Dark Fantasy’s Extra

Under the pitch-black night sky devoid of any light, someone sat on a throne in the middle of a vast cemetery.

His robust physique, tall enough to look down on most grown men, was covered in armor as black as the sky, and his head was completely concealed by a skull-shaped helmet.

Holding a mace like a staff in his hand and sitting there, he was undoubtedly a king.

From the opposite side, a small and frail figure wearing a hood approached and knelt before him.

“You’re a bit late.”

The one seated on the throne, the Black King ‘Charmol’, said.

Though his tone was level, those words alone made the kneeling Yorick flinch and bow even lower.

“I-I’m sorry…!”

“It’s fine. We would have had to wait quietly for a while anyway. That aside, how did the task I ordered go?”

“Th-that is…”

Yorick hesitated to speak.

“Even your answer is delayed. There weren’t any mistakes, were there?”

“W-well, that is…”

“Answer me.”

“Y-yes! I failed to retrieve Kenken’s corpse!”

Yorick pressed his head to the ground.

“…What?”

Charmol’s expression showed bewilderment rather than anger.

“Well… yes. Failed? You failed?”

“Yes! I’m sorry!”

“I don’t… understand. What exactly caused you to fail? Could it be that Kenken’s condition was better than expected?”

The Tyrant of the Sea Kenken.

Even during the golden age of behemoths 500 years ago, he was counted among the most powerful Beasts.

Especially true to his title as Tyrant of the Sea, he was the undisputed strongest in the ocean.

Relying solely on his own might, he waged war against the Little Mermaid, and even she avoided direct confrontation with Kenken.

Though Kenken was ultimately defeated, the victorious mermaid princess chose not to kill and display his head, but instead stripped him of his power and kept him as a slave, ensuring she could retrieve him at any time.

Charmol, as one of the very few behemoths who survived the Saintess’s subjugation 500 years ago, remembered clearly how mighty Kenken had been.

It was enough to make him think that perhaps Kenken might still have fangs hidden away.

Out of respect and awe for that strength, Charmol was prepared to understand his subordinate’s failure.

“No. I definitely killed Kenken. Though he did have more strength remaining than expected as you said, after starving him and occasionally feeding him only poison, he finally died.”

“…”

Charmol pondered Yorick’s words.

He thought.

And reached one conclusion.

“You… incompetent fool.”

Charmol’s overwhelming anger poured down on Yorick.

Just from his rage alone, Yorick felt like his entire body was being crushed.

“You must know what preparations were made to carry out this task.”

Though learning about the stranded Deep Sea Folk transporting Kenken was pure chance, Charmol hadn’t missed that golden opportunity and made a bold decision.

As groundwork for the plan to capture Kenken, he had attacked the Grimm family’s young lady a few weeks ago.

That attack incident drew the Hunting Order’s investigation personnel to headquarters, somewhat weakening their external surveillance network.

To create such a gap, he even used the zombie Beast unit card he had planted near headquarters 7 years ago as insurance.

Though he failed to kill the Grimm family’s young lady, Charmol hadn’t reprimanded Yorick since they succeeded in diverting the Order’s attention elsewhere.

He had even praised Yorick for the unexpected harvest of observing that fox Blanc’s movements.

But if they ultimately failed to capture Kenken, who was the plan’s objective, it would all be meaningless.

All that remained was the serious loss of the zombie Beast unit that could have been used as a hidden joker card.

“Then explain the circumstances that led to the mission’s failure. If you failed for some trivial reason… you understand, right?”

“Y-yes!”

Yorick explained in detail what had happened in the cave.

Knowing deep in his bones that he mustn’t speak exaggerations or lies to his master, he told everything honestly without omission.

“Hunters came, you say? Is that true?”

Charmol’s demeanor changed dramatically again after hearing Yorick’s explanation.

“Yes. They were undoubtedly hunters.”

“Hmm…”

If it had been some ridiculous mistake, he might have beheaded Yorick right there.

But hunters intervening was a different story.

They had even released zombie Beasts to avoid drawing even minor attention from hunters, so how did they find their way there?

“…Could information have leaked?”

That was the first thing that came to mind.

The most rational inference was that someone had monitored Charmol’s movements and leaked information to the hunters.

Not much time remained until the seals of witches would completely break, and most had already begun limited activities.

Snow White’s avatars were being sighted everywhere.

Princess Bari had approached Charmol first from her side, so she must have made collaborators among humans too.

The mermaid princess had already ordered Kenken’s retrieval.

Though there was no information about the frog princess yet, who knew when she might appear again unexpectedly like before and drag situations into chaos.

The war between Red Hood and the Saintess was still ongoing.

Either side was equally suspicious.

“I had planned to lay low again for a while, but I can’t just stay still now. If we remain idle, we’ll fall behind and get torn apart somewhere… First priority is making contact with those hunters who interfered with you. Who were they? Other higher-ranked hunters would be too busy, so could it have been a 1st rank directly under the Saintess?”

“About that…”

“Surely you didn’t fail to investigate? Or are they the Saintess’s hidden cards with thoroughly erased information?”

