Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 61: A Different Kind of Darkness

“These rabbits aren’t particularly powerful. I can carve a path out for us.”

Tass poked his head out of the emerald. Whenever battle came up, his tone became much steadier.

Myss agreed. These fluffy little things looked impressive in numbers, but aside from speaking human language, they weren’t much different from ordinary house rabbits.

Even if Tass did nothing, all Myss had to do was cast a black magic net and he could sweep the rabbits away in one go. But…

Myss glanced at Salaar.

“Go with them.” As expected, Salaar, true to Salaar fashion, gave an answer that was eminently practical.

Myss: “Because they know where the exit is?”

Honestly, grabbing one and interrogating it under torture would work too.

“No. Because we fell too deep. At least right now, I can’t judge what kinds of traps exist in this ruin. If we follow these rabbits, we can avoid danger much more easily.”

Salaar explained calmly.

Father Kalen nodded in deep agreement and reached out to pet the nearest rabbit.

Usually, whether it was an eagle soaring in the clouds or a mole living underground, no small animal could refuse the priest’s touch.

Yet the white rabbits reacted with loud disgust, hopping away at once without even letting Kalen touch the tips of their ears.

“How brazen!” “What a casual human!” “There’s still mud on his hands!”

The rabbits panted rapidly, as they clearly and audibly hurtled insults.

The priest froze on the spot, as if he had suffered an unprecedented blow.

“Out of the way, ahem, all of you, out of the way!”

A slightly larger long-haired rabbit shoved through the crowd. It had rare drooping ears, with the fur on them curling slightly. Around its neck was a ring of cloth lace, as if imitating a judge’s ruff collar.

Even Myss, unfamiliar with human society, felt that this scene was a little too surreal.

He could understand someone with too much time on their hands turning speaking rabbits into pets. But a whole group of talking rabbits, even copying human professions, was really absurd.

“…No resisting arrest? Good, very good. Looks like there’s no need to send in the guards.”

The strange rabbit judge stood upright, its red eyes inspecting the four of them with satisfaction. “Next, I am going to put you on trial!”

“The verdict will decide how you’re treated. Pray, and hope the malice in your hearts isn’t too great.”

As soon as it finished speaking, a small wooden cart pulled by rabbits appeared behind it. On the cart sat a dented silver wine jug. It was half full, the liquid inside sloshing audibly.

Two rabbits clamped the jug between their bodies and solemnly carried it to the judge’s side. Myss stared fixedly at the narrow-necked jug, his fingers itching. He wondered what would happen if he knocked it over in front of this crowd of rabbits.

The next second, a distinct human hand reached over and pressed down on Myss’s twitching paw.

“Don’t do anything,” Salaar whispered.

Myss narrowed his eyes. “…You really plan to drink that?”

Salaar gave no direct answer. “Let’s see what happens first.”

The rabbit judge had no idea about Lord Archdemon’s bad intentions.

It patted the jug with its paw and sounded a little smug. “This is medicine made from moss flowers. One sip each, and you won’t be able to lie!”

Priest: “But moss doesn’t bloom…”

“Silence, the trial has begun! Watch it or I’ll convict you with contempt of court!” The rabbit judge thumped the ground hard with its hind legs.

The priest obediently raised his hand.

The rabbit judge lifted its head with dignity and puffed out its fluffy chest. “I permit you to speak.”

“If we refuse to drink this, what happens?” the priest asked directly.

“The trial cannot proceed, and I will become extremely angry!” The rabbit shouted. “On behalf of all rabbits, I’ll never bother with you again! And then you’ll die trapped in this dreadful place, despite our rare willingness to provide prison accommodations through the rabbit tunnels…”

“I understand. I’d like to drink first.”

After thinking it over, Father Kalen said, “Your Honor, we also have our concerns. If no one proves it’s safe, my companions won’t drink it.”

Indeed, Myss thought. These rabbits didn’t seem particularly bright, and who knew what they’d brought. The liquid in the jug smelled sour and not at all meant for human consumption.

The priest was skilled with herbs and had strong recovery abilities. He really was the best one to test it first.

