Chapter 154: Even Apart, We Will Always be Friends (6)

“Kyu?”

“Dah?”

“Dah!”

“Oh, my God, what is this, what is this! They’re too cute! It’s not right!”

In the living room of the cottage, Saeki was writhing her tiny body.

The sight of the three babies sitting on the mattress with their buttocks flattened against it was irresistibly adorable.

“Hmm. Happy.”

Rouge was sitting while hugging her knees, staring at the children with a slight flush on her face.

“Sure enough, children are the cutest when they’re playing and laughing, and when they’re sleeping.”

That means they’re cute whether they’re awake or asleep, right?

I completely agreed. I have no objection.

If I had to say, they are cute when they are crying or in a bad mood as well, but smiling and sleeping faces are the cutest.

In other words, everything is cute.

“Let’s take a bath later. Saeki, can you help me?”

I told Saeki, who was leaning against the wall watching from a little distance.

“Leave it to me!”

“How nice…”

Rouge looked enviously at Saeki, who cheerfully replies to my words.

It can’t be helped. If you touch the bath water, it will turn into hot water.

“Kyuu!”

“Dah!”

Jaja responded to the happy squeals of the bear cub.

I have no idea what they’re talking about, but it’s good that they get along.

Maybe it’s because this bear looks somewhat like Pongoro-kun, Jaja’s favorite stuffed animal from the children’s TV show.

The bear’s fur was a light brown, and his body shape was stocky and chubby. The way he waddled on his two feet. Jaja was so happy to see Pongoro-kun, whom she always saw on TV, in front of her that she was in high spirits the whole time.

As it turned out, this cub was a girl.

I guess it’s rude to say that a girl looks just like the boy character Pongoro-kun.

Jaja, Nana, and the lost baby bear beastmen.

The three of them were playing with a toy together. Their appearance has an invincible loveliness that charms all who look at them, and I never seem to get tired of looking at them.

It’s no wonder Saeki was wiggling around.

The area around the river and forest where the cottage was located was enveloped in darkness, it was already night.

We waited and waited for her parents to come, but there was no sign of them, so we had no choice but to protect her for the day.

Aoi, Mikuma, Shouhei and Yuri-san were in the middle of preparing dinner.

Dad, Officer Inoue, and Koji were enjoying the cool evening air on the wooden deck.

“Officer Doggy, have you made any progress?”

“I just made another attempt to contact the police station here, but there seems to be no word from the tribe in the protected area. I’m sure that the tribe that resides there is a beast called the Great Bear Tribe, and I’m sure that this cub is a stray from there.”

Officer Doggy, wearing a T-shirt and shorts, sat on a chair in the kitchen and gulped down her beer.

Yeah, that’s troubling.

If it’s not a species that we interact with frequently, we can’t just move this little bear from here.

If there’s an ongoing search, we don’t want to cross paths.

“In the meantime, I’ve asked the liaison with the Great Bear Tribe to let them know that we’re protecting her.”

“Liaison?”

I’ve been wondering how they keep in touch with such a tribe that has no contact with human society.

“It’s not like we don’t have any contact at all. Even though it’s far away, there’s a town just over a mountain or two. That’s why they set up a department in the city hall that can communicate with the tribes, and they visit them regularly to get advice. But the troublesome thing is…”

Officer Doggy frowned as she rested his chin on her hands.

“What happened?”

The look on her face indicated that there must be something bothersome.

Officer Doggy is an easy person to understand. It can also mean she’s someone with no other side.

“The Great Bear tribe seems to be a tribe that moves its residence regularly. The city officials have a hard time meeting them every time, so they don’t know where they live now. It seems that the city hall even has a department to recruit people to look for their place of residence.”

“Oh.”

That’s a pain in the ass.

The protected area that was shown to me earlier was quite large.

It is an area that newly appeared due to the world crash, and it is also quite mountainous. You’ll need a lot of patience to find it.

The total area of this country is about three times larger than before and after the world clash.

This is true globally, but experts say that the planet has simply grown more than twice as large.

Therefore, there is still a lot of uncharted land in this country, and we don’t have a full grasp of everything.

The world map is made from actual measurements from the ocean side, but inland, we can only confirm the living scope of people and beastmen.

Even the aerial photos taken by the weather observation tool, the fruit of magic and science, are blurry due to the magic that covers the entire planet.

It seems that the protected area, where these little bears live, is also part of this ‘unidentified zone’.

“She may be a beastmen, but she still only has the legs of a baby, so I’m sure we’re not too far from where they live.”

“I’m sure they’re worried about her right now, so I’d like to send her home.”

We’re going to keep her under our protection until tomorrow, and then we’ll leave it to the town hall or the police.

Then she probably won’t see her parents for a month or two.

I feel sorry for her.

It’s too hard for such a small child to be separated from his parents.

“Kunpei, what’s troubling you?”

“Hmm? Ah, I was just wondering if we could get her back to her parents somehow. It seems like we don’t know where they are.”

The next thing I knew, Rouge was sitting beside me.

The small size of the shirt was a hand-me-down from Mikuma, it was something from when she was in middle school.

The size of her body hasn’t changed much, but the reason it’s a hand-me-down is mainly because of Mikuma’s rapidly growing breasts.

