Chapter 70: The Bear Meets the King

Chapter 70:
The Bear Meets the King

 

AS I RETURNED ahead of everyone else, I headed toward Noa’s residence to get Fina. It was still bustling inside the royal capital, but in just a little while the messengers on the faster horses would arrive, and it would all immediately settle down.

When I got to the house, Surilina led me to the living room. After I waited for a bit, I heard the sound of running feet, and the door was thrown open.

“Yuna!” Fina said.

“Yuna!” Noa said.

“Are you two okay?”

“Yuna, are you okay?!” Fina asked.

“I’m fine. All of the monsters were slayed.”

I didn’t say that I’d slain them.

“Yuna, what happened to my father?”

“Cliff will be coming with the adventurers, so he’s fine.”

“Really?”

Noa’s smile was back. Good. It was best when kids were smiling.

“Noa, thank you for looking after Fina.”

“Not at all. We’re friends, so of course I would.”

“Lady Noa…”

Fina seemed happy.

 

A few days after I defeated the monsters, the adventurers and soldiers returned. Cliff also came back safely with them and reunited with his family. Someone who claimed to be a staff member of the adventurers’ guild came to me and ordered me to appear at the guild hall.

“Welcome in, Yuna.”

I was left alone in a room with Sanya.

“Well, did you need something from me?”

“Right, we have a slight problem,” she continued to talk while averting her eyes. “It’s His Majesty, the king. He wants to meet you—or rather, the fabricated A-rank adventurer.”

“The king wants to… Can I refuse?”

“He said he absolutely must meet you. He even told me to tell him your name. Of course, I haven’t told him anything about you, Yuna.”

The equation “King = A Pain” completed itself in my mind.

“Sanya, thank you for your help. I’m heading out on a journey, so please don’t look for me.”

It was a cliché excuse, but it was all I had.

“Wait a second. If you run, you’ll end up on the wanted list. I’ll expose your name.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m just saying let’s look for a compromise. You don’t want anyone to know about how you slayed everything, right?”

“Yeah.”

“In that case, how about only telling His Majesty? I will ask the king not to tell anyone else.”

“Can you really do that?”

This was the country’s king. Would he really consent to that? I wasn’t certain if he would really meet with an adventurer he didn’t know without guards.

“He’s the kind of person who keeps his promises, so if we can make that agreement, then it is possible.”

“And if he doesn’t promise?”

“We’ll grandly extol you as a hero, or decorate you with an award. Maybe you’ll stand next to the king during the birthday celebration and shake his hand.”

“Um, how far would I have to travel to get to another country? It’d be great if I could get far enough that this country wouldn’t have any influence on the place.”

I had the transport gates, so I could still see Fina and the others and that wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just be living in a new place.

“Please Yuna, can you give me one day? If I can get the king to make that promise, would you meet His Majesty? If you’re going to be running from the capital, then waiting until then wouldn’t be too late, right?”

I definitely could just run away if it seemed like they were going to turn me into a hero. I reluctantly agreed to Sanya’s proposal and left the guild.

 

While I passed the time leisurely with Fina after coming back from the guild, Sanya came over to the bear house in the evening.

“Sorry for coming this late.”

“It’s no problem. Were you able to talk things through with the king?”

“Yes. It looks like His Majesty will meet with you alone.”

“Will the king really be by himself? He’s the king. He’s the most important person in the country. If I were an assassin, what would you do?”

“I will be with you too, at least. Besides, His Majesty desperately wants to thank the person who defeated the monsters, no matter what that entails. That was why he accepted all of my requests.”

If she had gone that far for me, I couldn’t turn her down.

“Well then, when should I go and meet him?”

“Tomorrow morning. I’ll come get you.”

After that I asked a very important question.

“Is it okay if I go dressed like this? If I can’t, I’ll leave the capital tonight.”

If I wasn’t wearing this bear outfit and something happened, I wouldn’t be able to get away.

“That will be fine. I also asked His Majesty if he wants to meet you despite the fact that you might be dressed strangely. When I asked that, he said that it didn’t matter.”

With Sanya doing all that for me, all I could do was nod.

 

When the next day came, I was still feeling reluctant. I prayed that Sanya wouldn’t come, but my prayers didn’t reach heaven and she ended up coming for me. I asked Fina to look after the house and headed to the castle with Sanya. I found someone I didn’t want to meet at that moment there.

“Oh, Yuna. And if it isn’t Sanya. What brings the two of you to a place like this?”

We ended up crossing paths with Ellelaura inside the castle. It wasn’t unusual to see Ellelaura at her workplace, but it was just terrible timing meeting her in such a large castle.

“Yuna and I have a bit of business.”

Like Cliff, Sanya was relaxed when she talked to Ellelaura.

“Oh, do you? Where are you going? I’ll go with you.”

“About that…”

“Oh, don’t worry about me. I’m free right now.”

“But what about your work?”

“I have excellent workers, so things should be fine.”

Sanya was in a bind. Of course, so was I.

When she saw our faces, Ellelaura let out a laugh.

“Ha ha, sorry about that. Please don’t look so anxious, you two. I heard about the monsters from Cliff. I haven’t told anyone, so it’s okay. You’re going to see His Majesty right now, aren’t you?”

