Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

The Commerce Guild Master was now captured, and all of the accomplices were caught.

After everything was finished, the sun was setting, and it was already time for supper.

「It’s finally over.」

Deiga-san accompanied me back to the inn.

「I really didn’t believe you could subjugate the bandits all by yourself, you know! Now we can finally go and buy things in the next town, so let me thank you again. Thank you.」

「You don’t have to mind it. Actually, I wanted to do something about the Kraken, but…」

「Ahahahha! That’s impossible, as expected! Even the children know how strong the Kraken is. All we can do is pray that it will return to the ocean.」

「Sorry.」

「Why are you apologizing, missy? We are already very happy that you captured all of the bandits. And recently, there is wolf meat and flour on the market. That’s also thanks to you, isn’t it missy?」

I thought that the guild would keep it a secret though…

「There is nothing you can do about the people who already know. The Guild Master of the Adventurer’s Guild made me promise not to say anything though. She said that you are shy, and that’s why you don’t want to be thanked.」

「It’s just because it would be troublesome!」

I let my real thoughts out.

I ate dinner, and when I wanted to return to my room, Deiga-san stopped me.

「As I promised you this morning, I will make the best meal I can with what I have, so come to the dining room for lunch tomorrow. I will prepare everything tomorrow morning.」

「Is it really okay? You don’t have a lot of ingredients, right?」

「I don’t really mind. After all, this is the only thing I can do to thank you, missy.」

「I understand. I’m looking forward to it.」

I returned to my room, and in order for my tiredness of the day to fly away, I changed into the White Bear and summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, in their cub forms.

When I summoned them, Hugging Bear seemed strange.

He didn’t look at me, showing me his back instead.

From my past experiences, he was pouting.

Now that I thought about it, today, I went, fought, and came back on Swaying Bear’s back.

That was why he was pouting.

It would be bad if I didn’t take care of him.

Still, I was really tired now.

I decided to embrace Hugging Bear while I slept.

There was just one problem. If I slept embracing Hugging Bear like this, it was possible that Swaying Bear would pout.

I forcefully embraced Hugging Bear and slid inside my Futon.

Thanks to my tiredness and Hugging Bear’s warmth, I fell asleep really fast.

When I woke up the next day, Hugging Bear’s mood seemed to have improved, and there was no sign of Swaying Bear sulking. Perfect.

I unsummoned the two bears and changed into my Black Bear Suit.

When I came downstairs, Blitz and his party were all there.

The four of them were preparing to go on a journey.

「Are you going out of the city?」

「Yeah, but we will be back soon.」

「With the bandits gone, there are people who want to go to the next town to buy food, so we will act as their guards.」

「Well, it will only take ten days for a round trip. And if all goes well, we can shorten that time even more, so we are planning on returning really fast.」

「I see. I don’t know if I will still be here then, so I will say this now. Thanks for everything you helped me with.」

「That’s wrong! It’s us who should say thanks. Yuna-chan, if you were not here, it would have been impossible for us to subjugate the bandits.」

I still believed that they helped me, especially in dealing with the captured women.

I didn’t have a lot of life experience, so I couldn’t find any words of comfort for the women who were captured, and couldn’t take any actions to help them.

「We will be going then.」

「Take care.」

Blitz raised his hand in response and left the inn.

After eating breakfast, I went outside as well, in order to feel the fresh air.

As I was walking around the city, the faces of all the residents I saw seemed a little happier.

When they noticed me, the people lowered their heads slightly.

The children rushed over to me as well.

It seemed that the fact that we defeated the bandits had been spread throughout the city.

When I stopped by the Adventurer’s Guild, Atora-san and the employees seemed really busy.

They told me that the shore, previously controlled by the Commerce Guild, was now temporarily under the control of the Adventurer’s Guild.

Atora-san seemed to be having a hard time.

I remembered the time when I saw Atora-san, alone inside the guild.

As a refreshment, I gave her a pudding.

When you were tired, sweet things were the best.

As I left the Adventurer’s Guild, I bumped into Jeremo-san, the Commerce Guild’s employee I met on my first day in this city.

「Missy, huh? Thanks a lot for all of this.」

「Why are you here?」

「A job for the Commerce Guild. Because the Guild Master and others were captured, a lot of work was thrown onto an underling like me.」

「I see.」

「I was able to avoid being dragged into the Guild Master’s crimes because I was just an underling though.」

It seemed that the Commerce Guild Master remained silent even now.

It was certain that he was the ringleader behind the bandits’ orders.

The residents asked for his disposal, but that was delayed for now.

Considering the feelings of the captured women, they wanted to execute him quickly, but because this was an independent city, as well as the fact that the Mayor already fled, there was no one to judge him, so they had to wait.

More importantly, Atora-san’s job was not just investigating the criminals, including Zarad.

There were a lot more urgent things to do.

Since the bandits were subjugated, there were now more places where people could fish, so they had to distribute those places equally. The things stolen by the bandits also had to be redistributed. Some of the women were captured, but there were also a lot of people who were killed. Normally, those who subjugated the bandits received the loot, but we declined.

We gave it away, so that it could be sold to reduce the food shortage.

Atora-san told us that we were too naive, but she thanked us anyway.

Blitz said that he didn’t want to receive it, since he hadn’t actually done anything.

I returned to the inn just past noon, and a delicious scent drifted my way.

