The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 419

Chapter 419:

The Sharmy Cave, Part 1

“NOW, LET’S GET GOING.”

Once we were in the forest, Nalgath took the lead as we made our way to the cave that the sharmy called home. There was a bit of a slope, but it wasn’t too steep. Not that a little slope or a rocky hill was a problem for me anyway. I looked beside me to see Ciel walking along merrily. It looked back at me and purred, rubbing its face against me. It seemed to be even needier than usual.

“Ciel must be happy to finally be back in its true form after all this time.”

“Yeah, it has been a while, hasn’t it? Oh, gosh, you’re just too stinking cute!”

I petted Ciel’s face and gave its jaw scritches as we walked, and it only purred louder to ask for more. The purring made me pet its head even more, so we kept going just like that. I looked ahead and noticed that the gentlemen of Cobalt seemed a bit preoccupied with me and my adandara.

“I’m sorry, are we being too loud?”

“Oh, no, I’m just impressed by how friendly you two are,” Juggy said with a little awestruck sigh as he looked from Ciel to me.

“Well, Ciel’s part of my family and I love it.”

“I’ve thought this for a while, but you really have great bonds with your monsters,” Arly spoke up from behind me. “Have you always been that close with them?”

“Yes, sir, we’ve always been best friends. Oh, but then again, I was a little scared when I first met Ciel.” Ciel body-slammed me gently when I said that. Oh, Ciel, ever since Sora healed your wounds, I’ve never once been scared of you.

“Do you think…maybe a bond like that could be forged later in the relationship?”

“Huh? Oh, do you know a tamer who doesn’t have a strong bond with their monsters?”

“That’s right. It’s an old friend of mine—everyone has high hopes for them because their grandmother was a famous tamer, but they’re having a hard time using their monsters to the best of their ability.”

“Using…” Aha.

“Well, I don’t really use Sora or Sol, either, sir.”

“Huh?!”

“If I need anything, I’ll ask them for help. But if they don’t want to help, I respect that. I can’t use my family members—that’s just weird, isn’t it? Unless your family is like that, Mr. Arly?”

“Er, I’m sorry. I guess I phrased that badly…” a flustered Arly apologized. But somebody must have planted that thought in his head, or else he wouldn’t have said what he did.

“The word you’re looking for is cooperation,” my father said.

“Cooperation?” Arly gave him a strange look.

“Most families cooperate and help each other out, right? There are plenty of exceptions, though…”

Arly and Nalgath smiled sheepishly at that side remark.

“Cooperation, huh…? You know, Marsha said something like that to describe what she did.”

Marsha? I’ve heard that name before somewhere… Where was it? Hmm, I can’t remember.

“Thanks, Ivy. I’ll tell my friend what you said.”

“No problem, sir. And I do think relationships can be mended. It will probably just take time.”

It also depended on his friend’s level of commitment. I could give a person advice, but it was up to them whether they followed it or not. I hope things work out for Arly’s friend…

“We sure got out here really easily, didn’t we?” my father remarked.

Everyone looked conflicted. In emergencies, nobody was allowed to venture into the forest without clearance from the guild master or the captain of the watch. Nalgath and his party did get an official permit from the captain, but the gatekeepers had just let us through without even asking to see it.

“Yeah, the village authorities are in the danger zone.”

The danger zone?

“I guess they’ve just about lost their sense of judgment. Probably an effect of the summoning circle’s spell.”

So that’s what they meant. The captain said they were getting things ready to break the spell, but they would need a little more time. I hope we make it on time…

“That’s funny…”

“Yeah…”

Juggy and Piarre stopped in their tracks and looked around the forest. Nalgath and Arly had also taken up defensive stances. Uh-oh, was my prediction wrong?

“Is it the sharmy, sir?”

“No, not them. There’s a different monster that’s usually found in this area, but we don’t sense a single one of them,” Arly said.

“This is their territory and I can see their nest up there,” Nalgath said. I looked where he was pointing, and sure enough, there was a clump of twigs in the tree above us. Was that their nest?

“They should be rearing their young this time of year, but I don’t see them. Absolutely none—that’s odd.”

I searched for monster auras but sensed none in this area. Maybe this was the sharmy’s doing.

“Let’s hurry on ahead,” my father said. “We don’t have time to waste looking for this monster.”

Nalgath nodded, and then Piarre told us that we were almost at the cave the sharmy called home. “Over there.”

A little away from the place where the monsters were missing, the mouth of a giant cave came into view.

“We’re going to go look inside. Wait out here,” Nalgath and Juggy said, crouching low and walking toward the cave. My heart raced as I watched the two, until I saw that they had safely approached the entrance. A little while later, I could no longer see them. That made my heart jump, but I had no choice but to wait for them.

“We really didn’t run into a single sharmy on the way here, huh?” Piarre said.

 I agreed that that was odd. Even if the sharmy were scared of Ciel, it was strange that we hadn’t come across even one. First the missing monsters, then the strangely behaving sharmy. What’s going on? I’m starting to feel sick…

“They’re back,” Arly said.

I turned my eyes back to the cave to see Nalgath and Juggy running back to us with their heads held low.

“How was it?”

“Well…”

“What’s wrong? Weren’t they there?” Piarre asked.

Juggy shook his head. “We did find some sharmy in the cave, but we also found a giant pile of trash with them.”

Trash! I knew it… So this is where it was. This means the sharmy almost certainly mutated off the magic energy from trash.

“How much trash was there?” Arly asked.

Nalgath frowned. “A huge sea of it. It was spilling back so deep into the cave that we had no idea how much there was.”

“Oh, wow.”

“And there were sharmy in that cave? It’s awfully quiet, considering,” my father said.

Nalgath nodded. So there were sharmy in the cave, but it was unusually quiet inside. Animals who lived in the forest were sensitive to auras and had impeccable hearing, so why didn’t they budge when the men went into their cave?

“They were all curled up asleep. I accidentally kicked a rock and made a noise, but they didn’t react at all.”

Were they asleep? But they wouldn’t sleep through a noise like that… Something’s off.

“Let’s investigate the cave some more,” my dad said.

The men of Cobalt looked at me.

“I’d like to come with you, if I can.”

“Ivy will be okay. Ciel, if anything happens, put her on your back and carry her to safety.”

Ciel gave my father a big, clear nod of understanding.

“Let’s go.” My father, who was supposed to stay behind and look after me, now took the lead. Is this really okay? I looked back at Nalgath and his party, but none of them seemed bothered by it. Er…yeah, they’re doing the wrong thing. Oh well, my dad will probably scold them later for that.

“Ivy, you stay behind me,” my dad said.

“Okay.” I moved right behind him, and Ciel swooped to my side.

“They may be asleep, but there’s no telling when they’ll wake up. Don’t let your guard down.”

“I won’t. You be careful, too, Dad.”

“I will…” He looked behind us at Nalgath and his party, then stifled a chuckle as he headed deep into the cave.