Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Vol. 2

by Kumanano

  After the children ate breakfast, they went outside, but they came back immediately.

  “Headmistress!”

  They rushed over to me.

  “Why are you so shaken?”

  “There’s a weird wall outside.”

  I didn’t understand what they were saying. What was outside? The children grabbed my hands and pulled me outside, into the shadow of a gigantic wall. It could not have been there yesterday. If it had, the children would have made the same fuss they were now. I tried asking Liz about it, but she simply shook her head. Regardless, even if it was potentially dangerous, we could do nothing about it. I warned the children not to get close and returned to the house.

  What in the world was that wall? I couldn’t fathom that it had sprung up overnight. It was fine as long as it wasn’t a danger to the children. As I thought over the wall, the door opened and the children entered…with a bear? No, it was just Yuna. I put aside the matter of the wall so I could greet her and introduce Liz.

  “So what brings you here today?”

  Out of all things, she replied that she wanted to give the children work. I worried that she was planning to have the children do something dangerous.

  “Don’t worry, it’s not anything dangerous.”

  “What kind of work is it?”

  Though Yuna had helped us so much, I had to make sure I knew exactly what she wanted the children to do. They were my wards to protect, after all. Apparently Yuna made the wall neighboring us, and she was keeping birds inside of it. She explained that the work involved would be things children could do, such as collecting eggs, cleaning, and raising the birds. Based on what she said, none of it seemed dangerous. It seemed she planned to sell the eggs she gathered for money, and just by doing that, the children would receive wages.

  As the children listened to us, I asked them, “What do you all think? It looks like Yuna has a job for you. If you work, you’ll be able to eat. If you don’t, we’ll end up back to the situation we were in just a few days ago. Yuna isn’t bringing food anymore.”

  It was wrong to force the children to do it. They had to decide for themselves, so I waited for their response. They looked at one another and all nodded at once.

  “I’ll do it.”

  “Please let me do it.”

  “I’ll do it too.”

  “Me three.”

  “Me four.”

  Their replies were energetic. Their words made me happy.

  “Yuna, I’ll leave the kids in your care.”

  I bowed my head.

  Yuna took Liz and the children to the wall. I was sure the kids would be fine with Liz there.

  Later, Yuna introduced me to a woman named Tiermina, who she said would be our intermediary with the merchant guild. The children told me she was a kind person. The number of birds increased before we even realized it, much to the children’s surprise.

  As I was watching the smaller children at the orphanage, Tiermina came by.

  “Headmistress.”

  “Yes, what is it?”

  “I heard from Yuna there was a cold storehouse. Do you know where it is?”

  “What about it?”

  A few days ago, Yuna made a cold storehouse for us. She said we would need one since we had so many children, but at the moment, all that was in it was the wolf meat we received from Yuna.

  “I think someone will bring by food before long, so when they come, could you show them where it is?”

  “They’re bringing food?”

  “You have so many children, and with us borrowing Liz, it must be difficult going out to buy food. Because of that, I’ve arranged for the minimum you’d need to make meals to be delivered.”

  “Thank you very much.”

  I finally understood what she meant—we were being provided food in place of wages.

  “If there is anything else you need, please let me know. Anything is fine as long as it’s not too expensive. Of course, we can also provide things that are expensive if they’re necessary, but I would need to talk to Yuna before doing it.”

  “Excuse me, but may I ask why Yuna is doing all of this for us?” I asked. It bothered me. There was a possibility Tiermina would know.

  “I guess it’s just because she’s Yuna, right?”

  “Because she’s her?”

  “I don’t know what she’s thinking, but she’s kind. My daughter Fina is also very fond of her. I don’t think she will do anything bad to the orphanage, so there’s no need to worry.”

  “I see.”

  “Oh, but she occasionally just blurts out the most ridiculous things, so be careful when she does.”

  Tiermina laughed.

  That girl dressed as an adorable bear…that girl dressed as an adorable bear had come abruptly into our lives, given us food, given the children work, and even given us proper wages. She completely changed our situation. The children were laughing, and smiles seemed to spread within the orphanage. We could eat our fill. I no longer saw sad children going hungry. We had warm places to sleep. We no longer had to sleep in the cold. It was an unshakable fact that the one who had given us all of that was the bear girl.

