Chapter 85: The Bear Reaches Mileela Seaport

Chapter 85:
The Bear Reaches Mileela Seaport

 

WITH A LITTLE HELP from wind magic, I cleared the snow piled up in front of the cave and stepped out to see clear skies. It was so sunny that yesterday’s blizzard could’ve been a bad dream. Such bright skies were a pretty rare sight for a former recluse like me.

The couple left the cave first as I put the bear house away in my bear storage. When I headed outside, I found them stumbling a little through the fresh snow.

“Yuna, dearest, what are you going to do about your house?” asked Yuula.

Ever since they opened their hearts to me yesterday, they moved from calling me “Ms.” Yuna to getting positively sappy. I still liked it better than “Ms.”

“I used magic to bring it out, so I can put it away too.”

“Yuna, you really must be an amazing adventurer,” said Damon.

“I’m just an ordinary one.”

Which was a little weird to say, and a kinda obvious lie. If there was another adventurer who wore a bear outfit like this, climbed a mountain solo, and could pull out and put away an entire house whenever she felt like it, I’d like to see it.

“All right, guys, I’m going to call the summons I told you about yesterday night. Pre-bear yourselves.” I thrust out both my hands and, just like that, Kumayuru and Kumakyu appeared.

“Whoa, you weren’t kidding about those bears.”

“Oh dear, are we riding these?”

I guess it’s one thing to know about something and another to see it. “You two can ride on my black bear, Kumayuru.”

“It won’t attack us, right?” They cautiously approached Kumayuru.

“Sure, as long as you don’t do anything to hurt or insult them.”

Damon blinked. “As long as we don’t…I’m sorry, are you saying they can understand us?!”

“Yep. Kumayuru, could you please crouch down and let them get on you?” Kumayuru squatted in response.

“Uh…Kumayuru…” Damon sputtered. “I’m just so, so excited about traveling with you.”

“Cwooooom.”

“Wow!” Damon looked like a kid in a toy store. “It really understands what we’re saying!” Damon hopped onto Kumayuru’s back.

“Please get on too, Yuula. We’re about to head out.”

Yuula nodded and climbed on behind her husband. Kumayuru slowly stood up—I think when it comes to adults, two is probably the max for Kumayuru.

“I don’t think you’ll fall off,” I said, “but make sure you hold on tightly.”

I hopped on Kumakyu and we headed off for the seaport. Progress was slow, starting at a walk, only speeding up as the two got used to riding giant magical bears. We couldn’t go that fast in mountainous terrain, but it was better than walking.

Mountain weather was fickle. There was a chance it’d storm again, so I sped us up a bit on our way up the mountain. I fought off some snowmin along the way with fire magic. Since Kumayuru was there, things would probably be fine, but even any monster attacks would be a complication I didn’t need.

“You’re so calm about it all, Yuna dear.”

“Yeah, whoa…”

Until they met me, the two hid when they found monsters or changed paths. It wasn’t like you could beat snowmin by just whacking them upside the head or whatever, so I guess normal people had to run.

Eventually we reached the other side of the mountain, and the limitless blue ocean spread out before us like the sparkling waters of a dream. The sea waited for me. The kraken too, I guess, which was…less great, if you ask me.

Anyway, just because I could see the ocean didn’t mean it was actually close. The ocean was just big. It felt kind of like the same distance as going down from the top of Mount Fuji, I think?

(Not that a hermit like me had ever climbed Mount Fuji. I only experienced it through TV. If my hermit body tried to heave itself up Mount Fuji, things would get pretty dire pretty fast. I really needed to be more grateful for my bear summons.)

The ocean spread out before us, far away and sunlight-dappled, and we headed for it.

 

The bears started to run down around the peak of the mountain range. The couple on Kumayuru was making a commotion since earlier. All kinds of annoying stuff. “Please stop,” “This is too fast,” and “We’re gonna die.” Totally ungrateful!

Admittedly, we were going downhill pretty quickly, but why couldn’t they enjoy it? Pretend it was a roller coaster or something. This was…probably what a roller coaster was like, right? For people who go outside?

A few hours and a short break later, we’d gotten to the base.

“You two doing okay?”

“Yes, I’m managing.”

“I-I’m fine.”

Their yelling died down partway, and they just resorted to holding Kumayuru for dear life.

Damon sighed. “It’s just that…well, it took us so long to get up that mountain, and we came so far. You took us back down just like that.”

All three of us had traveled for a while now, hadn’t we? But it was thanks to my bear summons that we managed it, in the end.

 

We dismounted from my bears partway after getting down from the mountain and headed to the seaport on foot. Damon and Yuula told me that we’d give the seaport a scare if we headed in on the bears after all. I guess bears really were generally seen as fuzzy brutes.

“We really did end up back here in a day,” they sighed. It was twilight, and we finally reached the town. The sea breeze moaned. Here we were at last—the ocean!

When we got close to the seaport, we ran into a guy. “Damon, you’ve come back!”

“Yeah, we had to turn back. We were on the verge of dying, and this girl saved us.”

The guy looked at me. “A…bear?”

“I’m the adventurer Yuna.”

I showed him my guild card.

