Chapter 148: The Bear Is Asked to Defeat the Golem

Chapter 148:
The Bear Is Asked to Defeat the Golem

 

ELLELAURA LOOKED FLOORED. “Why are you two here?”

Stole the words right out of my mouth. “Ellelaura, why are you at the adventurers’ guild?”

“I had business with Sanya.”

“Well, I had something I wanted to ask the guild.”

Ellelaura came over to us and sat down next to Fina, who ended up sandwiched between us. “Fina. Are you well? Eating your vegetables?”

“Um. Yes.”

“Is Noa doing all right?”

“Yes, we played together the other day.”

I’d occasionally seen the two of them together. Sometimes they came to the bear house and played with Kumayuru and Kumakyu. It looked like they were getting along.

“I hope you’ll keep playing with her in the future too,” said Ellelaura.

“I will,” said Fina with a smile.

“Now, Lady Ellelaura,” said Sanya, “what brings you here?”

“I wanted to ask about that issue from earlier.”

“You’re referring to the mines?”

“I am. Leaving the mines as they are now would be an issue for the country, so I was considering dispatching the soldiers to deal with it.”

“Well, there are C-Rank adventurers headed there now.”

“How many?”

“Two parties of four and five people.”

“Hmm. So we wait, then? I suppose if they fail, we will…cope with it.”

Why not send out soldiers, knights, or mages? It’d get settled quicker, and I’d finally get my hands on mithril.

When I asked, they gave me the rundown. As a rule, monster appearances were the adventurers’ guild’s job to deal with. If the national soldiers dealt with everything, there wouldn’t be work for adventurers.

As long as it wasn’t an emergency, the country wouldn’t act to back them up. This was the unspoken agreement between the adventurers’ guild and the country, and it was why the guild had to try their hand first. If that didn’t work, only then the country would mobilize. It was a pain, but that was just how things rolled.

Plus, the country’s soldiers might be needed to deal with other stuff elsewhere. What would happen if another country invaded and the soldiers were dealing with a golem in some cave?

“Why are you here, Yuna?” asked Ellelaura, and I did the exposition thing for the millionth time. “The mithril, huh?” Ellelaura looked at me with an odd grin. I was getting a bad feeling about this. “Then perhaps you could do something for me. If I get any mithril, I’ll prioritize sending it to you in an…exchange.”

“Let me guess: You want me to slay the golems?” Naturally.

“Oh, there’s a C-Rank party there. I’m sure things will be fine, but…I’d like a powerful adventurer like you there as well. Just in case.”

“Why me? I want mithril, sure, but you could ask another high-ranking adventurer instead.” I hadn’t seen an adventurer in B-Rank or above yet. But there had to be some in the capital, right?

“It’s a little difficult to ask them to do quests.”

“Huh?” I tilted my head to the side.

“Well, first, high-ranking adventurers tend to have quite a bit of wanderlust. They like going to wildlands and searching for strong monsters, so we never know when they’ll come back, let alone where they currently are. As for stronger mages, they very rarely come out of their homes once they’ve shut themselves away to research magic. Adventurers as a whole tend to be odd people, so any requests can be difficult.”

Odd people. Both Sanya and Ellelaura gave me a look at that. That didn’t seem fair, why would—and then I noticed that even Fina was giving me a look. Come on, this was gonna bum me out. I wasn’t odd. I was just a bear, you know?

“Another reason.” Ellelaura continued, “is that there simply aren’t many high-rank adventurers.”

That made sense—maybe that was why I hadn’t met one yet. Then again, I hadn’t been going to the adventurers’ guild super often, and hadn’t really asked about any other adventurers. Maybe that was why I just hadn’t seen any.

“Even if there were one available,” Sanya threw in, “the high-ranking adventurers have ample funds, so they rarely need to take work, and so they don’t.”

Wait.

Hold on.

This all sounded like me.

I had money, so I fundamentally didn’t want to work. I wanted to see the world, so I also wanted to go on adventures. Researching novel magic seemed like fun. I didn’t want to do it to figure out how strong I was, but I did want to see how powerful my bear gear could be. When I thought of it that way, I could understand how these high-ranking adventurers felt.

But that was just me, personally. I mean, anybody normal would feel like that. Right? Right.

“So Yuna…would you kindly take the quest?”

I did want mithril, so…I supposed I could accept. The only issue was those golems.

A normal golem made from earth or rock was one thing, but I didn’t know if I could defeat an iron golem. As I brooded over it, I noticed someone tugging on my bear clothes. “Fina?”

Fina shook her head slightly. “Yuna, it’s dangerous. I don’t need a mithril knife, so please don’t put yourself in danger. You can just ask the guild to harvest the black tiger.”

She said she didn’t need it, but…I wanted it even more now. Plus, who knew when we would really need mithril? “It’ll be fine. You know I’m strong, don’t you?” I plunked my bear puppet onto Fina’s head. “I accept your quest.”

“Thank you, Yuna. You’re a lifesaver. Well then, I’ll take Fina to my house while you’re out.”

“Huh?” Fina and I gaped.

Ellelaura looked shocked. “You weren’t planning on taking her with you, were you?” she said, giving Fina a hug. I wasn’t, but I supposed I couldn’t just say that I was taking her back to Crimonia either.

“Please take care of her,” I said.

“Yuna?!” Fina also looked shocked when I said that. I mean, it wasn’t like I could talk about the bear transport gate, and I definitely couldn’t take her with me. Leaving her alone in the capital was right out. What other choice did I have?

“I’ll be back before you know it.”

“But my mom…”

“It’ll be fine.” I just needed to stop by Crimonia real quick and ask Tiermina for permission to borrow Fina. It’d be a problem if she said no, but I bet that things would work out as long as I asked.

 

I told Sanya and Ellelaura I had to get some things at my house in the capital, used the bear transport gate to go to Crimonia, and asked Tiermina for permission to borrow Fina for a few days. Tiermina happily agreed, thankfully. Once I got that squared, I headed back to the capital through the bear transport gate and ended up having to go through the pains of leaving Fina with Ellelaura.

“Ugh, why did things end up like this?” Fina groaned. She looked pretty miserable about it all, staying at the aristocrat Ellelaura’s mansion.

“Oh, I have some clothes that would look simply adorable on Fina.”

“C’mon, she’s not a doll. Don’t be mean.”

“I’ve never been mean in my entire life. I’ll strive to take excellent care of her. And I must thank her, as it seems that she’s been getting along well with Noa.”

“But it’s Lady Noa who’s been taking care of me.”

“Nonsense. I can’t thank your family, so you’ll just need to accept my gratitude.”

Fina gave me a miserable look. “Yunaaaaaa…”

C’mon, she was gonna make me miserable too! “I’ll be back before you know it.”

“Yuna, please come back soon.”

I prayed that Fina wouldn’t get too distressed. I mean, I’d be back soon, so she just had to wait for a little while.

And so I headed off on my solo journey to the mines to slay the golem and return to save the captured princess.

Wait, what? How had I ended up doing this?

Ehh, whatever. It was golem-slaying time.