Bear-san Goes Back To The Capital
For three days now, we had been traveling with the shaking carriage. We would arrive at the capital tomorrow. On our journey back, nothing had happened yet. The goblins we saw on our way to the village probably just tried to escape the Black Tiger. With the Black Tiger dead, there was no longer a reason for them to come on the road.
We didn’t encounter any other monsters, either, so encountering those goblins was really just bad luck.
It was a peaceful trip back home.
Since the students already knew how strong I was, I had summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear in their cub forms, only for the two of them to be hugged by Shia and Cattleya. The bears had always been with me, so seeing them hugged by someone else made me a bit sad. Hmm, I would have never thought about something like this when I was still in Japan. This showed that Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear had really became my precious family members, unlike my real family.
Well, this sadness would be gone tomorrow. We were about to arrive at the capital, after all.
As the carriage peacefully rattled onward, Marcus called a break for today’s lunch. Just as we were about to stop, we noticed another carriage parked by the side of the road. Some other people had already decided to stop and take a break here, it seemed.
「Isn’t that Jigurd?」
Marcus pointed at the other carriage.
「Marcus, you have a really good sight.」
Timor seemed not to see him even after Marcus pointed him out.
Shia and Cattleya looked out of the carriage.
「You’re right.」
「Jigurd and his party are here.」
The girls seemed to have a good sight, too.
「You know these people?」
「Their party is also in the middle of the practice training.」
Did that mean there were other people like Marcus out there?
I need to prepare myself, then. I could just stay in the carriage, right? That probably wouldn’t really work...
Marcus parked our carriage right next to theirs, and the other party approached us.
It was two boys and two girls, just like my party.
「I was wondering who it was, but it was just Marcus and Timor!」
「Jigurd, are you also on your way back to the capital?」
「Yeah, we are a running a bit late, but isn’t it the same for you, Marcus?」
「Well, a few things happened, you see.」
Marcus avoided the question with a laugh.
Shia and Cattleya also left the carriage to say hello to the girls of the other party.
It would have been a pain to explain Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear to them, so I returned them to the gloves them before we reached their carriage.
「Hey, Marcus, who is this girl wearing strange clothes?」
Jigurd asked Marcus when he saw me with a smile on his face.
His broad grin really made me want to throw a Bear Punch into his face.
Was it okay for me to punch him? It was okay, right? It was okay as long as he didn’t die, right? The Bear God was telling me that I could do it.
As I was contemplating whether I should punch him or not, Marcus took out his sword and pointed it at Jigurd. It wasn’t just Marcus; Timor, who was right next to Marcus, also took out his wand.
「M-Marcus, what are you doing?」
Jigurd was confused by their actions.
Well, I was also confused.
Why were they pointing their weapons at their school friend!?
「This girl is an adventurer. She is our escort.」
「Your escort? That’s a joke, right? Isn’t she younger than us?」
「You can think whatever you want, but we won’t let you make fun of her in front of us. We won’t forgive you if you insult her.」
Shia and Cattleya, who were a little farther away, and Timor all nodded when Marcus said that.
It seemed that they got angry for my sake.
That made me happy, but what happened to you guys?
「Marcus, what happened to you? Defending a strange girl like her...」
Jigurd, still totally confused, asked Marcus.
「Nothing happened to us; we just won’t accept any insults towards Yuna-san, our escort.」
「It’s just as Marcus said. We will fight you if you make fun of Yuna-san.」
Shia and Cattleya nodded again.
「I get it. We won’t make fun of her anymore, so please put your weapons away.」
Jigurd, who realized that Marcus was serious, promised he wouldn’t make fun of me anymore.
Marcus put his sword away.
「But, is this stran...cute girl wearing bear clothing really your escort?」
「Yeah, that’s right. She also saved our lives. So, we won’t forgive anyone who insults her, even if it’s you!」
「I get it, so don’t be this angry!」
Jigurd took a few steps back so that Marcus would calm down.
「You guys are noisy, what is going on?」
A male and a female adventurer came out of Jigurd’s carriage.
I remembered seeing these two somewhere before, but I couldn’t remember where.
「Jade-san.」
Jigurd called out the male adventurer’s name.
Jade? I never heard that name before...
Well, if I couldn’t remember him even after hearing his name, it must have been my imagination.
「Wait, aren’t you the Bloody Bear?」
「Ara, is it possible that you are the Bear Missy? If I remember correctly, your name is Yuna-chan, right?」
Those two seemed to knew me.
