The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 2 - Chapter 91

Chapter 91:

Too Many Dangerous People!

“RICKBERT ISN’T HERE YET, is he?” I asked. Not that I’d forgotten about him or anything…

“He’s got stuff to do. Let’s eat without him.”

I agreed and took a bite of the dish I’d been served. The tender, slow-cooked meat tasted incredible.

“That’s delicious!”

“Yeah! I can see why they’re popular.”

I nodded quietly. We savored the meal and then enjoyed a mug of after-dinner tea. When Bolorda activated his anti-eavesdropping magical item, Sifar was the first to speak.

“So, about that merchant. He met with someone in secret, but we didn’t recognize the guy. We split up to look into him.”

“Did you figure out who he was?” Seizerk asked.

“Of course. Turns out his name is Olwa, and he’s an errand runner for nobles. It took some effort to dig into him, though.”

“An errand runner, huh? Did you find out which nobles he works for?”

Sifar shook his head. Rattloore whispered an explanation to me: They had to be cautious investigating anyone tied to members of the peerage, or the nobles might start keeping an eye on them. Nobles sure sounded like a real pain.

“Hmm. All right, then.”

“As for the merchant…” Gnouga took up the story. “After Sifar and I split up, he didn’t do much beyond meeting another merchant from this town. But the man he met with, Tafdagura, is a problem.”

“That guy, huh? Whenever I hear his name, it’s always bad news.”

“There’s no proof, but rumor has it he’s mixed up in the opium trade.”

Opium? I feel like I’ve heard of that.

“Mr. Rattloore, what is opium?” I asked.

“Oh, maybe you don’t know. It’s a drug that makes you feel high. The country’s banned it.”

A drug? I’ve never seen them, so I forgot about those. Does the kidnapping ring deal in drugs, too? Actually, that merchant might be a trap. Would someone involved in the organization meet publicly with a known bad actor? Maybe they’re business rivals or something?

“Now for our report,” Lowcreek said, breaking into my thoughts. “We might be seeing some even crazier stuff. Tort and Marm are hiding a group of people in a cave out in the woods.”

Everyone’s expressions turned grave at Lowcreek’s words.

Marcreek, face lined with exhaustion, followed up. “The crowd they’ve gathered doesn’t seem like normal people, either. I mean, normal people don’t hide in a cave. Best guess is they’re sheltering criminals to use for their own ends.”

“Maybe Tort and Marm are planning to sic them on us.” Seizerk’s words elicited a nod from Marcreek and Lowcreek. “Can you estimate how many there were?”

“No way to know if it was all of them, but we counted twenty-one today.”

“That many!” Bolorda gasped.

I saw why he was shocked. You’d expect fewer people to be living in a cave. But if the organization thought they might be caught, I could see why they’d move so many people there. The criminals were bound to cause trouble—if they had to worry about them acting out, it’d be better to remove them from among the watchdogs. But what sort of criminals were they? I guessed the ones with the biggest impact would be…murderers? Surely they weren’t keeping a cave full of murderers, right?

“What’s happening on your end now, Bolorda? And what’s the next step?” Sifar asked.

Bolorda explained everything that had happened since this morning: Using the former merchant’s mansion as a base, setting a trap for the organization, how we used Sora’s judgments of the guard and the GM’s chosen adventurers to lay the trap, and how many people we’d learned were traitors. He was still angry after learning the adventurers he’d taken so much care of were rats.

“They’re with the organization?” Sifar was shocked. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Bolorda replied. “You’re certain, right, Ivy?”

I nodded, and Sifar and Gnouga both let out a long sigh.

“Hard to believe. Well, we know that the guard have just as many bad apples, so I guess it’s not impossible. Those guys are scum.” Sifar’s quiet voice sounded lonely and sad.

Huh? Where is Rickbert, anyway?

“Um, where’s Rickbert…?” I asked.

“Oh, I forgot to say. Sorry. Rickbert’s got this special ability…” Marcreek’s remark lifted the group’s mood a little.

“A special ability?”

“Yeah, he’s got a knack for remembering faces. If he sees a face once, he’s got it memorized.”

“That’s incredible. I’m envious—I’m awful at remembering faces.”

“No kidding. I’m surprised you’re bad at anything, Ivy.” Rattloore’s compliment startled me. I was bad at basically everything!

“I’m bad at lots of things,” I protested.

“Really? I never noticed.”

“You do seem like you can do anything, Ivy. Anyway, about Rickbert.” Marcreek steered the conversation back on track. “We asked him to get a look at the people staying in the cave to see if any of them are wanted by the adventurers’ guild.”

“Oh! Speak of the devil.” Seizerk waved toward the plaza entrance. Rickbert was coming our way, looking just as fatigued as the rest of us.

“I’m beat,” he groaned. “That was way too many people.”

“Good work. How’d it go?”

“Hey, can I catch my breath for a minute here? Ah, forget it. There were eleven wanted and five under investigation.”

“Eleven?! You’re certain?” Sifar gave voice to the shock that went through the group. How could there be so many wanted criminals in one place?

“It surprised me, too. I checked a few times, but I’m pretty certain. Worse, ten of those eleven are wanted for murder. And the ones under investigation are suspected of the same.”

“Whoooa. Knowing all those murderers are squatting out there in the forest is giving me the heebie-jeebies. It’s lucky we didn’t run into any already.” Seizerk rubbed his own shoulders in a dramatic shiver.

It was a chilling thought. We’d been in the forest just a few days ago, so we easily could have stumbled upon them. Though, if the organization had gathered them to spring a trap, then maybe they’d moved there more recently? Still, if they could assemble so many criminals in one place that swiftly, they’d probably been sheltering them somewhere before this.

“So, what’d I miss?” Rickbert asked. Bolorda filled him in. “Aha. A trap, huh? Should we really be getting Ivy wrapped up in this?”

“You’d think not. But Ivy basically thought up the entire strategy.”

“Yeah, fair… Ivy, if you get scared, run for it. Hell, where do you even run when the town’s like this?” Everyone laughed, but there was no humor in it. Rickbert was right. Our enemies were so numerous that there wasn’t really anywhere to run.

“I’d better get going,” Bolorda announced.

“Hm? Oh, you had plans to meet Lord Foronda, right?”

“Yeah. I got a message from him, so I’ll be going to his estate tonight.”

“You sure you wanna go alone?” Gnouga asked, worried.

Bolorda shrugged. Did that mean he would be okay, or…?

“I trust Sora’s judgment. I’ll ask about Olwa while I’m there, too.” With that, Bolorda smiled and left the plaza.

Gnouga and Sifar watched his receding back with concern. Rickbert, on the other hand, was his usual self.

“It’ll be fine. If Sora says he checks out, I’m sure that’s right!”

“Yeah, but…sorry, Ivy. I don’t doubt Sora.” Gnouga saw me looking and got a little flustered.

It didn’t bother me in the least. Heck, I expected people not to fully trust Sora, and its judgments weren’t exactly hard evidence.

“It’s okay,” I replied.

“Traitors and wanted criminals…what’s happening to this town?” Seizerk sighed.

Nobody could answer—things were much worse than we’d thought. Would Bolorda be safe? Was Count Foronda really on our side?

“Everything’s gonna be okay.” Rattloore read my mind like a book and gently patted my head. I looked up at him, and he repeated himself with a smile. He was right. I trusted Sora, so why should I worry?

“Thank you.”