Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Chapter 257-258

After we entered the castle without any issues to speak of, Eleanorsan commenced our tour. We went through passage after passage, each lined beautifully with decorations. This was all familiar to me, but Shuri, who was visiting here for the first time, couldn't stop her eyes from glittering as she looked around. On the other hand, Fina, who hadn't been here in a while either, looked a bit nervous.
I soon realized that Eleanorsan was taking us around to the same places that I had been to when I had first visited the castle. Was there a designated sightseeing tour?
Well, since the castle wasn't a place where commoners could enter freely just to take a look around, perhaps this was indeed the set route for guests.
We visited many sights and eventually made our way to the training grounds for soldiers and knights, which caused a wave of nostalgia to sweep over me.
This was the place where I had met Princess Flora.
I remembered how surprised I had been when the moment I had walked in, a little girl had come up and hugged me. I had only later been told that she was the princess.
Fina was so nervous at the time that she claimed she didn't remember what had happened at all. Such a beautiful memory…

At the training grounds, a large group of knights and soldiers were practicing their swordsmanship. The sounds of metal clashing rang through the air as they swung their swords at each other. As a former gamer, I enjoyed the sight, but would personally prefer to see the magic training. I really wanted to see how powerful the castle's mages were.

「Huh? The third knight platoon is training right now…」

Eleanorsan muttered as she looked at the knights training. She rolled her eyes, looking a bit displeased.

「Okay girls, let's go somewhere else.」

We hadn't even looked at them for a few seconds when Eleanorsan already ushered us to leave. Well, this might not be something that the children should see, so I didn't object. I wasn't too interested in knights and soldiers practicing myself, either.

「Why, if it isn't it Eleanordono?」

Just as we were about to leave, a bearded, forty-something-year-old man called out to Eleanorsan with a big grin on his face. The moment she saw him, her feminine face looked like it was physiologically repulsed. His eyes were disagreeable enough with me that I reflexively pulled my Bear-san Hood down. Fina and Shuri hid behind me while Noa was already behind Eleanorsan.

「Luteum…」

Eleanorsan uttered his name as she turned to face him. She looked as if she had accidentally chewed on a bitter bug.

「This must be the rumored Bear. And your daughter, I see.」

The man walked up to us. He looked at Noa and me as if he was going to run his tongue all over us.

「My daughter is timid, so could you stop looking at her?」

「My, excuse me. She reminds me of her older sister, how cute.」

「Yes, both of them resemble me, that's why.」

Eleanorsan returned the man's comment with a polite smile.

「Anyway, are you giving them a tour of the grounds, Eleanordono?」

「Yes. We didn't want to get in the way of your practice, so we were just leaving. We'll appreciate it if you didn't mind us.」

「No, no. Please look around at your own pace. The other knights will work harder knowing that you are watching them.」

「I appreciate your offer, but we still have many other places to visit, so please excuse us. Come on girls, let's go.」

We silently followed Eleanorsan as she began walking off. When I turned to sneak a peek at the man, I saw him glaring at Eleanorsan.

「Mother, is everything okay?」

「Don't worry about it, Noa. I won't let him lay a single finger on you.」

She placed her hand on Noa's head and smiled gently.
That man seemed to know who I was, but I couldn't recall a pair of eyes that looked so nasty. I felt that might be a good idea to at least know who he was, so I planned to ask Eleanorsan about him later. Fina and Shuri luckily hadn't been involved, and I would like to keep it that way.

To help brighten the mood, Eleanorsan brought us to the gardens.

「Uwah, there's so many flowers.」

「So beautiful.」

「How about we take a break here?」

「Fina, Shuri, let's go over there!」

「Don't run and trip, okay?」

「Okay!」

Noa grabbed the two by their hands and led them further into the garden while Eleanorsan and I slowly strolled towards the center.

「Those three look like they're having a lot of fun.」

We looked at the girls getting along and smiled.

「Eleanorsan, who was that man earlier? His attitude towards you was kind of bad.」

I asked her when the girls were out of sight.
If that guy was a danger for the girls, I would consider him my enemy.

