by Kumanano
“May I really?!”
“Kumakyu, you good?”
Kumakyu lowered itself to the ground by way of reply, making it easier for Noa to get on. Noa cautiously started to climb onto Kumakyu’s back.
“It’s okay, you won’t fall.”
I lent her a hand and got her mounted. Once Kumakyu made sure Noa was safely settled, the bear slowly stood up.
“Whoa! It’s so high.” She seemed to be enjoying herself. “Yuna, may we take a walk? Just even once around the house?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. Kumakyu, please take good care of Noa.” I didn’t know how big the house was, but I guessed going around it once couldn’t hurt.
Kumakyu cooed quietly in response. With Noa astride its back, the bear started to slowly shamble off.
“M-Madame Noir!” Lala scurried after them in a fluster.
Cliff watched Noa, the maid, and the bear depart. Once they were out of sight, he came over to me.
“Forgive me, but may I touch one too?” he asked.
“I guess,” I said. It’s not like I could refuse.
Cliff slowly patted Kumayuru. “Oh, the fur feels nice. A great texture, too.”
“You want to ride it?”
“May I?”
“Just once around the house, like Noa.”
“Right, I understand.”
As soon as Cliff was mounted on Kumayuru, he urged the bear on, trying to catch up with Noa. A little while passed before the two of them returned, side by side on their respective bears.
“Yuna, thank you so much. That was so fun!”
“Yes, that was quite a valuable experience for me as well.”
Lala followed in the bears’ wake, looking haggard. It wasn’t my fault though, so I decided not to pay any mind to it.
“Well then,” said Cliff as he dismounted, “I have work, so I’m going back to the house. I’ll leave Noa with you. Please come back see me before you leave.”
Noa had to have taken a liking to Kumakyu, since she was showing no signs of getting off. “This feels so nice…”
The little girl was splayed out on top of Kumakyu. She stroked the bear for a while before her hand stopped moving; I thought it was weird how quiet she was being, so went over to take a look. Noa was fast asleep, snoring quietly. I told Kumakyu to ease its way into the shade of a tree. It wasn’t like I could let her sleep out in the sun. Lala watched Noa with concern.
“There’s no need to worry,” I said. “Still, we don’t want her to catch cold. Have you got something to put on her?”
Lala rushed back to the house and brought back a blanket, but since Kumakyu was so tall, she couldn’t get it over Noa.
“Kumayuru, could you help her out?”
Kumayuru put its forepaws under Lala’s arms and hoisted her up so she could tuck Noa in.
“Thank you so very much, Master Kumayuru.”
It looked like she’d finally stopped wigging out. Lala and I sat down with Noa in the shade as she slept. I pulled out a small cask of oran berry juice—I’d gotten attached to the stuff, since it tasted so much like orange juice—and two wooden cups from my bear storage. I magicked up some ice and served it on the rocks; Lala took a long draft of hers.
“This is delicious.”
“Glad to hear it.”
“I needed the pick-me-up. Thank you.”
“I have more, so drink as much as you’d like.”
“They’re much more docile than I expected.” Lala looked at Kumayuru and Kumakyu.
“Well, they are summons, after all. They’re not like wild bears.” Then again, it wasn’t like I’d ever seen a wild bear before.
“Yes, of course. Madame Noir seems to enjoy their company. We are grateful for your service.”
“You don’t need to thank me. This is supposed to be a job.”
Lala explained that she had been Noa’s caretaker since the girl was five, and her charge was very precious to her. After we talked for a while, Noa started to stir.
“Morning. Are you awake?”
“Huh, where am I…?” Noa rubbed her eyes as she looked around.
“You dozed right off, Noa.”
“I did. Kumakyu just felt so nice I fell right asleep.”
“Madame Noir, may we head inside soon? We don’t want you to catch a cold.”
“I want to stay with Kumakyu.”
Noa was clearly set on sticking with the bear. That wouldn’t do, so I gave Kumakyu a subtle signal as I said, “Kumakyu is tired. Will you let it rest?”
