Author’s Note:

Happy New Year!

Please treat me and the Bears kindly this year as well.

The next day, after having a quick breakfast with Sanya-san, we headed over to where the Village Elder, Mumuroot-san, lived.

She was planning on getting more information on the barrier’s situation while also asking for permission to place the Bear House somewhere near the village.

As we were walking, a group of people noticed Sanya-san and approached us.

「Sanya, we heard you came back yesterday. So, that’s the rumored girl who is dressed like a bear, huh?」

They all looked at me, I greeted them with a small nod.

「The bears aren’t here, though?」

「They are summoned beasts, so...」

As Sanya-san continued to chat with them, we eventually made it to Mumuroot-san’s house.

It wasn’t that far from Sanya-san’s home and was just about the same size.

Still, with only his wife and him living there...

「Grandpa, we’re here!」

Sanya-san entered without even knocking and yelled out to him.

I followed her inside while wondering if entering like this was really okay.

There was no response from anybody inside, but Sanya-san, not minding that one bit, headed straight through the house and entered a room in the back.

I continued to follow behind her, of course, thinking this must be something standard in villages like these.

Inside the room, Mumuroot-san was sitting on a large carpet, cross-legged. Sitting next to him, was a female elf.

「Oh, Sanya, you’re here. And I see Young Bear Lady from yesterday came along as well.」

「I’m home, Grandma.」

Sanya-san called the female elf ‘grandma’, but she looked nowhere near that age. No matter how I looked, she seemed like she was in her forties.

The female elf smiled, and spoke up.

「Welcome home, Sanya. So, the Young Bear Lady over there is the rumored one, huh.」

「I’m Yuna.」

I greeted her with a light bow.

「I can’t believe that you actually are dressed like a bear. Oh, let me prepare some tea first.」

The grandma (who looked nothing like one) stood up and went to a different room.

「By the way, Sanya, would you mind telling me why the Young Bear Lady came with you today?」

As it was concerning me, I began to explain why.

「You want to live in this village?」

「Yuna-chan owns a transportable house and would like permission to set it up here.」

I would at least like the permission to place it temporarily.

It would be difficult to give a reason for why I wanted to set it down permanently as I couldn’t really say that I wanted to set a house down even though I wasn’t planning to live here.

「Is Sanya’s home not comfortable enough for you?」

「No, of course it is. It’s just that having my house would be more convenient for me.」

I couldn’t find a good time to use the Bear Phone yesterday, so I hadn’t contacted Fina yet.

Also, not being able to take a bath left me really uncomfortable, so I would really like to bring out my Bear House while I was here at least.

「It doesn’t matter to me if it’s near the village or somewhere in the forest, but could you please let me set one up?」

Mumuroot-san scratched his chin while thinking about my request.

I actually hoped I could set it up near the border of the barrier rather than somewhere in the village. Especially if I was going to set it down permanently, I would prefer a place that didn’t stand out.

Still, I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. First, I needed to get permission to set down the house.

「Grandpa, please. Yuna-chan has done a lot for us already. Also, I will take full responsibility if she causes any trouble for the village.」

I was happy to hear that Sanya-san trusted me so much. I didn’t plan on causing trouble for the elves, of course. It would be best to befriend them too, so that I could later get permission to place a Bear House here permanently.

「I understand. However, I will only allow it while you are staying in the village.」

「Thank you, Grandpa.」

I got permission to place it, but only while staying here.

Even with Sanya-san asking, we could only get permission temporarily, meaning that setting one up for a long period of time would most likely be difficult.

「Thank you very much.」

I thanked him as he did at least give me temporary permission.

「So, where can I place it?」

「As long as you don’t trouble the neighbors and they are okay with it, anywhere is fine.」

「Okay.」

Since the conversation was now finished, I thanked Mumuroot-san again and got up to leave, but he stopped me.

「Wait, my wife is preparing tea. I would also like to hear about what Sanya has done at the capital. It won’t take long, so please stay for a while longer.」

「Are you sure? Don’t you have to talk about some important things?」

「It’s okay. I don’t think you’ll understand those even if you listen in.」

I wasn’t sure if he was saying I was too stupid to understand, or if it was something only elves could understand.

Well, he said it was okay for me to stay, so I would take up on his offer; I was quite interested in the barrier anyway.

Sanya’s (not so old-looking) grandma soon brought us some tea and fruits, so I helped myself to them while also listening in on their conversation.

「So, how much have you heard so far, Sanya?」

「Just a few things Ruimin and Mother told me.」

Huh? It suddenly got really hard to comprehend what the two were saying.

I had properly cleaned out my ears, so that couldn’t be why.

I tried shaking my head to focus, even though that most likely wouldn’t really help.

