Chapter 186: The Bear Walks Around the Town

Chapter 186:
The Bear Walks Around the Town

 

AS FINA CONSOLED NOA, there was a knock on the door. Misa peeked into the room.

“Noa!”

“Misa!”

Reunited at last, the two of them hugged it out.

“Yuna and Fina, you made it as well? I’m so happy!”

“Thank you for inviting us, Misa.” With her smiling like that, no way could I tell her I hadn’t wanted to come.

“Dear Lady Misa, I am so very...” Fina tried her very best to greet Misa, but the noble cut her off.

“You don’t have to be so formal. Everyone else at grandfather’s party greets me so formally. It gets so very tiresome.”

I guess even nobles had their own problems to deal with. Good thing I was an unimportant adventurer. “Are you even supposed to be here?”

“I may have slipped out of the room when Meishun said that you had arrived,” Misa said with a smile.

Hm. I hope she didn’t get in trouble. “Is it okay if we don’t greet Gran?”

“He’s busy meeting with a lot of different people, so I think it’s okay.”

“Gran’s party is in four days, isn’t it?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“In that case, do we have time to just do whatever for a while? I kind of want to go for a walk around town.”

“I think that’s okay. Other people have also headed out.”

“Cool. Fina, wanna go for a walk around town tomorrow?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going too,” Noa declared, raising her hand.

“Are you sure you’re allowed to, Noa?”

“Wh-why not?!” Noa looked shocked at the very idea of being turned down.

“You’d need Cliff’s permission. It’s not like we can just take you along without asking.”

“In that case, I shall attain permission from my father!” Noa stood up from her chair, left the room…and almost immediately came back. “Yuna, I have permission!”

Cliff stood behind the triumphant-looking Noa. Since Cliff was in the room next door, I knew she’d come back right away, but why had Cliff followed her back?

He walked up to me. “Yuna. Can I entrust Noa to you until the party?”

“I don’t really mind. What about you, Cliff?”

“I have work to do. People to meet with. From here on, I have things to discuss with Gran. Time-consuming things—I won’t have time to be with Noa. And as you can imagine, I wouldn’t want Noa to be confined to her room until the day of the party. Even if something does happen on your walks through town, I know she’ll be fine if she’s with you.”

He trusted me an awful lot, and I was glad for that, but…was this really a good idea? “Doesn’t Noa need to do formal greetings?” Noa was a noble like Misa, after all. Didn’t she have duties?

“She can do those at the party proper. Until then, you can do as you please. Noa, you have my permission to go out, so long as you don’t get separated from Yuna. Keep that promise, or you won’t be allowed outside again.”

“Of course, I’ll stick close to Yuna,” she said, glomping onto me. “I’ll even hug her the whole time so we can’t be separated!”

No sooner had I managed to pry Noa off than Misa looked like she wanted to say something. “I-I want to go too.”

Hm. I’d feel bad for Misa if she was the only one we left behind. But even though she said she wanted to come, I couldn’t just take her. She’d need permission from either Gran or her parents, just like Noa had.

Her…parents? Hold on, when was the last time I heard about them? Were they…were they dead? When we first met, I remembered hearing that her parents had gone to the capital ahead of her.

Okay, I was probably freaking out for no reason. “If you get permission from your parents, you can.” I wasn’t going to accidentally kidnap a noble kid, thank you very much.

“You mean it?!”

Two extra kids weren’t all that different from one. They didn’t seem like the types to wander off, either. And I trusted Fina, so I didn’t have any worries at all about her.

“Yeah, if you get permission.”

“I understand. I’ll go get permission from my mother and father.” Just like Noa, Misa dashed away. But the moment she opened the door, she stopped in her tracks. “Grandfather?!”

“What? You were here too, Misa?” Gran came in through the opened door. “And you too, Cliff?”

“I was asking Yuna to watch over my daughter. But why are you here, Gran?”

“I heard that the bear girl who helped me earlier had arrived, so I came to greet her.”

Nah, he was really the one who’d helped me. He was there when I purchased that plot of land and when I’d turned in the group of robbers.

