The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 1 - Chapter 50

Chapter 50:

Sopuna Fruit

I RETURNED TO THE VILLAGE and went to the butcher, a little nervous about whether they’d actually buy the pigeon meat.

“Excuse me?” I called out.

“Yeees?” It was the usual lady. “Oh, good morning to you!”

“Good morning. May I sell again today?”

“Absolutely, dear.”

I pulled the bana leaf-wrapped meat out for the lady to see.

“Goodness,” she exclaimed. “Another big haul, I see.”

I had to chuckle to myself again, since this was all the adandara’s doing—especially the pigeon. I had no idea what I’d even say if she asked how I’d caught it. After examining each chunk of meat, she picked up the last one.

“This is pigeon meat, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Yes. But I did make a few mistakes while butchering it.”

“Hm? Oh, don’t worry. This is fine. Hmm…where are the bones, though?”

“The bones?” I asked.

“Oh, did you not know? You can sell pigeon bones, too.”

“Huh? Really? I discarded them…”

“Oh well! There’s nothing you can do about that now. But next time you catch a pigeon, feel free to bring us the bones.”

What did they use bones for? Did they eat them? They’d seemed pretty tough when I was removing the meat. Maybe…they were used as materials?

I decided to just ask. “Sorry, what are the bones used for?”

“We process the bones here and sell them to the drugstore.”

“The drugstore?”

“Yep. If you boil it with other medicines and ingredients, it can be sold as a soup that restores stamina.”

“I had no idea.” They were used for medicine, huh? I didn’t know that. I felt a little bad for wasting the bones.

“Now you know!” she smiled. “So, about your money. Three mice, 300 dal. Five rabbits, 475 dal. One pigeon, 150 dal. Your total is…925 dal. Does that sound all right?”

“That’s fine. Thank you.” I took the money, thanked her again, and left. A pigeon was 150 dal… That was a lot! But my book didn’t include information on how to trap birds, so I wouldn’t be able to make much use of that.

Now, today…yeah, I should do my laundry. I’d also like to search the forest a little to gather fruit. Sopuna fruit would be nice—it’d help clean my hair a bit better when I’m washing it.

I also needed to find food…soon I’d have to prepare for the trip to Otolwa.

I checked the trees along the way to the river. It was hard to find any sopuna, but I was able to secure food along the way. Finally, when I was closer to the river, I found a sopuna tree…and this one was bursting with fruit.

“Hooray!” I threw fruit into my bag. Once I had enough, I went down to the river and washed my clothes, hanging my laundry on a nearby tree as I went. “Urgh…my hips sure hurt.”

I searched for auras nearby and didn’t sense any monsters or animals around. Feeling safe, I wet my hair and crushed a sopuna in my hand. Then I rubbed my hands together until bubbles formed and washed my body. After rinsing the bubbles off in the river a few times, I dried my hair with a towel.

“My hair’s gotten pretty long,” I mused. “I should cut it later.”

“Pu, pu!” Sora looked rather happy as it did its usual stretching. These days, it seemed more prone to stretching than bouncing. It surely meant something…but what?

Whew…my hair’s pretty dry, so I should take my clothes and go back. Once I’m there, I’ll make some traps!

I bowed to the gatekeeper and tried to continue into the village.

“Hey, wait a second,” he stopped me. “You’re Ivy, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Would you mind coming with me?”

“Is something wrong?”

“They’ve calculated your gratuity, so the captain told me to take you to the station if I saw you. No rush if you’re busy, though. What do you say?”

I had forgotten all about the gratuity. “Now is fine.” 

I followed the gatekeeper into a pretty big building. I was curious about it when I looked around the village… It had several entrances, it wasn’t a house, and it wasn’t a store. It didn’t look like a guild, either, so what was it there for?

When I went inside, lots of people were going in and out. Were the people leaving in teams patrolling guards? 

“Here we are,” said the gatekeeper. “Heya, Captain! Keep up the good work.” 

“Ivy, good morning! Sorry for calling you out here.”

“Good morning, Captain Oght. It’s okay.” Still, I didn’t like all the eyes on me. They made me fidgety and uncomfortable.

“This way,” said Captain Oght.

“Okay.” If it meant getting out of here, I was happy to follow him! I ran after Captain Oght into another room, which had a simple desk and shelf. The shelf was stuffed full of…something. He urged me to sit and brought me tea.

“Thank you very much,” I said. The hot tea was soothing.

“So, about your gratuity,” he began.

“Yes?”

“It comes out to two radal and three gidal.”

“Wh—huh?!” He said it would be less than a monster informant fee, but radal are gold coins, right? What’s going on?