Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

To prove to Sanya-san that teleportation from the village to the Capital was indeed possible, I pulled out my Bear Gate and opened it with my Bear Hand. On the other side was the storage room of my Bear House in the Capital. The three elves looked frightened by the unknown sight.

「What is going on?」

「What’s through there...」

「...」

Mumuroot-san, Sanya, and Ruimin’s eyes were wide open as they stared through the door.

「Is this really connected to the Capital?」

Sanya-san went to the door to look behind it, while Ruimin stared at the door but didn’t attempt to go through.

「Yeah. It’s connected, so all you have to do is go through and see.」

I entered the door first, arriving in the storage room of the Bear House in the capital.

Sanya-san was nervous but followed close behind me, prompting Ruimin and Mumuroot-san to do the same not long after.

「Where is this?」

I never used the storage here personally, but it wasn’t dusty at all. That was because Fina always cleaned up the place nicely after finishing her dismantling jobs, keeping it tidy.

「We’re in the storage room of my house in the capital. I think Sanya-san will recognize where we are if we leave the storage.」

I led everybody out of the storage out into the open to prove that we really were in the capital. Sanya-san immediately recognized her city, while Ruimin also recognized the place where I had found her collapsed on the ground.

As an absolute proof, not far in the distance laid the largest building in the capital, one of a kind in the whole country: the castle of the royal family.

「This really is the capital...」

「I can’t believe it.」

「How is it possible? Here, in an instant...?」

Sanya-san was completely dumbfounded by our surroundings, Ruimin looked all around restlessly, and Mumuroot-san just stood there shocked, his gaze fixated on the castle.

Then, Sanya-san started to slowly walk away, so I grabbed her arm.

「Sanya-san, where are you going?!」

「I’m going to check...」

「You can tell this is the capital just by looking at it, right?」

「That’s true, but...」

While she knew this was the capital, her heart was unable to accept it.

「What if somebody who knows you’re not supposed to be here right now sees you? That would be a big problem.」

It could spell disaster if we just strolled around the capital when we were supposed to be in the Elf Village, so I quickly dragged Sanya-san all the way back inside. Passing through the door, I tapped Ruimin’s shoulder and called out to Mumuroot-san, then led all three of them back into the storage. Not wasting any more time, we all traveled back to Mumuroot-san’s house, where I immediately closed the Bear Gate.

「I can’t believe it....」

Mumuroot-san sat down on the floor cross-legged, deep in thought.

「Yuna-chan, what exactly is this?」

Sanya-san asked, examining the door some more.

「It’s one of the magic tools I own.」

I didn’t know how it worked either, so I decided to just pass it off as a magic tool.

The only other solution would be to honestly explain to them that it was an ability I had received from God, but that would just complicate things even further.

「One of your magic tools?」

「Yup. It’s a magic tool that connects doors together.」

「Yuna-chan, where on earth did you get something like that...」

「Sorry, but that’s as much as I can tell you.」

I couldn’t tell them anything else about the Bear Gate without raising even more questions.

「I can’t tell you much about how I got it.」

「But...」

「Sanya!」

Sanya-san was going to pry further, but Mumuroot-san scolded her.

「The young lady says that she can’t reveal anything else and we have to respect that. We elves also have many things we can’t reveal to others. It’s essentially the same thing with her. Young lady told us what she is willing to, so we should leave it at that. I too want to know how she got such a tool, but even though she is unwilling to share that, I won’t force her to do so nor will I think any differently of her because of it.」

「Grandpa...」

Sanya-san understood what Mumuroot-san was trying to tell her, and conceded the argument. It was clearly very hard for her to hold back all the questions she wanted to ask, but I just couldn’t answer them without bringing up even more troublesome questions even though I knew how she felt.

Sanya-san switched her gaze between Mumuroot-san and me for a while before letting out a small sigh, her expression showing that she gave up for now.

「Okay, I get it. I won’t ask anymore. Also, even if I did know more about it, I would most likely be so scared of it that I wouldn’t be able to sleep. Why did you show us something so incredible? Wouldn’t it be better to keep it to yourself?」

Now, that was a reasonable question to ask.

「The main reason is because I want to be able to come to the Elf Village whenever I want to. Ruimin and Mumuroot-san both know that I travelled here from the Capital, and Ruimin knows how far away the capital is from here. If I were to come to the Elf Village often, people would surely start to get suspicious.」

「Yeah, it would be very suspicious.」

Ruimin nodded, recalling her struggle of traveling to the Capital.

「That’s why I wanted Ruimin and Mumuroot-san to know about this door, so I can come and go anytime I want. If any of the villagers starts to suspect anything, I want you two to fool them to think otherwise.」

I had only done it because they were bound by the magic contract. Without it, there would be no way for me to reveal such a thing.

