Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

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The king rested his chin on his hand and began to talk.

「Let’s see. You know how, down in the south, there is the Triform Kingdom, right?」

He told me like it was something obvious, but clearly, I didn’t know much about other kingdoms, so I shook my head.

「Well, that’s fine... If you head south from the capital, you will eventually reach a large desert, and once you cross it, you reach the Triform Kingdom.」

So, there was a country down south, huh? Still, past a desert he said. Was it more like the Sahara Desert or the Tottori Sand Dunes?

Well, I had never been to either of those places, so I didn’t know how big they were, anyway.

「So, I guess that country wants the Kraken’s magic stone, then?」

I thought for sure that I was correct, but the king shook his head.

「No, that’s not it. The place that needs it is Deserto, a town in the middle of the desert.」

「Deserto?」

Another new name came up.

「Yes, it’s located in the dead center of the desert. Our Elfanica Kingdom and Triform Kingdom are trading with each other, so people naturally gathered together and created the town they now call Deserto.」

If this was the game, it would surely be one of those desert towns located next to an oasis.

Was in the same in this world, and this town had an oasis as well?

「Deserto has become very important for both kingdoms as a stopping point on our trade route. Yet now, I hear that the water magic stone that supplied the people of Deserto with water broke apart. With the stone broken, their water reserves are rapidly decreasing, and soon, the town might become uninhabitable. We absolutely have to prevent that, so I brainstormed for a solution and remembered that you defeated a Kraken, which is how we ended up here.」

「Okay, I now get why you called for me, but doesn’t the castle have any such magic stones of their own to spare?」

Even though this was a big stone, a royal castle should have some to spare, no?

「I think you’re misunderstanding something: there aren’t many magic stones that are the size of the one you have. That’s ignoring how difficult water magic stones are to obtain. Water magic stones of this size are almost impossible to find.」

Well, when I thought about it, that made sense considering it was indeed tougher to fight a monster in the water than on land. I very clearly recalled the amount of effort I had spent to defeat the Kraken. If I had battled it on land, the fight would have been way easier. Using that metric, it should be difficult to fight against other water monsters as well.

Us humans lived on the land, so of course it was easier to stick to fighting land monsters.

「Hence, I was hoping they could use your stone. You will be reimbursed for it, of course.」

Would they give me money in exchange? I honestly didn’t need money but it would leave a bad aftertaste if I were to abandon the town just because I didn’t like their reimbursement.

Still, no matter how I looked at it, a single magic stone shouldn’t be enough to support an entire town, even with how big the Kraken’s magic stone was, so I decided to confirm it with the king.

「From what I heard, its power will be amplified by the means of a magic circle. I’m not really an expert in that regard, so I don’t know the details of how it works.」

There was even such a thing as amplifying magic?

Well, that was quite a normal setting considering this was a fantasy world.

At least I now understood why they needed the Kraken’s magic stone.

「Okay, if that’s how it is, I don’t mind giving them my stone.」

Since it would be of a big help to the town, I saw no reason to refuse, especially since it would only continue to rot in my Bear Box otherwise.

「Thank you. There was something else I wanted to ask you... Are you and your bears okay with the heat?」

The king asked, taking a glance at the Bears as he mentioned them.

「If I have to choose between liking it and disliking it, I’d say I dislike it. What about you two? I don’t really think you care too much.」

Personally, I was bad with the heat. Air conditioning was a big necessity in the summer.

Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear only responded with 「Kuun」, and I had no way to judge what they meant by their innocent expressions.

「I’m sorry to ask this of you, but would you be willing to go to the desert with your bears?」

「Go to the desert? I think that should be fine.」

I had my Bear Suit, so the desert heat should have no effect on me. Well, I had never tested its heat resistance to such an extent, so it might not stop the heat completely. Same with the Bears, I had no idea how they would handle the desert heat.

We had all been fine inside that blizzard on the snowy mountain, so a desert should most likely be okay as well. Only a volcano would probably be able to stop us.

「In that case, I would like to make an official request to you, adventurer Yuna. Can you please bring your magic stone to the town of Deserto?」

「You want me to do it?」

「Yes. If you do it, the stone will get there quickly without the chance of being stolen. Your bears can cover large distances in no time, and you are strong enough to defeat even a monster of the Kraken’s tier. You will be fine with any attacks you might face on the way.」

Shouldn’t he be a little more concerned for a fifteen-year-old maiden getting attacked by monsters? Well, as long as I had my Bear Suit, I should be able to do away with most of them, but that wasn’t really the problem.

Still, a town in the desert, huh. While I would love to visit such a place, I already had my plans for the seaside trip. Well, if I only went there as a one way trip, maybe I would be able to return in time? After all, once I arrived at the town, I could just set up a Bear Gate to return home.

「What kind of place is Deserto?」

「Let’s see. Like I told you before, the town was built by people who gathered there on their own. Hence, it does not belong to any country and is a neutral town.」

「Really? Since they requested the water magic stone from us, I was sure they were a part of our country.」

「Well... There were some complications between the previous generation of Elfanica and Triform kingdoms, so the town was set as a neutral ground by our signed non-aggression pact. The town most likely asked both of our kingdoms for the stone. I would like to deliver the stone before the Triform Kingdom does, so the town will be indebted to us instead of Triform Kingdom.」

Indebted? Even when concerning kingdoms, such things came into play, huh.

Some hidden conflict must be happening between the two countries for sure.

