Chapter 141: The Bear Is Tired of Milaine Barging In

Chapter 141:
The Bear Is Tired of Milaine Barging In

 

A FEW DAYS had passed since Anz and the others arrived.

Neaf was living in the orphanage and looking after the kids every day now. I was getting a lot of requests from Anz and the others about doing this or that to prep the shop, but it was all going smoothly. We’d bought the tools for the kitchen and decided the tableware and such. Whenever we made an order, Anz calculated the costs and went pale. Even ordering chairs had her wondering if we could get cheaper ones.

I wasn’t worried about money, so I bought anything that Anz thought was necessary for the shop. Besides, you gotta spend money to make money.

And now it was the day that the tables, chairs, and stuff would arrive, so I headed for the shop.

“Please put the large table over here. The smaller tables can go here.” When I got to the shop, Anz was giving out directions to set up the tables and chairs in nice, neat little rows.

“Very shop-lookin’,” I said. “Everything’s going well?”

“These are the new tables,” Anz said, running her hand over one and smiling. “After this, once the seafood and rice arrive from Mileela, we’ll be able to open the shop anytime.”

Yeah—everything else was pretty much done, save stocking up on seafood.

As if summoned by the thought, Milaine barged in: “What are you talking about? Isn’t there something we still need to decide on?” She loomed in the shop entrance. “Anz, it’s been so long.” And now she made her approach… “Yuna, Anz, aren’t you both forgetting something important?”

What was she doing here? And had she been listening in on our conversation? I had no idea how to respond. Anz and the others looked just as surprised as me.

“Why are you here, Milaine?” Might as well start there.

“I heard from Tiermina that Anz had come to Crimonia, so I simply had to drop by. I really meant to come sooner, but I was so busy with all that tunnel work, you know.”

Right—opening the tunnel would increase traffic back and forth, which would definitely make the trade guild busy too.

“What are we forgetting?” I asked.

“Branding, Yuna. What will you call the shop? What will the uniforms look like?”

Ohhh. Yeah, we’d been so focused on the interior design that we hadn’t even thought up a name. But how did she know that? “I get you on the name, but what was that about uniforms?”

I was getting a bad feeling about this.

“It’s your shop, Yuna, isn’t it? So we simply must have uniforms.”

Was it just my imagination? I feel like I heard her say “bear” just now instead of my own name. I had to just be hearing things…right?

“We did forget to name the place,” said Anz with a nod. Oh no. Anz didn’t know what she was getting herself into by going with the flow. Anz knew the professional and efficient guild master, but that was only part of the story.

Still, Milaine wasn’t wrong. We really did need a name and a sign for the shop. Even if we did open, no one would know what kind of place this was without a sign.

“Since it’s your shop, Anz,” said Milaine, “you can choose a name.”

“Me?”

Hold on, hadn’t she just called it my shop? And I hadn’t been able to name my actual shop, the Bear’s Lounge! I mean, fine, maybe Anz could name it, but—what if it was weird?

“Yeah, you can decide it Anz,” I said in a voice that hopefully didn’t sound strained at all.

“Oh my gosh, this is so sudden…” Anz looked around helplessly.

“What did Deigha name his business?” I asked. “Since you’ve taken up Deigha’s mantle of flavor, you could call this a second location? Maybe the Crimonia branch of his place?”

“Uhh, the inn doesn’t have a name,” said Anz.

“Really?”

Seno and the others nodded.

“I don’t know its name.”

“Me neither. We just called it Anz’s Inn or Deigha’s Inn,” said Forne.

Hmm. Come to think of it, I remembered Atola calling it the Muscles Inn. If the place had an actual name that everyone kept forgetting, I actually felt pretty sorry for Deigha.

“In that case, what should we do about the shop’s name?” asked Anz.

Like a prophet of doom, like a bearer of darkness, Milaine spoke: “I think,” she intoned with grim finality, “you might as well go with a bear theme. Yuna’s bakery is the Bear’s Lounge, right? In that case, I think that a name with ‘bear’ in it would fit this shop too. And there’s already a bear statue out front.”

Ugh, I did not need this. Was there a bear statue holding a giant fish standing in front of the shop? Yes, but that was sheer coincidence. Seno had steamrolled me into making it! Anz and the others hadn’t disagreed and had even said it might make it easier to tell it was a shop that offered seafood cuisine, so I couldn’t say no. But a bear…couldn’t they have just made a statue of a fish? Maybe a really cute fish?

