Chapter 53

Chapter 53 – Together with Kuma-san!

This week, I went back and read it again, little by little .

There were so many missing or wrong characters, that I cried .

I wanted to get rid of the “lacked writing ability” and “lots of errors and typos” parts .

However, there are probably some this time, too .

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「Did you come to help us?」

When I turned and looked behind me, there was an elderly man and a small girl there .

They weren’t wearing the type of clothing that commoners would wear .

If I had to say, it was closer to the type of clothes Noa wore .

…Which meant they were nobles? Or the kind of people with lots of money .

「If you’re talking about the orcs, though that may be the case-」

「Is that so? It would be bad if we didn’t express our gratitude as well . We are Gran Faren Gramm . We thank you, together with our granddaughter . 」

「I’m an adventurer, Yuna . I only saved you because I was passing by chance, so don’t worry about it . 」

「Still, aren’t you dressed in some strange clothing?」

「Don’t mind it . 」

「However, you sure took down those orcs quite easily . Isn’t that the missus from Cliff’s place over there?」

The old man who introduced himself as Gran looked over at Noa .

「Gran-sama, it has been a long time . It is I, Noire . 」

Noa gave an aristocratic curtsy and greeting .

She called him Gran-sama . As expected, they were aristocrats .

「I see, it was Noire after all . Has it been a year since we last met? You’ve sure grown up . Is Cliff not with you?」

「Father is busy with work, so he is still in town . I was told to go to the Royal Capital by myself to see mother first . 」

「You came out here all by yourself?」

「Yes, but my bodyguard Yuna-san is here, so I am alright . 」

Gran-san looked me over .

「That fellow Cliff seems to have caught a strangely dressed, but competent adventurer . 」

I wish you would stop calling me strange over and over .

「Misa, long time no see . 」

Noa approached the girl standing beside Gran-san .

She was a few years younger than even Noa .

「Elder Sister Noire, it has been a while . 」

「Misa is also going to the Royal Capital?」

「Yes, Father and Mother went to the Royal Capital earlier, so I am heading there with Grandfather . 」

「I see . 」

「I’m sorry for interrupting your conversation, but there are some post-battle things I want to talk about . 」

Marina came over .

「If we leave the orc corpses like this, it’s likely that their companions, or other monsters attracted by the bodies, will come . I want to process the orcs, but what should we do?」

「Process them?」

「I want to divide up our share . Though you were the one who defeated them, you defeated them with a surprise attack from behind while we were engaging them . That’s why we also want a part . 」

Ah, so you were worried about that .

「That’s fine . I’ll give them all to you . You can deal with them however you want . 」

「Are you serious?! It’s six orc bodies, you know!」

If it was orcs, I had a lot in the Bear Box, so it wasn’t necessary to forcibly acquire more here .

「We’re going to go on ahead to the Royal Capital first, so it’s fine . 」

I walked to and got on top of Hugging Bear .

「Noa, Fina, we’re leaving!」

「Please wait a moment!」

Gran hailed us .

「Since we’re both headed to the same place, why don’t we travel together?」

After thinking about it for a bit,

「There’s no merit for us, so I decline . 」

「I’ll pay you an escort fee . 」

「If it’s guards, don’t you have those girls? That’s rather rude to them, don’t you think?」

I said it loud enough for the adventurers nearby to hear .

If we talked about employing me, it would be like telling them that they weren’t trusted anymore .

「It’s not that I don’t particularly trust these girls’ power . Please believe me when I say that it is for my granddaughter, Misa’s, sake . 」

「Misa’s sake?」

「Ah, during the journey here, it has only been the two of us in the carriage, so Misa has been bored . Which is why I was thinking that, if her acquaintance Noire was there, our journey would become more interesting . 」

Hmm . I wanted to decline somehow .

It had absolutely no merit .

I couldn’t use the Bear House if we traveled together .

If it became unusable, neither the bed nor the bath could be used .

Our speed would definitely drop if we traveled together .

However, I couldn’t make a decision based on my judgement alone .

If Cliff were here, I would just abide by his instructions .

There was no point in naming someone who wasn’t here, though .

For now, I’ll ask the person being guarded, Noa, for her opinion .

「Noa, what do you want to do?」

「Me?」

I called Noa over and whispered quietly into her ear .

「By the way, if we travel together, the Bear House cannot be used, okay?」

I didn’t have any intention of bringing out the Bear House in front of a stranger .

Noa was mumbling “a bath, a bed, a bath, a bed…” under her breath .

Right now, in Noa’s head, a 『Bed and Bath VS Misa』battle was probably occurring .

After a few “unn, unn” groans, the battle seemed to have come to a conclusion .

「Yuna-san, I’m worried about Misa, so I was thinking of travelling together . Is that okay?」

In the Bear House vs Misa battle, Misa seemed to have been the victor .

「If Noa has decided, then it’s fine, but there are a few conditions . 」

「What conditions?」

「The Bear House is a secret, of course, but if we run into an undefeatable monster, you must leave everyone behind and run away . You just have to promise me this . 」

「I-I understand . 」

I turned towards Gran-san .

「Has the consultation finished?」

「It was decided that we will travel with you . 」

「Is that so? You’ve saved me some trouble . 」

「Fina, please go help those girls with dismantling so we can depart quickly . 」

「I understand . 」

Fina ran off towards the adventurers, who were in the middle of dismantling .

After a short while, the adventurers returned to us, having finished the dismantlement .

「That child is really good at dismantlement . It was a big help . So, are you really okay with this, giving all the orcs to us?」

「It’s fine . Since we’ll be travelling together to the Royal Capital, I’ll have you listen to one of my requests in return . It’s not a big deal, of course, so don’t worry about it too much . 」

「I-I got it . 」

If our selfishness was compared to the orc’s raw materials, the orcs should be heavier .

