Dark Fantasy’s Extra – Chapter 184

Author: Dawn

I slowly opened my eyes.

My body felt heavy and languid, as if I had been sleeping for a long time.

“…Are you awake?”

Maia’s voice reached me.

“Sort of.”

When I turned my head, I saw Maia looking slightly different.

She was small like when I first met her, but her hair was a bit longer and her overall aura and coloring had deepened.

Still, I was relieved that she didn’t seem to be Thumbelina anymore.

“You managed somehow.”

Looking around, I was in what seemed like a familiar cabin.

All sorts of rare items were displayed on shelves, and a large pot bubbled continuously in the center of the room.

Maia’s special space.

She had lost the ability to open it before, but perhaps she could do it again now.

Beside me, Hilde, Gerda, and Ozwald were sleeping.

“Yes. I owe you again… if that’s how I should put it.”

“Is something bothering you?”

“Well. So… how much do you remember?”

“…It’s hard to believe, but that I was a god?”

Though I don’t remember everything, I roughly understand.

I was a god.

A foolish god who repeatedly created and destroyed worlds countless times.

“Oh? Surprisingly, you remember that much?”

“I don’t remember much else. How I became human, what I was before becoming a god, I don’t know any of those details.”

“That’s a bit disappointing. I had many things I wanted to ask.”

“Me too.”

“…What will you do from now on? If you want to become a god again, there is a way. Most of your power is stored in that moon, right? You just need to take it back.”

“I don’t know how to get it back. And it wasn’t stored there.”

“Then?”

“It was so I would never forget. That’s why I made the moon blue.”

“What did you want to remember?”

“…Blue eyes. Eyes as beautiful as the moon.”

“Whose eyes?”

“…Hmm.”

My head throbs.

I did make the moon blue in my final moments as ‘Noah’.

It was to remember someone’s eyes.

But who… was it?

“…Could it be Belle?”

Belle’s eyes are blue.

And Belle was also the one who killed me.

She cut my throat cleanly.

So… did I make the moon blue to remember the identity of my killer?

“No. That doesn’t seem right…”

Something feels unnatural.

If that was the case, there would have been plenty of other ways.

Why did Belle kill me in the first place?

And why did I let her kill me?

“…I don’t know. There’s so much I can’t remember. Maybe it would make more sense if I was just mentally ill and believed I was a god.”

“No, you are definitely Noah. If you weren’t, Belle wouldn’t have stopped me that night.”

“That night?”

“…You don’t remember? Sigh, did Belle erase that memory?”

“Belle erased my memory? …Ah, now that you mention it, there were some memories that felt unnatural. So that’s what it was.”

I thought it was strange how Gerda and I had weird memories of when Maia went berserk.

“Good grief, why are you so powerless even though you’re a god?”

“Well… I’m not a god or anything anymore.”

“Don’t you want to go back?”

“…Not really.”

I’m not even particularly excited about learning I was once a god.

It feels as trivial as learning I used to like potatoes or had a habit of scratching the back of my hand.

“I still think I’m human. Whatever I was in the past, whether a god or something else, I’m human now. That’s enough.”

“What a modest god you are. It’s almost disappointing. Though I suppose it’s very Eugene-like.”

“I am Eugene. Being Noah was in the past… Were you expecting something else?”

“A little bit. I wondered if maybe you would ask me to help you become a god again…”

“I have no such intentions.”

I’m still Eugene, the lower-ranked hunter.

Though I was Noah in the past and created the world several times, that’s just history now.

I don’t even remember much of it.

“…What if I had said that?”

I am a bit curious though.

Would Maia have been interested and offered to help?

No, considering she tried to kill me, probably the opposite.

“I probably would have helped.”

“Why…? You tried to kill me before.”

“I did. But I can’t do that anymore.”

“Can’t?”

“Yes. I’ve become a true witch now too. Well, maybe not truly, but at least my level of existence is the same as the witches.”

“…What does that have to do with anything?”

“It’s a bit hard to explain, but the moment I recognized you as Noah, I found myself completely unable to think of harming you. On the contrary, I feel like I want to do anything you ask… This must be the real curse.”

I vaguely understand why.

When I was Noah and created worlds, I always designated one protagonist.

The beings now called witches were all like gods in their own worlds.

Did I create Maia…?

Though not intentionally, the current Maia wasn’t in Blue Paper Moon…

“Hmm?”

“What’s wrong?”

