by Kumanano
I understood her concern, but if they’d defeated wolves before, they should be fine. That’s how it was in the game, too. Fighting multiple opponents at once was the secret to efficiency.
“Well then, Miss Yuna, did you come in to look at the quests?”
“There weren’t any interesting ones, so I’m heading home.”
“Interesting ones…that’s not normally way people prioritize quests.”
Helen seemed appalled.
I was still bored the following day. Quests didn’t vary much within the span of one or two days. The weather was nice, so I thought about taking a stroll with Kumayuru and Kumakyu.
“Fina, let’s go for a walk!”
That was the first thing I said to her when she came in for work.
“But why do you want to do that all of a sudden?”
“I’ve got some time on my hands, so I thought I’d go for a walk with the bears. I was hoping you’d come with, Fina.”
“But what about my work?”
“You get the day off!”
“Boo…”
“You can take some wolf meat back with you.”
That sealed the deal.
“So then where are we going, Yuna?”
“I was thinking we could go to a village I’ve been to before, but let’s grab some souvenirs to bring with us first.”
I took Fina shopping before we left town. We were going to the village whose boar problem I’d solved. Marie’s baby should have been due soon. I wanted to get her a baby shower gift.
“Hey mister, I’ll take all of that fruit, please.”
I bought out all of the vendor’s oran.
“Um, are you sure about buying all of them, bear girl?”
“If me taking all of them would cause trouble, just give me however many I can buy.”
“I don’t really mind, but what are you going to do with them all?”
“They’re just going to be a little gift.”
Since we’d come to an agreement, I put the box of orans into bear storage. After that, I went around to a couple shops, bought some things that seemed like they would be hard to get ahold of in the village, and headed out of town.
Extra Story:
The Rookie Adventurers
Part Two
WITH ME RIDING KUMAYURU and Fina riding Kumakyu, we left Crimonia and ran across the plains. The weather was good—perfect for a walk. Then again, if anyone saw us, they’d probably tell me to double-check what “walk” means in a dictionary. After a while, I spotted a familiar forest. As long as I used my map skill, we wouldn’t get lost. The village came into view after a few minutes on bearback.
The barrier I’d created was looking good. As we got closer, I found Bogue guarding the same village entrance he had last time.
“Lady Yuna?!”
For a second I thought there was something weird about his tone, but I was sure I was just mishearing things.
“Long time no see! Has Marie had her baby yet?”
“Yes, ma’am, a healthy baby boy.”
I was glad she hadn’t had any complications.
“Lady Yuna, hast ye come to bless us with an inquiry?”
Alright, maybe I wasn’t mishearing…maybe he was just a goon.
“And who might that white bear and girl o’er yonder be?”
Right, I thought, he didn’t know about Kumakyu.
“This is one of my bears too, so relax. The girl’s Fina. She was free, so I had her come with me on a walk.”
Fina bobbed her head and introduced herself.
“I want to visit Brandaugh and Marie, so can I go into the village?”
“Yes, of course. However, aforeward, may I bid ye visit the village chief?”
“Sure.”
“Thank you very much.”
Since explaining how summons worked to the villagers would have been a pain, I decided not to send the bears home. Since they stood out as much as anybody would expect them to, the kids obviously started gathering as soon as we came through the gates—and the adults, too.
I kind of felt like they were making a big deal out of this.
“Yuna…”
It looked like Fina wasn’t really sure what to do about the kids that were coming up to us. Bogue told the kids not to get too close; they seemed disappointed as they filed away. Uhh, I thought, I guess I’d have to play with them later or something.
The chief must have noticed the commotion, because by the time we turned up at his house he was outside waiting for us.
“What in the world is going on?” he said, before noticing me. “Lady Yuna!”
Okay, so the goon-speak was contagious.
“What has brought you to our neck of the woods?”
“I had some time to kill, so I just went on a walk. Also, I was wondering whether Marie might’ve had her baby by now.”
“Yes, a healthy baby boy.”
“Yeah, I heard from Bogue. That’s great. I brought gifts, so make sure everyone in the village shares them.”
“You have brought us tidings? We are glad, but we have naught to give in thanks, Lady Yuna.”
I hoped there was something wrong with my ears.
“Umm, so what’s up with you calling me Lady Yuna?”
“Why, it’s because you’re the savior of the village, of course. We cannot thank you enough for the wall that you put up; it’s protecting our crops from the other animals.”
“I get why you’re doing it, but please don’t call me a Lady. I’m not that big of a deal.”
“But…”
“If you don’t, I’ll smash the walls,” I made myself sound really serious.
“Well…fine. Then may we call you Miss Yuna?”
“Sure, that works.”
One way or another, I got them to stop calling me a lady.
“Yuna!”
A voice called my name. When I pried my eyes away from the chief and searched for the source, I saw Marie coming over, baby in hand.
“Marie, congratulations.”
“Why, thank you.”
