The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 9 - Chapter 449

Chapter 449:

Departing Hataka

 “GOODBYE, EVERYONE.”

Since the day of our departure from Hataka was chosen so suddenly, I’d assumed our final moments here would be hectic, but they weren’t. To my surprise, all the members of Cobalt helped us pack and get ready for the road. They even handled the little things my father and I wouldn’t have bothered with. Thanks to their diligence, our tent and camping furniture shined like new. I couldn’t believe they’d actually detailed our supplies!

“Thank you so much for all your help,” I bowed to Nalgath and his men, grateful for their work on our tent and all our belongings.

“Oh, no, thank you. You’ve helped me in more ways than you can imagine…” Nalgath smiled awkwardly and looked down. I gave him a curious look back. “Ahh, you know…’cause my dad and I finally talked things out. Arly was able to reconnect with his dad, too.”

Arly smiled and lowered his head reverently to me. Between the summoning circle and the church, Hataka had been through the wringer, but I was glad to hear that some good had come of it all.

“Aha, there you are!”

I whirled around at the sound of the voice to see Kohl and Lizzy, the owners of the marinated baaba food stall, waving and running over to us. “Thank goodness we caught you! Here, eat this on the road.” Lizzy handed me a package of fragrant marinated meat.

“Thank you, ma’am. Er, isn’t your food stall usually open this time of day?”

It was noon. The food stalls should have been bustling by now.

“Don’t worry, our parents are covering for us,” Lizzy said. “Seriously, thank you! I felt so bad making you help us out yesterday when you came to visit… If you’re ever in Hataka again, stop and say hi, okay?”

I chuckled and nodded. When we’d visited their food cart the day before to eat some marinated baaba, they were swamped with customers and we felt so sorry for them that we wound up helping out. Kohl was very pleased, though. They were picking up more regular customers and steadily increasing their sales.

“Thank you so much! I’m sure we’ll come visit again someday.”

As I chatted with Lizzy and Kohl, I searched for my father. I found him not too far away, deep in conversation with the guild master. His brows were knit together, so it probably wasn’t a very pleasant chat.

“We’ve gotta go now. Promise you’ll see us again, Ivy!”

“Of course, I promise!”

Lizzy and Kohl waved goodbye and ran back to their food stall.

“Want to swing by on our way back?”

I heard Piarre asking Arly if he wanted to stop at Lizzy’s food stall afterward. Now that the food stall had gained the adventurers’ seal of approval, it was sure to do well—after all, adventurers had the biggest appetites.

My father had finished his conversation, so I walked over to him. “Hey, Dad…is everything okay?” I peered into his eyes, but they didn’t look all that solemn to me.

“Huh? Oh, don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. We were just talking about how we have some pretty amazing allies.”

Amazing allies? I don’t really get who he means. Maybe he’ll tell me later?

“Well, take care. You, too, Ivy… Oh, yes, I almost forgot. Appas gave me this to give to you. Unfortunately, most of them are used up. Only one of them’s still in magic stone form.”

The guild master handed me a bag. I took it and looked inside to find twelve ordinary rocks and one magic stone. The rocks were most likely spent magic stones.

“Wow, you sure went through a lot of these. Are you sure you don’t need them anymore? You see, Sol actually made some more magic stones after I gave you these, so…”

“Nononono, we’re good! Thanks! Besides, those dumbasses’ minions are gonna be buzzing around here soon, so I’d rather not get caught with anything dicey.”

Those dumbasses’ minions? Is that the survey teams my father told me about? Those dumbasses… He can’t mean the princes, can he? I stole a glance at the guild master. He had the sort of smile on his face that made you want to turn your head away at the speed of light. Yeah, you definitely don’t want to get on his bad side.

“Er, just promise me you won’t do anything too rash, sir.”

“Mwa ha ha! Ivy, you really are a sweetheart. Don’t worry, we’ll be okay.”

Yeah, you’ll be okay, but what about the other… You know, never mind. I’ll just forget I heard that.

“Go easy on them, okay?” my father said.

The guild master smiled. “Don’t worry, I may not like going easy on people, but I’m good at it. Oh, look at the time! You guys know the way?”

“Yeah, we go through the sharmy colony, right?”

“Right. My spies say the survey teams are waiting on either side of it. We’ve got Zephyr on standby just in case, but they won’t do anything unless they need to, so no need to worry about a thing; just march straight through.”

