Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Once all the details of my requests were all figured out, I led Ruimin all the way up to my Bear House on the cliff next to the waterfall.

「This should be far enough.」

「Will I really be able to contact you even when we’re far apart, Yuna-san?」

Even though Ruimin had already been introduced to the Bear Gate, she still found it hard to believe me. Well, they didn’t know that things like cell phones and telecommunication could possibly exist, so they were naturally skeptical in believing that magic or magic tools like the Bear Phone were a thing. I hadn’t heard about anything of the like in this world, and even if it existed here, it must be rare.

「We’ll use this to communicate easily.」

I handed over a communication device shaped like a Bear (the Bear Phone) to Ruimin.

「Bear-san?」

Ruimin looked at the cartoonish bear in her hand, tilting her head.

「It’s a magic tool that can used to talk to people who are far away.」

「A magic tool… that’s a bear?」

Ruimin said and curiously examined the magical Bear Phone in her hand.

Well, if I didn’t know it to be a magic tool, it could also seem like a bear-shaped toy…

Pondering the concept of my creation, I proceeded to take out out my personal Bear Phone.

「Oh, by the way, this magic tool is called a Bear Phone.」

「A Bear Phone…」

Ruimin switched her gaze between the phone and me a few times as though she wanted to say something. I didn’t prompt her to speak her mind, though, and rather began explaining how the Bear Phone worked.

「As long as we both have this Bear Phone with us, we can hear each other’s voices through it.」

「You can hear the other person’s voice? Isn’t such a thing… impossible?」

「I’m going to connect my Bear Phone to yours now, so don’t be surprised and drop it by accident, okay?」

「O-okay.」

She suddenly looked tense.

「You don’t have to be that prepared.」

I smiled as I made a call to Ruimin’s phone. Ruimin’s phone immediately began to ring: 「kuun, kuun, kuun」.

「W-what’s going on?!」

Ruimin was very surprised to suddenly hear the Bear Phone suddenly making weird sounds.

It was the same calling tone as usual, of course. It might sound more interesting than a digital ringtone, but its charm was slowly wearing off.

「W-what am I supposed to do now?!」

Ruimin didn’t know what to do with the ringing Bear Phone and panicked.

「Just pour some magical energy into it.」

「O-okay.」

Ruimin grasped the phone with both her hands and closed her eyes.

She just had to answer the call, but she was making it so dramatic.

Soon after, the ringing stopped.

「It stopped!」

She looked quite happy with just that, but there was still more to come.

「Okay, let’s move away from each other. I’ll say something first and then you can try responding through the phone.」

I walked away, about a hundred meters before lifting the Bear Phone closer to my mouth.

「Ruimin, can you hear me?」

『Y-yes, I can!』

An astonished Ruimin responded.

「With this, we can speak even when we are far away. Everything clear now?」

『Yes. Still, this tool is simply amazing, Yuna-san. I can hear your voice clearly even though we’re so far apart.』

I looked over at Ruimin who happily waved her hand at me while also hopping into the air. I waved back as a reply.

「Anyhow, I’m going to hang up now. You can try calling me next, okay?」

『Um, how do I do that?』

「Hold the Bear Phone and pour magical energy into it. It’s that simple.」

『Okay, I’ll give it a try.』

When she said that, I immediately cut the call, and soon after, my Bear Phone began ringing.

『Um, Yuna-san, can you hear me?』

「I can hear you.」

『Great.』

I could hear the relief in her voice.

「Okay, let’s head back now.」

I cut the call and immediately dashed towards Ruimin at a speed that could net me an Olympic gold medal. Of course, participating in the Olympics while wearing a costume… would make me the laughing stock of the world.

「Yuna-san, you’re amazing.」

When I got back to Ruimin, she seemed almost giddy.

「Still, will I really be able to talk to you even when you’re in the capital?」

「Yes, you just have to follow the same process.」

I was sure as I already knew that it was possible to talk to Fina who was even farther, in Crimonia.

I still had to warn her, though.

「Still, make sure you don’t lose the phone. Without it, there is no way of contacting me.」

「I understand: I will take good care of it.」

Well, I should probably mention this: even if she were to lose it or someone stole it from her, the Bear Phone had recorded her magical energy into it the moment she had first used it. Only she could use it now, so even if other people took it, they could only treat it as an accessory. Thus, it was her personal phone now, so the biggest thing to worry about would just be not being able to contact her if she lost it.

「Anyway, if you have something you want to let Sanya-san know, feel free to call me, and I’ll forward it to her.」

「Okay. Still, this thing is just incredible, letting you to talk to someone so far away…」

She grasped her Bear Phone, clearly now unwilling to part with it.

