The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 3 - Chapter 141

Chapter 141:

My Personality?

“WOW…an honest-to-goodness adandara…”

Ciel was still sitting daintily atop the stack of gurbar corpses. The guild master could only stare blankly at it. The sight was so out of the ordinary that Druid was holding back laughter.

“That’s incredible. It’s the real thing!”

I guess adandaras really were rare monsters. The guild master’s fixed stare and repeated gasps of amazement confirmed that, at least. But if you asked me, the pile of gurbar corpses was much more impressive.

Druid broke the silence. “Um, so the gurbars…”

“Oh! Right, yes, the gurbars.”

Wait a minute, did he forget about them?

“What should we do?” Druid asked. “Tell everyone an adandara hunted them?”

“Ooh, no, that won’t fly. Adventurers are really fascinated with adandaras. They’d want to see it, even if they were afraid.”

“You’re right. I could definitely see the younger ones marching into the forest to try to catch a glimpse.”

“Yeah, and some of ’em wouldn’t listen even if you expressly forbade it. Sit tight, I’m just gonna look ’em over.” The guild master checked out the gurbar bodies. What was he looking for? 

“Yeah, I suppose we can just say ‘some monster’ killed them. All they’ve got are claw and fang wounds, nothing else that distinguishing. I don’t think anyone will be able to tell how they died specifically.”

“And you think they’ll just accept that and move on?”

“If I tell ’em I made the discovery myself, nobody will make a fuss.”

Hmm… Will that really work, though? I thought.

“Ivy, the guild master is trusted…in his own way.”

“Druid. ‘In his own way’ is a little unnecessary.”

“Hm? Oh, whoops. Didn’t mean to say that part out loud.”

For someone who claims to be a mid-level adventurer, Druid seems awfully friendly with the guild master. It’s like he doesn’t hold back at all. I guess that’s a sign of closeness with someone. I’m kind of jealous.

“Now look what you’ve done, Druid. Ivy’ll be suspecting me.”

“Huh?!”

I’ll suspect him? Of what?

“I think you’re off there. He was thinking about our relationship, right?”

“Right,” I said.

“The guild master and I both learned the fundamentals of this job from the same person,” Druid explained. “We’ve got history, so I still respect him as my senior.”

“That’s true, though…from the way you behave around me, Druid, I doubt a single person thinks you respect me.”

The guild master has a point. Druid does look like he never takes anything this guy says seriously.

“Ha ha ha! Anyway, now that we have a plan, let’s go back and tell everyone the gurbar threat is taken care of. The townspeople will be relieved to hear it.”

That’s right. We originally brought the guild master here to help us decide how to handle the gurbar corpses. Whenever Druid and the guild master are together, everything always seems to go off track.

“Good idea. I’ll leave the rest to you, Druid. All right, sooo…I’ll tell everyone that Ivy found the gurbar corpses and told Druid, who then told me. They were already like this when we found them. Sound good?”

Wow, that’s incredibly…sloppy! Will that really be enough?

“Understood. But break the news carefully, okay? Don’t draw attention to Ivy.”

“Why not?” the guild master asked.

“Well, Ivy doesn’t want to stand out.”

The guild master nodded. “All right. But traveling alone, he already stands out plenty.”

He did have a point there. I hadn’t noticed it myself, but Rattloore had also told me as much. Being alone and looking so…young…drew attention. And really, he was absolutely right. He was actually shocked I hadn’t noticed it on my own.

“Well, please try to make it so Ivy doesn’t stand out so much this time,” Druid said.

“Got it.”

Since all loose ends were now tied up, we returned to town. But before we left, I went over to Ciel and grabbed the Sora bag, then slung it over my shoulder. I’d let Ciel look after the Soras while Druid and the guild master talked, since they rattled around a lot in the bag. In a whisper, so the guild master wouldn’t hear me, I thanked Ciel and told it to get far away from the gurbar corpses. The adandara purred in reply and bounded deeper into the forest.

“So majestic…” The guild master sighed.

I could only bob my head awkwardly many times in response.

Due to the guild master’s absence, the lodge of the adventurers’ guild was in a bit of chaos when we returned. But everybody calmed down when the guild master explained that he had been called away to confirm that the gurbars had already been cleared out.

That gave me pause. I’d have thought it would have taken more time for the guild master to step in. Didn’t anyone think it was odd that he’d acted so quickly?

