Dark Fantasy’s Extra – Chapter 160

Author: Dawn

A week had passed since Vile attacked the hunters and trainees with his dragon and hundreds of Beasts.

Forty trainees and two hunters were injured.

Deaths… zero.

For an incident where a behemoth launched a deliberate attack, having no casualties was beyond impressive.

However, the fact that Vile could not only create Beast armies at will but also command powerful subordinates like dragons was sobering news that dampened the mood.

Still, there was quite a celebratory – no, victorious atmosphere for a while.

But Jarkoff, the branch commander of this Offenbach Order, couldn’t bring himself to join those celebrations even once.

How could he show his face there?

Though he was forcibly dragged away, it didn’t change the fact that he had escaped while leaving others in that dangerous situation.

Even if it was the mid-ranked hunter’s unilateral decision, there were bound to be voices criticizing Jarkoff.

Or perhaps… he was the only one who felt that way.

The so-called inferiority complex.

He felt stares just by going outside.

Even walking down empty corridors, he felt like someone was watching with reproachful, resentful eyes.

A puppet branch commander with only responsibilities but no authority.

But more than anything else, what bothered Jarkoff wasn’t the dreaded Heresy Inquisition officers constantly coming and going, nor the anxiety about people whispering behind his back.

It was one name written in this report.

Eugene.

“It’s been a week but he shows no signs of waking. As expected, it seems difficult to treat him here – we should send him to headquarters.”

As the Offenbach branch doctor said, Eugene had already been unconscious when the incident ended.

Surprisingly, he had almost no injuries – rather, instructor Marcus who was said to be stable was more seriously wounded.

But as various testimonies indicated, Eugene had gone alone to scout an area filled with curses that humans could hardly endure, and consequently massive amounts of curse energy were detected in his body.

Though they weren’t sure exactly how that curse was affecting him, Eugene hadn’t opened his eyes for a week even after his physical condition improved.

Normally they would continue monitoring his condition here, but given the gravity of the incident, they needed him to wake up quickly somehow.

Eugene was the only one who saw what happened at that mountain peak.

Finally after a week, they decided to transfer Eugene to headquarters today.

“So they sent Eugene to headquarters early this morning… without even telling me…”

Before Jarkoff now was the notification of this decision.

Not an application or proposal, but just a notice informing him of the unilaterally decided action.

It wasn’t how you should treat a national branch commander, but Jarkoff couldn’t even raise the slightest objection.

That’s what being a puppet meant.

Of course, considering his father’s betrayal, maintaining his noble status without paying reparations was an exceptionally generous treatment.

If the common guilt-by-association had been applied, Jarkoff might have died as a vagrant somewhere by now.

Though the territory was only the size of a palm, the residents’ respect wouldn’t suddenly evaporate, so he might have managed to survive somehow.

Still, it would have been a miserable end regardless.

“Sigh… how tiring.”

The sky was gradually growing darker.

Though he had no authority in core matters, all the trivial work like handling the injured and organizing rotating guard squads fell to Jarkoff.

Of course, if he were the Marquis, he would have finished this much before lunch, but Jarkoff had been thrown here before properly learning from his father.

He knew nothing.

The Marquis had built up so much goodwill that most people who didn’t know the backstory helped Jarkoff both materially and emotionally.

Yet still, the gap in work efficiency was this large.

Jarkoff was about to light a candle to finish his overtime work.

“Branch Commander, shouldn’t you head back soon?”

But the secretary suggested Jarkoff should return.

Though called a secretary, he was actually from the Heresy Inquisition Department and his main job was surveillance rather than assistance.

It was essentially an order to go home.

The Heresy Inquisition Department didn’t allow Jarkoff to work overtime, let alone stay overnight.

Perhaps they were deliberately… probably trying to delay Jarkoff from becoming proficient at his work.

A puppet should remain a puppet.

That might change later if Jarkoff earned more recognition for his loyalty and dedication, but for now he had no choice but to accept it.

“Good work.”

Jarkoff had no choice but to get up and head out.

The secretary-cum-supervisor just slightly nodded while continuing some paperwork at his desk.

“Are you heading back?”

Ulysses, who was standing guard at the door, asked.

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

Ulysses quietly took his position behind Jarkoff.

Though the branch commander’s reputation had fallen because of Ulysses forcibly taking Jarkoff away during the incident a week ago, he understood that even that was unavoidable.

Ulysses had done what he needed to do as a mid-ranked hunter and the branch commander’s guard.

The trainees unanimously cursed Ulysses, but the lower-ranked hunter instructors who led them said it was the right decision.

Though the instructors probably weren’t completely free of ill feelings, they at least showed none at all.

That’s how well they understood what it meant to be faithful to one’s role.

