by Kumanano
Chapter 20:
The Bear Summons a Bear;
The Bear’s House is a Bear House
“YUNA, WHAT KIND of quest did you get?”
“Tigerwolf slaying.”
“Yuna!”
“What?”
“Tigerwolves are supposed to be bigger and stronger than wolves. Are you going to be okay?” Fina latched onto my clothes, clearly concerned.
“Probably?” I bet they were just larger versions of wolves. I gave Fina’s worried little head a pat and headed out of town. There were merchants and adventurers getting a late start lined up at the gate. We lined up, I flashed my guild card at the gate, and we left.
We went off-road and walked for a few minutes to get somewhere where there weren’t as many people around.
There were a couple adventurers staring at us from a distance, but I ignored them and stopped walking.
“Yuna?”
“Give me a sec—I’m going to pull out something to ride on.”
I told Fina to step back a little and stretched out both my gloved arms. I poured mana into them. The bears’ mouths opened wide, and two large, warbling masses, one white and one black, leapt out of the left and right mouths. They started to wriggle, then slowly stood up on all fours.
Shockingly, any creatures I summoned were…also bears.
The bears edged up to me, and I patted their fluffy heads and chins. They squinted like they were enjoying it, and gently nuzzled my face.
“Yuna!” Fina took a step back.
“It’s okay. They’re my summons, so they won’t hurt you. Here, try petting them.”
Fina approached gingerly and touched the bears. When she realized the bears weren’t going to hurt her, she smiled.
“Okay, Fina, how about you ride on Kumakyu?”
“Kumakyu?”
“The white one’s Kumakyu, and the black one is Kumayuru.”
Kumakyu squatted to make it easier for Fina to get on.
“Go ahead.”
Fina timidly mounted Kumakyu. Once she was on, Kumakyu stood up slowly. “Uh-aah,” Fina whimpered.
“You’ll be fine as long as you hold on tight. Actually, thanks to Kumakyu’s ability, the only way you’re getting off is if you jump off yourself. You won’t fall, even if you fall asleep or let go.”
Once I’d calmed Fina down, I mounted Kumayuru. “We’ll start out slow, then speed up once you get used to it.”
“O-okay.”
Straddling our bears, we rode towards the tigerwolves’ den. I don’t have to tell you that the adventurers, merchants, and travelers nearby were gawking at us. I’d been kind of shy about summoning steeds where others could see, but waiting until I was far away from town every single time got old fast, so I decided to just ignore the stares.
Our bears sped up slowly. We were heading into the mountains, even deeper than where I’d found the goblin king. It was a six-hour walk, but we would get there in about half an hour on bearback.
“Aha ha ha ha ha!” Fina seemed like she was starting to have fun. It’s not like bears had speedometers, and I had no frame of reference, never having driven a car or ridden a motorcycle, but I did know we were going pretty fast. Despite our speed, we were sheltered from the wind because the bears’ entire bodies were cloaked in the magic I’d invoked. That was how I knew we’d get safely to our destination, even if we fell asleep.
The bears suddenly accelerated as we approached the village where I’d stopped during the goblin slaying. I didn’t want to scare the village out of their skins by dropping in unannounced on summoned bear steeds, so we detoured around it. Our pace dropped once we got into the mountains. We’d climb slowly from there.
“I’m pretty sure it’s somewhere around here.”
The quest slip had said they could be found in this area. I dismounted once we found some level ground partway up the mountain, checked to make sure I had enough clear space, then started taking items out of my bear storage and setting them up.
“Yuna!” Fina yelled, seeing what I was pulling out. She was doing a lot of yelling today.
I’d pulled out a bear house. It was two stories high, complete with a yard. The façade looked like a massive bear standing on all fours. The entrance was the bear’s wide-open mouth and the second story looked like a bear cub riding on its back. It even came with an attached storehouse.
“How about we go in and take a break?”
