Chapter 122: The Bear Goes to the Academy

Chapter 122:
The Bear Goes to the Academy

 

THE NEXT DAY, I dragged my heavy feet to Ellelaura’s home.

“Good morning, Yuna,” she said sweetly. “Oh goodness, you don’t look well.”

Oh? Did I not? And whose fault was that? The dark road ahead weighed upon my bearish soul. My carefree trip to the beach with Fina and Shuri was but a distant memory.

“Lovely. I’ll take you to the academy.”

“Is Shia not around?” I didn’t see her.

“Shia went ahead. You’ll see her with the other students when you’re introduced as their guard.” Fine. I supposed that might as well happen. The two of us headed out.

Must’ve been pretty close, since we saw students wearing uniforms walking around here and there—the same one Shia was wearing when I met her. I’d seen them occasionally while walking around the capital. Cute-looking blazer outfit. We joined a crowd of students and walked to the academy with them.

The students shot glances at me. At this point it was too late, but man…would’ve been nice to have a carriage. We stood out like red paint on a white cat. Ellelaura didn’t seem to mind as she walked beside me, but how could she? I walked a lonely road. The only road that I had ever known…

I pulled my bear hood low over my head and hid my face.

I could hear the students all around me, yammering on and on…

“A bear?”

“Why is a bear going to the school?”

“What’s with that weird getup?”

“Is that Lady Ellelaura next to it?”

“What’s the bear got to do with Lady Ellelaura?”

“Maybe she’s a friend of Lady Shia’s?”

“It’s cute, but that look is embarrassing.”

“Whoa, first time I’ve seen anything as funny as that.”

“Maybe it’s for a play?”

“Isn’t she embarrassed?”

“I think it’s cute.”

“Look at the hands. They’re bears.”

“If we’re talking about that, look at the feet.”

“Where could anyone even buy that?”

“Well, it might be kind of cute.”

“Think she’ll eat us if we get too close?”

“I want to give her a hug.”

“Yup, that’s cute.”

“Who would even walk around in that outfit?”

“Oh, I’ve seen her walking around in it before.”

“I heard about her from someone else.”

“Can I go home?” I offered.

Ellelaura grabbed me around my arm like she was trying to keep me from making a break for it. “Of course not.”

I could’ve broken free if I really tried, but I couldn’t just do something like that to a normal person like Ellelaura and not end up in some kinda court of law for the crime of hand explosion or whatever, so I had to grin and bear it. “I won’t run, so if you could let go of me?”

Ellelaura smiled. “No.” She dragged me along and, all the while, murmurs of the word “bear” followed us.

I wanted to go home already.

Just when I was about to run out of HP, we got to the academy. The place was gigantic, like a bunch of school buildings mashed up into a small castle.

“This is the academy, huh? It’s huge…” I looked up at it.

“It has to be. Expensive as it is, kids in the capital from all walks of life—commoner or aristocrat and everything in-between—all attend.”

“Normal people and nobles attend the same academy?”

“Yes. Different curriculums, naturally.” I guess they had to have different curricula, with such different futures ahead of them. We had vocational schools even in my original world. We came into a school building, and Ellelaura seemed to suddenly remember something. “Oh, right. Now, Yuna…if you’re going to summon Kumayuru and Kumakyu, could you do it here? Having bears appear out of nowhere could give the students a shock.”

Fair enough. It would’ve been a pain to explain my summons, so I called Kumayuru and Kumakyu in their cub forms. (“Cwoom?”)

With my bears all summoned up, Ellelaura and I headed to a place like a staff room. We were meeting with the homeroom teacher first, I guess.

Just imagining the staff room got me down for some reason. I don’t know. I guess I hadn’t been attending school before I got here. Maybe that was it? Anyway, I was led over to a man in the staff room, some guy who must’ve been in his thirties.

Ellelaura nodded. “Mr. Shoog.”

“Why, if it isn’t Lady Ellelaura, and…uh…bear?”

Clearly he meant bears, because there were two of ’em: Kumayuru and Kumakyu. Just a little grammatical slip-up. Obviously.

“This girl is Yuna. She’s the adventurer I asked to serve as the guard.”

The teacher looked between Ellelaura and me. He didn’t need to look at me like that for me to know what he wanted to say. “Lady Ellelaura…surely you jest. To my eyes, she appears to be younger than the students she would be guarding…”

I couldn’t get too mad at that, but…I was the same age as the students I was gonna guard, even if I was short for my age.

“She is a full-fledged adventurer, and an astounding one on top of that.”

The teacher looked at me—small girl in a bear outfit—dubiously. I reluctantly showed him my guild card when Ellelaura told me to.

“Class: Bear?” Hold up, no—it wasn’t the class bit that mattered. Come on…

“Please look at the rank,” she said.

“Oh, my apologies. C-Rank adventurer. Are you sure? This isn’t a counterfeit, is it?”

“It’s real. I swear on the name of Ellelaura.” A noble swearing on her own name, huh? Did this really call for that?

“If it wasn’t you, Lady Ellelaura, I don’t know if I’d believe it. And I know, too, that you wouldn’t put your own daughter in danger if you didn’t trust a young woman like this to guard her.”

Nope, this was all wrong. Wasn’t he supposed to say, “I find this preposterous, so I can’t entrust our important students to her?” Give me an excuse to go home? Any moment now…right? But nope, he trusted Ellelaura all the way with this girl in a bear outfit for…some reason.

