Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

The day after I had asked Sherry to make the Bear plushies, I finally asked Fina to disassemble the Black Tiger, which I had completely forgotten about again.

We finally had the mithril knife, which could cut open the Black Tiger, something a regular iron knife couldn’t do. The fact that Fina’s dismantling skills were quite high also helped a great deal, of course. I probably wouldn’t be able to dismantle a Black Tiger even if I had used a mithril dismantling knife.

While Fina was disassembling the tiger, Shuri stood right beside her, learning the process enthusiastically.

I wondered about this a lot, but what kind of person was I to make children do dismantling for me? Well, it was a bit late to ponder this now, so we could just say it was fine because this was another world, maybe?

Anyway, thanks to Fina, I finally got a Black Tiger rug, so in order to thank her, I gave her some of the meat and other parts as well.

Fina tried to refuse, of course, but I forced her to take it. She tried to explain to me that it was a high class ingredient because it wasn’t a monster often encountered, but I didn’t really care about that.

If it was delicious, it should be eaten, not sold.

Hmm, maybe I should take it to Anzu and have her prepare it for me?

The next day, I decided to head to the Adventurer’s Guild.

It had been over a week since I had finished the request at the mine, so it should be properly processed by now.

When I arrived at the guild, I immediately headed to the receptionist, Helen-san, and asked her about the request I had done at the capital.

「Yuna-san, you accepted a request at the capital?」

She took my guild card and checked it for me.

「The investigation as well as the subjugation of the golems at the mine is indeed marked as completed.」

It matched what Gazar-san had heard.

The golems were no longer appearing in the mine, so the miners had resumed their work. That meant that the golems had indeed most likely been spawning because of either the Mithril Golem or the Bearmonite.

I was very curious about the Bearmonite I had obtained, but the Dwarf Country was far away, so it would be too much of a pain to get it checked.

It would be great if I had a skill that could teleport me to any location I wanted. Well, the Bear Gate did that job quite well, so I couldn’t really complain.

Anyhow, Helen-san returned my guild card to me, and I received the payment for my achievements on the request.

「By the way, Yuna-san.」

「Yes?」

「I heard that you renovated your store.」

「I did. What about it?」

「The female adventurers were talking about how you started selling this food that is really delicious.」

「Ah, the cake.」

「Yes. Is it possible to reserve one? By the time I finish my shift, it’s all sold out, and it’s going to be a while before I get my next vacation. I really want to try it soon since I heard of how delicious it is, though…」

All other women at the reception desk nodded when Helen-san said that.

Well, she was right about the cakes being popular; they were indeed always sold out by the time their shifts ended.

「I went there the other day and asked if I could reserve one, but they told me I couldn’t.」

Oh right, Tirumina-san had indeed told me about the requests for reservations, but she had to refuse them all because there were simply too many. I somewhat remembered ignoring the issue and asking her to take care of it.

「So, could you please make an exception, just for me?」

Helen-san asked me while putting her hands together.

「Helen, it’s not fair if you only ask for yourself.」

「That’s right, how could you possibly only ask for your own share?」

The two women sitting at the reception desk next to Helen-san complained.

「I’m Yuna-san’s friend, so I can ask her to make an exception for me.」

When had we become friends? I wanted to say that, but I managed to keep it to myself.

Leaving aside the question of whether we were friends or not, Helen-san had indeed been taking care of me ever since I had joined the guild.

Besides, she didn’t really need to reserve a cake since I had plenty of them in my Bear Box.

「I don’t think we can hold onto a cake for you, but…」

「So, it’s no good, huh…」

All the women showed sad expressions. They should at least finish listening to what someone had to say to them…

「I have some cake with me now, so everyone in the guild can have some.」

I said and brought out an entire strawberry shortcake from the Bear Box, making their expressions instantly change.

「This is the rumoured cake?」

「Yup, make sure to split it up and share with everyone.」

「Uhm, how much do we have to pay for it?」

「It’s okay, we’re all friends here. It’s my treat.」

「Yuna-san!」

Helen-san yelled out, stood up, and grasped my Bear Hand tightly.

「T-thank you so much!」

「It’s not that big of a deal.」

「I mean, the female adventurers were all boasting about how delicious it was; it was so vexing having to listen to them and not being able to eat it myself.」

「Well, if you find it delicious, please come to the shop and eat it when you get your day off.」

「Of course. I’ll request a day off just so I can come and eat it.」

The other receptionists followed suit and thanked me as well.

With that, I was done at Adventurer’s Guild and returned home to stay in and play with Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear. They would start sulking if I didn’t take care of them every now and then, after all.

I also had to reward them for working hard at the castle the other day.

「Come here, Swaying Bear, Hugging Bear.」

Once they trotted over, I embraced the both of them. If I wasn’t wearing the Bear Costume, it would have most likely been difficult to hold both of them at the same time. It would be impossible to let them ride on my shoulders, like a certain yellow mouse liked to do.

