Chapter 197 – Bear-san And How It Has Been Decided That She Will Do A Performance with the Bears
「Yuna, I’m sorry, but could you please not walk around town in your bear suit for a while?」
He was basically telling me not to walk outside anymore; I wouldn’t feel safe going outside without my Bear Suit on.
「Nobody will know it’s you if you just wear a different outfit.」
That wasn’t the problem; my life would be in danger if I left my Bear Suit at home.
There was no guarantee that someone wouldn’t try to pick a fight with me on the streets.
I also wouldn’t be able to protect the girls without it. If something bad happened, I would just be a sitting duck.
I knew that there was no point in arguing, though, as Gran-san had no idea why I had to wear my Bear Suit all the time.
There was nothing I could do... I really didn’t want to trouble Gran-san more since he was busy dealing with the toad man’s family.
「Okay, I’ll just stay holed up in my room until it’s time to return to Crimonia, then.」
「Yuna-san, you plan on staying in your room until you leave?」
He shouldn’t underestimate a hikikomori.
I could stay holed in for days even if I didn’t have TV, computer, games, manga, or novels... At least I should be able to. Well, maybe that was impossible....
Wait, if there was no entertainment, I could just nap to pass the time. Yeah, I should be able to do that.
「There are only two days before we head back to Crimonia. I’ll be fine staying in for that long. Still, if any of you girls want to go out, make sure you bring guards with you.」
Some new idiot might show up, so we shouldn’t be too careless.
「I’ll stay in the room with Big Sis Yuna.」
Fina said happily. She was such a nice girl.
「Okay, we will be able to nap together, then.」
We should be able to waste two days napping, right?
I liked lazing around, so I was pretty good at rolling around on a bed doing nothing. Hikikomoris really shouldn’t be underestimated.
A whole week would have been tough, of course, but two days was quite manageable.
「You won’t be heading back in two days if you plan to wait for Cliff.」
Gran-san’s statement obliterated my napping plan. Well, it wasn’t like he did it intentionally.
Also, what did he mean by not heading back in two days?
「With how things are going with the Salbert family, there is no way we will be done in two days. Yesterday, we found out that they had done all sorts of illegal things. So much, in fact, that even us nobles can’t deal with all of them overnight.」
「Really?」
I thought things would go smoothly with Cliff and Eleanora-san here, but it seemed like that wasn’t the case.
「They sent a messenger to the capital to receive instructions from His Majesty. Until they come back, Eleanora-san and Cliff can’t return to Crimonia.」
「Which means...」
「You definitely won’t be able to head back in two days’ time.」
Well, they were still working even now... It made sense for them to run into problems when dealing with a kidnapping caused by a noble.
We could always head back on our own, but if I went home with how the situation was right now... Another uproar might happen when people see my Bears and me the next time I came to visit Misa. That would be really troublesome.
Well, if I was never planning on coming back here again, I could just ignore the issue and leave straight away.
As I pondered what I should do, Noa spoke up.
「Grandfather Gran, didn’t you explain what happened to the townspeople? Shouldn’t they calm down in two days time, then?」
「Of course I explained it to them. I told them that I know Yuna’s bears to be docile and that they don’t attack people, but I think my word won’t be enough in this case.」
「Gran-san, aren’t you the lord of this town? How could the word of their lord not convince the townspeople?」
「Think of it this way. If you saw a dragon rampaging around and then, all of the sudden, His Majesty came up and told you it was safe to go up to the dragon, would you believe him?」
Well, it made sense when he put it that way.
People would still remain wary of dangerous beings even when their leaders told them it was safe. I myself would definitely not let anything dangerous near me without my Bear Suit on.
Why did he use a dragon to set an example, though...?
In any case, this still meant that I didn’t know how long I would have to stay holed up for. Did I have no other choice but to stay in for more than two days?
Maybe I really should make those playing cards I had been considering before. That way, I could play with the girls. Unlike with a Reversi board, there were plenty of games we could play with cards, meaning we could waste time easily.
「Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear aren’t scary at all. I feel sorry for them. Grandfather Gran, is there anything we can do for them?」
Noa asked Gran-san with a sad expression on her face.
「Sorry, but I have no idea how we could resolve this situation. Bears are seen as fearsome beasts by common people, so you can’t blame them for being scared.」
「We just need to show them that Yuna-san’s Bear-sans aren’t scary, then.」
「And, how do you propose we do that?」
It did seem like a rather difficult task. Since I was banned from going outside, simply staying holed up in my room was honestly the easiest way to deal with this for now.
However, Noa didn’t give up and tried her best to think of a solution.
「...How about we walk the Bear-sans through town?」
「It will just end up the same as yesterday. The townspeople will just run away in fear while you might also get some adventurers running after you.」
「Old Man Gran, you just have to do something about that, then.」
「Well, I could let the Adventurer’s Guild know, but I don’t think that would work out all that great...」
Gran-san rejected the idea, so Noa returned to her brainstorming.
「Fina, do you have any good ideas? At this rate, we won’t be able to go out with Yuna-san anymore.」
Noa asked Fina, who hadn’t said anything yet.
Fina thought for a bit and then made a suggestion.
「How about we go out and play with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear? If we play with them, they won’t look dangerous, right?」
「T-that’s it! We also get to play with Bear-sans that way. We would be killing two birds with one stone!」
Noa happily agreed with Fina’s suggestion.
「In that case, how about putting on some sort of a performance?」
Gran-san chipped in.
