Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 214

When sitting in front of a campfire at night, its warmth can sometimes make you drowsy.

Since Sephira is sleeping using my leg as a pillow, naturally I have to take watch duty.

I don’t particularly mind that.

Sephira is incomparably stronger than me, so I can rely on her if anything happens.

I have no intention of saying anything about letting our strongest force rest.

If anything bothers me, it’s just one thing – the emotional sides that Sephira has been showing recently.

Until she fell asleep just now, Sephira was acting childlike in a way that would have been unimaginable before.

Even Gerda could be said to be more mature than that.

Of course, not just Gerda, but any child in harsh circumstances would generally mature quickly.

But such proper behavior is just a defense mechanism – when circumstances change, they can show behavior more fitting their age again.

As far as I know, Sephira officially became a hunter around the same age as me.

She joined about a year after me so we never trained together, but I could hear rumors even then about how she was considered an incredibly promising talent.

I remember there were even expressions calling her the embodiment of nobility, especially since she was incredibly hardworking for her age while rarely showing emotions.

Quite grandiose praise, but Sephira wasn’t swayed even by such compliments.

She just worked hard and harder every moment to become stronger, and thanks to her talent, she rose to high-ranked hunter at a speed counted among the fastest in the Order’s history.

Different from someone who was born in the slums, barely managing to feed themselves day by day before joining the Order with just a tiny bit of talent and still unable to escape being a lower-ranked hunter.

…In the past I would have just thought that way.

“…”

I gently stroked Sephira’s hair.

Even when I was Noah, the children would sometimes fall asleep like this, or just act spoiled.

Now I understand how soft and fragile even the strongest beings can be inside.

After all, even Noah, who was the most powerful in this galaxy, had his heart break and tried to run away.

The strength of power and authority is separate from the strength of heart and will.

Perhaps Sephira’s tough appearance is just a shell, and these emotional sides she’s shown recently are her true self.

Thinking that way, I could see some overlap between Sephira and the children who were protagonists.

“Sigh…”

I lifted my head to look at the sky again and recalled memories of Margarete who we’re going to meet now.

Since Belle rejected being the protagonist of her world, Margarete could be called the first real protagonist.

Maybe that’s why.

Noah’s desire for a perfect, flawless fairy tale protagonist may have driven Margarete too hard.

“Mmm…”

When Sephira stirred, I lowered my head again.

Our eyes met as she had just opened hers.

“…”

I said nothing.

Sephira also just gazed at me intently.

“…Mr. Eugene.”

“Yes?”

“Have you… ever wanted to be together with someone?”

“I have.”

“…Is it someone in the Order?”

I’m not sure why she’s suddenly asking this, but there’s no reason I can’t answer.

“Yes.”

“I see…”

“And several others too.”

“What?”

“The people, no, the ones we’re going to meet now – I wanted to be together with all of them too.”

“People…?”

“Yes. Because long ago… I did something terrible.”

“Mr. Eugene would never do such a thing.”

Sephira sat up.

“Because Mr. Eugene is kinder and better than anyone. You would never do anything bad to anyone.”

“Why… do you think that?”

The evaluation feels too high.

But I couldn’t just deny that I wasn’t such a saint, as I sensed an indescribable, desperate emotion from Sephira.

Though I’m not sure exactly what that emotion is.

“…”

Sephira fell into an unnatural silence.

“Mr. Eugene… if, if all the Beasts disappeared from the world… what would you want to do then?”

“If all Beasts disappeared…”

Beasts are human souls that were reborn as residents of that world after being influenced by the protagonist.

That’s what they originally were, but the protagonists of this world are not them anymore, and now they’ve truly become nothing but curses and calamities.

If it’s a world where all Beasts have disappeared, that would mean my children have stopped their meaningless war.

“Then… we could just live peacefully.”

I have no intention of doing things like world creation again.

“In that case, would killing all the witches work?”

“No, not that.”

I unconsciously spoke sharply and informally.

“Mr. Eugene…?”

“Ah, that… um…”

I crossed my arms and pondered.

“…This, please don’t tell anyone. I’m trusting you because it’s you, Ms. Sephira.” (TLN: The author has been using different honorifics for Sephira lately.)

“I absolutely won’t tell anyone.”

“Actually… we’re going to meet Margarete… that is, Snow White now.”

“…You’re not going to kill her, right?”

“No. I’m going to persuade her.”

“Persuade… a witch?”

“Yes. All the other children too.”

“Other children… children?”

“The details are difficult to explain, but for now just know that my goal is to stop the fighting through persuasion.”

“…”

Of course, it must sound like a groundless story.

It wouldn’t be strange to think I’m crazy.

Calling the witches children is one thing, but saying I’ll end a war consuming this entire world through persuasion is close to delusion.

