Chapter 220: The Bear Takes Home an Elf Girl

Chapter 220:
The Bear Takes Home an Elf Girl

 

LADY FLORA FELL ASLEEP with a full belly, still holding the bear stuffed animals, so after the meal, I headed out from the castle. I was just getting home to my bear house in the capital when I saw someone collapsed against the wall of my house—wait, what? Why was someone collapsed in front of my house?!

I rushed over and found a girl with long ears and light green hair. Was she an elf? I could definitely see those long ears poking out of the long hair…ears like that were pretty much the calling card for elves.

She looked like she was about the same age as me. Then again, that’s just how she looked. Based on common knowledge, though, elves lived a long time. For all I knew, she was much older.

The girl was still leaning against the wall in a sitting position, completely still. I really didn’t want anyone up and dying in front of my house, so I crouched down to check that she was still breathing. She was still alive, thank goodness; at least I hadn’t come home to find a corpse out front.

“Hey.” I grabbed her shoulder and shook her lightly. “Are you okay?”

She slowly opened her eyes. Good, good…

“What are you doing in a place like this?” I asked.

The elf girl stared back at me with blank, half-lidded eyes. “A bear…?” She looked at me and then tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Why are you sleeping here?”

“Am I dreaming…? A girl who looks like a bear…nobody would dress so strangely.”

“Hate to break it to you,” I said, “but this getup just so happens to be my style.”

“I’m sure I’ll actually wake up if I go back to sleep again…” The girl actually closed her eyes again! I even heard her start snoring. I tried shaking her gently, but she wouldn’t wake up.

Uh, wait, what was I supposed to do now?

I thought about calling a guard, but it seemed awkward to just hand them a sleeping elf girl. And it wasn’t like I could just leave her while I went to get someone. I’d probably stand out too, if I was carrying her in my arms in this bear onesie.

So, I decided to take the girl into my house. I carried her in my arms bridal-style. Thanks to my bear equipment, she wasn’t so heavy either!

I carried her in, shut the door, and brought her up to the second floor. Then I put her down in a guest bed. Uh…hmm.

I’d ended up bringing her home. Was…was this such a good idea? I looked at the elf girl sleeping peacefully on the bed. Nah, I couldn’t have just left her like that. No way I could have!

As I tried to convince myself of that, I removed the item bag and knife that the girl had around her waist and placed them on a table, since they’d be pretty uncomfortable to sleep with. More comfortable now, the girl turned in her sleep and seemed downright cozy.

I guess she was fine now…?

As I made to leave the room, I remembered something. Ah, right—I’d almost forgotten. I summoned Kumayuru as a cub onto the corner of the bed.

“Let me know if she wakes up,” I told Kumayuru and gently patted their head before leaving the room.

I went down to the first floor, sat on the sofa, and took out some potato chips and oren juice.

Crunch, crunch.

Okay, but seriously…what had I gotten myself into? I never thought I’d take an elf girl home.

Gulp, gulp.

Except…I felt like I’d seen her before? But where? Had we just passed by each other somewhere?

Crunch, crunch.

I ate the potato chips, drank the oren juice, and relaxed.

I started to get drowsy, so I summoned and hugged Kumakyu in cub form. “Kumakyu, wake me up if something happens.” I flopped over on the sofa while still hugging Kumakyu. Ah…truly, there’s no luxury in human civilization like a good ol’ siesta. I hugged Kumakyu and settled in. The moment I closed my eyes, I drifted off to dreamland.

 

Bop, bop.

Something soft patted my cheek. I guess Kumakyu was trying to wake me. I got up, still hugging Kumakyu. “What a good rest, Kumakyu, right?”

“Cwoom.”

How long had I been out? It was starting to get dark outside the window. Was it already evening? I guess I’d slept a bit too long.

I got up from the sofa and looked at Kumakyu, who let out a small cry and looked up.

“Did the elf girl wake up?”

Kumakyu shook their head. She hadn’t? Then what had happened? If the elf girl had woken up, Kumayuru would’ve let me know…but then again, maybe not.

I’d closed the door. Would I be able to hear Kumayuru, even if they crooned loudly?

Kumakyu was still staring upstairs, so I went to go check on things.

I went up to the second floor and opened the door to the room where the elf girl was sleeping, and…

…spotted the girl there, hugging Kumayuru.

“Ngh, so soft and warm!”

Kumayuru was trying to escape, but couldn’t get away with the girl hugging them. I mean, Kumayuru probably could if they really tried, but they seemed a little at a loss.

Because the girl wasn’t awake at all. She was just hugging Kumayuru in her sleep.

Kumayuru looked at me like they wanted to be saved. So, that was what Kumakyu wanted me to do.

But I felt bad about waking the sleeping girl. I was wondering how to fix this when the girl slowly opened her eyes.

Oh, was she actually going to wake up this time?

She looked at Kumayuru, the bear she was holding “Bear…?” Then she turned to look over at me. “A bear? A…a dream?”

Then, at once, she was falling asleep again. I lightly bopped the elf girl on the head as she tried to drift off. “You’re not dreaming.”

She opened her eyes when I bopped her. I kind of needed her to wake up sooner or later, anyways. The girl got up and looked around the room restlessly.

“Where am I?” She looked at me again. “A bear…?”

Argh, could we move on from that? “This is my house. You were collapsed out front. Do you not remember that?”

