Chapter 58 – Bear-san Constructs a Bear House in the Royal Capital
When we arrived at the barracks, the gate guard who had been there when I turned over the bandit group was waiting.
He was supposed to be the vice-commander of his company or something, if I wasn’t mistaken.
I had forgotten his name.
「I apologize for any inconveniences I’ve caused by calling you here today.」
The vice-commander lowered his head towards Gran-san and Eleanora-san.
「So, why did you call us here?」
「We’ve confirmed the location of the Zamon group of thieves’ hideout, as well as their exact numbers. Their hideout seems to be located in a cavern in the mountains west of here. There are 20 remaining members, and there seems to be several captured women there.」
「In that case, you ought to immediately head out and rescue them!」
「Yes, but there seems to be a bit of an issue.」
「An issue?」
「A great number of people have gathered in the Royal Capital due to the birth festival. The soldiers and guards are dealing with them, so there are no spare soldiers.」
「Wouldn’t it be fine if you just put out a request at the Adventurer’s Guild?」
「About that, since Gran-san has said as such, umm, was it Yuna-san?」
He was looking at me, so I nodded.
「Yuna-san’s permission is necessary.」
「Mine?」
「Ah, is it about the right of ownership for the thieves’ possessions?」
Gran-san said, as if he had just remembered it.
For the sake of my own understanding, an explanation please!
「Yes, that’s right. Yuna-san already captured 50 of the 70 people from the Zamon band of thieves. However, their hideout has not been suppressed. Normally, when thieves are defeated, they cannot be stripped for materials, unlike monsters. Thus, there would be no merit for adventurers to defeat them, which is why there is the right to obtain the weapons, tools, and armors the thieves are carrying. That also includes the treasure gathered by the thieves.」
「In other words, if a request is placed, then the treasure that the adventurers discover would become theirs?」
「Yes, but this time, Yuna-san captured the group of bandits by herself, and we were able to obtain the information because of that. Due to that, we cannot send out a request to the Adventurer’s Guild by ourselves. Even if we decided to send out a request, we could not do it without Yuna-san’s permission, especially if you have not decided on an amount of reward money.」
「How troublesome.」
「Well, that can’t be helped, right? Even though this is information we obtained on our own, other people might consider it to be stealing. There is no issue if the young lady goes on the thief extermination herself though.」
「Troublesome.」
「Big Sis Yuna... 」
Fina looked at me with a stunned expression.
Please don’t look at me with such eyes.
Troublesome things are still troublesome.
It would be better if it were just killing them, but there were also people to protect, so I couldn’t use the bears, and it would also take a lot of time.
There were no other words to describe it but troublesome.
「In that case, shall I gather soldiers from my side?」
「Eleanora-sama?」
Eleanora, who had been listening without a word, suddenly made a suggestion.
「Is that alright?」
「It’s fine. The soldiers will gain some actual combat experience, and there are probably people who are tired of just guard duty as well.」
「But in that case, the defense will...」
「It’s fine, it’s fine. For that, I can just make some adjustments to the paperwork.」
「I understand. In that case, Eleanora-sama, we will be looking forward to your success.」
「Like this, Yuna-chan is also fine with it, right?」
「I don’t really understand it, but please do.」
「If the soldiers go on the subjugation, the right to the treasures will be shared with Yuna-chan. Well, you’ll only receive a little bit, though. I’ll need to dispatch the soldiers at once, so I’ll be going, okay?」
「Yes. Thank you very much.」
「It’s fine, you know. Then, I’ll see you again tonight.」
Eleanora-san left the barracks.
「Also, Yuna-san, please collect the stuff here.」
When I looked, the dirty swords and armors from before, along with other miscellaneous items, were lined up.
「These are the belongings of the thieves that Yuna-san caught. As I said before, the stuff here now belongs to Yuna-san.」
Erm, but each and every one of them was filthy, though.
I really didn’t have any need for such foul things.
「Can I ask you to dispose of it all?」
That’s right, I tried asking first.
