The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 4 - Chapter 205

Chapter 205:

If We All Work Together…

“If we try to go over our travel budget, we’ll just have a repeat of what happened earlier,” Druid said.

“We sure will.”

Isn’t there some good way we can settle this? A way where Druid will let me take on some of the burden? Huh…what if the problem is that we’re trying to get all the money ready up front? What if we decided to earn it as we traveled…?

“Um, why don’t we use all the money we get from hunting and gathering along the way to pay for our travel expenses?”

“Hm? You mean all the profits from today on?”

“Yes, sir.” That way, it’ll be money we’ll earn together. He should be okay with that.

“Spending all our earnings on our travel expenses is no good.”

Why not?

“There’re personal items you’re going to want, right? If we spend all our earnings on our travel expenses, you won’t be able to buy anything for yourself.”

“That’s fine. There’s nothing I really want for myself.” The money I’ve been saving all this time was for the winter anyway, so I wouldn’t be missing out on anything.

“See, that’s why it’s no good, Ivy. You’re still so young. You should get yourself the things that you want.”

How strange…I was sure he would be on board with that idea. Wait…huh?

“Isn’t there anything you’d like to have? Like clothes or shoes?”

“Um…we can talk about that later. For now, I want to lock down our travel expenses.”

I just got the feeling we shouldn’t be having that conversation. I felt like we’d have a big problem on our hands if I gave him the wrong answers…

Druid sighed. “Oh, okay.”

“So, um, let’s figure out how much money we’ll need for the whole trip…and then we’ll negotiate how much each of us should put in.”

“No. I don’t want to negotiate.”

No matter how hard I push him…he’s probably not gonna budge. So should I just give up this fight? Come to think of it, how much money does Druid even have? It’s…kind of rude to ask, isn’t it? I’d better not.

“Okay, then…I’ll let you take care of me, Mr. Druid.”

“Good girl.”

Urrrgh, I feel like I’m not getting my way at all here…

“If we want to put your ideas into action, Ivy…it sounds like we should make a whole new bank account.”

“A new bank account?”

“Yeah. We currently have personal accounts for each of us, but you don’t like the idea of all the money coming from my personal account.”

“Of course I don’t like it.”

“Then why don’t we make a family bank account?”

A family account? Is that even possible?

“That way, we could put all the earnings from our travels into that account, and you could also add as much of your own money as you want.”

That’s a good idea…that way, we can keep our travel fund and our personal money separate. I might even be able to stop Druid from using too much of his own money.

“That’s a great plan. Could we make that new account right away?”

“Once we register as a family with the merchant guild, we should be able to do it.”

I want to do whatever I can to prevent Druid from using up all his money. Oh, but wait… If we got a family account, wouldn’t Druid be able to slip money in there without me knowing it?

“Mr. Druid…promise me you won’t put a bunch of your own money into the family account without telling me.”

“Uh…okay, I won’t.”

Hey! I saw your eyes darting around for a second! “I’ll watch our family account balance. If I see you’ve put money in there, I’m giving it back to you.”

“Ivy, I think you’re being way too strict about this. I mean, do I look like a pauper to you?”

“No, not at all. In fact, you look richer than the average adventurer.”

Most of the adventurers I’d encountered were the traveling type, so I couldn’t say for sure, but Druid had a house and a lot of magic items. It made me think he was probably the wealthiest of all the adventurers I’d ever met.

“Well, that’s only because I’ve taken on nothing but suicide missions, so the pay was really good. I just didn’t have anything to spend it on.”

I remember him telling me a little bit about that. He didn’t have a reason to live, so he’d volunteered for some pretty dangerous gigs. I remembered feeling very sad for him when he explained that.

“So money is one thing I have plenty of. I haven’t even checked my account balance all these years, so it was a real shock when I looked at it earlier. I have about one thousand radal.”

What?! Did he…just say…one thousand radal? Er, a gold plate is ten radal, so that’s…more than one hundred gold plates?

“Huh?! What?!”

“Don’t you have a heart attack. Imagine how surprised I was.”

Does that mean he took on one thousand radal worth of dangerous jobs?

“Now I understand why the guild master and my old mentor kept scolding me about doing such dangerous work all the time. Thinking about it now makes me feel a little squeamish.”

Hearing the laughter in his voice as he said that made my blood boil. “That’s not funny! Don’t you realize you’ve put yourself in mortal danger to the tune of one thousand radal?!”