I didn’t know them, though.
Well, it wasn’t strange for adventurers to know about me. I know, it was a bit strange for me to say that myself, but if there was anyone who didn’t remember me after seeing my clothes, I wanted to meet them. If I met someone who was wearing a costume like I was, I would remember them even if I didn’t remember their face.
「Jade-san, do you know this strange...」
Marcus reached for his sword.
「This cute girl wearing bear clothes?」
Oh, he corrected himself.
「Yea, she is an adventurer from Crimonia. There aren’t any adventurers from Crimonia who don’t know about her.」
They were adventurers from Crimonia, it seemed. It wouldn’t be strange if I had met them at the Adventurer’s Guild, so that was probably why they seemed familiar and I had the impression of seeing them somewhere before.
「It’s been a while, Bear Missy.」
I tilted my head.
I had no memories of ever becoming that familiar with them.
「What, you don’t remember?」
Sorry, I didn’t tend to remember minor characters.
I didn’t have the memory capacity to remember everyone I met just once.
「Well, it can’t be helped. We only spoke to each other for a few minutes, so it’s more like we know you one sidedly.」
Spoke to each other?
We had a conversation?
I didn’t remember it at all.
「You see, we talked to each other in front of the request board.」
「If I remember correctly, it was the day after Yuna-chan became a rank D adventurer. Don’t you remember?」
......Ah, I remembered now.
「I think I remember a party of four calling out to me when I was looking at the C rank requests...」
Even though I said I remembered, it was just that. I didn’t remember their names or faces. I could only remember that I talked to them, and that I went to kill the Tiger Wolves after that.
「So, you do remember. By the way, my name is Jade.」
「I’m Meru.」
「What about the other two?」
「They are escorting some other students right now. On that note, are you also an escort, missy?」
「Yeah, I am.」
「Jade-san, then it’s true, that this strange... cute, girl wearing bear clothes is an adventurer?」
「Not just any adventurer. She is famous for doing a lot of various things.」
Various things, he said... What sort of things?
There were too many things that came to my mind, so I didn’t know which ones he was talking about.
「Bear Missy, you’re also taking a break, right? How about we spend it together?」
Just like that, it was decided that we would take our breaks together.
We gave some food and water to the horses and prepared our own lunch.
「Still, I wouldn’t have thought that Bear Missy would be working at the Capital!」
「This girl’s mother asked me to.」
I looked at Shia.
If it wasn’t for Eleanora, I wouldn’t have accepted such a troublesome task.
「I see. This job is easy, and the pay is great, so it is really popular, you know.」
「Really?!」
I heard that there wasn’t enough people, though... Was it possible that Eleanora-san fooled me?
She did say that they made some sort of a selection, so it might not have been a lie.
「We only have to escort the students to a nearby village. And, there aren’t really any dangerous monsters since it’s near the capital.」
When my party heard those words, they smiled bitterly.
There was no way they would believe us if we told them that we encountered a Black Tiger on our way.
「The students don’t do anything dangerous, so it really is an easy job.」
Jade-san said while laughing.
I looked at his party, and the two boys diverted their gazes while the two girls smiled.
「Jade-san, is this girl wearing bear clothes really an adventurer? She seems to be younger than me...」
One of the girls asked him while looking at me.
Well, it was the same thing with Marcus; seeing a girl in a Bear Suit, you wouldn’t really believe that she was an adventurer.
「It’s true. She is an adventurer stronger than me.」
Jigurd and his party made surprised expressions.
What was this person saying...
「I can’t believe it.」
One of the girls murmured while still looking at me.
Yep, nobody would believe it, right?
If Jade-san and I were to fight, I was sure that not even one person would bet on me. They would think they would lose for sure if they did.
「I’m sure you can’t. Everyone says that when they first meet her.」
Jade-san said with a smile on his face.
「Even though she looks like this, she is actually a strong and gentle girl.」
「Jade-san, you know a lot about Yuna-san?」
Shia asked.
「Just some rumors.」
「What kind of rumors?」
It seemed that the discussion was now going in a strange direction...
Even though this was supposed to be a break...
If I didn’t stop them now, this would end up badly for me.
「More importantly, Jade-san, what are you doing at the capital?」
Hidden Technique! Subject Change!
