Chapter 256: The Bear Returns to Crimonia

Chapter 256:
The Bear Returns to Crimonia

 

ONCE WE GOT to the bear house in the capital, Sanya and I headed outside.

“I still can’t believe it,” she said, looking out at the capital scenery with wonder. “We were in the village just a second ago, and now…”

“Please don’t tell anyone,” I reminded her.

“Oh, I know. I don’t plan on laughing to death any time soon, thank you very much. And I certainly don’t intend to give you any reason to hold a grudge…not when I owe you for saving the village. If you run into any trouble in the capital, don’t hesitate to come to the Adventurer Guild. Got it?”

As the capital’s Adventurer Guild guild master, Sanya’s word meant a lot. Being on the right side of the authorities always came in handy too, when push came to shove.

“All right, Sanya, I’m heading home too. If anything happens, let me know.”

“Oh, right! Yuna, would you take this?” She stopped me in my tracks and thrust a…key holder? Thing? With feathers on it?

“And this is?”

“It’s made from Folg’s—ah, I mean, my bird summon’s feathers,” she said, then summoned her bird. It perched on Sanya’s arm, noble and eagle-like.

“I see. So the bird that watched me change was called Folg.” That was kind of a cool name. It put up some competition against Kumayuru and Kumakyu, that’s for sure.

“Are you still not over that?” Sanya said. “That’s your own fault for undressing so suddenly.”

True, but I wasn’t about to admit that. “Okay, so what’s this thing?” I asked about the keyholder. It had a few brown feathers on it.

“You can keep that on you or put it up in a window at your house. Folg will use it as a guide to fly to you. If anything happens, I’ll let you know.”

Okay, so I guess that made Folg a little like a carrier pigeon? I had no idea that Sanya’s summon could do that. But then, pigeons could fly long distances, so I guess a summoned bird could too.

“I actually would have much preferred one of those bear-shaped magic devices, like the one you gave Luimin,” said Sanya.

“I don’t have more of them,” I lied. I felt like she’d use it to give me work if I let her have one.

“I know that. I wasn’t assuming you had multiples.”

I mean, I could just make more if I wanted to, though I was the only one people could call on them. Sorry, Sanya. “So, I can put this up in my room?”

“That should work, since Folg will fly to his own feathers.”

Guess that meant I couldn’t leave this in my bear storage. I had no idea how the bear storage system worked, but I doubted even a summoned bird could fly to it. It’d be better for me to put it up in my house like Sanya had asked.

“I’ll put it up, but you better not contact me about work with it.”

“Aww, that’s just too bad,” she said, not looking disappointed in the slightest.

Well, this was the capital, and there were tons of adventurers around. It wasn’t like she had to go out of her way to get me. “If you could do something like this, then couldn’t you have had him fly to the village?”

Everyone I’d talked to had said they hadn’t heard from her in ten years. If she had a summon, she could’ve had it deliver a letter, at the very least.

“At the time, I’d never had him fly that far. I hadn’t even dreamed of it. I’m not sure if he could make it to the village. I’m planning to send a letter to Labilata to find out. If not, then I’ll ask you to take it instead.”

“If you just want me to hand him a letter, sure.” As long as it wasn’t one letter a day or something like that. But knowing Sanya, it was more likely to end up being one letter a year.

Now that I’d actually finished all the important things I needed to do, I finally headed to Crimonia with my transporter gate. Before I could forget, I put the keyholder up in a window in my room. I guess that was it? Well, I doubted Sanya would have anything to tell me. If she did try to call me nonstop for some cruddy jobs, I’d smack the thing down.

 

After I’d done that, I headed out of my house. Hmm, it’d been a while since I’d been back in Crimonia…or at least it felt like it, though I guess it was more like ten days. The scene in front of my eyes felt nostalgic. It really felt like I was home…like this was my hometown now instead of just another place to sleep.

I headed to the orphanage to let Tiermina and the others know I was back, since that was the most likely place they’d be around this time. When I got to the front of the building, I found the little kid gang running around energetically outside. It almost looked like they were playing tag, which I’d taught them a while back.

Before long, the kids noticed me watching them. “Bear girl!” “Big sis!”

The kids ran over to me, all smiles.

“Have you all been doing well?” I asked. “You haven’t been causing any problems for the headmistress, right? Or fighting?”

“Nuh-huh, we’ve been doing good!”

“We work like we’re ’sposed to!”

“We’re not fighting!”

The kids gave me enthusiastic responses.

“Looks like you’ve all been good.” I gave each and every one of them a pat on the head—if I left even one of them out, some of them would complain. “Are Tiermina and Fina here?”