So, that was how I spent the rest of my day, laying around and playing with my Bears.

As I was thinking about what to do the next day, somebody knocked on the front door.

I went to open it and found Sherry standing there with a big bag on the ground next to her.

「Good morning, Big Sis Yuna.」

「Morning. Could it be that in that big bag next to you…」

The bag looked even bigger next to the small Sherry.

It was obvious what was inside since she was the one who came here with it.

「Yes. The plushies are done, so I brought them here. If you will like them, I’ll make more of them.」

「Great, come in.」

Sherry hoisted up the big bag and entered the Bear House. She seemed to be having trouble with the bag, so I stepped in to help her. It was amazing that she had even managed to carry it all the way to my house.

The moment Sherry crossed the doorstep, she noticed Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear on the sofa.

「Swaying Bear-chan! Hugging Bear-chan!」

She yelled out and rushed to sit down next to them on the sofa.

She carried such a huge bag all the way to my house, so I made sure to offer her a cold drink.

「Are the plushies inside this big bag?」

The bag was about the size of Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear in their cub forms, so the plushies were definitely inside as they wouldn’t both fit in a bag smaller than that.

Hmm, should I give her an item bag?

I planned on asking her to make me five sets, after all.

「Yes, Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan plushies are in here. It was difficult to bring them since they are quite large.」

She was smiling while saying that, but it was indeed obvious that a bag of that size was difficult to carry around. I definitely had to give her an item bag before she headed back home.

Sherry then opened the bag and took out the Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear plushies.

I took the Swaying Bear plushie into my arms.

Oh, this was well made.

She had managed to make it look quite cute and the size was right on the spot as well.

Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear both curiously approached their plushies, so I placed both of the plushies next to them on the sofa. Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear both looked at their respective plushies with interest.

「Hmm, they don’t feel quite the same…」

Sherry said, comparing the bears to the plushies.

「Is that so? They look the same to me.」

Or at least close enough.

「The faces were difficult to get right since I couldn’t recall it perfectly. They do look a bit different.」

She said a bit, and it really was only a bit.

Was Sherry a perfectionist?

「If you would let me take the two of them back with me, I could make the plushies look better.」

「I can’t lend them to you, unfortunately.」

「I figured as much…」

Sherry said and lowered her head. Was the quality of the plushies really that important to her?

They looked good no matter how many times I checked them, though.

I wanted to do something to cheer her up, and a good idea crossed my mind.

If I remembered correctly, when Sherry had been taking note of Swaying Bear’s data, she had scribbled a simple drawing of Swaying Bear to make it simpler to write down its measurements.

It must have been hard to get a good image with just a simple drawing. A photo would be very useful in this situation, but getting that would be impossible in this world.

I could just draw it, then.

I was a (provisional) picture book artist, after all. I could draw things other than just my deformed art.

So, that was why I fetched some paper and writing tools.

「Big Sis Yuna?」

「I’m going to draw a picture of Swaying Bear for you, so use that as your reference.」

「Big Sis Yuna, you can draw as well?」

「Well, just a bit. Did you ever look at the bear picture books at the orphanage?」

「Ah! Could it be that you are the one who drew them?! I did think that the drawing of the girl was similar to Fina-chan.」

「Yes. That’s why I can draw to some extent.」

I began sketching only after lining Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear up. Since Sherry had no problem with their body shapes, I decided to draw a big picture of their facial expressions.

As I was drawing the two of them, a thought crossed my mind. Did I need to write down which one was which?

She wouldn’t be able to tell the difference since the drawing was black and white. Maybe I should have used some color… Well, even if I colored it, it would still mostly be black and white.

「Big Sis Yuna, you’re really good at drawing.」

Sherry complimented me while watching from the side.

「Thank you.」

I finished the sketch soon after and handed it over to her.

「I can make perfect plushies of Swaying Bear-chan and Hugging Bear-chan with this.」

「You don’t have to make them perfect. Honestly, even the ones you brought me today are good enough.」

I said and held up the bear plushies.

「No, it’s not good enough. I’ll make them perfect.」

Sherry’s enthusiasm was amazing.

「It’s okay, you don’t have to put in that much effort. I’m giving them to a girl that’s around four years old.」

「If it’s a present, then I definitely have to try harder.」

「Sigh. Fine, but don’t push yourself.」

「Okay!」

「By the way, can I have these plushies?」

「They are prototypes, though…」

「I think my Bears like them, though.」

After I had finished sketching them, Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear had started to play with their respective plushies.

「I’m glad they like them. Still, I will make them look exactly the same next time I bring them over.」

Sherry then thanked me and rushed out. I didn’t forget to give her an item bag before that, of course.

As the day was coming to an end, and I was thinking about what to do for dinner, Fina arrived at my house, out of breath.