Dark Fantasy’s Extra

I followed Gerda to where the village chief was waiting.

“…!”

The moment I opened the door, my eyes met those of a woman.

“Oh my, you really are a hunter.”

She looked exactly as Gerda had described, and exactly as I remembered.

Short silver hair with hints of blue and dark red eyes.

And skin as white as porcelain, no, as white as snow.

One of the witches who would lead the world to its end.

“Haha, welcome, hunter. Have you finished your work?”

The village chief waved at me to come in with a smiling face.

“This woman was specially brought for you, hunter. She calls herself the Snow Princess.”

The village chief probably thinks it’s just a stage name, not that she’s an actual princess.

“…I see.”

My heart was pounding, but I feigned composure as best I could.

Though I’d been expecting her to appear someday, seeing her in person was enough to make me break into a cold sweat.

“Come, come in. We have good wine for you…”

“I’ve changed my mind.”

“Pardon?”

“You there, woman, what’s your name?”

“Would you like to know my real name?”

“Of course. I’ve seen many women in this line of work, but never one as delicate as you.”

Though the words weren’t familiar, I could manage to imitate similar lines I’d heard while working as a hunter.

“I can’t tell just anyone… but since you’re a hunter, I’ll make a special exception. However, you must listen alone.”

As expected.

So this is how that hunter died.

“…Chief, step outside for a moment.”

I gestured with my chin toward Snow White’s avatar.

“Eh? Ah, I see. Very well…”

Though the village chief couldn’t hide his disappointment, he obediently went outside.

And only she and I remained in the room.

“Fufu, hunter. Come this way…”

She turned her back and walked toward the chair.

I unhurriedly and naturally drew my pistol and aimed it at the back of her head.

“Wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

She turned to look at me.

And I shot her in the eye.

“Kyaaaah!”

She screamed and thrashed about.

“Hot! It’s hot!”

Not a normal silver bullet, but an incendiary round.

Naturally, fire attacks are effective against ice-attribute enemies.

“Y-you…! How did you know my identity…!”

I had no time to answer.

I accelerated my hand with magical power and lowered the gun barrel to shoot three consecutive shots at her legs.

“Aaagh!”

Smoke rose from where the incendiary rounds hit.

Though I had the illusion of smelling burning flesh, of course there was no smell.

Ice and snow don’t burn, after all.

The surprise attack was perfect.

But attacks from just a pistol, not a rifle, weren’t enough to finish her.

“Wh-what’s happening!?”

The village chief came running at the screams and gunshots.

“It’s a Beast! Tell everyone to run!”

I shouted loudly.

“B-Beast…? What in the…”

He was bewildered seeing Snow White’s avatar thrashing about.

Most ordinary people think of Beasts as massive creatures with sharp claws and fangs.

But right now, Snow White’s avatar looks like an ordinary human – a beautiful woman – even if she’s bleeding snowflakes instead of blood.

“P-please save me! This hunter suddenly attacked me!”

Perhaps knowing this, the avatar wailed toward the village chief.

“I’m a hunter from the Order! That’s a Beast wearing human skin! Look, she’s bleeding cold snowflakes instead of blood!”

But I, too, am a hunter from the Hunting Order, the world’s greatest experts in Beast hunting.

A hunter’s word carries weight when it comes to Beasts.

“I’ve heard about this before… Beasts that can imitate humans.”

I tried to shoot another incendiary round at Snow White to make sure.

But this time she broke through the entire wall and fled.

“Get away before it’s too late!”

“Ah, yes!”

I immediately chased after Snow White’s avatar.

She made an eerie sound and created huge icicle spears to shoot at me.

While the real Snow White could spray these like a shotgun making them hard to dodge, as expected the avatar can only manage one at a time.

“Kuk! Damn it, damn it, daaamn it! To be interfered with by a mere worm of a hunter!!!”

Snow White’s avatar screamed, part of her head destroyed by the incendiary round.

She suddenly looked straight at me.

Something like a strange purple light seemed to rise from her one remaining eye.

I turned my head away while shooting in her direction at the same time.

Meeting her gaze head-on would surely result in confusion or unconsciousness from her mental attack.

“Ugh…!”

The avatar also had to stop her mental attack to protect her remaining eye.

“Kuuk…. This, this kind of thing…!”

When she swung her arm wide, I felt intense cold from below.

Looking down, I could see frost forming on my boots.

If I stayed still here, both legs would freeze solid and become immobile.

I drew up magical power again, focusing it in my legs while running to the avatar’s blind spot and reloading incendiary rounds.

Meanwhile Snow White’s avatar kept shooting ice spears, but since she couldn’t aim properly, dodging wasn’t difficult.

As time passed, the battle turned more in my favor.

The avatar’s most dangerous weapon, her mental attacks, had been halved in power after losing one eye in the first surprise attack, and they were easier to deal with now.

