Chapter 221

Author’s Note:

Happy New Year!

Please treat me and the Bears kindly this year as well .

The next day, after having a quick breakfast with Sanya-san, we headed over to where the Village Elder, Mumuroot-san, lived .

She was planning on getting more information on the barrier’s situation while also asking for permission to place the Bear House somewhere near the village .

As we were walking, a group of people noticed Sanya-san and approached us .

「Sanya, we heard you came back yesterday . So, that’s the rumored girl who is dressed like a bear, huh?」

They all looked at me, I greeted them with a small nod .

「The bears aren’t here, though?」

「They are summoned beasts, so…」

As Sanya-san continued to chat with them, we eventually made it to Mumuroot-san’s house .

It wasn’t that far from Sanya-san’s home and was just about the same size .

Still, with only his wife and him living there…

「Grandpa, we’re here!」

Sanya-san entered without even knocking and yelled out to him .

I followed her inside while wondering if entering like this was really okay .

There was no response from anybody inside, but Sanya-san, not minding that one bit, headed straight through the house and entered a room in the back .

I continued to follow behind her, of course, thinking this must be something standard in villages like these .

Inside the room, Mumuroot-san was sitting on a large carpet, cross-legged . Sitting next to him, was a female elf .

「Oh, Sanya, you’re here . And I see Young Bear Lady from yesterday came along as well . 」

「I’m home, Grandma . 」

Sanya-san called the female elf ‘grandma’, but she looked nowhere near that age . No matter how I looked, she seemed like she was in her forties .

The female elf smiled, and spoke up .

「Welcome home, Sanya . So, the Young Bear Lady over there is the rumored one, huh . 」

「I’m Yuna . 」

I greeted her with a light bow .

「I can’t believe that you actually are dressed like a bear . Oh, let me prepare some tea first . 」

The grandma (who looked nothing like one) stood up and went to a different room .

「By the way, Sanya, would you mind telling me why the Young Bear Lady came with you today?」

As it was concerning me, I began to explain why .

「You want to live in this village?」

「Yuna-chan owns a transportable house and would like permission to set it up here . 」

I would at least like the permission to place it temporarily .

It would be difficult to give a reason for why I wanted to set it down permanently as I couldn’t really say that I wanted to set a house down even though I wasn’t planning to live here .

「Is Sanya’s home not comfortable enough for you?」

「No, of course it is . It’s just that having my house would be more convenient for me . 」

I couldn’t find a good time to use the Bear Phone yesterday, so I hadn’t contacted Fina yet .

Also, not being able to take a bath left me really uncomfortable, so I would really like to bring out my Bear House while I was here at least .

「It doesn’t matter to me if it’s near the village or somewhere in the forest, but could you please let me set one up?」

Mumuroot-san scratched his chin while thinking about my request .

I actually hoped I could set it up near the border of the barrier rather than somewhere in the village . Especially if I was going to set it down permanently, I would prefer a place that didn’t stand out .

Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself . First, I needed to get permission to set down the house .

「Grandpa, please . Yuna-chan has done a lot for us already . Also, I will take full responsibility if she causes any trouble for the village . 」

I was happy to hear that Sanya-san trusted me so much . I didn’t plan on causing trouble for the elves, of course . It would be best to befriend them too, so that I could later get permission to place a Bear House here permanently .

「I understand . However, I will only allow it while you are staying in the village . 」

「Thank you, Grandpa . 」

I got permission to place it, but only while staying here .

Even with Sanya-san asking, we could only get permission temporarily, meaning that setting one up for a long period of time would most likely be difficult .

「Thank you very much . 」

I thanked him as he did at least give me temporary permission .

「So, where can I place it?」

「As long as you don’t trouble the neighbors and they are okay with it, anywhere is fine . 」

「Okay . 」

Since the conversation was now finished, I thanked Mumuroot-san again and got up to leave, but he stopped me .

「Wait, my wife is preparing tea . I would also like to hear about what Sanya has done at the capital . It won’t take long, so please stay for a while longer . 」

「Are you sure? Don’t you have to talk about some important things?」

「It’s okay . I don’t think you’ll understand those even if you listen in . 」

I wasn’t sure if he was saying I was too stupid to understand, or if it was something only elves could understand .

Well, he said it was okay for me to stay, so I would take up on his offer; I was quite interested in the barrier anyway .

Sanya’s (not so old-looking) grandma soon brought us some tea and fruits, so I helped myself to them while also listening in on their conversation .

「So, how much have you heard so far, Sanya?」

「Just a few things Ruimin and Mother told me . 」

Huh? It suddenly got really hard to comprehend what the two were saying .

I had properly cleaned out my ears, so that couldn’t be why .

I tried shaking my head to focus, even though that most likely wouldn’t really help .

