Chapter 114: The Bear Is Asked for Something by Ellelaura

Chapter 114:
The Bear Is Asked for Something by Ellelaura

 

“SO, YUNA,” said Ellelaura, once we were done discussing the picture book, “I had something I wanted to ask of you, too. You’re not doing anything, right?”

Whatever she was going to ask for, it was definitely bad news if she paired it with that smile. Plus…I wasn’t doing anything? That seemed pretty rude, didn’t it? My schedule was full to the brim, thank you very much. Napping, playing with Fina and Shuri, eating good grub…

“Nope. I’m busy.”

“You’re not a very good liar, Yuna,” said Ellelaura. “Cliff complained all about how he was so busy, and you were still lounging around doing nothing in the middle of it.”

Ugh, Cliff, you blabbermouth. “I’m an adventurer,” I said, “so I’ve got to work. Keep my schedule open and all. Plenty of monsters to kill.” Admittedly, the only monster this here adventurer was killing was time…

“Oh, that works out fine. This is adventuring work.”

“And you know, I’ve got that shop to mind, and the orphans too.” Minding the shop (and eating the good food there). Seeing to the orphans (to play with them). Such a busy schedule. My work-life balance was totally broken.

“I heard that you’ve left the shop and orphanage in other people’s hands, though.”

“Now, uh.” Everything about me was out in the open. Cliff had to be the leak. See, this is why I don’t like hearing that people are talking about me! “You could say that,” I said weakly.

“Now, about that favor…”

“I still haven’t agreed to anything.” Resistance was futile, but I had to try.

“Just hear me out, would you? I want you to guard the students from the academy.”

“Guard the students?” Not at all what I expected. I was dead certain it was gonna be another monster to fight or something.

“The students are going on practical training exercises pretty soon. Don’t worry, it’s nothing extravagant. All they have to do is head to a nearby village and come back.”

“That’s it?” I thought this’d be a real pain in the neck if Ellelaura was the one asking me for it, but it sounded pretty simple.

“Yes, that’s it. Just guard the students. I tried putting in a quest at the adventurers’ guild, but I just haven’t been able to get anyone who can do it. A lot of the students will be girls from respectable families, so it’s vital that we have someone capable.”

“If they’re that important, why have them do something that dangerous in the first place?”

“We’ve limited the participants to the most skilled students of the academy, so they can protect themselves to a certain extent. You’re there just in case there’s something they can’t handle.”

“The goal of this experience,” the king added, “is to demonstrate that it’s dangerous outside of the capital, that rash actions are perilous, and that having a guard is essential.”

Ellelaura nodded. “We’re teaching them the hardships that come with travel. How to ride a horse, how to make camp and rough it, the danger posed by monsters, and the importance of trusting their travel mates as well as their guard.”

“Okay, I guess I get why you want them to do this, but why isn’t the academy guarding them? Why’re you gathering adventurers for this, Ellelaura?”

“Oh, that’s easy,” said Ellelaura. “I do odd jobs for the academy.” Odd jobs? Really? I remembered she mentioned something about doing odd jobs at the castle too, a while ago. What was Ellelaura’s actual job?

“Cool, I get what you’re asking, but…it doesn’t need to be me then, does it? You’ve got time before the practical, right?”

“Yes, but we want to secure the guards earlier rather than later—better to get ahead of a deadline than to let it catch up with you. And there aren’t as many adventurers as you might think who can fulfill an escort job…at least not people who not only have the ability and time, but the skill to ignore snide remarks from aristocratic children. One of our students once said something thoughtless that so upset the adventurer that they abandoned the children partway through the trip.”

Yeesh. “What happened to that group?”

“There was one person who ended up seriously injured, but it wasn’t life-threatening. Rather traumatizing for the others though, I’d say.”

“Ha. That disqualifies me, then. If they give me crap, I’ll just stick them in a goblin’s nest.” I couldn’t do an escort quest without my bear onesie either: they’d definitely make fun of me, and I wasn’t about to hold my tongue and play bodyguard to jerks like that. If I had to deal with the snot-nosed kid of some corrupt aristocrat—like the guy who embezzled the orphanage funds or something—I’d give them my special wilderness survival training. (I’d leave them stranded in the woods.)

Ellelaura shrugged. “My daughter will be there too. If you could beat a little sense into her, that’d be fine with me.”

That did change things a little. “Shia’s going to be there too?”

“Yes, she’s participating in the training this time around. And she’s also the child of an aristocrat. She’ll be in a position of power someday, and she has a lot of things to learn.”

Yeah. Okay, now I was starting to follow.

“Yuna, do you mind if it’s Shia?”

Nah, not at all. She knew about me, so I doubted she’d make fun of me. “It’s not just Shia, right?”

“No, it’s not. You’d guard between four to five students.”

Yeah, I had no doubt it’d be a pain in some way. “Would the students even accept having a girl like me guard them? If I’m guarding Shia, then we’re looking at girls the same age as me or even older, right?” I’d be one of their peers to them, or worse, guarding a bunch of rich kids…and also, I was a little shorter than other kids my age. Just a bit, no big deal or anything, but…you know?

“I’ll pull some strings if I have to. Don’t worry about that.”

