Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

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Author’s Note:

I finished writing early.

I wrote over 10,000,000 characters at this point!

Since the students had decided to make cotton candy at the festival, they just had to practice it.

Once I felt they got the hang of it, it was time for me to head off. I still had to give the picture book to Princess Flora, after all.

「Alright everyone, make sure you practice everyday until the festival.」

「Yuna-san, please !wait」

Just as I was about to walk through the door, Shia pulled on my arm and stopped me.

「?Huh What is ?it」

「Um, if I were to request you as an escort, through the Adventurer’s Guild of course, how much would that ?cost」

「An ?escort」

Wasn’t the price something the client had to ?decide Or, could a request really be done like ?this

If I remembered correctly, escort jobs had a minimum fee set by the Adventurer’s Guild, and the price could increase from there depending on the job and the escort. If the client wanted someone of a higher rank, they would have to increase the compensation accordingly.

「Shia, is there somewhere you want to ?go」

「No, that’s not it. If you’re planning on coming to the school festival, I want you to bring Noa with you. She will probably be enrolled in the academy once she is old enough, and she also mentioned to me last year that she wanted to go see it but wasn’t allowed to go on her own. As you come to the capital quite often, I hoped you could bring her with you.」

True, I did come to the capital quite frequently; it was almost like just taking a walk to me. That was all thanks to the Bear Gate, though.

「Also, you have your bears too, so I can relax if I know that you’ll be with her.」

Basically, she wanted me to bring Noa to the capital and stay by her side for the duration of the festival.

Since Shia didn’t know about my Bear Gate, she probably assumed that I came to the capital via Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear. I couldn’t blame her for having that assumption as it was indeed most logical without knowledge of the Bear Gate.

「In any case, I have a bit of money saved up, so I was wondering if you would be willing...」

What a good girl she was.

With such a motive, there was no way I would demand any compensation. I was against the idea of taking money from Shia in the first place. Not to mention, I didn’t know what the rate for bodyguards were and couldn’t remember how much I was paid the last time I had escorted them, either.

「In that case, I’ll pay for it in full, no matter the price.」

「?Mother」

Eleanora-san approved of Shia’s request but decided to bear the costs on her own.

Well, I would feel much less guilty taking money from Eleanora-san than from Shia.

「Yuna-chan, if you are coming to the school festival, can you please bring Noa with ?you I will pay for all the escort fees. Oh, and could you also bring Fina-chan and Shuri-chan as ?well」

「Fina and Shuri ?too」

「When I came to visit your shop the other day, Fina-chan provided us with very good hospitality, so I want to repay her. However, if you only brought her, then I’d feel bad for Shuri-chan since she’d be left behind. I would like to thank them both by inviting them to stay at our home for the duration of the festival.」

Shuri would indeed stay at home by herself if I only brought Fina but she wouldn’t complain too much. She would most likely only say that it was unfair that only Fina got to do things but would otherwise obediently wait at home.

However, would those two sisters accept Eleanora-san’s ?invitation

I think Shuri would be happy just knowing she could go to the capital, but Fina... Well, Fina had grown up now, so she should be okay with staying at a noble’s home.

「Still, taking care of all three of them might be too much...」

Eleanora-san pondered.

If I used the Bear Gate, there would be no problem, but of course, I couldn’t tell her that.

Besides, since I would be bringing Noa and Shuri as well, I couldn’t use the Bear Gate unless I told them about it first.

While I didn’t think those two would purposely reveal my secrets, I still believed that less people knew about it the better. It was possible that one of them would accidentally leak it out, after all.

Noa especially seemed the type who might sleep talk and say something like:「Yuna-san, your Bear-san Gate is amazing, mumble mumble.」

Well, at least if it was sleep talking, I could claim she was just saying random stuff.

「Will you be able to to do ?it」

「With how big Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear are, two people can easily ride on one of them at a time, so there’s no problem with that. We’ll also be able to run away if monsters or bandits attack us with how quick my Bears are.」

I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if my Bears could even outrun a dragon.

Well, as much as I wanted to see a dragon at least once in my life, I didn’t think I would be meeting one anytime soon, especially on the way between Crimonia and the capital.

「Also, with how strong you and your bears are, we can be much more at ease than if we put them in care of a regular adventurer.」

Based on how the conversation was going, it seemed to be more or less decided that I was bringing them along. Still, the problem wasn’t really taking them with me; it was picking the means of travel.

「So, can I ask you to take care of the three of ?them」

「I don’t mind, but what if Cliff refuses to let Noa ?go Should I just bring Fina and Shuri ?then」

「I don’t mind if you only brought Fina-chan and Shuri-chan along as I still want to thank the two. I don’t think Cliff will refuse, while knowing that you will be escorting them.」

Still, on the off chance Noa couldn’t receive Cliff’s permission, she would have to give up on going.

Fina and Shuri would most likely be allowed to come. Terumi-san had said that she trusted me with taking care of them, so it should more or less just depend on what the girls themselves wanted.

「Well... Cliff might still find a reason to not let her go... Yuna-chan, I’m going to write him a letter, so can you wait here for a ?bit」

Eleanora-san said and rushed out of the room before I could even reply.

Now that I had officially accepted the request, I really had to consider how I should bring them here. At least I had only two real options to pick from.

