Chapter 35 – Kaya in the bag

“…I knew it.”

Apparently I have a future sight ability now. Ririi said exactly what I was expecting, as she holds that angel bear tightly.

The angel bear lets out a ‘kyu’ sound as it’s being squeezed. Is that what their cry is like?

“Please daddy, Ririh will take care of it.”

As I look at Ririi’s strong eyes pointed at me… My mind goes back to that day a year ago.

Ririi was wearing a rag and had a chain around her neck, and was a thing to be sold. She couldn’t do anything… Actually, she didn’t try to do anything.

But now, she’s trying to convince me to let her take care of a pet.

…Ririi being the one to take care of something…

“Please daddy.”

Ririi’s eyes are moist as she looks up at me. Even the angel bear, whose mind was completely focused on its parent, is now looking at me with its round eyes.

…You want to come live with us?

“…Tell me something, Kaya.”

“…? What?”

Kaya looks at me with her eyebrows raised. I guess she wasn’t expecting me to talk to her.

“Can angel bears… Be kept as pets?”

“…Hm…”

She pouts her lips, and her eyebrows stay the same as she looks up into the sky.

But she quickly turns to me again. I don’t know if she found an answer, or realized there’s no point in thinking about it.

“I guess you can’t… Not keep it. Where do you live, Weiss?”

“The capital.”

“The capital!? Ahem… That might work then. With a large backyard… You have one, right…?”

“It’s not that big, but it is a backyard.”

That house that Sieglinde got for us is in a high class residential area, so the backyard isn’t very big. I don’t think that’s going to be a problem, because angel bears grow slowly, but it’s definitely going to be a problem once it reaches maturity.

Then again, I’d have to build a shed or something for it if it was going to be kept outside, so I get the feeling it would stay inside.

I crouch in order to be on Ririi’s eye level.

“Can you really take care of it? Taking care of living beings isn’t easy.”

“Yes. Ririh will work hard.”

Her eyes fill with hope. That said, she doesn’t really know how hard it is to take care of a living being. I just hope she sticks to it.

“…All right. That bear is part of our family now.”

I slowly pat the head of the angel bear Ririi is holding, and feel its soft fur on my fingers.

That feeling… Reminds me of why I came here. . Yes, to take the fur of an angel bear. I completely forgot.

“Weiss, a moment please.”

“What?”

Kaya taps me on the shoulder, and when I turn around, she’s looking at me with suspicion on her face.

“Hum… I’m sort of their guardian. So… I need to check if you can really take care of it at home. Take me to the capital.”

She says, but I don’t see the least bit of sadness and anxiety on her face about the angel bear being taken away. Instead, her eyes are glowing like a hick who dreams of living in the capital.

But that has nothing to do with me.

“All right. But the inspection to enter the capital is pretty strict, so don’t complain at me. And I want this dead body.”

I don’t wait for her response, and put the dead angel bear in my magic bag. It feels to me like it’s been dead for hours. That makes sense, because there’s no way I’d miss the real culprit on a wide open grassy field.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested to find out who did it and why, but I have no way of knowing now.

“All right, then let’s go back!”

Kaya raises her fist and starts walking… In the opposite direction of where I parked the two-wheeled magic vehicle. Where is she going? Does she have a way to go to the capital in her village?

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Where… You have a vehicle, right? Take me there.”

“That’s the wrong way. And.. My vehicle is for two people. Sorry, but we don’t have room for you.”

“Wha!?”

Kaya’s face stiffens, and she moves her mouth without making a sound.

“Don’t you have any way to get to the capital in your village?”

“What do you think a remote village like that’s like!? Of course I don’t.”

“Well, I don’t know…”

Even Zenith, that’s way further away from the capital than this, had means of transportation. Well, that place was like the end of the world, but also strangely developed in some ways. Maybe it’s not the best example.

“Isn’t there anything you can do?”

“If you can survive being dragged there with a rope, that might work.”

“Now way! Is that any way to talk to a lady…”

Says Kaya while shuffling away from me, but then she raises her voice and claps.

“I know, that bag! Get me in there. You can fill it with magic, right?”

…The line between idiocy and genius is paper thin, but this time she fell completely on the genius side.

“All right, let’s go with that. I’ve never put a living being in here, but I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Eh? Wait, I’m really not sure about kya!?”

The magic back sucks her in before she can finish.

I’ll ask her how it felt to be in the magic bag once we reach the capital.

If she’s alive that is.