After receiving the rabbit judge’s permission, Father Kalen carefully picked up the jug and poured a little into his mouth from a distance.

This time Myss saw the liquid clearly. It looked like pomegranate juice, red and transparent, with no impurities. The priest poured a small sip into his mouth, smacked his lips, and frowned. “…Fruit juice?”

—Thump!

The rabbit judge stomped the ground hard again, making an unusually muffled sound. “Court is in session!”

“First question. Tallest human, why did you come to our city?”

“Purely for work-related purposes.” Father Kalen answered honestly, “A certain exploration team disappeared here. The captain’s teacher and friends came to search for them. The four of us are the assistants they hired to help find those people.”

The rabbit judge stood up, its nose twitching. “Fine, fine. Second question. Do you want to harm those humans?”

Kalen: “Of course not. I’ll do my best to assist and protect them, unless they turn to evil themselves.”

“Third question. Do you like rabbits?”

“Yes,” the priest answered without hesitation. “All living beings have their own beauty.”

The rabbit judge looked delighted. “Not bad. You’re not such a terrible human. Next—”

Salaar watched the priest for a while, then let his lips brush Myss’s ear. “That medicine isn’t affecting the flesh, and there’s no trace of mental magic. It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll try next.”

He took the silver jug second and tipped a mouthful into his mouth from a distance.

Myss watched carefully. Salaar’s expression didn’t change in the slightest. Maybe this so-called moss flower medicine didn’t taste that bad.

“Very tall human, do you like rabbits?” the rabbit judge asked immediately, cutting straight to the point.

Salaar opened his mouth, but no sound came out. A shocked look crossed his face, and he touched his lips.

“Heh heh, you can’t lie. Delaying won’t help.”

The rabbit judge announced proudly, “The moss flower medicine is extremely potent. Its effects last a full three days.”

“…” Salaar sighed soundlessly. “I don’t have any particular like or dislike for rabbits.”

“How cold-blooded! How cruel!” The rabbit judge cried. “We’re obviously this cute, you, hairless freaking ape!”

“Quick, tell me, would you hurt rabbits?”

“Depending on the circumstances.”

Salaar recovered his composure quickly, answering with neither servility nor arrogance. “I won’t harm you proactively, unless you obstruct us, or unless my people are in urgent need of food.”

“Obstruct you? What counts as obstructing you?”

The rabbit judge spoke in a sharp, tearing-cloth voice, sounding as though it were suppressing its anger.

“Disrupting our movements, endangering our safety, interfering with my…” At that point, Salaar abruptly braked mid-sentence. He glanced at Myss and swallowed hard. “…interfering with my paying attention to Myss.”

He said that line haltingly, as if a fish bone had suddenly lodged in his throat.

“You are a very unfriendly human.” The rabbit judge declared solemnly. “Next!”

“I drank it. It’s fine,” Salaar said softly.

Only then did Myss take the moss flower medicine from Salaar and suck a mouthful straight from the spout.

Hm. It tasted a bit better than it smelled. It really did taste like pomegranate juice, just extremely sour.

Myss ran his tongue over his teeth and swallowed the sourness. The liquid slid down his throat, spreading warmth in waves, as if there were alcohol mixed into it. A faint pulse rippled through his body, leaving his brain slightly floaty…

…No, wait. This wasn’t alcohol. It was an Abnormal Fruit.

Myss opened the jug in disbelief and sniffed it hard. Sure enough, there was a very faint Abnormal Fruit scent hidden in the medicine.

Again.

First the rabbit’s foot, then the pocket watch, and now the rabbit-brought moss flower medicine. Myss couldn’t find any pattern at all.

“You, short one.”

The rabbit judge’s red eyes turned toward him, and its tiny forepaws pointed straight at him.

“You’re Myss, right? …What is your relationship with that very tall human?”

His relationship with Salaar? Of course they were sworn enemies who could not coexist and despised each other on sight.

Myss imagined salted roast rabbit legs for a while before finally suppressing the urge to kill at being called “short one.” These rabbits were still useful; he had to keep them alive for now.

