Chapter 71: The Bear Returns to Crimonia for Eggs

Chapter 71:
The Bear Returns to Crimonia for Eggs

 

I WAS OUT OF EGGS. I couldn’t eat fried eggs or scrambled. I couldn’t make egg sandwiches or pudding. This was a very pressing issue. I had to do an urgent restock.

So…

“Fina, I’m going to return to Crimonia. Do you want to go back too?”

“Whu-huh?” Fina gave me a strange response.

“I don’t have any eggs, so I was thinking I would go to the orphanage.”

“Are you going home, Yuna?”

I’d just go real quick through the transport gate.

“I am. You could go sightseeing around the capital, though, if you want to. What do you want to do?”

“I’ll go home, then. May I say bye to Lady Noa?”

“Oh, you don’t need to. We’ll be back today.”

“…?” Fina tilted her head a little. “In order words, we’re heading to town today and then returning to the royal capital today?”

“That’s right.”

For some reason I got the sense she wasn’t grasping what I was saying.

“If we’re quick we can get back in the afternoon.”

“Yuna, that would be so cruel to Kumayuru and Kumakyu. I don’t mind not having eggs, so please don’t do something so terrible to them.”

“…?” This time I was the one who tilted my head. “We’ll go by the bear transport gate, so we won’t use the bears.”

“What’s a bear transport gate?” This time Fina tilted her head.

Right, I hadn’t told Fina.

“Sorry, you’ve always been with me, so I thought I told you already. I have a bear transport gate, so we can get back to the town instantly.”

“Yuna…I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

That was what I was thinking too. If I was in the real world and someone told me something like that, I would have thought they’d lost their minds. I didn’t know if teleportation magic existed in this world in the first place, so if it didn’t, obviously Fina would say that.

“Umm, I want to ask you something real quick, but in this country, is there a way to like transport yourself? Like a way to go from one place to another instantly?”

“…”

“For example, is there magic that could get you from the royal capital to the town in an instant?”

“I haven’t heard of anything like that.”

Yeah, of course there wouldn’t be. I wondered if it was okay to tell Fina about the bear transport gate. Fina wasn’t the kind of girl to spread that around. Well, even if other people knew, I was the only one who could use it, and I only set them up in the bear houses, so I ended up coming to the conclusion it was okay.

“Fina, I really trust you, okay.”

“Um, yes?” she gave me a nod with her head still tilted to the side.

I headed to the storehouse and set up a bear transport gate.

“I think you had one of these at the storehouse over there too.”

There was one in the storehouse, but I hadn’t explained what it was to Fina. We’d been together so long, I thought I already told her.

“This gate is linked to the one in Crimonia.”

“Yuna, even I’m not that gullible. If it were possible for me to go through this gate to get to the town where my mom is, no one would ever have any troubles.”

That was sure true.

“Anyway, you’ll understand once you go through it.”

I took Fina’s hand and opened the door of the bear transport gate. Beyond that was the inside of the storehouse of the bear house in Crimonia.

“Yuna?!”

Fina looked shocked. Well, anybody would be surprised.

“Don’t tell anyone about this. Also, you can’t use it to travel without me around.”

When we left the storehouse, we were in our near and dear town of Crimonia.

“Tiermina should be at the orphanage right around now. Shall we go?”

The two of us headed to the orphanage.

“Bear girl!”

When we approached the orphanage, the children playing outside rushed over. They were the ones I started calling the child brigade without asking. They were still young, but they were good kids who took care of the younger ones. When one of them noticed me, a second one and then a third one ran up to me. The group of children surrounding me grew. I might have been imagining it, but I felt like there were more kids around.

“Everyone, did something happen?”

“Nope, we’re fine.”

“We’re working hard.”

I patted everyone’s heads.

“Is Tiermina around?”

“Yeah, she’s with the mistress.”

I told everyone to have fun playing and headed to the orphanage. When I got inside, we found the director, Tiermina, and Liz having tea together.

“Mom.”

“It’s Fina and Yuna! You came back?”

“We’re headed back to the royal capital right away. I wanted eggs, so we came back temporarily.”

“You needed eggs?”

“Are there any?”

“All of the eggs belong to you, so as long as there are some, you’ve got them. You didn’t come all the way back from the royal capital just for eggs, did you?”

Well, since she didn’t know about the bear transport gate, that’d be her natural train of thought.

“Um, yeah. Kumayuru and Kumakyu really worked hard.”

“Are your summons really that quick?”

Since I didn’t have an answer I could give her, I just let my wheels spin.

“Well, they are summons.”

I hoped she was satisfied with my vague non-answer.

“Well, when are you heading back to the royal capital?”

“If we’re quick, we might even leave today.”

“That’s so soon.”

“If the eggs won’t be ready until tomorrow, I don’t mind waiting.”

“Right. About how many did you want?”

“Around a hundred or two—the more the better.”

“In that case, would tomorrow work? I can get you a hundred today and I should be able to prepare even more tomorrow.”

I approved of that.

“Well then Fina, since you’re heading out tomorrow, it’s okay if you stick with Tiermina today. If you want to just stay here, then that’s fine too.”

