Chapter 184: The Bear Rescues the Carriage in Distress

Chapter 184:
The Bear Rescues the Carriage in Distress

 

I WOKE UP ON MY OWN without needing anyone to jostle me up, probably because of the early bedtime. I rubbed my eyes and looked toward the faintly lit window and the rising sun. Fina was awake and yawning, sitting on the bed with her legs folded to the side, holding Kumayuru in her arms.

“Good morning, Yuna.”

“Morning. You’re up early.”

“I just woke up. Isn’t that right, Kumayuru?”

Kumayuru responded with a small kwoom when asked.

Fina didn’t seem sleepy, though, so she might’ve been awake even earlier. As for the other girl around Fina’s age, Noa was still snoozing comfortably while firmly holding onto Kumakyu, her long golden hair covering Kumakyu’s face. Kumakyu was probably okay, but—just in case—I brushed aside Noa’s golden hair and peeked at my bear’s face. Kumakyu’s eyes were closed, and my bear seemed to be sleeping comfortably. I gave Kumakyu’s some head pats, which made the bear wake up.

“Let her sleep in for a little longer, will you?” I told Kumakyu.

“Mgh, Kumakyu, Kumayuru...” Noa said in her sleep as she hugged Kumakyu tight.

I patted Noa’s head and got out of bed. “All right then, I’ll go set up breakfast.”

“I’ll help too,” Fina told me.

“I’ll be fine on my own. I’ll let you wake up Noa in a bit.”

I changed into my black bear outfit and headed down to the first floor, but…

Huh? I sensed that some people were down there waiting. When I went down to the first floor, Cliff was sitting by himself in a chair. I didn’t spot the two guards.

“Yuna?”

“You’re up early.”

“I didn’t get much sleep.”

“Was the bed uncomfortable? I definitely put out new sheets and aired them out. Maybe the sheets weren’t fancy enough for you?”

“Far from it. No, I haven’t been able to relax ever since you pulled out a house in the middle of the highway and told us to sleep there.”

Okay, that didn’t seem fair. “Weren’t you the one who told me to do that?”

“True, but I had my daughter in mind. I never imagined it would shake me up to this extent.”

Personally, I’d be more on edge sleeping outside. If Kumayuru and Kumakyu weren’t around, I’d be too scared to even try. “Are your guards still sleeping?”

Cliff was the only one in the room. Didn’t they have work to do for Cliff?

“They’re working.”

“Working?”

So they had gotten up and were already on the job.

“Gouges is looking after the horses. Rabon is cleaning the bath.”

…not that I could tell which was which based on those names. “They’re looking after the horses and cleaning the bath?”

“He said he was doing that to thank you for using it and for the meal yesterday.”

“It wasn’t your order to do that, then?”

“Correct. They asked me for permission, so I granted it. We didn’t impose, did we?”

“Of course not. That’ll be a big help.”

As we talked, one of the guards came into the room. Um, which one was he again? He just came from the bathroom so...

“Lord Cliff, I am finished cleaning the baths.”

“Thank you for your hard work.”

“Thank you for yesterday, Master Yuna. The bath and bed were wonderfully comfortable.”

I guess the guard had managed to get some sleep, unlike Cliff.

“That’s good. Cliff didn’t seem to like either.”

“I never said anything of the sort. I just didn’t feel like I could settle in.”

How was that any different?

“Thank you for cleaning the bath,” I told the guard.

“Not at all, I’m thankful you let us use it.” He straightened to his full height and bowed.

“Speaking of settling in,” said Cliff, “where’s Noa? Didn’t she stay with you?”

“She’s still sleeping. I’m planning to get her up once I get breakfast ready.”

“In that case, perhaps I should wake her?”

“I asked Fina to, so it’s fine. I’ll prep breakfast, so you sit tight, Cliff.”

“Lord Cliff,” said the guard, “I will go assist Gouges.” With that, the bath-cleaning guard headed toward the guard looking after the horses.

I went to the kitchen and prepared a simple breakfast. Right as I was setting the finished breakfast on the table, Fina and Noa came down from the second story with perfect timing.

“Yuna, Father. Good morning,” Noa greeted us, Kumakyu in her arms.

“Yes, good morning,” said Fina, holding Kumayuru.

“Noa, good morning. Fina, I finished breakfast, so can you go outside and call the guards?”

“Yes, I will,” said Fina, and headed outside while I set breakfast on the table. As I finished arranging things, Fina returned with the guards. Fina and Noa placed the bears on the floor, and it was breakfast time.

“Cliff, how much longer before we arrive?” I mean, I had no clue how far Sheelin was. My bear map only showed places I already visited. Whenever I opened it, the map was pitch black in unknown places. If it was going to take too long, I planned on spending the trip napping on a luxurious fur bed.

“We covered a lot of distance yesterday,” Cliff told me. “Remember that forest ahead? That means we’ll arrive before evening today.”

 

After breakfast, we headed toward Sheelin.

We made sure to let our horses rest on the way. Outside of the occasional odd look from a passerby at Kumayuru and Kumakyu, nothing much happened. I checked our surroundings with my detection skill, but there weren’t any monsters around.

A while after lunch, I was feeling a bit peckish, so I ate some potato chips on top of Kumayuru for an afternoon snack. Noa and Fina looked like they wanted some, too, so I shared…if they promised to be careful and not spill any. When I looked down, I noticed I spilled a ton of crumbs on Kumayuru’s back, so I brushed those off before anyone could notice.

At that, Kumayuru turned around and gave me a curious look, as if asking, what is it?

“Oh,” I said quickly, “nothing.”

All those salty potato chips made me thirsty, though. I took out some fruit juice, but it was hard to drink from a cup while being jostled around. Hmm, maybe it was time to buy a water canteen?

