The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 2 - Chapter 93

Chapter 93:

Crush Their Schemes!

“YEAH…YOU’RE RIGHT. You couldn’t be more right…”

I tilted my head at Bolorda’s bewildered look. Maybe I was wrong after all?

“Given the organization’s methods so far, it’s possible,” Sifar added.

Rattloore and the others nodded in agreement. Wait, so I was right? Then why did they all react like that? Oh, am I not acting my age again?! Oops.

“You’ve got quite a mind, Ivy.”

“Huh? Um, no, I just…”

Oh no. What do I do? I told myself to think before speaking, but I forgot the part where I’m nine years old! I need to be more careful…but I am being targeted by kidnappers right now. Should I be holding back at a time like this? Besides, I’ve already said a lot of stuff, so it feels a little too late to stop now. Okay, I think I’m fine. When all this is over, I’ll give it some careful thought. I wouldn’t want it to be my undoing.

“We can assume that Lord Foronda is in danger of being murdered. What do we do? Do we speak with the captain?” Seizerk asked.

Bolorda shook his head. “There are too many enemies around him now. Ugh, I sure would like more allies…”

“Yeah, allies,” Marcreek sighed. “Sure would love to bring more people in, but…y’know, information management.”

He said what everyone was thinking. The more allies we had, the easier it was to maneuver. Yet every added person was a new opportunity for information to leak.

“If only those guys weren’t our enemies…” Bolorda groaned. He must’ve meant the turncoat adventurers. “Ugh… Okay. Let’s give up on gaining allies for now.”

When would Count Faltoria act? Based on how things had gone up till now, it would probably be sooner than we expected. If so, then we could surmise he’d already finished any preparations by now.

“It would be prudent to assume Lord Faltoria is poised to act,” I said to the group. “We should be ready for them to make a move at any point.”

“The organization does move fast.” Bolorda’s brow furrowed sharply.

I wish we could foil their plans somehow, but…ugh, I can’t think of anything.

“It’s too early to despair,” Seizerk declared. “First, let’s meet with the captain. We need a plan in case the organization springs into action. We’ll head to the base. Rattloore, don’t let Ivy out of your sight for a moment.”

On Seizerk’s orders, everyone rose at once. I slipped into my the tent to get Sora. The slime quivered near the bag Sifar had given me, as if it had heard the entire conversation.

“Let’s do our best. Cheer me on, okay?” I petted Sora as it stretched toward the ceiling and then put it in my bag.

The bag twitched a bit, then went still. I left my tent and stepped forward to walk next to Rattloore.

“By the way, Mr. Rattloore? Didn’t we make plans with Mira and her friends today?”

“Ah! I totally forgot! Should we get a rain check? We still haven’t finished setting everything up at the base, after all.”

That is true. We need to discuss how to capture any kidnappers who assault the base, too. But can we cancel? They should know we’ve been going in and out of the mansion. If they get twitchy, Mira might abort her plans. In that case we’re out of luck, since our strategy hinges on them making the first move.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“No, sorry. They know we’re up to something in the base, don’t they?”

“Yeah, for sure.”

“I was thinking that Mira might get suspicious and change tactics if we cancel…”

“That is possible. You think we should go today? I guess she might make a move…”

“Right.”

I was unsure whether we could deal with that. Come to think of it, what role will the criminals play? Bait? Or…? Aagh, my mind’s a mess. I need to slow down and consider it rationally.

“Whew…” I took a deep breath.

I was assuming the organization didn’t know we thought of Mira as an enemy. If that was the case, they would still be planning to kidnap me. And if that was true, then Mira wouldn’t let this opportunity go.

“You think Mira’s going to try something, right?” Rattloore asked.

“I do. Based on how she was acting last time, she seemed to be in a real hurry.”

Right. I’m kidnapping bait, though Mira doesn’t know that. If she did, she’d get reinforcements from the organization instead of acting weird. So even if we were to arrest Mira, that wouldn’t get us any closer to the people behind her. Even if she failed, she was just a pawn. At this rate, she and her brothers were sure to be killed by the organization…

No! I don’t have time to think about that right now. Umm, if they’re using Mira to kidnap me, then their goal must be creating chaos. Unmasking Mira would be proof that there were traitors among the adventurers. The organization’s objective was to make us distrust our own people; even if someone took orders, we couldn’t be sure they were on our side. Just by manipulating Mira and me, they could tie the hands of the guards and adventurers. Oh yeah, if I was kidnapped and the guard heard that criminals were hiding in the forest, then would they send a bigger rescue party in case the criminals got violent on the way back?

“Mr. Rattloore, we know there are traitors around us. But if the guard and the adventurers’ guild learned that criminals were hiding in the forest, while not knowing who among their own group might be an enemy, what would they do?”

“Hmm…in the current climate, if they received word about the criminals, they would probably connect them to the organization. And knowing that there are rats among our people here…they would probably send several groups of ten or so to the cave where they’re hiding. That way they could be ready to handle any traitors trying to make a move.”

