by Kumanano
His wife would spend money freely on jewelry. Enz would then embezzle or misappropriate the funds he needed to pay off the debt she racked up.
His son would do as he liked abusing women in the town and would squash any lawsuits using Enz’s money and influence. He was in the habit of extorting shopkeepers around town, forcing them out of business if they defied him.
The reason none of this had reached me was obvious now—Enz had put a stop to it before it could. His older brother was most likely pulling strings for him, but this was my town. I wouldn’t let them get away with whatever they wanted.
“Execute them.”
I was out of patience.
“Are you certain? We risk making enemies at the capital.”
“It doesn’t matter. We’ll say they were killed by a home invader.”
The Roland house was executed. We secured evidence of their crimes. We seized their assets. We rescued the survivors in the dungeon. Once we treated those who had a place to go, we prepared them for the journey home. After everything was done, I headed back to Yuna’s house.
“I’m sorry.”
I lowered my head and explained why the orphanage’s funding had been cut off. Normally, I wouldn’t tell an ordinary person about any of this, but I felt I had to tell this girl.
“My subordinate embezzled the money. I didn’t realize it. I will be reinstating the orphanage’s funding immediately.”
“You don’t need to.”
“…”
“They’re all already working their butts off. They don’t need a subsidy anymore.”
“But that’s…”
I still didn’t feel better about it.
“If you have that kind of money, why not put it to good use?”
“And by that you mean?”
“Like you could use it to make an oversight department to make sure something stupid like that doesn’t ever happen again.”
“To oversee things?”
“They’d make sure that the money is being used the way you instructed it to be. For example, if they were in charge of the orphanage funds, they would go to the orphanage every few months and check in to make sure they were using the money for expenses they actually needed. They’d check whether the stuff they were buying counted as a reasonable purchase. If there was a person doing that, it wouldn’t be that easy to misappropriate or embezzle the money. Then again, if the person overseeing stuff ended up becoming a criminal, there wouldn’t be a point.”
“Then what would I do?”
“That’s obvious. You can’t just choose someone you trust—you need to pick someone who’d trust you so much they’d put their life on the line. You have to have at least one person like that, right?”
“Actually, I do.”
I had Rondo.
“Really? Good for you.”
Yuna didn’t say anything after that.
“So the orphanage really is fine?”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“You really saved me there. We got by without any of the children dying. Thank you for that.”
I left Yuna’s house and returned to mine. I had a mountain of work. Rondo would have to take a break from being my butler so he could work as my right-hand man.
Chapter 47:
The Bear Makes Pudding
I WONDER IF IT WORKED.
I’d gotten my hands on a ton of eggs, so I’d decided to try making pudding.
When I opened the refrigerator, the cold air brushed my face. A row of puddings greeted me. I grabbed one of them, took it to the table, and gave it a taste.
“Delicious.”
I gobbled it down. I just couldn’t stop my spoon from moving. I headed back to the fridge for seconds. Right after I’d finished two whole, long-yearned-for puddings, Fina and Shuri came to visit.
“We’re here, Yuna.”
“Sit down and wait right here.”
“So what was the yummy food you told us about?”
I had them stop by so they could be my official taste testers.
“They’re treats I made using eggs.”
I set out a cold pudding for each of them. They took their spoons and ate a bite.
“It’s so good…”
While Fina was murmuring her impression, Shuri had already shoveled several more bites into her mouth.
“Shuri, don’t eat too fast.”
“But it’s so good.”
Smiles formed on their faces.
“I’m glad you two seem to like it.”
“It’s so yummy, Yuna. I had no idea you could make something this delicious out of eggs.”
“Well, this is just a prototype. Let me know if you had any impressions while you were eating it—like if it was too sweet or not sweet enough.”
“There isn’t a single thing wrong with it. It’s sweet and delicious.”
“Yeah, delicious.”
Shuri seemed regretful as she licked her spoon.
I ended up pulling two more puddings from the refrigerator and brought them out in front of the girls.
“These are your last ones.”
When I set the puddings on the table, their spoons got to work. I went back to the refrigerator and stuck the rest of the puddings into my bear storage. After they finished eating and we parted ways, I headed out to the orphanage for my next official taste test.
When I got to the henhouse near the orphanage, the kids were hard at work taking care of the birds. I called out to them and headed inside.
“Welcome, Yuna.”
The headmistress and some girls were prepping lunch.
“Did I come at a bad time?”
“Not at all, this is fine. While it’s not much, would you be kind enough to have lunch with us?”
Since she’d gone out of her way to invite me, I humbly accepted. The kids sat down in their seats in the expansive room and patiently waited for everyone’s meals to be set out. After all the meals were set up, they said, “We give you thanks, bear girl, for this meal.”
Once that was over, the kids started to eat.
