Chapter 94: The Bear Wakes Up

Chapter 94:
The Bear Wakes Up

 

I WOKE UP TO two extremely cuddly sleeping bears. What time was it, anyway?

I got out of bed and opened the curtain, then the window. The sun rose over the ocean. If I’d gone to bed in the afternoon… How long had I been out?

Of course, all my exhaustion was gone and my stamina and mana were back up to full. It was a little early, but I changed into my black bear clothes and thanked my bears for being my bodyguards before dismissing them.

I went downstairs, and Deigha rushed out of the back room.

“Miss, you’re awake! Are you all right?!”

He sounded so worried. I rubbed my eyes.

“I’m good. I was just dead tired from using too much magic.”

“You were? Nothing was wrong, then?” I could tell he was relieved. “For such a tiny, cute little lass, you really turned out to be an amazing adventurer.” He gave my head a couple light pats. I decided to allow it.

“You know about what happened with the kraken?” I asked.

“I heard it from Atola when you came back to the inn.” Made sense that she’d tell him, considering the shape I came back in. “So, are you still hungry? You haven’t had anything to eat, right?”

I touched my torso. My stomach was flat as a board. “Looks like I am.”

“Then I’ll prep something right away, just you wait.” Deigha flexed his arm at me and headed to the kitchen.

“You can take your time,” I called after him. As I waited absentmindedly for the breakfast Deigha was getting ready, slowly waking up, Atola came into the inn.

“Yuna, you’re awake?!”

“Barely.”

“There’s nothing wrong with you?” She worriedly patted down my hands and body. Terrible invasion of personal space on her part.

“I’m fine. I got plenty of sleep, so my mana’s recharged and I’m back to normal.”

“I was worried, since you hadn’t woken up by night.” She really was concerned about me, just the same as Deigha. “But I’m glad you’re fine.”

As I was talking with Atola, Deigha brought over breakfast. I looked at it and was shocked. “Rice? I thought you didn’t have…”

“Townspeople brought it over.”

“Why’s that?”

“Yuna,” said Deigha slowly. “You killed the kraken. The kraken.”

Atola nodded. “That really was an ordeal, wasn’t it? As soon as you came back, word spread around town about what you did. Once they figured out that you did it and that you were staying here, everyone came barging in.”

How many people had gathered? And all for me?

“But you were tired and asleep,” she continued, “and it wasn’t like I was going to wake you. I convinced them to keep it down and had them go home. There were so many of them, though. They wanted to thank you. Every single one of them wanted to thank you.” She shook her head. “It was a stampede, I swear.”

Man, a lot happened while I was out, huh.

“When I told them you love rice,” she continued, “they gathered all they had and brought it over. When we pooled all the contributions, it was quite a bit.”

Whoa. I couldn’t believe it. Even though I defeated the kraken, I had no idea where the Land of Wa was, let alone when another shipment would make it in. I thought I wouldn’t get any rice for a while.

“That makes me so happy to hear. But are you sure I can have this? These are your precious supplies, right?”

“What’re you talking about? You defeated the kraken. Our food shortage is over! The ocean is a treasure trove of food; we’ve got tons to eat.”

Guilt-free rice—I’d take it. Though…now that I thought about it, I asked Blitz and the others to buy supplies in the neighboring hamlet for nothing. I guess they wouldn’t only buy food, at least? “If everybody’s coming by to thank me, I guess word’s spread pretty far about the kraken slaying, huh?”

“Yeah. Some of them even saw it.”

Other people had been there? I hadn’t noticed. More importantly, I really hadn’t wanted to make a big deal out of this, but there was nothing to be done. It was too late to use the “passing A-rank adventurer” ruse again.

“Hey, I told everyone not to give you any trouble. What are you worried about?”

“It’ll just be a real pain if word gets around that I defeated the kraken. I’ll have even more people getting in my face all the time…”

Atola and Deigha looked at me. I knew what they wanted to say.

“I know I’m only saying this now,” I added, “but I wanted to keep it between us if possible.”

“Word has already spread quite a bit,” said Atola.

Deigha just shook his head. “After seeing what you did yesterday, there’s no covering this up.”

“Could you at least get the townspeople to not spread it abroad?”

“No need to worry about that. This seaport keeps to itself for the most part. And even if we said that the kraken was defeated by a bear girl, it’s not as though anyone would believe that. A badass little bear girl? Come on.”

They had a point. Practically speaking, were there even people who could defeat a kraken single-handedly? I’d never met anyone that powerful, so I didn’t know.

At any rate, what was done was done. I’d just pray that the rumor mill wouldn’t go too strong.

 

Stuffed with the townspeople’s’ rice, I headed out of the inn along with Atola to go on a walk. Even though it was early in the morning, there were tons of people around. Everyone was smiling and conversation was bustling.

Several older women saw me and ran up immediately.

“Atola, is this the bear girl who defeated the kraken?”

“Yes, she did it!”

“But she’s so cute!”

“Thank you very much, little girl! I’ve never seen my husband go to work so happy. This is all thanks to you, miss.”

“My husband too—he’s been so gloomy, but once he came back from seeing the defeated kraken, he was crying tears of joy.”

Words of gratitude and bright smiles all around. What was rice, soy sauce, or miso compared to all of this?

“In celebration of the kraken’s defeat, we’re treating everyone to fish! Please, join us.”

