Chapter 252: 252

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I was at home playing with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear when I heard someone knocking at my door .

「Yuna-san, sorry to bother you when you’re busy . 」

I opened the door to see Lala-san bowing at me .

「It’s fine . What brings you here today? If you’re looking for Noa, she’s not here . 」

Noa came over to play occasionally, and when she did, Lala-san would come to pick her up . However, Noa didn’t come by today .

「No, I’m not here for Noire-sama today . It’s about the tea leaves you gave Cliff-sama the other day . 」

Lala-san looked a bit hesitant to continue .

「Ah, right, the tea leaves . Could it be that he got sick from it?」

I took a guess based on how she was acting, but I really hoped that wasn’t the case .

「No, he didn’t get sick . Actually, Cliff-sama was a bit doubtful when he first tried the tea, but now he is enjoying it quite a lot . 」

Oh, I was wrong . He actually liked them .

What was she fidgeting about, then?

「If the tea tasted good, you must have brewed it well . 」

「Thank you for your compliment, but the tea only tastes delicious because the tea leaves you brought are of such high quality . 」

「Well, I’m glad he likes it . How is he doing, though? The tea is supposed to help relieve fatigue, but I’m not sure about how well it works . 」

I was eager to know how Cliff’s body had reacted to drinking the tea .

「After drinking it, Cliff-sama’s condition improved drastically . Now he has a cup three times a day and can carry on until the night without losing energy . 」

「Is that so?」

「Yes . Before, he had been waking up feeling exhausted, but now, for the last couple of days, he feels rested when waking up, and can do his work properly without feeling sleepy . 」

Based on what I was hearing, it seemed to have effects similar to an energy drink . Still, since she didn’t say he had trouble going to sleep after drinking it, maybe it was a bit different?

I remembered how drinking energy drinks was like in my world; it definitely kept people awake at night . I could easily imagine a mangaka drinking some to fight off sleepiness so that they could stay up all night, without having to sleep .

On the other hand, Cliff was able to go to bed without a problem, even after three cups a day .

「So then, Cliff-sama’s assistant, Rondo-san, who was also quite tired lately, tried some, and liked it as well . Hence, both of them wanted to thank you for the tea . 」

「I’m glad the tea has helped them . 」

This proved that the tea leaves from the Sacred Tree were working as intended .

Since I was wearing the White Bear Suit at night, drinking it had no effect on me . I simply enjoyed it for its taste .

「So, about the tea leaves that you gave to Cliff-sama… we ran out . I came to ask if you could possibly give us some more . Of course, Cliff-sama will pay you accordingly . 」

So, she came to get more tea leaves . That was why she was all fidgety, not knowing how to ask me .

I still had some left, so I didn’t mind giving them some more . Weren’t they going through it too quickly, though?

I was pretty sure it was bad to consume energy drinks at such a rate . Well, from what the elves told me, they seemed to drink it pretty often, but even so, we didn’t know if it would cause harm from overconsumption . Not to mention that Cliff and the elves were of different races, so it could affect them differently . Also, I hadn’t asked the elves how many times a day they drank it, so I couldn’t compare .

What should I do?

「I don’t mind giving you more, but can you warn them to not drink too much?」

「Is it bad for the body?」

Lala-san immediately looked concerned, so I quickly shook my head .

「No, I think it should be fine . 」

I didn’t believe there were actually any side effects, but I wasn’t a scientist nor did I know the complete properties the tea leaves had .

Even when I used the Bear’s Eyes of Observation, it only stated that it “restores magical power” and “removes fatigue” . It didn’t mention anything else, so based on that information, there should be nothing dangerous, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced . For example, eating too much sugar or salt could be harmful to the body . It was possible that the skill didn’t convey such details properly .

If the same applied to the tea, then it was important to balance its intake . A balanced, healthy diet was important after all, no matter whether if it came to food or drinks .

「It’s just that if Cliff wants to get rid of his fatigue, then he should rest properly instead of relying on the tea . 」

There might be no side effects, but if I were to compare it to an energy drink then he shouldn’t be drinking three cups a day .

If not warned, it was possible he might decide to have even more than that .

