Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 103: I Am The Lord Thy God (2)

As I've made clear before, I was by no means religious, but I could recognise the scripture before me despite that.

Listed just beside the nonsensical inscription, the Ten Commandments of the Bible were listed:

『1 - "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."』

『2 - "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image."』

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

『4 - "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy."』

『5 - "Honour thy father and thy mother."』

『6 - "Thou shalt not kill."』

『7 - "Thou shalt not commit adultery."』

『8 - "Thou shalt not steal."』

『9 - "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour."』

『10 - "Thou shalt not covet."』

For the briefest of moments as I scanned those renowned rules, my gaze was caught.

On one particular Commandment; the sixth to be precise.

And, for but a moment as my eyes lingered so, a certain sense flashed in my mind, that persistent song of mystery in my ears only highlighting the foreboding. All around me, murmurs ensued as everyone else seemed just as puzzled about the potential meaning of the inscription as I was.

That too included the pink-haired girl I presumed to be the Protagonist, who herself stared at the inscription with a narrowed gaze.

"Peh, kinda bullshit is this, ah...? I'm outta 'ere."

Spitting that out, the thuggish man from earlier turned his back, his hands in his pockets as he leisurely made his way to the very opposite end of the nave, where the church's entrance lied.

Seeing that nobody decided to stop him or say something in the face of that still defiant attitude, I was a little surprised that even the clergyman and the other two peculiar girls held their tongues, but perhaps it was because he didn't seem like he was going to confront anyone this time.

'Well, if they're not saying anything, I sure as hell won't.'

Observing him in quiet as he entered the church's vestibule, a sort of room with no door or obstacle between it and the nave, we watched as the man brazenly approached the broad, oaken door.

The background music, which had risen to a sort of miniature dramatic climax at this moment, only heightened the tension further.

And, when he tried to open the door...

"―Ah?"

Resounding throughout the otherwise deafening silence of the church, a single, confused utterance was heard.

"...Fuck. Ya kiddin' me...?"

It was a little difficult to see what exactly was going on from all the way over here, but from what I could tell, the door didn't so much as budge at the man's might.

The entrance of the church we were currently inside―was stuck.

'Of course.'

Evidently utterly immovable by the thug――the man who, without the slightest possibility of argument, was easily the physically strongest one in this very group just going by appearances.

That is to say, at this moment...

"Aiee, gah, damn it... Oi, nun'ya bastards over there did somethin' funny, ah?!"

"..."

"Ey...? Tch, eh, ya shits..."

We were trapped.

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The taunting door of solid oak was unopenable.

The high-up windows of stained glass were unreachable.

And, of course, even the encompassing walls of solid stone were impenetrable.

There was light, indeed, but no way to grasp it. No hole, gap or slightest aperture to pry open or sneak through. The door was right there, freedom just beyond our reach and yet, with no possible way to explore what lay hidden behind the encompassing barrier, we were effectively nowhere close to it.

"At least we were provided the bare necessities, I suppose..."

Connected to the cold antechamber by the unnaturally sturdy door, there turned out to be a separate kitchen, chock full of food and water for us to survive on.

It needn't be stated whether there was a way to escape the church from that windowless room, but as the teal-haired girl just muttered, it was an unarguably positive thing that at least we had such supplies.

'But, doesn't that mean we're expected to be here for days...?'

In my mind, such uncertainty raced, and the longer it lingered, the more the reality of that possibility grew.

Turning back to the altar's inscription, I took note again of the final line.

『Thou hast as many days as thou hast sins.』

"..."

"Well, now isn't this the pickle."

Interrupting my silent deliberation, the pink-haired girl again spoke up, once more garnering the attention of everyone here with plainly folded arms.

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"If this little inscription here is to be believed, then must we have, as it claims, a 'sheepskin wolf' in our mix? Or, I suppose, might it rather be a certain 「Judas」...?"

Barely perceptible, I caught an ever-so-slight curling of the lips on that otherwise inexpressive face. And then, as expected...

"Heh, ah...? You outin' yerself there, missy? Or what, ya sayin' ya got some idea 'bout the fuckers messin' 'round 'ere, ah?"

"Everyone, please, let us not have conflict."

The thug-like man lashed out again, to which the teal-haired girl interrupted with a plea; looking to face each person in turn, flicking her upturned, seemingly earnest gaze between not just the two individuals at the forefront, she implored.

"There should be no infighting here. Are we not equally stranded? Are we not equally struck at a loss, equally confused, equally victimised? We, marooned in this inexplicable place, are not done so individually, but together, are we not? And so, we should come together, act together, and escape here together."

"Hh. Togetha, ah? Fuckin' crazy lil miss, ain'tcha. 'S'if I'm with anyone'a ya bitches."

