Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Chapter 259-260

A few days had passed since we had arrived at the Capital.
Everyday, we would take Shuri around the Capital to sightsee many different places. We had even visited Sanysan and Gazar-san.
I had also brought the girls to my Bear House, and we had cleaned it together then played with the Bears in the yard.
We had busied ourselves well, and in no time, the day of the festival arrived.

「Well then, I have to go and get ready. When the festival starts, please come straight to the academy. I will meet you at the entrance, so please don't go running off before I come and get you.」

「Onee-sama, you've told me that several times already…」

「Oh, also, did you get the money? If you forget it, you won't be able to buy anything.」

「Mother gave me some, so I'll be fine.」

Actually, Noa hadn't been the only one who received money from Eleanorsan. Both Fina and Shuri had also gotten an allowance. Fina had been reluctant and wanted to refuse at first but, with Eleanorsan's unwavering insistence, eventually gave up and accepted it.
Eleanorsan had tried to give me money as well, but I told her she had already paid me for my escort services and had managed to refuse.

「Also, also…」

Shia kept pacing back and forth, trying to think if there was something else she should remind Noa about.

「Onee-sama, I will be fine! Please hurry up and go, so you aren't late.」

　Noa scolded her older sister, who should have already left a while ago.

「Ugh, fine. Yunsan, please take care of the girls.」

「I will. Good luck with your stand.」

「Thank you. Okay, I'm heading off now!」

Shia ran out of the room with her skirt fluttering behind her.

「Geez. Onee-sama thinks I'm still a child.」

「Well, you still are, aren't you?」

Now that Shia finally left for school, the room suddenly fell quiet.
We still had some time before we had to leave, so what should we spend it on?

「Oh, that's right. Come here, Noa.」

「What is it?」

She trotted over to me slowly.

「Sit down on the chair.」

Noa did as I asked, so I moved behind her back, took out a comb from the Bear Box, and started to go through her long, golden hair.

「W-what are you doing?」

Noa asked, a bit startled.

「Well, Cliff asked me to make sure weird, evil bugs don't get close to you at the festival.」

「You really believe what Father said?」

「Don't you believe him, Noa?」

「I'm not sure. Still, I don't think anyone is going to approach me unless it's at a party.」

While I understood Noa's point of view to some extent, my only knowledge of nobles came from fantasy stories. Here, I wasn't sure how or where people would approach Noa.
It was possible that some male noble might come up to us at the festival and ask to look around the place together. If he was only around ten years old, I didn't think anything bad would happen, but if an older person showed up… When it came to noble marriages, it should be fairly common for there to be an age gap, and putting the two together…

「So, why are you combing my hair?」

「I thought we should change your hairstyle. With that, people who don't know you that well shouldn't be able to recognize you.」

The chance that somebody could recognize her from afar should be low if she looked a bit different. Usually, when searching for somebody in a crowd, a person would look for some defining characteristic. In my case, if I changed from my Bear Suit into some plain clothing, nobody would recognize who I was. Changing Noa's hairstyle should most likely do the trick in her case.

「We're doing it just in case trouble does come around. Well, if you really don't want to change your hair, we can put the idea aside.」

「I'm fine if you're doing it for me, Yunsan.」

With Noa's permission, I began changing her hairstyle.

「Tell me what looks good. Fina and Shuri, give us your opinions, too.」

「Okay.」

「'Kay.」

While combing through Noa's beautiful long hair, I thought about what hairstyles would suit Noa. First, I parted her hair in half and made it into twintails similar to Shia's.

「It's the same as Shisama's.」

「It's Shineechan.」

Fina brought a mirror and placed it in front of Noa.

「It really is the same as Onee-sama.」

Noa touched her hair with a delighted smile.

「It suits you, but sadly, we can't do this style.」

「Why not?!」

「I mean, if you look like Shia, people will find out who you are immediately.」

I had already known beforehand that it wouldn't be a good idea, but I couldn't resist wanting to see Noa with twintails. As expected of sisters: when I made her hair like that, she looked just like Shia. Shia must have looked very similar to Noa when she was younger.
Next, I tried a ponytail, and after that, a side ponytail.

「Nosama, you're so cute.」

「Noneechan, you're cute.」

Whichever hairstyle I tried, they all looked cute on Noa. I was having a hard time deciding which one fit her best.
As I continued to play with Noa's hair, Eleanorsan entered the room.

