In the early morning of day two of the school festival, a few guests arrived at the mansion.
「Noa-oneesama, Yuna-san, Fina-chan, it’s been a while.」
「How have you been doing, everyone?」
Suririna-san had only told us that some guests had arrived, but who would have expected that it was Gran-san and Misa.
「Gran-san, Misa, why are you here?」
「I had some things to do in the Capital. We had some free time yesterday, so we took a look around the school festival and wouldn’t you know, the first thing we heard about was a girl running around wearing a bear outfit.」
「We figured Yuna-san might be here, so we came to see you.」
It seemed like the formula Bear = Me was now confirmed as accurate.
Shia had mentioned that I had stood out too much yesterday, and she might have been right…
「How did you know I was here, though?」
「We heard that the bear girl was with some other girls that were around my age, so we thought you might be visiting the capital together with Noa-oneesama and Fina-chan, so we decided to come here first.」
「Well the main reason for coming is to ask a favor. If you’re going to the school festival today as well, could you bring Misa along for me?」
I had no real reason to refuse, so I nodded in agreement.
「Thank you very much!」
「Let’s enjoy the festival together.」
「Okay!」
Misa beamed me a big smile then went to catch up with the other girls.
「If you don’t mind, Young Lady, I would also like to thank you again for saving Misa back at her birthday party. I still shiver every time I recall what happened to her.」
「I already told you back then that you don’t have to thank me so much. I only wanted to save my friend and beat up the guys who hurt Fina and Noa. You really don’t have to keep thanking me.」
「Haha, yes, you did tell me that. Still, I will do everything in my power to repay you, so ask me for anything you like. Well, except for the family inheritance. That already went to my son and his wife, so I’m afraid I can’t offer that anymore.」
Gran-san said and laughed heartily.
I had heard about this inheritance business from Eleanora-san before. Gran-san had already pa.s.sed down the t.i.tle of Mireera’s Feudal Lord to his son soon after the kidnapping incident.
「Well, thanks to them, I can now travel around much more freely. I’ve been having a lot of fun, going to all sorts of places with this newfound freedom of mine.」
He was like a grandpa having fun with his pension in his retirement, wasn’t he?
「I’m going to bring Misa to Crimonia next time, so please take care of her then as well.」
After entrusting Misa to me, Gran-san didn’t waste any more time and left the mansion.
Not long after he left, we also got ready to head to the academy. Everybody was wearing the clothes that Tilia had bought for them. They also picked some small accessories to go with it. At least they didn’t wear the eye catching hair pieces and other accessories that I had won for them.
Once we were all set, we said goodbye to Suririna-san and made our way through the capital.
Shia had already left earlier in the morning to set up the cotton candy machines I had given her. This time, we were planning on meeting her at their stand directly, instead of having her fetch us at the academy entrance.
Thanks to Misa joining in, I was surrounded by four young girls today.
「Misa, will you be at the Capital for a while?」
「Grandfather told me we’ll be leaving tomorrow.」
「You’ll be leaving?」
「Yes. I think that’s why grandfather wanted me to spend time with you today, instead of accompanying him.」
I was happy to see her smile. I had heard of kidnapping victims who were too afraid to go out in public after such incidents. I had been worried that Misa might be like them and hide herself at home all the time, but it seemed like I had worried for nothing.
Really, seeing Misa being able to smile like that made me very relieved.
If Misa had received such trauma from that incident, I would go and beat up that stupid n.o.ble family until her trauma went away.
Anyways, it seemed I could relax and enjoy myself with the girls. Fina and Noa were very happy to see Misa again and chatted nonstop. They also made sure to include Shuri, who had met Misa for the first time. On the other hand, I was stuck walking behind them all alone. Well, I didn’t really mind. Watching the girls chatting so energetically was enough for me.
When we reached the academy, we received another piece of paper to choose our favorite attractions. Visitors got one for each day, it seemed. Yesterday, we had voted for the shop we had bought these cute western clothes from. Tilia had told us that we could write the same number three times, so we did that as it was easier than picking two additional attractions. If we came around again next year and the shop was still there, I would make sure to buy something for the girls again. I had decided on that as I had written down their name yesterday.
As for the ballot boxes, they were located in various areas of the academy, so we were able to submit our votes anytime we wanted.
We made our way towards Shia’s stand, and as we were walking, the pa.s.sing crowd all turned to look at me like always. Howerer, the things I was hearing were different than normal.
「Is that the rumored bear from yesterday?」「It’s that bear from yesterday.」「What’s with that bear?」「Didn’t you hear? That bear was amazing.」「Let’s follow the bear.」「We might be able to see something interesting.」
Many people started to trail behind us.
