Chapter 133: The Bear Meets Up with Other Students

Chapter 133:
The Bear Meets Up with Other Students

 

ONCE AGAIN, I was jostled in the rocky carriage. Things after the village were pretty uneventful; I bet the goblins from before had been chased into our path by the black tiger. No tiger meant no goblins meant a nice, peaceful return trip.

Ugh, if only it had been like this all along. Would’ve been a real easy job.

Still, it was lonely without Kumayuru and Kumakyu by my side. They were in their cub forms and being carried by Shia and Cattleya, as usual. At least one of them had always been by my side, but now…I was a little lonely. Back in Japan, I never would’ve cared about stuff like that. I guess Kumayuru and Kumakyu were a little like family now.

Well, that loneliness would end today. Today we were returning to the capital.

The carriage continued at a leisurely pace until Maricks issued instructions for our lunch break. Right at the same time, we found a carriage stopped on the road up ahead. Looked like someone had beat us to the spot; that stopped carriage was also taking a break.

Maricks pointed at the stopped carriage. “Isn’t that Jiguldo over there?”

“I’m impressed you could see him, Maricks.” Timol squinted ahead, looking uncertain. Shia and Cattleya poked their heads out of their luggage area and looked forward.

“My, it really is.”

“Looks like Jiguldo’s group.”

“People you know?” I asked.

“They’re our classmates on the same practical training assignment.”

So…more people like Maricks before he got himself together? Great. I thought about hiding in the carriage, but I didn’t think that’d fly.

Maricks stopped our carriage behind the other one. The group must’ve noticed ours, since they were looking our way—two girls and two guys, just like our party. I didn’t spot an adventurer guard.

“I was wondering who you were,” said Jiguldo, “and who climbs out of that carriage but Maricks and Timol!”

“Jiguldo, are you returning to the capital too?”

“Yeah, but we’re a bit behind schedule. You also get held up?”

“Well, you could say that,” said Maricks with a smile. Shia and Cattleya headed for the other girls to greet them. Because it would be annoying to explain Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I recalled them before anyone could ask any questions.

“Hey, Maricks. What’s with the weird-looking girl?” this Jiguldo jabroni asked Maricks, smiling. Yeah, he was a real Maricks-type, complete with a snotty and infinitely punchable grin.

Maybe I could give him a bear punch. That’d be fine, right? Just as long as I didn’t do it enough to kill him…right? Yes, I could hear the voice of Bear God telling me as much, deep in my heart: Punch this dork. Hallelujah.

I was just about to start cracking my knuckles when Maricks spoke up. “Jiguldo, bit of advice: If you judge a person by their looks, you’ll end up dead. I wouldn’t make fun of her, if I were you.”

Timol nodded. “Jiguldo, you should work on how you view other people.”

Pretty funny to hear all that from those two. Shia and Cattleya were practically beaming behind them.

Jiguldo snorted. “What are you even saying?”

“She’s an adventurer. Our guard, in fact.”

“Your guard? Come on. This pipsqueak little kid?” Jiguldo gave me a baffled look.

“You can think whatever you want,” said Maricks, “but don’t make fun of Yuna in front of us unless you wanna answer to us, feel me?”

Timol nodded at that, followed by Shia and Cattleya a little farther to the back. Getting all mad on my behalf? They shouldn’t have. I mean, they should have, and I was glad about it, but it would’ve been nice if they could’ve been like this from the start.

The guy beside Jiguldo gave Maricks an odd look. “What’s gotten into you, man? Why are you protecting that weird girl?”

“Nothing’s gotten into me. I just won’t let you make fun of our guard, Yuna.”

“It’s just like what Maricks said,” added Timol. “If you make fun of Yuna, you better have bandages ready.” Timol and Maricks looked dead serious.

Cattleya cut in—“I would participate as well, of course.”

Shia nodded.

“O-okay?” Jiguldo swallowed. “We won’t make fun of her, so let’s all chill a little.” He and his buddies swore up and down they wouldn’t make fun of me, so Maricks and the others backed down. Nobody wanted to fight a fellow student.

“But is that girl in the strange—uh, I mean, super adorable bear outfit really your guard?”

“Yeah, she is. She saved our lives. That’s why we won’t let even you make fun of her.”