「Yes, of course . I’ve also been telling Cliff-sama to rest properly . 」

「If you can make him promise to only have one cup a day then I’ll give him more . 」

「Okay, I can promise you that . I’ll tell Cliff-sama and only serve him one cup a day even if he asks for more . 」

Since Lala-san promised me she wouldn’t let him have too much, I gave her the same amount as last time .

「I know I keep saying this, but only a little at a time . 」

「Yes, I understand . I will make sure that he doesn’t drink too much . 」

Lala-san bowed and returned to Cliff’s mansion .

Cliff had proven the effects of the tea leaves for me, but now I was afraid that he was drinking too much . I should probably not serve this at the shop . If people found out about its properties, things might get out of hand .

Once Lala-san was out of sight, I returned to playing around with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear . Fina and Shuri joined in after a while, and eventually Noa came as well .

A few more days went by, and I built a few more cotton candy machines as I wanted to make some cotton candy for the children at the orphanage .

「Yuna-oneechan, this cloud tastes really good . 」

「It’s so fluffy . 」

「When it melts, it gets all sticky, though . 」

「It melts in my mouth . 」

「It’s so sweet and tasty . 」

Seeing the children happily snack on them, I felt confident that it would work out well at the school festival .

The days continued to pass by peacefully .

One day, I was spending my time taking a nap on Swaying Bear’s stomach, but then Swaying Bear tried to wake me up all of the sudden .

「Let me sleep just a little bit longer…」

I mumbled and hugged Swaying Bear’s arm tightly, treating it like a body pillow .

Yet, Swaying Bear continued nudging me, and eventually even used its paws to make me stand up .

「What?!」

I asked Swaying Bear why it was interrupting my nap before noticing someone was calling for me from outside .

「Whoooo is it?」

I let out a small yawn and climbed off Swaying Bear’s stomach . I really wanted to nap for a while longer .

Rubbing my eyes, I walked over to the entrance to see who was bothering me and was met by Riana-san from the Commerce Guild .

「Yuna-san, your order is complete . I brought it here for you . 」

「Thank you, Riana-saaawn . 」

I yawned again .

「Oh no, did I wake you up from your sleep?」

「Don’t worry about it . I had nothing to do, so I took a nap . 」

I had been bored today, so I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, played around for a while, and then took a nap .

「Okay, I won’t fret over it then . 」

「Anyway, you were saying that the playing cards are done?」

「Yes . Here they are . 」

She said as she pulled out a small wooden box from her item bag . Taking the box out of her hands, I immediately opened the lid to have a look .

Inside was a set of cards that had the bear drawings printed on their back sides properly . I also flipped some cards over to check if the other side was okay as well .

They were very well made .

「How is it?」

「They’re great . Thank you, it turned out better than I expected . 」

「I’m happy to hear that . 」

「Riana-san, really, thank you . 」

I thanked her again .

「This is just our job, no need to thank us . 」

Since it would be a hassle for her to take all the card sets out at once right here in front of the door, I invited Riana-san inside .

「Still, was it really okay for you to deliver it yourself? What about your job?」

The Commerce Guild should still be very busy, right?

I was sure they would send somebody else to bring the cards, so I was surprised when Riana-san came to deliver them herself .

「It’s fine . It’s my day off, after all . 」

「You came to deliver the cards even though it’s your day off?」

「Well, it’s not something I could ask other people to do for me . 」

I felt like I caused her a lot of trouble…

「Still, I get to come inside the rumored Yuna-san’s house . That’s enough of a reward for me . 」

「Rumored…」

「Everybody is very interested in what your Bear-san shaped house looks like from the inside . 」

「It’s just a regular house as you can see . 」

I brought her to the guest room and took out some drinks from the fridge .

She delivered the cards despite it being her day off, so I felt I had to at least serve her some drinks as thanks .

Once Riana-san sat down, she started to bring out the remaining card sets I had ordered . I sat down on a chair opposite of hers, and watched her as she neatly stacked all the sets on the table . There were quite a lot of them, so it should be the hundred I had ordered .