「That guy hates me.」

I could tell that much. The man had scowled at Eleanorsan when we were leaving, after all.

「Do nobles have factions or something?」

I still didn't know much about this world. I hadn't ever had to deal with these kinds of politics, since I hadn't been actively going to school nor had to learn about it in order to get a job. The only things I could presume about such politics was based on the stories of manga and novels.

「Of course there are factions, but perhaps it is more accurate to say that he bears a grudge against me.」

Could it be that Eleanorsan had given him some crazy orders to carry out? Or, maybe he was simply resentful because she kept skipping out on her work?

「I'm pretty sure what you're thinking of right now is different from the actual reason.」

「I'm not thinking of anything.」

I really wished she would stop reading my thoughts.

「His name is Count Luteum Roland. The reason he resents me is due to Cliff.」

「Cliff?」

「The two of them never got along, but there is a larger reason for it. You see, a while back, there was this other guy who used to work for Cliff. His attitude was pretty bad, too, and at some point, Cliff was enraged at something that person did and had him executed. That person, however, was Luteum's relative. The official story of his death was that he had been killed by a rival, but I think the count managed to sniff out the truth. That's why he resents Cliff and me.」

I couldn't imagine Cliff ordering an execution of somebody. Since he had done so, that guy must have done something extremely awful. No wonder the count disliked Cliff and Eleanorsan so much; his relative had been killed because of them. Still, that was just unjustified anger, wasn't it? I had a feeling that there was something even deeper as to why he hated Eleanorsan so much.

「By the way, Yunchan, you're involved in this, too.」

「Me?」

I couldn't remember ever getting involved with noble matters or doing anything that would cause someone not to like me.
The only nobles I was familiar with were Cliff and Gran-san.

「Yunchan, do you remember the Salbert family from Sheelin?」

Oh right, there was also that noble family…
I normally didn't want to recall them.

「The Salbert family are also distant relatives of the Roland family.」

「Then, the son from the Salbert family…」

「Yes, the Roland family were the ones who took him in. That incident is also another reason why he despises me.」

「And me, too?」

「Hmm, I think that depends on Gerardo's son. Before the Roland family took him in, His Majesty had forbidden anyone who knew what had happened to disclose the contents of this case. Anybody found leaking information, even to their own family members, will not be forgiven and will be executed. That's why Gerardo's son shouldn't have said a word to anyone about you. That, and I'm pretty sure he is too embarrassed to say that he got done in by a girl wearing a bear costume; as if anyone would believe him that, anyway. Also, I've heard a rumor that Gajurdo's son had been sent to Luteum's territory as a servant. I'm sure anyone there knows better than to try and dig out why a noble had been turned into a servant. Before, Luteum had been using the Salbert family as his pawn, but his powers took a blow when that family was thoroughly dismantled. Since he knows we, the Foschuroze family, were involved in their destruction, he resents us for it.」

She let out a small sigh as she finished her explanation.

「I'm, well, sorry.」

「Yunchan, you've done nothing wrong. You have our gratitude for saving Misa. Also, the Salbert family ended up being destroyed in the process. Compared to that, getting resented by that guy is nothing. Not to mention that he had already hated us from the beginning anyway.」

I could now understand why he hated Eleanorsan so much.
Half of it was due to my actions in Sheelin, so I still felt bad for having caused trouble for Eleanorsan.

「With all that, him treating me as such can't be helped. Actually, there's one more reason. Yunchan, do you remember that time when you subjugated a swarm of monsters near the capital to protect Cliff?」

「Yeah, I remember that.」

I had wiped out a ten-thousand-monster army back then. I still had some remains of the defeated monsters in my Bear Box.

「When news of a monster horde heading to the capital had been released, Luteum had taken the initiative to rally an attack force to drive back the monsters so that he could garner the achievements.」

Eleanorsan looked at me.
Yes, and then I had butted in and subjugated everything, taking all the achievements with it.