「Just be careful when using it, alright? If somebody else sees you using the phone, a laughing hell awaits you.」

「Uuu… but won’t it suddenly ring?」

「Well, that’s only if I call you.」

「If it rings, I will quickly go find a secluded place.」

Once my Bear Phone explanation to Ruimin was all finished, we parted ways and I immediately turned my attention the next order of business: I had to move my Bear House. I planned to move it into the rocky mountain where the Sacred Tree resided, and I had already gotten permission from Mumuroot-san to do so. Only a limited amount of people were able to enter that area, so nobody could accidentally stumble upon the Bear House there. Arthur-san was the only one who could pass the barrier and didn’t know about the Bear Gate’s existence, so I decided to have at least have Mumuroot-san tell him about me moving the Bear House inside.

I did have a certain issue, though. I wanted to bring Fina to the Elf Village sometime, but I wasn’t sure how the Sacred Tree’s barrier would react to that. Mumuroot-san had said that the barrier only barred things passing directly through the barrier, so it should most likely be fine. Still, as I wasn’t completely sure, the safe thing to do would be to set up another door outside of the barrier instead of putting Fina into any needless danger.

Upon reaching the Sacred Tree, I found Mumuroot-san, Sanya-san, and Arthur-san in the middle of gathering up the fallen leaves. As there was nobody else who could help them clean up, nothing could be done about the fact that the chief of the village and his relatives were doing a thing commoners do like cleaning leaves.

「Yuna-chan? Are you done talking with Ruimin already?」

「Yup, I’m done. I’m here to set up my house, like I mentioned this morning.」

Looking at the busy elves, I realized that this wasn’t the best time to to place my house down. If there had been a cleaned out corner I would take it, but at this point all I would do was just get in the way of their cleaning.

「Oh, I’m sorry, Yuna-chan. After we were done talking to you, we dragged Father here to help clean up, but we’re not quite done…」

「This is all because of my unreasonable request, so please don’t worry about it. I will just help you pick up leaves.」

「Thank you.」

I proceeded to cast wind magic to create a small tornado, which quickly gathered up the leaves. The way the leaves whirled through the air kind of reminded me of a washing machine. Once the tornado gathered up a considerable amount, I dispersed the magic in a way that left behind a mountain of leaves. I then repeated the process a couple more times before helping others stuff the leaves into jute bags. With the four of us, we were able to make progress quickly and gathered all of the fallen leaves in no time. Taking a look at the Sacred Tree, with the Parasitic Tree gone, it had made a complete recovery. Now, I just had to put down my Bear House, and we would be done here.

「Mumuroot-san, is this spot okay?」

I asked while also glancing at Arthur-san.

「Yes, it should be fine. Also, don’t worry. I have already explained it to him.」

Receiving the permission for the specific spot, I brought out the Bear House without delay. I placed it on the right-hand side of the cave entrance as I judged it to be a good spot that wouldn’t be too exposed to the sun.

I turned around only to see both Mumuroot-san and Arthur-san looking shocked. Well, they had only heard about me bringing out a house, after all, and never saw it in person. As this was the reaction I usually got, I simply ignored them.

Two days later, Sanya-san and I decided it was time to head back to the capital.

We bid our farewells to the villagers, which came to send us off. There was quite a lot of them, and some even came up to me once they realized I was leaving. Since I had let the children play with the Bears, I had become quite popular with them. Many of them looked sad, but there wasn’t much I could do about that.

「Don’t worry. I’ll come again.」

「Really?」

I didn’t lie to them, since I did intend to come back. I simply nodded in response to their question. Once I finished saying goodbye to all the children, Labilata approached.

「Yuna, I will never forget what you’ve done for us. If you ever need help, I will lend you a hand.」

「I’ll come by again, so I might take you up on that offer if something presents itself.」

I sincerely accepted his offer.

「Good. You will always be welcome here.」

「Thank you.」

As I was speaking with Labilata, Sanya-san came up to us.

「Yuna-chan, sorry for making you wait. Oh, you’re here too, Labilata?」

「Yes, I was thanking her for her help.」

「Yuna-chan really did help us out a lot…」

「Don’t worry about it. Because you let me, I was able to come and see the Elf Village, so I’m quite happy with the end result.」

「Even so, if she hadn’t brought you here, we might have had to abandon the village. There is plenty of reason to show you our gratitude.」

Labilata retorted.

「I already got many gifts from Mumuroot-san, so I think I have received enough.」

I felt kind of bad because they kept thanking me over and over again, especially since it was all thanks to the Bear Suit. It actually had nothing to do with my own ability.

Sanya-san smiled at my response before turning to say goodbye to Labilata. Out of nowhere, however, their conversation took an unexpected turn.