“Sure…”
I had Kumayuru and Kumakyu wait in the yard while we headed in through the bear-mouth doorway, almost like the bear was eating us. The inside was decorated Japanese-style.
“Oh, make sure you take your shoes off over there,” I told Fina, just in case the customs in this world didn’t match.
The entryway where you took your shoes off led into the living room. The first floor had the living room, kitchen, dedicated bath, restroom, and a mini storage space. My room was on the second floor, along with a few guest rooms. The cub’s head formed the roof. I was thinking I could use it to dry my laundry outside.
“Oh, have a seat somewhere over there.” I pointed at a sofa-like chair.
“Yuna…”
“What?”
“What is this house?”
“I made it for myself with magic.”
My experiments with the bear storage had proved it could handle anything, no matter how heavy or how many things I stored, so I’d made myself a house for travelling. I’d built it with earth magic while visualizing a bear, which, of course, made it a lot more powerful. I used a few low-power earth spells to make the walls and set up the room divisions, bought and installed mana gems for the rooms where I needed water, and even installed a fridge in the kitchen. Since I’d set up light mana gems in each room, I could light the place up at night. If I just had a TV and a computer, my hermit abode would be complete.
I went to the kitchen and brought Fina a cold fruit juice.
“Are you part of the nobility somewhere, Yuna?”
“I’m not.”
“Then are you a princess?”
“No real princess would look like me. I’m just your ordinary adventurer.”
Fina seemed like she wanted to say more, but she kept quiet.
“Once we’ve rested, I’m going to head out and look for a tigerwolf, okay?”
“What about me?”
“You can go out and look for herbs for your mom with Kumakyu. You should be safe as long as Kumakyu is around. I’ve set up a defensive boundary around the house, so if you get in trouble, you should be safe as long as you come back to the house.”
“…”
“Also, there are some monsters in the storehouse, so if you have time, could you butcher them?”
“You mean I can leave butchering them for later?”
“That’s for you to decide. I’ll pay you ten percent of what I get from selling the butchered monster parts, so it’s up to you whether you finish foraging early so you can butcher the monsters, or spend the entire time looking for herbs for your mom.”
“Okay, I understand.”
“How about we head to the storehouse so I can explain things to you?”
I’d set up the storehouse so we could get to it from within the house or from outside. It was about twenty-tatami-mats wide, and was outfitted with only running water and a workbench. I extracted about ten wolves and horned hares from my bear storage and left them by the wall.
“You don’t have to butcher all of these, but once you’re done, could you put everything away in this room?”
The next room over was refrigerated cold storage, much like a walk-in freezer. Though time would stop for the house and everything in it once I packed it back into the bear storage, anyway.
“Okay, I’m headed out. Don’t get into any trouble, okay? Kumakyu will keep you safe if anything happens, so you should be fine.”
Chapter 21:
The Bear Goes Tigerwolf Slaying
ONCE I LEFT THE BEAR HOUSE, I mount
ed Kumayuru and headed out. The bear shoes were great for getting around, but I really liked riding Kumayuru and Kumakyu. They’d get grumpy if I only rode on one of them though, so I had to alternate.
I used detection magic to scope out the place on bear back. My range had expanded as I leveled up, and I detected tons of monsters.
Aha. Is that them?
“It looks like there are two of them. Maybe they’re mates?”
I pointed the way for Kumayuru. The bear ran, slipping between the trees and parting all the branches and bushes as it went. Way more efficient than running in my bear shoes. There were wolves nearby, but I ignored them for today and kept moving along.
After a while, I could sense the tigerwolves getting closer, so I had Kumayuru stop. I heard the sound of a river nearby. Should I approach slowly on foot, or just charge in mounted? It was cool if they attacked me, but if they fled, chasing them down would be a pain in the butt. If I were a hunter for reals, I’d approach them from downwind to avoid being detected by smell, but I didn’t have those skills.
