Chapter 291 – Bear-san Gets Lost

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Chapter 291 — Bear-san Gets Lost

If I were to continue playing with Flora-sama, the king would be worried about my trip preparations.
“Although there is a town before you reach the desert, preparing in advance would do you well.”
The king seemed to expect me to finish trip preparations today and depart tomorrow.

There’s a ton of food in my bear box, and inside the bear house there was enough food to shut myself in for a few months. And I had the bear house so I had no need for shelter and stuff. But it can’t be helped for the king to be worried since he didn’t know about the bear house.
Therefore, his thoughts for me to finish my preparations were properly conveyed.
The king worriedly said “Make sure to deliver it properly,” but I’ll start getting serious tomorrow so all is well.

After playing with Flora-sama a ton, I returned to my bear house in the capital. And then I moved to my room and dived on the bed.
The day became dark while I was playing with Flora-sama.
Well, as long as Hugging Bear and Swaying Bear was here they would have my back even if I were to be a bit late. In the first place, I went to the castle too late in the day, so it was impossible to depart the same day.
I laid face-up on the bed, and took out the bear phone Then I gripped it and poured my magic power into it while thinking about Fina. After a bit, I connected with the bear phone that Fina held.

“Big Sis Yuna?”
“You free right now?”
“Yes. Shuri is helping mom prepare dinner, and dad hasn’t come home yet, so I’m free.”

I asked her to use the bear phone in a place with no people. That’s why even if she were to receive a call I told her it’s fine to not answer the phone if it didn’t seem possible.

“Did something happen?”
“I wanted to contact you since it seems like I wont be coming back for a while.”
“Work?”
“The king asked me to do a tiny job for him, you see. If any problem happens in the store or something happens in the sea make sure to contact me, okay? I’ll come back immediately, tell this to Tirumina-san, too.”
“Okay, got it. I’ll tell mom. Oh, yeah. I have something I wanted to request Big Sis Yuna about.”
I could hear Fina sounding as if she just remembered something through the bear phone.
“Request?”

For Fina to have something she wanted, that was rare.
Even if she wanted something, she usually had a hard time saying it.

“Dad said, ‘’I’ll be going to the sea as well! It’ll be dangerous with only kids there!’ So is it fine for dad to come too? Dad said he needed to get Big Sis Yuna’s permission first, but he seemed like he really wanted to go together, so…”
True, if everyone else in Gentz-san’s family went on the trip, and Gentz-san alone had to stay in Crimonia to work he’ll feel sad, huh.

“As long as he receives permission to take a break from the guild then it’s fine.”
“Really? Thanks, Big Sis Yuna.”

Fina’s happy voice could be heard over the bear phone.
Also It wasn’t like I’m agreeing with Gentz-san’s statement, but if it was just kids then it might be dangerous. Even though there were adults, they were all women. Even if the bear equipment is almighty, I couldn’t possibly keep my eyes on all the kids.
Maybe I’ll request Rulina-san and Gil to work as an escort and to look after the children. The kids already knew both of them, so they shouldn’t be scared by the two of them.

Especially Gil, he was especially popular among the boys. Since he’s strong and looks cool.
I heard Gil would show up at the orphanage sometimes and play with the kids. Rulina-san’s nice, Gil’s nice, so It was a mystery how they partied up with that idiot.

“But tell him he needs to look after the kids from the orphanage, too.”
“Un. I’ll tell dad."

I wanted to chat with Fina for a little bit more, but Gentz-san got back from work and it became time for dinner, so I decided to hang up the call.

“Sorry, Big Sis Yuna.”
“No need to think too much about it.”
“Big Sis Yuna, do your best at work.”

Hanging up the call, I decided to depart when the sun rises and went to sleep early.

The next morning, I woke up thanks to the bears while grazing my eye. I looked out the window to find that it was still dark. The sun just barely ascended. The bears' wake up call was really helpful for waking up early. Sometimes they woke me up by sitting on my face, but that makes it hard for me to breathe and it was painful so I'd appreciate it if they would stop that.

"Swaying Bear, Hugging bear, good morning."

After greeting them, I ate a light breakfast, and departed from the capital.
After leaving the capital, I summoned Hugging Bear. Most of the time I summoned Swaying Bear, but today I felt like summoning Hugging bear. Hugging Bear approached me happily.

"Now then, Hugging Bear, please."

I patted Hugging Bear's head and mounted its back.
Now, departing towards the desert, towards an unfamiliar land!
"Kuuuuun" Hugging Bear cried, and ran towards the south.
Still, the desert, huh. I’ve gone to one in-game but not in real life.
I’ve never even gone to the Tottori Sand Dunes either, since I was a shut-in; I’m kind of looking forward to it.
But I wondered what kind of place is the desert? Maybe it was just like in-game, hot and monsters living there?
I remembered that going to a desert and a volcano without heat-resistant equipment would reduce your HP. To that point, the bear equipment was heat-resistant, so it would be fine. In-game the bear equipment seemed to be the strongest equipment, but whether to equip it or not was a whole other question. Though it may be in a game, wearing a bear suit was embarrassing after all. Also if it was in-game, I didn’t have to force myself to wear the suit since I had other strong weapons and armors, unlike in this world.

Hugging Bear ran through the main road.
The king said as long as I continued down this road it would lead to a town. It seemed to be a surefire way to go to Deserto without getting lost.
Because the bear map didn’t highlight any places except the ones I’ve gone to, I didn’t know my destination. There was a chance that I would lose sight of my destination if I were to veer off the path.
I advanced while using my detection skill sometimes. And then when a human reaction appeared, it’d be a pain if they made a fuss when seeing Hugging Bear, so I took a detour to dodge them.
Unlike Crimonia, people would be surprised if I traveled using the bears. Around Crimonia, even if I were to ride on top of the bears, the adventurers and merchants already knew of Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear, so, lately they pretty much didn’t get surprised anymore. Sometimes, there were also some people that called out to us.
There were some who saw the bears, got surprised, and ran away, but they were mostly from outside of the town.
Well if someone saw a bear in real life they would run, I guess. Since pretending to be dead was useless.
Continuing down the path, another human reaction appeared. So that we won’t get noticed, I took a detour and left the road.
But avoiding people every time someone went through the road like this got a bit bothersome.
Hmmmm, it’s kind of a pain in the butt.
Looking at the map, up ahead was pitch black, so I didn’t know what was up ahead. It was a convenient skill, but it was kind of inconvenient for going to new locations. But its auto-mapping was, in fact, a real lifesaver. And also, knowing all the maps meant I’ll know what to expect, so the excitement would’ve been cut by half, so I was fine with this. Since you gotta enjoy going to new places.

I looked at the pitch black map. And next, I looked at the road in front of me. The road kind of bent to the right. Looking to the right, there was a forest. If I were to go through the forest, maybe it would be a shortcut?
It wasn’t passable using a carriage, but if it was the bears then I could go through without worry. I looked at the road in front of me and the pitch-black map and made an estimation.
And then I decided to move through the forest.

(Unfinished)