Chapter 570:
The Bear Heads to the Bear House
APPARENTLY, SELEIYU HAD WANTED to capture that man to take him to her father, but the man had forced her hand.
“Let’s go check on Keith.”
Seleiyu acted composed, but because it was her first time ever having killed anyone, her mind was elsewhere.
“Seleiyu, your sword.”
I picked up her sword from the ground and offered it to her.
“Th-Thank you.”
Seleiyu’s hand trembled as she took it.
“Ha ha. How embarrassing. My hands are shaking.”
None of this was embarrassing. It was a way more human response than being happy about killing a person.
Seleiyu smiled as she took the sword, then she wiped it down and tried to sheathe it, but she was having trouble. I gave her as long as she needed.
Once she was done, Seleiyu exhaled.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, I am,” she said. “I’m sorry that I’m acting so pathetically.”
I hadn’t killed anyone before, even though I’d beat a lot of people within an inch of their lives, but I was used to blood from fighting monsters. Seleiyu probably didn’t have any experience in that regard either.
Plus, killing a monster was different from killing a person, even if that person was a true villain. Only the person who had done the killing truly knew what it felt like.
“What should we do about him?”
I looked over at the man, face down on the ground.
“We couldn’t take him in alive, but I would still like to take him to Father. We can put him on my horse later.”
That would be double the effort, then. That said, I wasn’t going to ask Kumayuru to carry a corpse on their back. Since he was lying face down, I didn’t know how bloody he was, but judging from Seleiyu’s sword, it probably was pretty bad.
In that case, maybe I could do something else...
“I’ll carry him to the horse,” I said.
“But...”
Seleiyu looked over at Kumayuru.
“No, no way. I’m not going to have Kumayuru carry him.”
I used earth magic to lift the ground he was on and created something that looked kind of like a casket on wheels. I even gave it a lid, so you didn’t have to see inside. It was pretty unpleasant to see a corpse, after all.
Finally, I made a mini bear golem that could pull it like a wagon.
“You truly are full of surprises, Yuna.”
We used a clear path so that the casket on wheels could safely travel down to the bear house where Keith was. Seleiyu walked ahead of me—probably because she was really eager to see her brother. I thought about riding on Kumayuru and looked over to find my bear had something in their mouth.
“Kumayuru, what have you got there?”
Kumayuru spat it out for me. It was the collar that could suppress mana—the one the man had wanted to put on Seleiyu. At some point, Kumayuru had picked it up. I didn’t want to toss it, so I stashed it in my bear storage.
I mounted Kumayuru and maneuvered the casket on wheels over to the bear house after Seleiyu. Seleiyu looked at all the fallen monsters as she walked, her eyes lingering on the wyrm.
“Yuna, how did you defeat that wyrm? I thought I saw you send fire magic down its throat. I didn’t think that could be enough to defeat it.”
“After I throw my bear fire into the wyrm’s mouth, the bears march around inside it.”
I created a bear flame to illustrate.
“Wouldn’t the wyrm’s internal bodily fluids smother the fire?”
“The bear fire burns stronger than regular flames. Since they can’t be smothered, they bake the wyrm from the inside out.”
My bear magic was stronger than normal magic. Even though I couldn’t do this stuff with regular magic, I could when it was bear shaped.
“That sounds ridiculous, but after seeing it with my own eyes, I can only accept it as the truth. You’re extraordinary in every way, Yuna. I feel silly for ever thinking I could defeat you. But I’m past that now.”
She said the last part very quietly, but I still heard it. She’d already avenged her mom and the man was dead. Seleiyu didn’t need to be strong anymore.
“I still can’t believe you would make even your flame magic bear shaped. You truly love bears, Yuna.”
As she said that, I noticed that she had the prettiest smile.
“Cwoon.”
Before I could reply, Kumayuru crooned happily in response.
“I was shocked when you started to change into your bear clothes. Is there a reason why you did so?”
I explained it away using my usual spiel.
“I’ve got the bear’s blessing, so my magic gets stronger when I dress as a bear.”
“You’ve been blessed by bears? Is there really such a thing?”
