The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 1 - Chapter 63

Chapter 63:

An Evil Organization

“IVY! IVY! IVYYY!” Rattloore’s calls echoed through the camp. 

As the sound of his voice drew closer, I felt more eyes on me. My face was hot, so I must’ve been blushing. Somehow, I felt like Mira was looking on with pity.

She said Rattloore was a veteran, but he certainly didn’t seem like one. I’d always thought that veterans, with all their experience, would be calm and dignified. I guessed everyone but Rattloore was like that… What made him different?

When he caught up with me, he grabbed my shoulders. “Are you okay? Nobody’s hurt you, right? Which degenerate is laying eyes on you?!”

What’s a degenerate? What did they say to him? It feels like things are going in a really strange direction…

Mira smacked his hands away from my shoulders and said exactly what I was thinking. “Rattloore, stop yelling! You’re embarrassing Ivy.” Thank you, Ms. Mira.

“Hm? How?” He looked genuinely confused by Mira. She heaved a sigh and shook her head. I felt a little guilty, as if I were the one who was being exhausting right now.

Seizerk strolled up shortly after. “Thanks, Mira.”

Gnouga had come up, too. Where was Sifar? I glanced around and saw him some distance away, talking to other adventurers.

“Don’t mention it!” she replied. “Ivy’s cute, like a little brother.”

“Isn’t he?” Rattloore agreed. “Say, Ivy, why don’t you be my little brother?”

I shook my head a little, unsure how to respond.

“Aww, not even just a little teensy bit?”

How can you be someone’s little brother “just a little teensy bit”? I shook my head again, and out of nowhere, Gnouga punched Rattloore in the head. There was a loud bonk. He held his head in pain as he glared at Gnouga with tears in his eyes.

“Good grief,” Mira rolled her eyes. “Do you ever calm down, Rattloore?”

“Shut up, Mira!”

“You two never change,” Seizerk muttered, giving Rattloore and Mira a look.

“Oh? I’ll have you know that we’re a lot better than we used to be,” she said, “I’ve matured a lot.”

“Really? You don’t seem any more mature when you’re with him.”

Mira sulked at Seizerk’s words. She and Rattloore must be old acquaintances. Now that he’d mentioned it, they did seem short-tempered with each other. Did they always bicker like this?

“Ivy.” Seizerk stooped down to meet me at eye level. For some reason, he looked very serious.

“Sir?”

“I heard about your problem. It started when you came to this camp, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m sorry. You’re in this situation because we brought you here.”

“Huh? Not at all!” I said frantically. “I really appreciate that you took me to a safe place.”

“But…”

“If I had stayed the night in the forest, I might’ve run into those ogres. So I really do appreciate it.”

“That’s right, Seizerk,” said Mira. “As long as we have the ogres out there, bringing him here was the only choice. We need to talk about what comes next.”

Seizerk grinned weakly at her words. “Fair enough. Mind giving me the details?” he asked me.

“Not at all.”

Sifar was back now, so I made tea for everyone. Mira watched with great interest as I steeped the leaves in hot water. I guess tea is rare, after all.

I explained what had happened this morning, telling them all about that weird discomfort that had woken me up and the sense that someone was outside of my tent. At midday, I’d felt it several more times. Each time I looked around, but I couldn’t see anybody. By the time I’d finished telling them everything, Seizerk and Gnouga both looked concerned. Sifar was more stoic, but he seemed deep in thought. Rattloore was glaring suspiciously all around. I wished he’d stop…he would probably scare people if he glared at them for no reason.

“Is it them?” Seizerk seemed to have an idea.

Them?

“That’s all that comes to mind, really.” Mira did, too.

What were they thinking? Gnouga was starting to look really scary.

“Gnouga, if faces could kill…” Mira joked. Rattloore nodded agreement. Faces? Not looks? That’s a weird way of putting it. 

Gnouga cleared his throat and drank tea. “Listen up, Ivy. There’s an organization causing trouble in Otolwa.”

“An organization?” Was it the one Vice Captain Velivera had warned me about? He’d said that they were cracking down on them, but…

“They kidnap people and sell them into slavery. The town police were planning to crack down on them, but someone leaked that info to them. The crackdown failed, and many of them escaped arrest.”

Seizerk looked really mad about it, too.

“They were only able to arrest the low-level thugs who knew nothing about the organization’s inner workings,” Gnouga continued. “Chances are, they were cut off by the higher-ups to buy time for themselves to run.” His remarks sounded oddly careless. I wonder why?

Seizerk sighed. “They’re out there snatching people off the streets, but we’re getting a suspiciously low number of eyewitness reports.”

“Do you think…that organization is after me?” I asked.

“There’s no way to be certain, but it’s possible. So make darn sure you’re never all alone, you hear?” Seizerk sounded serious, so I looked him in the eye and agreed. He put a hand on my head, and I could feel some of the tension leave my body.

“Ivy, let me introduce you to some of my comrades…hee hee.” For some reason, the moment Mira glanced at the group of adventurers a few meters away, her smile turned wicked. I looked in the same direction and saw lots of adventurers, so I couldn’t tell who she was looking at. “Wait here just a moment, okay?” Her kind voice sounded a little scary.

“Y-yes, ma’am!”

Seizerk and Gnouga chuckled dryly. I watched Mira as she stood in front of two men in the group…then grabbed their heads and knocked them into each other.

“Oof, that’s gotta hurt. Ivy, those are Mira’s comrades. They’re a group made up of siblings. She’s the younger sister.”

They were siblings? Still, that looked painful…despite being pretty far away, I’d heard their skulls crack against each other. I’d better not make Mira mad.