I handed Noppo and Debu over to the guards who came running at the sound of the commotion.
According to the guards, this Noppo and Debu were Class VI delvers.
How should I put it—they were stalkers. Obsessed with Torquetam.
Apparently they'd been flagged as suspicious persons spotted in her vicinity.
They were more popular than I'd imagined.
They were strong enough that they never resorted to direct force.
But I'd heard their targets weren't just individual parties—whole clans were in their sights.
Sure enough, Noppo and Debu were low-ranking grunts in the clan "Dragon Fang Rō."
"Dragon Fang Rō"—no idea what that is. Maybe Mineha would know.
Either way, drawing your blade in the middle of town is a serious crime.
Everyone knows that if a guard catches you, you're getting arrested.
Common sense says you only draw somewhere no one will see. Even Kuun Hunt knows that.
That whole ordeal really drove home how much trouble being popular is.
All the way home, I couldn't stop thinking.
About how to convince Mineha.
The mountains of sweets I'd gotten as a thank-you gift would be just perfect. I'd put them to good use.
Mineha was a girl, after all. She loved sweets.
But that didn't feel like enough, so I stopped by my usual butcher and picked up some offcuts and beef.
Not monster cow. 100% real beef.
"Hey. Did you hear?"
"Hear what?"
I heard voices while buying meat. Delvers, probably.
Two men. Chatting over drinks.
"The dungeon survey team. Apparently they came back."
"Really? So it's reopening?"
"Don't be stupid. Not yet. There's a survey report they have to file first. They'll judge from that, so it's still going to take a while."
"Ah, the whole Guild process, huh? Anyone die?"
"No deaths, but sounds like there were injuries."
"Better than nothing, I guess. Anyway, sounds like the dungeon will finally be fully accessible again."
"Yeah. It's been a while since we could explore the city dungeon."
"The gathering requests for the sixth floor. They've probably piled up quite a bit."
"Might be nice to do those too."
The closure was finally being lifted. But I wasn't a delver, so.
There might still be a way in, though. Maybe I could ask Axe and the others.
I finished buying the meat and hurried home.
"I'm home."
"Welcome back."
"Na!"
Dagaar and Mineha greeted me at the door together. Perfect timing.
One person and one beast immediately glanced at the meat parcels and snack bags in my hands.
"So you bought quite a bit, huh."
"There are snacks too. They were a gift."
"Oh my."
"So, um, there's something I wanted to ask about."
"What is it?"
I set down all the bags, drew a small breath, and let it out.
"It's about the watchtower, but, well, actually a need to verify something has come up."
"What do you mean?"
Mineha's gaze sharpened at the word "verify."
"Actually—"
I held nothing back and told her everything, showing her the Sacred Seal as well.
Mineha listened in silence, nodding as she stroked Dagaar.
"An inheritance from Hyarne. A Sacred Seal, hmm. Sure, I'll allow it."
"Really!?"
"On one condition — I'm interested too, so you'll let me see it."
"Of course. Hey, cut it out—"
"Na?"
"I'll give you that later, so behave."
"Na?"
Dagaa had been trying to open the snack box, so I scolded him and picked him up.
No letting your guard down for even a second. Mineha laughed too.
My home. Technically, my nest wasn't a house at all — it was a warehouse.
Which meant I was exempt from taxes and whatnot. Basically, I was cheating the system.
At first glance, nobody would think anyone lived there.
The entrance looked nothing more than a narrow little wooden storage-shed door.
That door sat between a brick building and a white stone building.
The first thing Mineha said when she saw my nest was, "Where do you even live?"
If you went straight in through the front, there was another door, and opening that led to a courtyard.
Right in the center of the courtyard stood a lone tower. A stone-walled tower.
I called it the watchtower. It just had that kind of feel to it.
I'd also been told it was too small to be a real watchtower.
"But looking at it this way..."
It was surrounded on all sides, just like Torquetam's base.
And for the first time, I noticed. On the opposite side of the tower... what was that building?
Mineha put her hands on her hips and spoke.
"Seeing it like this, what is it?"
