by Kumanano
I headed to a nearby stall that was selling wolf kebabs.
“Oh, bear girl, you’re back. But you’re early today.”
I was a regular here. I ordered a kebab and asked about the kids.
“Ah, they’re from the orphanage. They come by occasionally.”
“For what?”
“They’re waiting for the customers’ leftovers.”
“For leftovers…”
“They scrounge for ‘em. We don’t mind since it’s already paid for, but it doesn’t exactly leave one feeling warm and fuzzy.”
I looked them over again. The youngest looked to be five-year-olds, and I don’t think any of them was older than about twelve.
“Mister, twenty kebabs please.”
“Don’t bother. You can feed them today, but what about tomorrow? If you can’t help them, better to leave them alone,” the man said. I understood what he meant. If they were adults, I’d ignore them, but I couldn’t just overlook kids.
“Does the orphanage not get money from the town?”
It would be weird if they didn’t get public support.
“No idea. Could be they pull in buckets of cash, could be they get a pittance. I’ve never asked. From the looks of it, I don’t think it’d be much.”
Cliff seemed like a decent lord in person, but my opinion of him dipped in that moment. I asked for my twenty kebabs again.
“Don’t make me say I told you so.”
I took my order and crossed to the corner where the kids were gathered; they watched me closely.
“Take one each.”
They shot each other confused looks.
“We can eat these?” a girl asked me in a tiny voice.
“They’re hot, so don’t wolf them down.”
I handed her a kebab, which she tore into immediately. The other kids took that as their cue to dig in.
“Miss, thank you,” she told me. Of course, I couldn’t just leave it at that.
“Could you lead me to the orphanage?” I asked the girl.
The girl tilted her head like she didn’t get what I was saying.
“You must be hungry. You probably want more food, right? Could you maybe bring me to the orphanage? I have some meat, so let’s all eat together.”
She nodded slightly.
“Over here.”
The other kids hesitated for a while after she set off, then they ended up coming with us.
The walk took us all the way to the edge of town, which seemed like a bit much for a kid. The orphanage was a single building set off from everything else. The walls were cracked, and here and there I could make out a hole that ran all the way through the facade. The ceiling couldn’t have been much better.
So it’s this bad, huh? I thought. I should never have given Cliff that sword. He had some work to do before flattering the king. It might have been better for me to fund the orphanage with the profits from selling the sword myself.
As we drew near, an elderly woman came out of the house. “Who might you be? I am Bo, the headmistress.”
“I’m Yuna, the adventurer. I saw these kids in the central square.”
“In the central square…you went there again?”
The headmistress gave the kids a meaningful look, and they apologized, one after another.
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s my own fault for not being able to provide meals for you, after all. Did these children do you wrong?”
“No, it just seemed like they were hungry.”
“I’m sorry. Um, though it is an embarrassment, we don’t have much to eat,” the headmistress said. She shuffled her feet, unable to look me in the eye.
“You don’t get funding from the town?”
“Since last year, we received less and less every month. We were cut off about three months ago.”
“You were cut off…”
That lord…
“Yes, they said they didn’t have any money to spare for us.”
“Then how have you been eating?”
“We pick up the damaged goods that the inns, eateries, and fruit and vegetable sellers cannot sell to customers.”
That Cliff…
I felt my bile rising.
“But we still don’t have enough, so these children go to the central square…”
“Headmistress, I’ll give you the ingredients, so make sure these kids eat their fill.”
I had them take me to the kitchen. I pulled out a lump of wolf meat Fina’d processed for me out of my bear storage. Since it wouldn’t be all that healthy just to eat meat, I also pulled out the bread I’d stocked up and a barrel of oran juice.
“Um, Yuna…”
“Gimme a hand, headmistress. Actually, before that, are you the only instructor here?”
“No, there is also a girl named Liz, but she’s gone to restock the pantry.”
We cooked the wolf meat, sliced the bread, and made it a set with the oran juice, lining the table with them.
“There’s enough for all of you, so don’t rush.”
“Everyone, please thank Yuna.”
The kids started eating at the headmistress’s signal. They ate like they were all fighting and grinned like maniacs the whole time.
“Yuna, thank you so much. It’s been so long since the kids have smiled.”
“I still have wolf meat, so if there’s not enough, cook some more.”
“Thank you very much.”
I watched the kids eat for a while, then excused myself. Several of the kids noticed and followed me out.
“Bear girl, where are you going?”
“I was thinking of giving your house a fixing. It must be drafty.”
I checked the cracks and holes, patching them with earth spells as I went.
“That’s amazing, bear girl.”
“Could you show me anything I missed?”
They’d know what needed fixing better than I would. I followed their lead, then checked out the roof. I didn’t know where the leaks would be, so I covered the whole thing with a thin layer of earth. With that dealt with, I moved on to mending the interior walls. Eventually the headmistress asked me what I was doing, and I gave her the same explanation the kids got.