Rather, Marcus, the representative and most senior instructor, actively stepped in to discipline trainees who openly cursed Jarkoff or Ulysses, while Beth, in charge of magical power training, would gently reason with such people.

…If Eugene were awake too, would he have said the same thing to them, that Jarkoff had done nothing wrong?

It’s too obvious.

Eugene would have also defended him, saying there was nothing wrong with Ulysses’s decision and if anything, Jarkoff had tried to take responsibility.

He might have even thanked them for taking Gerda along too.

Come to think of it, that girl Gerda who returned to headquarters with Eugene… they said she had exceptional talent like Hilde, and Eugene was in charge of her too.

Perhaps he had a talent for teaching.

Father had also wanted to recruit Eugene as an instructor early on…

“Then we’ll depart.”

When Jarkoff got in the carriage, the driver spurred the horses toward Bluebeard territory.

They left in the early evening and arrived at the territory when the round moon rose in the night sky.

It was so late that everyone except the village guards was asleep.

He used to meet with villagers occasionally in the past, but now with daily commuting becoming routine, even seeing them was difficult.

Moreover, several months had already passed since the universally respected Marquis suddenly disappeared.

Though there was no chance of rebellion among the residents, he could feel their absolute trust from the old days fading away even without seeing it.

Understandably so, since until recently some villagers would come out to greet Jarkoff even at late hours, but now no one came out.

Of course, he understood they must be tired from working all day and waiting until late at night.

But the visible changes in people’s behavior still stung one corner of his heart.

If Father were here, he could have fixed everything with just showing his face once.

The carriage carrying Jarkoff stopped at the mansion on the hill after passing through the empty nighttime streets of the territory.

“You worked hard… young master.”

Ulysses managed to say.

Young master, not branch commander.

They could speak comfortably at the Bluebeard mansion since there was no surveillance.

The lack of surveillance wasn’t out of respect for Jarkoff’s privacy, but because they had already thoroughly investigated down to every speck of dust from the very beginning.

From wardrobes to tiny quill pens, the image of the Heresy Inquisition officer examining every object with bloodshot eyes through a detection magic monocle was still vivid.

“Good work.”

Jarkoff reluctantly said to him before entering the mansion alone.

“Welcome back.”

A maid bowed her head to greet Jarkoff at the door.

The confusion among the servants and maids that arose when even butler Drian, who had devoted most of his life to the family, was arrested as the Marquis’s accomplice, had now somewhat settled.

But the looks of respect they once had for the Marquis and his only son were gone.

What remained in their eyes was fear.

The people working in this mansion knew something about the Marquis’s affairs.

With Heresy Inquisition officers coming and going so frequently, it would be stranger not to know.

The appearance of the Heresy Inquisition officers, who were ingrained as figures of terror to ordinary people, was indeed as frightening as the rumors said.

Their eyes were all honed like knife blades sharpened on a grinding wheel, and though they gave off no scent, the smell of blood reached deep into one’s nose.

Above all was the pressure of their presence.

The atmosphere that clung to people who had witnessed countless instances of blood, violence and death.

Even Jarkoff was nauseated by it – how must the ordinary servants and maids have felt?

“Shall I prepare your meal…”

“No, it’s fine. Just go.”

“But…”

“I said go.”

At Jarkoff’s order, the maid quietly left.

Left alone, Jarkoff walked past the dining room and his room to enter the Marquis’s study.

Then he stood before the unlit fireplace.

A raven head ornament attached near the bottom of the fireplace.

After standing on it steadily for one minute and removing his foot, the raven opened its beak to reveal a small switch inside.

When he tapped it in the prescribed sequence, after a moment the fireplace gap opened to reveal a hidden passage.

“…”

Even the Heresy Inquisition officers hadn’t noticed this secret room.

Looking at the ledgers the Marquis had hidden later, the scale of the secret funds used to build this was truly astronomical.

It would take experts from the royal family at the world’s peak in covert operations, or high-ranked hunters specialized in detection, to find this room that was hidden using such an absurd amount of money that made one wonder where it all came from.

The Marquis’s final words to his son.

Don’t open the basement of the annex, burn it all.

The basement meant this secret passage.

But when told not to open something, opening it – that’s human nature.

The usual, no, the old Jarkoff would have followed orders despite feeling uneasy, but…

Jarkoff entered the secret passage alone.

It was a path he had taken several times already.

Down stairs dimly lit by natural luminous stones in the darkness, arriving at a thick iron door.

Opening it with effort and entering revealed a space wallpapered with blue roses.

This room lit by a small light that wouldn’t go out for hundreds of years was barely big enough for a bed, chair, and small drawer.

But that would have been enough for the Marquis.

A bed surrounded by curtains amid rose fragrance so thick it was suffocating.