Antagonist Protection Service

For a number of moments that doubtlessly felt longer than they lasted in reality, I stared at the Protagonist's face, confused.

'What... How... How does she know...?'

Seeing her emotionless face gaze straight back, it became only more and more unsettling as time went on.

"...What do you mean? If I wasn't here to teach you, why else would I be here?"

Thanks to some quick thinking, I was able to refute her statement without showing anything on my face, and although the pause was longer than I'd have liked, I knew it wasn't as big a delay as it felt in my head.

Thus, she responded.

"Everyone who comes here for that... it's always to take me away. The last teacher was like that too. Are you not here to take me away?"

"I'm not."

Technically it wasn't a lie, but it was a rather jarring question to be asked anyway. Take her away? Like kidnapping? Was she really just asking if I was here to abduct her?

'Even if I was here for that, why would I ever admit to it...?'

"I really am just here to teach you. It might not seem like it because I don't know what I'm talking about, but that's the truth. In fact, I didn't even know that there were people trying to take you away."

'I assume Aradine already knows about this, but considering the fact she trusted me enough to teach her without supervision means she probably knows I'm safe somehow.'

That's the other point I needed to keep in mind. If there were others who had the goal of kidnapping her, then I had to stop them no matter what.

Of course I did. Not only would it be the best route to success for me to remain as a tutor by her side, but more importantly than that, if someone took her away from here and she moved to a place where I couldn't reach, it would become impossible for me to clear the Contract.

So, in order to have the best shot at winning, I needed to play against myself and defend her from outside threats.

Protecting the Protagonist... It was paradoxical, but perhaps something like that would sometimes be the best way to 'dispatch' them.

Maybe it was even something that would become necessary for future Contracts, depending on the circumstances. Either way, if it leads to me winning, I didn't particularly have a problem with it.

'I just have to keep an eye out and make sure nobody suspicious appears, right?'

Although, I guess in this place, 'someone suspicious' would just be anyone at all, and with all the bizarre magical nonsense going on, I wouldn't be surprised if there was something like invisibility that I'd need to be wary of, or worse...

'It's just something to keep in mind, I guess. I don't think the probability of that happening in the short time that I'm here would be that high, so it'll probably be fine...'

"Anyway, thanks for letting me know. I'll do my best to protect you if someone like that appears."

Pushing that aside, how long was there until the end of the lesson? There were no clocks anywhere that I had seen, and it was impossible to tell the time through celestial movement since the moon had not budged an inch from the moment I first appeared here.

Furthermore, the schedule I was given also didn't help. It stated both the room in which the lesson was due to start as well as the time, but only in the form of 'days'. I guess, since there was no way to tell the time, stating the time for the lessons on the schedule wasn't necessary?

'I don't know, it's so confusing...'

"Do you have any idea?"

"...It's over soon."

Pausing for a second, she looked at me and said that.

"Are you sure? You're not just saying that to get out of it, are you?"

"No."

Seeing her shake her head side-to-side, I nodded.

"Alright. Then, we can end it here for now and continue next time, is that okay?"

'I've had enough 'teaching' for today. I don't think I'd be able to come up with any more excuses for not being able to give her the answers she wants...'

"Okay."

Nodding, she stood up from the desk and started walking to the door of the classroom. Observing her for a few moments, I stood up myself and followed behind her. Catching up quickly, I opened the door for her and let her pass through first into the same corridor as before.

"I'll see you for the next lesson, okay?"

"Okay. Bye bye."

Briefly facing me, she nodded and gave a wave before turning her back and walking down the corridor.

Closing the door to the classroom behind me, I cast a cursory glance at her before turning the other way―I didn't know what way I was supposed to go to return to my room, but I was sure I could reach it by wandering around somehow.

However, just as I turned my back to start walking, it happened.

"Kihahaha! I have you now, little mystery!"

――A violent crash like glass breaking, and at the same time, a cackling voice.

❖─────★★★☆☆─────❖

Immediately, my body spun around, the Black Wisp materialising in my grasp instinctively.

Right over there, I saw it―the shattered window of the corridor, and from it, a robed figure leaping through towards the little girl, turning her head slowly towards the aggressor.

Without giving it a single thought, I raised the barrel and pulled the trigger.

Thud thud-- CRASH...!

Firing three quick shots, the first two seemed to have been stopped by a magic barrier, with the third proving just enough force to smash through it, impacting the intruder's body and knocking them to the ground.

As they rolled across the floor of the corridor, yelping in pain and clutching their side, I unhesitatingly ran over, bypassing the silent Protagonist and straddling the intruder's waist, pinning them down and grabbing their arms to fold behind their back.

I already knew from the prior voice that it was a woman, and adding onto that the fact that she was almost certainly a witch and not some kind of magic-using knight, I didn't think she'd be able to overpower me that easily.

Then, putting the endpoint of the Black Wisp to the back of her head, no longer covered by the dark robe, I opened my mouth.

"Who are you?"

Seeing her grit her teeth without answering me, I was about to pull the trigger again, not an ounce of an intention to waste time present within me, but just before I did...

"Halt at once."

...Another voice stopped me.

Raising my head to glance at them, I asked.

"...Are you sure?"

"Certain."

"..."

'Alright. If you say so.'

Understanding that this was her place to ask questions and lay down the law more so than my own, I dismissed the Black Wisp but continued locking the intruder's arms behind her back, laying my weight on her to ensure she couldn't get up.

Honestly, it was a good thing I had been working out and gaining muscle mass, or else I might not have weighed enough to do something like this, but it seems it proved useful even in a case such as this.

Anyway, keeping my mouth shut, I simply sat back and watched as the newcomer, Aradine, slowly approached, looking down upon us from her towering height, and with not a hint of expression on her face.

"Black Rose. Didst thou truly believe thou couldst enter here and claim what is mine with such ease? Again...? Mayhaps, thou hast not yet learned thy lesson."

Stopping just a short distance away from the intruder's head, I noticed her tone shift lower just lightly with the last sentence.

In response, the intruder just raised her head and her voice.

"Th-that's wrong! I'm not with them! Believe me, you know I'm not lying, don't you?! Your Highness!"

"...Is that so?"

"Yes! Yes it is, so you can let me g--"

Following the intruder's pointless struggle to gain even a speck of compassion, Aradine's voice cut right through her attempt at persuasion.

"So, thou art naught but a heedless imbecile."

"...Huh?"

A stark silence dominating the atmosphere all of a sudden, the intruder seemed to freeze at the White Witch Queen's feet.

That peerless, impossibly cold tone weighed down upon her.

"―Perish."

With but a single word from the Witch Queen's mouth, I felt intense squirming beneath me.

The intruder did not scream, she did not shriek, she did not cry.

That was simply because she was unable to.

In a matter of mere moments, the witch pinned to the ground beneath me began to steam, smoke, began to smoulder, and began to wither away.

As fragments of her body, her very existence itself burnt up and disappeared into the air like glowing, red-hot ash, I felt the sheer pain in her writhing it was that palpable, and at the same time, I felt the continued lessening of her mass under me.

By the time thirty seconds had passed, she had all but vanished, deleted from existence.

"Enki."

Almost immediately thereafter, Aradine called my name.

Raising my head, I craned my neck just enough to see her, still looking up from my position on the ground.

"Follow me."

"..."

After that show, there was no way I could decline.