Chapter 48: The Bear Delivers Pudding

Chapter 48:
The Bear Delivers Pudding

 

MY NEXT STOP was the Fochrosé residence. I didn’t care about Cliff, but I did want to treat Noa to pudding. I told the guard standing in front of the gate the general reason why I wanted to meet Noa. The guard already knew me and told me to wait. A little bit later, Noa herself came running over from the front door.

“Yuna.”

Bomph. Noa dove right into my chest. The bear outfit absorbed the impact, though.

“Long time no see, Noir.”

“You can call me Noa instead. Well, did you have a reason you wanted to see me? Even if you don’t, I’m still happy to give you a warm welcome.”

“I made a treat, so I wanted to see if you would try it out for me.”

“A treat? That sounds delightful.”

Pulling my arm, Noa took me into a room.

“Well then, what kind of food is it?”

“It’s a dessert made from kokekko eggs.”

I pulled the pudding out of the bear storage. Of course I couldn’t forget the spoon.

Noa picked up that spoon and ate a mouthful of the pudding.

“It’s delicious.”

“I’m glad you like it.”

“This is my first time eating something this good.”

“You’re exaggerating.”

“No, not at all. This is the first time I’ve tasted something so melty, cold, sweet, and delicate.”

“Well, women and children tend to like those flavors, I guess.”

Noa wasn’t just flattering me—she really seemed to be savoring it as she ate.

“Oh, looks like I already ate it all.”

The cup was already empty. She looked at me silently and full of greed.

“Just one more, okay.”

“Thank you.”

When I handed off another pudding to her, there was a knock at the door.

“I’m coming in, Noa. I heard that Yuna came by.”

Cliff came into the room.

“Sorry for just dropping in,” I said.

“I don’t mind. What are the two of you doing?”

“Yuna is sharing a sweet she made with me that’s called pu-ding.”

“Pudding?”

Noa took a bite of her newly acquired pudding. She was smiling like a little kid. That alone justified coming here.

“Is it really that good?” Cliff asked, looking at his daughter’s smile.

“Yes, it’s delicious.”

“Noa, would you be kind enough to let me have a bite?”

“No way,” Noa refused him outright.

“Noa.”

“No. It was a present from Yuna.”

“Yuna?”

Cliff looked at me hungrily. It just wasn’t right for an adult to look at me like that.

“Agh, all right already. Please let me know what you think when you’re done. It’s still a prototype, so I haven’t fine-tuned the flavor yet.”

“This is just a prototype?” said Noa. “But it’s already better than any other sweet I know of.”

“Well, I’m calling it a prototype, but I just need to adjust the sweetness.”

I passed a pudding to Cliff, who took a bite of it.

“What…is this?”

His face changed.

“I haven’t had a confectionary this delicious before, not even in the royal capital.”

Maybe this world didn’t have a lot of great confectionaries, then? Well, I guess they wouldn’t be able to help it if it was that hard to get ahold of eggs. Cliff and Noa’s spoons never stopped moving.

“Thank you for the treat, Yuna. It was very good.”

“Was it? That’s good. Was there any part of it you would have wanted improved?”

“No, I don’t think it has a single fault.”

“It’d be fine even if you just told me you wanted it a little more or less sweet.”

“For me, I think I’d like it a little less sweet. The first bite is delicious, but it starts to become overpowering after a while.”

“Do you think so? I thought it was delicious, though,” Noa said.

“Well, palates vary among adults and kids and between genders after all. I’m going to use you both as reference.”

“Are you opening a store or something?”

“I’m not planning to right now. It’s just that I was thinking I could help orphans in their future careers if, say, they wanted to cook or make desserts instead of raising birds.”

“You’re thinking that far ahead?”

“I was just thinking about how, if there was a business around, I could have a pudding without going out of my way to make it myself.”

“So you’re guiding the children, then? You’re a much finer adult than I am.”

I took their empty cups back from them and put them in bear storage.

“Well then, is there anything else you needed?”

He had specifically come to his daughter’s room to meet me, and I doubted he’d come just to see me.

“Yes, I have a favor to ask. Could you escort Noa to the royal capital for me?”

“To the capital?”

“Yes, we need to attend the king’s fortieth birthday celebration, but a certain someone gave me a mountain of work to do, and I suspect I won’t be able to head out until the last minute. If that happens, we’ll be on a very strict itinerary, and I’d rather not put my daughter through that.”

“When you say someone caused you a lot of work…you’re not talking about me, are you?”

“I’m thankful, I really am, but it’s true.”

That was a false accusation at best. The stuff with the orphanage was all Cliff’s oversight as the lord. It wasn’t my fault at all. Since I was the one who uncovered the crime, he really should have been thanking me.

But the royal capital, huh.

“Will there be other escorts? How would we go there?”

If there were other escorts, I’d consider turning it down, since it would be a pain. Traveling by carriage would be even more of a pain.

“Just the one who took down the black viper—I think you’ll be more than enough. And you have your beast summons for transportation, don’t you?”

“Does that mean I get to ride the bears?!” Noa let out a burst of joy.

“I heard your summons are faster than horses. If that’s the case, you could run if you encountered any danger.”

I wanted to go to the capital anyway, so I didn’t have a reason to refuse.

“Well then, when do we leave?”

“If you want to go early, tomorrow should work fine. I’m sure Noa wants to see her mother sooner rather than later.”

Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t seen her mother in the house before. No one mentioned her, so I’d assumed she had passed away, but I guess I was wrong.

“Does your mom live in the capital?” I asked Noa, who seemed excited.

“Uh-huh, she works there.”

“In that case, want to head out tomorrow?”

“Really?”