I guess I should just rush in? I thought. I pointed Kumayuru in the tigerwolves’ direction. We started to run, slipping up the mountain like a shadow.
When we reached the river, two large felines—the tigerwolves—were resting there. They stood up sluggishly at the sight of us. One snarled. They were trying to see what we were doing.
“They’re bigger than I thought.”
One of them was about Kumayuru’s size. The other one was even larger. Maybe the smaller one was the female and the bigger one was the male? I thought.
I dismounted Kumayuru slowly, then patted its head and asked it to take care of the smaller tigerwolf.
I loosed a wind spell on the two tigerwolves, which they dodged easily. Kumayuru bore down on the female tigerwolf, and I sent fire magic flying at the male. It juked to the right and shot towards me—it definitely had wolves beat for speed and control. It closed the distance between us instantaneously.
I made an earth wall, but it plowed through it.
Uhhh, I thought, looks like normal magic doesn’t work on these.
It was close enough to pounce. I jumped into the sky to escape. It roared, watching me take off—then jumped up after me.
“Seriously?!”
The tigerwolf’s sharp fangs came right at me as I fell.
“Bear punch.”
I hit the open-mouthed tigerwolf hard in the side of its face, slamming it to the ground. As soon as I landed, I shot off a flurry of ice arrows that bounced off its hide. I guessed it was the same deal as the goblin king—I couldn’t damage it with normal magic at the level I was now. In that case, I’d beat it the same way I did the goblin king.
I opened up a deep hole in the ground and dropped the tigerwolf into it. But just as I came up to the hole to attack, the tigerwolf ran up the side of shaft and sprang back out, turning its momentum into a claws-first pounce. I backstepped clear of it.
It looked like that trap was a dud.
Meanwhile, Kumayuru was fighting the smaller tigerwolf. They fought and parried claw to claw, fang to fang, equally matched. If Kumayuru were a normal bear, it would have been slower, but my bears were fast—even faster than a tigerwolf. They had enough stamina to run all the way from the town to this place without a sweat. If that tigerwolf was an equal match for my bear, it was a lot stronger than I’d expected.
Leaving that tigerwolf to Kumayuru, I decided to just focus on beating the one in front of me. I really wanted that pelt; I needed a solution that would keep it pristine.
“Water bear.”
A bear made from water appeared and ran at the tigerwolf, grappling it with its watery arms. It forced the tigerwolf’s head against its body and into its watery chest, and a storm of bubbles flooded out of the monster’s mouth as it thrashed its head around.
Bear-type magic really is strong, I thought.
When I looked over at Kumayuru, it was in the middle of getting the tigerwolf pinned. I made a ball of water and fired it at the tigerwolf. It wrapped around the tigerwolf’s face and Kumayuru held her down. After a while, they stopped moving.
That’s a wrap on the slaying, I thought.
I put the tigerwolves away into my bear storage and headed back to the bear house.
Chapter 22:
Fina and the Bear
Part Two
SO, TODAY I WOKE UP and made breakfast for my mom and sister like I always do. Mom seemed better today. I waited until they finished breakfast, and then I went to the guild. When I got there, I was so happy to find someone brought in lots of wolves to be butchered. It looked like I would have lots of work today.
The refrigerated warehouse at the back of the guild is cold. They need to make it that way so that the meat doesn’t rot. They have warm gear made from wolf pelts at the warehouse, so I borrowed those. They’re made for guild employees, so it was a little big, but what can you do? They’re warm.
When I went into the back of the warehouse, the wolves were all piled up into a heap. I took one of them and put it on top of a table. The tables are a little tall, so I have to set up a stepstool for myself, but it’s easier to butcher them this way.
I gutted the wolf and skinned it capably. What a pretty wolf. Wolf pelts fetch different prices depending on if they’ve been hacked up with a sword or finished with just one hit like this one. It looked like a really great adventurer had defeated this wolf.