「Labilata, like I already told you yesterday, you don’t have to wait for me.」

「Don’t worry about it.」

「I really don’t know how long I’ll take.」

「If you don’t come back in ten years, I’ll come and get you instead.」

A sentimental discussion emerged between them.

「Sanya-san?」

「Oh right, you didn’t know. Labilata is my fiancé.」

She just casually dropped a bombshell.

「Fiancé?」

「Yeah. Well, kind of…」

「Sanya-san, you already have someone like him waiting for you, but you still plan on going back to be the capital’s Adventurer’s Guild master?!」

「I like being a guild master, though. It’s fun.」

Fun, huh? Well, it wasn’t like I didn’t understand how she felt. I would also pursue fun over love any time.

「I feel kind of bad for Labilata.」

「Don’t worry, I can easily wait another ten years.」

Uh, elves were just amazing. Still, was it really okay for him to trust her so much?

What if she just married somebody else while she was away?

「Anyway, if I do forget, just come get me.」

「Yeah, I definitely will.」

The two suddenly became so lovey-dovey that I could almost feel my eyes hurt.

Even though they hadn’t met for the past decade, this guy was still willing to wait another one. Elves and their longevity… Simply preposterous.

I decided to leave this stupid couple alone and went somewhere else. Luckily, Mumuroot-san and Ruimin approached me soon after, followed by a couple of men.

「Young lady, you’ve done so much for us. I thank you form the bottom of my heart.」

「Yuna-san, thank you for helping us.」

Mumuroot-san and Ruimin both thanked me.

「Also, it isn’t much, but here’s what you asked for.」

As Mumuroot-san said that, the men next to him placed a large bag in front of me.

「What’s this?」

「Inside the bag are wild plants and mushrooms gathered from the forest. We made sure to put in a lot of the mushrooms you’ve asked for, young lady.」

Oh, was he talking about the matsutake? That was so nice of him. When I got home, I should make matsutake rice and soup, and maybe even chawanmushi. I could hardly wait.

Chawanmushi: A savoury egg custard in a bowl, one thing sumo wrestlers eat to gain weight. Wikipedia it.

「Also, we added in some tea leaves made from the Sacred Tree leaves.」

「Really? Is that okay?」

「We’re only able to gather more thanks to you, so you don’t worry about it.」

Since it was so, I happily accepted it.

I had tried out the tea before, and it was rather delicious. There should be no problems if I placed it on my shop’s menu. I just needed to check how much we could serve and discuss it with Terumi-san and the others, especially how we should market it.

I expressed my thanks and stashed the jute bag into the Bear Box.

「You are welcome to come back anytime.」

Mumuroot-san declared out loud, and all the villagers let out cheerful voices of agreement.

Once our goodbyes were finally done, Mumuroot-san, Ruimin, Sanya-san and I headed to the Bear House by the Sacred Tree. We still needed three people to have Sanya-san pass through the barrier.

As for me, I just went through it like it was nothing. It was really strange how it worked.

「Onee-chan, come and visit us soon.」

「Don’t worry, I plan on coming back sooner this time. I just have to ask Yuna-chan, and I should be able to come easily.」

Sanya-san said looked at me.

「I’ll charge you, though.」

「Huhu, even if you’re going to charge me, it should still be cheaper than walking all the way here.」

「Yuna-san, please take care of Onee-chan.」

「Wait, I’m the older one here.」

Sanya-san refuted.

「Yes, but Yuna-san is more level-headed.」

「That’s not true. I’m still the Adventurer’s Guild guild master, you know.」

Sanya-san said sulkingly and turned away.

When I had first met her, I thought that she had a majestic feel to her. Looking at her now, I was slightly concerned by the fact that she was a guild master. Was it because I found out that there was another side of Sanya-san during this trip?

I laughed as I looked at the sulking Sanya-san then turned to Ruimin.

「Ruimin, contact me when you have more tea leaves for me. I’ll come get them.」

「Okay, I’ll contact you. Yuna-san, really, thank you so much for all your help. Meeting you in the capital was the greatest luck I ever had.」

「I’m happy to hear that.」

Done with the very final goodbyes, Sanya-san and I entered the storage of the Bear House and used the Bear Gate to return to the capital.

Author’s Notes:

The Elf Arc is finally done.

I got a bit tired out through this last part. lol

I was debating on where to place the Bear House.

I thought that placing it inside the rocky mountain where the Sacred Tree is was a no go as Fina wouldn’t be able to come. Not to mention, if Ruimin ever wanted to go to the capital, she would need Mumuroot-san and Aruturu-san’s help to pass through the barrier.

After some thinking, I finally found the solution of placing the door outside of the barrier when necessary. lol

Once Yuna gets back to Crimonia, should she continue her laid-back lifestyle?

I haven’t written about Fina for three months in real life time now.

I better write about her to heal up. lol