Chapter 187: The Bear Is Made Fun Of

Chapter 187:
The Bear Is Made Fun Of

 

MISA HID BEHIND ME. It seemed like she knew the kids.

“Yuna,” Noa and Fina mumbled, grabbing hold of my clothes. They could tell something was off, but I wish they wouldn’t do that—I might need to get moving if things broke bad.

As for Misa, she was silent.

“It’s all right,” I told them. “Let go of my clothes, just in case. I’ll protect you if something happens.” At that, they let go. If I moved while they were still latched on, things might get rough.

“Well, well,” said the lead kid. “I thought I saw a creep, and look: you’re walking right next to them, Misana. Taking your weird pet bear for a walk?”

His little groupies laughed in response. Ugh, this was bad. For the first time in a while, I was feeling the urge to punch someone. He was a kid, though, and he seemed high status. It wouldn’t be worth it.

I mean, it’d be fine if it was just me, but Fina, Noa, and Misa were here too. I didn’t want to do anything dangerous.

The boy smiled, drawing closer. Misa was shivering behind me. There was something up between these two. Whatever that was, Misa didn’t want any part of this, and I was going to let her hide behind me as long as she needed to.

“Could you not come any closer than that?” I got the boy to stop.

“What? Who’re you?”

“I’m the bodyguard for these girls.”

“Pffft—really? Misana, you’ve got a bear for a guard?” The boy laughed, and his underlings joined him. Nauseating. Made me wanna punch that grin right off his face. “No, no, I get it. Bears are soooo strong, after all.”

The boy laughed even louder. Misa was shaking behind me. Noa and Fina held both of her hands…they were such good kids.

Still, we needed to get out of here for Misa’s sake.

“If you have no business with us,” I said, “we’ll be going.”

“Wait, bear, I’m talking to Misana. Wouldn’t you know it, Misana…I’m going to Gran’s party. Care to thank me for it? C’mon, be a doll and say it.” He spoke the words in a nasty, mocking stutter. “‘Th-thank you s-so much for g-gracing us with your presence at the party.’”

 

If he was coming to Gran’s party, he was definitely a noble. Having to invite a sneering idiot like this kid must’ve been hard for Gran.

“Oh, and here’s an idea,” said the boy. “Maybe I could go to your birthday party too?”

“You don’t have to come,” said Misa.

“Beg your pardon? Is that how you respond to someone who’s offering to attend your party?”

“You don’t have to come,” Misa repeated.

When he heard her attitude, the boy really flew off the handle. “You think you can talk to me like that? You know your family might be ruined, don’t you?”

Misa said nothing.

“Ever consider that it’d be in your best interest to get on my good side? You know, you might just make a good maid if your family winds up destitute. How about that, hmm?” The boy laughed.

Misa hung her head and stayed silent. Whatever was going on, this boy was irking me and making Misa miserable. It’d be best if we left as soon as possible.

“Everyone, we’re going,” I said, ignoring the boy and trying to gather the girls.

“Wait. I wasn’t done talking,” said the boy. He tried to grab Misa’s arm.

And I stood in front of him.

“Hey, you: move,” said the boy. “I’m not about to let some fuzzy-suited freak get in my way!”

“I’m a guard. It’s my job to get in your way. You better stop bothering her.”

The boy and I glared at each other.

“You dare to go against me in this town? Do you know the consequences? Don’t pretend you’re a guard, you weirdly dressed brat. That strong guy over there—now he’s a guard.”

The boy pointed at the man in the black mantle behind him. That guy looked like trouble, all right.

“You must be trying to make a fool of me,” he continued. “Claiming that this girl in the stupid outfit is a guard? Ridiculous. I could introduce you to the real deal. Then again, you probably won’t need a guard at all pretty soon.”

“That’s fine,” said Misa. “Yuna is way stronger.” It was nice to hear her say that.

“That bear? Strong? Don’t make me laugh.”

I faced the boy. “Let me get this straight: you don’t walk around outside without a big, strong guard? What a little baby. Why don’t you go back home to your mommy? Get some nursing in? Mommy, I can’t go outside unwess I have a stwong guard!”

“Why, you little—!” Oh, now he was fuming. I guess he had a low boiling point. Maybe no one had ever made fun of him before. Raging, the boy threw a punch at me.

I caught his fist in my bear puppet.

“Damn it, let go!” The boy pulled on his hand with all his might. Not that it mattered, of course.

“Step aside,” I said firmly.

“Shut up! Brad!”

The moment the boy shouted, black-mantled Brad rushed out from behind him. I let go of the boy’s hand and dodged his attack; it was faster than I expected.

The moment I let go of his hand, the boy lost his balance and fell on his backside. Needless to say, Misa and the others busted up laughing. Even his little friends started to smirk. Comedy really brings people together, you know?

“You little—!”

“That wasn’t my fault. You should probably direct your complaints to…Brad, was it? Your guy attacked me out of nowhere. In fact, you’re the one who gave him that order in the first place.”

The Brad guy moved to help the boy up, but got his hand batted away instead. The boy stood up on his own.

“Brad, do something about this weird bear!”

“Lord Randle, look around you,” the guard said. People started gathering after hearing the boy shout.

The boy looked around, seeming annoyed.

