Chapter 124

Bear-san Receives An Apology

Someone knocked at the door .

「Who is it?」

Shia, who was closest to the door, asked .

「It’s me . 」

「Marcus?」

「I want to talk, so could you open the door?」

Shia looked at us as if to say what should she do?

「I don’t mind personally . 」

「If you want, I can summon Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear . 」

「That sounds good . 」

Cattleya agreed, so I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear .

*Pouf, pouf . *

They landed cutely on my bed .

Once the bears were all settled in, Shia opened the door .

「So, why did you come here so late at night?」

「You see…」

Marcus seemed to be having some problems saying it .

Was this possibly… Confession time?

The rumored event that often happened during school trips… Well, I had never went on any school trips, so I didn’t know if it really happened, but… I heard many couples were made on school trips . Was this practice training possibly similar to a school trip!?

Would Marcus confess to Shia? Or Cattleya? Which one was it?

I started paying attention to see what he would say .

「What is it?」

His hesitation irritated Shia .

「You see, I just wanted to apologize before we go back tomorrow . 」

「Apologize?」

Shia gave him a confused look .

I was confused, too . What did this mean?

That it wasn’t confession time?

「Did you do something to me?」

「Not you! The Bear! I came here to apologize to the one in Bear Clothes, Yuna-san!」

He said Yuna-san, right?

Did I hear it wrong?

Also, he wanted to apologize to me?

「You came to apologize to Yuna-san?」

「That’s right . Timor and I talked about it and came here to apologize before we leave tomorrow . 」

「So, could you let us come inside the room?」

I heard Timor’s voice from the other side of the door . It seemed that both of them were here .

「Yuna-san, what should we do?」

「There isn’t really anything to apologize for, though?」

「We will just enter for now, okay?」

Timor and Marcus entered the room .

「So, what are you two apologizing to Yuna-san for? Did you guys do something?」

Shia asked them .

I didn’t remember them doing anything in particular to me, though…

「We didn’t believe that you were an adventurer . 」

Well, nobody would believe that a girl wearing a Bear Suit would be an adventurer, right?

「We didn’t believe that you were strong . 」

I didn’t think anyone who met me for the first time thought that I was strong .

「We were making fun out of you by saying that you were a strange girl wearing strange clothes . 」

Oh right, he did say that . Well, if I met anyone wearing these clothes, I would also laugh at them .

「We decided to do something dangerous without asking for your approval . 」

Well, they didn’t see me as an adventurer back then .

「We never thanked your bears . 」

Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear tilted their heads .

「We didn’t properly thank you for saving us . 」

You guys thanked me plenty, though…

All these things were nothing to be upset about, you know…

Hmm, did I get used to it?

「You don’t really have to worry about these things . I just kept my true strength a secret since Eleanora-san asked me to let you guys do what you wanted unless I considered it dangerous . So, I wouldn’t have helped you if I didn’t consider the situation dangerous . 」

「But, you were still protecting us from the shadows, right?」

「That’s my job, you know . 」

「I was prepared to die when I decided to confront the Black Tiger . You saved my life . 」

「It was all my fault, but it was you, Yuna-san, who suffered the consequences of my decision . Thanks to you, we all made it back alive . I became arrogant just because I could kill some goblins . And because of my arrogance, you had to put yourself in danger . 」

What was this feeling?

Was I getting embarrassed?

「As I said before, you don’t have to worry about it . No one could have imagined that a Black Tiger would have appeared . Also, you wanted to subjugate the goblins for the sake of the village, not yourself . Finally, nobody would have ever thought that I was an adventurer the first time they saw me in these clothes, you know . 」

「But…」

「It’s not like you personally did something to me . For example, if you decided to pick a fight with me, I would get mad, but you didn’t do something like that, so you have nothing to apologize for . That’s why, you don’t really have to worry about it . 」

「…………」

「…………」

Marcus and Timor seemed like they wanted to say something else while Shia and Cattleya just kept silent and listened .

