Chapter 97 – Bear-san Heads To The Tunnel
On the day of the departure, Cliff and Mylene-san came to the Bear House, where I was waiting for them.
「We made you wait.」
「I didn’t wait very long. Why is Mylene-san here though?」
They were a surprising combination. I might have thought that since it was rare to see them together, though.
「Are you really asking why? Mylene is the Commerce Guild’s master of this town, you know. If I remember correctly, you two are acquaintances, right?」
Cliff said, looking as if he just remembered something.
This was the first time I had heard of it. Now that I thought about it, I had never met the Commerce Guild’s master.
「We know each other, but... Mylene-san, you are the guild master?」
「Oh, did I forget to tell you?」
She said, playing dumb.
She definitely didn’t tell me on purpose.
「It was a joke. I just never found the right timing to tell you. The fact that I’m the guild master and not just a normal employee won’t change our relationship, right?」
「Myelene-san, are you older than you look?」
The young Mylene-san was always sitting at the counter, so I never expected her to be the guild master. The only thing that I could think was that she had a deceptive appearance, just like Eleanora.
「That’s rude. I’m in my twenties, just like my appearance suggests.」
This...wasn’t this age range too big?
Personally, I really thought that there was a big difference between 20 and 29. Well, if she didn’t want to say it, she was probably in the latter half.
Though, if Mylene-san really was the guild master, then that explained a lot of things. For example, Mylene-san’s judgment had been really helpful when selling the eggs.
There was no way that a normal employee could have made my desire to not sell eggs to the Feudal Lord a reality.
「I don’t care whether you are in your 20s, 30s or 40s. Staying here like this is not going to help us. We should go.」
「W, Wait! The difference between your 20s and 30s is like the difference between Heaven and Earth! And what’s with the 40s!!! You’ll be hated if you say that to a lady, you know!」
「It’s okay. Unlike a certain someone, I am already married and have children.」
He had such a beautiful wife and young daughters that he was probably in the winner camp. The only problem was that he didn’t have a male successor. It was possible that I just didn’t know about it, though. I hadn’t known about Shia before going to the capital either.
「Are you looking for a fight?」
「I just stated the truth.」
The air between the two of them turned dangerous.
Were they possibly like a dog and a cat?
I didn’t know which one was which, but...more importantly.
「Mylene-san, you will come to Mireera?」
「Of course. There is the Commerce Guild’s scandal, and I also want to see if there really is a tunnel, because if there is, we could start trading with Mireera. Considering all of that, there will be many things that can’t be dealt with if I, the Guild Master, am not there. Also, the most important part is that I will be able to ride the famous bears. I would be going even if I had to skip work for it.」
She always seemed to be working in the Commerce Guild, but was she doing her job as a Guild Master properly?
「You go back and do your job!」
「As I said, going to Mireera is my job!」
She managed to silence Cliff with that sound argument.
「Then, Yuna-chan, we should go and see the rumored bears.」
Mylene-san put her hand on my shoulder and started walking.
Cliff followed us with an exasperated expression.
When we arrived at the gate, the guard there was looking our way, confused by the strange combination. Now that I thought about it, seeing the Guild Master and the Feudal Lord together would surprise anyone. I prayed that I wasn’t included in this surprising party.
When we left the town, I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear.
「So these are the famous bears.」
I asked Cliff to ride Swaying Bear, and Mylene-san to ride Hugging Bear with me.
Mylene-san approached Hugging Bear.
「Hugging Bear is the white one, right?」
She stroked Hugging Bear’s neck, and he seemed to enjoy it.
「Yes, the white one is Hugging Bear. The black one is Swaying Bear.」
「Fufu, those names are really just like you, Yuna-chan.」
「What do you mean by that?」
「I mean that, just like their appearances, those names are really cute.」
Mylene-san began smiling, as if hiding something from me.
I didn’t really know if the names ‘Swaying Bear’ and ‘Hugging Bear’ were cute, but I was already attached to those names. If I had a better naming sense, I might have found better ones, but I now thought that it was great that I had named them this way.
The two people tried to get onto each of the bears.
「Yuna-chan, how do you ride them?」
Unlike normal horses, the bears had no saddles.
Hugging Bear crouched down to make it easier for us to get on. I hopped on first, and Mylene-san got on behind me.
「There is no saddle, but it’s really comfortable.」
「It stays comfortable, even when you ride for a long period of time.」
At first, I thought it was because I had my Bear Suit, but when I went to the capital with Fina and Noa, the two of them said that it didn’t hurt at all. When I heard that, I finally understood that it was because of the bears’ abilities.
After all of us got on, the bears headed towards the tunnel.
They started off at a light run.
「They are running smoothly.」
Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear ran side by side.
「They are fast and comfortable. Carriages are really slow after all.」
「These children will feel sad if you compare them to carriages.」
The Bears sped up, and we arrived at the foot of the Erezento mountain range at noon.
「I think it’s around here.」
We arrived at the place where I had dug the tunnel.
Based on the map, it should be around here.
「Did you get lost?」
Cliff asked.
While I was looking around, Hugging Bear began walking on his own accord.
「Hugging Bear?」
Hugging Bear seemed to be saying ‘Leave it to me!’.
After a few minutes, he found the tunnel, which had been hidden by trees.
「Even though there are so many trees around, this is the only place that doesn’t have any, huh.」
「That’s because I cleared them out when I decided to sleep here, since they were in the way.」
Since the area had already been cleared, we decided to take a break.