「My, what are we doing in here?」

「We're playing with Noa's hair.」

「Yunsan, that's not it.」

Noa pointed out and proceeded to explain to her mother what we were actually doing. Playing with her hair was a part of it, though.

「I see. In that case, I have to join in.」

「Mother?!」

Eleanorsan took over from me, and we began to come up with more and more hairstyles. Dumpling hair, braids; there was no style we left out. We even came up with many variations, and each and every one of them looked cute on Noa.

「Noa, which one did you like best?」

「Ugh, my head hurts. Mother, Yunsan, aren't you two just playing with my hair?」

　Yup, we were. Getting to play with such beautiful, blonde hair like Noa's was a rare opportunity that I wasn't going to let slip by. I would have played with Fina's hair, too, but there was only so much that could be done with her short hair. Noa's longer hair was much easier to style.
Still, if we didn't decide soon, we would have to leave for the festival without having accomplished anything.
After debating a while longer, we finally settled on a hairstyle. We gathered Noa's hair up in a ponytail and tied it with a large ribbon.
A ribbon ponytail wasn't too special of a hairstyle, but if it stood out too much, her disguise would lose all meaning.

As it was already time, we set off for the academy soon after. Eleanorsan wished she could go with us, but sadly, she had to go to work.
We went by foot, and Noa happily skipped down the road with her ponytail swinging back and forth behind her.

「I'm so excited!」

「Noa, is this your first time going to a school festival?」

「Yes. They don't let me go to the capital alone, after all.」

Well, of course they wouldn't let a ten-year-old girl travel to the capital all by herself. She had been nine-years-old last year, which was even more of a reason not to let her go.

「Shuri, you can't let go of my hand, okay?」

「Mhm, I know.」

「Also, make sure you don't drop your money, okay?」

「I won't. Don't worry so much.」

Next to Noa and I, an older sister was worrying about her younger sister.
Since the academy we were going to was attended by nobles, Fina had warned Shuri not to act so casually like she had with Princess Flora the other day. Fina hadn't been able to scold her at that time, but had done so the moment we left the castle. It would be troublesome if we got involved with some strange noble, and it would cause problems for Eleanorsan as well. That was why Fina was now holding Shuri's hand tightly to make sure she couldn't run off.
Fina noticed I was smiling at them.

「What is it?」
「Hmm? I was just wondering if this is what all siblings are like. Shia was also very concerned about Noa, so… 」

「Onee-sama worries too much.」

「That's right, Onee-chan worries too much, too.」

Shuri agreed with Noa.
A child never knew the extent of their parent's love, or in this case, the extent of their sister's love…
As we got closer to the academy, we started to see more people heading in the same direction. Consequently, more and more eyes fell upon me.
Naturally, I hadn't forgotten the fact that the more people there were, the more stares I would get, but what could I do? I heard children whispering to their parents,「Bear-san?」and 「It's a Bear-san from the school festival.」, but I could only do my best to tune out those whispers.
By the time we arrived at the academy, we were practically drowning in stares.

「Onee-sama hasn't come to get us yet.」

We couldn't find Shia around the entrance.
As we waited, festival attendees slowly flowed into the academy. At the gates, they all held out either their citizen or guild cards, as required by the academy to ensure no criminals could enter.
Having nothing better to do, I watched other children running around near the entrance. Then suddenly, one of them ran up to me and hugged me.

「It's Bear-san!」

「Bear!」

One after the other, children slowly began gravitating towards me.

「What a cute suit. Was it made specifically for the school festival?」

「What a cute Bear-san.」

「Mother, I want to see Bear-san, too.」

One by one,the adults let go of their children's hands, and the crowd of children around me kept growing bigger.
Could they please not do this? I pulled down my hood to cover my face.

「Yunsan!」

「Yunoneechan!」

「Yunneechan!」

The three girls called out to me in worry.
Now wasn't the time for that. They should be helping me get away from this swarm of children. Had they been monsters or some other foes, I could have just used magic or a Bear Punch to blast them all away, but I obviously couldn't do that to the children.

「Bear-san is so soft.」

「Bear-san, fluffy.」

「Sorry, but can you let go?」

I asked the children kindly but to no avail. Eventually, I was still stranded in the sea of kids with no way out while the adults simply watched and smiled.
Could they please stop them instead of just watching?

「Help…」

I cried out for help.

「Yunsan? What is going on?!」

My lord and savior goddess, Shia, appeared out of nowhere.

「Shia, help me!」

I called out to her. Shia took one look at all of the children around me, sighed, and began extracting me from my predicament.

