Chapter 205: The Bear Gifts Bear Stuffed Animals

Chapter 205:
The Bear Gifts Bear Stuffed Animals

 

WE FINISHED EATING the cake, so all that was left was giving Misa the stuffed animals.

I hoped that she’d be happy. They certainly made me happy. I was kind of worried she’d try to act grownup and would say something like, “A stuffed animal? I’m not a little kid anymore.” I was a little late in realizing it, but ten was kind of a strange age. There are adults who still like stuffed animals, but there are also kids who have no interest in them whatsoever despite being young.

“Misa, I have a question. Do you like stuffed animals?”

“Stuffed animals?” She paused for a moment. “I do...I care very much about a stuffed doggie my mother gave me.” She paused for a moment, but Fina and I were both relieved when she said she liked them.

“In that case, would you accept one more present?”

“You have another one?!”

I pulled out the Kumayuru stuffed animal from my bear storage and handed it to Fina, then I took the Kumakyu stuffed animal in my hands. That made it look more like we were each giving her a present.

The moment I pulled out the stuffed animals, the place stirred.

“Wh-wh-what is that?! What is it?!” Noa reacted before Misa could.

“They’re stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu.”

Noa stood out of her seat and ran over to inspect the Kumakyu I was holding. “It’s adorable. It looks just like Kumakyu. Yuna, please let me have that.”

“What? No, you can’t. It’s a present for Misa.”

“But at least let me have one of them,” said Noa, looking back and forth between the Kumakyu and Kumayuru plushies.

“You can’t. It’d be mean to separate them. They’re both Misa’s birthday present.”

It’d be sad to separate Kumakyu and Kumayuru, even if they were just stuffed animals. Plus, these were meant to be a present from me and Fina.

“Why couldn’t it be my birthday today?!”

I didn’t know how to react to that. If she wanted to complain, she could bring it up with Cliff and Ellelaura.

Noa fell to her knees, deflated. “Ugh, I want stuffed animals of Kumayuru and Kumakyu too.” She looked miserable.

Just like I expected.

“Um, did you really want them that much?” I said.

“Yes, I really do...” She raised her face up and gave me a pleading look.

“In that case, I’ll get you one as a present next time.”

“R-really?!” Aaaand Noa perked right back up.

I knew that Noa would want one, so I’d always planned to gift her some. Sherry definitely would have several more ready by the time I got back to Crimonia. Still, Noa was reacting a lot more dramatically than I expected.

“Just wait it out for today, got it?”

“All right. I’m sorry for being difficult,” she said. Then added, insistently, “but it’s a promise, okay?”

Fina and I held the bear stuffed animals and headed to Misa. Behind her, Noa watched enviously. I really was planning on giving her bears as a present later, so…could she not look at me like that?

We walked over to Misa, still under Noa’s scrutiny.

“You can do it first,” I said to Fina.

“Lady Misa, happy birthday. Yuna and I worked really hard to make these.”

When Fina offered the Kumayuru stuffed animal, Misa happily stretched her arms out to take it. “Thank you. It’s adorable. Can I really have it?”

“Yeah! It’s a birthday present for you, after all. I’m glad you like stuffed animals.”

“And I’m glad you said you like it and you’re not embarrassed,” I added. “I was kinda worried for a sec that you’d say you outgrew them or something.”

“If I had, then you wouldn’t have given them to me as a present?” said Misa.

“But…but then I would have gotten them...” Noa muttered disappointedly.

“Make sure you take care of Kumakyu, okay? It’d be sad for you to just have one of them, so I want you to take care of both of them together.”

When it came to the real Kumayuru and Kumakyu, I always had to make sure to give them equal attention or the other one would end up pouting. And so now I gave Misa the Kumakyu stuffed animal.

Petite little Misa held it preciously. “I’ll treasure them both. Thank you.” She showed us her very best smile of the day.

“Isn’t it great that you’ve gotten cute stuffed animals, Misa?” asked Misa’s mother.

“Yes.”

Misa’s mother seemed happy to see her daughter’s smile.

Misa cradled the stuffed animals. “But now that you’ve given me this, I can’t ask you for anything…”

“There was something you wanted to ask for?”

“Yes, I was hoping to see Kumayuru and Kumakyu one more time. That’s what I was going to ask.”

“You were going to ask for that?”

“Yes...”

“Why didn’t you say so?” I summoned Kumayuru and Kumakyu in cub form.

“Wh-what is going on?! Kumayuru and Kumakyu are so tiny! Like…like stuffed animals.”

“We used them at this size as a model,” I said.

Kumayuru and Kumakyu headed over to Misa. Four bears surrounded her: Kumayuru, Kumakyu, and their plushie doubles.

“Misa, that’s so unfair!” Noa couldn’t hold back anymore. She ran into the scene and started hugging as many bears as she could get her hands on. The bears were overwhelmed with hugs, and before long Noa and Misa were playing games with my bears.

