Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

There were people in this snowstorm.

They were probably adventurers like me.

Did they come all the way here to kill some monsters?

Thinking that it would be a pain if they attacked out of surprise after seeing Swaying Bear, I decided to pass by them without making contact, but the signal from the detection magic didn’t move.

Were they camping?

It was hard to believe that they would be moving during a snowstorm.

It was possible that there was a cave and they were just taking a break.

Then, wouldn’t it be fine if I just continued on my way?

In the end, after thinking deeply about what to do, I decided to continue advancing towards them .

The storm was becoming stronger and stronger.

Using the detection magic, I finally arrived near the signal.

There was no cavern nor large boulders in sight, nowhere you could hide. In addition to that, nobody was standing around here. Still, the detection magic was reacting.

The only thing I could think was that they were buried under the snow.

Wasn’t that really bad?

I concentrated my gaze on the mass of snow.

In front of me, Swaying Bear reacted. When I turned my gaze to where he was looking, I noticed a buried bag.

I rushed over and shove away the snow. I saw a man and a woman who had collapsed while hugging each other.

「Are you okay!?」

I blew away the snow with wind magic and shook them.

The two of them were unconscious, but they were still breathing.

I looked for a place that was protected from the snow, and found a little cavern a short distance away.

However, it was not big enough to guard against the snow.

I just had to make it bigger then.

I summoned Hugging Bear and asked the bears to transport the collapsed people.

I approached the little cave and carefully used magic, to avoid causing an avalanche.

When the cave became big enough, I brought out the portable Bear House that I used during my trip to the capital.

I brought the two unconscious people inside and put them on the sofas.

To warm them up, I brought out a blanket and covered them with it.

Just that wouldn’t be enough, so I warmed the room.

The Bear House had been made so that it wouldn’t be hot or cold. A moderate temperature was always guaranteed. However, to warm up the two freezing people, I used a fire magic stone.

After doing that, I just had to wait for them to wake up.

While waiting, I decided to have a meal.

I went to the kitchen and prepared a warm meal and drink. When I came back to the room, the woman’s body began to move, and she opened her eyes.

「W, where…?」

「Are you awake?」

The woman looked around the room, before finally landing on me.

「…A bear? …You are?」

「I am the adventurer, Yuna. I found the two of you on the snowy mountain, do you remember that?」

The woman thought for a little, then suddenly remembered something and started shouting.

「Damon!」

「If you are referring to the man, he is sleeping there.」

I pointed to the sofa next to her.

After seeing that the man was breathing, she started to calm down.

「What a relief. Are you the one who saved us?」

「It was just a coincidence. I found the two of you on collapsed in the snow.」

「Thank you very much. My name is Ranya,and that man is my husband, Damon.」

She lowered her head.

She seemed to be less than 25 years old.

I couldn’t be sure though, especially considering Eleanora-san.

I gave the warm milk to Ranya-san.

「So, why are you in this sort of place?」

「Well, we are on a trip from Mireera to Crimonia.」

「If I remember correctly, Mireera is the city that is just under the mountain range, right?」

It was the city by the sea.

The city I was going to.

「Yes, that’s right. We were going to buy some food at Crimonia, on the other side of the mountain range, but we lost all of our strength.」

「Food? Why would you go past the mountain range to fetch it?」

「It seems that the news didn’t reach Crimonia, huh?」

Ranya-san said, looking sad.

「…?」

「One month ago, a monster appeared in the sea.」

「A monster?」

「An adventurer said that it was a Kraken. It appeared near the harbour and started attacking the boats, and now no boats can leave or enter the harbour.」

In the game, the Kraken was the boss of the sea event.

It was a squid monster.

It was weak to fire and lightning, but the power of fire magic was cut in half on the sea, and even though lightning magic did a lot of damage, because of the sea zone, if you made a mistake in using it, it could become a really troublesome magic for you and your companions.

It was an event where warriors were useless and magicians played a really big role.

I participated in it too, but I remembered that it was really a troublesome enemy.

「Thanks to that, the city can’t catch fish anymore. Fishing is the foundation of our city, so not being able to catch fish has dealt great damage to us. Goods don’t reach us from the outside. The only places where we can catch fish during these troubling times are monopolised by a few people.」

「Monopolizing… Do people really accept it so readily?」

「The Commerce Guild is the center of everything in the city, so no one can oppose them. If you do oppose them, you won’t be able to buy any goods from other people.」

「Isn’t there an Adventurer’s Guild in the city? Couldn’t they assemble their forces and kill the Kraken or something like that?」

Ranya-san shook her head.

「There is an Adventurer’s Guild. However, there are no adventurers who can defeat the Kraken.」

In regards to the event, the Kraken was a boss class monster after all, huh.

In this world, how high did your rank need to be to kill it?

While I was thinking about that, Damon, who was sleeping on the sofa, woke up.

「Damon, are you okay?」

Ranya-san approached him, looking worried.

「Ranya? We are…」

「The adventurer Yuna-san saved us.」

Damon sat up looked at me.

「Bear?」

They all had the same reaction…

「Damon, that’s not polite!」

「Ah, sorry. Thank you for saving us. So, where are we?」

「In my house.」

「We have been saved, huh…」

I went back to the kitchen and warmed up some more milk to give to Damon.

