The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 2 - Chapter 107

Chapter 107:

My Friend

THE ADANDARA SMELLED like sunlight. Just sniffing its fur was enough to ease the fearful tension in my body and mind.

“Thank you. I was so scared.”

Before I knew it, tears were falling. When I’d rushed the man, when he’d grabbed my arm, the pain of my injuries…all of it was terrifying. So, so scary. As I clung to the adandara’s neck and cried, I heard its gentle purring. Its body heat warmed me through.

Then came Sora’s silly cries. “Pu, pu!”

“Ha ha ha, thank you. I’m okay now.”

I let go of the adandara and smiled at my companions. Sora bounced around with its usual energy, and the adandara purred. I surveyed my surroundings. What would I do about the four men on the ground here? Well, I guess I’ll have to tell the captain…but I’ll have to explain why they all fainted, right? What should I say? Oh! Someone’s hurrying this way. Who is it? More of them, maybe? I wasn’t as worried as before—this time, I had the adandara with me.

“Huh? What are those auras?” I sensed the adventurers who had been my companions these past few days. A few minutes later, Bolorda appeared looking panicked. Sifar and Gnouga already had their swords drawn. Rickbert and Rattloore looked ready to fight.

“Ivy! Thank God!” Rattloore was relieved to see me but soon went goggle-eyed. What was wrong? “Ivy, come this way…slowly...”

Rattloore spoke in a low voice and reached out to me. He was tense with fear. He wasn’t the only one—everyone was plainly terrified. I was a little perplexed. Weren’t we all safe, since the adandara was here? The ruffians who’d fainted weren’t getting up. Did they have more friends around? I searched for more auras, but I didn’t sense anything that felt like them.

The purring adandara rubbed its nose against me over and over. I cocked my head as I stroked the fur between its eyes. What had them so scared?

“Huh?”

I heard their surprised gasps and looked over at them. They were all staring back at me. What? What do you see? I patted the adandara to get it to settle down a little. It seemed really happy to see me after so long, but I was curious about how the guys were acting.

“Umm…” What should I say?

As I hesitated, Rattloore edged a little closer. “Er, Ivy? That monster behind you…”

Monster?! I turned around. The adandara and I locked eyes. Its tail swished from side to side really fast… Did that mean it was pleased? It was also batting at the ground, scattering some dirt around. It seemed like the adandara was getting stronger by the day. Wait a second…monster?

“Oh!”

I totally forgot! Adandaras are high-level monsters. It takes several teams of veteran adventurers to hunt just one. The book said you shouldn’t even go near one if it hasn’t hurt anyone yet. Hmm…what do I do here? We locked eyes again. The adandara purred contentedly and rubbed up against me.

“Umm, it’s a travel buddy,” I said. I didn’t want to hide the truth from my companions. Besides, I wanted to introduce my precious friend. It had saved me more than once by now, after all.

“I-I think I get it…? Is that mark on its forehead the same as Sora’s?”

Mark? I looked at the adandara and caught sight of the mark. Huh?! My mind went blank. That was the symbol that was supposed to appear when it was tamed!

“Ivy, you’re one heck of a tamer! Um, Ivy? You okay?” Bolorda asked.

That’s strange. I didn’t tame it because I don’t have enough mana. So why…?

“Beh… Sorry. I’m fine.” I’d made a weird noise. Calm down. I can think about this later.

“Is it okay if I come closer?” Sifar asked, approaching timidly. I nodded; the adandara wasn’t scary to me, after all. Bolorda and the others looked amazed. “It’s like a miracle to see an adandara so close-up! What’s its name?”

Name? Oh, if I’ve tamed it, then it should have a name. Except…I haven’t tamed it. But the mark shouldn’t appear unless it’s tamed. What is that mark, then? I’d considered giving it a name after asking its permission, but it’d be weird if I didn’t answer now.

“It’s Ciel,” I answered. That was another word Past Me knew. Apparently it meant “sky,” just like Sora. I thought it was perfect.

Would it get mad at me for naming it? I looked at the adandara. Its tail was swishing like crazy, so it must’ve been happy. Well, that’s good. But…

“Ciel, could you stop batting your tail around, please? You’re gonna bury that guy there.”

It was slapping the ground with its tail pretty hard, to the point that it was digging a hole. The dirt flying around showered the fallen kidnapper, burying him a little. At my request, its tail stopped on a dime. Ciel turned around, looked at the man on the ground, and brushed the dirt off him with its tail. It used such force that the man was thrown to the side. It then looked at me expectantly, as if waiting to be congratulated on a job well done. My attacker wasn’t buried anymore, sure, but it hadn’t exactly done a “good” job. The man groaned—had he hit something when he fell?

“Whoa. It threw him with its tail…” Gnouga was amazed. Bolorda cheered, and Sifar looked at Ciel’s tail curiously. Rickbert tried to get closer to Sora, but Rattloore held out a hand. Nobody seemed very worried.

“Will he be okay?” I asked.

“He deserved it,” Sifar replied with a big grin.

“He’s still alive…”

I can’t deny that he deserved it, but I’m not quite sure he’s still alive…not that I can say much when Sifar’s smiling so evilly.

“I suppose. By the way, what are you all doing out in the forest?”

Why did Bolorda and the others come here, anyway?

“We were interrogating the captured adventurers and learned that they still had more allies at large,” Sifar explained breathlessly. Gnouga looked a little fed up next to him.

Bolorda added, “The guard got to work immediately when they heard the news from Sifar, but a few of the implicated people were still missing. The gatekeeper happened to see one of them had followed you into the forest, too.” He punctuated that with a shrug.

Rattloore continued, “So we rushed out to search for you, but it’s a big forest, so we didn’t know where to look. That was real stressful… We wandered around until we heard a monster growling. When we followed the sound, we found you here.” He looked at the adandara.

Monster growling? I was so focused on running away that I didn’t notice. Did Ciel call them over to help save me?

“I wonder if that was Ciel growling?” Rattloore mused. I couldn’t be sure.

“I was pretty desperate to escape, so I didn’t hear anything.”

Rattloore grabbed my shoulders. “Wait, you were trying to escape? What’d they do to you?” he demanded.

I explained everything that had happened.

“Darn…” Sifar shook his head. “You’ve been through a lot, huh? And it sounds like they’ve got a perverted friend, too. I think we’ll need to have a nice, looong chat with them. Don’t you think, Gnouga?” Now he had a really wide smile on his face.

Bolorda and Rickbert promptly looked away. Rattloore was wearing a vicious grin, too. It’s okay. If Gnouga is with him, I’m sure he can stop anyone from committing another crime.

“Right,” Gnouga answered. “I’ll get things ready.”

Huh? Isn’t he supposed to keep Sifar in line?

As I watched Gnouga, he added with a smile, “Don’t worry. They’ll try to keep mum about their pervert friend, but we have ways to make them talk.”

No…I think they’ll be very willing to talk if they just see your faces. Not that I’m certain you’ll give them the chance… And if you’re just trying to persuade them to talk, then what do you need to prepare? I looked at Bolorda, but he was facing a different direction altogether.

“Mr. Bolorda?”

“Ha ha ha! Don’t ask me for help.”

Ciel rubbed Sifar’s shoulder dotingly with its nose. He smiled. “Leave them to me, little adandara.”

Purrrr. It seemed Ciel was in full agreement.