Chapter 116: The Bear Gets Employees

Chapter 116:
The Bear Gets Employees

 

WHEN WE GOT OUT of the tunnel, we found the place cleared of trees: we could see the distant, azure water sparkling at us. The ground was level, the trees were gone, and the ocean spread out before us.

“Is that the ocean?” Fina gasped.

“The oh-shen?” The two of them got off of Kumayuru and gazed out at the blue sea in the distance. The weather was nice and cloudless, and the horizon was clear.

Good thing it was sunny. The first time I saw the ocean, the skies were gloomy and gray, rain came down, the wind howled, and the waves crashed, which might’ve all been a traumatic experience for me, you know?

While we were looking out at the beautiful body of water, someone called out to us. “Is that you, bear girl?”

Huh? It was just…some guy, walking from a hut-like structure. “Umm.” I didn’t recognize him.

“I’m from Mileela. You sure gave me a scare, coming out of the tunnel out of nowhere like that.”

“It’s nice to see you…again?” I tilted my head.

“I know you, but you don’t know me, so don’t worry about it. What’s going on?”

“I came by to show these kids the ocean.” I placed my bear puppets on Fina and Shuri’s heads.

“You wanted to show them the ocean?” the guy repeated. “Is looking at the plain old ocean actually all that fun? I know the lord of Crimonia said that, but I just don’t get why you’d come all the way over here just for that.”

“That’s because you see it every day. It’s really emotional for people seeing it for the first time.”

“Really, now?” The man seemed unconvinced. I guess anyone could get sick of seeing a beautiful landscape if that was just every day. “What do you two think of the ocean?”

“It’s very big!” said Shuri.

“It’s pretty,” said Fina.

“Is it, now?” The man nodded thoughtfully. “When you put it like that, it’s like you’re giving everyone in Mileela a compliment. Thanks.”

We split from the guy shortly after and took our time taking in the scenery on our way to the seaport. Fina and Shuri spent the entire time gazing at the ocean from atop Kumayuru.

“How about we take a quick pit stop?” I suggested. I had my bears head to a spot on the beach. The two hopped off of Kumayuru and headed toward the shore, where the waves were crashing.

“It’s big,” said Fina.

“Is all of that water?”

“It’s saltwater.”

“It’s salt?!” The two of them slowly approached the ocean.

“Make sure you don’t get wet,” I called. The small waves crashed at their feet. They touched the shore with their hands, felt the waves surging in.

“It’s cold,” said Shuri. They licked the saltwater on their hands.

“It really is salty.”

“Sis, it’s salty!”

They stuck out their tongues while making their way back to me, so I pulled out some freshwater from the bear storage for them to rinse their mouths. After drinking the water, they headed right back to the ocean.

Since the sun would set soon enough, I called them back over. “All right, let’s get to the seaport before it gets late.”

They agreed, came back to me, and we climbed on the bears to head out for the seaport.

Just the same as Crimonia, development on Mileela’s side of the tunnel was coming along. The trees up to the seaport were cleared and they leveled the ground. There were piles of lumber placed here and there—would they use those to construct buildings or something?

Soon enough I caught sight of a familiar wall, and the two kids immediately saw what was inside it. Fina stared. “Yuna…”

“It’s a bear,” said Shuri, perking up at the sight of the bear’s face from beyond the wall.

“Is that your house, Yuna?”

“How’d you guess?” I said, and Fina gave me a reproachful look for that. What? It was a compliment.

“Yuna,” said Fina, “are we staying in the bear house?”

“We could do that, but I know this inn that’ll serve us up some great food. I thought we could stay there tonight.” Since we were already here, I wanted to have them try Deigha’s cooking. If we headed to my place, we’d just end up eating the usual fare.

 

We headed into Mileela right away. I recalled the bears and headed to the gatekeepers. They looked surprised for a moment, but let us in. As we walked through the seaport, people called out greetings to us.

“Yuna, you’re so popular,” said Fina.

Shuri nodded. “Yuna, you’re cool!”

This was getting embarrassing, so I tried to head over to Deigha’s inn quickly. The inn was just as empty as usual when we got there—since the sea route was cleared up, I figured there’d be more people around.

“Welcome,” said Anz. “Are you looking for a room, or—wait, Ms. Yuna?”

“Long time no see.”

Anz was in the middle of cleaning, and she still looked a little startled. “Ms. Yuna, what happened?”

“I wanted to show these two the ocean and get some ingredients,” I said, and introduced the two behind me.

“I’m Fina.”

“I’m Shuri.”

The two of them demurely bobbed their heads.

“Oh my gosh, what cuties!”

“Yep. We came by to crash. Is that all right?”

“Hmm,” said Anz—and it wasn’t a good “hmm.”
“I think you’re aware, but we have a lot of helpers coming in from Crimonia to help with the tunnel, so our inn is at capacity.”

“We can’t stay here, then?” And here I was, thinking that the inn was empty when everyone was just out working.

“I’m sorry. You helped us so much, and I wish there were something I could do. But, Ms. Yuna, you can stay at that bear house even if you can’t stay here, right?”

