Chapter 172: The Bear Heads to Princess Flora

Chapter 172:
The Bear Heads to Princess Flora

 

AFTER I’D GOTTEN MY mithril knives from Ghazal, I headed to the castle.

They didn’t look at my guild card or recognize my face either—they just waved me right in based on my bear-ishness. Right as I was going in, another gate guard took off running. As usual.

Looked like there wasn’t much point to them stamping my guild card with this castle entry permit seal. You couldn’t even see the entry permit without routing mana into the card. I guess the only times I’d ever use it was if I came across a guard who didn’t know me or if I ever came without the onesie on…and taking off the onesie would come with way too many problems of its own.

I was strutting around the castle in my bear onesie. In any normal circumstances, a person in a bear onesie walking around the castle should have set the alarms off. Can you imagine somebody in Japan strutting around the Imperial Palace in that getup? But the people I passed by didn’t so much as shout…until a woman popped out right in front of me.

I bobbed my head down lightly and attempted to pass by her, but when she noticed me, she started heading toward me.

What the—? I wasn’t trespassing—I had permission to be here.

“Um. Bear girl, thank you very much for the picture book. My kids enjoy reading it with me.” With that, she bowed her head and left. So this was about the picture book? I’d forgotten all about it, but I guess they had been distributing it to people in the castle.

But had word gotten out that I was the author?

Hmm. I knew I’d told Ellelaura to keep that to herself. Guess I’d have to bring my complaints to her.

It happened again before I got to Lady Flora’s room. This time, the person even asked me for a handshake. “My kid and I are looking forward to your next book.”

Was that my new job? Was I a picture book author now? No way, me? An author? I wasn’t planning on drawing more—there wasn’t going to be a next book.

I had to tell Ellelaura not to let this stuff spread any further, but how’d they figure out I was the author when there wasn’t even an author’s name on the book?

Lost in thought, I finally made it to Lady Flora’s room. After I knocked, I heard Ange’s voice from beyond and opened the door.

“Oh, Madame Yuna, welcome.” Ange was Princess Flora’s caretaker. She’d even been Lady Flora’s wet nurse and basically treated the princess like her own daughter.

“Hello, Ange. Is Lady Flora in?”

“Why, yes, she—!”

I was juuuust about to walk further into the room and say hi to Lady Flora when the princess herself popped her face out from behind Ange. “Bear!”

Lady Flora was all smiles when she saw me. She latched onto my belly.

“Hello, Lady Flora.”

“Hello, bear!” She was so polite. Hard to believe that someone so cute could be a blood relative of the king. Yeah, she must have taken after her mom. She was definitely going to be as pretty as the queen in the future.

“Madame Yuna, please do come inside.” I accepted Ange’s invitation, but—right as I was about to go into the room—I stopped.

“Madame Yuna?”

“Bear?” Lady Flora asked.

“Well…Lady Flora, it’s actually a nice day out. Do you want to go to the garden instead?”

See, if I stuck around here, the king would definitely come by. So I’d come up with a plan to avoid him. I’d come by Lady Flora’s room more than once before, and I’d eaten with her every time, so the king would probably assume we’d do the same this time too. The plan was simple: I just had to switch up locations when we ate. Plus, the king and Ellelaura had given Fina a hard time. I had to get back at them a little, you know?

“Why, yes. Lady Flora, the weather is indeed lovely today. Shall we go to the garden?”

“If the bear wants to, yeah!”

Ange agreed without a trace of suspicion about my ulterior motives. Even Lady Flora agreed to my sneaky plan with a smile. Seeing their smiles kind of made me feel a little guilty, but hey, they were on board. My “The King Goes to Lady Flora’s Room But Nobody Is There” plan was a go.

I imagined the king and Ellelaura’s dismay at finding nobody in Lady Flora’s room.

“Madame Yuna, is something the matter?” Ange asked. I guessed she’d noticed I was acting different. Apparently, I’d let my glee make it to my face.

“It’s nothing.”

“Is it? Well, Madame Yuna, I shall prepare the tea. May I ask you to watch over Lady Flora?”

I agreed. Ange nodded her head slightly and went to brew tea.

“Lady Flora, shall we go to the garden?” I offered my bear puppet to Lady Flora, which she grabbed hold of with her itty-bitty hand. Hand-in-hand now, we headed to the gardens.

As much as I would have liked to get there without anyone noticing, we passed at least three people on the way. I prayed they wouldn’t tell the king where we’d been headed.

When we got there, we were greeted by the sight of beautiful multicolored flowers in bloom. This place sure did scream “royal garden.” I’d seen it before, but its beauty really made an impression this time too. It was a great place to share a meal, though the denizens of the castle were the only people with access to it. Ah, well. I guess I could just be grateful that I got to share it with someone else today. And hey, if this place had been overflowing with tourists, we wouldn’t have been able to relax and take in the flowers.

