The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 425

Chapter 425:

The Importance of Trust

“DRUID, IVY, I hear you’re staying at the plaza?” the captain asked.

“Yeah. Why do you ask?” my dad replied.

The captain scratched his chin for a little while before looking at the guild master, who nodded in reply.

“We still haven’t the faintest clue who our mastermind is. It’s dangerous to stay in the plaza—wanna stay at my place?” the guild master offered. “It’s on guild master land, so it’s about as big as this house. And I live on my own, so you wouldn’t be imposing at all. What do you say?”

I did think it would be dangerous for us to stay in the plaza when we still didn’t know who the mastermind was. And since the adventurers and watchmen near the plaza were all under the summoning circle’s spell, there was no guarantee any of them would come to our aid. The mastermind could even be among them, for all we knew.

“The news about the captain waking up will likely reach everyone’s ears by tomorrow, and the enemy will know we’re on the case,” my father said.

The captain and guild master nodded. “They’ve probably already caught on to us—there might be spies stationed around this very house.”

I suddenly realized I hadn’t even given that a passing thought, and I’d gone in and out of this house without bothering to hide. I hoped everything would be okay.

“Damn, that was careless of us,” my father sighed gloomily, coming to the same realization.

“We’ll be fine, Dad. At least I hope we will be…”

Even though I hadn’t been on guard for spies, the tenseness of the situation had been leading me to search for auras all this time. I’d never sensed any aura near the captain’s house that felt unusual, although I wouldn’t have noticed it whenever the elite adventurers were standing guard.

“So you have no leads at all on the mastermind?” my father asked the captain, who sighed loudly in reply. The guild master shook his head no.

“I can’t say we’ve investigated every possibility in just one day, but nothing has struck us as especially noteworthy so far,” the guild master answered, tiredness coloring his voice. His complexion looked a bit dull as well.

“So we’re going back to the sharmy cave tomorrow to investigate. Anything we should keep an eye out for?” When Nalgath asked that question, Ciel, who had been sleeping in the bag at the foot of the captain’s bed, jolted to its feet and bounded over to Nalgath. “Agh!” Nalgath fumbled to catch the creature, but it bounced off his chest instead. “Ciel! What was that for?” Nalgath clutched his chest, shaken by the sudden attack. The captain and guild master looked on with tense expressions.

Mrrrow!

Everyone’s eyes darted over to Ciel, who seemed angry for some reason. I looked on in surprise. Did something bother it? We were just talking about the plan for tomorrow and… Aha!

“Ciel, do you want to go to the sharmy cave with them?”

Mrrrow!

I was right.

“What time are you going tomorrow, sir?” I asked. But they gave me uncomfortable looks in reply. “Can’t we come along?” It’s not like we’re going on a picnic. Maybe we’re not allowed…

“Oh, no, it would be incredibly helpful for Ciel to join us so we can make sure the sharmy don’t get hurt unnecessarily. But are you sure, Ivy? Between today and the last few days, you’ve really gone out of your way to help us…”

He must have meant that the sharmy wouldn’t go on the offensive with Ciel intimidating them, and Nalgath’s party wouldn’t have to kill them. I hadn’t thought that far into it, but yes, I would be devastated if the sharmy had to be killed—they were victims, too. But I didn’t like this “gone out of your way” wording… They couldn’t have been more wrong!

“Believe me, gentlemen, I haven’t gone out of my way to help—I just saw there was something I could do, so I did it. And it was really my creatures making that call, anyway.”

“But any help that monsters give is credited to their tamer, because without their command—come to think of it, I’ve never seen you give them a command…” The captain trailed off, looking between me and Ciel with puzzlement.

“That’s because I never have given them a command. I do ask a lot of things of them, though.”

“Ask them, you say?” The guild master echoed the captain’s puzzlement as he looked over at my slimes, sleeping in the captain’s bed. Noticing his gaze, Sora woke up and looked at me.

“Yes, sir. Sometimes they do what I ask, and sometimes they don’t.” I looked at Sora and added, “Isn’t that right?” It gave a big vertical stretch in reply. Er…what was that supposed to mean? Sometimes these guys give me the strangest reactions—I still can’t figure all of them out. I feel like Sora was just teasing me right now, though.

“Sometimes your monsters don’t comply… Wow, so they really are requests, then.” The captain looked amused. My father and I gave him a questioning look, and Nalgath and his party looked equally confused. “I was just thinking, it turns out Marsha was right,” he explained.

Marsha… I’ve heard that name many times in Hataka, but I can’t remember who it is. Hmm…

“Marsha was a tamer in this village. She passed away a few years ago, but her grandkid is a tamer now.”

Oh, a tamer! Yes, I think that name came up in some of the village gossip. Okay, so she was a tamer.

“And what did this Marsha have to say?”

“She always said it was important for tamers and monsters to open their hearts to each other. I was still a kid when I heard her say that, so it didn’t make sense to me at the time…but now I understand what she meant.” The captain smiled softly, reminiscing over bygone days. It sounded like he had some good memories from his childhood.

“Speaking of Granny Marsha, she did have an amusing theory,” the guild master said with a playful smile. “That granny said monsters would help you out even without a tamer-monster covenant as long as you had a trusting relationship with them.”

“Right, she did say… Wait a minute.” The captain stopped midsentence, his eyes darting to his feet where the slimes were asleep. He was probably looking at Sol specifically.

“I think Marsha the tamer was absolutely right, sir. I haven’t tamed Sol, but it still helps me out.”

“What?!” The guild master looked shocked, but Nalgath’s party nodded their heads in understanding. I gave Nalgath a questioning look, and he answered, “We noticed Sol doesn’t have a taming symbol.” That was right: If you just looked at my creatures, the other ones obviously had taming symbols while Sol didn’t.

“Does it really not have a taming symbol?” Apparently, the guild master had never checked.

The captain rolled his eyes at the guild master. “It’s standard practice to look first thing. Why didn’t you?”

“Hey, I just woke up from an enchantment—it took everything I had just to keep myself from dying of shock! Then I had way too many things on my plate and… Okay, so it turns out that old lady was right after all.” The guild master stole a gentle glance at Sol, just as the slime was waking up. It stared back at the guild master, who was seated quite close by. “Wow, you’re right. No taming symbol.” Sol squirmed a little in discomfort from his prying eyes.

“C’mon, stop staring.”

“Ack—sorry! It’s just that, the more I watch these slimes, the more amazing I realize they are.”

Every single person in the room nodded earnestly in agreement.

“By the way, how’s Marsha’s grandkid?” the captain asked.

“What do you mean?” the guild master asked back. 

“How skilled are they? Marsha taught them, right?”

“Hmm… Wait a minute. Huh?” The guild master frowned hard. He fell deep into thought, then shook his head. “I can’t remember. Why? It’s Marsha’s grandkid, right? Hm?” The guild master looked at Nalgath’s party, but they shook their head back at him, equally clueless.

“I think we’re all missing that part of our memory. And here I was feeling reassured because I could remember the names of everyone I worked with…”

It must have been an aftereffect of the summoning circle’s spell. I wonder if there’s a trigger that could bring their memories back?

“Can you remember this tamer’s name, sir?” I asked.

“Their name? Um… No, I can’t. For some reason, ‘Marsha’s grandkid’ is the only name I can’t remember.”

And the guild master wasn’t the only one. Nobody in Cobalt could remember the name, either. I looked at the captain, and he shook his head at me, too.