“Oh, dearie, I’m making a delicious meal! Please do eat some.”

The grannies said their piece and left, but that wasn’t the end of it. Every step brought more gratitude, more joyful tears, more elated laughter.

“Everyone wants to thank you, Yuna,” said Atola. “In fact, I think they’re holding back.”

It seemed like we’d end up stuck here for ages at this rate, so Atola and I ducked out and headed together to the cliff where I defeated the kraken. As we approached the cliff atop Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I saw steam rising from the ocean.

“Hm. It looks like the effects of your magic are still working, Yuna.”

Wow. The flame bears did all that?

By the time we reached the cliff, we found an older man looking over the sea.

“Old man Kuro?!”

“That you, Ms. Atola?”

“You know it. What brings you here?”

“I thought that if I stuck around here, I’d be able to see the person who defeated the monster.”

“You’re not going to go fishing with the rest?”

“I can leave that to the young’uns. No, I need to thank the person who defeated this monster. You, girl—in the bear clothes over there—did you do this?”

“Yeah, it was me.”

Old man Kuro nodded slowly as he came over to me. “I heard about it, but I never imagined you were going to be so small. Well, I’m the one who’s been tasked with managing the sea here. You saved our seaport and the ocean herself, and I’ll be grateful for the rest of my years.” The old man bowed his head deeply. Then, after lowering his head, he stood ahead on the cliff and looked out at a ship floating far off on the sea.

“Do you see that ship floating out at sea over there?” he said softly. “Watch her. Noble, isn’t it? You did this, young woman. You opened the ocean to us once more.” Faint tears welled up in the old guy’s eyes.

Here he was, crying over what I’d done…for rice, miso, and soy sauce. Ack.

“I thought no one could defeat a monster like this. I’m not sure anyone knows for sure whether any adventurers, any armies anywhere could defeat it. The townspeople don’t understand that part. They don’t know how amazing you are, lass.”

“Don’t worry about it. I just happened to figure out a trick to take it out. I don’t want the townspeople making a big deal out of it, so just…” I shrugged feebly. “Don’t worry about it.” What could I say?

“Hm. Well, if you end up having any trouble in this seaport, just let me know. I vow that I will lend you my strength if you ever need it.”

I thanked him. It felt more natural than him thanking me.

 

“So, Yuna, what’re you planning to do with the kraken?” Atola gazed out at the boiled kraken bobbing in the sea.

“Can I sell it?”

“Of course. It’s a luxury food item, and the hide and such are very useful. Since it’s also rare, you’ll be able to sell it for a lot.”

“Cool. It’s yours—the whole seaport’s, I mean.”

“Are you sure?! You could make a small fortune!”

“So could the town. I’m sure there are people whose ships were destroyed by the kraken.”

“Are you really sure? It would help a lot, I admit.”

“If you really want to pay me back, then just show me a good plot of land in this seaport. That’s all I want.” I wanted to set up a bear transport gate.

“Oh, are you going to live here?”

I shook my head. “I’m just going to make it a holiday home. When it gets warm, I’ll bring my friends over to hang out.”

I’d bring Fina and the others, and we’d go swimming. Come to think of it, what did people in this world wear to swim? Did they have bathing suits? They wouldn’t go out there naked, right? I really hoped they had bathing suits.

“In that case, why don’t you just stay at the inn? Deigha would love to have you stay, I’m sure.”

Nah. If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to make a bear transport gate. Climbing that mountain was a pain.

“In any case, I’m happy you’re giving us the kraken, but…” The kraken floated on in the ocean. “…we can’t do anything with it right now. Even if we wanted to butcher it, we’d need to bring it to land first.”

Hmm, yeah. And even bringing it up to the beach would be a ton of work.

“Just give me a sec.” Using earth magic, I created a stairway from the cliff to the kraken. I went down the stairs and touched a part of the kraken protruding from the water. Just like that, it was in my bear storage. I put away the boiled wyrm too, and went back to where the other two were.

“Yuna,” said Atola breathlessly, “I can’t believe this.”

“I’d rather people not know much about this item bag, so I’d appreciate it if you keep quiet.”

“That’s fine, that’s fine. Seeing that bear wall you left behind really is a spectacle, though.”

The earthen bears in the ocean towered over us.

“I’ll clear them up now.”

“Please wait a second,” said the old man suddenly. “Could you just leave it like this?”

“Why?”

“So that we don’t forget what happened. As time goes on, people’s memories fade. They forget. I’d like to leave it. You saved us and slayed the kraken, though we lost so much. We must remember it all—the heroism and the tragedy.” I really didn’t want to leave it there, but was I really about to say no when he put it like that?

“Where should we butcher these?” Atola asked.

“Well,” said old man Kuro, “if we’re going to butcher them, I think the beach near the seaport would be a good place. We can call others over and make it easier.”

“True. If they ask how we carried it, we’ll just say you used your magic, Yuna.” Would they really just believe that? Was that really the best method to go with? Guess so.

“Gotcha. I’ll gather up any fishermen I can find and head over there.” Kuro said.

“I’ll fetch guild staff who have butchering skills.”

The old man and Atola headed off on a boat that was moored nearby. I got onto Kumayuru and headed over to the beach where we were planning to do the butchering. There I pulled out the kraken and wyrm and placed their gargantuan bodies on the sand. They both smelled delicious.