Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 132

After three days, orders came down for us to take the trainees on another outdoor patrol.

This time, our destination wasn’t Lasso Village but Hameln village.

The village chief ultimately met his end on the gallows after being condemned for heresy, and almost all remaining residents received forced labor sentences based on the severity of their crimes.

Those who cooperated fully with the Order’s investigation from the start might finish within 5 years, but anyone who showed even slight resistance or actively aided the chief received 10 years or more.

Ten years of forced labor… Given the harsh conditions there, it was essentially the same as being sent to die.

Even if they survived to complete their sentences, their bodies would be too broken to live normal lives afterward.

Forced labor generally meant mining silver and other minerals, dealing with sewage, or factory work with unreasonably intense demands.

And the children were sent to orphanages run by the Order for indoctrination.

Naturally, the village would have completely fallen to ruin, becoming a ghost town with no one left.

“Hameln… Kai wanted to visit Hameln too…”

Gerda muttered.

Hameln was quite famous as an incredibly strong village that could repel all Beasts without hunters’ help.

Of course, after its true nature was exposed, it became even more infamous, but in a negative way.

Well… now that the village has fallen, such notoriety is meaningless anyway.

The reason for patrolling such a place was part of mental education.

A good example of what happens to those who defy the Order…

“Hmm… looking forward to working together.”

And the one assigned as our escort was mid-ranked hunter Pieta.

Though she appeared in Blue Paper Moon, she wasn’t particularly significant – just a supporting character who admired Sephira.

“I look forward to working with you, Ms. Pieta.”

I bowed my head to Pieta.

“…”

“…?”

Pieta stared at me intently.

“Is something wrong?”

“Are you Eugene, the one who taught Hilde?”

Ah… come to think of it, they did say Hilde had been talking about me.

I don’t particularly like drawing attention since it can easily restrict my actions.

Personally, I also feel uncomfortable when strangers recognize me.

“Yes. Though it was just briefly. Hilde had natural talent, so she would have done well even without me.”

To be precise, if I hadn’t interfered too much with the tutorial, she would have grown into an excellent hunter…

It’s truly a painful mistake no matter how many times I think about it.

“Hmm…”

Pieta continued staring at me intently despite my response.

“Sorry for staring. It’s just that Hilde keeps going on about ‘Senior this, Senior that.'”

What exactly has that Hilde been saying about me?

“Anyway, I look forward to working with you too. And…”

Pieta’s gaze shifted to Gerda.

Gerda shrank back slightly.

“…Well, never mind. Let’s head out.”

“Yes.”

We walked to Hameln under Pieta’s escort.

Several low-tier Beasts attacked along the way, but they actually provided good shooting practice for the trainees.

At least up to mid-tier, trainees can handle them with the standard-issue weapons.

If they would allow these weapons to be more widely used, damage from Beasts could be greatly reduced…

But the Order, no, Belle won’t easily permit that.

The benefits of monopolizing effective countermeasures against Beasts are too great.

From the start, one of Belle’s main concerns during the 500 years after the Great Holy War was monopolizing silver according to the setting.

Though not official lore, ordinary people being able to use silver weapons probably wouldn’t happen until quite late in the story.

By then, you could even loot silver weapons from ordinary corpses…

“Come to think of it, weren’t you and Hilde the ones who exposed Hameln’s true nature?”

Pieta asked as we walked to Hameln.

“That did happen.”

“How did you figure it out?”

“It was by chance. The parents of a child who was to be sacrificed asked us for help.”

“Ah… now that you mention it, I heard one person avoided punishment through a plea deal.”

That would be Donar and his mother.

“Perhaps… do you have good instincts? Or some innate detection ability?”

“Pardon?”

“You know, the things you did while going around with Hilde. No matter how I look at it, it’s hard to believe a lower-ranked hunter and trainee hunter could accomplish that. Though I suppose Hilde being a genius might have made it possible somehow.”

“Well… she is quite genius-level.”

“…Are you being humble? Or just not interested in advancement? Usually people try to emphasize how amazing they were.”

“Both.”

“Heh, you’re an interesting one.”

Pieta continued asking various questions after that.

Most were about my time with Hilde, and since Pieta was Hilde’s senior as a mid-ranked hunter, I answered as sincerely as I could within what I was able to say.

“Was he really that amazing…?”

“I thought he was unusual but…”

The voices of the trainees following behind were particularly grating.

Even Gerda seemed to be looking at me somewhat differently now.

“How should I put it… you’re completely different from what I first thought.”

“Pardon?”

“Sorry. Don’t mind me.”

Even if you tell me not to mind…

We arrived at Hameln around evening.

The tall wooden fence I remembered still surrounded the village, but up close it clearly showed signs of neglect and decay.

As expected, the village was disturbingly quiet.