Cliff had water inside a leather pouch thing and could drink that while riding his horse. When I looked at Fina and Noa, they also had their own water bags prepped. Man, I gotta get myself one of those next time…

 

As we galloped toward Sheelin, the lead guard instructed us to stop. There was a carriage that had come to a stop up ahead.

“Father, that carriage…”

“Yes, I see it.”

“I wonder why it’s there?”

“Who knows? Perhaps it’s broken. Or perhaps there’s another reason.”

Another reason?

“Lord Cliff,” said one of the guards, “I’ll check on it. Please wait here.”

“Be careful.”

The guard headed over on his horse.

“Cliff, what’s going on?” I asked.

“It’s just a precaution. There’s a possibility that bandits set up the carriage to make it seem like it had broken down. If so, they may spring out to attack us.”

Right…this was a different world, after all. Still, I hadn’t even known that was a thing. I’d be sure to look out for it now. I’d be okay even if bandits took me by surprise, but things would get complicated if I was traveling with somebody else. You can never be too careful.

When the guard approached the carriage, someone came out from behind it. They had a kid with them, too. They were talking about something.

After a short while, the guard came back. “Lord Cliff.”

“Your report?”

“One of the carriage wheels appears to be stuck in a rut and won’t budge.”

No bandits, then?

“If you helped them,” said Cliff, “do you think the wheel could be freed?”

“We won’t know until we try.”

“In that case, let’s make an attempt.”

We headed toward the carriage. A man and a woman in their twenties waited there. The woman held a baby, and a little girl around Princess Flora’s age was with them. A pretty ordinary family, looked like.

They were shocked when they saw me and my bears, but they were even more surprised when they saw Cliff.

“Oh Lord Cliff, my utmost apologies for blocking the road.”

The man bowed his head, and the woman followed suit behind him. The girl clung to her mother as she looked over at me. I waved at her, but that just made her hide behind her mom.

Jeez, I don’t bite...

“You know me?” Cliff asked.

“Oh, yes. We live in Crimonia. We have seen you on many occasions, Lord Cliff.”

Which meant they knew about me, too, right?

“I was told the carriage wheel got stuck in a rut,” he said.

“Ah, yes. A stroke of bad luck, that rut. Now we’re stuck. Our apologies for the inconvenience. We cannot move out of the path, but it would be such a help if you could pass by us from the side.”

“Rabon! Gouges!” Cliff called his guards.

The two headed to the stuck wheel.

“Lord Cliff?” the husband said.

“I’m not sure if we can do it but we will lend a hand, good sir,” one of the guards said.

“But we can’t ask for you to help, Lord Cliff.”

“Can you think of another way out of this?” Cliff asked.

“No, but...”

“If four men work together, we should be able to get this done,” Cliff said.

“Please wait, Lord Cliff. Let’s try with the three of us first,” said the guard. He couldn’t imagine getting a noble like Cliff to do manual labor, of course. I’d never seen a noble trying to lift a carriage wheel in any of my manga or novels, that’s for sure.

“Um, thank you so very much.” The husband bowed his head, then the three men grabbed hold of the wheel. But even with their combined strength, the carriage remained firmly planted in the rut.

Maybe it was time for me to give it a go? But if a weak girl like me did what three men couldn’t, it’d probably raise eyebrows. They’d probably make fun of me and call it bear brute force or something.

“I’ll help as well,” said Cliff.

“No, we couldn’t possibly ask you to assist, milord,” said the husband.

Yeah, I guess it wasn’t sensible for a noble like Cliff to help with something like that.

“Please don’t worry about it,” said Cliff. “You’re one of my townspeople; helping you is one of my duties.”

“Lord Cliff...” But the man couldn’t keep refusing Cliff’s offer.

Cliff didn’t realize that his kindness was going to cause normal people ulcers. Sure, it’d be super funny seeing Cliff attempt to move the carriage, but it looked like my time to shine had come. I couldn’t bear to let the man’s family go on like this.

“How about I try?” I said.

“You?”

“Yeah.” With a nod, I used earth magic to level out the rut. The carriage wheel rose up with it. Rut filled, carriage free—two birds, one stone. Now any future carriages coming by here would have safe passage.

What, did you think I was going to lift the carriage by hand? When I had magic? Come on, don’t be silly. Plus, that’d really raise some eyebrows.

“Really, Yuna?” said Cliff. “If you could do that, why not just say so?”

“Since you’re the lord of this place, I thought you’d be all suave and handle it.”

“Unlike you, I’m just a normal person.”

Normal? Nope, being a noble wasn’t normal.

“Um, well, thank you very much,” the man said.

“Thank you, bear.” The girl hiding behind the woman imitated her father and thanked me too. She kept staring at me.

“I don’t bite. It’s okay.”

“Yeah. I know.”

“My daughter is a fan of yours.”

“A fan?”

“She’s always going on and on about the bear whenever she sees you. It cheers her right up.”

Really? I just assumed she was scared of me, what with the hiding and looking out from behind her mom. “So…why are you out here? You don’t look like merchants.”

“My mother is in Sheelin. We just recently had our son, so we wanted to introduce him to her. We were just heading home when all this happened.” The man stroked the head of the baby the woman was carrying.

“Really? I hope he grows up healthy,” said Cliff. “Childrearing’s no easy path, so hold strong. Now, then—we’ll be on our way. Please be careful returning home.”

“Okay. Thank you for everything. You really helped us.”

“I did nothing,” he said, looking to me.

“It wasn’t a big deal, so don’t worry about it. Hey, you have a baby and a little kid, so please try to be careful on the way home.”

“We will.”

Once we said our goodbyes, we made sure that the carriage was mobile and headed out to Sheelin.