Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear Chapter 268-270

「Yunsan, I'm really sorry. I couldn't tell it was you because you weren't wearing your usual Bear-san outfit…」

Noa, that definitely wasn't something I wanted to hear. My heart broke every time someone mentioned the Bear Suit. The only one I could believe in now was Fina, so I hugged her from behind.

「Your usual Bear-san outfit is cute, but you look good in the uniform, too.」

「Yunneechan's cute.」

「Yes, the uniform suits you.」

Everybody must be complimenting me to console me now… Shia might get mad, but maybe it would be best if I just changed back into my Bear Suit and live out the rest of my life as a Bear…

「Yunoneechan, it really does suit you, so please don't worry about it looking weird on you.」

「It really does?」

「Yes, very much.」

Fina noticed me fidgeting and reassured me that they weren't just trying to console me.
Well, this was somewhat my fault, too, since I was always wearing the Bear Suit. If I pulled my hood down, no one could even see my face unless they came up close. Heck, even if they walked right beside me, they wouldn't be able to see my face because of the hood. Because of the Bear Hood, the girls didn't get to see my face that often, so them not recognizing me in an unexpected outfit couldn't be helped, right?
Still, if the girls couldn't recognize me, then the people who didn't know me shouldn't realize I was the same person as the Bear who had appeared yesterday, either.
Yeah, there was no way people could recognize me as long as I put on a disguise (regular clothes), and for the school festival, that was actually perfect.
Anyway, I shouldn't let the girls worry about me. I had to change the mood.

「I got mad as a joke, so you don't have to take it so seriously.」

I said with a smile, and the girls immediately looked relieved. It wasn't the girls' fault. It was all because God had given me this overpowered Bear Suit. Yeah, it was God's fault that I had to suffer through this. All the bad things that happened to me were his fault.

「The stand sure looks like it's doing well, huh.」

I found the chance to change the topic as I looked at the stand. They had just started, but there was already quite a number of customers lined up, waiting to receive their cotton candy.

「The people who were following us all bought some before leaving, and soon after even more people arrived.」

「Where did those people who were following us go?」

「They didn't notice you getting dragged away by Onee-sama, and once they realized you were gone, they immediately ran off to look for you.」

It seemed like Shia had actually managed to get the stalkers off my back. Even if they returned to the stand now, they shouldn't recognize me in the uniform. Like this, I shouldn't cause problems for the girls I was supposed to be protecting anymore.

「Okay, how about we get going as well, then?」

I still felt a bit uncomfortable wearing the uniform, but I would have to brave it out during the festival.

「Shia, I'm going to borrow your uniform for a while, okay?」

「Why do I feel like you might try to start up some trouble while wearing it?」

What was she trying to say?
Now that I wasn't wearing the Bear Suit, trouble shouldn't come to me, right? Even if other people looked at me now, they should just see a normal student. I should be fine so long as none of the teachers caught me. Also, even if that happened, I could always blame it on Shia.

「Oh right, is Tilia coming today?」

I recalled her saying she would be helping out at the stand today.

「She said that she has something to do in the morning and would come as soon as she's finished. She also promised to do something with some of her other friends, so she probably won't be able to accompany you like yesterday.」

「Well, at least thanks to you, Yunsan, we now have three machines to make cotton candy with, which makes things much easier for us.」

Right now, Marcus and Timor were making cotton candy, while Shia was doing some other work in the back. If more people came, she could either help manage the line or jump onto the third machine.

「Cattleya, are you going to look around the festival soon?」

「Yes, I will. It's about time for me to take a break, but while I do want to go together with all of you, I already made plans with some of my friends.」

「You don't have to worry about it. Yesterday, Tilia brought us to a lot of areas, so we should be fine by ourselves today.」

We left the cotton candy stand and headed off to look around the festival on our own.

「Misa, do you have anything you want to see or eat?」

I asked Misa, who was still in the midst of enjoying her cotton candy. Since it was only her, I figured the others had refused Shia's offer. Well, they had had some yesterday, and they had eaten it before that as well. It was only possible to eat so much cotton candy, after all.

「I don't, really. It's fine as long as we can all go together.」

「Yunsan, I have a suggestion, then. I want to challenge that knife throwing game again! I have to get my revenge.」

Since Misa didn't have a place she wanted to go to, Noa quickly raised her hand and suggested a place of her own.

