Chapter 203: 203

Chapter 203 – Bear-san Gives Princess Flora the Plushies as a Present

A few days had passed since the mochi pounding event .

During this time, Noa kept pouting at me angrily (cutely) any time we came across each other, and I also taught Morin-san how to make red bean paste, so that we could serve anpan at our shop .

I had been quite busy last few days…

Hmm, maybe I should head to the capital for a quick breather?

I still hadn’t heard any news about the toad family . Maybe their trial wasn’t finished yet?

I was curious, but Cliff hadn’t mentioned anything, and it was possible that he wouldn’t tell me even if the results were out .

Still, Misa’s safety was depending on the toad family’s verdict . Eleanora-san had said that the family’s rank would most likely be stripped from them based on all the evidences collected, but I was still interested in the full verdict from the royal family .

Even if their rank was stripped down, the toad family might return to Sheelin .

Well, there was no point in worrying about it at this very moment . I could just ask Eleanora-san about it if I ran into her, so, for now, I decided to just go and visit Princess Flora to give her the plushies .

As usual, I used the Bear Gate to go to the capital .

I greeted the castle guards and headed straight to Princess Flora’s room . Again, as usual, one of the soldiers ran off to give his report .

It looked like they hadn’t been given orders to stop me from entering . So, had Sheelin’s mess already been taken care of?

Well, there was no point thinking about it .

As I walked through the castle, I realized that everytime I came here, I went directly to Princess Flora’s room . Even if I ran into somebody along the way, they never stopped me . Did they not feel strange, seeing a commoner entering the castle and going straight to the royal princess’s bedroom?

Pondering the issue over, I arrived at Princess Flora’s room .

I knocked on the door, and just like always, Anju-san let me in .

As I entered, I immediately noticed Princess Flora was studying at her desk .

「Did I come at a bad time?」

「No, it’s fine . I was just thinking that it would be a good time for a break . 」

Anju-san turned to Princess Flora .

「Princess Flora, Yuna-san has come to see you . 」

Anju-san called out to Princess Flora, and she immediately turned her small face to look over at us .

「Bear-san?」

She smiled and rushed to me .

Sometimes, just seeing her smile was enough to make me want to visit more often .

「Are you doing well?」

「Yes!」

She replied energetically .

「I brought a present for you, Princess Flora . 」

「A present?」

I took out the Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear plushies from the Bear Box .

「It’s Bear-sans!」

The plushies weren’t big, but when compared to Princess Flora, they seemed quite big .

I had wondered which one she would take first, but she grabbed them both at the same time .

The plushies slipped out of her hands, of course, but she got onto the ground and continued to hug them anyway .

「Princess Flora, please don’t play on the floor . 」

Anju-san sternly reprimanded her .

Princess Flora looked as if tears would begin to well up in her eyes, so Anju-san gently tried to persuade her .

「Don’t the Bear-sans look sad lying on the floor like that? That’s why you should get up . 」

Anju-san seemed to think the floor was dirty, but it looked quite clean to me .

There was a beautiful carpet laid out on the floor, and the whole room seemed quite tidy . If it were me, I wouldn’t be bothered about it and just lazed and rolled around . However, that was indeed an inappropriate behavior for a princess .

Anju took the plushies out of Princess Flora’s hands and placed them on the table . Princess Flora quickly sat back down in her chair and resumed hugging the plushies .

「Princess Flora, isn’t there something you need to say to Yuna-san?」

Princess Flora looked back and forth between me and the plushies before standing up and coming over to me again .

「Thank you . 」

「Please take care of them, okay?」

Princess Flora nodded happily .

I was happy to see that Anju-san was educating her properly .

Not just her studies, but also teaching her how to behave .

Princess Flora returned to the table and held the Swaying Bear’s hand .

「Yuna-san, thank you, as always . 」

I then sat down on a chair next to Princess Flora, and Anju-san served some tea .

I quickly thanked her and took a sip . As usual, the tea the royal family drank was delicious .

Since I had no other plans for today, I simply relaxed, slowly drinking the tea, until someone knocked on the door . As Anju-san walked over to answer the door, we could hear Her Highness’s voice coming from the other side . Was the king here too, perhaps?

The door closed right after Her Highness entered, however .

Huh?

Only the queen came?

「Good afternoon, Yuna-chan . 」

After greeting me, the Queen noticed the plushies sitting in front of Princess Flora .

