"Rabon is taking care of the horses, and Goju is cleaning the bathtub."

Even though he told me their names, I had no idea who was who.

"Taking care of horses and cleaning the bathtub, you said?"

"Yes, Goju is cleaning the bath to thank you for yesterday’s meal and being allowed to use your bath."

"So, you didn’t tell him to do it?"

"No, he asked me on his own. I hope it isn’t a bother?"

"Of course not, it saves me the trouble of doing it myself."

As soon as I responded, one of the guards entered the room.

Hmm, who was this one?

He came from the bathroom, so…

"Cliff-sama, I have finished cleaning the bathtub."

"Thank you."

"Yuna-dono, I would like to thank you for yesterday. The bath and the bed were very nice."

Unlike Cliff, this guard seemed to have slept well.

"That’s good to hear. Cliff didn’t find them as appealing."

"I didn’t say that. I just couldn’t relax, that’s all."

How was that different from what I had just said?

"Anyway, thanks for cleaning the bathtub."

"Oh no, we would like to thank you, instead, for letting us use it."

He straightened his back as he thanked me, and for a second, I thought he was going to salute me.

"By the way, where’s Noa? You all slept together, right?"

"She’s still sleeping. I’ll let her sleep until I prepare breakfast."

"Should I go wake her up, then?"

"I already asked Fina to do it. Well then, I’m off to prepare breakfast now, so you can just wait here, Cliff."

"Cliff-sama, I will go help Rabon first."

"Sure, go ahead."

I went to the kitchen and prepared a simple breakfast. Just as I started placing everything on the table, Fina and Noa came down from upstairs with the Bears in their arms.

"Yuna-san, Father, good morning."

Noa greeted us.

"Morning."

"Good morning, Noa. Fina, breakfast is ready, so can you go outside and call the guards?"

"Okay."

Fina said and headed outside while I used the time to finish setting up the table. Fina returned with the guards right on time, and we all sat down to eat, Fina and Noa setting the Bears aside, of course.

"Cliff, how much further to Sheelin?"

I asked since I had no idea how far away Sheelin was. My Bear Map didn’t show places I hadn’t gone to yet; if I opened it, the unknown areas were just black voids. If Sheelin was still far away, I would take a nap on top of some high quality fur for sure.

"We traveled quite a distance yesterday. Since we could already see the forest, we might be able to reach it tonight if we push our horses a bit. Still, it will trouble Old Man Gran’s family if we arrive at night, so we should take it slow and camp out once more."

kuma Kuma Kuma BearWhere stories live. Discover now