「Yuna-oneechan…」
Fina looked very uncomfortable and grabbed onto my Bear Hand tightly .
Noa, Shuri, and Misa luckily didn’t notice and continued to chat happily.
「Fufu, it does feel quite nice being called Misa-neechan.」
Misa commented with a smile.
At first, Shuri had called her Misa-sama, just like Fina did. However, Misa had soon noticed Shuri was using Noa-neechan for Noa, so she had asked Shuri to call her Misa-neechan instead.
I had been the only one who noticed Fina’s face going pale when she had heard Shuri agree to it. Well, Misa had personally requested it, so Gran-san had no reason to get angry at Shuri for being too chummy with a n.o.ble. Still, while Gran-san wouldn’t be a problem, we had to make sure that Shuri understood not all n.o.bles were as nice as Noa and Misa.
It would be too late when she did something to offend one of the not-so-kind ones, after all.
Anyway, back to the present. To rea.s.sure Fina, I didn’t pull my hand away and let her hold it until she calmed down. The crowd only seemed to be following us around, and it didn’t look like they actually wanted to interact with us. Once we got to Shia’s stand, we could just waste some time standing around, and they should eventually leave us alone, right?
Still, as we proceeded through the academy, it felt like the amount of people following us kept increasing. I really hoped I was just imagining things.
「Yuna-san, what did you do?!」
Shia looked at me angrily the moment we arrived. She clearly noticed the crowd we brought along.
「Yuna-san, you promised not to stand out today.」
「I haven’t done anything yet.」
I only walked up to here. They were the ones who decided to follow me.
「Hey, what shop is this?」「A bear?」「Is she related to this shop?」「They seem to be selling something interesting.」
The crowd suddenly grew very interested in the Bear statue and cotton candy.
Noticing this, Shia grabbed my Bear Hand and pulled me behind the stand.
「You really didn’t do anything and came here directly?」
She asked as she let go of my hand.
I nodded in response. We hadn’t even taken the time to glance at any attractions along the way.
Shia thought for a bit before grabbing my hand again.
「I’m going to borrow Yuna-san for a bit! Girls, have some cotton candy and wait for us here, okay?」
「Onee-sama?」
「We will be back soon. I promise.」
Shia told the girls and dragged me away.
「Um, Shia? Shia-san?」
「Yuna-san, please come with me.」
Shia said without stopping.
「Where are we going? What about the girls?」
「We will come back soon, so you don’t have to worry about them.」
Shia was holding tightly onto my hand to ensure that I wouldn’t run away.
We entered the closest school building where Shia looked around to check our surroundings before stopping at a door.
「This place should do.」
Shia said as she opened the door and checked inside.
「Great, it’s empty.」
Shia continued and proceeded to drag me past the door before closing it behind us.
「A changing room?」
No matter how I looked at it, this most certainly seemed like a changing room to me.
Shia didn’t respond but rather grabbed her item bag and took something out of it.
「Yuna-san, please wear this.」
She said as she put some clothes up to my body.
「Um, what’s this?」
「It’s our academy’s uniform. That outfit of yours just stands out too much. I know you like it a lot, but we can’t have people following you everywhere.」
It wasn’t that I liked it, but I simply couldn’t guarantee my own safety without it. Did people really think I wore it because I liked it?
If so, I really wished I could someday claim all these cheat-like skills for myself and not have to rely on the Bear Suit. In that case, I could live in this fantasy world worry-free, without having to wear a costume all the time.
「Yuna-san, you really stand out too much in your outfit, so please, change into this.」
She said and pressed the uniform on me again.
「This is my spare uniform, so it might be a bit big on you, but it’s better than being too small.」
Size wasn’t the problem; it was having to take off my Bear Suit.
「Everyone’s waiting for us, so please hurry up and change.」
She said and forced the uniform upon me, leaving me absolutely no way of refusing.
Then again, I didn’t think any monsters or bandits would appear here at the academy. They also checked all of the attendees’ identification cards, so criminals couldn’t get inside. The worst that could happen would be some n.o.ble trying to make a pa.s.s at Noa, but we had been fine yesterday, so there wasn’t much chance of that, either. If I just had my Bear Gloves and Bear Feet, I should be able to deal with most situations. If it somehow got really dangerous, I could also always summon my Bears to help me.
Well, most importantly, I just didn’t have the power to refuse Shia right now.
「I get it. I will change, okay?」
Yep, I had no other choice but to change at this point.