He gave back my guild card, which I put into my bear storage.

“Well then…Ms. Yuna, was it? Do you require an explanation of our practical training?”

“All I’ve heard is that I should only protect them when they’re in danger and that I should report on their behavior.”

“That’s right. But please take their autonomy seriously, understand? Don’t intervene even if they head in the wrong direction or take the wrong action. But please do put a stop to anything that could involve any true danger.”

Ugggghhhghhhghghgh this was getting to be more and more of a pain. But then, what else could I expect from guarding a bunch of dorks my own age?

He explained the students’ assignment just like Ellelaura had the day before.

“So while they’re transporting the wheat, I can sleep in the carriage as long as they’re not in danger?”

“I suppose so,” she mused.

“Lady Ellelaura?” the teacher said.

“That was a joke. Though I do suppose you will have time on your hands, as a rule. You can protect them any way you like, Yuna. Do as you please.”

The teacher sighed, and at once I sympathized with the guy. Yep. It was just like that with her.

After getting the rundown, Ellelaura and I headed to a classroom where these students I’d be guarding were waiting. We found four of them in their uniforms—two boys and two girls. Shia was one. Looked like these were the students in question.

To summarize, one was a smart-looking boy with long hair, one was a shorthaired boy who looked cocky, one was a pampered-looking princess-type, and the last was Shia.

“A bear?”

“There’s a bear here?”

“That is a bear, right?”

No, there were two bears. Kumayuru and Kumakyu, thank you very much, so…they needed to look at ’em, if they were going to talk about ’em.

“All right,” said the homeroom teacher, “quiet down.”

“Sir, what is that bear* doing here?”

(*Bears, they definitely meant. Probably Kumayuru and Kumakyu.)

“You’re not telling us that she’s a member of our party?”

“She’s so tiny. Simply unacceptable.”

While the students were off talking on their own, Shia, the only person who knew what was up, gave me a small wave so the people around her wouldn’t notice.

“No, this bear is—pardon—Yuna, here is—”

Wowwww. He said bear just now, huh? Just said it.

The teacher corrected himself and continued, “She is an adventurer who will be guarding all of you.”

“Huh? What are you talking about, sir?” said the shorthaired boy. “She’s got to be younger than us, just look at her.”

(We’re talking just a few inches shorter, by the way. I don’t know what they were talking about.)

“Yes,” added the princess, “I entirely agree. Sir, please do put a stop to these antics.”

Oooh, shorthaired boy and the princess were maaad.

“This is no joke,” said Ellelaura. “She’s a proper adventurer. I went out of my way to ask her to be your guard. You wouldn’t do anything to embarrass me, now would you?”

She narrowed her eyes and glared at the students. I still had no idea what kind of position Ellelaura had, but the students shut right up. So she was important? Was she? And so she wasn’t a spymaster, because…or…? Huh.

“But…”

“Don’t worry. I personally guarantee her ability.”

Pssh. I wouldn’t buy that if I were them, no way. I was a girl who looked younger than anyone in this room, and I was dressed in a bear outfit to boot. Looks do matter, like it or not, and there wasn’t a single part of my whole situation that’d seem reassuring.

Which meant I could go home. Maybe. Possibly. Hopefully?

“Lady Ellelaura, is that girl dressed as a bear really an adventurer? Would you let us check her guild card?”

“Hm. My word isn’t enough?”

Things were derailing. Was this the point where I’d show them my card so they’d accept me? I dunno. Would that be enough for these guys?

“No,” said the student, “I don’t mean it in that way, but I want to know for sure.”

“Fair enough, I suppose. Yuna, would you mind?”

I took my guild card in my bear puppet’s mouth and showed it to everyone.

“Class: Bear.”

“That indeed says bear.”

“That’s a bear.”

Nope! Wrong spot. Again!

“Adventurer Rank: C?”

“Rank C?”

“C?”

This time they were looking at the right spot, but they were huddling together.

“Think she’s one of those?”

“It does look like it.”

“She certainly must be.”

One of those what?

“Lady Ellelaura, if anything happens, we won’t need to help her, right? Since she is in Rank C, after all.”

“That sounds acceptable.”

C’mon, really? No help for a cute little bear?

“As long as we won’t be to blame,” said one of the boys, “I haven’t got any complaints.”

“Yeah, man, I’m all right with this too. Besides, I think we could handle an easy practical training exercise like this even without an adventurer guarding us,” the other boy said.

No guard? Excuse me, they’d seen my guild card, right? C-Rank adventurer? Cool and capable bear? I looked over at Shia for support and saw her talking with the princess.

“So, Shia, do you think the academy is mocking us? Assigning us a little kid to be our guard and all, I just…well, I suppose it feels like they’re making us guard her.”

“She’s cute, so why not? Besides, this is such a short distance, so we barely need a guard. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”

No, I could use some fellow worriers. I was doing enough worrying on my own, thanks a ton.

“I suppose so. We likely won’t be attacked by monsters. I suppose I’ll accept this as part of the practical training.”

Err, she could…keep on not accepting it, actually. Loudly, maybe. To authority figures. So I could go home.

“So, Cattleya, Shia, are you good with this too?”

“I am fine with it.”

“Of course, I’m fine with it too.”

The princess-y Cattleya and Shia agreed.

Ugh. When was lunch break already?