The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 8 - Chapter 399

Chapter 399:

What a Pitiful Man!

PERHAPS strike while the iron is hot was an investigator’s motto. Barely two hours after the talk with Nalgath, his three friends had been knocked out with a sleep aid. And unless I was mistaken, the man on the right had a bit of red in his face… It must be my imagination. Definitely.

“Miss Ivy, are you sure you can do this? Please don’t hurt yourself. If you can’t do it, just say so. It’s my fault they got like this in the first place.” Nalgath gripped the hands of one of his friends. These were his comrades who had been to hell and back with him. Of course he wanted to save them all.

“I understand, sir, but Sora and Sol say they can do it, and I trust them. Sol, Sora, do your thing!”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Pefu!”

Sol bounced onto one of the men in bed. Meanwhile, Sora jiggled up and down and looked on. It was really hard to explain this to Nalgath when he looked so worried, but the two slimes were thoroughly enjoying themselves. My father also noticed this and gave the two a bewildered look. Zinal and his party were away, gathering information on the village. They were worried they might fall under the summoning circle’s spell again, even though Sora and Sol had said they were safe.

“Hey, Dad, I think Sora and Sol might know a thing or two about summoning circles.”

“I’m sure they do.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Nalgath said. “Do you think all slimes know about them?”

My father and I fell silent. To be honest, I was sure Sol and Sora were very different from ordinary slimes. The only similarity was the fact that they disposed of trash. But then again, I wasn’t sure we could say they even had that in common with ordinary slimes, since they digested both organic and inorganic matter.

“I’m not sure. Sol and Sora are both special.”

“Is it a rare slime thing, then?”

“It’s probably even more than that,” my father said. I nodded in agreement.

“Do they have such a close relationship with you because they’re rare slimes, Miss Ivy? I’ve seen many slimes in Hataka, but I’ve never, ever seen any of them snuggle up to their tamers.”

“That’s because they haven’t forged a relationship with their tamers,” I said.

Nalgath looked surprised to hear that. “Huh?! Is that so…”

“Yes, sir.”

“You know, that reminds me of a tamer my father introduced me to when I was a little boy. That tamer had a very different aura than the ones in Hataka.”

I gave Nalgath a discreet stare. He was talking about his father, but I didn’t sense any animosity from him. Maybe it really was the sight of his father crying that had changed their relationship?

“Um, Miss Ivy…”

“Yes?”

Nalgath looked at his own hands and frowned critically. It seemed like he wanted to ask a question.

“What is it?” my father asked.

I saw Nalgath’s lips tighten in determination. Then he looked at us both and said, “My father…what do you think of him?”

He looked so grim I was worried what he was going to ask. But it’s just about Zinal…

“Well…he’s hard to read. It’s difficult to tell what he’s thinking. And he loves teasing people. You’d better not show him your weakness, or he’ll take advantage of it. Also…he’s capable of doing things most people would consider cruel.”

“Ivy…what makes you think that?” my father asked.

“Huh? Doesn’t he come off that way?”

“I guess so…” he conceded.

An investigator’s job must be grimmer than even I could imagine. People’s fates lay in their hands.

“I thought so…” Nalgath’s eyes darkened a little.

“But in spite of all that, he cares deeply for his friends and family, and he loves you, Mr. Nalgath.”

“What?!”

“But his work forces him to stay away from you sometimes. Oh, also, his pride as a father gets in the way. It hardens his heart and makes him speak clumsily.”

The two stared silently in reply.

“He’s also a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to work and family, so his standards are a little too high and he sabotages himself sometimes… Oh, how should I put it… He’s a pitiful man?”

“Er…a pitiful man?”

“Yes, that’s right. If I had to describe Mr. Zinal in one word, it wouldn’t be clumsy. It would be pitiful.”