Though Hameln was an unusually quiet village to begin with, now it didn’t have even the slightest hint of life that comes from human habitation.

“…”

“Is that…”

The trainees’ emotions shifted from anticipation at seeing the infamous Hameln to a complicated mix of heaviness and bitterness.

Hameln was completely dead.

A village that had repelled every Beast attack for hundreds of years, killed by the hands of fellow humans – the Order.

Of course, knowing the inside story, I felt not even a shred of sympathy.

This was how it should have ended from the start.

A village that continued to exist by making innocent children suffer for hundreds of years shouldn’t exist.

“Let’s go.”

I led the trainees into Hameln.

Hoping they would learn something from witnessing Hameln’s foolishness.

We passed through the wide-open main gate and walked down the main road that cut through the village.

The road was paved with smoothly cut stone like a major city center, with neat and clean houses lined up on both sides.

But there were no people… wait?

“Hey. There definitely aren’t supposed to be any people living in Hameln, right?”

Pieta must have noticed too as she spoke cautiously.

“That’s what the reports said…”

Though we couldn’t sense any signs of life from outside, now that we were walking inside, there were several strange houses.

They still had the distinct feeling and traces that come from being inhabited.

“Perhaps vagrants have made it their home?”

“That’s possible… but should we turn back just in case?”

“Nah, it’s fine. They’re just ordinary people after all.”

Pieta waved off my concerns.

“If I focus, I can definitely sense human presence. But nothing particularly strong. They probably thought it would be good to live here since the houses were just sitting empty.”

That would be fortunate, but… somehow I felt uneasy.

“Still, maybe we should check just in…”

“You worry about everything! Don’t you trust me? Whether it’s ten or a hundred thugs, I could subdue them with one hand. I’d actually prefer if they all came at once. Then I could take them all out at once.”

Of course with a mid-ranked hunter nearby it wasn’t too scary but…

“Wasn’t our target that mountain behind where the Beast was hiding? Let’s hurry and check it out.”

“Yes…”

Though it felt unsettling, we walked through Hameln toward the Mountain that Eats Young Sacrifices.

And we arrived at the mountain entrance with what used to have totem-like statues on both sides.

The totems would have been removed as heretical objects too…

“…?”

In place of the totems were transparent ice statues.

They appeared to be modeled after Snow White Margarete.

“Damn it!”

I hurriedly turned around.

“Ha, I knew something was hiding… huh?”

Pieta turned around at the same time as me.

People were gathering from the village direction.

But we could tell at a glance they weren’t vagrants.

About twenty people wore light blue robes, and at the front was a boy holding a flute.

“What are those things…?”

“…?”

Those must be Winter of Salvation cultists.

But I was shocked by something else.

“Kai?!”

Gerda called out at seeing the boy at the front of the group.

As she said, the one holding the flute was a boy who looked exactly like Kai.

But the clothes Kai was wearing… were from Blue Paper Moon…

“Kai! It’s me! Gerda!”

“Wait!”

I quickly grabbed Gerda as she tried to run toward Kai.

“Let go! Kai! Kai is over there!!”

“Calm down! That’s…!”

Just before I could explain the strangeness of the situation to Gerda, Kai put the flute to his lips.

Eerie music reached our ears.

“W-wait… what exactly is…”

Pieta seemed to finally grasp the gravity of the situation.

The seven servants made up of pretty boys kidnapped by Snow White in Blue Paper Moon.

Each one’s strength was somewhere between a high-tier Beast and behemoth.

Even a mid-ranked hunter couldn’t guarantee victory.

Plus now we had trainees to protect.

“Ms. Pieta! Get ready…!”

“I said let go!!”

Taking advantage of my distraction trying to warn Pieta, Gerda broke free of my grip and ran toward Kai.

“Gerda!”

“Kai! Kai!!”

“…”

But Kai just silently continued playing the flute.

And as the flute’s tone grew increasingly strange and ominous, all twenty or so cultists behind him drew daggers in unison.

“…Huh?”

Even Gerda, who had lost her composure at the scene, stopped in her tracks.

“Winter! Come forth!”

“Winter! Come forth!”

The cultists stabbed their own throats with their daggers.

Blood fountained in all directions as they collapsed.

Not metaphorically – their bodies literally melted and flowed across the ground.

The flute’s melody grew more intense.

That nauseating pool of humans gathered around Kai.

And hands emerged behind Kai.

Beautiful, slender white hands.

The hands became arms, the arms became shoulders, revealing heads and bodies.

Light blue hair, crimson eyes, beautiful women…

“Ah, aah…”

Gerda collapsed at the sight that defied comprehension and common sense.

The air suddenly grew cold and white vapor formed with each breath.

This chill that seemed to freeze not just the skin but the very soul…

The flute sound stopped and the hands that had wrapped around Kai like chains fell away.

Twenty Margaretes appeared before us.