Each bed was draped with a small, thin towel. Is that supposed to be their blanket? I thought. It had to have been cold.
I ran a quick headcount; the orphanage was supposed to support twenty-three people. I pulled out thirty wolf pelts and handed them to the headmistress.
“Yuna?”
“Please give these to the kids. There’s enough for you and then some.”
I went to each room and finished mending the walls.
When I came back to the dining room, they had all finished eating. Oddly, nobody’d touched the leftover wolf meat.
“You didn’t eat this?”
“Yes. If you’d let us, I’d like to hand this out tomorrow. The children said they would rather eat it tomorrow than today.”
“Oh, sorry. I forgot to tell you—I’ll prep several days’ worth, so you can eat it.”
I pulled out more wolf meat and bread from bear storage.
If they had this much, it’d probably last a few days.
“Um, why are you doing all this for us?”
“If an adult can’t eat, it’s their own fault for not working, but a kid not being able to eat isn’t their own fault. It’s the adult’s fault. If they don’t have parents, the adults around them can help them. That makes us allies.”
“Th-thank you so much.”
“I’m sort of familiar with the lord here, so I’ll tell him to give you funding.”
Plus, if I didn’t have a word with him, I just wouldn’t feel right with myself.
“Please don’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“The lord lets us live here rent-free. If we make him angry and he kicks us off, we won’t have anywhere else to go.”
“Is the lord that terrible?”
“I wouldn’t put it that way…”
“But you don’t get funding, though.”
“We’re thankful to even have a place to live.”
Cliff was the pits. I figured I’d rather punch him than have a word with him.
“Anyway, I’m going to head home.”
“Yes, um, thank you so much.”
“You’re going home, bear girl?”
The kids gathered.
“I’ll be back.”
I gave the kids a pat on the head.
“You’re putting Yuna in a difficult spot. Everyone, say thank you.”
“Thank you, bear girl.”
“Thank you.”
The kids smiled; I was glad they were in good spirits.
Chapter 43:
The Bear Mobilizes for the Orphanage
I WENT BACK to the bear house and thought over the orphanage’s three bare necessities. Clothes could wait; food would become a problem again in a few days; they were fine for shelter for a while.
The biggest problem was definitely food. Just like the stall guy was saying, I couldn’t restock them every day, but I couldn’t take back what I offered either. While I was mulling it over, I heard a knock at the door and Fina calling me.
“Fina, are you all done butchering?”
“Yes, and the Guildmaster is calling you.”
Since I wasn’t making any headway with the orphanage, I headed over to the guild with Fina in tow.
“Oh, you’re here,” the Guildmaster himself welcomed me.
“So, how’s the black viper?”
“Yeah, we’ve got it put away in cold storage.”
We popped in to give it a look; the mass of skin, meat, and fangs was piled like a mountain.
“How much would the guild want?”
“There’s no such thing as too much.”
“How about half?”
“A little more.”
“Then how about I take a third?”
“Hmm, I suppose that’d be fine.”
The Guildmaster signed off on the paperwork, and I got my guaranteed portion into bear storage.
“Here’s the mana gem. I actually would have preferred it if you’d sold this, too.”
Since you needed mana gems to make a ton of things, I’d been holding them for myself lately. I had no idea what I’d make from this one, but I didn’t intend on selling it.
“It’ll take a while to pay you back with this volume.”
“I’m fine with getting it whenever.”
When I left, the sun was starting to set. I headed straight to the bear house, finished dinner and my bath, and laid down on my bed.
I couldn’t come up with a way to help the orphanage with the materials I had from the black viper. I could sell it all and funnel the money to them, but then that’d be it.
I pulled up my status screen. Lately I’d only been fighting low-ranking monsters, so I hadn’t been increasing levels. The black viper must have put me over the top; I’d gone up a level and picked up a new skill.
Bear Transporter Gate
By setting up a gate, can move between gates.
When more than three gates are in place, can travel to a specific location by picturing it.
This gate can only be opened with the bear hand.
Oooh, I thought, now that’s useful.
Still, I’d have to set them up. It would’ve been super convenient if I could just picture a place in my head and warp there. This was more than useful enough, though, so I was grateful. I wanted to try it out right away, so I got up from my bed and set up a gate in my room. A double door with bear reliefs installed itself in the bare wall. It was a lot bigger than I’d expected—wide enough for Kumayuru and Kumakyu to go through and have room to spare. I headed to a room on the first floor, set up a second gate, and opened it onto my room upstairs.
If I was going to set up gates outside, I needed to figure out places to put them that I wouldn’t regret. It wasn’t like they’d disappear after I used the skill. I had to consider times when I’d track in dirt, or if I’d be traveling with my bears, and there were a lot more inconveniences to consider than I’d expected. I wouldn’t have had to think so much about logistics if it was just teleportation, and it would’ve been nice to be able to warp out of fights, but oh well.
Anyway, I took down the bear transport gate, thinking about when Fina would come by.
Hmm, I thought. Bear transport gate sure is a mouthful. Maybe bear gate for short, then?
For a moment, I felt a chill. Maybe I’d caught a cold.