“No, something feels strange… Do you know about Blue Paper Moon?”

“…No. What’s that?”

Of course Maia wouldn’t know about a game from my past life in modern Earth.

But something feels off.

If I was the god who created this world, then what was that game from my past life?

How did it contain such detailed information about all the worlds I had created?

And the protagonist’s name was Noah?

Such coincidences couldn’t possibly exist.

What was that game really?

No, what was my past life in the first place?

“…Oh.”

“Did you remember something?”

“No wait, hold on. No way… no way…”

I looked down at my hands.

Noah was the only human who survived from the ancient era.

And that ancient era…

“…No way… is this… Earth?”

At that moment, lightning struck my brain.

Thinking about it that way, everything fits.

The very existence of another world identical to the game makes no sense to begin with.

It makes more sense that something real was being replicated exactly.

No, that’s the only way to think about it.

How could there be a game where such identical events occur?

Impossible.

And then I wake up and find myself inside that game?

That can’t be.

From the beginning, Blue Paper Moon must have been some kind of… record or simulation of this world disguised as a game.

Blue Paper Moon was a solo indie game development, which also makes no sense.

How could one person develop such a massive AAA-quality 3D game, yet no information about the developer was ever revealed?

If such a monster of a game developer existed, they would have undoubtedly made news and become famous.

“Ugh… my head is a mess.”

But there are still parts that don’t quite add up.

Blue Paper Moon was a game I played in my past life, which means it predicted future events in incredible detail.

Something… there’s more that needs to be explained.

“…I can’t remember anything.”

“Not remembering can’t be helped. What’s important is, what do you want to do now?”

“Ah, right. There’s something I absolutely must do.”

“What is it?”

“I need to save Oscar.”

“…Oscar? Ozwald’s disciple?”

“Os…car…”

Just then, Ozwald stirred at the mention of his disciple’s name.

“Ah, are you conscious?”

I checked on Ozwald’s condition.

“Are you alright?”

“…More or less.”

“Ugh…”

I helped support Ozwald as he struggled to sit up.

“Eu…gene? Is that you? You… found me and Ms. Maia.”

“Yes. Maia has returned to normal too.”

“I see… Well done. I knew you could do it…”

Ozwald lifted his head to look at Maia.

“Hmm… you really have returned.”

“Something like that… but are you really okay with this?”

Maia asked me.

“This or that, I am who I am. I have something I need to do, so I’ll do it.”

“…I don’t really understand, but if that’s what you want to do, I’ll help.”

“What are you two talking about?”

“It’s complicated. Don’t ask.”

Maia let out a small sigh.

“Anyway, you need to find your disciple?”

“Yes. Oscar was captured by that Vile. I tried to stop it, but I wasn’t strong enough…”

“Well… normally I’d demand payment, but I’ll help for free this time. Thank Eugene for that.”

“Yes. Thank you, Eugene… But how exactly did you manage this?”

“I got help from the test subjects at Vile’s old laboratory.”

“Ah, I see. Come to think of it, you said you saved Ms. Maia the same way before? What excellent thinking.”

“Now with both you and Maia here, Sir Ozwald, we just need to rescue Oscar from Vile.”

“Yes… I truly hope it works out that way…”

“For now, keep [Sleeping]. Your body hasn’t fully recovered yet.”

Maia snapped her fingers and Ozwald’s eyes slowly closed as he fell back asleep.

“How did you do that?”

“I told you, didn’t I? I’m at witch-level now. This much is easy. More importantly, I’m more curious about you. Are you really going to live like that?”

“Like what?”

“Oh come on! You’re a god! The true creator god who made this world and created the witches! The protagonist of myth, are you really going to live as such a lowly hunter?”

“Don’t call it lowly.”

“…Sorry. But I really can’t accept this.”

“This is enough for me. I don’t want to become a god again. My past self must have given up being a god, that’s why Belle killed me.”

“Just asking, but do you want revenge on the White Witch, or have anything you want to tell her?”

“No. What revenge? I’m Eugene now. A human and a hunter. That’s all there is to it.”

Whether or not I was a god in the past doesn’t matter.

Though it does bother me somewhat, I don’t consider it more important than my current life.

Being Noah is just an old story.

I am Eugene.

“Then, as the former creator, you don’t care what happens to the protagonists of your stories? Belle, Margarete, Bari, Rusalka and…”

“It’s not that I don’t care…”

“…Vasilisa.”