Antagonist Protection Service

For the second time, jingle bells chimed.

For the second time, we gathered in the early, early morning hours in the nave.

"―I fucking knew it! It was you, wasn't it, bastard?!"

And, for the second time, my collar was pulled―with a force I alone wasn't strong enough to resist, I was raised slightly into the air, my feet slipping against the stone cold floor as I struggled to even maintain a steady balance.

'Shit...!'

Gripping the wrists of the other, "John", I clenched my teeth and tried my best to rip his hands away, but no matter how hard I tried, he wouldn't relent.

It was a good thing to work out and increase my Physical Ability, but in this case it looks like that wasn't enough.

"No, don't fight! Stop it, please!"

"Waaaahhhh...!"

"Ah! Oh, dear-- S-someone...!"

The mother and her son, or "Peter" and "Andrew", each cried behind my aggressor. The former imploring for "John" to cease his sudden lashing out in violence and calling for help at the scene, and the latter, wailing.

In the background, the shuffling about of others was heard, but with the overhead music taking up the vast majority of my eardrums' processing power, and the full extent of my focus lasered on getting the bastard in front of me off, there was no way I could register what that sound exactly was.

It happened in the next moment.

"Gh, hey! What the hell are you doing?! It's that guy! I know it! That son of a bitch is the murderer...!"

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up! You know this isn't right! You don't know if he's done it! I don't believe it!"

Someone came to my rescue―"Matthew" wrapped his arms around "John" from behind and used all his might to pull him away from me, trying his best to endure and resist the other's frantic struggle as they both yelled at the top of their lungs.

"You idiot! Little shit, listen to me, damn it, it's that guy!"

"Shut up! We don't know who it is! You don't know who it is, nobody does, so shut up!"

"Of course it's him! How could it be anyone else...?!"

"How do I know it's not you, huh?! How do I know that?! I don't! You can't prove it, can you?! So shut up! And! Get off...!"

Combining our strengths, we eventually managed to tear him off like peeling sticky tape, removing him from the dominant position and shoving him away to gain distance. Once separated, "John" wiped his face from sweat after the exertion, glaring at us and, in particular, me.

Still, even though he still seemed to hold me in such a distasteful regard, he held back from throwing himself at us again, instead having "James", his little sister, come to his side in apparent concern.

Resting myself on the front-most empty pew, I plopped down and heaved a sigh, patting the shoulder of "Matthew" who did the same beside me. Panting roughly for a moment, I looked him in the eyes.

"Hey. Thanks. He's too big for me alone."

Meeting my gaze and receiving my honest gratitude, perhaps he was shy as he proceeded to rub the back of his neck with a smile, seemingly unable to come to words.

Turning away, I shot a glare over to the bastard who picked a fight with me for the second time and clicked my tongue.

'Seriously, the hell's that guy's problem? The fuck did I do...'

I understood that everyone must be tense under the circumstances, and especially feeling a not-insignificant amount of pressure due to the series of mysterious casualties, but this was no way at all to go about solving things...

"Haa..."

'...Well, at least I have someone on my side.'

Glancing beside me at "Matthew" who was resting, I felt glad that I had decided to be a bit more communicative while I was here. It was definitely important to make close connections even in settings unrelated to the Protagonist, it seemed...

Thereafter, with "Peter" managing to soothe her child, the echoing wails soon came to an end. That intense music did the same, and immediately, the melody of intrigue from the First Day, one teasing and sly, took its place.

Right then, I could foresee precisely what was about to happen.

"―My, is the overture finished already? It was quite a theatrical performance, I must say. Dissatisfying conclusion, however."

The Detective spoke, a derisive smirk forming on her twisted lips.

'Ugh... again...'

That's right.

Although the Second Day had arrived and went, passed, its victims identified.

Although the Third Day had already been thrusted upon us.

The Detective was, after all, still alive.

"That's right~! It's me~! Alive and kicking, might I add! Kihahahaha...!"

Giving such a witch's cackle just like yesterday, I noticed that everyone still alive was also already beginning to get upset at her presence, a silent groan spreading through the air.

Meanwhile, I understood. Having realised the essence of the Protagonist before me, it was impossible not to understand.

Her vile jeering had yet to even begin.

"Are you shocked? Are you astounded? Are you positively perplexed?! Your prized Detective is here, everyone, are you so joyful you could just burst open with joy?! Ahh, what bliss, isn't it! The ignorance with which you fools live your lives! Come! Sing, dance, celebrate! Or was it that you wished for such a cute, lovely, pretty young lady to meet her dastardly demise in the midst of nightfall, surely there's no way, I'm certain, isn't that riiiiight~?! That would just be evil, after all, and none of you would ever claim to be so, isn't that riiiiiiight~?!"

Pouring out a cacophony of ridicule, she wore a truly sadistic sneer on her face, her audacious attitude rendering everyone speechless yet again.

As she cackled, her twisted mouth opened wider, again revealing a pair of sharp canines that didn't appear human. Glancing around, however, it seemed nobody else paid any attention to it, or at the very least, they were too preoccupied being disturbed by the rest of her severe attitude and demeanour to care.

"Oh, but hold on. Wait wait waiiit a second... Aren't you all sinners...?"

Continuing, her tone raised a pitch, she covered her repulsive, snickering mouth with a dainty hand. And, with the other...

"Then, maybe you lot all deserve to die and rot in Hell, huhhhh?! Just like that stupid, foolish, moronic, imbecilic, SLAUGHTERED ecclesiastic over there...!"

...She pointed at the corpse of "Simon", the clergyman, who had spontaneously died in the middle of the night.

His body was since covered and wrapped like a mummy within the linen bed sheets he was buried in slumber, but it wasn't after that that I had witnessed the state of his tattered, desecrated self.

Just like the two victims from the first night, "Simon" was defaced, both in a metaphorical and literal sense, and appearing as if he had his head brutally smashed in with a sledgehammer. Additionally, likewise akin to those two, all of his limbs were roughly separated from his torso, and his throat, bruised black and purple, was also crushed to an plainly unnecessary extent.

Same as before, I was sure that only Professionalism had saved me from ejecting my guts at that gruesome sight, not wanting to think about it any further.

"Kihihihahaha...! Ahhh, honestly, what an iiiiidiot. Complete moron, so stupid, so, so, so so so incredibly stupid! Fully and thoroughly violated, and by who else! For how long was he praying yesterday, so pitiful. That dog. It was the entire day, right? That doooog. And yet and yet, after all that praying, putting his hands together like so, begging to his lord, 'oh please don't kill me', 'please don't maim me', 'please don't please don't please don't violate me my lord'! Dooooooooog! Kihihihihihii, kihahahahaha...!"

The witch cackled.

Sweeping her demonic gaze, filled with hellish towers of flame that scalded the soul itself, over the rest of us, glowering and louring at her in turn watching something so peerlessly unpleasant, her simply malevolent sneer only grew even wider, stretching inhumanly from ear-to-ear to reveal more of those razor-sharp, beastly fangs, seemingly revelling in the unanimity of our disgust, like a true monster.

And thus, the witch cackled again.

Perhaps, at the result of surviving a night during which she should have perished.

Perhaps, at the irony of the blaspheme accuser perishing during that very same night.

Perhaps, at the humorous speechlessness of us all, and the sheer absurdity of this entire situation.

I suppose she felt there was nothing more to hide, as leaving nothing obscured by shadow or mask, she revealed to us the full extent of her true self.

After all, on this Third Day...

『3 - "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."』

The God-Defying Witch bore no mercy.