Author's note
There is a change from Chapter 111; the said numbers of helpers who would come with Anzu to help her had been eight, but I now changed it to six.
After I returned from the capital, I took it easy for a few days.
Today, I was simply lazing around on my bed as there was nothing to do, or rather, I didn't want to do anything.
This world was quite enjoyable, but there weren't many fun things to do.
Maybe something like Othello, Shogi, Chess, Sugoroku, Cards, or some other games.
Well, when you didn't eat your breakfast, your stomach would become empty even if you were only idling around on bed. I decided to go to『Bear-san's Relaxing Shop』.
(TL note: Shogi is Japanese version of chess. There are two sorts of Sugoroku: Ban-sugoroku is similar to backgammon, and E-sugoroku is similar to Snakes and Ladder. Google it if you want know more.)
「You're going out?」
Cliff, who was by himself, asked. In this world, the nobles frequently went out on their own, huh. Noa was often at my shop by herself, even the king came to my house by himself… Well, in his case, it was probably an exception, though…
The guards checked for criminals at the gates, and I also saw patrols walk by from time to time. With that, the town was probably quite safe.
Noa was a noble lady, too, but she didn't have a handsome guard, huh.
This was the difference between reality and fantasy, huh.
If Noa was born in a fantasy world, would she be surrounded by handsome men?
「I'm feeling hungry and am on my way to the shop. What about you, Cliff?」
「I was on my way to your house.」
「My house?」
「I had something to discuss with you. Hmm, I'm hungry too, so do you mind if I come with you?」
「I don't mind.」
I didn't really have a reason to refuse, so I accepted his proposal. We departed from the Bear House and made the short trip to the『Bear-san Relaxing Shop』.
This must have been thanks to the children, who were wearing their Bear Clothes, huh.
After we entered the shop, Cliff and I went to the counter where a girl in Bear Clothes was taking orders.
After thinking about it for a while, I decided to take Morin-san's new bread, fried potatoes, and juice.
I normally paid for my food when I came here, but Cliff took out enough to pay for the both of us.
「Is it okay?」
「Don't worry about it.」
We got our orders and found ourselves open seats.
「So, what did you want from me?」
I asked Cliff and started to eat one of my fried potatoes.
「It's not like I want something from you. I just came to tell you that the tunnel will be ready in a few days.」
「It will finally be finished, huh.」
I replied while munching on Morin-san's new bread.
The Feudal Lord came to report this to me in person, huh.
「Yeah, it took time to make it so that carriages could use it. We needed to light up the tunnel, arrange a place for horses to take a break, amongst some other things.」
Cliff explained while eating his fried potatoes.
It wasn't something a complete amateur like me could talk about. For me, there was no problem as long as I could get my hands on seafood easily.
「Then, it's now possible to go to Mireera through it, right?」
「Well, we have already been using it for bringing wheat and other things we needed, but from now on, everyone will be able to use it. Also, you will now be given a part of the tax through your guild card as stated by our contract. Talk to Mylene if you want the details.」
A while back, Mylene-san and Cliff came to my house with a contract.
It was a pain, so I didn't really read it thoroughly, but I remembered something about being given a part of the tax, and the tunnel being free to use for me as well as anybody accompanying me.
「The inns are finished, too?」
「I have been told that two of them had been finished. We will have to wait and see if it will be enough. I'm sure that Mireera's mayor and Commerce Guild will do something about it if it won't. I told them to contact us if they didn't have enough workers, so it should be fine.」
He was right, we wouldn't know what would happen before the tunnel really opened.
People would go there to trade, just to see the sea, to work, or even to play. We didn't really know how many people would be coming and going.
Hmm, since the tunnel was about to be finished, that meant that Anzu would be coming soon, right?
Even though I had asked Terumi-san to take care of Anzu, they didn't know each other yet.
It was a good thing I was here at the moment.
「But I must say, the food here is really delicious.」
Cliff praised the food.
Well, I already gave it to the King even though I didn't tell him it was from the shop, of course.
Ah, this new bread was delicious, too. I always tasted the new sorts of bread before we even started selling them, and all of them were delicious.
I believed this to be the best bakery of the kingdom.
I should probably talk to her about her wage soon, so that it wouldn't happen.
「Well then, I have some unfinished work to do, so I'm going back. If you have anything you want to know, please come to my mansion.」
Cliff ordered some bread before leaving; was it for Noa?