"The atmosphere's similar to the tower at Torquetam's base."
"I've never actually been there. Bid invited me a while back, though."
"Bid?"
A former party member of "Zan Brave."
She was a black-haired rabbit-folk girl. I'm pretty sure her breed was Holland Lop-Ear.
Originally, that base belonged to "Zan Brave."
"I heard they disbanded, but she's still living there thanks to Torquetam's goodwill."
"Huh. Think she'll join Torquetam someday?"
"Yeah. She said at least for now she can't even imagine something like that."
I was pretty sure they disbanded because of romance between members. Yeah, that tracks.
I headed into the watchtower while chatting with Mineha-san on my shoulder.
Dagaa sat on top of my head. This guy.
The watchtower, after so long, felt oddly clean.
As if seeing right through my reaction, Mineha-san puffed up proudly.
"I'm the one who cleaned it."
"Thank you for that."
"It was a real pain. So, the second floor, right? But there aren't any rooms up there."
"I still want to check."
"Be my guest."
I climbed the spiral staircase and noticed — the one over there spiraled right, while this one spiraled left.
There were no doors on the second-floor walls.
"See? There's nothing here after all."
"No. The walls are white."
Why I hadn't noticed.
The spot where the door had been in the first tower was now a solid white wall.
Everything else was stone block walls. Mineha-san snapped to attention at my words.
"I-I didn't notice at all."
"Nah!"
"Alright then."
I activated [Wheel of Fortune].
The wall glowed yellow, and let's see... there it was. A green light in the lower left.
When I pressed one block's worth, it slid aside, revealing a hollow space.
Exactly the same as the other tower. There was a switch further down, so I pressed it.
Click-clack-click-clack — the white wall broke into blocks and flipped over, one after another.
"What—what is this?!"
"Nah!?"
From the upper left, a pattern spread diagonally across the white wall in a wave-like motion.
Wait. This picture. There was no mistake. I'd seen it too many times to be wrong.
"The Junkyard."
"The Junkyard? There's no junk in here."
"I'm sure of it. It's the Junkyard. Probably right there."
What was drawn on the wall were pillars and a floor. A dungeon scene.
And arranged in a circle around the center were... nine rings.
Each of the nine rings bore a different pattern.
Only the center was empty. Just a cleanly drawn ring with nothing inside.
I'd seen something similar to these nine rings on the wall of the Junkyard.
More text at the end. Ancient script again. Glad I studied with the witch.
"Umm… 'Dedicate the Holy Seal to the second tower, dedicate the prayer of the Holy Tree to the Holy Chamber. I pray to the Ark. The legacy of Higharn lies dormant in dreams'…?"
"That's incomprehensible."
"Oh, there's something written further down. Was it carved later? 'I, Alhazad Abramilin, could not reach Higharn, could not have my wish fulfilled. I shall continue to dream a dream that can never be reached'… Huh?"
That name caught me completely off guard.
Alhazad Abramilin. A First-Class Delver.
And the Master of the Grand Guild — the central headquarters of the Delvers' Guild.
That meant he was at the very top of all delvers.
For my part, I didn't have any direct connection to that forest or any of it, but he was someone who had ties to all that.
"Well, there's another ridiculous name for you."
"Huh?"
"Someone at the very pinnacle of all delvers."
This couldn't be the end of it, could it?
Bring the Holy Seal to the second tower… I looked around at the drawing.
Ah, this ring at the center. There were traces of something having been fitted into it. Round — no mistaking that shape.
I took out the Holy Seal and slotted it in. It fit perfectly.
With a heavy clunk, that section recessed and slid aside, revealing a hollow space.
There was something inside. I reached in and grabbed it.
It was a blue, perfectly square plate.
On its surface, a white great tree was depicted in raised relief.
This is… this is the Sacred Tree. The Sacred Tree's Prayer.
Huh, I feel like I've seen this somewhere before? Where was it again?
"So I'm to offer this to the Sacred Chamber, is that it?"
"The Sacred Chamber is just the Junkyard, right?"
"That's right. I'll head there now."
"I'm going too!"
"Na!"
I knew they'd say that.