Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 139

“…”

The conference room I was starting to get used to now felt more foreign than ever.

“…It’s been quite a while.”

Dominic spoke first, breaking the awkward silence.

As he said, it had been quite some time since the Behemoth Tracking Special Department last gathered.

In my past life there was a saying about being surprised at how much someone has grown, but even that wouldn’t be enough to describe the changes now.

“Hello.”

Oscar greeted.

Just that greeting made the atmosphere even heavier.

Or maybe I was the only one who felt that way.

Dominic seemed only slightly taken aback by Oscar’s extreme transformation, while Zepetia probably didn’t care at all.

After having his mind destroyed by the Grinning Cat in Cheshire Village, Oscar strayed from the orthodox path of mages and began walking the path of a magus.

He even dyed his red hair black, grew it long, and started wearing white dresses.

His personality changed completely too – the emotional and honest boy had transformed into a heavy-hearted girl whose true feelings were impossible to read.

It was fortunate that since he was originally a pretty boy, the crossdressing gave him an androgynous look…

But it’s strange to call anything fortunate when someone has changed this drastically.

“And Ms. Zepetia…”

Dominic looked toward Zepetia.

“Hello.”

Zepetia said.

Unlike before, Zepetia now always wore a smile.

But anyone could easily tell it wasn’t from goodwill or consideration toward others.

Rather, it was more like the sinister smile of someone plotting something dangerous.

If pressed to describe it, it looked similar to when she had vivisected the Cheshire Beast, prying open its skull and poking at its brain.

That unsettling aura had become her default state now.

“Sorry I’m late.”

Sephira, the leader, entered.

Sephira didn’t seem to have changed much from before.

As always, despite being a higher-ranked hunter, she still visited all sorts of sites and handled many duties.

Though the frequency had increased greatly recently, she probably hadn’t undergone any fundamental changes.

“…Mr. Eugene. You look very tired.”

Sephira said looking at me.

“Huh? Oh, well…”

“Have you not been sleeping properly?”

“I’m fine.”

And I… had started frequently hearing comments about looking tired.

Though I hadn’t developed dark circles, even I could see an exhausted aura when I looked in the mirror.

After being a hunter for so long, I’d learned how important proper rest was.

Pushing yourself without any breaks only increases the chances of making mistakes in the field.

I should take a proper break sometime… but honestly, I don’t even know how to rest anymore.

Lately I’ve been spending more time just spacing out during free moments.

“Everyone seems to be here.”

Dominic pulled out some documents after Sephira sat down.

“Since you’re all busy, I’ll get straight to the point. The reason for urgently gathering everyone again is that we’ve finally found traces of Vile.”

“Oh?”

Zepetia showed a slight reaction.

“Yes. Thanks to Ms. Zepetia. We recently discovered several locations with enormous numbers of dead Beasts. Though we don’t know who killed them, we did learn one thing – they were all Beasts created by Vile.”

“To be precise, they weren’t Beasts but things that stopped partway through becoming Beasts.”

Zepetia spoke decisively.

In the past she would have severely stumbled over her words or avoided elaborating altogether – it was an incredible change.

Of course, that was because she no longer cared about others…

Though she had become better at her work, could that really be called a positive change?

“When I examined them, they still had many human traces. Most would think they were failed attempts at artificially turning humans into Beasts… but I think differently. I believe they were intentionally left in an incomplete state. After all, Grandfather wouldn’t fail at something like this.”

She was right.

In Blue Paper Moon, Vile called those creations the “harbingers of new humanity” or “newborn.”

Vile’s goal, similar to the witches, was to destroy the existing world and create a new one.

The newborn were meant to be the inhabitants of that new world.

The Beasts in Wonderland and Cheshire Village were early experimental versions created to develop these newborn.

Of course, the newborn must still be under development even now.

Using living humans as materials…

“Anyway, to confirm this we need to catch Vile. And those incomplete Beast things… after analyzing and backtracing their curse, we discovered a location where Vile is likely to be.”

Dominic spread the documents on the table.

“This place – Ridel Village.”

Ridel Village.

In Blue Paper Moon, this was indeed where the first encounter with Vile took place.

In the original, you directly fight Vile here for the first time, but even if you win, Vile reveals it wasn’t serious and was just observing you as an experiment, calling the protagonist an interesting talent before leaving.

If you have items or enhanced equipment made using Zepetia’s alchemy furnace, Vile has additional dialogue recognizing them.

“What connection did Vile have to Ridel Village?”

Sephira asked.

“Well… we haven’t found anything specific. We just followed the traces of Beasts created by Vile. Thanks to the Intelligence Department prioritizing investigating Vile-related matters recently, we barely managed to find it – we wouldn’t have even thought of it otherwise. Of course, it would have been impossible without Ms. Zepetia’s analysis.”

“…”

Zepetia barely reacted to Dominic’s praise.

Or more precisely, she only reacted to me.

“I did well, right?”

Zepetia smiled at me, blatantly fishing for praise.

“Huh? Oh, yeah. Good job.”

I hesitantly patted her head lightly.

