As we moved forward, I noticed that the Elf Village was quite a large settlement. That elf from earlier had also seemed to tell the villagers about us coming, because a few of them had already gathered ahead of time and were waiting for us, most likely to greet us. As we entered, I thought that they would be focusing on Sanya-san, who hadn’t come home in ten years, but they all seemed to stare at my Bears and me instead. Their eyes sparkled like those of excited children as they looked at my Bears. Then, an elf, who looked like a human in his forties would, stepped forward.
「Sanya, it’s been awhile.」
「It indeed has, Grandpa.」
「Ruimin, thank you for bringing Sanya back to the village.」
Ruimin looked very happy when the man told her that.
Even though Sanya-san had called him Grandpa, he didn’t look that old at all. He looked more like an uncle. If their grandpa looked this young, I couldn’t imagine how much younger their parents looked. What a fearsome race the elves were.
「Sanya, Ruimin!」
「Mother!」
An elven lady who the elf sisters called their mother appeared from behind the crowd. She was thin and had long, beautiful hair. Did elves exist just to pick a fight with the human race? She also appeared rather young and similar enough to the elf sisters that one might assume she was actually their elder sister. It felt really weird hearing them call her mother. The same with grandpa: it would make much more sense to me if the had called him father.
「Father-in-law, wouldn’t it be best if we discussed everything tomorrow? They’ve only just arrived and from such a far-away place no less.」
「I wouldn’t mind that, but I would appreciate if they at least introduced our guests first.」
お爺ちゃん（長）がわたしとくまゆるたちを見る。だから、必然的に他のエルフの目もわたしに向けられる。
これは自己紹介をしろってことなのかな？
わたしが口を開こうとしたら、先にお爺さんが口を開いた。
The grandpa (chief) looked at me and the bears. That shifted the attention of the villagers towards us as well.
Is this the part where I do a self-introduction?
I was about to speak, but the grandpa spoke first.
Their grandpa, or better in this case the village elder, said and looked at me and my Bears, which shifted the attention of all the villagers towards us as well. Was this the part where I had to introduce myself? As I was about to do so, however, their grandpa did it first.
「My name is Mumuroot, and the chief of this village. You may have already heard, but I’m also Ruimin and Sanya’s grandfather.」
「I’m Yuna, an adventurer. I asked Sanya-san to bring me along on this trip. I will do my best not to get in your way, so please let me stay here for this short while.」
In order to make a good first impression, I gave a polite introduction. Still, I wasn’t sure how well it went through since I was wearing a Bear Suit.
「Are those your bears, young lady?」
He said, glancing at Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.
「Yes, they’re my summoned beasts.」
「Summoned beasts, you say...」
「They won’t do anything to harm you, and neither will I, at least as long as you don’t attack us first.」
After I explained that, I decided to unsummon Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear for now. The villagers let out surprised gasps, and I even heard some children saying 「The Bear-sans disappeared.」in sad voices.
「I see. If you yourself feel in any danger, you may deal with it accordingly.」
So, if I understood correctly, they would let me be as long as they knew I wasn’t a danger, and we were even allowed to retaliate if somebody tried to attack us.
「Sanya-san, please look after the guests for me.」
「Yes, of course.」
「Yuna, right? You traveled far to get here, so we will treat you like an official guest.」
It looked like everything would be fine as nobody seemed to have any hostility towards my Bears or me. I had been worried about them driving me out, but it seemed like it was all for naught.
「Sanya, please do come to my home tomorrow morning.」
「Okay, I will.」
Mumuroot-san then turned around and left. Some of the villagers went with him, while a few others stayed to talk to Sanya-san. Ruimin quickly used the chance and started chatting with her mother, which kind of left me to myself. I took a quick look around the area before going to join Ruimin and her mother.
「Yuna-san, this is our mother.」
「Hello, my name is Talia. Thank you for taking care of my daughters.」
She was even more beautiful up close. I would have never imagined that she could be a mother of two.
「I’m Yuna and I work as an adventurer. Sanya-san has also taken care of me a great deal.」
「You’re so polite. If I may ask, is your outfit something normal at the capital?」
Talia-san asked me immediately. I shouldn’t leave her in dark and had to reveal the truth.
「That’s right. Everybody wears one.」
「Yuna-san! Please don’t lie to Mother like that. She has never left the village before, so she’ll believe your every word. Mother, please ignore what she just said; there’s nobody else out there that dresses like her.」
I tried my best to joke about the outfit, but it got shot down instantly. It wasn’t really a complete lie, though, as the workers at my shop wore similar outfits. Therefore, I wasn’t the only one dressed like a bear.
「Oh my, is that so? It looks so cute, too. I was even thinking about getting a set made for you, Ruimin. Too bad it isn’t popular.」
「I don’t need something like that; it’s too embarrassing.」
She just said she didn’t need an outfit like mine and even claimed it was too embarrassing to wear. So, that was how she had been looking at me this entire time.
「It’s only cute on Yuna-san.」
It didn’t feel like she was actually trying to flatter me.
「Fufu, Sanya brought back such an interesting young lady with her. Please tell me more at our home; you must be tired out from such a long journey, after all.」
Once Sanya-san was free, all four of us headed for their their home. Ruimin hadn’t seen her mother in quite a while, so she was happily walking next to her. Sanya-san was lagging a bit behind even though she had already finished talking to her acquaintances. Shouldn’t Sanya act more like Ruimin? Sanya had been away for longer than Ruimin had. Maybe she would be embarrassed to do so due to her age? Pondering on whether that really was the right reason, we arrived at a house, which I immediately noticed was a bit bigger than the ones around it.
