by Kumanano
“I don’t think there’s a body in the whole country who doesn’t.”
I didn’t. Regardless, it looked like that was happening.
“I don’t have anything good to offer him for the occasion.”
“In that case, ask the merchants’ guild.”
“I already went to the merchants’ guild, but they didn’t have something that would please the king. There’s no appeal in offering something that he could buy with money. I was wondering whether you had any rare swords, armor, or tools.”
“We pass all our goods along to the merchants’ guild. You’ve already seen it all.”
“Of course. I just came to make sure. So, as my second idea, Yuna, I wanted to ask you…”
“Ask me what?”
I got a bad feeling from this.
“Have you got anything rare? Something like that bottomless bag of yours? Or an item that can summon mounts?”
“Sorry, but I don’t. I don’t intend on turning over mine, obviously.”
If he forced me to, all I could do was run away.
“In that case, could you make something? Like the bear house. I gave it a look some time ago—it’s quite impressive. Of course, we can’t move something that big, but it’d be wonderful if you could whip up a small one.”
Ummm, I thought, it’s not like I can’t make one.
I could go back to the well of Earth conveniences and make something like the blow dryer. Then again, maybe they’d already figured out all the appliances I knew I could make—or maybe not. I was coming up empty, and I didn’t want to stick out by making something bad, either.
For the time being, I looked into the bear storage to see if I could find anything good.
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...
Yeah? I thought. I’d hit on something promising.
“You came to the adventurers’ guild for something rare, right?”
“Yeah.”
“In that case, how’s this?”
I pulled the sword I’d taken from the goblin king from my bear storage.
“And this is?”
Cliff and the Guildmaster looked it over.
“It’s the goblin king’s sword.”
“Really!”
There was no mistaking it so long as I had bear identification on my side.
“I heard about the affair with the goblin king, but to take its sword? Unheard of.”
Their reaction was much better than I’d expected.
“Anyway, we need to check whether it’s real.”
The Guildmaster brought over a worker who could appraise it. An elderly man immediately came over and turned it over in his hands, feeling out the blade and hilt.
“There is no doubt about it.”
“I see, thanks. You can go now.”
The appraiser lowered his head and left the room.
“Can you present this to the king?”
“Yes, it’s more than rare enough.”
“How rare can it be? Goblin kings aren’t that hard to come by.”
“They don’t all have swords like this. I don’t know the details, but apparently they begin as normal swords; the mana from the goblin king carrying it runs through the sword and alters it over the course of years. If the king is young, or its mana is weak, its sword is nothing special.”
I guessed it made sense; in the game, goblin king swords were a fairly rare drop. At the same time, the concept of goblin kings growing didn’t exist in the game.
“So, will you let me have that sword?”
“I don’t mind.”
I didn’t need it, and more importantly, it had a lame name. If I was going to have a sword, I wanted a cool one.
“So, how much will you let me have it for?”
“How much do people usually charge?”
“To be honest, I don’t know. It’s not something you can get ahold of, even if you go looking. Name your price. If I can pay it, then I will.”
“That’s still pretty disadvantageous for me. I might under-charge without even knowing.”
Well, it wasn’t like I had money problems, so I didn’t care how much it was worth. But that wasn’t any fun.
“I’ll give it to you free of charge if you agree to owe me a favor.”
“A favor?”
“You must be doing all kinds of terrible things since you’re a lord, right? So, I want you to help me when I’m in trouble someday.”
“You sure have a bad opinion of me. I’m a decent person.”
“Well, putting aside the jokes, if I have something I need from you in the future, I’d like you to hear my request.”
“Can you give me an example of what you’d want?”
“Like forcing a Guildmaster out of a job?”
“H-hey.” The Guildmaster stood up.
“That was a joke. I don’t have anything right now. If something happens in the future, I’ll ask you for it. And if it’s impossible, you can turn me down.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“Yeah. That seems like it’d be more interesting.”
“Then I’ll graciously accept this. I’ll prepare a written agreement later.”
“I don’t need one. If you break your promise, then it’s fine if that’s that.”
I smiled at him. Practically, I didn’t need the sword. I didn’t have a problem parting with it. Him owing me a favor was pure profit.
“I vow that I’ll help you if it’s something I can help with.”
Vowing was kind of a dramatic thing to do.
“In that case, please do when the time comes.”
Chapter 39:
The Bear Goes Snake Slaying
MY CONVERSATION with Cliff and the Guildmaster held me up, but I finally made it to the quest board.
D-Rank Board
Sword teacher (women-only).
Orc slaying.
Tigerwolf full materials.
Two hundred goblin mana gems, no time restriction.
Obtain Melmel grass.
Stone monkey slaying at Hoelle mountain, unknown number.
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There wasn’t anything that called to me.
