Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 106

“Not a behemoth… Are you saying that to me?”

Vile said.

“That’s interesting. You’re saying I’m not a behemoth? What’s your basis for that?”

“Actually, I should be the one asking – why do you think you’re a behemoth?” 

Blanc said.

“Isn’t it obvious? My power, my abilities, my will. Everything about me far transcends humanity. And just like you all, the curse pulses in my heart, giving me strength. If someone like me isn’t a behemoth, then what am I?”

“Your power and abilities might be at behemoth level, true. But you’re absolutely not one of us.”

Blanc said.

“You lack what it takes to be a behemoth. You don’t have the qualities.”

“I… lack the qualities?”

A sound of grinding teeth could be heard from inside the bird-shaped mask.

“You said you used me for an experiment? That’s fine. After all, you had the guts to try something like that against even me. But your motivation is wrong.”

Blanc casually kicked away one of the experiment subjects’ heads at her feet.

“You don’t place much meaning in any of this. You just wanted to know.”

“Exactly right. I want to know. My passion, my desire for knowledge led me to become a behemoth. Yet you say I lack the qualities?”

“Yes. You do. This isn’t how a behemoth does things.”

“What did you say?”

“…In the past, I saw quite a few who became behemoths truly driven by hunger for knowledge. But none of them were like you. They were all proper behemoths. They proudly walked their own paths. But you… you’re still wandering. Just a mass of pretense.”

“How would you know that? Whether I’m sincere or not.”

“I can tell by looking. It’s impossible not to see.”

Blanc turned her back on Vile again.

“You fall short of standards both as a behemoth and as a human. I’d rather not get involved with someone like you.”

“Hahaha… Me, falling short of standards…? That’s rich coming from the likes of you!”

Vile pointed at Blanc.

“Whether human standards or behemoth standards! They’re all just outdated benchmarks to me! You primitive, inferior, hopeless, stupid, dull-witted fools who only know how to judge others by your own measures…!”

Vile clutched his head while grinding his teeth.

“That’s why… that’s why I’ll create a new world… There won’t be a place in it for outdated behemoths like you who do whatever they want!”

“As I thought… you don’t understand anything.”

Blanc turned her head toward him one last time.

“We don’t just do whatever we want. And you’re neither behemoth nor anything else. Just a whining child.”

“Think whatever you want…! When this world meets its end, we’ll see who has the last laugh….”

Vile disappeared back into the darkness.

Left alone again, Blanc watched the sunset a while longer before walking away somewhere.

“…The world’s really gone to the dogs. Even something like that going around calling itself a behemoth.”

To Blanc’s eyes, Vile was not a behemoth – just a twisted human consumed by hatred for something.

“Behemoths doing whatever they want? What nonsense.”

All behemoths are stubborn and know only their own path.

Even if the goal is unreachable, even if the dream is destined to fail, they simply continue forward stupidly and foolishly on that path.

Blanc too had wasted the past 500 years like that.

A final death at the hands of a hero she acknowledged.

Those standards were demanding, irrational, and unrealistic.

Yet persisting with that stubbornness until now was precisely proof that Blanc was more behemoth than anyone.

“No. Not this time… This time is different.”

But not anymore.

“You’re different, aren’t you? You won’t disappoint me, will you? Right? My Eugene….”

*    *    *

Several days later, we departed for Cheshire Village.

Unfortunately, Hilde still hadn’t visited Zepetia.

I’ll have to ask the administration staff again later.

Cheshire Village was a remote village that took exactly three days by carriage from the Order.

But because of their cat stew dishes, it had quite a reputation – though not necessarily a good one – and was occasionally visited by nobles, wealthy merchants, connoisseurs, and travelers who wanted to see something unusual.

Because of this, the village had even put up a large sign proclaiming themselves the home of cat stew…

“…That’s.”

We arrived at Cheshire Village after three days of travel, and now stood in front of that sign.

“Let’s get him down first.”

I lowered to the ground the man who had been nailed to the sign by both hands.

“I hate to ask but…”

“…Yes. This person was the Intelligence Department’s elite agent we were supposed to meet here.”

The elite agent Dominic had mentioned was hanging on the sign with his split stomach emptied of organs and stuffed with cat carcasses instead.

Given that the corpse hadn’t decayed much, it probably hadn’t been too long.

“Ugh…”

Oscar was dry heaving in a corner.

Sephira was unsurprisingly calm as ever, while Zepetia seemed completely uninterested.

Anyway, Dominic and I searched the agent’s clothes to collect his notebook, identification tag and other items before cremating the body.

This must be a painful loss for the Intelligence Department, which was already in a difficult situation.