「Come on, Bear-san is troubled. Let go of her.」

「Okay…」

「'Kay.」

As Shia persuaded them, the children let go one by one, and I was eventually freed of their encirclement.

「Thanks, Shia. You really saved me there.」

「Yunsan, what in the world were you doing?」

Shia looked at me with a bit confused.

「We were waiting for you here, and then the children just kept coming at me.」

All I had done was stand here. I hadn't done anything else.
The children continued staring at me, as if I was a gigantic stuffed toy they desperately wanted to grab onto. Maybe I was being overly conscious about it, but I never thought that getting attacked by children could be this terrifying.

「Yunoneechan, are you okay?」

「Yunneechan.」

「Yunsan.」

When the girls came to me, the other children looked at them and started approaching me again.
I immediately told the girls to stay where they were, and luckily, Shia quickly found a solution.

「If we stay here, the children will come after her again, so let's head inside.」

We agreed, and Shia escorted us towards the academy. The children who were left behind looked very disappointed, but that couldn't be helped.

「Shia, thank you so very much. I don't know what I would have done without you.」

「Yunsan, you're always wearing that outfit, so it makes sense you forgot what could happen. It stands out quite a lot, after all.」

It wasn't like I forgot. I just didn't think the children would see me as a festival attraction.
Could I even walk around the academy like this?

Author's Note:
I don't think anybody remembers original Shia's hairstyle, but in the publication, I changed her hairstyle to twintails (there's an illustration of it there if you want to check it out).

As per usual, I changed it to twintails in the web version as well.
I really appreciate all your support, getting me this far.

I took out my guild card and held it above the crystal board. After I was cleared, I was given a piece of paper. Looking around, I could see that other people who were entering also received one. I took a look at the paper's contents and realized that it was a survey; it was asking me to note down which programs I thought were interesting.
So, manga magazines were not the only ones that did this, huh? I wondered if surveys were a common thing here. Tallying all the results from different slips sounded like a pain, especially since people's honesty could always be questioned. Some might just write something quickly, not caring about how that affected results.

Just as we entered the academy, some of the children who had surrounded me earlier also got past the check. They noticed me, and since we were all walking along a single path, I realized I had nowhere to escape to. I quickly walked over to Shia so that I wouldn't get separated.

「If we are walking, I don't think they will try to surround you again. Anyway, let's head to our stand first.」

Everyone nodded in agreement to Shia's suggestion.

「By the way, I've been wondering this since the moment I spotted you, but why is Noa's hairstyle different?」

She must have been surprised to find out that Noa's hair had changed, huh. She had seen her just this morning, after all.

「Does it not suit me?」

Noa touched her hair in worry.

「No, it's cute. Still, you made your hair just like usual this morning, so why is it different now?」

「Yunsan took Father's words seriously.」

Noa then proceeded to explain why I had changed her hairstyle.

「Well, Father and Yunsan worry too much. I understand Father and Mother being concerned about the marriage thing, but those people won't directly approach Noa to discuss it.」

「Still, you never know if one of those people really fancies Noa. For example, if they saw Noa at a party, thought she was cute, and wanted to talk to her when they had the chance, then they might try to get close to her if they spot her today.」

Noa was a very cute girl. Also, she attended parties wearing beautiful dresses, so it might have been love at first sight for someone. However, Noa's reply to that was quite frank.

「I'll reject any guy that can't bring up the courage to talk to me during a party.」

She flat out rejected them before they even came up to meet her. Did she prefer guys who were more open with their words?
Still, womanizers often behaved that way, and I didn't think she would like them, either. Although there shouldn't be any boys around her age who were like that, the thought of it being a possibility was terrifying enough.

「Also, if they couldn't talk to me during a party, there's no way they would approach me in a crowded place like this.」

That was true. The kind of guy I was thinking about wouldn't call out to her in a place like this. Not to mention, we were here with her. It should be fine as long as we didn't get separated.

「I think it's good to change your hairstyle once in a while. It's less likely that some annoying person you know will come up to you, and the hairstyle also fits you.」

Many nobles attended this academy. It was possible that some annoying person could try to chat her up. We had to proceed with caution in case someone similar to that stupid noble we had met at Misa's birthday party appeared.

「Still, with this many people around, I don't think I would be spotted either way.」

There were already quite many people walking ahead of us, not to mention the trail of children from earlier following behind us, many of whom were around Noa's age. Trying to pick out Noa amongst this crowd should indeed be quite difficult.