Sword teacher (women-only). Did bears count? All I knew about sword fighting was from the game. Teaching another person seemed like a pain anyway. Orc slaying didn’t seem like fun. I’d defeated tigerwolves earlier, and I couldn’t remove gems from goblins, so that was impossible. Not knowing how many stone monkeys there were was a problem. I didn’t want to take any quests when I didn’t know how long it would take.
If I hadn’t been taken captive for so long, there might have been others, but I couldn’t do anything about that.
I decided to check the C-rank board.
C-Rank Board
Wyvern materials.
Convoy for a certain person, strict secrecy.
Mermaid scale.
Annihilation of the Zamon thief group.
Histori flower collection.
Watersnake slaying, includes materials.
Firetiger slaying, includes materials.
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The C-rank slaying quests looked like fun, but they were things that didn’t have a specified location or were far away. I was surprised that mermaids existed, though. It might be nice to go see them some time. Just when I was thinking of going home since there weren’t any interesting quests I could do in a day trip, I noticed there was a commotion at the front desk.
“Why not?”
“It isn’t that you can’t do it. I’m just saying it would take time.”
“Then it won’t be done in time. My mom and dad and everyone in the village will die.”
There was a short boy crying and pleading with Helen.
“Like I said, we don’t have any adventurers that can defeat a black viper. Even if we called one out, it would take until tomorrow.”
“My mom and dad, though…”
The boy broke down into sobs.
“What’s wrong?”
“Yuna.”
I headed over to the two.
“Apparently a black viper appeared in this boy’s village.”
“Is that a snake?”
“Yes. It’s larger than a normal viper. If it’s an outsize specimen, maybe a hundred-odd meters. It seems several of the villagers have been eaten. This boy rode a horse all the way to town, but even if he were to get an adventurer who could defeat it, they’re still out and won’t be back for several days.”
A black viper, huh? I looked at the sobbing boy.
“Then how about I go?”
Not like I had anything to do anyway.
“You want to just go? It’s not like you’re taking a stroll through the neighborhood. The large specimens are B-rank monsters.”
“But if we don’t hurry, then the village will be in danger, right?”
“Yes, but…”
“If it’s dangerous, I’ll bail out; it’ll be fine. Helen, could you at least prepare the formalities for calling adventurers? I can at least buy some time.”
“You think I’m an idiot?!” the boy yelled. “There’s no way somebody dressed as weirdly as you could defeat the black viper.” That was valid. Normally, people wouldn’t think that a girl in a bear onesie could defeat a monster like that.
“Uhh, in that case, I’ll go ahead of everyone and collect information.”
“Collect information?”
“I’ll collect information and hand it over to the adventurers you call, Helen. If we can figure out how big it is and where it is, then it’ll make things go faster, right?”
The boy nodded slightly at my off-the-cuff lie.
“So, Helen, where is that village?”
“It’s a day and a half’s journey to the southeast, assuming you’ve a fast horse.”
I wondered if a day and a half was far. I didn’t know how many hours a horse could run in a day. Obviously not all twenty-four.
“Are you really going?”
“I’ve got nothing better to do.”
“Please wait a moment. I will confirm things with the Guildmaster.”
Helen left her seat and headed to the Guildmaster’s room. However, the Guildmaster immediately came back with her.
“You’re going to slay a black viper?”
“I’m just going to check it out. If it seems like I can defeat it, I will, and if I can’t, I’ll run and gather information that I’ll hand over to the adventurers that Helen calls.”
“Helen, who are those adventurers?”
“That’d be One-Eyed Rush’s C-rank party.”
What kind of middle-school edgelord nickname was “One-Eyed Rush?” I didn’t want to be called anything like that, but I sure wanted to see them. I wondered if they had eyepatches or something.
“The one-eyed C-rank, huh. I don’t feel all that confident just sending one party. If you can make arrangements for others, please do.”
“Understood.”
“In that case, let’s go, Yuna.”
It sounded like the Guildmaster said something weird.
“Let’s go?”
“I’m going, too. I used to be an adventurer myself. I won’t hold you down.”
That wasn’t very reassuring.
“How do you plan on getting there?”
“I’ll use my horse. We should be able to get there tomorrow.”
“In that case, I’ll go ahead. My summons shouldn’t even take a day to get there.”
“Is that true?”
“I have two, so if I switch them out, then probably.”
I didn’t know for sure, though.
“You go ahead, then. Don’t do anything ridiculous until I get there.”
“Got it.”
The moment I tried to leave the guild, the boy stopped me.
“Wait. Could you take me with you?”
“You’d get in the way.”
“I’ll guide you there. That should cut some time down.”
I gave him a once-over. He looked light. I guess it’d be fine if I was just carrying a kid’s worth of extra weight.
“Okay. We won’t take any breaks.”
“I don’t mind. It’s for the village. I can’t wait around here by myself.”
“In that case, we can’t lose any time, kid.”
“I’m Kai.”
“I’m Yuna. Let’s head out, Kai.”
We left town, and I summoned Kumayuru. Kai was surprised.