Having decided to travel together with Gran-san’s group, we departed for the Royal Capital .

Noa rode in the carriage with Misa .

At that time, she had made a point of pointing at Fina with her finger .

「I’ll hand over Bear-san this time, but that is my reserved seat, okay?!」

After firing off that declaration, Noa climbed aboard the carriage .

Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear still belong to me, you know .

Marina and the attendant, who took the reins, sat in the front of the carriage .

There was an attendant there all along?

Did you hide somewhere?

It was a man in his late thirties .

There was enough space for six people to sit in a commonly seen seating arrangement .

Elle, Masurika, and Euri sat inside the carriage, scanning to the left, right, and rear of the carriage . They sat in the spots next to Gran-san, Misa, and Noa, who had just boarded .

The bodyguards weren’t the type to walk outside?

That’s what I was thinking, but, as expected, asking them to keep up with the carriage’s pace on foot for a long time, while carrying weapons and armor, was impossible .

When I thought of having to walk for about ten hours a day, I was suddenly grateful to Swaying and Hugging Bear .

The coachman was checking the condition of the horses pulling the carriage .

Fortunately, the horses were safe, so we would be able to depart immediately .

I wondered why they didn’t decide to run away when the orcs attacked .

They were going to run away at first, but the orcs showed up in front of them when the horses began to tire, catching them in a pincer attack .

Since orcs were approaching from the rear, Marina and Euri went to engage them first, leaving only Elle and Masurika to deal with the orcs that came later . In the end, it turned into the situation from earlier .

We departed after having confirmed the status of the horses and the carriage .

Fina and I followed behind the carriage .

Clop, clop . Clop, clop .

Umu, our pace sure is slow .

At this rate, how long will it take to reach the Royal Capital?

We decided to go together though, so it couldn’t be helped .

I left the monster detection to the bears and decided to take a nap atop Hugging Bear .

The weather was good, and Hugging Bear’s warmth was luring me to dreamland .

The carriage advanced without incident until the sun set after our departure .

The leader, Marina, called the carriage to a halt .

It looked like they planned to sleep outdoors, right here .

The carriage stopped beside the empty road that lead to the Royal Capital .

Marina directed the adventurers as they began to prepare meals and bedding .

I wanted to take out the Bear House, but I endured .

For now, I called out to Fina and Noa and began to prepare dinner .

Misa looked like she would be eating over there .

Well, even if I said preparing dinner, I took out some simple foodstuffs from the Bear Box, and finished with just that .

The adventurers over there also took out and ate portable meals from an item bag .

The difference was that my bread was still freshly baked, so it was soft and warm .

I ate while enjoying just a small feeling of superiority .

Soon, the time to sleep arrived .

It seemed like we would be heading out when the sun rose tomorrow .

When I started to prepare to sleep, Marina came over .

「I want to decide on a rotation for night watch . Is that okay?」

When camping outdoors, there existed an enemy of sleep called the night-watch .

Which is why, I would use the favor from the deal regarding the orc materials here!

「If it’s about the watch, these children are here, so it is alright . 」

I gestured towards Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear .

「If a monster or person approaches, these children will let me know . 」

「Is that so?」

「Which is why there isn’t a need for a watch . If you’re still worried, can you handle it yourselves? Consider it as the exchange for the share of the orcs . 」

If I bring up the point of the orc materials, the other party has no choice but to relent .

「Can those bears really be trusted?」

「Feel free to . 」

There was nothing else that I could say .

Whether they chose to believe me or not was up to them .

「I understand . 」

Marina headed back towards the carriage .

「Noa, where do you plan to sleep?」

「What do you mean by where?」

「Do you want to sleep together with Misa, or sleep together with the bears?」

「W-What do you mean, sleeping together with the bears?」

She asked me in a shaky voice .

「At night, it’ll be cold and dangerous, right? Hugging Bear, Swaying Bear, come here . 」

I called Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear over, and had both of them sit down .

Next, I called Fina over as an experimental subject, and wrapped her in a blanket .

I laid the wrapped Fina next to where the bears were sitting so that she was leaning against Hugging Bear’s stomach, and tucked her in .

With the left and right arms hugging Fina, yes, this work titled, 『Together with Bear-san』, was complete .

「W-What is this, this wonderful way of sleeping?!」

「This way, it won’t be cold, right?」

「I’ll go tell Misa that I will sleep here . Fina! That’s my spot, so please vacate it, okay?」

Noa went to where Misa was, and soon returned .

However, why did you come back with Misa?

「Yuna-san, Misa also wants to sleep together with Bear-san . 」

「May I also sleep together with Bear-san? Today, I heard a lot about the wonderfulness of the bears from Elder Sister Noa . I also want to sleep together with Bear-san . Please!」

She gazed at me straightforwardly, with pure eyes .

As expected, there was no way I could say no to Misa’s pleas when she was even smaller than Noa .

「It’s fine . The two of you can use Swaying Bear . I’ll sleep together with Fina . 」

「Thank you, Yuna-san . 」

「Thank you very much . 」

Misa also expressed her thanks .

「Swaying Bear, unless danger approaches, you can’t wake these two up, okay? As for Hugging Bear, if a monster or person approaches, let me know . Sorry about this, Fina, but you’ll be sleeping with me . 」

「Okay . 」

「I might wake you up though, so sorry . 」

「It’s alright . 」

I conceded half of Hugging Bear’s stomach .

Umu, it was warm .

I went to sleep while hugging one of Hugging Bear’s arms .

「Fina, good night . 」

「Yes, good night . 」