“Got it.”

“Also, once you guys are past the sharmy colony and know you’re in the clear, my boys are going to wander through the forest planting a rumor. So if you hear some crazy things about Hataka after you leave, just ignore them.” With a secretive smile, the guild master gave my father a pat on the shoulder.

“Will do. I know it’s a lot of work for you, but we appreciate it,” my father said.

The guild master nodded solemnly. Hataka’s leaders would have to work very hard to cover our tracks.

“Thank you for all you’ve done for us, Mr. Guild Master. I’m so grateful that you’re going to keep helping us.” I bowed to the guild master and waved to Nalgath’s party, all of whom waved back as we went on our way.

“Ready?” my father asked.

“Yup. Let’s go!”

A while after we set off for the sharmy colony, I felt a rustling in my bag. My creatures wanted me to let them out, so I searched our surroundings for auras. We generally knew where the survey teams were stationed, but you never could be too sure.

“Looks all clear to me,” I said.

“Me, too.”

I opened the bag, and out flew my creatures. “Hi, guys! We’re back on the road today; hope you’re all ready for a trip.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

“Pefu!”

Mrrrow.

Their cheerful replies were just what I needed. Oh, wait, what were my father and the guild master chatting about earlier?

“Hey, Dad, what were you and the guild master talking about?”

“Huh? You mean just before we left?”

I nodded. Ciel, back in adandara form, had Sol, Flame, and Sora perched on its back. Ciel made sure they were all settled in before starting to walk in front of us again. 

“Hey, Ciel, we’re headed for the sharmy colony first, okay?”

Mrrrow. Ciel trilled in understanding as it confidently marched on. Maybe it had overheard the conversation with the guild master.

“Lord Foronda wrote us with some more information about summoning circles. Also, we’re pretty sure he’s got powerful connections in the capital,” my father said.

“Really?”

“Yeah. Since we were hitting a lot of dead ends trying to learn about the church’s connection with summoning circles—and what exactly summoning circles exactly are to begin with—I sent him a faax directly. He told us to drop him a direct line before, so I figured it was okay. I sent him a faax that said: ‘Do you know anything about summoning circles? Somebody’s using them to target my daughter.’”

I guess his faax was worded a bit vaguely just in case someone intercepted it.

“Well, I got a direct faax this morning. That’s what you saw earlier—the guild master was giving me the message.”

Oh, I had no idea.

“He replied, ‘I can’t discuss summoning circles in detail over faax. I’ll meet up with you soon.’ He also said, ‘If the nobility gets involved, drop my name. If you mention me, most nobles will back off.’”

Most nobles? That must mean Lord Foronda has an incredible amount of influence… 

“Our Lord Foronda is a bit of a mystery, isn’t he?” I remarked.

“Yeah, I’m kind of scared to find out who he really is.”

“Me, too.”

I always knew he was very powerful, but some things were best left unknown. Besides…

“So he’s coming to see us?”

“Sounds like it, yeah. He said, ‘Whenever you move to a different village or town, let me know by faax.’”

Is it really okay for him to come all the way out here to see us in person? Isn’t he incredibly important? Well, I guess it’s out of the question for us to go see him…

“Anyway, let’s not dwell on that. We’ll see him when we see him.”

“True.”

It’s really all we can do.

“Oh, wait! With everything that’s happened, I forgot to send everyone faaxes. No, uh… I did send them? Yes, that’s right, I got replies from everyone…but then I never wrote back!”

Oh, no… Everyone must be worried sick.

“Agh!” My father stopped in his tracks, rummaged in his shoulder bag, and pulled out a sheet of paper. “Oh, crap… I forgot to get in touch with them.” His eyes shifted uncomfortably, then a loud sigh escaped his mouth. “Well, too late to panic now. But we’d better send them a faax as soon as we get to the next village.”

“Send whom a faax?” 

His expression was awfully uncomfortable. Who could it be? 

“With everything that happened, I never got a chance to tell you, Ivy—my sister-in-law is pregnant.”

She’s pregnant? Wait a minute, I heard that Shurila got pregnant a while ago… Oh, does he mean Dolgas’s wife?

“Whoa, that’s great! Congratulations to both of them… Oh, right. You never sent the faax…” That was why he looked so uncomfortable. “Let’s make sure we remember this time.”

I wanted to offer them my congratulations, too.