Juicy Tassan. She's a noble.
Even I've heard of that name. Marquis Tassan—one of the great nobles of this country.
That's about all I know. I've heard he's on good terms with the Border Count.
Which makes her Lady Juicy Tassan, daughter of the Marquis.
So why is a great noble's daughter hanging around a place like this?
Her appearance is the picture of a gentle, refined, want-to-protect idol at the absolute peak of popularity.
Inside, she's a purebred werewolf grappler. The gap is unreal.
When I look at her through my Relic [Danger Discernment], she registers white with streaks of red-black.
Safe, but dangerous, and deadly. No—she's safe, but also dangerous and deadly.
This is a first. Is my Relic malfunctioning again?
"Um, um, Sir Wof! I… I have something I want to ask you!"
"You don't need to add 'sir.' What is it?"
"Then—um, Sir Wof—what is this hole? What is it? It almost looks like you could go in!"
What's with the "then"? Besides, looking at the hole, Juicy's eyes are sparkling like stars.
Her ears are swaying and her tail is going like a propeller. So easy to read.
Almost? No, not at all. Purple light was seeping through a tiny crevice.
Ah, dogs love digging stuff up like this, don't they? Takes me back. The dog at my old family home from my past life's memories.
Balls, toys—it used to bury things in the dirt all the time.
So that's what this is about. No, she's not a dog, obviously.
I asked even though the answer was pretty obvious.
"…Do you want to dig it up?"
"Yes! When I see something like this, I just have to dig! Sir Wof, can I dig? I can dig, right? Then I'll dig!"
What's with the "then"?
Juicy immediately dropped onto all fours. Eh?
"Wait—"
"Um, um—then, here I go! My ultimate technique—"
"**Bone-Extracting Brain Marrow Shura Catching Hand!**"
Bone-extract—what!? She started tearing into the hole with both hands. Is she a dog? No—she was a wolf.
She wasn't considering her current situation at all. Too faithful to her desires. Just like a dog. No—a wolf, definitely a wolf.
And her hand movements were synchronized with her wolf ears and tail.
Besides—calling it a pile of junk was an understatement. It was a mountain of scrap metal.
Sure, there was leather, hide, wood, stone, and all sorts of things, but none of it was soft.
And broken weapons were mixed throughout. A dangerous mountain.
I moved toward her side, but that would've gotten in the way, so I stood a little further off at an angle.
Even so, her absurd digging speed.
Digging with bare hands. Normally impossible—wait. This is…!?
She wasn't digging. She was pulling things out. That's right—she was grabbing pieces of junk with her bare hands and hurling them aside.
At incredible speed—torn leather armor. Broken, rusted iron blades. Shield fragments.
A rotted wooden shield. A snapped necklace. A rust-covered iron blade. Just a plain stone.
A torn scroll. Ripped cords. The remnants of a shredded metal armor. Something like a spear. A bowstring. Just an arrowhead. Just the fletching. A scorched tobacco pouch. Oh—a knife! Ah, the blade is all chipped. Tsk.
A doll with a cracked face. Why is this here? A copper mirror. A shattered mirror fragment.
A severed chain. A whip with the tip cut clean off. A broken collar. A collar?
A worn-down candle. A cracked stone. A cracked mirror. A bloodstained clown doll… Creepy.
A red iron rod I couldn't quite identify. Dirty cloth. A battered iron axe with chips in the blade.
A cracked, worn copper axe. A stone axe with hairline fractures in its blade. A stone axe?
Oh—a knife! This time… Yes! A proper knife!
"Knife acquired!! Yes!!"
Juicy stopped her hands and looked at me curiously.
"Woof? What's wrong, Sir Wof?"
I snapped back to my senses, embarrassed.
"Ah—no, nothing. Please keep going."
"Woof! Okay, just a little more!"
I'd gotten so happy about finally scoring a proper knife that I'd blurted it out loud.
But still—this was the first time I'd found a genuine knife in the Junkyard.
It had a large, curved, single-edged black blade with a round sword guard. The guard reminded me a bit of a Japanese katana's tsuba.
The handle was made of white stone. Rare. Smooth and polished. The sheath was hard wood, probably.
Yeah. Good knife. I'll treasure it. Take proper care of it.
Make sure it doesn't break on me anytime soon.
Still, Juicy looked like she was having the time of her life.