A few days later, the tunnel's completion was officially announced.
Well, various information about the tunnel had already been leaked, like when the trees were cut down and when the road was made, and how the monster extermination was going.
Merchants who went over in advance shared all sorts of information.
So, since the tunnel had already been opened, people from Mireera should start arriving today. Anzu didn't tell me when exactly she would be coming, so I went to the gate to see how it was going.
As I got closer, I started hearing Mireera's dialect and saw a lot of carriages entering through the gate, one after the other.
From one of the carriages, a man, who looked to be a merchant, was asking a guard some questions.
Where was the Commerce Guild?
The guard politely answered all of his questions.
Many others, who had already been given permission to enter the town, were leaving their carriages. Climbing down from one of them, was a girl who didn't seem to have inherited any of Deiga-san's genes, Anzu.
She looked around her like some sort of a country bumpkin, so I decided to sneak up on her.
The Bear Shoes made no noise; there was no way she would hear me approaching.
「Yuna-san!」
Yet, she easily found me.
Well, in the first place, I didn't think I could have snuck up on someone while wearing a Bear Costume, though…
「Hi, Anzu.」
「You came here to welcome me?」
「More or less. I knew that some people from Mireera would be arriving today, so I came to check, but I didn't really think you would come already.」
「You see, the Commerce Guild selected us to come first.」
「Really?」
「Yes, but in return, they asked us to work hard at Yuna-san's place. We will do our best, so please take care of us.」
Anzu happily said and smiled.
You would be able to find a husband in no time.
He asked me to find her a husband, but she might be able to find one herself, now that Deiga-san wasn't around anymore.
「This is a really big town, though. I might get lost here.」
She was right; it was big compared to Mireera, and there were people everywhere.
Oh, I remembered seeing them before; they should be the women who were captured by bandits. One of them grabbed Anzu's shirt.
Japanese use the same character for town and city. When Mireera was first introduced we thought it was a city with all the talk about independence, and only later realized it was actually smaller than Crimonia. We will continue to refer to it as a city, and Crimonia as a town.
「Anzu-chan, didn't you forget about us?」
「Yeah, won't you introduce us to Bear-chan?」
The other women nodded when she said that.
「Ah, my bad. Yuna-san, these women here will help me at the shop.」
There were six of them, and they were all around twenty, twenty-five years old; that was, if they weren't like Eleanora-san, who looked younger than she actually was, of course.
「Can we call you Yuna-chan? Hmm, you will be taking care of us, so wouldn't Yuna-san be better?」
「You can call me whatever you want.」
Still, they should refrain from Bear-chan they had used before.
I could deal with Bear Missy, but, I didn't really know why, I rejected Bear-chan with all my heart. Something told me that it was the only thing I shouldn't let people call me.
「I will call you Yuna-chan, then. Well, we came here to work for you, but is it really okay? Won't we cause you trouble?」
「Our job is preparing fish and cooking, right?」
Two women, who seemed the oldest of the group, asked.
「That will be your main job. There will also be some other jobs, though.」
「We will be working at the orphanage if I'm not mistaken?」
「Yes. There are about fifty children and only two people looking after them, so I was thinking of having you help them.」
「There are so many orphans?」
「Well, we will talk about this later. You're all tired from the trip, right? I will take you to a place where you can rest, okay?」
「Yuna-san, before that, could you take us to a cheap inn?」
「Inn?」
「If we don't find one soon, other people will be taking it, after all. We were thinking about sleeping at an inn today and finding a place for all of us to live tomorrow.」
「We could also sleep at the restaurant, but are there any vacant rooms inside? If there are, we would like you to lend them to us cheaply if possible.」
A woman behind Anzu asked.
「There are some rooms, but never mind that. I already prepared a place for all of you to stay, so you don't need to look for one yourself.」
「Really? We are happy about that, but if it's too expensive, we won't be able to pay for it.」
「That's okay. It's free, after all.」
「Free?」
「You could call it an employee dormitory? For those who work at my place, I prepare all they need to live comfortably.」
When I said that, the women were all at a loss for words.
「Shall we go, then? You're all tired, right? Also, if we continue to talk here, we will bother the people who want to enter the town.」
They nodded and agreed to follow me.
Author’s note:
Anzu finally came!