「When he found out that the monsters had been defeated before he could do anything, Luteum was furious that he was left with nothing. He kept bothering His Majesty about the identity of the adventurer who subjugated them. Of course, His Majesty only told him that it was a Rank A adventurer, nothing more.」

His Majesty had kept his promise not to reveal my name, huh. I needed to thank him for that.
Maybe I should give him something delicious to eat next time I came here, without the usual cruel treatment?

「However, he did find out that the adventurer was somewhat related to Cliff.」

「Really?」

「He got that idea when he learned that Cliff had gone and met with Sanya of the Adventurer's Guild right after the monsters were subjugated.」

「Oh, and I was with him at the time.」

「Yunchan, you were still a rank D adventurer back then, so nobody would have imagined you were the one who subjugated all those monsters. His Majesty told him a rank A adventurer took care of them, so Luteum could never have guessed it was you. Not to mention nobody would expect a girl wearing a bear outfit was capable of such a feat.」

True, nobody would imagine a rank D adventurer would be able to subjugate ten thousand monsters all by herself. Especially a young girl dressed as a Bear.

「What's more, his most recent business ventures had ended up failing due to bad luck… Just a while ago, monsters had appeared in the ore mine and completely shut the place down. Seeing that iron could no longer be mined, he quickly bought up a large amount of iron on the market to drive up the prices even higher so that he could sell them at a massive profit. However, before he sold any of it, a certain someone went and fixed the monster problem at the mine. Because iron ore could be mined again, the prices dipped immediately, and he suffered quite the loss.」

Eleanorsan gave me a devious smile.
She must be talking about the golem incident. I couldn't be blamed for that one, though. I had simply taken the request from the Adventurer's Guild and had defeated the monsters like normal. Also, the guild records should state that Jade's party and the Idiot Rangers party had been the ones who had taken the golems down. Good thing I hadn't claimed any responsibility for it. Even if I personally told someone I had defeated the Mithril Golem now, nobody would believe me.
Still, for everything other than Cliff executing the count's relative, I was somewhat involved in the story. The only saving grace in all of this was the hope that the guy didn't know I was responsible for all of the troubles happening to him.

「Fufu. You don't have to worry about it, Yunchan. It was his fault for trying to make easy money. It serves him right. I even laughed when I heard about what happened.」

Eleanorsan couldn't help but stifle another laugh.

「Anyway, I really don't think he knows you're involved in any of those cases. Still, he does believe you're related to us, which might bring you trouble. If that guy harrasses you, both His Majesty and I will make sure to protect you.」

「Thank you. Nothing has happened at this point, so it should probably be fine.」

I had gone in and out of the castle many times by now, and I couldn't remember ever receiving any harassment. To begin with, I hadn't even known about him before today.
Nothing would most likely happen in the future, either.
The school festival was starting soon, and with Fina, Shuri, and Noa here, I should leave this matter aside for now.

Author's Notes:
In this chapter, I was able to make use of a setting that I had written before on a whim. w

Enzo Roland is the noble who embezzled the money from the orphanage. He was then executed by Cliff. Turns out, he was Luteum Roland's older brother. w

By the way, Yuna does know about that, but she clearly forgot. w

Anyway, as you've seen in this chapter, all of the things Yuna has done, which caused misfortune for others, have been covered up. w (they were all set so we could laugh at it later)

As we continued to chat,Eleanorsan and I made our way to the center of the garden. We sat down by the table there and admired the flowers, with a nice cover above us blocking out the sun. It was a really pleasant place to take a break.
At the corner of the garden, we could see the girls playing together. It wasn't just them, though. Princess Flora, Her Highness, and Anju-san had all joined the girls there as well. I could also see the Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear plushies sitting by a table next to them. It looked like Princess Flora had brought her Swaying Bear plushie, and Shuri had placed her Hugging Bear plushie next to it. I wondered what the reason for doing so was…

「Oh, Yunchan.」

Eleanorsan and I decided to head over, and Her Highness was the first to notice us. When she called out as such, Princess Flora turned around immediately.

