Chapter 139 – Bear-san Goes To The Mine (The Hero Goes To The Mine)
Princess Fina had been captured by the witch Eleanora, and she would surely be forced to eat delicious things, live in a beautiful room, wear gorgeous clothes, and sleep in a really soft bed.
The witch Eleanora was trying to wreck her heart (stomach).
Not to mention that, before the hero Yuna would come back to save her, she would have to sightsee the capital and play with the witch’s daughter, Shia. I was sure that Princess Fina was crying (smiling) when she was alone.
The hero Yuna was on her way to the mine that held the golem materials that the witch wanted. The hero Yuna had to bring the materials to the witch in order to take Princess Fina back.
「Princess Fina, please wait for me. I will defeat the golems without fail and come back for you.」
I have to save her as quickly as possible. Yes, that was what the hero Yuna promised in her heart before she turned her back on the witch’s mansion and started walking towards the mine.
......Okay, enough with the jokes. After I had given Fina to Eleanora-san yesterday, I had also spent the night at the manor before going towards the mine this morning.
From what Sanya-san had told me, the mine wasn’t too far from the capital, so I decided to go to the mine using Swaying Bear.
Still, golems, huh?
Golems made of earth or stone were okay, but the iron ones would be really troublesome.
I couldn’t use any large-scale magic in the mine, so how should I deal with it...?
Well, I still had some time to think before I reached the mine.
I was sure Fina would be having fun, so I didn’t really have to rush myself.
I made Swaying Bear run leisurely and took a break when I was halfway there.
「Thank you, Swaying Bear. Hugging Bear, I’m counting on you.」
I pet both of their heads before embarking on another light run, this time on Hugging Bear.
After traveling for a while, I noticed some buildings ahead of me.
As we got closer, I climbed down from Hugging Bear and approached them on foot.
It was a small town, and the mine was right next to it.
The sun was already going down, so I decided to find an inn for now and start the investigation tomorrow.
Most of the people who lived there had something to do with the mine: people who wanted to get ore and people who traded with the mine workers. When people gathered like that, shops started to pop up.
It made sense for this town to be established next to the mine.
Also, Sanya-san had told me that there was a proper inn here, meant for the adventurers and the merchants who came to purchase ore.
I entered the town and, like usual, gathered attention from the surroundings.
I decided to pay it no mind for the time being and looked for the inn.
As I was walking through the town, someone called me from behind.
「Is that possibly you, Yuna!?」
I turned around and saw Jade-san and his party members.
「I knew it, it’s Yuna-chan!」
Meru-san seemed really happy.
「Who wouldn’t recognize her just by seeing her?」
An expressionless girl, who seemed to be about twenty, said.
「Oh! This brings back memories, Bear Missy.」
A man holding a sword said.
I didn’t remember him, but I was sure he was a member of Jade-san’s party.
I remembered that there had been four of them at Crimonia, but I never remembered the faces of people I had met only once and talked to for only a few seconds.
As Jade-san approached me, I had a feeling that even more people were starting to look at me.
Jade-san’s party already stood out on its own, and a girl in a Bear Suit didn’t help with that; it would be more strange if we weren’t attracting attention. I would like the party to stop making a fuss, though. I didn’t want to stand out even more than I already did.
I had a feeling that I shouldn’t be complaining about others making me stand out but decided to ignore it.
「So, why are you here, Yuna?」
「Well, to do my job, more or less?」
「Are you here for the golems?」
「Yeah. You’re here for them too, Jade-san?」
Well, it made sense for them to be here for the golems.
So, they were the rank C party that had been sent, huh.
「Yea, we received the request and have been subjugating the golems for the last few days. We just came back from the mine after today’s round.」
「How’s it going? I will go back if it’s almost finished.」
I asked without getting my hopes up even though it would be really great if it was going well.
「It’s not going that well.」
「Really?」
C rank adventurers were having problems, too?
「Jade, we shouldn’t talk here. How about we go back to the inn and discuss this while we eat?」
Meru-san chimed in.
She was right. We stood out talking in the middle of the road like this, and I also wanted to reserve a room at the inn before it was too late.