I could understand why they brought the wolf in without butchering it, then. Low-rank adventurers will butcher everything themselves to avoid handling fees. High-rank adventurers don’t need to try as hard to save money. I’m grateful for that.
After I took off the pelt, I butchered the meat into the cuts they sell to the inns and restaurants and normal families. They can’t sell the scraps, so I take those home. We’re going to have meat for dinner today.
Thank you, guild.
There’s plenty of butchering work for me every time I go to the guild lately, which is great. A few days ago, there was even a goblin king. Of course, I haven’t ever butchered a goblin king before, so I watched the older employees work on it, so I could learn. Apparently, goblin kings are very tough. They could barely get through it with a regular knife.
It had really horrible cuts all over the front of its body, but the back of its body was clear. I guess the person who beat it fought it from the front.
There sure are some amazing adventurers out there.
I had wolves to butchered today, too. Apparently, they were brought in by the same person—a girl wearing a bear outfit. It was Yuna! Yuna had been helping me indirectly.
Today, there were horned hares. Their pelts are soft and fluffy and feel so nice. I’ve heard their horns can be turned into some kind of medicine, but that’s not really part of what I do, so I don’t know much more. My job is just butchering. I split the hares into their pelts, horns, and meat.
I wish I could make clothes out of these pelts for my sister. I wanted them so bad, but I’d never steal them. If I did that, I’d be betraying Mr. Gentz’s trust after he gave me work.
I had work again today. I was happy as a clam.
While I was working on skinning wolves, I listened in to the guild workers and heard there a big heap of monsters coming in that needed butchering. Maybe it was Yuna? I would have liked to go check, but I couldn’t leave my workstation.
But right after that, Mr. Gentz came in to fetch me. Apparently Yuna wanted me to work exclusively butchering things for her! He took me to Yuna, who said she would pay me to butcher all her kills while she was in town. I was over the moon to hear I would have a steady job!
Since I still had work that day, we promised to meet tomorrow and went our separate ways.
The next day, I woke early in the morning and went to the inn Yuna was staying in to meet her at the time we’d agreed on, but when I got there, she was having breakfast. Maybe I was there too early? Yuna asked me to sit with her, though, and gave me juic
e. It was really good.
We talked about what we would do today, and she asked me if I wanted to go with her or stay here. If she was going to the woods, I wanted to accompany her. I might be able to find herbs that would help my mom, but I would stay behind if I’d just get in her way. But Yuna said she could protect me, so I chose to go with her.
When we got to the guild, we went over to the quest board. I waited for Yuna a little bit away from the board, where I wouldn’t get in the way. Yuna looked like she might be arguing with some adventurers again—I think that bear outfit just draws attention—but nothing happened after all, and she left the adventurers behind. What a relief. It looked like she’d found a quest she liked, so I asked her what kind of quest it was.
She told me, “Tigerwolf slaying.”
I was speechless for a whole second. I don’t know much about how adventurers work, but can D-rank quests really be completed by a single person? It looked like everyone else was making parties to fight together.
Was it really okay for me to tag along on a quest like this?
Chapter 23:
Fina and the Bear
Part Three
WE LEFT TOWN through the gate. Actually, I’d never asked Yuna where we were going. Maybe there were tigerwolves in the woods nearby? Then Yuna said that we were going far away, so she would take out things to ride on.
I didn’t know what she meant by “take them out.” She told me to step back a little.
When she held up her gloves, black and white things came out of them. I was wondering what they were when then they started moving. They were big, scary bears! They stood up, and then snuggled up to Yuna. She hugged them and petted their heads.
I was watching her, and then she told me, “It’s okay. They’re my summons, so they won’t hurt you. Here, try petting them.”
I was scared, but I got closer to them really slowly and touched them. They were soft. They were a lot cuter than I was expecting. The white one was called Kumakyu and the black one was Kumayuru. I ended up riding on Kumakyu. I was up so high, I was a little scared of how everything looked, but Kumakyu was really stable and I didn’t feel like I was going to fall.