「Oh, you have returned. It’s almost finished, so sit and wait.」

As I sat down, a smell that stimulated my appetite drifted through the air.

After a few minutes, the meal was brought to me.

What was placed before me was something I had never seen in this world, but still something I knew very well.

「Rice….」

「What, you know of it already?」

What was in front of me was not white rice, but it was rice nonetheless.

It was cooked together with a lot of different ingredients, and resembled Chinese fried rice.

I ate one mouthful. It was a really nostalgic taste.

It was rice.

It was not white, but it was still delicious.

Accompanying this Cantonese rice was a grilled fish that had been caught in the sea.

「This fish was caught by my son this morning.」

The bottle that was beside the fish bothered me more.

Was it possible that you put the contents of this bottle on the fish?

It was a somewhat black liquid.

I tried the fish with it. No doubt, it was soy sauce.

I then also tried fried rice with it.

I would prefer white rice, but I couldn’t possibly say ungrateful things like that.

「Missy, are you crying?」

Before I knew it, tears were dropping from my eyes.

「Your meal was so good that it made me cry.」

Being seen crying was embarrassing, so I wiped away my tears and answered while smiling.

I wasn’t lying when I said that it was delicious.

「Really?」

「Yes, it’s really delicious.」

「I am happy that you say so, but you are not forcing yourself, are you?」

Did he think that I thought it tasted bad, and that I was forcing myself to eat it?

「This is exactly like the food from my country. I thought that I would never be able to eat it again, you see. I am so happy.」

「This is exactly like your country’s cuisine? Is it possible that you come from the country of Harmony and Peace?」

(TL note: 和の国 The oldest recorded name of Japan. 和 refers to Harmony/Peace.)

「The country of Harmony and Peace?」

「Am I wrong?」

「Yes. It’s a place that is farther than that, a place so distant, I won’t be able to go there anymore.」

「You came from a place that far away? Aren’t you lonely?」

「There are times when something makes me remember home, but this place is fun as well. Still, it’s times like this, when I can taste my home country’s taste, that makes me really happy.」

「I see. I really would love to make more for you, but I don’t have enough ingredients. Before the Kraken arrived, there was a boat that went to the country of Harmony and Peace once every month, but now…」

「The Kraken, huh…」

Did I really not have any ways to defeat it?

I thanked Deiga-san and left the inn.

I kept walking until I arrived at the ocean.

The vast sea.

Beyond it was a country with rice and soy sauce. It might be possible that they even have miso.

I absolutely wanted rice.

The Kraken, huh?

My way of fighting was restricted.

I could use a big war ship and, before it sank, kill the Kraken. The problem was, there were no ships like that in this city.

I could fly in the sky and kill it from there. The problem was, I couldn’t fly.

To experiment, I went to the sandy beach and tried to freeze the sea.

It did freeze, but the waves covered it. If we started to fight, the Kraken would act violently. If that happened, the sea would grow wild, and the waves would exceed several meters, possibly even more than ten meters. If the ice broke, I wouldn’t be in a position to fight.

So, the ice would have to be really thick, and if I had to mind my every step, I wouldn’t be able to fight well.

If it was just a lake, I would be able to do it though.

Should I try to make a big bubble of air and dive into the sea?

I tried to make one, and entered the sea.

I entered the sea just fine.

Still, if I took an attack from the Kraken like this, that would be the end, wouldn’t it?

Could I even attack from inside this bubble?

If it broke, that would be the end.

There was also the problem of oxygen.

Even after thinking a lot, I found no good ways for now.

Maybe I should ride the bears to battle?

I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.

「Can you two swim?」

The two entered the sea and swam without trouble.

They could swim.

Well, polar bears could swim as well, right?

If we had a problem, it would be that I was the one who had never swam in the sea before. More importantly, how many years had it been since I last swam?

Thinking about it, the last time was when I was in primary school, during the lessons we had inside the school’s pool.

If I fell off from the bears, I would certainly die.

Still, when I was on the bears, even if I slept, I wouldn’t fall, so there might be no problem at the sea either.

If I rode on them, my lower half would be soaked without a doubt. When I fought, my whole body would get drenched as well.

It also didn’t change the fact that I could do nothing to it if it dove into the depths of the sea.

I should put this plan in reserve.

Hmm, I couldn’t find any ways to defeat it.

Was there a story of people who fought inside of the sea?

It would be the best if I could just breathe under the sea. There was no use asking for something impossible.

Couldn’t I just divide the sea, like Moses did? No, that would be impossible. That way, I couldn’t chase it if it fled.

More than that, I probably couldn’t do it anyway.

…No good.

…Discarded.

…Rejected.

…Refused.

…Nope.

…Impossible.

Finally, a good idea hit me.

Yes, this was the idea I would go with.

If it failed, it wouldn’t hurt me.

If it worked, I would be able to fight.

If it didn’t work, I could just fight while riding on Swaying Bear or Hugging Bear.

Author’s note:

The reason to fight the Kraken is rice and soy sauce.

And this is Yuna, who tried her best to find a way to fight the Kraken.

I think I really racked my brain hard to find this way.

If there is anyone who has thought of it as well, please, don’t say it. I implore you.

It’s planned that the Kraken will be defeated the way Yuna always does, exploiting her overpowered Bear.

Then, I am counting on you for the next time as well.

TL note: Of course she will use her overpowered Bear. Without it, she has nothing.