The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 4 - Chapter 224

Chapter 224:

Premium Meat

“This is good.”

“Yup, it’s delicious.”

I was a bit worried that I hadn’t braised the meat long enough, but there didn’t seem to be any problems with it. The fruit wasn’t overpowering, either—it added sweet notes and a nice richness to the dish. My only thought was that if I’d braised the meat a bit longer, it would be softer to the touch. Next time, I’d try to make it fall-apart tender. Still, considering its short cooking time, ­dinner was a big success. My only mistake was going with black bread.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had black bread…and now I remember why.”

“Yeah, I served it because we had some left. I’ll be sure to bring it out next time we eat soup.”

Druid was complaining about how black bread was so dry that it soaked up all the moisture in your mouth and made it hard to swallow. It was a surprising revelation to me, too, since I hadn’t eaten it in a while. I didn’t realize just how dry it made your mouth. While the bread was good if you soaked it in the meat juices, there still just wasn’t enough moisture. I had to wash down the dry bread with some tea.

“My compliments to the chef.”

“It was my pleasure.”

“That was my first time eating gooth, but I could definitely get used to having it more often. It’s such a unique flavor.”

“Huh? That was your first time?”

“Yeah. After all, gooth meat is expensive.”

Expensive… I looked at the magic bag I’d just packed full of gooth meat. “Does it really cost that much?”

“Well, yeah. It’s rare, so I’ve seen pieces the size of my fist sold for as much as ten radal each.”

Ten radal…but that’s equal to one gold plate! A piece of meat the size of a fist goes for one gold plate?! I peeked into my magic bag of gooth meat again. No…don’t think about it. It’s just normal meat. Normal meat… I stared into the bag and made a fist…which worried Druid an awful lot. It was so terribly embarrassing.

“I actually heard about a fight breaking out in some town recently over gooth meat.”

“A fight?”

“Yeah, somebody paid a group of adventurers to attack another team who’d managed to catch a gooth.”

I sighed. “Wow, that’s quite a story.”

“Well, there’s no way a team of adventurers who were clever enough to catch a gooth could be beaten by a group of second-raters somebody hired. The hired adventurers lost, and all of them became slaves.”

“I don’t even know what to say…”

“The adventurers who took the money were fools, and so was the guy who paid them.”

“Ha ha ha, yes, it does seem that way.” It’s still scary to think that a fight like that could happen over meat.

“And the whole reason those fools got all riled up over gooth meat in the first place was because there were rumors it made you young again.”

“Does it really do that?”

“Of course not. The only thing the magic in gooth meat can do is make you less tired and replenish your strength. It could never do anything extreme like adding years to your life span.”

“Oh, I see.” Well, if gooth meat really could make people young again, they’d have been wiped out ages ago. “So how did that rumor start in the first place?”

“I’m not sure, since I never heard that part of the story…but I figure somebody probably ate the meat and said, ‘Wow, I feel years younger,’ and somebody else misheard it as ‘I am years younger.’”

That made sense. I couldn’t blame them, seeing as how I misunderstood things all the time.

“Well, let’s clean up and go to bed.”

“Sure.”

I put the pot with the braised meat leftovers into my bag. The hearty soup I’d been simmering for tomorrow’s breakfast was nicely flavorful, so I placed that in the bag as well. Okay, all done cleaning up.

“Did you have a bath yet?”

“Not yet.”

“Then you go on ahead of me. I’ll come to bed in a while.”

“Okay. Sora, Flame, Ciel, let’s go take a bath.”

“Pu! Pu, puuu.”

“Te! Ryu, ryuuu.”

Mrrrow.

I picked Flame up and walked out of the cave. Ciel was staying in adandara form today. It was nice that the cave was big enough for it to spend some time as its true self.

But wow, that gooth meat…it sure is powerful. Flame’s potion may have cured my fever, but it’s not so easy to remove all the weariness from weeks of traveling. A simple night’s sleep didn’t make all the pent-up exhaustion in your bones just melt away, either. But right now, I no longer felt any of that dull fatigue that had built up during our journey. Ever since I finished dinner, my body had felt lighter and lighter with each passing minute. At first I’d thought it was just my imagination, but by the time I finished cleaning up, it was quite clear to me. All the pent-up fatigue was gone.

I returned to the cave and wiped myself down. Then I did some light stretching to loosen up my joints. Since I’d spent extra time lying down today, my muscles were a little stiff. After some light movement, I noticed it had taken much less time to loosen up than usual. Was that also the gooth meat at work? If so, then I could hardly blame anyone for claiming it “made you young again.”

“What’s up?” Druid asked when we were both back in the cave.

“All my travel fatigue is completely gone. I think it’s the gooth meat.”

“So…you did feel fatigued.”

Oops. “But not anymore!”

“Ivy.”

“I mean it. Besides, I think being a little tired when you travel is inevitable.”

“Well…yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“I am definitely right!” Erk…he rolled his eyes at me. I’d better laugh it off. “Ha ha ha!”

“You silly girl… But you’re right, Ivy. Gooth meat is quite powerful.”

“So you feel it, too?”

“Yeah…I’m not tired at all anymore. My body feels light.”

“I really don’t think you’d be wrong if you said it made you younger.”

“That’s for sure… Well, let’s get to bed. There’s no use getting rid of our fatigue if we don’t get enough sleep.”

“Yeah. Good night, everyone.”

I lay down, listening to the voices of my three creatures. I didn’t know quite how to express it, but I really did feel a certain…freshness in my body. I’d better be careful rationing out the rest of our gooth meat so we’ll have enough to last us until Hatow Village.

I woke up in the morning feeling good. In fact, my body felt extremely light. It had felt that way ever since dinner last night.

During breakfast, I persuaded Druid that we should continue toward Hatow instead of spending the day resting. Feeling the positive effects of the gooth meat himself, he was pretty easy to convince.

“I still can’t get over how light I feel.”

“Me, too. Gooth meat sure is incredible. Ciel, Sora, thanks again for hunting it for us.”

Sora and Ciel—who was in slime form—both jiggled at me in reply. Flame, still quite sleepy, yawned widely beside them. I put it in its bag and set off on the village road.

“They’re competing again,” Druid pointed out.

“They sure are.”

Sora and Ciel were performing the same motion in the distance. Whenever they did that, it was likely to be some sort of contest.

“I wonder what they’re trying to do this time?” I asked.

“I’m not really sure.”

CRACK!

The sound of wood splintering ripped through the air a little ahead of us. We saw that Sora had slammed into a tree branch and broken it. Noticing this, Ciel jumped at an even bigger one and, after quite a few body-slams, Ciel’s branch finally snapped in two with a loud crack.

Druid and I just stood there…and sighed. Today’s game was Who Can Body-Slam Branches the Hardest. Why were they competing over that again, of all things?

“Do you think we should stop them?” I asked.

“If we do, don’t you think they’ll just make up some other contest?”

He had a point: They would definitely find some other way to one-up each other. At least branch-breaking kept the casualties to a minimum, I guess?

CRACK!

Ah. Now Sora broke a branch.

“Pu! Puuu.”

Mew!

CRACK!

One point to Ciel… Wow, they’re both breaking really thick branches with such ease.

Mee-owww.

“Pu!”

We followed along the pair, dragging the wood out of the road so it wouldn’t bother any travelers who came after us. How much longer would their contests last? I hope they’ll get tired of this eventually…