「Shia, look the other way please.」
「I’m a girl, though.」
That wasn’t the problem here… It was embarra.s.sing to undress in front of anyone.
I quickly took off my Bear Outfit and changed into the uniform.
I would never have thought that I would be wearing a uniform ever again. I had worn it a few times when I had attended junior high school, but since I had become a shut-in shortly after, I was a bit happy to wear one again.
That was why I had accepted Shia’s forceful request.
「Yuna-san, that’s wrong. This should be like this, and this goes here.」
Shia scolded and showed me how to wear the uniform properly. I had really been doing it all wrong. Once she helped me tie my necktie, it looked much better than how I first put it on. Just as Shia had predicted, the uniform was a little big for me. The waist area was a bit loose and the chest area… was tight, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Yes, yes. It was really tight. Other than the chest area, the uniform was completely fine.
「Yuna-san, looking at you now that you are dressed properly, I do have to say that you’re really cute. Why do you choose to wear that costume when you’re actually this cute?」
Girls often told each other they were cute, so that wasn’t something that could be relied on. Hence, I treated her comment as common flattery.
Also, I wasn’t really a normal girl, so I didn’t know if I could actually be considered cute or not.
「It really is such a waste of your cute looks.」
「You can stop the flattery. I think you’re much cuter than me.」
Anyway, the thing I was most worried about was the skirt. My legs were feeling quite airy… Well, there was no helping it, so I started to put my Bear Shoes and Bear Gloves back on.
「You’re still going to put that on?」
「It’s my item bag, and I can summon my Bears with them.」
It would be troublesome if I didn’t wear at least this.
「Well, I don’t think anybody will really notice your hands and feet when looking from afar, so it should be fine.」
I threw the rest of the outfit into the Bear Box, and we began walking back to the others.
The skirt fluttered as I walked. Wasn’t it just a bit too short?
When I looked at Shia, it didn’t look that short on her. It probably felt short to me because I wasn’t used to wearing it. I had been wearing that costume for the longest time, so it made sense that I couldn’t relax in a skirt, now.
Just to be safe, I decided to hold my skirt as we walked so that the wind wouldn’t blow it up.
By the time we got back to the stand, there were quite a lot of customers gathered around, waiting for the cotton candy to be ready.
「Shia, you’re late!」
「Sorry.」
「I’m really sorry, Cattleya. I’ll switch out with you, so go enjoy the festival.」
「It’s fine. I don’t really mind helping out a little longer.」
「If you say that, you won’t ever be able to go. There’s a place you wanted to visit, isn’t there?」
Shia went behind the stand while I went back to the girls.
「Sorry for keeping you waiting.」
「……?」Noa tilted her head.
「……?」Misa was lost in thought.
「……?」Fina was shocked.
「Aren’t those Bear-san Hands…?」Shuri noticed something was off.
「What’s wrong?」
Everyone looked at me, deep in thought.
「Um, Yuna-oneechan, what’s with that outfit?」
「The Bear Outfit stands out too much, so Shia forced me to change into this. Does it look bad on me?」
I asked and took a quick look at the uniform. Maybe it really didn’t suit me.
The girls weren’t used to seeing me like this, so they all wore perplexed expressions as they gazed at me.
「No, it suits you.」
「Thank you.」
I patted Fina’s head as a reward for complimenting me. I appreciated it, even if it was just common flattery.
「Could it be… Yuna-san?!」
「Yuna-san?」
For some reason, Noa and Misa still look confused.
「Um, yes, it’s me. Don’t tell me you didn’t recognize me?」
I had taken a bath with Noa so many times, and she had even seen me in a dress at Misa’s birthday party…
「But, but that’s…」
Noa’s eyes went back and forth between my face and the uniform.
I looked at Misa.
「I’m sorry.」
She apologized to me.
「I knew when I saw your Bear-san Hands, Yuna-neechan.」
It seemed Noa and Misa hadn’t recognized me while Shuri had only been able to deduce who I was because of my Bear Hands. I was kind of shocked.
Only Fina could tell who I was after taking off my Bear Outfit… As for the others, it had become clear to me what they focused on when they looked at me.
Meanwhile, behind the stand, Marcus and Timor stopped making the cotton candy for a moment to watch this unfold, and Shia got mad at them.
Author’s Note:
Here we go, Yuna finally puts on a uniform. lol
This is now the second time she has changed out of her outfit. lol
As for what she looks like in the uniform, just imagine the in the uniform that 029-sensei drew for Shia in volume 3.
For those curious, please dash to the bookstore. lol