Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 60

The reason why this mountain in Blue Paper Moon was named the Mountain that Eats Young Sacrifices was simple.

Just as its name suggests, the ancient Beast holed up in this mountain needed young children.

However, the Beast neither ate them directly nor took their lives.

It might have been better if it had just killed and eaten them.

“This is….”

After entering the cave for a few minutes, Hilde was perplexed.

“Is there really a Beast here? Of all places, in a place like this?”

She gestured at their surroundings.

“Where else would it be?”

“But this is….”

“It’s suspicious either way. Let’s investigate quickly.”

“Yes….”

Hilde’s reaction was understandable.

The cave was strangely bright inside, with the interior neatly arranged like a regular corridor in a rectangular shape, and the walls, ceiling, and floor were all covered in silver.

Moreover, silvery glowing liquid flowed on both sides of the floor – probably mercury.

Considering that silver is like deadly poison to Beasts, it was hard to imagine a Beast living in such a place.

To begin with, even a tremendously wealthy person or a king of a nation couldn’t prepare such a luxurious space.

Not only is silver a precious metal, but almost all silver mines in the world are monopolized by the Order.

The Order uses silver like water, literally.

The number of silver bullets made, used, and discarded in a day is uncountable, and even the axe Hilde carries, though mass-produced, has its entire blade plated in silver.

But for ordinary people, it’s harder to obtain than the same weight in gold.

Yet something like that was covering the entire cave like wallpaper.

“Come to think of it, those Beasts from earlier all had silver too.”

“They did.”

“…Were they dying then?”

“Well. Maybe?”

That’s correct.

They were dying very slowly.

Even if we hadn’t hunted them, they would have eventually died from the silver they carried.

In Blue Paper Moon, if you skipped Hameln early and visited later, the entire village quest would change and all the Beasts here would be found dead from silver poisoning.

We walked deeper into this bizarre cave.

The path was wide open with no Beasts trying to ambush us.

There weren’t even any places for Beasts to hide as everything was smoothly covered in silver.

And after walking for nearly 30 minutes, the scenery began to change.

“What in the world….”

The silver laid around was gradually turning black.

Like fruit rotting from the inside, the deeper we went, the more the surrounding silver turned black.

It meant we were getting closer to where this mountain’s boss was.

When we reached where all the silver had turned black, we finally saw a small door at the end.

Of course, the door and doorknob were also made of silver, with something like a magic circle engraved in the center.

Fresh, hot blood continuously flowed from that magic circle with steam rising, soaking the floor.

I opened that door without hesitation.

The room inside was a completely different world from everything until now.

Simply put, it was like being inside the rotting innards of a creature.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were all pulsing chunks of meat as if alive, and stakes emitting a faint green light were stuck throughout, forming complex magical patterns.

The stakes here were true silver, identical to the mithril glaive.

True silver is a far more precious material than regular silver, with stronger effects the more powerful a Beast’s curse is.

Even I have a record of piercing Blanc’s stomach using a true silver weapon.

It’s an ultra-rare metal with unparalleled effects against curses, yet even that was strangely twisted and rotting from the curse.

“Urgh…!”

Hilde dry heaved at the indescribably disgusting sensation.

“…Welcome, hunters.”

And at the center, someone sat cross-legged on a small altar, covered completely in a cloak.

Above him on the ceiling was something like a massive tumor, with tubes extending from it connecting to the entire room and to him.

“I thought this day would come eventually… but this is quite unexpected. Are you lower-ranked hunters?”

“….”

Without replying, I raised my gun and aimed at his head.

“Wait a moment. You came looking for the children, right? They’re all alive, so if you want to find them, listen to what I have to say first.”

“Get lost.”

Just as I was about to pull the rifle’s trigger, Hilde grabbed my clothes.

“W-wait a moment, Senior! He says the children are alive!”

“….”

She has a point.

Seeing him in person was so unpleasant that I wanted to kill him right away, but from Hilde’s perspective, it would be better to hear and see everything that happened first.

…Even if it’s a truth that might be better left unheard.

“Hmph.”

I quietly lowered my gun.

“Oho, how nice to see. That man over there is quite a skilled veteran. And the woman is overflowing with talent but extremely inexperienced. Is the veteran teaching the genius rookie alone? The Order seems quite relaxed these days. In the old days, even those with talent had to survive on their own.”

“Are you… the one they call this mountain’s guardian deity?”

Hilde asked.

“The villagers called me guardian deity on their own. But, yes…. I was like a god to them. My real name is Hans. I was called ‘Iron Hans’, but soon I’ll be able to just be Hans.”

“Where are the children? They’re definitely alive, right?”

