Chapter 84: The Bear Saves People

Chapter 84:
The Bear Saves People

 

THERE WERE PEOPLE in the blizzard.

They had to be adventurers like me, right? Who else would enter a blizzard like this? Had they come all this way to slay monsters? Then again, Ellelaura said that the mountain range was harsh, and the monsters weren’t worth it. Why would adventurers climb here?

Whoever it was, it’d be an issue if they saw Kumakyu and flipped out. I decided to avoid them with the help of my handy-dandy Detection skill and turned away. Hmm. No movement from the signals.

I wondered if it was one of those things—a bivouac? Maybe there was a cave there? If so, I guess it’d be fine if I kept going on the same course, right?

I couldn’t decide what to do except go forward. If they were sheltering in place, then they probably wouldn’t notice me anyway. Even if they did see me, I don’t think they’d pick a fight.

The blizzard grew stronger and stronger, and I followed the signals through it.

It didn’t turn out to be a cave, a rock, an igloo or whatever. I didn’t even find people standing there…but there were signals. Which had to mean…they were buried in the snow? Oh no.

I concentrated my eyes and looked it over again. The whole surface was covered in white and I didn’t see anything human-like. Okay, maybe not? As I looked around, Kumakyu reacted. When I looked in that direction, I found something that looked like a backpack buried in the snow.

I jumped off of Kumakyu, sprinted toward it, and started digging down into the snow, quick as I could. Under the layers of cold I found a man and woman lying on the ground, huddled together.

“Are you all right?!”

I summoned wind magic and blew the rest of the snow away from them. I shook them. Nothing worked. They were out cold, but still breathing. I summoned Kumayuru and put them on my bears.

If there wasn’t a shelter from the snow, I’d have to make one. Quietly as I could, watching for any signs of an avalanche, I hollowed out a hole in the mountain wall. Kumayuru and Kumakyu followed me inside, and—safe for now—I pulled out the mobile bear house I used on my journey to the capital.

I brought the two of them into the bear house and put them on the sofa. A few layers of blankets could help, but it wouldn’t be enough. I raised the bear house’s heat, too—mostly I like keeping the temperature of the place moderate temperature, but this called for more. A fire gem did the trick and turned up the heat. And that was it. Now I could only wait.

I worked up a real appetite what with the mountain climbing and the blizzard hiking, and they weren’t going to be up for a while, so it was time for a meal! I whipped up something warm to eat and a refreshing beverage and headed inside to check on the others.

“Wh-Where is this place?”

“Bear house. You’re up?”

The woman gazed at the room around her foggily before finally looking at me.

“Are…are you a bear?”

“Yuna’s the name, adventuring’s the trade. I found you on the snow mountain. Do you remember?”

The woman frowned for a moment. Then she suddenly shouted out: “Damon!”

“That the guy’s name? He’s still sleeping.” I pointed at the sofa next to her.

The woman took a deep, relieved sigh. “Thank goodness. Did you save us?”

“I was in the neighborhood. I found you two collapsed in the snow. Lucky thing that I did too.”

“Thank you so much. My name is Yuula. This is my husband Damon.” Yuula bowed her head. She had to be what, twenty-five years old or so? Then again, there were people here like Ellelaura, so who could say? She looked a little cold even with the blanket, so I handed her warm milk.

“What were you two doing in a place like that?” While adventurers didn’t come here often, she and Damon looked as far from adventurers as you could get.

“We came from the Mileela seaport and were heading to Crimonia.”

“Oh—Mileela’s the place beyond this mountain, right?” That ocean town—my destination.

“Yes, that’s right. We were partway through going over the mountain to Crimonia to buy food at their markets, but we were so exhausted.”

“Food? Why would you cross a mountain full of blizzards for food?”

“It seems that word hasn’t reached Crimonia then,” Yuula said, bowing her head.

“Huh?”

“About a month ago, a monster appeared in Mileela’s sea.” There were ocean monsters? Well, why wouldn’t there be? “It’s a kraken, the adventurers say. It appeared near the harbor and it’s been tearing ships to pieces. You can’t enter and you can’t leave.”

In the game, the kraken was an ocean event boss. Your standard big murder squid. It was weak against fire and lightning, but fire damage gets halved in water zones. Lightning was super effective, but remember the bit about oceans? You could really mess up your own party if you cast a lightning spell wrong surrounded by water. Ugh, I hated that boss—melee classes like mine were useless against it, so if you weren’t casting, you were flailing around with your weapon in vain.

“In addition, because the kraken appeared, ships from other seaports haven’t been coming in with any shipments. We were hoping to find food in Crimonia…”

“You don’t have an adventurers’ guild back home? Couldn’t they all join forces and kill the squid?”

Yuula shook her head. “We have no adventurers who could defeat a kraken.”

Even if the kraken was an event monster, it still counted as a boss. What kind of power would that translate to here? Who could defeat something like that?

“Couldn’t you just eat fish,” I asked, “instead of risking going over the mountain to get to Crimonia?”

Yuula shook her head. “We can’t send out any ships, even into the shallows. They get attacked no matter where they are, and the kraken gets closer every time it attacks. Since then, we’ve been restricted from sending out ships or even going near the ocean.”

Yeah, if the kraken came to port, food would be the least of their worries.

“Couldn’t you fish without sending out ships? Use fishing rods and such?”

Again, Yuula shook her head. “We fish, but we catch so little. And only certain people are allowed to fish.”