“Tsk, let’s go guys,” he called out to his followers. Then he looked at me. “Don’t think you’ll get away with this.”

With that, he left. (But wow…those were some real villain-kinda parting words.)

Once the boy and others disappeared, Misa hugged me from behind.

“They left,” I said, “so it’s okay.”

We found a bench to rest. Misa needed a place to calm down; she was shaking like a leaf.

“What was with that guy?” I asked. “He was so full of himself.”

“That was Randle of the Salbard family, the feudal lord of this town,” said Noa. I knew it—he was a noble. Well, since he was invited to Gran’s party, it was a given he’d be some bigshot’s kid. He was exactly how I pictured nobles before I met Cliff—one of those cocky people who thought the world revolved around them. In other words, precisely the type of person I hated.

Uh. Wait, had she said feudal lord? “Gran isn’t the feudal lord of this town?”

“Yes, my grandfather is also a feudal lord.”

Noa nodded. “Um, this town has two feudal lords.”

Why’d one town have two lords? I never heard of something like that, even in my original world.

Noa continued, filling out what Misa had left out: “I don’t know all the details, but it’s said that long ago the Fahrengram family and the Salbard family were given equal shares of this land for their military services. At the time, the families had gotten along, but their relationship soured over time.”

Even with the explanation, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. How had they managed until now? They’d have to share taxes, so it seemed like a recipe for a fight if they didn’t like each other. “I’m surprised they managed the territory like that.”

“The town is split. My grandpa has the east district and the Salbard family has the west. They’re managed separately.”

“So the town is divided in half?”

Misa nodded.

Could they really do that? I guess the town was still running, so it must have worked out, but it seemed like a lot of trouble. The king back then must have been an idiot. Splitting a territory between families was a recipe for trouble. Then again, maybe it wasn’t a problem since they’d gotten along at the time?

As times passes, human relationships change. There was no guarantee that the relationships between the families would stay the same for generations. Plus, things get complicated when property and land rights get involved.

Good thing I hadn’t wound up near this town when I came to this world, and thank goodness I met Fina when I did in that forest. If I’d walked in a different direction, I might’ve showed up here. I patted Fina’s head while she silently listened in.

“What? Yuna, what are you doing?!” Fina was bewildered by the sudden head pat. I paid her no mind and patted away.

“That lord’s son is pretty violent, though.”

“I don’t like him because he never has anything nice to say,” Misa said, which was uncharacteristically damning for her. He really must’ve been stuck up, suddenly telling her to thank him for coming to her party. Maybe he just wasn’t raised right, though. Thinking about his upbringing…ugh, it made me shiver to think he was part of the nobility.

“Is he always that aggressive?”

“Yeah, especially lately. When he finds me, he insults my parents and my grandfather.”

Yeah, he definitely had the delight of a true bully on his mug the moment he’d spotted Misa. Truly the kind of guy where he looked exactly as nasty as he was.

“Is that kid also invited to Gran’s party?”

“Yes. He’s the son of the other lord of this town, so my grandfather invited him even though he didn’t seem to want to.”

He didn’t even want to? Relationships between the nobility seemed tedious.

Then again, that wasn’t exclusive to noble society. When you were going out with friends, sometimes you had to invite people you didn’t want to. I’d seen scenes in dramas and movies where people were even invited to parties reluctantly. Keeping up relationships was important, but you sometimes had to deal with people you wanted nothing to do with. It was all for appearance’s sake, I guess.

“In that case, are the kids around him also nobles?”

The boys and girls following the boy had laughed at Misa; they seemed just as mean.

“I think they’re the kids of merchants and other important people in this town.”

Hm. Maybe they were following him to butter him up?

What a sad way to live, having to beg for nobles’ attention from childhood on. They’d have to act subservient toward that kid their whole lives. Because I’d been a shut-in, I never had to deal with a pecking order before. I guess if you just didn’t want to deal with those kinds of societal relationships, the best way to keep out of it was to become a hermit.

Still, they were the merchants’ children. If the kids were like that, it probably didn’t say anything good about their parents. I could easily see a crooked merchant relying on the feudal lord to make some money illegally, like a scene from one of those historical Japanese dramas: “Well, looks like someone is dirty.” “Not as dirty as the feudal lord.”

There was something else he said that concerned me. Something I couldn’t ignore. He said that Gran’s household was about to be ruined. That meant the Fahrengram family would be ruined, didn’t it? It worried me, but I hesitated to ask Misa about it.

Ugh, that stupid noble killed the whole vibe. I didn’t even feel like exploring the town anymore. “Should we head back for the day?”

“I’m okay! Don’t worry about me,” Misa said cheerfully, but the whole encounter seemed like something I needed to tell Gran as soon as possible, even if it was just a squabble between some kids. Monsters were my domain, but it seemed better to leave an aristocratic baddie to other nobles.

Then again, if I went back right away, Misa might feel like she was to blame for cutting things short. She might even feel guilty for preventing us from having a fun walk around the town. “Then how about we stop by a few more places and then head home?”

“Yes, let’s go.”

“All right, let’s go over there.”

Fina and Noa understood what I was thinking and went along with it.

“Thank you...everyone.” Misa seemed happy.

To cheer up Misa, we walked around town—and to hell with that stupid noble!