The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 439

Chapter 439:

The Church

 “AVOID IT… You think that’s even possible?”

My father’s question gave me pause. I couldn’t exactly avoid getting in the middle of a conspiracy when it always happened to me without my knowing it.

“Well, good luck out there,” Zinal said with a cynical smile.

My father shrugged his shoulders. “So why did you come here, Zinal?”

“To protect you and Ivy, like I said.”

“Even though most of the conspirators have been caught?”

Zinal froze for a moment. “Is that all I told you?”

“Yeah, it is.”

Zinal hung his head. “Sorry…guess I’m really out of it. We caught most of them, but the most important one is still on the run. They’re a village watchman, and they might know who you are, Druid. That’s why I’m here to protect you.”

I hadn’t known Zinal for long, but one thing I did know was that he wasn’t the sort of person who would forget something important. I guess that showed how exhausted he was?

“Are you okay, sir?”

For some reason, Zinal was staring hard at me. I gave him a curious look, and then he grabbed my shoulders. “Ivy…do you have some sort of interesting skill?”

An interesting skill? Not sure what he meant, I looked at my father, but he just shrugged. “No, I don’t, sir. Why do you ask?”

“As exhausted as I am right now, I would never lower my guard in a situation like this… Yet I forgot something this time. I thought about it, and I think it’s because I always feel relaxed or soft around you. Don’t get me wrong—I’m not blaming my own mistake on you, Ivy… What am I even saying? Sorry.”

Zinal released my shoulders and tilted his head in confusion. He was so genuinely conflicted that I was starting to feel embarrassed.

“I’m just a tamer, sir. That’s my only skill.”

“Yeah, I know… Sorry, guess I’m more tired than I thought. By the way, how did you find out your skill?”

I didn’t think there was any other way besides the church. “The church read it.”

“The church? Wait, Ivy, does the church know you have no stars?”

“Er, yes, sir. At least, the church in Ratomi Village knows—that’s where I was born.”

Speaking of which, how is Ratomi Village doing? I heard everyone got arrested, but I don’t know what happened there after that.

“Ivy, don’t you dare trust anybody from the church. That goes for you, too, Druid.” Zinal’s eyes were so stern that it scared me a little.

“No problems there. I already don’t trust them.”

“Oh, really?”

I realized that my father had never said anything about going to church. That was strange, since some adventurers liked to go there to pray for safe travels.

“A lot of stuff happened when I first became an adventurer… I’ve had nothing to do with them ever since.”

“But that means you had a little something to do with them before, right?”

“Yeah, a little. Is there a problem with that?”

“Yes. You’re known as the Guild’s Secret Weapon, Druid. They might have looked into you. And if they find out you were involved in solving this case, it’s possible they’ll try to contact you.”

“That’s unlikely…”

“But not impossible. If they try to get in touch with you, ignore them, you hear? We at Zephyr are investigators, but we also work behind the scenes with…”

“Stop! That’s top secret!”

“Yes, but I don’t mind if you two know about it. I trust neither of you will tell on us.”

My father and I answered Zinal’s serious gaze with an assenting nod.

“In our work behind the scenes, we’ve dug up a lot of intel—and much of it involved the church or people connected to it. If I’m being honest, some of it was so shady that it makes me wary of the crown for being so hands-off with the church. That’s why I can say confidently that you should stay away from the church. The people who work there don’t regard others as human beings. If it would benefit them, they’d kill people without a second thought.”

I’d never felt comfortable with the church because they were the ones who had rejected me, but they sounded even more dangerous than I’d imagined. But to think they killed people without a second thought?

“I understand.” My father looked at me, so I nodded. “Zinal?”

“Hm?”

“If the church is after Ivy, do you think it’s because she has no stars?”

“Yeah. This sounds bad, but they love collecting oddities. Somebody with no stars is a real rarity. I’m surprised you’ve managed to stay safe for so long.”

Whoa—was I really in that much danger all this time? I’ve always stayed away from the church ever since they looked at me so scornfully that day, but I never got the sense they were looking for me.

“These oddities they collect—what happens to them?”

Zinal shook his head at my father’s question. “No one knows.”

Well, I imagine they’re awaiting something cruel. Wait a minute—rarity? Do rare skills count?

