Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 78: Warmth

After three months, the Protagonist had finally died.

Up until the very end, I was correct to be patient.

Not only was she Blessed by the Father of the Holy Sun, just as I had been Blessed by the Mother of the Winter Full Moon, but additionally...

"..."

The subtle sound of small chains clinking together rang subtly from my palm.

This Amulet of the Holy Sun was also protecting the Protagonist for so long.

I didn't know what would have happen should I have shot her while she was wearing it, but thankfully, I didn't have to find out the hard way.

However...

[Congratulations! I knew you could do it, Enki! I always believed in you! Would you like to return directly to Earth or visit the Illusory Library first?]

The Librarian's cheery voice resounded following her dispassionate declaration of victory. In response, I could only shake my head.

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"Neither. I still have business here, so don't do anything just yet."

[Certainly, understood! Then, I shall wait for your 'go'!]

Things weren't over yet.

I may have completed the Contract, but there was still something I had to do.

Or... two things, in fact.

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Storing away the Amulet and the Black Wisp, I picked up the Protagonist's body and hid it behind some obscure bushes in a far corner of the Imperial Gardens.

Like that, at least until morning, it shouldn't be discovered.

Then, taking a blanket from Storage, I did my best to wipe all the blood off of my clothes and body before returning it; it would all need a thorough wash once I've returned, but so long as no blood was too visibly apparent, it should at least be fine for now.

Gathering composure, I returned to the celebration ballroom thereafter.

Moving in a manner that aimed to avoid drawing attention as much as possible, I approached a certain young lady who was, still, sitting alone.

"Lucretia."

Calling her, she cast not much more than a cursory glance at me.

"...You've returned. And without the harlot, I see."

"Shall we talk outside?"

She stared at my face for a moment before rising from her seat, seeming to suppress a sigh.

"Very well."

Thus, we too disappeared to the Imperial Gardens. Naturally, I led her to a separate section to the one in which I dispatched the Protagonist.

Instead of sitting on the grass like commoners would, we simply stood in a place that wasn't so terribly isolated, with myself leaning my arms on a parapet that separated the higher floor gardens from the lower floors as we gazed up at the same Blood Moon as before.

This time, however, and for a reason I couldn't quite fathom.

That faint, crimson moonlight...

Unlike before, it appeared to provide a sense of subtle comfort.

Lucretia was the first to speak.

"So then. Need I ask for what we've veiled our conversation to this extent?"

"It's done."

"..."

There was no need to elaborate on what I meant.

Glancing over to her, who was surprisingly speechless at the reveal, I continued.

"You remember what we talked about, right? About responsibility."

Following a brief pause, during which she closed her eyes, she soon opened them again and nodded.

"...Certainly. I suppose it is rather gentlemanly to bear the weight of an empire's future for a lady. Perhaps you weren't such an awful servant after all. What a shame."

Gazing up at the sky and smiling at her words, I spontaneously wondered something.

"What do you think?"

"Regarding what?"

"That."

I gestured towards the Bloodthirsty Winter Moon.

"I'm sure the Winter Mother is very happy tonight. Do you think this appearance is a subtle blessing from Her?"

"It is difficult to say, but perhaps it is so. Did you not affirm that that woman was loved by the Sun Father? I suppose the Winter Mother, then, wanted to ensure that He would not save her in the final moments... Is it truly over?"

"Of course. I don't-- I mean, it was my guarantee. I wouldn't break that promise."

If you took the old saying to be literal, then maybe it really was the case that the Winter Mother was helping me on this night. Either way, nobody could be sure.

And, saying it was over... she wasn't the only one who thought it was strange.

After months of sickening deceit and lies, the Protagonist was dead.

It didn't feel real, but there was no question about it.

Even now, there were things that didn't seem right, unanswered oddities such as the mage going missing after our first meeting, but well... wasn't it over now anyway? So, really, was there anything to worry about?

