The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter SS1

Captain Tableau’s Perspective

KNOCK, KNOCK.

“Tableau, it’s me. Can I come in?”

I looked up from my documents at the sound of the familiar voice. “Sure, come in.”

When I saw my old childhood friend in the doorway, I did a little stretch as I waved to him. My back was stiff from hunching over those documents for so long.

“Long time no see,” Priya said.

His words reminded me of the day we met. “That’s for sure. It’s been a whole week, right?”

“Yeah, an entire week. And you know, the captain’s office really has come to suit you.”

I smiled cynically. It’s come to suit me, eh? If you ask me, I’m better suited to letting loose in the great outdoors.

“You said you were going to go check on the cave, right? How did it go? I’m guessing you’re here to give the report.”

The last time we spoke, Priya had told me he was going to go investigate a cave that Druid and Ivy had discovered. I only hoped that it would give this poor village just a little more income.

“Tableau, this cave just might be even bigger than the last one we used to mine magic stones from.”

“What?”

Bigger than the last cave? But when I saw the new one earlier, it only looked medium-sized.

“It’s much deeper than it looks,” Priya said.

“What?! Do you mean it has a tunnel inside?”

“Sounds like it. I sent a search party there three days ago, and they found a tunnel from the room with the summoning circle that goes even farther into the cave. They went into it without much preparation, since they figured it couldn’t go that much deeper, but it wound up going deeper than they expected, so they had to turn around and come back partway.”

“It was that deep?”

“Yeah. We’re preparing for a more thorough investigation right now. From what we know so far, the tunnel diverges into two paths, and there’s also another room. If we can mine magic stones, make no mistake: That cave will be a huge revenue stream for Hatow.”

“Oh, wow…thank goodness.”

Now we wouldn’t need to borrow money to pay Ivy back for all those magic stones she provided. But Hatow still desperately needed to find a new source of revenue—and fast. Just think, Ivy and Druid not only saved us from the winter, they found the very cave that can bring us the money we’ve been seeking. I could never thank them enough.

“I’m still shocked that we missed that tunnel last time. What an utter failure.”

I thought I’d checked every last inch of that cave…I need to shape up.

“Oh, no, we didn’t miss it.”

“How is that possible?”

“There were traces of a damaged wall near the entrance to that tunnel from the room with the summoning circle. I think that a part of that wall crumbled away after we left the cave and revealed the tunnel.”

“The wall crumbled away? Did any other parts of the cave collapse?”

Are the walls in that cave fragile? If so, it would be far too dangerous to send adventurers in there.

“No other areas of the cave were damaged. It was really just where the tunnel was.”

So it was only one part of the cave. But what state are the tunnel walls in? “Did you check on the stability of the tunnel walls?” If they were fragile, we would need to reinforce them before we sent a team in.

“Yes, I was worried about them, so I had them checked. I just gave them a basic once-over because I didn’t have the proper magic item with me, but the walls seemed rather sturdy from what I could tell.”

Priya knew firsthand just how terrifying caverns and their walls crumbling really were, so I trusted his judgment.

“Tableau, don’t you feel like some magic has been at work to make our village a better place?”

Priya’s question reminded me of the time we saw our guardian deity in that cave—that giant serpent that had taken a liking to Ivy.

“You may be right. Do you think Ivy and Druid were the reason for it?”

Priya chuckled at my question. But to be honest, a part of me believed it was true.

“If they had never come to our village…I suppose we never would have gained the status we did.”

“Yeah, I don’t think we would have,” I agreed, nodding solemnly. Seriously, if they had never come to Hatow…well, I didn’t even want to think about what might have happened. Oh, that’s right! “I wanted to get your opinion on something. Take a look at this.”

I handed Priya a document that was several pages long. He took it with a curious gaze. Then when he read the contents and looked a little shocked, I gave him a playful smile.

“Tableau, is this…”

“I just wanted Hatow to have a source of income other than magic stones.”

When the cave entrance collapsed and we were no longer able to mine magic stones, Hatow lost its source of revenue. Since our budget and magic stones for winter had already been acquired by other means, we had been spared tragedy this year. But if that cave hadn’t been discovered, Hatow would have definitely become a ghost town in a few years.

But our crisis this winter had forced me to face a harsh truth: Having only one source of income was extremely dangerous. We needed at least two. If we wanted to ensure the longevity of Hatow, we had to find another way to make money.

“Now that we’ve found the cave, the matter is no longer as urgent. However, we can’t put all our eggs in one basket or we’ll just find ourselves in the same predicament again later. I want to take precautions.”

“You’re absolutely right. So that’s why you’ve come up with this scheme?” Priya asked.

I nodded. The document I’d found was a rather old one, so we needed to investigate it and it might not even work out for us. But we still had to try.

“Medicinal herbs, eh?”

There were two old documents that could prove useful for Hatow, and both of them involved medicinal herbs.

