Uncle remembered what happened in the snowfield that day.
It was before the name North had even been established.
An age of wilderness, when demonkind, monsters, and humans were tangled together in chaos, killing and being killed by one another.
Even amid that mess, he had adapted to life rather well.
Fur and fat perfectly suited to the cold climate.
A body and strength so great that he had no natural predators.
Demonkind and humans were no different.
They had some troublesome traits, such as using tools, sharp and hard swords, and strange ma-gic, but they were weaklings all the same.
Then, one day, as he continued to hunt within his territory in obedience to his instincts, something unexpected happened.
"You are rather strong."
"Well, you are still no match for us."
For the first time, he was defeated.
By humans whom he had thought weak, no less.
Throb.
His left arm felt strangely empty.
The thing that lay on the ground, reduced to a rag, was the work of those humans.
As the warrior carrying a greatsword blocked his fist with nothing but the blade's flat, the thief's sharp dagger had severed it completely.
"He will certainly harm the residents of this region."
"Oh my. Are you going to kill him?"
"Is that not why I joined hands with you?"
The greatsword, which had stayed intact despite receiving his fists several times, was pointed at his throat as he lay fallen.
Grrrr....
With his life hanging in the balance, the giant felt a desire to live more intense than anything he had ever known.
"Well, look at that. This is the first time I have seen a monster prostrate itself so readily."
So intense a desire that he even reenacted the act humans and demonkind who had invaded his territory had shown him.
"Can I take him with me?"
"Moon Crow... That is enough. Taming a monster from the North is impossible. We need to kill it now."
The black-haired male opposed the idea, but fortunately, the silver-haired female's stubbornness did not end there.
"Speda is such a stickler, honestly. So what if he is a monster? If he wanted to live badly enough to imitate human behavior, does that not mean he is fairly intelligent?"
A black dagger pressed against the greatsword.
Under that pressure, the warrior called Speda reluctantly lowered the sword he had aimed at the Yeti's neck.
"I needed a guard to protect the relics I stole anyway. This works out perfectly."
That was how the wild Yeti was named Uncle and became the spirit beast raised by the Speda couple.
After that, Uncle's life changed completely.
"Come on, Uncle! Let us go!"
"Did you not say you would only use him to guard relics? You truly are unreasonable."
Their accomplishments were dazzling and brilliant.
Unlike himself, who had done little more than hunt and fight over territory out of habit, they ultimately drove out every other race but humans and even built a castle.
Duke Speda, who subjugated foreign enemies with a single sword.
Moon Crow, who disciplined the corrupt nobles within.
And though his contribution was modest, he, too, had a share in those accomplishments.
"Tsk. You are hurt again. Come here. I will heal you."
"Do not become too attached to a monster."
"That applies to you too! Really... do not make me worry like this."
Familial affection.
After spending so much time with them, Uncle gradually came to understand something he had never known as a monster.
It was only natural that he came to regard them as his parents.
Grrr....
"Do not cry. It is time for me to go, so I am going."
Even heroes like them had no way to defy the passage of time.
Human lifespans were fleetingly short.
His mother, who had saved his life and given him a name, had passed away long ago.
His father, whose black hair had left such an impression on him, was now about to leave his side as well.
"Uncle.... Remember this. One day, one of our descendants will draw my sword."
In the deepest part of the basement vault, his father embedded his greatsword.
"But until then, there will be countless threats, including jackal-like tomb raiders. Guard it well even after I am gone...."
That was how Uncle became the Guardian Deity of House Speda.
And now, hundreds of years later, a descendant who had drawn the sword had finally appeared, just as his father said.
Shing.
The silver-haired girl, who resembled his mother, had drawn with such ease the sword that even the current house head, said to possess unprecedented talent, had been unable to draw.
His long wait had not been in vain.
Yet apart from that, a massive emptiness tore through Uncle's heart.
‘I hoped no one like you would ever appear.’
After his father and mother had left him, the only things remaining were the relics they had left behind.
‘I have to keep guarding them. If she takes it, what will I live on remembering now?’
His father would surely have wanted him to bless the descendant who drew the sword.
Yet even Uncle knew it, but a sticky emotion he could not control consumed his entire body.
Though he knew it was a terrible selfishness he should not harbor.
"Prove it...."
Uncle spoke in a clumsy voice, but it was the best his monster vocal cords could produce.
