Someone knocked at the door.
「Who is it?」
Shia, who was closest to the door, asked.
「It’s me.」
「Marcus?」
「I want to talk, so could you open the door?」
Shia looked at us as if to say what should she do?
「I don’t mind personally.」
「If you want, I can summon Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.」
「That sounds good.」
Cattleya agreed, so I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.
*Pouf, pouf.*
They landed cutely on my bed.
Once the bears were all settled in, Shia opened the door.
「So, why did you come here so late at night?」
「You see…」
Marcus seemed to be having some problems saying it.
Was this possibly… Confession time?
The rumored event that often happened during school trips… Well, I had never went on any school trips, so I didn’t know if it really happened, but… I heard many couples were made on school trips. Was this practice training possibly similar to a school trip!?
Would Marcus confess to Shia? Or Cattleya? Which one was it?
I started paying attention to see what he would say.
「What is it?」
His hesitation irritated Shia.
「You see, I just wanted to apologize before we go back tomorrow.」
「Apologize?」
Shia gave him a confused look.
I was confused, too. What did this mean?
That it wasn’t confession time?
「Did you do something to me?」
「Not you! The Bear! I came here to apologize to the one in Bear Clothes, Yuna-san!」
He said Yuna-san, right?
Did I hear it wrong?
Also, he wanted to apologize to me?
「You came to apologize to Yuna-san?」
「That’s right. Timor and I talked about it and came here to apologize before we leave tomorrow.」
「So, could you let us come inside the room?」
I heard Timor’s voice from the other side of the door. It seemed that both of them were here.
「Yuna-san, what should we do?」
「There isn’t really anything to apologize for, though?」
「We will just enter for now, okay?」
Timor and Marcus entered the room.
「So, what are you two apologizing to Yuna-san for? Did you guys do something?」
Shia asked them.
I didn’t remember them doing anything in particular to me, though…
「We didn’t believe that you were an adventurer.」
Well, nobody would believe that a girl wearing a Bear Suit would be an adventurer, right?
「We didn’t believe that you were strong.」
I didn’t think anyone who met me for the first time thought that I was strong.
「We were making fun out of you by saying that you were a strange girl wearing strange clothes.」
Oh right, he did say that. Well, if I met anyone wearing these clothes, I would also laugh at them.
「We decided to do something dangerous without asking for your approval.」
Well, they didn’t see me as an adventurer back then.
「We never thanked your bears.」
Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear tilted their heads.
「We didn’t properly thank you for saving us.」
You guys thanked me plenty, though…
All these things were nothing to be upset about, you know…
Hmm, did I get used to it?
「You don’t really have to worry about these things. I just kept my true strength a secret since Eleanora-san asked me to let you guys do what you wanted unless I considered it dangerous. So, I wouldn’t have helped you if I didn’t consider the situation dangerous.」
「But, you were still protecting us from the shadows, right?」
「That’s my job, you know.」
「I was prepared to die when I decided to confront the Black Tiger. You saved my life.」
「It was all my fault, but it was you, Yuna-san, who suffered the consequences of my decision. Thanks to you, we all made it back alive. I became arrogant just because I could kill some goblins. And because of my arrogance, you had to put yourself in danger.」
What was this feeling?
Was I getting embarrassed?
「As I said before, you don’t have to worry about it. No one could have imagined that a Black Tiger would have appeared. Also, you wanted to subjugate the goblins for the sake of the village, not yourself. Finally, nobody would have ever thought that I was an adventurer the first time they saw me in these clothes, you know.」
「But…」
「It’s not like you personally did something to me. For example, if you decided to pick a fight with me, I would get mad, but you didn’t do something like that, so you have nothing to apologize for. That’s why, you don’t really have to worry about it.」
「…………」
「…………」
Marcus and Timor seemed like they wanted to say something else while Shia and Cattleya just kept silent and listened.
