Chapter 136 – Bear-san Meets Marcus And His Party Again

When we reached the Adventurer’s Guild, we saw Marcus and the rest of his party standing near the entrance.

The three of them noticed us and rushed over.

「Yuna-san, why are you here?」

「More importantly, why are you with Shia-san…」

「Shia, what’s going on?」

Marcus, Cattleya, and Timor all started speaking at the same time.

「Hey guys, long time no see. Are you all doing well?」

「More or less.」

「It has been a long time since I last saw you, Yuna-san.」

「Yuna-san, it’s been a while indeed.」

They all answered vigorously, but something was still bugging me.

「Marcus, what’s with the bruise on your face?」

「Ah, this…」

Marcus pointed at a purple bruise on his right cheek.

「My father hit me for putting everyone in danger with my selfish actions and not listening to your instructions. He got really angry. He even went as far as to ask me: ‘Who the hell do you think you are?’」

「And then he punched you…?」

Marcus laughed while pointing at his cheek again.

「He’s right, so this is normal. He also praised me, though. He said that it’s better to take action than to pretend not to see anything, but also told me to only take action after considering my strength, the strength of my allies, and the information we have on the enemy.」

Now that he mentioned it, Eleanora-san had also told me something like that.

Well, all of this was partly my fault, but since Marcus had already accepted his punishment, there was nothing I could really say.

「I was really surprised the first time I saw his bruise. He came to the academy just a day after he was hit, his face still really swollen.」

「Yeah, it really surprised me, too. It used to be a lot worse compared to now, after all.」

「I was really wondering what happened when I saw him.」

「You’re saying that he used to look even worse?」

Well, quite some time had already passed since the guard mission, and for the bruise to remain until now…

How hard did his father hit him?

「Is it okay now?」

「Yeah, it is. It’s no big deal, really.」

Marcus lightly rubbed his cheek.

「You say that even though you made so much ruckus just when we touched it before?」

「I remember correctly, you even had tears in your eyes.」

「Of course it hurt when you touched it the day after I had been hit.」

Shia and Cattleya laughed as they reminisced about it, but I agreed with him.

Even though I had no experience with being hit like that, I knew that if you touched a swollen cheek, it would hurt. Honestly, even just imagining it made my cheek hurt.

Wasn’t it weird that when you saw someone else hurt, you started to feel the pain as well?

「What about the others; was it okay for you, or did people get mad at you too?」

「Professor and Eleanora-sama did get angry.」

「My mom was mad because I didn’t back you up, Yuna-san.」

「They got mad at me, too, saying irrational things like ‘You were supposed to stop Marcus’… They said it like I was his guardian or something…」

「But in the end, no one punched you guys, right?」

Marcus said sulkily, which made everyone laugh.

Well, the way I saw it, Marcus was the leader of the party, so he had to take responsibility for the others. His father must have taken that into account when he punched him.

Also, this world wasn’t like Japan, where they would say, ‘He’s just a child’. I was sure, he must have been scolded hard.

If his father said something like,『It’s not our child’s fault, the one who was in the wrong was the adventurer.』, I would have had to use the favor I had with Eleanora-san or the King.

「So, why are you two together then?」

「I had something to do at the Commerce Guild, and met with Shia there.」

「When I was on my way here, I saw a Bear-san in front of me, so I rushed to catch up with her.」

You didn’t really have to rush…

「At the Commerce Guild?」

I told them why I had been on my way to the Commerce Guild, and what had happened afterwards, then presented the dismantling master Fina to them.

When I introduced her like that, Fina dismissed it by saying,『I can only dismantle simple monsters,』 and looked at me reproachfully.

Why? Even though I only told them the truth…

Look at me, I couldn’t even dismantle a wolf…

「Are you telling us you brought such a little child all the way to the capital just because you wanted to buy a mithril knife?」

「I think it is okay since it is Yuna-san, but just two girls traveling alone is dangerous, you know.」

Timor and Cattleya looked at Fina and me with surprise.

Well, it was normal to think that two girls traveling from Cri