Extra Story: Chronicles of Tiermina’s Encounters with the Bear

Extra Story:
Chronicles of Tiermina’s
Encounters with the Bear

 

THANKS TO A MYSTERIOUS GIRL who dressed as a bear, I recovered from my illness. I never thought that I would be released from my suffering. I’d always thought that would happen when I passed on. I never thought I’d return to the days when I lived happily with my daughters. I’d never be able to thank the girl dressed as a bear—Yuna—enough.

When I told her I wanted to compensate her, she smiled and said something entirely ridiculous.

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

Gentz really had been helping us since my husband had passed away. He prepared medicine for me when I got sick and recommended my daughter for work. I worked with him during my adventurer days, so it wasn’t like I didn’t know him. We had come to rely on him these last few years. He was good to my daughter and took care of her. If anyone asked whether I loved him, I wouldn’t know what to say. If anyone asked whether I disliked him, I could say I didn’t. Regardless of that, I was happy when Gentz genuinely told me he loved me. In that moment I felt like I loved him back.

My daughters blessed our marriage. I was taken aback by how happy Gentz seemed when that happened. We looked for a place all four of us could live and moved to a new house.

The move went by quickly thanks to Yuna. She really was doing nothing but taking care of us. Even if I wanted to pay her back, I didn’t know how I could. Of course, I didn’t consider getting married to Gentz a form of paying her back. She wanted us to get married because she was thinking of us. She saved my daughter from monsters and shared her food with us. My daughters and I were indebted to her to an extent we would never be able to pay back except bit by bit.

Anyway, since I was better, I needed to start working. We only had so much money. Gentz was working at the adventurers’ guild, but buying the house had eaten into his savings. We also couldn’t bet on none of us getting sick in the future. We needed something in reserve if that happened.

“Maybe I’ll work as an adventurer,” I said to everyone while we were eating. “I can slay wolves, so I was thinking of accepting lower-ranked quests.”

I was a former adventurer. I could take on a wolf on my own. That would ease our finances and let us build up some savings. I thought it was a great idea when I told everyone, but they were all against it.

“No way. I won’t let you do something that dangerous.”

“It’ll be fine. Gentz, you know as well as I do that I can at least slay wolves.”

“How many years do you think it’s been since you retired as an adventurer? You’ve got an employment gap. It’s too dangerous!”

Gentz was extremely against it.

“That’s right, Mom. It’s dangerous.”

“Mom, you can’t do anything scary.”

My daughters clung to me from the left and right.

“It’ll be all right. I won’t do anything reckless. Besides, we need the money.”

“Are you planning on dying and leaving your kids behind?! Is that how little you trust me to be the breadwinner?!”

“That’s not what I’m saying. We used a lot of money for the move, and we’ll probably need more from here.”

“I’ll work,” said Fina. “I’ll talk to Yuna and get a lot of butchering work.” Now even my daughter has started to say that sort of thing.

I tried everything I could to persuade them, but Gentz got mad, my daughters burst into tears, and we ended up having an arduous meal. Considering all of my family members’ opposition, I gave up on being an adventurer, and we came to an agreement that I find a job through the merchant guild.

They were all incurable worrywarts.

 

The next day, I headed towards the merchant guild in search of a job. I ran into Yuna outside. She asked me why I was at the guild, so I explained our family meeting to her. She said something unbelievable.

“Tiermina, would you actually be interested in working for me?”

She told me she was starting a business and invited me onboard. We went to Yuna’s house so we could talk about the details. I was always taken aback by the bear house, no matter how many times I saw it.

She meant to sell eggs. On top of that, she already bought a plot of land near the orphanage and had made a building. Apparently she was going to prep the birds and start bringing in tons of them. I listened to her in shock. Wasn’t she supposed to be an adventurer?

Even though she kept telling me, “I’m doing this for myself, since I just want to eat eggs,” I knew she was really doing it for the orphans. She’s just a really good kid. This kindhearted, bear-suited girl saved Fina, helped me, and gave Gentz and I the push we needed. That was why I accepted the job right away. I wanted to pay back even the smallest amount of my debt and to help Yuna as she tried her best to do this for the orphans.

When I went to the merchant guild and we talked out the details, I realized this would involve a great deal of money. Regardless of that, Yuna tried to entrust me with all of the sales. I was happy she had confidence in me, but that was just too much money. In the end, we distributed the sales by depositing them between my guild card and Yuna’s. I would manage the money for wages and necessary expenses. The rest of the sales would be put on Yuna’s guild card.

I wondered if Yuna just didn’t know how to handle money, but as I watched her do everything, I realized she wasn’t doing this to turn a profit. If I asked her about it, I’m sure she would have told me she was doing it for the eggs. That was just the kindhearted girl she was.

With that, I started my job. At first there weren’t many birds, but Yuna brought them in from out of nowhere, and the population steadily began to increase. Eggs could be sold for a high price while there weren’t many around, but when supply increased, their price would go down too. Considering that and the labor, I thought it would have been easier to keep supply low and sell them at a markup. However, Yuna smiled and told me that if there were more eggs around and they were cheaper, everyone would be able to eat them.

According to Yuna’s logic, if the eggs were valuable, there was a chance they’d attract thieves, and that would potentially put the orphans in danger. On the other hand, if eggs were cheap, there would be no incentive to steal them, and we wouldn’t be putting the orphans at risk.

All she was thinking about were the orphans and how to make it so that anyone could have access to eggs. Was this girl really fifteen? If she told me she was a merchant’s daughter, I probably would have believed her. She was a kindhearted girl and an important friend to my daughter. I would work as hard as I could to repay even a sliver of my debt to her.

But since she was paying my wages, was I really repaying her?

Well, I have work today, too. Time to put my all into it.