He glanced at Salaar, cleared his throat, and opened his mouth confidently.

Then Myss discovered in astonishment that he couldn’t make a sound.

Myss stared, shocked, and squeezed his own throat. Could it be that human language was too impoverished to express how deeply he loathed Salaar?

Or perhaps his hatred for Salaar wasn’t pure enough?

The Salaar who spent three hundred years in the seal tormenting him with salted roast mushrooms, the warm and springy hero body pillow at night, the Salaar-snake who sang off-key with him in the hallways… when faced with that version of Salaar, Myss’s killing intent wasn’t as intense.

Myss thought and thought, only to find more and more similar memories winding themselves into a tangled ball. To explain their complicated relationship clearly would take no small number of adjectives. And his vocabulary had never been that great.

So the Archdemon decided to use a simpler, more objective description.

“He’s mine.” Myss said, “He can only belong to me.”

His tone was so self-righteous it sounded like he was simply stating a law of nature, like “the sun rises in the east.”

Salaar’s body trembled slightly, and the fingers clasped together tightened.

That had to be a shiver of fear, Myss thought proudly, and he deliberately pressed closer.

Father Kalen smiled gently, his face practically saying, I knew it.

“And you? Would you hurt rabbits for this human?” the rabbit judge raised its voice.

“Of course.” Myss answered without thinking. “If necessary, I’d kill every last one of you.”

The rabbit judge gasped, and the rabbits around it broke into a buzzing uproar. Countless red eyes bobbed anxiously.

The rabbit in Myss’s arms trembled violently, forgetting all about the two snakes wrapped around it.

“Silence, silence!”

The rabbit judge stomped hard on the ground several times. Its fur puffed up, making it look even bigger than before.

“Y-you vicious, evil thing! Don’t you care about your other companions? If it weren’t for us—”

“I don’t.”

Under the medicine’s effect, Myss still answered without thinking.

“If necessary, I’d kill them too.”

Father Kalen’s smile faded a little. He muttered something that, from the shape of his mouth, looked very much like “Ah, love.”

Half-stuck in the gem, Tass sighed as well. “Why is it always another obsessive nutcase…”

Myss, however, didn’t care what those two thought. He turned his head to look at Salaar, ready to appreciate the results of his little declaration of intimidation.

Unusually, Salaar didn’t return Myss’s gaze.

He simply stared at the rabbit judge with a completely expressionless face. Whether it was the light or extreme tension, the Great Hero’s ears were glowing a rather conspicuous shade of red.

…Well, of course. He had known Salaar wouldn’t be scared by a few blunt truths from him.

Myss handed the jug toward Tass, but before the Dragon Fae could take it, the rabbit judge cut in, “The Dragon Fae doesn’t have to drink. We only evaluate the bad humans.”

“The verdicts for you three are set!”

“The tallest human may eat five kinds of mushrooms. The very tall human may eat three kinds of mushrooms. As for the murderous short one—before the banquet starts, you are only allowed one kind of mushroom!”

The rabbit judge declared viciously. “All right, take them away!”

The four of them: “…”

What a terrifying sentence. These rabbits really weren’t very bright.

Still, eating mushrooms in the dark really did count as a revival of hell for Salaar. Myss happily hugged the rabbit wrapped in snakes, all set to watch Salaar make a fool of himself.

Unexpectedly, what he saw on Salaar’s face was an unusual gravity.

“Did any of you notice?” Salaar asked quietly, not caring about the mushrooms at all.

Myss, Father Kalen: “?”

“I noticed.”

Tass flew out of the gem and hid in Myss’s long hair. “…Why would alchemical creatures from the Night Scourge era recognize ‘Dragon Fae’? Our species only appeared after the Night Scourge. There is something very wrong with these rabbits.”

“True.” The priest suddenly grasped the situation and leaned in closer. “Still, they don’t seem to be transformed from humans. Rabbit Hole never had that many people go missing.”

“The magical signatures don’t match either,” Myss added.

These rabbits had no Magibase. That much was obvious.

“No mental magic, not transformed humans, but also not normal alchemical life.” Salaar looked down at the bustling rabbit army at his feet. “All right, it seems we can only take this one step at a time.”

