Chapter 32

ina’s mother was in excellent condition .

I think the term “complete recovery” would be more accurate .

Her name was Tirumina-san .

Tirumina-san and Gentz-san were going to get married .

Right now, they were looking for a place that a family of four could live in .

Fina’s house was at its limit with four people living there . Apparently, Gentz-san was originally living by himself in a small house .

However, for some unknown reason, Fina and Shuri were at the Bear House .

「Erm, why are you also here?」

「I was thinking about giving the two of them, Uncle Gentz- I mean, dad and mom, some time alone . 」

Was that something that a ten-year-old should be considering?

「Are we troubling you?」

「Not particularly . Even if four people came, it wouldn’t be a problem . 」

「Once we find a house for the four of us to live in, we’ll be okay . 」

「But, why are you studying?」

That’s right, Shuri was studying her characters inside the Bear House .

「For me, my mother taught me my letters . However, in Shuri’s case, mother was already too sick, so she couldn’t teach her . I had to take care of the housework and earn money, so I wasn’t able to teach my sister either . 」

Though, even if I said study, it was just some characters written on top of dirty paper .

There was nothing to write with, much less practice paper to write on .

It was just memorizing characters by looking at them .

I wonder if it can really be memorized this way .

「In that case, let’s go buy some study materials, you two . 」

「Eh?」

「It will take you a long time to learn if you use that method of studying . 」

「But-」

「You don’t need to worry about the money . Think of it as a wedding present . 」

「Mom is the one getting married though . 」

「Don’t worry about the small details . 」

The two of them followed along and we left the Bear House .

They were holding hands .

The two sisters got along well .

First, we headed to the bookstore .

「Excuse me!」

I called out to the grandma in the bookstore with a loud voice .

「What’s it? I can hear ya even if ya don’t yell . 」

「Excuse me, but do you have picture books for children? I want it for studying characters . 」

「Picture books, for studying, eh . Then you’ll want this one, this one, and that one . 」

The granny brought over three books; some picture books and what looked like a character tables book .

For now, I’ll just buy everything .

「Thank you . 」

I paid and left the shop .

Next, we bought paper and writing utensils at the general goods store .

After we finished buying the study materials, we got a little hungry, so I decided to buy some snacks from the street stalls in the plaza .

When we arrived at the plaza, many different kinds of street stalls were lined up .

A delicious smell came wafting from here and there .

We entered the plaza and headed to the nearest street stall .

It was selling skewers .

It smelled good .

「Hey uncle, three skewers please . 」

「Oo, is it the bear missy? Three skewers? Sure! Thanks as usual . 」

The uncle passed me three skewers .

I held one skewer in my mouth and passed the rest to Fina and Shuri .

「Thank you very much . 」

「Thank you . 」

「Next, let’s go there!」

I scanned the lines of street stalls in the plaza, looking for my next prey (food) .

「Hey, bear missy! How about some vegetable soup?」

A voice rang out from the nearby stall .

Steam was rising from a large pot, and it seemed very delicious .

「Sure, three portions please . 」

「Coming right up!」

The hot vegetable soup was served in wooden bowls .

It was a system where you returned the bowls after you finished eating .

I received the soup and passed two bowls to the other two girls .

「Bear missy . In that case, how about bread to go with your soup?」

「That’s unfair! Bear missy, how about this here roasted meat?」

This time, voices rang out from the stalls all around us .

「In that case, how about this freshly-squeezed fruit juice?」

A slightly older girl who was selling various kinds of fruit juice also joined in the war .

「Hmm . I’m in the mood for bread today, so three small loaves of bread please . 」

「Ooo, thank you!」

The uncle who was selling bread expressed his thanks and handed me bread .

I apologized to the stores I didn’t buy from .

「I’ll come buy some next time . 」

「That’s fine . 」

「Come eat here next time!」

After receiving the bread, I greeted and responded to the people from the surrounding street stalls and sat at an empty bench nearby .

I’ve been buying and eating snacks in the plaza recently, so I’ve become acquainted with the people from the street stalls .

It might be because of this bear appearance, but the number of voices that call out to me when I walk through the plaza have been increasing daily .

That meant that I had been buying and eating junk food quite often .

It’s fine as long as I don’t get fat though .

I pinched my stomach through my bear dress to check .

I wanted to believe that it was okay .

It would be great to get a [Unable To Gain Weight] skill .

「Okay then, let’s eat!」

「Thank you, Big sis Yuna . 」

「Thank you . 」

Shuri copied her older sister and said her thanks .

The two of them were pretty cute together .

The three of us slowly ate the bread and soup .

The soup had carrots and white radishes in it .

I’ve been frequently coming across ingredients that originally existed in Japan .

However, I haven’t been able to find rice, soy sauce, and miso .

I also missed noodle dishes like ramen, soba, and udon .

Did they exist in other countries?

Nevertheless, this soup and bread were more than delicious enough .

After we finished eating, we headed back to the Bear House, for the sake of studying .

Later on, Tirumina-san and Gentz-san found out about our junk food trip, and they got angry at me .

It seemed like the two sisters were unable to eat the dinner that had been prepared with great effort .

I need to be careful not to overeat junk food .

However, they thanked me for the study materials .