What was with all these tenacious kids in this world? I gently patted Kai on the head.
“Miss?”
“It’s fine. I beat the viper,” I said, in order to make him feel better.
“Huh?”
“Could you call everyone in the village here? I’ll show them the proof.”
I smiled.
“Move back a little.”
Once he was standing at a safe distance, I pulled the proof out of bear storage.
“Is it dead?” he asked.
I beat on the corpse a little to buy him a little peace of mind. The body remained motionless.
“It really is…”
He slowly, slowly touched the viper’s cooling bulk.
“I’ll call everyone.”
He ran into the village.
After a while, the villagers came out of their houses and headed over to the corpse.
“Did you really defeat it?”
“It’s the black viper.”
“Is it really dead?”
There were people who burst out crying at the sight of it.
“Did the bear girl defeat it?”
“Th-thank you.”
“Thank you so very much.”
“Thanks, miss.”
No one minded how I looked. Kai’s dad came up to me from among them.
“Miss, sorry about earlier. Thank you. You saved the village.” He bowed his head.
“You don’t have to worry about that. No one would believe a girl like me could defeat it.”
“If you ever need anything, tell me. If it’s something I can do anything about, I will. You saved my life.”
“I don’t have anything I want. Just live for your clever boy here.”
While Kai’s father was apologizing, an elder appeared next to him. They just kept coming one after another. Who was it this time?
“I am the chief, Zun. Thank you so much for saving the village.” He lowered his head.
“But if I had been a little earlier…”
“No, we heard from Kai. You came here immediately after hearing him out once he reached the town. That you came within the day was more than fast enough. My expectation was that it would take several days. Do not trouble yourself with those who have already perished, miss.”
Really, what was I going to say to that?
The elder turned around and looked at all the villagers.
“You all likely haven’t had a decent meal. We are late in doing so, but let us have a feast.”
At his voice, the villagers responded with joy.
“We cannot offer you much hospitality, but please join us.”
The elder bowed again and went to start preparing the feast. The villagers each brought ingredients from their houses, made a fire in the middle of the village, and prepared a whole bunch of dishes. They danced, made a ruckus, ate, and made a big deal of that day for the sake of those who died and those still living.
While I was languidly watching the villagers, they came up to me one after another with food and more gratitude. I might have looked like a spectacle to the kids, since they couldn’t keep their hands off me. I kept seeing the parents stop them.
The feast continued late into the night, and I ended up staying at the elder’s house.
Chapter 41:
The Bear Finishes the Snake Extermination
and Goes Back to Town
THE NEXT DAY, I woke up early in the morning.
The ceiling was different. I remembered that I’d stayed the night at the village chief’s house. When I got up and stood, I heard activity in the room next to me. The elder seemed to already be awake. I headed over to greet him.
“Good morning.”
“I didn’t wake you, did I?”
“You didn’t.”
“I will make us something simple for breakfast, so please wait.”
I waited absentmindedly, and eventually he brought over our meal. It was bread, veggies…and eggs?
“Help yourself. I hope it is to your taste.”
“Um, what’s this?”
I pointed at the fried egg.
“This is a kokkeko egg. Kai’s father went first thing in the morning to collect some. He said he wanted you to eat it.”
“Uh, thank you,” I said, then notched the bread with the knife, put veggies and the egg between it, and ate.
“It’s good.”
“I am glad. I am sure that Kai’s father will also be glad after he went to collect it.”
Once I finished breakfast I decided to follow up on this new development.
“So you can gather kokkeko eggs in this village?”
“Yes, we can. If we go first thing, we can find them fresh-laid.”
“What’s a kokkeko bird like?”
“It can’t fly very high, so it makes its nests in the bushes on the ground. They are also very quick at running.”
Was it a chicken?
“I believe we still have kokkeko eggs and kokkekos from this morning’s collection, so would you like to bring them home?”
“Could I really?” I was overjoyed.
“Of course. This village owes you its life. We have nothing to pay you with, so this is a drop in the bucket.”
Obtained eggs and chickens!
With breakfast over with, I started getting ready to leave.
“Are you really going home?”
“I need to report to the guild, after all.”
When I left the village chief’s house, Kai came over.
“Miss, you’re going home?”
“The Guildmaster and adventurers are heading over here, so if I don’t report to them, it’ll cause them trouble.”
On the way out, I picked up three kokkekos and about ten eggs from Kai’s father. Whatever folks called them, they were pretty obviously chickens. That might have been the happiest part of the job this time around.
It was a little ways out, but I decided I’d come back again.
I called Kumayuru, and we made for Crimonia, listening to the sound of my hosts shouting their thanks slowly fade into the distance.
Several hours later, we spotted someone bearing down in our direction. Suspecting it was the Guildmaster, I had Kumayuru slow down.
“Is that you, Yuna?!”
The Guildmaster brought his horse to a halt.
“What’re you doing here? The village wasn’t annihilated, was it?”
“I’ve defeated the black viper.”
“…huh, sorry, could you say that again?”
“I defeated the black viper,” I said again.
“You’re joking.”
This whole interaction was a pain, so I pulled the body out of my bear storage and laid it out in front of him.
“So you really defeated it on your own. It’s not damaged