“You’re still doing that?”
“We are able to eat like this because of you. We can’t forget to be grateful for that.”
Their grace before meals used to be, “We give you thanks, Yuna, for this meal.” Of course, it was way too embarrassing for them to say my name, so I’d asked them to stop, but the kids just wouldn’t.
“It’s because we’re thankful to you, Yuna.”
“It’s because we get to eat tons because of you, Yuna.”
“It’s because we get to eat all this yummy food because of you, Yuna.”
“We get to wear nice clothes because of you, Yuna.”
“We have a warm house to live in because of you, Yuna.”
“We get to sleep in warm beds because of you, Yuna.”
“…because of you, Yuna.”
Since it was so embarrassing that my name came up at every meal, we settled on a compromise, and they started thanking the bear girl instead. It was still plenty embarrassing, though.
The orphanage’s lunch was just bread and veggie soup, but the kids seemed to be pretty stoked to eat it. Just seeing them like that made me feel happy, which was kind of weird. I never would have thought of myself as the caring type like this—especially since I hadn’t done anything like this in Japan. Even though I had the money, I never tried donating.
While I was watching the kids, a few of them finished eating. I pulled the puddings out of my bear storage.
“What’s that?” a girl asked.
“These are snacks I made using the eggs from the birds you all worked hard to look after. They’re yummy.”
I started putting the puddings in front of the kids. I set aside a portion for the headmistress and Liz, of course.
“What the heck? This is delicious.”
“It’s so good.”
“I only have one for each of you, so make sure to savor it.”
It s
eemed popular with the kids.
“Yuna, this is so tasty,” Liz said.
“Thank you. These were all a result of you and the kids working hard to raise those birds. I made this pudding out of their eggs, after all.”
“Really?”
“Just selling them would be a waste, after all.”
“Eggs are amazing, aren’t they? They can become money or turn into these delicious sweets.”
“It’d be nice if we could get just a few more birds and eggs though.”
If we could do that, I could make tons of things without worrying about cutting into our supply.
“Yes, we’ll make sure to put our elbow grease into it.”
“If you end up with too many to handle, just let me know, okay. I’ll figure something out.”
“We will, but we’re still okay, since the children are working so hard.”
While I was talking with Liz, the kids emptied their pudding containers. I asked the kids what they thought of the pudding and then left the orphanage.
Chapter 48:
The Bear Delivers Pudding
MY NEXT STOP was the Fochrosé residence. I didn’t care about Cliff, but I did want to treat Noa to pudding. I told the guard standing in front of the gate the general reason why I wanted to meet Noa. The guard already knew me and told me to wait. A little bit later, Noa herself came running over from the front door.
“Yuna.”
Bomph. Noa dove right into my chest. The bear outfit absorbed the impact, though.
“Long time no see, Noir.”
“You can call me Noa instead. Well, did you have a reason you wanted to see me? Even if you don’t, I’m still happy to give you a warm welcome.”
“I made a treat, so I wanted to see if you would try it out for me.”
“A treat? That sounds delightful.”
Pulling my arm, Noa took me into a room.
“Well then, what kind of food is it?”
“It’s a dessert made from kokekko eggs.”
I pulled the pudding out of the bear storage. Of course I couldn’t forget the spoon.
Noa picked up that spoon and ate a mouthful of the pudding.
“It’s delicious.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“This is my first time eating something this good.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“No, not at all. This is the first time I’ve tasted something so melty, cold, sweet, and delicate.”
“Well, women and children tend to like those flavors, I guess.”
Noa wasn’t just flattering me—she really seemed to be savoring it as she ate.
“Oh, looks like I already ate it all.”
The cup was already empty. She looked at me silently and full of greed.
“Just one more, okay.”
“Thank you.”
When I handed off another pudding to her, there was a knock at the door.
“I’m coming in, Noa. I heard that Yuna came by.”
Cliff came into the room.
“Sorry for just dropping in,” I said.
“I don’t mind. What are the two of you doing?”
“Yuna is sharing a sweet she made with me that’s called pu-ding.”
“Pudding?”
Noa took a bite of her newly acquired pudding. She was smiling like a little kid. That alone justified coming here.
“Is it really that good?” Cliff asked, looking at his daughter’s smile.
“Yes, it’s delicious.”
“Noa, would you be kind enough to let me have a bite?”
“No way,” Noa refused him outright.
“Noa.”
“No. It was a present from Yuna.”
“Yuna?”
Cliff looked at me hungrily. It just wasn’t right for an adult to look at me like that.
“Agh, all right already. Please let me know what you think when you’re done. It’s still a prototype, so I haven’t fine-tuned the flavor yet.”
“This is just a prototype?” said Noa. “But it’s already better than any other sweet I know of.”