「Our house is a bit cramped, but please make yourself at home.」
Wasn’t saying that a bit insulting to the other houses? Compared to them, their house seemed quite large. Well, maybe there were a lot of people living inside? Ruimin opened the door and went in first.
「I’m home!」
「Onee-chan?」
As we entered as well, I noticed a young elf child peeked out from one of the rooms inside. They had short hair, so I was pretty sure he was a boy and not a girl. Although, if he grew his hair out, he could easily look like a pretty girl.
「Luca, I’m home.」
「Onee-chan!」
Luca immediately ran over to Ruimin when she called his name.
「Did you watch over the house properly? You haven’t bothered Mother with any selfish requests, have you?」
「No, I’ve been a good kid.」
Luca said happily and hugged Ruimin tightly, who in return patted him on the head. He looked about seven maybe eight years old. Since he called Ruimin Onee-chan, he must be her younger brother. They did look quite alike. Just as I had thought that, though, Sanya-san said something unbelievable.
「Ruimin, who is that?」
Sanya-san asked while looking at the young elf.
「He’s our little brother, Luca.」
「He was born after you left, so it makes sense for you not to know him.」
Obviously, since Sanya-san hadn’t come for over ten years, she couldn’t know him. She was the one in the wrong here, not returning home for so long. Although, they hadn’t bothered contacting her, either...
「Why didn’t you tell me we got a younger brother?」
「We thought it would be okay to just tell you when you came home. Also, we didn’t really know how to contact you.」
「You could have just told the Adventurer’s Guild.」
「Oh, really?」
Sanya-san sighed, seemingly having given up on them. Anyway, it really did seem that her family had gained an additional member without telling her and for several years no less. Luca let go of Ruimin and looked at me.
「There’s a Bear-san and someone I don’t know. Who are they, Onee-chan?」
By Bear-san, he was referring to me, which meant he called Sanya-san a stranger. Sanya-san looked a bit hurt when he said that. Well, it was her fault for not coming back for ten years even though her family really should have let her know about him.
「The Bear-san’s name is Yuna-san. That other person is our big sister. Remember when we told you we have another big sister?」
「Onee-chan?」
Sanya-san stepped in front of Luca, and bent down to meet his gaze.
「Um, Luca, right? It’s nice to meet you, I guess? I’m Sanya, Ruimin’s big sister, which makes me your big sister, too. I’d be happy if you kept calling me Onee-chan from her on out.」
Luca seemed a bit troubled with the explanation, and looked at Sanya-san, embarrassed.
「Sanya-oneechan?」
「Yes.」
Now that Luca had recognized her as his big sister, Sanya-san looked much happier. I wasn’t at all jealous, though, as I had many little brothers and sisters that called me Onee-chan back in Crimonia. I sure hoped they were all doing okay. Maybe I should call Fina over the Bear Phone tonight to let her know what what I had been up to.
Sanya-san took some time to pat Luca’s head then headed deeper into the house, looking through the rooms as she walked.
「I didn’t think I would be getting a little brother. Luca, how old are you?
」
「Nine years old.」
「Yes, and that’s why I’ve been saying you haven’t been home for over ten years.」
Yeah, we had a clear proof of that here. There could be no better evidence than a 9-year-old younger brother she hadn’t met before.
「Well, it’s great he’s here now. At least we’ll have a chief in the future.」
「Oh right, you left the village because you didn’t want to become the next chief, right, Onee-chan?」
So, that was why she had left the village.
「That’s not really why I left; I just wanted to see the outside world.」
「If that’s the case, Sanya, did you plan on ever returning, considering you had been gone for the last ten years without coming back even once?」
Talia-san scolded her while placing some drinks on a tray and bringing them over. Ruimin quickly jumped to her help, and distributed cups to everybody.
「Mother...」
「How about it? Have you thought about settling down and starting a family?」
「No, marriage is still too early for me. Besides, I’m having fun with my job right now.」
While us humans couldn’t simply wait like that, it made sense for the elves to think of it more freely, as they did indeed live longer lives.
「Does that mean, I’ll have to wait for another fifty years or so?」
Wait, fifty year was too long. Or I guess that’s just the elves’ sense of time.
「Well, since Luca is now here, I don’t need to have children, do I?」
「That may be true, but I’d like to have some grandchildren soon. If I have to wait for Luca, that would be another hundred years.」
Like I said, that was way too long.
「He could have kids earlier than that, no?」
「No way, I couldn’t give him up to a bride so soon.」
I most likely shouldn’t even bother trying to add anything to this conversation.
「Okay, well then, you still have Ruimin.」
「Onee-chan! Don’t drag me into this!」
「Do you think she will even be able to get married?」
「Uuu, Mother, you’re horrible.」
「It’s okay, I’ll marry you, Onee-chan.」
「Thank you, Luca!」
Ruimin hugged her younger brother.
「Siblings can’t get married, though. So he will have to marry me instead.」
「Mother, you can’t marry him, either!」
Sanya-san yelled at her mother. Without Sanya-san, there wouldn’t be a straight man in this crazy family conversation. Ruimin should be on her side, but instead, she kept saying things that made it even worse...
Author’s Note:
Volume 3 of the book is in the works.
Chapter 57 was awful to rewrite. Yuna looked for an inn, went to the Commerce Guild, went to the barracks, and even build a Bear House with a flower bed, all in one day...
Anyway, Sanya-san’s family has finally made its appearance. Hopefully they will make it to the chief’s house in the next chapter?