“The Bear’s Lounge is such a good name,” said Anz, sort of like the politicians in a movie where they’re all ignoring the smart scientist and making the wrong decision even though nobody should call the shop something bear-related because come on. “It’s such a soothing shop with all the bear decorations outside and inside.”

“But the vibes aren’t really lounge-y,” I said. “This isn’t the type of place where you get a light meal and hibernate.”

Forne gasped “Oh! Then perhaps we could call it a Bear Bistro? This shop is a restaurant, isn’t it?”

“Needs more oomph,” I said.

“Bear Seafood Restaurant?”

“We’ll have things other than seafood too.”

“Perhaps the Bear and Fish Shop?” Seno tried, uncreatively.

“The Bear’s Hearty Meal Shop?”

“That kind of sounds good. It makes it sound like a place where even a bear could eat their fill.”

They kept throwing more and more names out there, with more bears in each than you could shake a claw at. Finally, after we talked it through, we ended up settling on the first name—the Bear Bistro.

“In that case, I’ll order the sign, if you’re all right with that?”

“Sure, but please talk to Tiermina about it.” Tiermina pretty much always got the last word. People would at least get my permission, but I approved just about everything. Tiermina did a thorough check so I didn’t just rubber-stamp all of it.

“I know that,” said Milaine. Her eyes flashed. “Well then, you’ve decided on a shop name, so now all you need to do is the uniforms.”

Oh no… Milaine wasn’t trying to force Anz and the other women to wear bear clothes like the kids, right? Nah, I couldn’t imagine her going that far.

Anz blinked. “A uniform? I thought we would just wear aprons like normal.”

Right? But I didn’t say anything.

“Yes, but that’s not entertain—err, wouldn’t fit with the image of the Bear Bistro.” (She was just gonna keep going like I never heard that with my infinitely sharp bear ears, huh?) “I think that this definitely calls for bear clothes.”

All four women stood silently, finally realizing what Milaine was going for.

The rumor was that the Bear’s Lounge’s uniform had been my idea, because wasn’t it supposed to be my shop? There was no escaping hearsay.

They hadn’t expected this treachery from Milaine.

“You’re going to have us wear bear clothes…” Anz frowned. “…like the kids?”

“I can’t!” Forne blurted.

“That’s a little… Considering my age…” Bettle wore a strained smile.

“I think I might want to give it a try,” said Seno.

Ripples of shock ran across the room. Even Milaine looked surprised. I mean, everyone other than Seno had turned the proposal down, which made me feel weirdly bad, to be honest, like they were kinda rejecting how I dressed.

“I don’t think we need anything special,” said Anz. “Just our normal clothes and an apron.”

“That won’t do!” Milaine cried, practically hopping up and down. “Branding! It’s Yuna’s shop, and we need branding!”

Anz gave her a bewildered look. She was the trade guild’s master, so they couldn’t challenge her. Milaine had rehabilitated Mileela’s trade guild as well, and she had done so much for Mileela. She’d even arranged for their food. Crimonia’s trade guild had been at the heart of the development around the tunnel too. Could they really turn down someone to whom they owed so much when she was right in front of them?

I think even I would struggle. Milaine was practically unstoppable when she put her mind to something. That was why the Bear’s Lounge had ended up with that bear uniform.

Anz looked at me, hoping for help. “Milaine, none of them seem like they’re on board.”

“Aww. But Anz…I got this prepped specially for youuuuu…” Milaine pulled a big ol’ adult-sized bear jacket from her item bag. Had she really gone out of her way to make it? “Won’t you please try it on? Pleaaaaaase?”

“No, um. I’m sorry,” said Anz with hardly a glance.

Wh-what was that? I felt a pang in my heart. She couldn’t bear to be a bear… Ouch.

Milaine seemed disappointed, but she didn’t give up. In the end, we went with aprons embroidered with bears—a nice(?) compromise.

Anz looked dead tired by the end of it. Internally, I was putting my hands together and offering her my prayers in condolence, but I was pretty much knocked out myself. Every time someone rejected a bear, I took just a teensy bit of psychic damage.