「A performance?」
「I’m sure you and your bears can pull it off. Oh, and you can use my birthday party as an excuse to do it. This way, you will be able to prove that your bears are fully tame, and the townspeople won’t see them as terrifying creatures anymore.」
Of course, a tamed bear would appear a lot less dangerous than a wild one. If people saw the Bears playing with children, it should reassure them quite a bit.
「Yuna-san, we should do a performance, then. I will help you.」
「Big Sis Yuna, I will help you, too.」
Hmm, I didn’t really want to do anything that would make me stand out. Well, it would be troublesome if the townspeople continued to be afraid of us... I wouldn’t be able to visit Misa or buy things from Sheelin.
I might even be reported to the authorities if I walked around with my Bears out... If Gran-san backed me up, they probably wouldn’t try to arrest us, but I still didn’t want people pointing their fingers at me.
I was already eye-catching enough to begin with. Anyway, I would rather have people look at me warmly rather than with terrified expressions on their faces.
「Hmm, should we do our best together, then?」
「Yes!」
Fina and Noa replied excitedly.
When we returned to our room, I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear to discuss the performace with them but was interrupted by Misa barging in.
「You are all being unfair. I heard about it all from Grandpa. I want in on this performance, too.」
If Misa joined in as well, we would have four people participating...
What could we even do with so many people?
The balance was already bad as it was with me being the only adult... Not like I could do anything about that, though.
We proceeded to discuss what each of us could do.
The only performances I knew of were circus acts, while Noa and Fina did a whole ton of brainstorming, stopping only to ask Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear if they were okay with their ideas.
「Then, we’ll have Swaying Bear-chan do that...」
「And, we’ll get Hugging Bear to...」
「Can you do this?」
「Kuuun.」
「Okay, how about doing this, then?」
「Kuuun.」
The girls and the Bears were talking to each other. It was rather surreal. Was this what it looked like to other people when I talked to my Bears?
A girl wearing a Bear Suit talking to some bears...
Still, looking at the girls talk to them, I couldn’t help but feel relaxed.
If people saw how well the Bears got along with these young girls, they would not be afraid of them anymore, right?
Or wait, did I only get this feeling because I knew that the Bears were docile?
If the girls were playing with some other scarier bears, I would most likely tell them to get away from them.
As I was lost in thought, Noa turned to me.
「Yuna-san, please give us some suggestions as well. We need to make sure everybody knows that Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan are harmless.」
I joined their circle and gave them my suggestions, keeping what circus acts were like in mind.
We discussed the performance all the way until dinner time when we were interrupted by Cliff, Eleanora-san, and Misa’s parents.
「You’re going to hold a performance?!」
Cliff said then bursted into laughter.
「Not me, the bears are.」
「You’re all bears, so it’s the same thing.」
What part of us was the same? We were completely different.
Eleanora-san agreed with him and laughed at me as well.
This married couple was weird.
「Father, Mother, I will be helping with the performance, too.」
Noa proudly informed them.
Wasn’t she embarrassed to say it?
Thanks to my Bear Suit, I had gotten used to being in the center of attention. I could even walk throughout any town wearing it without getting embarrassed at all. Yeah, to me, embarrassment was now like... No wait, I still got embarrassed! I still hadn’t gotten over the shame! It was my last shred of maidenhood, after all!
「Oh my, in that case, we will have to come and watch.」
「Really?!」
Noa was happy to hear that while I would honestly prefer if they didn’t show up.
They should be busy; something terrible had happened and they surely didn’t have the time to do things like watching our show.
「Aren’t you two busy?」
「We finished everything already. We just need to wait for the dispatch to come from the capital, so we can hand over Gerardo and the evidence to them.」
「So, what did you discover about the toad man?」
「He did all sorts of evil acts; enough to ruin him for good. We just need to get him to the capital now. Obviously, we don’t have the rights to judge a noble ourselves, so the king himself has to do it. All we can do is hand over the evidence we obtained and tell him about the kidnappings. Then, it’s up to His Majesty to pass his judgment.」
「Well, with all the evidence we have gathered, he will most likely be stripped of his status completely.」
Based on the way they told me, it sounded like they had found evidence of more bad deeds than just the two kidnappings I was already aware of.
Well, there were many manga and novels where the villain did all lot of terrible things.
We had caused the downfall of the toad man’s family, but what was going to happen to them now?
Were they demoting his family to commoner status, or would they go to jail? Well, as long as they didn’t bear a grudge against Misa, it didn’t really matter to me.
I would have to ask what the punishment would be once it was decided.
「By the way, when will this performance of yours take place?」
Now that they mentioned it, we hadn’t decided the date or time yet.
We would most likely be performing at the town plaza, though.
「We should do it soon.」
「Then, how about two days from now? The townspeople should calm down a bit by then.」
「Misa, you will be performing too, right?」
Misa’s mother asked her.
「Yes, I will do my best.」
「We’ll go watch it as well, then.」
Misa’s parents planned on coming too, huh.
This sort of felt like parents coming to watch a school play.
I glanced at Fina; her parents weren’t here, so I felt bad for her.
「Umm, do you want me to call Terumi-san?」
「You don’t have to. It’s too embarrassing.」
It seemed like Fina was the only one who was really embarrassed by the prospect of her parents seeing her perform.
Both Noa and Misa were nobles, so they probably attended a lot of parties and were used to being in front of other people.
Fina, on the other hand, didn’t have much experience with that.
In spite of the kidnapping incident that had happened just yesterday, everybody ate dinner happily and continued to chat about the performance.
Author’s note:
I just wrote a notice for volume two of the book.
If you’re interested, I would appreciate if you took a look.
Sorry for kind of dropping it into the middle of this plot, but I just really wanted to do a play.