Chapter 354:
Trash Mountain
“Wow… Now that’s impressive.”
We were back at the dump after a long absence. The overwhelming number of adventurers at the festival had caused the previously well-maintained dump to overflow with trash.
“Yep, that’s a lot of trash. That’s what you get when you have that many visitors, though.”
“Yeah. It’s Trash Mountain.”
“Pu! Pu, puuu.” Sora was excited to see the trash. I felt a little conflicted, but I guess my slimes saw it as Food Mountain? Their reactions would make sense that way.
Mrrrow.
“Hm? What’s up, Ciel?”
Ciel peered into the forest, then looked back at me. That was adandara language for I’m going to lunch.
“Have a safe trip. There aren’t many adventurers left, but you be careful.”
Mrrrow.
With a quick reply, Ciel majestically headed off into the forest. As I waved goodbye, I looked over at my slimes, who were all fidgeting. Gosh, they’re so cute.
“Sora, Flame, Sol, sorry I made you wait so long. Go eat your fill, okay?”
I watched as the three slimes bounced eagerly toward the trash.
“It’s nice to see everyone looking so well.”
“Yeah,” Druid agreed.
Ever since Festival Eve began, my poor creatures had had to sit at home. I was worried about them when I saw how listless it was making them, but now they looked like they were back to their normal selves.
“What do you want to do after this?”
“I thought we could go deeper into the forest so everyone can get their wiggles out. That okay?”
“Sure. We’ll let them play to their hearts’ content.”
“Good.”
Which way should we go when Ciel comes back?
“Pu! Pu, puuu.”
“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”
“Pefu! Pefu!”
I looked over at the three gleeful voices to see the slimes bouncing up and down on Trash Mountain.
“They look happy,” Druid remarked.
“They sure do.”
After a while, Trash Mountain collapsed a little. Amused by this, the trio slid down the slope of trash.
“Wait a minute… Where’s Sol?”
Sol had vanished before my very eyes. Was it buried in the trash? I approached the pile, walked over to the spot where I’d last seen Sol…and found it under the trash.
“Sol…you shouldn’t bury yourself in the trash.”
“Pefu?”
I yanked Sol out of the trash and placed it gently on top of the pile. “Aren’t you gonna eat? The trash we picked up for you ran out three days ago… Aren’t you hungry?”
Sol hadn’t eaten since we ran out of pre-picked trash three days earlier. It didn’t get hungry enough to shrink, but I regretted not collecting more trash in advance. Sol stared hard at me, chirped a quick “Pefu!”, then wandered off to materialize the black fuzzies and start eating them. I looked for Sora and Flame and found them with Druid, gorging themselves like there was no tomorrow. They’d had enough playtime—it was time to feast.
“I still can’t believe how big that procession was…” I said with a sudden chuckle as I watched Sol eat.
Starting the morning after the festival was over, and continuing well into the afternoon of the next day, a never-ending line of adventurers had been snaking out of town.
“Yeah, it was pretty incredible. The other time I went to the festival, I left the very next day, so I never got to see it for myself.”
Since all the adventurers and travelers who came to Hatahi for the festival had left at the same time, a massive procession of them had stretched all along Main Street to the front gate, and from the front gate to the roads leading to Hatada and Hataka villages. It was so long that I was awestruck by the new sight. I was also awestruck by how awestruck Druid was.
“Seeing that long line made me really appreciate just how many people come to this festival,” Druid said.
“Yeah. I knew a lot of people were here, but I didn’t realize it was that many.”
I searched for auras as I watched Sol eat. Since there were still no human auras near us, I could let Sol relax and enjoy its meal for a good while longer.
“Oh!” I tensed up a little when I sensed an aura…but then I noticed it was a familiar one. It became stronger the instant it passed through the front gate, which probably meant its owner had made his presence known to me on purpose. “Mr. Ashley is coming.”
“All right.”
After a little while, Ashley appeared at the dump entrance and said, “Hello, you two.”
