Chapter 234 – Bear-san Returns in Triumph

Author’s Note:

I posted this chapter a bit earlier than normal. (Ele note: Not me. I’m posting this late.)

As I watched the three of them work, my eye caught Sanya-san picking up the fallen leaves.

There were lots and lots of leaves blown all around us. Did the leaves of the Sacred Tree have any special value, perhaps?

「Sanya-san, can these leaves be used for anything?」

I asked her, picking up a leaf of my own with Bear-san’s Puppet mouth.

「When made into tea and drunk, they can recover a small portion of magical power and even relieve a little fatigue.」

Oh, it could restore both, even though it was only a small amount. Its effects were similar to that of the White Bear Suit, except inferior?

「And, what does it taste like?」

「Normal, I guess?」

It was hard to judge from that answer… If it was good then I wanted some, but if it was bad I didn’t. It should normally be one or the other.

Then again, if it tasted good and could recover both magical power and fatigue, it would probably become very popular, which make it troublesome.

Still, as long as it didn’t taste too bad, it might make a hit if I marketed it as a tea that relieved fatigue through my stores, simplifying things.

「Since it’s from the Sacred Tree, I thought that it would surely make some high quality tea.」

「Well, everybody has different tastes. Why don’t you try some when we get back to the village?」

「Would that be okay?」

「It’s fine if it’s you, Yuna-chan. I was thinking about making some anyway.」

Sanya-san said and returned to picking up the fallen leaves.

What she said made complete sense.

The elves didn’t do much trading and kept the Sacred Tree a secret, so they most likely just saved it for themselves, right?

Well, I might still be able to make a deal after I tasted it.

After chatting with Sanya-san for a while longer, Mumuroot-san and Arthur-san came over.

The two of them had both climbed the tree and dealt away with the leftover Parasitic Tree’s vines.

The vines and other materials from the Parasitic Tree had all been gathered in one spot.

「Labilata is waiting for us outside. We should go meet up with him and think about what to do with all this afterwards.」

「Is the Parasitic Tree completely dealt with?」

「It should be fine for now, but we should still come in to examine it again later.」

Well, the tree was ma.s.sive, so it made sense for it to be difficult to thoroughly check every part of it. We also still didn’t know how the Parasitic Tree’s seed had managed to find its way here, and if we didn’t figure that out, it could come back to haunt us.

At that time, I most likely wouldn’t be here to partic.i.p.ate in its subjugation, so I hoped that their investigations would bear fruit.

Labilata rushed to us the moment we left the mountain. Given that he could only wait, he was quite concerned. Not to mention that we took our time, examining the tree. Maybe we should have let him know about what had happened before doing so… The other three most likely thought that there was no time for that, so it couldn’t be helped, especially with me completely forgetting about him.

Now that we were back outside, Mumuroot-san, Arthur-san and Sanya-san gave him a simple explanation regarding the status of the Sacred Tree. Once my deeds were mentioned, Labilata turned to me and expressed his thanks, which I humbly accepted.

After Lablilata was all up to date, Mumuroot-san, Arthur-san, and Sanya-san all confirmed that they could still enter the barrier by pouring their magical power into the stone monuments, which began shining, and letting them pa.s.s.

Then, they had Labilata try to go through, but he was blocked by an invisible wall, confirming that the barrier still blocked out outsiders.

「Um, Yuna-chan. Can you try going through? I just want to make sure.」

While Sanya-san confirmed that Labilata could indeed not enter, she wanted to see if I still could.

Without touching the stone monuments, I walked straight towards the cave entrance, putting my hands in front of me as I approached the barrier. Yet, no wall blocked me, and I easily reached the entrance.

「Why does it do that…?」

「Perhaps the young lady is a distant relative of the elves?」

There was no way the blood of elves would be flowing through me as I was somebody from a different world. I shook my head to Mumuroot-san’s guessing.

「Even If Yuna-chan has elvish blood, that doesn’t mean she should be able to enter.」

Sanya-san immediately refuted Mumuroot-san’s suggestion.

The reason I could enter was most likely due to this cheat-like outfit I had obtained from G.o.d.

There was no way I could simply tell them that, though.

「Yes, that makes sense. I can’t think of any other reason, though. Well, at least we know that the young lady has no ill will against the Sacred Tree, so there should be no problem.」

Done with our talk, Mumuroot-san, Sanya-san, and I went back to the village first, while Labilata and Arthur-san stayed behind to patrol the area around the barrier.

