Kuma Short Stories 2 (1/2)

Third Short Story – Big Sis Bear-san, Orphan’s Perspective (Commemoration Of The Second Year Anniversary)

Hello, Gentz here. I used to be an adventurer, but I was now working at the Adventurer’s Guild.

One of the reasons I retired from adventuring was that the two members of my party married each other, but, right around that time, I also got invited to work as the guild’s storehouse keeper.

The daughter of the previously mentioned married party members was right in front of me now.

「And that’s how you cut it.」

「I see.」

This little girl was dismantling a wolf with a knife; her name was Fina. She was the legacy of my two party members, Terumi and the now deceased Roi. Terumi was bedridden with an illness; we went to the doctor, but it seemed that there was no other way to treat her other than to just suppress the illness using medicine.

Since her mother couldn’t work, Fina worked to take care of her mother and little sister.

The only thing I could do for them was to give Fina a job; I tried to give them money, but Fina refused.

She didn’t want to accept it because she wouldn’t be able to repay the favor and she didn’t change her mind even after I told her that she didn’t have to repay it at all.

Instead, I gave Fina a job, so she could pay for the medicine herself.

It was sadly impossible for Fina to work everyday since there were days when we had nothing she could do. I really wanted to do something to change this situation, but I wasn’t able to. I couldn’t protect Roi’s precious daughter, nor could I save Terumi; I really was a worthless man.

One day, Fina came to the guild accompanied by a girl wearing a cute bear suit. Fina told me that this girl had saved her from the wolves, which had attacked her in the forest.

I scolded Fina, of course. If something had happened to her, what should I say in front of Roi’s grave? What should I tell Terumi, who was already depressed because of her illness? I was very grateful to the Bear Missy, who had saved Fina.

Soon after, the Bear Missy became an adventurer, and she brought in a lot of monsters she subjugated but not dismantled. Contrary to her appearance, she seemed to be an excellent adventurer. Like, when some adventurers decided to pick a fight because of her clothes, she made short work of them.

Fina also seemed to take a liking to her, so I decided not to talk too much about her clothes.

Today, she had brought the monsters she had killed again. There were a lot of adventurers who dismantled the monsters on their own, but some adventurers found it a pain and left it to the guild. The missy seemed to belong to the latter group and couldn’t dismantle the monsters; that was when I got a good idea.

I would ask the Bear Missy to leave all of her dismantling work to Fina.

The guild’s profit would diminish, of course, but if it could make Fina a little happier, I didn’t mind being scolded.

Also, the more time passed, the more the Bear Missy became infamous for her strength; it would become harder and harder to make this request.

She luckily accepted my request and Fina became her exclusive dismantler. Every time I saw Fina, she was talking really happily about her work, as the Bear Missy allowed her to take some meat from the wolves she dismantled.

The meat was nutritious, and missy also told her to buy bread and vegetables with the money she earned. I couldn’t thank this missy enough.

Although, there was a time when my heart almost stopped when I heard that Bear Missy had brought Fina with her on a Tiger Wolf subjugation. I really hoped she wouldn’t take Fina to such dangerous places ever again.

Still, killing two Tiger Wolves… Wasn’t missy a bit too strong?

Fina was really happy when she successfully dismantled them; it was a good experience for her.

A few days later, Fina came to my house in tears.

She told me that her mother’s illness had worsened, and so she came to me because she didn’t know what to do. I was happy that she relied on me, but I couldn’t really do anything…