The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 8 - Chapter 400

Chapter 400:

Is He Being Devoured?

“AGH!”

When I heard the scream, I paused mid-chomp on my snack and darted my eyes toward its source. Piarre was awake, looking at his companion inside of Sora and screaming. That meant the sleeping medicine had worn off quicker than we’d 

expected. Before Nalgath could get a word out, Piarre jumped at his friend in the next bed.

“Wha…?!”

“Stay calm, Piarre!”

Nalgath caught the charging Piarre, taking all the momentum of his weight into his arms. Now held completely still, Piarre let out a muffled yelp. My father and I decided to look on without saying anything. I couldn’t quite tell what had even happened. I chomped on the food stuffed in my cheeks. Gee, this pastry is a bit tough.

“Ah, now I get it, Ivy. Look at his hand.”

I looked where my father was pointing and saw a tiny knife in Piarre’s right hand. It had already been unsheathed. Now I get it. He was trying to attack Sora.

“Nalgath, what is going on?!”

“Piarre, just calm down and listen to me!” Nalgath’s voice boomed through the room. For a while, the only sound that could be heard was their heavy breathing.

“Okay, I promise I won’t go crazy. Just let me go.”

Nalgath showed no sign of letting go, and Piarre finally made peace with that.

“Listen to me. Don’t you dare stop Sora.”

“Sora?”

“The slime.”

“…Okay.” Piarre nodded meekly, pinned in Nalgath’s arms. Nalgath heaved a relieved sigh and gave Piarre’s shoulders two firm slaps before letting him go.

“Sorry, I grabbed you pretty hard there. You okay?”

“Yeah…just tell me one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Juggy… The slime isn’t eating him, is it?”

Juggy? I followed Piarre’s gaze to see that Sora was healing the last person. Apparently, his name was Juggy.

“He’s not being eaten, he’s being healed. I’ll explain everything, just drop the knife.”

I looked at Piarre’s hand and saw he was still gripping the knife. He didn’t feel safe yet. Then I turned to Sora…and to the untrained eye, it definitely did look like the slime was feeding on the man. If somebody woke to see one of his comrades like that, it was only natural he would try to save them. Nalgath, thanks for noticing.

“Um, and you are…?”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Druid, and this is my daughter Ivy.”

“Nice to meet you. And these are Ciel, Flame, and Sol. The slime who’s swallowing Juggy at the moment is Sora.”

A father and daughter were leisurely sipping tea at a table in Nalgath’s room while one of his friends was being devoured by a slime two beds over. I wonder what the scene looked like from Piarre’s point of view?

“Piarre, these people saved our lives.”

“What do you mean?”

Nalgath began to explain, so I decided to let him handle it and reached for another snack. Garitt had left them for us, and with so many varieties and flavors to choose from, it was a real joy.

“This one’s a bit on the sweet side,” my father said.

“Which one’s that?”

“The yellow one. Here, say ahh.”

My father held out the sweet yellow pastry for me and I took a bite. An intense sweetness filled my mouth. I swallowed it whole and gulped down some tea.

“Dad, this one’s a little too sweet.”

More than a little, actually…

“Really?”

“Are you sure you aren’t tired?”

“Ahh, yeah, I’ve been running around a lot the past few days. I haven’t slept much, even when I was in bed.”

It really was nerve-racking just walking around town when we didn’t know where the summoning circle was. And we had no clue who the mastermind was, either.

“Excuse me…” Piarre meandered over to us and bowed. “Please forgive me for being so rude earlier. Thank you so much for saving us.”

Nalgath’s little talk probably helped him notice all the inconsistencies in the last one and a half years of his life. Thank goodness.

“Does anything hurt?” I asked.

“I feel fine, thanks. You really have tamed quite the extraordinary group of slimes. Their powers are one thing, but I’ve never seen such a clear one or such a black one before. And this is the first time I’ve ever seen a slime with patterned skin, to boot!”

My slimes’ appearances were indeed unique. Even my father’s mentor, who knew quite a lot, had said they were rare, so they must have been quite uncommon. The patterned skin was that of an adandara, but of course Piarre wouldn’t have known that.

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

Looks like they’re all done now. Sora bounced away from Juggy’s bed.

“Thanks, Sora. You too, Sol.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Pefu!”

Sora and Sol jiggled proudly. As the relief of all Nalgath’s friends being saved washed over me, a sluggishness consumed my entire body. I hadn’t been doing anything, but I guess I was mentally exhausted.

“You okay?” my father asked.

“Yeah, I’m all right.”

He stroked my hair in concern, which only made me sleepier, of course.

“You can go to sleep if you want to,” my father said.

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

Bonnng.

The sound of Nalgath’s doorbell echoed through the room. Nalgath put his hand on the sword at his hip and went to answer it. Piarre gripped his knife, too. Tension filled the air in the room.

“We’re coming in. It’s just my father and his party.”

When Nalgath returned, Piarre muttered in disbelief, “Your father…? Huh?”

“Oh! Um…don’t worry about it.”

“Um, but it’s your father, Nalgath. What the hell happened?!”

Huh? I thought Nalgath filled him in. Why doesn’t he know about Zinal? As I sat there in confusion, I heard my father snickering beside me. “What is it?”

“Nalgath was probably too shy to tell Piarre about his father.”

Ohh, now that makes sense. That must mean Nalgath’s friends know about his relationship with his father.

Piarre teased Nalgath for quite a while afterward. Just when he started to lose his temper, his other two friends woke up. One of them was Juggy, and the other was… Who was the other one?

“Where’s Zinal’s party?” my father asked Nalgath once his friends had finally settled down. Nalgath shot him a bitter look. I even heard him mutter, “You should’ve stopped them.” But my father just shrugged his shoulders.

Nalgath sighed, “They’re all on the first floor, waiting for us to come down.”

“Okay. Ivy and I will go down ahead of you. Come down after you explain everything to your friends.” And with that, my father put Sora on his head and picked up Ciel in his arm. I quickly grabbed Sol and Flame in turn, and with a light bow to Nalgath’s freshly woken and confused friends, we scurried downstairs.

This was the house of Nalgath’s party, which was called Cobalt. It was about as big as my father’s old house that he sold. The room they were in was normally used for storing magic items, but Nalgath had quickly moved out the items and set up three cots in case something went wrong and he needed to act in a hurry.

“Thanks for everything, you two. And thank you, Sora and Sol.”

We came down the stairs to find a tired-looking trio sitting on the sofa. They looked right at home, even though this wasn’t their house. Were they shameless? Impudent? Which it was, I don’t know.

“Something wrong?”

“Er, no, sir. Anyway, did you gentlemen get any leads?” I asked.

The three shook their heads. “I thought we’d be able to find something now that we’re free from the spell, but it was no use. We haven’t come up with a single thing that could lead us to the mastermind.”

Maybe our theory was right and the mastermind is no longer in Hataka…

“Any leads on the summoning circle?” my father asked.

“We hit a dead end there, too. We don’t have the faintest clue where it is.”

Zinal’s party and my father heaved a collective sigh. Immediately after, we heard a ruckus upstairs. As we sat there, listening, we could tell Nalgath’s party members were making fun of him. I wondered if everything was okay, but then I heard them saying “What a relief” and “I’m so happy.”

“It sounds like Nalgath found himself some good companions.”

“He sure did. I’m happy for him,” Zinal smiled.