Chapter 219: 219

As we moved forward, I noticed that the Elf Village was quite a large settlement . That elf from earlier had also seemed to tell the villagers about us coming, because a few of them had already gathered ahead of time and were waiting for us, most likely to greet us . As we entered, I thought that they would be focusing on Sanya-san, who hadn’t come home in ten years, but they all seemed to stare at my Bears and me instead . Their eyes sparkled like those of excited children as they looked at my Bears . Then, an elf, who looked like a human in his forties would, stepped forward .

「Sanya, it’s been awhile . 」

「It indeed has, Grandpa . 」

「Ruimin, thank you for bringing Sanya back to the village . 」

Ruimin looked very happy when the man told her that .

Even though Sanya-san had called him Grandpa, he didn’t look that old at all . He looked more like an uncle . If their grandpa looked this young, I couldn’t imagine how much younger their parents looked . What a fearsome race the elves were .

「Sanya, Ruimin!」

「Mother!」

An elven lady who the elf sisters called their mother appeared from behind the crowd . She was thin and had long, beautiful hair . Did elves exist just to pick a fight with the human race? She also appeared rather young and similar enough to the elf sisters that one might assume she was actually their elder sister . It felt really weird hearing them call her mother . The same with grandpa: it would make much more sense to me if the had called him father .

「Father-in-law, wouldn’t it be best if we discussed everything tomorrow? They’ve only just arrived and from such a far-away place no less . 」

「I wouldn’t mind that, but I would appreciate if they at least introduced our guests first . 」

お爺ちゃん（長）がわたしとくまゆるたちを見る。だから、必然的に他のエルフの目もわたしに向けられる。

これは自己紹介をしろってことなのかな？

わたしが口を開こうとしたら、先にお爺さんが口を開いた。

The grandpa (chief) looked at me and the bears . That shifted the attention of the villagers towards us as well .

Is this the part where I do a self-introduction?

I was about to speak, but the grandpa spoke first .

Their grandpa, or better in this case the village elder, said and looked at me and my Bears, which shifted the attention of all the villagers towards us as well . Was this the part where I had to introduce myself? As I was about to do so, however, their grandpa did it first .

「My name is Mumuroot, and the chief of this village . You may have already heard, but I’m also Ruimin and Sanya’s grandfather . 」

「I’m Yuna, an adventurer . I asked Sanya-san to bring me along on this trip . I will do my best not to get in your way, so please let me stay here for this short while . 」

In order to make a good first impression, I gave a polite introduction . Still, I wasn’t sure how well it went through since I was wearing a Bear Suit .

「Are those your bears, young lady?」

He said, glancing at Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear .

「Yes, they’re my summoned beasts . 」

「Summoned beasts, you say…」

「They won’t do anything to harm you, and neither will I, at least as long as you don’t attack us first . 」

After I explained that, I decided to unsummon Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear for now . The villagers let out surprised gasps, and I even heard some children saying 「The Bear-sans disappeared . 」in sad voices .

「I see . If you yourself feel in any danger, you may deal with it accordingly . 」

So, if I understood correctly, they would let me be as long as they knew I wasn’t a danger, and we were even allowed to retaliate if somebody tried to attack us .

「Sanya-san, please look after the guests for me . 」

「Yes, of course . 」

「Yuna, right? You traveled far to get here, so we will treat you like an official guest . 」

It looked like everything would be fine as nobody seemed to have any hostility towards my Bears or me . I had been worried about them driving me out, but it seemed like it was all for naught .

「Sanya, please do come to my home tomorrow morning . 」

「Okay, I will . 」

Mumuroot-san then turned around and left . Some of the villagers went with him, while a few others stayed to talk to Sanya-san . Ruimin quickly used the chance and started chatting with her mother, which kind of left me to myself . I took a quick look around the area before going to join Ruimin and her mother .

「Yuna-san, this is our mother . 」

「Hello, my name is Talia . Thank you for taking care of my daughters . 」

She was even more beautiful up close . I would have never imagined that she could be a mother of two .

「I’m Yuna and I work as an adventurer . Sanya-san has also taken care of me a great deal . 」

「You’re so polite . If I may ask, is your outfit something normal at the capital?」

Talia-san asked me immediately . I shouldn’t leave her in dark and had to reveal the truth .

「That’s right . Everybody wears one . 」

「Yuna-san! Please don’t lie to Mother like that . She has never left the village before, so she’ll believe your every word . Mother, please ignore what she just said; there’s nobody else out there that dresses like her . 」

I tried my best to joke about the outfit, but it got shot down instantly . It wasn’t really a complete lie, though, as the workers at my shop wore similar outfits . Therefore, I wasn’t the only one dressed like a bear .

「Oh my, is that so? It looks so cute, too . I was even thinking about getting a set made for you, Ruimin . Too bad it isn’t popular . 」

「I don’t need something like that; it’s too embarrassing . 」

She just said she didn’t need an outfit like mine and even claimed it was too embarrassing to wear . So, that was how she had been looking at me this entire time .

「It’s only cute on Yuna-san . 」

It didn’t feel like she was actually trying to flatter me .

「Fufu, Sanya brought back such an interesting young lady with her . Please tell me more at our home; you must be tired out from such a long journey, after all . 」

Once Sanya-san was free, all four of us headed for their their home . Ruimin hadn’t seen her mother in quite a while, so she was happily walking next to her . Sanya-san was lagging a bit behind even though she had already finished talking to her acquaintances . Shouldn’t Sanya act more like Ruimin? Sanya had been away for longer than Ruimin had . Maybe she would be embarrassed to do so due to her age? Pondering on whether that really was the right reason, we arrived at a house, which I immediately noticed was a bit bigger than the ones around it .

