Chapter 104: The Bear Builds a Bear House by the Seaport

Chapter 104:
The Bear Builds a Bear House by the Seaport

 

WITH THE TRADE GUILD TALKS over, the staff generally took it well. I thought there’d be at least one complaint since they were suddenly becoming part of Crimonia’s territory, but nope. Then again, maybe the changes came on so quick that they hadn’t finished processing it.

 

With the day’s work done, I headed back to the inn. I hadn’t done anything, but it was still a tiring day.

“You look pooped, Yuna,” said Anz, ready with a piping hot plate of grub. Cliff and Milaine were making a stop at the adventurers’ guild, so I was on my own.

“I had to deal with some…annoyances.” Bear statues by the tunnel? Really? “Come to think of it, do you remember our promise?”

“We had a promise?”

“About how you’d come to Crimonia and become a cook at my shop.” No way. Anz had to remember—I made an entire tunnel. I had to bear the shame of making bear statues for her.

“Um. You were serious?”

“Yep. You can do what you want with the shop, so I want you to come with me. I’d provide you with a salary, of course.”

“But…okay, where would I live?”

“So you’d come with me if you had a place to live?”

“But…okay, if I went, I wouldn’t be able to cook anything without access to fish!”

“So…you’d come with me if you could get fish in Crimonia?”

“But…okay, even so, I’d want to be able to visit Mom and Dad!”

“So…you’d come with me if you could get home immediately whenever you needed?” I gave her a long look.

“Are you really, actually serious?”

“All that and more, with an all-year-warranty and a money-back guarantee.”

“A…war and tea?” She frowned. “What are you talking about?”

Well, I thought it was cute, but…fantasy world, right. And in the middle of all this stammering and confusion came Deigha.

“Heya, Deigha. I was in the neighborhood, so I thought I’d ask for Anz’s hand in marriage, pretty please?”

Deigha blinked. “Wh-Wh…really? Anz, do you—if you—”

“Ms. Yuna, please stop joking around!”

Deigha coughed, glanced at a patch of floor. “Ah. It was just a joke, then?”

“I wasn’t actually proposing to her, but we were talking about whether Anz could come to Crimonia with me.”

“Crimonia?”

“Anz said she wants to set up a business of her own someday. I’ll cover the costs, so I hoped she’d set up shop with me.”

“Really?” Deigha looked to Anz for confirmation.

“Yuna’s joking,” said Anz uncertainly.

“Not at all.”

“But even if you take Anz there, it would be pointless if you can’t get seafood.”

“Anz said the same thing to me. So I asked Anz to promise me that she’d come to Crimonia if I could guarantee fresh fish, seafood deliveries, and that she could come back to visit the seaport at any time.”

“Is this true, Anz?”

“I-It is,” Anz admitted, “but all of that is impossible.”

“Mmhm, but what if it wasn’t? Would you allow Anz to come to Crimonia, Deigha?”

“If Anz says she wants to go with you,” said Deigha, “then of course I offer my blessing. For, ah, the business.”

“You promise?”

“Stop making decisions without me!” Anz groaned, but it was too late: I’d already gotten a commitment from Deigha. Now I just needed to wait for Cliff to finish the tunnel and then Anz and I would be off! (For the business.)

 

My bears woke me the next day. Since I hugged Kumakyu while I slept last night, my bear was in a good mood. I sent them back and had breakfast by myself.

Cliff and Milaine had already left. I was off the hook for today, they said, so I was going to build my house. If things went according to our discussions yesterday, development would start on the land between the seaport and the tunnel soon enough…and they’d all take up the good spots. Since I’d already gotten permission to build a house wherever I pleased, I wanted to grab a nice spot for myself while I still could. I headed out to the spot that I marked yesterday quick as I could.

“I’m pretty sure it was somewhere over there…”

Just riding on Kumayuru to the spot, not really needing the map, just…you know, having it up just in case.

 

The beautiful ocean and beach stretched out before me. The spot slightly sloped—if I built the house at the top, I was sure to get a nice view. Oh, and I could install some parasols on the balcony and rooftop for a leisurely siesta! I’d have a great view of the stars at night for sure. This spot was the best place for an ocean view. It’d be super conspicuous, but it wasn’t like I had a better location in mind and I wasn’t trying to hide it this time, so…why not?

I planned on making this house even bigger than the one in Crimonia; I wanted to bring the orphans, the headmistress, Liz, and (of course) Morin and Karin with me to see the ocean. A beach house vacation, so to speak!

