The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick up Trash - Volume 6 - Chapter 317

Chapter 317:

Sister Villages

“HUH? What’s going on?”

I gave the scene in front of me a puzzled look. We were in Hatada, or so I thought. And yet the Main Street in Hatata lay before me.

“Um…this is Hatada, right?”

“Yeah, it’s Hatada.”

Of course it is. Yeah, we’re in Hatada. But the red window frames…and the vibrant blue doors… Arrrgh, my brain hurts! Okay, let’s think about this rationally. So, I remember as soon as you turn onto Main Street in Hatata Village, you see the big village watch station… And there’s one here, too. Okay, then behind it is the adventurer guild headquarters. Then, facing it on the other side of the street is the merchant guild. Oh! It’s the same here as well. And I remember back in Hatata, there were two bakeries side by side on the opposite side of the street from the village watch… Oooh, they’re there! And the shop next to them is the same…and the next shop, too…

“It’s all the same? Mr. Druid, Hatada is built exactly the same as Hatata!”

“Correct. Good job.”

Now I get it. Yeah, if I just think of them as the same, it’s no longer confusing. Oh, now I know why I felt like there was something unusual about the front gate! It had the exact same design carved onto it as the gate in Hatata.

“But why are they exactly the same?”

Whoooa, even the order of all the shops on Main Street is the same! There’s the butcher next to the clothing shop…which is only for women, too! Wow, everything’s the same here as well. I looked at the stores on the side street, and everything was also the same there. Why did Hatada have everything set up exactly like Hatata? The more I looked, the funnier I thought it all was.

“The people who built Hatata and Hatada were sisters born one year apart.”

“Oh, neat! Were they really close? Yeah, that explains why the village names are so similar and easy to mix up.”

The village names were similar, and the shapes and locations of the buildings were the same. The sisters could’ve never done that if they weren’t friends at the time.

“Oh, no, they had such a bad relationship that it made everyone around them very uncomfortable. Every time they met, they had a scream-fight, sometimes even a fistfight.”

“What?! They didn’t get along? And they hit each other, too?” How could sisters hit each other? Maybe the stories were just exaggerated since it happened so long ago. “Why would they build the exact same village if they hated each other? Oh, wait! Unless one of the sisters died and her village was changed afterward?” Hm? Why would anyone bother to do that? Seems like a pointless hassle to me.

“No, they built them that way when they were both still alive. When the elder sister built her village watch station, the younger sister copied it. And when the younger sister built her guild lodge, the elder sister made an identical one. They each tried to one-up the other.”

Now it made sense.

“But why did they make all their buildings the same, then?”

“If one sister thought the other’s building was even slightly better than hers, she would have the whole thing rebuilt.”

Yikes, what a troublesome pair of sisters.

“And since it was a lot of hard work to keep remodeling the buildings, the carpenters started sharing notes with each other every time a new one was built, and they just constructed them exactly the same way. That’s how the layout of both villages came to be identical.”

“Now I see.”

But wasn’t it a good thing for them to have the exact same buildings and the same layout? I don’t see how the sisters would have built their villages so close to each other if they really had a bad relationship. Maybe they didn’t get along as badly as people thought.

“And now that lots of people visit these two villages just to see how much they look alike, they’ve kept constructing identical buildings. Everything is mostly the same, down to the little details. But I haven’t looked it over that thoroughly, so I can’t say for sure.”

“Er, you didn’t look it over thoroughly…but you did look it over a little bit?”

I wonder why?

“…My mentor ordered me to. He was curious about it, so he sent me out to investigate.”

“Oh dear…my condolences.” His mentor, eh? Well, I really can’t blame him, then. “But, um…are villages really that easy to build?” It sounded like a big undertaking to me.

“Anyone can build a village with permission from the government, but yeah, it’s not that easy to do. This pair of sisters were real go-getters, though. They were business-savvy and natural leaders, so these villages shot up quickly during their time.”

Go-getters, huh… They sound like quite the pair.