No.
In truth, he had prepared for a long time.
The only phrase he had practiced his entire life, to offer the one who drew the sword.
"Prove it! Prove it! Prove it!"
There was only one thing he had to be shown.
Could a mere novice like her truly recreate the spirit his father had possessed?
Recalling the day he had first met his parents, the monster extended his one remaining arm.
***
CLANG—!
The sound of the monster's fist colliding with the greatsword echoed through the vault.
I immediately gave up hiding and sprang forward.
"What are you doing, attacking a member of House Speda when you are its Guardian Deity?! Hey, the thief you want is right here!"
But it was as though the monster could not see me.
Ignoring me as I blocked its path, it kept pressing Luciana with its only arm.
"Prove it!"
What on earth did it want her to prove?
Repeating only those words, it threw its body at Luciana.
THUD! THUD!
"Urgh! What kind of wind pressure is this?!"
The wind was one thing, but the shockwaves produced whenever sword and fist met made my body sway helplessly.
I still tried my best to stop it, but after it ignored me and passed by again and again, I grit my teeth and stepped back.
A party member who could not even pull aggro would only get in the way.
It was wiser to withdraw and find a solution.
"..."
Yet, unexpectedly, Luciana was holding her own.
Her extraordinary swordsmanship played a part, but that MacGuffin weapon that absorbed the shocks must have been a tremendous help as well.
"...Urgh."
Was it because of the difference in weight class?
A strained groan escaped her lips.
‘She is somehow holding out, but at this rate....’
"Damn it, I have to help somehow."
The opponent was not a human reliant on armor. It was a monster armed with thick fat and a tough fur hide.
Tute was useless.
The same went for magic and my dagger.
I lacked absolute firepower. I would not even be able to leave a scratch.
There was only one possible course of action in this situation.
"Screw it. The duke can clean up afterward."
I pressed the golden rod against every display case I saw.
Click.
Glass cases fortified with security magic, frost-opaque boxes, and lids tightly locked with expensive-looking locks all opened wide.
"I roughly know every relic here, so I have to use whatever I can get my hands on."
There was one lesson I had learned from playing countless games.
Overwhelming brute force countered brute force.
There was hardly anything that could not be crushed with superior gear.
And this was where the world's most precious relics were gathered.
"I will take this, and this will be useful too."
[Yeti Power Gauntlet]
[Crown of Glory]
[Frost Herb]
...
The carefully selected relics entered my hands one after another.
I was saving the duke's daughter's life. Surely he would not hold me accountable just because every security spell in the vault had been broken through?
Still, it was not enough.
What I needed right now was power capable of knocking that Yeti down in a single blow.
But with my paltry Strength, every relic I used amounted to about the same thing.
"What do I do...."
My anxiety grew more intense.
Even the time spent thinking was a waste.
CRASH—!
Beyond that thunderous noise, Luciana was desperately blocking the Yeti's attacks.
"If I had tied up the Yeti by dodging its attacks, and Luciana had focused entirely on attacking...."
The situation was clear.
Aggro, or a tank. The only way I, who had no value as a damage dealer, had been able to help Luciana until now.
But the Yeti was targeting Luciana alone, making the thought meaningless, yet it kept circling through my mind.
Then, one relic abruptly caught my eye.
"...A worthless dagger."
It was a dagger whose performance was worse than a piece of junk, despite being frustratingly hard to obtain among the relics on the third level because trying to steal it so often meant running into the Guardian Deity.
But why?
It was as though that dagger were calling me.
Everything around me blurred, and all my attention focused on the useless dagger.
‘Is this how Luciana felt when she drew the sword from the boulder earlier?’
As if bewitched, I gripped the handle of the dagger thick with rust.
At that moment.
[You have fulfilled the eligibility requirements.]
[A new function of the relic has been unlocked.]
At the same time, the dagger, which had only looked old, revealed an ink-black form.
***
BOOM, CRASH—!
How many times had this been now?
Luciana breathed harshly as she deflected the unbearably heavy fist.
If she had not entrusted her body to the intangible force that seemed to control her, she might have been blown away long ago.
"Prove it....!"
Luciana was beginning to understand.
The reason the Guardian Deity, a spirit beast who had been incomparably gentle with the members of House Speda, was opposing her with such desperate cries was this very greatsword.