“Yeah, they’re with the headmistress right now.”

I guess they were done with the eggs, then. I opened the door to the orphanage and headed in. When I got to the dining room, I found Tiermina and the headmistress talking over tea.

“Y-Yuna, you’re home?”

“Welcome back, Yuna.”

“Thank you. I just got in.” I took a seat nearby. “Anything unusual happen while I was out?”

“Unusual...yes! It was so hectic without you around!” Tiermina stood up almost like she’d just remembered something.

Wait, what?!

“Lady Ellelaura, the wife of the lord, came by with someone claiming to be the palace’s head chef! It was such an ordeal.”

Fina had mentioned something like that too, hadn’t she? Tons of stuff had happened since then, so I’d just plain forgot.

According to Tiermina, Milaine had suddenly summoned her to the Merchant Guild. When she’d arrived, she’d been introduced to a woman and a man—Ellelaura and Zelef. Once she’d found out who Ellelaura and Zelef were, she’d apparently lost the ability to speak.

But it wasn’t like all of that was my fault. It wasn’t any reason for her to be mad at me. It was Ellelaura’s fault for not setting it up ahead of time. Then again, I’d barge into the castle without warning, so it wasn’t like I could really tell others off for that.

“Just thinking about what would’ve happened if Fina wasn’t there gives me a knot in my stomach…” Tiermina continued.

“Fina?”

“Yes, Fina talked to them both. If Fina hadn’t been there, I’m not sure we would have been able to receive them properly.”

“But Ellelaura really should’ve warned us she was coming,” I said. I would’ve still wanted to go to the elves’ village, though, so I might not have been here even if she had. But there probably would have been a way to make it work. We could have asked her to come on a different day, maybe?

“Based on how Lady Ellelaura was conducting herself, Yuna, I think she wanted to surprise you.”

Fina had said something like that too. They’d been pretty dead set on surprising me and ended up disappointed when I hadn’t been there to surprise. “What did they come here for?”

Fina had told me, but I wanted to make sure.

“They want to build one of your restaurants in the capital, so they came to look at your shops for ideas.”

“But that place isn’t supposed to be one of mine. Like, sure, they’re selling pudding and my recipes, but in the end, the people from the castle are managing it. I’m not involved.”

“Really?”

“I just taught him how to make the recipes.”

It wasn’t like I’d invested money into the place, and I didn’t know the people who would actually work there. It wasn’t one of my shops. But Tiermina had taken Ellelaura and Zelef over to the Bear’s Lounge.

“We took them to the shops. They caused such a commotion, and it was so hectic!”

They’d made a fuss while standing in front of the bear statues in front of the shops. And when they’d actually gone inside, they just walked wherever they wanted. They’d even ogled every bear ornament on every table! I could totally see Ellelaura walking around a shop like she owned the place.

“Did Zelef really do that too?”

“Zelef was staring at the customers’ food as they were eating.”

Ah, so that’s what he’d zeroed in on. But what were they thinking? Hopefully, they hadn’t gotten in the other customers’ way. “Did everything turn out all right?”

“Yes, Fina got them to settle down.” Fina had? “She talked to Lady Ellelaura as they wandered the building and had everyone sit down. I was so surprised to see Lady Ellelaura and Fina having a normal conversation.”

I’d brought Fina along to all kinds of places with me where she had to interact with nobles and royal family members—this was the result. I’d heard that she’d started going out to places with Noa, and she’d even met Ellelaura a few times now. She’d gone to Misa’s birthday party earlier, so she’d grown immune to their noble-ness. Fina had finally grown out of her tendency to freeze up in front of them. I was happy to see her growing up, but it also made me kinda sad.

After that, they’d apparently ate as much as they could at the shop before coming back to the orphanage. Tiermina took them on a tour of the place and they’d even watched the kids take care of the birds.

From there, they visited the Bear Dining Room that Anz ran. On the third day, they’d charged into the Bear’s Lounge’s at opening time, ate there, then bought a ton of bread to take home. They’d supposedly been in a hurry since they needed to get back to the capital the same day.

“The days went by like a whirlwind. I know they don’t mean any harm, but it was a trying time.” Tiermina sighed, exhausted by the memory. “If Fina hadn’t been there, I’m not sure what I would have done. She’s grown so much while I wasn’t looking. I suppose it’s true that kids grow up whether or not their parents are there to see it.”

“Maybe, but she grew up to be a good kid because of you, Tiermina.”

“She couldn’t be selfish because of me, after all. But sometimes, I wish she’d be a little more disobedient.”

Fina was a super good kid. And speaking of Fina, she came into the room in the middle of our conversation.