“Huh?! Er…Ivy…”

My angry screams soon turned into tears…it was a miracle Druid was still alive. “Mr. Druid… I’m so glad you’re still here…” I whimpered, wiping my eyes.

Druid looked shocked by the sight of me. But soon…he melted into that pitiful smile I was now so used to seeing on him.

“Me, too… Thanks.”

Just what kind of peril had he put himself in to get all that money?

Druid rested his big hand on my head. “I’ll be more careful from now on.”

“Mr. Druid…you need to cherish yourself more.”

“Okay…I promise I will.”

“Just so you know…now that you and I are going to be travel companions…”

“Yeah.”

“When I set my sights on a goal…you’d better be there to watch me achieve it!”

“Huh?”

It seemed like Druid thought it would be okay for him to disappear at some point. Well, I wouldn’t let him!

“Promise me. Promise me that you’ll be there to watch me reach my goal.”

Even if it wasn’t a written contract, I knew that Druid would keep his vow, so I was going to make him promise!

“Err…”

“Promise me.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Good… But wow. One thousand radal.

“Your bank account is another jack-in-the-box, Mr. Druid.”

“Ah…so I’m in the box now, too?”

“Oh, you were already in it, Mr. Druid. All we did was add more parts.”

“I don’t know whether I should be happy about that or not…”

“Hee hee, me neither.”

We both laughed the tension off. It was like everything I’d felt up until that moment had been washed away.

“Anyway, we need to register as a family and then get a family bank account.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Then we should set up a fund for the winter.”

“And I’m going to put all the money I’ve been saving for the winter into our travel fund. I won’t let you stop me!”

“Oh, fine… In that case, I’ll…”

“Please match my amount.”

“Huh?!” Druid gasped. I was sure he was going to put in more money than me.

“Please put in the same amount as me. It might mean we’ll have to stay at a cheaper inn…”

“I don’t mind that. I’ve always stayed at the cheapest ones when I’ve been out missions. Filthy inns without a bath.”

This is coming from the guy who just said not having a bath was a deal breaker?

“Let’s start from scratch,” I said. “Together.”

“Start from scratch?”

“That’s right. We’ll hunt and gather as much as we can between here and Hatow Village so we can stay at the best possible inn! Don’t you think that’ll be fun?”

We might fail. But even failing would be fun, as long as we failed together. Especially when we had such powerful allies in Ciel, Sora, and Flame.

“Fun, eh? Yeah…but what if we can’t hunt or gather enough?”

“Then we’ll stay at whatever inn we can afford with what’s already in our family bank account.”

“Are you sure you’re okay with that?”

“Of course. If I were traveling alone, I would definitely be staying at the cheapest possible inn.”

Actually, even if I had saved up a fortune, I’d still stay at the cheapest inn. I had to keep the next winter in mind…and the next winter after that. But now that I had Druid with me, I didn’t have to be so pessimistic.

“Puuu!” Sora’s voice rang through the room, breaking up my little staring contest with Druid.

My eyes darted toward the bag. Oh no, I forgot to take them out of there. I reached into the bag to pick up Sora, but the slime was already squiggling out on its own. Then, with another cry, it leapt onto the table between me and Druid.

“Pu!”

Wow. Why are you so irritated?

“Teryuuu.”

I could hear Flame’s voice, too, but the other slime still wasn’t able to crawl out of the bag on its own yet. The bag just kept wiggling with Flame still inside of it. I quickly took it out of the bag…and it also seemed quite angry.

“I’m so sorry. I completely forgot to take you guys out of there.”

They both just stared at me. It didn’t look like they were angry about being left in the bag. What is it, then? Let me see… I went over the conversation I’d just had with Druid. I didn’t think we’d discussed anything that would make Sora mad.

“Why are they so angry?”

“I’m not sure… Oh! I think I know.”

“What is it?”

I turned to the slimes. “Do you guys want to help us hunt and gather?”

“Pu! Pu, puuu!”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu!”

Oh, good. Guess I was right.

“Well, gee, with Sora and Flame helping us, my confidence in this plan just went way up.”

“Don’t forget, Mr. Druid, we also have Ciel on our side.”

“Ha ha ha. Yeah, we sure do.”

I know I’ve had this realization before, but I’ve got three powerful allies, don’t I?

Then we both paused in thought…

“Mr. Druid…let’s not stay at too nice an inn.”

If Flame, Sora, and Ciel got too serious about helping us out…well, the idea worried me a little.

“Good idea… Let’s find one that’s well within our means.”

Apparently, Druid and I had imagined the same scene of the three creatures helping us…to some very extreme results.