“Thank you very much.”
“Thank you.”
I scanned the stands for more succulent prey.
“Bear girl! How’d you like some vegetable soup?” I heard someone cry from a nearby stall. Steam rose from a giant pot; again, the smell woke something animal in me.
“Sure. I guess I’ll take three.”
“Come again!”
He served up warm veggie soup in wooden containers we’d have to return. I took the soup and handed it to the girls.
“Bear girl, how does bread with your soup sound?”
“That’s no fair. Bear girl, how about our barbeque?”
All around us, the stand owners leapt into their hard-sell routine.
“How about our fresh-squeezed juice?” A woman selling a baffling selection of fruit juice joined the fray.
“I feel kind of like bread today, so I’ll take three small ones.”
“Right, thank you.”
The man from the first stall handed me my order, thanking me profusely for my patronage, and I apologized to the others.
“I’ll come buy stuff from you next time.”
“It’s fine.”
“You’d better!”
I accepted the bread and went around greeting the stands around me, then sat at an empty bench nearby.
It might just have been because I’d been eating on the go there a lot lately, but I’d gotten to know the people at the stands. I’m sure the bear outfit had something to do with it, but the number of people who would call out to me while I walked around the plaza increased by the day.
As much as I appreciated all the attention, my plaza visits were becoming enough of a habit to make me worry about my weight. I tried pinching my belly through the bear suit. Sure would be nice if I’d had a skill that kept me from getting fat.
“Let’s chow down.”
“Thank you, Yuna.”
“Thank you.”
Shuri mimicked her sister and thanked me. They were both so cute! We took our time eating our soup and bread together.
It was hearty soup, more veggie than broth. The ingredients in this world were pretty similar to the ones in Japan. There were carrots, daikon, cabbage, cucumbers, and other veggies that I only caught glimpses of but tasted familiar enough, but the things that were important to me as a Japanese person—rice, soy sauce, and miso—were nowhere to be seen. I longed for ramen and noodles. It looked like they had flour. Maybe, I thought, they at least have udon somewhere?
At any rate, it was delicious enough. After we ate, we decided to go back to the bear house to study. Later, Tiermina and Gentz would find out that I’d taken them out to eat and I’d get in trouble for making the kids miss out on the dinner they’d prepared.
Beware overeating when dining on the go.
They still thanked me for the study supplies, though.
Chapter 34:
The Bear Helps Move
FINA’S FAMILY DECIDED on their new home—a place near the adventurers’ guild, on Gentz’s request—and paid for it with Gentz’s savings from his lonely bachelor life. I was at Fina’s house today to help with moving.
“Bring the stuff you want to take over here. Make sure to put the small stuff in a box together.” I started putting the things they’d packed away in boxes into the bear storage. “Are you taking this table, too?”
“We don’t have money to buy a new one, so yes please.”
“In that case, you’re going to take the chairs too, right?”
“If you can fit those, please.”
The family brought out other stuff while I was occupied with Tiermina’s instructions, and I kept putting more and more of it away. Fina and Shuri had worked hard to pack all of their meager belongings.
“Yuna,” said Fina, “could you take the bed, too?”
“Sure.” I went over to Fina’s room. All that remained were a few boxes left in one corner and the bed in question.
“Just one?”
“Yes, Shuri and I sleep together.”
“Well, in that case, you need to have your new dad buy another one for you.”
I put Fina’s bed away in the bear storage, then dipped into Tiermina’s room and did the same with her bed.
“Say, your bottomless bag is pretty amazing, miss. We’d normally need a cart to haul all this stuff.”
Well, that was because it was an item I’d gotten from the admin and/or god—not that I could tell them that. I went to each room and put all the large furniture in my storage.
“Is that all you need to move?” The house was bare.
“Yes, thank you, Yuna,” Tiermina said.
With the first phase dealt with, we headed to Gentz’s house.
I’d often heard that men living alone lived like slobs and wondered why. Apparently, Gentz hadn’t escaped that stereotype. He’d known for a few days that they’d be moving today, so why hadn’t he cleaned up?
“This is pretty terrible,” Tiermina muttered quietly as she looked around.
“Sorry,” Gentz said with a hangdog expression.
“Yuna, sorry, but could you take the girls to the new house?”
“Sure, I can.”
“Fina, you get the boxes for your room in order ahead of us. I told you how we’d split the rooms yesterday, so you already know what to do. Also, I’ve cleaned the rooms to a certain extent, but I didn’t get all of it, so could you finish up? Prioritize the sleeping areas first. Once you finish that, I’ll leave arranging the things to you. Please clean the other rooms, too. I’ll come by after I finish cleaning here.”
She handed over the keys to the new place to Fina.
Next, she looked at me, “Yuna, I’m sorry, but once you get the stuff moved, could you come back here?”
“Yeah.”
“Then, if you three could do that, please.”
What else did I expect but military efficiency from the single mom of two kids? We headed to the new house, which sat midway between the inn I’d been staying at before and the guild. It was bigger than their previous house but didn’t seem dusty at all; credit to Tiermina for the advance cleaning.
“Yuna, could you take out the cleaning supplies?”
I pulled them out. Fina took a bucket and headed to the kitchen to draw water from the mana gem.
“Yuna, could you come to
