The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 8 - Chapter SS1

BONUS:

Amiche and Luffie’s New Beginnings

AMICHE’S PERSPECTIVE

I LOOKED AT LULU, my tamed slime, and sighed quietly. It was clearly eating less than before. Even just three months ago, it had been eating a little more.

I scanned the other tamers and their slimes at the dump. Everyone else looked unchanged. The tamers weren’t talking to the slimes, and the slimes were silently disposing of trash just like they always did. It upset me a little. It didn’t seem like anybody was testing out that theory yet.

A rumor had been spreading recently about tamers and their relationships with their tamed monsters. I’d thought it was a joke at first, but I was wrong. At the council of lords, a famous lord gave a speech on what tamers could do. Truth be told, I thought it was an awfully pushy thing for someone who wasn’t even a tamer to do. I thought he was just some entitled nobleman, running his mouth. But then I learned that this nobleman was actually quite the extraordinary fellow—even adventurers respected him. That was why, even in this village, booklets entitled The Ideal Tamer were being distributed to the tamers.

“I dunno about calling them family…”

The Ideal Tamer argued that tamers should rethink their relationships with their tamed monsters. We should talk to them, play with them, and forge bonds with them. We should treat them as family. It was so ridiculous that I laughed while reading it.

But this booklet also told the story of a particular tamer. It wrote, “Perhaps because this tamer loves her slimes like family, their disposal powers have remained just as strong as the slimes of yore.” Truth be told, I was incredibly shocked by that. After all, the slimes I’d read about in the old texts had amazing disposal powers.

The disposal powers held by the slimes of bygone years truly were incredible. According to the old texts in this village, they could digest thirty times as much trash in a day as today’s slimes. What’s more, there were currently eighteen slimes in this village, yet in the past, there had been no more than ten. They had about half the number of slimes we have now, with thirty times the disposal powers. I thought the numbers might be a little exaggerated since they were from so long ago, but because these old texts were authenticated, that meant everything in them was the truth. It was crazy to believe that such extraordinary slimes existed to this very day.

“Would getting friendlier with my slime really make it eat that much more trash…?”

The tamer in the booklet must have tamed some rare slimes. My slime was average, so I was sure it wouldn’t work, but I was still really curious about it.

“Hey, Amiche?” Luffie, one of the tamers I often spoke to, approached me with his slime in his arms. Luffie was two years younger than me at sixteen. As this was my fourth year working as a tamer, he was my junior. I’m a bit standoffish, so the other tamers usually kept their distance, but Luffie was undaunted, and he approached me on his very first day. He was my cherished taming buddy.

“What’s up?”

“Well, I was thinking of putting The Ideal Tamer to the test. Whatcha think?”

Whoa!

“You want to try it out?”

“Yep, of course!” Luffie looked so confident that all I could do was stare. Noticing this, he gave me a confused look and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Uh, nothing. Just a little surprised, that’s all.”

I wasn’t expecting Luffie to make the suggestion… Well, actually, he always loved to try anything that sounded good, so I guess it was only natural he’d think of that.

“Don’t you wanna try it out, Amiche? Who knows, maybe your tamed slime can work miracles.”

“Well, yeah…I am curious about it. But a nobleman said all this, you know.”

I hated nobles. They should never be trusted.

“Well, well, just don’t think about that. Besides, I heard this nobleman who gave that speech about tamers is a stand-up guy! So just ignore the fact that he’s a nobleman. Also, when you look at the future we’re facing, we kinda have to give everything a try.”

Yeah, he’s absolutely right. If our disposal power keeps going down, the trash will eventually pile up too high, and then the monsters might mutate. What if that actually happens? I heard that monsters mutated by trash had abnormal abilities. What would happen if those kinds of monsters attacked the village? Worst-case scenario, my loved ones might die. I can’t allow that future to ­happen, no matter what it takes.

“You’re right. I guess we should at least try it first.”

“Yes, let’s! Lemme guess, you were gonna wait and see if any of the other tamers were changing up their relationships with their slimes before you tried it.”

You got me—right on the nose, Luffie. I’ve always hated being first, so I was waiting for somebody else to do it. I actually was going to give it a try… Lulu really hasn’t been disposing as much, after all.

“Well, I don’t really care about that anyway. So, the booklet said we had to rethink our relationships, but how d’ya think we actually do that?”

“Hmmm… Well, you know how our seniors told us we shouldn’t ever act weak in front of our monsters because it emboldens them and could get us hurt? So we should always show them that we’re strongest, right? Now, if you rethink that, that would mean all of that is wrong…wouldn’t it?”

“Yeah, it would. If that book is true, that would mean everything our seniors ever told us is wrong.”

Were we doing it all wrong? If so, then how did that nobleman ever learn the right way of doing things? Well, I guess there’s no point in wondering about that right now.

“Okay…so we’re supposed to talk to and play with them.”

That was what the booklet said: “You should talk to and play with your monsters to get closer to them.”

I guess we have to start somewhere…

“Okay… Maybe we should introduce ourselves first?”

“Like, our names and stuff?”

Luffie’s question made me wonder. They already knew us…but all we’d really done was tell them our names. That wasn’t so much a conversation—more like an announcement. Anyway, that wouldn’t be enough.

“Yeah, that should work. Okay, first we’ll… Oh!”

“What’s wrong?”

I looked at Luffie. He was looking at me with a little hesitation in his eyes. “Maybe before we introduce ourselves, we should apologize for how we’ve treated them all this time,” I said. After all, we did treat them as objects, just like our seniors told us to. I sighed quietly, looking back on the way I’d acted toward Lulu all those years.

“You’re right. We should probably say we’re sorry first,” Luffie agreed, smiling awkwardly. He was probably remembering a long list of uncomfortable moments with his slime, just like me. He lowered his slime to the ground. “So, um…Ponyu, I’m really sorry for how I’ve treated you.”

Silence.

Um, don’t look at me, Luffie. I don’t even know how to help you. Besides, I’m sure Lulu would do the same to me.

“Oh! Lulu’s finished eating! I’ll be right back.” I walked over to the trash pile several yards away to get Lulu. Would talking to it improve our relationship? “Um, Lulu…let’s go back.” Ugh, I couldn’t bring myself to apologize. I swooped Lulu into my arms and trotted back to Luffie. I felt Lulu shift in my arms and looked down to see it staring up at me. “That’s right… I haven’t held you much, have I?”

Lulu just stared silently back at me. It was…a little unsettling.

“Um, I’m really sorry for how I’ve behaved with you all this time. Also…”

What would even happen if I just said out of nowhere that I wanted to be friends? Lulu would know I was only doing it to increase its disposal powers. But I actually do want to make its powers better—that’s why I want to improve our relationship. This is tough.

“Argh, what am I even supposed to say?!” I looked at Luffie. His tamed slime Ponyu was also just staring intently at him in silence. They must have been keeping close watch on Luffie and me since we changed our behavior.

“I guess we can call this a new beginning?” Luffie suggested.

I shrugged my shoulders. I guess we could call it that. “Sure, why not?”

I wonder how long it will be before Lulu plays with me…