The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 283

Chapter 283:

Sorry to Be a Bother

I WATCHED FROM A BIT of a distance as Captain Tableau and his party interacted with Snakey. I didn’t know what they were saying, but they looked much more comfortable now.

I was sitting on one of the many boulders that jutted out of the cave walls, and it was freezing my butt. I was starting to regret my choice of seating. I glanced at Druid beside me to see that the black orbs were still perched on his head. They seemed to really like him, and it looked like they had no plans of leaving. Sora and Flame were taking a little break from playing on my lap, and at my feet was Ciel, back in adandara form and sleeping soundly.

“Mr. Druid, they sure have taken a liking to you.”

“Yeah, why is that? I’ve been taking them off of me, but they just keep happily climbing back up.”

The black orbs couldn’t jump, so they used their mouths to expertly crawl up Druid’s body. It looked like quite the task to me, but they were enjoying themselves.

“It sure is a funny sight, isn’t it?”

I followed Druid’s gaze to see the three men, just as jittery as before, talking with Snakey.

“They all look like they’re having fun.”

“They do. That serpent is smart, and it’s been around for a very long time, so it must know quite a lot about the world. I’m sure this village considers it a treasure.”

I get it… It’s as though Snakey is a sort of witness to the history of this place.

“Pu! Puuu.”

“What is it, Sora?”

Sora looked at me, then in another direction. I looked over to see that darkness was gathering outside the cave.

“Oh! Mr. Druid, it’s getting dark outside.”

“Looks like it, yeah. We’d better head back before the sun sets.” Druid got to his feet, and the little black orbs all fell off him, plopping onto the ground like raindrops. “Agh, sorry! Are you guys okay?”

Druid looked worried, but the little orbs just merrily started climbing up him again.

“No, you guys, I’m sorry, but we have to go home. I can’t play anymore.”

They all froze in their tracks. Several pairs of eyes turned on Druid and stared hard.

“Wow…I feel incredibly guilty for some reason…”

I would feel guilty, too. Thank goodness they hadn’t chosen me. I left Druid to explain things to the little orbs while I spoke with Snakey and the others.

“Captain Tableau, we need to head back soon. It’s getting dark.”

The sun set so early in the winter. There was still a faint light in the sky, but it would be gone before we knew it. And nights were dangerous in the forest, so we needed to get back to the village as soon as we could.

“It’s already that late?” Priya moaned, casting a glance at the cave entrance. Then, seeing how dark it was, he heaved a heavy sigh.

“Thanks for visiting with us today, Snakey,” I said.

It nudged its nose close to me, so I gave it a pat, and it nuzzled in even closer. I just realized something: Snakey really knows how to control its own strength. Ciel used to come at me as hard as it could when we first met. I remember it would always knock me down.

“Thank you, Guardian Deity. I swear to thee, we shall find the nefarious people who put this summoning circle here.” Captain Tableau bowed to Snakey. Priya and Pith followed suit.

We all gathered up our things. Before we left, Pith smashed a magic stone into the summoning circle. As I stared with rapt excitement, wondering what would happen, the stone split in two and a white light shot out of it. The light got sucked into the summoning circle, lifting it into the air and making it vanish.

“Wow, that’s impressive.”

“It’s one way of destroying harmful summoning circles. Even if you erase them, traces of them still remain.”

Since he said it was “one way,” there must have been other ways. Still, the way the circle had floated up into the air was nothing short of fantastical.

The sky was already dark when we left the cave, so we hurried back to the village. Captain Tableau’s party was worried about me, but I was good at power walking. Still, it was just too dangerous at night for me to walk alone, so Ciel let me ride on its back. I noticed the most envious look I’d ever seen on Pith’s face as we zipped past him.

When the village gate came into view, I got off Ciel’s back and returned everyone to their bag. The gatekeepers were all waiting with anxious looks on their faces. At first, Priya was worried that something had happened in town while all the village leaders were gone, but it turned out they were only scared because we had all taken too long to come back. Captain Tableau and his party had to apologize several times for that.