“An adventurer…?” the guy repeated. Yeah, yeah. Surprised that a girl in a bear suit was calling herself an adventurer, etc. He looked from me to the guild card several times. I tried not to blame him too harshly for it.

“You’re sure?”

“I am.”

Damon nodded. “She fought off any monsters that tried anything on our way here. Yuna’s much stronger than she looks.”

The man looked at me curiously. “So, Damon, you didn’t reach Crimonia after all?”

Damon shook his head. “Gave up halfway. That’s when she saved us.”

“Gotcha. Bear lass, thanks for saving Damon and Yuula.”

“I just found ’em and did what anybody would’ve done. Don’t worry about it.”

“I see. Damon must’ve told you about the state of the village, but we still welcome you with open arms.”

With that, the guy let us in.

 

“What are you going to do now, Yuna?”

“Sleep. It’s late, and tomorrow’s going to be a nightmare. If you could show me an inn, that’d be a big help.”

“An inn?” Damon sighed. “There’s a chance they won’t serve food though.”

“That’s fine. I’ve got food, so all I need right now is sleep.” If I couldn’t find a place, I could still look for somewhere deserted and set up the bear house.

“In that case, Yuna, why don’t you come stay at our house rather than an inn?” asked Yuula.

“Nah. You’re finally getting to see your family again, aren’t you? I’ll be fine.”

“But you gave us so much food…”

I put wolf meat, flour, and veggies in an item bag I gave them yesterday. They hadn’t even had an item bag, but they were still on their way to Crimonia in order to buy stuff and then carry all of that back over the mountain. They were reckless, to say the least…but I guess that’s what hunger does.

“Just show me around the town if you want to thank me.”

The two tried to give me money for the food, but I turned them down. I didn’t even want them to walk me to an inn, but they practically begged me to at least let them do that. As much as they wanted to bring food to their family, they wanted to give me that small gift first.

 

We walked through town for a bit, but there was no liveliness there—not many people out and about. It was desolate even for sundown, and the plaza was dead. At least there weren’t many people around to gawk at the bear girl this time.

“Normally this would be filled with tons of food carts,” Yuula said sadly.

“But because we can’t catch fish due to the kraken, no one’s been doing business.”

“And since ships can’t come in, people haven’t been coming in from nearby either.”

“Right,” I said. “Now, you said the fish are being managed by the trade guild or something?”

“Yes. All they’re thinking about is money.”

They were supposedly distributing the fish, but apparently they were flush with bribes from the rich and the desperate. But then, what else did you expect from merchants? In the end, everything came down to their bottom line. I could practically see them looking over their pocketbooks, wondering how much they could afford to gouge without causing too much unrest. Even Crimonia’s trade guild could get ruthless about profits. I preferred it when they were helping me make pizza.

 

“Damon!”

As we were walking toward the inn, someone called out to Damon from behind. A man about Damon’s age raced toward us.

“Jeremo?”

“When did you come back?”

“Just now.”

“I see. When I heard you went over the mountain, I could barely believe it.”

“We were almost out of food, Jeremo. We didn’t have a choice.”

“I’m sorry to hear it. What’s with that girl in the strange getup over there?” He looked from Damon to me.

“That’s Yuna. She’s an adventurer. She saved us when we collapsed in the snow, gave us food, and got us back to the seaport.”

Jeremo raised an eyebrow. “She’s an adventurer? I mean, the, uh—we’re both talking about the girl here…in the bear outfit, right?”

“Yuna, this is Jeremo. He works at the trade guild.”

“The corrupt price gougers?” I said, staring right at Jeremo.

“Jeremo’s not quite like the rest,” said Damon.

Jeremo winced. “An interesting way to put it.”

“Better than saying you’re in with them, right?”

“Fair enough. Nice to meet you, Yuna. I’m Jeremo, and yes, I really do work at the trade guild.” He kept ogling the bear outfit.

“I’m Yuna, and yes, I really am an adventurer. And no, I’m not going to answer any questions about the bear clothes. Don’t even ask.”

Jeremo immediately cut off whatever question he was about to ask. Even if he asked me questions, I couldn’t answer most of them, and I really didn’t feel like it anyway. “I’m just thankful you saved Damon. What did you go up the mountain for?”

“To see the ocean.” But mostly to get seafood, but I left that part out.

“That’s it? You…climbed a mountain for that?” He looked exasperated. “I really can’t believe a little maiden could’ve climbed that mountain.”

“We couldn’t believe she saved us either, but then we saw her wipe out some monsters without breaking a sweat.”

“If you’re that strong, miss,” said Jeremo thoughtfully, “then maybe you could help out the adventurers that came in the other day and beat up the bandits?”

“There are other adventurers?” I thought they’d all left.

He nodded. “A C-Rank party came by the high road the other day.”

“Huh. Really?”

“Yes, and the guild master at my work reached out to them immediately. There’s a chance they might be pulled into the trade guild. There’s also lots of people who want to leave the seaport, so they may take a job guarding them and get out of town.”

“That’s true. Hopefully they’re a good party of adventurers.”

A short silence flowed between us.

“Well then,” said Jeremo, “err. I better be getting back to work. Damon, Yuula—I’m glad you’re safe. Young miss, I…wouldn’t stick around this seaport too long.”

And so we went our separate ways.