just exterminated some goblins. It was…whatever. Made me feel almost guilty? Then again, it wasn’t like I was going to try making the cheese somewhere else just because I learned how to make it.

Then they had a welcome party for me, but I think I was the one who made it pop: in order to show them just how wonderful their cheese was and to thank them, I made ovens and treated them to pizzas with their very own cheese.