Well, no. But I couldn’t say that, so I committed. By now, I knew the script front-to-back.
“Kumayuru and Kumakyu being my summons is proof of that. They love me, don’t they?”
“I suppose they do.”
Seleiyu looked over at Kumayuru, who I had been riding.
“Is that why you have gloves with bear faces?”
“Yeah, basically. It’s much easier to use than a wand to gather magic.”
Okay, that was an outright lie. I couldn’t even use magic with a wand.
“So in exchange for power, you need to dress as a bear...”
Seleiyu stared at me seeming conflicted.
“Didn’t you say you don’t need to be strong anymore?” I said.
“You heard that?” She seemed embarrassed. “It’s true. I no longer have a reason to become stronger, but I do admire the power you have. You need power like that in order to protect the people important to you.”
The downside was I had to look like a bear while doing it. My power came from being dressed in bear stuff.
“You’re a noble, so I don’t think you need to be powerful on your own. You’re the person who’s supposed to give orders to strong people.”
“I suppose that’s true, but...”
“It’s the good thing about having authority.”
“My nobility not something I earned for myself.”
“No one can choose the circumstances of their birth. I think since you were born as a noble, it falls to you to use that power justly.”
Some people were arrogant just because they’d been born into the nobility, and I didn’t want Seleiyu to become someone like that.
“Of course. That’s one thing I can do.”
Seleiyu looked over the dead monsters again. They were scattered all over the place after I’d killed them. It was kind of too late, but I still felt pretty bad for them since they were just being controlled by that guy. That said, they’d still attacked me after being released, so I still had to slay them.
I couldn’t just leave them here. I’d need to clean them up later. Most of them had escaped, but I’d still taken down a ton of monsters.
“It looks like there are fewer monsters now compared to the start?”
“They all ran when the wyverns and wyrm came out. Some of the monsters might try to flee close to town or the roads, so you should call the adventurers back in and patrol the surrounding area.”
I didn’t know where the monsters had gone, but honestly, that wasn’t my job anyway.
“All right. I’ll inform Father once I return home.”
“Now we know why the monsters kept disappearing around this time, so they’ll probably start showing up again next year. You should be careful of that too.”
“I will have to inform Father of a great many things, then.”
Once we got to the bear house, Kumakyu returned to us. They had been guarding the house this whole time.
“Thank you, Kumakyu.”
“Cwoon.”
I patted Kumakyu’s head. Then Kumayuru and Kumakyu nuzzled each other to make sure they were both unharmed.
“They’re so close.”
“Well, even though they get along, if I only use one of them, the other one sulks. It’s a tough balance.”
“Ha ha. That just shows how much they care for you as their owner.”
It’s true, I did kind of like it.
“So, Yuna, this bear is really a house, isn’t it?”
“That’s right. I use it whenever I travel. As long as I’m in here, wolves and goblins and other low-level monsters can’t get me, so it’s secure.”
Wyverns had never attacked it to be fair, so I didn’t know if it could withstand that kind of assault.
“You’re such a curious girl, Yuna.”
I asked my bears to stand watch as we headed into the house. Seleiyu looked around in wonder behind me. Then she saw Keith on the sofa and ran over.
“Keith!”
“He’s fine. He’s just sleeping.”
“I’m so glad.”
“I’m not sure if it’s medication or an enchantment, but we should probably let him sleep whatever it is off.”
I stopped Seleiyu from waking him. If he woke up now, I’d have to explain the bear house to him too. And also Kumakyu and Kumayuru. And the monsters. And the wyrm carcass outside. That was a lot of work I didn’t want, so I hoped that Keith wouldn’t wake up for a while.
“Of course. We don’t need to wake him now. If we return him home like this, he won’t even know he was kidnapped. Fears from childhood are difficult to shake. It would be better not to tell him what he doesn’t need to know.”
Since Seleiyu had seen her mom killed right before her eyes, I trusted her judgment here. I couldn’t even imagine what that could have been like. If Fina or Noa were killed in front of me, I’m sure it would have stayed with me forever.
If he didn’t know he had been kidnapped, it was better to not tell him.