Chapter 99: The Bear Returns to Mileela Seaport

Chapter 99:
The Bear Returns to Mileela Seaport

 

THE SUN SET around the time we exited the tunnel. The sea breeze came over us and blessed our lungs with fresh air—all the better because we had just spent hours and hours muddling about beneath the mountains. Cliff and Milaine seemed just as relieved as me as the three of us looked out over the ocean.

“It’s so pretty,” said Milaine.

“Mm. That it is.”

“With the new tunnel, I suppose we could take our holidays here.”

“Maybe I’ll bring my daughter along with me next time.”

(Here’s hoping. Noa would absolutely lose it.)

“I never imagined we’d get to the other side of the Elezent mountains in a single day.”

“I don’t even want to think about how long it would’ve taken to take the long way around.”

Neither did I, and I’d done the thing. The three of us talked and walked and watched the sunset over the sea. The same old guard that first greeted me waited outside of the seaport. I recalled Kumayuru and Kumakyu, and then headed for the entrance.

“Bear girl! You’ve come back!” The gate guard rushed over, looking delighted. “I heard you left while I wasn’t here. Not being able to thank you before you went tore me apart, my dude!”

Now that he mentioned it, there really had been a different person when I left. Oops.

“Thanks for rescuing the town, yeah?”

It was a lot to have someone just…say that to me, right to my face. Maybe I flushed red, maybe I didn’t. “Tons of other people already thanked me, so you don’t need to. And, I mean, you all gave me so much rice already!”

The thank-you rice was the best part, to be honest. Favoring gifts over the nice thoughts wasn’t a great look, admittedly, but ehh.

“Yeah, but I’d like you to know I brought over rice from my house too! It wasn’t all that much, but I brought it!”

“Really? Thank you. I’ll savor every bite when I get to it,” I said, which made his face light up.

“I do love hearing about someone else’s victory rice,” said Cliff, “but could you let us through sometime soon?”

“Oh, ha! Sorry about that, man. Do you two, like…do you know her? That’s pretty cool.”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Ahem.” The guard stiffened, slipping immediately back into professional mode. “Could I see your cards? Just part of the job is all.”

Cliff and Milaine obediently handed over their cards. The man looked those over. His expression changed right before our eyes.

“You’re the Count and the guild master…” He returned the cards and solemnly bowed his head. “Please accept my deepest apologies. Right this way, milord.”

Cliff shrugged. “Don’t beat yourself up over it. You don’t need to be so formal.”

“That’s right,” said Milaine, giving Cliff a little nudge. “You don’t need to bow down to this guy.” The guard seemed just as startled to see that Milaine was a guild master as I was.

We headed into the seaport proper. The sun had fully set now, and the sky was dark. Looked like we wouldn’t be having our discussion today. “It’s pretty late. What do you two want to do? I can lead you to an inn, if you need one.”

“No, I want to meet the adventurers’ guild’s master first.”

“Right,” said Milaine. “Since there’s no mayor, we really should greet the three elders representing the town, but it’s too late today. For now, let’s get the lay of the land from the guild master.”

The townspeople who noticed me greeted me on the way to the adventurers’ guild. Most of them thanked me, but a few were mad that I ran off without saying anything.

“Seems you’re quite popular, Yuna,” said Milaine.

“She did defeat the kraken, if you recall.”

“Yes, yes, but that can’t be all of it. Look at how adorable this girl is and tell me, honestly, that it doesn’t factor into her popularity.”

My appearance? The whole bear thing? Awesome, great, love it. All along, I worried that the bear onesie would become the only thing I had going for me—like someone telling me my only defining feature was ribbons or glasses—and here it was. Ugh, here was a depressing thought: what if I walked around later without my onesie and all of the townspeople ignored me?

Huh. Weird, wasn’t it? I mean, here I was, always complaining about people bothering to talk to me, but if they didn’t talk to me? That would be even worse. I’d just feel lonely. Three tired cheers for abandonment issues, I guess?

Well, whatever. The important thing was that the bear onesie wasn’t, like, a part of me. It wasn’t Yuna, you know? Yeah. Definitely not.

For sure.

 

We found the staff members cleaning up at the adventurers’ guild, but we didn’t spot any adventurers. I heard there were a lot of adventurers in jail now for scheming with the trade guild, and that a lot of other ones left town, maybe from the sheer guilt.

