Chapter 92: The Bear Gets a Reason to Defeat the Kraken

Chapter 92:
The Bear Gets a Reason to Defeat the Kraken

 

ATOLA TOOK ME, the one who rounded up the bandits once and for all, to the trade guild. She insisted I come, no matter what I said, though I don’t think she really needed me there. Still, according to Atola, the bandits would behave themselves if they knew I was around.

When I asked her why she was going out of her way to bring the captured bandits to the trade guild, she said it was because she wanted to see a certain someone’s reaction. And the reaction was something to remember, I’ll admit. The moment the trade guild master saw the leader of the bandits, his expression became…a lot.

Maybe I punched the guy too much?

 

“What a nice item bag,” Atola said. “I wonder if the insides are as pretty as the outside?” And she upended it all.

A staff member gaped down at the contents of the bag. “Hey, what is this? How much did he have in here?!”

“Huh? I’m sure I saw this at Dormin’s house,” said another.

“That’s Douje’s,” someone else added.

The townspeople began to stir, recognizing their belongings among the heap of items on the ground.

“That’s mine,” a woman whispered. “The bandits stole that when they caught me.”

She was one of the bandit’s captives. She ran over to pluck a small, red gemstone ring from the pile and held it close, tears flowing from her eyes.

“Alam…” she said. Then she stood up and shouted, “Give Alam back to me!”

She ran to the trade guild master and slapped him.

“Give back the man you ordered the bandits to kill! Give Alam back…”

The woman collapsed, sobbing, and the townspeople exploded with rage. They threw rocks at the man, covering him in bleeding gashes. Some of the rocks hit the adventurers’ guild staff member who was holding him, but the people didn’t let up. The trade guild’s staff stood stock-still and watched, dazed.

“Stop that!” Atola yelled. At the sound of her voice, the townspeople quieted down. “I will deal with this man. I swear upon my name as the master of the adventurers’ guild.”

The stones dropped to the ground. It was over.

 

We caught the ringleader, and everyone who conspired with him. Atola was true to her word, and everything was wrapped up by sunset. Finally…it was dinnertime.

“You’re back.” Deigha was there to welcome me. “I didn’t think you’d actually apprehend the bandits! Now I can go do business with neighboring towns again. You have no idea how grateful I am. Thank you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I actually would have liked to do something about the kraken though.”

“Aha ha ha! Thanks, but that’s impossible. Any kid knows how strong the kraken is. All we can do is pray that it leaves the waters.”

“Sorry.”

“No need to be sorry! We’re already just happy that you took out those bandits. And now we’ve got wolf meat and flour to boot thanks to you, right?”

Hadn’t I asked the adventurers’ guild to keep that a secret?

“Only some of us know, and the adventurers’ guild master sworn us to secrecy—you’d be embarrassed, she said, and we didn’t need to thank you.”

“It’s just a pain, is all.” I really meant what I said, okay? It wasn’t a big deal. Honestly.

But Deigha just smiled.

I scarfed down the dinner Deigha cooked. As I headed to my room, he called out, “I still owe ya the best meal ever, so make sure you come to the dining hall tomorrow at lunch. I’ll have something real good for you.”

“You sure? You haven’t got many ingredients though, right?”

“Don’t worry yourself about that. It’s the least I can do.”

“Okay, got it. I’m looking forward to it.”

I went back to my room, changed into the white bear clothes to wipe away the exhaustion from the day, and summoned Kumayuru and Kumakyu in their cub forms as guards. Kumakyu seemed to be acting a little weird, though. It was stooped over and wouldn’t look at me, as if it was sulking.

Ohh. I was with Kumayuru all day and hadn’t even summoned Kumakyu once. Oops. I needed to do something about this, but so many things had happened today that I was exhausted and sleepy. Kumakyu would have to settle for a sleep cuddle as an apology.

“Sorry. C’mere, buddy.” I wrapped Kumakyu in my arms. Mm, so soft. Exhausted and warm next to my soft bear, I fell asleep right away.

 

The next morning, when I woke up, Kumakyu’s mood was better and there was no sign of Kumayuru sulking. Whew. I dismissed the bears, changed into the black bear clothes, and went downstairs.

