Chapter 196 – Bear-san Returns to Gran-san’s Mansion
「We need a horse carriage, so go and prepare one!」
When we brought the children back above ground and to the entrance of the mansion, we saw Cliff giving orders.
「You finally came back, huh.」
Cliff came over once he noticed us. He looked a bit fatigued.
I helped the two boys off of Hugging Bear and asked Misa to watch over them.
「Cliff, you’re here.」
「Yes, I arrived not too long ago.」
Cliff answered Eleanora-san then moved his gaze to Misa and eventually to me.
「Yuna, thank you for saving Misana. This will be a great relief to the Faren Gramm family.」
「How is Noa doing?」
Fina had woken up before I ran off while Noa hadn’t yet regained consciousness.
「She’s fine. She woke up right after you took off.」
Thank god, Noa was fine, too.
If she wasn’t, I might have decided to rampage a bit more.
With this, I now had one less thing to worry about.
「That reminds me, did Gran-san not come along?」
Eleanora-san and I looked around but did not see Gran-san.
We figured that since his granddaughter had been kidnapped, he would have come running. I hoped he wasn’t wandering around this mansion looking for us.
Cliff’s answer was different from what we had expected.
「Because of you, Yuna, Old Man Gran got held up by the townspeople.」
「Because of me?」
I didn’t understand what he meant by that. What had I done?
Also, why would Gran-san be held up by the townspeople because of something I had done?
「Yuna, it’s because you ran through the town on top of your bear. You’ve startled everyone you passed by and ended up causing quite a commotion. When Old Man Gran showed up on the streets, the people all barraged him with the news of a bear appearing in town. Some even asked him to put out a request for the soldiers or adventurers to deal with it. So, that’s why Old Man Gran was forced to stay behind and try to calm them down.」
「Yes, seeing Yuna-chan ride a bear with that crazed look on her face would surely scare people.」
Eleanora-san immediately understood the situation.
Had I really caused such a big commotion?
Did that mean I couldn’t walk around town anymore?
I was in a pinch, then.
As I started to get depressed, Swaying Bear came over and tried to console me.
Actually, it felt like Swaying Bear was trying to apologize to me instead.
「It’s not really your fault.」
I said and gently patted its head.
「That’s right. Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan aren’t scary at all.」
Misa said and hugged Hugging Bear.
「Anyway, Old Man Gran won’t be joining us for a while.」
It wasn’t really our fault. It was the toad man’s family who had decided to kidnap Misa. If they hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t have had to run through town on top of Swaying Bear.
Yes, we weren’t at fault at all.
Still, with this I most likely wouldn’t be able to take a walk through Sheelin for a while.
「By the way, Cliff, how much have you learned by now?」
「I ran into Michel along the way and then heard about the whole situation from Ranzel. Well, mainly about how Yuna went on a rampage and safely rescued Misa. He also told me that you two went to find the merchant’s children.」
We threw a quick glance at Hugging Bear and the rescued children.
「Yes, we saved the children. Now we just have to contact the Commerce Guild to find out where they live, but... I’m not sure if speaking to him is the right idea.」
Rumors had it that the toad man and the Commerce Guild master were connected.
「Okay, then we should take them to Old Man Gran’s mansion for now and wait for some merchants to visit him. We should be able to get in contact with their family through them.」
「You’re right. We’ll take them to Gran-san’s mansion first.」
「I have already ordered for a horse carriage to be prepared for us; it should arrive soon.」
It seemed like the carriage we would be using belonged to the toad man’s family.
Well, that was indeed quicker than returning to Gran-san’s mansion to prepare one.
「Smart.」
「I’ve prepared everything. I’ve got the guards on lookout, the surrounding area has already been checked, and the carriage should arrive any moment now. Oh, and Ranzel wanted to search for the other servants in the residence, so I gave him a couple of people to speed up the process.」
「Did you contact anyone at Gran-san’s mansion about Misa’s rescue?」
「When I ran into Michel earlier, he was already heading there to let them know. We wanted to inform them as quickly as possible.」
As expected of a lord like Cliff, he sure knew how to get things done quickly.
「Anyway, I think it’s best to send Misa and the other children back straight away with Gran-san being held up. There were a few things I wanted to ask him as well... It’s very unfortunate that he couldn’t come because people freaked out over some bears.」
Eleanora-san said, glancing at me for just a second.
Like I had already told her, it wasn’t my fault.
It had been an emergency. If they hadn’t kidnapped Misa, this bear scare wouldn’t have happened. It was all the toad family’s fault for kidnapping her.
「Okay. I did manage to take some of his guards with me, so we should just try to do what we can.」
「Yeah. Once we’ve gathered all the servants, we can question them one by one. We also have to investigate all the rooms. It will take us a while, so we should get to it.」
「You can leave the questioning to me.」
「Good. I will investigate the rooms, then.」
When Eleanora-san declared that she would be checking the rooms, the toad man began whining, and his face turned beet red.
It seemed like there were indeed some things he didn’t want others to see.
Eleanora-san simply ignored him and turned to me.
