Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Bear-san Becomes A Rank C Adventurer

I went to the Commerce Guild, which I hadn’t been to for a while.

I took a quick look around for Mylene-san, who was always slacking off, but the Guild Master wasn’t sitting at the reception desk. It was possible that I wouldn’t be able to see that scene for some time. I felt sad when I thought about that, but for the employees, it was probably something to be happy about.

As I was thinking about which reception desk I should go to, since she wasn’t here, I noticed Riana, who had taken care of me when I bought the plots of lands, so I decided to go to hers.

「Yuna-san, welcome. What business might you have here today? Is there any problem with the land you bought the other day?」

「That’s not it. I have no problems with it. On the contrary, I was thinking if it was really okay for you to sell it to me that cheaply.」

「No problem, I heard the story about Mireera from the guild master the other day. Keeping that in mind, the land was a cheap price to pay. You will have a commerce rank of S in the future.」

She said something huge.

I heard that rank S was for the major merchants, like the ones in the capital. I didn’t think that I would ever become one of those, and I didn’t even want to.

「Rank S is just a dream.」

When I said that, Riana got closer to me and whispered.

「No, it’s not a dream. In the last meeting, I heard that it has been decided that a part of the tunnel fee will be put on Yuna-san’s card. If that happens, I think it will make up quite a sum. That’s why, you will definitely become one in a few years.」

「Wait… They are talking about that in the meetings?!」

Riana placed her finger on her mouth to signal me to lower my voice.

「Don’t worry, Yuna-san, only a few people, such as the person in charge of finances and the direct subordinates of the guild master, know about it.」

「Mylene-san is the guild master, right? Aren’t all of you her subordinates?」

「That’s not a good way of putting it. Some people can substitute for the guild master. They take over her tasks, when she isn’t here.」

「That means you, Riana, are her substitute?」

「I’m not that important. I’m just your receptionist when she isn’t here.」

What was with that? Her being my personal receptionist…

「I believe it’s because I was in charge of you when you were buying the plots of land. That’s why, please call for me when the guild master isn’t here, okay? If I am unable to help you, I will relay everything to the guild master.」

Riana bowed, so I ended up bowing as well.

「Still, why would my guild rank go up when I receive the tunnel fee?」

「The rank will go up because the profits made with the fee are taxed.」

In other words, it was like I was running a business with the tunnel.

Commerce rank, huh. There didn’t seem to be any benefits from ranking up, though.

「So, Yuna-san, why did you come here today?」

Ah, I had almost forgotten.

I asked Riana about the honey problem.

「It seems that obtaining honey has become hard recently, so the prices were suddenly raised. Do you know the reason?」

「About that, huh. It seems monsters appeared around the bee tree.」

The bee tree?

I must have misheard that, right?

It’s a beehive, right?

「Monsters appeared at the beehive?」

「Yuna-san, it’s not a beehive, it’s the bee tree.」

It seemed that I had not heard it wrong.

What’s a bee tree?

「A monster appeared at this bee tree?」

「Yes, that’s the information we received.」

「By the way, what’s a bee tree?」

「Yuna-san, you don’t know?」

「Yes, this is the first time I have heard about it.」

「The bee trees are trees where the bees that collect nectar make their nests. They’re giant trees, where several tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of bees crowd together, and the whole giant tree becomes a beehive.」

Hundreds of thousands of bees sounds really gross, though.

「Isn’t it dangerous to pick honey with so many bees around?」

「The bees are docile, so there aren’t any problems if you don’t attack them first. Also, the people who go to gather it are experts, so there’s no danger.」

So, there were specialists who gathered the honey.

Well, we had those in Japan as well, though.

「So, do we know what kind of monsters appeared?」

If they were weak, I would promptly kill them.

「Someone who went to gather the honey said that it was a goblin herd. He saw them swarming the bee tree. We already sent a request to the Adventurer’s Guild, so I think that it will be resolved soon.」

If it was just goblins, the adventurers should be able to defeat them, so I didn’t think I would have to act.

「Thanks. I will go to the Adventurer’s Guild to see what’s happening.」

I thanked Riana and left the Commerce Guild to head to the Adventurer’s Guild.

I saw less adventurers than normal when I entered. The adventurers who saw me took a step back for some reason. I wouldn’t do anything, you know. I wasn’t scary, okay?