「Bear-san!」

「Good afternoon.」

I greeted the princess first, then Her Highness, and finally Anju-san. Just as I was finished, Shuri came up to Princess Flora with her Hugging Bear plushie in hand.
Why were they playing with the plushies when they should be enjoying the flowers?
Looking over, I noticed Fina was also holding onto the Swaying Bear plushie while looking at me nervously. I lightly petted her head, trying to reassure her.
Noa also looked lost on what to do and looked over at her Mother for help.
How exactly did such a situation develop?

「Kitisama, Princess Flora, what brings you two here?」

「I was taking a walk with Flora, and then, these girls came by, so I invited them over for some tea.」

　Laid out on the table were a few cups of tea, which Anju-san must have prepared for them. Eleanorsan took a seat next to Noa and asked for a cup of her own.

「Yunchan, why don't you sit down as well?」

I sat down beside Fina and took a sip of tea Anju-san served me.

「Fina, what's going on?」

I whispered to her.

「We were walking around, gazing at the flowers, when we suddenly ran into Her Highness and Princess Flora. Shuri noticed that Princess Flora was holding onto a Swaying Bear plushie and rushed up to her…」

「Shuri-chan called out「It's Swaying Bear-chan!」and ran right up to us. I was so surprised…」

Apparently our whispers weren't that quiet, so Her Majesty joined in onto the explanation, smiling as she recalled what had happened. Good thing Princess Flora and Her Highness were nice and kind… If Shuri had ran up to nobles with a bad attitude, she would have most likely gotten in trouble. I wished she was more careful…
Well, if there were many nobles like that here at the castle, I wouldn't have felt comfortable visiting so often, much less bringing the girls with me.

「The girls introduced themselves and told us that Eleanora and you brought them here, so I invited them to join us for some tea. Also, Noire-chan and I have met a few times before, so we already know each other, don't we?」

「Yes, we've met before…」

Noa replied rather timidly.
So even a noble like Noa would become nervous in the presence of the queen, it seemed. Then again, royalty weren't people anyone could normally meet without being granted an audience, so that made sense. Noa also lived in Crimonia, so it must be rare for her to meet them. Wait, didn't that mean I was the weird one since I met the king every time I came to the castle?

「Still, I was very surprised to see that the two girls have the same plushies as Flora.」

From further conversation, it seemed that Princess Flora had been uneasy with Shuri's sudden appearance but had relaxed when Shuri had called out Swaying Bear's name. Shuri had told her 「I have one, too!」 and had Fina pull out the plushie to show to the princess. Princess Flora's wariness had completely disappeared once they had started talking about me.
Was it normal for royalty to get along with commoners over Bear plushies in this world?
In the fantasy stories I had read, that would definitely be impossible. Commoners wouldn't be permitted to even get this close to royalty. Normally, this would be the scene where the commoners were grovelling on the ground and apologizing repeatedly.
Thanks to the Bear plushies, though, the three of them were now sitting and chatting together.

「Bear-sans… There are lots of Bear-sans.」

Princess Flora smiled happily at the set of plushies. On the other hand, Noa looked a bit depressed as she was the only one without a plushie. Feeling bad for her, I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear in their cub form and passed Swaying Bear to her.

「Swaying Bear-chan, Hugging Bear-chan!」

「Swaying Bear, Hugging Bear!」

The younger two strongly reacted to the Bears.

「Yunsan?」

「I'll lend you Swaying Bear, Noa, so please don't look so sad.」

「Thank you very much.」

Noa happily placed Swaying Bear on her lap and hugged it tightly.

「Noneechan, you're so unfair.」

「Swaying Bear…」

「Ufufu.」
　
Now the two younger girls were enviously looking at Noa. I could never win…
Their fixation soon moved from Swaying Bear to Hugging Bear, which I was holding.

「You two have your plushies, don't you.」

「You're mean, Yunneechan.」

「Hugging Bear…」

Their envious looks were now completely directed at me.

「I will take care of it, so you can't argue over it any more.」

But before I knew it, Her Highness had walked over to my side and lifted up Hugging Bear from my arms.