If she wears this now, her navel will probably be fully visible.

In fact, Rouge also showed glimpses of her belly.

“Can we find them and get her home? It’s best if children are with their parents.”

“If we can get her home, it’s better to get them home.”

The problem is that we don’t know where her home is.

I think I’ll just look around the nearby area tomorrow.

“Hmm. I understand. I’ll take care of it.”

“Huh?”

Rouge stood up, opened the living room window and went to the wooden deck.

“Rouge? What’s going on?”

I hurriedly got up and followed Rouge out onto the wooden deck.

Barefoot, Rouge walked across the wooden deck and down the stairs to the parking lot.

“Oh, hey. Where are you going? Are you planning to go look for them right now?”

It’s already pitch-black and you’re barefoot.

At least put on some shoes.

Since we were deep in the mountains, the only road that was maintained was the roadway.

The parking lot was a natural open space made up of dirt and gravel, so I followed along and got a stone stuck in the sole of my foot, which hurt a little.

“I’m sure you’ll get lost! Don’t you realize how directionless you are?”

Who was it that was about to cry a little when she couldn’t find her way home after getting lost for two hours while shopping in the neighborhood?

I ran around and finally found you!

“It’s okay. I’ll just tell them today.”

“Huh?”

Rouge stopped in the middle of the parking lot and spread her hands wide.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Please be quiet, she’s probably asleep and I want to concentrate on finding her.”

Asleep? Who?

“…there he is.”

After muttering that, Rouge closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

I wasn’t not sure how much she was able to inhale, but it was a lot.

She stretched her body backwards to the limit, closed her mouth, and opened her eyes.

And then….

“Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!”

“Whoa!”

She roared.

The surrounding trees shook at the sound of her voice, and the surface of the nearby river rippled.

The soles of my bare feet were shaken by the vibrations of the earth, and I was also startled by the unexpected roar.

“Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… wait a minute.”

“Huh? What?”

Rouge, who had finished roaring, shifted her body toward me.

“I think he’ll reply in a little while.”

“Like I said, what?”

I was startled.

What a voice you’ve suddenly got.

I’ve recently met a girl from the demon tribe, Utai Ketsa Inteira, who I call “the demon tribe’s broken professional woofer weapon”, and she has an amazing voice.

No, I’m not sure, but if she were to get serious, she’d probably be as loud as this, if not louder.

Can you please stop doing something that doesn’t fit your character all of a sudden?

I was so surprised that my heart is still racing right now.

“What the hell was that?”

“What’s wrong? It was Ru-anesama wasn’t it?”

“Nii-chan, what are you doing? It’s already night.”

I could hear everyone’s voices buzzing from the cottage.

See, they’re surprised, too.

“Hey, can you tell us what you did?”

“Hm, it’s best to ask the local earth dragon about the local area.”

What?

“An Earth Dragon… here? In this forest? I mean, were you trying to contact them?”

“If there is earth, forest and mountains, there are always dragons that protect them. There are six of them in this area. There’s four that are far away and two a little further over the mountains.”

Six of them…. I’m not sure if that’s too many or too few.

“How far away is far away, by the way?”

“I’m not sure exactly how far, um, very, very far.”

You’re a terrible explainer.

“How do you know where they are?”

“You know, if you’re also an Earth Dragon. But if they’re too far away, they can’t be reached by voice. You have to send an earth spirit on an errand.”

Huh. you can make the spirits run errands?

It must be tough for you spirits.

“Ah, a response.”

“Huh?”

“Gaaaa…”

From beyond the pitch-black sky, I heard a voice so quiet that I had to strain my ears to hear it.

“Hmm. He wants me to wait until tomorrow morning. He said he’ll try looking. I’m sorry for forcing him to wake up. When I see him tomorrow, can I feed him Shouhei’s delicious meal?”

“Well, that’s fine. What did he say?”

I mean, did that short voice mean that much to you?

“Hmm. He said he’s looking for a bear beast around here and he’d like to know if you know anything about it. He said he had an idea, so he was going to search the place he knew. Maybe because I’m the daughter of the Earth Dragon King, he’ll try his best to find me even though he’s sleepy. I really don’t want to do this, but it’s for her sake. At the very least, I want him to have Shouhei’s delicious meals.”

Ah.

Ah, that reminds me, she’s also the daughter of a dragon king. If someone like that terrifying Sky Dragon King, Yule, is backing her, they’ll do their best to look.

“Well, until then, she, Jaja and Nana. I want them to have lots of fun. Tomorrow, I’ll take them home. Okay?”

Shaking her bright red hair, Rouge tilted her head at me.

You’re also a good beggar, aren’t you?

I can’t say no if you have such a desperate face.

Normally, you keep a straight face and don’t move your eyebrows, but you’ve got a troubled face and you’re looking up at me. That’s a little too much of an impact.

I have no intention of refusing, but such a face, which I have never seen before, is in a way unfair.

“Yeah, I get it. I’ll be counting on you in return, okay?”

“Hmm. Thanks, Kunpei.”

Rouge smiled at my words, a soft and gentle smile.

She went straight past me and climbed the stairs to the cottage.

“She could make a face like that, huh…”

I stayed like that, dumbfounded.

What a beautiful smile you have.