When I moved on to the bedroom, I noticed that an effort had been made to separate it into a boys’ side and a girls’ side, but it was still packed nearly wall-to-wall with bedframes.
Each bed was draped with a small, thin towel. Is that supposed to be their blanket? I thought. It had to have been cold.
I ran a quick headcount; the orphanage was supposed to support twenty-three people. I pulled out thirty wolf pelts and handed them to the headmistress.
“Yuna?”
“Please give these to the kids. There’s enough for you and then some.”
I went to each room and finished mending the walls.
When I came back to the dining room, they had all finished eating. Oddly, nobody’d touched the leftover wolf meat.
“You didn’t eat this?”
“Yes. If you’d let us, I’d like to hand this out tomorrow. The children said they would rather eat it tomorrow than today.”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you—I’ll prep several days’ worth, so you can eat it.”
I pulled out more wolf meat and bread from bear storage.
If they had this much, it’d probably last a few days.
“Um, why are you doing all this for us?”
“If an adult can’t eat, it’s their own fault for not working, but a kid not being able to eat isn’t their own fault. It’s the adult’s fault. If they don’t have parents, the adults around them can help them. That makes us allies.”
“Th-thank you so much.”
“I’m sort of familiar with the lord here, so I’ll tell him to give you funding.”
Plus, if I didn’t have a word with him, I just wouldn’t feel right with myself.
“Please don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Th
e lord lets us live here rent-free. If we make him angry and he kicks us off, we won’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Is the lord that terrible?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way…”
“But you don’t get funding, though.”
“We’re thankful to even have a place to live.”
Cliff was the pits. I figured I’d rather punch him than have a word with him.
“Anyway, I’m going to head home.”
“Yes, um, thank you so much.”
“You’re going home, bear girl?”
The kids gathered.
“I’ll be back.”
I gave the kids a pat on the head.
“You’re putting Yuna in a difficult spot. Everyone, say thank you.”
“Thank you, bear girl.”
“Thank you.”
The kids smiled; I was glad they were in good spirits.
Chapter 43:
The Bear Mobilizes for the Orphanage
I WENT BACK to the bear house and thought over the orphanage’s three bare necessities. Clothes could wait; food would become a problem again in a few days; they were fine for shelter for a while.
The biggest problem was definitely food. Just like the stall guy was saying, I couldn’t restock them every day, but I couldn’t take back what I offered either. While I was mulling it over, I heard a knock at the door and Fina calling me.
“Fina, are you all done butchering?”
“Yes, and the Guildmaster is calling you.”
Since I wasn’t making any headway with the orphanage, I headed over to the guild with Fina in tow.
“Oh, you’re here,” the Guildmaster himself welcomed me.
“So, how’s the black viper?”
“Yeah, we’ve got it put away in cold storage.”
We popped in to give it a look; the mass of skin, meat, and fangs was piled like a mountain.
“How much would the guild want?”
“There’s no such thing as too much.”
“How about half?”
“A little more.”
“Then how about I take a third?”
“Hmm, I suppose that’d be fine.”
The Guildmaster signed off on the paperwork, and I got my guaranteed portion into bear storage.
“Here’s the mana gem. I actually would have preferred it if you’d sold this, too.”
Since you needed mana gems to make a ton of things, I’d been holding them for myself lately. I had no idea what I’d make from this one, but I didn’t intend on selling it.
“It’ll take a while to pay you back with this volume.”
“I’m fine with getting it whenever.”
When I left, the sun was starting to set. I headed straight to the bear house, finished dinner and my bath, and laid down on my bed.
I couldn’t come up with a way to help the orphanage with the materials I had from the black viper. I could sell it all and funnel the money to them, but then that’d be it.
I pulled up my status screen. Lately I’d only been fighting low-ranking monsters, so I hadn’t been increasing levels. The black viper must have put me over the top; I’d gone up a level and picked up a new skill.
Bear Transporter Gate
By setting up a gate, can move between gates.
When more than three gates are in place, can travel to a specific location by picturing it.
This gate can only be opened with the bear hand.
Oooh, I thought, now that’s useful.
Still, I’d have to set them up. It would’ve been super convenient if I could just picture a place in my head and warp there. This was more than useful enough, though, so I was grateful. I wanted to try it out right away, so I got up from my bed and set up a gate in my room. A double door with bear reliefs installed itself in the bare wall. It was a lot bigger than I’d expected—wide enough for Kumayuru and Kumakyu to go through and have room to spare. I headed to a room on the first floor, set up a second gate, and opened it onto my room upstairs.