Getting back to the village, we saw that the air was quite peaceful.

The children were playing outside, and we could hear their laughter coming from all directions.

Well, almost all of them didn’t even know that the Sacred Tree was in danger, nor how we(I) were going to subjugate a Parasitic Tree in order to protect it.

Also, only a small portion of adult elves knew about the Parasitic Tree; most only knew about the barrier weakening.

Mumuroot and the others would be able to decide whether or not to tell the others. I had no problem with that, of course, so long as he kept his promise to me.

I had asked him not to mention anything about me defeating the Parasitic Tree if he was ever planning on revealing the parasite.

I didn’t want to be seen as a hero, nor did I want the village to become chaotic from that information.

As long as the children that played with Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear were smiling, I was more than happy.

Anyway, if they would reveal the Parasitic Tree, Mumuroot-san, Arthur-san, and Sanya-san were to take the credit of defeating it.

Seeing the village being completely peaceful, I decided to rest at my Bear House and parted ways with Mumuroot-san and Sanya-san. The two of them, however, didn’t plan to take it easy just yet. First, they wanted to check if Ruimin could enter the barrier as well, immediately dragging her to the Sacred Tree.

As for me, I dove straight into bed the moment I got back to the Bear House.

Luckily, since I was still wearing the White Bear Outfit, I didn’t have to change, but as there was still a chance that somebody might come and visit, I had Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear be on guard in their cub forms next to me.

The bed felt so comfy that I fell asleep immediately.

I woke up only in the morning of the next day and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

I slept too much, making it even harder for me to wake up.

At least, other than my heavy head, my body was perfectly fine.

Judging by the fact that the Bears hadn’t woken me up, n.o.body had come around last night.

Or wait, was that their way of them caring for me?

After breakfast, I headed towards the village and ran into Labilata along the way. He was on his way to me, with a message for me from Mumuroot-san saying that he wanted to see me.

The timing was perfect, so was Labilata maybe actually waiting for me?

Either way, I wondered what this was all about. If I had to guess, I would say the happenings of yesterday.

Well, I wanted to talk to Mumuroot-san about it as well, so there wasn’t really a problem.

Once we reached Mumuroot-san’s house, we like usually called out「We’re coming in!」 and headed straight inside without waiting for a reply.

I had already become used to this, n.o.body responding to our voices and just barging in.

We went to the standard room where Mumuroot-san was already waiting for us, with Sanya-san by his side. Other than them, there was n.o.body else in the room.

「I’ve been waiting for you. Please take a seat.」

I obliged and sat down on my knees.

Mumuroot-san then began to explain what had happened yesterday after I had left.

I was worried whether or not he should be explaining things to an outsider like me, but they said that it shouldn’t be a problem, especially since I had helped save the village and was able to pa.s.s through the Sacred Tree’s barrier.

Also, the contents of our conversation were not to be that important. First, I was told the barrier protecting the village itself was not letting monsters through anymore. I was glad to hear that the barrier was working as intended again.

Additionally, I was told that the barrier had even expanded farther than before. Could me giving my magic power to the Sacred Tree have anything to do with that?

Finally, I was told that Ruimin was able to activate a stone monument and pa.s.s through the barrier to the Sacred Tree, which meant that they didn’t need to have Sanya-san return to the village every time they wanted to check it out.

「Anyway, the barrier seemed to be be functioning normally again. This is all thanks to you, young lady, so let me express my grat.i.tude.」

Mumuroot-san said and bowed deeply to me.

「Well, normal other than the fact that Yuna-chan can also enter through the barrier guarding the Sacred Tree.」

Sanya-san pointed out one of the changes to the barrier. Sadly, I couldn’t tell them the real reason I was able to do so and simply ignored her comment.

「By the way, there is one thing I want to confirm with you, young lady.」

「Which is?」

「Are you really sure that we should keep quiet about the fact that you are the one who saved the village? If so, we were considering making a stone statue of you to put next to the Sacred-」

「No thank you!」

I rejected the idea before Mumuroot-san could even finish his sentence.

I really didn’t want to be worshiped by the elves. I already had enough of that in Mireera.

I had asked them to not spread the word too much, but from what I had seen it wasn’t too perfect.

