Chapter 100: The Bear Is Unnecessary? — Part One

Chapter 100:
The Bear Is Unnecessary?
Part One

 

KUMAYURU AND KUMAKYU woke me up in the morning, and I found myself hugging Kumayuru. Must’ve latched onto the big guy without realizing it while I was asleep. Now that’s a comfy sleep.

But Kumakyu sulked a little because I’d been hugging Kumayuru instead. That didn’t seem fair—I mean, I was asleep at the time, so I couldn’t help it and I did not need all that today. But then again, Kumakyu looked so miserable with those big cute eyes that I promised we’d sleep together tonight. With that, I sent the both of them away for now.

Cliff and Milaine were already eating breakfast when I got to the dining hall.

“You two are up early.”

“Time is of the essence,” said Cliff. “We have a lot to do.”

“I actually would have liked a bit more shut-eye, but I’m willing to sacrifice those comforts if—” she let out a tiny yawn “—I positively must.”

“You didn’t sleep well?” Hmm. Deigha didn’t have to know that—he might blame himself.

“My thoughts were just buzzing away,” said Milaine. “I barely got a wink of sleep.”

“Seems like your work’s cut out for both of you,” I said.

Cliff gave Milaine a look, then stared at me. “Yuna…”

“Oh, Yuna…” Milaine rubbed her eyes.

“Whose fault do you think this whole situation is?” Cliff said.

“Wait, are you blaming me for all of this?” What was there to blame me for? Being too good at being great?

“I wouldn’t say it’s your fault,” said Cliff delicately, “but you should think about what you’ve done.”

Hmph. I didn’t really agree, but I suppose I could see where Cliff was coming from and there was no point in arguing. Well, whatever. I asked Deigha for a meal, plopped myself down in a chair, and waited.

“All things considered, though, this is a nice seaport. I took a short stroll around here before breakfast.”

“Mm. It’s hard to imagine there were bandits and a kraken here.”

Anz came out with my breakfast, a spring in her step and a bright customer service smile on her face. “You can thank Ms. Yuna for that. She brought peace to this seaport, don’t you know?”

I shifted in my chair. “That’s an exaggeration.”

“Oh? Well, Ms. Yuna, you’ll have to argue with everyone in the seaport.”

Cliff laughed. “Guess Yuna’s something of a hero around here, eh?”

Ugh, really? Was it too late to opt out of this hero thing?

 

A little after we finished our meal, Sei from the adventurers’ guild popped in to greet us.

“Good morning, everyone. Did you have a good night’s sleep?”

“Yes, it was lovely,” said Milaine. She acted all drowsy practically all morning, but she slipped so easily into the guild master persona.

“I’m glad. If I may be so forward, I would like to take you to the adventurers’ guild at this time. Would that be all right?”

Breakfast was finished, so they didn’t object to Sei’s proposal…which meant, finally, that I had some time to myself while those two were off on their talks. The weather was nice, so maybe I’d head to the ocean. Or no, maybe I could head to the square and see if they were selling anything interesting? Or nah, maybe now was the time to check in with Atola and go look at my brand new plot of land for the bear house?

“Yuna, what are you doing?” Cliff noticed that I wasn’t rising from my seat. “We’re heading out.”

“We as in you or we as in we?”

“I think you know the answer, Yuna,” he said, looking flabbergasted.

Was it that obvious? How do people pick up on this stuff? “You’re going to be talking stuff over, one town to another, right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Do I look like that kinda person?” The answer was supposed to be no. What could I add to town administrative work?

“What are you saying? You’re going to be overseeing the talks. If you’re not there, then what will we do?”

Wait, since when was I overseeing anything? “Milaine?” She had to know this was a bad idea, right?

“You’re the only one among us who knows about this seaport—we need you. I really doubt they would lie, but we do need your expertise.”

“When it comes to negotiating,” said Cliff, “it’s easy to talk about the good stuff, but no one wants to bring up any hard truths or uncomfortable problems. With you around, it’ll be harder for them to take that strategy.”

Was that really true? I didn’t see the people here as being the sort who’d do that. Then again, Cliff and Milaine didn’t know what the townspeople were like, so I guess it made sense enough to them.

Reluctantly, I went along.

 

When we got to the adventurers’ guild, the employees led us to the same room I’d met with the elders in just a little while ago. Atola and three old men sat in their chairs, with one new addition. Back when I rescued Damon from the mountains, Damon had introduced this one guy from the trade guild as being one of the better ones—Jeremo was his name.

Atola prompted us to sit down, and we got started. “We graciously thank you for coming all the way to Mileela on such short notice. I could not have imagined that the lord of Crimonia himself would come here on his own accord.”

“She asked me to, after all,” Cliff said, but I don’t remember asking him for any such thing. All I’d done was give him the letter and explain the situation. I said he could go if he had free time, but…

“In addition,” Cliff continued, “it seems that she’s done something unadvisable and altogether lacking in common sense, and hence there was no possibility in my mind that I could entrust such a delicate matter to one of my subordinates.”

Milaine nodded. “I’m in agreement with Cliff.”

How rude. All I did was defeat the kraken and make a tunnel.

“Before we begin,” said Atola, “let’s start with introductions. I am the master of the adventurers’ guild, Atola. At present, I am assisting with matters concerning the seaport.”

