Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (Chapter 75-260)

Chapter 231

Chapter 231 – Bear-san Inspects the Sacred Tree

The next day, the five of us departed for the Sacred Tree.
Hugging Bear came along with me today. I had been with Swaying Bear for a long time yesterday while Hugging Bear returned to the village with Mumuroot-san, so Hugging Bear ended up pouting. After I had realized that was the case, I quickly summoned Hugging Bear and it happily snuggled against me. After spending the last night with it, its overall mood had gotten much better.
I gently patted it, asking it to stay on guard for anything dangerous. We could no longer rely on the barrier, after all.

I had somehow managed to get permission to accompany the group to the Sacred Tree, but since it was deep in a mountain range and protected by a barrier, I wouldn’t be able to see it.
I had been mulling over ways to catch a glimpse of the tree since yesterday, but I didn’t come up with many good ideas. Maybe, I could leap high enough to get on top of a mountain or use earth magic to raise the ground under me so that I could see the tree from higher up, how the plans would work depended on how tall the mountains were.
If only I could summon a bird like Sanya-san’s, then I could see the tree from the bird’s perspective instead…
Sadly, my summons didn’t have such powers, and Hugging Bear couldn’t simply fly me up there To begin with, it made no sense for bears to be able to fly, so there was nothing that could be done about that.
Hugging Bear let out an apologetic whimper, interrupting my thoughts. Did it notice what I was thinking?

「I’m sorry, Hugging Bear. I didn’t mean to put it like that. Please don’t look so sad.」

I gave Hugging Bear a hug and patted it.

「Why did you apologize to Hugging Bear out of nowhere?」

Sanya-san, who was walking beside me, gave me a strange look.

「I kind of said something terrible to Hugging Bear, but it began apologizing to me instead.」

「What did you say to Hugging Bear-chan?」

「I was a bit disappointed that Hugging Bear couldn’t fly so that I could see the tree from above…」

「Huhu, that’s what you were thinking about? It’s already amazing enough that Hugging Bear lets people ride on it. Not to mention how fast it can run.」

Sanya-san laughed and patted Hugging Bear as we walked.

「That’s right. Even though you can’t fly in the sky, I’m very grateful for everything you do for me.」

I was in the wrong here. I always depended on Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear when I needed to go somewhere. Even if I took a nap while riding on them, they always kept running onwards. When I slept in my room, they stood on guard for me.
The moment I told Hugging Bear how grateful I was, it cheered up quite a bit.

「I’m sorry for making you sad.」

I rubbed Hugging Bear’s head and began thinking of another way to see the Sacred Tree since flying really wasn’t an option.
Currently, we were heading to our destination smoothly, not encountering any monsters.
Though we had subjugated all the monsters in the area yesterday, we still shouldn’t let down our guard.
I had Hugging Bear on the lookout for monsters, so it should let us know if we were to come across one.

After traveling for a while longer, we left the forest and saw the mountain range.
This must be the mountain I had heard about yesterday: the Sacred Tree must be just beyond it. Looking at it from up close, the mountain was quite high, so jumping wouldn’t be enough. Hmm, maybe I would be able to climb it instead?

「Looks like there aren’t any monsters around.」

「We still can’t let our guards down.」