The flying ice spears weren’t that fast either.

From the start, bullet curtains are standard – a single spear is nothing.

“Here, of all places…. To a mere servant of Belle…!”

“Ahahahah!”

Just then, laughter rang out from above.

The avatar turned her eyes in that direction.

Even in this situation she gets distracted – does the avatar really not care about self-preservation?

I used that moment to shoot incendiary rounds at her legs.

“Ah…!?”

Snow White’s avatar lost her balance and fell as her legs shattered like glass.

After confirming this, I turned my gun toward where the laughter had come from.

But Blanc was already gone from that spot.

“Hey, long time no see?”

When I turned my head toward Blanc’s voice, she was crouching in front of the fallen Snow White avatar.

“B-Blanc…!”

“Seeing trash like you wandering around, the seal really must be breaking.”

“Blanc! Let’s make a deal! Kill that hunter! I’ll reward you after the seal breaks!”

“Ahaha, what amusing words. As if we’d ever trust your kind. Besides, getting to watch even an avatar of Snow White be so pathetically defeated by a low-ranking hunter, why would I help you?”

“You… mere beast…!!”

Snow White’s avatar swung a massive ice arm at Blanc.

“Ahahaha!”

Blanc simply grabbed that arm, ripped it off, and smashed it into the avatar’s face.

“…!?”

Snow White’s avatar crumbled into white powder, making one last desperate attack with a fierce blizzard at Blanc before vanishing.

“That’s refreshing.”

Blanc turned her head to me.

“If you had finished her, Snow White would have targeted you too. Be a little grateful that I did it instead.”

“What are you plotting.”

I still had my gun aimed at Blanc.

“Is that any way to talk to someone who helped you?”

“You were trying to lure me out of the village. So she could easily attack it.”

“I wasn’t deceiving you, I was just wrong. I didn’t know she had already entered the village.”

Blanc shrugged her shoulders.

“Saying she’s something incredible? Nonsense.”

“Hmm, that’s not entirely wrong. Actually, that was… well…”

“What?”

“She’s not someone you should know about yet. She’s too much for you. Though it was just an avatar, her real body is probably stronger than me.”

Blanc seems to think I don’t know about Snow White.

Of course, a low-ranking hunter wouldn’t know about the world’s truth or witches other than Red Hood.

“So forget about today. I’ll tell you when the time is right.”

“Get lost.”

I shot at Blanc right then.

“My my, still so temperamental.”

Blanc casually caught the flying incendiary round.

She probably didn’t even get burned.

“Trust me a little. When have I ever done anything bad to you?”

“I’ll never trust a Beast like you.”

“Hmm, then I’ll have to try harder. To make you trust me.”

Even when openly insulted, Blanc seemed rather pleased.

The ideal hero in her mind doesn’t trust Beasts.

If I were to clumsily trust Blanc, she would rather torture or kill me for being a fool who trusts Beasts.

After being deceived by Blanc countless times in Blue Paper Moon, there’s no reason to fall for it here.

“Well, I’ll be going now. I’ve gotten quite busy because of today’s events.”

Blanc turned her back and walked away.

I took out a silver throwing dagger and threw it at the back of her head.

Of course, Blanc caught it without even looking back.

“Thanks for the gift.”

And this time she truly vanished in an instant.

“…Monster.”

That was all I could say.

*    *    *

“Thank you, hunter!”

The village chief came out with all the villagers, grasping my hand and repeatedly bowing.

I caught glimpses of Kai and Gerda among the adults.

Both were looking at me with shining eyes.

“Beasts are truly terrifying. I really thought she was human.”

“I only did my duty. While Beasts that imitate humans aren’t common, don’t forget today’s events and remain vigilant against Beasts.”

“Yes, understood!”

“Hunter, it’s not much but please accept this.”

The village chief held out a bag of silver coins.

It should be around 100 Order Silver coins at a rough estimate.

Though I desperately wanted to accept it, not much time had passed since Blanc left.

If there was even a slight chance she was watching from somewhere, I couldn’t carelessly accept this money.

“Please donate it to the Order instead of giving it to me.”

I politely declined.

“Eh? But…”

“It’s fine. The Order will give me my allowance.”

“Ah… how admirable. We’ll do that.”

“Then I’ll take my leave.”

“What? At least stay for a day…”

“I must report today’s events to the Order immediately.”

“I see. Understood. We’ll do exactly as you said, hunter.”

I left the village.

I turned my head one last time to look at Kai and Gerda again.

There was originally a side quest that the protagonist had to resolve, but this probably eliminated it.

It should be fine since it’s just a side quest and not enough to change the main story… right?

*    *    *

“You don’t disappoint until the very end…”

Blanc was watching from afar as the carriage disappeared over the hill.

She had thought about letting the money thing slide, but he acted exactly as she wanted until the end.

“Maybe I really might see it. A true hero who can kill me…”