“You’re already aware of who I am, but for decorum’s sake: I am the feudal lord of the town of Crimonia, Cliff Fochrosé. Please don’t trouble yourself with any further formality—I’ve grown used to not concerning myself with such things.”

At which point he gave me a look. Real rude, my dude.

Milaine stood up. “I am Milaine, the guild master of Crimonia’s trade guild. I apologize for the scandal that the seaport’s trade guild caused.”

The three old men followed suit and introduced themselves. Then, finally… “I’m Jeremo, I work for the trade guild, and…I have no clue why I was called here.”

“You’ve come as a representative of the trade guild,” one of the old men said.

“Me? A representative?”

“That’s right. From here on, you will take your orders from guild master Milaine, of Crimonia’s trade guild.”

“Why me?”

Another old man spoke up: “You were the one giving out fish to struggling households and hiding that from your superiors at the trade guild, were you not?”

“You knew?”

“Quite a lot of households smelled like grilled fish, and most of them lacked the means to purchase such a luxury.”

“But that doesn’t mean that I did it.”

“Do not underestimate our information network.”

“So you…knew what I was doing?”

“It pained us to see the food only going to the rich.”

One of the better ones, just like Damon said. Jeremo hadn’t just complained—he’d acted, even if he kept it secret.

“Because the townspeople think so highly of you, we have called you here to represent the trade guild.”

“Yes. If we are to bring the trade guild together, we need someone we can put our trust in.”

Jeremo reluctantly agreed.

 

“I think that’s enough for the self-introductions,” said Cliff, finally. “We don’t have much time, so let’s continue with the discussion.” Hold on, what about my introduction? Was I a third wheel here? Did they not need me because I’m just the bear girl?

Maybe I didn’t need an introduction since everyone knew who I was, but everyone else in the room had done one. It was almost exactly like we’d gotten to the end of class self-introductions and right when I thought it was my turn, someone just was like, “I guess that’s everyone.” Everyone? What about me? What about my feelings?

“According to the letter,” Cliff continued, “you want to join my territory?”

“Yes. In exchange, we would like to be under your protection. We would like your help if anything happens to this seaport.”

“Like the kraken issue?”

“Yes.”

“I’d like to start things off by saying that a kraken is not an easy monster to defeat. This bear right here just runs contrary to all logic.” Cliff pointed at me. Excuse me, hadn’t anyone taught him that pointing was rude?

“Yes, we understand that. We do not think there will be another one. But let’s suppose that a similar monster did appear here and circumstances grew as dire…in that case, we’d like your promise that you would supply food and such.”

“Food, is it?” Cliff repeated. “Are you aware of the distance between Crimonia and the seaport?”

“Well, ah…” The people on Mileela’s side of the negotiations went silent. Aware of the distance? It was hard not to be. Transporting food would take so much time and labor. They’d wither if they had to cross over a mountain or take the long way around.

“That was a joke,” Cliff said, and cracked up laughing. Milaine joined in.

Atola, Jeremo, and the other three old men were bewildered by that.

“Lord Cliff?”

Atola and the others looked troubled—they really had no idea why this strange lord was losing it at the negotiation table.

“We have an understanding regarding the food supplies,” he said finally. “If the seaport runs into a food shortage, we will lend you our support. However, if my town also faces the same food shortage situation, I can’t make any promises. Does that sound fine?”

“Yes, of course. Our seaport only would have a shortage if we couldn’t go out to sea. I don’t think we would have a shortage at the same time as Crimonia would.”

“Agreed. Let’s state it clearly: if Crimonia has a food shortage, you’ll lend us your support.”

“Yes.” Relief flooded the room. “But how should we transport the food?”

Normally that would be a problem, but… “That’s not an issue. Thanks to this bear right here, that is.” He gave my head a little pat. I could practically see the question marks floating over the heads of everyone but us three.

“This bear right here,” said Cliff, “made a tunnel to Crimonia for the seaport.”

“Hey, you can’t just tell th—”

But someone else started talking before I could complete my thought. “A tunnel?”

“Lord Cliff?” Atola and the others looked like they could barely believe it. It was a lot to take in, admittedly.

“Is this true, Yuna?”

“Well,” I mumbled, “more or less.” I really had dug it to bring Anz to Crimonia, and to get a supply channel for my seafood.

“Yes,” said Cliff, “we traveled here via that tunnel.”

“You…really aren’t joking then?”

“I suppose it really does sound like a joke, but it’s the truth. With a fast horse, you could get to Crimonia in a day. We’re not sure how long it would take by carriage, but it couldn’t be much longer.”

“And you don’t need to worry about food anymore,” added Milaine.

“We’re going to spread the rumor that the tunnel was always there,” Cliff continued, “so please keep the truth of its construction and of Yuna’s involvement a secret.”

“But why?”

“Supposing someone learned that Yuna had made that, we might end up with other people cropping up hoping that she’ll make one for them as well. That would cause quite the commotion for our Yuna, wouldn’t you say? I’m sure you wouldn’t intend for that to happen either.”

After all was said and done, apparently Cliff really was looking out for me.

“Well…” said an old man.

“Of course,” Atola finished.

“So please keep this among us then.”

“Understood.”

Just like that, Atola and the others agreed to Cliff’s proposal.