I didn't know if returning here without a Contract was possible or not, but I probably wouldn't be doing it regardless because of the cost...

"Oh, right. I never told you, but I actually received a Blessing from Her."

"...You what?"

"A Blessing. From the Winter Mother."

"..."

"I thought it might make things complicated if I said anything."

"And you decided to wait until now?"

"I mean, at least I told you, right? Don't be too upset. It was something She gave me to wish me luck. She also wanted the empire to be saved... or well, actually, I think She was more concerned about you."

After saying that, a lengthy silence ensued and ended, upon which I heard something surprising.

"Perhaps you admitted this intending to squeeze a quite juicy reaction out of me; rather, you are the one to be fooled, as I was already well aware of your divine favourability."

"You knew?"

'Since when...?'

"I would indeed say so. From our very earliest dance practice, in fact."

"Ah... for a while, then."

Recalling the time she muttered a bizarre remark at my body, which had become colder than a corpse, I nodded.

Then, feeling something complicated and yet unknown well up within me―whether embarrassment at having failed to notice that she knew for all this time, or whether something else entirely―I shut my mouth, proceeding to look over the dimmed city of the Imperial Capital in silence.

At that moment, out of the corner of my eye, I caught Lucretia removing the arm-length opera glove from one of her hands.

Despite wearing a dress that was not at all fit for the current scene, she, I rather belatedly realised, did not appear affected by the wintry evening air, perhaps due to her upbringing in the north.

Thereafter, as she reached that now-naked arm over, her hand wordlessly grasped my own, de-gloving it too before raising it up to the parapet before us, staring down at it as if examining something.

For a moment, I glanced down at the hand she clutched before turning my eyes up to her.

"...Certainly, no matter how uncanny the sensation of a living body with frozen blood may be..."

"..."

"No matter how piercing that ruthless frigidity upon one's skin and bones may be..."

"..."

"And, no matter how burning that bitter numbness upon one's flesh may be..."

"..."

With a deafening silence that almost overwhelmed the atmosphere, she turned those red eyes up to lock with my own.

And, as I met that powerful gaze head-on, she uttered.

"You may find yourself in a grim, toilsome circumstance―a circumstance where another may not wish to touch you, to be near you, to associate with you, for such coldness."

"You may find that, in such a circumstance, life is difficult. Forlorn, perhaps, and terribly isolating, undoubtedly."

"Because people do not like to touch someone who is cold."

"Because people do not like to be near someone who is cold."

"...However, you may in fact find that, in the event of that unfortunate circumstance, it is not as if there is no one at all who can lend you their assistance, be it their warmth or their sympathy, as..."

Taking a moment in between her words, she glanced again down to our connected hands.

At that moment, my eyes shot wide open.

The chill that had penetrated my heart, infiltrating my body all that time ago, not letting me forget for even a single instant. The ruthless, icy bitterness that had not once left my self since I first encountered it―first received it from Her.

The dominant shivers, the chilling numbness――it was all, ever-so-slowly, being sapped away.

I caught a brief glimpse of Lucretia exhaling, and then, as she returned her eyes ultimately to mine.

Those eyes that, strangely enough, resembled precisely an illusion of our Winter Mother on this precarious night.

"――You see, for the Princess of Christina-Rasa, no cold can chase away."

With a voice like unshatterable ice, along with the return of ordinary sensation to my right hand, she gave such a declaration.

Although the chill that locked away and froze over a corner of my heart was still felt, and unmistakably so, so was something else.

"As compensation for your assistance with the leaden troubles of my own, allow me this favour."

"..."

"Because I am, too, well aware of our Winter Mother's too-overwhelming hindrances of grace."

Akin almost to raw deceit, utmost certainty originated from that voice.

"This grace that you have received, the essence of the north."

And.

"It is not, by any noble means, a burden to be endured in isolation."

As if recreating the miracle of Prometheus, a lost, unfamiliar warmth enveloped me.