Published: August 15, 2025
The Next Morning
This morning, I planned to tour the garbage disposal site and the factory. As the owner, I needed to check whether operations were running smoothly and also observe the slimes I had stationed there. Especially the scavenger slimes I had entrusted with garbage processing yesterday; some of them might be able to split, so I had to recall and re-contract those individuals.
So, when I arrived at the garbage disposal site, I saw many employees hauling in trash, and among the familiar faces standing by the roadside was the branch chief, Taylor.
“Good morning, Branch Chief Taylor.”
“! Oh, Ryoma-kun. Good morning.”
“What are you doing standing here?”
“My schedule suddenly freed up. I thought I’d take a walk and see how everyone’s doing.”
“You introduced me to the drivers already, didn’t you?”
At this garbage disposal site, besides manual labor, to efficiently collect trash from across the large city, they used horse-drawn carts and "Beast-Drawn Wagons" — wagons pulled by magical beasts commanded by beast tamers. Branch Chief Taylor had introduced me to the beast tamers who handle these magical beast vehicles during the preparation phase.
I heard that recently, coinciding with the deterioration of public safety, many beast tamers had come to the Tamer Guild seeking work, causing some trouble.
Gimul had a mine, and there was a decent amount of work transporting mined ore and people. But even so, there was a limit. Due to the influx of many beast tamers from other areas, the market was somewhat saturated.
Moreover, most of the beast tamers who suddenly came in large numbers from other regions were persuaded with phrases like “The Duke Jamill’s household is the founding family of beast taming magic and actively uses it in their territories,” or “With beast taming magic, your job options will expand, making it easier to earn,” and after learning the basics of beast taming magic contracts, they were sent off with the promise that “the local Tamer Guild will take care of you.”
In other words, these were workers who had only “acquired beast taming magic as a qualification for employment,” with no experience or true dedication as beast tamers. Being forced to take on a flood of such inexperienced newcomers must have been quite a burden.
In fact, there had been an increase in cases where familiars were treated roughly and rebelled or went berserk, causing accidents involving not only the beast tamers themselves but also bystanders...
Fortunately, these were issues the branch chief had anticipated and managed beforehand, limiting the damage to injuries mainly among the offending beast tamers, so it hadn't become a major topic.
Still, when guild-affiliated members cause accidents on the job, the guild is responsible for cleanup.
“I'm not going to say they must have pride and passion as beast tamers, but at least I want them to have the awareness and responsibility to handle magical beasts as part of their work...”
The branch chief had grumbled about this during a recent meeting.
Branch Chief, thank you for your hard work.
...So, to avoid the worst scenario of damage to city buildings and civilians, more rookies were sent to the mine, and I hired reliable veterans to cover the rest once they were freed up.
“Oh?”
As another garbage cart passed in front of us, the driver—a man—smiled and nodded in greeting. Apparently, he knew the branch chief, who returned the smile.
“…I’ve been watching and noticed something. Even though garbage is being hauled in, there’s hardly any smell, huh?”
“We were especially careful about that when building the garbage disposal site within the city.”
Seeing unsightly things or smelling foul odors naturally causes discomfort. Though it was former slum land, it was better to be cautious.
Picking up and transporting garbage is indeed necessary work for the townsfolk, but it’s dirty and smelly labor, so the workers tend to be looked down upon.
That’s why we put all possible effort into odor control to give the garbage disposal site as clean an image as possible.