Lady Flora was having the time of her life checking out the flowers. Princesses and flowers were a great match, but a bear onesie and flowers not so much. Even imagining it made me laugh.

I took Lady Flora’s hand and headed to the center of the garden, where a table and some chairs waited for us. The place had been set up for having conversations and dining. There was even a roof over the table in case it rained, and everything was arranged to let us enjoy the flowers. It was even protected from the sunlight with the roof, so it made for a great spot to eat cake.

Or so I’d hoped, but somebody had beaten us to the spot.

“Oh, Yuna and Flora. What are you doing here?” The queen sat alone, looking out at the garden. Was she really supposed to be on her own? Then again, this was the castle grounds, so it was probably safe.

“I was thinking of eating here rather than in Lady Flora’s room today,” I said. “Would we be in the way?”

“Of course not. May I join you?”

It wasn’t like I could say no. But was I really allowed to give food directly to the queen? I guess it was way too late to ask that, considering I’d fed Lady Flora tons of stuff, but still.

“What are we eating today, bear?” Lady Flora asked, taking a seat to the queen’s right. She completely associated my visits with food now. Made sense, I guess. I did bring food every time I visited. It was kind of like feeding a fuzzy little chick.

“It’s sweet and very good. But please wait a moment, okay?”

There were four seats around the round table. Before I brought out the cake, I took steps to make sure no one could take the last seat, summoning Kumayuru and having it sit down next to Lady Flora in cub form. Then I had a cubified Kumakyu sit in the next chair over.

Now the king would have nowhere to sit even if he did come by. All I had to do was sit down and pull Kumakyu into my lap.

It was the perfect plan…or so I thought. But my schemes were ruined in an instant.

“It’s! A wittle! Beaaar!”

 

Lady Flora leaped off of her chair and hugged Kumayuru in the seat over, before pulling Kumayuru off the seat seconds later. This hadn’t factored into my plans.

“Oh, how adorable!” Now the queen was standing up and hugging Kumakyu.

Obviously, I couldn’t tell Lady Flora or the queen to stop doing that. So we wound up with empty seats again.

“Bear, is this the big bear’s baby?”

I guess this was the first time Lady Flora was seeing my bears in their small form, now that I thought it over?

“Nope. Same bears, just tinier.”

“Wowwww…” Lady Flora squeezed Kumayuru. It was starting to feel like cake wasn’t going to be happening. But she looked like she was having fun, so I guess it was fine?

Lady Flora ran around in the garden with Kumayuru. I was kind of scared she’d fall. As for the queen, she just watched while hugging Kumakyu.

“It’s so fluffy and nice to the touch,” she said. Kumakyu looked mighty comfortable in the Queen’s arms. Meanwhile, I had nothing to hold, which made me feel kind of abandoned. “Your summons are cute, Yuna. I’d like some myself.”

“I’m not giving them up.”

“Oh, that’s unfortunate.” The queen squeezed Kumakyu even closer. That was beginning to look a little uncomfortable for Kumakyu…I wish she’d stop.

We watched Lady Flora playing around with Kumayuru. After a while, Ange showed up with tea…and with two intruders.

“Ah, we’re eating out here today?”

“Yuna, what do you have for us?”

It was them. The king and Ellelaura. The usual suspects, all together. The last shreds of the “King Goes to Lady Flora’s Room But Nobody Is There” plan dissolved into nothingness…

“Why are you here?” I basically knew, but I had to ask.

“Why, I’d received word you were here, so I left my work behind and went to Flora’s room. Wouldn’t you know it, though? I bumped into Ange. She told me that you were eating here today.”

Where to even start with that? The king of the entire country left his work behind for this?

“Yuna, what is that bear playing with my daughter?” the king asked as he watched Lady Flora run around with the cubified Kumayuru.

“That’s my summon, Kumayuru. I think I showed my summons to you before.”

“That’s Kumayuru? But they’re different sizes.”

Ellelaura laughed. “Oh, Yuna can shrink her bears.” I’d told Ellelaura about it back when I was doing guard duty for those students, after all.

“Come here, Kumayuru,” I called. Kumayuru came running over, and Lady Flora scurried after.

“To think that bear could get so tiny.” The king picked up Kumayuru from at my feet. “Oh, and it’s soft.”

“Daddy, no take!” Lady Flora grabbed the king’s legs and protested.

No take? How about these guys taking Kumayuru from me? My bears are family!

“All right, it’s heavy, so be careful.” The king handed Kumayuru off to Lady Flora. Lady Flora was bigger than the bears, but she still couldn’t carry Kumayuru and ended up falling onto her bum. She didn’t seem to mind, though—she beamed and gave Kumayuru a big bear hug.

Bear…hug. When would they return my bear?

If I took Kumayuru back myself, I could see a crying Lady Flora in my future.

Uhh, what was I going to do?