The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 8 - Chapter 394

Chapter 394:

Our Treat, We Insist!

“IVY, THINK YOU CAN GET UP?”

My father’s voice jolted me awake.

“G’morning… Huh? Why’m I in a bed?”

I thought we were staying in a tent. But this place is… Oh! Yeah, I fell asleep in one of Zephyr’s rooms last night.

“You all right?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. Wait, what time is it?”

An unusual amount of sunlight was streaming through the window. There was no way it could be morning.

“It’s noon. You were so tired yesterday I didn’t wake you. I even took a little nap myself.”

“Oh, wow.”

It’s been a while since I slept in, but this has totally cleared up my head. Lack of sleep really is a bad thing.

“Thanks. I feel all better now—probably because of all that sleep. Good morning, everyone.”

My slimes looked at me and jiggled. Oh, right! I need to feed them.

“Glad to hear it. The slimes already had their breakfast, and Garitt and Fische woke up. Zinal’s explaining everything to them right now.”

Oh, good. I was worried they were hungry. “Thanks for taking care of the slimes. Are Garitt and Fische okay?” I wonder how Zinal managed to snap them out of it?

“I talked with both of them a little, and everything seemed okay. Oh, and Zinal used the fact that they got so drunk that they didn’t wake up in the morning as the trigger to bring them back to normal.”

That made sense; they would never drink so much that they couldn’t wake the next morning. For that matter, I didn’t think they’d get drunk in the first place. Wait a minute… Didn’t they oversleep because Zinal gave them too much sleep medicine?

“Well, don’t fret over the details,” my dad said with an awkward smile. Zinal was a pro all right. He knew how to hide his failures.

“Let’s head over next door; they should be finished talking by now. I know, let’s have Garitt, Fische, and Zinal treat us to lunch.”

“What for?”

“As an inconvenience fee.”

“Ha ha ha! Nice, I like it!”

I got up, made the bed, and prepared to leave. My mind felt so clear now. Had I really been that tired? I put the slimes in their bag and left the room with my father. We walked over to the next room, and he knocked on the door.

“Are you done talking?”

I thought it was wrong to open the door before we got an answer, but Zinal didn’t seem to mind. He happily waved us in when he saw me. Fische and Garitt were in the room with him, and their complexions were horrible. Either it was from too much drinking or from the nature of the conversation… Which one made their faces so brilliantly green, I wonder? I hope it wasn’t from drinking too much sleep medicine. I stared hard at them, trying to figure out the cause. Then, when they looked back at me, I gave them a flustered greeting.

“Good morning, gentlemen.”

“Hi. So, sorry for everything. Sounds like we gave you a lot of trouble.” Garitt looked genuinely remorseful. He was clearly upset about it, and his face turned even greener at the sight of me. Was he going to be okay?

“Oh, it’s fine, sir. Are you all right?”

“I don’t think we are. I’ve never messed up so bad before. Ivy, I’m sorry, too.” Fische joined his companion and bowed to me.

Er, aren’t you both taking this a bit too hard? Just what did Zinal tell you? I gave Zinal a questioning look, but he shrugged his shoulders.

“I only told them the truth. Hey, pull yourselves together! We have to talk about what our next move is going to be, and I need you to be sharp for it.”

Zinal gave them both a pep talk, but they were still overwhelmed. It looked like it would take us a while to be able to have a proper conversation. They might need a little change of scenery. Maybe I’ll actually make that suggestion my dad and I were joking about earlier. After all, they must be hungry, too, and you can’t think on an empty stomach. And I’m hungry anyway.

“Mr. Garitt, Mr. Fische, please treat us to an expensive lunch.”

“Yes. Please and thank you,” my dad said, playing along.

Garitt and Fische gave my father and me a stare.

“Call it an inconvenience fee. So it’s settled: You’re taking us to Hataka’s most expensive restaurant for lunch,” my father explained with a devilish twinkle in his eye.

“Treat me, too,” Zinal chimed in, making Garitt freeze mid-nod. Yeah, I’d feel suspicious about that as well.