It might be possible as Noah, but even I’m not confident if it’s possible as Eugene.

“…Then, that means Mr. Eugene will keep seeking out witches from now on.”

“That’s how it will be.”

“Then, I have a request too.”

“A request?”

“Until that work is done, please let me stay with you.”

“…May I ask why?”

“Because… I want to dream the same dream as you.”

“…”

I can tell Sephira has no small amount of goodwill toward me.

But I still don’t understand the reason why.

Before joining the Behemoth Tracking Special Department, Sephira and I were just a high-ranked and a low-ranked hunter who occasionally met during missions.

We had never met privately even once.

Just how did she come to have such feelings for me?

From her actions so far, I can tell those feelings aren’t light, but it’s frustrating that I can’t guess anything about them.

…No, it’s not just Sephira.

It’s the same with Gerda, and Hilde and Zepetia too.

They all became obsessed with me to an unusual degree.

Perhaps… perhaps I’m still unconsciously craving fairy tale protagonists.

So I might be unknowingly drawing in the souls of people around me who could become protagonists.

If that’s the case… it’s an unforgivable great sin.

It would mean that not only did I fail to abandon my old obsession even after becoming Eugene, but above all, I warped others because of my own greed.

If that’s what it is, if that’s what Sephira’s feelings are…

I…

“Is it… not allowed?”

Perhaps understanding my expression as meaning no, Sephira’s face was dyed with deep sadness.

“…Promise me again that you won’t tell anyone about what will happen from now on.”

And I’m weak to such faces.

Even knowing I should think more and take more time, I can’t immediately refuse when someone makes such a face while speaking.

“Yes. I promise.”

Though I wanted to somehow handle the journey ahead alone, I gained a companion like this.

And the next day, though the morning sunlight still hadn’t come, our bodies remembered the time.

We packed up our camp and set out again toward Race Plains in the north.

The further north we went, the more the surroundings transformed into winter.

Before the seal was broken, only Race Plains was winter, but after that Margarete’s influence grew and she began indiscriminately turning the world into winter.

When creating Margarete as Noah, I used the old fairy tale of the snow princess as a motif.

White as snow, perfectly innocent and beautiful… thinking about it now, those were descriptions bordering on perfectionism.

When I was Noah, I just thought she had strong self-esteem, but I was truly thoughtless.

I should have faced her more carefully.

“Phew…”

And as we arrived at the edge of Race Plains where snow was starting to accumulate, we saw a massive ice golem exhaling snowstorms like breath, as if guarding the border.

Though the ice golem was clearly watching us, it didn’t take any other action yet, perhaps because we hadn’t invaded its territory.

“Should we go around? Or charge straight through?”

Sephira asked.

“Let’s charge through.”

The goal is to make my existence known to Margarete anyway.

As soon as I finished speaking, Sephira dashed forward at a speed leaving afterimages and cut down the ice golem in one breath.

The golem raised its arm to block, but its arm made of solid ice was cleanly severed.

“Whoosh!!”

The ice golem blew an icy breath toward Sephira.

It was so cold that I could feel the winter wind instantly even from where I was standing.

Though the widely spewing breath completely engulfed Sephira, she cut off even its head that was spewing snowstorms with a single slash as if such things were trivial.

What Sephira took down with two sword strikes was Margarete’s winter guardian limb.

While most of her forces are avatars made from human souls, she also has subordinates made purely from ice, magical power, and curses.

In Blue Paper Moon too, it appeared as a boss monster when entering Race Plains after the seal was broken like now, and afterward occasionally appeared as elite monsters with lower health.

Of course, it’s not such a threatening enemy before Sephira, and thanks to Margarete’s curse, I don’t feel cold from the snowstorm either.

It might be different if hit directly though.

Maia also said not to be too overconfident.

More than that, we need to be careful of the extremely rare higher beings among the avatars.

Beings that could be called behemoths of Margarete’s faction…

“My my, you broke the guardian we worked so hard to make.”

As if they had been waiting, a higher being appeared.

“We didn’t even send it to fight, just to welcome you.”

And another higher being spoke beside them.

“You are…”

Though Sephira pointed her sword at them, the two avatars walked toward me without paying any attention.

“Rusalka said something strange.”

“That you might be part of Noah.”

“Of course we thought it was nonsense at first.”

“But strangely, if it’s you Eugene, we could believe it might be true.”

They took turns speaking.

“Stand back…!”

Sephira stood in front of them and swung her sword.

“Nuisances should get out of the way.”

The higher being on the right caught the blade with their bare hand.

Meanwhile, the one on the left rushed toward me.

They reached right in front of me in the blink of an eye and held out their hand.

“Now, who is your master?”

“…Margarete.”

“Hm?”

“You don’t need to be perfect anymore.”