Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 112

“Huh?”

Only then could I properly see my body.

Not just my stomach, but my entire body from arms to legs had been pierced by sharp blade-like objects, and my stomach was split open with intestines already spilled onto the floor.

“…?”

But why wasn’t I dead?

“You’re really nauseating. Like the others, are you really human?”

The Grinning Cat said.

“My goodness, even with such vivid illusions that seemed so real, there wasn’t even the tiniest gap to penetrate your mind. This means… you probably don’t have even the slightest desire to live, do you?”

“…”

I couldn’t deny it.

“But what’s strange is… how can someone without any desire to live burn with such passion? How can you fight so fiercely? I don’t understand. You’re not human.”

Come to think of it, Yorick said something similar to me back at Vinears.

“I don’t care about my life. What matters is that I still have things to do. That’s enough for me.”

“Sigh… I really have terrible luck. If it weren’t for people like you… I could have enjoyed this more. To think only one person…”

“Is this all you can do? Pretty pathetic for a behemoth-class.”

“…I don’t particularly think of myself as a behemoth. From the start, I don’t care whether I’m a Beast or human.”

“Right. At least you know who you are. It’s important to know your limits.”

“Hmph. Bold words from someone who knows their limits least of all. Time to say goodbye.”

“Goodbye?”

Suddenly the entire restaurant began to shake.

My vision distorted strangely before instantly changing.

“This is…”

It was an old restaurant.

Similar to where we were before, but very worn down and covered in dust as if untouched by human hands.

“Finally back.” 

Dominic’s voice rang out.

He held a bloodstained silver dagger in his hand.

“Beast hunting turned out to be quite doable.”

He said, pointing his dagger to one side.

Looking that way, I saw a small wounded cat lying limply and bleeding.

While its head resembled the Grinning Cat, the rest was just an ordinary small cat.

“Damn… it…” 

The Grinning Cat gasped laboriously.

“That’s probably its true form. After I inflicted a fatal wound, it seems to have lost the power to maintain the space trapping all of you. Though… Lady Sephira probably helped break the space from inside too.”

“That’s right.” 

Sephira’s voice came from beside me.

She looked perfectly clean without a trace of those horrible burn marks from earlier.

“I kept striking at the barrier and space itself from inside. This Beast is finished now.”

Though I didn’t fully understand, someone of Sephira’s level could probably break that manipulated reality itself.

“…It’s over.” 

Zepetia said quietly from one side.

She didn’t seem particularly mentally affected.

Then Oscar…

“…”

He was curled up in a corner, trembling violently.

So Oscar was the single victim the Grinning Cat mentioned…

I thought he would resist somewhat given his magical power and curse resistance, but Zepetia who had no resistance was fine while Oscar was broken.

What exactly happened?

“Ha, ha… haha…”

The Grinning Cat wheezed.

“What a… worthless and pitiful life. Not even worth being disappointed about… Hey, you crazy humans.”

It looked at us one last time with a smile stretched impossibly wide.

“At least kill that damn old man properly.”

With those final words, the light faded from the Grinning Cat’s eyes.

And it never moved again.

“That’s the end of it.”

Dominic said.

This is the end.

…How empty.

“…Hey, Oscar.”

I turned my head and called out to Oscar who was still curled up in the corner.

But there was no response.

“Are you okay?”

The moment I placed my hand on Oscar’s shoulder, he flinched and slowly raised his head.

“…!”

Damn it…

“Ah, aah…!”

Oscar’s state wasn’t right.

“Dominic! Quickly restrain Oscar!!”

I urgently called Dominic without honorifics, and in the blink of an eye he came and bound Oscar.

His restraining technique was almost beautiful, but there was no time to appreciate such things now.

“Aaaaagh!?! Aaaaargh!!!”

Oscar screamed while foaming at the mouth.

As if his negative emotions like despair and fear had reached the point of madness, his screams became closer to a creature’s howls.

“…”

I had been thinking too simply.

I, this person, had been thinking too simply about it.

In a world where it wouldn’t be strange for someone to suddenly die, it was still too cruel for this boy…

“I’ll gag him too. It would be terrible if he bites his tongue.” 

Dominic said calmly as he tied a leather strap around Oscar’s mouth.

“…This is my failing.” 

Sephira said.

“I have no face to show Sir Ozwald. As the leader, I should have…”

I placed my hand on Sephira’s shoulder.

When she looked my way, I shook my head.

“I will watch over Oscar carefully. The rest of you should continue investigating the restaurant.”

