Chapter 252: 252
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I was at home playing with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear when I heard someone knocking at my door .
「Yunsan, sorry to bother you when you’re busy . 」
I opened the door to see Lalsan bowing at me .
「It’s fine . What brings you here today? If you’re looking for Noa, she’s not here . 」
Noa came over to play occasionally, and when she did, Lalsan would come to pick her up . However, Noa didn’t come by today .
「No, I’m not here for Noire-sama today . It’s about the tea leaves you gave Cliff-sama the other day . 」
Lalsan looked a bit hesitant to continue .
「Ah, right, the tea leaves . Could it be that he got sick from it?」
I took a guess based on how she was acting, but I really hoped that wasn’t the case .
「No, he didn’t get sick . Actually, Cliff-sama was a bit doubtful when he first tried the tea, but now he is enjoying it quite a lot . 」
Oh, I was wrong . He actually liked them .
What was she fidgeting about, then?
「If the tea tasted good, you must have brewed it well . 」
「Thank you for your compliment, but the tea only tastes delicious because the tea leaves you brought are of such high quality . 」
「Well, I’m glad he likes it . How is he doing, though? The tea is supposed to help relieve fatigue, but I’m not sure about how well it works . 」
I was eager to know how Cliff’s body had reacted to drinking the tea .
「After drinking it, Cliff-sama’s condition improved drastically . Now he has a cup three times a day and can carry on until the night without losing energy . 」
「Is that so?」
「Yes . Before, he had been waking up feeling exhausted, but now, for the last couple of days, he feels rested when waking up, and can do his work properly without feeling sleepy . 」
Based on what I was hearing, it seemed to have effects similar to an energy drink . Still, since she didn’t say he had trouble going to sleep after drinking it, maybe it was a bit different?
I remembered how drinking energy drinks was like in my world; it definitely kept people awake at night . I could easily imagine a mangaka drinking some to fight off sleepiness so that they could stay up all night, without having to sleep .
On the other hand, Cliff was able to go to bed without a problem, even after three cups a day .
「So then, Cliff-sama’s assistant, Rondo-san, who was also quite tired lately, tried some, and liked it as well . Hence, both of them wanted to thank you for the tea . 」
「I’m glad the tea has helped them . 」
This proved that the tea leaves from the Sacred Tree were working as intended .
Since I was wearing the White Bear Suit at night, drinking it had no effect on me . I simply enjoyed it for its taste .
「So, about the tea leaves that you gave to Cliff-sama… we ran out . I came to ask if you could possibly give us some more . Of course, Cliff-sama will pay you accordingly . 」
So, she came to get more tea leaves . That was why she was all fidgety, not knowing how to ask me .
I still had some left, so I didn’t mind giving them some more . Weren’t they going through it too quickly, though?
I was pretty sure it was bad to consume energy drinks at such a rate . Well, from what the elves told me, they seemed to drink it pretty often, but even so, we didn’t know if it would cause harm from overconsumption . Not to mention that Cliff and the elves were of different races, so it could affect them differently . Also, I hadn’t asked the elves how many times a day they drank it, so I couldn’t compare .
What should I do?
「I don’t mind giving you more, but can you warn them to not drink too much?」
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「Is it bad for the body?」
Lalsan immediately looked concerned, so I quickly shook my head .
「No, I think it should be fine . 」
I didn’t believe there were actually any side effects, but I wasn’t a scientist nor did I know the complete properties the tea leaves had .
Even when I used the Bear’s Eyes of Observation, it only stated that it “restores magical power” and “removes fatigue” . It didn’t mention anything else, so based on that information, there should be nothing dangerous, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced . For example, eating too much sugar or salt could be harmful to the body . It was possible that the skill didn’t convey such details properly .
If the same applied to the tea, then it was important to balance its intake . A balanced, healthy diet was important after all, no matter whether if it came to food or drinks .
「It’s just that if Cliff wants to get rid of his fatigue, then he should rest properly instead of relying on the tea . 」
There might be no side effects, but if I were to compare it to an energy drink then he shouldn’t be drinking three cups a day .
If not warned, it was possible he might decide to have even more than that .