  I decided I would trust in Yuna from now on.

  Extra Story:

  Chronicles of Tiermina’s

  Encounters with the Bear

  THANKS TO A MYSTERIOUS GIRL who dressed as a bear, I recovered from my illness. I never thought that I would be released from my suffering. I’d always thought that would happen when I passed on. I never thought I’d return to the days when I lived happily with my daughters. I’d never be able to thank the girl dressed as a bear—Yuna—enough.

  When I told her I wanted to compensate her, she smiled and said something entirely ridiculous.

  “I want you two to live together for Fina and her sister’s sakes.”

  Gentz really had been helping us since my husband had passed away. He prepared medicine for me when I got sick and recommended my daughter for work. I worked with him during my adventurer days, so it wasn’t like I didn’t know him. We had come to rely on him these last few years. He was good to my daughter and took care of her. If anyone asked whether I loved him, I wouldn’t know what to say. If anyone asked whether I disliked him, I could say I didn’t. Regardless of that, I was happy when Gentz genuinely told me he loved me. In that moment I felt like I loved him back.

  My daughters blessed our marriage. I was taken aback by how happy Gentz seemed when that happened. We looked for a place all four of us could live and moved to a new house.

  The move went by quickly thanks to Yuna. She really was doing nothing but taking care of us. Even if I wanted to pay her back, I didn’t know how I could. Of course, I didn’t consider getting married to Gentz a form of paying her back. She wanted us to get married because she was thinking of us. She saved my daughter from monsters and shared her food with us. My daughters and I were indebted to her to an extent we would never be able to pay back except bit by bit.

  Anyway, since I was better, I needed to start working. We only had so much money. Gentz was working at the adventurers’ guild, but buying the house had eaten into his savings. We also couldn’t bet on none of us getting sick in the future. We needed something in reserve if that happened.

  “Maybe I’ll work as an adventurer,” I said to everyone while we were eating. “I can slay wolves, so I was thinking of accepting lower-ranked quests.”

  I was a former adventurer. I could take on a wolf on my own. That would ease our finances and let us build up some savings. I thought it was a great idea when I told everyone, but they were all against it.

  “No way. I won’t let you do something that dangerous.”

  “It’ll be fine. Gentz, you know as well as I do that I can at least slay wolves.”

  “How many years do you think it’s been since you retired as an adventurer? You’ve got an employment gap. It’s too dangerous!”

  Gentz was extremely against it.

  “That’s
right, Mom. It’s dangerous.”

  “Mom, you can’t do anything scary.”

  My daughters clung to me from the left and right.

  “It’ll be all right. I won’t do anything reckless. Besides, we need the money.”

  “Are you planning on dying and leaving your kids behind?! Is that how little you trust me to be the breadwinner?!”

  “That’s not what I’m saying. We used a lot of money for the move, and we’ll probably need more from here.”

  “I’ll work,” said Fina. “I’ll talk to Yuna and get a lot of butchering work.” Now even my daughter has started to say that sort of thing.

  I tried everything I could to persuade them, but Gentz got mad, my daughters burst into tears, and we ended up having an arduous meal. Considering all of my family members’ opposition, I gave up on being an adventurer, and we came to an agreement that I find a job through the merchant guild.

  They were all incurable worrywarts.

  The next day, I headed towards the merchant guild in search of a job. I ran into Yuna outside. She asked me why I was at the guild, so I explained our family meeting to her. She said something unbelievable.

  “Tiermina, would you actually be interested in working for me?”

  She told me she was starting a business and invited me onboard. We went to Yuna’s house so we could talk about the details. I was always taken aback by the bear house, no matter how many times I saw it.

  She meant to sell eggs. On top of that, she already bought a plot of land near the orphanage and had made a building. Apparently she was going to prep the birds and start bringing in tons of them. I listened to her in shock. Wasn’t she supposed to be an adventurer?

