The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 7 - Chapter 365

Chapter 365:

Don’t Talk About Money!

“There, all packed!”

After we got everything ready for our trip, I swept my eyes around the room one last time We’d taken out all the trash, and we hadn’t forgotten anything. All we had to do was put the creatures in their bag and we would be ready to walk out.

“Okay, all set! Ivy…think we’re finally ready to hit the road?”

“Yup, we should be fine.”

Sixteen days had passed since the festival ended. We’d been planning to leave a bit earlier, but a bunch of things came up which had made us drag our feet and stay in Hatahi longer than we’d planned. During that time, Ashley happily told us that some progress had been made in reforming the way tamers operated. As we’d predicted, it was much better to simply show the tamers how it was done rather than trying to explain it verbally. Gol, however, griped that he had “too much work to do now.” Ashley’s monster phobia was still not entirely cured, but he promised his father that he would keep at it for the long haul until he overcame his fears someday. Ashley’s father, Arash, had thanked us and said 

we’d helped his son get much stronger. We were a bit confused since we felt like we really hadn’t done anything, but we were glad to see that everything was headed in a good direction.

“It’s time… Let’s go.”

My monsters gathered at my father’s signal. I put them all in the bag, and then my father and I had one last look around the room before we went downstairs where Chikar was waiting to send us off.

“Thank you for being such a good host all this time,” my father said to him.

“Your cooking was delicious. Thank you,” I added.

“The pleasure was all mine. Thank you for teaching me those new dishes. I hope you’ll both come again someday.”

Chikar walked us out of the inn. We waved goodbye, then headed for the front gate.

Gol was at the gate waiting for us. “Good morning. Glad to see the weather’s so nice today,” he said. 

“Thanks for everything, sir. We had a lot of fun.”

It had only been for a few days, but I’d really enjoyed playing with Gol’s slimes.

“That fool Ashley was supposed to be here, too, but something came up at work. He was gutted about it.”

“Oh, that’s too bad. Well, tell him we said good luck!” my father said.

Gol nodded in reply. Then we walked through the gate and waved goodbye to him.

“Take care,” he said.

“We will. And take care of yourself, too, Mr. Gol.”

We said goodbye to the gatekeeper and left the village.

“All right…Hataka or bust!” my dad cried.

I giggled and cheered, pumping my fist in the air. When we started down the village road, my father laughed for some reason.

“What’s up?”

“Nothing… I was just remembering how everyone was acting when we started getting ready to leave.”

We did have quite a time preparing for our exit. It started when we first began packing, when our departure day was finally in sight. We gathered everything we’d need at the dump, and then we found rows of potions and magic stones when we returned to my creatures. There were so many that my dad froze on the spot. We managed to collect them all and regroup with Ciel, only to find that the adandara had come back from its hunting trip with a giant monster in its jaws.

“Why?”

“Maybe they overheard what we were saying yesterday?”

Through our confusion, my father and I retraced our steps. The night before, we had made a list of everything we would need for our trip. We also happened to talk about all the expenses we’d racked up during our stay in Hatahi.

When we totaled up our expenses, I said, “Oh dear, that’s more expensive than I thought it would be.” That was probably what had lit the fuse. But right after that, my father had said, “Don’t worry, we still have lots of minerals and magic stones to sell. We’ve got plenty to spare.” So that should have been the end of it. And yet…

I was flattered that my creatures were worried about us. The more we traveled, the more likely we were to get wounded, tired, or sick, so I was grateful for Sora and Flame’s potions. But I thought that ten of each type, that would cause a panic if we tried to sell them, was a bit much. Flame had gotten better at keeping the magic stone levels low, as most of them were Levels 5 and 6. I was grateful for that, even though there were stones of Level S and SS mixed in among them. But I thought one hundred magic stones was far too many. And we could never sell those potions in a million years! My father and I gave Flame and Sora plenty of pats as we thanked them for all the magic stones and potions, and we somehow got them to understand.