“Um, Mr. Druid?”

“What’s up?”

“Aren’t there any veteran adventurers here? It just seems a little strange that the guild master stepped in personally.”

The adventurers in the rescue party were clearly not veterans either. Something felt off to me.

“Wow, Ivy, you really are a perceptive kid.”

“Huh?!”

“Well it’s like this. Oll used to have about five teams of veteran adventurers, but, well…” He trailed off uncomfortably.

“Sir, if it’s something difficult for you to talk about, you don’t…”

“Oh, no, it’s fine. So, two of the veteran adventurer parties…a little while ago, we found out they were in cahoots with the human traffickers, so they were sentenced to slavery.”

So it was that organization again. Their rot really did run deep. “Wow, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“Yeah, well, me too. And as for the other three teams of veterans, they were sent into the forest to scout the gurbars and bring back information…but they never returned. That’s why the guild master has his hands full.”

Oh! So it’s because they’re all gone. I did wonder why everyone looked a little on edge when I first entered the plaza. It was because there were no veteran adventurers in town. I couldn’t blame everyone for being scared when there was nobody here to protect them.

Wait… When Ciel hunted all those gurbars, did it actually do the townsfolk a really big favor?

“Looks like they’re done talking,” Druid said.

I glanced over at the guild master. Everyone around him looked cheerful. So I was right. Ciel did a very good deed.

“Ivy, I just remembered—are you registered with a guild? Sorry, I guess if you were registered, you’d have shown the gatekeeper your permit.”

“That’s okay. No, I’m not registered.”

“All right. Well, I’ll tell the guild master to give you a special quota for your gratuity.”

A special quota for my gratuity? Wait, I’m getting another reward? “Um, but…a gratuity for what? And what’s a special quota?”

“The gratuity is for finding the gurbars. And a special quota is like a request to not charge a processing fee.”

A processing fee? Do I have to pay a processing fee if I’m not registered with a guild? Nobody ever said anything about this the last time I was given a reward. I wonder if I was charged?

“Something wrong?”

“Oh, no, sir. It’s nothing.”

Was I given a special quota all the other times? That’s right, Rattloore did ask me what the sum total of my gratuity was. Bolorda and Seizerk asked me, too. I did think it was strange at the time, but I told them anyway since we were all receiving the same reward. Come to think of it, I remember they all looked happy when I told them. And Rattloore even replied “Same as me.” I didn’t understand what they’d meant at the time, but I guess they were making sure I wasn’t being charged a processing fee. I get the feeling I’ve been receiving preferential treatment…

“Don’t worry about it, okay?”

“Huh?”

“It’s just, you seem not to like the idea of special treatment, Ivy.”

Was that true? Well, a part of me did feel like I was an adventurer just like the rest of them. But I was much younger—a fledgling. So while I appreciated help from everyone, I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about it.

“Oh! I just remembered,” I said, “I wanted to thank you, Druid. Would you like to come for dinner in the plaza sometime? What do you think?”

I wanted to thank him for all his help today. But maybe taking him out to dinner at a restaurant would have been better than offering to cook for him?

“Ivy. What did I just say about special treatment?”

“Huh?”

“Well, I guess it’s just your personality. And things have been hectic all day…”

My personality? Ohhh, that’s right. My aversion to being treated differently made me scramble to repay someone for helping me out. I guess my personality type is a bit of a hassle?

“What’s wrong?”

When I heard the worry in his voice, I looked up and nervously shook my head. “Oh, I’m okay. I’d just like to make you dinner…if you don’t mind, that is.”

“Of course I don’t mind. In fact, as a bachelor, that would help me out a lot. I’ll take you up on that offer soon. Thanks.”

His bright smile made me sigh in relief. “Are there any foods you dislike or any ones you especially like?”

“I don’t like vegetables much, but I really like meat.”

“What?!” That sounded like something a child would say.

“Whoa! Just kidding,” Druid quickly backpedaled…but what he’d originally said was probably the honest truth. He had seemed serious. I looked him up and down. Since he was an adventurer, he did have a rather brawny physique. He was heavily muscled and quite tall. So I guess you could grow up nice and strong even if you didn’t eat your veggies.

I looked down at my own body…what am I doing wrong? No, no, you’re going to hit a growth spurt any day now. Definitely.