Chapter 53: Together with the Bear

Chapter 53:
Together with the Bear

 

“YOU’RE THE ONE who saved us?”

A voice came from behind me while I was patting Noa and Fina’s heads. I turned around to see an older man and a girl there. The girl was maybe a little younger than Fina and Noa. They were dressed really nice, like Noa, so I guessed they were nobles, or maybe just a wealthy family. They had adventurers as guards, after all.

“If you’re talking about the orcs, then yeah.”

“I see. In that case, please allow me to give you my thanks. I am Gran Fahrengram. Thank you for saving both myself and my granddaughter.” The older man bowed his head.

“I’m Yuna, the adventurer. We just happened to be passing by, so don’t worry about it.”

“But my, what strange clothes you wear,” Gran said as he looked at my bear outfit. The other adventurers, who’d been wondering about my outfit until then, nodded too.

“Please don’t worry about that,” I replied. I still didn’t know how to explain the onesie.

“I’m impressed you defeated the orcs so easily. Also, is that Cliff’s daughter over there?” Gran looked over at Noa. Looks like they know each other already, I thought.

“Lord Gran, it’s such a pleasure to see you again. I’m Noir,” Noa greeted him like a real aristocrat.

“Ah yes, Noir. Has it been about a year? How big you’ve gotten. Is Cliff here?” Gran looked around.

“My father has work, so he stayed in the town. He told me to go to my mother in the royal capital by myself.”

“So you came all this way on your own?”

“Yes, but I’m fine, since I have my escort.”

Gran looked over at me. “Looks like that Cliff got you a very good adventurer, though a strangely dressed one.”

I wished he’d stop calling me “strange” over and over.

“Misa, nice to see you again.” Noa headed over to the girl next to Gran, who had long, beautiful silver hair.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, my dearest Noa.”

“Misa, are you also going to the royal capital?”

“Yes, my mother and father went ahead of me, so I’m headed to the capital with my grandfather.”

My dearest? That had a nice ring to it. I tried to picture someone calling me “my dearest Yuna,” but it only came off kind of creepy. Yeah. Plus, it’d be embarrassing.

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but could I have a moment?” Marina was coming over, looking cleaner now that she washed off the orc blood. “If we leave the orcs as they are, it might attract their compatriots, or other monsters who seek to eat the bodies. I’d like to butcher them.”

“You want to butcher them?”

“You were the one who defeated them, but you did so by taking advantage of their being occupied with us. As such, we’d like a cut as well.”

Ah, so that’s what she meant. I didn’t know how valuable orc materials were, but it was natural these other adventurers would be thinking about such things.

“I don’t need a cut. You can do what you like with them.”

“Are you serious? You took down six of them. Itia defeated the two she did because of you, too.”

“We took out a couple on our own, so we don’t need to take everything.” Based on the bodies, there had been about ten orcs to start.

“We’re going on ahead to the royal capital, so you can do what you want.” I went over to Kumakyu and jumped up on its back. I had tons of orcs in my bear storage and didn’t really need more. “Noa, Fina, we’re going.”

“Please wait a second,” Gran called out. “If you’re also going to the royal capital, why don’t we go together?”

He wanted us to be travel buddies? My bears would have to slow down for their carriage to keep up, though. I thought about it for a moment, then replied, “I don’t see any benefits to that, so no thank you.”

“I’ll pay you to escort us.”

“You’ve already got those women to protect you, don’t you? Besides, isn’t that pretty rude to them?” I said, loud enough that the nearby adventurers could hear. If he was hiring me, that meant he didn’t have much trust in them.

“I don’t doubt Marina and the others’ abilities. It’s just that encountering a group of orcs on the way to the royal capital is normally unheard of.”

It was? I supposed we really hadn’t encountered any monsters up until that point.

“I’d like you to be here for my granddaughter. We’ve been cooped up inside the cart for the last few days, which has been tedious. Having someone she knows, like Noir, around could make the trip more enjoyable.”

“Hmm.”

It still felt like I was drawing the short end of the stick here. I didn’t want to tell people about the bear house unless I trusted them, so if we traveled together, I couldn’t use it. If we couldn’t use the bear house, that meant no beds and no bath. Also, we’d be moving slower and covering way less ground.

So what was I going to do?

Cliff was paying me, so I would have looked to him for direction, but he wasn’t here. I decided I’d ask Noa for her opinion, instead, seeing as how she was both the person I was escorting and the daughter of my client.

“Noa, what do you want to do?”

“Me?”

I called Noa over and whispered into her ear. “If we travel with them, we can’t use the bear house. So we wouldn’t be able to use the beds or bath, either.”

Noa started to mutter under her breath, bath, bed, bath, bed. It looked like there was a battle of the Bed and Bath versus Misa going on inside of Noa’s head right now. Hmm, umm, she murmured, and the battle finally came to a conclusion.

“Yuna, I’m worried about Misa. Do you think it would be okay if we went together?”

“If that’s what you want, it’s fine. But I have a few conditions.”

“What are those?”

“Naturally, we’ll keep the bear house a secret. Also, if there are monsters that I don’t think I can beat, the three of us will run and leave everyone else behind. Make sure you’re at least prepared for that.”

That was the one thing I wouldn’t budge on. Even I wasn’t invincible, and there had to be monsters—like dragons, for instance—that I couldn’t beat. If we encountered a foe like that, I might not be able to protect other people on top of Noa and Fina.

“I-I understand,” Noa said.

I turned to face Gran.

“Have you come to a decision?” he asked.

“We’ll travel with you.”