I really was grateful to have a good supply of meat for our journey, too. Since I had a common magic bag, I could keep it fresh. Even magic bags had their limits, though. Since the monster Ciel had hunted was so gigantic, one of them was more than enough. I’m sorry, sweetie, but we don’t need four of them. Frown at me with those pitiful eyes all you want; they’re not fitting in my magic bag. My father and I gave Ciel plenty of praise and told it how strong it was, which finally brought the adandara back to its cheerful self.

We could sell the magic stones and the monster meat to the guild; they would certainly be pleased. But I didn’t know where Ciel hunted the monsters, which were not a type that could be found in these parts. We would probably have no trouble selling the magic stones, but I was still anxious. As we talked about what we should do with them, Ashley and Gol approached us. We panicked—we’d completely forgotten we had made plans to see them—and my father explained our situation and asked for their help. Gol exploded with laughter and said he’d get Guild Master Lish and Captain Tabulo to lend a hand. He popped back to the village and returned less than an hour later with the two men and a fresh new contract. They took one look at the monsters and the magic stones and signed it on the spot, meaning we’d somehow managed to sell everything without a hitch. Then, between getting our money, butchering our monster meat, and various other odds and ends, we wound up delaying our trip by a few days. Well, we had made it on the road, so all’s well that ends well. Though, I felt sorry for poor Guild Master Lish and Captain Tabulo since we’d caused problems for them up until the very end. But they thanked us, saying, “The festival cost the village a lot more than we expected this year, but we’ll be able to make up the deficit with all this monster meat.”

“We’d better be careful never to discuss money in front of the monsters again,” my father said somberly as he walked beside me.

“Yes, I think that’s a good idea.”

We looked at each other and laughed.

“I think it’s safe now…” he said.

We had walked quite a long way out of town on the village road by then. I scanned for auras, and we were in the clear.

“Yeah, we’re good.”

I opened the bag. Flame jumped out first, followed by Ciel and Sora. Lastly, Sol…was still deep asleep, so I quietly closed the bag. Ciel looked around, then turned into its true adandara form. No matter how many times I saw the creature grow bigger, it looked so majestic every time.

Mrrrow. After Ciel finished stretching, it took the lead and guided us off the village road. My father and I followed without giving it a second thought. Flame was wiggling happily on top of Ciel, and when I looked at my father behind me, I saw Sora on his head. He always did spoil Sora.

“Hm? What’s up?”

“Sora sure loves being up there.”

My father gave the slime on his head a couple of pats. “It probably likes the view from up here.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

That made sense. Sora was usually so close to the ground.

“Be careful not to fall off, okay?” my father said.

“Pu! Pu, puuu,” Sora happily jiggled in reply. I looked at Ciel, walking in the lead. Its body was sleek and muscled, and it was bigger now than it had been when we first set out on our travels. It was growing into an even stronger companion.

“Oh, Ciel, we don’t need any special minerals this time, okay?”

But Ciel just continued walking without responding.

Huh? Ciel…has no comment?

“Ciel…those monsters you hunted gave us a bunch of money, so we really don’t need any minerals, all right?”

Meeew.

It sounded upset, but I needed to be firm.

“You’ve already done more than enough for us, Ciel…”

Danger was imminent when Ciel got like that.

“Sora and Flame worked very hard for us, too, so we have more than enough money now. We’re super rich, so we don’t need to sell anything. Let’s just take it easy and enjoy ourselves on the way to Hataka, okay?”

“Yeah, I love a nice, relaxing trip.”

Mrrrow.

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

What a relief. Our magic box is starting to get so full it won’t fit any more of those magic stones and potions we can’t sell. Dad and I are trying to figure out if we need to buy another box…

Meowww.

“What’s wrong? Oh, yeah, I see the fruit on that tree! It looks yummy. Let’s go pick some.”