「Yuna-chan, once the horse carriage arrives, please take the children back to Gran-san’s mansion. I want to get Misa back to her parents as quickly as we can.」
I agreed since there was nothing here I could help with.
It didn’t take long for the carriage to show up, and I made sure all the children were aboard it safely before climbing on myself.
I climbed on because Cliff asked me to.
「If people see your bears again, they will most likely freak out, so could you please put your bears away and ride the carriage as well?」
Was how he reasoned it.
He was right of course. If I kept riding the bears through the town, Gran-san would never be let go.
With my bears safely back in my gloves, we returned to Gran-san’s mansion on a carriage. The moment we arrived, Misa’s mother came out of the house, crying.
When Misa saw her mother crying, she began to cry as well and ran to her, while her father, Leonardo-san, just looked at the two of them for a while with a happy expression on his face before coming over to me.
「Yuna-san, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for rescuing our daughter. If it wasn’t for you...」
「I’m glad I made it before anything bad happened to her.」
「I cannot thank you enough. I was a bit surprised when I saw you walk in wearing that bear suit of yours, but Father told me that if anyone, you should be able to bring Misa back safe and sound.」
「Thank you so much for saving our daughter.」
Misa’s mother lowered her head while embracing Misa.
「It’s fine, really. Oh right, I have a message from Eleanora-san. She wants you to contact the parents of these children.」
「And these children are?」
「They were also kidnapped and are the children of some merchants who were blackmailed through them. I thought Gran-san or Leonardo-san would know who they were.」
「Okay, I think I understand. I will try to get in contact with their parents right away.」
Leonardo-san went over to the children and asked them their names.
Since I had successfully brought Misa and the children back, I entered the mansion and headed to the room I shared with Fina and Noa.
I opened the door gently in case they were asleep but immediately heard Noa’s voice from inside.
「I’m already better.」
「That won’t do. Please rest properly. Otherwise, Cliff-sama will scold me.」
「But, Yuna-san came back, didn’t she?」
「That’s right, but I’ve been told to make sure that the two of you rest. Noa-sama, please be like Fina-sama and rest obediently.」
Noa and Meshun-san were arguing by the bedside when I walked in.
「Noa, you seem to be doing well.」
「Yuna-san!」
「Big Sis Yuna!」
The two girls both jumped off the bed and ran to me.
「Noire-sama! Fina-sama!」
Meshun-san shouted at Noa and Fina from behind.
「Are you two okay? Don’t you need to rest?」
「We’re okay.」
「That’s right, we’re already better.」
They replied energetically.
「Setting that aside, Yuna-san, where’s Misa?」
「She’s fine. I saved her, and she isn’t hurt at all.」
I actually hadn’t checked her for any wounds, but I was sure she was fine, or she would have said something by now.
「You two don’t have to worry about her anymore.」
The two of them had most likely been very worried about Misa; they looked really relieved after I told them she was safe and sound.
With perfect timing, Misa then entered the room and showed them that she was completely fine herself.
「Big Sister Noa, Fina-chan, sorry for making you worry. Thank you for trying to save me.」
「Of course I would try to save you; I’m the elder sister, after all.」
「Misa-sama, you’re our friend, so of course we would do our best to help you.」
The girls chatted for a couple more minutes then Misa left the room; she decided to stay with her mother today to make her feel better.
For dinner, Zelef-san cooked us some really delicious food.
Sadly, neither Cliff, Eleanora-san, nor Gran-san were back yet to taste it.
The following morning, we met Gran-san when we went to the dinning hall to have breakfast while Cliff and Eleanora-san were still nowhere to be seen,
Gran-san took the opportunity to quickly express his gratitude towards me for yesterday.
「I’m glad you’re all safe.」
Was all he said.
We were all glad that Misa was safe, so that was more than enough for me.
「Grandfather Gran, where are my father and mother?」
Noa asked.
We had stopped by Cliff’s room on our way to the dinning hall, but there was no reply when we knocked, so we thought they might be already in the middle of breakfast.
「They’re still working.」
So, the two of them hadn’t come back since yesterday...
Instead, they had sent back Gran-san since he was already old, despite his objections.
「I can stay up for a night or two, no problem.」
He had tried to reason with them, but Misa’s parents hadn’t budged.
「Oh, now that I have returned, there’s something I must ask of you, Yuna.」
「Ask of me?」
「Yuna, I’m sorry, but could you please not walk around town in your bear suit for a while?」
He said out of the blue.
Author’s note:
How about we have Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear do some street performing to calm the townspeople down in the next chapter? What do you guys think?
Anyway, because Eleanora-san and Yuna both call Gran-san and Cliff the same way, there were some passages where it got difficult to figure out who was talking. I might change how Eleanora-san addresses Gran-san in the future.
Gran, Old Man Gran, Gran-sama, Gramps Gran, Earl Gran, Elder Gran. None of them match her. The way you address someone is very important, so I don’t want to just randomly pick something.
Well, a skilled writer should be able to write dialogue in a way that it’s easy to distinguish who is talking even with the addressing problem...