If I was going to set up gates outside, I needed to figure out places to put them that I wouldn’t regret. It wasn’t like they’d disappear after I used the skill. I had to consider times when I’d track in dirt, or if I’d be traveling with my bears, and there were a lot more inconveniences to consider than I’d expected. I wouldn’t have had to think so much about logistics if it was just teleportation, and it would’ve been nice to be able to warp out of fights, but oh well.
Anyway, I took down the bear transport gate, thinking about when Fina would come by.
Hmm, I thought. Bear transport gate sure is a mouthful. Maybe bear gate for short, then?
For a moment, I felt a chill. Maybe I’d caught a cold. I decided to leave the name for later and went to bed early for the day.
That morning, I made another fried egg and veggie sandwich for breakfast. As I nibbled on the bread, the god of good ideas blessed me.
Right, I thought, I’ve got this on lockdown. I took a decisive bite.
Eggs. If I could just produce eggs and sell them…
After breakfast, I headed to the merchants’ guild. I felt like there were a lot more people there than when I’d been before. No, there were definitely a lot more people than before. They were flooding the entrance. I wondered if I could even get inside, with all the commotion.
While I waited for the congestion to clear up, I overheard some familiar chatter.
“It’s the bear.”
“You don’t mean that bear?”
“The black viper bear.”
When I took a step forward, a path parted for me. It was almost like Moses parting the red sea. I went in without hesitation and looked around for Milaine, who had helped me last time. I spotted her, but it looked like she was busy with someone else. Just as I started to gripe about it under my breath, she finished up and noticed me.
“Yuna!” she called out. “What’s going on?”
“There was something I wanted to ask you about, Milaine.”
I looked at the line of people waiting at her station and wondered if she was even allowed to talk to me.
“I’ll hear you out.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s fine. I’ll switch out with someone. Let’s talk over here.”
The people in line were kind of giving me scary looks. I couldn’t help it since I’d cut, but it wasn’t my fault, all right? Milaine flagged down a clerk to take her spot and took me to another room.
“It’s kind of crowded here. Did something happen?”
“You’re asking, of all people?”
She looked at me in exasperation.
“…?”
How was I supposed to know what was going on at the merchants’ guild?
“Ahh…”
Why was she sighing?
“Looks like you’re serious. Everyone is here to buy the materials from the black viper you killed. It’s been a madhouse since yesterday. We only have so much, but everyone wants tons.”
“Really?”
“The skin and fangs are pretty popular. The meat is high-grade too, so there are merchants who take it to the royal capital to sell it.”
“Is it really that popular?”
“Yes, and it’s all because of you. We’re making a killing because of you.”
She bowed her head slightly.
“So, what did you need to ask about? I’ll go quite the lengths if you need something.”
I was thankful for that. I didn’t hesitate to ask her.
“So there’s an orphanage, right?”
“You mean the one at the edge of town?”
“Yeah. Could you sell me the land near there?”
“The land near the orphanage? I’ll go look a few things up, so please give me a moment.”
Milaine left the room and came back with documents in a flash, as usual.
“Yes, it should be fine. No one uses that land.”
“Can people not use it because of the orphan
age?”
“To put it perhaps too bluntly, they are uneducated children. Even if someone did want to build there, they’d be worried about them causing trouble. And since it’s at the edge of town, there aren’t many people around that land as it is.”
I supposed that some people would consider having dirty kids around a mood-killer.
“So, that means I can buy it, right?”
“Yes, there’s no issue with that.”
“In that case, sell me some of that land.”
“Beg pardon, but what do you plan on using it for?”
“Hmmm, it’s a secret.”
“A secret?”
“Since I’m not sure if I’ll be successful yet.”
I paid the amount she indicated and received the deed to the land around the orphanage. I went back to the bear house and set up a transport gate in the storage house. Once I set that up, I left town and called out Kumayuru. If I went now, I could get there by the end of the day.
I rode back to the town where I’d beaten the black viper. It was a faster trip with just the one passenger. I kicked myself for not checking my status before I left the first time around; I could’ve spared myself the trouble today and set up the gate on this end. Not that there was any point complaining now.
This time, I didn’t go into the village; I headed up into the mountains a little ways away. I was running out of daylight.
“I wonder if there’s a good spot.”
After a few minutes of searching, I found the perfect place under a cliff.
Maybe this would work? I thought. No one would probably wander by here, either.
I went down the cliff and dug out a tunnel. I made it wide enough for Kumayuru and Kumakyu to fit and dug out a cave in the back. I made a couple of bear lights so I could keep working in the dark.
I decided to leave the details for a later day, blocked off the entrance with an earth spell, and set up a transport gate.
“I’m home.”
I was back at the bear house storage instantaneously. This was definitely a handy skill to have.
Chapter 44:
The Bear Raises Birds
EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, I took the bear transport gate to the village. When I got there, a villager saw me coming and came over.