「Where is your stand, Shia?」

「We are at the Number 3 Practice Grounds.」

Shia proceeded to explain that each program had its designed location. Related activities were grouped together so that people wouldn't have to search for them all over. With how large the academy grounds were, I kind of wished for an information pamphlet of some sort.
Instead, I noticed that the academy had placed signs at various areas, which displayed a map of the campus and the information on where each program was happening.
The Number 3 Practice Grounds was one of the places used for sword and magic training around the academy, but for the festival, it was home to Shia's cotton candy stand.
We continued to chat about hairstyles as we followed Shia and took in the surrounding sights. After walking for a while, we reached the Number 3 Practice Grounds. In the open plaza, many food stands were lined up, as well as various clusters of chairs and tables. It looked like a fine place to sit down and eat something before rushing onward to see more attractions. Since it was already approaching lunch time, the place was starting to bustle with customers.

「The food stands are split into various locations on campus, so it shouldn't get too crowded, I think.」

Numerous attendees were lined up at the stands and many others were already sitting or standing around while enjoying their food. Once we arrived at the cotton candy stand, I noticed that unlike the other stands, there were no customers here. Had they not begun selling yet?
Cattleya greeted us when we arrived.

「How is it going?」

「Everything is in order. I look forward to how much we will sell.」

Their enthusiasm was good; they clearly believed that the cotton candy would sell.
I looked around, and while some of the other stands didn't have many customers, at least they had some. Turning back at this stand, which had no one coming to it, I was beginning to worry a bit.

「Fufu, we will definitely be the best among the food stand groups.」

Marcus declared.

「Food stand group?」

「The academy is giving out rewards to get us, students, all fired up. If we win, we can get many luxurious prizes. You received a survey at the entrance, right?」

Oh right, we had received something like that.
I took a look at it again. It asked us to write down three of the programs we found interesting and liked the best. It seemed like this was how the students would compete for the prizes.

「You have to write down the number of the program you want to vote on, so remember the numbers of the programs you enjoyed the most. Our food stand is number 90, so be sure to write it down.」

「Well, only if there are no better places.」

I didn't plan on being biased towards family and friends. If I had to vote, then I would do it fairly. At least, that was how I felt.
Fina and the others, on the other hand, took out their surveys and began writing down their number, which I promptly stopped. I told them they shouldn't write down it yet when we hadn't even tried their cotton candy or looked at the other stands.

「Shisan, shouldn't you introduce me already?」

A girl standing behind Shia tugged on Shia's twintail.
I had noticed that the girl had been staring at me for a while now. She wore the same uniform as Shia, so she must be a student as well. Her face looked familiar, so I might have seen her somewhere before. Well, I didn't think I would forget about such a cute girl like her, so it must have been a very brief meeting.

「I get it, so please stop pulling my hair.」

The girl released Shia's hair, and Shia immediately fixed her hair. Hair was a girl's life, so nobody should pull on it, even lightly.

「You guys were leaving me out of your conversation.」

「I'll introduce you, so don't pull on my hair anymore. Yunsan, this is Tilisama. She is helping out with our stand.」

When Shia introduced her, the girl stepped forward.

「I've finally got to meet the rumored Bear-san. My name is Tilia. Nice to meet you.」

「Um, I'm Yuna. Nice to meet you, too?」

The girl named Tilia extended her hands towards me, so I did the same. She immediately grabbed my puppets with both hands. It seemed she knew about me, but this was my first time actually speaking with her. I couldn't shake the feeling that I had seen her before, though. Had I passed her by sometime I had been at the capital? When I had accepted the student escort mission from Eleanorsan, I had come to the academy, so it was quite possible I had seen her there. However, what the girl said next was entirely different from what I was expecting.

「You really do go around wearing a Bear-san outfit. Thanks for always taking care of my little sister.」

Um, her little sister?
She had said I often took care of her little sister, so she must be the older sister of someone I knew, right?
Out of all the girls I knew, I couldn't think of many who she could be an older sister to.
There were Noa and Misa, and if this girl was older than she seemed, then Cattleya could also be a candidate. Going by her appearance, though, I couldn't imagine a younger version of her would look similar to any of these girls. Well, I knew there were sisters who didn't look alike, but that was quite unlikely right? Well, they might have a different mother or father, so maybe…
My first thought turned to Cliff being a cheater and neglecting to mention that he had a daughter with another woman. That would explain why this girl didn't look like Eleanorsan at all.

