Bear-san Becomes A Picture Book Author?
「Yuna-chan, how come your trip to the Commerce Guild ended up with you subjugating monsters?」
Terumi-san asked me while I was eating honey soaked pancakes.
「I just went with the flow?」
Terumi-san sighed and put on an exasperated expression.
「Thank you, though. I didn’t want to stop selling honey related goods since they are popular, so you really saved us. The children will be happy as well.」
「I’m happy that I was able to do something owner-like.」
「You’re always owner-like, Yuna-chan. Morin-san, the orphans, and I are all very thankful to you.」
I received Terumi-san’s grat.i.tude, and then ordered pancakes and each type of popular bread.
「What will you do with all this food?」
「I will go out for a bit, so I will take it as a souvenir.」
(TN: Uses omiyage: a gift/souvenir you offer when you go and visit someone.)
「I understand. I will forward it to the kitchen then.」
「What about you, Terumi-san?」
「Rem-san isn’t here, so I will go to his place. I want to talk to him about the price of honey.」
Terumi-san called out to the kitchen, then left the shop.
After some time pa.s.sed, the children brought the bread to me. After receiving them, I went back to the Bear House and used the Bear transfer gate to go to the capital.
I left the Bear House in the capital and headed towards my destination, the castle.
There were more gazes looking my way compared to Crimonia. Thinking about it now, I did feel that Crimonia had become easier to live in.
When I arrived at the castle gates, before I even showed my guild card, a guard said 『Please come in.』, and let me through. I thought that it was bad for the security to be this lax, but I had no reason to complain, since the troublesome check was skipped.
The only thing that concerned me was that one of the guards ran off after he saw me.
It was clearly for THAT reason, right?
I let out a small sigh of giving up before I headed towards my destination.
I went through the pa.s.sage I had taken a number of times before. The number of people greeting me in the castle had increased recently. The number of surprised faces had decreased compared to outside of the castle, though. Did that mean that the Bear Suit had been accepted inside the castle?
When I arrived at my destination, I knocked on the door of a room. A girl’s voice answered from inside.
「I’m the adventurer Yuna.」
The door opened after I responded.
The person who came out was the caretaker, Anju-san.
She was a woman in the first half of her 20s.
「Oh my, if it isn’t Yuna-sama. Welcome.」
「Is Princess Flora here?」
「Yes, she is.」
She opened the door and let me through.
「Bear-san!」
Princess Flora rushed over when she saw me.
「Princess Flora, are you well?」
「Yes, I am!」
「Anju-san, I brought lunch, but is it okay?」
「Yes, there’s no problem. I will tell the head chef.」
「Could you please apologize to the head chef for me?」
The head chef was normally the one in charge of preparing lunch for the royal family, including Princess Flora, of course. I was being a nuisance to the head chef, so I had to apologize.
「I understand. I don’t think he will be too angry though, especially since you gave him that recipe.」
「I hope that’s the case. Give this to the head chef then. It’s our new bread product.」
「Okay, I understood. I will go talk to the head chef then, I leave Flora-sama in your hands.」
She bowed and left the room.
「Flora-sama, are you hungry?」
「Yes, I am.」
「It’s a little early, but we should have lunch.」
I lined up the bread on the table. They smelled delicious, since they were freshly baked.
「Waa, they all seem delicious!」
Flora-sama was looking at the bread with sparkling eyes.
「I can eat whichever one I want?」
「You can eat whatever you like.」
There was a knock on the door while Flora-sama was hesitating about which to take, and the door was opened without waiting for a signal from the inside.
The ones who entered were the usual people.
The top of this country, the king, and Eleanora-san. The queen had also started coming recently.
I knew it, the reason that the soldier by the gate had run off was to notify them.
「I’m coming in.」
「Sorry for the intrusion.」
「Yuna-chan, welcome.」
I was always thinking this, but was it really okay to leave your jobs? Still, I wouldn’t retort like that.
「You brought something delicious-looking again today.」
「I know it is meaningless to ask, but why did you come here?」
「That’s because you came, of course.」
「There’s no other reason.」
The king and the queen replied.
「Is it okay for the king to eat something made by a commoner?」
「It’s too late to say that. If you were serious, you could easily take my head without needing to use poison, right?」
「Still, a king should be wary at such moments, right?」
The king ate the bread I had brought without any caution.
「It’s delicious.」
「I brought it for Flora-sama, so please don’t eat it selfishly.」
「I’ll have this one!」
Flora-sama took the bread covered in melted cheese.