If there were no open rooms, I would have to find a place that didn’t stand out and bring out the Bear House I used for travel.
I accepted Meru-san’s proposal, and we headed to the inn.
On the way there, Jade-san’s party introduced themselves.
I already knew Jade-san and Meru-san since I met them during the guard mission, but even though I had seen the other two at the Crimonia’s Adventurer’s Guild, I didn’t remember them at all. I honestly only remembered their genders.
The male swordsman was Toya, and the expressionless girl, who was wearing light clothing, was Senya.
We arrived at the inn, and I managed to reserve a room, even though the inn was crowded.
It seemed that the merchants came from all over to fight for the ores. They didn’t come only from the capital but also came from many other towns.
I was actually lucky with the room I booked; the merchant that had it before had just left today.
When I entered the inn, I was the center of attention, as expected. I ignored them all, of course, and thanks to Jade-san and his party, no one dared to pick a fight with me.
The only thing that bothered me was, when I went to speak to the wife of the owner of the inn, she looked at me with a meek smile and then, switching her gaze to Jade-san, said:
「Will this girl, who wears clothes that look like a bear, be staying here?」
Why was she asking Jade-san and not me?
「Yeah, that’s right. Could you prepare a room, please?」
Jade-san said while laughing.
I was thankful to Jade-san for being able to reserve a room, but... I wasn’t a child; I was a proper rank C adventurer, you know...
「Too bad... If there were no free rooms, I would have you sleep in ours...」
Meru-san said.
「Our room only has two beds, you know.」
Senya-san chimed in.
「Eh, isn’t that okay!? If you like, I will sleep with Yuna-chan. She’s small, so if she took off this bear, we would be able to sleep together.」
Nope, I wouldn’t take it off.
If I was at my home, I would be okay with it, but at a place where I didn’t know what would happen, I would never take off my Bear Equipment.
Anyway, since my room was safely booked and it was time for dinner, we sat down at an open table and ordered some food.
「So, how is the golem subjugation going then?」
「I guess we should say that we don’t really know.」
「Even though we continue defeating the golems every day, they keep replenishing, so they are back to their initial numbers the next day.」
I knew it, it was a spawnpoint.
Hearing this information would make any gamer really happy.
If this was a game, I would be happy too, of course.
「We think that the first golem the miners found is the cause of all of this.」
I also thought that the first golem was suspicious.
It was the simplest reasoning that governed in games and novels; when something was discovered, it would also trigger something else.
「You haven’t defeated that golem yet?」
If it was possibly the cause for all of this, we just had to go and defeat it. If we were wrong, we just had to think of another method.
「It’s not that easy, you know. The further in we go, the stronger the golems get.」
「Are you talking about iron golems?」
「You knew about them?」
「I heard that they were the reason that this became a rank C request.」
「Yeah, but it’s not like we can’t defeat them; they are just a troublesome bunch.」
I thought so as well; defeating iron golems seemed really troublesome.
「But you can still defeat them, right? Shouldn’t you be able to make progress then?」
「There’s a big opening just before the cave where the first golem was found, and five iron golems stand guard there. As you can expect, that’s too much for us.」
「That’s why we’re now thinking about what we can do.」
I see.
So, if we could do something about those five iron golems, it was possible to reach the cave, huh.
It would somehow work out, then. As we continued to talk, the entrance became noisy.
「Ah, I’m tired. So tired!」
「So true! I really want to stop fighting these iron golems over and over again!」
「But we get a lot of money from them, right?」
「There’s really a lot of iron golems, huh?」
「I’m really hungry; we should get something to eat.」
When I turned towards the noise, I saw five adventurers entering the inn.
The moment I saw them, I knew that they were in the type of people I didn’t want to involve myself with (even though this wasn’t a nice thing to say).
They seemed to be three times worse than Deborane.
Also, what was up with those clothes?
The one in front was wearing equipment that was completely red, maybe to go with his bright-red hair? If a buffalo was here, he would have been attacked for sure.
Also, for some reason, the second one was wearing blue equipment, the third wore green, while the fourth one was probably a magician wrapped in a black mantle. The last one was the only woman of the group? She looked about 30 years old, and she was wearing a white mantle.
