Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Chapter 273 – Bear-san Watches Students Perform Magic

Today, Shia would be joining us in our stroll around the festival, so we headed for the academy together.

「We get to go with Onee-sama today!」

Noa exclaimed as she happily walked alongside her sister. If Eleanora-san was here, they would make a complete set. After all, Eleanora-san looked younger than she was, so they would look more like three sisters standing next to each other. Nobody would think she was actually their mother and near 35 years old.

Once we arrived at the academy, we first headed over to Shia’s stand to say hello. Shia took the opportunity to help set up the stand as their friends would only come in the middle of the day.

「Okay, we’ll come back by early afternoon.」

They hadn’t had a chance to look around on the first day, and it had been Cattleya’s and Timor’s turn to look around on the second. It was only today that Shia and Marcus got the chance of their own.

「You can leave the stall to us, so go and have some fun.」

We saw off Marcus together then left the stand with Shia as our guide today. We wanted Shia to take us to the places she wanted to visit, as we had already had our chance to choose the previous two days.

「Where are we going?」

「I was thinking of going around the food stands first, but soon after Yuna-san came by yesterday, my friends brought over even more refreshments from the stands, so I already got my fill.」

It seemed like I hadn’t been the only one to think of the refreshments idea.

Unlike me, Shia had a lot of friends due to her being friendly and outgoing.

It made sense for her not to crave festival food anymore, and instead, want to visit other attractions.

「It’s a bit early, but one of the friends who helped out at the stand yesterday is going to have a match against some knights from the castle, and I was thinking of going to watch. Think you would enjoy that?」

Naturally, we had no reason to reject the idea, so it was decided that we would go and see the match first.

「It won’t be much of a match with students fighting the knights, right?」

Students versus knights sounded like quite an uneven match.

「It’s not a serious, all-out match. The students who are participating are all aiming to become knights in the future, so getting to practice against actual knights from the castle is a great opportunity for them. Think of it more like practice fights. Well, the students want to know how strong they are, so they will most likely try their hardest.」

So there were things like that in this world too, huh? It did sound quite interesting. Actually, I would be more interested in fighting the knights myself, but watching other people fight should be quite enjoyable as well.

「While you might get bored watching the fight, Yuna-san, there is also a magic presentation beforehand.」

「There will be magic, Onee-sama?!」

「Yes, Noa. You said you wanted to see some magic, didn’t you?」

「I did say that. Thank you very much , Onee-sama!」

We walked for a bit before reaching an area known as the Number 1 Practice Grounds. It was one of the three training plazas in the academy. I thought about this before, but this campus sure was huge.

「Speaking of magic, are you able to use it as well Noa?」

I had never seen or heard about her using it before, so maybe she couldn’t yet?

I knew Shia could use magic, though.

「I haven’t been taught how to use it yet, so no.」

Oh, so she wasn’t taught it yet.

「Do you have to learn magic at the academy?」

「They do teach it at the academy, but some parents will start to teach their children beforehand.」

In this fantasy world, each and every person had a certain amount of magical energy. They used it to activate magic stones and other magic appliances for their daily lives. However, only those who had a lot of magical energy could use magic to perform spells.

「Cliff and Eleanora-san don’t teach you?」

「They said they would teach me before I attend the academy, but I’m not sure when that will be.」

「Oh, so that’s how it is. Isn’t it better to teach someone from a young age, though?」

In many reincarnated-into-another-world-as-overpowered-being stories, the main characters would begin learning magic at a very young age after reincarnating and end up being completely overpowered by the time they grew up. They either had an unbelievable amount of magical energy or were simply able to use many different kinds of magic. With such a setting in mind, training magic at a young age should be a good idea, no?

「Yuna-san, what are you saying? If you use magic at a young age, it will burden the body to the point where your magical capabilities will be crippled when get older.」

Well, I couldn’t have used magic in my former world and was only able to use it after coming here, so I didn’t know that.

It wasn’t written in the beginner’s book I had bought soon after coming here, either. It had only taught me the basics of using magic, not when it was appropriate to start learning it.

「That’s why children shouldn’t use magic until they’re at least ten years old. It was usually best to start learning magic when you are ten to twelve years old. To be able to use magic to such an extent at your age is amazing, Yuna-san.」

Oh, so that must be why people often made fun of me for being ‘just a brat’ when I went to the Adventurer’s Guild. Well, the main reason was still probably my outfit.

This had to also be why the age requirement for the Adventurer’s Guild was thirteen years old, huh. In that case, there should be no such thing as genius little girls who could use magic in this world. How unfortunate for a fantasy world such as this. I was hoping I could meet some genius children gifted in magic.

Still, I now understood why I had never seen any children use magic before. This also explained why Noa had never once asked me to teach her magic, even though I had thought it wouldn’t have been weird for her to do so. It all made sense now.

Still, I wondered why it was bad for children to use magic. Hmm, it wasn’t like that could be explained using science; it was magic, after all.