「Yunsan, I don't know what you're thinking of right now, but I think it's wrong.」

Shia rejected my in mind speculation. I thought it was a plausible story, though.

「My sister is always saying Bear-san, Bear-san, so I thought you were someone who wears bear fur around, but I guess I was wrong. I didn't think you would be such a cute bear. Your hands and feet are also bear-shaped.」

Tilia petted my Bear-san Puppets and then even moved to my feet and torso.

「Um, sorry, but can you stop touching me?」

「I'm sorry. Can you let me hug you at least?」

I thought saying it like that would be enough to make her jump away from me, but instead, she opened her arms for a hug. Why was this happening?!

「You're so soft, just like my sister said.」

She squeezed me tightly as she hugged me, not even waiting for me to allow it.

「Wwait, what?」

「This feeling might get addicting.」

She kept rubbing her hands all over me, and finally she pressed her face against my chest.

「How unfair, me too!」

Shuri ran up behind me and hugged me, too. This was no different than the situation I was in earlier at the entrance.
I grabbed Tilia by the shoulders and pushed her off of me.

「Just what is going on here? Shuri, you let go, too.」

「I'm sorry. My sister would tell me how soft and good you feel when she hugs you, so I've been wanting to hug you ever since.」

「Even so, you shouldn't suddenly hug someone like that.」

Tilia apologized and finally stepped away from me.
She kept mentioning a little sister, but really, just who was she talking about?
No matter how hard I racked my brain, I still couldn't figure it out. If it wasn't Noa, could it maybe be Misa? They didn't look alike at all, though.

「Father and Mother told me many stories about you as well.」

Her father and mother? I had only met Misa's parents once, and that was at her birthday party. I hadn't seen them since.

「Especially how you always bring my sister delicious food.」

Food? I didn't recall ever bringing Misa food. The only thing I had brought her was a birthday cake.

「Still, I don't get it why you always come when I'm not around? When I get home, they all tell me all about how delicious the food Bear-san brought them was, and I feel very left out each time. Also, Nii-san told me that when Bear-san comes, Father always stops working, which causes him a lot of trouble. Why can't you trouble me?」

Wait, could it be?
This person's sister called me Bear-san, and I brought her food often. Her father would slack off from work whenever I came, and her brother would be troubled by that. All the pieces of the puzzle slowly fell into place.
I turned to took a look at Noa, and it was clear that she was very nervous being in the presence of Tilia.
With that, there was only one possible answer left.

「Could it be that you're Princess Flora's older sister?」

「Correct. You didn't know?」

Of course I hadn't known!
I hadn't even known that the king had another daughter, much less knew her name. Nobody had told me, and I hadn't thought to ask.
I knew that his oldest son was around twenty years old, while Florsama was only four to five years old, so thinking about it now, it wouldn't be strange for there to be another child between those two. I took another look at Tilia and could immediately tell why she looked familiar to me; her features were very similar to Princess Flora and Her Highness.

「So, all in all, when I heard that Shisan knew Bear-san, and that Bear-san would be coming to the festival today, I asked if I could help out at her shop in exchange for introducing me to Bear-san.」

Just what had Shia been thinking?
Making a princess help out at a food stand? Noa was also looking at Shia and Tilia like she couldn't believe what she had just heard.

「So, Florsama has an older sister, huh…」

「Oh, and I wanted to thank you for taking care of for my sister so often.」

「No, tt's fine…」

「Also, I wanted to tell you that she really loves the bear plushies you gave her. Oh, and the picture books are nice, too. Everytime I heard about you from Flora, I wondered just what kind of girl you are, making all these things for her.」

I made food and drew picture books for her, but the plushies, I hadn't made those. Well, I hadn't specifically told her that, so no wonder she thought I had made them.

「I also appreciate your willingness to teach recipes to Zelef. The pudding is really delicious.」

「Yes, it is.」

「Mhm, it's really delicious.」

「I want to eat more of it sometime.」

When Tilia started talking about the taste of pudding, Marcus and the others also joined in.

「If everybody works hard, I will treat you to some, then.」

「Really?」

「Yeah.」

「Okay, Timor, let's do our best.」

With pudding as a reward, everybody's spirit rose. Well, giving them some pudding was nothing if that was what it took to motivate them…

Author's Note:
With this, Flora's older sister has finally appeared.
I decided to make an older sister when I wrote about the eldest son, but there wasn't any good opportunity to have her appear… so I used the chance here. lol
Next chapter will be some sightseeing, I guess.

Chapter end