“You will? Ah, that’s wonderful.” Gran looked elated. Misa did too; she rushed over to Noa.

“Well then, could you help the women with harvesting, Fina? I’d like to head out as fast as possible.”

“Okay!” Fina hustled over to where the adventurers were harvesting the orcs.

“So, are these bears yours?” Gran asked, looking at Kumayuru and Kumakyu.

“They’re my summons. They’re safe, so don’t hurt them.”

“They’re summons?”

Gran kept staring. Misa followed suit, looking awestruck, as Noa pulled her over to the bears.

“The black one is Kumayuru and the white one is Kumakyu.”

Misa slowly got closer to Kumayuru.

“It’s fine, they’re nothing to be scared of.” Noa started petting Kumayuru. Seeing that, Misa joined her and touched Kumayuru.

“It’s soft.”

“Right? They feel so nice. They make the very best sleeping spot.”

Noa gave Kumayuru a giant hug, which seemed to settle things for the others. A short time later, Fina, Marina, and the others finished dealing with the orcs and rejoined us.

“This kid is great at butchering. She really helped us out. Also, are you actually sure about letting us have everything?”

“It’s fine. It looks like we’re heading to the capital together, so I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Yes, likewise.”

 

Before we headed out, Marina checked the carriage. Luckily, it was fine, so we headed out right away. Once she finished the check, Marina sat down in the driver’s seat and the swordswoman, Masrika, sat down next to her.

There was space for about six people inside the carriage. Gran, Misa, and Noa got in first, and Elle and Itia took the remaining spots, keeping an eye out through the side and rear windows.

Aren’t escorts supposed to guard from the outside? Then again, it wasn’t like they could keep up with a carriage on foot for long hours, especially laden down with their gear and weapons. Plus, if monsters attacked after you’d been walking that long, you’d be too worn out to put up a fight. Just thinking about it made me feel renewed gratitude for my bear summons.

When she got into the carriage, Noa whipped her finger out and pointed at Fina, declaring, “I’ll let you have the bears this time, but that seat is reserved for me.”

Well, I thought, Kumayuru and Kumakyu are both my summons, though.

The carriage started moving. We followed after it, with Fina on Kumayuru and me on Kumakyu.

Clip clop, clip clop.

Hmm, I thought. We’re going pretty slow. How long will it take to get to the royal capital from here at this pace? It wasn’t like I could do anything about it at this point, though, so I decided to let the bears be on lookout while I took an afternoon nap. The weather was nice, and Kumakyu’s warmth soon coaxed me into sleep.

 

The carriage rolled uneventfully forward until sunset. Marina told us to stop and pull off to the side of the main road in the middle of nowhere, where her party set up their cots and pulled travel rations from their bottomless bags. I really wanted to pull out my bear house, but restrained myself.

Since it looked like Misa was going to eat with her father and the other adventurers, I called Noa and Fina over to figure out dinner for ourselves. (Also, apparently, Misa was a nickname. Her full name was Misana.) As far as food prep went, all I was really doing was pulling simple meals out of the bear storage. The difference between mine and Marina’s party’s was that my bread was still soft and warm from the oven. I couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of a sense of superiority while we ate.

Soon, it was time to head to bed. We would be leaving at daybreak, which was fine by me. Marina came over just as I was about to tuck myself in.

“I’d like to figure out the order we’ll keep watch.”

Ah, the night watch: the great enemy of sleep and inevitable cost of roughing it.

“As far as keeping watch goes, we have these guys, so we should be fine.” I pointed at Kumayuru and Kumakyu. “If any monsters or people come near us, they’ll let us know.”

“Really?”

“We don’t need lookouts, but if you’re really worried about it, can your group do it?”

“Can we really trust these bears?” Marina said, sizing up my furry companions.

“Whether you trust them or not is up to you.” That was all I could say.

“I understand. We’ll keep watch on our side.”

Marina headed to the carriage.

“Where are you going to sleep?” I asked Noa, having defended my rightful eight hours of hay-hitting.

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to sleep with Misa or with the bears?”

“Wh-what do you mean? You’re going to sleep with the bears?” she asked, her voice quivering.

“Well, the night’s cold and dangerous, right? Come here, Kumayuru, Kumakyu.”

I called the bears over and had them sit down. Next, I called Fina over to demonstrate and bundled her up in a blanket. Once she was bundled up, Fina curled into the seated Kumakyu’s furry belly. The bear’s paws circled her, and there we had it—the art piece titled “Together With Bear” was complete.

“Wh-what is this? This is a sublime way to sleep!”

“See, it’s not cold like this.”

“I’ll tell Misa I’m sleeping with you! Fina, make sure to keep a spot open for me!”

Noa dashed off, then quickly returned…with Misa in tow.

“Yuna, Misa said she wants to sleep with the bears too.”

“May I? Dearest Noa told me so many wonderful things about the bears today. I would like to partake. Please?” Misa fixed her big innocent eyes right on me. I couldn’t say no. She was even younger than Noa!

“Sure. The two of you can sleep with Kumayuru. Fina and I will sleep with Kumakyu.”

“Thank you, Yuna!”

“Thank you very much!”

Noa and Misa thanked me, and I got them wrapped up in a blanket and snuggling against Kumayuru’s stomach right away.

“Kumayuru, don’t wake the two of them up unless there’s something dangerous approaching. Kumakyu, please tell me if monsters or people come near us,” I asked. Then I leaned against Kumakyu’s stomach, making sure to leave Fina her half. It was warm. I tucked my hand into Kumakyu’s arm so I’d be holding it in my sleep.

“Good night, Fina.”

“Good night.”