Chapter 255: The Bear Goes Back to the Capital

Chapter 255:
The Bear Goes Back to the Capital

 

WITH THE BEAR transporter gate and the bear phone out of the way, that was two secrets down.

“As the head of this village, I will keep our promise and guard your secrets. I welcome your return to this village at any time with open arms,” said Mumulute. “Now, then…you would like a place to put a bear house in order to set up a gate?”

“Somewhere inconspicuous would be great, if possible.”

“You currently have it upstream of the river, yes? That would make it easy for the children to spot since they play in the river.” I could only imagine how big of a deal this could all get if someone found it.

“After thinking on it, I was wondering…would over by the sacred tree work?” I could put it on the mountain, safely protected by the sacred tree’s barrier. Only a few people could enter the place, let alone see it, but…it was a sacred spot to elven kind. Still, I had to ask.

“You’re right that we’re the only ones who can enter that place,” said Sanya, but that’s where her answer faltered. She looked over at Mumulute.

“There is something I wanted to tell you, Sanya,” said Mumulute.

“What is it?”

“After much consideration after these incidents, I am planning to reconstruct the barrier. You do not plan to return for a time, is that right?”

“That’s right. I’m planning to live outside the village for a while.”

“You, Arutul, and I must be available to dissolve the barrier. However, the future is always uncertain. Who knows when we’ll need your help? I believe we should put our trust in Luimin, considering she is living in the village.”

“In me?!” Luimin was incredulous.

“Luimin, you have grown. I am sure you are capable of creating a barrier now.” I remembered Sanya mentioning that Luimin had been too small to put up a barrier before, but that’d been ten years ago. It had been a whole decade, so she must’ve grown.

“We cannot be certain that something similar won’t happen again in the future,” he continued. “Think of yourself as Sanya’s substitute until she returns to the village.”

“You’re right,” said Sanya. “That would let me rest easy too.”

Mumulute turned to me. “We are remaking the barrier. It is possible that you might not be able to enter it anymore. But if you can, I would not mind if you were to put your house there.”

Okay, so Mumulute was just worried about whether I’d still be able to access the inside of the barrier. Call me a cynic, but some part of me had been sure that they were remaking the barrier because I could get into it.

“If I can’t get back into the barrier, what should I do with the house?”

“Why, you can put it anywhere you would like, of course.”

If the sacred tree’s barrier wouldn’t work, I guess I’d keep it upstream of the river. I’d think about it after we figured out the barrier situation.

“Are you sure all you’d like is a place to put your house?” Mumulute asked. “I do not yet feel that we have paid you back. While your gate that travels to the capital is beneficial to you—just as Luimin’s magical device of long distance benefits you—those benefit us as well. Being able to quickly reach Sanya helps us greatly. You did not simply get rid of the parasite, Yuna. You slew the cockatrice for us as well. Please let us know if there is anything else you would like.”

“As long as I’ve got your permission to come to the village, that’s good enough for me. It’ll be a lot of work shaking everyone off my trail whenever I come in, after all.”

“That will not be an issue. We can simply say you came from a nearby town…though we likely should let Arutul know, in that case.”

“You’re right. If you’re setting up the house in the barrier, we should let Father know as well. It’ll become an issue if you run into him within the barrier at some point.”

I guess a bear house suddenly popping up near the sacred tree would take anyone by surprise. If he were to see me leaving the house, I wouldn’t even know what to say.

“Quite right,” Mumulute said. “May we tell Arutul about this? Even if you were to build your house somewhere else other than by the sacred tree, letting Arutul know would resolve issues before they can arise. He is to become the next village head. It will be easier to convince the other elves to help if he knows the details.”

“As long as he’s willing to make a contract.” Would he do it? He’d be in for some painful laughter…

“Luimin, please call in Arutul.”

“I will.” Luimin left the room.

“I do suspect that Labilata will be difficult to convince,” said Mumulute.

“It should be fine. He’s taking a liking for Yuna, after all,” Sanya said. “He’ll follow any directions you give him, Grandfather.”

If they were right, great. I didn’t see any reason not to believe them. “Oh, and would it be possible for me to get an elven bracelet? You know, like the ones Sanya and Luimin have?”