「Yes, of course . I’ve also been telling Cliff-sama to rest properly . 」
「If you can make him promise to only have one cup a day then I’ll give him more . 」
「Okay, I can promise you that . I’ll tell Cliff-sama and only serve him one cup a day even if he asks for more . 」
Since Lalsan promised me she wouldn’t let him have too much, I gave her the same amount as last time .
「I know I keep saying this, but only a little at a time . 」
「Yes, I understand . I will make sure that he doesn’t drink too much . 」
Lalsan bowed and returned to Cliff’s mansion .
Cliff had proven the effects of the tea leaves for me, but now I was afraid that he was drinking too much . I should probably not serve this at the shop . If people found out about its properties, things might get out of hand .
Once Lalsan was out of sight, I returned to playing around with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear . Fina and Shuri joined in after a while, and eventually Noa came as well .
A few more days went by, and I built a few more cotton candy machines as I wanted to make some cotton candy for the children at the orphanage .
「Yunoneechan, this cloud tastes really good . 」
「It’s so fluffy . 」
「When it melts, it gets all sticky, though . 」
「It melts in my mouth . 」
「It’s so sweet and tasty . 」
Seeing the children happily snack on them, I felt confident that it would work out well at the school festival .
The days continued to pass by peacefully .
One day, I was spending my time taking a nap on Swaying Bear’s stomach, but then Swaying Bear tried to wake me up all of the sudden .
「Let me sleep just a little bit longer…」
I mumbled and hugged Swaying Bear’s arm tightly, treating it like a body pillow .
Yet, Swaying Bear continued nudging me, and eventually even used its paws to make me stand up .
「What?!」
I asked Swaying Bear why it was interrupting my nap before noticing someone was calling for me from outside .
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「Whoooo is it?」
I let out a small yawn and climbed off Swaying Bear’s stomach . I really wanted to nap for a while longer .
Rubbing my eyes, I walked over to the entrance to see who was bothering me and was met by Riansan from the Commerce Guild .
「Yunsan, your order is complete . I brought it here for you . 」
「Thank you, Riansaaawn . 」
I yawned again .
「Oh no, did I wake you up from your sleep?」
「Don’t worry about it . I had nothing to do, so I took a nap . 」
I had been bored today, so I summoned Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, played around for a while, and then took a nap .
「Okay, I won’t fret over it then . 」
「Anyway, you were saying that the playing cards are done?」
「Yes . Here they are . 」
She said as she pulled out a small wooden box from her item bag . Taking the box out of her hands, I immediately opened the lid to have a look .
Inside was a set of cards that had the bear drawings printed on their back sides properly . I also flipped some cards over to check if the other side was okay as well .
They were very well made .
「How is it?」
「They’re great . Thank you, it turned out better than I expected . 」
「I’m happy to hear that . 」
「Riansan, really, thank you . 」
I thanked her again .
「This is just our job, no need to thank us . 」
Since it would be a hassle for her to take all the card sets out at once right here in front of the door, I invited Riansan inside .
「Still, was it really okay for you to deliver it yourself? What about your job?」
The Commerce Guild should still be very busy, right?
I was sure they would send somebody else to bring the cards, so I was surprised when Riansan came to deliver them herself .
「It’s fine . It’s my day off, after all . 」
「You came to deliver the cards even though it’s your day off?」
「Well, it’s not something I could ask other people to do for me . 」
I felt like I caused her a lot of trouble…
「Still, I get to come inside the rumored Yunsan’s house . That’s enough of a reward for me . 」
「Rumored…」
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「Everybody is very interested in what your Bear-san shaped house looks like from the inside . 」
「It’s just a regular house as you can see . 」
I brought her to the guest room and took out some drinks from the fridge .
She delivered the cards despite it being her day off, so I felt I had to at least serve her some drinks as thanks .
Once Riansan sat down, she started to bring out the remaining card sets I had ordered . I sat down on a chair opposite of hers, and watched her as she neatly stacked all the sets on the table . There were quite a lot of them, so it should be the hundred I had ordered .
