"...Yes?" Link says, not quite understanding the question. The Slate is his inventory, and he's been keeping his things in there. Therefore, he keeps one.

The detail isn't something Link does; it just happens.

"I like having things," he says. Because he does, really. Waking up in the Sylphid cell, and finding that all of the things he'd been collecting over many months were just gone had been...upsetting.