Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 120

Three months have passed since the Pinocchio incident.

Many things have happened during that time, but the change that affects me most is my different duties.

“It’s not the gun. It’s a posture problem.”

I gently pushed the trainee’s left shoulder with my index finger to make it more similar to what they had been practicing.

“If your fingertip is off by even a grain, the bullet will go elsewhere. What do you think will happen if your gun misses when a Beast’s maw is coming at you?”

“S-sorry!”

“Here we can end it with a few words, but when you go into the field, you’ll have to worry first about whether that muzzle will still be there or not. So if you don’t want to die, shoot each shot carefully.”

“Yes!”

I’ve been assigned to teach twenty trainees.

Though my position hasn’t completely changed, they’ve been recruiting so many newcomers lately that there’s a severe shortage of teaching staff.

So many 8th-rank hunters including myself are temporarily serving as training instructors.

Of course, it’s not that people with hunter qualities have suddenly increased – they’ve just lowered the entrance requirements compared to before.

Naturally, many people who would be considered subpar by old standards have joined.

Though their chances of survival in the field can’t be rated very highly, since I’m in charge I need to teach them earnestly so they have even a slightly better chance of returning alive.

“When fighting, the only thing you can trust is your gun. Not many people can fight Beasts bare-handed, or with knives and axes. First get rid of any thoughts that you might be one of them. We’ll find those who can do that ourselves.”

Looking at them makes me newly realize just how ridiculous Hilde’s talent was.

These ordinary people take days or weeks just to reach a passing grade in marksmanship.

But Hilde caught up in hours or days to skills that took me months to master.

She’s probably better than me by now.

“Ready to fire!”

When I raised my hand and raised my voice, the trainees all tensed up at once.

“Fire!”

The trainees simultaneously pulled their triggers at the targets.

After the round of firing finished, they all raised their muzzles up as I had taught them beforehand.

I examined each of the twenty targets one by one.

Not a single person hit dead center.

Among the twenty people I’m in charge of, I don’t see anyone with the potential to become a mid-ranked hunter or higher.

When they first joined and took the magical power aptitude test, they were all lower-ranked hunter level or below, and none have shown outstanding progress since training began.

But I’m not disappointed.

This is normal after all.

I was this terrible before too.

I only became barely capable of pulling my own weight thanks to training from my seniors.

“…One last round and we’ll end for today.”

I had the trainees do one more round of shooting practice.

Again, no one hit the center.

After training ended, all the trainees returned to their quarters while I remained alone at the shooting range.

“…”

I drew a pistol from my waist, aimed at the target and fired.

The bullet missed slightly from dead center.

“Damn it…”

My left hand holding the pistol trembled slightly.

I’m originally right-handed, but I used to always hit dead center with my left hand at this distance with a pistol.

Being able to use both hands was part of what my seniors taught after all.

But after getting my left shoulder pierced and torn by hooks in the fight with Pinocchio… now my hand trembles uncontrollably when I try to make fine adjustments with my left hand.

I put the pistol back at my waist and lifted my head to look up.

It was an evening purple sky with some clouds.

The yellow sun was setting far away.

“…Still.”

I can still fight.

My left-handed shooting has just gotten a bit worse.

But… what next?

Will my dagger skills decline?

Will my legs get injured like this someday too?

Will I still try to return to the battlefield then, saying I just limp a little?

Of course.

As long as I breathe, I’ll continue this work.

Even though my previously unscarred face now has a small mark.

Even though I have to take combat stimulants to survive and spend days sick in bed.

Even as more and more scars pile up on my body, I’ll continue.

I’ve thought since long ago that I’ll die doing this.

But lately instead of just thinking it, I’m gradually feeling it becoming real.

Wounds keep accumulating like this, and at some point they’ll reach a level I can’t handle.

Still, a fool like me will continue this work.

Even knowing I’ll die someday.

“…Sigh.”

I let out a sigh filled with all sorts of emotions and left the shooting range for the dining hall.

Most people eating at this hour are 8th-rank hunters like me who are in charge of new trainees.

Our atmosphere has changed a lot compared to before.

Everyone must be more worried seeing the trainees’ condition.

That we now have to recruit and use even people like this.

That not a small number of the people we’re looking at now will die.

And that in the not too distant future, we’ll directly witness those deaths…

Even people who could laugh off their own injuries sometimes shed tears when team members they personally led get hurt or die.

“…”

I returned to my quarters after finishing dinner so mindlessly I couldn’t even remember what I ate.

“Welcome back.”

Maia greeted me at the entrance when I opened the door.

“You must be tired. Just finished eating dinner?”

“Yeah.”

“Then shall we get started quickly?”

“Sure.”

I took off all my upper clothing.

My eyes were drawn to my reflection in the small mirror.

A body covered in all sorts of scars.

Especially the large round mark on my left shoulder.

“I’ll be counting on you again today.”

“Leave it to me.”

While I sat in the chair, Maia brought several large, thick needles.

Then she stuck those needles into my shoulder with practiced movements.

There was almost no pain, rather it felt refreshing.

Though the hospital couldn’t fix the aftereffects in my shoulder, fortunately it’s gotten a bit better since Maia started giving me acupuncture, saying she learned it from old books.

