Chapter 206: 206

Chapter 206 – Bear-san is Heading to the Elf Village

「Eh? Yuna-chan, you want to go to the Elf Village?」

「Yes, but if outsiders aren’t allowed or if I would get in the way…」

I remembered that elves were often quite territorial in games, manga, and anime . They would frequently attack any outsiders who entered their lands . For example, if someone stepped into their forest, they would be met by an arrow shooting past their head . When they would look where it came from, they would notice an elf on top of a tree who would say something like, 「Turn back now or the next arrow won’t miss!」If visiting the village would cause trouble for the two of them, I would sadly have to give up .

「No, that’s not the case . Elves are cautious of strangers, but it should be perfectly fine if we accompany you . The problem is that the Elf Village is quite deep in the mountains, so it’s difficult for a normal person to get there . 」

I had my Bear Suit, so I could walk as much as I wanted without getting tired . I also had my Bears, which had no trouble traversing through rough terrain . Yeah, it shouldn’t be an issue for me .

Hmm, hadn’t I just been leaving everything to my Bears lately?

「Also, since coming with us won’t be considered a part of an official escort request, there will be no reward, nor will it have any effect on your ranking . 」

She looked quite surprised when I told her I didn’t need any rewards . I only wanted to see the Elf Village .

「Although I’m glad you said that, Yuna-chan, I must tell you that there’s nothing interesting to see in the village . 」

Of course an elf would think that, but to other people, an Elf Forest would surely be a mystical place . There could be many interesting things such as hidden treasures or precious medicinal plants that could only be found there . In fantasy stories, elven villages were always depicted as important destinations, and now that I was in fantasy world myself, I just had to visit an elven village at least once .

Yeah, this would be my otherworldly sightseeing tour .

Since Sanya-san gave me her permission, I wanted to immediately go and prepare for the trip . That was until Ruimin dashed my hopes .

「Onee-chan, do you really plan on bringing Yuna-san along with us?!」

Ruimin looked at Sanya-san in shock .

So, Ruimin was against me travelling to the village, huh .

I really wanted her to be on board, though . She most likely just thought I would slow them down .

「It’s too far for her; she’s still small . 」

She shouldn’t call me small when I was just about the same size as her, even in that certain area .

Still, it seemed she was against the idea of me going since she was worried about my safety .

「Ruimin, you do realize we are about the same height . 」

「Yes, we may be the same size, but Yuna-san, you’re not an elf . It would be too dangerous for you . 」

I appreciated the fact that Ruimin was concerned about me, but she was just worrying needlessly here .

「Too dangerous for Yuna-chan, huh . 」

Sanya-san mumbled to herself and looked at me .

Why did she look at me like that? Well, I did understand what she was implying, but still .

For now, I needed to convince Ruimin to change her mind .

「Ruimin, you don’t have to worry so much . I’m an adventurer, so I can protect myself . 」

「You’re an adventurer?」

She looked at me with a doubting expression .

It was the usual treatment; people found it hard to believe that a girl in a bear suit could be an adventurer .

Sanya-san came to my rescue, however-

「She may be wearing a weird outfit, but she is an excellent C rank adventurer and won’t get in our way . 」

I couldn’t argue against the ‘weirdly dressed’ part, but it still made me depressed . Couldn’t she have put it a bit nicer?

「Rank C… you’re not fooling anyone, you know?」

「I’m not lying, though . 」

What if I showed her my guild card?

She might think it was fake, though .

「Yuna-san, the trip will be very long and full of danger . You won’t be able to just come back in a few days time . Vicious monsters could attack you at any moment, plus it often rains in the mountains . And, it isn’t just monsters… some humans might try to trick you along the road . 」

Only now could I better understand the hardships Ruimin had gone through to get to the capital .

I almost wanted to pat her head and tell her,「You really worked hard, didn’t you?」

Although, I didn’t see how it would be difficult for me as I could set up the Bear House for shelter from the rain and take down any monsters that came in my way . Of course, I also knew that some humans could be quite bad, but I would most likely simply outsmart them . I did notice a raise in pitch when she mentioned getting tricked by humans… Or, maybe it was just me .

「If you’re so worried, Ruimin, couldn’t you protect Yuna-chan? You must have gotten stronger since we last met . 」

Sanya-san gave us her suggestion with a shadow of evil smile on her face .

Ruimin just stared at me for a while, looking slightly concerned, and took her time to think before responding .

「I understand, Onee-chan . I’ll protect her, but promise me you will protect her on your way back . 」

The mood had gotten kinda weird towards the end, but at least Ruimin agreed to me accompanying them to the village .

Although I was happy Ruimin was concerned about me, I was far more worried about her . Ever since I found her passed out in front of my house, I had an inkling that she was a bit of an airhead . She was worried about me, but to me it seems that her going by herself was a much worse of an idea .