“You want to see your mom as soon as you can, right?”

I ended up accepting the role as Noa’s escort to the capital.

“In that case, could you wait a moment, Yuna? I have something I’d like you to take to my wife,” Cliff left and then came right back with two letters and a large box. “Could you deliver this to Ellelaura?”

“What’s that?” I pointed at the box.

“It has the goblin king sword you gave me inside. If the unexpected happens, please give it to Ellelaura. I wrote down the details in this letter, so she’ll know what to do when you give it to her. Also, please give this letter to the adventurers’ guild. I’ve asked that they treat this as a quest.”

I put the letter and the box with the goblin’s king sword into bear storage.

“I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Yuna.”

“Yeah, you too.”

I left the lord’s residence to prepare for tomorrow.

Chapter 49:
The Bear Reports About Going to the Capital

 

FIRST, I headed to the merchant guild to tell Milaine I was heading out of town. There weren’t many people at the merchant guild—possibly because it was past noon. When I went to the reception desk, Milaine seemed bored.

“Yuna? What do you need?”

“I’m heading to the royal capital for a while, so I wanted to ask if you could leave the egg stuff to Tiermina.”

Actually, she was pretty much already handling it all anyway. The most I did was weigh in on prices every once in a while.

“You’re going to the royal capital?”

“I just have a quick escort job.”

“I see. Well then, since you’re going to the capital, I’ll look forward to the souvenirs.”

“Sure, is there something you want?”

“I’ll leave that up to you.”

When it came to souvenirs, meals, or anything, that was the most difficult response to ever get. I guess it was better than if she’d asked me for something unreasonable.

“This isn’t really a souvenir, but you can have this, Milaine.”

I took a pudding out of the bear storage.

“What’s this?”

“It’s a cuisine called pudding. I made it from kokekko eggs. Put it in the refrigerator and eat it on your break. Let me know what you think about it when I get back from the capital.”

“Thank you very much. I’ll eat it later. Please take this in return.”

Milaine wrote something down and handed me a sealed letter.

“What’s this?”

“It’s my letter of introduction. If you give this to the royal capital’s merchant guild, I think they might give you favorable accommodations. Use it if you run into trouble with them.”

Since I was planning to visit the merchant guild, I gratefully accepted the letter.

“Don’t forget about the pudding. Make sure you chill it before eating it,” I said on my way out.

After that, I just needed to visit three more places: Fina’s house, the adventurers’ guild, and the orphanage. The adventurers’ guild was the closest on my route. When I got there, it wasn’t all that busy. I hit up Helen at the reception desk.

“Oh, Ms. Yuna.”

“Could you help me with this?”

I handed Cliff’s letter to Helen. Her eyes scanned its contents.

“I’ll process this at the reception desk, so if you could let me have your guild card, please.”

I passed it to her.

“Well, I suppose this means you won’t be in town for a while.”

“I’m not sure for how long, though.”

The Guildmaster appeared from who knows where and called out to me.

“Yuna, you going somewhere?”

“It seems she’s going to the royal capital at Lord Cliff’s request.”

“Oh, for the king’s birthday celebration?”

The Guildmaster looked carefully at me.

“Yuna, hold on a sec.”

He ducked away into an inner room. I got to wondering what it might be just when he returned.

“Take this with you.”

Another stop, another letter.

“What is this?”

“It’s so you won’t cause a ruckus at the capital’s adventurers’ guild.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You’re going to the capital looking like that, aren’t you? Did you forget your first day here?”

No one tried to pick fights with me when I came into the guild anymore. I didn’t even get as many strange looks walking around town anymore. Actually, kids had started following me around more lately. It was like I was becoming some kind of hometown mascot. I couldn’t expect the same treatment abroad.

“I think if you give this letter to the adventurers’ guild, they’ll look after you a little.”

I’d be thankful for that. I mean, knocking people down one by one gets tedious after a while. After I thanked him for the letter, I took off.

 

My next stop was Fina’s house. Gentz wasn’t there, but all three of the women were.

“Oh, come right in, Yuna. What brings you by?”

“Yuna is here?!”

Fina came down from upstairs. Shuri followed after her.

“I came to let you know that starting tomorrow, I’ll be going to the royal capital for a while.”

“You’re going to the capital?” asked Shuri.

“I’m there for an escort job. Tiermina, I think you’ll do fine, but if you could look after the orphanage stuff?”

“Got it. I’m sure we won’t run into any trouble, so please take your time sightseeing at the capital. It’s your first time, isn’t it?”

“I wish I could go,” Fina mumbled softly as she listened in on us.

“You haven’t gone before?”

“I haven’t.”

I guess with no father and Tiermina sick, she wouldn’t have been able to.

“You want to come, too?”

“Oh, are you sure?”

“Well, it’s a two-person trip with just me and the person I’m escorting, so adding another person won’t cause any problems.”

“Are you sure, Yuna? Isn’t it a job?” Tiermina asked.

“I’ll ask the person I’m escorting tomorrow, then. If I get permission, we’ll go together. Otherwise, guess you’ll need to keep shop.”

“I’m so jealous, sissy,” Shuri said, giving her sister an envious look.

“You can’t go, Shuri. You’ve got to look after the house with Mommy.”

“Waaaah.”

“You really don’t want to be alone with your mom then, huh?”

Shuri shook her head from side to side, “Nuh-uh.”

Tiermina gave Shuri a hug.

“Well then, I’ll come for you tomorrow morning. You don’t need to prepare anything, but if there’s something you’re taking, get it ready so I can put it in my bottomless bag.”

Finally, I went to the orphanage to let the headmistress and the kids know I wouldn’t come by for a while and left them some wolf meat.