「Mother!!」

「Hugging Bear!」

Her Highness held Hugging Bear cheerfully and returned to her seat.
Um, that was my Hugging Bear, so I hoped she would return it properly.

Looking around the table again, I suddenly realized how strange this situation had become. There were five Bears here now.
Aside from Eleanorsan, Anju-san, and me, everybody was holding onto a Bear of their own.

「Yunchan, I'm sad, too. I'm the only one who doesn't have a bear.」

What did she mean by only her?

「I'm not holding one, either.」

Hugging Bear had just been kidnapped by Her Highness, after all.

「But Yunchan, you're a bear, too, aren't you?」

It seemed that I was already considered a Bear by other people at this point…
Well, right now, I somehow needed Eleanorsan to give up so that the amount of Bears didn't increase even further.

「Fufu. This is indeed a unique gather-up. Far wouldn't be able to join even if he wanted to.」

By Far, Her Majesty must have meant His Majesty, Farrat. Well, he would most likely feel awkward sitting among a group of girls, so he might not even want to join in. There were a lot of children here as well.
I was also worried that Shuri would do something rude to His Majesty, so it would really help if he didn't show up.

「Wait, if Yunchan is here, maybe Far is waiting for her in Flora's room?」

「Shall I call for him?」

Anju-san asked us.

「No, it's fine. When we came, I asked the gate guard not to inform him, so His Majesty doesn't even know that Yunchan is here. We've only planned on bringing the girls for some sightseeing around the castle and not stop by Princess Flora's room.」

「Really? In that case, we're not having any delicious foods today?」

Her Highness sounded very disappointed.
Could it be that this couple thought I only came here to bring food for them?
Granted, I did feed them every time I visited, but I was bringing food to Princess Flora, not them.

「Yunchan, why don't you take out some cotton candy?」

Eleanorsan, noticing Her Highness's crestfallen expression, suggested to me.

「Cotton candy?」

「My, what is that?」

「It's a candy that feels like you are eating a cloud.」

Shuri answered while playing with the plushies.

「A cloud?」

Princess Flora tilted her head at Shuri's explanation.

「Like the ones in the sky, you mean?」

Her Highness looked up at the sky from underneath the cover and gazed at the white clouds floating by.

「Mother, can you eat clouds?」

「Hmm, maybe. They are white and may taste delicious.」

Just what was with that answer?
Did the people in this world not understand how clouds worked and thought it was possible to eat them?
She must have only said that to mess with her daughter and didn't seriously believe so herself, did she? Still, it wouldn't be good if the princess really believed that, so I decided to make it clear.

「Florsama, you can't eat clouds, but there's this candy, which looks similar to a cloud. Here, let me show you.」

I took out the cotton candy machine from the Bear Box, poured in some granulated sugar, and turned on the switch. The middle dome began heating up and spinning at a high speed. Soon, a white thread began to spin out from the middle.

「Something came out.」

Princess Flora leaned over the table and watched in fascination at the cotton-like threads gathering on the inner sides of the machine. I quickly took out a stick to start wrapping the cotton candy around it.

「Yunneechan, can I do it?」

Shuri asked me just as I was about to begin.

「Okay, but make sure you do it properly.」

I passed the stick to her, and she began carefully swirling the threads onto it. On the side, Fina looked like she was about to say something but didn't.
Shuri continued to move the stick around, letting the white threads slowly coil around it, and the shape of a cotton ball began to emerge. She had only tried making it once before at the orphanage and was this good already… Could it be she had talent for this?
Still, if she said she wanted to be a cotton candy maker in the future, I would have to tell her that wasn't a good idea.

「It's a cloud!」

「My, it really looks like one. It must be very fluffy to the touch.」

As the cotton candy grew bigger and fluffier, Princess Flora became more and more excited. Encouraged by the princess's reactions, Shuri carried on until I realized it was getting too big…

「Shuri, stop, stop, stop!」

I cried out before it was completely too late.
Shuri panicked for a moment but quickly stopped the machine. The cotton candy now looked like a miniature mountain sitting on top of the small stick.
Well, even at this size it should still be considered a good final product.