「Our house is a bit cramped, but please make yourself at home . 」

Wasn’t saying that a bit insulting to the other houses? Compared to them, their house seemed quite large . Well, maybe there were a lot of people living inside? Ruimin opened the door and went in first .

「I’m home!」

「Onee-chan?」

As we entered as well, I noticed a young elf child peeked out from one of the rooms inside . They had short hair, so I was pretty sure he was a boy and not a girl . Although, if he grew his hair out, he could easily look like a pretty girl .

「Luca, I’m home . 」

「Onee-chan!」

Luca immediately ran over to Ruimin when she called his name .

「Did you watch over the house properly? You haven’t bothered Mother with any selfish requests, have you?」

「No, I’ve been a good kid . 」

Luca said happily and hugged Ruimin tightly, who in return patted him on the head . He looked about seven maybe eight years old . Since he called Ruimin Onee-chan, he must be her younger brother . They did look quite alike . Just as I had thought that, though, Sanya-san said something unbelievable .

「Ruimin, who is that?」

Sanya-san asked while looking at the young elf .

「He’s our little brother, Luca . 」

「He was born after you left, so it makes sense for you not to know him . 」

Obviously, since Sanya-san hadn’t come for over ten years, she couldn’t know him . She was the one in the wrong here, not returning home for so long . Although, they hadn’t bothered contacting her, either…

「Why didn’t you tell me we got a younger brother?」

「We thought it would be okay to just tell you when you came home . Also, we didn’t really know how to contact you . 」

「You could have just told the Adventurer’s Guild . 」

「Oh, really?」

Sanya-san sighed, seemingly having given up on them . Anyway, it really did seem that her family had gained an additional member without telling her and for several years no less . Luca let go of Ruimin and looked at me .

「There’s a Bear-san and someone I don’t know . Who are they, Onee-chan?」

By Bear-san, he was referring to me, which meant he called Sanya-san a stranger . Sanya-san looked a bit hurt when he said that . Well, it was her fault for not coming back for ten years even though her family really should have let her know about him .

「The Bear-san’s name is Yuna-san . That other person is our big sister . Remember when we told you we have another big sister?」

「Onee-chan?」

Sanya-san stepped in front of Luca, and bent down to meet his gaze .

「Um, Luca, right? It’s nice to meet you, I guess? I’m Sanya, Ruimin’s big sister, which makes me your big sister, too . I’d be happy if you kept calling me Onee-chan from her on out . 」

Luca seemed a bit troubled with the explanation, and looked at Sanya-san, embarrassed .

「Sanya-oneechan?」

「Yes . 」

Now that Luca had recognized her as his big sister, Sanya-san looked much happier . I wasn’t at all jealous, though, as I had many little brothers and sisters that called me Onee-chan back in Crimonia . I sure hoped they were all doing okay . Maybe I should call Fina over the Bear Phone tonight to let her know what what I had been up to .

Sanya-san took some time to pat Luca’s head then headed deeper into the house, looking through the rooms as she walked .

「I didn’t think I would be getting a little brother . Luca, how old are you?

」

「Nine years old . 」

「Yes, and that’s why I’ve been saying you haven’t been home for over ten years . 」

Yeah, we had a clear proof of that here . There could be no better evidence than a 9-year-old younger brother she hadn’t met before .

「Well, it’s great he’s here now . At least we’ll have a chief in the future . 」

「Oh right, you left the village because you didn’t want to become the next chief, right, Onee-chan?」

So, that was why she had left the village .

「That’s not really why I left; I just wanted to see the outside world . 」

「If that’s the case, Sanya, did you plan on ever returning, considering you had been gone for the last ten years without coming back even once?」

Talia-san scolded her while placing some drinks on a tray and bringing them over . Ruimin quickly jumped to her help, and distributed cups to everybody .

「Mother…」

「How about it? Have you thought about settling down and starting a family?」

「No, marriage is still too early for me . Besides, I’m having fun with my job right now . 」

While us humans couldn’t simply wait like that, it made sense for the elves to think of it more freely, as they did indeed live longer lives .

「Does that mean, I’ll have to wait for another fifty years or so?」

Wait, fifty year was too long . Or I guess that’s just the elves’ sense of time .

「Well, since Luca is now here, I don’t need to have children, do I?」

「That may be true, but I’d like to have some grandchildren soon . If I have to wait for Luca, that would be another hundred years . 」

Like I said, that was way too long .

「He could have kids earlier than that, no?」

「No way, I couldn’t give him up to a bride so soon . 」

I most likely shouldn’t even bother trying to add anything to this conversation .

「Okay, well then, you still have Ruimin . 」

「Onee-chan! Don’t drag me into this!」

「Do you think she will even be able to get married?」

「Uuu, Mother, you’re horrible . 」

「It’s okay, I’ll marry you, Onee-chan . 」

「Thank you, Luca!」

Ruimin hugged her younger brother .

「Siblings can’t get married, though . So he will have to marry me instead . 」

「Mother, you can’t marry him, either!」

Sanya-san yelled at her mother . Without Sanya-san, there wouldn’t be a straight man in this crazy family conversation . Ruimin should be on her side, but instead, she kept saying things that made it even worse…

Author’s Note:

Volume 3 of the book is in the works .

Chapter 57 was awful to rewrite . Yuna looked for an inn, went to the Commerce Guild, went to the barracks, and even build a Bear House with a flower bed, all in one day…

Anyway, Sanya-san’s family has finally made its appearance . Hopefully they will make it to the chief’s house in the next chapter?