At that, the bear cooed quietly, pretending to be sleepy.
“Yes, that’s right,” Lala chimed in. “Madame Noir, Master Kumakyu was making sure that you did not fall down as you slept. Please allow Master Kumakyu to rest.”
Kumakyu turned its head slightly to Noa’s place and looked at her with teary eyes. Noa looked back. I could see the gears in her head turning.
“…okay, I understand. Sorry, Kumakyu.” She climbed off the bear and gently patted it. “Rest well.”
“Kumakyu, Kumayuru, that’s all for now.” I unsummoned the bears, sending them back into the gloves.
“Well then, Madame Noir, shall we head back to your room?”
“I’m going to pay Cliff a visit.”
“Oh, Yuna? Are you going home already?”
“Well, my job here is done.” I was pretty sure I’d fulfilled the quest.
“Yuna,” said Noa, “please eat dinner with us!”
She grabbed my bear glove. I tried to turn her down, but she just dragged me by the hand back into the mansion, where we ran back into Cliff and got to talking about dinner. Eventually, Cliff also invited me to stay and eat with them, so I did.
I excused myself after dinner. They asked me to stay the night, but I politely turned them down.
“Yuna, you have to come visit again, okay?”
Noa and Lala saw me to the gate. After promising Noa I’d return, we parted.
Chapter 30:
Fina Works
A FEW DAYS AGO, I went with Yuna to go tigerwolf slaying.
While Yuna went to work, I stayed in her bear house and worked on breaking down her old kills. At one point, I went out to look for herbs for Mom, but almost got lost. I only made it back thanks to Kumakyu.
I asked Kumakyu to wait outside, went to the storehouse, and pulled a wolf from the cold storage. It was small for a monster, but big for me, and I struggled to lay it out on the table. Yuna had set up a stool for me, so I didn’t have to stand on tiptoe.
I used my skinning knife to clean the pelt and separate the meat into cuts. I also took out the mana gem and set it aside. The parts we don’t need go into the trash bin. Apparently, the trash bin is a very deep hole; Yuna told me to make sure I don’t fall in.
It’s scary, so I made sure to be careful around it.
After I butchered a few wolves, the storehouse door opened. Yuna was back. I wondered if she already beat the tigerwolf? I wasn’t even done with the first batch yet. Yuna told me she wanted me to pull out the tigerwolf’s mana gem. It was part of my job, so I said I would, of course.
I was surprised by how massive the tigerwolf was. Yuna was so cool!
A tigerwolf is the same type of monster as a wolf, so its mana gem is in the same spot, kind of between the heart and liver. It was about twice the size of a wolf’s and had a different sort of luster to it. I washed it with water until it was clean and gave it to Yuna.
We ate lunch, and I got back to butchering wolves. Yuna said she was going to sleep a while. Maybe she was tired from fighting the tigerwolf?
I decided to try my hardest, too. I’d work hard to get all the butchering done.
Once I wrapped up, I went to the second floor to go wake Yuna. I didn’t know which room she was sleeping in, so I knocked on the door of the closest room and ducked inside when I didn’t hear anything. There she was. She looked really comfortable.
I shook her awake. “Yuna, Yuna.”
She woke up.
Whe
n she got out of bed, her clothes were pure white, exactly like Kumakyu. She looked cute in her black bear outfit, but she looked cute as a white bear, too. I guess she can reverse her clothes to switch between being a black bear or a white bear?
After I told her I was done with my work, we ended up going home. Yuna made the bear house disappear. Magic sure is amazing. We went back on Kumayuru. Apparently if she uses just one of the bears, the other one gets grumpy. I think I understand how they feel.
The gate guard was so surprised. Anyone would be, seeing the three of us, but the bear was cute, so I didn’t think he should be too worried.
Since I was going to work the next day too, I went to Yuna’s place at the inn, but she apparently didn’t have anywhere to process the bodies. Since it would be a pain to have to leave town every time we needed any butchering done, she visited the adventurers’ guild to ask them about getting a space of our own. They told us to see the trade guild, so we ended up heading there.