“Okay, okay! We’re all buddies here,” said Jiguldo, taking a couple steps back and smiling.

 

“Seems to be quite the commotion out here. What’s going on?” A man and a woman, both adventurers, came out of Jiguldo’s carriage. I felt like I’d seen these two somewhere, but I couldn’t remember where.

“Jaden,” Jiguldo yelled to one of the adventurers. Jaden? I didn’t remember any guy named Jaden. Maybe I was mistaken?

“The bloody bear?”

“Huh, is it the bear girl? If I’m not mistaken, it’s Yuna, right?”

These two knew about me, but I didn’t know them. Maybe they were adventurers from Crimonia? If they were from Crimonia, I guess it’d make sense. Like, I was kind of a big deal there. Still, I’d like to have met a person who didn’t remember me after seeing how I’m dressed. Even if they forgot my face, it was always the bear bit that stuck out.

“Jaden, do you know this strange-looking…” (Maricks scowled at Jiguldo.) “…this cute-looking bear girl?”

“Yeah, she’s an adventurer from Crimonia. Every adventurer worth their salt knows Yuna over there.”

Yep, I knew it. That’s why I remembered seeing them from somewhere. We must’ve passed by each other somewhere back in the good ol’ kraken-slaying days.

“Long time no see, Bear Girl.”

I tilted my head to the side. Awfully chummy for a dude I barely remembered.

“What, don’t you know me?” asked Jaden, which was pretty gutsy for a background character. No, I couldn’t just remember every single face I see in my adventures, my guy. “I suppose that makes sense. We’ve only talked a little, after all.”

We’d talked before? Eep. Maybe he was one of the guys I’d punched the first time I went to the guild? But if that was the case, then they wouldn’t be so friendly about the greetings.

Processing…processing…no search results found. Ah well.

“Yuna, we spoke in front of the quest board in the Crimonia adventurers’ guild. If I remember correctly, it was the day after you made Rank D.”

The day I made Rank D…okay, maaaaaybe I was starting to remember. A little. “There was a party of four that I spoke to when I was looking at the C-Rank board, right?”

And try as I might, that was about all I could recall. Not their names, not their faces, just a nondescript four-person party of men and women before taking the tigerwolf quest and going with Fina to slay some monsters.

“So…you finally remember?” asked the woman. The word remembered was doing a lot of work here. Did this…count as remembering? “I’m Mel. He’s Jaden. Nice to meet you.”

“What about the other two?” It was a four-person party back then, after all.

“They’re guarding other students. You’re a guard too?”

“I am.”

“Jaden, is that strange…” Jiguldo coughed loudly. “…that is, very cute and wonderful bear girl that I’d never ever insult…really an adventurer?”

“She’s made a name for herself through all kinds of things,” said Mel. Pretty vague, but there were a lot of things, eh?

“You’re all taking a break too, right?” asked Jaden. “How about joining us?”

It was a fine idea. Maricks’s group gave the horses food and water, then we prepared our own meals.

“Still,” said Mel, “I had no idea you were taking jobs at the capital.”

“I happened to get a quest from an acquaintance. I hadn’t intended to accept it, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer.” If Shia wasn’t there, I might’ve weaseled out of it…

“You should be thankful to her. This quest is easy with a high payout, so it’s popular.”

“Is it?” I’d heard there weren’t enough people. Had Ellelaura tricked me? But then, she said she’d just been selective, so maybe it wasn’t a lie?

“All you’re doing is escorting the students to a nearby village. There aren’t any dangerous monsters around the capital, so it’s a piece of cake.”

Eh he he. Was it, now? We all put on strained smiles. There was no way they’d believe us if we said we’d encountered and slain a black tiger.

“The students don’t do anything dangerous, it’s an easy job,” said Jaden with a smile. I glanced back at my four party members. The boys looked away. The girls smiled.

“Jaden,” said a girl from the other group, “is that girl dressed as a bear really an adventurer? She looks like she’s younger than us.” At least she was being more polite than Maricks had been.

“It’s true,” said Jaden. “She’s a stronger adventurer than me.”

Jiguldo’s party was astonished at those words. I couldn’t blame them. I didn’t want to hear this right now either.

