Chapter 31: The Bear Goes to Examine Fina’s Mother’s Illness

Chapter 31:
The Bear Goes to Examine
Fina’s Mother’s Illness

 

TODAY WAS A REST DAY. Like Fina, I was taking a break.

I’d been learning all kinds of things this past month, such as that when one of my skills leveled up, the new abilities kicked it right away. Right now, I had seven skills.

 

Fantasy World Language: Can understand the fantasy world’s language. (Life in this world would have been a whole lot more complicated if I hadn’t had this.)

Fantasy World Literacy: Able to read and write the fantasy world’s script. (This was how I could work at the guild.)

Bear Extradimensional Storage: Storage for anything other than living things. (Despite all my tests, I still hadn’t figured out a weight or size cap.)

Bear Identification: Able to see effectiveness of tools and weapons (Well, I guess this would be normal to have in any game).

Bear Detection: The ability to know the position of dangerous monsters and people. (Makes slaying monsters a breeze.).

Bear Map: Automatically generate maps of places I have visited. (An automatic mapping system, just like the kind you find in RPGs. Kept me from getting lost.).

Bear Summoning: Can summon bears from my bear gloves. (All-purpose bears for travel, fighting, or protection. The downside was I that I couldn’t walk through town with them.)

 

In addition to skills, I had magic. According to the rules of this world as I understood them, you could learn magic through hard work, but in my case, I could easily use magic by channeling mana through my bears. On the other hand, I couldn’t use magic without the bear gear.

Shaping a spell around a mental image had a direct impact on its power and appearance. For example, when I cast a fire spell with a gas-powered torch in mind, I could make a flame that could melt through iron. Even if I showed the people in this world that magic, they probably wouldn’t be able to invoke it exactly the same way, since they’d never seen that kind of fire.

Ice was the same. I didn’t think they’d be able to imagine the molecules in water freezing. You can only get so specific with a mental image when your understanding of the world is still essentially medieval.

I noticed it again when Fina collapsed. Just like with any other spell, if you imagined the muscle and skin closing up, you could seal a wound with healing magic. I hadn’t tested it out yet, but I bet that if you went deeper and pictured the blood vessels and such mending, it would work that much better.

On top of that, there were spells that healed fevers and sickness—the kind of spells that you’d use to remove debuffs like poison and paralysis in games. How much more powerful would that sort of spell be, then, if you were aware and could visualize what germs were?

 

As I pondered the skills and magic I’d picked up, I heard a noise from the entrance. There was a barrier around the bear house that only let in people I approved of. Right now, Fina was the only one who could enter.

The moment I emerged into the hallway leading to the first floor, Fina leapt out at me.

“Yuna!”

Something felt off. Fina shivered as she latched onto me.

“What’s wrong?” I pulled Fina off and looked down at her face. It was wet with tears; her eyes were bloodshot.

“Y-yuna, m-my mom…”

“Calm down.”

“My mom is really sick…and even giving her medicine…doesn’t help…I tried going to Mr. Gentz, but…he said he’d go out to find medicine and hasn’t come back… Wh-what should I do?”

“Okay, I got it. Could you take me to your house?” There was a chance I could cure her, though I didn’t like the idea of testing my theory in such a precarious situation.

Fina and I headed to her house.

 

The house was small. Did Fina really live here with her mother and little sister? In the bedroom, Fina’s mother lay very still, breathing shallowly. A small girl was crying by the bed, and Gentz stood with her.

“Mr. Gentz?!”

“I’m sorry I was so late.”

“Did you find medicine for my mom?”

“Sorry,” Gentz said. He lowered his head.

Fina’s mother reached out with a trembling hand and weakly patted her daughter’s head. “Gentz, if anything…happens to me…please…take care of my daughters.”

“Wh-what are you saying? What’s supposed to happen to you?!” Mr. Gentz yelled.

“Gentz…I’ve troubled you…so much. Thank you so much for the medicine and for what you did for Fina.” Sweat beaded on the woman’s forehead as she spoke.

“It’s okay. If you rest, you’ll get better. Stop trying to talk. I’ll look after these two, so you just focus on healing.”

“Shuri…Fina…let me see your faces.”

“Mom!” The two girls said at once, running to the bedside.

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything for you. And thank you, Fina, Shuri.”

Pain mingled with her smile. She seemed at her limit. She screwed her eyes shut.