I was reminded of the dog at my old family home from my past life's memories.
It used to dig up the garden like this and get scolded by Grandpa.
But how was she doing this?
She was grabbing pieces of junk at incredible speed and flinging them behind her.
She was carefully sorting as she went… things that were safe to touch.
Or she was gripping them at angles where it was safe to handle. And her hands hadn't stopped once.
Where was she making these judgments? Could this be that kind of Relic?
Juicy's movements halted—she'd cleared an opening.
Her tail was wagging furiously—wag-wag-wag-wag—as she bounded over to me.
"Um, it's done! You can go in now!"
"Thank you."
"No problem—I had fun too! Woof!?"
Ah, oops. I'd instinctively patted her on the head like a dog.
"Um, um—woof! Woof woof! Woof woof woof!"
She was barking happily. She really was like a dog. Wait—that's bad.
I hurriedly pulled my hand away. She was a girl—and a werewolf at that, sure—but treating her like a dog was not okay.
"Woofh? Um, Sir Wof—thank you for petting me!"
She gave me a full beaming smile. Her innocent, sparkling chestnut eyes looked right at me.
Even that really reminded me of the dog from my old family home.
Oh no—focus. I looked at the hole again.
The passage was definitely passable. But it was dark.
"That's right."
I pulled a small sphere from my pouch. The moment I did, Juicy's eyes changed.
Her tail went tap-tap-tap, and her gaze locked on like a targeting laser.
"Ah, this isn't what you think—"
"Woof! Sir Wof! It's not a ball? It's a ball! It's a ball!"
She really had been after it. Dogs are like that.
"No, it's not. This should be somewhere around here…"
Click—the sphere floated upward and began to glow.
"Um, it's glowing! Is it a Legacy? It's so pretty!"
She'd almost lunged for it just then. Close call.
"Well, something like that."
This was the mysterious light sphere I'd gotten from Riv. She'd just handed it over casually, saying she had plenty.
I'd accepted it in a daze, wondering if that was really how things worked.
It comes in handy at moments like this. Not that it's a Legacy, of course.
"Alright. Looks like we can get down."
Using the light to check the ground, I descended into the hole.
Juicy followed right after me. Eh?
"You're coming too?"
"Um, um—I'm really interested in what's beyond this hole!"
"So am I, but it could be dangerous."
"Um, um—woof! That applies to you too, Sir Wof!"
Why did she bark in the middle of that?
"I'll be fine. I have business down here. But you don't, do you?"
"I don't. But I want to go in! I'm going!"
Well, she was already in. I looked at Juicy.
Her tail was wagging like crazy and her wolf ears were perked straight up.
Most of all, her eyes were sparkling like mad.
There was no persuading her. Even if I tried, she'd just follow me anyway.
"Fine. Listen carefully to what I say."
"Woof! Got it! Sir Wof! I'll do exactly as you say!"
"And drop the 'sir.' Just call me Wof."
"Understood! Then, Sir Wof it is!"
What's with the "then"? What exactly did she think she'd understood?
I'd expected it, but she still wouldn't drop the honorific. Dogs are like that.
Can't be helped. I was worried, but I'd just have to manage.
"Stay right behind me."
"Woof! I'll stick close!"
I hoped it'd be okay. Dogs had a tendency to rush ahead.
Maybe I should get a collar and leash… No—she wasn't a dog! She was a wolf, but she wasn't a dog.
No, she really was a dog, wasn't she.
I lit the way with the light sphere. All around us was junk. Had this much really piled up?
I'd assumed it was beneath the hole, but the source of the purple light seemed to be deeper inside, past the bottom.
I watched my step, but strangely, there was nothing dangerous among the junk underfoot.
It was as if this passage hadn't formed naturally but had been designed from the start.
As we moved forward, it gradually widened, and the ceiling grew higher without me noticing.
It was probably about as high as a school gymnasium. But the purple light was still far ahead.
I had no idea what was waiting for us.
I should stay on guard. On another note, I'd chat with Juicy.
"By the way, how old are you, Juicy?"
"Um, um—I'm thirteen."
"What a coincidence. Same age as me."
"Woof! Same age? That's amazing! Woof! I'm so happy!"
The correct thing to do was walk in silence, but when you're with a cute girl like this—
Not having a conversation wasn't an option, at least not for me.