「What about you two?」

I decided to check with Fina and Shuri as well.

「I'm good with any place.」

「I want to try the knife throwing again.」

Shuri agreed with Noa's suggestion while the other two didn't really mind. I didn't care where we went, either, so the knife throwing stand it was.
Still, in order to keep my promise to not stand out, I decided to tell them I wouldn't participate myself.

「Well, going to the knife throwing stand is fine, but Shia warned me not to stand out. Even if you can't win a prize yourself, I won't win one for you this time around.」

If I ended up winning the main prizes again, what would be the point of changing clothes in the first place? Also, I was wearing the academy's uniform, so if they asked me which class I was from, I wouldn't be able to answer. I really had to stop standing out to avoid trouble.
Still, if the girls looked at me with those pleading eyes of theirs, I didn't know if I could hold back. I felt like that had happened way too often yesterday.
When the girls went for it, they should only aim for the middle level prizes. As a former gamer, doing that would feel a bit weird to me, though. When I participated in games, I always wanted to challenge the hardest stage.
I had to do my best to hold back and only watch this time around, or a repeat of yesterday might happen.

Once they agreed to me not participating, we headed to the knife throwing stand.
I wasn't sure if it was because of the hair pieces, but there were many couples and women around, just like yesterday.

「Nooneesama, did you get your hair piece from here?」

「Yes, but I want to win a bigger one today.」

Misa also looked at Fina's and then Shuri's hair.

「Shuri-chan, you didn't try to get one for yourself?」

「I couldn't win one. Yunneechan then got me the largest one, but it stands out a lot, so they told me I can't wear it today.」

「Really?」

「Yes, and that's why I'm going to try my best and get a smaller one for myself.」

Shuri declared with conviction.
For some reason, Shuri was just as motivated as Noa. I really hoped that she could at least hit one target this time around.
The three of them lined up to play the game. Wait, only three?

「Fina, aren't you going to try?」

「No, I already have one, so I'll wait here with you, Yunoneechan.」

「You could try and get a better one, though?」

「This one is good enough for me.」

Fina said and touched her hair piece lightly. Considering her upbringing, her words did make sense.

「Okay, let's cheer on everyone else, then.」

「Okay!」

We stood closer to the stand to cheer on the three girls, and not a single person looked at me and said 「It's a bear.」
Earlier, I had met eyes with the students running this shop, and they hadn't noticed that I was the Bear from yesterday, either. Well, I was wearing different clothes and wasn't with the princess, Tilia, so I actually didn't stand out this time.
It was quite nice not having everyone stare at me for once.

「Yunoneechan, look, over there.」

As I was rejoicing over my new found peace, Fina pointed at where the prizes were lined up.
I looked up at where Fina was pointing, and saw that there was another hair piece even more extravagant than the one I had won yesterday.
It looked like I hadn't taken everything from them.

「Yunoneechan, there's something written below it.」

「Below it?」

I looked and there really was something.

「Prize for clearing Level Bear.」

Just what was Level Bear?

「That's supposed to be a reference to you, isn't it?」

It sure seemed so, but why would anyone decide to call a level 'Bear'?
As I thought about what their reasoning behind it might be, the man in front of Noa tried to challenge this Level Bear. Next to him, a beautiful woman was cheering him on.
Maybe it was his girlfriend? Yeah, it sure looked like this guy was challenging Level Bear to show off to his girlfriend. Would he be able to do it, though?
When he said he would challenge Level Bear, one of the students went to the back, grabbed something and positioned himself on the right hand side of the end of the targeting range. Then, the student prepared himself and threw it up in the air. The challenger threw his knife at the moving object but sadly missed.
Oh, so this was a moving target challenge? It was sort of like clay shooting.
Still, wasn't this something rather hard to do? Hitting a distant target was quite hard but possible if the knife was thrown correctly. A moving target, however…
All of the guy's throws missed the target by a large margin. An obvious result, if I had to say.
The woman who had been cheering him on looked a bit disappointed, but that couldn't be helped. It was a reckless challenge. Even adventurers had a hard time hitting flying monsters, so this wasn't something the man should have been expected to achieve.