It was becoming a really big deal. I started to feel nervous.
When we got to the trade guild, everyone looked at Yuna. That bear outfit sure does stand out. Yuna talked to the reception lady at the desk for a couple of minutes and walked away with a plot of land. The lady took us to the empty plot, and Yuna plopped down the bear house there.
No matter how many times I saw it, it was amazing.
I got to work right away. That day, I butchered tigerwolves. It was supposed to be pretty similar to working with wolves, but even a kid like me knows tigerwolf pelts are expensive. I had to be really careful removing them, or they’d turn out worthless. Still, I tried my hardest, and when I wrapped up for the day, I felt I’d done an okay job.
For a few days straight, I went to Yuna’s house and wore away at the pile of bodies.
Then, one day while I was in the middle of cleaning and separating meat, I felt dizzy for a second. Just when I thought I might be in trouble, I collapsed.
Unluckily, Yuna saw and ran over to me. She looked at my hand and got this really concerned look. I was bleeding. I must have cut my hand a little when I fell. It hurt some. Not that much.
Yuna touched the place where I was bleeding. I think she did something magic. It felt warm, and then it stopped hurting, and my cut even disappeared. It was amazing.
She took off the bear glove and put her hand on my forehead. Apparently, I had a fever. She told me to go upstairs and sleep in a bed in one of the rooms for now. When I was lying in bed, she touched my forehead again. That time, she kept her bear gloves on. It felt so nice and soft, and that feeling just got stronger and stronger, until I ended up falling asleep.
It was dark out when I woke up. She told me that she’d made me dinner, and that I should take it home and eat it. Then she told me that I should take the day off tomorrow. Yuna said I could come to her house two days later. She told me that, from now on, I would take a day off from harvesting every three days.
If I did other work on a day off, she told me she wouldn’t let me do her butchering anymore. She was worried about my health, so I decided to do as she said.
Chapter 31:
The Bear Goes to Examine
Fina’s Mother’s Illness
TODAY WAS A REST DAY. Like Fina, I was taking a break.
I’d been learning all kinds of things this past month, such as that when one of my skills leveled up, the new abilities kicked it right away. Right now, I had seven skills.
Fantasy World Language: Can understand the fantasy world’s language. (Life in this world would have been a whole lot more complicated if I hadn’t had this.)
Fantasy World Literacy: Able to read and write the fantasy world’s script. (This was how I could work at the guild.)
Bear Extradimensional Storage: Storage for anything other than living things. (Despite all my tests, I still hadn’t figured out a weight or size cap.)
Bear Identification: Able to see effectiveness of tools and weapons (Well, I guess this would be normal to have in any game).
Bear Detection: The ability to know the position of dangerous monsters and people. (Makes slaying monsters a breeze.).
Bear Map: Automatically generate maps of places I have visited. (An automatic mapping system, just like the kind you find in RPGs. Kept me from getting lost.).
Bear Summoning: Can summon bears from my bear gloves. (All-purpose bears for travel, fighting, or protection. The downside was I that I couldn’t walk through town with them.)
In addition to skills, I had magic. According to the rules of this world as I understood them, you could learn magic through hard work, but in my case, I could easily use magic by channeling mana through my bears. On the other hand, I couldn’t use magic without the bear gear.
Shaping a spell around a mental image had a direct impact on its power and appearance. For example, when I cast a fire spell with a gas-powered torch in mind, I could make a flame that could melt through iron. Even if I showed the people in this world that magic, they probably wouldn’t be able to invoke it exactly the same way, since they’d never seen that kind of fire.
Ice was the same. I didn’t think they’d be able to imagine the molecules in water freezing. You can only get so specific with a mental image when your understanding of the world is still essentially medieval.
I noticed it again when Fina collapsed. Just like with any other spell, if you imagined the muscle and skin closing up, you could seal a wound with healing magic. I hadn’t tested it out yet, but I bet that if you went deeper and pictured the blood vessels and such mending, it would work that much better.
