Extra Story: The Three Girls See the Capital Part Two

Extra Story:
The Three Girls See the Capital
Part Two

 

“WE’RE HERE.”

The place Lady Noa brought us to was lined with lots of tables and chairs. It was spacious. I saw lots of people were sitting and resting, or eating, or talking. Since there were open chairs, it looked like we could rest there, but I thought it might be agonizing to rest here without having anything to eat. The stands and tables around them had all kinds of delicious smells.

I felt like my stomach would start growling like this. I heard someone else’s stomach growling. It looked like the sound came from Lady Misa. She seemed embarrassed.

“You must be hungry.”

“Yes.”

I felt the same. Apparently we came here in order to eat.

“So, let’s buy something and then rest.”

I agreed with that suggestion.

 

The first stand we went to was a place that sold skewers. I smelled delicious, grilling meat. Lady Noa stood in front of the stand and ordered.

“Excuse me. Three skewers, please.”

“You got it! I’ll grill some tasty pieces for you cute girls.”

The man put the sauce on the skewers, then grilled them. They smelled very good. I swallowed back my spit. I hoped the other two didn’t hear that. They were watching the grill; I didn’t think they noticed me. I was glad.

“Here you are. Thanks for waiting. Here are delicious skewers for you.”

When I tried to pay with the money Yuna gave me, Lady Noa stopped me.

“I’ll pay for it.”

“But Yuna gave me money in order to…”

“I’ll pay for today. I got money for everyone from my mother, so don’t worry.”

What did she say? Lady Noa had gotten money from her mother? I felt dizzy. People kept preparing money for me. For me, this was too much after I had trouble even getting food to eat just a little while ago. I could work to return Yuna’s money, but if I got money from aristocrats, I didn’t know how to pay them back. I didn’t think Lady Noa and Lady Ellelaura wanted it paid back, but I didn’t know what to do. There definitely are walls between the aristocrats and commoners that you just can’t get over.

I tried to think of some reason to say no to it, but I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t know what to do anymore. While I was thinking, Lady Noa paid for the three of us and ended up taking the three skewers and offered one to me.

“I was the one who invited you out today,” she said. “Here, take it. I’m going to buy a ton more stuff.”

Was that really okay? Then after that, just like Lady Noa said, she started buying things one after another. My hands, Lady Misa’s, and Lady Noa’s hands were all full of so many different kinds of food we could barely hold everything.

 

After we bought our food, we put it down at an open table. Once we had it all laid out, it seemed like a lot. Could the three of us really eat it all? Lady Misa didn’t seem to have a lot of experience buying food at the stands, so she seemed embarrassed when she ordered. On the other hand, Lady Noa seemed like she already knew what she was doing.

I tried asking about it indirectly.

“That’s because I’m always buying things at stands.”

So even aristocrats ate street food. Or maybe Lady Noa was special? We each lined up the food we brought on the table and sat down on the seats. Of course, I was feeling tired from walking.

“Well then, let’s all eat what we like. If there isn’t enough, I’ll buy more.”

No, Lady Noa. This is more than enough. Please don’t buy more. I couldn’t say it out loud, so I said it in my head.

But I really was hungry. The delicious smell from the food that wafted to me made me feel hungrier. I wanted to eat soon, but I waited for Lady Noa and Lady Misa to start. Lady Noa reached her hand out to the food first. When Lady Misa saw that, she also chose the food she wanted to eat the most from the stands. After I made sure they were eating, I also reached my hand to a skewer and brought it to my mouth.

It was flavored differently from the ones that were at the stands in Crimonia and felt new to me, but it was very yummy. I was sad I couldn’t buy some and bring them home as presents.

“So, Fina, why don’t you tell us about everything?” said Lady Noa while I was eating my skewer.

I was so surprised, I didn’t know what to say. I wondered what she was talking about.

“About you and Yuna,” she explained. “Could you tell us how you know each other?”

“Me and Yuna?”

“I want to know too!” said Lady Misa.

“I told you about it when we met, Lady Noa.”

I told her while we were riding on the bears on the way to the capital.