After the couple, Noa stepped up. She was gazing at the Level Bear prize. It was clearly impossible for her, so I really hoped she wouldn't try to challenge it and waste her shot at obtaining a different hairpiece. Noa glanced at me, so I immediately began shaking my head and tried to tell her with my eyes that she couldn't do it.

However, it seemed like my feelings didn't reach her because Noa still told the receptionist: 「I want to challenge Level Bear.」.
This girl…
The result was obvious, and she missed all of her throws.
Meanwhile, Shuri and Misa both aimed for the closest targets, and they each got a hair piece of their own.
Noa looked frustrated while Shuri and Misa both celebrated.

「Hitting a flying target is impossible.」

Yes, it was obvious to see that the level was impossible just by looking at it.
She shouldn't have challenged it at all.
Unlike her, Shuri and Misa aimed for something they could achieve and they were now happy with their prizes.

「Yunneechan, put it on for me.」

Shuri brought over the hair piece she had just won. I took it and placed it in her hair the same way I had done for Fina. They looked very alike now, especially since they were sisters.

「It's very cute on you.」

Shuri looked really happy to receive my praise.
Misa, on the other hand, requested Noa to put on the hair piece for her. With that, all the girls now had a small hair piece of their own.

「If Yunoneechan wore one, too, then we would all be matching.」

「Yunneechan, do you wanna put on the big one you got for me?」

I politely refused Shuri's offer. If I did that, there would be no point in changing out of my Bear Suit at all.
After, we set off to check the other programs. Some programs added a Level Bear to their prize pool, while some didn't.

Author's Note:
Since all the other girls were already matching with their hairpieces, I had Misa get a hair piece as well.

Next year, all the programs will probably have a Level Bear as the hardest challenge. lol

When it was noon, we decided to return to Shia's stand.
Since Shia had told us about how none of them could take a decent break from working, I thought we could help a bit if we at least brought them some snacks. The girls naturally didn't object.
Still, having to line up for snacks was a pain, so I was planning on simply giving them Morin's bread. Shia had also mentioned that some friends were coming over to help her and I would feel bad if we didn't bring enough for everyone.
I had plenty of Morin-san's bread stashed inside my Bear Box, so they could have as much as they wanted, no matter how many people were there. That was why we decided that simply bringing them Morin-san's bread would be the best.

As we made our way to the stand, we saw many people walking around and eating cotton candy. I was really happy to see that all these people were enjoying it. Shia's group had worked hard to learn how to make it, so I really hoped it would continue to sell well.

Arriving at the stand, we immediately noticed an unknown student doing their best to attract customers. Was she one of the friends Shia had mentioned?
Unlike me, she actually had friends, huh.

「Shia, it looks like the stall is doing well.」

I told her as she passed some cotton candy to a child.

「Yes, my friend came over to help us, so we get a lot of customers.」

「Yeah, but don't forget we owe her a meal in return.」

Marcus cut in, explaining the favor needed to be repaid. A meal sure sounded like something a student would ask for. Asking for money was a thing for adults. I looked around some more, but I didn't see Tilia anywhere. She had said she would come help after she finished whatever she had to do in the morning, so she most likely wasn't done yet.

「Shia, Tilia isn't here yet?」

I wanted to thank her for yesterday.

「Oh, Tilisama is at the back.」

When we went around back, we came upon Tilia, crouching dejectedly with her back to us. She looked so gloomy I could almost imagine her just aimlessly twirling her finger in the sand.

「Tilia, what's wrong?」

「Well, when we told her we didn't need her help anymore, she started acting like that.」

「You did that? Why?」

Shia proceeded to explain that when Tilia had began calling out for customers, all the students who knew her started to gather in front of her. After Tilia had happily told them that the cotton candy was delicious, all the students rushed to the stand, yelling their orders one after the other.
Seeing such a huge crowd form up, other people had wandered over to see what the commotion was all about and found out that Tilia was there. Then, word of her presence had spread further, which attracted more customers and garnered even more attention. That vicious cycle had spiraled completely out of control, and the crowd turned into a huge problem for the stand and the surrounding area.

Even with three people making the cotton candy, they couldn't have handled the amount of orders pouring in. Shia and the others had felt a sense of impending danger and forced Tilia to hide at the back of the stand before it was too late. Eventually, things had calmed down, and we arrived soon after. Even with Tilia out of the way, there were still more people here compared to any of the other stands around. This was, without a doubt, the effects of a famous person.