On top of that, there were spells that healed fevers and sickness—the kind of spells that you’d use to remove debuffs like poison and paralysis in games. How much more powerful would that sort of spell be, then, if you were aware and could visualize what germs were?
As I pondered the skills and magic I’d picked up, I heard a noise from the entrance. There was a barrier around the bear house that only let in people I approved of. Right now, Fina was the only one who could enter.
The moment I emerged into the hallway leading to the first floor, Fina leapt out at me.
“Yuna!”
Something felt off. Fina shivered as she latched onto me.
“What’s wrong?” I pulled Fina off and looked down at her face. It was wet with tears; her eyes were bloodshot.
“Y-yuna, m-my mom…”
“Calm down.”
“My mom is really sick…and even giving her medicine…doesn’t help…I tried going to Mr. Gentz, but…he said he’d go out to find medicine and hasn’t come back… Wh-what should I do?”
“Okay, I got it. Could you take me to your house?” There was a chance I could cure her, though I didn’t like the idea of testing my theory in such a precarious situation.
Fina and I headed to her house.
The house was small. Did Fina really live here with her mother and little sister? In the bedroom, Fina’s mother lay very still, breathing shallowly. A small girl was crying by the bed, and Gentz stood with her.
“Mr. Gentz?!”
“I’m sorry I was so late.”
“Did you find medicine for my mom?”
“Sorry,” Gentz said. He lowered his head.
Fina’s mother reached out with a trembling hand and weakly patted her daughter’s head. “Gentz, if anything…happens to me…please…take care of my daughters.”
“Wh-what are you saying? What’s supposed to happen to you?!” Mr. Gentz yelled.
“Gentz…I’ve troubled you…so much. Thank you so much for the medicine and for what you did for Fina.” Sweat beaded on the woman’s forehead as she spoke.
“It’s okay. If you rest, you’ll get better. Stop trying to talk. I’ll look after these two, so you just focus on healing.”
“Shuri…Fina…let me see your faces.”
“Mom!” The two girls said at once, running to the bedside.
“I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything for you. And thank you
, Fina, Shuri.”
Pain mingled with her smile. She seemed at her limit. She screwed her eyes shut.
I tried to clap my hands to calm everyone down, but hitting the bear gloves together didn’t make any sound. They noticed what I was doing, anyway.
“Yuna?”
“I don’t know if I can help, but I’m going to take a look at her, so move aside.”
Fina drew her sister away by the hand, holding her while she cried. I stood beside the bed and looked at Fina’s mother. She was barely in her thirties and wasting away. She probably hadn’t been eating much.
“Please hold on just a little longer.”
I put both my hands over the suffering mother’s body and poured mana into both my bear gloves. I imagined the virus, or germ, or pathogen, or whatever it was, being purged from all her cells.
“Cure.”
I didn’t need to say the word, but it made it easier to channel my will. The spell wreathed her body in light. The lines of pain steadily disappeared from her face, and she started to breathe more easily.
Had it worked? She still looked weak.
“Heal,” I chanted, this time visualizing a spell to restore her stamina.
Fina’s mother’s eyes opened slowly. She sat up in bed like nothing at all had happened.
“…it doesn’t hurt anymore?”
“Mom!” Her two daughters ran over to her.
“Looks like it worked.”
“Miss, what’d you do? You looked like some kind of powerful priest or cleric—no, that doesn’t matter right now. Whatever you did, thank you,” Gentz said, his eyes welling up as he grabbed my hand.
“Yuna, thank you!” Fina was crying, too.
“Excuse me, thank you very much. Are you the one who healed me?”
“Please take it easy for a while,” I said. “We don’t know if you’re completely healed yet.” After all, all I’d done was restore some of her stamina with magic. I hadn’t brought her wasted-away body back to peak condition.
“Then how much do I owe you? As you can see, I don’t have any way to pay you right now...”