Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear

Fina was at my door, completely out of breath.

「Why are you in such a hurry?!」

「Because… this…. letter…」

I had no idea what she was trying to tell me.

Before I listened to what she had to say, I took a bottle of water out of the Bear Box and gave it to her. She drank the whole bottle in one go before catching her breath.

「Thank you, Big Sis Yuna.」

「So, what happened?」

I inquired again.

「Didn’t you receive a letter as well, Big Sis Yuna?」

「No?」

Fina was grasping what seemed to be a letter in her hand.

Well, I didn’t really check my postbox very often.

I thought nobody in this world would be sending me letters anyway. It had been the same in Japan. I hadn’t even gotten any personal emails either; the only ones I had ever received had been those from the game company.

「Please go and check your postbox, then.」

「Okay.」

Since Fina insisted so strongly, I went to check my bear-shaped postbox.

Oh, there really was an envelope inside.

I took it out and immediately noticed that it was of a high quality.

「I knew you would receive one as well, Big Sis Yuna.」

Fina said and sighed a breath of relief.

I had no idea who would send me this letter, though.

I looked at the sender’s name.

Who was Misana Faren Gramm again? I faintly recalled hearing that name before.

「Is this person your acquaintance?」

「What are you saying? It’s Misana-sama. We ran into her on our way to attend the king’s birthday party. The noble, Misa-sama.」

Ah, I remembered now.

Misa was Misana’s nickname.

Still, why would Misa send me a letter?

I headed back into the house with Fina to hear the details.

「Fina, did you read yours already?」

「Yes, I have… It’s an invitation to Misa-sama’s birthday party…」

「An invitation to her birthday party?」

I broke the seal on my envelope, took out the letter, and quickly scanned over it. Just as Fina had said, it was an invitation to Misa’s party.

「So, leaving you aside, why did Misa-sama send an invitation to me, a commoner? This is a Noble-sama’s birthday party!」

Fina said while anxiously staring at her letter.

Well, if we compared the two of us, Fina, who made friends easily, was more likely to be invited to the capital than me. If I wasn’t wrong, they had met with each other a few times in the capital while I had been running errands.

「Big Sis Yuna, what happens if I refuse?」

There was no point in asking me that since I didn’t know, either.

Well, based on my common sense, refusing would most likely be considered rude.

She would probably need a good enough excuse to refuse an invitation of this sort. I honestly had no knowledge of noble etiquette, especially the one of this world. Also, this was a pain for me as well since I had never gone to any birthday parties back in my world. Not to mention, this was a party for nobles. I had nothing against Misa, but if other noble families were attending, then I didn’t want to go.

Also, attending a birthday party in a Bear Suit?

All the girls there would be wearing beautiful dresses; I would look like some sort of a comedian wearing my Bear Suit. So, for a different reason than Fina, I also wanted to refuse the invitation myself. Could we refuse it, though?

Since neither of us knew much about nobles, we couldn’t come up with a good answer no matter how much we pondered about it.

In that case, we had to ask somebody who did know.

「We’ll have to ask Cliff and Noa, then.」

「Cliff-sama and Noa-sama?」

「If we got the invitations, I’m sure one was sent to Noa’s mansion as well.」

「Yes, that makes sense.」

Since it was already getting late, we decided to go to Cliff’s mansion tomorrow morning.

The next day, Fina came to the Bear House again, and the two of us headed to Cliff’s mansion.

We were greeted by the gatekeeper and taken to the same room as always. We sat down on the sofa to wait for Cliff when I noticed Fina seemed nervous.

「Fina, are you okay?」

「Yes, I’m okay.」

She definitely didn’t look okay, though.

「It’s just that, knowing I’m about to meet Cliff-sama is making me a little nervous.」

She had stayed at Eleanora-san’s mansion and had even seen the king himself before, so there shouldn’t be any reason for her to be nervous over meeting Cliff now, right?

「Fina, you’ve already met the king, so Cliff shouldn’t be a problem, right?」

「I just can’t! Cliff-sama isn’t someone I could normally meet, and I’m not of a social standing to be let into his residence. Am I even allowed to sit on this sofa? What will I do if he gets mad at me? Big Sis Yuna, would it be better if I stood instead?」

「No, it’s okay to sit. Also, if Cliff gets mad at you, I’ll fight him on your behalf.」

「I won’t get mad, so please don’t pick a fight with me.」

Cliff said as he and Noa entered the room.

「Were you eavesdropping?」

「We just heard the last part as we entered.」

「It’s been a while, Yuna-san, Fina.」

「Noa, sorry for coming so early in the morning.」

「G-good morning. S-sorry for intruding.」

I didn’t stand up as I greeted them while Fina jumped up and stuttered her greeting.

「No problem, you’re welcome to come, no matter how early or late it is.」

Cliff and Noa sat down on the sofa across of us, so there was now a table in between us.

