Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 57

Most villages near Order headquarters are either farms or factories.

They supply food ingredients, building materials, and consumables to the Order at low prices in exchange for protection.

However, not all villages are like that.

Hameln is a village that has survived on its own for hundreds of years, with villagers training themselves and fighting against Beasts.

Of course, it’s impossible for ordinary humans to defeat Beasts, but they say they managed with silver-tipped arrows and javelins passed down from their ancestors.

Their spirit and skills are highly regarded by the public, but they don’t receive much respect since they harshly drive away outsiders who come to learn their techniques.

The Order doesn’t pay much attention to them since they neither supply goods nor need help surviving.

Even the reports of children repeatedly going missing weren’t directly reported by them, but just a story heard by some merchant who traded with the village.

Of course, the Order sent hunters to the village after hearing the merchant’s story, but the villagers weren’t welcoming to the hunters, who merely pretended to investigate before returning.

The executives also thought it was just that level of incident and lost interest in Hameln again.

That’s all that’s publicly known about Hameln.

“They’re certainly impressive. Fighting Beasts without even being hunters.” 

Hilde said as we walked toward Hameln.

“But still, children disappearing is a serious problem. It would have been good if they let us help with at least that much.”

“Well… that’s true.”

In Hameln, children under 10 years old disappear once every 10 years.

In this unreasonable world, almost no one thinks the missing children survived safely.

But they are still alive.

This is a fact known only to the people of Hameln, and me with my knowledge from my past life.

“If we show them that we sincerely want to help, won’t the villagers open their hearts?”

“Who knows.”

It would be the opposite.

“…Senior?”

“What?”

“Somehow you seem a bit half-hearted today.”

“It’s just your imagination.”

“It’s not my imagination at all?”

Of course it’s not imagination.

As Marquis Bluebeard worried, I seem to have been too close with Hilde until now.

She will become a higher-ranked hunter in the future, and beyond that, someday she’ll become a heroine who can save the world.

Even though I know the future, I’m well aware of the limits of what I can do myself.

My bullets are too small and weak to pierce a witch’s heart.

Since my existence could become shackles for Hilde, it would be better to keep an appropriate distance.

Besides, a love interest will appear for Hilde soon, and I might be bothersome in that person’s eyes.

Fortunately there’s no sign of that yet.

Jarkoff, who would definitely be a love interest, even asked me to protect Hilde well, so he probably doesn’t think of me as a rival.

Oscar still has too little connection to think there’s anything there.

How many heroines were there in Noah’s route in the original…

But my half-heartedness wasn’t just because of that.

It’s because I already know how this hunt will end.

Knowing the future isn’t always good.

There’s a good reason why those who prophesy doom tend to go insane.

That’s also why I chose Hameln as the last place to visit.

We continued heading south and arrived at Hameln around sunset.

Seen from afar, Hameln looked more like a fortress than a village.

While it’s normal for villages to have fences or palisades surrounding them, Hameln had visibly high stone walls and had even created obstacles by diagonally planting sharpened logs at the bottom.

The entrance wasn’t an ordinary wooden door but a proper castle gate reinforced with metal plates.

Moreover, several guards were already standing on top of the walls watching us.

“It’s amazing.” 

Hilde said seeing the village.

“They could probably handle low-tier Beasts somehow with that level of defense.”

“Mid-tier and above would still be tough though.”

“That’s… true, but still. They must have had some way to deal with it, right?”

“Probably.”

We walked up to Hameln’s entrance.

“We are hunters from the Order.” 

I said to the person on top of the wall.

“We didn’t call for you. Go back,” 

The man up there said.

“We came to investigate something, so open the gate!”

“What are you investigating?”

“We…!”

Hilde tried to say something but I stopped her.

“We can’t tell you! We don’t plan to stay long, so open the gate so we can finish quickly and leave! Don’t make things more troublesome than needed!”

“…”

The man fell silent.

After a moment he said something to the people around him, and soon the gate opened.

“Leave by tomorrow morning.” 

Said the man who opened the gate from inside.

“Thank you.” 

Hilde said.

“Hmm.” 

But I just snorted and didn’t even respond to him.

“…?” 

Hilde looked at me questioningly but I just lightly pressed her waist with my elbow as a signal and entered the village.

Perhaps catching on to something, Hilde quietly followed me.

We entered and the gate closed again.

Inside the walls, Hameln wasn’t much different from any ordinary village.

If anything, it seemed much more prosperous than average neighborhoods.

Every house had walls neatly stacked with well-trimmed bricks, and none had thatched roofs – all were properly covered with proper tiles.