“You desire power over the wind that greatly?” Mumulute asked.

“I was hoping to give one to a girl I know as a present.” I thought it’d make Fina happy to have one.

“Unfortunately, those cannot be made.” (Yep. Knew it.) “They are a gift from parent to child. I am sorry, but we cannot make one for you.” He bowed his head.

“Nah, it’s fine. Sorry for putting you on the spot there.” I only wanted to give one to Fina if it was easy to get a hold of. But a feast of mushrooms and wild plants from the elves’ village would do just as well for her.

Some time after they finished hearing me out, Luimin brought back Arutul. “Grandfather, I’ve brought father.”

“Father, what is it?” Arutul asked.

“Please form a magical contract with the girl, Arutul,” said Mumulute. “The contract would be to keep her secrets.”

Arutul looked flabbergasted, of course. Who wouldn’t be perplexed when someone was demanding for them to make a magical contract with me the moment he walked in the door?

“We have already made our contracts with her,” he continued. “However, now that we know her secrets, we believe it would be best for you to know them as well.”

“Did Luimin make a contract too?” Arutul looked at Sanya.

“Yes,” said Sanya with a nod. “She did.”

“All right.”

“Are you sure?” I asked him. No one had even told him what the contract was for.

“My father, the head of the village, has made this decision. Besides, I couldn’t break my word to the girl who saved our whole village.”

And so Arutul ended up making a contract with me too. We told him about the bear transporter gate and putting the bear house within the sacred tree’s barrier. Of course, that all hinged on whether I could get back into the barrier after it was remade. If I couldn’t, I’d need to set up my bear house and bear gate somewhere else.

We needed Arutul to keep the story straight. As the son of the village head, he had a lot of clout. Now that I had contracts with the reigning Elvish family itself, I’d be able to come to the elves’ village without anyone learning the real story.

Also, when I took Arutul over to the capital, he was just as surprised as Mumulute and the others.

 

After that, we headed out to give the sacred tree a new barrier.

Mumulute, Arutul, and Luimin made the barrier together. I didn’t see when it actually happened, but Luimin sure looked tired when she came back. It uses up a lot of mana, I guess, but it looked like it had worked.

 

Even after they’d replaced the barrier, I was still able to go in and out of it as I pleased. All of them gave me weird looks when I did that.

“I thought that you wouldn’t be able to get in anymore after the new barrier was put up. Looks like I was wrong.” Sanya touched the invisible wall that now prevented her from going into the cave leading to the sacred tree. “Oh, but you’re putting the doorway up in your house, aren’t you? Then I won’t be able to get back to the capital since I can’t get into the barrier.”

“That’s fine,” I said as I pulled out my gate. “It’ll be more of a pain, but I can set up the gate outside the barrier in order to let you go to the capital first. Then I can head into the barrier and follow after.”

“Just one question: what happens if I arrive at Yuna’s house inside the barrier?”

Well, that was a question. “Why are you looking at me? I don’t know either.”

“Grandfather?”

“There is no way to know. We have never had this happen before.”

“Then how about we test it out?”

“Uh, isn’t that dangerous?” I asked.

“A barrier is just meant to keep people out,” Mumulute explained. “It won’t kill you.”

We decided to try it out. I set up my bear house inside the barrier, then came back where Sanya waited outside.

“Okay, I’m going to connect it to where the sacred tree is inside the barrier.” I connected the gates and passed through the doorway. Sanya tried to head in too, but an invisible force field kept her out.

“I can’t get in. It’s like an invisible wall, just like with the cave.”

She touched the invisible obstacle in front of her. That barrier was pretty strong. I’d need to set up a bear gate outside the barrier if I wanted to bring Fina along. Still, I couldn’t do much about that. Mumulute and the others probably wouldn’t feel great about having strangers wandering willy-nilly around their sacred tree.

 

A few days after I defeated the parasite, Sanya and I decided to head home to the capital. While I waited for Sanya at the entrance of the village, the villagers stopped by.

“Please come again, bear girl!” the kids pleaded. Some of them looked sad, but that was just how things were.

“I’ll be back,” I told them.

“Will you really?”