“Ms. Yuna?” A staff member noticed me, and from there they all noticed me.

“Is Atola in?” I asked.

“Yes, she’s here. I’ll call her over right away.”

The employee jogged to an inner room, a door crashed somewhere in the back, and Atola came right to us. Dressed in her usual, uh, chesty outfit.

“If it isn’t Yuna! Back already?”

“Hey, Atola. Good to be back.”

“How’d it go? What did Crimonia’s lord say?” I guess she hadn’t noticed Cliff and Milaine.

“Atola, let’s step back a bit. I’ll explain.”

“Oh, for sure. Right, so who are these two?” she asked, looking over Cliff and Milaine.

“This man is the lord of Crimonia, Cliff Fo…Fro…? Listen, it’s a cool noble name or whatever, who knows.”

Cliff gave my head a little poke. “Do you not even know my name? If you introduced another noble like that, you’d be in trouble. You’re lucky it’s just me.”

I shrugged. “Then why bring it up?” Cliff’s name was so long, there was no way I could remember the whole thing. Besides, I’d never said it out loud before.

“You’re just so…” Cliff let out a deep, exasperated sigh before looking over to Atola. “I am the feudal lord of Crimonia, Cliff Fochrosé. We just arrived. Late though it is, we believe it would only be right to greet you as soon as possible.”

“You’re Crimonia’s lord, mm?” Atola echoed, eyes gleaming with excitement.

I rolled my eyes. Just like Atola, huh? Well. Cliff already had a beautiful wife named Ellelaura, so she best knock it off.

“And this woman,” Cliff continued, “is the guild master of Crimonia’s trade guild, Milaine.”

“And you’re the trade guild’s master?” Atola stared at her, surprised.

“I’m Milaine, and I have the pleasure of serving as the guild master of Crimonia’s trade guild. It seems that one of our own has stirred up quite a bit of trouble. Please allow me to offer my deepest apologies.”

Finally, Atola came to her senses. “Y-yes, of course. I’m Atola and I serve as the guild master for the seaport’s adventurers’ guild. Thank you for coming such a long way.”

“Is it far away?” Cliff raised an eyebrow.

“Is it really?” added Milaine.

The pair were having fun with this, huh? Atola looked them over, a quizzical look on her face. “I never would have imagined the lord and the trade guild’s master would come here in person.”

“Considering the contents of the letter,” said Cliff, “we couldn’t entrust these matters to anyone else. My apologies for not making arrangements before our arrival.”

“Not at all, I’m simply thankful you’ve come. You haven’t imposed at all.”

“I’m glad to hear that.”

“Well, Lord Cliff,” said Atola apologetically, “it is a bit late to attempt a meeting now. I would like to go over the full details tomorrow. Would that be all right?”

“I understand completely. Yes, that’s fine.”

“And as for the matter of where you will be staying tonight…” Atola hesitated. “Now, normally you would stay at the mayor’s residence, but we do not currently have a mayor, and so we are not in a position to offer our best hospitality, so you see…” Atola’s voice grew softer and softer.

“You don’t have to trouble yourself with that. We arrived unannounced, after all. An inn will suffice.”

Atola bowed her head a second time. “Thank you very much. I will send a staff member to meet you at the inn tomorrow, so I hope you’ll have a leisurely evening. Naturally, we will cover the cost of the inn.”

“Yes, we will graciously accept your offer to rest.”

“Yuna,” said Atola, turning to me, “I’m guessing you’re going to stay at Deigha’s?”

“Yup, I want to let them know I’m back too.” There was the stuff with Anz, too, and…honestly? I didn’t know what the other inns were like around here, and I didn’t care enough to find out. “Also, Atola, aren’t you talking kinda funny?”

Atola blinked. “Yuna! Who do you think we’re talking to?” She stole a quick glance at Cliff.

“Cliff?” I offered. That didn’t seem to be enough for some reason. “Cliff, who is the lord of Crimonia and stuff?”

“And stuff? You should know better. And shouldn’t you really be calling him Lord Cliff rather than by his first name?”

Oh, huh. I switched over to a first-name basis with Cliff without even realizing it. When had that started? Since the first time we met, right? And if it wasn’t then, surely all the orphanage stuff really cinched it.

