Chapter 222

Talking about Sanya-san’s work took a long time, so I ended up being treated to lunch after it . I was served some mushroom soup and vegetable dishes, which were all delicious . The same dishes were sold in Crimonia, but they weren’t nearly as tasty as these . I wondered if they would sell me the ingredients if I asked them . Then, I could make things like mushroom pizza, plus all sorts of different dishes . Still, I didn’t know if the Elf Village would accept my money . Since they mentioned merchants were coming here from time to time, I figured it should be possible, but I should probably look into it a bit more first . If they wouldn’t take my money, then I could probably just trade other stuff I had for their ingredients, but to do that I would need the Bear Gate set up .

As for the other thing I thought about during the lunch: I really hadn’t thought my Language Of The Other World skill would be able to translate the elven language . Did this mean I would be able to understand the languages of all other races as well? I didn’t know how many foreign languages there were in this world, but the skill sure was useful . On the other hand, I was rather glad it at least didn’t work on monsters and animals . If I understood what they were saying, I wouldn’t be able to subjugate them . If they begged me for mercy, I would surely have buckled and let them live .

After we ate lunch, Sanya-san kept chatting for a while, and then we finally left the house . Sanya-san said that she needed to greet some of her acquaintances, and left me on my own soon after . Well, since she hadn’t returned home in ten years, that much seemed necessary .

「I’m worried about leaving you alone, so try not to disturb anyone, okay?」

Hadn’t she just told the Village Elder earlier that she believed in me? Also, I never tried to intentionally cause a commotion . It was always somebody else that brought the trouble to me, and I couldn’t prevent that from happening, so it wasn’t really my fault . On the other hand, she could at least warn them not to come after me .

After Sanya-san left me on my own, I simply wandered around the village for a while . It didn’t look like there were any shops around, so I couldn’t even buy any elven products . Well, the people living here looked like they were completely self-sufficient, and would only trade items if necessary, so it appeared that shops were quite unnecessary . I decided to head back to Sanya-san’s house while thinking of a place to put the Bear House . Once I got there, Ruimin and Luca were standing outside, surrounded by some elf children . I had a very bad feeling about this . Once the children noticed me, their expressions seemed to light up, but it could also just be my imagination .

「Yuna-san…」

Ruimin looked at me with a troubled expression .

「Um, Ruimin, what’s going on?」

「Yuna-san, I’m sorry . 」

Ruimin took a deep bow before explaining the situation .

Ruimin had been boasting about Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear to Luca (something about how nice their fur felt and how cute and kind they were) .

Luca had then passed that on to the other children (and somehow the explanation had got blown even more out of proportion) .

That left the children desperately wanting to meet the Bears, so they had gathered here .

What were these siblings even doing…? Well, while it was indeed better than giving the children a negative image of the bears (like they were dangerous and scary), overpraising them was troublesome, too . Of course the children would want to meet my Bears after hearing that, and in no way could I send them away when they were looking at me like that . Well, it was probably good to leave a good impression of me and my Bears, so I pushed aside the Bear House problem for now and summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear . I would prefer to have the impressions of adult elves improve, but having the children on my side couldn’t hurt . With them on my side, the adults should be less cautious of me and could maybe even teach me how to make the bracelet or let me set up a Bear House here permanently . They may even tell me more about the Sacred Tree… Well, that much might be impossible even if they all liked me .

As I was summoning the Bears, I gave the children a warning .

「You can’t tease or mess with them . If even one of you does so, I will never summon them for any of you ever again . 」

I had no idea how elven children behaved . They could pull on the bears’ fur or maybe even hit them . I would feel bad for Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear if any of that were to happen .

「I’ll keep an eye on them . 」

Ruimin offered to look after them, but was interrupted by screams of joy and some of the children hiding behind her as I had just completed summoning my Bears . I wanted to leave Ruimin to deal with supervising the children while they played with my Bears, but for some reason, a few of them came over to me instead .

「Big Sis, why are you dressed like a bear?」

They asked with a childish innocence . Unlike adults, they had no hidden motives behind the question .

「You see, I receive the protection of Bear-san while wearing this outfit . 」

I wasn’t really lying .

The Bear Suit was so great that it in a way actually ended up being more like a curse .

「Can I get Bear-san’s protection, too?」

「Hmm, that’s going to be hard . You elves already have the protection of the wind, don’t you?」

「I’d rather have Bear-san’s protection than the wind’s . 」

That wasn’t good . If this girl went home and told her parents, 「I don’t need the wind’s protection, I want the Bear-san’s protection instead,」 I would surely get in a lot of trouble . Their impressions of me might even worsen because of that . I hadn’t even accomplished anything in this area yet, and I didn’t want the parents to hate me . I had to convince this elf girl to change her mind .

「That’s no good . You see, for elves, it’s very important that the wind protects them . You wouldn’t want to be the only one not protected by the wind when everybody else is, right? Also, if you want to get the protection of Bear-san, you will have to wear an outfit like mine . What would your mother and father think if you came home wearing this, huh? Not to mention you would be the only one in the village wearing it . 」

I tried my hardest to convince her, but for some reason, it felt like my HP decreased as I did . I started to feel depressed, having made all those comments that kind of degraded me . Finally, the elf girl said, 「Okay, I’ll do my best to get the wind’s protection, then,」 which really relieved me . I really hoped this was worth it, and that the villagers wouldn’t hate me for showing my Bears to the children .

