Dark Fantasy’s Extra Chapter 68

“Huh? Is it really okay to give me something like this?”

Maia tilted her head.

“It’s not a weapon I’m particularly attached to.”

“Hmm… alright. Wait a moment.”

She took the Giant Hunter’s Axe and Cursed Necklace of Faith, hung them on the wall, and brought something else instead.

“First, about the necklace – I really like this. It’s completely my style. So I should give you something quite good in return.”

The first thing she brought was a yellow metal ring with intricate engravings on its surface.

However, it was clearly too worn for the beauty of the engravings to be visible, and it seemed to have no value as decoration.

If my memory is correct, this is a useful item that can be used effectively from early to late game in Blue Paper Moon.

“I hate to praise it myself, but this is quite a useful ring. Just wearing it gradually recovers your life force bit by bit. Amazing, right? Though blessings aren’t my style, I couldn’t bring myself to throw away something this good.”

Magical power – that mysterious and almost omnipotent force.

The study of how to handle it is called magic and can be divided into several systems.

One of these is ‘blessing’, which is the power to manifest passages written in scripture by combining deep religious faith with magical power.

In Blue Paper Moon, it mainly consisted of techniques for recovering health and status effects, some attack skills, and a few that were close to curses in the social concept.

What Maia gave me was the ‘Ring of Deep Grace’.

As she said, it had the ability to automatically recover HP just by wearing it.

In the game, using recovery items during battle could create openings for enemies so you had to be careful, but with this ring you could recover health just by running away, making it useful in any situation.

However, the amount of health recovery wasn’t that high, so depending on character build it might be discarded even before the late game.

This would be immediately useful if I give it to Hilde.

Of course I can’t help feeling tempted to keep it, but Hilde staying alive is more important for giving the world hope.

“This is amazing. I’ll make good use of it.”

I put the ring on my finger for now.

Even if I give it to Hilde later, I can wear it until then.

“Now about this axe…”

Maia looked at the axe with concern.

“I wasn’t expecting to receive something like this suddenly. Though it was common back in my homeland…”

I didn’t show it, but I was quite tense.

If what she gives me here matches what I remember, it’s a big step toward the good ending of Blue Paper Moon.

“As it happens, I have another axe.”

She hung up the Giant Hunter’s Axe on the wall and brought a different axe.

But the moment I saw it, my heart pounded heavily.

“I found this by chance in these ruins. It was probably used for beheading criminals.”

Perfect.

This is definitely the ‘Executioner’s Axe’ I know.

It was quite old and crude in appearance, slightly larger than typical combat battle axes.

Not made for fighting, but for beheading criminals in one strike, the blade was as wide as a small window.

Its base stats were slightly heavier than normal axes, with performance just a bit better.

Moreover, it had no special abilities at all, no additional damage or elemental damage of any kind.

However, I used this for most of my many playthroughs of Blue Paper Moon.

“Well, it’s fairly sturdy, but to be honest it doesn’t seem that special. The axe you gave me has special sorcery on it, so I feel a bit bad about this trade.”

“This is fine. I already got a good ring.”

Though I said this, its value was much higher.

The true worth of the Executioner’s Axe lies in its enhancement efficiency.

In Blue Paper Moon, when weapons are enhanced through special methods, even ordinary items could become comparable to higher-ranked hunter artifacts.

Among these, this axe showed the most outstanding transformation.

Though it had no special functions at all, when enhanced to maximum level its base stats and raw damage more than made up for any shortcomings.

I took the Executioner’s Axe and strapped it to my back.

Just getting this and the Ring of Deep Grace made the trip here worthwhile.

Just giving these to Hilde would almost complete the mid-game build I had in mind.

“By the way, what are you going to do about those people you subdued earlier?”

I pointed at the window where Maia had thrown the two Intelligence Department agents earlier.

“It’ll be a while before they wake up, and I subdued them right at the entrance so they don’t know where I am. Still, I shouldn’t stay here much longer. I need to move somewhere more suitable. Besides, I’ve realized there’s not much more to gain from staying here anyway. I should have gone somewhere with more scope for training in the first place.”

“Training…”

Maia was quite a unique NPC even in Blue Paper Moon.

“What kind of training?”

I asked to confirm.

“How much do you know about sorcery?”

“That it uses any form of magical power without discrimination?”

“Well… that’s not wrong. No, actually that’s probably the most appropriate explanation. But you people are extremely sensitive about curses.”

Curses.

The source of power that witches use.

When will is imbued into magical power, becomes transformed and operates through specific processes, that becomes magic.

When that will itself becomes too strong and uses magical power as fuel to leave strong distortions in reality like scars, from that point it’s called a curse.

Humans becoming Beasts originates from Red Hood’s will.