“According to this old record, it comes from a flower that blooms in early spring?”

“That’s right. Have you ever seen it?”

The documents had detailed illustrations of the flower. But unfortunately, I had no interest whatsoever in plants, so the drawing didn’t look at all familiar to me. However, I got the feeling that I had seen it somewhere before.

“A small yellow flower? But I’ve never seen one like that on the outskirts of the village.”

While Priya wasn’t interested in plants, either, he did go out into the forest more than I did, so I thought it would be more likely that he had spotted it somewhere…but I was wrong. Perhaps it had gone extinct? But I could have sworn I’d seen that flower in the village somewhere…

“It says this flower stabilizes the effects of potions,” Priya said, looking up from the document in surprise.

“That’s right. If we could find this flower, don’t you think that would all but guarantee another source of revenue for Hatow?”

“Of course it would. You can bet on it.”

Now I really wanted to find that flower.

The deterioration rate of potions varied greatly depending on how they were made. If these documents were right…if we could stabilize potions and make them degrade much more slowly by adding flower powder to them…then they would sell well, no doubt about it. Growing the flowers in Hatow might become a great enterprise.

“And the other medicinal herb is…ah, monster repellent.”

That’s right. The other old document I found contained information about a medicinal herb that repelled monsters. If you burned its dried leaves, they emitted a smell that monsters didn’t like.

The medicinal herbs currently used as monster repellent were not widely cultivated, which made monster repellent quite expensive. That meant only the rich could afford it. But if we were able to lower its price, we could greatly reduce the number of traveler and adventurer deaths caused by monsters. I wanted to find it not only so Hatow could have a good source of revenue but also so I could help adventurers.

“Blue leaves, huh? Yeah, I’ve never seen this one, either,” Priya said.

“Too bad. Well, it is an awfully old document.”

I had to consider the possibility that they no longer grew near Hatow, but we needed to at least look for them first.

“Could you have the adventurer guild do a search?” I asked.

“Sure. I’ll put in a request for the lower-level adventurers to handle it.”

I hope we find it quickly…but there’s no telling what will happen.

“I hope we can locate it,” Priya said.

“Me, too.”

Knock, knock.

“It’s Pith.”

“Come in.”

“Hello, Captain. Oh, Guild Master Priya, so good to see you. Are you here on business?”

I set the stack of papers Pith was carrying on my desk. When I saw how thick it was, my face tensed up. Work just kept coming to me, didn’t it?

“Hello, Vice-Captain Pith. We were just discussing the cave investigation,” Priya said.

“How’s it going?”

“It’ll end up being quite lucrative for our village,” Priya said.

Pith’s eyes lit up.

“We found a path that leads deeper into the cave. We followed it for a little while, and it looks like we’ll be able to mine magic stones from this new cave just like we used to in the old one.”

“Well, that is exciting news.”

“Yes, indeed. We want to investigate it as soon as possible, so I’ll be requiring your assistance.”

Pith eagerly nodded in reply. He was probably happy that Hatow had a promising revenue source since he’d been quite worried about it before.

“Huh? What’s this? These papers look awfully old.” Pith picked them up from my desk and read them over. Maybe he knew something about the medicinal herbs. “Well, you’ve found some very promising documents, haven’t you? I’m in awe. This flower… Hmm?”

Pith praised people so infrequently that his casual compliments almost made me laugh.

“Vice-Captain Pith, do you know anything about the flower that document describes?”

Pith gave me a peculiar look. Had I said something strange?

“Isn’t that it?”

I looked at the windowsill Pith was pointing at. There were tiny yellow flowers blooming on it, but I didn’t understand what he was trying to tell me.

“The shape and the color are clear as day! Even if you’re not interested in flowers, you should have figured it out!”

Hmm?

“Ohhh, that flower!” Priya cried.

I covered my ears and glared at him in annoyance, but for some reason he glared right back at me.

“Those are the flowers! They’re just like the ones in the document!”

“What?!”

With a start, I turned my eyes to the windowsill and… Oh! Yes, they’re exactly like the flowers in the document. So that’s why I thought I’d seen them before. I see them every day, so even a flower-dunce like me couldn’t help but recognize them.

“But are you sure that’s the one in the records?”

“We’ll just have to test it out and see,” Priya said.

I nodded. “True.”

Testing things is definitely very important. But have we really found it that easily? And if it was growing under our noses all this time, why haven’t we been using it to stabilize potions like it said in the document? Is there some major drawback to using this flower? Now I’m starting to worry.

“Well, I think I’ll take this document and these flowers to a potion maker to test tomorrow. I bet we’ll have some results in just a few days.”

“All right. Make it so.”

Three days later, Pith dashed into my office with a potion in hand. After seeing the results of the test, we quickly secured an area to farm the flowers. Why hadn’t we already been using this flower all along? It was truly a mystery.