The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 4 - Chapter 201

Chapter 201:

Gold Plates?

“I am so deeply sorry!”

The moment I entered the guild master’s room at the lodge, I was bombarded with apologies. It was probably about the unpaid bills.

“Um, sir, please stop bowing. I, um…” What should I even say to him? “I don’t mind?” Or would “I’m okay” be better?

“Don’t worry about a thing, Ivy,” Druid assured me. “It’s all the guild master’s fault.”

I smiled awkwardly back at Druid. Yes, the guild master may have been in the wrong, but I wasn’t particularly angry…

“Um, let’s just have a talk about it, okay, sir?”

The guild master looked a bit troubled by what I said. And confused. “Ivy…he told me you were mad at me.”

“Huh? Who told you that?” This time, I was the perplexed one. Druid also shot the guild master a strange look.

“My master did.”

The three of us shared an awkward silence, just staring at each other. Then we sighed in unison. Oh, that man is just impossible!

“Well, this is definitely a relief,” the guild master said. “I knew I was late paying you back, so I thought you really were angry with me.”

“Oh, no, sir. I’m not mad at all. I know you’ve been busy.”

“Oh…okay. But I admit I’ve been taking advantage of you. If you were an ordinary adventurer, you’d already have complained.”

“You need to be more careful, man,” Druid said sternly.

The guild master nodded. I know I’ve said this before, but he really did have it tough. He just had way too many things on his plate. Come to think of it, the other guild masters I’d met all had helpers… Didn’t Gotos have one?

“Um, isn’t there somebody who can assist you, sir?” I asked. “In my experience, guild masters usually have assistants.”

“I technically do have an assistant…who’s been off on maternity leave for two months.”

“Wow. I guess a string of bad luck just fell on you all at once.”

“Ha ha, yeah, I suppose so.”

“I admire your grit, sir,” I said.

“You really are a good kid, Ivy.”

“I know, right?” Druid agreed.

There they both go, praising me again. I’m not sure why, but it makes me feel so embarrassed. The guild master does seem to be exhausted, though. I wonder if he’ll be okay?

There was a knock at the door.

“Who’s there?”

“Please excuse me, but I heard that Mr. Druid was here,” said a man’s voice.

Druid replied with a nod, indicating his permission to the guild master to open the door. In walked a man I’d seen before at the adventurer guild’s counter.

“I’m so sorry, Mr. Druid, but some people want to consult you about something. Do you have time to spare?”

Druid looked at me.

“It’s okay, sir.”

“All right. I’ll see you later.”

“Sounds good.”

I watched Druid walk out of the room with the man.

“Gee, somebody’s sure popular.”

That was true—Druid was quite popular among the younger adventurers. Whenever he was at the guild lodge, he was often approached.

“Yes, indeed.” The guild master sure looks pleased.

“Oh! I almost forgot. Here you go, Ivy.” The guild master handed me a couple of papers.

I took them and began to read them over. The first sheet of paper mentioned the gratuity for rescuing Druid and Ciel clearing out the gurbar herd… Let’s see here…hm? This number’s gotta be wrong, right? I rubbed my eyes and looked over the total gratuity again. The “six gold coins” included the compensation for finding the blessed incense. It said I “helped avert a catastrophe”… What did that mean?

I read the other sheet of paper to settle myself down. This one was about the medicinal nuts I’d foraged in the forest. The guild’s appraisal and purchase value were indicated, and I was happy to see that the sale had already been made. But golly, medicinal nuts sure were expensive! And I’d brought in several of them, too…which had added up to a price that hadn’t even crossed my mind.

“I’m very sorry the sale of your foraged items was unsatisfactory.”

“Huh?!”

“They weren’t supposed to be sold until you agreed to the price, but there was a miscommunication and, before I knew it, the deal had already been made. I truly am sorry about that; I was careless,” the guild master apologized, bowing deeply to me.

“Oh, it’s okay. This price is actually a lot higher than I thought it would be.”

It really was a shock to see the sales total. I never dreamed I would get so much for my services… Gee, I ate a lot of those foraged nuts and fruits on the way to this town. If I’d exchanged all of them for money instead… No, stop. Don’t even think about it.

“I really do apologize for all this. This was the first time I’ve done business with the merchant guild.”

“Does your assistant on maternity leave usually handle that for you, sir?”

“Yeah, she’s mostly in charge of the negotiations. I generally take care of settlements, confirmations, and bringing together adventurers.”

Wow. That’s a terrible workload. “Isn’t there anyone else around to help you?”

“Technically, yeah. But their main responsibility is training adventurers and so on. Business negotiations aren’t really their forte.”

It really did seem like a bunch of different things had just piled up and he’d fallen too far behind.

“I guess you’ll just have to slowly go through it all one thing at a time, sir.”