“No, I would like to go back to the capital too. I still haven’t said goodbye to Lady Noa.”

“In that case, let’s meet at the orphanage tomorrow. Also, I have a request for you, Tiermina, and everyone else.”

“What is it?”

“I think in about a month from now a person selling spuds should come by, so can you accept those for me? I’ve already paid an advance, so pay for the rest with what you make from the eggs.”

“Spuds? I’ve seen those being sold sometimes, but I’ve occasionally heard they cause stomachaches.”

So I guess they did sell them in this town sometimes? Well, I wanted to buy them regularly, so that wasn’t a big deal.

“They’re fine as long as you don’t eat the parts that have sprouted or turned green.”

“Really?”

“So, please accept them for me.”

“All right.”

I took today’s portion of the eggs and headed away from the orphanage. Compared to walking around in the royal capital, I didn’t get as many stares. Every once in a while I’d hear a little kid say, “There’s a bear,” but that was pretty much it. When I’d give them a quick wave of my hand, they’d look delighted.

 

When I got home, there was someone standing out front.

“Yuna, you’re finally back.”

Milaine was standing before me, looking at me like she had found prey.

“Milaine? What happened?”

“Don’t ‘what happened’ me. I have so many questions for you.”

I wondered what was going on. I didn’t remember doing anything that would have made Milaine upset.

“What was that food?!”

“What food?”

“The food you gave me before going to the royal capital.”

“Oh, you mean the pudding.”

Come to think if it, I did remember giving her some.

“Yes, that’s right. That delicious food.”

“I’m impressed you even knew I was in town.”

“There’s not a single person who wouldn’t notice you in that outfit. I heard from a staff member at the trade guild that they saw you, so I waited in front of your home.”

Milaine firmly grasped my shoulders to prevent my escape. I could have easily shaken her off, but that sure would have meant trouble for Milaine.

“I won’t run away, so could you let me go?”

“You mean it?”

“Milaine, you’re not acting like yourself.”

My dignified image of Milaine collapsed.

“That is your fault. It’s because you gave me that delicious thing and vanished.”

That wasn’t what I meant to do. It’d just been a thank you gift for her.

“Well then, Yuna, what is that food?”

“It’s made with eggs. I’m happy you’ve taken such a liking to it.”

“Well then, I have something to discuss with you. Would you open up a shop? Those would sell for certain.”

I knew they’d sell. I’d been planning around it for ages. I’m sure there would be kids interested in cooking, and if they just knew how, even kids could make pudding. That was why I hadn’t taught Cliff or even the king the recipe.

“Like I said before, I make pudding using eggs. What are the egg prices right now?”

“It’s dropped considerably. We’ve been getting two to three hundred every day.”

It looked like the price was falling just like I wanted it to. They’d also been selling a lot more to the guild wholesale. In that case, if we sold fewer to the guild, maybe we could open a shop?

According to Tiermina, we had about four hundred kokkeko right now. If I were to open a store, we needed at least five hundred, though in the future I wanted a thousand. If they were multiplying pretty well, maybe we’d get to five hundred before long?

If I limited sales, opening a shop would be feasible. The only problem was the store couldn’t be managed just by children. I needed an adult to watch them. I could trust Liz or Tiermina with the job, but Liz was looking after the children and the birds. Tiermina was managing the eggs. She said she finished her work in the morning, which meant she had time in the afternoon.

Maybe I could discuss that with Tiermina.

“I can even prepare a chef.”

I’d rather she not. I’d have problems if the recipe leaked.

“For now, can I ask you to get the store first?”

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t want to tell others the recipe, so I don’t need a chef.”

“I understand. Do you have any preferences regarding the store?”

“I’ll leave the size of the store to you, but please make it close to the orphanage. Also, if you could, please make sure it’s someplace where crowds wouldn’t be an issue.”

There was a chance we’d end up with lines. If hundreds of people lined up, it’d cause trouble for any neighbors.

“Why close to the orphanage?”

“When I open shop, I plan to have the children from the orphanage work there.”

“You’re going to have the orphans work?”

“I think it would help them gain independence.”

“Understood.”

“I’m not in a hurry, so take your time. I’m returning to the royal capital tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“I had some errands, so I popped back in for a bit.”

“I think it’s a bit far to be coming back here just for some errands.”

“My summons are just that amazing.”

I couldn’t tell her about the transport gate, so I fell back on my BS escape route. Milaine didn’t ask any more questions. Instead, she asked me something else.

“So, Yuna,” she said, like she was having trouble getting it out. “I wanted to ask if you could give me the pudding, but I’m not supposing you could do that.”

She seemed very covetous as she asked me that. She had helped me out a lot. I took four puddings out of my bear storage.

“This is the last of what I have right now.”

“Yuna, sweetie, thank you.”

She accepted them happily and carefully put them away in her bottomless bag, making sure she didn’t drop them, then left. Hmm? Now that I thought about it, had Milaine just called me “sweetie?” It must have been my imagination.

I decided to make pudding from the eggs I’d gotten from Tiermina, and with that, my day was over.