I wasn’t able to stand the silence, so…
「Want to eat something?」
The mood was getting really heavy, so I brought out potato chips, fried potatoes, sandwiches, and other snacks from the Bear Box and put them on the table.
「Can we?」
「Of course. I have a lot more, so go ahead and eat.」
Marcus took a potato chip and ate it.
「It’s good.」
Timor took a potato chip too.
「Yeah, it tastes great.」
It seemed that they liked it.
「Yuna-san.」
Shia and Cattleya were eyeing the snacks on the table.
They obviously wanted to eat them, too.
Cattleya was rubbing her stomach just a while back; was it really a good idea to eat more?
「You can eat it, but don’t blame me if you gain weight.」
I warned them.
They looked at their stomachs.
「I-I’m fine.」
「M-me too.」
Thanks to Shia and Cattleya acting like this, Marcus and Timor calmed down, and the heavy mood disappeared.
「This bread is delicious!」
「It’s better than the bread I eat at home.」
Well, of course. A baker I personally chose made it, after all.
「These potato chips are delicious as well.」
「Wait, did you two get to eat this before we came here?」
Marcus looked at them with an envious expression.
「It was just a little! We shouldn’t eat too much of Yuna-san’s food while we are in the middle of the practice training.」
「Honestly, we just wanted to eat Yuna-san’s food because it’s better than ours.」
I noticed that the snack-pile was decreasing little by little, so I brought out all sorts of bread that Morin-san and the children from the orphanage had made, and put them on the table. With the uncomfortable silence from before completely gone, all the food I had brought out was disappearing into their stomachs.
Guys, we just ate dinner a while ago, right? Why are you eating so much?
Was that how the stomachs of young people worked? I wasn’t able to keep up at all.
I hugged Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear while looking at them eating happily. There was no way I could eat any more, after all.
The next day, the four of them were rubbing their stomachs.
They couldn’t refuse the breakfast the village chief made for us, so they had to force themselves to eat it; they ate too much yesterday night, after all.
It wasn’t my fault. They decided to eat that much themselves.
「Well then, I’ve put all the luggage on the carriage.」
The village chief told Marcus.
「Luggage?」
With a pained expression, he asked Shia, who also seemed like was she was suffering.
「The luggage we will be transporting from the village to the capital. If I remember correctly, it’s threads and cloth.」
I see. It was a local specialty, huh.
With those disgusting silkworms here, I somehow understood it.
After talking to Marcus, the village chief approached me.
「Yuna-san, we are indebted to you. It would have been terrible if something had happened to the students.」
「You have thanked me more than enough yesterday, so it’s okay.」
「But…」
It seemed that the village chief wanted to say something else, but they already thanked me way too much yesterday, so I didn’t think I could stand any more gratitude.
「Protecting the students is my job, you know.」
「I understand. Oh right, we prepared what you asked for yesterday.」
When the village chief said that, another villager brought a big box and gave it to me.
I looked inside and saw a lot of different colored cloth and threads.
Were these made from silkworm cocoons?
「Yuna-san, they look great.」
Shia, who looked a bit jealous, said after peeking inside the box.
「These are all high class items.」
「Really?」
「They are really popular with the nobles.」
Well, if they were really giving it to me I would gladly accept it, but was it okay?
「Can I really take this? I’m not lying that I had killed the Black Tiger, but I have no proof, either, you know.」
They couldn’t really check the magic crystal without going to a town with an Adventurer’s Guild.
I could have showed them a corpse from a Black Tiger I killed before coming here, and they wouldn’t have known.
「Then I would be at blame for not being able to see through your lies. And more importantly, I would be embarrassed if we didn’t give you our thanks simply because we didn’t believe you.」
The village chief said strongly.
「Thank you. I will accept it then.」
I put the box with cloth and thread inside the Bear Box.
「Feel free to visit us any time.」
The villagers sent us out, and the carriage headed back towards the capital.
Comments