Well, what had happened made complete sense when thinking about it. If Tilia, a princess, called for people to come then there was bound to be many who answered the call no matter if they were students, nobles, or commoners. In this case, even those who were here for different attractions would rather come here when they heard Tilia's name being mentioned, and when a princess recommended something to them, no one would dare to say no to it. Not to mention that her beauty and smile were beyond captivating. Just a smile from her alone was enough to make men grovel at her feet. Such a technique was something I could never do…
Looking at the results, the princess' charm had been far more effective in attracting customers than the Bear statue I had created.

「Because of that, we were forced to ask Tilisama to stop helping us.」

So, that was why she had started to sulk…
I walked up to Tilia from behind.

「Tilia, are you okay?」

「Yuna? Let me tell you…」

TIlia turned around when she heard me but then began looking left and right.
Was she looking for someone?

「Hmm? Where's Yuna?」

I was standing right in front of her.

「I thought I just heard Yuna's voice…」

Yes, she had, because I had just asked her something.
Tilia's eyes stopped on me for a moment, but then continued on to the girls standing next to me.

「Where's Yuna?」

「Yunoneechan is right in front of you.」

Fina and the others looked at me slowly, and Tilia's gaze came back to me again. Her head then tilted slightly.

「Yuna…?」

「Yes, I'm Yuna.」

I reintroduced myself to her.
Tilia looked at me as if she didn't believe me, though.
What was that reaction? Was she unsatisfied that a girl like me came out of the Bear Suit?

「Certainly, the hands and feet are like Yuna's.」

She recognized my hands and feet.
Everybody recognized me only after seeing those parts, huh…

「So, why are you wearing a uniform?」

「Shia said I can't wear my Bear Suit because it stands out too much. She forced me to change into her spare uniform.」

I gave a simple explanation.

「That's true, your bear costume stood out quite a lot. Still, I didn't know you were actually such a cute girl, Yuna.」

Now that was a troubling comment. Even at this point, I had trouble believing that me wearing the Bear Suit could be considered cute, and then she suddenly brought out this…

「Yes, it was definitely unexpected for me, too. I didn't realize such a cute girl was hiding underneath that bear costume.」

「Not you too, Shia.」

Tilia looked at Shia and immediately seemed as if she just remembered something.

「That's right. Listen, Yuna. Shia first asked me to call for guests and then told me to stop. I was doing my best but she said I was just causing trouble.」

「That's because a crazy amount of people gathered because of you and we couldn't keep up with the demand. I do feel bad for making you come back here, but we had no other choice: we just aren't efficient enough to keep up with such a crowd.」

There was a limit to how many customers any food stand could handle. It depended on the size, the number of workers, and the speed at which the food was being made. It only made sense for Shia's stand to be overrun when Tilia had been attracting customers.

「But the only reason I'm helping is to thank you for introducing me to Yuna.」

Oh right, there was that, too.
Thinking about it, wasn't it a completely unfair trade? Tilia needed to value herself a bit more. She had traded time she could have spent having fun at the festival just so she could meet me.

「Well, you've helped us plenty enough.」

Tilia had tried her best, but what happened couldn't be helped. Even though she was a student, the fact that she was also a princess didn't change.
Besides, wasn't asking a princess to help out kind of unfair to the other stands? In my former world, this would be akin to having a celebrity help out as a form of advertisement. It was complete overkill for something as simple as a school festival.

Shia tried her best to explain to Tilia that it wasn't her fault, but Tilia wouldn't accept it. It was very likely that Tilia had actually been looking forward to helping the stand, seeing her sulk like that.
Even I, having never experienced a school festival before this, also felt that helping out could be fun. It was why I had given them my cotton candy machines and had even made them a Bear statue. Knowing that my help was a factor in their success made me feel happy, so I somewhat understood Tilia's feelings.
I tried to comfort Tilia, hoping to make her feel better.

「I understand. I'm fine now. I will stop being selfish.」

Just as Tilia began feeling a bit better, someone's stomach growled. We all looked around to find where the sound came from.