「Princess, here, take it. It's delicious.」

Shuri said and held out the large cotton candy to Princess Flora. As she reached for it with her small hands, I was worried she would drop it, but she managed to hold it up.

「How do I eat it?」

「Um, you pinch off small pieces and put them in your mouth.」

I couldn't tell a princess to just bite it off as she pleased, so I suggested a more ladylike manner.

「Also, your hands will get sticky, so it's best to set aside your plushie first.」

The moment I said that, Anju-san immediately moved the plushie sitting on Princess Flora's lap onto the table, saving it from the impending doom.
The princess didn't mind and pinched off a small piece of cotton candy with her little fingers before putting it in her mouth.

「It's sweet!」

Florsama's expression lit up as she said that. Us girls really liked sweet stuff, huh.

「Oh, is that so? Shuri-chan, can you make some for me as well?」

「Okay!」

Shuri said with a nod and turned on the machine to make another one. This time she managed to make a regular sized cotton candy and passed it to the queen, who immediately tried it out.
Meanwhile, Princess Flora found herself unable to finish such a large cotton candy, so Shuri began helping out. Wow, they sure got along well. Was it thanks to the plushies connecting the two?

「So, what were you talking about before we came here?」

Eleanorsan asked Noa sitting next to her.

「We talked about Yunsan and whether Mother has been causing any problems lately.」

「How rude. I'm doing my job properly, you know.」

Doing her job and causing problems were two different things, though. Or, were they all the same to Eleanorsan? Well, if she didn't do her work, that would cause other problems, so maybe that was the correct way of thinking about it for her. Still, with that kind of declaration, I really wondered how much trouble Eleanorsan was causing Cliff and the king on a daily basis.

「Fufu, don't worry about it. Far is working hard, after all.」

「Kitisama, when you put it like that, it makes it sound like I'm indeed causing problems for him.」

「Do you think you aren't?」

「That's…」

「Mother…」

Noa looked at her mother with an exasperated expression.

「I'm doing my work properly. If I wasn't, I would have been kicked back to Crimonia, wouldn't I?」

What she said made sense. If she really was the troublemaker she appeared to be, she would have been sent back to Crimonia long ago.

「But wait, that might actually be a good idea. I could return to Crimonia and be with you, then.」

「Onee-sama would get mad at you if she heard you say that.」

「Do you really not want me back home?」

Eleanorsan looked a bit depressed.

「I'm sad that I don't get to see you very often, but if you return to Crimonia, then when I attend the academy, I'll be all alone at the capital.」

Noa said timidly.

「You're right. Let's live together when that time comes, then.」

Eleanorsan said and hugged Noa tightly.

「Fufu. So, Eleanora, you were guiding your favourite daughter around the castle, then?」

「Yes, I wanted to let the friends of my cute daughter sightsee the castle. I simply couldn't refuse her when she asked me.」

Eleanorsan's hug got even tighter.
Noa was starting to get embarrassed and tried to escape her mother's grasp, but Eleanorsan wouldn't let her. Swaying Bear, who was currently between Eleanorsan and Noa, looked like it was suffering. I really hoped Eleanorsan would lessen her embrace soon…

「So, why did the girls come to the Capital? They didn't come just to see the castle, did they?」

「My daughter Shia invited them over for the school festival.」

「The school festival, you say? My daughter also mentioned it not too long ago.」

Her Highness said.
Daughter? Princess Flora knew about the school festival?
Did she want to go to the school festival as well?
We continued to chat and admire the flowers for a while longer. Eventually, Princess Flora and Shuri fell asleep while hugging onto their plushies, and we decided that it was time for the castle sightseeing event to end.

Also, I did manage to get Hugging Bear back from Her Highness.

Author's Note:
I decided to name Her Highness Kitia.
I just kind of forgot to give her a name before. w
In case I called her by another name already, I apologize.

Next chapter is probably going to be the start of the school festival.

Chapter end