When my shoulder wound had just healed, I couldn’t even hit the target shooting left-handed, but now I can hit roughly like earlier.

Come to think of it, I never imagined I’d be getting acupuncture like this here when I barely received it a few times in my past life.

There wasn’t this kind of event or recovery method in Blue Paper Moon after all.

“…Your thoughts are still the same?”

Maia asked what she had already asked several times before.

“Yeah.”

Though I knew she would be disappointed, I gave the same answer.

It’s not that there’s no way to instantly fix my shoulder.

Using the trace, the incomplete Mark that formed while blocking Marquis Bluebeard’s curse, things like hand tremors could be fixed right away.

Not only that, I would become much stronger and even gain a greatly extended lifespan as a bonus.

Of course there’s a price.

I would have to give up being a bit more human.

Right now I’m very slightly, truly minutely undead.

Thanks to that, I’m not easily detected by undead if I hide well.

It’s not a powerful ability, but I’m satisfied with just that much.

“Hmm… all done.”

After time passed, Maia removed all the needles she had stuck in my shoulder one by one.

“Ah, that feels better. Thanks.”

I lightly moved my left shoulder.

It felt much lighter and more refreshing than before.

If I keep getting acupuncture like this, someday my shooting skills should all return too.

…I hope so.

“Don’t mention it… By the way.”

“What?”

“I’d like to visit Swamp Island briefly. I have some things to take care of, and I want to check if the island is safe before it gets too late. So about your arm…”

“Ah, it’s fine. It’s fine. Go take your time.”

I waved my hands dismissively.

Maia really cherishes her homeland.

Though she left for her own development, she hasn’t abandoned it in her heart.

“Okay. Thanks. Then don’t get badly injured while I’m gone, alright?”

“Haha… I’ll try.”

“…You’re so good at empty promises.”

Maia picked up the cloak hanging on the desk.

“Huh? Are you going now?”

“Yeah. The sooner I go, the sooner I can return.”

Thanks to Great Mage Ozwald vouching for her identity, Maia can now freely enter and exit Order headquarters.

The relationship between those two has become close to senior and junior now.

Of course, Maia is the senior and Ozwald is the junior.

He probably never imagined that in his later years, after being called Great Mage and growing quite old before retiring, he would end up being treated as a junior.

“Then I’ll be going. It’ll probably take about two weeks.”

“Alright. Have a safe trip.”

I saw Maia off.

She used to use sorcery that made her disappear like smoke with just a snap of her fingers, but now she walks normally.

Or maybe she’s just refraining from using sorcery inside Order headquarters.

Maia must have adapted quite well to life on the continent too.

That’s why she’s suddenly thinking of her homeland…

“…Homeland huh.”

Though my homeland is a slum called ‘Vanitas’, my homeland before that is of course Korea.

Not Seoul, but just one of many ordinary neighborhoods in Gyeonggi-do.

While I was briefly lost in old memories, someone opened the door and came in.

“Mister Eugene! They’re calling for you at the administration office!”

It was the errand boy.

“Ah, right. I’ll go now.”

When I went to the administration office, Hera beckoned me over.

“What is it?”

I approached and asked Hera.

Hera returned a week after the Pinocchio incident ended.

Fortunately she wasn’t badly injured, but she was really surprised to see the Order’s situation when she returned.

“It’s a training mission.”

Hera handed me a mission plan.

Originally mission plans were given directly by Crowty or his assistant, but since being too busy after the Pinocchio attack incident, now Hera gives the simple ones.

Crowty, who would have been here stamping documents at this hour before, is probably staying up all night in meetings with other high-ranking officials now.

That incident brought so many changes.

“A training mission?”

“Yes. I heard Sir Crowty planned it. Seems he wants to increase practical training since the trainees’ level is so low these days.”

“As expected, that person knows what’s needed.”

So Crowty was worried about the same thing.

“Let me see…”

The mission plan said to take the twenty trainees I’m in charge of outside for field exploration work.

Since Beast hunting would be a bit too much from the start, maybe this is to get them more used to cooperating outdoors.

Though it may not seem like much, twenty people is quite a big deal.

The leader is of course me.

And there’s a separate escort…

“I heard Miss Hilde received her first official mission this time too.”

Mid-ranked hunter Hilde Grimm was assigned as the escort.

As Hera said, this is Hilde’s first official mission.

Until now she just followed me around, and she only officially became a hunter relatively recently.

Considering when Hilde was appointed as a mid-ranked hunter, she received her first mission very early.

“That’s appropriate. A mid-ranked hunter would be good for safely protecting twenty trainees.”

I read the mission plan in more detail.

The location is Scale Bay.

Come to think of it, I went hunting there with Hilde for shipwrecked Deep Sea Folk.

We even went to hunt Fallen Kenken who was one of the strongest behemoths in the past but is now fallen, and even met Yorick who was Charmol’s subordinate…

Hilde must feel nostalgic too.

And the search target is a missing ship, the ‘Harpoon Queen’ that was transporting as many as five scales from Scale Bay…

“Huh?”

Scales from Scale Bay?

Harpoon Queen?

This is… a quest from Blue Paper Moon…

And not just any quest but a core one included in the main story.

It’s a story related to the Empress of the Ocean, Sea Witch, and Little Mermaid Rusalka.