“The more the better, but I don’t want to cut down on the village’s food supply, so if you could just get as many as wouldn’t affect the village.”
“Understood. Well then, we’ll get anyone free in the village to go out to capture them immediately.”
“Thanks.”
If I could get ahold of a live kokekko, then I’d have fresh-laid eggs.
“So then, what would you like to do in the meantime?”
“How long do you think it’ll take?”
“Let’s see, I think we should be able to capture a few by the afternoon.”
“In that case, I’ll be back this afternoon. I have some other errands to run in the mountains.”
With another step crossed from my to-do list, I headed back to the cave where the transport gate was.
When I got back to the cave, I erased the gate on that end temporarily. With some liberally applied earth magic, I made the cave even wider and set up a single-story house in the shape of a cub with a kitchen, a restroom, a bathing room, and a personal room, and lit the whole thing with mana gems. To finish things off, I stood up a bear transport gate right next to the entrance of the cub house. Base numero uno complete.
When I came back to the village, they had about twenty kokekkos tied up for me. It was more than I’d hoped for.
“Are you sure I can have this many?”
“The next round of chicks’ll grow up quick, and we don’t really get monsters out here, so it’s an ideal environment for them. Please take them and don’t worry about it.”
I guess the black viper came all the way to a human settlement because it couldn’t find monsters to eat? I thought.
I had the villagers tie the kokekkos to Kumayuru and Kumakyu so the birds wouldn’t fall off. It would’ve been nice if I could carry live cargo in bear storage, but I just had to bear with it.
“Are you really heading back right now?”
“I’d rather get home earlier than later.”
“I see. We were hoping to entertain you some…”
“You’ve done more than enough.”
I tried to pay for the kokekkos when I left, but the village chief wouldn’t take it.
“No, no, we couldn’t accept anything from the savior of our village.”
I couldn’t let that happen, so I forced the money on him, then I made Kumayuru and Kumakyu run for it. I went straight back to the cave and took the gate to my house in Crimonia. I would have headed straight to the orphanage, but I couldn’t have the bears running around town. I’d cause an uproar. I decided to wait until evening. I left the kokekkos tied to the bears, figuring it probably wouldn’t kill them.
When night fell, the bears stirred. They ran through the streets in the cover of dark. Wouldn’t it be better to use a transport gate, you say? Cards on the table, I just really wanted to run through town on a bear.
We cut past the orphanage and arrived on the land I’d bought. I got down from Kumayuru and checked out the plot. I guessed the spot would work just fine. I called up a henhouse out of the earth and surrounded it with a three-meter wall. They probably won’t be able to run away if it’s this tall, right? I thought.
I led the bears into the henhouse and untied the ropes binding the kokekko. Once they were free, the birds wandered around the house. I felt a whole lot better seeing that they really were still alive.
The next morning, I visited the orphanage after finishing breakfast. I found the kids gathered outside the wall of the henhouse.
“Bear girl?!”
They swarmed me on sight.
“Bear girl, a wall appeared overnight.”
One of them gestured around, trying to give me an emphatic explanation about the wall in question. I put a hand on the kid’s head.
“That’s because I made it.”
“You did that?”
The orphans looked at me with slackjawed amazement.
“Anyway, I’ve got something I need to tell all of you and your headmistress about, so let’s go inside.”
When we got there, the headmistress was with a woman who looked like she was about twenty. I had a pretty good idea who she was.
“Liz,” said the headmistress, “this is Yuna from the other day—thank you again, by the way.”
“Thank you so much for the food,” Liz said, bowing her head.
“What brings you here today?”
“I was wondering if it would be okay to give the kids some work. I’d pay them a fair wage, of course.”
“You’re giving jobs to the children?”
“Don’t worry, it’s not anything dangerous.”
“What kind of work is it?”
“Have you seen the wall outside?”
“I have. The children have been making a fuss about the wall since it appeared when we woke up this morning.”
“I made it last night. I’d like the children to look after the birds inside the wall.”
“Umm, you made it in a single night?”
“You want them to look after birds?”
I told them how I’d made the walls and explained what kind of work I needed done: I needed the kids to gather the eggs in the mornings, clean the hut, and take care of the kokekkos. I made sure to emphasize that the kokekko weren’t to be eaten.
“In other words, you’re starting a business selling eggs?”
“Well, considering how much eggs seem to go for in this town, yeah.”
“Are you sure you want to pay us for just doing that?”
The headmistress looked at me in disbelief.
“I have other stuff in mind for you later, but that’s it for now. What do you think?”
The headmistress looked over at the children.
“Well, everyone? It looks like Yuna has a job for you. If you work, you’ll be able to eat. If you don’t, we’ll end up back to the situation we were in just a few days ago. Yuna can’t keep bringing food,” the headmistress told the kids.
The kids listened to the both of us, then looked at each other and shared a collective nod.
“I’ll do it.”
“Please let me