「In that case, I’ll deal with it all and make arrangements for the money received from selling them. Will sending it to Eleanora-sama’s house be alright?」
Oh, it looked like there would be proceeds after disposing of everything.
How kind.
As I was looking over the thieves’ belongings once more, something caught my eye.
「What’s that?」
I pointed at a drawstring bag.
「This? It’s probably an item bag.」
This was an item bag.
Was it an item like the Bear Box?
If I wasn’t mistaken, the amount that could be placed inside the bag wasn’t normal.
「Among these, which one has the most capacity?」
「For that, it is probably this one. Since the head of the Zamon thief corps was carrying it, it has a large capacity.」
I received the item bag.
It was roughly the size of a handbag.
The other item bags looked similar.
The smallest one there could even fit in a pants pocket.
「In the end, can I have the thieves’ item bags?」
All of the item bags were handed over to me.
Altogether, there were approximately thirty.
I received them gratefully, and put them away in the Bear Box.
With that, my business was finished, and I thanked Gran-san, who had come along.
「Gran-san, thank you very much.」
「No, we don’t mind at all, you know. If young miss hadn’t caught them all, we probably would have died.」
Gran-san seemed to have some business after this, so we parted ways here.
After separating from Gran-san, Fina and I headed to the land I bought from the Commerce Guild.
Although I knew the location, thanks to the map of the Royal Capital that I had purchased earlier, the Royal Capital was still way too large.
Inside the Royal Capital, there were carriages that looked like buses running back and forth.
I wasn’t in a hurry, so we took our time to look around while heading to the purchased property.
「Fina, are you okay? Aren’t you tired?」
「Yes, I’m okay, but there sure is an amazing amount of people here.」
「You’re right. Should I say, as expected of the Royal Capital? Since there are many people here because of the birthday festival.」
「Big Sis Yuna, can I hold your hand to avoid getting lost?」
「My hand...」
I look at the Bear puppet.
「Is this good enough?」
I held Fina’s hand in its mouth.
「Yes, thank you very much.」
Fina made a happy expression.
We arrived at the purchased plot of land.
「This is the correct place, right?」
I glanced around and compared the map with our surroundings.
「Yes, probably.」
「Isn’t this rather large?」
「It’s really big.」
The land indicated by the map was large.
The area was over four times the size of the land back in town, where I built the Bear House.
In other words, big enough to hold four Bear Houses.
When I glanced at the neighboring houses, they were quite far away.
For the sake of confirmation, I checked the names on the houses on both sides.
「It’s correct, it seems.」
「Yes.」
「Big Sis Yuna, did you really buy this wide piece of land?」
「Looks like it.」
For the time being, I took out the Bear House that I had made to use in the Royal Capital.
「It’s small, huh.」
「Yes.」
The house that I had prepared was the same size as the Bear House in town.
It stood alone on a piece of land that was more than four times larger than it.
The size of the land and the size of the house didn’t match.
The sense of incongruity was too much.
In addition, because it was located near the upper-class district, the surrounding houses were also large.
Well, before that, a house that looked like a bear already felt out of place.
Even if it bothered me now, there was nothing I could do about it, so I didn’t worry about it and entered the Bear House.
「The inside is the same, isn’t it?」
「More or less. If it’s different, I can’t calm down, you see.」
Thanks to the Bear Shoes, I wasn’t tired, but Fina, who had been walking around, should be tired, so I brought out some fruit juice while we rested.
「What are we going to do after this?」
「Is Fina not tired?」
「I’m just a little tired.」
「In that case, shall we at least head back to Noa’s house first? Since we must let them know that we will be staying in this house.」
「Yes, it would be good if Noire-sama doesn’t get angry.」
「We did slip away quietly after all. However, she was sleeping, so it couldn’t be helped, you know.」
We decided to go to Noa’s house after we finished drinking the fruit juice.
The next day, the neighboring residents would be surprised by the Bear House that suddenly appeared.