"I'm happy too. But why is the daughter of Marquis Tassan at the Junkyard?"
"Um, um—I've known about the Junkyard for a while now. Scavenging the Junkyard is treasure hunting. It's a gateway for aspiring delvers! And, woof—my eldest sister, who's the acting head of the family, had business in Hydrangea. So I asked her to bring me along. That's how I got to come here, and I'm so happy!"
"Treasure hunting. It does have that kind of appeal."
And when a found treasure sells for an unexpectedly high price, there's that indescribable thrill.
That's why you go back to the Junkyard and try to find even better stuff. There was that kind of drive and enjoyment to it.
"Treasure hunting! I love it! I—actually, I love digging things up, and I'm good at it!"
I'd say so. She'd just demonstrated that.
"Are you aspiring to be a delver?"
Junkyard scavenging wasn't technically a gateway to anything.
Well, it wasn't entirely unrelated to delving, but that was one way to look at it.
"Um, um—woof! Yes! I'm aspiring to be a delver!"
"I see, I see."
Why did she bark? Maybe from excitement or something.
But were werewolves really this dog-like?
Ryles, the chef at Cidrol.
Ruuki, the waitress at Cidrol.
Heinena, the butcher shop attendant.
Yuuro, the dungeon gatekeeper.
They were all beastkin, but they acted more human.
I knew a few beastkin, and some of them had tendencies like that, but nothing this extreme.
Yeah. This was just how Juicy was.
She was incredibly expressive.
Right. Juicy was the same age and aspiring to be a delver—hmm, something about that tickled my memory.
I felt like I'd heard a similar story somewhere recently.
That was… let me think… As I looked up while pondering, I saw a large one-eyed skull on the ceiling.
Wh-what is that? A monster? Or a Legacy?
It was enormous—too big for a Legacy. As big as a giant… oh. A Cyclops.
A Cyclops skull that fires beams from its eyes. No doubt about it. Why was it in the junk?
"Um, Sir Wof, are you also aspiring to be a delver? Are you going to become one?"
"Yeah, sort of. That's the plan for now."
Why did she bark in the middle?
There wasn't anything else going on. For now, I was just a regular aspiring delver.
The money was a factor too. But dungeon delving had been fun, even though it was rough.
"Um, um—woof! We match! Woof woof! I'm so happy!"
Watching her, I was really reminded of the dog from my old family home in my past life's memories.
Pet me, pet me—look, look—it used to stare at me with those exact same pleading eyes.
"Ahem. Anyway…"
How far did this junk corridor go? I felt like we'd walked quite a distance.
Hmm? Something just moved ahead of us…
"Um—woof! Grrrrr! Something's there! Grrrrrrr!!"
Juicy growled. Her wolf ears twitched.
I activated my Relic [Danger Discernment].
One red dot. Closing in. Enemy. An enemy?!
I drew the knife I'd just acquired.
Juicy dropped into a forward-leaning stance, as if she might pounce at any moment.
My old family's dog used to guard like this after growling.
"………"
Tensing as I waited, it appeared.
Illuminated by the light sphere was… a black, humanoid monster.
It had a long neck and no face. A tail hung from its rear.
"What the…"
It vaguely resembled a lizardman.
A faceless lizardman? That body—it was like a mannequin.
Hmm. From my past life's memories, something similar… a figure's… base material?
No, not material—a blank. Right—a blank!
Could it be a dungeon monster's blank!?
"Grrrrrrr! Woof woof! Sir Wof—that thing's no ordinary monster!"
"That's a dungeon monster's blank."
"Um, um—a dungeon monster's blank—woof! It's coming!"
The dungeon monster's blank… Blank A suddenly broke into a sprint.
It wasn't carrying a weapon, so I figured it would come at us bare-handed.
But Blank A twisted its left arm—reshaping it into a blade.
Charging forward, it swung down. I stepped in and blocked with my knife.
In an instant, the knife's blade melted.
"Huh?"
Stunned, I watched Blank A raise its blade for another strike—until Juicy charged.
Like a dog, she leaped onto Blank A and started punching, kicking, punching, punching, punching. Then she kicked some more.
Then she jumped back and drove a devastating kick into its right leg, shattering it.
"Woof! Um, um, Sir Wof—are you okay!?"
"…Mostly."
I tossed away the knife with its melted blade. I wanted to cry.