「Shia, did you guys eat lunch yet?」

「Not yet. We were going to take turns in going out to eat.」

Well, seeing how crowded they were with customers earlier, they most likely didn't get the chance to go.

「If you would like, I brought some bread for you.」

「Is it the same bread we had when you were escorting us before?」

「Yes, it is.」

「I want some!」

「Me too.」

Marcus and Timor, who were still in the middle of making cotton candy, both replied. It looked like the three of them all remembered the bread I had given them when I had acted as their bodyguard during their school outing. Well, Morin-san's bread was delicious, so that made sense.

「I will leave some out here, so eat whatever you like.」

I took out enough so that everyone, including the female student who was helping out, could have their fill.

「Yunsan, what will you be doing now?」

「We will go around the festival again, I guess.」

There were still many areas we hadn't visited yet.
Up until noon, Noa and Shuri had tried to take revenge on the games they had lost at, so we ended up going to the same places as yesterday. We planned to go to some new places this afternoon; it would be boring to keep returning to the same areas, after all.

「How about bringing Tilisama with you, then?」

「Shia?」

Tilia was surprised at Shia's sudden request.

「Even if I can't call for customers, I can help you with other things.」

Shia shook her head.

「Thanks to your advertisement, plenty of customers already came to our stand. Those customers will spread the word, so we will be fine to do other things ourselves.」

She was right. The line didn't seem to get any shorter while we were here, and I could see even more people approaching.

「Also, if we let you help out any further, the other stands will start to complain.」

Wasn't it already unfair to have a princess help out to begin with?

「So, please enjoy the festival with Yunsan and the girls.」

Marcus and Timor nodded to Shia's words and the female student helping out seemed to agree as well.

「Please leave the rest to us and go enjoy the festival, Tilisama.」

「Everyone… Thank you.」

Tilia accepted their feelings.
After we had lunch together with a few of them who managed to switch out to eat, we left the stand with our new party member, Tilia.

「Fufu, if I were a boy, I'm sure I would look popular.」

Tilia, who had been so depressed earlier, was now happily walking between Shuri and Misa, with Fina and I tagging close behind.

「They're all children, though.」

Except for me, who was fifteen, the girls were all only seven to ten years old.

「They may be small, but they are all cute ladies.」

Well, I couldn't deny that.
We didn't forget to introduce Misa, and it seemed like Tilia knew who Gran-san was, but didn't know about his granddaughter till now.

「I must say, I'm really happy to see that all of you are wearing the clothes I bought for you.」

The three girls were indeed wearing the clothes Tilia had purchased for them yesterday, and she was clearly delighted to see it.
Well, I was pretty sure anybody would be happy to see the presents they had given being used. It was better than finding out they had just been tucked away to never see the light of day again.

「Misana, shall I buy something for you as well?」

「No, that's okay, I'm…」

「You don't have to hold back.」

Tilia interrupted, grabbed Misa's hand, and dragged her off to the same shop from yesterday, where we all picked out an outfit for her. Tilia tried to buy something for me again, but I managed to politely decline her offer.
Once Misa's clothes were paid for, we left the store. Misa walked in front, spinning back and forth happily. She looked very happy that Princess Tilia had bought her something.

「I have now gained another wife.」

「You're a girl, you know.」

I rebuked Tilia's joke just as we were stopped in our tracks by a large crowd.

「I wonder what's going on?」

Noa started to push her way through the crowd, and Misa followed. Shuri also tried to run off with them, but Fina tightly held her hand to stop her.

「Onee-chan!」

「No.」

「Uuu.」

We slowly made our way through the crowd and came up to something that appeared like a performance involving swords.

「It's a sword dance.」

So, it should be something like a dance with swords?
There were indeed six students dancing around with swords in their hands.
They swung their swords right and left, showing off their skills. The swords seemed like they could clash any second but always managed to pass each other by a hair's breadth.

「Amazing…」

「So beautiful…」

The girls were all mesmerized by the performance.
I somewhat recalled watching something similar on TV, but this was the first time I had seen it in person. The students swung their swords with quite a bit of force, and it was a true spectacle watching all of them perform the same moves so perfectly in sync. I could see no blunders throughout the performance, and then suddenly everybody pointed their sword into the air. Like it was a signal, their movements suddenly became much more harsh, sharp, and quick, yet still, their swords managed not to clash. Finally, they swung their swords in a wide arc before sliding them gracefully into their scabbards, finishing their dance.
The whole crowd erupted in loud applause. Of course, my girls all clapped as well while I attempted to clap with my Bear Hands but sadly, no sound came out.
This was the first time I had seen such a good performance.
According to Tilia, from time to time there were events where groups performed such sword dances together. However, only the best of the students were picked to do it.

