The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 300

Chapter 300:

Scared?

IT WAS THE NINTH DAY since the blizzard stopped. But as the snow hadn’t stopped falling entirely, it was still piling up little by little. Meanwhile, we went to the village watch headquarters to ask an important favor of Captain Tableau. We asked a clerk if we could meet with him, and soon after, a very flustered Captain Tableau came running out to see us.

“Yikes…he already stands out too much as it is,” Druid muttered.

Sure enough, all of Captain Tableau’s subordinates stared at the frazzled man. Noticing this, the captain greeted us with an apologetic look on his face.

“Sorry about all that.”

“Oh, no, we’re sorry we came unannounced,” Druid said. “We had a small favor to ask.”

“All right…um, follow me.” Captain Tableau led us to the captain’s office. Vice-Captain Pith was also there.

“Hello, sir,” we both greeted him.

“Hello, Mr. Druid, Miss Ivy.”

We were offered the sofa. I sat next to Druid, while Captain Tableau and Vice-Captain Pith sat across from us. Wait a minute, why is Pith here with us?

“Pith?”

“What is it, sir?”

“You can get back to work.”

“No, thank you. So, what brings you two here today?”

Captain Tableau sighed loudly. Well, Pith knew many of our secrets, so it was safe to include him. And as soon as we sat on the sofa, he activated the magic item that would prevent our voices from behind heard outside the room. I was actually quite grateful. He understood.

“We’re sorry to bother you, but we need to go into the forest and we’ve come to ask for your permission.”

“What?!”

The village gates were temporarily closed due to the dangerous levels of snow, meaning that people couldn’t enter the forest. But we simply had to go because of Sol. It did not actually need to eat to stay alive, but it had grown smaller. And though it looked healthy enough, it was clearly losing strength. When we asked Sol how it was doing, it paused for a moment and answered it was okay. But we were still worried, so we decided to get the captain to make an exception and allow us into the forest.

“Um…is it all right if I ask why you want to go?” Captain Tableau asked.

We had them lock the door, then we took Sol out of the bag and set it on the table in front of the sofa. As soon as we opened the bag, Sora and the others cheerfully bounded out of it. Flame was awake that day.

“Um…and who might this little fellow be?”

“This is Sol, a new member of our party.”

“It…doesn’t seem to have a taming symbol.”

“Well, yes, I haven’t tamed it.”

Both men fell silent. I’d figured they would be confused by that. Was it simply unheard of to have an untamed monster in your party? Anyway, I decided to explain Sol’s situation to them. When I told them it ate magic energy, they both got the most interesting expressions on their faces—they were astonished. When I finished explaining everything, Pith’s hands started fidgeting in a peculiar way. A slap from Captain Tableau stopped him. Sol, perhaps wary of Pith’s strange hand movements, had shrunk back a little from the Vice-Captain. Yeah, I don’t blame ya, buddy. The way he moves his fingers is creepy.

“Ivy, you’ve surprised us in many ways before, but…a slime that can solidify magic energy? Now that truly is too extraordinary for words!”

Pith was so worked up that Sol’s little body quivered.

“Agreed. But what surprises me more is that a slime with such powers exists in the first place,” Captain Tableau said. “Have you ever heard of such a thing, Mr. Druid?” He gently touched Sol, who didn’t seem to mind the feeling.

“No, never,” Druid answered. “When we first saw the creature feeding, it was quite a shock.”

“Yes, it had a sort of divine quality,” I said.

Druid smiled at me. I gave him a questioning look, and he patted my head.

“Weren’t you scared?” Captain Tableau asked.

I stared at him doubtfully, surprised by the question. Scared? “Um, why would I be scared, sir?”

“What?! But didn’t you say just a minute ago that black balls of magic energy popped up all around Sol?” Tableau asked. 

I nodded. 

“And didn’t you wonder if those energy balls might attack you?”

“No, it never occurred to me.”

