The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 1 - Chapter 58.3

Side:

Merchant

“PHEW,” I sighed. “I was starting to panic a little.”

“Are you really going to submit that request to the guild?”

“Hm? Well, I did take his money, so…”

“Ha ha ha! What an imbecile.”

“I heard about Ratomi from other merchants,” I said, “but I didn’t think it was this bad. The lord’s failed as a ruler, too.”

“Is that where the root of the problem lies? I feel bad for the ones that stayed.”

“Hmm…I’d say the people who stayed are probably on the chief’s side. Given what’s happened so far, they’re getting their just deserts.” 

As I finished talking, I felt movement next to me and turned to look. The old woman beside me opened her eyes and looked at me in alarm. “Are you okay?” I asked her.

“Oh dear, where am I? And the chief’s wife?” Her voice was raspy and dry. I poured water into a cup and handed it to her.

“Calm down. You’re in a merchant carriage, and she’s right here with you. The pain has abated, so she’s sleeping now.”

The old woman’s eyes came to focus on the person behind her. 

She reached out and grasped the hand of the chief’s wife, whose body was covered in wounds, and repeated “thank goodness, thank goodness” to herself as tears ran down her face.

We’d found these two collapsed on the road leading away from Ratomi Village. I was surprised when I’d recognized their faces, but I was even more horrified to see how those faces and bodies were disfigured by beatings. It was common knowledge that Ratomi had changed after the installation of its new chief, but it was hard to imagine it could turn into such a nightmare after only a few years.

When the chief himself had come to accost us, I was afraid he was pursuing them—that he knew I had them aboard. Given his demeanor, he didn’t seem to notice, but…

I pulled a document from my magic bag. The merchant guild had put out an information request to look into the state of Ratomi and its villagers, and to figure out what the local lord was doing about it. I had taken on the request, since I was already traveling this way.

In no time, I’d appended my own document explaining the situation in the village as well as the sheet of names given to me by the chief to the formal information request. I put them all in my bag. I had to head for the guild anyway, so this was convenient. If I submitted everything to the guild together, they would get to work right away. Unfortunately for the chief, this probably wouldn’t go the way he hoped.