「That one seems delicious as well.」
「Fasher, eat?」
(TL: Her mouth is full, so she’s misp.r.o.nouncing “Father”.)
Flora-sama offered her bread to the king.
「No, it’s okay, I will eat this one. I will eat that one next time.」
That meant I would have to bring it again, huh.
「Should I take this one then?」
The queen took an egg sandwich.
「 Then I will take the same one.」
Eleanora-san took the egg sandwich, just like the queen had.
There was another knock on the door while everyone was eating their chosen sandwiches, and Anju-san entered with drinks.
For some reason, there was enough for everyone.
「Still, you really do some interesting things.」
I didn’t know what he was talking about, so I questioningly tilted my head while chewing on my bread.
「I’m talking about the tunnel and Mireera. Cliff came the other day, looking tired, and made his report.」
He said while laughing.
「Is Cliff still in the capital?」
「He went back to Crimonia this morning, since he has a huge amount of work to do.」
Eleanora-san answered my question.
「Being a feudal lord sure is difficult, huh.」
「You’re saying that as if it were someone else’s problem, huh.」
I meant, it WAS someone else’s problem!
「You will be the one responsible if Cliff collapses from overwork.」
「Should I seal the tunnel then?」
「As the king, I can’t let you do that. Cliff has no choice but to do his best.」
「If it’s like that, I will have Your Highness take the responsibility, okay?」
I put a pancake in front of Flora-sama and dripped plenty of honey on it.
「Bear-san, what is this?」
「A pancake. It’s delicious, you know.」
Flora-sama grasped her fork with her little hand and ate the pancake.
The adults were greedily looking at the pancake, so I brought some out for them as well.
Flora-sama looked satisfied after she had finished eating, so I brought out the second present.
「Flora-sama, please take this.」
I gave her a book.
The t.i.tle of the book was 『Bear-san And The Little Girl: Part 2』.
「Th-thank you.」
Flora-sama happily accepted it. The moment Flora-sama received it, Anju-san who was restraining herself in the back, bent forward to take a peek.
「Anju-san?」
「It’s nothing, it’s nothing.」
You said it was nothing, but you still seemed to be interested.
「Is this picture book the continuation of the previous one?」
「Yes, it is. It seemed that Flora-sama liked it, so I decided to write a sequel.」
「You’re really talented. You’re a first rate adventurer, you’re also first rate with magic, you make delicious food, and you can also write picture books.」
「Writing is only a hobby, so my ability is nothing special.」
「Yuna, I have a request for you.」
「What is it?」
「Is it okay for us to copy your picture books? A lot of people want to have them, you see. People from all over have asked about them. Selling them everywhere in the kingdom would be okay as well, if you would prefer that.」
「Who wants them?」
There was only one copy of this picture book, so I really didn’t think that so many people would learn of its existence.
「It’s mostly the female castle workers who have children, but recently, even the male workers who have seen the picture book have started to ask about it as well.」
Anju-san’s eyes were drawn to the picture book Princess Flora was holding, as if to prove her point.
「Yuna-chan’s pictures stay on your mind for a while, right? That’s why everyone wants the book. There were a lot of people who came to me to ask for this picture book as well.」
「Why does everyone know about the picture book I gave to Flora-sama, though?」
「That’s because Flora always walks around while carrying it.」
When I looked at Flora-sama, I saw that she was happily reading the book.
「In that case, you are free to duplicate them.」
Anju-san, who was standing behind Flora-sama, seemed happy when she heard those words.
「Still, make them only for the people who want them, okay?」
「Why? It would sell really well all over the country, you know.」
「It would be embarra.s.sing if my work was sold all over the country, you know.」
「Why are you saying that now, when you always walk around in those embarra.s.sing clothes?」
I knew it. These clothes really were embarra.s.sing to wear, even in this different world?
Everyone interacted with me normally recently, so I thought that they had accepted them.
「The clothes Yuna-chan wears are not embarra.s.sing. They’re cute.」
Eleanora-san followed up.
「I want Bear-san’s clothes as well.」
If she really wanted it, I could bring some clothes from the shop, but the faces of the king and the queen contrasted with each other. The king had a bitter face, while the queen seemed happy.
Should I just give it to her so she could hara.s.s the king?
「I understand. You will let me copy them, right?」
「Yeah, that’s okay. I will also ask you for ten copies, please.」
「That’s okay, but why?」
「If they really make people that happy, I’m thinking of giving some to the orphanage.」
「I can understand that. Eleanora, I am counting on you.」
「I will do it at once.」
It had been decided that my work would be sold as an area limited product (castle edition).