“Why?”

“When too many people gather along the waterfront, the kraken shows up. We can’t let too many people go. The fish they do catch are managed and distributed by the trade guild. Since there isn’t much to go around, we don’t get any of it.”

As I listened to Yuula talk about the seaport, the man on the sofa started to stir and opened his eyes.

Yuula almost ran right up to him. “Damon, are you all right?”

“Yuula? We’re…we’re okay?” The man sat up and gripped Yuula’s hand.

“The adventurer here, Ms. Yuna, helped us.”

“A bear?”

Aaaaand here we go again.

“Damon, that’s rude. She helped us when she found us collapsed in the snow.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Yes, I’m Damon. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. But…where is this place?”

“This is my house.” Well, the mobile one.

“So we were saved…”

They embraced. Sappy stuff, but they earned it. To make him feel more at home, I went to the kitchen, warmed up some milk, and brought it to Damon.

“Thank you. You’re a lifesaver.” He started slurping it down immediately. They started to settle in and calm down.

“But why’re you on the mountain range?” I asked. “It’d be scenic, but isn’t there a coastal road?” That’s what I heard, at least. Why risk their lives on the mountain?

“Well…” Damon began, and trailed off into a weary sigh.

Yuula picked it up from there. “A little while after the kraken turned up, bandits started appearing on the coastal road. Anyone who left town or went to buy food was attacked. The roads aren’t safe.”

“Even if they can’t handle the kraken, why couldn’t adventurers handle a couple bandits? Couldn’t you have submitted a quest at the town?” Famines affect everybody, including adventurers.

The two shook their heads. “We can’t. The high-ranking adventurers were hired by people fleeing the seaport. They’re all gone.”

“Only low-ranking adventurers are left now…”

The adventurers couldn’t defeat the kraken, and they couldn’t defeat the bandits. The high-ranking adventurers left without doing their jobs.

What a nightmare. They couldn’t fish, couldn’t send ships to sea, couldn’t get food from other towns, and couldn’t get past all the bandits on the roads. And the adventurers were useless. And there weren’t enough fish in the shallows.

“What about the mountains?” There had to be something. This was ridiculous! “Why not hunt in the mountains?” If there were wolves here, there had to be something for them to eat.

“We can hunt a little on the mountains, but not much. What we’ve managed to hunt has been gouged by our own merchants!”

“Do the other harbors know that Mileela’s sea is being attacked by the kraken? Is the country not doing anything?” Sure, this wasn’t the capital, but couldn’t soldiers help?

“Oh, we aren’t under the king…under any king. But that means no one will help us.”

“Really?”

Yuula nodded. “I hear that the seaport was created long ago by refugees from a war-torn era.”

No adventurers, no food, and no country. They were completely cornered. No one could do a thing, except…maybe me? But how could I fight? Even my bears can’t fight in an ocean.

“What are you going to do now?” I asked.

“If possible, we’d head to Crimonia.”

“Could you really get back to the seaport from Crimonia? You got lucky this time.” They hadn’t even reached their goal.

“If we don’t, our children and parents will have nothing to eat…”

They sounded so defeated; they were probably remembering their journey so far. Sure, they were going to keep going for their goal…and maybe end up completely buried.

I could just let them head out after this, but I couldn’t just leave them to die. I had nearly five thousand wolves for food and tons of flour to make bread and pizza. I had enough food to rot…not that it could, in my storage.

“Um, so where are we now?” asked Damon.

“We’re in the mountains.”

“Huh?” “What?”

The two were surprised. I guess anyone would be after hearing that there’s a house in the middle of the mountains.

“We’re in a cave near where you two collapsed.”

“You’re serious?”

“If you think I’m lying, you can check for yourself.”

The two of them looked outside the bear house from the window. Even from within the cave, we could see the blizzard howling outside.

“There’s a house in this cave?”

“Yep. It’s magic.”

“That’s amazing!”

“That’s how I got this far.” Without my bear stuff, I never would’ve come up this mountain. Bear suit, bear summons, bear house, and bear storage…what would I do without them? “Also, about the food thing from earlier—I’ve got some food, so I’ll share.”

“Really? If you’d spare us some, that would be wonderful, but…how much would you charge us?” Damon produced a leather bag and spilled silver and copper coins across the table. They likely gathered together all the money they had in their household. It wasn’t a lot by my standards.

“This is everything we have. The more you’d be willing to part with, the more it would help.” Damon bowed his head, going pretty low and humble for a girl my age. Then again, if he’d been arrogant and demanded the food, I would’ve turned him down.

“I don’t need money. Just let me ask you for a favor.” I had wolf stock to spare.

“What’s that?”

“Show me around the town when we get there.”

“Are you sure that’s all?”

“That’s it. I’m not going to ask for anything unreasonable.”

Though if the kraken weren’t around, I would’ve asked them to introduce me to their most recommended fishmonger. For now, I guess I just needed to make it into town.

“Thank you.” More deep bowing. Man, they were being so polite to a girl in such strange clothes. This really was dire. “More importantly, you must be tired after today, right? I’ll prep food, so just rest after eating. Once the blizzard dies down, we’ll head out bright and early.”

I prepared some warm meals for them. They cried softly as they ate. I guess they hadn’t been eating much at the seaport. Half-starved and trying to climb a mountain…jeez. Once they were done eating, I led them to the bedroom upstairs.

As for me, I snuggled under the covers in my room, hoping to wipe away one exhausting day.