「Oh, are those plushies of Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan?」

「That’s right, I got them from Bear-san . 」

「The other day, Princess Flora got upset because she had to part from Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, so…」

As I began to explain, Her Highness sat down next to Princess Flora and lifted up the Hugging Bear plushie .

「How cute . 」

The queen then placed Hugging Bear plushie on her lap and started petting its head .

Your Highness, I made these plushies for Princess Flora, so please don’t steal them from her .

However, Princess Flora did not seem to mind and continued hugging the Swaying Bear plushie with a happy expression on her face .

Like mother, like daughter, I should say .

Princess Flora didn’t make a fuss, so this should be fine .

「Good for you, Flora . 」

「Mhm . 」

Her Highness drank the tea Anju-san prepared for her and continued to pat the Hugging Bear’s head .

The two of them looked really happy .

As Anju-san poured me more tea, she popped up a question .

「Yuna-san, what will you be having for lunch today?」

「Lunch?」

Anju’s question caught Princess Flora and Her Highness’s attention .

It was because I always brought something for them to eat when I visited that they associated my presence with food . Still, I had to inform Zelef-san if I were to treat them, or his food might go to waste .

I had lots of food in my Bear Box, but the only new thing was the anpan I made with Morin-san as we had already eaten the mochi we had made .

I should really make enough mochi so that I could eat it whenever I wanted .

「I have something for you to try, but I don’t know if you’ll like it . 」

I brought out anpan and some other bread with red bean paste on top, too .

「This bread is my latest creation . It has a sweet paste called red bean paste inside, and I would like to have your opinion on it . 」

「In that case, let me try some of your new bread . 」

「I want it, too!」

Princess Flora and Her Highness reached over to grab one each .

「Well then, I will notify Zelef-san . 」

Anju-san said and took one anpan with her to bring to Zelef-san .

「Oh, how sweet . 」

「Yummy!」

「Is this a trial product?」

「I just need to adjust the sweetness a bit . I’m thinking of using less sugar . 」

A more moderate amount of sugar should still keep it delicious while also making it healthier .

「I see . I also think it’s a good idea to lower the amount of sugar . It’s too sweet, otherwise . 」

She felt the same way, huh .

The children at the orphanage seemed to like it as it was, though .

While the Queen gave me her opinion, Princess Flora just ate the bread happily, while being careful not to spill any crumbs on the Swaying Bear plushie .

「Though, the sweetness complements the black tea pretty well . 」

The Queen took another bite of the anpan then drank some tea .

Maybe the sweetness was just right if you ate it with tea?

I still thought that I should decrease the amount of sugar a bit, so I was grateful for Her Highness’s critique .

As I was lost in thought, Princess Flora grabbed a different type of bread and ate it just as happily .

I was happy to see that the red bean paste was quite well-received . There were some people who didn’t like it, after all .

Just as the two of them finished, the door suddenly opened without anyone knocking .

Startled, we all looked at the door and saw Eleanora-san arriving together with Anju-san .

「Did I make it in time?」

In time for what?

Eleanora-san looked at the table, saw that there were only crumbs left, and murmured,「I didn’t make it . 」

Ah, she was talking about the food .

Basically, she didn’t come to see me, but my food .

「I have more, you know . 」

「Really?!」

I took out more anpan and other red bean paste breads, while Anju-san prepared some tea for Eleanora-san . She then noticed that Princess Flora started to get sleepy after eating her fill, and brought her to bed .

Princess Flora was still grasping the Swaying Bear plushie in her arms, of course .

After Anju-san tucked in Princess Flora, I took out some bread for her as well .

「Yuna-chan, so you came here to bring the plushies for Princess Flora, huh . 」

Eleanora-san looked at the plushie the queen was holding .

「I did promise her, after all . They were intended as a present from the beginning . I also gave a set to Noa, so don’t worry . 」

「Thank you . That girl… She just couldn’t stop looking at the ones you gave Misana . 」

Yeah, her eyes had certainly been glued to them back then .

She had been very happy when she received her own, but she did still intend to commission more…

I was becoming a bit worried about Noa’s future . I wanted to believe that I had nothing to do with her bear obsession… Yeah, I couldn’t take responsibility for this .

Anyway, without the king here, it was much quieter .

I was sure that the soldier at the gate ran off to report that I arrived, but the king was still absent .

「Eleanora-san, is His Majesty not coming today?」

I asked Eleanora-san as she was eating the anpan .

