Chapter 234: The Bear Heads Out to the Elves’ Village Again

Chapter 234:
The Bear Heads Out to the Elves’ Village Again

 

WE PLODDED ALONG in the carriage, leaving the main road on our way to the house. Eventually, the carriage stopped in front of a cute little place with a red roof.

“This is it. So, what do you say?”

It was far away from the center of town, so it was deserted…which worked great for my purposes. Retbelle took out his key and let us in. The house was a tad dusty, so we opened some windows to get the air flowing. I guess no one had been there for a while.

“I hope you won’t mind the dust. We do clean it occasionally, I assure you.”

Actually, it looked pretty nice. And any house is going to get dusty if it isn’t lived in for a couple years.

I scoped out the place. It was furnished with a bed and the bare minimum of furniture. The first floor had a kitchen, a living room, and a bathroom with a proper bath. The second floor had two bedrooms. Kind of felt like a newlyweds’ house—but I was just using it as a base to get to and from places, so this’d do just fine.

If I set up a transport gate here, it’d make traveling to the neighboring country easier. Honestly, I could’ve gotten more fancy and found a place in the town across the river, but…the grass is always greener on the other side, you know?

“Looks good,” I said. “How much are you willing to part with it for?”

Retbelle silently produced a slip of paper. “This is the title of the house. I don’t need your money, you see. You can have it. You’ve given us two copies of the book, you’ve given us stuffed animals…think of this as a way to repay you for them.”

“That doesn’t really sound like a fair trade.”

“That’s not for you to decide. I tried for ages to get a hold of that book, and not once did I succeed. Please, don’t concern yourself with the price. This is but a mere expression of my gratitude. And you managed to acquire that painting for me, didn’t you? I needed to get that to someone quickly. If you hadn’t, my negotiations would’ve been for naught.”

“Was that destroyed painting part of the deal?”

“That’s right. I originally had needed that painting. But, since we still had time, I arranged for a different one. However, we couldn’t get a boat out for days. We were in dire straits as well. But you managed to bring the painting over, and all was well. This is a token of my gratitude for that.”

“I don’t think that’s enough of a reason to give me a whole house.”

“Please, don’t fret about it. Think of it as thanks for letting me see Alka’s smile. No amount of money could buy such a thing. That’s why I’m so grateful to you, my dear.”

“Are you really sure about this?”

“Yes. We’ve left it neglected as it is because we couldn’t find a buyer. If you want it, it’s yours!” Retbelle thrust the house’s title at me.

“I guess I’ll graciously accept then.” I was a little conflicted, but I did end up taking the deed from him.

 

“Are you sure you don’t want us to take you back?”

“I’m fine. I’d like to poke around the house a little more.” I still had one more thing left to do: put up the gate.

“I see. In that case, please come to our house if anything happens.”

Then Retbelle left.

He’d said that they cleaned it occasionally, but the dust still bothered me a little. I used wind magic to blow the dust that had collected on the floors outside. That was easy enough to do for every room. The only reason I could do that was because there wasn’t anything in the house other than the big furniture. If the house were filled with little odds and ends, they’d have gone flying off with the dust.

After some light cleaning, I set up a bear gate in the room next to the bedroom on the second floor. Now I could get back here whenever I wanted.

If I spent too much time out, I’d worry Sanya and Luimin, so I closed up the doors and headed back to the inn.

 

“Yuna, you’ve been out late. Did everything go okay?” asked Sanya. She seemed worried.

Yeah, I’d probably stayed out a little too late. If I’d been a tad later, they’d been planning on going to Retbelle’s house to get me.

“I’m fine. I met his grandkid and read her a book. They served me tea too, but that was all.”

I explained what had been holding me up, but I left the house out of it.

“Glad to hear it,” said Sanya. “If he tried to do anything to you, though, you let me know.” I really appreciated that.

And now it was Luimin’s turn to greet me. “Thank you so much, Yuna.” She bowed her head. On her arm now hung the same type of bracelet that Sanya wore.

“I’m glad you got your bracelet back.”

“All thanks to you, Yuna.”

“But Sanya was the one who paid for it.” All I’d done was take them across the river on my bears. Sure, that was the hard part, but I was just making use of a skill from that god. I wasn’t going to act like I’d done them a big favor because I just so happened to have the skill.

“My sister told me the whole thing,” said Luimin. “She said that we never would have gotten it back without you.”

“That’s not true. Sanya did plenty.”

“But Kumayuru and Kumakyu did run across the river, didn’t they?”

Looked like Sanya had told her that my bears could walk on water. Fine by me—since the boats would be held up for days and we wanted to get to the elves’ village quick, I’d told Sanya that she could spill the beans to Luimin.