「Okay, let’s set a date of departure, then . 」

Sanya-san looked through everything she had to take care of and proposed a date .

「Onee-chan, how do you plan on getting there? Are we going by carriage?」

Carriages were a pain . Not to mention that they were slow . We should at least go by horseback, but I figured Ruimin probably suggested a carriage for my sake .

「Ruimin, how did you get here?」

「I got partway by stagecoach then walked the rest . 」

Stagecoaches were a means of travel between towns, and you had to pay a fee to travel to a specific destination .

They would be the equivalent of trains or buses in my former world .

Here, however, you could also pay extra for guards; I saw such requests on the guild boards sometimes . They were quite rare, though, as they were most often long term .

「That would be an option, but… Yuna-chan, can I leave transportation to you?」

Sanya-san looked a little worried and asked me to handle it instead .

Although she didn’t say anything, she seemed to be hinting towards using Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear .

Because I had no problem with that, I simply nodded .

This meant the trip would be a lot faster as my Bears outstretched the carriage by miles .

Having decided the date and transportation method, we made a promise to meet up at the Adventurer’s Guild on the day of departure .

Done with the conversation, I immediately went back to Crimonia to tell Fina and Terumi-san that I would be away for a while .

「Be careful, Yuna-oneechan . 」

「If anything happens, contact me through your Bear Phone, okay?」

I was always worried about Fina and the others, so like usual, I told her to contact me if anything occurred, so that I could immediately return using my Bear Gate .

「Yuna-chan, you are very strong, and you have Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan, but try to stay safe and come home soon, okay? The children get worried about you when you don’t show up for a while . Also, Fina and Shuri get lonely easily . 」

I promised Terumi-san that I would come back soon .

I didn’t plan on staying in the Elf Village for long, anyway .

I was really happy that I had people who worried about me in this world . I had never experienced this feeling in my former world .

If there was any trouble, I would always just set up the Bear Gate at the village and return immediately .

The only problem was that I would have to somehow explain the door to Sanya-san and Ruimin…

On the day of departure, I left for the Adventurer’s Guild just as the sun was just beginning to rise . Ugh, I was so sleepy . I didn’t think it would be necessary to leave this early, but they had told me it was so we could beat the morning rush at the gates .

Now that I thought about it, the gates at the capital were always crowded .

I stifled a yawn .

Well, leaving early wasn’t so bad; the streets were nearly deserted, so there weren’t any people staring or point at me for being a ‘weird, bear-suit-wearing girl’ .

There were still some people walking about who got surprised upon seeing me, but I just ignored them, as usual .

When I arrived at the front of the Adventurer’s Guild, Sanya-san and Ruimin were already waiting for me there .

「Goo… good morning」

I had accidently yawned while greeting them .

「Yuna-chan, you look sleepy . 」

「That’s because I had to wake up so early this morning . 」

Normally, I would have slept for another hour or two .

I didn’t understand why we couldn’t leave later in the day; it wasn’t like we were in a rush to get there . Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear could travel at a really high pace, so it shouldn’t take us too long to get there . Also, if we ever needed to return to the capital, I could always just pull up my Bear Gate . I could understand why someone like Fina had to wake up so early due to her dismantling job, but why did I have to?

「You two don’t seem to be sleepy at all, though . 」

「We’re elves, so it’s natural for us to wake up at sunrise . 」

Ruimin immediately shut down Sanya-san’s declaration .

「What are you saying, Onee-chan!? If I didn’t wake you up, you would still be sleeping right now . No matter how many times I tried to get you out of bed, you just wouldn’t wake up . Also, weren’t you yawning just a minute ago?」

She exposed her .

That meant I could also yawn all I wanted, right?

I stopped holding back and let out another yawn .

I would take a nap on top of Swaying Bear or Hugging Bear once we got out of here .

「Today was a special occasion! I had to stay up late to finish my work yesterday, so I had a hard time waking up in the morning . It’s not like I normally wake up so late . 」

So, she was yawning for a different reason, then .

「Yuna-san, are we traveling by horse or carriage?」

Ruimin asked me out of the blue .

Emm, was I expected to have prepared some form of special transportation to get us out of the city?

Both Sanya-san and I looked at Ruimin with puzzled faces .

「Didn’t Onee-chan ask you to take care of transportation the other day? I had thought that you were going to arrange us a carriage or at least some horses . Could it be that I was wrong? Did you maybe get us a stagecoach instead?」

I glanced at Sanya-san, I saw she was giggling to herself .

It looked like she hadn’t told Ruimin about my Bears . She must like to tease her little sister every so often .

「Ruimin, no need to worry . Yuna-chan has a way for us to get to the Elf Village . 」

「Really?」

She said and looked at me, so I nodded .

I did have a mode of transportation, after all .

「Should we head out, then?」

Having nothing else to discuss, we headed to the gates .

Ruimin didn’t seem entirely convinced, though .

Author’s note:

We finally depart in the next chapter!