「Why are you making such a strange expression? You are misunderstanding something again, aren’t you. Our kingdoms presently have good relations with each other.」

「Really?」

「Yes. As I mentioned earlier, it was our previous generation that had the conflict. We are friendly now.」

「And yet you want the town to be indebted do you...」

「You never know how long peace will last. Something may happen when the next generation takes up rule. Having more information about the areas near the borders is always useful.」

So, he was trying to invest in the future generations.

If the town owed our country a favor, then they might be willing to sell us information when the opposing country did something suspicious.

A king always had to act while taking the future into account... Such a troublesome job would be impossible for me, and I would have definitely offloaded it to someone else.

「Anyways, this will be treated as a rank B request.」

「A rank B request?!」

「Yes. Subjugating the Kraken would be considered harder than a normal rank B mission. Since this mission will include its stone, then of course the request rank has to reflect it.」

Certainly, a request to obtain a Kraken’s magic stone and bring it somewhere would entail either subjugating a Kraken or buying the stone off of someone. Buying such a stone from someone required finding such a person and then negotiating with them.

So, looking at it like that, maybe it being a rank B request made sense...

「I just have to bring it there, right?」

「Yes, that’s it.」

「Okay, I accept this request.」

「Thank you. Just to make sure, are you going to go in that suffocating outfit?」

The king asked as he glanced at my Bear Suit.

「That’s the plan, why?」

Actually, there was no way I would enter a desert without it.

With my feeble body, I wouldn’t even be able to stand still at a desert for more than a few minutes before collapsing from heat stroke.

「Are you sure you’re going to be fine in such an outfit?」

「Yes, I’ll be fine.」

「Alright, that’s fine, then. I was only worried you might collapse in the middle of the desert.」

Just like Noa had already pointed out, my outfit seemed really hot to others, but the appearance couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The king reached into one of his drawers, pulled something out, and handed it to me.

「Here is a letter for you to deliver to the lord of Deserto. He’s called Balima. I wrote about you in this letter, so that you won’t cause too much of a commotion when you arrive.」

「I wouldn’t intentionally do that...」

「I’m just kidding. A girl wearing a bear costume most likely won’t be able to meet him, at least without a letter with the royal seal. Just show them the crest, and you should be treated properly.」

「Wait... Since you prepared this letter beforehand, doesn’t that mean you planned for me to go in the first place?」

「I prepared two letters, actually. One regular and one that talks about you.」

It seemed like the king had a back-up plan, after all.

He had prepared another letter in case I refused his request.

I unsummoned my Bears, and put the Kraken’s magic stone and the letter into the Bear Box. Just as I stood up from the sofa to leave, something came to my mind.

「Ah, that’s right. I wish to go see Princess Flora today. Would that be okay?」

I wanted to bring her the cakes that Elena-san had made.

「I don’t mind, but I would appreciate it if you would depart for Deserto soon.」

「Okay, I will be quick.」

Having received the king’s approval, I left the office and headed to Princess Flora’s room.

The king followed me, though. Was he going back to work?

As I was getting closer to Princess Flora’s room, the king was still behind me, so I started to wonder where he could be going.

When I stopped in front of Princess Flora’s room, the king stopped right next to me. It was then when it dawned on me.

「Um, you’re following me, aren’t you?」

「Well, you’re bringing Flora the cake you were eating earlier, no?」

「Yes, but why are you here as well?」

「Obviously, I should have some as well.」

What did he mean by obviously?

I was pretty sure that made no sense... Well, it was too late to rebuke him now, so I decided to ignore him and entered Princess Flora’s room.

「Flora, are you here?」

「Father?」

Princess Flora noticed us, and started to quickly trod our way. The king knelt down and spread his arms wide, but just like a scene from an anime or manga, Princess Flora completely ignored him and flew into my embrace instead.

「Bear-san!」

I could see the king’s back shiver slightly from being ignored. He had trouble figuring out what to do with his hands that were now reached out to greet only air.

I should probably act like I saw nothing.

「Princess Flora, I brought you some cake, so let’s have some together, okay?」

「Okay!」

「I will go and prepare some tea, then.」

Anju-san also decided not to mention the king’s stature and quickly ran away to the other side of the room to make tea.

I took Princess Flora’s hand and led her to a table. Once she was comfortably sitting down on a chair, I brought out the newly-made cakes.

「Anju-san, could you bring these to Zelef-san afterwards? I will ask him for his opinion on them later.」

「Okay, I will do so.」

「 I also have some for you too, so please eat it later.」

「Thank you very much, Yuna-sama.」

Anju-san couldn’t eat together with us when the king was here, so she would have to wait until the king was gone.

「All of you, don’t just ignore me...」

The king finally managed to recover and came to sit with us.

「Give me my share, too!」

「Father, are you mad?」

「No, I’m not.」

「You’re being so petty just because your daughter ignored you.」

「Obviously I’m upset, losing to a bear.」

「Well, all you have to do wear a bear costume yourself, then Princess Flora will be happy with you, too.」

「There’s no way I could ever do that!」

Well, I actually didn’t want to have the same look as the king, either, so this was fine by me.

I gave the king a share of cake to appease him.

「Oh right, is Eleanora-san not here today?」

At this point, she should have sniffed me out already.

「She doesn’t know you’re here because I ordered everybody not to contact her unless I have a need for her personally.」

So, she wasn’t here yet because the king blocked out her informants.

Still, I was sure that if she found out about this later on, she would complain without end, so I decided to ask Anju-san to bring Eleanora-san some cake as well.

After we ate the cake, I played with Princess Flora for a while then left the castle.