Dark Fantasy’s Extra

Early in the morning, I informed the guard about the current situation and took care of Bardello’s corpse.

I explained the situation again to the village chief who came running in his pajamas with a surprised face, and with his permission, cremated both mother and son’s bodies together.

While the fire burned, several villagers came out and watched the rising black smoke with complicated expressions.

“…I never imagined this. That a Beast would be in the inn…”

The village chief said.

Thanks to Bardello’s bizarrely twisted form that could no longer be called human, no one doubted the story.

“How unfortunate. Grannonia was such a good cook too. Especially that Walnut Preserve…”

The only inn in the village had lost its owner.

Now it was up to the village chief to inform anyone with blood relations to Grannonia and pass on her inheritance.

“And thank you, hunter. Thanks to you, the villagers survived.”

He bowed deeply to me.

The surrounding villagers followed suit.

“I only did what needed to be done. We’ll be leaving now, but my companion is injured – would it be possible to borrow a carriage?”

“I’m a carriage driver.”

One of the villagers raised his hand.

I told him our destination, paid in advance, and returned to the inn.

“Hilde, have you packed everything?”

“Y-yes!”

When I called Hilde’s name at the door, she came out already fully prepared as if she had been waiting.

“Are we leaving now?”

“…?”

Something about the atmosphere felt different from what I expected.

Could she be acting to hide her sadness?

Sometimes people force themselves to smile and collect themselves even in extreme situations.

“Well, that’s fine. If you’re ready, let’s go. How’s your leg?”

“I can walk.”

“Can you run?”

“Probably…”

“Probably isn’t good enough. I hired a carriage, so we’ll ride.”

“What? But it doesn’t hurt that much. I can walk just fine.”

“Don’t push yourself. The expenses for taking a carriage due to injury will be covered.”

Finally Hilde agreed and got into the carriage with me.

“From here to Hunting Order headquarters will take about… half a day. Would it be alright if we stop by Cranion for a meal?”

The driver asked.

“We’re not in a hurry, so that’s fine.”

“Understood. Then we’ll depart.”

The carriage started moving.

“Hilde.”

“Yes?”

“Since we’re going through Cranion, you can briefly visit home then.”

“Is that allowed?”

Strictly speaking, it’s not.

Hunters are meant to live separate from secular life.

The power gap between hunters and ordinary people is incomparably large, and naturally, if a hunter turns to crime, the damage is much greater.

Returning home is only allowed during vacations, but even in those brief periods, there are occasional hunters who commit crimes.

The Order handles minor crimes with money and power, giving the hunter punishments like salary cuts.

But for serious offenses like murder, rape, or organized crime, the Heresy Inquisition Department sends trackers.

And once caught, they’re marked as ‘missing.’

In Blue Paper Moon, they generally met miserable ends being used for human experiments while imprisoned underground, or ended up in states worse than death.

It’s probably similar here.

“…This much is fine.”

For those who lived very close to the Order like in Cranion, brief visits to see family during missions are tolerated.

The Order has that much flexibility.

The carriage that departed early morning reached Cranion around when the sun was high in the sky.

After passing through the massive walls encircling the city and the guards at the entrance, we entered to find the city as lively as ever.

Merchants loudly promoting their wares, children begging on the streets, elderly gentlemen leisurely watching city life from benches.

The scenery of these streets doesn’t change much.

But that won’t last much longer.

In less than a month, this place will suffer a large-scale invasion with triple-digit casualties.

The main actor will be the Little Mermaid Rusalka, one of the witches whose seal is nearly broken.

Fortunately since it’s not completely broken, only Beasts will attack while the Little Mermaid herself just watches from behind.

At least that’s how the story I knew went.

To begin with, if we were already really fighting witches now, it wouldn’t be a game.

“Senior.”

Hilde said.

“What?”

“…I, I don’t need to go home after all.”

“Why suddenly?”

“Well…”

“Scared to meet them?”

It happens often.

Sometimes after going through several battlefields, hunters become reluctant to meet their families.

The tendency is stronger in those with proper families.

Probably due to feeling unworthy of their family after changing so much.

“Yes…”

“…Still, go see them.”

“But…”

“Don’t regret it later. If you don’t meet them when you can, you’ll definitely regret it later.”

“I’m not sure…”

“When I say go, you go. That’s an order.”

I said while roughly patting Hilde’s head.

Finally she reluctantly got off the carriage and headed to the Grimm family mansion.

“Then I’ll come back here in about an hour. You can stay longer if you’d like, but please don’t be too late.”

The driver said.

I nodded and headed to the restaurant district.

Entering the streets, the scent of hot food wafted from everywhere.