「What about me?」

「Sanya-san, you’re going back to the capital, right? If I didn’t let you in on the secret, it would have been a problem when I headed back to the capital through the door. Also, if anything bad happens at the Elf Village, you can use the door to rush there right away.」

I hoped nothing as bad as the Parasitic Tree would ever happen again, though.

「Oh right, using your door would mean skipping the travel time, making everything much more convenient.」

Sanya-san appeared to be convinced.

Instead of having to spend many days on the road, we could close the distance in an instant. Anybody would pick teleportation over regular traveling.

「I was wondering what kind of secret Yuna-chan was going to tell us, but this is just absurd.」

Sanya-san couldn’t help but sigh again.

「Not to mention the bright light when we formed the contract...」

「Mumuroot-san, I forgot to ask this before, but if I were to tell something to one person here, and then that person tells that information to the other two under the same contract, what will happen?」

「The contract would still be in effect as the other party doesn’t know about it. The only way for the contract not to be invoked is if both parties already know that specific piece of information.」

In that case, I should only tell Ruimin about the Bear Phone as there was no need to tell Mumuroot-san and Sanya-san about it. In the end, the less people who knew about my secrets the better.

「Anyway, this door of yours is simply incredible.」

Sanya-san said then proceeded to try and open it herself.

「Only I can open the door.」

「Oh, really?」

Sanya-san pushed with all of her strength against the door, but it didn’t budge an inch. She then even called Ruimin to help, but even with both of them there was no change.

If I wanted to be more specific, only my Bear Hands could open it and since only I could use them, it was virtually the same as saying only I could open the door.

「We really can’t open it.」

「Yes, and that’s why you can only come here accompanied by me, Sanya-san.」

Sanya-san finally gave up and sat back down.

「That’s too bad. If I could open it myself, I would make sure to borrow it every now and then to come back home.」

I wouldn’t like it if anyone could use the door as they pleased, so I had to admit God did a good job setting the specifics here.

「In that case, how exactly do I contact you, Yuna-san?」

Now that she learned she couldn’t use the door herself either, Ruimin popped the question.

She must have thought that she could contact me by using the door.

「I will tell only you later, Ruimin.」

「You’re not going to tell us?」

「It’s still better if less people know about my secrets.」

「Uuu, Yuna-chan. How unkind of you, not telling us at this point. It feels like you only told us half the story... Still, if that is your choice, I can only accept it and bury my curiosity.」

As they were convinced that the Bear Gate really worked the way I had told them it would, I put it away.

「Young lady, I understand what you are aiming at. As the chief of this village, I will protect your secrets. Also, don’t worry, you are welcome to visit us at any time.」

Mumuroot-san reassured me again.

「Even now I can hardly believe it.」

「Thinking about all the trouble I went through just to get to the capital...」

Ruimin felt like all her hard work was a waste in the end.

「Well, I can only teleport to places I set up the doors at, so if I didn’t come here at least once, there would be nothing I could do, either, but to travel here by normal means.」

「If you say so...」

Ruimin didn’t look completely convinced.

「Now I finally understand how you can come to the capital often, Yuna-chan.」

「Please keep quiet about it, okay?」

「I know. I would never do something so stupid as betraying your trust after you saved the village for us. Not to mention, the punishment of even trying to do so is just too harsh.」

Sanya-san shivered just recalling the laughing hell she had gone through.

「Young lady, so your request is to just set up a permanent house here? That’s not enough to show our gratitude for saving our village. Instead, it feels more like you’re doing this for us. Not to mention you also defeated the Cockatrices. If there is anything else you want, please tell us.」

In that case, I wouldn’t hold back.

「Then, I also want some of the food ingredients that can be gathered from your forest. Things like the mushrooms, especially. I would also like to obtain some Sacred Tree’s leaves to make tea if possible. Oh, and some branches as well. Would that be okay? Also, if by any chance I could learn how to make an elven bracelet, that would make me very happy.」

I squeezed in every last wish I had. I was only asking if those things were possible, of course. I wasn’t forcing them.

「I’m sorry. Most of everything you asked for is okay, but we can’t teach you how to make those bracelets.」

Mumuroot-san apologized with a bow.

I racked my brain on how to respond to such a sudden apology.

「Don’t worry about it, I knew I was asking for too much.」

「There are many reasons, but the crux of it is that it is simply impossible.」

Well, I was only thinking that if I were able to make the bracelets, I could receive a slight enhancement and also give them to Fina and the other girls as presents. Since it was considered a secret to the elves, I knew it would be hard for them to share it with me.

Now that we had established a good relationship, I didn’t want for it to be ruined by me prying further. Not to mention that the rest of my requests had been agreed upon. I could set down a Bear House, and also get my hands on mushrooms, Sacred Tree tea leaves, and its branches.

That was more than enough for me.

Author’s Notes:

No bracelet this time. I just wanted Yuna to finally head back to Crimonia. lol