Pulling strings? Well, Ellelaura was an aristocrat and working in the castle, so she had to be pretty powerful, but…she was really going to swing her influence around just so people would accept me as a guard?

Just monarchy things, I guess.

The king spoke up. “I think Ellelaura is more than capable of using her influence, but why don’t I help as well?” You’ve gotta be kidding me, the king? That’d be like the students got an order from the president or prime minister in my world.

“Oh, that seems entertaining,” the queen mused. “Perhaps I’ll put a word in, too.”

“Me too!” Flora piped in. Even Lady Flora mimicked them now. Jeez, these three good-for-nothing adults were a bad influence on little Lady Flora.

“But you don’t need me or other adventurers guarding them,” I said. “You could have the castle guards or the mages do it. Why don’t you let them take care of it?”

“But it would be no fun if…” Ellelaura coughed loudly. “Or rather, you know, there wouldn’t be any point to the test.” Now that was a heck of a slip-up. Was this whole thing just for fun?! “Since some of the students have parents who work at the castle,” she said quickly, “they won’t feel free to act naturally with their parents around. Which is vital for the test. And such.”

Uh-huh. Sure, Ellelaura.

“Also,” she added, “we’ve hired adventurers for this every year. It’s far too late to change such a tradition.” And now it sounded like even more of a pain in the neck. “Yuna, please. We’ll pay you handsomely for the quest.”

“Sounds annoying, so I’ve got to say no.”

Ellelaura nodded slowly. “In that case, how about I…owe you one for it? I know it’s presumptuous of me to say, but I’ve never owed a favor to anyone.”

Hmm. Now that was interesting, but there was nothing I needed to ask Ellelaura for. Ooo, but maybe I could ask her to tell me one of her secrets? That sounded fun, if a little scary to think about.

“My favors,” she said with a pleasant smile, “are worth a lot more than dear Cliff’s.” Okay, she had more worth than Cliff, a freaking feudal lord? What was she?

It was irresistible. “All right, just this once. But I have one condition.”

“Did you want to—what were your words?—stick them in a goblin’s nest? You surely know I can’t possibly allow that.”

“Nah, that’s not it.”

“Then what is it?”

“Could you ask Shia to back me up?”

“Back you up?”

“To avoid any, like, goblin nest situations.”

She chuckled. “Got it, yes. I’ll include that as part of the test.” Guess things would be all right with Shia around. Hurray?

“Good. Well then, practically speaking, what do you need me to do?” Just guard them?

“Fundamentally, we want you to keep the students safe, but I suppose we’d also like you to report on the students’ actions.”

“Report on them?”

“If my daughter skipped out on helping set up camp, for instance. If she went off to fight a monster that appeared all on her own, if she didn’t follow your instructions as her guard…things like that.”

A report on their behavior, huh? So I was kind of like a cross between a proctor and a spy for whoever did the real grading.

“Also,” she continued, “if any of them insult you, please report on that too. We’ll deduct points for that.”

What a relief. “How should I deal with any monsters that crop up?”

“Just help them if it seems like they’re in danger.”

“How good are the students at handling themselves? Are we talking two-goblin-fighters or maybe a hundred?”

“You’re the only one who can fight a hundred goblins, Yuna. If there are more monsters than students, please deal with them yourself. If there are the same number of monsters, on the other hand, just keep an eye on them. Self-defense is part of the practical exam. I don’t think you’ll come across anything stronger than lower-rank monsters, but if you do, please do protect the students.”

Uh, goblins and wolves were low rank, right? What were orcs again? Guess I could just ask Shia about that stuff, huh?

Ellelaura gave me the details on the practical training—when it would be happening and stuff—and I ended up accepting. Sounded fine, but I really couldn’t help feeling a little anxious.

 

With talks out of the way, Ellelaura borrowed The Bear and the Girl, Volume 1 from Lady Flora and left the room. Ellelaura sure did take a lot of odd jobs, but she was close with the king, so…I guess it was fine, even if it was a real mystery to me.

The king and queen left, and—alone now with Lady Flora and Ange—I decided it was about time for me to take off too.

“I’ll come by again, though, don’t you worry.”

“Thank you for the book, Bear!” She happily hugged the new book.

“I’m just happy you’re happy.”

Ange bowed her head. “Thank you so much for everything you did for Lady Flora today, and, ah…Madame Yuna, thank you for what you did with the picture book, too.”

“I knew you wanted one too, Ange.” It was pretty obvious with how she kept trying to catch glimpses as Lady Flora read.

“Yes, the images are just so cute! When Lady Flora showed them to me, I just knew my own daughter would love it too.”

“You have a daughter? How old is she?”

“The same age as Lady Flora. That’s why I was able to be a wet-nurse for Lady Flora.”

“Well, I don’t have any other picture books, but you can bring this home to your daughter.” I pulled out a pudding, along with one of my more popular types of bread.

“Are you sure?”

“Mmhm. Make sure to eat the pudding after chilling it. You can eat the bread as is, though.”

“Thank you ever-so-much.”

And with that, I left the castle to get a little shopping done in the capital before heading back to Crimonia. Man, I forgot how much people stared at me in the capital, though…