Sure, we could have stayed at Deigha’s inn, but Cliff and Milaine said that this place was sure to become crowded real soon. I could have made reservations, but I didn’t want the kids to be a nuisance for Deigha and the rest.

All right, here we go: a bear house beach house!

So, uh.

Erm…how many orphans were there again? There were more girls, I was pretty sure of that.

When I rebuilt the orphanage a while ago and checked in with the headmistress, there’d been twelve boys and fifteen girls for a total of twenty-seven kids. There had been twenty-three kids when I first visited the orphanage, which meant the count had gone up by four.

Jeez, that’s a lot of kids. Must’ve been hard for the headmistress and Liz to look after twenty-seven young children, and for Liz to manage the kokekko on top of that. Knowing the headmistress, she was sure to take in any new orphans who showed up.

Yikes. Maybe I’d talk to the headmistress about hiring more staff. If anything happened to those two, we’d have an orphan crisis on our hands, which is not a good crisis to have.

Future Yuna could worry about that one. Present Yuna had a bear house to present as a present for the future orphans—if I presented Deigha with the orphans (present or future) he surely couldn’t accommodate them all.

I had to level the ground before anything else; this time I planned to make a largish house, so I wasn’t sure how much mana that would use up. I made an instant changing booth with earth magic to switch into my white bear mode. I already confirmed in the tunnel, after all, that wearing my white bear onesie would reduce magical fatigue.

As soon as I changed into the white bear clothes, I got to work toppling the trees in front of me with wind magic, and pulling up the roots with earth magic. I pruned the timber, put it away into my bear storage, and bam: I set up a small clearing, plenty wide enough to build a bear house.

Maybe too wide. “Maybe I overdid it?” Ehh, it’d be the right size if I threw in a storehouse.

 

After that, I gathered earth to make an elevated section in the clearing. I wanted the bear house to feel like it was on top of a hill. I used earth magic for the foundation and then, using wind magic, I processed the timber I collected. Kumayuru and Kumakyu carried the processed lumber to erect pillars, which I fixed in place using earth magic—I mean, I’m no carpenter.

The way I made houses was, fundamentally, based on my imagination. First, I pictured the bear exterior, because bear stuff strengthened the magic. Even if monsters or robbers attacked, I could rest easy.

My bear house in Crimonia and my travel bear house were sitting bears, but since this was going to be a four-story house, I made standing bears. From there, I made a second bear house (attached on the first floor) to keep the boys and girls separate. Two large bear houses standing right next to each other—boys on the left, girls on the right.

On the first floor, I made the dining room and kitchen. Stairs led to the second floor right in the middle, into large rooms on the second story of each bear. Girls’ room on the right, boys on the left. That way, if they slept on the floor together side by side, it would all be large enough for any more kids. Again, knowing the headmistress, she would definitely take in an orphan if she found one.

Next I made the third floor, which consisted of my room and some guest rooms, probably to be used by the headmistress, Liz, or Tiermina. After that, a few overflow rooms in case we got more orphans.

Finally, one small room next to my own: this was where I’d make a Bear Transport Gate.

 

Once the layout was more or less done, I went up to the fourth floor to make the baths. Boys on the left, girls on the right, with some carefully placed windows for the bathers to look out at the scenery if they wanted.

And once that was done, the next step was addressing that strange, tiny rumbling. A…tummy? Oh. Right, my tummy. I mean, I was the only one here. It was the exact right time for lunch. I could have gone back to Deigha’s, but that sounded like a pain. I opened my bear storage and wolfed down some bread Morin made.

Ooo, soft and delicious like it came straight from the oven. Perfect to munch on while looking out the third floor at all that beautiful scenery. The ocean, the cliff, the tasty bread, and…was that Milaine?

Weird. I jumped out the window to check.

 

“Y-Yuna? Don’t scare me like that!” Milaine sounded so shocked.

“Yep. What’s up?”

“I took the guild staff to the tunnel. Since I spotted the bear house after that, I came to take a look.” Milaine gazed up at the bear house. “Very large, isn’t it?”

“I’m thinking of bringing the orphans with me next time I come, so I kept it on the bigger side.”

“May I take a peek?”

I shrugged. “I’ve only done the room layout and exterior.”

“Normal people wouldn’t finish those things in this amount of time.”

Ehh. I led Milaine into the bear house.

“What are you going to do for furniture?” she asked.

“I’ll buy some when I head back to Crimonia. I also have to get bedding.”

“Ha! That’s not a problem. I can arrange for those at the trade guild.”