Dominic said, organizing the situation with an expression no different from usual even as everyone else, including Zepetia, fidgeted anxiously.

“Mmmmph! Mmmmmph!!”

Though Oscar’s eyes had lost focus, the red bloodshot vessels in them remained vivid.

Leaving those horrific eyes behind, we began investigating the restaurant.

We had to do what needed to be done after all.

But wanting to finish quickly, I walked straight to where I knew from Blue Paper Moon the curse core covering this land would be.

In my memory, that place was the basement used for storing ingredients.

In that small dark space that should be called a tunnel rather than a basement, I went straight to the furthest corner.

There was a small box with notably less dust than its surroundings.

When I opened it, I saw the curse core inside.

“…Kill… me.”

A withered human head that fit perfectly in the small box.

Red eyes stared directly at me as it spoke.

A curse is magical power corrupted by excessively strong human will.

To spread a great curse naturally requires great will.

The most effective medium for storing that will…

Of course it would be a living human brain.

Without saying anything, I took out the Raven Dagger and stabbed the head.

“…”

That was the end of it.

Now no more Cheshire Beasts would appear in this village.

“…What’s the point of it being over.”

So what if it’s over?

The village is already finished.

The residents are all dead or became Beasts.

With such a history, no one would settle here again.

Cheshire Village would be abandoned here as just an empty shell, untouched by anyone.

I flipped over the box’s lid.

A small note was attached to the inside of the lid.

‘The cat cuisine and the story I wrote are separate things. What’s strange about that? Why can’t you think of them separately? You idiots.’

This was a clue about what caused Vile to fall to corruption.

Of course you couldn’t understand anything just looking at this.

I only realized it later too.

Vile was originally just an ordinary scientist.

But from something trivial… something truly trivial, he went completely off track and became today’s madman.

It was just like any other ordinary day, but he got hurt a little because of some bad luck.

Anyone might think about wanting to torment and kill everyone who hurt them.

Since it’s realistically impossible anyway, most people stop at just thinking about it.

But the problem was that Vile could make that impossible thing entirely possible.

“Sigh…”

I took the box and note and went back outside the basement.

After gathering everyone else saying I found something, I showed them to Zepetia.

“…I see.”

Zepetia looked at the dead head with serious eyes.

“This is a kind of catalyst. Probably the… center? Source? Of the curse that twisted this village and created those strange cats.”

“Core.”

I provided the precise term.

“Ah, right! Core! Perfect expression. The core of the curse that made Cheshire Village like this. Using a human head, quite clever. This was alive until just earlier, right?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you kill it? We could have learned more by examining it alive.”

“…That’s enough.”

“Huh?”

“Just drop it.”

I waved my hand dismissively, not wanting to answer.

I didn’t want to deal with Zepetia’s misguided scientific curiosity right now either.

Seeing Oscar go mad made me newly realize.

This village died painfully.

All the people either died or became Beasts after having their human dignity violated.

They killed the entire village, even going so far as to cut off an undying human head and keep it boxed up in a dark basement.

And Oscar…

Would he be able to return to normal…

How sad would Sir Ozwald be.

He was the one who sent Oscar here.

Though he certainly didn’t anticipate this outcome, he would feel more guilty than anyone about what happened to Oscar.

These are the only results we have left now.

Just massacred people, a boy driven mad, remains of victims of horrific experiments, and one stupid note.

“And this note…”

Though Zepetia tried to investigate more afterward, there wasn’t much else to find.

And we went outside the restaurant where there was nothing more to see.

“…This.”

Sephira tried to say something seeing the changed village scenery, but ultimately couldn’t finish her words.

It would be hard to express.

This sight.

“The curse has lifted.” 

Zepetia said.

She was right.

All traces of the Cheshire Beasts that filled this village had vanished.

The countless limbs that Sephira personally dismembered were nowhere to be seen.

The river of blood that had soaked and flowed across the ground had disappeared as if struck by sudden drought.

Truly an empty village.

Like a ghost town, without a single trace of anything living.

All that remained were buildings crumbling slightly here and there.

“Made our work easier. It would have been difficult to burn all those Beast corpses.” 

Dominic said casually as he dragged the restrained Oscar along, but I didn’t want to hear it.

The villagers likely had even their remains completely consumed, down to their last bit of flesh and smallest piece of bone, all used to create the Cheshire Beasts and Grinning Cat.

…Like the empty cemetery on the hill behind the temple, this village became a graveyard where no one was buried.

“…”

Not wanting to see even that desolate scenery, I lifted my head.

In the deepening evening sky, a blue moon hung bleakly overhead.