I tried to clap my hands to calm everyone down, but hitting the bear gloves together didn’t make any sound. They noticed what I was doing, anyway.

“Yuna?”

“I don’t know if I can help, but I’m going to take a look at her, so move aside.”

Fina drew her sister away by the hand, holding her while she cried. I stood beside the bed and looked at Fina’s mother. She was barely in her thirties and wasting away. She probably hadn’t been eating much.

“Please hold on just a little longer.”

I put both my hands over the suffering mother’s body and poured mana into both my bear gloves. I imagined the virus, or germ, or pathogen, or whatever it was, being purged from all her cells.

“Cure.”

I didn’t need to say the word, but it made it easier to channel my will. The spell wreathed her body in light. The lines of pain steadily disappeared from her face, and she started to breathe more easily.

Had it worked? She still looked weak.

“Heal,” I chanted, this time visualizing a spell to restore her stamina.

Fina’s mother’s eyes opened slowly. She sat up in bed like nothing at all had happened.

“…it doesn’t hurt anymore?”

“Mom!” Her two daughters ran over to her.

“Looks like it worked.”

“Miss, what’d you do? You looked like some kind of powerful priest or cleric—no, that doesn’t matter right now. Whatever you did, thank you,” Gentz said, his eyes welling up as he grabbed my hand.

“Yuna, thank you!” Fina was crying, too.

“Excuse me, thank you very much. Are you the one who healed me?”

“Please take it easy for a while,” I said. “We don’t know if you’re completely healed yet.” After all, all I’d done was restore some of her stamina with magic. I hadn’t brought her wasted-away body back to peak condition.

“Then how much do I owe you? As you can see, I don’t have any way to pay you right now...”

“Wait! I’ll pay her. Miss, I can’t do it right now, but I’m sure I’ll be able to. Please don’t do anything to this family!”

What kind of villain did they think I was? I healed you, so pay me! If you don’t, I’ll take your daughters! Well, if I were a villain and a lolicon, I guess it might go something like this…

“Heh heh heh, if you want to pay me back, well you’ve got two charming daughters, haven’t you?”

Obviously, I needed to clear up the misunderstanding.

“I don’t need money. I just wanted to protect Fina’s smile,” I said, and gave Fina a pat on the head. Apparently, I’d said something really moving, because Fina immediately hugged me. I felt kind of guilty…

“But…”

“Right, if there’s anything I can do for you, just tell me,” Gentz said.

“I’ll do anything once I’ve gotten my energy back.”

Anything! Their words, not mine.

“In that case, I’d like the two of you do something that only you can do.”

“…”

“…”

I looked at Fina and her sister.

“Fina, go buy something yummy with your sister. Make sure you have your mom eat something that’ll nourish her.”

I pulled money out of my bear storage and handed it over to Fina.

“But…”

“It’s fine. Your mom’s fine, so go along.”

“Okay, I got it. Shuri, let’s go.”

I watched them leave the house holding each other’s hands and once again looked to Gentz and their mother.

“What are you going to make us do?”

“I want you two to live together for Fina and her sister’s sakes.”

“…huh?”

“…what?”

Their mouths hung open and stuck there.

“I know that you like Fina’s mom, Gentz.” I’d heard it direct from Fina.

“Y-you…”

“Nuh-uh. Even Fina already knows. And you trust Gentz enough to leave your children with him, so it’s not like you don’t like him.”

“Well, that’s…” Her face reddened slightly.

“And it’s not like you’d be upsetting those kids. Besides, Gentz works at the guild, so he’s got a steady income. I’m kind of worried about you three women living on your own. I’d feel more at peace if Gentz was with you, you know?”

“But…”

“You like Fina’s mom, don’t you, Gentz?”

“That’s…” Gentz gulped. Then, he looked at Fina’s mother. “Tiermina, w-would you do the honor of marrying me? I’ve loved you for a long time. It’s an insult to Roy, but I love you!”

“Gentz…thank you.”

The two of them deserved some privacy. I left the room quietly—or at least, tried to, before Gentz called out to me.

“Where are you going?”

“Home. The rest of this is a family issue.”

“I see. So, um thanks,” he thanked me sheepishly.

“Make sure you do a proper job of looking after Fina and everyone.”

“Yeah, just leave it up to me.”

“If she’s not feeling well again, just call me.”

I left Fina’s house behind and went home.