Extra Story: The Rookie Adventurers Part Two

Extra Story:
The Rookie Adventurers
Part Two

 

WITH ME RIDING KUMAYURU and Fina riding Kumakyu, we left Crimonia and ran across the plains. The weather was good—perfect for a walk. Then again, if anyone saw us, they’d probably tell me to double-check what “walk” means in a dictionary. After a while, I spotted a familiar forest. As long as I used my map skill, we wouldn’t get lost. The village came into view after a few minutes on bearback.

The barrier I’d created was looking good. As we got closer, I found Bogue guarding the same village entrance he had last time.

“Lady Yuna?!”

For a second I thought there was something weird about his tone, but I was sure I was just mishearing things.

“Long time no see! Has Marie had her baby yet?”

“Yes, ma’am, a healthy baby boy.”

I was glad she hadn’t had any complications.

“Lady Yuna, hast ye come to bless us with an inquiry?”

Alright, maybe I wasn’t mishearing…maybe he was just a goon.

“And who might that white bear and girl o’er yonder be?”

Right, I thought, he didn’t know about Kumakyu.

“This is one of my bears too, so relax. The girl’s Fina. She was free, so I had her come with me on a walk.”

Fina bobbed her head and introduced herself.

“I want to visit Brandaugh and Marie, so can I go into the village?”

“Yes, of course. However, aforeward, may I bid ye visit the village chief?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you very much.”

Since explaining how summons worked to the villagers would have been a pain, I decided not to send the bears home. Since they stood out as much as anybody would expect them to, the kids obviously started gathering as soon as we came through the gates—and the adults, too.

I kind of felt like they were making a big deal out of this.

“Yuna…”

It looked like Fina wasn’t really sure what to do about the kids that were coming up to us. Bogue told the kids not to get too close; they seemed disappointed as they filed away. Uhh, I thought, I guess I’d have to play with them later or something.

The chief must have noticed the commotion, because by the time we turned up at his house he was outside waiting for us.

“What in the world is going on?” he said, before noticing me. “Lady Yuna!”

Okay, so the goon-speak was contagious.

“What has brought you to our neck of the woods?”

“I had some time to kill, so I just went on a walk. Also, I was wondering whether Marie might’ve had her baby by now.”

“Yes, a healthy baby boy.”

“Yeah, I heard from Bogue. That’s great. I brought gifts, so make sure everyone in the village shares them.”

“You have brought us tidings? We are glad, but we have naught to give in thanks, Lady Yuna.”

I hoped there was something wrong with my ears.

“Umm, so what’s up with you calling me Lady Yuna?”

“Why, it’s because you’re the savior of the village, of course. We cannot thank you enough for the wall that you put up; it’s protecting our crops from the other animals.”

“I get why you’re doing it, but please don’t call me a Lady. I’m not that big of a deal.”

“But…”

“If you don’t, I’ll smash the walls,” I made myself sound really serious.

“Well…fine. Then may we call you Miss Yuna?”

“Sure, that works.”

One way or another, I got them to stop calling me a lady.

“Yuna!”

A voice called my name. When I pried my eyes away from the chief and searched for the source, I saw Marie coming over, baby in hand.

“Marie, congratulations.”

“Why, thank you.”

“Happy to hear the baby was born healthy.”

“All thanks to you, Yuna, just like the other stuff. Since you defeated the forest guardian, I could focus on pulling through for the delivery.”

“What’s his name?”

“If it had been a girl, I was thinking about naming her Yuna.”

Please stop, I thought. Just don’t name a baby after me, please. Thank you, God, for making the kid a boy.

“His name is Yuuk. We borrowed a syllable from your name.”

Well, I guess tons of people could have names that start with “Yu,” so I guess that worked fine. Yuuk didn’t cry when I took a peek at him. Maybe he didn’t have a sense of stranger danger? Actually, he was laughing. He wasn’t laughing because of how I looked, was he?

“So where’s Brandaugh?”

“He’s out hunting.”

No changes there.

“I think he’ll be back soon, so you can see him. I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you too.”

That’s what I’d planned to do from the beginning anyway, so I just nodded.

“Oh right, I brought some stuff that’ll be good for your health, so just eat it whenever, Marie.”

“I’m glad, but are you sure? I haven’t done anything for you. Meanwhile, you’ve done nothing but help us.”

“Please don’t worry about it. You need to fortify yourself with some good food so you can put your best foot forward raising this kid.”

I’m sure she was probably dealing with the baby crying at night and all kinds of stuff. She had to keep herself well-fed, too.

 

Noon rolled around, so the chief treated us to lunch at his house. Fina was rocking Yuuk in her arms next to me.

“Fina,” said Marie, “you’re pretty good at that.”

“Yes, I took care of my younger sister when she was this age.”

Shuri? I thought. But they’re only three years apart.

I heard that Tiermina’s husband had passed away while she was pregnant with Shuri. That meant that if Tiermina had to work, Fina probably would have had to look after Shuri. Even with Gentz’s help it must have been a terrible time, having to deal with a tiny girl.

I reached out my arm and patted Fina’s head.

“Y-yuna?”

She was bewildered.