“Well, I’m calling it a prototype, but I just need to adjust the sweetness.”
I passed a pudding to Cliff, who took a bite of it.
“What…is this?”
His face changed.
“I haven’t had a confectionary this delicious before, not even in the royal capital.”
Maybe this world didn’t have a lot of great confectionaries, then? Well, I guess they wouldn’t be able to help it if it was that hard to get ahold of eggs. Cliff and Noa’s spoons never stopped moving.
“Thank you for the treat, Yuna. It was very good.”
“Was it? That’s good. Was there any part of it you would have wanted improved?”
“No, I don’t think it has a single fault.”
“It’d be fine even if you just told me you wanted it a little more or less sweet.”
“For me, I think I’d like it a little less sweet. The first bite is delicious, but it starts to become overpowering after a while.”
“Do you think so? I thought it was delicious, though,” Noa said.
“Well, palates vary among adults and kids and between genders after all. I’m going to use you both as reference.”
“Are you opening a store or something?”
“I’m not planning to right now. It’s just that I was thinking I could help orphans in their future careers if, say, they wanted to cook or make desserts instead of raising birds.”
“You’re thinking that far ahead?”
“I was just thinking about how, if there was a business around, I could have a pudding without going out of my way to make it myself.”
“So you’re guiding the children, then? You’re a much finer adult than I am.”
I took their empty cups back from them and put them in bear storage.
“Well then, is there anything else you needed?”
He had specifically come to his daughter’s room to meet me, and I doubted he’d come just to see me.
“Yes, I have a favor to ask. Could you escort Noa to the royal capital for me?”
“To the capital?”
“Yes, we need to attend the king’s fortieth birthday celebration, but a certain someone gave me a mountain of work to do, and I suspect I won’t be able to head out until the last minute. If that happens, we’ll be on a very strict itinerary, and I’d rather not put my daughter through that.”
“When you say someone caused you a lot of work…you’re not talking about me, are you?”
“I’m thankful, I really am, but it’s true.”
That was a false accusation at best. The stuff with the orphanage was all Cliff’s oversight as the lord. It wasn’t my fault at all. Since I was the one who uncovered the crime, he really should have been thanking me.
But the royal capital, huh.
“Will there be other escorts? How would we go there?”
If there were other escorts, I’d consider turning it down, since it would be a pain. Traveling by carriage would be even more of a pain.
“Just the one who took down the black viper—I think you’ll be more than enough. And you have your beast summons for transportation, don’t you?”
“Does that mean I get to ride the bears?!” Noa let out a burst of joy.
“I heard your summons are faster than horses. If that’s the case, you could run if you encountered any danger.”
I wanted to go to the capital anyway, so I didn’t have a reason to refuse.
“Well then, when do we leave?”
“If you want to go early, tomorrow should work fine. I’m sure Noa wants to see her mother sooner rather than later.”
Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t seen her mother in the house before. No one mentioned her, so I’d assumed she had passed away, but I guess I was wrong.
“Does your mom live in the capital?” I asked Noa, who seemed excited.
“Uh-huh, she works there.
”
“In that case, want to head out tomorrow?”
“Really?”
“You want to see your mom as soon as you can, right?”
I ended up accepting the role as Noa’s escort to the capital.
“In that case, could you wait a moment, Yuna? I have something I’d like you to take to my wife,” Cliff left and then came right back with two letters and a large box. “Could you deliver this to Ellelaura?”
“What’s that?” I pointed at the box.
“It has the goblin king sword you gave me inside. If the unexpected happens, please give it to Ellelaura. I wrote down the details in this letter, so she’ll know what to do when you give it to her. Also, please give this letter to the adventurers’ guild. I’ve asked that they treat this as a quest.”
I put the letter and the box with the goblin’s king sword into bear storage.
“I’m looking forward to seeing you tomorrow, Yuna.”
“Yeah, you too.”
I left the lord’s residence to prepare for tomorrow.
Chapter 49:
The Bear Reports About Going to the Capital
FIRST, I headed to the merchant guild to tell Milaine I was heading out of town. There weren’t many people at the merchant guild—possibly because it was past noon. When I went to the reception desk, Milaine seemed bored.
“Yuna? What do you need?”
“I’m heading to the royal capital for a while, so I wanted to ask if you could leave the egg stuff to Tiermina.”
Actually, she was pretty much already handling it all anyway. The most I did was weigh in on prices every once in a while.
“You’re going to the royal capital?”
“I just have a quick escort job.”
“I see. Well then, since you’re going to the capital, I’ll look forward to the souvenirs.”
“Sure, is there something you want?”
“I’ll leave that up to you.”
When it came to souvenirs, meals, or anything, that was the most difficult response to ever get. I guess it was better than if she’d asked me for something unreasonable.