“What’s written in the notebook?”

Sephira asked Dominic.

“Well…”

Dominic opened the elite agent’s notebook to show us.

‘Was what I saw really a cat?’

Except for that final line, the rest of the pages were blacked out so nothing could be read.

“He probably used magic to obscure everything like this at the last moment to protect the information.”

Dominic flipped through the notebook but every page was black as if painted with ink.

So he protected the information from the enemy until the very end.

Though it was a miserable end, truly befitting an elite agent of the Intelligence Department.

“And that final line… perhaps it’s a message for us?”

Thinking about the characteristics of the enemies in Cheshire Village, it probably is.

“Should we scout the village first? Like last time, Mr. Dominic and I could go.”

“That would be good.”

I headed toward the fenced village in the distance with Dominic.

“…Mr. Eugene.”

Dominic spoke as we walked.

“Yes?”

“Be careful. The fact that an Intelligence Department elite agent was killed means there’s likely something in that village we can’t let our guard down against. Of course you probably know this, but I was worried and wanted to say it.”

“I can at least take care of myself.”

Dominic’s worry is probably that I’ll end up like that agent.

An elite agent is around the same level as a judge or slightly weaker.

For someone like that to die so horribly, what chance would a lower-ranked hunter have?

I’m tense too.

However, if I’m sufficiently prepared, it should be possible to escape even from Cheshire Village’s boss.

Just fighting it alone would be impossible though.

This is where Blue Paper Moon really begins.

Dominic and I climbed up the village fence to survey the surroundings.

“…”

Dominic beside me had a serious expression.

Beasts were wandering around various parts of the village.

In Blue Paper Moon, almost all the enemies that appeared here except the boss were a unique type called ‘Cheshire Beasts’.

Unlike normal low-tier Beasts that resembled a mix of humans and wolves, the low-tier Beasts here looked more like cats.

Moreover, they had unnaturally large mouths split into what looked like smiles, filled with unusually large and sharp teeth.

And they had incomplete invisibility abilities – most of their body would be invisible except for parts, and they would hide until the protagonist or companions came close before suddenly biting with those mouths.

The key to conquering the village was seeing through that incomplete invisibility and avoiding their ambushes.

“If the village is like this, then the residents…”

The village streets were filled with Cheshire Beasts that weren’t even invisible but openly showing themselves.

There’s no way normal residents could be in a place like this.

Even if there were any, they must be hiding somewhere.

“Let’s go back and discuss this again.”

Dominic nodded at my suggestion.

We returned to our companions to report the village situation.

“How could this…”

Oscar trailed off.

And things like this will happen more frequently from now on.

The Order will have less and less capacity to respond.

More lower-ranked hunters with weaker abilities will die too.

…I’m no exception.

With knowledge from my past life, there’s not much I can do in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.

I can only pray to survive whatever attack might come flying next.

“How dangerous were these Beasts?”

Sephira asked.

“Probably low-tier. However… they were a bit strange. They mostly looked similar to each other, but different from normal low-tier Beasts. I apologize, but I don’t know much about Beast physiology…”

“They’re probably either a species unique to Cheshire Village, or they’re subordinates of some Beast… likely a high-tier Beast or above.”

I continued where Dominic’s explanation left off.

“Above that would mean…”

“A behemoth. In this case, Vile is suspicious.”

“Um, excuse me…”

Unusually, Zepetia raised her hand to join the conversation.

“If it’s alright, I’d like to see for myself… Oh, would that not work? If, if we could catch one specimen to analyze, I might be able to tell whether grandfather created them or not…”

“The idea is good, but you’re too weak to go in with us.”

Dominic shook his head.

“Ms… no, Mr. Eugene, what do you think?”

“Well…”

There was no event like this in the original game.

To begin with, Zepetia wasn’t a character who acted this way.

“…Should I go in first and clear things out?”

Sephira said.

“We don’t need to provoke them unnecessarily yet. Of course they wouldn’t be dangerous to someone like you Lady Sephira, but what we need is information. In that sense, having Zepetia observe directly isn’t a bad idea. The problem is escorting…”

“Th-then what if Eugene comes in with me to protect me…!”

Zepetia said.

“…In that case, I should go together.”

Sephira coldly cut off Zepetia’s words.

“Hey…”

Oscar, who had been watching, raised his hand with a puzzled expression.

“Do we really need to take her in to look? Can’t we just quietly kidnap one?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Hey… you really are a genius after all.”

I was genuinely impressed.

“Isn’t that normally the first thing you’d think of?”

Oscar didn’t seem very happy about the praise.