Things like the Deep Sea Folk, reincarnation flowers, and Snow White’s avatars are all curse powers born from witches’ obsessions.

“Back home, hunters gave off a dangerous impression. But Eugene, you seem quite reasonable to talk to. This is my first proper meeting with an Order hunter too, so I have so many things I honestly want to ask.”

Was the original Maia like this too?

The impression of how she treated the protagonist feels somewhat different from now.

I suppose it’s not so strange since I’m not the protagonist.

“But before that, it would be faster if I introduce myself first. Why I became this small body, why I’m researching curses.”

I already know this story.

But I wanted to hear it from her own mouth.

“I… want to become a witch.”

A witch.

“Of course, I don’t mean I want to do something to this world like the great Red Witch or Winter Witch or Sea Witch. I just want to become an existence that stands at the pinnacle of this path like them.”

Maia wrapped her arms around her shoulders.

“Even abandoning my human body and becoming this inhuman existence was for that purpose.”

Her nails dug into her shoulders and blood flowed, but like a video playing in reverse it went back into her body.

When she pulled out her nails, there wasn’t even a wound.

“But it’s not enough! Completely insufficient! There’s no hope at this rate. I need something new. I left the island and came all this way looking for that something. And thanks to meeting you today, I’ve realized how lacking my knowledge is.”

“…And?”

“Let’s make a deal. I heard the Order has an enormous number of books. If you bring me a few books I need from there, I’ll give you incredible rewards.”

Maia proposed this kind of deal to the protagonist in Blue Paper Moon too.

If you accept this and progressively bring her forbidden books hidden in the library, Maia is reborn as an existence approaching the witches.

Of course, as she said, she gave truly incredible rewards in exchange for bringing the forbidden books each time.

A massive gem worth 100,000 Order Silver coins.

An artifact-level sword that recovers large amounts of HP when dealing damage to enemies.

Full plate armor with the highest defense and resistance in Blue Paper Moon.

Just one of these items is almost cheat level.

And my answer was decided from the start.

“I refuse.”

What happens after handing over all the forbidden books is also problematic.

Maia, who gains wisdom approaching witch-level, transforms the protagonist into an inhuman existence as her fourth reward.

Though outward appearance doesn’t change much, a new passive skill appears in the skill window with quite the description.

The protagonist is no longer human and receives various skills and penalties that only the first vassal of the new witch ‘Thumbelina’ can use.

You become hostile not only to the other witches you’ve fought so far, but also to the Hunting Order, breaking all friendly relationships with heroines and NPCs.

Maia herself changes greatly from her original personality and appearance, becoming half monster-like.

There’s no reason to follow such a future.

Rather, it should be avoided.

And above all…

“I’m a hunter of the Order. I couldn’t possibly hand over Order books to a sorcerer who wants to become a witch.”

I’m a hunter, not some witch’s vassal.

If I were to become such a being, I’d rather throw myself off a cliff to die.

“…Well, can’t be helped.”

Maia shrugged with a sigh.

“I guess I was too presumptuous. You are a hunter after all. I should consider myself lucky that you didn’t try to kill me despite seeing a sorcerer like me.”

“You wouldn’t die anyway.”

Of course, I have no intention of fighting either.

Maia is sufficient just as an NPC who exchanges items like this.

Originally there was no problem even progressing through the game without realizing her existence, and she never interfered in the middle of the story.

“Of course. Anyway… I guess I’ll have to travel the continent myself then. The best would be following you, Eugene… but that’s not possible either? If I stay with you, I could meet that behemoth called Blanc.”

“No, I really have to decline that. Things are complicated enough because of that one. If a sorcerer of your level starts following me too, it won’t end with just having tails.”

“Hmm… how disappointing. Finally meeting a reasonable hunter I can talk to, only to part ways like this.”

“I don’t plan to just part ways.”

“Huh?”

“There’s something else I want to ask you.”

“What is it?”

“My companion recently used an unusual magic.”

“What kind of magic?”

“How should I put it… she captured blue moonlight in her weapon.”

“…!?”

Maia was shocked.

“W-wait. Tell me more about this! She captured blue moonlight? Did the shape of a moon appear too?”

“It was a crescent moon shape.”

“Who exactly is this companion of yours? L-let me meet them! Where are they? Where can I find them?!”

She flew in front of me and even pulled at my clothes as she asked.

From her reaction, she definitely knows something.

The technique Hilde used to behead Hans was probably ‘Crescent’.

When playing as Noah, if you exchanged two or more items deeply connected to witches with Maia, she would talk about her witch research.

She becomes interested in the protagonist’s talent and teaches how to handle curses from a different domain than existing witches.

Its name is ‘Pale Blue Moon’.

An unidentified curse that turns the night sky’s moon blue.