They represented the five color squadron quite well.
If they weren’t white and black, but yellow and pink, it would have been perfect, but as expected, in this world, even though a yellow mantle would barely pass, a pink one would be completely out of the question, so there was no helping it.
This five color squad approached us.
「Yo, Jade! Since when did you start keeping a bear as a pet?」
The red man dared to say while looking at me, making the other four behind him laugh.
Okay, it was decided; I would call these five the Idiot Rangers from now on.
The Power Rangers were the superheroes who represented Japan, so it wasn’t like I was making a fool out of them.
「She’s an adventurer, you know. She’s the same rank as us.」
「You’re joking. Hey guys, he’s saying that a bear is an adventurer! Stop making us laugh.」
That was what you were laughing about!?
It wasn’t something you would retort about, was it?... Well, he was right, but... wouldn’t you normally retort about the rank?
「And rank C, you say? If you want to make me laugh, tell me something more ridiculous. Well, her existence itself is enough to make me laugh, though.」
Idiot Red laughed.
「Well, we should stop talking about the bear for now. How did it go today? We defeated three iron golems, so we are doing great.」
「We defeated two.」
「I see. Well, we will defeat those five golems, so don’t worry. And the prey behind them is also ours.」
「Do as you wish. But if we don’t hurry, the soldiers will be sent out, it seems.」
「Really!? Then we have to hurry, because if the country took this delicious prey, it would be a big loss for us.」
Idiot Red left while laughing.
「They are adventurers who came to subjugate the golems, too. They are rank C, and even though their attitude are the worst, they are quite skilled.」
So, they were the second rank C party that came to subjugate the golems, huh.
Like Jade had explained to me, I also noticed that they had the worst attitude, but if they were able to kill iron golems, that meant they had at least some skill.
「It’s the same as usual, though.」
「Still, it was terrible to say that Yuna-chan is a pet! Even though she’s not a pet but a mascot...」
That was also wrong, you know... I retorted silently.
「But seeing how they were like before, they must be selling them at a good price.」
「Selling them?」
「Yeah, they are selling the iron golem materials, and it seems like they are selling them at quite the price.」
I see. The golems were treated as monsters, so when you defeated one, its body, which was left behind, was considered yours, right?
「You said ‘it seems’. Does that mean that you guys aren’t selling them? You just said that you defeated two, though...」
「We are selling them through the normal route, so we don’t get that much out of them. Well, I said that, but they are still buying them from us at a 20% increased price.」
「From what I heard, they are selling them at a 50% increased price.」
I didn’t know how much the iron cost normally, but it seemed that they were profiting quite a bit.
I didn’t need money, but unlike in the game, if you killed the golems, their whole bodies would remain behind as they were, right?
If I defeated one cleanly, would I be able to keep it as it was?
If I did, it wouldn’t be bad to use it as a golem decoration somewhere.
Our meals arrived, and while we were eating, Jade-san gave me a lot information about the mine.
「Is it okay for you to tell me this much? Normally, the information shouldn’t be given away like this, right?」
「We won’t lose anything by telling you this time. If we, the adventurers, don’t figure out why the golems are replenishing, the country will move, meaning that we would all fail this request.」
「If I can deal with the golems, does that mean that you guys will also complete the request?」
Those Idiot Rangers as well...
「Yeah, that’s how it works this time around. You need the magic stones from the golems you defeated to prove that you took part, of course. If you don’t have any, they take it as if you didn’t participate, and the request isn’t marked as completed.」
「Also, when you look at the reward for the one who personally completes the request by defeating the final enemy, there isn’t much of a difference from the reward for people who just participate.」
「Don’t forget that we can make a lot of money by selling the iron golem raw materials, too. So, because of all this, we don’t have any problems telling you, Yuna.」
「On the contrary, we would be saved if you could defeat the last golem.」
As they said, this was a special request.
Normally, adventurers struggled to find the monsters, so they wouldn’t share the information this easily.
「Thank you for the information; it will help me a lot.」
I thanked them, finished my meal, and went to my room to sleep.
Starting tomorrow, I would have to start exploring the mine.