Blitz and the others were in the dining hall, apparently getting ready to leave.

“Are you leaving town?”

“Yeah, but not for long,” said Blitz.

“The bandits are gone,” said Rosa, “and the people in the seaport are heading to the hamlet nearby to buy provisions. We’ve been hired to guard them.”

“Mmhm. The trip there and back will probably be about ten days. If all goes well, we’ll be able to shorten it and come back sooner.”

“Ah, gotcha. I don’t know if I’ll be here by then, so I’m just going to say it now: thanks for everything, guys.”

Blitz snorted. “You’ve got it all wrong. We’re the ones who’re thankful to you. If you hadn’t been there, we wouldn’t have been able to take down those bandits. I don’t know what would have happened to us if we’d lost to Omos. Thank you so much, really.”

Maybe they didn’t see it, but these party members had helped me. As someone without much life experience, I hadn’t been able to think of anything to say to the captured women. Sure, I was the one to defeat the bandits, but Blitz and the others dealt with all of the aftermath. I hadn’t done any of that.

“Well then, we’re off.”

“See you again, Yuna.”

“Give my regards to Kumayuru.”

“Let’s meet again.”

“Take care, guys.”

Blitz raised his hand in response as he left the inn. I ate my breakfast, then headed out to get some fresh air too.

 

All around the seaport, the townspeople’s faces seemed to brighten as they caught sight of me. Kids would come running up to me and cheerfully greet “the bear.” I guess word spread all over town that we eliminated the bandits.

Down by the adventurers’ guild, Atola and her staff were swamped. They inherited the responsibility of handling the trade guild’s fish and food monopoly, and Atola seemed downright frazzled. Made me nostalgic for just a few days ago, when she was day drinking in the guild and looking bored. She looked like she could use a treat, so I handed her some pudding.

After leaving the adventurers’ guild, I bumped into Jeremo from the trade guild—you know, that guy I met when I first arrived.

“Oh, it’s you, miss. Thanks for what you did the other day.”

“What are you doing here?”

“Work for the trade guild. The guild master and the other members were taken in, and, well…as a lower rung on the ladder, I ended up with a ton of work.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Being low in the pecking order spared me getting pulled into the guild master’s schemes, at least.”

The trade guild master was refusing to talk, even after all of this. There was no mistaking that he hired the bandits, and the townspeople wanted to see him punished. I did too, especially after what the bandits had done to their hostages. But with seaport’s mayor gone and no replacement in sight, Atola was holding off on figuring out how to try and sentence Zallad. She knew it couldn’t last, but she had a mountain of pressing work to do. It could wait a little while.

There were a ton more places where they could fish now that the bandits were gone, and the adventurers’ guild needed to equally distribute it all. Atola also had to secure the fortunes stolen from the people killed by the bandits. Normally, the party and I would claim the loot for ourselves, but Blitz and I weren’t doing that. We wanted the captured women and families of those killed to get their stuff back, but there were a number of cases where the whole family was killed, leaving no one to inherit.

“You’re the one who defeated them, Yuna. As for us, we won’t take a single coin.” Blitz said, irritatingly. The women didn’t argue—I guess they respected Blitz’s opinion, when all was said and done.

When I got back to the inn that afternoon, a delicious smell wafted over me.

“Oh, so you’re back. It’s almost done, so sit and wait.”

As I waited, an even more mouth-watering smell drifted in from the kitchen. Just a few minutes later, the meal came. It was the first time I’d ever seen this food…in this world. It was a food I knew well.

“Rice…”

“What? You already knew about it? It pairs great with fish.”

Before me was a heaping helping of pure, white rice. Beside it, roasted ocean-caught fish, and…no way, was that really miso soup? I took a sip, and…oh man. Definitely miso. My favorite veggies soaked in it, and it was just…what can I say but delicious? One sip, another sip, and now I was downright slurping. So nostalgic, so good! I wolfed down the fish and the rice too.

I was downright brimming with nostalgia.

Rice! And the perfect miso soup to go with the rest of it!