“It’s been a while Miss Bear. And Fina, was it?” he said.

“Oh, yes. I’m Fina.” Fina reacted strangely when her name was suddenly said. But wait a minute, why was he using her first name, but calling me Miss Bear?

“Thank you for going to all this trouble for my granddaughter’s sake.”

“No need to thank me,” I said. “I wanted to see Misa too.” That wasn’t quite a lie, though I hadn’t exactly wanted to meet her again at a birthday party.

The conversation lulled for a moment, and Misa broke in. “Umm...Grandfather, may I go out into town with Yuna and the others tomorrow? Everyone says they will go with me.”

“To the town?”

Gran looked at me. “If Miss Bear is there, you should be fine.”

They were leaving things to me again? But Misa looked happy enough, so I guess I didn’t mind.

 

The next day, we got up early and I took the trio of Fina, Noa, and Misa out for a walk around the town.

“Where are we going, Yuna?” one of them asked.

“I don’t know anything about this town,” I admitted, “so I just planned to have a nice walk. Is there somewhere you all want to go?” It was more or less my responsibility to supervise everyone, after all.

“I’m okay going anywhere,” Noa said.

“Yeah, I’ll go anywhere with you, Yuna,” Fina chimed in.

“Anywhere as long as I can go outside,” Misa added.

None of them had any plans, it looked like. “In that case, let’s just walk around. Don’t get separated from me.”

Everyone seemed good with that.

People looked at us as we walked. We were a group of three pretty girls and a bear, so I guess we would stand out…but then again, the only bits of talk I overheard kept repeating the word “bear.”

Yeah…on second glance, they weren’t the right age yet to attract looks. It’s just the bear thing.

“Should we all eat something?” I asked. We ate breakfast before leaving, but a bit of time had passed. We could probably all eat a little something.

“Yes, I could eat.”

“Yes.”

“Me too.”

Since everyone agreed, I asked Misa where the food stalls were, and we headed on over. According to Misa, they had food stalls lined up in the plaza just like in Crimonia. What I really wanted was to check out the grocers in the marketplace, but I had to be patient.

 

Several food stalls lined the village square—your standard skewers, drinks, sandwiches, and soups. They were selling a ton of stuff.

Hmm…what to get…

We looked at each of the food stalls, made our choices, and ended up holding a ton of food in our hands. We’d been meaning to have a small snack, but here we were with huge meals. Everything looked so delicious; we just hadn’t been able to help ourselves.

“Yuna, are we allowed to buy all of this?”

“Don’t worry about money. Hey, mister—four skewers, please!” I made sure to buy a few different kinds to share with the three.

The first stall was so surprised by our massive haul that they shouted out in surprise. Fortunately, that alerted the other stalls enough that everything went a lot smoother with ’em.

“Yuna, I can’t carry any more.”

“And, um, this is more than I can eat.”

Yeah…Noa and Misa were sure carrying a lot, I’ll admit.

“Then do you guys want to find a bench to sit down and eat?”

They nodded, and we happily sat down to dig in.

“This reminds me of the capital,” Noa said.

“Since we all ate together then,” added Fina.

“Noa, Fina…I’m happy to be able to eat with you again,” said Misa.

Even Fina, who seemed so nervous at first, was talking happily with the other two about the capital as they ate. She’d gotten over her nerves. When I looked at those three, I was glad I’d come.

 

After our tour of the food stalls, we continued our walk around town. The usual gazes followed us, but no one caused trouble. We got to enjoy some window shopping.

As we had fun browsing, a group of boys and girls approached us from up ahead. They were somewhere between me and Fina in age—about thirteen, maybe? Based on looks, they seemed wealthy. A person in a black cloak was a short distance away from them…a guard, maybe. I was one to talk, but the guy seemed kind of suspicious.

As for the young kids, vicious smiles broke out on their faces when they noticed us. They leered at Misa—she saw them and hid behind me.

Huh? Was something going on here? These kids seemed downright nasty compared to the kids under my own watch. The snickering group approached us.