  Even though she kept telling me, “I’m doing this for myself, since I just want to eat eggs,” I knew she was really doing it for the orphans. She’s just a really good kid. This kindhearted, bear-suited girl saved Fina, helped me, and gave Gentz and I the push we needed. That was why I accepted the job right away. I wanted to pay back even the smallest amount of my debt and to help Yuna as she tried her best to do this for the orphans.

  When I went to the merchant guild and we talked out the details, I realized this would involve a great deal of money. Regardless of that, Yuna tried to entrust me with all of the sales. I was happy she had confidence in me, but that was just too much money. In the end, we distributed the sales by depositing them between my guild card and Yuna’s. I would manage the money for wages and necessary expenses. The rest of the sales would be put on Yuna’s guild card.

  I wondered if Yuna just didn’t know how to handle money, but as I watched her do everything, I realized she wasn’t doing this to turn a profit. If I asked her about it, I’m sure she would have told me she was doing it for the eggs. That was just the kindhearted girl she was.

  With that, I started my job. At first there weren’t many birds, but Yuna brought them in from out of nowhere, and the population steadily began to increase. Eggs could be sold for a high price while there weren’t many around, but when supply increased, their price would go down too. Considering that and the labor, I thought it would have been easier to keep supply low and sell them at a markup. However, Yuna smiled and told me that if there were more eggs around and they were cheaper, everyone would be able to eat them.

  According to Yuna’s logic, if the eggs were valuable, there was a chance they’d attract thieves, and that would potentially put the orphans in danger. On the other hand, if eggs were cheap, there would be no incentive to steal them, and we wouldn’t be putting the orphans at risk.

  All she was thinking about were the orphans and how to make it so that anyone could have access to eggs. Was this girl really fifteen? If she told me she was a merchant’s daughter, I probably would have believed her. She was a kindhearted girl and an important friend to my daughter. I would work as hard as I could to repay even a sliver of my debt to her.

  But since she was paying my wages, was I really repaying her?

  Well, I have work today, too. Time to put my all into it.

  Afterword

  IT’S BEEN A WHILE. I’m sure it must feel like just the other day for readers on the Let’s Be Novelists website. Thank you so much for going from picking up the first volume to the second. Thanks to all of you, we were able to publish the second volume with no problems.

  Since the protagonist Yuna becomes nothing more than an ordinary girl when she takes off her bear onesie, she lives dressed like that, as usual. The people who were looking down on Yuna for the way she looked at first change the way they treat her after they realize how strong she is. The rumors about Yuna started at the adventurers’ guild, spread to the merchant guild, and reached the ear of the lord before long. This volume is about how word of the bear onesie steadily began to spread throughout the town of Crimonia.

  One would wonder what people who have never seen a bear onesie before would think when they saw one.

  I wrote the story in this book about a year ago. Back then, I was just writing from the momentum without really thinking much about it. When I thought over the things I’d set up back then, I made several modifications. In the plot in my head, I was planning to have Yuna go to the royal capital as quickly as she could without even building the bear house. Because of that, I never would have thought Fina would become such a pivotal character back when I was first writing. At first, Fina’s role was to just explain the fantasy world. She was someone who was made for the purpose of explaining the town, the adventurers’ guild, and the things Yuna needed to live in that world. At this point, she’s become an indispensable character in this work.

  Since Yuna stayed in Crimonia, we were able to meet Noa, Cliff, and the children of the orphanage. From now on, I think the story will expand with this town at its center.

  I think you may have realized this while reading, but I’ve removed the status screen and other things from the second volume. The reason for that was because it isn’t as though there are game gauges, so displaying the same skills and magic every time didn’t seem necessary. Because of that, I’ve listed the skills and magic Yuna has obtained on the first page. I’d be delighted if you referenced those while you were reading.

  I want to thank 029 for drawing Yuna and Fina so cutely in the first volume. When I asked 029 to draw Yuna in her white bear outfit, I was met with ready agreement. It sure is a cute look.

  Finally, thank you to those who helped me put out this work. I’d like to thank the proofreader who helped with any errors and such, my managing editor, and everyone at the publisher.

  Kumanano – A certain day in November, 2015

  Thank you for reading!

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