“Get on. We’re in a hurry, aren’t we?”
“Miss, what is that? And what’s with your outfit?”
“That doesn’t matter right now, does it? Your family’s waiting, aren’t they?”
Kai nodded and mounted Kumayuru. I got on behind him.
“Make sure you look ahead and guide the way.”
Kai nodded.
Kumayuru ran, following Kai’s directions. Kumayuru was faster than a horse and had stamina to boot. After running for three hours, we dismounted and made some time for a small meal.
“Let’s finish in five.”
I pulled bread and juice from my bear storage and handed them to Kai. He thanked me and practically wolfed down the bread.
“How far out are we?”
“We’re about halfway there, maybe a little less.”
In that case, we’d arrive in about three hours. After we finished our meal, we switched over to Kumakyu. Even though Kai should have been tired from riding his horse into town at the crack of dawn, he guided us patiently.
“If we’ve got a straight shot for a while, you should sleep for a bit.”
Kai shook his head.
“I’m fine. I wouldn’t be able to. We’ll lose time if the heading’s even slightly off anyway. At first, I thought having a weirdly dressed girl come wouldn’t help, but you’ve got to be something special if you can summon bears like these. Maybe you’ll be able to help everyone escape, even if you can’t defeat the black viper. That’s why I want to get there fast. Even if I get to the village, I won’t be useful. I think my role is to make sure you don’t get lost and get you close to the village, if nothing else.”
Kai was way too mature. Between Fina and this kid, what was going on with the kids in this world?
“In that case, make sure you do a good job showing me the way.”
“Please save everyone in the village, miss.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
Kumakyu bore down on the village.
Chapter 40:
The Bear Exterminates the Snake
A FEW HOURS AFTER we’d switched to Kumakyu, we switched over to Kumayuru again and picked up where we left off. We caught sight of the village as the sun started to set. Kumayuru slowed down as we crossed its outer limits. It was quiet inside. There wasn’t a single sound—it was like a ghost town.
The phrase total annihilation came to mind. I felt a little ill.
Kai got off of Kumayuru and ran into the village.
“Everyone, are you here?! It’s me. It’s Kai. I came back!” Kai shouted. No-one answered for a long while. The door of a nearby house crept open.
“Is it you, Kai?”
A man came out of the house.
“Dad! Where’s Mom? Where’s the rest of the village?”
“Your mom is fine, but she can’t do much. We haven’t had a decent meal for several days.”
“What about everyone else in the village?”
“They won’t come out.”
“Why not?”
“It reacts to sound. The Ermina family tried to run and all got eaten. Londo got eaten when he went to get water from the well. No one goes outside anymore, since we might end up eaten.”
“In that case, wouldn’t talking here be dangerous, too?”
“Yeah, it is.”
“Then, Dad…”
“But someone has to do it. For Domgol’s sake.”
&nbs
p; “Domgol?”
“When we got you on the horse in order to get help, Domgol acted as a decoy and died.”
“Domgol was…”
“So, we need to hear from you and figure out what to do now. That’s what we can do for Domgol’s sake.”
“Dad…”
“What’s with the bear?”
Kai’s dad looked at me.
“This girl is an adventurer who came ahead to gather information.”
His expression turned downcast and bitter.
“A girl in a bear outfit, like that’s gonna…”
“Dad, the Guildmaster is coming after us. They said they’re sending C-rank adventurers after that.”
Kai’s dad looked relieved. Well, I guess anyone would be when they found out that their fate was entrusted to more than a girl in a bear suit—professionals, even!
“When is the Guildmaster getting here?”
“We were able to get to the village from the town in half a day because we used her summons, but the Guildmaster said it would take him until tomorrow.”
“I see, so what are you going to do, miss?”
“First I’ll gather information, then if I can, I’ll slay it.”
“Jokes are only funny if you can laugh at them. If you can slay it? There’s no way,” he spat, clearly needing to vent.
“You’re not the one who decides that. That’s me. Tell me everything about this black viper.”
“We don’t know much. Just that it comes into the village to eat first thing in the morning. It destroys a house, and after it eats everyone inside, it leaves. Then, if anyone tries to run, it eats them. If you make any noise, you end up the first thing it wants to eat.”
“In that case, I’ll head out to see the black viper.”
“This late at night?”
In about an hour, give or take, the sun would drop completely behind the horizon.
“I’m going because it’s late. If I find it and it turns into a battle, you can use me as a decoy and run away. You can run away as long as you have a horse, right?”
“No, I don’t think anyone would run anymore. Everyone believes they’ll be eaten if they run. And we don’t have enough horses for everyone in the village to get away.”
“Anyway, I’m going.”
“Miss, please be careful.”
I patted Kai’s head, jumped onto Kumayuru, and took off.
My bear detection picked up something a slight ways off. It would probably only take me a few minutes to get there at Kumayuru’s pace.