Even though I told him not to talk about it, Cliff spilled the beans. He was so loose-lipped.

“That was mean-spirited, Ellelaura.”

“Yuna wouldn’t tell me, though.”

“I suppose it couldn’t be avoided. You are part of the castle, after all.”

“Why did you have to go so far as to forbid Cliff from talking about it? It was so much work getting him to crack.”

So Cliff really did do the best he could. I couldn’t get angry at that. But how’d she break him?

“Since you’ve already heard what happened, will you really come with us, Ellelaura?” Sanya asked Ellelaura.

“Yes, I will. I heard things from Cliff, so I might be able to help.”

Now a group of three, we headed to the king’s office. Royal guards were standing at the entrance. Someone must have already informed the royal guards since, when they saw Sanya, they let us enter. It seemed like they wanted to say something when they saw me, but they let me through without a word.

“I am glad you came…”

When I entered the room, there was a good-looking man in his forties inside. Was this the king? He wasn’t wearing a crown like they do in manga. When the king looked at me, he swallowed his words.

“So you’re here too, Ellelaura?”

“The adventurer that defeated the monsters is an acquaintance of mine.”

Ellelaura looked over at me. Then, as though to match her, the king looked in my direction again.

“Well, you told me you were bringing along an A-rank adventurer. What is this strangely dressed girl doing here?”

“Your Majesty, please accept my apologies. There was no A-rank adventurer. This girl single-handedly slayed the horde of monsters. I didn’t think anyone would believe this girl defeated the horde, so I lied about the A-rank adventurer,” Sanya reported what happened while also apologizing.

“I don’t have time for jokes. When is the adventurer coming?”

The king was angry. That was understandable. He had his expectations turned on their head.

“That is why I didn’t want you to meet her. Your Majesty, this is the truth; you have to believe it. I guarantee it as the guild master.”

“I also can give you my assurance this is true,” said Ellelaura.

“Even you?” After the king looked in Ellelaura’s direction, he turned his eyes to me. “Did you really defeat them? Remove that odd hood and speak.”

I was so nervous about being in front of the king that I hadn’t even taken off my hood. I doffed it and greeted him.

“I’m Yuna, the adventurer.”

“But you’re still just a child. Did you really defeat over ten thousand monsters all by yourself?”

I was on the small side, but I was still fifteen.

“Sanya, what did you do to confirm the monsters were defeated? You did verify that, right?”

“We checked on the goblins and orcs.”

I wonder if she told him about the orc heads?

“What about the wolves, wyverns, and wyrm?”

Sanya was surprised when he the mentioned the wyrm. Only Sanya, Cliff, and I should have known about that.

“Your Majesty, where did you hear about the wyrm?”

“I heard it from the architect of the mayhem himself.”

“Who might that be?”

“That does not matter right now. What happened to them?”

“The slayed monsters are in her bottomless bag.”

“They’re in a bottomless bag?”

“Hers is of the highest grade.”

“This girl has something like that?”

“It’s true. Cliff has confirmed it.”

“I can’t believe this when it’s been sprung so abruptly on me, but it is true that the threat has vanished. You would have no reason to lie to me.”

The king thought a bit, then slowly approached me. Excuse me, I thought, that’s way too close. It’s not like I can step back though, right? I stood motionlessly as the king stared straight at me.

“You have my gratitude. I thank you for saving the citizens, adventurers, and soldiers of the royal capital.”

He didn’t bow his head, but the king thanked me.

“It was no big deal, I just happened to defeat the monsters.”

“You happened to defeat them?”

Crap, I thought. I hadn’t known how to reply and said what I was actually thinking.

“Ha ha ha, that’s right. Yuna actually defeated the monsters for my daughter.”

Ellelaura hugged me with a smile on her face.

“She slayed the monsters because a little girl was about to cry,” she said, like it was funny on its face.

The king looked bewildered.

“Oh, but isn’t that more than enough of a reason? She’s fighting for what she wants to protect.”

“I understand that, but if the person who came up with the scheme heard that, I don’t think he’d be able to rest even in death.”

“What scheme?” Sanya’s voice and my voice harmonized.

“Yes, right. I suppose I could tell all of you since you were involved.”

The king explained that the attempted monster attack was a single man’s attempt at enacting revenge. So there was magic that could manipulate monsters, huh? In the game, you could tame monsters and make them into your companions, but this seemed different. I never heard of magic that sapped your life. Well, the game hadn’t gone that far in setting up something like that. Maybe it was a prohibited form of magic in this world.

As I dwelled on that, there was a commotion outside the door.

“You cannot, Lady Flora. There are guests inside.”

The door opened a little, and I could hear their voices.

“No! I’m going to see the bear.”

“Please, Lady Flora.”

“Noooo.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Well, Lady Flora has said she would like to meet the bear.”

The moment the royal guard opened the door to explain, she made full use of her tiny physique to quickly slip into the room.

“Bear!” Lady Flora hugged me. “I got to see you.”

She happily rubbed her face against my tummy.

“Oh? You know Flora?”

