Chapter 159: The Bear Returns to the Royal Capital

Chapter 159:
The Bear Returns to the Royal Capital

 

I SUMMONED BOTH KUMAYURU AND KUMAKYU and returned to the capital, switching between them as I went. I returned Kumakyu and walked through the capital gate. The gate guards gave me weird looks, but I ignored them.

Crowds kept muttering about this bear passing by. I retreated deep into my hood and sped up, making a beeline for the Adventurer Guild.

When I entered the guild, a bunch of the adventurers looked at me all at once, but no one picked a fight. I guess Sanya’s talking-to the other day had been effective. I went to an open reception desk to get the guild master. It seemed like I was on my way to becoming famous, since the receptionist immediately went to call for Sanya when she noticed me.

“Yuna!”

An inner door opened and Sanya came over.

“I’m back,” I answered, raising a bear puppet.

I thought we would talk here, but she took me to the guild master’s office. I sat in a chair and one of the staff members brought in some drinks. Made me feel like a fancy CEO or something.

“Well, then, what do you have for me?”

I told her that the golems had stopped reviving after I defeated the one furthest in. I explained that Jaden and the others were going to stick around for five days to make absolutely sure the golems weren’t coming back.

“You can get the details from Jaden and the others later.”

“Excellent. If the golem outbreak really is over after this, we won’t need to send the soldiers. That really helps, Yuna…thank you.”

“But we still don’t know for sure.”

“True. Since the quest isn’t over until we get the detailed report from Jaden’s party, would you mind waiting a few days longer for your reward?”

“Do I have to come back here?”

“No, I can contact Crimonia and you can pick it up there.”

“Are you sure?”

“It’s the least we can do.”

I wasn’t about to say no. “Cool. I’ll head home, then.” Had to get back to Princess Fina, after all.

Sanya stopped me as I stood up. “Hey, Yuna, why not live in the capital instead of Crimonia? It’d make me happy if you were here.”

Where did that come from? “Thanks, but I don’t think so.”

I’d gotten comfortable in Crimonia. People had stopped ogling me, and I didn’t get in fights with adventurers. On top of that, my shop was there and there were no benefits to living in the capital. Actually, the increased workload would be awful. Most importantly, since I had a bear transport gate in the capital, I could come by anytime. I didn’t have to live here at all.

“That’s too bad.”

“I can still come by every once in a while to hang out, though.”

With my report to the Adventurer Guild turned in, I headed to Ellelaura’s estate. When I got there, Fina came running over wearing these lovely clothes.

“I’m back, Fina.”

“Yunaaaaa!” She latched onto my belly. I caught her against my paunch—that is, the bear onesie’s paunch. Not mine. I’m not the bear.

“Fina, you look so cute.”

She was wearing these cutesy, frilly clothes. She kind of looked like a little well-to-do lady. It was great.

“Not nearly as cute as your bear clothes, Yuna. Besides,” she added, “Lady Ellelaura forced me to wear this!”

Okay, sure, you could describe both as cute, but Fina’s outfit and my outfit were totally different kinds of cute. I bet any girl would rather be called cute for wearing nice clothes than for putting on a bear onesie. Fina puffed up her cheeks when she spoke, which made her even cuter—classic cutie hours for Fina today.

I was glad she seemed to be doing fine. If anything terrible had happened, I wouldn’t have been able to face Tiermina.

“Welcome back, Yuna,” said Ellelaura, coming over from where Fina had. “Is the situation at the mines over?”

“It’s over. We just have to wait and see what happens, so I decided to come home.”

“Thanks for the hard work. Would you kindly tell me the details? I’ve got a meal prepared.”

 

Fina and I took a bath together before the meal.

“Did you have fun in the capital while I was gone, Fina?” I asked while washing her back, but Fina didn’t respond. Not even a nod or shake of her head.

Had it not been fun for her?

“Yuna, it was tough while you were gone. Lady Ellelaura and Surilina forced me to wear nice clothes every single day…” she answered, pouting.

Wait… she had said that Ellelaura had made her change into nicer clothes during our phone call. She also said she’d gone to the castle and seen the king, and that it’d been a lot to handle. Maybe I’d taken it the wrong  way.

“Is it so bad to wear nice clothes?”

Fina shook her head slightly. “It wasn’t bad, but I was worried I’d make them dirty. The clothes are so expensive. I wouldn’t even be able to pay them back.”

“Ellelaura wouldn’t make you pay her back even if you did make them dirty. If she even tried, I’d give her a talking-to and pay for them myself. Besides, I don’t think even you really believe Ellelaura is the type to make you repay her.”

Fina’s expression softened. “Um. Yeah, she is pretty nice…”

“Sorry this is how things turned out,” I apologized as I scrubbed at her slender back. We’d come all this way for a mithril knife, and I’d really dragged Fina into a mess.

“You were doing your job, Yuna. It’s not your fault.”

For the rest of the bath, Fina told me all about the good times, the bad times, and how her stomach ached when she met the king. Even through the complaints, I could tell that she enjoyed herself a little bit. “Are you listening, Yuna?”

“Mmhm.”

“Really? It was really terrible.”

“I’m sure.”

I gave Fina, who was clearly experiencing a varied spectrum of expressions, a hug.

 

We got out of the bath and headed to the dining room. Ellelaura and Shia, who had returned from the academy, were already seated.

“Thank you for looking after Fina for me, Shia.” I’d asked Shia to show Fina around the capital.

“Not at all. Fina is such a good girl, so it wasn’t a problem.”