The elf girl looked worried. She walked through her thoughts out loud. “I got tired after walking through crowds for hours. I didn’t have any money or anywhere to rest. After staggering around, I saw a bear house. I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Haaah…” All I could do was sigh. She’d gotten tired and collapsed in front of my house. “Where’s your home?”

“The elves’ village.”

Which was where exactly? Why was she talking like it was just around the block from here?! “So, you’re not from the capital, then? You didn’t come all the way from the elves’ village on your own, did you?”

Not that I knew where the village was in the first place.

“I came by myself.”

Alone? But she was so small, even if we were about the same age. And yet she’d gotten all the way to the capital with no money? I was dumbstruck. What were her parents thinking? Or maybe…she was actually considered an adult since she was an elf, so they let her travel on their own? Still, it was pretty dangerous.

Admittedly, calling her out on that would be the pot calling the kettle black, but still...

“Well, why did you come to...”...the capital? I was about to say right when the girl’s stomach quietly growled. “How about we get something to eat first? I’ll prep something for us. Let’s go downstairs.”

She probably hadn’t had anything decent to eat, and I could hear her stomach cry out for food.

“Really?” she said.

“Yeah!”

“So, um...” she said.

Oh, right—we hadn’t really introduced ourselves. “I’m Yuna.”

“Yuna, thank you very much. I’m Luimin.”

“All right, Luimin. Could you…maybe let Kumayuru go soon-ish please?” Kumayuru was still in her arms and had been shooting me pleading looks for the length of our talk.

“This cub is called Kumayuru?” she asked as she lifted up my bear.

“The black bear is Kumayuru, yeah. This white bear is Kumakyu,” I held Kumakyu up in my arms.

“They’re cute!”

Luimin let Kumayuru go, and I took her down to the first floor. “Sit wherever you like.”

She sat in a chair. I pulled out some juice and some bread that Morin had made and served it to her.

Luimin bowed her head. “Thank you very much.” Her belly gurgled again, and I urged her to eat. I guess this would be dinner today. I took out some for myself and sat down.

“It’s yummy…!” Luimin seemed to be relishing it. “This is the first time I’ve eaten bread this delicious!”

Morin would probably be overjoyed at that.

“Yuna, is your family here? I would like to meet them.”

“I don’t have any family. I’m by myself.”

“Huh? You’re alone?”

“That’s right.”

She looked surprised at that. “You’re living alone even though you’re so little?!”

I wasn’t so little.

And honestly, Luimin wasn’t much bigger than me. She was actually just about the same height. Since she was an elf and they lived a long time, she had to be older than me though, right?

How old was she anyways? She looked fifteen!

“Besides,” I said, “I’m not alone. I have Kumayuru and Kumakyu right here.”

Kumayuru and Kumakyu came over at that. They were my beary precious family.

“Um…so I just arrived at the capital, and I don’t know much about it. Is that look you have, ah...the current fashion?”

It seemed like that’d been weighing on her for a while. I guess anyone would wonder about that.

“It’s definitely not.” I’d be terrified if this was the current trend. “And I’d prefer not to talk about my look, thanks. Now, Luimin, what brought you to the capital?” I didn’t want to talk about my outfit to somebody I’d just met, so I just moved right past that.

“I came looking for someone. She was working in the capital the last time I saw her.”

She was looking for someone in the capital? Had she just walked around aimlessly for hours searching for them?

That couldn’t be right. At least, I hoped not. “Where is this person? I can take you to her.”

There was no way she’d come to the capital looking for someone without knowing where they were. If she told me where they lived, I could show her the way. In the very least, I could ask Ellelaura if she didn’t know enough.

“She said she was working at the Adventurer Guild ten years ago,” Luimin offered.

“Ten years ago?!”

“Yes, ten years ago.” Luimin tilted her head a bit. “Why? Is there something wrong?

She’d met the person ten years ago? And she hadn’t even seen this person for a literal decade?! I guess that’s just a near immortal race for you, then. Maybe ten years felt like one human year to them.

If this person worked at the Adventurer Guild, that probably made her an adventurer. But if Luimin hadn’t seen this person in ten years...what if she’d died? That’s been known to happen with adventurers.

Let’s start there. “Is she an adventurer?”

“I don’t know. I just heard that she was working at the Adventurer Guild.”

Hmm. Maybe Sanya would know if I asked her? She was the guild master, after all. Plus, she was also an elf...

I looked at Luimin’s face...it looked kinda familiar?

Staring at her seemed to have made her embarrassed. “What is it?”

“Um, what’s her name?” I asked.

“Sanya. She’s my older sister.”

Of course! I’d been wondering why she looked so familiar—it was Sanya. Why hadn’t I noticed before? They were both the only elves I’d seen around the whole city, and I hadn’t realized the connection.

Luimin leaned forward. “So, you know her…!” She must have seen my reaction and sensed something.

“I do. Sanya is the guild master of the Adventurer Guild.”

“She’s the guild master?”

“Yeah. She’s an elf, her hair is the same color as yours, and the name checks out too.”

“Yuna, could you take me to her? Please?” Luimin bowed her head.

“Sure, but let’s go tomorrow. It’s too late today.”

It would be dusk soon. The guild was essentially a twenty-four-hour establishment, but it would be packed with adventurers coming back from jobs right now. I really wanted to avoid the rush hour crowd. Plus, Sanya might’ve already headed home from work.

I promised to take Luimin tomorrow and told her to stay over for the night.

“Yuna, thank you.” Well, it wasn’t like I could kick her out. But Luimin already seemed like a magnet for trouble.