Both men were startled by my answer. I didn’t understand what was so shocking about it.

“Neither Sora nor Ciel were afraid of Sol, so there was no need for me to be scared. Besides, if you spend only a minute with Sol, you’ll realize it’s a very gentle creature.”

Sometimes Sol’s behavior was a little strange, but it was a kind creature at heart. It didn’t even pull any pranks on us unless we weren’t paying enough attention, and the same went for the other creatures.

“I see…so you trust it.”

“Of course we do. It’s one of us.”

Tableau smiled merrily at my response. “To add more members to your party without even using your skill—you truly are a wonder, Ivy.”

Without using my skill? Oh, right. Because Sol joined our party even though I didn’t tame it. I’ve never thought of it that way. I looked at Sol, who kept stealing wary glances at Vice-Captain Pith. The man had given up on touching the slime, but now he was giving it a thorough looking over, back and forth. I could see a tenseness in Sol’s face at the awkward motions. Finally, unable to stand Pith’s staring any longer, Sol retreated onto my lap with a big bounce.

“Pith, it doesn’t like you,” said Captain Tableau.

“Ah! I’m sorry, Sol. You’re just so unique that I wanted to have a good look at you.”

Pith earnestly apologized to Sol, but it only pressed itself firmly against me in defense. Feeling sorry for the poor creature, I covered it with my hand. And then I felt Sol relax, safe at last. Pith’s eyes shifted over to me, so I awkwardly moved my focus over to Druid.

“You bumbling fool,” Tableau sighed. “Now it completely hates you.”

Pith sulked a little at the rebuke.

“So, is it all right if we go into the forest?” Druid asked.

“Since you have a good reason, I don’t mind. Be careful, though. It’s quite dangerous out there.”

Captain Tableau rose to his feet, went over to the stack of documents on his desk, and scribbled something on a piece of paper that he brought back to the seating area. “Take this.”

“Thanks.” Druid took the travel permit from him. Now we could go to the forest. Captain Tableau’s eyes met mine, so I bowed to him in thanks.

“Say…I’m finished with my day’s work, aren’t I…?” Tableau muttered quietly, looking around the room. He stared at the pile of papers on his desk, nodded several times, and then looked at Druid and me. “Um, might I join you on your excursion into the forest?”

“What?!” Druid yelped in surprise. He was holding the magic stones regenerated by Flame that we were going to donate. As it was several days’ worth, it was quite a huge amount.

“If you’re going, Captain, then I’d like to come along, too,” Vice-Captain Pith said with a bow.

Druid and I exchanged glances. Since there wasn’t anything wrong with it, we nodded.

“We don’t mind if you come along, but are you sure you don’t have work to do? Also, here, we brought these magic stones.”

“Oh, work can wait… Wow, that’s a lot of stones.”

Both men were startled by the size of the bag. We had no response but to laugh. It was about ten days’ worth of magic stones, and there were so many of them because Flame’s yield was growing larger every day. That was why we’d asked Flame to slow things down the past couple of days.

“With this many stones…”

“Yeah.”

The captain and vice-captain studied the bag of magic stones and nodded.

“Um, I think we have enough now. Thank you very much, truly.”

Both men bowed deeply to us. After my moment of bewilderment passed, I looked at Flame on Druid’s lap. Its eyes got round and big for a second…then it squidged itself into a tired puddle. 

“Oh dear, oh dear,” Druid said.

The men looked up at the sound of his voice. Then, when they saw the puddle of a slime on Druid’s lap, surreal bewilderment filled their faces.

“Oh, it’s all right. Flame was just having so much fun regenerating the magic stones, and now that it’s over, it’s coming back down to earth.”

Captain Tableau only nodded and murmured tentatively in reply. Meanwhile, Vice-Captain Pith was brimming with excitement over Flame’s change of shape. For all the excitement it caused, Squidgy Flame sure was cute.