「I see . Only a few people know about this, but there’s been quite a lot of monsters breaking through the barrier recently . 」

「Quite a lot you say?!」

I could understand them just fine now .

Maybe I should clean my ears once I got home .

Anyway, it appeared that monsters were indeed getting through the barrier .

「Yeah, and that’s why Labilata and the others are on high alert . They were guarding the area until you came back . 」

Oh, so it wasn’t because I looked suspicious .

I kind of felt bad for saying that their shadowing had been disturbing .

Wait, Sanya-san had said that, not me .

「Is the situation really that bad?」

「The only monsters that are getting through are low level ones for now . Still, even though we haven’t had any stronger monsters come in yet, with the barrier getting weaker, I believe it’s only a matter of time . 」

What sort of monsters did they mean by stronger than low level ones?

Were they talking about orc-level or higher?

「By the way, what exactly is causing the barrier to weaken? I thought it was going to be fine for another hundred years . 」

Mumuroot-san shook his head .

「I don’t know . It’s possible that something happened to the Sacred Tree . 」

A Sacred Tree? What was that, something like Yggdrasil? The conversation suddenly started to sound like that of a fantasy world .

I wanted to see it, but I would most likely not be allowed to .

(TL note: Norse Mythology, anybody?)

「Has anyone checked on the Sacred Tree?」

「Sadly, as you know, only those related to us by blood can enter it . There are only me, Aruturu, Ruimin, Luca, and you . Luca is still a child and I also can’t leave it to Ruimin yet . That’s why I called for you . 」

Did this have something to do with the thing that needed three people?

Now that I thought about it, this barrier was rather inconvenient .

Well, at least they had long lives and no one passed away yet . Still, what would happen if they all passed away?

「The three of us will go check on it tomorrow, so you should prepare yourself . 」

「Okay . 」

Sanya-san said and nodded .

「By the way, why did you bring the Young Bear Lady all the way to the village?」

「She said she wanted to see what kind of place the elves lived in . 」

「Such a reason doesn’t sound too suspicious, but you’re sure she’s safe, right?」

Was he still doubting my intentions?

Well, I did look kind of suspicious with my Bear Suit and all .

Still, people normally wouldn’t talk about somebody like that when they were right in front of them…

「Yuna-chan may look weird, but she’s a really good child . She’s helped me out lots, and even took care of Ruimin, too . She came here because she was genuinely interested in this place . 」

「I see . If you’re going that far to defend her, I guess you must be right . 」

「You can trust her, but still stay cautious, okay?」

「Cautious, huh . 」

Mumuroot-san’s expression changed when she said that .

What was she trying to say? Didn’t that make me sound even more suspicious?

「Yuna-chan can do very bizzare things from time to time, so try not to get too thrown off by what she does . 」

Sanya-san said while laughing .

Were the things I did really that bizarre… When I tried to think of the things I normally did… Maybe it was true?

「Bizarre, huh . I’ll keep my guard up, then . 」

After saying that, Mumuroot-san looked at me .

「Sorry for talking between ourselves for so long . 」

「Yeah, sorry, Yuna-chan . We ended up talking between ourselves, and kind of ignored you . 」

The two of them apologized .

「It’s okay . 」

At the very least, they should talk about me when I wasn’t there next time .

Also, was it really okay for me to listen to a conversation like that? Wouldn’t I normally not be allowed to hear such things?

Not even the other elves knew about the situation .

Well, I didn’t really care much as I didn’t live here .

「Still, were you not surprised, Yuna-chan?」

「About what?」

「We were speaking in the elven language . Usually people get surprised by that . 」

「…」

What did she say just now? The elven language?

「Usually, we speak the common language in the village, but when we want to speak privately we use the elven language . 」

「Yes . The conversation was concerning the village, so I apologize for leaving you out of it . 」

「…」

In other words, they were speaking to each other in the elven language this whole time .

That was why they had talked about me like that; it was because they thought that I wouldn’t understand what they were saying .

Did I understand them because of my Language Of The Other World skill? It must have activated for elven language as well .

Oh, and that was why Mumuroot-san had said I wouldn’t be able to understand their conversation .

Normal humans couldn’t understand the elven language .

Hmm, I should probably pretend like I really hadn’t understood a thing .

「By the way, Young Bear Lady . I would like to hear about what Sanya did while she was in the capital . Was she working properly?」

Afterwards, I began to talk about Sanya-san’s work, being interrupted by Sanya-san many times, asking me to stop it .

I also learned that the grandma was called Vena-san mid-conversation .

Author’s Note:

I finally managed to get to this topic . w

When I thought of the Language Of The Other World skill, I figured it should be able to translate the language of every race, so I wrote that here .

It only works for standardized languages, though, so it won’t work with monsters or animals .