「I see. Only a few people know about this, but there’s been quite a lot of monsters breaking through the barrier recently.」

「Quite a lot you say?!」

I could understand them just fine now.

Maybe I should clean my ears once I got home.

Anyway, it appeared that monsters were indeed getting through the barrier.

「Yeah, and that’s why Labilata and the others are on high alert. They were guarding the area until you came back.」

Oh, so it wasn’t because I looked suspicious.

I kind of felt bad for saying that their shadowing had been disturbing.

Wait, Sanya-san had said that, not me.

「Is the situation really that bad?」

「The only monsters that are getting through are low level ones for now. Still, even though we haven’t had any stronger monsters come in yet, with the barrier getting weaker, I believe it’s only a matter of time.」

What sort of monsters did they mean by stronger than low level ones?

Were they talking about orc-level or higher?

「By the way, what exactly is causing the barrier to weaken? I thought it was going to be fine for another hundred years.」

Mumuroot-san shook his head.

「I don’t know. It’s possible that something happened to the Sacred Tree.」

A Sacred Tree? What was that, something like Yggdrasil? The conversation suddenly started to sound like that of a fantasy world.

I wanted to see it, but I would most likely not be allowed to.

(TL note: Norse Mythology, anybody?)

「Has anyone checked on the Sacred Tree?」

「Sadly, as you know, only those related to us by blood can enter it. There are only me, Aruturu, Ruimin, Luca, and you. Luca is still a child and I also can’t leave it to Ruimin yet. That’s why I called for you.」

Did this have something to do with the thing that needed three people?

Now that I thought about it, this barrier was rather inconvenient.

Well, at least they had long lives and no one passed away yet. Still, what would happen if they all passed away?

「The three of us will go check on it tomorrow, so you should prepare yourself.」

「Okay.」

Sanya-san said and nodded.

「By the way, why did you bring the Young Bear Lady all the way to the village?」

「She said she wanted to see what kind of place the elves lived in.」

「Such a reason doesn’t sound too suspicious, but you’re sure she’s safe, right?」

Was he still doubting my intentions?

Well, I did look kind of suspicious with my Bear Suit and all.

Still, people normally wouldn’t talk about somebody like that when they were right in front of them...

「Yuna-chan may look weird, but she’s a really good child. She’s helped me out lots, and even took care of Ruimin, too. She came here because she was genuinely interested in this place.」

「I see. If you’re going that far to defend her, I guess you must be right.」

「You can trust her, but still stay cautious, okay?」

「Cautious, huh.」

Mumuroot-san’s expression changed when she said that.

What was she trying to say? Didn’t that make me sound even more suspicious?

「Yuna-chan can do very bizzare things from time to time, so try not to get too thrown off by what she does.」

Sanya-san said while laughing.

Were the things I did really that bizarre... When I tried to think of the things I normally did... Maybe it was true?

「Bizarre, huh. I’ll keep my guard up, then.」

After saying that, Mumuroot-san looked at me.

「Sorry for talking between ourselves for so long.」

「Yeah, sorry, Yuna-chan. We ended up talking between ourselves, and kind of ignored you.」

The two of them apologized.

「It’s okay.」

At the very least, they should talk about me when I wasn’t there next time.

Also, was it really okay for me to listen to a conversation like that? Wouldn’t I normally not be allowed to hear such things?

Not even the other elves knew about the situation.

Well, I didn’t really care much as I didn’t live here.

「Still, were you not surprised, Yuna-chan?」

「About what?」

「We were speaking in the elven language. Usually people get surprised by that.」

「...」

What did she say just now? The elven language?

「Usually, we speak the common language in the village, but when we want to speak privately we use the elven language.」

「Yes. The conversation was concerning the village, so I apologize for leaving you out of it.」

「...」

In other words, they were speaking to each other in the elven language this whole time.

That was why they had talked about me like that; it was because they thought that I wouldn’t understand what they were saying.

Did I understand them because of my Language Of The Other World skill? It must have activated for elven language as well.

Oh, and that was why Mumuroot-san had said I wouldn’t be able to understand their conversation.

Normal humans couldn’t understand the elven language.

Hmm, I should probably pretend like I really hadn’t understood a thing.

「By the way, Young Bear Lady. I would like to hear about what Sanya did while she was in the capital. Was she working properly?」

Afterwards, I began to talk about Sanya-san’s work, being interrupted by Sanya-san many times, asking me to stop it.

I also learned that the grandma was called Vena-san mid-conversation.

Author’s Note:

I finally managed to get to this topic. w

When I thought of the Language Of The Other World skill, I figured it should be able to translate the language of every race, so I wrote that here.

It only works for standardized languages, though, so it won’t work with monsters or animals.