「Princess, can you do it, too?」

「Me? I'm not good at being in sync with other people. I can perform a sword dance by myself, but for something as spectacular as this, you need several very coordinated people to perform it.」

Tilia answered Shuri's question.
True, that dance could only be performed if everybody trusted each other. It also needed a lot of practice and was something I could never do. I was bad at working with other people to begin with, so it would be impossible for me even if I had the willpower to practice it.

Author's Note:
With this, Tilia joins the group again.

Next chapter, we will enter the afternoon of the second day. I wonder what will happen to a certain character?

「That was amazing.」

「Yes! The last part where they spun the swords and then sheathed them was so cool.」

Shuri spun her arms around, imitating the performers.
The girls were all very excited seeing such a performance. I had been quite enthralled myself. I had always wanted to see something like this that just screamed 'fantasy world'.

「Yuna, do you think you could do something like that?」

Tilia carried Shuri's question over to me.

「Such a performance is a result of hard work and practice, so not really. I might be able to do the last part where they arc their swords and then place it in into the scabbard, though.」

When I had played the game, I really enjoyed using the sword and would practice drawing and sheathing it quite often. I also recalled quite a few embarrassing moments where I would do a victory dance with my sword after defeating a monster.
It was kind of similar to what the performers had done, so I might be able to pull it off here.

「I would love to see that.」

「Maybe if there is an opportunity for me to try.」

I used the typical Japanese way of refusing. It was comparable to the "I will go if I have time." excuse. Players had often invited me to join their party in the game, and I used to tell them I would go if I had the time but then never showed up. If they had later asked me about it, I could have excused myself with 「I said I would go if I had time, didn't I?」. It was a good, indirect way of refusing things.

「You can try it here, can't you?」

It looked like it didn't work this time, though.
To make it more obvious, I told her that I couldn't really brandish a weapon out here.
Tilia looked a bit disappointed, but I really shouldn't be doing anything to stand out, especially now that I was wearing a uniform. It would be a big problem if one of the teachers from the academy saw me do so. Tilia was with me to get me out of trouble, but just explaining ourselves would probably take a long time. Our time at the school festival was limited, so we had to treat it with care.

「So, what do you want to do next?」

We took a break at the area where the sword dance had been held and saw that they were going to perform again. It would be nice to watch it again, but Tilia had other ideas.

「It looks like everyone enjoyed the dance, so how about we go see something else that's just as impressive? We should make it if we leave now.」

Tilia took Noa and Misa's hands and rushed off.

「Tilisama!」

「Come on everyone, let's go.」

Tilia ignored Noa's cries and continued to make her way through the crowd, so we ran after her. Eventually, we reached a large, circular building.
I wasn't sure what purpose it served. It looked kind of like a gymnasium but larger, so maybe it was something similar to those churches from Europe?
I took a look inside and could see both students and other festival attendees.

「What's inside?」

「You'll know when you enter. I think you'll enjoy it quite a bit.」

Tilia still didn't want to tell us what we were going to see. Since there were other attendees inside, it should be fine, but I felt a bit uncomfortable nonetheless.
Tilia led us inside, and there was this large door to enter the main hall. The other attendees all headed through the door, but just as we were about to follow them, Tilia headed down a side corridor instead.

「This way.」

She beckoned and led us up a flight of stairs. There were many doors lined up at the top, and Tilia walked past them without a care, only stopping in front of one of the doors in the middle of the corridor. As I noticed it was a bit bigger than the other ones,Tilia touched what looked like a magic stone next to the door, and we heard something unlock. Then, the door opened.

「Alright then, let's head inside.」

Shuri followed her into the room first and trotted to what looked like a balcony. Fina hurried after her, while Noa and Misa carefully followed behind.
This place seemed to be like a theatre, and the balcony we were at should be one of the seating areas. It was in the middle of the top floor, so all the rooms that we passed by on this floor must be viewing rooms similar to this one, right?