“Heehee…”

Looking at it this way, it doesn’t seem so bad…

“Ahem, ahem.”

No, it probably looks quite inappropriate to the noble and responsible Sephira.

I stopped after a bit, finding Sephira’s gaze too piercing.

“I have an announcement to make.”

Sephira said.

“Starting from this mission, we’ll have a new member joining us.”

A new member?

Who could it be?

Since there’s an open mid-ranked hunter position, could it be Pieta?

No, for such an important position, surely…

“Please come in, Miss Hilde.”

Sure enough, it was Hilde who appeared.

“Hello everyone.” 

Hilde greeted politely.

When our eyes met, Hilde seemed about to say something but quickly looked away.

She appears to be restraining herself from prioritizing emotions as I taught her before.

It feels nice seeing her grow a bit more.

Above all, at least the gloomy atmosphere of this department improved slightly.

Oscar, who used to be high-energy, had… gone off the deep end after all.

“…Huh? But what about Oscar? I heard he was here…?”

Hilde looked around.

“…There.”

I hesitantly pointed my thumb at Oscar.

“…?”

Hilde’s gaze followed my finger to Oscar.

Of course, her uncomprehending look returned to me.

“…That’s Oscar.”

“What?”

“Hello.”

Oscar waved lightly.

Though his voice had become somewhat androgynous too, you could still tell it was Oscar when you heard it.

“Oh… Oscar?”

Hilde finally realized with shock – no, bewilderment – as she looked at Oscar.

“W-w-what… happened…?”

“…”

Oscar didn’t particularly respond.

The atmosphere sank again.

No, maybe I’m the only one who feels that way again.

“I’ll explain later.”

“Okay…”

Though Hilde was still perplexed, she nodded at my words and sat in the empty seat across from me.

“…Anyway, Miss Hilde is now a member of our Behemoth Tracking Special Department starting today.”

Sephira said.

“So Miss Hilde will also be going to Ridel Village next time.”

No one particularly voiced any objections.

Or rather, there was no one who could speak up.

None of us were normal, myself included…

Ah, except for Sephira of course.

Come to think of it, what a bizarre combination.

A higher-ranked hunter as leader, a lower-ranked hunter as deputy leader, a judge and Development Department technician and Great Mage’s disciple.

Plus now a mid-ranked hunter who’s the most promising talent.

What exactly is the leadership – no, what is Belle thinking?

I can understand recognizing Hilde’s talent and putting her in this department to gain experience, but I still don’t understand the intent behind creating this department in the first place.

“Now for the upcoming schedule…”

Anyway, the meeting proceeded and we decided to depart for Ridel Village in three weeks.

It was a much longer wait than usual due to the increasing Beast damage, the Order’s situation, Sephira’s growing workload, and adding new personnel all overlapping.

Vile is probably in Ridel Village, but our mission isn’t extermination but “tracking.”

If we were really going to hunt Vile, this level of manpower wouldn’t even come close.

Though it’s based on after the magical phenomenon, Vile gains power and forces nearly on par with the witches.

But unlike with the witches, there’s no story route where you can join his side, and there are no endings where Vile wins.

Though there are bad endings if you lose to Vile, they’re limited to just a single illustration of the protagonist suffering as an experimental subject with brief dialogue, and above all it’s not significant enough to determine a branch point – you return to the save point after the ending.

Rather, defeating Vile is included in every story route, with various descriptions of his miserable demise.

“Then, everyone meet again in three weeks.”

Sephira concluded the meeting.

Well then…

“Senior…”

Hilde approached.

Though she didn’t look particularly happy to see me, her gaze naturally followed Oscar who was already heading out.

“What happened to Oscar?”

“Well… about that…”

I briefly explained what had happened in Cheshire Village.

Oscar had his mind attacked by a high-tier or above Beast and went strange… that was the extent of the explanation.

“How terrible…”

Oscar’s suffering, the death of his personality, all of it was condensed into a single sentence.

But Hilde would understand what tragedy was contained in that brief line.

Her gaze followed after Oscar who had left.

“I heard it was dangerous…”

“Eugene. Let’s go to my workshop. I have something prepared for you.”

Zepetia suddenly cut in.

“Wait, we’re talking right now.”

“Hmm…”

Zepetia’s gaze briefly went to Hilde but returned to me without saying anything.

“Ms. Zepetia…”

Hilde watched with a complicated expression as Zepetia clung to me.

Of course, though Hilde knew Zepetia had experienced tragedy, she probably only understood it as going strange after being attacked by Pinocchio.

Only I could guess the detailed circumstances with my knowledge from the game.

The fortunate thing was that Hilde viewed Zepetia as someone with a mental illness, so she didn’t show much jealousy.

…Is that really fortunate?

“Heehee, let’s hurry. Okay? Okay?”

“Uh… alright. See you later.”

I said goodbye to Hilde who wore an indescribable expression.

“…”

A grinding sound of teeth came from somewhere.

When I turned my head that way, Sephira had her head slightly lowered.

Is she deep in thought about something…

“Heehee…”

But even those thoughts quickly disappeared due to Zepetia’s continued clinging.