「Even if I could use magic, I have no idea how much magical energy I have.」

It was written in the beginner’s book that people who didn’t have enough magical energy couldn’t effectively use magic, so I hoped she did have enough.

「Don’t worry. Father, Mother, and I can all use magic, so I’m sure you will be able as well, Noa.」

Shia tried to make Noa feel better. I did recall seeing Eleanora-san use magic during Misa’s kidnapping case, but had no idea Cliff could use it, too.

Was the amount of magic energy inherited, then?

I recalled hearing about how Tirumina-san had been an adventurer in the past, so did that mean she could use magic?

「Fina, can Tirumina-san use magic?」

「Yes, I heard that she can use it a little bit.」

「Then, maybe you and Shuri can both use magic as well.」

I wasn’t sure if I wanted for them to be able to use magic, though.

If they could use it, I would be troubled if they suddenly told me that they wanted to become adventurers. I didn’t want for them to go for such a dangerous occupation, and I was sure Fina didn’t want her little sister to do something like that, either. Still, Fina was doing a lot of dismantling work for the Adventurer’s Guild, so she was already pretty close to becoming an adventurer… If any of them told me that they wanted to become an adventurer, I would get Tirumina-san and Gentz-san to stop them.

I patted Fina’s head.

「Yuna-oneechan?」

Fina tilted her head in surprise at my sudden patting.

「It’s nothing.」

I smiled back at her, making her even more bewildered.

Thinking about Fina and Shuri’s future, I looked over the plaza and saw two students chanting magic against the targets. A fireball and earth bullet flew from their hands, burning and breaking their targets respectively.

「People who can’t use magic don’t get to see it in action very often, so this program is quite popular.」

Perhaps they were taking into account the dangerous aspect of it, but neither of them was using particularly powerful magic. Well, it was also possible they couldn’t use it.

「I want to be able to use magic soon, too.」

「You can’t until you get permission from Father and Mother.」

「I know. I want to be able to use magic like you, Onee-sama, so I won’t do it until it’s safe.」

Next came two students who used wind and water magic respectively, so things got more exciting. Of course, neither used ice magic. Maybe it was too difficult for them, after all?

As we continued to watch them peacefully, there was suddenly a commotion quite close to us.

「What’s going on?」

We looked at where the noise was coming from, and saw that the king was on his promised walk. Next to him was Tilia in her school uniform, and two knights protecting them.

I had looked around for Flora-sama and the queen, but I didn’t see them. Had they not come to the festival today?

「…?!」

「Mother?」

Both Noa and I noticed Eleanora-san walking just behind the king. Eleanora-san smiled and waved at us.

The girls all waved back, which seemed to make her very happy.

「What a coincidence.」

「Are you escorting His Majesty?」

「I guess we could say that. His Majesty wanted to witness the students’ strength personally. Well, he honestly doesn’t need to come to the school festival to check something like that, and we just used it as an excuse for him to be able to get out of the castle.」

Using it as an excuse to sightsee, huh?

Sometimes this king had me worried… Well, even though his personality was a bit of a problem, at least his son was a serious person, so the next king should be fine. Still, being the son of a father like him must be tough… I felt bad for the prince, I really did.

Hmm, thinking about it like this, it actually wasn’t my fault that the king came to see me every time I was at the castle, right? It was all due to his easy-going personality.

How could he have managed to raise such a responsible son? That must be one of the seven mysteries of the capital.

「So, what are you girls doing here?」

「One of my friends is aiming to become a knight, so we came here to support and cheer.」

「My, that sounds quite fun… 」

Eleanora-san looked at Shia with suspicion.

「Mother, I think you’re misunderstanding something. The friend I’m talking about is a girl.」

「Oh, is that so?」

Eleanora-san looked a bit disappointed.

Well, both male and female students had helped her at the stand, so when she said that one of her friends wanted to be a knight, I also naturally assumed she had been talking about a boy.

「By the way, is Marcus not going to be a knight? If I remember correctly, his father is one, no?」

Marcus also gave off the impression of wanting to join his father’s footsteps.

「Marcus had a hard time deciding on whether to join the practice program or not, but in the end, he chose to help us make cotton candy instead.」

Should he really be doing that?

「Well, he said he was okay skipping it since he can practice with knights anytime by simply asking his dad.」

Well, he could always just practice against his father, couldn’t he?

「If he found out that His Majesty came here, though, I think he would regret not joining the practice. You don’t get many chances to have His Majesty witness your skills, after all.」

Yeah, a king didn’t get many chances to see how his subjects were doing, and that included the students of the academy. It could be comparable to a chance to leave an impression on a CEO of my former world.

It was said that an employee would have a hard time succeeding in their career if they couldn’t even get their superior to remember them.

Hmm, didn’t that mean that getting the royal family to remember me (as a Bear), made me somewhat amazing?

Then again, with such a royal family, it didn’t really make me overly happy that they remembered me…

Author’s Note:

I know it’s a bit late, but we finally got to talk about the possibility of Noa and Fina using magic.

I wonder what they will be capable of in the future. lol