I wasn’t able to stand the silence, so…

「Want to eat something?」

The mood was getting really heavy, so I brought out potato chips, fried potatoes, sandwiches, and other snacks from the Bear Box and put them on the table .

「Can we?」

「Of course . I have a lot more, so go ahead and eat . 」

Marcus took a potato chip and ate it .

「It’s good . 」

Timor took a potato chip too .

「Yeah, it tastes great . 」

It seemed that they liked it .

「Yuna-san . 」

Shia and Cattleya were eyeing the snacks on the table .

They obviously wanted to eat them, too .

Cattleya was rubbing her stomach just a while back; was it really a good idea to eat more?

「You can eat it, but don’t blame me if you gain weight . 」

I warned them .

They looked at their stomachs .

「I-I’m fine . 」

「M-me too . 」

Thanks to Shia and Cattleya acting like this, Marcus and Timor calmed down, and the heavy mood disappeared .

「This bread is delicious!」

「It’s better than the bread I eat at home . 」

Well, of course . A baker I personally chose made it, after all .

「These potato chips are delicious as well . 」

「Wait, did you two get to eat this before we came here?」

Marcus looked at them with an envious expression .

「It was just a little! We shouldn’t eat too much of Yuna-san’s food while we are in the middle of the practice training . 」

「Honestly, we just wanted to eat Yuna-san’s food because it’s better than ours . 」

I noticed that the snack-pile was decreasing little by little, so I brought out all sorts of bread that Morin-san and the children from the orphanage had made, and put them on the table . With the uncomfortable silence from before completely gone, all the food I had brought out was disappearing into their stomachs .

Guys, we ate dinner just a while ago, right? Why were you eating so much?

Was that how the stomachs of young people worked? I wasn’t able to keep up at all .

I hugged Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear while looking at them eating happily . There was no way I could eat any more, after all .

The next day, the four of them were rubbing their stomachs .

They couldn’t refuse the breakfast the village chief made for us, so they had to force themselves to eat it; they ate too much yesterday night, after all .

It wasn’t my fault . They decided to eat that much themselves .

「Well then, I’ve put all the luggage on the carriage . 」

The village chief told Marcus .

「Luggage?」

With a pained expression, he asked Shia, who also seemed like was she was suffering .

「The luggage we will be transporting from the village to the capital . If I remember correctly, it’s threads and cloth . 」

I see . It was a local specialty, huh .

With those disgusting silkworms here, I somehow understood it .

After talking to Marcus, the village chief approached me .

「Yuna-san, we are indebted to you . It would have been terrible if something had happened to the students . 」

「You have thanked me more than enough yesterday, so it’s okay . 」

「But…」

It seemed that the village chief wanted to say something else, but they already thanked me way too much yesterday, so I didn’t think I could stand any more gratitude .

「Protecting the students is my job, you know . 」

「I understand . Oh right, we prepared what you asked for yesterday . 」

When the village chief said that, another villager brought a big box and gave it to me .

I looked inside and saw a lot of different colored cloth and threads .

Were these made from silkworm cocoons?

「Yuna-san, they look great . 」

Shia, who looked a bit jealous, said after peeking inside the box .

「These are all high class items . 」

「Really?」

「They are really popular with the nobles . 」

Well, if they were really giving it to me I would gladly accept it, but was it okay?

「Can I really take this? I’m not lying that I had killed the Black Tiger, but I have no proof, either, you know . 」

They couldn’t really check the magic crystal without going to a town with an Adventurer’s Guild .

I could have showed them a corpse from a Black Tiger I killed before coming here, and they wouldn’t have known .

「Then I would be at blame for not being able to see through your lies . And more importantly , I would be embarrassed if we didn’t give you our thanks simply because we didn’t believe you . 」

The village chief said strongly .

「Thank you . I will accept it then . 」

I put the box with cloth and thread inside the Bear Box .

「Feel free to visit us any time . 」

The villagers sent us out, and the carriage headed back towards the capital .