「We usually work at the capital, you know. We sometimes go to Crimonia though, and we hear rumors about Missy there.」
「What sort of rumors?」
Huh? The conversation went back to where it was...
「Let’s see... Oh, there is a really famous story on how, the same day she had registered at the Adventurer’s Guild, she made a bloody mess of D and E ranked adventurers who decided to pick a fight with her.」
I didn’t mess up all of them. It was only Deborane!
The other people all collapsed after taking just one punch!
「Bloody mess, you say?」
The girl looked at me again.
Well, Deborane really was a bloody mess, so I couldn’t say it was a lie.
Still, he was the only one, you know!
「Yuna-san, you’re incredible!」
Shia seemed happy.
「They were just weak.」
「So, what other rumors have you heard?」
Would this really continue?
Wasn’t it about time for you to stop?
Also, Shia, you heard some of these things from Cliff, so you already knew a lot, right?
「She became even more famous when she subjugated a Goblin King.」
「A Goblin King!?」
「Yeah, supposedly the expression of the Goblin King she had brought back was brutal and filled with rage.」
Well, I dropped it in a hole and attacked it one sidedly, so of course it would get mad.
「I saw that corpse, you know. At that time, I was in the guild by chance, after all. I thought that you were really brave for fighting a brutal monster like that.」
So Meru-san saw the Goblin King.
After hearing this story, the expressions of the students were split.
The ones who believed it, Marcus’s party.
The ones who didn’t believe it, Jigurd’s party.
If you saw their expressions, you could instantly tell that they were completely different.
「But the thing that made Yuna-chan really famous was that subjugation, right?」
「The Black Viper?」
「I heard it from Shia, but did Yuna-san really defeat a Black Viper?」
It seemed that Timor heard it from Shia but didn’t believe it.
I didn’t think about this before, but that story was really unbelievable, right? Without the corpse, I didn’t think anyone would have believed it.
「It’s true. I wasn’t there then, but a lot of adventurers gave their word that it was true.」
「How did it happen?」
「A village was attacked by a Black Viper, and a little boy came by himself to Crimonia’s Adventurer’s Guild to ask for help while crying. Sadly, no adventurers who could defeat a Black Viper were present. We also accepted a different request and were not there. Although, even if we were there, I’m not sure if we would have accepted the request.」
「What happened then?」
「This Bear Missy here accepted it. Without even negotiating for a request reward, she went to help the attacked village on her own. All the adventurers who saw it thought that there was no way she would be able to defeat it. It was different from the Goblin King. The Black Viper was on an entirely different level in terms of size and strength. That’s why, all the adventurers who were present thought that the Bear Missy went there to die.」
Was that true?
I didn’t think that the adventurers saw it that way.
Well, I did leave the guild quickly while taking the child with me.
「And yet, a few days later, she brought back the corpse of the Black Viper as proof of its subjugation. With it, no one could doubt her.」
「I mean, she had the proof of defeating it, after all.」
Jade-san and Meru-san talked about that story.
Just hearing it made me embarrassed...
「Is this story true?」
The girl from Jigurd’s party said. It seemed that she didn’t believe it.
Well, that was a completely normal reaction.
「Well, you are free to believe it or not. All the adventurers from Crimonia believe it, though.」
Jade-san said while looking at me.
「Since that happened, there are no more people in Crimonia who make fun of her, and everyone recognises her strength.」
Jigurd’s party didn’t believe the story Jade-san told. They thought he just made it up.
Well, who would believe that a girl in a Bear Suit would defeat a Black Viper?
Nobody, who didn’t know me, would believe it, for sure.
「Oh right, there is a new rumor that goes around recently, but...」
「Ah, that one... Well, they won’t believe that one, either.」
After Jade-san said that, Meru-san started laughing.
If we were talking about recently, was it about the Kraken? Or the Tunnel?
I was sure that if they talked about those now, Jigurd’s party would think that the other stories were false, too.
It would be just another unbelievable story.
「What is the rumor?」
「There is a rumor that says that she defeated a Kraken, but as expected, that’s...」
Jade-san looked at Meru-san.
「Of course, a Kraken is...」
The two of them laughed while looking at each other.
Everyone else looked at me, too.
「That would be impossible, of course!」
(TN: Author used Katakana instead of Kanji here to imply that Yuna is trying to lie with a forced, almost robotic voice.)
Was what I answered.
When Jade-san finished telling my embarrassing, old stories, the break also ended.