……

Who would have thought that they would end up taking it literally one step at a time.

The dense mass of rabbits occupied nearly the entire ground, leaving them only fixed spaces to step on. The three had no choice but to move slowly, as if trudging through knee-high snow.

A tide of flesh and fur crowded around them as they advanced. Countless claws scraped across the gravel, the constant patter grating on their nerves.

Worse, the route the rabbits chose was exceptionally narrow, with slopes rising and dipping. Some sections were so cramped they could only get through by bending over.

“What a hassle,” Myss muttered. “Maybe I should just lie down and let them carry me.”

That damned moss flower medicine was still in effect. His complaint came straight from the heart.

“If we let you walk on your own, you’d probably get into trouble again.”

The rabbit in his arms murmured, “Did you forget how you fell in the first place? You jinx… ahem, Mr. Myss.”

“What a coincidence. I was just thinking about what to call you.”

Myss smiled. “That name suits you even better. From now on, you’re ‘Jinx.’”

“Jinx?” Knife asked.

“Jinx!” Fork cheered.

Jinx, the rabbit, gave a weak couple of kicks with its hind legs and swallowed the insult.

What surprised Myss was that it didn’t ask the rabbit judge for help.

Maybe getting captured by a human was too embarrassing, Myss thought.

…And so, they kept walking through the dazzling black and white.

In truth, Myss knew that this kind of darkness could break many people.

In the long dark seal, he had seen humans go mad. Even those who were among the greatest elites of humanity, after enough time, would cry in the dark like children, calling for a sun that no longer existed.

Once they broke badly enough, those people would go to the place where corpses were buried and dig their own graves with their own hands.

Then they would seek out Salaar, living alone, and beg him to erase their emotions completely, or simply execute them. At the very end, they would lift their heads and look toward Myss’s eyes hidden in the darkness.

What came from their mouths weren’t curses, but disordered longing.

Family and friends. Fellow villagers. Children they had once played with. Even the sound of crowds.

Sunlight, green grass, bird calls, even air still damp with the moisture of recent rain… They raved about those utterly ordinary things they would never see again in life, burying their hearts in despair.

Salaar would watch them in silence, just as Myss would watch everything in silence from above.

Among them, there had been one especially dramatic man. In the depths of his despair, he had even begun to worship the darkness itself, offering faith to the Chaos Archdemon right before him.

Myss remembered that this was the first time, and only time, Salaar had ever made a move on his own initiative.

“Humanity is doomed to perish. Everything is destined to sink into silence… Eternal silence…”

The man stretched both hands upward, toward the immeasurable darkness.

“We should rejoice in that tranquil ending… Liberate Him! Praise Him! Let Him grant us the merciful end…”

“Salaar, Salaar, if humanity keeps struggling on, only an even more miserable ending awaits… You know my ability. I saw the future! I—”

Salaar cut off his head with one single stroke of his sword.

The man’s head rolled several times across the gravel before finally coming to rest on its side. That severed head twisted its eyes furiously, cramming its pupils into the corners, using its last bit of reason to stare at the black “sky.”

“‘Thou shalt not worship the darkness.’ That’s the bottom line. I accept surrender. I don’t accept subservience. Think about what it is you stand here to protect.”

Salaar’s tone was ice-cold.

“…Everything for the sake of ending the Night Scourge.”

Unfortunately, Salaar hadn’t looked up when he spoke, so Myss hadn’t seen his face.

Compared to that, the darkness here could almost be called gentle.

This place also had a black firmament, bleak gravel, and dangers lurking across every inch of ground. The only difference was that the lethal traps here were cave-ins and snares rather than an Archdemon’s tentacles.

What was different was the warmth of rabbits brushing against their ankles, the low murmur of voices from one person to another. Leaving Salaar aside, both the priest and the Dragon Fae were in reasonably good spirits, nothing like the suffocating gloom of the army in the seal.

Of course, there was an even more decisive difference—

“Whoa,” the Dragon Fae whispered in awe.

Before them stood an underground castle grand enough to be called magnificent.

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