While thinking like that, I approached Helen-san at the reception desk.

「Yuna-san, what is it?」

What is it? If you asked any adventurer why they came to the Adventurer’s Guild, they would be troubled. Well, I haven’t really been coming here recently, though.

「I have something to ask, you see.」

「Something to ask, is it? Before that, Yuna-san, can I have your guild card please?」

「Why?」

「Guild Master told me to rank you up when you came.」

「Rank up?」

「Yes. Cliff-sama came here just yesterday and talked about you with our guild master. I don’t know exactly what they were talking about, but the guild master told me to rank you up while holding his head.」

Was it possible that they had talked about the Kraken? It made sense if that was the case.

The Kraken was a request with a rank that had not yet been decided, so I couldn’t accept it. That was why it had been put on hold.

「Also, I have a message from the guild master. 『Choose the rank you want.』 Yuna-san, what the hell did you do? He said you could even choose to be rank A.」

Did he hear about what had happened in the capital as well?

「Hmmm, what do you mean?」

「If Yuna-san wants to become rank A, then you will become one. By the way, you can’t choose rank S, okay? You can become rank S only if you have the recommendation of multiple guild masters, after all.」

「I don’t mind keeping the rank I have now.」

「I have an additional message from the guild master.『If you don’t rank up, my reputation will go down, so you have to rank up.』」

「…Then I guess I will have you raise my rank by one.」

I was rank D, if I remembered correctly.

「Is that okay? You could become rank A, you know. It’s not something you can become just by saying it, you know?」

「Nobody would believe me if I told them I was rank A, right? That’s why a decent rank is enough.」

「Is it really okay?」

I nodded.

「I understand. I will raise Yuna-san’s rank by one level, and bring it up to rank C.」

She operated the crystal and raised my rank on the guild card.

「Becoming rank C in just a few months is really incredible, but really, what did you do? You could even become a rank A…」

「Well, I don’t really know myself.」

「Really?」

Helen-san looked at me dubiously.

She might find out about the Kraken soon, but there was no way I would tell her about the ten thousand monsters at the capital.

「More importantly, I came here to ask you something.」

「Hmm… I understand. Please tell me next time, okay? So, what do you want to ask me?」

「Regarding the honey incident, I have heard that monsters appeared at the bee tree. I was wondering how the request was going.」

「Honey, you say?」

「We are selling honey products at our shop, but we are troubled by the sudden rise in honey prices.」

「Hmm. Please wait for a minute.」

Helen-san operated the crystal.

「A party accepted the request the other day. They haven’t completed it yet, though.」

「Are those adventurers alright?」

「Yes, I think they should be. The request is goblin extermination. If there are only fifty goblins, they should be able to complete it without problems.」

It was okay then.

I didn’t know exactly when it would happen, but the honey prices should be back to normal in a few days.

「Ah, it seems that those adventurers are back.」

Helen-san looked towards the entrance.

A party of five people entered.

They looked strange, though.

From their expressions, it didn’t look like they had completed the mission. Yet, they also didn’t seem to have any injuries from failing.

The adventurers approached the reception desk and shouted.

「Hey! It was different from what was written in the request!」

The girl working at the reception was shocked.

「What was the request?」

The men began to speak.

When they arrived at the place where there should have been a goblin herd, they came across a herd of orcs.

The adventurers came back without fighting when they saw that.

A herd of orcs, huh. There was a big gap between a goblin’s and an orc’s strength. They had no choice but to flee without fighting.

The adventurers wanted to cancel the request.

「Is the request be treated as a failure, then?」

「We will put that on hold. If the next party that accepts the request finds orcs, it won’t be treated as a failure. There was a mistake in the contents of the request, after all.」

The adventurers were still complaining when they left the guild.

Just like that, there was no one who accepted the honey request. In that case, we wouldn’t be able to procure it.

「Is it okay if I accept this request?」

「 I don’t mind if it is Yuna-san, but do you plan on going alone?」

「That’s right.」

「I don’t think I have to worry about you, who can kill a Black Viper, but you are still a girl, so don’t push yourself too hard, okay?」

「Thank you. I will take care.」

I thanked her obediently.

「I will process this now, so please wait a moment.」

I pulled out my guild card again and she registered the request.

I asked her for the location of the bee tree and where the party saw the orcs, then left the Adventurer’s Guild.