“Ah, um…”

“…Answer quickly.”

Charmol said with slight displeasure.

“Ah, yes! They were, probably lower-ranked hunters!”

“Then capturing them shouldn’t be difficult, right-“

He asked again as if dumbfounded.

“Th-they must have been lower-ranked hunters. Probably… their skills were at that level…”

Yorick’s voice grew smaller after speaking, as if embarrassed.

“…Yorick.”

“Y-yes.”

“Think carefully about what you’re going to say next.”

Yorick’s heart sank.

Though his heart shouldn’t be beating.

If his master became disappointed in him, that would be the end of Yorick’s life.

He would lose his sense of self and fall to become nothing more than a puppet.

Or perhaps an even more horrible future awaited.

“Answer me. What was so special about that trash lower-ranked hunter that made you lose?”

“Th-that hunter…”

After desperately organizing his thoughts for about 3 seconds, Yorick began explaining.

“H-he was a human that Blanc had taken a liking to.”

“…”

Charmol fell silent.

“Wh-when he was burning Kenken’s corpse, he th-threatened to kill himself if I didn’t let them go…”

“…”

“I-it’s true! If not for that, mere lower-ranked hunters like that, even if there were a hundred instead of two…!”

“Yorick.”

“Yes?”

“Do you believe in fate?”

“F-fate, you say?”

“I believe in it. Living for so long, I think I’ve come to understand it somewhat. What about you?”

“I’m not sure…”

“And I believe what you just said too. No, there’s no other way to explain it anyway.”

“Thank you…!”

Yorick bowed to Charmol again.

“If it’s a human Blanc acknowledges, they might indeed threaten with their own life. No, she wouldn’t have given them a second glance if they weren’t that type of person. Though it’s regrettable we couldn’t get Kenken, we can’t risk all-out war with her over a fallen being, so your judgment was correct.”

Charmol rested his chin on his hand.

“Then one problem remains. Why did that hunter come there… You at least investigated their name, right?”

“Yes. A 9th-rank hunter named Eugene. Though I hear he’ll soon become an 8th-rank hunter.”

“Truly a weak being. And that’s precisely why Blanc would cherish and favor him.”

“Yes… Her tastes are quite difficult to understand.”

“Haha… An impossible wish in the end. That’s what makes it more pitiful, more fitting for a behemoth, and what will make her a suitable companion for me…”

*    *    *

Several days passed after Hilde and I escaped from Yorick.

“You don’t have to worry about shield removal anymore.”

I picked up the fallen shield from the ground and said to Hilde.

“It’s remarkable but you really do learn quickly.”

“Come on, that’s just because you teach so well, Senior.”

Hilde joked.

When we first resumed training, the first thing we started was how to deal with Deep Sea Folk squads.

Though most of the forces attacking Cranion will be Deep Sea Folk, they’re completely different from the ones we encountered in that cave.

They basically move in groups of four, and the most troublesome and frequently encountered group is the balanced squad.

In front is a bulky Deep Sea Folk holding a shield, and behind are quick spear-wielding Deep Sea Folk or ones that use sorcery and magic, or Drowned Ones.

Either way, it starts with the Deep Sea Folk shield bearer, and quickly dealing with them is the beginning of the strategy.

Generally shields are weak against heavy weapons like Hilde’s two-handed axe, but the opponent isn’t human but a Deep Sea Folk Beast.

Though Hilde is growing stronger quickly, she still can’t overpower a Deep Sea Folk shield bearer with pure strength.

And using magical power in close combat against small fry is too costly.

This isn’t normal hunting but war, and ending it in a short decisive battle isn’t realistic.

The biggest problem is that even I don’t have much experience with this kind of battlefield.

It will be urban warfare involving the city, and such things don’t happen often in the first place.

Though it became frequent in the very late game of Blue Paper Moon, that was just a game.

Real battlefields and games are as different as heaven and earth.

In the end, all we can do is prepare and prepare again.

“After shields comes evasion training. Sometimes dodging is more important than blocking. No, dodging is often more important.”

“For example?”

“Magic.”

Magic often explodes like bombs.

From the most commonly used fireball throws, they’re no different from small grenades.

Of course enemies using magic aren’t common, but they’ll definitely appear in the Cranion invasion.

If we let them attack freely, our chances of survival will plummet endlessly.

“I have a question.”

“What is it?”

“When will you teach me magic?”

“…”

Magic.

Magic, huh…

I know how to use a little too.

But I’ve never learned powerful attack magic, and even if I learned the theory, using it would be impossible.

To begin with, I don’t have enough magical power so it can’t be helped.

But Hilde is different.

If she keeps growing like this, she’ll have an incomparable amount of magical power compared to me, and might seriously want to learn magic.

The build I’m planning includes a few magic spells too.

“Magic… That’s for later… no, I could teach you one thing.”

“What is it?”

“Magic to make footsteps silent.”

“Ooh, so you really can use magic!”

“Well, don’t get too excited about it.”

“Of course not! Magic is something far more amazing than that!”

Someone suddenly cut in.

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