Antagonist Protection Service

On the First Day, the sinner who defied the First Commandment must repent.

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

Last time, the old man "Philip" committed this sin of idolatry by practicing another religion.

Again, I was sure the definition of idolatry was being applied rather dubiously in this case, but well, I wasn't the one who enforced the rules, so it wasn't up to me.

As the Antagonist, Cecilia was the one who decided that, and as is apparent, she has made it abundantly clear that practicing any sort of religion other than whatever one worshipped her own 'Lord', was worthy to be called a sin.

"―If there is no one to step forth and claim otherwise, I believe this would be referring to me."

Like the First Round, "Philip" was the first to step forward and admit that he was the likely intended target for this sin.

"If you do not repent, you could very well be bringing ruin to us all. Are you okay with that?"

Also like last time, the Protagonist was the one to confront him.

Although, strangely, she was far less accusatory and hostile than before...

"Are you concerned you might be punished for my actions? Young miss, should your karma be well, you have nothing to fear. Do good and you shall be repaid as such. I apologise if it ends up detrimental for you, but I simply cannot allow myself to kneel to a being I do not believe to exist."

Albeit worded differently, his sentiment was more or less the same.

Like this, he would end up dead by the dawn of the Second Day this time around too.

'I need to do something before that happens.'

It had already been confirmed during the First Round that votes remain in effect even when deceased, so even though it might be cruel to say, whether anyone ended up confessing or not was not exactly relevant to me.

So long as I could convince them to name the Protagonist as 「Judas」 before they succumbed to that grim fate, that's all that mattered.

'It's good that he also seems like a kind person. He shouldn't refuse a simple request.'

For that reason, after the old man had given his answer and everyone else split off to the same groups as last time, I approached him.

"Excuse me. Can I talk to you in private for a minute?"

"Oh, yes, of course. Lead the way, young man."

Like that, the First Day ended as thus:

『Philip names 「Judas」』

Thereafter, the dawn of the Second Day greeted me for the second time...

...And again, it did so with the stench of death.

❖─────★★☆☆☆─────❖

The Second Day proceeded similarly to the First Round.

Most things remained the same as the First Round, but one key difference to note was that "John" did not attack me out of the blue, primarily thanks to my efforts to make acquaintances on the First Day.

Additionally, because the delinquent had not snatched "Thomas'" water bottle, he had survived the night this time around.

Thirdly, for some reason, the method of "repentance" was different this time around.

Instead of being... ugh, having his body horribly violated as a human and defaced completely, the old man's body was, rather, simply burnt.

A crude comparison, but my first thought was that it reminded me of an old corpse you might find in the grim dungeon of an RPG――Not a skeleton, but thinned black and thoroughly charred down to the bone, leaving even less than a hollow husk for remains.

On the bright side, there was no sickeningly sweet scent of blood, much less the sticky mess that stained my clothes and hands when moving the body.

...On the other hand, there was the even worse malodour of charred human remains.

I didn't know why things were all of a sudden different this time, but one factor that remained consistent was that this method of punishment was also something impossible to accomplish with the tools we had at our disposal.

At least, unless Cecilia had some kind of lighter she was hiding somewhere, but even that wouldn't have been enough to cook a whole person to this degree, and without anyone noticing at that.

Of course, that was something that remained the same as well, and I even took care so that I was the last to fall asleep to make sure of it.

Either way, there was not much else to say. Everyone else was, naturally, shocked at the discovery that their lives were on the line, and because of that, I noticed something extremely peculiar.

"Hm... Retribution for refusing to repent, is it? Burning the sinners where they sleep is one way to go about it. At the very least, I suppose we can be thankful that there is no shared responsibility, isn't that so."

―That is, even those who survived the First Round until the end didn't keep their memories.

"Nevertheless, just how barbaric is this 「Judas」 that they must resort to such crude forms of punishment? Just like those dull peasants of the olden days who hanged and burnt innocent women merely for the fact of a gap in brainpower. Utterly disgraceful."

During the First Day I already thought it strange, but as I continued to watch her more, further observing the way she acted and spoke as if seeing this all for the first time, I slowly came to the realisation that the Detective from this time around was not putting on a show.

Even as the ongoing theme played in the background switching to other tracks and playing around with the tempo as it pleased, this did not change.

"The fuck're you goin' on about now? Stop yappin' and tell―the fuck's goin' on 'ere, brat?"

Though vulgar with his speech, the delinquent seemed much calmer than yesterday or during the First Round despite the surprise of a fresh corpse welcoming his wake.

"What's going on here?"

And as the Detective flicked her gaze to glance at him, some part of me felt it.

"What's going on is that you will confess your sins like a good little boy, or stay silent at the cost of your life."

She was definitely going down this time around.