“Why do we have to treat you, too, Zinal? You also inconvenienced them, so you should help us pay!”

“Now, now, let’s not dwell on semantics.”

Garitt glared at Zinal, but it was having no effect on him. If anything, it earned him a condescending chuckle.

“Bad form, Zinal. You’re not getting any.”

Have they gone back to their old dynamic? No, I’m not sure why, but they seem even more unruly than before. Is this the true face of the investigator trio?

“Looks like our first impression of them deceived us,” my father said.

You can say that again. Why are they being so childish? Wait, it’s not quite that. It’s like they’re a mix of a bunch of personalities, and it’s hard to get a handle on them.

“Sorry, all three of us are going to treat you now. The best restaurant in Hataka would have to be Yanpo on Main Street. They’re famous for their meat. Sound good? If you don’t want to gorge yourself on meat in the middle of the day, we can always wait until suppertime.” Directing a sigh at his bickering companions, Fische described the restaurant to us. I was fine with eating meat for lunch, and my father was clearly salivating at the idea already.

“Meat sounds good to me. What about you, Ivy?”

“Yup. Can’t wait.”

Truth be told, I’d been a little hesitant to make them treat us to lunch, but one look at them now and I wasn’t bothered one bit. They were competing to see who would have to pay the most. And Fische, despite his sighing, had joined in their antics. He was super into it, too. Why didn’t they all just split the bill evenly? Fische ended up losing, which meant he would pay the most.

“They’re fun to watch,” my father remarked.

“They sure are.”

Since they were finished talking, my father and I left their room. Once we were outside the inn, we had a look around while we waited for the trio to get ready and join us.

“Everybody looks calm.”

All the people passing by the inn looked the same as they had the past several days. And up until yesterday, we’d been just like them, but now was different.

“They do. I’ve never been so terrified of calm as I am now.”

I nodded in agreement. It was definitely scary.

“We’re here. Hmm? What’s up?” Zinal opened the door of the inn, and Fische and Garitt followed behind him.

“Oh, we were just noticing how nobody’s changed.”

“True. It looks like any other day in a village.”

Strange, when the real danger of monsters was just outside the walls. What was the mastermind trying to do with this village? What was their goal? For that matter, was the mastermind still in the village? As I watched the villagers go about their day, I could just imagine what it would be like if monsters attacked the place when it wasn’t prepared. I doubt the mastermind would want to stick around when they knew how much trouble the area was in. Did they want to destroy the village? If so, I’d say their plan was going quite well.

“Can we come back here after lunch?” Zinal said. “I asked the innkeeper if we could use a room.”

My father nodded. It was definitely safer than our tent. “Are you two going to be okay?”

“We’ve been through our fair share of mayhem. Give us a little time and we’ll be fine. Well…then again, we’ve never messed up as badly as we did this time around.”

Garitt sighed heavily, but his eyes were a little brighter now. Oh, good. I think they came to an agreement.

As we walked toward the restaurant Yanpo, Zinal came over to me and my father. “Ivy, Druid, did you sense anything wrong when you woke up this morning?”

“What?!”

Was anything wrong? Well, I remember feeling clearheaded, but that was just because I finally got a good night’s sleep.

“You mean that clearheaded feeling?”

What?! Dad felt it, too?

“So you felt it as well. And you, Ivy?”

“I did.”

“Aha. So did I. At first, I thought it was just because I got a good night’s sleep, but it felt different somehow, so it kept tugging at the back of my mind. Maybe it’s because I was freed from the spell, or maybe there’s some other reason behind it. It’s just one mystery after another.”

“That’s true. Is there anybody we can ask about summoning circles?”

“It’d have to be a noble or someone in the royal circle. But if they find out we’ve been under the influence of a summoning circle, they might not allow us to leave town.”

The nobility? Would Lord Foronda know anything, then? But…having to stay in town? I want to avoid that at any cost… Maybe we should prepare ourselves a little. I’ll bring it up when we have our meeting later.