「Thank you, Yuna-san. I think Noa will be very happy.」

「I will bring her as long as Cliff gives his permission.」

Noa and Shia were both nobles, but they were completely different from the idiot son of that idiotic noble family I had an encounter with at Misa’s birthday party. I felt bad comparing the girls to him, but it was hard to believe that someone like him was of the same status as them.

If I remembered correctly, he had been taken in by some relatives at the capital, so maybe they would be able to change him.

I hoped I could also invite Misa to the festival, but that would most likely be hard to accomplish.

「Yuna-chan, what kind of girl is Fina-chan’s ?sister」

「She’s a good girl and looks just like Fina. They get along with each other, much like you and Noa.」

「Huhu, now I’m looking forward to the festival even more. I will get to see Noa and Fina-chan, and also meet Fina-chan’s little sister.」

She hadn’t seen Noa since the king’s birthday party, ?right As for Fina, the last time they had seen each other was probably the golem incident.

「We have to practice making the cotton candies perfectly, so we won’t embarrass ourselves after inviting them.」

Shia’s classmates were all taking turns practicing their cotton candy making skills. They should be able to get the hang of it in no time.

「Ugh, this is just too sweet. I can’t eat it anymore.」

「Same.」

Marcus and Timor were eating all the cotton candy they made while practicing, and it seemed like they had finally reached their limit.

Well, cotton candy really wasn’t something to be eaten in bulk. It was practically no different than simply pouring sugar into their mouths. The taste of pure sugar would become too much very quickly, unlike some other more balanced desserts.

「Come on, you two have to keep eating, or we won’t be able to know if we are improving.」

Cattleya said and handed Marcus the cotton candy she had just made.

「You can eat it too, you know.」

「No, I can’t. I’ll get fat if I do.」

「Why, you...」

Even though most girls loved sweets, there was still a limit to how much they could eat, especially as they tended to worry about their weight.

I ate way too much cake and bread during the taste-testing earlier, so I understood how Cattleya felt. The boys would just have to work harder and eat her share as well.

「You should eat something else to get rid of the sweet taste in your mouths.」

I said and took out some potato chips from the Bear Box.

Since it was salty, it should work well for countering the sweetness.

「Thank you, Yuna-san.」

Marcus said and immediately put one into his mouth. After crunching for a short while, he froze and turned to me.

「Wouldn’t this be good to sell as ?well」

Hmm, that wasn’t a bad suggestion.

I would have never thought of selling potato chips at an event like school or street festivals as I came from a world where chips were easy to come by.

「Yes, this is really good. It should work.」

「If we sell the two as a set, wouldn’t it be really ?popular」

Both Timor and Cattleya agreed after they ate some chips as well.

「But are there any places that sell potatoes ?around」

「There are.」

Suririna-san answered the question in my stead.

「Potatoes are very cheap, so usually only poor folks eat them.」

Was I the only one who didn’t know ?that

「Isn’t that perfect, ?then」

「Still, I think it is better if you don’t sell it.」

「Why ?not It’s tasty.」

Marcus asked Suririna-san while he grabbed more chips.

「Thanks to Yuna-sama, we know why symptoms like stomach pain happened when we eat potatoes but others don’t. If the customers’ stomachs start to hurt and they had eaten our chips, they would put the two together and blame us.」

「I guess that makes sense. I was very surprised when I heard Yuna-san say these are made from potatoes.」

「That’s why I think it’s better if you don’t serve it at the festival; it is better to avoid such trouble.」

Chips was already well accepted in Crimonia, so I didn’t consider such a problem could arise here. It made sense though, as many people still believed that eating potatoes might randomly cause stomach pain, and didn’t know the solution of removing the eyes.

「Yeah, I think you are right.」

「I would love to make them, but if we were to receive such complaints...」

「Also, Yuna-san already taught us how to make cotton candy, so that should be enough.」

「With only the four of us, making both would be difficult anyway.」

The four of them gave up on selling the potato chips with that, and soon after Eleanora-san returned with a letter in hand.

「Oh my, what’s ?wrong Did something ?happen」

Eleanora-san asked after noticing the students’ expressions.

I proceeded to explain the potato chip idea to her.

「I see. Yes, it’s just as Suririna said. You should probably avoid selling potato chips. It might invite more trouble than you think.」

The four of them had already accepted that fact, so they didn’t argue back.

「Anyway, Yuna-chan, please give this to Cliff for me.」

Eleanora-san said and handed me the letter, which I immediately placed into the Bear Box for safekeeping.

Now that there really was no reason for me to stay any longer, I confirmed with them when the festival would be held and took my leave. I still needed to visit Princess Flora, after all.

Before going, I decided to leave a bunch of potato chips for Marcus and Timor.

「Thank you for all your help today, Yuna-san.」

Shia thanked me, and the other three followed suit.

「I’m looking forward to the festival. Do your best, ?okay」

I left the mansion and headed straight to the castle.

Hmm, didn’t Eleanora-san need to go back to the castle as ?well

Author’s Notes:

I was sure someone would mention potato chips or fries in the comment section, but it turns out I was wrong.

As I expected, nobody else would think of selling potato chips at a school/street festival. w

Anyway, I finished all the bonuses that come with the volume 3 publication.

The version from Tobu Books comes with an illustrated postcard, so look forward to that and please check the update notifications for more information.