Finished with drawing the third volume of the picture book, the next step should clearly be bringing it to Princess Flora. I drew the picture book for her, so it would be dumb to not end up giving it to her as soon as I was done with the next volume.

It had also been a while since I last saw Princess Flora, so she might have started to feel sad from not meeting me for so long. Still, should I maybe give the new volume to Eleanora-san first? She would probably want to print copies before I handed it to Princess Flora. If I pa.s.sed it directly to the princess, Eleanora-san most likely wouldn’t be able to get her hands on it for a while.

Well, I could just discuss this with Eleanora-san once I got to the capital.

As I started to prepare for my trip to the capital, a large bird landed by my window.

Why on earth would a falcon appear all of a sudden?!

Only after looking at it more closely did I realize it was actually Sanya-san’s bird summon. Its name was Forg, right?

I opened the window, and Forg flew straight into the room, landing on the back of a chair.

If Sanya-san sent Forg over, maybe something happened over at the capital?

I noticed that there was a letter tied to Forg’s leg, so I carefully got it off .

Sanya-san might be watching through its eyes, after all.

「Thank you.」

I said after I was done, and it cried out 「Kuee!」before flying off.

I waved it goodbye and closed the window before unfurling the the letter to read its contents.

『Yuna-chan, a strange shop opened up in the capital. Do you know anything about it perchance?』

Just because a weird shop had popped up, why did she immediately a.s.sume that I was involved with it?

The only building I had constructed in the capital was my Bear House, and since the Bear House wasn’t a shop, Sanya-san must be mistaken, right?

The next sentence soon made things clear.

『There’s giant bear statues in the front, and the store sign even says: 「Bear-san’s Relaxing Restaurant」.』

I immediately connected all the dots together:

「A strange shop」,「bear statues」, and「Bear-san’s Relaxation Restaurant」.

Now I understood why Eleanora-san and Zelef-san had came here to look at my shop at such a time.

This store should clearly be the newly opened branch of my store in the Capital, which was to be built simply because they wanted to eat and share pudding. If perchance it wasn’t the branch, then this would mean someone was infringing on my trademark. If that was the case, I would go and destroy it in the middle of the night when n.o.body was around to see me.

『I was curious about it, so I sent Forg to deliver this letter to verify it with you. If it has nothing to do with you, then you can simply ignore the message.』

I didn’t waste time and just set the letter down on my table before using the Bear Gate to go directly to the Capital. I practically ran out of the Bear House and hurried straight to the Adventurer’s Guild.

I hadn’t asked Eleanora-san where she was planning on building the shop, so I didn’t know where to find it. At this moment, I regretted not asking her earlier.

Still, Sanya-san had seen this shop, so she should be able to tell me.

I barged into the Adventurer’s Guild in such a rush that everybody inside turned to look at me.

「It’s the bear.」「The bear’s here.」「Don’t look her in the eye.」「A cute bear came in.」「Is that the rumored bear?」「Don’t say anything else; you don’t want to get involved with her.」「She really is dressed like a bear, huh.」

All sorts of conversations about me began swirling around, but I ignored them all and went straight to the receptionist.

「How can I help you today?」

「I want to meet with Sanya-san. Would that be possible?」

「With the guild master? Do you have an appointment?」

「No, but please tell her that Yuna is here to see her. That should be enough.」

「I understand. I will go speak with the guild master now, so please wait just a moment.」

The receptionist lady stood up from her desk and entered the back area for guild personnel.

It seemed like Sanya-san was inside the Adventurer’s Guild. She owed me a favor and had also sent me a letter like that. There was no way she wouldn’t be willing to meet with me.

However, contrary to my belief, when the receptionist lady came back, she was alone. Maybe Sanya-san was actually busy right now?

「Yuna-san, the guild master will meet you in her office. Please head down to her room.」

I worried for nothing, huh. I thanked the receptionist and headed to the back, where guild master’s room was. Oh, we pa.s.sed by a “Authorized Personnel Only” sign. That made sense if you think about it. After knocking and receiving a reply, I entered the room. Sanya-san was sitting by her desk next to the window, actually working for once.

「Yuna-chan, how’ve you been?」

Sanya-san wore a rather tired expression as gestured me to sit down.

「You look kind of tired.」

「A lot of work had piled up while I was gone, so…」

She said, pointing at the mountain of paper stacked on her desk.

「Didn’t you leave everything to the a.s.sistant guild master?」

「I left him with regular duties, but I’m the only one who can give the final approval on important matters.」

Being a guild master sure was tough.

When I had come home from the Elf Village, I was able to cook a meal for my friends and pa.s.s the time leisurely, even drawing a picture book. On the other hand, Sanya-san looked like she had been working long hours everyday trying to get back on track with her work.

It sure was hard to be an adult.

