“Oh, about that.”
As a wedding present, I had bought them the plot for the new house. Gentz’s savings had only gone towards the physical building.
“It’s fine,” I said. “It’s just that, after I’m gone and you’re dead, I don’t want to see those three out on the streets. And as long as they have a house, that’s not going to happen, right?”
“Hey, don’t write me off me like that! I’ve got a bright future ahead of me.”
“Then make sure you look after them. If you don’t, you know what happens, don’t you?”
“Of course. I swear on Roy’s grave that I’ll protect them.”
Roy, Gentz explained, was Tiermina’s late husband. When they were young, the three of them had been in the same party. Apparently, they disbanded when Roy and Tiermina got married, and Gentz started working at the guild. Several years later, when Tiermina was pregnant with Shuri, Roy went out on some solo quest and bit it. Since then, Gentz had looked out for Tiermina’s family on the sly, and somewhere along the line, he fell for her.
As I listened to Gentz talk about the past, Fina and Shuri brought in dish after steaming dish. At the end, Tiermina brought out a single massive entree. My stomach spoke up for me.
“Thank you for waiting,” she said. “We’ve made plenty, so please eat tons.”
Tiermina and her daughters took their seats.
“Yuna, I’m sorry, but we ended up using a lot of the ingredients.”
“It’s fine. Again, I’m not hurting for goods.”
“That bear fridge is great. The veggies and meat don’t go bad.”
“I’ll add it to the wedding registry.” Since this world’s fridges definitely didn’t work like Japan’s did, I’d just made one myself after buying an ice mana gem.
“Much as I’d love that, we already owe you so much, and we can’t give you anything in return.”
“If you can’t give me anything in return, then I’ll take your daughter.” I gave Fina a look as she ate some meat.
“Oh, are you sure you want a daughter like that?” Tiermina also looked at Fina.
“She’s obedient and adorable, works hard, care about her family, and can cook. And, y’know, she can skin a tigerwolf like it’s no biggie, which is pretty amazing.”
Fina’s chopsticks stopped moving. “Ugh, could you stop, mom? And you too, Yuna.”
“How do you even raise a ten-year-old like that?” I mused.
“I think it’s my fault,” said Tiermina. “Because I got sick and burdened her, she had to work harder than normal kids. She looked after her sister and I while I was sick, did the housework, and worked at Gentz’s. It’s because I never allowed her to do anything a child should.”
“I didn’t think it was a burden or anything,” said Fina.
“A ten-year-old isn’t supposed to be able to think like that.”
“I wasn’t the only one who worked hard. Shuri helped too.” She gave her sister, who was hard at work eating next to her, a pat on the head.
“You’re right. Shuri did her best too, didn’t she?” Tiermina looked happily at her daughters.
After we finished our meal, Tiermina helped clean up. I was lounged around and drank an after-meal oran juice.
“I suppose we should be getting home soon.” Tiermina stood up from her chair.
“It’s already late, so why don’t you stay over? I have the rooms. And…” I looked at Shuri, who was nodding off. “Shuri worked so hard to help with the moving.”
“Umm…” Tiermina seemed conflicted. “Won’t we be a bother?”
“And you’re all dusty and sweaty from the work of moving, right? Wouldn’t it be too much to go home now and have to prep the bath?”
“You’re right. In that case, would you mind?”
It seemed that baths were common even in this world, to a certain extent. Most people had them, unless they were very poor. You could easily draw and heat water with a set of fire and water gems. Since I’d prepped the bath while Tiermina made dinner, it was ready for use.
“The three of you should go ahead. I’ll show you to your rooms later.”
“We can go in together?”
When I’d constructed the bath, I’d made it big, thinking I could use it as a place to wash Kumayuru and Kumakyu when they got dirty. As it turned out, they were always clean when I sent them back and summoned them again, so that didn’t end up happening.
“It’ll fit three. Fina, show everyone there.”
“Yuna, you should come too! You’re okay with that, right, Mom?”
“That’s fine, but are you sure we’ll all fit?”
“It’ll be fine. Yuna’s bear bath is huge.” Fina opened up her arms wide to show how big the bath was. She’d used my bath several times after she got dirty from butchering and such.
“It’s a bear bath?”
“You’ll understand it when you see it.”
Fina grabbed my hand and pulled me from my seat. She woke up Shuri, who yawned slightly and stood up, too. Lastly, she grabbed her mom’s hand.
Before we headed to the bath, I looked at Gentz. “Please don’t come in.”
“Like I would!”
The four of us headed to the bath.
“Undress here,” I instructed. In Japan, we would have called this the changing room. I got boxes ready for each of them to stow their clothes.
“Yuna…” Tiermina was looking at me.
“What is it?”
“Well, it’s the first time I’ve seen you without your hood on.”
“Can’t you still see my face regardless of whether I’m wearing a hood?” When I was walking around town, I’d pull it low to hide my face, but I pushed it back when I was talking to people I knew.
“I can, but you seem completely different without it than when you have it on. I didn’t think your hair would be so long. Hair changes a girl’s appearance so much.”
I touched my hair. She was right—you couldn’t see my hip-length hair when I was wearing the hood.
“Your hair is pretty, Yuna,” Fina said.
“Okay, okay. You don’t need to flatter me, so just get into the bath.”
“It wasn’t flattery!”
I ignored Fina, took off the bear clothes, and went into the bath,