“Hm? Ha ha ha, yes, I guess so. Better that than rushing it and making careless errors.”

Oh dear…is he speaking from experience here? Is this guy really gonna be okay? Oh, wait a minute, I think there was something I wanted to tell the guild master…what was it again?

“Now what did I…?”

“Ivy? Something wrong?”

“Er, well, there was something I wanted to tell you… Oh!” I remembered. It was Sora’s potion and Flame’s magic stones. Er, yeah, if I’m gonna tell him, it’d better be now. “So, um, I’ve got a little news for you.”

“Wh-what is it? You sound so serious…which is sort of scaring me.”

“Um…could we make sure our conversation isn’t heard outside the room?”

Druid and his mentor had both insisted I use magic items whenever I had conversations like this.

“Ah, yes. Understood.” The guild master took out a magic item and activated it.

Okay, that should do the trick. “So, it’s about the potion and magic stones that your old mentor took on that mission.”

I told him that they belonged to me, that I had tamed two slimes in addition to Ciel, and that those slimes had regenerated a potion and magic stones. I wasn’t sure if “regenerated” was really the right word to use…but I didn’t know how else to explain it.

“So, um, I’m not quite sure if I’m describing this the right way. Sora might have just eaten some degraded potions…and then collected all the good parts from them? I do think Flame replenished the magic power in the stones, though…”

Explaining things sure is difficult. I just hope he understood me. Okay…that’s everything I hadn’t let him know about already, right? Once I start talking, it’s hard to figure out what I should tell him…or remember what I already have told him… It’s a little confusing.

The guild master sighed. “Okay, whoa…hold on a second. I need to think about this.”

“Yes, sir.”

The guild master clutched his head and muttered something. He always scared me when he did that, and I felt myself shrinking back in my chair.

“Hm? Oh, it’s okay. You don’t need to cower like that.”

“Ha ha ha. Sorry, sir.” Well, I was scared.

“Okay. So that potion Master had…that potion…was yours…Ivy. Yet again, you’ve come up with the most terrifying things…”

“I know, sir.”

“Everyone in the party was stunned speechless when they saw those magic stones work.”

“They were stunned, sir?”

“Well, yeah. The dragon corpse was so large that everyone assumed it would take a few days to burn up. They were setting up camp for the night when Master asked someone with fire magic to use the stones, and, well, they thought the stones would simply add a little boost to the blaze…but when they actually used them, they created pillars of fire.”

Pillars of fire?! Wow…now that’s terrifying.

“They were too amazed to say a word. Anyway, when they looked at what was left of the dragon corpse after the pillars of fire burned out…that was when they realized how strange those magic stones were. After all, half that giant dragon’s body had been burned to ash.”

So that’s how powerful it was. I remembered how the old mentor said they’d only needed to use the magic stone three times to burn the corpse away completely. If those stones were that powerful, then that means the new big ones that Flame just made must be… Nope. Don’t think too much about it, Ivy. It’ll only make your brain hurt.

“Okay…so if that potion and those magic stones were yours, Ivy, I should just give the certificate I prepared to you instead of my master. Hold on a second.” The guild master returned to his desk and brought out a new piece of paper. He handed it to me and said, “Here’s the usage fee for the potion and the stones.”

This just might be the scariest bill for me to look at… I timidly ran my eyes over the figures. It listed the number of people the potion healed, the uses and results of the magic stones, and my payment…three gold plates. Gold plates? Plates? Wait, not the kind you eat off of? My mind went blank for a moment.

“Is there a problem? Sorry, I wish I could pay you more, but this town doesn’t have that kind of money.”

“It’s okay, sir. There’s absolutely no problem at all. If anything, it’s too much.” I blurted all this out before I could even think.

“Ivy…let’s both calm down some.”

“Yes, sir… Whew… Seeing those numbers confused me a little.”

“Ah, I understand. But I actually like seeing you act your age for once, Ivy.”

The guild master’s words brought a sudden sense of calm to my soul. “It is a terrible amount of money,” I said sincerely.

“Much of that payment is for the potion. It healed all the adventurers’ wounds without leaving so much as a scar behind. We really are eternally grateful to you. To be honest, we thought only half the party would survive the mission—if we were lucky.”

What?! I didn’t know that. The guild master and his old mentor and all the adventurers had said everything was fine when they headed into the forest… Wow. Adventurers who protect towns are truly some of the bravest people alive.

“Without your help on this mission, Ivy, we would have suffered so many more casualties. Thank you.”

“Oh, no, sir, I didn’t do anything. Ciel and the slimes did all the important work.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Ivy. I don’t think Ciel would have saved our party if you hadn’t accepted us into your good graces. And it’s because you’re so good to those slimes that they can…regenerate?…all sorts of things.”

Is that really true? Well, if the things I’ve done gave everyone else the strength to accomplish their mission…then I guess I’m pretty proud of that.