Seemingly panicked by the thug's abrupt shutting down of her suggestion, the girl hurriedly retorted.

"O-oh, but as a group, are we not here--... Ah... No, indeed, I suppose it might be much to say that we are close already. That is all fine, then... Nevertheless, I do believe we can all come together on that nobody wants to see someone be harmed? Even if you wish not to work together, can we not agree on at least that much, and assent to such mutual benefit?"

Listening to the girl's words, I thought for sure I couldn't be the only one who thought they were agreeable.

After all, even if we didn't all work together like a team, which absolutely wasn't something that could be reinforced with proper cooperation and stability under the current circumstances, I still held a similar idea in high consideration.

Just maybe, I thought, we could come to, as per her suggestion, a peace treaty-like accord.

And like that, maybe even the person I suspected of being the Protagonist would--

"―I must say, I would not place even an ounce of faith in any one of you for but an instant."

Or at least, I did hope that.

Such a belief was, in a matter of moments, utterly dashed―perhaps only naturally, by the very mouth of that aforementioned pink hair.

"P-pardon me? Truly-- do you truly mean as much...?"

"Mmh, yes, you heard me correctly. Is there a problem?"

"Do you understand the gravity of the situation we are in? We should endeavour to band together and figure out what is wrong here before--"

"Oh, I am very well capable of comprehension, I'll have you know. In fact, in that regard, I think it might rather be you who is lacking. Do you perhaps not understand what I'm getting at?"

Fighting back against the words of the other, the pink-haired shot the other a lazy glance, firing icy words that cut down her plea for cooperation like butter.

Thereafter, she unleashed an onslaught that nobody could have foreseen.

"Is it or is it not only natural that one would trust those that they know to be innocent? To be trustworthy, to be reliable, to be dependable. Trustworthiness is reliableness is dependableness, and you all, certainly, most assuredly, are not a crowd whom I would consider to be any sort of the aforementioned, not by any means. Simply put, that is because you are strangers. You have yet to prove your innocence to me, your blamelessness, your guiltlessness, lack of culpability, anything. Are you that stupid, that moronic, that foolish, that you cannot understand even that much? Even with me spelling it out for you so plainly? Do you want me to put it in a way even someone as inept as you could comprehend? Yes? You idiot, dunce, dullard, thick-headed, half-wit, brain-dead imbecile...?"

"..."

Perhaps it was only understandable that the teal-haired girl was left just speechless after the jeer.

Even I didn't know what reaction to have, nor what to think.

Whatever the expression was that painted my face at that moment was unclear to me, but regardless, I'm sure it was a funny one. Still, that really was, just... such a turn of events that my own thoughts, even as a mere observer to the scene, could only be placed on firm hold.

Nevertheless, just because I, as well as everyone else present, was at a loss, that didn't mean the plot would wait for us to catch up before continuing.

"「Judas」 was, in the end, a betrayer."

The pink-haired aggressor continued, addressing not just the teal-haired girl but everyone else, too.

"Supposedly, there is such a 「Judas」 hidden among those of you gathered before me."

"I would suspect, perhaps, for this 「Judas」 to be the culprit behind this nonsense ordeal."

"Of course, none of you have yet proven your identities to me as someone other than 「Judas」."

"Ergo, any one of you lot before me could be that lying, very deceptive 「Judas」."

"And thus, you all have not earned my trust, not a single ounce."

"Do you now get it?"

Her words, in a certain sense, were logical.

However, even if she were to say that, after the earlier display of a ruthless verbal deluge that wasn't something to be said to another even in pretend, could anyone here accept it so easily?

That wasn't even to mention the fact her whole assumption of this supposed 「Judas」 character was just that―no more than pure conjecture, and something that could easily be disregarded.

Just because the inscription claimed the existence of a 「Judas」, that didn't necessarily denote the mastermind of whoever stood behind this situation, or speaking in terms of my interest, not even the Antagonist.

Rather, wasn't it even more likely to be the case that the mastermind was not here? It wouldn't make sense for him to show himself, especially this early on.

Well, either that, or that whoever this secret 「Judas」 was, was in fact not the mastermind, but someone completely different.

'Right...?'

Despite having additional knowledge from the description tags, I still wasn't sure what was going on here, and now, hearing this pink-haired girl's talk, whom I previously thought I had pinned as the Protagonist, I was rendered even more clueless.

In the end, listening passively to her argumentation, I could only come to a single conclusion.

"Hello? You haven't gone deaf, now have you? You do get it now, right? I know you haven't, in fact, so listen just once. Everyone here... Yes, no one will be isolated from now on, lest you wish to succumb to 「Judas'」 betrayal."

This Contract really was going to live up to its Tag as a damned #Mystery...