“Mr. Zinal, would the church put a mark on somebody with a rare skill?”

My father’s skill was rather rare, and a bad actor would want to use it for evil.

“I’m sure of it. My other buddies who do secret work got riled up one time and said the church cared about skills more than anything else. I didn’t really get what they meant, though.”

I looked at my father. His brows were knitted, deep in thought. Did he have some idea what Zinal’s companions had meant?

“Oh, has the former guild master been found yet?”

Huh? The former guild master? Oh, he’s talking about the summoning circle conspiracy! He changed the subject so suddenly that I didn’t understand.

“That was a sudden change of subject. Well, anyway, he skipped town ages ago. Also, we captured Matorry the tamer.”

So they caught the tamer. From what the guild master said, it sounded like she was in cahoots with the former guild master. I wonder why she didn’t run away?

“Matorry had already lost her mind, I hear.”

Oh—she couldn’t run away.

“Too bad. Well, what about the three mid-level adventurers mentioned in the letters?”

“Don’t worry, we caught them all. They were in charge of guarding and tending to Matorry after she lost her mind. Since she had people taking care of her, she managed to survive despite the madness.”

They were guarding her? And taking care of her? People who go mad from summoning circles aren’t supposed to be able to return to normal. They just grow weaker and weaker until they die. So, if Matorry was given caretakers, did that mean the former guild master didn’t want her to die? Was she doing a very important task or something? No, then he wouldn’t have let her operate a summoning circle in the first place.

“Could it be…that this tamer in question was…?” My father trailed off and looked at Zinal. A solemn look came over him as he nodded back at my father. 

What did he mean? Was Matorry the tamer important in some way? But she went mad from the summoning circle… Oh! This village was being used to run summoning circle experiments. Was Matorry kept alive for those experiments?

“Phew…” I wished I was wrong, but I had a feeling I was right.

“You all right?” My father gave me a worried look.

“I’m fine. Just have a lot on my mind.”

“Oh, okay.” My father slowly caressed my hair in a soothing way. It calmed me just a little.

“Thanks.”

Between the church’s true nature and the possibility that I was their target…there had just been too many shocking revelations, and our current crisis was hanging at the crossroads between resolved and unresolved. But this village’s problem had at least been worked out. Still, something was still tugging at my conscience.

“It doesn’t feel over,” I said.

“I know,” my father agreed.

“We learned one other thing: One of the adventurers was looking into you, Druid.”

We held our breaths. What does that mean? Why were they investigating my father?

“He was probably wondering what you were doing in the captain’s house.”

Was that really all there was to it?

“Um, Mr. Zinal, where is this adventurer now?”

“Sorry, but he got away.”

In other words, he was still at large.

“Do you know this watchman’s name or what he looks like?” I asked. Unless I knew those things, I couldn’t keep myself safe from him.

“His name is Cholshi. He’s thirty-one years old and has a wife and daughter.”

He’s a father and a husband? Why did he get mixed up in things that would make him need to abandon his family?

“He has short red hair and light green eyes.”

Short red hair and light green eyes.

“Cholshi’s got two moles at the base of his right thumb, or so I’ve heard. I’ve never met him personally.”

Two moles…

“Thank you, sir.”

“Nah, I don’t think that information will help you that much. We’re going to meet up with the captain and his people soon—we’ll ask for more details then. But for now, we need to focus on keeping you both safe.”

“Of course, sir.”

“There’s one more thing I think you two should know, but I can only tell you part of it. The captain and the guild master said they’d come see you once everything’s settled down. It’ll probably be tonight or tomorrow.”

The guild master and captain sure had their hands full. I thought it would make more sense for us to just go see them. “Shouldn’t we go see them instead? My father and I have time to spare.”

“No, don’t do that. There might be church goons lurking among the villagers.”

“I feel like that ship has already sailed.”

My father’s right. They already know we’ve been at the captain’s house a lot.

“Yeah…that may be true,” Zinal sighed. “But if you went to the captain’s house now, you would be revealing that you know what’s been going on in this case. Only authorized persons are allowed to go in. Besides, they should be able to manage it until the investigation of Hataka starts.”

Would they? I hope so. I guess we’ll just have to trust the captain and guild master and wait for them.