「Tilia, what is this place?」

「This is the room reserved for the royal family, I guess? It's rarely used, though. We only come here when there are good shows.」

In other words, we were in an exclusive room of the royal family.
Looking over the balcony into the vast hall, we could see a stage on the other side. Below us were rows of chairs facing the stage, with many people already seated, waiting for the show to start.

「Is it okay for us to come in here with you?」

When I asked that, Noa and Misa also nodded in agreement to the question. Nobles, Noa and Misa, seemed to realize the importance of this room while the commoner, Shuri, only looked at the huge hall in awe.

「It's fine. I brought you in, and I wasn't told that I'm not allowed to use this room, either, so you don't have to worry about it.」

There was no way that would make us feel reassured being with her, though. Fina was already starting to look around nervously while Noa and Misa also looked troubled to be here and didn't know what to do. Only Shuri was still gazing at the hall in excitement.

Commoners really shouldn't be allowed to use the room the royal family used, right? It might be okay for the nobles, but these splendid looking chairs were for the king and queen, weren't they?
Even I could tell that the sofas in the room were high-class.

Yet, Tilia did not pay any mind and simply told us to sit wherever we liked.
None of us dared to sit down though. Well, Shuri was about to take a seat, but Fina had grabbed her hand and refused to let go.
I was sure that the king and the queen most likely wouldn't really mind, but none of us actually dared to sit on the same chairs the royalty used.
Thus, everybody had politely declined to sit, only accepting the offer of using the room.

「By the way, what's going to happen here?」

An audience had gathered, and there was a stage, so there should be some sort of a performance, right?

「It's almost time for the concert. It's a fantastic one, so I thought all of you should see it.」

Well, I most certainly looked forward to it, then.
We all looked over the balcony and could already see students carrying instruments as they stepped onto the stage.
Once all the students were lined up, they bowed, and the concert began.
The sound of their instruments was very loud and was reverberating throughout the building. Their feelings reached our hearts, and while I didn't really understand music myself, I could tell that they were excellent performers. Shuri and Fina, who had never experienced a concert before, were watching with their eyes wide open. Of course, Noa and Misa seemed to be enjoying it as well.
The students played song after song, and we kept listening without even thinking of leaving. I had never heard any of these songs before, but they were all very touching.
Once they were done with the last song, the students bowed, and exited the stage. Everybody, including me, sent them off with a big applause. Well, since I was wearing my Bear Hands, I could only make some light clapping noises, but it was the thought that counted, right?

「That was amazing. This was the first time I listened to a concert.」

「I'm glad you enjoyed it.」

Tilia was happy to hear Fina's praise. I was also glad that the girls got to listen to something good. Even though the concert was made of just students, they had still given us an amazing performance.

「I wonder if Onee-sama can also perform like that?」

Shia playing instruments, huh. It would most likely suit her, but did she learn it? Did noble families make their children play instruments in this world?

「Is the concert over now?」

I wanted to listen for a while longer, but the students didn't seem like they were coming back.

「The next performance is a theatre play. Do you want to watch it?」

A theatre play, huh? I did want to watch it. If it was like a musical, then I really looked forward to it.

「What do you girls think?」

「I want to watch it!」

「I don't mind watching another performance.」

Nobody said no, so we stayed to watch the play.
As preparations on the stage were taking place, I served everybody some drinks. Then suddenly, the door behind us opened.

「Now that's a surprise. Somebody is here already?」

「Father?」

「Oh, Tilia. What are you doing here?」

「Onee-chan?」

His Majesty and Florsama entered the room. Florsama ran up to Tilia and hugged her before I noticed Her Highness also coming through the door.

「Oh my, there are so many guests here.」

Her Highness looked at us and smiled.

「Father, why are you here today?」

「Flora said she wanted to go to the school festival, and while that's completely fine, we would stand out too much if we simply walked among the crowd. That's why we came here instead.」

He was right about standing too much. With a princess, a king, and a queen all walking around together, people would surely have made a fuss. They also had bodyguards with them, making them stand out even more.

「Fufu, what are you saying? You just wanted to ditch work and used Flora as an excuse to escape the castle, didn't you?」

The queen exposed the king's real intentions, making him visibly panic.