「Thanks, that’s a lifesaver.」

He received it and drank it in one gulp.

The two of them started to calm down, so we continued to talk.

「But, why would you be in the mountain range? It may be a detour, but I heard that it is possible to travel on the coastland.」

「Some time after the Kraken appearance, robbers appeared on the coastland road.」

「Even if the Kraken is impossible, can’t the adventurers kill those robbers?」

The two of them shook their heads.

「The thing is, all the high ranking adventurers have been hired by the fleeing people and left the city.」

「The only adventurers remaining in town are low ranked ones…」

The Kraken couldn’t be killed. They couldn’t kill the thieves.

They should have done something before all the high rank adventurers left the city…

To summarise their story, because of the Kraken in the sea, they couldn’t fish and goods from other towns couldn’t come in. On the only path out of the city, bandits appeared and made it impossible to pass. Not to mention, the remaining adventurers couldn’t help at all.

Finally, fish in the shores and shallows were monopolized by a few people.

「And the mountain? The sea isn’t the only option, right?」

If there were wolves on the mountain, there should be other animals too, and there were also things to harvest on the mountain.

「Yes, we can find some things. But, they are not limitless, and if you don’t have a lot of money, you won’t be able to procure them.」

「Other harbours should know about the Kraken’s appearance. Can’t the kingdom or someone else help?」

It might not the ones from the capital, but for something like a Kraken, I thought it would not be strange for the kingdom’s soldiers to help.

「Our city does not belong to any kingdom. Because of that, there are no soldiers that would want to come to kill the Kraken.」

「Is that so?」

「I heard that the city was built by people who fled during wartime, long ago.」

The adventurers were no good and the kingdoms were no good; weren’t they checkmated?

Hmm… What to do?

Me? I wouldn’t fight.

As one would expect, a bear couldn’t fight in the sea.

「What are you going to do from now on?」

「If possible, we want to reach Crimonia.」

「And after that, will you be able to go back?」

They hadn’t reached their destination in the first place.

The possibility of them going back by the same path was really low.

「That’s…」

「But, if we don’t go, the children, father, and mother will be waiting for us with an empty stomach…」

There was no strength in their voices.

They might have remembered their journey until now.

They might be saying that they wanted to go, but the fact that they were buried in the snow and nearly died stayed in their minds.

I could let them leave like this, but if they died because of that, it would leave a bad aftertaste.

As for food, I had around 5000 wolves, and I had a lot of flour to make bread or pizza.

I had so much food that it would rot before I ate it. (It won’t rot, though.)

(TL note: in japanese, ‘More than someone can possibly use’ is written as ‘to the point it will rot’. It’s a pun.)

(ED: 腐るほど vs 腐ら)

「Excuse me, one last thing, where are we?」

「In the middle of the snowy mountain, why?」

「「Huh?!」」

The two of them seemed surprised.

Oh right, saying that there was a house in the middle of a snowy mountain would surprise people.

「We are in a cavern near where I found the two of you.」

「Really?」

「If you think that I am lying, you just have to go out and check.」

The two of them left the Bear House.

Then came back really fast.

「Why would there be a house inside a cave?!」

「You can just think about it as something I made with magic.」

「Something like that is…」

「I came through the snowy mountain because I can do it, though.」

If I didn’t have the Bear Equipment, I wouldn’t come to this snowy mountain.

In the first place I wouldn’t be able to.

The Bear Clothes, the summoned Bears, the Bear House, the Bear Box.

The convenient Bear-san Equipement.

「By the way, what we were talking about before, I have some food I could lend to you.」

「Really!? If you are so kind to share some with us that would save us, but…」

「I have a request though.」

「Money? Of course we will pay. How much would you like to sell it for?」

Damon brought out a leather bag and placed the money on the table.

Silver and copper coins were rolling on the table.

It must be the money they had scraped up from their house.

For me, it wasn’t really a big sum.

「It probably isn’t enough, but this is everything we own. If you could sell the most you can for this sum, it would save us.」

Damon lowered his head.

Even though he didn’t have to lower his head so much to a little girl like me.

Well, if he asked arrogantly, I would have refused, though.

「I don’t need money.」

The wolves were just sitting in my Bear Box, after all.

「What do you want then?」

「You just have to guide me around the city.」

「Is just that okay?」

「For now, just that is plenty. I will not request something unreasonable.」

If the Kraken wasn’t there, I would have asked them to introduce me to the best fish dealer they knew.

For now, I would think about what to do when I arrived to the city.

「Thank you.」

He even gave his thanks to a child with this strange appearance, huh.

Surely that was proof that he has been really troubled.

「More than that, you should be really tired after all that happened today. I will prepare something to eat, so after eating, go get some sleep. If the snowstorm stops, we will depart first thing in the morning.」

I prepared a warm meal for the two of them.

They ate it with thin tears flowing out of their eyes.

They might have not eaten well when they were in the city.

In that situation, wanting to climb the mountain range was more reckless than not.

After they finished eating, I brought them to the bedrooms on the second floor.

I went to my own bedroom too, and to get rid of today’s fatigue, I decided to plunge into my futon.