Yes, I thought that word fit him perfectly. I got the sense from him that he felt a heavy weight of responsibility with his work. I also felt like it had strained his relationship with his son and although he wanted to do something about it, his pride as a father and as an investigator kept getting in the way. I wished Zinal would just take it easier, but I suppose that’s just how he was.

“You sure have a good eye for people, Ivy.”

That’s how I survived. I could only keep out of trouble if I stayed away from threatening people. It was the most important thing of all to me, and yet I got involved with a lot of trouble anyway. And recently, I even started feeling like there was a reason why I shouldn’t just run away. Come to think of it, Nalgath sure has been awfully quiet.

“Mr. Nalgath?”

I looked over at Nalgath, sitting next to his sleeping friends. For some reason, his shoulders were shaking. Had I said something that upset him?

“Pfft! Hee hee hee!”

He’s laughing?

“My father…pitiful… Ha ha ha ha!”

I guess I said something funny. He was hunched over in his chair, holding his belly. Was it really that ridiculous?

“You’re the first person to ever describe my father that way.”

“Really? What do you think, Dad?”

“Hmmm… I got a similar vibe from him.”

I thought so. My father and I do tend to see things similarly.

“Is that so?”

“Yeah…”

“I think Mr. Garitt and Mr. Fische feel the same way, too. They might have even harsher things to say.” I mean, this is Garitt and Fische we’re talking about.

Nalgath heaved a long sigh. Sol had freed one of his friends from the spell and had now swallowed the second one’s head. Sora enveloped the first friend and began to heal his magic wounds. Everything was going well. What a relief.

“There was this elite adventurer who used to be friends with me, and I looked up to him completely. But for some reason, he was stripped of his title. He fell further and further into ruin after that. And I asked my father to help him, but he refused to lift a finger. In fact, he pushed my friend away. And I couldn’t forgive him for that. My friend left town, and after a while, I heard rumors that my father had been involved in stripping him of his title. When I confronted him about it, he said the rumors were true. He left town right after that.”

“Do you know what Zinal does for a living?” my father asked.

“I didn’t know at the time, but now I think I do.”

“Ah.”

A strange silence filled the room.

“Pefu!”

We looked over just in time to see Sol swallow the third person’s head. It was successfully absorbing all the magic energy. Sora was still working on the first person; it really did take quite a long time.

“It sure takes a while to heal them, doesn’t it?” my father remarked. “I noticed it with Nalgath, too.”

I nodded in agreement, then said, “Oh, wait a minute. Hey, Dad?”

“What’s up?”

“We should heal the guild master next, then the captain.”

We needed to get Hataka’s top dogs as our allies first. Otherwise, Zinal and his party wouldn’t be able to make any moves. And from what we’d heard, the guild master was almost certainly under a spell, so he was our top priority. Our other problem was the sick head watchman.

“Hm? He’s sick?” I muttered to myself. Wait a minute, isn’t that Flame’s specialty? Flame’s potions can cure any illness. “Maybe Flame’s potions can help him? It’s at least worth a try, right…?”

“Miss Ivy?”

“Hm? Is something wrong, sir?”

Nalgath was looking at me worriedly. My eyes darted over to my slimes, afraid something was wrong with them.

“Oh! I see Sora’s on the second one now.”

Sora had just enveloped the second adventurer, and my father was examining the first one.

“How’s he looking, Dad? Is he gonna be okay?”

“As far as I can tell… But we won’t know for sure until he wakes up. How much sleeping medicine did you give them?”

My father’s words made me feel a little better for the time ­being. I decided we’d just have to wait for the medicine to wear off.

“Mr. Garitt said I didn’t need to knock them out for long, so I gave them a three-hour dose.”

“Okay.”

In other words, we would be able to tell how everyone was doing in another two hours.

“The only issue is that the first person you healed—Piarre—isn’t too easily affected by drugs, so it’s hard to figure out when he’ll wake up.”

So that means Piarre could wake at any moment. Gee, now I feel kinda nervous…