「You saved the elves, so the least we should do is build you a statue so that future generations of our bloodline don’t forget what you had done.」

「If you make something like that, I will smash it immediately.」

「… If you’re that insistent then I have no other choice but to give up on the idea.」

Seeing how serious I was, Mumuroot-san reluctantly backed down, seemingly very disappointed.

Sanya-san was just laughing to the side. She could have said something to him!

Since they were elves, I was sure that they would keep something like that for a thousand, no, maybe even ten thousand years. I had to prevent that from happening at any cost.

「In that case, we would like to at least give you something for all that you have done, Yuna-chan. Is there anything that you want?」

Finally! I had been waiting for those words.

Okay, first I wanted to permanently set up a Bear House here. Then, I wanted to learn how to make the elven bracelets. Oh, I also wanted some leaves from the Sacred Tree. Maybe the branches too, there might be something I could make out of them.

Some elvish food wouldn’t be a bad idea either. This was a perfect place to get my hands on some good mushrooms.

I had already confirmed that their mushrooms were similar to matsutake, which were often used in high-cla.s.s meals back in my former world.

I would love to have some j.a.panese-style soups and cooked rice seasoned with them. They might also be good if I grilled them over a charcoal fire as well.

Was there anything else I wanted?

Well, first I had to ask about the Bear House, but the problem was still how the Bear Gate functioned.

The capital was quite far away, so if I kept going back and forth too often, they would definitely get suspicious.

Was there anything I could do about that? Should I even ask for the Bear House or not?

If I ended up not using the Bear Gate, then there would be no point in even having a Bear House here.

Mumumumu…

「What is it that you are worried about, Yuna-chan? If it’s something we can do for you, you can tell us.」

「There’s something I want to ask permission for, but if news of it spreads, it would be a problem for me.」

「What is it?」

「Young lady, you saved our village, so we would never try to displease you. I can even perform a magic contract with you if you so wish.」

「A magic contract?」

「We elves use it when we swear upon something or if we are tied down by a secret.」

「When we perform a magic contract, those bound by the contract cannot go against it.」

That sounded a bit scary to be honest.

「What happens if you go against it?」

「In the worst case scenario you die, but in general, you just feel pain trying to talk about the contract or are unable to say anything about it. The same thing happens if you try to write it out instead as well.」

Wasn’t that just a curse, then?

That was way too dangerous…

「Isn’t it dangerous?」

「Not really. You are fine as long as you don’t talk about it.」

「Yes, it is practically the same as not being able to say something you don’t know about. So you just have to act like you don’t know about it.」

I didn’t want anyone to suffer or even die, though.

Well, that was only if they tried to mention anything about it, but judging by Sanya-san’s personality, she could accidently tell somebody if not for the contract…

Just yesterday, she had admitted in front of everybody that she had seen my Bear-san Panties. If I was going to tell her about the Bear Gate, there was no other choice but to put her under that contract.

「Is it possible to change the punishment to something that doesn’t make you suffer?」

「And what would that be?」

「… Maybe like, you can’t stop laughing?」

I thought about it for a bit and answered.

Laughing would be better than being in pain, right?

「You really are a devil, Yuna-chan.」

「Eh? Why?」

「So, you want us to laugh ourselves to death?」

「Yeah, especially you, you meanie.」

I told her responded jokingly.

「It’s not impossible, but are you sure?」

「Being unable to stop laughing is better than suffering, is it not?」

「Forcing someone to laugh seems kind of harsh too, though.」

Still, it would be better to suffer by laughing too hard than to just be in pain.

Either way, I wanted the person who might tell others about my Bear-san Panties to laugh and suffer!

Like Mumuroot-san had said, she just had to keep quiet about it.

「Okay, if you insist, we can prepare it for tomorrow.」

「You can do it that quickly?」

「It’s not very difficult to do. We just have to change the mentality part of it.」

「Also, is it enough if you do it with just the two of us?」

Hmm, the two of them should be sufficient.

「Yeah, I think that should be fine. The two of you can then just skillfully fool the others.」

When it came to using the Bear Gate to come, Mumuroot-san should be able to give a simple false explanation.

When using it to get to the capital, telling Sanya-san should also be more than enough.

「With how secretive you are, I’m now very curious about your request, Yuna-chan.」

Well, she would have to wait until tomorrow to hear it.