It was Ashley who had told us it was safe to go to the dump now that most of the adventurers had gone. When we explained the situation with Sol to him, he’d been rather worried about it.
“Hello, sir,” I greeted him back. “Thank you for the information you gave us yesterday.”
“No problem; happy I could help.” Ashley looked at Sora, Flame, and Sol, then at the area around us. He was probably searching for Ciel.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Ashley, but Ciel is off getting lunch right now.”
“Oh! Oh dear, really? Is it all right if I wait a little while?”
“Of course.”
Ashley looked happy to hear that.
“By the way, aren’t you exhausted?” Druid asked Ashley as he handed out potions to Sora and Flame.
“I’m feeling all right. A little tired, yes, but it’s the same every year.”
I looked at Ashley’s face, and he did indeed look a bit more tired than usual.
“We’re going to be here for a while. Go ahead and have a seat,” Druid told him.
“Thank you. But I really am all right; I slept long and deeply last night.”
“You sure? You don’t need to act tough on our account. By the way, weren’t there more guests than they had anticipated? I heard some of the villagers talking about it.”
“Oh, yes there were. We were just as surprised by the number of visitors as anybody. And the event planners predicted people would get hurt because of that, so they had to change the events at the last minute. Everything was so chaotic right up to the actual festival! But this year’s festival was a success, so all’s well that ends well… Oh! Right, sorry, did you both enjoy yourselves?”
Um…are you sure you’re not still exhausted? You changed the way you were talking mid-sentence.
“Yes, we liked it very much, thank you.”
“It was my first time here and I had lots of fun!” I chimed in. “Thank you so much for all your hard work, Mr. Ashley.”
Our praise made Ashley blush a little. It felt good to thank him properly.
Mrrrow.
“Ciel?”
Huh? I didn’t sense Ciel’s aura at all. Was it hiding from me?
“What?!”
As I sat there, stunned and wondering why I hadn’t picked up on Ciel’s aura, Ashley yelped in surprise from his spot outside the dump.
“Is something wrong, sir?” I asked.
“Er, well…” Ashley looked incredibly perplexed. I wondered what was going on. “I couldn’t sense Ciel’s tremendous magic energy.”
Mrrrow. Ciel trilled proudly, wagging its tail. Had the adandara found a way to mask its magic energy from people with the detect magic skill? Was that even possible?
“Ciel, did you figure out how to block the detect magic skill?” I asked.
Druid stared at Ciel in shock. Ashley had the same reaction.
Mrrrow.
That meant yes. Wait…isn’t that, like, a really incredible thing to do?!
“First it countered a magic item, now a skill? I’m amazed,” Druid said.
I nodded in agreement. Ciel was beyond amazing.
“Wow, adandaras truly are extraordinary monsters!”
Ashley looks quite giddy… Uh-oh! “Guys, somebody’s coming. Ciel, can you come hide over here?”
I shouldn’t have let Ciel distract me like that. I quickly hid the adandara while Druid placed Sol and Flame in the bag we kept on hand in case we needed to hide them suddenly. I stashed Sol in the bag, too, and left the dump.
“Goodness, that was quick,” Ashley marveled. “Also, just wanted to let you know, it’s my fellow watchmen who are coming.”
“On patrol?”
“Most likely, yes.”
After a little while, three men in watchman uniforms approached the dump.
“Huh? That you, Ashley?”
“Hello, Dutch! Everything’s okay here.”
“All right. But what are you doing all the way out here?”
The officer Ashley had called “Dutch” was the oldest-looking of the three. He nodded to Ashley, then stole a glance at me and Druid. I gave him a nod, and he returned it…but he looked a bit uncertain.
“Well, it’s like this…”
“Ashley?” Dutch gave Ashley’s behavior a dubious frown.
“We were just looking in the trash for materials for our traps, sir,” Druid explained.
Dutch sternly processed what Druid had said…then he suddenly remembered something and smiled at us. “So you’re the ones!”
Trapping was so rare around here that even Dutch had heard rumors about us. With an awkward smile, Druid nodded in reply.
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