.It didn’t take long for me to find the shop
I just walked the wide road towards the central district, like Sanya-san had told me to, and in no time I came up to a certain large building. In front, there were two Bear statues, which I simply gazed at for a while. They were comparable in size with my own Bears, but what caught my eye the most were the things they were holding. One of them held a large spoon, while the other, a large fork.
They didn’t really look like actual bears but rather had cartoonish features which made them appear quite friendly instead of scary. Their faces looked very cute as well.
The people who were strolling past the storefront all smiled when they saw the bears. For some reason, I also felt like they were glancing back and forth between the statues and me.
「My, is that Bear mascot from the shop?」「It’s a Bear!」「Are they doing an event?」
People were mistakenly thinking that I was involved with this shop because of my outfit. I couldn’t really deny it yet, so I held it in.
Looking above the entrance, I noticed that the sign indeed read「Bear-san’s Relaxation Restaurant」, just like Sanya-san had said it would. The name of the shop was very similar to mine and there was even a Bear-san drawn beside the name.
With both the shop’s name and the Bear statues sitting at the front should be enough to point out that the culprit behind this was Eleanora-san. I immediately started to plan my storming inside to question her, but managed to stop myself. I didn’t even know if she was actually inside or not, and I also couldn’t just barge in without any warning. While I was 99% positive that Eleanora-san was indeed responsible for this, there was a slight chance that this shop belonged to a complete stranger. I should be certain before I did something so unreasonable as barging in into a stranger owned shop. Best to first head to the castle where Eleanora-san was most likely to be and go on from there.
Just as I began making my way towards the castle, I spotted my target walking towards me.
「Oh my, Yuna-chan? What are you doing here?」
Eleanora-san smiled as she walked over.
What a perfect timing; my opponent came straight to me when I most needed her.
「What I am doing here? That’s not the question to be asking right now. Eleanora-san, what is this?!」
I pointed at the shop behind me with my Bear Hand.
「What do you mean? This is your shop in the capital, isn’t it?」
「That’s not what I meant. Why are there bear statues in front of it?!」
I again pointed, this time at the two statues at the entrance.
「Well, it’s because this is your shop, Yuna-chan. It makes sense for them to be there」
「Since when did it become my shop?! All I did was teach you the recipes.」
I didn’t hear anything about how it would be be designed to look like my store in Crimonia.
「Oh, right… Well, it started when His Majesty was like, 「How is Yuna’s shop going?」, and then Zelef responded 「Yuna-dono’s shop is going well,」and Her Highness also chimed in saying 「I look forward to seeing her shop here when it opens,」so somehow, through that conversation, it became your shop.」
She explained what had happened with a serious expression on her face, which showed she clearly wasn’t joking.
Just because we hadn’t decided on the shop’s name before didn’t mean I wanted for it to end up becoming my shop…
「Then, we simply continued with with the flow and went to inspect your store to make it look more like yours.」
How was I supposed to even argue with such logic? So that had been the reason they visited my shop in Crimonia? And nobody had objected to that idea, thinking there was something wrong with it without even asking me? Did all of them simply lack common sense?
「Well, in my case, I also wanted to use the chance to visit my home. Then, Zelef said that he also wanted to come along, so we went together. His Majesty actually wanted to go, too, but obviously we couldn’t allow that to happen.」
Just what had His Majesty been thinking….
Even simply imagining the king showing up at my shop was a frightening prospect. Even if he were to disguise himself, people like Fina, who knew what he looked like, would probably pass out from the shock when he came to Crimonia. I could also easily clearly imagine him talking to Fina in a very carefree, casual manner, which would make things even worse for her.
I had to thank Eleanora-san for stopping His Majesty in this case.
「Also, I wanted to see you look surprised at me dropping by so suddenly.」
Eleanora-san revealed her true intentions with a disappointed expression, which made any appreciation I had for her previously vanish completely.
「Only when we saw your shop sign, we realized that we still didn’t decide on a name for the shop. So, I thought it would be best to use yours as a reference.」
「Was there seriously nobody against that idea? Having ‘bear’ in the name, I mean?」
「Nobody did, really. Zelef simply commented「It’s a fine name,」and His Majesty followed up with 「I don’t mind it,」after we returned, so we just went with it.」
「…」
Somebody should really have said something, though. The shop’s name had ‘bear’ in it. This shop was being run by the country, so wasn’t that just plain weird?
「Still, since the country is managing the shop, shouldn’t you be calling it something like 「The National Restaurant,」「The Royal Palace Restaurant,」or 「The Restaurant of the Purveyor to His Royal Majesty」?」
「I don’t really understand the last one, but as we’re not trying to make it difficult for people to enter, we decided against such names.」
「So you’re saying that having ‘bear’ in the name will make it easier for people to enter?」
「That’s not what I meant, but the name will surely become popular amongst the citizens, prompting more people to come in.」
This was the first time I heard of word ‘bear’ being popular among the general population. Bears were dangerous and terrifying; they could attacked people on sight, so it was best to avoid them..
Swaying Bear and Hugging Bear were different, of course, but that was still what the regular bears were like.
「We thought of the name shortly after we visited your shop. Even though bears are normally scary, the bears at your shop and in your picture books are not scary at all. They’re actually quite cute. It’s all in the way you portray them.」
She had a point there…
Heck, anything scary made into a cartoonish version would most likely look cute. Even terrible monsters like goblins, orcs, and dragons, appeared much more docile and adorable in cartoons.
「If you’re aiming for the popularity with the general citizens, does that mean anybody can eat here?」
Due to the lack of eggs, most of the dishes should be pretty expensive, especially if they wanted to sell all of the egg dishes.
「Just like with your shop, we wanted anyone to be able to come and eat here. Still, it will take some time before that happens, as our costs are quite high at the moment.」
There wasn’t much that could be done about that. There just weren’t enough eggs available on the market. Unlike my shop, which had the orphanage’s cluckers supporting it, they had no choice but to purchase them at a high price.
「When we manage to increase the supply of eggs, we should be able to lower the costs and in turn have prices more suited for the general population.」