“I was just thinking that you’re pretty remarkable.”

I think she must not have understood what I meant, since she tilted her head to the side quizzically.

 

After I finished the meal, I gave the chief and Marie the gifts I’d brought from Crimonia.

“This is so much.”

“I was thinking you need to get some proper nutrition. You can share them with any other pregnant women around or distribute them among the village.”

“Thank you.”

I was just happy she didn’t try politely declining it.

“So Fina, did you really just come to the village to have a walk?” Marie asked Fina.

“Yes. When I went to Yuna’s house, she suddenly asked me to go for a walk and then brought me all the way here,” Fina replied, putting on a strained smile.

“Ha ha, that seems just like Yuna, I guess. I suppose you could call her laid-back. She seems pretty loose.”

“Yes.”

Why the heck was she agreeing? Was I actually acting that loose? When I was in Japan, I didn’t go to school. I didn’t listen to my parents. All I did was game. I was pretty much doing whatever I wanted in the fantasy world. I couldn’t figure out anything to say to prove them wrong.

“Anyway, how much longer until you think Brandaugh will get back?”

“I think it’d be anytime now if he caught something…”

“Is there something wrong?” I asked, since I felt like she was implying something with the way she said that.

Marie looked over towards the chief. He nodded, and then began to speak.

“You defeated the forest guardian.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“We are not sure if that is the reason why, but there have been more wolves around lately,” the chief seemed pained as he said it. “But, of course, we are grateful that you defeated the guardian for us.”

“We think the wolves probably didn’t come around because the guardian was already here.”

“The wolves seem cute compared to the guardian. There are several in our village that can fight them off. It’s just that there are so many of them.”

“Brandaugh has been going out to hunt them, but we haven’t been able to bring down the population.”

“So the other day, when a merchant came by, we asked them to post a wolf slaying quest at the adventurers’ guild.”

“Then some young adventurers showed up last night.”

“They went out slaying this morning, so please don’t worry. We think the wolf numbers will go down.”

Relax, huh, I thought. I was just hoping this wasn’t like some sort of turning point or something. I was sure the wolf population would go down with the adventurers coming in, even if they were young, and in any case, the village had people who could hold their own.

 

After that, I listened to them talk about the village while waiting for Brandaugh to return. Apparently they’d decorated the back of the chief’s home with the forest guardian’s skin. Fina went to check it out and was surprised by how big it was.

“You couldn’t sell it?”

“No, we sold the meat and traded it with neighboring villages for food, but we wanted to leave proof that you saved the village. After all the villagers discussed it, we decided to keep this.”

“Once my little guy gets bigger, I’m planning on telling him the story of your exploits while we look over this skin,” Marie said, looking at her son’s face.

It was kind of embarrassing; I just wanted them to stop.

 

When we left the chief’s house, there were some kids watching my bears from across the way. I beckoned them closer, and a few rushed over.

“Hey, do you want to pet the bears?”

The kids nodded.

“You can pet them, but you better not give them any trouble.”

They latched onto Kumayuru and Kumakyu the second they had permission. They made sure to follow my orders and didn’t do anything to upset them. After the kids spent a while playing with the bears, I heard a commotion near the village entrance. Someone was running over to us.

“Chief! This is terrible!” they shouted. Several people followed after him.

“What’s gotten you so riled up?” the village chief said. The others in the house had followed him out.

“There’s a tigerwolf!”

“A tigerwolf?!”

“I-is Brandaugh okay?!” Marie questioned the man who had come to the chief’s house.

“I’m sorry. He was with me part of the way, but he stayed behind to distract it.” He hung his head slightly as he apologized.

The man had a quiver full of arrows on his shoulder. He was probably another hunter.

“No…” Marie said, crumbling to her knees.

The situation was kind of dire, I guess.

“Chief!” said the hunter. “Quickly—call the men together and fortify the entrance. It might be able to clear the wall, so you must tell the women and children to get inside their homes.”

The chief nodded and gave the order. The kids who had been playing with the bears clung to Kumakyu and Kumayuru nervously.

“Bear girl…”

“It’ll be okay, but since it might be dangerous, you should all go home and listen to what your moms and dads tell you.”

The children nodded and returned to their respective homes.

“Have you seen any of the adventurers?”

“When I was hunting, I caught a glimpse of them, but we didn’t know about the tigerwolf back then, so we went separate ways. I’m not sure what happened to them after that.”

“Chief! Do you think those adventurers can handle a tigerwolf?”

“They showed me their guild cards, but they were just F-rank rookies. I think it’s impossible. Actually, I’m worried about them.”

The chief dipped his head low and furrowed his brow. Then he raised his head and looked at me without saying anything. He turned his gaze on the men gathered in the village.

“Hurry and close the entrance. Some of you take guard along the wall!”

“What are we going to do about Brandaugh and the adventurers?”

“We wait for them to escape here. If we search for them imprudently, we might have to sacrifice more of our own.”

“But…”

Marie was so overcome with worry she couldn’t continue. All she could do was hug her son tightly.

“Yuna…” Fina gave me a brittle look.

“It’ll be fine.”

I gave Fina a gentle pat on the head.