I passed by the crowded large restaurants and entered an alley.

Following my memories, I arrived at a quiet corner with hardly any people.

A place where the city’s outcasts gather.

Or where those deliberately avoiding contact with others come.

Street rats scurried on the road, with skinny children chasing after them to catch and roast them.

I briefly made eye contact with the child at the back.

Eyes of admiration.

Anyone with talent can become a hunter.

As long as they don’t have records of serious crimes like murder or rape, anyone can suddenly start earning lots of money.

It’s a common story for parents from poor families to push their children to become hunters.

But few succeed.

Magical power is strictly an innate ability.

It can’t be achieved through effort alone, and even information about it isn’t widely known.

They only vaguely want to become hunters to earn money.

I was the same after all.

I passed by them and went to a shabby food stall.

Though it had no sign or even chairs, it was still a restaurant.

“…Welcome.”

The old man sitting at the stall bowed to me.

His beard was cleanly shaved, and his dusty gray hair was cut short.

Though his face had some wrinkles, rather than just looking old, he gave the impression of having strength despite his age.

That would have been the case if not for the bandages covering both eyes.

‘Prophet Ryu.’

An unusual Asian character in Blue Paper Moon which had Western civilization as its foundation.

True to his title as Prophet, he would give necessary information when eating at his stall.

Unlike Hera who gave random hints, Ryu let you choose from information about things you currently needed.

Like weaknesses of the Beast you’d face next in the story, or hints for completing ongoing quests well.

“…One bowl of noodles please.”

I placed 3 Order Silver coins on the counter.

It’s an expensive price for a meal in a place like this.

The old man checked each Order Silver coin with his hands, nodded, then took out a bundle of noodles from a small wooden box and placed them in an old porcelain bowl.

Then he poured steaming hot broth over it from the pot beside him.

Noodle dishes are unfamiliar in this world, and even when they exist, they’re mostly fancy foreign restaurant spaghetti.

But what the old man served now was typical Asian-style noodles.

The taste was similar to what I ate in my previous life.

A taste that stirred memories and nostalgia from my previous life.

“…What would you like to hear from this old man?”

Ryu asked after I finished eating the noodles.

“How my companion can become strong quickly and correctly.”

“Come to this city in 17 days. A great wave will arrive. Teach swimming there.”

With those words, Ryu took away the empty bowl.

It meant the prophecy was over.

While Ryu’s prophecies were the most helpful advice, in Blue Paper Moon you only got 3 chances.

That’s why I hadn’t visited until now even though I knew of his existence.

All 3 chances had to be used for the protagonist after all.

“You’re not asking anything?”

Rather, I became curious.

This is my first time coming here, and first meeting Ryu.

Yet when I did exactly as I had in the game from my previous life, this old man gave exactly the same response.

“You did what you had to do, and I did what I had to do. That’s all there is to it.”

Ryu said, turning his head toward me.

Though he must be blind, I felt a powerful gaze.

I could only nod at his answer without saying anything.

Perhaps being a prophet, he might have known about this situation in advance.

Then could he possibly know that I came from another world too?

“…Goodbye.”

But I didn’t ask that.

That’s not what’s important.

A great wave comes to this city in 17 days.

The great wave surely referred to the Little Mermaid Rusalka.

And it meant Hilde needs to fight against that to become stronger.

Originally the Cranion raid event could be skipped, and I didn’t particularly participate in my previous life either.

The difficulty was too high, and if you died, it counted as being killed by a witch leading straight to a bad ending.

But this time we need to actively participate.

Then our current abilities won’t be enough.

“Need to increase the training intensity.”

Not just Hilde, but I myself needed to become stronger too.

*    *    *

Hilde carefully stood before the mansion entrance.

“…Hm? Could it be young lady?”

The guard recognized her and asked.

“Ah, well…”

“Oh! You’ve returned! Wait just a moment! I’ll quickly… no, rather come in and wait first. I need to announce that young lady has returned!”

The guard fussed over her and led her inside.

Soon after, maids and servants came out from the mansion to greet her.

“Welcome, young lady. The master is waiting.”

“Father is?”

“Yes. He said there’s no time to waste changing clothes, so come right away. Though regrettable, please go in those clothes for now.”

“No, these are my…”

“Come now, hurry, hurry. We’ve all been waiting for this day.”

Hilde couldn’t say anything against the pressure from people she’d known for so long.

They seemed to think she had quit being a hunter and returned.

“…Alright.”

Hilde couldn’t bring herself to tell them she hadn’t quit being a hunter.

It was hard to betray the bright smiles on their faces.

She went up to the top floor of the mansion where her father, the head of the Grimm family, was waiting.