Several groups of ten? Is that enough to handle murderers?

“But that strategy only succeeds if there are four or five moles,” he noted. “Given how many there are, the parties sent out would all be massacred.”

“I see…”

“Are we thinking about the role of the group in the forest?”

“Yes.”

“Aha. You think they’re bait to draw in the adventurers and guard?”

“That’s only my hypothesis. I honestly don’t know.”

But there had to be a reason for them to gather so many fugitives. The only reasons that made sense to me were either to attack someone or to act as bait. My guess was that the organization didn’t care if all of the criminals killed all the adventurers or vice versa—their main objective was to safely recover the documents and money from the former merchant’s mansion. Nothing else mattered to them. From the little I’d picked up when we discovered the papers, it sounded like pretty damning evidence. So the criminals must’ve been gathered to draw the guard and adventurers away from the town. Now I could see why they’d gathered so many.

“Well, if Mira doesn’t act soon, her days are probably numbered,” I added.

“Huh?!”

Yep. Mira isn’t the only mole they’ve got among the adventurers, so they have plenty of spares. The orders just came to her because I met her first, so they thought she would have the best chance of pulling it off.

“The organization likely sees people who can’t get results as useless. They have more where she came from, after all.”

Rattloore and the others frowned gravely.

“They’re pawns, huh?”

“Let’s go eat sweets today,” I urged him.

We just needed to prepare ourselves to handle whatever they threw at us and wait for them to make their move. Huh? Wait? Do we actually need to wait? 

If we want to outwit the kidnapping ring, then wouldn’t today be the optimal day to set our trap? We just set up the base of operations yesterday, so they shouldn’t expect us to act so soon. Still, if we aren’t careful, they might realize the mansion is a trap. How can we make it look natural…? Oh! The criminals in the forest! If we use them, maybe we can confuse the organization. If all goes well, we won’t just confuse them—we’ll even be able to corner them. But how do we do it…? Mira’s our answer. Someone from the organization must be watching her in case she fails. If we feed that person the right information…

“Let’s use Mira and her friends to set the trap now!”

“Huh?”

Yeah. We gotta seize the moment! We established the base yesterday, so the organization must be thinking of countermeasures. They’ll probably have plans within a day or two. Something like…eliminating everyone except their own people at the base? Ha! I can see them doing that. We should move before they can plan. It might even save Mira and the others, too. First off, hoodwinking the organization is vital. How can we pull the wool over their eyes, though? What if…they planned to ambush the base today? Or an hour from now? I think I’ve got it!

“Let’s make them ambush the base today!”

“Wha?!”

“Mira is our key here. If we were forming a party to hunt down Marm and the others in the forest…no, if the party were already on their way, that would spur them into action fastest, right?”

“H-hold on a second,” Rattloore stopped me. “Let me get Seizerk and Bolorda.”

Seizerk and Bolorda? Come to think of it, they’ve always decided the direction of their teams. Well, duh—they’re the team leaders, after all. Do we need one of them here to make decisions?

“Ivy, we’ve already heard a bit of it. Er, you want to use Mira to set a trap? Today?!”

Seizerk and Bolorda stood on either side and pressed me for details. People from the organization might be anywhere, so I whispered.

“Yes, that’s right. Someone must be following and watching Mira in case she fails. So it’s less that I want to leverage Mira and more that I want to leverage the person tailing her. And it needs to be now, because I realized waiting for the organization to make the first move isn’t actually necessary. Today’s the best day to confuse them…and if we pull this off, we might be able to save Mira and her brothers.”

Seizerk’s eyes widened. Bolorda tousled my hair.

“All right. Let’s go talk to the captain, then,” Bolorda said.

“No! We don’t have time. Besides, he’s surrounded by enemies. Instead, we’ll get him wrapped up in it by necessity.”

“Uhh…what do you mean?” He was awfully confused.

“Blow the whistle about Marm and the others harboring criminals and urge the captain to send hunting parties right away. Meanwhile, Rattloore and I will meet with Mira and leak this to her. I can’t be certain, but I don’t think she’ll waste any time. After all, Rattloore says she’s close to her brothers. If she doesn’t react, then my deductions are probably off.”

“I get it. So if Mira rushes to her brothers’ rescue, then her tail will realize what we’re doing. They’ll be forced to attack the base.”

“I see. The people watching the base will receive the same information, so they shouldn’t notice anything is off. We are actually sending a hunting party.”

Hmm…the hard part is what happens next. If we want to save as many lives as possible, we’ll have to act quickly. Can we pull this off? 

I don’t want to see everyone looking sad. I’m gonna make this work, with everyone’s help! But how do we capture the traitors alive? What we need to do is get them to stop fighting. Put them to sleep? Drug them? What’s a “tranquilizer dart”? Oh, that’s Past Me again. Hmm, if they inhale smoke, they’ll fall asleep? Good idea…how do we make that much smoke?