I wasn’t lying. I was planning on coming back, so I nodded.

As I said bye to the kids, Labilata came by too. “Yuna, I will never forget our debt to you. If you ever need my help, I will lend a hand.”

“I’ll come by the village again sometime,” I said, “so you better mean that.”

“I will. I’ll welcome you with open arms anytime.”

“Thank you.”

As I talked to Labilata, Sanya finally made an appearance. “Thanks for waiting, Yuna. Oh, Labilata—you’re here too?”

“Yes. I was thanking her.”

“We can’t really thank her enough, can we? Yuna…thank you so much for everything you did.”

“Please don’t worry about it. I’m the one who insisted on coming along, after all.”

“All the more reason to thank you. If you hadn’t come, we might’ve needed to abandon the village. You did so much for us.”

Labilata was nodding next to her.

“You already thanked me,” I said, “so you really don’t need to mention it.” I felt kind of bad, getting so many thank-you’s.

Sanya started saying her goodbyes to Labilata, but then the conversation took an unexpected twist. “Labilata, I told you yesterday. You really don’t need to wait for me.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said.

“I don’t know how long I’ll be.”

“If I wait another decade and you don’t come back, I’ll come by to get you.”

Whoa. It sounded like there was something seriously deep going on between them. “Sanya?”

“Oh, right. Labilata is my fiancé,” she said without batting an eye, as if it wasn’t momentous.

“Your fiancé?!” I repeated.

“Well, he’s supposed to be, at least.”

I looked at Sanya, then Labilata. “Should you really be working at the capital’s Adventurer Guild when you’ve got someone like that at home?!”

“I enjoy being the guild master.”

She enjoyed it? Well, I guess I got what she meant. I was the type to choose fun over love too. And I was really one to talk, considering I’d never dated anybody. “But don’t you feel bad for Labilata?”

“That’s why I told him not to wait. I’m not sure when I’ll come back to the village.”

“It’s fine. I can wait for a decade,” he said.

So Sanya wasn’t planning on getting hitched to some other guy or something?

“If I’ve forgotten,” said Sanya with a wry smile, “you can come and get me.”

“Oh, I shall...”

They really were hopelessly in love with each other. Then again…if elves were fine not seeing each other a whole ten years, I guess it made sense another decade was a drop in the bucket.

Elves, man.

I let the two silly lovebirds be and decided to leave, just in time for Mumulute and Luimin to come by.

“You did so much for us, truly,” said Mumulute. “I’d like to thank you.”

“Thank you so much, Yuna. Please come back!” said Luimin.

“I will.” I mean, I wanted their wild plants and mushrooms for eating, so I’d definitely be back.

After we said our goodbyes, I headed to the mountain with Sanya and went to the sacred tree. Luimin and Mumulute came with us. I pulled out the transporter gate and opened the doorway to the capital bear house.

“Sister, please make sure to come home again.”

“Yes, this time I’ll come sooner rather than later. It’ll be a much easier journey, after all.” Sanya looked over at me.

“I’ll have to start charging a toll.”

“Ha ha! Any price would be cheap.” I guess compared to that long road, a little fee was nothing. And as the capital’s guild master, Sanya was probably loaded.

“Please take good care of my sister,” Luimin told me.

“Hey! I’m the older sister here!” Sanya objected.

I didn’t really want to get into an age competition with any elves.

“But Yuna’s got her life together way more than you.”

“You can’t be serious. You do realize I’m the Adventurer Guild’s master, right?” Sanya turned away. When I’d first met her, she’d seemed dignified, but now, she really didn’t. I guess that just went to show how well I’d gotten to know her.

Smiling at the thought, I looked back to Luimin. “Let me know when you’ve got new sacred tree tea leaves, okay? I’ll come back right away.”

“Yes, I will. Yuna, thank you for everything. Really. I was so lucky to have met you in the capital.”

“It makes me happy to hear that.”

“I’ll be back, Grandfather,” said Sanya.

“Mm-hmm. Don’t you go making Labilata wait too long now, you hear?”

Sanya smiled as she went through the transporter gate. I put away the gate, then headed to the cave. The barrier didn’t stop me as I passed through and used the gate in my bear house to get to the capital.