In the end, I didn’t decide on a place to put the Bear House, so I stayed over in Sanya-san’s room again .

The next morning, Sanya-san and Arthur-san left the house early in the morning to head to the Sacred Tree .

Obviously, I couldn’t tell them I wanted to go with them, so I simply sent them off . I left the house soon after to look for a place for the Bear House . Ruimin and Luca wanted to join me, but I politely declined .

I was planning of heading outside the village to find a place for the house . As long as I was within the barrier, it should be safe, and it would be better because the house wouldn’t stand out too much there . If it was just a regular looking house, then I would have been fine having it in the village, but with it having the shape of a bear…

Also, Village Elder Mumuroot-san allowed me to build it wherever I wanted as long as I didn’t bother the neighbours, and didn’t specify that it had to be within the village . That was why I ended up deciding to find a place outside the village bounds . As I walked, I did so as stealthily and quickly as I could since I didn’t want any children to notice or I might cause another scene like yesterday . Once I managed to get out of the village unseen, I started to stroll around leisurely . Maybe there were good spots nearby . For now, I simply walked back to where the bridge was and headed upstream . Only then did I notice that I was leaving my Bear Footprints everywhere, which could prove to be problematic . With monsters breaking through the barrier, I decided to use detection magic and immediately noticed somebody was tailing me . Wasn’t the misunderstanding already cleared up? Or, was I being followed for the sake of protection? I could easily outrun the person, but if I did, it would make me look suspicious . Hmm, I really didn’t know what to do here .

Since I couldn’t think of an answer, I simply continued my way up the riverside . Along the way, I found a waterfall and jumped up on the cliffside like some sort of a ninja . At the top, I was met by beautiful flowers blooming all around . Oh, I just found a very nice spot . It was a good distance from the village, and being on top of a cliff also made it hard to see . The only problem was the elf who was still following me .

I used detection magic again to confirm their exact location . They had also climbed up the cliff and were hiding near a tree, further in . Hmm, what should I do with them? After some worrying, I decided to simply call out to them . If I suddenly took out the Bear House now, the elf might freak out and report something weird back to the village .

「Hey, the elf that’s hiding behind that tree over there, can you come out?」

I called out in the direction of the tree, but got no response . Didn’t just calling out like that make me look stupid? A person, dressed as a bear, talking to what appeared to be thin air . It was an embarrassing sight, no matter how you looked at it .

「Umm… Hello?」

I tried to call out to them again . I really wanted them to come out .

After a few seconds, the elf finally came out from behind the tree .

It seemed to be the elf from yesterday, Labriatt . Well, all the male elves looked similarly handsome to me, so I wasn’t sure . Heck, the entire race was just full of pretty people . I hadn’t really seen Labriatt clearly, so his face did seem familiar as he slowly walked towards me . His eyebrows were indeed slightly angled as he looked at me, so was he maybe mad at me? Labriatt had been quite angry yesterday, so this was probably him .

「When did you notice me?」

When, huh? The moment I used detection magic the first time, but I couldn’t tell him that . Previously I had told him that my summoned Bears noticed him, but this time I couldn’t use that excuse . Ugh, I made a mistake . Lately, I had been making a lot of mistakes .

「Just who are you?」

He questioned me with suspicion . To such a question, I only had one response .

「I’m an adventurer . 」

Not much more I could say .

「Okay, and what exactly are you doing here?」

I must have looked suspicious, wandering around the forest by myself .

「Mumuroot-san gave me permission to build a house, so I was looking for a good place . 」

「The chief did?」

「Yes . My house is kind of special and would stand out if I built it in the village . That’s why I’m looking for a place out here . 」

I answered honestly . I could have lied, but the Village Elder had indeed given me permission, so there shouldn’t be any problem . Besides, Labriatt-san and the other elves would notice it eventually and would report to Mumuroot-san .

「I want to build my house here . Would that be okay?」

I asked him just in case . It could be that this place was actually some very important location for the elves . There were beautiful flowers blooming here, after all, making for a beautiful scenery .

「Yeah, there shouldn’t be any problem with that, but do you really want to build it here?」

「Are we still within the barrier?」

「Yes . 」

「Then it doesn’t matter whether I build it here or in the village, right?」

「That’s true, but haven’t you heard about what’s happened to the barrier?」

「I know that it’s gotten weaker . 」

「That’s right, so monsters have been appearing inside the barrier . I don’t want our guest getting in danger because of it . If you stay in the village, my comrades will be there, so you’ll be safe . 」

It turned out he was actually worried about me . I felt bad for thinking he doubted my intentions .

「My house has special properties, so I’ll be fine . 」

I took out the Bear House from the Bear Box, and placed it right in front of where Labriatt was standing .

「W-what is this?」

「It’s my house . The reason I was looking for a place to put it is because it would stand out too much in the village . 」

Author’s Note:

Right now, my image of the Bear House is a house in the shape of a bear sitting down with both legs out, with doors in its soles . The right side is where the rooms are and the left side is taken up by the storage . . I revised it when editing the chapters for volume three, so that it would be easier to understand .

I also added more about the Bear House in the glossary .