「Thank you. Well then, sorry if this comes out of nowhere, but mind if I ask you something?」

「Sure. It’s regarding Misana, right? I was actually planning on sending someone to your place later today.」

「So, you received a birthday party invitation as well?」

「Yes, since the party will be hosted at Gran’s place.」

「Gran-san’s place?」

If I remembered correctly, Gran-san was the one who had helped me when I had been purchasing the plot of land at the capital.

「In the letter, she also asks us to bring you two there.」

「Can we refuse it, though?」

「You plan on refusing it?」

「I mean, if commoners like us go to a noble’s birthday party, won’t it cause trouble for Misa?」

As I said that, Fina nodded furiously in agreement.

「I think it should be fine. The people invited are mostly her friends and family.」

「But…」

Fina wanted to see Misa, but was still afraid of causing trouble by going to a noble’s party.

「Noa and I will both be going as well, so if anything happens, I will deal with it.」

「You’ll be going too, Cliff?」

I realized it was the birthday party of a noble’s daughter, but should Cliff, a feudal lord, really be leaving his town just to attend a birthday party?

「Well, my daughters will be attending that one. The one I’m going to is for Gran himself.」

「Gran-san will have a party too?」

「Yes, he is celebrating his 50th birthday just before Misana hosts her own party. I’ll be attending his party and since I’m going there anyway, I’ll just bring you all along. Normally, I don’t really go to birthday parties, but it’s his 50th. It will be a bit troublesome, but I don’t intend on missing it. Misana’s party is basically a bonus, so you don’t have to worry about anything.」

「You guys should go; it’ll be fun. I’m sure Misa wants to see you two as well.」

「But, I’m just a commoner.」

Fina said and lowered her head in shame.

「You two are both members of the Bear-san Fanclub, so it doesn’t really matter that you’re a commoner.」

Wait a second, when had that fanclub been made?

「Fina, don’t you want to see Misa?」

「I do, it’s just…」

「If you don’t go, Misa will be sad. She might even cry.」

「Ugh…」

「Misa went out of her way to ask me for your addresses and sent the invitations herself, you know.」

That was how it had been sent to our homes, huh.

「I will feel sorry for her if you don’t go.」

Well, it certainly made sense that she had sent the invitations because she wanted us to come.

She surely hadn’t sent them for some malicious reasons.

「Think of it this way: wouldn’t you be sad if you sent an invitation to Yuna-san, but she decided not to come?」

「I… I get it. I will go.」

When Noa put it that way, she made it impossible for Fina to refuse.

「Since Fina will be going, you will go as well, won’t you, Yuna-san?」

Fina looked at me. I couldn’t possibly let Fina go by herself. If I said that I wouldn’t go now, Fina would surely cry.

Also, unlike Fina, I had no real reason to refuse the invitation; it was just that I found it troublesome.

「I will go.」

「Yay! That means I can go on a trip with Bear-sans.」

That was her real aim, huh.

「Well then, Fina. We should choose what we will wear for the birthday party.」

「Eh?」

Noa grabbed Fina’s hand and started to drag her away.

Fina looked at me as though she wanted me to save her, but I sent her off with a smile instead since I didn’t want to get involved.

「Big Sis Yuna?!」

Since Fina couldn’t do anything to stop Noa, she got dragged out of the room.

It was just picking an outfit; it wasn’t like she was going to die.

「Anyway, we will be departing from my house in the early morning five days from now.」

Cliff ignored his daughter’s actions and continued our conversation.

「Is Misa’s town far from here?」

「Not really. It takes about three days by horse carriage.」

In that case, my Bears would probably only take a few hours to get there.

「I’m sorry, but I will have you to travel with us this time around.」

He was right; since we would be gathering at Cliff’s mansion, I couldn’t just go on ahead with my Bears.

「Just so you know, I know nothing about noble’s birthday parties. Is there something we must bring?」

「We will prepare the basic things you will need, but could you get a present that will make Misana happy?」

Ah, a present.

「Can we give her jewels or clothing?」

「I don’t think Misana will be happy receiving those as presents.」

「You say that, but I have no idea what presents make noble girls happy.」

「Why don’t you give her those bear figures you decorated your shop with?」

「Would something like that really be okay?」

「If it was for our daughter, she would have been delighted.」

Well, he made sense.

Wait, if she would be happy with the bear figurines from my shop, then wouldn’t Sherry’s plushies be good too?

Giving girls plushies as a present had been a pretty standard thing back in Japan.

「Thank you. I’ll take it into consideration. So, you said we only need to prepare the present?」

「Yes.」

「Okay, I’ll be heading home, then. Can you take care of Fina?」

「Yea, we’ll look after her properly, so no need to worry about her.」

I was abandoning Fina…

Cough, cough. Fina would take a while to find an outfit for the party, so it was okay for me to head home alone, right?

A noble’s birthday party, huh. I sure hoped it wouldn’t turn out to be too troublesome.

Was what I thought leaving the mansion.

Author’s note:

I planned on starting the birthday arc after finishing up with plushies, but I just had no idea how to transition between the arcs… So, that’s why the plushies arc will now continue together with the birthday arc.