“Miss Yuna, thank you very much. You have my sincere gratitude for rescuing Brandaugh and going so far as to defeat the tigerwolf. Though it doesn’t amount to much, please allow us to pay you as thanks.”
“I just happened to be on a walk, and I just so happened to discover Brandaugh and coincidentally beat a tigerwolf. I don’t have a reason to take money from the village.”
“But…” the chief seemed like he wanted to say something, but he couldn’t get the words out.
“Plus, with the baby just being born, I couldn’t let Marie become a widow.”
“Yuna…” Marie smiled at me, wiping her tears away. Right then, Yuuk reached out his arms as far as he could get them from within Marie’s arms.
“Yuuk?”
Yuuk was reaching out towards the tigerwolf’s corpse. Marie sunk down to her knees while still holding Yuuk, and he grabbed the tigerwolf’s fur.
“Yuuk?”
When Marie tried to pull Yuuk’s hand from the fur, he started to cry. When she got flustered and let his hand go, he latched onto the tigerwolf’s pelt again.
“Yuna, I’m so sorry. I’ll make him let go right now.”
When Marie pried Yuuk’s hand away, he really started crying. She rocked him to the best of her ability, but he just wouldn’t stop. It seemed like he just really liked the pelt.
“Marie, please accept this tigerwolf as your son’s late birthday gift.”
“But…I can’t accept that. I’ll get him to calm down.”
Nevertheless, Yuuk wouldn’t stop crying from within Marie’s arms.
“Why won’t he stop crying for me?”
I ended up laughing watching Marie working her hardest to soothe her baby.
“Ha ha. Marie, please take it. Chief, the pelt is for Yuuk, but the village can use the meat any way it sees fit.”
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
After that, we had Fina butcher the tigerwolf. The villagers were pretty shocked at how quickly she worked. We divvied up the pelt and meat as we’d agreed.
While I was watching Fina’s butchering operation, the rookies came over.
“Um, do you have a sec?”
“What is it?”
“Thank you very much.”
They lowered their heads.
“If you hadn’t come when you did…”
“We might have been goners.”
“Also, I’m sorry we were rude to you at the adventurers’ guild.”
“Um, please forgive Shin. He didn’t mean it badly. Everyone told us that you were terrifying and violent, so when we saw you were so cute, he thought it was a practical joke.”
“We had no idea you were that strong. We’re just rookies; we figured it was a hazing thing. If you’re at all like the rumors say, please just take me. The others didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Could I ask you something? What did they tell you at the adventurers’ guild?”
“Well…”
They told me the same thing Helen did. But as for what the other adventurers had told them… It looked like I had some punishment to dole out when I got back to Crimonia.
“Are you really going home? It’s already late, so please stay the night.”
“It would be fine if I was alone, but I’ve got this one here,” I said, and put my hand on Fina’s head. “We came here without telling her parents. I don’t want to make them worry.”
“Yes, you’re right. We certainly can’t keep you. Yuna, thanks again for everything you did this visit.”
“I’ll come again on another walk.”
“Yeah. I’ll be waiting. Please come again at your own leisure too, Fina.”
“Yes, I’ll look forward to it,” Fina said, and smiled at them.
The rookies were staying for a while to keep wolf hunting. I mounted Kumakyu, Fina mounted Kumayuru and we hurried back to Crimonia, but by the time we got there, the sun had set and we ended up getting in trouble with Tiermina.
Fina, sorry for getting you involved in this.
Extra Story:
Encounter with A Bear:
The Headmistress Chronicles
WE HAD NOTHING to eat today, either. It’s taken everything we could to make a soup from vegetable scraps once a day. It has been about three months since our funding was cut, and we haven’t been able to provide the children proper things to eat.
As the adult, I had to do something. Liz and I would go to get food, but there were limits. If we begged every day, they would give us dirty looks. Even if we were to go somewhere else, they would not look upon us kindly. Regardless, because the children were waiting, we had to beg even as we endured their disgust.
Liz had been gone since morning, but I could not know how much she would bring back. I soothed the small child in front of me and couldn’t help but worry as I thought about the future. The other children had gone out. They likely headed for the central plaza. The children searched for leftovers from the food carts there.
I could hardly admonish them for doing that.
If only I could prepare them some food, they wouldn’t need to do that. However, I didn’t have the means to do that, so all I could do was tell them not to be an annoyance. If things continued like this, someone might die, or the children would likely start stealing. If the children resorted to crime, those who currently gave us food would stop. If that happened, that would spell the end of the orphanage. I had thought about asking the lord for help, but if he were to think we’d turned defiant, he might evict us, and the children would have no place to go.
There was nothing I could do. I held my head and went deep into thought when I noticed a commotion outside. It seemed the children had returned earlier than usual.
Had something happened?
I anxiously went outside to find the children gathered around a girl with a strange appearance. A bear?
I called out a greeting to this girl with the appearance of a bear.
“Who might you be? I am the headmistress, Bo. I manage this orphanage.”
“I’m Yuna, the adventurer.