“I can’t believe it.” The girl looked at me. She wasn’t wrong, you know? If people had to place bets on a fight between Jaden and me, no one would bet on me. It’d seem like way too much of a longshot.

“Right. Everyone who sees her says that,” Jaden answered with a smile, “but she’s stronger than she looks, and she’s a highly respected adventurer.”

“Jaden, do you know a lot about Yuna?” Shia asked.

“Just the rumors.”

“What kind of rumors?”

The conversation was heading in a strange direction. Even though this was supposed to be a break, I got the sense it would head somewhere dangerous if I didn’t stop it here. It was time for my secret technique…

“Rumors aside, more importantly, what are you guys doing in the capital, Jaden?” I asked, using my forbidden power of “changing the subject”!

“As a rule, we work in the capital. We just happened to hear a rumor when we were doing a job in Crimonia.”

“What kind of rumor?” Oh no. I could see it, now: We were back to the original topic.

“There was this bear girl who came to the guild to register as an adventurer. She beat all of the D-Rank and E-Rank adventurers who picked a fight with her into bloody pulps.”

It wasn’t all of them! The only person I bloodied up was Deboranay. I dropped everyone else with one punch each.

“She bloodied them up?” The students looked over at me. Since I had done it to Deboranay, I couldn’t say it was a lie. But it’d only been one person.

“Yuna, you’re amazing.” Shia was delighted.

“Nah, they were just weak.”

“So, what other stories are there?”

They were going to keep going with this? Couldn’t they stop now? Surely Shia had heard enough from Cliff and Ellelaura.

“She slew a goblin king, for one.”

“A goblin king?!”

“Yeah, its face was frozen in this brutal, angry look. It was something else.” (Well, I had dropped it in a hole and unleashed a one-sided massacre upon it, so guess that would’ve made it angry.) “We happened to be at the adventurers’ guild when we saw it. I can’t believe you had the gumption to fight such a brutal monster.”

So Mel and the others had seen that, huh?

As the students listened to the story, their expressions were evenly divided. Maricks’s party did believe it. Jiguldo’s party did not. Polar opposites.

“But that’s not what really made Yuna famous in town. No, that was—”

“The black viper?” Timol finished. “I heard about it from Shia, but is it really true?”

Thinking about it now, it was a fishy story. If I hadn’t brought the viper’s body back, I don’t think anyone would’ve believed me.

“We didn’t actually see it either, but many adventurers believe it.”

“Why is that?”

“A black viper was attacking a village. A child from the village came to Crimonia crying for help, but no adventurers at the guild could defeat one. We were at the capital at the time, but even if we’d been there, I’m not sure we would’ve accepted the quest.”

“So what happened?”

“Bear girl accepted it like it was nothin’. She didn’t even negotiate the fee. Just went off to slay it by herself because the village was in trouble. The adventurers didn’t think she could take it. Made fun of her something nasty—this wasn’t some goblin king. The size and power of a black viper are on a completely different level. All those adventurers thought the bear girl was a goner.”

Was that true? Then again, I’d immediately rushed out of the guild with the kid, so I hadn’t paid much attention.

“But get this: Several days later, she returned with the corpse,” said Jaden.

“They didn’t talk like that anymore—not with the proof lying dead in front of them,” added Mel.

Just listening was embarrassing.

“I don’t believe it,” Jiguldo insisted, understandably.

“Believe it or not, but all the adventurers in Crimonia know what they saw,” Jaden said, and he looked at me. “No one in Crimonia’s said a nasty word about the bear girl since. They all know what’s up.”

Even with Jaden’s explanation, Jiguldo’s party seemed to think it was made up. But Mel went on: “There’s been even more gossip recently…”

“Oh, really?” Jaden shook his head. “One every day, I swear.”

Mel just laughed. If it was recent, did they mean the kraken? Or maybe the tunnel? Both of them would’ve sounded fishy.

“What is it?” asked Jaden. “What’s the rumor?”

“They say she beat a kraken. Boiled the thing up and served it on silver platters.”

“You’re pulling my leg. A kraken?”

Kraken it was, then. The two of them laughed. Everyone looked at me.

“Yeah, c’mon. A kraken is, uh.” I twisted my lip. “That’s just, uh. Nah. Me? A…kraken?”

Finally, after a few more embarrassing folk tales from Jaden, our break time came to an end.