“Nah, don’t worry. I can buy it myself. Besides, you must be busy.” If she wasn’t now, she would be soon enough. She wouldn’t have time to worry about my bear house’s furniture.

Milaine snorted. “I’m trying to avoid reality right now. It’s going to be pandemonium once I get back to Crimonia. My checklists have checklists.”

“Go get ’em, tiger.”

“Yuna, you’re acting like you have nothing to do with this.”

I mean, I didn’t have anything to do with this? I’d done my part. Kraken dead, bandits down, tunnel dug, bear statue…beared. Any normal person would have had a terrible time trying to accomplish all of that, and I told her so.

“I know that,” she said. “This is my job, and Cliff’s, but we’ll have to get Ralock’s help.”

“Who’s Ralock?” It was familiar, but not too familiar.

“You know, Ralock? The guild master of Crimonia’s adventurers’ guild.”

Ah, Ralock. I’d heard Sanya, the adventurers’ guild master at the capital, drop that name once. I’d only heard it that one time and always called him by his title, so I guess I’d forgotten.

“First off,” said Milaine, “we need to clear out the monsters from the surrounding area. Then we have to bring in craftsmen, fell the trees, make a road, and set up an outpost in front of the tunnel. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”

For real.

“But seeing you in your incredibly cute outfit,” said Milaine with a smile, “has positively filled me with determination.”

Right, yeah. Looking out at the scenery from the third story refreshed her spirit, then. She thanked me and headed back to the seaport.

Huh. Was it just my imagination, or was Milaine looking at me a little differently from normal? Eh, who could say. I had a bear house to make.

 

I worked to install the mana gems before dark, starting with light mana gems in the ceiling and mana lines to connect them. Since installing the mana gems had to be done by hand, it took some time. But when you plugged the mana lines to the light mana gems, boom: a nice, well-lit room. Simple enough work that anyone could do it.

After I finished installing light mana gems in every room, I set up the necessities. The first floor needed a dining room and the kitchen, so I made a note to buy tables and chairs. As for the oven, I just made it out of stone. It might be nice if everyone made bread together, you know?

Next, I pulled out a spare shelf from my bear storage (you never know when those can come in handy) and filled it with plates, cups, forks, spoons, and other necessary stuff. I already bought a lot of these things in bulk so I could make a new bear house whenever I needed one. I’d buy anything I was missing in Crimonia later.

The second floor was made up of only two large rooms, and all I really needed was some bedding and pillows. I didn’t have enough bedding for all the orphans, but I’d pick ’em up on my shopping trip.

The third floor had my room and a couple of guest rooms. I made my bed with magic, sure to keep it on the larger side for my fuzzy little guys. Next, spare bedding from my bear storage—extra large, per my usual bear house requirements. Big blankets also kept my bears from sleeping on top of me, which wasn’t ideal.

Spare tables and chairs for the guest rooms, and…done.

Fourth floor, baths. Some shelves for the changing rooms were easy enough, and a few fire and water gems kept the water nice and warm. Stools and buckets for the baths, maybe baskets to put clothes into, and there we go: it felt like a small bathhouse. Maybe I’d add doorway curtains like a bathhouse, too?

 

Since the inside of the bear house was pretty much done, I started making the yard—maybe I’d end up using the storehouse/shed for harvesting monsters or maybe not, but I wanted one just in case. I decided the rough size of the yard and enclosed it with two-meter-ish walls. Behold, my land. A lot of land, now that I thought about it, but ehh. Probably no big deal.

To finish things off, I placed small stone cub statues above the gate like Okinawan shisa. Just a couple cute little guardians.

Okay, maybe I did like bears a little bit. I mean, I love Kumayuru and Kumakyu for sure, but…that freaking bear onesie, though? Nope, still embarrassing.

And with that, my largish bear house was finished and furnished with the bare necessities. From the outside, the house looked like two bears standing side by side. I’d really made a huge, four-story house, hadn’t I?

Yep, there it was: the fifth bear house.

The first was in Crimonia, the second inside a cave near the kokekko village (though I didn’t use it), the third traveled with me, the fourth was in the capital, and now we had this fifth.

Not only were my bear houses way stronger than normal houses, but also they were secured using my mana. Only people who had my permission could enter the bear houses. Even if I wasn’t there, no one could break in. There wouldn’t be much to steal if they did, I guess, but I still wasn’t about to let any thief waltz right in.

 

Through the third-floor window I saw the setting sun over the ocean. Suddenly hungry, and more than a little surprised that so much time had passed, I locked up and ran back to the inn for more of Deigha’s cooking.