And the proof he demanded was nothing more than the petulance of a child.
What filled his reddened eyes, fixed on the greatsword, was not anger but sorrow.
"You pitiful thing."
Uncle was a spirit beast who had shared in the deeds of House Speda's founder.
It was no wonder he clung desperately to their keepsake.
But Uncle's circumstances were not Luciana's concern.
Now that she had drawn the sword, driven by instinct, she clearly understood why the hand gripping its hilt trembled faintly.
Exhilaration.
The fact that the sword of House Speda's legendary founder had become hers was a great honor and joy to Luciana.
Kicking off the ground and steadying her breath, Luciana shouted at the foolish Guardian Deity.
"But that is only your circumstance. Do not think I will let go of the sword simply because I pity you."
Taking the relic most precious to the Guardian Deity might be a wicked act, but was it not also disrespectful to let a powerful weapon, capable of bringing peace and safety to the North, merely rot away?
"I will gladly prove it to you."
She did not know what exactly he wanted her to prove.
But she knew this much.
In the North, strength was the only means of enforcing one's will.
Therefore, there was only one thing she would prove.
She would subdue the Yeti by force. Then she would claim this sword.
"Come!"
ROAR—!
At that moment, a thought suddenly crossed Luciana's mind in the face of the magnificent roar.
Come to think of it, she had suffered quite a few defeats recently.
Once against demonkind, and twice against Hans.
However, those defeats had become nourishment for Luciana.
‘I will be defeated anyway if I only keep blocking its attacks.’
Luciana's eyes gleamed blue.
She needed to create a variable.
Just as her attendant had done through all sorts of bizarre methods.
Grrk?
That was why she threw the dependable greatsword, which had protected her from the Yeti's ruthless punches until then, onto the ground.
Distracted by the keepsake he had wanted so badly, the Guardian Deity reached out to grab the greatsword.
RAAARGH! Grrr....
"You should not covet a noble's possession."
The rapier that pierced his shoulder blade penetrated the Yeti's fur hide and tore through its flesh.
Soon, Uncle's snow-white fur was dyed red.
What he had overlooked was that Luciana had more than one weapon.
Wounding an opponent of a higher level was certainly encouraging.
But apart from that, Luciana furrowed her brow.
‘It was too shallow.’
The rapier's preparation was certainly short, and it was fast, but its power was lower than the greatsword's.
It lacked the strength to cut through all the monster's muscles.
"Prove it!!!"
The gap was too narrow to evade.
The ancestral greatsword that could have blocked the Guardian Deity's fist was now gone as well.
‘I will not be able to deflect it properly with this rapier either.’
Even so, Luciana smiled.
She had seen her dependable attendant take position behind the Yeti with his characteristic stealthy footwork.
‘What a complete mess. Has he thrown all decorum to the ground?’
Hans looked exactly like a clown.
On his head was a mystical purple crown personally bestowed upon her father by His Majesty the Emperor.
On his hand was the Yeti Power Glove she had recommended.
And what he was chewing in his mouth seemed to be a Frost Ginseng leaf that temporarily boosted one of the user's abilities.
The relics plastered all over his body made him resemble a nouveau riche from the Central Region.
Yet somehow, Luciana felt reassured.
The ink-black dagger in Hans's right hand, which radiated an uncanny aura, was more threatening than any relic he had equipped.
But his strongest weapon was likely his tireless persistence and his ability to come up with ideas that caught others off guard.
An extraordinary attendant who dared loot the ducal vault before the duke's daughter.
"You have guarded it long enough! It is time for the Guardian Deity to retire!"
Precisely opposite the wound Luciana had opened from the front, Hans's ink-black dagger pierced the joint where the Yeti's right arm met its back.
The unexpected blow from behind carved through skin and fat, then cleaved even iron-hard bone.
Thud.
The result was this.
The massive forearm that fell to the floor landed beside the greatsword Luciana had dropped earlier.
The one-armed Yeti would never again be able to lift the greatsword it had desired so desperately.
"Prove... it...."
Thud.
Uncle's knees buckled.
The Guardian Deity crumpled to the ground with a heavy sound.
Before him stood Luciana, so close that their breaths would touch—no, that their skin would brush.
A calm smile formed on the corners of her mouth, which had been rigidly frozen.
That sight told her that she and her attendant had won.