「It was true that Flora wanted to come, though.」

「Yes, but since we have escorts, it would be fine with just Flora and me. You could have stayed at the castle to work.」

The king tried to object but couldn't. Then, he looked at me for a moment but quickly turned his attention to Noa instead.

「You're Eleanora's daughter, Noire right?」

He didn't wait for response, and shifted his gaze to Fina and Shuri.

「These two are Finchan and Shuri-chan.」

The queen told him while Princess Flora went over to greet Shuri happily.

「You know them?」

「Shuri-chan is Finchan's little sister. I told you that they came to the castle recently, didn't I?」

「Ah, right, it was when Eleanora kept it a secret that Yuna came to the castle. She even brought food with her and you still kept me in the dark…」

「Yes, and it was very sweet and delicious.」

「It was sweet and fluffy.」

They were talking about the time we had all visited the castle to sightsee. It hadn't been my fault the king hadn't been notified; Eleanorsan had ordered the guard not to let him know.

「Fina, right? If you see Yuna, could you tell her to come to the castle and bring me some of this candy she gave to them?」

Emm, I was right here, so he didn't need to leave a message with Fina…
Fina seemed troubled and looked at me, but having me come forward would make the situation a bit awkward, wouldn't it? Tilia wore a slight smile on her face but kept quiet while Noa and Misa didn't want to be the ones to explain it, either.
With the lack of response, the king turned to Misa. He didn't seem to know who she was yet, so she introduced herself.

「The daughter of the Faren Gramm family? Interesting. How did you girls all get to know each other?」

「Father, you didn't introduce Yuna to me, so I got a friend to introduce her instead. That's how we all met.」

The king took another look around the room. He glanced at me for a short moment before rubbing his chin in thought.
The king had seen my face plenty of times, but maybe he was unable to connect the dots since I wasn't in my Bear Suit?

「By the way, have we met somewhere before?」

He asked me, looking up at me again.
Yes, we had met many times before…

「Dear, what are you saying? She's Yunchan.」

The queen said with a smile.

「「「「「…!」」」」」

Everybody in the room, including me, looked shocked by how simply she put it.

「Ah, no wonder. I knew you looked familiar to me somehow, Yuna.」

Was my face really so easily forgotten…?

「You must have seen my face at least once in all the times I came to the castle, no?」

「It-it's not like I forgot your face. You are always wearing your bear costume, so I just couldn't tell for a second.」

Basically, he had only remembered me by my outfit.

「Still, why are you wearing such a weird outfit?」

Did he just say the uniform looked weird on me? Just how could the uniform be considered weird? If both the Bear Outfit and uniform looked weird on me then what could I possibly wear to look normal?

「Shia… I mean, Eleanorsan's daughter Shia said that the Bear Outfit stands out too much, so she had me change into this.」

I explained to him why I was wearing such a weird outfit, but the king just kept staring at me.

「What?」

「Nothing, I just thought how you actually look like a regular girl when wearing a normal outfit.」

How rude of him to say that. Even wearing the Bear Outfit, I was still a normal girl on the inside.
I pouted for a bit before Princess Flora came up to me.

「You're Bear-san?」

I lowered my back and met eyes with her and flapped a Bear Puppet in front of her, hoping it would be enough to convince her, but she showed no real reaction.
Well, she did always call me Bear-san, so had she also only remembered me by my Bear Outfit?
I absentmindedly patted her head, and she suddenly smiled at me so cutely that I could almost see flowers bloom around her face.

「It's the same patting as Bear-san's.」

That was how she was able to recognize me?!

「Yunoneechan's way of head patting does feel really kind and soft to the touch.」

「Mhm, Yunneechan's head pats have a really fluffy feeling to them.」

「I get what you mean! Yunsan's pats have a lot of love in them!」

Everybody agreed with Princess Flora on the patting front…
I didn't really have any special way of petting them that could express kindness and love. I just petted their head when I wanted to thank them or when I just found them too cute to resist.

Author's Note:
The royal family has all gathered now. (Well, except for the oldest son. lol)
The queen knew it was Yuna right from the beginning. She is a carefree person, but has exceptional observation skills.
Princess Flora could only tell from Yuna's way of head patting, though. lol

Next chapter, things will carry on normally, maybe?

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Chapter end