“What’s more, both places have a cave nearby where monsters come out. That alone was enough to bring a lot of adventurers to the villages. And if they predicted that would happen when they built them, that means they were quite extraordinary people.”

“Yes, they do sound quite extraordinary.”

“They’ve become legends, in many ways.”

And these are the villages they built… Now I want to come back someday and really take my time to spot all the differences.

“Okay, what do you want to do today?” Druid asked.

“Huh?”

“Should we stay at an inn or camp in the plaza? It might still be a little too cold for that, though.”

Oh, he’s wondering where I want to sleep tonight. Well, the breeze is pretty warm now, but the temperature still drops when the sun goes down. But then again, I’d like to get back to camping in the plaza as soon as possible. Hmmm, what should I do…?

“Why don’t we swing by the plaza first?” Druid suggested. “Some adventurers might have set up camp there since it’s warmed up. If it’s too crowded, we’ll go to an inn. Sound good?”

“Sure.”

Plaza camping was always scaled back in the wintertime to avoid people freezing to death. Only adventurers who simply could not afford an inn, and only those who had quality warming items, were allowed to camp. But it was actually cheaper to stay at an inn than it was to get the warming items in the first place, so plazas were basically deserted in the winter. Especially this past winter. With the bitter cold weather everywhere, we’d heard that camping was prohibited in most towns and villages. This village had been one of them, so the gatekeeper made a point of it to tell us that the plaza was now open for camping.

“Argh…I don’t think this’ll work,” Druid said.

The plaza was swarming with adventurers. Those who were short on cash had probably run here in droves when it opened.

“Yes, it’s packed.”

“Yeah…wanna go to an inn?”

“Sure. I think there’s not enough room between the plots anyway.”

The spaces between the tents were just too close for comfort.

“The inn it is, then. Where do you want to go?”

“How about the one you stayed at the last time you were here?”

“That place is no good,” Druid flatly rejected me. “It’s too cheap.” He took a look around, probably scanning the road for inn signs.

“I see one over there.”

I followed Druid’s gaze and saw a cute inn. It was a bit smaller than the one we’d stayed at in Hatow.

“Wanna stay there if it looks good?”

“Sure, fine by me.”

As Druid and I walked toward the inn, we heard a loud argument in the plaza. I looked over and saw several adventurers punching each other.

“Eek! I spy a brawl.”

“The damn fools,” Druid sighed loudly.

As we stared helplessly, several village watchmen showed up. As you’d expect, the village watch carried quite a lot of weight here. They immediately arrested the adventurers and took them away.

“Let’s not stay in any plazas until summertime,” Druid said.

“Huh?”

“In the spring, lots of jerks come out here to release their pent-up frustrations from the winter, and winter was much colder than usual this year.”

Their frustrations from the winter? Because they were cold?

“Do adventurers really get more violent in the springtime?”

“Oh, they sure do. A lot of them are desperate and penniless since they weren’t able to earn much in the winter and used up what money they did have to pay for lodgings.”

If I hadn’t met my slimes, I would probably be desperate and penniless, too.

“There is some aid available, but if an adventurer has an ego, having to get help will only make him angry. So, some guys don’t even take it.”

“Well, that’s wasteful. You should use everything that’s available to you.”

Druid only stared at me in surprise. I wonder why… “What is it, sir?”

“Nothing. I was just surprised to hear you say that, Ivy.”

“Really? But people go out of their way to give things to people who are struggling. If you’re having problems, you should just say so.”

Having said that, sometimes people aren’t open to listening. And there are some people out there who have a hard time admitting when they’re struggling.

“My mentor once said to me, ‘A good adventurer doesn’t have an ego.’”

I agree with his mentor.

“We’ll keep an eye on how things are going in the plazas, but let’s not camp there until the weather’s gotten a bit warmer, okay?”

“That’s a good idea. It would be hell to get caught up in adventurer drama.”

As we walked toward the inn, we could hear yet another fight going on in the plaza. I guess we wouldn’t be staying in one for a very long time yet.