「Today is a little busy . Since we are still dealing with “that case”, Zangu and Prince Elnart won’t let him run off . 」

Eleanora-san managed to escape, though .

“That case” was most certainly referring to the one involving the toad family .

Would she tell me how the case was going if I asked her?

「It wasn’t just the kidnapping of Misa and the merchant’s children . Gerardo Salbert committed many other crimes . We are still investigating and questioning witnesses plus those otherwise related . We have many issues to resolve before we can make the final judgement . 」

Before I even asked, Eleanora-san explained the situation to me .

Was it okay to tell me, though?

「That means he’s going to be found guilty, right?」

「We already have irrefutable proof against him; there’s no way he’ll be able to talk his way out of this . 」

I had figured that if nobles committed crimes, they did so in a roundabout way and used their power to hide their connections to them, but it looked like everything was properly coming out in the open now .

He had kidnapped children; it would bother me a lot if they didn’t punish him for such a vile act .

Not to mention all the other evil crimes he had committed .

「Gerardo really did as he pleased…」

Eleanora-san then proceeded to talk about his illegal dealings with merchants, the threats he made, as well as the violence he committed .

She was being quite vague, but it sounded like he was also a murderer .

The maid, Ruufa-san, had mentioned something about a room in the basement, but Eleanora-san didn’t say anything about it .

「The Salbert family will be stripped off their noble status, that much is sure . 」

So it did come to that, huh . Based on all the crimes they had committed, would that be the only punishment?

Anyway, he could no longer be a lord without his noble status, right?

I decided to ask Eleanora-san about that .

「That’s right . The Faren Gramm family will now govern all of Sheelin town . 」

Gran-san must be relieved, then, as his family would no longer get harassed .

Still, I couldn’t help but worry about the toad family returning even after losing their noble status .

I didn’t know how the punishment system worked in this country, but if they returned to Sheelin, wasn’t it possible they would go after Misa out of resentment?

Eleanora-san tilted her head at my question .

「They will be forced to forfeit all their assets . Gerardo will also receive the death penalty while his son will be taken in by relatives in the capital . 」

I was shocked when I heard about the death penalty and couldn’t find anything to respond to that .

Well, he had it coming .

In this case, Misa should be relatively safe since the son would be staying in the capital, far away from her .

I was still concerned about the spite he had against Misa . What if he tried to kidnap or harass her again, even from that distance?

「That should be fine as Randall can never enter Sheelin for the rest of his life . Also, the people who are taking him in will be keeping a close watch on him . Even if Randall is an idiot, his relatives know that being negligent in their surveillance will put themselves in trouble as well . 」

That was good to hear .

That kid would surely try something from the shadows with the terrible personality he had .

He might try something like ordering an adventurer to attack Misa, but without any money or status, he shouldn’t be able to do that .

Now, it all depended on his relatives to keep him reined in .

I was curious about the adventurer who kidnapped Misa, so I asked about him, too .

「He is still under investigation since he may have committed other crimes, too . 」

That was all she knew .

「That reminds me, has Gran-san returned home yet?」

He had to go to the capital, if I remembered correctly .

「I should probably tell you . Lord Gran will be stepping down as lord, and his son, Leonardo, will take his place in governing Sheelin town . 」

「Really?」

「He is holding himself responsible for everything that happened . Not only did his own grandchild get kidnapped, the merchants he worked with had suffered as well, so he decided to relinquish his position . 」

「But none of that was Gran-san’s fault . 」

He shouldn’t feel bad since the Salbert family had been the one causing all the trouble .

Well, he should have had some countermeasure to prevent such things from happening, though . .

He and his family had almost been the one ruined, from what I had heard .

There would always be some trouble between neighbors, but it was a big deal when it came to a conflict between two lords .

「Even so, it was a good time to pass the position to his son . It was his decision to make, and we can only respect it . 」

That was true . Cliff, who was around the same age as Leonardo, was also a lord . If Gran-san had already made his decision, there was nothing we could do about it .

「Also, Gran-san is happy with his newfound freedom . He plans on bringing Misana over to your shop in near future . 」

What an energetic grandpa he was .

I must make sure to welcome them when they come .

I had been here for quite a while now . . Since I had already given Princess Flora her present and even found out what would happen to the toad family, I decided to head home .

When I reached my Bear House, I noticed somebody collapsed against my door .

Wait, why would somebody pass out on my house?!

「Are you okay?!」

When I took a closer look, I noticed that the person had very long, pointy ears . It was an elven girl with light green hair .