“That’s not true. I caused all kinds of trouble,” Fina insisted, but Shia was smiling.

“Could you give me a report? Even a short one will do.”

I told Ellelaura about the mines while I ate. While I explained about Jaden’s group and the Bozo Rangers, I tried to make my role seem as small as possible. Of course, I didn’t say a word about electricity magic or the bear transport gate.

I was also really vague about the battles themselves.

“A mysterious golem deep in the mines, you say?”

“They stopped appearing the day after I defeated it, so I think everything’s good now. The adventurers staying there are going to check just in case.”

“We can’t say it’s safe after a single day, but yes—the situation seems under control based on what you’ve said. Thank you, Yuna. Deploying the kingdom’s soldiers would’ve caused all sorts of problems. You’ve really helped me out.”

“Were the golems strong, Yuna?” asked Shia.

“I don’t know about strong, but it was hard to fight them in the tunnels. If I used too much power, the tunnel would’ve caved in. And I couldn’t use fire-based magic since it was too cramped.”

Shia blinked. “I can understand why the cave-in would be an issue, but I didn’t know you couldn’t even use fire magic.”

Yeah, the low oxygen would make the fire ineffective and would’ve probably suffocated us.

“How did you end up slaying it, Yuna?” she asked.

“That’s a secret.”

“What? Oh, please tell me.”

Nope. Electricity magic and the bear transport gate were top-secret information.

 

With the meal and my report over, I started to head back to my room, but Ellelaura stopped me. “Wait a minute. Are you going to head home tomorrow?”

“I need to get Fina back to her parents. I bet they’re worried.” Ellelaura gave Surilina a signal, and with a quick nod she left. “In that case, I’ll give you your reward today.”

“My reward? I can get the reward at the Adventurer Guild in Crimonia.”

“Not that. Did you forget? I’m giving you a mithril knife.”

Oh, right. But now that I had the mithril golem, I didn’t need one from her.

Ellelaura’s lip curled curiously. “You do need one, don’t you?”

Was she psychic?! I shook my head.

“You sound quite certain, Yuna.”

While I evaded Ellelaura’s suspicions, Surilina returned and handed her something bound tightly in cloth. Ellelaura placed the bundle she received on top of the table, untied the string that bound it, and pulled a beautiful, ornately decorated knife from the cloth.

She presented it to me. “Here you go, Yuna.”

The knife seemed very expensive. Its handle and scabbard decorations were finely crafted. This was no butchering knife. “What is this? Why is it so beautiful?”

“I promised you a knife for a reward, didn’t I?”

“This wasn’t made for butchering carcasses, was it?”

“No. It has other uses.”

“And it wasn’t made for fighting, either?”

“It isn’t, but it is actually mithril, so it has a good blade.”

Ellelaura drew the knife from the scabbard. The blade was also beautiful. It looked like something a girl might carry for self-defense, but something felt off. What kind of dark stuff was this knife for?! Rituals? Suicide? Ritual suicide?!

“I don’t need it.”

“But why? It’s your reward.”

“And I don’t plan to off myself.”

“It’s not like that. It’s for self-defense.”

I guess it really was for self-defense. Oops.

“But even though it is for self-defense,” she continued, “it’s not for fighting others.”

I tilted my head to the side. A knife you couldn’t fight people with?

“The knife has the Fochrosé family coat of arms set in it. I thought this could show that you are supported by the Fochrosé family. That’s a name with power. If you got caught up in something, you should show off this knife. Troublemakers might well back down at the sight of it. If they don’t…kindly tell me about them.”

Maybe that would be handy. It was kind of like a seal. I got mixed up in an awful lot of trouble because of my bear onesie, after all.

“Large merchants and others know the Fochrosé family coat of arms,” she said, “so it should be effective with the Trade Guild as well. If you run into trouble, show it off. But be careful using it outside the capital—the further you go, the fewer the people who will recognize it.”

Travelers did come to my shop sometimes. Was that what she meant? “Just use it whenever you need.”

“I don’t think I will.” There’s that old saying—everything comes at a cost. Using the crest felt like it came with a cost too, and I preferred to know those numbers up front.

Ellelaura presented the knife to me a second time.

“Okay, but…what if I use the knife for nefarious purposes?”

Ellelaura laughed like I was joking. “You’re so funny. In what world could a person who took care of an orphanage, who went to slay a black viper to save a small boy, and who dug a tunnel without compensation and handed it over for others to use, use this knife for—what was your word—nefarious purposes?”

She stretched out her arm and poked my cheek.

“Maybe I had ulterior motives and was scheming something.”

“Oh? Then perhaps some questioning is in order.” Ellelaura turned her gaze to Fina, who had been listening silently.

“Fina, is Yuna a bad person?”

“Yuna is a very nice person. If she hadn’t been there, my mom and I would have died. The orphans wouldn’t be doing well, and I heard from my dad that she killed the black viper for free too. Yuna’s kind and strong, and she would never do anything bad. In fact…”

Ellelaura nodded along in agreement.

“I understand, Fina. You don’t have to say more than that. You’re embarrassing me.”

“But I haven’t even said half of the good things about you.”

“Fina. Please.” It’d get too embarrassing if she said more. As a shut-in who wasn’t used to praise, I just didn’t know how to handle it. I looked at the knife in front of me again.

“If I take it, you can’t say I’m one of your servants though.”

“I would never.”

I put the knife in the mouth of my white bear puppet and it went right into my bear storage.