“Happy to hear the baby was born healthy.”
“All thanks to you, Yuna, just like the other stuff. Since you defeated the forest guardian, I could focus on pulling through for the delivery.”
“What’s his name?”
“If it had been a girl, I was thinking about naming her Yuna.”
Please stop, I thought. Just don’t name a baby after me, please. Thank you, God, for making the kid a boy.
“His name is Yuuk. We borrowed a syllable from your name.”
Well, I guess tons of people could have names that start with “Yu,” so I guess that worked fine. Yuuk didn’t cry when I took a peek at him. Maybe he didn’t have a sense of stranger danger? Actually, he was laughing. He wasn’t laughing because of how I looked, was he?
“So where’s Brandaugh?”
“He’s out hunting.”
No changes there.
“I think he’ll be back soon, so you can see him. I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you too.”
That’s what I’d planned to do from the beginning anyway, so I just nodded.
“Oh right, I brought some stuff that’ll be good for your health, so just eat it whenever, Marie.”
“I’m glad, but are you sure? I haven’t done anything for you. Meanwhile, you’ve done nothing but help us.”
“Please don’t worry about it. You need to fortify yourself with some good food so you can put your best foot forward raising this kid.”
I’m sure she was probably dealing with the baby crying at night and all kinds of stuff. She had to keep herself well-fed, too.
Noon rolled around, so the chief treated us to lunch at his house. Fina was rocking Yuuk in her arms next to me.
“Fina,” said Marie, “you’re pretty good at that.”
“Yes, I took care of my younger sister when she was this age.”
Shuri? I thought. But they’re only three years apart.
I heard that Tiermina’s husband had passed away while she was pregnant with Shuri. That meant that if Tiermina had to work, Fina probably would have had to look after Shuri. Even with Gentz’s help it must have been a terrible time, having to deal with a tiny girl.
I reached out my arm and patted Fina’s head.
“Y-yuna?”
She was bewildered.
“I was just thinking that you’re pretty remarkable.”
I think she must not have understood what I meant, since she tilted her head to the side quizzically.
After I finished the meal, I gave the chief and Marie the gifts I’d brought from Crimonia.
“This is so much.”
“I was thinking you need to get some proper nutrition. You can share them with any other pregnant women around or distribute them among the village.”
“Thank you.”
I was just happy she didn’t try politely declining it.
“So Fina, did you really just come to the village to have a walk?” Marie asked Fina.
“Yes. When I went to Yuna’s house, she suddenly asked me to go for a walk and then brought me all the way here,” Fina replied, putting on a strained smile.
“Ha ha, that seems just like Yuna, I guess. I suppose you could call her laid-back. She seems pretty loose.”
“Yes.”
Why the heck was she agreeing? Was I actually acting that loose? When I was in Japan, I didn’t go to school. I didn’t listen to my parents. All I did was game. I was pretty much doing whatever I wanted in the fantasy world. I couldn’t figure out anything to say to prove them wrong.
“Anyway, how much longer until you think Brandaugh will get back?”
“I think it’d be anytime now if he caught something…”
“Is there something wrong?” I asked, since I felt like she was implying something with the way she said that.
Marie looked over towards the chief. He nodded, and then began to speak.
“You defeated the forest guardian.”
“Yeah, I did.”
“We are not sure if that is the reason why, but there have been more wolves around lately,” the chief seemed pained as he said it. “But, of course, we are grateful that you defeated the guardian for us.”
“We think the wolves probably didn’t come around because the guardian was already here.”
“The wolves seem cute compared to the guardian. There are several in our village that can fight them off. It’s just that there are so many of them.”
“Brandaugh has been going out to hunt them, but we haven’t been able to bring down the population.”
“So the other day, when a merchant came by, we asked them to post a wolf slaying quest at the adventurers’ guild.”
“Then some young adventurers showed up last night.”
“They went out slaying this morning, so please don’t worry. We think the wolf numbers will go down.”
Relax, huh, I thought. I was just hoping this wasn’t like some sort of turning point or something. I was sure the wolf population would go down with the adventurers coming in, even if they were young, and in any case, the village had people who could hold their own.
After that, I listened to them talk about the village while waiting for Brandaugh to return. Apparently they’d decorated the back of the chief’s home with the forest guardian’s skin. Fina went to check it out and was surprised by how big it was.
“You couldn’t sell it?”
“No, we sold the meat and traded it with neighboring villages for food, but we wanted to leave proof that you saved the village. After all the villagers discussed it, we decided to keep this.”
“Once my little guy gets bigger, I’m planning on telling him the story of your exploits while we look over this skin,” Marie said, looking at her son’s face.
It was kind of embarrassing; I just wanted them to stop.
When we left the chief’s house, there were some kids watching my bears from across the way. I beckoned them closer, and a few rushed over.
“Hey, do you want to pet the bears?”
The kids nodded.
“You can pet them, but you better not give them any trouble.”
