The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 2 - Chapter 89

Chapter 89:

Task Force?

THE CAPTAIN, BOLORDA, and I went back to the guard station together.

“Do we need to bring Ivy? You’ll be leaving soon, and we can come up with some other way to make them say their names. There are a whole bunch of tough-looking officers there, so I think we’d just spook the kid.”

No matter how many times the captain asked, the magical item wasn’t going to inspect them; Sora was. Besides, if only Bolorda went, there would be no good reason to introduce people. He’d said that they’d use some other excuse, but if people got suspicious, the plan might not work. The fact was, I needed to go with them. 

He was really worried about me—of course, that was partially because he didn’t know about Sora. Were there really a lot of scary guards there? In the end, we told the captain that I wanted to stay with Bolorda because I trusted him the most.

When we said that, Rattloore got a really intense look on his face that I’d never seen before. Just remembering it gave me the shivers.

“You okay?” The captain saw me shudder and got even more worried. Oh no!

“I’m fine. Let’s hurry.”

Our cover story this time was that we were gathering guards and adventurers for a task force to fight the organization. We selected people for the team and planned to use the merchant mansion as our base of operations. Preparations would be made today. Of course, the whole thing was a farce—part of our scheme to trap the organization. Though it was true that we would choose people today, the purpose wasn’t really to prepare the base but rather to shift the documents and money to a safe location.

“A task force, huh? I hadn’t thought of that.”

I chuckled to myself at the captain’s words. When I asked about assigning staff to work full time on the investigation, the captain was bemused. I didn’t realize until later that the idea of forming a specialized team for the sole purpose of solving one crime had come from Past Me. I’d better start thinking before I speak, or it’s gonna come back to bite me. It’s a good thing I can trust the captain and the others.

“Me neither,” said Bolorda. “It’s only possible because Mira’s acting so openly, though.”

He was right. We were doing something totally novel, so it would’ve set off alarm bells if we didn’t have a convincing reason. The formation of the task force made sense because the organization’s people were showing their hand. I almost felt like I should thank them.

We decided to officially say this task force was the captain’s idea. From there, we filled the vice-captain in on the documents, money, and strategy. When he learned about the impromptu task force, he only commented, “I’m used to this by now, Captain.” It seemed like Vice-Captain Agrop was used to dealing with fallout from his captain’s spur-of-the-moment decisions. Why did this sound so familiar?

We shared our new information with the vice-captain, the GM, and Sifar and the others. Officers Sora judged to be allies would receive official orders and nothing more. The more people in on the whole picture, the more likely information would be to leak. We couldn’t know where the kidnapping ring had eyes, so we kept our core group to the bare minimum.

“Here we are. Ivy, you’re sure you’ll be fine?” the captain asked again.

“Yes, sir. I’m okay.” I nodded firmly and patted my bag. I needed Sora to give this its all right now. Before coming here, I’d taken a moment to confirm that the slime was bobbing as happily as ever in the bag.

“Everyone, gather ’round!” the captain called out. “I’d like to introduce you to this boy here.”

There were one hundred and twenty guards here today. Add in however many people were off at the moment, and it was clear that this big town had a large guard force. There were guards-in-training present, too, though they weren’t included in this plan. Having a hundred and twenty individuals right in front of me was a lot to take in. The captain introduced me to the group, explaining that I was being targeted by the organization, that they should protect me if they saw me alone, and that they should report to him or the GM if they saw me with anyone suspicious. He wanted them to introduce themselves one at a time so I would know their faces.

“My name is Ivy. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

I gripped the hem of Bolorda’s shirt and bowed politely. I was terrified to be faced with so many people, but now wasn’t the time to complain. I focused all my energy on relaying Sora’s reactions to Bolorda.

“So tired…” It’d ended up being a hundred twenty-six introductions altogether… I was exhausted. Splitting my attention between the guards and checking Sora’s reactions had wiped me out. I’d better give Sora lots of potions after all this.

“That was a heck of a lot, huh? Twenty-nine traitors…” Bolorda shuddered.

I’d been so busy communicating Sora’s judgments that I hadn’t counted. Were there really that many? Maybe we were lucky that all of the guards patrolling the mansion weren’t moles.

The captain approached Bolorda. “So, what’s the word?”

Bolorda wavered for a moment before answering.

The captain froze, then mumbled, “I see.” He looked up. “Write them all down. Can you do that?”

“Of course. We’ll hop to it. Got some paper around here?”

The captain handed over a few sheets and went back to his officers to talk over their plans. He looked normal, as if nothing had happened—only just once, I saw him clench his fist so tight his knuckles turned white.

“We’d better be prepared for what we’ll find among the adventurers,” Bolorda muttered. His voice sounded bone-tired. So many people he’d considered friends had betrayed him. I couldn’t imagine how that felt. 

The captain chose eight moles and twelve clean guards, putting the task force at twenty men. One name in particular made his eyes go wide when he saw it on the paper—a man named Gabojura. He was one of the people picked for the task force.

Next, we made our way to the adventurers’ guild. Rattloore should have caught the GM up on everything by now. I was starting to flag, but I had to follow through here.

“Good job out there,” the GM greeted us. “It’s a tough time for everyone right now.”

He led us into a meeting room with fifteen adventurers. He told them the same things the captain had told his guards. From there, we ran through the introductions. Thank goodness there were only fifteen; that meant we’d be done fast. Except…Sora had judged seven of them to be traitors. I heard Bolorda sigh next to me.

“Are you okay?” I whispered.

He chuckled dryly. “Ha ha, well… I tried to steel myself for this. It still stings that adventurers I personally trained would turn on me, though…”

When the GM heard the results, the creases on his brow grew even deeper. 

A team Bolorda had trained was selected for the task force. I was worried about him, but when he spoke to the trio he’d chosen, he looked the same as ever.

I sighed—this was taking a toll on all of us. I patted the outside of my bag. We owed Sora a debt of gratitude.

We returned to the former merchant’s mansion with the task force in tow. On the way, the captain outlined our plan. When he identified the mansion as our base of operations, a murmur went through the group, but nobody spoke up to complain.

“Agrop, I’m back!” The captain called at the mansion’s door. The face that popped out to greet us, however, was Sifar’s. “Huh? Where’s Agrop?”

“He’s going through all those boxes we’re moving,” Sifar answered. “A guard named Margajura is helping him, I believe. Ivy, aren’t you tired?”

“I’m okay. Thanks for worrying about me.”

Umm, did they tell Sifar about all this? Everyone has such a good poker face that I can’t tell.

“Hey, Captain. Back finally?” I could feel everyone’s weariness as the vice-captain came in with Margajura following close behind. “We took a look and determined these were safe to transfer to the storehouses. Let’s get a move on, please. This team is going to be stationed here for a while, so let’s get this place cleaned up.”

“Hold your horses,” the captain called out. “I drew up a roster of everyone staying here. It’s not just our people; you’ll have adventurers with you, too.”

The captain handed the vice-captain a list on which the traitors’ names has been marked with a symbol. I saw him whisper something—probably cluing him in on the code. The vice-captain glanced at the sheet, nodded a few times, and began barking out orders.

Wow. He wasn’t even fazed. And he’s assigning all the moles to posts far enough apart that they can’t gather without us noticing.

“That’s the kind of man it takes to keep a leash on a thoughtless captain for over a decade.” Bolorda observed.

Now I respected the vice-captain even more. Between him and Velivera, it seemed like incredible people were always supporting the ones on top.