“When she came to the castle with me earlier, she met Lady Flora.” Ellelaura explained.

“You don’t mean that bear picture book was her?”

“Did you see it? Yuna drew that. Pretty good, wasn’t it?”

“I’m not sure how to phrase this? Those drawings were endearing. When I asked who drew them, Flora would only say it was a bear. But now I understand.”

The king looked at me another time. So I’m a bear, so what?

“Bear, play with me.”

“Um, what do you think?”

I looked at everyone.

“Our conversation is finished, so I don’t mind. I might contact you at a later date, so just give me your contact information.”

“If that’s the case, I can be the one to make contact,” Ellelaura said.

“Well then, I will also talk to Cliff about this. Tell him I will call him on a later date.”

I apologized to Cliff in my mind. It looked like this whole situation was ending uneventfully, though. I looked at Lady Flora, who was clinging to me. Then, I heard a cute little gurgle coming from her small stomach.

“Lady Flora, are you hungry?”

“Uh-huh.”

There were still hours before lunch. I had pudding inside my bear storage. I guess giving her this little thing would be okay? But, was it okay to give a princess food?

“Um, may I present Lady Flora with something to eat?”

Well, I doubted I’d be allowed to, but I at least asked.

“That would be fine.”

This is food we’re talking about here, I thought. It might’ve been dangerous. Could he really give me permission to do that so willy-nilly? What would he have done if I fed her poison?

“Just to make sure, are you really okay with that? What if it was poisoned?”

“What, are you going to feed her poison?”

“I don’t intend to. I thought royalty would be a little more cautious about that though.”

“Ellelaura and Sanya trust you. I don’t need to worry about something like that.”

Well, if he was fine with that, I guess it was okay.

“Well then, Lady Flora. Shall we go to your room?”

“Yeah.”

I grasped Flora’s small hand with my bear puppet.

“You can have her eat it here. That way there will be no cause for suspicion.”

When we tried to leave the room, the king stopped us. That was definitely true, but I didn’t want to take the pudding out in front of the king. Then again, I couldn’t just not pull out the pudding at this point, and it’d be a pain if he had weird doubts about me. I had Lady Flora sit on a sofa in the room and took out a pudding and spoon from bear storage.

“Lady Flora, please have this.”

“What’s this?”

“It’s a cold, sweet, delicious confectionary.”

Lady Flora held the spoon in her small hand and brought the pudding to her mouth. At that moment, her face seemed to bloom into a smile. One bite after another, Lady Flora shoveled the pudding into her mouth. It looked like she was having a grand time.

“Is it good?”

“Uh-huh,” she gave a small nod.

Her smile was adorable. I felt the urge to pat her head and, in the end, I really did pat the head of the crown princess. No one scolded me, though.

“Is it really that good?”

It looked like I sparked his curiosity.

“Yuna, I’d like to eat some again as well.” Ellelaura greedily looked in my direction.

“You’ve had this before, Ellelaura?” Sanya asked, but her eyes were on the pudding.

You too?

“Yes, she let me eat some before. It’s sweet, cold, and tasty.”

Everyone alternated between looking at me and the pudding.

“Err, do you want some?”

“Yes, I will partake in some.”

“Thank you, Yuna.”

“May I have some too?”

Anyway, I took out three puddings.

I had five puddings left. Maybe I’d need to head back to Crimonia to get eggs in order to make pudding now?

“What is this?”

“Mmhmm, it’s delicious.”

“Oh my, this really is good.”

The three of them happily savored it, just like Lady Flora. I was just happy they were happy. Right then, I could feel a gaze on me. Lady Flora was staring straight at me. She was looking at her empty cup and me.

“This is the last one. If you overeat you won’t be able to have lunch.”

“Uh-huh!”

After warning her, I took out another pudding.

“Do they really sell something as delicious as this in the castle town?”

“I had no idea it existed either.”

“Well yes, of course. Yuna thought up this confectionary,” Ellelaura explained on my behalf, but it wasn’t like I invented it. At the same time, it wasn’t like I could say I made it using my knowledge from Earth.

“Is that right? It’s quite tasty.”

“It really is.”

“Do you think our chefs could make it if they knew the recipe?”

“They could.”

I didn’t want to tell it to them, though.

“You can’t. Yuna is trying to help the orphans open a store to sell this food.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Did Ellelaura hear that from Cliff? She started talking about what I had done in the town. She told them I was looking after the orphanage in the town, and that they were raising kokekko for the eggs used in the pudding. She told them I was planning on helping the children open a store if there were any who wanted to learn how to cook.

“How do you know so much about that?”

“I heard it from Cliff. The instant Cliff came here, he was so worked up talking about you that he told me all kinds of things.”

I guess I’d need to give Cliff a talking to about what personal information was.

“In that case, I won’t ask for the recipe. But my daughter would be so delighted if you’d bring some over once in a while, so please do.”

I guess that would be okay. I had the bear transport gate and could come any time anyway.

“Ellelaura, please arrange it so that Yuna can come to the castle any time.”

“Yes, understood.”

They ended up posting a castle entry permit on my guild card so I could come to deliver pudding. Was this really okay?