“Uhh. Lord…Cliff? Cliff the Lord?”

Cliff flinched. “Stop that! Hearing you say that is just…repugnant!”

“Okay, no need to be a jerk about it.”

“No, it’s… Atola is acting how normal people would around nobles, you see. You’re the odd one. Not that I like it when others fret about me to this extent, but it would also be a problem if everyone acted the way you do, Yuna. Guild master, if you could just act normally around me, that would be helpful.”

“I’ll do my best. May I ask how many people accompanied you here?”

“None.”

Atola was stunned silent. Nobles were normally accompanied by guards, weren’t they?

“We have Yuna. We didn’t need guards.”

“You’re serious?”

“Yes. In fact, we came all this way on Yuna’s bears. Based on the letter, I thought it would be best to come as soon as possible. It was the quickest way.”

“Th-Thank you so much.” Atola was deeply moved. Seemed a little out-of-character for her, didn’t it? But she just kept going on in this strange tone. Gave me the creeps. “Please allow the guild employees to guard you, at the very least.”

“Atola, it’s fine,” I said. “We have the bears—that is, me.”

“But…”

“How ’bout this? You can give them guards when I’m not with them.”

Atola bit her lip. “Fine. I suppose I’ll count on your bears to watch over them tonight.”

“As long as they’re at the inn, the bears—that is, I!— will keep them just fine.” Kumayuru and Kumakyu didn’t need to sleep, either.

Since it was getting late, we soon wrapped things up and left the adventurers’ guild. Just a few days later, there I was at Deigha’s inn.

 

“Young miss! You’re back?” Deigha, the giant that he was, came shambling over the moment I opened the door.

“I am. Starting today, I’m your problem again.”

“Ha! You’re always welcome here. Who are those two?” Deigha looked over at Cliff and Milaine, standing behind me.

“I’m Yuna’s friend, Cliff,” he said with a nod. “We’ll be imposing on you for a while.”

“And I’m Milaine.”

“A friend of Yuna is a friend of mine. We’ve got oodles of open rooms. Stay as long as you like. Free of charge, of course!” Since Atola covered the costs, it wouldn’t make a difference that it was free to us anyway.

“Oh, are you sure you can just say that?” Milaine let out a fake little gasp. “What if Yuna fell in with the wrong crowd? What if we wanted to stay here…forever?”

“She doesn’t make those kinda friends. If you were telling the truth, then the whole lot of you would be imposters.”

“Heh. It seems he has a lot of trust in you, Yuna!”

“I wouldn’t immediately trust strangers, but this girl’s a different sort. Everyone here agrees on that.” What was with this faith they had in me? It was kind of frightening. Had I really done anything that great?

Well, uh. Now that I thought about it…yes?

I distributed food, captured robbers, rescued captives, accidentally cleaned up the trade guild, boiled the kraken, and then donated all the cooked squid bits. When you put it all down plainly, just like that, I guess it’d only be natural for them to trust me.

“If she tells me that you’re her friends,” said Deigha, “then that alone is worth my trust.”

C’mon, this was getting culty. I didn’t want a cult—that sounded like a huge pain. “It really wasn’t a big deal—I was just in the moment, doing whatever. I mean it, please don’t put too much stock in it, I wasn’t trying to be a savior or whatever.” Whatever was going on here, I just had to stop it.

“But…” Deigha frowned.

“If you really want to thank me, just do me a simple favor next time.”

“What’s that? What simple favor?”

“I guess it’s still a secret.”

“Come now, if it’s something I can do, I’ll hear you out.” Was he sure? Could he really just make a promise willy-nilly like that?

Mwahahaha…I would be…taking his daughter! …because the two of us already talked about that sort of thing, obviously. I just needed permission from her dad, now, but that could wait a bit.

“Well then, friends of the bear girl, I’ll whip up a feast! Eat to your heart’s content.” Deigha loaded the table with seafood cuisine and the two of them ate till they were stuffed.

We each rented out our own rooms and relaxed, sleeping off today’s adventure for the promise of tomorrow. I didn’t forget to summon Kumayuru and Kumakyu as guards.

“Make sure you let me know if you notice anyone suspicious coming around near Cliff or Milaine’s rooms too,” I asked Kumayuru and Kumakyu, gently stroking their heads. They gave me a soft “cwoom” in reply.