“Misa wants to know, and I’m sure there are things you haven’t told me yet too.”

Yuna told me certain parts of it were secret, and I wasn’t about to share those. First, I told Lady Misa about how I met Yuna and the butcher work she gave me.

“Fina, going to pick herbs in the woods alone is dangerous.”

“I’d think so.”

They scolded me. I really was planning on searching nearby, but it was my own fault for going deeper in to look for them.

“But then Yuna was in those clothes even back then? I wonder why Yuna wears clothes like that, though,” Lady Misa said.

I didn’t know the answer to that.

“Kumayuru and Kumakyu come out of her bear gloves for sure, so I think she might need them. But, I think if that were it, she would only need those gloves.”

“You don’t know then, Fina?”

I didn’t know that much about it, so I shook my head.

“Still, it’s so amazing that she can beat wolves so easily. I want to see Yuna fight too,” Lady Misa said.

When she fought with the orcs, Lady Misa was hiding in the carriage, so apparently she hadn’t seen, and nobody saw her fight the bandits. Actually, I don’t think I’ve really seen Yuna fight much.

“Fina, have you seen Yuna fight before?”

“Um, I saw her fighting the adventurers.”

I told them about when I first took Yuna to the adventurers’ guild. Yuna fought them with just one knife? She didn’t use it as a weapon, so I guess she did it with her bare hands? I told them about how she fought many adventurers just with her bear gloves.

“I’ve seen Yuna fighting in town too,” said Lady Noa.

Apparently Yuna fought adventurers that tried to argue with her using magic.

“I’m jealous of you both.”

Lady Misa’s small mouth pouted. I didn’t know what to do when she said that. When I saw it at first, I was worried that Yuna would get hurt.

I hadn’t thought that Yuna would be that strong.

“So, there was something I wanted to ask you, Fina.”

“Yes, what is that?”

Lady Noa asked me with serious eyes, “Did Yuna really defeat tigerwolves and a black viper? It’s not that I don’t believe it, but I was wondering whether a girl like Yuna could really beat those.”

“It’s true. When she accepted the tigerwolf quest, I was there with her.”

“W-were you really?!”

“Then did you see the tigerwolves?”

I shook my head.

“I was waiting for her far away with Kumakyu, but she showed me the tigerwolves she slayed.”

Since the bear house was a secret that Lady Misa didn’t know about, I couldn’t tell her about it.

“You weren’t with her when she defeated the black viper too, were you?”

“No, I think she only went with the master of the adventurers’ guild for that, but I heard she defeated it all on her own.”

“I heard that from my father. It looks like it was true.”

“Yes; I helped with the butchering. It was super big, so it was a lot of work.”

The black viper’s body was a lot of trouble. Mostly it was hard to get the blade of the knife to cut the skin. My dad said that if it were alive, the skin would become even harder. Yuna had to be amazing to be able to defeat a monster like that.

“Now that you mention butchering, you can do that, right, Fina?”

“I can. I did it with those orcs. Marina said I did a good job.”

But it wasn’t like that was amazing. It was just that I’ve butchered stuff since I was young, so I knew how to do it. I didn’t think it was that amazing, but Yuna was always praising me.

“It was because my dad wasn’t there anymore, and my mom was sick, so I had to work.”

When I talked about my family, the mood turned gloomy.

“It’s fine now, so please don’t worry about it. My mom is cured, and she works for Yuna.”

“She works for Yuna? Isn’t Yuna an adventurer? In other words, is your mom an adventurer?”

It looked like Lady Noa didn’t know about the birds and the eggs. I told them about the orphanage.

“So Yuna was doing all of that?”

“Yuna is so amazing.”

When they said nice things about Yuna, for some reason I also felt happy.

“Yuna made the pudding you both ate from those eggs.”

“What is Yuna?”

I didn’t know that either. She was a mysterious person in bear clothes who had Kumayuru and Kumakyu, was an adventurer, saved an orphanage, and cured my mom. I wondered if Yuna had family. She hadn’t talked about her family even once. I’m sure there was a reason for that, but I couldn’t ask her. No matter what she wore, Yuna saved my life, and she was my favorite person.