But the streets were so empty and quiet it almost seemed like an abandoned village.

There were none of the usual sounds you’d hear in such villages – no chattering housewives, whining children, not even the sounds of livestock like pigs, cows, or chickens.

“Senior…”

Hilde called out to me in that bizarrely overwhelming silence.

“Shh.” 

But I quieted her again this time too.

There were too many watching eyes around.

Though the streets were empty, I could feel gazes watching us through window gaps.

And not just one or two people.

I recalled Hameln’s layout from my past life memories and took Hilde to the livestock pen area where there would be relatively fewer people.

Though they had properly built fences in a fairly large open space as if raising livestock communally in the village, there were only a few pigs and chickens inside and no one watching over them.

Even the livestock inside the fence were keeping quiet.

The lack of any presence nearby… no.

Someone is still watching us.

But there doesn’t seem to be anyone close enough to hear our voices right now.

“Hilde.” 

I called to her quietly.

“Yes?” 

Sensing something wasn’t right about the atmosphere, Hilde also answered quietly.

“You must have felt it too? This village isn’t normal.”

“Yes… Then the children…”

“We’ll find them. But we need to find clues first.”

Just then a woman carrying a bucket came this way.

Her extremely gaunt face was full of worry, tension, and fear.

We quietly waited as she approached.

She scattered what looked like food scraps from inside the bucket into the fence as pig feed.

The pigs approached grunting to eat the feed.

It seemed like the first real sound we’d heard since entering this village.

“…Please help…” 

And amid the creature’s cries, the woman’s voice was heard very faintly.

After emptying the bucket completely, she walked back toward the residential area.

“…Senior.”

“Don’t follow. It would immediately raise suspicion.”

“Then what should we do?”

“We’ll sneak in when it gets dark.”

I deliberately killed time watching the pigs eat the scraps.

The small, thin pigs desperately ate with their noses buried in the ground, as if no one was properly caring for them.

Their pitiful cries echoed in my ears.

* * *

Before we knew it, the sunset had faded and darkness covered the sky.

A chilly coldness settled in the air.

“Shall we go now?”

“Yes.”

We went back into the residential area.

While blending into the darkness as much as possible, we kept moving around the village hiding our presence.

The gazes that had been following us gradually disappeared.

And when we thought all surveillance had lifted, we returned to the house we had noted while walking around.

The house where the bucket that had held pig feed was placed in front of the door.

Looking closely, the door was slightly ajar.

After checking the surroundings one last time, we quietly opened the door and went inside.

As expected, the woman from before got up from her chair to greet us.

“Thank you for coming…”

She bowed her head.

“…What’s the matter?”

“Please… please save my son…!”

She fell to her knees.

“Ma’am, please calm down.”

Hilde approached and grabbed her shoulders to help her up.

Tears streamed down the woman’s face.

“Is it Beasts?” 

At Hilde’s question, she shook her head.

“Then what…”

At that moment, someone knocked heavily on the house door.

I immediately grabbed Hilde’s hand and took her into the wardrobe.

A musty smell of dust filled the dark wardrobe.

Though Hilde looked dumbfounded, she nodded when I put my finger to her lips signaling her to be quiet.

Soon after, we heard the door open followed by the sound of multiple footsteps and presences.

“…Julia.”

It was an elderly man’s voice.

“Are you still worried about that matter?”

“Ah, no…”

It was the voice of the woman from before.

“Everything is for the village’s sake. You’re not the only one going through this, so accept it now.”

“Yes…”

“Anyway, I heard hunters from the Order came earlier… The villagers say they saw you go near them.”

“Th-that’s true, but I just went to feed the pigs. The hunters just happened to be there.”

“Hmm… Just in case, but don’t expect those people to help with anything. If you tell them the village’s secret…”

“I-I didn’t say anything!”

“Remember this. This isn’t just your problem. The entire village’s safety is at stake, and it’s a tradition we’ve kept for hundreds of years.”

“Yes…”

“Good then. By the way, I don’t know where those hunter bastards went. They suddenly disappeared, did you see them?”

“No. I haven’t seen them.”

“I see… If they come here by any chance, drive them away immediately. Don’t do anything foolish.”

“Understood.”

Then we heard people leaving and silence returned to the house.

After a moment, the woman called Julia opened the wardrobe door.

“You can come out now.”

Hilde and I came out of the wardrobe.

“Please explain the details.” 

I said to Julia while lightly dusting off my clothes.

“Yes. I’ll tell you everything that happens in this village. And please… save my son Donar!”

And the truth about the village she told was something that felt filthy even though I already knew the content.