“Let’s get back to the inn. We don’t want to worry Salifa,” Druid said.

“Okay.”

We said goodbye to Tableau’s party and hurried back to the inn. It turned out they were very worried about us, too, since it was supper time. It would be quite the ordeal for us to start cooking dinner so late, so we let the inn provide our meals.

Back in our room, I took my creatures out of their bag, lined up the potions for their supper, and headed back down to the dining hall. Dola, who must have had a spare moment, came over to talk as I sat to eat my dinner.

“What happened to you both? Weren’t you paying attention so you wouldn’t come back so late?”

He really was worried about us being gone as long as we were. Knowing it really was wrong of us to keep the inn staff in the dark on so many things, we defused the situation by promising to explain everything later.

After supper was over and the other patrons had gone back to their rooms or the game room, Dola came back over to talk with us.

“So? Did you folks get caught up in something horrible? If you’re in any trouble, please let me know.”

“Thanks, Dola.”

“Thank you, Dola.”

“I assume Captain Tableau will send over a full explanation soon, but we’ll give you the short version now.” Druid proceeded to explain to Dola everything that had happened that day. Of course, he left out the parts of the story he wasn’t at liberty to tell.

“Your memories are missing? Do you know who I am?” Dola asked.

Druid and I both stared blankly at him. Hadn’t he heard us both thank him by name a few minutes earlier?

“We remember. I mean, Ivy and I both said your name just a little while ago, Dola.”

“Hm? Ohh…right, that you did. Sorry, I’ve just never dealt with anyone who’s lost their memory, so I don’t know how to act.”

It certainly would be hard to deal with.

“I’m so sorry, Dola. But only some of our memories are missing, and it shouldn’t impact our day-to-day lives in any way.”

If anything did affect our lives… No, not if, when. Everything was just such a jumbled mess right now that thinking about it wouldn’t solve anything, because we didn’t know exactly what we had forgotten in the first place.

“Ah, I see,” Dola said, “Hmm… I guess the most troublesome things to forget would be money-related, or the things that can be the difference between life and death, like important potions and magic stones. Everything else, you can survive without remembering.”

Druid agreed with a little chuckle. I felt the same way, but that was quite the sweeping generalization there. Still, I supposed Druid and I ought to have a little talk about our money and our magic stones. You could never be too careful.

“You both must be exhausted. Take a nice hot bath and turn in early tonight, okay?”

“You’re right, we are pretty tired. Come on, Ivy.”

Yes, Druid and I both had sleepy eyes. All those trips in and out of the forest were bound to take their toll, especially with the memory loss halfway through.

“Thank you for supper, Mr. Dola. Please tell Salifa I said thanks, too.”

They might have had a hard time suddenly finding two extra plates of dinner for us. I was too tired to thank Salifa in person that day, but I would make time to do it tomorrow.

Now that supper was safely in our bellies, exhaustion hit us like a brick. I guess the fear we’d both felt when we discovered we’d lost our memories was much bigger than we knew at the time. And even though talking things through with Druid had calmed me down and assured me that I’d be okay in spite of my missing memories, the original shock was still in my weary bones. Now that I was back at the inn and my belly was full, the fatigue of the day washed over me in an instant.

I managed to get myself into the bath on sheer willpower alone, then I wandered back to bed and flopped straight down on it. I didn’t want to move anymore.

“Sora…Flame…Ciel…good night. Um, and Black Slime. Sit tight until morning, all right? I’m sleepy… We’ll talk tomorrow…okay…”

I somehow managed to pry my heavy eyelids open to speak to the tiny black slime. It looked like it was jiggling in reply.

“Good night, Ivy… Good night, everyone. Sleep well, okay?”

I felt my head slowly being rubbed. As I lay there, thinking about how good it felt, all the sounds around me vanished into the darkness.