“If you’re going to thank anyone, thank my bears. They were working hard, even in the rain.”

“Yes, of course. I’m so grateful to them too!”

“Since you’re back,” said Sanya, “how about we go out to eat? Miranda and the others are waiting.”

Apparently, we were treating Miranda’s group for staying with Luimin. They’d arranged the meal while waiting for me at the inn. We headed to the meeting place.

Sanya started off by apologized to Miranda’s group. “Thank you, everyone. I’m so sorry my silly little sister caused you all this trouble.”

“I still wonder how you got across that raging river to buy back that bracelet,” Miranda mused. “I suppose that’s just why you’re a guild master, Sanya.”

“Poor adventurers like us could never do that,” added Sharla.

Miranda’s group smiled bitterly at their own words.

Eriel inched closer to me. “But Yuna, how did you cross the river, really?”

I backed away. “Top secret.”

“Top secret?” Eriel pouted. “C’mon, tell meeeee…”

“Sanya, how did you cross the river?” Miranda asked, turning to her.

“A guild master can’t go around revealing an adventurer’s secrets.”

Miranda smiled wryly. “Dang. No dice.”

That marked the end of the bracelet talk, and we started talking about what came next.

“Do the ships seem like they’ll be heading out?” Sanya asked.

“Hmm…I’d give it three more days? That sounds about right, by my estimation.”

“I think it’ll be very crowded,” said Sharla. “The rain really backed up trade for everybody.”

Miranda’s group were locals, so we could probably trust their guess about something like this. Besides, I wanted to take my time sightseeing if I was going to get on a boat. I didn’t want to be packed in like sardines in a stuffy, crowded ship.

Once again, it was gonna be Kumayuru and Kumakyu for us.

“Thank you so much for everything you did for Luimin,” said Sanya. “If you ever make your way to the capital, please do come by the Adventurer Guild. I’ll pay you back.”

“You bet we’ll stop by if we come to the capital, but we’re not going to ask for payment.”

Made sense—they were adventurers, so they’d probably end up at the guild sooner or later. Hopefully I’d be there in the capital to see them, but I guess that’d be hard to time?

“Do you live in the capital too, Yuna?” Eriel asked me. I didn’t really want to tell her all that much about me. Then again, Crimonia was pretty far away. I could probably share that much.

“I live in a town called Crimonia.”

“Um, Crimonia, so that’s...”

“It’s a little far away, isn’t it?” Miranda answered as Eriel counted on her fingers.

So, you can’t come visit, I thought.

“But it’s not like we can’t get there,” said Eriel.

“Well, then!” said Miranda. “Next time we visit, you’ll need to let us stay at your place!”

No freaking way. I smiled and tried to pretend I hadn’t heard that.

“Everyone, thank you so very much,” said Sanya. “I’m so grateful I met all of you.”

“We couldn’t do all that much for you, though,” said Miranda.

“We really, really didn’t,” added Eriel.

“That’s not true!” said Luimin. “I was so happy that you were all so nice to me...”

“I’m glad to hear it,” said Miranda. “If something ever brings you to town, don’t be a stranger!”

“Gotcha!”

The conversation continued until we were done with the meal, and soon enough, the day came to a close.

The next day, the rain and its remnants had cleared up like they’d never happened.

Still, the ships still weren’t moving because the river was raging. We left the town in order to ride on my bears across the river, as I’d planned. I obviously couldn’t summon them at the wharf and waltz the lot of us across the water in broad daylight. Nah, we had to leave town first and then cross.

“I think this’ll do.” We found a spot upstream from the town—deserted, of course.

“We’re crossing the river from here?” Luimin looked super happy to be riding on Kumayuru. She’d been all “Are we there yet?” and “Don’t you think we could try around here?” for the entire trip.

“Don’t move around too much while we’re on the river. I’m not responsible if you fall.”

The weather was nice, but the river wasn’t. I was pretty sure we’d be fine, but I still gave Luimin a warning. And so, finally, my bears ran out onto the river and started crossing.

“This is amazing! We’re actually running across the top of the river!” Luimin wasn’t moving around too much, but she was sure making a scene.

“Luimin, please keep your voice down,” Sanya told her.

“But, Sister, we’re running on top of the river!”

“I’m well aware.” Sanya tried to get Luimin to chill out a little, but she couldn’t.

Well, it only lasted for a few minutes. My bears were across the river in the blink of an eye.

“You were amazing, Kumayuru.” Luimin hugged Kumayuru and stroked the bear’s fur.

Still, it seemed like she was pretty excited even though we were done crossing. I left Luimin to Sanya as we headed off toward the elves’ village again.