「Anyways, you sure got here quickly. I just sent the letter not that long ago, so you must have rushed here straight away.」

「Well, of course I would come running over after reading something like that.」

「So, is the shop related to you, then?」

「I came here to confirm it, actually. Does the shop really have giant bear statues?」

Based on what Sanya-san had written in the letter, she had seen it while taking a break from work.

「I only briefly looked at them, but the laugher it caused sure helped bring my fatigue away.」

「You laughed at them…」

Why would she laugh at bear sculptures? Was it the same reason she smiled at me whenever she saw me? At this point, did she just think that anything with a bear on it was related to me?!

I tightened my fist inside my Bear Hand in a menacing way and looked at Sanya-san.

「Wa-wait, I’m just kidding. Yuna-chan, please don’t make such a scary face.」

Sanya-san panicked a bit, quickly making an excuse for herself.

It seemed like my menacing expression actually worked.

「So, why did you laugh, then?」

「I only laughed for a bit.」

So, she still didn’t deny she had laughed.

「Anyway, I was curious about the statues, so I went to take a closer look. It was then I noticed the sign above the entrance than said,「Bear-san’s Relaxation Restaurant」, and I realized it might be a new place you opened, so I ended up writing a letter to you. Is it your shop or not?」

I proceeded to explain to her that it most likely was the the shop that His Majesty and Eleanora-san were planning to open to serve and eat my dishes, especially the pudding.

「Ehh, you’re opening a shop that will serve pudding? That sounds nice.」

Sanya-san ears immediately perked up when I mentioned pudding.

「Still, I do wonder why they decided to use those kinds of bear statues for the store. The sign is also shaped like a bear. Maybe they just thought it was a good idea to put them up?」

「Yeah, maybe…」

「Hmm? What did you say just now? I couldn’t really hear you.」

「Well, it’s most likely because my shop in Crimonia also has similar bear statues. Eleanora-san must have gotten the idea from them.」

「Yuna-chan, your shop has those things, too?」

I didn’t want to talk it about the reasoning behind it too much, so I gave a simple explanation about my shop in Crimonia. I also told her about how Eleanora-san and Zelef-san visited it while we had been away at the Elf Village.

「They must have decided to copy the style after visiting Crimonia.」

「That makes sense: they do seem like the type of people who would do such a thing. But your shop really has bear statues, huh?」

I could see a grin appear on Sanya-san’s face as she reached for her bracelet and summoned Forg.

「Yuna-chan, I just have to see what your shop looks like.」

「Is that bird flammable perchance?」

I said and created a fireball with my Bear-san Puppet.

「I’m just joking. Please don’t use magic in my office.」

フォルグを送還させる。本当に疲れているのかな。元気に見えるんだけど。

She unsummoned Forg. Maybe she’s really tired, although she looks like she’s doing well.

わたしは炎を消す。

I extinguished the flames.

She said and unsummoned Forg. I guess she really was tired. But where did that energy to tease me come from?

I extinguished my flames as well as the danger had pa.s.sed.

「I should have taken a look when I sent you the letter…」

She sounded a bit disappointed.

Even if I refused it now, I was sure she would still send Forg over to look. Well, it wasn’t particularly troubling if she looked at the shop. It was just that she would definitely comment on something the next time we met.

Wait, she just summoned Forg now even though I had received the letter from it only moments ago in Crimonia.

Could it be that she could summon her bird from a huge distance? What about Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear? Could I do the same with them, too? I had never tried it from a distance before. Since I had never ended up in a situation where I had to, I hadn’t even considered such an option.

「Did you check up on me when I received the letter?」

「No, I didn’t. I just ordered Ford to return as soon as it was safely in your hands.」

So she could do something like that, huh. If I gave my Bears such an order, would it work as well?

「And what were you going to do if I wasn’t home or didn’t notice it?」

「In that case, I would have looked for you through Forg’s eyes. And, if I still couldn’t get to you, I would just let Forg return home. The letter wasn’t that important, anyway.」

The contents of the letter were a big deal to me, though.

Regardless of who the owner was, be it Eleanora-san or some other random stranger, having a shop showing off bear sculptures was already a big problem on its own.

「So, where’s this shop?」

「In the central district.」

Sanya-san pulled out a map of the capital and pointed out the spot.

「I would come along, but I still have a lot of work to do.」

Sanya-san said, sighing as she looked over to her mountain of paperwork again.

「Umm… Good luck with that.」

I could only give her a simple reply.

「Thanks. You did bring us back here a couple of days earlier than I expected, so you actually helped me a lot. If I had returned later than planned… Just thinking about it scares me.」

「Don’t tell anybody about it, though.」

「I won’t. Also, I’ll treat you to a meal when I have time to thank you.」

「Okay, make sure you treat me to a high-cla.s.s meal.」

「Fufu, I will.」

I thanked Sanya-san for the information and headed straight for the shop with the bear statues.

Author’s Note:

Finally, Chekov’s gun has been fired. lol