「How much do they cost?」

「Here’s your statement . 」

She said and took out a piece of paper with “Printing Fee” written on it .

「Wait, what about the cost of the boxes?」

I had completely forgotten about the cases and hadn’t ordered them . They must have made them since the cards would scatter about otherwise . I had to thank Riana-san for this .

「Those are complimentary and free of charge . 」

「I can’t do that, or I’ll feel bad . I’ll pay for them properly . 」

「Then, in exchange, can you tell me how you can play with these cards?」

「How to play?」

「Yes, everybody working at the Commerce Guild is also curious . Of course, I won’t reveal it to anybody else . 」

Well, since I had mentioned they were used to play games, it made sense for people to get curious .

If I heard of a new card game, I would also want to know how it was played .

「Sure, I don’t mind showing you . Do you want to play now?」

「Would that be alright?」

「Yeah, I have nothing to do today, anyway . 」

I really didn’t have anything to do, to the point where I had even tried using Swaying Bear as a body pillow to sleep on .

「I will be in your care, then . 」

I took out a deck of cards from one of its wooden containers and put away the other sets into my Bear Box .

Although I used to play a lot of card games on the internet, the last time I played with a real set of cards was in elementary school .

One by one, I laid out the cards around the table .

「Take a look at these cards . I think you should already know, but there are 54 cards . There are four elemental suits and two special cards . 」

Drawn on most of the cards on the table was one of the following symbols: fire, water, wind, and earth . Only the two joker cards were free of those symbols .

「There are many ways to play using these, but I’ll teach you one of the simplest versions first . 」

I gathered the cards together back up and shuffled them . Then, I placed each card down on its own again but this time with their backs facing up .

I was first going to show Riana-san the game called Memory .

「This game is a test of your memorization . You flip any two cards . If the cards have the same number, you earn a point . The person with the most points at the end is the winner . 」

「I see, so you must remember the numbers of the cards that your opponent flipped too . 」

「Oh, and if you guess a pair correctly, you can continue flipping until you miss . 」

We played against each other for a while . It turned out Riana-san’s memory was quite good, so we had a fun round without me having the upper hand .

「This is rather difficult . It will be good for the children to improve their memories, though . 」

Since she had gotten the hang of Memory so easily, I decided to also teach her how to play Sevens .

It was a game good for formulating strategies .

「In this case, having a 『1』or『13』would be disadvantageous, wouldn’t it?」

「Well, that depends on your luck, too . Still, how the game turns out depends on how you play your cards . 」

Next, I taught her Old Maid . This game was more fun with more people, just like Sevens, so I made sure to explain that to her .

「I see, so the last one who still has cards loses . 」

「The outcome of the game depends on how well you can hide the joker when you have it . 」

A good poker face was needed to dominate in Old Maid .

Well, unlike poker, there wasn’t much at stake here, but it was still fun to play the game . Also, in my case, I could just pull my Bear Hood down, so I didn’t need a poker face .

For the last game, I showed her how to play Grand Millionaire (also known as Extremely Poor) .

(TL note: Wikipedia Link)

「This is a bit difficult . 」

「Well, cards are being placed down left and right, after all . 」

I ended up explaining more games to her than I had planned to .

I had left out card games like poker and blackjack which had annoying rules where it was troublesome to even remember how scoring worked .

「Yuna-san, are there more?」

「There are, but the rules get more complicated . 」

「I see . I didn’t know you could play so many different games with a single deck of cards . It’s also good you can play these with more than just two people . 」

Riana-san began staring at the cards, deep in thought .

「If we sell this, we would have to include an instruction sheet for the games you can play with it . 」

If I were to sell these, a rule book would indeed need to be included . If people didn’t know how to play, nobody would want to buy it .

「Please let me know if you ever have plans to sell these . The Commerce Guild will gladly assist you in the process . 」

「Please help me when the time comes, then . 」

I didn’t know how I should go about doing it anyway, so having their help would be much appreciated .

「Thank you very much for today . 」

「Likewise, thank you for bringing the cards and spending time with me . 」

After chatting for a while longer, Riana-san left my house close to sunset .

Author’s Notes:

They’ll depart in the next chapter .

Maybe…