I became curious about the liquid in the bottle next to the fish? There was no way it could be…but maybe, right? I could just pour the liquid over the fish and pray. It was slightly reddish-black. I closed my eyes and took a liquid-dabbed bite of the fish.

There was no mistake—this was it. This was soy sauce.

White rice and miso soup. Roasted fish and soy sauce. I was done for. It was so good. I hadn’t thought I was this starved for a Japanese meal.

“Miss, are you crying? I thought the fish would go well with these sides, but I guess not? Or is it the fish you don’t like?”

I was crying? “No, that’s not it. It’s really great. Your food is so good that I just started crying.” Ugh, how embarrassing. I smiled through the tears.

“You mean it?”

“Yeah, it’s (sniffle) super good.” As proof, I got to work putting the rest of the rice and fish away.

“I’m happy to hear that, but…you aren’t just forcing yourself to eat it, are you?”

Maybe he thought I was just forcing it down my throat even though it tasted bad? “No, this is the flavor of my home. I thought I’d never be able to have it again. I’m so happy.”

“This is your hometown’s flavor? You’re not from the Land of Wa, are you?”

“The Land of Wa?”

“Are you not?”

“No. I’m from a lot farther away. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get back there, either.”

“You’ve traveled that far, huh? Don’t you feel lonely?”

“Sometimes. But this place is fun too. And now I get to taste some flavors of home, to boot.”

“I see. You know, I’d love to make more for you. I wish I had more supplies for it on hand, but there’s the kraken to worry about. Before that beast came, they would’ve brought this by once a month from the Land of Wa by boat.”

So, a country a little like Japan existed in this world. Maybe I could go there someday. But in order to do that, I needed to either slay the kraken or wait until it went away.

There had to be a way to defeat it somehow…

Lost in thought now, I polished off the rest of Deigha’s food. “It was really delicious.” I thanked Deigha profusely and left the inn. I had to think.

I went straight for the coast. The ocean spread before me. Somewhere beyond it lay a land of rice and soy sauce, and who-knew-how-many-more similarities to Japan. But that big, stupid kraken was in the way.

There weren’t many ways I could fight it, either.

First idea: I could use a large ship to go out to sea to defeat it. But this town didn’t have a ship like that, and it wasn’t like I knew how to command one.

Second idea: I could fly through the air and battle it from above. Except I couldn’t, because bears can’t fly and that’s stupid.

Third idea: freeze the ocean and…turn it into something solid I could fight on? As a test, I went to the beach and tried it. The water froze, but fresh waves quickly swallowed it. I’d need to freeze a vast area to make this work, and the ice would have to be thick too. I had no idea how much magic it’d take. If the kraken went on a rampage, the waves would come up high, the ice would shatter, and I’d be done for.

Fourth idea: get into a sphere of air and dive into the ocean? As a test I made one and went into the water. There I was, underwater and fine for now, but…would I even be able to attack from inside this sphere? If it popped, so did I. And what happened when my oxygen ran out?

What was left? Maybe I could try riding the bears to fight?

I summoned Kumayuru and Kumakyu.

“Can you two swim?”

The bears went into the water and started swimming like normal. Hmm. Well, some bears could swim, after all. The problem here was that I never swam in the ocean before. How many years ago had it been since I last swam at all, actually? Oof. If I fell off my bears, I’d definitely end up a goner. But then again, I couldn’t fall off them even while sleeping, so maybe I’d be fine?

Still, if the kraken dove to the bottom of the ocean, it wasn’t like I could dive right after it. Not a great idea, but maybe something for the backburner.

It really would be best if I could find a way to breathe and move freely underwater, but asking for the impossible wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Could I, uh…part the sea like Moses? Nah, impossible. Even if I could do something like that, how could I follow it if the thing ran?

…I couldn’t do that.

…Nu-uh, that wouldn’t work either.

…Rejected.

…No thanks.

…Not interested.

…Impossible.

…Oh, but that. That’s interesting. Yeah, maybe I’d try it. If I failed, it wouldn’t hurt me or anything. If I were successful, I’d be able to fight. If it didn’t work, I could go back to the drawing board.