Misa’s mother, watching all it all with a smile, turned to me. “Yuna, Fina, thank you for this. It’s been so long since I’ve seen my daughter this happy. Misa has been looking forward to this ever since she sent the invitations to you and Fina.”

Yeah. I was glad that I hadn’t turned the invitation down…though I hadn’t expected that I’d end up wearing a dress.

“I hope you continue to be friends with my daughter,” she said.

“Of course,” I answered along with Fina.

“Yuna, I’m happy that you’re giving my daughter stuffed animals,” said Ellelaura, “but do you have any for Lady Flora?” She watched her daughter playing with the bears.

“Of course I have some in store for her.”

“Ha! Oh, excellent. After seeing these, I didn’t know what I would do if Lady Flora couldn’t have some of her own.”

I was giving out bears in a very strange order, but Flora was the whole reason I wanted to make the stuffed animals in the first place.

“Still, Misa, you’ve gotten such a nice gift,” said Gran. “Maybe I should have sent her an invitation to my party as well.”

What, did he want a present too? “Want a stuffed animal, Gran?”

“No! It’s just that you always bring surprises, whether presents or food. I was simply wondering what kind of present you would have given me, had you given me one.”

Huh. What would I give Gran? What do old people even like? A voucher for a shoulder massage? Wait, wait, that was something his actual grandchild would give him, not me. Then…maybe an antique or a rare weapon, like the one the king had gotten for his birthday?

The only other thing I could think of for an aristocrat was jewels, but I didn’t have anything like that on me. Yep, I couldn’t think of a thing.

Unless…

“Gran, would a decoration work?”

“A decoration?”

“I have something cool that you could put at the entrance or somewhere it’d stand out.”

“Oh ho! And would you give me something like that as a present?”

“Yeah, sure. If you don’t want it, just let me know and I’ll take it home.” I headed to a less crowded part of the room and pulled out an iron golem from my bear storage.

“Ahh!”

“What is that?!”

“It’s a golem!”

“Yuna, what do you think you’re doing?!”

Everyone started to freak out when I pulled out the golem. Someone even flipped over their chair as they attempted to run. Some of them yelled, some fell to the ground. Seemed like a pretty big fuss over just one golem.

“Gran, don’t you think it’d be cool to use this as a decoration?” I knocked on the iron golem—clang! Or…more of a mental clang, I guess. I was wearing my bear puppets, so I had to fill in the clangs for myself.

“Miss, are you sure it’s not dangerous?” Gran asked cautiously.

“What is?”

“Isn’t that an iron golem?”

“Yeah, it is.”

That seemed pretty obvious. I guess maybe it was their first time seeing one? Then again, I’d first seen these guys pretty recently myself. It did feel a bit like we were talking past each other, though.

“Yuna,” said Fina gently. I tilted my head at her. “It looks like everyone thinks that the golem will move.”

Oh, right. That was why everyone was making such a huge deal out of it. “This golem won’t move, so it’s no problem.”

“Really?”

They seemed very skeptical. In order to prove it, I poked the golem a few times.

“Yuna, is that golem one of the ones from earlier?” Ellelaura asked.

“That’s right. I just happened to figure out a way to slay them and leave them intact,” I said. Ellelaura was talking about the golems I’d slain in the mines.

“You slayed iron golems?” Gran marveled. “But I’ve never seen one in such pristine condition.”

Gran approached the golem and peered at it. Ghazal and some others had said something along those lines too. When golems were slain, they usually were damaged out of necessity. It usually wasn’t possible to keep them in their original form. In my case, I slayed them with electricity magic to destroy their mana gems, so they kept their shape.

“How about the entrance, then?” I said. “It’d be really visible and cool there, don’t you think?”

The other two people I gifted them to kept them up as decorations.

“It would definitely stand out, but all the guests would be shocked by it.”

“Not interested?” I thought it was a good present, though…

“If you’re giving it to me, then I’ll accept it, but are you sure? You could sell a golem in such good shape for quite a high price,” said Gran. “The amount of metal alone would fetch a large sum, I’m sure.”

“I have a bajillion of ’em, so it’s fine.” I still had several iron golems in my bear storage, not that I really knew what to do with the things.

At that, Cliff held his head in his hands. Gran and Ellelaura smiled, but they seemed exasperated. As for Misa and Noa, they just approached the golem. I guess they were curious about it. It was their first time seeing one, after all.

The others were with Zelef and Botts, and watched from afar. An iron golem was a big surprise to most people, it seemed. Neither of the blacksmiths had freaked out, so I hadn’t really thought about it much. I’d be more careful next time I took one out.

“I already thought you really don’t follow any rules of common sense,” said Gran, “but I didn’t realize you were this absurd.”

“I already knew that,” said Cliff.

“Same here,” said Ellelaura.

Even Zelef and Botts were nodding along.

Huh? Weird? But…I wasn’t even wearing the bear onesie, right? So, you know. Normal. Right?

I looked at the three girls, as if to silently ask them, but they didn’t say anything.

C’mon, guys, you’re going to make the bear cry!