The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 424

Chapter 424:

We Must Be Patient!

“ER, IS SOL FINISHED…eating?” Nalgath’s cautious voice echoed through the cave. It had all happened so quickly that everyone just stared, frozen in place, at Sol.

“Probably. Wow… Now I feel silly spending all that time worrying,” my father said.

Nalgath nodded with a loud exhale. On our way to the cave, we had gone over contingency plans in case something went wrong, which was probably what my father was referring to.

“It was all over in the blink of an eye… I don’t think any of us saw that coming.” Piarre sat on a large magic item beside him and glanced around the cave. The interior didn’t look much different from before, but something had changed.

“I can feel a breeze now,” I said.

Somebody murmured an agreement. A while after the black light of the summoning circle changed to white, a breeze had started to flow through the cave. It startled us at first, but we quickly realized it was strange that it hadn’t been there earlier.

“I feel deflated…” Nalgath crouched down where he stood, and Juggy followed suit. Arly rested his back against the cave wall, and my father and I sat on the ground.

“No wonder—we were ready to do whatever it took to get the job done,” Piarre said. The other members of Cobalt smiled and nodded.

“Kewww! Kewww!” A loud chorus of voices echoed through the cave. Nalgath and his men jumped to their feet, weapons in hand. My father drew his sword from its sheath and whisked me protectively behind him.

“Sounds like the sharmy are awake.” Juggy looked up and readied his bow. I nervously followed his gaze upward, and several pairs of sharmy eyes stared back down at me. I couldn’t tell how many there were, but quite a lot of sharmy were staring menacingly down at us.

“Kewww! Kewww!”

“Kewww! Kewww!”

“Kewww! Kewww!”

“Kewww! Kewww!”

The sharmy slowly began to move, and the air felt tenser and tenser. I carefully picked up Sol, who had wandered by my feet, and cast my gaze toward the mouth of the cave. I needed to get out of the way.

Mee-YAAA! Ciel’s intimidating cry bounced off the cave walls. The sharmy jumped at the sound of it, then retreated in the opposite direction of where they’d been screaming. As I watched them retreat, the fear that had frozen my muscles slowly melted away. That was just too scary for me. Ciel’s angry cry made me tremble even harder.

“Ciel came to our rescue.” My father extended a hand to the adandara, who immediately bounded over to us. We’d instructed it to wait outside the cave so it wouldn’t excite the sharmy, but it had probably rushed to our aid when it heard the sharmy screaming.

“Thanks, Ciel. You really saved our hides!”

Mrrrow.

A look deeper into the cave revealed that the sharmy were completely frozen with fear, keeping a close eye on us all. I started to feel a little sorry for them.

“What should we do about them, sir?” I asked Nalgath.

He looked at the sharmy. “They won’t attack us as long as Ciel is here. I’d love to look around this cave, but I’m not sure if that’s the best idea.”

“First, let’s all go outside,” my father said. “We don’t want to excite the sharmy.”

Nalgath seconded the motion, so we all made our way to the cave entrance, mindful of the sharmy all the while. Since Ciel turned around and growled at them as we went, we managed to escape the cave without being attacked.

After we’d arrived at a spot where we could just barely see the mouth of the cave, my father stopped in his tracks. “We should be safe, now that we’re this far out. The sharmy are still nervous about Ciel.”

The members of Cobalt each sat down, keeping an eye on the cave as they rested their bodies.

“That jolt of terror right after the moment of relief sure took it right out of me…” Arly sighed.

Piarre smiled sheepishly. “We were in peril—we should never have let ourselves feel relieved in the first place.” Arly and Nalgath both chuckled nervously in reply.

“So what’s the next move?” my father asked. “Are we going back to investigate the cave?”

Nalgath thought for a moment before answering, “I think we’d better give the sharmy some time to calm down after all that excitement. Also… Um, never mind. It’s nothing.”

When I thought back to how worked up the sharmy had been, I agreed we should give them some time.

“Something on your mind, Nalgath?”

“Er, no, it’s okay. Why don’t we take a minute to catch our breaths and then head back to the village?” Nalgath looked at the cave again, so I followed his gaze. The sharmy were showing no signs of emerging, and from the distance at which we sat, I sensed we weren’t in any danger.

“Good idea. Let’s head back,” my father replied, standing up and offering me his hand. I grabbed it to stand and saw Ciel stretching out its back beside me. Noticing my gaze, Ciel butted its head right at me. I gave it some gentle pats, and Ciel closed its eyes and purred contentedly. Seeing the creature like this made it hard to believe this was the same being that had charged into the cave with murder in its eyes. I don’t think I’ll ever tell Ciel I was petrified with fear just then. I’ll keep it to myself.

“I’m sorry, Ciel… And thanks.”

Mew?

The innocent curiosity in the adandara’s eyes made me laugh. I really did prefer this side of it.

“Thanks. Let’s head back.”

Mrrrow.

When we arrived at the captain’s house, we found him in bed with Eche yelling at him. When we asked why, it turned out his fever had come back. The guild master sat in a chair near the bed, shaking his head at their argument. Sometimes, the captain would shoot the guild master a pleading glance, but he would only shrug his shoulders in reply. As far as I could tell, there was no animosity between the two. Did that mean the rumor that they were quarreling was a lie? Who would have started such a rumor?

The captain sighed in relief and flopped onto the bed. “That was so scary! I barely escaped her attempt to poison me.” He turned to the guild master. “Sorry you had to see that.”

“Me, too.” The guild master nodded.

“Anyway, good to see you’re all back. It must’ve been hell out there, eh?” the captain asked.

Nalgath and his men got peculiar looks on their faces, and the captain and guild master exchanged a glance. “Ahh, don’t worry, everyone fails a mission now and then. We’ll think of some other solution.”

Huh? Failed mission? I cocked my head quizzically at the guild master, which made him and the captain exchange another confused glance.

“Don’t worry, the summoning circle is neutralized and our problem is solved,” my father said. “It turned out to be a lot easier than we thought. In fact, it only took five minutes to completely neutralize it.”

“What?!” both leaders gasped.

“Five minutes?! How is that possible? Wait, you did come back awfully quick, didn’t you…?” the guild master stammered, looking at the clock.

“Were you really able to neutralize the summoning circle that fast?” the captain asked. Nalgath answered that we had, and the guild master and captain both dropped their jaws. “Wow… All right, Cobalt, I have an order for all of you. Don’t breathe a word of anything that happened today, not even among allies.”

The members of Cobalt all gasped at the captain’s order, and I was just as startled as the rest of them—so startled that I cast a suspicious glare at the captain.

“We still don’t really know what type of summoning circle it was, but what you all did today was clearly quite extraordinary. I feel strongly in my bones that we need to keep not only Sol but Ivy a secret as well. Therefore, I forbid you to speak of this, even among allies. No matter how careful you are, the secret always has a chance of leaking out if you let it leave your mouth. That’s an order! Understood?”

The men’s eyes shot open at the captain’s order. Then they immediately gave their word.