I turned the black bear onesie inside out to switch to the white one, then crawled into bed. I ended up taking a multi-hour nap.
Someone was shaking me. “Yuna, Yuna.”
“Fina?”
“Please wake up.”
“Good morning. Are you done with the harvesting?”
“Yes, I’m done. I came over to wake you up.”
“Thanks.” I yawned and got out of bed.
“Yuna!” When Fina saw my outfit, her eyes sparkled. Huh? I thought. “That white bear is so cute.”
Oh right, I was wearing the white bear now.
“It’s for when I sleep.” I took the white bear clothes off and flipped them inside out, reverting into my normal black-bear self.
“All right,” I said, “let’s head home.”
Fina and I switched steeds this time. We made it back to town about thirty minutes later, just as the sun was starting to set. I didn’t know much about this world’s culture yet, but I was pretty sure you shouldn’t keep ten-year-olds out too late.
When I galloped up to the gate with Kumayuru, we startled the guard so bad he readied his pike. Fina and I dismounted, and I put the bears away. I tried to look natural when I showed the guard my guild card.
“Aye, what was with those bears just now?”
“They’re just my summons.”
“Oh, summons.”
He passed my card back to me without comment. I thought he’d say something about them, but nada. We headed for the guild to report that I’d slayed the tigerwolves.
Chapter 25:
The Bear Looks for a Butchering Site
WHEN WE MADE IT to the guild, Fina told me she’d wait outside, so I went in alone. Couldn’t blame her for not wanting to go into a place with all these filthy men around, that was for sure. Let alone the idiots who’d pick a fight if a kid walked in.
Helen was waiting at the front desk. The queue was empty, so I headed on over.
“Are you reporting your quests, Ms. Yuna?”
“Yeah, I just finished it.”
“May I see your guild card?” I handed it over, and Helen checked my quest information. “Did you really accept a tigerwolf slaying quest?!”
“Well, yeah.”
“And you finished it on the same day, too!”
The adventurers in the room started buzzing right on cue. “You mean she took out D-rank monsters on her own?” “But tigerwolf territory is pretty far from here. You can’t get there and back in a day.” “Wait, you don’t know?” “Know what?” “About the bears.” “Bears? You mean the way that girl’s dressed?”
A couple more members of the peanut gallery chimed in at this point. “Nah, she summoned some bears and went out on those.” “I saw it, I did—and there were two of ’em. A black one and a white one.” “Two of them!” “And you know what, those things were quick on their feet!”
The conversation behind me was getting animated. My conversation with Helen was proceeding apace.
“Well, Ms. Yuna, if you could provide proof of the slaying.”
I pulled two mana gems out of my bear storage.
“You’ve got two here?”
“Because there were two of them.”
A commotion broke out behind me, but I ignored them. Helen took the mana gems and put them on the crystal panel.
“Yes, both of these were killed today, without a doubt. Since the quest was only for one, we’ll add extra to the reward money for the second one. Are you fine with that?”
“Sure, but what would happen if I refused?”
“You would only receive payment for one of them and only one kill would be recorded on your guild card, but you would be able to keep the mana gem.”
“Okay. I don’t need mana gems right now, so you can take both of them.”
“Understood. I’ll record two kills for you. If you’ll excuse my asking, do you have the rest of the tigerwolves?” Helen’s eyes went to my bear storage.
“I do, but I’m not going to sell them.”
“I see. It would help the guild if you would sell them to us.”
“No can do. I want the pelts.”
I was planning on having Fina skin the striped pelts off the tigerwolves, so I could decorate my barren bear house with them. They’d work hung up on the wall or even laid out on the floor.
“Yes, I see. It’ll be a shame to miss out on the pelts, but would you sell us the claws and fangs, or perhaps the meat?”
“Sure. I can bring those in after we butcher them.”
“Thank you very much. This will be your quest reward, then. And here is your guild card back.”
I put my guild card and the hefty amount of money into my bear storage, and rejoined Fina outside.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. So, how about we head home?”
“You’re not going to sell the wolves and horned hares?”
“Eh, I’ll sell them next time. I’ll make sure to pay you, so don’t worry.” The truth was that I’d just left the butchered stuff in the bear house and couldn’t access them directly through the bear storage. I still needed to pay Fina, though, since she did harvest stuff for me. I handed her a silver coin.
“But Yuna…” Fina seemed surprised.
“It’s fine.” I’d paid her a little on the high end of what Mr. Gentz said was the market rate. “You can’t count on me staying in this town forever, so make sure you save up.”
“Thanks, Yuna.”
I gave Fina a pat on the head as she grinned at me.
Fina came over to the inn early in the morning the next day too. We’d just done all that stuff yesterday, so I wanted to tell her she could take a break—actually, I wanted to take the day off, but it was my own fault for not telling her that yesterday. It was just such a pain in the butt to leave town every single time we needed to butcher something.
Maybe there was a storehouse we could borrow somewhere around
