Hey, wait, isn’t it pretty amazing that there’s still a bunch of room in my item storage? I mean, I stored at least 10 boulders in there. Well, not that I expect to attack anything, though.
Last evening, Mom asked if I could put the whole cupboard in there since it was getting in the way of her cleaning. I timidly did so, only to find that there was still room to spare.
...There’s no way all this would fit in the item bag the school had. Now that I think about it, just how is an item bag made from a dimension stone, anyway? Well, in my case it got embedded in a talking crown, so it’s not like that’s ever going to matter for me...
At any rate, it’s really handy to be able to store that much stuff when you’re in the process of moving. As an aside, I still hadn’t tested the difference in time inside and outside of item storage. I mean, it’d take some serious courage to put a boxed lunch in there and investigate as it rots. But it should be fine if I eat it quick, right?
My preparations for heading to Donius were steadily moving along. I’d thrown towels and other daily necessities and the like into my gear, and more or less had a grasp on my skill’s quirks. There may have been a limit to the number of big gears I could summon, but I could make quite a few small ones. The faster they rotated, the less quickly I could move them. And also, I could fix them in place.
It didn’t really stand out when compared to Fire and Wind magic and the like, but it seemed like it could do a lot of stuff depending on how creative you got. I could put my hair up in twintails in an instant, and use it to scramble eggs. This morning, I had one of my gears spin in the bottom of a large cup and threw in some vegetables to make a smoothie. It was pretty tasty, too...
Seriously, what the heck am I doing?
Things were strangely noisy when I returned to Cardiff after my secret training at the mine.
A number of merchants and residents had gathered and were talking with gatekeepers, who were clad in leather armor. I spotted a gatekeeper who frequented our restaurant.
“What’s going on, old-timer?”
“Where were you, Annie?!”
“Huh? Um, I was just out at the old mine for a bit...”
“I guess that place should still be fine... But for the time being, you shouldn’t go out of town.”
“Did something happen?”
“The merchants said that they saw a bergbear on their way here.”
“A b-b-b-bergbear?!”
Wolves and goblins were spotted deep in the woods around here now and again, but a bergbear was FAR more dangerous than them. The monster known as a bergbear was a type of bear with cross marks all over its stomach. If a human took a hit from its claws, they’d find themselves on a one-way journey to the afterlife in no time at all.
“Those merchants weren’t attacked. Still, they said there was a big one in the forest off the side of the highway about 400 mel from here. They kicked their horses up as fast as they could go and fled in a panic...”
“Oh, man... that’s right nearby, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, it’s been a real uproar around here for a while now. We’re going to be closing the gate earlier than usual today. And there’s no going outside tonight, no matter what.”
“G-got it.”
This was no joke. As the single daughter of a restaurant, unable to even use proper magic, there was no way I could beat a bear. Fortunately, though, the joined log wall surrounding Cardiff was pretty dang impressive for such a small town. As long as the gate was closed, we’d definitely be safe at night. Like it said in my school textbook, monsters hid in the forest during the day and would only very rarely approach a town. It was nighttime that was scary. When it grew dark they’d become active and leave the forest, coming right up to the edge of town. There were a ton of scars left on the walls of Cardiff by monsters, some of them still quite fresh.
“I seriously don’t want to croak before I even accomplish anything...”
The gatekeepers mused over whether to take the intermediary guild’s horse over to Donius to put in an extermination request. Looks like my special training for tomorrow will have to be postponed...
I left the gate behind me and headed into town.
It seemed like everyone had already heard about the bergbear, since they were all talking about it. I don’t think I’d heard the town this noisy for at least four years, back during the incident with the forest wolves.
“Being under lockdown for more than a few days may mean the restaurant’s shipments can’t come in...”
I guess my thoughts were pretty laid-back compared to the people around me...
“There’s no way you could ever defeat a bergbear, you dummy!”
“Shut up! You never know until you try!”
“Hey, come on, cut it out, alright?”
I knew the voices of the kids behind the nearby house all too well. I sighed, walking toward the source of the commotion.