Chapter 20: The Bear Summons a Bear; The Bear’s House is a Bear House

Chapter 20:
The Bear Summons a Bear;
The Bear’s House is a Bear House

 

“YUNA, WHAT KIND of quest did you get?”

“Tigerwolf slaying.”

“Yuna!”

“What?”

“Tigerwolves are supposed to be bigger and stronger than wolves. Are you going to be okay?” Fina latched onto my clothes, clearly concerned.

“Probably?” I bet they were just larger versions of wolves. I gave Fina’s worried little head a pat and headed out of town. There were merchants and adventurers getting a late start lined up at the gate. We lined up, I flashed my guild card at the gate, and we left.

We went off-road and walked for a few minutes to get somewhere where there weren’t as many people around.

There were a couple adventurers staring at us from a distance, but I ignored them and stopped walking.

“Yuna?”

“Give me a sec—I’m going to pull out something to ride on.”

I told Fina to step back a little and stretched out both my gloved arms. I poured mana into them. The bears’ mouths opened wide, and two large, warbling masses, one white and one black, leapt out of the left and right mouths. They started to wriggle, then slowly stood up on all fours.

Shockingly, any creatures I summoned were…also bears.

The bears edged up to me, and I patted their fluffy heads and chins. They squinted like they were enjoying it, and gently nuzzled my face.

“Yuna!” Fina took a step back.

“It’s okay. They’re my summons, so they won’t hurt you. Here, try petting them.”

Fina approached gingerly and touched the bears. When she realized the bears weren’t going to hurt her, she smiled.

“Okay, Fina, how about you ride on Kumakyu?”

“Kumakyu?”

“The white one’s Kumakyu, and the black one is Kumayuru.”

Kumakyu squatted to make it easier for Fina to get on.

“Go ahead.”

Fina timidly mounted Kumakyu. Once she was on, Kumakyu stood up slowly. “Uh-aah,” Fina whimpered.

“You’ll be fine as long as you hold on tight. Actually, thanks to Kumakyu’s ability, the only way you’re getting off is if you jump off yourself. You won’t fall, even if you fall asleep or let go.”

Once I’d calmed Fina down, I mounted Kumayuru. “We’ll start out slow, then speed up once you get used to it.”

“O-okay.”

Straddling our bears, we rode towards the tigerwolves’ den. I don’t have to tell you that the adventurers, merchants, and travelers nearby were gawking at us. I’d been kind of shy about summoning steeds where others could see, but waiting until I was far away from town every single time got old fast, so I decided to just ignore the stares.

Our bears sped up slowly. We were heading into the mountains, even deeper than where I’d found the goblin king. It was a six-hour walk, but we would get there in about half an hour on bearback.

“Aha ha ha ha ha!” Fina seemed like she was starting to have fun. It’s not like bears had speedometers, and I had no frame of reference, never having driven a car or ridden a motorcycle, but I did know we were going pretty fast. Despite our speed, we were sheltered from the wind because the bears’ entire bodies were cloaked in the magic I’d invoked. That was how I knew we’d get safely to our destination, even if we fell asleep.

The bears suddenly accelerated as we approached the village where I’d stopped during the goblin slaying. I didn’t want to scare the village out of their skins by dropping in unannounced on summoned bear steeds, so we detoured around it. Our pace dropped once we got into the mountains. We’d climb slowly from there.

“I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around here.”

The quest slip had said they could be found in this area. I dismounted once we found some level ground partway up the mountain, checked to make sure I had enough clear space, then started taking items out of my bear storage and setting them up.

“Yuna!” Fina yelled, seeing what I was pulling out. She was doing a lot of yelling today.

I’d pulled out a bear house. It was two stories high, complete with a yard. The façade looked like a massive bear standing on all fours. The entrance was the bear’s wide-open mouth and the second story looked like a bear cub riding on its back. It even came with an attached storehouse.

“How about we go in and take a break?”

“Sure…”

I had Kumayuru and Kumakyu wait in the yard while we headed in through the bear-mouth doorway, almost like the bear was eating us. The inside was decorated Japanese-style.

“Oh, make sure you take your shoes off over there,” I told Fina, just in case the customs in this world didn’t match.

The entryway where you took your shoes off led into the living room. The first floor had the living room, kitchen, dedicated bath, restroom, and a mini storage space. My room was on the second floor, along with a few guest rooms. The cub’s head formed the roof. I was thinking I could use it to dry my laundry outside.

“Oh, have a seat somewhere over there.” I pointed at a sofa-like chair.

“Yuna…”

“What?”

“What is this house?”

“I made it for myself with magic.”

My experiments with the bear storage had proved it could handle anything, no matter how heavy or how many things I stored, so I’d made myself a house for travelling. I’d built it with earth magic while visualizing a bear, which, of course, made it a lot more powerful. I used a few low-power earth spells to make the walls and set up the room divisions, bought and installed mana gems for the rooms where I needed water, and even installed a fridge in the kitchen. Since I’d set up light mana gems in each room, I could light the place up at night. If I just had a TV and a computer, my hermit abode would be complete.

I went to the kitchen and brought Fina a cold fruit juice.

“Are you part of the nobility somewhere, Yuna?”

“I’m not.”

“Then are you a princess?”

“No real princess would look like me. I’m just your ordinary adventurer.”

Fina seemed like she wanted to say more, but she kept quiet.

“Once we’ve rested, I’m going to head out and look for a tigerwolf, okay?”

“What about me?”

“You can go out and look for herbs for your mom with Kumakyu. You should be safe as long as Kumakyu is around. I’ve set up a defensive boundary around the house, so if you get in trouble, you should be safe as long as you come back to the house.”

“…”

“Also, there are some monsters in the storehouse, so if you have time, could you butcher them?”

“You mean I can leave butchering them for later?”

“That’s for you to decide. I’ll pay you ten percent of what I get from selling the butchered monster parts, so it’s up to you whether you finish foraging early so you can butcher the monsters, or spend the entire time looking for herbs for your mom.”

“Okay, I understand.”

“How about we head to the storehouse so I can explain things to you?”

I’d set up the storehouse so we could get to it from within the house or from outside. It was about twenty-tatami-mats wide, and was outfitted with only running water and a workbench. I extracted about ten wolves and horned hares from my bear storage and left them by the wall.

“You don’t have to butcher all of these, but once you’re done, could you put everything away in this room?”

The next room over was refrigerated cold storage, much like a walk-in freezer. Though time would stop for the house and everything in it once I packed it back into the bear storage, anyway.

“Okay, I’m headed out. Don’t get into any trouble, okay? Kumakyu will keep you safe if anything happens, so you should be fine.”