「Still, we arrived really fast, thanks to the bears.」
「As a merchant, I would really like to have them.」
「I bet the adventurers would like them as well.」
The two of them were giving their impressions of the bears while drinking Oren juice.
Afterwards, they stood in the front of the tunnel.
「So this is the tunnel that Yuna made.」
The big tunnel was right in front of them.
「It’s big. It could just barely fit two carriages at once.」
「It won’t be possible to have two if a big carriage wants to go through.」
「Then you should just separate it by days. If you do that, there won’t be any accidents inside.」
「You are right. In any case, we will need someone to manage it.」
「And we will have to set a tax.」
「How much would be appropriate?」
「Normally, that would be decided by the construction cost of the tunnel, but...」
The two of them were looking at me.
「You will be asking for money?」
「Of course. What kind of an idiot would perform a service for free? It will cost money to maintain, and we will have to hire soldiers and adventurers to guard the place.」
「If we don’t, bandits or monsters could enter it, and people would have no way to escape.」
They were right. If we left it as it was, monsters could go inside. They would have to make a stationary post to prevent that from happening, one at each entrance. Since they would need to fund it, a tax was also necessary.
「We will also have to place magic stones to light up the tunnel.」
「That’s right. We will have to place light magic lines. That alone will cost a fortune.」
Magic lines, as the name stated, were lines that transferred magic power. They were similar to electrical lines on Earth. There were some inside the Bear House too. The system was set so that, when you touched a magic stone on a wall, the magic line transferred the magic power and lit up the magic stone on the ceiling.
「We will also need wind magic lines.」
「It will be necessary because the tunnel is so long, huh. Well, before that, just how long is this tunnel? If it’s too long, we might need a rest area.」
The two of them started talking about the future of the tunnel on their own.
I didn’t mind being left out of it though, as long as seafood came to Crimonia. Still, it wasn’t that easy. It was better to let the experts to do their jobs. That was why I kept my mouth shut.
We decided to only take a short break, so we departed again.
I created a Bear Light and put it in front of us. When I moved, the light moved as well.
「Yuna, sorry, but can you move slowly? I want to confirm the condition and length of the tunnel.」
The bears slowed down to walk through the tunnel.
「It’s incredible that you made it by yourself.」
「If there were other provinces that wanted to dig tunnels, you would be really popular.」
「Couldn’t people who can use earth magic also make one?」
「You...you really don’t see how out of the ordinary you are, do you? You are correct, there may be people who could dig a tunnel, but doing it in a few days would be impossible for them. I already knew that your magic was beyond powerful, but now I can see that you have an absurd amount of the magic power as well.」
I didn’t tell them that I made it while wearing my White Bear Suit, which allowed me to restore magic power faster.
「But, we will have to report this tunnel to the capital if we want Mireera to join our province.」
「Then, they will naturally end up asking how the tunnel was made. 」
「If you don’t talk about it, they won’t find out.」
「They will!」
Cliff shouted.
I really wanted him to stop shouting inside of the tunnel.
「I don’t think you have to worry. If I remember correctly, there shouldn’t be any tunnels in this kingdom.」
「I’m not sure what will happen if they learn how strong Yuna is, though. But, don’t worry, I will properly explain it to them.」
He said that I didn’t have to worry, but royalty had a higher position than nobles, didn’t they? It was impossible to not worry about it.
「You will have Eleanora to help you with this, so there shouldn’t be a problem.」
Eleanora-san... If I remembered correctly, she spoke casually with the King.
I really wanted to ask who Eleanora-san really was. She was the most mysterious person I had met since coming to this world.
「There doesn’t seem to be any dripping water.」
Cliff looked up at the ceiling.
「I made it so that the water would flow outside, so there won’t be any dripping water.」
I didn’t want it to become a limestone cavern, after all.
「It will be easier to manage then.」
We had advanced quite a bit, but we still couldn’t see the outside.
We were only a third of the way through.
「It would be really creepy if the light were to turn off here.」
「Yuna, are you okay with the light?」
「There’s no problem, even if it’s for a few more hours.」
If it disappeared, I just had to make a new one.
「It would be really difficult to put the light lines on the ceiling, so we will have to put them on the walls.」
「That will be better. Even if one side shuts down, there will still be light on the other side.」
We advanced as they talked, but I still couldn’t see the end of the tunnel.
「It’s long.」
「Well, even though we are going straight under the mountain range, there’s still a lot of distance, after all.」
「Will we need a rest area?」
「I think that would be better than not having any.」
I could feel them looking at me.
「Do you want me to make it?」
「You already made this much. Wouldn’t it be okay to make just a little more? It would be better to make it halfway through, but we would have to make precise measurements for that.」
「I don’t know the exact distance, but I know where the halfway point is.」
Thanks to the map, I roughly knew where the middle was.
「Really?」
「We are almost there.」
I made Swaying Bear move faster while watching the map. By the way, even if I opened the map, the people of this world weren’t able to see it. I realized that when I was with Fina.
「The halfway point is around here.」
「You even know this kind of thing?」
「Well, it’s just an estimate, so don’t rely on it too much.」
「It’s okay, even if there’s some measurement error. Can you make a wide opening around here, please?」
I used earth magic to dig out the wall as per Cliff’s instructions.
「That’s incredible. A hole is being made so easily.」
After a while, I finished making a parking lot for multiple carriages.
「If we are in the middle, we don’t have to go slowly anymore. Yuna, sorry, but could you speed up the pace?」
I made the bears move faster, and we passed through the second half of the tunnel really quickly.