They latched onto Kumayuru and Kumakyu the second they had permission. They made sure to follow my orders and didn’t do anything to upset them. After the kids spent a while playing with the bears, I heard a commotion near the village entrance. Someone was running over to us.
“Chief! This is terrible!” they shouted. Several people followed after him.
“What’s gotten you so riled up?” the village chief said. The others in the house had followed him out.
“There’s a tigerwolf!”
“A tigerwolf?!”
“I-is Brandaugh okay?!” Marie questioned the man who had come to the chief’s house.
“I’m sorry. He was with me part of the way, but he stayed behind to distract it.” He hung his head slightly as he apologized.
The man had a quiver full of arrows on his shoulder. He was probably another hunter.
“No…” Marie said, crumbling to her knees.
The situation was kind of dire, I guess.
“Chief!” said the hunter. “Quickly—call the men together and fortify the entrance. It might be able to clear the wall, so you must tell the women and children to get inside their homes.”
The chief nodded and gave the order. The kids who had been playing with the bears clung to Kumakyu and Kumayuru nervously.
“Bear girl…”
“It’ll be okay, but since it might be dangerous, you should all go home and listen to what your moms and dads tell you.”
The children nodded and returned to their respective homes.
“Have you seen any of the adventurers?”
“When I was hunting, I caught a glimpse of them, but we didn’t know about the tigerwolf back then, so we went separate ways. I’m not sure what happened to them after that.”
“Chief! Do you think those adventurers can handle a tigerwolf?”
“They showed me their guild cards, but they were just F-rank rookies. I think it’s impossible. Actually, I’m worried about them.”
The chief dipped his head low and furrowed his brow. Then he raised his head and looked at me without saying anything. He turned his gaze on the men gathered in the village.
“Hurry and close the entrance. Some of you take guard along the wall!”
“What are we going to do about Brandaugh and the adventurers?”
“We wait for them to escape here. If we search for them imprudently, we might have to sacrifice more of our own.”
“But…”
Marie was so overcome with worry she couldn’t continue. All she could do was hug her son tightly.
“Yuna…” Fina gave me a brittle look.
“It’ll be fine.”
I gave Fina a gentle pat on the head.
Extra Story:
The Rookie Adventurers
Part Three
“I’M HEADED OUT.”
“Miss Yuna!”
“I’m going to take the bears and go in there to get Brandaugh and the others real quick.”
“It’s too dangerous! Tigerwolves are different from the forest guardian. They are ferocious!”
The chief was genuinely worried for me.
“That’s right. The guardian just ate all our crops when we did nothing, but tigerwolves will actually attack people.”
“Yuna, it’s dangerous.”
The villagers were genuinely concerned for me.
“Though it’ll cost some money, we’ll put up a quest at the adventurers’ guild, so please don’t be worried.”
Couldn’t they see they had an adventurer right in front of their eyes?
“But chief, what should we do? Who should we have go to the town? We can’t just wait for a merchant like last time.”
“And we need to do this quickly.”
“We should figure out what to do about Brandaugh
before any of that, shouldn’t we?”
“I will say this as many times as I need to, but we will not go save Brandaugh. We just have to hope that he will make it back to the village.”
The village felt gloomy at the chief’s words. No one wanted to fight the tigerwolves. They knew they would die if they did. Was my only option to stay silent? I mounted Kumayuru.
“Miss Yuna?” said the chief.
“Just going out for a little stroll,” I replied, since persuading him of anything would be a pain. My eyes met with Marie’s.
“I’ve got Kumayuru and Kumakyu around, so I shouldn’t have any problems going out on a walk.”
I hoped my bears gave Marie some peace of mind.
“But…”
“I’m just going for a walk, so you don’t need to worry about me like that.”
“Yuna…” Marie said, looking at her feet.
“Miss Yuna,” the chief said in her place, “please do what you can.”
He bowed his head very low.
“I don’t know what you’re asking for. Just going for a walk.”
“Miss Yuna…”
“Okay, going to go for a bit of a stroll. Sorry Fina, but you wait here.”
“Yuna,” Fina said as she rushed over, seeming concerned.
“It’ll be fine. I’ve taken them down before.”
“Yeah, but be careful.”
I rode Kumayuru hell-for-leather. Kumakyu kept pace.
Bear detection revealed a lot of wolves, but no sign of Brandaugh. The tigerwolves were getting close. I needed to hurry, or things would hit the fan.
“Kumayuru, Kumakyu, mush.”
We thundered through the forest. I detected five people nearby. I wondered if it was the rookies and Brandaugh. If I sensed them, they had to still be alive. It looked like I was going to make it in time.
“Run, Horn!”
“Shin! A wolf went that way.”
“Where is the tigerwolf?!”
“Brandaugh! That’s dangerous.
“You guys go on ahead!”
“But—”
“This forest is my expertise! I’ll figure something out. Actually, you’d all just get in the way!”