The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 427

Chapter 427:

The Difference

WE HAD DINNER at the guild master’s house after we’d gathered our things from the plaza. When we saw the spread on the table, we had to try hard not to laugh.

“Come on, I told you to be careful not to buy too much…” The multicourse meal meant for far more than three people prompted my father to shoot the guild master a disappointed look. As I gawked at the spread, I got permission from the guild master to let my creatures out of the bag.

“Sorry, before I knew it, I’d bought way too much food,” the guild master chuckled. It was good to see that he was much calmer now than he’d been at the captain’s house. His mind was still racing with theories about his “wife,” but at least he’d regained some of his composure. My creatures were bouncing around the room, excited by how new everything was to them.

“Guys! Keep it quiet.”

“It’s okay, Ivy, let them have their fun,” the guild master said. I bowed in thanks.

“Take it easy, kids,” my father said to the slimes. “Now, let’s eat some dinner.”

I noticed that my father’s manner of speech had been swinging back and forth between polite and casual, first at the captain’s house and now here. I wondered if he realized he was doing it.

“Why did you buy five of the same thing, sir?” he asked.

“They’re all from different food stalls.”

Whoa, that’s some frown you’ve got there, Dad!

“C’mon, Dad, let’s eat! I’m starving.”

“All right. What do you want to eat first, Ivy?” With a soft sigh, my father showed me each dish on the table one by one. Everything looked delicious.

“I’ll have this.” I picked a stir-fry of meat and vegetables. It was supposed to be good served on bread, which the guild master had also bought. “Thanks for dinner, Mr. Guild Master.”

My father and the guild master each began to eat what they’d chosen. They shared some of their food with me, and everything was so good. Once we’d finished our dinner, we chose our desserts from the huge pile of pastries.

“Now this is luxury,” I said.

“Sure is.”

“I’ll put all the leftovers in a magic box for you—eat them whenever you want,” the guild master said as he started to put the remaining food away. I really was grateful for time-stopping magic.

“Are you okay?” my father asked with concern as we were leisurely eating our dessert. “You must be exhausted from everything that’s been going on today.”

“I’ll be okay,” I answered. “But you’re right, way too many things happened today.”

“Right… Hey, Ivy, what do you think of my house?” the guild master asked.

I looked around the room. When we were setting our things down in the spare room, I’d noticed that the house seemed rather empty. And everywhere I looked, I saw nothing that seemed feminine.

“It looks like a typical bachelor house, sir, though it’s kind of big for one person.”

“I see…” The guild master took a bite of pastry and quickly followed it up with a sip of tea. Maybe he wasn’t a big fan of sweets, but then why had he bought so many?

“Do you think this is too sweet?” the guild master asked.

My father took a bite and shook his head. I took another bite and decided it most definitely was not too sweet.

“I think it’s well balanced, sir,” I answered.

“Er—really?” The guild master gave us a funny look. I curiously took another bite of pastry, and a tangy sweetness filled my mouth.

“Ivy, wanna go over what we found out today?” my father suggested.

I sat up straight and nodded.

“Okay, the first thing we learned about was the summoning circle in the sharmy cave. After that, we learned that nobody remembers the name or face of the tamer’s grandchild. Then there’s your wife, Guild Master. I’m not missing anything, am I?” my father said, looking at me and the guild master.

“No, that’s everything,” I said. “The problem of the summoning circle in the sharmy cave is basically solved, right?”

“Yeah, it will be by tomorrow morning, after they conduct their final investigation.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

My creatures, finished with their tour of the house, came bouncing back onto our respective laps. Sora and Sol were on my lap, Flame was on my father’s, and Ciel was on the guild master’s.

“Sorry about that, sir…” I apologized.

But the guild master looked pleased. “Oh, it’s not a problem at all. Just think, this cute little slime is really an adandara…”

That’s right, the guild master hasn’t seen Ciel’s true form yet. I’ll have to show him sometime.

“Mind if we get back on topic?” my father asked. The guild master and I nodded. “Don’t you think we should’ve asked Melisa and Eche about this grandchild? They were never under the spell, right?”

The look on the guild master’s face said Oh, damn.

“You’re right,” I said. “I guess I forgot in all the confusion.”

“Me, too,” my father chuckled softly. It really was important to be calm whenever you had to think through things.

“Aren’t Ms. Melisa and Ms. Eche former adventurers?” I asked.

“Yes, they both have the healing skill, so they were quite the heroes back in the day. Well, then again, one of them was a hero behind the scenes.”

He must be talking about Eche.

“Something on your mind?” the guild master asked.

“When I was helping them out, I asked them where they got their medicinal herbs, and they said they bought them from the merchant guild. I just thought it was strange that they weren’t under the spell since we assume there’s a summoning circle at the guild.”

“You know, you have a point there. Eche uses many special medicinal herbs which she can’t buy in large quantities. I heard the herbs she used to stabilize the captain were particularly valuable, so she must have gone to the merchant guild often to restock…”

From the way the guild master is talking, it sounds like there can’t be a summoning circle at the merchant guild. You know, it was wrong of us to assume there was a circle at either guild in the first place. It just seemed like if somebody wanted to brainwash all the adventurers and watchmen in Hataka, targeting the guilds would be the most effective way to do it.

“If only we knew where the summoning circle was, I’m sure we’d start to see traces of our mastermind’s identity.” The guild master tapped his fingers on the table. I stared hard at his fingers—this was the first time I’d seen him do it.

“Hm? Oh, sorry, I’ve had this habit since I was a kid.” The guild master, noticing my staring, took his hand off the table.

“It’s okay, sir, don’t worry about it.”

If this was a habit of his, it was odd that I hadn’t seen it before. He hadn’t tapped his fingers at the captain’s house, had he?

“It’s hard to break a habit, you know,” the guild master said. My father nodded eagerly in agreement. “My wife reminded me about it all the time, but I still couldn’t stop. ‘My ears hurt!’ she’d yell at me.” The guild master smiled fondly.

That’s right, the guild master started acting strangely because of the summoning circle’s spell. According to Zinal and his men, it was like “a different person took over his body.” Did he still remember his late wife when he was under the spell? Wait, probably not… He thought some other woman was his wife then, so he almost certainly forgot.

“Huh?”

I just thought of something…

“What’s up?”

“Nothing, there’s just something on the tip of my tongue…”

What was it again? While the guild master lost his mind… No, it wasn’t that. It was when Zinal and his men said it was like “a different person took over his body…” Ah! Why was the guild master the only one whose personality change was a dead giveaway? All the other people under the spell weren’t obviously different, to the extent that you could tell from a brief conversation, like he was. Was it because of his position of power? And then they brought on more gatekeepers when there started to be trouble in the forest. That’s right—they didn’t act like they felt anything was wrong. Was it because they were under the spell for a very long time?

Was that our lead? The gatekeepers’ behavior over the past few days had become noticeably odd. Does that mean the guild master had been brainwashed a little too early? Was there something about him that was different from the other villagers?

“Ivy?”

“The captain’s the same way!”

“Huh?!”

That’s it! The captain’s situation is different from everyone else’s, too. The mastermind could’ve just put him under the spell—so why did they poison him instead? The captain and the guild master… What about those two men is different from everyone else?

“Hm?” Sensing something, I looked up. The worried eyes of my father and the guild master stared back at me. Oops, looks like I was lost in a sea of thoughts again!