Right, of course she’d know about the bear house. “I was hoping to let these two eat your and Deigha’s delicious cooking.”

“Oh, that won’t be a problem. I’ll bring out something scrumptious.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the least I can do to thank you,” she said, and turned to the back. “Daaad! Can you serve something up right now?”

“I’m still prepping!”

“But Ms. Yuna is here.” I heard the patter of loud footsteps as Deigha came in from the back.

“Miss, you came by?”

“I came by. Nice to see you, Deigha.”

“Glad you came. Are those two girls your sisters?” he blurted even though we looked nothing alike.

“No, this is Fina, who I owe my life to, and her little sister Shuri.”

“Yuna!” Fina pouted and fumed. “I know I asked you not to introduce me like that anymore.”

“Sorry, sorry, but it’s true, isn’t it?”

“But Yuna, you were the one who saved me.”

“Ehh.” I shrugged. “Anyway, kids, introduce yourselves.”

“I’m Fina. Yuna has been looking out for me.”

“I’m Fina’s sister, Shuri.” The two of them bowed their heads.

“I’m Deigha. I own this inn, and this is my daughter Anz.”

“I’m Anz. Fina, Shuri, it’s nice to meet you.”

“Now that everybody knows everybody, can we get these two a taste of your cooking, Deigha?”

“Of course we can! Hurry and take a seat, you three. I’ll make you the most delicious meal we can offer.” Deigha flexed his arm and grinned toothily for no reason whatsoever.

“Dad…” said Anz. Her eyes were fed up with Dad’s antics, but she smiled. “All right, now, I’ll help out up here.”

Deigha nodded. “You’ve got something you need to ask, don’t you? Make sure you ask her yourself, all right?”

Deigha left Anz behind and headed to the kitchen. I wondered what she needed from me. She wasn’t going to turn me down about coming to Crimonia, right?

“So, Ms. Yuna…” she began.

“What is it?”

“About the shop you mentioned earlier…”

“This isn’t going to be bad news, is it?”

“No, it’s not that…” Phew. Looks like I guessed wrong, but Anz still looked a little indecisive as she turned her eyes down and spoke:

“I have a favor to ask…”

“Um, so what’s that?”

“Do you remember the women the bandits captured?”

Of course. Their families had been killed, their loved ones taken from them, and they’d been subjected to even worse. After we saved the women, I didn’t even know what to say to them…so I hadn’t really said anything.

“Would you allow them to also work at the shop? It would be a lot for me to do it alone. They’ve grown up here, so they know how to process and prep seafood. Also, it would make me really happy to travel with people I know, rather than heading over there alone…” Her voice shrank smaller and smaller.

Maybe she thought she was asking too much? More employees meant greater labor costs, and she probably knew that since her parents ran an inn. But I didn’t care about things like that. In fact, I was happy to get people who knew how to prep food.

“They all lost their families, you know?” Anz continued. “Living here just reminds them of that. But even if they wanted to leave, they don’t know anyone outside this town, they have no money, and no work. But when they heard I was going to Crimonia, they asked me to…ask you? And I am. Now.”

Well, I didn’t have any reason to say no. “All right. How many people?”

“It’s okay, I—” she paused, blinked. “—wait, are you sure?!”

“Yeah. I already planned on finding you some help, of course, but Crimonians wouldn’t know the first thing about seafood, so I was worried they’d be a burden. It’d be super helpful if you brought along people who can prep fish.”

“Thank you so much. There are four women.”

“Four, huh?”

“Is that too many?”

“No, that’s fine. It’s just that I might ask them to do some other work too.”

“Other work?”

“Basically, I want you to be ultimately in charge of the food, so I’d like other people to manage things like money and acquiring ingredients. It’d be a lot to do on your own, right?”

“Yes, I guess so. Money and supplies and such…my dad always takes care of the money, and my brother catches the fish we cook, but I suppose I’ll have to deal with those things, too, from now on.”

“Nah, there are other people in Crimonia who know about veggies and meat, so you’ll be fine. Still, they don’t know what kind of ingredients you need, so that’s why I think it’d be better to split up the work. If they end up foisting more work on you because they’re slacking off, though, I’ll chase them out. I care about your well-being here, okay?”

“Ms. Yuna…thank you so much, but I don’t think you need to worry about that,” she said with a smile. “They’re all good people. So…if all of that is okay, I’ll go help out my dad now.” Anz thanked me one more time before practically skipping into the kitchen.

After we waited a while, a delicious aroma wafted from the kitchen. Deigha brought the meals over. “Sorry for the wait. I heard everything from Anz. You keep an eye on Anz and everybody else, ya here?”

I flashed my most super-villainous smile. “Your daughter belongs to me, old man!”

“Please,” he said with a laugh, “just take her! And if you could also find me a son-in-law who can cook, that’d be great.”

“D-Dad!” Anz turned red as she whacked Deigha. Aww, did she not have a sweetheart at the seaport? Would’ve been a bummer for the guy if she had to leave, but it sounded like she was single after all. A girl like her, super cute and great at cooking…funny to think no one was seeing her.

Maybe that had something to do with the mass of muscle standing beside her.