「How much do they cost?」
「Here’s your statement . 」
She said and took out a piece of paper with “Printing Fee” written on it .
「Wait, what about the cost of the boxes?」
I had completely forgotten about the cases and hadn’t ordered them . They must have made them since the cards would scatter about otherwise . I had to thank Riansan for this .
「Those are complimentary and free of charge . 」
「I can’t do that, or I’ll feel bad . I’ll pay for them properly . 」
「Then, in exchange, can you tell me how you can play with these cards?」
「How to play?」
「Yes, everybody working at the Commerce Guild is also curious . Of course, I won’t reveal it to anybody else . 」
Well, since I had mentioned they were used to play games, it made sense for people to get curious .
If I heard of a new card game, I would also want to know how it was played .
「Sure, I don’t mind showing you . Do you want to play now?」
「Would that be alright?」
「Yeah, I have nothing to do today, anyway . 」
I really didn’t have anything to do, to the point where I had even tried using Swaying Bear as a body pillow to sleep on .
「I will be in your care, then . 」
I took out a deck of cards from one of its wooden containers and put away the other sets into my Bear Box .
Although I used to play a lot of card games on the internet, the last time I played with a real set of cards was in elementary school .
One by one, I laid out the cards around the table .
「Take a look at these cards . I think you should already know, but there are 54 cards . There are four elemental suits and two special cards . 」
Drawn on most of the cards on the table was one of the following symbols: fire, water, wind, and earth . Only the two joker cards were free of those symbols .
「There are many ways to play using these, but I’ll teach you one of the simplest versions first . 」
I gathered the cards together back up and shuffled them . Then, I placed each card down on its own again but this time with their backs facing up .
I was first going to show Riansan the game called Memory .
「This game is a test of your memorization . You flip any two cards . If the cards have the same number, you earn a point . The person with the most points at the end is the winner . 」
「I see, so you must remember the numbers of the cards that your opponent flipped too . 」
「Oh, and if you guess a pair correctly, you can continue flipping until you miss . 」
We played against each other for a while . It turned out Riansan’s memory was quite good, so we had a fun round without me having the upper hand .
「This is rather difficult . It will be good for the children to improve their memories, though . 」
Since she had gotten the hang of Memory so easily, I decided to also teach her how to play Sevens .
It was a game good for formulating strategies .
「In this case, having a 『1』or『13』would be disadvantageous, wouldn’t it?」
「Well, that depends on your luck, too . Still, how the game turns out depends on how you play your cards . 」
Next, I taught her Old Maid . This game was more fun with more people, just like Sevens, so I made sure to explain that to her .
「I see, so the last one who still has cards loses . 」
「The outcome of the game depends on how well you can hide the joker when you have it . 」
A good poker face was needed to dominate in Old Maid .
Well, unlike poker, there wasn’t much at stake here, but it was still fun to play the game . Also, in my case, I could just pull my Bear Hood down, so I didn’t need a poker face .
For the last game, I showed her how to play Grand Millionaire (also known as Extremely Poor) .
(TL note: Wikipedia Link)
「This is a bit difficult . 」
「Well, cards are being placed down left and right, after all . 」
I ended up explaining more games to her than I had planned to .
I had left out card games like poker and blackjack which had annoying rules where it was troublesome to even remember how scoring worked .
「Yunsan, are there more?」
「There are, but the rules get more complicated . 」
「I see . I didn’t know you could play so many different games with a single deck of cards . It’s also good you can play these with more than just two people . 」
Riansan began staring at the cards, deep in thought .
「If we sell this, we would have to include an instruction sheet for the games you can play with it . 」
If I were to sell these, a rule book would indeed need to be included . If people didn’t know how to play, nobody would want to buy it .
「Please let me know if you ever have plans to sell these . The Commerce Guild will gladly assist you in the process . 」
「Please help me when the time comes, then . 」
I didn’t know how I should go about doing it anyway, so having their help would be much appreciated .
「Thank you very much for today . 」
「Likewise, thank you for bringing the cards and spending time with me . 」
After chatting for a while longer, Riansan left my house close to sunset .
Author’s Notes:
They’ll depart in the next chapter .
Maybe…