The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 294

Chapter 294:

What’s a Fan?

WITH A QUIET SIGH, Druid sipped his tea. When he caught me staring, he gave my head a couple of pats.

“Why were you laughing earlier?” I’d racked my brain, but I couldn’t think of a reason.

“Oh, Priya was just acting so funny.”

“I was?” Priya asked in confusion. I’ll admit he was behaving strangely today, but did he really do anything that funny?

“You’re not hiding it very well,” Druid told Priya.

“Huh?! Oh!”

Why is he acting like that? Hiding what? As my eyes darted back and forth between the two, Priya’s cheeks turned bright red.

“It seems like he’s become a fan of yours, Ivy. Actually, would it be more correct to say he was always your fan?”

“Huh?! My…fan?”

What’s a fan again? I think it’s when you worship a person who’s special to you. So, wait, Guild Master Priya is my fan?

“Um, that can’t be true, Mr. Druid.”

“Hm? You don’t think so?”

“No.”

“But his eyes sparkle whenever he looks at you, and his head’s in the clouds. He can’t sit still!”

Well, I’ll admit that’s all true. But…he’s my fan?

“He already took a great liking to you when he learned how you helped crush that crime organization, Ivy. Then when you add the stuff that happened in the cave and your adandara and everything, I think it was an emotional overload.”

Druid glanced at Guild Master Priya and saw that the man’s face was bright red. Don’t tell me he was dead-on?

“Um…do forgive me. Was I really being that obvious?”

“Er, if you said you were trying to hide it, I wouldn’t believe you,” Druid answered.

“Ha ha! I’m not sure if it was obvious from how I acted the first time we met, but I’ve always had a lot of respect for Miss Ivy here. And then, you know, after talking to her and so on, I learned what an incredible person she is.”

Who’s he talking about? Wait, he can’t mean me, can he?

“Not only did she find the cave, but she helped us meet our guardian deity, tamed an adandara…”

I found the cave and the guardian deity by accident, and whether I actually tamed Ciel or not remains a mystery to this day. Errr…why did this happen to me? I looked at Druid, but he only smiled awkwardly back.

“I was drinking with Captain Tableau last night, and we started talking about Miss Ivy. It just made me realize all over again what an extraordinary person is in our midst, and I guess I had a hard time hiding that. Do forgive me. And don’t worry, I’m just a typical fan.”

I sighed. Oh dear…my face feels hot. I’m sure it’s red. Wait, how am I supposed to deal with this situation? I looked at Druid, but he just laughed again. “Mr. Druid!”

“Sorry. It’s okay, calm down. Guild Master Priya, you wanted to discuss something with us?”

“Er, yes.”

“Then let’s talk about that instead.”

I poured some more tea so that we could start over. We all took a sip in silence. I’m not sure why, but…I’m exhausted. Guild Master Priya looks much more relaxed now that he’s gotten that off his chest. His gaze…it’s scaring me. He shouldn’t be my fan; I’m really not that great.

“It’s okay if he comes to the forest with us tomorrow, right, Ivy?”

“Yes, that shouldn’t be a problem. But why do you need to borrow Ciel, sir?” Ciel isn’t a thing! The word “borrow” really irks me.

“Oh, sorry about that!” Guild Master Priya was shrinking back a little; he’d probably caught the annoyance in my voice. “You see, it’s like this: Yesterday, we took another look at the cave and found no problems with it, so I announced to the guild that it was safe to start mining magic stones again.”

Oh, okay. I didn’t know that.

“And then, we also told them today that an adventurer had hunted bearth.”

We aren’t exactly adventurers, but we did ask for our identities to be kept secret.

“And the adventurers got excited about it, which is great! But some of them were worried.”

Worried?

“The cave is still safe and all, but they were afraid that the adventurers might get too reckless going after bearth.”

“Well, yes, it’s dangerous in the winter,” Druid chimed in. “If you ignore the changes in the weather and find yourself in the middle of a blizzard, you could die.”

A light sprinkle of snow like the one today wasn’t a problem, but blizzards were apparently quite dangerous. I’d never seen one before, but Druid said that they made you lose all sense of direction. Some people even got stuck in place and froze to death. That’s why you always had to look out for changes in the weather if you wanted to go out into the forest in wintertime.

“Yes, sir,” Priya agreed. “We lost some of our high and mid-level adventurers who were involved with the criminal organization, so we don’t have enough experienced hands to mentor the newer ones.”

There was that organization again, all the way out here. Its influence sure spread far and wide.

“I get what you’re saying,” Druid replied. “There were victims in my town, too, but you guys got hurt out here as well?”

“Yes, sir. When we got the information via faax, it had us in a panic because a bunch of our children had just gone missing.”

“Oh no! Hatow’s children were kidnapped, too, sir?” Druid and I both shot astonished looks at Priya.

“Sadly, yes. We used the information from your team to catch the traitors in our midst and bring our children home. Miss Ivy, I truly cannot thank you enough for that.”

“Oh, no, sir. I wasn’t the one who got the intel out of the kidnappers.” Please, stop looking at me like I’m a golden idol. I’m not used to it.

“That’s quite a story,” Druid said.

Um, aren’t we getting off track here? “So, why do you need Ciel’s help, sir?”

“Er…? Oh, right! That’s what we were talking about.”

You mean you completely forgot?

“I was thinking this could be a perfect teaching moment for our younger adventurers who have never hunted bearth before.”

A teaching moment?

“Do the veteran adventurers usually teach the novices how to hunt in the winter?” Druid asked.

“Yes. We’re actually setting up a schedule for that right now.”

“Okay, so that’s why you need to know where to find the bearth.”

“Yes, sir. Even though you found that one bearth, there still probably aren’t too many of them around. We thought those monsters had gone extinct.”

Yeah, I remember they said the bearth disappeared more than five years ago. If everyone starts hunting them again, they might really go extinct this time.

“Hey, Ciel, are there not many bearth monsters out there?”

Mrrrow.

“Okay, there aren’t. So, if the adventurers try too hard, they might hunt them to extinction?”

Mrrrow.

“You’re right, Guild Master Priya. If too many bearth are hunted, we may lose them for good this time.”

When I turned my gaze from Ciel to Priya, the guild master’s eyes sparkled at me again. Druid clamped a hand over his mouth, but his shoulders were shaking. I know you’re laughing! You’re not fooling anyone.

“Wow, I see your mind link with Ciel the Great is perfect. Truly extraordinary.”

Again, why are you calling it Ciel the Great? I’d love to ask…but I’d better not. I don’t want to get him too worked up.

“Um, so, Ciel…could you take Guild Master Priya to the spot where you found the bearth?”

Mrrrow.

“That’s a yes. Would tomorrow around noon work for you, sir?”

“Yes, ma’am. I can make time.”

“Is that good for you, too, Mr. Druid?”

“Yeah, I’m fine with it. But wow, winter hunting training… There’s a memory I’d rather forget.”

“Did something bad happen to you before?” Priya asked.

Deep creases formed between Druid’s brows.

“Let me guess… Was it your mentor?” I asked.

“Your mentor?” Priya wondered.

“Mr. Druid’s mentor is, um…a very foolhardy person.”

“No, foolhardy barely scratches the surface. He’s a fool who gets a kick out of giving people a hard time.”

Perhaps recognizing something in Druid’s annoyed tone, Priya gave him a sympathetic smile. “He sounds like our last guild master. That guy liked to give me a hard time, too.”

Druid and Priya sighed in unison. What are they both remembering, I wonder?