“…My expression was slightly wrong. I apologize. I’m not certain they’re alive.”

“What does…!”

“There seems to be room for misunderstanding. I didn’t kill them. Rather… I’m not certain because you might have killed those children.”

“…?”

“It would have been better if they died.”

I couldn’t help but say it.

“As expected, you understand. Yes. In any era, people like you can see the truth.”

“What do you mean? Better if they died?”

Hilde asked me, unable to understand.

“Let me explain instead. Outside this cave, perhaps you saw things that resembled rats?”

“Ah….”

Hilde froze as some possibility occurred to her from Hans’s words.

“Huhuhu, seems you’re starting to understand a bit now. Those things you thought were Beasts were actually the human children bought from the village.”

“Th-that’s… impossible… I… what did I….”

“That’s enough now? Die.”

I raised my gun again.

“But there are still normal children too? Just earlier, a boy named… Donar was it?”

“…!”

Hilde grabbed my gun again and pushed it down.

“Ah, ah, there are still children alive!”

“…Tch.”

I clicked my tongue and lowered my gun again.

“Wh-where? Where is that child?!”

Hilde shouted at Hans.

“First… it’s a rather long story, but would you listen?”

“Talk!”

And Hans began an old tale.

Iron Hans.

He was a behemoth who rebelled against Red Hood 500 years ago, was suppressed, and fled.

The reason he opposed Red Hood was just one – to eliminate the curse.

“El-eliminate the curse?”

Even though there were lives to save, Hans’s story was impossible to ignore.

“Yes. The source of the curse is that red witch. If we kill her, the curse will disappear too. Isn’t that obvious?”

“But… but you are….”

“You think we wanted to become Beasts?”

500 years ago, when Hans heard news that Tyrant of the Sea Kenken had rebelled against Little Mermaid, he took that as a signal and similarly challenged Red Hood.

Though not as strong as Kenken, Hans was quite a powerful behemoth, and many self-aware Beasts gathered under his banner of witch subjugation to form an army.

They confidently charged at Red Hood.

“The result… you can guess without me saying.”

They were defeated.

Iron Hans barely managed to escape alone with his life.

“It was a sad affair. All my comrades who shared my cause died. Of course, thanks to our efforts, it must have become easier for you hunters to face the red witch.”

The place Hans arrived at after fleeing was right here.

Though it was near Order headquarters, like how it’s darkest under the lamp, he cleverly infiltrated while Belle was away on a large-scale expedition.

And as long time passed, humans gathered on this land.

Though they were all outcasts with nowhere else to go, they thought they would be safe near the Order and built something like a village.

Of course, nothing proper could come from such inadequate people gathering.

That community, barely worthy of being called a village, couldn’t even last a year before everyone was on the verge of starvation.

“After starving, they decided to eat young children. Seeing that was too pitiful, so I gave them food instead and saved the poor children. But children already abandoned by their parents had nowhere to return to. So I took them in.”

“Lies!”

Hilde shouted.

“You’re a noble, right? Wealthy nobles always show it. They don’t know what hunger is. Humans on the verge of starvation are no different from creatures. Have you ever seen humans nearly dead from starvation after almost a month without food?”

“E-even so, such things….”

“You there. You would understand.”

Hans pointed at me.

“You know. I can tell from your eyes. You know what hunger is, what humans consumed by it are capable of doing. Isn’t that right?”

I know.

The place where I was reborn in this world was an extremely poor neighborhood.

People dying of starvation were common, and humans killing others to avoid starving to death were common too.

Even I nearly died to such humans several times.

“After saving children like that a few times, before I knew it, the village’s food situation improved and they came to treat sending children to me as tradition. They sent children to me on their own accord. Just… they turned into Beasts from my influence. That much was beyond my control too. So… I created these.”

Hans spread his arms indicating the room.

“These are the culmination of research that can eliminate curses and turn Beasts back into normal humans.”

“T-turn Beasts into humans…!?”

“Yes. I continued research after research to protect children who would become Beasts because of me, and to save children who had already become Beasts! Look at this!”

Hans stood up removing his cloak.

Hans’s body revealed under the cloak was similar to a human form.

Though black fur covered parts of his body and he had a short tail in back, overall he looked similar to a human.

“I am! Erasing the curse eating away at me through my own power! Soon I will shed all of this horrible curse and become a perfect human!”

He pointed at Hilde.

“Who dares criticize me! Who killed the children! You’re the real murderer!”

“Ah, I, I….”

Hilde stumbled backward and collapsed sitting.

“Now I’ll give you one last chance for atonement…!”

“I can’t listen anymore.”

I shot the massive tumor mass above Hans’s head.